http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=&k=173&t=0&d=0 I would read that. en-en http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site//img/bf-57.png http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=&k=Array&t=0&d=0 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=2&i=5385 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=2&i=5385 It's very good to see that, slowly slowly, more and more ethnic (whatever that really means) Jews, both outside and inside Israel, recognize the central fallacy on which the state of Israel was founded.
Pappe, professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter, joined these ranks a while ago and, in this book, meticulously shows that the Jews' claim and occupation of the levant was not only in effect an ethnic cleansing of epic proportions, but one that had been prepared for from as early as the 1920. And in such a way that Hitler would have been proud, putting into practice the systematic and total expulsion of the Palestinians from their homelands through, as envisioned,

+ killing Palestinian political leadership,
+ killing Palestinian inciters and their financial backers,
+ killing senior Palestinian officers and officials operating, until the creation of Israel, in the British backed national government,
+ damaging the sources of Palestinian livelihoods,
+ attacking Palestinian villages likely to assist in future attacks,
+ attacking Palestinian social gathering places.

At the start of the Jews, or, if you will, Zionists, putting into practice their ethnic cleansing of Palestine, two thirds of the people in the region now effectively called Israel, were indigenous Palestinians, down from some 90 percent a few decades earlier, with still only 6% of the land owned by Jews. Baffling, then, that the UN appointed 56 percent of the territory to the Jews in 1947, the Jews themselves expanding their de facto ownership only year later to over 80 percent.

The Zionist leadership, with David Ben-Gurion at the helm, could not agree with the partition plan as offered by the UN, the partition, in their eyes, giving Jews a far too small portion of the land, Ben-Gurion going on record with saying things like "[the borders of Israel] will be determined by force and not by the partition resolution".

It's quite amazing how coldly Stalinesque Ben Gurion was operating, totally irregardless of the pain, suffering and death he was leaving in his wake, particularly so short after the second world war, publicly claiming the risk of a second holocaust, while in reality being the perpetrator of one.

The book itself is a tad too academic, containing too much, if horrid, detail to easily keep reading.

In the final chapters, Pappe makes an exceptionally strong point. After an aborted attempt at reconciliation in the late 1940s, the 'peace process' has been about, at best, returning to the 1967 borders, notwithstanding the continuous encroachment israel has deployed onto Palestinian territories. Looking further back has been made not negotiable by Israel, effectively denying the Israeli invasion in 1948 of Palestinian territories and the resulting expulsion of those living in these now occupied areas.
Through this denial of occupation and displacement, and therefore not acknowledging the right of displaced Palestinians to return to the lands from which they were forcibly removed, repatriation has never been a part, even in theory, of the peace process.
No wonder that a solution is not at hand as long as Israel can not confess up to its actions.

Also, Pappe shows that, during the decades since the second world war, Israel has focussed on obtaining more and more land, while more and more reducing the percentage of Palestinians inside its borders. This, by creating and refining the apartheid state it now is.]]> Sat, 02 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0200 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=12&i=5384 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=12&i=5384 It was the smartass Meshrop Martots (spellings of his name, ironically, differ) just over 1600 years ago, who came up with the Georgian and Armenian alphabets. Somewhat based on Greek, but mostly his own invention, tourists from all corners of the world still struggle when coming to the Caucasus. The only advantage being that the alphabets are somewhat congruous with greek and Latin, meaning that most letters in both the Armenian and Georgian alphabets phonetically represent letters that exist in the Latin alphabet.

However, it also means its not always easy to get around using public transport, where destinations are typically only listed in the local script, the occasional Russian alternatives being a welcome change.

But, still, I managed to get to Gori, a village not too far from Tbilisi and home to the infamous Stalin museum. A bit of a must to visit, the museum has relatively little to offer in the little town that, at best, can be described as sleepy.
Though that might change. Here, too, as in Tbilisi, half the buildings appeared to be in the process of being refurbished.

The best aspect of the museum is Stalin's birth house, untouched, in a away covered by its own mausoleum, with the neighborhood that once surrounded it having been bulldozed, the old home now being the eccentric center of town.

