Prompted by bias, prejudice and misinformation, hate seems to be in evidence anywhere and everywhere we look; and, its pervasiveness is causing an epidemic of violence that seems to be growing in intensity day-by-day.

People, who disagree with one another, are screaming and yelling at one another; they have forsaken civility and are shouting obscenities while threatening to bodily harm each other.

Extremists – driven by rage – are acting out their anger, fear, frustration and suspicion; they are taking matters into their own hands and are wantonly snuffing out the lives of innocent victims on school campuses, in once quiet neighborhoods and even on supposedly secure military bases.

The by-product of all this is manifold: angst is running rampant; stereotyping is causing individuals and groups to pull away rather than to grow closer together; societal partnerships are in jeopardy; the roots of our democracy are rotting away because of the presence of a torrent of toxic words and actions.

What steps can we take to rid our communities of this hate-infested cancer before it is too late?

During my many years as a social justice activist, I have found that people who know one another – even those who have well defined disagreements – cannot and do not allow hostility to reign supreme; rather, they find ways to resolve those problems, which are soluble, and to live with those issues that have no lasting solutions.

Therefore, especially during these times, which are ripe with stress for a number of obvious reasons, each and all of us must invest time and energy to find the means to become familiar with those who are “strangers among us;” this can only happen when we exit our comfort zones, enter and sustain dialogues with folks with whom we have “differences,” and – together with them – help to build “communities” in which there are not just like-minded stakeholders.

A number of examples come to mind, but – for the sake of brevity – I want to share with you some of the direct benefits derived in the midst of our protracted Muslim-Jewish Dialogue in which a number of Los Angeles clergy and secular leaders have been participated through the years:

A. We have nurtured friendships that are unconditional.
B. We have found effective ways to avoid becoming entangled in Middle East- related crises.
C. We have learned from one another about each people’s belief systems and folk-ways.
D. We have drawn close to one another to offer solace during moments of torment and to celebrate high moments of human achievement.
E. We have focused on responding to local needs – whether or not they affect any or all of us.

In essence, when we are accustomed to talking candidly with someone, it is all but impossible for us to yell at that person – our knowledge about that individual, our shared experiences and our growing mutual respect become a safety net, which is impervious to all of the destructive and negative forces which would love to tear it to shreds.

Rabbi Freehling served for three decades as the Senior Rabbi of University Synagogue here in Los Angeles before serving for seven years as the Executive Director of the now defunct City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission;  his current assignment is Deputy Chief of Staff for Field Operations in the Sixth City Council District.

It started in the spring of 2003 and has been going on since then. I am referring to the consolidation among the enterprise application vendors.

I remember the good old days of ERP when there were a handful of vendors- BaaN, QAD, SAP, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft.  BaaN was the market leader in the beginning and boasted of clients like Boeing. The technology was client-server, clients belonged mostly to manufacturing, consumer goods sector and were FORTUNE 500 firms.

It’s interesting to see that almost all technology trends, at least in the enterprise app domain, start from the big FORTUNE 500 firms and then everyone else jumps on to the bandwagon.

Anyways, almost all the big 8 (BIG 5 later) audit firms opened an ERP consulting arm and body shopping for developers was rampant. New types of applications were launched by many small vendors- SCM like i2, manugistics; CRM like Siebel; Datawarehousing/BI/BW etc…..

So, all was hunky dory till the market became saturated towards end of the 90’s. Almost all FORTUNE 500 firms had implemented ERP and the days of astronomical billing rates per hour were over. BaaN disappeared without a trace and so did one of the BIG consulting firms. Outsourcing, off-shoring was in demand. SOX came in and audit firms had to divest their consulting arms. The clients were now SMEs and wanted value for money solutions.The left over ERP vendors responded by going on a mad consolidation spree.  Kind of like Megatron chasing the “AllSpark” cube . It started when Oracle made a hostile bid for Peoplesoft,  JD Edwards merged with Peoplesoft and so on…..More than 50 acquisitions happened in a span of half a decade. SAP responded with counter bids in a few cases. And all this did not happen due to an economic recession. Enterprise applications market has been in a recession of its own since 2000.

When the dust settled, only four big vendors were left in the enterprise app space: IBM, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft. And now they sell everything from database to middleware to GUI and even hardware.New licence sales is down and they are surviving on maintenance revenues (part of the reason why JDEdwards, Peoplesoft are still surviving as products). These BIG 4 have a plethora of products some of them meant to do the same thing. Whoa!! their sales force must be a confused lot…One of them sells 3 MDM solutions all meant for PIM , another is targeting SMEs with 3 acquired and one in-house product…. and still clients aren’t happy. Why ?

Is creativity and customer-centricity dead? These BIG 4 do not listen to customers? They are just happy pushing their fancy possessions down the throat of hapless customers? Or is it the other way round: customers have become so cost conscious that they have stopped supporting new and better ideas/products.

I can see a ray of hope. Customers are still willing to reject the solutions put forward by the BIG 4 vendors and buy enterprise software from small niche players. A look at any of the Magic quadrants reveals an interesting story. Even though the big fish gobbled up the smaller ones , new fish are still being born and they are surviving. Hope is alive.

LONG LIVE CHOICE…..

First: Ana Masry (I’m Egyptian) Band

Egypt’s unity, diversity, tolerance and love…are the concepts reveled by Ana Masry (I’m Egyptian) band. The band is named after one of its best songs regarding the above mentioned topics (Please scroll down for the song titled “Ana Masry” and some interesting facts about the Egyptian culture provided in the comments below).

 The band was initiated by Ehaab Abdou. He’s an Egyptian civil-society activist who established and headed more than one developmental NGO. He loved to sing and wished that the world hears his voice, believing that the songs he sang, wrote, and composed the music for, can contribute to the development of Egypt.

Invitation:

The band is performing in collaboration with the Performing & Visual Arts Department of the American University in Cairo (AUC) at the historical and prestigious Ewart Hall of AUC on Wednesday October 21^st, 2009, at 8pm…

The band will perform unique and original songs of Ana Masry, Sufi chanting, Christian hymns, Nubian singing and more songs from all over Egypt. Ana Masry will be joined by the Alwan W Awtar NGO kids’ choir…

Entrance is open to ANYONE and completely FREE of charge!

Place: Ewart Hall, American University in Cairo, Sheikh Rehan Street, Tahrir Square.

For further contact:

Cell phone: 0125337990 or 0120500763

E-mail : info@ana-masry.org

Ana Masry Band on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38332792364&ref=share           

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

 Second: The First Album

This concert coincides with the launching of Ehaab Abdou’s first album “Gowwaya Hagat” i.e. (Things inside of Me). The album includes two songs from Ana Masry band, namely “Ana Masry” and “Ya Masr Yalla Efrahy” in addition to 10 other songs written for/by Ehaab.

For more details on the album, concerts of launching the album, lyrics (Arabic and English), downloadable versions of his songs, and latest news, please visit: www.ehaab.net

For the event on Facebook, please visit: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=140480138862&ref=ts       

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *         

Third: The Song: I am Egyptian (Ana Masry) 

Music and lyrics: Ehaab Abdou

Translation and comments*: Samaa Hosny

I am Egyptian

I am Egyptian

Muslim or Christian

I am Egyptian

Whether from Lower or Upper Egypt

I am Egyptian

Nubian or Siwan

I am Egyptian

From Sinai or Arish

I am Egyptian

Being rich or poor

I am Egyptian

At shrines, I light candles*

I am Egyptian

For the newly born, a *Sobou’ is held

I am Egyptian

Spring is brought by *Sham El Nessim

I am Egyptian

The “*Arbe’een” is held after my death

I am Egyptian

When wars and armies attacked my country, injured and killed civilians

The bombs did not discriminate between Egyptians

When the Nile dried up one day

and stopped giving…

At these times, I made a vow

And when blessings and prosperity were back

I lit two candles

One at *Mar Girgis

And the other at Sidna *El Hussein

 It’s because I am Egyptian

____________________________

 Comments:

____________________________

* Buying and lighting candles in religious places (mosques, churches, and Pharaohic temples) is an old Egyptian folklore that people in trouble do and a symbolic gift and donnation. This tradition is practiced in Egypt by Muslims and Christians alike. Moreover, sometimes Christians light candles in mosques and Muslims light candles in churches as gifts to the religious figures and symbols. This old tradition shows how Egyptians long ago never discriminated against religions and felt that religion (whatsoever) is a means of getting closer to God. It shows the deep feeling of the strong bonds between religions and mutual respect to the figures and worship places of one another.

* Sobou’: A celebration that is held for all newly born babies on their seventh day, where all relatives and friends are invited by the parents to celebrate the newly born. This is a pure Egyptian celebration which is carried out by both Muslims and Christians with no discrimination. On that day, the same rituals are carried out in all Egyptian homes regardless of their religion.

* Sham El Nessim: A Pharaohic ceremony that is held at the beginning of the spring season. All Egyptians celebrate it until now going to the same places, eating the same food, and doing the same activities. It is similar to Easter in other countries where we eat colored eggs in addition to other types of food.

* Arbe’een: It is the Arabic word for “forty”. It is a Pharaohic ceremony held on the fortieth day of somebody’s death where certain rituals are carried out. This was inherited by Christians then Muslims.

* Mar Girgis: A Christian Saint. A very famous church still holds his name in Cairo.

* El-Hussein: One of the grandsons of Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him). A very famous mosque holds his name in Old Cairo.

* These are the common things Egyptians have always shared. Praying that the Egyptian people remains tolerant and loving forever. Amin…………

I’ve been tasked recently on a project to increase availability of applications through the use of multiple/disparate storage systems.  This environment has heavily invested in EMC Clariion and Celerra storage systems over the past few years and needed a non-EMC platform from which to build the second half of a redundant storage environment.  For various reasons I won’t go into here, we chose IBM nSeries as that second platform. (Since the IBM system is rebranded NetApp FAS, I will refer to this as a NetApp filer.)  I’ve been working on implementing the new equipment as well as integrating it into the Business Continuity strategy.

The overall strategy is to continue to use the EMC Clariion/Celerra systems for production and disaster recovery replication and split applications between and across the two storage platforms for local redundancy.  The NetApp will also perform disaster recovery replication for some of the applications.  Here’s a really simple diagram that might help if the description is confusing:

EMC and NetApp Redundancy

Now this may sound easy, but it is, in fact, NOT straightforward.  This strategy requires close coordination with application owners and careful planning.  As we move forward on this project, I’ll talk about various idiosyncrasies, caveats, and problems we’ve faced, how we got around them, and I’ll also talk a lot about the differences between the Clariion/Celerra and NetApp platforms’ features and functionality, application support, and manageability.  These comparisons will include using both systems with FiberChannel connections as well as CIFS/NFS NAS, all in conjunction with DR replication and failover.

To start off, I figure we should compare some of the terminology between EMC and NetApp systems.  Some terms don’t directly translate, but I matched them up as close as I could and noted where there is no equivalent.   Below are two tables: one for Block Storage, and the other for NAS Storage.  Click on them to see full size versions.

EMC-NetApp Block Storage Terminology

EMC-NetApp NAS Storage Terminology

In the next update, I’ll start talking about the deployment itself.  The point of these articles is to discuss the differences, advantages, and disadvantages of each platform so that you can understand how each one might work in your environment.  I do not intend to disparage either platform or vendor.  I will try to be vendor agnostic as much as possible, and I do feel like I have a somewhat unique position of comparing new and recent hardware and firmware from both vendors, in the same production capacities, simultaneously, in the same environment.  I am NOT comparing old ONTap code to new FLARE/DART code or vise-versa, nor am I comparing old Clariion CX hardware to new NetApp/IBM hardware, etc.

Stay tuned!

من أروع ما غنى النجم محمد منير…إن لم تكن من أروع ما تم غناؤه على الإطلاق! أغنية “حدوتة مصرية” هى أغنية فيلم المخرج يوسف شاهين الذى يحمل نفس اسم الأغنية تم إنتاجه فى عام 1982، أى منذ ما يزيد على ربع قرن مضى. الأغنية من كلمات الشاعر النوبى المرهف/ عبد الرحيم منصور، ومن ألحان الفنان النوبى العظيم/ أحمد منيب، واللذان بدآ مع محمد منير رحلته فى أواخر السبعينات وعمل الثلاثة أروع الأغانى النوبية والمصرية. فأعمدة الأغنية الثلاثة نوبية.

ليست هذه الأغنية غالية عندى فحسب، بل أكاد أجزم أنها كذلك عند جميع المصريين مهما اختلفت أصولهم القديمة. فهى الأغنية الأكثر طلباً فى حفلات منير، كما أن تسجيلاتها ما زالت تحت الطلب فى الأسواق حتى يومنا هذا حتى من الأجيال المعاصرة. ومما يميز هذه الأغنية كذلك أنها عرضت فقط فى مقدمة فيلم “حدوتة مصرية” أثناء عرض أسماء فريق العمل المشارك فى الفيلم، وعلى الرغم من أنها لم ترتبط بحدث معين ولم تكن فى منتصف العمل، إلا أنها أكثر تأثيراً وطلباً وخلوداً من الفيلم فى حد ذاته. فنادراً ما يحدث هذا مع أغانى مقدمات الأفلام بشكل عام، ولم يحدث هذا مع أية أغنية مقدمة أفلام فى مصر والمنطقة بأكملها.

أما فيما يخص التأثير التنموى لهذه الأغنية، فإن كلماتها تلقى الضوء على العديد من المفاهيم المنتشرة اليوم على ساحة التنمية مثل المواطنة، التعايش، قبول الآخر، المساواة، الحوار، التضامن الاجتماعى، إلى غير ذلك من مفاهيم صارت متداولة بشكل كبير فى عصرنا هذا.

