Egypt and Israel-Reply to Amir Oren, Haaretz 06/06/2007

The writer did not add anything new except his dark conclusions. My opinion here is not a pro or against Egypt but just an observation. Egypt now and in the future will continue to honor the peace with Israel as it's the only way possible. The Arabs and the Muslims realize, even if they do not admit it on the popular level, that Israel is here to stay and be part of a larger more conclusive Middle East. I will not be surprised to see Israel as at least an observer in the Arab League some time in the near future. If we look at the world affairs and diplomacy we can see that countries do not have, among themselves, continuous warm relations. Politics play a great role on how countries react to each other without going to war any time there is a dispute. The writer also was not objective at all in his Analysis as the Middle East is a unique place and the Palestinian Israeli conflict is still with no acceptable solution yet. Mubarak of Egypt knows more than anybody else the importance of peace with Israel to the livelihood of his country. I also can say that all the Arabs, official and popular, have reached the same conclusion some time ago.

Here is Mr. Oren's article:


When the lid is afraid of the pot
By Amir Oren
The year 2007 does not only include the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War; it also contains the 30th anniversary of Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem. Israel's most glorious military achievement, the defeat of three states and the occupation of major segments of their territory, is set against an even greater diplomatic achievement, breaking through the wall of Arab hostility. In both cases, the enthusiasm gradually turned to disappointment and the promise held out by the short-term results never came to fruition. The view that Egypt is a moderate, peace-seeking country is an optical illusion. Cairo, which purchased its ticket to Washington through Jerusalem, is once again not thrilled to be part of the camp affiliated with the Americans. The Egyptian people, who are not eager to get involved directly in a war, are instead encouraging war from the sidelines. Israel's awakening from the illusion of Egyptian influence over the Palestinians has been taking place for seven straight years, from the Camp David summit in 2000 to the anarchy on the Egypt-Gaza border under Hamas rule. Even during its 19 years of military rule over the Gaza Strip, Egypt was more concerned about Palestine than the Palestinians. Contrary to the Hashemite Kingdom, which annexed the West Bank and undertook a process of "Jordanizing" the Palestinians, Egypt avoided adding the refugees from Jaffa and the residents of Khan Yunis to its own tens of millions of poor. In the prisoner exchange that followed the Six-Day War, the Israel Defense Forces released thousands of soldiers who served in the Palestinian brigades of the Egyptian army and sought to transfer them to the western bank of the Suez Canal. But Egypt refused to accept the released Palestinians and demanded that they be returned to the Gaza Strip.
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The promising idea of an exchange of territory involving Sinai, the Negev, Gaza and the West Bank might have had a chance of succeeding in the Sadat era, or at the height of the Oslo process, but has since fizzled. Egypt will not contribute a grain of sand, a drop of sweat, or a drop of blood in order to further peace. In the best-case scenario, it will continue treading water in the current impasse. The more realistic scenario is that after Hosni Mubarak, the repressed hostility will become open and active. Ironically, the reason for this is democracy - not the American model (since efforts to instill that in Cairo failed exactly as they did in Damascus, Riyadh and every other Arab capital), but the popular version found in political cultures where an authoritarian and rigid regime refuses to relinquish its exclusivity and privileges, but also will not challenge public opinion unnecessarily. That the regime, or parts of it, has come to terms with Israel is a diplomatic fact that the Egyptian public cannot erase. However, this public has great power to keep the relationship cool, limited to air-conditioned rooms where diplomats meet. Opinion polls show that Egypt - the largest Arab state, with the most advanced and powerful military - is also the most hostile to Israel, the United States and the West. This is not a matter of hairsplitting interpretation or passing trends: The data are unequivocal, and as frightening as a storm of religious fanaticism and prejudice. Last month, the American House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs received the results of an international survey conducted by the University of Maryland. The survey examined public opinion in four Muslim countries: Morocco, Egypt, Indonesia and Pakistan. On every questions, Egypt led - in opposing an American presence in the Middle East, in supporting attacks against it (more than 93 percent), and in accusing the U.S. of aggression against Islam in its entirety, as opposed to just the fight against Al-Qaida, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. Even those who expressed reservations about Al-Qaida's activities, particularly its targeting of civilians, supported the audacity of global jihad in confronting America and raising the flag of protecting "Muslim honor." Many doubt the American version of what happened on 9/11 and attribute what they saw with their own eyes, and what was described in tapes by Osama Bin Laden and his aides, to Hollywood special effects. Israel, of course, is derided as a collaborator and a protectorate. The pot boiling under the regime is threatening - if it boils over - to throw the lid off, and with it, also the peace with Israel. The resulting security tensions will not immediately escalate or lead to a new war, a sixth war, between the two countries. But there will be no deeper, broader peace than the one that currently reigns on our southwestern border.

