Are you afraid of going to jail?
I’m sorry, I just can’t stop laughing at this thought. Are you, dear readers, afraid of going to jail? Is that why only one person dared to answer the question about Arab Unity in that first Salon entry? Mmm? Or is this question a bit “off”? Rotten and boring?
Ah. Like I said before, the possibilities are endless. But this makes me laugh, just as I was starting to debate doing politics - the irony of it all!
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April 24th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
I don’t think talking about Arab unity, whether pro or anti, will get anyone in trouble. It’s been debated many many times on internet forums in Jordan and probably on a couple of blogs too.
April 24th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
<p>Sounds like you didn’t hear of what happened in gafgafa or swaga or il jafr prisons recently? Some of those places are CIA’s black holes. If you read some ex-CIA books, the GID (our very own) is "everyone’s favourite cousin". Of course a visit to GID is the introduction to a longer stay in one of the aferomentioned hotels. </p>
<p>In Arabic the GID is called "beit khaltak" because everyone has a religious dury to visit it at least once a year out of "silat il rahm". </p>
April 24th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
<p>agree, no one will go to jail, so no problem there.</p>
<p>what scares me most will be the eternal damnation!!</p>
April 24th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
well,, im afraid to comment to this post,, execuse me :)<br />
April 24th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
<p>Tololy,</p>
<p>You will find my reply in this article here <a href="http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=4647">http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=4647</a></p>
<p>In two words : It is a generational failure.</p>
April 24th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
<p>Toloy: I don’t think its fear as much as it is indifference to the question. The Arab Unity project was a failure (actually it was never meant to be a success in the first place, read Game of Nations for Miles Copeland), and our (your) generation is now soul-searching (some of it is shopping too).</p>
<p>But we do not seem to have sufficient basis on which any discussion can take place. For one, the quality of our discussions are so low that Faisal Al-Qassem’s "The Opposite Direction" is the prime example - they lack the basic pre-requisites of respect, facts, logic, objectivity…etc. The more learned of us try to avoid discussing altogether and spend time reading alone. The less learned of us are not even aware of the importance of discussion.</p>
<p>Look, this problem of indifference to significant issues is not a problem to be looked at in isolation of the general state we are in. If you get a patient with cancer (god forbid) and you try to understand why they get a persistent headache, you will never find the answer unless you look at the body as a whole. This problem is not disconnected from the multitude of issues we face (I actually think of this indifference as the other side of the same coin which is obsession with our problems - for they both indicate that there are very urgent issues that some sell out on, while others become paranoid about solving).</p>
<p>My two cents’ worth. </p>
April 25th, 2006 at 1:03 am
<p>Yes indeed I am soul-searching. Shopping is sometimes t<span style=" FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">herapeutic, it helps. </span></p>
<p><span style=" FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Well to be honest, I think I agree with Gafgafa (I know people from there). It’s the mighty plague of indifference and, I might add, frustration.</span></p>
<p><span style=" FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">As a person who was brought up believing in Arab potential and Arab unity, and trusting that "if only those bloody horrid borders would be blasted from the maps then we would all live together happily ever after", I can tell you how frustrating it is to find that none of this is even close to coming true. This is frustrating, you look for alternatives but you find none, each day some head of state somewhere disappoints you, then you don’t believe in the world anymore so why bother linger on old dried-up dreams?</span></p>
<p><span style=" FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Off to jail I go.</span></p>
April 25th, 2006 at 1:34 am
<p>Hehehehe, it’s so funny that everyone started replying now after you sort of put a dare out there for them…afraid of jail anyone?? That got things going!!!</p>
<p>Me, personally, am very afraid of jail. However, I always imagined what a great diet it would be to go to prison for a few months. Sigh. The state of desperation I am in is pathetic.</p>
<p>This is not what we’re discussing, is it. Sorry, I digress.</p>
April 25th, 2006 at 2:03 am
<p>i went to jail many times …. but the reason was not a political reason :)</p>
<p>anyway … talking about arab unity will not lead anyone to the jail :)</p>
April 25th, 2006 at 4:33 am
I think "Arab potential" is just waiting for the end of corrupt government and the mitigation of the influence of fundamentalist religious parties to be unleashed.
April 25th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
I’m not afraid of jail itself, I’m just afraid of being away from my regular life.