فإنها أغنية عبقرية بحق ليس فقط لأنها لفتت الانتباه لكل هذه المعانى قبل انتشارها بربع قرن، بل أيضاً لأنها –فى نظرى- أروع ما تم غناؤه فى هذا الصدد. ما يميزها وسبب خلودها هو الصدق فى الإحساس بكل ما فيها من كلمة ولحن وأداء. فهى أغنية نوبية الروح بلهجة عربية مصرية عامية تمزج بين مشاعر ثلاثة فنانين من أروع بقاع مصر وأكثرها أصالة، بلاد النوبة الحبيبة. فالأغنية ممزوجة بكل الإحساس بالأرض، والتحديات، والمعاناة، والإيمان بالقضية المصرية الصميمة. فالكلمات آية فى الإحساس، واللحن بسيط فى ظاهره، عميق فى أدائه وتوظيفه. فهو لا يستخدم الآلات اللهم إلا للفت الانتباه والتركيز على بعض الجمل والعبارات أو كفواصل بين المقاطع. فاللحن هنا هو بحق “السهل الممتنع”. 

ما زلت حتى الآن أشعر بالدموع تترقرق فى عينىّ ويقشعر جسدى كلما سمعت “حدوتة مصرية”، فإليكم الكلمات، وأدعوكم للاستماع والاستمتاع بها.

ملحوظة:  للكلمات مترجمة باللغة الإنجليزية، برجاء زيارة التدوينة المترجمة على:

 http://abcdevelopment.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/song-egyptian-story/ 

ما نرضاش يخاصم القمر سماه

ما نرضاش تدوس البشر بعضها

ما نرضاش يموت جوة قلبى نداه

ما نرضاش تهاجر الجذور أرضها

ما نرضاش…

قلبى جواى يغنى

أجراس تدق لصرخة ميلاد

تموت حتة منى

الأجراس بتعلن نهاية بشر من العباد

دى الحكمة قتلتنى ..وحيّتنى..وخلتنى

أغوص فى قلب السر.. قلب الكون

قبل الطوفان ما ييجى

خليتنى.. أخاف عليك يا مصر

وأحكيلك على المكنون

مين اللى عاقل فينا؟ مين مجنون؟

مين اللى مدبوح م الألم؟

مين اللى ظالم فينا؟..مين مظلوم؟

مين اللى ما يعرفشى غير كلمة “نعم”؟

مين اللى محنى لك خضار؟ الفلاحين الغلابة

مين اللى محنى لك عمار؟ عمالك الطيابة

مين اللى بيبيع الضمير ويشترى.. ويشترى بيه الدمار؟

*        *        *        *        *        *        *

مين هو صاحب المسألة والمشكلة والحكاية والألم؟

رأيت كل شىء وتعبت على الحقيقة

قابلت فى الطريق عيون كتير بريئة

أعرف بشر..

عرفونى؟.. لأ..لأ ماعرفونيش

قبلوووووونى..وقبلتهم..

بامد إيدى لك..طب ليه ما تقبلنيش؟

لا يهمنى اسمك.. لا يهمنى عنوانك

لا يهمنى لونك..ولا ميلادك..مكانك

يهمنى الإنسان..ولو ما لوش عنوان

يا ناس.. يا ناس..هى دى الحدوتة

يا ناس.. يا ناس..هى دى الحدوتة

حدوتة مصرية..

حدوتة مصرية..

حدوتة مصرية..

This song has always been my favorite since I first heard it. I was very young then, and yet I remember it very clearly. It is quite old, more than a quarter of a century now (1982). It is the song of a movie holding the same name. The movie was starred by Nour El-Sherif and directed by Youssef Shahin telling the latter’s biography. The song is in the Egyptian slang. The singer (known as ‘the king’)/ Mohamed Mounir, the great composer/ Ahmed Mounib, and the sensitive poet/ Abdel-Reheem Mansour are three Nubian artists (from the uppermost part of Egypt called ‘Nuba’) that formed a wonderful team to sing true and profound Egyptian songs from the true heart and the dearest part of Egypt, Nuba (also called Nubia).

The song is not only special to me, but to many others, too. Its album is one of the very few ones of the same age that are still in demand and always in stock in the market. Another very special thing about the song is that it was only played while the titles were displayed in the the movie’s intro (not in the body or in a  certain situation during the movie), and yet it is much more famous and remembered than the movie itself. No other movie song received as much attention in Egypt or in the Arab Region. Rarely could you find such an attention worldwide either.So many people loving this song might not even know that it is the song of a movie with the same name.

As to its importance in development, its lyrics highlight many of the concepts of community development like: citizenship, coexistence, equality, dialogue, social coherence and inclusion. It is a foreseeing song that was created before the strong waves of these concepts appear strongly in the foreground of topics in Egypt. 

Yet very old, the song is, in my opinion, the best ever representing these issues. It is very genuine, sincere, and, hence, everlasting. The song is a mixture of true Egyptian emotions of the three true artists Mounir, Mounib, and Mansour. Apart from the extraordinary honest and touching words, the music is very basic and limited in terms of instrumental use, yet extremely artistic, giving the maximum space to the heartly voice of the singer and the profound meanings of the words. Mounir, the singer, sang it very sincerely attracting the ear to his tone and inner music in his voice coming from his heart without the distraction of musical instruments which were only applied either to emphasize certain words or phrases, or to separate between blocks of ideas. I believe that the secret behind its eternity is the true feeling of the land, the challenges of the citizens, and the belief in the cause.

I still feel my tears running on my cheeks and goosebumps every time I hear it. Enjoy it! (The lyrics translated into English follow the video link)

The lyrics translated into English are:

We refuse that the moon abandons her sky

We refuse that people step on each other’s bodies

We refuse the death of our hearts’ call for life

We refuse that roots travel away from their land

We refuse…

Our inner hearts sing

Bells ring screaming for a birth

Yet a part of myself dies 

The bells are calling for the extinction of a human race

Wisdom is killing me, reviving me, and making me

Dive deep into the heart of secrets and universe,

Before the hurricane comes over,

Making me worried about you, Egypt,

And making me tell you the innermost of myself:

Who among us is sane? and who is not?

Who is being slaughtered with pain?

Who among us is unjust? Who is being oppressed?

Who does not have any choice other than saying “YES”?

Who are those bowing to offer you (i.e.Egypt) green? The poor peasants

Who are those bowing to offer you (i.e.Egypt) urbanism? Your kind-hearted workers

Who is paying his conscience in return for destruction?

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *         

Who is the owner of the cause, the problem, the story, and the pain?

I can see everything and got tired to find the truth

I have met a lot of innocent eyes along the way

Have they known me? No they haven’t

They have accepted me…and I have accepted them back

I am giving you my hand…why don’t you accept me?

Neither do I care for your name, nor for your address

Neither do I care for your colour, nor for your place of birth

I only care for the person…even if he is addressless

Oh yee people! Oh yee people! This is the whole story

Oh yee people! Oh yee people! This is the whole story

An Egyptian story………

An Egyptian story………

An Egyptian story………

Hi bloggers, I just made a cheesecake which was fun…

 tomorrow my extension history class and I are venturing into the big wide world, on a journey to beat all journeys, a journey inside ourselves- just imagine that being said by a deep voiced American dude who could make cardboard sound sexy, so much cooler than my squeaky Aussie wail- but yeah, we’re going on an excursion, yay bus!, to Melbourne city and we are visiting the Holocaust Museum and the Jewish Museum and I’m very excited.

But I’m kinda nervous about the trip down- I’ll probably sit next to my teacher on the bus and talk about religion, history, literature, blah, blah, or read the french Harry Potter for a second time and awesome stuff like that, while the rest of my popular class snog each others faces off in the back seats- they all HAVE to be back by 5.30 for the social, they need to straighten their hair, cake their faces in makeup and put on their Princess Skank-a-lot dresses and not to mention prepare their lips for some major saliva exchange- eeeughkk

It is going to be an amazing experience and probably a very moving one too, not the pashing, the museum. Anyway my teacher asked me and a friend to write a speech for assembly on the Conflict in the Gaza Strip and I thought I would be able to reach a larger audience via my bloggy. So particularly if you are a member of one of the Abrahamic religions or if you have expertise or greater knowledge in this area I would love to hear your views on the conflict. My speech is particularly aimed at the subject of coexistence, therefore I do not wish to receive any disrespectful comments or similar. But I’d really like some views or personal stories from members of both the Jewish and the Islamic community. I would like to use some of these stories in my speech but if you do wish to remain anonymous I will keep all your details private.

I’d like to thank all contributors in advance, please even if you only have a small story I’d love to hear it!

alice xx

xxxxxxxxxxx (lots of extra kisses for everybody today)

a couple of weeks ago i posted about the campaign to write to amnesty international in order to get them to comply with the boycott and pull out their funding of a leonard cohen concert in the zionist entity. well, it worked. here is the official statement reporting this victory from the palestinian campaign for the academic and cultural boycott of israel:

Amnesty International has announced today that it will abstain from any involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and will not be party to any fund that benefits from the concert‘s proceeds. A number of media accounts had reported that Amnesty International was to manage or otherwise partner in a fund created from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel that would be used to benefit Israeli and Palestinian groups. Amnesty International’s announcement today followed an international outcry over the human rights organization’s reported involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert fund, and an earlier international call for Cohen to boycott apartheid Israel.

Omar Barghouti from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) commented, “We welcome Amnesty International’s withdrawal from this ill-conceived project which is clearly intended to whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and human rights. By abandoning the Leonard Cohen project in Tel Aviv, Amnesty International has dealt Cohen and his public relations team a severe blow, denying them the cover of the organization’s prestige and respectability.”

A statement confirming Amnesty‘s withdrawal has now been posted on the Amnesty International website.

boycott, divestment, and sanctions is picking up steam in british unions as well as asa winstanley reported in electronic intifada a couple of weeks ago:

The international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel has won several important victories in recent months. At this summer’s trade union conferences in Britain, BDS activists have made significant progress.

While the campaign has been building momentum in unions globally since the 2005 Palestinian call for BDS, Israel’s winter invasion of Gaza has spurred several trade unions and union federations in Britain and Ireland to pass motions more explicitly in favor of BDS. Several are calling for BDS for the first time.

Tom Hickey, a member of the University and College Union’s (UCU) national executive committee, said, “The question of the moral rightness or wrongness [of BDS against Israel] has effectively already been decided.”

Although the Trade Union Congress (the British union federation) has not yet passed a BDS motion, affiliated unions have begun taking up the Palestinian call themselves. So far this summer, the public sector union PCS, the UCU and the Fire Brigades Union have all passed strong motions explicitly calling for a general policy of boycott of Israeli goods, divestment from Israeli companies and government sanctions against the state.

Unions such as public sector union UNISON, the National Union of Teachers, USDAW and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have this summer passed softer motions calling for elements of BDS. These are usually calls for a boycott of settlement goods, or for the government to suspend arms sales to Israel. The CWU and others have condemned the infamous 13 January 2008 statement of the Israeli trade union federation in support of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which read: “The Histadrut recognizes the urgent need for the State of Israel to operate against the command and control centers of the organizational terror network …”

In addition, a report has been circulating on the Internet that the rail workers’ union, the RMT, has reversed an earlier policy of “solidarity not boycott” and passed a motion in favor of some sort of BDS policy at their July Annual General Meeting. The official AGM report has yet to be released to the general public, but the RMT’s media office confirmed the report was probably accurate. However, they did not return calls for official confirmation in time for publication.

and folks in ann arbor are taking the bds campaign to their local city council making important arguments about americans funding apartheid in palestine (not to mention occupations and massacres in afghanistan, iraq, and pakistan) rather than using those funds to rebuild cities like detroit where a majority african americans live. palestine think tank posted a video of their city council hearing (and you can use this model to do the same at your municipal level):

there is also good news about a british bank, blackrock, divesting from the africa-israel company (that has a horrific record of land theft as well as massacres in palestine as well as in africa, as the name indicates):

When the British Embassy in Tel Aviv was looking for new premises and was offered the opportunity of occupying a building owned by the investment company Africa-Israel Investments, the ambassador refrained. The reason was that the company was also responsible for settlements on the occupied West Bank. Africa-Israel Investments’ main owner is Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev.

Now the UK bank BlackRock has followed in the footsteps of the ambassador.

The bank was for a while the second largest shareholder in the Israeli investment company. Africa-Israel Investments is, among other things, in on the construction of the settlement Ma’aleh Adumim (above). The construction of settlements on occupied Palestinian territory is in conflict with international law.

It was Norwatch who this past spring revealed BlackRock’s investments in the controversial company and how private investors in Norway could invest in the project by means of the fund BlackRock Emerging Europe.

This was possible through Norwegian insurance company Storebrand, Norwegian-Swedish bank Skandiabanken, and the Norwegian-Danish Danica Pensjon.

But after all 3 banks have taken action, the British bank has now announced its divestment from the Israeli company. This must have happened sometime between June and August, possibly as late as this week.

“We have received confirmation from BlackRock that Africa-Israel Investments no longer is part of their portfolio,” Johnny Anderson, Information Manager of Skandiabanken, confirmed to Norwatch. The confirmation of the divestment was sent to Skandiabanken the day before yesterday, on 18 August.

“The way I interpret the e-mail I have received, Africa-Israel is no longer to be found in any of BlackRock’s funds,” Anderson said.

