Into town this lunchtime to see one my wife's Palestinian friends, Ehab Besayso (my phonetic attempt at spelling) He is an intelligent and chatty man, who has lived in the west for many years, working as a journo and sometime poet. But I found him rather overly self obsessed. In the 90 minutes we spent together, he failed to ask either of us a single question about ourselves. Indeed, my only comments were interjections, when for instance he told us the title of his just-completed PhD was "international media strategies in conflict situations" and I remarked that the Greek dramatist Aeschylus had put the subject to bed as long ago as 500 BC with the famous comment, which echoes down to us through the ages with undiminished power:
"In war, truth is the first casualty"
He nodded slightly, then ploughed on regardless with his own agenda.
This evening, we watched the final of the Madrid masters, with Rafa Nadal brushing poor Federer aside in straight sets. Is he the greatest clay court player of all time? Such things are always hard to judge, but if we are to go on results, which if nothing else is certainly an objective measure, then he is. And he's only 24!
No comments:
Post a Comment