Sand Storms

Often time as I run in Boston my mind takes me back to Cairo, the city of my childhood, and I look at the Charles River but I really see the mighty Nile before me. The long Mass Ave Bridge transforms itself to Qaser el Niel Bridge; Longfellow becomes Abu el Ala’a Bridge and Cambridge become Zamalek. Not last night, that wasn’t the Charles River I was running by, it was the Tigris. The cars going by me were not cars they were Cruise missiles. I heard the air raid sirens too, three times in fact and I never heard the all- clear! Last night I run in Baghdad, under bombing! As I ran last night, I thought of myself a traitor, doubly so. As I went running last night, I pictured myself on the streets of Baghdad and I felt fear, I felt helpless and I felt sorrow.

I was not anti war, but I have now become anti war. All I wish for now is sand storms …sand storms and more sand storms that will slow down the tanks, make it difficult for the laser to see, difficult for the planes to fly difficult for the killing to go on. Sandstorms that will prevent Iraqis from killing anyone, its own sons or America’s finest. Just sand storms, bad enough to stop the killing but not to increase the misery and the suffering.

Saddam Hussein represents the absolute worst calamity that has hit the so-called Arab World. His propaganda machine, his internal security apparatus, his torture chambers, his killing squads, his ethnic cleansing, his belated false commitment to Islam and his pretend care for the Palestinian struggle have lasted for way too long, far too many years. He has killed too many people, tortured and tormented too many people and his thugs have raped too many people and destroyed too many families and villages. I, for one, want him gone.

I supported the US policy in tightening the noose around Saddam’s neck. I supported the military build up that forced him to accept UN inspections and lowered his standing in the eyes of the whole world including those who supported him in his brutal invasion of Kuwait. I would have even supported and offered my help in a war to remove him, but such war had to be sanctioned by international law and had to be very clear and public about its objectives.

I can’t support the current war. Call me inconsistent! I am not a politician I don’t have to be consistent, I only write to get my feelings and thoughts out…to communicate what I now, right this minute, think is right, not to prove that what I thought was right three weeks or two years ago turned out just that.

This war started out almost like vendetta by the Bush Administration. In my eyes the US failed to prove any real danger from Iraq to us here in US. It looked to me more like electioneering and a focus group driven war, a war to show Bush as resolute leader and in the process to get rid of one nasty thug. I was willing to go along with that but the Bush Administration in its bullying of the UN and later in its defiance of the UN changed the equation, for me, completely. It is no longer just about Saddam losing; it is also about Bush winning.

Last night as I ran on the bend of the Tigris in the heart of Baghdad, I felt so much for the Americans POW’s, the kid from New Jersey and Shawna from Texas, the young mother, the Asian American kid, I wanted to reach out across the TV screen and hug them, I want to bring them back to their kids, mothers, fathers, husbands and wives, I wanted them home. I felt the same way about the little olive skin Iraqi boy screaming with the white bandages around his head, I so wanted to comfort him. And the young Iraqi man whose brains were literally blown out and pieces of his skull and hair were barely attached to the rest of him made me just want to die to get out of this whole horrible mess. These images can’t escape from my mind, the dread in Shawna’s eyes and the pain in the eyes of the Iraqi boy and the skull fragments with hair on them. I wanted this war over now, I wanted the bombing over me to stop, I wanted the all-clear siren, wanted it in the worst way.

The Bush Administration may well be wining the public relations war in US; not me! though, they had me but no more. I am appalled by the double standards and their lies. I can’t believe the propaganda war coming out of the Bush Administration directed at me! at us; Americans! What is this stuff about a coalition, am I supposed to believe that having starving countries like Eritrea in the coalition as a substitute for France. Is distant El Salvador the equivalent of Europe’s largest economy Germany and is Bulgaria with its heritage of compliance under Warsaw Pact a substitute for including Russia? Why lie to me about a coalition, why not tell me, we are doing this alone? I resent the insult to my intelligence. Tony Blair does not dare talk about a Coalition of the willing, I respect his honesty.

Come the issue of POWs and treatment of POWs. Again I am disturbed by the double standards. The US took it in its own hands to define who is a POW and who is an “unlawful enemy combatant” during and after the very legitimate invasion of Afghanistan. Those captured were shown on TV in shackles. Instead of showing the world that supported our liberation of Afghanistan our respect for the rule of law, we aimed to redefine the law. On to Iraq, AOL and most US TV showed Iraqis in civilian cloths surrendering and being told to kneel down before their captors, in another shot Iraqi captives were shown marching with their hands over their heads. We can’t win hearts and minds through double standards, but do we care? I don’t think so! the Bush Administration seem to have bought into the Fouad Ajjami & Paul Wolofwitz doctrine, that the Arabs and Muslims will not like America no matter what, so we should not care one iota about their views and get on with doing the right thing.  It is the American hearts and minds that the Administration is really after not those in the Middle East, Europe or even Eritrea.

I am sick of the soft questions of vast majority of American media, I am sick of an American correspondent’s incitement to the military to “take out” Iraqi media, I am sick of American press not asking the really tough questions about Geneva Convention and about the human cost of the war. I am sick of media acting as if covering military product exhibit. I am sick of idiotic use of words such as terrorism that only ultimately serves to equate the Anglo-American “liberation” forces with the Israeli occupation forces. More importantly, why not comment on the fact that the Iraqi Army is a conscript army? As liberators we don’t want to shoot Mohammad or Ali to free their parents and we should indeed expect that Ali’s mom and Mohammad’ dad may not really object to being used as human shield to protect their kids. Mohammad & Ali never enlisted, they were forced into the service. As an American patriot and an American by choice, I fear we got it so badly wrong. We are surrendering American values. Our news briefings are sounding somewhere between the Sharon Spokesman and Tariq Aziz; we are creating whole new definitions for the law .. for morality ..for accuracy in reporting …and for truthfulness.

I find myself also so sick with the reversal of roles that seem to be happening now. Twelve years ago, after Saddam invaded Kuwait, he offered to get out of Kuwait if Israel got out of the West Bank. Much of the world denounced this “linkage” and while many Palestinians and sadly some distinguished Arab Americans fell for it, his whole offer was not taken seriously by anyone. Nowadays guess who is offering linkage? It is the Bush Administration that is over and over again promising to tackle the Palestinian suffering as soon as its gets its way with Saddam. Surely if tackling the Palestinian problems is the right thing to do, it has nothing to do with the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Will the Palestinians have to wait for the rest of the axis of evil, or is Iraq enough?

