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.  

Memed My Hawk

I wish I had had more time to read this entire novel, and at some point (once this class is done) I am sure I would love to go back and read the entire thing through thoroughly. What I was most enticed by was the idea of this internal conflict in the novel. We think of conflicts in the middle east as being large scale wars, and these are typically between the middle east and lets say....more westernized nations. But this novel presented a conflict that seemed very much like modern day slavery.
I also couldn't help thinking that Memed could almost be considered a tragic hero. His actions, though rebellious, are anything but cowardly. Not to say that those who would claim asylum and escape the place they are being enslaved are cowards, in fact most people would call them smart, but Memed endures numerous pains and losses to remain in his country to attempt to help his peoples situation with their "landlord," even though his people may not completely agree with his methods.

Women in the Middle East presenters

The history of the head scarf that our presenter provided (forgive me but I was dumb and didn't write down her name) helped add to the ideas that we started to touch after watching the documentary on the conflict this article of clothing has been causing in Turkey. At the beginning of the semester someone in our class (again forgive me, but it was like three months ago and I can't remember who said it) said that they thought that the American notion that these women are hiding behind them (or being forced to hide) and we needed to instead understand that it had more to do with preservation. Though preservation may have not been the exact word (and once again there is a good chance I am wrong because it was three months ago) I think this point correlated strongly to the message our presenter was trying to get across.
A weird connection that I started to think about (and this may be a very VERY loose connection) was the Dove campaign for real beauty. This campaign works with everyone from little girls to young woman to help them understand their definition of beauty, and where it comes from. I have done a few of these workshops and a thing that comes up in almost all of them is how women and girls recognize hair as a definition of beauty and identity. Though this may seem trivial, but it has a large effect on American girls definition of beauty. Most girls in these seminars believe that (due to media influence) the most beautiful girls are those with straight blonde hair. This may seem silly but the girls who discuss this in the seminars typically don't have straight blonde hair (maybe one or two do, but not ALL thirty or forty of them). Anyways, to get back onto the subject at hand, the point of the campaign is the help girls recognize what makes them special and unique and how a lot of this goes beyond physical attributes. They are taught to value themselves for their intelligence, personality, and passions.
While this woman was presenting about the head dress I couldn't help wondering, if this was part of our culture in the United States would dove still need a campaign for real beauty?
To sum this up, I really enjoyed listening to what the head dress represented to her, and I thought it was a very nice presentation.
On another semi related note...
The second speaker, towards the end of the class made the comment "sometimes women are womens worst enemies."
Does anyone remember what exactly the question was the brought this up. All I remember is thinking that she had a good point and I should blog on it...so much for that.

Honor Killings

The film we watched in class about the Honor Killings in Turkey had me confused.  First off, the interview with one of the men imprisoned for killings one of his female family members, and the man states that he thought the state was attempting to make changes to a state that lacked the infrastructure for such changes.   A country that is about to be a part of the E.U (or at least working towards it) is attempting to stop inhuman acts from potentially happening to half of their population.  What infrastructure is needed to insure the safety of half of a nations population?  The guy does however have a point. This is a very inhuman thing that is happening, but despite what laws they create the act continues.  The culture itself has to change, and I liked that in the short film they showed that there are some organizations that are attempting to address the problem.  I found these facts shockingly similar to the domestic violence that our country has had to address.  Twenty years ago Domestic Violence issues had almost no standing in courts, and woman had little to no options.  Now we have shelters and legislation pertaining to these acts of violence.  Schools educate kids about domestic and dating violence, and woman have more options then ever.  Even with all of this, the problem still exists today.  Its taken our nation twenty years to make the progress we have, and it will take time (and money) to address Turkeys issues. 

Paradise Now

What surprised me the most about this film was its portrayal of the Israeli people. Once the main characters reach Israel, everything they see involved wealth.  Their are advertisements for Samsung, and half naked woman walking on the beach.  The home they come from is dark and dirty, but the land in Israel is green and lush.  

