Peaceful demonstrations

MONDAY JULY 24 2006

• Canada Vancouver Vigil at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Robonson Square 6:00pm
• Germany Leipzig Nicolai Kirche 5:00pm
• France Valence Hotel de Ville 7:00pm

TUESDAY JULY 25 2006

• Canada Vancouver US Consulate, 1075 West Pender St. 12:30pm
• Germany Leipzig Nicolai Kirche 9:00pm
• Ireland Dublin Israeli Embassy 1:00pm
• France Paris devant le mur de la Paix au Champs de Mars 7:30pm
• Italy Milan Piazza San Babila 9:00pm

WEDNESDAY JULY 26 2006

• Brazil Rio de Janeiro Republica do Libano Street, downtown Rio 2:00pm
• Canada Vancouver 1880 Triumph Street - Off Victoria from Hastings 5:30pm
• Portugal Lisbon Israeli Embassy 6:30pm
• Portugal Porto Praca da Batulha 6:30pm USA Boston Copley Square 5:00pm
• USA Boston Copley Square 5:00pm

THURSDAY JULY 27 2006

• Canada Vancouver Canadian Immigration Detention Center, 808 West Georgia St. 12:30pm

Where have the good ones gone?

What the fuck is this World?! Where have good people's hearts gone? Is this true or we're numb? Starved children shamelessly slaughtered...

There is no single nation worth the cost of war. There is even less pride to take in inflicting suffering in the name of that nation.

There is no freedom in armed fightings. And there are no borders deep enough to withhold their shattered blood.

The ones who rule this world are the ones who make oceans go dry. Which they do for the same reasons why lethal heat waves blow old people away. For the promise of a one-time-fee democracy, we give you lifelong screwology!!! Welcome to Capital Hill. Look at them, they harnessed it...

So if that's what civilization is about, I don't even want to hear about it.

We have invented a zillion ways and laws to take away my life but which one of these will bring her child back...

She's crawling and crying; pertinently knows no one will take her pain away. Mr. Minister, will you please give this poor lady your child for supper? If not yours, then your citizens'... Then we'll come back for lunch. Where will it stop?!!!!!!!!!

How many harsher pictures than this shall we see? Doesn't it hurt enough already? Is there a need for more? To realize this is REAL... F!: Kids, pregnant ladies, elderly people... Don't give me the terrorist target theory Mr. Smartass... Especially when every potential terrorist is fleeing away looking for a shelter. Every one of them, including the apprentice ones that YOU are creating.

So we have to abide by some unilateral veto-afflicted-personally-inflicted-universally-conflicted-and-humanely-rejected kind of attitude... Why do you fake loving?! Come on hit me instead...

Why do we empower a few to take those decisions that endanger others' liberty? Why do we give them mandate over our lives and souls? Why is it that world-changing decisions are made under a table?

Let them do whatever it is they do with their kids rather than on strangers. Isn't this what moral values and D-E-C-E-N-C-Y are about? Mr. Leader, how many generations will have to suffer from the consequences of your single-minded politics? How many more hypocrite crimes will have to be perpetrated in the name of your God?

Mr. President, he who cares for Freedom, he who knows anything about Fraternity, he who values Equality, he who thinks of himself as a crusader on a divine mission... uses his powers for good... not evil... No, not evil. Ask Mani.

Supercrap. I haven't seen an ounce that has not been so far.

So tell me, what happens after innocence is lost and memories are forgotten, burnt; generations doomed to ache...

After innocence....

What then...

What when?!! Look at them.

It is a worldwide suicide

I arrived safe and tired in Paris after a 4-hour/$15 New York-Boston bus trip, followed by a 12-hour/$219 Airtech flight to Paris, punctuated by a 45-minute/priceless layover in Reykjavik (Iceland); on the day of my 23rd birthday, only to realize at my arrival that the war in Lebanon was real, that it had obviously survived the week end and that my relatives were there to bear.

I have yet to answer the kind and heart-warming e-mails I received to wish me a happy birthday and I apologize for not having done so yet, especially to Sean – thank you Sean for your trust… Some matters are currently making me boil inside and others are keeping me busy here in Paris but I hope to soon have more mind for my dear friends.

So between broken news on TV and broken voices on the phone, I have decided that it was time to say something and acknowledge that all this is not leaving me indifferent. I am not there, I am not from there, I am not to go there, I don't quite care who's there now that my grandfather is not anymore, but I am Lebanese; and needless to say how I feel the world since last Thursday, when I saw the first images of black, red and yellow in Beirut's sky.

I've just finished reading the blog of a female compatriot who's currently in Beirut, where she's witnessing a nation being massacred, as she endures the constant bombings and the brotherly pain of countless children, women and elderly people. Every day she tells, when she finally makes it to sleep and wakes up hoping for a bad dream, she realizes that the war has really taken over and that she's totally powerless. So she goes back to daydreaming about better days, when the future is rosy again and the whistling birds are the only ones daring to break through the early morning...

But it's not. All that it is… is a worldwide suicide. And the kids are NOT alright, and the elderly women are not safe, and the pregnant ladies are just two lives that might be lost instead of one, and there is no one who can do anything about it. It really is a shame to awake in a world of such pain. So why go to sleep?

And why such a war that no one knows what it's for?

And what in the world don't we know that is creating so much corruption and hatred?

And who's getting something out of all these tears and cries?

This is of course true of any conflict… To the exception that this is Lebanon. And this is Israel. These are countries whose history should have made wise and poised, rather than reactive and cold. These are countries whose citizens have suffered long enough not to feel this indifferent to the waste their leaders are making. These are people who are not strangers to each other’s grievance. So why not settle them around a backgammon game or some cuisine contest?

...

