Advise Yourself

I was browsing through a blog talking about how the person like us look back to his past and forward a question of what to advice a younger-self when the idea about judging actions of one-self, learning from others, teaching others lessons we learn from the past clicked in my exhausted mind.

All this came to my mind in a fraction of a second.

I don't know why my mind drifted into politics when I had these thoughts, maybe because of all the news about elections: elections in Iraq, elections in the Netherlands, and last week first round of the regional elections in France where all my thoughts circulated around it. The news of these election all agree that right parties in France, including president Sarkozy's one received a big slap in the face from the French citizen.

Life is about questions and answers, and we learn by seeking answers to our questions, and this blog had and will continue to have a lot of questions about life. Sharing with other by writing these questions on my blog is one of the ways to find answers for my questions, and learn from others. There are people who never learn from other people lesson and experience and that's why two people know each other and they advice each other, but each fall in the same mistake over and over again. I guess this is some human nature: we advice each other, but we sometimes never take that advice seriously, and fall in the pit

Back to French elections last Sunday: I have been to France twice in the last two months. I talked to people there and the impression I had that no one is happy with the direction and strategy their government is taking, particularly President Sarkozy. In fact there is a growing resentment towards their leader, some called his strategy indirectly as "the Americanization of France" policy. However, Sarkozy's attempt to pull France nationalism away from its people is not the only reason. People there are not happy with the outcome and situation, and this is the reason that they look for another leadership.

This has been proved, of course, last Sunday and we will see the final result next Sunday.

On the other hand, last week Dutch labor party leader, Wouter Bos, has announced his resignation due to family commitments. Shortly after that there was an announcement that the 63 years old current mayor of Amsterdam, decided to take the helm and became the new leader of the prominent political party. Cohen's move has been widely praised, because he will be the party's representative in upcoming general elections in June.

Job Cohen, I want to emphasize, is known for his strong personality and acknowledged political career, so he is not just "another" politician who is trying his luck by going out and spray words against this ethnic group or gather people in a specific park to announce the birth of a new party while bashing another ethnic group.

Yesterday, a survey took place among Dutch citizens and the result was shocking: if general elections took place on the day of the survey, Job Cohen would be the next Prime Minister so easily, on the account of other political parties, such as that of SP and PVV (I rather call it Wilder's political sect than Free Netherlands party).

Isn't that enough indication that voting for Wilders in the last municipal elections was done out of emotional rather than rational look at things?

I wrote about these elections here)

I talked once or twice about emotional factor, and I talked once or twice about how fear is the main reason behind people rallying behind Wilders in last election until this day, but comparing the results of yesterday's survey with the results of the regional elections in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago shows how the Dutch citizen is looking for a symbol to have them united. Like any citizen from any population living on this planet, no difference between third world or first world country, every citizen in every country is looking for a leader to look up to. Observing the lack of satisfaction with current leaders the people in the Netherlands began looking somewhere else. This has been taken advantage by people like Geert Wilders (among other things he took advantage of, such as bad attitude of some Moroccan teenagers on street and put that attitude on the shoulders of the whole Muslim community all around the country and in whole Europe.

The result is natural when you are afraid and looking for someone to unite you, in fact to protect you: you choose for him.

Yesterday's survey in the Netherlands, and the result of France's regional elections are good lessons for the voter to prepare for the next elections in June. People with extreme ideology, people with hatred against other people must not be given the chance, because these are not the standards for living together regardless of ethnic background, race, nationality.

How many lessons it takes for a human being to learn and to be able to choose what is right and what is wrong?

Or do we need some Yoga to exercise our brains on how to forecast a disaster that might take place in a peaceful country?

But why forecasting? We have enough lessons from the past: Hitler's extermination machine is still in people minds, when he ripped off society from the concept of living together, peacefully.

A President Who Cares!

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived in Afghanistan to support French troops a day after one of the deadliest attacks on France's forces abroad, where ten French soldiers were killed and 21 injured in an ambush by Taleban fighters last Monday east of the capital, Kabul. According to the BBC, Sarkozy is accompanied by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Defense Minister Herve Morin, and was marked by a flurry of helicopters across Kabul. That makes me ask the question if sending foreign and defense ministers would be sufficient in such circumstances, instead of taking the initiative himself, as a president, jump into an airplane one day after the incident and go to Afghanistan. As a president who would like to show his support and solidarity to his own troops in such way, this is something complimentary to the person of Nicolas Sarkozy. However, would that strengthen his case towards the French people in general, especially with opinion polls showed his demise among the people of the republic recently. In other words, and from observation:

Sarkazoy is best for being an international or strategic leader, rather of being an overall leader.

