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1) I'm home!!! ^______^

2)


3) Copied and pasted from [livejournal.com profile] juancole:

ExpandLetter from MESA and AAUP to the Iraqi Prime Minister )
ziasudra: (Default)
Copied and pasted from department e-mail:

MERIP and the Kevorkian Center at New York University are pleased to announce the launch of Middle East Desk

http://middleeastdesk.org/

Middle East Desk is a new web-based gateway for journalists to informed, engaged analysis and commentary on the most important stories from the Middle East and North Africa.

Middle East Desk is intended to help reporters covering breaking stories, editors and producers looking for comment on those stories, and assignment editors looking for ideas for in-depth features. Middle East Desk is not a news aggregator or a wire service, but a guide to resources for understanding and explaining the news.

Each of the country pages on the site features:

+ datebooks of newsworthy events
+ contact information for country specialists, including NYU faculty
+ a brief synopsis of the country's recent history and pressing issues in its current affairs
+ almanac-style data
+ links to background articles

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact Michelle at <mwoodward@merip.org>.

(MERIP = Middle East Research and Information Project. Check out MERIP's Web site here.)
ziasudra: (Headdesk)
Bush: Lean on Syria

Another headdesk moment for President Bush. Check out the CNN article about this for a link to the video. But as much as it might be amusing for Bush to have said a "bad word," I think what's really scary is the simple black-and-white assumption that goes into Bush's "plan" to "solve" the Lebanon-Israel conflict.

My reaction to all of this? Aiya! *is exasperated*

On a brighter note, I got a Vox account. Anybody want to be my neighbor? Don't worry, I have no intention of leaving LJ. I just got an account to put a hold on the username.
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For a collection of news on the Israel-Lebanon bombings, see this post at [livejournal.com profile] juancole.

Bush asks Israel not to disrupt Beirut, but is this enough? No offense, but Bush seems to be condemning the bombing on one hand and condoning the destruction of Lebanese infrastructure. How's that not a contradiction?

I don't really see how Israel is "defending" itself with such massive counterattacks. Yes, Hizbullah provoked the Israelis with the initial kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers and then later killing eight others. But to retaliate by bombing areas indiscriminately? Lebanon is a diverse country. Hizbullah being in power doesn't mean that the rest of the country is Hizbullah, or even Muslim (regardless of where one stands politically in the spectrum). A huge population of Lebanese is Christian. People don't segregate themselves completely by political or religious lines. There is no way Israel can be sure that it bombed places that are "100% Hizbullah."

Official statements from the U.S. and "the West" feel like temporary band-aids to a gashing wound. Condemn the Hizbullah, give Israel a tsk-tsk. Be the parent who cries "Don't do that!" and then turns away without understanding the whys and hows of it all. Hizbullah came into power in Lebanon in one of the most democratic elections held in the country. Similarly, the Palestinian people elected Hamas into the government. Yes, I'm sure there are voter discrimination (heck, there was discrimination in the U.S. elections), but there must be a reason why these parties won. Could it be because there was a power vacuum in the areas when supposedly West-friendly parties were so weak they were contributing to the problems? Could it be because the Hizbullah and the Hamas were actually able to provide structure and give people hope of a stable government? Not that I'd like to see such militant groups in power, but there's a certain legacy of how Western foreign policies have unstablized and generally messed up the Middle East, contributing to some of these recent election results.

So emergency statements of "stop hurting each other"? Nice try, but sorry, they're ineffective.

[ETA 12:10 a.m.] Lest I be called a "Hizbullah supporter": from the most recent entry of [livejournal.com profile] therevealer --
Supporters of Hizbollah
15 July 2006
Twice now, on CNN and, we think, NBC, we've heard all critics of Israel's actions in Lebanon lumped together as "supporters of Hizbollah." Media shorthand, sure; obscuring the real story, definitely."
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I am now the proud subscriber to [livejournal.com profile] juancole, a syndication of Juan Cole's blog. If you've been around long enough, you've probably heard me cite him left and right in class notes and current event analyses. Juan Cole is a deep thinker who offers a fresh voice on Middle East issues not often heard in the media. He is also careful to put current events into context -- something not often done in even the most responsible of news reporting, given the media's general lack of understanding of how Middle Eastern history greatly affects current events (but not so Euro-centric that "the Middle East" becomes an exoticized "ancient, unchanging civilization"). Give the syndication a try. You might like it.


