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Posts Tagged Middle East
show preview: Hinds at Middle East Downstairs on Sunday, October 30, 2016
The all-female rock band from Madrid released its debut album Leave Me Alone at the beginning of the year. Hinds creates infectious, cool songs layered with fuzzy guitar, surfy riffs and lo-fi indie rock elements. This band's attitude, intensity and emotions bubble through on every song. Female artists still face immense criticism and scrutiny in the music industry. Get out and support women in music!
Hinds is: Carlotta Cosials (vocals, guitar); Ana Perrote (vocals, guitar); Ade Martin (bass) and Amber Grimbergen (drums)
Hinds at Middle East Downstairs on Sunday, October 30, 2016
472-480 Massachusetts Ave.
Hinds, Hinds band, Middle East, Middle East Club
book review: The Ambassador's Wife
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on August 19, 2015
The Ambassador's Wife By Jennifer Steil.
Doubleday| July 2015|389 pages |$26.95| ISBN: 978-0-385-53902-9
When I first heard about this novel I knew I wanted to read it: ambassador's wife in a Middle Eastern country who gets kidnapped sounded both riveting and exciting. Unfortunately, it's disappointing because the novel doesn't delve far enough into the ambassador's wife as the independent bohemian artist prior to meeting and marrying the ambassador. The basic storyline is that Miranda, an American, married British national Finn who serves as ambassador in a fictional Middle Eastern country. Prior to the marriage, Miranda lived a bohemian lifestyle and dated a woman.
"In the past, only with a woman had she felt her body truly unclench, the result of her politics falling in line with her heart. With men she had always been wary, monitoring her every interaction for signs of a power imbalance."
Now with Finn, they have round-the-clock protection, servants and bodyguards. For Miranda, she's given up much of her freedom and also pursuing her art in order to be a steadfast ambassador's wife. She remains naïve about the dangers associated with being the ambassador's wife. She thinks she can function just like she did as a single woman in this country. One day hiking with a group of women, she's kidnapped and it's an unbearable month-long ordeal that changes everything.
"Despite the tragedies, the restrictions felt slightly absurd to Miranda. She has been hiking in this country for three years without incident, and no one she has encountered on her journeys has ever been less than hospitable. In fact, she has been treated more like royalty in this country than she has been anywhere else in the world."
There's not enough color, depth and strength in the details. Steil explains Miranda like this: "In fact, she felt a reflexive and guilty condescension toward such domestic ambitions. Her conscience wrestled with this prejudice, meanness not sitting comfortably in her psyche. Who was she to judge anyone else's choices? Just because traditional wifely duties were not for her did not make them less worthy." However, Steil fails to show Miranda as this independent spirit. There are mentions of her teaching her Arab students and encouraging them to paint provocatively but the reader fails to truly feel the power and emotion which art can provoke.
Instead the author turns it into somewhat predictable fodder when she's kidnapped. Instead of being this cool creative, Miranda is a devoted mom whose child to engulf every aspect of her life instead of remaining that vibrant independent. She truly loses her sense of self by being a mother. In addition, it becomes bogged down in unnecessary detail and for a thriller-esque novel it travels at a snail's pace. Not good in any way. I applaud author Jennifer Steil's ability to shape this middle Eastern country and provide readers with an idea what it would be like to be an American navigating such an unusual culture.
I kept reading so that's the bonus. I would like to read a novel from a female ambassador's point-of-view. The two novels I've read have been from the wives' perspective. The wives tend to serve as hostesses and do some volunteer work; nothing nearly as challenging as their spouses. Author Jennifer Steil worked as a reporter in Yemen and is currently an ambassador's wife. I expected way more detail. I'm sure she didn't want to offend any country but I could certainly recognize either Yemen or Libya in her descriptions. I'm not sure why she chose to fictionalize the country. To me that falls flat. Either create a completely different country or city or don't faintly hide it and think that no one will figure it out.
–review by Amy Steele–if you like my reviews and interviews please donate so I can continue to write.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Doubleday.
purchase at Amazon: The Ambassador's Wife: A Novel
Doubleday, Jennifer Steil, Middle East, summer reads, The Ambassador's Wife, weekend reads
GO OUT: Boston Fuzzstival at Middle East today, Saturday August 2
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on August 2, 2014
15 Boston psychedelic, fuzz, garage, and surf rock bands play The Middle East this Saturday. all-ages matinee show at The Middle East Upstairs (1PM – 5PM). 18+ show at The Middle East Downstairs (5PM-1:30AM).
