The long road from Gaza

A Palestinian musician finds that playing with Israelis
leads across more than one border

After almost three months of intense travel and interviews, my friend Vanessa finally got her Palestinian musician article published. This piece is a unique look into the lives of asylum seekers/immigrants -- and even detainees -- who live in a small county in northern New Jersey. She gives Zaher, the featured "character" in the article, a chance to speak his words and tell his story. She also skillfully interjects U.S. immigration laws (and biases, imo) and sensitively contextualizes one person's story into the broader history of the U.S.-Israel and U.S.-Palestine relations.

If you read and like the article, please take a moment and comment to the article (login required). If you'd rather not log in, I'd be happy to connect you with Vanessa so she could hear what you think about the piece.

And... I got an interview! Two interviews, actually, but one is an informal meeting next week with someone from CNNMoney, which, business-challenged that I am, I actually find very interesting because the Web site devotes a lot of space to tech and gadget stuff that I can lose hours in just reading all the articles. Not to mention the handy Jobs & Economy section that I've frequented *g*

My main interview, however, is a campaigning job with the Working Families Party, a "grassroots, community and labor based political party with chapters throughout New York State." The party endorses candidates who are already affiliated with a major party, but is pushing for the open ballot option so that voters can voice their concerns for what issues matter to them even as they vote for candidates they otherwise would support in either of the two major parties. This is active voting here, and I like it. We'll see how the interview goes.

Current Mood: hyper

I turned my paper in! It made it into the cyberspace with a 12:18 p.m. time stamp, even though it was due at noon. But my Firefox browser literally froze at noon -- my fault really, for compiling the bibliography so last minute and the program got stalled trying to upload a PDF file and then went "boom!" But it's turned in! It's turned in!

Final word count: 8,687 words; 10,360 counting footnotes (yes, I ramble when I footnote); 34 pages, double-spaced.

I didn't think I would say this, but I actually liked the paper and enjoyed the writing process. I'm going to fix it up and post it somewhere soon, just because I'm actually happy with the end result and wouldn't mind people reading it.

A happy belated birthday to transcendentsin and joz_music. I didn't forget, I just couldn't pull out the time to post an entry all day yesterday.

I owe people comments and replies, and I'm sure I missed posts when I've only done a quick scan-through of my f-list. But *waves* I'm back!

Current Mood: relieved

So, the global Muslim reaction against the caricature depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in newspaper cartoons.

I realize I have been silent on this matter, even though by all means I—the Near Eastern Studies student—should be blogging about it real-time as each new turn of events pops up on news alert screens. But I’ve refrained from reacting precisely because it’s been a breaking-news matter all over the media. I needed to take a step back and look at how the controversy has been reported. So far, I find the reporting informative but inadequate.

The beginning hours when the news first broke consisted of answering the basic questions: who, what, where, when, and, to a lesser degree, how. Who was involved? What was the nature of the conflict? When did it happen? What did the caricatures depict? How did the Danish newspaper initially respond? What’s going to happen?

Eventually, the “why” crept into various articles, as did more in-depth analyses on the causes of the controversy: Why were Muslims so offended? (Explanation of Muhammad’s role in Islam and prohibition against iconic depictions) Why didn’t the newspaper censor the cartoons? (Debate on the nature of political cartoon as naturally exaggerating, freedom of the press, the cartoons as a commissioned project to search for artists for a Prophet Muhammad biography, etc.) Why now? (The caricatures were first published September 30, 2005.)

As I sat back and gathered up pieces of news of the recent outbursts (embassy attacks, protests violence, etc.) of an ongoing five-month controversy, I’m frustrated by the lack of perspective grounding, something that many news articles failed to provide. If I take in point-blank only what the media feeds me, then my view of the controversy would be something like this: the entire homogenous, unified “Muslim world”—a term I would have to equate with the non-West, incidentally—is in uproar over the printing of a bunch of religiously offensive cartoons.

I understand that Muslims are offended at the irreverent depictions of the Prophet in the cartoons. I understand that any depiction of humans and living creatures is not permitted. I also understand that it was rather unscrupulous of the Danish and other European presses to have printed these cartoons. But understanding and my own indignation at the cartoons themselves notwithstanding (for I do find them needlessly crude), the point remains that the media is not telling the whole story.

