Peninsula News Paper
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
It was a mere coincidence that made me stop in Paris after leaving New York en route to London when the flight I was originally scheduled for was cancelled. At the airport, my attention was drawn to beautiful red plastic pinned to the lapels of fellow passengers in the form of a poppy flower. That flower pinned to clothing in the last months of the year is a symbol representing the victims of wars and conflicts that have ravaged the world in World War I and II. It is also a symbol to learn from the horrors of the past where non-violent measures were ignored in favor of resorting to war and bloodshed. It is a reminder to get rid of the legacy of conflict that is still raging in the rest of the world and claiming pure and innocent lives. The flower quickly fades as soon as it blooms, as expressed in the beautiful poem entitled “In Flanders Fields”, which tells the story of soldiers who fell victims in the French fields of Flanders as follows:
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields…”
Lyman Frank Baum used it as a metaphor in his infamous novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, where magical poppy fields transform anyone who tramples on them into sleeping objects that cannot be awoken. In the book, a decisive issue is also of concern to the main characters as the Scarecrow wants to get brain so that he can reflect. Meanwhile, the Tin Woodman hopes to find a heart filled with feelings, love, emotion, and passion, and the Cowardly Lion hopes to become brave so he can take on risks. Dorothy is able to convince them that the Wizard of Oz can help them achieve their aspirations and turn them into realities.
The poppy flower returned to my memory this year after a gang in Egypt stole the world-renowned Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, “Poppy Flowers”. In any case, that is not the only thing that has been stolen in the world.
On my return flight, the aircraft transported me back to the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) in order to spend the rest of the end-of-the-year holiday watching tears upon tears mixed with blood on the faces and bodies of those partaking in the sad, painful scenes reflecting the celebrations of more than a thousand years of Ashura. I saw sadness and blackness through the processions of grief and mourning, beatings and self-mutilation, but I did not see the hope and determination represented by the poppy flower. I did not feel the resignation to learn from the past and rather than living in it to resolve to take the lessons from it and move on. Instead, that past was identified with and revisited in order to serve particular ideologies.
Has the poppy flower perished over the season of death and solace in the Arab Gulf?
The poppy flower can be seen in the middle of a large field on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of the Helmand province in southern Afghanistan where over 2 million Afghans and Pakistanis work. After the dawn prayer, which the group collectively complete, it is the time for farming, cultivating, and waiting for the harvest. There, the poppy is used for far more than innocent uses, the most important of which is trade in prohibited narcotics. The drug trade continues to finance the Taliban and other armed movements. Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world’s heroin, according to the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention. Helmand province alone comprises of more than 35 percent of the country’s opium.
From those cultivated fields; the Afghan poppy fields that kill whoever steps upon them, on to the volatile, bomb-ridden fields in the Arab region. Conflicts, wars, divisions, disturbances, and failures are plaguing the present and the future. One of them is the Palestinian cause, nearly eternal as it has lasted for nearly half a century and more. To neighboring Iraq and the threat of differences and divisions. On to the open confrontation and armed clashes in Yemen, and calls for separatism in Sudan, whose fate will be decided this month, January 2011. It is feared to be just around the corner from the secession of the southern part, renewed separatist movements in Darfur, from the east, north, to the centre. To Somalia, where dismemberment, fragmentation, civil war, and competing rivals manipulating religious slogans, which Islam has little to do with. On to fear for Lebanon and igniting a battle between one people, a political spectrum, religions of Christianity and Islam, and Shiite and Sunni sects after the decision of the International Tribunal next near. Then to renewed Saharan conflict between Morocco and Algeria, which have been bleeding for more than three decades and in recent developments have accused some countries of the GCC in fueling the conflict and helping parties in the battle against one another.
What is the solution for Arab problems when the situation is deteriorating year after year, despite recent news of hope such as one of the smallest countries in the Arab world in terms of area and population hosting the World Cup in 2022?
Should we wait for hundreds of years until it is time for a Savior to saves us from our pain and suffering? Should we resort to the visionary leader and dictator, tyrant of Justice, to save us from the quagmire in which we live? Should we go back to the era of the Righteous Caliphate in order to restore our history and our glory? Or resort to the Wizard of Oz to ask him for help in giving us a brain for us to use when reasoning address our crucial issues before they kill us? Perhaps he can provide us with a heart full of warm feelings, emotions, and love for one another – regardless of our different nationalities, races, ideologies, religions, and sects. Maybe he can give us the courage to say enough is enough and stop this absurd cycle from our past, present and future! Or we may not need anyone but ourselves because all of those qualities dwell within us. What is certain is that pleasant dreams are still elusive in the Arab world.
As usual, as one year ends and the next year begins, my mind still wanders to the same question: How will be the Arab calendar in 2011 look? Will it be better than, similar to, or worse than the past? Is it a happy new year
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