Russia

BOOK REVIEW: Grief of my Heart

“First of all, stop the bleeding.”
--perhaps the most often repeated line in Khassan Baiev’s memoirs, Grief of my Heart

Grief of my Heart is the memoir of Khassan Baiev, a Chechen surgeon who was a witness to both Russo-Chechen wars since the fall of the Soviet Union. Baiev stayed in Chechnya through most of these two wars treating the wounded on all sides: wounded Chechen civilians, wounded Russian civilians who lived in Chechnya, wounded Chechen fighters, wounded Russian soldiers. He helped Chechens escape the Russians and Russians escape the Chechens. And through it all he helped keep his family alive and together.

A remarkable man with a remarkable story, but not a story for the faint of heart or for those who want simple good-vs.-evil. It is a story of how personal lives and entire cultures get subsumed in the supposedly cerebral chess game of international politics…and how the consequences are very bloody, very tragic, and full of immoral and criminal acts. It is also about how personal lives and entire cultures survive the bloody, tragic, immoral consequences and rise to heroism and kindness.

Dagestan…Chechnya…Ingushetia…North Ossetia….Georgia…Armenia….Azerbaijan

The Caucus Mountains dominate these nations, would-be nations, and territories. This has been a crossroads for millennia, the meeting point of large ethnic groups, religions and civilizations from the earliest moments of history.


mole333's picture

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The Good Shepherd: Not So Good, It's just OK

Let's just say that I should have gone to see Dream Girls instead. This three hour-long attempt to give a historical account of the birth of the CIA made my butt fall asleep in the theatre at best. The plot is disjointed, and Angelina is utterly unconvincing as a disheartened uppercrust housewife of the 50s. Matt Damon's stoic performance confirms that he should just stick to the screenwriting and leave the acting to Leonardo. This boy seriously lacks versatility. Better wait for this one to come out on DVD.


Shreya Mandal's picture

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Grab a coffee and some needles. Sometimes the news have a common thread.


Student shoots self at Philadelphia high school | Top News | Reuters.com or why can't people understand that, to some kids, school = death.

Sixty killed in Baghdad suicide truck bombing - CNN.com, or why there is more reason to listen up when Muhammed Yunus says that poverty is a threat to world peace.

Award augurs well for United 93's Oscar hopes | News | Guardian Unlimited Film, or, OK, now I am going to have to see this movie.

A dangerously nice man | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited, or how Kofi Annan cautiously takes no shit from no WASP hill-billy wannabe, but in the process effed up the United Nations reputation as the leader in world politics.


liza's picture

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