Random Thought

There isn't greater a constant than human intelligence in this Universe. From the dawn of humanity, until nowadays, it has never changed. Not a bit. Only the amount of people to divide it to has quadruplicated.

Bloody Feast

Well the inevitable came. Saddam was hanged yesterday. In the dark, like rats like to operate. I think he had it coming, you can't get away with massacring people, although the US forces seem to do it all the time. Nevertheless, if you're Arab, or any "inferior" nationality, you can't escape with even telling your opinion, let alone massacring people. Although Wahhabi seem to escape, but those are pure "moderate" Muslim Arabs. We Syrians are just apostate bastards of Timurlan. Yes, I forgot.

I am with punishment, with capital punishment. If not for anything.,but I don't find it fair to pay up to 40% of my salary just for keeping the inmates warm and cozy, with the false hope that someday they might become model citizens. I'll pass, I would happily and unconditionally give the money for helping impaired people or the elder. But, nevertheless, we are barbarian criminal human rights violators and we must provide for the best of our imprisoned criminals in the detriment of Dawn syndrome diseased children.

I am not religious, those who know me can say I'm a fundamentalist atheist. But in a fundamentalist world, an assassinated symbol, albeit a murderous one, can very easily become a martyr and fuel for even more fundamentalism. Although I found it strange to read news of Iran's joy at the hanging news, see the Shiite's joy for eventually getting their justice (1 million killed in Iran alone during the Iraq-Iran war). And then hear of the fears of "Irani fundamentalism" martyring Saddam? No, fundamentalism comes from the South, usually, from grit-sucking Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless...

Anyway, I am for capital punishment and for capital punishment of all criminals against humanity. But I am living in Syria and I don't want to suffer bombing and terrorism because of some cretin US intelligent that know about the Middle East the same amount I know about quantic physics.

It does give hope though, Saddam is gone. Now we're hopeful to see Rumsfeld. Or Bush. Even Condi would do. We're waiting.

P.S I'll insert sources later, I'm to disgusted to think right now.

Happy .......... (Insert Hollyday of Choise)

Imagine someone who's half Romanian, quarter Syrian and quarter Lebanese. Yes, I know Syrian and Lebanese genetics are absolutely the same, but we're talking nationality here. It's like calling a Pole an Ukrainian. You don't want to know what happens. The Romanian part is the easy part, to start with, as it only Greek-Catholic converted to Orthodox, and that's OK. The Lebanese part is Maronite, with serious doubts of crusader ascendancy. The Syrian part is Damascean, which does anything but simplifies the things. Damascean since more than 900 years, which makes it direct subject to Tamerlane's men, thus doesn't make it pure Damascean anymore. It means there are chances of Mongol blood. Note that the Damascean part, before being Damascean, has come from the Hijaz, and considering the functions of the predecessors, gives serious doubt of actually not being Arab at all but converted Jew.

Imagine someone who was born Muslim then baptised into Orthodoxy. One apostate. Then reconverted by force to Islam. Two apostates. Then denying any kind of religions altogether. Three apostates. Someone who's expected by Christians to feast with Christians, by Muslims to feast with Muslims, and if Hebrew descendancy is proved, to feast even with the Jews. And imagine that all three feasts happen to come in the same time. What should this person do?

He should bugger everything and keep on celebrating First of May.

Happy Everything to Everyone!

Deus Deii

Stavro,

Hear this
"Deus Otiosus: (Deus Absconditus) creator god that abandoned his work, retiring to the Heavens (or another sphere of existence?) thus breaking all the bonds with his creative past. Literal translation: tired god, or bored god, or resting (reclining) god. A common figure to most archaic religions, the common explanation of his abandon is either of physical nature, such as the great distance between Earth and Heavens, or by by more philosophical means such as the impossibility of communication between the two dimensions. Some intermediary forms found are the Deus Absconditus concept, or Hidden God, Deus Remotus, the Far God, Deus Incertus, the Uncertain (in the agnostic way) God."
Victor Kernbach, General Mythology

He who watches?

Switched to Blogger Beta. Or was it Alpha, now that it's ready? Well...

Isn't it strange how everybody orders you to show tolerance, yet nobody shows any will of tolerating you?

P.S. Remind me to tell you about the banyans.

"A Lebanese leftist friend of mine gets mad at those assassinations in Lebanon. He thinks that they help turn very unsavory characters into 'martyrs.' "

As'ad Abu Khalil, The Angry Arab

We Shot JFK

Yes, we did it! We're responsible of all the assassinations we're accused of. But I'm not talking only Rafik Al-Hariri, Samir Qassir, George Hawi, Gibran Tueni and recently Pierre Gmayel. Not, those are just odds and ends on our long history of assassinations. Who's we? Why, We, Syrians, who else? We're not on the Axis of Evil for nothing, don't you think? We're not portrayed as terrorists, murderers and bloody buggers for nothing. No, Uncle Sam's CIA is much more smarter than ourselves, us stupid Arab Levantines, renegade by all true Arabs. They're not stupid Islamist Terrorists like ourselves, and they wouldn't go around murdering their own puppets to incriminate their country. Nooo. They are smart. Them and God's People Saudi Arabia! They don't kill Lebanese in the very perfect moment when everybody seemed to be liking and licking their arse. They're SMART, remember? While us, we're STOOPID Syrians, we'll believe everything Fox News'll tell us. We'll cry over the patricidal Mini Harir's crocodile tears. We're STOOPID terrorists, us.
Well, Uncle Sam, you're so eager to find a scapegoat for all these political assassinations made by the Syrianophobes, so I'll lend you a hand to solve today not only those, but all of the world's great assassinations.
In fact, who was Hariri? Some Syrian puppet dilapidator, who had more fraud stuck to his name than Bill Gates himself. Don't you believe he was a Syrian puppet, then why did his bastard Saad Al Saoud assassinate him in the first place? Oh, sorry, yes, it was Syrians that assassinated their puppet, sorry.
But, then again, who was he, in the Big Picture? Nobody. If this world were a movie, Hariri would have been the guy crossing the street in the background. Mind, with no focus on. Now, JFK, for instance, that was real star material. Bad we assassinated him. Oh, and his brother. Because we're Syrians. No other reason is needed these days, obviously. And Saddam, remember the guy? Well, it was us that assassinated his sons.
Hitler, remember him? Megalomaniac and big time anti-Semite? Who said he shot himself? It was we behind the trigger, don't you know? Oh, and the Tsar with his Anastasia. Syrians, no Bolsheviks like those stupid movies want you to believe. Should I mention Saddat and Abdulla the First? No, those are just Arab shit, who cares about them in the first place? But Isaac Rabin... Of course it was Syrians, look behind every crime and you'll find a Syrian, isn't this the LINE these days? Hadn't Syria become synonymous with terrorism? Why ask questions, when it's obvious!
Remember Che Guevara? Yes the astenious maniac revolutionary. Guess who killed him. Oh, and Fidel Castro. What, he's still alive? No problem, we'll manage something for him, and then stick it up the Syrians' arse.
Prince Frantz Ferdinand, it was Syrians who assassinated him in Sarajevo, of course. And their aim was starting the World war, because we're terrorists, what the fuck!
Abe Lincoln, the American Icon and Symbol for freedom. Guess who's fighting freedom everywhere, and you'll surely reach the conclusion it was Syrians who actually did him, poor devil!
Remember Napoleon, the Corsican megalomaniac that claimed himself emperor? You know how they found out he was poisoned, but they're yet to point the criminal. I have good news: it was Syrians.
Jesus, remember him? Son of God and such? How dare anybody blame Romans or Jews for his assasination, when it was obviously undisputedly Syrian Muslim terrorists that did that one!
Julius Caesar? That famous last line reaching us through Shakespeare’s masterpiece is actually "Et tu, Syriae?!"
But what am I rambling about, it's obvious that us Syrians the biggest heap of murderous assassin terrorists from the very beginning of time. Didn't Cain murder his brother Habel in cold blood on Mont Kasiun? It's enough to acknowledge that the first crime of humanity took place near Damascus, and that "Damascus" itself means "the Cave of the Blood", to realize that you've got your nation of scapegoats for every thing to have ever happened in past and future. How easier could it get?
But mind one thing, though: we are assassins; we accept your projection, be it true or false. But we have THE BACKBONE to recognize!

Why We Chose Crusaders Over Our Arab Brethren

A subject that intrigues me for some time now. I know that for every beloved zealous brother, this title is my one-way ticket to Hell, but unfortunately my ramblings are purely geo-political, thus...
Syria was put before two choices. Either become one of the "moderate" Wahabite hives, either feel Mr. Bush' wrath. Syria has chosen to become an European country. Why? Simple: European partnership means European investments, European founding, European freedom and mentality. European partnership means peace. Peace means ever more investments, cultural inter-change, freedom. The freedom that Wahabites desperately try to keep away. And I don't mean political nor religious, I mean freedom of mind.

Now let me compare a bit between the two factors of this equation. Both Crusaders (Europe) and Terrorists (Wahabites) mean investment.

Crusaders:

1. Infrastructure: roads, railways, transport, ports, airports, highways, bridges...
2. Agriculture: grains, olive, cotton, citrus....
3. Tourism: advertising the rich historical heritage, cultural tourism, resorts, hotels...
4. Culture: cultural inter-change, cultural scholarships, activities, historical tours...
5. Economy: food industry, textile industry, natural resources extraction...

Terrorists: I am to take into consideration that they've already 30 years of investment advance in the Syrian virgin market, thus what did they do:
1. Invested into female slavery
2. Invested into prostitution (yes, it has risen to the highest level ever before, and is VERY alarming)
3. Real estate speculation, resulting from the prostitution business
4. Wahabite Islam: I'm ashamed to recognize that 85% of Syrian women wear head scarves and/or nikab! The rest of 15% are Christian, Alawite, Shiite, Druze and Jewish.
5. Invested into the most shameful Wahabite trademarks of child mind twisting lowly disguised as Space Toon and Star Animation.
6. Destroyed and encouraged the destruction of the "pagan" historical sites.
7. Projected their image of terrorism to an once tolerant secular nation.
Their future agenda can only hold more terrorism, Wahabism and prostitution, until one day we'll find ourselves facing hordes of horny zealous raping the any unfortunate woman passing by. Because Mohammed allowed them: "Whatever you right (hand) can hold..."

Therefore, I'm glad we chose "terrorism" instead of "moderate", I'm glad we chose the "crusaders" and "apostate" Shiites over our Muslim caring brethren and Brothers. Next step would be renouncing all Arabs. I'm hopeful.

Stupid!

Don't know what the heck happened. Working to recover blog. Back shortly.

Pratchettphernalia

Been Discworlding again. Here are some quotes:

"The Patrician was not a man you shook a finger at unless you wanted to end up being able to count only to nine."

"Sergeant Colon owed thirty years of happy marriage to the fact that Mrs. Colon worked all day and Sergeant Colon worked all night. They communicated by means of notes. He got her tea ready before he left at night, she left his breakfast nice and hot in the oven in the mornings. They had three grown-up children, all born, Vimes had assumed, as a result of extremely persuasive handwriting."

