كنت ممن تابع غزو العراق لحظة بلحظة. استهوتني السياسية منذ صغري. آنذاك لم أكمل ربيعي العاشر. كنت كأي مدمن على الاخبار، أستقي المعلومات من خلال المشاهد التي تعرض علينا على الأخبار. لم أفهم كثيرا في قرائتي للأحداث بحكم عمري، و لا حتى الذين من حولي كانوا متفوقين فكريا ليملؤوا فجوات معالم التاريخ، أو كانوا منشغلين بشكل دوري بما يحدث عدى لعناتهم على امريكا و مواساتهم لمسلمي العراق، لذلك ارتأيت أن أشبع ضمئي و أن أرتوي من التحاليل التي كانت تقدم إلينا جاهزة علّني أفهم تلك الشُعب الضيقة التي عبروا منها ليصلوا إلى ما وصلوا إليه. و اكتفيت بذلك فقط.
استعدت هاته الصور عند تصفحي لرواية “الحفيدة الأمريكية” عن دار برزج. دلفتها حال شرائي لها و استهوتني الاسطر الاولى التي تلمح إلى سطوع شمس تغير الحال. تعيدني القصة إلى تلك الفترة و تنفخ في ذكريات كانت قد ضمرت بتتالي الأحداث و بلادتها في حواسي و انغماسي في الحياة.
القصة تحكي شطرا من حياة “زينة”، عراقية تجنست بأرض و على أرض أمريكا، و ما تبعه ذلك عن تخل عن سلاسل الإنتماء المكاني للأرض المطحونة بالصراعات، العراق.
زينة تحمل إرث أرضها اللغوي بفخر و تتصدر به على الشخصيات الأخرى في الحكاية، كورقة إمتيازات مُنِحت لها لنُتابع بشغف ما سيُزهر عنه تلاقح مكونات الماضي و الحاضر المُهمَلة و بشكل غير اعتباطي للزمان، المترسخة و بشدة بتمزقات عصية عن الفهم تميز مأزق المهاجر و إن استقرت جغرافيته. تُلازِمُه ملازمَة القرين لكنها تترك له مساحة للتخيير. و لعنة زينة هي من ذاك كله. هي لا زالت ذاكرتها لم تندثر، و هذا هو محور القصة و منبع امتدادها.
بغرض تسوية الحالة المادية لعائلتها و إنقاذ أخيها من براثن الإدمان، عرضت نفسها كمترجمة لدى الجيش الأمريكي و ارتحلت الى العراق لتكون همزة وصل لساني بين المحليين العراقيين و “المُخلّصين” الأمريكان. يستلزم ذلك الارتحال انصرافا عن حياة الهدوء و بيعا للذات، بكل ما للكلمة من معنى. عن مغامرة استكشاف مكامن الانتماء و نقط الارتكاز. أتساءل إن ان ذلك سببا في سقط رداء مدنيتها و تعسكرت أم كان ذلك هو فائض قيمة مدنيتها بالتعبير الماركسي؟ أكان ارتحالها رغبة لا شعورية في اختبار رجحان كفة الميزان؟
بتوجس أقول أن تلك النقلة الجغرافية كانت نقلة في إدراكها. تخبرنا الراوية بأنها تجربة كانت نقطة تحول في حياتها و لا لبس في ذلك. غير أن القارئ يجد خذلانا في هذا التصريح. في بعض السياقات و المواضيع التي عُرضت باتساق، نجد ان الختم الأمريكي يضل باديا على محيا ذاتها و تصرفاتها. في مقابل ذلك نلاحظ رفضا و انسياقا وراء خديعة الولاء للوطن و ما يقف عليه من اسقاط حكم المستبدين و فرض للديموقراطية. تُبدي “زينة” الولاء للقيادة و لوطنها الجديد اللي احتضنها. تستبعد بذلك كل تلك الفرص التي أتت لتزاحمها في مواطن ارتياحها، رغم دنوها من ماضيها الممثل في جدتها و ملازمتها لها بشكل متقطع إلى حادثة جنازتها إلا أن ذلك لا يغني من استبعاد احتكامها لحال واقعها.
لم عادت؟ لم لم تكف عن العودة و تجديد العقد للمرة الثانية رغم توفر كل مسلبات الحياة؟ أكان من قناعاتها أن لا تبالي بمآلها؟ تتشبث فيرتخي الحبل و تسقط في دهاليز الندم على الاقتراب من تجربة محاكاة هوية الماضي، فتكتفي بما تطعمها إشارات الحاضر. فتكتفي بذلك هي أيضا…
تدور القصة حول فلك الخذلان و استشعار العار، الفخر والانتماء المتشرذم، عن الانتقام غير المحسوب. عن القوة العظمى الدولار و تعويض الفراغ الوجداني.
تلاقي هاته العقد يشكل نقطة انحراف و وصل بين الواقع و التمثيل.
تحوم حولي بعض الاسئلة و تتلاقى في هاتين الاشكاليتين: هل هو تمثيل للواقع ام محاكاة له. هل كانت مشيئة الصدفة ام يكون ذلك واجب الحدوث؟
تُقرأ الشخصية ليست لذاتها بل لرمزيتها. رمزية لتمزق ذاتية المهاجر، من ذاق طعم الجغرافييتين و انحسرت المياه التي ساقته إلى ذلك المرفإ الآمن (و لو شكليا)، و الذي بعدما استفاق على يقين أن وجوده مشروط بجدلية التخلي و التبني؛ هو ذاك الذي أعلى كفة الأمان، من قطع جذور ماضيه بكثير من التردد و أحاله ذلك إلى سنين من التعب.
رمزية الكتاب تتطرق إلى هذا و على اعتراض جزئي و ضمني على هاته الحال. و كأنما تستوقف نفْسًا تلبَّست و زينت نفسها بالخيانة و عرضتها على محكمة الضمير، غير أن ذلك الضمير لم بتمكن من تسلق أسوار الانتصار. انتصار على قضية استحال حله معضلة قد فُصِل في مجراها و نتائجها. و أصبح المأزق الوجودي محتكرا للسخرية و محركا لها.
اعترضت على جزيئات بسيطة لكني تخليت نفسي أتملص من جلدي لحين لأرى نفسي قد أفعل الشيء نفسه لبلد اختار قاطنوه تمزيقة بكل النعرات التي قد يتخيلها عقل (الدينية و الطائفية و الإثنية). نظرتي قد تكون سوداوية، لكنني أرى سبيل الحال لكل منتهج لتلك الطريق و نهاية لكل نظام استبدادي. تماما كما انتهى عقد زينة و رجعت ل ديترويت، لكن شيئا لم يتغير الى الاحسن، كما طمأنتها سذاجتها.
