Ajnabeeyeh

Be back soon

2006-08-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

My computer up and died on me the other day, and we're off tomorrow morning on an unexpected trip to Amman.

I'll be back soon.

Two for one!

2006-07-28T11:47:00.001-07:00

Ok, I've got to go do something with my time. But you should check out the two-for-the-price-of-one Salon advertisement and check out the two quite good articles on Lebanon and Hizbullah that popped up on the site yesterday.

The "Hiding Among Civilians" Myth

Watching Beirut Die (by Anthony Bourdain, who you might know from Kitchen Confidential)

Put your money where your mouth is . . .

2006-07-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

. . . or something like that. For all this talk about Lebanon and Syria, isn't it kind of ironic that Syria's ambassador to the U.S. hasn't once been contacted by the White House in a year and a half?

Welcome to the dementia that is this administration's foreign policy.

Imad Moustapha says, "But I do now occupy the unique position of being the only ambassador of a rogue state in the United States," and then adds: "That's a joke. We are not a rogue state. But no other 'quote, unquote' rogue state has an ambassador here."

A kind of hilarious article.

Dept. of "What dope is this guy smoking?"

2006-07-28T11:37:00.001-07:00

One can always count on Bush and Co. to fill us in on what the real picture is in the Middle East. Yesterday I heard him declare--no less than 5 times--on NPR the following:

"Hezbollah attacked Israel. I know Hezbollah is connected to Iran. Now is the time for the world to confront this danger . . . Now is the time to address the root cause of the problem and the root cause of the problem is terrorist groups trying to stop the advance of democracy."

You've got to be kidding me.

It's these ridiculous links that are made and repeated ad infinitum in the media that end up sticking in people's minds. I mean, all this is about democracy, for Pete's sake? Give me a break.

This is one big reason why when I tell my mother I'll likely be heading to Jordan in September on a quick job she asks me, "But don't you think it's unsafe?" Jordan is not its own entity, but rather one small part of an insane, monochromatic area of the world where terrorists run rampant and look to take out as many people as possible. And my mom's been to Jordan more than once herself--she's one of the more enlightened ones! Geez, this stuff gets so tiring.

"Who are the real terrorists in the Middle East?"

2006-07-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

Wednesday's Independent has an excellent commentary by Oren Ben-Dor, an Israeli who's definitely not a fan of Israel's military adventures. Reading something like this is probably much better than listening to me rant on and on.

Here's a bit:

. . .While states should defend their citizens, states which fail this duty should be questioned and, if necessary, reconfigured. Israel is a state which, instead of defending its citizens, puts all of them, Jews as well as non-Jews, in danger.

What exactly is being defended by the violence in Gaza and Lebanon? Is it the citizens of Israel or the nature of the Israeli state? I suggest the latter. Israel's statehood is based on an unjust ideology which causes indignity and suffering for those who are classified as non-Jewish by either a religious or ethnic test. To hide this primordial immorality, Israel fosters an image of victimhood. Provoking violence, consciously or unconsciously, against which one must defend oneself is a key feature of the victim-mentality. By perpetuating such a tragic cycle, Israel is a terrorist state like no other. . .

Take a look at the rest--he's got some extremely valid points. Somehow I can't imagine coming across this one here in the U.S.

Sad but true

2006-07-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

"Israel Commits War Crimes in Lebanon"

2006-07-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

Seen the latest from Robert Fisk?

. . . For the second time in eight days, the Israelis committed a war crime yesterday. They ordered the villagers of Taire, near the border, to leave their homes and then - as their convoy of cars and minibuses obediently trailed northwards - the Israeli air force fired a missile into the rear minibus, killing three refugees and seriously wounding 13 other civilians. The rocket that killed them is believed to have been a Hellfire missile made by Lockheed Martin in Florida.

Brand Israel: A Jordanian perspective

2006-07-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

I just loved Ahmad's post a few days ago that takes up the idea of what Israel might possibility be thinking in terms of "branding" itself for the rest of the world. A great read!

Here's a snippet:

. . . Israel’s overwhelming firepower makes sure that the suffering it inflicts on Arab civilians is always greater than anything the other side can inflict upon Israel.I am not attempting a political or military analysis here. I am just wondering about Israel’s ‘branding strategy’ when it comes its neighboring audiences. We keep hearing from Israelis that all they want is to live in peace in this region. How does that fit with Israel’s actions that produce an image of a country that can only be seen as ‘barbaric’?

Your tax dollars hard at work

2006-07-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

Just in case you haven't seen this one yet, Saturday's New York Times reports that our government is rushing a delivery of bombs to Israel (source). Too many civilians, not enough bombs . . .

WASHINGTON, July 21 — The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.

The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike.

A primer on Palestinian discontent

2006-07-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

Gosh, it's so nice to engage in discussion with people truly interested to know about what's going on in Palestine and Lebanon. I was a bit early picking Issy up from his summer camp today, and two of his teachers sat with me and wanted me to tell them what Israel's problem is. They are annoyed with all the civilians dying in Lebanon and feel frustrated at how difficult it is to get information that's not pro-Israeli.

I told them a bit about my experience living in Jordan and what I know of how difficult life is for Palestinians. The questions kept coming, which is refreshing after feeling so insulated from everything all the way over here in the U.S.

And yeah, Palestinian suffering continues. It's been brutal--and going on for way too long, as this Salon article confirms. A fascinating read--especially for those of you who don't know a lot about the mass ejection of Palestinians from their homes early in Israel's history.

U.S. media vs. the rest of the world on Lebanon

2006-07-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

Jefferson Morley over at The Washington Post site has an interesting comparison of international media outlets' take on Israel's war on Lebanon. Check it out.

There's no grand plan

2006-07-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

Again and again I keep hearing about the close connection between Iran, Syria and Hizbollah. This connection is there, to be sure, but the heavy emphasis we keep listening to our oh-so-knowledgeable American pundits go on and on about makes me more and more certain that Bush and Co.'s grand scheme to take on Syria and Iran has been an easy sell over here. My only solace is that I can't imagine how on earth this government would give a green light to start up more wars at the rate of debt we're accumulating in Iraq. Well, perhaps Israel will do the job for us (heh heh).

Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post had it right on NPR yesterday, when he said that Hizbollah's engagement with Israel has nothing whatsoever to do with taking orders from Iran or Syria. It's pretty plain and simple: everyone in the Arab World is fed up with Israel's apartheid state and the horrific treatment of Palestinians on a daily basis. Hizbollah considers itself at war with the Israeli state and so capturing a few "Defense Force" soldiers in no way differs from the acts of war Israel engages in daily against Palestinian civilians.

I just came across a great piece by Tariq Ali in the Guardian that's worth a read. Here are a few bits and pieces:

In his last interview - after the 1967 six-day war - the historian Isaac Deutscher, whose next-of-kin had died in the Nazi camps and whose surviving relations lived in Israel, said: "To justify or condone Israel's wars against the Arabs is to render Israel a very bad service indeed and harm its own long-term interest." Comparing Israel to Prussia, he issued a sombre warning: "The Germans have summed up their own experience in the bitter phrase 'Man kann sich totseigen!' 'You can triumph yourself to death'."

In Israel's actions today we can detect many of the elements of hubris: an imperial arrogance, a distortion of reality, an awareness of its military superiority, the self-righteousness with which it wrecks the social infrastructure of weaker states, and a belief in its racial superiority. The loss of many civilian lives in Gaza and Lebanon matters less than the capture or death of a single Israeli soldier. In this, Israeli actions are validated by the US. . .

. . . I was in Beirut in May, when the Israeli army entered and killed two "terrorists" from a Palestinian splinter group. The latter responded with rockets. Israeli warplanes punished Hizbullah by dropping over 50 bombs on its villages and headquarters near the border. . . A protracted colonial war lies ahead, since Hizbullah, like Hamas, has mass support. It cannot be written off as a "terrorist" organisation. The Arab world sees its forces as freedom fighters resisting colonial occupation.

There are 9,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli gulags. That is why Israeli soldiers are captured. Prisoner exchanges have occurred as a result. To blame Syria and Iran for Israel's latest offensive is frivolous. Until the question of Palestine is resolved and Iraq's occupation ended, there will be no peace in the region. A "UN" force to deter Hizbullah, but not Israel, is a nonsensical notion.

Fisk on Israel's latest slaughter of civilians

2006-07-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

The news is driving me crazy. I'm sick and tired of the misinformation and ignorance of the reporting on events in Lebanon here in the U.S., and rather than rant on and on, I'm posting the entirety of Robert Fisk's latest article.

Paradise Lost
By: Robert Fisk, The Independent - United Kingdom
Published: Jul 19, 2006

In the year 551, the magnificent, wealthy city of Berytus-headquarters of the imperial East Mediterranean Roman fleet - was struck by a massive earthquake. In its after math, these a with drew several miles and the survivors - ancestors of the present-day Lebanese - walked out on the sands to loot the long-sunken merchant ships revealed in front of them.

That was when a tidal wall higher than a tsunami returned to swamp the city and kill them all. So savagely was the old Beirut damaged that the Emperor Justinian sent gold from Constantinople as compensation to every family left alive. Some cities seem forever doomed. When the Crusaders arrived at Beirut on their way to Jerusalem in the 11th century, they slaughtered every man, woman and child in the city. In the First World War, Ottoman Beirut suffered a terrible famine' the Turkish army had commandeered all the grain and the Allied powers blockaded the coast. I still have some ancient postcards I bought here 30 years ago of stick-like children standing in an orphanage, naked and abandoned.

An American woman living in Beirut in 1916 described how she "passed women and children lying by the roadside with closed eyes and ghastly, pale faces. It was a common thing to find people searching the garbage heaps for orange peel, old bones or other refuse, and eating them greedily when found. Everywhere women could be seen seeking eatable weeds among the grass along the roads..."

How does this happen to Beirut? For 30 years, I've watched this place die and then rise from the grave and then die again, its apartment blocks pitted with so many bullets they looked like Irish lace, its people massacring each other.

I lived here through 15 years of civil war that took 150,000 lives, and two Israeli invasions and years of Israeli bombardments that cost the lives of a further 20,000 of its people. I have seen them armless, legless, headless, knifed, bombed and splashed across the walls of houses. Yet they are a fine, educated, moral people whose generosity amazes every foreigner, whose gentleness puts any Westerner to shame, and whose suffering we almost always ignore.

They look like us, the people of Beirut. They have light-coloured skin and speak beautiful English and French. They travel the world. Their women are gorgeous and their food exquisite. But what are we saying of their fate today as the Israelis - in some of their cruellest attacks on this city and the surrounding countryside - tear them from their homes, bomb them on river bridges, cut them off from food and water and electricity? We say that they started this latest war, and we compare their appalling casualties - 240 in all of Lebanon by last night - with Israel's 24 dead, as if the figures are the same.

And then, most disgraceful of all, we leave the Lebanese to their fate like a diseased people and spend our time evacuating our precious foreigners while tut-tutting about Israel's "disproportionate" response to the capture of its soldiers by Hizbollah.

I walked through the deserted city centre of Beirut yesterday and it reminded more than ever of a film lot, a place of dreams too beautiful to last, a phoenix from the ashes of civil war whose plumage was so brightly coloured that it blinded its own people. This part of the city - once a Dresden of ruins - was rebuilt by Rafiq Hariri, the prime minister who was murdered scarcely a mile away on 14 February last year.

The wreckage of that bomb blast, an awful precursor to the present war in which his inheritance is being vandalised by the Israelis, still stands beside the Mediterranean, waiting for the last UN investigator to look for clues to the assassination - an investigator who has long ago abandoned this besieged city for the safety of Cyprus.

At the empty Etoile restaurant - best snails and cappuccino in Beirut, where Hariri once dined Jacques Chirac - I sat on the pavement and watched the parliamentary guard still patrolling the faade of the French-built emporium that houses what is left of Lebanon's democracy. So many of these streets were built by Parisians under the French mandate and they have been exquisitely restored, their mock Arabian doorways bejewelled with marble Roman columns dug from the ancient Via Maxima a few metres away.

Hariri loved this place and, taking Chirac for a beer one day, he caught sight of me sitting at a table. "Ah Robert, come over here," he roared and then turned to Chirac like a cat that was about to eat a canary. "I want to introduce you, Jacques, to the reporter who said I couldn't rebuild Beirut!"

And now it is being un-built. The Martyr Rafiq Hariri International Airport has been attacked three times by the Israelis, its glistening halls and shopping malls vibrating to the missiles that thunder into the runways and fuel depots. Hariri's wonderful transnational highway viaduct has been broken by Israeli bombers. Most of his motorway bridges have been destroyed. The Roman-style lighthouse has been smashed by a missile from an Apache helicopter. Only this small jewel of a restaurant in the centre of Beirut has been spared. So far.

