GlobalComment » Jonathan Mok

One State, Two States: A Review

June 23, 2009 – 6:06 am

Only can time tell how Netanyahu’s decision of committing to the Two-State Solution in regard to the Israel/Palestine conflict will work out. Yes, Bibi imposes very strict conditions of setting up an independent Palestinian state, which is going to be economically and militarily weak. Palestinian refugees from 1948 will never be allowed to return today’s Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Haifa. The future Palestinian state can never claim East Jerusalem as the capital. Settlements will, in the words of Bibi, “grow naturally” while outposts would be evacuated.

Bibi’s ideas are not new. Israel as the Jewish state, Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel and the Palestinian abandonment of the right of return have been the top priorities of successive Israeli governments. The only difference between the mainstream left and right in Israel lies in the growth of settlements. The One-State Solution supported by Benny Elon of National Union Party has never been popular. Benny Elon calls for formal annexation of Judea and Samaria. Palestinian residents in West Bank then become citizens of Jordan.

But why have the Two-State Solution and One-State Solution negotiations failed? In his book, One State, Two States, Benny Morris chronicles peace negotiations between Jerusalem and Ramallah and predicts the future of the relationship between Israel and Palestine.

By Jonathan Mok | Posted in Art Gallery, books, europe, middle east, politics | Comments (0)

My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: an Interview and Review

June 1, 2009 – 12:10 pm

Adina Hoffman lives in Jerusalem. She is the author of House of Windows: Portraits from a Jerusalem Neighborhood. She has contributed to The Nation, The Washington Post, The Times Literary Supplement and so on. She is one of the founders of Ibis Editions. Recently, Adina spoke about her latest book, My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet’s Life in the Palestinian Century, which tells the story of Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali, with Jonathan Mok.

Jonathan Mok: Can you tell our readers when and why you first became interested in Taha Muhammad Ali and his work?

Adina Hoffman: Taha Muhammad Ali is a remarkable poet and a remarkable man—someone who is at one and the same time absolutely extraordinary and utterly ordinary, and it was that combination that drew me to him. When I say that Taha is extraordinary, I mean that he has lived through some of the most devastating historical and personal events it’s possible to imagine—he lost his village, his homeland, and many of the people closest to him, and his culture is in serious danger of erasure—and yet he has emerged from that crucible with a love for life that is, in my experience unrivalled. He is neither bitter nor angry, but curious, ebullient, even joyous. More extraordinary still, he has managed to transform those devastating experiences into art of the very first order.

At the same time, Taha is deeply ordinary: many of the ordeals he has suffered are the same ordeals that most Palestinians have had to endure. In this sense, his story is in no way his alone, but stands as a more emblematic tale. And to extend that still further, this story—of exile, loss, and displacement—isn’t just a Palestinian story. Many other people (and peoples) have experienced similar tragedies.

I first met Taha in 1995. A few years later, my husband, the poet Peter Cole, began to translate his work into English; in 2000, Ibis Editions, the small press we run in Jerusalem, published a volume of Taha’s work in English, and since then Taha and Peter have been invited to read together all over the US and Europe. I’ve gone along for the ride, and as we’ve traveled together, all three of us have become very close. My decision to write about Taha was a natural extension of that bond.

Jonathan: What are some of the similarities, as well as differences, between Muhammad Ali and poets such as Mahmoud Darwish?

By Jonathan Mok | Posted in Arts & Literature, book reviews, middle east, poetry | Comments (0)

Yuja Wang: Sonatas & Etudes

May 12, 2009 – 5:14 pm

Few young female pianists can compete with French legend Helene Grimaud, yet Yuja Wang is most likely on her way to become one of the exceptions. Her Sonatas & Etudes: Chopin, Scriabin, Liszt and Ligeti (Deutschegrammophon) is a sign that Wang is already growing into a formidable presence.

A native of China, Wang was trained at the Beijing Conservatory before moving to Canada at the age of fourteen. She then moved to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, in the United States. She is going to perform with Lucerne Festival Orchestra with Claudio Abbado this coming summer – so here is a chance to see her live.

By Jonathan Mok | Posted in Arts & Literature, music reviews | Comments (0)

To Be Certain of the Dawn: An Interview with Stephen Paulus

May 9, 2009 – 5:59 am

Stephen Paulus was born in 1949. His recording, To Be Certain of the Dawn, was composed at the invitation of Minnesota Orchestra and The Basilica of St. Mary. The recording celebrates the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps and the 40th anniversary of the publication of Nostra Aetate (Latin for “In Our Times”), the seminal Vatican II document that condemned blaming Jews for the death of Christ.

By Jonathan Mok | Posted in Arts & Literature, music | Comments (0)

More Than Just Race: A Review

April 27, 2009 – 2:19 pm

Some people describe 2008 as “the year of African-Americans,” due to Barack Obama’s successful bid to become the first black American President. However, could his success be used as an example of positive changes within the African-American Community?

In More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor In The Inner City (W.W. Norton, 200), Professor William Julius Wilson of Harvard University discusses the complex relationships between government policies, “living habits” within African-American communities, and the problem of poverty.

He uses the phrase “social structural discrimination” to describe government politics in urban planning and allocation of education budgets. He also speaks of “cultural habits” that impact African-American job seekers, influence acceptance of teenage motherhood and allow for tolerance of communal violence.

By Jonathan Mok | Posted in Arts & Literature, Society, academia, north america, racism | Comments (0)

The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra Does Tchaikovsky

April 12, 2009 – 8:07 am

After working on Mahler and Beethoven, Gustavo Dudamel and his Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela are exploring Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Francseca da Rimini. “Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5; Francesca da Remini” (Deutsche Grammophon, 2009) is particularly excellent because it does not suffer from the usual inconsistency of interpretation that often happens when young players are involved. This release has accuracy, passion, and unity.

