I went to see this on Saturday with a couple of friends who both had worked in Egypt as tour leaders. The film is based on the controversial bestselling novel by Alaa El-Aswani that features a variety of Egyptian characters who are residents of a downtown Cairo apartment block - lawyer, porter, gay journalist and poorer families who literally live on the roof, etc. The lives of these seemingly disparate group of individuals hurtle towards each other with fateful consequences. Tackling everything from Islamic fundamentalism to homosexuality and corruption, the film was a cause célèbre on its release in Egypt where it proceeded to smash box office records and spark unprecedented debate.
One critic wrote: I do not lie when I say I am still drowning in thoughts about the most beautiful movie I have to date seen. My God. I was emotionally exhausted, beyond impressed, made to laugh, cry, ponder, miss, sympathize, resent, and love.. all within minutes of each other. A slap in the face than a tickle. I don’t mean to be overly dramatic but the impact it has on me is enormous. I am overwhelmed with feelings of appreciation, joy, and respect for such a work and admire the boldness and courage it took to pull all of it together. What an eye opener. The accuracy.. The contrast.. The shocks..
This is a great movie, described very ably above, and wonderfully translated through subtitles for those of us who speak neither Arabic nor Egyptian!
The film was shown as part of the BFI's London Film Festival at the Odeon Leicester Square - this was the debut in the UK with the Director (only 27 years old) and Producer present for an audience Q&A afterwards. See the film if you can.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Doing the right thing
Was just checking my bank account on-line and a pop up screen asked "Do you like Tony Blair: yes or no? Enter and get a Free* laptop."
Did you notice the fundamental flaw in the last line?
Yes, indeed, it is the asterisk after free - don't believe it!!
I heard Jim Wallis over the Bank Holiday weekend talking at a seminar called "you say tomata, I say tomato" about the 'special relationship'. In fact he spoke more frankly than the answer he had given to a question I raised with him at the Institute of Contemporary Christianity in March. Jim felt that Britain's role in support of the US intentions for Iraq meant that the world perception of the UK is the we are seen as a little tomata - I have to agree.
I heard a speaker recently talking about terrorism for around 45 minutes. I heard him in August as well at two seminars totalling three hours: Major General Tim Cross. Check out his CV online - he is a most distinguished and humble man. His seminars, on the same topic, were the most articulate I have heard on any subject, anytime, anywhere. He was speaking just after the media storm over comments on the Iraq situation made by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the new Chief of the General Staff. Reading reaction to his statement on the military websites, our armed forces seem delighted to be appropriately represented at last, indeed positive comments were posted from around the world to the newspaper websites.
The media is turning its attention to the election of the next US President - we know it won't be Bush. Meanwhile I have a horrible feeling that Blair is not going to do anything significant over Iraq that would undermine his initial decision to support the invasion, but will leave that to his predecessor. We will see.
Hilary Benn was incredible on Radio Four this morning as John Humphries interviewed him from Iraq about the state of that nation. He quite reasonably and frankly gave an honest, real and believable picture of the grim situation, without the glib spin.
Shortly afterwards Canon Andrew White based in Baghdad described how he had just returned from the Pentagon where he was discussing how the key religious / sectarian leaders might be engaged in dialogue - he rightly and bluntly stated that it was years too late for the US to have woken up to that, despite his best efforts at the time.
I spotted this quote today - rings true I think:
We should never have gone in to Iraq in my view. Tim Cross's analogy, incidentally quoted by Max Hastings in the Daily Mail, compares President Bush's recent demand for $50billion of new money for Iraq with 'the addicted Irish gambler who wrote home at the end of another long day at the race course, "Everything going well; send more money".'
How we get out and when, I don't know. With guys like Dannatt, Cross, White and Benn around I have hope that the future may be a bit brighter for all concerned, especially the people of Iraq.
We can only pray.
Did you notice the fundamental flaw in the last line?
Yes, indeed, it is the asterisk after free - don't believe it!!
