The renowned Algerian novelist Ahlam Mosteghanemi wrote an article under the title “The Countries of Singers...My Countries”, in which she recounted how she arrived to Beirut in the early nineties, with the manuscript of Al-Jassad [The Body] in her possession, and a man who heard she was from Algeria complimented her by saying: “Oh, you are from Cheb Khaled's country.” He then started a conversation with her about the meaning of ‘[sic] Dee Dee Wah'. She expressed her regret that while Algerians were identified, with the country of Prince Abdul-Qadir in the fifties,, with the country of Ben Bella and Djamila Bouhired in the sixties and, with the country of Houari Boumediene and the one million martyrs in the seventies...Arabs today are identified with the singers from their countries and the singer who represents them in ‘Star Academy'. The entire article is moving and expressive; it has struck a chord with many readers and friends, which explains why I received it from many sources. Ahlam suggests mobilizing the youths and arousing their national sentiment by sending them calls and messages through music satellite channels, which say ‘rise up and defend the countries of Haifa Wehbe, Elissa, Nancy Ajram, Rubi, Marwa and their sisters...' I replied to some of the people who sent me the article with some humour, trying to extract a smile amidst the Arab misery and misfortune, and said that Haifa, Nancy, Elissa, Marwa and Rubi are better than many Arab leaders, and defending the these singers' countries would be a much more logical concept than defending the countries affiliated with the same leaders who brought us down to the abyss. What is worse than Haifa being better than some Arab leaders is that some of our leaders are better than their own people, as they are liberals who strive to achieve progress for their otherwise conservative folks living in a past that did not exist. Haifa and Nancy are better than half of the Arab leaders - half and not all of them. There are three Arab leaders whom I find to be better than their people; and since change is the law of things, I expect the situation to get worse. Hence, I will move on to other news that I collected over the past few days. - Richard Haass is the President of the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States. He has played a prominent role in the Middle East peace process under several U.S. administrations. He is a fair American Jew, we can hold peace with his likes as soon as tomorrow and I do not accuse him of anything. Nonetheless, I read an article he wrote recently, under the title “Putting Political Change in Iran First”, in which he suggested that the outside world not stop at just calling for respecting political rights, but to also emphasize that the economic problems beleaguering the Iranian people are the result of the policies of their leaders and that the economic situation will improve once the wealth of the country stops being wasted on supporting terrorists and building nuclear weapons. I want to say here that first of all, Iran does not have the capability to develop a nuclear weapon in the foreseeable future, although I personally wish that Iran would build two hundred nuclear bombs - or the equivalent of the Israeli nuclear bomb arsenal-, and I also want to say that one man's ‘terrorist' is another's ‘freedom fighter'. Second of all, while the economy is very important, it is not the whole issue here; there are many Persian nationalistic and religious considerations that are no less important. Third of all, there is the issue of interfering in the internal political affairs of Iran or others. This benefits the regime, because the citizen's confidence in the ‘good intentions' of a country such as the United States is much less than his confidence in the regime. Fourth of all, I do not see political change to be possible in Iran today, as all the strong cards are in the hands of the regime, while the opposition is rather helpless in the face of the Army, the Basij, the Revolutionary Guard and the other public and clandestine apparatuses. Finally, and most importantly in my opinion, change in Iran will not be as the West wishes it to be. The nuclear issue, specifically, is a matter of national pride and one that both the so-called moderates and hard-liners share similar views about. In fact, I have never heard any Iranian speak in opposition to the nuclear program. - The American student Nicholas George decided to sue the U.S Transportation Security Administration (TSA); he was detained at the airport before his flight from Philadelphia to California, because he had flashcards in Arabic and English to help him learn Arabic. Although the security officers confirmed that he was a student and that he was studying Arabic, he was detained for four hours, because words such as ‘bomb' and ‘terrorism' were found in the flashcards. The student said that he was studying words that are commonly used. There was a time when we were not being accused of terrorism and instead, we were its victims, along with most of the Third World countries. Then someone rose and responded to this terrorism in kind. However, he destroyed the reputation of Arabs and Muslims in the process and damaged their religion without achieving anything, save for more death. - Finally, newspapers around the world published a story about a study conducted by the British Medical Research Council, which concluded that the lack of intelligence leads to heart disease. If this was true, then the terrorists amongst us would have all died of heart attacks. They would have rested and relieved us and many journalists would have also died along with them. [email protected]
