Amazon.com
From 1991 to 1994, Keith Richburg was based in Nairobi as the Africa bureau chief for the Washington Post. He traveled throughout Africa, from Rwanda to Zaire, witnessing and reporting on wars, famines, mass murders, and the complexity and corruption of African politics. Unlike many black Americans who romanticize Africa, Richburg looks back on his time there and concludes that he is simply an American, not an African American. This is a powerful, hard-hitting book, filled with anguished soul-searching as Richburg makes his way toward that uncomfortable conclusion.
Book Description
In “the most honest book to emerge from Africa in a long time” (USA Today), a black american correspondent for the Washington Post reports on the horrors he witnessed in Somalia, Rwanda, South Africa, and other troubled African nations-and reflects on his own identity. Map; updated with a new afterword.
Customer Reviews:
disturbing.......2007-03-29
this is a very disturbing and frightening account. While I agree with the authors premise of "straight talk", I do not agree with the pessimism.
I grew up in Africa and it has its own unique beauty. Africa is not for everyone though, black or white, only certain people can appreciate it. Africa has many problems, and many of them cannot be blamed on western or European nations. They are africa's problems so africa must find its own solutions. I agree with the author that african dictators have committed terrible atrocities to their own citizens
Richburg seems to focus on the extreme negative sides of Africa, rwanda war, somali civil war, war in the congo. But they were people in other parts of Africa who were equally shocked and revulsed by those wars. I am african but I do not think even I could manage to keep myself together if I had seen 3 different civil wars in three years. You do not have to be a non-african to be affected.
Basically you cannot make generalizations about Africa. In my whole life in africa( more than 25 years) I have never seen anyone killed, never, I have never seen anyone fire an AK47. Petty theft is a part of life that you get used to, what do you expect when folks live on less than $1. just keep your wallet in your front pocket. And if you do not want burglers to rob your home just have a large family with plenty of extended relatives- too much to handle for burglers, life goes on.
I disagree with the authors pessimism because around 80% of all african countries have mulitiparty democratic elections. Liberia elected africa's first woman president. Africa is largely entering its second round or phase of multiparty democracy as the terms of most two term presidents have ended. Malawi, tanzania, zambia, south africa have all entered this phase. Nigeria is about to have its first transition from one elected leader to the next.
It is known there is a stigma about africa amongst many of African descent. Because of the "poverty" and lack of development many would like to distance themselves and not be associated with Africa. I can understand that, its a personal choice. But I think that is what is at the heart of this book. This book is very anti-african, for a man who spent 3 years in Africa and did not integrate well with africa and felt like an alien- well I think that says alot.
A must read.......2007-03-02
I read this book when it first came out. It is a fascinating, gripping and honest portrayal of the author's experiences in Africa. Some of the images it painted in my mind are still with me, such as the scene of the bodies flowing down the river from the upstream genocide.
Africa is a big enough and important enough place that everyone should read this book to get a dose of the reality that is Africa.
I noticed a strange thing with the few critics that did not like this book. Every single one of them resort to psycho analyzing the author. They theorize that he is traumatized and not in his right mind, or he is suffering from self hatred and self doubt and that, more than his actual experiences, explains the book. To me it is certainly ok to dispute or disagree with an author if you don't like his book, but is it necessary to attack his mental health if you dont't like what he reports? It reminds me of the tactics of the Soviet Union where dissenters were declared mentally ill and put into institutions. What is it about all these folks who are offended about his reporting on conditions in Africa that make them want to attack the author's mental health? One of the reviewers even went so far as to call him a "murderer" and "traitor". One reviwer who even claimed to have been a friend in college used the mental health approach to undermine his work. Some friend!
When I read the book I saw a brilliant reporter at work and detected not a hint of mental illness or psychosis. Read the negative reviews for yourself and help me get a grip on this strange approach to critisizing this book....I've never seen anything quite like it....at least not since the decline of the Soviet Union. Is this a new trend?
A brilliantly-written book that bravely bucks conventional wisdom.......2007-01-17
Richburg's book is both immensely important and immensely readable. His command is majesterial. He marshalls facts and personal experiences to substantiate the twin arguments that are at the book's core: (1) that modern-day Africa is a place of almost unimaginable violence and dysfunction, and (2) that black American identity has wrongly tried to establish an unquestioning affinity with that troubled continent.
Truth is always in short supply, particularly at the nexus of race, identity and global politics. Richburg's book speaks with a precision and intelligence that inform, provoke and ultimately enlighten his readers. Highly recommended.
"There but for the grace of God we go"-excerpt from the book.......2006-10-26
It's one of the best and most gripping book I've read. It's a very vivid account of someone on the ground of what really happened in Africa in the early nineties. ..very honest, passionate , and angry.
I must admit, in the first few chapters I thought, here's a very intelligent black man whose circumstance shielded him from the discriminating lot in America. As you read on, you would come to admire this man for coming out victorious, successful and grateful amidst the discriminating environment he grew up with.
I've recommended these books to my friends-regardless of whether they think America owes them anything or not.
A Black Man confronts his worst fears, his identity:.......2006-09-16
Keith B. Richburg was the Washington Post's Africa bureau chief from 1991 to 1994. In his memoir "Out of America" Richburg's tale of Africa is interesting. He describes himself as a man torn between two worlds. First he copes with living as a black man with Euro-centric tendencies and second, he refers to him self as a black man who doesn't quite fit in an Afro-centric world.
