tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25907145102320438602024-02-06T18:36:38.345-08:00The Middle East DebateBeing secular is fun ! It means respecting all religions while believing that religion and politics should actually remain separate. Try it !Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-83518374355399039702008-11-21T04:05:00.000-08:002008-11-21T04:46:24.006-08:00Of Social Contracts<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv6JlyCcEU6MQUC6ebLOh3pnaFx2bRpX_p031jje2ddqYF8MZ2K8-eKC-ZNKoIfbybjObMbV4NVLwjMzCqiLZR3iopc4XBLB8x-b-p9qwAcgcu51dCCOBI4qM1BTOMKJB81nHLrr9bzTVa/s1600-h/shariarevise.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 135px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv6JlyCcEU6MQUC6ebLOh3pnaFx2bRpX_p031jje2ddqYF8MZ2K8-eKC-ZNKoIfbybjObMbV4NVLwjMzCqiLZR3iopc4XBLB8x-b-p9qwAcgcu51dCCOBI4qM1BTOMKJB81nHLrr9bzTVa/s200/shariarevise.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271089572777058386" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Back. I've been busy, travelling.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Remember that book from Poli-Sci 101 ? Jean-Jacques Rousseau ? I received the special issue of Al Ahram on Social Contract... Here's <a href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/919/sc13.htm">an article that I recommend</a>, about Egypt and Sharia law, and below the comment I sent, titled "Yes, We Can".<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On another forum I've had lots of reactions to this comment. A surprising number of people mistake secularism with the absence of religion, rather than a way to treat all religions equally. I'll follow up on that. Any lawyers ?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">....</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Yes, We Can !</span><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I was interested by your article "The absent woman" on Sharia and civil law in Egypt. <br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the same article you talk about social contract and about Sharia. You make the point that the rank of women as second-class citizen in the civil law stems from a misinterpretation of the Sharia, and you make call for a new, more "modern" interpretation of Sharia. I am sure that none of your assumptions were commanded by political correctness rather than sincere beliefs, therefore I'd like to go further and ask a question.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Do you have a social contract with Sharia ? Should every citizen have one ? The concept of social contract involves, at least symbolically, that every citizen agrees to some form of contract, and that is clearly materialized in a democracy, where citizens make the law and therefore willingly submit to it. But citizens didn't write the Sharia, God did.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As you said, the current interpretation of Sharia may contradict the very constitution it's embedded in. In fact it does contradict even higher laws: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, binding all member States of the United Nations, including Egypt. Which is why some members, including Egypt, decided to re-write it, or write their own Declaration of Human Rights, no more "universal", but suitably the "Cairo Declaration of Human Rights" according to Sharia, or Human rights in Islam. There is no universality any more for the member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference who signed this text.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They were bothered by a certain number of universal rights, especially articles 16 and 18, for instance, so... they changed them:<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Article 16</span> of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Islamic conference's declaration, in turn, gives men and women the "right to marriage" regardless of their race, colour or nationality, but of course not religion. That is not subject to interpretation. Whichever way you turn that rule, marriage is strictly regulated by Sharia.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Same for <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Article 18</span>: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief". Of course, no muslim country can accept that, because apostasy is a crime, according to Sharia, and freedom of conscience does not exist.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The preamble of the Cairo declaration states that "All men are equal in terms of basic human dignity", whereas the Universal Declaration said "rights", Article 6 of the Cairo declaration states that women are guaranteed equal dignity, in contrast to the Universal declaration which offers equal rights. These are just a few examples of the differences between the two Declarations.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As you can see, your observations on women being "less equal than others" could also apply to non-muslims. That is inevitable, since Sharia is stated as a source of the law: one religion above the others.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Therefore, the inevitable conclusion if one wants equal rights among all citizens is that civil law and Sharia cannot live in the same text, nor be enforced by the same entity, however liberal the interpretation. The State has to choose one or the other to be consistent. Sharia is an individual choice, guided by faith, not to be forced unto the people by means of a civil code.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are moderate muslims who live perfectly happy in Western societies, they live according to their faith, and according to a law that grants rather more equal rights than in Egypt. Why is that possible in the West ? Because it happens in open societies where religion and State are separated clearly.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It appears that your assumption that "Religion is an ally to equal citizenhip" is a vastly overstated one, or wishful thinking. I appreciate your call on scholars to bring an interpretation more suitable to the times. But what if, in their vast majority, they think the current interpretation should not be changed ? And you still submit the fate of the people to those unelected scholars. Which ones have the authority ?<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I liked your attack on a so-called "Eastern Identity", for I can hear the criticism of a secularist model in the Middle East: "our Eastern identity is not ready for this. We have to keep our Sharia as a law, because our people want it and it's part of our identity." Is it ? Surely, Christians could have said the same when the Church and the State were separated in the West, and they did. But change happened, enforced by political courage. What is and what is not "Eastern Identity" ? Is it really religion ? What about minorities then ? <br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A telling reality all over the Middle East is the existence of a line "Religion" in all ID papers and passports. What is the necessity for the State to record that information, if not to sort citizens and treat them differently in various situations ?<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You mention that the responsible of the inequality between men and women is the patriarchal set of customs, rather than religion. But what if patriarchal rules were an inherent part of many major religions, including Islam ? It is a possibility that should not be ignored.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some rules are not to be "re-interpreted", but simply erased, like of course were erased the practice of stoning or chopping hands. But, is it still Sharia, if it was expurgated from the most embarrassing passages ? Can one pick and choose ? Justice and common sense always run the risk of being overrun if they contradict the religion of a majority. Can religion be separated from State in the Middle East ? A lot of local friends say "this is the way things are around here, and no one can change it with a magic wand". The question is: do you want to change it ? Are Middle Eastern people fundamentally different from the western ? I beg to differ.<br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Someone whose middle name is Hussein recently said something very inspirational to all of us about change. Wherever we live, whichever society, whichever social contract or environment. Can we change it ? Can we change ourselves ? That gentleman responded: "Yes, we can."<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-23801955875110296652008-07-22T12:14:00.000-07:002008-07-22T12:32:03.297-07:00A bullet in the leg<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-yXuN7W9Qml4rpyhw60k7lZT-xX5RLVksZmrpSAbcrahY58VMbu1f7xiuBl1aB8s-mMryoU8s3jvIvNyy-gSsghObaA4NCWfDYNM8VU4o71pKI6czZjcJ8HAxSqkn_oU47Ay3JpPxJBVn/s1600-h/screenshot_01.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-yXuN7W9Qml4rpyhw60k7lZT-xX5RLVksZmrpSAbcrahY58VMbu1f7xiuBl1aB8s-mMryoU8s3jvIvNyy-gSsghObaA4NCWfDYNM8VU4o71pKI6czZjcJ8HAxSqkn_oU47Ay3JpPxJBVn/s200/screenshot_01.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5225923342152748786" /></a><br /><div> </div><div> </div>1. ANger. After seeing this I<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/21/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast">sraeli soldier shoot a (rubber) bullet</a> at point blank range in the leg of a blindfolded Palestinian held by another soldier. How can these Israeli soldiers not realize the shame they bring not only on their country but also on all Jews, when they have no right to speak for anyone else.<div><br /><div> </div><div>On the bright side, the video was shown by an anti-colonization, militant Israeli NGO. Those Israeli gave small video cameras to Palestinians to record every incident they could see in the street, and to be able to show it to the world.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>The man who was shot recovered, and the one who shot the bullet was sent to prison. But only because there was this evidence.<br /><div> <div>2. Niqab. France has gone mad. It denied citizenship to a Moroccan woman because she was wearing the niqab. Everyone in France seemed happy about that: the right, the left, womens' organizations... They said it's a submissive practice that goes against the place of women in our society.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>First, the French called it a Burqa (which is the "grilled" Afghan version). Second, they said she was practising her religion in an "extreme way" (although there's nothing in the Q'ran on niqabs). Third, this is a private matter. How you choose to dress should not affect your access to citizenship. What about people who have S&M practices and choose to walk in the street with a leash (I've seen some punks do that in London) ?</div><div><br /></div><div>3. Run to see "Waltz with Bashir", the animated movie about the War in Lebanon. An israeli soldier tries to remember what happened to him when the Christian militias went into the camps of Sabra and Chatila to kill Palestinians. It's probably not going to show in Arab countries though, since it's made by an Israeli, although it's very critical of Israel.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>The same happened to "The Band's visit" last year, a very nice Israeli movie about an Egyptian band coming to Israel to perform music at a Palestinian festival.</div><div> </div></div></div></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-61745503139739052322008-06-15T20:52:00.000-07:002008-06-15T21:29:12.416-07:00Time<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">1. I remember heroes in black and white, from a time in black and white. My grandfather's war, the second World War, was in black & white. There were not as many questions. Morals were simpler, people had simpler choices and it seems to me were more straightforward.</span><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">He'd always go back to those three years of fighting, as the most important of his life. Of course, whenever I asked him about it, my grandmother would go "oh, here we go agaaaaaain".</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2. Time has taken her away. She was travelling last time I was in France, and I couldn't meet her. She died suddenly, while I'm here, away.</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We always assume that we have time, when we really don't. We can't afford to postpone anything: seeing family, friends, our loved ones, when we are able to see them, because really no one knows what can happen next. It's very obvious, of course, but still we forget about it all the time: WE DON'T HAVE TIME. We forget until it's too late.</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">When life goes away, so go the laughters to come, and the ones you had are all that's left.</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">3. Se worried about me since you left. She asked questions.</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I saw a recent picture of you, by coincidence, on the net. It was unexpected. And it did me good: I felt nothing. It made me realize I am probably not in love with you any more. There is just this longing of something valuable that was wasted away. Like I gave a part of me that is gone, and there's a hollow feeling there.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I still google your name sometimes, to check on you. All I need is to know that you're alright, that you're doing fine. The only form of love I have left for you: knowing that you're ok. And that is enough.</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">4. There's more life and love ahead, but it's hard to jump into the water again when you nearly drowned once. This week, I had a very real reminder that time is running from our fingers.</span></div><div> </div><div> </div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-26416156693702225892008-06-11T23:45:00.000-07:002008-06-12T08:12:43.325-07:00What's in a name<img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOMTlsIE4x8yD3OYiDrbARiVmTO-dNIfAXYEnHTYbsSNC_iSP646jEguNrbA9Pg_lJVgpy3GPzXfx79F3Bq8KIvSd9SH7HZifT_bqODcKDcHi4ivKnjSv7v_ipD22caoAgCVJ9cRgvESQT/s200/obama_wideweb__470x418,0.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210895712880508290" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><div style="text-align: justify;">1. Barack Hussein Obama's being ridiculously attacked by Republicans for sharing his middle name with Saddam. Stephen Colbert made a hilarious remark that "Rodham" (Hillary Rodham Clinton) also sounds like "Saddam". Hey, here's the next joke for late shows and conspiracy theorists: has anyone noticed that his first name is also the surname of Israel's Defense minister and ex-prime minister, Ehud Barak ? Go figure.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div> </div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">2. On a more serious note, a couple of days ago I was mentioning the soaring price of fuel triggering strikes in 2 businesses: trucking and fishing. The same scenario is now expanding geographically. UK truckers are joining the strikes. In Thailand and South Korea, truckers and fishermen strikes were violently repressed. More strikes on fuel prices in India and Hong Kong.