It has been a year since Harir's death, and wow has our region gone through some tough times. Last year this time, there were mass demonstrations on the streets of Beirut, that forced the Syrians out of the country, and there have been a constant sage of alliances that first are hard to believe and are even harder to digest when they fall apart. In Syria the situation has gone from bad to worse, with the United States seems to have gone out of its way to attack and badger, and the Syrian people are even more behind their president.
Then you have Palestine, where a people who are under occupation, and who's country is not recognized went to the polls and showed the world what democracy is. They voted, peacefully, with no fighting...what happened after was a bit sad. I am not a big fan of Hamas-but I was still impressed that the Palestinians voted for them. They might have done this for a number of reasons, some say to show Fateh that they are not happy with them, others because Hamas stands for resistance and that is what the people want. I think that it is a combination of these two reasons, and really the important thing is that democratically they were voted in, and there is no reason for the way that the world has reacted to it.
In Iraq the situation has gone from not to good, to quite bad, with Saddam's trial turning out to be more of a mahzaleh, then a way to get retribution for what this man did to his people. News of what the British soldiers have been doing to Iraqi children has just hit the media, and there is no way of knowing whatelse will arise.
The latest thing to hit the Arab world, has been the over talked and over dramatized issue of the cartoons, and the way that the Arab/Muslim street has dealt with it.
I am just surprised how much can happen in one little region, and that people are still able to laugh and get on with their lives...maybe that is the issue, that we seem able to just get on...wonder what it will take for us Arabs to get upset enough...or worked up enough...to actually force some sort of real and concrete change.
i totally agree that our main problem is that we dont get upset enough to stop all these mahazel that happen... the main problem is in the people themselves. people used to have revolutions, and some assassinated their presidents for reasons -in my opinion- much bearable than what's goin on now. these days our countries fall one after another, arabs are being treated as the lowest class human beings, and the prophet of a great percentage of us has been severely humiliated and we still laugh and get over it. i dunno too what should take us to move... the worst is yet to come anyways!
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the sitation is that depressing or negative...I do beleive that just as Arabs rose in the past and defeated the Crusades, and then when Nasser can into power, and with the first Intifada, and the Cider revolution in Lebnon...there is hope for us yet...I just wonder if we are the wrong generation to do it, maybe our children will be the ones to rise up...
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