Saddam, Iraq and USrael's dirty politics in the ME

This cartoon on Saddam's hanging, by famous Cuban cartoonist Angel Boligan, was published on December 29th by El Universal, Mexico, and by the Arabic language Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar on Saturday Dec. 30th.

I woke up this morning at six O'clock, opened the door for the dog, read the news. 'Saddam hanged at dawn' . It might have been six to eight hours before...An expected outcome. I had a strange feeling; the intuition that a new dark era was opening to us, people of the middle east*. It hasn't to do with Saddam's hanging but with the way his trial and ending were robbed from his victims by a blind neocolonialist enterprise.

Saddam's hanging will always be remembered not for his crimes and his tyranny on his own people but it will be remembered for the US's dirty politics in the Midlle East...

Saddam's trial and hanging were not meant to return dignity and justice to Iraqis but were meant as terrifying examples for other Middle East head of states of what might happen to them if they don't comply...Those who are tyrants know very well that the only way out for them is to stick to US's wills and policies in the ME and those who are not tyrants, and they are very few in the ME, know that just resisting the US is enough to be labeled as tyrants in the eyes of the US becoming candidates for embargos, invasions, hasty trials and hanging...

Saddam's swift hanging while in physical US custody and in 'legal' and virtual Iraqi custody show the level of trust the US puts in its new puppets in Iraq...After all wasn't Saddam always in US custody ? Waging a war on Iran when the US wanted it and a war on Koweit when the US suggested they might not react to such a war and might actually give their blessings, and then retiring from active collaboration with the US, after the Koweit war, to a passive one under successive embargos, suggested to the UN by the US, reinforcing his tyranny on his people, bleeding Iraq and tearing apart its social and ethnical canevas under pressure. Saddam, with the US's connivence, handed Bush an aneamic Iraq whose total collapse into fighting ethnies is being encouraged by the US since March 2003 and applauded by Israel who sees in this 'achievement' the blueprint for 'their' middle east.

What, when, where and who will be the next job in this blind neocolonialist enterprise ?

After fighting secularism hand by hand with the most brutal and backward regimes in the ME, the US is fighting now 'Islam' or more exactly a fabricated image of Islam, manufactured with the help of Osama and large media outlets, with the same brutal and backward regimes in the ME, those same regimes who are feeding with some reality the fabricated and 'scary' image of Islam in the West. However, this time around, it will be a never ending war because what the US is fighting is what the US is producing by its policies in the ME. The US has thus succeeded in installing a self sustained production and consumption apparatus for unending wars in that region. Because the wars that produce divisions produce hate not only between the fighting factions but also for those who are involved with these factions.

Why they hate us ?

History will show that nowhere else was neocolonialism as brutal and savage as in the ME because it isn't neolcolonialism alone; it is both colonialism and neocolonialism, ditsant and proxy at the same time, US and Israel hand in hand, with all their cruel modern weaponry and old fashioned brutality disregarding our modern standards for Human rights and the plight of the people of the Middle East and especially the Palestinians to live in peace and dignity. We are living a new kind of neocolonialism, a missionary, USraeli neocolonialism that is ready to sacrifice the long term interests of both countries and their people for the interests of a pervasive racist ideology born from the negation of the people of the Middle East and their aspirations, just like the old fashioned way. It is history rewinded; wasn't the US born from this kind of European colonialism in the New World and weren't these processes that installed these colonialists and neocolonialists ideologies, hundreds years apart, similar ? For anybody who doubt this affirmation take a close look at the history of the New World; a mix of ill missionarism to extend the kingdom of heaven, greed, adventurism, racism and unbridled criminal impulse in the denial and the negation of the other.

All the rethoric about the democratisation process in the ME is bullshit. If they really wanted to implement a democratic process then they should have conducted themselves differently. But do the people of Iraq deserve a democratic process, a fair trial and a real legal 'ownership' on their tyrant ? The answer of the US is No because the facts are different from the rethoric.
This is why Saddam's trial and hanging were cast as a farce, a filmed farce which is an attempt to transform a farce into a reality and to write history with images destined for instant persuasion.

When images impose themselves upon reality, one needs only perception. There is no need for thinking anymore. Let the images** flow. Saddam's hanging images as 'proofs' for the US's civilizing mission in the ME...Thank God I don't own a TV.

My Review of News and Blogs about the execution:

How Washington and London helped to create the monster they went to war to destroy

Guardian correspondant in Iraq watches the execution with Sunni insurgents

Angry Arab on Saddam

Pierre tristam on Saddam's hanging

Old Brit: 'So, Saddam Hussein swung; so what ?'

The Osterley Times on the execution

Juan Cole: ''The body of Saddam, as it swung from the gallows at 6 a.m. Saturday Baghdad time, cast an ominous shadow over Iraq. The execution provoked intense questions about whether his trial was fair and about what the fallout will be. One thing is certain: The trial and execution of Saddam were about revenge, not justice. Instead of promoting national reconciliation, this act of revenge helped Saddam portray himself one last time as a symbol of Sunni Arab resistance, and became one more incitement to sectarian warfare. ''

*Our little Bush, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, commented the hanging this way: 'A dark era had come to an end'. And when I told my husband of my feelings of the beginning of a dark era, which are contradictory with Stephen Harper's (we are not, Harper and I, at our first disagreement), my husband answered that Harper's comment was a typical feel good shallow affirmation. Suppose, he told me, that Harper might feel obliged to tell Canadians about the civil war in Iraq, the sectarian divide that the circumstances of this hanging might worsen and the lawlessness of the whole process of Saddam's trial and hanging, the way Italia's Romano Prodi commented actually the same news, Harper could face some incomprehension from a majority of Canadians who lack sufficient knowledge of the situation in Iraq or, worse, such a comment might prompt some to look more carefully into the situation. Thus, the news about Iraq, and most generally all the news, are made of circumstancial barbarism and circumstancial comments meant to make us feel good about the not so good images... Thank God I don't own a TV...

**Many new visitors to this blog for the last day arrived through a search page on Saddam's hanging pictures, movie and proofs...I let you draw the conclusions...

This Other America: Part II, Oriente

Part I

Our journey to Cuba was going to be a subtle mix of work and leisure. My husband was recently involved in a collaborative scientific academic work that required his presence there to see the local Cuban facilities used by his collaborators and introduce them to some techniques. Since we came to Canada 15 years ago we never traveled to Cuban beaches, very popular among Canadians. First, because a beach vacation is never our way of relaxing from work and second, because we are old fashioned travelers, we don't travel for our pleasure only but we travel to increase our knowledge of the world we live in.

We started to prepare the Cuban journey with private Spanish lessons in October in order to be able to speak and make ourselves understandable. Athough most Academics in Havana speak English or French, it is not he case among others across the country where the only foreign language they know, when they know one, is Russian. I felt lucky seizing this opportunity to discover the Castillan language, the fourth I will be speaking and hopefully writing some time in the future. Another interest I had in this trip was related to my father's family history. My Grand' parents having settled in Cuba for about 14 years, the fourteen years it took my father to grow up from a 2 year old to a young man when Cuba was under American influence between the 1920s and the 1930s, the country was always in my mind as the homeland of my father's youth. My childhood is full of memories of stories and songs from this imaginary country, told and sang around my childhood bed by my father with much admiration, affection and always a tear in his eyes.

