For 1,400 years, the Christians of the Mideast lived under a system of sustained persecution as a distinct lower class of citizens under their Muslim rulers. Despite this systemic oppression, Christianity maintained a tenuous—even sometimes prosperous—foothold in the land of its birthplace up until the past several decades. Yet today, Christianity stands on the brink of extinction in much of the Mideast. How did this happen? What role did Western foreign policy and international aid policy play? What of the role of Islam and the Christians themselves? How should history judge what happened to Christians of the Mideast and what lessons can be learned? This book examines these questions based on the firsthand accounts of those who are living it.
This volume examines twelve Asian groups whose way of life is endangered. Some are "indigenous" peoples, some are not; each group represents a unique answer to the question of how to survive and thrive on the planet earth, and illustrates both the threats and the responses of peoples caught up in the struggle to sustain cultural meaning, identity, and autonomy.
South and Central Asia is a region of extraordinary cultural and environmental diversity and home to nearly one-quarter of the earth's population. Among these diverse peoples are some whose ways of life are threatened by the accelerating assault of forces of change including environmental degradation, population growth, land loss, warfare, disease, and the penetration of global markets. This volume examines twelve Asian groups whose way of life is endangered. Some are "indigenous" peoples, some are not; each group represents a unique answer to the question of how to survive and thrive on the planet earth, and illustrates both the threats and the responses of peoples caught up in the struggle to sustain cultural meaning, identity, and autonomy. Each chapter, written by an expert scholar for a general audience, offers a cultural overview, explores both threats to survival and the group's responses, and provokes discussion and further research with "food for thought." This powerful documentation of both tragedy and hope for the twenty-first-century survival of centuries-old cultures is a key reference for anyone interested in the region, in cultural survival, or in the interplay of diversification and homogenization.
In Disappearing Persons, psychoanalyst Benjamin Kilborne looks at how we control appearance as an attempt to manage or take charge of our feelings. Arguing that the psychology of appearance has not been adequately explored, Kilborne deftly weaves together examples from literature and his own clinical practice to establish shame and appearance as central fears in both literature and life, and describes how shame about appearance can generate not only the wish to disappear but also the fear of disappearing. A hybrid of applied literature and psychoanalysis, Disappearing Persons helps us to understand the roots of the psychocultural crisis confronting our increasingly appearance-oriented, shame-driven society.
In this unique, practical book—written to be read by those remaining on earth after the Rapture—Jimmy Evans reveals the truth of the Bible about the end times. With compassion and deep insight into the prophecies of Scripture, he explains the disappearance of millions of believers around the world and gives future readers a glimpse into the events of the Tribulation. From the rise of the Antichrist to the ultimate redemption provided by Jesus, this hopeful book is a must-read for anyone navigating the future. Buy it for family members or friends. Leave it on your desk or coffee table. Put it in a place where a future reader can find it. The truths in this book will literally transform their lives. And it may be necessary sooner than you think.
One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year National Book Award Finalist Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize Finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award National Best Seller "Splendidly imagined . . . Thrilling" --Simon Winchester "A genuine masterpiece" --Gary Shteyngart Spellbinding, moving--evoking a fascinating region on the other side of the world--this suspenseful and haunting story announces the debut of a profoundly gifted writer. One August afternoon, on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two girls--sisters, eight and eleven--go missing. In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women. Taking us through a year in Kamchatka, Disappearing Earth enters with astonishing emotional acuity the worlds of a cast of richly drawn characters, all connected by the crime: a witness, a neighbor, a detective, a mother. We are transported to vistas of rugged beauty--densely wooded forests, open expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes, and the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska--and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused. In a story as propulsive as it is emotionally engaging, and through a young writer's virtuosic feat of empathy and imagination, this powerful novel brings us to a new understanding of the intricate bonds of family and community, in a Russia unlike any we have seen before.
"A set of unique, insider accounts into one of the most secretive prison systems in the world. If you've ever wondered what the rise of China means for human rights around the world, this book has the answer.""You are now under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location. Your only right is to obey!" With these words, Chinese lawyer Xie Yang was introduced to the horrors of "Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location" (RSDL), a brutal custodial system where victims are subjected to incommunicado detention and torture, often for six months or longer. This book gives voice to China's victims who, in their own harrowing words, describe the violent and dehumanizing reality of being disappeared. It present, for the first time, an in-depth analysis of the legal framework China uses to disappear and torture its citizens, and how it violates fundamental international law. This second edition explores changes to both the RSDL system, while importantly presenting the first overview of the full ecosystem for disappearances that China has been developing since the release of the first edition. From enforced disappearances in mass concentration camps for Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, to the National Security Commission that targets anyone suspected of violating Party discipline using its liuzhi system, to disappearing people when inside detention centers awaiting trial, to disappearing those supposedly released from bail or prison, to ad-hoc kidnappings. As China battles with the west to export its system of governance, understanding the breakdown of its fledging system of laws, its embrace of practices that violate fundamental international rights, becomes ever more important. With China aggressively pushing for police and extradition cooperation across the globe, fears over an extradition bill which have sparked mass demonstrations in Hong Kong for example, understanding the role of the police and China's highly abusive systems for arbitrary and secret detention is paramount.
Every year, nearly one hundred thousand Japanese vanish without a trace. Known as the johatsu, or the “evaporated,” they are often driven by shame and hopelessness, leaving behind lost jobs, disappointed families, and mounting debts. In The Vanished, journalist Léna Mauger and photographer Stéphane Remael uncover the human faces behind the phenomenon through reportage, photographs, and interviews with those who left, those who stayed behind, and those who help orchestrate the disappearances. Their quest to learn the stories of the johatsu weaves its way through: A Tokyo neighborhood so notorious for its petty criminal activities that it was literally erased from the maps Reprogramming camps for subpar bureaucrats and businessmen to become “better” employees The charmless citadel of Toyota City, with its iron grip on its employees The “suicide” cliffs of Tojinbo, patrolled by a man fighting to save the desperate The desolation of Fukushima in the aftermath of the tsunami And yet, as exotic and foreign as their stories might appear to an outsider’s eyes, the human experience shared by the interviewees remains powerfully universal.
Have you ever had your car keys or television remote control inexplicably vanish from under your nose, only to reappear months later in another part of the house for no evident reason? Most would dismiss it as absent-mindedness, with perhaps a joking remark about paranormal activity. Yet remarkable circumstances surrounding many such accounts suggest that the mysterious disappearance of objects could be more than "just one of those things." Examining a large selection of fascinating narratives, this book reviews the "disappearing object phenomenon" (DOP) from a scientific standpoint. Both skeptical and supportive perspectives on DOP are considered, leading to the conclusion that disappearing, appearing and reappearing objects are indicators of a controversial take on the nature of reality.