Many reviewers have labeled Richburg a self hating black man because of some of his statements. Many Blacks who've read the book were offended. I guess some of his views could be construed in a negative manner when perceived from a racially myopic standpoint, and I quote, "Thank God my nameless ancestors, brought across the ocean in chains and leg irons, made it out alive. Thank God I am an American." To properly ascertain why Richburg made this comment the reader has to comprehend the horrors that he's witnessed. A Case in point: the atrocities in Rwanda. In chapter 5, "Thy Neighbor's Killer," in reference to the Rwandan massacre Richburg states that, "I first saw the bodies floating down the Kagera River from Rwanda into Tanzania. They floated down the river and over the Rusumo Falls." What has to be ascertained is that during the 1994 campaign the Hutu massacred the Tutsi. Belgium lost control of the territory and the Tutsi were in league with the Belgians while the Hutu became second class citizens. The Hutu in a jealous rage perceived that the Tutsi were the enemy and in a sense they were since they represented the years of sanguineous oppression that the Hutu experienced, which sparked their recalcitrancy or insurrection. However, this doesn't justify the Hutu's barbarous acts.
The overall point that Richburg was making was that he's glad he wasn't involved in this gravitas situation. I think most people would have the same response if they had experienced this atrocity.
In chapter 3, Richburg takes a journey through Somalia. He begins his tale quoting a U.S. intelligence official, "Somalia has ceased to exist. And right now, nobody cares." Richburg covered the 1992 atrocities in Mogadishu which lead into the United Nations' mission "Operation to Restore Hope" which was a complete failure. Later the U.N. succeeded in alleviating the famine conditions in the country. But in the end the U.N. retreated and the country has been in a state of entropy ever since.
Moreover, Richburg delves into the issue of economic strangulation. His inquiry was, "why has East Asia emerged as the model for economic success while Africa has seen mostly poverty, hunger and economies propped up by foreign aid?" And Richburg's answer, "corruption is the cancer eating at the heart of the African states. It is what sustains Africa's strongmen in power, and the money they pilfer, when spread generously throughout the system, [this] is what allows them to continue to command allegiance long after their last shred of legitimacy [is] gone." One particular case was Zaire president Mobutu stashing nearly $10 billion in overseas bank accounts, while ripping off state-run corporations. The African people are not receiving the funds necessary to run their countries. According to the World Bank,"Africa is home to the world's poorest nations." African children's mortality rate is abysmal. Children are most likely to die before age five and most adults don't make it beyond age fifty. The book gives many answers, unfortunately the answers given are uncomfortable ones, and may not be what the reader wants to read. But the bottom line is that the truth hurts.
Also, the book briefly alludes to Liberia's late 1980's free fall and the maniacal Valentine Strasser's ascension to power. The fact that in 1993 African American leaders such as Coretta Scott King, Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan attended a summit meeting between Africans and African Americans organized by the Reverend Leon Sullivan (who is an anti apartheid activist) leaves something to the imagination.
The question that was raised during the summit was a legitimate one. How come black leaders are so quick to call for social change in America under white suppression but waffle around the issue when it involves black suppression on black people in African countries? It's just something to ponder on, but remember be circumspect when contemplating on the issues brought up in this book. Don't read this with a reactionary point of view. You'll do yourself a deserves then.
This book should be read by a wide readership because it is so thought provoking. Many Blacks need to take an internal journey of the self and contemplate the true meaning of ethics and justice, then and only then will all Africans taste freedom.
Richburg succeeds in taking the reader through his personal journey, but if you are looking for an academic perspective then look elsewhere because this is his story, his experience. If you want to learn more about Africa this book will lead you in the right direction, but academia it is not.
Average customer rating:
- excellent read
- Definitely the Right Stuff
- Impressionistic, with little analysis or insight into the period
- Right Stuff, Wrong Movie
- The Right Stuff; the Right Edition
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The Right Stuff
Tom Wolfe
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ASIN: 1579124585 |
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Tom Wolfe began The Right Stuff at a time when it was unfashionable to contemplate American heroism. Nixon had left the White House in disgrace, the nation was reeling from the catastrophe of Vietnam, and in 1979--the year the book appeared--Americans were being held hostage by Iranian militants. Yet it was exactly the anachronistic courage of his subjects that captivated Wolfe. In his foreword, he notes that as late as 1970, almost one in four career Navy pilots died in accidents. "The Right Stuff," he explains, "became a story of why men were willing--willing?--delighted!--to take on such odds in this, an era literary people had long since characterized as the age of the anti-hero."
Wolfe's roots in New Journalism were intertwined with the nonfiction novel that Truman Capote had pioneered with In Cold Blood. As Capote did, Wolfe tells his story from a limited omniscient perspective, dropping into the lives of his "characters" as each in turn becomes a major player in the space program. After an opening chapter on the terror of being a test pilot's wife, the story cuts back to the late 1940s, when Americans were first attempting to break the sound barrier. Test pilots, we discover, are people who live fast lives with dangerous machines, not all of them airborne. Chuck Yeager was certainly among the fastest, and his determination to push through Mach 1--a feat that some had predicted would cause the destruction of any aircraft--makes him the book's guiding spirit.