</div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg19GKtkW8hrpArJOrAUnlVxrvZqhb7HX82yqddCaw0nNnqM2PTwunyNs0kqMDScXSkfA6kgeO7-4lho-o6ZbEAx-pO9nARtxCcG3uyBhxXmAp0hLDkHxMyqz1K5kbX9UHU4lVSjDwJ65F3/s200/india+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210896696377171570" /><div style="text-align: justify;"> Philippines are Malaysia are hit hard too. The images from all over the world start to look exactly the same. In Barcelona, the busiest city of Spain, there is a shortage in gas stations. No more fuel.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPKaYZm4T5vjHcYGs0f-Vt7npFGSY0iRjUS8y2NcFUkA1tAfa3IY7UU1MkdEXhS2WW5J8eq7Jbs9NGBIeljjuA6wlduV28C2wBsCdTBqTONCXdO1VTa_ni2O4OhgW-EBJalE0U5xs0forb/s200/HK.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210896159906644466" /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's expanding to other industries too: the Lisbon airport is CLOSED due to fuel shortage. The capital of Portugal, a major European city ! Farmers in France started protesting too. Major car companies are reacting fast. Toyota in Japan is reducing its production of SUVs to switch to hybrids. Hummer in the USA are closing plants.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In Russia, Gazprom warned that the price of the barrel is going to hit 250 dollars (now 135).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">That's only the beginning. Start buying shares of bicycle makers and running shoes !</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Funny that no one in the US is protesting yet, while war is hindering normal production in the world's largest oil reserve: Iraq.<br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">3. Another ressource that is being depleted: water. In the Middle East, especially. The authorities in Jordan have started to send the police against misuse of water, like washing your car or watering your garden during the day.</span></div><div> </div></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-76208083284117605132008-06-11T05:57:00.001-07:002008-06-11T07:47:11.212-07:00Dilemma under the sun<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghoKcGlOBPq5ABqjzcCAuDPJwFBWdkUi2IGVGNV1-gKa4Jam1HdBavyCEoDvpRQKGkuR7bYx_uLyQV8fe2L4qfMMGcGY8JOEwIYHoR8Bpfb2vU-pqCU_G60mnXy9EAnM6U62g98gLzKn8Q/s1600-h/supertramp.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210616020068085410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghoKcGlOBPq5ABqjzcCAuDPJwFBWdkUi2IGVGNV1-gKa4Jam1HdBavyCEoDvpRQKGkuR7bYx_uLyQV8fe2L4qfMMGcGY8JOEwIYHoR8Bpfb2vU-pqCU_G60mnXy9EAnM6U62g98gLzKn8Q/s320/supertramp.jpg" border="0" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />There's a big bright sun over Amman. And I have a fantastic roof. Sun + roof = sitting outside soaking it up, reading the newspaper. Not in the Middle East, not in Amman. I went up with my paper and sunglasses, debated whether I could take my shirt off at least through the cartoon section and let my skin photosynthesize that vitamin D and soak up natural anti-depressant.</span> <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I did. But after 5 minutes of sitting there with my shirt off, I just "felt" eyes over me. I noticed all the surrounding windows like as many dark eyes. Now, I don't know. Maybe it was my imagination. Maybe the curtains around were just moved by the wind... I just felt wrong. I put my shirt back on, cursing. And went downstairs, because what's the use ?<br /></span></div><div><p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 16px Georgia"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 16px Georgia"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I have a dream, that one day in Jabal Weibda, man will be able to read his newspaper shirtless on his roof without feeling like he's in the nude on Broadway.</span></p></div><div></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-24510882325763011542008-06-10T09:44:00.000-07:002008-06-11T12:32:26.485-07:00Of Bush and my grandmother... and stuff<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210302206944611186" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FVN69RYQNZPW8kL7Jqp7A_KDEgNkMihKtNp5uuJSseSs-zGPg3oSfmzo3-xnq8QZmM2Gaot_7qzO7Aqg7VKiKcGpj90lK5A58BQiHuhbd0cJx61yJAhTvgMunNPAYimaFlxBcdzXHb5b/s320/bush-smiling.jpg" border="0" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><div><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 16px Georgia"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1. I just saw George Bush on TV. I couldn't concentrate on what he was saying, because I just noticed how much he looks more and more like my grandmother. Seriously. It's disturbing.</span></p></div><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibxBs0d9b83irt1CzoRZlaseFQf1Xo23IX3UFujnWWjE72RA00jmNigAAts9k3A6lJaQEepbvQR5GHMxEeC9gmZDGlhIH_VAALj2RibUIOw3sGs8fD1kR6iZsj2yw6ocTfv5-OOW9fPqGo/s320/bush-smiling+copy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210708856431422850" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">2. It has begun. The moment when the price of oil has become so expensive that it threatens the profitability of businesses directly depending on it. In Portugal, Spain and France, truck drivers and Fishermen no longer make profits when they work, due to the price of gasoline. The strikes expand geographically, and it's probably going to expand to other sectors of the economy.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The current crisis is also affecting the price of food worldwide. In Bengl Desh, Ethiopia, Egypt, news are coming. In Europe, people are now being very careful trying to save money when they shop for food.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Maybe the strikes in Europe will eventually stop, after negociations to lower the taxes on oil. But this is just a temporary solution to a long-term problem: the finite nature of this planet's resources. Check out the </span><a href="http://www.storyofstuff.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Story of stuff</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">, that I found on this Jordan </span><a href="http://naydynmoody.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">blog</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">. It explains really well the nature of the problem.</span></div><div><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210302364578017410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtR12iPswS3B0RhfTM6CGgvCcOlo_mgVoEKFEHOwoGNGgJv2VmfM2TdPQ801jwbRreo51pYWVJJRlxxNotABgDbrbH_POx-prGGhEoYt1uRYX7mcTmRPQp1v54MvObhvzCdiLWHWx5qfwH/s320/storyofstuff.jpg" border="0" /> <div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div></div></span>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-11392659382397106442008-06-07T22:23:00.000-07:002008-06-07T23:02:42.763-07:00The Only Middle Eastern Gay Pride Parade<img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjILJzyqHPNXXjNtYHkPOb59eMZocVpZFsXIQCks5vHYo-gGinOq72FGmVrW8w3z8unxn196c1XtUpzoW9MUlBXqQTFWMI6epYO5RDCAfYdoXBYdoHlOCB2pMC20TBeWaHgDIiNDCt6BgbS/s320/YOB_0267-(Large)_wa.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209385596317202354" /><div><br /><div> </div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Yesterday was the 10th </span><a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3552731,00.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Gay Pride parade</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, in Israel, to promote the rights of gays and lesbians. That's one thing for which Israel is actually more progressive than its neighbours. When will a Gay Pride event be organized in Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon or Egypt ?</span></div><div><br /></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXzOG3SD_isRJfXwYLPnfh2E1n2ad5laQGgk7qUvjzOHf2-Clm7LS1ml70gqCeQLEx-_t85_Pog4ANu-Bjfr0Cl70QkIwmDb5eik7p2O6FiaZggMAa_q0NEDqcd00fk5GQVTBvfke-hj6/s320/YOB_0287-(Large)_wa.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209385315499039922" /><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Most governments in the region are very repressive (remember the Queen boat in Cairo). I suspect many Middle Eastern people even refuse to accept the existence of same-sex love.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Remember the hilarious statement of Mahmood Ahmadinejad stating that "there are no gays in Iran". From what I saw, Jordan and Lebanon are a bit more tolerant than Egypt. In Tel Aviv's Gay parade, the feminist group called "Black Laundry" also protest each year to promote Palestinian rights, a common sight in all progressive, left-wing demonstrations.</span></div><div><br /></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyVt1qPdMi-eappW37I0BoMfgh1TSajtoAaQWH52lOwzfew2BKTAGx4FBRiV9tn9_b7OsXFKt4c2p7elkUAntXGEiyTb0y3H2JfWo2V_-_IK4T3vfonDucgIPmdv6o3nI_Fq1lXx3FSfSj/s320/_38106695_ap300target.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209385758251632514" /><div> </div><div> </div></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-54611415589290908662008-06-04T08:38:00.000-07:002008-06-04T14:26:16.444-07:00Ban the Dane... the return<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I love Amman. Whenever I think my rants are moot, and I might run out of topics for this blog, I just buy the newspaper.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The problem is: I talk to intelligent, educated, modern, open-minded Jordanians, and it distorts my understanding of local reality. Thank God (yes!), the front page of the Jordan Times today runs a title on BOYCOTT...</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yes, aaaaagain, the old Danish cartoons story. The Amman general prosecutor decided to subpoena the Danish journalists for running the cartoons in 2006, and a new ban on Danish products is planned to start this week.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The story doesn't say if Danish insuline should be boycotted by hospitals and diabetics, since Denmark still produces 90% of it, despite Saudi's efforts to build a new plant.</span></div><div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I wish I could find online and publish on this blog the French cartoons of the 1970s on Jesus walking on the sea, and his disciples swimming around saying: "you should join us, the water's perfect !", and many others that even the Pope must have had a good laugh with.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So, we're still there. Some among us are still stuck into a timeframe where their religion is threatened by a cartoon. I remember the excellent movie "The name of the Rose" where the church was destroying and hiding some forbidden books of Aristotle and Aesop because they were </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">funny</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> and laughter was the enemy of God.</span></div><div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Also, yesterday I was discussing about Roberto Benigni's controversial efforts to laugh about everything. And he was right.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">OK the cartoons were not funny. But that is their only crime, and the only reason I disagree with them. Voltaire said "I do not agree with you but I will defend to death your right to say it".</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Laughter and caricature is a healthy way to point our own shortcomings, and this boycott reaction is the worst possible reaction.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A very funny actor, Desproges, once said: "One can laugh about everything, but unfortunetely not with everyone". I couldn't agree more.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg7BV6keQd5AHWWicnktUmXSUZVESSJ89MHQ5y6cSCNX8dmNgaVWxg88wua_SbKdsyIhgklWKK4RQpN7XTWQ8PICOC4vGWdEOMpRkGMm59gyCXiqSRbapm173T1unkpIn1c7MgCACqL4Vb/s200/Cartoon+for+BLOG.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208140449161906066" /></span><div> </div><br /><div> </div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-25849759215537708382008-06-04T06:05:00.000-07:002008-06-04T06:42:49.609-07:00Random thoughts, coming back from Europe<img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPAwY1FjsiOle9SojR5TY6Xoh4KUskmpkAxDS12u5qpmfwMT2bxz1HIyz_5FZnATT9FZOK0QxgQjStVsFb6vn9gMNUv5SCJk4ji2wtM8_KrKm1mhjP2UiTAhhLP1aaX6JzvrbSjGFWF0Hb/s200/Kant6.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208020945886055538" /><br />1. I was re-reading the short text by Kant: "What is enlightenment ?". Always a pleasure.<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family:Times;">"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's reason without guidance from another. This immaturity is comes from lack of resolve and courage to use reason. <i>Sapere Aude</i>! [dare to know] "Have courage to use your own understanding!"--that is the motto of enlightenment.</span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Times;"><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why a great proportion of men, long after having reached the age of maturity, gladly remain in lifelong immaturity, and why it is so easy for others to establish themselves as their "guardians".</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">It is easy to be immature. If I have a book to serve as my understanding, a pastor to serve as my conscience, I need not exert myself at all. Others will readily undertake the irksome work for me. The guardians who have so benevolently taken over the supervision of men have carefully seen to it that the far greatest part of them (especially women) regard taking the step to maturity as very dangerous, not to mention difficult.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Having first made their livestock dumb, and having carefully made sure that these docile creatures will not take a single step without the cart to which they are harnessed, these "guardians" then show them the danger that threatens them, should they attempt to walk alone. Now this danger is not actually so great, for after falling a few times they would in the end learn to walk; but an example of this kind makes men timid and usually frightens them out of all further attempts."</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">2. </p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj01sMYgTMoZbLEzb9FkAIfzgB79kg5Aj5X7dzgRiYcmG02cn-7j_4LWdFHGc9ZtGCV_xEmjdAKC3cqgMC8sAB6TKySb1bgC9p4xMSolnUJiz4Qc8yko2TXXlrsDjpAlSWXRGq6DcbZ_0Pu/s200/Barack+Obama+Official+small.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208021068995926466" /><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">I was glad to learn that Barack Obama won t</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">he nomination of the Democratic party. After all, this long fight against Hillary yielded a lot of exposure, and also toughened him for the fight to come with McCain, so in the end it was a good thing.