I Hate the Fat Man

The fat man is a character without a name in the short story, War, by Luigi Pirandello. Pirandello's story is essentially the conversation that takes place among passengers on a carriage travelling between cities in Italy during a war. Since every passenger is affected by the war, the topic quickly turns to the question of "who suffers most" in war.

Is it the soldier who goes off to die in battle? Does he suffer most? Or, is it the parents who lose their only son? Or, is it the parents who lose a son but still have several other children to comfort them? One passenger who offers his views is a fat man who has already lost his son. Who suffers most in war?

After reading Pirandello's War, please write your views about this story. My own view, I Hate the Fat Man, is posted below.

Writing for Peace

Writing for Peace is an essay by Ngugi Wa Thiong'O about Kenya in 1982 (during the Ronald Reagan administration). Writing from the Kenyan nationalist perspective, Thiong'O exposes the then cultural, political, and economic exploitation of Kenya, his objective to "raise consciousness" and promote an "uncompromising hatred" of all parasitic cultural, political, and economic relationships.

The relevant questions after reading Ngugi's essay, Writing for Peace, are these: Do the conditions that Ngugi described in 1982 still exist today? How and where, specifically?

What can be done? What should be done?