Sports News:
♦ NBA Draft tonight: Draft Analysis: How the first round unfolded and what it means

♦ And a latest World Cup news for you football/soccer fans: 2 Referees Banned After Calls Disputed
One of them is the ref who officiated the Portugal-Netherlands game. Ha, big surprise.
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Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society
Nadia Abu El-Haj, University of Chicago Press, 2001.

OMG before I start my notes let me just say how excited I am that we're finally reading a pre-history book, after what I wrote last night about how much I miss ancient history!!! This book is my undergraduate field (well, mine was more linguistic while this one is more archaelogical), this is my academic love. ♥

Anyway...

Premise: to examine nation-building and colonization through the lens of archaeology.

Expand1: Excavating Archaeology )

Expand2: Scientific Beginnings )

Expand3: Instituting Archaeology )

Expand4: Terrains of Settler Nationhood )

Expand9: )

Expand10: Conclusion )
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The rest of my Algerian Civil War notes, continuation of this post. No formatting or consistency here. Just posting it because I want to have it accessible online in case anything happens to my computer's hard drive (too many horror stories). Passing right along.

(I should have known better than to sign up for a presentation the day after the March Madness championship. *is brain dead*)

ExpandChapters 2 to 10 Notes... )

[ETA 11:58 p.m.: spent the hour or so before class frantically putting a presentation together... the professor and my classmates liked the it! I'm soooo relieved. ^__^]
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The Algerian Civil War 1990-1998
Luis Martinez, C. Hurst & Co., Ltd., 2000.

What Luis Martinez does in this book:
“Rejecting culturalist explanations as too simplistic, the author concentrates on actors who act deliberately to maximise their advantage.” (p. ix)

“Unlike others who have treated the subject, he is the first to bring together a unified theory of warlike behaviour in the context of both institutional-historical and rational choice paradigms substantiated by an impressive array of solid empirical data gathered directly from the field.” (p. ix)

Expand1: Introduction )

Expand11: Conclusion )
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Rethinking the Economics of War: the Intersection of Need, Creed, and Greed
Cynthia J. Arnson and I. William Zartman, Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2005.

On greed vs. grievance: “This book represents an attempt at such a synthesis, drawing on the path-breaking work of Collie rand others on the role of resource income, greed, and predation in fueling and sustaining conflict, and combining those insights with more long-standing, grievance-based explanations.” (p. 7)

Expand1: The Political Economy of War: Situating the Debate )

Expand2: Trafficking, Rents, and Diaspora in the Lebanese War )

Expand3: The Evolution of Internal War in Peru )

Expand6: The Democratic Republic of the Congo )

Expand8: Surviving State Failure, Afghanistan )

Expand9: Economic Factors in Civil Wars )

Expand10: Need, Creed, and Greed in Intrastate Conflict )
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Wow, the end of the Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State game was intense! Two (or was it three?) lead changes with under 10 seconds of game time to go! I wonder who would have won had the referee called travel instead of foul at the very end of the game. Basketball is such a great way to pick up from where the Olympics left off. I'm so ready for March Madness!

Now onto your regularly scheduled reading notes...

ExpandA Diplomatic Revolution )
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This week is the "February break" for New York state public schools, which means I won't have to go teach my kiddies. Now, a self-disciplined student would use that extra time to catch up on readings. But guess what I did?

onsa66 got their Neopet at http://www.neopets.com onsa66 got their Neopet at http://www.neopets.com
Behold, my
neopets!

I've played Neopets for six years—long before it surged to popularity a few years ago—first in a shared account with my cousins, then later getting my own. If you have a Neopets account too, look me up at onsa66.

Now I'm catching up on my reading, just jotting down random notes...

ExpandGlobal Governance and the New Wars )
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A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two People
Ilan Pappe, Cambridge University Press, 2004.

