Those who will bear the shame are not the ones who will bite the dust

From an article in "The Economist" about the failure of the Doha Trade Round...

"WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION
Jul 27th 2006

The global trade talks have collapsed because the world's biggest
economies prefer failure to compromise. What comes next?

" In principle, a compromise was there for the taking. Indeed, Mr Lamy has informally laid out its contours: more subsidy cuts than America has offered and more ambitious tariff cuts by the EU and big emerging economies. So why has nothing happened? One reason is genuine differences over whether the interests of poor people are best served by lower tariffs or more special protection. But the explanation lies chiefly in the failure of countries to face down their own powerful protectionist lobbies, particularly farmers." "

Failure? Or is it unwillingness? I often wonder if they even try, or if they feel that farmers should not be bothered at all, and that developed countries are afraid to death from some angry farmers threatening to block a highway with their tractors.

We are in a sad but obvious mercantilist era. Bye bye, unilateral liberalisation! Chile was a unique case where they removed all their tariff barriers and it worked really well - it will only be a case in history, I guess.

Finito la Doha Development Round! When the world pretended, after September 11th 2001 that this round would be dedicated to the 'poor', and that it understood that poverty fosters violence, well, guess again! The world failed its poor.

Expect more bread riots to come. And let the farmers enjoy their subsidies. I hope their choke on them.

More messages on missiles..

As a gracious follow up to the post about Israeli children writing messages on missiles to Lebanon, and the justification that we got that those kids were just playing around and were, ya 7aram, stranded in a bomb shelter and found nothing better to unwind than to write on a missile...

This is more or less the same, but this time with grown-ups. Religious gentlemen.
A clear proof that the previous event was not just 'kids who didnt mean it' but rather 'parents so full of hate they could explode.

More pictures on this link, I'm unable to upload them now, which is okay anyway. Am too disgusted.

HRW: Israel Responsible for Qana Attack

I was away from the internet for 4 days -- was visiting a city in central Java, Jogjakarta, which is beautiful. It has suffered from an earthquake in may and is still recovering -- it was quite phenomenal to see. I'll try to post a couple of photos.

Until then... Day 16 (17? 20? I stopped counting..) against Lebanon.

From Human Rights Watch:
"Today’s strike on Qana, killing at least 54 civilians, more than half of them children, suggests that the Israeli military is treating southern Lebanon as a free-fire zone,” said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. “The Israeli military seems to consider anyone left in the area a combatant who is fair game for attack."

Damn right they do. And they're not even hiding it. Also from the same HRW article:

"On July 27, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said that Israel had given civilians ample time to leave southern Lebanon, and that anyone remaining could be considered a supporter of Hezbollah. “All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah,” he said, according to the BBC."

Oh please.

You are talking about telling people to evacuate their homes -- their lives.
And many - since the south is mainly poor - simply have nowhere to go to.

Seriously. I've been reading israeli media and blogs, and interestingly enough, the justification is "we told them to leave but they didn't". Apart from that being an implicit admission that the Ramon comment is plain crap, it also means (proves, i should say) that Israelis have REALLY no respect for human life, and clearly all their comments about 'collateral damage' was for newspaper consumption.
Not that we didnt know, but it's interesting to see the real face of the Occupation - which is, sadly, that of the citizens.

Cover of the Independent - 21 July 2006

Merci a Aurelien pour la couverture! (the comments are mine :)

Well, it seems that thew Federated States of Micronesia (I just love the full name. It's probably longer than the area of the country) is now replaced by the UK as the third wheel in the 'international nonsense' trio.. Good to know the Micronesians have to come their senses, and learned that the fact the US pays for the plane ticket of their country's embassador to the UN doesn't mean they should prostitute their vote. Hope the Blair cabinet will get the hint..

The Independent titled a few days ago (22 July): "Leading article: The humiliating death of an independent British foreign policy"

The Brits and their media rock ;)

CONCERT for the Lebanese Red Cross

If you're still in Cambridge, hey, why not? Do a good deed, and have a GREAT TIME!

CARE FOR CIVILIANS, RELIEF FOR REFUGEES
A Benefit Concert for the Lebanese Red Cross
and an appeal for ceasefire and calm in the region.

SUNDAY AUGUST 6th @ 6pm , 2006
Kresge Auditorium, MIT Campus, 48 Mass Ave. Cambridge MA.
http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=W16

$20 at the door / ALL proceeds go to the Lebanese Red Cross
http://www.dm.net.lb/redcross/

A two hour concert with performances by:

SHARQ Arabic Music Ensemble
The ZAITOUN Dabke Troupe
Japanese Taiko Drummer Eaine Fong
Moroccan Gnawa with Boujemaa Razgui
South Indian Dance with Aparna Keshaviah
Members of Boston Camerata Early Music Group

Organized by:
ADC Mass, Arabesque Mondays, MIT LCM, NAAP Boston.

Une bouffee d'air frais!

Merci - et gros bisous! - a Cecile!

C'est marrant, parfois les plus honnetes critiques du gouvernement israelien sont ecrites par des israeliens..

A souligner: le commentaire sur les films qui les 'aident a les comprendre et les connaitre'. C'est tellement vrai: le cinema, la literrature, la musique sont des expressions de l'ame, et c'est en partageant ceci qu'on pourra un jour, peut-etre, entendre la melodie de la vie entre les explosions...


""
Nous, cineastes israéliens , saluons tous les cineastes arabes réunis à Paris pour la Biennale du cinema arabe . A travers vous, nous voulons envoyer un message d'amitié et de solidarité à nos collegues Libanais et Palestiniens qui sont actuellement assiégés et bombardés par l'armée de notre pays.
Nous nous opposons categoriquement à la brutalité et à la cruauté de la politique israélienne, qui a atteint de nouveaux sommets au cours des dernières semaines. Rien ne peut justifier la poursuite de l'occupation , de l'enfermement et de la repression en Palestine. Rien ne peut justifier le bombardement de populations civiles et la destruction d'infrastuctures au Liban et dans la bande de Gaza.

Permettez nous de vous dire que vos films, que nous nous efforcons de voir et de faire circuler autour de nous, sont tres importants à nos yeux. Ils nous aident à vous connaître et à vous comprendre. Grace à ces films, les hommes, les femmes et les enfants qui souffrent à Gaza, à Beyrouth, et partout où notre armée déploie sa violence, ont pour nous des noms et des visages. Nous voulons vous en remercier, et vous encourager à continuer de filmer, malgré toutes les difficultés .

Quant à nous, nous nous engageons à continuer d'exprimer, par nos films, nos prises de paroles et nos actions personelles, notre opposition catégorique à l'occupation et notre désir de liberté, de justice et d'égalité pour tous les peuples de la région.

Nurith Aviv / Ilil Alexander / Adi Arbel / Yael Bartana / Philippe Bellaiche / Simone Bitton / Michale Boganim / Amit Breuer / Shai Carmeli-Pollack / Sami S. Chetrit / Danae Elon / Anat Even / Jack Faber / Avner Fainguelernt / Ari Folman / Gali Gold / BZ Goldberg / Sharon Hamou / Amir Harel / Avraham Heffner / Rachel Leah Jones / Dalia Karpel / Avi Kleinberger / Elonor Kowarsky / Edna Kowarsky / Philippa Kowarsky / Ram Loevi / Avi Mograbi / Jud Neeman / David Ofek / Iris Rubin / Abraham Segal / Nurith Shareth / Julie Shlez / Eyal Sivan / Yael Shavit / Eran Torbiner / Osnat Trabelsi / Daniel Waxman / Keren Yedaya
""

Reality Check: "How's your family under the bombs?"

With all the madness we tend to forget that most of the people out there are sane and intelligent, and only want a happy life for their children.

I'm taking a conflict resolution class right now, and this is what is called (as I am learning..) the spoilers: those willing to make things go nuts to fulfill a limited interest (more political power for some people in Lebanon? a stronger image for somebody in Israel as a man of war?) and those can spoil the whole conflict resolution thing for the mass, which is often the one hit the hardest.

The reality check for me is when I email/talk to my lebanese, palestinian and israeli friends. To those, Reem, Samar, Esti, Joseph, Noga, all, I pray for the safety of your families as if they were my family. Because i know that I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. On either side of the border.

Damn armed people!! What will it take for the madness to stop?

Support for Hezbollah? Really?

Just had a great email discussion with Aurelien about the support that Hezbollah has within Lebanon.
My 2 cents - since this is my blog, i am entitled to, nyark nyark nyark... :) - I think that ppl started off by condemning the Hezbollah kidnapping of the two soldiers which was the trigger to the crisis.

But with the insane escalation by Israel, people found themselves somewhat compelled to support Hezbo, at least implicitely: it is, after all, the only power in Lebanon capable of inflicting some damage to Israel.
Particularly with the indiscriminate bombing -- Israel has even bombed Al-Ashrafeyya, a mainly christian upper class neigbourhood in West Beirut (and from which many of my friends are). Those particular people who could afford, because of their resources (and i'm thinking mainly in terms of power and influence rather than money) to take a step back from Hezbo are thrown in the middle of the conflict and are de facto taking sides - and if not the Israeli (logic, no?) then whose side do you think they will be forced to take?
I think this applies to a large part of the Lebanese population...

One more thing: Israel has made Hezbollah into what it is: an opponent. A full fledged adversary. After they had succeeded for years in minimising Hezbollah, putting them as merely a terrorist group - and successfully minimising its role in the April 2000 Israeli retreat which, let's admit it, only took place after the Israeli army casualties became too many to justify their present -- and pictured it as a unilateral move.

The political influence and popular support of Hezbollah is increasing, and probably not just in Lebanon. And it is Israel's direct doing.
Making it even harder to apply 1559 (which called, among other things, to disarm 'all paramilitary groups', read Hezbollah).

