Journal #1 A Thousand Splendid Suns

Passages:

''Mostly, they live in the richer parts of Kabul. I'll take you there. You'll see. But they're here too, Mariam, in this very neighborhood, these soft men. There;s a teacher living down the street, Hakim is his name, and I see his wife Fariba all the time walking the streets alone with nothing on her head but a scard. It embarrasses me, frankly, to see a man who's lost control of his wife''
He fixed Mariam with a hard glare.
''But I'm a different breed of man, Mariam. Where I come from, one wrong look, one improper word, and blood is spilled. Where I come from, a woman's face is her husband's business only. I want you to remember that. Do you understand?''
(pg. 63)

''What I meant was, what do they want?'' Mariam asked. ''These communists, what is that they believe?''
Rasheed chortled and shook his head, but Mariam thought she saw uncertainty in the way he cross his arms, the way his eyes shifted. ''You know nothing, do you? You're like a child. Your brain is empty. There is no information in it''
''I ask because---''
''Chup Ko. Shut up.''
Mariam did
(Pg.89)

''OI should have known that you'd corrupt her,'' Rasheed spat at Mariam. He swung the belt, testing it against his own thigh. The buckle jingled loudly.
''Stop it, bas!'' the girl said. ''Rasheed, you can't do this.''
''Go bacck to the room.''
Mariam backpedaled again.
''No!Don't do this!''
''Now!''
Rasheed raised the belt again this time came at Mariam
(pg 218)




Rasheed is a disgusting, piece of scum on the earth's surface.

When you look at the world you think of diversity, poverty, inequality, suffering, though on the other side you see wealth, and happiness. In parts of the world like the middle east the wealth is divided not even close to equal. 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is set in Afghanistan where treachery and havoc has reaped the country for decades. First the Soviets, the Majuhadeen, Fights breaking out over war lords opposing other war lords, and then the Taliban. Rasheed is a shoe maker who lives in Kabul and disliked the Soviets since they were all about equality, and women being equal. They allowed females to attend school or work outside of the home. When the Taliban took control of Kabul, Afghanistan there were very strict laws. The laws they put in for males were not that bad, though for women they were harsh and unjust. Women were not allowed to be treated at 'male' hospitals which all of them but one in a large city accepted females which had no funding, or medicine. Women had to wear burqas which covered their bodies fully including faces, and could not go anywhere without a male relative 'supervising'

Though inequality and despicable instances have happened through the spread of time only now when we have the united nations attempting to hold peace throughout the world but some is still not obtainable. Leaders of today's society are either corrupt, power hungry, brutal, or incompetent. Growing racism and hatred will never be put into extinction.

Tokyo

From the minute I saw the waitress, and I knew it was going to be a bad dining experience. As a table of three we were seated at the back of the petite restaurant. The waitress looked as if she had the intelligence of a 12 year old, and looked as if she had just came down from another high time. She placed the menus in front of us, and I open it up. I looked down at the pages scrolling threw when I noticed hair in my menu, so I thought to myself 'wow I hope the food is better!'. Since I recently came back from Vancouver and ate at my favourite sushi spot, I did not want to ruin the delicious sushi memory with bare minimum enjoyment. I was searching for a non-carnivore dish as I do not eat meat and saw 'Anade Teriyaki' which is tofu teriyaki. I remembered my father getting a teriyaki item before at another restaurant and it looked delicious, so I proceeded to order the tofu teriyaki. My boyfriend and his friend ordered other meals. As we proceeded to wait for a long time for our dinners the waitress brought us green tea that took about 20 minutes to brew, which I drink at home and know it only takes about 5 minutes. My tofu came on a plant with a tiny dizzle of sauce on it on a miniature plate, and before I could ask where the rest of it was the waitress was gone. I was starving so I started nibbling on it, as we waited about 45 minutes for the other food to arrive. When it all came I questioned where my food was and the waitress said 'you just ordered the appetizer and I said 'no I ordered the teriyaki and she took my tofu and said 'it will just be a second she can whip it up quick' so I though oh gosh. About 10minutes later I received Anade Don, and not teriyaki I thought what the heck I am so hungry! All that the bowl contained was two little pieces of fried tofu with some bean sprouts on top of rice. It was bland and pretty bad, my boyfriend said that his was not that great but he was hungry, since he is also not the one to complain. I was quite aggravated due to the despicable service and let down meal. Through out the whole meal we saw the waitress about 3 times, once to take our order, once for the tea, and once for the food. We were there about an hour and a half due to long waits. Though the restaurant was not busy it was still unimpressive service and food. We went up to go pay the bill and I explained to the waitress that my food was not good, and she replied 'if it was not good you should have told me' and I responded 'you never came to the table for me to tell you', in the end she told me that if it was not that good I should not have eaten it and charged us full price. In conclusion the Tokyo restaurant is a waste of money and disappointment which should be avoided. Try Lee's overseas and Isshin on main before wasting your money at Tokyo, or even better if in Vancouver try Kadoya on Davie St. it is the best sushi and good prices!