Shepard Fairey from Hope to Forward

Shepard Fairey has graced us with a new Kamala Harris image in the style of his inescapable Barack Obama one (I do hope he cleared the image this time as he went into legal issues with the original poster). Thankfully he also came up with a palatable slogan - forward. Indeed, it seems the Harris campaign slogan is "for the people". I am not even sure of that despite all my research, which is nice even if with a bit of communistic undertones (will she stand by unions? will she protect the little man in the face of large powerful companies? etc...). But hey, that's just politics and sloganeering. Which is why "forward" seems fitting. Short, powerful, encapsulating all the momentum Harris has garnered since she became the banner-carrier of the Democrats in this election (and yes, all the free press she garnered stealing someone else's thunder in the process - cough, ahem, no names). Still, Fairey seems to have caught the wave - interestingly, he did not do anything for Hillary Clinton back then. 

So voila, onwards and upwards and... Forward!

Lebanon: 9/11 twenty years later

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly (Manhattan Mon Amour)

I have no idea where the French embassy is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 2003, the company driver knew. He took my passport along with two photographs the art director in the cubicle next to me took on the white wall of the office. My visa was picked up later, thank you very much. 

If I am relating this incident it is because, thanks (or rather no thanks) to Ziad Jarrah, one of the 26 terrorists who executed the attacks, for a Lebanese, getting a visa went from difficult to nearly impossible (interestingly, considering the majority of them were Saudi nationals, these visa nightmares did not apply to them). Sure it did not help that the Lebanese, through time and their own silly machinations, built a very bad rap for themselves worldwide (please, don't be silly all denominations included - because I know people will inject in this sentence their own political views. Hint: Maronites in Australia are labelled "wogs" - a very unflattering term if there was ever one. So anyone trying to twist my words, chill). 

Still, if you are a Lebanese in the Gulf, obtaining a visa did not even necessitate you going to the embassy. If you were a Lebanese, in Lebanon, the hurdles to get the said visa were immense. And the difficulties increase by the day. I can spend several posts detailing my embassy/airport misadventures. I have spoken to Saudi nationals, and no, they did not get the same treatment.

All this is a reminder that the consequences of the 9/11 attacks were unevenly spread. In the Western media the talk is about the 2,448 US servicemen who died in Afghanistan. Small reminder, there were also 46,000 Afghan civilian casualties. People, who literally had zero terrorist nationals among the 26 who executed the attack.

US: A third-world coup in a first world nation

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly based on Calvin and Hobbes

Oh come on. It's like everyone saw it coming, and when it came, everyone was surprised. It is interesting as I write this, not from a political standpoint, but rather from an observing one, how all this was foretold in the US. These things do not happen overnight, they breed for a long time. Some people I know say I got the erroneous view of the US after being there for 5 times - including a very lengthy accidental stay during the 2006 war in Lebanon where I got stuck there. But, also, all this could be seen, bubbling under the surface, simmering quietly, for all the time it took to get to be shown. And so here we are, now it exploded.

I am not sure how the US can still call itself beacon of democracy, or preaching (as a very-staunch US supporting friend said) for "the hearts and minds" (no, seriously) of people, or how they can actually call out other nations on their laws, or the way they are behaving when images of - DC, no less!! - show what a third world coup looks like. I am not the one who invented the word "coup" when describing what happened, this is circulating everywhere in the press (in the US and abroad).

Well, there you go, feed people biased news, breed your wrongful seeds in gullible souls and soils, and this is what you get. Of course the police and security agents were overwhelmed and underprepared, because everyone refused to believe how big it would be. 

Much bigger than the inauguration crowd of Donald Trump. 

Period. 

Much, much bigger. And much, much angrier (through maybe not angry for the right reasons). 

But of course, over at Fox News, Tucker Carlson is afraid "Capitol Hill chaos will be used to strip us of basic freedoms" because, of course, the best way to ignite the crowd even further is to actually invoke things like "second amendment" of the constitution and "the right to bear arms" and "give me liberty or give me death". Well, at least Twitter and Instagram suspended Donald Trump's accounts as Facebook barred him from posting till Jan 20th (Joe Biden's inauguration day) - unprecedented - but at least a little calming (even if too little, too late). But hey, arms manufacturer Smith & Wesson stock climbed 15% due to the ensuing chaos!

"This is not who we are" - the sentence was repeated many times. Not least by Donald Trump Jr. - it's rude to laugh! - but again, are you sure this is not you? This is not what was barely "hidden" prior only to be incited and unleashed for the whole world to see, and from how it looks, the world is laughing at?

Naturally, the worst part? All of this was predictable - except to those who were optimistic, or looked the other way (willingly or naively) - but it was there all along, I can assure you. But my sincere question is: Next time the US will play policeman to the world, it will be shown its own images and be told to go stuff itself. Then what? How can it ever reclaim its credibility.

Karen, over to you.

Good news from the US: They don't care about us

Artwork by Tarrk Chemaly, a rework of the Michael Jackson song sleeve

Unpopular opinion: The US presidential nominees do not have Lebanon high on their agendas.

Oddly, almost everyone I know spoke to me about the opposite. How Lebanon is super important, about how everyone in the Us political sphere have their eyes on our political machinations, how Lebanon plays a pivotal role in the region (no, seriously), and so on.

Needless to say, am on the opposite camp. I sincerely think they have bigger fish to fry, more pressing problems, internal issues that need addressing, international treaties to rejoin or renegotiate. Basically, we are not in the top 100 of their concerns.

But hey, we are not egocentric Lebanese for nothing. As we say in Arabic "sheyfin el shams sher2a min tizna" (we see the sun shining from our butthole), so yes, in our mind we are the center of the universe. So we are indeed, the people on whose opinions the whole universe hinges.

Get over yourselves people. They don't care about us.

US ambassador in Lebanon - a masterclass in communication

And this ladies and gentlemen is how it is done! Before I begin please see here. New US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy C. Shea offers a masterclass in communication. The gist of the message goes to the medical staff at the forefront of combating COVID-19 the illness that comes from Coronavirus. But look closely, she speaks to all Lebanese, in a language that appears proud without being arrogant, encouraging without being patronizing, and motherly without being demeaning. The highlights include the Arabic words "choukran ketir" (thank you very much) as she addresses the Lebanese medical staff and the ending words also in Arabic "khallikon bi kheir wa bi aman ma3 3a2ilatikom" (remain well and safe with your families).
Look, I can already hear the political backlash, but trust me - no one can fake so much sincerity and kindness unless you are Meryl Streep. Seriously, ambassador Shea reeks professionalism dipped in kindness and empathy. For this, I am truly grateful.