Al Jazeera and the new all news Arab media seem to have actively sided with Saddam and his army. A naive, but perhaps understandable reaction, to the Bush Administration failure to offer consistent and coherent reasons for the war and simple knee jerk reaction to the involvement of foreigners in our own messy affairs; and not any foreigner ..after all the US is the staunchest ally of the oppressive enemy Israel. So Al Jazeera and the so-called Arab street want to see more Iraqis and others fight America and die fighting America. No one talks of a simple non-cooperation with an uninvited occupation. Why not promote or even discuss refusing to fight for Saddam but also refusing to be liberated. A bus load of Iraqis charging an American tank is not an act of nationalist courage or Islamic commitment; it is neither ..it is the product of ignorance and misinformation ..it is the product of people being lied to by their own Government and by the free independent media, above all it is waste …a terrible waste of life. Jazeera and other Arab media are absolutely right to call it an Anglo American invasion but to claim that suddenly the brutal butcher Saddam is now DEFENDING Iraq or fighting on behalf of Islam and the all important Arab pride is a lie. Jazeera never quite makes the claim explicitly; it is however made over and over again in many ways that it never need to be verbalized.

Islamic authorities, the worlds over seem to be producing new fatwa’s by the hour. How can such a complex issue be resolved so simplistically by declaring that fighting against the invasion is an Islamic duty and those who die fighting against the occupation to be martyrs? Surely for this issue to be subject to Islamic legal interpretation the fatwa givers would have had to take account of all the facts and then issue a legal Islamic opinion. What facts have they taken into consideration and how sure are they of these facts? In accordance with Islamic jurisprudence, just like any legal codes, many issues have to be weighed and dissected. Do the fatwa’s address the crimes of Saddam? What do they make of the possibility that the Anglo-American invasion would indeed result in freedom for the Iraqis? Or do they simply adopt a view that anything America touches in the Muslim World is evil? Where are the dissenting Islamic views? How can the Sheikh of Al Azhar encourage martyrdom through suicide attacks against Anglo American forces; how can he square that with the Quranic commandment not to destroy ourselves? How many mosques must Saddam Hussein bomb and how many hundreds of thousands of Muslims must Saddam kill and how many rape squads must he employ before Sheikh Al Azhar can see that standing by Saddam is not really a commitment to Islam?

As I ran last night in Baghdad my brain was working so hard, in over drive trying to make sense of it all. I wanted sand storms, just sand storms.. I certainly don’t want Saddam Hussein to win ..As a Muslim, does that make me a traitor? Not in the least, Saddam is not fighting for Islam, Saddam’s party is nothing if not anti Islamic to its very core. During the Gulf War of 1991 the bombing of Iraq, a so-called Islamic state never bothered me, I so desperately wanted his defeat and the end of his atrocities. The US courageously jumped into the aid of the Bosnian Muslims when the whole world stood idly by watching the massacres. I don’t want Saddam to come out victorious. But, I am a traitor; I don’t want Bush to be proven right in his defiance of international law, and in his deceit about coalitions and in his contrived causes for the timing of the war. So as I run I can only wish for sandstorms and more sandstorms to stop these horrible sirens of air raids in my head. I want sand storms to silence the fatwa’s that trade in my religion that appeal to popular sentiment as cheap politicians do and in the process push more innocent Iraqis to their death. I want sand storms to help me put my own skull back together to re-find my non-conflicted identity, my whole being.

I worry about my own American identity in all of this. Is my opposition to this war and my desire for the killing to stop now an expression of conflict of identity or maturity of identity? I just don’t know, but my struggle with identity and disturbing images is nothing, those who are suffering are the troops and the civilians in Iraq, all of them.. I am just passing through their city of sorrows, city of rivers of blood.

As a Muslim, I am angry at the use and abuse of Islam. I am angry to see Islam evoked by Saddam Hussein’s propaganda  and at millions of Muslims the world over not getting clarity from their leaders but rather political driven hallucinations and racist hate of the west under the name of fatwa. I think of the difficulty we have every year agreeing on a day to start our fast in Ramadan…of the many different Muslim debates on such a silly, divisive and marginal issue ..they then speak out …not now ..it is all silence. As if standing by Saddam is so very clearly Islamic, just like looking above your head and seeing the full moon in Ramadan …no argument then about the holy month..where is the dissent? Where is it, when it really matters?

I want our young soldiers to come back safe and sound; I don’t want them to be victims of propaganda, to be objects of hate the world over. I want Shawna to come back to her young child and I want the killing to stop. I don’t want a victor in this, because I can’t see truth prevailing and I see a clear victor as a recipe for more war in Iran, Libya or Korea. I just want blinding engine-stopping sand storms. And I run harder and harder to get my skull back together and to get home and as I cross Commonwealth Avenue I hear the massive explosions and my whole being is shaken ..shaken, desperate for sandstorm, desperate for sound Arab, Muslim, American and world leadership.

AA
April 6, 2003

Manzanar

eid now makes alert go orange
them ayrabs no longer slaughter goats
stay alert …
vigilant …not just in the air
see veiled girl cleaning snow off her shoes …
could be after your hotel
beardy over there …
could blow your building
the waitress heard them ..

it’s the season to be bombing
la la la la la la
it’s the eid of sacrifice
la la la la la la
from yellow we go orange
la la la la la la

back then we sent’em japs to Manzanar
pack them herders ship’em far
back to Manzanar
its safe in death valley

should they pack
thinking about it
writing on the wall
not just mutterings
another transfer …for safety

orange ain’t red
Manzanar..will it be cold
separated…
half breeds too

it’s the season to be bombing
la la la la la la
it’s the eid of sacrifice
la la la la la la
from yellow we go orange
la la la la la la

Manzanar not too bad
California dreaming
days on end writing
essays, poems, letters
Manzanar not too bad
edamame kosher halal hummus and curry
eid moubark stamp …show unity
on sale in Manzanar

it’s the eid of sacrifice
la la la la la la

AA

Feb 7, 2003

Glorious Army

fascinating words ..what makes an army glorious?

is it the discipline of soldiers…

its effectiveness  beating an enemy…

its adherence to moral codes ... to international laws…

or is it … its determination to win?

could it be its awareness of its shortcoming….. its striving to be better

could it be its cost effectiveness….

could it be its ruthlessness …

its fearlessness ...

maybe it is adherence to the will of its people….

possibly its professionalism …..and self control…

wonder if it is not its courage …. pulling the trigger with no hesitation

or maybe it is courage ….and not pulling the trigger 

a glorious army wins wars ….indeed!

a glorious army respect laws ….

treats pow's with honor!

a glorious army protects civilians ….

or does it only protect own civilians….

does a glorious army shoot at kids?

do its soldiers take photos over their dead victims…

a glorious army punishes its own for inglorious acts…

can a glorious army have deserters?

refusing to take part … in inglorious acts

yet they are part of a glorious army!

does that make them a scar on its glory?

could something glorious have a scars…

could the scar be its true glory ?

