Product Description
This novel of the emigrant experience is a moving witness to the Lebanese people and to a time, the civil war. Emily Nasrallah's narrative follows an elderly Lebanese couple who leave their village during the war to visit children and grandchildren in the New World. The war escalates dangerously during their visit, and the couple's children are reluctant to let their parents return home. Although much of the story takes place on Prince Edward Island and in New York, the behavior and rituals of the family are those of the village in southern Lebanon. Such traditions may not be necessary to life in the New World, but are nonetheless terribly painful for emigrants to discard. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Part or the Whole?
Perhaps because I am a Lebanese woman who lived for a few years in North America as a college student and then decided to return to Lebanon, I found this book a bit disappointing. I was expecting to find some unusual insights into the causes and consequences of migration, the difficulty ofassimilation, the function of memory, and so forth. Instead what we get isa generically written novel representing some name-brand character hailingus from the south of Lebanon and embarking on a voyage to North America.Everything that can add authenticity to this generic character from ageneric Lebanese village is included: the olive trees, the socialmannerisms, the spices, the coffee with cardamon, the dancing of the dabke,everything except aspects that would make one Lebanese individual differentfrom another. The main character-Radwan- is so bland that he cannot bedescribed in other than stereotypical qualities associated with the East:generosity, attachment to land, veneration of tradition, belief in myths,religiosity, and sociability. Perhaps the author, through Radwan, is tryingto create a symbolic portrait of the Lebanese person in exile. But in doingso, isn't she wiping away the individual experience, the individual story?Doesn't each one of us who left Lebanon during the war have a differentstory to tell? Is it fair to group us all under the umbrella of Radwan? The great irony of the book is that the deeply religious Radwan- in anattempt by the author to make him representative of all the Lebanese- isstripped of any sectarian identity. It is only through very subtle hintslater in the book that we learn that Radman is probably a Christian. But isthis a trivial point, to be gleaned or dismissed according to the reader'spreference? Isn't the generic 70-year-old Lebanese man at the start of theLebanese civil war very likely to be one with some sectarian inclinations?Doesn't leaving out this point trivialize some of the main issues of theLebanese civil war? And, more importantly, wouldn't a Lebanese Christianmigrating to (predominantly Christian) North America have very differentassimilation experiences from that of a Lebanese Muslim who is more likelyto suffer an acute identity crisis?The story of Radwan is aspredictable as they come. An old man tries to leave his native land for ashort while and finds that he cannot assimilate in the West. The moreinteresting story would have been that of Radwan's children, of whom we aretold very little. We know they are all successful and well-established. Weknow they have a great respect for their receiving country (Canada) and itslaws. Yet, they are the ones who must have really suffered, who must havetrained their minds to think only of the future, to erase all memory, andto authenticate the present because the present is all they have.

Aren'ttheir stories worth telling? Or are we, like Radwan, supposed to turn overthe last pages of the bookwith a serene smile on our faces, content inthe knowledge that one ultimately gets what one desires.

Excellent picture of Lebanese in the "new world"
Emily Nasrallah paints a wonderful picture that I'm sure any Lebanese immigrant can relate to -- what it is like to come from Lebanon and see family and cope with the changes -- grandparents unable to communicate withgrandchildren due to language and culture barriers, parents and children,brothers and sisters.I recommend this not just to people of Lebanesebackground, but to anybody wanting to know what it is like to leave theirhomeland and come to a whole new culture. ... Read more

Product Description
International Arab Psychological Association. Emphasizes the central influence of cultural factors on psychopathology as the key to understanding mental illness and the development of psychiatric services in Islamic cultures. For researchers and practitioners in the area of mental health as well as social sciences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A key work in an important knitch of cross cultural counseling.
Ihsan Al-Issa has created a key work covering an aspect of cross cultural counseling rarely investigated. No other work has, thus far, so broadly illuminated mental health for this large segment of our world's population. This should be a commonly held recourse for counselors working in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Even for those working in large cities in the States.

~TJ

Wonderful Resource...
This text explores something that few psychologists would know anything about here in America - mental illness in Islamic countries.Many of the chapters have been worth while thus far.As far as I can tell this is auseful text for those that have interest in multicultural issues incounseling and psychology.However I would have liked to have seen achapter on Muslims in America... ... Read more

Product Description
Metaphysics has been my profession for the past seventeen years. Prior to that, as I studied and learned, I witnessed others trying to fit new ideas into old concepts. Instead of seeing the New Age seekers come together with one mind, I began to see them being divided by their expanded philosophies, with intolerance building. This emotion, intolerance, is in my opinion one of the greatest hindrances to the evolvement of mankind.

