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Serious satire
"Humor is a funny way of being serious"
-Thomas Edison
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Copyright© 2001-2010, Renato Obeid
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"Top blog/Renato Obeid's World/Today's pick: This rambling weblog is worth reading not so much for its satirical posts but more for its insight into the minutiae of life in Lebanon, including the etiquette of road accidents and how to hire a taxi.”
-Jane Perrone, The Guardian
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Tuesday, June 03, 2003
IF AT FIRST YOU DONT SECEDE TRY, TRY AGAIN. ( PART TWO )
Speaking of which, secessionism that is ( not T-shirts ), a "Swiss style federal" solution has long been touted as a solution to all the worlds ethnic conflicts - most recently in Cyprus during the failed negotiations aimed at reunifying the divided island.
My question is why don't we hear more about a "Cyprus style partition solution" to those aforementioned conflicts?
I'm not a seccesionist ( or a "splitist" as the Chinese government calls them ) but I do think that we need more "Cyprus style partition solutions" ( by the way, I'm not a Cypriot either - I'm an Idiot ).
If compatriots can't or won't or don't want to get along with their fellow countrymen then why don't they just freeze everything, stop the killing and retire to their seperate bedrooms until they can learn to and are ready to play nicely.
As far as the Northern Cypriot Turks go, the "Cyprus problem" was solved in 1974 with the defacto partition .
It's not the perfect ideal solution but neither is war which is often the inevitable alternative!
Looking at it in the cold hard light of realism and realpolitik it's a simple equation.
How many Cypriots, from both communities, died in communal violence before 1974?
I don't have the exact figures but there were scores of them!
How many Cypriots died in communal whatever after 1974?
None!
Theres the solution ( for the time being )!
Because nobody wants a civil war and nobody wins a civil war!
Civil war is suicide – you're killing your own, a no-win situation
The term "civil war" is a misnomer - "civil wars", like all wars, are not civil!
INS AND OUTS
I spent a week on Cyprus in October 1993 and I found it a lovely place but I couldn’t understand why I was ‘’on’’ Cyprus not ‘’in’’ Cyprus yet when I’m in Australia (another island) I’m ‘’in’’ Australia not ‘’on’’ Australia.
I.e. why do they generally refer to events in Cyprus as ‘’on’’ Cyprus yet refer to events in Australia as ‘’in’’ Australia?
I’m assuming that it’s because Cyprus is a relatively small island (an English teacher friend of mine concurred with this theory too) and because Australia is a large island continent (obviously size does matter).
I just feel sorry for the Cypriots who have to spend a lifetime perched atop (‘’on’’) Cyprus – surely it can’t be very comfortable.
And if it’s about size why is it that we’re in Lebanon (which is about the size of Cyprus anyway) and not on Lebanon.
I’m assuming it’s the island factor.
And the Vatican!
Don’t get me started on the Vatican!
I can’t understand why I spent a bit* of time ‘’at’’ the Vatican in 1991 and not ‘’in’’ or ‘’on’’ the Vatican.
Bit* is the operative word here.
My brother and I, being the heathens we are, basically drove past the Vatican on a Vespa (while gallivanting around Rome), stopped for a moment next to it , looked at it and drove away.
‘’Look, it’s the Vatican’’
‘’Ok, let’s go’’.
That was my first time abroad and the juxtaposition and contrast between the new and the ancient couldn’t have been greater.
Travelling from the newest of the New World to the ancient outdoor museum/shrine/tomb that is Rome was like travelling back in time.
9:04 am
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