Bravo.

I wonder if could foresee it? Or if it surprised them?

War comments: Lebanon's fig leaf

Today's observations on the war:

-Israel has destroyed telephone and television antennas in Beirut. My guess, it's just to scare people - how do you feel when you hear that your brother's neighbourhood has been bombed, but you can't call and check on him?
Note that the US had done the same in Baghdad, and it took some whiz college students to reestablish the landlines in a way I didnt quite understand but partially worked. The US had also bombed the teli and radio to start broadcasting their own feed. And they sent spam emails to iraqi users.
Any lebanese here to tell us if any of that is taking place?

-we all discuss where the lebanese army is. Well, here is the answer: 'they're hiding and letting Hezbollah do the job'. BBC: "For now, the Lebanese army has remained in its barracks during the current conflict with Israel". Also quoting BBC: " the Lebanese government has launched a veiled threat it might start fighting if Israel deploys a large ground force in southern Lebanon". I love that.
Veiled threat? Why veiled? :) That's what in Egypt we call the 'shilou men fo2i la amaweto' principle - roughly interpreted, "somebody make him stop crushing my bones, or I'll be forced to use violence"...

Former Lebanese army Amin Hotteit: "the lebanese air force doesn't have jets; the navy doesn't have warships".


So now, disarming Hezbollah is not just disarming a random armed faction: it's effectively disarming the only military defense that Lebanon has.
Many of those who try to champion SC decision 1559 are unaware of that fact --- but many are aware that removing Hezbollah will be removing the last fig leaf covering Lebanon's... ehemm.. South.
And this is something that all Lebanon, not just the Shia, will not let happen.

Ths is why the Israeli raid is in all over Lebanon, not just the Shia-dominated South. Even the rich Al-Ashrafeya neighbourhood in Beirut west, mainly Christian, was targeted.

This is also why Israel targets civilian infrastructures (today's news report: water stations, gas stations, hospitals, more roads...): to incite an anti-Hezbollah movement. But, as I read today (don't remember where): "Israel thinks that by bombing the Lebanese, it will weaken Hezbollah. The truth is, as Israel bombs the Lebanese, it just makes them more angry".

BBC World / BBC Arabic : the showdown

I am sitting in the basement of the University of Indonesia dormitory, Depok, Jakarta. Couldn't survive more than half a day with no internet access...
I wish you could see the room - it's, well, a basement, with 10 computers and people sit on the floor. About 10 young college students - freshmen, they look - around me are clicking, sitting two at each computer. There is a sticker stuck on each screen by the manager of the 'net cafe' with the 'friendster' website address... little unexpected for an educative institution :)
Hey, can't complain, and despite the fact that it works on windows 95 -- it must be the only living specimen -- and the screen is flickering, its colours changing from white to yellow... Oh, and it's dial-up.
I am just too much of a damn pampered consultant who got used to broadband in civil war areas that he finds dial-up unusual... hmmm. That's not good :-S


First thing I checked: BBC news. In english and in arabic. There is a bit of discrepency here... well the BBC arabic's homepage is mainly the BBC international Middle East news page translated -- but there are a few differences...
For instance, the english website has had for the last 4 days this piece of news
stuck on the top right of the page: "Family in rocket-hit Haifa seek sanctuary of bomb shelter" . Hmmm. interesting choice of news. I absolutely feel for all the people under siege, on both sides of the border. No one should live in fear. Maybe that's one of war's most disgusting aspects: fear. Fear of being killed, hurt. And worse, fear for the people you love. Doubly worse: if those people you love are on the frontline - army soldiers, or civilians in heavy fighting areas.


I'm just curious about why this is the piece of news they chose to give a permanent link on the homepage, that's all... Maybe because there is actively nothing very 'interesting' (in a journalistic meaning) in Israel: some rockets falling, mainly no one injured.
Journalists are funny people.

The headline now on bbc english is about the new israeli raid preparing, but, my oh my, according to BBC arabic, they're already in!! "The Israeli army conducts 'precise incursions' in Lebanon".

Ladies and gentlemen, for those who didnt know yet: they're in!!!

Islam in Aceh: Why non-Arab Muslims are cooler :)

(Non-muslims may not find that entry too interesting, you have my permission to zapp it!)

I just returned from the Friday prayer. And despite the fact that I didn't understand anything of the sermon (which was in Indonesian) except the 1-minute prayer at the beginning and in the end, I enjoyed it A LOT!
Not because that gave me the time to crack my toes (egyptian expression -- never mind) but because I actually had the occasion, once again, to admire the way non-Arabs practice their religion.

There is something particular about a religion that is in a foreign language -- the texts, the songs, psalms, sound.. almost like magic!