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">3. Even when the sun shines in Europe, it's never as much of a sun as the one in the Middle East. Actually, I doubt it's even the same. I'm glad to feel its rays back on me again.</p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "> </p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></p></span></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-24972355061717060102008-05-18T23:38:00.000-07:002008-05-19T02:16:20.319-07:00Ben Laden and the Pope<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7YsWgfYMn6oyRQxrB8l-DCg3aDpWmrSHNG-IkZjfp_FzHzmTrEBL8f2uBu5YSSGn6xAZmu__YYXLTTezE2mxWgPQHZbwcDGjaS36fH3FQ-qvLSE3-aL0DtVW-mzVCLuWMUWLwU1G2WIT/s1600-h/benedict.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7YsWgfYMn6oyRQxrB8l-DCg3aDpWmrSHNG-IkZjfp_FzHzmTrEBL8f2uBu5YSSGn6xAZmu__YYXLTTezE2mxWgPQHZbwcDGjaS36fH3FQ-qvLSE3-aL0DtVW-mzVCLuWMUWLwU1G2WIT/s320/benedict.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5201988080693241394" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Today, to my surprise, two personalities I generally disagree with, issued interesting statements.<br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The first was Osama Bin Laden</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The second was the Pope Benedict.</span></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1. Here is the </span><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=120563"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">first</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"Osama bin Laden released a new message on Sunday that accused Arab leaders of sacrificing the Palestinians and called on Muslim militants in Egypt to help break the blockade of Gaza"</span></span></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Well, we have to agree. There are about 50 jobs that a Palestinian CANNOT apply to in Lebanon. Official discrimination is in place in most of the Middle Eastern countries where Palestinians live. Since there is a policy of maintaining Palestinians under a refugee status, many Palestinians are born in exile and will never be given the citizenship of their country of birth, which goes against my belief in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">jus soli</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Unofficial discrimination is also a reality: ask a father from Lebanon or Egypt if he would give his daughter to a Palestinian husband.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "></span></span></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Human Rights organizations issued many reports on Palestinian discrimination in the Middle East. Here is<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> </span></span><a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/feature-stories/palestinian-refugees-suffer-lebanon-20071017"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Amnesty International</span></span></a></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Plenty of testimonies are available, like </span><a href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/pale-m15.shtml"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">this one</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> :"Being a refugee in Lebanon since my birth, I have witnessed and lived through all kinds of prejudices practiced against my people.Palestinians are not allowed to work in many jobs".</span></span></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">After so many statements that Egypt was supporting its "Palestinian brothers", why did Egypt close its border with Gaza ?</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">2. I had so many objections against the election of Pope Benedict XVI, especially considering his <a href="http://atheism.about.com/od/benedictxvi/i/RatzingerNazi.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">misguided youth</span></span></a> when at the same age, young men<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_M%C3%B4quet"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);">aged 17 died in the resistance</span></a>. Today Mr Ratzinger is using his position of moral authority and his ministry for a good cause: the<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span></span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL18183000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">ban on cluster bombs</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">.</span></span></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He unexpectedly took on to speak against the production of these bombs. A cluster bomb is a bomb that subdivides into many smaller bombs scattered indiscriminately on the ground, many of which do not explode after impact. These smaller bombs just lay there for months or years, until a civilian, usually a child, picks up this funny-looking piece of plastic, and gets maimed or killed.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The largest producers of cluster bombs, of course, do not support this ban. That would be China, Russia, Israel, and of course the US.</span></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's a bit sad that these statements come from people I dislike (the Pope) or despise (Bin Laden). The statements stand out because of the personalities of their authors, being who they are. It would be more comforting if they came more often from people that we do support.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-60659806628421309312008-05-18T01:05:00.000-07:002008-06-10T10:26:04.604-07:00The REAL Iron-Man<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Okay... Let's breathe and change topics a minute. Check out Yves Rossy, the Swiss pilot.</span><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVvD8i94Xb1yE7tqEeOJ72HPGkVBIpu9GeqDWFQQb268B6jNMZKSFQOZv-65us6_N4Ev3ENZcPoOuDKQYIE5fUXfKKmoeCCTfHJFrVCVL7ojs3fqB6LfsK_xhLwX0v7nCfxOkQIx2-pCU/s320/Yves+Rossy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5201627535368611330" /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6d7aPamUXEmEirqLWiqF5SQoLU0XcpNLHjXyQpGKqX2nxTJT-c_4Tmo40wsv81VXhDHHMdt4M2ZlSVTx1zu6EVN9NP0wi-zV2gUMS-I8JSS9RX3N3hkgge_8s3gPwhLv8TCRnuFPV01U3/s320/flyingman03.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5201627818836452882" /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I want a pair of these !</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">About "heroes" in the Middle East: with the <a href="http://www.black-iris.com/2008/05/11/romantisizing-nasrallah/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Black Iris</span></a>, I don't understand why so many otherwise reasonable people here cannot be at all critical of </span><a href="http://www.black-iris.com/2008/05/11/romantisizing-nasrallah/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Hassan Nasrallah</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">.</span> That includes some European observers, fascinated by the guy. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Why isn't Lebanon entitled to try and have a government with the monopoly of legitimate violence, as any other State (in the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_the_legitimate_use_of_physical_force"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">definition of Max Weber</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">) ? What's so great about having a sectarian State within a State, supported by foreign powers ?</span></div><div><br /></div></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-8498082357114867892008-05-17T02:37:00.000-07:002008-05-19T05:44:45.512-07:00Do I have the right to use my mind ?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin-1PDFRZY3ZFXOoVq0g2v0uSXcYVlhpjdQlNjHlstdrxKELpAmhrzzzy6icCF-S2XnPPZ8EbzAoMgRFzFVraElFIOWR2bNxRat2DPGZYOjb_Bq2COCLXOPNSnR1yvl9PDiVAd63LedXK3/s1600-h/IbnBattuta.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin-1PDFRZY3ZFXOoVq0g2v0uSXcYVlhpjdQlNjHlstdrxKELpAmhrzzzy6icCF-S2XnPPZ8EbzAoMgRFzFVraElFIOWR2bNxRat2DPGZYOjb_Bq2COCLXOPNSnR1yvl9PDiVAd63LedXK3/s320/IbnBattuta.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5201291471357568498" /></a><br />Should I apply my reason only to things confined to my country of citizenship, or do I have the right to observe, study, and build a reasonable informed opinion on things related to the rest of the world ?<div> </div><div><br /></div><div>As a great admirer or travelers and observers, Ibn Battuta was always a long-time hero for me. He travelled from Morocco to Central Asia, Afghanistan, China and the Arabic peninsula. He was an acute observer and "journalist", commenting on local habits, and often acting as a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">judge, </span>using his wisdom and common sense.</div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div>No one has infinite knowledge, but wisdom and common sense are universal tools that one can apply in China as well as in Timbouctou.</div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div>But today I am more and more weary of the criticism of change in sectarian societies: change (especially in the sense of open democracy and separation of religion and state) is bad, because change comes from the outside. Change is a new form of colonialism, with soft power.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>There is a legitimate suspicion in that criticism. Even if it is flawed, I can understand it because by definition it comes from closed societies.</div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div>That is why change should mostly come from within one country's borders. The biggest job is done in the field by local, grassroots NGOs.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>Let only the Egyptian NGOs tackle FGM in Egypt, only Jordanian NGOs tackle "honor killings" in Jordan, only Muslim NGOs tackle women's rights in Islam, only Israeli NGOs criticize Israel.</div><div> </div><div>Not because they're the only ones who share these principles and values. But because they -at least- cannot be accused of neo-colonialism and of being insensitive to local cultures.</div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div>My conclusion, after years of working with NGOs is, maybe there is no place yet in the world outside Euro-America, for a cosmopolitan community of observers of Politics, a fraternity of freethinkers, because at the local level there will always be the obstacle of "if you don't come from here, you have no right saying what you think because it just means you want to impose your values".</div><div><br /></div><div>No amount of time traveling, studying customs and languages can give the legitimacy needed by closed societies in order to listen to new ideas and think about changing.</div><div><br /></div><div>But it's vital that we look beyond our own problems, that we imagine solutions.</div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-19924202391564559022008-05-14T11:04:00.000-07:002008-05-19T01:02:09.774-07:00Happy (?) Birthday Israel<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So... today's the day. Happy birthday Israel. But... are you really happy ?<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's a year of 60th anniversaries: May 14, 1948: Israel was born (May 15: Nakba started). A few months later: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was issued.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I keep finding it funny that the United Nations created in a few months' interval a State based on ethnic preference, and a Declaration that condemns ethnic/religious discrimination.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Funny also that one year before, India (also formerly under British rule) gained independence and was partitioned along ethnico-religious lines with Pakistan, forming two "ethnically homogenous" (!) States. Of course the ensuing massacres did not teach anyone anything, nor did the refugee situation in both countries, and the lingering territorial problem. Well, at least India is now a Democracy that has a Muslim President. That's not likely to happen soon in Israel.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It took me some time to get to see the point of Palestinians, because at first I did not question the wisdom of the UN decision to create two States in 1947-48. I thought all the current problems came from the post-1967 situation, the occupation of territories, the settlements, the wall, etc.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But applying a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">cartesian</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> approach, I decided to get rid my my preconceptions and started to question the legitimacy of this UN decision, 60 years ago, to create these two "monoethnic" entities, and to question the philosophy behind it.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's easy to see what is wrong in the pure logic of an ethnically based country today. Let me take an example: Aliyah.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">For those who are not familiar, Aliyah is the "Law of Return" that says that even if I have no connection whatsoever with Israel, know no one there, don’t speak Hebrew, and know nothing of Judaism, I am still entitled to immediate Israeli nationality, based on my “race”, because one of my ancestors was Jewish (and therefore I'm "ethnically Jewish" if that makes any sense to anyone). In the meantime, Palestinians will not enjoy equal rights.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Let's see what it would mean in another context. It's as if the USA issued automatic citizenship to "ethnic" White Anglo-Saxon Protestants from all over the world, and denied that same citizenship to Native Americans, while forcing those "Indians" out and restricting them to reservations.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Oh wait... That's what happened in America... But that was in the 19th century. They got away with it then, there was no one to look over their shoulder. But in the middle of the 20th century and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">a fortiori</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> in the 21st century still, it looks bad.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This is exactly why renowned historian Tony Judt says Israel is "an anachronism":</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"The very idea of a "Jewish state"—a state in which Jews and the Jewish religion have exclusive privileges from which non-Jewish citizens are forever excluded—is rooted in another time and place. Israel, in short, is an anachronism.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(...)