Proud Slug by Darren Johnson (CC BY 2.0)

I usually refer to egotism when people ask me about the most important thing for being a writer. The term seems to be very confusing as people usually associate it with selfishness, arrogance and pride. People with no writing career find it strange that a socially unfavorable characteristic is viewed as an essential trait for providing something good for our communities and hence the need to explain that unless somebody feels like a messenger s/he might not be able to pass on their message.

Lucifer versus the Lord. Wikimedia commons

However, I find myself confronted with that question about the pride mentioned in the Holy Scripture as the primary sin. I always answer that question with yes and no. Yes, my pride is very similar to Satan’s, who refused to be a slave angel and wanted to lead a life of free choice no matter how many sins might be incurred. His pride led him to disobey his destiny and his creator, and to create by himself his own life. On the other hand, my pride is not a sin because I am not convinced that God or any other deity would be angry with my wish to create my own life or even to challenge him/them. It is not yet settled, even in philosophy, sociology and psychology whether humans can be free or their choices and achievements are natural reflections of their backgrounds. I guess, it is not yet settled even in theology whether God wants slaves to worship him or free people to complete his work. The latter would definitely necessitate the acknowledgment of self-confidence, self-belief and that aptitude for taking up challenges.

Another aspect of egotism: challenge

Confining my broad issue of pride and challenge to writing books, I remember a definition of writing as an attempt to recreate the world according to a certain set of different values. Most people would not probably see a challenge in coming up with a book or a great achievement, especially when these values correspond to those mentioned in the holy books. However, a friend of mine, who resides in Saudi Arabia, insists that writing a book is a real challenge directed towards Gods and goddesses: « A book distinguishes you from other passer-byes in life and makes you − like God − eternal », he says. It is right that some books are more challenging than others, and that actually most books are written to support the already established systems, but history highlights revolutionary and pioneering books and distinguish them from other kind of books. Moreover, people never stop creating prophets, messengers, and legendary figures out of those who are punished for their challenging books or ideas. Clearly, writing a challenging book is an act of creation or recreation, which gives their authors a status marked with homage, and shortens that distance between what is human and what is divine.

Classification of immigrants according to the paths of their egos

Taking the issue to the area of immigration, I do not tend to ascribe the difficulties of adaptation or integration to an excessive pride in one’s own origin or culture as I tend to think of this kind of collective pride as a channel of compensation for a thwarted ego. As far as I have experienced, I have seen that most immigrants fall in one of two main categories: first, those who cling to their own lobby and firmly adhere to their own cultures highlighting their original values and lifestyles. I have seen in this respect exaggerated practices of what had been roughly or hardly practiced in the countries of origin. For example, a Syrian friend of mine told me that the first time she wore hijab was in France. More surprisingly, I have seen and heard many cases of people who felt hurt and touched when their presidents or kings happened to be cursed or mocked in exile despite the fact that they used to mock and curse the same persons in their own countries. Moreover, there are immigrants who discover a sudden interest in sports in exile and go to stadiums to cheer for the national teams of their countries. Finally, I would say that I have seen a lot of posters of religious figures or verses inside Syrian houses, but the first time I saw a phrase like « I love Islam » on the outer door was outside Syria. I guess, this kind of pride gets intensified in the exile as it becomes an identity and these exaggerated practices are to defend a troubled and a threatened ego.

Moving to the second category of immigrants who do exactly the opposite and in many cases they get rid of all what can identify them as belonging to a certain culture or to a certain part of the world. In their pursuit of what I prefer to call social acceptance rather than integration, those immigrants go sometimes to extremes that go beyond changing practices and lifestyles to deserting families and friends in an attempt to disavow their past and make a new start. Tracing the path of pride or ego within this category could be more tortuous than the first category and therefore more difficult, but beyond doubt if one’s ego can be merely gratified with distance, separation and disavowal of the origin then it is a troubled one as well.

Another type of immigrants: immigrants in their own countries

It is worth mentioning that practices and people of the second category are not confined to immigrants but they can be found in the country of origin as well. These cases are widely found in postcolonial nations where a distance from the local culture is deemed essential for obtaining a higher status. Furthermore, the countries that have joined the European Union recently are expected to show such a tendency of self disavowal and taking pride of the other rather than the self. Similarly, Christians in Asia and Africa in general feel some kind of solidarity with Europeans and whites, and rejoice in that kind of collective pride in being European-like, which reveals in my opinion a deficiency complex. This leads me to touch on globalization and the impact of the most dominating cultures in the world: the Anglo-Saxcon culture and the francophone culture though the latter is viewed as a less dominating probably because it is threatened as well. All the above- mentioned phenomena are examples of collective pride found widely among people who have not yet had a successful multicultural experience.

Egoists are successful immigrants

A collective pride in general compensates for the lack of a personal pride or a satisfied ego, but it should not be taken strictly as an indicator of adaptability or inadaptability. On the other hand, those kinds of traits circulating around personal pride like self confidence, willpower and egoism are usually associated with resourcefulness, persistence, and resilience and therefore immigrants with these characteristics are more likely to succeed in their exile. Clearly, immigrants who have a balanced attitude towards either their origins or their new environments, and who could form a third category, are those who have satisfied their egos and developed critical thinking and independent characters either in their original societies or the new ones.

My personal pride

Coming back to what kind of pride I have, I address that question to myself! Thinking of what actually fills me with pride, I have found out that it is neither the country of my birth, Syria, nor the country where I reside, Switzerland. Moreover, my pride has nothing to do with my race, color, culture or nationality. More surprisingly, my pride has no bearing even to my remarkable achievement of academic degrees, published books or literary prizes. Thinking deeply of what makes me proud, I could not exclude the fact that I have sought my freedom and that I am unabatedly safeguarding it. Going deeper with the source of my pride, I could not deny being proud that my father’s blood is circulating all around my body! I mean it figuratively; of course, especially that he is the one who told me about the existence of other fathers. With remarkable patience, he tolerated my disobedience and only referred to what is written in books as much more valuable than what he says. He is the one who paved the way for my independence and free thinking by offering himself as the first target for my criticism. What I am proud of in particular is that I have inherited something of that spirit that is still enabling him to face poverty, social ills, depression, and unimaginable horror with incredible patience and an unrelenting wish to challenging reality and enabling humanity to go one step further.

Ibrahim Rami

Membre de la rédaction Neuchâteloise de Voix d’Exils.

« Syria is BLEEDING ! » A Syrian protest in Times Square, Manhattan, New York City, 03/10/12 . Author: Asterix611 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The opinion of a Syrian citizen in Switzerland

In 1963, Al Ba’ath party holds the command in Syria, and for around 50 years, Syria lost all the good things which had been achieved among years of being one of the first countries in the region which applied the democratic principles in its political life. It lost also the great tradition of having a lot of principles and techniques to rule the state correlating various and different parties.

It was normal to have in the same family different political views and members of several parties. I still remember the story which my grandmother told me: “Once, I drove my brother out of my house, because he insulted my political views, and that he belonged to a different party which was in a continuous enmity with mine“. Here, I want to drag your attention to a strange fact that my grandma was almost illiterate. So it was simply real and habitual to believe in your right of expressing your political views without feeling afraid or scared of being arrested or blamed.

I belong to that unlucky generation, which came out to this life without hope or freedom. I was always interested in listening to or reading the old stories about the better life, the freedom and the happiness. My grandma was always the reference to saturate my curiosity. She was talented in expressing her ideas and describing the life in simple words: “With this bloody regime, patience will not be the solution. If you want to change you need to put your soul in your hands and struggle”. Everybody saw the river of blood always when it came to his/her mind the idea of change. The regime in Syria is the literal meaning of the ironic regime. “Walls have ears” is the sentence everybody speaks with a faint voice.

One Party! No, you have to say the only party! It is really unaccepted at all to be forced always to believe in what they say, and who are they?! They are the authority, the Ba’ath party. “Why do I have to belong to this party if I don’t believe in its principles? Is it a must?” I was asking these frank questions always to my teachers, my friends, and my parents especially to my father who was one of the first members of Al Ba’ath in his village in the early 60s of the last century. He studied law, so it was always amazing to me to have a discussion with him regarding the human rights and the freedom right to choose your life as like as you want. To be honest, I felt guilty when I was listening the sad tone in his voice trying to justify and explain his situation, and how different it is now than before!