أما بالنسبة لحال “زينة” فتلك هي ضريبة الهجران التي دفعتها. محاولة استرجاع الهوية قد يدعو الى انتحارها و الى مغيب شمسها.
كأن كل ما فشلت عن استيعابه في صغري تلخص بشكل مبسط في دورة حياة عنوانها أن ما اندثر بشكل قطعي فإن ائتلافه يكون مستبعدا إلى أبعد الحلول.
اقتربنا من العهدة الثانية لغزو العراق و لم تلتئم جراح العراق بعد، بل زادت قيحا و تعفنا. كتبت القصة في 2005 لكن صدى محاورها يُسمع اليوم. مشكلة الانتماء و الهوية حجزت مكانا لها في المجتمع الأكاديمي لكنها تزال تعاني من لفحات الهجران. العنف المتواصل و الارهاب لازال يلازم العراق بل ان تموجه وصل مداه لسوريا و قضى على الحضارتين.
و أصيبت دول غير مجاورة بالعداوة
و أصبح بلدي يحمل مؤشرات إنفجار تلك المقومات التي كانت لتكون من إمكانيات تطورها.
هي قراءة لا تخص شخصية مبتكرة تدعى “زينة” بل هي قراءة متعددة الأبعاد، فيها من النبوءات ما يغني عن تحاليل سياسية قصيرة المدى، و من الاسئلة ما يحيل القارئ إلى تقمص الدور والاداء بدل التموقع في راحة الإنجازات التاريخية (الظاهرية).
I got caught in unsolicited eavesdropping where two college girls were telling each other how insomniac they became as of lately, and how they spend the night scrolling down their Facebook feed. This surely is not a special case; even before the coronavirus epidemic, conventional communication was no longer taking place, as we all migrated towards highly psychologically addictive social networks that promised to connect us horizontally and vertically, and we got ourselves entrapped and deluded in the rewards it generated.
With time, the tool we had in our palms and within our reach became an alternative in a world silenced by conventional censoring agencies and agents. And we channeled our noise through social media tools particularly Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube (because they are the preferred social tools for Algerians) that we threw ourselves behind thick bars we ourselves created, and there is no getting away from it, or at least for the time being.
The prepackaged phrase that is on virtually on everyone’s lip is that Facebook and with it Social media are detrimental to the person using them, this is acknowledged by the oldest as well as the youngest generations, including Generation Z and Alpha. It seems that people are dissatisfied with it on a visceral level, yet we mindlessly and aimlessly devote a significant time to it, trading our life’s uncharted objective with the hazards of the instantaneous brain chemical rewards, and we are not even informed about it. We CHOSE not to know, because in a sense, we are seeking an asylym that transgresses the geographical constraints of our country.
In Algeria, as it is elsewhere, social media became a cesspool, and the blame can be laid on the issues of accessibility, plurality, and the democratization of public spaces.
As there are no restrictions to who gets access to what, or to the demography that is allowed to have social media, though no wonder have brought fame, money, and social recognition to some, and in return imprisoned the virtuous ones (jusged by my standards), had, in turn, created the untamed Frankenstein that we let loose, wandering in our homes, causing social atomization, family frictions, mental maladies, and immorality.
There is no total separation between the two aspects, as the first has a causative and correlative relationship to the second in terms of magnitude and tensity.
The repercussions of such can be seen in fear, all sorts of undiagnosed mental health issues, in the sleepless nights and the wasted lifetime. Which we seem to keep a lid on for the time being.
I think back to the times when I used to comment, get in hostile exchanges on matters that won’t satisfy my basic needs, and even converse with putatively sex predators and sociopaths, and I cannot but be regretful of my stupidity and the stupid encounters I attracted throughout those years, however, I did get a glimpse into the mind of the typical Algerian. I liken the Algerian society to a leaking bucket where the being is seen understood in terms of the becoming; this is what I failed to diagnose.
We do not really understand this new experience as it is unprecedented; we discern it only in fragmentations, where dryness, and thus nothingness is the eventual outcome.
The noise which inspired the title of this blog is nothing short of the shortsightedness and the blindness that envelop us, in the illusion we all subscribed to, in the national untruncated malady that was once with us and is now propagating on a frightening level; everyone’s seeking the mediums as a tonic for negativity, spreading it, ensuring it remains to nurture envy and depression: the new vestiges of individual colonialism, so to speak. Everyone is talking but no one is listening, and the real epidemy lies in submitting our critical faculties to certain people (because let’s face it, they are not developed or honed to meet the requirements of the new world) and even those who supposedly “inspire” and “influence” are nothing but a copycat of Western and Eastern mode of being. (no, thanks! I’d rather fill my bucket from the original source!)
I came to realize lately that worse still, that the personal information of some of the public figures people follow is not provided, and as such, speculation arises as to their true gender, where they live, and what side they work for, all remain quite unknown, and people continue to follow them. This is what we debate here, each side have their sophisticated arguments, when in reality, the info which stirs such debates must be a given!
Another problem arises with the noise is the clouded vision coupled with the rarity of switching the belief system. Back when I was in the circle of the passive secular activists on Facebook, as I like to call it, I didn’t understand that I was in an echo chamber, where we all confirm our belief system by the pathetic posts we share, engaging in futile discussions and we sleep to that feeling of gratification, that we served the general public; though I don’t advise getting near such discussions with people nowadays, nor do I practice it.
The preponderance of demagoguery in 2020 is a case in point. No elaboration needed.
What I continue to see unwittingly escaped the confines of the time, but keeps moving in the same direction; though there does not seem to be a road map, a blueprint by which we head somewhere, it goes without saying that an unplanned future will wreck havoc on us. And to be honest, we are herded towards a blank future, socially speaking. Politics follow.
Consumption generates the noise, entitlement generates noise, ignorance generates noise.
Noise is the default standard in an obfuscated worldview
iTINHINANE
Of the lost values, which I seem to come back to whenever I write about my country, of the deprivation of the power of sensation; of the imprints of depravity whose traces are seen, but only with the magnifying glasses, the noise keeps on echoing and there is no escaping but to pull the emergency brake; ponder on one’s life, be egoistic and productive for a moment, escape the labyrinth of demagoguery and sterile debates, and write about it instead!
Because we lack coherence in a fragmented society, we lack well rounded discussions from start to finish; instead of deferring such discussions and always coming up with the most basic and generic expression of “that’s a subject for another time”, let us just write about it, talk it out.
And rest assured, silent people will one day crawl out of the soulful recession, and perhaps there is light at the end of the bleak tunnel amid the heap of noise in which we buried ourselves under.