At the end of the 19th century, the ottoman empire was rapidly declining, unable to adapt to the new political, social, technological and economic changes that started to take over the established social orders in many European and western societies. This wave of change was felt in all the corners of the empire including Lebanon where well informed and educated Lebanese, and some less informed but driven by emulation, were willing to leave their country, villages, family and land to settle in 'America'. I discovered that one of Lebanese-French author Amin Maalouf's family members had emigrated to Cuba during this period and that Maalouf wrote a book (Origins) in which this member was a central character. Maalouf is a wonderful storyteller and I promised myself that I will make this journey with his book by my side. Also, two of my husband's Cuban professional collaborators had ties to Lebanon; one was a third generation Cuban 'Lebanese' and the other was married to another third generation Cuban 'Lebanese' and they both kept the Lebanese family names unchanged.

For the first part of the travel my husband was going to be in company of a Canadian colleague who has been doing this kind of collaborative work for more than ten years now. I knew that we were going to meet all these people in a social context. I wrote my husband's colleague an email one week before leaving asking him if he would recommend bringing some gifts and what are the gifts that will be appreciated given that this is a rationed country and that items that are not subsidised can be very expansive to buy. His answer came quickly: ''These people (the people he was talking about were professionals, doctors, university professors, etc...) are very poor. Please don't bring with you maple syrup or any other Canadian extravaganza. Soaps, pencils, pens, balls for Basket and Baseball, CDs, Musique CDs, notebooks, biscuits, etc...'' These professionals have the highest paid salaries by the government, the equivalent of 25 euros per month...Items subsidised by the government can be bought at very low prices but they are rationed and they are few because the government buys at very high prices on the international market so it subsidises only the most basic elementary needs of its population. Cuba, I will discover later during my travel, is obstinate socialism in an ocean of hostility and embargos which grew to warlike proportions in their consequences after the fall of the main support for this socialism, the Soviet Union.

We were going to spend the first week in Santiago de Cuba, an eastern city on the Caribbean, starting point for the Cuban revolution, close to the Sierra Maestra, and the second week in Havana. On the day of our arrival we were invited to a dinner preceded by a guided tour of the city by one of the hostess's daughters. As soon as we arrived I looked for an internet connection at the hotel (run by a Spanish hotel chain) to keep in touch daily with my two grown up children who stayed in Canada. At the hotel business center open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. five old slow computers were available for internet or any other computer interface at the rate of 6 Convertible Cuban Pesos (1 CCU= 1 Euro) per hour. Internet is not easily accessible in Cuba. The country and its people do not have the finanical means for a wide network at the national level serving the whole country and one has to remember that internet is in the guardianship of the US, Cuba's worst neighbour and ennemy. Cuban universities for example have very few connections for their professorsbut not one for their students. Cubans cannot open a private internet connection at home. Our hostess for our first day in Cuba had a computer with a flat screen bought for her daughter during one of her travels outside Cuba but she had no internet connection, something unthinkable of right now.

Sunday, Santiago de Cuba

We had left Canada the day before and transited by Havana for one night because there are no direct flights from Canada to Santiago. There was a delay at Havana airport on the day we flew to Santiago because of the presence of Haiti's president in the airport. Security measures are normal in Cuban airports and there was no humiliating hand search. However, this is the first country I visit where a wall and closed doors separate the international section of the airport from the rest.

The natural setting of Santiago is beautiful, between the Caribbean and the Sierra Maestra. One hour after our arrival, one of my husband's Cuban colleagues, M., sends us her two daughters and the boyfriend of one of them to guide us in a discovery tour of the old city. It is decided that my husband and his three Canadian colleagues will ride in a taxi to the starting point of the tour and that I would ride with the Cubans. Normally Cubans are not allowed to let strangers in their cars and I will understand later that this is the only way the government, who owns or have a share in all taxi companies , can prevent private drivers from working illegally as taxis without paying the daily 60 euros tax to the government. One has to understand that there are no taxis for Cubans living on the island because they cannot afford a taxi, fares being as high as those practised in our countries while salaries are ridiculously low. But this does not seem to prevent some, we will learn later, from trying to earn money with their old private car and they seem to access the market with the connivence and the benediction of official taxi drivers who can cash on a referred client while driving offcially another one. It is risky to ride in a private car in Cuba and I did so for about ten minutes. The three young people in the car, contrary to their parents, spoke a little English and I spoke my recently learned Spanish and we were able to make a decent conversation. The driver was a mechanical engineer driving a 50 year old Lada, his girlfriend, a history teacher, is specialised in Cuban history and her sister is a computer scientist working on a prospective Ph.D. The historian and her friend disappeared after driving us and reminding us that we should be home for dinner around 8 p.m. We started our discovery of old Santiago from a park near the sea and went up the hill to a renovated yellow mansion called 'Casa Amarilla' that is now the museo of la lucha clandestina (museum of clandestine struggle). In the park, children were playing. When they saw us they approached asking for dineros. The buildings in this part of the city were in decay. However, there was an effort to maintain the park clean. As we climbed the hill in the direction of 'Casa Amarilla', Santiago is called 'The city of stairs', we glanced at houses; nearly empty except for some chairs and a TV set. Many houses had pictures of El Che along with pictures of the virgin Mary. El Che is very much loved in Cuba. One can see ten times more pictures of El Che than of Fidel. There is no personality cult toward Fidel here. Later we would realise that, except posters wishing him a happy 80th birthday, there were no streets, places or statues for Fidel in Cuba. After reaching la 'Casa Amarilla' it started to rain. We took refuge under a porsh of a renovated building in Tivoli, the French quarter of Santiago. French expelled from Haiti after the independance came to Santiago, which is at 150 kms by sea from Haiti. Haiti was the first free black republic in history but is not so free from neocolonialism today. The French who came to Santiago imported with them the savoir faire for coffee plantations, a major economic resource for the whole area. The recently renovated houses in this historic quartier made the rest of the city look more depressing. It was night when we walked to the balcony of Velasquez (Diego Velasquez de Cuellar), the first governor of Cuba, to contemplate the city from the top of the hill. From there we went to plaza de la catedral, the city real center, to drink a refresco at a hotel bar. We walked near a school building which is still relatively well maintained and were told that it was the high school of young Fidel and Raoul, who are from Santiago. We walked the dark and tight streets now animated by little motorcycles, young people and even children, passing by the house of Jose Maria Heredia, plaza de Martes and the many traditional music houses that were bracing for a night of singing and dancing. Private houses were also diffusing their own music at very high volumes into the streets.
Earlier, at Plaza de la catedral, we wanted, my husband and I, to buy a memory card for our digital camera from a photo shop that was recommended by the hotel. We had a full card but we usually keep our memory cards when they are full even when photos are transferred to the computer. In a shop more than half empty there was our brand of memory card offered at five times its regular price in Canada, the equivalent of a six month salary of a doctor in Cuba. I wondered, and still wonder up to now, who can afford to buy this overpriced card. We decided that we were going to use our old one.

