peace.or not.

I woke up this morning anxious to hear the results of the Palestinian elections. I was afraid the Fatah majority might turn out too narrow for them to be able to form a coalition government with the small independent party, and they might be forced into a partnerhsip with Hamas.

Needless to say much about the total shock I had when reading the final results : Hamas won the elections and they are the ones to form the new palestinian government.....poor Sharon, he might have had the stroke just in time...

I hear/read opinions on how this could turn out to be a great opportunity as the exercise of power might force Hamas into adopting a more moderate tone, and even give up their original purpose of distroying the State of Israel; it's a tempting thought, if true it could be that one opportunity nobody trusted would come...

However, as much as I wish for this to be the case, I cannot stop being pesimistic about it. I don't have many hopes, because I think that one of the main things Sharon and Abbas had achieved will crumble: a short-term reduction of violence, and therefore of the number of human deaths. It is naive and hardly possible to try engineer a peace solution in an environment where people are prevented from being less hateful towards the other part, because of the deep suffering they and their dear ones go through..No matter what will be agreed at a diplomatic level, without a sustained decrease in the number of killings, there will not be any genuine will for peace from any of the sides.

And I'm afraid that this is where Hamas's victory damages the most any chance of peace development: despite any medium/long term changes in their agenda, on a short term they and their election is an endorsment for violence. It's an endorsment for Palestinians who look up and admire this violent, terrorist group, and it's an endorsment for Israel who has far more arguments now to consider military interventions the only viable solution for ensuring it's security.

For a very little while, for just few months, it almost seemed like there might be a new beginning...it got all torn apart in just few weeks.I wonder, what's the miracle that can turn everything again?

Educating...

A nation-wide advertising campaign for the....Army ! (however,military service already is mandatory here).

Ads are in newspapers, banners are in metro stations, metro trains, buses, etc..

Except this, and few other 'minor stuff, I really like Singapore.....

two sagas, eight books, eight years, three countries...

I began reading this wonderful science fiction series more than 8 years ago...It hasn't been a constant reading companion, but an intense no-sleep-reason in three moments: one week in my first high-school semester for the first three books, about four days in Netherlands last year for the next two; and finally, couple of nights here in Singapore for the last three books.

Don't get fooled by the dodgy, budget covers: they are amazing books, entertaining, thought provoking, and at some points truly inspirational.

Of course, as any long series, it got a bit tired in the second part....Probably tired is not the right word, I guess the motivation behind them had more to do with revenue generation, than to further deepening the ideas from the first books. Definitely my favourite of all is Xenocide, but I don't recommend reading it without taking on at least Speaker for the Dead before (my second favourite of all), you need this one to put everything in the context..

Well, good-bye, Wiggin Family, good-bye Bean, it's been a great ride..

Back to digital life

Almost a year between my first and second posting on this blog...huuuge distance, no point in trying to tell the story of all that happened in my life since then. For now, take a look at where I've been in the last few months:

www.flickr.com/photos/alshimi

Let's see if I can cut short the time till my next entry.