It is the slums of Haret Hreik and Ghobeiri and Shiyah that have been levelled and "rub-ble-ised" and pounded to dust, sending a quarter of a million Shia Muslims to seek sanctuary in schools and abandoned parks across the city. Here, indeed, was the headquarters of Hizbollah, another of those "centres of world terror" which the West keeps discovering in Muslim lands. Here lived Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Party of God's leader, a ruthless, caustic, calculating man' and Sayad Mohamed Fadlallah, among the wisest and most eloquent of clerics' and many of Hizbollah's top military planners - including, no doubt, the men who planned over many months the capture of the two Israeli soldiers last Wednesday.

But did the tens of thousands of poor who live here deserve this act of mass punishment? For a country that boasts of its pin-point accuracy - a doubtful notion in any case, but that's not the issue - what does this act of destruction tell us about Israel? Or about ourselves?
In a modern building in an undamaged part of Beirut, I come, quite by chance, across a well known and prominent Hizbollah figure, open-neck white shirt, dark suit, clean shoes. "We will go on if we have to for days or weeks or months or..." And he counts these awful statistics off on the fingers of his left hand. "Believe me, we have bigger surprises still to come for the Israelis - much bigger, you will see. Then we will get our prisoners and it will take just a few small concessions."

I walk outside, feeling as if I have been beaten over the head. Over the wall opposite there is purple bougainvillaea and white jasmine and a swamp of gardenias. The Lebanese love flowers, their colour and scent, and Beirut is draped in trees and bushes that smell like paradise.
As for the huddled masses southern slums of Haret Hreik, I found hundreds of them yesterday, sitting under trees and lying on the parched grass beside an ancient fountain donated to the city of Beirut by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid. How empires fall.

Far away, across the Mediterranean, two American helicopters from the USS Iwo Jima could be seen, heading through the mist and smoke towards the US embassy bunker complex at Awkar to evacuate more citizens of the American Empire. There was not a word from that same empire to help the people lying in the park, to offer them food or medical aid.

And across them all has spread a dark grey smoke that works its way through the entire city, the fires of oil terminals and burning buildings turning into a cocktail of sulphurous air that moves below our doors and through our windows. I smell it when I wake in the morning. Half the people of Beirut are coughing in this filth, breathing their own destruction as they contemplate their dead.

The anger that any human soul should feel at such suffering and loss was expressed so well by Lebanon's greatest poet, the mystic Khalil Gibran, when he wrote of the half million Lebanese who died in the 1916 famine, most of them residents of Beirut:
My people died of hunger, and he who
Did not perish from starvation was
Butchered with the sword'
They perished from hunger In a land rich with milk and honey.
They died because the vipers and
Sons of vipers spat out poison into
The space where the Holy Cedars and
The roses and the jasmine breathe
Their fragrance.
And the sword continues to cut its way through Beirut.

When part of an aircraft - perhaps the wing-tip of an F-16 hit by a missile, although the Israelis deny this - came streaking out of the sky over the eastern suburbs at the weekend, I raced to the scene to find a partly decapitated driver in his car and three Lebanese soldiers from the army's logistics unit. These are the tough, brave non-combat soldiers of Kfar Chim, who have been mending power and water lines these past six days to keep Beirut alive.

I knew one of them. "Hello Robert, be quick because I think the Israelis will bomb again but we'll show you everything we can." And they took me through the fires to show me what they could of the wreckage, standing around me to protect me.

And a few hours later, the Israelis did come back, as the men of the small logistics unit were going to bed, and they bombed the barracks and killed 10 soldiers, including those three kind men who looked after me amid the fires of Kfar Chim.

And why? Be sure - the Israelis know what they are hitting. That's why they killed nine soldiers near Tripoli when they bombed the military radio antennas. But a logistics unit? Men whose sole job was to mend electricity lines? And then it dawns on me. Beirut is to die. It is to be starved of electricity now that the power station in Jiyeh is on fire. No one is to be allowed to keep Beirut alive. So those poor men had to be liquidated.

Beirutis are tough people and are not easily moved. But at the end of last week, many of them were overcome by a photograph in their daily papers of a small girl, discarded like a broken flower in a field near Ter Harfa, her feet curled up, her hand resting on her torn blue pyjamas, her eyes - beneath long, soft hair - closed, turned away from the camera. She had been another "terrorist" target of Israel and several people, myself among them, saw a frightening similarity between this picture and the photograph of a Polish girl lying dead in a field beside her weeping sister in 1939.

I go home and flick through my files, old pictures of the Israeli invasion of 1982. There are more photographs of dead children, of broken bridges. "Israelis Threaten to Storm Beirut", says one headline. "Israelis Retaliate". "Lebanon At War". "Beirut Under Siege". "Massacre at Sabra and Chatila".

Yes, how easily we forget these earlier slaughters. Up to 1,700 Palestinians were butchered at Sabra and Chatila by Israel's proxy Christian militia allies in September of 1982 while Israeli troops - as they later testified to Israel's own court of inquiry - watched the killings. I was there. I stopped counting the corpses when I reached 100. Many of the women had been raped before being knifed or shot.

Yet when I was fleeing the bombing of Ghobeiri with my driver Abed last week, we swept right past the entrance of the camp, the very spot where I saw the first murdered Palestinians. And we did not think of them. We did not remember them. They were dead in Beirut and we were trying to stay alive in Beirut, as I have been trying to stay alive here for 30 years.

I am back on the sea coast when my mobile phone rings. It is an Israeli woman calling me from the United States, the author of a fine novel about the Palestinians. "Robert, please take care," she says. "I am so, so sorry about what is being done to the Lebanese. It is unforgivable. I pray for the Lebanese people, and the Palestinians, and the Israelis." I thank her for her thoughtfulness and the graceful, generous way she condemned this slaughter.

Then, on my balcony - a glance to checkthe location of the Israeli gunboat far out in the sea-smog - I find older clippings. This is from an English paper in 1840, when Beirut was a great Ottoman city. "Beyrouth" was the dateline. "Anarchy is now the order of the day, our properties and personal safety are endangered, no satisfaction can be obtained, and crimes are committed with impunity. Several Europeans have quitted their houses and suspended their affairs, in order to find protection in more peaceable countries."

On my dining-room wall, I remember, there is a hand-painted lithograph of French troops arriving in Beirut in 1842 to protect the Christian Maronites from the Druze. They are camping in the Jardin des Pins, which will later become the site of the French embassy where, only a few hours ago, I saw French men and women registering for their evacuation. And outside the window, I hear again the whisper of Israeli jets, hidden behind the smoke that now drifts 20 miles out to sea.

Fairouz, the most popular of Lebanese singers, was to have performed at this year's Baalbek festival, cancelled now like all Lebanon's festivals of music, dance, theatre and painting. One of her most popular songs is dedicated to her native city:

To Beirut - peace to Beirut with all my heart
And kisses - to the sea and clouds,
To the rock of a city that looks like an old sailor's face.
From the soul of her people she makes wine,
From their sweat, she makes bread and jasmine.
So how did it come to taste of smoke and fire?
'Disgracefully, we evacuate our precious foreigners and just leave the Lebanese to their fate'

On Vacation

2006-06-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

I haven't been around too much of late, but I'm only just now going on an official vacation. We're taking off tonight. Be back in this space in mid-July.

Jordan's role in nabbing Zarqawi

2006-06-13T06:56:00.000-07:00

The operation that killed Zarqawi is all over the media here and while I've not been doing a great job of keeping up with it all, I'm very surprised, all the same, that Jordan's extraordinary role in making it happen doesn't seem to be getting much air/press time at all here in Amman. Well, not super surprised, since Jordan's cooperation with the U.S. is very rarely alluded to here.

But this info can be found anywhere and everywhere in the international media--and most Jordanians I know certainly don't just follow their local news. Anyway, it's kind of interesting how Jordan's decision to hunt down Zarqawi in Iraq was old news for those of us living outside Jordan. Yet many Jordanians didn't seem to know about it--which is particularly surprising in this day and age, when access to information is so much easier than ever before.

This Los Angeles Times article just came out and gives an interesting look into how it was done.

Sudan

2006-06-12T00:58:00.000-07:00

For the longest time, I had a difficult time figuring out what the heck's going on in Sudan. And then a few weeks ago, I became completely engrossed in Rebecca Scroggins' Emma's War. It tells the story of a British "development worker" who married a warlord from southern Sudan. I found Emma completely annoying--one of those insufferable types found pretty much everywhere in the developing world (particularly Africa) who are in love with all the attention that comes with being a foreigner there and who herald the pseudo-altruistic notion that because they're around people's lives are changing for the better.

Nevermind that in the many years she was there she never even learned to speak any of the languages spoken where she lived.

But anyway, the book does an excellent job of making Sudan's recent history both accessible and fascinating. I highly recommend it.

Also, this morning I came across an interesting piece on Darfur in the International Herald Tribune. Also worth a read.

Well, well, well . . .

2006-06-08T02:21:00.000-07:00

What a shocker! "Muslim Women Don't See Themselves as Oppressed," reads the New York Times headline.

When asked what they resented most about their own societies, a majority of Muslim women polled said that a lack of unity among Muslim nations, violent extremism, and political and economic corruption were their main concerns. The hijab, or head scarf, and burqa, the garment covering face and body, seen by some Westerners as tools of oppression, were never mentioned in the women's answers to the open-ended questions, the poll analysts said.

And don't you know, the hijab has everything to do with it. The article even has to mention that the Gallup poll's strategic analyst wears one. Thanks for telling us, guys--it certainly makes a world of difference.

My news

2006-05-30T01:12:00.000-07:00

Yes. I am back. And I'm just going to go ahead and say it: I'm pregnant. Been feeling pretty subhuman for the past month and still have another month of it to go. Can hardly wait.

It's getting hot and miserable here in Amman, my work's pretty much all finished up and I have a feeling I'm going to be hanging out in the A/C as much as possible these days. Which means I have no real excuse (besides my continuous need to barf) to be as offline as I have been.

So for starters, I'm going to pop up the Seattle Times article Samer just sent my way that mentions my film, "In the Land of the Free?" which screened at the Folklife Festival over the weekend. The writer called it "superb," which I think is a bit much--and I'm also questioning his judgment since he didn't say a single thing about Samer's art that was hanging up as part of the festival exhibit. Oh well, I'll take a compliment when I can get one, I suppose.

Whiteman

2006-05-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

No posts from here of late, since I'm trying to just get through the days. I'm oh so tired, generally feeling yikky (for reasons I'll decline to disclose) and work has started up again. Plus, Samer's gone and left us for Seattle.

I came across a Salon.com review of a PeaceCorps-volunteer-in-Africa novel that looks (unlike most of them) like it's worth a read.

Here's an excerpt from the review of Whiteman:

It's not that Adama ever believes he can become one of the villagers -- even if he thought he could, they keep reminding him otherwise -- but he is given a place among them. The witch doctor teaches him how to hunt wild chickens, and he earns a reputation for his prowess in this department. He plows and sows his own little plot of land in the forest with the other men. And, most of all, Adama gets embroiled in the neighborhood soap opera that unfolds raucously around him.

Sure sounds familiar--and like territory I'd like to revisit.

Colorblindedness

2006-05-10T04:08:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the full report by the National Labor Committee on the treatment of workers here in Jordan's free trade zones? Someone sent it to me earlier today and I can barely get through it--I'm seething with anger and nearly in tears at the unbelievable situations these poor people have been in.

It's even more shocking than I imagined--and not that I couldn't have imagined much. After living here for 7 years, I'm very well aware of the horrifying situation of most of the country's foreign workers.

Why is it generally acceptable here that these people don't deserve the same rights as everyone else? Why are they so looked down upon? Why do many of the homes I know of who have maids keep them working from 7 am until 10 pm, with no days off during the week?

When I lived in Cameroon, most of the people in my village were Muslim. Most of them yearned to go to Mecca and to visit the Middle East, where the "true Islam," as they called it, was practiced. I also remember how I began to learn about Islam and how I was so blown away by its message of equality and racial colorblindedness. In those years, I truly had a sense that my Muslim friends in Cameroon were part of a global Islamic community in which they could always feel at home.

If only that were true here in the Middle East. I'm just glad that most of my Cameroonian friends have no clue that their idea of Islam doesn't exist here and that, despite everything, they're more likely to be defined by their color than anything else should they make their way to this part of the world.

Wadi Rum

2006-05-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

I just popped up a bunch of pictures from our weekend camping trip at Wadi Rum. Enjoy.

