I stumbled upon this article and found it semi-relevant and interesting to our class. The article was found on yahoo news and is about the Israel-Hamas prisoner swap. The deal is to exchange hundereds of jailed Palestinians for an Israeli soldier who is currently being held in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has agreed to exchange the soldier Gilad Shalit for about 160 prisoners whose release has been vetoed before. Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas gunmen who tunneled and invaded Israel from Gaza in 2006.
Please feel free to view this article at :
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091123/ts_nm/us_palestinians_israel_prisoners_7
Monday, November 23, 2009
Persepolis
The graphic novel, "Persepolis," holds many cases of symbolism within it. To me, the most interesting aspect of sympolism was "the veil." The Veil is in the first section of the book and Marjane is forced to wear a veil at school. She is seperated from her friends and doesn't know how to take the apperance of the veil overall. It seems that all of these situations are forced upon her at once, from the wearing of the veil, to the revolution. The veil has become a part of religious ideology to Marjane and also something that is a part of her everyday life. On Page 131 of the text, Marjane dresses more modern, in a t-shirt, jacket, and nike shoes...and "of course" wearing the veil. While she is so modernized, the wearing of the veil is constant. She is expressing her self-indentity, yet at the same time expressing the identity of being Iranian. It is like Marjane is caught somewhere inbetween it all. By wearing the veil, Marjane ultimately conforms to a sort of repression of the Iranian society even though she frequently tries to rebel.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Current Events Article: "Corrupt Countries"
I found a current events article that has some relevance to our Post Colonial class. This article (link is below), states the worlds "most-corrupt countries." Afghanistan is apparently the 2nd most-corrupt country. Some examples of why Afghanistan is considered to be one of the most corrupt countries is because of the range of government positions to daily bribes for basic services.
A few countries that were considered to be some of the least corrupt countries were Singapore, Denmark, and New Zealand. Also, on another positive note, Iraq was considered to have some improvement...being 176 out of 180 most-corrupt countries. The U.S. was ranked 19th.
Personally, I found this article to be a bit ridiculous. How do these businesses and "experts" rank these countries? What factors or qualities are considered to be a "corrupt" country and how is the ranking process done overall? There are so many different situations, reasons, qualities, characteristics that deal with how a country is overall...and most importantly, WHY a country is the way they are. Just because a particular country has a more negative view to it, does not necessarily mean it is corrupt. There are reasons behind everything, especially when dealing with the situations going on in the world today. This is not just for Afghanistan, but for every part of the world.
The link for this article is:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_corruption_index_2
A few countries that were considered to be some of the least corrupt countries were Singapore, Denmark, and New Zealand. Also, on another positive note, Iraq was considered to have some improvement...being 176 out of 180 most-corrupt countries. The U.S. was ranked 19th.
Personally, I found this article to be a bit ridiculous. How do these businesses and "experts" rank these countries? What factors or qualities are considered to be a "corrupt" country and how is the ranking process done overall? There are so many different situations, reasons, qualities, characteristics that deal with how a country is overall...and most importantly, WHY a country is the way they are. Just because a particular country has a more negative view to it, does not necessarily mean it is corrupt. There are reasons behind everything, especially when dealing with the situations going on in the world today. This is not just for Afghanistan, but for every part of the world.
The link for this article is:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_corruption_index_2
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Armenian Choreg
For tomorrows class (11/4), I will be bringing in Choreg (Armenian Sweet Rolls). While I did not make these, I bought them from an Armenian market back home. Below I have attached the recipe if anyone is interested.
Ingredients:
5 lb bag King Arthur all purpose flour
2 1/3 c sugar
2 T salt
2 t baking powder
3 T ground mahleb (Middle Eastern bakery/store or online via Penzey's, etc.)
black sesame seeds
2 pkgs dry yeast
2 1/2 c butter
1/2 c Crisco
1 c water
2 T vanilla
7 eggs, beaten (additional for brushing tops)
3 c milk
white sesame seeds
Directions:
Line baking sheets with parchment.
While mixing dough, heat oven to lowest setting to aid in rising, then turn off.
Mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, mahleb and about 2T black seeds in a very large pot or bowl (I usually use a HUGE Tupperware), then sprinkle the yeast on top.
Make a well in the center.
Melt the butter and Crisco, then remove from heat and add the water, vanilla, eggs and milk. You don't want the butter mix hot enough to kill the yeast, but you do want it warm to activate it.
Pour butter mixture into well and, using your hands, mix everything together.
Cover with waxed paper and a dish towel and place in oven to raise for about 2 hours.
Punch down the dough and allow to raise for another 10-15 min.
Scoop out a handful onto a lightly-floured surface and roll/pat out to about 1/4" thickness.
Form into desired shapes - sometimes I'll use a large diamond cookie cutter, sometimes I'll use a pastry cutter to form diamonds. I'll make small braids or spirals out of some. Just be consistent size-wise per tray so they cook evenly.
