free speeches

here's one:
http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/61/pdfs/venezuela-e.pdf

and here's another:
http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/61/pdfs/iran-e.pdf

I find it *really* odd that these speeches are so hard to find online right now... they're controversial, as are their deliverers (Presidents Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad respectively), but these speeches are "public record," so-to-speak, available on the UN's own website, and while we may not agree with everything these two men stand for, I think it's ludicrous to dismiss out-of-hand everything they say. Western media still likes to think in black and white (as if they secretly long for the old days when newpapers were the only source of news information), but we know from our experiences - both of ourselves and of everyday life - that nothing is black and white; we are suspended in a billion shades of grey ether.

I'm becoming more and more of a moderate, I think, strangely, as I get older, and it's because of the arguments and discussions I've heard and been involved in where neither party changes its mind, but simply walks away with even greater resolve that theirs is the "right" position. Being firm and resolved and opinionated, while noble, seems generally only to lead to further polarization. If we as a race on this planet want to get anywhere - politically, socially, spiritually, even - we must constantly be open to the possibility that we're wrong, constantly allow ourselves to learn new things, and never be so arrogant as to think we've got everything worked out.

I'll give you one concrete personal example that continues to slap me in the face: I regularly yell at and cuss out other drivers for their bad driving. People drive too fast, drive too slow, tailgate, cut people off, make dangerous lane changes ...you name it, I hate it. But what I've been noticing of late is that generally within hours (if not minutes) of yelling at someone for making a bad driving decision, I make the same one, if not something considerably worse. So where does that leave me? Have I stopped wishing death and mutilation on other drivers? Nope. But I have started to become much more humble about it, I think: just like all of you, I too can be a shitty driver. It makes the whole thing much more complicated and grey and difficult to sort through, but there it is.

So yes, Chávez may be a little crazy, and he along with Ahmadi-Nejad seems to be quite staunchly anti-Israeli (and therefore - though I believe this to be a leap in logic - they're also both understood to be anti-Semitic) , but some of what each of them had to say was Truth-ful, and if we believe that all Truth comes from God, we cannot possibly say that everything they said was evil and value-less; we do, however, have to try to discern the dark from the light, and test what they said against the Truth we already know.

anyway. go and read them. I heard Ahmadi-Nejad's speech live on TV when he gave it, and was really moved by what he had to say. I thought he spoke with real integrity, never mind just for a minute what his other perhaps less sound views are.