Adonis, a Syrian Poet

 

As I was reading Joseph Anton, I learned that in 1992 the Syrian poet Adonis submitted a poem to a book published to show solidarity with Salman Rushdie in defense of freedom of speech. One line in particular grabbed my attention: Truth is not the sword / Nor the hand that holds it. I loved it and so I decided to learn more about this poet and his work. I visited the website http://www.oocities.org/kavitayan/adonis.html and selected this poem to share.

Peace

to faces ambling in the loneliness of the desert,
to the East draped in grass and fire peace to the Earth
washed by the sea peace to its passion...
Your thunderbolt of nakedness grants me its rains thunder grips me in my breast Time has fermented O, advance this is my blood the glow of the East scoop me and vanish lose me the thunderclap is for your legs the lightning scoop me take my body as lining for your body  my fire is the orientation and the planet my wound is guidance I spell...

I spell a star which I paint,
running away from my homeland in my homeland.
I spell a star which he paints
in the footsteps of his vanquished days.
O, ashes of the Word.
Does my history have a child in your night?

Presentism and the President of Emory University

By now the rollicking storm instigated by perceptions gleaned from an article written by the president of Emory University has hit full stride. James W. Wagner is accused of writing an article for the university's magazine in which he praised the ability and willingness of the signatories to find common ground to agree to the 1787 three-fifths compromise. The three-fifths compromise established that slaves could be counted as three-fifths of a person to determine how much Congressional power Southern states would have.

Naturally, the president's intent was completely missed and detractors, students and other unhappy people attacked him accusing him of racism. Others with cooler heads have criticized him for decisions that the university has made regarding the cutting of budgets for programs that were popular with minority students. This may very well be true, so I won't comment on that. But what I am disappointed at is the lack of a critical view of the president's article itself. Many of the students who are complaining against the president ascribe, unbeknownst to them probably, to Presentism, the theory that holds that only events and entities that occur in the present truly exist. For a very good paper on Presentism, read Ned Markosian's "A Defense of Presentism."

In the mind of many, Dr. Wagner's crime was to mention the three-fifths compromise. Looking at it, I can see what he was trying to say and at the very least he was trying to direct attention to this document and the relevance of the EFFORT to reach a compromise, not THE legality that it promulgated. Anger obfuscates the vision of many, and here we see a good example of that. Perhaps Dr. Wagner could have used a more politically (and some would say, historically) correct example, but would his intent/point been more accurately received? Probably not and this goes again to the point that we are struggling with these days: people make judgements of the past using the standards and mores of today. This leads to misunderstanding, misplaced anger and a dismissal of history itself.

Dr. Wagner has much work to do and it is too bad that his article has generated such a firestorm (I am reading Salman Rushdie's excellent memoir Joseph Anton and his situation, for me, is eerily similar to the text produced by Dr. Wagner, although on a completely different scale with horrendous consequences). I just hope that the pertinent issues are resolved in a timely and safe manner. But more importantly, I wish people would regain the ability to respond, not to react.

Our (Re)Inclination to Travel

As someone who is 6 ft. 3" (191 cm) I find it increasingly challenging to travel by plane. It seems like the plans planes and the seats become smaller as the dimensions of travelers become higher and wider. I really enjoyed an article by Dan Klois in Slate titled "The Rise and Recline of Western Civilization."  If you are a frequent traveler, I think you will relate to what he is saying!

AMEN to Jessica Hilltout

By now everyone is familiar with the misadventure of the luxury cruise liner the Triumph which was stranded as sea without electricity or running water for five days. It recently returned to the US and the passengers disembarked in Alabama. Hopefully, they can put this sad experience behind them and move on.

