Al-Ahram Weekly Online 11 - 17 October 2001 Issue No.555
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue | Previous issue | Site map

Pack of Cards By Madame Sosostris AUTUMNAL APPARITIONS:When artist Gamil Shafik drew this picture, he had only visions of summer's end on his mind: the time when nets are extended to catch migrating quails. As a hail of bombs shatters Afghanistan, though, these innocent birds have taken on a more ominous appearance -- they could be birds of prey (perhaps crows, known to be evil auguries), rather than simply the helpless victims of our carnivorous tendencies. Are these terrorists, hopelessly ensnared in the traps carefully laid for them all over the world, or other winged creatures of steel and fire, sent to punish the Taliban but unwittingly embroiled in a conflict that may prove impossible to unravel? As the fine mesh of unreality that seemed to envelop us all in these past weeks is brutally rent asunder, only one thing seems certain: winter is drawing in, and it is already far too late to fly south.

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