Historical Tales

Ustinov had an intense interest in politics, and although branded sometimes as a Leftist apologist, his views were within the mainstream parameters, something between he thirty yard lines and devoid of ideological rhetoric passing as  profound insight. Early in his career, in the early 1950′s Ustinov spoke out both wittily and eloquently in a broadcast to the BBCfrom the Unired States on the McCarthy hearings. He characterized Senator Joseph McCarthy: “Words come to him more easily than sentences, which is normal; but even words fall grudgingly from his lips- his eyes, meanwhile, having all the dispassionate intensity of a lion who is having his private troubles gnawing a juiceless knuckle.”

ADDENDUM:

— “the Terror War” because both sides have used terror as a weapon — armed drones are just as much a terror weapon, as I see it, as any suicide attack a la 9/11 or the Mumbai atrocity. As the late Sir Peter Ustinov once said, “Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.”—Read More:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/22/9-11-wars-war-on-terror

(see link at end)…After all, this was the man who could while away the hours doing impersonations of a grand prix race. Ustinov has always embraced his contradictions – the ultimate anti-establishment establishment chappie; the leftie, with communist sympathies, who couldn’t wait for his knighthood; the laugh-a-minute comic desperate to be taken seriously. …Read More:http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2002/sep/23/artsfeatures.books

At the age of four with paper hats and wooden swords we’re all Generals. Only some of us never grow out of it – Peter Ustinov

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Peter Ustinov, Albania (1966): The Chinese at lunch were like district commissioners in Africa some fifty years ago, humoring the local chiefs by partaking in their curious rites. Here is fertile ground for Chinese paternalism, and on this necessarily very brief and superficial visit we thought we could discern a certain Chinese revenge for years of patronizing attitudes from white races, now exacted on this proud but miserable people under the guise of fraternity. It is the fraternity of Big Brother.

Poverty, as was said at the outset, is not a field for criticism. It is only when you realize that Albania is the world’s sixth largest producer of copper that you begin to regard such a degree of abject misery as gratuitous and foolish. Americans, Greeks, and Yugoslavs (guides and chauffeurs excepted) are not allowed into the country. Albania has chosen its friends and its enemies. The initiative has always been with Albania, which leads one to believe that, Marx, Lenin, and Senator Joseph McCarthy notwithstanding, there is no real conflict between Communism and capitalism because there is no point of contact. In an affluent society Communism can no longer survive without changing its face so completely that it is unfaithful to itself, whereas by definition, capitalism is impossible without capital.

There is no alternative for Albania but such a system, for the time being. But it is sad to see that its hopes are so limited and so out of date. For Stalinism to survive, it is essential that the country should make no progress on a personal level, for with progress, Stalinism is superfluous, as most of the other socialist countries have proved. It is a bitter irony that all the vices the Albanians discern in colonialism turn to virtues when applied to themselves by their own hand. Never, apart from Haiti, have we sensed people more despised by their own leaders. Albania is Haiti with slogans.
Read More:http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/albania/ustinov.htm