Yet soon the focus shifts to the seven initial astronauts. Wolfe traces Alan Shepard's suborbital flight and Gus Grissom's embarrassing panic on the high seas (making the controversial claim that Grissom flooded his Liberty capsule by blowing the escape hatch too soon). The author also produces an admiring portrait of John Glenn's apple-pie heroism and selfless dedication. By the time Wolfe concludes with a return to Yeager and his late-career exploits, the narrative's epic proportions and literary merits are secure. Certainly The Right Stuff is the best, the funniest, and the most vivid book ever written about America's manned space program. --Patrick O'Kelley
Book Description
First published in 1979 to extraordinary acclaim, Tom Wolfe’s landmark work became an instant bestseller, going on to sell more than 2.5 million copies. It is a true story that is as exciting as the best fiction—the tale of American heroes Yeager, Conrad, Grissom, and Glenn—men who were willing to put their lives on the line in pursuit of the final frontier.
With stunning accuracy and captivating prose, Wolfe recounts the details of the lives of these men, their families, and of NASA’s Project Mercury program. The result is a vivid history that could only be enhanced by actual historic photographs.
The Right Stuff Illustrated includes hundreds of photographs and reproductions of documents and memorabilia pertaining to the Project Mercury program, the current events surrounding the program, and the political climate that led up to the missions in the early 1960’s. It’s the perfect gift book for lovers of history and the space program, as well as the millions of fans of
The Right Stuff.
Customer Reviews:
excellent read.......2007-05-12
As a 'random' book to pick up and read, I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of information provided in this book. I also enjoyed the writing style. Excellent excellent, must-read book!
Definitely the Right Stuff.......2007-03-18
This book is one of the best accounts of, indeed any scene, I have ever read. Wolfe, with his half academic half layman writing style, explores the men and indeed the whole phenomenon, that was the American space program in the 50ies and 60ies. In a delightful manner he gets to the heart of what makes the people involved "tick", and does a great job in bringing their feelings and through to the reader. The reader can truly emerge him/herself in this exciting world of fast planes, fast cars, hope, fear and glory.
The only thing "wrong" with this book is that it is too short. I would've loved to see 50-75 more pages telling more about the "aftermath", as it were, but that is merely because the book was such a jolly good read to begin with. And, I must add, I'm not even interested in planes, speed or space programs or indeed American history.
Highest possible recommendation.
Impressionistic, with little analysis or insight into the period.......2007-02-07
You carry your expectations to a book, and this one was a disappointment to me. This book, in my view, offers a sophisticated version of hero worship. But, while showing many of the foibles of the characters, it is worshipful and indeed, facile myth generation. You get a bunch of you-are-there style descriptions - the kind of light stream-of-consciousness that made Wolfe famous as a hip young beat journalist - and they are fine as far as they go, but at least for me, I felt there is far too little substance behind it.
In spite of Wolfe's somewhat cynical veneer, the characters fall into some pretty simplistic stereotypes. You get the tough, natural aristocrat, Chuck Yeager, the real yet unknown superstar, and then you get the media-sensation astronauts, who are promoted for political propaganda reasons. Thus, there is John Glenn ("the clean marine") and a host of other less colorful characters. I did not feel I got to know much about them. Glenn, whom I worked for in the Senate 20 years ago, comes off as the most boring of straight men, which I don't think encompasses him well at all.
Then there is the period of history in which it all takes place, the Cold War. Wolfe offers nothing much of interest about this frightening period of technological competition between the US and USSR. I felt it was just kind of a useful background for Wolfe. This stands in stark contrast to Wolfe's wonderful Electric Coolaid Acid Test, which really plumbed a lot of the 1960s psychedelic spirit - that was why I expected so much more, I suppose.
I would recommend this as a fun read, but not much beyond that. It is strictly throwaway and does not demand much concentration or stimulate the reader to dig deeper elsewhere, which for me signals a failed reading experience.
Right Stuff, Wrong Movie.......2006-10-14
If you've only seen the dreadful movie version of this book, stop reading these reviews and click back to the ordering page right now! There's little relationship between the bombastic (and highly inaccurate) film version and Wolfe's wonderfully detailed and nuanced book. Although his "New Journalism" style is becoming a bit dated compared to the newer space histories and autobiographies, there's still no better introduction to the whole "figter jock" mentality that permeated NASA's astronaut culture at least through the 1980s, even among the non-pilot astronauts.
The Right Stuff; the Right Edition.......2006-08-24
This book was my introduction to Tom Wolfe - and what an introduction it was.
The country was mired in a black hole. President Nixon had resigned the Office of the President in disgrace. There was the continuing debacle in Iran. The anti-hero was king.
Who would have guessed a book about old-fashioned heroism could capture the public's attention?
Yet that is exactly was Wolfe penned. Beginning with the early test pilots and then proceeding to NASA's Mercury program's assault on the final frontier - space. A tale of good, old-fashioned American heroism; a thought, which to many in 1979 that was foreign, or at best, long-forgotten.
The book was controversial. As a New Journalist, Wolfe inserted himself into the lives of his "characters" as each in turn becomes a major player in the space program. It was a true story that tintillated the reader's imagination. No novel could have done it better.
