The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Herta Muller won the Nobel Prize a couple of years ago. She writes about a particular group: German speakers living in Romania. This particular book is about the rise of totalitarianism and the subversion of humanity under Ceausescu. It is a very painful read and a look at a particular group that has not had much attention paid to it outside of a small set of borders. The situation of these German-speaking Romanians has interesting parallels with ethnic Germans in Ukraine who no longer speak German but "feel" German; Russians who had been exported to the Baltic nations during the Soviet era.
A good book/play to read in conjunction with this is Mad Forest by Carol Churchill, which looks at the unraveling of the Ceausescu regime and how that affected people's personal relationships, language, and thinking abilities.

Painful and beautiful

The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Such a finely drawn, beautifully written (except for some weird typos and a surprising number of times the word 'array' or 'arrayed' was used), painful, and so sad book. There characters had so many burdens, beauty was seen but rarely experienced, always off stage.

Endangered Languages

Very interesting article in today's NYT on efforts in New York to record, possibly save, but most certainly appreciate endangered languages that are hanging on by the skin of their teeth in New York. It is a loss to the richness of our collective human cultures when we lose languages and knowledge through attrition and inattention.

In the last weekend's FT, Gideon Rachman reviews 'The Beijing Consensus: How China’s Authoritarian Model will Dominate the Twenty-First Century' by Stefan Halper. Rachman is generally favourable in his review, but where he raises issues and questions makes for interesting and thought provoking reading. Halper comments on why China has been successful in Africa and why many in Africa welcome China over the west. Rachman finds some of Halper's thesis a bit overbearing and ponderous and suggests that it would be more useful to consider "how big emerging powers such as Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa position themselves, as the US and China struggle to mould the international agenda."

For more on China in Africa, see NYT article on Niger.

Bait and Switch

Another World Cup cop-out and bait-and-switch, this time in South Africa.....reminds me of the Chinese in Africa...who can out-hoodwink who the fastest. For more commentary, see London Review of Books Vol. 31 No. 24 · 17 December 2009.

A travel memory

This item in the Financial Times of London on visiting Lecce, Italy, brought back such vivid and pleasant memories of my visit there in 1969. I was the guest of a family and we traveled by ferry from Bar, in the former Jugoslavia to Bari in Italy, and then down the coast to Taranto and Lecce and then to Alberobello...those trulli were awe-inspiring and stirred the imagination of a very romantic teenager!

Disturbing and Depressing

Two items, one from last month and one last weekend, are of concern to anyone with a moral compass. A story in this last weekend's NYT about the South African Jewish community threatening Judge Goldstone with physical and mental anguish if he attends his grandson's Bar Mitzvah in Johannesburg because they don't like his judgment regarding the government/military of Israel's behaviour in Gaza. Shame on them for their thoughtless knee-jerk response.

And, in last month's London Review of Books, read Yonatan Mendel's explanation of "Hasbara": preemptive messaging and spin control. The left wing secularists in Israel have a lot of work to do!

China and Venezuela

China needs oil, Venezuela needs money and a friend: a match made by Mephistopheles!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I had not expected to like this book and began it with some trepidation, thinking it might be another of those self-congratulatory I'm-not-one of-those.... In fact, I thought it was excellent! Well written, it mad me sad, angry, anxiety-filled as the story moved into the frightening territory of "laws of the South" being broken. It is hard to remind oneself that 1963, and the particular indignities of the South, was not that long ago.

If you need to get lost for a while....

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Not only is the writing, the language, the evocations exquisite, but the story, told from several points of view, is a page turner. McCann's ability to get inside the heads of his characters is uncanny.

Those early humans just keep popping up!

The New York Times reported on yet another interesting find of early humans...this time in South Africa. These fossils were found in 2008. In addition to the two individuals mentioned in this article, another story mentioned the finding of a female and a young male, there was an additional female and an infant, along with numerous types of animals.

Fluttering

Yesterday, a wintry, windy day outside as I sat in a room full ebullient people doing good. In a moment of quiet, the inside air still, a little flutter and tug at my heart. A Tinkerbell of a moment, a hesitation. Ah yes, a little mind/heart visit with Ariel.

Two stories caught my attention last week: The first was on PRI's The World about the government of Iceland banning strip clubs in an attempt to combat trafficking in women. Over the last several years, over 1000 women have been brought into Iceland (pop. 300,000) for the sole purpose of being put to work in the sex entertainment industry. Studies in other Scandinavian countries have found that for vulnerable women, there is a very short leap from strip clubs to prostitution. Check out the comments on the website to gain insight into opinions and thought(?) processes of some of the yahoos who listened to the show. One of the themes running through Stieg Larsson's trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest)is trafficking in women and the horrors associated with this human rights abuse situation.

The second real life human horror story concerns the war on innocents in Congo being conducted by the Lord's Resistance Army. Jacob Acaye, a young man who had been captured at age 11 by this group and was able to escape after three weeks, was in Seattle last week talking about this in conjunction with the Peter Eichstadt, author of "First Kill Your Family". They were guests on KUOW's show Weekday.
There have been a number of documentaries made on various aspects of this crisis, especially about the child soldiers. Also check out the website of War Child International.

Early humans popping up everywhere!

A story in Scientific American about DNA analysis of a finger bone found in Siberia, indicates that this may be a previously unknown early human who is not us!

3 by Dove at PNB

Two reviews of last night's opening of PNB's current rep, one in The Seattle Times and the other in Spokane's examiner.com can only hint at how fabulous the whole evening was. The photographs by Angela Sterling accompanying the reviews attest to the incredible gift she has for capturing the essence of every dancer's body, soul, and professionalism. As wonderful as her photos are, they are no substitute for actually being there! Make every effort to get there and tell your friends!

Cape Cosmos

A while ago (1 February 2010), I wrote about a radio program I heard on KUOW about Race and the Space Race. The producer of the show, Richard Paul, just sent me the link to the new website that contains this story. It is well worth taking the time to find out more about black pioneers in space

More accolades

Another review of Fugard: his play and the theatre named after him.

Nelspruit and Athol Fugard

This last weekend, the New York Times reported on two South African-based issues: one depressing ,one uplifting (isn't that always the case with South Africa?). Let's start with the uplifting story first, shall we? Athol Fugard, the playwright who has been campaigning against apartheid all his life, has a new play currently being staged in a remarkable venue which is now home to a new all black company housed in the new theatre, bearing Fugard's name, located in District 6, site of one of apartheid's most shameful deeds.. The play deals with post-apartheid white shame and guilt.

The second story is about the shame, corruption, violent, and disgraceful behaviour of politicians and bureaucrats in Nelspruit, in their pursuit of fame and fortune in the wake of the World Cup, at the expense of children and vulnerable adults. Only four games will be played in the stadium and for this, two schools were bulldozed, nearby people live in mud huts with no "amenities"......water, electricity, roads. And who will be able to afford to attend these games? Only the local wealthy and foreigners.

A little too much edge.....

Too Much Happiness: Stories by Alice Munro


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am a real Alice Munro fan. This group of stories I found as disturbing as her stories usually are, as well written as usual, but somehow, not as satisfying. The last story in particular, which lends it's title to the collection, was very much not in keeping with her other works. In most of her stories, all is not as it appears when the stories set out; the little twists and turns are often innocuous seeming but take on a edge that can disarm and disturb. This collection seems more that way than previous collections.

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Horrific, just horrific

A story on the BBC World service tonight about the birth defects in Fallujah was just horrific. It seems that rubble from the bombing and fighting has been bulldozed into the river and contaminated the drinking water. The descriptions of the conditions of these children is heart breaking....