Less than a month ago, I finished reading Christopher Hitchens’ (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) memoir “Hitch-22”. Even though I had always been a great fan, after reading his autobiography I felt some sort of connection to him, especially after reading about his experiences in Lebanon.

Learning about his death, last Thursday, felt like loosing a close relative and I great mentor. Nothing would ever express the sadness of loosing such a great voice of reason. Farewell dear Christopher Hitchens… Your words will live on forever, but you will be missed!

Out of all types of stupidity my favourite is definitely that which seems to be a common trait of all overzealous religious wackjobs. My choice for the first “Wacko of the Day” post belongs to this group of lunatics: Dr. Zakir Naik. Holder of a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, but who doesn’t practice medicine; instead he is a public defender of Islam, who wants to spread his religion throughout the world by preaching--using unbelievable idiotic arguments--that Islam is the only true religion.

I’ve listened to and read hundreds of arguments from different religious zealots, but this guys is something else! You can’t listen to his arguments without having a “what-the-fuck” look on your face (seriously, that is the only way I can describe it).

To see what I mean, and to understand the level of absurdity and madness which earned him the first “Wacko of the Day” title, all you have to do is listen to him speak in any of the videos below!

It’s been a long time since I last  published anything on FTL, and I terribly miss doing so. I’ve been wanting to get back to blogging, but somehow i couldn’t find the time. However, I hope I’ll be able to write at least one post per week.

Anyway, now that I’m back I have a new idea for the blog;  I’m going to start a new segment called “Wacko of the Day"—I don’t think there’s any need to explain  what it will be about. I believe that, along with the “Fatwa of the Day” segment, this new section would hopefully bring back the pulse of this blog.

This was shot off the monitor of the security cameras of Al-Wardieh Pharmacy in Beirut Lebanon on 12 July 2011.

After midnight, while my buddy mahmoud K. (pharmacist) was walking out the door of the pharmacy, this car slid off the main road after getting into an accident and then hit the pharmacy's main entrance and display, barely missing Mahmoud(you can see him jump away once he sees the car coming straight to him).. Nice reflex buddy!

Imagine the sum total of humanity – all of our religions and rebellions, our wealth and poverty, guns and love; our sex and celibacy, philosophies and knowledge, sciences and superstitions; our arts and our ignorances, our laughter and tears. Then imagine that sum total embodied as our Sun and all of our power being focused througha magnifying glass into a concentrated point of intensity. This point of intensity is Lebanon.

For such a full spectrum of human diversity to be represented on such a small pieceof land is truly mindboggling. It’s no wonder that so many of the Lebanese youth, especially Beirutis, are turning away from their parents conservative sectarian values and looking for a pressure release in drugs and hedonism. This is never the answer though.

The current social, political and economic upheavals of the Middle East and the world in general are expressions of the war between the old and the new; the fight

of people against power; poverty against wealth; liberty against repression; reason against religion, and knowledge against ignorance. This war has been brought about by two main dynamics - a rampant increase in the world’s population which has been facilitated by our exploitation of oil, and rapid advances in technology which has quickened the pace of relative time and allowed previously monopolized scientific knowledge to become accessible to the common individual.

When analysing the population issue it is clear to see that we cannot continue on our present course of growth and consumption. Old norms need to be challenged; our behaviour needs to change if we are to avoid a species apocalypse. We need to stop consuming the produce of our environment so quickly and thoughtlessly. We need to invest our thoughts and energies in peace and cooperation, not war and conflict. We need to invest our sciences and technologies in renewable, sustainable and clean energies. We need to value education over wealth. There’s a lot we need to do.

Rapid advances in technology have quickened the pace of relative time by speeding up the movement of, most importantly, people, ideas, knowledge and decisions.This means that time really is flying by – more and more things are happening in a shorter period of time, and this is a constant acceleration. Older generations who choose not to interact with new technologies and knowledge are becoming distanced from their children faster than any parents have become distanced from their children at any time in history. This distancing can be seen in the fracturing of societies around the world, the widening gulf in values, ideals and philosophies between generations. This is not to say that the younger generation will automatically produce enlightened leaders that will be able to pull humanity out of its self-created nightmare though; power is inherited and institutionalised – we need to break down the institutions of power that pitch man against man, and man against his environment. We need to revolutionise the institutions in which we operate before we can make any true progress towards enlightened living.

