Assaad El-Takash:INNOCENCE

When I have read Janine Jouni's article,I remembered what had happened to me sixty years ago.
   To begin with, as much as I cried at that time in the past, I burst out laughing today.
   We were five boys,seven and eight- year old, playing in the dusty and rocky alleys of our village. Suddenly,a young man came,carrying a metallic box,shouting:"Ice cream,Ice cream."We hurried up to him. The seller said:"Each piece costs ten,but two for fifteen."So,we took the offer and gave him the due amount. But,to our surprise,the size of the second piece was half the first.We refused and claimed our money back.He also refused. Therefore,we shouted and cried but in vain. Then,we threw at him the pieces of pebbles and we ran away.He followed us ,leaving the box. In the meantime,one of my friends hurried up and spilled all the ice cream on the ground.
   In fact,it was a funny incident. But, from that day on, I do not like neither to bargain nor to buy two things and get one for free.

Abdallah Fadel:Victims of War

  This article (innocent child) narrates true events that  happened to a lady who lives in Lebanon with her daughter, Petty. At the beginning, the mother described a packing scene where that lady decided to travel anywhere to any country where she could find peace and shelter with her daughter. Her daughter started crying and begged her not to leave Lebanon thinking that it was her fault for breaking the toy so that the mother was punishing her by taking such a decision. However, the mother justified  that the point from their escape was that Lebanon was not a safe place for living and that she aimed  to protect her child from any kind of harm and be able to afford a better life than her own. Lebanon in this article was described as a country where citizen were refugees, a place where freedom and democracy no longer existed, dictatorship and injustice were overwhelming . This lady had experienced the war feeling where she escaped with her family to the village for a safer place. She didn't want her child to live the war experience. She hoped Lebanon would be a place where real security exists, where religion wasn't the root for the problems, a place where humans wouldn't be  bombarded with politics, cultural traditions and injustices. But that  sense of hope doesn't seem to emerge , so she decided to escape to a better place. Lebanon and its society limited the capabilities of a child. It jams little kids’ imaginations into tiny boxes, and no matter how hard the children tried to get out, somehow they always found their shoelaces caught in the corner of the box. The second day, the mother woke up with discomfort feeling that something wrong had befallen her. Her daughter wanted to go for a school farewell. She gave her a ride and then went back to continue packing. Suddenly, she heard a bomb near her daughter’s  school. She ran quickly hoping her daughter wasn't the victim. But no one can run away from fate. Like all the children, petty was another victim of Lebanon terrorist’s acts. This story illustrates that we are living in a country where humans are victims of religion, politics and traditions. What a cruel world we are living in? Where could our innocent child have a future with such cruelty? Happiness no longer exists. In short, this story reflects the conditions people are experiencing in Lebanon. Lebanon connotes a country where humans lack their least standards for living that is safety. This lady describes the current situation where people are escaping from Lebanon for security; this story narrates true events , and people are suffering from internal conflicts and wars.

Abdallah Fadel:This is Life

Who never had the experience where his mind rewind all his life memories while seated alone for conscience filtration whether these memories remind him of sweet or bitter events. God created humans and distinguished them among all creatures. This distinction allowed humans to invent all the tools to survive over all predators. However, all these creations were already obtained from God's original creator. In other words, humans invented video tapes for recording events. This invention is similar to God's creation of human brain whereby it is a  constant and non-stoppable recording tool of each and every living moment till death. Aside what is mentioned, each individual when trying to recall previous events thinks that his action was ridiculous. Who doesn’t recall having detention, failing in a subject or being suspended from school once in his life time and was under stress for notifying his parents of the troubles occurred. Who doesn't remember teenage stage when he broke up with his girlfriend and cried all night of the farewell? Childhood, teenage, university, employment, and marriage; during each of these periods we experienced  various moments that made us cry and now when we recall ,we simply smile and say what the hell made me act that  way! How ridiculous I was!! Here comes a question why we cry today  and laugh tomorrow? The answer is simple, humans grow every single moment. They learn and their experiences increase their maturity stages and make moments seem very simple for them after a period of time. In general, life is too short  to make a fuss out of worthless things. Simply, enjoy and cherish each moment and try making the best of it. The prophet says, “Tie your camel, and then put your trust in Allah” in other words ,beware of each action you make and enjoy life within boundaries you abide by. All what is mentioned is stated in the narrator’s article which is titled “cry today and laugh tomorrow”. Mrs. Jinan wanted readers to be informed that life is full of obstacles and complications, but the wise person is who diminishes the incident and makes control over it so that panic won’t govern the environment. Each problem we fall in makes us stronger and more cognizant. Problems have two paths either to be solved or to cry over. The role of the individual determines which path to encounter.