Film screening tonight

2006-05-07T02:11:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that my film "In the Land of the Free?" screens tonight at Makan at 7:30.

Anyone who wants to come is welcome. Hope to see you there!

Jordan's Reaganomics

2006-05-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

So listen up, all you elites here in Amman: I'm getting more and more evidence that all this cash flowing into the country hasn't yet even started thinking about trickling down to the have nots. Honestly, I'm getting really tired of people saying that this is the only way for things to move ahead, blah, blah, blah.

I've been taking taxis quite regularly over the past week or so as well as talking to lots of people and I keep hearing the same stuff: prices are astronomical, nobody cares about the poor and that the situation is out of control.

Meanwhile, many of the people I know are living the big life and are happy with the way things are going. The poor? Things will be getting better for everyone eventually, they say.

It kind of reminds me of a huge debate I had with some friends a few years ago about the ability of the uneducated and poor to choose their political leaders here in Jordan. Many of my Jordanian friends shocked me by saying that democracy is too dangerous for Jordan--the majority of the population, in their opinion, is too "stupid" to choose their leaders and/or make beneficial choices for everyone.

Better to be comfortable with the status quo. It certainly doesn't threaten the elites' way of life.

More slavery in Jordan

2006-05-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

The New York Times reports on what we all probably had a feeling about already--the abuse of foreign workers in Jordan's Free Trade Zones (source).

Check this one out soon (and weep) before they archive it.

More on "The Israel Lobby"

2006-05-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

I'm working all hours these days and am not doing a great job keeping up, but I did manage to ready a lovely article in The Nation that discusses the recent Mearsheimer-Walt paper on the pro-Israel lobby that's been making waves over the past few months.

Check it out--it's a great read.

The parking experts

2006-04-30T03:33:00.001-07:00

I have a vague sense that I’m harshing on everything of late, and I’m going to begin this post by saying that there are tons of things I ABSOLUTELY love about being here. But there’s one thing, probably above all others, that literally bugs me to no end and has been known to get my blood pressure up through the roof.

It’s those guys—those “parking” guys—that are always lying in wait when you go down to Fuheis to have a nice, leisurely meal at Zuwwadeh. What their general purpose is, I don’t know, except to hang out on the street, open your door for you, get in front of your car and tell you how to park, how to drive away and anything else you have no need for. And then, for barging in front of you and busting into your day for no reason, they expect some kind of tip.

Yes, it is a huge effort for us to open the door and when they’re not around (as in, most of the time) we generally just abandon our car on the street because we have no clue how to park. In fact, driving is so much of a challenge for us that we often just feel overwhelmed by the task and consult random driving experts who are walking around on the street.

To be fair, I understand they probably weren’t making much of decent living before taking on this “job,” but their self-appointed consulting services honestly don’t seem to be needed. And the other thing that baffles me is that as of a few years ago, they’ve somehow become legitimized. They now wear fluorescent vests and seem to walk with a new, self-important swagger. I’m sure they’re nice guys at heart, but out on the street, they're as annoying as it gets.

Check out the picture of our parking consultant lending his expertise to securing Samer’s door. These guys sure are adept.

We also took a big bunch of pictures from our lunch at Zuwwadeh for all those clamoring for pictures from Jordan—plus we’ve got pictures of other stuff, like Easter egg hunts and our relative Tareef’s pre-wedding excitement. You can see them here at Flickr.

Our x-rated tendencies

2006-04-30T03:33:00.000-07:00

So here we are sitting in the outside garden with Issy playing on his jerry-rigged bike and a few visitors: Samer’s mom’s friend, her Sri Lankan dog handler and a dog named Coochie.

Ok, forgive me my snideness, but I couldn’t help but cringe when I saw the entourage walking up. It’s kind of vintage drag-your-Sri Lankan-everywhere to do all those difficult things like walk your dog, etc. But Coochie—the name’s just too much.

We’ve been saying things like, “Issy, touch Coochie. Doesn’t it feel good?” and “Do you like Coochie?” We’re obviously getting a big kick out of it.

Town of tunnels and bridge

2006-04-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, so what really is the deal with this ridiculous monstrosity of a bridge that's going up over into Abdoun? Honestly, from the project's inception up until today, I have not heard one person who thinks this bridge makes any sense or is a good idea.

For Pete's sake--it looks as if the idea is to do a Brooklyn Bridge-type imitation right smack dab over Wadi Abdoun. Where there's no water, I should add. The cost is astronomical and is yet one more example of funds popped into a random vanity project instead of using it to fund the city/country's economically disadvantaged.

We also have the fortune to be living over in that section of the Fourth Circle that is totally screwed. Every street has been closed or re-routed so it's a major chore getting out of here or getting back home.

The other day, though, I did hear the first positive take on the bridge. I was driving back home via Wadi Abdoun with our friend Hani, who's an artist. "The bridge is so cool. It's amazing!" he said.

"What?!" I asked. I wasn't sure I was hearing him right.

"No, the idea of the bridge is stupid," he said. "Better for them to leave it just like this--as it is." For now, the bridge is in something like three unconnected sections, with cranes hovering over each section. "It's beautiful like this. Just like a sculpture."

And from our vantage point, I totally got what he was saying.

Vowels matter

2006-04-26T05:10:00.000-07:00

I had a hilarious memory the other day of one of the stupidest, most ridiculous faux pas I executed while working here in Jordan. It involved a woman whom I often collaborated with at the Ministry of Youth and with whom I was quite close. One day when I was in the Ministry for meetings, I noticed my friend Taroub wasn't around and asked where she was. I was told, "Maat waalid-ha."

I was shocked--her boy had died! Her son, who had been over at my house just a few weeks before, right after he had gotten out of school. Trying to hold back tears, I found out where the gathering would be for the funeral and immediately set about to tell my boss and Rebecca, who was our director at the time.

The next day, we made our way to her family's house to give her our condoleances. As we were sitting there, everyone looking extremely grim and sad (and myself in tears), I couldn't help but think that Taroub was really looking pretty good for someone whose young son had died. I mean, she seemed to be coping, and not completely listless in the way I imagined most bereaved mothers would be. I had been uncertain as to how the boy had died, and we began asking what had happened. After learning about his medical history, we found out that he had had a heart attack. "A heart attack?!' my boss asked. "But he was so young!"

"Yes, only 65," we were told. And that's when I learned that waalid, with a long "a," means "father"--and not "boy" (walid). We left shortly thereafter, laughing hysterically and replaying the scene over and over on the ride back. Taroub's look of surprise when all three of us came calling, our reaction to the "heart attack"response . . .

It was a shame that Taroub had lost her father, but for us, it was a great thing that she still had her lovely little boy.

Caffeine and more caffeine

2006-04-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

Back to work in Jordan means continually buzzed. If I had a nickel for each time I was offered coffee or tea in meetings today, I'd be pretty well off.

Oh, if only I could talk about the work I'm doing. There's too much to say, and most of it depressing.

Speaking of depressing, this bombing in Dahab business is too much. I mean, these people visitng Dahab are wannabe hippees, for Pete's sake. They wouldn't harm a fly. Which means I'm going to have to skip our planned trip to Basata. The Sinai's too insane. . .

Oh, and more depressing: I had a meeting today at the Sisterhood is Global Institute, which is located in our old house in Jebel Weibdeh. My garden's been trashed and the interior has been completely uglified in that inimitable Jordanian manner. I'm just going to stop here, because I don't think I can think about it much more. Believe me, you have to work hard to make a place that hideous.

Change of date--film screening

2006-04-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

We've pushed back the date of my film screening, as next Sunday is Labor Day. It will be on 7 May at 7:30 pm at Makan. Hope to see you there!

Film screening next Sunday

2006-04-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

Just so you keep the date in mind, my film, "In the Land of the Free?" will be screening next Sunday evening at Makan in Jebel Weibdeh. We haven't set a time yet, but it will be in the evening sometime. I'll get back with a specific time over the next few days.

Here's a short description of the film:

“In the Land of the Free?” is a documentary about the lives of two Jordanians, an artist (Samer Kurdi) and a physician (Ghassan Wahbeh), who first came to the US to study and now live in Seattle. It is an exploration of their relationship to the United States and how this relationship has changed and evolved in the past decade.

Through the eyes of these two people, the film explores what attracts people to live in the U.S. and the qualities that make America a unique country. It also addresses the U.S.’ post-911 political reality and such issues as freedom, freedom of speech and equality and compares the growing openness in Jordan to the curbing of freedoms in the U.S.

While I made the film with an American audience in mind, I'm thinking that showing the film in Amman is a good opportunity to discuss ways in which art/film can be used to raise awareness of the Arab World in the West. That's the main reason that led me to make the film and I imagine it's a topic that will generate a lot of interesting discussion.

Anyway, mark your calendars!

Rambling thoughts

2006-04-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

Ever since I got here, I've been romanticizing life in Amman. Enjoying how everyone goes out of their way to be nice to me, the simplicity of our social life here, and the way it's so easy to feel like a mover and shaker in this town, among other things.

But there's also another side to life here that I don't miss at all: sitting in meetings with men (older guys, in particular) who revel in their so-called "expertise" on everything under the sun and barely let anyone else get a word in edgewise, getting stared at continuously, and the way many people in authority are often generally useless. A good example is how everyone pretty much knows that any policeman with his siren and lights on probably isn't on the way to the scene of a crime but rather just annoyed with the traffic and wanting to push ahead.

Anyway. These are my thoughts of the day.

Today I went out to a small town called Dlail (outside of Zarqa) to attend a play about domestic violence. It's part of a project to raise awareness around the country on the subject and it was fascinating, really, to see how much people participated (both men and women) in the discussion about what the play presented--particularly since it's such a sensitive topic. Not to mention that open discussion in public is not too common among men and women in these smaller, and very conservative, localities.

This is my favorite thing on earth--to be involved in projects outside of the city that allow me to get to know people in the villages and interact with them. I was just checking out the project and happy to see that it's being done well. The only thing that makes me kind of sad is that the vibe I got from people when I arrived, and before I talked to them, is much different than it used to be. Being the blond American in the room is certainly not a bonus. And no surprise, either. However, once I began to interact with people in Arabic, they were extremely welcoming and lovely.

Thursday

2006-04-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

Today, among other activities, Issy and I met up with Geeva and her two kids, Salma and Suleiman, at the bird park and then played in the garden here at the house.

Later this evening, we saw an improvisational music/silent film thingy at an old cinema that's been beautifully renovated down from Rainbow Street. Unfortunately, by about 3 minutes in I was bored to tears. Pretty cheesy. Particularly since the captions to the film were all in French with no translation at all. Luckily, I know French--and I was suffering at how inane the event was--so it must've been doubly boring for those who didn't. Surprise, surprise, the event was sponsored by the French Cultural Center, who always seems to do this kind of stuff. For years, they had a North African film fest that, of course, had no English subtitles--but even more shockingly had no Arabic subtitles. I went for a couple of years to the opening night with Jordanian friends and they had to leave because they had no clue what anyone was saying.

After dinner we went out to a new place owned by the Fakhrelddin guys called Bistro One over by the old Amigo's (which is now a new Amigo's), and who should we see except Samer's long-lost (and estranged) sister and her husband. She spoke to us for a while, which has not happened for years, and I'm thinking this just might be a good sign.

They steal your underwear, too

2006-04-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Back here in Amman, it's difficult to escape the West Ammani soap opera of life with the help. Just yesterday, Samer told me he's already getting tired of hearing about how hard women have it here managing their maids and what misery they put them through.

Perhaps he forgot what a drama it is and how whenever there are a handful of middle-aged Jordanian women its usually the centerpiece topic. Nevermind that their maids are likely hanging out in the room next to them watching their children, cleaning up their crap, cooking and serving food--and probably hearing every word their "Madames" say.

And Samer did happen to be along with us the other day when we went to visit a good friend of mine who was having an Easter party for her son. Her son's pre-school classmates and moms were there and Samer (and I, for that matter) stuck out like a sore thumb. The visitors were all decked out in their finest stilettos and made up to the nines. Hairsprayed to bouffant refinement. Everyone sat rapt as one woman spoke about how she is "60% certain that my maid accepted money for sex" and how her maid is "sick--she pulls her hair out." To that, I said, "Haram, she's probably depressed." And miserable, no doubt, to be living with such a jewel of a boss.

One more typical conversation among the fabled elites which, I have to say, are part of the world I was happy to escape when we bailed for Seattle.

Samer's mom and dad have recently employed a lovely Filipino couple in their house. On the first day I met them, their eyes lit up as they told me about their daughter who is turning 8 in a few weeks. They're planning to call her for her birthday and, listening to them tell me, their expressions and excitement made it obvious she's the joy of their life.

