Viet Nam –1993 – A New Beginning
By Louis Grivetti
Viet Nam 1993 documents the experiences of an American University Professor and his travels in Viet Nam where he explored opportunities for agricultural and nutritional research. The journal describes interactions with Vietnamese officials, professors, and citizens met along the way and presents vivid descriptions of the land and people of Viet Nam. The author traveled the length and breadth of Viet Nam – from the ethereal beauty of Ha Long Bay to the southern reaches of the Me Kong Delta. Viet Nam 1993 documents through literary descriptions and photographs what the country and people of Viet Nam were like before diplomatic relations were established with the United States.
Song of Siwa: The Marzuk-Iskander Festival
By Louis Grivetti
The Song of Siwa is a fictional epic, the transcribed oral tradition of a band of early Stone Age hunters led by Marzuk who fled southwestern Europe, crossed the Mediterranean Sea to North Africa, and ultimately reached safe haven at Siwa Oasis in the western desert of modern Egypt. The narrative, also known as the Marzuk-Iskander Epic, traces the cultural transformation of Marzuk’s clan from prehistoric Iberia to historical contacts with the Te-Henu of North Africa, the Chemi of the Nile Valley, and culminates with the visit of Iskander [Alexander the Great] to Siwa oasis, an event still revered at the oasis today.
The Song of Siwa, the epic of Marzuk’s clan, has been chanted by a hereditary line of elders for more than two millennia. The Marzuk-Iskander festival held periodically at Siwa Oasis honors the clan’s distant ancestors and celebrates the protective spirit of Alexander the Great.