WAR AND THE SMALL NATIONS

(from the forerunner 192

Gibran Khalil Gibran

http://www.leb.net/gibran/

Once, high above a pasture, where a sheep and a lamb were grazing, an eagle was circling and gazing hungrily down upon the lamb. And as he was about to descend and seize his prey, another eagle appeared and hovered above the sheep and her young with the same hungry intent. Then the two rivals began to fight, filling the sky with their fierce cries.
The sheep looked up and was much astonished. She turned to the lamb and said:
"How strange, my child, that these two noble birds should attack one another. Is not the vast sky large enough for both of them? Pray, my little one, pray in your heart that God may make peace between your winged brothers."
And the lamb prayed in his heart.

the story sounds illogic to me.

 Poignant in many cases!    It´s a nice piece of writing too.

Thank you for posting a fragment of Khalil Gibran´s writings and the link to what looks like a great website.

His "The Prophet" has been among my favorite books since I was a teenager, I think he has an amazing insight into the human condition and psychology.

let me prove my point here that i previously commented it illogic

the story is about hugnry eagles and poor sheep.

1. the eagles are not fighting for a space in sky, they are fighting for food - absolutely understandable.

2. the sheep (brainless sheep) looked up at a sky and said "blah blah blah" or "mah mah mah". what can you expect from sheep to say?

3. the sheep doesnt say to her lamb: "come on baby, hide, run to the shepherd while these two are fighting". "look, at them my child, remember, whenever you see them, run, otherwise they will eat you".

now this called wisdom, not the blah blah you quoted.

Keeping the title of this short story in mind (war and small nations), and looking at the it from a metaphorical point of view, one can understand it better.

There is no place where small powerless nations can run and hide, and having a shepherd means that the country is a colony or under mandate so it is powerless anyways.

The only solutions is sit and wait to see what your fate will be.

The author Gibran  comes from a powerless small country, Lebanon. I am sure he was inspired by lebanese history when writting this story. 

Why he had the sheep pray!? May be to say that msot small nations are peaceful.

 Does that mean that femme gets her lecture on metaphors in literature????????

 Cedars ,you do not know women like femme at all

 to impress  her you need to chose and advocate  stronger piece of literature

Gibran can make her drop out of school

First time I hear someone call Gibran not brilliant.

well, you know, you always learn there are other opinions

The only one who didnt like his writings as far as I know was the church

interesting, there are not many people who think like me what church? there are many churches.

Of course everyone is entitled to his opinion.

thank you.

Keeping in mind that this story was written way before the existence of the state of Israel, so as you say the complex of victim hypothesis doesnt apply.

but it seems it still applies, seeing what he wrote and seeing what you write. your sorrow resembles the sorrow of many iranians who now miss the days of pahlavi.

A great book to read though on this subject by Avraham Burg, former knesset president and Tsahal lieutenant, "the holocaust is over we must rise from its ashes". He clearly says that the jews have the victim complex.

yes, they do. i dont deny it. thats understandable after what they got through nearly 5 thousands years of their existance as israelis.

As for the middle east problem, powerful Russia and powerful USA had a big role during the war you mention and the tiny little Israel you talk about has nuclear weapons with the blessing of the US whereas the surrounding countries do not.

when egypt (with the help of russia), syria, jordan and decided attacked israel USA stayed away, because russians told them if they were involving into this war russians will fully engage which may result in 3rd world war, therefore they left israel to itself to win the war.

i dont mind israel possessing the nuclear weapon due to their location where they are surrounded by wolves who are ready to jump on anytime.

I dont know why you brought education into this, I dont think we can call small nations uneducated just because they are small and powerless and their resources is limited. To give the lebanese example, lebanese are well educated and the rate of literacy (adult and youth above 15) is 88.3 (http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/3.html)

There is some work still to be done but 88% is not negligeable.

its not only lebanon i had on mind. even when you bring the statistics i dont think lebanese are greatly educated since we havent seen any bright lebanese scientist contributing to humankind.

The two phrases, "Self defense" and "accuse all around" are a bit contradictory no?

but you can always self-defend blaming everyone around for what you have.

you should take an example from jews, they go on no matter what, they even stopped crying and moaning, theres no way back, no matter how arabs will threaten them, they will be, and their economy will grow. look at israel, despite they were constantly attacked they are blooming, the land that once was empty and abandoned today is blooming and the only democracy in the middle east.

Anyways, if we sit and moan we are accused of being very weak, uneducated and have no base to create, invent, and for self defense  and if we fight back with the limited resources we have we are called terrorists! what a dilemna!