Press Conference In Egypt

In his latest visit to Egypt at the end of last year, and during a joint press conference with Egyptian president, Mubarak, French president Nicolas Sarkozy called on Syria to act using its influence to end the ongoing presedential crisis. The tone used by the French president angered the Syrian officials, and two days later the attitude backfired when Syria decided to cut communication channels regarding Lebanon with France.

The press conference started when Egyptian President Mubarak read slowly from a paper his speech welcoming the French guest, and as in any speech he emphesized on strong economic and political ties with the Republic of France and its president, and gave his compliments to the French effort in restoring peace and security in the middle east generally. However, Sarkozy was different, he was swift and straight forward in his speech. He did not read from the paper before him - maybe he had only some points written about what he want to talk about. He improvised from the way he was addressing the journalists. He showed big pride in the way his government using in dealing with the different issues world wide, and gave big gratittude and tribute to the efforts made by his foreign minister, Kouchner, in this regards.

Of course he focused on considering dialogue the only means in dealing with all issues concerning the middle east, and nothing but the dialogue between conflicting parties in that region. He rejected the concept of showing power and strength! Sarkozy reminds me of two invistegators trying to get confessions from someone in a police station; one enter the room where the detainee sitting alone, he start shouting, cursing, and sometimes beating that detainee. He exit the room to let the other investigator enters; the other one speaks calmly and softly. he put his hand on the detainee's shoulder to calm him down and put his fears into peace! Does Sarkozy and his ties with the United States (which he publicly proud of and vow to improve further) allow him to play the role of the second investegator?

Maybe, but at the same time we see some else in the tactics used by the French President, esepcially after his latest visits to countries bordering the Medeterranean region, in particular, north african countries. One thing for certain, Sarkozy want a new France, a new France in the region, a new and powerful France in the region. This has been clearly illustrated during his visits to North African countries. The aim is economic ties with these countries, and ensure that these countries can be a good candidate to be economically dependent on France. However, this time the tactics is different and the product is not food or military or goods; it is nuclear technology. During the press conference with Egyptian president Mubarak, the second or the third point the French president made in his speech was how Egypt can benefit from having French nuclear technology for peaceful means. Any observer realize that Egypt was not the first North African country to receive such an offer, Lybia is another example.

Interesting, though, that after decades of the west is depending on energy source from the east, the west, this time, is within the initial steps to be the source of energy for the east, among many other things! Will the future hold for us a new phenommenan?

Sarkozy In 60 Minutes

This is an excerpt of an interview run by CBS's news program 60 minutes two weeks before the divorce of French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, from his wife Cecilia, after he has been asked about the divorce



Below is from FOX, just some sort of "analysis" on "Sarko" (as American media like to call him) attitude during the 60 minutes interview



It is the interesting the note among the many comments on the second video:
"I love how Fox News always defines pro-Bush as "pro-American," whereas the French who don't like Bush and his repeated lies about Iraq are "anti-American". You right-wingers need to get over yourselves. You ain't America. " I tend to agree with that!

However, from both videos above one can conclude that the new French president is one focus of attention - a big one - by American media.

Football Match

I am not a big fan of football (soccer for those who mix it up with American football), but this match is unique! Supporters are not that much; there are some but a lot left the stadium looking for more interesting things to do! The remaining supporters can be sighted easily, because they shattered sitting here and there among the empty seats. Some of them are focused on the game beneath; others show emotions from sadness to despise, because of the foul play and the very obvious cheating among players. One can easily observe that no single honesty in that match. The first team consists of players from different countries: there is the Iranian player who wants to score at any cost, taking advantage of having his Iraqi co-player on different positions on the fields to pass the ball to him so he can get deeper in and score; the Iraqi player, though, has no chance of either to keep the ball or to score – they must pass the ball only to the other players; There is also the American player! like a bulldozer, run heavily and aggressively, always want to keep the ball to himself, never want to pass the ball to anyone, not even to his British (who play left and right wing) or European players! There are other players in that team but with a less tempo, such as the Turkish player, but when time comes (according to their evaluation it seems) they display fantastic energy and effort! This team does not show some harmony among its players, there is some feud, such as the player with a beard who seems to have a problem with his American co-player! They are both playing in the same team, but they don’t like each other… It happens, you know. There are other players from different backgrounds and countries playing in this team, but I thought it's worth it mentioning the toughest among them.

