This is a blog for the community of Geography 170: "Geographies of Violence in the Age of Empire" in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. This course explores a range of answers to the question: How might geographical thinking be used to critically explore new forms of violence and empire?


Sep 30, 2010

Full Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speech to the UN and Fox News report

Here is the speech to the UN on September 23. I found his speech (or at least the translation of it) to be remarkably measured, with some good points, if perhaps a little religious. He made an obvious attempt to appeal to the Western world, especially Christians. I thought that the US's reaction to his statements were out of proportion to what he said, though politically, I understand the reasoning behind walking out. I think there's definitely some relation to the Mamdani reading with regards to Political violence/terrorism. The fact that the US refuses to engage Iran in a dialogue not only contradicts Obama's pledge to use diplomacy before force, but attempts to legitimize painting the 'other' as barbaric and irrational by simply not allowing them a 'legitimate' forum to voice their concerns



This second video is a short Fox News clip covering the speech. Not only are statements he made taken out of context and paraphrased to create an antagonistic dialogue, but his statements are coupled with a completely irrelevant blurb about cruise missiles, which, as far as I know are completely legal weapons for a country to own, and are very likely part of the U.S.'s arsenal as well. Is this a sleek, modern version of the barbaric savage? Do you think we will be invading Iran in the near future, and if so, what do you think that will do to our economy, military, moral standing in the world, the middle east, etc?

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