Golden Horn

Having taken a look at my current life in the Gulf, I want to return to some pictures from the summer. These shots are from Istanbul, looking over the Golden Horn, taken early in August, during my last days in Turkey (at least for this time!).

Book recommendation Afghanistan

I recently read Khaled Hosseinis second novel from Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns, which I really appreciated! For once a novel from Afghanistan carries a glimmer of hope also, despite the poverty and lack of opportunity that permeates the people depicted. I also saw this review of it, from Aftonbladet, so apparently it's translated to Swedish also. It is quite interesting actually, how much more, both literature and non-fiction, is translated into Swedish, compared to only 10 years ago or so.

You can also see Khaled Hosseinis first novel, The Kite Runner.

Wednesday update: the Swedish translation can be purchased from the webshop of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan.

Dhow?

Well, it's not quite the real thing anymore but there were very few other boats out at all. And this was the closest we saw to the traditional dhows of the Gulf and the Arabian Sea.

Fishing in the Gulf

Yes, the boat-trip included fishing (well, not for me, but I took photos of the guys when they did). No catches unfortunately, nut a very nice day!

Abu Dhabi skyline

After a whole day out boating (yes, my head is a bit wobbly now) I can show you the Abu Dhabi skyline from the coast-side.

Alan Johnston's story

An epilog to the kidnapping in Gaza earlier this year of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston comes here in the form of himself telling the story of his ordeal.

Reading links

I have earlier mentioned the lack of information on the Israeli September strike in northern Syria. As I predicted, a few more details and a sort of context has grown out in time, but still more is obscure than not.

More in focus this week is the debate and decision on Turkey on how to pursue the fight against terrorism and the PKK in northern Iraq. Here is a selection of articles over the last week or so: BBC last week, Asia Times a few days ago,

A discussion, also from Asia Times, on Turkey's relations with neighbouring peoples Kurds and Armenians.

In Turkey, a referendum has shown that a large number of the Turkish voters want to see real change in the way the president and the parliament are elcted and their mandates. Here it is reported by Swedish radio. MERIA here has an analysis of the Turkish elections in July.

Aftonbladets Johanne Hildebrandt continues her reporting from Iraq, now in web-tv special reports.

In Israel, over the last decade, the climate against a recognition of Palestinian claims has hardened, to the extent that intellectuals previously at the forefront of revising the general picture of Israel's was of independence and the Palestinian "nakba". Here is a Dagens Nyheter-interview with historian Benny Morris.

A look into the world of Iranian women is offered by this BBC-article on "the fashion police" from early this year. Despite my belated publication, I want to highlight it.

An editorial from Gulf News on the challenges of education and innovation.

A documentary film following 3 young Swedish jihadists during a long period of time to try to understand the reasons for their choices of ideology has just opened. Here is a review from Svenska Dagbladet. Here is also an editorial in the same paper commenting on the film. Also the Swedish-language blog Pop the casbah has written on the topic.

The Brookings institution has recently released a report analysing democracy developments in the Arab Middle East. Quite interesting, not least the references. This book from the same institution caught my eye.

My last contribution today is also from Swedish radio, this time on US pressure on democracy development (or rather the lack of it!) in Egypt.

Vaults inside and out

More detailed pictures of the vaults of the Bellapais monastery. I was really in awe.

More of the same

Some more overview shots, before I start getting into the fabulous details!

Bellapais vaults

I hope I can give you some feeling for the sense of stillness and greatness that these vaults conveyed to me as a visitor. They were truly awesome - I was breathless during the hour we spent in the site, walking around and drinking in the ambience.

Festival of thinkers

I wrote briefly about this the other day, but would like to repeat the link for the Abu Dhabi Festival of Thinkers. A range of globally prominent intellectuals are invited, including many Nobel laureates and the Nobel Foundation.

The idea of fostering creativity in academic and intellectual terms for the development of the Arab world is interesting and necessary. The theme has been brought up repeatedly in recent years, for instance by Arab human development report. I believe we will see repeated instances of attempts to highlight and implement these ideas, not least in the Gulf. I will do what I can to point at these activities in this blog also in the future.

Abbey church

Even if the church was certainly not the most impressive part of the complex, it had a classic iconostas (which must be later than the Gothic structure) and nice vaults, too. But the pictures are a bit dark, and the inside was overall on the bland side...

Bellapais

Before we get to the vaults I mentioned, inside the monastery part of the site, I want to give you an impression of the place as a whole - and its very pretty setting.

10 films on democracy

Read about the Why Democracy-project - in which a range of global tv-channels now in October are broadcasting 10 films on democracy, especially produced to illustrate different themes within the concept in todaqy's world. I haven't had the chance to watch any of them, myself, but would love the opportunity.

