Weekly Reading: Leaping Lines, Revolutionary Baby Jesus, Repo Men at Sea and Great! Post Offices

I read a lot over the holidays so I am still catching up with my summaries of all my December reading.

Reading Is About the Lines That Leap Off the Pages
Much of what you read in the Times you read without giving a thought to who the author is.  I couldn't make that mistake after reading this year-end gem by Dwight Garner, literary critic extraordinaire.  In it he deftly leaps through about twenty different book recommendations, lifting delicious quotes from each of them.

The Christmas Revolution
Smart, well-written article on just how revolutionary Jesus was.  "He saw the inestimable worth of human life, regardless of social status, wealth and worldly achievements, intelligence or national origin. So should we."

ISIS’ War on Christmas
Interesting and thoughtful article on how Salafists think about Christmas theologically.  The author also draws parallels between Islamists' "origin' state and that of the far right en France.


MARITIME ‘REPO MEN’: A LAST RESORT FOR STOLEN SHIPS
Wow, fascinating report on the gritty underbelly of maritime repossessors.  This has to get made into a movie.

What’s Your Favorite Poem?
A round table of authors discuss their favorite poems--what's not to like!

How I Escaped Vietnam
Incredible untold story of the flood of children that escaped Vietnam in the midst of escalating violence and mayhem.

In Chile, Where Pablo Neruda Lived and Loved
Beautiful writing about the homes of Neruda in Chile.  Essential reading for any Pablophile.

The Deported
I feel like it's all too easy for both sides of the immigration debate to make sweeping statements one way or the other.  Articles like these should hopefully give one pause to consider the actual human lives behind whatever the policies enacted are.

Why the Post Office Makes America Great
Having lived overseas for more than two years in a third-world country I appreciate the author's sentiment.  As Americans we take things like being able to send a letter that arrives where it is supposed to for granted.  

Gunpowder and Lead on Islamism--best thing I've read all month (BTIRAM)

Gunpowder and Lead on Islamism--best thing I've read all month (BTIRAM)

     How I would rue the day were I to draw the ire of Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Lauren Morgan.  In Miranda Lambert's blog the security affairs blog Gunpowder and Lead, the two authors take issue demolish David Briggs' poorly constructed attempt to draw a parallel between Islamists and American politicians.
   
      The most important thing to take away from their post is that Islamism is not a monolithic movement--it manifests differently in each country (and more often than not, it has several manifestations in each country).  Unfortunately this distinction is most often lost in the majority of political rhetoric.

Following is their opening paragraph.  You can read it in its entirety here:

The term “Islamist” has been bandied about frequently since revolutionary events gripped the Arab world last year. It is a term meant to signify those, including political parties, that wish to incorporate their understanding of Islamic law into the laws of the state. Political parties commonly described as Islamist won significant victories in Tunisia and Egypt, and were narrowly defeated in the recent Libyan elections. But is the term Islamist appropriate at all to describe these parties and politicians? In arecent piece for the Huffington Post entitled “Is It Time to Reconsider the Term Islamist?” David Briggs argues that the answer is no. His argument is confused, drifting without apparent direction from a terminological critique to the argument that the Islamist political program isn’t really as immoderate as is generally believed. Flaws aside, Briggs’s piece plays upon some more widely-held misconceptions about the political program embraced by Islamists that are worth addressing.

Briggs’s article itself has the distinction of interweaving major factual or analytical errors into virtually every paragraph, and is an exemplar of how not to approach these issues analytically . . . 

LINKS:

http://gunpowderandlead.org/2012/07/islamism-in-the-popular-imagination/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-briggs/islamist-is-it-time-to-reconsider-the-term_b_1624319.html

Notes of Islamist Opposition in Authoritarian Regimes by Wagner

Islamist Opposition in Authoritarian Regimes: the Party of Justice and Development in Morocco by Eva Wagner


Below are my notes on Wagner's book.  I used these for a few papers (links here in a little bit) and I pretty much already paraphrased all the notes.

Eva Wagner, Islamist Opposition in Authoritarian Regimes: the Party of Justice and
Development in Morocco, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2011).

Poet of the Week from Somalia: Abdirashid Omar

Poet of the Week from Somalia: Abdirashid Omar: A brave poet of the week from Somalia!


PLEASE CHECK OUT THE LINK FOR THE FULL ARTICLE. MY HAT'S OFF TO THIS BRAVE YOUNG MAN!


Abdirashid Omar, 28, is in hiding after writing a poem criticizing the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, which controls much of southern Somalia and is fighting interim government forces for control of Mogadishu.

Somalia: 20 years of anarchy

Omar breaks it down in "Fatwo":

Some of Fatwo (The Decree) Translated:

Somalia's consuming plague; The inferno that did ensue; And the guns that burn and blaze; For sport, and the sake of fun; The carnage that devoured and ruined; Facing down in a pensive stoop; I brood, pensive in thought.

Slumped, in a distant droop; Seized by sobs of grief; Lodged in my core and self; In a feat so shocking in deed; A butcher that Lucifer unleashed; The envoy of wicked devil; Bequeathed Hamar a bath in blood

Scions of the Somali stock; Since the space of time; The tragedy that set its march; On Somalia it chose to perch; Wiping masses in a purging rout; Forcing them into frenzy flight; Flowing wild in a second decade

This fad of raging cults; First of note; al-Shabab; The felicity they oft flaunt; Just like the fumes of essence; That infest the nose and lungs; Then choke and fog the snout; They thrive on flimsy feuds; Conceived in blinding mental fog

Scions of the Somali stock; The fanatics of Shabab; Whatever good they flaunt; Via blasts and fear of bombs; Is blight, and ravaging plagues; A taboo, in The Text of Time; With no grounds in the Holy Book; So heed the word, and stay advised.

FUUO Past Poets of the Week:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/05/african-poets-of-week-compilation.html

Some of my favorite poetry books: