Justice& freedom are not western products.
First I am going to write some lines about what Bryan said in the previous post. There is a lot I want to say..about the west and us. About how the west see us and treat us.. I will write about this...But not quiet yet. I have to gather strength and thoughts first. In the meanwhile..To any Bryan who might read this: Do me a favour and read some documents about the Israel-Palestine confict, by someone who is not Jewish or Israelian, or even American! there are plenty of documents by quiet neutral experts..and read as many articles as you can HERE : http://www.robert-fisk.com and why not see the pictures too.
Our opinions and feelings about the west, are complex. We have a lot of pepole who worship almost everything from the west..They respect you much more if you are educated there and, everything from the west is better accoring to them. Pepole say about almost eveything here " If we were in the west..Pepole would have been better..Places would be clean..Work would be better, pepole would invest in and take care of their countries, and make money out of it..This place would be rich and nice..etc etc etc..." Some even try hard to change their skin and "become" westerns, but usually only in a superficial way, not more.
They want to say to all the pepole : Look, I am not like all the loosers in this place, I am western..I Think like westerns do..I am so important and so much better!!
Yet on the other hand, a lot of pepole see that any western influence at all is an influence by the devil, and the west is not muslim. And we have to keep our good eastern and muslim traditions. Usually they are very conservative, fearing that any change at all might be from the west and is a threat to islam and good traditions.
On the political level, however..The absolute majority here, fear any action by the west on this place. We hate what the western governements did, and still are doing, in this place. Specially Usa. (No need to even mention Israel.)
The absolut disgusting thing in this crazy place is that when pepole here demand democracy and freedom.. And these pepole, are called -and can not be called any thing else, in this place, when they demand that- opposition. Even if they are not at all.
The disgusting thing is that they are called pro-western/ western opposition, and even collaboraters, with the west..(and Usa and Israel-who occupies our land, our enemy, are part of it) .They are called traitors.
And they are attacked on many other fronts...On the religious front, They say that when we demand a strong independent parlament , media...etc we are demanding what is going on in the west today. Our enemy...The devil! So...Saying things like that get a lot of conservative poor pepole- with no real acess to other voices/ media they can hear and coompare- scared and convinced: Democracy must be different from, and so it must be against, our good religious traditions. Haram.
Not even thinking about how Today's so called politicans and what they are doing are mabe even less religious, but yet are tolerated ?!
Now these pepole who dared to demand such things,the so called opposition, get scared...They don't want to be looked at like western traitors. They get silenced. They loose the game.
But you see..here is my problem...I just can't understand..Why this obsession with the west, by all sides!!?? Who ever hates them, loves them or what ever!..
This has nothing to do with the west! It is about this little place, not about Usa, Or England, or any where else...not about Burkina Faso, or Thailand..or SaudiArabia..or what ever..It is about this place, right here, right now!
In so many asian and even african countries democracy exists too...Why not talk about them if we must talk about democratic countries?! Why only the "enemy"?!It's not about the west..It's about this place and pepole here!
I don't know why some of these brave intellectual voices, act like if democracy, a fight for freedom and justice, is purly western and nothing else! It is like if we are savage animals who never struggeled for justice, and only westerns did! ..But that is not true! Read our history instead of only the west's!
Ofcousre, some here who have a lot to loose will say :" Don't complain..We are better than countries like North Corea, or Somalia when it comes to democracy..And many other arab countries are just like us..Why be different?"
But so what?! Do we have to wait for all other arab countries to get democratic first? But what if they are waiting for us?! And So what if North Corea is in a worse state? It's not about North Corea!..Nor the west!
..Besides...Why on earth CARE about other places anyway?! If democracy would die tomorrow in the west...Does that meen that we have to never again dream of it untill it rises there again?..Hell no..Even if it would die there we should still demand democracy here...
10 Comments:
wow Cathrine, i need ages to read that, i'll leave it to evening.
Come on...It aint THAT long :)
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Ooops! I wanted to correct les accents (I hate French!)
Anyway, interesting post...but long:)
Courage Rami! C'est une belle langue quand même..Oui..C'était trop long peut- être...
I agree totally with you, Democracy is badly needed more than any other time.
But for many people including me, it won't lead us to a "heavenly community" and won't make our countries as a "promise land".
Lebanese or Iraqi Democracy are good examples how to use democracy to destroy the unity and harmony of a mosaic that's been lvivng in peace and tolerance for centuries.
It's about how to destroy a country and make several countries in one.
Turkish Democracy is about forcing people to imitate the west while they have an Islamic identity.
Iran's democracy is how to give an Islamic identity to everything without leaving a space for any other point of view.
Afghani democracy's about what each tribe have to win after Taliban was gone.
Western democracy had always its terrible influence on us, in the name of protecting "world democracy" Afghanistan was concreted, Iraq was invaded, and several nations are suffering from sanctions that only affect them and not their leaders.
In the name of creating a "Democratic Israel" a whole nation is suffering from occupation..
And so on, it's about the name, it's about how much independence your country has. And it's more complicated as you think.
and i hate le français aussi..
Hi Catherine,
I'd like to invite you to join and play with us at nomadlife.org (all your blog posting are transferable)
Your blog would be a great addition to our eclectic group of people.
Let me know.
dody@nomadlife.org
Catherine,
Your words are very wise. There is a historical association between development of democracy in the West that leads to the assumption that the two are inseperable. This is something that needs to be worked against. Democracy: for Syria and the Syrians--ah, for humanity!
However, I would like to add that a similar mentality exists in America that Islam and Terrorism are one and the same.
-- Yaman Salahi
ysalahi@berkeley.edu
nomadlife.org is great! Check it out:)
Catherine, Great Post!
Why does democracy automatically have to be linked to the West? Look at "Western" democracies. No two are alike. Instead, why not look at how different people define it. What makes a democracy and what doesn't make a democracy?
Do you see democracy fitting into your society? If so, how? What would it look like?
amr: Well there might be different "definitions" of democracy..having the majority decide to neglect /oppress a minority, should not be confused with democracy even if some think that (specially dictators!). The countries you mentioned are not really democraties..And it is very dangerous to say "look at them, no thank you we don't want democracy!". Human rights should be respected. -that exclude Israel BY FAAAR!!! and the other countries. Iraq is ruled by americans who are not THE LEAST democatic-when it comes to non americans. Lebanon is much much better but still, it should'nt matter what religion you have in a democracy (to become a president, for example). A lot of this countries do horrible things,that are against democracy, and they say it's in the name (!!) of democracy.And for the rest, no democracy might not automatically bring heaven to us, but it would change SO much, to the BETTER!...
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