30.1.07
The Hamas Government: One Year ON
Read the account of Laila El-Haddad, Palestinian journalist and blogger.
Lebanon: Sectarian Tensions are being exacerbated to hide an Ailing Economy and a Failed Governance
I read an interesting analysis posted at Loubnan Ya Loubnan on the state of the lebanese debt and economy and it gave me some ammunitions because I have been arguing, since the beginning of the recent escalation, that although Lebanese society is sectarian and sectarian tensions seem to be behind most of the invectives between supporters and opponents to the Sanyura government, the real tension stems from the new economic deal that was designed for lebanon by Hariri. The New Lebanese economy built after the Taif accords sponsored by Saudi Arabia, which ended the civil war in lebanon and litterally officialised the Syrian grip on the country, was not meant to profit all Lebanese but only a clique, those who were in power ever since Taif, Hariri, The Lebanese Forces, and Co. Thus, the present political confrontation will not die because there is wealth and there are privileges at stake if the present political clique were to be replaced, or at least immobilised by the opposition.
The article referenced above highlights, on the basis of figures, academic work and expert opinions (among them, Charbel Nahhas, Georges Corm and Alain Gresh), the source of the economic debt, and traces it back to Hariri days in office as well as his finance minister and present PM Sanyura. Although the civil war left lebanon in a dire economic situation, the article argues that the debt increased rapidly with the reconstruction projects that were to profit the new political elite, or former fighting militia, pacified from civil war by the promises of fresh money and a large scale theft of Lebanon's financial resources. It is this theft that is responsible for Lebanon's debt, a debt that is the burden of the Lebanese people now. In other terms, the present political elite, headed by Hariri, heavily borrowed, heavily stole money that was destined for reconstruction, and is now, not only asking Lebanese to make sacrifices to reduce the debt, but also asking them to shut up because if they protest there will be no more money and no more borrowing. This is a vicious cycle which makes me think that Lebanon is the new Banana republic on the world stage heading to a total collapse of an economy, otherwise traditionally healthy, thanks to the dishonesty and the greed of its western backed rulers.
I am not surprised to realise that the theft of government resources was in fact brought to us by the Saudi mentored government of Hariri. This practice is routine in Saudi Arabia, a country with so much wealth, concentrated within the few who are related to the ruling family, and so little development for its own people, a country where the ruling family taxes the country's revenues at the level of 40%, money that goes in the pockets of the royal family members and not in the coffers of the state. The practice of stealing the revenues of the country was not installed on a tabula rasa in matters of corruption. Lebanon was known, even before the war, for the corruption of its state apparatus but the new economic and political landscape created by Hariri, in the middle of the Syrian occupation years, were to bring theft and corruption to new highs, never reached before. I will not be surprised to see, if there will be a conclusion to the UN report on the death of Hariri, a 'business' motive for his murder which prompted a chain reaction of other assassinations, every one of them destined to cloud further the investigation into the motives of the former and to discard any possible suspicion for motives other than the one who were invented as a storyline and distributed to the press by the March 14th movement, the movement of Sanyura, Hariri, Jumblatt, and the Lebanese Forces.
In the present regional situation, armed confrontation in Lebanon is not suitable. Lebanese should then seize this opportunity to start looking at themselves and at what divides them critically and not fall into the sectarian trap. They have fallen in it in the past and it brought them 15 years of civil war, misery and hell. But resisting a civil war does not mean that we should accept the present state of things as imposed on us by the Sanyura government, we should not accept to be ruled by a dishonest minority, we should not accpet to look at war criminals mutated into statesmen dictate what we should do and think, we should not accept foreign interference, not only Syria and Iran, which are minor when compared to the interference of Sanyura's buddies, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the US in order to change things in Lebanon to their liking.
I am a Christian maronite and I grew up in a multireligious community made of Sunnis and Greek Orthodox. As during the height of the civil war, I still believe that sectarianism is never the cause of what is happening in Lebanon, in Iraq, and even in Gaza. It is only a mean to achieve something else, it is a mean to terrorise people in their own communities by silencing the voices of moderation and reason so the incompetence, corruption and the theft of our rulers go unnoticed. Every time an extremist slogan is shouted, there are ten moderate voices unheard. Extremism eventually creates a state of fear inside a community because not adhering to the rules of the community is to become unprotected, not recognised by the other community, and rejected by his own. What is happening in Lebanon, as in other corrupted governments in the ME, is that the political elite refuses to serve the country, no matter its religion or political affiliation, uses sectarianism to create a state of fear helping to rally people around them and to divert their attention from the real problems of the country and from their bad governance. The political elite in many countries in the ME, and Lebanon is no exception, sees power as a way to enrich itself at the expense of the country and its people. Lebanese illness is not sectarianism, it is feodalism, or the contempt of the ruling elite for its people. I have seen young, smart and educated people in Lebanon desperate because the country is unable to offer them jobs, let alone qualified jobs. Lebanese 'economy' after the civil war was built to suit the rich and powerful, to make of Lebanon, the whole country, a source of income for its political elite, and Lebanon became, under the Hariri rule, a whore country that offered itself to anybody (Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and is now sleeping with the neocons doctrine) who is willing to help maintain the political elite in place and keep the cash flowing into its pockets while the country 's economy was left rotting and dying...This is the kind of governance the US has been praising and encouraging for years and now implementing under the Bush doctrine and at the expense of US national security and the well being of US's inhabitants drafted to wage colonial wars disguised under th banner of 'democracy and freedom'...
Can anybody show me an ounce of patriotism and good governance among the members of the Sanyura government ? These people are only good at political and sectarian agitation and rethoric destined to feed the neocon hubris. But this will not last and the neocons will be history in 2008 and Lebanon will be forgotten again...having to offer itself to a less glamorous master...
Some facts about Lebanon published the day Rafiq Hariri died:
Population: 3.7 million
Life expectancy: 72 years
GDP: $17.8bn (£9.4bn) in 2003
GDP per head: $4,800 a year
28% of Lebanese below the poverty line
Source for the above: CIA World Factbook
There are now 65 Billion dollars in Lebanese banks in private accounts and the central bank has 10 billions. 72% of private accounts reflect only 4,3% of the total volume of money deposits while 9,2% of private accounts possess 82,7% of total money deposits. In other words, there is money in Lebanon but it is not for everyone and certainly not for the state, it is only for the privileged few.
The article referenced above highlights, on the basis of figures, academic work and expert opinions (among them, Charbel Nahhas, Georges Corm and Alain Gresh), the source of the economic debt, and traces it back to Hariri days in office as well as his finance minister and present PM Sanyura. Although the civil war left lebanon in a dire economic situation, the article argues that the debt increased rapidly with the reconstruction projects that were to profit the new political elite, or former fighting militia, pacified from civil war by the promises of fresh money and a large scale theft of Lebanon's financial resources. It is this theft that is responsible for Lebanon's debt, a debt that is the burden of the Lebanese people now. In other terms, the present political elite, headed by Hariri, heavily borrowed, heavily stole money that was destined for reconstruction, and is now, not only asking Lebanese to make sacrifices to reduce the debt, but also asking them to shut up because if they protest there will be no more money and no more borrowing. This is a vicious cycle which makes me think that Lebanon is the new Banana republic on the world stage heading to a total collapse of an economy, otherwise traditionally healthy, thanks to the dishonesty and the greed of its western backed rulers.
I am not surprised to realise that the theft of government resources was in fact brought to us by the Saudi mentored government of Hariri. This practice is routine in Saudi Arabia, a country with so much wealth, concentrated within the few who are related to the ruling family, and so little development for its own people, a country where the ruling family taxes the country's revenues at the level of 40%, money that goes in the pockets of the royal family members and not in the coffers of the state. The practice of stealing the revenues of the country was not installed on a tabula rasa in matters of corruption. Lebanon was known, even before the war, for the corruption of its state apparatus but the new economic and political landscape created by Hariri, in the middle of the Syrian occupation years, were to bring theft and corruption to new highs, never reached before. I will not be surprised to see, if there will be a conclusion to the UN report on the death of Hariri, a 'business' motive for his murder which prompted a chain reaction of other assassinations, every one of them destined to cloud further the investigation into the motives of the former and to discard any possible suspicion for motives other than the one who were invented as a storyline and distributed to the press by the March 14th movement, the movement of Sanyura, Hariri, Jumblatt, and the Lebanese Forces.
In the present regional situation, armed confrontation in Lebanon is not suitable. Lebanese should then seize this opportunity to start looking at themselves and at what divides them critically and not fall into the sectarian trap. They have fallen in it in the past and it brought them 15 years of civil war, misery and hell. But resisting a civil war does not mean that we should accept the present state of things as imposed on us by the Sanyura government, we should not accept to be ruled by a dishonest minority, we should not accpet to look at war criminals mutated into statesmen dictate what we should do and think, we should not accept foreign interference, not only Syria and Iran, which are minor when compared to the interference of Sanyura's buddies, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the US in order to change things in Lebanon to their liking.
I am a Christian maronite and I grew up in a multireligious community made of Sunnis and Greek Orthodox. As during the height of the civil war, I still believe that sectarianism is never the cause of what is happening in Lebanon, in Iraq, and even in Gaza. It is only a mean to achieve something else, it is a mean to terrorise people in their own communities by silencing the voices of moderation and reason so the incompetence, corruption and the theft of our rulers go unnoticed. Every time an extremist slogan is shouted, there are ten moderate voices unheard. Extremism eventually creates a state of fear inside a community because not adhering to the rules of the community is to become unprotected, not recognised by the other community, and rejected by his own. What is happening in Lebanon, as in other corrupted governments in the ME, is that the political elite refuses to serve the country, no matter its religion or political affiliation, uses sectarianism to create a state of fear helping to rally people around them and to divert their attention from the real problems of the country and from their bad governance. The political elite in many countries in the ME, and Lebanon is no exception, sees power as a way to enrich itself at the expense of the country and its people. Lebanese illness is not sectarianism, it is feodalism, or the contempt of the ruling elite for its people. I have seen young, smart and educated people in Lebanon desperate because the country is unable to offer them jobs, let alone qualified jobs. Lebanese 'economy' after the civil war was built to suit the rich and powerful, to make of Lebanon, the whole country, a source of income for its political elite, and Lebanon became, under the Hariri rule, a whore country that offered itself to anybody (Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and is now sleeping with the neocons doctrine) who is willing to help maintain the political elite in place and keep the cash flowing into its pockets while the country 's economy was left rotting and dying...This is the kind of governance the US has been praising and encouraging for years and now implementing under the Bush doctrine and at the expense of US national security and the well being of US's inhabitants drafted to wage colonial wars disguised under th banner of 'democracy and freedom'...
Can anybody show me an ounce of patriotism and good governance among the members of the Sanyura government ? These people are only good at political and sectarian agitation and rethoric destined to feed the neocon hubris. But this will not last and the neocons will be history in 2008 and Lebanon will be forgotten again...having to offer itself to a less glamorous master...
Some facts about Lebanon published the day Rafiq Hariri died:
Population: 3.7 million
Life expectancy: 72 years
GDP: $17.8bn (£9.4bn) in 2003
GDP per head: $4,800 a year
28% of Lebanese below the poverty line
Source for the above: CIA World Factbook
There are now 65 Billion dollars in Lebanese banks in private accounts and the central bank has 10 billions. 72% of private accounts reflect only 4,3% of the total volume of money deposits while 9,2% of private accounts possess 82,7% of total money deposits. In other words, there is money in Lebanon but it is not for everyone and certainly not for the state, it is only for the privileged few.
29.1.07
Arabophobia and Islamophobia: Quote of the Day
''''I actually believe that Arabs are feigning outrage when they protest what they call American (or Israeli) "atrocities." They are not shocked at all by what in truth must seem to them not atrocious at all. It is routine in their cultures. That comparison shouldn't comfort us as Americans. We have higher standards of civilization than they do. But the mutilation of bodies and beheadings of people picked up at random in
Yes, I know, I know, Islam is a peaceful religion. But peace does not rule in the world of Islam.''
Note that the author does not make a difference between Arabs and Muslims. The author does not know that one Muslim out of five lives in southeast Asia, outside the Arab world. The country with the biggest Muslim community is outside the Arab world (India)...Ignorance about Islam is pervasive in the US...
P.S. A reader wrote in the comment section that the biggest Muslim community in the world is in Indonesia. The official known figures are 174 millions for India (2001 census) and 210 millions from a 2004 census in Indonesia. Thanks Kisimak.
The Problem with US 'Experts' on the Middle East
''People like him are taken as experts on the Middle East only because they are fanatic about their advocacy for Israel US Israel
27.1.07
Anti Iraq War Protest Pictures
The protest was held today in washington DC. Tens of thousands attended. The call for the protest was launched by United for peace and Justice.P.S. To the zionist from Israel who left a comment on my previous post I tell him: Israel is responsible for this war also. How does this fit into his narrative about Muslims who hate the US and Israel as the only friend of the US ?
How The Israel Lobby Operates in the US: A Practical Example
I found this link on Angry Arab this morning. I was just telling my husband over a breakfast made of Chocolat chaud aztèque and Lebanese pastries (Maamoul)* that one thing is puzzling me in the Bush presidency: not once the citizens of the US or their representatives asked this man what has he done for his country and for its citizens during his six year presidency ? The answer is Nothing. Nada.
But when I read this article I understood a little better why Bush has done nothing for his country. The Bush presidency, more than any other, and because of the influence of the Neocons, was dedicated to Israel and its colonialist hegemonic policies in the ME at the expense of the citizens of the US. It has always been like that but Bush really forgot that there are citizens after all in the country he presides over, except when it comes to sending troops to attack a country that never posed any threat to the US. I was dismayed to read how the Israel lobby operates inside washington in ways not even accessible to US citizens, except big money of course.
