The Spirit of the World ( On and Off)
A Story Within a Story
This is the eastern edge of the Syrian desert that the Iraqis call the Western Desert. It is also described as a plateau and historically has been the home to various Bedouin tribes. I have mentioned before that I went to Syria quite by accident when I planned a trip to go to Petra. Syria became my favorite country when I compared my experience there to the time I spent in Jordan and Lebanon.
Recently our Public Broadcasting station aired a movie/documentary on Gertrude Bell. I was enthralled. Have you heard of her? She was a British woman born to an aristocratic family in 1868, She evolved into one of the most extraordinary women of her time.
Her story begins when was invited to Iran by an uncle and fell in love with "the east." So much so that she embarked on many excursions there. She eventually stayed in Iraq permanently after WWI ended. She began her trips though the region by exploring the Syrian desert after asking her father for enough gold to hire a caravan of a dozen or more camels and servants to take her on her journey. Her first journey turned into many more.
Not only did she brave the harsh elements of the desert, but she learned Arabic and the ways of the Bedouins, Their world became hers. She was accepted because the men thought of her as one of them. The English government eventually saw her as a huge asset when WWI engulfed the region. She was deemed an expert and she was recruited to help them occupy the area of Iraq that they had conquered during the war. Ms. Bell reinvented herself as a diplomat and then as an archaeologist who helped the people of Iraq set up their first museum.
In the end, she expressed her conflicted views of her country's involvement in the far away land. Should they be there? What were they accomplishing? She was fully aware of the business interests that the West began to have in the area. America and Europe saw oil reserves and knew it was the commodity needed to control the new age of automobiles and airplanes. This was not why she had chosen Iraq as her home and did not like to see the people she had grown to love be exploited.
Gertrude Bell died in 1926 of an overdose of sleeping pills in Iraq. She left behind the photos she had taken, the brilliant letters that she wrote to her family back in England and a place in the history books as the woman who helped create the Middle East we know today.
The film, "Letters from Baghdad" incorporates her marvelous photos along side of moving pictures taken of the area. When I saw one photo, I thought, " I have seen this landscape before." (Devoid, of course, of the cafe sign.) I must say a feeling of great wonderment came over me, pondering the fact that unknowingly, I had in some MINOR way, followed the a route of this intrepid adventurous woman.
A Story Within a Story
This is the eastern edge of the Syrian desert that the Iraqis call the Western Desert. It is also described as a plateau and historically has been the home to various Bedouin tribes. I have mentioned before that I went to Syria quite by accident when I planned a trip to go to Petra. Syria became my favorite country when I compared my experience there to the time I spent in Jordan and Lebanon.
Recently our Public Broadcasting station aired a movie/documentary on Gertrude Bell. I was enthralled. Have you heard of her? She was a British woman born to an aristocratic family in 1868, She evolved into one of the most extraordinary women of her time.
Her story begins when was invited to Iran by an uncle and fell in love with "the east." So much so that she embarked on many excursions there. She eventually stayed in Iraq permanently after WWI ended. She began her trips though the region by exploring the Syrian desert after asking her father for enough gold to hire a caravan of a dozen or more camels and servants to take her on her journey. Her first journey turned into many more.
Not only did she brave the harsh elements of the desert, but she learned Arabic and the ways of the Bedouins, Their world became hers. She was accepted because the men thought of her as one of them. The English government eventually saw her as a huge asset when WWI engulfed the region. She was deemed an expert and she was recruited to help them occupy the area of Iraq that they had conquered during the war. Ms. Bell reinvented herself as a diplomat and then as an archaeologist who helped the people of Iraq set up their first museum.
In the end, she expressed her conflicted views of her country's involvement in the far away land. Should they be there? What were they accomplishing? She was fully aware of the business interests that the West began to have in the area. America and Europe saw oil reserves and knew it was the commodity needed to control the new age of automobiles and airplanes. This was not why she had chosen Iraq as her home and did not like to see the people she had grown to love be exploited.
Gertrude Bell died in 1926 of an overdose of sleeping pills in Iraq. She left behind the photos she had taken, the brilliant letters that she wrote to her family back in England and a place in the history books as the woman who helped create the Middle East we know today.
The film, "Letters from Baghdad" incorporates her marvelous photos along side of moving pictures taken of the area. When I saw one photo, I thought, " I have seen this landscape before." (Devoid, of course, of the cafe sign.) I must say a feeling of great wonderment came over me, pondering the fact that unknowingly, I had in some MINOR way, followed the a route of this intrepid adventurous woman.