On Olives and Sake

Mr. Abdul-Halim Khaddam, talking about a country…
Is it the same person who served as vice-president for the last 35 years?!!

Let’s go through these years in witch he “served and gave the Nation the best of himslef” as he said… shall we?
1970 Haffez Assad comes to power after a military coup… Khaddam is there.
1978-1986 Massive raids and strikes and arrests against ALL political factions of syria, from the very very Left to the very very Right wingers!.. Syria having its WORST days regarding individual/public freedoms since the ottoman occupation… ofcourse he was here.. serving us his best!
1986-mid 1990s… Syria having its WORST economic situation since the ottomans… ofcourse he was here STARVING with the ppl, and waiting in line for a piece of bread!
2001… a crush down of newly emerging political freedoms that resulted in the arrest of Damascus Spring symbols… among them MP – Riyad Seif, Professor Aaref Dalileh, MP – Maamoun Al-Homsi… ofcourse, he was lecturing about democracy then…

I’m tearing apart when he’s speaking on Arabiya.. I have this urging feeling to just throw anything at the TV… I feel biiterness, I feel pain, I feel humiliated infront of millions… I wanna cry, I wanna call him a Liar, I wanna lose this feeling of being a Nothing in my own country… while murderers like Khaddam make the News…

No Mr. Khaddam, ur not a part of this Nation… and u’re no better than any of the regime left here, if not WORSE than most of em… u’re of those ppl who cold bloodedly bombed a CITY.. a Syrian City with Syrian INNOCENT ppl living there… Hama [only 5% of the body count was of the MuslimBrotherhood]… u’re of those ppl who watched the Massacre of Tadmor without as much as a blink, no u’re worse.. u might be smarter.. but u’re still a criminal to me…

What’s worse than catching Flu while ur in Homs (the gloomiest and most bitterly-freezing place on this planet) at ur grandma’s place with about 12 grandkids jumping around like total maniacs 24/7???!!!
Well, it’s ur uncle tryna cheer ya up with the most absurd analysis of EVERYTING.. ranging from “Why Microsoft emplyees are going straight to hell?!” through “Syria’s cleverness in defusing the international pressure and succeeding in convincing the US to pull out of Iraq [Don't ask me to elaborate on this one, plz]” to the very favourite “Janblatt, Hariri Jr. and Hmade are down the toilette! Thanx to the [previously mentioned] Syrian Cleverness!”…

regardless from these painful 2 days…

A new year is turning… A new birthday for Jesus!!! I wonder if anyone had so many ppl throwing birthday parties for him, I wonder if there ever will be… on some occaisions I wonder if There ever IS!!!

Again, regardless from that stupid probability… Milad Majeed everyone…

This pic was taken just yesterday 2am at Latakia Korniche.. (Maad, Zeid, Me).. by Zied’s Cam put on Long Exposure

for the first time since this whole japan thing kicked off I felt how much I’m gonna miss everything, everbody and every moment here.. just five minutes back i was thinking for the flight route, now all I can think of is how much Im gonna miss the Tijara hang out after university, 3asafiry, Latakia.. ppl… the rainy sleepy city of mine.. and above all my two very bestfriends.. I was struck by the fact that I’m gonna be all alone there without someone to talk to whenever I want to… at least the for the first couple of months… I was struck by the fact that these ppl who made up my world for the last 5yrs are not gonna be just around the corner anymore… we’re no longer gonna meet by the Awqaf building for the thursday hungout.. the only 2 ppl in this world who have a duplicate emotional history of mine, the only 2 who have the very same psycho-tendencies of mine, the only 2 who I can shout at sometime just to get it off my chest.. the ppl who each had 30% effect on building my whole life just as I had that same effect on each!!.. I might never see them again…
When we had our first totally wasted night, it was only me and maad and that Panasonic VideoCam… but throughout the video u’d hear someone shouting Zeid’s stupidity for not coming.. the three of us who had recorded the first News Cast from “Wak Wak TV” in 2002.. and we’d spend hours laughing at ppl we don’t even know how they look like… it’s stupid.. it’s just stupid.
Maad is now looking to finish MedSchool and go for MA in France, Zeid’s gonna apply for a US scholarship and me Japan, we couldn’t have drifted any further apart…
These are the only ppl I know who’d spend a whole evening just wandering through the street carrying a stolen 15kg pole with them.. aimlessly!
I’m just in a state of denial right now.. it’s the first time I thought about it.. and it’s just eating me alive, at least right now, for a sec I wished we could just stay here… just always be in college, and always have those ppl in Tijara to talk about… the same ppl we never get bored talking,mocking,laughing,spotting,hitting on,following… just living…

Ana meen, w enta meen, ya ne7na almensyeen” Fairouz – Ya 2lby la tet3eb 2alabak.

I’m obviously in no mood for writing… nor analysing, nor thinking positively in any other way… just observing…..

It makes a lot of difference reading a blog when u’re actually familiar with the person behind it, it makes it more intersting to see how he reflects on his blog…
I’m fortunate to have known most of the Syrian bloggers in person… I just wanna share my passive observing period on this blog…

I have to start with one of the most amazingly unique posts in a while on Zena’s Brutally Honest…

I have been recieving comments from “someone” that are quite intersting, so I decided to gather them all and add them in this post….

From Ayman’s The Damascene Blog…

I’ve been asked why I have not posted in a long time. The answer is that I don’t have anything to write….

Ihsan’s My Thoughts and Notes…

Can selfishness be isolated from love? Any kind of love, a mother’s, a partner’s, a sibling’s or a friend’s?…

Ammar Abdulhamid’s Zandaqa…

ربما يكون الشعب أعزل، وربما تكون المعارضة ضعيفة، لكن هذا لايغيّر شيئاً من حقيقة إفلاس النظام وفساده، ومن حقيقة كونه الطرف المسؤول الأول و الأخير عن وصول سورية الوطن إلى حافة هذه الهاوية التي تتراءى أمام أعيينا الرافضة اليوم.

Sinan’s MFLS…

It’s funny how weak we are, how easily we can get depressed if somehow someone or something finds a way to our insecurities, and how we enjoy our destructive behavior, no matter how much it makes us suffer…

and finally… Zeid’s flickr photos…

I never want to get into a discussion about the Palestinian issue, because, most definitley I will be misunderstood… and I would definitley never blog about it, this -nonetheless- is too intersting to ignore…

People want to know what I, a Jewish guy, think about Israel.

I want to make something clear. I live in New York. I am from New York. I do not have a right and do not want a right to “return” to Israel. I never was there. I want to skip all the arguments about whether or not today’s Jews descend from the people of the Old Testament. I don’t care if I do or I don’t. It doesn’t matter nor should it.

The territory that is known to many as Palestine had been peopled by Arabic speaking folks for centuries, mainly they were Muslims, many were Christians, and a few of them Jewish too. Most of those people were kicked out of their lands and homes in 1948 by people like David Ben Gurion and Ariel Sharon and more were expelled in 1967. They are the ones who have a right to return, not me.

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