Narrators  style of writing:

Several challenging vocabularies were used in the writing like disseminated, prominent, grouchy, inconspicuous, ostensible, wretchedness, and witticism. However, each word was understood through mentioning another simple synonym word in the same sentence. In general, the writer’s style of writing is informative and descriptive. She described grade 5 experience in school and then informed the readers about how life problems should be faced and that life is too short to worry about.

Rawya Charafeddine:Bitterness of war

    Afflicted mother… I could hear her voice shouting, yelling, and crying … I could see through her eyes the bodies of small children… I could smell death on the streets … she succeeded in sharing with me, and with all readers, her emotions, her tears, her pain and her fears… I suffered with her, I cried with her, I prayed with her and I felt her anger, anxiety and depression … although she refrained from mentioning how she discovered her girl’s death; I could imagine easily her terrible situation, and I could relive her memories… every lamentable memory she evoked could be a trial to bring back her daughter to life.

    In fact, I made a big effort to continue reading this article for many reasons:

    At first, instead of making the text gripping for the readers, the introduction, confusing and ambiguous, seems discouraging; this revolting feeling is intensified and reinforced by the very long sentences and the sophisticated and exaggerated style.

    Secondly, it wasn’t easy to me to read such  touching text putting the Lebanese war on the spot; this article, full of sad memories and bleeding images, reminded me of the horrible moments in my life .I could relive the war. All in this story made me suffer and every detail made me distressed ; the mother presented and described her only daughter “innocent child”; she also wrote their discourse ,and she mentioned the last time she saw her and the last air kiss she got from her… and at the end, she tore my heart by the death of that  child “broken like her toy” … the end was shocking and depressing because I could relive the past with the mother and imagine her situation; it’s so bitter .

     This synopsis resumes all the writer- mother’s life…we don’t need even to predict anything about her life after she lost her daughter because she gave us a clear idea about how she was spending her empty life “… I watch the news every day… and I strike my baby girl’s kitten…”;  this kitten seems helping her to bear her loss and her pain… Even Lebanon became a part of her new life… in this country, she buried her soul… So at the end, she couldn’t leave…

    But, I couldn’t stop myself from wondering if she was feeling guilty about what happened to her daughter “I promised to keep her safe, and I broke that promise”, “I am a murderer”!!?

    Also, this article could be a way to immortalize her pain, her daughter and Lebanon as a disheartened place and a vicious circle. Actually, from her own story, she wrote the story of a country, the story of every person living in Lebanon and especially the story of every mother living her situation. Indeed, she revealed a similar and analogous situation between her childhood and her daughter’s one, to say implicitly that the awful socio-political situation in Lebanon didn’t and doesn’t and will never change and that who lives in this despairing place will live the incessant war and instability.

    Thus, she tried to generalize her own experience to transmit a message of peace to her readers. Through this article ,she was trying to sensitize the readers by showing them the disaster, the violence and the misdeeds of the war. She wanted to tell all Lebanese people how terrible the  war is !!

Assaad El-Takash:Another Touching Reflection

The writer,Janine Jouni, has used simple and clear language to express the conception of the transformation of the thoughts according to time and place. What is considered to be outrageous in the past will become insignificant and trivial in the future. In addition,she documented her ideas by citing H.G.Wells saying:"The crisis of yesterday is the joke of tomorrow."According to me,it is the joke of today.
Since our life is in continual motion, nothing will remain the same. Hepucuros, the famous Greek philosopher said:"We can not swim twice in the river." That means our present differs from our past and future. Therefore, each time has its qualities. Furthermore, we should value the grace of forgetting, not Alzheimer disease.That grace empowers humans to remove almost everything in our mind.

Assaad El-Takash: Touching Reflection

My comment on Xena Amro's story, The Innocent Child, consists of three points.
First, the style is simple, clear, concise, and reader friendly.
Second, the content is touching, sincere, and honest. It captures the reader from the first word till the end. It is a breathtaking story. Hundreds, even thousands of crimes, similar to that one, had happened. During the last four decades, most of the Lebanese families lost, at least, one member, such as victim, injured, refugee, escapee or immigrant. Many villages were demolished. Till now, their inhabitants could not return. Besides, the content conveys distress, anger. Anxiety, and sadness. The writer believes that religion, politics, cultural traditions, and injustice are the roots of the problems. People live and grow up with fear. There is no tomorrow in Lebanon. So, the best solution is to leave, escape as the kangaroo did. But, the war did not give the mother any chance. A bomb explosion destroyed all her plans, projects, and dreams. The six-year old daughter was killed.
Finally, needless to say that while I was reading this story, my eyes dropped two warm tears, one for the innocent child, and the second for Lebanese people who were born, and are still living in endless war.

