PIGS!!!
OK. So we’ve got pigs living among us. Pigs, that lift their hands in a ten-missing-a-finger, because that fat little piggy finger is busy holding a flag. The fat pig’s face sports a stupid grin while its head bobs left & right. To add salt to the injury; a simple yet insolent lift of the eyebrows at the end, a practice common in this particular species, shame is an unknown factor.
And we also have pigs that stage comic plays in which groups of lost lil’ piglets are dressed in beautiful, shiny blues while they hold well tailored blue flags & well cut & written banners. Oh but these little piggies can’t act as well as their elders. They just stand there all stupid grins. Just stand! Must’ve gotten stage fright or something, I mean, didn’t any one tell them they're supposed to actually wave the flags!
As for their wife piglets, well, they don’t even bother! Just sit all secluded & black all over like they were in a funeral or something! Oh yeah, and no blues for the wifies.
And it’s not just them either. Lots of us are infected with the piggy disease. We’ve got people who are even with us posing under the “We Did It All” sing. We’ve got the simpletons like a colleague of mine who was more than happy to gloat repeatedly, not out of political pride but out of malice, that “7alaw el majlis. Eeee, 7aloo, 7alaw el majlis”. In an earlier conversation this simpleton of mine declared:” It should be 25 you know, the government knows best”, & then ironically:” El Kuwaitien kho ma3a el khel ya shagra, they don’t read about anything they just talk bas chithee”!! Now I’m guessing that was her old man talking because she was talking about what he said before that & damn it if I haven’t heard enough people talk politics by now to know who’s making sense & believing it & who’s full of BULL! My girl was packed.
Tell me if those ain’t piggy disease symptoms!!!
Now then, we’ve got our pigs, our piglets & our piggy infected. And they all live happily among us. And they are also the people. It's thier country too.
We are not all the people. We are not everyone. If we need to work for the good, we need to work for the good of everybody. All of us. But they are not with us are they!
So what are we gonna do now!
How do we deal with this dilemma! How can we fight for people who don’t know & who will fight us in their ignorance? I’m not talking about the big fat pigs. Oh no, they are gone. Those who dared desecrate the ground we rebelled on, those who dared pluck our flags out of the ground & then tried to outdo us with their stupid design! Honey you made a stupid lil’ cross .. we placed our flags in unity & love .. Our banners were crude because we made them ourselves & our orange cloth was tattered because we cut it ourselves .. Now THAT is art you can not compete with! Oh no, these pigs are way gone. But what about the rest! & what about our country’s salvation! What are we going to do now!
So many questions. Not so many answers. & a dark shadow of bewilderment cloaks my head. But I will not loose that beautiful sunshine that bathed Kuwait the day we pulled up the sun. I will not loose my hope, I’ve found it after years of longing & I’m holding it dear. The pigs have robed us one time too many.
Kuwait will not give up. We may burn low, but our flame is insatiable. The orange will rise again. And when it does. I will be wearing it.
After Years of Icy Stillness
A long, long time ago, so long it seems like another life time, I applied for a scholarship to study architecture, I was denied. Filan wild 3alantan was accepted. It was then that I realized that all that talk about the youth being the true treasure of this country & about education being the beacon of the young generations & our country’s future, was just what it was, talk! That was my first disappointment in my country folk. And gradually I came to see more & more that most of what my country was about was talk. And a lot of pettiness. When I saw people proud for being sons of so & so, when I saw them proud for money & riches, even those acquired by not so lawful ways, when I saw them disrespect & hate each other for their different families & backgrounds. I was disappointed. Later still when I saw how people of other nationalities were looked down upon & treated with contempt, I was disappointed again. And I started to feel alienated. I called for peace & equality between humans, I called for compassion & a better future for all, but these people who were of me called for status, money & power, even if it meant stepping on others as they go. I took it upon my heart that I didn’t belong here, that it was not my place. For years I tried to leave the country.
I had an idea that Kuwaitis in the seventies were more outspoken, educated & called for justice, but then in the eighties there was a huge hush, an icy stillness that swept the years, the people were so silent & resigned to the way things were, it even seemed sometimes that they liked it that way! And maybe that was just the point, maybe they became programmed that way. Subdued by riches & the good life, under the wing of a father figure of a prince they loved to death, what more could they ask for!! And so life went on in this hush, people lived, content with a mere shake of the head at the news of corruption that were gradually getting worse & worse. And for years I was one of those head shaking people. So flan stole a whopping sum of money from the ministry of so & so .. tsk tsk .. what a shame, someone should do something about it! Head shake .. life goes on. So people of high & mighty families were set free & not condemned for their crimes .. tsk tsk .. head shake .. life goes on. So a little boy was denied admittance into a squash club, though he’d been playing for years & he was good, but he was an expatriate, tsk tsk .. what a shame.. head shake .. life goes on. So scores of our kids were dieing in car accidents, would they be dieing if the rules were given more respect? Or if that ambulance hadn’t arrived more than an hour late while their precious life blood trickled away? Tsk tsk .. what a shame .. head shake .. life goes on. More & more the news kept coming in till my head wouldn’t shake no more & I resigned myself to blocking the news so I can find it in me to let life go on. And so it did. Until ..
Until one day I heard that people were listening .. & they weren’t just shaking their heads anymore! .. Instead .. they were standing fast .. and demanding that something be done about it!! Demanding that life be respected before it can go on .. Now I have to admit, when I first heard the news .. I was skeptical .. and I said so what! I’ve heard that kind of talk before . but I still don’t see anything done about it .. talk talk talk .. that’s what it is. I still went to the gatherings of these people in front of majlis el omma but my reasons were quit different from theirs at first. See my mom was very into it, she wouldn’t miss the opportunity to speak her mind for the world & she would do anything for this cause, she was so adamant that the corruption stop & though I felt there was little hope, I couldn’t find it in me to see her do this on her own, without the support of her family & of all people I know how crazy & bold she can be, and so the simple reason why I went was to watch over her, keep her company & make sure she came back home in one piece. That was the reason behind it, and so it was until the moment I stepped out of the car. And from then on I was swept with the zest of the crowds, with that cry for freedom, for the right to govern our country’s future & make sure of its smooth sailing. That hope I felt was lacking was all around me, I could smell it the air & in the scent of the mingling people, I could hear it in the vibration of their shouting voices. The fluttering of Kuwait’s flag took on a special meaning again. At that moment I loved them more than ever & instead of disappointment, for once I was filled with pride. The more so when I heard the officials speak to the crowd & give thanks for giving them the strength to follow this cause & to fight. This time my people were on the right side, “This is what makes a people great” I thought, “this is what gives them the right to pride, not riches & not status, but that magnificent power in them that makes them stand & say this is not right, this has to change”. My pride kept mounting & became so overflowing, I had to take myself away to sit under a palm tree & shed a couple of tears for the love of these people & the ground we all stood on.
I am truly sorry for not believing in you before. What I saw you do in these past few days, what I’ve heard you say, has restored my faith in our future. I can never be as happy again, as I was that first time I heard you speak. Because in the long run & in the bigger story of life, I know that first word uttered was the true moment of liberation. I am proud of you my fathers, my mothers, my brothers, my sisters, my sons & my daughters. I am proud of you all & I am behind you every step of the way. Thank you for loving her, & thank you more for showing it, Baba Jabir is very proud of us all right now, I know he is ;)
And mom, I am so damn proud of you ;)
* Pictures curtsey of Ayya of the Unlimited blog.