May be if we just vanish from this earth it will make you happy

oh, baby, dont cry. you have no good foundation but you can still grow powerful economically through education.

theres no war between you and israel and why should you fight back? make peace, restore the trade and education relationships with israel, and i can gurantee that you will succeed.

but if you sti back and take revenge with your limited arms then you will go nowhere.

I wish what you say was true. Lebanon was always under either occupation or mandate or supervision of other countries.

The only short period of time we had a true independence was during "emir Fakhreddine" rule and later the ottomans raised an army to restore order in lebanon and fakhreddine  was hanged.

 So Lebanon was always annexed either to the surrounding countries or under ottoman rule or french mandate. Even after what we call independence we had couple of years of peace before the inevitable civil war started of course fueled by foreign countries. The root cause of war is the discriminating law that favors one religeous group over the others. Injustice brings wars.

So our problem  goes  back way before before palestinians and hizballa.

inally If i were to choose between being the eagle or the sheep I would  choose the peaceful sheep, may be they are not smart but they are peaceful.

i dont think french mandate was bad. it helped you to become more civilized, like british colony pulled egypt out of backwardness, but they threw brits out of the country just because of their pride. as soon as brits left egypt returned to its backwardness.

 Yes, what a wonderful legacy they left. Honestly ms. femmeous...I don´t know how you can argue about Khalil Gibran. He was one of the most distinguished writers of all time. His works inspire millions of people to live peaceful lives.

French...with their how many years of civilization?....as compared to the many thousands of years of documented historic contributions of the peoples of Lebanon...aka Phoenicia....the Phoenician alphabet, which predated Hebrew.

Personally,I consider Gibran as  an ingenious one.He inspired flower children in 60´s ))),philosophers and spiritual writers as well

well,tragic writer  and painter.His paintings are unclenched,showing the beauty of human´s body,a bit controversial for prudish ones  but incredible.

And the fact that he was faithful to his real love  Merry Haskel,although they could not be together,she took big part of his life being his support in his bad times and his muse.

His love letters are stunning

Impossible! 

 Oh,Libra why don´t you give him a chance?

 Civilizations evolve and devolve...the human population stays and also evolve and intermarry, but the foundation remains....unless the people are exterminated or driven away. Even then, it´s almost impossible to totally eradicate a people.

As for staying blind and uneducated, I´m so pleased to be of some help in that arena.

 i think you often write things you dont fully understand. yes civilizations come and go. humans stay, but they have no link to the past except for the historical evidences like scrolls or remains of their existence.

as i have said those who today live in the land of egypt have nothing to do with copts who built piramides and lebanese have nothing to do with phonecians. why do i state so? because they have nothing common with them, they dont speak the same language, the dont eat the same food, they dont practise the same religion. the link was lost. end of story.

but i doubt if you understand such simple things.

 Pharaohs you mean !

Honestly femmeous, i think you dont know what you are talking about

You just heard some info from here and there then adding some flavour of yours.

Copts didnt build any pyramids, as you may know Pharaohs werent copts, and they goes long way back before Christianity

By the time that Christianity reached Egypt, Egypt was under foreign rullers, and been ruled for many many years

So pyramids time was long time over.

Adding to that ...

We do have many words that we use in our language from Pharaohs time

We do have many food from that time we still eat.

We do celebrate some events too till now.

Ýts our heritage....our culture

But i dont expect you would understand this.

 Actually, you are, as usual, wrong....

"Blood typing and DNA sampling on ancient Egyptian mummies is scant; however, blood typing of dynastic mummies found ABO frequencies to be most similar to modern Egyptians..."

and....

"Analyses of the Y chromosomal data revealed the presence of at least seven related genetic lineages from places around the Mediterranean Sea where Phoenicians had lived.

These lineages suggest that the Phoenicians contributed their genes to at least six percent of the modern populations of historic Phoenician trading outposts.

"Our findings suggest that the Phoenicians left behind a genetic legacy that persists till modern times," Tyler-Smith said."

and on Jewish DNA

The earlier study, led by Dr. Michael Hammer of University of Arizona, showed from an analysis of the male, or Y chromosome, that Jewish men from seven communities were related to one another and to present-day Palestinian and Syrian populations, but not to the men of their host communities.

 As far as i am concerned Khalil Gibran was a painter !

And words were his brush

Obedient one, used it any way he liked to paint the most beautiful paintings that you may may feel yourself exactly where he wanted

You dont just read his poems, you swim within in that lovely world he is taking you too.

Ý love Gibran, he was one of the poets that taught me to read,feel,understand Þiir.

 How about this femm.....

"The probability is high that each of us shares a common ancestor within the last 500 years, and almost certainly within the past 1000 years.

