What We Are Reading Today: The Hidden Victims: Civilian Casualties of the Two World Wars

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Updated 06 September 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: The Hidden Victims: Civilian Casualties of the Two World Wars

  • By one reputable estimate, 9.7 million civilians and 9 million combatants died in World War I, while World War II killed 25.5 million civilians and 15 million combatants

Author: Cormac O Grada

Soldiers have never been the only casualties of wars. But the armies that fought World Wars I and II killed far more civilians than soldiers as they countenanced or deliberately inflicted civilian deaths on a mass scale. By one reputable estimate, 9.7 million civilians and 9 million combatants died in World War I, while World War II killed 25.5 million civilians and 15 million combatants.

But in The Hidden Victims, Cormac O Grada argues that even these shocking numbers are almost certainly too low.

Carefully evaluating all the evidence available, he estimates that the wars cost not 35 million but some 65 million civilian lives—nearly two-thirds of the 100 million total killed. Indeed, he shows that war-induced famines alone may have killed.

 


What We Are Reading Today: The Beekeeper’s Guide

Updated 03 October 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: The Beekeeper’s Guide

Authors: Meredith May, Claire Jones, Anne Rowberry, & Margaret Murdin 

Beekeeping is a popular pastime that more and more people are taking up for fun or even modest profit.

Today, you will find hives not only in large fields or rural spaces, but also in city gardens and on rooftops—to the benefit of both bee and beekeeper.

If you’re at the early or middle stages of your beekeeping journey and need a go-to guide on establishing and maintaining your hives, “The Beekeeper’s Guide” is the perfect companion. 


Book Review: ‘Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order’

Updated 03 October 2024
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Book Review: ‘Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order’

  • Dalio, an American investor and founder of Bridgewater Associates, translated his rich experience in finance into economic cycles, political systems, and the rise and fall of empires through history

Published in 2021, the book “Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail” explores the dynamics that shape global structures in terms of power.

The author, Ray Dalio, highlights historical patterns, explaining in detail the reasons behind the rise of certain countries and the fall of other nations as well, while at the same time providing a system on how to understand the shifting geopolitical landscape. 

Dalio, an American investor and founder of Bridgewater Associates, translated his rich experience in finance into economic cycles, political systems, and the rise and fall of empires through history. 

Further, he outlines several principles through the chapters that control these transitions, focusing specifically on the connection between economic and cultural aspects. 

One of the book’s strengths is the author’s simple structure. Dalio divides his thoughts into digestible sections for his readers, explaining complex terms as simple paragraphs and presenting major indicators of society such as wealth distribution and local conflicts.

His analytics add details of special events while also providing readers with the tools to anticipate future developments. 

What is worth mentioning is that the author’s insights are somehow relevant to the present-day changing world, where globalization and technological advancements challenge traditional power dynamics.

He emphasizes the potential for a conflict between established powers and rising countries while stressing the importance of adaptability and resilience in an era marked by uncertainty.

However, some readers argue that the author’s view may be overly simplifying complex geopolitical realities. While his foundations are based on historical patterns, the challenges of this time, such as climate change and artificial intelligence, require adequate solutions beyond historical analogies.  

Overall, the book was rated 4.7 out of 5 by over 7,000 readers. It stimulates critical thinking and analysis of the political relations of the world we live in. 

The author’s mixing of historical analysis of events and personal insights as well makes the book a must for readers such as policymakers, business leaders, and others who might be interested in understanding the global powers that are shaping the world.
 


Review: In ‘Huddud’s House,’ Syrian poet pens heart wrenching love letter to Damascus

Updated 02 October 2024
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Review: In ‘Huddud’s House,’ Syrian poet pens heart wrenching love letter to Damascus

