Global Voices Online » Literature

Harry Potter translated into Khmer language

Mong Palatino — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:33:50 +0000

GV author Tharum writes about the Khmer translation of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book. Tharum also reflects on how to improve readership in Cambodia today.

Guyana: On Being Authentic

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:47:00 +0000

“I spent the first 19 years of my life in Guyana. I have now lived away from Guyana for a longer time than I lived there. Does that make me an inauthentic Guyanese?”: Signifying Guyana responds to an argument that writers “who eventually opt to live and work abroad, cannot…lay claim to a truly Guyanese sensibility.”

Tunisia: Yes, they can. No, we can't!

Lina Ben Mhenni — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:32:19 +0000

The week of the US election coincided with the 21st anniversary of ‘change' in Tunisia. But while Americans went to the polls to elect their 44th president, in its 50 years of independence, Tunisia has had just two presidents - Habib Bourguiba and the current president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who has been in power for 21 years - and looking forward for yet a fifth five-year term.

In his inaugural speech, Ben Ali said that he was establishing the foundations for a revival of democracy, freedom and respect for human rights:

“Fellow Citizens,
Our people have reached a degree of responsibility and maturity where every individual and group is in a position to constructively contribute to the running of its affairs, in conformity with the republican idea which gives institutions their full scope and guarantees the conditions for a responsible democracy, fully respecting the sovereignty of the people as written into the Constitution. This Constitution needs urgent revision. The times in which we live can no longer admit of life presidency or automatic succession, from which the people are excluded. Our people deserve an advanced and institutionalized political life, truly based on the plurality of parties and mass organizations.”

According to some Tunisians, history has proven that the above declaration is a far cry from the truth.
Commemorating Ben Ali's 21st anniversary, Tunisian bloggers were really creative and seized this opportunity to write many ironical posts exposing the political situation in Tunisia.

The blog The Tunisian Debate chose caricature to talk about this occasion. He wrote a first post [Fr] with the following picture and a one sentence commentary:

Qui mieux qu'Obama, symbole du changement, pourrait nous féliciter de 21 ans de changement !

Who better than Obama, the symbol of change, would congratulate us for 21 years of change!

The metaphorical way in which the same blogger tackled the issue makes me think of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm - with Tunisia being the Arab world's 21st century Animal Farm.

He wrote:

En Tunisie, nous assistons depuis 20 ans à un phénomène étrange qui prend de l'ampleur chaque année: A partir d'halloween, des chiens sortant de nulle part se mettent en rang et aboient à tour de rôle. Ils polluent l'espace public et étouffent par leurs cris les chants des oiseaux. Ils y vont crescendo et d'aboiement en aboiement ils infestent la totalité de la ville. Le septième jour de novembre ils se rassemblent tous pour nous annoncer en chœur l'arrivée du…Mahdi!

In Tunisia over the last 20 years we have witnessed a phenomenon which grows every year. Starting from Halloween, dogs appear out of nowhere, stand in a line and take turns barking. They pollute the public space and their barking drowns out birdsong. Their barking gets louder and louder and their barking takes over the entire city. On November 7, they gather in a choir to announce the arrival of…the Messiah!

Sofiene Chourabi write a post entitled: In the Worship of Big Brother. He said:

في روايته الشهيرة “1984″ هاجم الأديب جورج أروال جميع المؤسسات والهيئات الرسمية والخاصة، وانتقد جل الذهنيات والعقليات السائدة التي تمس من الحريات الأساسية وتتدخل في الحياة الخاصة للأفراد.
العين الكبيرة لـ”الأخ الأكبر” في الرواية هي لحزب يحكم البلاد في دولة “أوسانيا” ويراقب كل حركة قد تصدر هنا وهناك، ويعاين كل نفس قد يبدو وكأنها زائدة على النصاب. دولة “أوسانيا” تغمرها صور عملاقة في كل مكان وتلفزيونه ينقل على مدار الساعة التفاصيل الدقيقة لحياة قادتها، ووسائل البروباغندا تسخّر لإبراز الأمجاد والبطولات.
نقرأ هذه الرواية مجددا على ضوء الإمكانيات الهائلة المرصودة هذه الأيام التي وقع ضخها للاحتفال بذكرى 7 نوفمبر طيلة أيام الأسبوع الجاري. صور ولافتات وشحت كامل مدن وقرى البلاد ومظاهر زينة مزيفة واحتفالات غنائية تنظم في معظم بلدات الجمهورية، تتنزل كلها في إطار مشهد سيء الإخراج يذكر بما عرفته الأنظمة الشمولية في أوروبا الشرقية في عصر خلنا انه انبلج بسقوط جدار برلين وزوال فكرة عبادة الشخصية.
لا أحد يقدر أن يفهم سر هذا التجند السنوي إلا من زاوية الرغبة في تكريس الهيمنة المطلقة على المجال العام واحتكاره لفائدة الحزب الحاكم، وترسيخ الرأي أنه “اللاعب الوحيد” على الساحة من دون منافس، فهل بهذا المنطق المغلوط ستدخل بلادنا عتبة الانتخابات التشريعية والرئاسية؟

