Thursday, March 15, 2007

Sawsan Al Sha3er's column: سوسن الشاعر-كلمة أخيرة


18/01/2007

هل ننسى أن أول من عانى من جرائم التفجيرات هم شيعة العراق لأكثر من سنتين من بعد سقوط صدام، لا يمكننا أن ننسى أنه قد سقط منهم الآلاف وأصبح دمهم أرخص من دماء الحيوانات نتيجة تفجيرات الانتحاريين وأكثرها دموية تلك التي جرت في مرقد الإمامين، لا يمكننا أن ننسى أنهم ظلوا بلا ردة فعل فترة طويلة حيث كان زعيمهم الروحي السيستاني يطالبهم فيها بالصبر وعدم حمل السلاح، أم نسيتم؟ كما لا يمكننا أن ننسى إننا كنا ننادي حينها السنة في الدول العربية وخاصة دول الجوار أن يقفوا في وجه حملات التطهير والمجازر التي ترتكب في حق الشيعة، لكن رد فعل الأصولية السنية كان ضعيفا ومترددا ومتخاذلا نصرة لهيئة علماء السنة العراقيين الذي هم أيضا تعاونوا بصمتهم وما نطقوا إلا بعد أن فاق الأمر كل تصور وما عاد لسكوتهم تفسير إلا ضلوعهم بتلك الجرائم. أدنا الصمت الذي كان شيطانا أخرس حين ذاك، واليوم وكما هو متوقع انقلبت الآية وطال القتل سنة العراق وعلى جريمة الهوية فقط، الآن فقط بدأت تعلو أصوات الذين سكتوا استصراخا تحذر من حملة تطهير وتهجير ضد السنة! الآن نشط تبادل الأخبار ونشط عرضها ونشط الضمير الإنساني والخوف على الأبرياء، اليوم تتصدر أخبار المجازر صفحاتهم الأولى في حين كانت أخبار مجازر الشيعة تعرض في الصفحات الداخلية ويتم التلاعب بعناوينها والتخفيف من حدتها. لسنا نبرر مجازر اليوم التي تأخذ الإنسان بجريرة هويته، ولن نقبلها وسنندد بها ونستنكرها ونطالب الشيعة في كل مكان باستنكارها مثلما طالبنا السنة استنكار مجازر الأمس، ونطالبهم بعرضها في الصفحات الأولى والتعامل معها بحجم جرائمها الوحشية القذرة ونناشد مَن هو قادر على مساعدة الشعب العراقي بوقف هذا الحمام والتصدي لكل مَن له يد في تلك الجرائم سواء كان عراقيا أو أجنبيا أن يقوم بواجبه. لكننا نتساءل أين غاب هذا النشاط المحموم الذي نراه اليوم في نشر أخبار جرائم قتل السنة وبث خطب بعض علماء الشيعة التي تجيز قتل السنة والمتداولة على الإنترنت اليوم؟ أين كان هذا الضمير الإسلامي -إن جاز التعبير- حين طال التفجير النساء والأطفال والشيوخ والعمال ورواد المطاعم وطوابير المتقاعدين وتجمعات المصلين؟ ألم تكن هناك خطب وأشرطة النحر موجودة؟ ألم تكن هناك صور مقززة وخالية من الحس الإنساني يرتكبها سنة بحق الشيعة؟ فأين كانت صحافتكم وإيميلاتكم ومواقعكم؟ أليست هذه ازدواجية في المعايير؟ أليست هذه النتيجة بسبب الكيل بمكيالين؟

Monday, March 12, 2007

Al-Watan's Latest Shenanigan

This post started as a comment to a post on Lulu Bahrain's blog (an excellent blog by the way). Lulu brings to light Al-Watan's recent monstrosity disguised in the name of prose. To read the horrendous poem click here.

The comment got longer the angrier I got so I turned it into a post. Here goes:
The newspaper (and I'm using the term loosely here) has certainly stooped to new lows. The poem is crass and more of what you see in tabloids than respected newspapers.

Several points that caught my attention:
The poem rightfully asserts that Al Gaoud has received government assistance to win the seat. In fact I heard she was guaranteed the win unopposed if she doesn't support candidates running in neigboring areas.

The poem also implies that Sunni MPs like Ms Al Gaoud represent the Government. What the poet fails to realize is that any MP- regardless of sex, ethnicity, sect or backing- REPRESENTS THE PEOPLE and THEIR INTERESTS (hence the term public servant). The people and the government's interests ALWAYS differ greatly.

The poet again assumes that Sunnis and the government are on the same side and share similar interests. Unfortunately, we are both suffering. Some Sunni villages are as decrepit and run-down as their Shia counterparts and unemployment is rampant among both sects. In fact, with this recent bout of illegal naturalization, the Sunnis come out the bigger losers. Why? Because army and police jobs are given to the newly naturalized rather than the Bahraini Sunnis.

