Category: Facebook & Twitter

Selections of Status Updates, Notes, Comments and Tweets made since 2009, a year which coincided with the gradual discovery by Arab and Middle Eastern activists of the potential of Facebook and Twitter as tools for social and political activism.

Democracy, Authoritarianism and Course Corrections

(In response to comments on US and western involvement in our regional conflicts)

Abuse of power is common to all who have it. But democratic countries like the US allow for self-criticism and self-reflection and therefore, for the possibility of course correction.

In our struggle to bring democracy to our part of the world, where authoritarianism makes course-correction on a variety of issues well-nigh impossible, it will be positive to lobby for support from established democracies. Failure to lobby in this regard will leave the stage to be occupied by pundits with little knowledge, understanding  and appreciation of shifting realities in the region, and other lobbies which represent the interests of ruling regimes and all varieties of parties who are not interested in democracy to begin with. Continue reading “Democracy, Authoritarianism and Course Corrections” →

Causality and Meaning

  1. Nothing happens for a reason. There’s no reason for sunrise or nightfall, no reason for life or dying. There’s only what we do, regardless. 7:57 PM Jun 30th
  2. Causality is not teleology. The cause of an event provides no “meaning” for it: that’s our job. The search for meaning is a human vocation. 1:23 PM Jul 1st
  3. As is the case with hope (with anything really), the need for meaning is not necessarily conducive to it, nor is it a sign of its existence. 1:45 PM Jul 1st
  4. While we agonize over material things, the main theme for our suffering relates more to the unfulfillability of most our non-material needs. 1:53 PM Jul 1st
  5. For the greater good, we are often urged to put up with the lesser evil, until we drown in a flood of if. All evils are essentially equal. 3:34 AM Jul 16th
  6. There are no lesser evils, just shifting priorities, diverging interests and balances of power. 7:32 PM Jul 16th
  7. Your “greater good” suffocates me. Your “lesser evil” poisons me. Why does all that you do hurt me? Maybe you’re not really listening to me? 5:09 AM Jul 18th
  8. The most difficult choices we face are about the quality of our life, not life and death. But there are times when all choices are the same. 6:52 PM Jul 20th

Obama’s Regional Tour

  1. The inability to see and believe the obvious reflects an equally obvious inability to envision an effective strategy for dealing with it. 3:17 AM Jul 6th
  2. U.S. policymakers refuse to see the obvious in our region: unfriendly regimes will always be unfriendly and will not be part of any solution 3:55 AM Jul 6th
  3. The status quo in our region is crumbling, but America won’t have any friends unless she invests herself fully in producing the alternatives 3:57 AM Jul 6th
  4. Fighting blood-thirsty tyrants with eloquent speeches, handshakes and assurances of respect make good PR but not a good foreign policy. 4:04 AM Jul 6th
  5. You cannot fend off vampires with lollypops. You cannot oppose tyrants with words. You cannot win respect by a show of weakness. 4:10 AM Jul 6th  Continue reading “Obama’s Regional Tour” →

On Syria

 

  1. Never judge a people by their government, be it democratic or authoritarian. Governments are always fucked up, and peoples decent and good. 7:15 PM Jul 4th
  2. Syria’s Princess Diana wannabe wants her people to be part of the solution and not just complain. Hmm. How sincere http://tinyurl.com/nbr52q 12:34 AM Jul 5th
  3. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Syria’s ruler, God’s Most Perfect Moron, invites President Obama for a friendly chat http://tinyurl.com/klrpyx 12:36 AM Jul 5th
  4. I guess crackdowns and sham elections are meant as incentives to encourage popular participation in the national exercise in self-deception. 12:40 AM Jul 5th
  5. This time last year in Syria, scores of political prisoners were gunned down in the infamous prison of Saydnaya: http://tinyurl.com/nl9r86. 12:43 AM Jul 5th Continue reading “On Syria” →