The Devil's in the Details
In a show on CNN about the current port uproar (in which James Zogby was interviewed, yet wasn't given a chance to talk) a union worker had the following pearls of wisdom to share:
We wouldn't transfer the port to the devil and we won't trasfer it to Dubai.
Money Money Money
The place I'm at now has just announced that it has received 600 million dollars - more than half a billion - in "gifts" ... excluding the amount that it raises as a profit.
...let's just put this into perspective...Movie-wise, Titanic raised a profit of 700 million (1.8 billion gross). Star Wars had 400 million.
Album-wise, Michael Jackson's infamous Thriller made 100+ million.
Looking at countries ...
Egypt receives around 2 billion in military and economic aid from the United states ... Israel gets an estimated 3 billion ... Jordan received around 500 million a few years ago ... of course, if you look at the per capita income, considering that we only have around 20000 people here, and the fact that we don't need a military, then there just isn't much comparison ...
... and no, this money will not be divided among us. If only.
Let's play a little game ...
What exactly will happen when our "leaders" meet and have the long awaited hiwar? That question will only be answered when the hiwar takes place, but as of late, it seems that this hiwar will lead to naught. However, the exact outcome depends on what the "leaders" aim at achieving. There are two extreme cases - they are completely self-interested, in which case they aim at being fully in control (regardless of the effect on the country), or they are completely selfless and aim at making the country better (regardless of the effect on their power).
On a simple level, these two models can be analyzed as games (similar to the prisoner's dilemma). The first game (with selfish players) can be described as follows. "Leaders" can either cooperate (which includes political compromises), or they can attempt to carve their own path, thus claiming a title of a zaim (each player prefers to be the only zaim). In general, the payoff of taking a stance is correlated to how much power he has, and the resulting game can be seen
here.
The only solution to this is that each player aims at being a zaim.
In the second game, each player knows that cooperating will give added benefits to the country (since that is what they care about) - thus leading to this
game.
The outcome? They both cooperate.
The model above is extremely simplistic and of course debatable. However, both games can be used to explain the different stances of the various "leaders", depending on what your opinion is of them. The main point to keep in mind is that if you believe the "leaders" mainly care about themselves, then there is little probability that dialogue will lead anywhere. So how will the dialogue play out? Somewhere in between the above result? That all depends on how many "leaders" actually care about a "better" Lebanon versus personal ambition. Is the country willing to wait and see?
The Alternate Universe
High Caliber Politics
This comes a few days late ...
The theme of "Freedom Camp" for the past few days has been "fil", i.e. "leave" (a polite translation).
Apparently Walid Eido said something of the following: If he [Lahoud] doesn't understand what we are saying, then we will start to say "in-ile3"* ...
I laughed when I heard this ... but really ... he represents us? This requires another ... "
Wow".
*If someone has a proper translation for this, let me know.
Wow
I really wonder how the ministers felt yesterday. Really. What passed through Seniora's mind?
Wow.
You know that something is wrong when a (biased) newspaper like Addiyar asks the questions that Seniora should have asked himself:
هل هي قصة جديدة أم مهزلة؟
هل الرئيس السنيورة منسجم مع نفسه ويطلب الاجتماع في مقر مجلس الوزراء ثم في بعبدا، ثم يعتذر؟
هل شؤون الناس تدار بهذا الشكل؟
You know something is wrong when Berri asks Seniora the logical question of "how could you have asked for the session to have been held in the presidential palace and then didn't go?"
Reading the story reminded me of something I used to do when I was around ... six or seven ... I would tell my mother that I would be in the kitchen, and then go hide somewhere, and giggle as she starts looking for me ...
... except that this is slightly more serious ...
Oh well. Back to work.
Circle of Isolation
In light of Condoleezza Rice's visit to Lebanon, it's worth noting a short article in The Economist on America's role in the region.
Who's isolating whom?YOU can't have it both ways, is what America's secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, is telling Arab audiences during a tour of friendly capitals to rally sagging support for American policy in the Middle East. You can't preach violence and expect international aid, she says of Hamas, the Islamist party that recently swept Palestinian elections. No one will respect you if you signal reform but act repressively, she advises Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak. You can't say in private that you fear Iran going nuclear but do nothing to stop it happening, she will tell Gulf leaders.
Yet Ms Rice is hearing much the same refrain in response. America cannot preach democracy in Palestine, then chastise the winners, just as it cannot demand concessions from Hamas without Israel budging, too. It cannot bully dictatorial allies to reform, then always expect their support. And America cannot single out Iran on the nuclear issue, while ignoring Israel's nearby arsenal. It's like Dick Cheney hunting quail but shooting his friend instead, joked a Saudi columnist.
Continue reading
here.
I have nothing to say ...
... about the bombing of the Al-Askariya Shrine ... i'm stunned ... retaliations have already begun. Iraq's already existant civil war has blown wide open for everyone to see ...
Some links:
1,
2,
3
Hiwar Lil-Hiwar
*Armand Homsi - Annahar
Let's Fatwa
Note: Updated LinksIn the past two days two fatwa's have been issued.
