This is surely a purity that should make all hearts, human and godly, weep.
Free samples
On the main counter of the pharmacy was a string with a pair of scissors attached. They were used to cut medicine blister packs because, basically, people could afford ONE aspirin, ONE Panadol, ONE ibuprofen, ONE suppository.
Incendies: relevant as ever
INCENDIES is a punch in the heart. It petrifies you as it speaks the language of any given war with the addendum, that additional element, that it is a sectarian war which turns into your blood system as a reminiscence of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990, 150.000 lives lost). It is one of the strongestContinue reading “Incendies: relevant as ever”
Afghanistan, Beyond the Battles
In 2010, when the book was written, of every ten children born, more than half died before reaching the age of five.
We know it did not get any better.
Notturno, the evanescence of borders
Borders are guarded by men in the middle of nowhere, at times defending God knows who by God knows what
India in grain
This photo belongs to those who still care
Intangibilities
Plane, train and concert tickets.Letters, messages, postcards, images, dried roses, holy cards, newspaper clippings, poems, sketches.Snapshots, business cards, satin threads, amulets, notes. Sometimes they stay, they hide, reappear. Resurface. And pages of exercises in Hindi from the summer in which the more life was taking away, the more I filled it with spaces and intangibilitiesContinue reading “Intangibilities”
Taeko’s children of Yemen
One of my favourite artists did not turn her back on the obscenity of war.
She loved through music composing ‘Love and Peace’ and the poem you hear is read by Jeremy Hawkins: a reflection on the inarticulate nature of war. Dedicated to the children living in Yemen
our children
In Mareb, amidst a war that might have let go of the harshest moments but is still too alien from anything resembling peace. In the Middle East, considered a cauldron of people who the West claims are ‘used to war’ (seriously?), in one of the most dramatic deserts where a powerful queen ruled over people,Continue reading “our children”
A piercing book: ‘What Have You Left Behind’ by Bushra Al Maqtari
Most likely, there will never be a more perfect, dramatic, piercing book on the war in Yemen than What Have You Left Behind (Fitzcarraldo Editions) written by Yemeni researcher, writer, novelist Bushra Al Maqtari. The introduction – painful yet without pity and hyperbolism – is a slap in the face: all the lies naively toldContinue reading “A piercing book: ‘What Have You Left Behind’ by Bushra Al Maqtari”
the talking of the soul 