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The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East |  | Author: Neil MacFarquhar
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $2.77
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Seller: feathersbooks
Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 64445
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 359
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.7
ISBN: 1586486357
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.04092
EAN: 9781586486358
ASIN: 1586486357
Publication Date: April 27, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Since his boyhood in Qadhafi’s Libya, Neil MacFarquhar has developed a counterintuitive sense that the Middle East, despite all the bloodshed in its recent history, is a place of warmth, humanity, and generous eccentricity. In this book, he introduces a cross-section of unsung, dynamic men and women pioneering political and social change. There is the Kuwaiti sex therapist in a leather suit with matching red headscarf, and the Syrian engineer advocating a less political interpretation of the Koran. MacFarquhar interacts with Arabs and Iranians in their every day lives, removed from the violence we see constantly, yet wrestling with the region’s future. These are people who realize their region is out of step with the world and are determined to do something about it—on their own terms.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
inside the contemporary Arab & Iranian mind November 18, 2009
Diana H. Faust (Huntsville area AL USA)
I totally enjoyed this book because I so want to understand the Middle Eastern mind. MacFarquhar grew up in Libya because his dad worked for an American oil company there. Then he learned Arabic and became a foreign correspondent in the Middle East. I was impressed by how he was not content just to chase bombings but sought out learned individuals to explore their thinking.
He concludes that American policymakers and the public should support Middle Eastern reformers by working for change within the context of each countries' cultures and values rather than imposing our Western values. We can do this by encouraging civil rights - free speech, free press, and freedom of assembly.
Interesting perspective October 6, 2009
JPG (Houston, TX USA)
I thought this book was very well written and interesting. It was nice to read a book about the Middle East that was open-minded but at the same time pointed out where the problems lie, both in the governance issues of the countries themselves and the U.S. policies toward those countries. I hope that President Obama adds it to his reading list; the author's suggestions for low-key diplomacy play to his strengths and sound like they might actually work. Since nothing else we've done so far has worked, we might as well try it Neil's way!
A Fascinating, Funny and Hopeful Panorama of the Contemporary Middle East September 24, 2009
Keija K. Parssinen
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In "The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah...," Neil MacFarquhar has written an engaging, funny, and moving account of the present-day Middle East. What most distinguishes this book from others on the subject is Mr. MacFarquhar's ability to take us into the homes of the citizens that often seem to be obscured behind the great bulk of the state, or in the shadow of the extremists. He takes us behind the sometimes-clinical language of news reports and begins to unpack the complex experiences of people around the region with a frank but deeply human tone. The author artfully renders the nature of the citizens' struggle in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Syria, and, quite refreshingly, doesn't rely on the vocabulary of violence that has lately plagued most books on the region. For the lay reader, Mr. MacFarquhar unwinds the tangled threads of Middle Eastern politics. He explains the origins of the Muslim Brotherhood, puzzles over the information he receives in his many meetings with state officials, and travels through the streets of a divided Beirut. He makes visceral the experiences of human rights activists, web-savvy techies who are changing the nature of the political and social conversation in their countries, and poets and writers who use their words to enlighten and serve their fellow citizens and to push back against their oppressive regimes. In the end, the author's greatest accomplishment is revealing to readers the beating human hearts of his subjects. He explodes otherness in an effort to achieve a more real understanding.
I originally checked this book out from the library, but after reading it, I went out and bought it in hardcover as an investment. I know that I will return to it many times, and will lend it to friends eager for a keen-eyed assessment of the Middle East.
A Must for anyone interested in the Middle East September 15, 2009
B. Buchanan
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Even those not interested in the Middle East should read this book! Of the many books I've read recently about the Middle East, I'd put this at the top fo the list. It is a thoughtful, insightful, informative book and an easy read. I looked forward every day to the time I could sit down with it. And I'd recommend going to Mr. MacFarquar's web page to look at the pictures he has posted there.
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Entertaining and insightful August 29, 2009
B. Noble (California)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Middle East and North Africa are of deep interest to me. Not hard to understand why: 9/11; so much conflict in the area; so little understanding of these cultures in the US (dare I say by the US government). When I travel to a new country what I really want to do is talk to local people. Neil MacFarquhar, a journalist, does this in fluent Arabic; he recounts many conversations that gave me a sense of how these people feel about their lives, their governments, and the US. Mercifully he stays away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and talks about countries from Morocco to Lebanon. The chapter on Lebanon. I will never forget Chef Ramzi teaching Lebanses housewives how to cook turkey for Ramadan. He did a daily TV program for the entire month of Ramadan. The English version of his cookbook is coming soon.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
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