But apart from the aesthetic aspect, the understanding is more important, will you say: this is where the particularity of Aceh appears to my eyes. People here have a fantastic understanding of Islam, of the wordings of the prayers. I think that here there is the highest concentration of Al-Azhar uni grads after, well, Al-Azhar! I've had the chance to chat it out -- I swear -- in street Egyptian dialect with guys in remote villages, in places where no one speaks english.

They are so versed on religion, actually, that when i'm going for wodou2 at the mosque, I feel like the old man in the story with Al-Hassan & Al-Hussein (you know, the "akhi yaz3om annahou yatawada2 a7san menni...". And of course it get ultimately embarassing when, say at the office, they ask you to be the imam -- "Imam dari Mesir!" (Imam from Egypt) and i'm like (off-voice: "yeah right. Dude, I'm almost worried i'll mess up the tashkil"..). So i thank my parents for having given me a decent religious education!

There is also the fact that they were lucky enough to avoid doing what we did: Getting religion so much into the public sphere that they have diluted each other. Simple example: we use God's name so often, and in all kinds of expressions, that we no longer notice when we do. While I agree that it can be a good thing that we're thinking of religion as an integral part of life wel kalam da kollo -- but at some level, I feel that the "holiness" of some things is less strong if we use them too frequently! Saying Alhamdullilah here takes the full meaning of the expression: "thank you God", rather than just considering it a proxy for saying 'i'm okay'..

The Acehnese people maintain a very healthy separation of religion and 'earthly matters'; definitely not a la turque, but rather in a constructive and cooperative manner whereby life and eternity feed into each other, while remaining, thankfully, distinct.

Seriously -- thank God not all Muslims are Arabs!

I am switching to Axe!

Okay, this was supposed to be a travel blog but it is now turning into an overly political one. Even the title of the blog changed.

Not that I particularly mind, nor intend to stop my political rantings. Just stating a fact!

Here is to break the spell: very non-political and almost embarrassing :)

I think this is commercial is quite funny. And sexy, which doesn't hurt. And the music is catchy.
Enjoy.



I wonder where I should do my grocery shopping to bump into her...

For the weirdos who actually hunt down the songs used in commercials (I'm not the only one, I know that!!), this is Peter Lawlor, "Getting Dressed" which was recorded for the ad and therefore it's only a 40 seconds song. Sorry, folks.

NOTE: if you have a slow internet connection, you can press play, then go read the rest of the blog :) give it a couple of minutes to download in your cache memory, and when it's over press replay, the video will be nice and continuous.

Our Imam is pregnant!

I am currently trying (in vain) to write a paper on AIDS in the MENA region, from a cultural perspective (KSGers will recognise a Michael Walton influence here -- yep.)
Am mentionning it because any contributions are welcome :)))
but mainly because looking up the internet for the subject led me to stumble accross an unrelated but no less interesting issue which shares the subjects of culture, gender, and religion with the former issue:

Are women allowed to lead a mixed prayer in Islam?


First reaction: well, hmmm, nope.
Second reaction: let's read on.
And apart from the now famous Amina Wadud case of leading a gender-mixed friday prayer in NYC in 2005, which I primarily disregarded as an interesting but individual move, to me, however, the declaration by Sheikh Aly Goma'a (Egypt's Mufti) that "Al Tabari and Ibn Arabi (old scholars) allow the Imamate of women" makes me think twice. That is was published on Al-Arabiya is an interesting sign. I'm not particularly avant-gardiste when it comes to religion, but I like to discuss things and I am usually open to attempts of convincingg which may fail or succeed.

Friends, what do you think? Muslims, non-Muslims, gals, guys?

Repulsive.

I will spare you the images of destruction, of limbs of palestinians and lebanese, or israeli tanks rolling over houses with their inhabitants (they do that in the palestinian territories,haven't read any reports of this happening - yet - in Lebanon).

A good visual account -- rather ugly but oh so real - can be found here.



But this is surely one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. Israeli children writing messages on the rockets that they know will kill civilians. What is Israel trying to teach its children? It's a downright culture of hatred they are creating. Those children will lead their country someday, and it won't be coexistence they'll be preaching.
I can only hope that those photos - all taken on Monday 17 July, 3 days ago - are merely the exception. The inhabitants of the settlements (the photos are from Kiryat Shmona) are known to be extreme right wing hardliners... Aren't they? Someone please say yes...
The third photo is from southern Lebanon, also Monday 17 July. Message received.

(This kinda reminds me, if you recall, of the American soldiers who were writing "Happy Ramadan, Motherfuckers" on rockets being dropped on Baghdad during Ramadan 2003. The photos made the headlines around the world, at the time. It was also a great ad for Oakley sunglasses which all of a sudden got a free commercial on the front page of a lot of newspapers...

Part of what bothers me in that particular story is not just the context, it's the hypocrisy. So many times have we seen analysis of Palestinian media, claiming that they teach hatred to children, etc etc.
The truth is, when it comes to war, no one is immaculate.

Lesson of Israeli political thought.. from 1982!

