Previously published under the title Slavery / Poverty / Population – revised, improved, expanded, expounded, and enhanced
Slavery is infused or built-in in all life-forms. Like my late beloved Mama would say: “Necessity is the mother of Slavery, and Poverty is relative to Population.”
In view of the present conditions and situations existing in Africa in general, and in certain African countries in particular, it is my belief and contention that THE SLAVE TRADE was the best thing that ever happened to the AFRICANS and the other slaves – especially those that survived the terrible and horrible ordeal. If you need proof, just look at the Africans, or blacks, in The USA.
SLAVERY HAS EXISTED SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL……AND STILL DOES!
In some countries, it exists plainly and openly; in others – including the so-called advanced countries – it goes under a more subtle and camouflaged, albeit polished, name: worker, servant, gardener, house-maid, charlady, cook, driver, employee, nurse, baby-sitter, and even doctor, manager, mechanic, engineer, architect……ad infinitum.
In fact, slavery exists everywhere on the planet, and it comes in many forms and guises; downright slavery: slaves bought and paid for; employment slavery; self-imposed or will-full slavery: the desire to be rich and/or famous (celebrity slavery); matrimonial slavery; parental slavery; entrapment slavery: prostitution and……; enforced or no-choice slavery: have no education or skills and cannot hold down a job but need to live; and so forth and so on.
The President, or even the King or the Queen, and the people, are mutual slaves of each other. We voted for you or chose you so you now work for us; you voted for me or chose me so you now work for me. Complicated? No; it’s very simple. It even exists among the insects, like the ants; and the bees; and the primates: monkeys, apes (like the chimpanzees) and humans – I mention these because I have read about them and, if anyone took the trouble and the time, they would find out that SLAVERY exists, in one form or the other, everywhere and in all the life-forms on the planet - from MAN, the APE; all the way down to the insects and plants.
Wherever people have to get up at certain times, and/or be at certain places at certain times, and perform certain tasks or duties, or do certain work, or tolerate berating, insults, rudeness, crudity, annoyance and/or abuse, and leave or sleep at certain times, there is, and it is, SLAVERY – whether we like it or not, and whether we accept it or not! The only difference is when and where people own the businesses or establishments or occupy high posts and can therefore have a little more freedom than others (they still have to be on the job and do some work, otherwise they’ll lose it); and when a person reads and understands, and agrees to and signs, a contract BEFORE, and has certain rights in a particular country, and a government or an Embassy that is prepared to look into, and able to solve, that person’s problems, then that person becomes A SLAVE WITH CERTAIN RIGHTS AND/OR PRIVILEGES. That’s all.
In the civilized democratic countries, no man or woman is above the law – from the King or Queen, through the president and/or prime minister to ministers, senators, and representatives – so everyone is accountable to someone, and they are all accountable to the people who, in the end decide who rules, who governs, and who represents; and who in turn are accountable to the laws of the land.
However, in some countries – no names, if you please – the maxim: “all APES are created equal” has been modified and adjusted to read: “some APES are more equal than others” and therefore a few tread and step on the heads and backs of the rest – in other words; a few are owners and lord it over the rest who are their slaves, BUT! These owners and lords are in turn slaves of others, too: their wives, their concubines or mistresses Etc, who are in turn Slaves to them since they depend on and succumb to them; some foreign leaders who manipulate and exploit them and who are in turn Slaves to their wives, concubines or mistresses Etc, who are in turn Slaves to them……
So; like my late beloved Mama would say: “You want to stop Racism? Kill everyone!” “You want to stop or eliminate SLAVERY? Make everyone a millionaire; and even then, everyone is someone’s slave is someone’s master is someone’s slave is someone’s master is someone’s slave is someone’s master is someone’s or something’s slave!” “Necessity is the mother of Slavery, and Population is the mother of Poverty. To make poverty history we would have to kill at least half of the whole world’s population; and even then, it would still be impossible, unless we could find a way of either stopping them from fornicating and having babies – breeding – like rabbits; in other words; sterilize most of them and control and breed the rest of them – sure and absolute proof that Mankind are descended from APES, and APES of the worst kind or species, too, to boot!” “Religion and Politics survive and thrive on Population and Poverty. Those of you out there who haven’t read ‘The Martyrdom of Man’ by Winwood Reade ought to do so as soon as possible.”
