Kwtia

I like to see newspapers with a sense of humour...
In Saturday's The Daily Star, on page 19 we have two main stories... when you stare at the page for a few minutes and compare them you will either want to laugh or bang your head on the nearest solid object..

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One is about the Palestinian mountaineer Suzanne al-Houby who has managed to climb the highest peak in Europe (Mount Elbrus) and also Africa's Highest peak Mt. Kilimanjaro, France's Mont Blanc and Everest Base camp..She is the first Palestenian woman to do all that and she uses her fame to spread a message of peace...She also plans to start a charity program for children in the Occupied Territories...She is also the Director of the Dubai Bone and Joint Center...an example of what women are capable of..

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The second story and one which has the blurb "I call for women's rights" and then kinda smacks you with: "their right to get married, even to a married man"...where do you even begin...This woman, who was too busy or too uninterested to be a partner and I suspect other things to her husband is encouraging him to take another wife..not only that but she has also founded an organisation that promotes and facilitates polygamy...Just because she doesnt feel like being married or would rather someone else did all the chores (idea:how bout ask hubby to cook, instead of buying him a new wife) doesn't mean other women want her helping their husbands to fool around...

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The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a Hemingway short story which I felt like recommending after reading these two stories together...it's about a couple stranded on safari...about the resentment that can build up in a marriage ...about wasted talent..about excuses we make for what we settle for in life..

Obviously, the only link this has to the first news item is the location...the burden of the rest of the sad story lies on people with pretend marriages and lame excuses..

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I remember after I got that marriage license I went across from the license bureau to a bar for a drink. The bartender said, "What will you have, sir?" And I said, "A glass of hemlock."
Hemingway