Semana Santa de Granada: Those Topics that Might Erupt

Today I posted this on my Facebook:

في مثل هذا اليوم من سنة 2011 و خلال أسبوع الآلام في غرناطة، منع المطر موكب "عذراء الفجر" من الخروج إلى الشارع. و جرت العادة في أسبوع الآلام أن تخرج عذراء كل كنيسة في موكب إلى الشارع ترافقها فيه فرقة موسيقية مكونة من أبواق و طبول، و مباخر و باقات زهور يسبقها موكب من أطفال و
موكب من نساء يلبسن الأسود حداداً ، و يحمل التمثال شبّان ، و يزن التمثال الواحد ألف أو ألفين كيلو حسب حجمه و المادة التي صنع منها.

يتدرّب الشبان و الأطفال و النساء طوال السنة حتى يخرج موكب عذراء كنيستهم، وهطول المطر في موعد خروجها يعني ضياع مجهودهم طوال سنة كاملة.

عندما ألغي موكب عذراء الفجر دخلت لأصورها داخل كنيستها، كانت أقدامها ملفوفة بالنايلون و حولها موكب الأولاد ينوحون بشكل جماعي و يرافقهم رجال كبار في السن يبكون و يوعدون العذراء أنهم إن عاشوا عاماً آخر فسوف يخرجونها في موكب مهيب.

و بالرغم من أجواء الإيمان الاستعراضي التي تسيطر على أسبوع الآلام في إقليم الأندلس تحديداً، و بالرغم من التاريخ المشتبك و المعقد بين العرب و بين الاسبان، إلا ان رؤية اسبان القرن الحادي و العشرين يبكون لأسباب تتعلق بالآخرة، كان مشهداً نادراً، و يستحق الوقوف و التفكّر.

En la Semana Santa de 2011 , la lluvia impidió la salida de la Virgen de la Aurora. Aquel día entré a su iglesia para sacarle una foto a la virgen y allí dentro encontré los niños y los abuelos de la cofradía llorando como unas Magdalenas por no haber podido sacar a su Virgen a la calle.
Y a pesar de la historia tan compleja que compartimos los Árabes con los españoles, sobre todo en Andalucía pero esta escena de ver a españoles de este siglo llorando por motivos del mas allá fue una escena espectacular que es digna de un momento de meditación.

(El texto árabe es mas largo porque allí daba mas explicación de lo que se hace en una procesión)

Sooo

Today I paid attention that last week was the Holy Week. I really love this one and ever since I attended almost all the processions of the Holy Week of 2011 I feel a very personal bond with the event. In Spain it is huge and important, so, I wanted to mention it on my Facebook and I took a moment to think, I was worried that some of my friends will come up with a tiring religious or historical discussion.

You know, the discourse of ''we should never forget what they did to us" and that we should hate their religion that killed our people and so ,,, I wish that I would not have to give my ''artistic explanation'' but what can I do? this is how I see it, it is pure art, the music the sculptures and even the incenses. 

~Guhhhhh ~ I feel like I have a doze things to say in this aspect, why dont I sit down and write it? Maybe in the form of an essay or simply a letter to the old me, when I kept focusing in the historical conflict between the Arabs and the Spanish. A conflict that they themselves has forgotten SPECIALLY the religious part of it. 

I dont like it that their christian-ism is not that solid, but this is the way that it is and there is nowhere around it. 

Take Me Away: Fleeing Class

I was a good kid at school. Actually I was not that good but my school's walls were 5 meters high so I had to behave and hang on till the last moment of class.

In university I used to skip some classes but it was not a big deal as long as one is within the acceptable percentage of absences.

But in my Master programs skipping classes is a huge deal. Two absences and you fail the subject , Congratulations!

So eversince I became a masters student I became more responsible in this aspect (and many others of course , will mention them in different posts).

But today after finishing our first class (4 hours straight with an amazing scholar from Lebanon who came to give us two classes only) it turned out that the teacher of our second class has apologized and that we  are free to go.

It looked like some other teacher is preparing to come teach us something, and my mind was flashing the following words: I dont want to learn more stuff today, we are closed. 

So, I collected my stuff and Doaa and I went walking to the bakery, we bought a ridiculous amount of doughnuts and cookies and we decided to go sit in the pedestrians bridge!!

It is the weirdest bridge among all the ones I saw in Amman. It was my first time in it and I found it full of iron that it almost looked like the inside of a space shuttle. Yet it felt good as I managed to find a window with some air. 

We sat there talking a bit. We did not blab, Doaa was not in the mood and I was too busy looking at cars and people. Sitting on bridges turns me into an actual cat that can get distracted with a tiny ball of wool flying in the air. 

We sat reading, I was reading Tommalee's book , Doaa was reading a tiny book of poetry by Ibrahim Nasrallah and we used the last bit of battery in my mobile to listen to Bach's Tocatta. 

I also thought of Hemingway's short story The Old Man At The Bridge. I googled it and read a bit of it, I really love every line written by this guy and I love my 3G package that makes me feel so powerful that I can read whatever I want whenever I feel like it.

  http://rauschreading09.pbworks.com/f/The+Old+Man+at+the+Bridge+packet.pdf

Passers by where drawn to the scene of two girls reading on a bridge (come on, people on Amman are always drawn to the scene of two girls breathing) but we enjoyed ourselves (I can always enjoy myself as long as I have a cup of coffee).

