Catch the Jew!

Normally I would just include this on my monthly books post, but this was long enough that I figured I'd do a separate post.



Catch the Jew! by Tuvia Tenenbom --  a Facebook friend - an older American guy living in Tunisia at the time of this recommendation - posted about this book a few months ago, and I put it on my Amazon wishlist.  Ed mentioned the author traveling to various parts of Israel/Palestine, meeting all sorts of people, and reporting on his findings.  Sounds like something I would really enjoy!  And I did in many ways although the book was also unsettling.


Tuvia was born into a very religious Israeli family. (Just looked it up "I was born and raised in Israel to an ultra-Orthodox, anti-Zionist family, and grew up in the most elitist neighborhood of ultra-Orthodoxy at the time.  My father was a rabbi...My grandfather refused to come to Israel because he did not want to live with Zionists, and the Nazis rewarded him and most of his family with on-the-spot burials." pg. 1).


I get the impression he rejected most of that religious stuff although he's Jewish and a supporter of Israel.  Still, he left Israel to pursue things forbidden to him during his childhood, i.e., science and the arts.  He founded the Jewish Theater of New York.


I like that he is fluent enough in Hebrew, Arabic, German, and English that he could hear and read what others were saying/writing, and, he didn't have to rely only on what people fed him.  (I remember one instance where he knew what the imam was saying to his people whereas the German or French NGOs didn't.  That was a bit disturbing.) He often convincingly pretended to be a German journalist - he'd call himself Tobi the German -, and, therefore, gain access to areas of Palestine or Israel that were off limits to Jews, and vice versa.  For the most part, the Palestinians loved Tobi the German.  It was unsettling to me how often they would mention Hitler's treatment of Jews in a positive light.  I like that Tuvia reported on Palestinian areas - places I have never really heard about. Of course, I'm going on his own reporting - and maybe he lied - but if he didn't, there is a whole nother viewpoint of them.

Truthfully Tuvia admired the Palestinians he met - they had great food, and were warm, friendly, accepting (of Tobi the German at least), supported their own unlike "self-hating" Jews or even an "ex-Jew" in one case.  I was amazed at how many European especially German groups were working to help Palestinians - and in Tuvia's mind show the world how awful Israel is.  I actually feel quite mixed up after reading this!

This book has 467 pages so there were lots of interesting tidbits. I only noted a handful so it wouldn't be too much.

-- Walking through Tel Aviv, the author notes: "It is interesting for me to see, as I walk, that the leftists of this land are also its richest.  How does this work, and why, is a puzzle to me." (pg. 97)

-- Jewish stone throwers (pg. 103); that is they were throwing stones at their own Egged bus  (I often think only of Palestinian youth as throwing stones so this stood out to me!)

-- On his meeting with Gideon Levy:  "For many years Gideon has championed the Palestinian cause, but not one Palestinian has befriended him, or he one of them.  Obviously, despite what his articles may suggest, he really doesn't care about Palestinians, only about the Jews.  He's an Israeli patriot, as he says to me. He wants his Israel, his Jews, to be super-humans and reply to a bullet with a kiss.  In short: he wants all the Jews to be Jesus and die on the cross.

There can be only one reason why he would want them to be a Jesus: Inside of this man's heart, in its darkest corners, this Gideon is the biggest kind of Jewish racist that has ever existed. Jews must behave like super-humans because they are.  And as long as they do not behave as a master Jesus race, he hates them.  He is the strangest self-hating Jew you can find."  (pg. 122-123)

-- "The stupendous love for the Palestinians from so many nations that I keep seeing in this region is quite interesting. Some years ago I was in a Palestinian refugee camp called al-Wahdat in Jordan, where people live worse than the average cockroach.  No foreign government was helping them in any way, no NGOs around, and the Jordanian government was doing its best to make the life of these people a bit less intolerable.  It doesn't take a genius to know why the world 'loves' only certain Palestinians. I don't want to think about it."  (pg. 275)  

I kind of do want to think about it, though.


Also, an article by Tablet Magazine about his findings.

The Arab Spring

I had an interesting talk with a friend yesterday.  He and his cousin are both Syrians living in Germany, and while visiting together last weekend, they got to talking about how well they were treated by the Germans.

S said he ponders how non-Muslims treat them better than Muslims. How that saying about going to the West to see true Islam, but not as many Muslims was maybe true.

I countered, "Ah, but you know Muslims in Muslim countries aren't that way! Dictators rule so that is why people are mistreated!"

What he said surprised me. Otherwise I'd not have jotted it down for this post.

Here's the gist of it:


Before the Arab Spring I would have said the same thing: Arabs are oppressed by their dictators.  But now, no.  Arabs are at fault!  A sizable majority like their dictators, and the ones who don't - the ones who want freedom from dictators - are not willing to put aside their differences to make something better.  


They go back to "primitiveness" and tribalism takes over.  No common goals, but each person for himself at the expense of the whole country.  


If we really wanted freedom, we would be different.




I don't have time to go into any more right now, but that made me curious what the Arab Spring has taught others.

On Veiling and Hair and Paul

I have a relatively new Facebook friend and she's Jewish - my first Jewish friend! I met her on a HuffPo link. I liked one of her comments, and she requested me as a friend just like that!  I'm not sure how she'd label herself (if she would), but she told me that as a married woman she doesn't wear "trousers," but wears skirts that cover her knees, blouses that cover the elbows and she covers her hair in public.  She said single women don't cover their hair, but married women do in her community.  She also pointed out that her husband does modest things for her like not swimming in gender-mixed places.

I say all that because I was reading Paul Among the People by Sarah Ruden. She said she really did not like Paul because he sounded so misogynistic and homophobic, but as a scholar in classical languages, she started reading Paul in light of his contemporaries.  The book is "the apostle reinterpreted and reimagined in his own time."  She quotes Bible passages attributed to Paul, and compares them to other literature and known historical contexts of Paul's time.

One thing that really took my attention was about hair. It made me think, "Oh wow, the Middle East really hasn't evolved much from this thinking," and I don't mean that in a derogatory way because, likely, they have evolved, but they just still hold onto the traditions. That's more what I mean. I recall hearing people talk how in some places in, say, the Levant tribes do what they have done for centuries. And in many ways, I find that wonderful because there is something to be said for holding onto your culture and not letting social media or all this dang stuff available in the world make you lose something precious.

(I'm probably not saying that right, but I know what I mean in my own mind.)

So the subject was women's hair. More specifically she was talking about that passage concerning women in church covering their heads. From time to time I see a Christian group that practices this here, but despite my rather strict upbringing, it's one thing we never did in the Baptist churches I'm familiar with.  (Women didn't even have to have particularly long hair thankfully, since mine really doesn't grow long without growing into a shrub).  I have heard Muslims declare "See, you all are supposed to do what our women do...you just cherrypick that out and don't obey. You should be wearing hijab as well."  (Have you heard this, too?)

So I was going to write what she said about the veil, but figured first I'd ask for interpretations that you have heard regarding this passage. The main one I recall is that it was cultural and that our hair is our natural covering so we don't have to worry about veiling in the 20th century.

Instead of writing her thoughts on the veil, here is what she said about hair:

"Paul does not write of 'nature' (verse 14) by accident. The ancients believed that it was female hair's nature to inflame men, almost like breasts or genitals: men experienced women's hair as powerfully, inescapably erotic, in a way that makes our hair-care product companies look like an accounting textbook."  (pg. 88)

Then she quotes erotic passages from Ovid and Apuleius about hair and continues, "Notice the implicit association between hair on display and actual nakedness. This wouldn't make much sense unless both signaled sexual availability and both were thought of as automatically bringing on male desire."  (pg. 91)

What are your thoughts on hair, veiling, Paul's words on the subject, interpretations you've heard, what your church teaches on this matter, the fact that I added a new friend on Facebook based on a HuffPo link comment?  Anything?

Breaking and Confirming Stereotypes

I can't even remember how we got on the subject now.  All I know is that Samer and I were talking the other day, and the subject of Americans came up.  Maybe we were talking about stereotypes because the next thing I know, I'm jotting down notes as he lists ways I broke his stereotype of people from the United States, and things I confirmed about it.

Oh, I may have mentioned Malik's post about differences in US thoughts of dogs compared to Arab Muslims' thoughts of dogs. And also Amber's comment about her thinking Southern culture was in some ways similar to Arab culture.  I think we were talking about those topics as they tend to be some of my favorite.

Anyway, here is what I noted:

WAYS I BROKE THE STEREOTYPE:  According to Samer,

* I am emotional, therefore, not the "cold Westerner" type he sees in Germany.