One of them has to do with the Danish cartoons (although the Times of India has
this to say). This of course follows the 1 million dollar bounty called for by a Pakistani cleric. (Rushdie will probably have to
hand over his old hideout. )
The
other is a fatwa issued by Iranian clerics, which allow the possession of nuclear bombs as "a countermeasure against other nuclear powers."
----------
In other news...
Ziad Rahbani is back on the airwaves ... you can listen to him by downloading the file found
here (.rm file) ...
In an interview, Sfeir said the following: He supports the removal of Emile Lahoud via legal means (and not through public protest) ... it is preferable that the new president is not a military figure ... that he didn't agree with all that was said on the February 14 demonstration ... there is and alliance between Hezbollah, Syria and Iran ... other political issues that he should in general have no role in ... as well as an interestingly racist comment ...
It's currently sunny outside ...
Man'oushe ...
Reading this article made my mouth water. Stuck between eating out in the limited choices around me, or venturing into the kitchen and and watching my culinary experimentations turn black, there are two things I really miss and would do almost anything ("almost" being the operative word here) to have on a daily basis ... even though there are places around that claim they offer them, they're just not the same when not made in the levant.
1 - Man'oushe Zaatar
2 - Hommus
And now someone has finally written an entire book about the one thing that basically all lebanese (and levantines) like (by definition) ... mana'eesh.
A tribute to the national snack of LebanonBEIRUT: Nearly all of us who live in Lebanon have our favorite man'oushe joint and a tale to tell about it. Mine happens to be the Nazareth bakery on the corner where Monnot Street meets Sodeco Square in Achrafieh - and that's not a shameless plug. It's a ramshackle little place just down the street from the more upmarket Zaatar wa Zeit - if man'oushe joints can be upmarket that is - and it hasn't closed down in the face of the latter's surging popularity.
I like to think that's because of the thinness and crispiness of the bread when I order my regular jibne wa zaatar (cheese and thyme) man'oushe. Open 24 hours and baking constantly Nazareth, like many other tiny bakeries across the country, has its own charm and its own particular flavor. Write in and let us know yours.
But after five years here even I, as an avid fan of the quintessential Lebanese breakfast snack, never imagined that there were more than 70 different recipes for it.
Like the Arabic language, which varies enormously in dialect from Morocco to Egypt and Iraq to Yemen, the man'oushe varies in taste and recipe from neighborhood to neighborhood across Lebanon and yet remains a common feature throughout, transcending all geographic and religious zones.
Barbara Abdeni Massaad knows this. The Lebanese writer and cook with an obsession for bread making and man'oushe has spent the better part of the last five years, in between taking care of her young children, traveling the country, discovering bakeries from Deir al-Qamar to Tyre, chatting with their proprietors and collecting their recipes - some dating back hundreds of years.
"Man'oushe: Inside The Street Corner Lebanese Bakery" (Alarm Editions) is the result. A beautiful cook book filled with original and individual recipes for different types of the national snack, "Man'oushe" is also a heartwarming (though perhaps little too much so) story of Massaad's own long journey as a 10-year old immigrant to the U.S. during the war and her eventual return to the family home in the mountains of the Kesrouan and her later marriage in the picturesque old town of Byblos.
Continue reading here.
Syria Deprives Telecommunication Ministry
Marwan Hamade has
accused Syrian authorities of using relay stations to cover part of Lebanon - thereby reducing the revenue of the Lebanese cellular operators.
This is all fine and dandy of course, since legal agreements between the two countries must exist, but when a corrupt individual, who continues to personally embezzle from one of the two companies, presents himself as a saint that truly cares, I begin to wonder ...
... but I guess
blaming Syria for all our woes is akin to Russians handing out vodka to appease the masses. And sadly, it works just as well.
Unfolding Dreams
a scorching fire of pain and passion. suffocating dissonance. soiled dreams and a child's vision trodden on. shadows of practicality blur the clear minds of youth. chains are forced on free thought. years may pass. many accept their man-made fate. many suffer a perpetual state of drowning. but for a few, there will be a moment of sacred loneliness. rusted padlocks will crumble. the present will not be enough. these few will then watch their hidden dreams unfold themselves. they will watch themselves break free. of everything.
Open Your Eyes
Jumblattian Logic
... or the art of concocting strange phrases.
Everything that comes from Saudi Arabia is good for Lebanon ...
... then he continues to say ...
... today I am convinced that the Middle East cannot continue with these dictatorial regimes.
- Walid Jumblatt, 2006
What's Wrong with this Picture?
(Just a quick comment, since deadlines are crashing down on me ...)Michael Chertoff (US Homeland Security Secretary) is being interrogated because of his faulty preparation for Katrina.
... meanwhile ... several timezones away ...
People are arguing over which warlord to hail as a savior and as the only hope for a tiny nation.
... I guess we still have a long way to go before those at the top can be held accountable ...
Logistics
I've created a simple anti-sectarian sign that I've had on my sidebar for the past several days (I've made my views on sectarianism clear at the end of this
post). If you share a similar view for the future of our nation, or if you for some quirky reason find this
sign "cute", then please take it, copy it, post it, etc, within approximate bounds as outlined by the creative commons
license (of course, if you miraculously find a way to use this commercially, the license becomes void as long as you let me know ...).
