Sunday 5 October 2008

Travel


Theorias, ideologia,etnikos,demokratia, akadimia...

Whether our mother tongue is French, English, Spanish, we can all understand these words even though I have not written those words in any of those languages.

I'll be away for a few days to the place where it all started. By all I mean a great deal of who we are today.The home of this lady to your left. (How on earth can a sculpture be sexy, can anyone explain that to me?)


By the way, in this place Zoe means life and Irene means...peace. Hope to see you soon.





Photo: Snake Goddess, from www.dilon.com

Fatema Mernissi

I'm reading and loving this book by Moroccan sociologist Fatema Mernissi:







It's a book about the crossing of borders at many different levels, but also about a very special grandmother, about her sufi heritage, about intelligence, about story tellers whatever the medium used, about curious translations, about a woman's intellectual curiosity.

I've learnt that the fabric muslin is named after the Iraqi town of Mosul, where it used to be manufactured, and also discovered the concepts of majliss, lawami, samar...whole new worlds to explore.
I once heard her say that when you travel and show yourself in front of strangers you unveil your self, you get to know who you are. I'm looking forward to reading another of her books "Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Haren girlhood"



This might be the right moment for you to listen to some music by Omar Faruk Tekbilek, the Turkish musician. But beware because "I love you" and "Moment of doubt" can make funny things to your heart.

Saturday 4 October 2008

Remember Rwanda



This post is just a link to My Marrakesh blog and to a voice that needs to be heard, one amongst so many.


I think that horror and cruelty is part of our humanity, but a part that can be subverted. Not fighting for peace, or against anything, not struggling painfully through the years to reach peace, but adopting peace as a principle. Just like that, with a leap of consciousness that could take half a second. A small step that could become the greatest.