I heard Jim Wallis over the Bank Holiday weekend talking at a seminar called "you say tomata, I say tomato" about the 'special relationship'. In fact he spoke more frankly than the answer he had given to a question I raised with him at the Institute of Contemporary Christianity in March. Jim felt that Britain's role in support of the US intentions for Iraq meant that the world perception of the UK is the we are seen as a little tomata - I have to agree.
I heard a speaker recently talking about terrorism for around 45 minutes. I heard him in August as well at two seminars totalling three hours: Major General Tim Cross. Check out his CV online - he is a most distinguished and humble man. His seminars, on the same topic, were the most articulate I have heard on any subject, anytime, anywhere. He was speaking just after the media storm over comments on the Iraq situation made by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the new Chief of the General Staff. Reading reaction to his statement on the military websites, our armed forces seem delighted to be appropriately represented at last, indeed positive comments were posted from around the world to the newspaper websites.
The media is turning its attention to the election of the next US President - we know it won't be Bush. Meanwhile I have a horrible feeling that Blair is not going to do anything significant over Iraq that would undermine his initial decision to support the invasion, but will leave that to his predecessor. We will see.
Hilary Benn was incredible on Radio Four this morning as John Humphries interviewed him from Iraq about the state of that nation. He quite reasonably and frankly gave an honest, real and believable picture of the grim situation, without the glib spin.
Shortly afterwards Canon Andrew White based in Baghdad described how he had just returned from the Pentagon where he was discussing how the key religious / sectarian leaders might be engaged in dialogue - he rightly and bluntly stated that it was years too late for the US to have woken up to that, despite his best efforts at the time.
I spotted this quote today - rings true I think:
Politics is a jungle: torn between doing the right thing and staying in office. John F. Kennedy
We should never have gone in to Iraq in my view. Tim Cross's analogy, incidentally quoted by Max Hastings in the Daily Mail, compares President Bush's recent demand for $50billion of new money for Iraq with 'the addicted Irish gambler who wrote home at the end of another long day at the race course, "Everything going well; send more money".'
How we get out and when, I don't know. With guys like Dannatt, Cross, White and Benn around I have hope that the future may be a bit brighter for all concerned, especially the people of Iraq.
We can only pray.
Freedom...
Saw this quote from a movie (Ali*brandi) - don't know the context but liked it:
If I could be anything but what I am, I would be tomorrow.
If I could be what my father wants me to be, then maybe I could stay for that, too. If I could be what you want me to be, I'd want to stay. But I am what I am, and all I want is freedom.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Offensive prayer
Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people.
When Rev Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:
The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.
When Rev Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:
"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.
We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbour's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!"
The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
No pain, no gain?
It's two years on (4/10/04) since I wrote this poem to myself:
It's good to look back - I did the same in September when I first began to blog - you can check that out in the archives - and know how far I have travelled :o)
The line about pain has come up in conversation often - "Is pain a numbing ache, or lack of it?"
Sometimes we feel pain acutely (whether it be physical, emotional or psychological) and other times we are anaesthetised to our own pain - we erect barriers or develop techniques to ignore it.
For instance, once in a while I feel terribly ill with headache /stomach ache and realise that I have been working and playing too hard without sufficient rest. I am forced to bed because I feel so awful.
But in recent times, as I travel back and forth through my history, I realise that issues have lain dormant within the foundations of my soul. Mining those brings new experiences of pain, but also of release and healing. No pain, no gain - you bet!
I believe that times of evaluation and questioning (such as mid-life crisis, significant birthdays / events etc) are when we consider our lives to date and know we want the next half, or 5 / 10 / 20 years to be different... better? I hope to encourage you and others to seize moments of revelation, when they trot by, to look at your 'stuff'.
The choice comes when we (you!) have to work out what to do next to effect change?
"And who will journey with me? No one, of course."
That's not to say that others won't be supportive, but there isn't another person that can travel my road (like we could hire someone to do it for us!) only I can. That journey is distinctly and uniquely mine. Only I can refine gold from the rockiness of my past and discover the 'me' that was meant to be.
