Book Review: Jaguar Smile
Book Review: Jaguar Smile
The book Jaguar Smile is written by Salman Rushdie at the time of the Nicaraguan Revolution. It was written some few periods after the Satanic Verses the moment Rushdie wen to the land of Nicaragua after being invited by Sandinista Association of Cultural Workers (Rushdie, p.56). Rushdie is issued with a high level treatment from his visit that took place some few days after The Hague’ International Criminal Court of Justice with the help of the United States of America revolutionary army in Nicaragua in handling violations of the international law.
The book brings forth how Rushdie clearly and genuinely highlights the malpractices of the current government and is free of expression. A good example is when even though he has been hosted, Rushdie shows that the current government is corrupted considering that it do not allow the publication and allocation of newspapers opposing him (Rushdie, p.34). This shows that the current government is involved in certain practices that are secretive due to their level of wickedness, deceitfulness and corruption. The shutting down of La Prensa went against the autonomy of expression which offered the sole means that the citizens of Nicaragua were able to be aware of the truth concerning the negative issues done by the present government.
In the management of the media, the Nicaragua is revealed by Rushdie as being ineffective in helping its citizens. This is since the people are either not informed of a vital stage or remained uniformed of the government and other places. This was similar to colonialism.
One of the things that stood out is the honesty and subjectivity of Rushdie. He brings out the prejudices that exist in the book by the government and does not appear as impartial. He lets the reader know what he feels regarding the Sandinistas, what he expects, what he has heard and what goes through him on several matters regarding the leadership.
While in Nicaragua, Rushdie discovered certain aspects of political themes that affected his work. The people that supported the Reagan administration did not take in with please the work being done Reagan. This is the reason why H. W. did not offer much support to Rushdie in the course of the ‘Satanic Verses’ issue and a good section of people supported the opposing focus about Nicaragua which Rushdie offered. Rushdie did not have a smooth flow; he was accused of getting involved in issued that did not involve him. He was apparently getting involved in issues that did get much focus from the Nicaraguans. The political basis did not like him and did not offer him any support.
Principle patterns of political behaviour
Rushdie provides an in depth analysis of the vital aspects of the Somoza dictatorship period. First of all, this period is needed for one to have a vivid comprehension of the dead so as to get to know of the living. This stated that life in Nicaragua was not easy and that the day to day brawls of life were attributes of live or dies tendency (Rushdie, p.44). The Somoza was attributed to be the most superior individual in the country, may be above the law of the land, and this issued him with the task of choosing what takes place next, who gets to see the next day and does not, what was pleasant and what was not, it did not matter of the implication of what he did on the citizens in general.
Once more, in a dictatorial form of rule, there exists only one form of truth that the citizens are justified to know and this was what was noticed by the leader of the citizens. It is in this light that the autonomy of expression was not there to be applied as it stood on the meaning that it would disintegrate or shift power to have a last say to another individual who definitely would go against the true power of the citizens.
This is the reason as to why Rushdie attributed the people in Nicaragua as having lacked information regarding the other part of the world, with the only choice close to them is being able to view the dictatorship aspect of the government as what is correct (Rushdie, p.68). Similarly, Rushdie attributes another incident of infringed autonomy of speech through the prohibition of opposition newspapers that as we are all aware from the country’s counters any government effort that is oppressive to its citizens or one that fits the explanation of being deceitful and corrupt. With the live or die scuffles, it is attributed as meaning that any individual that attempts to go against the barriers in autonomy of speech would be liable to mysterious death or being kidnapped or even being assassinated.
Thirdly, as noted from the book, the type of dictatorship being controlled by Somoza who had completes support of the United States government. The trend of politics that is here is the concealed interests. The United States is not able to just offer the Nicaragua government to continue with this tendency of impunity apparent desire to safeguard in the nation for its own self-seeking benefit. Rushdie reveals things that were a number of days to his visit in Nicaragua, The Hague’s ICJ had as per that moment issued a warning that the United States and the Criminal Investigation Agency were taking part in the violation of the international policies through the allocation of assistance and recruiting, organization, coaching and arming revolutions that took place against the armies with the intention of defeating the Sandinista revolutionists.
The impact that was brought about by this support was that a number of people passed away in the fight for revolution because of the arms that are there to the counter revolutionists (Rushdie, p.120). However, the almost a decade dictatorship at last came to a termination as the Sandinistas had won the war and a revolution was truly experienced. One may attribute that the FSLN was truly a group that was determined to form a government without regard to the death or implications and threats that are connected to the demand revolution.
The Impact of Hegemony’s actions
It is believed that the United States backed the Somoza dictatorship not providing its military officers to engage for the country with concealed desires though through the distribution supports like ammunitions and firearms. Similarly, the United States with the help of the CIA had provided the recruitment, management, training and arming of the Nicaragua nation some much appropriate training like was the situation that made them not well armed though similarly trained on the way to make good use of the ammunitions, when and how. The revolutionists were similarly impacted by hegemony as a great number of them were harmed while others were murdered in the course of the war. Similarly, the hegemony came with a high form of motivation to the revolutionists considering that they were convinced not to work at all and revenge for the lives that were lost in the course of the war.
Personal Opinion
The Somoza dictatorship was quite tiresome, however a section of the citizens of the opposition were of the feeling that they needed to have in addition a turn of life as well as do away with the Somoza’s system of control. This relationship had little to do with the close to a decade rule except to the form of governance where each and every individual is bound to the rule of the dictatorial power.
Similarly, the revolutionary section took part in the advancement of liberalization. This is since in Somoza type of control, not a single person had the freedom to speak freely, hence trimming down the public thoughts and turned down the citizens to taking part in the allocation of opinion. Consequently, the nation was still in the inside of unknowns and lacked details to help them in reinforcing the revolution considering that the Somoza government had been tyrannical and autocratic.
To the global politics, it is vivid that the United States or other strong nations with personal desires in the nations with inner or outside conflicts are in a number of ways backed with the help of money as aid. Similarly, in the course of elections in the countries desire, the strong nations in a number of instances backed a person that they wanted and financed them in the promotions so long as they acquire office and would go on to take good care of the personal interests between the two countries.
Reference
Rushdie, S., (1987.). The Jaguar smile. Reprinted. Picador. USA