"The trouble with being a god is that you've got no one to pray to."

"Gods don't like people not doing much work. People who aren't busy all the time might start to think."

"You couldn't put off the inevitable. Because sooner or later, you reached the place where the inevitable just went and waited."

"People think that professional soldiers think a lot about fighting, but serious professional soldiers think a lot more about food and a warm place to sleep, because these are two things that are generally hard to get, whereas fighting tends to turn up all the time."

"The Ephebians believed that every man should have the vote. [Footnote: Provided that he wasn't poor, foreign, nor disqualified by reason of being mad, frivolous, or a woman.]"

"Dhblah sidled closer. This was not hard. Dhblah sidled everywhere. Crabs thought he walked sideways."

"Bishops move diagonally. That's why they often turn up where the kings don't expect them to be."

"There were one thousand, two hundred and eighty-three religious books in [the library] now, each one -- according to itself -- the only book any man need ever read."

"...Vimes's grin was as funny as the one that moves very fast towards drowning men. And has a fin on top."

"A key to the understanding of all religion is that a god's idea of amusement is Snakes and Ladders with greased rungs. "

"Dwarfs are very attached to gold. Any highwayman demanding 'Your money or your life' had better bring a folding chair and packed lunch and a book to read while the debate goes on."

"There is a curse. They say: may you live in interesting times."

"Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on."

"Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes."

"Vimes had never got on with any game much more complex than darts. Chess in particular had always annoyed him. It was the dumb way the pawns went off and slaughtered their fellow pawns while the kings lounged about doing nothing that always got to him; if only the pawns united, maybe talked the rooks round, the whole board could've been a republic in a dozen moves."

"...even ordinary books are dangerous, and not only the ones like Make Gelignite the Professional Way. A man sits in some museum somewhere and writes a harmless book about political economy and suddenly thousands of people who haven't even read it are dying because the ones who did haven't got the joke."

Wen 3a Ramalla

One fine Syria Magna (Belad e-Sham) folcloric song. I'm not sure whether it's from Jordan or Palestine, but it's a nice remake made by Syrian band Kulna Sawa. Enjoy.

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED

Think about it...

Agnostic Meditation II

Of translation still...
I speak of my own experience, as I don't know otherwise. And as maybe the things I mistrust more than translations are auto-biographies. I won't mention about translated auto-biographies... My own experience consists of the following: I tried approaching Islam, but Islam kept me away by all means possible. Therefore, I took a Coran and started reading.
My argument with Cornelius started over one of those miss-interpretations. But knowing Cornelius, I'm inclined to believe it was an non deliberate one. After last winter circus over the Mohammed cartoons, I found an article published on an online site about Islam and tolerance. I was angry mad at the "faithful" masquerade, because, as a relative pointed out, no true Muslim should be offended by those stupidities for the simple fact that no historical source cited Mohammed the way he was portrayed, i.e. as Bin Laden-Abu Musaab mix. I, for instance, always imagined him to look like one shop owner I used to know back in Damascus.
Nevertheless, I never found as many outrages about Islam put together before laying eyes on Cornelius' post. Let me point out that if there is one truth about Islam in all the babbling advertisement of our glorious Imams, that truth is the part about tolerance, which I will be speaking about later. I was enraged. That was the only time when I was so utterly enraged, that I was ready to put everyone in front of a whitewashed wall and give them the traditional last smoke. I posted something, I don't even remember exactly what it was, but I made a point it seems. So good a point that I gained a friend and a follower. One square meter of heaven for me, as Father says!
Now the interesting part about the post is that it was actually accurate, in the sense of miss-translation, of course. It was about some versets in Coran which literally threaten with curses all those not Muslim. I read the very versets, and was struck with an axe over the head when I realized they meant the same meaning Cornelius was talking about. For the moment, I felt like an idiot to defend a religion so inhumane. It took me some time to recover. I remembered that the Versets weren't brought upon Mohammed overnight, and that Coran itself contains several parts, each part consist of one or more Surat, or even part of a Surat (Bakara), each of the major Surat speak of many aspects of life, thus are also parted into "sub-chapters". Many times one such "sub-chapter" can stand alone in it's meaning, or sometimes more than one "sub-chapter" are gathered together around a certain issue or subject. And at the end of this partition chain comes the verset. Now, when translating a poem, you don't translate every line as a stand-alone fact. More accurately, you translate a whole paragraph, to get a closer meaning, and when needed, even translate a number of paragraphs together, if your goal is to achieve even a more truthful translation of the subject. Thus, back to Coran, the biggest mistake is to translate each verset alone. This is what happened to both Cornelius and me, we took the exact versets and tried understanding they meaning and were outraged at the result. When I looked at the verset in a larger context, in it's sub-chapter, then in the whole Surat, the meaning of it was revealed to me, as clear as sunshine. It was something close to "all those of religion different than Islam should be cursed by God All-Mighty". Literal translation. Contextual translation was: "Some of the clerics would try manipulating the minds of the Simple through their knowledge, some might try to interpret the truth as it may suit their own well-being, some will go as far as claiming divinity. All those that lie in the name of God and his true Prophets (!), those, no matter their religion, will suffer God's curse for forever live endarkened". Hmm... How much more truth can be hold in one simple sentence? Isn't God actually trying to warn us of all nowadays clerics who consider themselves the only righteous enough to speak God's laws and teachings? Is it more logic to trust into the words of a cleric, a human, or to put your trust into Divinity? How can I trust a fellow human, albeit the most pious of clerics, when I know that his humanity, like mine, is likely to make him mistake? Wasn't the Prophet himself mistaken when Satan insuflated his sinful versets upon him? What makes a sheikh or a priest or cleric better interpreter than the Prophet himself, who recognized he was led into confusion by Evil? What make the Prophet better than the clerics: he recognized his humanity, he recognized the possibility of being mistaken, he recognized his mistakes. What did the clerics do? They perpetuated in their endarkening...