JEEZ! That was my Mama. She knew a thing or two, and she was nobody’s fool! Nobody’s fool who fools nobody but fools! BY GOD!
Some time last year, I read an article or a report on the Aljazeera Website about Arab Moslem women and girls in France (and elsewhere in Europe) insisting and persisting on wearing their Hijabs and Niqabs or Veils, not only to schools and universities, but in the streets as well.
I ask you! They created and caused a hell of a lot of furors and frictions – not to mention anger, tensions, and anxieties that (almost) led to violence – by tramping through the streets and yelling their heads off – disturbing the peace, blocking traffic and disrupting other citizens’ schedules or routines, and preventing other citizens from going about their lives.
I wrote and sent my comments on the article or report and mentioned Arabs (mostly and especially, since there are others of other nationalities) and their fervent desire to immigrate combined with their stubborn refusal to integrate – in other words, they want to adopt but do not want to adapt – why immigrate if where one is and the way one lives and what one is told if not actually ordered or forced to say and wear and do pleases one? STAY! Why immigrate if one won’t integrate? I also called the combination of the Hejabs and the Niqabs and the Veils: Phantom Costumes.
One of the meanings or definitions of Phantom is: somebody or something that does not exist, or whose existence is difficult to prove. You see someone but you cannot tell who that someone is; so you ask yourself: “What’s this; I see you, you no see me?”
I received a message from a Sheikha who complained about, and remonstrated with me on, my disrespect and disregard for, and insult to, Islamic Traditions. I, Daniel in The Lion’s Den, who would have chosen Islam as my Religion if I had been given the choice and the chance – I wouldn’t convert because, from what I have seen of how the Moslems and the Christians (well, most of them) have made a joke and a mockery of both Religions, it would be exchanging one farce for another. And if my late beloved Mama were still alive and I asked her for her opinion and advice, she would say: “Son! What’s the difference? If you remain a Christian, you cannot abide by IT; and if you convert to Islam, you won’t be able to abide by IT, either, because THEY BOTH WON’T LET YOU; BY GOD!” I ask you again!
As for ‘Phantom Costumes’ and ‘disrespect’ ‘disregard’ and ‘insult’ as she chose to label what I wrote; well, in schools and universities they ARE phantom costumes, whether we like it or not. How are the management, the principals, and the teachers Etc – and the rest of the students supposed to know or recognize a student; and how are the shopkeepers and other business owners and tradesmen and women supposed to know or recognize the customer or person they are dealing with when her face is all covered up with only her eyes showing? I mean; people are known or recognized by their faces – for God’s sake and for crying out loud! What she implied by, and what I inferred from, her message was that they removed the Hijab and lowered the Niqab or lifted the veil when they were at school or university and/or in class or in the shops or wherever. I ask you, one more time. If one can reveal oneself to a whole school or university or class full of students and teachers, or one person, why hide oneself from another person or other people? I ask you again!
To wear one's traditional clothes and head and face gear during Traditional Religious or Social Celebrations and Ceremonies is one thing; to brazenly and blatantly flaunt them in schools and universities and in the faces of everyone everywhere is tantamount to teasing, taunting and tempting the rest of the students and the community, especially in view of all the atrocities taking place here and there and everywhere – in other words; quite something else altogether! It’s taking one’s Religion too seriously and to extremes!
Religious Piety, Morality and Chastity could neither be kept, maintained, or upheld by clothes nor could the absence of Morality and Chastity be hidden, exposed, or revealed by clothes; likewise, Piety, Morality and Chastity could neither be proven nor corrupted by the presence or absence of clothes, since clothes can be put on and taken off at will or as and when necessary. Personally, I believe that people who conceal themselves or hide their faces from other people have something to hide; and that is why burglars, bank-robbers, thieves, and criminals wear masks or stockings – even commandoes on a mission that involves killing or being killed wear masks or paint their faces. Like my late beloved Mama would say: “You hide your face from me, you’re hiding something from me.”
In short, it's asking for or making and/or creating and/or causing trouble!
