Cities Of Salt Chapter Summary

Throughout Middle Eastern, beginning in the 1800’s many changes and continuities have occurred and shaped what there national identity is in present day. Religion and literature have remained a continuous factor throughout this time period; where as a very successful oil discovery and currently changing government help shape the Middle Eastern national identity

The final chapter of this controversial book is about all the reason behind the current invasion of Iraq by U.S. government. All the EHM were failed in Iraq, all jackals were failed too. So young people were killed and sent to far off desert to die. If Saddam bought out by corporatocracy and he accepted their terms he would still are alive today. He should permit US firms to maintain his chemical plants, trade his arms, let him to kill innocent people to show power and violate human rights. The invasion of Iraq put a huge question mark on the royal of Saud. If US conquer Iraq which has more oil than any country, then Saudi Arabia will be of less importance for them. Perkins declared that US dollar is the root

The island of Satus was unlike any other. The island was a once a place of happiness and joy, until the people on Satus became greedy. The Dark Mountain contained the most gold anyone had ever seen in an island, but the soil inside the mountain contained the evilest particles known to man. When the miner from the Village of the Lost, a city near the mountain, found out about the gold, they mined the entire mountain on the inside making the mountain one giant cave.

Conflict over energy resources—and the wealth and power they create—has become an increasingly prominent feature for geopolitics particularly in the Middle East . The discovery of oil in the late nineteenth century added a dimension to the region as major outside states powers employed military force to protect their newly acquired interests in the Middle East. The U.S.’s efforts to secure the flow of oil have led to ever increasing involvement in the Middle East region’s political affairs and ongoing power struggles. By the end of the twentieth century, safeguarding the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf had become one of the most important functions of the U.S. military establishment. The close relationship between the United States and the Saudi royal family was formed in the final months of World War II, when U.S. leaders sought to ensure preferential access to Saudi petroleum. The U.S. link with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region has demonstrated to be greatly beneficial to both parties, yet it has also led to ever deepening U.S. involvement in regional politics.

In the documentary of Blood and Oil, Michael Klare expressed two major arguments about US and Western intervention in the Middle west: the U.S. military policy and energy policy have become intertwined, and Professor Klare also calls for a radical re-thinking of U.S. energy policy to avoid from being drawn into on oil war after another.

Throughout history the Middle East has been home to some of the most powerful and influential empires in the world. As with all great empires they did not arise without difficulty. Though the Middle East has had periods of great prosperity, it has also had periods of poverty and stagnation. Within the last one hundred years the Middle East has seen many changes relating to borders, religions, and international politics. Much of the changes that have happened originated from diverse ways of thinking especially when it comes to religion and culture. Conflicts that occur in the Middle East such as Israel, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan have monumental effects on the global economy predominately due to the massive oil industry in the region and competition between outside nations trying to expand influence.

This picture demonstrates Westernized culture forcing a weaker country to learn their customs and words. The theme of imperialism is shown in this picture because it is a larger power taking over and controlling a less powerful people. The main conflicts in this book originate mostly in the work of modern Imperialism. Marjane’s father says, “In any case, as long as there is oil in the Middle East, we will never have peace” (Satrapi 43). He is referring to all the nations, such as Iraq, trying to take their oil away from them because Iran is weaker.

In “Pillars of Salt”, a compilation of... true crime miscellanies (Cotton Mather, 3), the author refers to a man’s heinous actions as being ungodly (Pillars of Salt, 6). In current times such actions would quickly be called immoral and this is an idea that has reverberated throughout the text. This can be analyzed to convey the significance of how god in relation to morality was an idea that was deeply intertwined at that time and locale. Furthermore, submitting to god as one’s savior was considered an accepted form of repenting even if this did not occur until an individual’s final moments (Pillars of Salt, 8).

Nor-and this is the most significant point-are most of us truly aware of the role the U.S. has played, for generations, overtly and covertly, in the world that was once the Ottoman Empire. As Professor Abou El Fadl has noted, the destruction of that culture at the hands of an advancing Western imperialism eventually laid much of the Islamic world bare for the attractions of a dogmatic, warlike, fundamentalist variant of Islam. At times we have connived at this development, most obviously in the now bitterly ironic fact that we supported Osama bin Laden and his allies in Afghanistan in the 1980s in their effort to expel Soviet forces. Indeed, our interest in the Arab world (apart from our desire for inexpensive natural resources and markets for our products) often seemed limited to any assistance we might wring from it in the war against communism. No wonder, as reported