By the end of the movie the main characters have you believing that they have no choice but to bomb Israel, and that I believe is wrong.  When the one brother decides that he does not want to do it, it was powerful to see how strong he was in his belief that it was not the right way.  Having been pumped up before hand and told he was going to be a hero, to turn his back on the mission meant to come back as a coward (and probably be killed).

In class we discussed the role of religion in this film, and there is one connection I would like to make.  I do not believe that the bombers main goal was to blow themselves up and then go right to heaven.  Islam does not preach violence yet the organization in this film made the bombers believe that they were going to be praised and welcomed into heaven.  Though the main point of the film was not religion, it did subtly show what could be considered a radical Islamic belief.  

Short Stories

These were the first two stories in class that I really enjoyed.  Not only were they very entertaining but so where the discussions that ensued.   

What was most intriguing to me was the legal responsibilities that the son in "The lawsuit" had to his step mother.  I do not believe that the step mother was a gold digger, but rather that she was an enabler to the fathers mid life crisis (though possibly not because the age difference in this story did not seem that much different from the one from Aunt Saffiya and it didn't appear to be a disgrace or irregular in that story).  Given that the events which followed her marriage to the father, I do believe it was his choice to do what he pleased with his money.  Should he put his immediate family first?  Yes, but as a human being he is permitted (though not condoned) to allow pride to overshadow his responsibilities.  

In an outside reading it was brought to my attention that following the Iraq-Iran war, Iraq found itself with a large population of widows, who were then economically dependent on the state.  Saddam decided that the best way to address this problem would be to sell them off to Iraqi men, and so each man who married a war widow was paid 

Gold Dust

Initially going into the reading of this story, I thought I had nothing to loose since I didn't have to pay for the book and that was a good feeling.  However that did not help me enjoy it that much more.  I couldn't believe the relationship that main character formed with his camel.  At first I figured it was kind of cute (mainly because I imagined him being between the ages of 7 and 14) and his pridefulness was just a side effect of never having actually had something else to boast about.  But the kid was not a seven year old, and things only got worse from there.  I had a hard time focusing on themes like religion, or the setting in general because every paragraph I kept asking myself "Good Lord, is he really talking about his camel"?  The camel has a love interest and then contracts what made me think of a modern day STD (I know this is a far stretch of the actual plot but I had to find some way of entertaining myself).  I also couldn't get my mind off of PETA and how proud they would be of this man to be placing the well being of an animal over that of his family.  

Call me specie-ist but animals are animals and humans are humans.  Please don't try to relate this to my family pet, because I've had a few of them die or run away and I got over it.  However if my mother brother or sister were to pass away I would be unable to get over it.  

Field Trip!

The first thing about the trip to the Mosque that surprised me what its sheer size.  It was huge!  You look at that front entrance, and you think you're going to walk into a tiny bakery shop and then BAM!  Huge Mosque!

Anyways...  This was not my first time in a Mosque or Islamic Center.  I've actually been to prayers a few times at the one back in my town.  And I think its great that the Islamic community has a place to go to in which they can indulge in their culture and be around others who wish to do so as well. 

One of the things brought up on our visit was the incorrect belief that Islam preachers violence to all of this followers. 

When I was a senior in high school, I was taking Humanities, and a large focus in the class (for the literature section) was "the Bible as literature", (It was a public school so it would not have been allowed to be taught if it was to be considered anything other than just literature, and so that was the public schools stand point...it doesn't have to be yours).  We read through sections of the bible and dissected it and discussed it.  

During this same section, the Humanities history teacher did a lecture in which he took passages out of the Quran, typed them onto paper, and discussed how they invoked fear into populations due to their violent nature.   This lecture was beyond biased, and very academically unprofessional, since the teacher had never read the Quran and didn't seem to know much about Islam in general.  The one thing that I did take away from that lecture  was how simple it is to misconstrue texts.  