What struck me most in Nad’s blog is that she indeed is in the midst of a war-torn landscape but still feels secure; because she knows she is in a “safe” neighbourhood -one that is not likely to get hit because it’s not poor - and also because she’s a French citizen who will soon be repatriated to France. She nevertheless gets to hear and see the deflagrations, but pertinently knows she won't get hurt. She feels confused and unable to do anything, but also knows she’ll soon be in France, trying to do “something”.

Something… What in the world will that something be…

To a certain extent, I feel just like her, far from the reality of the conflict and still affected morally and directly as I know that every hit takes away a life or ten. A phone call… A bad news… We knew him… Or we knew her… It’s you uncle… your aunt… your grandmother… Anytime. That’s our family, that’s our friends…

But as a Lebanese, I’m doing even less to change this situation. I have no idea what more than nothing I could do: I am just one more expatriate Lebanese who couldn't care less in normal times about what's going on there, and who now feels hurt and confused… Powerless and betrayed.

So all I would like to know now is who’s going to pay for the 245 dead , including 216 civilians and 23 soldiers, and the more than 500 people who have been wounded so far in Lebanon; and who’s going to pay for the 25 dead Israelis including 13 civilians and 12 servicemen? Does it mean even more reprisals? Does it mean we need to go through even more pain to make up for these too? Does it mean there needs to be a winner?

So they all tell us to pray while the devil's on their shoulder...

But after that, who’s going to pay for all the moral affliction of the ones who are still part of this %#& world? Who’s going to make up for their lost innocence? In both camps… Who?

I don’t know… Help...

All I know for surenow -just like the rest of the world also does- is that the almighty U.S. has a clear stance on this war. Comparing the uncomparable and melting the "terrorist" pot, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton opened the door for even more killings as he sees no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from "malicious terrorist acts" while W -between two geography lessons given to him at the G8 on worlwide distances- happens to think loudly (most likely with his Texan accent weaving its way back) "See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over".

It’s over…

You say so. What we need to do is get you an education in decent (U.S.) English -as well as in geography- and get you to stop doing your shit and then it might be over.

For now, all it is is WWS.

HHHHH

Something went wrong...

What is it that went so wrong?!!

How could such a classy and respected player as Zineddine Zidane fall so low and lose his poise the way he did?...

Or rather the way he didn't, that is shut his mouth and stifle his honor and integrity so as to remain a "cool" football player at the eyes of a mere billion people...

For the last finals of the last World Cup of his late career...

Or for his dignity...

When Corneille would have most likely called for a momentary truce, Zizou chose without a blink not to sacrifice his integrity... Again.

...

But this ain't right! This just can't be right!

Not that way, this went too far...

Something big got lost on the way.

And it's not just a World Cup...

... It's sad.

But if my doubts are confirmed -and I sincerely believe that this is the only explanation to what could have plausibly happened today -then Materazzi largely deserved what happened to him, and much more.

One's origins are not to be messed with... Especially if and when history aches.

So, when light is shed on this story and curtains fall down, our respect and admiration for Zou shall only grow deeper.

Shame on you Materazzi!!!

Courage Zizou... Un milliard de gens ou pas, Coupe du Monde ou pas, fin de carrière ou pas, tu as gagné mon admiration et soutien. Mon seul remords est de savoir que je n'aurais probablement pas été capable de faire idem.

Respect Zizou. Tu es le champion.

HHHHH

With a little help from my friends

I finally left. Thanks to them.
And I will miss them, that's certain.

Flexible you say?!

So here I am, stuck in Wilmington, not being able to decide when to leave for France. It's not that I can't, it's just that I don't WANT to leave... I could actually leave whenever I want thanks to an airline company called Airtech.com. But Wilmington is such a calm and peaceful town, that I just apprehend the re-immersion into the jungle.

Indeed people here share their dreams and live faithfully to what they believe in. Realizing that in such a small town, there are so many different people with so many interests is really depressing when I think about leaving!

But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. And my mission at this time is to create a chapter of the Full Belly Project in France. If for that, I need to leave Wilmington for a while, then so be it! For at least I know that thanks to Airtech, I can come back whenever I want...

Airtech.com is definitely an amazing concept. It enables "flexible" people -or hippie drunk college kids, or failed artists, slackers or whatever you would rather call them- to take a little trip to Europe for next to nothing. And here is how it works:

When a major airline company didn't fill all its seats before departure, it usually doesn't make any money on them because nobody wants to pay the outrageous amount they ask for what they call "last minute" flights. It's not everyday that some upbeat business guy takes out his shiny black suit and willingly throws away a couple thousand bucks to be at a VERY important meeting the next morning.

No, usually, people like me -again- who would rather be flexible -and it's a quality!- are the ones who need those flights. And when they're young -hey, like me again!- and broke -sounds familiar- and flexible, well, because of a lack of flexible funds, they just remain stuck in the geographic location where they initially decided to become "flexible". (which for me would be Wilmington)

But this doesn't need to happen again. No no no, not this time my friend, because Airtech.com has partnerships with those last-minute-rip-you-off-cause-we-can-do-it airline companies and can actually fly me over to Paris, for as litte as $219 one-way, with a reservation made 24h before and the soul-quenching satisfaction that I could not be more flexible than that. Once in New York I only have to shoot an e-mail to mailto:mMike@airtech.com and he'll have me flying over to Paris in less time than is needed to find a decently priced flight on Expedia, Orbitz and the likes.

So hey, now that I have found my ideal flexible-airline-service-all-included company and I have raised enough money selling FBP T-shirts and I have obtained my BS in BA (BTW BS qualifies faithfully the teachings of my 4-year business education), and I am still alive, I guess all I have left to do is to leave!

So why is it so d*mn hard to leave ILM?!!!

HHHHH