I began to search for the threads of sameness, not diversity, to show that the various philosophies were not so different from one another. I found that most differences were semantics, the label or name we used. We adopted an iron-clad rule in my business establishment that philosophical thought, no matter how different it might appear, was to be honored as long as it harmed none. This has given all of us, workers and seekers, the opportunity to broaden our understanding.

Thru the years I realized that neither creationists nor evolutionists were wrong. It was only that we were not seeing the whole picture. This book attempts to show both views are correct; that reincarnation is a fact; that there is an ultimate state of non-physical being; that there is both a masculine and feminine energy guiding mankind; that physical man on Earth receives help from advanced as well as non-physical beings; and that all of this was known and recorded in ancient times in the days of Thoth. Further, that this knowledge is our heritage as well as our legacy; and that Cosmic Cycles of Time affect our knowledge and level of understanding concerning the true nature of man. It further attempts to bring together the New Age community by showing that we are on the same path, even if we don't think so at times.

My hope is that it will strike a note of truth in all who read it, especially general New Age, Christian, and those professing no particular philosophy but who have an interest in what life is all about.

I have spent my entire life searching for answers. At this point in space-time, most knowing seems to be coming from within. I have not attempted, nor do I have the ability, to supply empirical proof. Those who read this book will find their proofs, acceptance or denial within their own being based on where they are in their own personal evolution.

It pivots around Thoth's teachings and also acknowledges that there is a feminine aspect to creative energy working with the masculine aspect of creative energy.

Christians who have expanded their belief system may find answers to some of their unanswered questions.

Those who float between Eastern and Western philosophies and have become confused might find some clarification.

Those locked into a narrow religious view, not accepting evolution nor reincarnation as a possibility, will probably be disturbed by its implications.

Anthropologists and scientists will probably take issue with the family tree and theory that the whole human race was genetically engineered, all the way back to Homo Habilis.

Even though it refers to Astrology in a general way, and is not intended to be a dissertation on the subject, astrologers might find some interesting concepts on the cycles of time.

Ufologists searching for reasons behind the phenomenon will be able to obtain a broader view of the underlying purpose for these visitations.

We are all on a quest for truth. This book is the result of my own personal quest, and I am honored to share it with you. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Cycles of Time
We live in a technically-advanced world, and because of this, we tend to believe we are wiser than those who lived many years in the past. Jerry Issa, in her book, Living In The New Age Again, provides evidence the ancients possessed a wisdom far greater than modern humans which she exemplifies though the "Emerald Tablets of Thoth." According to the Lemurian Scrolls, cosmic and earthly time cycles go through four ages: Golden, Silver, Bronze and Dark. What is rare and exciting is that the Cosmos and Earth are both currently emerging from their own Dark ages and are on the verge of entering new Golden ages together. Issa says, "If this is indeed the case, it will have a momentous impact on human evolution." This book contains much information worthy of closer study.

Cycles of Time
We live in a technically-advanced world, and because of this, we tend to believe we are wiser than those who lived many years in the past. Jerry Issa, in her book, Living In The New Age Again, provides evidence the ancients possessed a wisdom far greater than modern humans which she exemplifies though the "Emerald Tablets of Thoth." According to the Lemurian Scrolls, cosmic and earthly time cycles go through four ages: Golden, Silver, Bronze and Dark. What is rare and exciting is that the Cosmos and Earth are both currently emerging from their own Dark ages and are on the verge of entering new Golden ages together. Issa says, "If this is indeed the case, it will have a momentous impact on human evolution." This book contains much information worthy of closer study.

Cycles of Time
We live in a technically-advanced world, and because of this, we tend to believe we are wiser than those who lived many years in the past. Jerry Issa, in her book, Living In The New Age Again, provides evidence the ancients possessed a wisdom far greater than modern humans which she exemplifies though the "Emerald Tablets of Thoth." According to the Lemurian Scrolls, cosmic and earthly time cycles go through four ages: Golden, Silver, Bronze and Dark. What is rare and exciting is that the Cosmos and Earth are both currently emerging from their own Dark ages and are on the verge of entering new Golden ages together. Issa says, "If this is indeed the case, it will have a momentous impact on human evolution." This book contains much information worthy of closer study.

