People Who Don't Like Syria are HATERZ

I LOVE SYRIA! I went for the 1st time about a month and a half ago. It was nothing like I expected and it was everything I expected. Here's some context:

Now, I'm living in Lebanon - it's dirty, gentrified, you have to pay to go to the beach, it's in total chaos, and they treat Palestinians like shit. Some people think they are "Western" and walk around in designer brands from newly gentrified shops and malls speaking French, English, and Arabic all in the same sentence while there are people who can't find jobs or get food on the table. The class divide is insane and the capitalist structure is so apparent - just to summarize. Of course, Lebanon is gorgeous and I appreciate and love it in many ways.

But, I have been waiting sooo long and looking forward to my visit to terrorist hub, Syria! OKAY, so it took me 10 hours waiting on the border to finally make it to Damascus ... the US fucks over Arabs and interrogates them when they arrive in the US, so Syria's gonna do it back to US citizens ... which I'm down with in principle - but that's why they shouldn't have held me so long! hahaha (And, just for the record, they were much nicer to me that the American government would be to them ...)

The plan was to stay in Yarmouk refugee camp where some of my friends live and they set up a vacant apartment for my girls and I in the camp. Yarmouk is in Damascus and it's the nicest and biggest refugee camp I've ever seen! Cars can actually fit through all the roads, the buildings aren't so tall because they can build out wide, and there were shops everywhere! There's even a Hattah (aka kuffiyeh) factory owned by a Palestinian in the camp. You can't even tell it's a camp - buses run through the main road. It feels like a lively little city.

The Old City of Damascus is soooo amazing! You don't see any gentrification in Damascus (except one suburb that is just starting - with all the bougie Western shops for the upper class. but there are very few at this point). It's beautiful, clean, all the signs are in Arabic and there is a much much smaller presence of American/Western products in Damascus. Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola, for example, only arrived a few years ago to Syria. Before that it was Syrian-made everything.

They really take care of their citizens and the Palestinians. They have branches of the government and military specifically for Palestinians. The Old City is super tourist-centered but they make it accessible to the local population by having different pricing for the locals. Students pay a very small fee for studying in universities and the grade school education goes through a very comprehensive history of the Arab World from an anti-colonialist framework ... something most education systems, even within the Arab World, fail to do. The infrastructure is amazing and sustainable. And, I repeat, it is clean! Garbage-free, newly-paved roads. They really have amazing upkeep and a great system.

OK, so all men get drafted into the army and I had a hole in the ground for a toilet, and maybe it's a military dictatorship ... but I saw nothing "terroristic" in nature about Syria except that they really have their shit together and their population seems happy and politically aware, and that in and of itself might be the threat that produces a "fear of terrorism" toward Syria. The fear that there actually might be an alternative form of governance or that the one country that really resisted Western Imperialism, is one of the most, if not THE most, well organized countries in the Heart of the Desert. HATERZZZZZZ

~ DON'T BE A HATER - TAKE ME BACK TO DAMASCUS ~ (w/o the 10 hour wait this time)

My Heart Hurts - I Need a Break

I've been at home studying all day. My friend sent me this bomb ass new Erykah Badu song/music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVp47f5YZg so I watched it to take a break from studying and all of a sudden my heart began to hurt.

It wasn't the content of the song, but the artistic beauty of the video that reminded me of my first love, an artist of course ... I have a dangerous pattern with artists. I didn't even know he was an artist when I met him, there's just something about em I guess, something subconscious.

That relationship ended about 4 months ago and I've been doin just fine without him, but sometimes it all comes back to me so suddenly eventho I don't want him back or love him anymore. I have done some writing about this healing process that is new to me and that I am analyzing as he pops up in my head randomly so I will post those when I feel ready. In chronological order ...

It always seems that long distance relationships are a bad idea, but when you are in one - you think that you can make it work, that yours is special and that it will last. I am now thinking that this is naive. But, it's all a learning experience.

I just found this quote that is so applicable to my life:

"The traveler cannot love, since love is stasis and travel is motion." Wolcott - I stumbled upon this while stalking my beautiful friend's facebook page, haha.

