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Sources

German Nobel Winner Herta Müller: Günter Grass 'Has No Moral Credibility'

Günter Grass has been criticized by many inside and outside Germany for his recent criticism of Israel. Now Herta Müller, a fellow German winner of the Nobel prize for literature, used the release of her new book in Brazil to slam Grass's moral s

Herta Müller in 2009 in Frankfurt (Don'tWorrry)
Herta Müller in 2009 in Frankfurt (Don'tWorrry)


*NEWSBITES

Günter Grass and Herta Müller have a lot in common. Not only do the two German writers share the same profession, they've also both won Nobel Prizes. But that doesn't mean they have to agree on everything.

When it comes to the Israel-Iran standoff, for example, Grass has it dead wrong, Müller explained in a recent interview with Folha de S. Paulo. Grass, 84, made headlines early last month with a controversial poem in which he accuses Israel of plotting to destroy Iran. According to Müller, her literary compatriot has it all backwards.

"Günter Grass distorts reality. Iran is threatening Israel with annihilation, not the other way around," said the Romanian-born novelist. "In my opinion, he lost his moral credibility long ago, because over the course of decades he hid his affiliation with the Nazi SS."

Torture, persecution, fear and betrayal are key elements in the life and work of Müller. Winner of a Noble Prize in 2009, she returns to issues related to her past in Always the Same Snow and Always the Same Uncle, which has recently been published in Brazil. The book is a compendium of essays, lectures, and articles written by the author.

During the interview, Müller also criticized China for condemning activists such as Noble winner Liu Xiaobo to prison. Their actions, she explained, are reminiscent of dictatorial governments in the last century. Müller is concerned too with how politics have evolved in new democracies, including in her birth country, Romania.

"Old regime employees are still in power in the new order. They are business men and politicians and, instead of repression, now corruption is ruling," she said.

Müller blames such conditions on a willful ignorance of the past. "Unlike what happens in Germany, in Romania nobody wants to read old archives, to know who cheated or spied. This led to a new start, with politicians free of charges."

Read more from Folha de S.Paolo in Portuguese

Photo – Dontworry

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

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Geopolitics

Why The Latin American Far Left Can't Stop Cozying Up To Iran's Regime

Among the Islamic Republic of Iran's very few diplomatic friends are too many from Latin America's left, who are always happy to milk their cash-rich allies for all they are worth.

Image of Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's embassy in Tehran/Facebook
Bahram Farrokhi

-OpEd-

The Latin American Left has an incurable anti-Yankee fever. It is a sickness seen in the baffling support given by the socialist regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela or Bolivia to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which to many exemplifies clerical fascism. And all for a single, crass reason: together they hate the United States.

The Islamic Republic has so many of the traits the Left used to hate and fight in the 20th century: a religious (Islamic) vocation, medieval obscurantism, misogyny... Its kleptocratic economy has turned bog-standard class divisions into chasmic inequalities reminiscent of colonial times.

This support is, of course, cynical and in line with the mandates of realpolitik. The regional master in this regard is communist Cuba, which has peddled its anti-imperialist discourse for 60 years, even as it awaits another chance at détente with its ever wealthy neighbor.

I reflected on this on the back of recent remarks by Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, the 64-year-old Romina Pérez Ramos. She must be the busiest diplomat in Tehran right now, and not a day goes by without her going, appearing or speaking somewhere, with all the publicity she can expect from the regime's media.

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