Monday, July 4, 2011

The Arab Summer

Laila kindly provided a translation of my article in Al Akhbar: The Arab Summer


The Arab Summer

Spring is over in the Arab World and summer is upon us, bringing with it its blazing sun, blight and hardship. It is harvest season, when the farmer discovers the true value of his harvest.

In beloved Palestine, the matrix of colonisation is expanding day by day. The Zionist colonisers have recently added thousands of dunums in the West Bank to their spoils.

In the countries of revolution, mother Egypt and fragrant Tunisia, the winds of the counter-revolution have started to blow, taking on different guises but one identity. The American Empire and its British and French acolytes, has moved swiftly to keep our countries under their economic, cultural and military control if need be. They are now talking about a new Marshall Plan, waving a few million dollars in front of us. Dollars that they will kindly donate to us through their giant corporations if we choose to embrace "democracy".

In dear Yemen, there are those who want us to forget the new American base that was built to strike whomever the Empire does not like.

In Bahrain, where any American envoy is given a conquering hero’s welcome, racial and sectarian oppression remains as it always was in the kingdom that, just like all Arab oil states, does not need democracy.

As for precious Syria, there is a massive need for fuel to complete the harvest in the Eastern plains. But the state is preoccupied with oppressing its people and setting up committees that never meet. Meanwhile, the external opposition meets every Tom, Dick and Harry who is a spy or a foreign agent in Antalya. All hope today falls on the internal opposition (not those who oppose via their computers) who reject foreign intervention, so that they do not suffer the fate of the Libyan opposition who when they pray collectively towards Makkah, have the American flag behind them.

Spring is over, the flowers have wilted. Some have turned into thorns and chaff in which poisonous snakes make their home. This is the Arab summer.

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