War In the land of Egypt

I really enjoyed this novel.  I would have liked to have more of a history behind the land reform acts (maybe I just missed this in class), but even without it this novel was fantastic.  It was a bit frustrating at times having to constantly see the story from different characters perspectives and the overlap got a little old, but over all each character was finely developed.

I thought the main land owner in the story was the most hilarious character throughout this entire tragic novel.  I liked how the whole mess began on the fact that he was to scared of his young wife telling the village he was not a "whole man" , to stand up to her and send his lazy son off to war.  It was upsetting at times how all of this misfortune was caused due to an insecure male and his body... although that is kinda a nice change (or comparison) to some of the other works we have read and the misfortune girls have endured due to their body images.  Anyways thats a tangent.

The loyalty of so many of the characters was touching as well.  It was heart breaking to read the passage when the friend of the peasant boy is in the hearse carrying his body back to his home, and he keep wondering if maybe things aren't real.  And maybe his friend is actually alive inside of the casket.

The investigator also through me off due to his loyalty to his job, or maybe it was something else...

Anyways all the characters added so much to the story and what started as a comical little read ended up being a very politically charged piece of literature.

The Wasted Virgil

This was one of my outside readings that I attempted after having read "Escape from Saddam."  Even in its beginning this book is thoroughly depressing, as was Escape from Saddam.  I unfortunately was unable to finish the book in its entirety by this blog post (those outside readings pile up), but from what I did read it was thought provoking.  

The story follows a whole compilation of characters, as they present their history in Afghanistan.  They convene at the main characters home, and each character is more strange than the next.

Looking at this novel through an education standpoint, it is not meant for light reading.  The book changes time periods, backgrounds (not everyone is even from Afghanistan), and history and fiction all the time.  It is also very gruesome.  I remember reading classic literature in high school with teachers telling students that some of the novels we were reading were graphic, but obviously they had not experienced this book...it takes it to a whole new level.

There are numerous rapes, and graphic violence (way beyond what was described in "Escape from Saddam"), and the novel gets even more confusing when it addresses moral issues because on more than one occasion I felt sympathy for a character that later turned out to deserve nothing of the sorts.

It was a mind trip, but also very thought provoking.  Very graphic, and disturbing and definitely not a book you want to sit down and relax to.  

Escape from Saddam

Im so disappointed we didn't get to have a discussion in class about "Escape from Saddam."  What really got me thinking in this book, was can this be this be used as a justification for US invasion of Iraq, and I will say right off the bat, that in and of itself, it does not.  BUT  there are some points that I believe bring a very strong argument which could then be combined with others as justifications, though once again, the counter arguments can be just as strong (and believe me I understand if you are just as sick of these wishy-washy posts as I am).

What I had hoped people would get out of this reading is that Saddam was acting as a dictator and was committing genocide on a large scale.  To add to this point, in class we would have been watching clips from these youtube videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JojVRTbauIU&feature=related

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-cxt99M_uU

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyhTI7ZpnlE 

All of these are documentaries on the mass murder that Saddams regime was committing. Though some of these are better than others, and all are pretty much full length films, they show strong imagery of what was happening under his rule.  I know a lot of people in our class were shocked and appalled by the reading "Five years of my Life," and rightfully so, but after watching these films (all three in a row, and then sitting around thoroughly depressed and angry) I do not believe that what was happening at Guantanamo compares to what was happening to these people (though both are wrong).

In "Escape from Saddam" at the end (this being a section that was not assigned) Sarmed talks about the US invasion of Iraq and says that though he is happy to see Saddams reign come to an end, he knows the the US had ulterior motives for their invasion. I believe it would be nieve to say that we invaded solely  on the grounds of protecting human rights.  Through class discussions we can see correlations between our involvement in Iraq and national economics.

I had planned to make an argument comparing our involvement in WWII to this subject, but after further consideration have decided that it is one which would best be suited for a class discussion or paper, and not a 200 word blog...A brief point, look at US involvement in any other war (or maybe just a particular one) and it can be seen that the US does not go into wars solely on the grounds of human rights protection, but when all goes according to plan and we win and withdraw, thats what the media and the public allow to be believed.  But the second these things don't go as planned, motives get questioned and the truth comes out...and this is starting to sound like a conspiracy theory so im gonna stop.

Does my head look big in this?

This is a fabulous book for any teenage girl no matter where you are from.  It really was simple to relate to every single character in the book, and the author did a great job of showing the multitude of challenges that an average teenage girl goes through.  Each character had numerous difficulties to face, and really developed solutions through out the whole novel.