The text below is in french, unfortunately. but roughly, it is an excerpt from a 1982 magazine outlining the political priorities for the state of Israel: breaking down Egypt (and fostering the creation of a coptic state in the south), Syria, Iraq into smaller countries; creating a druze country in the Golan, a sunnite country around Aleppo, and, the article hopes, a good Syrian-Iraqi war that would destroy both.

Please don't tell me that Israel has ever made any, or ever will, move towards peace.

Tfou. Gatkom el araf.

Click here for the full text in french.
(merci a Hadjar)

""En tant que corps centralisé, l'Egypte est déjà un cadavre, surtout si l'on tient compte de l'affrontement de plus en plus dur entre musulmans et chrétiens. Sa division en provinces géographiques distinctes doit être notre objectif politique pour les années 1990, sur le front occidental. Une fois l'Egypte ainsi disloquée et privée de pouvoir central, des pays comme la Libye, le Soudan, et d'autres plus éloignés, connaîtront la même dissolution. La formation d'un Etat copte en Hautes-Egypte, et celle de petites entités régionales de faible importance, est la clef d'un développement historique actuellement retardé par l'accord de paix, mais inéluctable à long terme. En dépit des apparences, le front Ouest présente moins de problèmes que celui de l'Est. La partition du Liban en cinq provinces... préfigure ce qui se passera dans l'ensemble du monde arabe. L'éclatement de la Syrie et de l'Irak en régions déterminées sur la base de critères ethniques ou religieux doit être, à long terme, un but prioritaire pour Israël, la première étape étant la destruction de la puissance militaire de ces Etats. Les structures ethniques de la Syrie l'exposent à un démantèlement qui pourrait aboutir à la création d'un Etat chi'ite le long de la côte, d'un Etat sunnite dans la région d'Alep, d'un autre à Damas, et d'une entité druze qui pourrait souhaiter constituer son propre Etat -- peut-être sur notre Golan (!!!)-- en tout cas avec l'Houran et le nord de la Jordanie... Un tel Etat serait, à long terme, une garantie de paix et de sécurité pour la région. C'est un objectif qui est déjà à notre portée.
Riche en pétrole, et en proie à des luttes intestines, l'Irak est dans la ligne de mire israélienne. Sa dissolution serait, pour nous, plus importante que celle de la Syrie, car c'est lui qui représente, à court terme, la plus sérieuse menace pour Israël.

[Source : Kivounim, Jérusalem, No 14, février 1982, pages 49 à 59.
(Le texte intégral, dans son original hébreu, est reproduit dans le livre : Palestine, terre des messages divins. Ed. Albatros. Paris 1986, p. 377 à 387, et dans sa traduction française à partir de la page 315.) ] "

Take a deep breath.. and dive into the Middle East.

Madness.

I don't know if this describes more accurately the current Israeli administration, or the "International Community" which, if we trust the mainstream media to be representative of , is so strongly blaming the whole situation on Hezbollah that it has become laughable.
When the BBC news arabic titles "Death of one Israeli in the North of Israel" (referring to the man who died in the city of Naharia earlier today) and when the fourth paragraph mentions that "Israel has bombed a bus full of women of children fleeing their village and heading towards the mountains to escape Israeli heavy artillery shelling", making 38 victims -- more than all the Israelis who died from the beginning of the last hostilities -- the situation because just ridiculous.

Is it so scary to blame Israel? Why has it become an act of political suicide for a politician to say 'I condemn Israel for shattering every code of conduct, every code of honour, every text they are supposed to abide by, be it earthly or heavenly, secular or sacred'?
Because this is what it does.


HE....

I once read the Rome Statute of the new International Criminal Court (which both the US and Israel voted down) -- and I recall that, of all the crimes cited as war crimes, Israel was guilty of ALL of them except ONE: 'forced abortions'.
This scares the living hell out of me.

But let me focus on Lebanon, since this is the issue at hand today. Not that the genocide of Palestinians has slowed down -- it actually usually picks up whenever attention is on something else, but in order not to bore the kind readers who have honoured my humble blog with their time, let's remain in Lebanon.





... IS SHOOTING HIM.

There are ways of waging a war. There are honourable, and dishonourable ways.
Hezbollah, name them a terrorist organisation or a resistance group, are fighting for soldier against soldier. They have kidnapped 2 Israeli soldiers by the lebanese border -- I don't think those lads were on their way to a friendly visit, now were they :) -- and have sought to use them as a negotiation device to convince the Israeli government to release the HUNDREDS of Lebanese prisoners it holds, unlawfully, in israeli prisons. Those prisoners include children and women, for that matter.

Condemnable act? Yes. I agree. Probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, seeing that the Israeli prime minister reminds me of GW Bush before september 2001: Hopelessly trying to fill the shoes of a big man. Dwarves like those two gentlemen do what they can do best: a hell of a lot of noise - and a lot of victims that the world will be quick to forget.

