Belinda Alexandra - Tuscan Rose

I read this book set for the most part in Italy before and during the world was into the wee hours of the morning. For people who might want an idea of what it was to live under fascism and il duce without being bogged down with the academic, it is an interesting read. Given the period within which it is set, there is reference to the 2nd world war, the conquest of Abyssnia - Ethiopia, Fascism and Nazism.

 

What fascinated me was the complicated story of Rosa (Tuscan Rose) who we see at the beginning of the book being sent to a convent as a child. The story is compellining because I wanted to know who Rosa was and was unable to guess until the end of the book.  All through the book Rosa forms surrogate families - from the nuns at the convent de santo spirito, her friends when she worked as a governess, Sibilla at the prison, At the hospital as she worked as a nurse, the Montagnanis, fighting with the patriots and eventually with Antonio.  Her life was not easy and "Sisyphus" was ever present such that every time she made two steps ahead there was something that pulled her back. Leaving the convent & Madre Maddalena, imprisonement under false pretexts, losing her job for having a louse, not being able to 'bond' with Luciano who loved Italy more than he loved her, losing all her friends. Yet each time she never lost hope. She loved enough to survive despite the impossible choices that she faced.

 

Florence must have been a small place with everybody's life linked with everybody else's.  What intrigued me was the life of Giovanni  Taviani & the kids he left behind, the deep secrets of Scarfiotti family and the nuns of Santo Spirito.  Reading the book made me have an peek into the life of adopted children, illegitimate children, single women & women in general in a very closely knit and family oriented place as Italy.

 

I am still searching for an answer as to why the nations wage war.  Is it simply greed & pride or looking to distribute resources that are not enough for all of us? Even in apparently restive places like Florence. The buzz word in this day and age is inclusive growth...the indifference towards one another. But is that alone able to save us from one another?

Carolina de Robertis - Perla

Perla is a difficult story both in the mystic way that it is written - that is so popular in South American novels - and the story line that it seeks to explore. A story that must be told about a brutal dictatorship in Argentina at a different time and place. 

 

Although the story supposedly ends in triumph as the protagonist Perla discovers herself, it is tragic because it unravels the life of Luisa and Hector Correa who were her 'adoptive' parents and had been on the 'wrong side' of the Argentine wars.  Perla initially is protective of Luisa and Hector even when she knows that they are considered the villains. However when she discovers that she too is one of the disappeared, she takes a stand against them. I  was rather distressed by her ultimate reaction, hence for me, the ending is a tragedy.

The story is about those who disappeared - The desaparecidos - and those who ultimately suffer. Either way, everybody is like a pawn on a chess board and everybody suffers in one way or other. On one side of the divide we have the grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, daughters, sons and friends who lost their loved ones. They demand justice and want the desaparecidos back with life. The problem is that what was done cannot be altered or undone. So those who "lost " are asking for the impossible. Others want to bring the issue to closure as their loved ones are "disappeared" without the dignity of a proper burial. This story is not only about Argentina and if we look deeply we will find similarities in life lived in the past or as we live it today. It is the story of Keith Bennett whose mother has died at a ripe age of 78 and unable to grieve properly for him because she does not know where he was buried by his killers. It is also the story about Kenya's Mau Mau veterans requesting delayed justice from the Imperial Government for atrocities committed by His Majesty's Government at a different time and place. It is the story of various Genocides, Post Election Violences, Various Struggles for Independence & Self Determination  and the Holocaust. It is the story of the wives of the Lonmin Platinum miners in South Africa who ask for their wounded and dead. It is the story of the children of slavery, the aborigine children forcibly taken away from their people and parents and those they left behind.  The indegenous peoples of many lands who disappeared through various conquests. It is really the story of our fallen lives for which we are all guilty...held responsible for the sins of fathers.


Intertwined in the book is  a story about feminism - Interestingly, it is the males who commit the atrocities and the females looking out for their men - seeking a solution for crimes against humanity. The Madres de Plaza de Mayo who demand for justice and the women who assist the disappeared children to discover their families.  The 100 women who appear outside the courts in South Africa....'pleading for leniency for their men'.

On the other hand, we have those who simply followed orders. How do we judge, those who simply carried out their duties to the state with special zeal?  How do we judge Scilingo, Hector and their comrades? Is there atonement and forgiveness for their supposed sins?  How do we judge the police who open fire on the striking miners and dispatch them to  their untimely destiny? I feel drawn towards the plight of Luisa and Hector Correa. With hindsight, I think that Perla has "judged" them too harshly when she discovers that she was not their biological child and that she, Perla, is one of the disappeared children.  She leaves without giving Hector, the father who brought her up and loved her, a chance to explain himself...To understand his demons...To explain his position and atone for his sins. To resolve the Argentine conflict, there was immunity for those, whose duty it was to make people disappear.  This however did not resolve the problem for those affected by the disappearances on either side of the divide.  It was simply the easier path... the lesser evil  between so many other poor options and choices.  So Perla is no different from her 'friend' Romina who shunned her when she 'discovered' that Perla's supposed father (Hector) was on the wrong side of the Argentine problem.  I would have been happier if Perla had demonstrated character like Gabriel for whom it did not matter either way.  The sentence that reminds me about the fate of the affected - whichever side of the divide one finds oneself - is ..."Don't talk me about demons, until you have wrestled down your own".  To judge a man or woman- unless you too have walked on the same road that they have trodden, with the same shoes and under the same circumstances and context - is an exercise in futility.

