ZEITOUN

At right, Dave Eggers, author of Zeitoun . . .

Several nights ago, I watched the National Book Award ceremony on Book TV, a cable channel. One of my favorite authors, Dave Eggars spoke about the significance of writers and writing.


When I discovered Dave Eggars' book, Zeitoun, published in 2009, I recalled the shock, horror, anger, and despair felt in the aftermath of Katrina's devasting destruction and our country's worst national disaster. This non-fiction testament of the courage of the Zeitouns will move you deeply, especially if you are a Louisiana native.

Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Muslim who worked in New Orleans as a painting contractor, grew up in Syria. Spending ten years as a crewman or engineer working on cargo ships, he came to the US in 1988 on a tanker from Saudi Arabia destined for Houston. Later, working for a contractor in Baton Rouge, a Muslim friend introduced him to Kathy, a twenty-one year old  divorced woman from Baton Rouge who had converted to Islam. Although Zeitoun was thirty-four, he was taken with her striking looks and confident manner. They married, moved to New Orleans, and added two more girls to the family which included Kathy's daughter from an earlier marriage.

As Katrina moves inland, Zeitoun demands that his wife and children escape New Orleans as the hurricane category assessments increase. Left alone, Zeitoun tries desperately to save his home, rescues drowning pets, and, in a small watercraft, checks on neighbors and offers assistance to stranded homeowners. Trapped by the worsening conditions, Zeitoun takes in three other men who try desperately to survive the aftermath of the storm.

Alarmed by the looting, rapes, and gang activity, a New Mexico team headed by Gonzales, a cop fron Alberquerque, organizes a team of men armed with M-16s, to check out a house believed to be occupied by four men involved in drugs and robberies. Previous missions had been search and rescue, but the increasing violence and anarchy in the city prompts Gonzales to check out this information.

What happens next is one of the saddest examples of post 9/11 hysteria. Zeitoun and his fellow refugees are arrested and incarcerated at Angola Prison, the country's largest prison, once used "for the breeding of slaves . . . and considered one of the most dangerous, most hopeless prisons in the United States." Zeitoun's wife and children, unable to communicate with him, have no idea of his whereabouts. Zeitoun's brother, in Syria, works unceasingly to communicate with officials and friends in the United states to locate his brother.

In retrospect, this arrest was clearly a horrific example of racial profiling and zenophobia. In an earlier conversation with family, Zeitoun laments the fear and distrust generalized toward Muslims in the US. He questions, "When a crime is committed by a Christian, do they mention his religion? . . . And what about African Americans? When a crime is committed by an African American, it's mentioned in the first breath: 'An African American male was arrested today.' What about German Americans, Anglo Americans . . .?"

Kathy gave birth to son Ahmad in 2006 at East Jefferson hospital. Zeitoun kept in touch with the people he rescued in his canoe. He chose to stay in New Orleans. Every day he gets in his white van and works with his crew on building projects in the city. His life has regained some normalcy. He credits his faith, his family, and his belief in progress for his strength.

Historically, the the United States has been compared to a great melting pot of cultures. In the past, that term conjured images of the American Dream and a land of opportunity. Sadly, today, society's distrust of differences, has been propagated by fear about our safety, by media images of hatred for America, and by our reluctance to acknowlege human rights issues. This book is a page-turner.

THE ZEITOUN FOUNDATION
Foundation founded in 2009 by the Zeitoun family, Dave Eggars, and the McSweeneys to aid in the rebuilding of new orleans and to promote respect for human rights in the U.S. and around the world.

Capturing Minutes

Capture the minutes not the milestones.


Time goes by so quickly. I discovered today that the last note I wrote in the journal I so diligently kept when our seven year old granddaughter was born was written three years ago.

I have so many pictures of milestones we celebrated with our grandchildren: holidays, school events, birthdays, vacations. Pictures capture images that we must connect to a special time. Notes we write in a journal, however, tell us more. Reminiscing about the summer day we caught a butterfly or sat on the backyard swing and told stories will resurrect real life minutes of ordinary days we spent together.

One of my journal entries recalled a conversation I had with my five year old granddaughter. We were covered with mud after spending an entire morning potting herbs. As we walked into the house, she told me that this was the funnest day she had ever had. I know my  heart was glowing.

Picture of grandson Jake, 2, helping me to water plants.

AVATAR

If you haven't seen Avatar, see it soon before you get inundated with media reviews of the movie. My husband and I chose to watch the regular version, because we feared almost three hours of 3-D might be a too traumatic given the movie trailers we'd viewed.

James Cameron's spent fifteen years conceptualizing and creating this fabulous film. The story line follows the hero [Jake's] archetypal journey from Earth to Pandora, a fictional moon in another planetary system. A paraplegic, Jake signs up to participate in a capitalistic enterprise to fight the Na'vi humanoids on the alien Pandora to mine an indigenous valuable mineral. Jake and other humans who travel to Pandora must be genetically engineered in coffin-like contraptions so their bodies will resemble the blue, long-tailed, humanoid Na'Vi. Jake regains the use of his legs during each transformation as he becomes a hybrid Na'vi, an avatar. The term avatar means a reincarnation of a god in human form, as Krishna and Rama are two of the ten avatars of Vishnu, in Hindu theology.

Sigourney Weaver plays the botanist, Dr. Grace Augustine, who heads the Avatar program and mentors Jake. The capitalist Parker, representing the mining corporation, uses heavily armed sci-fi artillery to battle the peace-loving Na'Vi. Jake, transformed into a Na'Vi body, is left behind after being attacked by an alien predator. Rescued by the beautiful Na'Vi princess, Naytiri, Jake learns customs, earns trust, and soon fall in love with Naytiri.

Archetypes abound: the ancestral Tree of Souls transmits voices of generations of deceased Na'Vi; clan gatherings, hymns of praise to a Mother deity; hero tasks/ordeals that Jake must perform, such as taming a flying beast, the Toruk; resurrection: Jake's consciousness is transformed so he can serve as leader of the clan; good vs. evil [Mining company vs. Navi]; green theme: Na'vi closely living in harmony with nature; underdog theme [Na'vi fighting with arrows against an impersonal war force using missles and terminator-type warfare]; man's relationship to man, as the peace-loving Na'Vi are trivialized by the humans from Earth. Pandora has all the connotations from the Greek myth: beautiful Pandora who unleashes the evil when she opens a mysterious box the gods insisted she guard. A terrible enemy opens the door to Pandora, unleashing evil on the beautiful, fantastical, Eden-like environment. And, finally, the hero is awarded with the elixir. For Jake, the elixir constitutes his realization of his transformation. He is no longer wounded emotionally or physically. He has come to terms with his new role as leader and protector of the Na'Vi.

This movie is so chock-full of meaning that I felt like an awed primitive viewing it the first time. I was so taken with the beauty and fantasy that I realize I must view it again and again to understand all the nuances I missed. Titanic falls very short as compared with this amazing Cameron production. I totally disagree with the reviewer who labeled this movie Smurf porn.