"You don't know me
And I don't expect you to.
I hardly know myself
And what I see is little understood.
I realise the Mountain I have to climb
To lose my shackles,
And I'm scared.
Beating the retreat.
Wanting out of this trench,
A lift again out of the pit,
The mire,
Because I'm sinking.
I feel isolated and exposed.
Willing, yet unable to be vulnerable.
Lost in a fog of truth, truly,
As I perceive and deceive in turn.
To my shame
Pretense consoles only momentarily,
Before loathing ushers in.
Who am I kidding? Yeah, me.
Is pain a numbing ache, or lack of it?
Desperate and afraid,
I grope for freedom,
And the whole of the Moon.
Dare I unfold and to whom,
When I can barely cope as it is?
And who will journey with me?
No one, of course.
Mine is the distinction.
Mine is the depths from which to rise.
Mine is the seam of gold.
What’s mine is yours – still want to know me?"
It's good to look back - I did the same in September when I first began to blog - you can check that out in the archives - and know how far I have travelled :o)
The line about pain has come up in conversation often - "Is pain a numbing ache, or lack of it?"
Sometimes we feel pain acutely (whether it be physical, emotional or psychological) and other times we are anaesthetised to our own pain - we erect barriers or develop techniques to ignore it.
For instance, once in a while I feel terribly ill with headache /stomach ache and realise that I have been working and playing too hard without sufficient rest. I am forced to bed because I feel so awful.
But in recent times, as I travel back and forth through my history, I realise that issues have lain dormant within the foundations of my soul. Mining those brings new experiences of pain, but also of release and healing. No pain, no gain - you bet!
I believe that times of evaluation and questioning (such as mid-life crisis, significant birthdays / events etc) are when we consider our lives to date and know we want the next half, or 5 / 10 / 20 years to be different... better? I hope to encourage you and others to seize moments of revelation, when they trot by, to look at your 'stuff'.
The choice comes when we (you!) have to work out what to do next to effect change?
"And who will journey with me? No one, of course."
That's not to say that others won't be supportive, but there isn't another person that can travel my road (like we could hire someone to do it for us!) only I can. That journey is distinctly and uniquely mine. Only I can refine gold from the rockiness of my past and discover the 'me' that was meant to be.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Taboo Rage
Been pondering this post for a couple of weeks. Haven't really got my thinking clear on it, but I figured I should type away and see what flows, so please forgive me for being hazy or inarticulate....
Anger. Rage. Spot the difference:
Rage (emotion), an extreme, energized usually explosive state of anger;
You won't know that there are times when I go from 0-60 on the rage scale for no apparent reason ... yet there must be a reason?
I have come to think of my mum's temper as volcanic - it wasn't if she would explode, but when. I realised recently that there are times when my outbursts are mirror images of her - how does that work?
I tried to check that out... it seems that maybe it is not that I replicate my mother, or have learnt that is the way to do anger (though there is something in that), but that the balance of parenting and interaction between them has influenced me. What does that mean?
Well, I think that a dominant maternal figure (wearing the trousers!) left me, the boy-child, confused about roles. I certainly felt without protection when I needed it - injustices with minor pecadillos causing a massive response from my mum, with inevitable punishment disproportionate to the apparent offence - this would include verbal and physical abuse, but also psychological torment too. The "wait 'til your father gets home" scenario hung over us, though actually offered hope because I think my sister and I both saw dad as the more reasonable and objective, however he tended to side with mum, probably to avoid bearing the brunt himself, though I guess (as I write) he may have felt that he was being a supportive husband? Nonetheless I wonder what I harbour towards my parents for being so overbearing, to put it mildly.
So, it occurred to me how much anger / rage around our children is such a taboo subject. They often tend to be around when we blow.
The problem is with us, the adult, and the unmet need that vents at times of stress, tiredness, loneliness. I have been in conversations about this lately. It has felt hugely risky to raise it, but it is reassuring that others have, or have had, similar struggles. My observation is the extent to which these issues literally remain behind closed doors.