It makes me wonder if I can make it all work at the pace I'm going. If I can have all of the life I want: travel, education and career, love, children, family, and of course being active and organizing for the liberation of Palestine and all oppressed communities. Will I be forced to choose? How would I go about doing so??

Can we really have it all? Sometimes I am pessimistic, many times optimistic - but what do I really believe? How can we figure out what we really want?

Reporting From The Land Of Plastic Surgery

Needless to say, I think we've all been doing some major sleeping here. I'm hoping to be back more consistently, reporting from Beirut, Lebanon - my new "home" for the next year and a half or so. "Home" because the last feeling I have of this place is that of home. Let me just tell you - Lebanon is no Palestine. A lot of times it actually still feels like I'm in America - but like in LA, not the Bay Area. Clearly there is so much to talk about from the land of sectarianism, which plays a major role in everyone's daily lives here. It's actually insane how clear this sectarianism effects peoples' daily lives here in the "Paris of the Middle East."

Today I will be talking about plastic surgery in sunny Beirut. While walking the streets of Hamra and Ras Beirut, districts near the elite American University of Beirut, as well as cruising the campus, I couldn't help but notice people walking around with bandages on their noses. They kinda stand out. As I saw more and more women AND men with bandages on their noses, I realized what it was. It's not just a coincidence that tons of people randomly cut their noses at the same time, no, it's that they all decided to get their nose jobs at around the same time. And following this operation, they all decided to flaunt it.

Now, preparing for my move to Beirut, I heard about the plastic surgery phenomenon in Lebanon, I even heard that people from the region come here for their surgeries, but NOTHING would have prepared me for this sight. Tons of people, students, young adults, etc. walking around with bandages on their noses with their friends and people actually talking to them like they are normal human beings!! Not to be overly judgmental, but all I want to do when I see this is point and laugh about how ridiculous they look and how stupid I think plastic surgery is.

It's not just noses tho - huge lips with that shiny pink lipgloss that all women who inject their lips wear. Why do women who inject their lips think it's a good idea to wear that ultra-shiny gloss? It just makes them look more fake and ridiculous. And, altho Arab women are typically well endowed in the chest region, there's definitely a lot of silicone going on ... Lebanese women aren't the most beautiful Arab women, they just get work done, wear lots of make-up, and look like they're in a fashion show everyday. (So NO, my hairy, scuffed up, soccer-playing Berkeley legs don't make the cut in Lebanon.) And for the record, I will never wear heels everyday!
F that.

Apparently, overt display of these operations is not only socially acceptable in Beirut, but it is a symbol of class. I guess people aren't shy about flaunting class in this place of crazy class difference and political turmoil. Modesty doesn't seem to be a part of the upper class's vocabulary or practice. And ... some people actually wear bandages without actually having surgery because, though they can't afford surgery, they still may be able to fake their class level to the Lebanese public. Now clearly I haven't had any conversations with anyone wearing a bandage, in fact I try to avoid it cuz I'm scared of what I will say to them. Something inappropriate I'm sure.

What happened to loving our big-ass Middle Eastern noses? Not to mention, Arab men and women, with all the typical features of Arabs like big, brown eyes, nice lips, dark hair and a filled out figure, look really not right and kinda scary with their tiny new noses ...

Talk about notions of beauty. There is so much Western influence in this "Paris of the ME," I mean I can barely practice and improve my Arabic cuz most speak English (and French), but even us "Westerners" don't flaunt plastic surgery - in fact our very own Hollywood stars try to hide it. So why do the white peoples' features resonate with the Lebanese as beautiful and why is it socially acceptable to look so ridiculous?!?

Urban Outfitters Strikes Back

... this time with 100% more misappropriation! It was bad enough with the keffiyeh, but it looks like U.O. decided they needed another piece of the Middle East to capitalize upon. Enter the Allah bracelet!