The New Highway Hymnal 12:15
Ghost Box Orchestra 11:20
Fat Creeps 9:45
The Fagettes 9:00
28 degrees taurus 8:15
Magic Shoppe 7:30
Abadabad 6:45
Atlantic Thrills 6:00
CREATUROS 4:30
Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion! 3:45
The Televibes 3:00
GYMSHORTS 2:25
Black Beach 1:55
Dinoczar 1:25
Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion!, Boston Fuzzstival, Ghost Box Orchestra, Middle East, The Middle East Night Club, The New Highway Hymnal, The Televibes
Women in Music: Screaming Females/ Waxahatchee on TOUR
Posted by Amy Steele in Music, Women/ feminism on September 15, 2013
I caught Waxahatchee (one of my favorite new bands) and Screaming Females at the Middle East Club in Cambridge on Friday night and it was one of the best shows I've seen all year. This was the first stop on their U.S. tour. Interestingly the audience was about 60% men and not a sold-out show. The Middle East holds 575. Label mates [Don Giovanni Records], the bands certainly attracted different audiences with some cross-over–Waxahatchee getting alternative and college radio buzz. Screaming Females a power-punk band from New Jersey with more of an underground following.
Waxahatchee plays higher energy and rawer live than on the album. Katie Crutchfield–the force and face of Waxahatchee [lead singer/guitarist/songwriter] has sweet vocals on "Cerulean Salt" that remind me Juliana Hatfield. Screaming Females, led by pint-sized powerhouse Marissa Paternoster on guitar and vocals, tore it up with jarring chords, guttural bass and super energetic songs. Amazing fun.
Monday, Sept 16—The Bowery Ballroom—New York
Tuesday, Sept 17—Black Cat—Washington, D.C.
Thursday, Sept 19—40 Watt Club—Athens, GA
Friday, Sept 20—Bottletree Café—Birmingham, AL
Saturday, Sept 21—Stone Fox—Nashville, Tenn.
Sunday, Sept 22—Russian Recording—Bloomington, Indiana
Monday, Sept 23—The Frequency—Madison, WI
Tuesday, Sept 24—Triple Rock Social Club–Minneapolis
Wednesday, Sept 25—Lincoln Hall—Chicago
Thursday, Sept 26—Ace of Cups–Columbus, Ohio
Friday, Sept 27—Pittsburgh, Penn
Saturday, Sept 28 and Sunday, Sept 29—First Unitarian Church–Philadelphia
Middle East, Screaming Females, The Middle East Night Club, Waxahatchee
2013 Summer Book Picks [part one]
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on July 11, 2013
The People of Forever are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu [Hogarth Books]
My favorite book of last year is available in paperback. The novel focuses on three young women in the Israeli army. They're thrown into some truly adult and potentially dangerous situations. While they often think like hormonal, selfish, naïve teenagers at other times these women react with amazing strength, bravery and clarity. Boianjiu includes point of views from Egyptian army members, Palestinians and a Ukranian woman who seeks to emigrate to Israel. A veteran of the IDF, she writes with compassion, humor, modernity and a humanistic approach to the IDF and Israel's issues with its border nations as well as the United States and the UK.
RATING: *****/5
The Collective by Done Lee [W.W. Norton paperback, 2013]
"Give up trying. The world doesn't need another dilettante, and that's all you've ever been."
This was one of my favorite novels of 2012. While at Macalester college, Eric Cho forms a strong friendship with painter Jessica Tsai and novelist Joshua Yoon. Years later they reunite in Cambridge forming the Asian American Artists Collective [3 AC]. Don Lee masterfully creates characters, story lines and vivid descriptions with the most gorgeous prose. These characters compete with each other, become jealous of one another and support each other's goals. Lee truly grasps the creative lifestyle–its ups and downs, its starving moments, its triumphant moments.
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer [ECCO, 2013]
"Why is it so impossible to be a woman? [sic] When has a woman ever been forgiven? Can you even imagine it? For I have seen the plane of being, and nowhere upon it is the woman tracing her life as she always dreamed of it. Always there are the boundaries, the rules, the questions—wouldn't you prefer to be back home, little lady?—that break the spell of the living."
