Category Archives: Blog

Tonight in Lebanon, I attended the opening of Mixed Feelings: Identity, ‘Race’ and Family in Lebanon with colleagues, students, and co-teachers from our migrant workers class in Beirut. The exhibit is comprised of “33 photos of Lebanese who are of African or Asian heritage, along with quotes in Arabic and English taken from interviews with about a third of the participants that touch on a number of subjects such as “race”, racism, ‘othering’, racialization, national belonging, and so on.” In tonight’s informal discussion about race in Lebanon, many who were present shared their own personal experiences with racism in Lebanon, and their struggles to define themselves in the face of so much discrimination…

Sudan’s Republican Palace Museum (once an Anglican Church) sits on the grounds of the Presidential Palace–the site of General Charles Gordon’s murder and the former seat of the Anglo-Egyptian government. On Monday, a new Presidential Palace (built by the Chinese and located next to the old one) was inaugurated 130 years to the day that General Gordon was hacked to death on the steps of the Presidential Palace by soldiers of the Mahdi–who Gordon had come to Khartoum to “smash.” In the 1966 movie Khartoum, Charlton Heston played the role of Gordon, while the Mahdi was played by Laurence Olivier in blackface. A New York Times review of the movie noted that the role of the Mahdi was “impressively and eloquently played by a dark-stained Sir Laurence Olivier, wearing a gleaming white burnoose and addressing his seething cohorts and General Gordon in beautifully chiseled words.” The screenplay was nominated for an Oscar.

Prominent Lebanese couturier Elie Saab has dubbed his 2015 Spring-Summer Couture collection: “Beirut, Chasing a Dream.” Here is a short selection from a piece he just penned about his memories and dreams of Beirut:

A beautiful memory of Beirut often visits me in a dream. A loving, giving and tolerant Beirut. A glamorous one too. A beautiful memory that never ceased to inspire me – that inspired this collection. This is a tribute to the city that I love. My Beirut. Looking back at the eventful history of Lebanon, through its flourishing periods and its downfalls, I feel hopeful, I feel grateful. Vivid images overtake me: the golden age of the ’60s. The typical elegance of the Beirut woman. Distressing times quickly forgotten. The glorious reconstruction of the ’90s. Ups and downs. A dream that gets lost, sometimes, before emerging again, always stronger. And immortal. When these images overtake me I know for certain that the Beirut of my dreams will forever be alive, magnetic, festive and charming. I know for certain that I want to contribute to its glory. And when I close my eyes and think of Beirut, I know for certain that this dream is mine…

In the video above, Lindswell Kwok from Indonesia, clinches the gold medal in Taijiquan at the 2014 ASEAN University Games…

It’s been a tense day here in Lebanon. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven more were injured this morning when Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles on an Israeli convoy. The attack was carried out in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike in Qunaitra that left six Hezbollah fighters dead less than two weeks ago. Israel responded to today’s attack with retaliatory shelling that killed a Spanish U.N. peacekeeper stationed near the border. Afterwards, Prime Minister Tammam Salam called on the international community to restrain Israel from carrying out attacks against Lebanon. This evening, many in Lebanon are wondering what will follow in the wake of today’s violence–escalation or retreat?

On my walk home this afternoon, while processing the deadly violence that broke out today between Lebanon and Israel, I took a photo of the street sign opposite the gate to my residence in Beirut. President Obama paid homage to Gandhi earlier this week by visiting his memorial in New Delhi. In the visitors’ book, Obama wrote: “What Dr Martin Luther King Jr. said then remains true today:’The spirit of Gandhi is very much alive in India today. And it remains a great gift to the world. May we always live in his spirit of love and peace–among all people and nations.'” Obama’s trip to India was heralded as the beginning of a new chapter in bilateral relations between India and America.

Ethiopian food is my favorite cuisine in the world. So I was delighted this Sunday when one of the Ethiopian students in my migrant workers class in Beirut surprised me with two bags of injera, a spongy bread made from a grain called teff (which is becoming very popular with the gluten-free crowd in America). America’s teff capital is Idaho–specifically the Snake River region–which has soil and weather conditions similar to Ethiopia…

My Iranian friends and I enjoy trading medieval Persian verses penned by mystic masters like Rumi, Hafiz, and Sa’di. This week, we looked at a beautiful poem by Hafiz, which included the following lines:

Tell stories about the musician and wine,
and don’t ask much about the mystery of the universe–
because no one has solved, or ever will solve,
this puzzle by knowledge…

This week, I received an email from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut urging “all U.S. citizens to avoid all travel to Lebanon” (where I currently live), due to safety and security concerns. Today, the Lebanese Army continued its shelling of the Syrian border in response to Friday’s deadly clashes with “jihadis who tried to overun a military post.”

Yesterday, when I was teaching African migrant workers English in Beirut, I spotted this Arabic calligraphy inspired by Wadjda–the first feature-length film from Saudi Arabia…

Today at the Sundance Film Festival, this new documentary about rape culture at colleges in America drew gasps from the audience …

Though I feel right at home when staying in a ger (yurt) in Mongolia, the ger landscape of Ulan Bator is changing rapidly. A new $28 billion plan is currently being implemented to move former nomads in poor areas of the capital out of their yurts and into modern flats. As one resident living in a ger district notes: “Living in an apartment is a different mentality because nomads live very far from each other, one hill is for one family. It’s in the blood of Mongolian people, this vastness, the space and the nature.”