1. Every one of the speakers mentioned the segregation of Kuwait University as a landmark in the path to inevitable destruction that the Islamists are leading this country. To them I say: Where the $%&@ were you when that law was passed?! How could you possibly roll over and let them walk all over you?! And where the hell were the students themselves? Shouldn't they have been demonstrating against this grave assault on their livelihoods?! I keep having romantic visions of the student revolts of Paris 1968, and wishing something like that could happen here... sigh.
2. I'm a huge fan of the writer and poet Dr. Khalifa Al-Wegayan, and the poem that he wrote in 1984 and read out to us was so prescient of today's crisis situation. The second poem that he read should be scanned, photocopied, faxed, emailed and slipped under the doors of every Islamist around the world!
3. Many of the speakers very rightly criticized the supposedly liberal MPs - THAT'S YOU IN THE FRONT ROW, MOHAMMED AL-SAGER!! - for their inexcusable silence and lack of any counter intitiative against the relentless assaults on personal liberties.
4. All the speakers insisted that this wasn't just about the right to attend musical concerts (to all you readers outside Kuwait, I'm embarrassed just typing this!), and yet you can't help think that this was the straw that broke the camel's back.
5. As a founding - and sadly inactive - member of the National Democratic Movement, I pledge now in front of God and all of you to take a more active role in future.
6. Where the hell was MadM2000? Did anyone see him? I'm waiting for his take on the rally
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
More on the Rally..
Now that I've slept on the issue and had time to replay the newsreel in my head overnight, here are a few more observations from last night's rally:
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Dear Zaydoon,
ReplyDeleteTrue, where were we! I was a student at KU during the dismal 90s, and the complete indifference that I met in most of the students concerning the segregation law was even more shocking to me than the Islamists' call for segregation, and I'm afraid the same goes for women's suffrage, most of my female classmates met my call for our rights with blank dreamy eyes which keep haunting me until now.
I guess nothing suits our situation better than Burke's reflection: "All that evil needs to rise is for the good people to remain silent".
- BTW You are not the only one dreaming of the 1968 student rise in France, I think of it all the time, but cannot help reminding myself that burning the Abayya in Kuwait has served the same symbolic resonance in our modern history, so the good news, we did have our student revolution, but the bad news, its in the past, and it seems the previous generation has failed to pass its implications down to ours, or worse, failed to prepare us for such a responsibility, hence complete nonchalance :"(
It's good to see you posting again, keep it up to update oversees students like me.
Aishah.. my mother was one of the girls who burned their Abayah, so you can see where I get my lofty ideals. You're right about the general apathy in this country.. sometimes I think to myself "if they don't care, why should I?"
ReplyDeleteI just came across this post while I was looking at things said about KU's segregation. I was really angry at seeing some pictures of the to-be-segregated KU campus which will be done in 2025 (I doubt). The future campus is divided into two separate buildings. One is for men and the other is for women. And I couldn't help but feel disgusted at the huge sums of money spent to accomplish this project. The campus looks amazing, but the future environment isn't!
ReplyDeleteI just graduated from KU this term and looking back at my English department, I feel proud that we all (boys and girls) broke the segregation law by socializing NORMALLY. What made it easy for us was the dramatic performances we prepared for every year and the support of our professors. We've made it, although we've been warned and threatened by some higher authorities in KU that we were doing something against the law and therefore, boys and girls should stop working together.
How long are we going to remain silent? I hope it won't be late for us to do something before the construction of KU's future campus is already done!
I just came across this post while I was looking at things said about KU's segregation. I was really angry at seeing some pictures of the to-be-segregated KU campus which will be done in 2025 (I doubt). The future campus is divided into two separate buildings. One is for men and the other is for women. And I couldn't help but feel disgusted and imagine the huge sums of money spent to accomplish this project. The campus looks amazing, but the future environment isn't!
ReplyDeleteI just graduated from KU this term and looking back at my English department, I feel proud that we all (boys and girls) broke the segregation law by socializing NORMALLY. What made it easy for us was the dramatic performances we prepared for every year and the support of our professors. We've made it, although we've been warned and threatened by some higher authorities in KU that we were doing something against the law and therefore, boys and girls should stop working together.
How long are we going to remain silent? I hope it won't be late for us to do something before the construction of KU's future campus is already done!