Daimler buys Chrysler for 40B, sells it for 7.4Billion

The Business world is amazing and full of contradictions. In 1998 Daimler the German giant automaker bought the number 3 American automaker for a record 40 billion dollars, today, 05/14/2007, Daimler is selling it for 7.4 billion dollars. The chairman of Mercedes-Benz is cheering the deal and saying that because of their passion for great cars, Daimler did what it did. I'm trying to find words to describe a deal like this which obviously was a flop for Daimler and maybe for Chrysler. I'm not an economist but it amazes me to try to do the mathematics here. No CEO should be allowed to stay in office if they have done a deal like this. Even if the deal was in stocks or even if the wizards of accounting have used what politically correct is called legitimate accounting maneuvers. My four years old daughter, God bless her, would have looked at me as if I'm an idiot if I have mentioned Mercedes news to her. Daimler was, no doubt, brutish in making the buy, now we know, but brutish in selling it is still out there for the jury to decide.

Iran Hostage Diplomacy, By Jamil Shawwa

We should add a new diplomatic term to the glossary of diplomacy and that is the hostage diplomacy. Iran since it's revolution in 1979 has resorted to all kinds of blackmailing to get it's way. It started with the US embassy seizure and the hostage taking to today's event of kidnapping 15 British sailors that Iran claimed drifted into it's waters. Iran not only is using those sailors to continue to engage the west but also in making political statements that do not relate to the incident and I mean making the sailors issue a statement asking the US and Britain to withdraw from Iraq. Amazing, what this has to do with the claim that the sailors were in it's regional waters. The west has been accommodating Iran for some reason but the message we are sending is horrible. We are telling the world that it's a legitimate way to take hostages and it's ok to be a terrorist because then and only then you will be eligible to sit with us on the negotiating table. The credentials for this honor, negotiations, is to be a terrorist. This is the message that Iran is sending.

Mash Potatoes!

One of the most horrific things that civilization has ruined is the mash potatoes. What happened to the good old mash potatoes that was a favorite to almost everybody. The other day I went to one of those restaurants that call themselves, Trendy, and I asked for a fillet with mash potatoes. I got a second rate fillet and a weired looking mash potatoes. It tasted it like some sort of a vegetable lump far from the mash potatoes as I knew it. When I asked about it, I was informed that it was a combination of potatoes, mushrooms, chicken stock, etc. What a shame. Even the mash potatoes got upgraded or downgraded depends on how you look at things. The mash potatoes is potatoes, milk and butter, it should be creamy white or a little off white. Period.

