"Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return"
-- Mary Anne Evans
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
We are who we are
not the days we live
Not hours we existed
and hours we evaded to exist
we are the tears we shed
we are eyes that dry and lips that tremble
at the sight of fading silhouettes
moments of greatness
and moments of absolute stillness
allegories and illusions, confusions and absolute truths
truths… with an s
faces opinions stares
wondering thoughts and aching backs and unsure hands
glasses we spill and emotions we drill
lost ways lost loves lost roads
lost lives in the creases of days
art but not… humanity but not
reality
hot flashes
hot looks
turning colors, turning leaves, split ends
split identities
split destinies, turning wasting fading skins
little gestures little meetings little squanders
eye shadows you hated, shoulders that made you melt
songs that squeezed your heart to drops
your conscience squeezing your brain
a gray dress a gray area a gray line
left by a track left by a sculpture
left by rain
a trail of uncertainty left in our hearts
a sense of peace
a sense of sadness
a sense of non-belonging
my face gathered in my hands
just sad today
just sad
not the days we live
Not hours we existed
and hours we evaded to exist
we are the tears we shed
we are eyes that dry and lips that tremble
at the sight of fading silhouettes
moments of greatness
and moments of absolute stillness
allegories and illusions, confusions and absolute truths
truths… with an s
faces opinions stares
wondering thoughts and aching backs and unsure hands
glasses we spill and emotions we drill
lost ways lost loves lost roads
lost lives in the creases of days
art but not… humanity but not
reality
hot flashes
hot looks
turning colors, turning leaves, split ends
split identities
split destinies, turning wasting fading skins
little gestures little meetings little squanders
eye shadows you hated, shoulders that made you melt
songs that squeezed your heart to drops
your conscience squeezing your brain
a gray dress a gray area a gray line
left by a track left by a sculpture
left by rain
a trail of uncertainty left in our hearts
a sense of peace
a sense of sadness
a sense of non-belonging
my face gathered in my hands
just sad today
just sad
Monday, October 02, 2006
The crescent melts and the ends collide
I lost the page
I lost the words
I lost my poetry long ago
- What is it that you saw there?
- It is what I did not see…
Nervousness, shyness, insecurity, shame, passion, rage, uncertainty, intensity, fervor, inconsistency, unbalance, craziness… spilled emotions… spilled words… shivering hands…
- But what’s left to see?
- Everything else …
Him...
His voice that breaks the void ... that comes through the night…
Illusions of him... spread between my messy lines...
haunting my messy life...
Turning my world around every step of the way...
His voice that shakes me to the core to say...
I lost the page
I lost the words
I lost my poetry long ago
- What is it that you saw there?
- It is what I did not see…
Nervousness, shyness, insecurity, shame, passion, rage, uncertainty, intensity, fervor, inconsistency, unbalance, craziness… spilled emotions… spilled words… shivering hands…
- But what’s left to see?
- Everything else …
Him...
His voice that breaks the void ... that comes through the night…
Illusions of him... spread between my messy lines...
haunting my messy life...
Turning my world around every step of the way...
His voice that shakes me to the core to say...
Friday, September 29, 2006
On women of sand and Myrrh II
"There is a tradition in Islam of women’s equality, and the life of the Prophet Muhammad is often offered as proof of this; it is said that Muhammad washed his own clothes and darned his own socks, and often served meals to his youngest wife Ai’sha, who later led his army into battle and was regarded as an important and respected interpreter of Islamic laws. The Qur’an leveled the social balances for women: in Islam, women had the right to inherit property, own and operate businesses, and be educated. It banned several misogynist practices, such as the infanticide of newborn baby girls, who were often unwanted by parents who preferred male children.
---
"I understood—and not for the first time—the astounding disconnection between the lives of Arab women, and the lives of Arab women as represented by the American media and entertainment industries, thus as perceived by Americans themselves.
The statements made by my ponytailed student smacked of an underlying assumption that I have heard many times before: we American women have finally succeeded in moving the feminist movement to the top of our nation’s list of priorities; now it’s time to help our less fortunate sisters. Of course, over the years, American feminism has opened its gates (after much pounding) to other versions of feminism, such as black feminism and other non-white, non-upper-middle-class feminisms. Therefore, the focus on Arab women’s issues illustrates the good intentions of American feminism; however, my concern is with the “big sister” manner in which those intentions are manifested. Often, Arab women’s voices are excluded from discussions concerning their own lives, and they are to be “informed” about feminism, as if it is an ideology exclusive to American women alone."
---
Selections from an essay by Susan Muaddi Darraj (a student at Johns Hopkins University) on Arab feminism.
"There is a tradition in Islam of women’s equality, and the life of the Prophet Muhammad is often offered as proof of this; it is said that Muhammad washed his own clothes and darned his own socks, and often served meals to his youngest wife Ai’sha, who later led his army into battle and was regarded as an important and respected interpreter of Islamic laws. The Qur’an leveled the social balances for women: in Islam, women had the right to inherit property, own and operate businesses, and be educated. It banned several misogynist practices, such as the infanticide of newborn baby girls, who were often unwanted by parents who preferred male children.
