In the September/October issue of good ol’ Mother Jones magazine is this review from Kiera Butler:
Among the many Katrina-themed books that have emerged in the four years since the hurricane, this character-driven graphic novel stands out for its personal touch. Neufeld weaves together the stories of a diverse bunch of real-life New Orleanians: A convenience store owner spends a bug-infested night on the roof of his flooded market, an African American family endures chaos at the convention center, a doctor keeps the horror at arm’s length from his French Quarter digs, and an artsy young couple flee to Houston and come back to find they’ve lost everything, including a treasured comic book collection. A.D. avoids politics; it’s real power is in its images of waterlogged cityscapes and its characters’ expressively rendered faces, streaming with sweat and contorted in anguish. In Crumb-like detail, Neufeld convincingly recreates his protagonists’ ordeals — and their halting recovery. As one tells the cartoonist. "We’re not all home yet." — Kiera Butler
What you say is depressing, though I can’t argue with your personal experience. All the same, it’s ingrained in me as an American to always favor liberty and free expression over autocratic rule. (I only wish my own gov’t over the years had followed the same practice: for instance, I’m pretty sure Iran wouldn’t have emerged from their revolution with such hatred for the U.S. if we hadn’t installed and propped up the Shah for so long.)
And I wonder how Lebanon’s experience with representative gov’t would have fared without all the outside pressures and influences that it continually suffers from?
What’s happening in Egypt is pretty earth-shattering. My hope is that Mubarak will disappear, the military will oversee a peaceful transition, and they’ll have a short-term coalition gov’t which will set up free & fair elections. From my short time in Egypt — as well as friends who’ve lived there and other experts — I get the sense that there is enough of a civil society for the people to understand and support a representative gov’t. Everyone says the Muslim Brotherood represents no more than 20% of the people — and they do not seem to represent the same terrorist threat as, say, Al Qaeda. Of course I worry about a religious gov’t taking power, but again I say: Who are we to tell other people how to choose their leaders? We can only respond afterward.
I continue to watch the events in the region with bated breath. Word is a major demonstration is slated to take place in Syria on Feb. 5…