Etel Adnan, Lebanese American author and artist, dies at 96 (The New York Times)
“Etel Adnan, an influential Lebanese American writer who wrote a seminal novel about the Lebanese civil war and achieved acclaim in her later years as a visual artist, died on Sunday in Paris. She was 96.” Read more
‘Recreating a beautiful thing’
27 August 2021
Randa Baath: 'Any cultural act is vital'
12 March 2021
How the U.S. hid an airstrike that killed dozens of civilians in Syria (The New York Times)
“In the last days of the battle against the Islamic State in Syria, when members of the once-fierce caliphate were cornered in a dirt field next to a town called Baghuz, a U.S. military drone circled high overhead, hunting for military targets. But it saw only a large crowd of women and children huddled against a river bank.
Without warning, an American F-15E attack jet streaked across the drone’s high-definition field of vision and dropped a 500-pound bomb on the crowd, swallowing it in a shuddering blast.” Read more
The ‘echo chamber’ of Syrian chemical weapons conspiracy theorists (Newlines Magazine)
“Under international pressure following the Ghouta attack, Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, but that did not put an end to chemical attacks. During the next few years dozens more were reported, mostly involving chlorine but sometimes sarin. The deniers, eager to blame someone other than the Assad regime, claimed rebels were faking the attacks in an effort to falsely incriminate the regime and thus create a pretext for full-scale military intervention by Western powers.” Read more
Camels weep as their young perish in Syria’s killer drought (Al-Monitor)
“A baby camel moans in anguish as it sits in a muddy manger, its forelegs folded under its emaciated frame. Its large dark eyes are wet with tears as the creature gazes imploringly at its owner. The cries grow louder and longer, then exhaustion prevails.
Like many of the camels in this desolate Bedouin village west of Raqqa, the one-year old is dying of malnutrition and has grown so weak that it can no longer lift itself off the ground.” Read more
“To be in a time of war”: An homage to Etel Adnan (1925-2021) (LA Review of Books)
“To say nothing, do nothing, mark time,
to bend, to straighten
up, to blame oneself,
to stand, to go toward the window,
to hear a war
from far away, for others.
To bomb, eliminate
a country, blow up a civilization, destroy the living.
To exit from one idea to enter another.
To admire the light,
bless the spring.
To consider the present time as sheer lead.
To create terror, that’s war.” Read more