Even thinking about being far from Issy for more than a week brings tears to my eyes (even though he is a twerp), and I had a similar reaction hearing them talk about their daughter and attempting to imagine what it must be like for them to think about being away for two years. So last night when Samer and I came home from dinner, waking Issy up with a crash of the door, and I ran into John carrying my crying baby--and not his--my heart nearly broke.

Stop the wall!

2006-04-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

The story of the day is my father-in-law, aka Abu Maher, and the wall he's decided to erect around the entirety of his yard to contain my son. From the moment we arrived at the house, the family has been talking about the wall Abu Maher intends to put up and until today we weren't quite sure what was going on.

Samer's dad is a big fan of Issy and, being the extremely eccentric and lovable guy that he is, often asks us curious questions to ensure Ismael's being properly taken care of. A few months after he was born, for example, Abu Maher made us promise him that whenever we left the house we wouldn't just leave him there while running around town doing errands. I mean, for all he knew, we could've just taken off for a weekend and oh, I don't know, left him to fend for himself in his crib or something. Since we left for America, every time we talk to him on the phone he makes sure to remind us to always keep him in our sight and not forget about all the kidnappers running rampant in the U.S.

Well now it seems he's gone too far. Samer's mom was in tears this morning when the blacksmith arrived with a 5-ton mess of iron and his guys to erect the structure. And I mean, is it ever a structure. Somehow they've got about 4 prison-strength doors that are about 7 feet tall and huge sections that hook on to the already-existing fence which will undoubtedly give the house the appearance of Alcatraz if Em Maher and we fail in our bid to stop its construction. Yes, there's already a fence that encircles the yard, but Ismael might become bionic by some means and be able to clear it.

This morning I unwisely was under the illusion I might be able to sweettalk him out of it. I reminded him that Issy is never out of our sight and lobbied for a partial backyard fence since the front of the house is potentially dangerous. The gardener's always watering the garden and the whole front area is tiled and gets very slippery. I didn't even get close to convincing him, though. "I am an old man and cannot get out to be sure that Ismael is safe and I do not want to worry about him and I will pay 10 times the amount of this fence to take care of him." It's cute and hilarious and endearing, really, but definitely not so for Em Maher, who's dying that her beauteous sweet peas won't be able to pop through the fence and her amazing garden is getting ghetto-ized.

So far we've put a wrench into the system. The blacksmith and his boys felt too bad to continue, Samer made a screaming phone call to his dad ("How could you upset Mama like this?" he raged, as his mom and I were in tears from laughing) and Em Maher's doing an excellent job with the silent treatment. So we'll see if we're able to put a halt to at least one ridiculous wall in the Middle East.

Getting glitzy

2006-04-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

Going around Amman today, all I could think about is just how much things are booming here. Which is kind of funny, in a way: we leave and things get hopping. Anyway, I came across this article in the Guardian about Johannesburg and had no idea just how much that city has become a boomtown of late.

Before reading the article, all I associated with Jo'burg was its astronomical crime rate which, apparently, has changed. Right after we finished our Peace Corps service, my friend Andrew travelled there and was killed for his watch.

Along with rising property prices, the city is implementing "initiatives aimed at integrating the poor and working class: public toilets and bathhouses, roofs for markets, paving and lighting designed for pedestrians." Well, we certainly have lots of pedestrians here. Perhaps we could start with a few sidewalks that don't have trees planted in the middle of them. . .

Home again, home again jiggity jig (kind of)

2006-04-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

Here we are, in jetlagged haze, back in Amman. The trip was surprisingly manageable with Issy--his new "Finding Nemo" Leapster cartridge the big star of the trip.

Amman feels kind of the same and kind of just wild and crazy. New buildings popping up all over the place, the Fourth Circle all closed up with insane detours and even more crazed drivers cirling around the neighborhood--not to mention frenetic activity everywhere. I need a few days to adjust and get a grip on how different things are, but my first impression is that Amman's doing the wannabe Dubai thing. There has to be a better model of development that more effectively takes the have-nots into consideration. It feels like just more elitist bells and whistles to me. Perhaps I'm wrong, though.

I decided to go and do one of my standard activities first thing: sugar depilation. Today was particularly harrowing, and I won't go into detail except to say that this afternoon I encountered the rabid bikini line hair removal Nazi of Amman in the flesh. I'm still shaking in my boots just thinking about it.

And of course, in the few hours I was outside the house I already ran into three people I know. Only in Amman. . .

"Hey, you guuuuuuuuys!!"

2006-04-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

"The Electric Company" is out on DVD! Man, I wish I knew before we finished up all our shopping for the trip.

I'd heard a bit about the 4-DVD issue of my very favorite 70's show (I loved it even more than "Sesame Street") but didn't know it was out already. To this day, whenever I see Morgan Freeman, I'm always kind of surprised that he's sans Afro and not walking around reading random stuff. He was so cool.

Anyway, there's a great piece on the subject in today's International Herald Tribune.

Preparing for flight

2006-04-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

Our house is a mess. We've got clothes piled up in the dining room which Samer has just started working on, sticking them into our humungo duffle bags. We've got smoked salmon for the fam, computer fans for Maher (?!) and an iPod for Mo. Wow. Mo really got lucky this time. . .

And in the hope of preserving our sanity on the 30+ hour trek to Amman from the West Coast with our lovely son, we've got bags of gummy bears, yoghurt-covered pretzels, trail mix, jelly beans (all this sweet stuff is for bribing when needed), pumpkin seeds and I can't remember what else. We've also got a new drawing cassette for the Leapster (to replace the one lost a few weeks ago) and a new Finding Nemo cassette that we will hold on to until Issy gets antsy and we're dying for some relief. And then there's the portable DVD player that greatly aided us on our cross-country trek last year. We just bought the new Wallace and Gromit (Issy's fave) film DVD for that, along with yet another Thomas the Tank Engine DVD. And some Playmobile pirates and a few puzzles for good measure.

Which means we're going to be lugging tons of crap around with us--and that's not even counting the carseat and the stroller. Very unlike the days when we took along the latest New Yorker and Economist and were pretty much set.

So I'm feeling pretty prepared. And even more so after Samer reminded me that we will be on the Royal Jordanian flight. Which translates to us as, Our child is no super angel, but we've endured more than our fair share of unruly little devils on RJ flights in the past. Which means we're feeling more laid-back than usual about the whole situation.

Zarqawi demoted?

2006-04-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

I'm way too beat to write but was just sent this article on Zarqawi from a friend in Jordan. Looks like an interesting enough read. . . .

Media reports during the past week have announced that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—al-Qaeda's chief in Iraq—has been "replaced" or "demoted" from the leadership of Iraq's Sunni resistance coalition (Daily Star, April 3; al-Bawaba, April 2). The stories have said that al-Zarqawi was removed as "the result of several mistakes he made," including for taking "the liberty of speaking in the name of the Iraqi people" and for "targeting the Islamic states neighboring Iraq, particularly Jordan" [1].

And I had been assuming he was out of the news due to the Bushies' preoccupation with everything Iranian.

John in the Guardian

2006-04-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

Our buddy John Sinno is profiled in today's Guardian. He and Ghida are wrapping up an amazing week of films here at the Seattle Arab and Iranian Film Festival. The article shows just how much of a slog it is attempting to distribute Arab films here in the U.S.

We were at the Iraq in Fragments screening last Friday and I was really blown away by the film's beauty--and brilliant editing. Here's hoping it comes your way sometime soon.

"Free Zone"

2006-04-06T21:20:00.002-07:00

I just came across a movie review for the new film "Free Zone," which is set in one of Jordan's economic free zones and appears to be a tale of Israeli/Jewish and Arab understanding. Directed by Amos Gitai and starring Natalie Portman and Hiam Abbass, it tells the story of an American Jew and an Israeli who venture into Jordan and interact with the character Abbass plays. I'm mildly interested, by only mildly after reading the NYTimes review.

I wasn't too thrilled, either, when I read that Leila's (Abbass) farm is randomly discovered to have been "set on fire by Palestinian militants, including Leila's angry stepson, who reviles her for her modern ways."

Oh barf. I'm really getting tired of waiting to see some non-terrorist associated portrayals of Palestinians. Geez.

Oh, for Pete's sake

2006-04-06T21:20:00.001-07:00

I'm getting so tired of the inanity that Israelis engage in to intimidate Palestinians for no good reason. I mean, what's the point of detaining a cabinet minister as he's crossing the border into the West Bank from East Jerusalem--an act that's supposedly not allowed, but very much allowed in practice? It's just so stupid and petty--and doesn't do a thing to show that Israel is engaged in any way in treating Palestinians as human beings. Anyway, here's the article I came across.

On yet another "accidental" murder

2006-04-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

Remember the documentary filmmaker killed by an Israeli soldier a few years back? One bullet, very effectively placed, killed him as he left a Palestinian home (holding up a white flag, no less.)

An inquest jury in the UK has found the soldier guilty of murder and made special mention of Israeli authorities' lack of cooperation in giving details about just what happened. The Guardian states

The jury unanimously found that Miller, from Braunton, Devon, was unlawfully killed. Its forewoman said: "This was an unlawful shooting with the intention of killing Mr James Miller. Therefore we can come to no other conclusion than that Mr Miller was indeed murdered." At that moment the cameraman's family started to sob. The jury added: "It is a fact that from day one to this inquest the Israeli authorities have not been forthcoming in the investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr Miller's death."

Miller was making a documentary when he was killed as he and colleagues tried to leave a Palestinian house where they had been filming. An award-winning documentary maker, he and two colleagues were clad in body armour and protective helmets and clutching a white flag with a torch shining on it when they came under fire from an Israeli armoured personnel carrier.

Miller's mother said the following:

"We've managed to rally enough resources to fight this, but Palestinians can't fight this, and there's been hundreds of Palestinian deaths."

Boy, is that ever true.

Absent

2006-04-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted and that's due to the insanity of the past 5 or 6 days. I've started up the pre-trip ritual of buying as much junk as possible to stuff in our bags to Amman. You know, buying 875 tubes of Blistex for my favorite brother-in-law (hi Maher!) and stocking up on things for Issy to do during the marathon plane trip.

If I'm MIA for a few more days, hopefully it means things are coming together before the big day.

Seen these in your local newspaper today?

2006-03-30T16:24:00.001-08:00

Bet you haven't. Good going, Israeli "Defense" Forces!

Jill Carroll's release

2006-03-30T16:24:00.000-08:00

Samer and I were ecstatic this morning upon hearing of Jill Carroll's release. I first read about it on Natasha's blog and found myself struggling all morning to refrain from crying for joy in public, most notably in front of all the moms at the pre-school drop-off. Later on, I was rocking out on the cross trainer at the gym and saw Natasha, cute as ever, talking about it on CNN (sorry, Natasha, I know you're all grown up but I still think of you as a young'un.)

I don't know Jill (although I think those of us following her story through Natasha's blog kind of feel like we do) but I've found that my response to her capture and release has been extremely visceral. Perhaps too close to home. And while I feel kind of weird going into a very personal tangent in relation to Jill's extraordinary story, I realize that I feel a kinship of sorts to her just based on what I've heard about the manner in which she chose to live in the Arab World.

There are very few foreigners I know who have taken the trouble to learn the language, truly immersed themselves in their surroundings and used the knowledge they gleaned of life there to engage themselves as activists, of sorts. People like that are truly special and, in my mind, represent what it's all about to take on life in a foreign land.

I've written quite a bit about belonging and how that becomes a lens from which one views everything when choosing to make a life in a country and culture not your own. At least, that's how I've always experienced it. I continually wanted to believe that I "fit in" enough when I lived in Jordan--and perhaps I did--but still I was constantly nagged with the perception that I would never stop being considered a foreigner, no matter if I spent the entire rest of my life there.

I've often noticed that when in Jordan, I often attempt to legitimize myself to some extent, by saying things like, "Oh yes, I'm American, but my husband's Jordanian" or making sure to speak Arabic and not appear to be like all those other expats in town--particularly after Bush II was truly voted in this last time. The idea that I had been living in Amman for 7 years and every time I opened my mouth and spoke Arabic (a routine occurrence) someone would ask me at least five questions about just why that was, was endearing but a constant reminder of my oddness. Like them, but not like them. Perhaps it's not that big of a deal, but for me living like this day in and day out for years made questioning my belonging a very central theme.

And so maybe that's why I pored over information about Jill. The same way I did when Margaret Hassan, who I greatly admired, was kidnapped and later killed in Iraq. They're people like me, I suppose. Just trying to fit in and carry their load. Their stories put a spotlight on that question that's always in the back of my mind when I'm in Jordan: does making a home in the Middle East, learning the language and loving the people really matter or make a difference?