AA

January 10, 2003

Massacre

massacre!

massacre ..the truth …

killing people at 2 am

on the first night of Eid

is self defense

part of

the war… on terror

...taking it to them

killing a mother with

a little jew boy

and

a little jew girl

is legitimate struggle

against

the zion conspiracy

against occupation

chanukah mubark to all

eid sameach too …

rejoice the truth is dead

Beyond the Poisonwood Bible -- Book Review -- Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

While Prodigal Summer has not enjoyed the level of popularity The Poisonwood Bible has seen amongst Kingsolver's fans, for me personally Prodigal Summer is, by far, the better work, more developed and more mature than the excellent, poetically beautiful and eventful Poisonwood Bible.

In Prodigal Summer Kingsolver's lyrical and sensitive language and detailed description transport us whole into the lives of Lusa, Deanna and the fascinating elderly feuding neighbors Nanny and Garnet.

The various characters, even the minor ones, in Prodigal Summer are far more developed, more real, more 3d in comparison with the admittedly more poetic Poisonwood. In Prodigal the pace, throughout, is restrained, consistent, the various plots nicely develop towards a future meeting point at a natural pace. Beautifully crafted and exciting natural meeting point emerge in a slow fashion as we get to know more and more about our new friends.

Lusa, a city woman from Lexington, with a Polish Jewish father and Palestinian Moslem mother finds herself on a farm in an Appalachian valley. Lusa, surrounded by a closed society with lots of antagonistic and suspicious in-laws inherits the big house and the family farm. Conscious of the suffering and the loss of her Jewish family of their farm at the hands of the Nazis and the loss of her mother's Palestinian family of their farm at the hands of the Jews, Lusa won't quit she fights on to make a go of it. Lusa, an expert on bugs and moth, struggle with loneliness, widowhood and temptation, her desire to fit but to be herself, her whole being is so very beautifully created and brought to life in vivid colors before our eyes by Kingsolver. The minor in-laws start out as cardboard characters, a hateful envious lot in the distance; gradually they are turned into real people in Lusas' and our eyes.

Deanna, the Forest Service Rancher, living in the mountain above Lusa, nearly 20 years her senior, is the center of the second plot. Originally from the valley below, and had she stayed there she could have been Lusa's soul mate, has been on the mountain for two years. In love with the mountain, its animals, its birds and its weeds and trees, a true conservationist with a devotion to predators. Kingsolver portrays Deanna's life on the mountain with such detail and empathy, one can picture her log cabin, can see the little bird's nest and can smell the change in the air. Deanna's peace and tranquility are disturbed by an intense affair, one that leaves her confused about her own body but very clear on her ideas.

The odd pair, the elderly Nanny and Garnet are so wonderfully painted by Kingsolver. Nanny, again a generation older than Deanna, is an organic farmer, a hardworking woman who has always stood up for her ideas and for her independence. A fascinating woman in her weaknesses, in her courage and in her wit. Kingsolver's talent, so clearly evident in Poisonwood in the way she wrote on behalf of the several characters, comes across so well here but in a more subtle way. The three women from different generations share a lot in their independence, self respect and love of nature, but they are different, they speak differently and they deal differently with life. In Poisonwood the daughters were very different and thus their language, when Kingsolver wrote on their behalf, was just as different. Here, the three women are so similar yet Kingsolver masterfully captured their far more subtle differences in their dialogue.

Garnet, an endearing and aggravating old man, dedicated his later years to finding a way to reestablish the American Chestnut tree, virtually wiped out by logging and blight. A devout Christian, a firm believer in insecticide and all the most inorganic farming techniques of the 50's and 60's is at odds with his neighbor. In Poisonwood Kingsolver's portrayals of the male characters was rather one dimensional, good or bad. Garnet is real, he has his insecurities and his kindness, his ignorance but he is also a formidable expert on raising goats which comes in handy for the Palestinian Lusa.

This is a true masterpiece, beautifully crafted and written. Excellently researched and informative, and, wow, never forget about the coyotes, the proud mystical predators with their haunted cry and piercing eyes.

Land of Blood and Agony

….. and the cycle goes on

  Sharon feels justified in going after Hamas as perpetrators of   terror;

  the killing of the Palestinian children is just an unfortunate collateral damage

  Hamas feels that killing the Israeli kids is also a collateral damage … in a just struggle against the occupation

  Sharon argues the occupation is crucial for protecting the security … of the Israelis

  and Hamas believes Israel can never have security as long as Palestinians are not allowed back to their homes and farms,

and Israelis feel this ……
  and Palestinians feel that ...
  and  Hamas feels ...

  Meanwhile more kids will never grow up,
  will die before they can love
  before they can live ..

  will just be plain extinguished in a horrible game of hate ….counter hate and more hate…

  …a game of political one-upmanship played by adults who have had their full sorry lives to live …

 and deny the poor kids even a chance at a sorry life, ... acceptable collateral damage …that's all, that's all!

  (1991 - 2001)
  buried here Collateral Ben Damage
  a.k.a. Collateral Ibin Damage
  Killed accidentally by Hamas trying to kill Sheikh Sharon
  Killed accidentally by Sharon trying to kill Hamas
  ..Rest In Peace …
… in this Land of blood & agony…
….rest

AA
December 11, 2001

How Many People Must Die?

I had honestly thought that the 9/11 tragedy could actually lead to positive movements in the "peace" process, could lead to a greater understanding that killing a child eating a pizza in Jerusalem and blowing up the WTC are both despicable acts of killing of the innocents, both the classic definition of terror, only different in scale.

I had hoped that American Jews and Israelis would understand that pushing the US to adopt double standards when it comes to Israel would lead to massive waves of Anti-Americanism, the extreme of which will threaten America itself. As a result, it would be important to pressure American politicians for moderation, for the sake of Israel and America both. If a backlash against Israel ever occurs in America, with the latent racism, it is likely to be very sever. Why risk it?

