Category: 2015

The first time I came to the United States was in 1967. My husband was working for Francis I DuPont in Beirut and was sent for a brokerage course on Wall Street. The minute he mentioned that, I told him that I was going too. How could I miss such an opportunity? But you have two small girls, three and under one, how would you manage? I’ll make it work, I said!!

Little did I know then that I would be immigrating to the United States, and that this New York, that I thought was my one and only chance to experience, would become a city that I loved and visited on numerous occasions.

We stayed in Westchester County, and I would take the girls out for a stroll to the town’s main street where there was a supermarket, a drugstore, a deli, a hairdresser and so on. At that time, and in Beirut, we went to our hairdressers regularly and were always “coiffed” and elegant. However, here I was in New York’s suburbs only to see so many women walking around in the street and at the supermarket with their hair in curlers, loosely wrapped with a net. It seemed that these hair curlers had just become available in America’s mass market, and were now being paraded around proudly by women wearing their rollers and pastel-colored, polyester outfits. A city-dwelling Parisian or Beiruti woman, chic no matter what her economic class, would have been mortified at the curlers, as well as the outfits!

Walking around in the clean, glistening supermarkets with their stocked-to-the-brim shelves was another experience. The array of fruits and vegetables was very limited and mundane: apples, oranges, a few bananas, hardly any lemons in sight, carrots and potatoes, leeks and rhubarb, some yellow squash, corn, iceberg lettuce and such. Nothing exciting! Moreover, there was no aroma enticing me. It was as if they were as artificial as the shelves on which they were displayed. In Beirut, blind eyed, I could tell the fruits and vegetables from their overpowering fragrance that wafted everywhere. Sun ripened as opposed to neon-ripened! Organic, not Monsanto! Huge difference!

. . . fast forward, fourteen years later, I am in Virginia, half an hour’s drive from Washington, DC. Do I see hair curlers anywhere? Nope! I do see a bit more of a variety in the fruits and vegetables, but nothing to write home about. However, and as if overnight – sometime in the early nineties, maybe? – the entire landscape around me began changing drastically!

The variety of fruits and vegetables was increasing by the week. I would be in the grocery store and an American shopper would invariably hold up a mango, an avocado, a pomegranate or a papaya: What is that? How do you eat it?

As I took my six-month old grandson out in his pram I would notice the empty computer boxes, old washing machines, tired sofas and small-screened old televisions lying on the sidewalks, waiting for the trash pick-up. Booming, Super Technology Highway and environs in Fairfax County was in a buying, updating and renovating mood! Out with the old, in with the new! Everything was being upgraded! Everyone was participating in replacing: Made in the USA with Made in China!

The older ranch-style houses in Vienna (and elsewhere) with their tiny windows, small rooms and one bathroom were beginning to be torn down and replaced with town houses and single-family homes, bigger windows, more light, spacious bedrooms and multiple bathrooms with showy Jacuzzis – but no practical bidets – abounded.

As the hair curlers, the pastel polyester coordinates, the subtle makeup, home-trimmed and painted finger nails, the trademark jeans, sneakers and sensible pumps and the short bobbed hairstyles made their exit, in came the more stylish imported fashions (although they arrived to the US many years after they had become “passé” in Lebanon and Europe), the long, cascading hair styles, the loud make-up, the salon manicures and pedicures and . . . the flip-flops (a style imported from Asia and the Middle East) to show those off!

Oh, my! Oh, my! America! How fast you revamped yourself!

Continuing this fast and furious makeover were the changing demographics as a few more successful black families moved into the once all-white neighborhoods, and many more immigrants from all over were now settling amongst the white population.

Discrimination, racism and bigotry – never having died out – were raising their ugly head!

. . . in my role as bank teller at the drive-thru window: White man drives up, sends his check in the canister. He doesn’t have enough funds in the account. Not wanting to shout out through the microphone, I sent the check back with a note asking him to come in and talk to a manager. He screamed angrily at me: Why don’t you go back where you came from? And why don’t you learn how to speak English? Well now! I wanted to scream back that I was here because of American foreign policy that continued to allow and legalize the occupation of my country of birth; that I couldn’t go back much as I wanted to; that I spoke better English than his bastardized American! Of course, I didn’t!

. . . chatting with my Indian, Philippina and Iranian coworkers we were talking about our home countries; the beautiful apartments we had dwelt in, the delicious food, the parties etc. etc. Hearing us, our Assistant Manager who was from the “y’all South” said: If it was so good where you came from why did you all come here then? She really believed that we lived in the slums, in the poverty and ugliness that she saw displayed on her ignorant brain-washing television.

. . . 9/11: My boss, the Doctor, and the Pharmaceutical Rep are having a conversation on how we should go and “nuke all those people in Iraq!” I said: Iraq has nothing to do with the terrorists of 9/11. “Yeah,” says the doctor. “Why don’t you go back to the village where you came from?” The “village” I came from was Beirut, at the time designated by the whole world as the “Paris” of the Middle East. And the good doctor was from a little backward dump in West Virginia, about which not I, but many Americans, made the crudest and most disparaging jokes!

There is no doubt that America has been convinced by its politicians and media that it is the most advanced, the most wonderful, the most perfect place on our planet and that everywhere else is inferior, including Europe and Canada, but not our twin, the UK! They are also oblivious to the evil, carnage and heinous acts that their government has caused – and is still causing – from Latin America, to Africa, to Asia and to the Middle East. This is not Patriotism. It is Ignorance Personified. Willful Blindness! Gravely dangerous to any semblance of a real Democracy!

The sad thing is that I have been in this USA for over thirty years and that I came here legally, that I am a law-abiding citizen who loves this country and most of its people. However, should I tell any American what I think of US politicians, government or system I am viewed with suspicion as if I, a mere immigrant, a “colored” woman from the backward Middle East, am not supposed to be anything but uncritical and grateful that I have been allowed to live here. Really?

Anyway, during those years from about the mid 80’s to the 90’s everything in the United States seemed to open up. The once dark-lit, meat and potato restaurants enlarged their windows, spread out to the pavements and began serving “ethnic” foods. Apartment buildings and condos sprouted up. Mosques were established alongside churches and synagogues. Private schools teaching multiple languages and baccalaureates became acceptable academies. Government offices put up signage in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and other languages. European and Middle Eastern style cafes and bistros were now on every street corner. Colleges and Universities now offered ethnic clubs and courses. Immigrants, Blacks and Native Americans emerged out of their intimidated and subdued shells becoming more assertive and vocal. More and more foreign-made cars were on the roadways. More inter-racial and inter-religious marriages were occurring. More “colored” children were being birthed. Apartheid US had turned into a vibrant, multi-racial Salad Bowl!

America was undergoing a transformation that shook some white people to the core threatening their monopoly on privileges that they considered their God-given rights. The milder racism and bigotry that was once whispered was now becoming overt and rancorous, though enveloped in nuanced language that was ridiculously see-through!

Polish people, Catholics, Jews and Italians once considered inferior were being replaced in the racist world of some white people with Arabs, Latinos, Muslim and Sikh immigrants!

Laws are being drafted every day by racist white politicians and their few colored, opportunistic lackeys in government (some of them Lebanese, some Latinos, Blacks and Asians) that are excluding and criminalizing colored minorities, poor people, the working class, legal and FOB (Fresh Off The Boat) immigrants in all sorts of inane and unjust ways.

It might be a short-term win for the privileged few. It is, though, doomed to failure in the long-term, because racism and bigotry do not scare us anymore as they once did the lynched hapless black men, the reservation-corralled Native Americans, Japanese internment camps and on and on. To the contrary! The more racism and bigotry we see, the more these inspire us to become more active and vocal, to band our issues together and to demand our just, equal and full rights. We are doctors and engineers, teachers and entrepreneurs, CEOs and nurses, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and atheists, ethnically conscious and loyal Americans. We are black, white, Latino, Asian, LGBT, conservatives, progressives and activists. So, please, cut out the prissiness and your misplaced patriotism, for we are proud patriots and citizens too, whether you like that or not. We, Minorities, have decided that we are “tres chic” now!

Priggish hair curlers are way Out, America!

Versatile Flip-flops are In! Now slip yours on, white America, and get with it!

There have been numerous articles recently in the mainstream, as well as in the alternative press, about Drones. Some of them are quite interesting and informative; a few are slanted in a manner that justifies their military usage. While I am not a military or arms specialist, I do realize that once you go down that road of creating a weapon, such as the Drone, capable of being used for so many nefarious and criminal purposes, and then attempting to convince the masses of its necessity and efficacy, then you have become as wicked as any “other” government or entity that uses lethal weapons of this sort on its own citizens, or those it considers the “enemy.”

Are there any non-lethal weapons? The mere definition of “weapon” says that no, there aren’t. A kitchen knife can be a lethal weapon . . . so . . .

. . . there I was in my kitchen one day, chopping parsley for tabooleh with my long, sharp knife. I heard the downstairs screen door open and assumed it was my husband. I called out. He didn’t answer. Still holding my chopping knife, I stepped out of my kitchen to the landing overlooking the entrance. Coming up the stairs was a young man carrying a ladder. He took one look at my knife and started stumbling backwards with a horrified, terrified look on his face while saying: No, no, otro casa, otro casa! He had obviously, and mistakenly, opened my door rather than the one adjacent to mine, which is where he was going. I still chuckle every time I think of this and of how this poor Latino guy must have thought: this crazy gringa is going to kill me! So, yes, and excuse this amusing diversion from a brain that flits here and there, but, a kitchen knife is a lethal weapon!

Was my kitchen knife as lethal as a Glock, an Uzi, an M16, a Bazooka, a Missile . . . a Drone? Of course not! Our US military Drones have been killing so many innocent men, women and little children all over the Middle East! They have been creating more hatred and more radicalism than at any other time ever! Is this the intended purpose so that we’ll have a continuous war? I mean, one has to wonder how the politicians and military strategists are thinking, and if they are doing so at all??!!

Nevertheless, I can’t help but think that when that horrid nuclear bomb was invented and we began amassing an arsenal of them – which President Obama has recently authorized a budget for in order to update those very deadly weapons – and then proceeded to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki and incinerate innocent men, women and little children, we set in motion a process whereby other nations began acquiring and building nuclear arsenals. Oh, it’s only for deterrence, they tell us! For the balance of power! And every time some political leader proposes reducing those arsenals we find ways to derail that offer! Reducing? The nuclear bombs in the US possession alone can incinerate the planet many, many times over! Israel’s bombs can destroy the entire Middle East region hundreds of times over! So what are we talking about? Noam Chomsky, as well as many other intellectual analysts and thinkers, have put the nuclear time clock at closer to midnight than it has ever been. Does that give any politician pause, you think?

It is the same with Drone technology. One day soon, that capability will be in the hands of our “enemies!” And then what, for do we think that we’re safe because we have the “strongest military on the planet?” We aren’t! We know only too well how criminals – whether on the street, the battlefield, or on the Internet – are always one step ahead of the police, armies and crime busters, and that no matter how many laws and agencies we have to fight them they will always find a way to commit their crimes. Why and How do we think that evil-doers will not be able to do what we do? To do as much evil as our Nuclear Bombs and Drones & Such can do? Are we that smug, inane, incompetent, or arrogant?

And then I look at the television, read the articles and books, listen to the discussions about the wars in Vietnam, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Yemen and what do I see? Armies and militants, “we” and “they,” fighting village to village, street by street, house by house! All our lethal weapons, all our intelligence agencies, all our military strategies, all the haphazard bombings and what does it all come down to at the end of the day? That we cannot defeat ISIS? Really, now? Really?!! Rather, we are fighting battles as men have since time immemorial: mano a mano!! Oh, my!! We have – and are still – seeing this in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Israeli government (and now the Saudi!) prefers not to engage in mano a mano fighting. Instead, they have used airplanes to mow down buildings and human beings indiscriminately, ruthlessly. They have also used chemical weapons, sieges and mass intimidation. The Israeli government has also utilized mass incarcerations and, in recent years especially, has been arresting children – as young as three and six years old. Some say that Gaza is Israel’s (and by proxy the US’s) war laboratory and test site. I wonder what the children are for, though. Is there an Israeli Dr. Mengele conducting experiments on them, drawing their blood, extracting their organs? Hubris can make a government do all sorts of criminal and unthinkable things. Think Hitler, Mao, Stalin. And think Angola, South Africa, Algeria, Somalia, Nigeria etc. etc. where atrocities of unimaginable dimensions have taken place. And then think police brutality occurring in these United States of America, from Ferguson, to New York, from Chicago to Baltimore. The injustice that has been displayed by the foremost proponent of “freedom and democracy” in the world; by our government that places itself above all others in its Values, is surreally unbelievable?!?! Those Values that are being gradually and systematically eroded by the War On Terror and what it has wrought of surveillance, loss of privacy (because we have All lost that, just in case you have any illusions still) injustice, criminality and transgressions. Now that our police forces have become armies, turning their brutality on innocent black men, they will – much, much sooner than we all think – be turning their guns on Any protesting or dissident civilians; in other words, on you and me, on our neighbors and youngsters. Unless this ends – don’t hold your breath – then it is certainly where we are heading.

That extremist organizations like ISIS and Boko Haram should be defeated is vital, and the sooner the better for, as more time passes, they will become more entrenched and more brutal. Perhaps it is even too late for that. It is though, going to require mano a mano fighting. Drones & Such will not, and are not, doing it! And so the question becomes: who are the manos who are going to do this? And do the politicians and military strategists want this to happen? It is a simple: yes, or no! If the aim is to end the reign of these renegades in Africa and the Middle East it Can and Should Be done right now! Otherwise, its continuation is simply because we want it to and because it is serving our purposes. That is the truth! Maybe you wonder, as I do, why have the ISIS beheadings abated; the caging, the demolishment of monuments, the parading and burning of prisoners. Did all that wane “just because?” Something does Not make sense, so, enough fudging and outright lies! And, who Is orchestrating all these theatrics anyway? ISIS? The Conspiracy?

You don’t understand, they say. You have to look at the long-term, they say. The US is building a better world. It will take decades and lifetimes, and there will be collateral damage, but in the end we shall prevail. Yes, every Empire throughout history thought so too! So no, I’m not holding my breath. I won’t be around anyway. I just wonder if all this devastation is really worth it, or if, perhaps, there is a better way to build a cohesive world? To create a more just, humanistic, democratic, free world? The answer I can so far detect is that: No, there isn’t, according to political and military leaders!

So where does it all go then? Where are we heading?

My answer is: wherever we want it to go. It is our choice, our voice, our action or inaction, our vote.

Will we make it count, or will we continue wallowing in our irrelevant little lives and our mundane issues leaving it up to others to fight on our behalf? See, reversing such processes cannot be left up to the military and political leaders on the scene today. It has to come from the grassroots, from us, from you and me! Do we want it to? Think!!! Think!!!

Do we?