]]> http://psychopathya.wordpress.com/2011/06/12/new-domain/feed/ 0 psychopathya http://psychopathya.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/occupation-101/ http://psychopathya.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/occupation-101/#comments Sat, 14 May 2011 19:22:13 +0000 psychopathya http://psychopathya.wordpress.com/?p=700 ]]> “Occupation 101″ – this award-winning film about Palestine is very powerful & factual.. exposes many myths about Palestinian-Israeli conflict that westerners are made to believe. Its target audience are Americans, but I found it very useful to watch myself.

يلم وثائقي رائع يعرض تاريخ القضية الفلسطينية ويلخّص وقائعها في تسلسل منطقي وشهادات شخصيات من مختلف الجهات…هدفه الأساسي شرح الانتهاكات الاسرائيلية للمواطن الغربيّ المغيّب عن هذه الانتهاكات وهذه الحقائق.. لكنني اكتشفت انني أيضاً في جهل عن بعضها.. أنصح بشدة بمشاهدتهّّ !!

A brilliant documentary which provides insight into why the Palestinian people have to resort to violence in order to live a normal life. People in the world need to imagine what it would be like in their own countries if they didn’t have access to basic services and were subject to checkpoints throughout their own land. The Palestinians are the INDIGENOUS people of this land and the Israelites had no right to take over a land that does not belong to them. Long live Palestine! 

Just use the starter: “So, where are you from?”, despite actually being able to guess the answer to that, 99% of the time.. oh yeah, seriously (at least for someone who has lived in the Middleast long enough; I have negligible failure rates in telling a Masry from a Khaliji from a Falasteeny or a Soory). Anyways, no matter where they’re from, they’re either from an Arabic country that had a revolution, is living a revolution, or is expected to have a revolution.

Yummy falafel sandwich (aka Tamiyah in Egypt)

I decided to try out my first falafel (طعمية بالمصري..فلافل بالشاميّ) sandwich here in Toronto.  ”Where are you from?”, asked me the friendly lady at the restaurant. We spent few minutes talking about the Egyptian revolution. I asked her back the same question, turns out she’s from Yemen. We spent another few minutes discussing the events in Yemen that day. The same is repeating almost everywhere.  Middleast revolutions are reshaping the region. Something we’ve been waiting for, for decades. Some Arabs here might be less enthusiastic about this change, having spent most of their lives, if not all of it, distant from the Middleast.. unlike myself.  Many of whom I’ve spoken to were quite morally engaged & excited about the change taking place in the middleast, not only in their homelands, but anywhere in the region. I find the Arabic unity and harmony very inspiring.  

I’m watching Aljazeera TV online as I write this post.  Updates on the revolution aftermath in Egypt.   Before that, were news from Misurata, Libya. And before that, were updates from Ta’iz, Yemen.  No matter where you are, sincere Arabs seeking liberty, my middleastern heart beats for you.

So where am I from? .. The Middleast, indeed.

أنا بنت الشرق الأوســــــط  

Copyright: Unknown.

….when their brains were thinking outside the dark box that mubarak’s regime enforced on them for 30 yrs, their hearts were fully engaged in a revolution that showed the world the most inspiring images of courage, creativity, faith, compassion, and of course, an amazing sense of humor.   I think Egyptians took ‘thinking outside the box’ to a whole new level.

On Feb 11th, 2011, the people of Egypt wrote an amazing chapter in history.    Never before have I been this much proud of being an Egyptian.

الشعب العظيم….أسقط النظام

قالوا إذا الشعبُ يوماً أرادَ الحياة..

فلا بدّ أن يستجيب القدرْ.

قلنا..

وإن لمْ يردْ؟

قالوا وأنّى لهُ؟

وبالأمس القريب..

كانَ “يومُ غضبْ”!

في ساحة التحرير..

من كل ركنٍ بعيدٍ،

جاء الشعبُ، وللحقّ انتفضْ.

يطلب الحرية..

يريدُ اسقاطَ النظام..

بعد أن تجبّر في الأرضِ أعواماً..

فعاش الشعبُ في كبَدْ!

أما كانتْ بالأمسِ، “جمعة غضبْ”؟

في ساحة التحرير..

سجدت الجباه..

وخفضت الأصوات..

وخشعتْ القلوبُ لله وبكتْ؟

قلنا..

وإن لمْ يردْ؟

وإنْ شنّ عليهِ النظامُ حرباً..

بعد يومِ الغضبْ؟

فأرسل البلطجيّة..

وفرسانَ الخيلِ والجمال

فسالَ الدمُ في ساحة التحرير..

وتسلّل في النفوسِ عَتبْ؟

قالوا..

ولمَ العتبْ؟

ألم يكنْ الشعب يريدُ الحياةَ؟

ألم يرفض العنفَ مراراً..

