خطاب القذافي باختصار....Qathafi speech in Libya

You can read here the first chapter in Libyan writer Hisham Matar's novel In the Country of Men. 

"Where's My Money"?

اللي فهمته من خطاب القذافى What I understood from Gaddafi's speech

الشعب يريد تفسير الخطاب


 Thanks to يناير يوم الثورة على التعذيب والفقر والفساد والبطالة 25. facebook page. 

Ian McEwan Criticizes Israeli Policies in Acceptance Speech

While British novelist Ian McEwan did not respond to calls to reject the Jerusalem Prize for literature, he used the occasion to criticize Israeli policies against the Palestinians. According to The Guardian, he said:

"But it was also nihilism that fired a rocket at the home of the Gazan doctor, Izzeldin Abuelaish, killing three of his daughters and a niece during the Gazan war. "And it is nihilism to make a long-term prison camp of the Gaza Strip. Nihilism has unleashed a tsunami of concrete across the occupied territories." The author referred to "continued evictions and relentless purchases of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the process of the right of return granted to Jews but not to Arabs, the so-called facts on the ground of hardening concrete over the future, over future generations of Palestinian and Israeli children who will inherit the conflict and find it even more difficult to resolve than it is today."

He called for an end to settlements and encroachments on Palestinian land."

Man Names New-Born "Facebook"

An Egyptian  man named his first-born daughter "Facebook" to celebrate the Egyptian revolution and the role social media played in it.

She is Facebook Gamal Ibrahim.

I understand the father's sentiment, but I really wish he went with another choice. "Mesr" [Egypt], "Thawra," [revolution], "Tahreer," [liberation] all make lovely female names. "Facebook"?? Not so much. 

Let's hope the new Egyptian constitution will allow her to change her name when she's older.

Libyan Hisham Matar: "Once Upon a Life"

This is a piece by the Libyan writer Hisham Matar that appeared in The Observer today. I'm looking forward to his new novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance. His first novel, In the Country of Men, is one of the best novels that I read in a long time. I blogged about it earlier here, and I teach it every opportunity I have. Everybody should read it. Then people will understand while Gaddafi must go. The brutality of his regime is captured brilliantly and so so movingly by Matar's fiction. 

Libya: Live Radio

This live radio from Benghazi in Libya--a station controlled by the rebels. 

Arabic Literature Now: Between Area Studies and the New Comparatism

A special issue of Comparative Literature Studies, "Arabic Literature Now: Between Area Studies and the New Comparatism" is out. It was edited by Wail Hassan and me and includes fine contributions from scholars of Arabic literature. Thanks to everyone who made it possible. 

Time Magazine Cover: Finally an Image I Like

Music of the Revolution: #Jan25 Egypt

#This music video was made in solidarity with the Egyptian revolution by a group of artists including Omar Offendum, the Narcicyst, Ayah, and Amer Sulaiman. It's produced by the Palestinian American Sami Mattar.  The lyrics are below.

"First they ignore you

Then they laugh at you

Then they fight you

Then you WIN"

- Ghandi

OMAR OFFENDUM:

I heard em say 

The revolution wont be televised

Aljazeera proved em wrong

Twitter has him paralyzed 

80 million strong

And ain't no longer gonna be terrorized

Organized - Mobilized - Vocalized 

On the side of TRUTH

Um il-Dunya's living proof

That its a matter of time

before the chicken is home to roost

Bouazizi lit the...

and it slowly ignited the fire 

within Arab people to fight it

From Tunis to Khan Younis

the new moon shines bright

as The Man's spoon was

as masses demand rights 

and dispel rumors of disunity 

communally removing the tumors 

of rotten 7ukoomas 

we're making headway

chanting down the dictators

getting rid of deadweight

opening the floodgates 

like the streets of Jeddah

bawwabit il-thawra maftoo7a

oo ma ba2an sid'ha  

we've been empowered to speak

and though the future is uncertain 

man at least it isn't bleak

when our children can be raised

not in a cage - but on a peak

the inheritors of mother earth are meek

Freedom isn't given by oppressors

It's demanded by oppressed 

Freedom lovers - Freedom fighters

Free to gather and protest

for their God-given rights

for a Freedom of the Press

we know Freedom is the answer 

The only question is… 

Who's next?

AYAH:

Time to push, and we aint falling back now

Time to fight, because we are all we have now

Do you hear? 

Calling out for back up

Try to keep a look out for better days

THE NARCICYST:

Weathering the storm, pleasure to be born,

news media disseminate at heaven's gate's level of alarm...

3rd Person Dictators couldn't sever them till dawn

3 mill in your streets, We will live in Peace....

you will see it.

But First God Rest the soul of those who choose to be free

from poverty they rose

knee deep in robbery 

souls will plummet and burn like Mohammed Bouazizi...

All I see is...

Al-Jazeera Logos,

Pillars of the State can now hear their own souls,

Karma waits for no man, 

your presidential charm and armor break,

out of place in your own homeland,

Now Dip like Mezza..

imagine a million human march to Gaza, 

From Qahira to Baghdad, siyasatkom saa7ira…..

3alamat Al-akhira... 

AYAH:

Time to push, and we aint falling back now

Time to fight, because we are all we have now

Do you hear? 

Calling out for back up

Try to keep a look out for better days

FREEWAY:

And that's where the beef ends

you should learn a lesson from oppression where it begins

black white yellow it don't matter what race 

before you break us you can push us off the Deep end 

different country same struggle we even

contemplate on squeezin when our kids ain't eating

only other difference is it's hot all year round there 

winter time and your kids ain't freezing

but we all starving all grieving 

and the people with the power ain't got heart enough to feed us

follow the procedures and I study my Quran 

this is modern day signs we just waiting on Jesus

you should be the teacher of Quran to your kids

instead of wasting time watching Kelly Ripa and Regis

this is Egypt 

home of the ruins last time we needed change it took Musa to move em

operation get rid of the pharoah 

now we getting rid who ain't willing to share no

bread with the people we are all equal

true men of God, Fear God, don't fear no 

person that's walking on the face of the earth

if he got a tank, knife, gun, bow or an arrow

long as there's breath 

then there's still hope left 

so let hope rise like the eye of a sparrow

AYAH:

Time to push, and we aint falling back now

Time to fight, because we are all we have now

Do you hear? 

Calling out for back up

Try to keep a look out for better days

AMIR SULAIMAN:

wont be just niggas 

wont be just spiks

a rabs pakis rednecks and hicks

the leaders aint helping them feeding their kids

the leaders helping pigs eating their kids

got me back on my Elijah eating to live

run up in the white house like i got a key to the crib

the house and the senate

ousted in a minute

takes these streets to wall street

this ones for kemit

they on that ghandi

they on that che though

but that che turn cairo fuego 

Hard for the press to find a Scapegoat

When evey man woman and child at the table

They think they John Adams

They think they Ben Franklin

they want democracy 

what them arabs thinkin 

the world leaders now can see when

keep people from eating

the people will eat them

AYAH:

Time to push, and we aint falling back now

Time to fight, because we are all we have now

Do you hear? 

Calling out for back up

Try to keep a look out for better days

- -

Long Live the Egyptian Revolution!

Congratulations to all Egyptians! Congratulations to all of us!