Adonis Diaries

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Ahhhh, my country

Aaakh ya watani

How do you feel that you live in a nation?

How far are you willing to sacrifice in order that all the people in a Nation prosper within a system fair and equitable to all?

Can you support any political system tailor-made for a few elite classes?

Can you support any political system where the laws are tailor-made for the few and applied to harass and discriminate against all the remaining “citizens”?

الرفيق أبو لورانس كنت تقرأ زمننا الحالي ….. قائلاً :

الوطن : آه يا الوطن..
مو صيدة .. ولا صياد
لا أرمن ولا أكراد
مو ديري و ميداني
و لا آشوري أو حمصي
وسرياني
ولا بغدادي أو حموي
و تركماني

الوطن : كل ذول متحدين
الوطن : كل ذول ..
الوطن لو لان الصخر ما يلين.

الوطن : ساعد مشرّع ولمعاملنا
الوطن : نخوة و كرامة , مو رغيف العيش
الوطن: وحدة عقيدة للشعب و الجيش

الوطن: مو هذا.. أو ذاك
الوطن : مو جومة حياكة
الوطن : سدوة .. الوطن لــُحمة

الوطن : أرض وحبيبة, مسيجة بالنار
لا قصة , و لا اشعار
لا مشعوذ , و لا غدّار
لا مظلوم , ولا جزار

الوطن : إحنا , ونظل إحنا , الزوابع
للوطن زنـــــــــار

الوطن : سيف العدل هالقاطع و بتار
الوطن : سهل و جبل و شلال الماء انهار
الوطن رمل الجناح و وقفة الأبرار

الوطن : كل الوطن ,
هاليعرفون الشرف واليرفضون العار

الوطن : الجنوب , مو الجيوب
ولا هو القصيدة
على الورق مكتوب

الوطن : ونـــــــــّة
الوطن : جنــــــــة
الوطــــــــــــــــــن :

هالصّــــــــــــــاحوا بعالي الصّوت كل خاين
مهو منـــــــــــّا

Notes and tidbits posted on FB and Twitter. Part 113

Note 1: I take notes of books I read and comment on events and edit sentences that fit my style. The page is long and growing like crazy, and the sections I post contains months-old events that are worth refreshing your memory.

Les moment des eveils de la conscience: La premiere fois un etranger pronounce ton Nom, lui donne une identite’, et la premiere fois qu’ on reconnait dans des yeux de l’admiration, au lieu de la pitie’.

Turkey is working on establishing a Temporary Government in North Syria under its control and creating a unified fund, a unified side-army and controlling the border entrances. De facto occupation. War in Syria is meant to last if Syria is to insure full sovereignty over all its territory.

Although the term and notion of Nation is a new fabricated idea, many minorities have jumped to the occasion to wrap themselves up with aggrandized entity, going as far back as 5,000 years. They colored new maps with vast swath of lands and attributed them to their “people”. In periods where the most that was done was establishing “city-states” commensurate to a feasible governance.

Les minorites colorent les maps et s’approprient de vaste domaines et royaumes. La Nation est un concept nouveau. L’histoire est jonche’ de “City-States” que les rois/reines pouvaient gouverner.

Le present chemine dans l’ombre, un fleuve souterrain, et ne réapparait que lorsequ’on prend conscience qu’il est déja passé.

C’est la sotte haine/mepris, pas le meurtre, qui nous enrage. L’angoisse que la haine triomphe le plus souvent me pétrifie

Ce qui est navrant: on visit les lieux du passé sans frapper a la porte de ceux qui y comptaient le plus. “Hey, je reviens”. Tant qu’il n’est pas trop tard de se souvenir

Le vrai litteraire sent et joui de ce qui arrive maintenant, pas ce qu’on fait de ce qui arrive. La memoire des details est capital.

Sound is a languageIt can trick us by transporting us geographically; it can change the mood; it can set the pace; it can make us laugh or it can make us scared.

Il faut que quelqu’un reconnaisse ma force: Je m’ en vais en guerre. Pour vaincre, pour humilier ces nations cretines, comme elles viennent

Si le Destin est deja ecrit, l’avenir est toujours incertain. Sauf la mort et les taxes?

If everything has been said and written, I still can amalgamate words to be funny and comprehensive in a sentence.

Permettez moi de preparer votre eloge: “Il aimait Hallaj, La Rochefoucaud, Ibn Khladoun, Apollinaire, Marx, Nietzsche. Il aimait le progres et la morale, et pas trop la religion.” Non, pas besoin de faire de vous un croyant, semer la zizanie au bords des tombes

Au spectacle, le publique devient troupeau, femme, betail. C’est la’ que regne le voisin, qu’ on devient voisin.