Issam Hobballah: Reflections on Innocent Child

                                                                                                Monday 8 Dec. 2014

Issam Hobballah

            Reading the story of this young Lebanese mother has brought to me to the dark events which had shaken our country for decades. It is actually a touching narrative of a mother who is deploring the loss of her daughter in a terrorist explosion at the entrance of the school.

            I can’t but express my deep feelings of compassion towards this distressed young mother.

            The title is “Innocent Child”. The story is really a spokesperson of the whole Lebanese people. I will start commenting  by suggesting a minor change of the title by saying “Innocent Nation”. Indeed, we are the innocent people who are still losing hope for new generations, stability for the markets and dream to leave the land of our ancestors. Running away is the behavior of cowards. We intend to struggle for a country more secure, stronger and more convinced of our message and role in the area.

            Back to Xena Amro, I would like to praise her style, her fertile imagination even though I have denoted some reservations about some of her thoughts and conceptions.

The Style

            This afflicted mother is so spontaneous in the description of her misfortune, so true, that you cannot restrain your eyes from being on the verge of tears. We can understand how demoralized she is, when we get her shouting “My innocent Child” six repeated times, just at the introduction. We can feel her deep sadness when we listen carefully to her conversation with her beloved daughter and when we imagine the angelic tears trickling down the cheeks of the baby.

            It is really stirring, moving, to know how the Lebanese children have lived their childhood and how much their parents have suffered and endured.

            Xena Amro commands so perfectly her English that she used some old ways of saying, like the word “Thee”, or the expression “now and then”, which might surprise readers like me. Anyway, it was a benefit that I will add to my knowledge, owing to Xena!

The Thoughts and Conceptions

            There is a pile of ideas. Some of them are common convictions, some other are controversial subjects.

            Before I start explaining my point of view, I would like to pay tribute to the courage and honesty of the writer, although I may have a different opinion about a few topics. However, maturity has taught me that nobody should pretend owning the truth, all the truth!

            So, on the one hand, I agree with Xena when she said “I know the feeling of terror when bombs explode near your house”. “I know the fear of having your phone signal turn off when you are trying to reach your loved ones”. “I grew up being bombarded with politics, religion, cultural traditions and injustice”.

            On the other hand, I know that a wounded male or female, may shout his or her pain in an extended dimension. Because when people are suffering, we should listen not by ears only, but by heart and mind also. Xena didn’t hesitate to say “religion was, and still is, the root of the problem”.

            This is a misleading approach to the Lebanese ordeal. I do not agree with her, to sum up our problems under this title.

            We should make a difference between religion and manipulation of concepts. Politicians and secret services of regional and international super powers are looking after their detailed interests by using any means to win and reach their aims. No matter if it may cost blood, exodus, dismantling societies and countries.

            Another weird idea: she had dreamt since she was a child, to get away to her “real house” where she would never be judged or underestimated for being female.

            It is too much hearing such allegation!! After all, we are in Lebanon; we are not in a so backward country! Of course, we still have a lot to do for the utter equality between men and women, but what the writer said is more than wrong. The Lebanese women nowadays are ministers at the cabinet, members of the parliament, judges, officers, and professors at the highest level.

The last comment that I like to convey is the following:

            Xena dreams of a place of work where bosses won’t harass women if they choose to wear a skirt! She dreams of Lebanon punishing the rapist rather than nourishing the rape culture.

            She has watched too many American movies. It’s time to remind her that even with one or two cases a year; the powerful media will fail in giving a wrong and unfair picture of Lebanon. I am filled with a very outrageous feeling. Definitely, Xena is talking about another country and maybe she is reviving some movies she had watched on TV.

            I would remind her that Bill Clinton was having an affair with his secretary. Francois Holland as well, has been reported to entertain love stories with his mistresses, such as the Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing. I like to mention the Italian Prince Minister Berlusconi and his adventures.

            So, calm down for the sake of God, and a little honesty and reasonable judgment when approaching these topics will be great.