Profile: The Sellout

Abu Shreek realizes that one of the main sources of the Arab population misery resides at the top. “From the Ocean to the Gulf” we are “blessed” with an assortment of (dysfunctionality) at a level that is good enough to trample any civilization no matter how proud it once was.
Abu Shreek chooses to approach this problem in the same manner most of his fellow countrymen and comrades do: A combination of denial and useless whining. After all, Abu Shreek wants to lead a normal life (just like everybody else), with a nine-to-five job, a family and all that good stuff. His selfish nature dictates to him to adhere to the passive mentality of “Walk close to the wall and pray for (obscurity)”, and “Join the rolling heads and wait for your beheading” (loose translation of common Arabic proverbs). The submissive approach is furthermore justified by the inherited feeling of the impossibility of difference-making at that level.(sic)
He believed that he is sharing similar feelings with 90-95% of the 250 million peasants toiling in the Arab “farms”. He believed that the remaining minority mainly consists of the beneficiaries, mercenaries and parasites whom their existence depend on the survival of the “slave master”; the same master who was imposed on us by enemies and occupiers. (As a part of a long term plan, someone somewhere decided that an island with an area less than one-fourth of that of Rhode Island is an “independent” country, with a flag, a national anthem and an “emperor” who would not qualify to manage a falafel stand. And that one is considered one of the better farms.)

Until he realized that there is a group of people who are somehow convinced that we are lead by visionaries and geniuses! This is not the group of “simple” people who are ecstatic because the “prince” passed by their village ten years ago and posed for headlines pictures with their misery. This is not the group usually represented by (Sha3er Nabaty : (Nabatean poetry: incoherent blabber in a slang dialect)), who is completely oblivious to the fact that the “prince” does not understand the poem dedicated to his highness, because his highness does not speak the language. This is a more serious group of “educated elite” and technocrats, who settled for a conference in a five-star hotel sponsored by a representative of his highness. They settled for a tiny piece of the pie and a promise from someone who knows someone who knows the personal secretary who fetches coffee for the cousin of her highnesses, that he will hook them up with a four-digit license plate. In his imaginary universe, Abu Shreek depended on this latter group to win over the first two, and convince the poet that there is no need for medieval court jesters in today's world.

It is one thing to choose to ignore the “Elephant in the Room”, since it looks immovable (That is why it is the “elephant in the room” in the first place). It is one thing to not notice it (Some people have vision issues). It is one thing to have it briefly mistaken for a part of the room that belongs there (since it is been there for a long time). But it is unforgivable to knowingly domesticate and consciously convince oneself to accept the fact that it looks good in there.