If you think that you have just one life, think again. There's the life you think you have, the life others think you have and the life you really have- three lives!

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Freedom of Speech????

The pro-Israeli lobby is at it again. This time successfully banning an Aussie publisher and a Jewish Academic from speaking because of their views on Israel.

Author shunned for Israel criticism
Ed Pilkington, New YorkOctober 12, 2006


AUSTRALIAN author and former publisher Carmen Callil has become embroiled
in a dispute over freedom of speech in America after a party celebrating her new
book was cancelled because of her opinion about the modern state of Israel.

A party in honour of Bad Faith, Callil's account of Vichy official Louis Darquier, who arranged the deportation of thousands of Jews, was to be held at the French embassy in New York this week but was cancelled after the embassy became aware of a paragraph in the book's postscript.
In the postscript, Callil says she grew anxious while researching the "helpless terror
of the Jews of France" to see "what the Jews of Israel were passing on to the
Palestinian people. Like the rest of humanity, the Jews of Israel 'forget' the
Palestinians. Everyone forgets."

The embassy said the passage had been brought to its attention after a
guest declined the invitation because of it.

The row is the latest element in a dispute about restrictions on freedom of speech in the US in relation to comments on Israel.

A New York University academic had two speaking engagements called off
after criticism of his views.

Tony Judt, an American Jew who grew up in Britain, was to speak about the influence of the pro-Israeli lobby on US foreign policy and at a separate location on "war and genocide in European memory today".

The first lecture was cancelled by the Polish consulate in New York, which owns the venue, while Mr Judt pulled out of the second after organisers asked him to refrain from direct references to Israel.

In both cases, pro-Israeli organisations and individuals had raised objections to Mr Judt's views on Israel.

Mr Judt said his views had been misrepresented.

"The only thing I have ever said is that Israel, as it is currently constituted as a Jewish state with different rights for different groups, is an anachronism in the modern age of democracies."
GUARDIAN


They sure are a powerful group. Just look at what Mel Gibson had to do to regain some credibility after his comments on Jews. Former KISS band member, Gene Simmons (the one with the tongue) made some really nasty comments about Muslims when he visited Australia in 2004, even going so far as to say "Islam was a "vile culture" that treated women worse than dogs."


Incidentally, the KISS concert was the first concert I ever went to at the ripe old age of 15 (am I showing my age now?)

Friday, October 13, 2006

Oops I (almost) did it again...

I almost did it again. I almost got really narky when someone told me I look like Nefertitti. But it is Ramadan so I held my tongue, smiled sweetly and said thankyou.

Now, it's not that I don't like Nefertitti or anything like that- it's just that I don't see the resemblance and don't understand why people always tell me that I look like her when they find out my origin is Egyptian.

The same with "exotic". Why do people alwways call me "exotic"? What's so 'exotic' about Egypt? When I think exotic, I think clear blue seas, palm trees and relaxation- not an overcrowded Metro car in downtown Cairo!

I don't know, why don't you guys make up your own minds.

Here is Nefertitti....



Here is my idea of 'exotic'...

And here is me....

What? You can't see the resemblance either? I thought so...