In addition, I've added a links section, powered by Furl, on the sidebar, which will continuously be updated as days go by, even if I'm not posting.
Finally, for those connected to my
site feed, I've opened up a
feed with Feedburner, which provides more options ...
... and yes, I am still shocked with that
coincidence yesterday. The oracles I have contacted are still arguing over its meaning. No answers yet I'm afraid.
In a calculation ...
... I was working on, a variable came out to be equal to 10452 (although the units were not km squared). Coincidence?
I think not.
One Year Later ...
Dear Readers,
A year ago, I indulged in my typical daily routine. Woke up. Checked email. My friend had sent an empty message with the subject "Hariri assassinated" ...
On this day, one year later, there are many things that one can write. A eulogy ... a summary of past events ... a bitter letter ... a message of hope ... a motivating piece on the strength of a nation ... maybe even simply posting a potent
caricature ...
... I have decided against all that ...
... simply because there are many battles that have not yet been properly broached by the political elite nor by the public. Fighting for Lebanon consists of a war that aims at, simplistically speaking, "making Lebanon better", and in order to achieve this, all the various battles must be taken on simultaneously. Many of these are social, and achieving them is a realistic goal. Others may require more than purely social movements - however, at this time, it is necessary that the impetus comes from society.
---
Civil Rights: Whether they be women, children, or gay rights, these are lacking. I've posted on a specific detail concerning women rights
before, but the problem lies deeper than just that. There are negative social attitudes concerning some of these rights, but more importantly, the law is discriminatory in nature. Legal outlets should be provided to protect victims of violence and domestic abuse.
Civil rights also imply individual rights and freedoms that are independent of religious nuances. Till this day, this has not been fully realized.
---
Racism: Foreign Workers. The status of the foreign working class is pitiful. It doesn't help that the media seems to ignore their plight by posting articles such as
this and
this. In addition to a social attitude that disregards the rights of these human beings, the legal rights of such workers are unacceptable. This phenomena is equivalent to slavery, and until we admit that, it most probably will not be solved.
Attacks on
Syrian workers. Regardless of what the regime has done, this is should be followed up by the law. Yet nothing has been done to punish the guilty. The media has a strong role in this. There are countless examples, but the latest one was on Sunday 12, 2006. Annahar published the following headline:
308 arrested in Achafieh riots. 37 Palestinians, 34 Syrians. In the article they mentioned that there were 244 Lebanese, but apparently, this was not deemed worthy enough or placing in the headline.
---
Media: This is a very difficult task, but worth throwing out here. There has to be some form of independent media, but more importantly, some form of accountability for what is published. Addiyar, Annahar, Al-Moustaqbal, Assafir ... present one side of the story because of the different sources of revenues. Assafir almost
fired a journalist because of some threats of discontinuing funding (although this journalist later left and is apparently working on starting his own news outlet). Moreover, stories are manipulated into falsehoods, and published. An example is the case with Nasir Al-Assad and Gebran Bassil several months ago. How do we even approach this issue?
---
Education: Improvements of public schools and public universities. Development of human resources in rural areas - such as providing knowledge necessary to the enhancement of life. On a more esoteric level, academic research is at a bare minimum.
---
Corruption and Political Accountability: This should be placed under "Economy", but that is too broad a topic, and because it is currently completely tied in with regional and local politics, I am not going to attempt to broach it.
Corruption is still infused at all levels, and we have been placed 83/158 on the
Yearly Corruption Index. A legal system must allow the public to hold leaders accountable for their decisions, and lack of action. Sadly, this is not something which will be dealt with soon, simply because those who are at the top of the food chain are the ones who are corrupt and the ones who should be held accountable for past failings. Meanwhile, it is the Lebanese who suffer.
---
The Palestinian Issue: I believe this does not need much elaboration, except to say that the conditions they currently live under are inhumane.
---
Sectarianism: All the above is relatively unimportant if this is ignored. We have chosen to make the main groups in Lebanon based on religion, yet in the same way that I can think of myself as a Christian or a Muslim, I can also perceive myself as a man or a woman or a teacher or a student or a young adult job-hunting or a grandparent aiming at retirement. The number of groups we can divide ourselves into is infinite, yet we have decided to place emphasis on the one division that brings with it the power of God.
It is time to question the belief that
sectarianism is inherent. Religions do not have to conflict. Sects, and their members, do not get along because they have unhealthy relationships, as opposed to the unhealthy relationships arising because sects do not get along - a much more dangerous and irrevocable scenario. In other words, these human divisions that seem so concrete emerge from the relations between people, and thus, when these relations change the divisions will also change. Sectarianism is a servant, and not a master.
In lengthy conflicts, as is the case in Lebanon, it seems that this may not be true, since life is organized in a number ways to prevent different divisions from forming. Part of this can be blamed on political and religious authorities, as well as historical ties and communal memories, among other things.
By exposing society to a different social order, it is possible to change these groupings. And this can be initiated by ridding Lebanon of the confessional system, which in essence, places sects in competition with each other.
