The Freedom to Make Your Hate Public

There's an ongoing argument right now among UAE twitter community and on blogs: to what extent do you entertain bigoted, racist or hateful opinions before you start thinking that they should be curtailed?

The argument has been sparked over a hateful, ignorant and a completely sick post by a guy who used to call himself A Blessing in Tragedy on UAE blogs (see my friend BuJ's rundown on him). This pleasant person was mocking the victims of the plane that had recently crashed on a flight from Dubai to Manglore in India. The post had garnered a very heated and passionate responses. I don't know of any sane individual who'd agree with the sentiment raised in the hateful post. But nonetheless, there seemed to be some sort of a bitter reaction as a result. Due, I believe, in part, to the fact that the guy calls his blog Al-Emarati. And, unfortunately, it's become necessary to try to explain to uninitiated people that this sentiment isn't at all representative of the mainstream UAE nationals.

Now the question is: what to do with this kind of venom?

1-Ignore the douche.

2-Try to reason/argue with the douche.

3- Block/ban the douche.

The overall consensus was to ignore. People are entitled to voice their idiotic opinions. Censorship is a slippery slope..etc...etc...

But wait a minute, are people really ignoring his post? (I honestly find it hilarious that our Alexander McNabb would advise that best approach is to ignore while addressing the subject on national radio (sorry Alex, couldn't resist ;) ).. It's not being ignored by any means. It was, and will still be for a while, generating comments and reactions of all kinds. That's trolling 101 folks, provoke people to react. Stimulate angry responses. Disseminate hate and then set back and laugh while everyone else is fuming and hurling insults. Soon you're going to find the kind of mislead comments that portrays this as Expats vs. Locals slighting match. Soon you're going to find people who, for the lack of alternative venues, would formulate part of their impressions of the UAE community based on this blog (which is, again, usefully called Al Emarati).

I'm all for freedom of speech. I envy Americans for their first amendment. I believe that your ability as a human being to express yourself is an inalienable right that should be protected by all means. But we don't have that provision in the UAE. And it'd be a waste of time and energy to start granting bigots that right. For the sake of better community relations, more purposeful and productive online communications, and general good old peace of mind, voice of hate and ignorance should be shut down.

Debbie Schlussel is a Flaming Moron

You might have heard of Rima Fakih, the gorgeous (although not my type) Arab American girl who won the Miss USA beauty pageant.

A certain "award winning" blogger by the name of Debbie Schlussel didn't like Rima the moment she heard of her participation in the contest. She tried to smear her left and right. Why, Rima is, apparently, a Shia' Muslim. And we all know that Shi'a Muslims who hail from Lebanon are all supporters of Hezbollah. So by definition Rima is a terrorist who should be banned.

It doesn't matter what she, Rima, says or does to espouse and assert her liberal values (including flaunting her sexy body in skimpy Bikini). For Debbie Schlussel and her ilk, anyone with a Muzzie sounding name, or of an Arab or a Muslin background, is a potential threat who should be locked behind bars.

And she won't stop at any limit to smear her adversaries. Resorting to lies and fabrications if necessary. Check, for instance, the below picture taken from her blog. The man to the left is allegedly the guy who's been financing Rima's bid to the contest. And, according to DS, he's an "Islamic terrorist" and "immigration defrauder". (wow...what a dumb Homeland Security they have over there in the US that terrorists are allowed to finance beauty pageants.)

As you might have guessed already, the photo of the alleged "terrorist" is amateurishly photoshopped.

Here's the link.

On a lighter note, I think it's high time that a woman from the Levant won some international beauty pageant. We probably have the highest concentration of sexy women in the entire world. Although I have few reservations about the collective attitude of Levantine women, but I'm going to keep them to myself lest we set off a little blogsphere war.

Ahem.

Here are a few shots of Rima; enjoy the fishnet!

15th of May - 62 Years on the Nakba: A Few Memorable Quotes

"The cleansing of Palestine remained the prime objective of Plan Dalet."
David Ben Gurion (the 'Founding Father' of Israel)


(Plan Dalet was a premeditated plan designed in part to ethnically cleanse Palestine during the establishment of the state of Israel)


"Only a state with at least 80% Jews is a viable and stable state"
David Ben Gurion


"Arab evacuees from the towns and villages left largely because of Jewish — Haganah, IZL or LHI — attacks or fear of impending attack.......[however],an extremely small, almost insignificant number of the refugees during this early period left because of Haganah or IZL or LHI expulsion orders or forceful 'advice' to that effect"
Benn Morris. Author of "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited", Cambridge University Press, 2004.


"This leads to a figure of 73% for departures caused directly by the Israelis. In addition, the report attributes 22% of the departures to "fears" and "a crisis of confidence" affecting the Palestinian population. As for Arab calls for flight, these were reckoned to be significant in only 5% of cases…"
A report by the military intelligence arm of the Haganah (the Jewish paramilitary force), which refutes the claim that the +750,000 Palestinians left Palestine of their own volition.


"Allon repeated the question: What is to be done with the population[50,000 Palestinian inhabitants of Lyd and Ramllah]? Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture that said: Drive them out!"
The Memoir of Yitzhak Rabin "Soldier of Peace"


"I'm a Zionist!"
Joe Biden, VPOTUS.


"The Middle East is obviously an issue that had plagued the region for centuries"
Barack Hussein Obama, POTUS.

---------------------------

"The viciousness of Israel is testament to its knowing that Palestinians will always remain steadfast and defeat its past and present attempts to erase them"
Joseph Massad (Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics at Columbia University)


"Revolt! you're only going to lose the tent and the shackle"
George Habash (the late Palestinian leader)


"All that you have done to our people is registered in notebooks"
Mahmoud Darwish (A renowned Palestinian poet)


"When a brown man resists, he's a terrorist. When a white man resists, he's Robin Hood"
Dubai Jazz

Joie de Vivre

I record in minute details every move they make. From the moment they open their eyes to the crowing of domestic cocks, to the moment they surrender their consciousness to the ghosts of slumber. I’m there to watch as they heft heavy jars on their shoulders, and saunter the well-trodden path to the nearest oasis. I sneak behind them and watch as they sway their butts under the weight of their domestic chores, balancing the vessels high up on their tiny heads. I listen with great anticipation; their conversations growing more animated as they get closer to the water. I wonder, irrelevant as it might be to my sly intentions, why has it always been the job of young women to fetch water for household use………?

But my mundane inquiries are forgotten the moment I see them gingerly disposing of the clay, then edging closer to the water as they peel off the layers of clothing imposed by men. I hide behind a brush of greenery and watch in awe as God’s most perfect creation comes to sight, under the first rays of daylight. God’s perfect creation as god’s intended it to be, naked as autumn tree. From my vantage point, I could imagine their scents; the delight of water as it reacts to the intrusion of their feet with tiny splashes. Their bodies getting buried under the crystal fluid, a competition arises between the infinite liquid and their elusive flesh. My spirit soars with excitement at the faint groans of protest, as the chill of the water reaches up for the sacred parts. The parts prudishly defined as ‘private’; usually locked behind steel doors and guarded like nuclear silos.

I sigh. Now the revelation hits me, and I revel in the pleasure of my new discovery: yes, they, young women, accepted the duties imposed upon them, but they’d never let go of their conniving femininity. And, now I’m sure, were they ever to be denied this secret little joy, they’d find another way to experience their sensuality. Through tribulations of history and famine and war; nude figures will always stand out, testament to man’s tendency for safe release. In sculpture, prose, poetry, watercolors and flesh, they stand. Facilitating the ejaculation of man’s pent up anger. The anger of creased foreheads; radiant with hypocrisy by day, and buried in the strands of unfortunate pubic hair by night.

As the sun grows fiercer, the reality of our prosaic living presides upon the scene. And I make my silent retreat. I’m off to let my observations settle, my disturbed thoughts simmer. I’m off to undress women with my poetry, and sooth the masses with my words. I face no resistance when I invade Poland. I drink beer with the Gods of aliens and swim with the mermaids of my imagination. My file at the Religious Police headquarter grows thicker. My rap sheet at the Thought Police headquarter grows longer……..

I'm Imru' Al Qais, and they're out to get me.

______________________________________________________________
P.S. I don't stalk women, nor encourage anybody to do so. This piece of prose is, for what it's worth, metaphorical. And shall only be looked at as such.

So How's Business?

Although I have great reservations about the concept of sustainability in construction and the hypocrisy with which it's been proposed, discussed, and even taught (in outrageously expensive seminars) around here, it is in principle an authentic and viable idea. In a world where you have limited resources (energy and building material) our only chance of survival and attaining abundance (I'll be coming back to this word later), is to build buildings that are well-insulated, energy efficient, where waste is recycled and solar power is harnessed and wind is exploited to cool and ventilate.

Naturally.

But while there's sustainable architecture, the architect's job isn't necessarily sustainable. Our resources, as I said above, are finite. Lands, demand, population growth..etc.. are all finite. And with a highly transient population like Dubai's, and with plans to exploit every square inch of the surrounding desert, (some of which have materialized and some still on the shelves), this reality is bound to hit at one point, and hit hard....

You see, the average lifespan of a building (that isn't built by a crook) is not less than 50 years. Take a look at other industries, people are more likely to change their cars, ditch their mobile phones, get duped by Steve Jobs, donate their laptops to kids in remote villages; they're more likely to do all that on a regular basis than to raze down their own buildings just because there's a better model in the market.

Granted; populations grow and industries expand, and with that comes a new demand for space ........ But that's not enough, and it's not sustainable.

Not for the army of consultants in Dubai anyway...

Some consultants have actually gotten so desperate they have assigned agents to stake out the halls of the Land Department and swoop upon every land owner who walks out with an affection plan (a layout of a plot). Business cards at the ready, they'd introduce themselves and offer their services. Doesn't matter if your land is a grant or a lease, doesn't even matter if you don't have the finances. They, consultants, will hook you up with somebody.........

(At this point when I was being told the story, my stomach actually turned)

I wonder, within this hysteric scrambling to sign clients up for lower fees: where does value engineering stand? where does a good, conscientious design stand? what about honesty and integrity? No Sir, us being consultants doesn't mean we're less prone to being corrupt. In fact, if a prospective owner gets an overly low quote for engineering services, he ought to be suspicious.

So you get the picture, we're barely scraping by. We (as in my office) should probably do what everybody else (including honorable Nick) is doing; scour the market in the Gulf and beyond. Probably seek opportunities in Afghanistan where drones are doing a great job of shortening the life spans of people and buildings alike. Or we could probably cast our gaze west and explore the potential of building palaces and resorts for royalties in Morocco and Algeria. Eventually the world is going to get its act together and they'll decide to stabilize the Republic of Congo, at which point lots of infra structure and buildings will be needed.

Or, as I said in the comment section of the previous post, we could cross our fingers and hope Dubai wins the bid to host the 2020 Olympics. (screw Gebreselassie, he should take this as a challenge: if he could run the marathon in Dubai's august, he could make it anywhere).

Maybe that exactly is what we need; positivity... You know, I came across this book last year that talks about Law of Attraction and all that stuff. Maybe if we kept a positive outlook, enhanced by our trust in the visions of those who made Dubai what it is today, maybe then we could prosper and survive. We can attain a state of abundance for everyone; keep everyone happy and content.

And, if I remember correctly, the Law of Attraction starts with imagination, you've got to visualize the kind of positive future you're looking for. So, after some thinking, here goes my own plan:

I imagine a city where architects are given a free rein to create and be creative. I imagine sleek glass towers and shopping malls with imposing interiors and fascinating attractions. I see aquariums and massive water features and seven stars hotels. I imagine a huge building that could be the tallest in the world. Maybe a public transport network that is fast and ......

...........

Wait a minute.

...........

Shit.