Year of the Reading 6: "The Palace of Desire"

I started reading The Cairo Trilogy years ago, but never made it past the first novel. Now I have finally finished the second. Naguib Mahfouz was the only Arabic novelist to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. You can understand why as you are reading his novels.

"The Palace of Desire" picks up where the first one left off, with the death of one of the sons. Then we follow the other two boys on various adventures. Kamal, the youngest, has fallen in love with the rather worldly girl, Aida. Does he end up with her? What do you think? I don't want to spoil the ending, in case one of my dear readers (is there more than one?) wants to go down to the local shop and pick this one up. The other son, Yasin, has developed quite a passion of rather large women, and the novelist is quite interested in describing all of their "folds."

The other characters of the family are there as well. The father no longer terrorizes the family like in the first novel. The death of his other son has sapped some of this energy. The mother is still there, but more in the background this time, since the daughters have gone off and gotten married. The daughters, when they appear, haven't changed that much. Aisha is still thin and nice. Khadija is still mean and even fatter. One of the great moments in the book comes when Khadija reveals that Yasin made a pass at her in public, before he recognized who she was.

The three novels are quite modern in their scope. I was amazed at how many misadventures Mahfouz puts his characters into, particularly since this takes place in the Islamic country of Egypt. As you read, he takes you into the most unseemly bars and bordellos that Cairo has to offer. I was particularly shocked when Aida offered some ham to her young suitor, Kamal. It kind of makes me wonder what my students are up to in Kuwait!

Mahfouz was stabbed by a man a few years before his death last year. The man claimed he was attacking him because of how he had slandered Islam. These weren't the books that set him off, but after reading them I can see why a conservative would be shocked. I don't know if I have really learned that much about the Islamic world while reading them, but I have entered a world I never thought I would experience: inside an Islamic home.

So pick up a copy of the whole trilogy when you can. At only 1313 pages you can spend months, if not years, in faraway Cairo.

Goodbye Thursday Breakfast

A four year tradition will come to an end in September. Kuwait has decided to switch their weekend to Friday and Saturday, so Thursday breakfast with friends has gone the way of the dinosaur. Of course the dinosaur's demise helped created Kuwait's economy, so hey, why am I complaining. I was actually hoping for a three day weekend, but I will just have to eat on Fridays now.

Many Islamists in Kuwait complained, since it is customary to fast on Thursdays (I buffet). Hopefully everything will be peaceful and I will still get my eggs on time.

Cheerio.

Almost over and out...

Well, the school year is almost over. We are now in administrative mode. The kids no longer come to class, but they are still floating around the school. One boy just asked me if I would mind him hanging out in my room. I said: "You bet I would." I didn't put it into so many words, but that is what I meant. He wanted to hang out for four hours while he waited for his exam. He needs to learn to come in when he is supposed to, not four hours early.

Not much else of note. Had a going away party for a friend on Thursday. Ate a big steak. I really don't like the restaurant, but it turned into a free dinner. So I won't complain too much. I just don't like paying a fortune for a big chunk of meat. It doesn't make much sense, at least not to me. Tonight is the officially going away party for teachers. That will me a more sedate and delicious fare I believe. I can easily get some great meat and vegetables at a local Thai restaurant without having to pay 60 bucks for it.

The weather is now scorching. It has been over 43 degrees celcius everyday (about 110 degree fahrenheit), and the weather is just going to get hotter. I am glad to be going to cooler climates. The low in Sanaa, Yemen was 3 degrees the other day (about 38 fahrenheit), but not it had gotten a bit warm. Nonetheless, I am going to pack a sweater and jacket before I go. I will be there in two weeks. The highs are around what the lows are currently in Kuwait. Should be a nice way not to sweat too much all summer.

Just trying to pack up and finish a few things before the end of the year. I have a lot of materials to file, before jetting off on the 8th of June.

Of course, the end of the year is always a little nostalgic. It is hard to see good friends move on, but there are a lot of dunderheads leaving as well (though not as many as last year). We have quite a number of whiners on staff. They are always trying to bring the school down. Good riddance is all I have to say to those who complain non-stop. I don't understand why people come overseas if they are such babies. Leave Canada and America where they belong, on the other side of the world.

Well I will write more when I have the chance.

Year of the Reading 5: "Islam in the world"

Been reading a lot of books this year on Islam and the Middle East. Spent the last twenty years doing that really, but I have been having a renaissance of reading as of late. This book, by author Malise Ruthven, was better than most of have read. It really wouldn't be a book for a beginner, even if that is what one of the blurbs says. I think you need to know quite a lot before beginning this one. I learned many new things from it, which is nice, since reading about the Middle East and Islam is now mostly about rereading the same things. This edition was published after 9/11, so there was more information on the rise of Islamic terrorist groups. Personally, I think the book needs a good re-writing, since the conclusion seems tacked on after 9/11. A new edition could incorporate more history of recent events in a broader historical context. Still if you know a lot about Islam and the Middle East I highly recommend this one. If not, please start elsewhere or you might find yourself a little lost.