Finally, and this one takes the cake, the poet (if you can call his work a poem) would have us believe that MP Al Saeedi continues to win his seat by earnest hard-work, prayers and blessings. I suppose the blessings would be Allah’s response to the fervent prayers of such a well-deserving man. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have PERSONALLY heard many persons of his area recount how Al Saeedi continues to bribe them and buy their votes. I remember one lady said that he promised to plant a garden infront of her home. Another stated that he promised to help her mum with the rent. I KNOW of the lies he spewed in the mosque about the other candidates and how the group backing him threatened the military and naturalized citizens to vote his way, how they spied on the competition. The sacks of rice and sugar, the school bags and BD 20s given out with a promise of vote in return. Anyone remember the smear campaign against Al Gaoud in the last election? The only solace I can find where he is concerned is that inshaAllah he will BURN in hell for his evil deeds and for using religion to further his political aspirations.

It saddens me that there are some folks who will side with the 'poet', so taken they are with the lies and brian-washed. Where Ms. Al Gaoud should be congratulated for voting her mind rather than towing the line, she is attacked for showing her allegiance to the people and not the government. When will we wake up and see our ugly truth? Until we do our situation and our beloved Bahrain will only deteriorate.

I will end this rather long rant by stating the obvious: we all know whose thoughts, ideas and version of news Al Watan represents, so really could we expect any better?

Interesting Tidbits

Interesting tidbits, I wonder if some are true....let me know if you know they aren't:

* Paper money is not made out of paper but cotton.
* 40 % of McDonald's profits come from the Happy Meal (what are you feeding your kids folks???lol)
* The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
* Ketchup was used as medicine in the 18th century.
* English speaking Chinese exceed the United States population.
* Your eye is the same size now as its size at birth. Unlike the nose and ears, eyes do not grow in size.
* Chewing gum while handling onions will stop the tears. (I hope, definately will try this one, wearing contacts does too).
* The world's chicken population exceed's the world's human population.
* The elephant is the only animal that can't jump.
* The cat has 32 muscle in each ear.
* You can't kill yourself/end your life by holding your breath.
* All laser printers were invented by women (you go girls!).
* Honey is the only kind of food that never goes bad.
* A person cannot lick their elbows (I wonder who tried??)
* Alligators/crocodiles cannot stick their tongue outside their mouth.
* A pig cannot look up to the sky.
* Sneeze hard enough and you can break a rib. Hold a powerful sneeze and you can burst a blood vessel in your head or neck, this will result in death. Sneeze with your eye open and they will explode (now is this true??). Many things to be thankful for after a sneeze! :->
* A duck's quack has no echo. The reason is unknown.
* Coca Cola was originally green.
* Men can read smaller fonts but women have better hearing.
* Smart persons have higher level of copper and iron in their blood (now I know what to do with all those pennies!).

Sunday, March 11, 2007

My Crushing Reality

This is how I feel; my reality is slowly but surely coming down on me. The weight is heavy and I am being crushed. The little space I am left with leaves me no room to breathe.

I feel claustrophobic, only it’s my life that is confining me. The walls of my life are closing in on me, I have no room left. I need to break away from what???? My whole life? My reality? Me?

I have been told by all that it is my own doing. It is my fault and now I have to fix it or suffer the consequences. My own life so I choose they say, yet the decision to choose is not mine. I am selfish; I want to have my cake and to eat it.

I have hurt people and disappointed many others. In my defense, it wasn't intentional. Simply by being me and living my life. I try to live according to what I deem important, principles and morals that in the past have served me well. But it seems that I have forgotten to take into account what society demands of me, what is expected of me if I were to remain an active member of it.

The hurt is double sided; their pain and disappointment hurts me...Yet I am unable to work the cards I am dealt. So the hurt continues....

What happens when society expects more than what you can give, more than what you want to give up? What happens when you KNOW that society is wrong and you are right, but you are only a leaf facing strong winds? Do you bend to the wind and survive? Or do stand your ground and risk being broken? Do you perpetuate the wrong or do you make peace with the ill feelings, broken relations, stares, taunts and gossip that is bound to happen?

Bobbi Brown Rocks!

Hahahhaa got you there! No, I am not talking about Witney Houston's crazy maniac soon to be ex-husband. I am talking about the cosmetics line.

For those of you wondering what I am blabbering about, this post is an update to the search for the perfect red. So I did find two new shades of red, one definately works, the other I have to think about some more.

The one that works is Bobbi Brown lip gloss 'ruby', the one that may work is Bobbi Brown lipstick 'scarlet'. The weird thing is that the scarlet looks brown, I guess it has too much brown undertones.

Maybe I just got to get used to seeing my face with red. I am determined to! I somehow look wrong, like I am playing a weird joke on myself??!

Of course, I did not just stop at buying cosmetics. There's the awesome sale at Bath and Body Works, cute outfits at Banana Republic, etc and pretty soon I am barely able to walk back to my car without my arms falling off in the parking lot!!

Ok, gotta work on this shopping and sale addiction, but that's a whole other post!