Middle East | Middle East
Jan.28.2009
There are reports that Ms. Ghada Jamsheer, President of the Women's Petition Committee, a Bahrain based organization that advocates for women in sharia law courts, is one of the more recent victims of a vicious, sustained, state-sponsored harassment campaign. The reports state that, while she was...
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Jan.18.2009
(Movies and Books)
Compassion grows when we imagine ourselves in someone else's shoes. Here are some suggestions which describe the Middle East from a young person's view.
Look for the DVDs!
Le Cerf -Volant (2003, Lebanon-France) Director: Randa Cahal Sabag
Lamia is a lovely 15 year...
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Jan.15.2009
I finished reading Herbert Mason's 1972 version of Gilgamesh and thought it a wonderful epic poem I've ever read --and the poem is 6000 years old from Iraq and is the origins of world literature! It is about great friendship of the tyrant Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the death of the best friend Enkidu,...
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Jan.14.2009
One of the things I love about being a writer is learning through research. And then getting to share this new knowledge with others in the form of a story. Being instinctively interested in myth and cultural superstition, I'm going to go ahead and share some tidbits I recently learned about...
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Jan.14.2009
I read the epic Gilgamesh, verse narrative translated by Herbert Mason (1972). Gilgamesh is the world's first great epic hero from 3000 b.c. Iraq--before Homer, the Bible, Virgil.The beginning is wonderful:
Gilgamesh was king of Uruk A city between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in ancient...
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Jan.10.2009
Here is a poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish called "Earth Presses Against Us" from the book Unfortunately It Was Paradise translated and edited by Munir Akash, Carolyn Forche, with Sinan Antoon and Amira El-Zein
Earth Presses Against Us by Mahmoud Darwish
Earth is...
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Jan.06.2009
Egyptian writer Alaa Al Aswany’s first novel The Yacoubian Building became a best seller throughout the Middle East and was transformed into a big budget Egyptian film. Now Aswany’s brilliant second novel Chicago has just been translated from Arabic into English and published in the United States....
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Jan.05.2009
This morning I awoke to the sound of news and police helicopters overhead. It has become a daily constant over the past week or so. Just a 10-minute walk east of my home is an Israeli consulate; a 10-minute walk southeast of my home is the district headquarters of the senior senator from my state...
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Jan.04.2009
We must stop the violence. Our leaders refuse so let's look to the young for new ideas, but workable ideas instead of doing the same thing over and over.
The old reasons for violence in Palestine are just weak excuses now. It's been 61 years since England had the idea of squeezing the...
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Dec.31.2008
I've just gotten over what I'm pretty sure was a nice bout with the flu, thanks to bucketloads of orange juice, Alka Seltzer Plus and Mucinex. I've missed three days of work, one game of Deadlands and countless opportunities to hug friends and loved ones at various mid-holiday parties. I have, in...
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