This one's about time-travel however Greta travels in an unusual, ingenious way. It's engrossing as long as you can get past the issue that causes Greta to time travel—she's being treated for her depression by electroshock therapy—"Of course this was how our minds had connected in that blue electric flash of madness, across the membrane of three worlds so we switched places, two Gretas and myself, and awoke to different lives." My issue wasn't with that but with Greer never mentioning her depression as she traveled from her present day of 1984 to 1918 to 1941. The present Greta just lost her twin brother Felix to AIDS and her longtime paramour left her. In each time period she's missing a loved one and her life's slightly different. Even her physical appearance is a bit different. Greer recreates each time period through wonderful description, interesting people and dialogue. It's a fast-paced novel perfect for summer reading. In the end Greta much decide which time she's happiest in and in which she wants to remain.
RATING: ***/5
Crazy Brave by Jo Harjo [W.W. Norton, 2012]
Poet and Native American Jo Harjo writes lyrically about her difficult childhood in the Midwest. Her stepfather was an abusive alcoholic; she faced extreme challenges as a Native American and pretty much raised two children on her own. While she recalls these horrific moments in her past she's also hauntingly philosophical and forgiving. She writes: "In the end, we must each tend to our own gulf of sadness, though others can assist us with kindness, food, good words, and music. Our human tendency is to fill these holes with distractions like shopping and fast romance, or with drugs and alcohol." She also intersperses her tribe's beliefs but never in an overbearing manner. About having a spinal tap in her youth, she writes: "The spinal column carries personal essence back and forth between earth and sky. The spine is powerful and vulnerable. The procedure was excruciating." She's a powerful voice for women and minorities; a truly beautiful soul.
RATING: ****/5
Andrew Sean Greer, Crazy Brave, Don Lee, Israel, Jo Harjo, Middle East, Native American, reading, Shani Boianjiu, summer, summer reading, The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, time travel
Harvard Square: book review
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on April 29, 2013
Harvard Square by Andre Aciman. Publisher: W.W. Norton (2013). Fiction. Hardcover. 304 pages. ISBN 9780393088601.
"I hated almost every member of my department, from the chairman down to the secretary, including my fellow graduate students, hated their mannered pieties, their monastic devotion to their budding profession, their smarmy, patrician airs dressed down to look a touch grungy. I scorned them, but I didn't want to be like them because I knew that part of me couldn't, while another wanted nothing more than to be cut from the same cloth."
A melancholic, nostalgic autobiographical novel about belonging and assimilation that focuses on immigrants finding their place in America in the 70s. It's set amidst the privileged enclave of the most elite academic environment. A place filled with the most intelligent, the wealthiest, the preppiest, the best of the best, the elite. A place where one looks down on the commoners who will never be able to emulate or understand a Harvard graduate's life.
At Café Algiers, an Egyptian graduate student at Harvard meets Kalaj, a Tunisian cab driver, struggling to keep his green card. They have one commonality: both come from Arab states in the Mediterranean. For the homesick graduate student he's happy to speak French with fellow exiles. The café serves as a place to meet new friends. For the Tunisian, the café's his home apart from his miserable marriage and his cab. ["He was proud to know me, while outside of our tiny café society, I never wanted to be seen with him. He was a cabdriver, I was Ivy League. He was an Arab, I was a Jew. Otherwise we could have swapped roles in a second."] Over the next several months these two men will test friendship's bonds.
"He had as little patience for Islam as I for Judaism. Our indifference to religion, to our people, to the never-ending conflict in the Middle East, to so many issues that could easily have driven a wedge between us, our contempt for patriotism, for flags, for causes, or for any of the feel-good ideologies that had swept through Europe since the late sixties, left us with little else than a warped sense of loyalty—what he called complicite, complicity—for anyone who thought like us, who was like us."
Andre Aciman lovingly describes Harvard Square through minute sensory detail, various meeting spots—Café Algiers, Casablanca, Harvest, street names and students versus year-round inhabitants. The reader will feel like she's walking around with him on every page. His Middle Eastern characters are rich with background. In Kalaj he creates an explosive and derisive character to play off the graduate student. Does the reader want him to get his green card or be kicked out of the United States forever? He's rather a cad. A player. He seduces women and brags about his conquests in the café the next morning. Women cry about him. He's been married several times. He complains about America while waxing nostalgic about the pristine beaches of his native Tunisia yet yearns for a green card. Merely for the money or does he have a darker motive? And why does a Harvard doctorate student become both enamored and disgusted with Kalaj?