The e-mail from BlackRock to Skandiabanken was sent after the Swedish-Norwegian bank had approached BlackRock with regard to the controversial Israel involvement. That is the first time that Skandiabanken had contacted BlackRock about the case. Also the bank Danica Pensjon end of last week contacted BlackRock about the matter, confirmed Geir Wik, Sales and Marketing Director of Danica Pensjon to Norwatch yesterday.

and the big surprise was to open my local newspaper the other morning, the los angeles times, where i found a prominent op-ed from a zionist terrorist colonist advocating the boycott of the zionist entity. the article is generally good, though this professor, neve gordon, still believes in zionism and his right to be a colonist on palestinian land. but given that he came this far, perhaps an acknowledgment that he does not have a right to land that once belonged to palestinians who are now refugees will be forthcoming. here is the op-ed:

Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who also endorses cosmetics produced in the occupied territories. Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world.

Not surprisingly, many Israelis — even peaceniks — aren’t signing on. A global boycott can’t help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism. It also brings up questions of a double standard (why not boycott China for its egregious violations of human rights?) and the seemingly contradictory position of approving a boycott of one’s own nation.

It is indeed not a simple matter for me as an Israeli citizen to call on foreign governments, regional authorities, international social movements, faith-based organizations, unions and citizens to suspend cooperation with Israel. But today, as I watch my two boys playing in the yard, I am convinced that it is the only way that Israel can be saved from itself.

I say this because Israel has reached a historic crossroads, and times of crisis call for dramatic measures. I say this as a Jew who has chosen to raise his children in Israel, who has been a member of the Israeli peace camp for almost 30 years and who is deeply anxious about the country’s future.

The most accurate way to describe Israel today is as an apartheid state. For more than 42 years, Israel has controlled the land between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea. Within this region about 6 million Jews and close to 5 million Palestinians reside. Out of this population, 3.5 million Palestinians and almost half a million Jews live in the areas Israel occupied in 1967, and yet while these two groups live in the same area, they are subjected to totally different legal systems. The Palestinians are stateless and lack many of the most basic human rights. By sharp contrast, all Jews — whether they live in the occupied territories or in Israel — are citizens of the state of Israel.

The question that keeps me up at night, both as a parent and as a citizen, is how to ensure that my two children as well as the children of my Palestinian neighbors do not grow up in an apartheid regime.

There are only two moral ways of achieving this goal.

The first is the one-state solution: offering citizenship to all Palestinians and thus establishing a bi-national democracy within the entire area controlled by Israel. Given the demographics, this would amount to the demise of Israel as a Jewish state; for most Israeli Jews, it is anathema.

The second means of ending our apartheid is through the two-state solution, which entails Israel’s withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders (with possible one-for-one land swaps), the division of Jerusalem, and a recognition of the Palestinian right of return with the stipulation that only a limited number of the 4.5 million Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return to Israel, while the rest can return to the new Palestinian state.

Geographically, the one-state solution appears much more feasible because Jews and Palestinians are already totally enmeshed; indeed, “on the ground,” the one-state solution (in an apartheid manifestation) is a reality.

Ideologically, the two-state solution is more realistic because fewer than 1% of Jews and only a minority of Palestinians support binationalism.

For now, despite the concrete difficulties, it makes more sense to alter the geographic realities than the ideological ones. If at some future date the two peoples decide to share a state, they can do so, but currently this is not something they want.

So if the two-state solution is the way to stop the apartheid state, then how does one achieve this goal?

I am convinced that outside pressure is the only answer. Over the last three decades, Jewish settlers in the occupied territories have dramatically increased their numbers. The myth of the united Jerusalem has led to the creation of an apartheid city where Palestinians aren’t citizens and lack basic services. The Israeli peace camp has gradually dwindled so that today it is almost nonexistent, and Israeli politics are moving more and more to the extreme right.

It is therefore clear to me that the only way to counter the apartheid trend in Israel is through massive international pressure. The words and condemnations from the Obama administration and the European Union have yielded no results, not even a settlement freeze, let alone a decision to withdraw from the occupied territories.

I consequently have decided to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that was launched by Palestinian activists in July 2005 and has since garnered widespread support around the globe. The objective is to ensure that Israel respects its obligations under international law and that Palestinians are granted the right to self-determination.

In Bilbao, Spain, in 2008, a coalition of organizations from all over the world formulated the 10-point Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign meant to pressure Israel in a “gradual, sustainable manner that is sensitive to context and capacity.” For example, the effort begins with sanctions on and divestment from Israeli firms operating in the occupied territories, followed by actions against those that help sustain and reinforce the occupation in a visible manner. Along similar lines, artists who come to Israel in order to draw attention to the occupation are welcome, while those who just want to perform are not.

Nothing else has worked. Putting massive international pressure on Israel is the only way to guarantee that the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians — my two boys included — does not grow up in an apartheid regime.

nevertheless his op-ed is getting quite a bit of airtime in the zionist entity’s media. thus, yet another sign of their fear of how much the boycott campaign is working. there was one article in today’s ha’aretz in which the education minister slammed gordon. and los angeles jews seem to be foaming at the mouth as this second article in ha’aretz today shows that they want to boycott a university in the zionist entity (a win-win situation! ) there was yet another article responding to gordon’s piece in a zionist rag called the jewish journal, which takes the threats even further: to boycott he arabs.

gordon’s ben gurion university is no different than any other university in the zionist entity that participates in the production of knowledge that enables the colonization of palestine. recently soas authored a report on the extent of tel aviv university’s collaboration in the savaging of gaza (if you follow the link you can download the entire study):

As part of Tel Aviv’s centenary celebration, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London hosted a Tel Aviv University Special Lecture Series from January to March 2009.

Taking place in the midst of Israel’s war on Gaza — which had already mobilized SOAS students to organize a number of activities in solidarity with Gaza, including the first student occupation in the UK — students and a number of lecturers expressed their opposition to the lecture series.

The student union overwhelmingly passed a motion criticizing the lecture series’ attempt to whitewash Tel Aviv’s colonial past and present and called for the end of SOAS’s collaboration with Tel Aviv University (TAU) in hosting the series on the grounds of its role in giving key legal, technological and strategic support for maintaining and expanding Israel’s colonial occupation. The School’s Director, Professor Paul Webley, opposed the cancellation and defended the continuation of the lecture series by invoking a prerogative of freedom of speech and citing the pedagogic value of diversities of opinion. Conspicuously absent in the Director’s defense was any engagement with the nature and scope of TAU’s research portfolio.

In response to the director’s failure to acknowledge the serious implications of collaboration with TAU that undermined the reputation, integrity and fundamental ethical principles of SOAS, the SOAS Palestine Society prepared a briefing paper for him and the Governing Body outlining TAU’s intensive, purposive and open institutional contributions to the Israeli military. While the signatories of the briefing paper recognized the importance of freedom of speech, they were also keenly aware of the need to uphold the rights of the oppressed and expressed that no right reigns absolute over the fundamental right to life. It is precisely therefore that it is wholly untenable that partnerships with institutions facilitating, advocating and justifying ongoing war crimes can be legitimized with recourse to an ideal of academic freedom.

compare soas to harvard university’s invitation to a bona fide war criminal of the zionist entity last month as maryam monalisa gharavi and anat matar wrote in electronic intifada last month:

On 9 July Harvard University’s Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) invited Colonel Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, former Israeli military legal adviser, to their online Humanitarian Law and Policy Forum. The stated aim was to bring “objective” discussion to the principle of distinction in international humanitarian law, or what the forum organizers called “combat in civilian population centers and the failure of fighters to distinguish themselves from the civilian population.”

Although billed as a lecturer in the Law Faculty at Tel Aviv University — and therefore as a detached humanitarian law analyst — Colonel Sharvit-Baruch was in fact deeply involved in Israel’s three-week onslaught in Gaza in December and January, that counted its 1,505th victim found under rubble earlier this month. With the devastating operation condemned and mourned worldwide, many asked why a ranking member of an occupying army that flouts its legal obligations should herself receive safe havens at two major universities.

What troubled many of the 200 or so participants who “attended” the talk via a virtual chatroom was that Sharvit-Baruch was cut off from public or legal scrutiny as she relayed her PowerPoint presentation. Questions were posed by the moderators, sanitized of any critical content. Yet the indisputable fact is that the army for which Sharvit-Baruch worked has been accused by all major human rights organizations of committing war crimes in Gaza. Some wondered why Sharvit-Baruch was being given the opportunity to offer a carefully prepared presentation unchallenged in an academic setting, rather than giving testimony to a tribunal or inquiry such as that being conducted Judge Richard Goldstone, the South African jurist heading an independent fact-finding mission into human rights violations during Israel’s attack at the request of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Since the event organizers did not ask pointed questions about Colonel Sharvit-Baruch’s actual role in Gaza, it is worth doing so here. As head of the International Law department (ILD) at the Israeli Military Advocate General’s office, Sharvit-Baruch is known for green-lighting the bombing of a police graduation ceremony in Gaza that killed dozens of civil policemen. This was no ordinary airstrike. It was premised on a legal sleight-of-hand: that even traffic cops in Gaza could be considered “legitimate targets” under international law. In a conversation with conscripts at a military prep academy in Israel, school director Danny Zamir noted, “I was terribly surprised by the enthusiasm surrounding the killing of the Gaza traffic police on the first day of the operation. They took out 180 traffic cops. As a pilot, I would have questioned that.”

Further, the Israeli army used heavy artillery and white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas of Gaza, against the UNRWA’s headquarters and a UN school in Beit Lahiya. As reported by Judge Goldstone, Gazans trying to relay their civilian status were also hit. Even though the Israeli military tried several times to deny its use, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on white phosphorous use in Gaza quotes an unnamed Israeli official: “at least one month before [white phosphorus] was used a legal team had been consulted on the implications.” HRW found that “in violation of the laws of war, the [Israeli army] generally failed to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian harm” and “used white phosphorus in an indiscriminate manner causing civilian death and injury.”

Such reckless disregard for the lives of civilians and pathological cover-ups of military operations are recognized by many Israelis within the system itself. According to one Israeli jurist speaking to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the ILD is considered “more militant than any other legal agency in Israel, and willing to adopt the most flexible interpretations of the law in order to justify the [Israel army's] actions.” Although the ILD personnel “are now very proud of their influence upon the combat” in Gaza, human rights groups have stated that “residents weren’t advised then as to which places were safe, and the roads by which they fled were bombed and turned into death traps.”

One of the most indelible perspectives about Israel’s legal gymnastics to justify its actions comes from Colonel Sharvit-Baruch’s predecessor, Daniel Reisner. “What is being done today is a revision of international law,” Reisner has said, “and if you do something long enough, the world will accept it. All of international law is built on that an act which is forbidden today can become permissible, if enough states do it.” In expressing how the ILD moves forward by turning back the pages of legal jurisdiction, Reisner says, “We invented the doctrine of the preemptive pinpoint strike, we had to promote it, and in the beginning there were protrusions which made it difficult to fit it easily into the mold of legality. Eight years later, it’s in the middle of the realm of legitimacy.”

Sharvit-Baruch herself explained her vision of international law at a presentation for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: “International law is developed according to practices. It changes based on what is happening in the field. These laws must be based on precedents, what already exists. There is flexibility in every law.” By this law of flexibility, the more aberrations of international law a state can legitimize, the more hoary actions it can continue to execute and justify.

Since the attack on Gaza, numerous testimonies of Israeli soldiers published in Israel, have corroborated the accounts of Palestinian witnesses and human rights organizations that serious war crimes were endemic.

Despite the blunt admissions of Israeli soldiers widely published in the Israeli press, it was clear from her calm presentation that Sharvit-Baruch and her cohort live in their own rhetorical universe where even language is assaulted. In the Colonel’s own terminology, non-existent vocabulary in international law such as “capacity builders” and “revolving doors” is coined to pass over accepted terms such as “civilians” and “non-combatants.” Like the US government’s “torture memo” authors — who in contrast to Israel’s were not uniformed ranking members of the army — the Israeli military attempted to reclassify a “civilian” in a manner making it easier to strip them of protections provided by international humanitarian law. “Architecture of words,” said one participant

Despite all this, by her own standards, Sharvit-Baruch and her team could not be faulted for their efficiency: in Gaza, banning all media from entering; assaulting the population with air missiles, sniper ground troops, and white phosphorus; condemning all criticism of military actions as contrary to state security; keeping a chin above the law; attaining a teaching position at Tel Aviv University and finally a prestigious opportunity to address Harvard students and faculty.

but in england they are far more advanced than the united states when it comes to responding to war crimes against palestinians. consider the new (albeit partial) arms embargo against the zionist entity as a penalty for its war crimes in gaza as ian black reported in the guardian:

Britain has revoked export licences for weapons on Israeli navy missile boats because of their use during the offensive against the Gaza Strip.

The licences apparently covered spare parts for guns on the Sa’ar 4.5 ships, which reportedly fired missiles and artillery shells into the Palestinian coastal territory during the three-week war, which started in late December.

Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, shrugged off what he called one of “many embargoes”. The foreign office in London insisted the rare move did not constitute an embargo but was the application of normal UK and EU export licensing criteria. Still, it linked the decision directly to Operation Cast Lead – the Israeli codename for the attacks – and described it as similar to action taken against Russia and Georgia after their conflict last year.

A spokesman for Amnesty International, citing the “weight of evidence” that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza, said: “It’s a step forward but it doesn’t go nearly far enough.”

Israel’s defence ministry made no comment but Lieberman told state radio: “We’ve had many embargoes in the past. This shouldn’t bother us.”

Israel gets the bulk of its military requirements from the US, more than 95% according to some estimates. The UK accounts for less than 1% or about £30m worth of exports a year.

but there is also more bds activism emanating from the zionist entity itself, particularly in the queer community as the monthly review zine reported today:

Contrary to the mediated attempt to describe Israel as a force of liberation and progress, we see objecting to apartheid Israel as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people, including LGBTQ Palestinians. LGBTQ Palestinians are not going to be “saved” by a so-called gay-friendly Zionist state. Organized LGBTQ Palestinians reject the myth of Israel as an “oasis of tolerance.”

