Message to Men.

I wonder why men seem to think that just because they do something, that women should also be the same...and what I love even more is how they use the argument of if you want to be equal then you have to do the same..."I say, if women want to be equal to men, then they have to talk like men"...kind of missed the whole point behind the concept of equality.
Anyhow, I was reading this blog, where this guy is talking about how women don't admit to masturbating, and that they should. Now to be honest, I agree with him that is it a bit stupid to suppose that women don't do it. But for him to suggest that because women don't 'talk' about it, makes them stupid is fucking annoying...I think is ridiculous...it would be like me saying that men are stupid because they lack the ability-or willingness-to talk about feelings...to discuss, to sort through thing...every sentence that starts with "I feel..." Instantly becomes drama for them...that for them to be at the same level as women they should ALL start talking about how they feel, because we all know that they have feelings-well at least I honestly hope so!!!!
I love this kind of warped logic that people use, and it is hard to talk to them...because they are right in a way-I mean this dude goes on to say that it is stupid how girls can comment on men's weight but the other way is not really accepted...I agree with him...but then look at the next statement:"and yes they talk about the most pointless crap a donkey wouldn't approve of" Funny...for sure...I cracked up...valid...not at all...don't men talk about the most POINTLESS crap...I know this for a fact...I have male friends, and I hear what they talk about...pointless sometimes...absafuckingloutly!!!!!

One year Anniversary

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.

Bunny Boiler?!?!?

Valentine's Day is like herpes: just when you think its gone for good, it rears its ugly head once more. No wonder some people prefer to call it VD.
I am sure we are all aware of what today is: Valentines Day!!!
I am not a big fan of this day, yes and am single, but today on the radio while going to work I again reaffirmed my dislike for this day. on Sawt al-Gad radio station, they had dedicated the morning show for people to call in and to announce their love for someone. So they poor guy called Mike calls in and asks the woman on the radio to call this girl that he likes and to tell her...LIVE...that he is in love with her. So radio woman calls this girl, who is going into her lecture, the girl is obviously surprised and is told on NATIONAL RADIO...that one of her friends is in love with her...she is so oblivious of this fact...only to tell all of Jordan that she sees him only as her friend-sorry-best friend!!!! I felt so bad for this guy, who because of this day felt that he MUST profess his love for this girl...I guess it is kind of his fault he didn't have to do it on the radio, but that is the point, Valentines day seems to force people to act in a way that really is not them...he could have told this girl in private how he felt. I am sure he had thought about telling her before, but knew that she would say they are only friends, but because of V-day, his hopes seem to have risen, he ginuenly believed that if he did it via this medium that she would what...fall to her knees and realise that she is madely in love with him.
Please don't get me wrong, I am not attacking this guy, or what he did, but I was upset that he got so humiliated...I know that love hurts, but really it is not supposed to make you feel like shite! I am a romantic, and you would thus think that today would be my favorite day, but I hate it, it makes people feel obliged to act and say things, that really they should not be forced into doing. I don't want someone to tell me they love because, because the calender tells them to! No I would rather have them tell me on some other day, on a day where I would not be expecting it, where finding flowers on my office desk, or a box of chocolates on my door step, would put a smile on my face...rather then me picking them up and continuing with my day. A friend of mine today was talking to me, and telling me that he was thinking of gong back or recontacting an ex because he heard that she might be getting engaged. The last time this friend talked about this particular ex, all he could say aobut her was that she is boring, not really his type, and didn't know how he could have stayed with her so long...yet now all of a sudden-VD-he is thinking that maybe she is the woman of his dreams...that he should not have left her blah blah...I mean honestly, any other day and he would never have had these thoughts...and I am sure that tomorrow he will be like, hmm...wonder what I was thinking???
I am telling you, today makes single people feel like they have some sort of diease, that they have never been loved, or even worse that they will never be loved...the worst thing thought is that I have noticed that my male friends dont seem to be that effected by the day. Someone should do a study on this fact, why is it that the single women that I know today feel like crap, while the single men I know go around with no bad feelings what-so-ever-well except for the friend mentioned above-could it be because more women like chocolate than men??? Or maybe I should just be like them...and not care...

