In one
of my earlier posts, I have written about Saudi women. Today, I am glad to do
it once again because their political situation is going to change a lot. For
the first time, they are allowed to be not only voters, but also candidates in elections.
The local elections take
place today. There are “more than 1,000 female
candidates in the running, compared with more than 6,000 men” and “Some
100,000 women have registered to vote, meanwhile, compared with more than
400,000 men.”
The
women are excited and look forward to the elections. They want changes and
believe they are ready to them but on the other hand, they know the situation
in their country. Rather than radical transformations, they want respect and
tolerance for everyone. It is also interesting what they say about this
watershed moment: they reject western point of view, claiming they have their
own. Of course, it is a step towards gender equality but they want also to
stick to their rules. For example, one of the female candidates claims she
respects conservatives and in case of her victory, rather than force them to
change, she prefers a dialogue.
All in
all, not many women are expected to win because they are not experienced. However,
it is a very significant moment in the history oef Saudi Arabia.
Have you heard
about magdas hotel? It is a unique
place which staff is composed of refugees from many different countries. However,
it is not a social assistance project, they are legal workers and they earn
normal salary.
Magdas hotel is situated in Vienna in Austria. Its slogan is
“stay open-minded”. They employ refugees in order to give them chances for a
better life. Majid from Iraq, Dinnis from Guinea-Bissau, Maryam from Marocco –
they could find an asylum there and start a new, normal life. They are members
of persecuted religious minority or political refugees, they flee civil wars
and poverty. They can earn their living there by cleaning rooms and cooking
breakfast.
The hotel is
located in an old building established in 1960s. It has been restored and
designed by architecture firm with the help of Caritas and now it looks very
modern, minimalistic and elegant. No surprise, then, that it attracts guests. All
the more reason for visiting it is a relatively low cost of renting a room. And
the restoring of the hotel was not an expensive venture because the most of the
furniture is up-cycled: tables and nightstands are made from in-built closets,
while coffee tables and shelves are made from desk tops from an art school. It seems that
furniture from magdas hotel is
thought to start a new life, just like its staff.
So it is an
extraordinary hotel, which aim is to promote creation of opportunities. But on
the other hand, it functions as every other hotel. You can read more about it
here:
Last time,
I came across a documentary by Vice about Saudi women. More precisely, it is
about Ziyah Gafic, a photographer who decided to “photograph them [Saudi women] and interview them in their
private spaces”. And the video tells the story of his project.
As I do not know much about Saudi Arabia (and
much less about the women), I was very curious to watch it. That also
encouraged me to get to know more about the country itself.
One of the
most significant facts about Saudi Arabia is that it was a Muslim kingdom from
its origins. After conquering successively regions in central Arabia, Ibn Saud
established the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 with Sunni Islam as the
official religion. He declared himself a king. Since its origins, the state has
had six kings. They all originate from the House of Saud.
The
influence of strict religious rules has been considerable until now, which is
visible in the clothing, among others. As we know, Saudi women generally go
outside dressed in abaya - long, black dress. One of the women explains: “For
every occasion, we do have different kind of abaya. Fashion designers, they
would have business only to sell abaya and women of course like it”. She says
also that they have their favourite fashion designers and patterns.
However, in
the video, we see women without cover, sitting in their houses and telling
about themselves.
It is
interesting to learn that they are successful writers or businesswomen. They
express opinions about their work, their life and the society they live in. One
of them said that “Saudi Arabia is an advanced country and it’s keeping with
the rest of the world”. She regretted that many people think negatively about
the country. “But if they visited Saudi Arabia, they would definitely change
their perspective”. She also tried to convince that Saudi women are not
oppressed, they are like the other women. “A lot of people think they are
tempered. But the truth is they are very active but behind the scenes. (...) I
consider achieving a lot.” – added the other one.
“All of the
women we met, they all work and they all have college degrees”, said Ziyah
Gafic. He is right: they speak English, they run their own businesses, they
seem self-confident and optimistic. Even if they probably do not represent all
Saudi women, it seems that the stereotypic image of Muslim woman is not
entirely true. On the other hand, I would like to know more also about the rest
of the Saudi women, without college degrees and who do not work. I am sure
their stories would not be the same.
“If the
issue that we are dealing with is that Muslim woman is underrepresented in the
media, then I wanted to dedicate my attention to her.”, said Ziyah Gafic. I
think he achieved his aim.
Today, I would like to write some of the most
interesting facts about Belgium. This country was established in 1830, so it is
very young if compared to the rest of countries of the Europe. However, in such a
short time Belgium has managed to develop its own unique history, traditions
and culture.
The first thing that comes to mind if we talk about
Belgium is probably the fact that Brussels is the capital of European Union. The
country is also widely known for its comics, waffles, fries and chocolate,
considered as one of the best in the world.
The territory of Belgium was habited as far back as
100 BC by Celtic and Germanic peoples but the way to the creation of the
sovereign state was very long. Belgium did not become independent until 1830,
after the secession from the United Kingdom of Netherlands. After the success
of Belgian Revolution, a Kingdom of Belgium was proclaimed. Since that time,
Belgium participated actively in European politics. It became a member of
Benelux, NATO and EU. It possessed its own colonies.
The country is divided into three regions: Flemish
Region, Walloon Region and Brussels Capital Region. It is bilingual, or rather
trilingual, because apart from Dutch and French, it recognizes also German as
official language. However, the German-speaking community is not numerous. What
is interesting, in almost all the country every official information
has to be written in Dutch and French. Only in the German-speaking part of
Walloon Region inscriptions are written in French and German.
Recently,
Grimes released new song, which is a great reason to write about her. J She is not only a musician and
singer-songwriter, but also a producer and music video director. She is born
and raised in Vancouver, but she did not get interested in music until she
moved to Montreal, where she came in order to study neuroscience (!).
One of her
friends, involved in the underground electronic music scene, introduced her to
the techniques of making music. She liked it very much and quickly started to
neglect her studies because she
preferred to develop her music skills rather than attend classes. Luckily, this
choice turned out to be advantageous to her. Today, Grimes is one of the most
prominent figures of contemporary electronic music.
The story
about her stage name is very interesting. In one of the interviews, Claire
Boucher (because that is her real name) explained that she wanted a pseudonym that
would be “something aggressive and masculine” as not to stand out from the
other electronic musicians who were (and still are, though it changes) mainly men.
And what
about the new track? It is called “Realiti” and was shot during Grimes’ tour in
Asia. Even if it was released a few time ago, I have listened it from that
moment many times and it puts me in a good mood every time, so I want to share it with you. :)
I like the idea of music
festivals. One of my favourite is Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival,
called commonly Coachella Festival. It is a music event that takes place every year in
Indio, California. It was founded in 1999 and became one of the most remarkable
music festivals (“the best music festival”, according to Rolling Stone) that presents almost 200 artists on eight stages
during three days.
Since the
festival promotes diversity, music fans have occasion to see performances of
such different artists as Azaelia Banks, Drake (hip hop), Hozier (indie rock,
soul, blues), Charles Bradley (funk, soul), Belle and Sebastian (indie rock) or
John Talabot (house music, electronic), Kiesza, Kimbra, Jack White, Florence +
the Machine... In fact, the festival have presented yet the impressive number
of widely-known artists, so it would be much easier to enumerate rather those
who did not have ever performed there.
I am a big
fan of baking, especially of Christmas and Easter baking. I enjoy the time of
preparing dough with all the additives a lot, then waiting impatiently for results and
finally, seeing everyone helping themselves.
As some
members of my family have food allergy, this year I decided to try to bake some
vegan cakes. I chose a traditional poppy-seed cake with icing and lemon muffins.
Muffins are definitely not one of the Polish dishes, I know! But we all like them
and that is why I wanted to bake them, too. Fortunately, it was very easy to
prepare them, because I had many other things to do.
I strongly
recommend you this lemon version of muffins: the time of baking is short, the
preparation – very easy, and they taste so delicious J All you need is flour, sugar, baking soda,
water, oil, and a lemon. I do not remember the address of the site where I
found the recipe but I am sure you may easily find it if you try to write “vegan
lemon muffins” (the original version contains also poppy seeds but I omitted it)
in your browser.
Some time ago, during
the lesson, we read a fragment of Arudhati Roy’s book, “The God of Small
Things”. I liked it a lot and decided to search more information about Roy, who
I had not know earlier, and her book.
First of all, the
book is about two brothers’(twins) childhood. Behind that children’s story, Roy
shows the discrimination of women in India and familial tragedies. The
socio-political context is an important aspect of the book as well.
