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Thursday, September 23, 2010

A sophisticated Lebanese stand against sectarianism

This is political maturity and sophistication the likes of which uniform oppressive cultures like Saudis and Iranians have never seen. A Christian political leader linking demonization of Islam to the exode of middle eastern Christians, and asking the Vatican Synod conference to prevent both.
Compare that to Iranians who ally themselves to sunite extremist as a weapon again internal shiite extremists. Very mature. Or compare this to the Saudi tactic to send mercenaries, Fatah el Islam, to try to provoke Hezbollah into a civil war. I will let you guess why Hezbollah stepped aside, did not fall for the provocation, and made room for the Lebanese army to apprehend these Saudi puppets. Very colonial of the Saudi regime. In the face of these dark age idea from the south of the peninsula, there's the maturity of a northern Arabic peninsula leader: G. Michel Aoun and his appeal to respect all the religions out there.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Education is a self-organizing system, any society can lift itself back up!

Sugata Mitra demonstrates that children can self-learn. This means that without capital for expensive schools, just by placing public computers in developing areas, every corner of this world can get back on its feet and re-invent itself! Why wait any longer, imagine the effect of free public computers all over rural areas in Lebanon (not just self-absorbed Beirut).

Carne Ross: a freelance diplomat!

Carne Ross, freelance diplomat, advises small countries who normally get stampeded by large ones. Imagine if he knew of the Lebanese Patriotic Party, the movement who denounced religious segregation as bigotry, and fell beneath the international radar because it upholds that Lebanese are too sophisticated, too intelligent for civil wars or an old ruling majority that thrives on outdated sectarian divides.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

a comment on The Agenda's episode on terrorism

I love the Agenda on TVO, it always teaches me something new. On the blog Re: The Agenda's episode, "A path to homegrown terrorism", I posted this comment:

As a Lebanese, Arabic on days when Arabic regimes are respecting Lebanon, I'm trying to understand terrorism and noticed inaccuracies in western media in the process. Arabs include several religions, subcultures. Acknowledging only the majority culture, Muslims, is a sign of colonial thinking. Western colonizers used to think, a 100 years ago, that anyone form outside their world is second class citizen. They sought out uniformity in their culture and thought Christianity was exclusive to them, and to their converts in colonies. Even today, some westerners think we're pandering to the them when we tell them we're Arabic Christians!! Centuries ago a regime from the south of the Arabic peninsula had these same colonial beliefs: if you weren't one of them, it was a serious flaw. They too had technological superiority, but also a knack for assimilating surrounding peaceful cultures. Luckily that assimilation was incomplete, and that's why some diversity survived in the Arabic world. Colonizers from the east and west don't differ from each other, but together they differ from small peaceful cultures. My point is that it's not Islam or an Arabic identity that generates terrorism, but the residuals of having been a colonial power in the past. Maybe some individuals inherited an aggressive sense of entitlement from a past colonial power from the south of the Arabic peninsula. Picture a dangerous nostalgia in other nations, 3 centuries from now: a faction of American extremists would resent the world because the USA is no longer a superpower. Would Christianity have anything to do with it if these are Christians? Saudi Arabia is accused by some Lebanese even today, of reviving Saudi colonial times through their control of a Banana Republic in Lebanon, a corrupt and destructive banana republic also supported by the US. Colonial minds think alike? and is it colonial thinking, and not religion that breeds a violent sense of entitlement.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

disarming all Lebanese militias, or just those that oppose becoming a saudi colony

General Michel Aoun is reported in this Terranet article to have said that disarming means disarming all illegally armed groups in lebanon, however the current majority turns a blind eye to pro-Saudi groups. Those who oppose the nationalistic movement have one thing in common, they'd rather be anybody's colony than have the courage to be Lebanese.