But let's not do as the media did and get carried away by a secondary discussion about whether Hezbollah is a terrorist movement, a resistance movement or a political party or whatever you wish to call it.
The question at hand is the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. To quote Rami Sarafa, "let's think back to a few years ago when the U.S. spy plane crashed in China; imagine if the U.S. tried to
free their soldiers by invading China- this is exactly what's going down".
The question is one of a massacre of civilians and an organised destruction of the infrastructure of a sovereign state.

Lebanon was just starting to recover from what it's been through recently - the retreat of Israel from most of the Lebanese occupied territories, the pull-out of the Syrian forces, the series of political assassinations - and this summer promised great things for the small nations. Now Israel has successfully destroyed the touristic season - for a few years to come, probably - and has assassinated HUNDREDS of people.



Israel is bombing full house blocs. It is bombing buses carrying women and children running from their lives from the heavy shelling coming from the Israeli artillery, from its military aircrafts operating in civilian areas, from the Israeli boats stationed by the Lebanese coast and enforcing a blockade the effects of which are very likely to be felt soon.

Of course Hezbollah would retaliate - anything else would have been unexpected. In a war, when your enemy has decided to strike you with all its force and nothing is going to stop it (nothing is going to try to stop it, if we count on the international community) the only thing you can do is try to scratch him - maybe the casualties will convince him to leave.

But not the Israeli army, because the goal has never been to free its soldiers - commandos would have been more successful, let's all acknowledge this fact - but it's a reputation building exercice for a weak prime minister who became prime minister by accident, and a minister of defense whose military experience is as big as his sense of honour - zero.



We are facing a clear case of state terrorism. Sadly, we are unable to hope that the international jurisprudence will have anything to add. The only time Israel was dragged in a court of justice was at the ICJ (International Court of Justice) which ruled on the illegality of the apartheid Wall (a.k.a. separation barrier); no one took attention of this ruling for longer than 2 days, because the opinion of the court is "strictly advisory".

No, the international community has proven that it's either weak, or as morally corrupt as Israel.

Israel has unleashed hell. God knows how it will close, or how many lives it'll take. The ball is in the Israeli court, as it has always been. If they want peace, as well as preserve the lives of their citizens, they can; their neighbours will respond in kind.

Want to eat (an) Italian tonight? (mini-update)

Okay, the italians played well (don't yell, Julie).
Normally I actually enjoy watching Italian football, i think it has this excellent blend of art and power. (Here, my italian friends should take that as my apology for being a little mean in the previous entry, below, which I suggest that Italians skip ;oP )

Still. Too much cinema in the final .
The Japan Times' article "World Cup 2006's ugly end is fitting" is sad but true. Italy will enter the World Cup history as the champion of 2006, full stop. But we know that Zidane also will go in history as one of the greatest players we have had the pleasure to watch.

Want to eat (an) Italian tonight?

Anyone who will use the word Italy, Materazzi, Azzure or even Ciao in the next 40 days is banned from my life, I'm sorry to announce. Same if you invite me for a pizza, pasta, lasagna, or a cup of cappucino.

According to British press, Materazzi (figlio di puttana!!!) would have shouted "Terrorist son of a bitch" at Zidane. Hmmm. Classy italian football. In any case, Materazzi is not know for his good manners anyway, but is famous for being violent and picking up fights. Tsssk, tsssk, italian football is regressing.. With the kind of morals in the Serie A anyway, what else did you expect from their national team?

For that matter, I got this email today - thanks Omar -- it's childish but it's very funny, especially the mass forwarding in several languages (despite the weak translations) I find hilarious...

"Desormais deux nouveaux mots de la langue francaise sont apparus:
un Materazzi est une personne lache qui insulte les gens pour les pousser a bout!
un Zidane est une personne bonne, courageuse et impulsive prete a rendre des risques enormes pour defendre ce qui lui est fondamental.

From now on two new slang words will be used:
a Materazzi is a cowardly person who insults people to push them to the limit!
a Zidane is a courageous and impulsive, good person ready to take enormous risks to defend what is fundamental for him.

De agora em diante havera duas novas palavras de calao:
um Materazzi é uma pessoa cobarde que insulta pessoas so para as levar aos limites!
um Zidane é uma pessoa boa, corajosa e impulsiva pronta para a cometer riscos enormes para defender o que lhe é fundamental.


D'ora in poi due nuove parole saranno usate:
un Materazzi è una persona codarda che insulta la gente per spingerla verso un'estremità!
uno Zidane è una persona buenna, coraggiosa e impulsiva aspetta per assumersi le responsabilità enormi per difendere che cosa è fondamentale per lui.

من الآن فصاعدا سيتم اضافة كلمتين جديدتين
الماتيراتزي: شخص قذر و جبان يقوم بسب الآخرين ليدفعهم فقدان أعصابهم
الزيدان: شخص طيب و شجاع مستعد الى القيام بأقصى المجازفات للدفاع عن ما هو أساسي بالنسبة له
"
Feel free to add your language!!!