At M.'s house, we were expected. It is a decaying three storey house for a four generations family of highly educated professionals. On the first floor lives the grand'mother, C., I will meet her later and in another circumstance. On the second lives the oldest grand'daughter of C. with her four year old son, a beautiful woman and a doctor whose doctor husband is serving a two year assigned work in Venezuela for the Cuban government in exchange for cheap oil sent by Chavez to Cuba at quarter the regular price. Our guide, the computer scientist, lives with her sister for the time being. We had to cross the house on the second floor in order to be able to reach the third and last one which had a terrace overlooking the street and houses the only daughter of C., a university professor and head of her department with her husband, a plastic surgeon and their youngest daughter, the historian. Every floor had the equivalent in space of three small rooms. M. Had prepared a tasty dinner made of white rice, black beans, fried Yukas and Plantains as well as a cabbage salad, picadillo and camarones (very small shrimps). The meat for the picadillo (which is ground beef meat cooked with onions) and the camarones were bought on the black market by the family and my husband's Canadian colleague had compensated for the price. We had brought some wine with us and the grand'mother had prepared a coconut desert. We sat with the only male member of the family, the others busying and eating while standing around the tiny table. I told them I was familiar with the Picadillo because it used to be the only meal my father knew how to prepare without my mother's help. After dinner we went to sit on the terrace to chat with the father who traveled a lot as a doctor, working on assignments for the Cuban government as far as Lybia, and who was able to make a conversation with me in Arabic by using some of the words learned during his two years stay in Lybia.
In this one house, two doctors would have served a total of six years away from their families in faraway countries for the regime to pay back countries who help Cuba financially but need its human resources and scientific savoir faire. We will realise later that the people who are most frustrated with the regime are young professionals. They know that their work's monetary value in other countries is sometimes 200 or even 500 times higher for doctors and they know they they cannot leave because they would not find easily a decent work in other countries. A university graduate in law, acquaintance of the family, was working as a secretary in Miami. The regime knows this state of things and allows professionals and Academics many subsidised travels to foreign countries which allow them to breathe, make some additional money and let the steam out a little bit. We learned also that candidates for immigration are allowed by the regime to leave relatively easily.

The neighbours music becoming loud, the young started to dance and we all followed. In Cuba, one is obliged to listen to the music of his or her neighbours and never to her own music and vice versa because as soon as the neighbour's music stops you raise the volume of your own music if you want your music to be listened to after all.

Tuesday, Santiago de Cuba
Yesterday I was not able to connect to my mailbox. The Internet was slow and I lost one hour trying to connect unsuccessfully. It is hot and humide here. I feel tired and may have started a sinusitis because of the air conditioning at the hotel. Yesterday also we visited Castillo del Morro, a fortification guarding the entry of the Santiago bay in the Caribbean and built by the Spanish in the 17th century to repel pirates attacks on the city. From the castle walls, the city of Santiago seemed more beautiful and prosperous. The castle offered an exclusive view of the city and its surroundings. I wished that my dear son, who was studying for his exams for the first session at college, could have come with us to realise that the much dreaded pirates did not exist only in his imagination of a little boy and that great empires like Spain had to build fortresses to guard their cities from their attacks. At the site of Castle del Morro, two female guardians followed us asking for soap, medication, perfume and many other things. I explained that I did not have those things with me but they seemed not to understand and left us only after their boss came after them with an admonishing face.

After visiting Castle del Morro we asked the taxi to drive us to the city center near the cathedral. We wanted, my husband and I, to make the same tour we did on the first day but this time in plain daylight. The historical buildings we had seen the day before in the evening seemed uglier under daylight. One feels dispossession and poverty in this part of the city despite the recent renovations. I never visited bidonvilles but this part of Santiago can easily pass for one of them. During our wanderings, we were approached by a young man who heard us speaking in French. He spoke a clear and concise French learned at the French mission in Santiago. He offered help for a tour in the area. He insisted he was not going to be annoying or ask for money. As we explored non touristic areas around the center I started to become a little worried. But my worries disappeared as soon as I was able to see through the motivations of the young man for following us: he just wanted to speak French and probably wanted to gain a little money but this was not his chief aim. His father, he told us, a renowned local musician, left the family for a French woman who was visiting Santiago as a tourist and later followed her to Lyon. He does not send any money to his family in Santiago. Alfredo was now 25, a father of a 4 year old and the brother of two younger than him. The women, his mother and his wife, work and earn a small living and he is studying the mechanics of bicycles on half day courses and has nothing to do for the rest of the day. He made us discover more of the French Tivoli quarter and even guided us near a typical grocery store where Cubans buy their subsidised food . The store was empty. A cat that gave birth to kittens who were around her was guarding the entrance. We asked Alfredo some questions about the rationed allowance and he answered: 5 pounds of white rice, one pound of black beans, one pound on oil, one soap, on pound of sugar, milk for families who have children younger than six or elderly or breast-feeding mothers. These amounts are per person and can be bought at cheap prices in stores subsidised by the government. Anything more or different must be bought by individuals with very low earnings at prices set by the international market, which is out of reach of the low salaries of most Cubans except those who work in the tourism industry and receive tips from tourists. Despite all this I have not seen thin people, most Cubans are rather a bit overweight, when not obese. There are no skinny anorexic women. They also don't complain and if it wasn't Alfredo we would not have learned these details about food from our hosts.

When the streets became really dark, I asked Alfredo to take us to the nearest taxi and gave him a tip and thanked him for the tour. He was grateful. He wanted to suggest a private taxi owned by one of his friends and I made it clear that I could not accept such a thing and endanger myself and my husband, giving that private taxis are illegal...

At the hotel that night we dined surrounded by a horde of fat and obese tourists visiting Santiago from nearby touristic locations mainly beach resorts for a one day tour. Typically, these tourists stay one night in Santiago. White European and Canadian tourist males would go to the hotel bar and ask the barman for a female company which the barman would find instantly, having his own network of Cuban girls. I saw many middle aged white men walking around the pool area in the hotel, hand by hand with local beauties.

The day after, I was a bit lost and ill. I sent my children a very emotional letter. At thousand kilometers from me and many seas between us, they were the recipiendaries of my thoughts, emotions and hasty judgements. On this day, four days after touching the Cuban soil, I wrote them:

''Frankly, I don't like the food here that is being served to tourists, what I like most is what Cubans hate most because they can only have this to eat; rice and beans. It appears to me that the revolutionnary regime has made many interesting and admirable achievements in the fields of education and health but it stayed confined in an ideology that is hurting the economy and the people. We should never stay prisoners to one ideology', we should always stay free'

But this was a reaction based on a sample of Cuban life limited in space and time. My attempt to understand the country will be guided by the next logical question: Do Cubans have the means to choose their governance ideology and do they have the means to really be free ? What real freedom is ? Are we, in hte Western free market society free ? More nuances will enrich my first impressions much later...The first nuance is obvious: people speak freely their mind here. We are not watched as tourists when we speak to Cubans. There is no apparent oppression or secret police presence among civilians. I have traveled for example in Syria and I can tell the difference. Forced personality cult for the head of state was evident in Syria while here we merely see a mention of Fidel. And at the government owned hotel in Damascus everytime we would open the door, there was a woman, always the same, just walking the hall near our room as by accident. I did not feel and would not feel such a controlling presence anywhere in Cuba...