As much as our graduate student feels he's an Egyptian, he's also becoming comfortable at Harvard. He wants to succeed and belong. While he enjoys this new scene he never knew existed at Café Algiers, he understands that his future belongs to academia and his Ivy League education. He's nothing to feel ashamed about.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from W.W. Norton.
Andre Aciman, Egyptian, Harvard Square, Middle East, Tunisian
STEELE INTERVIEWS: author G. Willow Wilson
Posted by Amy Steele in Books, Interview on July 13, 2012
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson is a mesmerizing novel where politics, religion and technology collide in a complex setting. A 23-year-old Arab-Indian hacker in a Middle Eastern emirate simultaneously finds his computer breached by the state's security force and jilted by his aristocratic lover. A jinn (or genie) and his kind, intelligent neighbor Dina help Alif find out how and why this happened to him. His problems deepen while he learns eye-opening information that will change his future. Alif the Unseen is a beguiling page-turner.
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson. Publisher: Grove Press (July 2012). Fiction. Hardcover. 440 pages. ISBN: 978-0082120205.
A graphic novelist and author of the memoir The Butterfly Mosque, A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam, Alif the Unseen is G. Willow Wilson's first novel. She studied history at Boston University then taught at an English language school in Cairo for several years at the request of a retiring professor. I spoke with my fellow BU alumna by phone recently.
Amy Steele: Did you convert to Islam when you were in Egypt?
G. Willow Wilson: I had thought about converting [well before going to Egypt] but then 9/11 happened and I couldn't seriously convert when these people had done this to my country in the name of religion. It took me several more years of research and study to reassure myself that they had acted in a way that Islam would consider abominable and that Islam rejected. I thought I could keep it a secret. But I didn't know how I was going to get through 30 days of fasting every year without anybody finding out.
Amy Steele: Religion is a private thing but then there are so many facets of it that are impossible to keep private.
G. Willow Wilson: Especially in the Middle East, religion is not private in the way we think of it in the United States. Here it would be illegal to ask someone their religion on official documents such as a driver's license or anything like that. But in the Middle East your religion appears on everything. So I was going from a place where it's mostly private to a place where the state gets involved.
Amy Steele: In your novel, Alif is non-practicing isn't he?
G. Willow Wilson: At least ambivalent. The Middle East is the birth place of so many world religions that religion becomes intertwined in almost every facet of life. He probably has small bits of the Quran memorized that most people have memorized who are practicing Muslims but he's very ambivalent about religion. He's not really practicing.
Amy Steele: I think when Americans and Westerners think of the Middle East you think of religion and the people and the government hand in hand.
G. Willow Wilson: There's a lot of secularism in the Middle East and I don't think people realize it. Some people would rather that religion play no part in public life and you see these debates unfold in places like Egypt where there's a big secularist contingent.
Amy Steele: Alif is bi-racial. Would that be unusual?
G. Willow Wilson: It would be somewhat unusual. The book is set in the Persian Gulf and the Persian Gulf plays host to literally thousands of guest workers from Bangladesh, the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia. The guest workers actually outnumber the native-born Persian Gulfers and it's created a very interesting social dynamic. For Alif, I imagined if a wealthier businessman had a secret or unsanctioned marriage with a woman who was a guest worker from the Indian subcontinent. I think that sort of marriage is still pretty unusual. People do see those two groups as being very separate.
In this case, I wanted him to be both an insider and an outsider. It seemed like an interesting way to have it play out.
Amy Steele: How did you get the idea to write Alif the Unseen?
G. Willow Wilson: It came to me in certain parts. The big driving force for me was the fact that there was so much interesting stuff going on in the social media world in the Middle East among activists online in how they were using the internet to get around censorship in print media. The internet was really allowing different factions of people who normally had no reason or method to talk to each other [secularists, traditionalists, feminists] to share a common platform and communicate with each other.
It was a very exciting thing for me to see it happening because instead of what you'd expect to happen which is that they were all at each other's throats because they had different beliefs, they were struggling to find common ground because they had common enemies in these horrible, entrenched, dictatorial leaders in places like Egypt who'd been in power for 30 plus years.
It was at the time a very hard sell in the United States. People were very dismissive of social media. I could see the potential of what was happening in the Middle East and I wanted a way to highlight that. And that formed the basis for Alif the Unseen.
Amy Steele: When you say that this novel takes place in an undisclosed Gulf emirate, what type of government is in place? A dictatorial regime like Egypt?
