Syria Planet [Beta]

Three war criminals and a thief.

What a beautiful sight. Hold on to that image, they'll be killing eachother soon, when the one-trick pony March 14 alliance crumbles.

Left to right: Sa'ad Hariri, son of Rafiq Hariri. Amin Gemayal, son of Pierre Gemayal. Walid Junblatt, son of Kamal Junblatt. Samir Jaja, son of a bitch.

My sister came back from Damascus and - to my ZOMG surprise - granny sent me a big box of mlookhiyyeh.She must be worshiped!I put 3 portions of the plate you see as well as three big loaves of Arabic bread - this and I already was going to have dinner in two hours lol!When I finished everything, to my surprise, I also found a BAG OF FRESH THYME (za3tar)!!!!! ZOMG don't you LOVE fresh-made

نداء الغزالpicture: http://blufiles.storage.live.com

أتتنا أخبار الموت بسرعة فلم نستعد له بما يليق به ولم ننتحب ولم نبك فهذا موت مختلف إنه موت الخونة! إنه موت الآخر ...

Saturated in much Western political philosophy, popular culture and consciousness is this conception of the "Individual" standing against some collective and faceless horde which is attempting to stamp it out. It demonstrates the annoying symptoms of a centuries old classical education that has inculcated the arrogant belief that Western civilization sprung from Greece, whose individuality and pluckiness faced down the Persian hordes. I won't even go into this ridiculous notion, but that some people internalise this perspective unflinchingly annoys me to no end - not just with regards to Lebanon's political crisis but in relations to China as well. That people may feel this way about strangers or "others" is not surprising, that it is enshrined as so central to much Western political thought is. This is what makes reading anyone the likes of Mill or Rawls so annoying, their repackaging of the completely obvious and mundane into something exclusive and exceptional - what they advocate i

I watch BBC news and see a dour looking American Admiral tell the reporter that her country has a lot to give and are just waiting for the go ahead. The setting is an aircraft carrier just off the coast of Burma and the tone is critical of the Burmese government for refusing authorisation for foreign countries to drop aid. As usual, the United States is at the forefront of demonstrating their commitment to humanitarian efforts world wide, especially in resource rich countries which might be useful later. Ironic that none of this arrogance or power was available in New Orleans, where people were killing each other for fresh drinking water, yet here was a battleship that, the BBC's reporter claimed, was capable of generating x tonnes of fresh drinking water a day. Incidentally, has anyone noticed how well organised and handled the effects of the earthquake in China have been? Again, contrast that with New Orleans which, I imagine, was a walk in the park to the devastation in China today.

In spite of initial difficulties, the al Quds Dabkeh club was finally able to perform in commemoration of the Nakbah. The original venue had withdrawn its support but luckily and thanks to the Egyptian Union of Journalists, the group were able to perform at the Journalists syndicate in Cairo.

Not as many of you may have thought, this post is not cheering Qatar because of their recent mediation to end the Lebanese-Lebanese slaughtering simply because I have stopped caring about that `fucked-up` country after I watched this gory footage of Lebanese killing Lebanese, again, based on their affiliations. So my dear Lebanese population....Go to hell!
Or in Arabic "تنباعو بالعزا...سواءا كنتو سنة..شيعة..مسيحية...دروز...او حتى بشر"

I`ve been meaning to post about Qatar for some time but never really got the chance, so I decided to spend my break doing so.

Despite my irrational racism against people of the Gulf region, I cannot help it not to admire, support and applaud the tremendous effort some of them are spending on a global marketing campaign to promote and sell `Arabs` in a better and polished way.

Part II  - The Syrian Response – Shy and Feebleby Averroes (Read part I here)A media onslaught such as the one waged on Syria and its allies, and especially the non-stop pumping of sectarian hatred is and must be approached as a serious strategic threat to the country’s (and the region’s) security. But what has Syrian [...]

Blogger za3tar has organized Blog About Palestine Day for today, May 15, the anniversary of the Nakba and Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations. Bloggers around the world were invited to blog for Palestine, as noted by Global Voices here. Many bloggers chose to participate in the event; here is a selection.

Or Does it Explode reports on a protest in Damascus, Syria, calling for the release of their relatives, who are imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. According to the blog, Saudi Arabia has sentenced to death at least 28 Syrians for drug possession and jailed hundreds more.

Joshua will be away this week. I will be posting a series of contributions from our readers. Alex  Syrian Media – The Challenge and the Need to Act  by Averroes With the latest events in Lebanon, Saudi channel Alarabiya is again doing what it does best, inflaming Arab public opinion against Shiites, Syria, and the [...]

The Lebanese Army. The one neutral institution in Lebanon. Yes, they deserve a lot of criticism, but taking sides is not one of them.

So no wonder the Hariri gang is upset that they didn't come running when they lost their mini-civil war.

There's no doubt that Michel Sleiman is not partisan. He has the backing of the Opposition, March 14, the US and even - possibly - Israel. But the fact that the army didn't act as Hariri's private armed forces upset him. Quite a lot.

