The Gaza Issue

Today is Day 19 of the Israeli military's offensive on the Gaza strip and I think it's about time I put something down in my blog.  

Everyday I read about the brutality in the newspapers, internet and magazines but the more I read the more questions I seem to come up with.  What is most depressing is the useless acts we come up with to show the Palestinian people our support.  What's the use of showing solidarity when every single minute they fear for their lives, if they haven't lost it yet.  They don't need us to tell them we're behind them.  They don't need us to send them medicine and food while the F16s are flying over their heads dropping phosphorous bombs.  They don't need the international community and the UN to pass a resolution to tell their aggressors that what they're doing is wrong.  They need somebody to physically stop the Zionist regime to stop the violence.  That means military action.

So what can you do, as an individual, to help?  I can only think of two things: pressure your leader to have the courage to send military support to stop the IDF and pray to God that these leaders have the courage to do it.

I know, it's not as simple as it sounds.  More military action would probably mean one thing-world war.  But isn't that exactly what happened in Europe in WWII?  The Allied Forces went into war with the Nazis to save the Jews from being annihilated.  We need our own Allied Forces to save our brothers and sisters in Islam.  But who would it be that is brave enough to go against Israel's big brother, the US?  To risk sanctions and possibly an attack?  I don't have an answer to that so I hope I will be surprised in the near future.

So before you light up that candle or step out to demonstrate against the brutality ask yourself this: who are you doing it for?  Are you doing it to make yourself feel better or are you making a direct contribution to the plight of the Palestinians?

Of banks and lies

With the lowest of expectations, I set off to the bank a few hours ago and was somehow surprised that I could still be disappointed.

To start with, I don't like banks.  I don't like bankers or the people who work in banks.  And I seriously despise the bank that I'm with here in Dubai.  I apologise to family and friends who are bankers for not being able to say that in your face because I just don't have the cajones to do it.

What I don't like most about banks is how they disguise themselves to be doing us, mere mortals, a favour by lending us the money with a 'small fee' to pay them back over time.  They tell us it's in our benefit to borrow money from them.  They tell us they're doing it as a public service.  They tell us if not for them, nobody can own anything.  What they don't tell us is that they wouldn't do it if there's nothing in it for them.

I loathe bankers because they tell us it's o.k. for us to borrow from them and we believe them!  The mob mentality has since prevailed.  We take it for granted that it is already the norm and it's part of our life.  It's hard to change a single person let alone generations who have believed that there's absolutely nothing wrong in this practice.  The desire for worldly possessions is too strong.

Interestingly enough, it's all mentioned in the Quran and Hadith about the pitfalls of usury.  I dug deeper and realised that money lending was never meant to be a money making venture.  What has evolved is the actual monetary value of money itself.  It has no actual value.  It used to have an equal value in gold or silver but now oddly enough the value of gold and silver is the one that fluctuates.  What is even more odd is that gold and silver fluctuates against currencies that fluctuate as well!  How's that for usury?

What I despise most is that I am so weak that even when I realise that what I'm doing is wrong I still do it.  

I still have a desire to hoard cash for various reasons-retirement, my children's education...... and that Volkswagen Golf R32.  When is it going to end then?  I hope, for my sake, well before I die as I feel regret that I carry this sin everyday and sure hate burning in hell.