Authorities all over the world know this, and that is why students are required to wear uniforms. The French Authorities know this, too, and do their utmost best to prevent friction that might lead to violence by enforcing the law which the Arabs, in their ignorance and their stubborn refusal to face facts and reality, as usual – the fact and reality of 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do and respect and obey Roman laws' – decide to consider as an insult and become offended. When will the Arabs and the Moslems – and all the peoples of all other religions – learn, that it's not who you are or who your parents were, or where you were born, or where you lived, or what your religion was or wasn’t, or what you wore, or what you ate or drank, or where you came from or how you came; it's what you did along the way – from start to finish; or from birth to death! I know; you know this by heart by now.
Also, one does not take one’s home-made food into a restaurant and demand or insist and persist on eating it there! That is just not done – not by educated, intelligent, and enlightened people, at least. If you decide to go and eat in a restaurant, you go into the restaurant and choose what you want to eat from the restaurant’s menu, and if it so transpires that the food in the restaurant is not to your liking or what you want, you leave, and either go to another restaurant, or go back home where you came from in the first place. You do not take out your food and attempt to eat it; and if the owner or maitre tries to prevent you – you know damn well they will – you raise a fuss and raise your voice and make a total nuisance if not an absolute fool of yourself.
I lived and worked in Jeddah, Saudi-Arabia, for six years, and I never wore a crucifix on a chain around my neck or did anything to offend anyone. Furthermore, I fasted when they did, and feasted when they did.
I was born in Ghana, and there are thousands of Ghanaians living and working here in this God-damned and God-forsaken country, Lebanon, AND! I never saw any of them in their traditional clothes unless they were celebrating their independence or some other traditional ceremony, until they appeared in the streets of Beirut in their traditional clothes, protesting the July 2006 war – that Fiasco, Folly, and Madness that tore the country into shreds, killed 1,200 innocent civilians, wounded and maimed thousands more and scattered hundreds of thousands to the four winds, and which all the religious and political leaders (out of fear) have the scorn and impudence to call a Divine Victory – pleading for an end to it.
In America, the land of the free and the home of the brave; whether we like it or not – which most of the Arabs choose to hate, and without which they wouldn't be where they are today – there are hundreds of thousands of Moslems of Arab and many other origins; and Freedom of Speech and Worship is like the air we breathe and the water we drink, AND! It is taken for granted! Even the Ku Klux Klan thrived there for decades until they went too far and it was discovered that they had been committing atrocities and were banned. Have you ever heard of, or seen, Moslems or Arabs in The USA behaving thus?
For your information, those women and girls are not the only Moslems in France or Europe! There are hundreds of thousands of other Arabs (Moslems and Christians) all over Europe, and hundreds of millions every elsewhere on the planet – men, women, boys, and girls, whose parents – especially those that could not afford it – did what was necessary, and did without what was not, in order to provide them with a good education and enlightenment – who wouldn't be caught dead in such activities.
Also, I'm prepared to bet a bent buffalo nickel that they were instigated and goaded into doing all that, and making all that trouble, and creating all that hullabaloo and turmoil by some twenty-four expletives censored Sheikh! Furthermore, you and everyone else would do well to remember that there are too many other peoples of too many other nationalities and religions in France and Europe and every elsewhere other than Arabs and Moslems! BY GOD! What would happen if everyone decided to brazenly and blatantly flaunt their religions in the face of everyone else? I ask you again!
I wonder what would happen and how the authorities or those in power would react if the Christians in Saudi-Arabia, or in Iraq (during Saddam's reign), or in Afghanistan (during the Taliban's reign), or in Iran today, protested quietly and peacefully in the streets, demanding the right to build a church in order to practise their religion, openly! I say this NOT because I am a Christian – I am a Christian, and a Maronite Christian, too, to boot, but not by choice! THANK GOD – but because it’s the truth.
If I've said it once, I've said it a too many times already! We do not choose our religion! It is forced upon us by the circumstances and the geographical location of our birth! It just so happened that we were born in such and such a place; in such and such a village or town or city; in such and such an area where such and such a religion is practised; in such and such a country! That's all.