---
"I understood—and not for the first time—the astounding disconnection between the lives of Arab women, and the lives of Arab women as represented by the American media and entertainment industries, thus as perceived by Americans themselves.
The statements made by my ponytailed student smacked of an underlying assumption that I have heard many times before: we American women have finally succeeded in moving the feminist movement to the top of our nation’s list of priorities; now it’s time to help our less fortunate sisters. Of course, over the years, American feminism has opened its gates (after much pounding) to other versions of feminism, such as black feminism and other non-white, non-upper-middle-class feminisms. Therefore, the focus on Arab women’s issues illustrates the good intentions of American feminism; however, my concern is with the “big sister” manner in which those intentions are manifested. Often, Arab women’s voices are excluded from discussions concerning their own lives, and they are to be “informed” about feminism, as if it is an ideology exclusive to American women alone."
---
"Not only do the struggles of Arab feminists have a long history, but over the 1980s and 1990s, as Val Moghadam observes in the same book, “women’s NGOs [in the Middle East and North Africa] have grown exponentially and are taking on increasingly important responsibilities in the context of state withdrawal from the provision of social services and in the context of a global trend in the expansion of civil society.” Organizations explicitly devoted to women are growing rapidly in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, while more informal service-oriented organizations led by women play some of the same roles in many other Middle Eastern nations. Some of the leading organizations in Egypt include: the New Woman’s Group; Arab Women’s Publishing House; the Alliance of Arab Women; the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women; Together; Progressive Women’s Union; the group of women who published The Legal Rights of the Egyptian Woman in Theory and Practice; and The Society for the Daughter of the Earth. (See the chapter by Nadje Sadig al-Ali in Organizing Women.) Taken as a whole, it is a movement that, if allied with U.S. and other feminisms, could improve the lives of women around the world."
---
"The media’s popular portrayal of Muslim women as universally helpless and dominated by the patriarchy that continues to exist in Arab culture (as if any society is free of it) has reinforced American perceptions that Arabs and Muslims are degenerate and twisted, thus worthy of domination and bombing.
And yet, if Americans, especially American women, understood the long and enduring history of Arab feminism, then perhaps my students would be able to formulate comments on Arab and Muslim women that were more informed and sensitive. Such commentaries would recognize the complexity of historical struggles, rather than making those waging these struggles invisible under a pervasive stereotype. It is not up to Western women to diagnose inequality in Arab society—it has been diagnosed. Rather, American women should recognize that Arab women themselves—and even some Arab men—have grappled with gender inequality for over a century. This is the message that American feminists have largely not heard, although it must be heard and Arab women’s voices included in the discussion of building bridges and confronting women’s issues on a global scale.”
"The media’s popular portrayal of Muslim women as universally helpless and dominated by the patriarchy that continues to exist in Arab culture (as if any society is free of it) has reinforced American perceptions that Arabs and Muslims are degenerate and twisted, thus worthy of domination and bombing.
And yet, if Americans, especially American women, understood the long and enduring history of Arab feminism, then perhaps my students would be able to formulate comments on Arab and Muslim women that were more informed and sensitive. Such commentaries would recognize the complexity of historical struggles, rather than making those waging these struggles invisible under a pervasive stereotype. It is not up to Western women to diagnose inequality in Arab society—it has been diagnosed. Rather, American women should recognize that Arab women themselves—and even some Arab men—have grappled with gender inequality for over a century. This is the message that American feminists have largely not heard, although it must be heard and Arab women’s voices included in the discussion of building bridges and confronting women’s issues on a global scale.”
Selections from an essay by Susan Muaddi Darraj (a student at Johns Hopkins University) on Arab feminism.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
That night…
That night
She let him in without words
She waltzed across the room
Smooth steps but oscillating stares
Her black dress fluttering around her legs
September rain coloring her window
The color of her eyes
Hiding her dissonant heart beats
She walked
The silky hand of fate will follow
Will soon follow
But tonight there was no room for words
Tiny roses on his lips
He called her name…
Has she really known him
For all these years
Doe his hands get weary
Holding her dreams
Embracing her fears
Tapping on her back
Tapping on her days
Tapping on her door
Every night?
That night without words …
Was he really in that room
Or was it the wind that wrapped her
With a taste of his demands
Was it his flesh under her nails
Was it his scent that left her senseless
Was it a song that gushed her tears
Or was it the sight of her sheets
Covered with darkness
Leaving nothing but a shrine
Of his eyes
Leaving nothing but the echo
Of his voice…
Was it the tip of his fingers
That numbed her body
Or was it September?
That night
She let him in without words
She waltzed across the room
Smooth steps but oscillating stares
Her black dress fluttering around her legs
September rain coloring her window
The color of her eyes
Hiding her dissonant heart beats
She walked
The silky hand of fate will follow
Will soon follow
But tonight there was no room for words
Tiny roses on his lips
He called her name…
Has she really known him
For all these years
Doe his hands get weary
Holding her dreams
Embracing her fears
Tapping on her back
Tapping on her days
Tapping on her door
Every night?
