Me, Shan and Dr. Robert Fisk(during his IIUM talk)
Thanks to Dr. Isham's insight, we got to listen to the famous Independent foreign correspondent, Dr Robert Fisk. Fisk was born in Maidstone in Kent, UK on July 12, 1946 (64 years old).He received his PhD at the Trinity College in Dublin in 1985.Based in Beirut for more than 30 years, this 7 times British International Journalist of the Year is a walking history who has written at length on the origins of contemporary conflicts.Think of any trouble on Earth: Dr Fisk has covered them all: from Northern Ireland troubles in the 70s to the Portuguese Revolution in 1974 to the Lebanese Civil War to the Iranian Revolution in 1979; the Soviet War in Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, the Invasion of Iraq in 2003 and he will update us on the most recent coverage in a new book/doco soon, I’m sure.
Fisk is a vernacular Arabic speaker and one of the few western journalists to have interviewed Osama ben Laden, not once but thrice! Osama tried to convert him to be a Muslim the first time around and the conversation went like this:
Mr Robert, one of our brothers had a dream. He dreamed ... that you were a spiritual person ... this means you are a true Muslim."
Dr.Fisk replied; "Sheikh Osama, I am not a Muslim ... I am a journalist ... A journalist's task is to tell the truth."
Bin Laden replied: "If you tell the truth, that means you are a good Muslim."[
Fisk believes that journalists must challenge all authorities especially so when governments and politicians take us to war and that our job is to monitor the centres of power and not allow Presidents, Prime Ministers, Generals even journalists to set the narrative of events instead of challenging the authorities.
He’s a pacifist and has never voted.
Fisk is also a best-selling author whose books include The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East (2005, latest edition 2007), Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (1990, latest edition 2002) and The Age of the Warrior: Selected Essays by Robert Fisk (2008)
Fisk is on Facebook (possibly created by a fan) because he does not use emails which he describes as “the death of literature”. He still writes letters to friends and fans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjoGLA4mVxU
(against portraying war as something NOT bad ~ something surgical. Tell war as it is! Use proper language.A wall is not a fence."Jewish occupied" not "Jewish neighbourhood", etc)
An interesting write-up on him (he's divorced.Ex was this beautiful Observer journalist Lara Marlowe)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/13/middleeastthemedia.lebanon
More war drama here http://www.fromoccupiedpalestine.org/node/55
Fisk is a vernacular Arabic speaker and one of the few western journalists to have interviewed Osama ben Laden, not once but thrice! Osama tried to convert him to be a Muslim the first time around and the conversation went like this:
Mr Robert, one of our brothers had a dream. He dreamed ... that you were a spiritual person ... this means you are a true Muslim."
Dr.Fisk replied; "Sheikh Osama, I am not a Muslim ... I am a journalist ... A journalist's task is to tell the truth."
Bin Laden replied: "If you tell the truth, that means you are a good Muslim."[
Fisk believes that journalists must challenge all authorities especially so when governments and politicians take us to war and that our job is to monitor the centres of power and not allow Presidents, Prime Ministers, Generals even journalists to set the narrative of events instead of challenging the authorities.
He’s a pacifist and has never voted.
Fisk is also a best-selling author whose books include The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East (2005, latest edition 2007), Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (1990, latest edition 2002) and The Age of the Warrior: Selected Essays by Robert Fisk (2008)
Fisk is on Facebook (possibly created by a fan) because he does not use emails which he describes as “the death of literature”. He still writes letters to friends and fans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjoGLA4mVxU
(against portraying war as something NOT bad ~ something surgical. Tell war as it is! Use proper language.A wall is not a fence."Jewish occupied" not "Jewish neighbourhood", etc)
An interesting write-up on him (he's divorced.Ex was this beautiful Observer journalist Lara Marlowe)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/13/middleeastthemedia.lebanon
More war drama here http://www.fromoccupiedpalestine.org/node/55
1 comment:
Having spent sometime in the Middle East (as a refugee from the Soviet imposed communist regime on my native Bulgaria) I have read with interest over the years Mr. Fisk's writings on that troubled area.
I do hope that he will continue with his unbiased interesting reporting of events in the crucial Middle East region.
Helps @ Chariot.net.au
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