Thursday, July 8, 2010
Beyond Hypocrisy
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010756464281296.html
By Mark LeVine
What happens when all sides of a conflict are mired in hypocrisy? [EPA]Almost two millennia ago, the great Chinese military leader and strategist Zhuge Liang admonished his fellow military men that "when hypocrisy sprouts, even if you have the wisdom of ancient warrior kings you could not defeat a peasant, let alone a crowd of them".
He might have well added that hypocrisy is as harmful for the peasants trying to win a measure of freedom as it is to the king that is trying to defeat them.
Which brings us to a question that too few scholars, policy makers and activists have considered in trying to resolve some of the most frustrating conflicts in the Middle East: What happens when all sides of a conflict are so mired in hypocrisy that no one can steer a path towards some sort of solution?A limit on force
It is easy to see the hypocrisy of the powerful. It takes little effort to compare the democracy and freedom rhetoric of successive US administrations to the reality of war, occupation and support for oppressive and corrupt regimes.
Similarly, Israel's routine declarations in support of a peaceful resolution to its conflict with the Palestinians are easily contradicted by its actions on the ground in the Occupied Territories.
On the other hand, emerging global powers like China are alternatively credited and criticised for their lack of political or diplomatic hypocrisy. They do business with almost every government as long as it suits their strategic interests with no pretension to worrying about human rights or other basic freedoms.
Yet however corrosive to democratic governance in war-torn "imperial democracies" like the US, hypocrisy can serve as a useful check on the otherwise raw deployment of political power. The need to appear to follow certain norms or self-described ideals places some limits on the use of force; that is one of the key reasons for the development of the new US counterinsurgency strategy deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Indeed, according to the now infamous Rolling Stone expose, one of the things that led to General Stanley McChrystal's unpopularity with many of his troops was precisely his insistence that his troops go out of their way to avoid harming Afghan civilians, even if it meant putting themselves at greater risk during military operations.
Hypocrisy and power
Mixing violence with non-violence undermines the larger mission [AFP]But, what happens when the weaker, oppressed and/or occupied side of a conflict, or those supporting it, engage in hypocrisy of their own?
Hypocrisy is always a double edged sword; but in the case of anti-colonial struggles both sides of the blade cut the weaker party more deeply.
The Bush administration deployed a clearly hypocritical democracy rhetoric in Iraq because it provided enough of a veneer of legitimacy to allow US forces to become permanently entrenched in the country. The duplicitous behaviour of various Sunni and Shia groups enabled the US to solidify its position.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israeli government hypocrisy surrounding the peace process has long provided just enough legitimacy to ensure the quiescence of the majority of the Israeli Jewish public, and as importantly, the support of the US political and media establishments.
For their part, Palestinians have not had the luxury of hypocrisy. The duplicities and moral inconsistencies of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas leaders - from pledging democracy and accountability while ruling through violence and corruption, to supporting a two-state solution in English while speaking far more radically in Arabic - have long been expertly exploited by Israel to argue that the larger Palestinian peace discourse was a fraud or, at least, untenable.Cost-benefit calculus
The Gaza flotilla tragedy that saw nine Turkish activists killed by Israeli commandos offers an object lesson in the costs and benefit calculus of hypocrisy when engaged in by, or in this case, on behalf of, Palestinians. And it is one that future flotillas would do well to take heed of.
While the vast majority of activists participating in the flotilla were committed to non-violence, the well organised group of dozens of activists from the IHH movement who, as the captain of the Mavi Marmara revealed and video of an on board rally before the raid confirmed, planned to attack Israeli commandos when they boarded the ship, provided just enough evidence of hypocrisy on the part of the flotilla.
Why would a peaceful and non-violent humanitarian mission violently attack soldiers, the Israeli government and its supporters argued to discredit or at least call into question the larger mission in crucial sectors of the Israeli and American media and political establishments.
As non-violence expert Michael Nagler, who was consulted by organisers of the flotilla about how to deal with just such a scenario, explains: "Our point was that .... in non-violence, as in many other activities, it's a bad idea to do two things at once. However, mixing aid with controversial delivery people is nothing compared to what must be avoided at all costs: confusing non-violence with violence."
Doing two things at once, particularly mixing violence with non-violence, offered Israel the opening it needed to challenge the entire flotilla."Once again, Israel faces hypocrisy and a biased rush to judgement," Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, argued in defending the commandos' actions.
Later, he suggested that flotilla activists should sail to Tehran, exclaiming: "I call on all human rights activists in the world go to Tehran, that's where there is a human rights violation."Wedge of truth
The use of violence allowed Netanyahu to deploy the usual Israeli rhetoric [EPA]Netanyahu has a point.The Iranian government, which offered strong support to the flotilla and threatened to send its own ships to escort the next one, is flagrantly violating the most basic human, civil and political rights of its citizens.
Peace and democracy activists should be routinely sending flotillas to Iran in solidarity with the democracy movement there. They could certainly send one to Latakia, Syria's main Mediterranean port, as well, since the support by the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, for the flotilla certainly does not square with its own autocratic rule.
And why not continue to Turkey, whose government provided the most direct support for the flotilla? It is certainly disingenuous to criticise the Israeli occupation and all its attendant human rights violations when it continues to prosecute its own citizens, such as well known Kurdish singer Ferhat Tunç, merely for their political views. More broadly, it refuses to consider the national rights of its Kurdish population - whose ethnic and linguistic identity is far older than that of Palestinians - never mind coming clean about the Armenian genocide.
Crucially, this small wedge of truth allowed Netanyahu to pry open the otherwise near universal condemnation of the Israeli assault on the flotilla and its siege of Gaza, creating the space to continue deploying the standard Israeli rhetoric of describing anyone who supports Palestinians as "opposing peace," while declaring falsely that neither Arab states nor Palestinians are willing to engage in "direct negotiations".
Most of the world do not buy his arguments, but most of the world is not his intended audience, which is limited primarily to two crucial constituencies - Jewish Israeli citizens and diaspora Jews on the one hand, and friendly governments and media establishments, particularly in the US and Western Europe, on the other.
Indeed, in the US, Barack Obama, the US president, has gone as far as to warn Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, that his support for an international probe into the killing of the nine activists "could have negative consequences for Turkey," specifically because it could "turn into a double edged sword" if investigators dug too deep into the government's support for the IHH.
More damaging, the mixing of violence, however minor, with non-violence, has caused aid groups to question the wisdom of participating in future flotillas.
A senior official in one of the US groups that has helped organise previous efforts explained to me: "We've had to really think whether we can participate in any more flotillas, because look where the money is coming from [meaning the IHH]. Not just the violence aboard the one ship, but the hypocrisy of the IHH preaching humanitarian aid while supposedly engaging in violent rhetoric and actions forces us to stop doing precisely the work that most needs to be done or risk alienating our own supporters."
Opposing flotillas
Israelis have also grabbed onto Netanyahu's hypocrisy accusations. Soon after the killings aboard the Mavi Marmara the Union of Israeli University Students declared its intention to create its own flotilla, firstly to sail out and meet the next aid flotilla and ask them why they are focusing obsessively on Israel when their own governments have so much blood on their hands. If possible, they also want to sail to Turkey in support of the country's Kurdish population.
"The goal of our flotilla is to show the hypocrisy of the Gaza flotilla organisers," explained Boaz Toporovsky, a lawyer by training and the union's president.
"They are showing a virtual reality, but we want peace, and we know that most everyone, Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, all want peace. But we need to show that we are a peaceful people, not vicious conquerors as the media depicts us, so we'll come with no sticks, stones, slingshots. We want to point out that Gaza is not the world's biggest problem."
For Toporovsky, the Kurdish issue is crucial. "We're trying to show the overreaction of the Turkish state. It's occupying, it's killing, it occupies Kurdistan and oppresses Kurds. It occupied North Cyprus and ethnically cleansed it. So, while Turkish activists have the right to talk about Gaza, I think that when someone wants another to act in a way they should show the example by taking care of their own house."
Hypocrisy is written all over the Gaza flotillas as far as Toporovsky is concerned. "One third of Israel is under threat from Hamas missiles. I don't know any sovereign country that would let missiles like that strike it routinely. The US wouldn't be as nice as us if the west coast was under a similar threat from Mexico. No other country would be either."
Joining together
It is time to view the conflicts in the region holistically [AFP]Toporovsky is certainly correct in his last statement. But of course, his justification is precisely that used by Hezbollah and Hamas for their military actions against Israel in response to Israeli violence and occupation.
He seems to sense the problem, as he went on to explain that members of his own group "talk about hypocrisy all the time".
"There is a part of the population that doesn't recognise the Palestinians' right to the land and part of the government who wants to have as many settlements as possible."But this is not a matter for the flotilla. For the flotilla we focus on the hypocrisy of the world."
Israel is, of course, as much a part of the world as any other country. And in that context, neither Toporovksy nor the Gaza flotilla organisers have considered a third alternative to focusing on one or the other forms of oppression: Why can there not be flotillas to Gaza and to Istanbul, or the Iranian port city of Bandar Lengeh? Why can activists on all sides not join together to break the siege of Gaza, demand greater respect for Kurdish rights and democracy in Iran?
Such a strategy, of looking at the many conflicts and struggles in the region holistically is gradually dawning on activists across the region. It is perhaps one of the few positive developments of the post-9/11 era.
Whereas a decade ago there were very few Israeli or diaspora Jewish movements actively pursuing a peace and justice agenda vis-a-vis Palestinians and willing directly to challenge the official Israeli narrative and discourse, today it is hard to keep up with all the new groups who are dedicated to challenging the occupation and the "settler Judaism" that enables it.
They point out that the Bible specifically prohibits cutting down fruit bearing trees, a major tactic settlers use to hurt Palestinians and quote the Prophet Isaiah demanding that the People of Israel "unlock the fetters of oppression ... Let the exploited go free, break off every chain".
Muslim activists similarly take inspiration from Islam's essentially "orthopraxic" nature, which demands ethical behaviour as much as proper religious practice, to challenge the fetishisation of violence among militants.Christians, particularly in Palestine, look to the life of Jesus as a model of non-violent direct action against injustice.Holistic non-violent strategy
But there is a difference between religious inspiration and developing a coherent strategy of holistic non-violent resistance against oppression. Such a move, in fact, is at the heart of the non-violent resistance strategies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
Gandhi famously said that non-violence was much harder than violence and took endlessly more patience and discipline.His disciple King was especially attuned to the role of hypocrisy in sustaining racism in the US. He developed a strategy of non-violent direct action whose goal was precisely to reveal the "tensions" within American society that the oppression of blacks produced, and in so doing to create "such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue".
King described this strategy as "non-violent coercion" - using boycotts, sit-ins, education and other forms of militant confrontation it forced the rest of the US to own up to the realities of institutionalised racism.
What protesters today who would mix, however lightly, violence and non-violence do not understand is that once the mirror is muddied, so to speak, you can no longer hold it up to the larger society to reflect their own hypocrisy and injustice.
Moreover, violence, even when largely symbolic - as on the Gaza flotilla, or even the theatre of stone throwing that symbolised the largely non-violent first intifada - makes it that much harder to confront an oppressor with their own contradictions because violence inherently creates new ones on both sides that overshadow the central tension.
Lessons from first intifada
The theatrical violence of stone-throwing corroded the first intifada [AFP]One of the main ongoing debates about the first intifada surrounds the ubiquitous practice of stone throwing.
Many analysts within and outside of Palestinian society argue that the theatrical violence of stone-throwing ultimately corroded the intifada as it became part of a spectrum that increasingly included more overt violence against other Palestinians and Israelis and took a huge physical toll on the Palestinian population.
Palestinian activists like Mubarak Awad, an early proponent of Palestinian non-violence, have long tried to deploy similar strategies in the Occupied Territories. And Israel, understanding the danger posed by them, has routinely deployed even more violence in response, as the routine killing of unarmed protesters at various anti-settlement or anti-wall protests illustrates.
Many Palestinian leaders and activists have adopted non-violence as a valid tactic but few have been willing to adopt it as the primary strategy of resistance, because, in the words of one leader, it would signal weakness to an opponent that only knows the language of force and strength.What King's philosophy and that of contemporary groups who provide non-violence training such as the Ruckus Society - who have in fact been approached by Palestinian groups for training - tell us is that a commitment to non-violence must run deep into the heart of the society if it is to succeed long-term. When faced with non-violence oppressors usually escalate their violence until something snaps in the society at large and the legitimacy of the whole system breaks down.
The question is whether we are approaching such a moment in Israel/Palestine. The success of various forms of non-violence such as the spread of the boycott movement and the flotillas to Gaza has led even Hamas and Hezbollah to signal their appreciation of the power of non-violent resistance as a potentially more effective strategy than violence in taking on Israel.
Only a few years ago, such an admission was impossible to imagine.
The obstacles to such an awareness becoming a well developed strategy are formidable, however.
At its heart, non-violence demands no longer seeing the oppressor as one's enemy but instead as a "sick brother" who needs love to break down the resistance. Because of this, non-violent action engaged in with anger and hatred, as happened on the Mavi Marmara, will not succeed in defeating violence, precisely because those practicing it do not understand the need for self transformation as well as for transforming their adversary.
Beyond nationalism
Seeing one's enemy as a brother or sister is not merely difficult to do psychologically, it presents a direct threat to the larger ideologies underlying the conflicts in the Middle East, particularly Israel/Palestine.
As none other than Rav Avraham Isaac Kook, considered a spiritual father of right-wing Zionism, pointed out about 70 years ago: "The very thought of nationalism is despicable to God, for He equates all mankind. The goal is to seek the true success of all God's creations. True justice means that one views with equal concern the advancement of the entire human race."Kook himself was unable to square this insight with his support for a nationalism that he understood would lead Zionists to "receive the mistaken impression that the Torah endorses this attitude, whereby we should assign a greater value to our own people's good than to the welfare of others".To this day, the majority of Jews, Muslims, Christians and other faiths continue to interpret their religious texts in ways that endorse the very chauvinism and narrow identities against which all great religions, in their essence, preach.
Finally, a new generation is emerging that is trying to return to the texts and pull out precisely the kinds of wisdom that would support non-violent transformation within and between their societies.It remains to be seen whether this insight has arrived too late to save Israelis and Palestinians from themselves, but it is clear that those who have chosen this path deserve the support of all people who wish for a peaceful and just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, and those across the region.
Mark LeVine is a professor of history at UC Irvine and senior visiting researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University in Sweden. His most recent books are Heavy Metal Islam (Random House) and Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books).
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Source:
Al Jazeera
By Mark LeVine
What happens when all sides of a conflict are mired in hypocrisy? [EPA]Almost two millennia ago, the great Chinese military leader and strategist Zhuge Liang admonished his fellow military men that "when hypocrisy sprouts, even if you have the wisdom of ancient warrior kings you could not defeat a peasant, let alone a crowd of them".
He might have well added that hypocrisy is as harmful for the peasants trying to win a measure of freedom as it is to the king that is trying to defeat them.
Which brings us to a question that too few scholars, policy makers and activists have considered in trying to resolve some of the most frustrating conflicts in the Middle East: What happens when all sides of a conflict are so mired in hypocrisy that no one can steer a path towards some sort of solution?A limit on force
It is easy to see the hypocrisy of the powerful. It takes little effort to compare the democracy and freedom rhetoric of successive US administrations to the reality of war, occupation and support for oppressive and corrupt regimes.
Similarly, Israel's routine declarations in support of a peaceful resolution to its conflict with the Palestinians are easily contradicted by its actions on the ground in the Occupied Territories.
On the other hand, emerging global powers like China are alternatively credited and criticised for their lack of political or diplomatic hypocrisy. They do business with almost every government as long as it suits their strategic interests with no pretension to worrying about human rights or other basic freedoms.
Yet however corrosive to democratic governance in war-torn "imperial democracies" like the US, hypocrisy can serve as a useful check on the otherwise raw deployment of political power. The need to appear to follow certain norms or self-described ideals places some limits on the use of force; that is one of the key reasons for the development of the new US counterinsurgency strategy deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Indeed, according to the now infamous Rolling Stone expose, one of the things that led to General Stanley McChrystal's unpopularity with many of his troops was precisely his insistence that his troops go out of their way to avoid harming Afghan civilians, even if it meant putting themselves at greater risk during military operations.
Hypocrisy and power
Mixing violence with non-violence undermines the larger mission [AFP]But, what happens when the weaker, oppressed and/or occupied side of a conflict, or those supporting it, engage in hypocrisy of their own?
Hypocrisy is always a double edged sword; but in the case of anti-colonial struggles both sides of the blade cut the weaker party more deeply.
The Bush administration deployed a clearly hypocritical democracy rhetoric in Iraq because it provided enough of a veneer of legitimacy to allow US forces to become permanently entrenched in the country. The duplicitous behaviour of various Sunni and Shia groups enabled the US to solidify its position.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israeli government hypocrisy surrounding the peace process has long provided just enough legitimacy to ensure the quiescence of the majority of the Israeli Jewish public, and as importantly, the support of the US political and media establishments.
For their part, Palestinians have not had the luxury of hypocrisy. The duplicities and moral inconsistencies of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas leaders - from pledging democracy and accountability while ruling through violence and corruption, to supporting a two-state solution in English while speaking far more radically in Arabic - have long been expertly exploited by Israel to argue that the larger Palestinian peace discourse was a fraud or, at least, untenable.Cost-benefit calculus
The Gaza flotilla tragedy that saw nine Turkish activists killed by Israeli commandos offers an object lesson in the costs and benefit calculus of hypocrisy when engaged in by, or in this case, on behalf of, Palestinians. And it is one that future flotillas would do well to take heed of.
While the vast majority of activists participating in the flotilla were committed to non-violence, the well organised group of dozens of activists from the IHH movement who, as the captain of the Mavi Marmara revealed and video of an on board rally before the raid confirmed, planned to attack Israeli commandos when they boarded the ship, provided just enough evidence of hypocrisy on the part of the flotilla.
Why would a peaceful and non-violent humanitarian mission violently attack soldiers, the Israeli government and its supporters argued to discredit or at least call into question the larger mission in crucial sectors of the Israeli and American media and political establishments.
As non-violence expert Michael Nagler, who was consulted by organisers of the flotilla about how to deal with just such a scenario, explains: "Our point was that .... in non-violence, as in many other activities, it's a bad idea to do two things at once. However, mixing aid with controversial delivery people is nothing compared to what must be avoided at all costs: confusing non-violence with violence."
Doing two things at once, particularly mixing violence with non-violence, offered Israel the opening it needed to challenge the entire flotilla."Once again, Israel faces hypocrisy and a biased rush to judgement," Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, argued in defending the commandos' actions.
Later, he suggested that flotilla activists should sail to Tehran, exclaiming: "I call on all human rights activists in the world go to Tehran, that's where there is a human rights violation."Wedge of truth
The use of violence allowed Netanyahu to deploy the usual Israeli rhetoric [EPA]Netanyahu has a point.The Iranian government, which offered strong support to the flotilla and threatened to send its own ships to escort the next one, is flagrantly violating the most basic human, civil and political rights of its citizens.
Peace and democracy activists should be routinely sending flotillas to Iran in solidarity with the democracy movement there. They could certainly send one to Latakia, Syria's main Mediterranean port, as well, since the support by the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, for the flotilla certainly does not square with its own autocratic rule.
And why not continue to Turkey, whose government provided the most direct support for the flotilla? It is certainly disingenuous to criticise the Israeli occupation and all its attendant human rights violations when it continues to prosecute its own citizens, such as well known Kurdish singer Ferhat Tunç, merely for their political views. More broadly, it refuses to consider the national rights of its Kurdish population - whose ethnic and linguistic identity is far older than that of Palestinians - never mind coming clean about the Armenian genocide.
Crucially, this small wedge of truth allowed Netanyahu to pry open the otherwise near universal condemnation of the Israeli assault on the flotilla and its siege of Gaza, creating the space to continue deploying the standard Israeli rhetoric of describing anyone who supports Palestinians as "opposing peace," while declaring falsely that neither Arab states nor Palestinians are willing to engage in "direct negotiations".
Most of the world do not buy his arguments, but most of the world is not his intended audience, which is limited primarily to two crucial constituencies - Jewish Israeli citizens and diaspora Jews on the one hand, and friendly governments and media establishments, particularly in the US and Western Europe, on the other.
Indeed, in the US, Barack Obama, the US president, has gone as far as to warn Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, that his support for an international probe into the killing of the nine activists "could have negative consequences for Turkey," specifically because it could "turn into a double edged sword" if investigators dug too deep into the government's support for the IHH.
More damaging, the mixing of violence, however minor, with non-violence, has caused aid groups to question the wisdom of participating in future flotillas.
A senior official in one of the US groups that has helped organise previous efforts explained to me: "We've had to really think whether we can participate in any more flotillas, because look where the money is coming from [meaning the IHH]. Not just the violence aboard the one ship, but the hypocrisy of the IHH preaching humanitarian aid while supposedly engaging in violent rhetoric and actions forces us to stop doing precisely the work that most needs to be done or risk alienating our own supporters."
Opposing flotillas
Israelis have also grabbed onto Netanyahu's hypocrisy accusations. Soon after the killings aboard the Mavi Marmara the Union of Israeli University Students declared its intention to create its own flotilla, firstly to sail out and meet the next aid flotilla and ask them why they are focusing obsessively on Israel when their own governments have so much blood on their hands. If possible, they also want to sail to Turkey in support of the country's Kurdish population.
"The goal of our flotilla is to show the hypocrisy of the Gaza flotilla organisers," explained Boaz Toporovsky, a lawyer by training and the union's president.
"They are showing a virtual reality, but we want peace, and we know that most everyone, Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, all want peace. But we need to show that we are a peaceful people, not vicious conquerors as the media depicts us, so we'll come with no sticks, stones, slingshots. We want to point out that Gaza is not the world's biggest problem."
For Toporovsky, the Kurdish issue is crucial. "We're trying to show the overreaction of the Turkish state. It's occupying, it's killing, it occupies Kurdistan and oppresses Kurds. It occupied North Cyprus and ethnically cleansed it. So, while Turkish activists have the right to talk about Gaza, I think that when someone wants another to act in a way they should show the example by taking care of their own house."
Hypocrisy is written all over the Gaza flotillas as far as Toporovsky is concerned. "One third of Israel is under threat from Hamas missiles. I don't know any sovereign country that would let missiles like that strike it routinely. The US wouldn't be as nice as us if the west coast was under a similar threat from Mexico. No other country would be either."
Joining together
It is time to view the conflicts in the region holistically [AFP]Toporovsky is certainly correct in his last statement. But of course, his justification is precisely that used by Hezbollah and Hamas for their military actions against Israel in response to Israeli violence and occupation.
He seems to sense the problem, as he went on to explain that members of his own group "talk about hypocrisy all the time".
"There is a part of the population that doesn't recognise the Palestinians' right to the land and part of the government who wants to have as many settlements as possible."But this is not a matter for the flotilla. For the flotilla we focus on the hypocrisy of the world."
Israel is, of course, as much a part of the world as any other country. And in that context, neither Toporovksy nor the Gaza flotilla organisers have considered a third alternative to focusing on one or the other forms of oppression: Why can there not be flotillas to Gaza and to Istanbul, or the Iranian port city of Bandar Lengeh? Why can activists on all sides not join together to break the siege of Gaza, demand greater respect for Kurdish rights and democracy in Iran?
Such a strategy, of looking at the many conflicts and struggles in the region holistically is gradually dawning on activists across the region. It is perhaps one of the few positive developments of the post-9/11 era.
Whereas a decade ago there were very few Israeli or diaspora Jewish movements actively pursuing a peace and justice agenda vis-a-vis Palestinians and willing directly to challenge the official Israeli narrative and discourse, today it is hard to keep up with all the new groups who are dedicated to challenging the occupation and the "settler Judaism" that enables it.
They point out that the Bible specifically prohibits cutting down fruit bearing trees, a major tactic settlers use to hurt Palestinians and quote the Prophet Isaiah demanding that the People of Israel "unlock the fetters of oppression ... Let the exploited go free, break off every chain".
Muslim activists similarly take inspiration from Islam's essentially "orthopraxic" nature, which demands ethical behaviour as much as proper religious practice, to challenge the fetishisation of violence among militants.Christians, particularly in Palestine, look to the life of Jesus as a model of non-violent direct action against injustice.Holistic non-violent strategy
But there is a difference between religious inspiration and developing a coherent strategy of holistic non-violent resistance against oppression. Such a move, in fact, is at the heart of the non-violent resistance strategies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
Gandhi famously said that non-violence was much harder than violence and took endlessly more patience and discipline.His disciple King was especially attuned to the role of hypocrisy in sustaining racism in the US. He developed a strategy of non-violent direct action whose goal was precisely to reveal the "tensions" within American society that the oppression of blacks produced, and in so doing to create "such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue".
King described this strategy as "non-violent coercion" - using boycotts, sit-ins, education and other forms of militant confrontation it forced the rest of the US to own up to the realities of institutionalised racism.
What protesters today who would mix, however lightly, violence and non-violence do not understand is that once the mirror is muddied, so to speak, you can no longer hold it up to the larger society to reflect their own hypocrisy and injustice.
Moreover, violence, even when largely symbolic - as on the Gaza flotilla, or even the theatre of stone throwing that symbolised the largely non-violent first intifada - makes it that much harder to confront an oppressor with their own contradictions because violence inherently creates new ones on both sides that overshadow the central tension.
Lessons from first intifada
The theatrical violence of stone-throwing corroded the first intifada [AFP]One of the main ongoing debates about the first intifada surrounds the ubiquitous practice of stone throwing.
Many analysts within and outside of Palestinian society argue that the theatrical violence of stone-throwing ultimately corroded the intifada as it became part of a spectrum that increasingly included more overt violence against other Palestinians and Israelis and took a huge physical toll on the Palestinian population.
Palestinian activists like Mubarak Awad, an early proponent of Palestinian non-violence, have long tried to deploy similar strategies in the Occupied Territories. And Israel, understanding the danger posed by them, has routinely deployed even more violence in response, as the routine killing of unarmed protesters at various anti-settlement or anti-wall protests illustrates.
Many Palestinian leaders and activists have adopted non-violence as a valid tactic but few have been willing to adopt it as the primary strategy of resistance, because, in the words of one leader, it would signal weakness to an opponent that only knows the language of force and strength.What King's philosophy and that of contemporary groups who provide non-violence training such as the Ruckus Society - who have in fact been approached by Palestinian groups for training - tell us is that a commitment to non-violence must run deep into the heart of the society if it is to succeed long-term. When faced with non-violence oppressors usually escalate their violence until something snaps in the society at large and the legitimacy of the whole system breaks down.
The question is whether we are approaching such a moment in Israel/Palestine. The success of various forms of non-violence such as the spread of the boycott movement and the flotillas to Gaza has led even Hamas and Hezbollah to signal their appreciation of the power of non-violent resistance as a potentially more effective strategy than violence in taking on Israel.
Only a few years ago, such an admission was impossible to imagine.
The obstacles to such an awareness becoming a well developed strategy are formidable, however.
At its heart, non-violence demands no longer seeing the oppressor as one's enemy but instead as a "sick brother" who needs love to break down the resistance. Because of this, non-violent action engaged in with anger and hatred, as happened on the Mavi Marmara, will not succeed in defeating violence, precisely because those practicing it do not understand the need for self transformation as well as for transforming their adversary.
Beyond nationalism
Seeing one's enemy as a brother or sister is not merely difficult to do psychologically, it presents a direct threat to the larger ideologies underlying the conflicts in the Middle East, particularly Israel/Palestine.
As none other than Rav Avraham Isaac Kook, considered a spiritual father of right-wing Zionism, pointed out about 70 years ago: "The very thought of nationalism is despicable to God, for He equates all mankind. The goal is to seek the true success of all God's creations. True justice means that one views with equal concern the advancement of the entire human race."Kook himself was unable to square this insight with his support for a nationalism that he understood would lead Zionists to "receive the mistaken impression that the Torah endorses this attitude, whereby we should assign a greater value to our own people's good than to the welfare of others".To this day, the majority of Jews, Muslims, Christians and other faiths continue to interpret their religious texts in ways that endorse the very chauvinism and narrow identities against which all great religions, in their essence, preach.
Finally, a new generation is emerging that is trying to return to the texts and pull out precisely the kinds of wisdom that would support non-violent transformation within and between their societies.It remains to be seen whether this insight has arrived too late to save Israelis and Palestinians from themselves, but it is clear that those who have chosen this path deserve the support of all people who wish for a peaceful and just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, and those across the region.
Mark LeVine is a professor of history at UC Irvine and senior visiting researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University in Sweden. His most recent books are Heavy Metal Islam (Random House) and Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books).
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Source:
Al Jazeera
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Peace and Point of Views
There is little in this world to be optimistic about
As I am not a born-happy person
You might find it hard to find any happy tunes from my tongue
It does not mean that I don’t have any sunshine in my brain
yet it is true that
I will never apologize for my sometimes radical views
But it is possible to live with Peace when things go hand in hand
I wish you and I are having
Peace in mind
peace in brain
peace in words
peace in eyes
Peace in tongue
Peace in skins
Peace in stomach
Peace in hands
Peace in dreams
Peace in the pillows
Peace in the kitchen
Peace in the pocket
Peace in the family
Peace in the neighbourhood
Peace in the city
Peace in the countries
Peace in the world
As I am not a born-happy person
You might find it hard to find any happy tunes from my tongue
It does not mean that I don’t have any sunshine in my brain
yet it is true that
I will never apologize for my sometimes radical views
But it is possible to live with Peace when things go hand in hand
I wish you and I are having
Peace in mind
peace in brain
peace in words
peace in eyes
Peace in tongue
Peace in skins
Peace in stomach
Peace in hands
Peace in dreams
Peace in the pillows
Peace in the kitchen
Peace in the pocket
Peace in the family
Peace in the neighbourhood
Peace in the city
Peace in the countries
Peace in the world
BBC Burmese
A morning,
I woke up with the shining light
Start preparing the food for a day
What am I going to give to my son?
What am I going to eat for today?
What shall I prepare for today?
When I got that done
My little son is waking up and walking straight to the kitchen
I embrace him in my arms
His little heart is not entirely awake yet
He wants to continue to be kept in my arms and my warm chest
Then, after we have done the kitchen work
What do we got for today to wash?
Put them in the machine
We are done
Let me give you food honey sweetie baby
It’s time for me to listen to BBCBurmese too
What do you got for me BBCBurmese?
One monk ( I don’t remember his name) said
If you want to feel unpleasant, listen to BBCBurmese and
If you want to feel wonderful,
listen to the Myanmar News (inside the country) of course.
Inside the country, the news is always wonderful
Everything is well
Everyone is great
Today is the day for opening ceremony of this and that
Those ceremonies were opened by the great generals
They look so wonderful with their uniforms
Their eyes are beaming
Oh well, there may be nothing more to report within the country
Myanmar must be such a wonder land on earth!
rather than the opening ceremonies by the generals I thought,
when I was inside the country.
Listening to the BBCBurmese,
I got more news than forever wonderful news within the country
Although some are bias and very right-wing western point of views,
Still better than before of course
In fact, the choice is so little to be informed yourself
Most of the world reports repeat the same things
So, what the BBCBurmese can do more than repeating the same old stories!!!
Well, good morning
The day has started for me.
I woke up with the shining light
Start preparing the food for a day
What am I going to give to my son?
What am I going to eat for today?
What shall I prepare for today?
When I got that done
My little son is waking up and walking straight to the kitchen
I embrace him in my arms
His little heart is not entirely awake yet
He wants to continue to be kept in my arms and my warm chest
Then, after we have done the kitchen work
What do we got for today to wash?
Put them in the machine
We are done
Let me give you food honey sweetie baby
It’s time for me to listen to BBCBurmese too
What do you got for me BBCBurmese?
One monk ( I don’t remember his name) said
If you want to feel unpleasant, listen to BBCBurmese and
If you want to feel wonderful,
listen to the Myanmar News (inside the country) of course.
Inside the country, the news is always wonderful
Everything is well
Everyone is great
Today is the day for opening ceremony of this and that
Those ceremonies were opened by the great generals
They look so wonderful with their uniforms
Their eyes are beaming
Oh well, there may be nothing more to report within the country
Myanmar must be such a wonder land on earth!
rather than the opening ceremonies by the generals I thought,
when I was inside the country.
Listening to the BBCBurmese,
I got more news than forever wonderful news within the country
Although some are bias and very right-wing western point of views,
Still better than before of course
In fact, the choice is so little to be informed yourself
Most of the world reports repeat the same things
So, what the BBCBurmese can do more than repeating the same old stories!!!
Well, good morning
The day has started for me.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
the re-birth of the colonial-masters estate
In fact, colonial mentality and work was never disappeared
former colonial maters still trying to keep their privileges
in different forms, appearances and flavors
The work they do was very cherishtable Charity work with the string attachments,
correcting the dictators countries into total impoverish
supporting the oppositions of their enemies
manipulating the big United Nations' power and authority
The word " International Community" simply means the Western super power house.
confusion of the world
who are the enemies of the poor
who are the direct and indirect enemies of the developing world
who are keeping the poor under their feet?
the colonial-masters estate was reborn immediately after the they have given up their colonies.
The World Bank and IMF are the mastering the world trade and world welath.
These two rule the whole world.
I am sorry to say but colonialism was resurrected just the day after it has died.
They even become stronger when they can sell well democracy and human rights.
former colonial maters still trying to keep their privileges
in different forms, appearances and flavors
The work they do was very cherishtable Charity work with the string attachments,
correcting the dictators countries into total impoverish
supporting the oppositions of their enemies
manipulating the big United Nations' power and authority
The word " International Community" simply means the Western super power house.
confusion of the world
who are the enemies of the poor
who are the direct and indirect enemies of the developing world
who are keeping the poor under their feet?
the colonial-masters estate was reborn immediately after the they have given up their colonies.
The World Bank and IMF are the mastering the world trade and world welath.
These two rule the whole world.
I am sorry to say but colonialism was resurrected just the day after it has died.
They even become stronger when they can sell well democracy and human rights.
Friday, July 2, 2010
the lost paradise of my mother
my mother
who was born and raised in a big family in Kachin state
Her father was alcoholic veterinarian, who got 13 or so kids with her mother.
Everyday she experienced was her father's violence against her mother.
But her mother, my grandmother thought everything was normal
beating up by the husband is normal,
continue serving the husband without hesitation after abuses were normal
My grandmother's attitude was carried out by my mother
When she eloped with my father, she was 18 and
i was born when she was 19 and my father was 17.
She met with my father's father's family in Yangon.
Praying in the morning in front of the Buddha stupa and alter
wishing well for all beings before the day starts
She thought she has found the paradise on earth.
She thought the deep hell of her father's curses are finished.
Now she is in the new life and has found a paradise.
the most unfortunate was
My father continued the typical Burmese male attitude and beat his wife.
My mother thought/still thinks it is normal.
she did not realize that this was the beginning of the lost of her paradise.
who was born and raised in a big family in Kachin state
Her father was alcoholic veterinarian, who got 13 or so kids with her mother.
Everyday she experienced was her father's violence against her mother.
But her mother, my grandmother thought everything was normal
beating up by the husband is normal,
continue serving the husband without hesitation after abuses were normal
My grandmother's attitude was carried out by my mother
When she eloped with my father, she was 18 and
i was born when she was 19 and my father was 17.
She met with my father's father's family in Yangon.
Praying in the morning in front of the Buddha stupa and alter
wishing well for all beings before the day starts
She thought she has found the paradise on earth.
She thought the deep hell of her father's curses are finished.
Now she is in the new life and has found a paradise.
the most unfortunate was
My father continued the typical Burmese male attitude and beat his wife.
My mother thought/still thinks it is normal.
she did not realize that this was the beginning of the lost of her paradise.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
what makes a great city?
The 2010 report is now out, covering 221 of the world's capital and major cities. The firm's worldwide rankings are produced using 39 factors in ten categories, including:
1. Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement)
2. Economic environment (currency-exchange regulations, banking services)
3. Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom)
4. Health and sanitation (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution)
5. Schools and education (standard and availability of international schools)
6. Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transport, traffic congestion)
7. Recreation (restaurants, theatres, cinemas, sports and leisure)
8. Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars)
9. Housing (housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services)
10. Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters)
Mercer produces individual reports for each country and then ranks them in order, using New York City as its baseline with a score of 100. Its latest report was compiled between September and November 2009.
http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/27052010/389/best-cities-world-live.html
1. Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement)
2. Economic environment (currency-exchange regulations, banking services)
3. Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom)
4. Health and sanitation (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution)
5. Schools and education (standard and availability of international schools)
6. Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transport, traffic congestion)
7. Recreation (restaurants, theatres, cinemas, sports and leisure)
8. Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars)
9. Housing (housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services)
10. Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters)
Mercer produces individual reports for each country and then ranks them in order, using New York City as its baseline with a score of 100. Its latest report was compiled between September and November 2009.
http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/27052010/389/best-cities-world-live.html
Remembering Baba Thaung
Hmmm…
It is difficult to write about Baba Thaung
He is the one that I care and who loves me dearly.
He has gone now from this world
There are very few people I can personally connect to
He is one of the most of my concerns
He was a Communist
He was a government servant
He was a lawyer
He got no home
His pension was not even enough for one day expenses
Poor like hell
When his wife Kyin Kyin, who also loved me so much alive
They lived in my grandmother’s house
After the wife died, Baba Thaung was kicked out by his own sister, my grandmother.
He had no place to go.
I didn’t have enough money
to support him for everything he required
like home and living expenditure
What could I do?
Myself didn’t have a job
I could only support him from time to time
with some money which he can spend for a few days.
I felt so sad about that.
I felt so sad about that.
I still feel so sad about that.
He is gone now
He may be happier now than ever
He was a very strong-will man
But he did not have the money to pay his bills
Government has done nothing for those old-pensioners,
who serves for the nation for their entire lives
the entire system of my country got many things to repair
Government should care for those old-pensioners
They deserve the decent living standard after their retirement
Contemporary country’s situation is bound to unfair
the gap between the rich and the poor is higher than ever
Increasing corruption is the day to day life style of the Burmese
How are we gonna solve this?
More questions to be raised than I can get the answers
It is difficult to write about Baba Thaung
He is the one that I care and who loves me dearly.