On the up, there now is limited attention in the museum for Stalin's (huge) dark side. Apparently, upto a few years ago, the museum still only saw the man in a purely positive light. Not so now. Though the guide, I suspect, still mostly tells the same story, in almost the language of your choice, specifically three large banners, in three languages, draw attention to the millions of deaths Stalin was primarily, if not solely, responsible for.
also, the huge Stalin statue in front of the museum has 'mysteriously' disappeared.]]> Thu, 31 May 2012 00:00:00 +0200 41.9867 44.1137 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=6&i=5327 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=6&i=5327 Comparing internet penetration rates with suicide rates. You can find the data here, which was taken from Wikipedia.]]> Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=12&i=5321 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=12&i=5321 irish Society of Tanzania. Effectively three related confessional monologues by three women, three generations of the same family. One of the actresses was also in the Society's previous play, Bold Girls, which I saw early last year.
The actors needed a few minutes to get into their roles but, once this is done, all put down reasonable performances. The lack of men in the play, all three women's stories to quite some extent having to deal with the influence of men in their lives, is interesting, but doesn't add to the dramatic value and, perhaps, even takes away from it.
The ending, with the break in style, is sudden and surprising, but feels rather artificial. 

The author, Elaine Murphy, confessed that the three women in the play are composites of everyday women she's met over the course of her life. It's quite impressive, then, that Murphy managed to make this play somewhat interesting. Most people have very little interesting to offer.]]> Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=2&i=5317 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=2&i=5317 Excellent investigation into the underlying reasons for war.
Ehrenreich first shows how the hallmarks and idealizations of war have strong similarities with those of religion, perhaps because the fight against a common enemy allows class differences to fall away while making each individual feel part of a larger whole.Ehrenreich then points out that the vast majority of religions are centered around some form of sacrifice, animal or human, and implies that this basis for religions (and war) is not unlikely grounded in the hunting our forefathers did.
However, not in a way to celebrate the hunt by the superior over the inferior, but more like to steel ourselves against the uncertainties and risks involved in hunting animals larger, cleverer and better than us.

The overlap between religion and war is strong. This is hinted at by the roles classic generals played, such as Alexander the Great or Caesar, being both generals and religious leaders. This to the extent where the Pope's job is directly descended from Caesar's religious tasks as the supreme bridge builder, pontiff.

One of the more interesting insights is Ehrenreich's observation that, when homo was slowly moving from the trees to the plains, the big predators surrounding them were both takers and givers of life. Takers, though the obvious predator-prey relationship between, say, big cats and early humans, but also givers of life through early humans' scavenger status in relation to other pray of these bug hunters.
The obvious and likely function of sacrificing, whether animals or other humans, to these outside powers then becomes a mix of keeping the hunters at bay (by satisfying them) while making sure they stay around (like putting out a bowl of milk for stray cats).

Ehrenreich shows that not only has (almost) all religion sacrifice at its core, there is also plenty of suggestive proof that, once, those sacrifices were typically human.

The author then claims that a major transition occurred in prehistoric societies when humans were able to move away from just being pray to also being predator, and it is this transition which until modern times is still commemorated, or reenacted in social initiation rights that still exist.
This change, at the time, must have been nothing short of a revolution, perhaps starting with the burial of the dead, depriving predators the symbiosis humans benefited from before, as scavengers, and is remembered in many of the creation myths, where an often human hero slays a devouring god, heralding a new era.

Related to this, the fight or flight attitude of man in the face of danger is known to trigger a sense of alarm, heightened awareness, and a sense of solidarity, perhaps a result of, in prehistoric times, standing a chance of driving predators away by banding together, making a group of individuals appear and act as a single entity.
These two features, however, are also exactly what happens at time of war; man enters an exhilarating state and bonds.

Another change, perhaps around the same time and possibly for the same reasons as man becoming primarily predator, was the move away from man's depiction and perception of woman as the primary fury. Though Ehrenreich feels less convincing as to why this originally was the perception, it is easy to accept that there must have been a certain awe for woman's ability to periodically bleed, without consequences, while having her menstrual cycle tied to the ever changing moon, while women in groups, apparently as by magic, typically synchronize their cycles.

It is likely that, with the slow disappearance of large predators in prehistoric times and the introduction of weapons which allowed killing at a distance, predation slowly become stalking, where the hunters had no choice but to stay out longer, for days. Though, when operating in groups, women were partaking in the hunt, now, women were the ones staying at home, losing their status of fighters.
Nevertheless, Ehrenreich shows that in many cases, the bloodletting initiation rights, for men, have proven links with women's menstrual bleeding, also for the first time happening at the onset of maturity, when children, helpless before, make their own transition from predator to prey.

The switch from prey-predator to stalker happened around the same time that man started to look towards agriculture as a, at least in part, means of survival, and around the same time that war became a facet of life. With marauding predators and big game being less and less an option for survival, predatory behavior on other humans, perhaps for livestock or possessions, became more and more a viable alternative, with a male warrior class being the heirs to the male hunter-stalking class.
As a result, in many societies, it became war that made men and men that made war. And, consequently, as there is no defense against bands of warriors but to breed warriors yourself, war has had no alternative but to become a major ingredient of society.