That night without words …
Was he really in that room
Or was it the wind that wrapped her
With a taste of his demands
Was it his flesh under her nails
Was it his scent that left her senseless
Was it a song that gushed her tears
Or was it the sight of her sheets
Covered with darkness
Leaving nothing but a shrine
Of his eyes
Leaving nothing but the echo
Of his voice…
Was it the tip of his fingers
That numbed her body
Or was it September?
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
By comparison
As far as my opinion goes I do not try to judge or try to conceive a solution to a problematic geo-political position based on my nationalist feelings and my belonging. While I try hard to be objective approaching very controversial and emotionally charged issues, I feel compelled to strip myself from religious sectarian racial and nationalist loyalties.
Although I think a feeling of belonging and identity and even spiritual needs might be essential on a individualistic level, I try to remain very suspicious all exaggerated forms and declarations of one’s national belonging or one’s unconditional loyalty to a leader, a religion or a state. If all religions are to be treated as philosophies, from my knowledge of all the teachings of these philosophies which are at our reach in books left for us by their founders, I cannot think of a religion that asks of its adopters to blindly follow a leader. Each one of these philosophies left us a decent amount of ideas that we can apply to our lives and needs and societies within the limits of flexibility and moderation. Each one of these religions embraced and valued knowledge and freedom and individuality and loyalty and empathy and giving and understanding and unconditional respect to our bodies our nature as they did embrace the idea of a mystical sense or being or existence. The latter is an entity never having been defined and I like to think that this is where the strength of this idea resides. As opposed to the well defined gods in the Greek and Roman mythology, an idea of a vague existence may that be an omnipotent being or a spirit maintains an essence of unity and continuity with the non-tangible that is hoped to transcend the human spirit and to tame the aggressiveness of the human nature. Throughout history, man, a social animal, has witnessed development and evolution through creating the value of the family unit and then the idea of the community and the tribe. Incidentally, those same philosophies and spiritual feelings were the tools that helped bridge the divides in ancient civilizations created due to natural selections competitive natures and animalistic drives and political ambitions between tribes. As long as these values remain personal and in a sense even secular, a side product of society, a vehicle enabling the ‘soul’ of social capacities and of development keeping science and philosophy and art equally revered and valued, religion was not poisonous.
These same spiritual contexts and connections that man developed, however, have been the same values that led to the most efficient quarrels in human history. While the human nature remained the residual motive behind the human need to prevail, family ties, tribal ties and religious ties were the most efficient PR machines that drove civilizations to their doom throughout documented history. This was done ever so convincingly in the name of a god, a divine message and under the pretext of a spiritual or racial elitism. The same teachings that prayed for love and understanding and empathy were the tool to use one people against another in the name of spreading this same message (as in the case of Christianity during the Crusades and Islam) and securing a right of existence and prosperity to a chosen people (as happened when Moses and his followers after him guided the Jews as early armed forces to occupy the land of Caan, ‘the promised land’, in other words early Zionism). In most cases than none, these leaders chose to emulate the same virtues of the gods about which they preach for the purpose of political influence. A lot of so-called prophets only preached about goodness and understanding and forgiveness leaving out domination and human ruthlessness. The same human nature disregarded those particular examples set forth by those leaders and chose the values that serve their ambitions.
Based on the mere fact of the human nature, I can not but find nationalism, religion and any kind of social ties that become so stern and exclusive to the point of misanthropically answering to the needs of one sect, one culture, one society or one nation but not others to be very suspicious and dangerous. As in religion, too much nationalism and too much attachment to what’s immediately our blood and our land and our borders lead to the chauvinistic need of reducing our fellow human being to a less deserving less prevailing entity. In the bigger sense of things, ties between people on any level today, may that be family, community, language, society or country has the dangerous aggressive tribal motives at its heart. Even family ties that set the stage for inflammatory emotions of excessive protection and revenge are at the heart of tribal loyalties. I believe in the global human being. No color, no race, no religion, no language, no borders and no eternal historical accounts and paybacks. I always say that science is my religion. Looking around me and within my human apparatus I cannot but feel humbled and owed by the might of nature. The ancient human being reached out to his fellow human being for help and completion. While aggression ceased organization followed. It remains a challenge to the human nature to follow guidance without being blind and to give guidance without getting greedy. Even if the most successful democracies of our days and even in the most mundane exercises of these democracies we are faced with the fine line between total anarchy but intellectual independence and regulation versus totalitarian control. Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried”. How do you privatize and spread the wealth down while staying away from corruption (just look at the education system in America today). How do you think globally about your equal fellow human being and grant within yourself to remain fair and not abuse the wealth within limited sources and not to exploit those who at the time are weaker or less developed (check this link). How do you globalize and still fight conformity. How do you resist consumption in an ever developing world (look at the idea of globalization today)? How do you encourage competition for the purpose of development in science and health and the quality of life without risking greed and the need for destroying the opponent? (The cold war).