One of the most persistent complaints I hear concerning this is from minority sects: We do not what Islamic rule imposed on us, etc. Yet, by delaying discussion concerning the confessional system, we are in fact placing ourselves in a catch-22 situation. Now is the time to instill a system of civil rights in the Lebanese legal system, and hopefully in Lebanese civil consciousness, as well as a process of legal checks that protect individual rights. Such a step is necessary in order to create a pluralistic society - a step above that of just a tolerant one (since tolerance implies a position of power).
---
The list of issues goes on and on.
As a new generation, we have the responsibility of social change. We can, as many have done, spend our time understanding and analyzing politics, and attempt to predict the different paths politicians will take. Yet our work should not stop there, since we must also attempt to change the dialectic fault-lines set up by past generations.
The easy way out of this is to claim that understanding the sectarian game is enough because society is controlled by it. This leads us to reiterating and rehashing old arguments, and participating in the usual diatribes, but such actions will prevent a more fortunate ending to this unfortunate tale. If we believe that abolishing sectarianism (and working on the other issues above) is a justifiable cause, then the least we can do is to keep such ideas afloat. There is much that we can accomplish if we understand that having insight into sectarianism does not imply that we must live by it; however, if we have our beliefs and language enveloped by it, then we have failed.
In order to realize some of the above points, words and ideas must be followed by action. Here is a
list of NGOs that operate in Lebanon. On this day, take a look, and if one of these NGOs appeals to you, take the initiative and join.
Why? Because we must actively engage ourselves in an paradigm shift that places responsibility of the country's future in our hands. Waiting for others is a not a zero-sum game, since we all lose. Unless we begin instigating change through civil society, the horizon we are working for will continue to drift further away.
And that would be a true shame.
Yours Truly,
L.
Surveys
I remember during the elections of last summer, several companies were hired to conduct surveys of the various regions, in order to provide a baseline for who would get what number of votes, etc. Suprisingly, even though people seem to think that surveys in Lebanon will always be faulty, these surveys were very close to the mark. There was one case where it did differ, and that was due to a last-minute incident between Najah Wakim and a percentage of Shiite voters in Beirut.
There have been recent surveys as well concerning the coming elections. Two of them were published in the past three days. Today's survey studied how the Christian public viewed the recent Aoun-Nasrallah meeting. 77.2% believed that the meeting was for the benefit of the country.
The other survey was specific to the Baabda - Aley elections. 68% of Christians, 92% of Shiite, 35% of Druze are with Michel Aoun's candidate. This corresponds to around 61 thousand votes, as opposed to between 48 to 52 thousand votes for the opponent.
it's official
I am tired/bored of all the cliched arguments people enjoy rehashing over and over and over again. Some of these people I've been arguing for the past 3 - 4 years, and they seem to think that by repeating the same lines I will be brainwashed into believing them. Like, for example, sectarian antagonism (as opposed to thinking of yourself as Christian/Muslim) is something so natural that we should just accept it and move on. Or that ... this has been on hold for a while, but has been brought up with the recent cartoon controversy ... Islam is inherently violent, and that the Muslim culture (and when asked to explain what that is, they reply with "what do you mean? It's just their culture.") is incompatible with other religions. Or even with more specfic details, concerning a certain leader, or a certain "role model", or a ...
... and now, after years of trying to present different views, and just being faced with the typical "la2 la2, you see, that's not the way it is at ALL. You have to understand that's just the way it is ..." I am bored. I am open to being persuaded, but just not with predictable explanations such as "it's human nature" or "these things just never change" or "he really does care about the country" or ...
I think it might be time to restart ...
... my
link of the day section (or of the week, depending on time). How else am I going to link to stories like
this?
Apparently, Michael Jackson can't
afford to pay his staff in his Neverland ranch ... and to add to his worries, the son of the king of bahrain has basically kicked him out ...
... and there seems to be a conspiracy going around that Israel is responsible for the current Danish Cartoon episode. Some people (and this is a small minority - I hope - but it seems like something that could catch on) have taken articles such as
this and use it as evidence that Israel, in order to divert attention and whatnot, instigated the current outrage ...
... and I probably shouldn't tell you how good the weather has been in the past three days. It's winter, and people are sunbating out on the lawns ...
Doubt ...
... is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
- Voltaire
"Ignorance is Strength"
Or so some believe ...
To say I was never a fan of Michel Aoun, is to put it lightly. Over the years, watching him on televised interviews live from Paris could only bring the image of personified insanity to my mind.
That hasn't exactly changed. But to single out Aoun as irresponsible and as a bad politician is not something I fully understand. If it was up to me - and unfortunately (or maybe some think it is fortunate) it isn't - then I would have accused several of them of crimes against humanity.
That said, I find it hypocritical that there are Lebanese, some of whom are extremely educated (which makes it even more a shame), who accuse Aoun's followers and supporters of being blind and of acting like sheep, when they have pledged themselves to constantly exonerate various members of the so-called March 14 gathering like there is no tomorrow. Aoun commits alot of errors, but every now and then something good slips by. Likewise, the March 14 gathering may let something good slip by every now and then, but also commits alot of errors.
Yes, the March 14 gathering was
responsible for March 14. That day will go down in history. Their involvement in that movement will also go down in history. But analyzing their current stances - or lack of stances - through that day's
colored lenses is equivalent to blind and shameful tribal flag-waving - an act which had previously destroyed Lebanon.
