Due to the lack of time and poor internet connection (I can’t say exactly which one affects me more), I haven’t been able to publish my thoughts on the blog for a long time. And I do have the feeling of a great lost, especially when I realize how many events, feelings and experiences are here to write about.
Therefore, today I decided that no week should pass without at least one article on my blog… I hope time and circumstances will help me to keep my promise.
Apparently more than usual Friday morning…As I am enjoying my coffee in a very western coffee place here in Damascus, I get the chance to think about the past week. I’m not here for the nostalgia of the western lifestyle, neither for the international customers that pop in everyday or the amazing international music, a compilation of best French, American, English, Spanish old, but so contemporary hits. I’m here actually for the amazing taste of the Coffee Americano served with a teaspoon of natural honey, that you can hardly find any elsewhere. Or for the amazing lemon with mint Polo. To be honest, I was also dragged in by the hope of a good internet connection that can facilitate my Arabic translation. I found none, but I can still have a good time in front of my new Notebook, writing these lines and reflecting over the events.
“…the most significant historical features of the Middle East were not marginality and simplicity, but centrality and diversity.” (Politics and Change in the Middle East: Sources of Conflict and Accommodation, Roy R. Andersen, Robert F. Seibert, Jon G. Wagner)
This quote from one of my last year Politics books came to my mind while watching the Al Jazeera news. I strongly believe this perfectly symbolizes the events that have happened in the past week. Since my stay in Syria I’ve realized that everything has a stronger impact and importance when you live here, when you can feel the pulse of the events even in the restless rumors in the street, short dialogues that do not request an extraordinary knowledge of Arabic or, more exactly, Syrian dialect… They rather request an open heart and mind.
The Palestine Papers, revolts in Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt and Yemen, inundations in Saudi Arabia, the new Turkish film “The Valley of Wolves – Palestine”, bomb in Moscow’s airport, it feels as if you don’t even get the chance to realize what is actually happening. One can watch 24/24 the long debates on TV with different leaders of the Middle East arguing, defending their words and actions, pointing at someone else every time the topic becomes uncomfortable. And from time to time astonishing last minute news take the place of the tiring unfair debates. Unfair because one can never have the whole image of what is happening, one can never see everything from an eagle’s eye just because most of the important details are hidden in the darkness of the forest.
The past week has showed that still the innocents are the ones sacrificed for the sake of “one rule and one gun” , and yet the poor, young, simple people go out in the streets fighting for what we take for granted – democracy.
Before his assassination in 2005, Samir Kassir, one of the best-known journalists and historians of Lebanon, of Palestinian origins, writes in his book “Being Arab”:
“The Arab people are haunted by a sense of powerlessness, permanently inflamed, it is the badge of their malaise. Powerlessness to be what you think you should be. Powerlessness to act to affirm your existence, even merely theoretically, in the face of the Other who denies your right to exist, despises you and has once again reasserted his domination over you. Powerlessness to suppress the feeling that you are no more than a lowly pawn on the global chessboard even as the game is being played in your backyard.”
I’m afraid the late events tend to confirm, but at the same time, paradoxically, disagree with Samir’s words. From my own point of view, from my little knowledge of Arabs and the Middle East, I believe they do have the power to change everything that needs to be changed, they do have the power to achieve their goals, but this can only come from their unity. The more unite they are, the biggest the impact of their acts. Therefore, I trust the power of the Arabs and their passion for liberty, for their homelands and for their rights. As a Romanian born after the ’89 revolution, I was raised with the stories of the youths that died during that bloody days of December for a better future of their country. As a consequence, there is something that makes me more sensitive to all this events taking place now. This is amplified by the luck of having a group of amazing friends from all these countries and the feeling of solidarity to them. Their tragedy becomes somehow my tragedy and vice versa. In less than a second all the minor things that preoccupy the minds of people my age in Romania become piece of cake in comparison to the real world. There is a sweet painful awareness that makes me see everything with other eyes than the ignorant western eyes.
To sum up, I would like to quote a very old Arabic saying: “I have three friends and three enemies. My friends are: my friend, the friend of my friend and the enemy of my enemy. My enemies are: my enemy, the friend of my enemy and the enemy of my friend.”
Now I put back my Palestinian scarf as I leave the internet café or المقهى as people call it here and I thank God for all the amazing things in my life. I believe now I appreciate more the value of a new day and I pray for peace, rest and justice in our world. God has always been just one, only our perspectives have been different.
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