| Username |
Post |
| baadal |
Posted
on 25-Sep-03 09:48 AM
Edward Said dies, scholar and voice for Palestinian cause
NEW YORK (AP) --Edward W. Said, a Columbia University professor, scholar and leading spokesman in the United States for the Palestinian cause, has died, his editor at Knopf publishers said Thursday. He was 67.
Said had suffered from leukemia for years and died at a New York hospital late Wednesday, editor Shelley Wanger said.
Said was born in 1935 in Jerusalem, then part of British-ruled Palestine, but he spent most of his adult life in the United States. He wrote passionately about the Palestinian cause but also on a variety of other subjects, from English literature, his academic specialty, to music and culture.
When it came to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Said was consistently critical of Israel for what he regarded as mistreatment of the Palestinians.
He wrote two years ago after visits to Jerusalem and the West Bank that Israel's "efforts toward exclusivity and xenophobia toward the Arabs" had actually strengthened Palestinian determination.
"Palestine and Palestinians remain, despite Israel's concerted efforts from the beginning either to get rid of them or to circumscribe them so much as to make them ineffective," Said wrote in the English-language Al-Ahram Weekly, published in Cairo.
In 2000, he prompted a controversy when he threw a rock toward an Israeli guardhouse on the Lebanese border. Columbia University did not censure him, saying that the stone was directed at no one, no law was broken and that his actions were protected by principles of academic freedom.
Said moved to the United States as a student. He received a bachelor's degree from Princeton in 1957 and a master's and Ph.D. from Harvard, in 1960 and 1964.
Most of his academic career was spent as a professor at Columbia University in New York, but he also was a visiting professor at such leading institutions as Yale, Harvard and Johns Hopkins.
His books include "Orientalism," "The Question of Palestine" in 1979, "After the Last Sky" in 1986 and "The End of the Peace Process."
|
| suva chintak |
Posted
on 25-Sep-03 11:18 AM
A true loss for humanity, and academia in particular. I think he will be remembered as an intellectual giant for a long time. His works have not only raised new public debates, but also generate new kinds of questions and engagements across disciplines.
In mourning,
SC
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 25-Sep-03 05:51 PM
A true loss indeed.
Said was an incredible auto-didact, a gifted musician and a first-rate social and literary critic whose essays -- though not always easy to read -- carried the moral force of an intensely lonely but briliant academic whose views, whether on Jane Austen or on Arab-Israeli conflict, rattled and challenged the powers that be within and oustide of the academia.
May his soul rest in peace.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
|
| torilaure |
Posted
on 26-Sep-03 12:24 AM
Those of you who are in Kathmandu are welcome to attend the following:
Edward Said
1935-2003
READINGS
at Baggkikhana
4:30 pm
Wednesday, 1 October
(Buddhabar, 14 Asoj)
Social Science Baha
Tel: 5542544
|
| Poonte |
Posted
on 26-Sep-03 08:11 AM
Truly heart-breaking!
At a time when Palestinians were normally stereotyped as being backward, uncivilized "terrorists," Edward Said stood out as one of the examples of Palestinian success in utmost intellectuality and dignity. He fought for the Palestinian cause with pens and papers, rather than with terror. A true hero of the Palestinian cause, and a genuine intellectual of the world at large, his death is a tremendous loss for the entire humanity.
Wahaan ko aatma ko chir shaanti ko laagi prarthana gardachhu!
|
| isolated freak |
Posted
on 26-Sep-03 11:06 PM
its a huge loss indeed, for Columbia, for the Palestanians ( and a great loss for Noam Chomsky too) and for those interested in IR especially the Arab world. he was there constantly searching for the other side of the story and coming up with interesting theories.
|
| Lalupate*Joban |
Posted
on 27-Sep-03 12:21 PM
I was thinking of meeting Ed Said some time this semester. I liked his stuff about orientalism. Unexpectedly, the guy died - too bad. Alongside Ken Waltz, Joe Stiglitz, Jeff Sachs and Bob Thurman, he was one of our star professors. A great loss for the uni when it is about to celebrate its 250th birthday!
|
| Bhunte |
Posted
on 27-Sep-03 05:47 PM
Lalupate,
what is orientalism about? thx
|
| isolated freak |
Posted
on 27-Sep-03 10:21 PM
Bhunte,
Although the question is not directed towards me, I hope you wouldn't mind me replying to it.
Orienatlism is about the Arab world and why we percieve the Arabs the way we do. Is our training/academia biased that doesn't allow us to think from the other perspective? Is the system of governmnet that we believe in or does our political ideology(-ies) lead us to see things from only one perspective and just forget the other side which is often times most crucial to understand the issues on hand? Anyways, Orientalism deals with how the Occcident views the Orient and why it has so many (mis) conceptions of the Arab world.
Feel free to correct me. This is what I could infer from my reading of the book a long time ago.
|
| bhunte |
Posted
on 27-Sep-03 10:46 PM
IF, thx for orienting me about Orientalism. So the terminology in Pol Sc discipline. Now i understand it as to think something from other's perspective. This happens a lot of times in our day-to-day lives but most people don't realize it, such as how 'buhari' acts when she is 'sasu' herself, or what the opposition party would do when it happen it to lead the govt.
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 27-Sep-03 11:24 PM
LJ,
So you go to Columbia.
Great!!
It so happens that of all the US schools, Columbia Universty (all faculties) seems to
have an active alumni club in Kathmandu. That club recently had had an election, and
its members are gearing up to celebrate Columbia's 250th Anniversary in Kathmandu.
On another note, an artist friend of mine might join you at Columbia next Fall from Nepal. Apparently, Columbia's graduate program in visual and performance arts is
top-notch.
That aside, those in Kathmandu, do come to the Said readings on the 1st of October.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
|
| Lalupate*Joban |
Posted
on 28-Sep-03 08:58 AM
Orientalism is about how the West (the Occident)'s conception of the East (the Orient) - including the Far East, the subcontinent and the Middle East. Ed Said had a seminal book by the same name - "Orientalism." The book has been one of the most revolutionary books of the last century.
Yes, Ashu, people at the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at Columbia have told me that it's one of the best 5 MFA programs in the country. Columbia's location in New York is a plus point for its MFA program, I guess, as for its journalism, law, MBA and international affairs programs.
|
