Rambling about Syria

I was reading Abu Fares' recent blog about his recent visit to Istanbul, where he put forth a question most of us thought about during the past couple of months a lot:

"What if we had democracy in Syria and in the rest of the Arab countries?"

During my last visit to Istanbul I thought the same thing. Why is it that a neighbouring country to Syria can thrive on all levels yet we are still so far behind. I was eager as soon as I stepped foot on Syrian land having just come back from Istanbul and witnessing how magnificent Istanbul is, to be able to make a change in Syria. I queued in a line waiting for my turn in the passport control section to get my passport stamped thinking about all the things I can do to contribute to the development of society in Syria.

I was very excited and everything I thought about seemed real and achievable, until the moment when the person in front of me gave the passport control person 50 syrian pounds to let him pass quickly, my enthusiasm died just as quick as that person passed the passport control section. and I quickly remembered where I was. Not to mention how another person went by the baggage inspection also quickly because his "cousin" apparently works there, or how another person paid a worker in the baggage area to go and get him his bags from behind the conveyor thing. These things just kill your motivation to do things you believe will benefit others and your county.

When I used to travel abroad and come back to Syria I used to feel depressed at the situation the country is in. We all know that the country could be much better than it currently is at. I don't have to travel far to feel that depression, sadness and anger at the way things are in this country, just go to Lebanon and walk in the downtown area. I know that this area of Lebanon is not a reflection of the entire country but even that glimpse of economical/real estate development is not present in Syria.
 
I know that most people think "what can one person do", I don't hold that view, because in my opinion if I move and do something, others will see that someone is trying to do something that they previously thought couldn't be done, they just need someone to prove to them that some things can be done if we put an effort in to it. And then they will move and attempt to contribute. Just like what is happening with all the demonstrations in Syria. We all thought it would be impossible to show dissent to the regime in such a public way until some people decided that this situation cannot remain and decided to take matters in to their own hands.

Until the current demonstrations, I thought that society in Syria was used to being corrupt and materialistic which made individuals in this society that are well off arrogant and egocentric. It is amazing to see how many people go out in demonstrations in Syria to denounce all those sickening attributes of our society. They are not only putting in an effort, but have sacrificed their lives, for the sake of a better future not only for themselves but for Syria. That I think, is the biggest contribution anyone can give to the development of this society.

If you don't write...

I once heard someone say, "if you don't write, you don't learn".  It feels like its been ages since I last wrote anything substantial, and it really does actually feel strange. I hope I get back to the habit of writing more frequently, because I know that there are a couple of you out there who really miss my thorough, complex and enlightened analysis of world politics, my splendid humour and just at times simply miss me...... ???

So I once heard someone say, if you don't write, you don't learn. And I agree.

I think when a person starts to write about anything they start to learn more about not only what they are writing about but also about themselves; It is that search for thoughts, for words, that describes what you feel and believe in that makes you know yourself a bit more. It is that process of trying to articulate the thoughts in a way that is not only understandable to you but also to those that will eventually read what you are writing, that makes things clearer to you.

I think the more a person writes the more they discover themselves. In contrast reading only injects foreign ideas, it is the act of writing that confirms your thoughts and opinions and makes them permanent, but not unchangeable. Some people have told me before that they find it hard to find the right words to describe their opinions and ideas when they write, but as everything else, there is a learning curve, the more you write the easier it becomes, and the more you learn about yourself.

Stuff that Whirl in my head

Has the world gone mad? or are there only a few people who think that it has? Relative and perspective are the words here that we need to look at. For some this age denotes the time of great technological advances, of human intellectuality reaching its highest potentials and still pressing on, of human affluence and comfortable lives; others view this age as the age of moral corruptness, greed and injustice, the individual over the masses, of subjugation of the weak and the Earth to the desires of the powerful and strong.

And in all that mess we even fail to understand each other as humans due to culture and religious differences. To be honest this is not uncommon or unheard of, history is filled with events where the powerful and rich places an iron fist on the weak and helpless, where massacres have happened because one person believes in the Cross and the other believes in fire. But having reached a level where as I stated earlier of such high intellectual thought why we as humans still act in such ways, and why does it seem that sometimes we live in two different worlds?

In reality we don't live in two different worlds, but we make sure that we believe that we do sometimes due to our own prejudices. Walter Lippmann puts it this way,“When full allowance has been made for deliberate fraud, political science has still to account for such facts as two nations attacking one another, each convinced that it is acting in self-defense. . . . They live, we are likely to say, in different worlds. More accurately, they live in the same world, but they think and feel in different ones.”

We all know that today we live in a village rather than a World, yet we still see how primitive people become when two different people are faced against each other. I guess its as simple as human nature, that we humans still behave in a tribal fashion; we stick to those we share similarities with and fight against those who are different, whether wrong or right. Its also got to do with the fact that we as humans would rather belong than not to belong; would rather fight with the wrong-doers than being a renegade, an outcast. I don't think that we as humans, have reached a level where we are aware that we are not mature enough yet.

Dust in the Air

While Obama declares his countries' eternal support to the Zionists entity no matter what asking (begging) Zionists leaders in the White House to give him more time in order to accomplish his vision for peace in the middle east; news from the Zionist entity that soldiers were given orders Not to differentiate between civilian and militants during the massacres of Gaza in 2008 are reported. Leaves me wondering, how could a president of a nation with the principles of Freedom, Liberty and Justice for all ask from those who commit atrocities and have never shown the will to make peace for more time to achieve anything..? Will Obama promise the Palestinians a life with no persecution, injustice or racial apartheid..?