And in all this uncertainty I wanted something to rely on close to me. What else can be more close than an engaging book and an engaging story activating the connection between part of my identity and the country I was visiting ? This is when I started reading Maalouf's 'Origins'.

P.S. Read here the latest post from Cosmic about western bigotry toward the Cuban revolution...

This Other America: Part I, E.E.U.U

The title of this post is inspired by a Cuban I met during my two weeks trip to this country. To a question I asked regarding the abbreviation of 'Estados Unidos' as 'E.E.U.U.' in Cuba he offered a half an hour answer. I was with my husband near a poster showing rates for foreign money in Convertible Cuban Pesos, not far from Hemingway's sanctuary in old Havana, the hotel Ambos Mundos, in the middle of the pedestrian Obispo street. Omar said proudly that 'E.E.U.U.' was a convention to designate the United states by what they really are and not by what they pretend to be.
They really are the Estados Unidos of the Estados Unidos. They are not the Estados Unidos of America because America is something Else, America is more than that. They are not America because if they were then Canada would also qualify for this title (he knew we were Canadians) and so would Bolivia, Cuba, venezuela, Uruguway, Argentina or any other part of the American continent.

Our trip was nearing its end and many unanswered questions were boiling in my mind about Cuba. I have already made an opinion for myself about the country whose history and present economic and political situation could be well defined only from the point of view of the US's hegemonic politics towards Cuba and towards other countries of the American continent. I liked Omar's answer because it seemed to give a strong meaning to the nuanced image I had of Cuba; I felt this country as deeply American and yet this is another kind of America. An America that crossed the races separation lines, an America that is preoccupied by social justice, an America that fought colonialism and still fighting neocolonialism with all its races, and an educated, literate and proud America that is attached to a political conception of the country based more on the Homeland than on the Nation in the sense that it conceives the country as one space made for all races and classes living in it and not some sort of homogenous ethnic entity which is what the word 'Nation' is increasingly meaning nowadays. The conception of the meltdown of pure races in Cuba was evident in the Arts where one can find works from contemporary Cuban artists depicting Gitano gipsy women. As Gitans do not exist as a race in itself in Cuba, the only explanation is that the representation of gipsies are testimonies to a racial social ideal made of the mix of all races pervading the consciousness of the Cuban society.

We had toured the old book sellers around Plaza De Armas for the last two days and many writings on the Americas were highly represented in their collections. Among them: José Marti's 'Writings on the Americas' and Carlos Octavio Bunge's 'Nuestra America'...

We chatted with Omar pressing him on domestic questions; Housing, transportation, daily life and he was frank and straightforward. There was no attempt made by him to hide Cuba's present difficult economic situation which I will describe in the coming posts. Omar is a taxi driver who had traveled previously to Canada, New Foundland and Montreal and kept a sweet souvenir of his stay in our country. He also had this Joke from his stay in Montreal: everytime he would say that he is Cuban people would ask him 'are you a Fidel Cuban or a Miami Cuban ?'

We thanked Omar and asked him to come to our hotel the next day to drive us to the airport. We also left with some advice from him on what to eat at 'La Bodeguita del Medio' this night, another Hemingway sanctuary in Old Havana. Without hesitation he recommended Frijoles negros dormidas, Arroz blanco and Ropa Vieja. The dinner did meet our expectations at la Bodeguita but not the Mojito. Hemingway's Mojito at La Bodeguita is so popular among tourists that it became the victim of its own success, a dull and tasteless mojito. Everything else, including the local music band, was superb...

P.S. Read here the real answer for the double E and U in the abbreviation of Estados Unidos.

The Middle East needs Peace

From Peace for Palestine

Thanks to UrShalim

Cuba Si

I am now into the second week of my Cuban journey.

Internet here or any other computer interface are very difficult to access because of the price, 6 euros per hour, and the computers which are very old and slow by our standards. The hotels owned by foreign companies are extraterritorial entities in many ways and have their own internet account but things are different in Havana where most hotels are locally operated. Internet access here is more tricky; few posts, access regulated by internet cards that come with I.D. and password numbers and can be used everywhere. They are scarce most of the time. There are private cybercafes in the city but those are less user friendly than the computers operated by the hotels.

I used my internet time to communicate with my children and especially with my son working on a distance with him to help him prepare his exam in philosophy for his first session in college and to send a daily account of the trip to my children. This daily account will be edited and published later on this blog.

Santiago area is impressive for the natural beauty of the surroundings, a confluence of Sierra Maestra, the Caribbean and the Atlantic ocean. However Havana is The city of Cuba. It is a fascinating city and I am still discovering. In old Havana for example time suspends itself and trumps our perception of the space, old Spanish monasteries and eclectic colonial architecture. Most of the buildings are renovated or undergoing renovations.

If you ever plan to visit Havana, a visit I strongly recommend, I advice you to ask your hotel how many computers they have for their clients and if they can reserve for you tarjetas de navigacion before arriving. Upon my own arrival to Havana these tarjetas were very scarce, my hotel did not have them and I had to offer a monetary incentive to the doorman who was able to find 5 of them for me within half an hour and after making few phone calls.

This will be my only post from Cuba.

Recess before the New Year

I will be in Cuba for two weeks and may not have a regular internet connection there.

Please leave your comments. They will be published with a certain delay.

Here is a story about the next possible wave of neo-cons. Beware !

Happy New Year !

Sophia

Living Together: Nasrallah's Speech to the December 1st protest

This is a translation of the account given in French of Nasrallah's speech to the December 1st protest, on Thursday December 7th, by Libnanews.

Supressing any sign in the protest that can be interpreted as violence.
He started his speech by asking his supporters not to resort to an old Lebanese and middle eastern tradition; firing shots of celebration at the end of the speech.

Greetings.
He greeted the protesters then evoked the spirit of the young protester, Ahmed Mahmoud, who was shot last sunday probably as a result of an attack on a group of protesters joining the protest site by militiamen from the Future movement led by Saad Hariri.

Critique of the present government, March 14th and foreign and Arab leaders in light of the latest israeli agression on lebanon.
He declared being proud of the protesters who are defying the ennemies of Lebanon, those who led a savage war on lebanon last July. He called upon them to resist any attempt to weaken the protest by those who supported the July Israeli agression on Lebanon ad who support the present government. He called on Arab leaders not to favour one party in Lebanon over another but to assist all Lebanese in order to help them not to yield under the pressure of the terrorist Bush. He invited all Arabs to open their eyes on the reality of the failing US foreign policy in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.
He found offensive the open support israel is granting to the Sanyura government targeting the magnanimous in Lebanon in order to curb their support for the December 1st protest.

A unity government with a blocking power for the opposition, no matter who is in the opposition, that's all what the December protest is about.
He highlighted the necessity of a national union government representing all Lebanese, insisting on the particular context and structure of the Lebanese society which requires a representation that adresses the concerns of all its communities. On this basis he is asking that the opposition be granted a third of the seats in the government allowing it to block some decisions, whether this opposition is Hezbollah and its allies or the actual government.

