A serendipity.
There's an excerpt from Come From the Shadows in today's National Post. I'm pleased.
I'm also pleased in a schadenfreude kind of way, I confess, because the excerpt the Post chose exposes the howler that masqueraded as a book review in the Winnipeg Free Press that I earlier noticed as a review of a book I did not write, which alludes to contents the book does not contain, attributes wild claims to me that I do not make, refers to passages in my book that do not exist, has Afghans telling me things they never said and recounts events in my book that did not occur.
If you read the excerpt in the Post, you may end up laughing out loud at how absurdly that very passage was misrepresented in the Winnipeg Free Press by a certain Joseph Hnatiuk, who wrote: "He feels reports about widespread hatred for western influence are dishonestly presented by mainstream media, citing western TV coverage following a riot at a co-ed high school in Daste Barchi near Kabul in 2009. If Glavin's witnesses are to be believed, the riot was organized not by locals but by Iranian-backed ayatollahs, expressly for the benefit of western cameras, featuring a mob using an incongruous, all-inclusive chant, 'The school is a dirty nest of Christians, communists and prostitutes.' "
My book exposes the lie of "widespread hatred for western influence" in Afghanistan, incidentally, but if you read the excerpt you will find no mention of Hnatiuk's "western TV coverage" of the Daste Barchi riot. It contains a first-hand account from the Marefat school principal ("if my witnesses are to be believed"), and no allegation of riot-staging for "western cameras," from anyone, and not even any mention of any cameras of any kind, western or otherwise. Hnatiuk couldn't have done a more ridiculous job of outright invention even if he were working directly for some propaganda bureau in Tehran.
There. I feel better now.
Plus the great British blog Harry's Place has a bit on my book today as well, which also, coincidentally, takes a portion of the same excerpt. My warm regards to HPers to Gene for the notice.
I'm also pleased in a schadenfreude kind of way, I confess, because the excerpt the Post chose exposes the howler that masqueraded as a book review in the Winnipeg Free Press that I earlier noticed as a review of a book I did not write, which alludes to contents the book does not contain, attributes wild claims to me that I do not make, refers to passages in my book that do not exist, has Afghans telling me things they never said and recounts events in my book that did not occur.
If you read the excerpt in the Post, you may end up laughing out loud at how absurdly that very passage was misrepresented in the Winnipeg Free Press by a certain Joseph Hnatiuk, who wrote: "He feels reports about widespread hatred for western influence are dishonestly presented by mainstream media, citing western TV coverage following a riot at a co-ed high school in Daste Barchi near Kabul in 2009. If Glavin's witnesses are to be believed, the riot was organized not by locals but by Iranian-backed ayatollahs, expressly for the benefit of western cameras, featuring a mob using an incongruous, all-inclusive chant, 'The school is a dirty nest of Christians, communists and prostitutes.' "
My book exposes the lie of "widespread hatred for western influence" in Afghanistan, incidentally, but if you read the excerpt you will find no mention of Hnatiuk's "western TV coverage" of the Daste Barchi riot. It contains a first-hand account from the Marefat school principal ("if my witnesses are to be believed"), and no allegation of riot-staging for "western cameras," from anyone, and not even any mention of any cameras of any kind, western or otherwise. Hnatiuk couldn't have done a more ridiculous job of outright invention even if he were working directly for some propaganda bureau in Tehran.
There. I feel better now.
Plus the great British blog Harry's Place has a bit on my book today as well, which also, coincidentally, takes a portion of the same excerpt. My warm regards to HPers to Gene for the notice.
posted by Terry Glavin at 11:14 AM
2 Comments:
Hi Terry:
Great article in yesterday's Metro news on Afghanistan. Sure turned my head and attitude around, thank you for that.
Should be required reading for all Canadians. To that end, I blogged and Facebooked your article in its entirety.
Well done and thanks again for the vigilance and perspective.
Warm regards,
Jamie Kelley
Thanks, Jamie.
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