I had hoped that Arabs and Moslems in the west feeling the weight of the green crescent they wear on their faces would actually feel for the first time, what it must have been like for the Jews under the Nazi wearing the yellow star, would begin to understand the feeling of being the subject of racist hate, fear and distrust. I had hoped that Arabs and Moslems would see first hand the peril of racism and understand more of what drives the Jewish psyche.

I had hoped that the Israeli people would sit back and reflect on what they have done, what they are doing to the poor helpless, hapless, hopeless yet loud mouthed Palestinians.

I had hoped that the blood of thousands of people would be a wake up call. I had hoped that the sight of innocent victims jumping out of the inferno of the World Trade Center would shake prejudices, would make people stop being pawns in the dynamic cycle of violence around them and think.

Instead we have more killings, the terrorists murder a 75-year-old extremist and turn him into martyr. The Prime Minster on hearing the news probably said to himself I can get away with a couple of hundred souls and twenty five houses, he will surely be waiting for another terrorist attack over the next few weeks. The last thing he ever wanted was peace and there is nothing more that he likes than an excuse for avoiding peace and for an orgy of killings, so good for the soul. The extremists on both sides help each other’s agenda mutual of hate and distrust.

The cycle of butchery and denials continues;
 I was here first, no I was!
You shot at us first, no you did…
You pushed me out! no you left on your own…
You provoked me, no you attacked me…
I want peace! you want war!
You want war! I want peace!
My religion is better…
My religion is better…
Your religion is hate; no it is not, yours is!
You want all of it!
You want all of it!
You put gum in my hair, you took my toy, no you did!

Is there anyone else listening to this fight,
or just the two angry peoples?
The rest of the world has just tuned them both out!

How many people must die before we know too many people have died?
The answer my friend is …still pending,
Obviously NOT enough yet?

AA
November 3, 2001

Anti Essentialism & Controversial - Book Review of Edward Said's Orientalism

This book and Edward Said in general seem capable of generating such intense controversy. Many reviewers of this book seem to forget actually to review the work and focus on attacking Edward Said as a person, many others still forget to review the book and proceed to speak for Palestinian rights and the negative western attitudes of Islam. I will attempt to present an actual review of this book based on MY own reading of it.

In Orientalism, Said sets about dismantling the study of the "orient" in general with primary focus on the Islamic Near East. Said argues that concepts such as the Orient, Islam, the Arabs, etc. are too vast to be grouped together and presented as one coherent whole, encompassing all there is to know about the subject. Said bases his view on the shear width and breadth of the subject, the inherent bias of conflicting cultures and more recently the role of the Orientalism in colonialism. It is indeed difficult to attempt to represent a book that is so focused on anti essentialism.

Said's research of western / occidental discourse was very thorough indeed and he does illustrate through repeated examples how misinformation sufficiently repeated can become accepted academic work. Said also presents an analysis of the causes and motives and theorizes about his findings. A lengthy and a times tedious discussion of the origins of Orientalism is rather repetitive and hard to follow for a non specialist like me.

Edward Said however seem to have fallen in the same trap he attributes to Orientalism, he has not attempted to explore Arab writings of the periods he discussed nor has he attempted to present (possibly even read) work by Egyptian and Arab historians of the periods he was addressing save for work carried out in the west and within western universities. In doing so, Said fails to see how the modern and contemporary "orient" sees itself through primarily "oriental" eyes such as Ibn Khaldoun, Al Maqrizi and also through the writings of orientalists like Lane. Said also fails to address the work carried out by orientalists based on many manuscripts of Orientals.

I particularly enjoyed Said's analysis of the strong ties that Orientalism has with power and colonialism. Said analysis of the diverging development of the British and French practice based on the latter's limited success as a colonial power was very enjoyable and very well thought out. The Orientalism Today and indeed the Afterwards section are also very informative and as these were more familiar areas for Said his presentation of ideas and thoughts came across more clearly and the writing was far less tedious than the earlier parts of the book.

Orientalism is not an easy read, it will challenge many established views, indeed it has already with a fair degree of success led to changes in the way the Near East is studied. To me, most of all I see this as a book that offers in part a largely coherent explanation for the on-going misunderstanding between the West and the Near East and in Islam. And while Occidentalism does not exist as a field of study in a place like Egypt per se, Said fails to see that the west is viewed largely in terms of its wealth, promiscuous habits, hypocrisy and anti Islam and thus fails to see it as 2 way street, albeit with unequal power.

This is by no means a the definitive correction of the history of the Middle East or Near Orient, it is however a very legitimate and serious study of a field of study that no doubt has a lot to answer for!

AA Oct 26, 2001

Tale of A Sad Angry Defiant and Patriotic Arab American

I am an American of Egyptian origin, Muslim Arab American if you prefer. For nearly 25 years I have been a strong advocate for peaceful co-existence in the Middle East and a strong opponent of the fanatical cycles of hate that stem from all sides in the Middle East. During the days of the Gulf War, I was actually based in Europe, I was so proud of US action, I held my head high as an American, I argued and walked out of places that were hostile to America and to our effort to counter the Iraqi aggression. My pride was immense the day the Egyptian troops, as allies of the US entered Kuwait City as the first liberators. In my mind, in the mind of those who knew me there was no conflict in my American identity.

Years after the Gulf War, I became an expatriate in China, sent their by my employers. So I was right there during the war with Serbia. When the Chinese embassy was bombed tremendous hostility fueled by the Chinese Government ensued. Again, my hosts, friends and associates in Hong Kong and China had no doubt on what my identity was, a patriotic outspoken respectful American. An American who strongly believes in the American values of freedom and liberty and in role and duty that America has to play in the world, be it over human rights in China, the question of Tibet, Taiwan’s defense, or a Mid East peace broker.

I am also secure enough in my American identity to disagree with the US policy towards the Palestinian people. While I have little time or respect for the Palestinian leadership I feel deeply for the long suffering of the Palestinian people.  Most of my limited effort on behalf of the Palestinians is actually centered on dialogue with members of the Israeli peace movement to help shape their agenda and also work to help Egyptians and Arabs develop an understanding of the other side, to reduce hatred to promote understanding, to see the humanity of the other side.

Then come the shock of September 11th, the horror, the tragedy, and the incomprehension of the enormity of it all. I sit down to explain to my boy what happened, I try hard to explain in simple terms to the little guy, whose American and Chinese friends in China referred to as “Boston Boy”. These people are not Muslims, they may claim to be Muslims, they may claim to have committed their atrocities in the name of Islam, but these are misguided and demented minds. They are headed straight to hell my son, no killings of innocents in Islam, no suicide in Islam, no blind hate. Sons, the Ku Klux Klan pretend to be a fine Christians, were they? Of course, not! We don’t go by what these beastly terrorists say, we know better.