We are disturbed by the cynical manipulation of these deaths to bolster support for the Israeli state and its violent policies. When Israeli politicians say that this is an unprecedented level of violence, and promise to create safety for LGBTQ people in Israel, they are using the promise of safety to hide the violence and domination that is foundational to the Israeli state. When Zionist groups emphasize the growing gay nightlife in Tel Aviv, they are using the illusion of safety to draw support and funding to Israel from liberal queer and Jewish people around the world. We reject these lies, as well as the manipulation of our communities for profit and to increase military and political support for Israel.

Just as we reject the lie that Zionism is premised on the safety of Jews, we reject the lie that Israel prioritizes and values the safety of LGBTQ citizens of Israel. The safety Israel claims to extend to LGBTQ people is false; we do not accept an illusion of safety for some at the expense of self determination for others. No matter who Zionism claims to save or value, nothing can justify the targeting, suppression and oppression of the Palestinian people.

We call on LGBTQ communities to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle against Israeli violence. Putting words into action, we call on LGBTQ communities across the world to endorse the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with full international law, including an immediate end to the occupation and colonization of Palestine, a dismantling of the wall, an end to war crimes against the people of Gaza, and for the Palestinian Right of Return.

Specifically, we call on these communities to boycott international LGBTQ events held inside of Israel; to abstain from touring Israel as is marketed to LGBTQ people — with the exception of solidarity visits to Palestine; and to counter and boycott the promotion of Israeli LGBTQ tourism, and Israeli cultural and academic events in the countries in which we reside — unless they are in clear and undivided solidarity with Palestine. By these actions, we show a commitment to justice and humanity consistent with our outrage against this hateful and deadly attack that occurred in Tel Aviv.

This statement was drafted by members of the following organizations:

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, Toronto
Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism

and

The following BDS activists from Israel:

Ayala Shani
Edo Medicks
Emily Schaeffer
Hamutal Erato
Leiser Peles
Liad Kantorowicz
Moran Livnat
Nitzan Aviv
Noa Abend
Rotem Biran
Roy Wagner
Segev (Lilach) Ben- David
Sonya Soloviov
Tal Shapira
Yossef/a Mekyton
Yossi Wolfson
Yotam Ben-David

these actions are all essential in promoting the reality that bds is the only thing that is breaking the zionist entity and that will continue to help it fall to its knees. faris giacaman’s brilliant piece in electronic intifada illustrates precisely why bds is the best mode of solidarity among activists who are against apartheid in palestine:

Upon finding out that I am Palestinian, many people I meet at college in the United States are eager to inform me of various activities that they have participated in that promote “coexistence” and “dialogue” between both sides of the “conflict,” no doubt expecting me to give a nod of approval. However, these efforts are harmful and undermine the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel — the only way of pressuring Israel to cease its violations of Palestinians’ rights.

When I was a high school student in Ramallah, one of the better known “people-to-people” initiatives, Seeds of Peace, often visited my school, asking students to join their program. Almost every year, they would send a few of my classmates to a summer camp in the US with a similar group of Israeli students. According to the Seeds of Peace website, at the camp they are taught “to develop empathy, respect, and confidence as well as leadership, communication and negotiation skills — all critical components that will facilitate peaceful coexistence for the next generation.” They paint quite a rosy picture, and most people in college are very surprised to hear that I think such activities are misguided at best, and immoral, at worst. Why on earth would I be against “coexistence,” they invariably ask?

During the last few years, there have been growing calls to bring to an end Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people through an international movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). One of the commonly-held objections to the boycott is that it is counter-productive, and that “dialogue” and “fostering coexistence” is much more constructive than boycotts.

With the beginning of the Oslo accords in 1993, there has been an entire industry that works toward bringing Israelis and Palestinians together in these “dialogue” groups. The stated purpose of such groups is the creating of understanding between “both sides of the conflict,” in order to “build bridges” and “overcome barriers.” However, the assumption that such activities will help facilitate peace is not only incorrect, but is actually morally lacking.

The presumption that dialogue is needed in order to achieve peace completely ignores the historical context of the situation in Palestine. It assumes that both sides have committed, more or less, an equal amount of atrocities against one another, and are equally culpable for the wrongs that have been done. It is assumed that not one side is either completely right or completely wrong, but that both sides have legitimate claims that should be addressed, and certain blind spots that must be overcome. Therefore, both sides must listen to the “other” point of view, in order to foster understanding and communication, which would presumably lead to “coexistence” or “reconciliation.”

Such an approach is deemed “balanced” or “moderate,” as if that is a good thing. However, the reality on the ground is vastly different than the “moderate” view of this so-called “conflict.” Even the word “conflict” is misleading, because it implies a dispute between two symmetric parties. The reality is not so; it is not a case of simple misunderstanding or mutual hatred which stands in the way of peace. The context of the situation in Israel/Palestine is that of colonialism, apartheid and racism, a situation in which there is an oppressor and an oppressed, a colonizer and a colonized.

In cases of colonialism and apartheid, history shows that colonial regimes do not relinquish power without popular struggle and resistance, or direct international pressure. It is a particularly naive view to assume that persuasion and “talking” will convince an oppressive system to give up its power.

The apartheid regime in South Africa, for instance, was ended after years of struggle with the vital aid of an international campaign of sanctions, divestments and boycotts. If one had suggested to the oppressed South Africans living in bantustans to try and understand the other point of view (i.e. the point of view of South African white supremacists), people would have laughed at such a ridiculous notion. Similarly, during the Indian struggle for emancipation from British colonial rule, Mahatma Gandhi would not have been venerated as a fighter for justice had he renounced satyagraha — “holding firmly to the truth,” his term for his nonviolent resistance movement — and instead advocated for dialogue with the occupying British colonialists in order to understand their side of the story.

Now, it is true that some white South Africans stood in solidarity with the oppressed black South Africans, and participated in the struggle against apartheid. And there were, to be sure, some British dissenters to their government’s colonial policies. But those supporters explicitly stood alongside the oppressed with the clear objective of ending oppression, of fighting the injustices perpetrated by their governments and representatives. Any joint gathering of both parties, therefore, can only be morally sound when the citizens of the oppressive state stand in solidarity with the members of the oppressed group, not under the banner of “dialogue” for the purpose of “understanding the other side of the story.” Dialogue is only acceptable when done for the purpose of further understanding the plight of the oppressed, not under the framework of having “both sides heard.”

It has been argued, however, by the Palestinian proponents of these dialogue groups, that such activities may be used as a tool — not to promote so-called “understanding,” — but to actually win over Israelis to the Palestinian struggle for justice, by persuading them or “having them recognize our humanity.”

However, this assumption is also naive. Unfortunately, most Israelis have fallen victim to the propaganda that the Zionist establishment and its many outlets feed them from a young age. Moreover, it will require a huge, concerted effort to counter this propaganda through persuasion. For example, most Israelis will not be convinced that their government has reached a level of criminality that warrants a call for boycott. Even if they are logically convinced of the brutalities of Israeli oppression, it will most likely not be enough to rouse them into any form of action against it. This has been proven to be true time and again, evident in the abject failure of such dialogue groups to form any comprehensive anti-occupation movement ever since their inception with the Oslo process. In reality, nothing short of sustained pressure — not persuasion — will make Israelis realize that Palestinian rights have to be rectified. That is the logic of the BDS movement, which is entirely opposed to the false logic of dialogue.

Based on an unpublished 2002 report by the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, the San Francisco Chronicle reported last October that “between 1993 and 2000 [alone], Western governments and foundations spent between $20 million and $25 million on the dialogue groups.” A subsequent wide-scale survey of Palestinians who participated in the dialogue groups revealed that this great expenditure failed to produce “a single peace activist on either side.” This affirms the belief among Palestinians that the entire enterprise is a waste of time and money.

The survey also revealed that the Palestinian participants were not fully representative of their society. Many participants tended to be “children or friends of high-ranking Palestinian officials or economic elites. Only seven percent of participants were refugee camp residents, even though they make up 16 percent of the Palestinian population.” The survey also found that 91 percent of Palestinian participants no longer maintained ties with Israelis they met. In addition, 93 percent were not approached with follow-up camp activity, and only five percent agreed the whole ordeal helped “promote peace culture and dialogue between participants.”

Despite the resounding failure of these dialogue projects, money continues to be invested in them. As Omar Barghouti, one of the founding members of the BDS movement in Palestine, explained in The Electronic Intifada, “there have been so many attempts at dialogue since 1993 … it became an industry — we call it the peace industry.”

This may be partly attributed to two factors. The dominant factor is the useful role such projects play in public relations. For example, the Seeds of Peace website boosts its legitimacy by featuring an impressive array of endorsements by popular politicians and authorities, such as Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, George Mitchell, Shimon Peres, George Bush, Colin Powell and Tony Blair, amongst others. The second factor is the need of certain Israeli “leftists” and “liberals” to feel as if they are doing something admirable to “question themselves,” while in reality they take no substantive stand against the crimes that their government commits in their name. The politicians and Western governments continue to fund such projects, thereby bolstering their images as supporters of “coexistence,” and the “liberal” Israeli participants can exonerate themselves of any guilt by participating in the noble act of “fostering peace.” A symbiotic relationship, of sorts.

The lack of results from such initiatives is not surprising, as the stated objectives of dialogue and “coexistence” groups do not include convincing Israelis to help Palestinians gain the respect of their inalienable rights. The minimum requirement of recognizing Israel’s inherently oppressive nature is absent in these dialogue groups. Rather, these organizations operate under the dubious assumption that the “conflict” is very complex and multifaceted, where there are “two sides to every story,” and each narrative has certain valid claims as well as biases.

As the authoritative call by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel makes plain, any joint Palestinian-Israeli activities — whether they be film screenings or summer camps — can only be acceptable when their stated objective is to end, protest, and/or raise awareness of the oppression of the Palestinians.

Any Israeli seeking to interact with Palestinians, with the clear objective of solidarity and helping them to end oppression, will be welcomed with open arms. Caution must be raised, however, when invitations are made to participate in a dialogue between “both sides” of the so-called “conflict.” Any call for a “balanced” discourse on this issue — where the motto “there are two sides to every story” is revered almost religiously — is intellectually and morally dishonest, and ignores the fact that, when it comes to cases of colonialism, apartheid, and oppression, there is no such thing as “balance.” The oppressor society, by and large, will not give up its privileges without pressure. This is why the BDS campaign is such an important instrument of change.

for those who feel inspired to carry on the bds campaign there is a new campaign to initiate. you can start with locating where wine from the zionist entity is sold, which is, of course, made from stolen grapes in from occupied palestine and syria:

Israel exports roughly $22 million dollars worth of wine a year, according to the Central Statistics Bureau.

Founded in 2002, the family-owned Pelter winery in the Golan Heights benefits from the cool climate and water-rich soil of the plateau, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981 – a move rejected by the United Nations.

Sam Pelter, whose son Tal founded the winery after extensive wine-making studies in Australia, says he combines Australian techniques and technology with Golan grapes. His wines sell at $18-$50 a bottle and are sold in the United States and Europe.

Some 18-20 percent of Israeli wine comes from the Golan, according to wine critic Rogov, though wines made on disputed land can sometimes invite controversy.

Last December, Syria protested to UN leaders that Israel had distributed Golan wine as year-end holiday gifts to UN staff. In 2006, Israel complained that Sweden was labelling Golan wines as coming from Israeli-occupied Syrian territory.

Israeli settlers also make wine on Arab land in the West Bank, sometimes drawing boycotts by peace activists.

Political sensitivities have not stopped Pelter’s wines making a splash abroad.

The issue of borders, on Bitter Lemons.

http://www.mikeghouse.net/ ‎

Hi friend Mike Ghouse

I agree with you.‎

I like your peaceful and co-existence approach with other human beings and other revealed ‎religions. Human beings are not machine made to be exactly like others; every individual ‎has been created by God Allah YHWH specially and with diverse faculties, one should ‎always leave room for it and try to accommodate others’ viewpoints.‎

One can give reasons and arguments for what one believes to be true and could try to ‎convince others but without compulsion.This was truly in essence a character of ‎Muhammad, in my opinion; rather an outstanding one.‎

All human beings are just like a family; every one of them is to be loved and respected ‎and no one should be hated.‎

Thanks

I am an Ahmadi peaceful Muslim
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Tayyar.org – Recueilli par Luc Balbont

Lorsqu’en février 2006, le général chrétien Michel Aoun entreprend de dialoguer avec le Hezbollah, beaucoup de chrétiens ne comprennent pas. Comment cette figure symbolique d’un Liban libre, qui entre 1982 et 1990, avait combattu les armes à la main ce parti religieux musulman chiite soutenu par l’Iran, pouvait-il se compromettre avec « ces extrémistes fous de Dieu » ?
De même quand le bouillant général, l’un des seuls dirigeants libanais à résister aux troupes d’occupation syriennes jusqu’à leur départ du Liban en 2005, effectue un voyage à Damas en 2008, pour donner l’accolade de paix au président Bachar El Assad, son initiative est fraîchement accueillie par une partie de ses concitoyens. Se réconcilier avec la Syrie ? Quelle trahison ! Michel Aoun avait-il perdu la raison, pour pactiser ainsi avec l’ennemi ? Tant de libanais avaient péri sous le feu de ces Syriens, qui avaient occupé le pays de manière brutale durant 29 ans.Dans sa résidence de Rabiah, sur les hauteurs de Beyrouth, et alors qu’il sort d’une longue réunion avec Saad Hariri, Premier ministre désigné du Liban, qui tente de former un gouvernement depuis plus de 4 mois, Michel Aoun a accepté de recevoir « Pèlerin », pour expliquer les raisons de ces inattendus rapprochements. A 74 ans, l’homme reste vif et lucide. Le ton est parfois autoritaire, mais les mots sont pesés, réfléchis. Ils sont ceux d’un homme pragmatique, qui sait pourquoi il a tourné la page.

