I have never seen a total eclipse of the sun and never hope to see one. Not that I never wished to, but not all my wishes have come true. This is not a complaint. A great many wonders have become true experiences, though I never had a bucket list. My life has just been […]
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If you are a peace lover or if you are concerned about the millions of people made homeless, even stateless by Middle East wars, this message could be important to you. I have made a major change in the status of my book. The opportunity came to me to distribute the ebook version of […]
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The truth about what is happening in Syria is complicated, full of contradictions and hard to know. The truth about what we should do or not do concerning Syria is simple, after we shed our biases. Almost everybody I know, here and in the Middle East, has an opinion, often irrelevant. I too, because […]
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This story is contributed by Alastair Greeves, former auditor for World Vision International. The friend he speaks of here is a significant character in my memoir, In Borrowed Houses. FF “Are you Terry Waite?” the Lebanese immigration official asked me as I handed him my passport 25 years ago. “Are you returning to our country?” […]
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When I learned that Marion Osgood was going to Lebanon, I controlled my jealousy by asking her write a story for me about her trip. She did, and here it is. Marion is British, and I have preserved her slightly different spelling of a few words. Also, in case you have not been to London […]
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News in my email box this morning reminds me of how fortunate I am and prompts me to do something I have never done before—use this blog space to brag about it. It’s fair, I think. After all, this website relates to my memoir, In Borrowed Houses, and so does the news, indirectly. Aliki Barnstone […]
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At the publishing house I directed for 24 years in Lebanon our chief translator and editor had unusual editorial skills. As a translator he never wrote a word until he was sure he understood the intention of the English author, and in the end the work seemed to have originated in Arabic. The classical […]
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Memorial Day is a perfect time to commend and defend the soldiers whom we as a country have burdened with tasks risky to their bodies and souls. It goes without saying that, if our country is at war then the people on the front edge of executing that war deserve our love. This does not […]
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This morning, April 26, I opened the online Beirut Daily Star and looked for items of special interest to me. The one that caught my eye was an opinion piece headlined like this: “A manifesto to end our dysfunctional politics.” I jumped on this article quickly, eager to learn how Lebanon is going to […]
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An answer to the soldier (and 364 others who read my confession): Two weeks ago I posted a blog called: Bombs in Brussels, Drones in the Middle East, the Confessions of a Coward. For three days afterwards my website was visited frequently. A great many readers “liked” the article. Some thanked me on facebook, […]
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