Portuguese writer José Saramago broke his personal rule of silence about revealing the theme of his next novel. Saramago denied rumors he would be writing about the Koran, the sacred book of Islam. Instead, Saramago confirmed he will write about the most important theme of today’s world: the arms industry.
Saramago posed the following question: “Why are there no labor strikes within the arms industry? The strike referred to here is not in reference to the strike by workers for better pay. Rather it is a plea to others within the industry, engineers, to stop the escalation of an arms build-up simply for the fact that they are used to kill people.”
“This is the theme: arms, who builds them, who trades them. They are everywhere. Television constantly shows scenes of violence, stressing life as unimportant”, explains the writer, according to the EFE.
Saramago endorses the World March for Peace and Non-Violence. The March, initiated by the NGO World Without Wars, is traveling, from October 2, to over 90 countries culminating next January 2, 2010 in Punta de Vacas, Argentina.
Of his recent novel “Caim”, Saramago, in all good humor, added a touch of spice to his discourse. When asked what God did before creating the universe it is said: “there was nothing and it was eternity”. Thereafter “He decided to create the Universe in six days and rested on the seventh, and remains resting until now”, joked the author.
*(Translation provided by Janete Inamini)*