While I was at the tipping point of finishing my article, I got a call from my sister telling me about the recent uproar on social media and suggested that it might be of interest to me, as it concerns the person of a public figure I hardly attached her name to the picture in my mind because I only saw her once upon a cursory glance at the most-followed people on social media. I YouTubed the name of the said artist, watched it, and continued to watch some relevant videos, reactionary in their content, and read the comments. I witnessed the dilemma that has ensued afterward, and my reasons for that are twofold. First, as of lately, and because of my social media outage, I feel like living in a cave, and therefore, according to my gullible understanding, people have probably changed, at least for the better…or that’s what unprocessed thought promises. Second, I don’t want to make things up in my head and then project them onto the real virtual world.
Far from being an anomalous case, what I observed struck me as rather humiliating. Though I don’t side with any camp, there are some sticking points that one should praise. However, the narratives in their entirety miss important points and target unilateral dimensions. One cannot stress enough how nothing should be considered in isolation from the dynamic of its existence. That everything is weaved together in the social fabric, and therefore, it should be viewed from more angles.
As a distant observer whose presence on social media is dictated by the rising tide of contentious topics and new phenomena, I can say that the recent drama has merely caused a deeply entrenched problem to resurface, and it’s one of an existential magnitude. That is the impending battle of genders (luckily, we only have two so far) and the general public’s proclivity to exclude other unparallel voices. Thereby, dramatizing what has already been problematic. It’s a problem that we hardly talk about, if not dismiss completely. And if not addressed thoroughly will cause it to rear its ugly head sooner than we might think.
Surely, we religiously talk about the mentality of Algerians in a derogative way, and I am not exempt from that. It is a stigma that we will carry with us to the grave. but we haven’t considered the psychological components or the historical contingency that has led to that very mentality, which quite understandably seems stagnant even with the recent rapid changes that occurred rapidly in every sphere. However urgent and demanding this is, it’s a subject for another time.
What is specific about that mentality of the Algerians is the infallibility we ascribe to men, by virtue of kinship, as I will demonstrate later; as well as the counterculture it gave rise to, which can cast its blinding effect at very important conjectures.
There is no doubt that I gravitate towards those topics, not least because it constitutes an intrinsic facet of the Algerian mindset, and I am enamored with sociology. Therefore, I like to approach it from an analytical perspective. It follows that I categorize it as an unresolved issue about gender.
The effects of that famous video caused two heavily pronounced views: that vary from unconditional empaths who smokescreen Algerians’ psychopathic traits and recourse to sweeping everything under the rug, to “fierce” feminists, who would accept anyone who seems to allegedly unlock the handcuffs of women’s issues. The former thesis and the latter antithesis give rise to a third group, the one I identify myself with. On that, I provide my own account, which is undeniably shared by many of you out there. Lest we mistake the diagnosis for the illness or give credit to unmerited individuals.
Rioting for a Lost Cause
To quickly demarcate the stronghold of each and to jump to a binary opposition would help us to zero in on the first principles that guide each group. Even though it seems rather effortless to criticize them right off the bat on the grounds of illegitimacy and fallacy, it is only liable to start with identifying the blind spots, which give rise to that logic. But first, we need to put everything into context.
The reactions sought Algerian women, of course not living in Algeria, warmly defending the Algerian “man” in a pitiful way, perhaps it was for reputational concerns that they have done that, and the reputation of the nation as a whole, but one thing for sure is that they project onto the scene the ideal image of their familial nest, which leads me to hypothesize that they suffer from a delusion, collective amnesia typical of expatriates (because it cannot be underestimated the fact that we look up into expatriates as people who have seen both worlds, and therefore their conclusion is the more legitimate. Because, again, holding up the banner of the pejoratives of the Muslim female, that she did not have to fight for her rights like her Judeo-Christian Westernerconterpart, but instead, were given to her on her day of birth on a silver plate) or from aporia, which concludes our diagnosis. All three hypotheses can be supported by evidence. The fact that they recourse to assuage the gravity of this phenomenon is a phenomenon in itself.
Rationalizing offending behavior in their very limited understanding of the familial scope of the brother and father and husband (as if being escorted with a title is going to make one immune to temptations to transcend the threshold of obscenity) is SO WRONG on many levels. We have countless instances of such cases where women’s right to inheritance is violated, where decisions concerning the breath of the woman are strictly done by the males in the family, even if they were uneducated. In fact, the more uneducated males are, the firmer the grip. (this, of course, has serious political ramifications) Needless to say, one need not drown themselves in the pool of psychology and the troubling rubrics it deals with to gauge the extent to which their simplistic argument is archaic and groundless.
Undoubtedly, the holders of this view can also be said to suffer from Stockholm syndrome. From this masochistic tendency, we can deduce two conclusions; complementary and not oppositional. The weak form of it is that for them, the picture of an Algerian offending man is conceptually invisible: It does not exist. The strong form of it the overall agreed upon acceptance of inferiority.
Reproducing Gender Antagonism
On her Instagram comments, the most upvoted comments and the ones that generated numerous, multifarious responses are of those who thanked for using her platform to outcry women suffering, applauding the service she’s done to women and for unraveling the secrets that were dormant waiting for her to awaken from a lifelong slumber. And by saying that, I know that I will get a lot of hate, knowing that the public already knows that but it’s always a plus to have someone with status and power to further pay for the installments of the cause. No, thank you very much.
The issue resides in the inhabitants of the temple, rather than the content divorced from its bearer. Who are they, and what intentions they have? There is no denying that the content of her video is highly exaggerated, and judging from a somewhat neutral position, it was not the most realistic depiction of what we go through on a daily basis, heck not even what we encounter in the most severe cases. And girls who go to school or commute to work know this at a visceral level.
As a somewhat feminist and an Algerian citizen, I find the version of the story given by that public figure to be baseless, as is the majority’s version of the story. Despite the fact that she attempted to broach a topic that often seems sidelined or the fact that Algerians in foreign countries and here in their country are trying to clear the revered image of the Algerian male, and the Algerian society as a whole. Both equally disqualify one another.
As if she’s somehow expiating for the sins of not blending in with the thick layer of society, coupled with the inability to accurately identify herself with the issue of femalehood. The by-product is undeniably off-putting.
The exaggeration that is the trademark of that video makes me think that she wanted to believe what she’s saying and to come across as someone who has well discerned the chronic concerns of women, displaying a heroic image, and by women, I mean women who want to change their situation. As if that video is the badge she wears for her in-group membership. Not to be blamed. I myself write about feminism when it is convenient. But I guess that we differ in not when we are bringing to it, but also to our essence. To each their own, they say, and if someone is wealthy enough or has what it takes to help in the change of the livelihood of one person, then be it. This is why transgressing the demarcated boundaries will get one in trouble.
