Yesterday, I had an interesting discussion with an acquaintance...

I was at a restaurant/bar that I visit often. He was a waiter that saw me writing quite often, and was wondering whether I was some form of a reporter. His issue was that some foreign reporters (often Western) would make use of people, make them say things that fit his/her political ideals/propaganda, and use it to pursue his/ her own agenda. For some reason, it got into his head that my writing hobby/habbit has to do with those people...

First, I try as much as I can not to be political. I did and probably would still do before I die get involved in potlitics, as I have values to defend, and would do anything I peacefully can to give my ideas (and those who defend the same ideals) a chance. However, I am extremely careful not to let emotions define my opinions. Many times, I am asked about an event or an emotion, and my response is that it is too fresh to comprehend. Ideals are build over time, in a calm and deep analysis of the history, present and perception of future...

Second, even though sometimes I write my opinions, I mostly write my feelings. I have no pretense to hold a greater truth. I only hold my emotions, and sometimes and analysis of my past emotions and thoughts in a cold headed inspiration into what I would like to see happening.

So, be fearless, my friend. The worst that could happen is for one of my poetic ideas to become the lyrics of a bad song...

6/5/2006 10:09:17 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

Just before you went for sushi, you told me that as an Arab, you didn't like Arabs... You said they are filthy and dirty...

Even drunk, on a saturday late at night, I still think there is something terribly wrong... how can we, Arabs, feel that way? I don't question your judgement or intelligence, I just feel bad about it... And disagree strongly...

There are two parts to it:

• we Arabs have come to accept how others view us, and to basically go for the : I am different. Yes, Aclaiming the personal difference is great, but assuming one's identity is extremely important.
• Out of all other ethnic and religious groups, we are probably the only one living completely in the past... I meet lots of people,in lots od places, but how often did I hear a claim from an Arab to a positive, modern value?

I think that most of us Arabs are struggling with our identity... I believe we have a great past, and we can build a great future on it... I also believe that we have a great deal to overcome to be ourselves...

I hate it when I miss a bus or a plane and I think it "escaped"... I hate it when I do something, and questioned about it, my only response is that is how It is supposed to be... life is not about determinism vs. free will. We all are born into societies, and grow up with a background that influences us a lot, but we still have free will and opportunities to make a difference, not only on our lives, but also on others' lives...

I think we ought to take our destiny into our hands, and assume full responsibility for our actions.

I think it is wrong to kill people on a plane, a café or a night club ( and it makes no difference if it happens in New York, Casablanca, Cairo or Tel Aviv). I think I am closer to people that think like me, and act in ways I like, not people that are supposed to believe like me...

I believe that if I am proud to be Arab, it is because of how my identity, ethnic group (although ethnic belonging is only a state of mind) makes me a more generous person, more truthful, and more aware of a great history that I adopt readily...

I also accept that being an Arab (or Arabized Berber, if you prefer) dunts me with great handicaps... We all are just as we are, and our past was not just glory...

The day we Arabs accept our own differences, and accept that my Saudi Friend has as much rights as anybody else in the world, especially a right to respect, and also to her opinions that I am disagreeing with vehemently here... That our historical values are to be made into advantages we have over others, instead of being our handicaps... The day we (as a group) will respect others, and accept their differences, will probably be the day of our return to glory...

I long for the day when I can say I am Arab, withought having to appologize for anything...

6/3/2006 11:57:29 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

I was playing the CNN.com Presidential Showdown Game and what I thought was the most likely outcome looked like this :

   To my big surprise, when I tried to figure out what the result would be, it was 269 electors for Kerry and 269 electors for bush!

    If that happens, well, then the decision would go to the House of Representatives, with one vote for each state, which most certainly will mean a victory for Bush... He would then be the only president in US history to be miselected twice. Even more surprising is that in that case, the most probable vice-president (decided by the senate) would be John Edwards!

    Also interesting to note is that, if that was ever to happen, then don't expect to know who is the president before January...

    Let's hope it doesn't come down to this scenario (by the way, I looked in the "Internets" and found another prediction of a tie that uses a different electoral map projection, and another one one more that bank on elector Richie Robb from West Virginia voting for Kerry)

10/30/2004 9:41:27 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

I have been to a Pat Helland great sesssion about the analogy between SOA and the Metropolis (I know others have seen that a long time ago, but I have been busy last spring and summer speaking and learning new stuff). It was overall a great session, but it did introduce a concept that I believe is totally new (to me at least)... it can summed up with the acronyme S.O.D. which littreally means "Slide Oriented Delivery"... I have delivered somwhere around 100 presenttions since January 2004, but I still think it is a totally weird thing to have over 70 slides in a one hour presentation... I don't mean to criticize, but still, BOA was a good shot, HST wasn't a bad joke, but SOD certainly doesn't work...