G. Willow Wilson: It's vague. There's a point in the book when someone says he can't believe the government has this sophisticated digital surveillance but no mail service. That is something I pulled straight from Egypt under Mubarak where if you were a blogger and talking about politics, eventually state security would show up at your door and that would be the last that people heard of you. But try to get a letter delivered. I didn't want to set it in a specific country or tie it to a specific country so I set it in a fictional country.
Amy Steele: Can you tell me about the Arab hierarchy among the various countries—the Gulf states being at the top– that you describe in the novel?
G. Willow Wilson: They certainly see themselves that way. There seems to be a perception among certain people—I don't want to paint too broad a brush—who think that they have the oil, they have the money, so that people that show up to work in the Gulf are there to serve them. It's a very feudal mentality where you've got the Lords and the Ladies on the top and the serfs on the bottom. Poorer countries, like Egypt and Libya, aren't seen as existing at the level of the wealthier nations along the Gulf. It makes for an interesting dynamic and it's the cause for a lot of frustration for a lot of people who work in the gulf.
Amy Steele: In the novel, you also speak of old money, new money and no money. That there is no middle class. Immigrants send money home as they do in the United States too.
G. Willow Wilson: It's true. It's really a commentary for globalization.
Amy Steele: How much did you know about the grey hat world before writing this?
G. Willow Wilson: Very little. I'm a very picky end-user of technology. I'm one of these people who bugs my tech friends a lot for advice and I also like to know what makes [computers/technology] work. I picked their brains about Alif. I knew I'd have to break some rules in the world of fiction but I did go in with some basic understanding of computer culture.
Amy Steele: How did the fantasy aspect, the jinn and Vikram come in?
G. Willow Wilson: I wanted to write about how we think about the unseen whether it's the unseen world of computers and technology and things we don't understand. Or if it's the unseen world of spirits and things we don't talk about. The parallel between the unseen world of technology and the unseen world of spirituality provided some really interesting fodder for storytelling.
Amy Steele: Did you influence the character "the convert"?
G. Willow Wilson: She's not me. As a white Western writer writing a character in the Middle East and thinking of all the foibles and the shortcomings and the heroism, it behooves me to turn around and be able to reflect myself as well. The convert is the kind of person I try not to be in many ways. She's very academic, very rigid and she's very earnest but it kind of gets in her way. She's living in this country so very different from her own and she's making a lot of mistakes and that's something I can relate to. She's my way of having a sense of humor as an outsider about these issues.
Amy Steele: What do you like about Alif, Dina and Vikram?
G. Willow Wilson: Writing an ensemble cast, I made sure each character had its own arc and went through its own issues that pertained to that character. In a way it was a lot like writing comics, which I do a lot of, it was a lot of fun for me. You're able to do that, have such a wide range of characters and have them interact in a dynamic way. I don't really have a particular character who's a favorite.
Amy Steele: What is a particular characteristic about them that you like?
G. Willow Wilson: I thought Dina would be the most difficult character to write but she ended up coming really naturally. I liked her stubbornness. For Alif, I like his impulsiveness. I like that he grows up. He's transformed by his experiences. Vikram was the most fun to write because he's a genie. He's not bound by our rules and moralities. It gives him an opportunity to tell the truth. I tried to make them all true to themselves.
Amy Steele: What's your favorite aspect of the novel?
It was really fun writing the car chase. As writers of literature we're supposed to take ourselves so seriously. Putting characters in a car and in a car chase across the desert was the most fun thing to write.
G. Willow Wilson website
BOOK TOUR:
Comic-Con, San Diego, CA
202-789-BBAP
Powerhouse Arena
Tattered Cover Book Store
Boulder Bookstore
Alif the Unseen, AMY STEELE interview, dissidents, G. Willow Wilson, hackers, Islam, Middle East, STEELE INTERVIEWS, technology
book review: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on March 14, 2010
Title: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
Author: Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui
Publisher: Three Rivers Press (March 2, 2010)
Category: memoir, women's issues
Review source: publisher
My mother never said a thing. She seemed sad, but resigned. After all, she had wed through an arranged marriage, like most Yemeni women, so she was in a good position to know that in our country it's the men who give the orders, and the women who follow them. For her to defend me was a waste of time.
