Cyprus-Forum.com

[bill cobbett]

Doubtless many will have heard the sad, sad news that Christopher Hitchens passed away earlier today, aged just 62, from a pneumonia associated with a cancer that he was suffering from.

Given the times we have referred to his authoritative writings, think it appropriate that we mark his passing here on CF.

A great friend of CY whose first wife was a CY.

Would go further than agree with those who say that CH was a great intellectual, feel he may have been the only intellectual of our age. A radical thinker, a provocateur and writer of outrageously powerful and often controversial works.

Vanity Fair says this today... "There will never be another like Christopher," said Vanity Fair magazine editor Graydon Carter, who called him "a man of ferocious intellect."

Also described today as a cross between Voltaire and Orwell as well as "a great drinker and smoker", and as someone who admired George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson and who was very critical of establishment figures such as Mother Theresa and as many here on CF will know, Henry Kissinger .

He described himself as an anti-atheist (a proper atheist if you will), so it would prob not be appropriate to say something like "may he rest in peace", cos don't think CH would approve.

Condolences to his family.

[Bananiot]

RIP
My sincere condolences to Eleni.
"God is not great" - his masterpiece.

[kurupetos]

RIP
My sincere condolences to Eleni.
"God is not great" - his masterpiece.

Maybe he has changed his mind by now.

PS. Good riddance.

[Hermes]

"We are all prisoners of knowledge. To know how Cyprus was betrayed, and to have
studied the record of that betrayal, is to make oneself unhappy and to spoil, perhaps
for ever, one's pleasure in visiting one of the world's most enchanting islands. Nothing
will ever restore the looted treasures, the bereaved families, the plundered villages and
the groves and hillsides scalded with napalm. Nor will anything mitigate the record of
the callous and crude politicians who regarded Cyprus as something on which to
scribble their inane and conceited designs. But fatalism would be the worst betrayal
of all. The acceptance, the legitimization of what was done - those things must be
repudiated. Such a refusal has a value beyond Cyprus, in showing that acquiescence
in injustice is not 'realism'. Once the injustice has been set down and described, and
called by its right name, acquiescence in it becomes impossible. That is why one writes
about Cyprus in sorrow but more - much more - in anger.'

Christopher Hitchens
HOSTAGE TO HISTORY: CYPRUS FROM THE OTTOMANS TO KISSINGER
Verso, London-New York 1997

[GreekIslandGirl]

Goodbye to a great man ...


"Those of us who are governed by the rule of law don’t demand very much. We are very modest and understated in what we ask.
All we want is for the removal of every single Turkish soldier from Cyprus, as international law demands, the restoration of the sculpture of Phidias [the Parthenon Marbles] as a unity, the same way it was carved, as a tribute to the glories of 5th century Athens and the human culture that it has inspired.
Take heart. You have friends who will never desert you.
Mr. Erdogan, tear down that wall. Zito I Ellas (Long live Greece). Eleftheri I Kypros (Free Cyprus)."

Hitchens

[Bananiot]

Kurupetos

PS. Good riddance.

Were you born donkey, or did you become one later, kurupetos?

[bill cobbett]

Kurupetos

PS. Good riddance.

Were you born donkey, or did you become one later, kurupetos?

Strangely boys, wouldn't be surprised to hear CH approve of that comment, well he was so, so contrary.

Guess as a real tribute we may like to re-read, or discover CH for the first time to find out.

Oh and that bit that Hermes has posted above, one we must all be familiar with... what poetry eh?

Sad day, such a sad, sad day... one of those days... a bit like when John Lennon died, when a small little part of each one of us dies.

[bill cobbett]

(Can just say really pleased that we are remembering CH today.)

Hermey, old chap, hope you don't mind but this remarkable piece of prose, this near Shakespeare (and the last 4-5 lines are reminiscent), this most unique bit of poetry about the dilemma of CY and how our little local problem goes way beyond CY justifies being repeated with double spacing for easier reading ...


"We are all prisoners of knowledge.

To know how Cyprus was betrayed, and to have

studied the record of that betrayal, is to make oneself unhappy and to spoil,

perhaps for ever, one's pleasure in visiting one of the world's most enchanting islands.

Nothing will ever restore the looted treasures, the bereaved families, the plundered villages and

the groves and hillsides scalded with napalm.

Nor will anything mitigate the record of the callous and crude politicians who regarded Cyprus as something on which to

scribble their inane and conceited designs.

But fatalism would be the worst betrayal of all.

The acceptance, the legitimization of what was done - those things must be repudiated.

Such a refusal has a value beyond Cyprus, in showing that acquiescence in injustice is not 'realism'.

Once the injustice has been set down and described, and called by its right name, acquiescence in it becomes impossible.

That is why one writes about Cyprus in sorrow but more - much more - in anger.'

Christopher Hitchens
HOSTAGE TO HISTORY: CYPRUS FROM THE OTTOMANS TO KISSINGER
Verso, London-New York 1997

[yialousa1971]

RIP
My sincere condolences to Eleni.
"God is not great" - his masterpiece.

Maybe he has changed his mind by now.

PS. Good riddance.

Good riddance to who, Bananiot or Hitchens or both?

[kurupetos]

RIP
My sincere condolences to Eleni.
"God is not great" - his masterpiece.

Maybe he has changed his mind by now.

PS. Good riddance.

Good riddance to who, Bananiot or Hitchens or both?

All atheists.