He was not a billionaire media mogul. He was not particularly fond of buying out leading newspaper chains and trying to have a national editorial imposed on the leading dailies of Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Toronto and other cities. He was not a member, as far as we know, of any Canadian or American political party. He was not a leader or an aspirant to be a premier of any country or province. He was not an admirer of the state of Israel and its policies towards Palestine. The state of Israel would never dream of according him any status, other than that of a hostile entity. In fact he was well known for his articulate vision in favour of Palestinian dignity and nationhood. He did not have a very western view of the “Orient” In fact he despised the western view of the “other.” He was extremely articulate and knowledgeable about classical music (he was known to be a great pianist), Indian history and cuisine, world history in general and secular political frameworks for development. He did not call CBC reporter, Neil McDonald a “Marxist” for reporting from Gaza, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and the West Bank about Israeli troops and their actions on Palestinian demonstrators. So the Gazette, the Globe, The Post, the Edmonton Sun, and the Ottawa citizen did not mention his passing. He was not Izzy Asper. That is why we have chosen to celebrate the life of Edward Said.

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Poetry, film reviews, short stories, photo-essays form the backbone of another issue of Montreal Serai. Officially we are 17 years old. We started out as a magazine in hard print, and then gradually evolved into an e-zine. We get quite a few notes back on our articles. For the most part, they are positive. But frequently, we get hate mail. Mainly from the United States, even though some of our most ardent supporters and writers are also from the United States. There is no paradox there. We invite, you, our readers to once again take up your keyboards and write us a few lines, about what you think about our coverage. We want to know what you feel about our irreverence, occasional ineptitude and brazen indifference to things that also matter! Tell us!