Not that I would ever in a million years fear for my life in Jordan. My questioning, however, is also very much tied to raising my son here in the present-day United States. I've heard all the talk that's been going down since the Dubai Ports deal has given anyone and everyone, it seems, a license to be as racist as they never thought they could be in public. And while I truly believe that Ismael's life in going to be much richer as a result of the two worlds he belongs to, I feel a tinge of remorse that perhaps one day he will struggle with his sense of belonging in just the way I do.

An old haunt

2006-03-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite places popped up in the news today: Grolier Poetry Book Shop, in Harvard Square. Apparently, it's being sold for only the second time in 80 years (source).

I have lovely memories of spending hours and hours in Grolier's flipping through poetry books way back in my college days. Yep, those were the days when I had time to bop around all the used bookstores any old time I felt like it.

Long live Grolier's! And here's hoping for a little more free time in the near future.

More old news

2006-03-29T11:28:00.000-08:00

Someone sent me this article from Reuters AlertNet about the recent plight of a number of Indian and Nepalese workers in Jordan. Lately, there's also been tons in the news about foreign workers in Dubai and their unbelievable living conditions and mistreatment.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands upon thousands of Sri Lankan, Egyptian and Filipino workers in Jordan and the rest of the Middle East who live an existence unimaginable to most of us here in the U.S. Sure, they're able to make more money in the Middle East than they would at home, but the racism and brutality they suffer is inhumane, to put it mildly.

Over the years, I got involved in a number of attempts with Geeva, my Sri Lankan maid, to help Sri Lankan workers living in Jordan who were trapped in awful situations. Geeva has become an ambassador, of sorts, to many Sri Lankans in trouble, and there was scarcely a week that went by without someone asking her to intervene to help someone out.

Sri Lankans are routinely jailed for being stopped on the streets without papers, trapped in the homes of their obnoxious employers or taken advantage of by employment agencies that confiscate all their earnings and prohibit them from leaving the country. Overcoming a system that in every aspect is hostile to the foreign worker always seemed impossible, but I had great luck the numerous times I called up offending employers or owners of the shoddy agencies that brought over Sri Lankan maids. My approach was to play the role of the bullying foreigner and threaten in no uncertain terms to report them to the authorities. In general, I think I scared the bejesus out of them. Not that the authorities would have given much of a crap anyway.

And then the Indian and Nepalese workers. Both Samer and I had a feeling there might be problems shortly after the Iraq War began and his office building was literally flooded overnight with Indian workers looking for work. A hiring agency, it seems, had opened up shop there and had been spreading the word of the riches to be had in Iraq. I've read over the last few years of Indian workers being killed in Iraq and often wondered if they had passed through the Al-Sayegh building on their way there.

9 Parts of Desire

2006-03-28T23:27:00.000-08:00

It's a late night for me. Just got back from seeing 9 Parts of Desire at the Seattle Rep--a one-woman show about 9 Iraqi women.

Worth seeing, I'd say. And, it was sold out on a Tuesday night. People in this city sure seem to be interested in anything touching on the war and/or Arab World, which I find really fascinating.

Things are getting hectic as we get ready to head to Amman, but hopefully my blogging will be a bit more substantial over the next few days.

In over my head

2006-03-27T21:51:00.000-08:00

We left a whole ton of books back in Amman, figuring we wouldn't have much space here in Seattle. Instead of buying books here, I request books through the library system and pick them up at my library a few blocks away.

Usually, when I request a book, there's quite a huge line of people ahead of me with dibs on it. Like 300+, on average. However, after spending the past 3 months without anything coming in, in the past 2 weeks I've been deluged with the following books:

Torch, by Cheryl Strayed (which I'm reading)
Arthur and George, by Julian Barnes
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
The Hungry Tide, Amitav Ghosh

Also, Robert Fisk's humongous new tome came in with something else I don't even remember what it was, and I just didn't bother since I knew I wouldn't have the time. And on Saturday I was notified that Twilight of the Superheroes is now waiting for me.

What the heck?! It's all too much for me and I'm bummed I don't have the time to get to all of them. Perhaps I'll have to start purchasing stuff after all.

Happy day

2006-03-23T22:06:00.000-08:00

My son is rapidly rushing after his father's footsteps. I've posted once before on Samer's long history of computer game addiction, with its latest incarnation having been an intense love affair with Civilization IV (see here.)

A few months ago, we finally figured out how to pry Issy off the computer and his BBC Blue Cow storybooks and Thomas the Tank Engine crapola. We bought him a Leapster. For those of you who don't know, a Leapster is kind of like a Gameboy for pre-schoolers that's heavy on the ABC's and educational stuff in general.

And from the moment we got it for him up until we sent it back--a tired, worn-out piece of crapped-out equipment to be traded in for new--he's been all over it. I mean, some days for 10 hours straight. Not like I'm encouraging him to become catatonic on a daily basis, but his extended playing times did wonders when my mom was in town and we were shopping in 15-hour long shifts.

The Leapster has also been instrumental in my discovery that I may just be able to have a bit of a life again. There's an amazing little bakery down the block from us, Cafe Besalu, that I finally managed to hang out in for an hour or two with my New Yorker and Issy in tow. The whole while, we just chilled at the table, ate our pain au chocolat, and played Leapster/read. It was superb. Minus the Leapster, Issy would have been climbing up and down the chairs and been antsy to get a move on.

So yeah, he's been pretty plugged in. At least up until last week, when the Leapster started acting spotty. We ended up having to send it back to Leapsterland and wait for a replacement. Meanwhile, Issy was like a crack addict having withdrawals. Every time we walked near the mailbox over the past week, he'd open it up and say, "Is my Leapster here yet?"

And today it finally was. Iss got up from his nap to discover I'd taken it out of the box and outfitted it with fresh batteries. He was ecstatic. He went straight to it, turned it on, and signed himself in: "I-S-S-Y spells Issy." Not too bad for a three year old. Guess he's been learning a little something. . .

Seattle happenings

2006-03-21T21:13:00.000-08:00

There's a lot going on in the next few weeks in the Seattle Arab community. This upcoming Saturday night, Simon Shaheen, the Palestinian oud and violin virtuoso, plays at Town Hall. For those of you interested in checking it out, get your tickets at the Arab Center website. After the Shaheen concert, the Arab and Iranian Film Festival will hold a reception open to all to kick off this year's festival.

For the past few weeks, I've been planning the reception and getting to know lots of Arab restaurant proprietors here in Seattle. As a result, I definitely have a clue where to go when I get a hankering for some good kubbeh or mahshi. So that's been a nice perk.

The film festival runs from Friday, March 31 to Sunday, April 9th. James Longley's Iraq in Fragments, which just won a slew of awards at Sundance, is the opening night feature, and I'm particularly looking forward to the Angry Arab's lecture on Saturday, April 1 at 1 pm. Check out the program here--and come on out, those of you who are close by. It's gonna be a lot of fun!

Oh, and did I mention that Samer's going to be the featured artist at this year's festival? My film, In the Land of the Free?, is also going to be shown as an installation throughout the festival's duration.

No bread in Gaza

2006-03-20T22:28:00.000-08:00

It's getting grimmer by the day in Gaza (source). Perhaps this is what Dov Weisglass meant he said Palestinians should be "put on a diet" after Hamas' parliamentary victory in January.

All of the bakeries in the Gaza Strip are closed. Dependent on imports of flour, the 1.2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, the most crowded place on earth in terms of population to land area, are now facing an unprecedented food crisis due to Israeli closures that have prevented the import of the grain.

Weekend workouts

2006-03-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

Probably the greatest thing about being back in the U.S. is the sheer abundance of stuff to do. Back in Amman, nearly every single Friday (the equivalent of Saturday here) Samer and I would get up and mope about how we wished we could bop down to some galleries and just kind of wander around like the old days back in Boston. In Amman, our choices would be limited, pretty much, to going to a restaurant (one of the same 3 or 4 we always went to), seeing a cheesy Hollywood flick or attempting to take a walk on our neighborhood's laughable sidewalks. Don't get me wrong, there were some nice Fridays to be had, but near the end it was just too grim. There were too many things we were missing, and Amman on the weekends just wasn't getting it for us.

I'm now starting to feel weekend fatigue, though, after almost a year of going out and about on the weekends in the attempt to make up for lost time. We usually catch at least one movie we're really excited to see, have a great dinner out, take a lovely walk by the lake or somewhere beauteous, do something arty and hang out in one of the gajillion cafes here in Seattle. It's getting to be a bit of an overload, but all the same it's been just what we've needed.

I'm still fascinated by the tons of stuff to do. It's kind of like going to Safeway here and seeing the 87 different brands of toilet paper after getting used to the 3 or 4 kinds back in Amman--you kind of just don't know where to start. We seem to be finding our niche all too well, though, so I'm hoping for a bit of a break this weekend.

Anyway, I came across this very interesting piece today in the New York Times about another wonderful way to pass the time out of the house--at a lecture, book reading or debate. Spoken-word events are enjoying a huge surge of popularity back here in the States, and it's certainly not just me who finds them amazingly compelling.

Rachel Corrie R.I.P.

2006-03-16T20:40:00.001-08:00

Ok, I stopped getting a subscription to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer because it just wasn't too relevant. Or intelligent, really. Today, though, I came across Robert Jamieson's brilliant piece on Rachel Corrie (Remember her? The girl the Israeli bulldozer plowed down when she was protesting against the destruction of a Palestinian family's home?) and the ridiculousness of how her story has been all but silenced here in the U.S.

Today marks three years since she was killed, and Jamieson has some great things to say about the complete insanity pro-Israeli groups engage in to hush up the reality of what's going on in Palestine. And this is great, too:

The unease surrounding Rachel makes me wonder if she hits too close to home.


	Corrie

Her life follows the Aristotelian prescription of a good story. It features a protagonist with a desire for peace that takes her on a vision quest far away. She's smart, young, idealistic -- a female character that would draw A-list actresses.

The story overflows with potential villains, starting with the Israeli government, which illegally uses bulldozers as weapons of terror; Palestinians who resort to suicide bombs as an insane tool of revenge; and, even, U.S.-based Caterpillar, which counts the money as its bulldozers are used to spill blood.

There's room for cameos by the State Department, which could ramp up pressure to get answers, and by concerned Israeli citizens who also want to know if the bulldozer operator, as he claims, didn't see Rachel in her bright orange vest. There's the bigger question of why no "Palestinian evil" was unearthed at the home Rachel died trying to protect.

The story presents another surprise -- the unlikely transformation of Rachel's parents, who have gone from being middle-class suburbanites to advocates for Palestinian justice.

When I spoke with Craig and Cindy Corrie a few weeks ago, they'd just come back home to the Seattle area after a rattling episode. In the Middle East, Palestinian activists had tried to kidnap them. The activists had a change of heart when they were told the couple's last name. If that is not a powerful testament to Rachel's legacy, I don't know what is.

Last weekend I went to "Daughter Courage," a well-meaning production based on Rachel's writing staged by Vermont's Bread and Puppet Theatre. And speaking of the insanity, many of the cars parked around the venue got plastered with flyers stating something like "Supporting Palestinian rights is akin to Nazi-ism." It was completely bizarre.

And here's another good article I found at Naseem's blog that mentions the Caterpillar corporation as being complicit in Rachel's death and other deaths and injuries that have occurred in Palestine by Israeli occupiers. I mean, if your company's making these machines that are used in illegal destruction and bodily harm, you might want to keep them out of the guilty party's hands lest you be charged yourself, eh?

Since 1967 the Israeli military has destroyed at least 10,000 Palestinian homes and left approximately 50,000 homeless. During the second Intifada, an estimated 2,370 Palestinian homes have been destroyed and several inhabitants killed in the Gaza Strip alone.

Contrary to statements made by the Israeli government, the majority of home demolitions are carried out for administrative and strategic purposes, such as seizing land for the separation wall and building more Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Mama musings

2006-03-15T21:41:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling kind of burnt out with the continuous politics running through my head. The headlines are dismal: Israelis storming a Jericho prison, Dubai Ports bowing out due to American racism and ignorance, etc. It goes on and on.

We're gearing up for a spring trip to Amman. More info soon--and we're really looking forward to it.

In my bid to be off politics for a few days, here's an article/interview with Leslie Morgan Steiner, author of "Mommy Wars"--yet another recent book on the work/not-to-work dilemma mothers invariably face. Steiner claims that

. . . women have got to stick up for each other more. We should be fighting with men, we should be fighting with the government, we should be fighting with employers, and say this country would be better off and kids would be better off if women had more flexibility in terms of work and more support being mothers.