Israel, The Arabs and Al-Aqsa Mosque

The events at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in regard to Israel's removal of a small hill by one of the gates leading to the Mosque and the Arabs Muslims reaction to it culminate and show what has been going on between the sons of Abraham for the past hundred or so years; which is gross mistrust, misunderstanding and a psychological barrier, as the late president Sadat of Egypt once said. Both parties are at fault here, in this particular incident. Israel should have conducted a press conference, before it started the construction, to explain that what it is doing is just improvements to the road leading to the gate, as it finally did today through the foreign ministry and the Arabs should have asked for logical explanations to what it is going on. Neither party has been conducting itself in a way that help to build confidence among themselves or at least ease the misunderstanding. This has been going on for decades. Israel as the administrator of the east part of the city has a responsibility to first its Arab residents, and the Muslim world, to explain and maybe conduct town meetings as we do here in the US on the town and city levels. The holy places in Jerusalem are extremely sensitive to the three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam and a good PR is necessary before doing any business that could hurt the feelings of any of the three religions. The Arabs, again, should not just wait and hunt for an opportunity just to attack Israel but need to engage Israel in the regard of the holly places. These small steps are vital until a more overall comprehensive peace is achieved in the Middle East.

The Washington Redskins 2007

The team needs to be motivated to win! It seems that for some reason they have not had the fire in the belly nor the motive or the proper coaching. Once they get motivated, they will win. The team needs to have a GM and a head coach. Gibbs is the past. The team needs a new coach who knows how to spark the fire from within and create a team that believes that it can win. It was not a Snyder problem per say but it became. The team has been on a losing streak even before Snyder took over. Snyder has managed to create a very profitable organization out of the Redskins but continued to have a losing team. The Redskins have become famous of doing a good job until the very near end but fails to win or to close the deal. Snyder has been a master salesman and now he needs to find the right formula to win both commercially and on the field.

Admit Turkey to the EU

Turkey should be allowed in the EU but after the end of the Cyprus problem. Cyprus is an EU member but as the Greek Cyprus and not all the island. The EU and Turkey should work together in a transparent way to resolve all the problems and the EU as a group has to vote and set the conditions once and for all regarding the admission of Turkey or just come forward about this matter and say if they do not want the Turkish nation to be part of their union. Turkey right now is the moderate, democratic Islamic state that could be the bridge between Islam and the rest of the world as it is geographically the bridge of Asia to Europe and vice verse. A European, Islamic Turkey would be a pillar and concrete foundation for stabilization in the most important and volatile piece of real estate in the world; The Middle East.

Gallaudet University Uniqueness

The demonstrations that are happening at Gallaudet University to protest the appointment of Dr. Fernandes, the provost, as it's new president is unique to Gallaudet. Almost no other university has this special bondage the students feel about the school and the people in charge. Few years ago the same student body brought a president that they felt is close to them and their plight if we are allowed to use this term. Dr. Fernandes might be qualified to be president but so far she failed to understand or act upon this special bondage that the body students feel about the school. The majority of the student and faculty are against the appointment; Dr. Fernandes describes the events as 'anarchy and terrorism'. The problem here is at Dr. Fernandes attitude. Obviously she had never been popular with the students or faculty and this might be somehow normal at other schools but not at Gallaudet. The university is unique, the students are unique, and it is the Mecca of the deaf people all over the world. The board of trustees should have taken these points into account before appointing Dr. Fernandes to the job. The talk that she, Dr. Fernandes, is not deaf enough is just one of the issues with Dr. Fernandes. The main problem is that she never been close to the students and the way she approached the demonstrations shows that she still does not get it.

The Pope and Islam

The Pope of the Vatican mentioned Islam in a speech few weeks ago that basically blasted the religion. Muslims around the world protested and continue to protest as of now. The pope said that he felt sorry for the reaction that these remarks caused and then offered his apology for hurting the feelings of the Muslims but stopped short from apologizing completely for the remarks he made. The big question is why would the head of the Christian Catholic Church blasts a religion that has over one and a half billion followers. Why now and for what purpose. The pope and the church are not dumb and obviously the pope wanted to send a message to the world that in his opinion, although he was quoting, that Islam was built on wars and that it is not a religion of peace. Every one is entitled to his opinion but not the pope! Unless he believes in what he said and then he should not apologize but again he should be upfront about it. If the pope blasted any other religion the reaction should be the same, which is to protest. Religions are words in books that the believers believe that they are words of God. Behaviors are different; they are acts of humans that belong to this sect or religion. If individuals that belong to a certain religion attack and terrorize then the job would be to fight those and not their religion. I'm talking here especially about the three divine religions which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Of course we can include religions that have millions of followers as well. The pope made a mistake when he attacked a religion rather that attacking methods used by humans that claim to belong to this religion or that. As an individual the pope is entitled to his opinions, as a Pope, unless he wants to send a message that he believes that Islam is a religion of war, then he should not mention such things or attack any other religions, The message of the legitimate religious leaders like the pops is to spread understating and not vice versa.

