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Posts Tagged ‘Middle East’

Kuwaiti Diaries III – The Desert {I’m back}

Posted in art,poetry,writing, Kuwaiti Diaries, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2010| 3 Comments »




Well, I cannot believe almost three weeks went by since the last post! I returned from my incredible trip on the 7th of the month and school kickedoff at  lightning speed.  I have two more classes I am teaching this quarter, so there’s been quite a bit of readjustment. But I am back- and it feels good-  and I still have two more installments of my Kuwaiti Diaries.

As the days and weeks go by, and as I go through the hundreds of photos I took, the notion that I was actually–ever-too-briefly– in this faraway country of pied beauty, of warm and generous people, and of jarring contrasts between tradition and modernity seems closer and closer to the realm of Illusion.  I left just as I was beginning to understand.

I hope you enjoy what I brought back.

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Kuwaiti Diaries II- Al-M’barakiya

Posted in Architecture, art,poetry,writing, Kuwaiti Diaries, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 2, 2010| 4 Comments »

The local ‘Souq’ is called Mubarakiya, named after Mubarak, a leader who was the sheik (‘shehk’, family ruler) from the Al-Sabah family, which is still the ruling family of modern Kuwait. Kuwait combines ancient tradition with a democratic political system (Parliament), and is a melting pot of past and present, as I was able to see in the Mubarakiya.

Kuwait | The Present and The Present

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Kuwaiti Diaries I- Al-Boom

Posted in Architecture, Kuwaiti Diaries, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 1, 2010| 1 Comment »

Lights from Kuwait City. Just before the new year, overlooking the Arabian Gulf.

Happy New Year.

I welcomed 2010 on a beach, overlooking the Arabian Gulf.

In Italy we say that what you do the first day of the year you will do all year, and I would love to continue doing art -and posting it- all of 2010. I am in Kuwait for the holidays and, feeling like a foreign correspondant, I offer these sights. I do not have my usual computer- and Photoshop, so here are these images, raw, unedited, uncropped, uncaptioned.  I hope you will enjoy them.

This is the Al-Boom and surrounding areas, my first sighting of Kuwait and its history. It is also called the Hashemi, a recent reproduction of the ancient vessel (Kuwaitis were sea-people, like my father, merchants and pearl collectors).

The Al- Boom is the biggest man made vessel constructed out of wood , its interior is used as a reception hall. I found it magnificent, and the details were exquisite, something to revel on.

Kuwait/ Hidden Eden/ Pearls in the Shell

Gallery Updated  Jan.2, 2010

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