I, myself, strongly believe in freedom, and in a fair life for everybody. So, the use of intimidation and weapons in threating the people to don’t open their mouths is, in contrast, a double-edges weapon also. It is like a volcano, if it keeps trapping the magma inside for long time, these magma will find its way to the surface anyways, and once it reaches that, the eruption will happen. The huger the magma you trap, the greater the eruption will be. This is the equation in Syria now. People reached the limit, and can’t hold on anymore. It is the revolution eruption, and it is as extreme as you can see, hear and read. Currently, nothing can stop it at all, even if the number of martyrs will get to be millions. People tasted the freedom again, and for us as a new generation, we are experiencing it for the first time. It is really a stunning ecstasy, and I will not accept anymore to be prevented from having my freedom always.

Orwa Al-Hussein

Membre de la redaction valaisanne de Voix d’Exils

Une fillette blessée lors d’un bombardement à Damas le 26.10.2012. Galerie de FreeDomhouse. (CC BY 2.0)

When will this massacre in Syria stop? When will justice finally take place? These questions are essential to answer in the Syrian case as quickly as possible. After more than two years of planned and intentional massacres, every conscious being in the world should feel this real tragedy, and speak up to demand the end of the killing of Syrians now.

In fact, the Syrians are not insects or animals. They are a live nation, and have a great history of prosperity, urbanization and freedom. Naturally, influenced by the butterfly effect of the arabic spring, the Syrian people dared to break the wall of silence, and they went out to ask only for their humanity back, after decades of oppression and humiliation. They demonstrated unarmed for more than one year, accepting all kinds of violence and intimidation peacefully. The right to defend one’s life is what forced them to start pointing their primitive weapons against the regime’s wild troops which were intentionally shooting with the aim to kill, not to intimidate.

History repeats itself often, so I am afraid to reach a point where all of us regret that we did not intervene forcefully to stop this massacre earlier. Look back to early history, and try to remind yourself about all the famous massacres or genocides in the long history of our strange humanity. You will figure out that everything happened due to ignorance and lack of interest or action. Then, what was the conclusion!? It was literally a disaster, a real one! So do we have to reach in Syria the level of Holocaust or the Rwandese genocide to drag the international community’s attention to act? Usually, they offer us the warm speeches and the nice words about the sympathy and the humanitarian help, but it is not enough at all. It needs a strong will and decisive intervention to solve it now. To be honest, I will be always confused and astonished by the different standards that people apply all over world!

The course of events in Syria, and since the beginning of the revolution in particular, has declined, although the situation has not reached the bottom yet. So it is not hard to understand that the events in Syria are expected to get worse, and the whole country is exposed to more destruction. This is highly dangerous, and will lead to a series of painful results in the coming future. Those results will affect the human being who is the most important element in this complicated equation, and will destroy the country’s normal structure, which will make it a real struggle for Syrian society to get back soon to normality after the end of these miserable circumstances. Furthermore, the surrounding region will be badly affected for sure. The area is complex and entangled in a lot of issues: ethnic origins, religions, economy…etc. Also, we have to take into consideration the number of the refugees who fled out to the surrounding countries, and their effect demographically and economically on these countries with time.

In the Syrian case, the international community doesn’t deal with a variation in the viewpoints between the two parties. The story is even more complicated. There is a regime that kills its people, and on the other hand, there are rebellious people seeking freedom and dignity. There is a system that uses all its forces, which were supposed to be at the Syrian’s service, to smash the unarmed people who are still begging for help from the international community, and actually what has been done yet remains minor. Unfortunately, we all know the dark side of history, when the international community neglected many massacres under many pretexts and then was forced to interfere, but it was always so late. This is what it seems will happen in the tragedy in Syria too. What a pity!

Orwa Al-Hussein

Member de la redaction valaisanne de Voix d’Exils