George Orwell attacked, in his famous novel 1984, all the official and private institutions, and criticized the majority of mentalities which stood as a barrier in the face of basic freedoms and intervened in people’s private and personal lives. The big brother’s eye in the novel belongs to a party ruling the country of Oceania and controlling every movement occurring in any part of the country. Oceania is covered with huge posters of Big brother. Big Brother TV is broadcasting his news with their boring details all the day. Propaganda instruments are used to show his heroism. We re -read this novel again when we see all these preparations to celebrate the November 7th 21st anniversary for a whole week. Posters and slogans are decorating every city, town and village in the country and music concerts are held everywhere. All this is nothing but badly presented scenery making us remember the oppressing rule that the Eastern Europe countries witnessed. This was during a past era which disappeared from our minds with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end the worship of the characters. No one can understand this annual mobilization but from only one perspective that of the longing to obtain the absolute domination on the general space and its use for the benefit of the ruling party. This is the means to consolidate the idea that there are no other competitors for the rule. Is our country welcoming the electoral campaign with this mistaken logic?

The blogger AS number One chose on her part to write in verse to express her sadness towards the political situation in Tunisia:

Et Vlan! Vlan! pour les infinis menteurs
Pour les infinies promesses enrobées de douceur
Pour tous les Ben Ben reproducteurs
Pour les hypocrites, applaudisseurs, éjaculateurs
Pour toutes ces banderoles qui embellissent nos terres
Pour ces fortunes dépensées à tort et à travers
Pour ce mauve, ces couleurs et ces posters
A l'occasion de mon 21 ème anniversaire
Je souhaite à chacun beaucoup de bonheur
De la pourriture, des corruptions, et beaucoup d'espoir
Des derbys, du “Bel makchouf”, et des crédits bancaires
Et Vlan Vlan pour tous ces maux qui hantent mon cœur
Chantons tous en chœur
“Une nouvelle aire est venu, vive le dictateur”

Vlan! Vlan for the countless liars
For the endless promises coated with sweetness
For all these reproducers Ben and Ben [not sure what Ben Ben means here]
For hypocrites, the applauders, the exclaimers,
For all these banners which embellish our lands
For these fortunes spent carelessly
For this mauve, these colors and posters
On the occasion of my twenty first birthday
I wish everyone a lot of happiness
Decay, corruptions, and a lot of hope
Derbies, ” bel makchouf “*, and bank credits
And Vlan Vlan for all these troubles which haunt my heart
Let us sing all the chorus
“A new area came, lives the dictator”

The writer of the blog For a better world has been more direct and wrote the following:

Il y a deux semaines j'ai posté un message sur Bouteflika, Bouteflika yezzi et maintenant, je poste un message sur le président Tunisien, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, ça suffit, moi j'ai 22 ans et j'ai envi de changement, je n'ai pas eu la liberté de m'exprimer dans mon pays, favoriser le pluralisme et les droits de l'homme, on est tous conscients que ceci n'est pas vrai…, j'ai été témoin de certains agissements de la police Tunisienne… Comment faire ? président à vie ?
J'aime mon pays et je ne le laisserai jamais tomber, 21 ans de présidence et un cinquième mandat à briguer en 2009… il est temps d'arrêter… de nous prendre pour des cons… Time for Change…

Two weeks ago I wrote a post about [the Algerian president] Boutaflika, entitled Boutaflika enough! Now I am posting something about the Tunisian president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Enough. I am 22 years old and I want change. I have not had the freedom to express my life in my own country, to facilitate pluralism and human rights. We are all well aware that this is not true. I have been witness to certain wrongdoings on the part of the Tunisian police… What to do? With a president for life? I love my country and I will never give it up, 21 years of rule and seeking a fifth term in 2009…It's high time he stopped, treating us like idiots …Time for change.

