post easter post

When I wrote about Israel some weeks ago I was worried about Kadima not getting a seat in the government. Now it seems everybody but Kadima is in the new government. We'll see how that pans out, But it doesn't really matter who's in charge as long as the peace process, such as there is, continues and gives birth to something lasting. 

It's finally warm here and I've started running. It's going very well and it feels good, very fulfilling and satisfying. I'm simultaneously reading Haruki Murakami's book I wrote about in my last blog post, which is also fulfilling and satisfying. For some reason I only read it in the bathtub, bathing. Oh, well.

I've also finished reading Cosmopolitanism, which I also mentioned in my previous blog post. It was slightly disappointing. It's written by a professor at Princeton University, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosopher, and I had expected more. I agreed with most of what he wrote, in fact I've written myself most of the same things he wrote. But shouldn't he, with all his experience and age, gone farther than me? On the other hand, if he can write a book like that, so can I. One of these days I'm gonna. The working title is at the moment Transit.

time and keys

When coming home, realising that you and your key are no longer together is not the most joyful of discoveries. But I'm keeping my upper lip stiff. I suppose the key decided to spend the weekend at the office. It's a good thing I have relatives with spare keys.

These last three weeks have been intense and hectic to say the least. First four days in London, which were packed with meetings, museums, plays and films, most of it related to Ingmar Bergman. Not the film though, that was Joseph H. Lewis' magnificent and outrageous Gun Crazy from 1949. It's has such master of framing and camerawork it's uncanny, and the sexual tension between John Dall and Peggy Cummins is quite something.

And after London, four big projects at work have been taking up all my time. And then there was my mother's 60th birthday and... well, you get the idea. But it has been fun almost every single minute of every single day. And that's not bad . Not bad at all.

Last I wrote I mentioned Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road. I've now read it, and it was rather good. But it was my third book by Chabon, and every time I've been slightly disappointed. It's like they're not as good as they should've been. But I haven't given up yet. Soon I'll sink my teeth into The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I've also read P.J. O'Rourke's book about Adam Smith, which I enjoyed immensely. By the way, O'Rourke's piece in The Atlantic, about the future and the fact that we seem to have lost faith in it, is among the best articles I've written in a long time.

In Israel they still haven't manage to form a government. But apparently Kadima is out of the picture for the time being. I'm worried. But the new administration in Washington is making some promising sounds. And speaking of international politics, it's appaling and terrifying how Pakistan is deteriorating further and further, whilst the politicians are more inclined to beat up lawyers than tackle insurgents and terrorists, not to mention the fast diminising economy. What if it becomes a failed state? Then where would they be? Or we? 

I have Pankaj Mishra's Temptations of the West - How to be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond right next to me, and I'll probably start reading it over the weekend. I love his writing, what little I've read so far, and I have great hopes for this collection.

But now it's time for tea. Bon weekend!

kadima

It would be very nice indeed if Kadima won the election and were able to form a government. Politics in Israel seems to have run out ouf steam, and they need time and willpower to form a new outlook. Will they succeed?