I mean how could elected representatives sell themselves to a foreign power and feed its greed on the expense of their own citizens ?
''The pro-Israel lobby does most of its work without publicity. But every member of Congress and every would-be candidate for Congress comes to quickly understand a basic lesson. Money needed to run for office can come with great ease from supporters of Israel, provided that the candidate makes certain promises, in writing, to vote favorably on issues considered important to Israel. What drives much of congressional support for Israel is fear – fear that the pro-Israel lobby will either withhold campaign contributions or give money to one's opponent.''
*Not a breakfast recommended for dieting but it is minus 18 here in Canada, felt as minus 27 with the windshill, it gives some extra calories to go outside.
But when I read this article I understood a little better why Bush has done nothing for his country. The Bush presidency, more than any other, and because of the influence of the Neocons, was dedicated to Israel and its colonialist hegemonic policies in the ME at the expense of the citizens of the US. It has always been like that but Bush really forgot that there are citizens after all in the country he presides over, except when it comes to sending troops to attack a country that never posed any threat to the US. I was dismayed to read how the Israel lobby operates inside washington in ways not even accessible to US citizens, except big money of course.
I mean how could elected representatives sell themselves to a foreign power and feed its greed on the expense of their own citizens ?
''The pro-Israel lobby does most of its work without publicity. But every member of Congress and every would-be candidate for Congress comes to quickly understand a basic lesson. Money needed to run for office can come with great ease from supporters of Israel, provided that the candidate makes certain promises, in writing, to vote favorably on issues considered important to Israel. What drives much of congressional support for Israel is fear – fear that the pro-Israel lobby will either withhold campaign contributions or give money to one's opponent.''
*Not a breakfast recommended for dieting but it is minus 18 here in Canada, felt as minus 27 with the windshill, it gives some extra calories to go outside.
25.1.07
Israel tries to cut off Tehran from world markets
Décidément, c'est le monde à l'envers !
From The Guardian:
''Israel is launching a campaign to isolate Iran economically and to soften up world opinion for the option of a military strike aimed at crippling or delaying Tehran's uranium enrichment programme.
Pressure will be applied to major US pension funds to stop investment in about 70 companies that trade directly with Iran, and to international banks that trade with its oil sector, cutting off the country's access to hard currency. The aim is to isolate Tehran from the world markets in a campaign similar to that against South Africa at the height of apartheid.''
Read The Osterley Times comments on this article.
From The Guardian:
''Israel is launching a campaign to isolate Iran economically and to soften up world opinion for the option of a military strike aimed at crippling or delaying Tehran's uranium enrichment programme.
Pressure will be applied to major US pension funds to stop investment in about 70 companies that trade directly with Iran, and to international banks that trade with its oil sector, cutting off the country's access to hard currency. The aim is to isolate Tehran from the world markets in a campaign similar to that against South Africa at the height of apartheid.''
Read The Osterley Times comments on this article.
Galloway On Sanyura
The Osterley Times has posted this video in which George Galloway, the famous British MP, relates an encounter with Fouad Sanyura just after the last Israeli agression on Lebanon. The video is less than 2 minutes, it is funny and it tells a lot about Sanyura...
24.1.07
Opposition Protests In Lebanon and the Paris III Conference: When the Global Economy Comes to the Rescue of the Bush Doctrine
Look at this picture, taken from Le Monde, showing the political forces in presence in Lebanon as well as the communities they represent. It si clear that Sanyura's government is not representative of the Lebanese people. But will western governments understand this fact ?The street protests of yesterday, accompanied by a general strike and lead by the opposition forces to Sanyura's government (A majority of the shias and a sizeable part of the Christians, as well as part of the Sunni and the Druze communities), have paralysed the country and resulted in the killing of five people and the wounding of more than hundred others. Although they may appear as having abruptly ended, they were meant to give a clear signal to western governments that their puppet government, the government of Fouad Sanyura and of the March 14th movement, does not control the country. But I am afraid western governments will not understand the signal.
What should western governments do if they were really commited to democracy in the middle east (commitment termed usually as the 'Bush Doctrine'*) ? They should call for early elections in Lebanon, with or without a newly crafted electoral law. The present electoral law was designed by the Syrians to give electoral majority to their old allies in Lebanon, Jumblatt, Hariri, and the Lebanese forces, those who are sitting in the Sanyura government now and call themselves anti-Syrian forces. Everybody recognises - including Sanyura himself who promised the opposition to change the electoral law, and later retracted - that the elections that gave way to the present government were made hastily after the Syrian withdrawal. The 2005 parliamentary elections were held less than two months after the Syrian withdrawal and were the first legislative elections to take place in 30 years in the absence of the Syrian military presence - given also the fact that during the 15 year civil war (1975-1990) there were no elections. But western governments are not committed to democracy in the Middle East. They are committed to maintaining submissive regimes and puppet head of governments and states. So the Paris conference, falsely called the Aid conference for Lebanon, while it is really made to impose on the puppet Lebanese government IMF's unsuccessful old practices in Latin American economies like in Argentina, will give money to a minority government, assorted with conditions that the present Lebanese economy will not be able to meet. The reason this government will not be able to meet the conditions for the economic reforms required by the 'aid' are obvious; absence of legitimacy to implement reforms, corruption of the political elite who is in the government, political instability, and extreme damage of infrastructure made during the last July agression on Lebanon.
The 'aid', if given in these circumstances, will harden the authoritarian stance of the Sanyura government because, having international creditors, he will feel protected by these creditors who trusted him with the task to implement the economic reforms and the return of investment on the money. Moreover, in this country riddled by corruption, it will concentrate the money in the hands of the few who are in the government and their protégés. This will not be money for the lebanese economy, neither for the Lebanese as a people, this will be the money of a clique who is more a militia than a government and who will rule Lebanon with the brutal authority given to it by international creditors, ignoring the legitimate demands of the opposition forces - as it is doing now - and the aspirations of the Lebanese people.
It is plainly obvious that lending to the Sanyura government is foreign political interference disguised under the banner of economic reforms and aid. Because, in the present climate of political instability in Lebanon, no reasonable investor would lend money to such an embattled government if it wasn't for political gain. The end result will be to take the country and its inhabitants as hostages to foreign investors, later justifying a more active military foreign interference to support the already embattled government.
Link to the document on economic reforms prepared by the Sanyura government for the paris III conference and rejected by the opposition. Taken from French Eagle.
* What lies at the heart of the Bush Doctrine is military intervention in foreign countries in order to install puppet governments, whenever the interests of the US and Israel are at stake. Look at Arab government and rulers who have the blessings of the Bush Doctrine: The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Sanyura's government, and so on...These are called 'moderates' by Bush and Rice. Extremism is not what Bush pretends 'They hate our freedoms' but rather 'They want their freedom from US' (to quote Robert Fisk) and from Israel.
18.1.07
Angry Arab's Canadian tour: The Middle East between History and Narratives
I started reading Angry Arab's blog early in 2005. I was planning to visit Lebanon in the following summer after 24 years of absence, many hesitations, and a reluctance to confront my painful memories of the six years I witnessed of the civil war between 1975 and 1981. The year 2005 was throwing Lebanon again in a new phase of instability where divergent forces were going to reclaim their share of power in the new equation prompted by the assassination of Hariri. That's not a civil war proper but a state close to civil war with the usual information manipulation. One thing I learned during the civil war in Lebanon was that official news channels cannot be trusted. Very early, and that's the only positive thing the Lebanese civil war infused in me, I started doing comparative reading of news sources and judge for myself.
When I started checking regularly and on a daily basis Lebanon news in 2005, I found in Angry Arab's blog an independant spirit behind the news with a high level of political and social consciousness and a touch of iconoclastic irony. When I heard that professor As'ad Abukhalil, the man behind Angry Arab, was coming to Canada to speak on the last Lebanese war I was determined to listen to what he will have to say on the subject, even though I am familiar with his blog. The nearest location for me to listen to his talk was Ottawa where I work and live part of the week.
The reason I am writing a critical account of his talk is that professor Abukhalil did offer something new, something you won't find on his blog. It wasn't only political commentary, neither a pure academic talk with the historical, social and political perspectives intertwined. It was, in my opinion, a project, an intellectual project for Lebanon and the Middle East. That's really new because what most people, even his admirers, hold against Angry Arab is that he only criticises but never offers prospective solutions for the problems he mentions. That's particularly crucial for the Israeli-Arab conflict because our generation, Abukhalil's and mine, is starting to despair about seeing any solution to the conflict in its lifetime. I didn't find Abukhalil particularly desperate, neither angry. He spoke calmly looking at the audience, and only rarely glancing at his notes, for about an hour before taking every question in the room.
'The Israeli War on Lebanon: Causes and Consequences'.
At the start of his talk he insisted on the importance of a background story for the Israeli-Lebanese war and on the fact that this background is unknown to most people in the west. But this is not everybody's background. The one he is proposing is enmeshed in a Narrative. Abukhalil's talk will be an attempt at constructing this Narrative, not only as a rallying story with which many Arabs can identify but also as an explanatory paradigm for the Israeli-Arab conflict. I want to elaborate here on the importance of a Narrative and why this proposal constitutes in my opinion a positive project for us Arabs, Lebanese and Palestinians. Suddenly it appeared to me that there is no unifying Narrative for the Israeli-Arab conflict on the side of Arabs, Palestinians, and Lebanese, let alone in western media. The Narrative of this long history of suffering that is Palestinian history and ours is fragmented while the zionist Narrative, the Narrative of our ennemies, is unified and multiple at the same time. The fact also that the west had adopted the zionist narratives renders the making of ours even more difficult because we are always faced with the narratives of the Other and defined by them. That's a normal outcome for colonised populations, one might aknowledge, but what is not normal is the absence of our will to adopt an opposing Narrative. All we do, as Arabs, is react to the zionist narratives and let ourselves be defined by them.
According to Narrative Theory and Personal Identity main contributor, Paul Ricoeur, we can view a narration on the self in two complementary ways: an abstract representation of who we are, resulting from our interactions with others, and a reflexive dynamic construction of the Self, through time and space, also resulting from our interactions with others and our actions in the real world. This is where History differs from a Narrative. History retains only what is externally recognised as 'obejctive' components of a story; facts and their relations, causes and consequences. A Narrative contains much more; it contains not only past facts about ourselves but current and future facts about ourselves within the dynamic construction of our identity as a population. A Narrative is an ongoing story about ourselves and who we are, bridging the past with the present and the future. The most important feature of a Narrative of a conflict is the beginning. The zionist Narrative has marked the beginning of the Israeli-Arab conflict at the Israeli-Arab war of 1967. Gone are 1948 and the dispossession of the Paletsinian land, the massacres and the tragedies of Palestinians sent to Arab countries to live in refugee camps, in which they still live until today. The zionist Narrative decided that the beginning of the latest Israeli agression on Lebanon is due to the rise of Iranian influence and Hezbollah. Gone are the invasions by the thousands of Lebanese land since the 1950s and the continual destruction of the traditional agrarian societies in south Lebanon. Gone are the savage invasion of 1982, the occupation of Beyrouth and the massacres of Sabra and Chatila. Gone are the meddling in Lebanese politics and the installation in 1982 of a puppet president in Lebanon to sign a peace agreement with Israel on its own terms...During all these events, Hezbollah was non existent as a political and military entity. And each time the official zionist Narrative changes the beginning of a story, it escapes accountability issues and do not deal with contradictions because contradictions exist inside one Narrative and not between narratives. Zionist narratives for the Israeli-Arab conflict have abounded, and with their propaganda machine, they were able to insert themselves in the western minds. However, despite being multiple and different, these narratives have some constant features, claims Abukhalil; they always portray Arabs and Palestinians in a negative way. From the non existing, to the barbarians of the desert, to present day Islamo-fascists and terrorists, Arabs have been defined, and they never tried to define themselves outside pure reactions to these clichés. Either they were intimidated by these definitions and they shy from it to the extent some Arabs living in the west deny being actually Arabs, or they try to please and be submissive. We have this syndrome in Lebanon where part of the population claims to descend from the Phoenicians. Better choose distant glorious relatives than close present day pariahs.
How to explain then the causes of the latest Israeli war on Lebanon ? The rise of Iranian influence in the region ? No, explains Abukhalil. Although Iran is certainly trying to buy some influence in the region and to raise its profile as a leader among Arabs. An over reaction to the capture of two soldiers ? No, this cannot be true because in the past, Israel used to negociate for its captured soldiers. And a reaction does not last 33 days. Is it a planned war from Washington, as some suggested ? Yes and No. There was probably some planning and coordination between the two states but the latest Israeli agression on Lebanon is one in a series of agressions that started with the foundation of Israel and were not restricted to one Arab state, one time, one event, one specific cause. The Israeli state displaced palestinians and, more than sixty years later, still fight them. It invaded Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, bombed Iraq and now wants to bomb Iran. Regional hegemony, colonialist attitude, and a desire to dictate terms of agreement on Arab states, are the major drive of Israeli regional policy, and these features are within the zionist project. Zionism was born with them. Therefore, the latest Israeli agression on Lebanon, Hezbollah or not, is not the first, and will not be the last.
After the talk, many people from the audience were eager to know how to disentangle the problem ? Abukhalil offered hope in the form of a citation taken from Antonio Gramsci and mentioned often by Edward Said: 'Pessimism of the spirit, Optimism of the will'.
Presently, with corrupt Arab governments, Arabs need a lot of will.
Let us not be defined by zionist narratives, it is time to construct one for ourselves. A Narrative should be constructed first by not forgetting the past, building on it, choosing a defining moment in the past. This defining moment is the end of European colonialism, after more than 500 years of Ottoman rule. This is a unifying moment in the history of Arab countries, when Arabs must have started their wars of liberation and modernisation, but were prevented from doing so by a new ferocious colonial power. This new colonial power was helped by some already existent Arab puppet rulers who were only preoccupied by their privileges. These rulers agreed to the Balfour declaration and, in exchange, were given by the British free hands in the fertile crescent including Palestine. The aborted 'decolonisation' is the defining moment of our counterzionist Narrative.