The boys called us when they left class (yes! they took a class) and we stopped with Alaa and Omar trying to convince a taxi to take us but we failed. As I was not going with them (they were going to film a protest) I crossed the bridge to the other side and took a bus.

On its first stop the guy who went up was Sami. We took a seat at the back and we kept talking until we got to Amman. We tackled a thousand topics (we elaborate more than a couple of old retired men) he was making a list of our classmates who will have a good journalistic future and who are just gonna graduate and go do something else. So when it was my turn he said: you need to work in a place like Palestine, Iraq , Egypt, journalism in Jordan is gonna bore you, you need to become a journalist because you are really good with people.

This! Specially this, coming from Sami, the mayor of  ''Social Skills Landia'' is so huge, it actually made me day. And the bridge too :)))) 

Putting My Own Mind on Flight Mode: Singing in the Citadel

Today I was mad. I am never mad, you know: being mad requires effort and I would never waste effort on anything. But last week I was finally excited about a journalistic topic. Maybe it was the very first time in which I feel that I cant wait to get back to the place and start filming and editing to come out with the best reportage ever.

But my professor simply discarded the topic without even giving me an explanation. I have my own explanation and it is driving my crazy. And I guess crazy is somewhere beyond Mad!

So, as it is Tuesday and I have no classes I decided to give myself a break and stop thinking about everything. I can be terribly firm when it comes to putting my mind on ''Flight Mode''. I simply turn it off and worry about simpler things.

I left home a bit late, and I went to Jordan University Hospital's park. I sat there until Doaa came and we went together to Amman's Citadel.

We sat on the highest point we could find. We could see the entire site and the rest of the city. The weather was a bit cloudy so we could sit there with our eyes wide open , still we had to bare a cold breeze that blew every once in a while.

Later we had a walk till the dome. I dont know the least bit of information about the site, but for some reason I believe that the dome was constructed by the Omayyad. Anyhow , as we were inside we found a side hall. Inside there was a bench and a small window just a bit under the far ceiling.

I started singing a hymn and I felt as if I was floating on top of the echo of that hall. As I sang a bird came through the little window, it did not look real, it was as light as a thought. I saved the moment in this video: 

When I went home I went back the work track and I was Happy about it. Maybe this whole thing functions like a Restart Button of the Soul?

Peace 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 86th Birthday

Today is Marquez's 86th birthday, and I simply consider it a day of personal happiness. I love the fact that this world has a "Marquez" , I love the fact that "Hundred years of solitude" and "Love In The Times Of Cholera" had been written and that I  had the chance to read them at a young age. 

Writers contribute a lot to their readers, nations, the world , beauty and to literature. Yet what I am endlessly thankful for is that when they mention things they let you know that you are not the only one who goes through this feeling, or who sees things this way.

Gracias Por Existir  Gabriel , que cumplas muchos mas. Te quiero un mogullón 

Five Broken Cameras: The Yes and The No

Today in the institute we screened “Five Broken Cameras”. I did not have much ideas about the movie beforehand, I just knew that it was nominated for an Oscar and that it did not get.

I knew this little information because last week I was writing narration for a reuters report that covered the movie. They interviewed the director and he mentioned that his co-director was an Israeli who sympathized with people of Bil’in as they protested peacefully against the construction of the apartheid wall. 

 

Some film Festivals (for example: in Morocco) did not accept the screening of the documentary . It is boycotted because the producer was an Israeli.

 

So after we watched it , here is what I think:
It was boring at some points \ the narration was monotonous and sometimes a bit boring \  yet the same narration was splendid and it helped us feel and imagine the things that we were told.

 

The frames were not professional, but hay, this very guy was not the most comfortable camera man on earth, he lost five cameras already!

 

It actually stunned me how he could keep filming all the time, when the soldiers came over to him and yelled at him for filming them, or when the protestors were raided by gas bombs and even actual bullets. He did not stop filming even when his friend got shot neither when the Israelis came to his house at night to arrest him.

 

I hope that I will have this patience and courage to keep filming. I just know, that the best shots are taken when most cameramen are bored ,,,, yet the good ones are always ready.

 

The movie’s content was good and neatly arranged in a chronological manner that would look appealing to both, the Arabian and the foreign spectators.

 

Now the big No: I don’t believe in peaceful demonstration. I know this might sound ‘’terrorist’’ but come on, after sixty something years of combating with the Israeli occupation we have learned that ‘’peaceful demonstration’’ is  crap. Or maybe a luxury that we can’t afford.

 

Don’t get me wrong, who wants to get shot while protesting? But those things apply for people who are living a conflict way much simpler than the Palestinian\Israeli conflict. I think, the movie wanted to subtly deliver to the audience the fact that “5 years of peaceful protests did not stop the wall from slicing Bilin’’. It is in vain.

 

The Big Yes: Watch the embedded movie. It is about a screening in Israel where young Israelis were invited to watch the documentary. Listen to their comments, look at their faces and sighs!! I did not even think that it was possible, but they were genuinely moved by the movie!

 

No, I am not going to give a discourse of ‘’peace love and unity between bla bla bla’’ No, I won’t. But I just want to write down this feeling. But if we put aside the fact that I want them out of our land, I felt a human connection with them.

 

I will write a post soon about a book am reading. It is about Hebrew poetry. It just made me realize how we can’t see them as ‘’people’’, we can’t feel that Hebrew is anything but noisy gibberish. We are designed this way. Both sides.

 

I just don’t know how to wrap up a messed piece as this one, but there is some thinking, reading and wondering that I need to make.