Sunday, February 26, 2006

I recieved and email from some person asking to write an essay on cicil rights in the middle east. I write the essay and sent to the site. I dont expect to winn anything but i did for me, to let go some of the feelingi have inside. I though of sharing it on the blog. If anybody is intersted in writng an essay too, here is the site http://www.hamsaweb.com/index.php.

Our Way…. My Dram

The dawn has come, but no day yet. After a sand storm all the corn were ripped off the earth and the ones which remained died standing. But the when the storm ended, people came out of their houses and looked at their corn fields, devastated by their loss, the realized that the corn could go, as long something else remained.*
The dawn has come for us, we know what we want, we know what we do and don’t have, when know our goal. What we don’t know, is how to get there, how to reach our goal.
Westerners often imagine Middle Eastern countries, or to be more specific, Arab countries, are still living in that period of time when A Thousand and One Nights was written. They imagine people riding camels, sheiks with concubines feathering them, a land where the entire horizon you old see in the desert, ignorant people whom only concern is to fill their bellies and sleep with their wives or concubines.
Partly that is true, we, Arabs, still live in those days mentally. We haven’t evolved to see what has come to the world, what changes have come to pass during our long lethargy. We missed a lot, during our prolonged slumber that it is very hard for us to catch up with the rest of the world, especially in the issue at hand, civil rights.
As I said we are not ignorant as they think we are, nor as weak. We are just dormant, drugged by both our regimes and the western world which claims it has come to help us get rid of these regimes, when all it does is nothing, if not worse than the regimes they call suppressive.
In battle for civil rights, there is no help, if one can not help oneself. Nobody can help you get what is rightfully yours, if you are sitting and watching them taking it from you. Whoever comes to help is seeing to his own interest, not yours.
We think that violence will solve all of our problems, and through the strength of arms we could reach our salvation. Contrary to what they say, that is not true. We only have to take a look at history to know that many of the grate steps towards civil rights were won by peaceful demonstrations, strikes, and boycotting.
The people in Montgomery won the battle against segregation in the city transport system simply by walking. They were determent to reach their goal. An old woman was asked whether she was tired of walking or not, she replied that her legs were tired but her soul was not. Determination won the battle in spite of all the horrible, vicious, and violent reaction from the white-dominated state police and administration.
At the end they won, their only weapon was their determination and faith. The saw their goal so vivid and clear, and the path to reach their goal, although hazardous and perhaps could lead their demise, so straight.
Although we have made some steps towards recognized our rights in the Middle East, and less steps towards practicing them, we still have a long way to go.
In the United States they say an educated consumer is a good customer. What we really need is educate the people in our countries about civil rights, we need to tell them what they are missing, and what opportunities they might get when they speak freely, what change could they make to their society if they discussed it's problems both positively and openly, what could they gain from being able to criticize their government, and how that government could function better. Education is the corner stone for everything, if you want to people to believe in what you are saying, u must talk to them, convince them with what you are proposing would make their life better, motivate them to change by promising them that they would end up better than they are now.
When the black community in Montgomery boycotted the bus company, they didn’t just get better seats in the bus, they felt better about themselves, they felt powerful, able to change their reality from being lesser to the with race to equal. They had both them moral and material incentive to move them, and they did it all without shedding a drop of blood. Many on these people were illiterate, few with college degrees, but all of them knew that they were doing, all of them knew exactly what they wanted.
In the middle east, we have many people with college degrees, and many other with higher degrees, and at the same time we have one of the highest illiteracy percentages in the world, but what we lack them most is prospective. We have the incentive to change, we have the means to make that change, what we don’t have is the will to do it. And even if we did it, we wouldn’t have any idea what to do with it, it would look like giving a computer to person to someone who just came from the 15th century. We need to learn, to educate ourselves and our brothers before making any move, we have to take things slowly one step at a time to reach our goal, to change. All change starts from within, everybody can change if they wanted to, everybody can change the world if he or she had the will power to do it, and most importantly, everybody can change his or her own world.
But lets say that we reached all that, lets say that we reached our dream, and we won our battle for equality and civil rights, there is still one major problem in our society, women rights. A society, and society can't get anywhere when half of that society is left behind, this situation can get you forward, because when u make a step forward, u will be pulled back by the other half which you left behind. Arab women are not equal to Arab men no matter what they tell you. women are considered a lesser and weaker sex. In some Arab countries they don’t have the right to vote, in Saudi Arabia they don’t even have the right to drive a car, let alone that they are forbidden to go anywhere without their male guardian, they are forced to wear hijab that covers them from head to toe, they wont even let them in official building if they weren’t accompanied by their male guardian. They are denied they right to learn, to go to school, to choose who they would marry, to work, and other matters which any women in a civilized country would take for granted. At the beginning of the past century, women, in Europe and America, fought for their rights, under very harsh circumstances similar to those we are living in the Middle East in our current time. Eventually, after a long tiring fight, they won. However the circumstanced may seem similar, we have something very different, religion. Islam is very considerate for women's rights, Muslims are not. Men interpreted many verses from the Quran not they way they were meant to be, to gain control over women. In a male-dominated society, some issues are considered taboo, and anybody who discuses them should expect serious consequences, and one of these issues, if not one of the biggest, is women rights. Denying equality for an important part on society is a major setback in our way to reach our goal of gaining civil rights, but what is bigger than that is that we that we don’t even discuss it, we don’t realize our mistakes, we don’t repent.
As I said earlier, we must change from within before we can change out surrounding. We must realize that we have the power, and once the wheel is turned, there is no stopping it. We must educate ourselves, we must figure out what we are doing wrong, before pointing out fingers at our governments or foreign conspiracies. We must believe that we are equal, we must understand our duties towards our country, and be ready to sacrifice what we hold dear for the sake or its progress.
That is how we reach our goal, that is what we must know, that is what we must do….. That is my dream.