If you look at it well, you will see that there is no identity crisis; there is only the lack of the willingness and/or ability to Immigrate and Integrate or Adopt and Adapt on the part of the Arabs – this includes the Lebanese and all Arab speaking peoples of the world. Most of them – lazy, listless, jobless, aimless, non-productive, good-for-nothing so-called citizens of only-God-knows what origins – hang about and around street corners all day; smoke cigarettes and/or pot; do drugs and get drunk; and engage in revelry and debauchery – not to mention crime and violence – all night; and do nothing but fornicate and have babies like rabbits; AND, live on hand-outs (social welfare) from the government that comes from the tax-payers – citizens who respect the law and pay their taxes, bills, fees, and dues. Parasitic and illiterate and ignorant bums and drop-outs; leeches that expect and take everything, and give nothing but trouble, problems, and headaches in return; they are the dregs and the bane of the society, and a part of but apart from the community they live in.
In a nutshell: They do nothing and live badly while the rest work hard and live well. They won't work hard or study hard to have a good or reasonable education and qualifications, certificates, and/or skills – at least high school, or technical high school – in order to get a good or reasonable job, and yet, they expect equal rights and equal opportunities and employment from the authorities and everyone else. Well, what about equal education, equal qualifications, equal certificates, and/or equal skills?
AND! To add insult to injury, and salt to the wound; so to speak; they wait for, if not actually create, the slightest incident and/or excuse to take it out on the government and the rest of the law-abiding and tax-paying community; disturbing the peace by protesting noisily in the streets, disrupting traffic and social life and fabrics; smashing windows; burning vehicles and houses and other structures; destroying and damaging public and private properties, and creating chaos and havoc!
Wherever there are Arabs there will be trouble, turmoil, and violence. It's in their blood, because of the way they are brought up, the lessons they are taught, and the false ideas that are chiseled into their brains from infancy to youth, to adult-hood, to old age, and even (eventually) on to death; in other words, from the cradle to the grave; AND all to and for what?
There must be hundreds of thousands of Africans, Asians, Mexicans, Cubans, West Indians, Indians, Pakistanis, and only God knows what other nationalities, in Britain, The USA, everywhere in Europe, and Australia; BUT! Only the Arabs – Arab women and girls in France; demanding, insisting, and persisting on wearing their phantom costumes to schools and universities and in the streets; and Arab youths, with no education or skills or work experiences, since they cannot hold, and never held, a job; or qualifications or certificates; yet demanding, insisting, and persisting on equal rights and equal jobs that cause trouble and turbulence!
It's immigration without integration; plain and simple. The Arabs want to immigrate but do not want to integrate. They adopt, but do not adapt. Immigration is all a matter of adopt, adapt, and integrate! They adopt countries but do not adapt to or integrate into them. I ASK YOU FOR THE VERY LAST TIME!
Headline: At least eight dead as Beirut protests get ugly
Compiled by Daily Star staff; Monday, 28th January, 2008
Excerpts: Opposition parties tell members to leave streets; army begins investigation into shootings. Hezballah, which leads the opposition alliance, later used loudspeakers to urge calm.
In a statement, March 14 accused the opposition of stirring chaos in Lebanon “to serve Syrian and Iranian interests.” As night fell, gunfire rang out sporadically across the southern suburbs.
A car that had been set on fire exploded, triggering panic in Beirut where, only two days ago, a massive car bombing killed a top intelligence officer and four other people.
As night fell gunfire rang out sporadically across the southern suburbs.
A car that had been set on fire exploded, triggering panic in Beirut, where only two days ago a massive car bombing killed a top intelligence officer and four other people.
Comments: Dear Readers and Fellow-Lebanese and other APES; you tell me whether this is amusing or amazing, astonishing or annoying, funny or ironic, frustrating or infuriating.
What really pisses me off no end is the way the newspapers hide or camouflage the truth and the facts. For example: “Opposition parties tell members to leave streets…” should have read: “After ordering these poor illiterate and ignorant fools into the streets in the first place to create and cause trouble, anarchy, chaos, and havoc only in order to serve Syrian and Iranian interests, purposes, aims, and goals; Opposition Leaders order them off the streets.”
