Sunday, June 08, 2008

A man finally has an internet connection in Gaza and manages to speak with their friend in Egypt on webcam. The friend is shocked, he is almost half the size he was before the seige began. Our TV world does not cover this, it does not condone outrage and fury in this direction. The rebels without a clue in the West are too busy buying rubber bracelets for Darfur and Tibet, boycotting Chinese bras and wondering why the Africans don't want to fix their own countries. Meanwhile, Gaza is being systematically starved and the world looks on with indifference.

I would not go and live and work in Israel - it occupies Palestine. If you ask any Arab or Muslim this they would, usually, unthinkingly tell you that this is a truism not worth mentioning. But the fact is that these same people see no contradiction with living, working and paying taxes in the United States and Britain. These two countries, and others, are occupying Iraq. They support Israel, they blatantly condoned the destruction of Lebanon. They are actively aiming for the partitioning of Sudan, the occupation of Somalia by Ethiopian troops, the clashes in Yemen. They have military bases in the Arab gulfs, which are now their vassals and protectorates. They threaten Syria with sanctions, they have a half English king in Jordan, they support Mubarak as a moderate, they use the Arab Maghreb as a basket for cheap groceries, cheaper prostitutes and hashish. In Syria and elsewhere, Iraqi women are selling themselves to survive, directly as a result of the occupation. An entire generation is missing it's education, provided that is, it survives. It depends on whether you consider almost 1 million dead a generation or not. The fact is, each and every one of us living here supports the occupation. We are supporting neo-colonialism, Israel and the destruction of Iraq. I am sick of blogging, sick of "analysing", sick of the decadence and promiscuity. What the hell am I doing here???

I want out.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do you suggest as an alternative though? If you go back to Syria then you will be equally unable to help...I find it is best to continue your education and try to make a difference by speaking to those who don't know about the atrocities in Gaza and Iraq and making them aware what is happening. The world turns a blind eye to the middle east because so many people just don't know, so many british are just interested in their big brother, eastenders etc etc.

Karin said...

What the hell you are doing - wherever you are at? HELP TO GET THE TRUTH OUT!!

Arima is right .. too many people HAVE NO CLUE about what's REALLY going on in the Middle East!
It's ALL OUR RESPONSIBILITY to spread the truth - bailing out is a no-option as we are the voice of those who don't have one - they need our help!!

Seriously .. where are you writing from? I always thought you're in Syria ...

Karin said...

What the hell you are doing - wherever you are at? HELP TO GET THE TRUTH OUT!!

Arima is right .. too many people HAVE NO CLUE about what's REALLY going on in the Middle East!
It's ALL OUR RESPONSIBILITY to spread the truth - bailing out is a no-option as we are the voice of those who don't have one - they need our help!!

Seriously .. where are you writing from? I always thought you're in Syria ...

Lirun said...

this post was a mess..

i wouldnt know where to start in answering you..

but i do hope the seige of gaza ends soon.. its truly aweful..

both hamas and israel should let gaza breath..

ASDFGHJK said...

This post sounds really depressed. Me being not the one finding the right words in situations like that, I leave you with a citation:

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget." - Arundhati Roy

julius said...

as usual, the arab world bears no responsibility for its varied predicaments. it's all the fault of the malevolent west. that's nuanced thinking at its best. go join the resistance, wassim. they're doing a wonderful job rebuilding lebanon. half-english king bashar needs you.

Anonymous said...

@Juilius: You idiot!!! Have you no idea what it is to feel compassion when you switch on the TV and see the children of Iraq being blown up and starving?? Do you not feel anything when the children of Palestine stand by to see their homes and dreams shattered?!?!? Or how about the children of Lebanon when they step on a landmine?!?!? I guess not. Because your kind of comment betrays exactly the blase 'not my problem' attitude that has forced the Arab world into this position. And who the heck actually is this half-English king Bashar?!?!? Do you mean the all Syrian President Bashar, I wonder or could you mean half English Jordanian King Abdullah- who DOES NOT support any form of resistance?!?
Colonialism is at the root of most problems in the Arab world, almost all scholars of the Middle East will tell you the same whether they are Arab or not, though of course I would imagine that you'd never bother listening to them in preference for your misinformed media fuelled garbage!
I am by no means in favour of joining the 'resistance' because I don't think that we can help much by getting killed ourselves- it's better to get the truth out so people like you don't multiply!

Excuse me Wassim for this outburst but I saw this comment when I woke up and refained from commenting but have been unable to quit thinking about it. Feel free to delete this if you wish

Lirun said...

u think the truth will cure you?

julius said...

ja, ja. warheit macht frei.

Anonymous said...

No! I definitely don't think the truth is a 'cure all' however I do believe that with the truth a person is on a more level playing field and thus able to deal accordingly. However if the goal posts are always moving then we have no chance at all.
I acknowledge that throughout civillisation there has always been dominant 'empires' and those that pay for their supremacy- unfortunately it the Arab world's turn to suffer this.
What do you think would happen if the truth got out?

Julius: Very poor answer my friend

Karin said...

Arima .. I couldn't agree more (to your outburst)!

Julius ... MORE than poor! (... as well as incorrectly spelled)

You're nothing but pathetic!

julius said...

thank you for your nice compliments. such a lovely duo, karin and arima. yes, wahrheit, karin. i got it. danke.

what happens if the "truth" gets out? absolutely nothing. la plus ça change...

Lirun said...

sorry guys but im a lawyer.. first you need to define truth for me..

whose truth.. whats its scope.. just factual or emotional as well.. bla bla..

for those of us who live here in the middle east i think its safe to say that truth is illusive.. and i definitely dont trust that you guys know it..

this week (i think) a movement of arabs in israel are distributing thousands of naqba booklets outside the school system to raise palestinian awareness.. some arab educators have called the booklets one sided and incomplete..

so i guess my point is that every one is assumed to have a certain level of awareness.. somewhere btween 0-100%.. when we pimp the "truth" which part are we supplementing.. which percentage are we revealing.. and what happens to the part we dont..

ok ok this might sound philosophical.. but my point is - that as long as we avoid the "truth of the other" - whether or not it corresponds with history - we are never really dealing with the truth.. but just with competing narratives.. and these are already largely known..

so you see it become a screaming match.. and what happens when two people have a screaming match? the rest of the world walks away and ignores them..

any sense of deja vu?

Jillian said...

Take advantage of where you are and use it to educate people. Not every American or Briton intends to be ignorant - look at their television, how it's censored (and it is, we can't deny that). Look at the crap they're fed by even the "best" publications every day. Media-run dictatorships, they are, and unfortunately, most people just aren't willing to take the time to look outside of that and seek truth, not if they weren't raised to do so.

We are incredibly fortunate to be worldly, whatever brought us to that point.

Anonymous said...

@Arima.

Since when do you care about any Arab other than those of Egypt? I've read your rants before. You have no sympathy for the Palestinians whatsoever. You were one of MANY Egyptians who bemoaned the Palestinians for having taken down part of the Rafa fencing that your Egyptian government so casualy put up. Moreover, you work for your pathetic government doing nothing but reporting on Egyptian events and bemoaning the 'greatness' of Egypt. You have no pan-Arab bone in your body. In fact you and your lot are the problem with the Arab political malaise, a malaise that ceases to care one iota for any other Arab than the one of his/her country. Yes, decry Abdullah of Jordan for being half Brit, you're a half brit too. You are the antithesis of philanthropy.