How Sectarianism Penetrates Through University Walls?

Indigenous political manipulation is manifested so garishly at a student echelon. Politicians shadow the youth by bombarding them with ideal themes to be able to snatch their innocence and corrupt them to make sure they have a seat in the next elections. Why do we need to live under the clemency of avaricious politicians with private paradigm for power and twisted grandiosity? They are practicing sectarian blackmail to encroach in our own milieu and pressure us to vote for their own benefit. We merely fall into the trap of trusting political leaders who relinquish their beliefs for personal ambition.

Last week there was a blast in one of Lebanese universities, AUB, you could feel the inescapable tension flooding through the students when they were parading in front of the university with flags and scarves of orange, yellow, blue or white and shouting the names of political leaders of their specific party. It is so pathetic how politics is being engraved through university walls to spread sectarianism all around, as if the university is the miniature of the bigger jungle outside their premises……

I hate to see our youth being robbed of its innocence, corrupted by manipulative politicians, who don't care about the public good and the ideology that they claim they fight for, but voraciously seek to fulfill their own whereabouts…….

Why do we have so many colors for such a small country as Lebanon? Why we need to identify ourselves with various colors? Why can't we have one flag, one identity, one color? But otherwise we won't call it Lebanon, because Lebanon is bound to be a battlefield, if we don't have outside invading troops, we will go our way to create inner conflict. Why can't we realize that we are being maneuvered, we are being forced to live in instability because people aim to divide us to conquer, and we are feeding their ambition by being so absurd, so naïve , so pathetic……..

REASON, A FRIEND OR A FOE

I believe that all religions aim at spreading justice, love, and merciful deeds to venture equality in men. I want to grasp integrity that our mind communes with itself. However, if we soar with our reason's naked eye we will realize that all through history our priests, who are supposed to spread the word of god aim at enslaving humanity to maximize revenue and monopolize power…….

Suring decades priests surpassed their realm of power and interceded in politics, propagating political ideologies within the walls of the church, furnishing inevitable tension among the people…… isn't this ironic how two antagonistic forces, politics and religion, are interwoven to control the population? How amazing to witness the art of corruption being intrigued in the law of divinity……

How can we listen to a man who has this much besmirched the chastity of our intellect? This priest-craft is becoming popular especially among the people who fail to succeed in so many other industries; thus, they indulge in the trade of priesthood to guarantee maximum profit. I will give the example of my neighbor, an illiterate priest who hardly finished his elementary school and didn't have enough intellect to continue high-school, he worked as a servant in a pub-restaurant, the smell of wine can be sensed from him even at a distant, everyone called him THE TIPSY! When he failed to secure a living to his family by embarking in different trades, he dedicated himself to the never ending journey of perjury, by being the ambassador of corruption, the priest of the county. His son calls the church to be his dad's "supermarket" his wife's arrogance is so devastating that she mocks at the villagers that her daughter's wedding was 1st class. As you see, our church, that's supposed to be working under the umbrella of justice, is so discriminative towards its disciples, how pathetic!

1st class wedding, 2nd class funeral…… where on earth are we heading? How can we let examples of these be our religious leaders? Can they conceive more destruction to morality then this? I defy to rest my belief upon such corruption.

As Thomas Paine said: "It remains to reason and philosophy to abolish the amphibious fraud" I hope humanity wakes up from his slavery and responds to the duplicity that goes on beyond the door of the church or any religious temple, religious leaders are eroding the human morality ………

I know it's been ages since I last updated my blog but I had my reasons, hope things will get better.

Sometimes we can’t spit at people’s faces about their revolting follies out of courtesy, or we don’t want to step on their ego in public, well it doesn’t forbid us to write about them right?

So beware if you piss me off you’ll have you’re share of sarcasm in my blog hehhehehhehe ……

The Tunrpoint

The red cross volunteers stirred my conscious and the conscious of thousands of people like me, we saw them running in the WAR ZONE just to help remove disfigured corps under the pile of rocks, which once had inhabitants now they are merely a pile of ruins where you feel the hand of barbarians has painted its image on it …… these volunteers endanger their own lives to assist people and save only few who still have a breath left of their bodies before they are perished from this nightmare. This humanitarian act revived us from the state that we were in and it touched our existence …………

People can choose to be either the victim of the world and yield in by breaking into pieces and collapsing under the claws of stress which is the case of lot of Lebanese, many people already developed panic attacks and collapsed or they can take the other side of the coin and proclaim this as a quest for peace, trying to make a difference in someone else’s life , by following the example of red cross volunteers.

