Archive for December 6th, 2008
“Joblessness or what ignite dormant revolutions” (December 6, 2008)
I read an angry article on wordpress.com by a very frustrated USA man earning $10 per hour and working 15 hours per week. He said that it was about time that he signs up in the military for a steady job; he is also foreseeing someone entering an unemployment office, carrying an Uzi submachine gun, to reduce the number of unemployed applicants. (Uzi is the symbol of terrorism; just leave it to Israel to export what it does best). I commented to him that his suggestion of crazy behavior for mass killing might haunt him when it happens and to refrain from publishing cheap and dangerous ideas when in anger. Well, I am doing it anyway (maybe there is plenty of pent up anger in my psyche).
The irony is that Bush has already done his major war on Iraq to absorb the growing unemployment in the US and the country went bankrupt. Starting another major war, as a tradition for absorbing surplus frustrated population, is no longer advisable for the time being. Smart Obama has to be more creative than the Bush Administration. It would be very painful for the US people to get back to work on jobs that add values to their economy and then lead the world to stability, but not the way around.
Dark times are awaiting all countries and the dormant state of revolutionary frenzy will ignite and catch up like wild fire in every corner of earth. What happened in Bombay (India), the resurgence of violence in Iraq, Gaza, Sudan, Congo, Mozambique, the Israeli implants (colonies) in Palestine, and Egypt are the precursor signs. Europe and China would not be spared and throwing in money to stabilizing an endemic faulty economies are placebo when it should be invested in healthy companies and re-educating the working people.
I suggest that the developed States re-think their current strategy on war on terrors and comprehend that the real coming terror is in their mist from the vast pool of unemployed population. The under-developed States might be used to surviving on little but what of those well fed, consumer maniacs, and spoiled people who are used to be treated like Gods? Should the under-developed people continue to kneel in front of them while serving them the best food and luxuries?
Much violence will start in the under-developed States under the guise of national, ethnic, and religious self-autonomy demands and this fire will reach the developed States pretty soon; the revolutions in the developed States will start from within so they better open the borders and relax the immigration laws to put the lid on the red smoke.
“Never” is the name of my homeland (October 14, 2008)
Do you know of political refugees who have no hope of returning to their homeland? Do you know of members of professional diplomats who are frequently transferred all around the World’s Capitals? Have you ever asked your folks “when shall we go home?” and the reply is “Never!”?
Amelia Nothomb grew up in Japan till the age of six. Her father was a Belgian diplomat. Amelia loved green, flowery and well provisioned Japan of the seventies. Her Japanese nurse adored her. When her father was transferred to China it was the period of the Gang of Four after the death of Mao Tse Tong. This Gang made it a policy to burn all the cultural manuscripts and heritage of China before the revolution; famine was endemic. Amelia was terribly nostalgic for Japan; she asked her dad “when shall we return home?” Her dad answered “Never”! Little Amelia reflected that her homeland is named “Never”. The inhabitants of Never have no hopes; their language is Nostalgia; their currency is idle time; their Capital is called Slow Death. The inhabitants of Never are incapable of erecting a house but they worship any kinds of stones; they substitute stone homes with monuments of love, friendship and writings. The citizens of Never learn from childhood that life is in constant decadence, dismemberment and dispossession. They know by the age of three what 63-year old citizens of other homelands can start to conceive. The citizens of Never are a happy lot because any bit of grace dives them in a state of drunkenness.
I am Lebanese by nationality but I was not born in Lebanon. I was born in Africa and lived there till the age of six before I suffered a near death illness. I spent my childhood in a boarding school; my folks used to visit every two summers. These rare summers were hectic: my parents did their best to convince me that they were my mother and dad. I used to flee to my home at the boarding school and my parents retrieved me from there. Later, I made vast USA my home for over 20 years of my adulthood and never visited Lebanon due to the war and lack of money.