While some bloggers used metaphors, others preferred direct discourse. Some of them wrote in prose, others in verse. Some wrote, while the others drew caricatures or downloaded videos. But the message was the same: bloggers were united to say that it is high time to end with this masquerade. It is high time for change. In one voice they cried: Ben Ali Yezi Fock !!**

* bel makchouf is a Tunisian TV show in a private channel.
** Yezi Fock Ben Ali means enough of Ben Ali in the Tunisian dialect.

Jamaica, U.S.A.: Poetic Obama

Janine Mendes-Franco — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:27:47 +0000

Jamaicans Geoffrey Philp's Blogspot and Poet in Wisconsin both post poems in honour of Barack Obama.

Jamaica, U.S.A.: Miami Book Fair

Janine Mendes-Franco — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:57:07 +0000

Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp blogs about his experience at the Miami Book Fair.

Japan: Japanese Language in the Age of English

Scilla Alecci — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:00:45 +0000

The Fall of the Japanese Language in the Age of English [ja], the latest book by Japanese novelist and essayist Minae Mizumura [水村美苗] [en], roused debate among many Japanese bloggers recently over the fate of their national language. In this book, the writer, who had the opportunity to live and receive an education both in Japan and in the U.S., examines the role and future of the Japanese language. Mizumura contextualizes her discussion of this language, used for centuries by many literates and intellectuals to produce works of great literary value, in a modern age in which English is invading all fields of knowledge, to the point of becoming a universal written language used by everyone across the world to communicate.

The first blogger who wrote about the book in enthusiastic terms was Mochio Umeda, who expresses his hope that the work becomes the basis for any future debate over the relationship between English and Japanese. At his blog My Life Between Silicon Valley and Japan, Umeda-san writes:

この本は今、すべての日本人が読むべき本だと思う。「すべての」と言えば言いすぎであれば、知的生産を志す人、あるいは勉学途上の中学生、高校生、大学生、大学院生(専門はいっさい問わない)、これから先言葉で何かを表現したいと考えている人、何にせよ教育に関わる人、子供を持つ親、そんな人たちは絶対に読むべきだと思う。

Every Japanese person should read this book now. Maybe “every [person]” is an exaggeration, but what I mean to say is every person who wishes to produce something intellectual, every secondary, high school, graduate or postgraduate student (no matter their specialization), and also people who are thinking of expressing their thoughts in the future through the use of language, and finally people involved in education and parents with children. These people should absolutely read [this book].

一言だけいえば、これから私たちは「英語の世紀」を生きる。ビジネス上英語が必要だからとかそういうレベルの話ではない。英語がかつてのラテン語のように、「書き言葉」として人類の叡智を集積・蓄積していく「普遍語」になる時代を私たちはこれから生きるのだ、と水村は喝破する。そして、そういう時代の英語以外の言葉の未来、日本語の未来、日本人の未来、言語という観点からのインターネットの意味、日本語教育や英語教育の在り方について、本書で思考を続けていく。

[Summing up this book] in one word, [the idea is that] from now on, we will be living in the “century of the English language”, limited not only to the use of English in business. Mizumura proclaims that we are going to live in an era in which the English language, like Latin was in the past, will become the “universal language” used for storing and maintaining mankind's wisdom in the form of a “written language”. This book also continues [discussion of] ideas regarding the future of other languages besides English in this age, as well as the future of the Japanese language, and of the Japanese people, and touches on the meaning of the Internet from the point of view of languages, as well as the condition of Japanese language education and English language education.

