on rushdie

6/13/2002:
i finished reading those Rushdie essays yesterday. glad i read them. know a little more about him, his thoughts/views and his book [The Satanic Verses]. he changed my mind on a few points:

1. the reaction to his book was barbaric and embarrasing. muslims could/should have gone about it differently.
2. we need to have the faith, courage and insight to question. to critique. to judge. to change. not our faith. but ourselves. we need to not be so rigid/inflexible/intolerant.
3. people should be free to speak their mind. express themselves. the extent to which this goes (if there is a limit to that extent at all) i will not go into here b/c, candidly, i don't know.
   

...the problem is that Rushdie can be blamed for doing precisely what he accuses people of doing. e.g. interpreting the Qur'an literally. and failing to understand/respect that having faith can be a dynamic/critical/brave/empowering process. i believe – at least by emphasizing that lack of faith is all of this – he takes that for granted.

finally, with regard to #2 above... i don't think Rushdie is at all capable of taking a bold lead on this. he has neither the insight/understanding nor the credibility/mandate to critique/question effectively or acceptably.

moving on... i'm now reading Two Ears of Corn [download book in PDF]. more on that later.

after the last sky...

 

6/12/2002:
The Earth is closing on us
pushing us through the last passage
and we tear off our limbs to pass through.
The Earth is squeezing us.
I wish we were its wheat
so we could die and live again.
I wish the Earth was our mother
so she'd be kind to us.

I wish we were pictures on the rocks
for our dreams to carry as mirrors.
We saw the faces of those who will throw
our children out of the window of this last space.
Our star will hang up mirrors.
Where should we go after the last frontiers?
Where should the birds fly after the last sky?
Where should the plants sleep after the last breath of air?
We will write our names with scarlet steam.
We will cut off the hand of the song to be finished by our flesh.
We will die here, here in the last passage.
Here and here our blood will plant its olive tree.

Mahmoud Darwish, The Earth Is Closing on Us, translated by Abdullah al-Udhari, in Victims of a Map (London: al-Saqi Books, 1984), p. 13.


[note: i'm pretty sure i read and transcribed this poem from Salman Rushdie's Step Across This Line, as i was reading it in Kayes, but i could be wrong. in any event, the poem and citation above are from Mehbooba Poems & Poetry.]

american democracy

5/15/2002:

"you got a problem with democracy?!"

response of the Cuban-American lobby [not sure which organization] representative to a BBC journalist's question about the lobby's (undue) influence on and driving of American foreign policy vis-a-vis Cuba.

awkward silence followed... then a tenuous chuckle from the British man. he and i probably both thinking "Lord! what a typically American response." why should the rich and powerful in one country be permitted to –

i won't finish the thought... not thinking clearly.

thinly-veiled...

4/24/2002:

WATER CATCHMENT PROTECTION:
Meeting at the Senior Divisional Office

-discussion of watershed committee, community and caretaker responsibility vis-a-vis the water catchment area.
-what is a water catchment area? defined as the appropriate buffers around a spring or stream
-importance of trees to water catchments and consequences of bush-fires on such areas. thus, the importance of preventing the effects of bush-fires on water catchment areas.

-one of the delegate's [for agriculture and rural development, i think] and a representative of local graziers warned that land-grabs in the name of protecting water catchment areas from bush fires could encroach on the graziers' way of life.

-the delegate called for "cultural sensitivity for the sake of common development." communal grazing and bush-fires are long-standing land tenure and management system for these people. still unsure whether large cattle population can be sustained on improved pasture.

-hmmm... these are farmer-grazier tensions thinly-veiled behind discussion of bush-fires vs. water catchment protection.

an american abroad

feels good. it is good. at least for the moment. to be an american, that is. to be an american abroad today. an american in "the muslim world," for that matter.

i spent much of my two years as a peace corps volunteer coming to terms with my american identity, among other things... i also spent a good deal of that time wondering why my government was making it so difficult for me to be an american abroad. especially in "the muslim world."

all that is on hold for a moment... i pray it'll be more than just a passing moment. of hope and change. for those of us abroad. and those of us in america. after all... we, too, sing america.

praised. seeker of the subtle. purveyor of patchwork.

hollow land

Indeed, beyond their physical reality, the territories of Israel/Palestine have constituted a schematic description of a conceptual system whose properties have been used to understand other geopolitical problems. The ‘Intifada’ unfolding in Iraq is a part of an imaginary geography that Makram Khoury-Machool called the ‘Palestinization of Iraq’. Yet, if the Iraqi resistance is perceived to have been ‘Palestinized’, the American military has been ‘Israelized’.

Furthermore, both the American and Israeli militaries have adopted counter-insurgency tactics that increasingly resemble the guerrilla methods of their enemies.

When the wall around the American Green Zone in Baghdad looks as if it had been built from left-over components of the West Bank Wall;

when ‘temporary closures’ are imposed on entire Iraqi towns and villages and reinforced with earth dykes and barbed wire;

when larger regions are carved up by road blocks and checkpoints;

when the homes of suspected terrorists are destroyed, and ‘targeted assassinations’ are introduced into a new global militarized geography

...it is because the separate conflicts now generally collected under the heading of the ‘war on terror’ are the backdrop to the formation of complex ‘institutional ecologies’ that allow the exchange of technologies, mechanisms, doctrines, and spatial strategies between various militaries and the organizations that they confront, as well as between the civilian and the military domains.

