egyptians and palestinians: what the fall of the border revealed

It was totally unexpected for me – reactions that I received regarding the fall of the wall between Gaza and the Sinai. I know that Egyptians – excluding the left  and the Islamists – had been weary of the Palestinian ‘issue’.  When Palestinians were under seige over the past few weeks, Egyptians demonstrated in anger against the seige. Yet it seems to me that this is the usual rhetoric with no substance. They had the opportunity to bring food and other resources to the besieged Gazans and many tried. And yet.. and yet… there is another side to the story.. and here it is:

Without making generalizations, the majority of Egyptians were mad about the fall of the border. For one thing, they said that the Palestinians depleted the food resources in the Sinai which adversely affected everything and the price of food and gas etc. went way up. Some Egyptians [especially if you ask cab drivers and the regular person on the street], will curse at the Palestinians and say ‘what is that to us?’ Some even wrote to me and said that they were appalled that the Palestinians crossed the border and spent half a billion dollars in the Sinai, which, to them, indicated that they have money to spend.   Some even went as far as to say ‘Egypt first and Egypt last’ and enough is enough.

What happened? when did that attitude begin to take shape? and why?

I know for sure that this is not a new attitude. It has always been there thorughout hte Arab World.. to each their own. It baffles me that people don’t understand that to have an disturbing situation in a country on their border whether through occupation, war, oppression etc… is a threat to their own security.

This is a longer story which I will write about – but before I go, I should mention that for the most part, people who say that are the younger generations who are fed up with war and the consequences of war.

Is there now a generation of ‘hope’ that looks to the future and wants to bypass any  previous ‘bad blood’? or are we looking at a generation that has been so disillusioned that they couldn’t care less if they are uprooted or if they abandon their rights and any human rights for that matter…  for the sake of a possible better and more secure future?

Are we feeding the Palestinians to the beast of non-caring in order to save ourselves, hoping to curb its appetite for more? have we become so engulfed in the moment that we do not realize that the beast will eventually get hungry again and eat the next available victim?

persepolis: the story of a childhood

I just saw this movie Persepolis, which tells the story of an Iranian child and her upbringing during the 80s and 90s before moving to Austria after the Islamic Revolution that dethroned the Shah. The origin of the film is two comic books written and illustrated by Marjane Satrapi and they are autobiographical. The film, which is currently nominated for best animation, is in French with English subtitles.

It was a delightful surprise – nothing like I have ever seen before. Powerful, nostalgic, humane, political and quite liberal, the movie takes us on a journey of loss of innocence and of growing up. The film is amazing in its simplicity considering the complexity of the issues and characters depicted. What I found particularly refreshing is how it does not play on ‘Western sympathies’ or cater to Western taste, but is, as Marjane’s grandmother always told her to be ‘true to herself’. She by no means idealizes Iran or her culture nor does she demonize it. And she does the same for Western culture. She is in pursuit of dreams of happiness and freedom, and the adult world seemed confusing and incomprehensible to her.

The film is at once funny and sad – yet through it all, full of hope for the future. The Iran that she loved is no longer the same and she cannot live there. She leaves for France knowing all the while that Iran is deep inside of her.

What a joy!!

You may view the official trailer here.

kucinich – how the best of them all could have never been president

No, it is not about his looks or his charm or the way he speaks or his plans. Kucinich would have never become president. It is not even about his policies being too liberal or far left. This is all totally irrelevant. What matters is this: would he be supportive of the ‘look the other way or else’ policies of Israel or not?

Paranoid? Not really. Let us take a look:

Before the Nevada primary, [Presidential candidate] Dennis [Kucinich] was visited by representatives of Nancy Pelosi and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — AIPAC. They told Dennis that if he would drop his campaigns to impeach Cheney and Bush, they would guarantee his re-election to the House of Representatives.
..Kucinich threw them out of his office. Dennis now faces the toughest election campaign of his entire tenure in congress, with huge amounts of money being spent to turn his constituents against him due to “his neglect of his district while he ran for president.”  [indimedia and reported from the Kucinich campaign]

Not only did he lose the bid for presidency, but the democrats are putting someone to run against him in Ohio!!

You see, Pelosi’s idea of change and of forcing a change from the lunatic policies of Bush and the extreme right wingers is to pray – not impeach. This is what she said back in October:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that she prays for President Bush to change his policies “all the time” and specifically has prayed for him to sign SCHIP legislation that would expand health insurance for uninsured children. “First of all, I pray for President Bush all the time, and I pray especially hard that he would sign the children’s health bill because it’s so important for America’s children,” she said on Fox News Sunday. “I pray that he makes the right decisions for the American people.”  [thecrypt]