A few links to some interesting articles that I've run across lately...
This one comes from NPR and provides an interesting take on why redistributing wealth through heavily taxing the rich and not taxing the poor could backfire and cause more problems for the deficit that we are already in...
This one comes from Shane Claiborne and provides an interesting take on the emerging church "brand" and all the debate surrounding it.
This one is about some men that have embraced an "Into the Wild" lifestyle and chosen to live a "simple" life.
And finally, this one, on how the prints and colors in fashion are a reflection of people's changing attitudes toward the recession and dismal outlook that has pervaded people's lives.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Thoughts for a Wednesday
It is still technically Wednesday, so of course I have some thoughts to share :) And I begin with...
1 - LOST!! (Bet you couldn't guess) I really don't have much to say other than I have no clue how this show is going to end, and there are only like 4 episodes left. You would think that we would be getting to the so-called "climax" point, but I have yet to figure anything out. Of course last week's amazing episode with my future husband at its center was a game-changer and it sort of continued on through this week's episode. Basically though any episode that contains Des is good in my eyes.
2 - Deadliest Catch is back! And if you're not watching this show, I highly recommend getting into it. You don't need to know too much background about the captains and crews from previous seasons, but just in the first episode the action is already way intense. Besides, you will quickly find out that there is nothing more thrilling than Mike Rowe's voice saying, "The vast Bering Sea...". And each moment with Captain Phil is poignant because you know that you are watching the chronicles of his last months on the Bering Sea.
3 - Speaking of good TV, the local PBS station here in DC has been showing some really interesting programming this week. On Monday they showcased a program on the Holocaust in North Africa and Arabs that helped Jews to escape death (see yesterday's post, It's Complicated for more thoughts on this program). Tuesday was a Frontline program on all the back room deals and politics of the recent health care bill that was passed. Tonight was a program on genocide called "Worse Than War"
about how genocide never comes as a surprise and always is driven by politics. While this isn't the light, fluffy stuff (no Project Runway or Bachelor here) that I normally use to distract myself, but occasionally I have to remind myself that I need to continue learning about these important subjects - engage the side of my brain that got somewhat left behind in college :).
4 - I have more thoughts, but it's getting really late and they are all escaping me.
So apologies - just 3 real so-so thoughts for this Wednesday. I promise to do better next week! And everyone should watch Stephen Colbert's episode from tonight because it is amazing - I don't have any more thoughts because I have been laughing too hard at his brilliance.
1 - LOST!! (Bet you couldn't guess) I really don't have much to say other than I have no clue how this show is going to end, and there are only like 4 episodes left. You would think that we would be getting to the so-called "climax" point, but I have yet to figure anything out. Of course last week's amazing episode with my future husband at its center was a game-changer and it sort of continued on through this week's episode. Basically though any episode that contains Des is good in my eyes.2 - Deadliest Catch is back! And if you're not watching this show, I highly recommend getting into it. You don't need to know too much background about the captains and crews from previous seasons, but just in the first episode the action is already way intense. Besides, you will quickly find out that there is nothing more thrilling than Mike Rowe's voice saying, "The vast Bering Sea...". And each moment with Captain Phil is poignant because you know that you are watching the chronicles of his last months on the Bering Sea.3 - Speaking of good TV, the local PBS station here in DC has been showing some really interesting programming this week. On Monday they showcased a program on the Holocaust in North Africa and Arabs that helped Jews to escape death (see yesterday's post, It's Complicated for more thoughts on this program). Tuesday was a Frontline program on all the back room deals and politics of the recent health care bill that was passed. Tonight was a program on genocide called "Worse Than War" about how genocide never comes as a surprise and always is driven by politics. While this isn't the light, fluffy stuff (no Project Runway or Bachelor here) that I normally use to distract myself, but occasionally I have to remind myself that I need to continue learning about these important subjects - engage the side of my brain that got somewhat left behind in college :).4 - I have more thoughts, but it's getting really late and they are all escaping me.
So apologies - just 3 real so-so thoughts for this Wednesday. I promise to do better next week! And everyone should watch Stephen Colbert's episode from tonight because it is amazing - I don't have any more thoughts because I have been laughing too hard at his brilliance.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
It's Complicated...
As Monthy Python would say, "And now for something completely different". No book reviews or random thoughts today. No, today I am still digesting a program I watched on WETA PBS last night called "Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust in Arab Lands".