Luc Balbont : Beaucoup de Français, chrétiens ou non, ne comprennent toujours pas votre rapprochement avec le Hezbollah libanais, parti religieux chiite pro-iranien, qu’ils considèrent comme dangereux, voire terroriste. Pourquoi ce dialogue qui en a étonné plus d’un ?
Général Aoun : On ne peut pas éternellement vivre dans le rejet et le refus. La guerre est finie. Et le Liban est à construire avec les Libanais, tous les Libanais. La communauté chiite représente 1/3 de la population libanaise. Peut-on bâtir une nation en se passant de plus de 30% de ses citoyens ? Si tous les chiites ne militent pas au Hezbollah, et s’il existe diverses sensibilités en leur sein (laïcs, progressistes, pro syriens du mouvement Amal etc) tous reconnaissent le courage de ce parti qui a lutté pour libérer le pays.

Le Hezbollah fait peur en France, en Europe et d’une manière générale à une grande majorité d’Occidentaux ….
La France, l’Europe, les Etats-Unis sont loin du Liban. Nous, chrétiens libanais vivons avec les chiites, sympathisants ou non du Hezbollah, depuis toujours. Nous avons des racines, une nationalité et des traditions en commun. Nous devons travailler ensemble. Je suis laïc et chrétien, je ne partage donc pas toutes les convictions du Hezbollah, mais la démocratie consiste à reconnaître nos différences, et à nous accepter pour fonder ensemble une communauté. De toutes les façons, ceux qui ont essayé de combattre le Hezbollah par les armes ne sont jamais parvenus à l’éradiquer, le dialogue est l’arme la plus efficace. J’ai combattu le Hezbollah. Aujourd’hui j’ai tourné la page. Nous avons besoin d’un climat de confiance pour construire la paix. Nous avons trop versé de sang au Liban. Toute guerre doit finir un jour. Contrairement à ce que croient généralement les Occidentaux, les militants ou les sympathisants du Hezbollah sont des citoyens libanais, qui n’ont rien à voir avec Al Qaïda.

Leurs combattants ne sont-ils pas en train d’édifier un état dans l’Etat comme beaucoup le pensent au Liban ou ailleurs ?
Je ne suis pas naïf et les dirigeants du Hezbollah ne sont pas des irresponsables. Comme tous les hommes de ce pays, ils veulent travailler en paix, s’occuper de leur famille, avoir un avenir pour leurs enfants. M. Nasrallah, leur chef, est un homme honnête, pragmatique et réfléchi. Il sait qu’il n’y aura jamais d’Etat musulman au Liban. Notre pays est religieusement multiple et nos traditions sont faites de tolérance et d’ouverture. La réconciliation est la seule voie possible pour la coexistence.

Vous vous êtes réconcilié avec le Hezbollah, pourquoi n’y arrivez-vous pas avec M. Hariri ou M. Geagea ?
Avec M. Hariri, on discute et on progresse. Il sort de chez moi, vous l’avez sans doute croisé. Avec les Forces libanaises chrétiennes de M. Geagea, c’est plus difficile. Une partie de leurs sympathisants souhaite la partition du Liban, alors que nous au CPL (le Courant patriotique Libre, le parti Aouniste), nous travaillons à l’unité du pays. Nous voulons vivre ensemble, chrétiens et musulmans, dans un même Liban.

Et pourquoi ce rapprochement avec la Syrie que vous avez longtemps combattu, et qui a tant porté préjudice à votre pays, l’occupant durant 29 ans. Un grand nombre de vos amis et compagnons d’armes ont été victimes de l’armée syrienne.
Les Syriens sont aujourd’hui chez eux, il faut faire la paix. Ils n’occupent plus le pays. Ils sont nos voisins et nous avons besoin les uns des autres. Nos économies sont liées. Ce n’est pas avec l’Amérique ou la France mais avec les pays les plus proches, que nous construirons d’abord le Liban. Pour prospérer, notre pays a besoin de sécurité, d’une situation régionale apaisée, et de relations de confiance avec les pays frontaliers.

C’est le pardon chrétien qui vous fait agir ainsi ?
Je suis chrétien, croyant. Le pardon est une démarche intérieure, intime. Mais dans ma décision de me réconcilier avec mes anciens adversaires, c’est la raison qui l’a emporté, une vision pragmatique de la situation. C’est d’abord avec les proches que la paix se construit.La religion est omniprésente dans ce pays où cohabitent des confessions multiples. Croyez vous qu’un Liban rongé par le confessionnalisme est gouvernable ?Je ne suis pas pour un système confessionnaliste, mais il faut cesser de rendre responsable les confessions. Si le Liban a des difficultés, c’est d’abord à cause de l’injustice sociale et de la corruption qui y règnent. Le confessionnalisme et la religion ne doivent pas toujours porter la responsabilité de nos maux L’incurie, l’incompétence et la malhonnêteté des dirigeants sont les vraies causes du mal libanais.

Pour vous les religions ne sont pas un obstacle irrémédiable à l’unité et à la citoyenneté du Liban ?
Reportez vous à ce document exceptionnel que nous avait laissé Jean-Paul II, lors de son voyage au Liban en mai 1997. Cette exhortation apostolique où le pape rappelait qu’au Liban, chrétiens et musulmans devaient partage le pouvoir, que le Liban devait être souverain face aux puissance étrangères et que les chrétiens libanais devaient participer activement à la vie politique et sociale du pays en étant fiers d’être chrétiens et arabes. Ce texte constitue encore aujourd’hui l’exemple que nous devons suivre ; celui d’une vision spirituelle qui peut s’appliquer à la vie politique du pays.

Aw, enfim a semana “começa” de fato! Como foi o feriado para o pessoal? Descanso? Estudos? Trabalho? Bom a semana universitária começa, mas ja para quinta feira de novo. Dia dos professores. Ai ai. A propósito temos uma nova figura para o Aterro.

Bom fiz um trabalho para faculdade, matéria “Sociedade e Cultura”. O trabalho consistia em falar sobre um preconceito e sua possível coexistência na sociedade. Baseado no trabalho encabeçado por Bono Vox e vários outros artistas.
Bem, após pensar um bocado escolhi falar sobre Ateísmo na sociedade. Como já mencionei em posts meus anteriores o Ateísmo é foco de preconceitos pesados de fato. Só que por não ter nenhuma evidência visual de que um Ateu é um Ateu não é um preconceito tão evidente. Jamais estarei andando na rua do nada, tomo uma pedrada na cabeça e um cara grita “MORRA ATEU IMUNDO!”. A não ser que eu já tenha dito isso para ele hehehehehehe.

Brincadeiras a parte o que quero realmente de fato deixar claro é que não acho possível a coexistência. Como convencer evangélicos, judeus, muçulmanos, ateus, etc… da coexistência? De terem crenças (e não crenças) discrepantes demais a ponto do diferente incomodar profundamente o outro. Acho muito bacana a campanha e dou a maior força, mas acho extremamente utópica. Desde que nos entendemos por “gente” temos problemas relacionados as diferenças do próximo e isso tem aumentado em certos aspectos (e acho que diminuido um pouco em outros). O problema é que existe muitas vezes em graus extremos. Creio que Bono Vox acredita veemente nessa possibilidade de paz mundial e ele luta por isso. Admirável. Mesmo. Tendo a ser negativista quando o assunto é “humanidade” por isso não consigo imaginar tal situação proposta pelo “Coexistence” (clique para visitar o site).

Espero estar bem errado. Gostaria muito que um dia fosse DE FATO possível essa coexistência. Quem não?

I had read somewhere that the sperm count of stock-brokers (the Wall Street crowd) fluctuate in line with the Dow or NASDAQ ups and downs . Similarly, if one were to plot the blood pressure of an enterprise consultant who has embarked on an implementation; what would it look like? Or for that matter his/her cholesterol level?

BTW, stress can be measured in 5 quick ways:
http://academic.cuesta.edu/wholehealth/Level2/Lecpages/str07.htm

I suggest a much simpler method: just count the number of cigarettes smoked in a day by the consultant. I am yet to come across a good enterprise consultant who does not smoke. In fact, I have observed that all the “eureka” moments happen while taking a smoke break. Just observe a bunch of enterprise consultants smoking together and u would feel as if all their brains have fused together into a big “brain bank” aka the SUPERMAN planetary council. All inhibitions, prejudices melt away and they all belong to the “huffing-puffing” clan!!

Ok, coming back to the topic, when do you think the stress levels would be the highest and the lowest? Or in which phase of the implementation project would a consultant smoke the highest number of cigarettes?

Would stress be highest towards the start of requirements gathering workshops or just before cut over, go-live??
When would stress be lowest? During the build phase or during blue-printing?

I saw this graph which used a bucket shape to describe the stress levels of a vacationer.
http://wtflabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/phd092809s.gif

Isn’t it quite similar to our enterprise application projects too? We are highly stressed while starting the project (vacation), and then slowly feel as if the project should never end. Finally, the stress level shoots up at the end…..

Thank god for Marlboro……..

PS: I am not promoting smoking and am not a smoker myself  

I came across this interesting piece while browsing. It talks of how an architect designing a house would get his specifications if they were to work like web designers.

If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers (http://www.digitalsurvivors.com/archives/000455.php)

think this is true for SAP or any Enterprise Architect as well. I have conducted many a requirements workshops and have realised at the end, that the customer themselves don’t know what they want…..

Finally its all about delivering what the customer “needs” and not what the customer “wants”. This means we achitects need to sell not only the solution but first the requirement as well…
It might include citing an industry leader’s best practices or quote SAP books/how-to guides to sell the requirement…

Some customers might think of this as just another example of trying to force the vanilla package down their throat especially since SAP MDM still does not have industry specific templates/repository business content.

I was just pondering today… What has been my biggest learning from enterprise application projects over the last ten years….Not all these projects were resounding successes.
Just as in life, as someone said: “all happy families are happy in the same way but all unhappy families are unhappy in their own unique way”. Similarly, in all the projects which were not so successful, there was something new and unique to be learnt.
And “if u don’t fail, u can never become a good leader”. Wait, this is actually a dialogue in one of those Hollywood flicks that start with earth being in danger…
Ok, so coming back to the world of enterprise applications:
Many of these projects were managed and run by project managers who had no clue of what the enterprise application package involved (ERP, CRM, MDM, SCM etc…) does or can do, especially if its a cutting/bleeding edge technology or a niche area. At least at a 30,000 ft level, they should know what the heck is going on… Ok maybe not at 30,000 ft, that’s too high and maybe the CXO zone but at least at 10,000 ft…
But then, in most outsourcing firms, these so called managers are retired consultants who have lingered long enough in the fast paced IT world to be pushed up and up untill they become project/delivery managers or the fancy “lead/principal consultants”… But that’s the subject of another blog…

It’s obvious that hate is an ever-present reality in our lives. There are moments when it is profoundly all around us; at other times, it seems to recede like the tide. But, it never simply disappears.

So, since we can’t just wish it away, what can we do to minimize its presence and its reduce its influence on the society in which we live?

Here are but some of my responses to that question:

1. Whenever and where ever spewers of hate attempt to take center stage, they need to be rationally challenged; inasmuch as they depend on spreading falsehoods, each of their lies must be cooly refuted.

2. Knowing that hate springs forth in the midst of despair, always working in concert with others whom we trust, ours is a responsibility to improve economic and social conditions so that the hatemonger’s base of operations and power to control events are as limited as possible.

3. Children and adults can be prepared to confront hate; ours is the obligation to sensitize them to reality and to provide them with the skills and mind-set which will allow them to be minimally damaged when and if they become targets of those who would degrade and dehumanize them.

4. If we find ourselves falling prey to stereotypical thinking, not paying attention to an individual’s attributes, and lumping that person into some imagined “whole” via thinking in terms of generalities,  it’s necessary that we be aware of such short-sightedness on our part and disallow it in every aspect of our thoughts and actions.

The person who spreads hate in our society wishes to drive us apart from one another, to plant poisonous seeds of mistrust amongst us, to wrest control from those whom we have placed in authority, to use misinformation to gain the upper hand, and to win an ultimate victory over everything we hold dear.

We have all the means necessary to deny them that success; we can ill-afford to wait for sometime else and/or someone else to take up this task, because there’s too much at stake for us to be unconcerned and uninvolved!

By the way, as we take all of this into account, I believe that it’s absolutely essential that we also not permit hate to make us hysterical; we can only become victimized by it when and if we permit that to happen – not by the hands of others but all by ourselves…

This is the first post by Rabbi Allen I. Freehling

He served for three decades as the Senior Rabbi of University Synagogue here in Los Angeles before serving for seven years as the Executive Director of the now defunct City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission;  his current assignment is Deputy Chief of Staff for Field Operations in the Sixth City Council District.

I’ve been particularly attuned to the weather for the last few weeks, because I planted my autumn/winter garden seeds at the beginning of September. Walking to work on nice days, I’ve been guessing at the heat of the light and the number of hours its been landing on the garden, warming the seeds. We had lots of days like that, interspersed with gentle September rainbursts, which I gloried in, imagining the droplets seeping down through warm soil to nourish emerging seeds. It was the perfect weather for starting a cool-season garden.

autumn in the garden 1: ripening tomato

Witnessing vegetables sprout from seeds is one of my favorite things, so I watch my garden like a hawk in the days after I plant it. When they’ve had enough time to germinate, I start checking every few hours, increasingly giddy and paranoid. Giddy because I know tiny green shoots will appear at any moment. Paranoid because I know as soon as the shoots appear, the snails will come. They decimated my spring starts, migrating into my garden under cover of darkness by the hundreds and chomping the plants down to the dirt. So, as I took satisfaction in the garden-friendly September weather, I also because increasingly neurotic, imagining hordes of gastropods converging on my garden to destroy everything I’d planted and yearned for.

