Dear Bashar Al Asad …

Bashar,

On March 30 I published a post titled “My take on Syria” in which I said I’m against the demonstrations that are happening and that I would rather see Syria with you than without you.

I didn’t blog at all after that – been busy, mostly observing the horrendous massacres that you and your scum bags are carrying across my beloved country.

A few of weeks after I published my post, I realized that I made a mistake. I was so ashamed of what I said (even though I had reasons to believe in you) – I deleted the content of that post and kept observing.

I must say now, and I’m not afraid to say it, I can’t wait to see you and your mercenaries go into oblivion. No matter how people act or what they do, nothing gives you the right to murder and torture your people the way you are doing. Nothing gives you the right to destroy the country the way you are destroying it. I do not give a rat ass if it’s you, the army or your fucked up brother who is leading the operations. It would’ve been prudent if you stepped down to appear as a hero to the whole world, but you missed that chance. Instead, with all your arrogance, you decided to do what you are doing.

Bashar, there are countries that value animals more than you value your people. Syria, one of (if not THE) the greatest and oldest civilizations in the history of earth is a disaster because of you. I was blind not to see your conspicuous crimes, I was an idiot to believe that you were different. I for some reason forgot what you and your family have done to the country in the past 5 decades. You turned us from the proudest people, to the most ashamed. From the most educated, to the most ignorant. From the richest, to the poorest. From the brightest, to the dullest. From the most respected to the most despised.

When your brother Basel died in that car accident, I shed a tear for him, even though he had 5 billion dollars in his bank account that no one knew where he got them from. You are all a bunch of thieves, a bunch of cowards, a bunch of murderers. Enough with your fatuous speeches, enough with your failed policies, the situation cannot be rectified.

The whole world is against you, and you know you have neither the resources nor the heart to survive. Your clock is ticking.

Bashar, I cannot wait to see you fall, and when you do, the world is going to piss on your grave.

My take on Syria

(update: April 23 2011 - I don't even know what's going on anymore. But I know 1 thing for sure - I'm with the mass ... and it looks like the mass want change) 

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Relevant posts:

• Bloody Syria
• Arrogance – The biggest threat to civilizations
• The Haters, The Sheep and The Ground Zero Mosque
• Don’t Burn My Holy Book 

Bloody Syria

 

Last week the wave of Middle East protests reached Syria. On day one, 300 got arrested and following that things got bloody and at least 5 were killed.

For those who don’t know, the Emergency Law in Syria has been in effect for the past 48 years. This means that civilians can get arrested, jailed or even executed without a trial and no one can ask questions.

As much as I would like change to come to Syria, I’m worried. I’m worried because unlike other countries in the Middle East, Syria is not really ruled by 1 person or 1 family. The situation in Syria is a bit different.

It may seem on the surface that Syria is in the hand of Bashar Al Assad, but in reality, there are other entities that run the show. Corruption in Syria is so severe, there will be many men fighting change. Those powerful men will fight change with weapons, and they have hundreds if not thousands of corrupt followers.

There is Al Assad family and its supporters. There are the supporters of Rifaat Al Assad, the brother who was expelled to Europe and tried several times to revolt through at least 50,000 followers in the military. There are the smugglers – a big force in Syria who control the boarders with Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. There is the Mukhabarat (Intelligence agents). There are the Republican Guards with their own leader and agendas. There is Abdul Halim Khaddam the ex vice president who was charged with treason and is now in exile. There is Rami Makhlouf, the most powerful businessman in Syria. There is also the military with loyalty to various heads who don’t necessary like each other.

In a nutshell, if shit hits the fan in Syria, people are screwed.The death toll will be high, protesters will not be attacked by men on horses and camels, they will be attacked with tanks. And unlike Libya where all militias are reporting to Gadaffi, in Syria, the militias after killing people may also be killing each other.

The above picture was taken in Hama in 1982, when the Muslim Brotherhood tried to revolt against the government. I guess a picture speaks a thousand words.

Thank you Egypt, I’m dreaming of unity

2 years ago I was on vacation in the US and drove from Memphis Tennessee to Chi town Illinois, I think it was a 9 hours drive. I passed through 3 or 4 states (was pulled over twice for speeding, and didn’t get a ticket!).

Each state is bigger than the other. During my drive, all I was thinking was how great unity is. why can’t I, as an Arab, drive from Dubai to Damascus without a passport or a visa? We Arabs always had this dream of having 1 country, but the dictatorships that govern most of us have killed the dream. Instead of dreaming about unity we got busy dreaming about food, democracy, rights and Palestine. But not anymore. It seems, and I hope, that things are changing. We started with Tunis, then Egypt … I can see change in the horizon and for the first time since I was born, I feel optimistic. VERY optimistic.