"In this book I attempt a new approach. I hope to do this without marginalizing the importance of the West, political elites, nationalism and the intra-national conflict, or ignoring the importance of some of the main changes chronicled by modernization theorists. These processes include developments such as industrialization, urbanization, hygienization, secularization, centralization and politicization of what I call 'non-Western' societies which came in contact with the West." (pp. 7-8)

ExpandIntroduction Notes )

ExpandChapter 1 Notes )

ExpandChapter 2 Notes )

ExpandGeneral Impressions )
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When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda
Mahmood Mamdani, Princeton University Press, 2001.

Goals:
1. I show the ways in which history writing has been complicit with imperialism, particularly in naturalizing political identities, Hutu and Tutsi, and in considering facts about place of origin (migration) as key to history making.
2. I show the ways in which key texts on the 1959 Revolution failed to problematize the object of their analysis.

"Instead of addressing critically the ways in which the postcolonial state reproduced and reinforced colonially produced political identities in the name of justice, they ended up once again treating these identities as if they were natural constructs." (xiii)

ExpandChapters 1-3 Notes... )
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Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity
Talal Asad, Stanford University Press, 2003.

"What is the connection between 'the secular' as an epistemic category and 'secularism' as a political doctrine? Can they be objects of anthropological inquiry? What might an anthropology of secularism look like? This book attempts, in a preliminary way, to address these questions." (p. 1)

ExpandIntroduction: Thinking about Secularism )

ExpandChapter 1 Notes... )

ExpandChapter 2 Notes... )

ExpandSome stray quotes from other chapters... )
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Theologies of Development: Faith, Holism, and Lifestyle Evangelism
Erica Bornstein, The Spirit of Development: Protestant NGOs, Morality, and Economics in Zimbabwe, Routledge, 2003.

“I document how faith was lived and critically theorized in terms of these concepts by employees of the two NGOs. My analysis focuses on faith at rural project sites where evangelism appeared as a unifying and hopeful social force, and faith in NGO offices where it disciplined, at times with divisive effects, the personal and institutional conduct of life.” (p. 45)

ExpandReading Notes… )
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Child Sponsorship, Evangelism, and Belonging
Erica Bornstein, The Spirit of Development: Protestant NGOs, Morality, and Economics in Zimbabwe, Routledge, 2003.

“Child sponsorship produced unintended disjunctures between hopeful ideas of global humanitarianism and local political economies fraught with inequalities, reinforced by the very humanitarian aid that endeavored to transcend them.” (p. 67)

ExpandReading Notes… )
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Humanitarian Intervention: Ethical, Legal, and Political Dilemmas
J. L. Holzgrefe and Robert O. Keohane, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2003.

This book is a collection of essays on the subject of humanitarian intervention. In the editors' words:
"This book analyzes humanitarian intervention in the context of state failure in many parts of the world, and explores fundamental issues of moral theory, process of change in international law, and how conceptions of sovereignty are shifting as a result of changes in norms of human rights." (p. 2)

ExpandChapter 1 Notes )

ExpandChapter 3 Notes )
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Ethics and Intervention: The 'Humanitarian Exception' and the Problem of Abuse in the Case of Iraq
Alex J. Bellamy, Journal of Peace Research 41, no. 2, 2004, pp. 131-147.

"This article investigates whether, and when, using force to remove a foreign government is morally justifiable. It uses the case of Iraq to assess whether conservative interpretations of positive international law can be overridden by the moral right to uphold elements of natural law that are knowable to all." (p. 132)

ExpandReading Notes... )
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The Case of Ariel Sharon and the Fate of Universal Jurisdiction
John Borneman, ed., Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, Monograph Series Number 2, Princeton University, 2004.

Chapter 4, Laurie King-Irani
King-Irani’s purpose:
“I want to discover whether it is possible for international justice to have a local address. I also wonder if it is possible—or advisable—for anthropologists to undertake advocacy and activism on behalf of marginalized groups whose rights have been violated by the powerful.” (p. 71)

ExpandChapter 4 Notes... )

Chapter 5, Dan Rabinowitz
Purpose (p. 105):
“My argument below is that an ongoing demand to indict Sharon in an international forum for his responsibility in Sabra and Shatila is of great significance for Israeli society and for future relations with the Palestinians...”
1. To reframe Israel's collective memory.
2. To demilitarize the Israeli mind.

