An Excerpt From Paul Bowles’ ‘Allal’ & A Strange, Schlocky Scene From ‘Conan The Barbarian’

June 21, 2017June 21, 2017 / chr1 / Leave a comment

From Paul Bowles ‘Allal,‘ found within this collection of short stories.

I recall musical and deeply rhythmic English (Bowles was a composer who lived in Morocco for most of his life), along with a recurrent theme of Western innocence, ignorance and arrogance meeting ancient North African realities and brutalities.

‘Moments passed with no movement but then the snake suddenly made a move towards Allal. It then began to slither across Allal’s body and then rested next to his head. He was very calm at this moment and looked right into the snake’s eyes and felt almost one with the snake. Soon his eyes closed and he fell asleep in this position.’

What have you done with your I/Eye, dear Reader?

Something tells me the kind of fantastical savagery and imaginative schlock of Conan the Barbarian doesn’t quite capture the deeply moral, frighteningly real and lushly imagined Bowlesian world…

But maybe it does highlight some themes Bowles’ drew into relief:

You know, maybe I’d just better put this up:

Two Thursday Links-Michael Totten On Western Sahara & A Possible Kurdistan?

July 2, 2014July 3, 2014 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Full piece here.

Totten visits Western Sahara, ‘administered’ by Morocco, parts of it run by the renegade communist Polisario. The region’s become a sort-of proxy for tension between Morocco and the deeply repressive, authoritarian regime in Algeria and various conflicting interests:

“The Polisario wanted to impose a communist structure on nomadic populations,” she said. “I don’t believe that has changed. The same people are the leaders today as when I was young. There are still Sahrawi children in Cuba right now.”

Imagine going to Cuba for ‘education’…

.The entire Sahara-Sahel region is unstable. Egypt is ruled again by a military dictatorship. Libya is on the verge of total disintegration a la Somalia. Algeria is mired in a Soviet time warp. Northern Mali was recently taken over by Taliban-style terrorists so vicious they prompted the French to invade. At the time of this writing, US troops are hunting Nigeria’s Al Qaeda-linked Boko Haram across the border in Chad.

This blog thinks Totten’s at his best while travel-writing, weaving observation, journalism, politics and his experiences together.

Has the spread of Western liberal democracy involved socialist, communist, ‘social democratic,’ and even broadly humanist influences within a larger Western spectrum? You bet, and some of these influences have produced repressive and totalitarian hybrids still hanging-on.

On This Site See: A Few Thoughts On Isaiah Berlin’s “Two Concepts Of Liberty” …The End Of History?: Update And Repost- From YouTube: Leo Strauss On The Meno-More On The Fact/Value Distinction?’

Michael Totten At World Affairs: ‘The Once Great Havana’…Michael Totten At World Affairs: ‘How To Become A Dictator’

In other news…

If you’re the Kurds, you defend your turf, play it cool, gain valuable territory and bide your time:

From The Daily Beast: ‘Iraqi Kurds Declare Plans For Breakaway State:’

‘But it isn’t clear that Washington can rely on either the Turkish or Israeli governments to rebuff the Kurds. Officials from both countries argue that events are fast overtaking the Obama administration.’

Vice is embedding a reporter with the Kurds, because that’s probably the only semi-safe option amidst such instability:

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Independent Kurdistan-A Good Outcome For American Interests?

In his book Where The West Ends, Totten describes visiting Northern Iraq briefly as a tourist with a friend, and the general feeling of pro-Americanism in Kurdish Northern Iraq that generally one can only feel in Poland, parts of the former Yugoslavia etc.

From USA Today: ‘Fate Of Scores Of Hostages In Algeria Unclear’

January 18, 2013January 19, 2013 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Live updates here.

It was an Islamist raid on a natural gas plant in Algeria which started on Wednesday, with many foreign workers being taken hostage, and possibly one American dead so far. Information is still hard to come by:

‘Algeria’s state news service says about 60 foreign hostages remain unaccounted for in the standoff with Islamist militants now entering its third day.

The report also says special forces have resumed negotiations after an assault Thursday at the natural gas facility in the Sahara in eastern Algeria’

Some people hid, some have been killed. Obviously, many foreign nationals were working there. The militants have reportedly demanded release of the blind sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Egyptian leader of a militant Islamist group currently being held in prison in North Carolina for his involvement in the the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Truly a peace-loving man.

So far, our media is not specially focused on the rise and resurgence of such Islamist movements, and Islamism more generally, and how to deal with them as best we can. It hasn’t focused on how such movements in Mali and Mauritania are related to Libya (Obama’s war), nor the dark days likely ahead of Egypt with a Brotherhood led government and what our policy challenges will be regarding Egypt and its neighbors. This is where much of Islam is right now, and we need to respond. It feels like we’re flying half-blind guided by realpolitik under a set of liberal internationalist principles and Obama’s leadership.

I suspect we’ll be hearing more talk about supporting the Algerian army, not jumping to conclusions, and supporting our allies. There’ll be talk of still trying to criminally investigate Benghazi and “working towards peace through international channels” while mingling amongst a crowd of governments trying to figure out where its citizens and interests are.

As a friend asks?: Is the end game really peace, or is it to bend U.S. interests and policy to a set of universalist, more human rights centered, Western Left ideals? If so, how’s that working out?

Update: Still unclear how many dead. It appears to be over, with many casualties.\]

Another: From the AP:

In a bloody finale, Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday to end a standoff with Islamist extremists that left at least 19 hostages and 29 militants dead. Dozens of foreign workers remain unaccounted for, leading to fears the death toll could rise.

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Kurdistan link:

Maybe the Kurds are going to rely on Turkey for some stability and are less likely to form independent Kurdistan-From Foreign Affairs: ‘Revenge Of The Kurds‘.

On this site, see: From Michael Totten At World Affairs Journal: ‘The World According To Syrian Kurdistan’

Longer odds, lots of risk: Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest’s Via Media: “The Rise Of Independent Kurdistan?”

Is Bernhard Henri-Levy actually influencing U.S. policy decisions..neo-neo-colonialism? From New York Magazine: ‘European Superhero Quashes Libyan Dictator’…Bernhard Henri-Levy At The Daily Beast: ‘A Moral Tipping Point’…Charlie Rose Episode On Libya Featuring Bernhard Henri-Levy, Les Gelb And Others…