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psychopathycathy wrote:The "broken families" part hits really close to home and really got to me - it was beautiful.

Broken families are the pressing issues that we are facing now. It has a great impact not only to the families involved but to the society as well.

Unfortunately, there are thousands of broken families around the world. Why does this happen? Well, if a person gets sick, he/she goes to the doctor. If the TV is broken, you find a repair man. If your car is broken, you call a mechanic, and so on. The essence here is that you need a specialist in the area to fix what it's broken, so if a marriage is not working, the couple needs a specialist as well. Who would that be? There's no other that the founder of the family, God! So, in my humble opinion, separations or broken families happen because people do not look for the right medicine, which is written on the Bible.

The Bible contains advice for each member of the family, husband, wife, children, and it explains the role each one must play in the family in order to have a happy successful family. It doesn't mean everything is going to be color pink; nevertheless, the Bible provides advice to overcome the obstacles/problems that come within a family.

gali wrote:I agree that those issues were depicted rather well. However, I think not enough emphasis was put on some of them (aka the prostitute issue).

I think the fact that it was mentioned and described in that manner is enough. Especially since the book isn't centrally talking about prostitution. It just seeks to show us that it exists.

Kalin Adi wrote:Unfortunately, there are thousands of broken families around the world. Why does this happen? Well, if a person gets sick, he/she goes to the doctor. If the TV is broken, you find a repair man. If your car is broken, you call a mechanic, and so on. The essence here is that you need a specialist in the area to fix what it's broken, so if a marriage is not working, the couple needs a specialist as well. Who would that be? There's no other that the founder of the family, God! So, in my humble opinion, separations or broken families happen because people do not look for the right medicine, which is written on the Bible.

The Bible contains advice for each member of the family, husband, wife, children, and it explains the role each one must play in the family in order to have a happy successful family. It doesn't mean everything is going to be color pink; nevertheless, the Bible provides advice to overcome the obstacles/problems that come within a family.

We do have psychiatrists and psychologists specializing in family counseling but it needs both parties to cooperate. Family counseling does not work if only one party is willing to undergo counseling.

Ayosinmi wrote:

gali wrote:I agree that those issues were depicted rather well. However, I think not enough emphasis was put on some of them (aka the prostitute issue).

I think the fact that it was mentioned and described in that manner is enough. Especially since the book isn't centrally talking about prostitution. It just seeks to show us that it exists.

Indeed. Still, as it was mentioned, they could have condemned it more than they did.

-- July 11th, 2017, 8:49 am --

Donnavila Marie01 wrote:

Kalin Adi wrote:Unfortunately, there are thousands of broken families around the world. Why does this happen? Well, if a person gets sick, he/she goes to the doctor. If the TV is broken, you find a repair man. If your car is broken, you call a mechanic, and so on. The essence here is that you need a specialist in the area to fix what it's broken, so if a marriage is not working, the couple needs a specialist as well. Who would that be? There's no other that the founder of the family, God! So, in my humble opinion, separations or broken families happen because people do not look for the right medicine, which is written on the Bible.

The Bible contains advice for each member of the family, husband, wife, children, and it explains the role each one must play in the family in order to have a happy successful family. It doesn't mean everything is going to be color pink; nevertheless, the Bible provides advice to overcome the obstacles/problems that come within a family.

We do have psychiatrists and psychologists specializing in family counseling but it needs both parties to cooperate. Family counseling does not work if only one party is willing to undergo counseling.

I agree. As I mentioned before, it only works if both parties are willing.

Donnavila Marie01 wrote:This story uncovered many social issues that are left unnoticed or unaddressed. What can you say about any of these social issues like broken family, destroyed marriages, poverty, and racial/ ethnic/ hierarchical discrimination?

Quite a bit of light has been thrown on broken families and destroyed marriages with both Yasser and Miriam as well as Nadia. Poverty has only been touched upon. I don't think there's much about racial discrimination. Overall, it was a good book to dive into!

Swara Sangeet wrote:

Donnavila Marie01 wrote:This story uncovered many social issues that are left unnoticed or unaddressed. What can you say about any of these social issues like broken family, destroyed marriages, poverty, and racial/ ethnic/ hierarchical discrimination?

Quite a bit of light has been thrown on broken families and destroyed marriages with both Yasser and Miriam as well as Nadia. Poverty has only been touched upon. I don't think there's much about racial discrimination. Overall, it was a good book to dive into!

I agree, there is nothing on racial/ethnic discrimination.

Jaime Lync wrote:Poverty is a depressing circle. Fortunately, it takes only one to rise to break the trend of poverty in a family.

Yes. I agree that poverty is a vicious cycle. If one fails to escape from it, he repeats the cycle.

Donnavila Marie01 wrote:

Jaime Lync wrote:Poverty is a depressing circle. Fortunately, it takes only one to rise to break the trend of poverty in a family.

Yes. I agree that poverty is a vicious cycle. If one fails to escape from it, he repeats the cycle.

It is that, but one can rise above it if he is determined enough.

Poverty unfortunately has an existence anywhere you go, and so does discrimination. These are problems society needs to work to change, but sadly many people are just out for themselves making it near impossible to solve these problems.

Donnavila Marie01 wrote:This story uncovered many social issues that are left unnoticed or unaddressed. What can you say about any of these social issues like broken family, destroyed marriages, poverty, and racial/ ethnic/ hierarchical discrimination?

One important thing that I learned from the Yaser and Mariam characters is that one should not go for
marriage purely based on moral values or common interests because there are other factors involved
in a happy married life, which one should not ignore.

It's great that the author highlighted the fact that people put happy pictures in social media, but in
real, their marriage is in the doldrums.

Nadia's fight against partiality in marital treatment is well highlighted by the author.

I also learned about the sad state of affairs of the lives of the entertainment workers in Las Vegas.

Thanks for asking.

gali wrote:

Donnavila Marie01 wrote:

Ssinghal wrote:The book described quite a lot of social issues that need to be urgently dealt with and resolved, like poverty, broken marriages, racial discrimination, stereotypes etc. However, I felt some issues were not very strongly condemned in the book. For example, prostitution was mentioned quite a few times in the book. However, I felt that the writers did not take a strong stand against prostitution, especially in cases where children are involved.

They did not give emphasis or strongly condemned the issue on prostitution, maybe because they do not want to be caught in a mess because prostitution is not a simple issue.

I agree with Ssinghal. Since it was part of the story, they should have taken a strong stand about it, at least regarding the use of kids.

I agree that a lot of controversial issues were raised but, as I discussed in my volunteer review, I feel that these have been included in a more factual way to show the reader that, in certain countries, these practices occur, are sociably acceptable and a part of daily life. I think, if the authors had gone into more depth on these issues, they would have lost the focus on the story they wanted to share.

There were many social issues mentioned above, and many of them are very important discussions in our current society. One is obviously the issue of child prostitution. Although this work is a piece of fiction, this issue is very real to many kids around the world. It is a terrible thing, but we need awareness in order to begin the process of ending it.

I was a little surprised at the indiscretion of Yasir while he was married, and I was floored by the treatment of Nadia by all of the men in her life. It's disturbing to know this actually exists in everyday life for so many women and girls in parts of the Arab world. We don't always get a choice in becoming who we are meant to be.

I really liked that this book looked at a lot of social issues, and it's important to be aware of them.