issandr – Page 62

Saudi lit

The Review at The National has a piece on the flourishing of the Saudi lit scene, in part spurred by the international success of “Banaat Riyadh” (“Girls of Riyadh”).

The last few years have witnessed what one critic has called a tsunami of Saudi writing: some 50 to 100 novels published each year, up from five to 10 in years past. That’s partly due to the 2007 release of Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, a diaristic account of four upper-class young women and their illicit love affairs, set here in the capital. Trashy? Maybe. But also a rare look into a once-forbidden realm of experience, and an undeniable catalyst.

“It’s not good literature,” Ahmed says. “But it did create a lot of controversy and encouraged people to write their own novels.”

The Literary Saloon follows up the censorship snafu at the Dubai Lit Festival that lead Margaret Atwood, in solidarity with a supposedly “banned” British author, to withdraw. Atwood has bone back on her decision and will now lead a panel, appropriately enough, on the issue of censorship. The book in question appears to have never been actually “banned” and the author and her publishing house seem to have used the charges of censorship as a PR strategy.

Links February 22nd to February 23rd

Links from my del.icio.us account for February 22nd through February 23rd:

Dubai Gets $10 Billion Bailout to Ease Debt – WSJ.com – Dubai gets bailed out by its big brothers.

Gulf States Bet on Africa – WSJ.com – Gulf Arabs still investing massively in African agrobusiness: "What the Arabs are doing for us is what colonialists should have done for Africa," said Djibouti President Ismail Guelleh, whose sliver of a nation on the Horn of Africa is enjoying an economic turnaround thanks primarily to Gulf money. "It's like a new Marshall Plan."

Op-Ed Columnist – ROGER COHEN – Reading Khamenei in Tehran – NYTimes.com – Here's something you don't see often in the NYT: "Obama must abandon military threats to Iran’s nuclear program in favor of an approach recognizing the country’s inevitable mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle, while securing verifiable conditions that ensure such mastery is not diverted to bomb manufacturing. That addresses Iran’s intellectual pride (as well as the fact that the neighborhood includes the nuclear-armed powers of Israel, Pakistan and India).
He must redirect U.S. policy toward Israel-Palestine to make Hamas-Fatah reconciliation a core American objective, recognize that the “terrorist” label is an inadequate description of the broad movements that are Hamas and Hezbollah and end the Israel-can-do-no-wrong policy that sabotages a two-state solution. This would allow Khamenei to claim that his demands for Palestinian justice — as the self-styled leader of the world’s Muslims — have been heard."

AFP: Egypt arrests three over deadly bazaar bombing – On last night's bomb attack.

World record Islamic sale is cancelled – The Art Newspaper – Art / auction world controversy over alleged "key to the Kaaba"

From Captive To Suicide Bomber – Did Gitmo make a radical more radical?

Ben Smith’s Blog: A test for the Israeli lobby – Politico.com – A test for Obama, more like: "Arabist" diplomat Chas Freeman as head of National Intelligence Council is not thought kosher enough for AIPAC and friends.

Olmert ousts Egypt mediator over ‘unseemly criticism of a PM’ – Haaretz – Israel News – Amos Gilad may have to abandon ceasefire negotiations – although ultimately he answers to Ehud Barak, not Ehud Olmert.

Bellum » Covert Action and Iran’s Nuclear Program – A look at various methods that may have been used to covertly disrupt Iran's nuke program, including manipulation of currency, sabotage, fake suppliers, etc. An interesting blog too.

Mexico’s Drug Cartels May Have Become Too Powerful to Control – WSJ.com – WSJ equates narco-criminality in Mexico with (narco-?) jihadism in Pakistan: "The parallels between Pakistan and Mexico are strong enough that the U.S. military singled them out recently as the two countries where there is a risk the government could suffer a swift and catastrophic collapse, becoming a failed state."

“Elektra in Tehran”

The New York Review of Books reviews Azar Nafisi’s new book, “Things I’ve Been Silent About: Memories,” in which the author delves into her own family history and her difficult relationship with her mother in brutal detail.