Beginning with an opening chapter on the terror of being a test pilot's wife, the story cuts back to the late 1940s, when Americans were first attempting to break the sound barrier. Anyone who has ever read it will never forget its Blue Uniform litany. Test pilots, we discover, are people who live fast lives with dangerous machines on the edge. I recall having to punch myself to be reminded that I was not reading a book about the stock brokerage business.
Although Wolfe's command of the English language is unparalleled, this edition is enhanced by the inclusion of images culled from Life and Look magazines, NASA and the Library of Congress. The photos chronicle the lives of the people and the social and political climate that created our country's nascent space program.
The Right Stuff is my favorite book. Tom Wolfe is my favorite author. This edition is a tribute to both. Yet more than that, it is a tribute to the people and the spirit that made this story possible.
Customer Reviews:
You really must read this book to understand Burma today.......2006-11-10
Aung San Suu Kyi's letters are a window into Burmese culture, politics and problems the people of Burma are facing today. It is an excellent read, well written and very well worded. As you read this book, you begin to form a mental image of her as a person. Her gentle nature and positive, uplifting attitude show through. It is easy to see why the people of Burma risk their own personal freedom and safety to support Aung San Suu Kyi politically and her party.
Delicately put.......2004-12-06
An eloquently written piece that will be finished in a few sittings, Suu Kyi's Letters from Burma is a collection of short essays she submitted to the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shinbun.
It is likely that because it has been written for a mass audience, you will find 'Letters from Burma' easier to digest than her other books, Freedom from Fear and Voice of Hope.
A remarkable politician, she examines Burma through its common people and the everyday lives that are led. As with all of Suu Kyi's books, she takes care to not forget why her party is fighting for democracy - its people.
She discusses Burmese politics sans the jargon, allowing this book to be appreciated by everyone, even if new to the situation in Burma.
She included in her writings, several wonderful quotes from English, Japanese and Burmese poems, reflecting her regard of the arts. The title 'Letters from Burma' more than merely states the intention of each of the 52 entries in this book. Her entries are personal, light-hearted, frustrated, or balanced. They are addressed to the reader, bringing him/her into the world of Burma, and seeing it as it is for a lay person.
She has managed to make getting aquainted with politics so beautiful and enjoyable, through which i suppose she nurtures the concern and interest in matters of her state, that you are likely to re-read certain entries, if not the whole book again once you're through it.
Much more than just a book !.......2000-12-31
This is not just a book. Along with Aung San Suu Kyi's two other major books ("Freedom from Fear" and "Voice of Hope"), this book is destined to be at the heart of the struggle - and eventually the victory - for democracy in Burma. Among the three, this is the one I found most wonderful. Vivid, direct, it makes the reader feel as if she/he is listening to Suu Kyi, with her wonderful Asian voice and Oxford accent. Suu Kyi talks about Burma, about her people, about herself. She tells of the tragedies of her people, in the most natural and serene way, as if she were telling of everyday life - because indeed, this is the Burmese everyday life. She does not inflate things, she does not push for her views, yet she reaches the reader's heart immediately - at least she did with me ! She simply expresses views and feelings along with plenty of thrilling facts and anecdotes. I can't imagine of any reader who won't love this book and won't feel inspired by this account from Burma's heroine. After reading this and the other books, I felt so close to Burma's struggle that I absoliutely had to go there and meet Suu in person. So I did, I took off for Burma and managed to meet her. I had met many world personalities before, but this was truly a unique event in my life. The pages of the book kept coming back to my mind, as I could finally see the source of all that strength and hope, the incarnation of Burma's struggle. In the end I was deported from Burma for having made contact with her. Now these books are my inspiration to keep fighting on for democracy in Burma in all ways I can.
great read.......2000-05-20
As this book is a compilation of 52 letters written to be published as a weekly installment in a Japanese newspaper (each 2 or 3 pages long), it is an easy book to pick up when you have a few minutes. (In New York, we would call it a great subway read - you can read a letter or two between when you get on the subway and when you have to get off.) The letters combine Aung San Suu Kyi's political beliefs and accounts of the remarkable work of her political party (the National Democratic League) with vivid descriptions of Burmese culture and countryside. There are probably other books that focus solely on either the politics or the culture of Burma that do a more comprehensive job of describing it, but this seems like a great introduction to both.
Insight into the plight of Burmese Democracy.......2000-04-11
This is a collection of 52 essays that Aung San Suu Kyi had written in the mid 1990's for a Japanese newspaper. She discusses a full range of topics including politics, religion, and the daily life of the Burmese people as seen through the eyes of the country's biggest proponent of democracy.
Her tales are fascinating and well written. They offer a glimpse into the world of an almost Orwellian regime and can peak the interest of readers unfamiliar with Burma's current state of unrest.
As a recent traveller to Burma, I was looking for more detail into Burma's history and details surrounding the nullified election in 1990. Though these issues are touched upon, each essay is a mere 2.5 page newspaper article which does not lend itself to such depth. It is however a fascinating read and a great introduction to Burma's struggle for democracy.