If any one of the 2,097,152 people in your own family tree (since 150 had not existed, or had been a different individual, then you would not exist, or would only partially exist, metaphysically, as part of a completely different human being.

"In the end, we truly ARE all brothers and sisters of one great, extended family." - Rick Perez, 2001"

 So....sister.....

Mary haskell played a big role in his life. She helped him publish his work and later she took part of buying the monastrey I think for his museum.  The loved letters are very nice.

Also later in Gibran´s life, May ziadeh´s  had an effecnt on his writtings. They exchanged ideas and also love letters. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Ziade) 

They are published under  ISBN-13: 978-1851681068

As they say "chercher la femme", search for the woman

Gibran is universal,he belongs to the world now.I would be delighted if you could post anything from Lebanese poetry..to tell the truth I heard only about Waadih Sa´adeh

I know misterious sky by him .Thank you in advance)

That is the beauty of litterature and arts, it goes beyond borders of continents, religions and beliefs. Gibran is universal as you said.

The most famous lebanese poets are the ones along with Gibran established the New york Pen league. Mikhail Naimy was one of them and he was the first to publish Gibran´s biography, also there was Iliya abou madhi and Ameen Rihani.

I havent heard of  wadih saadeh, thanks for the info. I check his website and it is really nice.

Here is a link to Rihani´s website with some of his poems in english.

http://www.ameenrihani.org

Whirl, whirl, whirl
Till the world is the size of a pearl.

Dance, dance, dance
Till the world´s like the point of a lance.

Soar, soar, soar
Till the world is no more.

A CHANT OF MYSTICS

I am the East,
I am the corner stone
Of the first temple of God
And the first throne of Humanity...

I am the East,
I possess philosophies and creeds
So who would exchange them with me for technology

HYMNS OF THE VALLEYS
(Hutaf-ul Awdiya)

My wish is to live without disliking anyone,
To love without being jealous of anyone,
To rise without being elevated over anyone, and
To advance without stepping on anyone or becoming envious of those above me

THE RIHANI ESSAYS
(Ar Rihaniyat)

 thanx for info,really interesting

ps.In your fiery debate with femme you mentioned TV as lebanese invention?

Strange ,I was taught TV system was invented by 14 year old American ingenious boy Philo Farnsworth...

well ,if the child is excellent many may hold being its fathers

He did not invent the  TV system but rather his work was on the transmission of TV signal.

"he was engaged in mathematical and experimental research, principally on rectifiers and inverters and he received 43 patents covering his work. Among the patents were reported innovations in television transmission"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Kamel_Al-Sabbah

 aha,good to know

 you have stolen my post.

but i want to add this:

Hassan Kamel Al-Sabbah (August 16, 1895 - March 31, 1935) was an electrical and electronics research engineer, mathematician and inventor. He was born in Nabatieh, Lebanon. He studied at the American University of Beirut. He taught mathematics at Imperial College of Damascus, Syria, and at the American University of Beirut. He died in an automobile accident at Lewis near Elizabeth Town, N.Y.

In 1921, he travelled to the United States and for a short time studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the University of Illinois in 1923. He entered the vacuum tube section of the Engineering Laboratory of the General Electric Company at Schenectady N.Y. in 1923 where

 amerika, and again amerika. no amerika - no engagement to the science.

The maronite mainly since he was maronite.

His museum is now in a monastrey Mar sarkis. he always wanted

to buy it from the fransiscan brothers and after his death Gibran foundation was able to buy it for him and he was burried there. The one who has no roots has no tomorrow didnt someone say that!

ok, fair enough. read it in wikipedia. and the most important thing is that he was burried in lebanon. the rest doesnt matter to you.

you see, theres a difference between me and you, i dont believe in things like roots, because im no tree. what matters to me is what i am and who i am and what i can offer to others. i can be burried anywhere, after i die it doesnt matter where my body goes. its dead, nasty stinking piece of filth, nothing more.

You really believe that the US stayed away and her airforce didnt participate!!!

seriously!

US airforce didnt participate in it, however aircrafts were supplied.  golda meir made a huge mistake when she listened to the west and didnt strike first.

If you do not know of any that doesnt mean they do not exist.

i greatly agree with this statement.

Below are few names of lebanese world known scientists and their contribution to humanity.The wikipedia link below has some more.

yep, i did have a look at them.

You will be amazed to know that you can watch TV (TV transmission invention) due to the invention of a lebanese " and his work is patented in the US

dear dear, dont exaggerate, pleeeeeeease, his works on the vaccum tube i dont find very much significant as the works of his other colleages. i had a look on a vacuum tube in wikipedia and couldnt find his name in it, so he must be one of those 43 supportive scientists.

he ows his achievements to USA, if not US he wouldnt be there engaged in science.