* I have a love for foreign stuff. I easily warm up to foreigners and am open to other points of view.

* I am not stubborn - meaning I am OK with changing my mind about things if I see that I've been wrong

* I am not brainwashed by the media

*  I don't watch a lot of TV, movies, and am not overly-concerned with following celebrities.

* I am not hardheaded re: US patriotism and foreign policy


WAYS I CONFIRMED THE STEREOTYPE:  According to Samer,

* I am easy-going

* I am friendly

* I like jokes

* I have an American accent


I would qualify most of these because I am not always easy-going or friendly, and sometimes I am very much stubborn. But I am thankful that Samer sees me in a good light most days.

(Good thing this topic didn't come up the day I was ranting about Patricia Roush's daughters being stolen by her Saudi ex-husband because I wasn't very nice about men, Arabs, Muslims, the idea that children belong to their fathers, or mixed-cultural relationships that day.  Thankfully Samer is forgiving ... )


Have you ever had a foreign friend who shared how you either confirmed or broke stereotypes he or she had of people from the United States (or where ever you are from)? What was on your list?  What things do you believe most foreigners have right about your people? Wrong? 

Five!

Just think five years ago right now, I didn't even know how my life would change the next day when I opened a private message "From Damascus" that was sent to me on a MySpace account I'd had all of three months.  I mentioned the Middle East on my profile, and something must have prompted Samer to contact me.  His note was a slight challenge, albeit very polite.

On October 9, 2007 I read the message, wrote him back, and he wrote me back within an hour. It was during Ramadan so he was up despite the seven hour time difference.  I remember wondering if he were legit. What are the odds that some Muslim Arab guy in Syria would write me?  Was he one of those internet weirdos they warn you about on the news?

Maybe so, but we became fast friends. Family really. And I'm thankful for three times we've met in real life. Once in Syria (where we met his mom, brothers and sister, and friends) and twice now in Germany.

I'm thankful to God for what he has taught me - and where He has taken me - through knowing Samer!

Eagle's Nest - August 2012

Foreign Impressions

I often find it interesting to hear of people's experiences in other countries.***  A friend told me of two German coworkers who visited the US (San Mateo, CA) for the first time recently.  Their impressions:


Americans are louder, much more open and friendlier. A waiter or waitress thinks nothing of telling you about his day or her family. (Apparently small talk amongst strangers doesn't happen much in Germany!)  Also the younger guy said no one smokes. In fact when he did light up in a parking lot, someone threatened to call the police!  He noted our love of ice - we 'overwhelm' them with the stuff. And they were surprised by the huge amount of Coke served with their meals.  (In Austria and Germany on our recent trip it was about 3 euros for a small bottle - cold, but no ice, no free refills.) And also the people here are fatter.  Maybe because we drink too much Coke and don't smoke..hmmm?


I was reading Ciao, America! by Beppe Severgnini and he made many similar observations. He lived with his wife in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. for a year.  He noted the ice (he really felt strongly about it. Why are ice cubes so offensive? Because they crunch?), the frigid air conditioning, the differences in Mass, the bureaucracy involved in getting services (piece of cake compared to Italy), and the talkativeness of random strangers.  I was especially laughing at the bit about waiters and waitresses telling about their lives and running to serve when they (Beppe's family) just wanted to be left in peace to eat.  It wasn't all negative. In fact it was mostly just observations and reactions to life here.  I found it amusing. And these I shared on Facebook as a sample.



"Relationships are good with the rest of the neighbors and conversation comes easily. Americans tell you more about themselves in an hour than the British do in ten years. The main thing is not to mistake this cordiality for friendship. It's more a sort of cosmetic to perk up everyday life, and should be treated as such." (pg. 98)


"There's always a note of alarm in American weather forecasts. TV weatherpeople have glassily inexpressive eyes. Even when they're making one of their little jokes, they give the impression that they're keeping back some tragic piece of news. There's an entire channel (the Weather Channel) that deals exclusively with the subject.  In fact, it ferrets out disasters in every corner of the Union. Hurricanes, floods, storms, downpours, eclipses, landslides - any calamity will do.  It's the meteorological version of a horror film, and we foreigners are unaccustomed to the concept. ... During the summer it is not sufficient to communicate infernal temperatures. There's also a comfort index, calculated from the combination of heat and humidity.  And winter is not just a question of bitter cold. There is also the windchill factor, ... Knowing the exact quantity of discomfort - being able to say exactly how badly you feel and why - is the first step toward the goal of every U.S. citizen: to feel good."  (pg. 64-65)



Earlier today I was in downtown Graham running errands. Walking them really. And a little girl saw me.

"Where's your car?" 

Me:  "Around the corner and up the street.  I parked at the library."

"Ohhhh. I like your blue bag"  (I was carrying some things I'd found for Zach at Little Blessings, and the bags *are* a pretty color.)

Me:  "Thank you. I hope you have a good day, sweetie" I said as I smiled and started to walk away.

I hear floating after me:  "I looooove you" 

Sweet Stranger Moments.

And, yes, I did wonder what Beppe would have thought if he'd encountered such an outgoing little girl during his time in the United States.   :)



My apologies to those who are Facebook friends and have already read much of this. 


***  This is why one of my favorite places on the web is Malik's blog. He's from Jordan and lives in Missouri.  I love when he writes posts dealing with differences in Arab and American culture or what he finds picture-worthy.  Sadly, Samer doesn't blog because he has some good stories of life in Germany, and I enjoy hearing what he has to say about the differences in his experiences in Germany and Damascus.  Thankfully he gives me full permission to share them. I got the German coworker impressions from him. Bet you never would have guessed that, huh?

September Books

So this month I ended up reading two books dealing with China, and two memoirs about people leaving their faiths.  I didn't know the two latter books would delve so much into childhood sexual abuse when I started them.  I was thoroughly disgusted at how two powerful churches (one for sure; the other maybe was falsely accused) have used their money and clout to cover abuse for the sake of their churches' reputations!  Children be damned as long as the faith is protected?  Horrible!  And even though these two churches are not my own, I condemn any who cover abuse for the sake of their reputations. How about some character, people...not hypocrisy!   And I would dare to speak for God and say He is thoroughly disgusted by this as well.  Yes, your church might go through bad publicity - as it should!  And it IS shameful.  And it IS a horrible testimony. And it DOES cause unbelievers to blaspheme God in many cases (see II Samuel 12).  But these things must be dealt with. You can't expect sin to stay hidden, that you will always be able to protect the guilty. God knows what is going on. He's not giving you a free pass.  Sorry, I had to get this out. I see my precious nephews. One is ten and a half, the other almost 17 months old, and I cannot stand the thought of anyone abusing them and getting by with it because some church doesn't want bad publicity.  And don't get me started on churches that know of sexual predators and reassign them to other posts where they can prey on a new batch of children. Grrrrr.

Boy, I rarely get this testy when doing my monthly book reports, huh?




Among the Righteous: Lost Stories From the Holocaust's Long Reach Into Arab Lands by Robert Satloff -- This Jewish man researches the stories of Arab treatment of Jews in North Africa.  I enjoyed the story of Khaled Abdul-Wahab and the author's attempt to get him accepted as the first Arab remembered by Yad Vashem for his role in saving Jews during the Holocaust. He comes across many roadblocks as more recent politics play into whether Arabs want to be known for helping Jews. Also Jews sometimes deny the Holocaust's reach into the Arab countries.





Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang  -- I didn't realize this book was so long when I picked it up, but over 500 pages later, I must say that I enjoyed learning the story of these three women. The author shared about her grandmother who was a concubine to a general and later married to a much older doctor.  The family dynamics of her coming into this family made me appreciate the simplicity of marriage in my own culture.  (Her new husband's oldest son ended up shooting himself in a fit of rage because of this proposed marriage. He died.)  This story involved the author's mother and father, and their commitment to the Communist Party. I enjoyed the examples of life in China at this time and during the reign of Mao and the Cultural Revolution.  I had to smile when she told of how "eat all your food because there are poor capitalists in the West who are starving and would love to have the food you are eating" was used on them as children.  (I've heard a similar version growing up.)  I was struck by the patriarchy of this traditional society and how Communism declared women and men more equal. I got to wondering just how far back patriarchy goes and where did repressing women and elevating men begin? 

I just thought this was interesting.

"Following the custom, my great-grandfather was married young, at fourteen, to a woman six years his senior.  It was considered one of the duties of a wife to help bring up her husband."  (pg. 22)


With some exceptions like books on Mao's writings and "revolutionary operas," among the many things banned or seen as too "bourgeois" during the Cultural Revolution in China -- books, paintings, musical instruments, sports, cards, chess, teahouses, bars, flowers, grass (yes, grass was pulled up as if it were an enemy!), films, plays, concerts, long hair for women...  (pg. 332)


"To me, the ultimate proof of freedom in the West was that there seemed to be so many people there attacking the West and praising China.  Almost every other day the front page of Reference, the newspaper which carried foreign press items, would feature some eulogy of Mao and the Cultural Revolution. At first I was angered by these, but they soon made me see how tolerant another society could be.  I realized that this was the kind of society I wanted to live in: where people were allowed to hold different, even outrageous views. I began to see that it was the very tolerance of opposition, of protestors, that kept the West progressing."  (pg. 472)



The Lost Daughters of China by Karin Evans - a friend sent me this book thinking I'd like it and I did!  The author and her husband adopted a little girl from China (two actually),and she tells some of their story and also bits of stories from others. She explores the reasons women would give up their daughters, the hardship of life in China, orphanage life and adjusting to life in the US among other things. I shed a few tears for the innocent ones who are abandoned and left behind in orphanages as well as the ones who never have a chance at life because they are either aborted or killed upon delivery. Also I cried for those women who would have chosen to keep their children, but could not for the sake of society.  I can't imagine how difficult that must be.

Here is one excerpt I wanted to share.

Re: the only-children of China being spoiled:  "'Many parents of the nineties,'...'were part of the lost generation of the Cultural Revolution. After suffering so much themselves, they were determined not to deprive their only child. Beijing's biggest toy store was always jammed with parents buying toddler-sized fake fur coats, imported baby shampoo and red Porsche pedal cars.'

Yet she saw good things coming out of the situation. 'Many people thought that a country populated with Little Emperors was headed for disaster. I disagreed.  Granted it might be unpleasant to live in a nation of me-first onlies, yet I saw a social revolution in the making. For generations, Chinese society had emphasized the family, the clan, the collective over the individual. Now, for the first time in four thousand years of history, the relationship was reversed. Where the Mao generation failed, the Me generation just might succeed.' She quoted a British friend, Michael Crook, 'If you have a population of Little Emperors, you can't have little slaves. Everyone will want to tell everyone else what to do. You'll have democracy.'"  (pg. 234)




Losing My Religion by William Lobdell - I found this at the local Friends of the Library book sale; a reporter talks about his faith in Christ, how he got a job reporting religious news for a newspaper and eventually lost his faith.  The book was very respectful, really, but made me sad because he admits he saw very little difference in the majority of Christians' lives compared to the general population.  I don't think it's supposed to work like that!

"So what has taken the place of God in my life? A tremendous sense of gratitude. I sense how fortunate I am to be alive in this thin sliver of time in the history of the universe. This gives me a renewed sense of urgency to live this short life well. I don't have eternity to fall back on, so my focus on the present has sharpened.   I find myself being more grateful for each day and more quickly making corrections in my life to avoid wasted time.  I've tightened my circle of friends, wanting to maximize time with people I love and enjoy the most. I've become more true to myself because I'm not as worried about what others think of me. ... That's what losing God has done for me. Permanent death - I don't think I have the escape hatch to heaven anymore - now sits squarely in front of me, unmoving as I rapidly approach.  And you know what? My breakfast does taste better. I feel the love of my family and friends more deeply. And my dreams for my life have an urgency to them that won't allow me to put them off any longer. I can no longer slog through each day, knowing that if my time on Earth isn't used to its fullest potential, it's no big thing, that I have eternity with God ahead of me."  (pg. 278-279)



Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck -- I've often been driven to tears and disgust and anger and laughter and joy, but I don't think a nonfiction book has creeped me out until I read this book. Really it wasn't that creepy, but I just so happened to read a part (about Danites if you must know) right before bed and it must have upped the "creep factor" in my mind.  Like I told someone else, I take most leaving the faith stories with a huge dose of salt (as opposed to a mere grain) because I realize sometimes people won't present their former faiths in the best lights due to their own personal experiences. For others, the faith is a hugely wonderful thing partly because they haven't experienced those awful things. So, that said, I enjoyed this book and some of the talk of sealing in the temple (she didn't go into great detail because she knows it's sacred), wards (I often wondered what those were pg. 54), heavenly mothers (yes, plural, since God is a polygamist, too pg. 75), BYU (pg. 77), the Mormon view of heaven and its levels (pg. 87), the Egyptian papyri that early Mormons bought from a traveling guy who showed the papyri for a living (pg. 155), more talk on polygamy and how women and men viewed it (pg. 177), the victimization of the Saints in history (pg. 181) and much more. I stopped noting it after awhile.

By the way, this lady came out as sexually abused by her father, apparently a well-known Mormon apologist. I decided to look him up.

This is her father, Hugh Nibley

A Q&A with her after the Mormon Church responded and a sampling of some of the responses she's received by email.  It's sad how many others have been sexually abused.

A collection of sites about this book - not sure how fair these are, but there are a number of links.

And when I mentioned this book to a Mormon blogger, she said she'd read the book, it did not ring true and she wasn't the only one who thought this way.

April Books

How have I gone a full month and not written anything here?  I've been busy reading other blogs, articles, Facebook and enjoying the outside, watching my nephews...and just not in much of a writing/sharing mood it seems.  So this month apparently found me still fascinated enough with Germany to read several more books about the World War II era.  Well, some delved off a bit from that, but these books were all in the general vicinity of the WWII shelves in my library.  Some of these books have things I like to share on Facebook.  Perhaps you've seen some of these quotes there. Also I like playing "any guesses?" where people have the opportunity to figure out the correct answer - at least correct according to the book! 



On Hitler's Mountain by Irmgard A. Hunt -- subtitled:  Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood -- I found this at the local library and really enjoyed the story of this lady as she grew up in an ordinary Nazi family. Well, it was extraordinary, I suppose, in that they lived on the mountain where the Nazi leaders often met. It was also neat reading this since Samer visited Berchtesgaden the week after we left Germany and I'd seen his lovely pictures.  The mention of Salzburg, of course, brought back memories of our recent trip there.  The author described life in war-torn Germany, and even the months after the war as part of Germany occupied by Americans. I enjoyed her thoughts of the soldiers and her interactions with them. By the way, American cigarettes became THE way to buy needed items.  The locals would ask the soldiers to pay for souvenirs with cigarettes.  Good book!




A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous --  The diary of a young woman during eight weeks in Berlin. She talks of the Russians coming and how the women collectively dealt with rape and survival as they became a defeated nation.  It made me appreciate the blessing of food - why do I take this for granted? 


"As we walked out of the store a truck drove by with German troops, red tabs, meaning antiaircraft.  They were headed away from us, toward the center of town. They sat there mute, staring off into the distance. A woman called out to them, 'Are you leaving?' No one answered her. We looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders.  The woman said, 'They're just poor souls themselves.' 

These days I keep noticing how my feelings towards men - and the feelings of all the other women - are changing.  We feel sorry for them; they seem so miserable and powerless.  The weaker sex.  Deep down we women are experiencing a kind of collective disappointment.  The Nazi world - ruled by men, glorifying the strong man - is beginning to crumble, and with it the myth of 'Man.' In earlier wars men could claim that the privilege of killing and being killed for the fatherland was theirs and theirs alone. Today we women, too, have a share.  That has transformed us, emboldened us. Among the many defeats at the end of this war is the defeat of the male sex."  (pg. 42-43)



"Why are they so fixated on watches? It's not because of the monetary value; they don't ogle rings and earrings and bracelets the same way at all.  They'll overlook them if they can lay their hands on another watch. It's probably because in their country watches aren't available for just anyone and haven't been for a long time. You have to really be somebody before you can get a wristwatch, that is, before the state allots you something so coveted. And now they're springing up like radishes ripe for the picking, in undreamt-of abundance.  With every new watch he can present or give away back home, his status rises. That must be it. Because they can't distinguish a cheap watch from an expensive one. They prefer the ones with bells and whistles - stopwatches or a revolving face beneath a metal case. A gaudy picture on a dial also attracts them." (pg. 80)





After the Wall: East Meets West In the New Berlin by John Borneman -- an anthropologist talks to individuals in East Germany many of whom feared the change coming; This was an interesting look at differences in socialism and capitalism - the pluses and minuses of each.  An interesting thought was how socialism created dependency, but the problem was a people who demanded more than East Germany could provide. For example, one lady wanted white, closed-toed shoes, but never could find them and her government wouldn't drop them at her door (although they did send tennis shoes for her boys and other things requested on occasion.)

