Heresies, Public & Private!

The reason I tread lightly in the political field is because it is, in essence, only a manifestation of the real problems in our part of the world, most of which tend to be not simply social but psychological in nature. And since such problems, due to their very intricate nature and the fact that we have to work on both the individual and collective levels simultaneously, cannot be dealt with in matter of days or months and tend to require years, if not decades, to be handled effectively, seeking political fixes to these problems is nothing short of idiotic.

For how can politics fix a broken young woman, torn apart by the tug of war inside of her between the influences of her Islamist milieu and her desire to follow the dictates of her heart, her mind and her conscience? And how can politics fix a distraught 40-something woman who still cannot shake off enduring parental dabbling in her life, and who does not feel empowered enough to relinquish the benefits that come along with that?

Indeed, I am referring to actual cases here and indeed they are ongoing and concern friends of ours. This situation has served to put my entire activities over the last few months into a rather different perspective and reminded me of my actual activist passions. It also coincided with the headway we are currently making with regards to the re-launching of the Tharwa Project. Indeed, the original site has already been reactivated, albeit some snags regarding the design still need to be fixed. The Arabic site should be coming out by month-end. The Tharwa Community has also been revamped and some of the blogs have already been launched, including Sawt, Virtual Syria, Tharwalizations and Taqaseem. The rest will follow in the next few days.

So, and while my private energies have always tended to focus more on Tharwa than any other thing, soon my public activities will once again shift back in this direction as well. Now, this might sound strange considering the public commitment I have recently made to the Front. But frankly, the only way I can continue with my involvement in oppositional politics is for me to create this kind of necessary private and public balance. I am not a politician, and the only reason I got invovled in politics is to help create the necessary space that we would allow us to takcle the issues I most care about.

Had the Assads not been so control-freaks, I'd still be in Syria doing just that, joined by so many others. But the problem with our rulers is that they cannot imagine the world without them being in control of it, even if this situation is not destined to be a reality for decades to come. They simply cannot reconcile themselves to the eventuality of passing away from the scene, no matter how gracefully. This is probably why they have to be made to pass away literally.

At their heart of heart, the people of Syria realize the necessity of this, but they are not ready to own up to it. But they will get there eventually, and when they do, someone should be ready to manage the consequences of their outburst.