It is time to demand more from those in power. And though they may have had Lebanon's best interest at heart during the initial stages, their latest actions speak volumes and cannot just be ignored. Political analysis is not based on absolute theoretical axioms (if only it were!), and thus, one's opinions of the different groups must change as more information is present. This does not mean that opinions have to radically vary from day to day, but for sure they cannot be
stagnant over an entire year.
Sadly - sadly for Lebanon, that is - more and more individuals are ignoring this and have begun, if they haven't already, to choose their savior, and their enemy. By taking this position, it becomes much easier to place blame,
since the other is always wrong (after all, "Hell is other people") - for example, the March 14 sheep (and yes, they are sheep) will blame the Aoun sheep, and vice versa, without any introversion taking place.
If only those who had studied George Orwell in their high schools had kept
1984 in mind. It seems Orwell was much more in tune with the social realities than I ever thought, as he has portrayed this constant blind attachment and perpetual faith in certain politicians, and the associated hate, in the figure that is Goldstein - the enemy the regime in
1984 loved to hate. And so he wrote
The next moment a hideous, grinding speech, as of some monstrous machine running without oil, burst from the big telescreen at the end of the room. It was a noise that set one's teeth on edge and bristled the hair at the back of one's neck. The Hate had started.
As usual, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, had flashed on to the screen. There were hisses here and there among the audience. The little sandy-haired woman gave a squeak of mingled fear and disgust. Goldstein was the renegade and backslider who once, long ago (how long ago, nobody quite remembered), had been one of the leading figures of the Party, almost on a level with Big Brother himself, and then had engaged in counter-revolutionary activities, had been condemned to death, and had mysteriously escaped and disappeared. The programmes of the Two Minutes Hate varied from day to day, but there was none in which Goldstein was not the principal figure. He was the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of the Party's purity. All subsequent crimes against the Party, all treacheries, acts of sabotage, heresies, deviations, sprang directly out of his teaching. Somewhere or other he was still alive and hatching his conspiracies: perhaps somewhere beyond the sea, under the protection of his foreign paymasters, perhaps even -- so it was occasionally rumoured -- in some hiding-place in Oceania itself.
Winston's diaphragm was constricted. He could never see the face of Goldstein without a painful mixture of emotions. It was a lean Jewish face, with a great fuzzy aureole of white hair and a small goatee beard -- a clever face, and yet somehow inherently despicable, with a kind of senile silliness in the long thin nose, near the end of which a pair of spectacles was perched. It resembled the face of a sheep, and the voice, too, had a sheep-like quality. Goldstein was delivering his usual venomous attack upon the doctrines of the Party -- an attack so exaggerated and perverse that a child should have been able to see through it, and yet just plausible enough to fill one with an alarmed feeling that other people, less level-headed than oneself, might be taken in by it. He was abusing Big Brother, he was denouncing the dictatorship of the Party, he was demanding the immediate conclusion of peace with Eurasia, he was advocating freedom of speech, freedom of the Press, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought, he was crying hysterically that the revolution had been betrayed -- and all this in rapid polysyllabic speech which was a sort of parody of the habitual style of the orators of the Party, and even contained Newspeak words: more Newspeak words, indeed, than any Party member would normally use in real life. And all the while, lest one should be in any doubt as to the reality which Goldstein's specious claptrap covered, behind his head on the telescreen there marched the endless columns of the Eurasian army -- row after row of solid-looking men with expressionless Asiatic faces, who swam up to the surface of the screen and vanished, to be replaced by others exactly similar. The dull rhythmic tramp of the soldiers' boots formed the background to Goldstein's bleating voice.
Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room. The self-satisfied sheep-like face on the screen, and the terrifying power of the Eurasian army behind it, were too much to be borne: besides, the sight or even the thought of Goldstein produced fear and anger automatically. He was an object of hatred more constant than either Eurasia or Eastasia, since when Oceania was at war with one of these Powers it was generally at peace with the other. But what was strange was that although Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody, although every day and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the general gaze for the pitiful rubbish that they were in spite of all this, his influence never seemed to grow less. Always there were fresh dupes waiting to be seduced by him. A day never passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not unmasked by the Thought Police. He was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of the State. The Brotherhood, its name was supposed to be. There were also whispered stories of a terrible book, a compendium of all the heresies, of which Goldstein was the author and which circulated clandestinely here and there. It was a book without a title. People referred to it, if at all, simply as the book. But one knew of such things only through vague rumours. Neither the Brotherhood nor the book was a subject that any ordinary Party member would mention if there was a way of avoiding it.