Now if we read, discuss and grossly misconstrue the meaning behind  "Of Mice and Men" in a class, most likely we have only caused John Steinbeck to gently turn in his grave (though more than likely he wouldn't have cared).  On the other hand, when in my senior humanities class, my professor chose to present to a class of 200 seniors (of which maybe 30 were of Arab descent), that the Quran preached violence, he managed to offend those 30 students (though once again...maybe they didn't care) and criticize a religious text that had influenced and shaped almost of fifth of the worlds population.  This is not to say that religious texts can not be criticized, because I believe discussions on them are one of the best ways to further understand and promote not only tolerance, but encourage support, but when doing so, having all of the facts will help you to appear as a well informed and curious spectator, rather than a self righteous jack ass.  Another point he forgot to mention, is that the Bible has plenty of violence to go around as well.  The history of christianity in itself if very well known for its violence.

To connect this into our visit to the Mosque I would now like to discuss the idea of "Radical Islam."  I understand the point in class that Professor Webb was making, in that Islam, though the media believes is the sole cause of terrorist actions, is not in fact the sole reason for these groups actions and I think that is a fabulous point.  The problem arrises in the fact that in SOME cases these groups use Islamic religious texts to justify their actions, and I am NOT saying that the text in themselves are the thing to blame.  I do NOT believe that Islam is any more violent than any other religion.  But once again we have a case of misconstrued texts.  The point of this is that people interpret and see what they want to see out of situations.  

There is a problem in the fact that the news reports to you that violence is preached by Islam and this is known because of the radical Islamic groups who want to kill all of you god fearing christians.  Yes it is a problem that we hear this day in and day out.  And how should we solve this....

THINK!  Yes thats it!  Think for yourself!

The Road to Love

My personal thoughts on the film "The Road to Love," were broken up between my different takes on the movie.  On one hand I wanted to consider it to be some form of a documentary (since this was the film style that the movie seemed to be going for).  The problem with that though is that the film itself was not a documentary.  When I thought of the movie as being just a screen play, and having fictitious characters I had a totally different opinion.

As far as the subject matter of the film, I think it is a much looked over political conflict.  What was even more interesting to me (and what I wish would have been covered in the movie...or maybe just more blatantly covered in the movie), was the differences and similarities of the struggles for the homosexual community of individuals of Arab descent, and those of the American homosexual community.  I wish that the film would have covered more in depth the internal struggle of the main characters to embrace their sexual orientation and still embrace their religion and culture as well.  I think it would be a great connector also if they had discussed more in depths the conflict between homosexuality and Islam.  This would have been a great comparison for American opinion and public policy of Gay rights.  Basically to sum it up, I would have enjoyed more of a historical and factual background....so maybe if it had just actually been a real documentary I would have liked it more.

As far as it being a cinematic work of fiction....well actually I still didn't enjoy it that much.  I believe someone already mentioned this is class, but it bothered me that in the film, that every single male character, the main character interviewed was sexually attracted to him.  Just because someone is gay or lesbian does not mean that they pursue every single same sex person they come in contact with.  It also bothered me how the interviewees' constantly pursued the main character even though he was straight (at least at the point of the interview he was portrayed to be).  I've never had a gay friend whose ever tried to sway a straight friend into changing his or her sexual orientation.  

Over all I would say I was distracted by the films strange misinterpretations of homosexual individuals.  I would have liked a lot more history as well.

"Does not ONLY Relate to Oil"

Although the film "Blood and Oil" succeeded in presenting a large collection of one sided information, and presenting it as fact, I would say the film was only one step above Michel Moore's rants and raves about his personal opinions (he too enjoys presenting his opinion as fact).  That being said, what I am about to say is my personal opinion and should be taken as such.  I am not presenting it as fact, because were it fact I would present resources much more concrete than the wonderful reporting provided from choice networks like CNN and ABC.