Fisk

Robert Fisk is a great writter, and I very much enjoy reading his articles in the Independent or on ZNet. I know that the issue of the the Danish Cartoons has been over done-and that I have said that before-but a friend of mine forwarded this article for me, and I felt that is a must read...quite insightful and kind of a new perspective. The article is entitled:

Don't be fooled, this isn't an issue of Islam versus secularism
'The Koran does not forbid images of the Prophet but millions of Muslims do'

So now it's cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed with a bomb-shaped turban. Ambassadors are withdrawn from Denmark, Gulf nations clear their shelves of Danish produce, Gaza gunmen threaten the European Union. In Denmark, Fleming Rose, the "culture" editor of the pip-squeak newspaper which published these silly cartoons - last September, for heaven's sake - announces that we are witnessing a "clash of civilizations" between secular Western democracies and Islamic societies. This does prove, I suppose, that Danish journalists follow in the tradition of Hans Christian Anderson. Oh lordy, lordy. What we're witnessing is the childishness of civilizations.
So let's start off with the Department of Home Truths. This is not an issue of secularism versus Islam. For Muslims, the Prophet is the man who received divine words directly from God. We see our prophets as faintly historical figures, at odds with our high-tech human rights, almost caricatures of themselves. The fact is that Muslims live their religion. We do not. They have kept their faith through innumerable historical vicissitudes. We have lost our faith ever since Matthew Arnold wrote about the sea's "long, withdrawing roar". That's why we talk about "the West versus Islam" rather than "Christians versus Islam" - because there aren't an awful lot of Christians left in Europe. There is no way we can get round this by setting up all the other world religions and asking why we are not allowed to make fun of Mohamed.
Besides, we can exercise our own hypocrisy over religious feelings. I happen to remember how, more than a decade ago, a film called The Last Temptation of Christ showed Jesus making love to a woman. In Paris, someone set fire to the cinema showing the movie, killing a young man. I also happen to remember a US university which invited me to give a lecture three years
ago. I did. It was entitled "September 11, 2001: ask who did it but, for God's sake, don't ask why". When I arrived, I found that the university had deleted the phrase "for God's sake" because "we didn't want to offend certain sensibilities". Ah-ha, so we have "sensibilities" too.
In other words, while we claim that Muslims must be good secularists when it comes to free speech - or cheap cartoons - we can worry about adherents to our own precious religion just as much. I also enjoyed the pompous claims of European statesmen that they cannot control free speech or newspapers. This is also nonsense. Had that cartoon of the Prophet shown instead a chief rabbi with a bomb-shaped hat, we would have had "anti-Semitism" screamed into our ears - and rightly so - just as we often hear the Israelis complain about anti-Semitic cartoons in Egyptian newspapers.
Furthermore, in some European nations - France is one, Germany and Austria are among the others - it is forbidden by law to deny acts of genocide. In France, for example, it is illegal to say that the Jewish Holocaust or the Armenian Holocaust did not happen. So it is, in fact, permissible to make certain statements in European nations. I'm still uncertain whether these
laws attain their objectives; however much you may prescribe Holocaust denial, anti-Semites will always try to find a way round. We can hardly exercise our political restraints to prevent Holocaust deniers and then start screaming about secularism when we find that Muslims object to our provocative and insulting image of the Prophet.
For many Muslims, the "Islamic" reaction to this affair is an embarrassment. There is good reason to believe that Muslims would like to see some element of reform introduced to their religion. If this cartoon had advanced the cause of those who want to debate this issue, no-one would have minded. But it was clearly intended to be provocative. It was so outrageous
that it only caused reaction.
And this is not a great time to heat up the old Samuel Huntingdon garbage about a "clash of civilizations". Iran now has a clerical government again. So, to all intents and purposes, does Iraq (which was not supposed to end up with a democratically elected clerical administration, but that's what happens when you topple dictators). In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood won 20
per cent of the seats in the recent parliamentary elections. Now we have Hamas in charge of "Palestine". There's a message here, isn't there? That America's policies - "regime change" in the Middle East - are not achieving their ends. These millions of voters were preferring Islam to the corrupt regimes which we imposed on them.
For the Danish cartoon to be dumped on top of this fire is dangerous indeed. In any event, it's not about whether the Prophet should be pictured. The Koran does not forbid images of the Prophet even though millions of Muslims do. The problem is that these cartoons portrayed Mohamed as a bin Laden-type image of violence. They portrayed Islam as a violent religion.
It is not. Or do we want to make it so?

