I'm currently living close to at least two mosques. I discovered this at around 5 am this morning with the call to prayers. I awoke to a clear, beautiful but somewhat haunting voice which although lovely and evocative, was beginning to make me a bit sad after about 5 minutes. Luckily, just before me and the neighbourhood dogs started howling, the competition opened up - the strategy, I believe, was contrast. Imagine the sound of a large truck trying to start on a cold morning and you get an idea of the competition - a perfect foil to singer number one.
The office coffee gets the heart going and then some - very strong, very thick and tasting of cardamom seeds - not even tempted to sleep under my desk after that!
I think the Temperance Society is going to need a new constitution - 700 clauses no longer impresses. The military code governing the west bank actually runs to 1500 rules and the slackers in Gaza make do with 1400.
There's a thing here called administrative detention - basically its a way of locking up bad people without having to tell them, or anybody else, exactly why they are being locked up. This can last for up to 6 months, and can then be extended if you are still a bad person (I thought I heard about something like this going on in the Caribbean?). Apparently a typical exchange between defence lawyer and tribunal at the hearing goes something like this:
Q. Is any of the evidence open?
A. No.
Q. What is my client accused of?
A. Activities to help terrorism.
Q. How did he help terrorism?
A. He's in an organization.
Q. Which organization?
A. That is part of the secret evidence.
Q. Who else is in the organization with him?
A. That is part of the secret evidence.
You can see the Mediterranean from Ramallah on a clear day - so that's nice.
1 comment:
Ah -- I can totally relate to the early morning call to prayer with various mosques echoing each other. Lucky it was only 5 o'clock, you must have missed the 3 o'clock warm up!
Your description of the administrative detention makes it look somewhat farcical -- something of a Monty Python movie really. It is both sad and scary to think that scenes from the Life of Brian are being rehearsed on West Bank.
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