Agnostic Meditation I

I reach today the moment I've been trying to delay. It's hard to speak of belief without hurting, and it's hard to keep a clear mind in this world we live without seriously questioning your own belief.
Before I start collapsing the structures of every known and unknown religion, I must point out some ubicuous truths.
First and most important, I mistrust translation more than anything there is. A book, phrase, poem, thought is thought in a language and it's impossible, absolute impossibility, to translate with absolute precision. Heck, with close precision is tricky enough. I give a good translation, close, let's say, 70% compatibility with the original text. Although I doubt I ever read such an utopic book. The translative problem is a big great one, and is brought to on with purpose, as it's the ultimate excuse used by Islam for lingering in this state of absolute mind control over the believers and exclusivity treatment of those curious enough to be interested in a positive way. It's the cause of the deliberate and non deliberate miss interpretation of an otherwise, simple, quite plain religion, as Coran is non traductible, non understandable, indestructible, you have to be perfectly fluent in the Arabic tongue for those truths residing in the Holy Book be clear to you. Via a whole army of ulema, sheikh, imams and muftii, of course, as your poor dhimmi mind is too ignorant to understand pure "enlightened" truth. Why is Coran so badly interpreted in other languages, and I tell you it IS. Why, let me think: who's in control of the Arab and Muslim World these days? Saudi Arabia? What kind of practices do they encourage? The Coranic ones? Does Coran say "Daughters are a shame upon you, you should treat them as objects and deny them anything?" Does it say "That who does not pray 5 times a day should be beaten to death, no matter if he's not even Muslim"? Are these the teachings of the religion "that liberated women from the burden of infant burying, gave her her rights, privileges"? Do those images represent the truth about "the only true religion"? Because this is what the West knows about Islam. This, and the suiciders, and the "honor crimes" and nikab. And they know them so good, that they don't even want to hear about knowing otherwise. And don't you go blame any Jews for it, as I'll hack into whoever dares to do so! Translation, thus...

Unite

Axis of Evil and Axis of Logic unite today. Viva la revolucion!

Time For A Change?

Historical moment caught on camera: Coffee Anan leaves office for new UN Secretary PokeMon... erm... Ban Ki Mon.

Another Three On Board

I add another three fine links today: articles on American Wars carefully collected by Riliescu, Troutsky's Thoughtstreaming and MFL's Marxist interesting point of view. Enjoy.

To War Or Not To War...

Been reading lately our biggest source of mis-information, out of sloth, I must add, as I didn't feel like Pr. Landis' neither Amar's nor Asaad's usual pessimism. Neither our friendly neighborhood terrorists from Al-Jazeera, overwhelmed that Alouni was released. So I read the usual crap on Syria News, where you can find an interesting bit of news if you're careful enough to sort all the cheap Ramadan gossip and extraordinary rape cases. So...

1. Najdat Anzour, Syria's biggest Spielberg of TV olive-soap operas, is promoting "top models" (to be read and understood "whores") over the talented young actresses of Syrian Drama Academy. Big article on unfairness and lack of opportunities because the invasion of "cheap" models, with libel and defamation and all. At least the "whores" promoted by Anzour are beautiful. Cheap.

2. Hariri wasn't killed by Syrians. Here we see the same opposite camps reloaded: Syria, Brimertz, 1/2 of Lebanon on one side, the Axis of Greater Good for US on the other. Lahoud says witness is fake, Saud cries Syria to be reason why this World isn't working properly. Same cat/mouse game. As far as I remember, Rafiq "Syria's Puppet" Hariri was always mocked by the Lebanese and allies. And whom in their right mind would kill one of their own? Hope for the Greater Good of the United Axis that Syrians won't get sick and tired of biased politics...

3. The usual daily joke: Junblat.

4. The "Command and Conquer Infinity: Golan Alert" skirmish started by Israel and Syria 33 years ago and still going. Longest going strategy game ever. Two thumbs up! Olmert warns us, though, that this time around,the war will be fought differently, and he's promising to lead us to the next level of real-time online strategy gaming. I think he already did. Since the end of the Massacre and the masquerades following it, every day you get 3 or 4 bits of contradictory news: Asad says "We might take Jolan by force", Livni says "Shalom!", two seconds later, Peretz says "Syrian dreams...", Rice says "Syria is Ally", Bush says "Syria has nukes" (which we incidentally have: the Adra City Waste Bin, can't get closer than 10 km without being irradiated!), Asad says "Only solution by Peace", Olmert says "Golan back over my dead body" (don't worry, we can hire an assassin to solve that one!), Israeli Kneset members visit Damascus, Brimertz says "Syria OK", Bush says "Brimertz on dope" (he has the idea that everybody must be like his daughters...), Rice buggered by Saudis, Rice buggers Jordanians, Musa holds obituary for Peace Process, Junblat, Bilal says "Army preparing for eventual Israeli attack", Peretz says "The same", Asad says "We're getting ready for eventual Israeli aggression", Olmert says "We're getting ready for eventual Syrian aggression", Livni says "Just standard army training", Peretz says "Not Syria, but rogue fanatic terrorists that might pass the border" (and explode from the UN land mines) and finally Asad, today, "Syria and Israel are to live in peace/salaam/shalom in good neighborly relations". Yeah. Whatever. And we're building the highway for it. We are, really.