The discussion of how "socialism and capitalism both sought to manage the basic populations under their control through...the creation of needs" was interesting. Capitalism tells you what you need by "furnishing a stunning satiation, an addictive array of goods and services.Socialism worked through a system of fear, deprivation, and punishment.  The two approaches interlocked. The end result of each was dependency."   (pg. 82) 




Life and Death in the Third Reich by Peter Fritzsche  --  

Germany's "racial warriors" had three primary tasks:

1. increase the birthrate - they offered "tax incentives and interest free loans to reward childbearing marriages" BUT
since generally the "healthy and well-educated Germans tended to restrict the number of children in order to maximize their own quality of life" and "supposedly less healthy, less able Germans had higher birthrates," they often "targeted allegedly unfit citizens" who had too many children that "weakened the overall racial health of the nation"

2  weed out the unhealthy section of the population, primarily through sterilization

3. "eliminate foreign matter from the racial stock of the German people"    (pg. 85-86)


Last 98 days of war in 1945 -- 1.4 million German soldiers dead; about 14,000 every day

"An average of 127 German civilians died every day in air raids in 1944, and more than 1,000 every day in the raids of 1945."  (pg. 291)

‎"God is not accountable to us for the senseless harm we cause one another,...We are accountable to Him!" -- Etty Hillesum;

born 15 January 1914 in Middelburg
murdered 30 November 1943 in Auschwitz

Dutch author and mystic; Nazi victim

"German readers after 1945 also developed more historically specific explanations of the catastrophe of Nazism.  They increasingly saw themselves as victims of a brutal war imposed on them by a politically fanatical minority that had misled and betrayed a patriotic majority and misused the tribulations that most Germans felt had been inflicted on them after World War I. They were appalled at how the war ended rather than how it had started; they focused on Stalingrad and German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, Dresden and the air war against civilians, and the expulsion of Germans from eastern Europe in 1945.  This perspective was obviously politically expeditious, since it not only downplayed the active roles that Germans had played in the crimes of the Nazis but turned Germans into victims first. It conceded that Germans might have been complicit, but complicit because they were morally weak, not because they were criminally motivated."  (pg. 301)




Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace by Masha Gessen -- The author shares the stories of her Jewish grandmothers growing up in Russia.  I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of one grandmother who worked as a censor doing things the author said would have blacked out most of what she (Masha) does since she is a western journalist living in Russia as of this writing.  By the way, who knew Hungarian was such a difficult language?





Under Hitler's Banner: Serving the Third Reich by Edmund Blandford -- this books tells the story of 13 ordinary Germans; each chapter is one person's tale about how they came to serve Germany during Hitler's time. It was pretty interesting to read the lives of mostly ordinary people who came to be a pilot who bombed England, an U-boat crewman (telling about the dangers of that task and how close they came to the US coast), a bridge builder for the military, spies (two women - one was a cook who was recruited to spy for Germany against the Italians??), nurse, wife of an SS officer among other things. One of my favorite stories was from the Eastern Front by a guy in the anti-tank infantry. Oddly none of these people seemed evil and I'm not sure if I liked that or not.




Why My Father Died: A Daughter Confronts Her Family's Past at the Trial of Klaus Barbie by Annette Kahn -- When I first started this book, I was underwhelmed. I had a hard time following the details - might have been the distractions of my baby nephew and Facebook - so I thought of not finishing it, but I'm glad I stuck with it.  I sat here today reading testimonies of people who were testifying against this monster and was crying off and on the whole time.  In fact, it prompted me to note this to a friend who happens to currently live in Germany, but is not German.

Reading this book (and the others I've read recently) reminds me why I grew up not liking Germany. It's funny because when Leslie was here and I told her what you said about people not touring Germany a lot, she suggested it was because they still hold the Holocaust against them. I can certainly see why after the books I've read. I have to remember to separate the people now from the monsters back then. And I do know there were a few good people back then.And some who were just ignorant. A German soldier on a train taking prisoners from France to Auschwitz was pale upon arriving. The lady heard him tell his fellow soldier he thought it was only like a work camp - a gulag -, but when he saw the gas chambers and smelled the stench of death, he said, "The world will never forgive us for this." I've been crying all day reading these testimonies. Especially when I picture those little children...carted away to their deaths, fear in their eyes, crying from hunger and separation from their parents. I think of little Zach and my Michael, and I **cannot** understand that kind of cruelty. Surely those monsters were demons in German bodies.

Also I found this link about Klaus Barbie and noted on Facebook:

The current book I'm reading is about the trial of this monster. I am completely dismayed to read of his crimes and then find out "With the aid of the Americans, he fled from prosecution in France in 1950 and relocated to South America together with his wife and children." He lived in Bolivia and was friendly with dictator Hugo Banzer. Finally the man was tried in France in 1987 after "He lived in Bolivia as a businessman under the name Klaus Altmann from 1951 onward. Though he was identified in Bolivia at least as early as 1971 by the Nazi hunters Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, it was only in February 1983 that the Bolivian government, after long negotiations, extradited him to France to stand trial. This caused the U.S. to offer a formal apology to France in August 1983." Sometimes I really really really really hate what my country does! GRRR!

I am grateful to France for prosecuting this guy.  The Germans didn't really want to go to the trouble (!!!). The Americans employed him at one time (!!!). The Bolivians housed him.  Thank you, France and the Nazi hunters.



And after reading these, I decided to return to some of the books I received for Christmas. I could have continued on with library books, but why get books as gifts if you fail to read them in a timely manner?  I'd read half of them, but was at a standstill on the others. Now I have no library books at the house, but plenty of others that I need to read. (Update on that to come.)



Behind the Veil of Vice: The Business and Culture of Sex in the Middle East by John R. Bradley -- If you're thinking this book exposes the tawdry side of the Middle East and then condemns those people for being hypocrites. You know pretending to be all-pious Muslim and wearing all those modest clothes - covering hair, face, even hands in some cases, praying five times a day and all that. Well, this book does expose sexual practices like prostitution, temporary marriages and child brides and pederasty and pornography sold in souks, but the author is very much pro-sex culture and comes across more scolding of people trying to change it. (He labels himself in the conclusion as both "secularist" and "libertarian" so his positions make better sense.) Granted,he is against child trafficking and child marriages, but thinks numbers reported there are exaggerated because studies are not documented well.  The other stuff he believes is fine and holds up Tunisia's treatment of prostitutes - legalizing and caring for them - as an example to many other places in the world. (He'd talked so highly of Tunisia as a positive example - "the Arab world's most prosperous and peaceful country" - that I had to wonder what the author thought of the "Arab Spring" beginning there not too many months after this book was published.)   The author thinks we can learn from Arabs about homosexuality by treating this as a private matter and not something we must bring up in public and political arenas. This was the chapter on pederasty and how common and acceptable this older man/young boy sex is in a culture that doesn't divide people by age such as we do in the West, but by sex.

November Books

Another month has come and gone. Thanksgiving last week was great!  I love that the weather has been on the warm side.

Here are the books I finished reading this month.  The last one I finished just about an hour ago. I wasn't sure if I'd finish it or not, but I did! 

Hope you all are doing well!


Lipstick Jihad by  Azadeh Moaveni   -- I remembered seeing this review by Muslimah Media Watch back when I used to follow that blog, so when I saw this book in the library,I decided to read it. It's a memoir of a lady who grew up in California and later went to Iran where she found she was too American for some.  Here is an interview you may find interesting.; see previous post for excerpts from this book that I found interesting


The Miracle of Freedom: 7 Tipping Points that Saved the World by Chris and Ted Stewart -- I found this on the new book shelf at my local library and found it rather interesting. The authors claim freedom is not the norm and have chosen 7 historical events that they say were major "what if" moments.  Their choices range from Jerusalem not being destroyed by Assyria to the Mongols and Muslim armies not getting farther into western Europe to the Battle for Britain to the conversion of Constantine.  I enjoyed the history that I learned from this book.


Looking for Lovedu: Days and Nights in Africa by Ann Jones -- another interesting traveling story this one focusing on the author's mission to find Lovedu and the queen who rules her people. Along the way, the reader is informed of problems with the vehicle, border crossings, corrupt officials, cranky co-travelers as well as the depths of mud, mud and more mud in Zaire!  Quite a good book. I really enjoy learning more about other areas of the world through these types of books!




Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World by Fatima Mernissi -- Overall I think I liked this book although some things perplexed me.  This was written soon after the first Gulf War so it was a bit strange reading about Iraq and the Arab world's reaction back then having now gone through this other war concerning Iraq that we are trying to get out of none too soon!  The author scolded the West, the Arabs, the men. She gave me much to consider and at times I wasn't sure if she were writing tongue-in-cheek or if she were serious.  I had more than this to share, but I will refrain. But since I shared this bit on Facebook, I'll just leave it here.


"The supremacy of the West is not so much due to its military hardware as to the fact that its military bases are laboratories and its troops are brains, armies of researchers and engineers. ... The arms industry provides an enormous number of jobs in other sectors, such as electronics and communications. ... The West creates its power through military research, which forces underdeveloped countries to become passive consumers. The weakness of the Arab nations stems from the fact that they buy weapons instead of choosing to do their own research. .. The Arab states prefer to import finished technological products, especially arms, rather than train a powerful corps of scientists, which would risk destabilizing their authority from within."  -- (pgs. 43, 50)



The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel -- "A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ" - actually the book is a bit old (published in 2007) so it's not current current, but I appreciated it just the same.  The author talked to experts about such things as other ancient documents being found that are just as credible as the four gospels, Christianity borrowing from pagan teachings and myths, the resurrection, the Church tampering with the texts and so forth. See my earlier post for more on this book





The Rapture Exposed by Barbara R. Rossing provides "The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation" as the author picks apart the theology of dispensationalists and those believing the End Times arrive with an escape plans for all true Christians and a blood bath and utter destruction for planet Earth.  The author makes her case by talking quite a bit about the Left Behind series and the dangerous way it shapes American thinking about the rest of the world and foreign policy.  She ultimately believes in the saving power of the "wonder working blood of the Lamb" which left me remembering Paul's words about overcoming evil with good.  She tells us the true message of Revelation is that God is with us through all life's tribulations and that was personified as Jesus - God in the flesh come down to dwell among humans to be with them through storms and life's trials. 


The Red Tent by Anita Diamant -- this book is like a Jewish Midrash with Dinah, the daughter of Jacob (Israel) telling her story of growing up with four mothers and eleven brothers (she never knew Benjamin in this book until much later).  I remember when Amber posted on this book ages ago and recently when someone else mentioned it,I remembered to look for it that day at the library. (It just so happened I was headed there to get new books!  For the record, Amber, at the library I went to, they had this book in Christian Fiction...haha.) 


Dudes of War by Benjamin Tupper -- curious about what soldiers do when they aren't out on a combat mission?  This book has short chapters featuring people such as Shrapnel, The Greek, Lancelot, Deathwish, Casanova,  Mr. OCD and so forth as the author tells about his experiences in Afghanistan. Read how the digital age has made it possible for our soldiers to enjoy women when there are very few women around (Afghanistan is not like Vietnam with prostitutes waiting for our soldiers' attentions; the author admits how he develops a "foot fetish" of sorts looking for pretty nail polish and high heels in a country where women are completely covered), how the soldiers compete for having the best gear, how alcohol is technically forbidden to them there, yet it's often available anyway. He briefly discusses blogging, humanitarian assistance (in winning the hearts and minds of the Afghans), loving the Hazara (which made the Pashtun interpreters angry), PTSD, religion and so forth.

"The soldier does not operate in a black-and-white world, so to romanticize or demonize both miss the target.  The soldier is the fusion of Christ and Judas, the wolf and the sheep, and the aggressor and the victim. We are capable of altruism and moral failure at any given moment on any given day.   Soldiers recognize this fact perhaps better than anyone, but that doesn't mean they agree on what constitutes altruism and moral failures.  Soldiers who serve in the same army, under the same flag, and in the same uniform, will interpret their actions and justifications in starkly different ways."  (pg. 105)



Eclipse of the Sunnis by Deborah Amos -- see previous post for more information on Iraq refugees in neighboring countries

Also I found this of interest:

"Without waging war, Iran had skillfully expanded its political influence in places that before 2003 had been under Arab sway, including Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine.  The Arabs - above all the Sunni powers - had lost ground everywhere. Even the radical Sunni movements, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, were increasingly dependent on Tehran. Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah were furious about Iran's growing reach into the Arab heartland but what could they do about it? The American invasion that had removed Iraq from the balance-of-power equations on the Sunni side had tilted the region towards Tehran. The Sunni powers shuddered to think of living under the embrace of Shiite mullahs with nuclear arms."   (pg. 178)


Sandstorms: Days and Nights in Arabia by Peter Theroux -- see previous post about Saudi Arabia in the 1980s for excerpts from this book


Fortunate Sons by Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller -- see previous post

Interesting fact: After the building of the Transcontinental Railroad groups of Chinese men dug in the Sierra Nevada. They "would come on pilgrimages to search for the graves of their fellow workers. Beneath simple wooden stakes lay bodies buried with wax-sealed bottles holding pieces of cloth inscribed with the deceased's name and native village.  These remains, thus discovered, would be exhumed and shipped back to China; in all, twenty thousand pounds of bones would make this final journey."  (pg. 102)



Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman -- Faced with a struggling marriage and a trial separation, the author heads to Mexico to live among indigenous people. Rita wasn't content to stay in the touristy spots, but went to the villages where not many - if any - foreigners travel.  She connects with people this way in Mexico and Nicaragua, later travels to Israel hoping to find some connection with "her" people (fellow Jews).  Her travels take her to the Galapagos Islands and Indonesia where she spends parts of 8 years living in Bali and traveling to the Indonesian side of New Guinea.  She also talks about her life in New Zealand, Thailand and the United States. Unlike most of the travel books I've read this year where people talked with natives for short times, this book was different in that the author often lived with native people for weeks, months or years at a time. It was a great way for me to learn more about Balinese culture and other parts of the world.  Learn more about Rita at her website.





The Early Arrival of Dreams by Rosemary Mahoney tells the story of an American woman who lived in China for a year as an English teacher back in the 1980s. It was good reading her impressions of the Chinese people, cities, food, university and so forth. Also I enjoyed reading how they interacted with her.




Naked in Baghdad by Anne Garrels -- This book is about "the Iraq war as seen by NPR's correspondent" and it includes a few months before the war started and the couple of months after. At first I was a bit bored thinking I'd heard most of this before, but I grew to really enjoy the book as the author shared about what happened on the ground once the war started, the people's reactions and such things.  Interesting tidbit:  Russian was useful to her as a second language since she didn't know Arabic and many of the Iraqis she met didn't know English.  I liked that she tried to verify which civilian neighborhoods the US bombs hit and which other reported stories were true (or not).  I was saddened to read how the US troops didn't stop the looting (except for the oil ministry *ahem*) saying they were not a police force.  Yet they had just destroyed things and left the looters to wreak havoc.  The author said the bombs were really accurate for the most part, but the ground war once the troops came to Baghdad showed how ill prepared our military was for the pandemonium of a people recently freed. She said many Iraqis feared themselves and I see why after reading of the looting plus seeing how things have turned out the last several years with the sectarian fighting.  I enjoyed the reporting on how the Iraqi people reacted to Saddam's statue coming down. 

Observations on Saudi Arabia in the 1980s

If you've read any of my posts this year, you may know I've enjoyed a number of books by Westerners traveling through Arabia and other parts of the world. I find it such an interesting way to learn more about the variety of cultures, the religions, the people, the foods, the animals, everything. Of course they are told from specific people's eyes where the natives' habits may seem curious or strange, but that's part of what I love about reading books or blog posts of those visiting the United States. I like to see what stands out to people, what they find noteworthy, what they find worth sharing.

This book Sandstorms: Days and Nights in Arabia by Peter Theroux tells of the author's adventures in Egypt and Saudi Arabia during the 1980s as he was searching for information on what happened to Moussa Sadr. He wrote a book about that, but this one is about other stuff that happened during his time in the Middle East. 

Peter learned Arabic, made friends with Arabs and did his best to explain Arab culture to visitors so the visitors would have a better understanding of the Arabian ways.  Please keep this in mind as you read the following excerpts because I don't want you to get the wrong impression that his book was only about this stuff I noted.  I guess these are just the funny and odd things that stand out the most to me. Actually there is so much more - like the man who wanted to convert Peter to Islam and then asked if he had any girls (American? British? Filipino?) available so he could have a good time.  When one day Peter decided to say yes that he has available girls and they are Saudis, the man got extremely angry and never spoke to him again!  Must be one of those cultural things about MEN that I will never understand!

Since this book's information is quite old, I do wonder as I'm reading how much has changed since Peter lived in Arabia.