The film was right in the fact that we are a very oil dependent nation.  However, it failed to address more than just our own economic approach to our oil treaties with the the middle east.  For instance, we do have agreements with Saudi Arabia, but it is also said in the movie that we were the ones who helped develop their oil fields.  If the US puts money into a single oil industry don't you think it would be only logical to protect that investment?  The film made it appear that the US just goes over to third world countries and steals their oil.  We dont!  We pay for it.  The exact price I don't know.  Do we get it at a cheaper rate because we helped develop it and remain present to protect it?  Maybe.  But is that really not just a form of a mutualistic economic partnership? 

And so what of our blind eye to the Saudi's form of government.  The United States has no place to say what form of government is the best (even though we believe it's democracy).  And now you all say "what about Iraq"?  Whether we invaded Iraq for oil or to prevent genocide (that was going on, and still is) is indifferent to the fact that our invasion caused a collapse of government.  In class people were talking about "Charlie Wilson's War," and I love that movie. My favorite part?  At the end when he makes the statement (and its an actual charlie wilson quote) "These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the end game."

What a great point Charlie!  The US people called for war after 9/11 and war is what we got.  Did it happen as quickly and as painlessly as the US people had hoped for?  No.  And did we get mad? Yes, because we live in a world were we experience instant gratification on a daily basis.  War is not like the drive through at McDonalds.  There is no fast lane, it is long and it is gruesome.  We screwed things up there and our presence remains because were we to pull out, then we would have a whole set of Humanitarian hippies with a new batch of complaints.  And what would happen?  We would just end up there again. The main point?  Maybe we are there in an attempt to NOT fuck up our end game (if you disagree of need clarification feel free to come talk to me).

Moving on...

George W. Bush, following 9/11 stated that the United States was going to take on a policy of preemptive action, and we did!  And that is good.  Does anyone stop and think that maybe protecting the oil that the US military, and that US society relies on, may not be such a bad thing?  And if it is a bad thing (and I do believe we can argue both ways) how come everyone in the United States drives a fuel driven car?  And they could definitely call our class hypocrites because almost 100% of the class drives fuel driven cars.  Some people will argue that there is no other choice since an alternative fuel source has not been discovered.  Wellllll maybe we should go and discover it?  Sitting in a classroom arguing about how selfish America is does not change the fact that without oil, our society wont run.  

In the movie they constantly show clips of politicians stating that the reason we are at war "does not relate to oil," and yes that is probably a bit of a lie.  But really what they could have said and remained truthful was that our reasons for going to war "does not ONLY relate to oil."  Because it doesn't.  The oil politics that the US and other nations find themselves in are not solely about the oil.  Its what it enables.  There is no short term solution, and our nation as well as the world relies on oil.  

I was going to write more about the economics behind it for other countries as well as our own, but this has turned into a full fledge paper and I will bore you no longer.

Final Thought

"I am not frightened by what lies ahead" -Ronald Regan

As he shouldn't have been.  It is always public opinion of past occurrences that leads to us believing we ensnared ourselves in a full fledge disaster.  Well American public, Hind sight is 20/20, and complaining about things is very easy when you are not the decision maker, and you only reek the benefits from policies and point fingers for the down sides.

The miracle of liturature

So I attempted to order a book from Amazon only to find out that I am much less wealthy than I thought. So until my next paycheck im gonna have to wait to get what my original choice in literature was, The Iraqi war blog.
BUT! Even when things seem bad, and you discover that you are so poor you can't afford a used book, their is always a blessing in disguise. I went to visit the family of one of my close friends, and they asked me about what I was studying in school. This happens frequently and I always end up attempting to explain why my classes ARE in fact interesting and not just a pain in the ass (physics and math are interesting, you just gotta learn to love it and not fight it). This time however I had a classes that actually seemed to interest this family. I mentioned this class, and it instantly sparked up a controversial and heated conversation (I sat out of it seeing as how I didn't want to offend the people who were supposed to feed and house me for the weekend). The mom of the family went to take her daughter to buy some books the next day and I tagged along. I started looking at some books that interested me (putting them back every time because the only thing I can afford is pretty much a slice of pizza and a gumball) she came over and we started talking about one of them.
Long story short, I came home sunday night and found this book in my suitcase with a note asking me to let her know if I liked it so she could read it.