少女時代から漱石に耽溺し「続明暗」でデビューした水村の問題提起は、「たとえば今日、2008年11月7日、漱石と同じくらいの天賦の才能を持った子供が日本人として生を受けたとして、その子が知的に成長した将来、果たして日本語で書くでしょうか。自然に英語で書くのではないですか」ということである。放っておけば日本語は、「話し言葉」としては残っても、叡智を刻む「書き言葉」としてはその輝きを失っていくのではないか。「英語の世紀」とはそういう暴力的な時代なのだと皆が認識し、いま私たちが何をすべきか考えなければならない。

A fan Sôseki [Natsume Sôseki [en], one of the most influential Japanese novelists of the modern era] since she was a little girl, Mizumura, who made her debut with Zoku Meian (続明暗) [lit. “Lightness and Darkness Continued ”; “Lightness and Darkness” [en] is among Sôseki's unfinished works], raises the following question: “If today, on the 7th of November, 2008, a Japanese child was born with the same innate talent as Sôseki, would this child write in Japanese once they became intellectually mature? Wouldn't they instead naturally write in English?” If this [issue] is left unaddressed, then although the Japanese language may remain as a “spoken language”, will it not lose the radiance typical of the “written languages” used to inscribe [human] knowledge? Everyone recognizes that the “century of the English language” is in this sense a violent age, and we must as such think carefully about what we should do [in this situation].

Disagreeing with the author of the essay, blogger id:fromdusktildawn attributes the fall of the Japanese language to the poverty of contents that have been transmitted over the past few years in Japanese, especially by the mass media. He stresses, moreover, that more so than studying Japanese literature, it would be useful if Japanese studied economics, in order to gain the basic knowledge necessary to acquire political awareness:

今後、世界中の、あらゆる価値ある知識は英語で生産され、英語で流通する。
インターネットの普及が、その流れをますます加速している。
世界中の知的にパワフルな人々は、ますます母国語よりも英語で読み、英語で書き、
英語で議論しながら、価値ある学術的成果・文化・商品・サービスを創り上げていくだろう。
[…]

Now and in the future, all over the world, all knowledge of value will be produced in English, will circulate in English. The diffusion of the Internet has increasingly accelerated this trend.
It would seem that all over the world, intellectually influential people will read, write and debate in English, rather than using their mother-tongue, and in this way they will create scientific results, culture, products and services of great value.

そうして、日本語圏は、三流芸人が軽薄にバカ騒ぎするバラエティー番組や
スポーツマンや芸能人の下半身の話題をさも重大事件のように扱うゴシップ雑誌、
知性のかけらもない動物的で脊髄反射的なネット書き込みばかりがあふれる言論空間に堕ちていく。
書店の本も、ネット上の文章も、日本語のものは、ますます知的に貧弱になり、
英語圏のものは、ますます豊かで豊饒で活力に満ちたものになっていくだろう。

In areas where Japanese is spoken, the level of discussion has deteriorated to a state where third-class performers appear on TV shows with their frivolous and ridiculous attitudes, magazines treat gossip about the sex lives of sportsmen and actors as matters of great importance, and online threads inundate the web with off-the-cuff comments that have not a trace of intellectual reasoning. While the intellectual quality of books in libraries, articles on the net and everything written in Japanese is becoming worse and worse, productions in English in contrast would appear to be becoming richer and richer, full of intellectual energy and vitality.

[…]

日本近代文学大好きな小説家である彼女は、以下のような主旨のことを主張する。
「国語」としての日本語の衰退を防ぐために、
日本の学校教育の国語の時間数を増やし、
全ての学生に日本近代文学を読み継がせることを
日本の国語授業の主眼にすべきだ。

The writer [Minae Mizumura], an admirer of Japanese modern literature, makes a claim of the following kind:
In order to avoid the decline of the Japanese language as a “national language”, the number of hours of Japanese language lessons at school should be increased, all students should be made to continue reading Japanese modern literature texts, and class work on Japanese language should be treated as the central aim.

[…]

文化のために個々のリアルな人間が存在するのではなく、
個々のリアルな人間の生を豊かにするために文化が存在するのだ。
個々の人間のリアルな生が輝くのなら、日本文化など亡んでもかまわない。
[…]

Real people do not exist for literature's sake, rather it is the literature which exists to enrich real people's lives. As long as the individual shines in their own life, the fact that Japanese literature perishes is not a problem.