What was great for this class, was that this book showed the added stress that the main character had to deal with due to her ethnicity, on top of all of the other strains she already had to deal with.  She was a very strong female character (for a 16 year old) and her thoughts were well developed.  I loved that this novel did not just address the challenge of racism, but also other stereotypes which cause constant negativity to developing teens. 

Whether or not you are from a different culture, made no difference in this book, because it was easy to relate to each characters struggles and triumphs.  

I also loved the the story put extra emphasis on the fact that their is a difference between religious dictations and cultural ones.  And one of my favorite parts in the novel is when the class president asks Amal to discuss terrorism and how Islam condones it at the class forum, and Amal then asks her if she would be happy to discuss the KKK and Christianity. *ZZINGGG.

So funny!  

Guantanamo Bay

I really enjoyed the selected reading for this memoir.  The details were gruesome, but definitely shed light on a very controversial subject.  In this subject there are two different periods in which it was addressed, those being the Bush Era, and the post Bush- or rather Obama Era.  The two had completely different opinions on how to address the matter.  Bush was in full support of Guantanamo.  Well actually let me rephrase that.  Bush had actions that would make one believe that he supported the presence of the detainee camp, and supported the denial of human rights to its inhabitants.  

In a 180 of Bush we then have Obama.  Who sees Guantanamo as the poster child of everything that foreign nations believe is wrong with america, and I believe this is an easy argument to make. Obama promised to close down Guantanamo, and has begun to take steps to do so, but the matter is complicated.  Where do we put its detainee's?  A lot of the nations they come from don't want them and refuse to take them.

In summary we have Bush who calls for pretty much no change, and Obama who calls for it to be shut down. 

I would never argue that the atrocities committed at Guantanamo are right.  

Here are some straight forward morals that most people would agree with upfront....

Hurting another human being is wrong.  

Treating human beings as anything other than human beings is wrong.

Torture is bad.

Yes these are all true.  But wasn't the original point of a detainee camp to simply detain?  What Guantanamo should be holding is POW and in some cases (though surely not the ones we read about) this is what is happening.  And is that wrong? No.  We are at war and POW are a sad truth to that reality.  Do we need to treat them like they are at the Holiday Inn? No.  But do we need to torture them to within inches of their life and then bring them back just to do it again? Nope.  We don't need to be doing that either.

In essence a point I would have loved to argue would be that we obviously can't allow things to continue the way they are, but maybe we don't necessarily need to shut down the entire operation.  I would have loved to hear peoples idea's for...hmmm.. lets say... reform?

But this is a touchy subject matter, and not one I would find best suited for a blog...would have been an interesting one for a paper though.  

Waltz with Bashir

I thought this was a great film.  I really feel that I need to watch it again in order to take in not only the dialog (which you have to follow by subtitle), but to catch the imagery that the film produces.  What is so interesting about this film is that is a documentary, that uses graphic imagery for its scenes.  I love the fact that the story is this one mans reflection on what happened to him as a solider of Israel, and that the images are shown through animations are then perceived to be exactly how he saw them happening.

I know in class we talked about how this added to the film, and I too agree that this made it very interesting, but on the other hand I can see how it may take away from it.  This set up allows for viewers to have doubt planted into their minds.  Not to say that every single audience member is bound to be a skeptic, when in fact most are not, but the fact that this is the story from how he remembers it, with scenes how he remembers them does almost detract from the horrors which the movie tries to portray.  The slide show of images at the end however, would put most skeptics minds to rest.

Over all it was a very interesting film, that I feel compelled to watch again, and then possibly even a third time.

Beheading the cat

There was so much to love about this story.  It had adventure, sexual tension, animal abuse, and just a bit of magic.  Disney should really catch onto it...but not really.

Anyways, 

some personal thoughts that came mind about this short story...

Well first off, I thought the description of the perfect bride was great, and I can just imagine men and women alike getting huge eyes when they see their lives laid out before them, and it they do not need to cook, clean, or argue with the person they have purchased.  Marriage?  I think not.  That sounds a bit more like slavery.

I thought that it was interesting in the story how the main character is so infatuated with Nadine.  And Nadine is a complete 180 from the tradition wife that the gypsy woman is trying to sell him on.  One would think that since he is so attracted to Nadine that he would see no possibility for love in a relationship with a servant assigned to him.  And what is interesting to think about with that, is that idea that maybe he, just as Nadine, acknowledges that their is more to love in a marriage.  He sees that possibly in his marriage he needs control and power to be happy, while she sees that she needs freedom.  Love in itself is not enough for either of them.