|
|
 |
|
50.0%ANMag Issue 25 Personal Maintenance
2008: The Cup Half-Empty
By Mohammed Sobh, Staff Editor
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia − Now there will come a time when we will provide a laudable account on the year to come, 2008, but that is contingent upon the inklings of hope springing up from the year to pass, in our case 2007. This year may have started off on some mixed footing, for the calamity that is the Lebanese presidential election is only turning uglier, while on the other side of the globe; Barak Obama is leading a rally that we all hope can bring about true change, a change that we are hungrily awaiting in the land of the Cedars. [More]
Draw the Line
By Rasha Aljundi, Contributing Writer
Beirut, Lebanon − With the escalating various man-made and natural events in Lebanon and around the world, a thousand thoughts came rushing through my mind. I was torn between watching the political threats, the earth quake camps, the university shootings, the alarming weather updates, the Gazan hunger and the American debates. Within this mixture of events, the reprinting of the Danish sarcastic cartoons of Prophet Mohammad in several European countries must have slipped somewhere between the lines. It was only when a Danish friend brought the news up to me that I became aware of it. All the riots and the violent reactions from several Muslim populations a couple of years back came rushing back to me, as I read her input on the matter. She brought up the fact that the Danish media asserted their “right to freedom of speech” and hence they can write (or draw in this case) whatever they want. Yet again, my friend’s argument was that if one would utilize a ‘right’ to insult other people, or nations for that matter, then why be granted that right in the first place? And so we both wonder: when and where should the line be drawn for the freedom of speech? [More]
I Am...
By Theo Khoury, Contributing Writer
Beirut, Lebanon −
I am …
Allow me to introduce myself, I will be honest and will not exaggerate. Whatever I say to you will be the truth, of that I promise you. But then again, can you really trust me?
… Avaritia
I am greed … I am the driving force of humanity.
Without me there would be no economy, no businesses, no rich people, and no money. I have crawled into morality and subjected it to my own virtues. I have no remorse for taking what I want, even though I might already have it. I will find a way to have more and more, no matter how many lives it may consume. [More]