Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture

Something else that's flashed past while I was under a heap of final exams, was the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Harold Pinter (playwright) on Dec. 7th. I have read portions of his speech in various places during the week, but it was only when a poet friend in Mississippi sent me the link to the whole thing that I actually read this most moving and powerful indictment of this country's policy of immoral and illegal warfare. Not just now, in Iraq, but our longstanding policy of support for brutal dictatorships, and of quashing native movements to throw off the authoritarian chains and establish authentic governments.

The speech is copyrighted for publication, so I'm only including a brief excerpt here and will provide links to read the text version or watch a video of it. It was delivered via video, as Mr. Pinter was ill and unable to present it in person in Sweden. I find this section on "moral sensibility" particularly powerful:

What has happened to our moral sensibility? Did we ever have any? What do these words mean? Do they refer to a term very rarely employed these days – conscience? A conscience to do not only with our own acts but to do with our shared responsibility in the acts of others? Is all this dead? Look at Guantanamo Bay. Hundreds of people detained without charge for over three years, with no legal representation or due process, technically detained forever. This totally illegitimate structure is maintained in defiance of the Geneva Convention. It is not only tolerated but hardly thought about by what's called the 'international community'. This criminal outrage is being committed by a country, which declares itself to be 'the leader of the free world'. Do we think about the inhabitants of Guantanamo Bay? What does the media say about them? They pop up occasionally – a small item on page six. They have been consigned to a no man's land from which indeed they may never return. At present many are on hunger strike, being force-fed, including British residents. No niceties in these force-feeding procedures. No sedative or anaesthetic. Just a tube stuck up your nose and into your throat. You vomit blood. This is torture. What has the British Foreign Secretary said about this? Nothing. What has the British Prime Minister said about this? Nothing. Why not? Because the United States has said: to criticise our conduct in Guantanamo Bay constitutes an unfriendly act. You're either with us or against us. So Blair shuts up.

The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading – as a last resort – all other justifications having failed to justify themselves – as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people.

We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'.

Full text of the speech here: Harold Pinter – Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics
Forty-six minute video of Pinter delivering the speech: Art, Truth & Politics.

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