The Planned Wars: Israel 5- The Arabs 1

It's amazing how sometimes wars just happen. As if the fighting parties decided that well, it's time to make a war. A great example is the Arab-Israeli wars. Going back to 1948, it looks as if the children of Abraham decided then that they are so bored by whatever they are doing and that the best way to overcome boredom is by waging wars. It's interesting to look back to see the sequence of these wars. In 1948, the UN and the major powers recognized the State of Israel, the cousins, the Arabs rejected and waged a war. The Arabs lost, Israel won. So far 1-0 for the other Semites. In 1967, the 1956 war is not counted as it was not really between the Arabs and Israel, a questionable Arab leader with childish behavior and ambitions by the name of Nasser, former president of Egypt, decided that the cousins in Israel can not use the straits of Teran on the Red Sea for their business. Israel rejected, Nasser got stubborn,and took actions in Sinai, including the closure of the straits, that almost constituted a wage of war. Israel attacked and won. The Arabs lost the rest of the land that they lost in part in 1948 due to another childish behavior. The score now is 2-0 for Israel.In 1973 the Arabs, according to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat who succeeded Nasser in 1970, needed some sort of a moral victory over Israel to permit them to negotiate with dignity. The parties felt compelled again for another war. The Egyptians and the Syrians attacked. They won a little in the beginning and then Israel under a commander by the name of Ariel Sharon rebounded and took care of surrounding the Egyptian third army in Sinai to improve Israel negotiating stand. I will give this war a score of 1-1, a draw for the cousins. In 1982, somebody in London got creative and decided, why not assassinate the Israel ambassador there and score some points against Israel. Israel, to the astonishment of the world, responded and invaded Lebanon and ended the Palestinian presence there and lift. The score now is 4-1 for Israel. By the early 1980s a new/old player came to the scene, the Iranians and the Shiite behind them and under there black turbans. A new militant organization was created in Lebanon to substitute for the kicked Palestinian militia. Lebanon since it's independence has always had some sort of quasi government, someone who claimed to fight for some reason. Hezbollah was created and took it on it's own, the Lebanese government as has always been is a guest in it's own country, to fight Israel. It did for few years. Israel lift the whole Lebanese territory and Hezbollah got some credit. I'm not going to score this one because the withdrawal was not part of a direct war but because i believe Israel just did not intend to stay. This Shiite militia continued to harass the Israeli and negotiate with them and then cry foul and such. In 2006 for another mysterious reason, this militia decided to go inside the Israeli territories and kidnaps some soldiers, very smart. So they did and before them Hamas did the same in the Israel-free Gaza. Another big question: Why? besides the obvious stupidity. Israel responded in both incidents, surprise surprise.. and attacked Gaza and Lebanon. Both places were rebounding and now engulfed in wars that do not make any sense except that Hamas and Hezbollah's goals are to create havoc and that this is the only way to keep them and Iran as active players in the insane game of wars. The war is still on and we do not know, us the commoners, how it will end and what will happen to those fighting parties. Until then the game is on.

