The academic summer vacations are around the corner and it is about time to have a little bit of relaxing time. Yes, I know I am vane and a serious academic never ever relax as there are always 15,000 pages to be read out of which one may write a concise 1,200 words article. Life is way too serious for an academic but still, if you are a hedonist - as this humble writer - you might need a bit of funny take of things because everything is becoming dramatically serious.
Where else can you find inspiration, especially nowadays, if not in the Middle East, that area 'between Egypt, Iran, Yemen, Turkey and the British Museum'? Karl ReMarks collected some thoughts and tweets about the region, added some images too - it does good to the overall impression and published a book with the impressive title: 'And then god created the Middle East and Said ''Let there be breaking news'''.
I remember how the Balkans were so popular a couple of years ago because there were so many conflicts and minorities and names impossible to pronounce. Once peace settled no one really cares about them. The Middle East never disappoints and it seems to always provide that necessary dose of excitement the West is so much keen about, as long as it is far far away from its borders. No worries, said the writer, 'regions of the world were competing to host the apocalypse and the Middle East won'.
It's so much irony and sarcasm in those couple of pages - the book is unfortunatelly too short. Like this line: 'For an Arab to be fluent in English: write a PhD. For a Westerner to be fluent in Arabic: order lunch'. But if you know exactly the situation this joke might have a good percentage of truth and it is not necessarily good. Keep the information for later though and get the best of fun while keeping reading the rest. And get ready for some additional notes after reading that other line: 'While Khalil Gibran is famous in the West for its writing, in Lebanon he is famous for getting an American visa on his first attempt'.
You see, the world looks different if you see it from the left or from the right and there is so much drama unfolding that needs your academic attention - for writing tens of article no one will really read them further but anyway, you need to offer yourself a reason to be academically alive. Such books bring a little bit of fun into life, in-between some scary news about wars and the increase of oil prices.
It's worth to keep yourself entertained for half an hour or so. The apocalypse can wait a little bit and if it is still about to happen, why not welcome it with a big smile on your face.
