Skip to main content

the news & ألم المخاض

 عالميا: حالة طوارئ من زمان


Finding FaceBook a better source of information than "the news" these days (it keeps a record of the things that are there one minute, and the next minute they're gone, like a-here-yet-unnamed electronic news site) but the news junky in me still goes back to the same old sources.  

Today
I read unusually high status updates about Syria
I pray for الشام
What's going on?   
The BBC_top page
"Bomb kills top Syrian Ministers"
No need to know the details. 
I Scroll down: 
"Bulgaria bus blast kills Israelis" 
change windows; 
"Israel has no doubt who is behind the deadly attack in Bulgaria" (Haaretz). 
hummmm (deep in thought) 
Now who could that be? 
Three guesses, two guesses, one: 
Iran?
Oh, how surprising!  
Some have seen it coming since the Iraq war, the slower ones  saw it later. 
We all knew Syria will follow and then Iran, but we didn't expect them to happen so close together. 
ولكننا في عصر السرعة 
It's still the same war.
Close window, back to the BBC, scroll down: 
"Secularists Success in Libya vote"
Now that the first good news of the day. I decide to leave it there and not read the details, lest they disappoint me.
I close the window, on a good note. 
Back to the FB page. 
Time to kill, I scroll down:  
There are rumors going around .... 
ما هي صحتهم؟ 
Two posts:
"ماذا يعني فرض حالة الطوارئ في الاردن
"الحكومة تنفي إعلان حالة الطواري
Emergency state in Jordan? 
What the hell!! 
I read the link to the first article (khaberni).  It states the constitutional clauses and explores the practical ramifications.  None of them are pleasant, except for a clause that imposes disarmament.
I check on the other link (alwakeelnews), but the report is no longer there.
A few minutes later, or was it hours, it is back, with a different title: 
"الجانب الاردني يتخد كافة إجراءات الحذر نتيجة أحدث أمس الأربعاء في سوريا"  
Sure, things are rocky in Jordan because her sister Syria is in turmoil, but I don't expect-  
Another article reads below: 
الاردن بعد تفجيرات دمشق: إختراقات عسكرية ومحاولة إغتيال رجل أعمال وإستعداد لإعلان حالة طوارئ
The borders are breeched? 
But I have faith we can sustain them. 
These speculations are ungrounded. 
Are you in denial? 
Same thing happened here in the US a few years ago, a fear of military state. 
Dooms day was near, what to do, where to go, how to get off the grid, how to self-sustain, what plants are safe to eat in the wild, how can we find water?
Then nothing happened, or did it? 
We're still here.
وجع راس
I'm on vacation, damn it
I put the computer away and enjoy a cold chocolate drink with a mint leaf garnish. 
leaf through a book about Yoni worship.
من وين لوين
بس بتيزي دوده 
I come back to the screen
To write 
to أهل بلدي 
Don't choose fear. 
+
Who are we kidding, we are in an emergency state already 
عنا: المشكوك به جاني ومذنب إلى أن تثبت براءته -
 واللي بحب بلده بنرمى بالحبس بتهمة فساد،
 واللي ماكل البلد بحكي إنه صايم
مش بس هيك:  
The whole world is in an emergency state and corruption is everywhere: 
Red alert, high risk, drowning, electric shock, highly flammable, poisonous.  
يعني مش لحالنا
And who's benefiting? 
The wars are run by the military state, and it runs the world. 
There are so many threats: uncountable:  
from the terrorists, the islamists, the arabs, the zionists, the blacks, communism, the government, sex, the neighbors, the police, the thugs on the east side, the drunk driver on the inner state, the psychopath teenager who likes to shoot kids, AIDS and HIV, non-virgins, not to mention the 'gays', women's liberation and chicks with hairy armpits, nuclear  war, chemical war, dirty war, holy war, god's wrath and vengeance .... not to mention sharks and falling flying planes. 
Escalation 
Holy wars
Holy F--- 
Holy cow 
"Holy mother of god"-
For some of us, this statement is sacrilege 
I'm quoting someone else. 
but I like it, that's what's needed
The fearlessness of the mother giving birth to the new consciousness 
The new paradigm

For those of us who've had their turn, 
and those of us still waiting:  
It will come around to everyone 
ألم المخاض
But then it will also pass
And then a-new
White waters wash the red and the blue
and a green leaf heralds liberation. 




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fire

The wind doth deceive me and your voice I hear in the tree shrubs Possessed am I with your eyes They pierce my womb and into earth's core I fall to your embrace عشقٌ وجنون Smile to me For you I set my eyes on fire With the lashes of your eyes Hide me in the wallpaper So I can stay near you Unseen

A carpenter named Mahmood

"The Brotherhood won't rule Egypt," he says, "The Coptics were already here when the Muslims came, there are Christians and Churches, ma yinfa3sh ... The next leadership will come from the youth." He is a carpenter from al-Mansoura . His wife is from Marg in Cairo. They live in Assala, a sha3bi neighborhood, poor and under-serviced. Assala: Unpaved roads, no side walks, open manholes; houses with tin roofs held down by junk: tables, strollers, chairs and rocks. All houses seem to have satellite dishes, except for one. Its roof is made of pressed sugar cane mixed in with paper, and rolled out into sheets. The early winter rain has left the roof sagging, with moss for decoration. In Assala, many people leave their doors open; sitting on their sills, they are on the road. Children play barefoot on the streets, and the goats chew on flowers and litter. On the way to the carpenter's house, we pass a corner store. It is a window, opening into a room of a ho

A letter: Interfaith marriage and crime

Where do I get my inspiration? Different places and times: Sometimes it's from personal experiences and events, sometimes it's from stories I hear or read, with a bit of pepper and salt. Sometimes it comes from nature, dreams, and news reports. Sometimes inspiration just comes, from a place unknown to me. Usually, it's a combination of all those things. Below is a paragraph from my latest performance, "In the Lost and Found", followed by the letter that inspired it. (I apologize for taking so long to publish it Leila .) The letter is set against the reality that in Jordan, as in several Arab countries, a woman cannot transfer her citizenship to her husband (while the man of course can). "They tell me I will lose my inheritance if I marry a non Muslim. He has to convert, otherwise the marriage is false, the kids are bastards, and the wife is an apostate, her "blood is permitted" - with no punishment to the killer. I am obliged to give my husban