It is a tough game, the team is fully prepared, they had training, best equipments and facilities to ensure they are fit and have victory.

But wait, what about the other team? Yes, they are doing great, they are trying their best compare it to the humble training and facilities. They can be easily recognized, because each one of them is wearing a three striped colors T-Shirt: red on top, white, and black! When they stood next to each other before the start of the game, they formed the Iraqi flag. The interesting thing is that each Iraqi player is originally from different cities and villages' allover Iraq. They also come from entirely different ethnic, social and religious backgrounds! Despite that, they illustrated most amazing harmony during their play.

The more the Iraqi team defends his goal, the more the other team becomes more aggressive, and as I mentioned earlier, many foul plays took place but the referee seems to be in a different reality. He just whistles and warns players not to do this or that, but no red cards, not even a yellow card.

The match goes on and on and honestly there were some Iraqi scores that made the public sitting at the benches jump and dance with happiness, but they were very little! Some of the Iraqi team supporters were carrying crosses, others carrying their holy books and praying, many others just watch with tears mudding their eyes, shouting endlessly with tired voices words of encouragement, all hoping that the Iraqi team will come out victorious.

Sarkozy, The 6th Son of the 5th Republic

Finally the results of the French presidential elections came out a couple of hours ago to announce Nicolas Sarkozy, 52 years old former minister of interior, as the winner with more than 50% of the total votes. A lot of people expected Sarkozy to be the winner, mainly because of his tough grip on dealing with internal problems in French (2005 riots on the superb of Paris), but above that his preparation and conduct during this campaign compare it to the way his contender, Segolene Royal, did. Therefore, tonight’s results was no surprise to me or to any other person!

However, there are a couple of interesting observations about Mr. Sarkozy; First of all, in a country like France where its people are very proud of their nationalism and French identity, here we have a president who is originally from a Hungarian father and a Greek mother. Despite this fact, more than the half of the French population voted for him.

The second interesting observation is the sort of a contradiction nature French society has shown during these elections, becuase everyone realizes how Sarkozy represents the departure form the Digol school, which former president Jacques Chirac, for example, and all his predecessors have been always loyal to around the years. Sarkozy made it clear during his campaign that “deep change” must begin in France. A strong figure like of Sarkozy’s can serve many purposes for French people. I have been in France during the last elections, and most of people I talked to during my visit told me that the reasons for voting mainly because of the danger that this candidate or the other might put to their society i.e. not because they believe in the ideology or the agenda or the personal qualities of the candidate. The same thing happened this time, but not with the same scale 5 years ago. Thus, a lot of people are afraid of Sarkozy, and they might voted for Royal instead to diminish the chance foe Sarakozy to win. Part of some people’s fear is related to the expectations for the future, especially with a president who’s known for his high temper, which might make great impact regarding important decision an influential country in the world like France can make.

One thing for certain is that the French are fed up and they want change, and in that case, nationalism can have less than the highest priority. They voted for someone this time whom they have from him a lot of expectations.

On foreign affairs track, there were two messages Sarkozy sent immediately after his win; the first is to ensure the United States that France is taking a new direction and that the US can count or rely on its French friends. The second thing Sarkozy’s call for all countries around the Mediterranean sea to follow a new policy of unity and working together - Sarko is loud about his objection to Turkey joining the EU because he consider it as an Asian country more than anything else, but he offers strong trade and economic partnership! Both message send vague signals because many questions will be asked; one is related to Lebanon and the responsibility especially after last year’s war against Israel, not to forget the speculations of a new era of a new relationships with the Jewish state - his statement about the deep friendship with Israel during the elections campaign made most, if not all French Jews, vote for him. The other question is related to the relationship with north African countries like Algeria and how this relationship will result, especially with the impact on the existed Algerian community in France itself – partially a problem within French society. Last but not least is the relationship with the United States: On which way the United States will rely on its French friends? Will France finally help the US in its crisis in Iraq? And how? Sending finally troops to Iraq?

One thing for certain: Sarkozy is very motivated, energetic and offensive of a kind during his time as the minister of interior, but will this be the case during his presdency? He want for sure to show the heavy weight of a France among all countries in the world in more effective way, but the future will show how!