Lebanon is the most beautiful land on Earth; in this tiny and compact State you find all the varieties of natural beauty except deserts. I figure that if you lived in a gloomy country, darkening weather, constantly raining or snowing or if you lived in an arid country where fresh flowing water is inexistent and the sun is constantly blinding and burning then your nostalgia for your country is the more acute and everlasting. For countries of extreme weather conditions all the varieties of natural beauty on earth are just curiosities but never feel home. The citizens of Lebanon enjoy unbridled liberty, an adjective that describes the financial capitalist freedom to embezzle. This freedom in Lebanon is characteristic of a non-government or administration; you are totally free to live and die; totally free to demonstrate and criticize since there are no ears to listen to your complaints or act upon them. Lebanon, the land of water and no potable water reaching the houses; no public electricity; you have got to rely on private providers for all your essential utilities; for quick results you need middlemen for all public service transactions. When Lebanon obtained its “independence” in 1943, forest covered 35% of its superficies; it is now 12%. Every year many terrible man initiated wild fires eat whole mountain slops: why cut down tree and make coal? Just go there and collect ready-made coal free of charge. The successive governments never found it a wise idea to purchase a single airplane to put down these recurring fires; heck, we have no forest rangers department.
The Lebanese, in this Never land, subconsciously prefer chaos to order; they are not serious about changing their caste system. The Never land “citizens” are great magicians; they want you to believe that the variety of their castes (over 19 castes) is proof of their cultural heritage and their sense of openness but they never communicate with one another; they can be as remote as the Moon in human interrelation; before the audio-visual technologies a few castes were believed to have tails and a few other corns.
The “Neverland” indigenes can convince the World that Lebanon is the Switzerland of the Middle East; they won the first prize in acting all the dramatic roles; the immigrants are trained to exhibit to you long faces and even cry to express nostalgia but they are expert fakers. This magical Neverland shifts from a glitzy environment to a very conservative climate of women wearing black robes from head to toe within a ten-kilometer drive. You move from disgusting display of luxury in one location to utter poverty in the blink of an eye within a hundred meter radius. The Capital of Neverland is ranked second after Anver in Belgium as the zaniest, funniest, varied, and modern location for tourists and offering the best culinary choices; the rankers never troubled to investigate if the its indigenes can afford the pleasures displayed in their Capital. The capital Slow Death was re-transformed and re-built to attract the petrodollars visitors and main owners of its high rises and luxurious Hotels.
The soul of Neverland is endemically melancholic but its people learned to show off happiness and contentment. Maybe ancient Lebanon enjoyed the healthy and frugal life style in its mountain villages but that was decades ago. A person has to cater for his soul; it is his responsibility to discover his own set of Truths. The name of my homeland could be “Never”!
Who is Jesus of Nazareth?
Posted on: December 6, 2008
Who is Jesus of Nazareth? (December 6, 2008)
Over a hundred of different manuscripts (Bibles) have been written on Jesus and his message in the early days of Christianity and before the four New Testaments (that were written by Mathew, Luc, Mark and John) that the Council of Nicee in 325 decided to select as the official representatives of the story of Jesus. (Ironically, the selected Bibles were written in Greek; maybe the language was one of the main factors for retaining them). There are evidences that the Bible of Mathew was originally written in Aramaic before being translated into Greek. Many of these early manuscripts were written by the disciples of Jesus and close companions like Barnaby (the spiritual guide of Paul and who accompanied Paul in his first apostolic trip in the interior of Turkey), Thomas (not necessarily the twin brother of Jesus who established the first Christian community in the port of Deb on the Indus River), Philip, Barthelemy, and others. There are many folk tales that are to be considered as more valid than the canonical “truths or facts”.
Jesus had his Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem and in between this event and his preaching adventure the Church has nothing to offer us. It is said that Jesus was 33-year old when he was crucified; that is the minimum age because Jesus was older and probably close to be forty. How Jesus spent the time in between (a span of at least 20 years) and where did he spent them?
As is the custom in Judaism, boys were married at 13 and Jesus was not to be an exception. As it turned out, Nazareth was a hotbed for the Essenien Jewish sect located in Qumran (not far from the western side of the Dead Sea). The Essenien sect, or more to the point caste, lived in a closed community, women were not included, and the members vowed celibacy; they were vegetarians, ate together, distributed wealth to the whole community, and each member worked according to his skills. The members wore a unique white dress code in summer and another outfit in winter. The members of this community were known to be excellent healers. This sect was also labeled the “Baptist”, the “Nazoreen” and “Ossene” (the Strong). The teachings of Buddhism had reached this community two centuries ago because King Ashoka of India had dispatched Buddhist monks to this region. It is very plausible that Jesus opted to join the Qumran community to avoid being wed.