A Narrative also is a place where our actions are told, positive and heroic actions, not actions of submission, cowardice, and betrayal against our own people, and certainly not actions of terrorism à la Bin laden, and not actions of suicide bombings. We desperately need heroic actions, resistance actions. The resisatnce and resilience of the Palestinian people, the successive success of Hezbollah and Lebanese progressive forces against Israel, social and political reforms in Arab countries, are actions that can be the pillars of our Narrative. Also, fighting Anti-semitism and helping any just cause in the rest of the world, building networks of solidarity and hope and working toward implementing multireligious, multiethnic societies in the Arab world where freedom of religion is granted and individuals rights are guarded by a secular state.
This is our task, and this should be our destiny and our Narrative if we want History to remember us positively. And how History will remember us will be the outcome of our Narrative.
When I started checking regularly and on a daily basis Lebanon news in 2005, I found in Angry Arab's blog an independant spirit behind the news with a high level of political and social consciousness and a touch of iconoclastic irony. When I heard that professor As'ad Abukhalil, the man behind Angry Arab, was coming to Canada to speak on the last Lebanese war I was determined to listen to what he will have to say on the subject, even though I am familiar with his blog. The nearest location for me to listen to his talk was Ottawa where I work and live part of the week.
The reason I am writing a critical account of his talk is that professor Abukhalil did offer something new, something you won't find on his blog. It wasn't only political commentary, neither a pure academic talk with the historical, social and political perspectives intertwined. It was, in my opinion, a project, an intellectual project for Lebanon and the Middle East. That's really new because what most people, even his admirers, hold against Angry Arab is that he only criticises but never offers prospective solutions for the problems he mentions. That's particularly crucial for the Israeli-Arab conflict because our generation, Abukhalil's and mine, is starting to despair about seeing any solution to the conflict in its lifetime. I didn't find Abukhalil particularly desperate, neither angry. He spoke calmly looking at the audience, and only rarely glancing at his notes, for about an hour before taking every question in the room.
'The Israeli War on Lebanon: Causes and Consequences'.
At the start of his talk he insisted on the importance of a background story for the Israeli-Lebanese war and on the fact that this background is unknown to most people in the west. But this is not everybody's background. The one he is proposing is enmeshed in a Narrative. Abukhalil's talk will be an attempt at constructing this Narrative, not only as a rallying story with which many Arabs can identify but also as an explanatory paradigm for the Israeli-Arab conflict. I want to elaborate here on the importance of a Narrative and why this proposal constitutes in my opinion a positive project for us Arabs, Lebanese and Palestinians. Suddenly it appeared to me that there is no unifying Narrative for the Israeli-Arab conflict on the side of Arabs, Palestinians, and Lebanese, let alone in western media. The Narrative of this long history of suffering that is Palestinian history and ours is fragmented while the zionist Narrative, the Narrative of our ennemies, is unified and multiple at the same time. The fact also that the west had adopted the zionist narratives renders the making of ours even more difficult because we are always faced with the narratives of the Other and defined by them. That's a normal outcome for colonised populations, one might aknowledge, but what is not normal is the absence of our will to adopt an opposing Narrative. All we do, as Arabs, is react to the zionist narratives and let ourselves be defined by them.
According to Narrative Theory and Personal Identity main contributor, Paul Ricoeur, we can view a narration on the self in two complementary ways: an abstract representation of who we are, resulting from our interactions with others, and a reflexive dynamic construction of the Self, through time and space, also resulting from our interactions with others and our actions in the real world. This is where History differs from a Narrative. History retains only what is externally recognised as 'obejctive' components of a story; facts and their relations, causes and consequences. A Narrative contains much more; it contains not only past facts about ourselves but current and future facts about ourselves within the dynamic construction of our identity as a population. A Narrative is an ongoing story about ourselves and who we are, bridging the past with the present and the future. The most important feature of a Narrative of a conflict is the beginning. The zionist Narrative has marked the beginning of the Israeli-Arab conflict at the Israeli-Arab war of 1967. Gone are 1948 and the dispossession of the Paletsinian land, the massacres and the tragedies of Palestinians sent to Arab countries to live in refugee camps, in which they still live until today. The zionist Narrative decided that the beginning of the latest Israeli agression on Lebanon is due to the rise of Iranian influence and Hezbollah. Gone are the invasions by the thousands of Lebanese land since the 1950s and the continual destruction of the traditional agrarian societies in south Lebanon. Gone are the savage invasion of 1982, the occupation of Beyrouth and the massacres of Sabra and Chatila. Gone are the meddling in Lebanese politics and the installation in 1982 of a puppet president in Lebanon to sign a peace agreement with Israel on its own terms...During all these events, Hezbollah was non existent as a political and military entity. And each time the official zionist Narrative changes the beginning of a story, it escapes accountability issues and do not deal with contradictions because contradictions exist inside one Narrative and not between narratives. Zionist narratives for the Israeli-Arab conflict have abounded, and with their propaganda machine, they were able to insert themselves in the western minds. However, despite being multiple and different, these narratives have some constant features, claims Abukhalil; they always portray Arabs and Palestinians in a negative way. From the non existing, to the barbarians of the desert, to present day Islamo-fascists and terrorists, Arabs have been defined, and they never tried to define themselves outside pure reactions to these clichés. Either they were intimidated by these definitions and they shy from it to the extent some Arabs living in the west deny being actually Arabs, or they try to please and be submissive. We have this syndrome in Lebanon where part of the population claims to descend from the Phoenicians. Better choose distant glorious relatives than close present day pariahs.
How to explain then the causes of the latest Israeli war on Lebanon ? The rise of Iranian influence in the region ? No, explains Abukhalil. Although Iran is certainly trying to buy some influence in the region and to raise its profile as a leader among Arabs. An over reaction to the capture of two soldiers ? No, this cannot be true because in the past, Israel used to negociate for its captured soldiers. And a reaction does not last 33 days. Is it a planned war from Washington, as some suggested ? Yes and No. There was probably some planning and coordination between the two states but the latest Israeli agression on Lebanon is one in a series of agressions that started with the foundation of Israel and were not restricted to one Arab state, one time, one event, one specific cause. The Israeli state displaced palestinians and, more than sixty years later, still fight them. It invaded Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, bombed Iraq and now wants to bomb Iran. Regional hegemony, colonialist attitude, and a desire to dictate terms of agreement on Arab states, are the major drive of Israeli regional policy, and these features are within the zionist project. Zionism was born with them. Therefore, the latest Israeli agression on Lebanon, Hezbollah or not, is not the first, and will not be the last.
After the talk, many people from the audience were eager to know how to disentangle the problem ? Abukhalil offered hope in the form of a citation taken from Antonio Gramsci and mentioned often by Edward Said: 'Pessimism of the spirit, Optimism of the will'.
Presently, with corrupt Arab governments, Arabs need a lot of will.
Let us not be defined by zionist narratives, it is time to construct one for ourselves. A Narrative should be constructed first by not forgetting the past, building on it, choosing a defining moment in the past. This defining moment is the end of European colonialism, after more than 500 years of Ottoman rule. This is a unifying moment in the history of Arab countries, when Arabs must have started their wars of liberation and modernisation, but were prevented from doing so by a new ferocious colonial power. This new colonial power was helped by some already existent Arab puppet rulers who were only preoccupied by their privileges. These rulers agreed to the Balfour declaration and, in exchange, were given by the British free hands in the fertile crescent including Palestine. The aborted 'decolonisation' is the defining moment of our counterzionist Narrative.
A Narrative also is a place where our actions are told, positive and heroic actions, not actions of submission, cowardice, and betrayal against our own people, and certainly not actions of terrorism à la Bin laden, and not actions of suicide bombings. We desperately need heroic actions, resistance actions. The resisatnce and resilience of the Palestinian people, the successive success of Hezbollah and Lebanese progressive forces against Israel, social and political reforms in Arab countries, are actions that can be the pillars of our Narrative. Also, fighting Anti-semitism and helping any just cause in the rest of the world, building networks of solidarity and hope and working toward implementing multireligious, multiethnic societies in the Arab world where freedom of religion is granted and individuals rights are guarded by a secular state.
This is our task, and this should be our destiny and our Narrative if we want History to remember us positively. And how History will remember us will be the outcome of our Narrative.
17.1.07
'A Time Comes When Silence is Betrayal'
This was true of Vietnam in 1967. It is true today of Palestine, of Iraq, of Lebanon, and of many many other tragedies provoked by the disastrous foreign policy of the US toward Middle Eastern and Muslim countries...
Listen to the powerful speech of Martin Luther King on breaking the silence on Vietnam.
Thanks to Elizabeth for highlighting, on her blog, the speech and the actual political context, 40 years later.
Listen to the powerful speech of Martin Luther King on breaking the silence on Vietnam.
Thanks to Elizabeth for highlighting, on her blog, the speech and the actual political context, 40 years later.
16.1.07
Political Assassinations in Lebanon: Truth And Consequences
The UN Inquiry on the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri and other political assassinations in Lebanon is stumbling on the unwillingness of ten countries to collaborate. Collaboration with the inquiry was a number one requirement in all UN resolutions concerning the inquiry. The head commissioner, Serge Brammertz, did not publish the names of the countries who won't collaborate, but speculations are running high since the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Tchourkine, asked for the divulgation of the names.
Rafiq Hariri was killed on a Valentine day, February 14th, in Beyrouth, after 'supposedly' a car exploded near his convoy. There is no final official report about the assassination since Brammertz's predecessor, Detlev Mehlis, was discharged after his line of inquiry collapsed in a serie of false and fabricated testimonies which were the only 'proofs' he had produced accusing Syria of the assassination. Syria's army left Lebanon after a public and international outrage at the assassination designated the Syrians as prime suspects. The follow-up to this event was an election victory of the March 14th movement led by Hariri son and Walid Jumblatt as well as other pro-US political movements in Lebanon. However, the March 14th movement is, since then, unable to overcome the dwindling of its political support inside Lebanon resulting from its inability to build consensus and from the fact that most Lebanese see the movement as accomplice of the latest July Israeli agression which was overtly supported by March 14th's western political mentors, the US and the UK.
While not mentioning the names of the countries not collaborating with the inquiry, Brammertz declared being totally satisfied with the Syrian collaboration. On his blog, Alain Gresh, a 'Le Monde Diplomatique' correspondant and specialist of the Middle East, reveals the names of some of these uncooperative countries as published on January 12th by the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, a daily seen as close to the Lebanese opposition. They are:
The US who have satellite pictures of the assassination;
Israel who has pictures taken before and after the assassination by its spy planes continously flying over Lebanon;
France who detains a suspect, Mohammed Said Saddik, who made a false testimony to the first UN inquiry headed by Mehlis;
Among other countries mentioned by the Lebanese daily are Germany, Saudi Arabia, Koweit, Australia, UAE, and Brazil.
It is known to these countries that:
The site of the assassination had undergone a 'cleanup' before any evidence gathering;
The first UN inquiry was marred by the lack of professionalism and lack of neutrality on Mehlis's part;
Precious time was lost for collecting and analysing the evidence;
Other politicians and prominent figures died since Hariri was killed, they all are related to the March 14th movement, and their assassinations prompted, eache time, accusations against Syria;
These political assassinations were included by the UN in the mandate of the commission at the demand of the Lebanese state;
Given that Brammertz was making progress and briefing the UN along the way to the point some assume that the change of method in the latest assassination in Lebanon (that of Pierre Gemayyel) was propably prompted by informations on Brammertz's progress and a will to derail the inquiry, one may wonder why these countries, who are all supporting the corrupt pro-US Lebanese government of Fouad Sanyura, won't help a honest inquiry into a series of assassinations that destabilised Lebanon and brought it to the edge of a new civil war ?
Ironically, the March 14th movement and its accolytes had the word 'Truth' as a main slogan on their protest banners (Haqiqa, in Arabic).
Rafiq Hariri was killed on a Valentine day, February 14th, in Beyrouth, after 'supposedly' a car exploded near his convoy. There is no final official report about the assassination since Brammertz's predecessor, Detlev Mehlis, was discharged after his line of inquiry collapsed in a serie of false and fabricated testimonies which were the only 'proofs' he had produced accusing Syria of the assassination. Syria's army left Lebanon after a public and international outrage at the assassination designated the Syrians as prime suspects. The follow-up to this event was an election victory of the March 14th movement led by Hariri son and Walid Jumblatt as well as other pro-US political movements in Lebanon. However, the March 14th movement is, since then, unable to overcome the dwindling of its political support inside Lebanon resulting from its inability to build consensus and from the fact that most Lebanese see the movement as accomplice of the latest July Israeli agression which was overtly supported by March 14th's western political mentors, the US and the UK.
While not mentioning the names of the countries not collaborating with the inquiry, Brammertz declared being totally satisfied with the Syrian collaboration. On his blog, Alain Gresh, a 'Le Monde Diplomatique' correspondant and specialist of the Middle East, reveals the names of some of these uncooperative countries as published on January 12th by the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, a daily seen as close to the Lebanese opposition. They are:
The US who have satellite pictures of the assassination;
Israel who has pictures taken before and after the assassination by its spy planes continously flying over Lebanon;
France who detains a suspect, Mohammed Said Saddik, who made a false testimony to the first UN inquiry headed by Mehlis;
Among other countries mentioned by the Lebanese daily are Germany, Saudi Arabia, Koweit, Australia, UAE, and Brazil.