Zizou, on est tous avec toi!!!

World Cup Final in Banda Aceh

So, where were you during the World Cup final?

Okay, we lost the bloody game but at least I'll have a story to tell when I'm asked this question :)

I was in a small cafe in the middle of Banda Aceh, with some friends and coworkers. The game started at 1 a.m., local time. Paddy (a Scotsman - great guy) picked me up by motorbike, which is the main transportation means here in Banda; and we landed in this weird looking and extremely noisy cafe where people were cheering for, well, both sides.
Actually they started of by cheering for France ("Trizigui" :)!! But by the extra time they were cheering for Italy (sellouts!!!!).

The Acehnese are a fun crowd, though, very noisy, very cheerful, clapping their hands whenever one of their idols was on screen. They went crazy when Italy sent it Del Piero at the 85th minute, and it was an uprising at the 109th minute with Zidane's red card...

Was there with my war paintings -- a French flag on each cheek, I can tell you the Acehnese had a good laugh... -- sitting next to some chap who was kicking the floor like a 6 years old, wowed every time Italy got the ball, yelled at the players in bad english (they might listen to him, who knows..) and was punching my shoulder frantically when the Italians scored... Now I really understand why they split the supporters in the stadium: it's not for organisation purposes, it's to avoid murderous incentives...



It feels so weird to cheer in a foreign language!! Instead of "Allez les Bleus" the cheers was "Prancis, Prancis" (France, in Indonesian)! Likewise, I can't imagine any other cheer in Cairo except the "tam tam tam tam, Masr!"

So well, here was I, cheering for Les Bleus who managed to let us down... La honte. Grave. Went home at 5 a.m. after 2 sleepless nights, forced myself to go wash the flags off my face (I feel sorry for women who have to remove their makeup every night before to bed..) and woke up at 11:30 the next day. Monday morning. A great way to start the week, especially after taking a 10 days leave which occured 4 weeks after I started working... :)

Oh well. It was a good game in any case, the Italians played well and (almost) clean, though they only dominated the first half - during the second half and the extra time, France clearly had the upper hand.
And we won against Brazil - again. And Zidane was chosen best player of the Cup. I'll take that as a (small) consolation prize!

Funny how we feel so national when it comes to football. Life seems simpler on the football field, and what matters is the colour of the shirt you're wearing, not the colour of your skin. In 1998, when we hit the Champs-Elysees, no one asked me where I was 'really' from - we were all French, and that was sufficient. Le Monde has a good article today about this - but in a more negative, albeit very interesting position, whereby what was spontaneous in 1998 seems almost forced this year, as if we were all looking for a good reason to feel French today - after a rough year where most popular gatherings in France were, well, demonstrations or riots.

And it's funny how I feel the least french when I'm in France...

Kuala Lumpur

In Egypt, 'Kuala Lumpur' (pronounced "Kwalalamboor") is a funny way of referring to somewhere very very far - kind of 'the end of the world'. Kinda like 'Timbuktu' for the French (that's in Mali, if you're still wondering). Or, according to a friend of mine, 'Cairo' for Israelis :) (don't know how true that is, but the thought of it is funny. Can anyone confirm that?).


Anyways, what happened is that on the way back from Europe I decided to stop over for the weekend in Kuala Lumpur (hereafter referred to as KL!). Good thing is, Malaysia is one of the few countries that let us Egyptians, with our strange passport that opens from right to left and has writing in Arabic (the Dutch customs officers find it very funny, for some reason) visit their country with no visa.

So, getting there at midnight and playing the cheap backpacker, I looked up a small hostel downtown where I managed to find a bed for the time I was staying. The next morning was time to check the city out!!

And wow was it pretty. Malaysia is a developing country that has set the year 2020 as the date to become a developed one -- one thing is sure: we (as in Egypt) are faaaaaaaaaaar behind! Well developed transportation system (although you can't go from one line to the other without buying a new ticket); pretty clean; bad pedestrian crossing lights.

There is something weird about it, though: the city felt... spiritless to me. Every city has a soul of its own, which is the collective spirit shared by its inhabitants, with their similarities and differences, with its moves, lights, smells, colours.

KL was too much of a landscape to be anything else. It's almost as if they developed the skyline and forgot the ground level...
Also, KL is very multiethnic, with Chinese, Hindous, and native Malay peoples making up the main ethnic groups. But at some level, I have the feeling that those groups 'coexist' rather than 'live together' -- each in their communities, somewhat minimising interactions.

One other thing I noticed, which might be a product of the multiethnicity: as historically inter-community links were based mainly on commercial ties - which is how they ended up being in the first place - at some level this mercantilist behaviour remains, which translates in daily dealings: people won't help you unless they have to (if it's their job!) or because they will benefit from it. Otherwise, nope.
I think KL is probably the only city where when you hand out your camera and ask a local to take your photo, he will refuse - quasi-systematically.
(I know, it's not as elaborate an index and the UNDP HDI or something, but it's the only test I have in mind :)

Enough being mean -- I did have a lot of fun. Walked around town until my feet hurt, visited as much as I could and covered virtually all the touristic places in town (according to my map which had them marked with a red star).
They have an Arab neighbourhood -- well, not a 'neighbourhood' in the sense of 'chinatown' or 'edgware road' -- but rather a place with arab restaurants. And of course, the people who go there are... the Arab tourists! I find quite impressive that a guy who just left his 'mandi' and 'shisha' back home to crave them so much that they'd want to go to an arab restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Add to that the fact that food in the Gulf region is pretty awful. Rice and meat. Or rice and chicken. Or to do extra special, rice and meat and chicken. Pfff..

Another funny sight was Chinatown and its 'Petaling Street', one of the main tourist attractions and hub for all kinds of fake watches, pens, shirts or whatever you can want to buy. Fake Rolex and Tag Heuer were going for 10 Ringgit -- that's about 3 USD. Same for Mont Blanc pens, Cartier wallets, Nike shirts, shoes, whatever. Everything is fake, cheap, and openly sold. Hilarious. And I thought that the illegal DVD copies (mind you, the equivalent of 60 US cents buys you the Da Vinci Code) I found in Aceh were an extreme... :)

In Petaling Street, the chinese vendors speak... Arabic. Hmmm. Hearing a 'ta3ala ya khayyi' (come here, my brother) with a Chinese-Malay accent is quite something.
I tried to exploit my Asian looks by using my newly-acquired two words of Indonesian (which is roughly a simplified form of Malay) and asking the main question: "Berapa?" (How much?)
The problem is, I don't know the numbers in Malay so I never understood their answer if it was anything beside 1, 2 or 3. (satu, dua, tiga!!) So I had to display my tourist self again and ask in english. :o)

Alright, enough for now. Been blogging for a while now. I wonder if my boss hates me already. Wouldn't it be funny if I managed to upset him so much that he'd fire his free labour (me)?

Later.

My life as a Steward(ess)

(Where else but in London will you find a shop selling both F&C; AND Kebab? :) =====>



I just counted that in the last 10 days I've done 14 airplane take-offs and 14 landings. That's an average of 2.8 ear blockage a day. Which also means 14 bloody airplane meals in the last 10 days. The best food award goes to.... KLM on the flights to Amsterdam -- which is totally different than the meals on flights from Amsterdam. Va savoir. The worse: Garuda Indonesia's burned (literally) fish, and the spicy rice that accompanies it - especially when served on the 9 a.m. flight. Weird concept of breakfast.
(Though I don't think it beats the Polish Airlines meal on international flights: a sandwich of egg and potatoes. Hmmm. Or rather, yukkk!!)

I think someone should do a film on airplane food, like the guy who did a film eating only McDonald's food for a couple of months? This one would be based in a major airport and try everyday a new airplane lunch..

No, I did not find a new job as a plane stewardess. Just been travelling like mad and taking convoluted routes with multiples stops because they were cheaper...
So I went to London (for a conference and, oh, my birthday!), Le Mans (in France - for the wedding of a dear friend of mine), Paris (because, well, it's Paris), Brussels (to see my pompoentje!), Kuala Lumpur, then back to Aceh. More on KL later.

Two things I can conclude from that:
a) to avoid jet-lag, adjust your sleeep to the time of the night of your destination one day in advance, it works perfectly.
and b) I just love travelling! I think it's addictive, the more you get of it, the more you want!
This means that I basically will never be able to have a steady (read: boring) job in Cairo.

I guess I should start looking for a job as a steward after all.

Oh, and about the 'steady job in Cairo': An old friend of mine, Mahmoud El Ashmawy, ranked first in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs entry exam. Kudos to Mahmoud!

Le pourquoi du comment de ce que je fais dans ce coin du monde

Okay, back to more cheerful things to tell.

An update on what I am doing now: I am currently in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, doing an internship for the Bank. (I love it when we say 'the Bank'. Sounds so bloody pretentious).
Extremely interesting it is, especially that Aceh was the closest place on earth to the epicentre (do we use that word in english?) of the december 2004 Tsunami. So you can imagine it was pretty messed up around here.
Hmm, messed up is a euphemism. We're talking 400,000 dead, and a year and half later, still recovering bodies. Everyone has lost a family member or a friend.
And if it wasn't enough, it just so happens that Aceh has suffered from a civil war (hmm, 'separatist conflict' sounds more politically correct) for the previous 3 decades.

But the city, as well as the people, as getting back on their feet. Houses are being rebuilt, a bit slowly and often more expensively than thought they'd be (blame it on lousy financial management...) but everyday more people are moving into their new permanent houses.
Benny, who works at the house i live in, lost his wife and kid in the tsunami; we saw him on a motorbike with a girl the other day. I think this summarises the whole attitude around here: yes, we've been hit badly, but since we can't turn back time we might as well move on.

Remarkable and inspiring.