هل السياسة لعبة؟

بقلم: فتح كساب

قال قس بن ساعدة الإيادي "إذا رأيت حرباً شجاعها يجبن وجبانها يجرؤ، فاذهب إلى رابية وترقب الأحداث ترى أن في الأمر خيانة". وقال " أفضل العقل معرفة المرء نفسه".

وقال الإمام علي بن أبي طالب كرم الله وجهه "لا تستوحشوا طريق الحق لقلة السالكين فيه". وقال أيضا" أيها الحق لم تترك لي صاحبا".

تُطالعنا بين الفينة والأخرى أصوات نشاز- وخاصة في فترات الانتخابات – تزعم أن السياسة لعبة وفن يجوز فيها للخصوم أن يفعلوا فيها الأفاعيل للوصول إلى غايتهم، ألا وهي الوصول لسدة الحكم مهما كلَّف الثمن. وقد يكون هذا الزعم مقبولا عندما تكون الأوطان في حالة من القوة والاستقرار، وذات سيادة ولها مشاريعها النابعة من إرثها الثقافي وحاجاتها ومصالحها السياسية التي لا تشوبها شوائب التبعية. ولكن أن يتم انتهاج هذا النهج والأوطان في أسوء حالاتها الثقافية والسياسية والاقتصادية والاجتماعية، فهذا من الخيانات التي تنبع من الأنانية التي تقود صاحبها وتبيح له كل ما هو مباح وغير مباح للوصول إلى مبتغاه بشتى الوسائل المقبولة وغير المقبولة.

أي ذريعة تُبيح لفرد أو حزب أو أي جهة أن تتحالف أو تتشارك مع من يُعد تابعا ذليلا من أجل الوصول للسلطة؟ وهل ادعاء أن الوصول لمركز صناعة القرار لمحاولة إصلاح هيكلٍ خَرِب من الداخل كان ذو جدوى منذ ابتُدِع علم السياسة إلى اليوم؟ وهل هانت إنسانية الإنسان لدرجة أن يصبح رقماً يُباعُ ويُشترى من أجل إتمام صفقةٍ، الخاسر الوحيد فيها هو الإنسان البائس؟

في الحالات التي تكون فيها الأمم في أشد حالات انهيارها، يُحتم المنطق على من يتصدى للعمل العام أن تكون لديه الحدود الدنيا- على الأقل- من أخلاق الفرسان والانتماء لمن يدعي تمثيلهم أو النطق باسمهم. لكن ما نراه من طنجة إلى البصرة يُثبِت العكس. حيث يُبيح البعض لنفسه أن يتحالف مع الجهات الأمنية التي تُحافظ على كراسي الأنظمة المتسلطة التابعة الذيلية لمن يدمر مشاريع نهضة الأمة – إن وُجِدَت- ويبيح البعض الآخر التحالف مع جهاتٍ تدَّعي أنها حزبية معارِضة، لكنها في الباطن متحالفة مع تلك الأنظمة، ومع من يُوجه الأنظمة من الخارج إن أُتيحت لها الفرصة للحصول على حصة أكبر من الغنيمة.

لا أدعي المثالية ولا أدعي الوطنية أو الانتماء أكثر من غيري، ولكن أن تتم الصفقات جهارا نهارا دون مراعاة لأي قيمة أخلاقية فهذه من المصائب التي لا دفع لها سوى بالعمل القائم على فضحها، لإبعادنا نحن "الدهماء" – كما تم الاصطلاح على تسميتنا- عن هذا التلوث الأخلاقي الذي لن يقود إلا إلى مزيد من الانهيار والسقوط.

الأدهى والأمرّ والذي استدعى كتابة هذه السطور هو أن يكون أحد أطراف هذه التحالفات العفنة هو المعلم. المُعلِّم الذي يُفترض أن يكون القائد في صراع نهضة الأوطان للخروج بها من أوحال الهزيمة والتردي. لكن ما طفا على السطح كان العكس تماما. حيث تبين أن المعلم لا يختلف عن غيره من الفئات التي أباحت لنفسها اللعب بمصائر الناس وساعدت وتساعد على هدم آخر الحصون- ألا وهو الحصن الثقافي. ذلك الحصن الذي ما يزال الناس يحاولون الإمساك بتلابيبه لحمايتهم من أعدائهم الداخليين والخارجيين على حدٍ سواء.

