The Garden

There once was a King who had a very beautiful garden.  It was filled with trees and colorful flowers of all kinds.  The King dedicated all his time and fortune to transform this garden into a botanical paradise.  It was the first place he’d go to in the morning and the last to visit at night. 

He was obsessed by keeping it well manicured and pretty that he hired the best gardeners money can buy to look after his garden.

One day while taking his usual morning stroll along the flower beds, he noticed a family of birds nesting in a tree, and then he saw a squirrel stashing its food supply in another.  The King panicked, he did not want anything to distort his paradise or cause it any harm.  He started looking around to discover more creatures and animals “invading” his garden.  The King became angry and threatened by all these “intruders”.  The small rabbit nibbling on the grass became a more serious threat that the kingdom next door.  The bee flying from one rose to another kept him awake at night planning new tactics for possible air raids.

Driven by his worries, the King ordered his gardeners and guards to build a huge wall around his garden to protect it from intruders.  He ordered them to install devices that will kill or capture any creature that might come close to any of the threes.  He ordered guards to whoosh away the bees, chase away the birds and capture any rabbit that dares dig one hole in the ground.

The King succeeded in keeping every creature out of his garden.  But his victory did not last long.  A new invisible threat was causing his flowers to stop blooming and the leaves on his trees to fall.  He watched in agony as his paradise started withering slowly and its colors fading.

The King recognized what he has done and ordered his men to immediately dismantle the walls and remove all devices that scared the creatures away.  But not a single animal was back.

The King felt helpless and very lonely.  He stood in the middle of what is left from his garden with his arms stretched calling on the birds and welcoming the creatures back.  He stood there from dawn to dusk with open arms, but not a single one came back.  For the animals were terrified by the King’s new “scarecrow”.

Mouhanad

United We Stand... In a True Democracy

Whenever more than one person plan to accomplish any task no matter what, it is bound to have more than one way to do it.  No two minds are alike and differences in opinion are expected regardless how compatible or how synergized a group is.

However, what matters is how leaders react in face of the other opinion and what consequences might come out from taking these disagreements beyond what they are.  History books are filled with countless acts of incongruities that lead to major disasters.

Unfortunately, even with this matter disparities exist.  The higher societies are on the civilization totem pole, the more different their response is towards the other side. 

Civilized societies with an acceptable level of democracy (since true democracy only exists in Utopia) no matter how passionate they are about their point of view, and regardless how strong they feel about their opinion, and no matter how loud and aggressive they will voice their dismay with the final decision; at the end of the day come together as one and work on the plan as it is determined by the majority.

Some societies are still operating in the "I, Myself and Me" mode where "everything should be done my way and if you don't like it then I am taking my toys and leaving the sand box" or "I will sabotage the whole thing if I am not leading it".  Sadly, many of our Arab societies fall within this category and if the recent events sweeping the Arab World from Tripoli to Baghdad taught us anything, it is that we are still fixated on the absolute "I and then the flood".

We as Arab Americans are not immune to this.  We let our differences dictate how we function.  Even sometimes when the cause is so noble, we allow disagreements to diminish any chance of success.  This is neither a secret nor an overstatement.  We all know what an effective power we can be if we speak with one voice.  Others have mastered this and are reaping the benefits for ages while we still ponder whether we should get involved or not to or "what's in it for me".

NAAMA should and must speak with one voice.  We can still have our agreements, our differences, our arguments and screaming matches, it is a sign of healthy democracy, but at the end of the day, we should join as one united for the ultimate goal.  

There is no other way around it; otherwise we will not exist as individual "I"s.

Mouhanad