Amazon.com
"Because death belongs to all, so too should life," observes Portuguese writer José Saramago in a preface to this remarkable volume of black-and-white images. But death is easy and life is hard in Sebastião Salgado's native Brazil, where exploitation of labor and mechanization of agriculture have combined to paint a bleak future for the country's rural population. Even the faces of small children are clouded with despair in this book, which is at once a testament to human courage and a powerful argument for agrarian reform--a long-promised and long-delayed reform that has led to a bloody struggle to take possession of unused land in private hands.
Customer Reviews:
A lesson in empathy!!!.......2003-03-27
A poignant illustration of the landless plight in Brazil! As evidenced by another reviewer, this book has the ability to thaw the heart of even the most ultra conservative (e.g. "Most of the people in these photographs have extremely difficult lives, due to a twist of fate rather than a personal choice.") They are landless because most middle-class Brazilians view the landless as making horrible life choices as opposed to being pushed by the wind of fate...and ironically they think descendents of Africans in the United States have much to teach "their" Amerindians and African populations about success. The irony! Yes, read it, see it, and see yourself.
Will blow you away, you will not know yourself..........2002-12-19
I took a look at this book in a book store, here in Berkeley Ca. The people you meet as you flip thru the photos make you want to re-examine your own life. Most of the people in these photographs have extremely difficult lives, due to a twist of fate rather than a personal choice. Salgado has not photographed them for pity or to gain sympathy from you, as much as he has shown you a side of yourself... and I am not talking about a "mirror" either. (I am talking about the side that you CAN'T see without Salgado's camera)
These people struggle and may suffer personal tragedies, but there is dignity in their souls. When you see these people, they may not be in control of their fate, whatever terrible fate it may be, but they are in control of their hearts. The blood that runs through the veins of the people Salgado introduced me to, in the photos from the other side of the globe, flows deeper, and redder, and richer than does the blood in my world...
Their lives are fleeting and so is yours my friend, but I believe they have wings; we do not. While you and I are burdened with the weight of unfunny jokes and political scandals, they are free, burdened only with broken hearts and bones that heal fast and clean...
I could not afford the price of the book myself, I could barely afford to stand there as long as I did reading the book; I mean how long can one view a side of oneself so rarely llumiminated?
Once I thought, all I needed to know was God, or to know a beautiful woman, or maybe just smile to bystanders... but I realize I KNOW NOTHING... and that leaves a lot for me to want to know, still. Good luck to you if you should get this book.
A mirror pointed at our soul.......1997-09-02
Once again, Sebastiao Salgado is back, and with two heavy weights by his side: Jose Saramago (preface) and Chico Buarque (poems).
Like all his previous works, the camera that made `Terra' points to the heart of all human being worthy of that classification; with Chico's poems pointing at each ones soul and Saramago's pen pointing at our conscience (and that of God), if this book does not make us see the world in a whole different way, then we better worry before looking at the mirror...
Fernando Gouveia (fgouveia@marao.utad.pt), Vila Real, Portugal
Amazon.com
In what is sure to be a controversial book, Israeli reporter Amira Hass offers a rare portrait of the Palestinians in Gaza. Very few journalists have lived in that troubled region; Jewish ones are rarer still. "To most Israelis," Hass writes, "my move seemed outlandish, even crazy, for they believed I was surely putting my life at risk." But Israelis desperately need to understand the plight of the Palestinian people, she writes, and few of them read the unvarnished truth in the Jerusalem press. This has made most of them ignorant of what goes on right next door, and inspired unduly "harsh" attitudes toward Gaza and its one million residents. Hass even quotes the late Yitzhak Rabin, who wished that Gaza "would just sink into the sea," shortly before he signed the Oslo Accords. Wishing away the problem, however, is no solution, and Hass delivers a detailed--and highly opinionated--diagnosis of what's wrong with Israeli policy toward Gaza. Strong supporters of Israeli will say that Hass is nothing but a mouthpiece for the Palestinians. Indeed, this book's subtitle could apply as much to Israel, surrounded by bitter enemies, as it does to Gaza. Yet it would be wrong to ignore Hass: the scene in Gaza is woefully unreported. The book is not likely to change many minds--this is one of those subjects where passions run deep and fierce. Those who already sympathize with Hass's pro-Palestinian views will find Drinking the Sea at Gaza an invigorating book. --John J. Miller
Book Description
In 1993, amira hass, a young Israeli reporter, drove to Gaza to cover a story-and stayed, the first journalist to live in the grim Palestinian enclave so feared and despised by most Israelis that, in the local idiom, "Go to Gaza" is another way to say "Go to hell." Now, in a work of calm power and painful clarity, Hass reflects on what she has seen in Gaza's gutted streets and destitute refugee camps.Drinking the Sea at Gaza maps the zones of ordinary Palestinian life. From her friends, Hass learns the secrets of slipping across sealed borders and stealing through night streets emptied by curfews. She shares Gaza's early euphoria over the peace process and its subsequent despair as hope gives way to unrelenting hardship. But even as Hass charts the griefs and humiliations of the Palestinians, she offers a remarkable portrait of a people not brutalized but eloquent, spiritually resilient, bleakly funny, and morally courageous.Full of testimonies and stories, facts and impressions, Drinking the Sea at Gaza makes an urgent claim on our humanity. Beautiful, haunting, and profound, it will stand with the great works of wartime reportage, from Michael Herr's Dispatches to Rian Malan's My Traitor's Heart.
