Catching up on a lot of work

I've jotted down a lot of subjects which I've been wanting to write about or mention, in addition to having all those questions and issues raised by email etc..

Local news:

Friday, 21 May, 2004: Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Australia will reopen its embassy in Libya. According to the official Libyan news agency, JANA, he made the announcement during a brief visit to the capital, Tripoli. While there, Mr Downer had talks with the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister. JANA said they discussed ways to promote bilateral relations, notably in political, cultural and scientific areas. Australia closed its embassy in Tripoli 17 years ago.. [AFP]

Suddenly everyone wants to re-open their embassy in Libya,it's fashionable I guess. Honestly speaking this is good news, more opportunity for Libyans locally or overseas.. So I'll be pragmatic about the whole affair, I think we should all be getting on with building a better future and gathering our strenght. . People have suffered enough .

1) My thoughts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in brief :
The current Jewish inhabitants of Israel have no place in this historical land ( except Arab Jews who were living there- I think they are called Sephardic ?). But unfortunately the damage has been done and it is irreversible as it would also not be fair nor possible to throw out all those Jewish immigrants now. Therefore the logical part is that since the Palestinian Arabs were so kind to let the immigrant Jews who had run away from an intolerant racist genocidal Europe and West after WWII share their land, they could all just live togheter in one big homeland, not Israel nor Palestine, we can even call it 'Isratine' as the Libyan Leader said.
Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi would like to introduce Israel to democracy , swell idea no ? please check him out , lots of common sense and totally looking ourselves in the mirror as Arabs.



2)Stipend Delay Puts Squeeze on Saudis in US

Moral of the story don't put your eggs into one basket , ie I have always been one to advocate never putting your money in US banks . I mean why do Arab governments do it? , if you really must put you money outside then choose a safe small European or Arab or African bank with more liberal views. Then you are inshallah never under a Damocles sword, where if the current president cannot agree with you he pre-emptively freeze your assets as some form of sanction .. if only the Saudis repatriate their property many banks would perhaps collapse , it could be a part of boycotting American foreign policy..


3) the Scarf again, maybe France should be taking a hint from this, A US judge has ruled a Sikh traffic policeman, who was forced to leave his job because he insisted on wearing a turban, should be reinstated. If the sikhs can keep their turban , why can't Muslim women keep their scarves .. talk about double standards again .. I'm really angry because instead of embracing Muslim populations, France has enraged them. It would have been easier to let them wear what they wanted, I'm sure they would have dropped the scarf in the next generation perhaps .. temptations in the west are too much ;) to be resisted.

4) Example of Libyan woman in prominent political role .
I'm writing an article about equality of women in Libya, but this is a brief foray to say that in January 2003, the UN Human Rights Commission elected a Libyan diplomat Mrs Najat Al-Hajjaji’s ( not bad looking either ) as that year’s president..Regardless of the objections to Human Rights records , my point is that she is a Libyan woman, which is a great achievement for Arab women and normal in Libya where women have been granted every chance and opportunity.