"your men, my lord, will follow you to whatever end."
is that asserssion genuine? What do we long for? The end or the lord?
How do we select this lord? How does he become our lord?
What role does the lord play in defining the end that we seek?
How does kinship impact our decision?
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27 comments:
Don't need a lord.
Don't want a lord.
Just a few guidelines for living a decent life that doesn't bother other people and which will prevent others from bother me.
As I've read these blogs, a question comes to mind. I ask it because I'm wondering if the answer points clearly to what best needs to change in Lebanon. Also I ask because it puzzles me...
Why in the last 20 years has Lebanon not strengthened it's army so that it could choose to enforce sovernity?
It's not money since it's been a thriving country. It's not Israel because they would have encouraged it as in their best interests. It's not a direct conflict with Hizbollah's actions (since the army doesn't have to declare that it would do anything) so it's not that. It could have been Syria, but they've been gone for a year. Or maybe it is some of these. To me it's puzzling that the Lebanese people didn't push their politicians on this as being simply a neccessary part of having a country.
Also, I've seen much written about Lebanese sectarian division as the cause of trouble. What seems more clearly the trouble is the threating of some of the sects & fear from past experiences. Different groups/sect with different agendas is just a fact of life everywhere. It looks from the outside that it's the scare tactics that make everyone jump & the political process stand still. Is that so?
Hum, I don't know if it comes across this way in my writing -- but I did mean my last comment as questions! I've seen some very thoughtful comments on this blog & was wondering what others opinions were on these topics. (I'd like to get my own knowledge base beyond the superficial stuff I see in the news all the time.)
I came across how Chavez is giving money to american poor. I'll post it with the Chavez topic... Basically Citgo was sold to Venezula (the country it sounds like, not to a business there) & is donating gas. Donating to charity is what most companies operating in the US & selling to americans do for tax write off & good-will advertising, so nothing unusual here.
An Erev Yom Kippur Story
raja - sounds to me like a strong recipe for some good old nasa group think.. ie lets not question lets not ask - the questions will all come once the spaceship crashes.. its a tragic unfolding of events..
turtlecurls i think you may have partly answered yourself when you wrote "It could have been Syria, but they've been gone for a year." do you realise how much infrastructural change is required to go from being a protege to a self-reliant indepent state? especially if done in the context of a cedar revolution rather than a gradual evolution over decades?
i find it difficult to criticise lebanon.. my message hasnt really changed much since i started commenting on this blog during the war.. sure the lebanese may have made mistakes.. god knows we have too.. but you know what? mistakes are there to be made and learned from.. so this is the grand opportunity.. now is the grand test.. for both of us.. lebanon and israel.. what do we make of this event.. how do we demonstrate that we are not just bland survivalists but that we actually have the capacity to grow with our experiences and evolve and improve..
while only time can tell.. each and every one of us has a duty to create their own butterfly affect..
wishing us all a longstanding peaceful relationship
lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
where did everybody go?
:S
Hi, Where did everyone go? This is the last post & comment I've seen since September.
I saw a new post on Oct 1 or thereabouts with the photo of the hijackers. But that disappeared & hasn't reappeared.
- C
Hello, are you dead guys ? no new posts any more? felling lazy huh ?
maybe if we clap enough they will come back!!
Chuck,
Which other posts?
- Cheri
my blog's co-contributor is lebanese
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
its regular commentors are people from both sides and other places around the world all of whom seek peace notwithstanding the different points of view they represent..
sherri.. again you are wrong.. many people are talking and that why i believe in peace..
thank you for your kind wishes and thankyou for reaching out our way as well.. feel welcome to read my blog and for a view more in line with your own go to www.mirvat.blogspot.com she will lap you up like custard
i think true empathy can only be held 360 degrees..
:)
ps i thank raja and doha for pushing us to join the blog movement for inspiring us to speak out and voice our views and for a legacy of dialog they have created even if it was never intended.. i believe history will acknowledge you greatly..
shabbat shalom and ramadan kareem and happy whatever you feel like celebrating today hehe
Yesterday the deputy of Hassan Nasrallah of Hizb_Iran, Sheikh Naiim Qasim gave a threatening speech, where he accused the PM of Lebanon Mr Fouad Saniora of being the Qarazai of Lebanon i.e American puppet. In that speech he also declared with pride and determination that his militia belongs to the Iran-Syria axis. However, he forgot to remind the Lebanese populace of the following facts.