وبالسِّلمِ رَغِبْ؟

قلنا..

لقدْ بثّ النظامُ سمومَهُ..

فأوهمَ الشعبَ أنّ ساحة التحرير…

لعِبْ!!

وأنّ طلب الحريّة..

شَغَبْ !!

قالوا.. ما لشعب الكنانةِ..

أن يصدّق هذا الكذبْ.

أما كان بالأمس

“جمعة الرحيلٍ”

وبالغَدِ صُمودٌ..وجَلَدْ؟

قلنا..

ان شاء الله يكونْ.

حتّى وإن طالَ الأمدْ.

فالشعب إذا لمْ يرد الحياة يوماً..

فلا خيرَ فيها.. ولا سَعَدْ!

كتب في 5 فبراير 2011

Excuse me I know I’m not very articulate, but here’s an attempt to explain reality to those who don’t understand it. Apologies in advance for typos, grammatical mistakes etc. I haven’t proofread this.

First refuting the promises:

1. He wont run for another term.You are all accepting this as if Mubarak has a proven record of honesty, and he does deliver on his promises. Mubarak in 1981 said he will only stay in power for 2 terms, and we call saw how this turned out to be. We have seen the regime sending out a few hundred people in pro-Mubarak demonstrations, not to mention the tens of celebrities etc. who were saying all those nice things about Mubarak. Giving the regime 7 months to regroup and plan, don’t you think for example they can’t manage to create a massive large scale pro Mubarak campaign asking him to re-run leaving him “with no choice” but to re-run for another term? If I could think of such a cheap an easy plot, I’m sure Mubarak has at least a dozen of those up his sleeve.What happened to the rest of demands regarding elections? Judicial supervision, the right to vote for Egyptians abroad, voting using your ID (raqam qawmy) to avoid fraud, international and civil society organizations supervision?Again there was no mention of Gamal Mubarak not running for president, but more on that later.
2. Looking into court appeals regarding electoral fraudLooking into those appeals would mean the re-election of many many seats (under no guarantees that the re-election would be fair [read next point about article 88 of the constitution]), plus the large number of appeals basically means the parliament is not legitimate and the proper course of action would have been dissolving the parliament entirely.
3. Constitutional changes.Mubarak promised to ask the parliament to change articles 76, and 77 of the Egyptian constitution. 76 is the article regulating the conditions required to be a presidential candidate, 77 says the president serves a 6 years term with no limit on how many times he can be re-elected. He did not mention anything about article 88 which regulates supervision over the electoral process of the parliament, which means there will be NO guarantee they will be fair and fraud free.

What has Mubarak left out in his speech:

1. Emergency law is still effective, which means oppression, brutality, arrests, and torture will continue. How can you have any hope for fair democratic elections under emergency law where the police have absolute power?
2. Internet is still not working, no talks of lifting censorship.
3. No talks of allowing freedom of speech, freedom to create political parties, freedom to participate in politics without the risk of getting arrested. FYI to start a political party you need the government’s permission. How do you expect democracy to come out of this?
4. He said he will put anyone responsible for corruption to trial right? What about putting the police who killed 300+ to trial? What about members of NDP who are the most corrupt businessmen/politicians in the country. Do you think he’ll put those to trial? Think again.
5. He didn’t even take responsibility for anything that went wrong in the last 30 years. Not even his condolences to the martyrs who have fallen in this revolution.

Why should Mubarak leave now and not a day later?

1. He can’t be trusted, and we can’t believe a word he says. He’s a murderer and a criminal with a 30 years criminal record, and the blood of thousands on his hands.
2. Every day he stays in power, not only are his cronies stealing every dime and every inch of this country, but we’re giving the regime a chance to regroup and get their shit together, and if not Mubarak, or Gamal Mubarak, I’m sure we’ll get someone even worse from within the regime.
3. Egypt will see the worst 9 months of its history in terms of oppression, arrests, and torture from now till September (and after that). Rest assured the regime (with or without Mubarak), will stop at nothing to stay in power. He has given no real guarantees whatsoever that the situation will improve. None. Not even regarding Emergency law.
4. You should NOT believe that there are any good people in the new cabinet Mubarak recently assigned. No good honest man would work for a criminal and a murderer, especially not in this war cabinet. Many honest Egyptians along the years have declined positions in Mubarak’s governments.
5. If protesting stops now, it will never start again. At least not in those numbers, and thus creating no real pressure. And while giving the police a chance to regroup and reinforce their lines, expect more police brutality, and expect more deaths.
6. Most importantly, 300+ haven’t sacrificed their lives, so we’d settle for some lame ass promises with no guarantees, and risk all this going to waste. They wanted Mubarak gone, and the least we can do is honor their will and keep going until Mubarak, and the rest of the regime are gone. Not in 9 months, but now.