Eyal Weizman. Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation (Verso, London, 2007), p. 10.

this is what i'm presently reading... can't help but make the connections b/w current events in Gaza, my recent posts on Israeli incursions into the Occupied Territories almost 7 years ago, and the links the author makes in the excerpt above (and i allude to in the previous post) b/w American and Israeli approaches to the 'War on Terror.'

note: i've broken up the excerpt for easier reading... it's all one long paragraph in the book.

until they understand...

3/9/2002:
40+ people (mostly Palestinian) were killed yesterday in and around the Occupied Territories. it was a Friday, of course. now Sharon is talking about a cease-fire... without the need for the 7 days of peace he’d been calling for as a condition to talks. he’s been saying things like: we have to inflict pain and casualties on Palestinians until they understand...

i don’t think he or a whole lot of other Western leaders understand that this will not end in that way. that no matter how many die or are killed in one day, tomorrow there will be more [resistance]. even more. i think maybe Sharon finally understood he couldn’t butcher that many people on a consistent basis and go on alleging they were all terrorists.

i think maybe Sharon got a phone call from DC telling him to cool it. that our "War on Terror" takes priority and he’s giving it a bad name. especially with the “Moderate Arab States.” yeah... God bless the Moderate Arab States. God bless America. God bless foreign national interest in our part of the world. peace.

on a lighter note... i went out to the farm with Paul and his crew [siblings] this morning. planted maize. got my hands dirty. good stuff.

honest constructive

3/3/2002:
...still here at Muhammad’s. his mother refused to let me leave before 1pm. after prayer, that is, wants to feed me again. good folks.

we went out to see the cows. Abdu and a bunch of the young men were struggling with an injured cow, itself struggling. this place is sooo big. beautiful open grassland. [my stereotypical] Africa.

saw Suhaibu in the morning. had a most interesting conversation about America, Israel, the MidEast and Oil... politics, that is. Suhaib was translating questions from an old Fulani man from Esu to me.

conversations like that make me think. they tire me b/c it’s tough enough to deal with topics like that without the language/cultural barrier. that makes expression and comprehension that much tougher.

question(s): other PCV’s... when they’re asked about America, how do they respond? how frank are they? how biased? and i? am i giving an equally biased view? an inaccurate one? an unAmerican one? a detrimental one? not constructive or just honest? can honest be constructive?

...is that the trick. be honest about American government. constructive about American people? can’t have conversations like that without thinking “wow... this PC experience.” surreal, the cross-cultural exchange. you take it for granted, but at times you can’t help but notice the exchange as you’re having it.

and the questions about America don’t stop coming. keep them coming. just need the answers myself. and in trying to answer i learn more. about here. about there. about me. about us.

more malta

9/24/2001:
OK, malta is growing on me. just had a couple at Flo’s off-license. they’re better/easier on an almost empty but stable stomach. may actually taste good soon. more a meal than a drink, really. and my only option in terms of appeasing the generous folk who keep offering me drinks.

the Prefet (or Sous-prefet?... a nice man from the West) bought me one. and the VP of GTHS. then i went to the back and ate with James (Flo’s husband) in the parlor. watched some CRTV (Cameroon Radio and Television). talked a little Anglophone politics. TV was interesting... saw President Bush and all the major players on “our” side for the 1st time in a long time. Powell, Rumsfeld, etc.

also saw a side of Cameroon i’m not used to seeing... sometimes i forget it even exists. privileged, posh, Westernized “Yaoundites” on the news. civil servants at seminars, officials at meetings, students in clean schools with computers... all very well dressed, nice cars, choice shots of the city. that ain’t the Cameroon i know! and yet it is Cameroon. James had a few things to say about that.

i’ll end with a point about pests. ants in the kitchen. a roach in the bedroom. termites in the parlor. slug in the bathroom. really making it difficult just to be patient and be at peace here in my abode. makes me think about “Moontiger" [a powerful and probably extremely unhealthy asian-bran insecticide], too. but i’m won’t go there.

anthills of the savannah

9/19/2001:
i’ve been meaning to write a thing or two—put some thoughts down—about the Achebe books i just finished. Anthills of the Savannah and No Loner at Ease. both are set in more modern day Nigeria. Anthills being the most recent; a modern day state and the political issues that are a backdrop to the story of 3 or 4 well developed characters who play a major role in these politics.

still Achebe makes them very human. and in many ways they represent different aspects of modern Nigerian society. the book is deep. rich with detail about the players involved in this political drama. Achebe cuts back and forth in the story’s timeline. he changes points of view completely in some chapters. allowing each main character to develop his/her own self as much as the others.

the choppy effect keeps the book interesting and engaging. he’s got a way with words. rich, in this case. not simple like in Things Fall Apart. maybe b/c life is no longer simple now??? all the similarities with what i’m experiencing here made the book that much richer. pidgin spoken throughout. bush-taxi rides that take you on mental journeys and, generally, a culture very similar to the one here.

i was only a little unimpressed by the ending. wrapped up a little too Hollywood. not really an intriguing, thought-provoking denouement. people die or are martyred and those left represent some sort of symbolic community that is to lead the country (all figuratively, of course) on.

not sure why i wasn’t all that happy with that. maybe too idealistic from someone i know knows more about how things really are here. but what’s wrong with idealism? and since when have i not been down with it myself?