Archive for July 23, 2005

From the poem the Lost Step by Iraqi poet Baland Haydari (my translation):“Years have gone byBlack nights have grown oldin my eyes and got inflamed…To whom shall I return…!to my villageor to the winter tearingthe sidewalk of the stationor to the small lampsshaking our thrifty villageor to our women dying of timidityNo…I shall not return…To [...]

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

The beach in the city of Sidon. 

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

An old door in the village of Sir`il. 

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

A view from the ancient church. 

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

This is an old machine from the old church. 

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

From the inside of the ancient church (the light bulb is less old). 

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

From the inside of the 700 year old church in Sir`il; I could not see anything while taking those pictures. 

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

I saw a sign outside the village of Sir`il that there is an ancient church. So I stopped to take pictures. People led me to this site: but the sign on the church said it was founded in 1893. So I told people that this was not ancient at all, and that we have churches [...]

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

So where were we? Oh, the village of Sir`il, and the Monastery of Mar Qizhayya. Thi is another view from the village of Sir`il. 

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

This is Zionism. 

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

“REMEMBERING HERBERT MARCUSE”

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

“American Sweatshops”

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

Growing signs of Sunni-Shi`ite discord: The deputy chairperson of the [Shi`ite] Higher Islamic Council in Lebanon, Mufti `Abdul-Amir Qabalan, wondered the other day about the reasons for the silence among Muslim clerics regarding the carnage in Iraq. He specifically asked why the Shaykh Al-Azhar is silent when bombs are placed at mosques or are directed [...]

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

“WTO Says U.S. Still Violates Export Subsidy Ruling”

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

I caught part of a program for teens, for TEENS for potato’s sake, on Kuwait TV. The program was on plastic surgery. It featured a plastic surgeon who works in Kuwait. What was his advice to the teens? In summary, it was this: 1) Don’t get cheap plastic surgery. Get expensive ones because they are [...]

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

“Insurgents in Iraq will probably sustain the current rate of bloody attacks for at least six months, through the next elections, and expect the United States to give up on Iraq within five years, senior defense officials in Baghdad said Friday.”

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

Chirac speaks: “Our cooperation is exemplary in all areas: cultural, scientific and economic. Israel and France also decided in 2002 to increase the cooperation further, which was expressed in the establishment of the `committee of senior officials” that in 2003 proposed a series of steps that will be implemented one by one. We have been [...]

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

You now can sleep better: I read somewhere that James Zogby, who–I always argued–will volunteer to drive the buses that would take Arab Americans to internment camps if we ever come to that in return for photo opportunities with US officials, has reached an “agreement” with Prince Al-Walid Bin Talal according to which the Prince [...]

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

The never ending account of the trip: this is where we ate in Sir`il, and this is the official site of the monastery.

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad

Why did Layla Khalid lie about Rafiq Hariri? Layla Khalid has given an account of her life of struggle before. She gave an excellent account to the talented journalist Sami Kulayb on AlJazeera’s Ziyarah Khassah. But after the death of Rafiq Hariri, she gave a new account of her life to NBN-TV in which she [...]

Posted on July 23, 2005 by As'ad