A unity government with or without the actual government consent and by peaceful means.
Nasrallah asked to maintain the protest as long as the present government stays with its actual composition. He asked that the protest be peaceful avoiding any insults, clashes or conflicts which can lead to a civil war. He assured the international community that no matter what happens Hezbollah will never brandish its weapons against its lebanese brothers because lebanese understand that a civil war is a defeat for them and a victory for their Israeli ennemy who wishes that lebanon be thrown into dark abysses. He noticed, alluding to Saudi Arabia's and Egypt's recent remarks against the anti-Sanyura protest, that Israel is already inciting these Arab leaders to throw panic on the lebanese by warning them from a risk of civil war.

Hezbollah's intentions on the short term and its code of conduct during the protest.
Nasrallah confirmed that his party will fight those who intended to plant discord among Lebanese by killing Ahmed Mahmoud. He said that a thousand others Ahmed Mahmoud may fall but the Hezbollah resistance will not be driven into raising its arms against its Lebanese brothers and those who would fall would have done so for the love of their country, Lebanon. Hezbollah will work to avoid civil war in Lebanon. Hezbollah will maintain peaceful protests without resorting to any form of armed protest defying his detractors who are staking on a possible conflict. He exhorted Lebanese not to fall in the trap made by forces close to the Sanyura government whop are trying to portray the actual confrontation as a confrontation between Sunnis and Shias. He insisted that the opposition to the Sanyura government is composed of lebanese from all religions and sects and invited the Arab league (this same Arab league who does not move a finger when palestinians are slaughtered by Isreal but who seems mved by the opposition to the Sanyura government) to inquire on the site of the protest about the fact that the opposition to Sanyura comes from all religions and sects. He noted that any sectarian provocation is an act that goes against Religion, against Humanity and against morals.

The goal of Hezbollah on the long term.
He said that his party does not covet seats by asking for a unity government. He said that his party is ready to give these seats to any other movement in the opposition at the condition that the representation be fair. He said his party does not covet a throne neither a tomb (this an allusion to the political assassinations within March 14th) but a national unity government. he criticised the actual government as a government supported by the 'royal' courts of Bush and Olmert, rather than being a sunni government and that if this government was really a sunni government he would not oppose it.
(Nasrallah is criticising here the political maneuvres of the actual government which is asking the backing of traditional sunni states such as Egypt, Jordan and saudi Arabia, and sunni oulémas inside Lebanon, by appearing as sunni).
He called on Arab states for the creation of an Islamic or Arab judiciary council appointed to inquire on the legal aspects of the late Israeli agression on Lebanon in order and on the present sectarian agitation some are resorting to. He condemned those who (in Lebanon) encouraged and even pushed Bush and Cheney to launch a savage war on a Hezbollah resistance they could not disarm. He specified that those who encouraged the latest israeli agression on Lebanon are in the actual government and asked that they be tried for treason. He specified that he was not accusing all March 14th politicains but those who, being part of this March 14th coalition, sat on the same table as Bush and Cheney and asked them to initiate a war on Lebanon. He said that he was not going to name names and wishes he will may be obliged to do so in front of the international community. He also accuses Israel of opening a prison camp with a 10 000 men capacity in anticipation of the imprisonment of members of the actual Lebanese opposition.

Message to Sanyura: If you come to us we will forgive and we are determined in our demands and our forgiveness .
Hezbollah's leader adressed Sanyura knowing that he might be listening from his Prime Ministerial residence surrounded by the protests. He sermoned him for issuing an order to the Lebanese army to block ammunitions transfer to the resistance in the south while this resistance was battling the ennemy and defending the country. he asked how a Prime Minister of a country in war could try to block a resistance that even savage Israeli bombardments were not able to deter ? He however declared that he comes from a culture inclined to forgive and attached to Human values and tolerance and because of that he forgives his lebanese brothers who deviantly wanted to harm the resistance and who recently permitted a supposedly sunni terrorist network to infiltrate Lebanon with the goal of assassinating him.

He invited Sanyura to accept a national unity government and he warned that if Sanyura continues to oppose a unity government a time will come when the opposition wil withdraw the proposal in favor of a pure resignation of Sanyura's government. In which case, those who will lead the new government must allow Sanyura or anybody else who will be in the opposition a blocking majority because the promise of a fair and balanced government will be maintained. Lebanon being a country built on consensus, all political forces must be represented in the new cabinet.

Shias, Sunnis and Christians united in their faith for one God.
Nasrallah invited those who believe in the same God to aprticipate in a prayer Friday December 8th and asked shiites protesters to pray with sunnis at 11th instead of their usual prayer performed at 12.

He also called Lebanese to participate Sunday, 3 p.m., in a planned meet-up to renew and reaffirm the will of the December 1st protest not to bow to a government manipulated by foreign forces.

He concluded by promising victory to Lebanese from all confessions and parties and hailed the spirit of the protest victim and of all the protesters.

Angry Arab's analysis of the speech.

Google video of the speech (Arabic)

Addendum: I am listening now to the speech and I think what Libnanews missed is the harsh indictment of the Bush administration on Iraq asking how could Sanyura's government trust the people who ignited a civil war in Iraq and killed its children. He also ridiculed the Sanyura government by telling that this government can boast about having been the subject of a special meeting of the Israeli cabinet (who does such meetings only when the interests of Israel are at stake) with the goal of finding solutions to help Sanyura !
This is why I keep telling that we should leave the anti-Syria, pro-Syria characterisations of the present forces in lebanon and adopt the pro-USrael and anti-USrael categorisations.
Nasrallah praised also the neutrality of the Lebanese army but criticised the internal security forces controlled by the government and invited them to act in neutrality. He mentioned also attempts from the government at intimidating some sunni Oulémas who support the opposition in a clear strategy of mobilisation along sectarian lines.
He also asked : 'Do you want a government who takes his orders from amabassador Feltman or Secretary Rice ?'

Living Together: From Canada to Lebanon, A Lesson in Multiculturalism

Some of the commentators on this blog and on other blogs have expressed their disillusionment with the recent protest in Beyrouth. The Sanyura government against which the recent protest is being held is itself the product of a mass protest which took place in 2005 after the assassination of Rafik Hariri. I have expressed an opinion on this blog in which I have affirmed that the new divide in Lebanon, the economic divide brought upon a traditionally prosperous country by the civil war and by the disastrous management of the state by Hariri, is helping bridge the sectarian religious and ethnic divide. March 14th is the movement of the rich and the few who profited from the new economy while March 8th is the movement of the disgruntled and the numerous left behind by the new economy.


