Sorry once again for having sent a reply empty of any Reply. Life gets complicated at times as everyone of you knows. But here I am back at the reply and full of confidence that it'll get sent this time. Actually, it's hardly a reply, more of an Amen to RP's post on Mirembe. I can't remember any political posts by her. She seemed to eschew all political opinion --like David Ritchie or Erin Holder do, except that I doubt either of them gives a damn about our political anguish -- lucky sods. I've always imagined Mirembe as being very politically minded but choosing for professional reasons to keep her cards close to her chest. I've also imagined her as being very internationally-politically astute, which would probably preclude most up or down judgments of political happenings as Lawrence and I engage in, but I'll be damned if I'll ever let anyone's diplomatic aplomb curb my righteous refusal to look at the details. I know my prejudices and I stand firmly behind them. I only know Mirembe her through her posts. so everything I say is to be understood in that light. Almost all of her posts, as I remember, were literary in nature. She took me to task on more than three occasions over my interpretation of specific works and literary theory in general -- she was wrong on all counts, of course, but that should have no bearing on how one judges her skills as a diplomat with the State Department. Mirembe Nantango! Let's dance!!!
Mike Geary Memphis wondering if her kid is still tethered in a courtyard with the goats.----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Paul" <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 3:25 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Mirembe and the need for Blackwater
By the way, is the US embassy spokeswoman, Miremebe Nantonga referred to in the AFP article, the same Mirembe who used to be on Lit Ideas and Phil-Lit and with whom I argued on more than one occasion?
Yes, she is the same person. Whether you 'argued' with her more than once I cannot say. It's surely possible that you and she disagreed over something a couple of times.
I can't recall what we argued about but could it have been politics or the military?
No. Mirembe has never on these lists discussed politics in the sense of taking sides, criticizing US policy, or attacking the sort of ideology you exemplify. She has never here discussed US policy from any political stance, and one could not have inferred from her posts where her political sympathies lay. That should be enough to answer what you say next:
Could [she] have been a typical Lit-Ideas/Phil-Lit member, i.e., a Leftist? so, what is she doing in the hated State Department, and Mike, what is she doing defending Blackwater? Did she succumb to filthy lucre? Or is she operating out of principle?
It's depressing to see you still assigning people ('the typical
Lit-Ideas member, e.g.) to categories, the features of which have been
pre-judged. I grant that this saves one the trouble of thinking: 'Oh,
Smith is a member of lit-ideas, so he obviously believes in arming the
jihadists, levitating the Pentagon, and promoting bimetallism.' One
needn't pay any attention to what was actually said, once one knows
who said it. 'The hated State Department'? Who among us has expressed
hatred toward the State Department--the entire State Department?
(Well, it certainly wasn't Mirembe, who throughout her membership on
Phil_lit and its various reincarnations has worked for the State
Department.)
Mirembe, acting as a spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Baghdad, has
not, in any of her remarks quoted in various newspapers, 'defended'
Blackwater. Nor has she criticized it.
You move, through a series of rhetorical questions, to a conclusion
about someone's political and professional views; but the conclusion
you seem to be trying to reach would only be supported if one accepted
your own implicit answers to your own questions. Since your answers
are false, the most you have done is to slander by innuendo, a person
who was for years an ornament among the contributors to these lists.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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