Pen Thoughts

Remi Kanazi is an Palestinian-American performance poet and human rights activist based in New York City. Born 1981 in United States of America. He published "Poetic Injustice: writings on resistance and Palestine" a book that illustrate the struggle of Palestinian people enduring the Israeli occupation. In his new book "Before the Next Bomb Drops", Kanazi wrote "A Grin Behind the Tears", a poem expressed by Samir, a young Palestinian who has experienced the brutality of occupation. it goes like this: "No matter how tight Israel thinks its grip is the bullets, the bombs, the checkpoints the UN vetoes, the congressional applauding these children are more powerful than F-16s more assured than U.S. military aid they will climb walls, skirt roadblocks, dodge teargas they will unravel injustice by their very existence in every breath they take, every wedding that's held every newborn they bring into this world, ...

Historically Lebanese people have cultivated a very bad habit of enslaving themselves to something, a war lord, a religious leader, a secular leader, etc. i always argued that this bad habit, this urge, is only a manifestation for the need of belonging, especially in total absence of nationalism and the positive moderate religious life style have permitted Lebanese to seek belonging in other forms than the extreme religious representation, at least most of them. At each time the Lebanese national security is at risk, and there are no other choice than for the Lebanese Army to interfere and take the lead, knowing that an earlier interference would save a lot of troublesome, a campaign of flood blinded support for the Lebanese Army take the shape of silly divinization. i don't mind this at all. as an institution, the Lebanese Army is a focal point that most of the Lebanese trust and consider highly. but i argue that a balance should be settled. and i emphasis that the ...