The title may sound a
bit mysterious. According to Wikipedia, “The book is a
description of how the small things in life affect people's behaviour and their
lives.”
The interesting fact
is that the book, published in 1997, is the first and the only one novel by
Roy. it won Booker Prize and became a bestseller.
However, it was only
a part of her career. Earlier, she had wrote the screenplays for her husband’s
(who is a director) films. And after
“The God of Small Things”, she started to write essays on politics so that now she
is known mainly as apolitical activistinvolved inhuman rightsandenvironmental
issues.
Last Monday, I participated in „the day of Canada”,
organised by our university. It was a great occasion to get to know something interesting about
this unusual country, famous for its bilingualism.
One of the lectures concerned Nancy Huston, the author
of many fiction and non-fiction novels, plays and books for children. She was
born in 1953 in Calgary and grew up in Canada and United States. She spent also
some time in Germany when she was a little child and later, at the age of
twenty, she came to Paris for the purpose of studying. She earned a master’s
degree there under the supervision of Roland Barthes. She stayed in Paris and
it was there that she learned French, her language of literary expression.
Nancy Huston is one of the authors who translate their
works themselves, which is very intriguing about her because not so many authors do that. Even more so
because French is not her first language, but she had said that this
foreignness paradoxically helped her to find her literary voice. She had got to
use to be a foreigner because of numerous removals in the past and finally, she
had accepted the role of a foreigner as her own choice and the way of being. What’s
more, she considers her self-translation as a fact of re-writing (réécriture),
so she privileges the uniqueness of a language and she perceives a translation
as a new, different text.
Few days
ago I found a very interesting and informative commentary concerning the murderous
attack in Paris which shocked the public opinion.
It all
happened in January and now, two months later, we all already know the most
important facts about the incident: the place, the time, the reasons, the
organisation the terrorists identify with and the identity of the victims. We
all know the official statements about the incident as well. They are summarised
by the most popular phrase in media: “Je suis Charlie”: a sign of intolerance
towards the violation of the freedom of speech and the solidarity with victims.
Of course,
we are right to “be Charlie”, but it is essential to learn something more and
to understand how it was possible that such a tragedy happened. That is why I
was glad to stumble upon an interview
with Yasmina Khadra. He is a well known French-speaking author from Algeria and he is a Muslim.
In the
beginning, he said that even if he had witnessed many Algerian tragedies, he
was still shocked, because “nobody can get used to that atrocity”. Then he was
asked about his opinion on the Algerian origins of the terrorists and the fact
that the Muslim community was accused of responsibility for the attack. He replied
that the origins and nationality were not important and that a murderer might
have been identified only by their act. That is why he does not feel any link with
them. To him, it is only an act that counts, and not whole background (the
contrary of what the media often says). What is more, the Algerian origins
could not significantly influence this act because those who are guilty, were born
and brought up in France.
He also
insisted on the fact that the Muslim community had nothing to do with the
attack because these were only Islamists who are responsible. He claimed that “this
reaction of condemning Muslims is a huge mistake”. By saying that, he wanted
people to stick to the definitions and not to confuse groups that are not
related to each other.
To him, the
problem is that different groups have different values that are “sacred” and try to impose them one to another. If there is
no dialogue, it will always be impossible to put an end to the conflict of which
the attack was just an extreme symptom.
That are just some of the opinions of Khadra. The whole
interview below (with English subtitles):
Since music
is one of the things I like the most, I would like to write about St. Vincent,
musician and singer-songwriter I listen to very often, especially now, after
the release of her last, self-titled album.
If I had to
decide what I like the most about her, it would be professionalism and great
preparation for each concert, the incredible voice that always sounds good,
even at live performances, an unusual talent to compose music or, finally, her
new look including very curly hair dyed pale blue.
She was
born in 1982 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
She got interested in music very early and started playing guitar as an
adolescent. At that time her uncle who is guitarist impacted her a lot, even if
he admitted not having encouraged her to play very much. Her early career
included playing in the Polyphonic Spree and also in Sufjan Steven’s touring
band, but it was not enough to her. That is why she decided later to make music
on her own.
Her music
style is not easy to describe and it still changes (which is probably the case
of the majority of artists today). However, it may be described now as a
mixture of indie rock, chamber pop and cabaret jazz (that is what wikipedia
says). She has released five albums. The one I like the most is Strange Mercy, but this time I want to present you
a song from the newest one. It is energetic and ingeniously composed:
