Comments on: This Is The Way It’s Done

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:44:52 +0000

I would assume that the Iranians supplied his translator and CNN supplied hers for the broadcast, and that she would have provided her own translation later.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 06:53:13 +0000

if that was his motivation for leaving when he did, he certainly went out on a wave of [non-]popularity. i haven’t seen any videos of his other appearances while he was here, but judging by what little i saw this evening, either he or his handler[s] has a decent grasp of political theater. too bad we can’t send dubya to iranian charm school.

understanding a foreign language without being able to speak it is common enough, so it wouldn’t be surprising if she does understand arabic.

that didn’t sound like her voice doing the translating, although i suppose it could have been. i was too aggravated to notice, after sitting through 45 minutes of other stuff [mostly about the fda, grrrrrrr] only to get a handful of meaningless sentences and a smiley face.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 06:03:19 +0000

Rats, she has another Middle East leader terrified of her. I think he was afraid of losing his recent surge in Iranian polls for the way he had been treated in the US, because she would have been asking questions in Farsi, so the people at home would be able to hear the questions and answers without a translator.

Arafat hung up on her because she wasn’t following the script of the “poor, embattled victim of oppression” that he wanted to portray. There may have been something about the family villa in France, or corruption. He avoided her like the plague. Although there’s nothing about it in the record, I have a feeling she understands Arabic, even though she makes no claim of speaking it.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 05:43:04 +0000

he changed his schedule suddenly and got the heck out of dodge earlier than planned [not that i blame him]. the promised 30-minute interview turned into 2 hurried questions. ahmadinejad blathered brightly in reply [or the translator did] with some vaguely conciliatory remarks and then left.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 05:05:14 +0000

I’m sorry to hear that.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:59:50 +0000

it wasn’t much of an interview.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:12:44 +0000

That’s not much of a report.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:35:28 +0000

well, that was quick.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:33:30 +0000

I think of Christiane as the kinder, gentler Jeremy Paxman. She is an excellent interrogator and one who, I suspect, understands more languages than she admits to.

One of the main points about her work is that she understands who gets hurt in all these messes, and asks the questions they don’t get to ask.

By: fallenmonk

fallenmonk — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:21:50 +0000

Christiane lives nearby(when she is in town) and we get the opportunity to see at our local watering hole occasionally. An excellent little French bistro called Pastis. She is nice in person and a very commanding presence in a room. I agree that she is one of the major reasons to bother with CNN. Thanks for the heads up Bryan.