5. European Union voted 34 to 1 for adherence of Syria to European Partnership. Paris, here I come!

Chez Twosret

Twosret's blog added. Hope she doesn't mind...

Bucharest-Dakar

I decided to link this event for the next weeks, or until it ends. It's become a traditional humanitarian event, reaching the sixth edition. I cannot but remark that each time "humanitarian" issue is brought, it's always linked with Africa, as if problems exist only in the Mother Continent. I see that Africa's humanitarian problems are generated by the White Man's need of humanitarian campaigns. But then again, this is just my point of view.

Go, Romania, Go!

Tagnation....

Well the inevitable happened. I was tagged. Or more likely, Alex was. But since she writes once every 3 centuries, she passed me her tag and I find myself today explaining my life on Alex's behalf. Here we go...

15 things I like and terrorize people (Axis of Evil citizen) with:

SLR cameras
Lenses (wide)
My Nikon D70s
Sumatran rubber trees (this one should be labeled as fixation)
Cacti
Citrus
Damascean streets
Mythology
Moai (Easter Island statues)
Pre-Columbian American art
Travel
Driving
Photography
Graphic
Terry Pratchett

The God of Small Gods

I we are to analyze this whole idea, we reach several conclusions.
First would be that, as Pratchett said, it's not Gods those who created humans, but humans are definitely those who created their Gods. The reason he gives is that basic trait of human nature of constant need of a higher supernatural existence to stick in ones blames. Or, as the old legend goes, it's Pandora's Box, i.e. the fact that Hope dies last.
Second, an odd theory springs to mind, a theory which separates the Creator from God and identifies them as two different beings. My first and only glimpse of a clue in this point is the Biblical paradigm shift (yes, another one... Maybe I should rename this blog to Paradigm Shifts), or the inexplicable re-baptism of God from Elohim- who actually are a pantheon of seven Gods- to Iehwe or Jehovah. In the Bible, Elohim is definitely appointed as the Creator of all there is, while Iehwe, beside some minor miracles, appears with remarkably inferior powers. Creator and God?
Third and last, is a strange book, maybe the strangest I read, who's only and true conclusion is that God can, and usually does, hides in the smallest insignificant things, there for those who have eyes to observe.
To make things short, God is in the details...

My Small God...

Stavro,
We all have our own space, a dimension where we exist as we're meant to exist, a dimension where the smallest perturbation of free will can and will lead to an explosion of hierachyc growing predefined random consequences.
A pebble out of it's well defined space and time will cause deflation to a wheel that passed over, a stupid accident of a wheel that decided to deflate will cause a bus to deviate, will cause a driver to step on the brakes, will cause a emergency stop, will cause a delay. A delay will cause another delay and another delay will mess up a perfectly scheduled day, unless you "amputate" the source of delaying infection in order to save the day's life. Because life is more important than a messed organ or limb, accuracy is more important even at the cost of cutting short an appointment delayed because of delay, because of a bus, because of a pebble, because of an existential revolt.

Today I have met him. The accident. The person who wasn't supposed to wait for me. The replacement. I have met him and knew I must have had to. I know nothing happens out of chance, because we are who makes chance think it happens. I know that by seeing him today, I ignited the beginning of this end. I know all will start with his sight and his sight will end all. A perfect circle. I know it was not chance, yet...

It was my own Small God, it was his Divine touch that ignited the flicker of revolt in the pebble's existence, making it rise against the predestination of it's dimension, crave for a spectacular escape from the perfect order of the Circle, cause perturbation in the wheel's space, cause damage to the bus, cause delay to us humans. Lead me into his eyes. My Small God...

Small Gods

It is the symbolic name of the best Discowrld novel, in my opinion. Or maybe the name is symbolic because we, humans, crave to find symbolism in every shred of written word. Because this symbolism is the very Small God we praise.

Terry Pratchett is, above everything else, a keen observer. He's not a talented writer, or cynic journalist, or moralist. Observer. Of human nature, of human thoughts, of human behavior, of all that is human. And he details the results of his prolonged observation in the simples logic way for those who want to observe. That, of course, if you're not too busy laughing your soul out at his solid baseless metaphors.

Small Gods is different, not because of it's sensitive subject. It's different because Pratchett projected himself in this book. I don't want to idealize the man, but then again, his projection is far from being idealistic. He projected himself and spoke his mind, instead as merely suggesting, as he did in all the other novel. He spoke his feeling, pointed the finger, cried of despair, demolished so he can rebuild, destroyed so he can recreate, and... resumed his silent observation. The ever same result he gets, we get, I get, when trying to change a speck of dust.

Photographer Without Camera

I won't talk about Hariri, nor Blair, nor Bush and his Condomleeza, nor UN investigators. Because I'm happy. In a strange sadistic self-satisfied way. Because Syria has landed on it's feet, like a true Unadulterated Cat that would make Terry Pratchett proud.

As a celebration, I chose to repost an older post revised. I am a photographer, as written in my profile. I specialized on urban and motion photography because I feel it closest to my true self, a 100% urban human being that spent more than half of his life in motion, on the streets. True, that I don't need a camera to memorize all the details I felt trough my street-days, and true that it is the mind that captures and keeps all the moments, and that a camera, which is a device, after all, will create an array of lights and reflections that put together create the image. But what happens when an image tells you more than it's meant to tell, projects you in it's hidden universe and confides you it's forgotten tales?The images I post are built on contrasts, as our life and world. They are symbolic, they hold an existential philosophy, because people saw existential philosophy within, and because people crave for existential philosophy.

As for me, I just pressed the shutter release.

Agnostic By Nature

Agnostic is a term used to define a person who intellectually challenges the existence of any reasonable truth in religion. Agnostic is a term to define a person who defies the principles of belief with reason. An agnostic is a person who tends to see the world clearly. Or was that the pessimist?

I used to be a militant atheist (hard to imagine that one), ready to start a fight on every kind of religion and belief, renegating as many Gods as possible, thus earning my self apostasy in two religions so far. But then I found the best way to annoy people is by leaving them be. Letting them believe in whatever they feel like believing, taking that neutral objective attitude towards everything and everyone. Later I found out that's called agnosticism. So atheism is by being violent, agnosticism is being objectively bored. Check!

Now, based on the logic above, could one equidistant neutral politically well informed person be considered agnostic as well? One that doesn't take parts, listen to all parts, then simply closes back in his shell, not giving a damn about what people are fighting for in the first place. The he would say I've listened because you talked to me, that's all that you asked in the first place, to listen to you. A large amount of this kind of political agnostics would only make our world better, I feel, if not through direct action, but through induction of boredom. Imagine yourself telling your life story to some eager listening ear who'll turn it's back in the moment you draw the final point. Imagine this happening twice, thrice, tenfold. Wouldn't you get desperately bored to try again? And imagine your enemy (or whatever) passing through the same process. I tell you what, at the end of the day you'll grab your enemy and go to the closest bar to have a beer.

I find it better than a whole nation of political analysts. Really.

Puppeteer in Ficus-Land

I've written on the subject before, and I'm planning to do so again and as much as it takes, until the end of times, Amen. It's about my "Ficus Foundation", or however it translates from Arabic. And I do have a point, of course.
This love story began, as all love stories begin, in Rawshe, Beirut, 4 years in the past. Until that day, I always saw ficus trees as Damascean-balcony-filling-decorative-thingy. That day I saw them, 2 twin giant ficus trees near the old lighthouse, filling everything with their rubber green, sublime, really. From that day I made a point in noticing them. From the shadows.
I have piled up some useful information about my beloved ones, information which I didn't hesitate telling whenever asked, of course. Which brought me the "Ficus Militant" attribute. But let me talk about them a bit, and leave the images do the rest.
Ficus Trees, ficus elastica, also known as rubber fig, rubber plant or Sumatran rubber tree, is originar from Indian Assam region and Indonesian Sumatra and Java islands. Part of the fig family, or genus, banyan subgenus, extremely resistant to even the strangest of weather conditions, an interesting piece of research subject. A wild unattended ficus can literally fill all space surrounding it, leaving it, well, full of ficus. The botanical equivalent of legendary Lernaean Hydra, ie cut one leaf and expect 10 to grow in it's place.
An interesting fact about ficus trees is that when adequate conditions for development of seeds are found (which in case of rubber tree represent 95% of conditions), plant starts growing like crazy, most of the times as epiphytic, meaning that you have ficus growing over ficus. Thus the larger specimens are actually entire colonies of ficus trees fused together over time. A whole forest in one. Can't lose opportunity, once in a lifetime offer.
The giants below are Sumatrans and Indian figs. None of them reached 100 yet. Think about it.

Crusader, No Regret

Well, that does it! One would imagine a Pope of the 21st century in a world one step away from nuclear war to try and calm things out with the tolerance and understanding of the religion he represents. Instead he raves about the intolerance of Islam as a religions not from reading nor Coran nor any other damned source, but from the allegations of the allegations of some sultan I never heard of despite all my historic knowledge, supposedly saying to some obscure long forgoten Byzantine king that Islam will win by sword. Very scholarly, I must add.

Ever since 9/11 there was a campaign against Islam and Muslims, which I consider that they encouraged by their reactions, peaking with the caricatures, George W.C. Bush's "Islamo-fascism" aberration and with the freakin' pope vomiting his tolerance two days ago.

I was baptised when a child and unfortunately raised to hate Muslims by my mother, a devout Christian. I lived most part of my life among my Christian brethren, which poured on me their tolerance and love, persecuting the hell out of me because my father is Muslim. Yes, didn't matter what I think and feel, that I embraced Christianity unconditioned and with devotion, they were more concerned about the religion of my parents and my origins. And tolerance and love like this one made me renounce Christianity and curse the moment I decided to convert in the first place. That was my second apostate.

And hearing Pope Dementia speak his raving vomits, made me PROUD for renegading Christianity!

I am literate with the teachings of this religion, and I heard oh! So many times how "Christianity calls for love and tolerance", such noble feelings! Let's speak of Christian tolerance throughout history:

- Emperor Constantine converted for political reasons, as his increasing Christian population refused to go to wars for "unholy" reasons.

- The Crusades, 1099-1271, the Christian holy wars, resulting in butchering of thousands of Muslims, Christians and Jews in the Middle East.

- The Witch Hunts, ending in 1750!, during this time "witches" were executed in the most horrible and sadistic way, or more litteral: pagans and those who refused to convert to Christianity were tortured and executed in the most inhumane ways. Some tolerance I say! Victims: uncounted.

- The Inquisition 1184-1834, targeting Jews, Muslims and converts and Christians themselves, just to be sure they stayed Christian after converting. Another fine example of Christian "tolerance". Victims: uncounted.

- The butchering of South American Natives from the conquest until these days. The reason is the same: you refuse to convert, off to hell! Victims: MILLIONS.

- The persecution of Protestants ans Lutherans in Europe, for the same "tolerant" reason that they saw things differently.

- The Holocaust. Yes, above anything else, the victims were killed for being JEWS. No Christian suffered from it. Victims : 6 millions and counting!!!

- The "love" and "tolerance" between Christians in Northern Ireland, Germany, Yugoslavia, US...

An overall view: it seems that Christianity is stained with blood and hatred, hatred it perpetuated since it's very founding, throughout all modern History, and it keeps to perpetuate, it seems. And if Muslims these days are intolerant, they learned intolerance from Christians and learned their lesson well!

But then again, what else can one expect from the Pope, other than perpetuating hatred and violence and fanatism? That's what the Popes always did.

We Have Terrorism!

Listening to Mr. Bushmert opening that arsehole of a mouth of his each time can give anyone the impression that we have more terrorist attacks in Syria than the Twin Towers had in the very moment of the planes collision. "Terrorists, terrorists, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Axis of Evil"! As if we're living in a cheap Bruce Willis movie, with predefined, prefabricated (just add water) Good Guys vs. Bad Guys! I came back here (Damascus, Syria, Axis of Evil, first to the right, as usual, can't miss it!) 8 years ago horrified at the prospects of being blown up/decapitated/held hostage/scalped every time I turned the corner. The only problem is that I found out it's the exact opposite way. I mean sometimes I felt safer in the streets than inside my home. What other country can claim that now? But since stubbornness is one of the traits you usually get with utter stupidity, the Bushmert didn't give up. He yelled so many times terrorists, until they finally answered his plea, I think out of exasperation more than anything. So, here you are, some terrorists wannabes mix a hare-brained terrorist plan a la Qaida ,with tapings (soon available on Jazeera), "Allahu Akbar!" and everything, and pay the US embassy a purposeful visit.
Now, let me describe a bit the area of the US embassy: in front of it there's a small park and Rawda Square, where you have the fortified Turkish embassy. Behind the US embassy, there's the ALC, another fortification with metal detectors and satellite radars. Opposite the US embassy you have the Iraqi (a paradox, isn't it?) and Chinese ones, and in a side street further up, the Italian one and Sister Venezuela's embassy. Further up you have the Rumanian embassy. Since the last vandalizing of the US embassy preceding the Iraqi war, it's walled were fortified and their height doubled, barb and electric wires were added both to the wall and the buildings inside. Plus a human wall was added on the outside, making it impossible to pass on the sidewalk. In other words, it might be easier to break inside Guantanamo fort (you just have to say "Allah" twice) than to get into the embassy.
So back to our amateur terrorists: they headed in the direction of the embassy in two mini-trucks loaded of gas bottles, without car plates, in a security and army infested area prohibited to trucks and motorcycles, and THEY WERE EXPECTING TO GET AWAY WITH IT???? Where did they get the stupidity from? Bush? Where did the old-fashioned Brotherhood home made terrorism go? Now those were the days: Rector killed in his own escort party, amongst with the escort party, bodyguards, and a whole delegation of professors and academics; secular and intellectual population of Damascus decimated; heck, you could have even arranged your schedule after the daily explosions. Now all you get is this second-hand imported Saudi Qaida crap. Shame on them. I think these were the very thoughts of nostalgia that passed through Bayanouni's criminal mind when moments after the attack, he appeared on TV declaring Syria as the most terrorist of all terrorists. Yes, my dear retard, it was so under you reign of terror during the 70' and 80', and this is what it will be if you ever lay your murderous hands on it again, with the support of your terrorist-friendly Americans. By this action you dropped another 50% of popularity, the other 50% you lost by allying with thieving Khaddam. By this declaration you did more good to the country than you ever feared in your worst nightmares. By the this declaration, the people saw what you are: a criminal, fundamentalist, murderous, regressist pile of excrement. And for the Gringos: yes, we know how to deal with terrorist, as we suffered from it, and the wounds it left us heal hard. You should know, you've suffered terrorist attacks as well.
As for Mr. Bush, when you were repeatedly speaking of terrorists in Syria, I always though you were referring to our cabbys. Now, those are real TERROR ON WHEELS!!!

9/11 : Recollection

I remember one Tuesday, 5 years ago. It was a lovely day in Damascus, Syria, that day. Nice breeze, not too hot, the smell of autumn in the air. Unusual, that day, we decided to go out for lunch, to Saydnaya, a little way north of Damascus. I remember we went to a nice place, with gardens and flowers, a paradise on Earth. I remember after lunch, while leaving, an acquaintance of Father told him about the strangest news. He told him the Pentagon and the White House were under attack. That was the first bit of news that reached us. It past was 4 in the afternoon. I remember them talking that it suited the US right for interfering with other countries' business. I remember turning on the radio and listening to the news. At least the first shreds that reached us behind the Iron Wall. I remember my first thought was "Crazy Koreans, so they did it after all..." I remember the way these shred reached us : "Rogue fighter planes attacking US government buildings. One was shot down, the other went kamikaze". I remember turning on the TV as soon as getting home. I remember the image of the Twin Towers being hit by the planes. I remember seeing them collapse...

Then there was silence...

"Shalom", the American Way

I didn't post anything serious these last days, as I was on the trail of a certain rumor. I say rumor as I didn't see any serious conclusions yet towards either option.

