RunningWithBulls.com - The curse of Sanfermin

Noam Chomsky is coming to Ireland for his January 18th for what is already an overbooked talk. (I have my request in for tickets since November) Today Prof. Chomsky is quoted in the Irish Times (page 7). Its a pity that no one seems to be making a big enough fuss of this. People went to the streets saying they opposed the invasion of Iraq, but when warplanes were being refuelled in Shannon, no-one seemed to think it was significant. Full text of article: Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was “shining the shoes” of President George Bush by allowing the use of Shannon airport by US military aircraft, a prominent American academic and commentator said yesterday. Speaking in advance of a visit to Ireland next month, Prof Noam Chomsky asked “Is Mr. Ahern following the will of the Irish people or is he following orders from Washington?” “It can only be justified if the goal of the government is to be the obdient servant of the global superpower. This tells you that western politicians despise democracy and prefer to shine the shoes of the power.” A leading critic of US foreign policy, Dr. Chomsky is to deliver the Amensty International annual lecture in Dublin on January 18th. Professor emeritus of linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr Chomsky received an honorary fellowship from UCD’s Literary and Historical Society in 2002. “New Europe follow orders from Crawford, Texas,” he said yesterday. I cannot think of any example in recent history of utter contempt for democracy expressed so clearly and accepted by western policitians. “We had a public vilification of France because it didn’t shine George Bush’s shoes. Therefore we had to have “freedom fries” instead of French fries in the senate lunch room,” he said. (copyright of article-Irish Times)