Naseem Rakha's Blog

• Do Executions Bring Closure?

  November 10, 2009

  • Muhammad and the 'closure' myth By Naseem Rakha Tuesday, November 10, 2009   Of all the arguments in support of capital punishment, perhaps the most emotionally compelling is that it provides "closure" for the loved ones of murder victims. Prosecuting attorneys, politicians and journalists commonly refer to how executions allow family members to "move on" from their ...
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• Writing Through Music

  September 30, 2009

  • Before I knew much about the characters in or the plot of my novel The Crying Tree, I knew how the book would end. I don’t mean the end as a specific scene, but rather the end as a feeling. In other words, I knew what emotions I wanted my readers to have as they closed the final pages of my novel, and those emotions were precisely the ones I would experience each and every time I’d listen ...
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• An American Story

  August 4, 2009

  •  I had the humbling experience of hearing documentary filmmaker Ken Burns speak last night at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. All I can say is there have been very few occasions when I have been in the presence of true genius. Monday evening, beneath a nearly full moon, was one. Ken Burns’ fidelity to the human spirit, its history and stories, captivated the audience of ...
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• THE BIRTH OF A BOOK

  July 22, 2009

  • One day before my novel – The Crying Tree – was born, I was home washing windows, planting flowers, sweeping, dusting. In other words, I was nesting: doing everything I could to get things in order before my baby’s birth. But unlike the day my son was born, once my book was out, it’d be on its own. I remember how strange it felt when The Crying Tree first started making its rounds to ...
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• Eighteen Boxes

  July 6, 2009

  • A little more than a week ago my publicist and marketer called to ask if I would mind it very much if a truck delivered eighteen boxes of books to my home. It seems that Book Passage -- a very well known book store in San Francisco -- had chosen The Crying Tree for its prestigious "First Editions Club." Book Passage describes the club this way: "For Booklovers & Book ...
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• Three weeks to go....

  June 18, 2009

  • Two days ago I received an overnight package. It was my book. Hardback edition, signed, sealed and delivered. It was a surreal experience, mostly because it felt so quiet. No fanfare, no adrenaline rush. Just a package I'd been expecting and, yes, there it was, and didn't it look nice? And look there is my name on my book, my baby, my child. My nine year old son was home, so was a friend of ...
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• Dancing in Antwerp

  April 27, 2009

  • Imagine this. It is eight in the morning in Antwerp, Belgium, and the cities largest Railway Station is crowded with people. Most walk brusquely through the large marble building, climbing and descending the broad staircases with hardly a look to one another. They are busy with cell phones, Ipods, and children gone amok. They are thick in thought. Suddenly, the constant prattle of announcements ...
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• FORTY YEARS

  November 14, 2008

  • April 4, 1968—Chicago. I was eight years old when I saw my city burn. The fire began across the street – a four-lane divide called South Shore Drive – and spread west as far as I could see. Along the road, people were screaming, crying, throwing rocks, bricks, destroying their own homes, their shops, and churches. Paddy wagons raced up and down the road, as did fire trucks and police ...
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• My Election Night

  November 5, 2008

  • The last person to vote at Portland, Oregon's Pioneer Courthouse Square's ballot drop off box was a homeless woman named Louise. She had been living under a bridge since 2004. My eight-year-old son and I stood beside the drop-box watching her reach into a bag and pull out her ballot. After she submitted her vote we talked. Then a homeless man came up. "I think we are going to find a better ...
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• A New Joe Camel

  September 18, 2008

  • My 8-year-old son came home from school the other day and told me that when he's 18, he plans to spend half his salary on the lottery.  "What?" I ask. I don't play the lottery. Neither does my husband. Well, OK, maybe he does a few times a year when the jackpot prize for Megabucks is near a peak and he's got a buck in his pocket and nobody's watching. The point is, my son's misguided ...
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• WHERE'S SARAH?

  September 9, 2008

  • Boy, I bet Steve Forbes is mad. His 100 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN in the world issue has just hit the stands and nowhere among this prestigious list of business women, politicians, writers, and artists is the name Sarah Palin. I mean, “what the heck?” What was the top-notch crew of reporters and analysts at Forbes thinking? Obviously, their painstaking research, interviews, surveys and web searches ...
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• SPITTING OFF A FERRIS WHEEL

  September 4, 2008

  • My son came home from his first day in third grade telling me he learned some kids consider it fun to spit on people while riding the Ferris Wheel. We talk. Who told you this? How did you respond? Do you think it would be fun? And then a new question comes to my mind: what would Barack Obama say? For the first time in what seems like decades, we have the potential to elect someone whose sense of ...
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