Published on Levantine Cultural Center (http://www.levantinecenter.org)

Mothers Speak About War And Terror

By cbat

Created Apr 20 2009 - 6:10pm



Review by Catherine Batruni

Humankind's uncanny ability to make major advances in one civilization while simultaneously razing others beyond recognition is a strange facet of our nature. Yet most Americans are far removed from the constant dangers and terrors of living under a war. Few of us who did not serve in Vietnam or Iraq, for instance, have a clear understanding of the devastation wrought on those countries.

The gap between our reality and theirs served as the driving force behind American author Susan Galleymore's venture into the war-torn countries of the Middle East. Her new book, "Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War & Terror," tells the stories of the repercussions of war on the mothers, families, communities, and cultures of Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, and the United States.

Galleymore was inspired to write her book after visiting her son while he was stationed in Iraq, just north of Baghdad, in the infamous Sunni Triangle. From there she visited Iraq's neighboring countries affected by war, where she interviewed a wide array of civilians. The author delves into all aspects of war and destruction: death, injury, permanent disablement, hunger, starvation, lack of educational resources, economic collapse, heartbreak, and families torn apart. In the chapter about Lebanon, for instance, Galleymore examines what was once a house in the southern village of Bint Jbail and ponders:

"Nothing remains to indicate that people loved, laughed, studied, cried, and expressed hope and desire here. Where do the knickknacks of family life-photos, tea tables, toasters-go when a home is bombed?"

What makes "Long Time Passing" compelling reading is its chronicle of personal stories. Lena, a Palestinian child in the West Bank born with kidney disease, has no rights to water or mobility under the Israeli occupation. Wissam, an Iraqi refugee in Syria, is a Sunni divorcee whose Shi'a husband recently left her out of fear for his life. Fatima is an Afghani woman who owns a carpentry business and training center in Kabul. Sue lives in New York and is a member of Families For Peaceful Tomorrows. Her son Joshua died in the World Trade Center Attack.

Galleymore illuminates the profound pain and personal chaos caused by war and teaches her audience lessons on the frivolity of war. In Iraq, she visits a children hospital that was "poor in resources (understaffed, underfunded, and underequipped) but rich in patients." The hospital's lack of staff, money, and equipment is so severe that patients' families have to bring their own food from home to nourish their sick children.

Galleymore learns that life-saving chemotherapy treatments were forbidden by the American occupation because they might contain substances that may help the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. The irony of this situation is utterly infuriating. Drugs that the American occupation did permit were unaffordable; families had to sell their homes and cars in order to pay for a week of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy generally requires two to three years of treatment, and even then there is no guarantee that it will be successful.

During her national book tour, Susan Galleymore will be passing through Los Angeles on May 3rd at the American Friends Service Committee at the AFSC's downtown offices, from 2:30-4:30 pm. This event is free and open to the public. Please call 213.498.1900 for more information. She will also be speaking at the Hammer Museum on Saturday, May 16, from 3-6 pm. Visit It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq [http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/155]. [1] For information about the book, visit http://www.mothersspeakaboutwarandterror.org. [2]



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Source URL: http://www.levantinecenter.org/arts/authors/mothers-speak-about-war-and-terror

Links:

[1] http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/155

[2] http://www.mothersspeakaboutwarandterror.org.