Topic: Syria

It’s all about the pipelines

May 16, 2008 |

Okay…so it’s discovered that one of the largest remaining untapped resources, of the most lucrative commodities on the planet, lies beneath an area on earth which is landlocked by surrounding countries who don’t like you.

But in order to get that commodity out to market - so that you can profit from harvesting it - you need a major highway or two to the nearest seaport where you can load it on big boats and ship it off to world markets.

Problem is: those aforementioned surrounding countries. Those highways will have to traverse their land and they’re not going to just let you do it.

What’s a Western capitalist to do! «Read the rest of this article»

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In the Name of God: Immersion in Eastern culture, Islam and suicide bombings

By Christine Anne Piesyk | February 18, 2008 |

In the Name of God came across my desk by request from the author, Paula Jolin, who asked me to take a look at it. I did, in part because the setting and the emotion behind the story is something I wanted to know more about; fiction mirrors life, and I hoped this story would provide that for a difficult subject: suicide bombers.

In the Name of God delves into an Eastern world and a culture relatively alien to me, yet it is a culture with probing fingers touching and testing and tasting the culture of a freedom that is uniquely Western.

In this book, 17-year-old Nadia lives in Damascus, Syria, locked into a straight and narrow path of traditional Islam. She has enough exposure to Western ideas to tempt her and rouse her curiosity, and is also bitterly aware of the politics, economy and culture that envelops her own country and neighboring Iraq. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Opinion | No Comments