From: nmouawad@waterloo.edu (Naji Mouawad)
Subject: Re: jokes
Organization: University of Waterloo
	<NMOUAWAD.92Jul25165130@math.waterloo.edu>
	<1992Jul27.182333.19048@cbnewsi.cb.att.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 00:55:29 GMT

In article <1992Jul27.182333.19048@cbnewsi.cb.att.com> jrad@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (ahmad.m.jrad) writes:

Hello Ahmad,

   Your point is well taken Naji. Lebanon has suffered greatly at the
   hands of the Syrian rulers and their agents, and most people have
   suffered on an individual level from tortures and barbarious acts
   and so on. Yet I have known some Syrian people in the past and they
   were some of the nicest people I have met. (it was a shock for me,
   after all Homsi jokes would have us believe that Syrians are sooooo
   stupid).

   Given all this, I would cosider the Syrians to be brothers and consider
   that we are all now in the same boat and have the same problem more
   or less.

   We are all brothers as Ron reminded us in his email, so why don't
   we work at building bridges rather than burning them.

   Ahmad




  Thank you for your kind word and invitation. I most certainly welcome
it. I assume furthermore that none of us is using the word "brother"
lightly. It has a strong meaning and we would be doing it a disservice
if we trivialize it.

 
  I cannot call someone a "brother" if (a) he wants me to do so and
(b) we treat each other as such. There are some Lebanese which I am
not able to call as such; I doubt they would want me to call them so.
There are some non-Lebanese which have treated me like a brother and I
consider them so. They are of various nationality: Lebanese,
Palestinians, Iranians, French, American, Canadian, and of diverse
religions. I did not meet a Syrian, but as you stated, but if I had
done so, I am convinced we would have been friends. 

 Any Middle-Eastern knows what I am referring at.

 Yet, Ahmad, in the particular context of Syria one must be cautious.
The main reason why some of us tend to react strongly to the useage of
the word "brother" is due to its association with the will of the
Syrian regime to make both country one irrespectful of the will of
both people. In such a case, "brotherhood" means to many Lebanese
"submission to the Syrian's government".

 By extension, many feel that whomever talks about "brotherhood" with
Syrians is implicitly supporting the Syrian regime.

 This is not the case with many Lebanese who think of brotherhood with
Syrians as partaking in the same future, especially when they feel
close to the Syrians for familial reasons or otherwise. I guess we
need to fine-tune our ability to listen to each-other in order to
avoid some misconceptions.

In any event, I do appreciate the way this conversation is being
conducted.

Thank you for teaching me something I did not know.

naji.

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    | Naji Mouawad  |          nmouawad@watmath.waterloo.edu            |
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