So here I am, just like every other American trying to make sense of this horror, helping my boy through it, with just the added burden of the religious and ethnic connection to the terrorists. I think I can cope so far, difficult, but I will manage

My boy wants to know if he can still defend Muslims and Palestinians if other kids say bad things about them, well I say yeah of course. My boy is scared of the backlash against Arabs and Muslims reported in the media. The little guy makes sure the doors are locked at night and listens out for unusual sounds; terror indeed!

Backlash, what backlash, I never even thought about it. My worst fear of backlash was being in Red Sox baseball cap surrounded by Yankee fans in the Bronx. Should I put the stars & strips outside the house so people know I am a loyal patriotic American?? Put a flag on the car?? Do I really need to do that? Do I need to tell the boy to shut up and not talk back at school? Should I surrender my American identity and think of myself now mainly as an Arab? Should I stop going to Fenway Park to root for the Home Team?

No I won’t do that, I walk in the streets of Europe, Egypt or China with a defiant lone American flag, a symbol of pride, but I will not do it in my own hometown, I will not carry the stars & strips out of fear. I will carry on with my life and my identity; I won’t surrender to the terrorists and the racists. If there is “slightly” demented minds here too, then that is one more thing I have to explain away to the little guy!

AA

Sept 13, 2001

The First 24 Hours

11:45 am phone rings from school
Son: hi (crying, sobbing) you are home, you are not in Philadelphia
Father: yeah what made you think I was in Philly?
Son: you said you are traveling today and a plane crashed there
Son: (more sobbing) have they evacuated the hospital
Father: no of course not, was just talking to them all OK

2:45 pm son arrives
Son: they told us at school and principal kept making announcement of updates
Father; any kids with parents on flights?
Son: don’t think so
Father: are you OK?
Son: yeah

3:30 pm NPR Radio carrying BBC reports Jubilations in Egypt
Father: can you believe that, everyone I talked to was so sad
Son: I can’t believe any of the people we know is happy
Father: I know even those who are really pro attacks on Israel are sad and shocked
Son: I hope they are not Muslim, all the media say they are Muslims
Father: I think they are Muslims, possibly even Egyptians
Son: (crying …angry) no no no not Egyptians I hope not, why; all Egyptians I saw like America

8:30 pm George Bush addressed the nation, vows to go after the terrorists and those who harbor them. NPR commentator interprets Bush as vowing to bomb countries that supports them

8:40 pm
Father: what’s wrong?
Son: I feel sick
Son: US will bomb Egypt if it’s Egyptians
Father: no, no don’t worry about that, Egypt is very close to US, both are against terrorism
Son: but Bush said
Father, interrupting: He never meant that, he is talking about places like Iraq and Talban, don’t worry
Son: ah OK but why were they saying people in Egypt were happy
Father: I don’t know, it angers me so much too, I remember when Sadat who was a president of Egypt, he started a peace initiative with Israel, most people supported it, but western media especially BBC were saying people in Egypt oppose peace. You know news reporting is always weird
Son: this could have never happened in Egypt with all the security and army
Father: of course it can, this man I just told you about was shot right in the middle of the highest possible security. Remember when we went to Cairo and I showed you that big wide street and the tomb across from the seating area and ….

10:00 pm
Father: OK enough TV, off to bed
Son: I want to watch. Why would a Muslim do that?
Father: it is a sick fanatical mind son, there are sick people in every culture and every religion. Remember Timothy McVeigh, he was Christian
Son: the one they just killed, yes I know. Why do you think it is Muslims?
Father: attack on Pentagon, the military and the suicide bit
Son: but Israelis too do suicide attacks against the Palestinians
Father: no they don’t, there is a lot of horrible things the Israelis do to Palestinians, but no suicide stuff nowadays

1:30 am
Son: I can’t sleep
Father: it’s OK, come here, don’t worry about it
Son: You are sure they won’t bomb Cairo
Father: yeah 100%

5:00 am
Son: I will get up now
Father: try to get some sleep
Son: ……………
Father: ………….

6:00 am
Son: well I am getting up, the alarm clock will go off in a bit anyhow
Father: OK
Father: I don’t want you getting into rows at school over this
Son: I only talk politics when other people attack Palestinians or Muslims
Father: please don’t get into it today
Son: what if someone says it is always Muslims who are doing this
Father: tell them this is a racist statement
Father: promise
Son: OK

A Return to Egypt’s North Coast

Impressions & Reflections
By AA Sept 3, 2001



As I board TWA 888 to Cairo, the usual range of emotions engulfs my whole being. Oh how do I do love going back. I long for my Cairo childhood of my trips to Sidi Abdel Rahman, to the beach to Alexandria, to flying a kite on the Cornish. I loved going to Alexandria last winter for the first time in 20 years, this time I am going to see the fine white sands and the bright turquoise blue and green see and the endless beach, fig trees and scattered desert cabins. Cabins, not houses, just little tiny sandstone buildings usually yellow or white, surrounded by gardens of cacti and figs. TWA is bad airline nowadays, I m glad they will be taken over. Their inefficiency is a gentle way to break us in for dealing with the bureaucracy on the other side. With only few months left for TWA the crew are all so self absorbed in their history and friendships with all else a distant distraction. I say goodbye to the skyline of Manhattan and think of Cairo Airport and hope for small lines and reason-enabled customs people who will not object to my laptop, surfboards or old video cameras.

The Cairo International Airport is designed for maximum congestion; a collection of nice open spaces funneling into narrower and gloomier parts. Seems that with fairly little effort a major improvement can occur. Unlike virtually all my of my prior trips to Egypt, we arrived at an off peak time, the arrival hall was virtually empty, a pleasant man who studied law for 4 years and had a professional career in the police force for over 10 years inspected our passports and insisted on bestowing my first name on the kids as their middle name and passed our document to another man who reported a computer glitch requiring my immediate arrest. This happens every time as I go into Egypt, I had hoped the Y2k bug might actually fix that but even that it failed to achieve. The kind senior officer, employed as passport control officer, managed to override the computer system and we were in. More of the funnel effect confrontation, a small little exit to masses and masses of humanity. I wonder to myself when will some one add more immigration control booth and bust out the exit into a much boarder area that makes it easier on those traveling and those greeting. Will they ever do it? Does anyone think it is a problem? Why? I already start moaning and I am not even back one hour!

