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It is probably all political, nothing is that conflicting in the religions to require so much energies to be put into hatred. Politics runs on fear, and fear is a cheap product, the cheapest. It is some sort of a process that takes place over and over again in the most unfortunate timings. The trigger is indisputable, an act of horror that does only harm and never any good to anyone and not on any level what so ever! When people get harmed, humane emotions floats on the surface only to sink back within moments. The feelings that fill the gap are those of hatred. It is so easy to manipulate people to hate and then it is even easier to manipulate the people. Politics is doing that, manipulating the people and their opinions in the moments of disconnection from reasonable thinking. When innocents are harmed, the immediate air of distrust reigns. It is some sort of automatic reaction that happens like the smell that a bombed bus would leave. Distrust is followed by aggression all driven by amok fear. The media wether it wants to or not is recruited each to its natural side. Left is us, the people who can’t think of others but the people who really got harmed. The victims, the wounded and their families. The period of time described so far in this process is still less than twenty four hours. One looses his whole life in a moment, and the circulation of reaction to the loss is less than twenty four hours. Life here is cheap until it is lost, like some forgotten old art. After it is a death and not life, it becomes profit yielding, something you can sell and trade with. Politicians come in to the picture saying what best serves their personal interest, convincing themselves that it is what the people want, and the wish of the people is the most important thing, especially when the people is most vulnerable. I know what is good for the people, and I will let them know that too. The final stage is the soaking in a consensus, that we hate each other, that we cannot live with each other, and we can’t let the other live, not in peace at least. It is really excruciating, but it is okay, doesn’t matter anymore, we’ve already forgotten how does it feel to have privilege of relaxation.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Uniting Jerusalem - Conflicting Jerusalem
Living in Jerusalem is not easy, however, it is definitely a special experience for someone who isn’t from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the one of the holiest places for the three main religions in the world today, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Those three religions are most similar generally speaking, however I wouldn’t be able to say they are getting along well here or else where. Especially when it comes to Islam and Judaism. Jerusalem contains many tensions of many kinds, but when the matter is narrowed to religion, nothing becomes possible to agree on....
One of the things most irritating as I see is that instead of talking about what’s common, people look at what is not common for some reason, or many reason I guess one could say. As if they are doing themselves a favor when they prove to themselves they don’t resemble a person from the adversary, some sort of self reassuring. Who moves the moves actually to make the atmosphere so overwhelmed by these feelings? Something causes people before hand to assume that the other person is less good than he or she is, or that he or she hates them for what they are. Maybe in fact it doesn’t matter what is different, because that is personal, as in the Uniqueness of each individuality. What would happen if we started looking at what is common? I don’t think something horrible would result, maybe something great would ‘surprise’ us.
When one is in Jerusalem, he has to start living the real Jerusalem in order to understand. To do that, one has to mingle, just as if he is in some sort of a big ball and he is a stranger to all the people there and has to get his way in by knowing the all different types. The population of Jerusalem is one of the most diverse in almost every aspect one can think of. Religious, cultural, political, national, lingual, and more... One can witness in Jerusalem a most amazing collection of human types, yet he should notice the disintegration that the majority is soaked in.
The apathetic common answer, that I don’t mind the religion, but I mind the people who represent it because of the they represent it has lost its gravity long time ago I believe. One has to start dealing with the people the way they are, because no one can demand anymore from another individual to change in order to co-exist together. One has to learn to live with what there is in the best way and reach some sort of cold equilibrium at least for the beginning by isolating the points of dispute for a relative brief moment and start exploring the overlapping and the common. Now all there is left to figure out, is how to start and build such a mental, in some way, mechanism and present it in a form that would leave no possibility for anyone to oppose it because he is a human being. That is the first common ground we stand on, and only from there one can start, not even one step afterwards all of us being the the species of life that is called Humans!
To be continued...
One of the things most irritating as I see is that instead of talking about what’s common, people look at what is not common for some reason, or many reason I guess one could say. As if they are doing themselves a favor when they prove to themselves they don’t resemble a person from the adversary, some sort of self reassuring. Who moves the moves actually to make the atmosphere so overwhelmed by these feelings? Something causes people before hand to assume that the other person is less good than he or she is, or that he or she hates them for what they are. Maybe in fact it doesn’t matter what is different, because that is personal, as in the Uniqueness of each individuality. What would happen if we started looking at what is common? I don’t think something horrible would result, maybe something great would ‘surprise’ us.
When one is in Jerusalem, he has to start living the real Jerusalem in order to understand. To do that, one has to mingle, just as if he is in some sort of a big ball and he is a stranger to all the people there and has to get his way in by knowing the all different types. The population of Jerusalem is one of the most diverse in almost every aspect one can think of. Religious, cultural, political, national, lingual, and more... One can witness in Jerusalem a most amazing collection of human types, yet he should notice the disintegration that the majority is soaked in.
The apathetic common answer, that I don’t mind the religion, but I mind the people who represent it because of the they represent it has lost its gravity long time ago I believe. One has to start dealing with the people the way they are, because no one can demand anymore from another individual to change in order to co-exist together. One has to learn to live with what there is in the best way and reach some sort of cold equilibrium at least for the beginning by isolating the points of dispute for a relative brief moment and start exploring the overlapping and the common. Now all there is left to figure out, is how to start and build such a mental, in some way, mechanism and present it in a form that would leave no possibility for anyone to oppose it because he is a human being. That is the first common ground we stand on, and only from there one can start, not even one step afterwards all of us being the the species of life that is called Humans!
To be continued...
Anarchic Authenticity
It wasn't until having wasted five years of my life that I decided to look for some answers among one of the most unsolved quarrels worldwide regarding my personal life wonderings. I was hoping my inner chaos would merge with the tensed anarchy that dominates the air of the authentic Jerusalem, leaving me the peace of soul to march through the path of life.
Moving to Jerusalem needs courage, getting used to living there is hard, and not falling in love with her, despite all her faults, is impossible.
It was Thursday night when I first arrived there with all my luggage. And though it was mid June, a cold breeze chilled me when I got off the bus in the central bus station. A strange sensation rushed through me, I felt weird, as some stranger in a new different world. I crossed the street to the opposite side , moving in between two big building , one of them is a hotel which seemed to host only people in black.
My steps started to hasten as I moved into a darker spot, passing over a closed shop or something which looked like it. Finally, my cell phone rang and brought me back from this unexplained panic.
It was my friend saying he'd be there to pick me up in about five minutes.
I reached the station and started looking around. it was my first time that I was surrounded by so many black people, black big hats, black jackets, black pants, black shoes..only a white buttoned t-shirt and a curled two bands of blond hair.
It felt much more than five minutes, though only two minutes have passed so far. I tried to distract myself by looking for something different.
Suddenly I noticed something in different colors walking towards me, a woman in wide gray gown, which covered even the tips of her fingers, and a grey veil barely showing half of her face.
The black people and the grey woman seemed so much alike, differing in colors and accent only. However, the skeptic observing looks were so similar, it started to be interesting! But only then when it started to be amusing I heard someone calling out my name from his car, my friend was there.
It has been a long time since we last met, since we broke up almost.
He seemed a bit older, more a young man than a grown up guy.
We shook hands , as we were taught to do.
I told him about the strange feeling I got once I smelled the breath of Jerusalem. So he decided to take me to the center of the city, or the "city's heart" as he referred to it.
I was extremely exhausted, but couldn't refuse out of granted cultural manners.
As he drove through the roads, the lights shined on the stoned buildings trying to unite the black and gray in a clumsy old diamond color.
As we got there, it really felt as if reaching the heart, everything was beating.
No black or gray, just punch of colorful youngsters in their mid twenties, or mid something in their lives, walking around. Some are laughing , some are just wondering around looking for a place with a smoking area that is more than just five inches away from the street, some trying to escape the underage teenagers asking them to buy them alcohol, some are holding hands, some are waist touching, but no kissing lovers in the heart of the city of stones.
We walked a bit, till we found some nice bar , the name was very catchy, RifRaf or Firfar, I can barely recall, my friend knew the bars owner: a Canadian guy probably trying to escape reality into some unexplained FirFar world.
We sat there for about 3 hours, it was almost 3 am by then. Then we moved to another small place called "Itmol Shelshom" or "yesterday and the day before yesterday" , seemed like this place's owner was haunted by the past, someone who was born raised and lived all his life in Jerusalem.
Something else was unique there, it was full of books, books of all kinds, and a huge shelf of history books trying to script the future.
Time passed so quickly and it was Friday morning...
Friday is a holiday day for the "ancient Jerusalem". All my exhausting feelings have vanished away. The walls of the old city were calling...
That's how this love story started. Only a chaotic passion could make you live a conflict that is not yours... Only the stone city can redeem you from your shells..> only Jerusalem!
Moving to Jerusalem needs courage, getting used to living there is hard, and not falling in love with her, despite all her faults, is impossible.
It was Thursday night when I first arrived there with all my luggage. And though it was mid June, a cold breeze chilled me when I got off the bus in the central bus station. A strange sensation rushed through me, I felt weird, as some stranger in a new different world. I crossed the street to the opposite side , moving in between two big building , one of them is a hotel which seemed to host only people in black.
My steps started to hasten as I moved into a darker spot, passing over a closed shop or something which looked like it. Finally, my cell phone rang and brought me back from this unexplained panic.
It was my friend saying he'd be there to pick me up in about five minutes.
I reached the station and started looking around. it was my first time that I was surrounded by so many black people, black big hats, black jackets, black pants, black shoes..only a white buttoned t-shirt and a curled two bands of blond hair.
It felt much more than five minutes, though only two minutes have passed so far. I tried to distract myself by looking for something different.
Suddenly I noticed something in different colors walking towards me, a woman in wide gray gown, which covered even the tips of her fingers, and a grey veil barely showing half of her face.
The black people and the grey woman seemed so much alike, differing in colors and accent only. However, the skeptic observing looks were so similar, it started to be interesting! But only then when it started to be amusing I heard someone calling out my name from his car, my friend was there.
It has been a long time since we last met, since we broke up almost.
He seemed a bit older, more a young man than a grown up guy.
We shook hands , as we were taught to do.
I told him about the strange feeling I got once I smelled the breath of Jerusalem. So he decided to take me to the center of the city, or the "city's heart" as he referred to it.
I was extremely exhausted, but couldn't refuse out of granted cultural manners.
As he drove through the roads, the lights shined on the stoned buildings trying to unite the black and gray in a clumsy old diamond color.
As we got there, it really felt as if reaching the heart, everything was beating.
No black or gray, just punch of colorful youngsters in their mid twenties, or mid something in their lives, walking around. Some are laughing , some are just wondering around looking for a place with a smoking area that is more than just five inches away from the street, some trying to escape the underage teenagers asking them to buy them alcohol, some are holding hands, some are waist touching, but no kissing lovers in the heart of the city of stones.
We walked a bit, till we found some nice bar , the name was very catchy, RifRaf or Firfar, I can barely recall, my friend knew the bars owner: a Canadian guy probably trying to escape reality into some unexplained FirFar world.
We sat there for about 3 hours, it was almost 3 am by then. Then we moved to another small place called "Itmol Shelshom" or "yesterday and the day before yesterday" , seemed like this place's owner was haunted by the past, someone who was born raised and lived all his life in Jerusalem.
Something else was unique there, it was full of books, books of all kinds, and a huge shelf of history books trying to script the future.
Time passed so quickly and it was Friday morning...
Friday is a holiday day for the "ancient Jerusalem". All my exhausting feelings have vanished away. The walls of the old city were calling...
That's how this love story started. Only a chaotic passion could make you live a conflict that is not yours... Only the stone city can redeem you from your shells..> only Jerusalem!
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