Friday, February 10, 2012

PINEAPPLES PALESTINIANS POST

PEPITA keeps magazines for years, until they have been read or not, throws or donates them. Here, an excerpt about them suffering Palestinians from TIME'S perspective from 2001.

TORN APART 
by Matt Rees.

WEST BANK AGAINST GAZA

A 19-year-old Beethlehem man hitched a ride home from a local wedding party one night this past March.
Three off-duty policemen who spoke with Gaza accents picked him up.  Soon after, they pulled the car over on a lonely road.  Palestinian legal sources tell TIME that the policemen then  sexually assaulted the youth. In the close knit West Bank town, the attack was an unheard-of act that scandalized the territory in the same way a murder in America suburbia would shock the community.

But the fact that Palestinians have begun attacking one another like this highlights the growing tension between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.  Gazans
particularly those in the police force, are unpopular in the West Bank.  West Bankers say Gazans take all the low paid jobs; that they steal and run whorehouses; and that Arafat gave them all the top jobs in the security forces because they are more loyal to him than West Bankers.   Of the 40 commanders on Arafat's Supreme Security Council, none are from the West Bank. 


FAST forward...The recent Fatah-Hamas conflict is a probable consequence of the arbitrary ruling of deceased
Yaseer Arafat...who planted the seeds...If you think this is interesting, go and search..Meanwhile, remember Kosovo, Chechens, Darfur, Shiites vs Sunnites, Hutus vsTutsis...they all look alike. With similar results...thousands of innocent people killed, maimed, exiled... 

Now its time to discuss pineapples, the forgotten fruit. For the last five years I have checked tens if not hundred of blogs from all over. I saw plenty, too many If I may, tomatoes, pumpkins, lettuce and cucumbers,  but pineapples?
Not once, here me go...

Fifty Plants that
Changed the Course
of History
by
Bill Laws
Firefly Books
2010

pages 14-15

"Discovered" by the Spanish when they landed in the Americas, the pineapple proved such a delight to the invaders as it had done to the indigenous people.
Since the fruit is a conglomeration of a hundred or so individual flowers that coalesce into a giant sugary fruit, it is packed with flavor as it is with
vitamins A and C.
Propagated by planting its sprightly green crown, or striking its side shoots, or slips, in compost, the pineapple grows easily in a tropical climate.
The Spanish, who brought it home to Europe could just about find sufficient heat to grow it.
It was going to flourish in pineapple plantations
in Northern Africa and South Africa, and eventually Malaysia and Australia; and one of the world's most productive pineapple regions turned
out to be Hawaii.  However, in the dour, cold northern European countries, the pineapple
was a problem. Presented with the challenge of domesticating the "pine", Europe's gardeners eventually set to producing single fruits in wooden tabernacles warmed by stoves on hot beds of the best horse manure.

This post was brought to you by the letter 
P.


It turned out without much thought...Originally,
I was reading this article on pineapples thinking of sharing it, because everyjuan seems to like bananas and even write about it.  The banana monopoly as a favorite tropical fruit, is consequence of their constant production of fruit, pineapples on the other hand are seasonal.  But if you live in a template climate, let me tell you, the taste of those not ripened in the plant taste pretty dull if you ask me...It is another experience.  
The Palestinians?  
Only the first letter was considered, where else
in the bloggosphere would anyjuan  post on both unrelated themes at once?
Finally, the pink Phalaenopsis and Plumeria followed the same premise.


that is that..

 




 

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like I need to enjoy fresh pineapples! (even what I ate in Oahu HI seemed not fresh...find me a garden with some, from what you say). Nice to learn something new on that fruit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Desert Dweller, thanks for your words..You may enjoy the
    book...In one of the articles, the whole story of the Boston Tea Party, starting in China, the British and their taxes, is a wonderful one..Imagine, what triggered the independence of USA, was tea and taxes...Food for thought...
    In my case I am no fond of pineapples, too acidic...but the information is interesting, considering the banana monopoly...

    ReplyDelete

Popular Posts