It is known to these countries that:
The site of the assassination had undergone a 'cleanup' before any evidence gathering;
The first UN inquiry was marred by the lack of professionalism and lack of neutrality on Mehlis's part;
Precious time was lost for collecting and analysing the evidence;
Other politicians and prominent figures died since Hariri was killed, they all are related to the March 14th movement, and their assassinations prompted, eache time, accusations against Syria;
These political assassinations were included by the UN in the mandate of the commission at the demand of the Lebanese state;
Given that Brammertz was making progress and briefing the UN along the way to the point some assume that the change of method in the latest assassination in Lebanon (that of Pierre Gemayyel) was propably prompted by informations on Brammertz's progress and a will to derail the inquiry, one may wonder why these countries, who are all supporting the corrupt pro-US Lebanese government of Fouad Sanyura, won't help a honest inquiry into a series of assassinations that destabilised Lebanon and brought it to the edge of a new civil war ?
Ironically, the March 14th movement and its accolytes had the word 'Truth' as a main slogan on their protest banners (Haqiqa, in Arabic).
13.1.07
Francis Fukuyama: 2008 And the End of NeoCons History
In an interview with Le Monde's Daniel Vernet, Francis Fukuyama, the Author of 'The End of History', contends that forces of moderation and realists inside the Republican and the Democratic parties are already operating center stage in Washington and that the only obstacle to a real change in policy concerning Iraq is in the American constitution that gives full power to the president when it comes to foreign policy. The only way opponents to Bush's foreign policy can act is through a vote on the budget but here again, Fukuyama explains, politicians are reluctant to vote against sending support to the army out of fear of being labeled as anti-patriotic. And he concludes that we must wait until 2008 in order to see a real foreign policy change in Washington.
Here is an excerpt from the interview translated from French:
Q: Is the ''New Strategy'' of president Bush for Iraq really new or is it just the same old policy in a different form ?
F.F: It is the old strategy applied, this time, to a new situation. This is why it is not going to work. The assumption that drives this strategy is that we have in Baghdad a democratic government, beyond religious sectarianism, which is being attacked by forces representing the diverging interests of diverse religious sects. The official objective is that we have to militaryly support this government. One can see that this line of thinking is erroneous. Maliki's government is part of the religious sectarian conflict. It represents communities struggling to achieve domination in the balance of power in Iraq. The hidden objective of the new plan for Iraq is to defeat the clan of Moqtada Al-Sadr. Here again the problem is that Al-Sadr clan represents the most powerful community in Iraq. It is very difficult to inflict a military defeat on a sizeable part of the population.
Q: Do you consider what is going on in Iraq as a civil war ?
F.F: There is a stupid debate going in the US on the technical definition of a civil war. I believe that what we have in Iraq is a multidimensional conflict, a struggle to size power along sectarian religious and ethnic lines.
Q: How do you explain that the president and his advisors seem not to understand the real nature of the conflict ?
F.F: Despite the results of last elections and the critiques targeting this administration, there is an incapacity to recognise reality as it is. One of the most significant moments in this regard was a declaration made by president Bush during a farewell reception given for Rumsfeld's departure from the Pentagon. Bush said at the reception that the invasion of Iraq represented a formidable surge in the history of human freedom. That gives the impression that the president lives in a different world.
Q: Is it ideological blindness ?
F.F: In Bush's last speech, we have all this rethoric taken from WWII like ''There are there democratic forces who are waiting for our help...''
Q: Senator Kennedy said that Iraq was George Bush's Vietnam. Is he right ?
F.F: Yes, in a certain way. Iraq is, without any doubt, the biggest foreign policy disaster since Vietnam.
Q: Liberals, including some American liberals, are making comparisons between Muslim fundamentalism and Communiusm, between the present War on Terror and the Cold War...
F.F: I believe that we have exaggerated the strategic threat of 9/11 and that this was an error. After 9/11, there was only some two to three dozen persons in the whole world capable of conducting terror operations inside the US and ready to do so. The result of our poor management of the aftermath of 9/11 is a self fulfilling prophecy. The parallel made between the present situation and the cold war is dubious. Islam is not comparable to Communism and Muslim fundamentalism is a more complex issue. It is more of a cultural issue than an ideological threat. The political discourse making parallels between Muslim fundamentalism and the Communist threat during the cold war is tailored to mobilise opinions around president Bush's projects and vision, but it represents, at the same time, an obstacle to understand the problems this kind of vision is tackling.
Q: What is the measure of the responsibility of your old friends, the NeoCons, in this vision ? What went wrong in Iraq ? Was it the war itself or the way it was done ? Your last book is titled 'Where the NeoCons come from' but my question is what will become of them ?
F.F: They are still around. They have followers. They also have an influence in this administration. The president consulted with them before announcing his new plan for Iraq to the nation on January 10th. However, I believe that after 2008, their time will be gone. The problem is the war itself. It was certainly poorly managed but the concept in itself is flawed. I am outraged by the fact that this flawed policy is being applied to Lebanon and Iran in the absence of any will to learn from the Iraqi adventure. The NeoCons are pushing for the bombardment of Iran's nuclear sites. This is simply madness.
Q: Do you think the president is going to take the decision to bomb Iran ?
F.F: I heard that Bush is going to do it just to show his determination, despite and against the public opinion.
In the same interview Fukuyama said that only Bush and Lieberman think that the US must bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.
On Bush and reality read The Osterley Times: 'Bush continues to think that he can create his own reality'.
Here is an excerpt from the interview translated from French:
Q: Is the ''New Strategy'' of president Bush for Iraq really new or is it just the same old policy in a different form ?
F.F: It is the old strategy applied, this time, to a new situation. This is why it is not going to work. The assumption that drives this strategy is that we have in Baghdad a democratic government, beyond religious sectarianism, which is being attacked by forces representing the diverging interests of diverse religious sects. The official objective is that we have to militaryly support this government. One can see that this line of thinking is erroneous. Maliki's government is part of the religious sectarian conflict. It represents communities struggling to achieve domination in the balance of power in Iraq. The hidden objective of the new plan for Iraq is to defeat the clan of Moqtada Al-Sadr. Here again the problem is that Al-Sadr clan represents the most powerful community in Iraq. It is very difficult to inflict a military defeat on a sizeable part of the population.
Q: Do you consider what is going on in Iraq as a civil war ?
F.F: There is a stupid debate going in the US on the technical definition of a civil war. I believe that what we have in Iraq is a multidimensional conflict, a struggle to size power along sectarian religious and ethnic lines.
Q: How do you explain that the president and his advisors seem not to understand the real nature of the conflict ?
F.F: Despite the results of last elections and the critiques targeting this administration, there is an incapacity to recognise reality as it is. One of the most significant moments in this regard was a declaration made by president Bush during a farewell reception given for Rumsfeld's departure from the Pentagon. Bush said at the reception that the invasion of Iraq represented a formidable surge in the history of human freedom. That gives the impression that the president lives in a different world.
Q: Is it ideological blindness ?
F.F: In Bush's last speech, we have all this rethoric taken from WWII like ''There are there democratic forces who are waiting for our help...''
Q: Senator Kennedy said that Iraq was George Bush's Vietnam. Is he right ?
F.F: Yes, in a certain way. Iraq is, without any doubt, the biggest foreign policy disaster since Vietnam.
Q: Liberals, including some American liberals, are making comparisons between Muslim fundamentalism and Communiusm, between the present War on Terror and the Cold War...
F.F: I believe that we have exaggerated the strategic threat of 9/11 and that this was an error. After 9/11, there was only some two to three dozen persons in the whole world capable of conducting terror operations inside the US and ready to do so. The result of our poor management of the aftermath of 9/11 is a self fulfilling prophecy. The parallel made between the present situation and the cold war is dubious. Islam is not comparable to Communism and Muslim fundamentalism is a more complex issue. It is more of a cultural issue than an ideological threat. The political discourse making parallels between Muslim fundamentalism and the Communist threat during the cold war is tailored to mobilise opinions around president Bush's projects and vision, but it represents, at the same time, an obstacle to understand the problems this kind of vision is tackling.
Q: What is the measure of the responsibility of your old friends, the NeoCons, in this vision ? What went wrong in Iraq ? Was it the war itself or the way it was done ? Your last book is titled 'Where the NeoCons come from' but my question is what will become of them ?
F.F: They are still around. They have followers. They also have an influence in this administration. The president consulted with them before announcing his new plan for Iraq to the nation on January 10th. However, I believe that after 2008, their time will be gone. The problem is the war itself. It was certainly poorly managed but the concept in itself is flawed. I am outraged by the fact that this flawed policy is being applied to Lebanon and Iran in the absence of any will to learn from the Iraqi adventure. The NeoCons are pushing for the bombardment of Iran's nuclear sites. This is simply madness.
Q: Do you think the president is going to take the decision to bomb Iran ?
F.F: I heard that Bush is going to do it just to show his determination, despite and against the public opinion.
In the same interview Fukuyama said that only Bush and Lieberman think that the US must bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.
On Bush and reality read The Osterley Times: 'Bush continues to think that he can create his own reality'.
12.1.07
The Madrid Conference for the Middle East is Back
The Madrid conference is back, supported this time by private initiatives but with the attendance of many who were in Madrid in 1991; Hanan Ashrawi, Slomo Ben Ami, and the messages of Gorbatchev, James Baker, Bill Clinton, etc...
Read here a first account by Kanishk Tharoor, managing editor of Madrid11/Open Democracy.
Another account in French.
Read here a first account by Kanishk Tharoor, managing editor of Madrid11/Open Democracy.
Another account in French.
Zbigniew Brzezinski on Bush's New plan for Iraq
''The decision to escalate the level of the U.S. military involvement while imposing "benchmarks" on the "sovereign" Iraqi regime, and to emphasize the external threat posed by Syria and Iran, leaves the administration with two options once it becomes clear -- as it almost certainly will -- that the benchmarks are not being met. One option is to adopt the policy of "blame and run": i.e., to withdraw because the Iraqi government failed to deliver. That would not provide a remedy for the dubious "falling dominoes" scenario, which the president so often has outlined as the inevitable, horrific consequence of U.S. withdrawal. The other alternative, perhaps already lurking in the back of Bush's mind, is to widen the conflict by taking military action against Syria or Iran. It is a safe bet that some of the neocons around the president and outside the White House will be pushing for that. Others, such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, may also favor it.''
In Defence of Equal Competing Chances for Conspiracy Theories
I kmow that I am making some eyebrows raise here but, please, before dismissing this post and conspiracy theories alltogether, read Stef at Famous for 15 Megapixels.
I think the problem with the dismissal of conspiracy theories on the events related to 7/7 and 9/11 is that they are dismissed in favour of an official narrative which has all the ingredients of conspiracy theories. So, why adopt one set of conspiracy theories and dismiss the other ?
I think the problem with the dismissal of conspiracy theories on the events related to 7/7 and 9/11 is that they are dismissed in favour of an official narrative which has all the ingredients of conspiracy theories. So, why adopt one set of conspiracy theories and dismiss the other ?
11.1.07
A Voice from Guantanamo's Darkness
Thanks to Candide's Notebooks who highlighted this extract from letters sent to his attorneys by a Guantanamo detainee. Published by the LA Times.
Read here my review of Michael Winterbottom's movie 'The Road to Guantanamo'.
My articles on Torture:
Are We Banalising Torture ?
Torture and Terror: Bush's and Bin Laden's Victories, Everybody Else's Defeat
Read here my review of Michael Winterbottom's movie 'The Road to Guantanamo'.
My articles on Torture:
Are We Banalising Torture ?
Torture and Terror: Bush's and Bin Laden's Victories, Everybody Else's Defeat
10.1.07
This Other America: Part IV, Migrations
During the last day of my stay in Santiago de Cuba, I had the chance to meet third generation Cubans whose grand' parents came from different parts of the late 19th century declining Ottoman empire, in pursuit of the American dream.
Friday
We met Y. in the morning over a breakfast that lasted three hours. She came with family pictures and a drawing of the family tree. She is a third generation half Lebanese. Her grand' father came to Cuba, or to 'America', during the second wave of immigration from lebanon after WWI and the fall of the Ottoman empire. In his book 'Origins' Amin Maalouf writes that, contrary to common beliefs, the great famine of the beginning of the 20th century in Lebanon, brought by clouds of locusts that ravaged the cultures and the fields, was not the major cause of Lebanese immigration. Although, it might have played a role later and prompted a second wave of immigration, the majority of Lebanese had left before, at the end of the 19th century. He attributes the massive Lebanese immigration of late 19th century to the political instability in the Ottoman empire prompted by the revolt of the young turks against Sultan Abdul-Hamid and the subsequent religious persecutions against Christians in the Ottoman empire.
Interestingly, the same day, my husband's Canadian colleague, who is a Jew, and who got to know the local Jewish community during his many trips to Cuba, invited us to celebrate Hannukah with them. We went. It was a fine evening. The community is small, some 65 people, and they all come from the former Ottoman empire. Jews prospered for 500 years in the Ottoman empire fleeing persecutions in Europe. At the end of the 19th century, they were 500000 jews in the empire. It was the Jews of Thessaloniki, in what is now Greece, that inspired the revolt of the young turks against the Sultan at the end of the 19th century. One Jew was even a member of the three committee party of younf turks that annouced the dethronement of Sultan Abdul-Hamid. It is widely known that Turkisk governments inspired by the ideologies of young turks, and not the sultanat per se, conducted actually most of the religious persecutions against Christians in the empire. There was probably resentment from Greek Christian communities against Jews, afterward. This might have led Jewish to leave Turkey because on one hand, there are no known persecutions of Jews by Muslims in the ottoman empire*, and on the other hand, most of the Jews lived in multiethnic, and not purely Islamic areas**, close to Christians. The example that is often given is Thessaloniki.