( Read more: Islam is not homogenous. )

( Read more: Context, context, context )

I can continue rambling on about Iran, Pakistan, and even Bosnia, since it also got involved in the anti-Danish controversy. But I hope my point is clear: the press has been unsatisfying, imho, in providing a comprehensive, contextualized view of politics in a controversy that, in many ways, extends beyond the religious and touches on local and global political issues.

Maybe I’m looking at the wrong places, maybe there are plenty of commentaries out there that analyze the controversy in thoughtful, historicized, contextualized manners. But seeing how I’m browsing major news sources and using popular search engines for my daily news dosage, it doesn’t make me feel any better that I’d have to deliberately search for what I want in order for an article to turn up. Imagine how many people just simply don’t have the time beyond skimming through daily headlines.

Perhaps if I sit and observe more, the analytical articles will come after the why articles, just as the why articles have followed the initial wave of who, what, where, when, and how articles.

[ETA: I realize I didn't include a link to the background of the controversy. Once again, Wiki comes to the rescue. Backstory here.]

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Roommate brushing her teeth

An excellent piece written by my friend Matt Fleischer, published in this week's LA Weekly. It's a very long piece by journalism standards—over 8,000 words. But definitely, definitely worth the read.

Navahoax

Did a struggling white writer of gay erotica become one of multicultural literature's most celebrated memoirists—by passing himself off as Native American?

BY MATTHEW FLEISCHER

Link to the story

Matt is the winner of the 2005 Dan Eldon Overseas Press Club Award. According to the Dan Eldon Web site, Matt is a freelance writer and world traveler. More about Matt here.

And while I'm reccing Matt, this is the feature article he wrote for Undocumented NYC, and this is his profile article.

Current Mood: glad
Current Music: 3 Doors Down -- Here Without You

I think I'm done with all my papers! There's still revision to do for two of them, but in terms of having something to hand in, I have it!!!

For those of you who are curious, the child sponsorship paper I wrote for my Anthropology of Intervention class is posted:
Child Development in the Context of Faith-Based Child Sponsorship Organization
If you were following Resty's malaria saga back in the beginning of the year, you'll notice that I used her "I am not fine I am sick with malaria" letter as an example in the paper. Please be easy on my atrocious grammar in this paper—I myself cringed at many a place as I reread it—I've been running on a general lack of sleep.

Poll
And now, my very first poll ever! I'm mostly trying to figure out if I can successfully make a poll. Please humor me with answers, even though I already know most of your birthdays.

[ETA: By the way, people with no LJ accounts *cough*Mom*cough* -- does LJ let you fill out polls?]

[Poll #636450]

Current Music: Animal Crossing -- Roommate D playing

Back from home, the last stretch of the semester has officially begun.

I've been thinking about writing lately. A lot of people on my f-list are doing (and finishing!) NaNoWriMo, and it's so encouraging to see their little word count meter rising everyday. I've been thinking whether I would be able to do NaNo one of these days, to write 50,000 words in a month. Judging by the fact that I just wrote 4,000 words on boring social science stuff today, I think I can.

I write everyday. E-mails, LJ posts and comments, and always something school-related. But to write 50,000 words on something, it would have to be on a subject I'm really passionate about. This is why I'm balking at the thought of writing my final paper for next semester. I need the final paper to graduate, so I know I'll write it, unless I abandon my study. And being a joint-department student, my final paper only needs to be 4,000-5,000 words long, max. So I'm not worried about the quantity here, just the quality.

But I digress. Congrats to those of you who are finishing up with NaNo—it's a big accomplishment!

BBC: Saddam trial to resume in Baghdad.

"The trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven aides on murder and torture charges is due to resume in Baghdad after a six-week break."

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Roommate playing Animal Crossing

LJ is not sending me e-mail notifications for comments (just like everyone else), so if you've commented to my post or have replied to a comment of mine recently, chances are I didn't know about it.

Regarding my role-playing article that I was working on yesterday... it's posted! Here. Much thanks to

tanechigai for looking it over for me last night, even though we were all tired and overwhelmed with the intense ending of GoF and I'm sure she would have rather just go to bed. A disclaimer: I didn't clean up the piece, assuming that someone would do a final edit before posting the article. Well, there wasn't any final edit, so some of the awkward sentences that I deliberately left in because I was too tired to make them sound better... they're still awkward sentences.

Noteworthy news of the day: Sharon left the Likud Party, Zarqawi might be dead but probably not.

