Rebels, Lovers and Tears.

Blood and smoke, Syrian revolution arts 

right after

Fly salafists with Gay pride adapted flag 

The dawn of freedom

Libyan revolution

Fly rebel

Libyan revolution...

Identity and stuff

New world order

Stuff and then Identity

Mediterranean: will Demographics demolish the iron-wall?!

The history of the cultures and nations present today on the northern and southern banks of the Mediterranean are interwoven. Through the complex interactions of people living on both sides emerges the rich cultural mosaics of much of the old world. These relations weren't always peaceful but there were always vibrant exchanges taking place: Rome Vs Carthage, Islam Vs Christianity and Colonizer Vs the colonized.
The state of these relations today differs radically. There is a multi-layered iron wall that stands between the north and the south of the Mediterranean. The most obvious layer is the economic rift: Since colonialism the north continues to enjoy economic prosperity while the south has maintained dependent and week economies. The second layer in the iron wall pertains to the travel ban from the south to the north. Whereas this ban is not complete, big emigration waves from the south after WW2 have given place to crippling Visa regimes. One could go on to list examples of the cultural rift between Europe and north Africa.
The steel curtain has to fall as the laws of human nature and history do not allow for it. Thus the people of the Mediterranean should already start trying to avert a chaotic destructive fall of the Wall. We have seen, in the wake of the Arab spring, how economic disfranchisement in the south can jeopardize prosperity in the north: a mere few thousands of Tunisian emigrants threatened to put to halt EU travel treaties that took years to be developed!
I do not believe the future of north/south relations to be one of dependency. Thus I will explore a new way by which the EU and north Africa can be mutually supportive: The demographic exchange!
Part of the Europe's economic crisis is linked directly to its demographics' shortcomings. The north continues to suffer from low birth rates and an increasingly aging society. On the long run, this course is unsustainable. Basic sense (and economics) suggests that the shrinking of the active base will lead to insolvency and social crisis. On the other side, north Africa continues to enjoy a youthful population and the growth prospects are positive on the long run. Nevertheless, joblessness remains a huge issue and it hits the young most.
Theoretically the situation in inviting to perform a "demographic exchange". To oversimplify, the north would have its retiree population move south and the south would supply with youthful workers and innovation in return! The Idea sounds outlandish. But if this can be tackled in ways that seem less radical than the premise itself.

Just a Cheesy image...  

There can be new incentives for the senior population of the EU. These incentives range from infrastructure adaptation to bureaucracy easing in North Africa. Also, better information should be provided about the ease at which settlers can establish in the south: The linguistic diversity in north Africa could be the biggest example. Also, establishing even cheaper transportation between the EU and north Africa can make travel and adaptation an issue of the past. The retirees that would opt for this course would see their pension plans become much more valuable in real terms. The host countries would profit economically due to the demand increase.
On the other hand, easing the barriers on the immigration from the south will enable them to extend their job and training prospects. An influx of eager and active work force will supply the economy with  much needed new blood. It is also anticipated that the competitive edge of EU industries will sharpen and that higher levels of innovation will be achieved. As well as positively affecting production elements, the influx would boost demand and thus there would be an additional economic advantage.
The material bettering for the people of the Mediterranean is not the only outcome. Having larger flows of people between the EU and north Africa will provide fertile ground for cultural understanding and diverse social collaboration. Thus, the two sided egalitarian exchange would be a factor for the provision of solid peace and partisanship.
Nonetheless, many factors make such an endeavor too costly, especially politically. The biggest challenge is the high unemployment rates that the EU is experiencing due to the crisis. In the current conditions, it would be impossible to explain to a constituency how the inflow of southern workers is gonna better the market for jobs on the long run! It is also very unexpected that southern voters, wary of dependency and filled with hopes would tolerate government spending on  attracting old Europeans!
Given these conditions, I realistically call for at least fragments of this policy to administered until the Mediterranean demographic revolution happens.
like what you read? Follow on networked-blogs for more! It's right to the left ;) 
Lebounce

Salafism! A question of Progress.