The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela got its start when Jose Abreu, an economist and musician in the country founded El Sistema (otherwise known as the National Network of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela) in 1975. The program was established to provide opportunities to children from poor families to learn classical music in a systematic way.

By Jonathan Mok | Posted in south america | Comments (0)

Not the Enemy: An Interview and Review

March 30, 2009 – 10:38 am

Writer Rachel Shabi was born in Israel to Jewish-Iraqi parents. She grew up in the United Kingdom. Before moving back to Israel, she reported on social issues for The Guardian. She is currently based in Tel Aviv. She is the author of Not the Enemy: Israel’s Jews from Arab Lands.

Jonathan Mok: Let’s start with personal questions. Marina Benjamin, in her book, The Last Days in Babylon, mentioned her rejection of her Iraqi-Jewish roots until she had a daughter. Unlike Marina, you were born in Israel, but grew up in the United Kingdom. What does being an Iraqi Jew mean to you? Have you tried to reject that part of your identity? Have you suffered from any discrimination when meeting British Jews of Ashkenazi background?

Rachel Shabi: Growing up in the UK, there was this assumption that if I’m Jewish I must be European-Jewish, so my culture was assumed to be one of Yiddish, Klezmer music, gefilte fish, etc. That was a bit weird – my parents spoke Arabic, played Middle Eastern music and wouldn’t dream of putting gefilte fish on the dinner table! But the majority of Diaspora Jewry is Ashkenazi so this cultural assumption about me is understandable. It’s a problem when you apply that template to Israel because it doesn’t work: half the population – and at one time a majority – is of Middle Eastern origin, or “Mizrahi”. This is easy to forget about Israel and forms the basis of my book.

Jonathan: Would you say that other British Jews of Iraqi or Arab descent share the observations you make in your book? Read More »

By Jonathan Mok | Posted in Arts & Literature, Society, book reviews, middle east, racism | Comments (0)

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in Hong Kong

March 23, 2009 – 8:15 am

Every year, the Hong Kong Arts Festival invites a foreign opera house to perform. Two years ago, there was the Welsh Opera House entertaining the audience with Puccini’s La Bohème. Last year, Italy’s Teatro Regio di Parma occupied the stage with Verdi’s Rigoletto. This year, the Latvian Opera House brought its cast , chorus and orchestra for the production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

Composed by Shostakovich in 1932, the story illustrates the extra-marital affair of young, rich Katerina with a womanizing worker named Sergey. For her affair with the worker, Katerina murders her father-in-law, Boris Timofeyevich and her husband, Zinovy Borisovich Izmailov. Arrested by the local militia during her wedding with Sergey, Katerina is sent to Siberia. After discovering Sergey’s affair with another female prisoner, Sonyetka, Katerina kills her and commits uicide. Read More »

By Jonathan Mok | Posted in Arts & Literature, east asia, europe, music | Comments (0)

“Invisible Hands”: An Interview and Review

March 7, 2009 – 3:45 pm

Kim Phillips-Fein is an assistant professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. She specializes in the history of the conservative movement in the second-half of the twentieth century and economic philosophy of conservatism. She has contributed to the Nation, the London Review of Books, New Labor Forum, Baffler, and In These Times. Invisible Hands is her first book.

Jonathan Mok: How does one start out writing a book about the history of the conservative movement?

Kim Phillips-Fein: I decided to write about the conservative movement in the early part of this decade, not long after George W. Bush was elected for the first time, because conservatives seemed to have been so successful in reshaping American society and politics, especially with regard to economic ideas.

In the 1990s, all of American culture seemed to be celebrating capitalism and the free market. The Clinton administration adopted many of the central ideas advanced during the Reagan years, criticizing big government and ending welfare state programs—and Bush promised to take this even farther, with tax cuts that exacerbated economic inequality.

But despite the triumph of free-market economic principles, most popular discussions of conservatism were all about abortion, gay marriage, and the Christian right. I thought that in order to have a full picture of the movement’s history it was necessary to look in more depth at its economic politics, and in particular, at the ways that its success reflected the organizing efforts of elites, not grass-roots rebellion. After all, these wealthy business leaders are the people who have benefited most from conservative victories in the United States.

Jonathan: Why did you decide to limit the book to the Reagan era? Bush tried to consolidate his base through massive tax cuts, opposing abortion and trying to define marriage as the institution between a man and a woman. Compared to Reagan, Bush was more ideologically revolutionary, no?
Read More »

By Jonathan Mok | Posted in Business World, book reviews, money, north america, politics | Comments (2)

Vadim Repin Does Brahms: A Review

March 2, 2009 – 12:58 pm

This is a review of: Brahms’s Violin Concerto and Concerto for Violin and Cello; Vadim Repin (Violin), Truls Mork (Cello), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly

After the wonderful recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and “Kreutzer” Sonata with the Argentinean pianist Martha Argerich and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Riccardo Muti, Russian violin player Vadim Repin has produced another wonderful CD. This time, he was joined by Truls Mork and the equally wonderful Gewandhausorchester under Riccardo Chailly – who previously was the director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

Brahms’ Violin Concerto coincidentally premiered in Leipzig in January 1879 by Joseph Joachim. The Violin Concerto was in fact devoted to Joachim. It is believed that the Violin Concerto was the most technically demanding work by Brahms up to that point, due to a wide variation of rhythms and frequent interruption by the orchestra. The other work, the Concerto for Violin and Cello was written in the summer of 1887. It was first performed in Köln in October 1887. Brahms actually composed it in hopes of repairing the friendship between Joachim and Robert Hausmann. Read More »

By Jonathan Mok | Posted in Arts & Literature, europe, music | Comments (0)