( The iTunes Meme )

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Piano Man -- Billy Joel

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... ^_^;;

( Moroccans as grounded human rights advocates )

Current Mood: done!

Need sleep... need to get out of soaking wet clothes...

But, hey, I finally sat my a** down and wrote something. Three hours for 596 words (woe), and it's not even good :\

( Immigration and ESL )
.

Current Music: Computer lab's printers (still going...)

Went to the Ellis Island Museum today. It was half-spontaneous: I needed to go before Thursday for an assignment, but hadn't planned on going today. Well, I did, and it was an entertaining trip.

My thoughts, which may or may not be turned into an article...

( A Trip to Ellis Island )
.

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Switchfoot -- Gone

So I wrote a reponse to the Times Online article on the effects of religion that I briefly ranted about in this post a couple of days ago. My article is more aimed against Gregory S. Paul's methodology than on the Times Online article itself, and there's also a whole lot of personal ranting somewhere toward the middle/end.

I sent it as a "hey, I wrote something, whaddaya think?" e-mail to my professor. He looked at it, liked it, and now it's published!

*squees*

Here it is -->
We Are the Others
"The generalizations used in the new 'Religion is bad for society' study are a step backwards for social science."

It's probably the most polemic published piece I've written to date. I realize that my own arguments are incomplete (thus problematic in their own way), but I'm happy for what thread of argument that remains after I cut 20% of what I initially wrote.

( On a different note, my kiddies... )
.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Matchbox 20 -- Unwell

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all! Whether you're currently eating moon cakes or asking: "What the heck is mid-autumn festival," you're a lucky winner! I come bearing a story, a legendary and magical story. Claim your prize behind the cut...

Title: Chang Er, the Moon Palace Mistress
Genre: Myth/legend
Word Count: 606

( Chang Er, the story )
.

Current Mood: storytelling mood
Current Music: Prince of Egypt -- When You Believe

A flotsam and jetsam post today, with something for everybody. Don't believe me? Just look at the tags for this entry. Short of "reading notes" (which will resume regularly once fall semester starts), I'm touching on most of my regular topics here.

1.
It's Animal Crossing time! I was tempted, and I gave in. A total crack!fic written in the Animal Crossing fandom. Probably no one will understand this outside of players of Apt. 6K and Domosai. Dedicated to

everydaysushi,

sunnydlita, and

tanechigai.

Title: Dystopia
Rating: If there's a rating lower than G, this would be it.
Word Count: 1,303 according to Word
Warning: Written upon a sudden bout of inspiration, unbeta'd.

( Read Dystopia... )

2.
Today's news, or what caught my eyes -->
Gaza Evacuation: New York Times – Israeli Troops and Police Clear all but 5 Gaza Settlements
False Police Shooting in London: BBC – Menezes' family calls for justice
Men's Tennis: ESPN – Wildcard Ginepri defeats Safin; Federer advances (If I may say so, Ginepri played very well indeed.)

3.
Special message to

nenyaentwhistle: Good luck on your MCATs tomorrow!

4.
I've updated my userinfo page with a map project. If you're a friend, please help me with my cartography project!

( Details behind cut... )
.

Current Mood: varied
Current Music: Fuel -- Falls On Me

So lately everything I write seems to sound like it came fresh off the press from some newspaper or periodic journal, and my muse doesn't seem too happy about it. That, and I have a lot of time, so...

Ziasudra's Drabble/Ficlet Giveaway
Ask me to write something. Anything (within reason, of course). I'd prefer it to be of the fiction genre, though if you want an essay or something non-fiction, that's fine too. I'm up for original fiction, but that'll probably be boring unless you like my writing for some reason. As for fannish stuff, these are what I'm familiar with:

♦ Any universe created by 金庸, my all-time favorite author. I'll even attempt something in Chinese if I'm in a good enough mood. Note: "attempt" is the word.
♦ Chronicles of Narnia
♦ Dragonball/Dragonball Z (does anyone still watch these?!?)
♦ Giver/Gathering Blue/Messenger universe
♦ Harry Potter
♦ Kingdom Hearts
♦ Lord of the Rings (and Hobbit and Silmarillion too)
♦ Pokémon
♦ Wolf's Rain
♦ Yu-Gi-Oh!

Oh and Animal Crossing is definitely an option, though that universe is so uber-utopian and conflict-free that any story based on that would be boring, I'm sure.

Request away ;)
.