Ehrenreich then points out that, starting with Zoroastrianism, the religions popping up in the, roughly, thousand years since, perhaps as a result of the rise of a merchant class and pastoralism losing it's dominance, sacrifice became much less, if at all, part of the religious experience.
Then, the author observes that, particularly in medieval Europe, war and religion started to merge, the warrior class adopting the religion of the underclasses, those providing in the knights' livelihoods, and the church adopting the language and concepts of war, the ultimate union of the two being the holy crusades and the emergence of warrior monks such as the knights Templar.
Sadly, Ehrenreich's explanation as to why this mergin occurred happened feels inadequate.

Then, walking the reader through the democratization of glory, in battle, as a result of the American colonists rediscovering, from the Indians, the stone age way of fighting and the Napoleonic armies building on that, the author claims that the rise of the bureaucratic nation state dovetailed with the rise of the foot soldier and soldiers passions for the fatherland, or nation. This, as opposed to being forced conscripts in the conflicts of the landed gentry, before.

Interesting as it is enlightening, it feels here, that the link between war and religion becomes more tenuous. Interesting, Ehrenreich makes the point that nationalism, as such, the passionate favoring one's own country, would have a hard time to exist if not being defined through conflict, one's own nation fighting major battles against others, not seldom represented in modern times as a battle between predators, countries imagining themselves as lions, eagles, bears or other dangerous animals.
And, as in earlier times, these predators need to be fed regularly, through sacrifice, to stay happy.

Nationalism, Ehrenreich claims, and its American variant, patriotism, are, in turn, throwbacks to a form of religion more typical in ancient times. This, because, artificial groupings that nations are, their leaders had to typically reach back in time to a mythical period in order to create a sense of shared destiny.

In the afterword, added this year to this 1998 book, Ehrenreich suggests that, with war becoming more and more a 'game' played by robots, it might be that, in the not to distant future, with 'war' no longer requiring humans to 'survive', perhaps humans willt no longer need war.
]]> Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0200 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=6&i=5300 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=6&i=5300 My submission for the first Information is Beautiful awards, themed Stock Check. The underlying data was provided, I aggragated them per industry, showing how, over the next 150 years, everything around us will slowly come to a halt.

What do you think?
]]> Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0200 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=12&i=5266 http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=12&i=5266 Ever since entering the European Union some two weeks ago, the weather has been more appropriate for a gloomy September than befitting a central European summer. Arriving in Katowice, the sun peeked out briefly, only to disappear again behind clouds and rain. I really would appreciate a bit more warmth and sunshine, if only for it helping my chances of shooting nice pictures.

Close to Aushwitz, Katowice hasn't got as much to offer as, say, nearby Krakow, the city and area having gained economic ascendency through its industrial prowess. The town, more functional than historical, feels a bit like Antwerp or Rotterdam. Though pretty buildings can be found all over town, it's functional constructions from the 1970s which dominate the city.
Interestingly, for a brief period during the 1950s, from shortly before to shortly after comrade number one's demise, Katowice was passed of as Stalin's city, Stalinogrod.

The region, Silesia, is named after a local river and mountain, Ślęża, of which the etymology has been traced back to the pre-indoeuropean Vandals, coming down from the Baltics in prehistoric times.
Still, though it's not agreed whether Silesians should constitute their own nation, Silesian nationalism, or perhaps pride, is obvious, with the Silesian blue and white flag hanging all over Katowice.
The Silesian language, on the other hand, is most often considered a Polish dialect, not a unique language.

I'm staying in a very pleasant hostel which is clean, quiet and efficient. Katowice not being one of Poland's backpacker hotspots, the scope is limited, meaning that budget options were few, and I resigned to having to sleep in a dorm. Nevertheless, the attributes of the hostel make up for it.
Arriving at four in the afternoon, I went out to take in a bit of the town, including what is said to be the largest monument in Poland, commemorating three Silesian uprisings, a good 80 years ago. I returned after chilling and some good food and drinks around ten in the evening, only to find a bunch of youngsters hanging out in the dorm, on their bunk beds, reading their tattered paperbacks. I took my bottle of Zubrowka, acquired at the Polish equivalent of Aldi, and headed down to the, very nice, common room to nerd and read.