I have many other remarks, but If I told you any of the confidential info, I would very simply have to shut you up, which usually would implicate killing you... (unless you are under the right NDA, but then you probably have access to me by other means)

A last word : I advocate SOA, I accept thinking BOA, I tolerate DOD, but I certainly refuse to cope with SOD...

good night

8/26/2004 9:52:15 AM UTC    Comments [16] 

  I will never understand the heat that surrounds whatever relates to Football (Soccer is not the game's name, not matter what North Americans may think). I understand even less how the World Cup came to become a state issue.

  Moroccans have spent a long time dreaming of becoming a developed country  once they get a chance to organize the Cup... Wich is quite ridiculus, once one looks at the Moroccan bid. It is true that big events can help focus efforts to attain what would be unattainable otherwise, but what can be done through the World Cup, can be done through  a variety of other events... Some of which would even be better, because they would finance some of the investment needed.

   So, congratulation South Africa. You deserve it...

5/16/2004 3:44:16 PM UTC    Comments [13] 

   It is not easy in these days to have a coherent and sensible opinion about world affairs. Today, I heard some excerpts of an interview of "Bachar Al Assad". I was amazed to hear him say that the violence going on in Iraq is a legitimate resistance, except for the acts that kill civilians ...

   What does resistance mean in the current situation in Iraq? What could be its objectives? To get the US soldiers out? that is the stupidest thing that can be done, for that will simply make things worse in Iraq, and make the world even more open to terrorism that it is today. The US war on Iraq was wrong, and it should never have happened. But now that there is no longer any order or stability in there, if the US leaves, it will simply make the place worse, and let the criminal terrorist groups think they can do as they wish all around the world. The responsible attitude would be to try and bring back some legitimacy to the situation, and work on a mid term stability plan that will leave Iraq at the end free of foreign forces. That needs to include an increasing international involvement, especially by the Arab and Muslim countries, and a smooth slow process of democratizing the country so that it can stand up by itself again.

   Another issue I see as total madness is that of the war on Terror. There are quite a few issues there that are simply dealt with in a totally stupid manner. The very first of those is to think that unorganized, spread all over the place gangs can be fought in a war... I have no military experience, but I simply think there is some analogy to a situation where an army is fighting against a militia that has spread all over a desert. Does it sound sensible in that situation to airbomb each individual militia person? The right way to go about it is to cut the ties between the militia and the population, so that they find no support and they can then be fought by all... The same applies to the Terrorists. I don't believe that anybody in the world really supports the acts of those groups, and that the main issue is that a big part of the world is feeling targetted, so they think that it is a good tactic to ally with those that are fighting their enemy... The only way Terrorism is going to be defeated is to fight the root issues that make the arabs and muslims feel targeted today. The war on Iraq was a huge mistake, in that it made sensible people feel their families are not safe. The main conflict that had prepared the world to the current madness is the Israeli-Palestinian situation. If the world was to deal with that situation in a just manner, there would be very little animosity among the muslims against the US, and the terrorists would have no hatred to build upon. The war on Iraq, at the same time as the Israeli government is trying to violently crush the palestinians with full support from the US has only made everything worse.

   I think that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a very difficult one to solve, but that it simply cannot be solved by trying to impose a resolution from the US. The Jews and the Arabs are cousins, and they both belong to that land. The only way anyone can be of help there is for him to be distant and neutral, mediating so that the cousins start talking real talk... It is never the job of the mediator to start saying who is right and who is wrong, and it is never from the outside to even form a knowlegeable opinion about what is really happening. The mesiator has also to be acceptable to both parties, and to be that, he needs to be totally neutral, not an ally of one side.

   Instead, the US has the exact opposite behavior, which makes the muslims feel as if the US is against them, and thus they view it as their enemy that needs to be defeated. When both the Isrealis and the Palestinians will understand that they just have to talk with each other and find some way to live together (I don't care if it is in the same country or in two separate countries, they still need each other, and will never survive unless they get their differences sorted out), then the situation will be much better in the whole world.

   What the US can do for their Israeli and Arab friends, is to have a longer term vision, and understand that being against Israel today can mean helping them solve the problems they are facing. The US should use its influence in takin a position against all parties until they sort out the problem, so that they all feel compeled to make a courageous effort. As long as the Israelis think they are in a stronger position than the Palestinians, and that the Palestinians think that their weak position doesn't allow for a just solution, the Israelis will try to use their force to kill the problem, and the palestinians would use hopeless means - including terror - the same way a hopeless person can commit suicide...

   Both parties should be brought to think that it is equally impossible to win by violence, and that none has any advantage. Then they will both think seriously about peace, and that is all that is needed to solve the problem.

