Noam Chomsky and Salman Rushdie

What do the two of them have in common? Well, read on. I watched with great interest the UN speech of Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, who made inflammatory remarks against the US and its hegemonical foreign policy. He had in his hand the book of an American scholar, Avram Noam Chomsky, who is a professor emeritus of linguistics from MIT and an outspoken critic of US foreign policy. His endorsement of this book helped its online sales at Amazon.com soar from the rank of more than 20,000 to a whopping number 4!

This endorsement and subsequent boost reminded me of what happened to the British author Salman Rushdie when the Iranian supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a religious edict (fatwa) against Rushdie's life as a means of denouncing the "blaspheme" book entitled The Satanic verses. Be it by endorsement or condemnation, little-known authors may emerge from obscurity and enjoy record sales of their books because of attention they may receive from political leaders. It needs to be said, however, that Chomsky is indeed well-known and respected within the leftist American sphere, but was nevertheless not as recognized a name as Chavez made him in his 10 minute speech!

Here are pictures of Chomsky, Chavez, and Samlan Rushdie: