bash me if you want, flame me if you desire, but even through this whole work swamp I'm in now, I couldn't stay silent in front of this charade, even with my previous decisions to stay clear of politics cos I really don't understand it... but this is starting to defy logic now.. not politics..

but this Ahamdnajad character is working very hard on proving himself a mass murderer.. I hope Iranians put him in jail before he brings death upon them just like Saddam did to his people..

it is a tradition in the middle east to hate the USA, and it is even more common to go with the "My Enemy's enemy is my friend" way of thinking.. so all the cheering and victorious looks I have seen on people's faces after Ahmadnajad's nuclear success declaration shouldn't come as a surprise to me.. but I still can't stand this passive idiotic mentality that glorifies "dying with dignity" instead of plainly being realistic and working hard to stay alive.. what are people so happy about? Another someone giving yet another reason for more wars to happen in our area?

for all the people I have recently spoken to, Ahmadnajad "stood up against the evil Bush administration", he managed to "show those Americans that their will to control the world can't work anymore".. blah blah blah..

BULL-FUCKING-SHIT...

Ahmadnajad just signed a death sentence to all Iranian people, just like Saddam signed another for the Iraqis when he stood up against the whole world.. I mean.. can't people see and learn? look at Iraq now.. can you imagine this war expanded to include Iran? do they think that with the little quantities of plutonium they produced, they can stand against another international collation?

is this really about "sticking it to the man"? or is it a few individuals trying to get into history books as heros? even if that meant sacrificing the whole population of those who elected (or were forced to elect) them??? is it really that hard to understand that HISTORY IS SELECTIVE.. and if those who write it elect to depict you as the bad guy, then your image will be deemed bad to eternity.. even if some people think that you were a hero..
see Joseph Stalin, Salavadore Allende, Fidel Castro, etc.. who (other than frustrated, forced-to-be-socialist middle-eastern) will remember the good deeds they did to their people (if ever)....??? don’t you agree that Hollywood has the stronger end in controlling how history is written?

this is all a big charade.. this new Axis-of-Eastern-Anti-American-coalition is a very dangerous game that everyone is being forced into.. if that game ever goes towards a final stage.. the end is not going to be fairy-tail like... and no one will be left around to write this history everyone is working so hard to become part of.

واعلنت القمة العربية التي اختتمت اعمالها امس الاربعاء بالخرطوم التزامها
الكامل بوحدة المصير والهدف للامة العربية ودفاعها عن قيمها وتقاليدها الراسخة في
التحرر والاستقلال والسيادة الوطنية وتمسكها بالتضامن العربي هدفا ووسيلة وغاية
حفاظا علي الامن القومي العربي وصون سلامة كل الدول العربية وسيادتها وحقها المشروع
في الدفاع عن سيادتها الوطنية ومواردها ومقدراتها

in the amidst of this craziness I am going through, I managed to finish the biggest challenge I undertook lately: Reading Salman Rushdi's Satanic Verses.

I bought the book 5 years ago, and it has been sitting on my shelf for all this time, waiting for me to pick it up and skim through it.
Me, being a huge fan of Rushdi's work, have always found his writing intimidating at first.. not something that you can dive into immediately.. it is hard, descriptive, detailed, full of cultural references that we might not recognize, and full of multiple character / time overlapping.. you feel the heat, the sweat through his writings, you smell spices and curry from his words, and you see the grey London sky through his chapters (god.. I miss that city)..

As the latest cartoons events took place, I remembered that a similar mess happened long time ago about this book, and I remembered that I actually bought it long time ago, only a few years after Rushdi fled to new york to hide from the Khomeini’s death sentence… so I thought, if I don't read it now.. then when will I ever?

I know that this book stirred controversy around the world, and I have to admit that even for a left-winger liberal like me, I could see why this controversial book insulted all these people.. it did show some disrespect (ok.. a lot of disrespect..) to Islam and Muslims, but I have to say also that the amount of controversy in the book is nothing compared to the amazing, mind blowing, thought provoking writing that made this book what it is.. Story telling at its best, a beautiful intersection of mythology, fantasy, surrealism, post-modern thoughts about politics and sociology.. and a beautiful depiction of the life of visible minorities in conservative cities like London, and in the west in general.. The chapters about the cultural clash of identities inside the character Saladdin Chamcha, which I could easily identify with and project on y own experience.. The chapters about the "Kahin" Ayesha who drove the people of the village to the sea leading them to their death by asking them to give her their blind faith and beliefs, a blind faith that went beyond any reasoning and logic..