It’s all a question of how people view things in life….

A group of AUB students majoring in health field organized a volunteer group to assist the deported refugees who already have chronic diseases but live in negligence and despair ……. Also they developed a plan to control spread of infectious diseases or breaking of an epidemic to prevent these poor people jumping from the frying pan into the boiling pot. Moreover, they prepared health teaching sessions to create awareness and fight infectious diseases at primary level of prevention. We need to take an initiative to start from somewhere and increase the circle like snowball effect to control the situation.

Their persistence encouraged a lot of students and medical Drs to get involved by joining hands to make a difference ……. For those of you who are interested in participating in this humanitarian act please contact: http://www.aub.edu.lb/challenge/help.html

Instead of feeling paralyzed you actually can help others, remember the choices you make the paths you take make all the difference, don’t be late in taking the right choice ……

My view of happiness is merely this ……..

HAPPINESS

Is it the rain crying at the windowpane?
Or it’s your memory that’s going to drain…..
To drench every cell and dive in pain,
In the frame of illusion that drives them insane…….

With whom you’re dining tonight?
Or dancing like in heaven so bright…..
You’re worse then Casanova that lures all night,
Flooding grudge to ignite the fight…….

You mock at every soul and make them believe,
Embrace them so tight to let them perceive,
That you’re their possession and make them conceive,
While they’re dreaming, you fly and you deceive …….

IRONY ..........

Life moves so fast that it rushes us from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds, at every bloody moment in our lives we all have one foot in a fairy tail and the other sunk in abyss….. The day before 13 July Lebanese were celebrating summer, relaxing at the beach, tourism was at the peak of it’s progress, finally after a long list of assassinations of political leaders the country was starting to get on his feet again to start molding its wounded economy and rebuilding the ruined scars all of a sudden on July 13 the peaceful breeze that was embodying the city vanished within minutes to be surrendered by the black veil of terror accompanied with the roaring of the planes and bombs pouring like hailstones, draining every single drop of courage that people possess.

These people are using the art of diplomacy, to keep their opponents waiting, Waiting for GODO…….. They are keeping a façade of normality, trying to procrastinate till the problem eventually resolves by itself. Till now their strategy of war is still vague, they claim to attack only the so called “terrorist militias”? Then how come all around Lebanon even pure Christian territories are being bombed????? Being third world country this is what we get, total control by the more powerful……. Do you honestly think that people who crucified Jesus Christ will spare anyone in Lebanon?

The unavoidable happens at the very moment when people start to feel a little bit secured and confident in following the right path of their personal goal, when each one feels he is the master of the situation something drastic happens to cast them down, and you ask WHY? Can it be that we are all condemned to see the palm trees only to die of thirst in the desert? People feel that the wings of tragedy are brushing against their face.

A friend of mine wanted me to update my blog, but why? To keep people informed about the drastic changes in our lives? Of the stormy nights where the electricity looks like the one on a Christmas tree only it’s a little bit early this time….. Where instead of presents children are bestowed with bombs, or the creepy feeling in your soul when you walk in some street that makes you question yourself if you’re in a ghost town or not? Why should we write? They killed every single drop of passion in our hearts; the majority has enough hope to survive the day…….

Maybe he is right, maybe I can’t say what I want to say using other means except writing, so be it ……

I thought Lebanese firms used this technique to employ people; well my best friend is putting up with the same tune in USA ……….

WASTA

Where are you heading simply lost in nepotism
Why are you invisible in the realm of egoism?
Are you convinced of the existence of egalitarianism?
Or merely overruled by exclusive favoritism

The egocentric seeks to walk under your spotlights
The Narcisst assaults the stars of the nights
We have to halt and save the Fights
To spare us from igniting the blights

they claim to posses colossal credential
Hackneyed with borrowed and phony Potential
Franchised smiles to portray that they're essential
Craving acknowledgement that they're substantial...

SHIT HAPPENS!
BUT THIS TIME WE PROVOKED IT………..

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln



Globalization aggravated the development of transnational corporations, which are enterprises that manage production in different parts of the world at the same time. Given their international operating system; these corporations have massive revenues that allow them to influence the decision making of a country and inflict political lobbying to secure policies for simplicity of operation in the host country. What is more pathetic is that , developing countries try to present incentives to these transnational corporations (TNCs) like decreasing taxes, or providing less restrictive policies to attract foreign investment in the country, this is so devastating and self destructive. The sewage of developed countries is indirectly poured into the market of poor developing countries who are craving for economic development by allocating investment and labor in their countries.

A little bit of history about transnational Corporations: they sprouted out during 19th century, with the launch of industrial capitalism. They internationalized investment and trade which accelerated their market share. Most of these corporations were established in industrialized countries, and they had control over the general export worldwide. However, during 1980 TNCs targeted their investment in the developing countries because of lower wages, cheap natural resources, and less restrictions by the government; therefore, they had easy access to operate without strict regulations controlling their actions.

The world's largest economic establishments are considered to be transnational corporations. One quarter of the world's productive assets are controlled by them. Their yearly cumulative sales are even greater than annual GDP of countries. For example combined sales of Mitsui and General Motors are even more than the GDPs of the following three countries Denmark, Portugal and turkey. Mostly due to the size and economic influence they are able to dominate the market share and become a part of the global market.

These corporations exert leverage in the host country in various forms; they allow government officials to be shareholders in the enterprise, or act as national activists in policy committees by providing financial contributions to political parties. TNCs lobby governments and interfere in the political affairs by exerting economic pressure to promote their own convictions. Having access to free trade they are able to penetrate in the government and maximize their revenues. Thus, encouraging free trade will eliminate national boundaries and further increase power of TNCs.

These creeping disease-like corporations, once they reconcile in the developing country, they don't contribute positively in it, and their operating strategy exploits ecosystems, inflicts hazards to the environment and perishes natural habitats. This in turn erodes the natural resources creating factors which are hazardous for human life and health. This overexploitation of land and resources leads to pollution, global warming and increase in production of toxic material; which in turn affect the health of humans and cause environmental threats. Imagine your kids growing in a polluted world being condemned by ill-health the minute that they are born.

TNCs use modern technology to produce their products that fabricate lethal material causing a threat to harm the earth at a global level. The existing toxic material can pollute the global environment on a larger scale. Thus, transnational scheme of trade opens free borders to the shipment of waste from industrialized areas to contaminate the whole globe, human health, animal population and plants. So it's not just us who reside in third world countries that bear the burden, but my problem is becoming your problem since the earth is growing into a global village, devoid of boundaries to protect its own skin. Thus, global pollution is creating global effects not only because it's intrinsically global but due to universal trade and industrialization.

As stated in the USA constitution 1868, fourteenth amendment, corporations are granted the same rights as individuals of the country. So they can easily influence the government for their own interest; all through history this allowed corporations freedom to use their wealth to dominate the public opinion. In fact, the profit quest is the main driving force of all TNCs even the humanitarian corporations like pharmaceutical companies are aiming at increasing their revenues. Nowadays health is perceived as a commodity that is driven by the law of the market to speculate whose health is beneficial to invest on and whose health is not. To what extent these pharmaceutical companies provide humanitarian practices is questionable…

To ensure greater efficiency pharmaceutical companies are trying to cut down research on nonprofitable supplies and invest on goods with high rate of return such as Viagra that have less health implications than drugs to cure tropical diseases . One sixth of the world's population suffer from neglected tropical diseases, such as cholera, Buruli ulcer, soil-transmitted helminthiasis. Most vulnerable to these diseases are the poor underprivileged people residing in the tropical region of the world. Actually some of these diseases cause physical disability and have fatal outcomes which increase the burden of disease. People in tropical countries die of preventable diseases, because the medications are ineffective or unavailable in the market of third world countries. Thus, pharmaceutical companies ship generic medications that are cheap but pose biohazard on humans since they are not tested by FDA. Health inequalities still exist between rich and poor countries which violate the trickle down effect, equal right of equals.

The market is flooded with medications that are called "lifestyle drugs" they are merely cures for baldness, impotence, face wrinkles. Billions of dollars are invested in this industry line, which is not a matter of life and death issue but merely a privilege. On the other hand, the expensive medications to treat AIDS are not available in developing countries in spite that AIDS is higher in third world countries. And when the developing countries try to develop a cheap brand of that medication; Pharmaceutical corporations raise law suits against them; this was the case in South Africa because of the generic production of cheap AIDS medications. Can you believe people EUALITY only exists in theory books and fairytales……………

Some of the pharmaceutical companies conduct unethical operations when they test new drugs on humans in developing countries. Which have negative implications on their health due to the side effects of the drug (Marcia, 2004). Thus, the underprivileged are being abused by the pharmaceutical companies and are used as subjects for their trials. These companies violate the human rights yet are not held accountable for their actions, because they have an international boarding pass to cross the governmental arena and mold the policies for their own welfare. Can we fight them? With what? We are just a small fish in a big ocean, where big fish engulf the little ones without remorse…..

With the escalating force of the development of transnational corporations and their vast scope of global market, they are widening the discrepancy in health around different parts of the globe. These corporations are creating hazards to the ecosystem by threatening lives of people Thus , globalization affects health as it affects economy and commerce of nations. Creates health challenges and poses risks that are shared by different parts of the world. And there still exist people who go pro globalization? You just have to weigh the pros and cons and draw a line where to stop and look back………

The global view of the problem of developing countries is indirectly affecting the neighboring developed countries who try to direct the claws of pollution to poor developing countries but the toxic claws of the contamination are too strong to be constrained by their power; since the fire of globalization has ignited and the wind is blowing it to invade the whole planet. Globalization recognizes no boundaries to stop it from penetrating and spreading the pollution to all parts of the globe.

Are you with or against outside investment?

Everything in the world is turning around the concept of economic surplus... Lebanese big champ group is having town meeting …. Theoretically we presume that they will make a difference, but who am I kidding if these people strongly believe and convince the poor people that allowing outside investment in an immature economy such as Lebanon would assist them to reach economic maturity faster……..what do you expect ? Do you think this is this the case? Is this possible? They bully people, trying to impose their convictions which are mostly absurd …….

I will prove this point by stating:
· First: capital creates work in the place where it is spent.
Banking system in Lebanon mostly concentrates its targets in the urban areas allowing fast growing businesses to flood in urban areas which in turn attracted young men who needed to work to raise their own capital. However, these needs create further demands for loans and more work for building trade. On the other hand business in their hometown goes into obliteration because the young workforce abandon their roots, which in turn leads to shrinking of the business in countryside…… lamenting situation……
· Second: outside investors are only interested in the rate of return on the money they invest, all other payments to workers is considered to reduce their own crippling profit, every effort is made to decrease this wastage while in-house investors aim to maximize total income generated in the community not just profit, the outside investors seek to attain ultimate profit with the cheapest possible labor, while community investor is merely satisfied by the employees efforts and counts them as stakeholders and not just domino characters in the game-field
· Third aspect: outside investors have very short time horizon, eager to make the maximum profit within a short period of time, while community investment has a long term view they want to produce in safe, stable markets, not in a risky gambling fashion because every penny is counted in the fishbowl, they don't have that large pot of jam to pour in it all their sweets.
· Fourth: the escalating amounts of interests that are being poured in the system while the World Bank projects the image of a fairy to provide equal funds and packages to poor countries through human right perspective, ya right as if we believe it…. The devastating interest that piles on the debts is enough to leave us with the misery for the rest of our lives……..

In this world it's hard to fight globalization, to prevent its claws from penetrating into the developing countries which are being used as tools for the market of the exports of the developed…. It is sad but true, maybe I'm too idealistic and this world is my other paradox …..
Should we allow foreign investment or I'm being impractical living in a world of unrealism……..

THE LOSS

Everytime it strikes 6pm with its roar,
I hope you'll be walking through that door,
To embrace and hold us as we soar,
Up in the sky just as we adore……

Everytime we sit at the table,
Your place feels cold like seashore pebbles,
My tears infringe like sorrowful rabble,
Searching for answers that are liable…….

Everytime we gather together,
Your absence wails emptiness that always patter,
Create obscurity that's hard to recover,
Your memory is gonna last forever……..

"to develop or not to develop"


Globalization hits me in the chest! Modernization stabs me to the back! It creates a whole dilemma of “To Develop or Not to Develop" in an ideal world development is portrayed as joining partnership in a global world, so that both developing and developed countries will share responsibilities in a symbiotic fashion to harvest the benefits of development. Well in fact, developing countries need to do their homework, to form strategies to decrease poverty and mold governance, so that they can reap the profits of developed countries. The history of existing society is based on class struggle, only nomenclature changes; "freeman and slaves" are substituted by "proletariat and bourgeois" to yield to "developed elite and developing third world countries". If you dig deep you discover that the paramount consideration is plainly based on economic pursuit to achieve development whether dependency, or modernization theory perspective. While the big shots in Lebanon simply blab a monologue of modernization theory in developing a global partnership for development.

Which overlooks different perspectives; it is deplorable how an enormous change in history such as development can be simplified through the panorama of the western world, as if diversity is disdained and merely one man's experience portrays development in the whole wide world.

The Lebanese corporations that are being abused by perpetrators of globalization, just being used as tools to draw their own milky way to penetrate in the heart of the business and suck the profit out of it, to have a piece of the bloody pie by upholding evolution towards modernity to achieve economic surplus through industrialization and increasing investment, to be able to reap the fruits of economic growth.

These poor pathetic Lebanese tools convince themselves that globalization, manifestation of modernization theory, is crucial in building partnership in trade, finance and technology. They claim that Lebanon has acquired the reimbursement of globalization through various forms of development: social capital, historical enrichment, educational and cultural exchange. The modernization theorist stresses that it's essential for Lebanon to be part of the global market, to overcome the constraints of corruption, decease poverty, adjust public spending and give way to privatization of ownership.

Modernization is disguised and merely depicted as a necessary and desirable process to human destiny. Despite the challenge that trade liberation posed to the market by increasing exports of limited natural resources by twenty percent it increased debt to thirty billion dolor, what the author fails to acknowledge here is the flaws of this gain that drained the industry and flood Lebanon with foreign imports, which allows us to weigh the pros and cons of this development and leaves us in a dilemma, of what to do next when the natural resources perish. Lebanese government instead of treating the cause of the disease is trying to remedy the complication, by creating strategies of structural reform, simplifying procedures, public financing, privatization and liberalization of trade, which wouldn't have been there if the initial factors were not present.


I see development, with my own eyeglasses, to be a process where people are dominated and their destinies are controlled according to western standards of comprehending the world. Their plans, imaginations and thoughts are shaped by others who neither share their values nor their lifestyle. This theory portrays development as an outside force, based on western experience, which is universally applicable, disregarding the fact that development comes from within. It rips away from the society its sentimental veil and reduces human relations to mere monetary ties. It is an issue of greater concern that drains cultural wealth and imposes western values, because western is modern and traditional is considered to be hindrance to development.


This propels the myth that change comes from outside, the need for foreign assistance to develop, ignoring the fact that change of development should occur from within. The main problem is that, they disregard the impact of this aid, which is leading to the accumulation of enormous amount of debt by increased interest rate, that developing countries are imposed to pay for the counterfeit received. The World Bank assumes to take the role of godfather to provide a helping hand for developing countries, swamping them with inconceivable debt, condemned to repay for the rest of their lives.


Dependency theorists, explain that the western world not only drives non-western countries into stagnation but also into privatization of economy which is the most vivid aspect of capitalism. Using the exploiting approach of many to benefit a few, allowing few controlling elite to endorse their own development and ensure economic surplus. Which in fact modernization leads to further underdevelopment. Developing countries, hooked up with western economy, become dependent on Ali baba and the crew of thieves, channeling further seclusion and deterioration of their economy.


Ok If their vision is right and modernization is leading to development and a better future for everyone under the equality umbrella how come after tons of years of development we still discover various parts of this world people are worse off then before. So as development is explained to have wide scope of advantages it has leakages where the truth is hidden under the veil of power. Perusing uni-dimentional approach has blinded them. In my opinion I think we need to have a critical mind to be able to go beyond the narrow confines of modernization theory of development and discuss the issue in a multidimensional approach. We can not disregard the influence of other factors such as political impact, societal differences, cultural diversity and human perspective. We are not discussing development in ceteris paribus, in vacuum, but this change is occurring in the society which is subjected to various underlying factors. They only portray the theory as if it is black or whites no room for the grey area to coexist.


In the real world modernization theory of development is based on accumulation of capital where some countries register economic growth while others do not. Big fish engulfs small fish in the ocean. Even if the western world administers aids and technology to the developing countries the hidden agenda is to ensure western oriented decision making and increase own profit by mobilizing exports to third world countries and exploiting their low cost natural resources to develop own industry. It overlooks various aspects, creates the myth of trickle down effect, assuming everyone is equal, where the elite enjoy the benefits of development and the poor are merely endowed with the nuisance. Modernization theory of development pays only lip service to equality between the developed elite and developing countries. The question remains "who gets what on the expense of whom?" ……



Lebanon can't only focus on modernization theory to develop global partnership in development, to be able to reap its promises. We need to focus also on other aspects like social development that sprouts in bottom up approach, entails collaboration of people, rooted within the society, not an outside force hitting them like a lightning to save them from their current situation. They can’t sit and wait for GODO to come and save them from their devastating condition .They can not borrow western standards and apply to their system which can deteriorate the whole situation farther worse then they are now. To be able to make a difference they must understand the situation, analyze its causes and use holistic approach to view the authenticity of their development.