Maybe I Have, Maybe I Haven't

Although I probably have seen or read something by an African or a Middle Eastern writer I haven't paid that much attention to who writes or directs movies enough to give particulars.  Unfortunately the only ones that I can truly give are the books Things Fall Apart, and The Kite Runner. I think that both of these books are pretty good and are fairly interesting but these are the only two that I can give with confidence of the writer behind the book.

African and Middle East Pop-Culture

The Kite Runner - This is the story about a guy from the middle east who immigrates to America and experiences many hardships in doing so. This is one of my favorite books I have ever read. Although some parts are graphic and hard to read, it's so interesting and gives a great load of detail about life in his community. 

Things Fall Apart - This book gives an insight into a village colonized by white Europeans, who try to force their culture upon them, including religion and government. We see one man's struggle to keep his village pure of the Europeans and how the strongest man in the village rebels. 

Like many other classmates, the only books I have read or can remember written by an African or Middle Eastern are those that we have read in school. I've like both these books, the Kite Runner in particular, for they both tell stories of struggle and hardship. 

Middle East-Media/Literature

Here are a list of media and literature that reference or center around the middle east:

Things Fall Apart

The Kite Runner

Infidel- Deep book. Incredible insight into life in an Islamic state as a woman. A chronicle of the terrible injustices that are committed upon women in the middle east. A personal account and memoir. Just scrumptious.

Babel

The Kite Runner

The Kingdom

Generation Kill (HBO)

The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (Doc.)

Munich

Syriana- A particularly interesting movie that portrays the absolute significance of oil in the middle east and the exaggerated politics behind it.

Rendition

Charlie Wilson's War

In the Valley of Elah

Saddam (HBO)

Pop-culture/MENA/Africa

The Kite Runner: A book about a boy who immigrates to America from the middle east, and the hardship he experiences along the road.

Things Fall Apart: getting old

To be honest I have not read much about Africa let alone the Middle East. However, I have never really affiliated the term pop-culture with many African nations. 

Foreign Approval

After reading the section on "The Question of Palestine" in our book, I was convinced that the United States granted itself the authority without the right. To quote the book: "After World War II, the Zionists turned for support to the United States, and in March 1948, the Truman administration approved the concept of an independent Jewish state..." The question of Palestine was answered by the United States, yet how can we decide the borders, let alone the existence of a nation. To me, this is an example of the United States flaunting its love for democracy and peace in a land where democracy is unheard of, and peace is limited. On page 835, we can see that perhaps the state of Israel is not as concrete and defined as president Truman would have liked it to be. 

Land should have been distributed to the Jews. An independent nation was called for, especially after a horrific event such as the holocaust. Uniting the Jewish population under one state sounded/s like an idea worth fighting for, and the fight prevailed, or did it? Israel is now marked by the feuding war taking place with its neighbors. Was what Truman did the right thing to do? The idea was backed by logical thinking, but strategically, the thought process of the location was controversial. This is evident when looking at the present day.

Borders laid out in the Middle East are something not to be reconfigured. The United States did such, and now the state of Israel and its Arab neighbors are fighting over the answer given.

Pop Culture: Africa and the Middle East

Unfortunatelty, I do not have a very extensive knowledge of African literature or the Middle East or Africa in other media. I have--like everyone else--read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The story--simply put--is about a village of Igbo people that is invaded by white missionaries who hope to convert them to Christianity. In general, I was not a big fan of this book. Frequenty it was very sexist (and although I realize that this is probably an accurate rendition of the village and its people, I still don't like or agree with it), and the plot--while it was well-written in that it wasn't a novel harshly condemning the white men for their actions--did not have much depth to it besides telling the same story from two different points of view.
As for movies, I have seen The Battle of Algiers, which we saw in class.

Oil in the Middle East

As many people before me have observed the major oil-producing areas do seem to be in the lowly elevated parts of the Middle East, and most of them are near water. If this is the case though, why is there an area that crosses the Iraq border with Armenia, which on the topographical map appears to be relatively highly elevated, however is apparently one of the major oil-producing areas on the map in our book? It's also obvious on the oil map that many of the oil producing areas cross from one country into another, which is an obvious source of conflict in the Middle-East since everyone wants it for themselves.