Est-ce que le film empeche les escalves de sauter a la gorge des bourgeois? On montre aux gens que la misere vient des fautes morales d’un mechant qui sera puni. Les gens n’ont qu’a prendre patience, et denoncer les fautes, pas les classes qui abuse de leur droits a une vie meilleur?

Il venait d’un endroit ou’ a 5 ans il devait defendre sa nouvelle casquette avec les poings

Le bavard echange seulement des confidences en buvant un bon alcool et guetter le moment ou’ le remort lui fait nouer les tripes. Mais il faut bien raconter l’histoire.

Le faux persecute’, un socialist riche et chic qui s’aligne a l’elite aux moments cruciaux

If Two negations don’t constitute a Nation, would three be more convenient? What if the list of double negations in every issue is ridiculously very long in Lebanon?

 

What is this “Greater Syria Nation”? (December 3, 2008)

Syria, “Syrie”, or “Souria” is Su Rya in the Sanskrit language which means the “Land of the Sun“.

There are other names for Syria such as Suraqia (a combination of Syria and Iraq) or the Fertile Crescent.  The Arabic/Islamic occupation called it “Al Sham” or the land on the left side of Mecca or westward.

This potential nation is bordered from the East by the Zahgross and Bakhtiyari Mountain Chains (in present Iran and facing the Arab/Persian Gulf) that link with the Kurdistan Mountain Chains up north and the Taurus Mountain Chains in present Turkey to the Mediterranean Sea.

The south east merges with the western desert of the Arabian Peninsula; the south is bounded by the Arabian Sea; the south west by the Sinai Desert and the west by the Mediterranean Sea.

Thus, this potential nation included present States of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, part of west Iran, and part of south Turkey.

The Syriac or Aramaic language calls it Shu Riash, the Assyrian (Ashur) and the Ancient Testament of the Jews called this land Aram with qualifiers. For example, we have Aram of the two Rivers (Iraq), Aram Damascus, Aram Soba (Bekaa Valley in Lebanon), Aram Maakat (Hasbaya, Banyas in Lebanon), Aram Rahoub (Golan Heights in Syria).

Theoretically, “Greater Syria” has formidable delimited natural borders.

Practically, the topography of the inner land was wide open and there were no difficult barriers for any invader to move in with a large army.

Unfortunately for “Greater Syria” it was a most fertile land with mighty long rivers and multitudes of rich, skilled, and self contained City-States “merchant Republics” that were willing to pay the requisite tribute in order to be left in peace to resume their way of life and for accumulating more treasures.

The “Land of the Sun” has the sun shining most of the years and its ancient religion adored the Sun as the highest unique God (fundamentally monolithic) in the name of Eel or Enlil (Babylon) or Allah in the Arab Peninsula.

All the ancient Empires in that region adopted the same religion with slight variations.  Each religious sect had an assortment of minor Gods (males and females) with specialties and attributes such as Baal, Ashtarout (Astarte), Nabu, Hubal, and Lat and so on.

All the Empires in Persia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome adopted the same structure for their religions.

The specialized minor Gods overshadowed the generalist mightiest Unique God. 

Thus, each City-State was jealous of it minor God or totem on whom it lavished qualities of its main trade.

I think that is how caste systems were created: each City-State considered its self-autonomy as symbolic to its minor God or sect.  Trade exigencies were the only reasons for these City-States to communicate among one another or associate with for duration.

These City-States were “merchant republics” with democratic institutions within city limits; they were unable to unite or form any long lasting Empires against the invading warlike Empires coming from Persia, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Rome, the Crusaders, and finally the European colonizers.

A few City-States confronted mighty Empires and sometimes managed to defend themselves victoriously like Sidon (Saida).  Many times the City-States burned themselves and their cities (again Sidon) and Cartage.  Tyr accepted that Alexander enters the sanctuary of Baal but refused him the permission to enter with his officers.

Syria was unified most of the time under foreign Empires of domination.

The first time that Syria enjoyed unity as a Nation was under the Seleucus dynasty (one of Alexander officers) with Capital in Antioch for barely 3 centuries.  It was a nation of compatible cultures with the Greek City-States mentality.

Even then, Syria was unable to institute a central army. That was the period when Hannibal was defeated in Zama (Tunisia/Cartage) by the Romans.

Cartage, the typical City-State of caste system and founded by Tyr, signed cooperation treaties with the Seleucus empire against their common enemy Rome, but the support failed to materialize when needed against Rome.  It was after his defeat that Hannibal fled to Syria; but it was too late to check mighty Rome militarily.