Current Mood: lethargic
Current Music: Switchfoot -- Meant to Live

No custom f-locking here, since I'm pretty sure all of you HP-reading people have at least gotten to or near the end. If not, please exert self-control because there are HBP SPOILERS AHEAD.
(And if you're done with HBP and I haven't unlocked you for my Snape discussion post... oops! Let me know so I can unlock you.)

( Appointing Slughorn... )
.

Current Mood: SLUG-gish *g*
Current Music: Les Misérables -- Do You Hear the People Sing?

The Curse of Life
Author: Ziasudra
Rating: G
Word Count: 371
Challenge: Written for the

spoil_me_hbp Community Challenge.
Challenge Theme: Waiting
Disclaimer: Nothing in the HP universe is mine.
Summary: Long life was a curse.

Guess what? I'm posting this one here ^_^ (x-posted to the comm also)

( Read The Curse of Life... )
.

Current Mood: *yawns*
Current Music: Simon & Garfunkel -- Homeward Bound

I'm finally done formatting my Jihad El Hiba paper! This one should be a lot easier to read than my jihad paper, which was pure theory and academic jargon. Personally, I think this was a lesser paper, but *shrugs* I ended up getting a better grade in this class than in my Islam class. Oh well...

( The Jihad El Hiba Movement... )

( Footnotes... )

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Simon & Garfunkel -- Scarborough Fair/Canticle

My muse is stunted all day today. I tried to write, and had the whole day to write. But how far did I get? A meager 680 words.

Oh well, I'm posting my jihad paper, because it's finished. Hopefully, posting a completed paper will inspire my stunted muse to write what I have to write.

( Jihad: What Is It? )

If you manage to read the whole thing (or even part of it), would you let me know what you think? I'm especially curious about what you think of my Bernard Lewis book review. As you can see, I'm not in agreement with the people who gave the book raving reviews on amazon.com. I'm thinking about posting my own review for the book based on my thoughts in this paper. Do you think it's doable?

Current Mood: museless
Current Music: Suns vs. Mavericks game sound

My LJ friends are such creative and talented people. A few days ago, [Bad username or site: ee970 / @ livejournal.com] wrote me a Pokémon drabble, and today, [Bad username or site: lynkemma / @ livejournal.com] wrote me a Harry Potter drabble!

Here's the link: Minerva's Return

My request was a missing scene from any of the HP books. The response was a very plausible end-of-OotP scene. Not to mention well written ;)

Go read now.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Music: Marc Cohn -- Walking in Memphis

Pretty mindless post today, just a rec for a drabble WRITTEN FOR ME!!! ok, calm down, ziasudra...

Fandom: Pokémon
Author: The multi-talented [Bad username or site: ee970 / @ livejournal.com]

Read the story here.

About the author: [Bad username or site: ee970 / @ livejournal.com] and I first met in school, way back in the previous millennium. *gasp* Then we went our separate ways to college and graduated and she's now the proud alumna of the school that won the 2005 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. She currently lives in Japan and works for a video game company. And she writes! In the Prince of Tennis fandom (which I know nothing about -_- ). Check out her work at [Bad username or site: 30_kisses / @ livejournal.com].

Again, link to the story.

Current Mood: omgapresentforme!

Remember my random post on Orientalism? Well, the article is out—not my clip, but for once, I'm quoted!

I'm quite surprised at some of the other interviewees' responses: condoning ignorance, justifying the word just to preserve an already problematic connotation, going along with systematic prejudice because personal cases are perceived as inoffensive, etc.

It appears that not many consider racial representation an important enough issue to have an informed opinion about. Everything is okay as long as there is no harm done on the personal level; consequently, systematic undercurrent is met with indifference.

But problems don't go away just by ignoring them! Yes, "Oriental" may have become obsolete, but in its place are new words that have recently sprung up because the original prejudices never went away.

Book rec: on issues of systematic racism/prejudice, Beverly Daniel Tantum's Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
The book's a few years back, but still very up-to-date in its observations about racial segregation, self-perception, and most importantly, on the systematic definition of norms based on the majority culture.

To be fair, I am aware that I'm speaking as a student whose studies are immersed in cultivating racial awareness, and also as someone who in the past two years have worked for an organization that is extremely dedicated to racial reconciliation. Maybe I'm the atypical one.