Those disillusioned who live in Lebanon are asking for a third option to Sanyura's government, usually also called March 14th, and the recent protest which is sometimes labeled March 8th. Those skeptics who live outside Lebanon are also asking for a third option. One of them, a much appreciated regular commentator on this blog, wrote the following:

Sophia ,

There are several dimensions to the Lebanese struggle and they overlap. The greatest dimension is that of sectarianism. As the class struggle heats up and the feudal order is challenged, the feudal lords and their clerical partners will resort to sectarian strife to maintain their domination and force their brethern back into the fold. Lebanon is not a state in the normal sense. It is collection of sects dominated by families and parties. The political order is undergoing a sectarian revolution. One sect ,the Shia, is asking for their rightful share of the pie. The Sunnis fear that any rearrangement will be at their expense since the Christians are unwilling to give up any of their 50% share. That is why there is a constant reference by the beneficiaries of the present order to the Taif accord which slightly rearranged the political order but maintained Sunni Maronite rule. That is the crux of the problem and we will have perpetual civil wars until the representational problem is addressed. I fear that we are all headed for a violent partition of Lebanon. People are unwilling to compromise and they are talking increasingly of "federalism". I talked to my cousin in Beirut yesterday and she said that she was just at AUB and that a Shia professor pointed out that professors are huddled in sectarian groups talking about the situation in hushed tones. She complained that her Sunni-Shia marriage is undergoing some strain because of the political situation. It is obvious that Lebanon is in preparation for another round of its civil war.
I wish there was a third way or alternative to save the Lebanese from March 8 and 14. On second thought it would not be enough because regional and international forces are aligned with each faction in Lebanon and are intent on pursuing their conflicts by proxy. I pray every day for some regional arrangement that will calm things down and give the Lebanese a chance to come to some arrangement.

Issam

I understand the concerns of these people. However, foreign influences on lebanese politics aside- foreign interference is efficient only when there are people inside the country willing to collaborate with an outside power against the interests of the country- I believe we have a third option for Lebanon and that this third option is being advanced by the recent alliance between Hezbollah and the free patriotic movement (FPM) led by general Michel Aoun who organised the recent protest and open-ended sit in. These are my premices:

- Those who criticise the recent protest are calling it March 8th in reference to the March 8th 2005 massive protest of Hezbollah as a Thank you for Syria who was leaving Lebanon. As a consequence, March 8th is seen as pro-Syrian while March 14th is seen as anti-Syrian. However there is a lot of confusion in these categorisations. First, as I wrote in a previous post, Syria is outside Lebanon and has little political leverage for now both inside Lebanon and in the region. In addition, March 14th politicians being, before the assassination of Hariri, all pro-Syrians, Hariri the first among them, it is difficult to label them as anti-Syrians when Syria is no longer in Lebanon and their opponents as pro-Syrians when one of them, general Michel Aoun fought a desperate war against the Syrians in 1990, when the Syrian army was actually in Lebanon, before leaving for an exile from which he returned only after the Syrian withdrawal. This leads me to the second confusion made in the characterisation of the two blocs. March 8th is different from the present December 1st alliance opposing Sanyura's government. March 8th was composed of Hezbollah and Amal alone, mainly Shias. The recent protest is a result of a year old alliance between FPM and Hezbollah, an alliance between Shias and Christians. The recent movement is then different from March 8th. While March 14th, since the assassination of rafik Hariri, was struggling to keep its unity along sectarian divides and special interests and has been ever since its formation " primarily fuelled by the assassination of its leaders," said Amal Saad Ghorayeb of Beirut's Carnegie Middle East Centre, March 8th was evolving in a less sectarian way and in a way based on the aspirations of Lebanese across the religious divide.

I am personally against March 8th alone, I am also against the FPM alone. But I am for an alliance of these movements and especially an extension of this alliance to other politcal movements and sects in Lebanon because the only solution for Lebanon is unity. It is only with unity that we can achieve independance from foreign powers.

- I believe that March 14th deceived the Lebanese and lost the popular support and the political capital it was sitting on since the assassination of Rafik Hariri as much as Bush has deceived the Americans and lost the political capital it was given by the American nation after 9/11. Why these movements have been unable to capitalise on their poltical successes ? Because they have great contempt for ordinary citizens. Not only March 14th have been unable to keep unity in their movement but they were being deaf to the aspirations of the Lebanese, only listening to the foreign powers who back them. They have betrayed Lebanon and the Lebanese, not only on the economic reforms and the promises of a better future but also on the notions they claim to fight for: freedom and democracy. Israel's agression on Lebanon was a crude test in the matter. It made March 14th insensitive to the plight of the Lebanese or worse, an implicit ally of this savage invasion. Can't anybody see total absurdity in the present cortège of foreign government officials from Saudi Arabia to the UK and the US visiting Sanyura in a show of support while these same people stayed deaf to the plight of the Lebanese in the middle of the Israeli agression, not asking for a ceasefire when they did not implicitly approve of the agression ? This is a clear proof that Sanyura's government is completely disconnected from Lebanese.

I think March 14th has discredited himself in the eyes of the majority of Lebanese and it has support only outside Lebanon or in the few fanatic and blind sectarian minds which are being endoctrined by Hariri paid clerics in Tripoli, Akkar, Saida and Beyrouth, those same ones who applaud Bin Laden, and the few Christians who are afraid to live with poor Muslim shias, out of fear of losing their Gucci identity, and the Christian leaders who exploit their fears. Moreover, the representation of Christians within March 14th is very biased, it is mainly a representation made of Christian leaders elected by sunni votes, thanks to the Syrian crafted electoral law that was meant to help those same leaders from March 14th, who used to collaborate with Syria, get elected and who represent only those wealthy christians who fear any association with anything poor, their identity being in their pocket and bank accounts. Therefore the interests of the increasingly economically hit Christians are poorly represented by March 14th which is mainly under Hariri leadership and Saudi money tutelage, backed locally by wealthy sunnis.

- The small representation of the alliance between Hezbollah and the free Patriotic Movement inside the government is hindering national dialogue. Both Aoun, the leader of the FPM and Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, along with Amal, the other Shia movement, represent more than 60 % of the population of Lebanon by all conservative estimates, yet they only have two ministers in the government. Why is the Sanyura government blocking a fair representation of this part of the Lebanese population in the government ? I think it is out of allegiance to Saudi Arabia who has emerged recently as the main crusader against the access of Muslim shias to important positions within state apparatus everywhere in the Arab world including Bahrain. No matter what they say, March 14th movement aapear in the eyes of Lebanese as serving external Arab and international interests, the US and Israel, more than those of Lebanese citizens.

- Shias from Hezbollah and Amal and the Christians of the FPM have to their credit shown us that Lebanese can unite across sectarian lines not on the basis of external interests but on the basis of an inclusive political and economic project for Lebanon. This project is written and was discussed and agreed upon by Aoun and Hezbollah before the July war. It was snubbed by Washington who does not want to see people in power in Lebanon who don't take orders from them or from their client Saudi Arabia. This project means that we can live together, not only form alliances for power sharing and electoral success like March 14th but out of a real desire to live together and to find solutions for a concerted way of life.

There are many possible solutions for Lebanon. Federalism, which is being advocated by March 14th, is a bad solution. Federalism in a small, poor and underdevelopped country is Apartheid. Federalism works only between equal entities and federal Lebanon will not be composed of economically equal entities. Even democratic Canadian federalism is struggling with the equality issue. Lebanese federalism will be a return to the ottoman feudal style of administration. This is why the feudal lords of March 14th are so enamoured with federalism. It means a return to their full and unbridled ottoman style feudal power . It means also: 'Chacun pour soi'. It means that we open the door large for foreign interference and this is not going to help us out of trouble because as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an open wound our little federated parts of the country under different foreign allegiances will be at risk of fighting each other. Who will stop Syria from providing weapons to Hezbollah in a small shia state ? And who will stop the US and Israel from providing weapons to Christians in a small Christian state ? And who will stop Saudi Arabia from providing weapons and logisitics for sunnis in a small sunni state ? In a united Lebanon we are invited to care for each other and to care in a way that take into account all the people and not only ourselves. For all these reasons, because it won't stop poverty and it won't stop wars, federalism is not a good option for Lebanese.