No kidding. I can't imagine ever having the cush situation I had back in Amman--nanny with Issy and working a half-day at home. Many moms here I know who work have pretty flexible situations, which is cool and perhaps speaks to a trend, but the general situation across the country is no bargain.

There's been tons written lately about the tension between working and non-working moms, which I find kind of interesting. Especially since I don't have much a clue about how that plays out. Here in Ballard, everyone's a stay-at-home mom, pretty much, which must mean this is total yuppieland.

It's time, already

2006-03-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

I'm a fan of Kofi, but this editorial lobbying for a female UN Secretary General is right on:

In the 60 years since the United Nations was founded, no woman has served as secretary general. And despite the body's stated goal of achieving gender parity within the system by the year 2000, women remain grossly underrepresented. The numbers are embarrassing: Only 16 percent of undersecretaries general are women.

In 1995, at the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women, governments called for the development of "mechanisms to nominate women candidates for appointment to senior posts in the United Nations." More than 10 years later, no such mechanism has been developed for nomination to the most senior post.

Moussaoui trial hearing suspended

2006-03-13T19:42:00.003-08:00

Was this trial not a shoe-in anyway? What the heck was the prosecution doing coordinating witness testimony? Did they think there was a snowball's chance this guy wasn't going to get the death penalty? This is the U.S., whose government is the guardian of world security, remember?

Leonie Brinkema, the judge at Moussaoui's sentencing trial, angrily suspended the hearing after it was found that seven government witnesses from the Federal Aviation Administration had been shown transcripts of the opening statements and other testimony before they testified, a blatant violation of a court order aimed at stopping witnesses coordinating testimony.

"In all the years I've been on the bench, I have never seen such an egregious violation of a rule on witnesses," Judge Brinkema said, noting it was the second significant error by the prosecution. On Thursday, prosecutors asked an FBI witness a question that had already been ruled out of order.

Does this mean perhaps Moussaoui's trial might end up being more than just a predictable exercise?

Don't these guys have something better to do?

2006-03-13T19:42:00.002-08:00

The Marines just aren't interested in forgiving and forgetting, looks like. The Guardian reports that Allen Abney was arrested on the U.S.-Canadian border today for deserting during basic training 38 years ago.

Since he took over the marine corps Absentee Collection Centre in 2004, chief warrant officer James Averhart has reopened cold cases and claims to have tracked down 33 deserters. "I have a different leadership style than the guys who have had this job. My job is to catch deserters. And that's what I do," he told Florida's St Petersburg Times . . .

Legal observers said the new drive to hunt down Vietnam deserters is designed as a deterrent for soldiers being sent to Iraq. "They're really hardcore about this," Ms Abney said. "I think there have been a lot of these young guys now trying to get refuge in Canada, and they decided they were going to set an example."

A more palatable conservative

2006-03-13T19:42:00.001-08:00

The New York Times takes a look at a new book by Rod Dreher which reveals that not all conservatives are as into to the Wal-Mart/Fox News lifestyle as one might have thought (source). "Crunchy Cons" eschew modernity in the way hippies do, but with their conservative social views they're better pegged as right-wing hippies:

Dreher's greatest passion is the devotional approach to eating and food that he considers essential to the crunchy-con way. After he spelled out his principles in a National Review Online article called "Birkenstocked Burkeans," Dreher writes, he was deluged with responses like, "We thought we were the only evangelical Christians in the world with a copy of 'The Moosewood Cookbook.' " He introduces several evangelicals who say they are organic farmers "because we're Christians." And he raves about the European Slow Food movement and about "The Supper of the Lamb," a classic 1967 cookbook and devotional by an Episcopal priest, Robert Farrar Capon.

Taking the rap for a safer America

2006-03-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

An editorial in yesterday's Washington Post reveals just how hard it is for any Muslim charity here in the States to do the business they're set up to do: assist those in need in the Muslim world.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, six American Muslim charities have been shuttered in this fashion. The government still doesn't have a single terrorism conviction against any of the employees or board members of any of those charities. Similarly, the government has never been able to document a bona fide trail showing how money from the charity got into the hands of actual terrorists. Never.

We believe it is possible to provide sustenance to people in need without supporting terrorism. But the message we are hearing is this: "All Muslims are suspected of supporting terrorism. Your charities are guilty of this crime until proven innocent. But don't bother trying to prove your innocence because you won't have the chance." The government has not taken action against a single non-Muslim charity that works in the same region helping to feed, educate and sustain people who had also received assistance from the Muslim charities accused of financing terrorism.

Thanks again, Patriot Act.

Just the stuff we need

2006-03-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

You've just gotta love those things that remind us of where we came from. For one guy who has recently moved back to Afghanistan after years in America, it's cafe culture. The Guardian has a great article about Kandahar's one and only coffeehouse and the man who's making it happen.

My man of the day is Malik, the owner of Mama's, up on 152nd and Aurora. I went to talk to him about donating food for the Simon Shaheen concert/Arab Film Festival reception and was amazed to discover not only really good shawarma and hummos but also all that stuff I've been missing lately: zaatar, shanklish (can you believe?!), molokhia and even shraak bread. Oh man, I'm so stoked! Now I'm going to have to figure out how to make an edible molokhia.

Photos

2006-03-09T20:17:00.000-08:00

I'm beat and am turning in early tonight. Which is a great opportunity for me to not think too much and write but instead put up some recent photos of all of us. Here goes:

Just one more, please

2006-03-07T19:29:00.001-08:00

Probably the last thing anyone wants to hear about is the cartoon saga--and whether it represents freedom of speech or plain old racism. But Samer was asked to write something for a local publication about the whole brouhaha, and I loved the way he talks about it:

What made me angry wasn't so much that the cartoons depicted the prophet, or that they portrayed him (and by extension all Muslims) as a terrorist. The point of contention for me was the pretense that the re-publication of these cartoons was somehow a defense of free speech.

You can say and publish many things that would offend or hurt many different groups, but a REAL demonstration of freedom of expression can only make sense in defiance of those who can shut your newspapers down; i.e. your own government. As a Muslim, I felt that the constant republication of these cartoons was just about rubbing it in; the message: "we will insult Muslims not just in fringe journals but in 'respectable' mainstream media as well".

Publishing these cartoons suddenly became every second-rate newspaper's cheap ticket to being relevant, the blue pill that was supposed to place them on the front lines of the battle for free speech. Why not? We live in an age where wars and battles have apparently become fashionable and Muslims the fashionable enemy. In the eyes of many Muslims, however, this was merely cheap posturing at our expense, and very few people in the west were prepared to call these journals and newspapers on it.

This is not about free speech. The real question is why insulting Muslims has become such a cheap proposition.

Which one is it, guys?

2006-03-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, seems to be quite worried about things erupting in Iraq (source). Donald Rumsfeld, on the other hand, asserts that all is under control.

Mr Khalilzad suggested the situation was so dangerous that without a substantial US presence, a civil war could suck in other Arab countries on the side of the Sunnis and Iran on the side of the Shias, creating conditions for a regional conflict and disrupting global oil supplies. "That would make Taliban Afghanistan look like child's play," he said.

Hmm. I'm stumped. Who do you think we should believe?

Leave something out?

2006-03-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

I was reading the New York Times article on Hamas' first day in parliament and skimmed over the added-on info about an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City:

Separately today, an Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza City killed four people, including two members of the Islamic Jihad faction and one young bystander, according to Palestinian medical workers. There were conflicting reports on whether the fourth person killed was an Islamic Jihad member or a bystander. Several people were also injured.

Israel's military confirmed that it carried out the airstrike against Islamic Jihad, but said it had no information on casualties.

Islamic Jihad has been responsible for many of the recent attacks against Israel, including continuing rocket fire from northern Gaza that is directed into southern Israel.

Also, two Palestinian teenage brothers were killed in a blast in central Gaza that was caused by a bomb that apparently went off accidentally while they were handling it, according to the Palestinians.

Then I read Naseem's blog and saw that there was a little more to it than that--three kids were killed. And that bomb? Well, just check out Naseem's blog.

Unashamed misfits

2006-03-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

Mondays are generally crazy around here. I'm always running around trying to do too many things and never catching up. But this little piece of advice from Salon's Cary Tennis brought a smile to my face. It touches on that elusive sense of belonging that being stuck between a few different worlds makes challenging. But more than that, it celebrates the fact that for all America's faults, it still really is the best place on Earth to be yourself--or just be a total weirdo trying to figure out who that is.

"The Geopolitics of Sexual Frustration"

2006-03-03T22:55:00.000-08:00

Hmm. That one sure got my attention. Check it out.

Talib in Connecticut

2006-03-02T21:47:00.000-08:00

Did anyone see this one about the former Taliban student now studying at Yale? It's from last weekend's New York Times Magazine--a fun read.

New Atlantic Monthly editor

2006-03-01T17:30:00.002-08:00

The Atlantic Monthly has at long last named a new editor--James Bennett, who was previously the Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times (article here.)

Hopefully this means the Atlantic will stop publishing annoying, know-it-all pieces on the Middle East by Bernard Lewis.

Berlin's frumpy coolness

2006-03-01T17:30:00.001-08:00

I was so happy last year when I finally got the chance to go to Berlin. It's such a eclectic place, and I'd move there in a heartbeat.

Nicolas Kulish believes Berliners don't seem to realize just how appealing the city's quirkiness is. In today's New York Times, he remarks on plans to raze the Palace of the Repulic, an old Communist building located prominently on Unter den Linden. What will be done with the space? A replica of an old Prussian castle that was demolished in 1950.

As an on-and-off resident of the city, I have played host to many tourists in Berlin and not one asked to see castles, of which there are several originals. Will they clamor to see a reconstruction? My visitors wanted to see the Berlin Wall. They wanted to see Checkpoint Charlie. The history that matters to tourists coming to Berlin is 20th-century history.

I have never met a German who moved to the city because it was the imperial capital. It is Berlin's liveliness and strangeness that attracted them. For many West Germans part of that was the allure of the old East Germany, in all its splendid ugliness. History happens. It cannot be engineered.

Well said. Here's more.

Democracy rules?

2006-03-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

Robert Kaplan's got a brilliant commentary in the Washington Post about the need for us in the West to stop thinking democracy is the cat's pyjamas. In most parts of the world where democracy has no historical basis, the challenges are much different than over here in these parts.

A few snippets:

America basically inherited its institutions from the Anglo-Saxon tradition and thus its experience over 230 years has been about limiting despotic power rather than creating power from scratch. Because order is something we've taken for granted, anarchy is not something we've feared. But in many parts of the world, the experience has been the opposite, and so is the challenge: how to create legitimate, functioning institutions in utterly barren landscapes. . .

. . .For the average person who just wants to walk the streets without being brutalized or blown up by criminal gangs, a despotic state that can protect him is more moral and far more useful than a democratic one that cannot.

Torture and our short memory

2006-02-28T21:48:00.000-08:00

The New Yorker has a great piece in this week's issue on the legal maneuverings the Bush administration engaged in to make torture part of its policy with regard to prisoners taken in the "War on Terror." It's been on my mind all day, and I keep shaking my head at how completely rotten to the core one would have to be to participate in making this happen.

Salon's also got a really great interview with journalist Mark Danner that touches on how torture has become the new status quo along with badness in general. In speaking about just how hardcore this administration is, he says

They don't care about people concerned with facts. They care about the broader arc of the story. We sit here constantly citing facts -- that they've broken this or that law, that what they originally said turns out not to be true. None of this particularly interests them.

What interests them is the larger reality believed by the 50.1 percent that they need to govern. Kenneth Duberstein said this recently -- he was chief of staff to Ronald Reagan -- that this administration is unique in that they govern with 50.1 percent. He was referring not to elections but to popularity while governing. His notion was that Reagan would want to get 60 to 65 percent backing him, while the Bush people want a bare majority, which means they have a much more extremist policy because they're appealing to the base. It makes them very hard-knuckle when approaching politics, simply wanting the base plus one.

Here's another great excerpt that completely gives name to the frustrating way in which this administration's wrongdoings never seem to amount to anything:

You've talked about our current American world as one of "frozen scandal," an interesting phrase. When you first used it, we were in the Downing Street Memo scandal and nothing was happening. Now, we're immersed in the NSA and other scandals and nothing is happening.

