Chephren Gneiss

What am I reading these days?

Yesterday I finished Arita Baaijens, 'Een Regen van Eeuwig Vuur' (1993). Travelling with camels in the Egyptian Desert. Lovely read. I was very interested in Chephren's Gneiss Quarry in the desert, 60 km from Abu Simbel. 

I am reading six other books at the same time:

• Bertus Aafjes, 'Morgen Bloeien de Abrikozen' (1954). Stories from Egypt where Bertus stayed three years
• Arita Baaijens, 'De Woestijn als Passie' (1995). Desert stories from Arita and many (famous) travellers. I have read this book once before but I wanted to read it again
• Manuel E. Costa Sr.,  'The making of the Cape Verdean' (2011)
• Carlos García Peña, 'Cabo Verde Fortalezas, Gente e Paisagem' (2000). Bilingual book in Portuguese and Spanish about fortresses, people and landscape of the Cape Verde Islands
• Peter Russell, 'Prince Henry 'the Navigator' A Life' (2000)
• Perry Moree, 'Met Vriend die God Geleide. Het Nederlands-Aziatisch Postvervoer ten tijde van de Verenigde Oost-indische Compagnie' (1998). Mail (read: snail-mail) transport at the time of the Dutch East India Company

I am now looking for a good book guide for the Egyptian desert on birds, mammals, flowers, reptiles etc. Can you suggest one?

Come Home In My Dreams And Tell Me Everything

Translation and context: here, here and here.

Just in Between

Did the West ("Rich Countries") win from the Rest of the World? Depending on the period you talk about it's true. With hindsight of historical data of Gross Domestic Product (in Dutch 'Bruto Binnenlands Product') it's only true between 1850-2010. Before China and India were bigger. And if the predictions are valid .... they will be in the future too. GDP data between year 0 and 2050 for nine superpowers:

Source: NRC Handelsblad. April 4th, 2015

For the biggest part the historical data above, of the long term economic growth, is collected by Angus Maddison (1926-2010). 

Some Americans talk about the "Old World" when they refer to Western Europe. I guess it's better to point at China and India when we talk about the Old World. Western Europe and it's offspring (read: USA) are the newbies and in betweenbies.

Pouring Out Sorrows

Little known. Little understood. Little read. 

Little known islands. Little understood Cape Verdean. Little read? I guess Américo C. Araújo's book 'Little Known. The European Side of Cape Verde Islands' (2000) is not read by many. It took me some transpiration to get a copy of this book to Europe.

The book has (at least) four storylines.

Little understood. According to Araújo there are two misconceptions on the people of the Cabo Verde Islands. First, that Cape Verdean ('Cabo-verdiano') designates a race. For them Cabo Verde is not biological or racial (whose children are black, white and mostly in between) but a culture of all the people living on the Cabo Verde Islands. They are aware that their ancestors all came from different backgrounds in the outside world. "Cape Verde may be racially pluralistic, but culturally she is and has always been one" [1]. Second, all the whites are descendants of political or criminal exiles ('degredados'). According to Araújo this is for the biggest part nonsense because most whites came to the islands to administer the place or to do commerce. "It certainly wasn't to 'degredados' or 'lançados' that the King [of Portugal] would bestow the honor of overseeing his interests" [2]. 

Golden days. The writer looks back to his childhood on the islands Brava and Fogo with great pleasure and being proud on his family background. "My early childhood in Brava is very special to me. I well remember, when I was four or five, in the early evening hours, as the days begin to cool, the evening fog would rise up the mountain, enveloping the sleepy villa of Nova Sintra in a cool mist, while far off in the distance the church bells would be tolling, calling the faithful to prayer."

His mother was a European Cape Verdean of Portuguese and Jewish ancestry. In 1958 his father died of TB at the age of forty-seven. Américo was thirteen years old. In 1960 his mother went to work in the "sweat-shops" in New Bedford (U.S.A) after being "called" by her oldest son Rafael.  A year later Américo went to America. Where he got educated and became a teacher of Romance Languages [3]. 

Litte status. Being born in one of the colonies of Portugal is bad for someone his career. Admiral Carlos Reis (1852-1910) was born on Brava and found death in Lisbon. He was not to be the first president of Portugal! Eliminated because he was born in a colony and could not be allowed to ascend to the presidency [4].

Capo Verdean poets and poems. Américo gives the background of five important poets coming from the Cabo Verde Islands: Eugénio Tavares (1867-1930), João José Nunes (1885-1965), Sérgio Bonucci Frusoni (1901 - ?), Jorge Vera Cruz Barbosa (1902-1971) and Jorge Pedro Barbosa (?-?). And a couple of poems of each of them. The poem I liked best is 'O Baile' from J.V.C. Barbosa - translation from Cape Verdean Crioulo into English is from Araújo [5]:

Notes

1. Page 4, 14, 33,180 and 189

2. Page 158-160

3. Page 42 and 58

4. Page 160-169

5. Page 142