Soon after this new massacre of Lebanon stopped, loud and vehement government voice in Israel cried for peace with Syria (Axis of Evil, second to the right, can't miss it). News and rumors were spread about committees and strategic studies groups created to draw the blue prints for this new "peace" treaty. The word "peace", itself, was the word of the day on both sides of Golan. How come the Israeli "peace-loving" Government undertook this radical paradigm shift (we're all doing so on this blog) did strike me as extremely odd, I must add . We've grown used with the Terrorist War of the States and we know the Bushmert won't admit failure easily and is going to pursue his Middle Beast dreams until the last drop of Iraqi oil. Not to mention the US is not going to reconsider it's position towards it's worldwide proven and condemned mistakes (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran, on the way) like any true democracy should and would, and will blame others for it's incompetence, as usual, and find it's scapegoats amongst those countries that chose falafel over hamburgers, thus seriously threatening the American Way of Life (yes, we prefer having some healthy, fungi covered, car-oil fried falafel in Damascus, rather than the trademark rubber chicken of KFC). That's why I saw this new call for peace fishy, and was proven right when I stumbled on these two declarations of war, courtesy of World's only Two Democracies. The problem here is that no matter how hard I though about it, and I did, I wasn't able to reach not even a glimpse of reasonable logical motive for attacking Syria. I only found these three far-fetched explanations for the planned Americanski invasion:

1. The Golan Heights of brother Israel, that tiny bit of land usurped by the "Democracy" in 1967, which we failed to re-conquer in 1973 (btw, thanks Nixon!) , populated by stubborn Syrians who refuse Israeli citizenship, choosing relentless abuses and imprisonment each time this issue is brought up (get a hint, will ya? They're Syrian, ya squareheads, and want back to Mother Syria!).

2. Bullying, picking on a retard, economy-less, infrastructure-less, almost army-less, second-hand Banana Republic who's only fault is it's mere existence, just because, what the heck, THEY CAN!

3. Mount Harmon Resort. That's right, the new family-fun resort newly opened close to Syrian-Israeli (Syrian-Syrian, actually) borders, which made our cousins mad with envy, sleepless at nights, restless at day, until they swore to lay hands on this marvelous, exciting, fantastic site and monopolize all the fun!

(P)

One Moment Of Silence

Nobel Prize...

This is another joke I found on a blog I usually read:

Why will Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah win the Nobel Prize for Education? Because he is the only man who sent one million people to school in just two days.

The rest of the jokes are to be found here

Thanks, EIA !

Joke

Khaddam spoke last night.

Auto-Critique

I wanted to post something else, but this one killed me! The funniest bit I read since the start of the whole mess, even better than mini-Hariri's daily ravings and conspiracy theories. It's like this: Saudi Minister "Devilish Dreams" al Faysal is accusing some Arab countries (Syria, for those Yanks still watching Oprah) for allying with non Arabs thus being responsible for all the nonsense in the Arab World. Well, this is the message Nobel Prize for Idiocy Winner al Faysal wants to make heard. The problem is that all the Arab world (except Saudis who're to busy buggering each other) got the message as an open auto-critique of the Saudi politics of the last month, since the Saudi's were the number one allies of the Yanks and Shaloms in the Massacre, thus got a wrong message about the free-minded Saudi Government, eager to learn from it's mistakes and publicly admitting and criticizing them. The perfect government! Even Bush's cons aren't that open. One point for the pedophiles, sex-obsessed, wahabi fanatism spreading, Al-Qaida sponsoring, moderate Saudi Arabia!

Or is all this part of the new "economic" policy of Abdullah al Saud, who reduced family spending in Marbella from 60 million pounds last year to a mere 10 million this year, thus encouraging anti-Syrian current in Saudia in order to get reduced prices (heck!, with US possible shelling, even get it all for free) for already extremely expensive Syrian women flesh. What do you expect, sahib? Quality has it's price! If it's too much for your "modest" pockets, I suggest you stick on to rapping Indonesian and Filipino slaves, as I highly doubt you're capable of anything else.

Paradigm Shifter

Now Alex wouldn’t be the only one around to undergo a paradigm shift. I can easily add myself to the list, although the changes I’ve gone through should be labeled as “re-branding” rather than “paradigm shifting”. When I started blogging not much time ago, my first topic of choise was the thing I understand most, photography. Then I re-branded to more philosophic matters, such as agnosticism and political agnosticism, just to find myself shifting to the most natural thing, being myself. So I’ll use this space to pour my thoughts and trade mark cynicism, my perception of what’s happening around us on this pebble we call Earth, and every now and then, throw a curse on Mr. Bush, because, what the heck!, I’m Arab and this is what I know best (even better than photography).

I remembered 3 shreds of news I stumbled upon today: the first was about a poll taken in Egypt about most popular Bearded Men in the Arab World, which ranked Bin Laden on 5 position, the second was about Kofi Anan’s planned visit to the Axis of Evil (Syria&Iran), and the last was about some conspiracy theory which involved 9/11 and Israeli intelligence. The coincidence was too much to stand, so I laughed my guts when I rememberd some silly joke fresh out after 9/11: A guy enters Kanfash Coffee in Shaalan and asks: “Do you have Bin Laden? (for dhimmis, “bin” in Arabic means coffee arabica)” So the tenant answers: “No, but we have Coffee Anan”…

Right…

Circle

Stavro,

What is a traffic accident? How can you define it so even the simplest of the simple minds can understand? A driving error? A deliberate violation of traffic laws? A avalanche of most reasonable and most absurd circumstances that meet in that same moment, second, blink, parallel existence which represent the very essence of the impact, or accident, or crash, or... Or is it a start, the spark that ignites the process, that throws light over things existent yet inexistent before to our eyes? Is it the small moment that led to a paradigm shift? Or is it the beginning which coincides with the ending, the perfect circle of actions and thoughts of the perfect story? Or is it a delay, that led to another delay, that led to the changing of crucial factors in this absurd circle...

Motivation

Stavro,

Sometimes small matters can pass unobserved. Sometimes small matters can change one's point of view in a small insignificant way. Sometimes small matters can cause a paradigm shift. You asked me why this change in my attitude, my answer is to complicated to be sent in one letter, to obscure to be spoken in words, to difficult to be understood without seeing it through my eyes.