As I was reading the news today I came upon an item that didn't really shock me: one of the passengers is suing Carnival Corp. In her lawsuit, she claims that she "suffered physical and emotional harm, including anxiety, nervousness and the loss of the enjoyment of life." Since litigation is America's number one hobby, I wasn't surprised by this one bit. I was, however, disappointed in the expression, "loss of the enjoyment of life"  statement. This implied that the passenger forfeited her responsibility to make her own life enjoyable, to be accountable to make every minute count. In this day and age we outsource everything (except the Kardashians, unfortunately. Where could we outsource them to?), but to completely divest oneself of any effort to enjoy life is sad. Take a minute to enjoy the sunset, drink a nice wine, ballroom dance, learn another language. You don't need a cruise ship to enjoy life. I perfectly understand the passenger's frustration. Her experience, like that of everyone else on the boat was a harrowing one, but the cruise line only provided her with some options...she should have taken ownership for her own enjoyment. 

It is funny and yet sad. In other areas of the world where there are power outages and no running water, people tend to complain less and yet find a way to make the best of their situation. Check out this wonderful website by Jessica Hilltout, a Belgian photographer, who has done amazing work in Africa. It is www.jessicahilltout.com.  

She created AMEN, a project that focuses on grassroots football. She has pictures of children using trash and other materials to create soccer balls. The perspective is illuminating. Check it out. 

On her website she writes, "AMEN remains true to finding beauty and joy where others may only see deprivation. AMEN, above all else, captures the strength of the human spirit." Wouldn't it be great if the passenger suing Carnival Corp had this attitude?

Social "Media" During World War II

Source: shortsnorter.org

"It is said," writes John Steinbeck in his collection of World War II dispatches titled Once There Was a War, "and with some truth, that while the Germans fight for world domination and the English for the defense of England, the Americans fight for souvenirs." Yes, some American soldiers collected some odds and ends, but a number of them took part in something that could be considered the Facebook of the time. In 1943 many soldiers became "short snorters," that is, they would gather with other soldiers and each of them would sign a dollar bill (or $10, $20 or $100) and keep the bills in their wallets. If they were caught without the signed bill, they would pay each soldier who signed it a dollar or buy them a drink An interesting tradition! 

Steinbeck describes this tradition and how currencies from other countries were used as well. Some people had significant "streamers" made up of paper currencies with signatures. What an interesting way to socialize and interact with others....years ahead of the Facebook phenomenon. To learn more about the short-snorter phenomenon, check out this website:  http://shortsnorter.org/.

Scattered by Ben Taylor

Every once in a while I stop by www.poetry.com to check out some poetry. I really love this one by Ben Taylor. It is called "Scattered"

                                        Scattered 

Trials of magnitude come to order
On this branch of life's dim misery
Standing tribulations to mute judgement
A harbinger of evil to thrust upon thee

Bitter refrains are slowly anchored
To the bowels of an innermost thought
Stand beside themselves with terror
For this horror that mankind has wrought

The boughs of the tree weep with remembrance
Of times that have withered to ash
Men who knew no love in their hearts
Before their eyes, life ceased to flash

Wails of torment ride a dark breeze
Through ponderings of lost innocence
Throw up barriers of protected wrath
Provide ignorance with charges of offense

Celestial lights lose eternal glimmer
With the blinking of immortal eyes
Casting them into a sea of darkness
'Til mortals entrust them to arise

Doors close with opportunities lost
Those dreams that ceased to exist
With elation they greet the falling dusk
That shelters them in a black mist

The tree sheds the last earthly leaves
Of those lives that it chose to ponder
With the shedding of tearless seeds
It allows captured souls to wander 

Lest We Forget

"History," wrote the literary critic Kenneth Burke, "is an endless conversation." Unfortunately, these days beyond university history departments not many people are interested in it. The movie "Lincoln" has reinvigorated the public interest in history, but with the Super Bowl just one day away, people's attention was diverted from the passing of an important, but not well-known figure.

Ceija Stojka, a Romani survivor of the Holocaust who became a writer and artist to describe the horrific experience of the Gypsies in concentration camps, passed away on January 28th. Thanks to her efforts, a voice was given to the 1.5 million Gypsies who met their deaths in concentration campus.  The Holocaust was awful not only to Jewish people, but to many others. This fact, unfortunately, becomes lost in the usually one-sided victimization retelling of that horrible event.

With AIPAC and other very powerful pro-Israel lobbyists around, there is no chance that the Holocaust will ever leave our collective awareness. Sadly, there is no such party or speaker to advocate for the Romani.