Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, says Paul the Octopus, the sea creature that correctly predicted the outcome of World Cup games, is a symbol of all that is wrong with the western world.

He claims that the octopus is a symbol of decadence and decay among "his enemies".

Paul, who lives at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre, in Germany, won the hearts of the Spanish by predicting their World Cup victory.

He became an international star after predicting the outcome of all seven German World Cup matches accurately.

However, the Iranian president accused the octopus of spreading "western propaganda and superstition." Paul was mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend.

"Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values," he said.

via Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul - Telegraph.

I suspect something is getting lost in translation.

2 comments:

Ann said...

Your site, Xeno, is ... really different!

This sure isn't the first time Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was misinterpreted by the Western media. One begins to wonder if this is deliberate, especially considering Obama's intended war plans. (In a democratic society, such as ours, the "enemy" needs to made to look bad, stupid or evil in some way, even if he or she isn't.)

"Octopus" is also used by Central Americans (from Guatemala to Columbia at least) to represent the widespread control and manipulation of U.S. multinational corporations in their midst. These corporations seem to extend themselves like the arms of an octopus everywhere and get their way in Latin countries, which have company-pliant, but non-democratic governments.

An example of such a company is Chiquita Brands International, formerly United Fruit Company, (which is and has been a major producer of bananas. A "Banana Republic," coined by O. Henry, represents a country that is overly congenial to the desires of a major banana producer such as Chiquita.) There are also some Major Oil companies similarly described.

The most famous or notorious example of the consequences of an "octopus" is the overthrow of a popularly elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, in the 1950s by CIA. This well-documented event occurred because of the lobbying efforts of the United Fruit Company in the U.S. It also helped United Fruit that several members of the staff of then president of the U.S., Dwight Eisenhower, and members of the executive branch of the government had financial interest in the company.

United Fruit Company didn't like Arbenz, because he wanted to buy and distribute the land that the United Fruit Company didn't use to the landless poor. At the time United Fruit was the biggest employer and landowner in the country, because of administrative policies of previous United Fruit Company-friendly governments in Guatemala. Although Arbenz called his policy Christian or Spiritual Socialism (or something similar), the United States officials and the wealthy of Guatemala including the executives of United Fruit labeled him a Communist, even though it was well-known he had no ties with the Soviet Union. This labeling was further encouraged on a more popular level by Edward Bernays, the father of advertising/propaganda in the U.S., who was paid by United Fruit Company to spread the word that Arbenz was indeed a Communist.

This success of the Guatemalan CIA coup led the installation, not election, of a dictatorship that was responsible for 100,000s of Guatemalan lives over the subsequent years. This is a "banana republic." And, there are numerous other examples including recent ones.

However, because only a few years ago the U.S. failed in its attempt to assassinate and overthrow the Venezuelan, Hugo Chavez, another example of a popularly elected president whose policies are directed toward the poor, he perhaps sees himself much as Ahmadinejad does now, in harm's way. After all, both countries have allied in numerous ways and both are critical of the United States and the reach of its tentacles.

Xeno said...

Yes, still looking for just the right look for this blog. The tentacles of the Octopus are everywhere.