THIS ONE JUST MADE ME LITERALLY LAUGH OUT LOUD


Peter was driving in Saudi Arabia when his car slid into a ditch. A police car arrived and the officer checked his driver's license which was issued in Peter's home state, Massachusetts.

Officer:  "Just wait a minute - what's this?"

"That's my American license. I don't have a Saudi one yet, but -- "

"What do you mean, 'American license'? Show me where it says 'America.'"

Alas, it doesn't since it was issued by Massachusetts - a state - and not the federal government.  So the officer calls another officer over and they talk. The second officer comes over with the pleasant "salaamu aleikum" greeting declaring that he knows Massachusetts: "It's the best state!"

We chatted - he was friendly and extremely religious and demanded to know why I had not converted to Islam, since I knew Arabic and could presumably see, in the Koran, the perfect fulfillment of Judaism and Christianity. Surely I rejected the infamous sacrilege that God had a mother and a son?  ... I tried to pump him about his visit to Massachusetts.

"I never visited there - I know it from history. America is full of good people but bad things - sex and crime, and some people are so backward - they worship the devil and follow the tower" - he meant al-bourj, the zodiac - "but Massachusetts is the only place they know how to deal with witches - by hanging them!  Good night, my friend."  (pgs. 20-22)

Not sure why this struck me so funny. Must have been the matter-of-fact way the guy declared MA the "best state" because they hung witches there.  In the past. Not that that is funny at all ... moving on.

ON CONVERSIONS OBSERVED IN KSA

It involved in his opinion "a cultural rather than spiritual transformation. I never knew a Christian whose values changed radically after adopting Islam, but the outward changes - especially in name and wardrobe - were always striking."  [Insert examples of American converts who adopted "very specifically, the clothes and habits of the desert Arabs."]  "It was as if a Russian Jewish convert to Christianity in Oklahoma made it an article of faith to dress as a cowboy every day, down to the chaps, spurs, and lasso. ... It was a one-way street, of course, since apostatizing from Islam to any other faith was a capital crime."  (pg. 139-140)


Haha...I can understand adopting the head scarf if you thought God wanted you to cover your hair, but I have puzzled over the complete transformations and changed names. Hey, I guess if you don't like the name your parents gave you, it's a good excuse to find one you like better!  Too bad your selection is limited to Arabic ones, however.




ON SHIITES


He told of an Islamic University which "used a textbook, which debated, among other questions, whether or not Shiites have tails." (pg. 127)

"The ugliness of the Arab world's hostility toward its own Shiites was remarkable, and I felt that Saudi Arabia was abusing its prestige as guardian of Mecca and Medina by hinting that the Shia were 'deviants' and ridiculing their clergy. I had to take my stand, and I took it by being part of this friendly Shiite underground."  (pg. 128)

If I were a Shiite, I think I'd show them my tail so their mystery would be solved!  ;-)


WHY NO CHURCHES ALLOWED?

"Surely the Saudi bigotry against other religions revealed a deep insecurity in the face of other cultures and faiths and was a sop to empty nationalism and phony clerics. Even the least observant Muslim in Saudi Arabia measured power and influence in religious terms. ... It was a subtle and informal way of marking territory. When the city of Rome decided, in 1984, to grant a building permit for a mosque near the Holy See, the reaction of the Riyadh press was anything but uplifting: jeering articles applauded this tanazul, relinquishing or surrender, on the part of Rome and the Vatican. They did not rule out that tolerance or political opportunism may have played a role, as they surely must have, but that was beside the point: Europe and all Christendom were gloatingly shown to be demoralized and weak for having caved to Islamic machismo. It was also portrayed as a crushing blow to 'world Zionism.'"


I wonder if this is similar to those folks in Tennessee who didn't want a mosque in their town. Were they also marking territory or desiring to not show weakness by surrendering?  Were they trying to deliver a "crushing blow" to "world Islamism"?  Hmmmm...


When Peter was talking to his friend about allowing a church for all the Christians in Riyadh (foreigners of course since all Saudis are Muslim by birth), he asked, "Wouldn't you respect them more if they went to church, if they had a church to go to?"

"'Having no churches prevents them from learning wrong things,' shrugged Hamdan. 'They should be grateful. It's their chance to learn something about Islam.'"  (pg. 172-173)


So have things changed much in these 25-30 years? I don't know. But it sure is interesting to read some impressions about this part of the world from the pre-9/11 days. Sometimes it's hard for me to recall what I thought of or knew about Arabs or Muslims before then.   Actually all these things described above sound nothing like the Arabs and Muslims I've had the pleasure of getting to know.  Maybe I should be more clear from time to time about that.  Samer asks me sometimes why I am reading books about his people (and finding faulty things such as I mentioned above) and I tell him if he were some Jewish Israeli guy who found me online, invited me to his country and became one of my best friends, I'd be reading books on Israel and Zionism and doing the same thing.  So I blame Samer. He started it!  ;)

Iraqi Refugees in Syria and Lebanon

I'm reading Eclipse of the Sunnis by Deborah Amos.  She is talking mostly about the Iraqi "surge" -- no, not the American soldiers surging into that country, but the "surge" of Iraqis fleeing their country into neighboring regions. This book tells the story of many people the author met during interviews with Iraqi refugees - millions who have been displaced mostly due to the American invasion and subsequent rising of a more sectarian government and society.  The first few chapters take place in Damascus and surrounding areas. One chapter deals with the women forced to work as prostitutes in order to provide for their children.

That's extremely heartbreaking enough, but then reading this just made me want to throw up my hands in disgust at the hypocrisy and unjustness!

"In another story, I had heard about an Iraqi woman in the sex trade whose clients were young Shiite men from the Mahdi militia who came to Syria in the summer for vacation. They paid her for sex, enjoyed her company, but threatened that if she ever came back to Baghdad they would cut her head off."  (pg. 84)

This is such an interesting book so far, and although it was published just last year, I am already wishing for an update due to how much Syria has changed in 2011.  I am left wondering about all those Iraqi refugees who fled there. Syria was one of the only countries who accepted Iraqis as the Jordanians quickly closed their border.  How have things changed for the refugees now that Syria is in an upheaval? Has it made more of them go back home? Have they joined either cause: those with Assad's regime or those who want more freedom?

In the section about Lebanon the author mentions Palestinians - particularly "young, third-generation refugees [who] had lost hope in liberating Palestine and found a more promising cause in the mujahedeen in Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, and then Iraq - all places they had gone to fight."  (pg. 100)

"The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq fanned the long-burning flame, giving the angry young men of Tripoli an outlet for venting their rage. When they came home from the anti-U.S. jihad in Iraq, the Lebanese fighters brought comrades with them and found refuge in Lebanon's Palestinian camps, which remained off-limits to the police and the army.  In this way, the unintended consequences of a generation of exiles that began in 1948 contributed to the ongoing destabilization of the region and the creation of a newly displaced people. It was the perfect example of the cost of doing nothing to solve an earlier refugee crisis: Ignore it for long enough and it will fan the next crisis and seed future ones."  (pg. 102)

The Darkness of My Heart

Journal entry excerpt from The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley.


"Teacher" was talking to her Kosovar students about the war and about how not all Serbs are bad and it's not good to generalize the whole population as being one way...right?

MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2001

...Is their bitterness, their fear so great that they could do to Serbs what Serbs did to them?  Could soft-spoken Veton burn a Serb village because his own was burned by Serbs? Would sweet, wide-eyed Enver, who loves basketball and never misses a class, stand by and watch while atrocities were committed?  Could any of these bright, kindhearted young people kill Serbs because they are Serbs?

And if I were in their shoes, what would I be capable of? Have I come to grips with the darkness in my own heart?

Tonight I read the words of Francois Bizot, who was imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge for three months in 1971 and who writes in Le Portail: "Every war needs killers and they can always be found. We always put ourselves in the skin of the victims and not of their killers - we never put ourselves in the skin of a Nazi or Khmer Rouge.  Yet between them and us there is very little difference, no more than between the victim and us."

And the same from Matthew Spender: "In extreme situations only chance divides the role of the torturer from that of his victims."

Are they right? Given the right circumstances, we are all, even the best of us, capable of anything?  There are no easy answers, in Kosovo or anywhere else. (pg. 188)


I was talking to a friend in Damascus the other day and he was saying how things have changed the last two months. The uprisings that began in Syria back in March have continued yet Friend has noticed a shift. He said people are openly talking of revenge, of siding with the devil if it means toppling the regime. His exact words to me were:

ordinary people are now talking of revenge and very very dark thoughts

  i fear that we will be torn apart there is so much hate now   i never imagined that we would reach this level 

 He said he'd even lost friends because of differing of opinions, there was much sectarian division and he did not like the way things were headed.