Cover trays with dish towel and allow to raise again for about 45 min. By the time you get to the last tray, the first tray will have already risen for some time. If you don't have enough trays, stage on parchment and slide onto trays as they come out of the oven.
When you are ready to put a tray in the oven, brush tops with egg and sprinkle with white sesame seeds and a few random black seeds.
Bake at 350 for about 25 min until golden.
Once they are out of the oven and cooled, we usually freeze what we won't be eating right away in batches of 10-12 per plastic twist-tie bag.
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
5 lb bag King Arthur all purpose flour
2 1/3 c sugar
2 T salt
2 t baking powder
3 T ground mahleb (Middle Eastern bakery/store or online via Penzey's, etc.)
black sesame seeds
2 pkgs dry yeast
2 1/2 c butter
1/2 c Crisco
1 c water
2 T vanilla
7 eggs, beaten (additional for brushing tops)
3 c milk
white sesame seeds
Directions:
Line baking sheets with parchment.
While mixing dough, heat oven to lowest setting to aid in rising, then turn off.
Mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, mahleb and about 2T black seeds in a very large pot or bowl (I usually use a HUGE Tupperware), then sprinkle the yeast on top.
Make a well in the center.
Melt the butter and Crisco, then remove from heat and add the water, vanilla, eggs and milk. You don't want the butter mix hot enough to kill the yeast, but you do want it warm to activate it.
Pour butter mixture into well and, using your hands, mix everything together.
Cover with waxed paper and a dish towel and place in oven to raise for about 2 hours.
Punch down the dough and allow to raise for another 10-15 min.
Scoop out a handful onto a lightly-floured surface and roll/pat out to about 1/4" thickness.
Form into desired shapes - sometimes I'll use a large diamond cookie cutter, sometimes I'll use a pastry cutter to form diamonds. I'll make small braids or spirals out of some. Just be consistent size-wise per tray so they cook evenly.
Cover trays with dish towel and allow to raise again for about 45 min. By the time you get to the last tray, the first tray will have already risen for some time. If you don't have enough trays, stage on parchment and slide onto trays as they come out of the oven.
When you are ready to put a tray in the oven, brush tops with egg and sprinkle with white sesame seeds and a few random black seeds.
Bake at 350 for about 25 min until golden.
Once they are out of the oven and cooled, we usually freeze what we won't be eating right away in batches of 10-12 per plastic twist-tie bag.
Enjoy!
The Bastard of Istanbul
I really enjoyed reading The Bastard of Istanbul. While this novel frequently refers back to the Armenian/Turkey massarces of 1915, it also places a great focus on the deep connection that Armanoush and Asya form throughout the novel. While they are both of different ethnic backgrounds, Armenian and Turkish, they both seem to look past their cultural differences and focus on being friends over enemies.
While Armanoush introduces Asya to a bit of her world, Cafe Constantinopolis, Armanoush's fellow cyber friends quickly place Asya into the "enemy" category as soon as they find out that she is Turkish. In this online world, they seem to hold nothing back to Asya and ultimately feel that she is responsible for her people's actions, which is definately unfair. I am glad that Armanoush can look past their cultural differences and just focus on their friendship and overall peace together.
It is apparent that the girls have a sense of dependancy and reliance upon one another because at one point, Asya questions herself if Armanoush really found out her real thoughts on suicide, and her instability of relationships and sex, if Armanoush could accept Asya still as a friend. "Would Armanoush understand without being judgmental; could she erally, truly see into Asya's soul fromthe echelons of that sterile tower of hers?" (199), Asya wonders.
Overall, the obvious controversy this novel produced is apparent as Shafak references to the "massacres" of 1915, but if you look at the novel in a deeper, different aspect you can see the other angels and aspects the author tries to reveal.
While Armanoush introduces Asya to a bit of her world, Cafe Constantinopolis, Armanoush's fellow cyber friends quickly place Asya into the "enemy" category as soon as they find out that she is Turkish. In this online world, they seem to hold nothing back to Asya and ultimately feel that she is responsible for her people's actions, which is definately unfair. I am glad that Armanoush can look past their cultural differences and just focus on their friendship and overall peace together.
It is apparent that the girls have a sense of dependancy and reliance upon one another because at one point, Asya questions herself if Armanoush really found out her real thoughts on suicide, and her instability of relationships and sex, if Armanoush could accept Asya still as a friend. "Would Armanoush understand without being judgmental; could she erally, truly see into Asya's soul fromthe echelons of that sterile tower of hers?" (199), Asya wonders.
Overall, the obvious controversy this novel produced is apparent as Shafak references to the "massacres" of 1915, but if you look at the novel in a deeper, different aspect you can see the other angels and aspects the author tries to reveal.
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