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Ryszard Kapuscinski Biography

Ryszard Kapuscinski

Ryszard Kapuściński (Polish: [ˈrɨʂart kapuɕˈt͡ɕiɲski] ( listen); March 4, 1932 – January 23, 2007) was a Polish journalist, photographer, poet and author. He received many awards and was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Kapuściński's personal journals in book form attracted both controversy and admiration for blurring the conventions of reportage with the allegory and magical realism of literature. He was the Communist-era Polish Press Agency’s only correspondent in Africa during decolonization, and also worked in South America and Asia. Between 1956 and 1981 he reported on 27 revolutions and coups, until he was fired because of his support for the pro-democracy Solidarity movement in his native country.

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Ryszard Kapuscinski Quotes

Amin is the shame of the whole world. The fact that he managed to rule so long and commit so many crimes was only possible thanks to the hypocrisy of the East and the West who were waging the Cold War for world domination.

Amin, Hypocrisy, Long, Waging, War, West

My writing is a combination of three elements. The first is travel: not travel like a tourist, but travel as exploration. The second is reading literature on the subject. The third is reflection.

Combination, Elements, Exploration, Reading, Travel, Writing

The Cold War in Africa is one of the darkest, most disgraceful pages in contemporary history, and everybody ought to be ashamed.

War, Pages, Cold, Contemporary, Ashamed

In the tropics the white feels weakened, or downright weak, whence comes the heightened tendency to outbursts of aggression. People who are polite, modest or even humble in Europe fall easily into a rage here, get into fights, destroy other people. . .

Fall, Fighting, Humble, Rage, Tendency, Weak

Money changes all the iron rules into rubber bands.

Band, Bands, Iron, Money, Rubber, Rules

if reason ruled the world would history even exist?

Exist, Ifs, Reason, Ruled, World

The so-called new Russian man is characterized mainly by his complete exhaustion. You may find yourself wondering if he has the strength to enjoy his new-found freedom. He is like a long-distance runner who, on reaching the finishing line, is incapable even of raising his hands in a gesture of victory.

Distance, Men, Hands, Wondering, Runner, Russian

I remember in 1978 meeting two Ugandan captains in the hotel talking Russian. They had been educated in Moscow and since they came from different Ugandan peoples, it was the only way they could understand one another.

Came, Different, Moscow, Talking, Two, Understand

in reference to Persepolis and all palaces, cities and temples of the past: could these wonders have come into being without that suffering? without the overseer's whip, the slave's fear, the ruler's vanity? was not the monumentality of past epochs created by that which is negative and evil in man?

Cities, Men, Past, Suffering, Vanity, Whip

The Cold War was waged in a particularly brutal and cynical way in Africa, and Africa seemed powerless to do anything to stop it.

War, Cynical, Way, Powerless, Stop

First you destroy those who create values. Then you destroy those who know what the values are, and who also know that those destroyed before were in fact the creators of values. But real barbarism begins when no one can any longer judge or know that what he does is barbaric.

Barbaric, Destroy, Doe, Judge, Judging, Real

Literature seemed to be everything then. People looked to it for the strength to live, for guidance, for revelation.

Guidance, Literature, People, Strength

The official independence celebration was going to be held over four or five days, and a group of journalists from all over the world was allowed to fly in, because Angola was closed otherwise.

Angola, Days, Groups, Independence, Sea, World

Most correspondents came from the former colonial powers - there were British, French, and a lot of Italians, because there were a lot of Italian communities there. And of course there were a lot of Russians.

Community, Correspondents, Eyebrows, Former, Italian, Russians

Do not be misled by the fact that you are at liberty and relatively free; that for the moment you are not under lock and key: you have simply been granted a reprieve.

Keys, Liberty, Lock, Locks, Reprieve

There is a lack of critical assessment of the past. But you have to understand that the current ruling elite is actually the old ruling elite. So they are incapable of a self-critical approach to the past.

Past, Assessment, Self, Current, Approach, Old

In the Russian experience, although the Russian state is oppressive, it is their state, it is part of their fabric, and so the relation between Russian citizens and their state is complicated.

Citizens, Complicated, Fabric, Oppressive, Russian, State

A population weakened and exhausted by battling against so many obstacles - whose needs are never satisfied and desires never fulfilled - is vulnerable to manipulation and regimentation. The struggle for survival is, above all, an exercise that is hugely time-consuming, absorbing and debilitating. If you create these ''anti-conditions,'' your rule is guaranteed for a hundred years.

Desires, Exercise, Hundred, Needs, Struggle, Years

When is a crisis reached? When questions arise that can't be answered.

Arise, Crisis, Questions, Reached

The continent is too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say 'Africa'. In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist.

Africa, Cosmos, Doe, Ocean, Reality, Separate

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