Word Cup 2006: Vulgarity Vs. Class

The vulgar action of France football player and Team captain Zinedine Zidane during the second and last over time of world cup championship match with Italy is beyond any shame. It's an act of vulgarity. Zidane, famous of his head butts, reached the peak of vulgarity and stupidity when he head butted an Italian player with no provocation whatsoever. He will forever go down in history as probably the player that caused his country to lose the 2006 World Cup. It has been the eternal question since the beginning of man kind on why people drive themselves to ruin. History gives us unlimited number of successful people and leaders who just for some reason drove their success down the drain. Zidane is one of these people. In 1998, he helped his team to achieve the world cup in football, soccer, and in 2002, he did not play at all due to an injury which might have caused his team to lose. In this year,2006, world cup games, Zidane excelled in more than one occasions, although some of his penalty kicks were questionable- the blame in this case goes to the referees whose responsibility is to make sure that they have not been fooled by the players into getting penalties that are not warranted- drove his team, and country into a shame. Some psychologists and motivation coaches attribute this to a human nature that drives some people to just quit or destroy themselves for no apparent reason. Is it that we, some of us, just get bored of success or want continuously to be challenged that we chose a road that would challenge us in a n negative rather positive way. Having raised these questions, I noticed, as in Zidane's example that some of these successful people have had a pattern of just doing things that affects their careers negatively. Michael Jackson comes in mind as well as President Bill Clinton and others.

It was not a game, it was a shame

The defeat of the US team in Germany's 2006 World Cup in Soccer was the culmination of an illusion we had in America that Soccer has become a popular game. It is not. Almost the majority of the people here did not know that the most famous and popular sport in the whole world was taking place in Germany. We will talk about the whys later but now will focus on the defeat. All commentators up to and until the start of the first shocking game against the Czech republic predicted and said that this team is the strongest team the US has assembled ever! and even some predicted that the US might win the cup. I was shocked to hear these predictions specially that we really still do not have the strong foundation like other sports that can produce a strong well trained cohesive team. Sure we have good players that play out side the US but that is all we have, good players and not a good team. We must start by looking inward and strengthen the MLS and popularize it by all the means necessary. Second we must have a strong foreign coaching team preferably Brazilian, or German that will put focus and not politics into the team. Then we must choose from the stars of the MLS and who plays abroad a team that will train regularly even if takes to travel from their respective playing countries to the US.It's normal to be defeated in sports,but it's not normal to be so ilusioned about our capabilities.

Rotate The Power in Lebanon

In a previous article, Lebanon 2005, I talked about the problems Lebanon faces in the aftermath of the assassination of its former Prime Minister Rafik Elharrir. I then voiced concerns about the nature of the Lebanese people and if they will ever have the national integrity to create a country, a real country. In this article, I’m more of a pragmatist. I see hope in Lebanon’s problems by starting to reform the political system. This system was created primarily to navigate the various religious groups that make up the Lebanese social life and in some opinions was created to protect the Christians. It does not make sense anymore and it needs to be changed to create the new Lebanon that can survive and be a normal country. We still can not ignore the hard feelings each religious sect feels about its own group; in Lebanon the tribe or the religion loyalty is more important that the country itself even if the Lebanese pretends otherwise. The ideal solution for Lebanon as I have mentioned before is the Switzerland example but until the Lebanese people reaches such maturity, we need an interim system that preserves the rights of the different sects. The solution is to rotate the power at the helm, meaning the presidency, which is the most important symbol especially for the Christians as they have been giving the position since independence. The solution is for the parliament to elect a representative of each sect, Muslim, Maronite Christian, Shiite, etc for one six years term. Right now the parliament does this function but elects only a Maronite Christian. The rest of the positions in the government should be left to the elections and to the winning party personnel as in all democratic systems. The system now allocates the presidency to a Maronite Christian, the premiership to a Muslim Sunni, and the speaker of the parliament to a Muslim Shiite. This current system is unfair and unrealistic. The fact is that the majority of the population is Muslims contributes to the need to change the system. Having said that, Lebanon is kind of a unique system in the Middle East, almost, now Iraq looks like Lebanon when it comes to sects fighting over power, and Lebanon needs to relax the fears of the Christians from losing their privileges. Another issue is the presence of almost 300,000 Palestinians who live in Lebanon and where the idea of giving them citizenship status creates a nightmare for the Lebanese in general and the Christian Lebanese in particular. However I think that those Palestinians that most of them were born there need to have the Lebanese citizenship and needs to move on with their lives. Those people will not go back to their original land in Israel and Palestine and any way it does not make sense to keep talking about the right of return. Palestinians in the Arab world need to be nationalized with the citizenship of the country they live in.