   The madness needs to stop, and the people of earth need to realize how stupid all of this is. I for myself feel that countries have no meaning, and that race, religion, borders, and all other stupid means of making a person think he is different than the next guy is dumb, and that it is making life worse for us and for our children. I dream of a day when there will be no more nations, no more races, but just a happy crowd of humans living in peace all around the globe.

4/28/2004 8:11:51 PM UTC    Comments [9] 

When Madrid suffered the worst, I was calling for a clear and unambiguous message condemning all terror, and full action to fight it. While all arabic countries have condemned the act, most have left some ambiguity, in that they have, in the same message when they condemn terrorism, talked about Israel, Iraq and the other issues that can put shades into their condemnation.

Yesterday, on a plane coming back home from Tunis, I saw on a newspaper that there were street protests in Rabat against "the israeli terrorist act of killing Ahmed Yassine, and all other forms of terrorism". I strongly think that the murder of Yassine is a very bad act, and that it is certainly no way a state should deal with issues, I fail to see how that act is worse than the Madrid attack (and as far as I can see, there was no mass street protest in Morocco against the Madrid bombings).

I think that Arabs are simply lacking any sense of communication, for I don't think they are any different than the rest of the good people of earth, and that their intellectuals are against all the violence and terror that is taking place. They simply need to express their positions and feelings in ways that can be understood :

- They need to separate their political views from their positions taken on basic principles, and say loud and clear that they are opposed to any form of terrorism, including those that might seem in tune with their political objectives. I think they should condemn clearly the "Al Qaeda" acts, the palestian suicide attacks on Isreali civilians, the israeli attacks on palestinian civilians, and any other form of organized attack on civilians as being all of the same category.

- They should distinguish between resistance in occupied land, which can take the form of a war if necessary, which is historically legitimate, and the terrorist acts that hit civilians. Resistance doesn't justify attacking civilians ... and therefore, occupied people attacking civilians, even in the occupiers terroritory, are guilty of Terrorism

- Expressing an opinion on terrorism is not enough, everyone should act to stop it

- Fighting terrorism is not the same as agreeing with bush on everything ... Arabs should fight terrorism, but at the same time defend their own interests and political objectives. However, they need to do a lot to make their official politics reflect the opinions of the people and defend the people's best interest. There is no excuse to dictatorship, not even the current cruisades of Bush and his administration.

3/29/2004 2:47:33 PM UTC    Comments [13] 

   What happened yesterday in Madrid was terrible, and I feel the same I felt when there were terrorist attacks in Casablanca, New York and Washington, Istambul, ...etc. While the sorrow is the same, I found it ridiculous when the media started discussing who did it, and commented on the possibility of it being an "Al Qaeda" attack as being a "retalliation" for the war in Iraq... Some even went to discuss whether Spain had ennemis in the Arabic or Islamic world...

   I don't care if it was ben laden and his psychopaths that did it, or if it is the criminals of ETA ... Those guys have killed innocent civilians, and that is not what an "ennemi" does. It is, however, exactely what criminals and psychopaths do... I don't care what nationality were the people that were killed or hurt, I only need to know they are innocent civilians taking the subway to work, walking in the streets. I feel the same when israelis are hurt while on a bus or in a coffe shop, when palestians die at home because someone who is targeted by the israeli army lives next door or was driving on the street near by, when Turkish people are hurt while walking by a bank, Australians while sunbathing in a beach resort, Americans while at work, Moroccans while they are entering a Hotel, ...etc.

    This doesn't mean I agree with what politicians and militaries around the world are doing. I believe that zionism is bad (the same way any movement that bases itself on ethnicity or religion is bad), that the actual American government is totally wrong in what it is doing around the world (it is not democratic by any criteria to decide what the whole world should do and be elected by a single part of the world. That divides the people of the world and highers hatred between nations). I believe that the British, the Spanish and Italian governments were wrong in their support of Bush for the war in Iraq, and that at the same time Saddam Hussein needed to be ousted, but the way it was done was wrong (Saddam should either have ousted by his people, or by the whole world). But I fail to see any realtion between whatever is done wrong by those politicians and the terrorists acts. I believe that humans are, in their majority, good people. I also believe that that is true of the majority of any single group of people, whether we look at geaographies, religions, ethinicity or whatever other criterium. The small groups of mentally insane people (whether they are politicians, activists or criminals) should very simply be fought by peaceful means, and the goodness of the majorities will always win in the end.

    Those who try to "put these acts into context" have better start thinking what all this means... Terror is terror, no matter what motivates it, and nice people don't kill innocent ones... No religion tolerates this, and no land wants it... We should all fight it, starting by not being silent, and by not tolerating anybody advocating any form of violence, be it for political, "patriotic", or religious excuses...

3/12/2004 6:36:44 PM UTC    Comments [17]