そもそも、現在の多くの日本国民は、
有権者としての最低限の知識すら身につけていない。
どの政治家に投票すれば、自分たちの暮らしが良くなるのかを
判断するための基礎知識が決定的に欠落しているのだ。
どの政治家に投票すれば暮らしが良くなるのかを知るには、
夏目漱石や芥川龍之介を読むより、
現代経済学の教科書を読む方が、何百倍も効果的だ。

In the first place, many Japanese citizens nowadays don't even have the minimal level of knowledge [needed] as electors. There is no question that they are lacking the basic ability to judge which politician to vote for in order to improve their own life. In acquiring the knowledge needed to know who to vote for in order to improve your life, it is a hundred times more effective to read books about modern economics than it is to read Natsume Sôseki or Akutagawa Ryûnosuke [en].

Another blogger, id:repon, disagrees with Mochio Umeda (the first blogger introduced in this article), explaining that he doesn't feel the same sense of crisis about the Japanese language reported by Umeda-san and also described by [ja] blogger Dan Kogai:

僕には、id:umedamochioさんやid:dankogaiさんが「日本語が危ない」と「危機感」を持つ、その危機感とやらがさっぱりわかりません。
英語は道具、日本語は「国語」。そうなっていくだけのことですよ。
それは危機でも何でもありません。
英語は「国語」にはなりませんよ。

When bloggers umedamochio and dankogai say that they feel that “Japanese is in danger” or [that they feel] “a sense of crisis”, I don't understand what they mean.
English is a tool, Japanese is our “national language”. Simple as that.
This is not a crisis. And English will not become the “national language”.

「国民とはイメージとして心に描かれた想像の政治共同体である」とベネディクト・アンダーソンはその主著「想像の共同体」で述べています。
国民という概念は近代になって創造されたものなんですよね。
その「国民」概念を支えているのが、共通言語として作られた「国語」なんです。
「国語」は、簡単には衰退しませんよ。
グローバリズムが簡単に国民国家や民族や宗教を駆逐するどころか、かえって強化したように。

Benedict Anderson in “Imagined Communities” says that “[The concept of] Nation is an imagined political community sketched in one's heart as an image.” The concept of “nation” has been created in the modern era and what is supporting that concept is the [concept] of “national language”, created as a common language. A “national language” doesn't disappear so easily.
And globalism, rather than simply destroying nations, peoples or religions, would seem to actually strengthen them.

Blogger id:essa (Taku Nakajima) agrees at with id:repon in the belief that the Japanese language, if it were to face a crisis, would come up against a centripetal force that works to conserve language as a symbol of the nation:

確かに、グローバリズムに対抗する形で、民族や宗教の力は強まっている。でも、基本的にはその力は国民国家を解体する方向へ作用すると見るべきだと思う。どこの国でも、国民国家は内と外に引き裂かれて消滅しようとしている。

In fact, the strength of a people or of a religion acquires power when then they are in a situation where they must resist globalism. However, I think that we have to see if that power is working in the direction of dismantling the nation. In every country, nation states are being pulled apart from the inside and the outside, about to be destroyed.

[…]

日本という国は、明治以降になってから明確に外国の存在を意識して人為的に作られた国であり、江戸以前の日本とは別の国だ。夏目漱石は自分が生まれた頃に新しく作られた、その近代日本という国において、どういう言語を使ったらいいかということを生涯のテーマとした人だ。
[…]

Japan is a country that, from the Meiji era on, after it became aware of the existence of foreigners, has been artificially created, and it is a different country from pre-Edo era Japan. Natsume Sôseki lived in a country, modern Japan, that had just been created when he was born, and dedicated his whole life to thinking about which language would be most appropriate [for this nation].

だから、明治維新で作られた近代的な国民国家としての日本が消滅した時に、何が出てくるか予想つかない。それがイメージできない分だけ私にも実感がわかない所もあるが、国民国家としての日本は消えつつあり、漱石に象徴される一つの言語が亡びつつあるのだと思う。
そういう意味で、「あたし彼女」はやはり象徴的だ。あれは、夏目漱石の使った言葉とは違う言語だけど、枕草子には接続できるような気がする。

So if this Japan, which emerged as a modern nation through the Meiji Restoration, was to disappear, I cannot imagine what would come next. Given that I cannot imagine this, it doesn't seem real to me, but I do believe that Japan, as a nation, is actually disappearing, and that the singular language of which Sôseki is a symbol will perish with it.
For this reason, I think that “Atashi kanojo” [lit. “I, the girlfriend”, a popular keitai shosetsu] is symbolic. It uses a different language from the one used by Natsume Sôseki, but I feel that it can somehow be linked to “Makura no Soshi” [en] [“The Pillow Book” a Japanese masterwork written in the last period of the 10th century by a court lady].