What this does is that it detriments the cause, because even if what has been said was quasi true, it remains notwithstanding the fact that the dimension it covers is a thin veneer. Indeed, this initial critique pales in importance to the detrimental effects that cast its shadows on the cause of women. The vitriolic attack directed against the male demography of this country, albeit bears resemblance to the Socratic method, have reduced the leeway that women’s movements have gained with their sweat and blood and even with their writings.
The thing is, the way it was carried seems drab and blinkered to my taste, and to a lot of feminists, and even though this may seem like a speculative admission, but any well-informed feminist would agree up to an extent that that public figure does not express the level of social awareness that is gathering momentum, especially in universities. And she’s far from that setting.
Its weakness lays not only in the fact that it failed to get at the taproot of the problem but also it fell into the expected trappings of any person who promotes a cause they in their conscious mind know that it does not concern them. This can be felt in the emotions conveyed in the video. Fake, inauthentic, and quite repetitive to say the least. The result of which is a leap backward.
Clearly, it hovers around the feminism question and the topics this latter deals with, but let me tell you that that does not make of you the spokeswoman for our cause. Not to my Marxist taste.
And I get that this is the matrix of today’s world. We are bashing esotericism, questioning science while all the while passing the floor to the human brands. This transgression of boundaries, though not an emerging phenomenon after all, has crowned itself, and righteously so. When you see swamps hovering around false prophets, in the literal sense of the word, it devalues the cause upon which the congregation was held.
The issue resides too in uplifting normal people who, following the decades-long Western and Eastern indoctrinations on selling themselves as a brand, chose to follow the metrics. The only explanation I could give the proliferation of public figures since the first models came out concomitant with the rise of social media.
But I guess that we owe her and her likes a lot for fanning the flames of conflict, the kind of conflict that feminist activists couldn’t’ stir, for popularizing the topic, so that we may end the protracted discussion, or at least take a definite seat because perhaps we are still in the phase of sorting things out.
It remains to say that we can not be complacent with what is eroding the fabric of our mortal existence. The shared fate or common bond must propel us to work together to address the endemic moot points, and propose corrective measure if we really want to deter these endemic psychopathic traits;
We could as well, collectively work to reverse engineer The Algerian mentality, and cut out unnecessary drama. And the easiest path to that is an inclusive approach to dealing with any topic, really. To that end, it would be heartwarming to allow each other to fish in the waters of the other which promises a great variety, an entanglement, and a tying of the loose ends.
I know we are so good at fabricating post hoc explanations, but it’s the more reason why the descriptive overrules the speculative. Though I don’t claim to have examined the question from all sides, I still believe that my appreciation of tardiness is the reason why I do not like to read the in-spot analysis of events, they seem hollow and lacking in many respects.
But as I write this, I ask myself, is jumping to conclusions the right way to dealing with the lingered issues we have?
We all cling to a certain belief system while looking down on others and denouncing them as false, or accuse their beholders of being opinionated, when in fact there is nothing neutral or objective about being swayed by a credo, whether be it rationally appealing or appalling.
I got into an argument lately that made me be firm concerning my stance regarding intranational causes. And I understand that I cannot evade such topics by dismissing them as merely not national, and I do understand that living in a hyper-connected world entails engagement with world events, and consequently standing for the rights of the oppressed, but I also reckon that engaging in such discussion is at best futile and at worst injurious as long as I’m on this land.
My initial feeling is that a form of escapism from the shackles of misery, individual and institutional depravity. And it is also hypocritical. Very much so.
Though I remained calm in my verbal exchange about the unfounded hysteria over Black Lives Matter, the other person took it as a venomous attack against them, or rather against her very being, and even accused me of being a racist (which I’m not), though if that was actually said to me or not remains tacit in the accusation itself.
When I gave my opinion about The blacks in the U.S, I was immediately told that because I don’t live there, and because I am no black I don’t have the right to talk about it, that because I am not subject to a form of discrimination prominent in the writings of BLM advocates that my arguments are invalid, but such an argument doesn’t include why such a matter transgressed all the chaos my country is going through and why it’s trending, and why people are sympathizing with it, and why were we talking about it in the first place!
In my country, the Sahara people (which are predominantly black) are my favorite, particularly because they’re likeable and also because of their generosity, yet the very same person criticized them on the grounds of choosing “the other” over them (because she is more or less one of them) does that make it a case in point against blacks? does that mirror her prejudice?
On the other hand, does her argument over the blacks in the US make it invalid because she too does not live there and only expose herself, intellectually, to one side of the equation?
Just because they experienced a sort of sensory overload of fleeting images, built on one another in a coherent way, mentally and cinematographically of the institutional discrimination and of selected news we are deemed to get across on social media, on cover stories for horrific crimes, makes her embrace it wholeheartedly and sensitive to the issue, that I HAVE TO sympathize with their cause?
False judgement and subscription to widely circulated opinions yield emotional safety, yet I have to not only defend my antithesis, but also synthesize the whole web of complex structure from a sociological point of view, as I see it against the backdrop of my personal, local, and regional reality.
My “why the hell would I care?” argument my seem trivial at first, but it’s well grounded. I just don’t support this politics of debasement of national issues, and I vehemently believe that they don’t actually give a damn about our issues. This double bin that partially paralyzes me infuriates me and outrages me knowing how easily their “emotions” are triggered and how their basic arguments are formulated. Like a prescribed sleeping pill, the emotional safety argument calms, pulls one towards the safe zone and promises an immediate effect.
First of all, I think we should not latch onto discussions about skin and ethnicity for the time being, but if we are compelled, I would like to bring the regional and the economical card and elucidate how blacks are way privileged than me personally. My complaints and the complaints of my compatriots are airbrushed by the very same people who defend the rights of foreigners, as if accusing you of your racism all the while while shoving their humanity and moral principles down your throat, when in fact it’s a matter of prioritizing the local over the regional, the regional over the continental and so forth.
And why should we demonize those who think from their armchair? Why is privilege a crime? Isn’t that what the less empowered and the oppressed are seeking? Why can’t I enjoy it if the fathers of our revolution and our martyrs have signed the death contract to ensure that we live a bright life? (though in reality, this is far from being the case, but I am just saying!)
With that being said, I would like to extend my indifference to these matters knowing that in my national territory crimes are being committed on the human, on the animal, and on the soil.
