I was horrified when I saw this video,

It is actually a video of someone being totally careless and deliberately disruptive, worst of all -حاميها حراميها- those are the people who are paid and entrusted to provide security in Iraq, they are running around shooting at people. Aegis are the people who made this video, they are currently immune from prosecution.

Then, two days before he left Iraq for good, L. Paul Bremer III, the Coalition Provisional Authority administrator, signed a blanket order immunizing all Americans, because, as one of his former top aides told me, “we wanted to make sure our military, civilians and contractors were protected from Iraqi law.”

This is according to this article, because Iraq the land of the Hammurabi code, Mesopotamia, is so horrific in it’s laws that killers and mercenaries need protection from. People focus on the blackwater while there are tens of other companies doing the exact same everyday and no one ever got convicted or even indicted.

Radi

I was horrified when I saw this video,

It is actually a video of someone being totally careless and deliberately disruptive, worst of all -حاميها حراميها- those are the people who are paid and entrusted to provide security in Iraq, they are running around shooting at people. Aegis are the people who made this video, they are currently immune from prosecution.

Then, two days before he left Iraq for good, L. Paul Bremer III, the Coalition Provisional Authority administrator, signed a blanket order immunizing all Americans, because, as one of his former top aides told me, “we wanted to make sure our military, civilians and contractors were protected from Iraqi law.”

This is according to this article, because Iraq the land of the Hammurabi code, Mesopotamia, is so horrific in it’s laws that killers and mercenaries need protection from. People focus on the blackwater while there are tens of other companies doing the exact same everyday and no one ever got convicted or even indicted.

Radi

Irony

Antione Ghanem died last night, an MP from the March 14 assembly, which includes these people. I wanted to stray off-topic but I had to mention these people to support my point.

Feb 2005: Ex-PM Rafik Hariri

June 2005: Anti-Syria journalist Samir Kassir

June 2005: Ex-Communist leader George Hawi

Dec 2005: Anti-Syria MP Gebran Tueni

Nov 2006: Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel

June 2007: Anti-Syria MP Walid Eido

Sep 2007: Anti-Syria MP Antoine Ghanim

I was watching LBC and they had an ad made of people welcoming kinships and family at the Airport. They ran it beautifully, it was leading to a proclamation that stunned me:

“The Safest Country in the World”

I live in Jordan and while we do have a fear of terrorism in the wake of our 9-11, which happened on the 9th of November almost two years ago, I can guarantee that Jordan is still safer that Lebanon. I can also tell of the Irony of watching a member of parliament not yet 48 hours in the country from his fearful stay outside Lebanon (in Abu Dhabi), foolowed by such a daring advertisement for lebanon.

Radi

God’s Warriors

I am not a person to be quickly hail a program or an investigative report, even if done by Christian Amanpour, but last night’s God’s Warriors promised a straight forward, fair and balanced journalism, tonight it will talk about Islamic God Warriors which if anything tells you that it shall be a fun-packed adventure.

I love it when people break the religion taboo and talk about it openly, but when she brought the segment about Jewish fanatics she explained AIPAC and their funding, which is a good step, to tell us that charities in the US are helping in building settlements that, even under US foreign policy, are illegal.

I wonder if I tried to register a charity in the US which supports the legal right of resisting occupation, would it go through as peacefully. I guess that is a challenge to lawyers right there.

Radi

You cause it, you pay for it

When I first saw an apartment I liked it was priced at 120 thousand Jordanian Dinars, today I saw the same apartment sold for 320 thousand JD, which reminded of an incident a few summers ago when I went to buy Tomatoes, they were priced at 10p/Kg today the same store sells them for 50p/Kg. You could teach me about inflation all you want but the time frame I am talking about is not what you think it is, unless, of course, you do reside in Amman.

The time frame is two years and we are not located in 2003 Brazil, (although in certain sectors we beat the 77% rate as mentioned earlier) I remember reading somewhere that from 1964 through 1994, the accumulated inflation rate in Brazil fetched 1,000,000,000,000,000 % (that´s one quatrillion percent) !! This fantastic figure is not an estimate; it was calculated by Joelmir Beting, a well respected Brazilian journalist, based on the official inflation numbers.

As I said, we aren’t Brazil, we are Jordan were the inflation rate is controlled through control of prices of commodities and especially necessities. Water, electricity, fuel and cement were until recently all controlled, all but cement still are.

This saved the government the effort of trying to control what i call the inverted up loop. Once they let the cement price go free, so, naturally due to inflation and commercially due to LaFarge’s monopoly of the region’s cement, the prices went nuts as they did worldwide, the prices increased steadily with demand.

Which brings me to my the real point, the demand increased because of the influx of Iraqis moving in to the country, the estimate in about a half a million Iraqis which means an average of 100,000 apartments, this is what is called unnatural growth. If prices of apartments and shops and land went up, followed by the price of fuel, which runs everything in this country, then we can guesstimate that if the Iraqis left the countries the demand will decrease and prices of apartments will go down. The government chose another route, to build subsidized housing for the lowest income in Jordan, this subsidy I believe should be paid by Iraq, whether in terms of oil or otherwise.

I therefore, agree that the Iraqis caused inflation and they should either pay for it or leave, two ways to deflate it. I think that our infrastructure is being stretched thin by this influx, and we should address it head on.

