put a spell on you
My heart is torn between East and West. I live somewhere between the present and the past. I don't know who I am.
Just another human being biding their time on this earth. Passionate about current affairs, history, politics (particularly MENA region), religion, cute animals and food. Posts are mainly in English but I may post in Arabic/French/Turkish.
Disclaimer: All photographs on this blog do not belong to me but to their rightful owners unless otherwise stated. All efforts have been made to link the material back to its original source. Please drop me a message if you see any of your material and would like to have it removed!
“We must do everything to insure they never return. The old will die and the young will forget” –David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel, 1949.”
The Nakba (meaning ‘Catastrophe’), marked the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. The Palestinian refugee crisis was born out of this catastrophe and to this day, the majority of Palestinians remain refugees. Following the Nakba, 78% of historic Palestinian land was seized for the establishment of the state of Israel.During the Nakba, 530 Palestinian villages were ethnically cleansed, thousands were killed, and 75% of the Palestinian population fled. Many massacres were committed by the Zionist forces, including the massacre at Deir Yassin where approximately 250 women, children and men were killed in what began as a dawn raid and lasted two days.
Let it be know that our cause will never die, that it can never be imprisoned, expelled, tortured or humiliated. 65 years since the Nakba, a catastrophe that we did not forget, that we still have not forgotten and that we shall never forget. We shall return.
Write down:
I am Arab
my I.D. number, 50,000
my children, eight
and the ninth due next summer
—Does that anger you?
Write down:
Arab.
I work with my struggling friends in a quarry
and my children are eight.
I chip a loaf of bread for them,
clothes and notebooks
from the rocks.
I will not beg for a handout at your door
nor humble myself
on your threshold
—Does that anger you?
Write down:
Arab,
a name with no friendly shortcut.
A patient man, in a country
brimming with anger.
My roots have gripped this soil
since time began,
before the opening of ages
before the cypress and the olive,
before the grasses flourishes.
My father came from a line of plowmen,
and my grandfather was a peasant
who taught me about the sun’s glory
before teaching me to read.
My home is a watchman’s shack
made of reeds and sticks
—Does my condition anger you?
There is no gentle name,
write down: Arab.
The colour of my hair, jet black—
eyes, brown—
trademarks,
a headband over a keffiyeh
and a hand whose touch grates
rough as rock.
My address is an unarmed village
with nameless streets.
All its men are in the field and quarry
—Does that anger you?
Write down:
Arab.
You have stolen my ancestors vineyards
and the land I once ploughed
with my children,
leaving my grandchildren
nothing but rocks.
Will your government take
those too, as the rumour goes?
Write down, then
at the top of Page One:
I do not hate
and do not steal
but starve me, and I will eat
my assailant’s flesh.
Beware of my hunger
and of my anger.
Identity Card, Mahmoud Darwish (1964)
Written when the poet was 22 years old.
(John Asfour translation)
One of my favourite poems(via qalbrawan)
If you’re following me on here expecting me to make anti-shiaa posts and sending me messages ridiculing and insulting ahlul-bayt (you know who you are) then please do me and yourself a favour and click that unfollow button now. I am not going to post your disgusting messages, that’s no way to speak about your fellow Muslims. So listen up close, I am going to say this once and once only, if you don’t stop sending me those messages then I promise you that everyone will find out about your blog. Please don’t make me do this.
يا ليل ما اطولك.
A few weeks back, I started something called the Gratitude Box with one of the classes I teach. I was having a lot of difficulties with this particular class because the kids in it really didn’t get along with each other. I decided to conduct a little experiment. Here’s how it works: every week, I ask the kids to write down, on a piece of paper, the name of another person in the class who they would like to thank or whose actions they’re grateful for and why they picked that person. At the end, we put them all in a box and I read them out each week to the class. Here’s a small selection of their truly heartwarming responses.
The cutest, little mittens 😸
The Great Gatsby is seriously overrated.
Anonymous Asks:
fattysaid Said:
This world is already filled with too much hate so here, have some free love on me anon. :)
Hope you’re doing well!
الثورة ليست حوضاً من الزهور
“A revolution is not a bed of roses.”
- Fidel Castro
الثورة ليست حوضاً من الزهور
فيدل كاسترو
ثورةٌ بالوان قوس قزح
Because she’s so damn awesome <3
Every time I look back to this photo, I feel uncomfortable — it haunts me. It’s as if they are saying to me, we are not a number — not only cheap labor and cheap lives. We are human beings like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too.
They are witnesses in this cruel history of workers being killed. The death toll is now more than 750. What a harsh situation we are in, where human beings are treated only as numbers.
This photo is haunting me all the time. If the people responsible don’t receive the highest level of punishment, we will see this type of tragedy again. There will be no relief from these horrific feelings. I’ve felt a tremendous pressure and pain over the past two weeks surrounded by dead bodies. As a witness to this cruelty, I feel the urge to share this pain with everyone. That’s why I want this photo to be seen.
Best video I’ve seen yet on sexual harassment in Egypt. The reactions of the harassers are priceless!
Hold your head up high and be proud of yourself, your gender and your right to walk freely in our male-dominated society. Don’t let the shame kill your voice, it is the harassers who should ashamed, it is they who should put their heads down. It may be YOU that allows the next sexual harasser to think twice before they lift a finger, throw a nasty comment or stare at you inappropriately. YOU may be the girl to change this. SPEAK UP!
Trying to practice piping roses. These didn’t turn out so well. Gotta keep trying!