And I always like to go back to the crux of the matter, the individual responsibility, and how we are not passive agents, and the Black Lives Matter embodies this spirit. It is people who choose their destiny. If someone is a drug addict, it is because they chose to be so, and the examples can be multiplied endlessly.
If I may put my two cents in, we should not be only Marxists but also Hegelians, and we should learn to filter through bs, acknowledge that it’s neither black or white, the grey area which gives vantage point is still there waiting to be explored.
We should refine our critical skills to eschew being caught in the web of infinite regression and the first cause, let us acknowledge our individual responsibility and start from where we exist, on a tempospatial level.
And at last, I would like to clean my house before I criticize the other’s house.
On a balcony in the secrecy of the night of Algiers, three teenage girls were sharing typical liberal talk, fomenting liberal ideas which, from their perspective, may offer a roadmap for exit to Algeria’s most striking conundrum: freedom.
The girls indeed exploited the connection between freedom in its different forms and linked it to sexual freedom. not to be blamed.
For the past years, and for whatever unprocessed reason, one of the lingering concerns within the broader scope of my humanistic perspective was the need for sexual education. My attempt to symbolically fragment my liberal ideas was to deter hypocritical traditionalists’ arguments about not messing with the things we hold sacred, with our values and morals (whatever those morals are) I would iterate and reiterate its necessity at the corner of every social/cultural crisis, thinking that I figured it all out.
Now, I’m playing the ostrich whenever that topic pops us. Though most of my core beliefs are pretty much the same, some of them have definitely been altered drastically. Now I take back what I held as a fixed maxim, from which some of my other arguments were founded.
The fact that that reasoning has collapsed, I view the idea of sexual education as a mere recreational one, and a decentralized idea that deserves a mention only in passing.
Regardless of the fact that freedom in Algeria is quasi under siege, sexual education should not be a cause that should be taken to national prominence, or to be centralized given the current status quo.
What is now bugging me is that how would we precisely envision its implementation given that we understood what it is, and how do we go about it in the first place? Do we mean that we should include it in the curriculum? What age group or population are we targeting?
It’s these questions per se and the arguments they may regenerate with the relative truthfulness indicators in each that are important to consider, and these are the questions that beg to be answered at the moment. We have to circle around the periphery to infiltrate to the core. Therefore, we can’t be indifferent as regards the response that we give to such questions, because in them, I would argue, one may get hold of the keys to our troubling concerns.
And we can’t desensitize ourselves from delving into a suitable response to fill in the inadequacies which are filled with all sorts of nonsensical, semi-religious/traditional arguments, or exclusionary blasphemy and blatant chorus which enfeeble the mind due to repetition and make of us a mindless homogeneous whole. And that would be a transgression of God’s general design.
At the prospect of that, and lest we be subject to such an ensnarement we resort to harkening back to the moral arbiter. To weigh the pros and cons of such a necessity. What’s in it for us? And should the collective be compelled to undergo such a distortion of centuries-long “values”?
Sexual education promises an overarching understanding of the male/female bodies, of intimacy, and safe sexual praxis, which is positive in every respect. It allows us to make informed decisions, cleanse the traces of traditional sexual ignorance, and repel mythically supranatural stereotypes. However, the grounds of such a vision are sterile, and the mindset is polluted and is polluting of such grounds. And the priority, as well as the importance of such a liberal education, are nullified.
Not to insinuate that our people are puritans, and not to mistake what is said with what behind the person’s appearance. Far from that. Undeniably, sexual education is and will always be mistaken for sexual liberation, here or in the West. I have not had one discussion about it in my full naivety that it did not meet with joyful acceptance from men and even (very very sick women who assumed amoral superiority) who showed their true colors upon such an elevation of the topic, dispossessing me of the remnants of my logic and viewing me as an object seeking a subject. Sadly, that’s how my poor girls are looked at. Watch out for that tactic.
Anyways,
In an attempt to set an equilibrium between rights and duties, there is no denying that on an individual level, sexual education is necessary to the extent that the person seeking it needs it. It is a human right (insofar as every human needs it) and a duty (insofar as he is willing to pursue it given moderative means) Thus, sexual education is to be relegated to individuals, as part of their responsibility to self-development. And just like we do not teach personal development on a large scale, sexual education should not be imposed on the collective.
So implicated in the rhetoric of sexual education are uncalculated vulnerabilities and unresolved sensibilities. Yes, our adamancy (my past rationale) stems from such a recognition, and the strategic crossing point is to push back against the authoritative grip to somehow arrive at a closure. What I come to realize is that this revolutionary tendency is repressive in nature given that it’s a minority’s quest, and the prospects of such a discussion are far from realization. Yet, I bow in respect for the girls’ audacity and for sowing the seeds of such a topic, despite the chaos it engendered.
The chaos it engendered is symptomatic of an impending revolution, though not ripe to occupy a central position yet.
بداية، لا أجد حرجا في التصريح بعدم إهتمامي بحياة السود الأمريكيين.
أجد و لطالما وجدت في الهاشتاق الذي و منذ عام بزوغه إلى العالم الإفتراضي نرجسية حادة، و ما ينطوي عليها من سلوكيات غير متصالحة مع المجتمع و تضخيم للنفس و لمعاناتها الإستثنائية، و ضغينة و عدم المبالاة بالآخرين. هذا ما يلاحظه ويتلمسه الواحد منا.
هو شعور بدائي و لا شيء يبدو استثنائيا في ما أقوله. القضية إقصائية بالدرجة الأولى بتمحورها حول قضية شخصية بغض النظر عن ما إذا كانت أحداثها اعتباطية أم لا.
هاته القراءة الأحادية التي تستثني كل المسببات (مسببات الحوادث مهما كانت أصولها و تفرعاتها) هي إقصائية على جميع الأصعدة و على كل المستويات. هاته القراءة المبتورة و التي تلقي الضوء و كل الضوء على الاضطهاد العرقي تنم عن وعي خاطئ و ترسبات فعلت هاته الهيستيريا العالمية و هي “شيء” نحن بغنى عنه.
ما نجم عن ذلك هو الآتي:
استرسل الكثيرون في إخراج حسن نواياهم في قضية السود، على شاكلة كل لما خلق له، حيث راح العديد منهم يقذفون غير المتعاطفين و الكل بعبارات “ثقفوا أنفسكم” و “انشروا الوعي” و “ليسمع العالم أصواتنا”، في حين أن البعض منهم مالوا إلى تجريم من تعاطفوا مع القضية بقليل من الحيلة بصباغة أجسادهم، كلها او أجزاء منها بالمايك آپ.
تعاطف ملغم بالحساسيات و لا مجال للخطأ.