كان الأجدر بالمعلمين، في هذه الظروف الشديدة الحلكة، أن يكونوا الطليعة التي تُضحي من أجل حفظ كيان هذه الأمة وإعادة بناء ثقافتها لتبقى صامدة وقادرة على التصدي لما يُحاك لها داخليا وخارجيا.

لم يعد هناك من مهرب طالما أن الثقافة أصبحت على المحك. فأبشروا بسقوط لا يُبقي ولا يذر.

15/4/2014           

The Tale of the Enchanted Handkerchief

A folk tale from Yemen

Translated by: Fateh kassab

Once upon a time in Yemen, a farmer lived in his farm with his wife and five children. One season the rain did not fall and that made him very sad because he sowed his field, as he did every year. One day he headed to his thirsty field, looked at the clouds and began singing the following rhymes:

Oh come rain Come
             To grow seeds
             And we can pick the fruits
             Come and make fields happy
             To sing our verses
         The clouds kept on moving paying no attention to the farmer's calls. His sadness became greater, and he sat in his house talking to nobody.
His wife approached trying to ease his sadness and said:
      - Praise Prophet Mohammed, man. Why are you burdening yourself        like this?

              - Leave me alone, mother of my children. Do not increase my frustration.
              - Ok... How long will you remain like this, as if you are seated to support the walls? Go; try to find a job to feed your children.

-   Find a job? Can not you see that the ground has cracked because of the drought, and the birds ate all the seeds I sowed? Leave me for God sake; I can no longer bear the situation.

-    But if you remained without a job we will starve.  We have not got even a handful of flour left. Have faith in God and try.

        The words of his wife convinced him. He carried some bread, left his house and family and travelled.

This trip was his first, so he endured hardships and horrors. Sometimes a monster appeared in his way; he attacked it with his stick and hit it hard. Other times he had to climb high mountains, and so on. He arrived at a beautiful palace surrounded by trees and roses dangle on the walls.

Once the farmer approached the gate of the palace, the guard e shouted:
                 - Hey... You, where to?
                 - I want to meet the owner of the palace.
                 - What ..?! You want to meet the Sultan?

        The Sultan, who was sitting on the terrace, heard their dialogue. He pointed to the guard to let the man in. as soon as he stood before the sultan he said:

  - May Peace be on you reverend Sultan.
         - And on you. What do you want?
         - I want to work.
         - What is your profession?
         - Farmer. I understand in agriculture. Then he told his story.

  - Ok, listen to what I say. I need no farmers, I have many farmers, but if you want to break rocks, that's ok. The land is full of rocks, and I think I can benefit from their places.

                - OK.
                   - If we agree on the first term, the second term remains.
                   - What is it?
                   - Payment. I pay workers a golden dinar each week, would you agree to that amount?
                   - The farmer scrubbed his head and said:
                  - I have a suggestion. You can weigh this handkerchief at the end of the week, and give me gold for its weight.

           The farmer took out a small handkerchief from his pocket embroidered with green thread.

         As soon as the Sultan saw the handkerchief, he laughed until he almost turned over his chair. Then he said:

      -A handkerchief! O you goofy man, how much will this cloth weight? Actually, the weight will not exceed the weight of a silver penny. Ha... Ha... Ha ... Stupid... Sure you're  fool.

        The farmer swallowed his saliva, and said:
                 - Sir, as long as the profit will be in your favor do not mind. I will take even if it weighs half a penny.
The Sultan saw that the farmer was serious; so he said:

-         OK the rocks are there you can start work, and after a week we will see.

The farmer grabbed the heavy hammer with steel like hands and walked toward the rocks confidently. He looked at them defiantly. Then he started hitting them strongly turning them into small stones. And when sweat seeped from his forehead as a result of effort and fatigue, he took the small handkerchief out of his pocket and dried it.

The farmer worked hard, and by the end of the week he smashed the last rock. It is true that the sweat seeped like the rain from his forehead, but that did not stop him from work and perseverance.

The work week elapsed, and it was time for payment.

-   God bless you farmer, you worked hard and faithfully. Give me your handkerchief to weigh it for you.

The farmer gave him the wet handkerchief. He placed it in one container of the scale, and put a silver coin in the other side. The handkerchief outweighed it. The Sultan grabbed several piasters and added them to the scale container. But the handkerchief outweighed them.

The Sultan resented, he removed the silver piasters, and put a golden dinar instead. But result stayed the same. Bewildered, he ordered the servant to bring a handkerchief and dip it in water and then placed it in the scale container where the farmer's handkerchief was. The dinar outweighed it.