A nationalist would seek military development for self-preservation through maintaining a balance of power. A citizen of the world would seek development that serves all of humanity. Research to cure AIDS should be funded more than cancer, certainly more than nutritional programs, certainly more than space programs and absolutely more than national defense programs.
Having said this, I would like to talk about the contemporary moral issue by definition and regional and political crisis by exercise of our days. Having already promised that I try to formulate the crisis (the question that needs to be solved), the method and the answer separately from loyalties and belongings, I would try to do that here.
The empirical method is the method I follow. I always like to compare the Lebanese situation to that of the Palestinian one with regards to Israel. I do that exercise not because I want to get more experimental comparison of the effect of one entity (Israel) based on a broader scope of reference but because in the midst of the Orwellian crisis of defending the contradictory Lebanese demands and needs, I find the problem of the Palestinian people to be undoubtedly solid in my mind and conscience. I view it not as a problem of territorial needs and conflicts but as that of a human crisis (I have previously gave numerous examples of the maltreatment of the Palestinian people). This is my own personal human cause regardless of what the politicians representing the Palestinians preach or demand and regardless of the means through which those same people resist and react.
The crisis had originated in response to an act that contradicts all the values that I talked about and that I stand for. It is not valid to accuse a defender of one people who happen to be weak against their strong oppressors of racism. This is mere humanism. The founding of the Israeli state required endless acts of terror and injustice that remain to our day. This was done based on a moral obligation on the part of the Jews and remains to this day opposed to legal obligations. A moral obligation is based on a fundamental system of beliefs that give a certain people the right to act in whatever means they possess against all others as I have previously mentioned. This answers my first question about the moral validity of the erection of the state of Israel. This has always been a question easy to answer for me since I do not believe in religious drives and in the right of a group of people at the expense of others.
Even when I condemn the original act that led to the formation of Israel, I am against the principle that all the land should be returned to the Palestinian (regardless of the practicality and politics and accord and UN resolutions). I refuse the idea based on the same standards I ask to all human beings and based on the same respect to all humans and disregard of borders and historical rights. I believe in coexistence irrespective of our religions (and this seems to be the only separation between Jews of Israel and Arabs of Palestine who some of happen to belong to the same Semite race). I find it to be ironic that the same people who call for secularism in the religion that took the shape of their opponent base their own elitist existence which is policed by fascist methods on religious belongings and loyalties. These loyalties give them a fake right and a feeling of superiority coming from their own personal religious beliefs (some extreme examples here).
I asked this question earlier: If you support the state of Israel today, where do you stand on morality. This question came out as a reaction to a lot of Israelis who claim to act out of a higher moral compass. Let me rephrase my question based on the ideas I have presented earlier: if you support the methods through which the Israeli government is treating the Palestinians today what is your stand from humanity?
Finally, since the method at hand is scientific, since we draw from experimentation and proof and not from a priori experience and beliefs, if I am to condemn the actions of the Israelis towards the Lebanese society I think this recent war gave me the data I need. One can always argue that all the systems in the Middle East today are tribal and that the war in Lebanon was about politics and not mere oppression, aggression, greed or exploitation. Using the same method and seeking tangible data and proof and not relying on beliefs, not anticipating injustice, not extrapolating possible scenarios based on the situations of other people, I will give Israel the benefit of the doubt when I come across such ‘evidence’ here, here, here and here.
As far as my opinion goes I do not try to judge or try to conceive a solution to a problematic geo-political position based on my nationalist feelings and my belonging. While I try hard to be objective approaching very controversial and emotionally charged issues, I feel compelled to strip myself from religious sectarian racial and nationalist loyalties.
Although I think a feeling of belonging and identity and even spiritual needs might be essential on a individualistic level, I try to remain very suspicious all exaggerated forms and declarations of one’s national belonging or one’s unconditional loyalty to a leader, a religion or a state. If all religions are to be treated as philosophies, from my knowledge of all the teachings of these philosophies which are at our reach in books left for us by their founders, I cannot think of a religion that asks of its adopters to blindly follow a leader. Each one of these philosophies left us a decent amount of ideas that we can apply to our lives and needs and societies within the limits of flexibility and moderation. Each one of these religions embraced and valued knowledge and freedom and individuality and loyalty and empathy and giving and understanding and unconditional respect to our bodies our nature as they did embrace the idea of a mystical sense or being or existence. The latter is an entity never having been defined and I like to think that this is where the strength of this idea resides. As opposed to the well defined gods in the Greek and Roman mythology, an idea of a vague existence may that be an omnipotent being or a spirit maintains an essence of unity and continuity with the non-tangible that is hoped to transcend the human spirit and to tame the aggressiveness of the human nature. Throughout history, man, a social animal, has witnessed development and evolution through creating the value of the family unit and then the idea of the community and the tribe. Incidentally, those same philosophies and spiritual feelings were the tools that helped bridge the divides in ancient civilizations created due to natural selections competitive natures and animalistic drives and political ambitions between tribes. As long as these values remain personal and in a sense even secular, a side product of society, a vehicle enabling the ‘soul’ of social capacities and of development keeping science and philosophy and art equally revered and valued, religion was not poisonous.