Well the trip to the North Coast goes through Cairo City Center and the 6th of October Expressway. This expressway has wide lane lines in accordance with the Egyptian Standards, when will these standards be changed to make the lanes narrower so they actually mean something. A two lane elevated highway has in a fairly organized manner at least three lanes worth of cars. Maybe someone from the traffic standards need to go on a drive in Tokyo or Hong Kong to learn that we Egyptians are entitled to smaller lanes if that suits the way we live and drive, or if not just save the white paint. The traffic moves, slow but moves, the shear volume of it has forced a level of organization, Cairo is beginning to show signs of the heavy traffic people have talked and complained about for years, but traffic still moves far better than in most big cities. Wonder how Cairo will cope with the volume of traffic of place like Jakarta, Bangkok and Los Angeles. Funny though that the rush hour is really after 9 am, we must still have our priorities right.

Well, the desert road is no longer desert. The first 100 km out of Cairo used to be a fine example of the Sahara, absolute nothingness, no longer is the case. So much agriculture and construction along the way, I couldn’t notice Modiriah El Tahrir, which used to be the only patch of green between Cairo and the Rest House, the half way rest stop. The Modiriah was meant to be the living evidence of the Egyptians ability to conquer the desert; it is amazing and wonderful to see that so many years later that dream is becoming true in spades.

Well the Rest House still has its own bakery, I remembered the taste of these wonderful cheese pastries called “bataeh”. Here I am 20 years later sitting at the Rest House, which now has locations on both sides of this divided toll way having Nescafe and bataeh! I still remember the days when the economy was so bad there would be not a single car at the rest house and no bataeh. There is no doubt there are many more affluent in Egypt, not just more people; that is of course not to say that the same is not true for the poor.

Shortly after the Rest House, we go on this new road leading to Alamine, the site of the biggest tank battles of WWII, the place where Churchill felt that the allies were turning the corner and issued his famous caution of that time being the end of the beginning not the beginning of the end, oh very eloquent was this man. This is the place where Montgomery finally outwitted the Desert Fox, a place of miles of tombstones, a haunted desert of pointless deaths.

Marina Alamine, an absolutely huge compound of some 30 to 60 square Kilometers, an area that could someday have a population of maybe 100,000 people, beautiful desert architecture and large artificial lagoons. The brilliance of the colors, the colors of the lagoon, the sea the sand and the building are all truly wonderful. People say the water in the lagoon is filthy and causes ailments, others say water skiers have caused death on the lagoon, so I learnt quickly to limit my praise for the lagoon. What was also wonderful about Marina was the clear separation of residential from commercial area. The same old concept that existed in Maadi and was so successful it had to be abandoned, but this looked like zoning laws may actually be returning to Egypt.

Really disappointing that in this enclave of affluence in Egypt, the normal disrespect for basic traffic laws was very much the norm. One-way streets are a total joke in Egypt, even right here in Marina. Like the width of lanes, someone must figure out that designing one-way roads in Egypt is a silly arrogant exercise that does not fit with the desire of the way people drive, why design them in a place like marina and then ignore enforcement. Those who wear their religious views on their person seem not to think it a problem to break traffic laws, as if it is perfectly legitimate to drive through a red light or go the wrong way on a one-way street because this is the law of man not the law of god, as if you don’t have to worry about setting an example of proper behavior to go along with the outward statement of faith.

Staying with fundamentalists and social issues, the appearances in Marina were fascinating. We are obviously now getting into the prime of life to many second-generation veil wearers. So the rebellion has begun, some are wearing veils and leotards! some have the veils on very heavily made up faces, in the heat of the day, covering barely half the hair. Unlike the 70’s when many young women were taking to veil often to the opposition of their families, in today’s middle and upper classes Egypt the pressure is on women to wear the veil, almost the norm and hence the rebellion. That famous statue in Gizza heading towards Cairo University once showed a woman shedding her veil, later in the 1970’s it turned out to represent a woman taking up the veil, wonder what it will show in 10 years time.

What I did see of the North Coast gives the impression of continues chain of uninterrupted resorts, all about a 1 km deep from the water. Villas, cabins, townhouses and apartment buildings, with nothing higher than four floors, and these were set back from the beach. People complained of the over exploitation, but I loved it; it certainly beats the Florida east coast with its massive high-rise condominiums.

The North Coast is a relaxed place, Egypt at peace with itself; this is a place of tremendous natural beauty that we Egyptians built for ourselves, not for foreign tourists. It is built the way we like it, the way we like to do things. With the exception of some of the big social contrasts in Marina, this is Egypt in a rare moment of being truly at ease. The resorts are made up of individually owned properties, in some cases the entire resort is owned by a company. So these are not hotels like the red sea or Sinai, looking for Egyptians as last resort clients.

I got to discover more about the North Coast as I started my running. Well some of these impressive looking resorts only look so from the Matrouh Road, but as I got to see them from the beach I had a very different view. I run past hundreds of empty unfinished luxury villas and beach cottages, miles and miles of them. As I run on the Matrouh Road itself, well in fact mostly the old abandoned Matrouh Road, I got so see a different kind of beauty, the other side of the road the desert, for endless miles. This too is changing, indeed has changed so much. Lots of development and many new comers are changing the traditional way of life of the North Coast Arab and Libyan tribes. Many people are needed to service and built all of these new resorts. I was told that some places are turning into year round residences, especially in the bigger resorts.

Many years ago, before the resort boom and bust, when there was nothing, absolute nothing but an endless beach of unbelievable white sand and the most striking blue sea and one old torn tent I loved the North Coast. I loved it when there was no easy way to get there, no facilities, little water, and no people. Those days are gone, I am sure I can still find the same thing west of Matrouh I really wanted these days again, which I do! But what of the North Coast today? Overall I liked what I saw, a place of beauty that so many more now enjoy and own a piece of. Will it be spoilt, yes it will and it is already showing many signs of that. In some places the sand was filthy full of discarded plastic and the water is not as clean as it used to be. Will it get worse? Yes no doubt it will, until we as a nation learn to value the collective well being like we do the individual, when we learn that spotless homes and filthy stairwells and streets are just not good enough, it will happen someday and these resorts are a good way to start it again.

Unsubscribe – Fragmented, Irreverent & Disjointed

Mostly A Tribute To Souad Houssni and Dalida!