However, federalism is a good option for Israel for example. Israel always feared 200 million Arabs 'who will drive Israel into the sea', a convenient zionist propaganda. Israel destroyed Arab nationalism which was secular and staunchly pro-palestinian with the help of Saudi Arabia. One cannot imagine how much Israel is indebted to Saudi Arabia. Actually it was a Hijazi king who signed an agreement with Weismann accepting the Balfour declaration in exchange for the kingdoms of Jordan and Irak given by colonial England to the Hijazi family. Surely, a federalism based on the partition of Lebanon will result in the partition of other middle eastern countries where sectarian tensions are exacerbated , producing ethnically and religion based states exactly at the image of Israel. The partition of the ME is an old zionist dream and it is being accomplished now in Irak and Lebanon. Again, any kind of federalism partitioning states in the Arab world is seen by Israel and its allies and those who want to control the Arab masses as a gain. federalism is the continuation of the destruction of Arab nationalism and when Arab countries will be no more than a pack of small states based on the special interests of their small ethnies, the palestinian question will be dead for good and will be no more an issue for the Arab world.

Don't underestimate the power of the neo-cons or the AAWSII (Alliance of Americans Working Inside the US government for the Special Interests of Israel). Surely, the war in Iraq may appear as a mess and surely the partition of Lebanon and Iraq may appear as an avowal of defeat but they both serve the justification of the only ethnic state in the ME other than Saudi Arabia, Israel, while reinforcing the hegemony of Israel in the region.

I support an open alliance between the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah because it is a workable solution for Lebanon. I support any alliance that is inclusive, the most possibly inclusive. I think other solutions for Lebanon will not work, I think we are bound to live together and we are bound to take care of each other and if we have to fulfill the promises that we made to the Lebanese, we are bound to live in dignity and deliver on economic development and social justice. Federalism will not deliver on these issues, neither civil war .

I think we are better when we are together. I don't know if I am a good person when I am alone but I know that I have to be good for my husband and my children and when I am not alone I know at least that I am a better person than when I am alone. And it is the same thing with cultures and religions. I know that purists and skeptics will dismiss this call for unity because the people who are supposed to unite in managing the Lebanese state are so different. But I believe if our politicians are interested in rescuing Lebanon and in giving Lebanese a future in their country, they can ultimately sit together. We lived together before and we can still live together. Sectarian tensions serve only those who exploit them for political leverage and political profit, they don't serve the people. We have to stop serving foreign interests and if we do stop we can start to live together.

I have been living in Canada for the last fifteen years and I learned a lot form this country. I value Canadian multiculturalism and I value the fact that I am respected as a minority in Canada without having to lose my identity. I know also that even when we keep our identity in a multicultural society we transform it into something else. I know that when we reach for the other we do it with the best part of ourselves and this is the virtue of multiculturalism and this is how one can keep his religious and cultural identity in a multicultural society; by living only with the better part of himself. I know also that democracies can adapt to their religions, cultures and minorities. We don't have to have a US style democracy in Lebanon neither a Canadian style democracy but we can learn from these democracies how to live together in justice and peace and these are the main issues in a democracy.
The December 1st protesters are asking the government to be inclusive, to be just and to be transparent and because I believe that living together is ultimately our destiny, I support the December 1st protest. And if the project of the December 1st protest wins it will be a tremendous gain not only for Lebanon but for the entire ME, which is threatened by sectarian tensions aggravated by Bush's and Israel's wars.

Living together is a reasonable third option. Lets work for this option and wish it every success...

UPDATE: An account of Nasrallah's adress to the December 1st protest in downtown Beyrouth (in French).

P.S: I would like you to read Frencheagle's post on the most prominent politician of March 14th, the interior minister Ahmad Fatfat. It will give you an idea on the kind of people which are running the country right now...

Statement of the Lebanese opposition to Sanyura's government

Read the statement here.

Well, the December 1st movement against Sanyura's government does not seem to me like the authoritarian, anti-democratic and theocratic political movement Sanyura and western governments are portraying for mass consumption.

The anti-Sanyura protests and class struggle in Lebanon

Most of the time, Lebanon is portrayed as a sectarian country divided along religious and ehtnic lines and this is true. However, since the reconstruction of the country after the 15 year civil war, a new divide emerged between communities fueled by the increasing debt of the country and the absence of a real economic project for the Lebanese society, both brought by Hariri father who wanted to make Lebanon a country like Monaco or switzerland where Arab gulf states and Saudi Arabia can spend their money, spend, not invest. Consequently, the service sector increased while corruption reached incredible highs inside the state apparatus. An ambitious young professional friend of mine working for an NGO in Beyrouth during the Hariri years when Sanyura used to be minister of finances told me he was offered a high profile job but refused it because the corruption and incompetence in the government would have made any other professional move for him impossible if he would have accepted such a job.

The grim economic situation has reached now Christian communities who were usually relatively wealthy and the new economic divide is helping bridge old religious sectarian divides. Lebanon is traditionally an agrarian country. People possess their land and when they aren't able to have a job and a salary they could at least exploit their land and live in dignity. This is how it used to be. However, shiites were prevented from this dignified life, even before the civil war, due to the Israeli hostilities against Palestinian camps in the south and Israel's frequent invasions of the south since the seventies. Southern Lebanon could not sustain its villagers because of the perpetual state of war against which the Lebanese government did nothing, shiites being poorly represented within the government and the state apparatus. Shiites migrated to Beyrouth's southern suburbs and were the poorest in the country when all other communities enjoyed a relative wealth.

The civil war, its economic impact and the disastrous debt brought by Hariri, whose companies were heavily involved in the reconstruction of downtown Beyrouth, have contributed to the extension of economic distress to Christian communities. When I visited Lebanon in 2005 I was struck by the Disney land character of the new Beyrouth, a well reconstructed area that only the rich can reasonably access. Everything was expansive. I had promised my children, who were visiting for the first time, to take them to one of those ambulant restaurants on the seaside where we used to eat bountiful sandwishes of shawarma and falafel before the war but there was none. We had to walk to Raouché, a popular seaside, also invaded by Saudi money and a movenpick resort, to find only Kaak sellers (Lebanese bread with sesame), but there were no meals to eat on the go and one had to sit inside a restaurant to get some food. Everthing was so expansive, even by Canadian standards. I wondered how could poeople, whose salaries don't match those that are practised in a liberal economy, make ends meet ? I was told that Lebanese were living on their savings, working two to three jobs, borrowing and families were sticking together in a collective sort of household economy.