Customer Reviews:
What it is really like.......2007-01-09
A very moving account of daily life without the politics, written with care and compassion.
absolutely essential........2006-08-22
I have spent the last summer reading numerous books on the Palestinian perspective of the MidEast crisis, and Hass' 'Drinking The Sea At Gaza' is perhaps the finest and most comprehensive account I have come across to date. Mixing the intellectual depth of Edward Said with the readability of Wendy Pearlman (of 'Occupied Voices'), Hass, in painstaking detail, recounts the daily struggle for Palestinian self-determination within the occupied territories, specifially Gaza, and reveals an intensely human drama not often revealed in the world press. This book is a must read, as are all of Hass' Ha'aretz (Israeli daily newspaper) articles on the conflict.
One of the Most Important Books You'll Ever Read about the Middle East!.......2006-07-14
Amira Hass is an Israeli Jewish reporter living in Gaza with the Palestinians. When I first read this book about a few years ago, I became fascinated by this woman not only an Israeli Jew but the daughter of Holocaust survivors and her life in Gaza of all places by her choice. Amira Hass helps us to understand the life in Gaza even as an outsider. She helps us to understand the Palestinians' life better than any other reporter or author. Of course, there is always politics and the war between Israel and Palestinans. But as of today where Gaza is under seige. You begin to feel compassion for both sides and wonder when will there ever be peace. It's interesting that the author is an atheist or agnostic. Believe me, the book is the worth the read and the price. For all it's worth, the book is probably important to read more than ever.
Read this book first.......2004-08-23
This book is as extraordinary and inspiring as its author. Hass is an Israeli, a Jew, a woman and an atheist who, uniquely in Israel, has chosen to live among the Palestinian people she writes about. To most people this would be as fatal a combination of attributes as could be imagined. Yet throughout her book she tells only of the warmth, generosity and acceptance she is offered, in a region regularly described as among the most dangerous on the planet.
Many of the best, most relentless and devastating critiques of Israel's colonialism come from Israelis, and none more so than Hass. The most powerful passages are where she likens the lot of the dispossessed in Gaza to the experiences of her own family, Holocaust victims and survivors, in being uprooted by the Nazis from their ancestral homes in Romania. It was her mother's account of the indifference on the faces of the German women who watched as she and the rest of the human cargo were herded from the cattle train en route to Bergen-Belsen that convinced Hass that "my place was not with the bystanders".
This book is no hagiography. She savages the Palestinian Authority leadership for their corruption and brutality (while giving it the necessary context of "a land under siege"). She meticulously documents the inferior position of women in Gaza - their exclusion from the few positions of authority, their lives of domestic drudgery while their unemployed husbands and brothers sit idly by.
Hass gives voice, humanity and a history to a people who live wretchedly on the doorstep of the homes and the lands from which they were expelled barely fifty years ago; who must now accept that neither their own leadership nor the world at large any longer insists on their right of return.
If you are thinking of buying Joan Peters's preposterous From Time Immemorial - a systematic denial of the Palestinians' history and identity, built on misused statistics and fraudulent records - read Drinking the Sea at Gaza first. Then save yourself the money.
Venomous.......2004-08-19
Amira Hass is to be commended for bravely moving to Gaza and writing a book about the people there.
However, this book isn't going to help people of Gaza.
One of the problems in Gaza is the Arab war against Jewish rights. This has poisoned relations among Jews and Arabs. Blaming all this on the Israel and thus promoting more of the same, as Hass does, is not good for anyone. Instead, it sabotages what could have been an effort to promote human rights for everyone in the region. Meanwhile, the author's bias against Israel makes the book unreliable.
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Fazal Sheikh: Moksha (International Human Rights)
Manufacturer: Steidl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 3865211259
Release Date: 2005-12-15 |
Book Description
For 500 years the holy city of Vrindavan in northern India has been a haven for India's dispossessed widows. Cast out by their families and condemned by strict marital laws that deny them legal, economic, and, in extreme cases, even human rights, they have made their way to the city to worship at its temples and live in its ashrams, surviving on charitable handouts or begging on the streets. In Vrindavan they worship the young god Krishna, who invades their dreams, helping them to cast off memories from their past lives and prepare for new and better lives are to come. Their ultimate dream is to reach Moksha--heaven--where they will find freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth and live surrounded by their gods forever. Fazal Sheikh's photographs capture the meditative mood of the city and his portraits of the widows convey their sense of acceptance of life's nearing its end and a longing for what is to come. As in his previous books he spent time with his subjects, listening to their stories, many of which reveal the suffering caused by traditions that still govern Indian society. Through his depiction of the city and its inhabitants, Fazal Sheikh once again contributes to our knowledge and understanding of a community whose existence, to those who live outside it, remains closed.
Book Description
From Connecticut to California, Native American tribes have entered the gambling business, some making money and nearly all igniting controversy. The image of the "casino Indian" is everywhere. Some observers suspect corruption or criminal ties, or have doubts about tribal authenticity. Many tribes disagree, contending that Indian gaming has strengthened tribal governments and vastly improved the quality of reservation life for American Indians.
This book provides the clearest and most complete account to date of the laws and politics of Indian gaming. Steven Light and Kathryn Rand explain how it has become one of today's most politically charged phenomena: at stake are a host of competing legal rights and political interests for tribal, state, and federal governments. As Indian gaming grows, policymakers struggle with balancing its economic and social costs and benefits.
