Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories

While reading Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories, I found the story very moving and wished to look further into the author Ghassan Kanafani.  

Ghassan Kanafani was born in Palestine in 1936.  We was a popular Palestinian writer and a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.   He is considered a major moderining force in Arab literature.  Kanafani focused primarily on the short story.  It appears that writing was an outlet for him to convey his political and cultural aspects.  Like much of the Palestinians over the past 60 years their lives have been in limbo and often have resulted in violent actions.   His polotical involment with the PFLP would lead to his assassination by Israel in retaliation for a prior terror attack.  Unlike the other works and authors this blog has followed, Kanafani works and life are much more rooted in violence and speak of a struggle which violence is used as a tool.

Azalea Festival

This weekend, April 6-10, 2011, was the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, NC.  I attended this event on Saturday and Sunday.   There was an art show, shag dance competition, and Street Fair.

The shag dancing competition was very interesting.  This was my first time experiencing such an event and witnessing shag dancing. 

Wilmington was packed with people, one account was that over 400,000 people visited the city during the Festival.


The Festival was a prime example of Old South Tradition melded with a New South Atmosphere, the art show was a prime example of this mess of cultures and featured many different styles and genres.

Peter Godwin Book Talk

Peter Godwin was born and grew up in Rhodesia, present day Zimbabwe.  He spoke about his new book, The Fear and about his experiences with over the past thirty years in Zimbabwe. 

The Fear by Peter Godwin,  is about the recent elections in Zimbabwe and Mugabe's battle to impose his will on the voting public. The name of the book comes from what Zimbabweans called the period between the two elections.  In the first Mugabe lost and before the second the ruling party used any method possible to 'convince' people the change their votes.  The Fear refers to the torture, random beatings and repression that came to anyone suspected of having voted for the opposition party.

Godwin has been banned from Zimbabwe since 1983 but has found ways to cover the current issues.  His family still lives in the country.  Godwin is a prime example of current authors who are pushing the limits in order to tell a story which is attempted to be muted but those that repress people.  

Mugabe a former national hero, has now placed the country in a state of continues Fear.