When we were children, my father used to say that those who did not possess land are those who are poor even if they had big salaries and big money in the bank. This is why, despite us living outside Lebanon for more than twenty years now, we kept the land there, olive orchards land which is being exploited by other people who barely send us olive oil and who keep shrinking our share in the harvest out of greed. We kept the land out of respect for my father. My father used to tell us also that those who sell their land are those who are in great financial need. Even though selling the land and investing this money in the west could have brought us a fortune, we didn't do it out of respect for my father and his values which were and still profound Lebanese values. In 2005, I realised that many people from my village have sold their land in order to send their children to school and universities. The cruel irony in this is that the Lebanese economy, which Hariri built after the civil war and which was not human resources oriented but Las Vegas style oriented, was not able to meet the expectations of young educated Lebanese. Lebanese traditionally value education and higher education and in 2005 I met many young people educated at the university who were desperate because there were no well paid jobs or no jobs at all for them in the country.

This new economic context brought to us by Hariri and his mentors, the Saudis, has managed to install an additional divide in Lebanon, the rich and wealthy on one side and the poor and needy on the other. Lebanon has become a land of opportunity more and more for a restricted oligarchy and much less for the majority of its population. Along these lines, the March 14th movement that installed Sanyura as head of the government is the movement of rich sunnis and christians. Their protest against Syria in 2005 was called the Gucci revolution because women who marched were dressed with couturier wear and accessories and marched with their Sri Lankans maids. The alliance between Christians who support Aoun and the shiites of Hezbollah is the aliance of the disgruntled, of the people for whom the new lebanese economy brought poverty and more uncertainty about the future.

Recently, many analyses start pointing to this fact and to the fact that the Sanyura government and its supporters are treating these protesters with contempt...Read the following links:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 2 has its source in an LATimes article that requires a registration.

The Beyrouth Fall: Lebanon Wants Sanyura's pro-USrael Government Out

One million are gathering now in Lebanon in an open-ended sit-in protest asking Sanyura, who resisted demands by the opposition to make his cabinet more representative of the Lebanese population, to quit. The Lebanese opposition is called Pro-Syrian by its detractors. I am not sure this is correct, this christian-shiite opposition is definitely anti-USrael. It is mainly united against USrael meddling in Lebanese Politics. The last Israeli agression on Lebanon was meant to reequilibrate political forces in Lebanon by weakening or eliminating the shiite Hezbollah, it did not succeed.

The government of Sanyura emerged from elections made in 2005, just after the Syrian army left Lebanon, on the basis of a Syrian crafted electoral law meant to give advantage to its allies, which were composed mainly of actual members of the Sanyura government at the time. There is a caste of Politicians in Lebanon (and they are a majority) who will do whatever they are told to do by the West (US and France). These politicians were pro-syrians when they were told to be pro-syrians and they are now calling themselves anti-syrians because they are told to be anti-syrians. But what they are right now, really, is pro-USrael

Lebanon is tired from foreign interference. There is a huge popular and cultural resistance in Lebanon to those who want to align it along a USrael political line. We now know what a USrael political line have produced so far in the ME. So instead of calling the forces in presence pro-Syrians and ant-Syrians, because Syria, while it was something important in the Lebanese political game a while ago with the blessings of the US, is really nothing right now in the Lebanese and regional political game, I propose calling them pro-USrael for Sanyura and its government and anti-USrael for the shiite-Christian opposition.

In the current context, what really matters is not being pro or anti something external to Lebanon but being for Lebanon. And in the current circumstances, after having witnessed what USrael wanted to achieve in its July war on lebanon in destruction and mayhem, it is fair to say that anti-USrael forces in Lebanon are those who are working for Lebanon proper.

I think the actual government should listen to the people.

On the protest: UrSalim

Michel Aoun's adress to the protest

The picture above was published on Le Monde's website

Wonderful World

My morning started early today around five. It was dark outside and when I left the bedroom for the living room I felt that I wasn't probably fully awake when I saw on the street, just in front of my window, a man in full work gear standing on a platform lifted by a truck working at the level of telephone wires. It didn't take me long to realise that I wasn't dreaming. After few minutes, a small box was added to the pack of wires that make the street ugly in the winter and really upset me everytime I look at ever since we moved into this neighbourhood.

I used to live in Paris where all electrical and telephone wires are undeground but I had to adapt to this reality in Canada where even in the most exclusive neighbourhoods you can see wires above the ground hanging between houses. I was told that the reason for this is that during the winter the soil is covered by few dozen centimeters of snow which hinder any reparation work on electrical and telephone wires. However, there are some areas where wires are buried under the ground and in the winter 1998 the hanging wires proved to be a liability because the few centimeters of freezing rain didn't make it to the ground and hung on the trees and on electrical and telephone lines making the city a total chaotic mess during two weeks. Outside the city some had to stay without electricity for a month. The government dispatched the army at the time to help but it was mostly out of fear of social unrest.

I was just remembering all this when the man disappeared inside his truck. On the truck I read the name of a local TV and internet company. Hearing my husband awake in the back of the house I felt emboldened to go outside to ask the man what he was doing to the wires in the street. As soon as I opened the door, the dog was instantly outside and we both went near the truck inquiring. I was told that a satellite signal amplifier for TV and internet was added to the network just near our house. I asked what kind of signals the amplifier used and was told that the signals were not harmful if this was my concern. Still, I was bothered and a little worried. I remember having a fight with my husband's insurance company because they imposed a security system on his car that used the controversial Non Ionising ElectroMagnetic Radiations (NIEMR), the same that make cellphones work, except that in the car the emission was permanent on the basis of a ten minutes intervalle. We broke the contract with the company after one year. While waiting for the coffee and the toasts I did some rapid internet search and realised that radio, TV and wireless internet technologies also use some of these Electro Magnetic Radiations. My husband who does not worry as much as I do was reassuring when I discussed this matter over breakfast.

After the breakfast I drove my husband to the train station. He will be traveling six hours in the train today and as trains in Canada are now equipped with wireless internet, he will be able to work as if it was a normal day from his train 'desk'. I did it last year when I was traveling 4 hours twice a week by train. It gives a strange feeling the first time.

With a cable internet connection our mind can be virtually everywhere at the condition we don't significantly move far from the physical connection. With a wireless connection in the office or in the house we can move few meters and even read the morning news in our bed. Although my husband does not allow laptops anywhere near the bedroom, I allow myself this 'breach of intimacy' when he is away.

But none of these experiences comes near working on a laptop with a wireless internet connection in a train. There is a sense of infinite freedom to it. We are physically and intellectually moving and the world is following. The universe is a perpetual movement. Movement appeared during the evolution of livings along with nervous systems- creatures who don't move don't possess nervous systems - and became more obvious with nervous systems endowed with Minds like ours. And within the creatures possessing nervous systems, minds appeared to shift the movement from space to Time. From earlier technologies focused on moving into space our present day technologies are moving us into time. Body technologies move us into space and mind technologies move us in time. While I was writing this post, My husband was traveling far away from me and yet at the same time he was able to send me three emails. While I was sleeping, somebody in another time zone was awake and reading my blog.

I know that all these technologies may be harmful in some way to our health. We don't know yet but there we are already immersed in them, integrating them in our bodies and minds in an irreversible way, making them into habits. And no matter what their effects will be on our health, there is no going back. Suddenly I found my worry of this morning completely futile. As the universe, life is a perpetual movement. But what is a life, one life, in this huge perpetual movement ?