Is denouncing the invisible God less risky than questioning the slave master?
The moral of the story: If a higher-educated Arab citizen, who lives in a farm that is toiling under one of the most destructive regimes on earth, would not even acknowledge the Problem, then we are not even close to the Solution.
(Notice that during the high season of leaders bashing (Arab Summits, massacres, insignificant childish disputes,…) it becomes acceptable to go public with the criticism. It becomes fashionable even for the media outlets in some farms to voice the concerns about some deficiencies in the neighboring regimes. But keep in mind that this can still be a risky business, even after it is green-lighted: For if you were one of the reporters/journalists who were late to receive the memo announcing the change of terms (most probably due to a charitable donation of oil, water, cash,…), you could be put on trial for (the bogus count of) “Disturbing the peaceful relationship and threatening the strong ties with a brotherly country”.….[End of tangent]).
“No one gives to charity more than our guy”. “Our country has a complex demographic and no one can balance it out like our guy”. “Our guy is leading a massive reform process that will correct all the mistakes of his predecessor (which naturally happens to be his father)”. “Our guy is replacing the old guard with a new (dirtier) guard and is uprooting corruption from its deepestsources (one garbage truck at a time)”. “Our guy patrols the street unarmed and unguarded, a la Omar”. “For God’s sake! Our guy is digging us a whole RIVER”. “Our guy prays every freakin Friday and he does it IN THE MOSQUE too”. “Our guy is a visionary in the areas of tourism promotion and animals breeding”. “Our guy is planting trees while fighting terrorism”. “Our guy is a coal-mine worker in the morning, a world-leader in the afternoon, and a family man at night. In his free time he is excelling in 17 different hobbies”.
To quote a few:
[References of these quotes, for the purposes of “constitutional” detention and testicular voltage shocks, are available upon request]
“At least our guy does not dissolve his critics in acid”. “At least our guy is not a French/British/American/Persian agent”. “At least our guy did not trade in his people for a chair”. “At least our guy speaks the language”. “At least our guy did not overthrow his own father and discard him in exile and/or a nut house. “At least our guy is not hosting American bases to back up his throne”. “At least our guy’s mug is not on a Zionist stamp. (On a related note: isn’t it remotely abnormal that the assassinated traitor who broke the Arab unity and signed the first peace treaty does not get a stamp (proposal rejected), while both of Prophet’s Mohammad grandchildren do?)”. “At least our guy let women wear a head cover”. “At least our guy allows women to drive”. “At least our guy is not legally insane, a nymphomaniac, a pedophile, or a degenerate…”
For example, is it too much to ask to factor him into the annual national budget? The ignorant Saudi was very excited because the king spends money from his own pocket on the renovation and maintenance of the religious sites. Is it too much to ask to specify what is personal pocket money and what is national resources? After all one of these “business tours” can single handedly and literally reshape the society’s class distribution, cause a significant movement in the poverty line, and start a small industrial zone in an unprivileged area.
Is it too much to ask for a decision making process? An accountability system? A law that applies to emperors and their parasites? Any signs that there is a potential of a country in the horizon?
5 comments:
I think it's the lack of self respect. A person who doesn't feel embarrassed or ashamed when he realizes that he just contradicted him self. Or when a person realizes that he was proven wrong yet refuses to believe his own mind by him self to avoid "defeat" in an argument.
This same lack of self respect also means lack of self confidence. When a person is not confident of him self, every little proof, whether it was "coke tastes better than Pepsi" or "the new BMW M3 is faster than the new Nissan GTR that hasn't even come out yet" will be a battle of life or death.
I quit smoking because one guy laughed at me when I dropped the cigarette and said " haaaah, mish 3aref timsek el cigaraaa????"
I realized that this cigarette is what makes this guy a man, and I was worried that it meant the same thing to me. And after 4 years, I realized that it is so. There is no such thing as "I enjoy it." What kind of mental anguish can a 23 year old kid have for him to need a cigarette to calm down???? Willa dayman imfaker 7alo in a Pulp Fiction movie? With himself as the only audience.
Speaking of this Saudi guy, the Jordanplanet is infested with people like that who keep complaining about "our" Arab regimes. They say "OUR" not "those" Arab leaders. I'm not Syrian, Assad is not my leader, but how how can be OUR leader?. But they say OUR. But they never call him by his name. They blame all of their problems on the government, on ministers, nowaab, corruption, or one single rich guy. Or Iran, or Hezbollah. Notice that we rarely blame Israel or Jews anymore for our problems, because shit is being thrown at us everyday and we are now starting to see who throws it.
Until life becomes too miserable for us, we will never feel the need to risk our necks to name those few “OUR” guys.
I thought the web was a safe haven for most random people to say whatever they willed? Or are OUR leaders in the business of tracking those dissedents on the web too?
I can relate to the " Arab gatherings" in western countries, where everyone blames it on the " Arab Leaders". However, when I am faced by a wave of attacks on "My leader" being corrupt and an agent, but at the same time nobody acknowledges the same things about "their leader" ... what am I supposed to do? I am forced to either get into a childish dispute trying to prove them wrong,either that or just curse the day I was born an Arab, and hang out with the non- arabs.
Damn! I just hate it when I read my mind on somebody's blog! You spoke my mind better than anything, believe me abu shreek (so aptly named!) it was a relief realizing that I'm not mentally retard to because I still carry the same ideas you expressed here.
On the other hand, put this Saudi guy aside, at least he's not labeling himself as a the first and only democrat or liberal, it's the most discouraging, frustrating, and aggravating feeling to watch those so-called democrats praising THEIR guy! I keep realizing day after the other that we as Arabs do not deserve democracy, literally, we chose dictatorship with full awareness, sadly, Jordanians are a shining example on that!
Aren't we just so blessed because the situation in Jordan is better than that in Syria or Egypt?! I wish that before I die I see someone here in Jordan convinced that we deserve to have the best democratic regime only because we're humans and we deserve it!
Hasan,
I can see someone being stubborn just to show off and prove that he/she does not lose an argument but I think at this point it is the systematic brainwashing that we are constantly subjected to that denies even the “smarter” ones from processing the information and realizing that the slave master is a disaster.
The use of the euphuism governments, ministers or any other figure of authority when complaining makes it “safer” to criticize when everyone knows who is the true decision maker.
The problem is when do we decide that life IS too miserable enough to ask for a change, and by the way, you may be surprised that YES, there are regime insects who do track the “random” websites, and who has an accurate record and identification of you and me.
(Good job guys. Keep it up)
Faisal,
Hanging out with non-Arabs may not a bad idea after all. :o)
But when you happen to be around these people who are criticizing your leader, you can confront them with facts proving that we are all in the same boat, and I believe it will more childish if you start randomly defending “your” leader, mentioning his less-than-impressive “deeds” just because you feel like your nationality is under attack.
Remember when someone criticize your elephant in the room he is not criticizing the country or the people of that country. He may be trying to point out that how does such a great population with a great potential surrender to such apparent tyranny.
Omar,
I would like to assure you that you are not retarded :o) and assure you that there are a lot of people who are thinking like us, but sometimes their situation (SEE The Selfish and The Sellout among others) does not allow for them to express their thoughts.
As I was saying sometimes the life-long brainwashing (among other methods of “reward/fear) makes look like that this is our choice, and that we are too “stupid” to know or deal otherwise.
The argument that a certain regime and situation is much better some others is not valid at all. Saudis think they are better than Egyptians. Jordanians think they are better than Yemenis. Syrians think they are better than Jordanians….. (Everyone with their own skewed argument as I pointed above), and we are all in the same boat.
Well, the root of the problem is our very own mentality.
While our educational system fails to induce or instill any form of creativity, or thinking outside the box. (Our notion of both is only restricted to lifestyle more than it is confined to mentality). This is dangerous, because once you're constantly fed by the crap in our educational system, and since your mental skills are not trained to exercise any form of creative and critical thinking; you are prone to accept whatever you are fed and handed.
What makes the matter worse, is that our educational system also fails to nurture a habit of reading in our students, reading is only restricted to text books, and as long as you get 95 percent on Tawjihi then all is well with the world. Enjoying background reading, or educating yourself, or even the concept of reading for pleasure in non-existent.
Assuming that you do have a passion for reading, chances are that you will only refer to trashy Arabic novels and crime stories. Only the privileged few obtain the chance to outsource their reading from foreign references.
So all these factors, create a somewhat too laid-back attitude, and a very lazy and crude mentality. People start innocently believing that there is no need to think for themselves, because they have been accustomed to only acting as recepients, or in lucky cases, they act as reactants. Meaning that a severe incident needs to provoke them to actually shake the living being inside of them.
There is no initiation, because we are lazy to initiate or ignite an issue or any form of fresh thinking. There is no creativitiy, because we lack the energy to spark it.
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