The icebergs are floating by. I've used the phrase to indicate that a process of scandal we've come to know, with an expected series of steps, has come to an end. Before, you had, as Step 1, revelation of wrongdoing by the press, usually with the help of leaks from within an administration. Step 2 would be an investigation which the courts, often allied with Congress, would conduct, usually in public, that would give you an official version of events. We saw this with Watergate, Iran-Contra and others. And finally, Step 3 would be expiation -- the courts, Congress, impose punishment which allows society to return to some kind of state of grace in which the notion is, Look, we've corrected the wrongdoing, we can now go on. With this administration, we've got revelation of torture, of illegal eavesdropping, of domestic spying, of all kinds of abuses when it comes to arrest of domestic aliens, of inflated and false weapons of mass destruction claims before the war; of cronyism and corruption in Iraq on a vast scale. You could go on. But no official investigation follows.

You get revelation and repetition.

Yes, R and R. It's been three years since the invasion and occupation of Iraq and there's been no official investigation of how the administration made use of intelligence to suggest that the intelligence agencies were certain Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Now, the consequence of this is that we live with the knowledge of these scandals, published in newspapers, magazines, books, but we get no official acknowledgement of wrongdoing and no punishment. Perhaps in the end a handful of people will be punished...

Minor figures...

...who were silly enough to get themselves caught -- for example, the military police whose images appear in the Abu Ghraib digital pictures. The actual policymakers responsible for the change in interrogation policy will suffer no punishment whatsoever. In fact, they're still in their jobs. None of the investigations has reached them. Even the people who actually carried on the interrogations themselves we know very little about. . .

. . .When I look at the pieces on the inside pages of the papers about the stealing of funds in Iraq by American officials, when I realize that no one is likely to be punished for this, I think of the novels of [Milan] Kundera, of his vivid descriptions of what it was like to live in Eastern Europe in the 1950s and '60s -- in the Soviet system where everyone realized the corruption, the abuse of power, the mediocrity of the government, the yawning gap between what was said and what was really going on, but no one could do anything about it.

Book craving

2006-02-27T17:17:00.002-08:00

I've been dying to get my hands on Twilight of the Superheroes, a short story collection by Deborah Eisenberg that's been getting great reviews. Its title story has people talking about how fiction is finally taking on September 11th as a subject.

Anyway, I popped it on my library list a while ago and have been waiting and waiting.

Today's New York Times has an interview with her, complete with references to how short story collections just aren't big draws anymore. That certainly doesn't seem to be true for this book--and here's hoping that bias will change one day soon (right, Ghida?)

Port stuff, again

2006-02-27T17:17:00.001-08:00

David Ignatius of the Washinton Post tells everyone to get over it already about the UAE company operating US ports. Due to Bush's swashbuckler fiscal policy, it's just a preview of what's to come. Read more here.

The real absurdity here is that Congress doesn't seem to realize that an Arab-owned company's management of America's ports is just a taste of what is coming. Greater foreign ownership of U.S. assets is an inevitable consequence of the reckless tax-cutting, deficit-ballooning fiscal policies that Congress and the White House have pursued. By encouraging the United States to consume more than it produces, these fiscal policies have sucked in imports so fast that the nation is nearing a trillion-dollar annual trade deficit. Those are IOUs on America's future, issued by a spendthrift Congress. . .

The best quick analysis I've seen of the fiscal squeeze comes from New York University professor Nouriel Roubini, in his useful online survey of economic information, rgemonitor.com. He notes that with the U.S. current account deficit running at about $900 billion in 2006, "in a matter of a few years foreigners may end up owning most of the U.S. capital stocks: ports, factories, corporations, land, real estate and even our national parks."

. . .Here's how bad it is: The worst thing that could happen to the United States, paradoxically, would be for Arab and other foreign investors to take us at our xenophobic word and decide that America doesn't really want foreign investment. If they pulled out their money, U.S. financial markets would plummet in a crash that might make 1929 look like a sleigh ride.

Rest easier, y'all

2006-02-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Over at the New York Times, Barry Posen's written up a pretty logical essay on why Iran having nuclear weapons probably isn't the big threat many people think it is.

What with all the talk of Iran being the big winner in all that's been going on in Iraq of late, sometimes I'm not so sure what to think myself anymore. Posen kind of walks you through the steps, and he's kinda got me convinced for now.

See what you think.

Trying to get through

2006-02-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

How would you like it if a foreign power just up and put up checkpoints down the street from you, not allowing you to get out and do anything you needed to? Go to work, see your family on the other side, etc.?

Often when I talk to people back home in Ohio about what it's like for Palestinians on a daily basis, that's how I desribe it. Because living like that would suck for anyone.

And even though the Gaza Strip crossings were reportedly taken care of once the Israeli settlers moved out (remember Condoleezza helping out?), it's still a mess. Why are we not surprised?

At 3 a.m. on a chilly winter night last week, the tensions at this crossing point were growing. Shrouded in fog, stuck in a long, unmoving line, several thousand Palestinian laborers with permits to work in Israel were beginning to seethe. Before they could cross into Israel, they had to pass the daily security check, and many of them faced lengthy drives afterward. The morning commute can take four hours or more, every working day - most of it spent in line on the Gaza-Israel frontier.

There's more here.

Night of food and film

2006-02-25T00:45:00.000-08:00

Samer and I went out to a lovely little neighborhood place for dinner called Swingside Cafe. Rustic Italian--tasty and very filling. Then on to the Guild, where we saw "Tristram Shandy," which was a brilliant postpostmoderny adaptation of one of my all-time favorite books. It was brilliant. Do go see it if it comes anywhere near you. The main guy in "24 Hour Party People" (another great flick you should see if you haven't) played the lead role and was excellent.

Samer's off to NYC early morning. It's going to be a low-key weekend for a change.

The new anti-Semitism

2006-02-23T19:33:00.000-08:00

Today Frances put some NPR people in touch with me to possibly discuss the whole port sale brouhaha that's being going on here of late. I guess they were interested in my perspective as someone living here who's spent quite a deal of time in the Middle East. I told them Rami Khoury's more their guy than me (they'd already spoken to him to be on the show.) For one, I've kind of avoided the story just because it's getting too tedious--the whole political-ness of everything Bush does and the way Congress members are now out-vying each other to distance themselves from him. It's all been so tiring of late, not to mention depressing.

But I also avoided the story because I was a bit conflicted about it. I mean, having companies from other countries controlling our ports? It just didn't seem right somehow, perhaps because places of entry into the country seem so linked to national identity as well as security. I didn't know until just a while ago (when Samer told me) that the contracts up for sale are currently owned by a British company; this completely changed any hesitation I'd had before. Not to mention this editorial that I came across in the LA Times which states

Dubai Ports World, like the foreign companies that already run the majority of key U.S. ports — including 80% of the terminals in Los Angeles — does not own the points of entry. It is a contractor that coordinates logistics. And most important, it's not in charge of security. Port operators work with U.S. security officials (port police, the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security) in charge of preventing terrorism.

I listened to Christopher Dickey on "Fresh Air" this evening and was really impressed with his take on the subject as well as his articulate analysis of current events in the Middle East (definitely worth listening to--here's a link). Then I looked at Maureen Dowd's piece from yesterday and was just shocked. I'm a fan of Dowd, but I couldn't believe how ignorantly she attempts to characterize the UAE. This was complete stereotypical tripe. She'd do best to venture a bit out of New York before she writes stupidity about a place and people she knows nothing about.

Kind of makes one think this new anti-Semitism (Arabs are Semites, after all) is the new vogue.

My culinary roots

2006-02-23T19:32:00.000-08:00

I wanted to throw something together quick for dinner and had a revelation. There was some chicken in the fridge, I didn't have a load of veggies, and when I opened the refrigerator the peanut butter jar was right in front of me. This could only mean peanut chicken--one of my main staples back in the days when I lived in Cameroon.

It's as easy as pie to cook up:

some chicken
2 or 3 T. ginger
2 or 3 T. garlic
a little hot pepper
Maggi cube
1/2 c. peanut butter (mixed smooth about 1/2 c. water)
oil
onions
salt to taste

You just pound the ginger and garlic with a mortar/pestle, fry the onions, brown the chicken, add a little water and everything else and wait for it all to cook. Super yummy over rice.

So often I forget to make the recipes I learned back in Yagoua, and they're the only ones to this day that I make without consulting a recipe. They're like shorthand to me. My comfort food, of a sort. When I arrived in Cameroon, I had barely ventured out to eating vegetables--fried cabbage and canned green beans were about as adventurous as we got in our home growing up. Tomatoes, okra--I didn't even want to touch them. Until I found myself in my village where they were about my only options. And not only did I have to eat them, I had to cook them, too.

I learned by watching Hadja and cooking with her, and pretty soon I was cooking up big vats of stuff and ladling it over rice for guests seated all around my table. Cameroon's where I discovered my love of cooking as well as hosting people for dinner. It's great I still have all those recipes etched in my memory, if only I can remember to make them more often.

Hunger pangs in Palestine

2006-02-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

I didn't have time to read much today, but I did come across this commentary on Israel's economic tightfisting of the Hamas gov't that was published a few days ago in Haaretz.

Here's a bit:

The Hamas team had not laughed so much in a long time. The team, headed by the prime minister's advisor Dov Weissglas and including the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, the director of the Shin Bet and senior generals and officials, convened for a discussion with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on ways to respond to the Hamas election victory. Everyone agreed on the need to impose an economic siege on the Palestinian Authority, and Weissglas, as usual, provided the punch line: "It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die," the advisor joked, and the participants reportedly rolled with laughter. And, indeed, why not break into laughter and relax when hearing such a successful joke? If Weissglas tells the joke to his friend Condoleezza Rice, she would surely laugh too. . .

The recommendation for a "diet," along with the edicts Israel is poised to impose on the Palestinian people, should have aroused a hue and cry among Israeli society. Even if we put aside the awful political inanity of pushing Hamas into a corner instead of giving it a chance to change its ways, and even if we ignore the fact that Israel plans to confiscate tax revenues that do not belong to it, the policy of the Kadima government raises questions about its humanity. Where do we get the right to abuse an entire people this way? Is it only because of our great power and the fact that the U.S. allows us to run wild and do whatever we want?

"The Case for Impeachment"

2006-02-21T20:29:00.000-08:00

The latest Harper's magazine has an essay by its editor, Lewis Lapham, detailing reasons why George W. Bush should be impeached. It certainly got me riled up. I often find Harper's articles shrill and junkily written (no super exception with this one, either), but it's worth a read. For anyone following events leading up to the Iraq war and onwards, the stuff is nothing you haven't heard before, but it sure is infuriating to read it stuck together all in one place.

Why, in the name of heaven, hasn't this guy been impeached (or just not re-elected) ages ago? It's maddening. More than maddening, I should say.

Here's a bit:

We have before us in the White House a thief who steals the country's good name and reputation for his private interest and personal use; a liar who seeks to instill in the American people a state of fear; a televangelist who engages the United States in a never-ending crusade against all the world's evil; a wastrel who squanders a vast sum of the nation's wealth on what turns out to be a recruiting drive certain to multiply the host of our enemies. In a word, a criminal--known to be armed and dangerous. Under the three-stike rule available to the courts in California, judges sentence people to life in jail for having stolen from Wal-Mart a set of golf clubs or a child's tricycle. Who then calls strikes on President Bush, and how many more does he get before being sent down on waivers to one of the Texas Prison Leagues? . . .

As of January 17, 2006, the rap sheet listed 2,229 American military dead in Iraq together with an unknown number of Iraqi civilians; what looks to be the sum of $1 trillion, by some estimates $2 trillion, already committed to The Project for the New American Century's real estate development in the Mesopotamian desert. Better reasons to impeach a president than the one pressed into service against Bill Clinton, whose penis was known to be aimless and shown to be harmless.

A Turkish restaurant without an Ataturk picture

2006-02-21T20:28:00.000-08:00

For a few hours this afternoon, I took a little break and went walking with my friend Khadidja. We headed down to Wallingford and stopped in at a little Turkish restaurant, where we drank apple tea--one of Samer's and my favorite things about going to Turkey. They also happen to have that amazing stinky cheese I often crave, which means we'll definitely be going back.

I tied Amina, our little fox terrier, outside and--like I've mentioned before--it was hilarious to see how much attention she got. People are nuts about dogs here. So nuts that some dude walked inside and asked me if it was my dog tied outside, that she was freezing. At the time, it was about 50 degrees outside--far from cold. And in the summer, of course, people are concerned about her getting too hot. Quite a change from Amman, where people would bark at her as they drove by or take off running across the street in fear. She sure is a scary dog (I popped up a picture of her with the boys so you can see just how frightening she is.)

Colonialism and mistaken superiority

2006-02-17T15:12:00.000-08:00

I was so annoyed when Samer brought in the latest issue of the Economist, with its cover story characterizing the whole Danish cartoon brouhaha as an issue of freedom of speech. What crap! And I'm a pretty big fan of the Economist.