These same spiritual contexts and connections that man developed, however, have been the same values that led to the most efficient quarrels in human history. While the human nature remained the residual motive behind the human need to prevail, family ties, tribal ties and religious ties were the most efficient PR machines that drove civilizations to their doom throughout documented history. This was done ever so convincingly in the name of a god, a divine message and under the pretext of a spiritual or racial elitism. The same teachings that prayed for love and understanding and empathy were the tool to use one people against another in the name of spreading this same message (as in the case of Christianity during the Crusades and Islam) and securing a right of existence and prosperity to a chosen people (as happened when Moses and his followers after him guided the Jews as early armed forces to occupy the land of Caan, ‘the promised land’, in other words early Zionism). In most cases than none, these leaders chose to emulate the same virtues of the gods about which they preach for the purpose of political influence. A lot of so-called prophets only preached about goodness and understanding and forgiveness leaving out domination and human ruthlessness. The same human nature disregarded those particular examples set forth by those leaders and chose the values that serve their ambitions.
Based on the mere fact of the human nature, I can not but find nationalism, religion and any kind of social ties that become so stern and exclusive to the point of misanthropically answering to the needs of one sect, one culture, one society or one nation but not others to be very suspicious and dangerous. As in religion, too much nationalism and too much attachment to what’s immediately our blood and our land and our borders lead to the chauvinistic need of reducing our fellow human being to a less deserving less prevailing entity. In the bigger sense of things, ties between people on any level today, may that be family, community, language, society or country has the dangerous aggressive tribal motives at its heart. Even family ties that set the stage for inflammatory emotions of excessive protection and revenge are at the heart of tribal loyalties. I believe in the global human being. No color, no race, no religion, no language, no borders and no eternal historical accounts and paybacks. I always say that science is my religion. Looking around me and within my human apparatus I cannot but feel humbled and owed by the might of nature. The ancient human being reached out to his fellow human being for help and completion. While aggression ceased organization followed. It remains a challenge to the human nature to follow guidance without being blind and to give guidance without getting greedy. Even if the most successful democracies of our days and even in the most mundane exercises of these democracies we are faced with the fine line between total anarchy but intellectual independence and regulation versus totalitarian control. Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried”. How do you privatize and spread the wealth down while staying away from corruption (just look at the education system in America today). How do you think globally about your equal fellow human being and grant within yourself to remain fair and not abuse the wealth within limited sources and not to exploit those who at the time are weaker or less developed (check this link). How do you globalize and still fight conformity. How do you resist consumption in an ever developing world (look at the idea of globalization today)? How do you encourage competition for the purpose of development in science and health and the quality of life without risking greed and the need for destroying the opponent? (The cold war).
A nationalist would seek military development for self-preservation through maintaining a balance of power. A citizen of the world would seek development that serves all of humanity. Research to cure AIDS should be funded more than cancer, certainly more than nutritional programs, certainly more than space programs and absolutely more than national defense programs.
Having said this, I would like to talk about the contemporary moral issue by definition and regional and political crisis by exercise of our days. Having already promised that I try to formulate the crisis (the question that needs to be solved), the method and the answer separately from loyalties and belongings, I would try to do that here.
The empirical method is the method I follow. I always like to compare the Lebanese situation to that of the Palestinian one with regards to Israel. I do that exercise not because I want to get more experimental comparison of the effect of one entity (Israel) based on a broader scope of reference but because in the midst of the Orwellian crisis of defending the contradictory Lebanese demands and needs, I find the problem of the Palestinian people to be undoubtedly solid in my mind and conscience. I view it not as a problem of territorial needs and conflicts but as that of a human crisis (I have previously gave numerous examples of the maltreatment of the Palestinian people). This is my own personal human cause regardless of what the politicians representing the Palestinians preach or demand and regardless of the means through which those same people resist and react.
The crisis had originated in response to an act that contradicts all the values that I talked about and that I stand for. It is not valid to accuse a defender of one people who happen to be weak against their strong oppressors of racism. This is mere humanism. The founding of the Israeli state required endless acts of terror and injustice that remain to our day. This was done based on a moral obligation on the part of the Jews and remains to this day opposed to legal obligations. A moral obligation is based on a fundamental system of beliefs that give a certain people the right to act in whatever means they possess against all others as I have previously mentioned. This answers my first question about the moral validity of the erection of the state of Israel. This has always been a question easy to answer for me since I do not believe in religious drives and in the right of a group of people at the expense of others.
Even when I condemn the original act that led to the formation of Israel, I am against the principle that all the land should be returned to the Palestinian (regardless of the practicality and politics and accord and UN resolutions). I refuse the idea based on the same standards I ask to all human beings and based on the same respect to all humans and disregard of borders and historical rights. I believe in coexistence irrespective of our religions (and this seems to be the only separation between Jews of Israel and Arabs of Palestine who some of happen to belong to the same Semite race). I find it to be ironic that the same people who call for secularism in the religion that took the shape of their opponent base their own elitist existence which is policed by fascist methods on religious belongings and loyalties. These loyalties give them a fake right and a feeling of superiority coming from their own personal religious beliefs (some extreme examples here).
I asked this question earlier: If you support the state of Israel today, where do you stand on morality. This question came out as a reaction to a lot of Israelis who claim to act out of a higher moral compass. Let me rephrase my question based on the ideas I have presented earlier: if you support the methods through which the Israeli government is treating the Palestinians today what is your stand from humanity?
Finally, since the method at hand is scientific, since we draw from experimentation and proof and not from a priori experience and beliefs, if I am to condemn the actions of the Israelis towards the Lebanese society I think this recent war gave me the data I need. One can always argue that all the systems in the Middle East today are tribal and that the war in Lebanon was about politics and not mere oppression, aggression, greed or exploitation. Using the same method and seeking tangible data and proof and not relying on beliefs, not anticipating injustice, not extrapolating possible scenarios based on the situations of other people, I will give Israel the benefit of the doubt when I come across such ‘evidence’ here, here, here and here.
Not a cliche, it still stands!
powered by ODEO
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Godot?
- I am working just to pass the time but I’m not working towards anything these days
- Me neither. I think we’re afraid of graduating
- I agree. We have been students for so long.
- I don’t want to face what’s out there
- I am almost sabotaging my thesis
- It just feels so comfortable and safe now
- I think we don’t want to grow up
- To be an adult now?
- I have so much to read up on for work and I can’t do it
- I know me neither. I keep taking time off. I’m not functional
- I actually read about everything but work these days
- Anything but science
- I think we’re going through quarter life crisis
- You think?
- Yes I am sure
- I heard about that before but I don’t know what it is.
- Me neither actually. I should read up on it.
- Then we definitely need some time off. This is a crisis.
(Gus took those pictures of us at a party in my apartment in 2004. At a time in my life when everything made much more sense)
- I am working just to pass the time but I’m not working towards anything these days
- Me neither. I think we’re afraid of graduating
- I agree. We have been students for so long.
- I don’t want to face what’s out there
- I am almost sabotaging my thesis
- It just feels so comfortable and safe now
- I think we don’t want to grow up
- To be an adult now?
- I have so much to read up on for work and I can’t do it
- I know me neither. I keep taking time off. I’m not functional
- I actually read about everything but work these days
- Anything but science
- I think we’re going through quarter life crisis
- You think?
- Yes I am sure
- I heard about that before but I don’t know what it is.
- Me neither actually. I should read up on it.
- Then we definitely need some time off. This is a crisis.
(Gus took those pictures of us at a party in my apartment in 2004. At a time in my life when everything made much more sense)
Monday, September 25, 2006
Palestinian cinema
A brief introduction: At the film society of Lincoln center.
Columbia University Professor Hamid Dabashi is introducing the screening of Michel Khleifi's Wedding in Galilee on Wednesday, September 27 (6 pm).
The films in the series include Wedding in Galilee (Michel Khleifi, 1987), Chronicle of a Disappearance, (Elia Suleiman, 1996), short films by Palesitnian filmmakers, and Paradise Now (Hany Abu-Assad, 2005).
Times and tickets here.
A brief introduction: At the film society of Lincoln center.
Columbia University Professor Hamid Dabashi is introducing the screening of Michel Khleifi's Wedding in Galilee on Wednesday, September 27 (6 pm).
The films in the series include Wedding in Galilee (Michel Khleifi, 1987), Chronicle of a Disappearance, (Elia Suleiman, 1996), short films by Palesitnian filmmakers, and Paradise Now (Hany Abu-Assad, 2005).
Times and tickets here.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Sunday selections
Read in IBJ's blog,
In the spirit of Ramadan "this year non-Muslims (Christians, Jews and others) are fasting during certain days in Ramadan in solidarity with their Muslim brothers and sisters who are facing war, occupation and continued harassment and intimidation"
This is all over the news today, surprised?
On a different note, Ahmadi-Nejad has been ridiculed and demonized for attacking the right of the Israeli government to exist. A government that clearly opposes his country and had declared war on his government for years now in plans presented by Netanyahu (the new realm) as well as indirectly through the neo-cons in office who had be planning for a war on Iran even before the war on Iraq as it was confirmed by Ramsey Clark and in Seymour Hirsh's recent article in the New Yorker. A government that clearly represents an American ally in the region and an enemy of Iran as Israel has declared itself to be. A government that competes with Iran's interests in Iraq and in the control in the region. On a more ideological side, a government that is opposite to the ideology of the islamic republic since it persecutes, tortures and oppress muslims in Palestine.