My answer to the following claims:

“But the country is already in a state of chaos. Lets stop protesting so we can have some security and stability”

Don’t be fooled, this state of chaos is mostly intentional. With the economy reaching almost a complete halt, and lack of security on the streets etc, Mubarak made sure you’d eat up whatever he throws at you. Would you rather be ruled by a corrupt and criminal regime for another 9 months (at least), or go through “chaos” for another week, two, or a month until the regime has fallen?

Don’t let the blood of our martyrs go to waste. We’ve seen countries rise from the ashes of war, we’ve seen countries rise from the devastation of nuclear bombs. We can most DEFINITELY pull through for another couple of weeks. And once we have democracy, once we have freedom, once we get rid corruption, when 100% of our money goes into the country and not into the pockets of corrupt politicians and businessmen, we’ll rebuilt this country in no time. What are a few years of struggle in a the history of a free and proud nation?

“If Mubarak leaves now, who’s gonna be president? ElBaradei can’t be president!! With no one in power we’ll be in a spiral of chaos and havoc etc”

This is by far the most naive argument. Do you know what happens if the president has health problems? Do you know what happens if the president resigns? Do you know what happens if the president dissolves the government and resigns? Do you know what happens if the president dies? Do you know how an interim government works? Do you know what your constitution says? No. So any opinion you have on the matter is naive and based on emotion and not facts nor political understanding.

The constitution as it is tailored at the moment, puts on obstacles making it hard to proceed if Mubarak resigns at the moment. In other words the constitution obviously doesn’t account for the coup d’etat scenario. You can read articles 82, 84, and 189 to understand what I’m talking about it.

However the scenario we want is:

1. the ousting of the regime entirely: President, government, and parliament.
2. Establishing an interim (transitional) government representing everyone across the spectrum, chosen by the people, to make the necessary constitutional changes and prepare for fair democratic elections in 6 months while providing the necessary guarantees. There are lots and lots of names who can fill this interim government but everyone is concerned about the president of that transitional government, and to those I say: a) Enough with the centralization of power. Its seems we can’t think out of the one-man-ruling-the-country box. b) We are a country of 80 million people. Any honest decent Egyptian, who isn’t part of the current regime, could be the head of this interim government. c) Whats wrong with ElBaradei? If you know anything about me I’m not exactly a fan of his, but we just need an honest man, who knows the necessary processes, constitutional changes and legislative changes required to establish the basis for democracy. I wouldn’t want ElBaradei or any of the current opposition leaders to be president for a full term, but ElBaradei has what it takes to put down the ground work for fair and democratic elections after 6 months. Some people say he’s too “soft” to handle the tough reality of Egypt, well you have to keep in mind a leader is only as strong as his supporters, so whichever whoever leader the people stand behind will have the necessary strength to lead this transitional phase. The circumstances of an interim government are different from a normal government. Think of it as a committee temporarily running the country with the primary focus being elections in 6 months.Finally given 6 months of political freedom, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, no emergency law, and with constitutional and legislative changes, not only will we have one strong candidate for presidency, we’ll have dozens.

For the reasons above, our goal should be: keep going until we overthrow the regime completely. And if you’re bothered by the chaos, remember that the more people protesting, the faster the regime will fall and the chaos will be over. And once the regime has fallen, we should dedicate all of our efforts to make sure we choose a proper interim government that really represents the people, and everything will go smoothly from there, and the future of Egypt will be brighter than ever before.

Be strong, keep pushing, no compromises, don’t forget what they have done, we all know what they will do. The revolution has to go on so the lives of 300+ martyrs, and the blood of thousands other free Egyptians wouldn’t go to waste.

Don’t be naive. Its time to think politics and not just revolution. True freedom has a price and all of us should be willing to pay it.

حرية وكرامة – كن مع الثورة

وأنّى لنورِ اللهِ أنْ يُهدى إليَّ……وفي القَلبِ سَقمٌ، والغَفْلةُ دَائِي؟

Or don’t call me at all.

After all, I don’t miss you.

I cherish our memories,

but I don’t miss you.

Don’t judge me.  Just answer me.

How did your company, inspire me?

how did your words, enlighten me?

have you ever challenged my mind;

had it up all night,

prospering,  comprehending,

or thinking of solutions,

to a nation so left behind

or how that reflects, on you and me?

Have you ever nurtured my soul?

enriched my spirituality,

took me one step closer to decent levels of serenity?

Don’t blame me because I don’t miss you.

Just give me a good reason,  to miss you.

Tell me what I learned from you.

Show me,

how the lack of your company,  harms me.

Surely, you being there, sometimes helped me.

But with all sincerity, I still don’t miss you.

Seriously.

Give me better, stronger reasons to miss you.

Take my address, and send me,

a box of  blueberry muffins

maybe then, just maybe,

I’ll have one good reason,

to miss you.