Mexico: The Death of Paco Ignacio Taibo I

Eduardo Avila — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:37:40 +0000

El Nahual of México Para Los Mexicanos [es] mourns the death of Paco Ignacio Taibo I, who was a Mexican writer and historian. He also founded the Culture section of the El Universal newspaper.

Syria: Love is in Stuttgart

Yazan Badran — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:36:45 +0000

Forget politics, Obama or the economic crisis. The new buzz in the Syrian blogosphere is about love.

Mariyah, a Syrian blogger from Damascus, has been playing with the hearts of her readers with the most delicate series of posts about the story of Ghassan and Alexandra.

It all starts on one cold evening in the winter of 1955 in Stuttgart, Germany:

There was something to be said for poise. As the other women became increasingly loud, a petite, fair skinned woman sat quietly watching and smiling. She was clearly enjoying the entertainment but seemed shy and reserved – too much so to become involved in the conversation. Her large, blue eyes glistened with intelligence and her diminutive features gave her a look of a porcelain doll. Her auburn hair glistened red as the light from the fireplace threw an amber glow around her. Ghassan observed that she was well dressed but not ostentatious. When she did speak, her voice was quiet - he couldn’t hear it from his table. Ghassan found, as the evening wore on, that he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

We are never explicitly told, but we do sense that Ghassan and Alexandra are actually, Mariyah's father and mother, which makes the story all the more compelling.

“Guten tag. Can I help you sir?” she cooed from beside him. “Something for the pretty lady?”

Ghassan could not help but look surprised. Had his facial expressions reflected his thoughts of Alexandra to the extent an old woman, a stranger, could recognize? He had intended to buy flowers but only as a way to further his study of this woman whom he now believed far wiser than he could have imagined.

“Yes, yes of course. What do you suggest?” Ghassan attempted to speak as smoothly as he could muster.

“Red, dear, accented with a touch of purple. And, of course, blue to highlight her eyes.” The woman replied easily.

Ghassan was flabbergasted. “How? How did you know?”

Mariyah's beautiful writing, along with her most timely story breaks has captured the imagination of the readers, leaving them asking for more after each part.

She even decided to better set the mood with some music from those rosy days of the Ghassan and Alexandra's winter of 1955.

You can find all the published parts here. We are now at Part 5, and waiting, patiently, for part 6!

India: Book of Ram

Rezwan — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:06:55 +0000

Jabberwock reviews ‘The Book of Ram' by mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik, who shows: “how the Ram story has been adapted and retold over the centuries to suit the needs and perspectives of the people who have done the retelling and the times they lived in.”

Cuba: Castro's New Book

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:51:37 +0000

Fidel Castro's new book has not escaped the notice of El Cafe Cubano or Guyanese blogger Propaganda Press.

Egypt: What life has taught Galal Amin

Lasto Adri — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:18:17 +0000

“Born in January of 1935, his father had wanted his mother to have an abortion because they already had 7 children, she refused and that is how he came to be,” writes blogger Jessyz, who takes us through the pages of the autobiography “What life has taught me” by Dr. Galal Amin, in a book review that triggers a lot of thinking.

Arabs Read a Quarter of a Page a Year

Amira Al Hussaini — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:01:40 +0000

Space and Time (Ar) links to UN statistics which show that Arabs read a quarter of a page a year on average, while Americans read 11 books.

Iraq: Lessons from a Kurdish Poet

Deborah Ann Dilley — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:24:22 +0000

Kurdish author Ardalan Hardi from Kurdishaspect writes a poignant letter in honor of his father entitled Lessons from a Kurdish Poet.

Guyana: Thoughts on Death

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:58:02 +0000

“I do not obsess too much…with what lies after death; my concern is with the quality of life one leads here”: From Guyana, Ruel Johnson writes “a brief note” on death.

Bhutan: Crowning of a new King

Rezwan — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:16:22 +0000

Cigay at Kuzu-Bhutan weblog writes a poem as a tribute to the coronation celebrations of the King Fifth Druk Gyalpo to be held tomorrow in Thimphu, Bhutan.