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Por que este Blog...?
Cuando comence esta aventura cibernetica y abri el blog lo hice con la intencion de publicar el contenido de mis libros, los articulos de opinion escritos en el diario La Prensa de Panama y en otros medios, algunos textos literarios ineditos y mis links favoritos. Poco a poco, y sin experiencia en esto de construir un sitio en la red, arme "la otra orilla". El nombre se lo puse porque me resulta simbolico en muchos aspectos.
Hoy por hoy me encuentro transplantada en Oriente Medio, en uno de los puntos de conflicto mas candentes y desde aqui quiero dialogar con la otra orilla, con las miles de otras orillas que serpentean por el planeta. Ademas, tengo la extraña sensacion de encontrarme en la otra orilla, cuando miro, desde este balconcito levantino, lo que ocurre en el resto del mundo.
La otra orilla es, tambien, la terca esperanza de paz y justicia que no muere, aun cuando, dia a dia, vemos como se nos resquebraja y derrumba esta tierra que es de todos. La excusa perfecta para construir un puente de palabras y de solidaridad humana.
Gracias por estar aqui...
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sharon and my mother in law
Sharon and
my mother in law
Ramallah Diaries
Suad Amiry
Surprisingly funny, and refreshingly different from any other writings on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, describes Suad Amiry's experience of living on the West Bank from the early eighties to the present.
Amiry tells us about the life and gossip of her neighbourhood in Ramallah, her moving family history and the struggle to live a normal life in an insane situation; from the impossibility of acquiring gas masks during the first Gulf War to her dog acquiring a Jerusalem Passport when thousands of Palestinians couldn't.
The book contains a diary Amiry kept during the Israeli invasion of Ramallah in March 2002, when her feisty 92-year-old mother-in-law came to live with them and we learn how daily chores such as buying food and visiting friends and relatives become Herculean tasks for anyone living in a state of siege. With a wickedly sharp ear for dialogue, and an eye for telling details of human behavior, Suad Amiry has written a wonderful and very funny book about the absurdity (and agony) of life in the Occupied Territories.
Reviews
Extremely funny...it provides unique insights into life under occupation. This powerful little volume should be required reading for American neocons.
Sunday Times
Faced with the choice between laughter and tears, Amiry gives us both. Spirited, thought-provoking and shockingly entertaining. Amiry knows how to end a story with laughter, but beneath it lies a steely pragmatism, and it's this that gives hope for the region.
Daily Mail
This books is sharply, gloriously different. This is a book about life under occupation, vivid and immediate enough to make you share what is ludicrous, brutal, ordinary and fantastical about the situation of Palestinians in Palestine; and it's warm, human, sometimes funny.
The Scotsman
A journey into the absurd reality of Occupation...This is a deceptively slight book, an unexpected success in a dozen countries, which conveys a determination to endure against the odds in a good-humoured fragmentary narrative of everyday events.
Independent
A moving and witty book about the Israeli occupation of Palestine... Suad Amiry is an extraordinary woman, capable of expressing the heartbreak of an oppressed people but able also to see the absurdity of the petty rules, curfews, checkpoints and restrictions imposed on the people of the West Bank.
The Irish Times
A shocking depiction of living under Israeli occupation in Ramallah...And yet, somehow, Amiry and her friends retain a wry sense of humour which lets them laugh out loud at the absurdity...her lively writing is suffused with warmth and humanity...a moving, must-read book.
Metro