The Begining of The End Of The Ba'ath In Syria

The Security Council resolution 1636 calling on the Syrian regime to cooperate with the UN special investigator regarding the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al Harriri is not the beginning of the end of the Ba’ath Regime in Syria. The beginning of the end of that regime started with the fall of the other Ba’ath system in Iraq led by Saddam Hussein. Both branches of this ideologue party came to power in both Iraq and Syria almost in the same period. In Iraq in 1968 and in Syria in 1970. Both embody the same theory on how a group of people, well organized, not necessarily related to the majority of the country they are in can rule that country effectively. It's what I call the dictatorship of the few. In Iraq, a group of the minority Sunni that did not even belong to the elite sunnie ruled a country of a Shiite majority for almost 40 years; the same in Syria, where a group of a sect called Alawite, kind of a Shiite on the fringe, ruled the country of a sunnie majority. I do not think this would have been a problem had these parties ruled their countries in a democratic fashion or if they had reached power through democratic means. The similarities between the two Ba’ath regimes in Syria and Iraq are great. Both were chapters to this so called pan Arab party that was created by a Christian Syrian by the name of Michel Aflak. After the fall of Saddam, Things have changed for The Baath; it became a strange body in an area that is changing rapidly into open political systems though not yet fully democratic. The assassination of Rafik Al Harriri came to expose Syria and its military regime and helped to escalate the departure of its forces under domestic and international pressure especially from the United States. Recently the former Syrian vice president Khaddam who happened to be a Sunni Muslim defected to France and aligned himself with the banned Syrian Muslim Brotherhood which is a Sunni organization though they would never admit it, and created a front to topple the regime of President Bashar Al Assad. The exact way of the end of the Ba’ath regime in Syria is difficult to predict but the continuation of this regime as it is now is almost impossible. We just need to look at Iraq, though the end might not be similar.

The Business Peace of The Middle East

Let us try to put politics aside for a moment, if we can, in the Middle East and talk about resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to a larger extent the Arab Israeli conflict from a pure economic and pragmatic approach.

The whole premise of the prosperity of the United States did not come from its ability to resolve conflicts and differences between its people with their various ethnic and cultures but from its ability to create a net of mutual benefits, interests and well being among its citizens.

We, in the US, live together, work together, make money and prosper not necessarily because we have harmony between us but because it is in our best interest to do so. The whole rationale of the interstate commerce clause was not to create cohesiveness but to allow the free flow of goods and people across state lines to benefit businesses and consumers.

This helped to tear down the political and ethnic barriers that divided the country and was going to create two unequal nations within the USA. In the US example, economic benefits helped to create a better political process and smooth the transition into a more just society.

If it was not for the economic pragmatism, racial divide might have ended but through more violent means. Let us emulate the US model in the Middle East politics and focus on the tremendous economic benefits that would spread all over the place if peace exists.

The Middle East powers can put aside their conflict-minded approach to the Israeli Arab question and focus on how we can get prosperity to everybody and all countries including Israel and Palestine.

The economic logic demands that in order to have a flow of goods and people through the borders, we must ensure that all countries, entities including the independent states of Israel and Palestine have open but recognized borders, and that requires the immediate psychological drop of the words that Israel does not belong in the Middle East from the Arabic social political dictionary.

Israel in return, from an economic approach, should start recognizing the aspirations of the Palestinian people and start helping with the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Some said that good borders create good neighbors. It's true, we can have borders but we do not need to have walls and barriers.

The Middle East should now start moving from conflicts to cooperation, from struggle to prosperity. The three religions started in the Middle East. Now, it’s time for them to live in peace.