In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the maddening bleating voice that came from the screen. The little sandy-haired woman had turned bright pink, and her mouth was opening and shutting like that of a landed fish. Even O'Brien's heavy face was flushed. He was sitting very straight in his chair, his powerful chest swelling and quivering as though he were standing up to the assault of a wave. The dark-haired girl behind Winston had begun crying out 'Swine! Swine! Swine!' and suddenly she picked up a heavy Newspeak dictionary and flung it at the screen. It struck Goldstein's nose and bounced off; the voice continued inexorably. In a lucid moment Winston found that he was shouting with the others and kicking his heel violently against the rung of his chair. The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp. Thus, at one moment Winston's hatred was not turned against Goldstein at all, but, on the contrary, against Big Brother, the Party, and the Thought Police; and at such moments his heart went out to the lonely, derided heretic on the screen, sole guardian of truth and sanity in a world of lies. And yet the very next instant he was at one with the people about him, and all that was said of Goldstein seemed to him to be true. At those moments his secret loathing of Big Brother changed into adoration, and Big Brother seemed to tower up, an invincible, fearless protector, standing like a rock against the hordes of Asia, and Goldstein, in spite of his isolation, his helplessness, and the doubt that hung about his very existence, seemed like some sinister enchanter, capable by the mere power of his voice of wrecking the structure of civilization.
...
The Hate rose to its climax. The voice of Goldstein had become an actual sheep's bleat, and for an instant the face changed into that of a sheep. Then the sheep-face melted into the figure of a Eurasian soldier who seemed to be advancing, huge and terrible, his sub-machine gun roaring, and seeming to spring out of the surface of the screen, so that some of the people in the front row actually flinched backwards in their seats. But in the same moment, drawing a deep sigh of relief from everybody, the hostile figure melted into the face of Big Brother, black-haired, black-moustachio'd, full of power and mysterious calm, and so vast that it almost filled up the screen. Nobody heard what Big Brother was saying. It was merely a few words of encouragement, the sort of words that are uttered in the din of battle, not distinguishable individually but restoring confidence by the fact of being spoken. Then the face of Big Brother faded away again, and instead the three slogans of the Party stood out in bold capitals:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
Inciting Peace
Since I had my share of inciting hate over the past two days, it probably is worth posting a picture of a demonstration in Nablus, done the
right way.
As the saying goes, "Ya hek, ya bala."
Today ... is a New Day...
... or at least, let's hope so. How much longer do we still want to live in the past, with emotions and attitudes bouyed
only by
faulty memories?
A Lebanese Southpark
In the usual
trend of placing blame, several of our politicians have invoked the
ultimate explanation of blaming Syria. Yes, many of the demonstrators were Syrian/Palestinian. Yes, there was probably Syrian incitement. But some were also Lebanese. And there was also Lebanese responsibility.
In mainly analyzing the demography of the
thugs involved in yesterday's
hell, these politicians completely miss the point - that there is something
wrong in the state of Lebanon.
Because of this fascination with Syria, and a blind eye with regards to other important factors (at the expense of none other but the Lebanese public), I have come to the
conclusion that these politicians have watched Southpark.
Seriously. How else could the tune they sing be so close to that of the famous song "Blame Canada".
(Just read the slightly modified lyrics below.)
Times have changed,
Our kids are getting worse
They won't obey their parents,
They just want to fart and curse.
Should we blame the government, or blame society,
or should we blame the images on tv No!
Blame
Syria! Blame
SyriaWith all their beady little eyes,
their flapping heads so full of lies
Blame
Syria!
Blame
Syria!
We need to form a full assault,
it's
Syria's fault!
Don't blame me, for my son Stan, He saw the darn cartoon,
and now he's off to
join the klan! And my boy eric once,
had my picture on his shelf, but now when I see him,
he tells me to fuck myself.
Well, Blame
Syria!
It seems that everything's gone wrong since
Syria came along
Blame
Syria!
Blame
Syria!
They're not even a real country anyway.
My son could of been a doctor or a lawyer, it's a true,
Instead he burned up like a piggie on a barbecue.
Should we blame the matches?
Should we blame the fire, or the doctor who allowed him to expire.
Heck no!
Blame
Syria!
Blame
Syria!
With all their hockey hubaloo and that bitch Anne Murray too.
Blame
Syria!
Shame on
Syria!
The smut we must stop
The trash we must smash
Laughter and fun
must all be undone
We must blame them and cause a fuss
Before somebody thinks of blaming us!
*Disclaimer: I am not exonerating Syria. At all. But I also don't think that constantly blaming Syria vindicates our responsibility and the government's responsibility, etc.
On A Government's Response and Political Impotence
No Comment.
An All-Around Day of ...
... barbarity.
Anti-Denmark riots. Fire. Demonstration in front of Mar Maroun. Ends with a fiasco between the Lebanese Forces and the FPM.
In the meantime, here is a title that says it all:
"Protesting against Denmark, Arabs destroy their own cities"
Euh, Say Again? ... Part 2
This is really becoming a surreal cycle. I wake up, open the various news websites, and see a new headline concerning something getting burnt. I will leave this at almost a "no comment", except to
quote Fouad Seniora, and to leave pictures:
"This has nothing to do with Islam at all," Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told Future television. "Destabilising security and vandalism give a wrong image of Islam. Prophet Mohammad cannot be defended this way."
And he's probably right. Such actions are possibly due to anger at repression, certain governmental provocation, and incitement from regional/religious leaders, but regardless of the reason these types of actions also have to do with stupidity, lunacy, idiocy, immaturity, insanity, absurdity, dementia, etc.
The more dangerous thing however, is that this type of behavior, among extreme fundamentalists, isn't
new ...