Autumn in the garden 2: pumpkins

As the day neared when the seeds would sprout into the daylight, I became increasingly obsessed with tactics to protect them. I could use poison to keep the snails out. Or something less toxic; say a beer trap for them to slime into and drown. I could even follow the example of New Zealand grandmother Oriole Parker-Rhodes, who decided to one-up the helix aspersa by harvesting them right along with her garden veggies and serving them up in butter and garlic.

Oriole Parker-Rhodes

But weirdly enough, even though the snails destroy something I love SO much… I can’t bring myself to kill them. For a couple reasons.

First: its hard for me to kill anything, honestly, which is part of the reason why I am mostly vegan. [I eat fish maybe once a month, cheese once a week or so, and meat once or twice a year. Every meal I cook at home is vegan.]

Second: I’ve come to realize that each of my actions—particularly those that involve consumption—have far reaching consequences. I recently discovered that, in addition to creating a carbon footprint, I am also creating a water footprint. Josh Harkinson recently published a fantastic article on the subject in Mother Jones. Chew on this:

[Farmer] Shawn Coburn, turned toward me and demanded if I knew how much water it took to grow one almond, a cantaloupe, or a pound of tomato paste. (I didn’t. Turns out it’s 1 gallon, 25 gallons, and 55 gallons, respectively.) “The people in the city, they don’t know what their footprint on nature is,” he scoffed. “They sit there in an ivory tower and don’t realize what it takes to keep them alive.”

autumn in the garden 3: peppers

Farmer Shawn is right. We have no idea what it takes to keep us alive. After reading Harkinson’s article, I did some research and discovered that being mostly-vegan also enables me to reduce my water footprint by nearly TWO TONS every year. Once I learned that, I became obsessed with my two tons of not-wasted water. Where was it? I started imagining a tiny, two-ton alpine lake, ringed with talus slopes and huckleberry plants. Every day in the year I abstain from consuming animal products, the lake gets a little deeper. If I’m dawdling in the shower, I picture my lake-level dropping, and I turn the water off. I try to only water my garden at night or in the early morning, and if a dry spell goes on for too long, I will stop watering altogether and let my garden die until the rains come again.

I suspect that, akin to the imaginary lake filled with water I have Not wasted, there is an unseen ecological consequence of all the snails I have Not killed.

I’m not against using scare tactics. The other day, while helping me rake leaves and fill holes our dogs had dug in the yard, my friend Gretchen picked up a snail to study it more closely. Her chocolate lab puppy Butters darted up and licked the snail, top to bottom.

Butters, prior to snail-attack, in bottom left.

Gretchen turned the snail to face her and informed it seriously: “Tell all your friends. This is what we do to snails around here.” Then she tucked it safely in an empty potting container, from whence I deposited it in the (covered) compost cone later that day, to live out its snail-life in a paradise of rotting vegetable matter.

I’m too lazy and squeamish to pick them off my garden at night with a flashlight, like Thich Naht Hahn does at Plum Village. Some online gardeners suggest lining your garden with hair clippings, but I don’t have any at the moment. I have lots of dog hair, but I’m sure it would blow away. Eggshells are also supposed to dissuade snails from crossing into your garden, but being a predominantly vegan household, we don’t generate any eggshells. Copper is also rumored to dissuade snails and slugs via a tiny shock to their tender bellies (vaguely Guantanamo, but still non-lethal), so I tried lining my garden with pennies. It seemed to be working, but then they started getting knocked off the edge of the bed by unshocked and/or braver snails, clearing a path for their legions of followers.

By the time I’d pulled together a little extra cash to buy copper wire to wrap around my 36 foot garden perimeter, it was too late. The snails had made short work of my babies. Six rows of winter greens, chomped all the way down to the root. And despite all those hours of obsessing over my seeds, weather patterns, and non-lethal slug aversion techniques, I wasn’t angry at first. Just sad and frustrated.

I comforted myself with the concept of coexistence. I thought of a conversation I had last week with Dharma teacher and organic gardener Dan Peterson, who reflected thoughtfully that the snails probably enjoyed eating his garden just as much as he did. Staring ruefully at my decimated garden, I thought about Aldo Leopold, who noted in the Sand County Almanac, that humans are simply “plain members of the biotic community.” Who’s to say those snails’ pleasure is any less important than mine? I’ve identified philosophically with deep ecology since my early twenties romance with the writings of Gary Snyder. I agree with deep ecology’s founder Arne Næss, who wrote in 1973: “The right of all forms [of life] to live is a universal right which cannot be quantified. No single species of living being has more of this particular right to live and unfold than any other species.”

Still, this was MY garden! Those winter greens belonged to Ryan and I. We were going to use the kale in soups, as and bake it in olive oil and salt. The spinach was going to get drowned in peanut sauce and served up with tofu, and the rainbow chard was destined for hundreds of breakfast scrambles. I clambered into the garden and knelt down, searching in vain for any surviving green. There was none. Now I was mad. I shouted at the alley, and retreated into the house.

Later, I listened to a recording of a talk Dan Peterson had given at the Seattle Shambhala Center on mind terma, the treasures of Buddhist teaching passed from teacher to student through the generations. I’m not a practicing Buddhist, and I have trouble sitting still, so a lot of Buddhist teachings sail straight over my head. But Dan tells great stories, and his talk pulled me in. He talked about “how we wake up, moment by moment.” I thought of all those days I’d taken note of the weather and the light, and all the times I’d knelt by the edge of the garden to watch for the tiny miracle of green sprouts pushing their way up through the dirt. Moment after moment of awakening to my surroundings, to the intimate process of growing food. The moment of discovering decimation by snails contained an equal amount of awe— awe at destruction, not creation. But in that destruction, the snails thrived, and something else was created. Dan told a story from his own garden:

In the morning I go out into the garden in my barefeet to water, and I had the experience of stepping barefoot on a slug. It felt like electricity. It was a sentient being! So I would gather the slugs in a plastic container and carry them to my compost heap. I kept it moist, and they were fine there. Later, I found literally fifty to eighty slugs coming out of the compost heap, and they were all lined up in the same direction, going back to the garden! Our regard for what we call slugs can be east. We can be facing east when we look at a slug. There’s no enemy.

By facing east, Dan was referring to a Shambhala chant. “Radiating confidence, peaceful, illuminating the way of discipline, Eternal Ruler of the Three Worlds, may the Great Eastern Sun be victorious.” He explained:

The East represents richness, brilliance, and is the quality of unconditional experience… Peaceful means that there’s no aggression, which means there’s no territory. There’s complete openness. With no territory, there is primordial confidence. There’s nothing to defend, no enemy. This is a lot of conceptual load to put onto the simplicity of direct experience, but I think its helpful to point out that’s what happening. There’s no enemy… Radiating confidence, peaceful, is east.

I tried facing east. Watching snails destroy my planting, after all those weeks of tending and watching and waiting, was an opportunity. A pile of direct experience to wade into and consider.

There is no territory. The garden Ryan and I built belongs no more to me than it does to the snails. The land the garden sits on belongs no more to my landlord than it does to me. We are all of us only dwelling here for a little while. Here, in my decimated garden, was my deep ecology philosophy made real. How could I be angry? There was no enemy. I took deep breaths. Felt peaceful.

A couple brussel sprout plants were large enough to survived the snails, so today I planted some company for them. Stopped by the West Seattle Nursery and picked up small starts of red cabbage, kale, broccoli, winter greens mix, and some onion and garlic bulbs, all big enough to (hopefully) survive the oncoming snails and frosts.

starting over.

It begins again.

I have this fantasy about being a standup comedian — now there’s a tough job.  I’ve been working on my routine for awhile now… I’ve always liked Rodney Dangerfield.  And George Carlin, Pat Condell,  Lenny Bruce.  Lorne Elliott!  The Marx Brothers.  There are dozens of greats though. Lots of them are black, lots are Jewish… some are even Palestinian — I love ‘em all.

Weird words… English is full of ‘em.  The English language is full of weird words – like… cuticle.  What’s cute about ‘em?  Purolator.  Pur-o-lator… why not Puro-sooner?  Shampoo.  Why sham poo – don’t they make real poo anymore?   Well, the Hutterites still make their own… Hammer.  “What’s it do?”  “I dunno… you got anything needs hamming?”

Cock.  I don’t know what you were thinking of… what single syllable word starts with a ‘C’, ends with a ‘T’ and is another word for pussy?  Did you hear that?  That guy right there over at that table said “What’s a syllable?”  Cat.  I don’t know what… what were you thinkin’ of?  I’m dyin’ up here, and all you can think about is sex?

Weird words… there are three words in the English language that are automatically funny — nun, duck, and squid.  Nun, duck and squid.  I’ll prove it by telling you a joke using those three words.  This nun and this duck, and this squid… are walking up the street together…   See?  I told you!  Can you imagine what that would look like?

How about that Middle East, eh?  Nobody wants to talk about that, it’s so booooring – and everybody’s scared of offending somebody who’ll rip them another hole.  But… anti-Semitism… that includes both sides, the Semitic people and their languages includes Israel and Palestine.  They both make felafel, shawarma, both their music stinks…  I said that in a cafe and some Zionist at the next table starts yelling at me and says that I’m anti-Semite… “Hey!” I said, “what’re you talking about?   I like Palestinians!”  What’s not to like?

What I don’t like is that some people are killing other people who look exactly the same as they do, well except for the funny little hats – they’ve all got beaks like a toucan over there for Chris’sake – how do mothers tell their kids apart, they all look the same to me —  killing people they’ve never even met who could just be themselves staring back from a mirror, in the name of God.  Goddamn it, that’s eff-ed up.

“God gave us this heat-stroked pile of rubble – we call it The Promised Land – it’s all right here on the Mesha Stele —  and He told us if you don’t believe Him that we should kill you!”  Now there’s a line that’ll get a laugh just about anywhere.  Well, maybe not in the West Bank…

That’s the basis for a religion?  “We were here first, no you weren’t – we were, no you weren’t — we were, no you weren’t — we were, no you weren’t…” [rimshot]

Hey, how big is that place – Israel — 250 miles long and 9 miles wide… and they have what… thirty dozen, thirty dozen F16’s. Three hundred and sixty fighter jets — 16 million dollars apiece, in 1975 dollars…  Those planes fly 1,300 miles an hour – one thou-sand three hun-dred miles an hour.  So… when do they ever get to open them up?  Really.

You’re an Israeli pilot stationed at Haifa and take off in your F-16I Soufa, flying fast due East (maybe they don’t have an airstrip at Haifa — who knows, who cares).  You wind the sucker out to Mach-2 and in two minutes you gotta pull the thing up in a loop to keep from getting shot down over Jordan.  Pheewwwmmmm!!!!  Two minutes later you’re back where you started, only you’re at 60,000 feet, upside down.  You decide to take a look at what’s going on up North, and five minutes later you have to turn around again fast to avoid being shot down over Syria.    You swing wide to the West, over the Mediterranean for a change of scenery but ten minutes later you quickly zip left and back into your own territory before you enter Egyptian airspace, to avoid maybe getting shot down over Sharm el Sheikh.  The whole round trip took a whopping fifteen minutes.  Eight hours later your wife meets you at the front door. “Hi honey! What’d I do today?  I felt like I was just going in soy-cles…”

Seriously I do like Jews — some of my best friends are Jewish.  Chava Alberstein… what’s not to like?  Okay okay, ya got me – I don’t like  Micah Zukkermann.  Not that I know him.  But my brother-in-law does…  not Biblically…

Hey, try the veal.  Have a great night!

By now, just about everybody who has ever heard of MTV knows about what happened last Sunday 9/13 at the Video Music Awards – better known as the VMAs — when Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s speech to give a shout-out to Beyonce. There is a lot of blog talk about whether Kanye did what he did because he is prejudiced against white people. Many people are asking whether Kanye was motivated by racial differences since Taylor is white and Beyonce and Kanye are both black. But, what about how this incident suggests that sexism, which is too often prevalent in parts of the music industry and society-at-large, may have played a role? Since women are generally physically weaker than men, and their needs socially accepted as less important, the end result is that they often get pushed around. Although it is difficult to draw definite conclusions, one cannot help but wonder if this is what what we saw happen at Sunday’s VMAs.

Is there also a racial element to Kanye’s motives? Based upon some of his past comments, I think he could use some healing in that area; and since that is doable, let’s not give up on him. Let’s not hate Kanye.

I think there is something else we should talk about, which is a lack of appreciation for country music by many followers of hip hop — something we all know also occurs robustly in the reverse. This is a two-way street. Yet, where hip hop and country music are concerned, they are not just a combination of melody and harmony, but reflective of culture. Both are uniquely American, and yet, seem so disparate from each other. But who ever said somebody cannot like both hip hop and country music? Somehow it became a self-perpetuating part of how some people do things without even thinking about it. It feels natural to them to like only one or the other, but not both. To me, that makes as much sense as having to choose between Chinese food and Italian food. I love both. I don’t want to limit my choices, so why not do the same with music?

Music should bring people together, not divide them.

Kanye’s behavior at the VMAs presents us with an interesting opportunity. Rather than bemoan his behavior, scold him, and then go back to business as usual (and I do mean business), which is how things are usually done, let’s get proactive. Let’s prevent hate already. What we need is to bring lovers of hip hop and country music together in a way where they stop and say to each other, “You know what? I changed my mind about you. You’re cool!” We can do this. It’s not hard. It just takes leadership, creativity, and the will to do so.