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Popular media tosses the word Salafism as lightly as they dwell on the weather forecast on a nice summer day! The concepts and implication relevant to Salafism suffer from a crude oversimplification. This is further reinforced by the fragility still inherent in the Tunisian start-up democracy and its start-up free press. There is more to Salafists than “salafis are men with beards and white dresses”. There is also more to Salafism than Salafism is reactionary and regressive.

Because I am nice (!!!??? :p) this dogmatic view of a large and diverse group is going to be refuted.

I shall try to keep my essay short enough. The reader will have to excuse me and keep in mind that this is a synopsis of a lengthy philosophical research. If certain arguments or concepts remain obscure, please feel free to contact me for clarifications (being nice again!!??).

General definitions and concepts :

The word Salaf itself technically denotes the righteous muslims during the 300 first years of Islamic history, approximately starting from year 600. This is based on the prophetic saying: ‘’the most righteous people shall live my century, then the one following, then the one following.’’^[1] These people are considered most righteous because of the proximity they enjoy with the prophetic sources.

Salafism in general, is the movement seeking salvation through the guidance and model of the righteous Salaf. Two major subgroups exist within Salafism: Jihadi Salafism, believing that armed struggle is the best way to attain a truly Islamic life. The other branch is Scientific Salafism, which attempts to replicate the logical structures behind Islamic ruling of the Salaf.

Salafism a “progressive force”:

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One of the major attributes to Salafism in Islamic thought is its methodological quest. Early Salafist scholars were faced with growing divides between Islamic philosophies. Thus they attempted to answer these issues with an increased rationality. Salafism’s attempt at formulating a method through which knowledge should be evaluated became the backbone of the “Scientific method” in Islamic thought.

This is a major contribution as Salafism rationalized Islamic thought: Not only were the outcomes of a cogitation to be evaluated, but also the method upon which it was obtained. There is an attempt at creating a universal method, a method that is Godly in nature rather than based on emotional stimulus. In practice, this means that Salafism encourages the use of logical computations. As surprising as it sounds, by attempting to formulate Godly methods of thought, Salafism enables Islamic thought with order and rationality. Another example of this rationality is the disregard for “false battles”: Salafists usually refuse to discuss whether God has a Hand or not…  

Another “progressive” aspect of Salafism in Islamic thought is its unifying drive. Salafism reinforces the monotheistic aspect of Islam. It calls for humans to be freed from the influence of any human power. Salafist have always fought bitterly against attempts to create intermediate powers between subject and their god.  

Moreover, Salafism has a formidable capability to rejuvenate itself. A striking example is the success of the Nour Salafist party in Egypt elections. Salafists in Egypt have refused to adhere to the political process for years. After the revolution it only took a few months for the Nour to organize and win an impressive 2^nd place in the elections. Armed Jihadi Salafist groups have also proved to become increasingly flexible: The “Jihadist movements of Egypt” successfully reviewed their reliance on Violence as a mean for change. So called “revisions” have led the movement to accept, embrace and use cinema and other means that were considered unholy. During the formation of its new democracies, revolutionary countries (Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) need such adaptation prowess in order to reach necessary consensus. 

Salafism a”regressive force”:

Pluralism is still hard to accept for many Salafists. There are tendencies within the movement to negate the legitimacy of other schools of thought. Much of the Salafist discourse assumes that there is no possibility to err or at least that Salafists will always be closer to the truth. When designating themselves, the Salafist phraseology  is a romanticized and idealized one. Words such as the “pure” and the “righteous” and terms relevant to the sacred are used in near self-veneration. This self-veneration, even though it hasn’t reached unsupportable levels, is still dangerous. For if one group starts to believe with too much zeal that their party is incapable of error, errors will not be corrected and the movement becomes destructive both for its environment and itself.   

Often enough, Salafist morality refuses to take into account the advances in different scientific and human studies fields. Thus Judgment of the present is often distorted and outdated. Given the inevitable linguistic changes, the judgments obtained as a result of Salafist methods could indeed be just “what it would have been” 14 centuries ago. “Al Jabri” clearly diagnosed this unhistoricality: “Salafist understanding of heritage in a non-historical one, thus it can only produce only one genre of understanding of heritage: heritage centered one. Heritage contains it but it cannot contain heritage. It is heritage repeating itself. ”

As a way of concluding:

As a relatively new movement to the wider public sphere, Salafists are still underrepresented in public platforms. The use of secondary sources is all too prevalent when issues relate to Salafism.  

There is indeed some truth in the general belief that Salafism is a threat to Islamic societies. Nevertheless, Salafism is a much more complex philosophy with very important progressive sides.

And more broadly: Only time will reveal the constructive potential of the bearded men in white dresses. Or not.
Lebounce
This article is the collection of the central ideas present in IB philosophy EE paper by the author. paper handed in during 2012 to the IBO, author enjoys full copyright.

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[1]  “Salafism, A blessed historical period, not an Islamic branch” by ‘Dr. Mohamed Said Ramadan’ page 9.

تسريبات فيديو الغنّوشي: أخيرا تنكشف الحقيقة

حظي الفيديو المرفق أعلاه باهتمام إعلاميّ منقطع النّظير. و قبل تناول المحتوى فقد أردت أن أعرّج بالقارئ على ظاهرة سياسيّة فريدة في تونس. فالقوى السّياسيّة المعارضة، لم تعي جيّدا أنّ نشر أيّ فيديو لشخصيّة إسلاميّة محوريّة لا يصبّ في مصلحتها الإنتخابيّة. و كما كان الأمر قبيل الإنتخابات السّابقة، فمرّة أخرى تجد النّهضة سبيلها إلى شاشات و ألسن مقترعين محتملين على ظهور المعارضة. أمّا حول صحّة الفيديو من عدمه، و بعد الإطّلاع على ما قدّم على أنّه الفيديو الكامل من طرف المتهّمين، فإنّي أرى صحّته. أؤخّر إحتمال التّزوير لا لإعتبارات تقنيّة بل لأنّ المحتوى الموضوعيّ نفسه لا يشذّ عن المتعارف عليه. 

أمّا حول المحتوى، فهب أن كان الغنّوشي صرّح بأنّ الجيش و الشّرطة و الإدارة علمانيّة و رجعيّة و لا ثوريّة. فأين مكمن العجب و ماهو السّر الذّي كان مطمورا و برز؟ 

في الحقيقة، قول النّهضة أنّ "أقليّات" في أجهزة الدّولة هي فقط المعادية للثّورة هو ما يمكن الطّعن فيه. فيمكن لنا تنزيله منزل المهادنة السّياسيّة و المراعات المرحليّة إن أردنا. لكنّ الواقع يبقى كما هو: أغلب المؤسّسات و خصوصا العاملين فيها من الإطارات السّامية هم من رجالات النّظام السّابق. و تحصين الثّورة ضدّ القوى الرّجعيّة داخل الجيش و الشّرطة و الإدارة واجب شرعيّ بل هو حتميّ لنجاح الثّورة من عدمه. 

أمّا حول الطّبيعة العلمانيّة للنّخب المتنفّذة: إنّ هذا المر مفروغ منه. بن على لم يكن إسلاميّا و لم يستخدم الإسلاميّين و يعطهم المناصب الإداريّة و الإعلاميّة. و هو معلوم لمن أراد أن يتبصّر أن بن على إستخدم نخبا إستئصاليّة يساريّة لتحقيق برامجه الثّقافيّة و التعليميّة و الإعلاميّة. لكنّ هذا ليس شهادة خيانة على كلّ العلمانيّين أو اليساريّين. فليس كلّ من ينتمي لفكر سائد ظالم بظالم كفرد في حدّ ذاته. 