JEDDAH: Syrian poet and writer Fadi Azzam’s novel “Huddud’s House,” poignantly translated by Ghada Alatrash, paints a kaleidoscope of Damascene life, from its artists and lovers to its doctors and politicians, during its recent period of great turmoil and destruction.
Beginning at the cusp of the Arab revolution and civil war in Syria, the novel is an epic that delves into the depths and dark pits of the human heart. It is a searing depiction of humans’ capacity to love in all forms, resist and grow, as well as their power to destroy, oppress, and wage war.
Among its central characters is Fadi or Fidel Al-Abdullah, a law student, artist, womanizer, famous filmmaker, or religious extremist — depending on which part of his story you’re reading. His character arc is a prominent thread in the novel’s theme of identity and exile, capturing the nature of identity as perpetually in flux.His married lover, Layl, a doctor, is a complex portrayal of a woman torn between desire and duty.
Anees, a heart surgeon in Britain, sees his life take a swift turn when a phone call beckons him to the homeland. In Damascus, he inherits his grandfather’s property, Huddud’s House, initially poised as a promising windfall.
But the ancient house itself, and the locals who care about its heritage and cultural significance, help the doctor uncover its treasures and secrets such as historical artifacts and documents about Syria and her people painstakingly penned by its former guardians.
In the story, Huddud’s House stands as a powerful symbol of Syrian resistance and perseverance against oppression: “This was the fortieth time that this house encountered destruction, but its history testifies that each time it returned greater than before,” reads an excerpt. 
“Huddud’s House” is an emotionally fraught and sweeping story of human connection during war, as well as a harrowing testimony partially based on true accounts of the brutalities endured by the Syrian people during the great upheaval of their homeland.
Azzam’s novel cements storytelling’s pivotal role in preserving truth, history, and heritage.
And at the heart of this particular story is a powerful idea: To love  is to resist.


What We Are Reading Today: Until We Have Won Our Liberty

Updated 01 October 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: Until We Have Won Our Liberty

Author: Evan Lieberman

At a time when many democracies are under strain around the world, Until We Have Won Our Liberty shines new light on the signal achievements of one of the contemporary era’s most closely watched transitions away from minority rule. S

outh Africa’s democratic development has been messy, fiercely contested, and sometimes violent. But as Evan Lieberman argues, it has also offered a voice to the voiceless, unprecedented levels of government accountability, and tangible improvements in quality of life.

Lieberman opens with a first-hand account of the hard-fought 2019 national election, and how it played out in Mogale City, a post-Apartheid municipality created from Black African townships and White Afrikaner suburbs.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Tetris Effect’

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Updated 01 October 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Tetris Effect’

  • Ackerman walks us through what the mathematicians say, discussing among other things the limitations of the Z shape in the classic Tetris game

Author: Dan Ackerman

In the 2016 book, “The Tetris Effect: The Game that Hypnotized the World,” author Dan Ackerman, a radio DJ turned tech journalist, assembles pieces of a fragmented narrative into a neat, fast-paced story.

Each chapter is almost like a tetromino (a single Tetris piece). The story is layered, technical, nerdy and a tiny bit quirky.

Perhaps the most recognizable video game yet made, Tetris has a definitive story all its own. Ackerman, who is an editor at leading technology news website CNET, brought that animation to life.

In the chapter “Bonus Level, Tetris into Infinity,” Ackerman asks: “Is it possible to ‘win’ a game of Tetris? The idea of what constitutes a winning state is an ongoing source of debate among game theorists.”

Ackerman walks us through what the mathematicians say, discussing among other things the limitations of the Z shape in the classic Tetris game.

He asks: “An attentive player with lightning-fast reflexes could easily keep the game going for a very long time, but based on the rules established above, is it possible to continue forever?”

It’s a good question.

If you have been alive during the past four decades, you will have most likely played it yourself or know someone who has. The book deemed it to be “a game so great, even the Cold War couldn’t stop it.”

But how did that come to be? Why?

The book considers a question many have been wondering: How did a quiet, obscure Soviet software engineer create the game on, even at the time, antiquated computers in 1984? And how is it still so popular 40 years later?

Tetris earnings have exceeded $1 billion in sales, the book states, and peppered within its pages, readers will notice additional facts scattered around to make it even more interesting. One such fact states: “Guinness World Records, recognizes Tetris as being the ‘most-ported’ game in history. It appears on more than 65 different platforms.”

Another reads: “The Nintendo World store in New York has on display a Game Boy handheld that was badly burned in a 1990s Gulf War bombing. It is still powered on and playing Tetris.”

That Russian programmer, Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov, did not change the world, but he did change how we interact with it, by creating that game. Pajitnov was 28 when he developed Tetris in Moscow. Now 68, he is still a significant figure in the gaming world. While he did not initially receive any royalties due to strict Soviet laws at the time, he later got what was owed to him when he formed The Tetris Company in 1996 to manage the licensing rights for the game.