*the 1st paragraph is taken from "The grapes of wrath", by John Steinbeck.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

DIFFERENT ISSUES....


1- CARTOONS
The cartoon fever has not backed yet. People all over the world are still arguing about it. I have seen this happen for a very few times, if not for the first time ever, the Muslim world is gathered in one front. I wish this happened for some good reasons not some stupid cartoons. I wish this happened when America invaded Iraq, or when the Israelis kill Palestinian children, or anything else that really matters to us other than some stupid cartoons published in a not very well-known tabloid.
And lets dsay that this thig do matter, lets say that we are right and this is a bigger issue than the daily killing of our people, what were you trying to prove when u burned, destroyed the building, and killed some of your people? For maybe the first time in my life, I saw everybody gathers together for one cause. I thought to myself, its silly, but hey .... Maybe its a start. But it seems that we cant do anything right, can we? You are giving them exactly what they want, you are letting them say" look .... We were right when we said they just a bunch of retardes". You made the world look at you, you made them think that they might be making a great mistake by ignoring you, you showed them unity and determination. But did u have to fuck it up at the end?

2-TORTURE
I was thinking about what to say about the video showing British soldiers beating the brains out of some Iraqi kids, I had much chance really, cause I was struck by the photos from Abu Gharib.
I am really out of words, nothing can describe the feeling that I have. Usually, when I see such things, I need some time and a lot of cigarette packs to recover from the shock, to calm myself. But this time, it is really disgusting. If anybody else talks about democracy in Iraq and how the Americans freed us, I will personally torture him or her, using these photos as my guide, cause I cant take anymore of that crap. Forgive for using some bad words, I am really pissed.
I see these pictures and I hear people talking about what they claim that used to happen before, and I think. What has really changed? I am seriously going insane, I don't know whets happening, are living the same thing but in a different time? Or maybe we are still living in that time? I know I am not making any sense, but hey, does these pictures make any sense to you? Torturing people for fun by the same one who claim they come to free them and teah them democracy? Torturing people by the ones who claim that they come from most civilized country in the world? Are they really civilized? Did they come to domocratize the Iraqi people? Everything say otherwise, Everything says not.
Make no mistake, don't let them convince you that these are separate incidents made by individuals. This is crap, these things are not separate, this is a systematic operation to kill and humiliate the Iraqi people. Mr. Bush..... You troops make Saddam's mukhabrat look like small naive children, what your freedom troops are doing to these people in the same place where you claim Saddam Hussein used to torture them, makes it look like what you claim he was doing is just a chaildsplay.

3-VICE PRESIDENT
The vice president shot some guy, and nobody knows anything about it. Does that make any sense to you? They don't want to politicize the matter, it was just a hunting accident. I am not saying he was trying to kill him, but it is political. It just gives you some idea about how this administration hide information from you people.

4-WMDs AND THE TAPES
The New York Times says that a former member of the CIA says that the information about Iraqi WMDs were manipulated to fit Mr. Bush's thirst for war. This man says a lot of the information was either "not true", "fabricated", or just pure bullshit. (I was quoting from the newspaper, but the last one is from me).
The papers concerning the nager deal were proven to be fraudulent, the story about the aluminum pipes was just pure crap, the agent who made this story didn't even get the measurements right. This "curveball" guy proved to be a liar, giving false information to get money and political refugee status. This guy gave them the moving labs idea. All crap. But the just wont quit, will they? Now they say they have some tapes that prove tham Saddam Hussein had the intetion to resume the biological weapons program. I have listened to some parts of these tapes, in one of them a guy says to the president what could be translated as" you just have to say the word sir, we are prepared". OK.... What I really want to hear is what did the president said to him? What did he say? Yes? No? I bet my life that he said no, cuuse if he said yes, we would have heard it, woudlnt we? Just don't believe everything u hear or see. Don't simply give this administration your trust. Because the lied to you for many times. If you believe them, you would be plain stupid.