ME

A long time ago I unsubscribed.
One click and I left the group
I found me in Hermosa
Why did I do it? It certainly was not the pursuit of the American dream
An escape from the Egyptian kaboose
I already unsubscribed..not my turn this time

Egyptian nightmare and its obsession with what foreigners think
160 years after independence, 80 years after the revolution
Even presidents are searching for identity

Kaboose of rules, restrictions, taboos, corruption, racism, artificiality, frustration
With ignorance and fundamentalism cocktail
And poverty added too .. shaken and stirred
I unsubscribed I am gone .. not my turn no more

Dalida

It was 1986 I think, I drove up from Long Beach to Schubert Auditorium in Los Angeles, Close to Olympic stadium, by USC campus. The great venue was barely half full.
What talent ..what grace ..rain in Brussels, Gigi, Mon Italie, Paroles, Le Lambath Walk.. fantastic
Lots of polite applause by the mainly French & Canadians
Then, it went wild, it was Salmma Ya Salaama and Ahsen Naas
Not too many Canadians there really, all massreen why did I unsubscribe. I rejoined and came back the following night to see my Dalida ..Schubert was not as empty, new subscribers I see! …. Dalida was fantastic ..lots of Egyptian songs, her early French & Italians stuff ..why did I ever leave ..this is my real love… real self …at ease…oh home again …
Few weeks later Dalida unsubscribed the group .. off she clicked and was gone avec Edith et Virginia
Devastated ..sad. shocked ..why such vitality …. Talent.. such beauty …..is it the sadness and suffering inside that comes out as such talent…….elhamedollah am not talented.

Souad Houssni

Playful ..sexy ..attractive, witty and oh . the cleavage
Fine specimen of the group…my first fantasy .. the playful forbidden face and body and cleavage ..end of innocence …what innocence…Innocence was mummified and wrapped long ago, back to the days of nakessah of 1967. Innocence was perhaps gone well before maybe Lilla Mourad or the time the Copperman got to the palace. We may have had a temporary Advil like innocence with Jaheen, Souad and Haleem, may be it was real, but it died forever when Nasser said I quit. Never again …..never innocence never hope..all gone then

Souad Hossni knew it, she unsubscribed….souad habibiti the smile the playful laughter the cleavage the voice the talent all gone..

Will she be with Sheikh Emam, Abdel Halim and Jaheen au avec Dalida et Edith wla Capitan Duckie

Bass 3aieb cleavage ..duckie ..how dare you harram ya waled

With Souad Houssni gone I know firmly join a new group… no clicking to join…just wait here sir, time will be right with you .. the sad, Prozac, 10 years to AARP..


Souad Houssni is dead, but the sun still shines .. and we got no medals
William Lane knows not a damn thing about my group …

no won’t unsubscribe … but the good doctor from Detroit not even Duckie. I’ll just wait for the next flight

Brave Personal Quest ..Book Review of Enemy in the Promised Land by Sana Hassan

I have so thoroughly enjoyed reading this book it was difficult to put it down until the very last word. This is the story of a young Egyptian Muslim woman, from a very wealthy family who became obsessed with Israel. She left her postgraduate studies at Harvard and went to Israel for a six-week visit that lasted three years. This all happened in the mid 70's before Sadat's visit to Jerusalem and Egypt's peace with Israel.

Sana Hassan delved into numerous aspects of Israeli society. She lived on traditional Kibbutz and on "progressive" Kibbutz; she lived amongst new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and elsewhere learning Hebrew, Judaism and life in Israel, she went through the process of how Israel receive new arrivals. She lived in ordinary apartments in Tel Aviv and amongst the cultural elites in Jerusalem. She also managed to pass herself as a Jew and worked in Israeli factories and restaurants and allowed herself to be recruited into religious orthodox ways. Sana Hassan managed to get herself everywhere imaginable in Israel and the occupied territories.

Sana succeeded in interacting with every possible segment of Israeli Society, politically, culturally, religiously and ethnically. From tea with Golda Meir at her house, lunch with Begin at the Knesset, and dinner with The Sharons all the way to meetings with pimps and prostitute as part of her volunteer work as a social worker. She managed to see more of Israel, perhaps than the vast majority of Israelis ever will.

The portrayal of the Israeli society is that of a country full of contradictions and racist attitudes. We see the lowly state of Eastern Jews and an almost pervasive hierarchy based solely on racial origin and beliefs. She portrays the "subhuman" untouchable type status of the vast majority of the Israeli Arabs and the West Bank Palestinians. She portrays an Israel full of push and shove, of vulgar, inconsiderate people with unabashed racism.

Sana Hassan also portrays an idealism, work ethic, warmth of ordinary people, capacity to love and learn and so much generosity. And yet, we see this hug mental barrier against admission or acceptance of the injustice befallen the Palestinians.

We are also treated to two love affairs of Sana Hassan, one with a married Israeli army officer and a very passionate affair with another young woman who was her roommate at the progressive Kibbutz. I puzzled for days over Sana Hassan's inclusion of these two stories, which undoubtedly would have been very controversial in her conservative home country. An affair with a married officer and a Lesbian episode would undoubtedly dilute Sana Hassan's message of peace. After years of condemnation in Egypt, Sana Hassan was finally rehabilitated, why did she choose to shock again and upset sensibilities?

Sana Hassan quest for peace was always personal, coming out of her inquisitive nature about Israel and things Jewish. From the days of her childhood when she was told off playing with an Israeli boy while on an Austrian holiday, from the unquestioning one sided media of Egypt, it was always a personal endeavor, she never pretended it to be on behalf of anyone else. I suspect for Sana Hassan, her on honesty and integrity were more important than acceptance and continued rehabilitation in conservative Egypt. She must have felt that she could not write about her experience in Israel without her affairs. Her recount of these stories certainly enriches the book and helps us understand her degree of assimilation and acceptance of the unthinkable.

Sana Hassan developed an in-depth understanding of Zionism, history, thought and present day attitudes. She presented the process with which she seemed apparently unable to reconcile her acceptance of Israel's right to exist, with Israel's "right" to be Zionist. She presented herself throughout the book as an unwavering supporter of Palestinian rights. Yet, she admitted to being more troubled by her army officer connections to racist South Africa than his career as an IDF officer. She also seemed throughout the book willing to accept the possibility that her lover was planted by the intelligence service.

With so much going on in her three years of Israel, you would expect a book written in simple straight forward story telling or even text style. That is not the case at all, Enemy In The Promised Land is so beautifully written. Sana Hassan is capable of great prose and lyrical descriptions of scenery, experiences and emotions, and most of all, of people. Her style comes across similar to the early work of Virginia Wolf, at times it seemed like she is even using similar words and phrases.

