Jar of Juice

cad mumbled on December 31st, 2008 at 5:57 am

So have Damascus!

Digital Nomad mumbled on December 31st, 2008 at 7:50 am

I am heartened to read this, as I thought the more affluent Arab leadership was pretending nothing was happening.

sel3 mumbled on December 31st, 2008 at 8:18 am

that’s good

Um Omar mumbled on December 31st, 2008 at 9:44 am

So, are they donating the money it would have cost to run the show to the Gazans? Or is that too much to ask?

hamza mumbled on December 31st, 2008 at 12:39 pm

I’d personally be attending this one:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=57206071557

marwa mumbled on December 31st, 2008 at 6:10 pm

that what must happen if we still consider our selves as ARABS …
here in kordan most of the parties are canceled also .. ALLA yhdee el bal

[ j i m m y ] mumbled on January 3rd, 2009 at 10:16 pm

i’m sorry K, but i have to express my opinion on this matter. and before you read it, please bear in mind that i have lived 24 years of under occupation in my country, so my opinion is based on my life experience and not on a whimsy will to contradict you.

i fiercely disagree with the decision of arab countries to cancel the new year’s eve parties, and i disagree with the above comments.

i am fed up with the symphonies of acceptance that we arabs are never tired of playing. and i am tired of our pride in being the champions of masochism and victimisation. this is not how you can help the palestinians.

instead of shutting down the celebrations for new year, which have cost millions to organise and which generate millions in revenues to local hotels and companies (especially and ironically to government-owned ones!), arab leaders should have forced a moment of “silence and resistance” at midnight and let the parties go on!

ridiculous as it may sound to some, we should have revolted by maintaining a business-as-usual attitude during the aggression, not by victimising ourselves as we so eloquently do, day in day out.

revolt and resist!

the hotels and restaurants? we already built them, so better use them to generate money and compete! the current attitude is so symbolic of a colonial “victimist” culture that is so rooted in us. but then again, why should i be surprised when we breast feed our babies with revisionism, western-phobia and post-colonial inferiority complexes. we love to theorise about conspiracies, which keep us from dealing with the root of the problem: our inon-competitiveness and lack of skills.

this is how the others are winning. by lobbying, by working like clockwork, 24h a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to promote their views and to shatter our image.

and there we are: as soon as we get the chance to compete, we run and hide behind our oh-so-dear and beloved shields called censorship, mourning and denial.

we want to copy the west, we build our cities to imitate it, we copycat the hell out of every aspect of the west, hypocritically use its technology, wear its jeans with pride, and rely on its internet, and then at the earliest occasion, we make a scene out of rejecting its values and inflict losses to our domestic businesses while doing so.

instead of rejecting western aspects and values, we should learn to compete with them, use them to our advantage, and further develop them. survival of the fittest!

until this post-colonial “submissionism” stops flowing in our veins, we won’t learn to compete and win! new york went back to business a few days after the 9/11 attacks, and so do the southerners in lebanon after every israeli aggression. they moved back to their wiped-out villages only days after the israeli massacres of 2006, and like honeybees started rebuilding their villages and resisting again.

and this is how the gazans and the palestinians have been surviving since 1948. by resisting, not by complaisance.

so if i were an arab leader, i would insist on a business as usual attitude and dedicate the income generated to support the palestinians. to educate them. to equip them and to help them reform whatever is left of their governance. i would be active, not passive. i would fight back, not sit and weep.

the colonial days will only be over when WE are over them. when we realise that we have to be be as innovative, aggressive and competitive as the so-called “west”.

Quote of the Year & More Ways to Help Gaza | Jar of Juice mumbled on January 7th, 2009 at 12:16 pm

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