He has gone now from this world
There are very few people I can personally connect to
He is one of the most of my concerns
He was a Communist
He was a government servant
He was a lawyer
He got no home
His pension was not even enough for one day expenses
Poor like hell
When his wife Kyin Kyin, who also loved me so much alive
They lived in my grandmother’s house
After the wife died, Baba Thaung was kicked out by his own sister, my grandmother.
He had no place to go.
I didn’t have enough money
to support him for everything he required
like home and living expenditure
What could I do?
Myself didn’t have a job
I could only support him from time to time
with some money which he can spend for a few days.
I felt so sad about that.
I felt so sad about that.
I still feel so sad about that.
He is gone now
He may be happier now than ever
He was a very strong-will man
But he did not have the money to pay his bills
Government has done nothing for those old-pensioners,
who serves for the nation for their entire lives
the entire system of my country got many things to repair
Government should care for those old-pensioners
They deserve the decent living standard after their retirement
Contemporary country’s situation is bound to unfair
the gap between the rich and the poor is higher than ever
Increasing corruption is the day to day life style of the Burmese
How are we gonna solve this?
More questions to be raised than I can get the answers
Far Away from Everything
2009 September
Please realize that I am far away from
everything I dreamt of or I needed to have.
I am in a foreign country where most people are rude,
the policy is disgusting and
I know nothing of their language.
I am alone (entirely alone with the baby) without any help.
When you come home you come home like a visitor.
I am just now getting realize that where I am.
I am getting nervous, anxious and lost my concentration.
I don’t remember what I have done or what I was thinking just one second ago.
Do you think I can handle this more?
I tried to calm down but I can hardly succeed.
I can only be normal as soon as I am out of this city and
far away from this burden of loneliness without any help.
The best place for me is Thailand.
If I go home now to Myanmar,
it is still a lot of pressure there.
Please realize that I am far away from
everything I dreamt of or I needed to have.
I am in a foreign country where most people are rude,
the policy is disgusting and
I know nothing of their language.
I am alone (entirely alone with the baby) without any help.
When you come home you come home like a visitor.
I am just now getting realize that where I am.
I am getting nervous, anxious and lost my concentration.
I don’t remember what I have done or what I was thinking just one second ago.
Do you think I can handle this more?
I tried to calm down but I can hardly succeed.
I can only be normal as soon as I am out of this city and
far away from this burden of loneliness without any help.
The best place for me is Thailand.
If I go home now to Myanmar,
it is still a lot of pressure there.
To my grandmothers
Christmas 2007, Vienna, Austria
Exactly 2007 25 December,
For some reasons I was looking back all the pictures in search of my two grandmothers pictures. They passed away this year. One is 69 and another is 72 and one day. This is an awful experience for me to settle my mind. I just tempt to forget it but obviously never succeed, I am thinking of them and I don’t know how I can think of myself regards of my behavior towards them. I don’t know how I should make any remarks to their death. It is pretty sad. I don’t want them to die even though I have little connection with them. They are still in a livable ages. They should have live longer or at least they should wait until I come back. I feel guilty. I feel sad. I feel sorry for them and myself.
I now understand how fast we live in this world. I am loosing the people that I related with. They were just gone and never come back to this human world or do they? That’s beyond my reach. I am now practically understanding nothing I can take it for granted. Things can happen any moment of the day. I have not prepared the death of my grandmothers in this way, in this time.
Today, I found myself as a lost person. I never feel such an emptiness and useless person. I feel like I am definitely in the wrong setting.
Exactly 2007 25 December,
For some reasons I was looking back all the pictures in search of my two grandmothers pictures. They passed away this year. One is 69 and another is 72 and one day. This is an awful experience for me to settle my mind. I just tempt to forget it but obviously never succeed, I am thinking of them and I don’t know how I can think of myself regards of my behavior towards them. I don’t know how I should make any remarks to their death. It is pretty sad. I don’t want them to die even though I have little connection with them. They are still in a livable ages. They should have live longer or at least they should wait until I come back. I feel guilty. I feel sad. I feel sorry for them and myself.
I now understand how fast we live in this world. I am loosing the people that I related with. They were just gone and never come back to this human world or do they? That’s beyond my reach. I am now practically understanding nothing I can take it for granted. Things can happen any moment of the day. I have not prepared the death of my grandmothers in this way, in this time.
Today, I found myself as a lost person. I never feel such an emptiness and useless person. I feel like I am definitely in the wrong setting.
How the world has changed
How the world has changed
From the colonial period where the strongs colonized the weaks and
Suck everything out
Made them the lower class citizen of the world
People despite them
Revolted against them
Fought them to kick them out
Political weather map has changed now
Those monster colonizers are now labeled themselves as
The humanitarians,
Donors for the poor,
Fight for the right causes
Human rights watcher
Care-taker of the disadvantage people
Legitimacy and control…
Keep on going with the different phases and labels
Somehow, you wonder
When and how did these magical facial changes happened?
Political Oppositions
take over the role of nationalists and
Place themselves in high-moral ground
Fight against the evil doer governments (military dictators or civilian dictators)
And the story continues
Oppositions put the ex-colonizers as the saviors for their causes
And brand them as their rescuers
And thanks them for their actions against sanctioning their own nations’ economies
hmmm…
There must be a trick how we got there...
How these evil governments got into power?
Who supported them or which circumstances push them up onto power?
There we go the Buddhist life circle
One can only see the truth when he/she wishes to see it.
Who is ruling this world?
Who is controlling your country and deepening down into the poverty?
If you can’t remove this illusion and
Blaming each other instead of cooperating
Killing each other instead of loving and try to find ways to improve your country
Then, I would say
You get what you deserve
From the colonial period where the strongs colonized the weaks and
Suck everything out
Made them the lower class citizen of the world
People despite them
Revolted against them
Fought them to kick them out
Political weather map has changed now
Those monster colonizers are now labeled themselves as
The humanitarians,
Donors for the poor,
Fight for the right causes
Human rights watcher
Care-taker of the disadvantage people
Legitimacy and control…
Keep on going with the different phases and labels
Somehow, you wonder
When and how did these magical facial changes happened?
Political Oppositions
take over the role of nationalists and
Place themselves in high-moral ground
Fight against the evil doer governments (military dictators or civilian dictators)
And the story continues
Oppositions put the ex-colonizers as the saviors for their causes
And brand them as their rescuers
And thanks them for their actions against sanctioning their own nations’ economies
hmmm…
There must be a trick how we got there...
How these evil governments got into power?
Who supported them or which circumstances push them up onto power?