Listening to Friend talk and reading this excerpt from Ms. Huntley's journal makes me think the man she quoted is right when he says we often identify with the victims without perhaps realizing we are capable of evil things if circumstances go another way. Maybe the Nazis didn't realize they were doing anything wrong. They were cleansing the world of filth in order to ensure the strongest of the species survived, right?  And for the Syrian regime: why not stop those traitors who are bent on destroying the country?  Even religions OK killing treasonous people, don't they?

It's actually pretty easy to rationalize our favorite evil things. Thankfully most of us won't go the route of rounding up people for gas chambers, or mutilating young boys for the sake of power and control of a country. But...

What do you think of the quotes in this journal entry?

September Books

Good day to you!  Hope everyone is well and enjoying the last few hours of September 2011. I seriously cannot believe we are marching towards Christmas at such a fast clip!  This year has flown. Of course I say this most every year now that I'm out of high school chemistry and algebra classes. 

Here's the list of books I finished this month.


Sounds of the River by Da Chen -- This memoir was about the author's life in college after leaving the countryside and going to Beijing - the big city - to pursue his English language studies. I enjoyed hearing how a tanned southerner from the country with a heavy accent viewed big city life and how he was treated by "white" Chinese. I enjoyed tales about his college classes, his roommates, his spiritual life and how he didn't toe the party line good enough for the Communist faithful.  I learned about bribes and how important they are in making things happen. I realized Chinese are a lot like men in other countries in their talk of girls. I enjoyed Da's interactions with foreigners - those from countries such as Cambodia as well as Europeans and Americans.  It was interesting how the Communists tried to keep their people away from the foreigners so they wouldn't be tainted with western thoughts and materialism and liberalism and capitalism (all that bad stuff we offer that has contributed to Chinese jobs since we buy a lot of their manufactured stuff).  Da shared about the time he worked as an English interpreter and an NBA group came through.  I enjoyed hearing his impressions of these guys and his adventures with them.  I liked his interaction with a few Christians he met. He was even given a Bible by a Norwegian and he was able to give it to his favorite professor from home who was overjoyed at receiving an English Bible of her own.  The last chapters dealt with his friendship with an American couple and his trying to get to America.




The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon -- The subtitle reads "Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe" - this book was about Kamila Sidiqi and her life in Afghanistan especially after the Taliban came to power.  Left in charge of a large family, Kamila looked for opportunities to support her younger sisters and brother and used her skills to open a dressmaking shop in the house. This book shares some of her adventures in securing new clients for her work and the ways she opened up her house to many women in the surrounding area who also needed to contribute towards the survival of their households.  I loved Kamila's attitude of looking out for others by providing work for more than just her family members.



The Unexpected Adventure by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittleberg -- "Taking Everyday Risks To Talk With People About Jesus"  -- I didn't have any more library books because I decided to not read one that I had left in the stack as it didn't interest me much. So while waiting until the next day to visit the library, I found this one on my bookshelf and decided to read it in the meantime. I'm glad I did as it make me happy to read the authors' adventures in telling others about Jesus.  I especially enjoyed the part about serving others (pg. 64), coming out of our cocoons (pg. 76), embracing divine interruptions (pg. 95) and the challenge to never give up praying for people (pg. 151).


God Against The Gods by Jonathan Kirsch -- "The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism"  -- see previous post


The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine  -- see previous posts


My Tears Spoiled My Aim and Other Reflections on Southern Culture by John Shelton Reed -- This book was a series of essays discussing such things as what and where is the South, who is a Southerner, violence in country music, Southern culture, the Southern diaspora and even how Southern women were portrayed in Playboy.   Parts of it made me laugh especially when the author told stories of people he'd met or heard about or quoted letters to the editor of newspapers and magazines discussing Southern and Northern issues.  I have always been fascinated by that stuff so it was great.  I think my favorite chapters were "Life and Leisure in the New South" which talked about Southerners' characteristic easy-going lifestyle (read: we are lazy) and things we like to do in our free time.   "Refugees and Returnees" was also a fun chapter for me.



Married to a Bedouin by Marguerite van Geldermalsen -- If you want to read about a woman from New Zealand on a backpacking trip through the Middle East with a fellow adventurer who meets a Bedouin in Petra by chance, falls in love, marries and makes her home in a cave, this book might be of interest to you.  I enjoyed reading of Marguerite's years among the Bedouin, her help in their clinic, the food they ate, the things she finds worth mentioning. Yesterday I read of a man collecting money to pay a debt his tribe owed because someone killed a man in another tribe. Asking money of people to settle a debt like that just isn't what I'm used to. Also Marg's turn to get a gold tooth - a symbol of her father in law's generosity to his family. Yeah.  Well, it was really just a gold piece glued over her real tooth, but still. They find that attractive?  I don't think I'll ever get used to women being just another piece of property that you can buy if you come into money.  Marg's talk of a guy getting extra money and deciding whether to get a concrete floor, a new mule or marry again...ah.  According to her a lot of the second wives came from Egypt and they "brought an accent I couldn't understand, a standard of ululation I could never attain and pretty soon were producing a generation with fresh genes at a rate I had no desire to match."  (pg. 211)



Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam by Zainab Salbi -- very interesting book about a lady who describes growing up as the daughter of Saddam Hussein's pilot and "friend"; I greatly enjoyed her story and learning about the perspective of one who was impacted by Saddam's control and her feelings about sanctions on her people and the wars fought by Iraq (on Iran and invading Kuwait - she claims many Iraqis didn't like Kuwait because the latter came across as privileged and they though the other Arabs would support their efforts.)  She didn't like the sanctions on her people: punishment for a punished people. They would only hurt the ordinary people not Saddam who was entrenched in power.  While she was happy Saddam was removed from power, she hated the fact that, again, ordinary people would be hurt. Ordinary boys like her brothers would be drafted and the country was so destroyed.



"Any society that stops questioning its leaders is vulnerable to dictatorship, and Amo used our own traditions against us to help instill and perpetuate fear. To the traditional concept of ayeb, which dealt with things that were forbidden by cultural courtesies, and haram, which dealt with things that were forbidden by religion, Amo seemed to add a third, mamnu'a, which just meant forbidden....We lived in fear. Fear had spread through our society the way color does when you put a single drop of tint into the water to dye eggs..."  (pg. 117)


Wrong About Japan: A Father's Journey With His Son by Peter Carey -- I would have appreciated this book more if I actually cared about manga and anime. I still liked the part where the Japanese guy told about his memories of the US's attack on his country. Did you know dropping bombs sound like heavy rain?



In the Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda -- this is based on the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari an Afghan boy who was taken to Pakistan by his mother and left there while he was sleeping. He was only about ten.  But she felt he had a better chance of surviving there than within their family's village due to their being Hazara and Shia, two things Taliban apparently don't like.  This story was Enaia's adventures living in Pakistan, later escaping and living in Iran, later moving on to Turkey, Greece and finally Italy where he was blessed to find a family to foster him and give him a home.  Enaia graduated from high school earlier this year and plans to study in Italy so he can support his mother and siblings (whom he was reunited with) who live in Pakistan.

This book challenged me to be kind to strangers among me especially foreign ones. Maybe they are refugees in need of a friendly helper.



The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma -- I got this on the new book shelf at the library because it seemed rather cute.  The author and her father decided to read together for 100 nights.  There were rules such as they had to read at least ten minutes, her father read out loud to her and it had to be before midnight to count. The streak happened and was extended. Extended until Alice went off to her first year of college, in fact. The book is more than about reading books. It's about a single father through his daughter's eyes. It's about a quirky elementary school librarian who did his best to instill the love of reading into children. And it has funny, imaginative and sometimes sad tales of Alice's life.


Seeing Vietnam by Susan Brownmiller -- the subtitle is "Encounters of the Road and Heart" which about sums it up.  The author went to Vietnam on assignment for a travel magazine. Her job was to explore the country noting must-see places and points of interest.  I enjoyed seeing Vietnam through her eyes especially as she told about places through the politics and world situation of when she was growing up and seeing all the conflict with Vietnam. Several times I had to stop and think about why my country had to be involved in hurting others, killing them and harming future generations. It's so sad what we will do all because we fear something and/or want control.  Heartbreaking. 

But the book was really good. I enjoyed the author's encounters with natives, her official tour guides and flashbacks.

