Chiming in...

Been a long time. Missed you all.
Tell me about our beloved Leb'naaaaaaan.
I'm horribly out of the loop.

Anyhow, I've been around all my old CDs lately, therefore I've been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin.

First track on Led Zeppelin III is The Immigrant Song. So, will we continue to migrate or will we finally fix our own house and live in it and prosper?



Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying:
Valhalla, I am coming!
On we sweep with threshing oar,
Our only goal will be the western shore.
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
How soft your fields so green,
Can whisper tales of gore,
Of how we calmed the tides of war.
We are your overlords.
On we sweep with threshing oar,
Our only goal will be the western shore.
So now youd better stop and rebuild all your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day
Despite of all your losing.

This Says It All...

Freedom & Peace To Lebanon

Absolution

To every Lebanese fighting another

I absolve myself of you.
I absolve me of the anger
dripping morbidly from turbid eyes;
of the hatred, loud and raucous,
and stupid;
of the ignorance engulfing you
like summer haze:
humid, and sticky, and slowly reeking.
I absolve me of your sins.

I absolve me of your children,
dull and arrogant,
and devoid of hope.
I absolve me of your tongue,
its beautiful words
gone blind.

I absolve me even of myself,
this guilt of being,
this exhaust of writing,
this ball of fury in your throats.
I absolve me even of this,
the need for absolution.

صباح الخير يا بيروت

قوم فوت نام ..

قوم فوت نام .. وصير احلم
أنو بلدنا صارت بلد

قوم فوت نام .. هالأيام
حارة بيسكرها ولد

هاي بلد ؟؟ لأ .. مش بلد
هاي قرطة عالم مجموعين
مجموعين ؟؟ .. لأ
مطروحين ؟؟ .. لأ
مضروبين ؟؟ .. لأ
مقسومين
قوم فوت نام .. وصير احلم

قوم فوت نام
كدوش الفرشة يلا قوام
وتغطى وسمك الحرام
وتمسى بنفس الكلام
تابع برامج بالسكام

كلها أغاني عن الوحدة الوطنية
كلها أماني في المسيرات الأمنية
كلها تهاني في صيغتنا اللبنانية

وقوم فوت نام

ماهو تلات ملايين
عالتخمين
هودي اللي جوة البلد
والباقيين مفروطين
كل شوية في بلد

هاي بلد ؟؟ لأ مش بلد
هاي قرطة عالم مجموعين
مجموعين ؟؟.. لأ
مطروحين ؟؟.. لأ
مضروبين ؟؟.. لأ
مقسومين ؟؟.. لأ
قوم فوت نام .. وصير احلم

كلمات و الحان : زياد الرحباني

The Hakawati

I am very proud and happy to present to you the latest masterpiece by my great friend, the sinfully underrated Rabih Alameddine: The Hakawati.


But don't take my word for it, check out the amazing blurbs it got from the likes of:

• Andrew Sean Greer
• Amy Tan
• Junot Díaz
• Jonathan Safran Foer
• Aleksandar Hemon

The book also received starred reviews from:

• Library Journal
• Booklist
  
• Publishers Weekly
  
• Kirkus Reviews

Jailed Saudi blogger in Solitary Confinement

Seems the Saudi virtue police are done with their female hair chase fixation, now they are on the loose in cyberspace.

What would any country that suppresses the slightest form of freedom of expression and of positive criticism expect?There goes the answer: Suppress civil expression of the educated class, and you get droves of bearded illiterate hair-chasers and uncivil terrorists..

Ah Yes! they already have plenty of those, I wonder why?

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Arabian Business.com by Amy Glass on Sunday, 24 February 2008

Jailed Saudi blogger Fouad Al Farhan is being kept in solitary confinement and subjected to daily questioning, members of his family said on Saturday.

Al Farhan's mother said Saudi authorities allowed her son to briefly telephone his family from Jeddah's Dahban Prison on February 12, his first contact since his father-in-law was allowed a short visit on January 5, reported Saudi daily Arab News.

Despite his on-going imprisonment, Al Farhan told his mother he was "all right, and that he was not being harassed", quoted the newspaper.

His family's requests for further visits have been denied, and it is unclear whether he has received access to legal assistance, Arab News said.

Al Farhan, a popular Saudi blogger, was arrested in Jeddah on December 10, but has not been informed of the charges against him. His detention is believed to be the first arrest of an online critic in the kingdom.

The authorities are believed to be holding Al Farhan for his online criticism of government policies, including detentions without charge and trial of prisoners of conscience.

These criticisms include the government's ongoing detention of nine men arrested in February last year after calling for government reform.

Mansour Al Turki, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said earlier this month that there was no update on the Al-Farhan case other than his previous statement that he was being held for interrogation for violating non-security regulations.

Al-Farhan's blog - Searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, shoura and all the rest of lost Islamic values - has posted a letter, allegedly from Al-Farhan, which states he believes he was arrested because he "wrote about political prisoners in Saudi Arabia".

His arrest and imprisonment has sparked the launch of several campaigns and appeals for his release by international and Saudi NGOs, including the Arabic Network for Human Rights, Reporters without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists.