Beirut and the big-daddy

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Saturday 2 June, 2007

By Sandil Srinivasan 01:16 2/Jun/2007 0 Comment(s)
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Beirut and the big-daddy
While YouTubin', I came across this message of peace, from a band I love, and for a conflict I've followed from birth. The preface, for those who know little about this blogger, is that I was born and lived all my life in Dubai, before finally connecting to the roots effectively, and relocating back to India in August 2006. Since then, there's been little media coverage (in my backyard, atleast) of the Arab conflict -- and understandably, as our nation has its own set of issues to deal with. And while I focused on understanding issues local to me, from the OBC reservations to stray dogs in Bangalore, Beirut went entirely off my radar. That, until my uncle (who's a Lebanese) arrived in Bangalore this April, for a thirty-day vacation. They may come across as the not-so-intelligent, violent lot, and that's very ironic, because Arabs are generally peace-loving and God-fearing.I can go on and on about the conflict there, from the Palestine uprising, to targeted attacks by (and on) Israel, to Iran funding Hezbollah, to the Syrian presence in Lebanon -- sigh. Rather, you'd wiki/google it all. But what I'd definitely get into, is the occidentalism, the ideas that persist around the Arab world, and a lot of that has rubbed off. Where, for Pete's sake, is the oh-so-concerned-about-the-rest-of-the-world America? Where are the peace-keeping forces? Why doesn't that region get enough humanitarian support, funding, infrastructure? The UAE Red Crescent have been doing a good job, almost from day one of the conflict, but it requires international reaction, recognition, awareness and support. Especially from the US of A.Wait, maybe I'm being unfair to the continent. I retract my statement -- so, where the freakin' hell is the United States of -- er -- Bush. And oops, there's the conflict of interest. It's no secret, that the USA and Israel are quite 'friendly', to say the least. This whole ball-talk of the 'war on terrorism', anti-terrorism units, retaining peace -- sigh, that's one helluva cover-up. The ground reality, if one's willing to investigate and find out, is harsh. Very harsh. The difference this time around, is that the 'custodians of peace' inflict terrorism on 'lesser-beings', through war and rampage.And in this whole militarysexual harrasment of Lebanon, the quiet, inactive United Nations serve as silent brokers to the whole setup. They facilitate, they support, but with a touch of diplomacy.On the streets, we call them pimps.My uncle, who's a Maronite Catholic, and has obvious apprehension towards the military-might of Hezbollah, always spoke against that unit, that 'bunch of radical Shiites'. Today, he hangs his head in shame, and sadly admits that his nation is now being protected by the Hezbollah. Hence -- he's forced to support the 'militant outfit'. Militant-shiliant. Hezbollah, for the record, run a political party, an official television broadcast channel, and an unofficial radio service in Lebanon. After dragging all that material above, here's my point: we (India) need to be more selective in who we pick as allies -- ethically, environmentally, politically, and from a military standpoint. We need to strike a decent balance between how much we allow other (less-ethical?) nations to dictate, control and contribute to our growth and expansion. And, for a country with relatively lesser religious-conflict these days in the context of our population, perhaps we have a lesson or two to teach, or a message of peace that can reach out. Until then, I'll leave you folks with this open thread on whether you think that having Bush as our big-daddy is healthy for our people, or not. Maybe our leaders should stop sucking up to him.And for those retarded folk who do love the 21st century's American-flavoured Hitler, hate-mail is welcome.
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Venu Gopal said...
10:50 AM 2/Jun/07
Arabs are no less than others are when it comes to greatness. Lebanese are particularly brilliant. They are a very colourful people. Such a beautiful country and with many vigorous and cultured communities. Alas, the balance tilted in Lebanon when Muslims took to Islamic fanaticism in the 70s and their fratricidal war with the Lebanese Christians ensued, reducing large parts of Beirut, particularly, to rubble. Even here, it was not a direct Muslim-Christian war. There was much aligning and de-aligning amongst disparate forces. All wars or battles are brutal and inhuman, but the Lebanese, being what they are, infused much romanticism about the whole affair. Finally, it was the Druze, who though counted as Muslims, but is decidedly of different orientation, who brought the war to a decisive end. (Please correct me if I am wrong.)

Venu Gopal said...
10:27 AM 2/Jun/07
While India should have close relations with the Arabs (which it already has, particularly to appease the Muslims at home), if we had aligned with Israelis from the beginning, they would have helped us in our agricultural endeavors and we might not be having farmer suicides today. Israel could also have been our major military supplier. But we chose to recognize Israel only when even the Arabs began to do so. This is a result of Indian polity being not genuinely secular but only pseudo-secular. Today, America can offer us far more economically than other countries. Moreover, we are both democratic countries, which cannot be said of the Arab block. Therefore, we must pursue closer relationship with America and be wary of undemocratic (or partially democratic) religious regimes like Iran.

slipperyways nMe said...
10:40 AM 2/Jun/07
bush or mush...... no better....but this is american policy. if bush had not been there, would have been someone else......even if Bush goes, the next president will be same...US will continue to dictate the world through its policies...which does not show any sign of change...till now....