Another example: “Hezballah, which leads the opposition alliance, later used loudspeakers to urge calm” should have read: “Hezballah and Amal, which lead the opposition alliances, and of which the hordes and mobs are members, and which goaded and urged them to do what they were doing in the first place, later used loudspeakers to call for calm after the very serious damage had been done.”
Citizens and inhabitants in areas controlled by Hezballah and Amal – in other words; Amal-Hezballah-Lands – do not pay electricity or water bills, i.e. these very same packs of rats, jackals, and hyenas – in fact, no employee of the Electric Company or the Water Works Company would dare to enter those areas (or show their faces, if they are known), let alone inspect and/or demand payment. They would either end up in a coma in hospital or in the mortuary.
These illiterate and ignorant hordes and mobs are not the only ones feeling the pinch. The whole country and its citizens – this includes all Lebanese; at home and abroad – feel it, too, and bear the brunt of the power-cuts, water shortages, and the high cost of living. Also; since they are neither educated nor enlightened, they cannot and do not know anything about ‘the price of oil and its effects on the cost of living world-wide’ or ‘inflation’ – I wonder whether they know what the price of oil was, a decade ago, and what it is, today – and the very few educated and enlightened among their leaders who know this would not dare to mention it. Perhaps all their leaders know it, but choose to ignore it. Their leaders also know that such violent and destructive protests will not solve or reduce the problems facing the whole country and all its people – IN and OUT. On the contrary; they make the problems much worse, and compound an already very serious and critical situation.
It is true that the cost of living in Lebanon or Beirut is high, but it is nothing compared to other countries and/or cities – they ought to try Amman in Jordan, Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria, and even Accra in Ghana; to mention only a very few.
If any one of these miserable packs of sorry scurvy surly sour shit-head scumbags had ever seen the inside of a classroom – let alone the inside of a textbook – or held a pen in his hand – instead of a gun or a stone or an old used and discarded tyre – he would know, not only about ‘oil prices’ and ‘inflation’ but also about what burning tyres and garbage do to the air we breathe and to the atmosphere; not to mention the very serious and dangerous diseases they cause – bronchitis, pneumonia, lung, throat, and skin cancer and other severe and irreversible diseases.
People – whose parents did what was necessary, and did without what was not, in order to provide them with the proper education and enlightenment – who have jobs with responsibilities and obligations; who have to get up at certain times, and be at certain places at certain times: business owners and/or managers who have schedules to keep or maintain, and salaries and wages to pay; staff members and employees who have to earn those salaries; workers who have shifts to attend and workloads to meet in order to earn those wages; doctors and nurses with patients to see, treat, and attend to; engineers and architects; principals, teachers, and students; editors, staff, reporters, and correspondents; ambulance drivers and paramedics; fire-truck drivers and fire-fighters; soldiers, security officers and guards, and policemen and women, who have to be on call 24hrs/7days a week on round-the-clock 8-hour shifts; all the way down, or up – depending on where you stand and how you see it – to tradesmen, shopkeepers, shop-assistants, and street-vendors; city and town council staff and employees, and garbage-truck drivers, dustmen, and street-sweepers; and even to prostitutes and their promoters – whores and their pimps – have no time or energy to waste on such violent and highly destructive monkey-antics.
Only the dregs, the expendables, and the perishables in our society – or in any other societies – have nothing better to do and are therefore paid to commit such atrocities.
Bodyguard and three civilians also perish
By H.M.B of the Daily Star staff Saturday, January 26, 2008
Lebanon vows to fight 'empire of terror' after killings
AFP by P. S. Saturday 26th January, 2008
Excerpts: BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanon's senior Internal Security Forces chief, Brigadier General Ashraf Rifi, on Saturday vowed to fight what he called “the empire of terror” as angry mourners vowed revenge at the funeral of a top intelligence officer killed in a car bombing.
Friday's murders of Major Wissam Eid and his bodyguard, Osama Mereb, and three civilians triggered local and international condemnation and were seen as a new (one more) attempt to derail stability (maintain instability, insecurity, fear, and anxiety) in a country paralyzed by political crisis.
Comments: SUCH CARNAGE! SUCH MONSTROSITY! SUCH MADNESS!