A Broader View of Creation
I found Living in the New Age Again (A Journey Through the Corridors of Time) to be exactly that: a new and much broader look at time. I have been looking at time as working inside the framework of the precession of the equinoxes, or the zodiacal year of 24,000 years.This book has caused me to back up and view much longer cycles as known and recorded in ancient times in Egypt and India.Just as we measure our year by the orbiting of our planet around our sun, and the zodiacal year by the precession, the ancients measured the orbit of our solar system around the galaxy's central sun and even the galaxy's rotation around the great center of the universe.They even measured the fantastically long cycles of the creation, expansion and dissolution of creation in the greatest cycle of all. I also found a stimulating primer on meditation and connecting with the universal conciousness. The author writes from a lifetime of experience in truthseeking and spiritual growth. ... Read more

Product Description
The Second Edition of GEOTECHNOLOGY OF WASTE MANAGEMENT provides an up-to-date discussion of environmental geotechnology, an increasingly important area of study and real-world application in the field of civil engineering. Unlike encyclopedic references that provide little context for understanding and applying the subject matter, Oweis and Khera's text guides students through practical discussions of solid wastes, their index properties, settlement characteristics, strength behavior, and hydraulic properties. Landfill design coverage includes site investigation and selection, geosynthetic and soil liner systems, leachate generation and detection, erosion control and caps, gas generation and management, foundation and slope stability, and applicable regulatory guidelines. ... Read more

Product Description
Zanzibar has had the most turbulent postcolonial history of any part of Tanzania, yet few sources explain the reasons why. The political impasse in the islands stems from the Zanzibari Revolution of 1964, in which thousands of islanders, mostly Arab, lost their lives.It is also about whether Zanzibar's union with the Tanzanian mainland--cemented only a few months after the revolution--should be strengthened, reformed, or dissolved. Defenders of the revolution claim it was necessary to right a century of wrongs.They speak the language of African nationalism, and seek to unify Zanzibaris through the politics of race. Their opponents deplore the revolution, and espouse the language of human rights. They reject the politics of race, and instead regard Islam a source of national unity.

From a series of interviews, G. Thomas Burgess has recorded and composedtwo highly readable first-person narratives in which two nationalists in Africa describe their conflicts, achievements, failures, and tragedies.Their life stories represent two opposing arguments, for and against the revolution.Ali Sultan Issa helped introduce socialism into the islands and as a minister in the first revolutionary government he was responsible for some of the government's most radical policies. After years of imprisonment, he reemerged in the 1990s as one of Zanzibar's most successful hotel entrepreneurs. Seif Sharif Hamad came of age during the revolution, and became disenchanted with itsexcesses. As a Chief Minister in the 1980s he sought to roll back authoritarian rule. After his imprisonment he has become a leading figure in Tanzania's largest opposition party.

Both memoirs trace Zanzibar's post-independence trajectory, and engage our most basic assumptions about social justice and human rights. They shed light on a host of themes that are of universal relevance: the legacies of slavery and colonialism, and the origins of racial violence, poverty, and underdevelopment. They also show how a cosmopolitan island society negotiates influences from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. ... Read more

Product Description
Issa Shivji has long been one of the most articulate critics of the destructive effects of neoliberal policies in Africa, and in particular of the ways in which they have eroded the gains of independence.In two extensive essays in this book, he shows that the role of NGOs in Africa cannot be understood without placing them in their political and historical context. Aid, in which NGOs play a significant role, is frequently portrayed as a form of altruism, a charitable act that enables the wealthy to help the poor. As structural adjustment programmes were imposed across Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, the international financial institutions and development agencies began giving money to NGOs for programmes to minimise the more glaring inequalities perpetuated by their policies. As a result, NGOs have flourished - and played an unwitting role in consolidating the neoliberal hegemony in Africa.If social policy is to be determined by citizens rather than the donors, argues Shivji, African NGOs must become catalysts for change rather than the catechists of aid that they are today.Issa Shivji is one of Africa's most radical and original thinkers and has written frequently for Fahamu's Pambazuka News. He is the author of several books, including the seminal Concept of Human Rights in Africa (1989) and, more recently, Let the People Speak: Tanzania down the road to neoliberalism (2006). ... Read more

Product Description
This volume studies how the literary elements in the Qur'an function in conveying its religious message effectively. It is divided into three parts. Part one includes studies of the whole Qur'an or large segments of it belonging to one historical period of its revelation; these studies concentrate on the analysis of its language, its style, its structural composition, its aesthetic characteristics, its rhetorical devices, its imagery, and the impact of these elements and their significance. Part two includes studies on individual suras of the Qur'an, each of which focuses on the sura's literary elements and how they produce meaning; each also explores the structure of this meaning and the coherence of its effect. Part three includes studies on Muslim appreciations of the literary aspects of the Qur'an in past generations and shows how modern linguistic, semantic, semiotic, and literary scholarship can add to their contributions. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Through research from a Palestinian refugee perspective
This book presents a well researched account of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the Palestinian perspective.This book is an solid account of the dispossession and exodus of the Palestinians, what is ultimately a sad and depressing story.The book primarily relies upon first hand accounts from Palestinian refugees and from examinations of surviving primary documentation in addition to an analysis of other research works.This encyclopedia is a valuable resource for those seeking to understanding why the Palestinians, and many Arabs, perceive the Palestinian-Israeli conflict so differently from that of Israelis, Europeans and Americans.