The Sultan exhaled, looked at the farmer angrily, and said: 

-   What is the secret in your handkerchief?  Is it enchanted? I thought that the scale is out of order. But the weight of the other handkerchief was right.

The farmer smiled.

The Sultan proceeded to weigh handkerchief again. He put two Gold dinars. Then three dinars, four dinars till they became ten. The two containers balanced.

Sultan almost got insane. What is happening? Could that be? Ten... Ten dinars? He got overheated, grabbed the farmer's collar and said:

Speak, idiot... Admit it. Who enchanted this handkerchief?
And very quietly, the farmer replied:

-         God bless my lord Sultan. The story is not magic, I do not believe in it. It is briefly that when a man works an honest job and the sweat seeps from his forehead it is much heavier than water.

The Sultan shook his head and smiled. Then he said:

-         God bless you and bless your effort and your money. Take your ten dinars and return to your family in peace.

The farmer was very pleased. When he returned home, he told his wife what happened.  They rejoiced and were happy for the family reunion.

America and ISIS

                     

Do the Americans believe and trust their administrations concerning the foreign policy?

Are the administrations trustworthy enough to be followed without questioning their decisions?

Are these administrations real representatives of the American voters?

Can these administrations act against the will of the lobbies that control the domestic and foreign policies?

As a neutral observer, I think that the Americans deserve better administrations than those that rule their country. The tax payers- the middle and the poor classes- fund the wars that the weapons and the oil lobbies arouse around the world for the benefits of those lobbies only. The tax payers get nothing in return. No health insurance, no decent education and even no work for the unemployed. They are almost slaves for those lobbies. But do these unjust policies only harm the Americans? The answer, I think, is no.

The foreign American policy is based on creating conflicts in the different parts of the world and managing them to achieve the high interest of America- the one that achieves benefits for the lobbies. The ISIS organization is a good example for this theory. To understand how this organization came to life, a brief historical background is needed. ISIS is the spoiled child of Al Qaeda, and Al Qaeda was formed in the 1970s by the CIA and the friend regimes of USA in the Middle East- the Arabian Gulf countries. They encouraged Arab and Muslim young men to start a holy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The volunteers were trained, funded and armed by USA and its friends in the Middle East. The real aim of that “holy” war was to exhaust the Soviet Union- the competing super power of USA. During the war, the Regan administration hosted the Islamic fighters, allowed them to raise money in the USA and called them “freedom fighters”. After the withdrawal of the Soviet army from Afghanistan, the Americans, as usual, tried to get rid of those fighters, because they can no more bring any benefits for the Americans and their friends. As a result of that, Al Qaeda organization announced a holy war against “the crusaders” and attracted more people to embrace its beliefs and fight with it. Because the same regimes that supported and armed them to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, started chasing and hunting them. The other reason for war against USA was because the Americans supported corrupt and dictator regimes in the Middle East. These regimes oppressed and chased the moderate and liberal parties that supported democracy and human rights, which helped the fanatic fighters to gain more popular support and sympathy. Decades later, when the Arab peoples revolted against these dictators, the Americans chose to help and support the Muslim Brotherhood against the liberal and moderate parties in the Middle East. All these factors resulted in catastrophic consequences on the world.

The peoples in the Middle East have profound beliefs that the American administrations have only one priority in their agendas, the interests only. The democracy and human rights can wait or even go to hell, because they are something the Middle Easterners do not deserve. A proof of that was when ISIS occupied vast areas in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon did not act till ISIS threatened the Kurdish allies in north Iraq. They did not say or do anything concerning the massacres against the innocent civilians in the area. The air strikes against ISIS in Kobani did not stop or even weaken the military abilities of the organization because these strikes were in the desert and on empty facilities that the ISIS fighter abandoned before the air campaign. Why does this happen? Simply because the Turkish government-Muslim Brotherhood- is a member of the NATO and wants to get rid of the Kurdish Labour Party, which fights for the freedom of the Kurdish people, and against the oppression of the Turkish government.

To be frank, we, in the Middle East, do not trust any intentions of the American administrations. We also think that these administrations will keep on supporting dictatorships and creating more conflicts in the Middle East to protect the interests of the oil and weapons lobbies. The result is: to the hell with the American tax payers and the bloodshed in the Middle East.

Friday October 17, 2014