BMW and the loss of imagination

What happened to the well designed and sporty looking cars of BMW? Look at the 7 series and the 6 series and you can see what I’m talking about. I wrote before about the problems GM is having with their tasteless cars and now it seems that BMW is going through the same spill. Just have another look at the 7 series design that really shows, in the opinion of most experts and cars enthusiasts and not only me, the lack of coordination and taste. The back of the 7 series is so unimaginative that one wonders if the person who designed it is an engineer, an artist or just someone BMW brought from the streets of Munich and gave him or her a brush and paper and asked them to design their flagship car. Even after couple of years from realizing the mistake, and making changes to the posterior of the 7 series, the car still looks bad even worse. Now it looks like the Toyota Avalon. Before it was unique and ugly, now it's just very ordinary but less ugly. Take another look at the re born 6 series and its posterior reminds you of Chrysler cirrus 2000? The front of the 6 series is no better, it looks like the Z4! The only thing that BMW did not really experiment with was the 3 series, their bread and butter. The 5 series passed, in my opinion, and did not have the same craziness that the 7 and 6 had.

We are a regular country

Well, looking back now, starting from the beginning of the nineties, we have come to realize that we are a regular country, vulnerable to world events and a target to terrorists and later on to natural disasters, New Orleans 2005 and that we are not or were not ready to confront these issues because in most part we were not confronted with them in the past. In the early nineties we were struck by the first terrorist attack against one of our most important financial symbols and success, The Twin Towers, in New York. Most of us thought that this was an isolated attack due to our increased role and involvement in The Mid East policies or as a result that we have become the only super power after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Most of us did not realize that this attack was just a rehearsal to the worst that yet to come. Then, we did not focus on the home land security, we did not coordinate quick and effective response among the federal, state and local authorities, we were just islands within the big Unites States. We thought that because of the geography and history we were immune from attacks. We were and still are the strongest on earth, but mostly out side our boundaries. We did not look much inward. Then, came 9/11 with all it's disasters and we woke up to a new reality which is that we are a regular country, we can get attacked by terrorists, we can be vulnerable and we realized that we have joined the rest of world in this field. We still did not look much inward and we went, rightly so by the way, to both Afghanistan and Iraq and took care of the deranged political systems in both countries. We created a Home Land Security department and we realigned all the security organizations to make sure that we are ready in case another attack happens. But still, in my humble opinion, still did not really have a close look at our vulnerabilities inward until the New Orleans Natural Attack. We woke up and asked our selves what if what happened was not a natural cause but a terrorist attack... We looked and found out that we still live in islands when it comes to security, and evacuation. We just acted a little late and we were not prepared. We also found out that a large segment of our population lives like many areas in what we like to call Third World Countries, that they do not have hope or voice and that they are the forgotten people. We need to look more inward, empower FEMA, restore the cabinet level position to its director and align federal, state and local authorities to be ready to prepare, and secure us against all disasters. We knew in the nineties, at certain intelligence level, and not the most of us, that we are vulnerable but we did not act. We knew in New Orleans even more, we knew for sure 100% that a natural disaster was in its way and we did not act. We must act, and we must protect the home front inward as we try to protect the home front outward.

New Orleans 2005 and the Fall of the Mask

The devastation that happened and still happening in New Orleans, as we write now, shows the fall of the mask from all of us. The mask of racial tranquility and harmony. The facts on the ground are ugly and conscience's awakening. There are still hundreds of thousands of American who still live in a third world country circumstances that live within the greatest and the richest country on earth. People who for whatever reason, mainly the color of their skin, live on the far end of society, they are the forgotten people that we only hear of when disasters strike. We heard of them during the California and other states riots, and now we know that they exist because nature exposed them. We knew that devastation is in its way and we did not do much, at least something that we can talk about. We know the Gulf of Mexico, we know the Mississippi and we still could not build enough dams or enough gates, barriers, levees, I will leave the technical terms to engineers, to protect our people against natural disasters. We knew that there are tens of thousands of people who can not evacuate themselves, we knew everything but we just did not move. We did not have a strong proactive leadership, on all levels that would predict, plan and execute a methodical emergency plan. The pictures talk volumes of the rust that penetrates our body. Obviously most of those that could not move were in the minority and obviously those who counted them out or did not count them at all were our officials, local and federal. I was glancing at the international papers, Arabic and else and the whole world was at shock not at the disaster but at our “impotence” as the greatest country on earth to deal with it, prepare for it, minimize the damage and manage the destruction. But, still, amidst all this, America has a unique trend that it tries to be better, it tries to improve and correct. America with all it's institutions including it's free press does at least shed the light on the deficiencies of our society. It's always a great first step.

