Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Understanding the Middle East

Today I spent most of my time watching television…looking at people in tears…saddened by the death of Pierre Gemayel…

I spent the whole day thinking about War and Peace…Destruction and Construction…Sadness and Joy…Nightmares and Dreams…

War and Peace…what do they mean in the Middle East? Empty words…
Even war doesn’t mean a thing…
If it scares the Americans and the Europeans, it means normal life for us…
Yes war means daily life in the Middle East…

Peace…oh!!! Once it was a magical word in the Middle East…
Once it was the door for big dreams in the Middle East…
But now…it is a useless word…it has become a parochial and a vulgar word for dirty and suspicious compromises…

Destruction and Construction…in the Middle East…
Oh!!! We are the Masters of destruction…The Best…
And we are the Masters of construction…construction of death and hatred…The Best…

Sadness and Joy…in the Middle East…
Every household has a story with sadness…Every person has an “exciting” story on how he/she survived a catastrophic event…that is our Joy…we didn’t die yet…

Nightmares and Dreams…in the Middle East…
This one is easy…Ask an Arab about his nightmare…he/she will tell you the Israeli Jew…
Ask an Israeli Jew about his nightmare…he/she will tell you the Arab…
Dreams!!!

In the Middle East…we are all dreaming of getting rid of the “Other” and in the same time, we are dreaming of getting out of the Middle East to find a decent life…

Do I need to say more?

2 Comments:

Blogger Emil , Jerusalem said...

Hi , Laury

1st of all please accept my condolences abouth the death of Pierre Gemayel.

Also I think , it is the appropriate moment to tell my little story.

It was an afternoon in feb. or mar. 2002. I didn't have a full job then , and worked here and there. So that afternoon I was in my way to Gilo ( south Jerusalem ) and had to take bus no.31.

Before boarding the bus I realised , that there weren't enough copies of "front page express tutorial" ( I was teaching Internet site design at senior citizens' club) , so I went to nearby shop and made ones. Since there was a traffic and I took the next bus , it was still possible to see the tail of the bus , I missed.

And then I heard a huge explosion , also my bus was shocked a little. It came that the bus no.31, I had missed because of fotocopies , was exploded . 8 killed , XX wounded. AND I COULD BE IN THAT BUS ....

12:11 AM  
Blogger Laury Haytayan said...

Hi emil, long time no see or hear of you..
thanks for sharing your story...
And the Death Saga continues in our region...what a shame...

2:07 AM  

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