WORLD PRESS REVIEW, November 2001

As usual, we welcome the November issue of World Press Review, which informs us about world opinion as no other journal does. This issue is entirely devoted to "After September 11- A new worldview". The articles selected express almost universal condemnation of the attack on the World Trade Center. The usual cartoons are replaced with photographs from around the world. One shows an ecumenical service in the Mosque at Rabat. I am intrigued by the color of the men's fez: black and a few white on the left, red on the right. Black is supposed to indicate a descendent of the prophet. When I was evacuated from Spain during the Civil War, we sailed on the HMS "Devonshire" from Valencia to Marseilles. We slept in hammocks on the deck in a howling wind. The one next to mine was occupied by a Moroccan, desperately trying to keep his red fez on his head. Morocco was then under French control. The red fez was a symbol of Moroccan anti-French nationalism. Is is still a symbol of nationalism?

Naturally, not all the world sides with the U.S. A crowd in Karachi is shown demonstrating in favor of Osama bin Laden. There has been much discussion about the authenticity of a photograph showing Palestine children cheering at the news of the World Trade Center tragedy. One photograph in this issue is of children cheering in the refugee camp in Lebanon. It is significant that the children are imitating a grown-up cheer leader. They may not have known what it was all about. We should recognize that some Americans cheered when we bombed Afghanistan. Perhaps the next issue of World Press Review will carry the world response to the bombing. The response will probably not be as almost unanimous.

Ronald Hilton - 10/25/01