استطالتي التفكير في الأمر لم تغنني عن فهم من ينصح من ؟ و لا عن السر وراء شراحة الصدور و التقبل الواسع العابر لأزمات شعوب النصف الجنوبي للمعمورة؟
و على سياق آخر فإني و بالصدفة قرأت مؤخرا رواية لتوني موريسون، الكاتبة الأمريكية من أصول إفريقية و التي تكتب بشكل حصري عن السود) و الحقيقة أنها و بالرغم من تناولها لموضوع السود و حيواتهم المصورة على انها بائسة (هي كانت بالفعل كذلك إبان الفترة الحالكة للأمريكيين السود) لكنها و بالرغم من ذلك الشقاء او القساوة المصورة لنا فإنها لم تمسني قيد انملة.
(نعم، ثمنت النمط السردي و تشعب أحداث القصة و الوزن الأدبي المحض للقصة، لكنها لم تحدث في أي أثر نفسي)
فبالإضافة إلى التباعدات الثقافية و اللغوية و الحياتية، إن صح القول، و إن كان بإمكاني إبداء رأيي هنا فأنا أرى في ما حدث و ما يحدث و ما يوشك أن يحدث قضية شخصية نابعة من قناعة داخلية لمرضى عقليين و ساديين، لا مفر لنا من لقياهم في جميع الأمكنة و على بسالة الموقف فإن وجودهم لا يحتكر فقط على المناطق التي يسكنها السود.
هذا ينقلني إلى قول أن هكذا نوع من الجريمة ليس من الصور النمطية التي تتكرر و لا يمكن بأي حال من الأحوال قول أنهم بصدد التعرض لعملية ممنهجة من المسح العرقي.
أو أن البيض يستأنفون أعمال أسلافهم. هاذ “الهدرة” أكل عليها الزمن.
إتجاهي الشوفيني و ربما حتى إنتماءاتي المحلية و القارية تحتم علي أخذ مقعد المتفرج و الاطلاع، من دون تفعيل آليات التعاطف. كذلك ليس بإمكاني إقامة علاقة سببية بين مجتمعاتنا، و لا بإمكاني إيجاد نفسي فيها.
هاته الظروف الجاهزة لتخفيف و طمس أزماتنا نقلتنا من حالة المحاكاة إلى مرحلة الذوبان في مشاكل الغير، حلها لا يسمن و لا يغني من جوع.
اتساءل لم أدخلنا في هاته القصة الخلفية ذات الطابع الإنساني و نحن كسكان لمنطقة الشمال الأفريقي والشرق الأوسط غارقون في أزمات أولها الحروب و التناحرات الدينية و الطائفية و آخرها الفقر و الجهل و التبعية و التعصب.
بلدي الجزائر لازال يعانى من أزمة تدفق المهاجرين الأفارقة، و الذين فرقتهم مصالح تلك الدول الكولونيالية (الماريكان منها) واستنزفت حتى دماءهم . نفس البلد يعاني من مشكلة التعصب ضد الافارقة و لو بشكل نسبي، و لو أن الأفارقة هنا هم أقل حظا من نظرائهم الأمريكيين. (في الأخير نحن كلنا أقل حظا هنا).
ما أريد قوله هو أن هناك قضايا أهم أخذت تتصاعد تدريجيا مؤخرا، و إرث كولوني صعب علينا حتى الساعة تحديده و لن أطنب الحديث في استحالة اجتثاثه مع الوجود الثابت و غير المنقطع لسارقي الرموز الوطنية، و أشياء أخرى.
هناك إهتمامات أخرى الأجدر بنا الإلتفات نحوها ك:
حرب الخليج 2.0، الرأسمالية و الأزمة الصحية العالمية (الرأسمالية موضوع لن ينحسر حتى بانحسار الرأسمالية)، صناعة الحروب، الذكاء الإصطناعي… الخ
If I may interject a personal note to this blog, I would say the following:
I know that we all found ourselves compelled to this confinement, and what I am about to say may seem a LOT over the top, but I have never been more happier than now!
I still want to go out, and I do that frequently, for I’m one who enjoys uncrowded spaces and empty roads. This is a bit egoistic but I like to have the whole road|route to me, and it is for a reason,
For years we have been locked up with mass violators of harmony, with unnecessary gazes, and any negative trait and bad attitude you could imagine coming out from a psychopathic society. One should thank nature for fending off intrusions from infiltrating our personal life.
And so it follows that the disappearance of all these phenomena factor in my happiness.
People may call this form of self-isolation introversion, but I find the term to be a misnomer, and a term that is used in a derogatory fashion just because you do not agree with the ridiculous social norms, or because you do not want to participate in the carnival of hypocrisy; you do not wish to wear multicolored skins and disposable faces masks on every occasion.
Do not judge me…this is the baseline mentality here, and it speaks for itself.
And why am I enjoying this current status quo is something not to be narrated, but to be enumerated:
1- First comes the state of my country. What I noticed is that Algeria could have never been purified if it was not for this administrative paralysis, it is partial but it remains efficient. It should be noted that this purification is not acquired, i.e. by virtue of hirak or of social|political activism.
2- Strongholds of corruption are mostly shut, some went completely dysfunctional.
3- Next comes social relations which are based on unhealthy levels of interest, as opposed to mutual interests based on proportional levels of give and take. These social relations have reached their lowest point, which I find to be an encouraging sign for a possible rehabilitation to this broken tissue. But let’s face it, it may be a slow process or it may not happen at all. It may be aggravated if people forgot how to socialize the way I forgot how to walk after one month of quarantine. Needless to say, I’m not that much of an optimist, and I don’t see much positive change.
3-pertinent to administrative purification is ecological cleansing. Myself and other sane Algerian citizens are sick of seeing mountains of filth and dirt everywhere and every time we step out of the threshold of our houses. A phenomenon which I cannot but translate into an absolute lack of respect, not even to oneself.
With that said, it staggers me to hear voices expressing their dissatisfaction and suffocation from the current “global situation”. And I wonder, what did we have to complain about?
Because last time I checked we were living to eat, sleep, and to cause impaired mayhem. We still eat and sleep (a lot), and subtract the rest. (God, maths can come in handy at times. On a side note, it is still my favorite subject)
But even with eating, we were throwing our industrialized food waste to the soil to absorb and dissolve, and to the air to create a verisimilitude image of the kind we see in Asian festivals. But in most cases, they beautifully decorate trees, with different colors and patterns, and I can’t overlook the striking resemblance with Christmas trees.
The longing for a normal life just like it “used to be” is nothing but Satan in saint’s clothing. It lures you in and before you know it, we will all get back to our old habits, and corruption will resume from where it stopped before this epidemic (our rescuer).