The other compelling issue was the role of the all powerful church that sanctioned the disappearances.  The dilemma the church is facing  is great, being at the forefront of so many social problems like slavery, wars, questionable policies, crimes against humanity, outright theft, fleecing people of hard earned money, child abuses and yet not standing up to be counted.  When Perla's father disappeared, "He had a God and when the dark swallowed his mind, he reeled and broke and soared out to find him, pray to him - Pater noster qui es in caelis"... The problem though is not the Almighty God of mercy and grace but the people who purport to represent him on earth.  It is those that I am tempted to rile against...those who stand by and actively taunt people as they descend into  holes that have no bottoms...and do this in the name of God.  Can we, who are guilty by extension for sins of commission and omission,  honestly find grace, mercy and atonement when we pray,  in whatever tongue that enables us seek penance best?







"Padre nuestro que Estás en los cielos, Perdónanos nuestras deudas..Baba Wetu, Uliye Mbinguni, Utusamehe makosa yetu...Our Father who art in Heaven, Forgive us our trespasses...Notre Père, qui es aux cieux, Pardonne-nous nos offences...Pater noster qui es in caelis, dimitte nobis debita nostra...Wuonwa manie polo, Wenwae gopewa...Jthe witũ wĩ Igũrũ, Na ũtũrekere mathiri maitũ...Papa Wefwe O'uli mwikulu, Okhureshere obuononi bwefwe...Baba wethu osezulwini, Usithethelele izono zethu...Bawo wethu osezulwini, Sixolele amatyala ethu njengokuba

 

Ultimately, the pain we feel is ours alone. People move on...distracted by other things like Argentina hosting the 1978 World Cup.  But there are those for whom the pain - whatever pain - will never go away.  It does not matter that in the big scheme of things, they are few and have to be sacrificed for the greater good. I think of my boss from Argentina and regret that I never really took time to ask him about events at that time. I knew so little about Argentina until I watched the fictionalised Evita Peron personified by Madonna. Every time I think about Argentina, I come back to the song " Don't Cry For Me Argentina....The Truth Is I never left you". I also think about Diego Maradona - the greatest footballer of all time and the beautifully sounding Buenos Aires.

For those who struggle with the demons that plague them, we can only be reminded by the words of Perla to Gabriel  - Please Don't Give Up On Me.

Jhumpa Lahiri - Interpreter of Maladies

This book is amazing. It is nine short stories of different people in different circumstances that are an easy read as short stories should be. The stories leave you unsatiated - begging for more - but without the pleasure of asking the author whether there is a sequel. Perhaps there is more to be told but perhaps that is really the end of the story and there is no more to add.

When I read the book, I had just come from a malady that needed to be 'interpreted'.  I marvelled at times when one is sick and under the weather and one cannot explain to the Doctor just what one feels except that they have some malaise. I wondered how Doctors manage to treat patients who have clear symptoms but for whom the tests reveal nothing.  (No wonder doctors have 'invented' placebos and my people are often known to sigh with desperation that some sinister powers were at play.) After paying hefty consultation fees and lab tests, the Doctor was none the wiser and adviced me to rest and take lots of water. I stared at the doctor incredulously as I expected my sickness  to be intepreted beyond being told the obvious.  I was also drawn to the  short story titled 'Treatment of Bibi Haldar'. Can one have a disease that cannot be interpreted and hence cannot be dealt with?

In Jhumpa's book, the interpreter of maladies has the fanthom task of 'translating' people's maladies into a language the Doctor could understand as the patients and the doctor were on very different language planes.  It must have been difficult for the interpreter as for the patient. The Doctor-Patient relationship has a lot of sanctity and a third party should not really be privy to the secret ailings of the patients.  This reminded me of my dad's Somali patients from Mombasa's old town.  They often came with the neighbours to interpret their maladies.

 

My best story was that of Mrs Sen. I cannot rationally explain why I was drawn to this story most.  The relationship between little Elliot and Mrs Sen.  Mrs Sen drew much comfort in her ward who - though a child - understood her challenges.  Challenges of being in a foreign land...

I loved the 'Third and Final Continent'.  As we are in the race to our respective destinies, I could not but admire the indefatigable 103 year old Mrs Croft. I  was quite touched by sentence burried somewhere in the narrator's thoughts....when my son is discouraged, I tell him that if I can survive on three continents, then there is no obstacle he cannot conquer.