First, this is a subject that is near to my heart. The conflict between Israel and Palestine and Israel and the Arab world at large is something that has interested me since high school, so much so that it drove me to be a foreign affairs major at UVA. Seeking to understand the root causes of a decades old conflict that still dramatically affects the shape of our foreign policy to this day has always been vastly interesting to me. And yet while it is vastly interesting, it also is vastly depressing and disheartening - which is why I work at a local cabinet company instead of a think tank in Washington DC. So when I read about this program airing, I was very keen to watch and learn more about Jewish and Arab relations.
It was fascinating to say the least. Whenever the Holocaust is discussed, it mainly focuses on the fate of European Jews and the atrocities that were uncovered at the concentration camps in Europe. But the fate of Jews living in North Africa during World War II is hardly ever discussed or mentioned. Truly, unless you take a university history class on World War II, most discourse is focused on the battles that occurred in Europe or the in the Pacific, but hardly ever talk about the campaigns in North Africa, which was where the tide of the war truly started turning. But did you know that there were more concentration camps across North Africa than there were in Europe? That Jewish people who had cohabited with their Arab friends peacefully before the war were suddenly singled out by European invaders and forced to either go to one of these concentration camps or wear yellow Stars of David signifying their ethnicity?
What Robert Satloff, the executive director for the Washington Institute of Near East policy uncovers though are tales and stories (that are authenticated and verified through meticulous research and first person interviews) of Arabs who help their Jewish neighbors escape from the fate of concentration camps - much like there were Europeans who helped their Jewish neighbors escape the nightmares of concentration camps. Satloff sought to show that though these two ethnicities proclaim hatred for each other now, there were some Arabs that saw only their common humanity and were unwilling to be complicit in the suffering of fellow human beings.
What is remarkable, or rather actually sad, about this is how much this history is suppressed by the descendants of these individuals today. There are some Arabs, because of their political views on Israel, that would rather not acknowledge the heroism of their grandparents during the Holocaust in North Africa. The view of a common humanity has been replaced with a simmering hatred of Israel and the atrocities that Israel commits against the Palestinians today. In fact, the documentary showcases a meeting in which Satloff is presenting his findings and a participant becomes so upset that the Holocaust of the Jews is only being discussed and that no mention of the persecution of Palestinians is made, that he storms out of the meeting, shouting and slamming the door on his way out. It is a reflection of how deep this hurt and hatred runs, that the man could not sit through a presentation about fellow Arabs who helped save their Jewish neighbors from atrocities unimaginable.
The Holocaust served as the catalyst for the creation of a political state based on an ethnicity and religion, and as such its repercussions are as much a part of our present foreign political state as it was in our past. Without the Holocaust, it is doubtful that Zionists would have been able to make a successful case for the creation of their own political state to the world. But guilt, coupled with a powerful lobbying force in the United States and the diminished power of the British, helped bring about the state of Israel and the problems of the modern Middle East. While it might be a stretch to say that if there was no Israel there would have been no September 11th or War on Terror, the justification for those attacks by the terrorists would have been based on other reasons. And yet, if there had been no Anti-Semitism brought to light by such events like the Dreyfus Affair or pogroms in Russia or most evidently, by the Holocaust, there would have been no need for a Jewish political state.
This is a long tangled history that can fill more than this meager blog post, but "Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust in Arab Lands
" has added an interesting layer to these relations that is relevant and almost hopeful, for it shows that when we transcend our ethnic and religious beliefs at times, we find that we are all made of the same cloth. Hopefully, instead of using religious beliefs to divide, perhaps there will come a time in which we can use them to see what we have in common more than what we don't.
First, this is a subject that is near to my heart. The conflict between Israel and Palestine and Israel and the Arab world at large is something that has interested me since high school, so much so that it drove me to be a foreign affairs major at UVA. Seeking to understand the root causes of a decades old conflict that still dramatically affects the shape of our foreign policy to this day has always been vastly interesting to me. And yet while it is vastly interesting, it also is vastly depressing and disheartening - which is why I work at a local cabinet company instead of a think tank in Washington DC. So when I read about this program airing, I was very keen to watch and learn more about Jewish and Arab relations.
It was fascinating to say the least. Whenever the Holocaust is discussed, it mainly focuses on the fate of European Jews and the atrocities that were uncovered at the concentration camps in Europe. But the fate of Jews living in North Africa during World War II is hardly ever discussed or mentioned. Truly, unless you take a university history class on World War II, most discourse is focused on the battles that occurred in Europe or the in the Pacific, but hardly ever talk about the campaigns in North Africa, which was where the tide of the war truly started turning. But did you know that there were more concentration camps across North Africa than there were in Europe? That Jewish people who had cohabited with their Arab friends peacefully before the war were suddenly singled out by European invaders and forced to either go to one of these concentration camps or wear yellow Stars of David signifying their ethnicity?
