Ayoon wa Azan (My world is falling apart)

What is left of the Arab nation? All that is beautiful and promising is threatened or has gone, only to be replaced by ugliness and despair. I don’t believe and I don’t want to believe that I am describing my nation today. I hope that I will be proved wrong. I am not hereby writing a political analysis; and I am not trying to come up with a new economic or social theory; and I am not analyzing the statements of this or that politician. I just want to translate what I feel and think now that my world is collapsing around me. I can’t imagine life without Egypt, Syria, and every Arab state. I can’t be only Lebanese. The Arab dimension is part of my life and without it, I am doomed. Is there anything new that I can say about Egypt since the readers have seen it all through the daily images broadcasted from there? The Egyptian economy is nil and ninety percent of the people are suffering. A team from the International Monetary Fund visited Egypt and negotiations are underway to lend the country 4.8 billion dollars on condition that the state should halt its subsidies for some essential goods, i.e. the people’s daily bread. So the solution for the Egyptian economic problems consists of 4.8 billion dollars for a country inhabited by 90 million people. This sum may last for one or two weeks and the Freedom and Justice Party will then have to come up with funds for the remaining fifty weeks of the year. Everything in Egypt has gone from bad to worse in the last two years. In addition to the security collapse and the suffocating traffic, the art of flirting has also fallen. Men no longer flirt with women, but rather harass and rape them now. Indeed, the brave gentlemen who have a flawed understanding of religion cannot solve any of their problems, so they rape the women instead. There are some very painful pieces of news that I refuse to discuss. I will only say that I never would have imagined that a group of Egyptian men would be raping an Egyptian young woman in the Tahrir Square. Have men lost their goodness, morality, and integrity? The situation in Egypt is bad, but it is worse in Syria where the confrontation is raging between a regime that opted for killing as a solution and an opposition, half of which is patriotic and good while the other half has been infiltrated by terrorists that represent the worst enemies for Arabs, Muslims, and humanity as a whole. I receive daily footages showing the “achievements” of the opposition, knowing that the radical part of that opposition signed an open alliance with the terrorist Al-Qaeda group. These terrorists are not part of the patriotic and honorable opposition and a distinction must be made between the two groups. And now, a Prime Minister, Ghassan Hitto, was selected by the opposition. He is a Kurd from Damascus and he just “fell down” on us from America where he lives and works. I never heard of the man’s name before. The regime dispatches its war planes to bombard residential areas. When a number of these planes are shot down by the terrorists’ missiles, the regime fires its Scud missiles against the people. The terrorist part of the opposition responds randomly. Thus, the weapons that are supposed to shield the country and be used against Israel are rather killing the Syrian civilians. The two sides are priding themselves with their achievements and Israel is smiling. Is this real or is it just a nightmare? Will I wake up and go visit my friends and relatives in Damascus tomorrow? Writing about our nation is like walking on thorns. In Iraq, there are incessant terrorist operations, and there might be a hundred victims one day, and ten another. In the other end of the Arab nation, i.e. in the countries of the Arab Maghreb, an imported terrorism has been installed since the United States is looking for bases for its drones. The situation in Tunisia is unstable and the new government is facing unfamiliar problems. Sudan has been partitioned, and the situation is oscillating between a potential accord and a possible imminent war. The problems are back between the Yemeni North and South and also within the country that is home for American drones that kill terrorists along with innocent civilians. Lebanon is importing Syria’s scourges. The Gulf States are facing domestic threats and a recurring Persian avidity. I am looking for another Arab nation, one that I once knew and loved. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.