The article

Current Mood: me! quoted!
Current Music: Mormon Tabernacle Choir -- Shenandoah

A few sites that I find helpful in both day-to-day settings and when I'm in a pinch for some quick journalism fact checking:

1. European Union
Ever wonder about what countries are part of the EU? What are the five EU institutions? When is Europe Day? Answers to all these and (literally) tons of other relevant information about the European Union.
( About the EU Web site )

2. The Internet Broadway Database
Visiting New York City? Live there? Taking a day trip to the Big Apple from New Jersey? This comprehensive site is the place to check for Broadway shows, answering the who, what, where, when, and sometimes the why and the how, of each show—all a click of the mouse away.
( About The Internet Broadway Database )

3. The World Clock - Time Zones
Ever wonder what time is it in Norway (hi [Bad username or site: lynkemma / @ livejournal.com])? Portugal (hi [Bad username or site: sra_black / @ livejournal.com])? Japan (hi [Bad username or site: akaisakura / @ livejournal.com] and [Bad username or site: ee970 / @ livejournal.com])? Hong Kong (hi Dad and Kwok Ching if you're reading this)? Or even closer to home...California (hi Mom)? I certainly have! This is a great quick-ref site to make sure I didn't convert my times wrong in my head.
( About timeanddate.com )

[ETA: Extra info, 4/14/2005, 8:11 p.m.]

Current Mood: overworked
Current Music: Pippin -- Corner of the Sky

No purpose, just because I spent so much time coming up with this and want to save it for future reference.

( My Answers to Questions About Oriental and Orientalism )

Current Mood: intellectual
Current Music: Anita Mui -- Time After Time

My friend just published his first book! I've practically known him since the day I was born, so I'm advertising for him ^_^

http://siuheng.hk.st/
(Click on the only link that's in English)

Not an academic paper, not a yearbook or a literary magazine, not newspaper articles...but a book! And all I've churned out are a handful of clips and a few semi-passable fics. *feels inferior*

Current Mood: congratulatory

Meet [Bad username or site: akaisakura / @ livejournal.com]. She's cool, intelligent, extremely talented musically, a good writer and lives in Japan. She's also one of my very best friends waaay back in high school (no, I'm really not that old...).

Anyway, she wrote a Metal Gear Solid/Final Fantasy crossover fanfic recently and it sparked this discussion about Japanese mentor/student relationships, homosexuality, writing slash fictions, and...er...bioengineered fertilization of human with mice parents o_O

I've often wondered about the prevalent "slash" phenomenon in fanfiction writing (slash: stories that feature same-sex relationships as their main pairing). [Bad username or site: akaisakura / @ livejournal.com] gave me some really good explanations. A slash writer herself, her comments are invaluable.

- Why do you write/read slash fics?
- What relationship, if any, does writing slash fics have with gender perception?
- Is "homosexual identity" a recent phenomenon?
- What do you think of slash?

So if you're interested, join in the discussion! If you're only interested in the slash discussion, scroll down towards the middle of the post.

Current Mood: slashy
Current Music: Blink 182 -- Mutt

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ziasudra

Oud, and job nibbles

The long road from Gaza

A Palestinian musician finds that playing with Israelis
leads across more than one border

Paper Sent!

Muslim Caricature -- My Thoughts (Long)

News Article Rec -- Navahoax

Navahoax

Did a struggling white writer of gay erotica become one of multicultural literature's most celebrated memoirists—by passing himself off as Native American?

On the Home Stretch

NaNo Countdown, T-3

Various and Sundry

Putting It All Together

For what it's worth, what passes as an article

A Trip to Ellis Island

I used Edward Said for something other than theory-heavy class discussions

The (Wo)man on the Moon

Story, News, Well-Wishing, and Cartography

This entry brought to you by my muse...

On Dumbledore Appointing Horace Slughorn

Ficlet Reprise

El Hiba -- Moroccan Revolt

Jihad: A Study

More Presents ^_^

My Cousins Used to Say... sigh (duck)

Fruit of Labor

E-Sources: Reference, Facts

My Rant on Orientalism

This Announcement Brought to You By...me

To Slash or Not to Slash?

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January 2011

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A Palestinian musician finds that playing with Israelisleads across more than one border

Navahoax

Did a struggling white writer of gay erotica become one of multicultural literature's most celebrated memoirists—by passing himself off as Native American?

Syndicate

Page Summary

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A Palestinian musician finds that playing with Israelis
leads across more than one border