What Robert Satloff, the executive director for the Washington Institute of Near East policy uncovers though are tales and stories (that are authenticated and verified through meticulous research and first person interviews) of Arabs who help their Jewish neighbors escape from the fate of concentration camps - much like there were Europeans who helped their Jewish neighbors escape the nightmares of concentration camps. Satloff sought to show that though these two ethnicities proclaim hatred for each other now, there were some Arabs that saw only their common humanity and were unwilling to be complicit in the suffering of fellow human beings.
What is remarkable, or rather actually sad, about this is how much this history is suppressed by the descendants of these individuals today. There are some Arabs, because of their political views on Israel, that would rather not acknowledge the heroism of their grandparents during the Holocaust in North Africa. The view of a common humanity has been replaced with a simmering hatred of Israel and the atrocities that Israel commits against the Palestinians today. In fact, the documentary showcases a meeting in which Satloff is presenting his findings and a participant becomes so upset that the Holocaust of the Jews is only being discussed and that no mention of the persecution of Palestinians is made, that he storms out of the meeting, shouting and slamming the door on his way out. It is a reflection of how deep this hurt and hatred runs, that the man could not sit through a presentation about fellow Arabs who helped save their Jewish neighbors from atrocities unimaginable.
The Holocaust served as the catalyst for the creation of a political state based on an ethnicity and religion, and as such its repercussions are as much a part of our present foreign political state as it was in our past. Without the Holocaust, it is doubtful that Zionists would have been able to make a successful case for the creation of their own political state to the world. But guilt, coupled with a powerful lobbying force in the United States and the diminished power of the British, helped bring about the state of Israel and the problems of the modern Middle East. While it might be a stretch to say that if there was no Israel there would have been no September 11th or War on Terror, the justification for those attacks by the terrorists would have been based on other reasons. And yet, if there had been no Anti-Semitism brought to light by such events like the Dreyfus Affair or pogroms in Russia or most evidently, by the Holocaust, there would have been no need for a Jewish political state.
This is a long tangled history that can fill more than this meager blog post, but "Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust in Arab Lands
" has added an interesting layer to these relations that is relevant and almost hopeful, for it shows that when we transcend our ethnic and religious beliefs at times, we find that we are all made of the same cloth. Hopefully, instead of using religious beliefs to divide, perhaps there will come a time in which we can use them to see what we have in common more than what we don't.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Book Review: Chains
Chains by Laurie Halse AndersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
My good friend recently wrote on her book review blog that the world of young adult literature contains much real fiction and is not just littered with the likes of books like The Babysitters Club, Saddle Club, or angsty teen vampire/werewolf tales (though I will always maintain a love and special place in my heart for Twilight). Upon finishing this novel, "Chains"
, there is no denying this fact. In fact, maybe some adult fiction writers need to take a page from this book and craft together a feat of story such as this one.Told from the point of view of a young slave girl during the American Revolutionary War, the ironies of the institution of slavery during America's fight for "independence" slaps the reader in the face. The book is filled with gut-wrenching pain for this girl to find freedom - which is literally stolen from her at the beginning of the book. Freed upon the death of her master, the nephew who inherits all of his aunt's property, promptly takes Isabel and her sister Ruth and sells them back into slavery. And so begins the long and arduous journey to freedom that Isabel is desperate to find once again.
There were so many emotions that I encountered while reading this book - sadness, outrage, hurt, injustice, pain - and yet, I could not put the book down. I essentially devoured it. Extremely well-written, the author's command of prose is almost daring. She moves her story forward at a fast pace, while yet poetically describing the anger and pain that Isabel experiences throughout her journey in New York City. The quotes that open each chapter highlight the irony that runs rampant throughout the book - that a country fighting for freedom from tyranny does not extend that same hope to all men - because they aren't even viewed as human beings.
I wish I had read this book after reading "Bury the Chains" by Adam Hochschild
last year, which remains one of my all-time favorite books. And then followed this with "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
. I feel like these three books all speak to the same theme and open up a new world of understanding on a subject that seems to be glossed over all too often. Understanding our own depravity towards other human beings can never be told too often in my opinion. It is sickening and that is why books like "Chains" remain more than relevant today.*The author is going to be releasing a follow-up to this book in the fall of this year called "Forge"
Chains!*View all my reviews >>
Friday, April 9, 2010
Wishing You a Blissful Weekend
Wishing everyone a beauty-filled weekend of blissful spring weather!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)