ExpandChapter 5 Notes... )
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Re-Orienting Desire: the Gay International and the Arab World
Joseph Massad, Public Culture 14, 2 (2002), pp. 361-385.

Universalization of "gay rights" as a global project that plays a similar role to missionary projects: "Organizations dominated by white Western males (the International Lesbian and Gay Association [ILGA] and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission [IGLHRC]) sprang up to defend the rights of 'gays and lesbians' all over the world and to advocate on their behalf." (p. 361)

Thesis:
"I argue that it is the discourse of the Gay International that both produces homosexuals, as well as gays and lesbians, where they do not exist, and represses same-sex desires and practices that refuse to be assimilated into its sexual epistemology." (p. 363)

ExpandReading Notes... )

"In undertaking this universalizing project, the Gay International ultimately makes itself feel better about a world it forces to share its identifications. Its missionary achievement, however, will be the creation not of a queer planet but rather a straight one." (p. 385)
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I'm inconsistent in posting these. But here's my reading response for this week, featuring Susan Slyomovics (and the Moroccans) and Talal Asad.

It's 2:30 in the morning and I just finished this. So if it doesn't make sense and it's overall incoherent...
^_^;;

ExpandMoroccans as grounded human rights advocates )
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"Redeeming the 'Human' Through Human Rights"
Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity, Stanford University Press, 2003, pp. 127-158.

Done with the Susan Slyomovics book! The book left me with some questions. Not sure if Talal Asad's article addresses any of my ramblings. But he's the adored scholar of quite a few of my classmates, and I've liked all his other articles that I've read in the past. So this should be good.

"...while U.S. military doctrine makes breaches of the Geneva Convention more likely, it makes actual cases of torture less likely because and to the extent that a direct encounter between individual soldiers and civilians is avoided. The use of excessive force against civilians through aerial bombardment is regarded differently from the use of violence perpetrated by particular officials against individual victims. It is not a matter of human rights abuse but of collateral damage." (pp. 127-128)

ExpandReading notes... )
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The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco
Susan Slyomovics, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.

"Throughout this study, places and dates of publication [of prison publications] appear as one aspect of lapses that exist between the act of creation, the ability to write, and the freedom to publish. Consequently, prisoners' narratives are embedded in, correspond to, and transfigure Moroccan society and history." (p. 6)

ExpandReading )

ExpandPost-reading thoughts... )
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Planning the Family in Egypt: New Bodies, New Selves
Kamran Asdar Ali, University of Texas Press, 2002.

"In this text I will present Egyptian voices that oppose or accept such impositions, but I will also go beyond such an exclusive presentation. I will illustrate how Egypt, as a modernizing state, uses the family planning program as a pedagogical project to manage its population." (p. 5)

ExpandIntroduction Notes... )

ExpandChapter 1 Notes... )

ExpandChapter 2 Notes... )

ExpandChapter 3 Notes... )

ExpandChapter 4 Notes... )

ExpandChapter 5 Notes... )

ExpandChapter 6 Notes... )

ExpandChapter 7 Notes... )

ExpandChapter 8 Notes... )

ExpandConclusion... )
.
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Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity
Timothy Mitchell, University of California Press, 2002.

Nothing too in depth here. I'm trying to take notes off of a two-hour library reserve, so my tactic here is to copy down word for word passages that I can't take home with me, scanning the text enough to compose a response paper for tonight ;p

Mithcell's general premise: post-colonial Egypt is deeply entrenched in "connections between a war, an epidemic, and a famine." All of these tie into the bigger web of issues, "depended upon connections between rivers, dams, fertilizers, food webs, and, as we will see, several additional links and interactions." (p. 27)

ExpandReading Notes.. )

Wha?!? Where did the past two hours go? I'm just getting into the meaty part of the book, and now I have to return it back to reserve? Hmm... I'm going to try for a double-dip. Hopefully the second reserve copy is available.

[ETA: 4:25 p.m.: Yay, book renewed. Now onto more notes...]

ExpandReading Notes, Second Segment... )
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