<br /></span></div><div><p style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In a world where nations and peoples increasingly intermingle and intermarry at will; where cultural and national impediments to communication have all but collapsed; where more and more of us have multiple elective identities and would feel falsely constrained if we had to answer to just one of them; in such a world Israel is truly an anachronism. And not just an anachronism but a dysfunctional one. In today's "clash of cultures" between open, pluralist democracies and belligerently intolerant, faith-driven ethno-states, Israel actually risks falling into the wrong camp." (see <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16671"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">full article</span></a>)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Tony Judt is, might I add, Jewish. Like many other Jews, he questions this philosophy of mixing ethnicity and State, as clearly a notion of the infamous past. Other Jews who think like this include Ilan Pappe, Jeff Halper, Rony Brauman and others. Google their names + "One State Solution" and you'll get plenty more references.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Since it's Israel's birthday, I mention only the Israelis who question the ethnic principle, but of course plenty of Palestinians also think the same, starting with the late Edward Said.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So there is hope. You can see it, for example, in Galilee - where Jews and Arabs live in a region relatively free from state interference. I saw the other day a BBC report on the city of Jaffa, where Jews and Arabs have always and still live together, in stability. Jaffa is not particularly exceptional, this situation can be repeated everywhere.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Georgia; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I also meet more and more Jews and Palestinians (Christian and Muslims) who see in this option a better way to ac</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">hieve stability, long-term security, and economic prosperity.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One State Solution means a secular state, with clear separation of religion and politics, under the protection of the UN and the US, that would protect and guarantee the rights of Jews and Arabs, equally, that would actively mix them in schools, and develop the poorest parts of the country (Gaza), like the reconciliation process did in South Africa.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">What about past grievances ? Already </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">a number of Palestinian and Israeli historians started working together to achieve a common </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">narrative</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> for the history of this land. In his book, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Ambassador Dennis Ross, chief US negociator during the Oslo process, argued that "the problem was the differing narratives of the two sides and the failure to reconcile the conflicting perspectives". Re-writing a common history book for both sides is one of the tools of engineering a reconciliation process.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Some have said that Israel is reproducing South African apartheid, so indeed there is hope. What South Africa did 15 years ago, ending the apartheid and starting a process of peace and reconciliation within ONE single state, seemed almost impossible at the time. Yet they did it, and although South Africa is not home yet, the violence of the 80's is long gone, and it's the most vibrant economy on the continent. It has a Black President, and the Blacks did not start killing the Whites frantically.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Many Jewish organizations are not happy with the state of things (to mention a few: “Rabbis for Human Rights”, "Israeli Human Rights Group", "Israeli Peace Group", "Fellowship of Reconciliation", etc). Hava Keller, an old grandmother who was once an Israeli soldier, now speaks for Palestinians, much like White activists were advocating for Blacks' rights in South Africa. There's hope. Check Yesh Gvul, that group of Israeli soldiers who protest against their army. </span></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt;text-align:justify;line-height:18.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This anniversary is the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">oportunity to say "Israel is not ho</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">me yet. Maybe it was wrong of the UN to create it that way 60 years ago. Let's not deny Israel its right to exist, but let's give it the chance to become, at last, a modern, open democracy, with equal rights for all, so that Jews and Palestinians can live in peace together on the same, undivided land."</span></span></p><p></p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">To end this post, I will tell you a story. When I saw the picture below, by an Israeli artist, painted on walls in Tel Aviv, it reminded me of it. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Alexander the Great, in order to unite his Empire and avoid future clashes between Persians and Greeks, planned to create a new class by intermarriage of Macedonian and Persian families. He ordered his most prominent soldiers and officers to marry Persian women. He himself married foreign, Roxanne of Bactrian. But this is another story...</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh45joZyAQ2cwum0BwhT1kMcuyINj4ALut7FVudf2xWdYOQu8GE0UepYx5zASAEfrr6qbB1Eh6la9OVYVrdeOvMk4bI0YgqvBOlex4mWHfbUsT4P9SEwiBQmN1FLPYjU0aakFWAfRkFzNU/s320/Tel+Aviv+Beautiful+Children.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5200328350711244258" /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Good night, and good luck :)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ps. As I'm still awake, I heard that a rocket fired from Gaza wounded 14 Israelis in Ashkelon. Tomorrow's going to be the Israeli response. Business as usual.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><div><br /></div><div> </div></span></div></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-12736591973577453392008-05-13T11:43:00.000-07:002008-05-14T09:41:11.006-07:00Occupation 101<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC4HDjeKHJyifzwlFYMjhWh-zQa_ovb5VCK-tqi2Ravd0cZ3j0E3VS4j8lTBFnuggfJNEsFf_S9kB9D0FcXTRSSiAOmNG4q1mPoIsoHeOiYWbouxOv8E509wgdRa8D9XYPRAkluNvvIELj/s1600-h/Occupation+101.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC4HDjeKHJyifzwlFYMjhWh-zQa_ovb5VCK-tqi2Ravd0cZ3j0E3VS4j8lTBFnuggfJNEsFf_S9kB9D0FcXTRSSiAOmNG4q1mPoIsoHeOiYWbouxOv8E509wgdRa8D9XYPRAkluNvvIELj/s320/Occupation+101.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5199983073995351490" /></a><br /><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1. I just went to see "Occupation 101", the documentary on Palestine by Sufyan Omeish (thanks, Lina !)<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At first, I thought this movie was exactly what the title says: a 101 documentary, for people with no clue about what is going on in Palestine. One more of these. In Europe, as opposed to America, we've been quite extensively exposed to documentaries about Palestine.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I was wrong. It's not one more of these. After 15 minutes, the specificity of this documentary started revealing itself. Clearly, it's destined to an American audience (hence the choice of statistics that will appeal to American taxpayers about how their money's being spent). But, the specificity is that the majority of the witnesses who speak against Israeli occupation are </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Israeli Jews</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This makes it all the more interesting, especially when shown to a Middle Eastern audience. It shows anti-Zionist Israeli Academics, journalists, Human Rights lawyers, activists, etc, bashing their country's policy. And that is refreshing. Humanity.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I thought I had seen it all before but the first image that caught my attention was indeed quite disturbing: Israeli soldiers using stones to break the limbs of prisoners. To be frank, the only thing these images come close to, in their sheer brutality, are World War II documentaries about the way the Germans treated the Jews. Sadly. It is quite unpleasant to draw the parallel. Also, the parallel with South Africa's apartheid is underlined.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I am normally quite weary of the use of the image of children in documentaries. I think it usually relies too much on pathos to be honest. But there is a quite rare interview of a very articulate little girl who has to be no more than 7 years old, and who talks extensively of her own experience, with her own references. She complains vehemently that her clothes always smell of gas, but she can't throw them because they're the only ones she's got, and she couldn't en</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">joy her new rings, because her house and belongings were destroyed.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As I said, I hate to see sad children in docs, because there are sad children everywhere, and that doesn't say much. There are also sad children who suffered bombings in Israel. But this little girl, she's not sad. She's </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">angry, disappointed, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">and righteously </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">indignated</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, in the way a reasonable adult would be.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I dare anyone who sees that s</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">equence to be able to speak, with that lump in the throat, immediately after listening to her.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There are the inevitable Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky interviews, always interesting. A couple of "refuznik" Israeli soldiers, one old woman who was an Israeli soldier in 1948 and speaks against occupation. This is quite new, too.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's undeniably a powerful documentary, not just one more of the same. For me, I did learn new things, which is, after all, why I'm in the Middle East at all. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">2. More on this "honour killing" story in Jordan. Everyone says that religion has nothing to do with it, that it's a minority of lunatics who perform those crimes. But I'm wondering if any formal condemnation will come from the mosques in the next Friday sermons. If a few clerics could come out and be vocal and clearly condemn those practices, maybe it would help educate the perpetrators.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">3. I was wondering why many Jordanians don't like debating politics and exploring different options on a number of issues. I think I might have found at least one part of the explanation.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If you live in a system where your voice does not count, will you bother to express it ? I wonder how many Jordanians actually vote. And if they vote, I wonder if the vote has any influence on the outcome of the country's policies. Surely, if you cannot choose your leader and the way the government spends your taxpayer's money, you're not going to bother debating about policy options on education, religion, human rights, etc. Especially in an executive monarchy, without accountability (that I know of).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So that would explain why debate seems sterile and useless, and why some people feel they cannot </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">do</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> anything to promote change. It must feel very disempowering, can't blame them.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yet, Jordan seems to do quite fine. Better than its neighbours. Better than Egypt, and definitely better than Lebanon. For now. For how long ?</span></div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-2787448540039590392008-05-13T03:15:00.000-07:002008-05-19T01:19:48.310-07:00Knowledge, Respect and Responsibility<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz5jSmdtWoktfe2lUpBOzgX2CCVwVQxO6ezI9PTYDoh4r3RklNDmHTrxZGHCCCT93fdN_4d2zgjQT8ZZY4900tOh5uV0lqbhvzUlPHXSqdyOwmgUyB2CA2-FhyphenhyphenDOoNv_SWPSuHSbgm7jSt/s1600-h/Cedric's+world.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz5jSmdtWoktfe2lUpBOzgX2CCVwVQxO6ezI9PTYDoh4r3RklNDmHTrxZGHCCCT93fdN_4d2zgjQT8ZZY4900tOh5uV0lqbhvzUlPHXSqdyOwmgUyB2CA2-FhyphenhyphenDOoNv_SWPSuHSbgm7jSt/s320/Cedric's+world.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5199826183134995890" /></a><br /><div> </div><div> </div><div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">Many people infantilize <i>traditional</i> societies, like those performing Honor killings and FGM, with a demagogic, twisted discourse based on a terribly wrong interpretation of Max Weber's famous "<i>axiologic neutrality</i>", and a misuse of the word <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Respect</span>.</p></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mostly, all modern education is based on the philosophy of Enlightenment and Humanism. A belief in Mankind. An optimistic view that things will get only better if we put our minds to it. Everywhere.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It is the philosophy that brought us a few Revolutions, including scientific revolutions, and the various Declarations of Human Rights, especially the first principle: all men are born with equal rights, equal dignity, and should be given equal opportunities. Everywhere.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">By a strange deviation of the thought, there is a branch of academics known as relativists who extended that belief to claim that all cultures are equivalent, in all aspects, everywhere, and at any point in history. Therefore, no progress should ever be attempted to me made.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In other words, it means denying access to closed societies. Disguised as a very "open-minded" approach to the world, this is, in fact, a terribly despising, conservative posture.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It means "we (from rich countries or the wealthy classes in developing countries), are the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">happy few</span>. We have had access to culture and opportunities, but you guys (Africans, South American natives, poor people everywhere, etc) should stay as you are, because we <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">respect</span> your culture".</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So I met a well-intentioned anthropologist, well-educated, who was explaining that NGOs should not tamper with local cultures. She said in substance that NGOs should "respect" local cultures and not try to suggest to implement ideas they think are better. It's a philosophy that I understand. But allow me to have a doubt.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The problem is, it's a philosophy from the de-colonization time... 60 years ago. It was also the big debate in NGOs about 50 years ago. It was new and necessary then. Now, it's moot.