my own brand of politics

Flags and Amor Patriae

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Tony and I were in Yasmine Hammamet on our date last Friday when I saw a gorgeous fringed scarf in the colors of the new Libyan flag. My romantic husband bought it for me on the spot, along with a matching tie tack for himself. Five minutes later we were in the grocery store, and were stopped by a couple who saw our regalia. They were Libyans who had fled to Tunisia twelve days before. We were happy to be able to express to them our sincere wishes for a speedy and felicitous ending to the conflict now raging in their country.… Read more

Propaganda, Pathos and Power

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Yesterday the Syrian ambassador to France defected in protest of the government’s violence against civilians. Oh, wait, actually she didn’t. The truth is, nobody really knows what did or did not happen. Yesterday France 24, a French television network, broadcast a telephone interview in which Lamia Shakkour, the ambassador in question, announced her resignation. Little more than an hour later, Syria state television broadcast a different telephone interview in which Ms. Shakkour denied resigning. She later actually appeared on television (not by telephone this time) in front of the Paris Syrian Embassy, confirming that she had not resigned, and threatening to sue France 24.… Read more

Tears for Syria

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Yesterday Tony and I went on a really lovely date. It was one of those beautiful, still, early-summer nights, where sunset fades gently into a blue velvet canopy of stars spread out brightly over a calm sea. We were sitting beside a fountain just outside the walls of the 15th-century Hammamet Medina. The antique streetlights cast a warm glow over the walls and falling water. It felt like a picture out of the Arabian Nights. I couldn’t help but think back to Syria, and my first experiences in the magical world of mosques, minarets, and medinas. It’s a world rocked now by the winds of change, punctuated sharply by the iron-clad pounding fists of despots.… Read more

Roses and Transformations

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

“These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. . . . We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.” – G.K. Chesterton

After yesterday’s delightful romp through the mildly feminist Disney version, I thought today we might consider some other, more subtle aspects of Beauty and the Beast.… Read more

Movie Night: Beauty and the Beast

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

We haven’t had a movie night since the obligatory viewing of all six Star Wars episodes when we first moved to Tatooine. I’m not a huge Disney fan, but I love Beauty and the Beast, partially because it was my favorite fairytale before the Disney version ever existed. And partially because if you asked me the “Disney Princess” question, after making sure that I forcibly prevented you from then asking it of my six-year-old daughter (whom I have so far successfully shielded from the Disney Princess frenzy), I just might confess that I am Belle. Or at least I was Belle as a teenager.… Read more

An Angel in Haiti

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Every so often, your path is crossed by someone truly extraordinary. Someone who changes the way you understand life, and opens your eyes to new vistas of possibility. Someone who seems to know instinctively how to make the world a more beautiful place, and bring out the best in everyone else.

I first heard about Jennifer Gallardo when I was newly pregnant with my first child. My midwife lent me an incredible video portraying babies being born peacefully under the water. It had been filmed at Jennifer’s Andaluz Birthing Center near Portland, Oregon. And at her other Andaluz Birthing Center in Guatemala.… Read more

The O’Bamas of Ireland

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Yesterday evening my Irish facebook friends were swooning over President Obama’s visit and speech in Dublin. So of course I had to go read it. Like most Obama speeches, it was a masterpiece: eloquent without loquaciousness, inspiring without mawkishness, and peppered throughout with his own charming brand of self-deprecating humor. He complimented the Guinness, invoked George Washington, Fredrick Douglass, and John F. Kennedy, and prophesied a grand future for both nations.

And get this: he was in Ireland in the first place to rediscover his Irish roots. A great-great-great grandfather emigrated to the United States when the potato famine hit his tiny town of Moneygall.… Read more

From Paris with Love (and Revolutionary Zeal)

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

The facts are these: Tunisia is in a bit of a funk. Last week the former Interior Minister made a snide but serious jibe about an imminent military coup. After hundreds of protesters took to the streets amid clouds of tear gas, the interim government responded by announcing the possible deferment of the all-important constitutional election in July. The purported reason for the delay is “logistical problems.” Unfortunately, everybody knows that the main “logistical” problem is that the Islamic party is currently favored to win the election. In fact, that very probability was the impetus for the former Minister’s joke/threat in the first place.… Read more

Crime and Punishment, Bin Laden-Style

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Yesterday two friends (one Tunisian and one British) separately made a point of congratulating me on the killing of Osama bin Laden. At the time, I was so taken aback I had no response for them but a mumbled deprecation. You see, I had never before pictured what I would do if someone congratulated me on the death of another person. However, since then, and since Sunday, I have spent plenty of time giving it thought.

For my two well-meaning friends and for all of you, my response is twofold:

First, my sensibilities rebel at the idea of celebrating death. Anyone’s death.… Read more

Tragedy in Syria

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

It has been a month since I last wrote about Syria, but I have thought about my favorite Middle Eastern country every single day, and watched the news anxiously, hoping for some miraculous happy-ever-after. Since then, any illusions that President Bashar al-Assad might not be quite as bad as his infamous father have been washed away in rivers of blood. Over 500 civilians have died at the hands of the Syrian military during the past six weeks, with 62 killed just yesterday in protests that brought 15,000 Syrians to the streets of Damascus alone. The southern city of Daraa, where the protests began, is surrounded by a tank blockade that has cut off its citizens from water, electricity, medical support, and even milk for children.… Read more