MERRY CHRISTMAS..JOYEUX NOEL..&

I wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

Je vous souhaite un JOYEUX NOEL et une BONNE ANNEE.

لـبـنـان، إلـى أيـن؟

لبنان ..إلى أين؟ إنه السؤال المطروح منذ تاريخه الطويل و الحافل بالأحداث. لبنان الجميل. أعتقد أن الأحداث الأخيرة في لبنان و لا سيما الأغتيالات منذ استشهاد دولة الرئيس رفيق الحريري، لا يمكن أن تتم دون علم السلطات الأمنية اللبنانية و الإستخبارات السورية في لبنان، و إلا فلماذا انتحر وزير الداخلية السوري و لماذا حاول السيد رستم غزالة، رئيس الإستخبارات السورية في لبنان الإنتحار؟ إن إغتيالات كبيرة الحجم على غرار الحريري لا يمكن ان تتم دون علم و تعاون سوري-لبناني. إن كانت تلك الحقيقة، فإن سوريا ستواجه صعوبات و عواقب وخيمة. كالعادة سيرمي عدد من العرب باللائمة على إسرائيل و الولايات المتحدة و كأننا غير قادرين، نحن العرب على الإغتيالات في حين أن تاريخنا لا يقل دموية عن تاريخ بقية الحضارات و الأمم. لا أعتقد أن ساسة لبنان و كبار رجاله بإمكانهم توجيه أصابع الإتهام إلى سوريا دون دلائل. الجميع يعلم كيف أن سوريا تعتبر لبنان جزءا لا يتجزأ من سوريا و الرئيس السوري الراحل حافظ الأسد كان قد أعطى أوامره لإغتيال كمال جنبلاط و الرئيس رينيه معوض و تصفية ميشال عون (لم تتم). من قتل أكثر من 25000من مواطنيه في حماة في الثمانينات لأنهم من السنة و الذين يمثلون 70% من الشعب السوري في حين أنه من الطائفة العلوية ذات الأقلية في سوريا 10-12 % و المسيطرة على الدولة و الحكومة و الجيش و حزب البعث و المخابرات، بإمكانه إغتيال الأجانب و إنهاء حياة أفراد و جماعات تؤمن بالحرية و الوطنية و الديمقراطية. عاش لبنان

IN LOVING MEMORY OF GEBRAN TUENI (1957-2005)

HE KILLED HIM AND THEN MARCHED IN HIS FUNERAL PROCESSION

When I visited the United Nations headquarters in New York City, I bought a book named:" From Beirut to Jerusalem", written by Thomas L. Friedman, published by Anchor books, NY, 1989, 1990 & 1995.

This book give an image over the Middle East region since the Lebanese civil war till the mid 1990's.

With what's is happening now in Lebanon, I found in page 70 of the book this paragraph:"The biggest threat in my mind was from Syrians and the extreme pro-Syrian Palestinians groups. The Syrians did not take a joke well at all, and during a period in the late 1970's and early 1980's their agents in Beirut shot several Arabs & Western journalists, including Salim Al-Lawzi the editor of the popular Arabic weekly called EVENTS, who, in March 1980, was abducted in Beirut and found a short time later with a bullet in his head and his situations got so bad that many Lebanese were afraid to even mention the word "Syria" in public.

There was a joke that made the rounds during this period about a Lebanese man who ran up to a policeman and said:" Officer, Officer, s Swiss stole my Syrian watch"

The policeman gave him a quizzical look and said" What do you mean, a Swiss stole your Syrian watch? You mean a Syrian stole your Swiss watch."

The Lebanese man looked at the policeman and smiled. "You said it, Officer, not me."

TO BE LEBANESE...ETRE LIBANAIS

The continous operations of killing leaders in Lebanon is very very sad and sorrow. The fact of being lebanese and lived that story since 1975, the civil war and the fact of trying to re-build the country, let me being proud of them, their freedom and their democracy. Today, we say goodbye to Gebran Tueni (1957-2005). We will continue the way. The question that I am asking my self: Is Syria involved in the differents attacks? I think yes! Or why did the syrian minister of interior suicided, why Rostem Ghazella, tried to sucide,too? Is Israel or USA behind the attacks? I asked Leabnese friends and they told me that Syria was colonised Lebanon, that's all!

The problem will be more dangerous if it will be clear that Syria is involved, because I do not believe that a simple decision of killing Rafic Hariri, would be taken by the Syrian Secret Services without taking a green light from Bachar Al Assad!

I hope no!

I can guess now why Lebanon is a wonderful country, it is because of the large numbers of martyrs who gave their lives in order to bring independence to Lebanon.

Long Live Lebanon.

Je suis très triste sur ce qui se passe sur la scène Libanaise. Etre d'origine Libanaise, mais loin du Liban, me rends beaucoup plus triste. Aujourd'hui nous nous rendons hommage à Gebran Tueni (1957-2005).

La question qui se pose: à quel degré la Syrie est impliquée? Je ne crois pas qu'une décision de tuer Rafic Hariri, ou les autres journalistes et politiciens, pourrait être prise sans le consentement des hauts fonctionnaires syriens: Le président Bachar Al Assad. Si c'est la vérité, ca sera l'anarchie totale!

FANATISM...EXTREMISM..

I went to Carrefour with some friends to do "shopping", and I bought a Christmas Tree with its decoration. I am sure that you are going to ask why did I buy it however I am muslim??!
I saw the same question marks on their faces, but arrived to our shared house, I was preparing the dinner when was of my friends who did not go with us, entred the kitchen reading some verses from the Holy Koran. I did not pay attention to him. I thought that there is something to say or to joke with me, because one time I was late and I was at the kitchen dinning, the others where at the living room watching the TV set, when I found the picture of Ben Laden, Al Zawaheri and Abu Mossab Al Zarqawee, my friends left it in purpose because they know how much I hate those persons. But it was not like that. When my friend entred the kitchen he was not joking. He was angry. Angry because I bought a christmas tree. You have to know that that friend hate the israelis, hate the americans, hate the jewish, does not believe in peace or negotiating, does not accept the other point of view! I considered him as an extremist!
He was shouting on my face and crying, asking why did I buy it, etc..etc..; the others were just observing us. When I knew that he was not joking I replied. He did not like my response because it was " so dry" as my friends qualified it. I told him that that it was not his business. I AM FREE. When I bought the Christmas Tree, not because of religion. I bought it to have a fun with my little brothers in decorating it and also because we have a tradition to spend the New Year Eve with our grand parents, so I liked to have a fan! Why all the time, we try to overturn the ideas and the thoughts of each other? The fact of buying a Christmas Tree, does it hurt somebody? I do not think so. the only one who has to accept or refuse the tree is my father or mother. I bought it not as a religious symbol, I bought it to have fun with my brothers & sister, to use it as decoration.
I considered my friends as fanatic & extremist, and if he is continue to be like that, I will qualify him as a dangerous man.

NO COMMENT...

RUMEURS...RUMORS...

Le peuple Tunisien et un peuple qui vit des rumeurs. De Bizerte à Borj El Kardra, la rumeur "s'en flamme" comme le pétrole et le feu. J'ai pour autant voulu faire la prière à la mosquée EL Abidine de Carthage, mais beaucoup d'amis m'ont conseillés de ne pas le faire parcque la mosquée n'ouvre ses portes que pendant les cérèmonies relegieuses et sous invitations puisque le chef d'Etat s'y rends lui meme.

Dernièrement, j'était avec la mère d'une amie de Bahrain venant pour la 1ère fois en Tunisie. Nous étions à la Marsa, Sidi Bou Said et à Carthage. Et oui! Les portes de la mosquée étaient ouvertes pour les croyants pratiquants! C'étais la priere de "Eddohr" .

The Tunisians like so much rumors and "fixes". from Bizerta to Borj El Kadra, the rumors spread widly like a cancer. I liked so much pray at El Abidine Mosque in Carthage, but many of my friends had told me that the Mosque is closed and that it does not open except during the religious ceremonies under invitations because the President attend them.

during the last days, I was in company of my friend's mom coming for the first time to Tunisia. We visted la Marsa, sidi bou said and Carthage. Yes! The Mosque doors were open. It was a prayer time. the mosque was not closed.

HISTORY OF WASHIGNTON D.C. ...2

As I loaded pictures of the most famous places in Was. D.C; I will inform you a little bit about it.
Washignton D.C., is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, between the states of Maryland and Virginia.
Named for George Washignton and Christopher Columbus, the city was created as the seat of the federal government by an act of congress in 1970.
Pierre L'Enfant, a French soldier and engineer, laid out the plans for the ferderal city.
The Mall, located between Constitution and Independence Avenues, forms the axisof the city, with the United States Capitol Building to the east and the Lincoln Memorial to the west. The Smithsonian Institution, which includes the famous Air and Space Musuem, the Hirshhorn Musuem and Sculpture Garden, the freer and the Sackler Galleries (Asian Art), the African Art Musuem, the Musuem of the American Indian, the Musuem of American History and the Musuem of the Natural History, borders the Mall to the north and south.The White House, the Washignton Monument, the National Gallery of Art, the Vietnam Memorial, the National rchives ( which exhibits the original U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence), the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Musuem, the World War II Memorial, and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial are also located on or near the Mall.
These builded buildings and Memorials, form a Cross, but this is not a relegious symbol, it is taken from the anciant egyptian civilization where the Cross symbolizes the Power.
one of the most picturesque residential section of Washington is: Georgetown.
When you visit USA, do not miss to visit Washington D.C.
Have a nice travel!

THE HISTORY OF WASHIGNTON D.C ...

THE US CONGRESS..

Here we are, in the front of the US congress known as The Capitol Hill.

SARA..PAY ATTENTION PLEASE!

As usual, during our pictures taking, never did we pay attention to the cameras, at least some of us. Here, Sara (Iraq, at your left) was busy by her camera. Poor Mr. Moataz. he is an Egyptian guy, married to a Tunisian woman and working as interpreter in the US Department of State. I adviced him to work as journalist photograph, because during our stay of three weeks in the USA, he was our official photographers ;) , you can imagine his situation when we ask him to take pictures to the group with 19 cameras!

THE WHITE HOUSE, NORTH VIEW

It was a Sunday. it was sunny. We were accompanied by a very charming touristic guide: Chelsea.

REMEMBERING WASHIGNTON D.C.

I arrived to Washignton D.C. on Saturday September 17th, 2005 after 8 hours of flying from Paris Charles De Gaulle.
It was 19H00 EST Time, 02H00 Sunday, in Tunisia.

Approaching to the Airport, I was sleeping when an American Lady, Gazelle, sitting beside me punched me. I wake up, she said: "welcome to the United States, Yamen".
On Dulles Washington International Airport, I found Mrs. Aida, later Mom Aida, from the US. Departmnet of State waiting me. She accompanied us, I and three girls, to our Hotel: Lincoln Suites Hotel. The fact of being in the State was amazing. In our route from the airport untill the hotel, I had a aspecial feeling at that moment: I liked to hug everything!
The following day in the morning, I went down to have my breakfast. At the room I found a group of youth sitting around two or three tables, and talking in arabic. I murmured: "are they part of my group?", I went to them, I presented my self and asked them if they are part of the International Visitor Program. Their answer was positive. Here the grantees:
- I, from TUNISIA
- Shaima, from BAHRAIN
- Samar, from BAHRAIN
- Hebatallah, from EGYPT
- Adham, from EGYPT
- Mohammed, from GAZA, PALESTINE
- Mahmoud, from GAZA, PALESTINE
- Alaa, from WEST BANK, PALESTINE
- Eyad, from WEST BANK, PALESTINE
- Zahra, from ISRAEL ( Palestinian of 1948)
- Lamiaa, from MOROCCO
- Sanaa, from MOROCCO
- Siba, from LEBANON
- Ammar, from JORDAN
- Abla, from SAUDI ARABIA
- Sara, from IRAQ
- Abdulaziz, from U.A.E
- Heba, from YEMEN
- Raidan, from YEMEN
We were 19 students. They were very nice people that it is very hard to forget. I will write articles and putting pictures in their Loving Memories.

SHALOM..WSIS...SMSI..TUNIS 2005

During the World Summit on The Information Society I served as volunteer. I served as an agent of welcome and protocol at Tunis Carthage International Airport. The group with which I was, were very nice. We spent almost 20 days together, welcoming more than 17 000 guests and officials.

In fact I liked to write this article after reading that of Kartago news and seeing the picture of the Israeli palne landing in Djerba and showing the Tuniso-Israeli flag putting by Zizou from Djerba.

I will confess you that I welcomed the Israeli delegation during their arrival to Tunis and I was at their farwell during their departure, too.

Leaving the plane, I started talking to them. I noticed that many of them had visited Tunisia many times and one of them talked to me in our Tunisian dialect, yes! He said: "y3aichek".

It was nice talking to Israeli's, knowing their point of view on hot topics like the peace process in the Middle East, the relationships with the Arabs, our common future plans, why not?

During my stay in the United States, and during my visit to San Francisco ( California State), I was invited with my group, some of them Palestinians, to have a dinner with an American-Jewis family and their friends. In our route, it was clear that my Palestinian friends, although with us a Palestinian girl of 1948 with an Israeli nationality was with us, they were sad. They hated the idea to meet jewish dirung our stay. Personnally, I was wainting that moment, but things changed since our arrival.

The Rosenbaum family lived in a very luxurious area nearby San Francisco. They welcomed us with big smile and affection.

We were surprised to find palestinian home made food! To close the host, we put an Arabic CD and we started dancing arabic at their garden. Mrs. Elika Rosenbaum put the Palestinian Koffia and she danced arabic. We left their home very happy by meeting them and we wrote at their Golden Visitors Copy book words of Peace. I will never forget them!

Back to our Israeli's visitors, what I noticed is that the Tunisians did not give an importance to the presence of the Israeli's. Even those who are against the State of Israel, they were neutral. Perhaps, some volunteers disliked my welcome of the Israeli delegation, I DO NOT CARE.

I AM NOT A SPY. I choose the way of peace, tolerence and brotherhood and I will die for that.

Answering the questions and thoughts of some bloggers, the fact of having an contact with Israeli's doesn't mean that we are betraying the Palestinian case, not at all! I hope to establish peace between us and the Israeli's but in the same time I will keep strong believe in establishing the Independent State Of Palestine.

One of the bloggers talked about the Israel's bombarded of Hammam El Chat where Tunisians and Palestinians died. I believe taht it was a honour to us to die with the Palestinians and that history will record that and will record our welcome to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian Leader Yaser Arafat. But, that bombarding doesn't mean to cut the way of peace. We can build bridges of communications. The Germans invaded Europe. Hitler had done a lot in Austria, Czeck Republic, France, U.K and other nations. Do the European continue their hate to the Germans because of history?, Do we, the Tunisians, were protected by the French since 1881? Do the Algerians, with their over a million of martyrs, continued their hate to France? Of course, NO. Now, we collaborate with the French, the Turkish, the Spanish and the British. The Eyropean are collaborating with the Germans. The Americans collaborate with the Russians. LIFE CONTINUES.

I accompanied Mrs. Eilat Sigal, an Israeli woman coming to attend a coference held by her husband, in our route we talked about all the issues that I said. We had a common point of view: we have to educate our children about love, peace, tolerence and brotherhood. The mistake that we are continuing to do, we the Arabs and the Israeli's, is that we still changing hate and educating our children on that. THIS IS A MISTAKE. May I ask you a question: how do you feel when you see the Israeli flag, not only in Tunisia, but even in TV, even a TV broadcsting from Tel Aviv? Could you answer that. What? I can not hear you? Ah! Yes, you dislike it, you feel angry, you remember the martyrs, you remember the documentaries, you hate it, it is a symbol of zionism, it is a symbol of raper, it is, it is, it is...

You are on the wrong rails! All of that is because of history and education. Why you do not have the same feelings towards the French flag, or the Turkish, or the Spanish, or the German?.. You see how you are illogical!

You have to know that we share the Israeli's and the Amereican what is happening to us. We did and we do and we are going to continue doing mistakes, too.

To finish, I am proud of welcoming the Israeli delegation during their stay in Tunis. They were nice people [I am not talking from political side], I welcomed Palestinians, too. Never will I let them down. I like just continue using the logic not feelings.

I believe in Peace and I will continue. You will never know what does it mean live in terror and fear, I tried it when I was in New York City during a terrorist allert. If you were on my place, you used to imagine 9/11 attacks and those of London, too.

I hope that you will understand my article.

( choose the picture of Mrs. Elika Rosenbaum, Us-Jewish, dancing Arabic, San Francisco, CA)

COMEBACK..DE RETOUR..

It was a long period since I did not write something new. would you excuse me?. I was visiting the United States, then I w served as volunteer during the World Summit On The Information Society WSIS Tunis 2005, add to that the reaserch that I am making on my thesis. So I was so so busy, but really I miss the tunisian bloggers alot.
I will start writing about what happened to me during the last three months.
For you, I choose this pictures of my group nineteen, when we were in Charlotte, in North Carolina State. It is the speedway of NASCAR.
Il y en avait un logtemps que j'étais absent de la sphère des bloggeurs. Veuillez m'excuser. En fait j'étais trop occupé par ma visite aux Etats Unis, ma participation au SMSI Tunis 2005 et de continuer la recherche concernant mon mémoire.
Vous me manqué tous, notammant les bloggeurs tunisiens.
Je vous ai choisi cette photo du groupe 19, lors de notre visit à Charlotte, dans l'Etat de Caroline du Nord. C'est le circuit de NASCAR.