Abbey of Peace

The legendary Abbé de la Paix is located in the village where Lawrence Durrell spent parts of his times in Cyprus. The village was quite touristy these days and the abbey church I found indifferent - but the abbey iteself had exquisite Gothic vaults, quite breathtaking. Here is a tiny look, and more will come (I'm keeping the vaults for a later posting! ;-) ).

Hilarion walls

Impressive walls - aren't they? The castle was so disparately planned so it is difficult to give you a fair impression of it - but this is the best I can do I think. ;-)

Back to "Girls of Riyadh"...

...which I have now both read and enjoyed. It brings up difficult societal relationship issues in a lighthanded but poignant way, illustrating the lives of many women. It's also formatted to be both enjoyable and funny, despite the sometimes heavy underlying script. I can only recommend you to read it, for a glimpse of the world of women rarely heard, both to recognize and to learn.

End-of-Eid reading

Swedish Svenska Dagbladet has made an attempt at understanding opposite developments in islam today. Especially they discuss the targets of extremist violence and counteracting tendencies. Also this study by Pew Global Attitudes Project touches on the use of violence (here suicide bombings) in Muslim populations.

The same paper here discusses the recent cartoon issue and how it was handled by Swedish politicians.

Swedish radio here highlights the movement among women in Saudi-arabia to be allowed to drive cars. BBC has a feature highlighting Saudi women's views on the same issue.

BBC here discusses the refugee situation in the aftermath of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, highlighting the magnitude of the situation and the fears of future developments.
A following development focussing on the regional reprecussions can be seen in Turkey, as is discussed here by the BBC. Another related development is the theme of this article from the Palme-center, on Kirkuk.

ICG's most recent report is on Lebanon.


Previous journalist Torgny Hinnemo writes here in his old paper Svenska dagbladet about lessons on democracy taught by persons living in the former Soviet union.

And last but not least, Dagens Nyheter published this literary eulogy over a voice that has now died - the Kurdish writer Mehmet Uzun is dead.

Are you rich?

Test how rich you are compared to the world's total population - enter your annual income (converted to a major currency, like euros) in Global rich list. Very interesting result!

Unfortunately I can't copy in the code showing how rich I am. ;-) You'll just have to take my word for being in the richest percent and in place 59,545,303...

Up and down the castle

Steep steps and rocky paths... imagine living here - as royalty or as a soldier!

More Nobel laureates

The peace prize winners were announced today in Oslo and just as was expected the climate issue was in focus this year, with Al Gore and the IPCC being awarded the prize. Here is also the official Nobel Foundation website. Just a reminder - this is not the first time the Norwegian Nobel committee gives attention to new and rather broad peace definitions and not even the first time environment activism is lauded - think of Kenyan Wangari Mathai just 2 (or 3?) years ago. Other examples of non-traditional peace definitions given awards were Grameen bank of last year with a clear development focus and Iranian rights activist Shirin Ebadi in 2003.

An event close to me taking place soon is also focussed on previous winners!

Frightening figures

I read yesterday about a new report called "Africa's missing billions", in where several British aid organizations calculated the cost of the continent's wars since 1990. It was largely equivalent to the amount of aid received in the same period.

This opens an important debate on how, where and to whom to give aid - because I refuse to believe that the answer is not to help afflicted people - but how do it responsibly?

Some commentary: in English here and here, in Swedish (Anna Dahlberg from Expressen) here.

Castle interiors

To give you more of an idea of the castle - all of these cling to the mountain, on a rather steep slope!

St Hilarion castle church

Back to St Hilarion castle on a hot but overcast day in July. Here is the church on the upward slope - more castle to come higher up the mountain! The vaults were quite impressive, I thought and the setting even more so - it did have a fairytale quality about it, despite the heat.

I'm desperately behind my times in showing pictures as you notice - I haven't even gotten through the summer yet. Be patient and eventually I'll show my new surroundings in the Gulf - now the weather is approaching temperatures when walking around is an option at all too!

Eid Mubarak - weekend events!

Eid Mubarak everyone (even if it may not start until Saturday the weekend has somehow already begun).

In Stockholm, the Umm Kulthum-ensemble of the Cairo Opera House is performing.


And here in Abu Dhabi, the Middle East International Film Festival starts on Sunday! I will attend the gala opening and hopefully see some of the films next week. Several of the featured Middle Eastern films look really interesting, including Persepolis and several other.

Friday update: it is Eid now! And in Stockholm, the public were treated to food outside the mosque to celebrate.

Nobel prize

Congratulations to this year's laureate Doris Lessing! More info here.

I have been considering re-reading her books on Martha Quest recently, which I read a very long time ago. I have now been given excellent reason to do this!

Some commentary: from the BBC, Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet (here and here) and Expressen.

Down the castle hill...

Well, just a little hint of how high up it was and the feeling of looking down...