... and to think, just to think, that this is all due to the fact that some Danish author couldn't find an illustrator ...
... and to top it all off, yesterday I watched a peaceful demonstration, against Google Censorship. They were protesting against Google's decision to restict information in China ... I felt ... would envious be the right word? As was written here,
shame on us indeed, for so many things.
Euh, Say Again? People Burnt What?
The man who is most hateful to God is the one who quarrels and disputes most.
The Prophet
This Denmark controversy has gotten slightly out of hand. What gives a worse image of Islam - the cartoons, or the following actions:
- Thousands of outraged Syrian demonstrators stormed the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, setting fire to both buildings. Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators at the Norwegian Embassy after the Danish building was burned. But the protesters broke through police barriers and set fire to the second building, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" which is Arabic for "God is great!"
- The conflict heated up on multiple fronts Thursday. In the Gaza Strip, masked Palestinians fired weapons into the air as they surrounded an office of the European Union and a French cultural center. Two Palestinian militant groups threatened to retaliate against the newspapers by kidnapping European citizens and targeting churches and European offices.
And then Arabnews uses the phrase "spirit of defiance" in the title, creating the notion that this type of action is legitimate because it comes in the form of resistance against "the enemy".
This hasn't become an argument against insulting drawings or articles. Granted, those were drawn, and published, in bad taste. Publishers should be more discerning in what they choose to publish. As the Guardian noted
Context matters very much in the case of the cartoons of Muhammad too. It is one thing to assert the right to publish an image of the prophet. As long as that is not illegal - and not even the government's amended religious hatred bill makes it so - then that right undoubtedly exists. But it is another thing to put that right to the test, especially when to do so inevitably causes offence to many Muslims and, even more so, when there is currently such a powerful need to craft a more inclusive public culture which can embrace them and their faith. That is why the defiant republication of the cartoons in some parts of Europe (some of them with far less good histories of intercommunal relations than this country) is more questionable than it may appear at first sight.
I also don't want to discuss the hypocricy of the French media in particular for assuming an air of freedom, giving their other restrictions. This should now also become a discussion of the proper reaction to such provocation. Is such outburst justified? Is there no responsibility among the leaders - be they religious or political - to attempt to either pacify their followers, or to create a more reasonable sense of priorities - such as a rebellion against those "resistance fighters" in Iraq who kill dozens of Shi'a on a daily basis?
However, in the end, each person has his own vision of which battles are more justified, and which ones deserve to be fought for. It just so happens, that this very battle is giving Islam an even worse name than it previously had. And that is a true shame.
The Hypocricy over Lebanese Sovereignty
Rationalizing politics - as opposed to discussing politics rationally - is extremely easy. You can explain away why Michel Aoun acts the way he does, or why Walid Jumblatt says the things he says, or why Nabih Berri is still speaker of parliament, or even why Hassan Nassrallah is what he is. You can describe actions in almost any perspective you want ...
Yet ... I'm trying, really trying to
rationalize the simplest of arguments that I constantly hear: The West is
not interested in Lebanon because of Israel. It is
sincerely interested in Lebanon's sovereignty because that fits into its bigger picture for the region. It
wants democracy to spread, and because of that, is willing to defend Lebanon, in action and not just with words ...
... and then a
15 year old
shepherd is shot in South Lebanon, by Israelis ... and not a
single peep from those higher powers who "sincerely" care ...
-------
Really, what did Israel expect? That Hezbollah was not going to
retaliate?
And that Israel would not
retaliate the retaliation?
...
ad infinitum ...
-------
Talal Salman (Assafir) has written a
piece on Ibrahim Youssef Rhayyel ... (archived version
here)
Ministers End Boycott
I hardly have any time today to write something substantial on this, but since this is basically just in (for me at least), it's worth a
mention.
Five Shi'ite Muslim ministers returned to Lebanon's government on Thursday, ending a seven-week boycott that had paralysed the country, after the prime minister declared Hizbollah guerrillas a national resistance.
"After the position taken by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora ... the leaderships of Hizbollah and the Amal movement have decided to return their representatives to participation in the government meetings," senior Amal official and member of parliament Ali Hassan Khalil told a press conference.
The joint announcement by pro-Syrian Hizbollah and Amal, Lebanon's main Shi'ite parties, is expected to ease a political crisis that has hobbled decision-making in the government.
But the decision came too late for the Shi'ites to join Thursday's cabinet meeting, which is being held without them.
...
In comments to parliament earlier on Thursday, Siniora said Hizbollah had always been considered a resistance organisation, but made no mention of the word militia.
"We have never called and will never call the resistance by any other name but the resistance and it is a national resistance and we will not use any other expression to describe it but national resistance," he said to applause.
"Yes, risk the Arab democratic challenge"
Michael Young, of Daily Star, has an interesting
piece that discusses the effects of the Hamas majority, and why democracy should still be attained in the Middle East. He writes
Why insist on democracy? First, because the stalemate imposed by autocratic Arab regimes, particularly secular regimes, will give at some stage, and may lead to Islamists' seizing authority anyway, without a pluralistic system in place to create social power centers offsetting them. Even in secular states such as Egypt, Syria and Jordan, Islamists have strongly infiltrated the system, so that the despots, eager to buy legitimacy through Islamic credentials, have ceded much by way of secular values. Rather than limiting the ambitions of Islamists, this behavior has only bolstered them. Elections may indeed represent a final stepping stone for Islamists to take power, but a controlled, albeit genuine democratic opening beforehand would allow alternative groups to gain strength.