An assault on logic and truth
This book gives a very wrong answer to the question, "What land and rights ought to be possessed by a nation of several million people?"

The answer in this book is that Israel already has several thousand square miles.That is too much.It must have nothing.And Israelis have rights.Those rights must be removed.

Well, that's the wrong answer.Do we really want to see how the author comes up with such a ridiculously wrong answer?We don't, and that is why it is not worth reading this book.

Sure, if we make it an international priority, we can cheat a few minorities.Maybe we can annihilate all the Peruvians, or the Danish, or the Dutch, or the Israelis, or the Latvians, or the Czechs, or the Basques.But we won't gain anything by doing so.And, more important, if we simply do nothing of the sort, groups of millions of people will indeed tend to acquire both individual rights and sovereign rights over tens of thousands of square miles, not just thousands of square miles.

This book is simply propaganda that attempts, quite arbitrarily, to take away the rights of life, liberty, and property from Asia's Jews. And as a first step, demonize, discredit, libel, and destroy the state of Israel, which is guilty of the crime of protecting Jewish rights within its borders.

In this book, each day of the existence of Israel is a crime.This is the fundamental concept here.The funny thing is that Israel is land-poor.If I wanted to steal land, I sure wouldn't pick on Israel.It has so little land that it isn't worth it.If I didn't want Israel to get bigger, I'd simply make peace with it.

Anyway, the book gives us some excuses for attacking Israel.Needless to say, logic, truth, justice, and human rights are thrown out the window in this parade of ghastly propaganda.

We see the argument that because there were more Arabs than Jews, the Arabs had a right to do what they pleased with the Jews.Of course, in the UN partition region earmarked for the Jews, the Jews were a majority.But that doesn't count.We are told that the Jews owned a small fraction of the land.We are not told that the Arabs also owned a small fraction of the land.Arab genocidal attacks on the Jews are dismissed, and we're told even in the introduction that the Jews are basically no more than a robber band.Nice taunts.But it's silly to waste such juicy words on the Jews.One day, some real live bad guys may show up, and no one will be listening any more.

Look at the chapters in the book.Many of them are about "Zionist crimes."This for one of the most praiseworthy nations on the planet! The bulk of the events in the recent history of the region are simply called Zionist crimes.

Nakleh discusses the reaction of Zionists to the infamous White Paper of 1939, which barred Jews from fleeing to the Levant from Europe, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people or more.This infamous act convinced most Jews that a Jewish state was needed to protect Jewish rights.But Nakleh says that the Zionist goal was not to save Jews, but to prevent Levantine Arab independence!That's preposterous.

The author claims that 81% of the 1948 Levantine Arab refugees left their homes through direct action of the Zionists.But, in fact, the Arabs were the aggressors!

Nakleh says there was a "conspiracy" to expel the Levantine Arabs from their homes and says that this conspiracy and the expulsion itself "were war crimes inevitably associated with the 'Master Race" basis of Zionist ideology."He calls Zionist ideology intrinsically evil and says the expulsion of the Arabs was a "premeditated crime."All this is absurd.Zionism is simply Jewish nationalism.It demands human rights for Jews on the grounds that all humans (including Jews) deserve human rights.Opposition to Zionism in reality is simply opposition to human rights.

Most nations are far worse than Israel.If it is right to get rid of the Israelis, it is right to get rid of everyone else.Do we really want to do that?Why not write a book in praise of our species?Or at least write one that has some constructive criticism for it?Why write a book that simply mocks and taunts everyone?

I think we all ought to warn our friends about books such as this one.

