Alf mabrook to all our Libyan readers! The first step for Libya’s freedom is complete. The next step is the hardest step: rebuilding Libya in a just and democratic way. “Verily, after hardship comes ease.” (Qur’an 94:6)
So now, NATO needs to gtfo!
Yansoon
News, opinion and analysis on the Middle East and North Africa, primarily from a young, progressive Arab perspective.
Dear America
by Leila Amar
I am writing you this to tell you I am leaving you
Dear America, let me tell you what this is all about
Because after 20 long years I just want out
And I remember when I first fell in love with your voluptuous rolling hills and your plains so flat and green…
It all just seemed a little too good to be true
Because my dear America all I was ever told were the lies about you
I was told land of the free and home of the brave
But America you never told me your cities were built on the blood of the indigenous and the bones of the slaves
Tall steel towers built over their graves and when 2 planes came and knocked them out of the sky
America you looked at me and asked why
And overnight you went from my lover to my hater
And I went from your caretaker to your betrayer
And now you are asking me to pick between my roots and my home
Trade everything I came from for a flag draped throne
But America I told you from the get go that I could never let go of the stories my ancestors handed down to me that make up the fabric of my identity
And America you know we all changed on that day
But America the beautiful you changed in an ugly way
Cuz no sooner had the smoke cleared before I heard your calls to strike back
And no sooner had my mind cleared before the missiles were on their track
And no sooner did I hear the calls to kill us all and you expected me to call back
But America you know for me, it could never be, like that
But now I realize America you were never really America to me
And America I guess I haven’t felt to close to you these past few years anyways
I guess its just one too many random checks before I board the plane on the runway
And America I cant shed tears for your boys that go to deserts to fight
Because we’ve been called “sand-niggers” too many times for it to sit right
And no America the time for apologies is long gone
I’m sick of this America I just want to move on
Let me go America…I already bid you so long
10 Years after 9/11: A World Tragedy
by Ramsey Judah
The events of September 11, 2001 will forever be etched in the memory of countless Americans for a long time to come. American Arabs, Muslims, and those who may have fit the stereotype will forever remember the effects after that day as friends, neighbors, and people around them changed for the worse. And now, ten years after that fateful day, one cannot help but think how such a miserable American tragedy did not end in America. The tragedy was carried overseas and extended it beyond anything we could have originally imagined.
Instead of taking a deep look within and trying to parcel together why it happened, the US rather did what it is best at doing: shot first and asked questions later. Instead of realizing that American foreign policy was responsible for such an attack, Americans wanted a name and they wanted his head by any means possible. The White House took full advantage of the sentiment and named its new mission that would change the world for the worse and called it the “War on Terror,” a label that can be stuck on anything it wanted it to stick to. And that they did without any hesitation.
Outside Looking In: An Arab-American’s 9/11 experience and aftermath in Kuwait
by Sarah E.
A friend of mine, a 6th grade teacher, commented to me the other day that her students, who are about eleven years old, have no recollection of 9/11/2001. It seems strange that it has already been a decade since the attacks because we are still left with remnants, reminders, and changes in our daily lives that stem from that September day. Whenever we get in line for airport security, get a little nervous if we spot an unattended package, or see that empty space in New York where the World Trade Center used to be, we are still experiencing 9/11. When tragedies occur in other places, it’s very easy to comment on how sad it is, pity those poor people, but then forget all about it the next day. When it happens in your country, though, you realize that tragedies change things permanently, and the effects of 9/11 will never be washed away, no matter how many years pass.
The media has portrayed 9/11 as a unifying event; the day that America became one. Everyone remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. I, too, remember exactly where I was and what I was doing; however, unlike my friends, I was not sitting in a classroom because it was evening in Kuwait. 9/11 had a profound impact on my life, but it was a very different impact than that of my friends who were in the U.S. at the time. I missed out on the sentiments of renewed patriotism, “unity” and the emotional news broadcasts. My reaction upon returning to the U.S. almost two years later was that of shock at how much the country had changed.
Justifying the Lies: A different perspective on secrecy
by Anonymous
This article is written as a response to an article posted on Yansoon last week, The Arab-American Daughter.