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">NGOs have evolved a lot in 50 years. They integrated this criticism, they changed their approach, became very aware of local cultures, of local empowerment, they started to listen before they suggest changes. But the victims of traditional societies cannot be left abandoned.</span></div><div><br /></div><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It poses an epistemological problem: if you cannot judge values, there are no values, everything is worth the same, good or bad. There is no good, nor bad. No beliefs. Especially it contradicts the platonician belief that the aim of democracy is the pursuit of happiness, and to have a better society. And it bans the pursuit of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">virtu</span>, Machiavel's "civic virtue". Sometimes you just have to take a stand, with all due <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">respect</span>.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So... What of Relativism today ? It seems it's the ultimate lack of respect for "locals", actually.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Read the newspaper today in Jordan: ONE MORE HONOR KILLING. A man killed his 22-year-old <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">sister</span> for sleeping with her lover.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Relativists say let's respect him, the brother and his family. It's their culture. Let them learn with time, and not interfere. Let's maintain them longer in their ignorance and bigotry.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Denying that the other can be as good, and as bad, as myself and my society, is denying similarities, denying kin-ness, for better and for worse. It's denying the fact that, deep inside, we're <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">all</span> made the same way and have the same instincts. And we're all entitled to progress. And we can <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">all</span> learn. All societies actually make progress. No one can stop it, thank God. But we can slow it down or accelerate it considerably.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">is</span> a good idea that progress should be shared. Those who had access to knowledge were just lucky, and should share it with the rest, just like Penicillin was shared, otherwise it's called being incredibly selfish, self-centered, and unfair. After years of expensive education, it seems ungrateful to believe that one should keep their ideas and experiences to themselves and not share them.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">With great knowledge comes the great responsibility to share it.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>The whole world has learned from all cultures. We've learned mathematics from the Arabs, we learned from the Chinese, from India, and yes, we do learn from Africa, and, yes, Africa learns from other continents. It is not a bad thing. Ideas should circulate, should adapt to societies, and they most of the time do, in a smooth way.<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Take the best in all cultures, reject the worst. That seems sensible, common sense. Plus, sharing is also <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">challenging</span>. It shakes one's beliefs. It can shatter them or make them stronger, more firmly based, having been through the fire of a different reality.</span></div><div><br /></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-22102391150649448302008-05-03T07:07:00.000-07:002010-06-05T03:23:06.326-07:00How I worshipped Satan in the Holy Land<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-QxqM7ZHQJ8Hh9f5WMIenZh60_eXJSZ1LDY6kPjiSnSGDRgvpEoULWjkiAwcsTuz0Vq9o6WcjUZ26RofbXh8gR9BwlNfB0niE5Whd5Qsq0H4oSoSetKMbRfa41ZJXlH654DfZ8Vg4Bq-f/s1600-h/Aqabataba.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-QxqM7ZHQJ8Hh9f5WMIenZh60_eXJSZ1LDY6kPjiSnSGDRgvpEoULWjkiAwcsTuz0Vq9o6WcjUZ26RofbXh8gR9BwlNfB0niE5Whd5Qsq0H4oSoSetKMbRfa41ZJXlH654DfZ8Vg4Bq-f/s320/Aqabataba.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196176354309629298" border="0" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span><div> </div><div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I hate borders. This is not new. I still think fondly of the good old times when a man like Ibn Battuta could roam the Middle East without borders and passport, just a letter of recommendation in hand. Nowadays, he would never make it 50 miles from home. Borders and walls never stopped any terrorist anyways.</span><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Here's a little experience I had a few days ago. Pay attention if you plan on traveling the Middle East. My plan was to go from Amman, Jordan to Sinai, Egypt, and to save money by not using a plane.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Aqaba is right next to the city of Eilat in Israel, and Taba in Egypt. There are boats that go directly from Aqaba to Egypt, to Taba or Nuweiba.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The trouble is, nobody in Aqaba knows when and where those boats leave. So, I missed it and took the road. This shouldn't be a problem, since I am a European citizen and don't need a visa to go to Israel.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The Taxi from Aqaba to the border takes about 5 minutes. Crossing Eilat in Israel, border to border is about 10 minutes. So, there I went.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I arrived at the border at 1 pm, carefully asking the Jordanian officer to stamp my exit on a separate sheet of paper, not on my passport, in case I wanted to go to Syria or Lebanon.</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">5 minutes later, I walked the 100m no man's land between Jordan and Israel, till I reached the Israeli flags.</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">There was nobody else crossing. The woman on duty took my passport and called her superior, from intelligence security services. The grilling started.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"What is your nationality ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- French, as you can see on my passport" I was still smiling.</span></div><div>- Where does your name come from ?<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- France</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- It is not a French name</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Yes it is. Define 'French'. Good luck, it's been an ongong debate in my country for more than 2 hundred years...<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- ... What? You know what I'm talking about<br />- I certainly do not. Please be specific. At an administrative level, being French means I hold a French passport, which I do. At a philosophical level, being French means to want to live in a certain culture, which I do too. We happen to be a diverse nation, with blonds, brunettes, tall, short, etc. So, again, please be specific and I would be very interested if you could define, in your opinion, what constitutes a "French".<br />- Er... Very well, what is your religion ?"</span></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">At that point, I was already starting to boil. I considered this last question an unrequested invasion of my privacy that had nothing to do with my entering or not in Israel. I told her so.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"Sir, this is a security check. I can ask whatever I want" she said.... Or can she ? I know that even in Israel there are law, I'm pretty sure of that, and an officer can't just do what she wants...</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">She repeated the question again. Again, I refused to answer. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"With all due respect, officer, this is really none of your business.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- If you do not cooperate, this will take longer.</span></div><div>- OK, officer, I'll tell you, since you insist. But you may not like it. I actually worship SATAN. We satanists have a special ritual: we listen to Death Metal on saturdays, stand on one foot, raise our hands to our ears and move them around, while jumping in rythm, see, like that. Then we engage in orgies until the morning..."<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- ...<br />- Oh but wait! Wait!...<br />I raised my hands to my head and closed my eyes<br />- What is happening to me?... I... I... I feel I'm about to convert. Yes! I just converted to being a Buddhist. Ok, scratch that religion line from before: I'm a Buddhist now. Let's hurry, I'm not sure how long it'll last.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Like all people with limited wits and unlimited powers, she did not have a sense of humour and did not appreciate. At all.<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div>- What is your email ?</div><div>- As you know, my email is private correspondence and has nothing to do with passport check. (I ended up giving her a bogus email)</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Further questioning, about the religion of my parents, grandparents, etc. At one point, I saw myself staying there for a very, very long time, arguing my unalterable secular point of view. The sun was declining so to save time I confirmed that one of my ancestors (one of my great grandfathers) was Jewish, hence the name.</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"So you're Jewish</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">-No. Pay attention. As I just told you. One of my beloved great grandfathers was. I happen to have been conceived through the help and intermission of about 7 other greatgrandparents, 4 grandparents and two parents, oddly enough. And I'm a Buddhist. Three of my grandparents were catholics, why is there just one grandparent that counts? Or does it mean I'm 1/4th of a Jew, 3/4th of a Catholic, even though I just converted to Buddhism before your eyes? Should I see 3/4th of a mass and then read 1/4th of Talmud?<br /></span></div><div>- So you're ashamed of your Jewish ancestors ?</div><div>- Actually I'm very proud of all of my family, and especially of my Jewish Grandfather. You do know, of course that according to Jewish rules, since my mother is not Jewish I can't claim to be Jewish? Or did I just break the news to you? It's kind of a big deal.<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- ... But you dais your grandfather is jewish.<br />- (sigh) Yeah<br />- So if you're Jewish, why didn't you immigrate into Israel ?"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Oh Lord..."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I was just bewildered. She was serious. Angry, actually.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"Er... Maybe because I'm French. I'm fine thank you."</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Flipping through my passport...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"Why do you visit so many Arab countries ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Why not ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- I ask the questions. Why do you visit Arab countries ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Because I love to travel.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Do you speak Arabic ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- I am learning.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Why do you want to learn Arabic ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Because I value new knowledge<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- But why go to those countries ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Because I like it</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Why do you like it ?"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I was getting bored. I talked about the pyramids, culture, poetry, tourism, language, people... anything to finish this silly interview.<br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"So why don't you visit Israel more instead ? </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- You mean since you are so welcoming?".</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Flipping again... "So why did you go to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Sudan ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- It was my job, as an aid worker"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Somehow, it did not compute for her. I was a new species. A Klingon. So I patiently started explaining, but I still did not make sense in her world. She was getting more and more confused and frustrated.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"Did you visit Israel before ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Yes</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">She typed on her computer. My file came up. "You went to GAZA ?!"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">That was on an old passport, but they keep all the records.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"Yes. As a French citizen, with people of my Embassy I went to Gaza"</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">That was it. The proof I was up to no good.</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">They proceeded to unpack everything I had. EVERYTHING. The vitamins in a box were analyzed one by one. They chemically analyzed my shampoo, toothpaste, and every speck of dust on my personal items (for which they use a special swab), for explosives. Then I was kindly asked to strip in front of a male officer who applied some kind of detector to the area dearest to the future of my descendants.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">When, surprisingly, they didn't find any bomb in my crotch, neither of course anything wrong with my passport, she was obviously even more frustrated.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"So you live in Amman ? Do you have friends there ? Arabs and Palestinians ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Of course</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- What is their name ? What is their job ? Give me their names and telephone numbers.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- I will do no such thing. You can't bother my friends to check on me from Israel, because if you call them, they won't be my friends any more. Tell you what: if you want to contact someone in Amman, to check on me, call my Ambassador, here's the number of my Embassy. Then you may have a slight diplomatic situation, denying entry to a tourist from a friendly country with a valid passport.<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- ..."</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">She disappeared with my passport. I was left there waiting for 4 more hours, knowing that the border closes at 8pm. I complained to an officer several times, until I got to speak to the guy in charge.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"Sir, this is standard procedure. If you are not happy you won't make it into the country.