Some final remarks

[Celso Alvarez Caccamo]

I apologize to enter into your mailboxes again, but this statement by Ron
Kuzar cannot go unnoticed:

On Fri, 21 Sep 2001, Ron Kuzar wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>   I think that the world is starting to go back to normal functioning,
> even if things are not the same now.

I don't understand the meaning, purpose, ideological underpinnings of this
statement. Afghanistan and perhaps other countries (Iraq?) hasn't been
bombed yet (I hope they are not!), the world is expecting military actions
by Western powers, thousands of fragmented bodies remain unfound, the
stock markets rollercoast up and down, Arabs have been killed by fellow
citizens in the USA, thousands of Afghans continue to take refuge in
Pakistan, one thousand religious leaders agree to try to delegitimize Bin
Laden, Bhuto thinks she's the next target, the Israeli army continues to
kill Palestinians, a second major attack by fundamentalists is expected,
120,000 workers of air companies lose their jobs (and more to come), etc.
etc. ... and someone can assert that "the world is starting to go back to
normal functioning"?

The irony is, perhaps Kuzar is right after all. The attacks on the USA
were an "abnormal" incident, while all the violence going on (including
economic violence within the industrialized countries themselves) is
"normal". Is discourse analysis only good for the "interesting moments"
like the one we just lived?  Are the retaliations to come not deserving of
analysis?

I honestly don't understand Kuzar's remark. Either I'm terribly skeptical
of everyone and everything by now, or all this is a very sad game.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Celso Alvarez Cáccamo              Tel. +34 981 167000 ext. 1888
Linguística Geral, Faculdade de Filologia     FAX +34 981 167151
Universidade da Corunha                          lxalvarz at udc.es
15071 A Corunha, Galiza (Espanha)  http://www.udc.es/dep/lx/cac/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~