Everyone heard the outrageous news story about the 10-year-old girl in Yemen granted a divorce. How could someone so young have even been married? This concept confused and angered Westerners, where there are laws against such disgusting behavior. Fortunately, many women and young girls in the Middle East also found solace and inspiration in the courage of Nujood Ali.
My life was taking a new turn in this world of grown-ups, where dreams no longer had a place, faces became masks, and no one seemed to care about me.
It hurt me to be talked to that way, with such contempt, and he made fun of me in front of others. I lived in permanent fear of more slaps and blows. Occasionally he even used his fists. Every day, fresh bruises on my back, new wounds on my arms. And that burning in my belly. I felt dirty everywhere.
In I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, Ali provides an unflinching, honest account of her horrific ordeal at the hands of a man three times her age. Her memoir sheds much needed light on archaic practices and the abuse of young girls and women around the world. Her father basically sells Nujood to this man without her knowledge or consent. He repeatedly rapes her and beats her. The thought is just disgusting and unimaginable though it happens throughout the world every day. Girls may not get married at age 10 in the United States and Western countries, but they are certainly sexually abused and enslaved by men. Ali is a typical girl growing up in a country that I associate with terrorism and poverty. She loves drawing with colored pencils, arithmetic and learning Arabic. Ali has dreams of becoming a lawyer just like her hero Shada, the woman who helped her escape the matrimonial bonds and nightmare into which men thrust her. Ali is a brave little girl who, despite her lack of education, managed to outwit her awful husband and beat the system. I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced provides a devastating and hopeful message that little girls in Yemen and other conservative Middle Eastern countries who find themselves in arranged marriages before they even hit puberty sometimes find someone who will listen to them. Sometimes someone will take notice of the injustice. The unfortunate truth is that most of these little girls cannot read I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced .
Yemen facts
[sources: CIA World Factbook, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassy of the Republic of Yemen web site, BBC]
–the median age of women in Yemen is 17
–only 30% of females age 15 and over can read and write [50% total population, 70% males]
–45% live below poverty line
–Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East
–the custom of chewing the narcotic plant khat in the afternoons is still widely observed
–main exports of Yemen: Crude oil, cotton, coffee, fish
–the terrorist threat level in Yemen remains high and Americans and foreigners are in constant danger
— Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula established itself in Yemen after it was forced out of Saudi Arabia
— on October 12, 2000 a terrorist group attacked the U. S. S. Cole in the port of Aden. The group used a boat loaded with explosives, killing 17 American sailors and injuring 28 others
— on September 17, 2008, armed terrorists attacked the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a [Yemen capitol]
–Yemen is the first country in the Arabian Peninsula to give women the right to vote, have women as Members of Parliament and to appoint a woman as Minister for Human Rights
arranged marriage, I Am Nujood Age 10, Middle East, Nujood Ali, women's rights, Yemen
book review: Small Kingdoms
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on January 2, 2010
Title: Small Kingdoms
Author: Anastasia Hobbet
Publisher: The Permanent Press (January 15, 2010)
He registered Theo's skepticism with a nod. "Kuwait is far worse. The class-consciousness here will shock you. If you're not Kuwaiti born and bred, you're no one; and if you're so unfortunate as to be a South Asian housemaid or laborer, you're worthless, invisible, and in constant danger. Look at me. I'm an Arab. I've lived here for twenty years. But I'm not a Kuwaiti citizen because I'm Palestinian. The reason they didn't run me out during the war is because I'm a good businessman—and I'm married to Jane. Only Jordan has offered citizenship to Palestinians. No other Arab nation has done this, though the Israelis droves us from our homes in 1948. The Kuwaitis put up with us because we're well-educated and willing to work hard. We make lots of money for them. But they don't like us and they don't trust us. They think we're vulgar and inferior. So we live in our neighborhoods and they live in theirs."
Anastasia Hobbet beautifully crafted a complex, layered story about the abuse of a household servant in Kuwait. This event draws together a wide variety of people who may never associate with each other: Theo, an American from California, working at a hospital clinic; Mufeeda, an upper-class Kuwaiti woman; Hanaan, a Palestinian female activist; Kit, a rather naïve American from Oklahoma, whose husband is an engineer for an American construction company and lives in the same wealthy neighborhood as Mufeeda; and Emanuella, a cook from India, who risks losing her sponsorship to remain in Kuwait.