“Always obey your parents-when they are present.”- Mark Twain.
“A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.” -Billy Graham
While I am fairly certain that the latter quote is one of the few things that Christian evangelist Billy Graham has ever said that I agree with, I agree with him without a doubt. In today’s society, especially in the West, it has become “cool” to disobey and disrespect one’s parents, including to their face. We see it on television, we see it with our friends, and many of us are probably guilty of it sometimes. However, speaking for me, the reason that respect for my parents is so deeply instilled in me is because of my Arab heritage and my upbringing around Arab culture. Respect for parents is a central aspect of Arab culture and Islam. My father often tells me stories of how he and his siblings would stand every time their father walked into a room. Though I was never expected to, nor would I ever willingly, adopt the same militaryesque behavior, I respect my father enough to respect his beliefs and the culture that I have been immersed in since birth. It is for that reason that I take issue with many of the points addressed in the article The Arab-American Daughter.
Our Plight
by Michael J. Oghia
A Poem Dedicated to all my Arab–American brothers and sisters that know exactly how I feel
Who am I, but a complex amalgam of contradictory identities?
Two, which exist paradoxically, yet never seem to make you feel complete.
They glare at you for one,
Snarl at you,
Insult you,
Hunt you down,
You stand up,
They knock you down,
Reduce you down
To hurtful names,
To animals,
To parasites,
To a disease,
Making you feel like the world would be better off without you,
Constantly resonating the bitter warning:
“You will never be one of us.”
The Arab-American Daughter
by Rima Alsammarae
Few people I’ve come across in life have rivaled the “Arab-American daughter” in terms of the extent their parents infantilize them as they mature into adulthood. While I have met Arab-American women who come from unique home situations that encourage open and honest dialogue, I have had the unfortunate luck of mostly meeting women who are approaching their 30s and are still lying about their jobs, relationships, socializing habits and sexual health to their families in fear of losing what controlling amount of conditional support (emotional and financial) they receive. The constant and intense need of permission and approval from our parents builds an environment based on fear and secrecy that most of us are coerced into living with. It’s largely due to the mixed culture we’re raised in. Generally speaking, the Arab parents that strive to ensure the “Arab-ness” of their children are neither comfortable with their child’s confrontation and challenge of Arab traditions, nor are they cooperative in understanding the ever-changing life rules we may or may not want to live by. More so, we’re also doing this to ourselves and it goes beyond every lie we tell, it lays within submission to our fears of even discussing these so-called ‘taboo’ subjects at home or within our communities, because of the inevitable ensuing argument and judgments.
Gaddafi the Closet Imperialist
by Shirien
As Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s power reaches its final hour, Libyans and Arabs around the world celebrate. With the fall of Tunisia’s Ben Ali, followed by Egypt’s Mubarak, and now Gaddafi, the imagination of Arabs everywhere has been captured once again. The unraveling of decades of repressive dictatorship has inspired and empowered the Arab masses to see what they are capable of accomplishing.
But some outside of the Arab world are not happy about the toppling of Gaddafi. NATO’s intervention, combined with Gaddafi’s anti-imperialist sentiment, has given way to support of the Libyan dictator among certain leftist circles who have painted him as some archetypal “anti-imperialist” hero.
An Ode to Murdoch
by Ramsey Judah
Oh hear ye o believers of Fox News, Sky News, and rest of NewsCorp, your King of Kings is now embattled in England because one of his tricks of the trade has been exposed to thy world.
Oh Murdookie, when will you learn that corruption doesn’t just give you news, it makes it too. But don’t worry, you’re a billionaire with an evil mission and maybe if you used some of those Aussie dolla’ bills on the rest of the media world, they might shut up about it. Go ahead, I dare you.
BREAKING NEWS: Israeli Knesset votes to criminalize BDS
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has just passed into law today one of the most anti-democratic measures in the nation’s history, the Anti-Boycott Law. The law was passed by a majority of 47 to 38 votes, following a heated debate. A large portion of Parliament members abstained or were not present for the vote.
Inside the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) Building