What is the world coming to?!?!?!?!?!?!???!?!?!?!??

Sheltered in my Mind

I love sitting in my bed at night, just before I fall asleep, and start letting my mind wonder while listening to my music. You are in your pjs...nice and warm under the duvet, and you are waiting for your eyes to close, and thoughts start going through your head. I usually have my ipod on, and am listening to some good music, and you catch a line of a song: I know you can't resist, trying reopen a sore. It makes you think...about how you do that sometimes...bring things up that should just be left to lie...your mind starts to think about what someone had said that day...or how your responded. Then all of a sudden you are smiling because you remember a bad joke your friend had said and that was not funny...but now is absolutely mind-numbingly funny...at this point of course you remember that you have work tomorrow...and you try to shut your eyes...only for another song lyric to jump out at you: And so you see I have come to doubt, All that I once held as true, I stand alone without beliefs. How scarey would that be, to stand alone without beliefs? Your mind starts to wonder again, this time taking you to a movie you had just seen where a guy is saying how great it would be to wake up one morning and find yourself without any responsibilities, without people who love you and that you love, where you can just go anywhere, with anyone, and feel no guilt about the people you left behind...how amazing would that be, yet how lonely...again your eyes start to shut...one more drink, Could you make it strong, 'cause I don’t need to think...one more drink...how nice would that be, that would sure knock me out, no more thinking about things. Wonder what I will be doing at work tomorrow, I hope its not boring, I wonder what the girls I am working with did tonight? What would they think of my night, going out for a drink and playing 20 questions? il3ab il3ab il3aaaaab, blasts through your thoughts, and as your hands try to find your ipod between the sheets to turn it down, your mind realises that your ipod was on shuffle...how great is shuffle, its like your own private radio station, your are guaranteed songs that you love-well I used to love that song!!!! So this is love, So this is what makes life divine, I'm all aglow, Mmmmmm no wonder I am a raging romantic, how could Disney do that to kids? But everyone loves Disney...well yeah of course but from the time we are kids we are listening to lyrics like that, how could we possibly NOT get our hearts broken when we are older, since love is NEVER ever like that aglow feeling!!! Bitter, don't become bitter lulwa, I tell myself, life is great...and the moon is out and the stars are bright and whatever comes s'gonna be alright. The eyes start to shut, I take my ipod off, find my Peter and slowly slip into a peaceful sleep...good night!

Violence

I know that we are all getting a bit bored and fed up with blogs that write about the whole Danish cartoon saga...but what I have been thinking about lately is not what this saga is about and blah blah, but more about why is it that the Arab street felt tat the only way to make their point is to go out and burn and pillage these embassies, in Syria and Lebanon? In other words why is it that people turn to violence? This is a long and complicated question-one that took me a whole chapter in my PhD to try and answer-but it is one that I find very interesting.
There are over a thousand reasons and theories as to why people decide to use violence, be it at home, pubs, football matches, on street or in times of war. But I think when it comes to political demonstrations, and people becoming violent during them, it has to do with one thing, that they fell repressed. They don't think that their governments are representing them, they don't feel that their governments are even listening to them. If we go down this path of thought, we get to one of the greatest Arab Feminist writers of all time, Fatima Mernissi, in one of her books, she states that men oppress and are violent toward the women in their lives, because they are themselves oppressed and facing acts of violence outside their homes. So to feel in power they take it out on the people they have at home, wives, sisters, daughters, mothers.
So why did the men in the streets of Syria and Lebanon attack the embassies, I am sure there are many theories out there, but mine is quite simple. If these men felt that their governments were doing anything to show the world how unhappy their people were with these cartoons, they would have had a peaceful demonstration. I don't think that Arabs are by nature violent, or that we see ourselves as either the victims or the victimizers, these men felt-rightly or wrongly-that they had to do this for the world to understand how upsetting the cartoons were, and the fact that the Danish government was no apologizing.
Now before any of you pops a vein, my purpose here is not to justify what happened in these two cities, or to get into the discussion of whether or not the Danish government should apologize for what was published in the newspapers. The only point is to see why people decide to take the violent path. It is quite simple, if people in the Arab world felt that they truly participated in their governments, that 'our' leaders-some elected some not-were actually listening and then implementing we want, I am more than a 100% sure this violence would not have occurred. People resort to these sort of acts in all regions of the world, it is not an Arab or Muslim trait, just look at the riots on the streets of London during May Day, the riots that happened in Los Angeles after Rodney King was beaten up by the police. But what is quite true is that people of this region do get 'worked' up more about this stuff, and again the reason for that being, they are the most repressed and oppressed people. Allow the people to participate and feel that their voice is-at the VERY least-being heard, and watch as people become less violent.