Radi

They pull me back in

“Just when I thought I was out–they pull me back in!” That’s my feeling about Palestinian politics, I could spend obscene amount of time trying to avoid reading about it, but if a spend a minute reading any title I get confused on why exactly do I want to avoid it.

Palestinian politics is getting more and more complicated every day, the people are suffering yet more, their threshold is continuously being tested and unfortunately no one is present to give them the results of those tests.

Hamas won the election and I wrote in 30-1-2006 that Hamas winning is not necessarily good for the Palestinians, if anything it is bad, time proved I am right in a sense, but it was expected, only a minority of serious observers of Palestinian politics thought that Hamas had the power to tell the people of the world that they are looking for peace through blowing up people.

International opinion is against Hamas is almost unified, they believe that Israel is to recognised and that a unity government that recognizes all the previous accords and agreements is to be placed. This is like telling Hamas: “You won, you get to participate in the same kind of government you were ushered in to throw out, and you get to loose all the rational that brought you in, if you agree, you are done, no one will elect you again, if you don’t then we will starve your people.”

Hamas has a lot to be blamed for, the Coup d’État in Gaza and the starvation of the Palestinians are among the most visible while there are more vague ones, I would honestly call it a destabilization of the elections in the region, look at Egypt and elsewhere, the effects will cause people to be afraid to vote for Islamic candidates. I can almost guarantee that the next elections in Jordan, the municipal elections, are going to called unfair and undemocratic with calls at forgery and similar claims. My guess is Islamic Action Front (IAF), no one will vote for them because people fear another Hamas in Jordan.

Radi

101 things to do before you die – 2

Be an Extra in a Film:

If your character had a name, what was it? no
What was the title of the film you were in? Betrayal! (documentary, i was in the Mordechai Vanunu one)
Did you have a speaking part? I guess, but the sound did not show up on film
Where did you see the film? still didn’t see it. I will see it in august when Omyr brings it
If yes, write some of your lines? We want peace
How long did filming take? 2 mins
What was your total screen time? a few seconds
How did you get to be in the film? I looked middle-eastern enough, and the crew was looking around campus for that.
Which famous people did you meet on set? no one

Radi

Raje3 yet3amar

When I was a kid, we went to visit Lebanon, I was about 6 years old, which places it just a few months after the end of the civil war, civil strife had just ended and there was hope that could be felt. I remember one song particularly well, it spoke of rebuilding Lebanon and the days of joys to come, here is a version I found. That song struck well with me, when it spoke of the return of the Lebanese, as brethren and as equals who will join hand-in-hand to rekindle the joys of old Lebanon.

To be honest, I felt a sense of shame when I visited Lebanon then, I was ashamed that Lebanese and Palestinian factions where able to fight for years on end, to induce a death toll of 100,000 people amongst each other and more importantly that Palestinians have once again caused havoc in a host, sovereign country. I remember thinking it would take years to repair all those buildings, and a great amount of money, but that was before we heard of what Hariri was capable of doing.

I miss the feeling of comradeship I noticed then in Lebanon, after the Taif Agreement, Lebanese people my father spoke to were talking about “La ghaleb wala maghloob,” which meant that now one won the civil war, but instead, they were equal as Lebanese. They all felt like they fought each other to the best of their capabilities, and that now they were willing to together to build a future for their children.

I wish that today it was this simple, but then again, it probably never was.

Radi

Oprah, the phenomena

If I was Oprah Winfrey, I would think a million times before I go anywhere, do anything and I would probably say nothing, but I am not and probably that’s the reason I may never become her. It is said that the Oprah book club is an instant 1 million book sale and an instant climb to top position on sales lists.

Oprah recently had NIGHT BY ELIE WIESEL as a pick, it is a great story about a holocaust survivor, I have said and will continue to say, that there is damning evidence for the holocaust and that the horrendous number of lives that died in it should not be denied, I also maintain that there is -in any subject- open room for research. It does not mean, however that the story is over. Oprah -with her billion dollar name and her approach and credibility that politicians would kill for- is lending her name to a cause that is to say the least controversial.

She has accepted an invitation to visit Israel, and knowing the Israelis, I have many fears, Americans, I believe are misguided, when it comes to the Middle East, and to have Oprah endorse one side, would further distort such understanding, not to mention that it would lend support to occupiers, war crimes’ perpetrators.

I hope she thought this through.

Radi

Kathem Al Saher

They called him “the Caesar of Arab Singing” and many other names which corresponded to his status, he did many great Songs and has his name on many other outcries for the children of Iraq. That was great.

The Dixie Chicks took a position and they stood up for it, regardless of whether I agree with them or not, I respect them because they tried to use their fame and celebrity status to do what they thought is good.

Kathem on the other hand outright lied: “The War is over” he sung in 2003, the war started on my b-day, but for the life of me I couldn’t find where it said the war was over. Kathem, who says his father is a Sunni and his mother is a Shiite and thus dismissing the claim that he has anything to be sectarian about, joined Soprano Sarah Brightman and told me a lie that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand.

Until that point I loved him, I bought his every record, memorized every song, but then he made a masterpiece of music, which I hated, not because it wasn’t good, I just said it was a masterpiece, but because he gave me and I suppose many others, false hope of a very near shinning future.

I want to someday look back at this post and say: “Well, he was only a few years off” I really want to. Still listen to this if you know Arabic.
It was a song written with no intentions.

P.S. I have not bought an album of his since.

Radi