When all is said (read) and done, I enjoyed all the stories. Different Strokes.

Madeleine Albright - Prague Winter

This is a personal story of remembrance and war from the period 1937 to 1948 from the perspective of Madeleine Albright.

Reading the memoir, I was not the wiser as to why the 2nd World War took place and whether indeed things would have been different had different choices been made. Why must the nations wage war? That said, it is a book that I would every person on earth is able to read and perhaps, with hindsight, conclude that some of the positions taken by mankind leave a lot of destruction in their wake and take eons for future generations to unravel.  When all is said and done, I would like to understand the positions taken by Hitler and Stalin. At least, the Russians have tried to sanitise Stalin whereas the Germans are forever scarred by the Hitler question. For intellectual discussion's sake, one would like to objectively understand what the experiment was all about?  Why is it, as indicated by Madeleine that the German sins of Aryanisation received more flak than the Czech revenge after the war even though the actions were the same in many ways.

In the then Czechoslovakia the story was about Czechs, Slovaks, Bohemians, Slavs, Jews, Poles, Romas, Germans etc who attempted to build a nation state. It reminds me of our very own problem where we talk about Kikuyus, Kambas, Kalenjins, Pokots, Tukanas, Luos, Luhyas, Somalis, Mijikenda and a plethora of other people groups.  My people are now waxing lyrical about those who are marginalised and what it means for their people to be part of that nation state. However, as is so obvious very few people, then as now are full blooded and there are some who have chosen a certain grouping out of choice and convenience.

It is a book that students of politics might be advised to read to understand the futility of some of the positions taken or not taken. Most positions are agreed on - for the interests of the big states. So even now as we ponder the Arab spring - which is the topical issue of our day and age - we must understand that there is always more than meets the eye.

I have never really understood the religious question. This is not for lack of trying. Is it not possible to be Czech and Jew? Later during the Balkan issues I always wondered about the reference to Croats, Serbs and Muslims. Wasn't Muslim a misnomer given that it is a religion and not necessarily a race. Couldn't one be Croat & Muslim or Serb & Muslim? Like Madeleine can one purport to be Jew, Catholic and Episcopal together. As Salim wisely reminded mum and I, "we are all aiming for the same purpose and so there is no good reason to fight". It is not clear whether there will be multiple heavens, the same heaven with different groupings or just one heaven with one grouping. Wouldn't it be better in a family to hedge our bets...just in case.

One must read the book - as one might read a history book in an attempt to understand what exactly happened in Europe during the great war. Of course with the knowledge that all the reasons why can never really be understood in this age.  The sad thing is that people lost families, families were displaced and others lost their lives fighting a war that they never really understood or cared about.  One might be tempted to say that, when all is said and done, the Munich declaration, the Marshal Plan, the Holocaust, The Benes decrees, The cold war, The 1st and 2nd world wars etc were man's way of trying to resolve or avenge a problem in the best way they knew how. However each time there was always someone who felt aggrieved by the consensus that had been taken.

One cannot but be puzzled by the decisions that were taken by different people when push came to shove. There are those who actively betrayed their own, those who collaborated with the enemy, those who fought against an actual or perceived injustice etc. It reminds me of the mau mau insurrection, where it is said that those who collaborated came out winners and those who fought came out as losers. What should we do in trying to understand then how history should shape the decisions we take. Perhaps with hindsight we would not really judge people too harshly unless we walked the paths they walked in the same shoes they wore. 

Last but not least, who is to say which season is better - Winter, Spring, Summer or Autumn.

JMAW - Huu ukulima gani, usiwo umadhubuti?

Wizara ya Ukulima, Watu  twawalilieni
Mbegu zetu zimenyima, kweli sasa kuna nini?
Afisa Afisi Nzima, Saa zote ni kitini
Tembeeni Mashambani, Kenya tupate uzima

Kila siku shambani, Asubuhi na mapema
Mwalima fikirini, Mbona mazao si mema?
Twaomba saidieni, Afisa wa ukulima
Tembeeni mashambani, Kenya tupate uzima

Asubuhi kavaa suti, ati yuenda kazini
Kazi yake ni kuketi, kwani yuandika nini?
Kisha kasoma gazeti, angoja kwenda nyumbani
Huu ukulima gani, usiwo umadhubuti

Mbolea tumenunua, urea na kadhalika
Hatujapata kujua, mbolea navyotumika
Ni heri kama mwajua, kwanini twataabika
Kaeni ndani madukani, taabu tufananua

Raisi katoa wito, Rudini kwenu shambani
Kwani ninyi watoto, 'sojua bora ninini?
Hebu fateni wito, shambani ndipo kazini
Kulima siyo kuzini, Na shamba si penye moto

Huu ukulima gani, usiwo umadhubuti?