Nafisi is of course famous the world over for her book “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” which besides being a global best-seller has also been the object of some very intense criticism. (While I share some of these critics’ reservations, I found their intransigence and they way they throw around the accusation of being a “native informant,” off-putting and troublesome.) I enjoyed parts of Nafisi’s book, in particular some of the anecdotes about teaching literature in Tehran, but my biggest problem with the book was that I found the literary framing device heavy-handed. Nafisi referenced some of my own very favourite books, but I felt she didn’t treat these texts–or her “characters,” the women in her reading group–with the subtlety they required.

In any case, her new work still addresses the same period in Iran’s history–the end of the Shah’s regime and the Iranian Revolution, but from a much more particular point of view. Here’s another review and an excerpt.

Report: explosion in Cairo

Am hearing reports of a bomb going off in the medieval part of Cairo near Khan al-Khalili, a major tourist destination. Will update as more news is available.

Update: Al Jazeera reporting ~~11 deaths, three Egyptians, three Germans, one French,~~ 16 wounded, one french dead these and others remain to be confirmed.

Update 2: Already activists are saying this is conveniently close to next month when the Emergency Law is to be discussed in parliament…

Update 3: Four dead (German and French), 12 wounded, various nationalities.

Update 4: Ignore previous early estimates, here is a news report from al-Jazeera.

Links February 21st to February 22nd

Links from my del.icio.us account for February 21st through February 22nd:

Informed Comment: Haidar: Bin Laden is not, either, Hiding Out in Shiite Parachinar – Remember the academic paper I linked to recently that tried to find OBL throughthe same methods used for animal tracking? It turns out that the village they identified as most likely to host Bin Laden is majority Shia.

Mashahed, “Egyptian Workers Strike against Fertilizer Export to Israel” – About the strike at the Sawiris fertilizer factory that is exporting to Israel.

Egyptian chronicles: Mohamed El-Baradei is Persona non grata in his country official media – al-Baradei lashes out at regime on TV.

Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Shifting sands – Very interesting analysis of the impact of Gaza on Islamist movements across the region by Hossam Tammam. He suggests the Gaza conflict was "an Islamist moment" and surveys different reactions: the Saudi establishment's concern with stability, the Egyptian MB's weak return to the Palestinian cause, Kuwaiti Salafis' embrace of activism, Egyptian salafis' cautious raising of voice on Gaza, and Amr Khaled's depoliticization of this most political of topics.

The Beirut slave trade – Le Monde diplomatique – English edition – On the exploitation of imported domestic labor in Lebanon.

Gideon Levy / ‘Antiwar’ film Waltz with Bashir is nothing but charade – Haaretz – Israel News – "Stylish, sophisticated, gifted and tasteful – but propaganda. A new ambassador of culture will now join Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua, and he too will be considered fabulously enlightened – so different from the bloodthirsty soldiers at the checkpoints, the pilots who bomb residential neighborhoods, the artillerymen who shell women and children, and the combat engineers who rip up streets. Here, instead, is the opposite picture. Animated, too. Of enlightened, beautiful Israel, anguished and self-righteous, dancing a waltz, with and without Bashir. Why do we need propagandists, officers, commentators and spokespersons who will convey "information"? We have this waltz."

The Arab world’s (uneven) progress | csmonitor.com – Revisiting the Arab Human Development Report, some signs of progress – more IT, more exports, economies doing better. But still massive reliance on imports, no serious education reform, and never mind the politics.

Egypt has bad memories of Netanyahu – Everyone except, apparently, Israelis have bad memories of Netanyahu.

99-year-old Palestinian bitten by Israeli army dog – Just can't make this up.

Reform in Saudi Arabia | Tiptoeing towards reform | The Economist – On the link between the recent Saudi reforms and succession in the accursed House of Saud.