Thanks to KabobFest for bringing it to attention. Now, if you've read my keffiyeh post, y'all know how I feel about the misappropriation of culture. I won't repeat everything I've said there. But I will say that I am again totally amazed. Yes, there is Christian imagery everywhere, and used in popular culture everywhere from "Jesus is My Homeboy" apparel to Madonna's "Like a Prayer," etc. It's actually gotten pretty old now. But the difference is that Christianity in America is the majority and is not equated with the same level of politics and discrimination as Islam. At a time like this, do we really need to further exoticize and disrespect a culture by putting it on sale at a store whose goal is simply to make money, without any care towards sociopolitical context?

One one hand there's the argument that it is bringing an "exotic" culture into the mainstream, de-mystifying it, making it accessible to the common person (because, you know, Muslims/Middle Easterners/"others" can't be seen as just regular people). But I don't think the majority of U.O.'s commercial audience are going to even think that far. So the essential effect is tokenization of a culture, perhaps to seem "edgy." Again, if you do not know or willingly represent the context of this item, wearing it is quite disrespectful. (As someone commented on KabobFest, you wouldn't be able to go into a bathroom with this bracelet on.) It's not because I think everyone else should avoid anything to do with Islam, but I do think there are way more respectful ways to explore it. And it doesn't involve helping Urban Outfitters make money.

"But the children live here!"

I'm shocked, but very pleased, that this was on network news... 60 Minutes, no less. This is a very important and honest coverage of the way Palestinians are imprisoned in their own homeland (and homes!-- and how Israel is preventing peace. Must see.

It's good to see that the world, especially in the West, is (finally) starting to notice the David-and-Goliath situation in place here, the way that Palestinians are being unjustly, criminally, and often fatally mistreated by the Israeli state and some of its citizens, and that-- oh yeah-- maybe there is a reason that Palestinians are so angry.

Here's another heartening video... an Israeli citizen speaks the truth and describes his (and many of his fellow Israelis') feelings of despair at the recent Gaza attacks. Thanks to The Glaring Truth (a blog you should read) and the BBC for posting this.

Salaams, people. Have faith, stay strong.
WMEG

RIP Mahmoud Darwish

One of our great heroes has passed. And so the world has lost one of its most amazing poets. Rest in peace, Amo. Thank you for the armor, the sword, the pen, the hope.

"As if I returned
to what has been
As if I walked
in front of myself
I restore my harmony
between the trial and the verdict
I am the son
of simple words
I am the martyr of the map
the family apricot blossom
O you who grip the edge
of the impossible
From the beginning until Galilee
Return to me my hands
Return to me
My identity"

From Poem of the Land

It's back...

Project Runway, that is! I was happy to find out that the show has not moved to Lifetime yet (because, as much as I love the Golden Girls, I don't really want to see clothes designed for them... or do I??). There is no Arab Adonis this season to keep us occupied (bye, Rami), but there IS a woman (Terri) who suspiciously resembles Donna Summer, and therefore I already love her. There's also a woman (Stella) who looks like Cher on a bad day after a makeover from Tommy Lee if she hadn't had all that work done on her face (oops), and though she appears to be a one-trick pony when it comes to her designs (and her first one was totally lame and hideous), she is from Queens so therefore I already like her too. There's also a girl named Korto who I like because she seems like someone I'd totally want to hang out with on a daily basis (and have her design outfits for me!). Otherwise, most of the others are boring hipsters who are strangely indeterminate from one another. Except that weird guy called Suede (?!) who is apparently really desperate to have everyone call him Suede (and not Albert or whatever his real name probably is) judging by the fact that he constantly refers to himself in the third person. And Jerell who is actually really cute but kind of looks like a hobo. And Blayne, who is probably insane (hence the rhyme) and used "girlicious" even more often than Christian Siriano used "fierce" (even more bizarrely, he used it in description of this outfit he created, which is probably the last thing I'd describe with that term, except maybe the thing that Jerry guy who got auf'd created). Maybe there ARE interesting people on this season... it's really all too much... you'll have to see for yourself (bravotv.com/projectrunway). And thanks to the teasers, I am SO looking forward to hearing Tim Gunn tell the designers, "Holla at ya boy." Oh Tim Gunn!