I am not here to dispense advice, nor am I here to create a cult of perennial non-social interaction, but who needs to socialize if this is the true state of our country? We never even agreed on the terms of a social contract that would bind us together. decolonization issues…
I can’t befriend someone if they shrug their shoulders at throwing garbage, and would go as far as to question your sanity if you showed any kind of objection. And I can’t socialize with someone if they think ill of someone who is concerned with the well-being of the rest.
Believe it or not, very very few “citizens” who are otherwise.
The answer to this blog’s title should come out automatically now.
Whatever I write here is two-thirds description and one-third solution, sometimes I offer no solution, as I am on the view of Paul Ricoeur who, in describing the crisis of solution, eloquently said in a video I watched recently that “we are more able to describe the crisis than to give solutions to it” which I believe that it is taken to mean that it is in (the problems, which, in the timely process of agglomeration, become condensed to form a crisis) that resides the solution. Perhaps this entails that the solution is embedded in it, and that it constitutes a tiny bit in the overall process in comparison to the primacy of identification and description of the problems; or that this inability is derivative of the fact that we are not meant to reach a solution as it discharges out willingly, once the button of the problem is hard pressed on. In recognizing the issue, we lay claim to finding the solution to it…effortlessly.
On another note, that I find to be a radical one, he sustained the view that “we can not think of a solution, because any kind of a solution is an element of another problem”, thereby, extending the definition of problem to encompass solution, and vice versa. And I partially agree with that as well.
So elastic a definition as that made me want to pat myself on the shoulders for always twiddling with the problem without considering to park in the lot of the solution. Even if I could not verbally articulate it back then, it speaks volumes to me now.
This is truly philosophy for public consumption, and it flies in the evidence carried within popular opinion which circulates endlessly.
the statements made above could easily be rejected on the grounds of erroneity or inconclusivity, but
Much of what we do in our daily life when we face a problem is to opt out to salve it, not to cure it entirely, for it is relegated to time which cures everything. We recognize that almost inherenly, and we understand that very well. That is why we always mutter supplications, because it is in the divine that we assign the execution of this elusive task.
And by the way, this is not a theistic claim if we all agree on the fallibility of the human being which is solidely anchored in us.
with that said, that does not mean that we should shut down any philosophical discussion about the need to find a solution, for it does not fundamentally change the human’s urgency and his|her burning desire to explore the mystic area of solution(s), because the human being is always haunting that one next thing that would better his|her life, he|she undoubtedly want to live a happy life, problem(s) free, CRISIS-FREE.
This is all to say that, even though this is the case, identification and especially the recognition of the issue is the first step in the actualization of a decisive solution, which to my surprise, as it is perhaps to yours too, have fallen out of favor lately.
We have become inured to sticking to quasi solutions and parroting promises we hear here and there, promises which envelop more unlisted problems .
And the moral of the story you might ask? the cherry on the cake? the solution to this imapsse?
Too many nights I spent burrowing a hole in my mattress intensified the urge to write something that has been bugging me for too long (besides the current epidemic)
Everyone is concerned with the current health epidemic, but what stands out the most is the invisible one, the one we chose to nourish. the seed of which was planted a decade ago (at least in my country, Algeria)
What Went Wrong?
A one size fits all diagnosis to what is wrong with today’s world would be very insufficient, vague and even ambiguous and complex that even approaching its multilayered facets would be a hard endeavor to partake in. Mais n’empêche. An installment plan works a long way.
We are all witnessing the excessive use of social media these days, our restless soul’s calmizer pill
The kind of consumerism very few regard as perilous. We have all taken part in the mass outpouring into social media, we eclipsed much of our priorities for the sake of that one more minute “eavesdropping” on what others are up to, and we seem that we are all stuck in this web of catastrophic complexity, augmented through a perpetual loop of conditioned reflexive practices. There is nothing new in what I said, as it is something we have come to understand progressively as we looked back and realized that we are caught up in this very well designed trap.
The issue that lurks from within exceeds the limits of the previous conscious “revelation”, and it is problematic and controversial, for it reaches the strenuous walls of democracy’s advocates and eugenics’ staunch haters (although not in its most rigorous forms), their arguments go as far as they can .
I vehemently believe that it is righteous to put the finger on the real issues, with no circumlocutory deviations or unwarranted justifications. I guess that we can all agree on the fact that to each their appropriate type, a maxim that has been flouted ever since social media was being made known to us, the public, laypeople.
It is true that during its first inception, we used to agglomerate based off of our common particularities, a few other differences here and there but the overall use of social media was to reconnect with non-virtual acquaintances and friends, community based connaissance. And when one of us wanted to stand out or had enough of their community sought refuge in the “other”, to venture into establishing ties with virtually non-existing supposedly “people”. Perhaps this is an extreme case, but some of us have never met the ones we once interacted with.(yes, you too Marlina), this general description invited a later boomer. You know, it is all good and sweet until the rubber meets the road.
The preponderance of democratic values and liberalism ushered in a new era of acquiring and participating, so to speak, in the construction and deconstruction of anything and everything. A prime example is smartphones and social media and their crystal clear implications.
Social media took off from where public schooling and mass production left off: a surge in populism (which is normal and fine as long as it keeps a distance from “school” or should I say “knowledge”), mediocrity, and entitlement that comes after intellectualism in most cases, incentivized by the following improvised slogan: “ my ideas matter as much as yours”
Bref, Its rustle can be heard almost everywhere.
Needless to say, in the last decade, using the internet has been taken to mean to use social media, among other things. To revive the last minutes or hours of hibernated and frozen conversation or to basically comment. It is not a belated notice, but it is one which is rarely talked about (but in moments of frustration), or at least in written media as we know it, when it should be talked about on a daily basis.
The Social Parasites
I take a glimpse at social media from time to time and see how we are lost in its maze, and in the dreams those “public figures” are selling us, and in turn, how they are selling their lives, sometimes even their bodies for free (well, these gratuities are not entirely for free,but the price they may pay is life costing). in times of monetary gain, the followers get the shaft, and a hole in their pockets. here comes the list of my critiques: why would any sound human open up their lives and the gates of their houses to complete strangers.
as if they are living with the, rent-free.
When they will not sign up to a possible unprecedented intrusion. The walls of cement as we know them are not the only defence machinery which exist, they are fragile and prone to penetration. One should invest in more concrete walls; in a fully fledged privacy.
It follows that the emergence of this trend offers generous margins for intrusions, if not the whole space, and it opens an unnecessary forefront to receive critiques, we can literally gain access to their lives just by fiddling with our phones, and with flipping through the screen. It is that much easier of an endeavor, without getting our hands dirty, nor our backs sore (metaphorically speaking)
L’altruisme sous toutes ses formes, quoi!