A second reason making the pursuit of democracy worthwhile is that it instills, at least in some societies, a notion of systematic accountability and transfer of authority. Iraq's Shiites may vote Islamist, but they also have had the opportunity to be asked about their views three times in 2005. It would be very difficult for an autocratic leadership to deny them this prerogative in the future. And with the habit of free elections comes the public's growing aggressiveness in evaluating its leaders.
...
A third reason is that democracy imposes transparency. When parties are obligated to clarify their positions to an electorate, they have to live with the consequences. Hamas' haziness on its pursuit of terrorism is disturbing, but the implications are also clear for everyone to see. The movement cannot forever hide its intentions, and voters, but also those pouring billions of dollars into Palestinian society, now have a paper trail to assess. Palestinians, in turn, can determine where their interests lie, and force Hamas in one direction or another.
...
A fourth reason is the march of history. Democracy must reach Arab societies at some stage, after decades of debilitating authoritarianism. The Islamist wave is partly due to the abject failure of secular Arab nationalist states to let their peoples breathe. Denying a process to transcend these circumstances makes no sense. The road will be bumpy, and will be made bumpier by Arab regimes' refusing to ease their societies into a slow process that can absorb the contradictions inherent in democratization. Nor must counterfeit democracy substitute for an authentic opening.
Nasrallah vs. Denmark
In relation to a very recent
incident ...
Nasrallah has voiced his opinion. As usual, Nasrallah has logical statements, but his main irony is that those are almost always coupled with illogical ones. Now, it wouldn't have bothered me if he only supported the protest against the publication, because regardless of my opinion, it is after all his right.
The logical:
"What is worse today is that a French publication steps up and questions what is wrong with what happened. They arrogantly continued 'we have published funny cartoons of holy men of other religions before and no one said anything.' What kind of reason and logic is that? We the Muslims have a different culture. We don't tolerate our Prophet being humiliated and drawn in an ugly manner."
(Of course, the word "tolerance" irritates me for reasons extraneous to the Danish case ... )
The illogical:
À Beyrouth, le chef du Hezbollah, cheikh Hassan Nasrallah, a souligné que si la fatwa contre l’écrivain pakistanais Salman Rushdie avait été exécutée, « personne n’aurait osé » porter atteint au Prophète.
Roughly translated ... if the fatwa against Salman Rushdie had been carried out, no one would have dared attack the prophet.
Another illogical (the last sentence. The rest was put there for context):
"The Prophet of 1.4 billion Muslims has been debased ... the Danish Prime Minister said he wouldn't apologize because the newspaper, which published the cartoons making fun of our Prophet, 'didn't break the law and there are freedoms to be considered.'
"Who tells them that this freedom is absolute? OK, if someone decided to blow himself up himself somewhere in Norway or Denmark, then he is also free to do so."
Anyway, the end result, regardless of what happens, and what conclusions and compromises and understandings are reached, is that there is an even deeper divide between two large communities ... Incitement from either side, even if within the bounds of free speech, never really ends well ...
Mais c'est la vie.
Breaking News: Another Blast in Beirut
It
happened near a Lebanese army barrack, in Beirut. One soldier is injured.
The sources said a local newspaper had received a telephone call from someone claiming to speak on behalf of al Qaeda and declaring that a security target would be bombed in Beirut in retaliation for the arrest last month of 13 group members.
The explosion occurred some three hours later at around 2 a.m. (midnight GMT) outside the Fakhreddine Barracks in Ramlet al-Baida district of the capital, shattering windows in nearby buildings.
The sources earlier said the blast was caused by a car bomb but they later said it had been caused by an explosive charge near or under the car.
Even though the World has always waited ...
... some thought that it can't wait anymore ...
Yesterday in San Francisco, a (large) group of people rallied against Bush during his State of the Union address ... and pulled down a 40-foot
effigy of Bush.
Wow.
Seriously, I think I feel the
winds of change picking up speed ...
... and blowing in the wrong direction.
The Circle of Reactions
Danish newspapers published caricatures several months ago.
Muslim nations react with anger ... several months late.
Some newspapers apologize.
Danish products are boycotted ... possibly the only boycott in the past decade that has actually worked.
French newspapers decide that enough is enough, and publish the same caricatures.
Rumors are now spreading that there will be anti-Muslim protests in Copenhagen, in which Danish youth may burn copies of the Quran (possible on Saturday).
...
What a fascinating world we live in.
Reading this article made my mouth water. Stuck between eating out in the limited choices around me, or venturing into the kitchen and and watching my culinary experimentations turn black, there are two things I really miss and would do almost anything ("almost" being the operative word here) to have on a daily basis ... even though there are places around that claim they offer them, they're just not the same when not made in the levant.
... or at least, let's hope so. How much longer do we still want to live in the past, with emotions and attitudes bouyed only by faulty memories?