So I have a book and can start reading now.
Quick Summary:
The book is the memoir of a young Iraqi who is drafted into Saddams army. He doesn't want to be so he escapes. His epic escape is the plot of this book.

The Joy of Google

http://www.parvez-video.com/rumours.asp

So I spent more time working on my paper (thats due in a week) than my project that is due in like 5 weeks.

But Im hoping that I can get credit for this site.  It has to do with the Quran and what it dictates on rumors and the spreading of them.  Im using it in my paper, and if I can be clever enough maybe I can work the info into my outside reading.

My subject is on contemporary war in the middle east.  Im trying not to get too focused on the U.S occupation of Iraq (because turn on your TV or radio or read a newspaper and you're likely to have heard something about it...if not then ill assume you walk around with your eyes closed), but I did find a video on sale for 2 bucks about it and I thought "2 bucks! Netflix will cost me more"! So I bought it.

Its called "No end in Sight: Iraq's descent into chaos"  So whenever I get a free moment when im not doing something....yeah.  Ill watch it and let you know if it was worth the two dollar investment.  If not...anyone want to buy a great movie for $2.00?

On top of those thoughts, I found that when I type "contemporary war in the middle east" into google, it lets me know that the most important sites visited are those which discuss the U.S policy and approach to all wars ever created (whether they had anything to do with us or not).  Another popular trend seems to be the say how terrible our government is and how heartless we have all grown to be.  

These are all more things I would like to avoid because once again, get to any form of media and listen to a second and id bet that they are covering the same point.   Id like to present and be understood by a group or democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives, christians, satanists, those of you who are apathetic and all of those in between.  And what does that entail?  

Paying close attention to the awareness and relativity of all that is going on, and all that is being covered.

More to come....

Safiyya

Whoa....

Anyone here ever read John Steinbeck's "East of Eden?"  I did.  But I didn't really just read it.  I obsessed over it.  Namely my obsession was focused around Kathy.  For those of you who didn't experience the pleasure that is John Steinbecks best work (thats my opinion, though really I think it should be fact), the story follows the life of a father, and his two sons as they move west and start a new life.  The boys mommy, Kathy is pretty much the devil.  Her character represents evil, and I could go on for hours about her but ill try to make this tangent a bit shorter than the last one.  

Reading through the last two chapters of "Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery," I couldn't help but notice that Safiyyas entire family, as well as the rest of the town, allows her to act the way she does.  Everyone is somewhat nuisanced by her actions, and in a lot of cases outright angered, yet everyone seems to think that there is nothing that they can do about it.  They=men.  Men in this village control just about everything else.  Safiyya=woman (and an uneducated one at that), but all of the men seem to be unable to control Safiyya.  The father in the story acknowledges that Safiyya would murder him in a second, if he stood between her and her personal vendetta.  Anyone else find this almost comical?  Women in this village function as housewives and mothers...not really as assassins.  So where is this fear coming from?  

In chimes the tangent!  In the story the priest at the monastery asks Harbi if he believes that evil sought out woman? or if it was the other way around and woman sought out evil. 

I couldn't help thinking that this story almost points out that they have a character which is evil, but the culture in this story creates this evil, and then the rest of the characters don't agree with it, don't like it...but don't do anything about it. 

Aunt Safiyya...and somewhat related tangents

About half way through the first chapter of "Aunt Safiyya and the Monastary," I found myself somewhat irritated that yet another book had been assigned that was as dull as the writings of J.R Tolkien.  It consisted of  1/4 plot, and 3/4 scenery.  No offense to Mr. Tolkien (I actually learned to enjoy most of his novels after figuring out I should have started with the Hobbit, which was much better, instead of Lord of the Rings and the appreciation may not have taken so long), but I am much less enthralled with the descriptions of trees than I am to those of characters and their relationships.  Whether in middle earth, egypt, or Mars, the character development in the story far out weights its setting (whichever it might be), and the first chapter of Aunt Safiyya almost put me to sleep with its descriptions of hills and houses.  Luckily for me, Bahaa' Taher (like Tolkien) apparently knows just how to throw a reader off.  