One thing I have liked doing in Kuwait is learning a lot more about Islam. I haven't always been happy with what I have seen here, but I know that the behavior of some doesn't reflect on the religion anymore than the behavior of some Christians reflect on Jesus. I am glad that I am in the Middle East at this time in history. When I go home in the summers, what I see about the region makes me wonder if it is the same place I am living. Our media really does play tricks with one's head. I feel blessed at having the opportunity to travel around this region and meet people and learn about their lives. In the book, the author writes that in the West we see tyranny as the opposite of freedom. We try to push our beliefs of freedom on the rest of the world. But in Islam the opposite of tyranny is justice, not freedom. It creates a whole new dimension of possibilities. Bush and company should learn this important lesson, particularly in how they treat people in the region.

(Finally I decided to change the title of the year of reading to just that. No more Golden Pig, since so many of the books I am reading are about Islam. Must be respectful.)

School update

Do you remember way back when when I said I hated to grade? Well I still do.

The Senior class at school has been acting up. Today they locked themselves in the gymnasium. No one was really prepared for the lack of a toilet, so they left in about an hour. Many seniors were late to the barricade.



Yesterday the seniors glued many doors shut. So their water fight for tomorrow (an AIS tradition) has been cancelled.



Last night, the senior Theater class had a performance. Quite shocking actually. The "f" bomb was dropped three times on stage. That is quite powerful language for my school. A few teachers were complaining, but I found it quite liberating.



But I am not complaining too much. I am heading to Yemen in a little over two weeks. I just found out a friend of mine is now stationed in Iraq. Poor guy. I am glad to be in Kuwait and out of the military.



Take care.

Waiting for tomorrow

Okay, so my inner geek has emerged (maybe that is my power). Tomorrow is the final episode of "Heroes" for this season. I have been enjoying it here in Kuwait on cable and then on the internet. Here we are building for some season finale.

What do I think will happen? I think Sylar will try to kill Peter and then Nathan will save Peter by flying off with Sylar. Sylar will then be killed somehow by Nathan. But Nathan will die. He won't be the villain that Linderman wanted him to be.

Of course I could be wrong. I have seen a few minutes of the episode and a few still pictures. One of Hiro being chased by some Japanese samurai is really interesting.

Okay, so I am a geek. Cannot wait to see how it ends tomorrow.

Visitors from Abu Milwaukee, UAE

Well the weekend is over. I had fun. I had two friends come and visit from the United Arab Emirates. Two ladies I met in Sri Lanka. We had fun in Kuwait! Can you believe that? Unfortunately I wasn't able to spend too much time with since I had no personal days left to take. But we enjoyed the time we had together. We managed to go to the Friday Souk, to a Mexican restaurant and to Green Land, a vegetarian restaurant in Kuwait City.

One of my friends will be moving to Myanmar next year. She was undecided before she arrived, but I think I told her how I enjoyed life there a little too often. I think she is going there just to shut me up. Cindy, said friend, was, also, really excited about being able to take the bus in Kuwait. There are no busses in the UAE. That would just be terrible. Jennifer, the other lady, isn't moving anywhere in the near future, so I await my invitation to Abu Dhabi.

Here is a nice picture of the two of them, with some fellows they picked up off the street. And I thought they were just coming to see me. (I think they still look pretty good, for 29.) They said that might come and visit me in Yemen this summer.

I found out that they don't get out of school until the end of June. I am so glad I teach at AIS in Kuwait. We are out on the 6th of June. I can't imagine going too much longer.

Well that's all for today.

Year of the Golden Pig Reading 4: "Nathaniel's Nutmeg"

Okay, reading about spices might not be your thing, but this was really an amazing book. It is about the conflict that grew up between the English and the Dutch over the Spice Islands in Indonesia. It mostly focuses on this trade, and tells the tale of one Nathanial Courthope, even if only in about thirty pages of the book, and his impact on future events. Without him, Manhattan might have remained a Dutch island and there might not be a British presence in India.

Today we don't really worry too much about the Dutch, but they were ruthless in the 16oo's. In this book we see all of the horrible things they did to the Indonesians and to the English. This is a great book if you love torture and war crimes. Surely Indonesian could use this book to get some money from the Hague. It is kind of like Austin Powers said in Goldmember: "There's two things I hate in this world. People who stereotype and the Dutch." I wonder if Michael Myers read this book before writing that.

All in all a good read. Check it out if you have the time.