Freedom of Speech?????

I am sure you have all seen the cartoon that have caused the outcry in the Arab world. I have been reading the BBC World News and Aljazeera web pages about what has been going on, and call me naive but I have been surprised.
Firstly, to see that not only did the Danish newspaper print the cartoons but also now a French and German one also. What I found comical-if that is the right word-is how the French and German newspapers have justified reprinting them. The editor of the French newspaper France Soir, Serge Faubert stated unapologetically that : "Enough lessons from these reactionary bigots! There is nothing in these incriminated cartoons that intends to be racist or denigrate any community as such, some are funny, others less so. That's it. That is why we have decided to publish them." The German newspaper, Welt daily, put one of the drawings on its front page on Wednesday, saying the picture was "harmless" and regretted that the Danish Jyllands-Poste daily had apologized for causing offense. "Democracy is the institutionalized form of freedom of expression," the paper said in a front-page commentary.The Danish paper had apologized a day earlier for causing offence to Muslims, although it maintained it was legal under Danish law to print them. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the paper's apology, but has rejected calls to punish the paper, saying the government cannot censor the press.
Secondly is Arab reaction to this whole issue has also been amazing, Palestinians protested against Denmark for allowing publication of the cartoons and Arab ministers called on it to punish the newspaper that first printed them. Saudi Arabia and Syria have recalled their ambassadors from Copenhagen and Libya has closed its embassy.
I know that people have been emailing these cartoons to each other-I have gotten this email at least three time in my private inbox, and another 2 times in my office address-telling each other how outraged they are and that we should boycott Danish products. Supposedly the Danish dairy company in Jordan has been sending out pamphlets saying that it is Danish only in name.
I guess what I find interesting about this whole issue, is that both sides are right, and in my opinion they are one side. The Arab street is saying that just as much as these newspapers have the right to publish this kind of material, so do the people how it directly effect have the right to demonstrate against it. How can an organisation as reputable as Reporters Without Borders state that the reaction in the Arab world "betrays a lack of understanding" of press freedom as "an essential accomplishment of democracy"? Is this not also not allowing people to voice their opinion, to say NO we do not find the cartoons funny, nor is the topic a comical one for us. What has the Arab street done that hasn't happened before. When it was found out that Nike used sweat shops, did people not demonstrate against it and boycott the products? When Nestle sold powered milk that was not good to mothers in the Third World, did people not come out in masses on the streets and not eat Kit Kats? Why is it that when this region gets upset, and show it, the people are called emotional, irrational, and worst of all uncivilised? The pictures that are shown of the demonstrations are always of people shouting and screaming. The BBC web page dealing with the cartoons, has a picture of the Satanic Versus's being burned and a list of past issues that Muslims have gotten upset about. It makes it seem as if this community is just unable, or more like unwilling to deal with any other perspective. When I was reading that list I felt like a parent talking to a child telling them all the wrong things they had done...hummiliating!
I think that the cartoons should have been published, and that people who didn't agree-or who didn't find it particularly funny-should show their disapproval. But I also think that this should have been used as an opportunity for both sides to understand each other better. For them to sit and to decide that they would no longer see the 'Other' as the enemy, to try to figure out why did the West feel that it could publish these kind of things, and why the Muslim street reacted like it did. So that the negative is not longer seen, or expected, and that it no longer is we are better than then, or they are worse then us. Instead each side has dug themselves further in their trenches, and are even less willing or able to see what the other is saying.