So, back to Lebanon, and another analogy. We’re living in pressure-cooker days and Lebanon can be seen as a valve on a pressure cooker. Emotions are going to become increasingly strained; the war of light against dark, new against old, etc etc, is going to be magnified in and around the borders of Lebanon. The Lebanese youth need to be prepared stand up for peace and social justice. They need to be the change they want to see in the world. They are already strong.

Knowledge really is power, it is also liberating, but with knowledge, power and libertycomes responsibility.

peAce

Restless Ed

Every now and then, during a conversation with someone who had just found out that I am an atheist, I find myself having to answer the same question: “What is the point of living if you do not believe in anything supernatural such as God or the eternal soul?”

To some, my answer sounds somewhat poetic and even lame; but to others, especially to those who don’t mind being honest about their own emotions, it sounds convincing. To me it is simple truth.

What I would say in reply to this question is that “Love” is all you need to have meaning in your life. The love I have toward my friends offers me a feeling of security and belonging. That which I feel toward my family gives me a very powerful reason to take care of them, and to make sure they are as happy as they make me feel. They have been taking care of me beyond the age at which anyone except to be taken care of by his or her own parents. This love sets a goal for me, to try and offer the same safety-net to my own children.
Besides your family and friends the love that will give you a true purpose to your own existence is that which you share with a special someone; for me it is a special girl—Thee—with whom I wish to spend every second of my life with. Even though, this sounds like a cheesy romance flick, to me it is as real as the keys I’m typing those letters with.

All I can say is that I’m a billion times better-off finding purpose and meaning in my tangible lame life than to base it on a myth that would only serve as an entertaining literary classic, better stacked in one’s library next to Homer’s The Odyssey and The Iliad.

Note to Thee: Cheers beebz! If the other 99% are as nice as half the 1%, it would be amazing!

‘There’s a reason that our traditional institutions and religions are crumbling; it’s because they are no longer relevant!’

Bill Hicks

It is clear for any visitor to see that there is a major cultural and religious clash being played out within and around the borders of Lebanon; Christian icons dot the local landscape whilst mosques and churches compete for grandeur in her cities. Arab Christians mingle freely with Caucasian Muslims, the ‘Army of God’ prepares for war with the Zionist behemoth on its southern flank whilst the Lebanese government forever lurches from crisis to crisis. It is no wonder that the youth of Lebanon is questioning the values of its older generations.

Lebanese youth must beware the void though. The new unreligion of the western world is shooting its roots into Lebanese society faster than anywhere I’ve ever seen before; her highways, the veins of the country, are littered with billboards appealing to the narcissism of the new consumption generation. The beaches of Beirut are polluted by steroid-pumped egos that strut and flex their grotesque forms in a bizarre ritual of worship to themselves. Dolly-bird women caked in their war paint sit like shop mannequins in the passenger seats of absurdly expensive look-at-me vehicles…

The transparent irrelevance of the world’s modern institutions and religions has left self-worshipping consumption as the new unreligion being promoted by our corporate slave-masters; we are becoming a parody of ourselves, a hollow pantomime of reality, as we fall into this trap of spiritual emptiness and synthetic aestheticism.

So, how many anarchists does it take to change a light bulb? None, the light bulb must change itself.

For those of you who enjoyed my previous “Fatwa of the day” posts, I’m sure you are going to love this one. This Fatwa revolves, once again, around the issue of breastfeeding.

Back in 1974, a Fatwa was issued by the Egyptian Dar Al-Ifta (Arabic for Home of Fatwa Issuing) in response to following inquiry:

A man was wondering whether he is allowed to marry a women whom his grandmother had breastfed almost 40 times, back when she was a baby (as you will see below, the number of times—here 40—is very important).

Dar al-Ifta, issued a Fatwa in response to this inquiry (you can read the arabic version here). The verdict was as follows:

When a woman breastfeeds a baby not her own, and she does it more than five times, that baby is considered her child. He or she become a sibling to her own children.
Hence, in the case above, the inquirer is not allowed to marry the woman who breastfed from his grandma. She is an aunt to him per breastfeeding; and marrying your aunt is forbidden!

There are literally hundreds of Fatwas concerning the issue of breastfeeding that you can read about on the Dar al-Ifta website (the texts are in Arabic). One other Fatwa, in particular, caught my eye. It says that if two people are already married, a similar discovery to the case above—the partner had breastfed from the mother or grandmother of the other—the marriage must be annulled! Can you imagine the consequences?