FEAST OR FAMINE

Albanian author, Ismail Kadare, sets The Successor (2003) in his homeland in 1981. The man soon to succeed the dictator, Enver Hoxha, was shot dead on the night of December 13. The government announces his suicide due to “nervous depression.” International press report two possibilities: suicide or murder. In a time of upheaval in the Balkans when Outer Albania (Kosovo) had been put down and in a time when suicide was “a mortal stain,” intelligence analysts conduct an investigation into The Successor’s death. It was said that The Successor’s decline began in September when he moved to a new residence and announced his daughter’s engagement. The suitor broke off the engagement. “People may have slaughtered each other, may have flayed each other alive, but not once had a wedding been postponed, let alone cancelled!” An autopsy was conducted, but revealed nothing. Perhaps it was murder. Around midnight on the evening of his death, a man had been seen slipping into ...

On Thursday May 26, Georgians celebrated Independence Day with parades, tanks, helicopters and a spectacular fly-over.

At a two-day conference in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-administered Pakistan, on 23-24 May, Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani urged the world to assist in the peace efforts in Kashmir. He said the “dream of peace” was a global issue at the conference organized by the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) University. Gilani, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, said that no significant development could take place in south Asia until the resolution of the Kashmir issue. He called for the need to acknowledge Kashmiri’s rights to self-determination in accordance with the United Nations Resolutions and seeks continuation of Pakistan and India dialogue. PM Gilani, said a Kashmir resolution was instrumental in bringing prosperity to the region. He then inaugurated a number of education and infrastructure projects in the Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot campuses of AJK University and the construction of 25 model schools. Quality education was a key development focus for the region. He also said the go...

The current population of Georgia is 4.4 million according to the National Statistics Office of Georgia. The United Nations Organization registers 4.2 million. Sociology expert, Giorgi Tsuladze of the Institute of Demography and Sociology at Ilia State University, disagrees with both estimates, maintaining it’s closer to 3.8 million. He estimates that it will decrease to 3.5 million by 2015-2020. In 1990 the number of live births in Georgia was over 92,000. By 2002-2003 it decreased to 40,000, the lowest number in the last 20 years. By 2009, the National Statistics Office, the number of births reached 63,000 but fell in 2010 to 61,000. Tsuladze thinks the live birth ratio could be 300,000 per year if each family had over ten children. But given the socio-economic situation, the average maximum is three children. The Director of the Institute of Demography and Sociology, Avtandil Sulaberidze, states that another factor for the expected decrease of live births in the countr...

A two-day conference commences today, May 23, 2011 in Muzaffarabad, Kashmir, to facilitate dialogue on the Kashmir debate. KashmirWatch (kashmirwatch.com) says that participants from Pakistan, India, America, United Kingdom, People's Republic of China, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Republic of Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, France, Germany, Ireland, and from both sides of the Line of Control that separates Kashmir. AJK University will host the event inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yusef Raza Gilani, who is also chair of the Kashmir Council, an elected upper house of the AJK Parliament. India and Pakistan continue dialogue at the government level, but this conference will support global dialogue on Kashmir, inclusive of Kashmiris themselves. This is seen as a positive step forward to open up all views on the issue, not only from its neighbouring countries (including China), but also from all people interested in a peaceful solution to this long dispute...

On Thursday May 26, Georgians celebrate Independence Day. An article in April-May “Modi to Georgia” describes the geopolitical peculiarity that throughout the 2,500 years of Georgian statehood, there was hardly a decade in which Georgia was not invaded. Georgia is probably the most frequently invaded country in the world. The periods of independence are so short that they barely exceed the length of the reign of a single monarch. In the beginning, internal conflict dominated with nobility fighting for the throne, influence and power. Then there were Arabian, Mongol, Iranian, Turk and neighbouring countries invaded Georgia. By the end of the 18th century, the article states, the Russian Empire absorbed Georgia. Although a treaty signed in 1783 secured the status of an independent state for Georgia, it was not put into effect. In 1801 the Georgian Kingdom was abolished and transformed into the Gubernia province. In the 20th century Georgia gained independence twice. The F...