It is no secret that social tensions in this country have increased this past year. People are polarizing more and more. Fear is high in a bad economy, which often manifests itself among racial lines. Tensions are up, and therefore, so too is domestic violence because when some men are upset, who do they take their problems out on? Family.

See how this works? The economy goes down, social tensions go up, people blame “the other” for their problems, and the result is that women get pushed around … and worse. Furthermore, when tensions go up, Americans take their problems out on each other. It’s comprehensive familial abuse. So, rather than blame the people who get caught up in tension and frustration, let’s actually do something that brings tangible results by using music as a tool for goodness. Let’s use Kanye’s behavior as a catalyst for a more cooperative future.

Think of what happened at the VMAs as manure, from which we could grow an amazing garden. The VMAs gave us an opportunity to encourage … persuade … insist that the hip hop and country music industries bring those who love their music together to bridge the gaps that divide too many of them. This work is crucial because of how these divisions play out in mainstream society.

If music is anything, it’s creative. It’s the ability to make something memorable out of nothing. We don’t need to despair because the music industry has the power to change people’s minds and hearts. Now that it is Woodstock’s fortieth anniversary, the time has come for us to make beautiful music together. The time is now to prevent hate.

As the Jewish New Year and Eid celebrations approach this weekend, I wanted to write about something very close to my heart.  Too often, when I discuss social and political issues, I notice that most of the tension between certain communities are fueled by undying stereotypes and misconceptions.  Even some of the most well-intentioned comments I receive are tainted by the prejudices and generalizations promoted mostly by the mainstream media.

I want this to stop.

I can already hear someone saying, “There are always going to be problems.  There are always going to be bigots, racists, Islamophobes, misogynists, and so on.”  Yes, I know.  But that doesn’t stop me from reaching out to people who are receptive to what I feel in my heart.  No one can miraculously change the world in a single day, but we try.  We try because that is our calling; because we’re human beings and we’re all part of each other.

As a devout Muslim, I read and hear stereotypes pretty much every day (if you count the things I read on the internet or see on the news).  For those who know me, you know my story already.  For those who don’t, read my personal reflection on 9/11 to get a brief glimpse.

I believe in the Qur’an.  Not because I was “born Muslim,” but because there was a time in my life when I sincerely searched for God.  I needed to question Islam and the existence of a Supreme Being before I fully believed.  The mere label of “Muslim” and “Islam” is not important to me, but rather the meaning is.  “Islam” means “Submission” in Arabic, i.e. submission to God.  A “Muslim” is a submitter, or one who submits to God.  To be a “submitter to God” is to acknowledge that you are not in control of everything in your life.  It means that you have to surrender your wants and desires in order to experience Divine Love, or spiritual enlightenment.  When one is empty, God fills that void with Divine Beauty.

Reasoning and questioning is important to me, which is why it comforted my heart when my imam once said, “There are no forbidden questions in Islam.”  In Tariq Ramadan’s book, “In the Footsteps of the Prophet,” he talks about how many of the Prophet’s companions would come to him for consultation (peace be upon them all).  The Prophet would say certain statements (some of which were seemingly contradictory) in order to encourage critical thought.  For instance, the Prophet would say, “A strong man is not one who can fight!”  The companions did not understand this, and yet they spoke among themselves to figure out what it meant.  Then the Prophet would reveal, “The strongest of men are those who can control their anger!”  The Prophet would make a seemingly contradictory statement such as, “Help your brother, no matter if he is just or unjust!”  After discussion, the Prophet explained that help must be provided to someone who is doing something wrong; that is a form of expression and faith.

As I became more spiritual, I strove to absorb myself in the meaning of things, rather than practice Islam in its outward and ritual form.  I asked myself, “Why do I pray five times a day?  Is it because my parents tell me to do so, or is it because I truly recognize the spiritual significance of worship, which represents Love for God, humility, and Divine remembrance/mindfulness?”  When I was donating money, as all Muslims are required to do, I asked again, “Why do you donate money?  Simply because it is a commandment or because you truly know the importance of helping a fellow human being in need?”  All of these kind of questions led me to new discoveries about myself, about who I wanted to be, and about where I wanted to go.

My mother always tells me, “Everyone was created by Allah.”  This is how I was raised and it always frustrates me when I receive stereotypical remarks and questions from people.  Questions like, “Do you hate the Jews?” or “Do you hate Christians?”  No, I never heard a single remark like that spoken in my house.  I remember one time, a family “friend” spoke in a very condescending manner to my parents.  This “friend” spoke to us as if we “hated Jews,” and my mother decided to put her foot down and say something.  She explained that Muslims believe in the Torah and the Gospel, we have Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, and even Jesus (peace be upon them all) in our scripture too.  This “friend” did not know that at all.

The beautiful thing to me about Islam has always been its universal message of peace.  I feel that when I read the Qur’an, when I pray, when I speak about it, and when I interact with people.   When I am confronted with accusations about anti-semitism from people who don’t even know me, it bothers me a great deal.  If they knew anything about Islamic theology, they would know that insulting Judaism would be considered heresy.  But even that aside, any kind of bigotry or hatred towards any group of people is just inhumane.

As I mentioned, I believe in the Qur’an, which also means I believe that Abraham is the Prophet and father of Muslims, Christians, and Jews.  About two years ago, I was standing in the “religious” section of my local bookstore, and another customer saw me looking at Islamic books.  She was looking at the Bibles.  She kindly asked me, “Now, you guys don’t believe in Jesus, do you?”  It turned into a friendly conversation lasting about 45 minutes.  The moment I mentioned the Abrahamic connection, I could tell it was something she didn’t know before.  Before we parted, she thanked me for speaking to her and even admitted that she didn’t have many good thoughts about Islam prior to meeting me.

I remember driving home that day with a smile on my face.  It was more than a good feeling.  There was something at the heart; something deep and spiritual.  I truly believe it is this connection we all have since we’re from the same Source.  If we really believe that we are brothers and sisters of one another, then we need to start acting like that.  No more of these stereotypes, accusations, and prejudices.

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, a famous Sufi, once wrote:  “Separate from yourself that which separates you from others.”

I wish we all could do this.  I do my best.  I know when it comes to political issues like Israel and Palestine, many Muslims, Jews, and Christians are divided.  I have some friends who disagree with me when I criticize Israel, but they won’t go as far as calling me an “anti-semite.”  Other people though, i.e. people who don’t know me personally, will make those accusations.  Their comments are fueled, of course, by the stereotype that “Muslims hate Jews.”  These stereotypes divide us.  The lack of dialogue and communication divides us too.

Look at how often we emphasize on our differences and how little we spend time with each other.  As some of you know, I am working on an inter-faith short film about Muslims, Christians, and Jews, and the first thing I noticed was how similar we are.  Yet so many people don’t make an effort to realize this.  When I look at what’s going on between Israelis and Palestinians, I cannot help but reflect on the history of that beautiful place we call “The Holy Land.”

Muslims, Christians, and Jews coexisted for centuries in the Middle-East.  For hundreds of years, Palestine was under Muslim-rule and the Jewish and Christian minorities flourished.  When the Crusaders invaded in 1099, they slaughtered not only the Muslims, but the Jews and Arab Christians as well. The Jews were expelled from the city under “Christian” rule.

Almost 100 years later, a Kurdish Muslim leader named Salah Al-Din recaptured the city of Jerusalem. In doing so, he did not kill a single Christian civilian after taking control of the city.  The Churches and Synagogues were not destroyed, and the Jews were invited back into the city.

Salah Al-Din had a Jewish physician in his court named Maimonides (or Musa ibn Maymun – his original Arabic name).  Maimonides was the leader of the Jewish community in Cairo, and he also taught fellow Jews that if there wasn’t a Synagogue to pray in, then they were permitted to pray in Mosques.  This is the kind of relationship Muslims and Jews had with one another.

Prior to Muslim-ruled Spain, the Jews were being persecuted by the Catholic Visigoths. When the Muslims came, the Jews were allowed to practice their religion peacefully and they even held high positions in government. Abdel Rahman III had a personal physician who was Jewish; his name was Hasdai ibn Shaprut. The fact that Hasdai ibn Shaprut cured Abdel Rahman III when he was sick represents the coexistence that flourished among Muslims and Jews.  Samuel ibn Naghrela was another Jewish man in Muslim-ruled Spain (Al-Andalus). He even became a general who led Muslim armies! Hostility towards the Jews started up during the Catholic reconquest of Spain.

In 1492, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand ordered the Spanish Inquisition, which killed thousands of people, mostly Jews. After years, they decided to kill and expel the Muslim as well. The Jews fled Spain and found refuge in Muslim lands, namely the Ottoman Empire.

I know there is a lot tension today and a lot of heated debates about Israel and Palestine.  I know you may not agree with me on everything, but I want us to find some way to break through the barriers and establish the kind of coexistence and friendship that our people have enjoyed for centuries.  I want us to celebrate our history together.  I want us to talk about spirituality and faith, and what it means to be Muslim, Christian, and Jewish.

The next generation cannot be raised to fear someone who is practicing a different religion, and no child should have to feel alienated or discriminated against because of their religious affiliation.  That is not the kind of future we should seek.  The words expressed here by 12th-13th century Sufi, Ibn ‘Arabi, is what we should seek:

O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Ka’bah,
and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Qur’an.
I follow the religion of Love:
whatever way Love’s camels take,
that is my religion and my faith.

I believe that peace and Love is all Abraham ever wanted for us.  I believe that is what God wants for us.  And I know anything is possible when we believe with all of our hearts.  Happy Rosh Hashanah and Eid Mubarak in advance.  For my friends on the blogosphere, consider the documentary on Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) below as a gift and celebration of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian coexistence.

Salaam, Shalom, Shlama, Peace.

~ Jehanzeb

How do they all get along without one species taking over?

Why are there so many species and how do they all coexist? Understanding how species coexist is fundamental to understanding the generation and maintenance of the richness of life on Earth. These intertwined questions have challenged ecologists and natural historians for at least half a century. These questions are not just intertwined they are paradoxical. Multiple species dependent on a single resource cannot co-occur; in theory if there is any differenfce at all in species traits and their niches then the competitively-superior species should eventually dominate and drive the other inferior competitor to extinction. This is the “paradox of the plankton: first proposed by one of the fathers of moden ecology – G. Evelyn Hutchinson in 1961.

When is comes to understanding the origin and maintenance of the  diversity of life on Earth there are two distinct schools of thought. Species coexist because they are different (niche theory) or species coexist because they are identical (neutral theory). The very existence of differences among species in traits and performance has been taken as irrefutable evidence that niche partitioning enables species to get along (coexistence). However, recent work has identified a class of models on the other extreme, called neutral models, because all species are indentical. Neu models generate and explain important biological patterns, such as the species richness-abundance distribution, using as few as three parameters: the size of the wider metacommunity, dispersal and speciation rates.  Like everything else in science, the truth probably lies between these extremes and the most recent theoretical models allow for combined neutral and niche dynamics. The second truth of science is that this model is not new, but infact is one of the oldest and most fundamental models used in ecology – the Lotka-Volterra competition model. This model was rediscovered and in this context has been dubbed the emergent neutrality model because while it is fundamentally niche-based in formulation, relying on interspecific compatition coefficients, neutral patterns emanate from model simulations involving large numbers of competitors.

Remi Vergnon (University of Sheffield, UK) identified 4 theories along the niche-neutral spectrum of possible mechanisms and identified the key predictions from these. Remi showed that the distribution of marine phytoplankton species is non-random across a body size niche axis. Indeed, there are distinct aggregations of species of similar body mass among the permanent community members of the community. The only species that do not occur in these aggregations are the transient species that are unlikely to interact strongly with permanent members. These empirical observations are consistent only with a model that combines both niche and neutral dynamics, and to the best of our knowledge constitutes the first empirical evidence for the role of emergent neutrality in explaining species coexistence in nature. The team have recently published their findings in Ecology Letters.

Remi is funded by Euroceans and supervised by Rob Freckleton (U. Sheffield) Yunne Shin (IRD, Sete, France) and Nicholas Dulvy (Simon Fraser University, Canada). The work could not have been conducted without the generous support of Roger Harris and the Plymouth Marine Lab, Western Channel Observatory who collect and maintain the L4 zooplankton time-series.

Vergnon, R., Dulvy, N.K. & Freckleton, R.P. (2009) Niches versus neutrality: uncovering the drivers of diversity in a species-rich community. Ecology Letters, 12, 1079-1090.

إن بداخل كل منا معجزات ومعجزات. فمنها ما هو مرئى معروف، ولكننا -للأسف- لا نلحظه ولا نقدره إلا إذا ذهب عنا وغاب. فالحياة نفسها معجزة وكذلك التنفس، والسير، والنوم، واليقظة، والإبصار، والسمع، والإنجاب، والنمو، والشفاء من الأمراض، والتئام الجروح،…وآلاف المعجزات الأخرى. ولكن المخفى عنا من معجزات بداخلنا لا يقل فى عظمته عن الظاهر منها. فبعضها يتم الكشف عنه، والبعض الآخر يظل طى المجهول، ويتوارى مع جسد صاحبه إلى الأبد تحت التراب. فأما ما يتم الكشف عنه، فيكون ذلك إما عن طريق الصدفة، أو عن طريق الحاجة إليه (فالحاجة أم الاختراع، وكذلك هى أم الاكتشاف)، أو عن طريق التنقيب عنه قصداً.

وتقاس عظمة الأمم -فى رأيى- بقدر ما تستطيع من تحقيق “المعجزات” وليس فقط ”المنجزات” مهما عظمت. كما تقاس بقدرة التغلب على الصعوبات والمعوقات مهما كبرت. وأما الإعاقة، فلا تكمن إلا فيمن يرى نفسه معاقاً، حتى وإن تمتع بكل ما يتمتع به الأصحاء سوى العقل سليم التخطيط وسديد التفكير. وعلى ذكر هذا، فقد لفت نظرى الفيديو الموجود على الرابط التالى:  

 فهو -بحق-  يستحق المشاهدة ويجدر بنا التعليق والتعقيب عليه لما فيه من معانٍ كثيرة ودروس وفيرة لكل من أراد التأمل والتعلم.

 فما نراه إنما هو معجزة بشرية بكل المقاييس؛ إذ نشاهد رقصة باليه (هى الأروع على الإطلاق من وجهة نظرى) لراقص باليه فقد ساقه وراقصة فقدت ذراعها بكامله! وتتجلى المعجزات فى الآتى:

1)  فالمعجزة الأولى هى الفكرة فى حد ذاتها: أى تحمل الراقصين فكرة الاستمرار فى أداء عملهما بالرغم من فقدان عضويهما، والقدرة النفسية على مواجهة الجمهور على هذه الشاكلة. فقد رفض الراقصان أن يوصفا بـ”المعاقين” بالرغم من كل شئ.

2) أما المعجزة الثانية فتكمن فى تصميم الرقصة: فهى رقصة مناسبة لكليهما تجمعهما معاً بحيث يُقَوّى كل منهما الآخر فتتناسب خطاهما وحركاتهما بحيث يتم تحميل وزنيهما على السيقان الثلاثة والأذرع الثلاثة دون إخلال بالتوازن. والمعجزة تكمن فى تقبّل التحدى؛ فلم يمنع هذا التحدى مصمم الرقصة من إضافة حركات غاية فى الصعوبة على من يتمتعون بكامل صحتهم، فما بالنا بمن يسميهم البعض بـ”المعاقين”؟! فكم من الأصحاء، مكتملى الأعضاء، يتسنى لهم فعل ما فعلاه هذان الراقصان؟!

3)  وأخيراً تأتى معجزة التنفيذ: فما نشاهده هنا هو قمة الإصرار على النجاح، والعمل الجاد، والإتقان، والبراعة فى التمرين من قبل المدرّب والمتدربين.

الخلاصة: إذا صدقت النوايا، فليس هناك مستحيلاً لا يمكن تحطيمه.

كما يجسد الفيديو الملاحظات والمصطلحات التالية:

1)  أن نتاج شخصين معاً .. يفوق بكثير مجموع ما ينتجه كل واحد وحده. وهو ما يسمى بالإنجليزية “synergy” فكل من الراقصين لم يكن يستطع فعل ولا حتى نصف ما فعلاه الراقصان معاً.

2)  التركيز على نقاط القوة وإهمال نقاط الضعف: فلو كان كل فرد سلط الضوء على ما لا يمكنه فعله، لما كان شيئاً مما رأيناه! فالتركيز على ما لا يمكن فعله يحبط ويثبّط كل عمل ابتكارى، أو حتى عادى، وبالتالى يؤدى إلى الفشل الحتمى.

3) لمحات مجتمعية: ما رأيناه حدث فى الصين، فهى الدولة التى غزت العالم. وفى رأيى أن هذا لم يحدث من فراغ، وإنما عن طريق عدة أشياء (كما يمكننى أن أستشف من الفيديو): العمل الجاد، والابتكار، والإتقان، والتدريب، واحتضان كل الفئات، والاستفادة من كل الطاقات مهما صغرت، والتخطيط الجيد، واحترام الجميع دون إقصاء لفئة دون الأخرى، إلى غير ذلك من معانٍ يفتقدها الكثير من الشعوب “المعاقة” والمعيقة لكل إبداع.

فالطريق إلى النجاح ليس صعباً، بل يحتاج إلى الوعى بإمكانية النجاح والمثابرة حتى الوصول إليه. كما أن نجاح الشعوب لن يتأتّى أبداً عن طريق إقصاء أو تهميش أية فئة من الفئات أو إطلاق الأحكام بإعدام المحاولة قبل البدء فيها. فالنجاح لا يأتى إلا بعد عدة محاولات فاشلة. ولنركّز على نقاط القوة ونقلّص نقاط الضعف للاستفادة من كل من لديه قدرة على العطاء فى أى مجال وبأى قدر مهما صغر أو بدا غير مؤثر. فالصغير مع الصغير يؤدى إلى عمل كبير، وجسم الإنسان إنما يتكون من خلايا لا ترى بالعين المجردة. وإن حكمنا على الصغير بالإعدام وعدم أحقيته فى أن يولد أصلاً، لما كان هناك شيئ عظيم…

Dear Readers,

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, I remember the students and faculty members at school talking about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center, but everyone was getting mixed messages.  Finally, in my algebra class, my teacher blurted out the truth, but before I could even process what she said, a classmate sitting next to me said, “Is it those damn Palestinians again?!  They should be wiped off the fact of the earth!”

I had been on the receiving end of racial slurs before, but this was different.  This was an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people.  I prayed that the people who did this were not Muslim.  I wanted to confront my classmate, but I didn’t know what to say to him.  I was 17 years old, I never stood up for myself before, so what was I going to say to him?  I didn’t do anything.  I said nothing.  Suddenly, the door opened and they called my name.

My mom was coming to pick me up from school.

My mother was in tears.  She was frightened and told me the country was under attack.  I asked her why she pulled me out of school and she said, “Because I don’t want someone to beat you up.”  I knew what that meant.  The media was already saying that Muslims were behind the attacks.

When we got home, my mom and my friend’s mom were incredibly distraught.  My mother couldn’t even stand on her feet.  She wanted to know if there was something she could do.  My friend’s mom said, “We have to say our prayers.  Don’t worry, we have a brave and God-fearing President and he’s going to take good care of our country.”  As an aspiring filmmaker still in high school, I felt inspired.

I popped in a VHS tape into my VCR (remember those things?) and started recording broadcasts about September 11th.  I listened to people deliver sweeping speeches to rekindle our spirits and remind us that America will not fall.  The media replayed footage of the Twin Towers crumbling to the ground over and over again.  I couldn’t believe it.  I was there before.  In that building.  With my family.  I see those buildings all the time when we travel to New York.  I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t there anymore.

My friend and I even took all of this footage and put together a short commemorative video for the victims of 9/11.  We were working on a short film at the time and we put a huge American flag on our website in honor of those who were killed and lost their lives trying to save others.

But soon, things turned ugly.

Racism, hatred, bigotry, and violent threats pushed me out of the video project we were making.  When kids at school mentioned how Arabs were being discriminated against, I heard one of my classmates say, “I don’t care, they deserve it.  Most of them are assholes anyway.”  I found my voice for the first time in my grade school experience, but it was confused and premature:  “No, they’re not!  You don’t know what you’re talking about!”  My lips were trembling, my hands were shaking, and I felt like I was going to break into tears.  A girl came to my defense and told the other kid to shut up.  It felt good.  To speak up.  But it also scared me.

Another kid called me “Osama bin Laden” while we were playing volley ball in gym class.  “Why did you call me that?!” I shouted across the court.  “What are you, racist?”  He ignored me until we went to the locker room.  While I was changing, he shoved me and I nearly fell hard against the lockers.  “C’mon, p***!” he shouted.  “F***ing Arab, what are you going to do?!”  One of the gym instructors broke it up and told him to calm down.  I don’t know what I was going to do.  I never fought anyone before.

I looked at the American flag on the website my friends and I posted, and for the first time ever, I felt like an outsider.  I felt like I didn’t belong.  I hated everything that Osama bin Laden did to the United States.  He made it worse for people like us.  The crazy thing is that before 9/11, I had no idea that people like bin Laden existed.  But why are people mistaking me for him?  Why were they associating my religion with him when I was proudly wearing my American shirts and waving my American flag?

I went to Pakistan in early 2002 and listened to what many Pakistanis had to say.  They said it was a horrible atrocity and prayed for all the victims, but they also told me about the atrocities that Muslims suffered, not just in Pakistan, but all over the world.  I never really gave the issue of Palestine much thought before, but I started to read more.  I listened more.

I prayed more.  For everyone.

My religion – it became more than a label to me.  It started to become my “way of life.”  If I wanted to defend myself in school, I needed to know what I was defending.  When I returned to the United States, I was more outspoken than ever before.  I made sure that I told people that Islam was a religion of peace and that the 9/11 attacks had nothing to do with Islam.  A kid in class looked at the newspaper and said, “What kind of name is that?!  Why do they have weird names?!”  I opened my mouth and asked him “What kind of name is [his really long last name]?”  He was silent.  The teacher told me to step outside.  She started to lecture me instead of him.  “Maybe you can educate us on why those people have those kind of names?”  Um.  What?

“Those are just their names.  That’s how the names are.”  What kind of answer was she expecting?

Another student made fun of Arabs in my psychology class.  I called him out on it.  I called him a “racist scumbag.”  The teacher told me to step outside.  He asked me if I needed a place to talk.  I told him, “No.  I want you to correct him on making those racist statements against my people” (I was Arab that day).  He told me, “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him.”  The next day, I was called to an office I never been to before.  It was some kind of school counselor who asked me if I needed help with socializing with classmates.

They all missed the point.

I experienced racial slurs and ignorant questions almost every day at school.  There was only one teacher who actually listened to what I said and did something about it.  Someone was playing anti-Muslim song in my “website design” class and after I told my teacher about it, he shouted at the students playing the song.  He took the time to speak to me after class and offered genuine support.  He told me he would address the students about it next class.  I believe he did.

My cousins had their tires slashed and windows smashed.  Another group of cousins had their cars pounded by baseball bats.  Most of my cousins were telling me stories about anti-Islamic bigotry and slurs they received; similar to my own experiences.  I asked my dad that if we’re Americans, then why aren’t we treated like Americans.  My dad told me to just ignore the racism and don’t talk about politics and religion.

My parents started to hide their ethnic and religious identity.  When non-Muslim guests came to our house, we hid the Islamic decorations.  My parents and I got into heated arguments about this.  Many times, they would bring me to tears.  I was being taught to feel ashamed of being Muslim.

I carried on with my filmmaking hobbies.  I was making a “Batman” fan film of all things at the time, and people started to stop us from filming.  People were calling the cops on me and my friends.  They were worried that there was going to be a terrorist attack.  That’s what the cops told us.  My friends were all White.  I was the only brown guy.  We all knew that people were calling the cops because of me.  My friend started to get all cinematic on the cops until they threatened to arrest all of us.

My next film was about a man who goes insane after a serial killer murders his wife.  The movie is about vengeance mostly, but it has a strong spiritual message as well.  I threw in a post 9/11 metaphor in it, criticizing the Bush administration’s war in Iraq and Afghanistan.  It pissed my Republican friend off.  I didn’t care.

We were filming one night  and one of the neighbors looked out the window and panicked.  They first asked us what we were doing, but I noticed they were eying me.  I explained were just filming an independent film, but the man simply said, “I’m calling the cops on you right now!”  I didn’t care.  I filmed the scene anyway.

Three cop cars came and told us to pack our things up and go home.  The next time we filmed, a cop had to stop traffic to get to us.  I was glad that this was near the end of the film I was making.  I needed to do something different, something beyond a metaphor.  I needed to be direct and tell a story about the Muslim-American experience.  So I did.  And those are the kind of stories I’ve been telling since.

I heard people on the news vilify Islam, as if it was acceptable to hate an entire group of people.  I heard my friend’s mom preach Christianity to us and indirectly tell us that Muhammad, peace be upon him, was a “false prophet.”  I listened to these same “friends” and “neighbors” rave about Jews around me and my family as if being Muslim automatically means “you hate Jews.”

Today, I speak out against Islamophobia as much as I can.  I was discriminated two years ago at my workplace after a customer called me a “terrorist” and I reported it to CAIR.  They helped me win the case, but it took a while for me to realize, “Wow, I was actually discriminated against because of my appearance and religious affiliation.”  I wrote a 21 page research paper on Islamophobia in post 9/11 America and was just moved to tears when I read all of the incident reports that we never heard reported by the mainstream media.

Throughout the years, I have seen other atrocities in the world receive very little attention (and sometimes, none).  The invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan received plenty of media attention, but very little was said about the innocent Iraqis and Afghans who were killed.  We saw the prisoner abuse in Guantanamo bay, and yet, people debated endlessly on whether or not “torture” was acceptable during war.  I think about the 2006 bombings in Lebanon and how Israel was defended so proudly by right-wing Americans and George W. Bush.  I think about the nearly 1,400 Palestinians killed in Gaza last winter.   These are all atrocities and people will never forget them, just as Americans will never forget 9/11.

Today, I feel my soul screaming at all the chaos in the world – the intolerance, the bigotry, the apartheid, the hate, the racism, the apathy, the ignorance, the cowardice, the injustice, and so many other things that are just pleading to die out.  There must be hope and a brighter future because that is all there is to live for.  We create the future.  Right now.  Today.

I am an American.  No one can take that away from me.  I am a Muslim.  That is the eternity of my being.  I am a Pakistani.  That is my blood, ancestry, and history.  I am a human being — connected to all of you, no matter what your religion is, what your skin color is, or what your gender is.  I will not fall into despair.  If you can listen, like I do, then you know the earth is crying for peace.  It is begging us, for once, to behave like decent human beings.  It is the least we can do to make up for all the damage that has already been done.

Salaam/Peace,

~ Jehanzeb

p.s.  Head on over to “Islam on My Side” to read my other post, “Muslim-Americans Remember 9/11 and More.”