This is not a straight forward book. It is the sort of book that will truly makes no one happy. It is a confusing book. If you allow yourself the benefit of "learning" while reading it, it may shake many established beliefs and strongly held opinions.

Having read this book, I am absolutely certain of one thing. I will never never eat at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the standards of hygiene at the restaurant were appallingly low. On most other issues, I am a lot less certain.

AA

In the Eye of the Sun - Book Review - Ahdaf Souief

This was the second of four Souief Books and her first full-length work. It is a real treat, very well conceived and written. It is an excellent portrayal of Egyptian society and the various conflicting influences affecting the Egyptian character.

Ahdaf Souif paints each and every character in the novel in a "real" fashion, they are all very plausible in their strength, peculiarities and humanities; the goodies and the "badies" alike, are all well rounded. This does not only apply to Asya, Seif, Crissie and the other main personalities, but to the many minor ones too. No cardboard here!

In part this is a story of young idealistic Egyptian girl, Asya, growing up in the quasi-socialist days of Nasser. Ahdaf Souief paints a remarkably accurate picture of life in Cairo during that era. The 1967 Six days war takes place, dreams are shattered and many lives are torn, but largely life goes on. Asya's love story in Egypt moves with her abroad as she goes to the North of England for post Graduate education. Again Souief paints a remarkable detailed and accurate picture of life in the North of England in that era. Asya struggles and adapts with life in the west. She is so very firmly anchored in her roots, upbringing, and culture; yet she still wades into The West.

Asya strengths and weaknesses as a human being dominate much of the second half of the book, all written in a gripping language that makes you feel you are right there, part of the scene. At times I wanted to shout out "leave him.. throw him out .. he's no good ..don't you see ..." or "call him ..tell him ... don't put up with that .."

Souif painted an outstandingly accurate picture of how a wedding, a funeral, school life and even war and politics feel like in Egypt. Souif was specially masterful at the way she weaved the funeral scene, with her superb translation of the Quran. I could actually picture myself in Etba in Cairo receiving the mourners.

Ahdaf Souif's mastery of both English and Arabic comes across in every word in the book. She loves both languages and takes and gives joy in illustrating their beauty without losing the theme of the book.

The book shed a great deal of light on how Egyptian view not only themselves but also how they view the west, the Arabs and also Israel. It provides a very realistic look on how integrated Moslems and Christians are in City life in Cairo. (at least used to be , not really sure about now)

Aisha and Sandpiper are 2 other outstanding books by AS, if you enjoy this book, you will certainly like these 2. In a funny way, some of the stories from these 2 books are intertwined with In the Eye of the Sun. You will appreciate these 2 shorter books many times more after you have read this one.

The Map of Love, her most recent book 1999, was short listed for the Booker prize (and should have won it over Disgrace which is also a fantastic book with great insight on life at the other end of the Africa) , is an excellent book but not half as good or real as this book, In The Eye Of The Sun is a real treat. I was depressed when I finished it, I wanted more!

A Border Passage - by Leila Ahmed - Book Review

A Border Passage is not a typical autobiography. It has many elements of an autobiography, but it is also a book of well reasoned essays on some of the most difficult aspects of the history of Egypt and its culture. Essays on Islam, imperialism and on the identity and language of Egypt.

Leila Ahmed recount of her childhood and upbringing in Cairo and Alexandria is beautifully written. Her complex relationship with and her views of her mother are an important theme in the first half of the book. Her analysis of the social impact of the colonial and post colonial on her own family and the events that surrounded her is particularly insightful.

In writing this book Leila Ahmed clearly has done a considerable amount of sole searching with objective detachment. She describes that process and articulates clearly her reasoning. You can actually sense the struggle and pain she went through to reach a particular conclusion. This is the work of a sensitive person with a superb analytical mind and an ability to reflect. I particularly enjoyed her pointing out of what was a recollection and knowledge in retrospect, in her process of understanding an issue or an emotion.

The book contains a very well researched and argued section on the "Arabization" of Egypt. Here, she presents why she is not an Arab, but rather an Egyptian, from a historical, cultural, linguistic and social viewpoint. She illustrates with significant historical substantiation Arabism in Egypt as a colonial invention. Yet, she appears to be willing to accept an Arab identity as well as an Egyptian one in the west, because of what she shares with Arabs in the west. She talks of two "Arabnesses", I think I understood her correctly, but I am not sure. If you are interested in the subject you will find this part very rewarding, and if you couldn't care less, it will still be fascinating. It is her search for an identity, and her willingness to accept an additional identity in the west so as not to see herself escaping, in vain, the negative connotations that she has dedicated her life to fight.

A Border Passage is remarkable in its political correctness. This, largely, comes across as natural political correctness, not forced or contrived. It comes across from Leila Ahmed's own suffering from racial, religious and gender discrimination. She tells of stories of a teacher giving her no grades, because he couldn't believe an Egyptian could do in English what she did. She tells of man a spitting in her face in England once he found out she is Egyptian not an Israeli. She also tells of American feminists not taking her seriously because she is a Moslem. As a result of her own experiences, she was very careful not to offend sensibilities particularly in the West.

This is a truly wonderful, sensitive, insightful, lyrical and brave book.

The Map of Love -- by Ahdaf Souief - Book Review

The Map of Love is very well written, with lots of insight on a critical period in the History of Egypt. Amal, the primary charachter in the book, is very warm and real. You can actually picture her in an appartment in Cairo working through the night on the manuscripts.

Her "counterpart" from nearly a century earlier is equally real. The male charachters are not as well developed, Sheriff basha and Omar come across a bit too good, too perfect!

The book deals very well with the confused nature of the modern egyptian society and its roots; part islamic, part Turkish, part Arabic, a bit of French with a unique Egyptian outcome. Refernce to some of Ahdaf Souif's earlier books' characheters is very clever.

The scenes in Upper Egypt are particularly clever. The Palestinian Israeli part did not do much for me and the brother's politics came across contrieved, almost inserted in as an after thought to show the on going family struggle. Too many birds to hit with the one stone!

Parts of the plot are somewhat shaky with a couple of "one in a million" type occurances taking place. A supernatural bit, while very minor, detracts from the book.

Ahdaf Souief, as always, is truely a fantastic read, and this is one more book by her that is really difficult to put down.

Use the very well prepared glossery at the end of the book everytime you come across an unfamilar word. It will help so much in your appreciation of the book.

If you want a truelly Ahdaf Souief masterpiece read Eye of the Sun. If you don't have the mental and emotional energy for 800 pages then read Aisha and then Sandpiper.