The scary thing for me is that Ned is usually the one around when I blow. I have been working on some 'tools' that will help me to recognise the feelings as they rise and then to find an appropriate and healthy way to soothe them. And it is helpful for me to share this stuff - it helps me to acknowledge it and own the fact, and to determine to continue to work it out.
I asked him a week ago on Sunday night (when we were having one of our late night chats - we often do level 5 when one or both of us can't sleep): "Is there anything I do that upsets you, Ned?"
He thought for a few seconds and mentioned an evening a fortnight before that when we had a choice of things we could do and, in this particular moment, I hadn't appreciated his preference and been grumpy about it!!
I realised that 'grumpy' was rage on my inside, but I had at least kept a lid on it at the time, but he still noticed and remembered.
It was a cool moment as we talked and resolved that flashpoint and how we might do stuff together differently - we have had some fun times since deciding together what we do and when, which mostly means I play what he wants to, but the process of compromise is good for both of us I think! :o)
Do you experience rage?
Do you have a friend/someone you could share with?
Where can you find support to explore the underlying feelings?
Would it help to leave an anonymous post?
Can you give me any advice?!!
Thanks for listening xx
Anger. Rage. Spot the difference:
Rage (emotion), an extreme, energized usually explosive state of anger;
You won't know that there are times when I go from 0-60 on the rage scale for no apparent reason ... yet there must be a reason?
I have come to think of my mum's temper as volcanic - it wasn't if she would explode, but when. I realised recently that there are times when my outbursts are mirror images of her - how does that work?
I tried to check that out... it seems that maybe it is not that I replicate my mother, or have learnt that is the way to do anger (though there is something in that), but that the balance of parenting and interaction between them has influenced me. What does that mean?
Well, I think that a dominant maternal figure (wearing the trousers!) left me, the boy-child, confused about roles. I certainly felt without protection when I needed it - injustices with minor pecadillos causing a massive response from my mum, with inevitable punishment disproportionate to the apparent offence - this would include verbal and physical abuse, but also psychological torment too. The "wait 'til your father gets home" scenario hung over us, though actually offered hope because I think my sister and I both saw dad as the more reasonable and objective, however he tended to side with mum, probably to avoid bearing the brunt himself, though I guess (as I write) he may have felt that he was being a supportive husband? Nonetheless I wonder what I harbour towards my parents for being so overbearing, to put it mildly.
So, it occurred to me how much anger / rage around our children is such a taboo subject. They often tend to be around when we blow.
The problem is with us, the adult, and the unmet need that vents at times of stress, tiredness, loneliness. I have been in conversations about this lately. It has felt hugely risky to raise it, but it is reassuring that others have, or have had, similar struggles. My observation is the extent to which these issues literally remain behind closed doors.
The scary thing for me is that Ned is usually the one around when I blow. I have been working on some 'tools' that will help me to recognise the feelings as they rise and then to find an appropriate and healthy way to soothe them. And it is helpful for me to share this stuff - it helps me to acknowledge it and own the fact, and to determine to continue to work it out.
I asked him a week ago on Sunday night (when we were having one of our late night chats - we often do level 5 when one or both of us can't sleep): "Is there anything I do that upsets you, Ned?"
He thought for a few seconds and mentioned an evening a fortnight before that when we had a choice of things we could do and, in this particular moment, I hadn't appreciated his preference and been grumpy about it!!
I realised that 'grumpy' was rage on my inside, but I had at least kept a lid on it at the time, but he still noticed and remembered.
It was a cool moment as we talked and resolved that flashpoint and how we might do stuff together differently - we have had some fun times since deciding together what we do and when, which mostly means I play what he wants to, but the process of compromise is good for both of us I think! :o)
Do you experience rage?
Do you have a friend/someone you could share with?
Where can you find support to explore the underlying feelings?
Would it help to leave an anonymous post?
Can you give me any advice?!!
Thanks for listening xx
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