Light and Rand emphasize that tribal sovereignty is the very rationale that allows Indian gaming to exist, even though U.S. law subjects that sovereignty to strict congressional authority and compromised it even further through the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. Their book describes Indian gaming and explores today's hottest political issues, from the Pequots to the Plains Indians, with examples that reflect a wide range of tribal experience: from hugely successful casinos to gambling halls with small markets and low grosses to tribes that chose not to pursue gaming. Throughout, they contend that tribal sovereignty is the key to understanding Indian gaming law and politics and guiding policy reform-and that Indian gaming even represents a unique opportunity for the emergence of tribal self-determination.
As political pressure on tribes to concede to state interests grows, this book offers a practical approach to policy reform with specific recommendations for tribal, federal, state, and local policymakers. Meticulously argued, Indian Gaming and Tribal Sovereignty provides an authoritative look at one of today's most vexing issues, showing that it's possible to establish a level playing field for all concerned while recognizing the measure of sovereignty--and fairness--to which American Indians are entitled.
Book Description
What's really included in your cruise fare? What cabins are the best—and the worst? What cruise line has the largest standard cabins, even at the lowest price levels? Which cruise line's ships have rock-climbing walls?—Fodor's The Complete Guide to Caribbean Cruises answers all these questions and many more! Linda Coffman, our resident Cruise Diva, has been dishing out cruise-travel advice for more than a decade and has the answers to all your cruise questions. An avid cruiser, she spends most of her time cruising in the Caribbean and knows all the inside info on all the ships and even the best things to do while ashore!
The San Francisco Chronicle sums it up best —"Fodor's guides are saturated with information."
- We make every effort to bring you the most accurate and thorough book possible. Plus we provide timely updates about cruising and the Caribbean at Fodors.com.
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Customer Reviews:
Outstanding resource!.......2006-11-28
I'm in the travel industry and am oftentimes disappointed by the out-of-date information found in other cruise guides. I consider The Complete Guide to Caribbean Cruises, however, to be one of the absolute best resources to use when planning a cruise vacation. The guide has a great layout, is highly accurate, and provides the kind of information useful to both novice and "expert" cruisers.
In my opinion, The Complete Guide to Caribbean Cruises is a must read for anyone considering a cruise!
Very helpful!.......2006-11-11
This is the best guide for Carribean Cruises! I checked out others before ordering this one and this one was the most comprehensive. I have never been on a cruise before but, after reading this book, I feel very prepared!
Amazon.com
Early on in Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century, James Clifford describes his new approach to studying cultures: "Where professional anthropology has erected a border, I portray a borderland, a zone of contacts--blocked and permitted, policed and transgressive." In the not-too-distant past, anthropologists traveled to remote areas and observed cultures that they assumed were not influenced much by the outside world. Clifford points out that since there is no such thing as an isolated culture today, the tools and assumptions of anthropology must change to suit the hybrid and fluid cultures that currently populate the world. In this book, Clifford examines a series of places where culture is in transition--places he calls "borderlands." He visits a few art museums, some Mayan ruins, and the New York subway. Everywhere he goes, he finds cultures colliding and changing. That's not terribly surprising, but his interpretation of these otherwise banal places is thought-provoking.
This book is a grab bag: a collection of academic lectures, travel-journal entries, meditations on history, and impressionistic recollections. In the chapter entitled "White Ethnicity," Clifford interweaves his memories of a subway ride across New York City several decades ago with paragraphs from an Audre Lourde essay on identity politics and paragraphs from John Wesley Powell's account of his exploration of the Colorado River. In less capable hands, this format could be quite muddled and confusing, but Clifford pulls it off nicely. Clifford uses these three "travel" narratives to explore the major concerns of this collection. Routes is an accessible, innovative guide to one of the major issues anthropologists are grappling with today. --Jill Marquis
Book Description
When culture makes itself at home in motion, where does an anthropologist stand? In a follow-up to The Predicament of Culture, one of the defining books for anthropology in the last decade, James Clifford takes the proper measure: a moving picture of a world that doesn't stand still, that reveals itself en route, in the airport lounge and the parking lot as much as in the marketplace and the museum.
In this collage of essays, meditations, poems, and travel reports, Clifford takes travel and its difficult companion, translation, as openings into a complex modernity. He contemplates a world ever more connected yet not homogeneous, a global history proceeding from the fraught legacies of exploration, colonization, capitalist expansion, immigration, labor mobility, and tourism. Ranging from Highland New Guinea to northern California, from Vancouver to London, he probes current approaches to the interpretation and display of non-Western arts and cultures. Wherever people and things cross paths and where institutional forces work to discipline unruly encounters, Clifford's concern is with struggles to displace stereotypes, to recognize divergent histories, to sustain "postcolonial" and "tribal" identities in contexts of domination and globalization.
Travel, diaspora, border crossing, self-location, the making of homes away from home: these are transcultural predicaments for the late twentieth century. The map that might account for them, the history of an entangled modernity, emerges here as an unfinished series of paths and negotiations, leading in many directions while returning again and again to the struggles and arts of cultural encounter, the impossible, inescapable tasks of translation.
