The Desert Pundit writes:

Desert Pundit: Late night rambling

“I stand here, a very “westernized” Arab, wondering if I belong here anymore. I wake up to hear about mosques being blown up and reprisal killings, about journalists being executed, about death cultists who wanted to blow an oil facility. In my land everything changes but the pattern persist, new government in Palestine, 5 dead from an Israeli “incursion”, people making money of booming stock & property markets, while thousands of poor workers drown out of sheer negligence.

It saddens me to see “my people” angry, misinformed and only roused to vent intolerance. I die inside when I hear young educated people repeat ludicrous conspiracy theories. I hurt when I hear xenophobic and anti-Semitic speech. I don’t like most Israelis, but I cannot blame everything that is wrong with my world on a “Jewish conspiracy”.

So I sit and fume at TV, switching between incendiary (and heavily editorialized) news coverage and mindless entertainment, as if the only two choice are to be angered and roused or brainwashed by Nancy Ajram clones. I read the written media, regional and international, search for conciseness, and I find plenty of it, and yet we are stuck here, on roadside, getting more insular and misunderstood. Believing only in our victimhood and that our only salvation is something to be delivered from above.

I am a stranger in my land, at exile in my home, chained by my identity to a destiny that isn’t mine, and yet I don’t leave. As a son of an olive growing family, I believe in deep roots, and I dream of the sunrise that will open eyes and mind, of my people becoming aware, of themselves and the world.”


Posted

in

,

by

Tags:

Comments

4 responses to ““Chained by my identity to a destiny that isn’t mine.. and yet I don’t leave””

  1. manal Avatar
    manal

    I liked your artical alot especially the last paragraph, i liked how you formed this sentence (As a son of an olive growing family)
    when reading it i can smell the olives, taste the bitterness in the oil, feel the warmth of the sun on a very simple day.

    so i guess your are a (fala7i)

    here is a qoute that will help .
    “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.

    good luck :)

  2. manal Avatar
    manal

    ok i now understand, too late as always i have to realize my mistake after i comment…..to be frankly when i first read it i was like ( look ahamd writes stuff like that) not that u dont but your words are always straight to the point.

  3. Hadi Avatar
    Hadi

    Desert Pundit describes himself as a cynic. I can top that. I now a friend who is cynical of cynics. Yes…he calls himself a hyper cynic. but he claims that one of the worst traits he found in westernized arabs is that they are so blind to their own flaws they only see the negative around them. they lack the ability to introspect and tend ot confuse self-absorption with introspection. You know, i think I agree, espicially after I have started reading so many blogs. westernized arabs are the most self-absorbed, self-centered, and un-charitable people I have ever met. yet they love to tell the rest of us how tortured they are by their superior “western” which drives them to the state of torment when other arabs, of the inferior type, ruin their sophisticated image before the world. poor tormented Desert Pundit. The tortured Banker. Well I have a suggestion for Desert Pundit, go volunteer in one of many humanitarian groups and you will feel much better about yourself. put an end to your self-absorbed and selfish lifestyle and try being a foster parent to an orphan child in sudan, iraq, palestine or indonisia. do something where you can be an example to others. then I will bet you will feel much better for making a difference. sorry for the candid post, but that’s what bloggin is all about.

  4. Humeid Avatar
    Humeid

    Hadi.. I think you need to post your comment the the Desert Pundit’s site which I linked.

    But as I see you commented here, I am wondering if one can makes such sweeping generlizations about “westernized” arabs and describe “them” in all these negative terms.

    And, if you are an arab, I would be sincerely interested in how you define yourself?

    And lastly, generalizations aside, what is it that seems to anger you in what Desert Pundit wrote.

    Thanks