Maalouf mentions Thessaloniki as a melting pot where jews, Chritians and Muslims lived together and as the place of birth of the new eastern enlightenment. The young turks, as well as Ataturk, were inspired by the spirit of Thessaloniki. One may ask how the reformists of the Ottoman empire, inspired by the enlightenment, could have been held responsible for the ethnic massacres attributed to the Ottoman empire ? One explanation Maalouf gives, and I think it is worth taking into consideration, is attributed to the nationalism of the secularists. He makes a difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism is the love of the country as a land made for all its people. Nationalism is the love of a certain ideal of the country, which is, most of the time, an ethnic ideal. The nationalism of Turkish secularists was prompted by the faltering of the Ottoman empire from threats coming mainly from Europe, the land of Christianity. The more Europe became threatening to the central authority of the empire and the more Chritians living in the center of the empire felt unwelcome. Turkish nationalism was born and its project was ethnical and it was one of withdrawal and reassembly around an ethnic identity within a certain territory defining the nation. And this is how the ethnic persecutions of the late 19th century came to exist in a empire rather historically tolerant toward its ethnic minorities. Many Christian communities resented then Jews because of their prominent role in the young turks movement which was later responsible for their persecutions.
Friday
We met Y. in the morning over a breakfast that lasted three hours. She came with family pictures and a drawing of the family tree. She is a third generation half Lebanese. Her grand' father came to Cuba, or to 'America', during the second wave of immigration from lebanon after WWI and the fall of the Ottoman empire. In his book 'Origins' Amin Maalouf writes that, contrary to common beliefs, the great famine of the beginning of the 20th century in Lebanon, brought by clouds of locusts that ravaged the cultures and the fields, was not the major cause of Lebanese immigration. Although, it might have played a role later and prompted a second wave of immigration, the majority of Lebanese had left before, at the end of the 19th century. He attributes the massive Lebanese immigration of late 19th century to the political instability in the Ottoman empire prompted by the revolt of the young turks against Sultan Abdul-Hamid and the subsequent religious persecutions against Christians in the Ottoman empire.
Interestingly, the same day, my husband's Canadian colleague, who is a Jew, and who got to know the local Jewish community during his many trips to Cuba, invited us to celebrate Hannukah with them. We went. It was a fine evening. The community is small, some 65 people, and they all come from the former Ottoman empire. Jews prospered for 500 years in the Ottoman empire fleeing persecutions in Europe. At the end of the 19th century, they were 500000 jews in the empire. It was the Jews of Thessaloniki, in what is now Greece, that inspired the revolt of the young turks against the Sultan at the end of the 19th century. One Jew was even a member of the three committee party of younf turks that annouced the dethronement of Sultan Abdul-Hamid. It is widely known that Turkisk governments inspired by the ideologies of young turks, and not the sultanat per se, conducted actually most of the religious persecutions against Christians in the empire. There was probably resentment from Greek Christian communities against Jews, afterward. This might have led Jewish to leave Turkey because on one hand, there are no known persecutions of Jews by Muslims in the ottoman empire*, and on the other hand, most of the Jews lived in multiethnic, and not purely Islamic areas**, close to Christians. The example that is often given is Thessaloniki.
Maalouf mentions Thessaloniki as a melting pot where jews, Chritians and Muslims lived together and as the place of birth of the new eastern enlightenment. The young turks, as well as Ataturk, were inspired by the spirit of Thessaloniki. One may ask how the reformists of the Ottoman empire, inspired by the enlightenment, could have been held responsible for the ethnic massacres attributed to the Ottoman empire ? One explanation Maalouf gives, and I think it is worth taking into consideration, is attributed to the nationalism of the secularists. He makes a difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism is the love of the country as a land made for all its people. Nationalism is the love of a certain ideal of the country, which is, most of the time, an ethnic ideal. The nationalism of Turkish secularists was prompted by the faltering of the Ottoman empire from threats coming mainly from Europe, the land of Christianity. The more Europe became threatening to the central authority of the empire and the more Chritians living in the center of the empire felt unwelcome. Turkish nationalism was born and its project was ethnical and it was one of withdrawal and reassembly around an ethnic identity within a certain territory defining the nation. And this is how the ethnic persecutions of the late 19th century came to exist in a empire rather historically tolerant toward its ethnic minorities. Many Christian communities resented then Jews because of their prominent role in the young turks movement which was later responsible for their persecutions.
At the same time, tensions between religious communities rose in the empire. There were massacres against Chritians in Lebanon, and many lebanese felt unsecure in the political instability. That was one reason for them to leave, and they left, preferably, for countries where their religion was accepted. this is why most of the immigration of that period was to Latin America and Cuba where Catholicism is dominant. Maalouf, while searching the history of his family in Cuba, was helped by a recently published book (1999) on Arab components in Cuban culture (Componentes Arabes en la cultura Cubana). There is not one province in Cuba that does not have citizens originating from the near eastern part of Ottoman empire. My own grand'parents lived, had children, prospered, and made a small fortune in Cardenas in the province of Matanzas, for 14 years before returning to Lebanon.
Maalouf's evaluation of the most intense period of Lebanese immigration to 'America' derives from his analysis of the correspondance between his grand'father with his brother in Cuba at the end of the 19th century, and from other family documents. It is however a scholarly informed evaluation.
Y's grand father left Lebanon for Cuba just after the first world war, as did his brothers for other destinations in 'America', except one who stayed in Lebanon. At the end of WWI, Lebanese have already witnessed the faltering of the Ottoman empire, ethnic massacres, a famine, and the crash of a 500 years Ottoman rule and social order. This is when my own grand'parents left also. Apart her family name, Y. does not seem to hold in her any trace of Lebanon and Lebanese identity. She does not speak the language, does not know the history and did not seem to be much interested in what happened to the country since her grand'father left. Y. descends from the second marriage of her grand'father to a Cuban woman, her grand'father had a son from his first marriage to a Lebanese woman who died, and this branch of the family lives in Havana. She, her siblings, and her mother, keep also in touch with a cousin who live in Colombia. Her grand'father died in 1990 and they still keep his original passport, the one with which he left Lebanon for Cuba, but she could not show it to me, it is with her mother who lives in the province of Las Tunas. In 1995, the only brother of her grand'father, who stayed in Lebanon, died (they were 7 siblings in the family) , and the colombian cousin traveled to Lebanon to collect the inheritance. It might have been a relatively large one because the grand'children received something like 1500 dollars each.
Y's family history could have been mine except that my grand' parents left Cuba with all their children in 1934, returned to Lebanon with a small fortune and bought the land of other members of the family who stayed in 'America', a land we still keep until today and a land that my father does not want to sell. It is for this land, to administer it and to keep a careful eye on it, that my grand'mother, the real business manager of the family, even when the family was in Cuba, removed her oldest son, my father, who was a young man at the time, from school. He loved school and excelled in it. I know this very well because I did my high school years in Lebanon under the watch of the man who was my father's teacher, and I was always reminded of the excellence of my father. My father never forgave his mother for this but developped, against his own dislike for the whole enterprise, an infinite love for the land. He used to tell me that when he was young, he would very often enter into bitter arguments with his mother and take refuge in a book under the shade of an olive tree in the fields, sometimes sleeping there for the night.
When I was a child I felt all this. Children have the ability to feel hidden and well repressed emotions because they focuse only on this, their survival and well being depend on this; on their ability to make themselves objects of love and affection and to detect both within the people who surround them. I felt the bitterness in my father toward his mother and, contrary to my grand'father, who was a sweet dreamer, and with whom I remember many tender moments, I never remember such a moment with my grand'mother. I remember however opposing my grand'mother on everything with force to an extent beyond any Lebanese family standards for polite children, having to incur the reprobation of my mother but with the implicit agreement of my father. As long as my father was approving, I could be against the whole world, and even against my grand'mother, his own mother.
Siblings to my grand'parents are a bit everywhere in the 'Americas'. My father kept contact with many of them, especially in Argentina and Mexico, through letters written in Spanish. We never learned Spanish, my father did not want us to learn it. It was his secret garden and he would never allow anybody to enter his secret garden, not even me. The civil war in Lebanon, the now advanced age of my father, and our inability to read and write Spanish, all contributed to a loss of contact with my father's cousins in the 'Americas'. It is only very recently and at the prospect of my travel to Cuba that I made an effort to learn Spanish.
I looked at Y. Tomorrow we will be leaving Santiago to spend a week in Havana. I just loved Cuba and its people. I imagined this country in my dreams when I was a child. I constructed it from my father's stories, songs, and memories and made it my own. And now I am in this imaginary country meeting people whose grand'parents might have immigrated on the same boat as mine. I wished my grand'parents could have left some family in this country. I wished I could walk to a house, knock on the door, and bridging the seventy years that separated the family, announce to the person who would open the door for me that I am her family, her Lebanese family. We would embrace and she would tell me the history of the family in Cuba through wars, liberations, and the revolution, and I would tell her the history of my grand'parents and my father in Lebanon, and what happened to them after they returned to Lebanon, and what became of Lebanon since, and how we are immigrants again...
Y's grand father left Lebanon for Cuba just after the first world war, as did his brothers for other destinations in 'America', except one who stayed in Lebanon. At the end of WWI, Lebanese have already witnessed the faltering of the Ottoman empire, ethnic massacres, a famine, and the crash of a 500 years Ottoman rule and social order. This is when my own grand'parents left also. Apart her family name, Y. does not seem to hold in her any trace of Lebanon and Lebanese identity. She does not speak the language, does not know the history and did not seem to be much interested in what happened to the country since her grand'father left. Y. descends from the second marriage of her grand'father to a Cuban woman, her grand'father had a son from his first marriage to a Lebanese woman who died, and this branch of the family lives in Havana. She, her siblings, and her mother, keep also in touch with a cousin who live in Colombia. Her grand'father died in 1990 and they still keep his original passport, the one with which he left Lebanon for Cuba, but she could not show it to me, it is with her mother who lives in the province of Las Tunas. In 1995, the only brother of her grand'father, who stayed in Lebanon, died (they were 7 siblings in the family) , and the colombian cousin traveled to Lebanon to collect the inheritance. It might have been a relatively large one because the grand'children received something like 1500 dollars each.
Y's family history could have been mine except that my grand' parents left Cuba with all their children in 1934, returned to Lebanon with a small fortune and bought the land of other members of the family who stayed in 'America', a land we still keep until today and a land that my father does not want to sell. It is for this land, to administer it and to keep a careful eye on it, that my grand'mother, the real business manager of the family, even when the family was in Cuba, removed her oldest son, my father, who was a young man at the time, from school. He loved school and excelled in it. I know this very well because I did my high school years in Lebanon under the watch of the man who was my father's teacher, and I was always reminded of the excellence of my father. My father never forgave his mother for this but developped, against his own dislike for the whole enterprise, an infinite love for the land. He used to tell me that when he was young, he would very often enter into bitter arguments with his mother and take refuge in a book under the shade of an olive tree in the fields, sometimes sleeping there for the night.
When I was a child I felt all this. Children have the ability to feel hidden and well repressed emotions because they focuse only on this, their survival and well being depend on this; on their ability to make themselves objects of love and affection and to detect both within the people who surround them. I felt the bitterness in my father toward his mother and, contrary to my grand'father, who was a sweet dreamer, and with whom I remember many tender moments, I never remember such a moment with my grand'mother. I remember however opposing my grand'mother on everything with force to an extent beyond any Lebanese family standards for polite children, having to incur the reprobation of my mother but with the implicit agreement of my father. As long as my father was approving, I could be against the whole world, and even against my grand'mother, his own mother.
Siblings to my grand'parents are a bit everywhere in the 'Americas'. My father kept contact with many of them, especially in Argentina and Mexico, through letters written in Spanish. We never learned Spanish, my father did not want us to learn it. It was his secret garden and he would never allow anybody to enter his secret garden, not even me. The civil war in Lebanon, the now advanced age of my father, and our inability to read and write Spanish, all contributed to a loss of contact with my father's cousins in the 'Americas'. It is only very recently and at the prospect of my travel to Cuba that I made an effort to learn Spanish.
I looked at Y. Tomorrow we will be leaving Santiago to spend a week in Havana. I just loved Cuba and its people. I imagined this country in my dreams when I was a child. I constructed it from my father's stories, songs, and memories and made it my own. And now I am in this imaginary country meeting people whose grand'parents might have immigrated on the same boat as mine. I wished my grand'parents could have left some family in this country. I wished I could walk to a house, knock on the door, and bridging the seventy years that separated the family, announce to the person who would open the door for me that I am her family, her Lebanese family. We would embrace and she would tell me the history of the family in Cuba through wars, liberations, and the revolution, and I would tell her the history of my grand'parents and my father in Lebanon, and what happened to them after they returned to Lebanon, and what became of Lebanon since, and how we are immigrants again...
*A source to read about the link between the young turks movement and the roots of Zionism.
**I am stil looking for serious sources about the recent history of Jews in Turkey because most history accounts do not provide information about the turn of the century (19th-20th) history, the period of the rapid fall of the empire and of religious persecutions.
Links to: Part III, Part II, Part I
Note on other places we visited in the area of Santiago:
I recommend the visit of the Granpiedra in the Sierra Maestra with an altitude of 1226 meters over the Caribbean with old coffee plantations and a beautiful botanical garden that you can visit under the guidance of one of the gardeners. We visited also the city of Cobre, from the name of the old copper mine nearby, where the church of the Madonna of the Charity, most commonly called the Madonna of Cuba, is located and where Jean-Paul visited in 1998. It was the day of the liberation of El Cobre by Fidel and there was a danse procession in the streets progressing over the rythms of Conga...It is said that Hemingway donated his Nobel prize in litterature to the shrine but it is not on display because of attempts of theft.
9.1.07
Bush's latest plan for Iraq
More of the same, writes Pierre Tristam in his Candide's Notebooks, and even worse. As time goes by, the problems of the occupied and the occupiers are becoming inextricable, and the political landscape deprived from real alternatives.
''The question now is what to do with a pair of broken nations—ours as well as Iraq, and whether it will be possible to extricate one from the other without blazing up more conflagrations than we’ll put out. The mere fact that the president is being given prime-time deference is indication that even now, the nation is more complicit in his crime than willing to prosecute it, let alone prosecute him. We keep expecting a miracle, although even a resignation speech would not do. Look at what would replace him.''
Well, actually, Bush's new plan is not exactly quite more of the same. In addition to the 20000 US soldiers who will be sent to Baghdad to 'consolidate' security there, Bush wants schools to be painted in Iraq. School painting ! Don't you find this bizarre when we know that Iraqi children have nothing to eat.
Well, it is not that bizarre as a project, Bush must have picked this up at MSN Home.
''Paint is by far the easiest and fastest way to perk up a tired house. Nothing will please you or your neighbors more than a well-chosen (and well-applied) coat of fresh color. A full exterior paint job isn't exactly the easiest project, but just about anyone can do it, and the rewards are immediate and dramatic.''
Yes, paint Iraq's schools, and Iraqis, and their neighbors, will feel less miserable. Bush also will feel less miserable. By now he might be already busy consulting this site trying out the colours. That's a difficult decision to take; the colours of the New Iraq ! And he's got a serious problem on his hands trying out the colours. Nothing will be strong enough to hide the colour Red, the present colour of Iraq, the colour of the blood running out from the veins of those who are slaughtered daily. Unless Bush chooses Black, the colour of mourning. Definitely, the only way for Bush to fix things in Iraq is to leave it alone, and to mourn, with his neo-con friends, the few glorious days of CNN and Fox news coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom in march 2003 before hell broke out, and before Iraq became everybody's nightmare...
''The question now is what to do with a pair of broken nations—ours as well as Iraq, and whether it will be possible to extricate one from the other without blazing up more conflagrations than we’ll put out. The mere fact that the president is being given prime-time deference is indication that even now, the nation is more complicit in his crime than willing to prosecute it, let alone prosecute him. We keep expecting a miracle, although even a resignation speech would not do. Look at what would replace him.''
Well, actually, Bush's new plan is not exactly quite more of the same. In addition to the 20000 US soldiers who will be sent to Baghdad to 'consolidate' security there, Bush wants schools to be painted in Iraq. School painting ! Don't you find this bizarre when we know that Iraqi children have nothing to eat.
Well, it is not that bizarre as a project, Bush must have picked this up at MSN Home.
''Paint is by far the easiest and fastest way to perk up a tired house. Nothing will please you or your neighbors more than a well-chosen (and well-applied) coat of fresh color. A full exterior paint job isn't exactly the easiest project, but just about anyone can do it, and the rewards are immediate and dramatic.''
Yes, paint Iraq's schools, and Iraqis, and their neighbors, will feel less miserable. Bush also will feel less miserable. By now he might be already busy consulting this site trying out the colours. That's a difficult decision to take; the colours of the New Iraq ! And he's got a serious problem on his hands trying out the colours. Nothing will be strong enough to hide the colour Red, the present colour of Iraq, the colour of the blood running out from the veins of those who are slaughtered daily. Unless Bush chooses Black, the colour of mourning. Definitely, the only way for Bush to fix things in Iraq is to leave it alone, and to mourn, with his neo-con friends, the few glorious days of CNN and Fox news coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom in march 2003 before hell broke out, and before Iraq became everybody's nightmare...
Puppet Iraqi Prime Minister Rejects Critiques of Saddam's Execution
Lemonde.fr, AFP 06.01.07 12h04 • Updated, 06.01.07 13h04
Translation from French
On Saturday January 6th, 2007, Iraqi prime minister, Nouri El-Maliki, speaking on the aftermath of the execution of Saddam during a military ceremony in honor of the 86th foundation anniversary of the Iraqi army, north of Baghdad, threatened states who criticised the execution of Saddam by stating that the Iraqi government will ''have to revise its diplomatic relations with all states who did not seem to respect the will of the Iraqi people''.
This was the first official reaction of the Iraqi government after the hanging of former Iraqi preisdent on the Muslim religious holiday Eid Al-Adha, December 30th.
"We reject and condemn official and media reactions of some governments...We are staggered by these reactions which are litterally shedding tears over a despot under the pretext that he was executed on a holy day while Saddam has always violated holy celebrations. We consider these critics as an insidious sedition and a flagrant interference in the internal affairs of Iraq, as well as an affront to the families of the vicitims of Saddam''
According to El-Maliki, the execution of Saddam, contrary to what the ennemies of the Iraqi people are claiming, ''was not the result of a political decision''. ''It was the result of a just trial, which Saddam did not really deserve.''
A pirate video taken with a cellphone and shown on the internet has prompted the indignation of the international community. The video shows Saddam being insulted and hackled by Shias witnesses who were present at the execution.
Comment: There was only little mention in Maliki's remarks of Western critiques, that were mostly about fair trial and Human rights, when he says that Saddam did not deserve a just trial. In which, Maliki actually confirms Western fears about the standards for Human rights of the present Iraqi government. However, most of his remarks were adressed to Arab critiques.
No matter how much Maliki's remarks are laughable in terms of contradictions and sheer stupidity, delivered at a military ceremony, they can be considered as belligerant and are directed mostly against Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab countries who protested the execution on religious grounds. The US has created a monster in Iraq, a new sectarian monster that is under its command to loosen when it is suitable to give the impression of a new threat to the security of the region and of the international community. The war against Iran is being prepared in Iraq with the help of stupid shias American puppets like El-Maliki; executing Saddam on a holy sunni celebration, raising the ire of Sunnis, and consequently shias counterreactions, and giving Saudi Arabia, Dick Cheney, and Bush, a reason to 'stay the course' in the Middle East, a macabre course, by all means.
In few words, Maliki has shown both disregard for Human rights and his will to dismiss any critique of his government's non respect for religious communities rights in Iraq, other than his own sect. Can anybody tell me how the new neo-con engineered Iraq is better than Saddam's Iraq ?
Read the latest on Saddam's execution critiques via Middle East Memo
Translation from French
On Saturday January 6th, 2007, Iraqi prime minister, Nouri El-Maliki, speaking on the aftermath of the execution of Saddam during a military ceremony in honor of the 86th foundation anniversary of the Iraqi army, north of Baghdad, threatened states who criticised the execution of Saddam by stating that the Iraqi government will ''have to revise its diplomatic relations with all states who did not seem to respect the will of the Iraqi people''.
This was the first official reaction of the Iraqi government after the hanging of former Iraqi preisdent on the Muslim religious holiday Eid Al-Adha, December 30th.
"We reject and condemn official and media reactions of some governments...We are staggered by these reactions which are litterally shedding tears over a despot under the pretext that he was executed on a holy day while Saddam has always violated holy celebrations. We consider these critics as an insidious sedition and a flagrant interference in the internal affairs of Iraq, as well as an affront to the families of the vicitims of Saddam''
According to El-Maliki, the execution of Saddam, contrary to what the ennemies of the Iraqi people are claiming, ''was not the result of a political decision''. ''It was the result of a just trial, which Saddam did not really deserve.''
A pirate video taken with a cellphone and shown on the internet has prompted the indignation of the international community. The video shows Saddam being insulted and hackled by Shias witnesses who were present at the execution.
Comment: There was only little mention in Maliki's remarks of Western critiques, that were mostly about fair trial and Human rights, when he says that Saddam did not deserve a just trial. In which, Maliki actually confirms Western fears about the standards for Human rights of the present Iraqi government. However, most of his remarks were adressed to Arab critiques.
No matter how much Maliki's remarks are laughable in terms of contradictions and sheer stupidity, delivered at a military ceremony, they can be considered as belligerant and are directed mostly against Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab countries who protested the execution on religious grounds. The US has created a monster in Iraq, a new sectarian monster that is under its command to loosen when it is suitable to give the impression of a new threat to the security of the region and of the international community. The war against Iran is being prepared in Iraq with the help of stupid shias American puppets like El-Maliki; executing Saddam on a holy sunni celebration, raising the ire of Sunnis, and consequently shias counterreactions, and giving Saudi Arabia, Dick Cheney, and Bush, a reason to 'stay the course' in the Middle East, a macabre course, by all means.
In few words, Maliki has shown both disregard for Human rights and his will to dismiss any critique of his government's non respect for religious communities rights in Iraq, other than his own sect. Can anybody tell me how the new neo-con engineered Iraq is better than Saddam's Iraq ?
Read the latest on Saddam's execution critiques via Middle East Memo
7.1.07
Movie comment: Children of Men
Yesterday I went to see Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of men. I have to mention first that I did not read the book by P.D. James on which the movie is based.
The story opens in England in 2027. All other countries have collapsed, claims a giant electronic poster, and only England soldiers on.
Cuaron’s adaptation is not didactic. There is no explaining in the movie on what is really going on, as in Spielberg's sci-fi movies for example. But if you know what is going on in the news worldwide, you don’t need an introduction to the story. Because of this, the movie is realistic. It is a political statement on the state of Humanity. There are no flying cars, no extraordinary buildings and gadgets, no strange creatures, only human beings devoured by anxiety, hopelessness, boredom, and a dark future.
We understand later that an advertised drug called Quietus is recommended for suicide. The realism of the movie is such that the line of advertisement is that of any other product, it gives the consumer the illusion of free will and choice. The subtitle of the advertisement is ‘You decide when’. Cuaron’s realism comes from the fact that instead of focusing on gadgets, he focuses on Humans. And some Humans basic features, when taken at the population level, do not seem to change over time. They are emotional, they are greedy, they are irrational and they are violent. Violence is the main theme of the movie. But it is confronted with birth, renewal, and innocence…
The Humanity in 2027 is in a terrible state, a chaotic state very close to what people are experiencing in some parts of the world actually. There are cattle and birds epidemics, environmental catastrophes, collapsing states, wars, and massive migrations, and to top all of this, women have become infertile. The last birth was 18 years ago in Brazil but the person who was born 18 years ago had just died, and the whole world is mourning his death. Inside England, there seems to be some order imposed by the state but it is being resisted and fought by many groups with divergent interests. The country had closed its frontiers to refugees and we wee in the movie illegal immigrants transported in cages toward camps where they are kept under strict army and police control. On the way, they are beaten, humiliated, and killed, for some of them. A man, who lost a baby he had with a woman in the resistance and was consequently estranged by her, will be asked to accompany an 18 year old illegal refugeepregnant girl across the burning and dangerous land to the safety of ‘The Human Project’.
The highlight of the movie is in the final scenes when we witness a birth, a street fight, the bombing of a civilian building where resitants are trapped by the army, and the final deliverance for some. All this happens in an area where the government had imprisoned opponents and immigrants, bombing them regularly or whenever the tension becomes unbearable. The battle scenes were crudely filmed, there was no warning as to the explosion of the bombs or the bombing of a building inhabited by illegal immigrants and resistants ‘terrorists’ who fight for their rights and for a different vision of the country. The line is blurred between fiction and real life. Some of the scenes resembled what we witness everyday on TV screens from the streets of Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza. There was a protest with chants ‘Allah Akbar’ from Muslim immigrants. There were women in the streets crying over the dead bodies of their relatives fighters, sons and husbands, as in Gaza. There were inscriptions on the walls of the word ‘Intifada’ in Arabic.
What struck me most in the movie is the fact that Humanity knew that it was going to its end. Twenty years of infertility are what is needed for the extinction of the species, a lengthy extinction of course. But people were fighting each other anyway. Suddenly it occurred to me that violence, always present in human societies, did not in fact increase over time, but did however invade our minds. We are not more violent than our ancestors, but we are more committed to violence, we cannot live without it, even though we know that we will all be dying in a near future. And the reason why violence has invaded our mind is that in the presence of danger we don’t look for solutions, we fight.
Is the earth warming up and threatening some of our resources? Why bother finding solutions? Better fight within the new context to keep our privileges without changing our way of life. Are we going to die as a species because of real threats? Why bother trying to find solutions when we can fight to keep going on according to our own way and at the expanses of other individuals, groups, countries and the entire species? Why bother finding a solution to our energy needs when we can go to Iraq, fight and kill more than 200000 people in three years? And why bother finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when we can fight for sixty years, and keep going, in order to grab more land, kill more people, strip the others from their rights, kill hope, divide people, radicalise them in groups fighting each other, putting their regions on fire, and diminishing, every day, the prospects for peace while extending wars?
Even though we are not committed to find a solution to women’s infertility, the movie tells us that many groups will be fighting around the miracle baby, who was incidentally born, to make him their own, and not the baby of Humanity, and not the baby of the whole species. What is the significance of birth, innocence, love, and renewal in a world that surrendered to violence? It is better not to be born. Humanity is alarmingly disappointing, and can be even more disappointing, as biologists tell us, than other animal groups, where sometimes individuals will give up on their own survival instincts in order to contribute to the survival of their own species.
We came out of the movie, all the four of us, my husband and my children, hoping that the movie was after all about fiction. But sadly it isn’t.
The story opens in England in 2027. All other countries have collapsed, claims a giant electronic poster, and only England soldiers on.
Cuaron’s adaptation is not didactic. There is no explaining in the movie on what is really going on, as in Spielberg's sci-fi movies for example. But if you know what is going on in the news worldwide, you don’t need an introduction to the story. Because of this, the movie is realistic. It is a political statement on the state of Humanity. There are no flying cars, no extraordinary buildings and gadgets, no strange creatures, only human beings devoured by anxiety, hopelessness, boredom, and a dark future.
