Persiflage & Paroxysm

Once again Christians of the East are under attack, from Egypt to Malaysia. The question here is what drives this intense hatred that seems to be misdirected against native populations whose only crime is belonging, on teh face of it at least, to the same general faith as the United States. The US, a country whose currency claims to trust in God but whose forces flaunt its imperialist might in oppressing the weak and poor of this world. The answer, for Arab countries at least, is that in the absence of a strong 'national cult' that binds us all together we are really just a loose confederation of tribes and sects searching for what we miss: a sense of belonging and a sense of empowerment. To many Arab Muslims that sense of belonging and empowerment comes from their faith. When the glue of Arab nationalism fell apart in the closing decades of the last century, or rather when the disolute Arab regimes revealed the concept to be a great farce as they clamoured for peace with Israe...

Nature is a master architect and its resources and power are infinitely vast and renewable, and yet a drop-in-the-ocean of human ugliness will always stand out and it can be annoying. Even in a city like Beirut where concrete edifices abound, nature creeps through the cracks in the asphalt, literally. Sanayeh Park is a people’s park, where the old and the young seek refuge from the dizzying pace of urban life in a city that still stubbornly clings to and worships at the alter of dirty fossil fuels. Children run and play in the park, yet sadly not on finely cut grass but on hard asphalt. A handful of cars, probably belonging to park keepers and guards, are seen being driven around the asphalted surface of the park. This should not be acceptable. Call me an extremist environmentalist if you will, but I believe a park should be like a house of worship, a sanctuary from our daily troubles, a place to commune with nature, a break from our daily routine. If park keepers must use transpor...