Even though it doesn’t take more than one glance at any Arabic news Website to realize that, I can give you more reasons:
We suck because we always blame other people for our failure and misery. If we are Arabs, we blame non-Arabs. If we are the people, we blame governments. If we are men, we blame women. If we are Muslims we blame non-Muslims. It’s never our fault! NEVER. God forbid we fix ourselves before we demand others to be fixed, no We believe we’re the victims and we love it.
We suck because we demand democracy while we’re miles away from being responsible. We practice democracy sometimes when no one is watching, and the results are almost ALWAYS disastrous! We are dangerous to ourselves. We are our own worst enemy. WE are corrupted, not our regimes, not the world’s economy, not the US, not Israel, not our parents, not our CEOs. It’s us. Each and everyone of us except for the .001 of us who are most hated and down-sized and if God forbid got somewhere will either be killed or die naturally at an early age.
We suck because we don’t know politics, business, education, anthropology or anything remotely close. We think we do not need to learn, we were BORN experts in everything. We do not believe in science, actually we don’t believe in much simpler things such as organization, duties, freedom or integrity. We have our own understanding of everything. We do everything the Arabic style: food, hypocrisy, nepotism, egotism and more food.
We suck because we still believe that education is no good for women. The higher in education a woman gets the slimmer her chance of getting married becomes. Because this woman is dangerous, first, she knows more, second, she obviously thinks, third, she might actually want to work after marriage. A deadly combination of a man’s darkest fears.
We suck because we discriminate against women at work. We make them feel invisible sometimes and awkward many other times as if being female is a shortcoming.
We suck because we don’t show our kids how much we love them. In fact, many of us do not know how to do that. We also think it’s unmanly to show feelings to ANYONE, especially parents, siblings, wife and kids.
We suck because we’re starving but we smoke cigarettes.
We suck because the only thing we’ve exported to the west is our hubly-bubbly (water-pipe).
We suck because when a girl proves to have a mind, we call her a bitch.
We suck because we don’t read.
We just suck, and there’s no one we can blame for that.
We also suck because we’re self hating and see only the cup half empty all the time. When so much has been done and so much is still on the way all it takes some faith in the whole to make it
We also suck because we see others and feel inferior. When in all truth we’re either on par or even better.
We also suck because we don’t recognise talent, people with education. People that needs empowerment and encouragement
We also suck because our minorities best interests are never honored and diversity is considered only considered one of the accessories to shine our fallible infant democracy.
We also suck because we belong to talent, competency and knowledge expelling countries where anyone distinguished is always considered an outcast and considered the prophet of doom
Good article Shaden, brilliant
well, some people swallow.
OK Moey, I got a chuckle out of that one.
Moey, you’re so inappropriate at times!
Wow, Shaden. (Moey, I’m going to ignore that)As a foreigner, I can’t say any of this without risking my head, but I have thought it many times. Yet, I do believe there are many indicators of positive change.
The greatest thing about admission, confession, whatever it is, is that it is the first REAL step to change. Acknowledging the weaknesses is the first step to moving out of them. There is no shame in that, no hate, no self-loathing. The greatest shame, hate, and loathing would be to deny the problems exist.
But I hope, even after steps are made to improve all these areas, you will still serve Mansaf by the table-full, ARAB STYLE!
Qwaider, can’t agree more although I don’t think we’re self-hating because if we were, we would’ve tried to change
Kinzi, there is change, but it’s too slow I can only hope to enjoy it before I’m 70. On the other hand, I’ve been in Jordan since August yet I haven’t tasted an original 100% Jordanian Mansaf yet
it’s not gonna solve the problem, but you could always vote with your feet and move to other societies… easier said than done i suppose. but i’d be proud to have you and people like you in ireland for example
(of course you’d have to support the irish footie team, and that’d be an other lifetime of misery ;);))
Dave, glad you did.