Comments for yaman's amateur ramblings

Comment on Traffic and Civilization in Damascus by Roberta

Roberta — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:52:58 +0000

Oh man your post reminds me of Egypt. I went there after Turkey (thinking Turkish traffic was disorganized), and was shocked. So I guess I can make a blanket statement now that Turkey is far more civilized than Syria, since we do in fact have lanes painted onto the roads (which everyone ignores).

:) Are you coming to Istanbul or what?

Comment on Traffic and Civilization in Damascus by Brett

Brett — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:09:25 +0000

Europe? ‘Eib ‘aleik! You have never seen Piotrkowska street in downtown Łódź, Poland, ya habib. Shu akhbarak? I suppose I don’t need to ask… it’s all here.

Comment on Traffic and Civilization in Damascus by yaman

yaman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:46:54 +0000

saint, I completely agree with you that the environmental issues are important and are best dealt with systematically. I was not really addressing those issues in my post, though they are indeed relevant to traffic.

Comment on Traffic and Civilization in Damascus by saint

saint — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:02:00 +0000

The article is stark proof of despair in expecting good thing to come out of the City, the Country, and the System, and all that reflected in cover up for the problem and romanticizing it as folklore. I love to think the same with you Ayman from here from far away across the ocean. But the reality is something else. The number of Cancer cases in Damascus has been skyrocketed; the air quality is at it most worse and it is a direct cause to health problem. Actually, I discovered that the chaotic planning is gradually preventing leaving the minimal bases for support of life as we know it in that part of the world anymore. It is serious and studies need to be done to proof that if we love those left there. The recent import of Diesel green new busses is another proof that they keep missing the marks of changing direction to start cleaning the City at least by replacing the diesel buses with gasoline one, and this only apply to Damascus because of it geographic location where high western mountain prevent wind from cleaning the City.

Comment on Traffic and Civilization in Damascus by Razan

Razan — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:54:46 +0000

oh :)
hope you’re enjoying yourself in Syria,

see you soon i hope,

Comment on Friends, enemies, and human connections by yaman

yaman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:19:50 +0000

Also, as for ‘that guy’ who talked about civilians and military personnel: you did not clarify, what does that have anything to do with being human? Are civilians human, and military personnel not? Or the other way around? Is claiming your enemy is all military the same as claiming they are not human? This is strange: it seems to me inhumane to claim that a military person is not human.

Are you a psychiatrist? I am surprised by all the diagnoses you feel the need to give me in your comments.

Comment on Friends, enemies, and human connections by yaman

yaman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:17:19 +0000

The only reason you would say that ‘humanity’ is not obvious is if you believe that violence is not possible except against people who are ‘dehumanized’ or ‘non-human.’ Fanon inverts this to say that violence is a tool of reclaiming one’s own humanity. But this ‘humanity’ that he talks about is the concept of humanity in colonial logic, so it is strange that you would abstract it to the point you can apply it to ‘Israeli violence,’ as if Israel is a colonized subject. You are robbing Fanon of the angle that colonialism plays in his thoughts.

That aside, you are clearly not with Fanon on this, so I am not sure why you cite him, since he says violence is a means of regaining one’s humanity in the colonized condition, but you say that “humanity must be actively claimed,” presumably in order to protect one’s self from violence. And I will say it again: this presumes that violence only occurs against people who are thought to be non-human. If you believe this, I am sure that your idea of the human is not simply a Homo sapien. The fact that one must lay a claim to being means you are transforming it into something other than a simple fact about your being, into some sort of justification for one’s existence. Your premise is identical to your conclusion.

Comment on Understanding political tokenism by yaman

yaman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:10:30 +0000

yael, I did not say “zionists are using the israeli left,” I said “Zionist hawks in the US.” There are at least 3 qualifications in that phrase. I also never said there was an “attempt,” I said there were “calls.” You repeatedly distort my remarks in order to debunk things that I never said in the first place. I also don’t recall placing the words “here is the electronic intifada, a reliable source of information” anywhere in my post, but I assume you attack it as a ’source of propaganda’ in order to deny the fact that such a call was made, or that the “strategic threat” exists in Israel. It seems kind of disingenuous to me that you will raise a commotion in the name of your idea of honest, objective ‘reporting’ (as if that is what I claim to do), at the same time that you do not even dispute any of the facts or arguments but simply attack the sources. I sometimes feel you are having a conversation with yourself in the comments you write, rather than with me.

Comment on Traffic and Civilization in Damascus by yaman

yaman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:59:41 +0000

Razan, I forgot a “not” in my final sentence ;-)

Comment on What they cover up, from a Damascene school by saint

saint — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:46:00 +0000

It is this way for ages, times goes and interviews with the smiling figures and the visits of dignitaries and the cover up by even the enemies of the State is all a play keep playing in front of people without faces and prisoners without heads. I wonder if this technological age will help in changing these pictures, all I can say, I hope.
On a funny note, they may be need some Pepsi to wake up, “ wake up people”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJEVxfWpm7c