The Encyclopedia of The Palestine Problem
This book provides a history of the land of Palestine and the terror since the advent of Zionism. The book provides documented incidents and accounts of Isreali terrorism and provides an unbiased analysis. Many of the descriptions of violence are graphic so it may not be suited for younger people. ... Read more

Product Description
The neoliberal project promised to correct multiple distortions in the African postcolonial environment. It pledged to engineer liberalisation and expand democratic space through competitive multi-party elections. For a people who had suffered years of statism, these promises were persuasive. Indeed they accorded this project a level of legitimacy it otherwise would not have enjoyed. Several decades down the line, Issa G. Shivji aptly asks Where is Uhuru?Few people, if any, can testify to the success of the envisaged reforms. Instead, neoliberalism failed to guarantee a sustainable basis for freedom, rights, and prosperity. These essays show that the reform period opened the continent to greater privation by a more emboldened local political class who, under pressure from or by acquiescing to foreign imperialist forces, undermined the struggles for democratic transformation and economic empowerment.Whether one is examining the rewards of multi-party politics, the dividends from a new constitutional dispensation, the processes of land reform, women's rights to property, or the pan-Africanist project for emancipation, Shivji illustrates how all these have suffered severe body blows. Shivji not only calls for a new, Africa-centred line of thinking that is unapologetic of the continent's right to self-determination, but through these essays sets out examples of how such thinking should proceed. ... Read more

Product Description
The ninety essays contained in this book are selected by the author from his writings published in newspaper columns during the period 1990-2005, a critical time in Tanzania that witnessed the rise and fall of nationalism, and transition to and consolidation of neo-liberalism. The essays give an overview of the intellectual history and traditions in Tanzania, one of the few countries in Africa which can still boast of political stability and reasonable openness. The writings reflect the hopes and fears of the progressive intellectual community, and project a strong sense of the enduring ideas and values in the period. The author's aims are to recover the history of the recent past in Tanzania, build a narrative of where the country is coming from, and provide a historical understanding of the events and climate of the present. ... Read more

Product Description
An Arab artist in Tangier grapples with political and erotic issues in this pivotal work by the most celebrated Moroccan author of the past twenty-five years. Cosmopolitan Tangier, heart and soul of Morocco, sets the stage for this smoldering novel of dreams and lovers, both before and after the nation's independence. Al 'Ayshuni, a middle-aged painter of bohemian and political inclinations has fallen in love with a younger woman, the alluring Ghaylana. But fate intervenes when she leaves him for new adventures in Spain. Now, Al 'Ayshuni befriends Ghaylana's daughter, the impressionable Fatima. Even as Al 'Ayshuni struggles to recapture the "fugitive light" of his lost youth - as well as that of a younger generation of artists and activists - so Fatima discovers the twin fires of love and revolution, both of which are doomed to extinction. Written with the simplicity of a parable and imbued with a visceral visual sense, this remarkable book explores the lives of three people whose hopes and passions are ruled - and ultimately shattered - by laws both visible and unseen.Fugitive Light explores the profound dilemma of Moroccan artists torn between old French ties and youthful anti-colonialism. Struggling to balance two cultures, they exist in a landscape haunted by inner conflict and governed at once by abandon and conformity. ... Read more

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Felipe Ehrenberg is recognized in Mexico as an extraordinary draftsman, but is better known internationally as a mail and media artist and for his performance and installation works. He also has a prestigious reputation as a book artist and has produced several seminal works in this field. This artist's book is extraordinary not only for its contents and its outstanding design--it is perhaps one of the best looking artist's books on our list this season--but also for the way it took shape. "I don't believe in being baroque," the artist wrote to the designer, "but I chose Manchuria because it shares the 'M' with Mexico; you could have green, white and green like a soldier's fatigues... everyone has heard of Manchuria, few know where it is... just like my work." The very title of the book is a faithful reflection of Mexico's situation at the beginning of the new millennium. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Brilliant full work
The Palestinians entered the period 1918 without being a people and without a sense of identity, by 1948 they had become the modern people today known as Palestinians. It was there factionalism that created an identity and led to their defeat in 1948.This is a fascinating and well written book on the various factions among the Palestinian Arabs between 1918 and 1948.It deals with the late period 1939-48 primarily after the Arabs had been defeated in the revolt of 1936.Interesting work.

Seth J. Frantzman ... Read more

Product Description
Practitioner research is not a new concept in education and many teachers had attempted to enact and study their own practices with the view of improving teaching effectiveness. Over the past decade there has been increased interests in teachers' investigation of own practice in their classrooms. However, the findings of many of these studies are often not treated seriously by education scholars and policymakers, and not widely disseminated to others. This book identifies pertinent issues related to practitioner research and describes recent attempts in theorising teacher research, outlining research agenda, promoting the culture of teacher-led research, building capacity, developing models and examining current thinking about practitioner research. ... Read more