We understand later that an advertised drug called Quietus is recommended for suicide. The realism of the movie is such that the line of advertisement is that of any other product, it gives the consumer the illusion of free will and choice. The subtitle of the advertisement is ‘You decide when’. Cuaron’s realism comes from the fact that instead of focusing on gadgets, he focuses on Humans. And some Humans basic features, when taken at the population level, do not seem to change over time. They are emotional, they are greedy, they are irrational and they are violent. Violence is the main theme of the movie. But it is confronted with birth, renewal, and innocence…
The Humanity in 2027 is in a terrible state, a chaotic state very close to what people are experiencing in some parts of the world actually. There are cattle and birds epidemics, environmental catastrophes, collapsing states, wars, and massive migrations, and to top all of this, women have become infertile. The last birth was 18 years ago in Brazil but the person who was born 18 years ago had just died, and the whole world is mourning his death. Inside England, there seems to be some order imposed by the state but it is being resisted and fought by many groups with divergent interests. The country had closed its frontiers to refugees and we wee in the movie illegal immigrants transported in cages toward camps where they are kept under strict army and police control. On the way, they are beaten, humiliated, and killed, for some of them. A man, who lost a baby he had with a woman in the resistance and was consequently estranged by her, will be asked to accompany an 18 year old illegal refugeepregnant girl across the burning and dangerous land to the safety of ‘The Human Project’.
The highlight of the movie is in the final scenes when we witness a birth, a street fight, the bombing of a civilian building where resitants are trapped by the army, and the final deliverance for some. All this happens in an area where the government had imprisoned opponents and immigrants, bombing them regularly or whenever the tension becomes unbearable. The battle scenes were crudely filmed, there was no warning as to the explosion of the bombs or the bombing of a building inhabited by illegal immigrants and resistants ‘terrorists’ who fight for their rights and for a different vision of the country. The line is blurred between fiction and real life. Some of the scenes resembled what we witness everyday on TV screens from the streets of Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza. There was a protest with chants ‘Allah Akbar’ from Muslim immigrants. There were women in the streets crying over the dead bodies of their relatives fighters, sons and husbands, as in Gaza. There were inscriptions on the walls of the word ‘Intifada’ in Arabic.
What struck me most in the movie is the fact that Humanity knew that it was going to its end. Twenty years of infertility are what is needed for the extinction of the species, a lengthy extinction of course. But people were fighting each other anyway. Suddenly it occurred to me that violence, always present in human societies, did not in fact increase over time, but did however invade our minds. We are not more violent than our ancestors, but we are more committed to violence, we cannot live without it, even though we know that we will all be dying in a near future. And the reason why violence has invaded our mind is that in the presence of danger we don’t look for solutions, we fight.
Is the earth warming up and threatening some of our resources? Why bother finding solutions? Better fight within the new context to keep our privileges without changing our way of life. Are we going to die as a species because of real threats? Why bother trying to find solutions when we can fight to keep going on according to our own way and at the expanses of other individuals, groups, countries and the entire species? Why bother finding a solution to our energy needs when we can go to Iraq, fight and kill more than 200000 people in three years? And why bother finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when we can fight for sixty years, and keep going, in order to grab more land, kill more people, strip the others from their rights, kill hope, divide people, radicalise them in groups fighting each other, putting their regions on fire, and diminishing, every day, the prospects for peace while extending wars?
Even though we are not committed to find a solution to women’s infertility, the movie tells us that many groups will be fighting around the miracle baby, who was incidentally born, to make him their own, and not the baby of Humanity, and not the baby of the whole species. What is the significance of birth, innocence, love, and renewal in a world that surrendered to violence? It is better not to be born. Humanity is alarmingly disappointing, and can be even more disappointing, as biologists tell us, than other animal groups, where sometimes individuals will give up on their own survival instincts in order to contribute to the survival of their own species.
We came out of the movie, all the four of us, my husband and my children, hoping that the movie was after all about fiction. But sadly it isn’t.
6.1.07
Ariel Sharon, Bush, and the Assassination of Yasser Arafat
The escalation we are witnessing now in Palestine is partly the legacy of Ariel Sharon. In a recent book of interviews published in France, his confident Uri Dan reveals that Sharon told him that he was behind the assassination of Yasser Arafat and that Sharon consulted with Bush on the matter.
''To those knowledgeable about Israel’s history since it became a state in 1948 and earlier, this revelation, if true, should come as no surprise. All Israeli governments have a long and disturbing record of conducting targeted assassinations in Israel and abroad as it suited them against all persons thought to be a threat to the Jewish state. From his earliest days in 1969 as Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman and President, Arafat went from enemy to ally and back to enemy again under various Israeli governments depending on his willingness to deny his people their rights in service and pledging fealty to Israeli authority as he did in agreeing to the Oslo Accords, or Declaration of Principles (DOP), signed at a White House ceremony in September, 1993.''
There is mention of the book by Paris-Match however without any mention of the assassination confidence. The book seems to be hard to find. It is in an Amazon search but not available. It is listed in a podcast search and it is mentioned on the official site of the Israeli embassy in France, without this revelation. Uri Dan, the book's author, a Sharon supporter and admirer, who was Fox's News Jerusalem bureau chief and New York Post Correspondent in Jerusalem, died recently.
Also, there are many articles on Uri Dan in this December page of Isranet News.
''To the end, Uri remained tireless. Diagnosed with lung cancer, he covered last summer's war in Lebanon from his hospital bed while undergoing intensive chemotherapy. He traveled to Washington last month with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and was thrilled beyond words when White House Press Secretary Tony Snow agreed to place a copy of Uri's new book on President Bush's Oval Office desk. ''
''To those knowledgeable about Israel’s history since it became a state in 1948 and earlier, this revelation, if true, should come as no surprise. All Israeli governments have a long and disturbing record of conducting targeted assassinations in Israel and abroad as it suited them against all persons thought to be a threat to the Jewish state. From his earliest days in 1969 as Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman and President, Arafat went from enemy to ally and back to enemy again under various Israeli governments depending on his willingness to deny his people their rights in service and pledging fealty to Israeli authority as he did in agreeing to the Oslo Accords, or Declaration of Principles (DOP), signed at a White House ceremony in September, 1993.''
There is mention of the book by Paris-Match however without any mention of the assassination confidence. The book seems to be hard to find. It is in an Amazon search but not available. It is listed in a podcast search and it is mentioned on the official site of the Israeli embassy in France, without this revelation. Uri Dan, the book's author, a Sharon supporter and admirer, who was Fox's News Jerusalem bureau chief and New York Post Correspondent in Jerusalem, died recently.
Also, there are many articles on Uri Dan in this December page of Isranet News.
''To the end, Uri remained tireless. Diagnosed with lung cancer, he covered last summer's war in Lebanon from his hospital bed while undergoing intensive chemotherapy. He traveled to Washington last month with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and was thrilled beyond words when White House Press Secretary Tony Snow agreed to place a copy of Uri's new book on President Bush's Oval Office desk. ''
5.1.07
Slavoj Zizek on Bush, Saddam, and Other Murderous Dictators
Read Slavoj Zizek at his best in 'Denying the Facts, Finding the Truth'.
''The violent outbursts of the recent Bush politics are thus not exercises in power, but rather exercises in panic.''
''...why was there little talk of delivering Saddam Hussein or, say, Manuel Noriega to The Hague? Why was the only trial against Mr. Noriega for drug trafficking, rather than for his murderous abuses as a dictator? Was it because he would have disclosed his past ties with the C.I.A.?
In a similar way, Saddam Hussein’s regime was an abominable authoritarian state, guilty of many crimes, mostly toward its own people. However, one should note the strange but key fact that, when the United States representatives and the Iraqi prosecutors were enumerating his evil deeds, they systematically omitted what was undoubtedly his greatest crime in terms of human suffering and of violating international justice: his invasion of Iran. Why? Because the United States and the majority of foreign states were actively helping Iraq in this aggression. ''
''The violent outbursts of the recent Bush politics are thus not exercises in power, but rather exercises in panic.''
''...why was there little talk of delivering Saddam Hussein or, say, Manuel Noriega to The Hague? Why was the only trial against Mr. Noriega for drug trafficking, rather than for his murderous abuses as a dictator? Was it because he would have disclosed his past ties with the C.I.A.?
In a similar way, Saddam Hussein’s regime was an abominable authoritarian state, guilty of many crimes, mostly toward its own people. However, one should note the strange but key fact that, when the United States representatives and the Iraqi prosecutors were enumerating his evil deeds, they systematically omitted what was undoubtedly his greatest crime in terms of human suffering and of violating international justice: his invasion of Iran. Why? Because the United States and the majority of foreign states were actively helping Iraq in this aggression. ''
Debunking Zionism as a Racist Colonialist Ideology
There are some great debunkers now on the blogosphere. I want to highlight the latest contributions of Behemoth (KampfeBlog) on the subject.
The sinister roots of Zionism, failed ideological construct part two - A
The sinister roots of Zionism, failed ideological construct part two - B
More confirmation on "modern" Zionism's colonial origins
The sinister roots of Zionism, failed ideological construct part two - A
The sinister roots of Zionism, failed ideological construct part two - B
More confirmation on "modern" Zionism's colonial origins
Puppet Politics
The US foreign policy can be viewed as an enterprise consisting of installing puppet governments wherever they think they, and their ally Israel, have vital interests. It happens also that American foreign policy is now focused on the interests of Israel. It is also focused on those countries who oppose the unbridled expansionnist colonialism Israel has been following in its regional and international politics, and not interests limited to survival and nationhood for the victims of the Holocaust, which they supposedly claim to have.
The US thus helped to install puppets as rulers in many Arab countries, strenghtening the hold of Israel on the palestinians and producing the absence of any reasonable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Puppets are in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon,Iraq, etc... Even Bashar El-Assad is a candidate, but they don't want him. After all, it is the masters who choose their puppets...
Now the US has turned to Muslim countries outside the Middle East but of vital geopolitical significance to the Midlle East. They have just reintsalled their puppets in Somalia.
The dangers of such foreign policy is that it creates resentment and hatred. It strips people from their dignity as a group and a society and discourages their free will. It leads to lower self-esteem derived from the feeling the citizen of these countries have of not commanding respect, and, of course, from resentment and hatred. Resentement feeds terrorism in the sense that it supresses positive mobilisation around a constructive project and therefore a true resistance.
Lets suppose that Terrorism exists by itself, outside any foreign policy and any resentment, as an abnormal phenomenon of failed states, as the US pretends, and I am not denying that this kind of terrorism exist ed actually in Afghanisan, it may be easy to fight it. But the kind of generic terrorism that the US is fighting is derived not from failed states but mostly from US failed foreign policies. Is it then necessary to fight a terrorism willingly provoked by these foreign policies ? And if so can anybody tell me how to end this kind of terrorism ? I am just wondering because it appears to me that to end this kind of terrorism requires that people around the globe, but especially in Muslim and Middle Eastern countries, must be totally submitted to USrael or must be exterminated. Submission or Death. It reminds me of a slogan I saw on Cuban highways 'Socialismo O Muerte'. There is no other alternative.
What kind of foreign policy is this ? This is no foreign policy. This is madness.
The US thus helped to install puppets as rulers in many Arab countries, strenghtening the hold of Israel on the palestinians and producing the absence of any reasonable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Puppets are in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon,Iraq, etc... Even Bashar El-Assad is a candidate, but they don't want him. After all, it is the masters who choose their puppets...
Now the US has turned to Muslim countries outside the Middle East but of vital geopolitical significance to the Midlle East. They have just reintsalled their puppets in Somalia.
The dangers of such foreign policy is that it creates resentment and hatred. It strips people from their dignity as a group and a society and discourages their free will. It leads to lower self-esteem derived from the feeling the citizen of these countries have of not commanding respect, and, of course, from resentment and hatred. Resentement feeds terrorism in the sense that it supresses positive mobilisation around a constructive project and therefore a true resistance.
Lets suppose that Terrorism exists by itself, outside any foreign policy and any resentment, as an abnormal phenomenon of failed states, as the US pretends, and I am not denying that this kind of terrorism exist ed actually in Afghanisan, it may be easy to fight it. But the kind of generic terrorism that the US is fighting is derived not from failed states but mostly from US failed foreign policies. Is it then necessary to fight a terrorism willingly provoked by these foreign policies ? And if so can anybody tell me how to end this kind of terrorism ? I am just wondering because it appears to me that to end this kind of terrorism requires that people around the globe, but especially in Muslim and Middle Eastern countries, must be totally submitted to USrael or must be exterminated. Submission or Death. It reminds me of a slogan I saw on Cuban highways 'Socialismo O Muerte'. There is no other alternative.
What kind of foreign policy is this ? This is no foreign policy. This is madness.
4.1.07
Criticism of Israel becoming mainstream in the US ?
Thanks to the paper on the Israel lobby by Mearsheimer and Walt and to the recent book by former president Jimmy Carter 'Peace not Apartheid', criticism of Israel is becoming mainstream in the US, despite current perceptions.
Read here the comments of Norman Finkelstein on Carter's book and on the attempt by some pro-zionist or zionist wary media to discredit Carter's arguments, most notably the comparison Carter makes between the state of Israel as it is now and the south African Apartheid.
The Lebanese daily Star Rami Khoury's''Israel
Check Sabbah's post featuring two opinions on the central question in Carter's book: Israel as an apartheid state.
UPDATE: I received an insult from one commentator on this post but I did not publish it. However I can publish the IP of this commentator who is from the US:205.188.117 (aol commercial)
That's just a proof that insults are one of the methods Zionists resort to in order to silence criticism...Other means are: lobbying, Blackmailing, Bombing, Intimidating and Targeted Killings...
Read here the comments of Norman Finkelstein on Carter's book and on the attempt by some pro-zionist or zionist wary media to discredit Carter's arguments, most notably the comparison Carter makes between the state of Israel as it is now and the south African Apartheid.