There we go the Buddhist life circle
One can only see the truth when he/she wishes to see it.
Who is ruling this world?
Who is controlling your country and deepening down into the poverty?
If you can’t remove this illusion and
Blaming each other instead of cooperating
Killing each other instead of loving and try to find ways to improve your country
Then, I would say
You get what you deserve
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Satisfaction
What shall i do to be satisfied with myself
what shall i do to accept today
what shall i do not to think about tomorrow
what shall i do to soothe my brain
what shall i do to adjust with a new me
what shall i do to adjust with the old me
what shall i do to feel
the aroma of peace in my blood, brains and vains
what shall i do to accept today
what shall i do not to think about tomorrow
what shall i do to soothe my brain
what shall i do to adjust with a new me
what shall i do to adjust with the old me
what shall i do to feel
the aroma of peace in my blood, brains and vains
Eccentricism
I am being passive in many ways nowadays
I feel like or i act like a brain-damaged person
or is my brain empty?
people treate me like a silly
Like a mad dog sometimes
like a loser sometimes
like a ...
hmmm.
i don't know anymore
i am somehow lost in my thinking and being myself
no no no no no
this is not the way i am
or this is not the way i was
or this is not me anymore
I feel like or i act like a brain-damaged person
or is my brain empty?
people treate me like a silly
Like a mad dog sometimes
like a loser sometimes
like a ...
hmmm.
i don't know anymore
i am somehow lost in my thinking and being myself
no no no no no
this is not the way i am
or this is not the way i was
or this is not me anymore
Political questions
Seeing the chaos, shooting, and deaths
on the streets of Bangkok
what is this for I wonder
human blood on the streets
civil unrest and democracy
elites and the commons
government and control
where are the limits?
who is taking what limit and boundary?
so confusing for me
many questions arouse
and you?
give me some lectures?
on the streets of Bangkok
what is this for I wonder
human blood on the streets
civil unrest and democracy
elites and the commons
government and control
where are the limits?
who is taking what limit and boundary?
so confusing for me
many questions arouse
and you?
give me some lectures?
at the age of 1 year 6 month and 29 days
Oliver
such a little charater
i can't believe how he get this character
explosive
demanding
persistence in a course of action
bloody hell this little demon of mine
I am glad i have him
but i don't know why
a little baby like Ollie
can be so and so...
such a little charater
i can't believe how he get this character
explosive
demanding
persistence in a course of action
bloody hell this little demon of mine
I am glad i have him
but i don't know why
a little baby like Ollie
can be so and so...
contemporary life!
Strange life
Stange world
I don't follow anymore
the only meaning i have now is
my little son
Without him
what do i care?
Stange world
I don't follow anymore
the only meaning i have now is
my little son
Without him
what do i care?
what am i?
hey I have so much fun
with my little one Ollie and
with all the assignments with the deadlines...
Someone told me that i am a glutton for punishment
No Panic
That's life
Who am i to judge what am i?
(2010 May 18)
with my little one Ollie and
with all the assignments with the deadlines...
Someone told me that i am a glutton for punishment
No Panic
That's life
Who am i to judge what am i?
(2010 May 18)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Nyeinchan means peaceful in my own language
you know
My live is peaceful
the moment i see my little one Ollie
his name is Pyi Aye in Bumrese Country of Peace
I wish to end all our mess in my home country-Myanmar
that is why i call my son a country of peace
what else do we want
live with dignity
live with prosperity
live with respect
what else do we want more?
my son is called pyi aye
i wish him to be
peaceful, prosper and being respected
together with my country!
you know
My live is peaceful
the moment i see my little one Ollie
his name is Pyi Aye in Bumrese Country of Peace
I wish to end all our mess in my home country-Myanmar
that is why i call my son a country of peace
what else do we want
live with dignity
live with prosperity
live with respect
what else do we want more?
my son is called pyi aye
i wish him to be
peaceful, prosper and being respected
together with my country!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
My friend called D
Her name is D.
She is a lovely Asian girl
She wants love and attentions
She gives loves and care too
She is the one who got cancer
she is the one who lost her brother and father from cancer
She is the one her mother indebted and detained because of the heavy medical bills
She is the one who survived from cancer by bone marrow transplantation
Her life is a ture tragedy,
it's almost like impossible to be true
She got no meat, no veggies to eat with rice
Her mother's laundary work doesn't seem enough to feed the family
her teaching to the kids had not covered enough for the decent meals
heart-breaking story,
it is so tragic that impossible to be true.
She is the true hero
I met her in European University Centre for Peace Studies in Austria
She was an Asian and I was an Asian.
We have the same texture of hair and similar complexion
Since that time she was sick with cancer
But she did manage to finish her study
I was amazed how can she be so brave
She cut me off for two years and a half
Now that she wrote me the story
The horror of the life
I am amazed
How brave she is
The true she
Her name is D
Friday, January 8, 2010
Oliver is going to be 15 month old
Is this not something special?
My son Oliver is becoming 15 month old boy
he was born in October 19 2008
under the snow in Austria
The hospital was called Golden Kruz
he was born about a month premarually
But his weigh and height was as normal as any baby
Now he is a walking baby with 8 teethes
He repeats some few words
The world is openned for him with warmest arms
He is loved by his parents
he is now a walking baby with 8 teethes
Yesterday, we went for lunch with his papa's college couple
Oliver was a scandal and an active volcano
smash everything on the table
mess all the food up from his papa's college's wife's lunch plate
The couple was Iranians and they were too nice
What is going to happen to my boy in the future
he will be soon going to kindergarten
he will be soon having many friends
he will be soon more exploration of the world
how can I teach him to be a good mannered boy
It is going to be a big challenge
anyhow, he is a brilliant active kid with very curious mind
maymay soe soe
Is this not something special?
My son Oliver is becoming 15 month old boy
he was born in October 19 2008
under the snow in Austria
The hospital was called Golden Kruz
he was born about a month premarually
But his weigh and height was as normal as any baby
Now he is a walking baby with 8 teethes
He repeats some few words
The world is openned for him with warmest arms
He is loved by his parents
he is now a walking baby with 8 teethes
Yesterday, we went for lunch with his papa's college couple
Oliver was a scandal and an active volcano
smash everything on the table
mess all the food up from his papa's college's wife's lunch plate
The couple was Iranians and they were too nice
What is going to happen to my boy in the future
he will be soon going to kindergarten
he will be soon having many friends
he will be soon more exploration of the world
how can I teach him to be a good mannered boy
It is going to be a big challenge
anyhow, he is a brilliant active kid with very curious mind
maymay soe soe
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