Jewish World Review August 12, 2002 / 4 Elul, 5762
Ian Shoales
Rummy's monkey
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
There was a rather unusual item in the New York Times this summer, concerning
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's advance team, and the problems they have
encountered preparing the world for the glory of his personal appearance.
Some of these obstacles would challenge a Mission Imposible team. For
instance, in preparation for an appearance at the Indian Defense Ministry in
New Delhi, one of his advance men was "attacked by one of 10,000 rhesus
monkeys… that live in the government compound and adjacent forest."
So the challenge facing Team Rumsfeld? Well, you don't want a highly visible
government spokesman being swarmed by nasty monkeys when he's trying to
deliver a soundbite, now do you? This was definitely a heads up situation.
To use the latest journalistic cliché, the monkeys would have trumped Rummy.
We here in the West might question the wisdom of India setting the Defense
Ministry offices in the neighborhood of 10,000 aggressive monkeys, especially
in today's troubled times, especially when India has nuclear weapons. Monkeys
have thumbs, don't they?
But what can you do? And what could Team Rumsfeld do? They couldn't just
call in an air strike. The sight of missiles and heavy caliber bullets
ripping into the flesh of funny monkeys would probably not endear us in the
eyes of the world.
Many proposals were set forth, slapping together sticks, symbols, and making
loud noises with sidearms, but eventually, an Indian government official had
the right idea: "get a bigger monkey."
A more imposing langur monkey was brought in, "paraded on a leash," and the
more wussy rhesus monkeys, fearing reprisal no doubt, kept their distance.
Mr. Rumsfeld said whatever it was that needed to be said, no nuclear weapons
were discharged, no further allegations of corporate misconduct were revealed,
as far as I know, and America stumbled one step farther towards the finish
line in its war on terrorism, or whatever the hell it is we're doing.
Reading this story, I was reminded of the old riddle, "where does a two ton
gorilla sleep?" "Anywhere he wants to."
Well, this could apply to America of course, and this seems to be President
Bush's policy in a nutshell, but then again, monkeys aren't gorillas-- that's
a misconception-and a cat can bring down a bridge, a mouse can remove a thorn
from a lion's paw, and an army of piranha can strip a cow to bone in minutes.
But we wouldn't know anything about that. We're experts, not carnivores. We
spin. We take meetings. We don't leap on people's heads, shrieking
hideously, interrupting press conferences. We're a big monkey sure, a gorilla
even perhaps, but shrieking hideously and leaping nervously from branch to
branch, well, that's just not our style. That's just not the way you do
things. We issue reports. We cc people. We shred appropriate documents.
We're a long away form monkeys pal, okay?
Enjoy this writer's work? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Ian Shoales is the author of, among others, Not Wet Yet: An Anthology of Commentary. Comment by clicking here.
08/05/02: Time for some real cultural heroes
07/31/02: Yearning for a nostalgic American product that was neither
07/24/02: Voicemail heaven?
07/18/02: At the movies with your friendly neighborhood curmudgeon
07/12/02: King of Kitsch
07/09/02: Musicians' brains
07/01/02: Where's my cow?
06/24/02: Modern record stores can be a scary proposition
06/21/02: Life IS a movie?
06/19/02: Spreading fertilizer on a dictionary to try to raise a novel
06/17/02: Happy cows are really miserable?
06/12/02: Very similar to a rock
06/05/02: Of Humice and Men
05/30/02: Pooches in sharkskin suits and the end of dog tags
05/22/02: We baby boomers used to rule the roost
05/20/02: The Files now Ex
05/14/02: Entangled in Spider-Man's web!?
05/02/02: April Showers May Come Our Yadda Yadda
04/24/02: From child murderer to milk hawker
04/10/02: New realities
03/21/02: You did it your way? I have to kill you now!
03/14/02: IN THIS CORNER … SUSAN LUCCI AND STEPHANIE ZYMALIST!
03/12/02: Life in the warehouse
01/28/02: Shoes and food
01/24/02: Suspension of disbelief has nothing to do with whether we accept something as real or not
01/22/02: Save the Grand Ole Opry?
12/15/01: If you truly want to appeal to the lowest common denominator …
12/11/01: KNITTING!
12/07/01: Conspiracy by the 'fat suit' lobby?
12/04/01: The future of comic books
11/15/01: Literary tips in a jar
11/12/01: The ectoplasm of a ghost economy
11/05/01: Sumner Redstone's passions
10/31/01: My irony
10/29/01: Even in wartime, America can still bring it home
10/25/01: Ad memories
10/17/01: Pathetic me
10/08/01: War time lite
10/01/01: Confessions of a sarcastic scribe
09/11/01: The end of Mom
09/07/01: Boy Loses Girl, Boy Bites Girl, Boy Gets Girl
09/05/01: Virtual elegance?
08/31/01: I COPY, THEREFORE I AM
08/28/01: Buzz!
08/23/01: Radio workout
08/20/01: I robot, you Jane
08/15/01: A wild and crazy world!
08/10/01: When the future was "as real as a dime"
08/08/01: Garage Dearth!
08/06/01: That Big Clock
08/02/01: Stop the pop!
07/31/01: Catchphrase history of the world
07/26/01: The Bride of Science
07/23/01: That java jive
07/17/01: Homogenized hegemony
07/13/01: Applying Newton's First Law of Physics to textbooks
07/10/01: The dumb and the dead
© 2001, Ian Shoales
|