Christine Safi Well said ! I agree with the first paragraph, growing up uninterested in politics… and hurt so many times by this country, I’ve learned to move on or I’m learning to… for some reason, i don’t feel concerned with whatever is happening… I’m choking every time i had to mention where I’m from And what’s happening … sad but true…
Archive for November 8th, 2019
And then Thirty and Forty-somethings got politically aware of Lebanon endemic highway robberies
Posted on: November 8, 2019
And then Thirty and Forty-somethings got politically aware of Lebanon endemic highway robberies
And utterly infuriated with the lavish events (marriage of the militia/mafia politicians‘ family members) that broke all record in wealth dilapidation.
And many were even civil servants and ministers who were totally broke before they were appointed a year before.
This anomie political structure where every deputy for the last 30 years got his hand on a monopoly on every consumer goods, energy, financial transactions, services in communication facilities, privileges of all kinds in tax-free imports…
I grew up not having any political opinion, not even having any political literacy.
Talking about politics was almost a taboo in my family, and the level of corruption in the political class disgusted me that I wasn’t even curious to learn anything about politics, forget about asking for my right.
I guess that worked quite well for the politicians… a lot of us are alienated, uninterested and disconnected –that is if we’re still in the country– and a big chunk of those remaining can be bought with a couple of hundred bucks and brainwashed in seconds.
Today, at week 3 of the revolution, I have learned about Lebanese politics more than I learned my whole life!
I have felt love for the country that I never felt!
I identified with Lebanon for the first time in my life. I have seen a level of awareness, creativity, togetherness, pro-activity, and wit that I never imagined seeing in this country.
Politicians’ games haven’t changed.
Fear-mongering, threats, accusations, stalling, stalling, and some more stalling. Nothing news… BUT we have changed, and there’s no going back!
We are coming together in beautiful ways. It’s so threatening to them, and they are trying so hard to divide us…
They are masterminds in turning us against each other, after all, they are the same warlords that lead the civil war, so let’s not forget that.
Let’s not forget the beauty of our together, let’s not fall into their accusations.
Let’s not forget that we share the same pain.
Let’s remember how many chances we gave them, and how many times they disappointed us, and let’s not forget what we are capable of doing without them, without their support, nor their money.
Let’s stay together! Let’s hang on a little bit more, please!
(Video taken in Martyr Square, Sunday, November 3).
Note: a few comments on that piece
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Adonis Bouhatab Wonderful. It is great that this awareness is late than never. Though i did try hard to initiate you and William to mind politics, otherwise the politicians will decide for you. As this fresh new participation is flocking to the mass upheaval, I can see changes bright at the end of the tunnel.
Is reporting sexual assaults increasing proportionally to population increase?
Posted on: November 8, 2019
- In: Essays | social articles | women
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Is reporting sexual assaults increasing proportionally to population increase?
When Christine Blasey Ford came forward to report that President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, sexually assaulted her in 1982, you could cue the response: Why didn’t she speak out then? Why didn’t she go to the police? There’s a long, long list of reasons why a woman wouldn’t speak out even now, and no doubt it was even more difficult in the pre-Anita Hill world of 1982. I can’t speak for everyone who has faced sexual assault, but I can speak for myself. 1. At first, I didn’t know that what happened to me was a crime. My first assault occurred in college, 18 years ago. He lived in my dorm. I knew what rape was and didn’t think I’d experienced that. But I didn’t know that sexual violations without consent that aren’t sexual intercourse are also a crime. 2. I couldn’t talk about it. Even now, I can’t describe what happened to my therapist in any detail. What happened involved body parts that are too private to discuss with those closest to me — let alone the police, a judge, or a newspaper. Talking about a past trauma can be re-traumatizing. Some of us cope by staying silent. 3. I blamed myself. I physically resisted for a while and then I froze and it happened. At the time, I told myself that if I really didn’t want it, I would’ve kept fighting. I didn’t know that freezing is a normal human response in a traumatic situation. 4. Afterward, I wanted him to be my boyfriend. My therapist said this was my way of trying to improve the situation. If he was my boyfriend, then what happened could be reinterpreted as meaningful. It’s a perverse response, but it’s apparently not uncommon. 5. I know someone who reported a rape to the police and had a traumatic experience of testifying in court and getting cross-examined by her rapist’s lawyer in front of her rapist. And then the rapist was found innocent. I don’t want that to happen to me. 6. Now, 18 years later, the man who assaulted me is an instructor of neurology at a prominent children’s hospital. He did a terrible thing to me, once, nearly two decades ago. Should I attempt to ruin his career because of it? The answer to that is: I don’t know. If I thought he was still assaulting women and my speaking out would contribute to making him stop, I would in a heartbeat. What he did to me 18 years ago still hurts so much that I would only revisit that assault and expose him publicly if there was a very clear purpose to doing so. I expect if I did attempt to expose him, I’d be attacked. People would say that it wasn’t an assault because I wanted him to be my boyfriend afterward. They would say I wanted it because I froze and stopped fighting. There are good odds I wouldn’t be believed. I’ll tell you this: Like Christine Blasey Ford, if the man who assaulted me was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court, I’d speak up. I don’t think a man who violates a woman that way is qualified to rule on cases of violence against women, or any other aspect of their well-being. I don’t think he could be impartial. When a victim of sexual crimes comes forward, even if it’s decades after the crime took place, we shouldn’t use her past silence against her as “evidence” to discredit her. That urge to discredit is exactly why it takes so long for some to come forward in the first place.
Kenneth T. | October 26, 2019 at 3:46 am | Tags: sexual assault | Categories: Society | URL: https://wp.me/p75OKX-Na
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