Five Years of My Life

I don’t pretend to be an expert on Guantanamo but lets just say that I am not its biggest fan. I chose the readings that I assigned because I wanted to show you the story without making you read the entire book. The first section was to show his capture, the second was to show some of the torture he endured while in prison as a supposed terrorist, and the third section I chose because it really cut deeply into me. The third section I thought was so moving, this innocent man can no longer recognize his family after being tortured for five years unnecessarily. Who are we if we don’t have our family?

The torture scene I chose, I believe I explained to the class earlier in the year but I didn’t feel like I did an adequate job and wanted you to read it for yourself. If you read the entire book (not that you were required) you would have found that there were some torture scenes just as bad and even crueler. What particularly interested me about the scene I chose was that it reminded me greatly of the Roman crucifixtion. I also wanted you to ask yourselves how some one can do that to another person? Also if we claim to save the Iraqi people from their dictator and dangerous government are we not killing and destroying many lives by sending people to Guantanamo prison? Aren’t we just doing the same thing Sadaam did to his people (on a smaller scale)?

I’m sure that Guantanamo saw at least one actual terrorist or potential terrorist, but the vast majority of people were/are not and that is my biggest problem with the prison. Whether or not they are terrorists, no one deserves to be tortured as they are in this prison.

Arranged

I really enjoyed this movie and think that it is the best one we have watched so far. I felt like there was a bit of humor and a bit more relatable than some of the others we have watched. However I must admit that it was very much like a Hollywood movie in the sense that it ended happily ever after. If they hadn’t ended the movie with the women sitting on the park benches with their children and instead had ended with them getting ready to be married it would have been a bit less happily ever after for me. I think that the principal was my favorite character because she added so much humor and tension. She also showed that Americans can be so ignorant, but I think that we have seen enough movies that show Americans as ignorant. The one problem I had with the film is when Raquel goes to her cousin’s friend’s party. She only saw the drunken party side of the non-orthodox Jewish world. She couldn’t make a proper decision on whether or not she wanted to leave the orthodox community; she didn’t live a quote unquote normal westernized world. This is similar to Rumspringa, which is celebrated by Amish teens, many of whom live a life of alcohol, drugs, and sex, and don’t really see a more conservative westernized world. In general I felt like the acting was very real and believable, especially the children and the parents. The children showed that at a young age we are very curious and have a strong thirst for knowledge and unity. The parents of Raquel showed that all ages and generations have prejudices.

Beheading of a Cat

When I read the first of the stories maybe I read it differently from everyone else. I did not really like the character Nadine because she was obviously not the person that the main character wanted to marry. Clearly is vision of his dead matchmaker aunt told us this. She described a completely submissive woman, very stereotypical of a Middle Eastern woman, which shows us as readers that this is the type of woman that he really desires. I do not agree with his desire to chase and tame Nadine but I also do not believe he literally wanted to burn her and use the ashes to drink from. I do however believe that that passage was meant to be very poetic. Perhaps he is not the most decisive or the most respectful character but I did view Nadine through the perspective of whether or not she was a good person for him (forgive me for not remembering his name) to marry. So when professor Webb made that comment about me not liking Nadine because she was a strong independent woman deeply offended me.

Turkey Short Stories

World For Sale:

This story was confusing and difficult for me follow. There were a few times where I thought I knew what was going on and then the author would put a paragraph into the story that completely broke the flow. I would then try to figure out what the hell was trying to be said and then I would forget about the original idea. I also felt like the story jumped back and forth between past and present time, some times in consecutive paragraphs, this also made it difficult to follow the story line. I was especially confused about the people who were supposed to be dead but then they were alive again until the final paragraphs when the story seemed to be slightly more focused. I did feel like the title was clever but it did not really have anything to do with the story aside from the end where the author haphazardly threw in that Emin, the main character, wanted to buy the world.

Such A Story and Barba Antimos:

These two stories were so confusing to me that I could barely get past the first few pages. And even after reading each page I didn’t know what I had just read. I am curious as to what the Turkey group wanted us to learn from these stories, but we never got to have that in class discussion, so Turkey group feel free to comment and let me know J. Maybe there is some kind of meaning with in the text, but I am having terrible difficulties finding any kind of meaning because these stories don’t seem to follow a single plot line and stick to an understandable flow.

Honor Killings: Could you Kill the Women in Your Life?

There isn’t much I can say about the Honor Killing video aside from that these killings disgust me. I also have trouble understanding why these women do not just move away from the family members looking to kill her, or why she would try to commit suicide to restore the family’s honor, as many women are being forced to do now so that the men do not get sent to prison. Another thing I have trouble with is that brothers, fathers, uncles and grandfathers kill their loved ones, even if the women have young children or are pregnant. I would never believe that the men in my life could kill my sister or me. Honor is not a physical thing so how to offend or defend it is difficult. I remember looking at a video or an article that tried to show some of the types of honor killings that occur; one of the ones shown was one where a wife apparently spoke out of turn or against her husband at her son’s soccer game and the men of the family hung her from the goal posts. Though I wish these killings would stop I do understand how it is embedded in the Turkish culture and will be difficult to weed out of the country.

Paradise Now

Watching this movie sparked my interest further in the idea of suicide bombers and so I wrote my second paper on some of the information that I found. However, despite the research that I did and the point of view that the movie Paradise Now showed I still don’t understand killing yourself. Perhaps I would have to live in the situation to fully grasp the idea. Despite the fact that Said feels like his father was a disgrace to Palestine and that he wanted to regain the honor of his family, he left his family behind to mourn for him and I feel like that is selfish. Leaving his family was especially selfish because his mother figured out that Said was planning to kill himself and begged him not to and even told him that what his father did was to help the family. Originally I felt for Said but as the movie unfolded I started to dislike

his character and began liking his friend more (forgive me for forgetting his name). I did not really enjoy how the movie ended because I would have loved to see what happened to the friend when he returned to the village because the people who organized the attack would then view him as a traitor. I also would have liked to see the explosion when Said blew himself up and to see who aside from the soldiers on the bus died. This was the main reason I am completely against suicide bombing, unless the bomber specifically bombs the government building or a military base the bombers are attacking innocent lives (I did feel sorry for Said when he tried to set off his bomb and then hesitated because of the little girl who was getting onto the bus). Personally I think that Said should have tried to live his life instead of ending it along with ending the lives of others who probably did not want to die. However, after researching for my paper I have learned that Palestinians do not have any other way to fight Israel’s military, but I still feel that people could try to move or just find happiness in the things and family that they do have. Would you blow yourself up and perpetuate the violence?

Short Stories

As Ashley also said in her blog about the short stories we read, the title of the second is ironic. In fact there was no plan at all in this story. I also felt that the story was only from Isam al-Baqli and eventhough it was mainly his point of view and we didn’t see the story from different eyes I found myself strongly disliking his character. It was almost appalling the way he spoke to his mother, telling her to hurry up and die. I was also annoyed by how lazy and sarcastic this character is, usually I find sarcasm amusing but this was uncomfortable. I suppose that the idea driving this story is that if you want happiness money cannot be your only mistress, but I only got that idea from the very end of the story. Perhaps Isam dies alone but he dies happy with food in his belly and in death he still has not learned from his lazy lifestyle. He merely why God would give him money and then kill him, he does not understand that he has only asked and never given. In this sense I feel like the ending is ironic, he is given money (as he wanted) in return for his life. Over all I enjoyed the first story more.