Sometime back in 2001 or 2002, I went to visit a friend who was working at a hospital near Kisumu, in the western part of Kenya. I hadn’t told him when I was coming, though, so when I arrived he had just left for a long weekend at the beach and since I had no [...]

Gepost in: Africa, Anthropology, English, Injustice, Travel
Geen reacties » | 14 juli 2011

“…More than other groups, [Youth in the Near East] have to face situations in which the cultural scripts, messages and codes of the various agencies of socialization are often inconsistent and irreconcilable. Just witness the disparate and conflicting messages they are being subjected to: religious authority, state, national or secular ideologies, family and kinship groups, [...]

Gepost in: Anthropology, Beirut, English, Middle East, Other author
Geen reacties » | 30 mei 2009

The Lebanese are an opinionated people. (According to many of my friends, this is the reason I feel so at home in Lebanon.) (Many of my friends could very well be right.) And the Lebanese are specifically opinionated about themselves and their society. “We are like this”, they will say, or “we are like that.”
As [...]

Gepost in: Anthropology, English, Lebanon, Typical...
1 Reactie » | 17 maart 2008

When you’ve lived in a country for quite a while, there comes a point at which you think you pretty much know it. You’ve learned how to behave, what is considered polite and what offensive, you know what you can talk about with strangers and what is better left unasked, you even use the right [...]

Gepost in: Anthropology, Beirut, English, Life
5 Reacties » | 4 februari 2008

… if it weren’t so damn tragic.
Today is the last day of the current president’s term. This means that if the current government (pro-Western) and the opposition (pro-non-Western) do not agree on a new guy, by midnight tonight Lebanon will not have a president. Unless, of course, the current president illegally extends his term (yet [...]

Gepost in: Anthropology, English, Lebanon, Politics / Analysis
1 Reactie » | 23 november 2007

“BE-sides: Lebanon through the eyes of young photographers” is the exhibition we are on our way to visiting. Because the organization of the exhibition wants to increase communication and contact between different communities in Lebanon and they want to support the area hit hardest by last year’s war, they have chosen a location in Dahyeh [...]

Gepost in: Anthropology, English, Lebanon
1 Reactie » | 28 oktober 2007

Het Midden Oosten is niet echt een populaire vakantiebestemming dit jaar. Dubai mag dan hot zijn, verder is het meer angstaanjagend dan exotisch met oorlog in Irak, boze aanvalspraat richting Iran, bomaanslagen in Pakistan, bezetting en verzet in Palestina/Israel en dreiging van burgeroorlog (of civil strife – ‘burgerlijke onrust’ zoals ze het hier optimistisch noemen) [...]

Gepost in: Anthropology, Middle East, Nederlands, Syria, Tourism
2 Reacties » | 25 september 2007