The gaze of the western other, is a condescending gaze that reaffirms the inferiority of Muslim societies, “preventing everything even escape” and inability to overcome “insurmountable condition,” (Kassir). Further, Arab Malaise is worsened by the fact that Arab societies used to be comparable to East Asian, Latin American and Sub-Saharan African states. However, to Arabs, that is no longer the case with all states except for the Arab societies moving toward democratic and technologically advanced societies. The third cause of Arab Malaise is the sense of powerless to act and affirm existence in face of other’s domination that Arabs feel. This sense of powerlessness was reinforced by Iraq-US intervention where Arab community was unable to fight against American intervention. Also, when Israel was established in Palestinian territory, the Palestinians could not fight back because of the strong American unfailing support of Israel, making Israel capable of “literally do anything it wants,” (Kassir, 8). Geography was also an important factor in creating malaise. The Arab world is situated between two continents and has its own sense of tradition, and identity, however, Arabs are constantly reminded of colonial powers and presence on their territory today through the presence of Israel. The defeat against Israel in 1948 (Nakba) was a great humiliation and blow to the Arabs because it signified that colonial rule was to be perpetually present in the Arab World for centuries to come. Finally, the existence of oil in the region is a source of instability and malaise. The oil attracts western powers and increasing West involvements leading the “new hegemony of the United States in the Middle East” (Kassir, 76).

Political uprisings in the Middle East, especially in Muslim nation states have placed Arabian politics back on the focus point of international politics. Political events in certain Arab countries had an inordinate impact on the political development of other neighbor states. Anxieties and resistance within different Arab countries triggered unpredictable actions, sometimes sorely to observe and believe. Authoritarian governments of Arabian countries led from various dictators have created a precarious situation for their lifetime government, especially in providing national security and maintaining peace in the region. Jack Goldstone argues that the degree of a sultan’s weakness is often only visible in retrospect, due in part to the

It can be noted that energy geopolitics concerning resources such as oil plays a substantial role in shaping the globe. Reasons for why correlations between political violence in the Middle East and the geopolitics of oil can be connected is due to the Middle East being one of the most prominent locations in the world to refine oil along with the regions long history of political and economic turmoil. Examining the history of the Middle East throughout the years, it can be said that, both internally and externally Middle Eastern nations are heavily involved in oil related conflicts against one another or find themselves in conflicts with others such as the U.S over oil distribution and political direction as both issues open the Middle East to foreign interference by third party entities who may use discrepancies in the Middle East to pursue nations interests concerning oil. The contemporary phenomenon of terrorism within the region is both a product of historical development and political instability as these factors in recent times have led to a growing occurrence of terrorism that seeks to capitalize off the instability that state actors find themselves in. If we were to make an assessment of the growing modern-day reliance of oil which has significantly increased globally and the on-going political instability occurring all around the Persian Gulf then, it should be understood that, the conflicts to which these issues present are no where near close to being resolved.

Middle East considers one of the most studied areas in the world due to its rich history of politics, social, economic, and its culture and civilization. Its borders are still arguable geographically, generally in the west it starts from morocco until Iran in the east, however, many scholars don’t agree on including Turkey either as a Middle Eastern or as a European country (Milton-Edwards, 2006. P: 4). The origin of the name was invented by the colonies as a necessity to describe the place geographically, which was the era of bringing “Middle East” the language of academic writings and political scientists. Changes, innovations, and new ideologies create gaps between the transformations of any perspectives to a different

Nothing happens in a vacuum; events and phenomena that take place in one region have effects on the rest of the world. In no region has this been more relevant than in the Middle East. Understanding the Middle East as it was and currently is requires an in depth analysis of the events that have so shaped the region. By peering into the premodern, early-modern, modern, and contemporary periods, a comprehension of the Middle East and how it is situated within the global framework will be realized.

This project examines Arab novels of the previous decade (2002-2012) in the context of the postcolonial theory. The research aims to highlight the political changes that occur in these novels and the point of view and narration techniques. Moreover, it will address the following key issues in postcolonial theory; politics, religious radicalization (jihad), nationalism, attitude to the West, globalization. Aftermath, the attack of 11 September the world has known Islamophobia, which made the Arab world under the telescope. The leaders of the Arab world had made the dourness appellation of their regimes to stop the Islamist and the oppositions to take the lead. Meanwhile, the Arab writers ponder to social-culture and religious conflict social injustice and socio-economic level that the Arab countries had reached. Thus, they reminisce the revolution of 1952, nationalism, their beloved leaders and the old days when the politics were choosing its representatives. The Arab writers fictionalized the true lives of people who were living in poverty. The past decade, 2002-2012, has seen considerable development of literary works.Moreover, it has encompassed many writings that are no longer envision the allegiance to the current regime at that time which was characterized by chastisement. Additionally, they relinquish to the form and the literary techniques that previous novels were used to follow. These novels encounter the disenfranchisement and disappointment to Arab