The second chapters depiction of the lives of the characters and their interactions had me guessing as to what was going to happen next.  I don't want to write a summery of the book because you should read it (no, really...it's required), but something that fascinated me about it, was the priorities of the characters and how often they shifted.  The three that I picked out (that repeated again and again and again) were family, religion, and pride.  Almost all interactions between the characters and events relate to one of these themes, and when all three come in conflict, each character seems to prioritize a different one.  

I do not have a lot to say about the culture I picked up during reading this, or any cultural differences I noticed, because as I said before, setting wasn't all to important to me.  This stories setting could have been plucked out of Egypt and put onto Mars, Texas, Moscow or lets say an average high school in...well anywhere really.  Humans interacted with other humans, natural human psychology occurred and human reactions ensued.  Yeah I'd like to think that pretty much sums it up.  If you would like further clarification feel free to ask.

Random other thoughts from discussions

1.  Acknowledging differences between things (inanimate or not), does not equate to condemning them (one or the other).

2.  I have two cousins, and that is as far as I know of my extended family.  Were I to have a distant cousin who became an orphan I wouldn't know, nor do I think they would know of me.  I say this because this part of the story is really beautiful to me...and then it kinda goes down hill from there.

Cheers!

Personal Thoughts on Aladdin

After watching the 50 min film "Reel Bad Arab," I found myself going through my own personal recollections of films which I had seen with Arab characters (many of which were mentioned in the film), and trying to remember what my initial reaction had been to them at first view.  One which stands out in my mind was Aladdin.  I was two years old when the film was released, but I believe I saw it for the first time when I was four years old.  I don't remember thinking anything about the lyrics (the only songs I liked were the ones sang by the genie), but I do remember being scared of Jafar.  His face had extremely sharp features and his eyes were dark and set far back into his head, and at my fragile age of four, he seemed to be the epitome of evil.  The film "Reel Bad Arab" made a strong argument against the exaggerated characteristic features that hollywood puts on arab people, stating that in making these exaggerated features, they were only furthering a stereotype.  This may be true.  Jafar represented an arab character and his features scared me as a child.  But was I scared of all arab people I saw because of Jafar? I was not.  You know why?  Because characters in animated films look nothing like real people.    I grew up in a town where we have a large arab population.  The first time I saw an Arab man at my elementary school I was not afraid of him.  Why?  Because he looked NOTHING like Jafar.  This man had a nose, eyes, ears, and mouth.  So what did I think he looked like?  Well, a human being.  The only thing that confused me about him was his head wrap.  I remember asking why he wore a hat when it wasn't winter.  He chuckled at my question, and then kindly explained how it was part of his culture, and we both went on our ways (with me being a bit more educated on a different culture).   The point of that tangent was that it is easy for people to point fingers at the media when our own cultural morals start to go awry (anyone remember video games and music being blamed for other such problem?), but when it comes down to it, fiction is still fiction.  Given that images being repeated over and over in our heads may have an effect on us, the thing which has a stronger effect... real life experience.  Watching this video did not make me feel that hollywood is the reason americans mistreat people from different cultures (though it was a helpful tool in at least getting myself to question what my first reactions were).  I think that examining our flaws as a nation with our past mistreatment of people from different ethnicities and cultures, serves as a much stronger tool than wishing that Hollywood would make movies without bad guys, or if they must, only depict them as americans (that way we wont offend anyone except ourselves). If americans are so feeble minded that they allow hollywood to make up their minds for them, then we as a nation have a much larger problem on our hands.    

Random side though... I was also afraid of The witch in Snow White, The Huns leader in Mulan,  and more recently the Hunter from the movie "Open Season".  And what do they all have in common? They all played the evil character, and so their features were usually depicted and exaggerated to show that.

I also have yet to see a blonde chick that looks as perfect as Cinderella did.  Do I ever expect to? No.  Because she is a fictitious character.