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Inshallah bukra mumkin. If God is willing, [it will happen] tomorrow, maybe.

This is a fairly common phrase within the Arabic business community. Its American counterpart sounds something like “Well, my plate’s pretty full…” or “I’m pretty sure <insert co-worker name> has some spare cycles.” Hearing it pretty much guarantees the expected deliverable will be harangued by endless procrastination. After all, if it was Allah’s will, then it would’ve gotten done, right?

I can’t think of a more appropriate phrase to describe the cynical hope for a lasting peace that pervades the Middle East.

To be Palestinian
You are gripped by an intense longing for the ancestral homelands you’ve never known. Though the West seems to have forgotten, your people had been living in modern day Israel for generations upon generations - and had put down deep roots. You’ve grown up as a refugee in the West Bank, and spent countless hours covering the walls adjacent to your home depicting the Arabic villages of your father.

You carry the burden of despair and hopelessness, arising from the sure knowledge that you are unable to change your situation. Like many others, you have resigned yourself to praying that the world’s superpowers will awaken one day to your plight, and that your children will lead better lives.

To be Israeli
Whether you’re conscious of it or not, within you simmers nervous fear that itches at your fight/flight instincts. Its a feeling not dissimilar to that experienced by a white guy walking alone in a predominantly black and violent neighborhood. Or conversely, the broiling emotional cauldron experienced by Richard Wright’s Bigger Thomas. Regardless of whether there is ill intent, it feels like everyone is out to get you.

Now, it seems like the sun is setting. You’re certain that an Iranian moon is rapidly rising in the East, ushering in a nuclear night. This particular hood is about to get a whole lot more dangerous and you’re expecting Tel Aviv to be the next Hiroshima. Worse, these fears have been confirmed by friends actively involved in the military, all of whom expect to be engaged in Iran within two years. While Gaza is a constant thorn, its merely a piece of the survival puzzle.

This must be tempered with the fact that the people I’ve encountered, both Israelis (particularly in Tel Aviv) and Palestinians, were incredibly friendly. Yet bring up the opposing nation, and the conversation quickly sours. Israelis become withdrawn and aloof, while the Palestinians (both in the West Bank and Jordan) get worked up and angry. It’s tragic how such wonderful people could develop this deep hatred for each other. With bad blood between these groups now spanning generations, its clear there will be no easy resolution. A two state solution would only give Israel a hostile neighbor in an already volatile region, and your opponents another potential weapon. Yet to refrain from such a solution would be to continue oppressing a people that absolutely have the right to self rule.

I hope that Palestine will gain its freedom, and Israel will gain an ally in its Arab neighbor. If God is willing, peace will come tomorrow or in the near future. But from what I’ve seen thus far, that’s a big maybe.

I’ve recently become acquainted with a Canadian radio host working in China who shared with me an incredible insider’s perspective on how the PRC maintains an iron grip on the media.  Consider that:

• Major broadcast centers must be based in Beijing, so that the political elite can keep the media close at hand.
• Security is taken very seriously - the aforementioned broadcast centers all have guards armed with assault rifles deployed in their lobbies. 
• DJs are all issued lengthy lists of forbidden topics each week, which include unfavorable news stories and certain personalities. 
• All programming is carefully scripted and pre-recorded.  These recordings undergo scrutiny from at least 4 officials before being played over the air.
• Senior leadership and even middle management is composed entirely of party members. 
• Taiwan can’t even be mentioned in the same context as other independent nations, such as Korea or Japan.  Instead, it must be listed along with the rest of China’s provinces.
• Many Taiwanese artists that refer to Taiwan as independent are banned.  Yet Western songs with curse words can be freely played.

Its absolutely astounded by just how deep this censorship rabbit hole goes.

While hanging out in the small village of Wutunsi, I happened to meet an artist.  He was the resident thangka instructor at one of the two monasteries for which Wutunsi is known for, and had been studying the Tibetan Buddhist painting style for the past 25 years.  As you might imagine, his thangkas are incredibly intricate and undeniably mesmerizing. 

Like all artists, he is looking to build a global following for his work.  Unfortunately, he has two strikes against him - he is Tibetan, and his art is religious in nature.  Every attempt at putting his work online has been ruthlessly censored by the PRC.  I’ve had my own minor issues with censorship in China, but they don’t begin to compare to the frustration felt by an artist unable to freely express himself.

While I have mixed opinions about many of China’s other policies, I believe strongly in the freedom of information.  So for what it’s worth, here’s my small contribution to the cause:

His name is Lo San Long Da.  If you’re interested in contacting him about his fantastic collection, send mail to the Wutong Up Monastery near Tongren in the Qinghai province of the People’s Republic of China.

I’ve always understood from a theoretical perspective why outsourcing is such an attractive option for many US companies. But its only in the past couple of weeks that I’ve developed a far more concrete appreciation for the economic forces involved.

Traveling in China is not unlike constantly swimming upstream through a torrent of human flesh. There’s a suffocating crush of people everywhere you go - in restaurants, on the streets, at the ticket counter. There’s simply no escaping it. This makes it easy to see how the cost of Chinese labor can be one of the cheapest commodities available. Equally obvious is the impact that cheap labor has on everyday life.

Clever innovators in the Western world have developed innumerable technologies which exponentially increase the productivity of a single person. From what I’ve seen thus far, little of this has made its way to China:

• In Bejing, I passed a construction site which required some cables to be strung through a section of sewers. Rather than renting a vehicle with some horsepower to quickly tow everything into place, the construction firm hired over a dozen men to collectively (and ineffectively) tug at the cables, all the while yelling the Chinese equivalent of “heave-ho.”
• One of the hotels that I stayed at had the exact same card-based lock configuration installed in every room. It was cheaper for management to pay someone to carry the one key card they had, and be available around the clock to unlock the door for guests as needed, than to hand out distinct key cards for each room.
• Every retail establishment I hazarded had at least a 5-to-1 ratio of sales people to customers. I was swarmed every time I came within arms reach of a given counter. Its a stark contrast to US supermarkets, which are clearly moving towards automated check out.

It’s pretty common knowledge that Bush’s performance in the polls has slipped dramatically as support for the Iraq war has waned. This is completely understandable given that 2500+ Americans have died in the conflict so far with little to show for their sacrifice.

However, this is the first time I’ve seen different online publications uniformly labeling our President as a war criminal.

Benjamin Ferenccz, one of the chief prosecutors of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg, is accusing George W. Bush of the most heinous of all war crimes - that of commencing a war of aggression. Ferenccz asserts that Bush committed this crime by bringing armed forces to bear against Iraq without the approval of the UN Security Council.

The Village Voice expressed similar sentiments, this time condemning the President for the treatment of suspected terrorist prisoners and the strategy of “extracting information… by any means necessary.” These actions are in direct violation of the Geneva Convention and the US War Crimes Act of 1996.

It would be such a spectacle to see the United States President on trial in The Hague. Here’s to wishful thinking.