Before Islam, Syria was a prized region for frequent razzias by the Bedouin tribes, originating in the northern part of desert Arabic Peninsula.  Many of these Arabic tribes settled in Syria and a few converted to Christianity before Islam conquered Syria.

There were two other periods when Syria had a special nation status during the Arabic Omayyad dynasty and Saladin Al Ayyubi with Capital in Damascus.

Mostly, Syria was divided in small kingdoms or fiefdoms as extensions to City-States variations.  Thus, Syria is a mix of various nationalities and ethnic groups that have common cultures and language but never managed on its own volition to form a central government with a central army. 

The State of Lebanon: A string of exclamation and question marks (November 11, 2008)

 

I need to state my position on the socio-political structure of the State of Lebanon.  Isn’t it enough that the individual is living a lie that I have to swallow a bigger lie concerning my “nationality”?  Lebanon is a State recognized by the UN and it has endured for over 65 years after many civil wars and countless invasions by Israel and a long Syrian mandate for over 20 years.  Is not this fact legitimate enough for us Lebanese to unite and reach an understanding of common denominator that would protect us from further senseless divisions?

Let me recapitulate.  The Lebanese society is structured around 19 self-autonomous castes.  The various religious castes may be grouped around three larger religious tribes: the Christians, the Moslem Sunni and the Moslem Shiaa.  Let us expound on the smaller castes.

The small Druze caste is fundamentally in its inception a Shiaa “fatimide” sect but had found it more advantageous to obey the Sunni Caliphates for several reasons.  First, when the “Fatimide” dynasty in Egypt was replaced by the Sunni Ayyubide and then the Mamelouk dynasties then physical persecution of the Druze and the Shiaa was common place. Thus, to survive, the Druze had to pay allegiance to the Sunni monarchs; actually, the Sunni Ottoman Caliph empowered the Druze families of Maan and then the Chehab to dominate the political life in Mount Lebanon for over three centuries.  Second, in the State of Lebanon it was far lucrative for the Druze to take umbrage under the larger harmless militarily but powerful politically Sunni tribe since the Shiaa constituted a menacing immediate neighbor for their autonomy as a caste.

The Christian tribe encloses at least a dozen castes. The Maronite sect is presently barely more numerous than the Greek Orthodox. It is said that the State of Lebanon would not exist without its Christians; that might be true.  But to state that the State exists because of its Maronites then it is incorrect.  The Greek Orthodox are by far the most numerous Christian sect in the Near East region and spread throughout Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine (Syria has more than 5 millions).  If it was not for the heavy presence of Greek Orthodox (and supported by Imperial Russia) then the State of Lebanon could not be imposed no matter how and the Maronite caste would not have enjoyed the supremacy of its administration for over five decades.

All these civil wars in the State of Lebanon was basically the need of this caste system that viewed the establishing of a strong central government as anathema to survival of its petty interests: their respective free float interests would be jeopardized and those two dozens warlords, small feudal leaders, civilians as well as religious, would lose much of their powers over their subjects.  Sure, the various foreign State interests played a catalytic factor but the civil wars would not have been so frequent or so enduring without our caste system. Thus, Lebanon is meant to experience a civil war every 25 years or so in order to destroy and exhaust any accumulation of energy and good will for instituting a strong government.  All the foreign powers and regional powers know these facts except the Lebanese citizens who prefer to survive on chimerical dreams of a full fledged “nation”; sometime referred to as Phoenicia, or Canaan or Arabia or Nation of Islam, or even Switzerland of the East.

Lebanon is not a “Nation”; it is a State recognized by the UN. Can we live and unite within this definition?  Switzerland is not a nation: it is a State and its sovereignty is protected by an agreement among all its strong neighboring nations.  Among the over 190 recognized States in the UN maybe no more than a dozen could be legitimately considered as full fledged, self-autonomous and independent Nations.

The calls for defining our origins as a “Nation”, (be it Phoenicia, Canaan, Arab, Fertile Crescent, Islam or even Switzerland of the East), benefit only the regional leaders in their respective cantons; simply because they have no viable programs to entice their youthful “subjects” but to offering them chimerical fictitious national sentiments.

 

Tiny Lebanon needs to unite under a State strong central government in matters of defense, finance, foreign policies, national civil register, and general planning and control.  Tiny Lebanon needs decentralized administration and State economic incentives on performance. Tiny Lebanon needs a fair and equitable electoral law; variations on the proportional system should be seriously considered for a feasible and lasting electoral law; with minor reforms every now and then as the central government affirms its responsibilities for providing security and opportunities to all its citizens.  The State of Lebanon needs to vigorously obtain the long lasting support of its regional powers to securing its stability, sovereignty and neutrality.


adonis49

adonis49

adonis49

March 2023
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