What I don't get and see too often, grandpa mode engaged, is why these 'kids' prefer to read in their bunk beds, while they could be out having a good time for a pittance, or at least relax in a chair. Half a liter of beer at a fancy Irish pub, here, goes for just two euros.
Meanwhile, walking down one of Katowice's main drags lined with pubs, bars and restaurants, I couldn't help but noticing scores of youngsters hanging out on and around the permanent furniture in-between the pubs, smoking and drinking their own beers and vodkas. There is little to discover on a dorm room. It's happening on the street!

The great death factory tourism factory

It's a must to visit Auschwitz, near Krakow, but nearer to Katowice. Last time I was in the area, Krakow, was 16 years ago and I failed this obligatory stop. Not so now.

It's been observed that with ubiquitous access to information and flash tourism, it's the prominent tourism attractions that thrive, while the also rans slowly slump back. That's probably why though access to Auschwitz is normally free, in summer between 10 and 3, you can only access Auschwitz I, the main camp, on a guided tour costing you 40 zloty, about ten euros. Access to Auschwitz II, Birkenau, is still free, but the one and only 'Arbeit macht frei' sign can only be found at the former.
And extremely busy it indeed is.

English tours are held the most often, sometimes as much as every 15 minutes, but even then, my group was so big it still had to be split in three groups of about 20.

The tour was decent enough, if too long, but also lacking. The tour guide was very good at going through, presenting, the logistics of running the death camp, sure. No problem there.


At the entrance of the first building, containing information on and photos of the transports to the camps, the famous quote by George Santayana had been put up, "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it". Obviously, we have not learned; Cambodia, South Africa, Rwanda, Yugoslavia being recent proof. But learning about the logistics of a death camp won't help anyone to understand the underlying causes of these sad events and won't foster the realization of it having happened before, when it happens now or in the future, for there is always the justification which will make it alright, in the eyes of the perpetrators, thinking that 'now' is different from before.

However, if we, in this case visitors of Auschwitz, can understand the reasons for Nazi Germany to so abuse man and understand the fallacies in their thinking, we have a better chance at recognizing these fallacies in our own or others' thinking when they happen, hopefully being able to recognize the build ups to genocide before it occurs.
Sadly, learning how efficient the Germans were is not going to do that.

Getting to Oswiecim, the Polish name for the town, from Katowice, is a bit of a hassle, compared to getting there from Krakow. Only three direct trains a day do the trip, while several bus services ply the route as well, but all starting in different locations in the city and running infrequently.

Real estate

Believing in society as something that could be constructed, the early 20th century saw a number of (social) engineering projects, typically related to then, newly developing industrial projects. Many of these housing estates, often to a large extent self sufficient, were also often built along similar concepts and similar designs.
One example is the Agnetapark in Delft, related to the Gist en Spiritus fabriek (yeast and spirits factory), later Calve, of peanut butter fame, now DSM. Another one is an estate I visited a few years ago in Budapest, Wekerle telep.


Quite similar in design and layout to the latter, but this one built in red brick, is the housing estate in Nikiszowiec, now part of Katowice's municipality.

Nikiszowiec consists of nine ring shaped blocks, three stories high, with each surrounding a large courtyard, landscaped into a semi private park. A nice neo-baroque church complements the settlement, built for the workers of the nearby mineshaft, Nickisch, which started operating in 1906.

For me, slowing down a bit on my schedule of 8 countries in four weeks, taking this extra day in Katowice, I was able to see a few sights slightly off the beaten track. Not only Nikiszowiec, but I also wandered around the city's modernist quarter, which includes a skyscraper of 14 stories which once was the highest building in the country. I also visited what was once the largest building in Poland, the former Silesian parliament, from when Silesia was, briefly, independent, or rather, an autonomous province of the interwar Second Polish Republic.

In other news, finally, after some two weeks, the sun has been shining the whole day. It actually makes this industrial city rather attractive. The summer dress code does help with that.
Still, its weird that for the whole week, the highs are predicted to be higher in Oslo, than here in central Europe.

The sun started shining a day earlier, while in Auschwitz, but by the time I got back to Katowice, and stumbled upon Le Tour de Pologne, sunshine had turned into rain again.

No bucket full of meat

I've been trying to find one of the city's milk bars. No, milk plus is not served, here, these are low priced, almost communal, kitchens serving good food. Or so I'm told. I found one, but found it closed. Three times.
Instead, I ended up at the vegetarian restaurant Zloty Osiol, smack in the middle of town. The food is SO GOOD, I had no choice but to eat there. Three times.

In fact, the only meat I had in Poland was inside two kroket, indeed, written just like in Holland, though of slightly different texture, just before going on my tour of Auschwitz.]]> Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0200 50.2596 19.0219