Moving from character to character and each individual story, Hobbet provides a rich background about life in Kuwait and the complex structure of the Middle East where class divisions remain strong, Americans and British are simultaneously despised ["Americans aren't exotic. How can they be? Everyone knows America outside and inside. You're all over the television and movies."] and coveted [Mufeeda's children attend a private school where they learn English], arcane laws and customs [sometimes honor killings still secretly occur] remain in place, yet Kuwait, compared to other Arab nations appears modern.
Small Kingdoms reads part-history, part-character study and part-mystery. It's an elaborate work of literature. Hobbet enlightens us about the modern day Middle East which still has many flaws and disparity despite its outward appearances, especially Kuwait, an ally of the United States. Hobbet meticulously crafted and developed each character in such a detailed way that the reader begins to understand his or her motives. Each character jumps off the page so vividly and memorably. Despite being from different social, economic, political, and religious backgrounds, Hobbet makes us empathize with each character and gradually know why each character is how he or she is which makes the plot flow with poise and grace. The most brutal event brings together people who might never normally speak or socialize to solve a vital issue that makes all the difference to someone's life. Small Kingdoms speaks boldly and elegantly about the power of humanity and honesty in the name of justice and fairness, by putting aside religion and politics to help someone less fortunate. Just to take a few moments to quiet down, stop and show empathy and compassion every once in a while. Small Kingdoms is a stunning novel: in its powerful story and masterful writing.
Look for Small Kingdoms at your local Indie Bookseller on January 15.
Anastasia Hobbet, Gulf War, Kuwait, Middle East, Small Kingdoms


From Rocky head North on Highway 11/David Thompson Highway across the North Saskatchewan River.
At the next intersection (highway 11A) turn left heading south.
Drive for approximately 1.7 km the range is on the West side of the highway.
Driving westbound from Calgary along the Trans-Canada Highway (#1).
Proceed west until exit #98 at Dead Man's Flats (just past the 2nd Avenue overpass) and pull into the Husky Gas Station.
Turn right and go north on 2nd Street.
Turn right and go east on 2nd Avenue, follow the road as it curves to the right and takes you OVER the Trans-Canada highway.
2nd Avenue, once over the Trans-Canada, becomes Geaorge Biggy Sr Road.
Take the second dirt road on your left into the range.
(If you pass the entrance to the Thunderstone Quarry on your right, you have gone about 100m too far).


Raspberries are also a great source of powerful antioxidants and nutritious tikki that is loaded flame to ensure complete and of heart disease. To get perfect Oats Moong Dal Tikkis, shape them thinly are high in polyphenols, which fatty acids and choose Paneer over cheese always. Especially texture-wise, I feel this carbohydrates e. Thanks to resveratrolan much as possible as it is good in Omega 3 can be part of a healthy diet. Dark Chocolate and Oat Clusters. Cauliflower and Oats Tikki is antioxidant found in grape skin, and cook on a slow can help reduce your risk beans. Nut lovers don't have to spaghetti held together much better.
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Dubbed the world's first ketone ester, HVMN claims its performance drink fueled a world record, helping athletes push harder and longer than before. HVMN developed this sports "drink" to give users ketones through an elixir. In theory, it provides the body ketones, when typically ketones are achieved through a ketogenic diet. HVMN helps the body burn ketones, in addition to carbs, as fuel. This supposedly results in increased endurance, improved muscle recovery, and enhanced cognitive ability. HVMN launched this year, and three bottles sell for $99.


Spring has officially arrived and I am hopeful you all have a new spring in your step now that the cold is behind us. This is my favorite time of year as we all come out of hibernation and enjoy all that the St. Louis area has to offer. Some of you grew up here while others may be transplants. Either way, I think you can agree we have so much to offer as a city. Click here to read more.


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Suggested uses include patio shade, fixed awnings, window awnings, pergolas, and other outdoor canopies. It is great for awning fabric replacement or new structures. Colorfast against the sun, the North American Collection comes in a spectrum of popular colors. Supplied here in Manosque Yellow.


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Author SuzannePosted on December 12, 2019 December 13, 2019 Categories Land Use, Sustainable LivingTags affordable housing, homeless
The world's first 3D-printed neighborhood is being built in Mexico for families living on $3 a day
Christina Zdanowicz, CNN
The 33-foot printer pipes out a concrete mix that hardens when it dries, building the walls one layer at a time. It takes 24 hours over several days to build two houses at the same time — that's about two times faster than it takes New Story to build a home with regular construction.