SYRIA and her LEBANESE FIENDS are now not only desperate, they are hysterical!
Syria’s despot/dictator/tyrant and his Regime of Terror and Horror will stop at nothing and stoop to anything to maintain their presence and influence in, and their strangle-hold on, Lebanon – whether directly, or indirectly through their Proxies, Moles, Spies, Puppets, Pawns, Tools, Fools, Toadies, and Zombies!
When, Oh when, will such attrition by Syria and her Lebanese fiends on the lives and means of the Lebanese Leaders and Politicians, and High Ranking Officers and members of The Lebanese Armed Forces and ITS Affiliates in particular, who die in retail, and the Lebanese people in general, who die in bulk (wholesale), in order to maintain instability, insecurity, fear, and anxiety; and prevent the election of a new president and the formation of a government of the people, by the people, for the people and the country – a government comprising a majority of Patriotic Lebanese and a minority of Pathetic Leeches – treacherous and treasonous traitors to their country and betrayers of their people – that would thwart Syria’s (and Iran’s) interests, purposes, aims, and goals in Lebanon and avoid retribution by The IT stop or end?
WHEN? BY GOD!
ABCNEWS Saturday 26th January 2008
Resurgence in Terrorist Training in Pakistan has Officials on Alert
Excerpt: Law enforcement officials throughout Europe say they are urgently hunting for members of an Al-Qaeda terror cell that was allegedly planning to attack the transit system in Barcelona. Sources tell ABC News those being sought are believed to be bomb makers and suicide killers who were working with a 14-member operation. While it is unclear whether the Barcelona attacks were imminent, Spanish authorities say they have no doubt that the threat was real and serious. The plot was allegedly...
Comments: NO COUNTRY IS AN ISLAND, AND NO ISLAND IS A SEPARATE COUNTRY – not in these modern times of science and technology, faster-than-the-speed-of-sound travel, and instant communications.
When Spain withdrew her troops from Iraq, she thought she was doing the right thing by that and appeasing the terrorists. Well, she wasn’t; she was playing right into their hands. They were waiting to see which countries ‘had the balls’ – in the language of the Mafia: countries that would strike back no matter what or how long it took – and which countries were ‘chickens.’
George W. Bush is no politician, and it shows; but he is no wimp, either; and he said it from the onset – immediately after The War in Iraq and not long after 9/11: “We either go after, or take the fight to, the enemy, or wait to fight him in the homeland.”
Religion is, in fact, the superstitious fear of the unknown, felt yet unseen, and/or seen yet unattainable; and Politics is the science and art of government, and the management of public affairs – the public's interests, safety, security, stability, welfare, and well-being.
These are the dictionary's definitions of Religion and Politics, and these are exactly what they are supposed to mean and be, BUT! In real life, Religion is a farce, composed of elaborate lies, myths, and hoaxes; and Politics is a game – a very dirty and nasty game of jostling and maneuvering – pushing shoving kicking elbowing growling barking biting back-biting and back-stabbing for position and prestige, posture, money, and power.
Jostling and maneuvering – all of the above for position, prestige, posture, and money – exist in Religion as well, to an equal if not greater extent – albeit in a more subtle, well-hidden or camouflaged form – and all, not for the worship, love, praise, and glory of God and his families, relatives, friends, and colleagues; or for the welfare and well-being – physical, mental, and spiritual – of the Masses, BUT, for more and greater position or post, prestige, posture, and power.
Religion and Politics are two sides of the same coin, or system, or means, of divide and rule. They both evolved at the same time, AND! They have joined forces – one cannot exist without the other . ALSO! They both survive and thrive by suppressing, oppressing, conning, coercing, duping, cheating, lying to, stealing from, intimidating, threatening, frightening, cajoling, manipulating, subduing, and exploiting the people – in a nutshell: screwing the (M)asses – that's Masses without the M, or (MASSES – M) = ASSES!
Religion and Politics are the source and the means for those who practise them, and the bane and the cross for those whom they are practised on.
My late beloved Mama on Politics: “Son! Politics pollutes people, and all Politicians are Pests and Parasites who face one direction while walking in the opposite direction. In other words, life, for them, is a straight line, A–B; they walk toward A but face B; and they talk A but mean B.”