This man is called a fanatic, a crazy warlord, a racist yet the American and Israeli leaders who are the reason for the situation in Iraq, the tortures, the continuation of the illegal occupation in Israel, the exploitation of fear and grief for political gain, the persecution and the psychological war against muslims and Arabs, the exploitation of the Arabic oil and the destruction of countries and murder of our people and their own to do so are democratic leaders who are doing the best for democracy? So in president Clinton's rhetoric, who said their shit doesn't stink? And wait a minute? Who said only Americans are allowed to do the best for their nation in any cost possible and to punish other leaders for doing the same, including Saddam? I know these are old questions but when will people wake up? Read the selections in the links below and if you need a reminder on torture by all means, read here, here and here and Bush's immunity to being accused of war crimes. This article and this video might present a reasonable explanation as to why the Irani leader might not be met with outrage by the Arabic world as he speaks on Israel (and many more examples i have already mentioned on the Israeli oppression of Palestinians).
you might enjoy the links below:
on Bush
Ahmadinejad's address to the UN
Chavez's address to the UN
Read in IBJ's blog,
In the spirit of Ramadan "this year non-Muslims (Christians, Jews and others) are fasting during certain days in Ramadan in solidarity with their Muslim brothers and sisters who are facing war, occupation and continued harassment and intimidation"
This is all over the news today, surprised?
On a different note, Ahmadi-Nejad has been ridiculed and demonized for attacking the right of the Israeli government to exist. A government that clearly opposes his country and had declared war on his government for years now in plans presented by Netanyahu (the new realm) as well as indirectly through the neo-cons in office who had be planning for a war on Iran even before the war on Iraq as it was confirmed by Ramsey Clark and in Seymour Hirsh's recent article in the New Yorker. A government that clearly represents an American ally in the region and an enemy of Iran as Israel has declared itself to be. A government that competes with Iran's interests in Iraq and in the control in the region. On a more ideological side, a government that is opposite to the ideology of the islamic republic since it persecutes, tortures and oppress muslims in Palestine.
This man is called a fanatic, a crazy warlord, a racist yet the American and Israeli leaders who are the reason for the situation in Iraq, the tortures, the continuation of the illegal occupation in Israel, the exploitation of fear and grief for political gain, the persecution and the psychological war against muslims and Arabs, the exploitation of the Arabic oil and the destruction of countries and murder of our people and their own to do so are democratic leaders who are doing the best for democracy? So in president Clinton's rhetoric, who said their shit doesn't stink? And wait a minute? Who said only Americans are allowed to do the best for their nation in any cost possible and to punish other leaders for doing the same, including Saddam? I know these are old questions but when will people wake up? Read the selections in the links below and if you need a reminder on torture by all means, read here, here and here and Bush's immunity to being accused of war crimes. This article and this video might present a reasonable explanation as to why the Irani leader might not be met with outrage by the Arabic world as he speaks on Israel (and many more examples i have already mentioned on the Israeli oppression of Palestinians).
you might enjoy the links below:
on Bush
Ahmadinejad's address to the UN
Chavez's address to the UN
Telephone casse
I was talking to my mom on the phone as I do every Sunday then my nephew took the phone and wanted to tell me about summer school and miss Dalal. Apparently he does not like her because she looks nothing like his mom which I can completely relate to. I can see the distress there. Then he went on like he does with his little stories that make no sense except in his little world. I listen and all I can think of is when did he start talking? Every other sentence he asks me where I am anyway and why I don’t come over to continue the conversation. He hates phones as much as I do. He suddenly decides to hang up. I tried to call again but the lines were terrible. Finally I got through.
And in Arabic
- hello
- hello, who is it?
- Khaled is that you?
- No, it is me
- who, where is mom?
- who did you call?
- Is this the .. residence?
- No it is not… wait where do you call from?
(I’m thinking what do you care where I call from)
- Amerca, leish?
- This is so funny, I was trying to call Beirut too, see I’m in the US too..
(I’m thinking he must be new here)
- oh you are.. haha.. ok then.. (trying to save my minutes for mom)
- yes I am in jersey so where are you?
- here in nyc
- Oh and how long have you been here?
Then a third voice appears on the line… a woman
- hello
the man and I just burst into laughter
- hi.. wait is this the person you’re calling in Beirut?
He goes
- no.. hello who is this?
The woman goes
- yes hi.. hi.. is this New tv?
I go
- What? Are you serious?
At this point we both lost it. The poor woman waits for an answer and we are dying of laughter.
He tells her
- why are you calling NTV on Sunday?
And I go
- is NTV still open anyway?
Her, still convinced that we're from NTV
- Can i get through?
We messed around with the NTV story for a while then she noticed some English here and there and she figured it out. It turns out she lives in Connecticut. I still don’t know why on earth she was calling NTV. We all talked for a while and now I know a guy in Jersey and a woman in Connecticut. After all this time it still just takes for the person to be Lebanese to become my immediate friend.