As a matter of fact, hizb_iran and its masters came to represent the perfect case of hypocrisy. They accuse fellow Lebanese of treason while they defend a traitor like Assad and his father who is well known to have served well his American and Israeli masters from 1974 until his death. While his son continued his policy with the Israelis till now and with Americans till 2004 when their relationship soured.
I would like remind Qasim and his masters that I never heard them criticize Assad when he opened his jails for terror suspects handed by the CIA to be tortured in Syrian jails, or when he recently called for instant peace talks with Israel. Also, one never hear them talking about the American occupation of Iraq, or the puppet pro-American Shiaa regime in Iraq. It seems for them Uncle Sam is a foe in Lebanon and friend in Iraq.
dear debate,
you are talking about the HA-iranian axis, but did you forget that joumblatt, about less then 6 monthes ago declared that he think that a saudi influence would be beneficial for the lebanese? What do you think as well about the current close relations between the parlementary majority and the saudi influence? Wouldnt feel the shia being threatened by theses incentious relations? They are, simply they are and they are reacting over that by searching to be protected by Iran, equivalent to the saudi for the parlementary majority. We are having a proxy fight not only between the iranian-HA vs israël but also between iranian-HA axis vs saudi-futur axis, with roots into the shia vs sunnit fights and persian vs arabs fights.
For exemple, they want to disarm the hezbollah, just after the end of the latest conflict nasrallah declared that the "resistance weapons are not eternal" to take his own words, well we all agree on that. However they had to enter into a polemic on the method to disarm. Useless polemic when we all agree on the objectives. They wasted all the opportunities from 2005 till the time of the conflict to pacificaly solve this issue, as I think it was possible to do so. We might not have the equipments to disarm the hezbollah by force but we certainly have the equipments to disarm the palestinians and it would have been a way to show that the governement is restablishing its souverainty over all the lebanese territory including the palestinian camps and a prerequisit to the HA disarmement.
I am against the current majority for this reason. I am for a lebanon that is free from all foreign influences. We are inside a political game going crescendo, We need to calm the things down and not try to make them worst, we need to lebanize the issues and not internationalize them. Unfortunatly our dear failed politicians, the sames that were cooperating or even serving with the syrians during the occupation, did not achieved it and more then ever I am getting pessimistic.
dear Raja and lebanese bloggers, doha etc...,
Where are you guys? we are missing your posts.
sherri
your evolution is interesting.. a bit late from the perspective of the dynamics of this blog but better late than never.. especially when someone is as vocal as you seem to be..
i think what you need to keep in mind is that the very theory behind self defence as a principle is that it is designed with the mission of self-preservation.. it is NOT designed to proliferate fairness but rather to avoid imminent threats of death and destruction that are posed against you..
its never an easy right to administer and it is frought with difficulty for one very simple reason.. and that is.. it is entirely percetion based.. as such - self defence is an excuse for bad behaviour on the grounds that you truly held the perception of imminent harm being inflicted on your self.. if it did not involve bad acts - we would not require the excuse of self defence..
its a tragic reality that sometimes survival appears to opponents as a zero sum game.. however.. when you are diametrically opposed - just as you have found yourself to be with respect to your newly found extremists - then extreme solutions are generated..
bear in mind that your revelation of the unpleasant views came through a website.. in israel we dont need to read about it.. we watch it on the flesh and blood of our people who have been directly targeted.. through funerals and through tragedies.. it is not about ideas.. it is about survival..
i am sad that your realisation has been possible..
personally - and without derogating from my profound love to my country - i am also very passionate about peace..
i hope one day the notions will stand beside eachother proudly and clear for all to see..
cheers
lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
probably
:)
wow, verry interesting discussion !
Interesting insights. Wanna see another great insight? this time about the situation in Lebanon? take a look at my movie at http://lebanonnewindustry.blogspot.com/
I've been lurking, even if I haven't been writing. Some interesting thoughts posted here... I checked out some of your sites Sheri & Chuck.
When I get a little time I'll be back!
Lirun - looks like we need to keep clapping our hands! It did cross my mine that, & I hope it's not something bad that pulled away Raja.