New Book and Blogs, Lack of Women and White Folks, Bible Stuff and Single Moms (though married)

Ah, I have so much on my mind, but don't know where to start. Some days I go through droughts with not much worth sharing, but then I go through, um, spouts where I have too much. It's not that stuff I want to share is oh-so-fascinating especially to you, but it's just thoughts that come to mind. So maybe this post should just briefly mention those things and maybe I'll "flesh 'em out" in later posts if the mood strikes.

I started a new book, The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark. He's not a historian, but a sociologist and he's trying to answer the question about Christianity's rise from that perspective. It's slightly technical at times when he gets into the arithmetic part, but I am enjoying much of the cultural tidbits very much!  His main question is this:  "How did a tiny and obscure messianic movement from the edge of the Roman Empire dislodge classical paganism and become the dominant faith of Western civilization?" He explores such things as primary (often women) and secondary (often their husbands) conversions, social networks, epidemics, status of women, fertility, conversion of Jews being higher than we think, Christians being from all social groups not only slaves.  Well, those are the ones I've read about so far. I'm about halfway through the book.

Just a bit ago I read some interesting facts about the declining birthrate and how the Roman Empire was giving incentives to men who would father at least three children.  The Roman Empire so very much needed its citizens to have higher fertility rates that many emperors imposed "political and financial sanctions upon childless couples, upon unmarried women over the age of twenty, and upon unmarried men over the age of twenty-five."  Perhaps if their male to female ratio were not 131 to 100 due to infanticide (killing mostly unwanted female infants), this would not have been such a problem.


The declining birthrate thing reminded me of this post Why Tanning, Barbie and God Forbid Belgian Chocolate May Disappear In the Future? by a Jordanian-Syrian man living in the United States. If you don't want to read the post, it's so titled because of the declining rate of white people in the world.  There is a reason places like Germany are inviting other nationalities into the country to study basically free of charge. 

By the way, that blog is one that I started reading this week and have found most interesting.  I especially love when Malik shares cultural tidbits from both the US and Arab world. I enjoyed reading his Arab perspective on the 4th of July, for instance.

Another blog about a serious topic is this new one by a Jordanian who is speaking out about childhood sexual abuse.  Visit Mohammed's blog here and lend him your support if you wish.


In other news, I was reading through Luke 2-4 recently and kept getting stopped by patterns I was noticing.  And then today I started rereading some things in those chapters and ended up visiting Deuteronomy and Exodus and three places in Isaiah because my Bible had links back to those places.  I was reminded again that I love Isaiah 40 and need to read it more often.

Note to self: write a post about Luke 4:14-30 and why Jesus didn't just leave well enough alone.  They liked him and were amazed by him so why challenge them to the extent they want to throw you off a cliff?

Random thought that came to mind as I was driving the other day:  I think I'd heard a story about single parenting and how many children are growing up in poverty due to mainly a lack of fathers. Then my mind went to polygynous families and how even if you have only one other wife, you've perhaps made your wives single mothers half the time.  I guess unless you live with both wives and all the children in one household. But for those men who have two separate households and maybe spend one week with Jane and her kids following by a week with Cara and her kids...that reminds me of the children I've always felt sorry for because their divorced parents had joint custody meaning they had to live one week at mom's followed by one week at dad's.  I assume the children get used to it, but it seemed rather dreadful to me.  Only with polygyny, it's the man of the householdS who must move from place to place.

Which lead me to wonder if that's OK really.  After all what is the father's role besides providing for his family?  If he is providing for Jane and her kids sufficiently why not also have a life with Cara and her kids if he can provide materialistically for them just the same?

QUESTION FOR YOU:  What roles did your father/grandfather have in your household? What about your husbands and adult brothers? The men in your life? Are they only useful for fathering children and then providing for them? Or do they have other roles that would be missed if they were gone 50% of the time to non-work-related things? Granted I know even in monogamous relationships, fathers can essentially make their wives into single mothers because they work too many hours or they pursue too many hobbies outside the household. Too much golf or fishing or maybe even just sitting in front of the television while the wife does all the child-rearing stuff.

The only other thing on my mind is remnants and I'll not talk about that now since this post is long and rambling enough.

Hope all are well!  And, can it be that Zach is ten weeks old today?

Last Notes and Lessons Learned from Stories of Jews in Muslim Lands

Last notes from In Ishmael's House: A History of the Jews in Muslim Lands by Martin Gilbert.


I finished the book! Ah, what an interesting read.  Definitely a side of the story I'd never heard especially the part pertaining to how the Jews were treated in Muslim lands leading up to and after Israel was created. What a mess!  Several times I got the impression that Arabs were simply frustrated at the British presence (like in Egypt) and angered by the creation of Israel so they took out their hostility on the local Jews. It is no different than Americans' mistreatment of Japanese living in the United States during World War II and blaming American Muslims for the sins of Al Qaeda or a rogue Muslim extremist. Or even our bombing of Iraq for what 19 mostly Saudi nationals did on 9/11. It's sad that the human race is such that we take out our wrath on innocent people when we feel injustice has taken place and we are lusting for revenge or dignity or whatever term we use to justify "making someone pay!"

Yesterday's post left off with Iraq and since then I've read about Egypt and the 1954 Lavon Affair in which the Israeli intelligence agency along with at least one Israeli Government Minister tried to implicate the Muslim Brotherhood in acts of terror!  "The plan was to have Israeli agents explode bombs against Egyptian, American and British targets while at the same time making the attacks look like a Muslim Brotherhood operation."  (pg. 253)  I suppose you can guess that this plan's failure only increased the difficulty for Egyptian Jews.

Oh, and also in my last post I talked about the Arab mistreatment of Jews only bolstered Israel, right?  If his stats are correct, the author states around 75% of the immigrants to Israel were from Muslim countries and not Europe where (I am assuming) the root of the problem started!  Weird how that works.  Interesting tidbit: even though the white, 'westernized' Jews make up only around a quarter of the Jewish population in Israel, most all of the big-time leaders have been from this group. The author said the Ashkenazis often looked at Jews from Arab countries - the Sephardi - as "primitive" and "fit mainly for manual labour and domestic service."  (pg. 311)  Racism exists from Jews towards Jews. Imagine.

Also I wondered yesterday why Arab countries would allow so many Jews to leave for Israel. Well continuing the book, I found not all of them did. Syria, for example, basically trapped their Jewish population for decades.  Finally in the 1990s after much international pressure, President Hafez al-Assad agreed that "all 3,886 Jews in Syria were free to leave -- for anywhere but Israel."  (pg. 308)  Some Arab countries were similar in not allowing travel to Israel while others like Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco seemed fine with it.

The last chapter discussed the roughly 50,000 Jews still living in Muslim lands today. Many of those are in Iran, by the way. (Jews in Persia predate Christianity and Islam.) The ones that made me smile most were stories of the one Afghan Jew who stays because he wants to represent the Jewish culture that was there for a thousand years and the three Jews, the Pinchas family, in Kamishli, Syria.  Also I think it's cute that two Jews are registered to vote in Sidon, Lebanon.

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Here are two final stories I wanted to share.  One good, one bad. They represent to me much of the last half of the book which dealt with quite a bit more of modern Jewish/Muslim history than I recall from Zachary Karabell's book last year.  (Karabell seemed to detail more of the older history while this book dealt more with modern times.)



After some problems in Egypt between the Muslims who took out their anger for the creation of the State of Israel on local Jews ...

"In spite of the return to order, an Egyptian Arab wrote a revealing letter to the Bourse égyptienne newspaper on July 22: 'It would seem that most people in Egypt are unaware of the fact that among Egyptian Moslems there are some who have white skin,' he wrote.  'Every time I board a tram I see people pointing at me and saying "Jew, Jew."  I have been beaten more than once because of this.  For that reason I humbly beg that my picture (enclosed) be published with an explanation that I am not Jewish and that my name is Adham Mustafa Galeb.'"  (pg. 225)

YET ...


"Amidst all the political turmoil, incitement and violence, relations between Muslims and Jew were still possible.  In the Aboukir internment camp, Egyptian-born Abraham Matalon met the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria, who had also been imprisoned.  'At first,' Matalon remembered later, 'I didn't know he was a member. We embraced, and we started meeting every day.  He said he wanted to learn Hebrew, and I wanted to learn Koran, so this is how we spent our time. I wanted to have a dialogue with the Muslims, and they loved me for it!  I did the call to prayer in the camp and the soldiers admired it, they even answered me.  And they knew I was a Zionist, but they did not manifest any attitudes against me. They said we are friends in life. When you come to talk to your enemy, you see that he is a different person, you can see his human side."  (pg.221)


Perhaps we can learn lessons from the stories I shared from this book.  Thoughts?