Life is A to B means Humans, or APES, are born to die, from the cradle to the grave; and in-between, they pay their taxes and their bills, invoices, dues, and fees, and make totally obnoxious nuisances of themselves, but for all Religious Clerics of all Religions all over the world and all Politicians all over the world, it's A–B with nothing in-between; for the rest of us, it's A to B. Sorry, no further explanations. If you do not understand and/or cannot work it out, ask me……
My late beloved Mama on Religion: “Son! Religion is the same as Politics, if not much worse, since it professes – actually pretends – to worship and glorify God while serving and comforting Mankind, or APE-kind whereas in reality, it’s all for us and none for all. However, the People, or the Asses – that's Masses without the M – subconsciously (deep down in a remote but very sharp corner of their brains) know this and that is why Moslems need large loud-speakers and Christians need large loud bells to remind them and call them to prayer(s).”My Mama knew a thing or two and she was nobody’s fool, and she did not raise me to be a fool, either. I am nobody’s fool who fools nobody but fools. BY GOD!
Singer Fairuz's Controversial Show in Syria Angers Some Lebanese
The 73-year-old singer's patriotic songs are enormously popular across the Arab world and she is a Lebanese icon.
Almost three decades after her last performance in Syria, Fairuz travelled to Damascus on Thursday despite appeals by Lebanese political leaders to stay away.
Lebanon is deeply and bitterly divided along pro- and anti-Syrian lines, a prolonged crisis that has left the country without a president since 23rd Nov., because the two camps cannot agree on a candidate. Eight prominent anti-Syrian figures have been assassinated in Lebanon since 2005.
Fairuz is to take the stage on Monday 28th Jan., for a six-night run of the musical ‘Sah el-Nom’ – one of her classics.
In Lebanon, anti-Syrian politicians who dominate the government and parliament blame Syria for the country's current crisis – the deepest and the worst since the 1975-90 civil wars. And some politicians took offense at Fairuz's trip.
A leading member of the anti-Syrian majority in parliament made a veiled remark about Fairuz going to Damascus to perform for tyrants: “Some capable singers and performers have volunteered to do their thing for Syria's Intelligence Agencies that understand only the culture and language of killing, tyranny and oppression and do not appreciate art.”
Another said: “Those that love Lebanon do not sing or perform for its jailers.”
A third said: “Our ambassadors to the stars; you painted for us the dream nation. So don't scatter that dream the way the despots/dictators/tyrants of Damascus scattered our dreams of a free and democratic country."
Syria ran wild and free and amok in Lebanon for almost four decades until its army was forced to leave in 2005 under intense international pressure following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Harriri.
Since then, the Western-backed government has accused Syria of orchestrating the chaos, anarchy, havoc, and assassinations in Lebanon. Syria has denied it.
Many Lebanese singers have performed in Syria since the 2005 withdrawal, but Fairuz is a different story. Because she is so closely associated with Lebanese pride and identity, her choice strikes some as a betrayal.
The reclusive Fairuz did not comment on the criticism, but it drew angry retorts from her entourage. Composer and lyricist, Mansour Rahbani, said the singer's performance is “a message of love and peace from Lebanon to Syria – a message of friendship, not subservience.”
“So, please refrain from thrusting our names into the political mud,” he added in a statement last week.
The Rahbani brothers wrote most of Fairuz's works, including ‘Sah el-Nom’ which was staged for the first time in 1970 and was performed again in Lebanon in 2006.
The excitement in Syria was palpable, where the state news agency, SANA, reported Fairuz's arrival Thursday, but for many Syrians, the price for a ticket to see the musical – between $40 and $200 – is out of reach.
Syrians dismissed Lebanese demands that Fairuz not sing for them. “Fairouz is above all such rancorous voices,” said a Syrian government employee.
A Syrian lawyer said: “Fairuz has come to sing for the Syrian people who adore her, not for the political regime. Don't politicize art.”
My comments: I wonder whether Fairuz and her whole entourage – including and especially the manager, composer, choreography instructor, and organizer – knew what their performance in Damascus would entail! They must have known it would result in such repercussions and reactions, and yet they went ahead and went to Damascus, all the same.