5-1984
Big Brother is watching you. Chronologically, 1984 has come to pass, but not in the Orwellian sense. At least not fom Mr. Bush. Big Brother is watching all of America now, and when he was exposed, he was repentant. What happened to the constitution? I guess they are using it a toilet paper now, or to cover to wounds or the dead bodies of the 100,000 Iraqis who died without reason.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, America was the dram, now its only a nightmare. They, Americans, used to believe in humanity, now all the believe in is themselves and their masters in Israel, only in absolute power and world domination. The olny thing that drive them is the imperliastic urge to control the wolrd regardless of the number of human casualties who die in the way.
They are killing your spirit, you soul. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WAKE UP AND REALIZE THAT?

Friday, February 10, 2006

I COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER...
TAKE A LOOK AT THIS.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HAS20060204&articleId=1884

Saturday, February 04, 2006

WHAT DO WE REALLY WANT?

In the last few days, all I could hear people talk about, or watch on the news is this damn cartoon that this Danish journalist published. Muslims all around the world have been protesting against it. Burning the Danish flag, boycotting Danish products, and even making threats on the lives of some people.
Well... They have the right to do that, there is no doubt about that. The real question is "How do we chose our fights?"
First I have to say that I am not Muslim, but I am an Arab. And maybe its not may place to give an opinion on this matter, but I will do it anyway. I will do it because I am losing my mind, and if something like this happens one more time I am going to check in a nut house myself.
They said that they were insulted, and they forget that they are being insulted every single day. They said they were humiliated, and they forget that are being humiliated ever Single day too. The said that they have been outraged because the prime minister of Denamrk wont apologize for what the paper did, why should he apologize? He hasn't done anything, he hasn't said anything. They want him to make the paper apologize, they cant realize he cant do that, he has no power over the paper or the journalist, he cant make them say something they don't want to say. They said that this journalist wouldn't dare picture Christ in the same way. Well.. Maybe this journalist wouldn't, but others would, and they had done, and still doing it. These people obviously haven't read Da Vincci's cod, or Holy Blood Holy Grail, and haven't watched The Last Temptation of Christ or read the book either. Christ and Christianity are being mocked everyday by people, plays, movies, books, columns, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, internet, every single way, and nobody cares. Did they care when the terrorists bombed 7 churches in Iraq the other day? NO, they didn't. If you don't believe in Christ, that's between you and him, its nobody's business.
Why do they boycott Danish products? Why do they punish the whole country for what one man did? And they wonder why did the prime minister refuse to apologize. I will tell you why, because he has pride, he refuses to apologize in the name of his nation for what one man did. They went to him, when the paper first published the cartoons, and he said what are you coming to me for? If you feel that this is not right, go to court, its as simple as that.
I am so disappointed and frustrated. Everybody forgot about everything, and put their minds on poor Denmark. This is just bullshit.
people are being murdered everyday in the Arab and Islamic world, and they don't dare point a finger. The Imams are crying their eyes out for Mohammed, but they don't say a word about the American daily killing of Iraqis. Israel has been killing Palestinians everyday for more that fifty years, and they don't dare protest and pull the Israeli ambassador. They boycott Danish products, which are mainly dairy products, and they buy weapons from America and England for hundreds of billions of dollars, weapons they don't need, they wont use, they don't even know how to use them, so they have to buy experts to teach them.
Maybe we are stupid, maybe we are hypocrites, maybe we are retarded. What did denamrk and Norway do to us? What did they do to thousands of refugees? They housed them, They gave them taxpayers money for doing nothing, just for being idle. They gave their children education. These people came begging for freedom and they gave them freedom, they gave them security, while the gallows was waiting for most of them in their countries.
After all that, they are protesting. I hoped they would do that when America invaded Iraq, I hoped they would do that when Americans tortured Iraqi prisoners in Abu Gharib. I hoped they would do that when newspapers said that Americans are raping little Iraqi girls. I hoped they would cry over the everyday killing of Iraqi people by American troops just as they cry for Mohammed. But they didn't do as I hoped, they kept watching us getting killed and raped, and they are still. I don't think Mohammed himself would accept that.
What is happening to us? Haven't we learned anything from the past 600 years? I guess not. Have we learned anything from modern history? I guess not too.
We make a whole fuss about some stupid cartoons, which are not ever funny by the way, and we forget about other, greatly important matters in our lives. Like we are free from the occupation, we don't have any disease that's is killing our people, all people, men, women, and children are literate, we have democratic governments, and the national wealth is being used for the welfare and happiness of the citizens.
Give me a break......... Please.
*I would like to note that I am not against Islam or any other religion, and the point of this is not to mock or insult Islam or any Islamic figure.