The second trend is direct result of the first. They are what I call the duplicates of Merkel. chancellors scapegoating their bonafire and time to “follow”, guide and councel others, ESPECIALLY when those subjects of extreme attention stray from the path. Gratuitement!
I see the loopholes in both trends: in unconditionally revealing oneself to the world to see, and in erecting oneself as the others’ chief chancellor, who passionately cater to someone’s spirituality and mental health, especially when it comes to breaching islamic values or social mores.
parasites feeding off one another. The first category resides in social media to assert assert their individuality, their self worth. And the second one can’t be blamed for being advantageous of this weakness, and they too are looking for an application to their very rare, expert like skills in guiding regardless of how low they can be.
there is of course a middle ground, an in betweenness which I stand for. life is not black and white, but what is noticed to be prevalent remains to be vulnerable to critics and superficial solutions, maybe?
This give and take has inadvertently created what I shall term “fake rich”, in the sense that true they are rich and wealthy, some of whom were rich prior to engaging in social media, and some gained currency by dint of it, thus opening a chasm in the distributive justice. And no, I am not hating on them but being popular for being popular is cancer. Equally disturbing is the rise in the percentage of people who call themselves life-coaches, NLP promoters and all of its (their) related nonsense (when in reality we know that they cannot even get their life together), debauchery, and know-it-all youngsters. I (and psychological evidence) must confess that what they project is quite tempting, and therefore I am serious about considering this to be a serious issue.
Cutting The Lifeblood
Another issue that reared its ugly head concerns the state of intellectualism. I argue that the previous points are sufficiently threatening but they surely do not stand a chance against a much disturbing phenomenon, the assassination of thinking. Evidently, social media paved the way for it and we as participants, as cobayes, have augmented it. Constant exposure to light entertainment promises transient satisfaction, a bogus transient feeling of comprehension and of being knowledgeable. We can safely say that it produces intellectual paralysis of which I lament the loss. Intellectuals who made a presence on social media receive spitting vitriol. Mind you that it is done for the sake of attacking them and with no sufficient evidence, particularly because they sang a song which flows in the opposite stream of populistic (uninformed) views. It is not as much a corollary to to this point as much as it is a result of this smartphone|social media democracy. Those fractions could have been avoided to ensure immunity from any kind of infection secreted by both spheres. Yes, I am “mostly” on the view of rigid separation based off of social strata, because ignorance (in most cases poverty chaperones ignorance and breeds all social phenomena), for I believe that with said “technology” or without it, the residuum of our true essence, our social position, our background remains there, recumbent but unchastened…awaiting the appropriate stimuli.
Our life and culture is shifting in a fundamental way, and his state of affairs is not likely to dissolve and no tinkering would fix it if we are not willing to acknowledge its gravity, and the germ of democracy and social media we are all infected by.
But you know what I did? I signed out.
What about you? Can you afford to eschew it?
Also, what do you think of the presence of the intellectuals on social media? Any remarkable improvement you noticed on social media users in the decrease in populism?
Do you think that artificial links between the various segments of society are much needed?
Unity is dying amongst us. At least that is what we all agree on. We have had too many ruptures in the past that an ephemeral unity is too dysfunctional at best and flagrant at worst.
It so happens that a lot of us have jumped onto the surrendering bandwagon pretty hastily, we showed a full fledged support to the new president, whose win this time cannot be said to be fraudulent. Facts checked?
And while it is true that the participation in these elections was at rock bottom, a testimony to the strategic failure of the government despite the immense deployment and employment of the psychological dichotomy of punishment and reward and the relentless attempts at blocking the entry to other eligible candidates.
And it is worth saying the regardless the means of attainment, the objective was fulfilled. With this in mind, we cannot help by to make the deliberate free association with the Machiavellian manoeuvres, the working machine with which our government operates.
It has been so from the onset. The government takes an approach that is deeply immersed in the manifestation of demagoguery, thus squeezing out potential rivals from our finest people, and gaining support of the populists.
These anti democratic tactics did not deter or even signal infringements of privacy, and of human rights to those who proudly and unashamedly, (sometimes even indifferently) showed massive gratitude to the newly elected president…something akin to idolization is at work here.
Just because of his title, or because of an absence of a disability, or God knows what!
This gives rise to many guessworks as far as the the unspoken reasons behind this idolization are concerned. Similarly, it conjures up images of voluntary subjugation and total acquiescence deeply enshrined in our colonial experience.
A Decisive Rupture
Electing a face of the old regime is a bitter pill to swallow. The fact that the results were decided long before the elections were carried opened up old wounds. Wounds of disunity emanating from the large hiatus of ignorance vs. knowledge and virility vs. obedience and submission between the free and the emasculated, between those who went out to the streets to topple down a rotten government and those who casted a ballot.
Have the Hirak not melt all ethnic and dogmatic differences? were we not allies? And what was the categorical refusal of elections for in the first place?
For the chauvinists, we have come full circle minus detainees, plus the unremitting efforts to telling lies, and oh… false promises for a second republic disguising the old one. We have reached the point of no return. The turnout of these past elections produced the exact same outcome we wanted to avoid at all costs. And it came with the help of and the blessing of the other pole.
Divided We Stand
Since we all entered this inescapable maze, how about some finger pointing here: simply put, you, anyone who is indifferent, supportive or is satisfied with the results.
How is escapism and jemenfoutisme is ever conducive to change, progress or prosperity?
What is there left to hope for?
How about some sense here: How do you trust a sudden radical change if your least concerns were not materialized in real life. You and I and every Algerian citizen struggles to get a foothold in the necessities and guarantees of a basic life.
It is remarkable how much the apologists have in their store of excuses, and interestingly enough, their myopic vision hinders them from prioritizing their dignity or to even seek lasting benefits to the upcoming generations. This latter comes at a later stage, but if we are that ignorant and rudimentary in thinking, what is striking and fatal is how do we envision ourselves living for the remainder of the presidential ruling which entails a deep fixation of a more rigid and coercive ruling, among other things?
This is a blame game and I am playing it even though I am shocked and at a loss for words
To the exhilarated of the turnouts: your condition requires a cure. Your vision is neither pragmatic in its essence nor as a move if you are ever joyfully proclaiming that.
The division we reached is the price we paid for treason, for siding with the foe
In the same vein the algerian opinion is parting ways, and while it may or may not intersect, the collision between the freed citizens and the enslaved ones is looming near.
Independent of it is the idea that the start of something transformative begins with knowledge, and division matters less if there is ever an emphasis on it.