What amused and amazed me at the same time was Mansour Rahbani’s HORSE-SHIT about ‘a message of peace and friendship to Syria and not subservience so please refrain from thrusting our names in the Mud of Politics’ and the Syrian lawyer’s HORSE-SHIT about ‘don’t politicize art.’ BY GOD!
Are Lebanon and Syria at war for Fairuz to do that? And who appointed Fairuz Ambassador of Peace, Goodwill, and Friendship for Lebanon and the Lebanese? Also, how could anyone – whether Politician or any other – thrust their names any deeper into the Political Mud-pit? By going to perform in Damascus, they have already dived deep into it, because everyone – in Lebanon and Syria – knows that Politics has its dirty and slimy fingers in every pie in both countries – the Political, the Governmental, the Educational, the Social, the Finer Arts, and the Religious Stratum, and that MONEY is higher than all of the above put together x 2.
It would have clarified matters and put a cork on the bottle of ‘rancorous and vociferous remarks and retorts’ if they had come right out and said that she, and they, needed the MONEY. BY GOD AGAIN!
She may pretend she doesn’t care for now, but the stares and glares and yakkity-yaks and yaps and rumours and FARTINGS she will have to put up with when she returns will be enough to last her for the rest of her life. JEEZ! I hope it turns out to be worth it all and not a loss on top of it all. BY GOD; ONE MORE TIME!
Personally, I say: “Let well alone and let her do her thing – it will be her very last performance; her SWAN SONG, so to speak – and earn a little MONEY, too, if not for her, at least for her entourage and the other greedy vultures, jackals, and hyenas hovering above and about her.” I say: “Back off, ass-holes! And leave her alone – the poor woman probably thinks and believes she will go out in glory with this last performance; and I hope she does!” BY GOD; ONE LAST TIME!
After all, thanks to ass-holes like Michael Aoun and the rest of the Opposition, Damascus has now become The Cultural Capital of The Middle East, The Arab World, and The World.
Headline: Web users ask Al Qaeda’s Zawahiri questions Khaleej Times online
AFP 23rd January, 20080
Excerpt: PARIS - Internet users aimed questions at Al Qaeda’s Ayman Al-Zawahiri for a period of one month via jihadi chat-groups after the terrorist networks’ second in command promised to respond to them.
French researcher Dominique Thomas, specialist in Islamic movements at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) said: “While some of the participants have usernames that have long been familiar to jihadi webmasters, others “signed up recently especially for the occasion. We can imagine conspiracy theories behind this, with questions asked by intelligence services...”
For Hussein Shoboksi, editorialist with the Saudi daily published in London, Asharq Al-Awsat, the initiative is “an opportunity for the Al Qaeda network to round up dozens of young men, in order to incorporate them into its ranks.”
Comment: Most, if not almost all, or all, of the questions came from, and will continue to come from, Bin Ladin’s and Al Zawahiri’s Appointed Alqaeda Agents who reside in several separate countries, or who will be sent there for the purpose.This is not a Q & A Internet Forum; it is a Propaganda Machinery; well-planned and systematic, and calculated to bamboozle, intrigue, confuse, and convince the poor, the illiterate, and the ignorant; and attract them to join Bin Ladin’s futile, foolish, puerile, mad, vain, and egoistic cause.
In fact, to give or provide a platform of this sort to someone like Al Zawahiri, and to communicate with him, is to encourage and thereby compound an already poisonous mentality that accepts only the language of violence, folly, and madness.
What the hordes and mobs would ask themselves – if they weren’t so poor (as in poverty), illiterate, and ignorant – was: “Why are we being urged and paid to do this – kill mostly innocent civilians (men and women who go about their daily lives; and children, either at, or going to, school; destroy properties – both public and private (vehicles, buildings, homes, schools, mosques, churches, hospitals, Etc) – and committing suicide – actually throwing our lives away; for keys to paradise and the dream or illusion of virgins? If it is all true, then why won’t these people who urge and pay us to do all this for all that do it themselves, too – first, as an example for us to believe and follow; second, for them to get their share of virgins in paradise, since they’ve already got the keys?”
