Dove's Eye View

Qifa Nabki Suggests: Iran coverage

Elmaz Abinader just said to me tonight that with this Iran crisis, she doesn't know who to read and who to trust. I suggested Juan Cole, but agreed with her that I am not sure of my sources here.

Qifa Nabki, international relations PhD at Harvard, Lebanon native, recommends Brian Ulrich, Arabic Media Shack, and Andrew Sullivan. Via one of those links I also found Iran in the Gulf.

Did you know that while there are 22,000 people studying Arabic at college level in the USA, there are only 300 studying Farsi (the chief language of Iran)? We are weak on Arab world experts in this country, but we are just stupid when it comes to Iran. Sigh.

Folks, if this is your first internet political uprising, remember: don't believe everything you read. Read widely from different sources. Mistrust anonymous sources. Don't let people you don't know take over your Twitter or Facebook or other social networks just to join a quiz/color your picture green/do some other thing that looks like solidarity. Maybe it's innocent; maybe it's a hacker/virus/trick; maybe it's some sort of obnoxious spying person trying to check up on you.

Also, take a deep breath and step away from the computer. You will learn all you need to know in fifteen minutes. More time than that is probably not useful. I know, easier said than done.

NYC Lebanese Slowfoods Event

Meet Rami Zurayk, co-founder of Slow Foods Beirut and champion of traditional foods in Lebanon. New York City, Friday June 19th at

ilili Slowfoods Event.

Rami will be selling copies of his book "From Akar to Amal": pictures, scholarly text and recipes documenting twenty-five traditional food products from twenty-five tiny Lebanese villages.

Wish I could be there! I'm trying to figure out if I can zip in and out...

Our president

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Originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream

The Official White House Photostream on Flickr is a lot of fun.

Lebanese Elections 2009

I follow the Lebanese election with the help of Qifa Nabki. Rami Zurayk, As'ad Abu-Khalil, and Josh Landis provide alternatives to the usual cant in the mainstream American media.

My own village, I have discovered, is solidly in the March 8 camp, because its representative is a member of Nabih Berri's Liberation and Development bloc. Berri is one of the Shi'ite representatives of my district, but since my village is Christian, we vote for the Catholic representative, Michel Moussa.

I am not sectarian at all, but I do notice that the three Lebanese bloggers I linked to above are all Southerners - like my father.

The more I learn about Lebanese elections, the more confused I get. But it is a good thing that they voted, that the elections were generally pretty fair and impartial, and that everybody seems to be accepting the results.

Let's hope that things calm down and everybody lives in freedom, liberation and sustainable development. No war!

Living With Loss

Josh Korda was a cool cat in my set in college 30 years ago. He has grown up to be a Buddhist teacher. Here is a podcast in which he discusses Living With Loss.

Permaculture in Palestine

Never give up. Keep planting. Keep growing. Never, ever, ever give up.

ei: Palestinian farmers use permaculture to challenge occupation.

Those who want peace and call for non-violence need to support the work of these farmers.

Thanks to Rami Zurayk for the tip.

See what permaculturist Starhawk says about Obama's Cairo speech. She pitches it very positively at the beginning. Stick with it. She goes on to say things like:

I would have liked Obama to urge nonviolence on all of us: Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians alike. I would have liked him to at least acknowledge that indeed, many Palestinians have chosen nonviolent means of struggle, that for years now, villages have resisted the confiscation of their land for Israel's 'security wall' with peace camps, nonviolent demonstrations and civil resistance.

Obama's Speech: The Roundup

I appreciate the symbolism of Obama's speech in Cairo. It's a significant gesture and took some guts. I am also tickled that my president has a new nickname in the Arab world: Abu-Hussein. For the rest of it - well, we shall see.

Other people are better qualified to pontificate. Among the most interesting:

Al Jazeera report here, with reactions. (thanks to Alison Chaiken).

Journalist Helena Cobban was in Damascus, interviewing Khaled Meshaal of Hamas, and got his reactions.

The Arabist, an Arab journalist in Cairo, writes paragraph by paragraph response.

