Back, but but only sporadically - simply don't have the time these days...
I know you are absent right now, but these are long overdue (Thanks IPT!):
"Was this misrepresentation reciprocal? If I were an American or British person living in Egypt, and if I knew Arabic well enough to read the mainstream Arabic press, would I constantly be brought up short by skewed accounts of my history and culture? Would I switch on the television to find a doom-laden voice intoning about how the Celts worshipped the massive stones placed on Salisbury Plain by astral beings? Would I switch on my car radio and hear an account of yet another outbreak of 'Christianpaedophilia', with a background theme of church bells and Christmas carols? Would I wander into the movies and come face to face with an evil American character bent on destroying the 'third' world so the cinema audience cheers when the Arab hero kills him? I have to say the answer is a resounding no." - Ahdaf Soueif, Mezzaterra, p. 3