Future TV has launched scathing attacks - accusing the army of working for Hizbollah, by walking in to Future News with Amal gunmen to cut the cables.

But most dangerously, they claimed yesterday that around 40 Sunni Commanders resigned over the way the conflict was handled. (It was quoted elsewhere, but the quotes originate from Lebanese Forces newspaper An-Nahar).

Like all women, I have encountered phases where I have completely loathed and detested my body for a variety of different reasons- too fat, too thin, too tall, too short....too, too, too!!! Between me and my friends, family and aquaintances, I reckon that I have encountered every diet out there and guess what?!?!? Most of them don't really work!
BUT...I have finally discovered the secret to slim, svelte contours and long, lithe limbs! Having spent the last week in absolute agony due to blood poisoning at the hands of a stupid and sadistic dentist, with my left cheek looking something like a cross between a Picasso and an over-zealous hamster and the mere effort of sipping water being far too painful to even contemplate, I have finally attained the perfect UK size 6 figure!

So this is my little story about Palestine...my view as an outsider...an Egyptian-Brit who never even went to Palestine.
Like most Egyptian children, I was taught from an early age about the 'yahood' and how they hated us, how they destroyed a Muslim country and killed Arab children. Coming from a military family, where my father and uncle had fought in both the 67' and 73' wars with Israel I was often told stories about how family friends had been killed in action, how my father had watched his best friend die on a beach in Port Said, how my uncle had seen another friend literally shatter into a million pieces when a bomb exploded next to him in Sinai.

The Nakba (Calamity) is the Arabic name for an event which resulted in the expulsion of over 700000 Palestinian refugees from their homeland in 1948. What we commemorate on May 15 had its roots far earlier than 1948 and its effects continue to haunt the West as we move into the twentieth century of their calendar. For sixty long years, the Palestinians have had an uphill struggle to reclaim their stolen birthright and this struggle has taken place on many levels and not just the battlefield. Arguably, one of the most important of these struggles has been that of the narrative that which we should take for the Nakba. This ...

The open letter Joseph El Khoury addressed via Arabdemocracy to the Secretary General of Hizbullah Hassan Nasrallah generated many constructive comments regardless of whether they agree or not with the writer. Below a reply to the letter showing how strong the arguments in both sides can be. But the most important is that these two letters show how deep the Lebanese fracture is and how large is the space separating the two Lebanese parallels that might not intersect in infinity.

Bachir Habib

No matter how hard one tries to stay away from whatever happens around him in this world ,it is impossible to maintain complete disattachment from every thing and to stay unaffected going through your ordinary life as usual and that is more true when you have a cause that you believe in and is just and rightful.
I am very sorry to learn about the verdict against Syrian blogger tariq Bayassi who was sentenced to three years in prison after a fabricated accusation and hollow trial .following is a statement by Syrian bloggers to protest this unfair and unacceptable sentence
Statement of (The Syrian Bloggers) concerning the sentencing of the Syrian
blogger (Tariq Bayasi) to three years in prison.
After his arrest on 7 July 2007 on charges of criticizing the security services, and after ten months of detention without trial, the court issued sentences on Sunday 11
May 2008 for the imprisonment of ...

لا يمكن أن يمضي هذا اليوم دون أن أستذكر ذكرى اغتصاب ابنة عمي ، ذاك الإغتصاب الوحشي الغاشم لأودع و أجمل فتاة رأيتها في حياتي.في مثل هذا اليوم قبل 60 عاما ، تناوبوا هؤلاء الوحوش على اغتصابها الواحد تلوى الآخر بكل ما يحملون في جنباتهم من حقد و كره و انحطاط أخلاقي و أبت هي [...]

في بعض المواضيع لسا ما بعرف عبر هنها وارسمها بكلمات وحروف، زينها بمعاني بتعبر عن إلي بدي احكيه.ولكن الحمدالله في عالم بعرفهم بعبروا عن مشاعرهم وأرائهم ، ناس متلي بتهمن فلسطين مو بس لأنهم فلسطينيين أو مسلمين أو عرب، لكن ناس بتفهم وبتعرف الصح من الغلط، بتعرف الذل والظلم والتخلف الصهيوني وأساليبهم إلي مالها أساس، بس سياسة الدنيا معروفه ولكن بدك مين يقوم من على الكرسي ويرفع صوته بدون خوف.المحزن

My friends and family keep asking me everytime we speak about how I live in the West. What sort of life I have and what I do in it.

To save myself from repeating the same story I've decided to post a detailed schedule of my day to day life on my blog:

Weekdays:

7:30 AM : Wake up, shower and coffee
8:30 AM : I go to work
10:30 PM : I get back from work
10:40 PM : I eat
12:00 AM : I go to bed

Weekends:

Saturdays: I sleep all day
Sundays : I clean the apartment, do the dishes and the laundry, buy groceries....and go to the movies!

Fun....eh?