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A
year of heroism, a year of shame
By Saifedean Ammous---
The first anniversary of the Palestinian Independence Intifada
was last week. Taking a close look, one realizes that, unfortunately,
not much has changed even over the last century. Israelis are
in their 53rd year of 'statehood', we Arabs are left weeping
in remembrance. As you read those lines, somewhere in Palestine,
a young girl is orphaned, another is left homeless, and another
is learning to live her life with the handicap inflicted upon
her. Meanwhile, millions of Arabs are slumbering in ignorance
like lazy sheep on a hot day, content to abide by whatever their
incompetent shepherd orders. After the initial euphoria, Arab
satellite channels found in the Intifada the magic formula to
boost their ratings. No one cares anymore. When Ramadan came
last November, people became more interested in soap operas
than the question of Palestine. The Intifada had simply used
up its fifteen minutes of fame. People are now pre-occupied
with more critical and paramount issues like the prohibition
of Pokemon. They all Huff and Puff, and that's about it. Unfortunately,
what applies to our nation, also applies to the smaller scale
of our university. The beginning of the year witnessed many
activities supporting the Intifada. Long before people were
allowed to the streets to demonstrate, AUBites took part in
organizing a huge demonstration that many Arab cities cloned.
Almost every political party in Lebanon came to demonstrate,
eager to show their support for the Palestinians. However, they
were raising their party's flag, their factional leaders' photos
and slogans, with very few Palestinian flags. It was so reminiscent
of Jahily Arab tribes fighting each other, seeing them all competing
for camera attention, effectively prostituting their "support"
and "solidarity". At AUB, the Palestinian Cultural Club's activities
were supported by most political parties. The PCC donation campaigns
and fundraising concerts fetched $5,000. With the SRC elections
around the corner, everyone was eager to show their concern
for the Palestinian cause. The Arab summit then went by, and
so did the SRC elections, and the Intifada was not "IN" anymore.
Demonstrations became less and less popular, and donation boxes
collected more dust than money. The Arab summit in October was
a knock-out punch to Arab solidarity efforts. The only outcome
was "donations" that are more like a father buying his child
a candy bar on Christmas as a way of making-up for not educating
him or supporting him all year long. We never learn a thing.
Fifty-three years of defeat, and we still haven't shaken off
any of the reasons that had us beaten. This also applies to
our university, which is allegedly the melting pot of the finest
minds of our region. With our societies moving backwards every
day into tribalism and retardation, we are making ourselves
more worthy of a new defeat to add to our illustrious past.
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