The Essenien caste had branches in Alexandria (in Egypt and called Therapeutic or healers) and in Syria. The first Christian communities emulated the monastic and ascetic life of the Essenien sect. A few early Christian sects went beyond the ascetic of the Essenians; for example, the author Amine Maaluf, in his book on Mani, mentions a community called in Aramaic “Halle Haware” or white garment clad people; this caste did not eat meat or drink wine or leavened bread; the disciples wore white garments from top to bottom, were scared of fire (symbol of evil), and thus would eat only raw fruits and vegetables grown by the community. Outside food was prohibited and considered “female” food because women were banished from the community and the female names in the scriptures were not mentioned unless the names represented calamities and bad augurs. Travelers of this community carried with them the unleavened bread and produce of their home grown community because outside food was not pure.
Many monophysist Christian sects (Jesus is only divine) like the Nazarene or Nastourian (a name originated from the name Nazareth) had reached China before Islam (around 600 AC); they translated their Bible into Chinese and were permitted to preach their brand of religion and build churches. The Nastourians built churches all along the Silk Road and many of these edifices can still be found in Tibet, Mongolia, China, Afghanistan, and Persia. It is also believed that the Prophet Mohammad learned about Christianity from these sects that were marginalized by the official Byzantine Church.
John the Baptist was Essenien. The fact that the canonic testaments reveal that John the Baptist didn’t recognize Jesus at the first sight might suggests that the two men didn’t meet in the community of Qumran at the same periods. There are evidences that Jesus was a wide traveler, knew many languages and was highly versed in religions and other legal aspects of the land. It is very plausible that Jesus visited Alexandria, Syria, and even reached India; he lingered in India and Persia before returning to Syria and Galilee.
A manuscript named “Himis” was discovered in Kashmir, close to the city of Leh, which described the “Lost years of Jesus”. In that manuscript it is referred to Jesus as Issa (an Aramaic name that the Arabs adopted) who traveled to most of the Holy Cities in India such as Djagguernat, Radjagriha, and Benares, and was frequently chased out by the clergies (sacerdoce). The manuscript relates multitudes of pronouncements and teachings by Issa that are compatible to the canonic Bibles. Issa fled to Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Persia. It is plausible that a Christian sect in the vicinities of Kashmir wrote that narrative. It is also plausible that Jesus survived his wounds and headed eastward: the shroud of Milan have marks of a body still hot and not of a cadaver. I frankly cannot see why this story should be thrown out; countless adolescents tour the world nowadays; it was even more common in those times for young people trekking to learn and attend renowned schools.
Jesus knew more than three language; Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek (the language of the educated of the time) and Latin since he spoke to Roman centurions and Pontus Pilate. It is also narrated that Jesus lived for a time in Sidon (a Lebanese port) teaching in its famous law school. His mother Mary and part of her family moved to a town nearby when Jesus was a lecturer in the law school. It is no fluke incident that Jesus and Mary attended a wedding in Qana (a town close to Sidon); it is also very rational that Jesus decided to start his message after Qana when his mother removed the cover of secrecy and exposed his supernatural gifts of turning water to wine. Jesus was a high priest in the Essen sect and preached a message based in symbolism and fables and was highly spiritual and staunchly anti-Pharisee. The Jewish cabala sect is a branch of the Essen sect and is founded on the Sumerian theology and myths.
Albert Schweitzer, a theologian, physician, thinker, organ player and Nobel Peace laureate offered his version on Jesus. He said, based on the first two Bibles of Mathew and Marc, that Jesus preached his message to the general public in the last year before his crucifixion. Six months, all in all, was the period that Jesus was accompanied by the public; the remaining months he spent them among his close disciple around Caesarea of Philippi.
In the beginning, Jesus accepted the label of a prophet among the prophets but then he reached the belief that he is the Messiah of the Jews. Thus, he sent his disciples two by two to preach the message of the end of time. Jesus was very surprised when all his disciples returned safe and sound; he expected his disciples to suffer terribly and be put to death if the “prophesy of end of time” was to be accomplished. Jesus then decided that God would accept his sacrifice and save his close disciples from atrocious deaths before the first coming of the Messiah.
Adonis Diaries 