The NBN Scandal

So, everybody's talking about the deadly mistake that the nbn TV anchor Sawsan Darweesh did a couple of days ago. Not recognizing that her mic was on, Darweesh mocked the assassination of Walid Eido and gloated about it unintentionally revealing the great hatred she feels for the "other" party. She was unfortunate that someone recorded the incident that found its way to youtube and hence to the whole world.
The incident was considered dangerous and threatening by some, while others think of it as being too trivial to even comment on.
In all cases, what happened is nothing but a true reflection of the bitter reality, a reflection of what the Lebanese are feeling towards each other. Even the dead who were killed in an ugly way are still being subjected to mockery and hatred. That's shameful, very shameful. I think that wishing death to your brother is as horrible as killing him.
I can't believe what's happening in Lebanon, in Iraq, or in Palestine. How can a Muslim kill his brother Muslim and then rejoices the"victory" and kneels praying and thanking God who forbids him from killing to begin with?!! I just find myself unable to believe or to understand what's going on.

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Dar Al Hayat newspaper is publishing episodes from The Ethic Cleansing of Palestine by the Israeli writer Ilan Pappé . They published four episodes so far, and another four are yet to come. Episode 1. Episode 2. Episode 3. Episode 4.

Professor Ilan Pappe is an Israeli revisionist historian and senior lecturer of Political Science at Haifa University, called by some as "the most hated Jew in Israel". He is the author of numerous books, including A History of Modern Palestine, The Modern Middle East, The Israel/Palestine Question and, most recently, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, published in 2006.

Ilan Pappe, while studying history, digged deep in the archives in Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom, learned more about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and found out that what they taught him in Israel was not the only truth. Learning the other side of the story, he came up with a conclusion that this side is the one who's more likely to be stating "facts".

This interview tells more about Ilam Pappe. and so does this one:

Palestine Times Launched in West Bank

The Palestine Times, the first English-language Palestinian daily newspaper since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994, has gone on sale for the first time.

"Maintaining our independence is the primary objective of our newspaper," editor in chief and one of the newspaper's proprietors, Othman Alhaj Mohammed told a news conference Monday in Ramallah, where the daily is based.

The Palestine Times is the first foreign-language daily to appear in the Palestinian territories since the English-language Al-Fajr went out of business in the 1990s.
The newspaper, whose first edition was 12 pages in colour, will also circulate in Israel.

source

The Bald Lady

I was flipping through the TV channels when a talk show on NBN captured my attention. The show was "Sejal" hosted by Rabia Zayyat whose guest was a Lebanese photographer called Carine something. Carine was not there to talk about her career and photography, but rather to talk about her hair or the non existence of it to be more specific. What I saw was shocking, not because it's the first time I see a "bald woman", (I've seen Demi Moore before :P) but because it was uncommon to see an "Arab" bald woman.

Carine isn't bald because she suffers from a certain disease that caused her hair loss or something, not because she had to shave her head (as Moore did) either. She chose "for a change" to get rid of her hair and become completely bald.

I didn't see the whole interview, but I want to shed light on a few points.

The girl was arguing that shaving her hair is something very personal, and people have nothing to do with it. There's nothing wrong with changing "the look" as long as we do not change from inside. Carine with or without hair is still the same person, nothing had changed. She insisted that people should not judge others by their looks. Judging a book from its cover is very wrong. Why would people care about her hair? Is it the hair that makes one's personality? Why do people ignore everything she has and concentrate on her baldness?

According to her, shaving her head was not necessarily to draw attention to herself; it was to change the look, no more no less. Besides, she is not intending to change that look anytime soon, despite all the comments, whispers, looks and stares she's getting. Some people are even wondering about her gender, suspecting that she suffers from a certain sexual disorder.

To be honest, I liked the girl's confidence and high self esteem. She was obviously an educated sociable lady, who doesn't seem to have any kind of psychological troubles.

But why did she do that and decided to abandon her femininity? (Knowing that she insisted that the hair is not an indicator of femininity, she can still be feminine without it).

"just because" or "for a change" are definitely not convincing answers, are they?

Is it the dominance of the male side of her? Or was it the rebellious side? Or maybe the insanity of artists, they do crazy things you know.

Is it to draw attention (khalef to3raf, as we say in Arabic)? See, she became famous, hadn't she shaved her head she would never appear on TV, and I will not post about her in my blog :D

A compensation of some deficiency maybe? Is it lack of confidence or excessive confidence? I mean what if the girl is so full of herself that she thinks that she doesn't need hair, LOL. That sounds odd.

Whatever the reason is, I still think that she looks DISGUSTING.

fi3lan, akher zaman. Girls are shaving their heads while boys are making ponytales

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