Some interesting comments today on this ynet news article:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3321651,00.html
"PA paper: Jews fan flames of evil"
- Cheri
Beirut Beirut Beirut Beirut is boiling !!!
so many theories.. so many reasons..
yesterday i heard talk on tv about the gay pride festivities in jerusalem.. there was talk of jewish religious terror against the participants and they said "what do you expect.. you provoke us and you'll get extreme reactions.."
i thought to myself how disgusting this was.. you had one community trying to assert their righst through peaceful festivity and another through terror attack..
the very purpose of the parade is illustrated by the threat of terror.. and then suddenly people say but hang on of course the dog is wobbly.. clearly the tail is wagging it..
no - sorry - this makes no sense..
we left gaza and we have left lebanon.. we will stop flying overhead once we get our men back as promised in the accord..
we were provoked and our sovereignty was undermined.. the lines are now blurry between cause and effect - but that is a long cry away from striking a blow of blame our way..
sherri.. you read the evidence yourself.. your profess your error.. and then you come back with the same indoctrination..
im not encouraged by your evolution anymore..
and yet i maintain hope for peace..
wishing it upon us all..
lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
and yes.. i too hope that all are well on the blog's author list..
Hi. Visit me:
http://kalamwakalimat.blogspot.com/
The Alawite Regime in Syria is more commonly but wrongly known under the name of the Baath regime. This terminology is wrong since the idea of the Arab Baath died with its founder Michel Aflaq a long time ago. All what is left is a gang of criminals and sectarian haters.Here are the six main points against this despicable regime.This regime is guilty of high treason because:1-it sold the Golan toIsraelin exchange forLebanon2-it allied itself with the Persians in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) against the Arabs3-it declared war on the Palestinian cause and on the Palestinian people, and it committed war crimes and massacres against them inLebanon4-it brutally occupiedLebanonfor 30 years and committed mass murder and massacres against the Lebanese population5-it leftSyriain a state of under-development and mass poverty6-and above all, it ruled the Syrian people with the armored fist for more than 35 years by filling the concentration camps of Tadmour and Mazzeh. All while committing acts of mass murder, annihilation (Hama1982), atrocity, rape, torture, and mass deportation against anyone who dared to speak up against their absolute rule.
sherri,
with all due respect, please post your sources for this "knowledge" before you burn the U.S. and Israel to the ground.
sherri - why not have your own blog..
i wont enter an argument with you because its pointless..
as i have said before your questions are intrinsically wrong..
for example.. "is it moral?" morality deals with the conflict of values.. it is the seam between them that defines the morality.. you may not like it.. but there is a morality of sorts underlying every action.. your view that morals are black and white demonstrates a very shallow understanding of conflict and bilateral relations.. are you acting in an immoral way everytime you disobey your husband? of course not.. are you always perfectly stetford wivish? of course not.. then there's your "is it human?" question.. well how stupid is that.. we are discussing humans interacting with humans.. that is entirely human by definition..
i suggest two things to you:
(a) apply a "but for" test as to the actions you criticise to identify causation.. you ask why like it is really significant.. well analyse it then.. stop whining and go think for yourself.. why has my government attacked gaza.. what is the single situation that has lead to these events..
ok so tracing back we have our withdrawal from gaza and then the incessant bombing of our towns.. but for the persistent bombing of our towns - my government would not have bombed gaza.. reread your sources and recall how sharon was so patient with our hamas friends - who despite that famous hudna participated in all glory in rocket attacks.. and then ask yourself oh why why why why.. gee i dont know.. cant possibly imagine why.. after attempting every other method to stop the attacks.. cant imagine why.. after having them invade our land and kidnap an 18 year old.. cant imagine why.. after having incessant attacks no matter how much we leave them alone.. cant imagine why..
so back to your strange questions.. is bombing our towns moral.. is that human? does it matter if the weapons are new or old? if you kill and injure us.. are we not entitled to do anything? are we not entitled to try and deter you?
(b) instead of being such a psycho.. who has long been sounding like a broken record.. why dont you tell us how its to be done.. how are we to stop the attacks against our towns.. we tried bilaterally.. we tried unilaterally..
personally i believe more can be done.. however.. we too are under attack.. and we have been for so long that it bores you to tears..
please dont respond to me.. just think for a change.. and seriously consider starting your own blog.. rather than only polluting others and running away with no self initiated thought..
wishing peace on all of us so that these blogs can seriously become redundant..
lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
Guys wake up!!! you all engaging in futile debates about this and that while you forgot the real deal. The Alawite regime of bashar is laughing at us day and night. hahaha
you keep on fighting and his regime is safe, fight fight and soon he will move back into lebanon and take us all to the tadmour concentration camp.
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