The death of the Portuguese writer José Saramago has just been announced. As he won the Nobel Prize in 1998 and had in recent years acquired a status something like that of a secular seer we are in for a couple of days in which the media will carry eulogies praising his humanity and intelligence.
Let it also be remembered that he was a man with a notable obsession with and hatred for Israeli Jews. He once described them as
…experts in cruelty with doctorates in disdain, who look down on the world from the heights of the insolence which is the basis of their education.
Rest in peace, as they say.
This cartoon by Carlos Jarnac summarises what Saramago stood for, i.e. his vision for a better world :
http://cachimbodemagritte.blogspot.com/2009/10/saramago-comunista-estalinista.html
It reads: “I believe that the world would be a much better place and would have much better mores if there were no Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists. That’s what I sincerely believe.”
Eamonn, Saramago’s politics were despicable all around. But I have to say: I am saddened by the by the loss of a masterful novelist.