In my head, our nations were puppets in an invisible hand (or maybe visible). They take us left and right as they wish. People are rising. And if we manage to fix ourselves from the inside, things will change.
Mauritania, Tunis, Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Comoros, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen … I love you. I love you and your people from the bottom of my heart.

God I can’t believe Mubarak is gone. I just can’t believe it.

One beef negimaki, and a lawyer please

 

So Benihana in Kuwait sued Mark for blogging about them negatively, I’m going to refrain from sharing my opinion about this, I don’t want to defame them.

Having said that, I can’t help but wonder, are we living in an age now where opinions or word of mouth can be controlled? Regardless of the rules and regulations that govern where we live, my question is about the effectiveness of such regulations. I’ve been tweeting about Egypt for the past 5 days in addition to thousands of other people. The immediate reaction of some supreme highnessness was to block twitter and other communication tools in order to contain the situation. But were they able to achieve any results? Did closing Al Jazeera’s offices in Tunisia or bombing their building in Afghanistan stop Al Jazeera from sharing with us what they wanted to share?

Let’s assume that you can stop 1 person or 1 entity from sharing their views, what about the others?

Regardless of the situation, the place or the rules that apply in it I do not think we are in an age that allows anybody to hide anything. It’s the wisdom of the crowd. No matter how hard we try to manipulate the truth or hide facts from people, we will fail. It’s inevitable. If they don’t know about it now, they will know about it later. This applies to everything from “bad service in restaurants” to “torturing citizens”. We need to fundamentally change the way we accept or share information, it’s all about honesty and transparency.

If I have something to hide, I should waste my energy fixing this thing rather hiding it.

I've linked the above screenshot to Benihana’s facebook page. Let’s see if they removed it .

I’m out.

Important times

To all my readers, I apologize for not blogging in a month. The region is going through a lot and I haven’t had time to put together interesting posts. First Tunis, then Egypt … I’m online but micro-blogging through twitter.

Please follow me there and I promise you to be back here soon.

www.twitter.com/mzaher

New Year Chaos at Burj Khalifa

 

 

 

I made a huge mistake yesterday by heading to Burj Khalifa for the new year celebrations. The crap that my self and my cousin had to go through was beyond imagination. We thought we’d “pass by”, watch the fireworks then do something else, Instead, we got stock there for 6 hours.

First, the metro coming from Discovery Gardens decided not to stop at the burj “due to over-crowding”. We got off at DIFC and walked all the way to the burj, there were no cabs, and even if there was, traffic wasn’t moving.

When we entered the mall, we realized the “over-crowding”. I remembered the movie Resident Evil. Some one told me, she heard on the news that in the area there was 600,000 people. I don’t doubt it. People were pushing each other, women and children crying, cars literally sank in people. I really hope that there wasn’t a situation where medics had to reach there.

When the stupid show finished (around 7 mins only), we walked back for 45 mins to the DIFC metro station. there was so much people, we couldn’t even enter the place. So we walked again for another 20 mins to the Emirates Towers station. There was a huge crowd there, but not as much as the first one so we managed to enter the station.

Inside, a group of 500 or so literally started a riot against the police. The police weren’t letting any one go beyond the check in point towards the metros because the metros towards Rashidya were packed. People for some reason couldn’t comprehend that so they started screaming together and pushing the police.

The metro heading to the gardens wasn’t busy at all, but the police couldn’t let us in because the gates were closed because of the crowd, and if they open the gates for those heading to the gardens, who are very few, the crazy crowd would break in. What happened? I managed to get to the barrier where the police are standing, I looked at the officer and told him that I’m going to jump over the barrier, I told him that so he won’t arrest me. He heard me, and turned his head away. I shouted saying, “Look at me, I’m climbing, I’m jumping”. He didn’t say anything. So I did it along with my cousin. We jumped, every one was looking at us in shock, we took the stairs and disappeared.

Our police here in Dubai is NOT prepared to deal with such huge crowds, riots or demonstrations. The city was a mess. I don’t usually go out on New Year’s, I don’t think I will ever go out again, not to a public place at least.

Enjoy the fireworks below. Happy 2011.

Sayed, My Poor Barber

Update: 19 December 2010 - Today, the government announced that starting 2011, employees no longer need a No Objection Letter to change jobs. It seems that they read my blog post! 
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Every Tuesday night I go to a proper Arabic barbershop where I get a clean shave and a clean haircut, a protocol that I maintained for 12 years because I don’t shave at home. When you see a barber repeatedly he opens up to you and starts telling you stories, many of them are sad.

Sayed, my latest barber, has a lot of interesting stories to tell and few of them are about his rude, unfair and disgusting sponsor.

3 months ago, Sayed came all the way from Egypt to Dubai with a dream. His dream is to save 10,000 dirhams (2,732 dollars) and go back to Egypt to open up his own small shop. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out to be as glamorous as he thought.