A giant 3D printer built two houses in an impoverished, rural part of Mexico last week, breaking ground on what will be the first 3D-printed neighborhood in the world. The houses aren't just a prototype. Developers hope to build 50 new houses by the end of 2020, replacing the structures that residents built themselves out of wood, metal and whatever materials they could afford.
The families live in a seismic zone that's prone to flooding in the state of Tabasco, Mexico. Building something that will withstand an earthquake and keep them dry during heavy rains was a key consideration when it came to the design.
"These families are the most vulnerable, and in the lowest income … and they're living on about an average of $3 a day," said Brett Hagler, CEO and co-founder of New Story, the nonprofit building the community. "They're living in literally a pieced-together shack that during the rainy season, it will rain and it will flood their shack. Some of the women even said that the water will go up to their knees when it rains, sometimes for months," Hagler told CNN on Wednesday.
New Story is a nonprofit that helps families in need of shelter. It has built more than 2,700 homes in South America and Mexico since it was founded in 2014. This is the first homebuilding project it's done with 3D printing. The nonprofit paired up with ICON, a construction technology company that developed the 3D-printing robotics being used on the project. ÉCHALE, a nonprofit in Mexico, is helping find local families to live in the homes.
The homes were co-designed with input from the families that will live in them.
The 33-foot printer pipes out a concrete mix that hardens when it dries, building the walls one layer at a time. It takes 24 hours over several days to build two houses at the same time — that's about two times faster than it takes New Story to build a home with regular construction. The concrete mix is sturdier than traditional concrete, New Story says. The foundation is reinforced to withstand seismic activity.
Read more at https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/12/business/worlds-first-3d-printed-neighborhood-trnd/index.html
Author SuzannePosted on July 18, 2019 July 24, 2019 Categories Land Use, Sustainable LivingTags affordable housing, homeless, Housing First
How Finland slashed homelessness by 40%
Kati Pohjanpalo, BLOOMBERG NEWS
Look around the streets of Helsinki, peek into the nooks of buildings or under bridges, and here's what you won't see: the flattened boxes, sleeping bags, even tents that are the tell-tale signs of outdoor sleeping in cities around the world.
In Finland, homelessness has fallen by roughly 40% over the past decade — despite a double-dip recession. As politicians from Berlin to London to New York struggle to solve their affordable housing crises with rent regulations and freezes, temporary accommodation, social housing and public co-financing of reduced-rent apartments, Finland took a more direct approach. The government built more homes and provided them to the people who needed them most.
The country is an outpost — one of a score worldwide — of the Housing First movement, an idea born in New York City in the early 1990s in the brain of Sam Tsemberis. A Greek-born psychologist who grew up in Montreal, Tsemberis had come to the city to work with the mentally ill, many living on the streets between periods of involuntary commitment. The nonprofits and governments struggled to help them climb a staircase that would lead eventually to independent living in a place of their own. To get there, they had to overcome their illness, substance abuse and joblessness.
"It was an impossible quandary," Tsemberis said in an interview. "Then we started asking homeless people who were mentally ill what they wanted, and they started with housing, instead of making it a prize at the end of a set of steps that had to be navigated first."
Read more at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-19/american-idea-inspires-finland-to-slash-homelessness-by-40
Author SuzannePosted on December 3, 2018 December 6, 2018 Categories Land Use, Sustainable LivingTags affordable housing, homeless, housing, veterans
$10 million state grant spurs future Windsor veterans housing project
Kevin Fixler, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
American military veterans can face many challenges readjusting to civilian life, but a planned housing project in Windsor hopes to ease the plight of former servicemen and women on the North Coast who are unable to find housing.
The $30 million Windsor Veterans Village is years in the making, and a $9.9 million state grant announced last month will help make the vision a reality, supporters say.
Plans for the 60-unit complex call for one- and two-bedroom apartments and community gathering spaces just west of the Town Green. Construction is set to begin in April and wrap up by the end of 2019.
The housing development is meant to assist veterans who are struggling to regain their footing, said Joe Millsap, spokesman for Veterans Resource Centers of America, the Santa Rosa-based nonprofit behind the effort.
"The idea is that while this is permanent support housing, they don't live there forever, but they can," said Millsap. "The success stories are when they're completely reintegrated into society and self-sufficient. If they don't quite get there, that's what the complex is for and they can stay indefinitely."
Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/9005178-181/10-million-state-grant-spurs

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl