For the past two weeks, I have, as I suspect millions of other Arabs have, lived the Tahrir square revolution vicariously, deep emotions ebbing and flowing with every turn of event. We cheered the demonstrators on, cursed the thugs who attacked them and sat back and tried to absorb the immensity of what is happening. There was something infectious about the demonstrators' passion, their determination, their courage and their unfettered idealism. What is more, it is the way they did it, just like the Tunisians, that has most astonished us. Who would have ever thought that autocrats would fall to sheer people power? No guns, no bombs, no palace intrigues needed. Just as we, as well as the rest of the world, were ready to write off the people of the Middle East as terminally downtrodden and hopeless, the young men and women of Tahrir square proved everyone wrong.
My admiration for the young people of Tahrir square is enourmous but is mixed with a sense of envy and regret that, at first, I could not understand. "The young people are doing what our generation should have done!" explained a middle-aged woman interviewed in an upscale Cairo sporting club. She is right, I envy the fact that I am not twenty five and manning a barricade in Tahrir and regret that my generation did not have the courage to achieve what this generation already has. I could come up with legitimate excuses for my generation but the bottom line is that we failed.
I salute the young people of Tahrir and hope that your spirit will spread to every corner of the Arab world.
5 comments:
And the young men and women amongst us who are NOT in Tahrir Square are envious as well. What have WE done but, like everyone else, sit and watch world politics go downhill and all we could do is flip from one news channel to the next, and fear writing in our blogs because of government censorships and laws that prohibit our voices?
We are jealous because someone else broke the silence, not us. However, we are grateful, and now that it has been broken, there is no need for everyone else to be quiet any more.
KJ, Unfortunately our compatriots do not seem to have become infected by the courage virus; at least not yet.
I am thrilled to see you have updated your blog with these posts and am enjoying your eloquence, feelings (which I share) and the rest of it. Right now Libya is just causing so much pain to innocent people. What am I saying? Libya? Libya is wonderful. I mean the dangerous murderer there, at the helm.
TOB,
Thank you for your kind comment; and thanks for emphasizing the positive in Libya by posting your recipe of Bazin.
Abu Kareem,
So glad that your blog turned up in my search for Lebanese stew recipes:-)
I, too, have felt similar emotions of overwhelming joy, pride, regret, envy around the courageous Tahrir Square generation. Sadly, I contemplate what my generation of Arabs could have been had we not been strangled and bullied by autocrats and war -- I was born in the fateful year of 1967.
My culture has taught me that there is often much wisdom in patience. And, as Dryden and Darwish have written, the "fury of the patient man" has proved to be powerful force these recent weeks. What happened, and continues to happen, in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain rests upon previous generations who tried to resist and failed, but who managed to pass the torch nevertheless. This is an observation, not an attempt to assign undue credit.
Anyway, thanks for your blog. Any good Lebanese or Syrian recipes to share?
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