July 27 2007

Resentment VS. Coexistence

Ah, I’m just hating it!
Hating this whole “you hate me, I hate you, they hate us, we hate them” crap!
Seriously! I mean, turn on TV, surf the net, read newspapers, anything, and you’ll be faced with countless entries and articles and documentaries about hatred and resentment among us.
Everyone defending their own stand, and everyone attacking and blaming the other.
Iraqis suffering from Jordanians, Lebanese hating Syrians, Palestinians and Jordanians pointing fingers at each other… and the list goes on.
Who’s right? All are. Of course there are Jordanians who give Iraqis a hard time, just like there are Iraqis who are enjoying the privileges of natives but are still attacking Jordanians for the heck of it. Of course there are Lebanese who can’t stand Syrians, and Syrians who hate Lebanese. Of course there are Jordanians who are irritated by Palestinians, and Palestinians who can’t tolerate Jordanians. We even have Palestinians fighting each other and Iraqis killing each others!!!

Nobody’s perfect. We’re all part of communities that include victims and criminals. We all have those who love and those who hate, those who make life easier for others, and those who enjoy making others’ lives a living hell!
Till when are we going to keep on pointing fingers and looking for ways to turn the world against each other?!
When are we going to simply see the picture clearly, maintain our objectivity, and try to fix problems and heal the wounds instead of taking every single damn thing personally and getting outrageous!

Whether we like it or not, people are suffering and change needs to happen. If Iraqis share their suffering at borders, we should fix the damn problem, not get furious and start digging in history files just to put our hands on some of their mistakes against us!
This is ridiculous, pathetic and shameful!

To me, for all I know, I’m Arab, I’m letting no religion, no origin, no passport and no dialect get in the way of me helping my fellow Arabs.
Refugees are not beggars, they’re good people who had homes and lands and careers of their own but time and human cruelty forced them out of their countries into ours, we should respect them and care for them and offer them help until they recover. Because if we were in their shoes that’s how we’d love to be treated.
And just like Refugees should be respected, they should also know their limits, show respect and appreciation to any country that opens its door to them. They should also know that their presence caused serious problems for the natives whether they like it or not, and therefore dislike and complications are to be expected, especially from the poorer members of society.
So if some members of that country mistreated Refugees or harassed them, then sharing the problem publicly doesn’t mean waging war by any side on either side, it means a call for help.
With some understanding, objectivity and tolerance from both sides, I’m sure we’ll successfully coexist and problems will be solved or at least maintained instead of having them transform into provoking agents of hatred and resentment.

We’re all Arab for God’s sake!



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Posted July 27, 2007 by Eman Abukhadra in category "Arab Societies", "Jordan