Do you remember the phone games we used to play as kids? When we’re old enough to have a phone in our room.. My sister would come in at night and we would just call random numbers and say the same old jokes.. Like your fridge is running? Well go follow it.. On the other end, an old lady would pick up.
- What my fridge? What’s wrong with it? Does my husband want to fix it? Who is this?
The poor old lady’s confusion would make it even the more enjoyable to us.
For minutes there, getting that lady who terribly wants to talk to NTV was exceptionally funny for us. I guess that man from Jersey played the same games with his siblings when they were kids. At times in Beirut when entertainment for kids was limited. When we spent most of our time indoors. We would feel we had all of the Lebanon that we can't see right there on the other end the phone line. The man said that this was a very pleasant Lebanese reunion. I guess in Lebanon or abroad, the surviving Lebanese spirit and sense of humour will always wrap us with all the Lebanon we need and miss.
I was talking to my mom on the phone as I do every Sunday then my nephew took the phone and wanted to tell me about summer school and miss Dalal. Apparently he does not like her because she looks nothing like his mom which I can completely relate to. I can see the distress there. Then he went on like he does with his little stories that make no sense except in his little world. I listen and all I can think of is when did he start talking? Every other sentence he asks me where I am anyway and why I don’t come over to continue the conversation. He hates phones as much as I do. He suddenly decides to hang up. I tried to call again but the lines were terrible. Finally I got through.
And in Arabic
- hello
- hello, who is it?
- Khaled is that you?
- No, it is me
- who, where is mom?
- who did you call?
- Is this the .. residence?
- No it is not… wait where do you call from?
(I’m thinking what do you care where I call from)
- Amerca, leish?
- This is so funny, I was trying to call Beirut too, see I’m in the US too..
(I’m thinking he must be new here)
- oh you are.. haha.. ok then.. (trying to save my minutes for mom)
- yes I am in jersey so where are you?
- here in nyc
- Oh and how long have you been here?
Then a third voice appears on the line… a woman
- hello
the man and I just burst into laughter
- hi.. wait is this the person you’re calling in Beirut?
He goes
- no.. hello who is this?
The woman goes
- yes hi.. hi.. is this New tv?
I go
- What? Are you serious?
At this point we both lost it. The poor woman waits for an answer and we are dying of laughter.
He tells her
- why are you calling NTV on Sunday?
And I go
- is NTV still open anyway?
Her, still convinced that we're from NTV
- Can i get through?
We messed around with the NTV story for a while then she noticed some English here and there and she figured it out. It turns out she lives in Connecticut. I still don’t know why on earth she was calling NTV. We all talked for a while and now I know a guy in Jersey and a woman in Connecticut. After all this time it still just takes for the person to be Lebanese to become my immediate friend.
Do you remember the phone games we used to play as kids? When we’re old enough to have a phone in our room.. My sister would come in at night and we would just call random numbers and say the same old jokes.. Like your fridge is running? Well go follow it.. On the other end, an old lady would pick up.
- What my fridge? What’s wrong with it? Does my husband want to fix it? Who is this?
The poor old lady’s confusion would make it even the more enjoyable to us.
For minutes there, getting that lady who terribly wants to talk to NTV was exceptionally funny for us. I guess that man from Jersey played the same games with his siblings when they were kids. At times in Beirut when entertainment for kids was limited. When we spent most of our time indoors. We would feel we had all of the Lebanon that we can't see right there on the other end the phone line. The man said that this was a very pleasant Lebanese reunion. I guess in Lebanon or abroad, the surviving Lebanese spirit and sense of humour will always wrap us with all the Lebanon we need and miss.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Ramadan Kareem
Despite all the turmoil...
"The President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, reveals in an interview to be aired at the weekend that, soon after the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, the United States threatened to bomb his country "back into the Stone Age" if he didn't offer its co-operation in fighting terrorism and the Taliban. The revelation was made by General Musharraf during his visit to New York for the annual General Assembly of the United Nations. It comes after a week in which the US has been criticised by a number of foreign leaders for trying to impose its will on other nations." read here.
"The bad news is that Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation. Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes." read here.
"The republic of fear is born again. The state of terror now gripping Iraq is as bad as it was under Saddam Hussein. Torture in the country may even be worse than it was during his rule, the United Nation's special investigator on torture said yesterday" read here.
May your future holidays be free of threats, tortures and occupations.
Despite all the turmoil...
"The President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, reveals in an interview to be aired at the weekend that, soon after the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, the United States threatened to bomb his country "back into the Stone Age" if he didn't offer its co-operation in fighting terrorism and the Taliban. The revelation was made by General Musharraf during his visit to New York for the annual General Assembly of the United Nations. It comes after a week in which the US has been criticised by a number of foreign leaders for trying to impose its will on other nations." read here.
"The bad news is that Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation. Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes." read here.
"The republic of fear is born again. The state of terror now gripping Iraq is as bad as it was under Saddam Hussein. Torture in the country may even be worse than it was during his rule, the United Nation's special investigator on torture said yesterday" read here.
May your future holidays be free of threats, tortures and occupations.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
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