So today I was happy to come across this user-friendly opinion piece by Martin Jacques in the Guardian. It's Euro-centric, but applies to the West in general and its attitude of superiority with regard to the rest of the world.

Here's a bit:

There is a profound hypocrisy - and deep historical ignorance - when Europeans complain about the problems posed by the ethnic and religious minorities in their midst, for that is exactly what European colonial rule meant for peoples around the world. With one crucial difference, of course: the white minorities ruled the roost, whereas Europe's new ethnic minorities are marginalised, excluded and castigated, as recent events have shown. . .

Old attitudes of superiority and disdain - dressed up in terms of free speech, progress or whatever - are still very powerful. Nor - as many liberals like to think - are they necessarily in decline. On the contrary, racial bigotry is on the rise, even in countries that have previously been regarded as tolerant. . .

When Europe dominated, there were no or few feedback loops. Or, to put it another way, there were few, if any, consequences for its behaviour towards the non-western world: relations were simply too unequal. Now - and increasingly in the future - it will be very different. And the subject of these feedback loops, or consequences, will concern not just present but also past behaviour.

Come again?

2006-02-17T15:05:00.000-08:00

Michael Morales, a death row inmate in California, will be given a sedative to prevent extreme pain during his execution next Tuesday. Read about it here.

That's awful nice of them, huh?

From France

2006-02-16T14:42:00.000-08:00

A friend alerted me to a recent piece in the New Left Review by Jean Baudrillard, who I haven't seen much of since my days in grad school and enslavement to the kings of theory.

While the article is ostensibly about immigration in France, it also very aptly points a finger at the West in general, as my friend highlighted the following excerpts:

Yet French or European discrimination is only the micro-model of a worldwide divide which, under the ironical sign of globalization, is bringing two irreconcilable universes face to face. The same analysis can be reprised at global level. International terrorism is but a symptom of the split personality of a world power at odds with itself. As to finding a solution, the same delusion applies at every level, from the banlieues to the House of Islam: the fantasy that raising the rest of the world to Western living standards will settle matters. The fracture is far deeper than that. Even if the assembled Western powers really wanted to close it—which there is every reason to doubt—they could not. The very mechanisms of their own survival and superiority would prevent them; mechanisms which, through all the pious talk of universal values, serve only to reinforce Western power and so to foment the threat of a coalition of forces that dream of destroying it. . .

The superiority of Western culture is sustained only by the desire of the rest of the world to join it. When there is the least sign of refusal, the slightest ebbing of that desire, the West loses its seductive appeal in its own eyes. Today it is precisely the ‘best’ it has to offer—cars, schools, shopping centres—that are torched and ransacked. Even nursery schools: the very tools through which the car-burners were to be integrated and mothered. ‘Screw your mother’ might be their organizing slogan. And the more there are attempts to ‘mother’ them, the more they will. Of course, nothing will prevent our enlightened politicians and intellectuals from considering the autumn riots as minor incidents on the road to a democratic reconciliation of all cultures. Everything indicates that on the contrary, they are successive phases of a revolt whose end is not in sight.

Speaking of the supposed "superiority of Western culture," did you hear Condoleezza Rice getting grilled yesterday by the Senate? To hear them talk you'd think she was personally responsible for making sure Hamas wasn't voted in in Palestine. In all the discussions I heard, it was essentially taken for granted that a win for Hamas means the U.S. is doing something wrong. What is true is that the U.S. doesn't have much of a clue how to win the hearts and minds of Palestinians in the first place--and it certainly has never been interested to do so, anyway.

We're probably on it by now

2006-02-15T19:54:00.000-08:00

The U.S. government's database of terrorist suspects now contains 325,000 names--four times more than it had only two and a half years ago.

The Guardian article I came across states

Timothy Sparapani, an expert on privacy rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ACLU's response was one of incredulity, and alarm that many people are likely to be on the list by mistake, with serious impact on their lives and few, if any, means of getting themselves off it.

"The numbers continue to grow by leaps and bounds," Mr Sparapani said. He had no idea what methods were being used to add names to the database, but added: "I have to say we're probably adding names faster than we can figure out how to deal with them ... We worry greatly about the potential stain to anyone's life who ends up on this list."

Just ask our old buddy Haitham, whose name is on the list. He had a fun time trying to get out to Seattle to visit us over Christmas.

Cheney haikus

2006-02-15T19:50:00.000-08:00

My cousin-in-law sent me a few haikus she wrote on Cheney's latest misadventure. Too funny. . .

I.

Startled from thoughts
of leak investigation--
Movement in the brush.

II.

Perhaps too much gin,
preoccupied by troubles,
Thought I saw a quail.

Them thar terrorists don't count

2006-02-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

As you've probably heard, our government's a big fan of democracy. In fact, we're spreading it around the world. Remember Iraq--that former dictatorship that's now got some democratically elected guys and is a world better now?

Unfortunately the brand of democracy in Palestine just won't do. The New York Times ran an article today claiming that high-level officials in both the State Department and Israel are discussing witholding cash to the Palestinian Authority in order to force new elections and get Hamas out.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer states

What is new is the strategy to force regime change by impoverishing the Palestinians even further, according to the newspaper report. As the U.S. and Israeli officials see it, Palestinians would grow so miserable that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah's leader, would dissolve parliament and call early elections within months, the New York Times said.

Lovely, just lovely.

Read the P-I article here.

Money musings

2006-02-13T18:40:00.000-08:00

We got back a little bit ago from our first-ever visit with a money guy. Not because we have money we need to manage, but because we have no clue about taxes here in the U.S. We're filing jointly and trying to figure out what all this deduction stuff means.

Thank God we'll be able to deduct our move to the U.S.--the monumental undertaking of the century. Which means we'll probably end up not having to pay out the wazoo to the gov't. At least for this year.

Roger, the guy we met with, helps people figure out how to manage their money. I guess this is one count in which I don't yet feel middle aged. We have pretty much no savings yet to speak of and have about zero clue about investing and stuff.

So I guess that makes us really behind in the rat race. But we're gonna have to figure it out all soon so we can live the old American Dream. Yippee skippy. . .

Off to Vancouver

2006-02-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

I've been completely lame about posting, and that's because Mom made a surprise visit for Issy's 3rd birthday and we've been running around like crazy.

Tomorrow morning we're off to Vancouver for a few days, so I'm pretty much out of commission for this week. Keep checking back--I'll put up pictures soon!

More proof of what we kinda knew already

2006-02-03T00:00:00.002-08:00

This doesn't really surprise me, but here's more evidence that Bush and Co. had it out all along to wage war on Iraq--by hook or by crook.

The Guardian today (article here) reveals contents of a memo of a Bush/Blair meeting that took place in January 2003--two months before the invasion began. Not only did Bush "ma[ke] it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme," but he also

. . . told Mr Blair that the US was so worried about the failure to find hard evidence against Saddam that it thought of "flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours". Mr Bush added: "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach [of UN resolutions]".

Perhaps not too surprising, yet one more instance of this administration's outrageous and lawless behavior.

Gore Vidal's State of the Union

2006-02-03T00:00:00.001-08:00

I don't have a t.v. But if I did, I would still not watch the State of the Union speech that happened a few days ago. It would have just made me ill.

So forgive me for being a bit untimely, but I ran across Gore Vidal's State of the Union speech and it was kind of a hoot--worth checking out. He's apparently been authoring his own State of the Union speeches since the '70s and I don't know how they were back in those days, but man, we sure can use a little comic relief/catharsis this time around.

Vidal says, "Now, we’ve had idiots as presidents before. He's not unique. But he's certainly the most active idiot that we have ever had."

Ol' Gore's my kind of guy.

Prescriptive democracy

2006-02-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

Of course, I couldn't finish the day without posting a brilliant article by Robert Fisk. This one's a few days old, but he totally nails the West's dilemma with democracy when the "wrong" guys (read: Islamists) are elected.

There's tons of stuff being written about Hamas getting elected, but I'm feeling a little hopeful. Fisk is, too. Check out what he has to say here, which really seems to make a lot of sense. His look at how Western governments progressively make peace and work with their former enemies (e.g., Japan, Vietnam, even the Dawa party politicians currently running Iraq's government) makes one wonder why the U.S. has such a double standard in the Middle East when it comes to democratically elected religious parties.

Here's an excerpt:

Not long after the Hamas leadership had been hurled into southern Lebanon, a leading member of its organization heard me say that I was en route to Israel.

"You'd better call Shimon Peres," he told me. "Here's his home number."

The phone number was correct -- proof members of the hierarchy of the most extremist Palestinian movements were talking to senior Israeli politicians.

The Israelis know well the Hamas leadership. And the Hamas leadership know well the Israelis. There is no point in journalists suggesting otherwise. Our enemies invariably turn out to be our greatest friends, and our friends turn out to be our enemies.

How terrible to speak with those who have killed our sons. How unspeakable to converse with those who have our brothers' blood on their hands. No doubt that is how Americans who believed in independence felt about the Englishmen who fired upon them.

I certainly hope the U.S. gives it up and just gets down to business before wasting more time by avoiding Palestine.

Update

2006-02-01T15:34:00.000-08:00

I've been running around so much of late that I haven't even mentioned last Saturday's screening. It went really well. At least, judging from the enthusiastic response, it seems people really liked my flick. Up until the screening, I had spent a day and a half of ironing out weird technical details, so I wasn't totally sure the film would project all the way through without any glitches. I was a ball of nerves up until it played all the way through--and, of course, the instructor had to keep it for last to prolong my pain. It was such a relief that everything was fine.

I heard reports from throughout the screening room that people were pulling out their hankies and that the film brought them to tears. In fact, Stacey, who was sitting next to me, bummed a tissue from me early on and was wiping her eyes. I didn't pay it much mind at the time since I was sitting on pins and needles assuming the audio was going to go out at any second (it didn't, thank the good Lord), but I guess Ala's music layered over the dreamy Amman scenes got people a little emotional.

The feedback was great--and kind of confirmed my suspicion that people would not have a problem with the way I arranged the film's different sections. Except now I'd love to show it to more people to get as much feedback as possible.

The weekend was also really special because my good ol' friend Nancy--who I'd been out of touch with for 13 years!--came and spent time with us. It was excellent to hang out, and the amazing thing is that it seemed like it had been no time at all since we were sitting around playing cards with the little delinquent twerps at the Boys and Girls Club. Yep, that's how we know each other--we spent many a long afternoon playing Euchre and basketball those months before I shipped off to Cameroon.

Issy's been a ball of excitement these past few days. Friday's his 3rd birthday, and he's been marching around the house in his party hat singing happy birthday to himself. We've made cupcakes for his pre-school class to devour tomorrow and have planned a party for Saturday. Not to mention, we got a surprise phone call from Grandma today, informing us that she's flying in tomorrow morning for the big day. Plus, she's staying a whole week, which means Samer and I are gonna be doing some heavy dating.

Beat

2006-01-31T20:27:00.000-08:00

I've been reluctant to blog lately because I've been feeling totally wiped out. Tired and feeling stretched too thin.

But luckily a few of the things I've been reading today have made me feel like I'm not the only one. Chasing after a toddler is killer, and it's wonderful to see in print that I'm not alone in feeling catatonic half the time. Pre-school hookups with other moms have also great for commiserating. . .

Anyway, I get these postings nearly every week from some parent-type website, and it cracked me up to look at this week's poll. "How do you keep romance alive?" is the poll question (tee hee hee), and it's just so pathetic that we moms even bother to look at these things they're so cheesy and unencouraging. I mean, even the notion of "romance" is just laughable for me at this point.

Well, the poll is encouraging in a way, I guess, since it looks like most of the other moms who responded are getting just about as much romance as I am. In fact, it's 8:30 and I can barely hold my head up. In fact, I'm in heaven with the thought that I'm going to be able to crash out before the ungodly hour of 11.

Aargh!

2006-01-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

Today and tomorrow are audio insanity. I can't wait to be done with this film. Meanwhile, catch me back in this space next week.

Extra ears

2006-01-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

Bush is making a valiant effort to let everyone know just how important his domestic spying program is. "What's the big fuss about, anyway?" he's asking. And I have to say I'm a little shocked people are surprised it's been going on. I had assumed this was standard practice. It might not be legal, and it's a stretch of executive powers, but that's never a problem for these guys.

Perhaps Samer and I should refrain from referring to him as a mutakhallef in future conversations with my in-laws back in Amman.

Here are a couple of pieces I came across on the subject today: an editorial from the Washington Post and a New York Times article on Bush's feel-good trip to the National Security Agency today to commend them on a job well done. Of course, he'd have to do that.