The Lebanese daily Star Rami Khoury's
Check Sabbah's post featuring two opinions on the central question in Carter's book: Israel as an apartheid state.
UPDATE: I received an insult from one commentator on this post but I did not publish it. However I can publish the IP of this commentator who is from the US:205.188.117 (aol commercial)
That's just a proof that insults are one of the methods Zionists resort to in order to silence criticism...Other means are: lobbying, Blackmailing, Bombing, Intimidating and Targeted Killings...
Louise Arbour Appeals the Next Hangings Sentences in Iraq
I saw the story on Canadian CTV news this morning and wasn't able to find the page when I returned to copy the link. However, it is mentioned by this article from Le Monde on the New UN chief.
With the backing of the new UN chief who was recently criticised by Human Rights groups for not condemning the death sentence, leaving it as a matter to be decided by states, UN high commissioner for Human Rights, Canadian Louise Arbour, has filed a formal appeal to the sentences of Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq's former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar. It seems that Arbour did the same with Saddam's own sentence. UN high commissioner for Human Rights website features statements voicing concerns for the way justice is being delivered in Iraq.
With the backing of the new UN chief who was recently criticised by Human Rights groups for not condemning the death sentence, leaving it as a matter to be decided by states, UN high commissioner for Human Rights, Canadian Louise Arbour, has filed a formal appeal to the sentences of Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq's former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar. It seems that Arbour did the same with Saddam's own sentence. UN high commissioner for Human Rights website features statements voicing concerns for the way justice is being delivered in Iraq.
3.1.07
The execution of Saddam and the vandalism of the Truth
Usually, I am not a Dawkins fan. I always thought that his ultradarwinism was actually hurting the public perception of the theory of evolution.
But Dawkins is a brilliant mind and with his brilliant mind he brings a different and unique perspective on Saddam's execution and hanging. A highly recommended reading...
But Dawkins is a brilliant mind and with his brilliant mind he brings a different and unique perspective on Saddam's execution and hanging. A highly recommended reading...
1.1.07
This Other America: Part III, The Road Through Guantanamo
This picture was taken in the center of Guantanamo, a prosperous town of 200000 with a university, a military school and a hotel. Guantanamo is also a province.
It was tuesday, and my husband, after a half day work with his Canadian colleagues, was scheduled to visit with them the Cuban team offices on thursday afternoon. We had a day and a half before us and we thought that this unexpected free time might be an opportunity to visit Baracoa which is on the other side of the Island, north to Santiago, on the Atlantic Ocean. This is where Christopher Columbus touched the American continent for the second time on his first expedition, the first landfall being the Bahamas. We went around 5.p.m. to the hotel's travel agency to arrange for the trip and were told that they didn't have enough passengers to make the trip for the next day. We then inquired at another agency which referred us to an official taxi driver who was willing to do the trip only for us with a slightly higher fare and on the condition we can rest for the night in Baracoa and return on Thursday. He would make for us the reservation for the night in a licensed private house (Casa Particulare) in Baracoa and would stay for the whole trip at our service driving us around Baracoa. We checked his car; a 2002 Volkswagen Jetta with all the commodities and the suspension necessary to negotiate the mountain road in the Sierra Maestra between Guantanamo and Baracoa. Despite this, the journey to Baracoa during the last hour of the three hours and a half, 256 kms trip, will make me sick.
Wednesday
The next day, we were riding through the Cuban countryside on a road bordering the Caribbean until Guantanamo and then abruptly crossing the most eastern part of the Sierra Maestra to reach Baracoa on the Atlantic. Guantanamo is the only city between Santiago and Baracoa. The mountain road starts after crossing the city of Guantanamo and ends only in Baracoa.
After an hour drive and many stops to take pictures of the beautiful scenery, I told my husband that I was grateful because he decided to undertake such a trip. Santiago was a bit depressing as a city to watch and to walk in. In contrast, the countryside was luminous. The houses did not look more rich, more spacious, neither better, but as the decaying constructions were surrounded here by gardens and a luxurious nature, their cruel rusticity and modesty became more nuanced to the eyes. The road cut through gorgeous fields, giant trees, herds of lambs, goats, birds and cattles, under a blue sky. Forgotten are the grey buildings and the decaying houses of Santiago, the crowded wagwas and trucks transporting passengers, the old Cuban vehicles and motorbikes emissions and their suffocating smell, and the noise, omnipresents and companions to every dweller in Santiago. The villages roads were busy with schoolchildren. There are no yellow buses here. Public transportation is nearly non existent. There are semi public private arrangements for transportation but this is not affordable on a regular basis and by everyone. Children, dressed neatly in colorfoul uniforms indicating the school cycle, raspberry pink for elementary, walk to and from school, sometimes as much as 4 kilometers one way, in the morning, at lunch time, and in the afternoon.
Crossing the eastern part of rural Cuba, and on the 256 kilometers distance that was our road in both ways between Santiago and Baracoa and around Baracoa area I became convinced that Cuban socialism might be a good solution for rural economies and rural societies. And may be this is true of all forms of socialism. The Cuba I felt in this part of the country was different from the city, it lived in a kind of a self sustained economy that didn't seem to be in an acute need of the world and that defied the embargos. The mountain road we traveled between Guantanamo and Baracoa was the gift of Fidel Castro to the people of his native area. A giant poster planted in Baracoa, citing Fidel, claims proudly: 'Llevaremos Baracoa al mundo' (We brought Baracoa to the world). There is exuberant life in Cuban rural areas, a joyful and decent life. I thought that the road will be empty except for few small villages. In reality, there were many villages on the road and sometimes small communities living in traditional houses with roofs made of Palm tree leaves. Every village had its dispensary and its school and its local committee for the defense of the revolution. Cultures of Bananas, sugar cane, chocolate and coffee alternated. Horses, dogs, and herds roamed free in the fields. In some parts, it looked like a green cowboy country. We stopped in the mountain at a three houses community living around a coffee plantation. A mother came out with her 6 month old baby. Outside, the family dog was guarding the porc and a Guyava leaves perfumed water was boiling over a fire. The woman explained that this is a traditional bath for babies to bring them good health. We took some pictures and promised to stop on our way back to buy coffee.
Before ascending the mountain road we had stopped at the Guantanamo local market in the center of the town. The activity in the market was as in other producers markets and there was a huge poster giving consumers the nutrients and calories found in the products. After leaving Guantanamo we drove near the entrance of the Guantanamo base controlled by Cubans and which is at 25 kms only from the US controlled base. The taxi driver told us that, according to treaties, the US must return Gunatanamo to Cuba in 2033. Here we have a solution to this shame I thought. Not sure, look to what happened to Panama. I had asked the driver previously if I can make a picture of the base entrance and he said that it is even forbidden to stop near the entrance. He promised that on our way back from Baracoa the next day we would choose a spot on the mountain road and take a picture of the actual US controlled base, which we did...I thought of Guantanamo prisoners and of the many innocent men sold by Pakistanis in the wake of the invasion of Afghanistan and held by the US in conditions which will be a permanent stain on our modern western consciousness for generations to come. I thought of these men held in cages under the caribbean sun, cut from the world, and I wondered that only 25 kilometers, and less if you think that the Cuban base stretches some 15 kilometers from the road toward the US controlled base, separate actually a world made of barbarism and cruelty from this exuberant and joyful nature. I felt anxious and started talking to the taxi driver to alleviate my own malaise. I told him my indignation and he told me that most Cubans feel the same. Cuban official television had covered every aspect of the US's shameful treatment of Guantanamo prisoners and their non respect of Human rights. The conversation extended to Cuban politics and, as most Cubans, the taxi driver was anxious for a little change, anxious for the economy to get better in his country, but for all the money and wealth of the world, and like most Cubans, he would not want to see Miami Cubans and US rule return to impose their will.
Our casa particulare in Baracoa had a terrace overlooking the sea and all the commodities. It was modest but convenient and our hostess was charming. Around Baracoa, we visited the beach where Columbus landed for the first time on the Island and where a replica of Columbus's cross was planted. The real one is kept in the cathedral in a glass box. It was reduced to a tiny cross by locals who thought that having a piece of wood from the cross was going to bring them luck. We visited the Yumuri area, a village, a river running into the ocean, a gorge, and a chocolate plantation, east to Baracoa. Our visit to the chocolate plantation was escorted by two improvised guides, two men, and 8 local women, who all hoped for a little tip. The two men tried to provide us with some cues into how they collect Chocolate and process it and tried to earn their tip by having such initiatives as climbing Coco trees and collect fruits for us and harvesting some Chocolate fruits for us to discover, while the women only complained to me about their living conditions. They told us that they work only three months a year, that their salaries were low. We must have left them with the highest amount paid as a tip in Cuba and we regretted that things had to be this way. We felt that tourism becoming important in the area, people were starting to change and to count more and more on an arbitrary income instead of trying to earn it the traditional way. Villagers in the mountain around coffee plantations were definitely different but there was no sustained flow of tourists there. The incident had spoiled my visit to Yumuri...
In the center of Baracoa, there were many European tourists coming from nearby famous Holguin's beaches for a day or two in a pilgrimage to Columbus's shore in Baracoa. Baracoa is also surrounded by gorgeous mountains with different shapes, shades and heights. At the end of the day we went to the beach and returned to eat a cooked meal at the terrace of the private house we were staying in for the night.
On the road back, we took with us in the car a Cuban whom the taxi driver knew and who was a schoolteacher and director of a primary school. He was so grateful that he answered all our questions on the school system, something we were very curious about. In Cuba, every class has its own videosystem to help the professor in his teachings (actually we glanced at such a class in a school in Santiago that was located near the hotel) and a computer, even if the class is made of one pupil, something that happens sometimes in rural areas. Even University students don't have this density of computers at their disposal in Cuba. But this is a socialist regime which believes in the building of young minds. The teacher told us also that there is one teacher for every 15 pupils. Sometimes one for ten, depending on the work they have to do. The school in Cuba is interested in the children and their minds, something that may make carreer oriented and busy western parents jealous because they don't have these standards and this commitment from the school system which I believe is increasingly not interested in the young minds of our children but rather in getting rid of the children while meeting the obejctives imposed by our governments on making sure that education meets the Market needs. I volunteered in my children's school for 12 years and I was close to the parents preoccupations and increasing demands for the school to relieve them from the burden of the education of their children entirely while at the same time providing children with all what is necessary to succeed later in life, education, a good conduct, and a compliant character, a disproportionate demand, I thought sometimes. But I can tell you that a Cuban style school system is a dreamed solution for parents. However, while providing children with whatever necessary to grow up good adults without the help of their parents - it is commonly thought in Cuba that the school don't even need you to educate your children, it takes charge of the whole process- it may not provide them with what is necessary to succeed economically because it is not in the objectives of the system. Also, the structure of their school system must cost a lot of money if applied in our societies and our governments are not ready to invest heavily in education. The neoliberal market logic is such that it takes and does not give. While being very greedy to schools, teachers and the education system as a whole, it doesn't bother investing in education because, according to this logic, there is no direct causal relationship between education and the growth of material wealth. I wrote my children an email the day after this encounter reminding them how much, we parents, have to invest in a deficient school system in our countries in order to support their education and how Cuban parents were very much aided in this task by the school. While strolling through santiago, we passed along many music schools teaching children classical music. How many of us can afford, after paying for our children basic needs, to pay for music lessons which are not part of the regular curriculum at school ?
I also found Cuban children to be polite in general, calm, and well behaved.
At the dinner that evening I only ate the fried Yukas, the rice and beans. We prolonged the night on the terrace sipping a local strong coffee, discussing the day's encounters and visits, and listening to the sound of the chants coming from the cathedral. Many christian and other cult places are active in Cuba since 1995 but the Santeria remains the religion of the majority of Cubans. I remember that my father used to tell us about the strange rites of this religion he witnessed there as a child, rites involving sacrifices. At thirty past ten, the religious songs were replaced by the sound of music coming from the Trova house located near the cathedral, until late...
I woke up in the middle of the night and, from one of the room's windows I could glance at the eastern part of the Island where the Yumuri river joins the sea. I thought about the fate of the region's Natives who were exterminated by the colonisers and left no trace except some local legends. One of them is that the Yumuri river's name is related to the Sapnish 'Yo voy a mourir'. Natives, goes the legend, committed suicide by jumping from a cliff bording the river in an attempt to escape the cruelty of their Spanish masters while shouting: 'Yo voy a mourir'. Another legend is that the Spanish masters, having been informed of the intent of ther slaves, convinced them not to kill themselves by threatening to committ suicide in order to follow them to the other world and punish them...Cuba, and especially Santiago and Baracoa areas, became, in the sixteenth and sevententh centuries, central to all Spanish expeditions in the Americas providing the ships with food and slaves and receiving the mechandise collected from the rest of the American land and destined to Spain.
Outside our modest room in Baracoa, a thunderous rainfall had already started, eclipsing the sound of music coming from la casa Trova.
Tomorrow we will go back to Santiago where, before leaving for Havana, I will make two interesting encounters, one with a local Cuban Lebanecita, a third generation Lebanese, and another with a small community of Turkish Jews who emigrated from Turkey to Cuba, at the same time many lebanese left the troubled Ottoman empire of the end of the 19th century for the Americas. Maalouf's book 'Origins', which I was reading, will provide me with some key information to understand both communities and the diversity I was witnessing in the modern Cuban identity...
UPDATE: I am updating here with an article presenting a different view on the thoughts expressed in this post 'Why Miami dances on Castro's grave'.
Read also from the link below (Le Monde, French) how Edmundo Garcia, A cuban exiled to Miami was fired twice by local TV stations under pressure from the far right Miami Cuban community for, well, not writing exactly as a journalist what the community wanted him to say and write...Dictatorships exist also in so called free countries and they are the dictatorships of pressure groups. The Cuban Miami community has created its own US bred dictatorship...
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