إنّ التعجّب من حقائق ثوريّة بديهيّة كهذه مثير للرّيبة من طرف المشكّكين. كما أتنفّس الصّعداء لأنّ هذا الفيديو كشف أنّ بعضا من النّخب الحاكمة على علم بالتّوازنات الثّوريّة. أي أنّ النّهضة على الأقلّ تعي أنّ أعداء الثّورة متنفّذون هذا الوعي أقلّ الإيمان و يفنّد الشّائعات حول تحالف لها مع التجمعيّين. 

Discourses on Freedom 1: Aging democracies

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Freedom and human rights are ubiquitous themes in many contemporary societies. Humans have been very keen on writing and somehow enacting charters concerning human rights and basic "freedoms". Every regime that is considered a liberal democracy is based on a constitution guaranteeing these "inalienable" rights.
For many decades,possibly centuries, European revolutions have raged on to gain and establish the current model of state and of individual freedoms and human rights. The fundamental logic has been that there was situations of oppression deemed negative. Thus struggles had to be mounted in order to progress (the "progressive" kind of progress that is). If we take perfection to be unattainable though: Under these premises, there is no room for any feelings of contentment. That is to say there must be a continual struggle towards reaching ever increasing rights and freedoms. But that is clearly not the case. One can easily see that there is a stagnation in the advancement of liberties.
A considerable number of homo-sapiens of this age consider our era to be the peak of personal freedoms and rights. We are fond of the Idea that we are the humans with most rights and freedoms in the history of the specie.

However, there might even be a substantial danger in the reliance on such Ideas: that of regression. The recourse to laws to limit religious manifestation especially for Muslim women is a vivid sign. The minarets ban in Switzerland is also another case of institutional breaches and abandonment of rights that existed before. Weather one agrees with these policies or not is irrelevant: the fact that there is rights that exited and that are taken away is of monumental significance.
In the midst of this political democratic "stagnation", new found democracies are attempting to build their own democratic institutions and constitutions. Namely in Egypt and in Tunisia. The consensus in the two nations is the adaption of classical democratic popular based political regimes. There might be attempts at some fixes here and there, but these remain adaptational rather than radical or new. Along with the democratic liberal model, the revolutionary nations are also going to acquire the flaws of the "aging" system... Because of this course, on the short and medium run, the Arab revolutions will not yield any immediate political advancements for humanity.
As a way of conclusion, considering this stagnation and aging phenomenons in our political systems is vital. For they need a constant state of alert and attention to preserve the benefits they have brought about already. As for the advancement and attainment of further benefits there is not yet a clear emerging vanguard new model. We can try to start envisioning that model but the priority is mostly for pumping new blood into our current, aging liberal democracies. 

Existentialism and my Ipod (and other kinda wise things)

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I lapse into a state of despair when I am at the gym and my Ipod runs out of battery. I HATE IT! 

When my favorite song is interrupted I think of many things... 

I surely don't think of the reason why I should have an Ipod to start with. Some person over there in China is having their human rights shed on the alter of my musical pleasures. But is is just human rights, No big deal. 

But how can I keep my integrity while my Ipod's production process(shortcomings) are in the back of my head, and go on with life?! 

I thought about that question. You should never think about real questions! It's a headache...

The answer is pretty easy, and existential. The way I feel when my Ipod shuts down, in itself, is comparable to the pain and anger some Ipod worker feels. Regardless of all the outside world interpretations: this holds for many of the banalities of our lives. 

If we bracket out extraneous elements, worst of which is morality, the experiences of pain and anger are intense and central while they are happening. 

Now you can continue reading more weird Ideas from my bolg. You can also go on and lament about how your homework is making your life miserable. Infact while your homework is making your life miserable, is is as intense as poverty induced misery. 

Why am I going on about this stuff?! 

Well I want my moral operating system, aka my consciousness, to stop bugging me about my freaking Ipod. So Miss consciousness, go read some existentialist literature. And let me indulge myself in the complex structure of my banal experiences for a bit. Thanks. 

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Since we at it, reader, now you can just feel good about doing nothing to help the needy. Moreover, now you can articulate how their suffering is fundamentally comparable to yours...