<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Fine. I'm not crossing any more. I'm going back to Jordan.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- You can't. We hold your passport. You have to wait till we decide what to do with you."</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">At approximately 7pm, the frustrated woman reappeared, she gave my passport to the immigration desk.</span></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I decided to change tactics with the new officer, a blonde young woman, and tried my charm... "So... finally I get to cross ! Please put the stamp on a separate paper. Can I go now ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- What is your religion ?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- Ma'am, I already answered all that with your colleague !!! I'm an ex-Satanist, newfound Buddhist, ok ? I'm thinking of converting to Zoroastrian soon.<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">- She is Intelligence. I am Police. Not the same service. I can ask you the questions I want"</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">OK, I thought. This is groundhog day. I've got to get the hell outta here.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">"Look. The name's Jewish, OK ? I'm a happy French citizen who does not want to immigrate. According to your own definition of Jewish, I'm not Jewish because my mother is not Jewish. Nobody's perfect, y'know ?"</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">She looked up at me and smiled. Finally !</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The "shortcut" took me over 6 hours. 6 hours to cross 5 kilometers, because of a non-intelligent Intelligence officer. She poked her nose into everything: my email addresses, my bank accounts, my job, my way of life, hell, every single thing was incomprehensible to her world. And she's supposed to see travellers all day.</span></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Back to my trip. The Taba border, in Egypt, took me about 5 minutes. A look to check that my passport was genuine, that I had the right visa, a smile from a jovial officer, and "Ahlan wa Sahlan, welcome to Egypt. Enjoy your stay Sir"</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">No comment.</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">--</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">To make a long story short, if your name is not "suspicious", if you did not visit "strange" countries like Gaza, and if you divulge a certain number of personal facts, like the telephone number of your Palestinian friends, crossing the border should take no longer than 15 min.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Why, oh why, is it so hard to cross these few miles when on paper they all allow European citizens to come and go ? Winston, can you erase back those borders ?</span></div><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div> </div><div> </div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-86128051574461342212008-04-26T03:36:00.000-07:002008-04-26T12:41:21.776-07:00Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5moCI5hpoelBsD97ZMuprmb6dOO3Pnvf5b0bzby_Tdl7L54Xc4Bp-vwiKPK0L725K66BYsLPkl6BR4I0v5AMimV4D3MD_sgpG5kYVBmHSbRM3WuoO_GIwdRr4V3HS9Gs6JoPIJ-kKLUnG/s1600-h/Chtis.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5moCI5hpoelBsD97ZMuprmb6dOO3Pnvf5b0bzby_Tdl7L54Xc4Bp-vwiKPK0L725K66BYsLPkl6BR4I0v5AMimV4D3MD_sgpG5kYVBmHSbRM3WuoO_GIwdRr4V3HS9Gs6JoPIJ-kKLUnG/s320/Chtis.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5193508591208293698" /></a><br /><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div>Identity is a funny thing. I suggest the reading of Amin Maalouf's book on the subject. Jean Paul Sartre wrote interesting lines on it too.<div><br /><div> </div><div>Given the many definitions you can give to Palestinian, Arab, Jew, Muslim, Israeli, these identities are <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">not</span> mutually exclusive. In theory, it is very possible that one same person can be <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">all</span> of them, combined.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>Consider Dr. Uri Davis, long-time Palestinian activist. He's famous for criticising Israel. Professor Davis is officially a Palestinian, as written on his passport, and describes himself as an <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Anti-Zionist Israeli Palestinian Jew</span>. He's born of a Jewish mother, and he's an Israeli citizen. He's a member of the Palestine National Council, and of the Movement Against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine. I don't know if he's a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Muslim</span>, but it's very possible. He could also belong to the large category of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Arab Jews</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>He's only famous because he's an activist, but of course he's not the only case of multiple-identities. Consider also the case of a person born of a Jewish father, with a Jewish surname, of a non-Jewish mother. According to most Jews, he's not Jewish, according to most Arabs, he's Jewish. And this is without even asking him what <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">he</span> thinks he is, or without even considering his religion. Only filiation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to Paradoxland, aka: the Middle East.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>A funny thing is the phenomenal success of the movie "Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis" in France. It broke all records in the history of cinema in the country that invented it. 20 million admissions at the Box-Office.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's a comedy about French micro-regional identities: North vs South. Can't be more French than that. </div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>The funny thing is, the two main characters, who each represent the most typical North and South Frenchmen, are both played by children of immigrants, and it's never even mentioned in the story. Both actors come from Algerian parents. But they're so integrated that no one in the audience even questions that they're <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">typically</span> French.</div><div><br /></div><div>Their sense of humour, the way they talk, the common references, without which this comedy would never work, are totally and absolutely French.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>Make no mistake about it. Actors Kad Merad and Daniel Hamidou (a.k.a Danyboon) are both very proud of their parents. But their identity is French. Nonetheless, to anyone in the Middle East, no matter who they really are, they'll forever be "Arabs".</div><div><br /></div><div>Which brings me again to point this clear distinction between identity in the Middle East and in the West.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the West, identity is "self-empowered". In the Middle East, identity is defined by others, by default, with absolutely no empowerment or self-determination by the individual: "I can not define who I am". Others do, and others will disagree among themselves as to who I am or what I am, leading to countless practical problems and massively erroneous statistics. </div><div><br /></div><div>It also leads to large-scale disinformation and misconceptions. In-depth understanding of Egypt or Jordan implies getting past gross ethnical statistics, because people are simply more complex and subtle than that. They're at the same time more united by a common heritage, and more subdivided into smaller, less homogenous groups.</div><div><br /></div><div>Under these conceptions lies the dangerous assumption that a number of characteristics (culture, political opinions, tribal allegiance, and other non-biological acquired characteristics) are transmitted through blood, which is the very definition of racism.</div><div><br /></div><div>As sensitive as we all are to the charm of tradition, this rampant concept of tribal/religious/ethnic classification, along with other remnants in the world (like the hereditary caste system in India) is something that defies pure logic. As shown above, it is very easy to demonstrate how it relies on absurd, subjective concepts, that do not resist simple analytical examination. Therefore, it's very likely that it is necessarily going to erase itself in a distant future, with higher level of education, mixing families and more complex societies forming.</div><div><br /></div><div>The question is: when will this change be acknowledged ? And will people and leaders resist it or welcome the change ?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-61579675936671861372008-04-19T16:15:00.000-07:002008-04-19T17:35:43.491-07:00Reinventing "Universal" amid "Tribal"<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">This year is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which all countries member of the UN claim to adhere. Yet... I had an interesting conversation today with six Jordanians, all elite and educated.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">At more than one point in the conversation, I heard "I agree with these principles, but this is impossible here in Jordan". After going home I thought about it and asked myself: are there such things as universal values anyways?</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">Later at night I joined a group of foreigners, artists and NGO workers. As a coincidence, they were also puzzling at the impossibility to apply some very basic principles in Jordan.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">I was pointing that this Article 1 of the Declaration is the product of great thinkers: all men are born equal, and have the same rights, regardless of their religion or colour of skin. I know... some breakthrough ! It's yesterday's news ! Guys sweated out this idea about 200 years ago, at a difficult time. Still... it hasn't reached the Middle East. Not even a "modern" city like Amman.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">I remember in University, my sophisticated Arab classmates would defend their countries when someone would question the ability of their homelands to embrace "Universal" values. They would say "We Arabs are modern now, what do you think ? You westerners believe stereotypes based on negative TV propaganda". Is it so ?</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">Here I'm not even talking about rural areas or religious extremist groups or particularly poor communities, for whom there would be the excuse that they're not exposed to "Universal" values. I'm talking about official State policies, about modern cities, and about values among the educated upper class.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">The policy of stamping one's official ID card and passport with one's religion or ethnicity is widely accepted, for example. It means you're marked at birth with a tag that becomes your identity, and modifies the way society and its laws treat you for the rest of your life and that of your children. Incidentally it also creates a specific divide within one's country and society.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">In Jordan, you can't obtain the license to open liquor store if you're a Muslim. A non-muslim cannot marry a Muslim woman. You can get away with DUI if you're a Christian...</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">This may seem like minor details in the quiet Hashemite kingdom, but transpose the situation in Lebanon or Iraq, and you immediately seize the problem: it can become a matter of life and death, when civil wars have been declared in the past or present on entire populations, based on their religion or ethnicity.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">In many countries of the Middle East, "enlightened" leaders pride themselves with western education and progressive views. Recently, Queen Rania made statements on Youtube, that she would prove how modern and forward-thinking the Arab world could be, and get rid of "stereotypes".</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">Still, in her country, the issue of official identity is left to customary tribal classification. And no one is really thinking about questioning it.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">This official policy is deeply rooted. People still think in terms of belonging to a tribe, or to an ethnic-religious group, before they belong to their country. In Iraq you're an "Arab" or "Kurd" or "Turkmen".</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">In Egypt you have to choose between three religions ("Christian", "Jew" or "Muslim") to even GET an ID card. You cannot be Buddhist or atheist or drop your religion and convert. And without an ID you can't get an education, register to public services, or get a driving licence. You are non-existent.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px">In any Middle East country, if you're a Palestinian, your grandchildren's children will still be considered as belonging to a separate group.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia; min-height: 19.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">It seems paradoxical because as a political entity, the State's interest should be to unify its people under the only identity of "citizen".</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">It feels strange to explain to a contemporary audience these very basic concepts as if they were new. It's like re-inventing the wheel: you feel either very silly, or for a moment pretend to be a revolutionary political genius. Neither is very rewarding.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">The repercussions of this division and classification are infinite, and they're perpetuated through heredity, hindering any hope of melting a population into a unified nation, paving the way for more frustrations and possible wars.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">Sometimes it reaches absurd levels, comical even. Colombian singer Shakira, for instance, is widely considered in the Middle East to be Lebanese, because her Grandmother was a (Christian) Lebanese. Any other branch of her family and heritage is dismissed, due to a strange concept of superiority of Middle Eastern blood in defining one's identity.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">The case of French President Sarkozy is a true gem. He's from Hungarian descent, therefore in Middle Eastern minds he's "a Hungarian", not a "true French" (try explaining that to him !). But, wait for it. One of his grandparents was Jewish. Therefore, "he's Jewish" (as stated by Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram), no matter his upbringing in a catholic family and his own creed. That's no detail in Middle Eastern eyes.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">Strangely, a reverse identity crisis was happening in France these past 30 years. Children of Algerian immigrants fought for their rights to be recognised as full-fledged French citizens, regardless of their origins. Rightfully so, because they were born in France, knew no other culture and defined themselves as French, albeit proud of their ancestors. But definitely and totally French.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">It's tragic to see that in the Middle East, their identity would be denied: no matter what, they'd be considered as "Arabs", and so would their children's children.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">This racist, distorted line of thought is extremely disempowering, stripping the individual of the freedom to define himself. It also is unfitting to an open world where people mix and mingle, marry beyond their "tribe" and travel. A political persona like senator Barack Obama would be completely unthinkable here (they even think he's a Muslim, because of his name).</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">I feel sorry for those last tribes who are ill-prepared to deal with a changing world. They don't know what's coming at them. In the 21st century, if you don't go out in the world, the world comes right at your door, and there's no stopping it.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">So: are Universal Rights something reserved exclusively to "the happy few", developed countries of the Northern Hemisphere ? No. It's not a mere product of European values, impossible to transplant elsewhere.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Georgia">The people who drafted those Universal Rights did not base them on a specific culture, but on a shared Human capacity for reason, a universal language of logic and common sense that's spread on all continents. This is why they are one of mankind's greatest achievements and are worth defending still, 200 years later, in a Middle Eastern restaurant, as if you were re-inventing the universal wheel. And it may even make you feel like a bit of a philosopher yourself.</p>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-20929901770142144292008-04-18T04:41:00.000-07:002008-05-19T05:50:09.555-07:00The Debate<div>Here's a debate on Israel that started on another Blog. I'll copy the comments here to continue the discussion. </div><div><br /></div><div>FROM Guest Post: Striking Justice, </div><div>Written by: Mohammad Dalabih<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>"Haaretz: "The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday (April 1st, also coinciding with April fool's day!) approved (unanimously) an unprecedented resolution recognizing Jewish refugees from Arab countries who were forced to flee their homes in the aftermath of the creation of the state of Israel." According to the language of the resolution, U.S. officials involved in Middle East peace negotiations, which also reference the Palestinian refugee question, are to "also include a similarly explicit reference to the resolution of the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries." </div><div><br /></div><div>In case you are wondering if you understood that correctly or not, yes, the House of Representatives called for the recognition of the long neglected side of the Jewish suffering after the creation of the state of Israel. They called for the recognition of the Jews who fled the Arab oppression to infant Israel as refugees, and the raising of the matter of financial compensation in any future negotiations if the peace treaty is to have any chance. </div><div><br /></div><div>For a comprehensive peace treaty must be just to all sides. So, we can say that finally, the world's leadership represented by the United States is looking in a just and even way towards both sides, unlike the United Nations which has always been so pro-Arab and supported all that gibberish about the ridiculous right of return. I am so happy that the world is finally turning its eyes towards all the refugees equally. I hope that the next step will be calling for financial compensation to the early settlers in the South and North Americas, as people fled the oppression and persecution of their home countries for a better life there and should thus be considered refugees.</div><div><br /></div><div>If I became the president of the United States I would cut all diplomatic contact with Europe until they pay for each American family of English, French, Dutch, German, Irish or any other European descent a good compensation. Fair is Fair. Australians too, they must get compensation, people living in New-Zealand should not be forgotten either. You know something? Didn't all modern humans, according to the current understanding of anthropology, originate in Africa? Somewhere is Kenya or around that area? </div><div><br /></div><div>hey then went to the different corners of this world. Isn't it plausible that they were escaping some sort of oppression in Kenya? Then Kenya should be paying all the countries in the World and any settlement ever to be built by humanity anywhere on or outside this earth a just compensation as refugees. Long live democracy and God bless you all. "</div><div><br /></div><div>(...) COMMENTS </div><div><br /></div><div>Well the thing is, they are right.... Jews were driven out of some arab countries after 1948 (Iraq for example) and if the hundreds of thousands of Palestenians deserve compensation (or the right to return) the Jews deserve just the same. Of course you can always say that the Jewish state has received much more than needed to compensate its poor refugees from the same sources, but some might argue you're wrong. MB | 04.08.08 - 5:36 am | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>Well, I don't understand what's new here. Anyone who is persecuted because of his religion or ethnic group should be considered as a refugee. It doesn't bother me if they hapen to be jewish. If jews were persecuted in Iraq or Egypt, and went to America or Europe, that means they were refugees. At least they didn't go to Israel nor create it. Don't equate jews with Israel or colonization of Palestinian teriitories. It's much like equating Arabs and terroists. Remember it's the UN who created Israel. Anonymous | 04.12.08 - 4:34 am | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>The point is that it is an insult to any refugee to call them refugees. You cannot leave your country, occupy another and displace its population then call yourself a refugee. whatever | 04.12.08 - 1:58 pm | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>Are we talking about Arab jewish REFUGEES who fled their countries (like Iraq) after and because of 1948 and went to Europe, or are we talking about ISRAELI SETTLERS ? Because both are jews but they're not the same (...). You've got to start knowing there's a big difference. Why would it be an insult to any refugee ? Come to Canada, you'll find plenty of 'fugees from all over the planet, Haitians, Chilean, Chinese, Palestinian, and Jews. By the way guess what ? None of them live in camps. That's only in Arab countries, where refugees are treated like that. Anonymous | 04.12.08 - 2:18 pm | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>(...) The resolution, very conveniently, fails to make any distinction between jewish refugees who fled to arab countries and those who fled to Israel. It is a well known fact, that i can cite extensively, that the Jewish state organized huge campaigns to bring any willing jews into the new born state after 1984, including those who were in the Arab countries. And now, they are saying they fled it against their will and want compensation for the lands they left. Some went even further (and i can cite that as well) into saying that they are the original population that existed before the arabs in the area (north Africa, Gulf and Iraq) to begin with. </div><div><br /></div><div>And how is the situation in Canada relevant!? Not to mention the situation in tents. And btw, Palestinian and Iraqi refugees in Jordan live in conditions way below the ones that exist in tents. whatever | 04.13.08 - 12:58 am | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>Hi. I wrote a comment yesterday (the 4th one). Why should there even be a distinction. From a legal point of view, it's the same. I still fail to see why there should not be any Jewish refugees, just because we don't agree with the existence of Israel. I've worked a lot with refugees, I know all about tents and camps. They're usually civilians who have nothing to do with war. </div><div><br /></div><div>I also happen to have lived in Egypt and Iraq for several months, and I assure you that there are people who were evicted, pushed out, threatened, because of their religion, and because thick-minded people did not see the difference between a local Jewish person, who had nothing to do with Israel thousands of miles away, and a fully armed soldier in a settlement in Palestine. </div><div><br /></div><div>Nowadays, minds are closing up, narrowing down. No Jews left in Iraq, so now it's the Christians who are being threatened and evicted. When there's no Christians left, the Sunni evict the SHi'a, and vice-versa. When there's no Shi'a left, they start threatening the neighbour. Seeing politics aong religions / sectarian lines is a false distorted view of the world, my friend. Misery and suffering know no boundaries. </div><div><br /></div><div>I hope Palestinian "refugees" can have a better life in the Middle East, or go to that home they've never seen: Palestine, and start all over their lives if that is what they want. But Mostly, I wish that Arab countries can open their hearts more and welcome, really welcome their Palestinian fellowmen like Western countries do. There are 49 jobs a Palestinian cannot aply to in Lebanon. Plenty of restrictions on civil positions in Egypt. </div><div><br /></div><div>I don't know yet about Jordan, but I suspect it's the same. They pay more for school too. And I'm talking about 2d or 3d generation palestinians, that should be considered as full citizens of their host states since the beginning of their lives. For now, they're far better off in Western countries than among their "brothers" of the Middle East. Is that normal ? Descartes | 04.13.08 - 6:04 am | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>(...) You have obviously spent much time in this region and still cannot make heads of tails in it. that is scary (...) !! First, about the oppression of the Palestinian and Iraqi refugees. How do you expect a country that is oppressing its original populations to do refugees any justice? The sectarian divisions have been used and will always be used by local dictatorships to make sure no population based national movements ever exist. </div><div><br /></div><div>Anyone who has the faintest understanding of the region knows that. Minorities are constantly targeted by government propaganda whenever the government is facing political challenges. And for the record i am not talking about Jordan. that's number one, number two this is far far far from relevant to the point being discussed here! Now, How can a settler be a refugee?! settlers create refugee problems. Do i really have to explain that?! If it is proven by historical data that some jews escaped Arab oppression to countries other than Israel that would be something completely different. </div><div><br /></div><div>But one has to make a distinction, arabs are often failing in doing this and the resolution follows the same mistake. it does not make any distinction between those who left to become settlers driving an original population out and those who left to other countries. Again, you're understanding of the region is poor in a scary scary way. Mohammed Dalabih | 04.13.08 - 8:26 am | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>(...) dear Mohammed, </div><div><br /></div><div>thank you for suggesting that I haven't the faintest understanding of the region... I'd be the first to admit it, because people who pretend they understand it all are often the biggest problem. I prefer people with doubts, who question everything and try to get fresh points of view. I'm trying my best... From your comment I take it you, unlike me, have it all figured out and can make heads and tails. Lucky man ! You're one of the very few, or... the only one so far : I suggest you become a Middle Eastern studies academic, because they're all still scratching their heads. </div><div><br /></div><div>To defend my case, I try to use not only my brains but also my legs: came here, to Jordan, to Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt, I meet people, Palestinian (Christian and Muslims), muslims and jews from everywhere, and I do read a lot... </div><div><br /></div><div>Thats more than a lot of people are prepared to do before becoming judgemental. </div><div><br /></div><div>That being said, you should read carefully: words are important when reading. No one said refugees and settlers are the same. On the contrary, I tried to point out that they are not. Let logic and reason take the place of passion, shall we ? </div><div><br /></div><div>What is a REFUGEE ? "A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.." (1951 UN Convention, amended protocol in 1967) </div><div><br /></div><div>Examples: A Palestinian who was forced out of Palestine, an Iraqi political opponent in Europe, an Irani political opponent in Europe, a member of a Darfur tribe displaced to Chad, an Egyptian Jew come to Canada because the creation of Israel generated hatred against Jews, a Chilean leftist in the 70's, etc. </div><div><br /></div><div>Your two paragraphs look like you've written them very fast and I'd really like to understand what you mean (if this is a dialogue, and not a contest in ego), because I am genuinely interested in this kind of dialogue: You say Now for clarity I assume you talk about Israel. Why this statement ? I didn't talk about Israel doing any justice to anyone. You misread and it does not further any point. </div><div><br /></div><div>Your point about dictators is quite obvious and also unrelated to the issue at hand: the US resolution (not yet voted) on Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries. </div><div><br /></div><div>As you've just read, in International Law, the region where refugees are hosted is irrelevant to the definition of what is a refugee, as long as it is not their country. And to answer you: yes, there are Jews who left Arab countries because of the creation of Israel. You are right: Israel tried to attract them (it was its own interest). But most of them chose NOT to go to Israel, but rather to oter, western countries. </div><div><br /></div><div>Following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the status of Jews in Arab and Muslim countries changed dramatically. When virtually all of Israel’s neighbors declared or supported war on the Jewish state, approximately 850,000 refugees were forcibly expelled from their homes. Others became political hostages. In virtually all cases, individual and communal properties were seized and/or confiscated by governments without any compensation provided. </div><div><br /></div><div>I agree that this resolution (Crowley resolution, n.185) comes at a very bad time for the peace process. It generates anger (you're the proof of that), and I believe it is the work of anti-peace process people with an agenda. But unfortunately the principle is right. They're bad people but they're clever. You attack the principle, which is not the best way to tackle it. To be a refugee rights advocate (as I've been for years), you can't favour one tye of refugee over the next, or your credibility is weakened. </div><div><br /></div><div>To conclude, I believe right now Israel is the n.1 enemy of the reputation of the jews in the world, therefore the n.1 enemy of worldwide Jews, much as muslim terrorists are the n.1 enemy of peaceful Muslims in the world. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Western world is starting to learn how to differenciate between muslims and terrorists. It's time the Muslim world learns to differenciate between Jews and Israelis. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm sorry to hear that this discussion is "scary" to you. You should never be scared of an open discussion. There's a saying: "there's only one bigger fool that the one who pretends to know it all: the one who argues with him" I discuss with you because I hope you are open to a calm and logical, no name-calling, discussion. Lina, I love your blog, love debating, and love the complexity of your region. Keep it up </div><div>Descartes | 04.13.08 - 10:51 am | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>I understand that none of the commentors above feel that Israel has any right to exist? Why should that be so? Jordan has also had an import of population. The royal dynasty and its supporting tribes came to Jordan from the Hejaz. The creation of Jordan was very much done by the British, even more so than their involvment in the creation of Israel. So tell me again: Why is it evident to you that Jordan is fine but Israel is the problem? Ruth | Homepage | 04.15.08 - 6:15 pm | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>Dear Ruth, </div><div><br /></div><div>One obvious answer is that the creation of Jordan did not expel local residents and create a refugee population. In truth, I don't think that Israel had any legitimacy to be created by the UN in 1948, at a time when France and the UK were starting de-colonizing elsewhere. </div><div><br /></div><div>More to the point, Israel has completely lost any legitimacy after it started to act illegally by occupying land and creating settlements. The creation of a State that is "ethnically" based (a "Jewish State") is to me completely anachronic. In 1948, most jews in the world chose to stay in their homeland (Europe, America). </div><div><br /></div><div>Plus, any definition of people by their "ethnicity", or alleged "religion" as defined by specific laws of the State, is extremely disempowering and against individual freedom, and equal rights. I don't think that "Jordan is fine", by the way, far from it, and partly for the same reasons related to ethnicity-based laws, official religious discrimination, etc. I don't know if that answers your question. ... </div><div><br /></div><div>That being said, there is an existing situation. There are three ways out. ONE: the creation and consolidation of those two independent, autonomous, free States: Palestine with no blocade on one side, Israel on the other. This is very unlikely at the present time, and in the near future, and if/when this happens, it is very unlikely to be a lasting peaceful situation. </div><div><br /></div><div>Two: violence. Either the current status-quo-generated violence or another string of all-out wars bringing coalitions on both sides. Eventually demographics could prove the Arab side stronger. </div><div><br /></div><div>THREE: the creation of a united state, with equal rights for all, that would require years of nation-building and massive investments in school programs, economic development programs in the West Bank and Gaza. It has been done before, painfully in 19th century France, in reconciled South Africa, in the USA, in Spain... </div><div>Descartes | 04.16.08 - 1:13 pm | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>Muhammad, very smart post and the cynicism is painfully funny. The point here, Descartes, is that although Jewish refugees might have been “oppressed”, or even if you go as far as to take the terrifying magnitude of the holocaust before the supposed oppression into consideration, we find ourselves in a situation where the Palestinians have to pay yet again to clear the conscience of a guilt-ridden west, and the Israelis enjoying milking this guilt to their benefit. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Jewish refugees as you define them are irrelevant to the peace process and the ones who are, are not refugees, but settlers in Israel (it’s not a Jewish-Palestinian peace process). In both cases (with Palestinians escaping Palestine and Jews in the Arab World) the refugees were created due to the aftermath of the creation of the “Jewish” state of Israel. Yes I do agree that these should still be treated as refugees, if what you said is true, but this issue should be approached separate of the peace process, and the debate would have a considerably different tone. </div><div><br /></div><div>As for the options for resolving the Palestinian- Israeli conflict, I again think this is a different debate. Anonymous | 04.17.08 - 6:07 am | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>Descartes, Are you telling me that Israel is a French or British colony? The UN is currently the only possible source of creating legitimacy in international law. The other source is customary law. All thoughout history military victory gave legitimacy. Israel had to fight for its indepence and won.</div><div><br /></div><div>So it has legitimacy on this account as well. The creation of Poland in its current borders after WW2 expelled local residents (the Germans from Silesia) and created refugees (said Germans as well as Poles who fled the territories which were handed over to the Soviet Union). Therefore Poland lacks legitimacy according to your logic. Your perception of what is “anachronic” does not seem to be widely shared. In the most recent past, new states were formed to accommodate ethnic groups. Chezchia and Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia and newest member of the family of states: Kosovo. So you have a lot of convincing to do to turn the wheel back on ethnically based states before you even get to Israel. </div><div><br /></div><div>Today a majority of the world’s Jews live in Israel. Why should the year 1948 be the watershed? By the way you ignore the Jews from Arab countries who today make up more than half of Israel’s population. There is no differnent law or citizenship for Israeli Arabs. Why do you think that the Israeli law is against indivual freedom and equal rights? Most European states are defined as nation states.</div><div><br /></div><div>Whould you also say that Germany violates the rights of non-ethnic Germans by granting German citizenship according first to the bloodline and only second via naturalization? I find it a non-sequitur that you dismiss the idea of two states for two peoples as unrealistic in the foreseeable future but endorse the idea of one country for two people. Surely this is even more unrealistic in the foreseeable future? Could you possibly be morst interested in putting an end to the only existing Jewish state? </div><div>Ruth | Homepage | 04.17.08 - 8:49 am | # </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>Dear Anonymous and Ruth, </div><div><br /></div><div>You make good points and the debate is becoming now more interesting. At least there doesn't seem to be major misunderstandings: you both absolutely understood my points. Anonymous: you are right, it shouldn't be a Jewish-Palestinian peace process. It should be an Israeli-Palesinian peace process. </div><div><br /></div><div>But, unfortunately it has also become a problem for the Jews everywhere else (in that sense I said that Israel's policy became the n.1 enemy of the Jews). I agree with all your points: this issue should be approached separate of the peace process, since it is a different debate. But it is not "irrelevant". Otherwise there would be no post by a Muhammad. </div><div><br /></div><div>Timing is of the essence. By voting resolution 185, the US Congress is generating more frustration in the Arab world (as the original post shows), therefore harming the peace process. </div><div><br /></div><div>Words are also of the essence. How many of us can sustain a whole debate without slipping and misusing words such as "Arab", Israeli, "Jewish", "Zionist", "Muslim" instead of the other ? </div><div><br /></div><div>Words are becoming blurred, and that is messing up the debate. I recently read an article about the "Jewish lobby in the USA". In fact it was not about the Jewish lobby at all, not even the Israel lobby: it was all about the Zionist lobby, and the authors failed to see a distinction. How many care to be subtle and look closely ? How many know there are Arab Jews ? Anti-zionist Israelis ? </div><div>--- </div><div><br /></div><div>Dear Ruth, </div><div><br /></div><div>We seem to have very different points of view, but at least you are very consistant in your remarks and understood mine well. </div><div><br /></div><div>I did not imply that Israel is a British or French colony. I said it was a creation of the UN, the very year the de-colonisation of Asia started (1947), soon followed by Africa. In that sense, the colonization seems to me obsolete, anachronic and against the trend of History. </div><div><br /></div><div>The UN is the only source of legality, true. But legality is not legitimacy. Israel has two problems: it acts illegally (occupied territories after 1967, despite the resolutions of the UN), that is a fact. But also, more subjectively and on a philosophical level, it seems illegitimate to me, 1) because of its nature as a "Jewish" state and 2) despite its UN legal creation, I refute the legitimacy to seize and colonize a foreign land. </div><div><br /></div><div>In that sense, your examples are well-chosen. Poland's borders have never had any legitimacy, as you know, just like Palestine, Poland was part of an Empire, always partitioned by other powers: in 1807, 1815, 1919, 1939, 1945... </div><div><br /></div><div>My definition of "anachronic" is not unanimously shared, it is true. But the creation of Kosovo or the current events in Belgium do not strike me as very good ideas. </div><div><br /></div><div>Mono-ethnicity is not, I think, a good vision for the future. The trend of human history shows on the contrary that multi-ethnicity and multi-culturalism are virtually unstoppable. It's happening, It's already there, No walls or borders can stop it, not for long. All that ethnicity-based nationalism creates is more war. </div><div><br /></div><div>On the other hand, you see prosperous open societies (as defined by philosophers Bergson and Karl Popper) in Europe and America, that are wide open to multi-culturalism. And the European Union is always unifying more. That, I think, is the future, rather than micro-states like Kosovo, who aim at mono-ethnicity. </div><div><br /></div><div>Your point stating "There is no different law or citizenship for Israeli Arabs" is quite easy to refute: official discrimination based on religion, IDF conscription, freedom to travel to/fro Occupied Territories make them second-class citizens. Also, numerous laws regarding family and citizenship are religion or ethnicity-based (marriage, Aliyah...) And obviously where are the equal rights in Palestine: from a legal point of view, any occupied land and its population is under the responsibility of the occupying power. The current map of Palestine is reminiscent of Banthoustans in South Africa... </div><div><br /></div><div>To be fair, one has to say that 1) the freedoms enjoyed within Israel, including by Arabs, are far greater than in many Arab countries, and that 2) Arabs are represented in a fairly elected Parliament (Knesset), which is not the case for minorities in most Arab countries. </div><div><br /></div><div>You claim that "a majority of the world’s Jews live in Israel", and I doubt that, also depending on what is your definition of a Jew. </div><div><br /></div><div> That is an interesting subject, "who is a Jew" and also "what is a nation" ? You say "Most European states are defined as nation states." You are absolutely right by naming Germany's traditional "bloodline" ancient nationality law (that has been changed, by the way, to be consistant with European standards). This traditional German "race"-based definition of the nation was challenged and replaced in Europe by the modern definition in Political Science. A nation is neither a bloodline, nor a race, nor a language, nor a culture, nor a religion, nor is it defined by a geography. A nation is a "will to live together and share a destiny", as defined by Ernest Renan. </div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, to conlude: you understood me right: I am interested in putting an end to States that do not clearly separate religion and Law, ethnicity and State, or favour one ethnic group above the others. You can also include all Sharia-based states like Egypt and sibblings. </div><div><br /></div><div>More importantly, all modern political philosophy stands against the official classification of citizens by race, colour or religion, as stamped on IDs and passports all through the Middle East. In the UK, or America, your passport says "American", it does not say "Christian" or "Muslim" or "Buddhist". And you can decide to change your religion. </div><div><br /></div><div>Dismissing the two-state solution is actually "sequitur" and makes a lot of sense, for Jews and palestinians. In 1999, Palestinian activist Edward Said wrote: “…after 50 years of Israeli history, classic Zionism has provided no solution to the Palestinian presence. I therefore see no other way than to begin now to speak about sharing the land that has thrust us together, sharing it in a truly democratic way with equal rights for all citizens.” Now it's been 60 years. </div><div><br /></div><div>Jewish advocates such as Martin Buber, Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, Illan Pappe also pleaded for a federal state. </div><div><br /></div><div>What is more unrealistic is a two-state solution that has been pursued since 1947 and that created only war, since the very first day. The one-state solution has the merit of never having been tried, and of being philosophically consistent with existing modern states in the developed world. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another interesting discussion you imply is "who is a Jew", and who decides who is a Jew: the individual himself (empowering posture, mine), or the community (the community of the Jews, the community of the anti-semites, etc). Is it a race, it is a religion ? I tend to think it is, and should be, no more than a religion, as I do not believe in racial classifications. Descartes | 04.18.08 - 5:30 am | #<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2590714510232043860.post-39704825898347038882008-04-18T04:38:00.000-07:002008-04-18T04:41:27.392-07:00Descarteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04301272314750691007noreply@blogger.com0