What is Jordan.. but Amman by Jamil Shawwa

The other day I was having lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant in the DC area, in Virginia. While ordering the food, I came across a server who ‘happened’ to be from the Middle East and particularly from Jordan. Before knowing where he was from exactly, I asked him to tell me and he said Jordan, I then asked, from Amman? And he responded spontaneously by saying, of course, what is Jordan but Amman. The obvious explanation to his answer is that Amman is the capital, the biggest, the richest city so clearly he must be from there, where else. Beneath this simple direct answer lies a volcano of how the people in the Middle East feel about their countries and how the rulers have ruled in the past fifty years. Since the early fifties, all resources in the Arab world, the Middle East have shifted to the capitals of the Arab countries, the government, the financial power, the capital, etc. People from all over the respective countries started to migrate towards the capitals searching for better life. There cities, towns and villages did not have the resources to maintain them. Investments have shifted to the capitals and the very surrounding areas. The capitals became congested, crowded, randomly designed to accommodate the thousands and millions newly immigrants, case in point is Cairo-Egypt.
Cairo became a monster in random buildings and designs, by the way, the Arab world shares this problem with other countries elsewhere like Mexico, etc. The feeling became since the late fifties that if you want to succeed you must go to Misr, meaning Cairo, this is Egypt’s name in Arabic and also Egyptians refer to their capital as Misr. Nasser, Egypt’s leader then almost ignored all other parts of the country and focused on Cairo. The problem became bigger and bigger by time and now as the Egyptians try to expand outside the city, the solutions are very hard to implement. The concentration of power was one of the reasons that those leaders focused on the capitals. They wanted the capital to have the power to control the rest of the country. Another reason was the socialist model that many Arab countries have copied from the defunct Soviet Union. Again, the solution resorts in few words, democracy is one of them, the private initiative and the powers of the market. These solutions that are easy to talk about but difficult to implement, however the gate has opened and it has to be done in the near future. These solutions will overcome the void the Arab youth feel and will steer the focus into building rather than destroying.

Air France 309, and the making of the news

CNN was first, in The USA, to report the unfortunate accident of Air France 309 while landing in Toronto Airport coming from Paris. MSNBC was second, and then FOX, then the rest. What caught my attention in that coverage is that all, everyone, including so called aviation experts assumed that no one could survive such an accident, that the pictures are so clear and the precedents are there, a similar Delta crash twenty years ago, to back up those experts claim that there is no way that anyone survived. I, a no expert in aviation, felt that the plane looked as if it did not went to flames immediately, and that there was no immediate explosion. I kept watching to see how the news media either love to jump into conclusion, take short cuts, or just hungry for a juicy piece of news, unfortunately the possibility of no survivors, or all the above would cover the news. It's amazing how CNN brought an anchor by the name of Miles O'Brien who has some, or a lot, of aviation experience who swore on his ancestors grave that there is no way that there could be any survivors. He even brought a friend of his who was a Captain of US Airways to talk the same talk. Wolf Blitzer who was running the show then tried to make sense out of all this and tried to keep brining the Delta crash to show that he also knew what he was talking about. At the end, or just an hour after the coverage the truth came and that all passengers and crew survived this accident. Oh, poor news media, what a disappointment. No one dared to predict the possibility of survivors, at least not any of the ones I watched. Again, mediocrity in the coverage, not much gut to swim against the norm or the obvious, taking the safest and what I call just scratching the surface approach to news or things.