Links February 19th to February 20th

Links from my del.icio.us account for February 19th through February 20th:

Hizbollah has won battles but has lost its social anchor – The National Newspaper – Michael Young's critique of Hizbullah's obstructionism to a Lebanese state project. (I'm not sure other movements are any less obstructionist, although Hizbullah is the one with the most weapons…)

Think Progress » Santorum ignorantly refers to language of Qur’an as ‘Islamic.’ – Too funny.

the human province – The continued moral and intellectual decline of Christopher Hitchens: "In order to illustrate how he knows so much more about Lebanon than anyone else in the room, when pressed, the only “true revolutionary” he could come up with was Walid Joumblatt. To this, the audience mostly just laughed out loud. I would have felt sorry for Hitchens if he hadn’t been such a pompous ass."

ei: Film review: “Waltz with Bashir” – A negative review by Electronic Intifada says Palestinians are absent from the film.

U.S. Senator Kerry to make rare visit to Gaza – Haaretz – Israel News – But will they meet anyone from Hamas?

Gamal Mubarak: We’ll Back Zamalek, It Can’t Be Relegated To First Division – Another sign, along with his televised apologia for Egypt's position during the Gaza war last night, that Gamal is aiming for the statesman image: he wants to fix Zamalek Football Club's embarassing problems. This is what a head of state does in Egypt: intervene in the most minute problems. Look at [Hosni] Mubarak promising to amend the traffic law for truck drivers last night; is this really the role of a president?

FT.com / Middle East – Egypt frees challenger to Mubarak – A sensibly cautious story on Nour's release.

Links

Kaelen Wilson-Goldie on a new (and arguably the first) history of Palestinian art.

The Complete Review reviews “Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language,” a book about the vagaries and issues of Arabic translation.

Twenty years on, nice discussion of The Satanic Verses controversy and its aftermath.

El-Tayyib Salih

The great Sudanese writer El-Tayyib Salih has passed away. His best-known novel, “Season of Migration to the North,” is wonderful, and ends with a scene that I find mysterious, affecting and perfect every time I read it.

Moroccan-American author Laila Lalami (who wrote the introduction to a recent re-issue of the novel) has nice round-up of press reactions in Arabic. I haven’t found much in English yet, except for the Sudan Tribune.

Links February 18th to February 19th

Links from my del.icio.us account for February 18th through February 19th:

Finding Osama bin Laden: An Application of Biogeographic Theories and Satellite Imagery – The abstract of this MIT academic paper in which they narrow down OBL's location to a couple of villages near the Pak-Afg border: "One of the most important political questions of our time is: Where is Osama bin Laden? We use biogeographic theories associated with the distribution of life and extinction (distance-decay theory, island biogeography theory, and life history characteristics) and remote sensing data (Landsat ETM+, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, Defense Meteorological Satellite, QuickBird) over three spatial scales (global, regional, local) to identify where bin Laden is most probably currently located. We believe that our work involves the first scientific approach to establishing his current location. The methods are repeatable and can be updated with new information obtained from the US intelligence community." Hmmm or perhaps OBL is trying to not be predictable? [PDF]

Tayeb Salih (1929-2009) – Literary Saloon provides a few links for the late Sudanese writer.

Breaking News : Ayman Nour on TV – Zeinobia's notes on Ayman Nour's appearance on Dream TV

New York Post has gotta apologize over offensive chimpanzee cartoon – This is ridiculous – only racists would say a chimpanzee automatically means a black man. George W. Bush, with his simian face, was often compared to a chimpanzee. What's rather tasteless in this cartoon is that the chimpanzee is shown riddled with bullets.

Atwood pulls out of Dubai festival in censorship protest | Books | guardian.co.uk – "Margaret Atwood has pulled out of the inauguraul Emirates Airline international festival of literature in the wake of a novelist being blacklisted for potential offence to "cultural sensitivities". Other authors due to appear at the festival, including bestselling children's authors Anthony Horowitz and Lauren Child, are now also reconsidering whether to attend." [Thanks, SP]

al-Shorouk: MB has decided to drop bar on women, copts for presidency – Apparently the Muslim Brothers have dropped some of the most criticized aspects of their platform. This is being held as a victory for "reformists". This is good (notwithstanding that most believe Egyptians would never elect a Copt or woman), and they are also reiterating that any Ulema Council would be under Azhar and issue non-binding opinions. I wonder whether this signals a willingness to make themselves more acceptable to the secular opposition after the recent meeting. [PDF]

Author: issandr