Fables
Galeano, Eduardo
The Upside-Down World Eduardo Galeano Fables An old biblical proverb says that it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. Bishop Pedro Casal-daliga, who was not born in America...
...And because they didn't recognize each other, they didn't exchange greetings...
...The man made a face...
...Or money...
...Customs A candidate from the left traveled to the town of San Ignacio in Honduras during the 1997 electoral campaign...
...Or jobs...
...Because they didn't know each other, they couldn't recognize each other...
...A man in a jacket and tie, briefcase in hand, asked her: "If I guess exactly how many chicks you have, will you give me one...
...When word said more or less, act did less or more...
...He climbed the stairs to the podium and before a small audience proclaimed that the left doesn't bribe the people, that it doesn't sell favors for votes...
...Directions I was wandering lost through the streets of C?diz, thanks to my acute sense of disorientation, when a good man rescued me...
...We do not give meals...
...She sat where she sat every day, when a car appeared, dazzling, out of a cloud of dust on the road from Santo Domingo...
...She took her chick back and then said to him: "It wasn't too hard to figure it out: You came without giving any notice, entered my farm without asking permission, told me something that I already know, and then charged me for it...
...The images that followed were of small revolvers and pistols, switchblades, pepper sprays that stop men dead in their tracks, and other diminutive devices that seem perfect for a lady's purse in troubled times...
...The man promptly fired up the global positioning system on his 60-gigabyte Pentium 4 laptop, linked up to the satellite photography program, and activated his pixel counter...
...Here is the version I heard in the Dominican Republic: One day the children were running circles around Do?a Mar?a de las Mercedes, clucking and throwing kernels of corn to her chickens...
...And then Juan Antonio Medina realized he had heard the expression wrong: "An armed woman is a safe woman...
...The king's chef welcomed them: "I called you here," he explained, "so you can tell me what sauce you would like to be eaten with...
...When word said no, act did yes...
...The International Community A chicken, a duck, a turkey, a pheasant, a quail, and a partridge were summoned and traveled together to the summit...
...You have 132 chicks," he said...
...He had never thought very highly of advertisements, but this one featured a line that wasn't bad at all: "A charmed woman is a safe woman...
...The woman guessed: "You are an expert at an international organization...
...He instructed me on how to get to the old market, and to any other destination in the wide world: "Let the road lead you...
...His most recent book is "Upside Down...
...he boomed...
...Bishop Pedro Casal-daliga, who was not born in America but knows the country inside out, asks what happens when they poison the river...
...a drunk called out, just awakened from his nap under a tree in the plaza...
...One of the birds dared to speak: "I don't want to be eaten at all...
...When word said yes, act did no...
...Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and journalist, is author of "Open Veins of Latin America" and "Memory of Fire...
...And he bent down and scooped up a chick...
...Traditions Word and act had never met...
...This article is published with permission of IPS Columnist Service...
...Teaching is not enough...
...Mar?a de las Mercedes then asked the man: "If I guess what line of work you're in, will you give me the chick back...
...The woman made a face...
...Then what the hell do you give...
...Or what happens when what is happening now happens...
...The chef quickly set it straight: "That is out of the question," he barked...
...The International Expert I have heard this story in a number of places attributed to different people, and because of this any resemblance to reality must be sheer coincidence...
...Arms of a woman Juan Antonio Medina was sitting watching television in his house one day...
...One day, word and act came across one another in the street...
...Or if someone buys the river, which used to belong to everyone, and bans fishing...
Vol. 70 • February 2006 • No. 2
