Reem Bassiouney The novelist talks about creating a more complex, Egyptian answer to ‘chick lit’ with her bestselling book Professor Hanaa.
Listen to the interview here
http://garnetpublishing.co.uk/media/listen-reem-bassiouneys-interview-strand-bbc-world-service
Or read the transcript below:
Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America By Jamal Kanj
Jamal Kanj, the author of The Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America has a critical review on parts of President Obama’s speech on 19 May concerning Palestine. In his article ‘Obama’s Oratory Skills and Peace in the Middle East’ published by Intifada (Voice of Palestine), he says:
“More oratory promises to Palestinians as they watch their land disappearing before their eyes at the hand of an insatiable Israeli monster financed by billions of American tax payers’ money to build “Jewish only” settlements on the remaining 22 per cent of historical Palestine.”
Also, when it comes to the US/Israel relationships, he questions Obama’s claim of ‘shared moral values’:
It was puzzling to hear Obama asserting that America’s friendship with Israel was “rooted deeply in a shared history and shared values.” Uncertain what values the president referring to, was it the race based politics, or was it stealing land from Natives? Such values have long been moribund in America, but still practiced in Israel.
Jamal Kanj is the author of Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America, published by Garnet Publising in 2010.
Growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp, I remember at times when my little brother cried for no good reason at night; my late mother would warn him: the ghoul comes to the sound of crying children. Instinctively petrified from this imaginative monster, the child would hush instantly.
Today’s contemporary ghoul to scare off the West is Al Qaida. Indeed, it was a monster impregnated in the most radicalized fringe elements of Muslim and Arab societies, was incubated under repressive dictatorships, and fed by Western hypocrisy.
By: Jamal Kanj
While the populous Arab uprising for the most part was civil in nature, the revolution in Libya took a different turn. The absence of militarized revolution in Tunisia and Egypt helped sustain the movement, eventually leading to the demise of two dictators.
But unlike Egypt and Tunisia, Libya is an oil producer. It ranks number 17 among the oil producing countries, number four in Africa and number 9 in the world’s proven oil reserve. Whilst Western powers interest in Egypt is strategic, in Libya it’s economic.
Following the Libyan crises, oil companies made up for the immediate shortage in the oil market from available capacities in larger oil producing countries such a Saudi Arabia. Notwithstanding, the oil companies advanced a hypothesis of market uncertainty to justify military intervention and propagating fear regarding the sustainability of oil supply. Hence, increasing oil prices to levels have not been seen since 2008. Making oil companies the ones reaping the most financial benefits from the ashes of war.
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