Elias Corey, another christian american!!!

Elias James Corey (born July 12, 1928) is an American organic chemist. In 1990 he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis", specifically retrosynthetic analysis.^[1][2] Regarded by many as one of the greatest living chemists, he has developed numerous synthetic reagents, methodologies, and has advanced the science of organic synthesis considerably.

He was born to Christian Lebanese immigrants in Methuen, Massachusetts, 30 miles north of Boston. His mother changed his name to "Elias" to honor his father who died eighteen months after the birth of his son. His widowed mother, brother, two sisters and an aunt and uncle all lived together in a spacious house—struggling through the depression. He attended Catholic elementary school and Lawrence Public High School.[

Michael Debakey - another christian american!!!

Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D. (September 7, 1908 – July 12, 2008) was a world-renowned American heart surgeon (from Lebanese origins), innovator, medical educator, and international medical statesman.^[2] DeBakey was the chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and director of The Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and senior attending surgeon of The Methodist Hospital in Houston.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb - another christian american

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (born 196 (Arabic: نسيم نيقولا نجيب طالب&lrm (alternative spellings of first name: Nessim or Nissim) is a literary essayist, epistemologist, polymath, scholar of randomness and knowledge, researcher, and former practitioner of mathematical finance.^[2][3][4][5] A specialist in financial derivatives[3]he held a "day job" in a lengthy senior trading and financial mathematics career in a number of New York City´s Wall Street firms, before starting a second career as a scholar in the epistemology of chance events to focus on his project of mapping how to live and act in a world we do not understand, and how to come to grips with randomness and the unknown —which includes his black swan theory of unexpected rare events.^[6]

Taleb´s extremely idiosyncratic literary approach consists of providing a modern-day brand of philosophical tale by mixing narrative fiction, often semi-autobiographical, with erudition and scientific commentary

i thought you would come with really big fish and surprise me. "hey, look at this, they are all born and raised in lebanon and had labs there. i thought lebanon has produced great scientists that i wasnt aware of. i thought i missed something. you give me no surprise!

The land was not empty as you said and there are UN reports of how many villages were destroyed and how meople displaced in 1948.

not true, there were many travellers, since jerusalem was the religious centre, pilgrims were flowing into there, and their impressions were not exciting, they all stated that palastine was empty and disgusting place to live in, and they couldnt understand how this place could be called the promised land.

Second, how can you call it a democracy when there are 2 ranks of israeli citizens, israeli jews rank 1st and israeli non jews rank 2nd. Israeli druze for example serve in the israeli army and have members in the knesset and not matter how devoute they are and show their loyalty to the state of israel it sill considers them 2nd rank citizens and favors jews. tell me how you be called this democracy!!

I can send you a link with the israeli druze knesset member saying exactly this unfortunately it is in arabic.

thats as simple as it could be. israel has not tasted peace, all neighbourhood is enemy. so i wouldnt let them serve in army.

Israel still occupies Shiba´a farms, a lebanese territories. Again refer to the UN maps and you will clearly see it always was lebanese land.

So as long as our land is occupied we will fight back.

i think theres a better way to deal this.

i dont think french mandate was bad. it helped you to become more civilized,

You sound like the french right  wing who were trying to pass a law in 2005 about the "positive value of colonialism"  Luckily enough the law was repealed.

You should read Aimé Césaire, (Discours sur le colonialisme, 195.

"Colonization, I repeat it, dehumanizes  man even the most civilized one; [..] the colonial action, the colonial business, the colonial conquest, based on the contempt of the native man and justified by this contempt,tries to inevitably  modify the one who adopts it; [..] the colonizing one, that, to give itself good conscience, gets used to see in the other the beast, trains to treat it as beast, tends objectively at the end to transform himself into beast"

" La colonisation, je le répète, déshumanise l’homme même le plus civilisé ; [...] l’action coloniale, l’entreprise coloniale, la conquête coloniale, fondée sur le mépris de l’homme indigène et justifiée par ce mé­pris, tend inévitablement à modifier celui qui l’entreprend ; [...] le colonisateur, qui, pour se donner bonne conscience, s’habitue à voir dans l’autre la bête, s’entraîne à le traiter en bête, tend objectivement à se transformer lui-­même en bête. »

i know many british colonies like australia, canada, america, hong-kong etc etc. where everybody wants to live including you lebanese.

but  i also know some arab colonies like, pakistan, afghanistan, iran, iraq etc etc. not nice places to live.