Poetic Obituaries: [Franz] Schurmann's columns reflected the range

of his inquires. He translated the poetry scrawled by student demonstrators on the walls of Tiananmen Square; he analyzed the manifesto of the Taliban, which he translated from Pashtun long before the group had even surfaced as a political movement of interest to the U.S. press; he warned in 1996 of the spreading of desertification of the globe: "I can taste the sand of the Gobi Desert on the streets of San Francisco."

from New America Media: PNS Co-founder Franz Schurmann Dies

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