The Other

It's very rare that I come across a book that I consider invaluable, but Kapuscinski's slim valedictory volume is one such work. At its heart, the book -- a collection of speeches and articles published posthumously -- deals with the apparently incurable and universal human tendency to treat some of their fellow humans as less than human -- as "other". That tendency is what makes possible genocide, racism, discrimination, and many of the other intractable problems that loom ever-larger as the world becomes more globalized and we are forced to deal with groups we consider 'other' more frequently than ever before. Some of the questions associated with 'otherness' are at the core of global conflicts: how can we, for instance, reclaim our heritage and take pride in it without rejecting anyone who does not share that heritage as "other" and not deserving of respect? A real interest in travel -- as opposed to sightseeing -- and deep curiosity about the world are as rare today as in the days of Herodotus, millennia ago, Kapuscinski argues. Thankfully, he was not only a wonderful writer but an active and observant traveler, drawing on the observations of anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (who noted that whites who lived on the Trobriand Islands had a completely misleading understanding of the local islanders because they lived parallel lives that never overlapped; Malinowski lived in the center of a local village.) Kapuscinski's his analysis of his personal other -- someone non-white, with a strong national or tribal identity and a strong religious identity (what he replies when he is asked whether he believes in God, he writes "will have immense influence on everything that happens thereafter" in his relationship with his questioner) is particularly compelling. But he further still, pondering how that other perceives him -- because to that individual, Kapuscinski himself is the "other". For all the philosophical ruminations that are implied in the issues that Kapuscinski addresses, this book is written is such a simple, straightforward and powerful way that it is accessible to anyone. At its core, he argues, there is a broad human family to which we all belong. Increasingly, we are going to become aware of that reality, in response to mass migration and emigration into countries that have until now remained relatively isolated on an ethnic basis. He may be an idealist, of course. "We are entering... the Planet of Opportunity," he argues, a world in which history may not be destiny. In a cry from the heart, he concludes by arguing that only generosity of spirit is the right way to transform the "other" into the familiar -- and "touch a chord of humanity in him." This work is a sad reminder of what we have lost with the death of Ryszard Kapuscinski, a great humanist in the true meaning of that word. For those not familiar with his books, I'd urge you to accompany reading this work with his final opus, a quasi memoir, Travels with Herodotus (Vintage

I wrote stone I wrote house I wrote town I shattered the stone I demolished the house I obliterated the town the page traces the struggles between creation and annihilation This is one of the poems that came out of Kapuscinski's life experiences as a journalist writing of war and revolution, of death and carnage. I'll return to this poem a little later. Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski died of a quick cancer in January 2007. "The Other," a book published posthumously in 2008, is such a powerful tribute and respectful salute to a man who speaks almost poetically toward people he moved amongst for over half of his career--people he poignantly called the Other. What constitutes the Other? First, what does not? If you spoke English or any other European language as a native language in the 1800s, you most likely were white and of the West. Everyone else was the Other. Two things in his life made him very aware of his initial viewpoint: his reading of Herodotus and his own book, "Travels with Herodotus (Vintage International), translated into English in 2007, and his choice to live in and report the events of the Global South: Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In fact, Kapuscinski reports, "80% of the world is non-white" (56). His own thoughts reflect those of his favorite philosophers, who were dialogists: Emmanuel Levinas and Josef Tischner. Here is a simple summary of the three reactions to Others: start war with them, isolate your culture from them, or begin a dialogue. One expanded version was to consider the Other as God in the form of a visitor. How would you treat him? This is the culture of Hospitality as a form of dialogue. Kapuscinski's most admired anthropologist was Bronislaw Malinowski, who did not just study a group of people: he lived among them, often at great personal sacrifice and anguish. But it was Malinowski who showed that living as the Other himself was much more conducive to creating an open environment. Short of living in another culture to learn to understand it, one can travel (a short shrift but an effort) and by reading works of writers of other cultures. This little book (92 pages, plus Index) seemed repetitive and disjointed at times during my reading. However, the four lectures that comprise it were delivered over a period of five years in Vienna and Krakow. It was on the second reading that things came together for me. As a result, I highly recommend this book if you are interested in furthering a Global Village. Kapuscinski's poem? The translators say that he could write about those things, then with a keystroke, delete them. That governments can "delete" whole villages, whole cultures with a bomb. What about attitudes? If we continue to treat people as Others, as inferiors, are we mentally "deleting?" Perhaps that is why the world is joyfully embracing President-Elect Barack Obama. The Other is Us.