Customer Reviews:
An Anthropology for Postmodern Times.......2001-09-09
I really had a hard time conceptualizing my own ethnographic research in sociology concerning a non-federally recognized Native American community in South Carolina (now a book: Native Americans in the Carolina Borderlands: A Critical Ethnography, Carolinas Press, 2000). The lights came on after reading the Predicament of Cultures by Clifford. His theme of "Borderlands" is so central to the experience of many cultures around the globe--including our own! To understand how people occupy and contend with borderzones between races, classes, cultures, and histories, turn to Clifford's work. His work is essential for the social analyst because we, all of us, are increasingly living within borderlands and, thus, the need for new conceptualizations of the nature of the social/cultural. Clifford is one of the leading figures within the growing movement toward new, critical, and alternative forms of ethnography. Routes is about travel and how we might conceptualize culture when it is "put into motion." A must-read for all ethnographers, as well as those concerned with postmodernity and postcolonialism.
Roots/routes of transnational belonging explored........1999-05-10
The roote/routes of transnational (as well as local) belonging are explored in all their full global/local complexity and poetics. Probing and interesting at many points. I use one of the poems/essays/travelogues, "Honolulu: The Year of the Ram" in my course on the literatures of Hawai'i, as it gives a tourist view of Hawaii and moves way beyond that in its critique of US militarism and the arrogant masculinist gaze of "anthropology." Clifford is, for me, a kind of global and local poet of the postcolonial condition, an honest and caring soul in the muck.
Book Description
In 1955, armed with a penknife and instructions to keep the river on his right, Brooklyn-born artist Tobias Schneebaum set off into the jungles of Peru in search of a tribe of cannibals. Forgoing all contact with civilization, he lived as a brother with the Akaramas –– shaving and painting his body, hunting with Stone Age weapons, sleeping in the warmth of the body-pile.
Customer Reviews:
What an amazing journey!.......2007-10-10
This writer was so far ahead of his time! What a courageous journey, to step out on faith to find the core of man; "gone primitive," as they say. And we call ourselves civilized? Who are we to judge?
This man acknowledges his own cannabilistic behavior within the context of his living in a tribe where this behavior was common. It was not premeditated, at least according to him, nor did he have any idea where he was going or what the plan was when he was girded up for war with the tribe that had become his family.
But never has a man been more empathic or compassionate, either - staying with a loved one who was dying from dysentery until they both stank, and no one else would come close.
The book reads like a poem, it is a beautiful, eye-opening, heart rending read. I wish I had known this man. He seems amazing.
Fast Food Nation
Prepare for an armchair jungle excursion!.......2007-05-31
Schneebaum takes you on a sensual adventure in the jungle in this richly detailed book. Since the author is an Anthropologist with an interest in homosexuality, parts of the book on male bonding and cannibalism are so honest and clearly described that some readers may feel uncomfortable. I found the author's frankness refreshing, and I recommend the accompanying DVD that shows what has happened to the "cannibalistic" tribe since Schneebaum was there in 1955.
Keep the river on your right.......2006-03-19
This is an excellent book. Rarely do I read a book where it would be difficult to imagine myself in the author's place. Mr. Shneebaum's outlook on the world around him and his approach to the events in this book were refreshing and new to me. This was as satisfying as finding a new food to love. I was amazed at this man's lack of fear. At present people seems to gauge another's fear by what extrodonary stunts and adrinaline rush's they persue. But this man is the most fearless man I have ever read about. The only thing I could say bad about this book is that it is short. If it were not for social stigmas- this book should be required reading. There is more to learn about the human animal, love, adventure, exisitinialism, and the insanity of some western social morays than can be found in any other book I know of this size.
Keep an open mind..... and the river on your right........2004-03-25
Schneebaum is an unusual man. When you first hear of him you might think maybe too unusual. Thats where you need to look at the man and his journey from a larger perspective. The book has much to tell us about about respect for other cultures and about how to relate to people who don't see the world in the same way we do. If you keep an open mind, you will enjoy getting inside the mind of a very caring and empathetic man.
An Anthropological Memoir.......2004-02-06
We see from Stephen O. Murray and his ilk, a desire to suppress this important journey and its journal, by pretending it is not `scientific'. Schneebaum describes himself as a 'Painter' - not an anthropologist, and nor does he attempt to write in a scientific way.
Insight into our own ignorance is an important part of scientific study; on occasion it can be a sufficient condition. I congratulate Schneebaum for making this and other journeys, and for the memoirs these create.
This is most certainly not a textbook, or anything resembling a scientific treatise or paper. It is a stained glass window, decorated by Schneebaum's own homosexuality (sexual fantasy and desire). He views the `cannibals' from this perspective, and they view him in an equally astounding way. I recently saw Schneebaum on TV, and his current boyfriend explains Schneebaum's desire for an `aroused native'. Re-read this book from Schneebaum's perspective, and a flood of insight into this important people is revealed; rather like the Sun bursting through the colored window, illuminating the dark room within.
Reviewer S. O. Murray appears to consider himself a voice of authority; possessed indeed by an intellect surmounted only by his overwhelming ignorance. His reviews are based on conjecture, rather than the content of the book or document reviewed. Ignore him, he is just incapable of understanding; blinded by the heavy drapes over his window.
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