As'ad Abu-Khalil has extensive coverage. His long, no-line-break rant here, worth reading. His News Hour appearance here. His link to another commentator here . I don't care to take on Abu-Khalil's negative view of events, but he knows whereof he speaks, and his critique must be considered. He gives no quarter to corruption and abuse of power.

A Syrian reaction by Ehsani, published at Syria Comment.

Juan Cole's roundup and comment, invaluable.

Philip Weiss, who was there in the room with our President, having just returned from a visit to Gaza. Weiss has had a transformation in the last five years. Scales of prejudice and tribalism have dropped from his eyes.

Anthony Lowenstein says action matters, not words. (At Mondoweiss which is on fire these days).

Ali Abu-Nimeh provides further criticism.

Richard Silverstein likes the speech and has hope.

Colonel Patrick Lang, Middle East expert and retired US Army Intelligence senior officer, says Baby Steps.

BBC roundup of reactions, including Hamas, Hizbullah, Teheran, Israel and other parties. Alison Chaiken points out that the NY Times (and the BBC) quote negative Hamas statements, whereas Al Jazeera pulls a more positive quote from the same spokesman.

Tony Karon wrote this on Facebook:

The most important part of Obama's speech today, I thought, was his invoking of the Nakbah and the Holocaust. In fact, urging the Muslim world to reckon with the legacy of the Holocaust in understanding Israelis is far more honestly a legacy of South Africa than is Obama's false suggestion, in passing, that the ANC's struggle against apartheid was based on non-violent civil disobedience a la MLK... For the record, Bam, the ANC never renounced violence until the regime agreed to democracy... But here's my 2006 piece on What Arab Holocaust Deniers Should Learn from Apartheid.

Saifedean Ammous posted a note on Facebook which he permits me to reprint, below the jump.

Art against the Iraq war - Bitter Fruits

Laura McCallum, a sculptor and teacher in Brooklyn, NY, began a project six years ago to draw a tiny image in honor of each American killed in the Iraq war. The scroll now has 4,259 images on it, and takes up an enormous hallway.

Laura stood up with me at my marriage to David MacLeod, and more recently traveled with me to Lebanon and Syria in 2008.

Eating Well as the Markets Go to H***

My friend Julie Feinstein Adams, who knows what's what, says frugal is the new black. I am sometimes ahead of certain trends; in March 2008 I collected favorite frugal recipes from the blog here. I love the title so I'm recycling it.

Mark Bittman asked his readers in July 2008 what they would cook on little money and no kitchen equipment. My answer, including the inevitable Cairo-hot-plate-Max-Rodenbeck story. For my leavingtaking from Egypt I fed the future Middle East correspondent for the Economist shrimp seviche, risotto and chicken saute even though we had no refrigerator or proper stove.

No matter what the state of the economy or your pocketbook, there's always hope for a good meal.

The City that Ended Hunger

Yes Magazine writes about The City that Ended Hunger :: Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Belo, a city of 2.5 million people, once had 11 percent of its population living in absolute poverty, and almost 20 percent of its children going hungry. Then in 1993, a newly elected administration declared food a right of citizenship. The officials said, in effect: If you are too poor to buy food in the market, you are no less a citizen. I am still accountable to you.
The new mayor, Patrus Ananias, now leader of the federal anti-hunger effort, began by creating a city agency, which included assembling a 20-member council of citizen, labor, business, and church representatives to advise in the design and implementation of a new food system. The city already involved regular citizens directly in allocating municipal resources, the "participatory budgeting" that started in the 1970s and has since spread across Brazil.
During the first six years of Belo's food-as-a-right policy, perhaps in response to the new emphasis on food security, the number of citizens engaging in the city's participatory budgeting process doubled to more than 31,000.
The city of Belo Horizonte puts "Direct From the Country" farmer produce stands throughout busy downtown areas. The city agency developed dozens of innovations to assure everyone the right to food, especially by weaving together the interests of farmers and consumers. It offered local family farmers dozens of choice spots of public space on which to sell to urban consumers, essentially redistributing retailer mark-ups on produce which often reached 100 percent to consumers and the farmers. Farmers' profits grew, since there was no wholesaler taking a cut. And poor people got access to fresh, healthy food.

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