A Short History of Progress (2005) is an interesting representation of history itself. People say “history repeats” but each time it does, the cost increases. Wright, rightly so, describes the 20th century as a time of unprecedented progress. However, with progress there has been an enormous strain on people and their lives. Wright asks the question about the 21st century: how much longer can this continue? Wright answers this question with wittiness and intellect. His book provides the case that history, from Neanderthal man to the Roman Empire and beyond, has always provided an answer. He suggests that history does indeed repeat and it does so through the cyclical nature of humanity’s development.

In May 2011, India calls for dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue with Pakistan. Kashmir sits between India and Pakistan, half administered by India and the other half administered by the Pakistan government. The “Kashmir issue” relates to its political and administrative status: liberation from India, accession with Pakistan, or the formation of a sovereign republic. For dialogue to move forward, the Indian government says that Islamabad (the Pakistan government administering Kashmir) needs to do more to persecute the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. The Indian government calls for Pakistan to do more against terrorists operating from within Pakistan. A senior Indian government representative said that there were “unresolved problems in Jammu and Kashmir for that we have to talk at various levels.” India says that Pakistan has been part of the problem “from the beginning” but that the Indian government is prepared and keen to hold talks. The Mumbai att...

Early on Sunday morning, May 15, 2011, at 2:37am an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 on the Richter Scale was reported in Kashmir, a day after a 4.9 quake. The epicentre was the Hindu Kush mountain range in Afghanistan. To date, there has been no reported loss of life or property damage. About 6-8 quakes have struck the Kashmir Valley over the past two months. The most devastating earthquake hit the area on October 8, 2005, in which thousands were killed and injured during the 7.4 quake and its aftershocks. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Martiniquan writer, Patrick Chamoiseau, has written a powerful and interesting book about a young man, Solibo, who loves to tell a story. Chamoiseau beautifully portrays the conflict between the ancient oral tradition of story-telling and the modern scientific and linguistic reality. On one level, Solibo Magnificent (1999) is a gruesome and bloody burlesque on police methods of investigating a murder. On another deeper level, it is a lament for a disappearing culture of stories, magic, demons and superstition in favour of logic and the written word. It is also a tale of colonial stupidity and inevitability. Chamoiseau’s prose is lyrical and evocative. It is more of an oral history than a verbal study – an attempt to revive the oral history of his culture. He includes himself as one of the characters, contrasting his status as a mere story-teller with the central character, Solibo, the embodiment of a dying culture.

The year 2011 has four unusual dates: 1/1/11; 1/11/11; 11/1/11; and 11/11/11. But that’s not all – take the last two digits of the year in which you were born, add the age you will be this year, and the result will be 111 for everyone. For example, if you were born in 1980, you’d be 31 this year. Adding the last two digits of 1980 to the age is 80+31 = 111. But that’s not all – this year, July and October will have five Saturdays, five Sundays, and five Mondays. This happens only once every 823 years.

The Education Board and the Teachers' Federation debate what to do with rising school skirts in South Korea. As hemlines increase in Korean classrooms, so does the cost in accommodating them. Gangwon's Board of Education says it plans to fit boards to the front of 50,000 desks this year to "help students sit more comfortably in class." The local assembly will soon vote on whether to approve funding for the desk reburshment. The move to add front boards to desks will cost around $700,000. In one survey, school hemlines have reportedly risen 10-15cm (4-6 inches) in the last decade. It is this rise that is making people uncomfortable about seeing too much leg. Teachers support the plan to place "modesty" boards on school desks to prevent unacceptable views and to "avoid misunderstandings." Hower, the Teachers' Federation is against the refurbishment of desks. It condemns the plan as a waste of money. The Federation announced th...

In Dream Catcher (2001), Margaret Salinger writes of her life as the daughter of the famous reclusive writer J. D. Salinger, author of the 1951 mega-best-selling novel The Catcher in the Rye . Margaret chronologically analyses her life through home, school, and university episodes, but the most enthralling snippets are her comparisons between real life and her father’s fictional literary works. She describes the period when her father, Jerry Salinger, lived in a dark apartment with black sheets and black furniture. Readers could be forgiven for trying to compare this period of her father's life with the life of his character Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye . Holden fears that he’ll sink into oblivion. But to say that her father based the fictional character on himself is “too straightforward, too linear and logical”, Margaret Salinger says. Margaret Salinger is caught in a strange world where the boundaries between the fantasy and isolation of films, ...