Since Sayed got to Dubai 3 months ago, he didn’t get paid. Sayed is married, and has a beautiful daughter in Egypt and he needs to send them money, but his boss didn’t pay him for the first 3 months because his boss had to pay 5 or 6 K for the government to issue him a work permit. According to UAE law, the Employer is supposed to cover all the costs of visas, work permits, labor cards etc. But some small companies and shops deduct that from their employees’ salaries illegally. Most employees are very new to UAE and don’t know the laws. Even if they do know, they ado not have the heart to file complaints.

first of all, Sayed didn’t have a day off in 3 months. What would he tell his boss if he wants to leave the shop? The boss knows that Sayed doesn’t have money, doesn’t have friends, and has no where else to go. So leaving the shop to file the complaint is kinna impossible.

Second, even if Sayed succeeds to file the complaint, what would happen? he will definitely get his money, but his boss still has the right to fire him and he will definitely do that.

Third, Sayed can’t even resign his job. If he does resign his job and find a better one he will not be able to get a new work permit because he will need a “No Objection Letter” from his sponsor. If he doesn’t get it, not only he won’t get a job, but he will be banned to work in UAE for 6 months!

It’s crazy. Few weeks ago Sayed was eating in the shop, there were no customers, his sponsor popped up and saw him and deducted 5 days from his salary. So if Sayed gets paid next month, it will be only for 3 weeks.

It’s a dilemma. Sayed is living on tips and they are not much. The shop is new, and hasn’t gathered momentum yet. He gets a maximum of 2 customers a day because there are 3 other barbers in the same shop and the shop is only receiving 8 customers a day. Oh, and his sponsor promised him a monthly salary of 2000 dirhams, but just told him it will be 1500 (547 dollars) because business is bad.

I saw his sponsor the other day and wanted to have a word with him, but I stopped my self because I don’t want to get Sayed deported. What to do? I really have no fucking clue.

Arrogance, the biggest threat to civilizations

 

In 10 years the world will win the war on terror, and we will all live happily ever after. It doesn't sound right does it?

Americans and Arabs efforts to eradicate terrorism are like blowing in a punctured balloon (Arabic proverb!). All the money spent by the US in Afghanistan, and all the money spent by Arabic governments in the Middle East will never succeed in stopping terrorism, period.

Al Qaeda is indeed a group of people (latest figures say up to 1000 members), but those people are operating based on a set of beliefs, and some (not all) of their beliefs are shared among many Muslims world wide, plus many other non Muslims.

I’m not talking about beliefs like let’s kill Americans, let’s blow up Christians and let’s rebel against our governments. The beliefs that Al Qaeda share with many Muslims are related to two things: First, Western, and specifically American, policies in the Middle East. Second, the policies of the Arabic governments themselves. The difference between a “terrorist” Muslim and a non-terrorist one is that the terrorist chose violence to fix the problem. What did the non-terrorist choose? Nothing. A non-terrorist Muslim is nothing, we are less than dirt.

Arabs in the Middle East in most cases have absolutely no say when it comes to politics. We can’t vote. We can’t create policies. We cannot pressure our friends nor our foes. We can’t say what we really want to say. We can’t, we can’t …

Our political systems are a disaster, and although it’s not “written”, we all know our limits.

Let’s take the following example. Generally more crimes happen in poor neighborhoods around the world than in rich ones. If you spend all the money in the world, you will not be able to stop crime in such areas. Your strategy should be balanced, in addition to prosecuting criminals and thieves, you need to invest in analyzing their behavior and psychology and understanding their motives. The right way to stop theft for example is to prosecute thiefs, AND enhance standards of living.

It’s exactly the same situation with terrorism. We need to fight terrorists, prosecute them, but we also need to wake up and deal with the root of the problem. Why would a young man who was normal all his life, suddenly leave everything behind, kill him self and others?

Governments are in denial, and too arrogant to tell the truth. History taught us very well that arrogance is the biggest threat to civilizations. It’s arrogance that destroys nations, this will never change. If the world doesn’t wake up, tomorrow will never be better than today.

10 facts you may not know about Japan

Japan and Japanese culture fascinate me, here is a list of 10 interesting facts you may not know about Japan or its people, gathered from various sources.

1- Japan is the second third biggest economy in the world

2- The average life expectancy of Japanese men is 79.6  years, for women it’s 83

3- On average, each person in Japan eats his body weight of fish every year! that’s more than 6 kilos a month

4- Tokyo consists of 23 wards, and has a population of approximately 35 million people

5- 10% of the world’s volcanoes are in Japan

6- Japan’s literacy rate is 100%

7- Slurping food in Japan is considered good manners. By slurping, you are appreciating the food and the chef

8- A Geisha is not allowed to marry. If a Geisha decides to get married, she automatically retires

9- Average annual income in Japan is almost 30,000 dollars, one of the highest in the world

10- It’s a big taboo to kiss in public in Japan or show any signs of affection