Tuesday, July 18, 2006

45 comments:

  1. We assist and keep you in our hearts and our words - dayly :-)
    HBW, Germany

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  2. Thanks again for the work and thoughts...what is the best way to resist? Is this a form of resistance,,perhaps it is, but also I would say peace in your heart may bring about peace..but I am not in a war zone.
    thanks again, keep up the wonderful work, T.

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  3. So did you decide to leave or to stay.
    Haven't about that yet.
    regards.

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  4. is it really resisting whenever we don't find Saumon and Caviar in the supermarket?
    or if our preferred restaurant is closed?
    I mean are you guys really feeling that we are living a war?
    well I remember war and it wasn't like that, being in the heart of Beirut and having almost 24hrs of electricity, internet, phone, bread, fuel...
    I think we ae still leaving a freaking schizophrenia.
    About what resistance are we talking about?
    could someone please answer?

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  5. sorry I meant living not leaving.
    by the way Mazen are you leaving?

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  6. dear tony s,

    i wonder what do you call war. it seems we have different interpretations for the same word.

    are you aware of what is happening about a couple of kilometers further than your neighborhood in beirut? do you watch tv by any chance?
    are you hearing about villages burned with phosphor bombs in the south? and more than a hundred thousand people deplaced to beirut in 5 days? and more than 200 killed in 6 days? are you reciving these news? or they do not pass them on mtv?
    and all the infrastructure of the country? did you think about it? who do you think will have to pay for it? and reconstruct it?
    should they drop a bomb on your head to realize that is a war?

    as for the elctricity, internet, phone, bread and fuel you're still finding, i advise strongly that you buy a lot of them. soon enough you'll be happy to find canned tuna in beirut.
    also, you should be aware that a lot of people don't have the luck to live in your neighborhood.

    i didn't leave beirut and i'm not intending to leave.
    i am waiting to see if the price of salmon will go down because all the lebanese "bourgoisie" has left the country. if it does, it's great, i'll finally be able to taste it. even if it expired.

    sorry to be "harsh", but i think we should all be aware of the massacre that is going on right now.
    i wish you safety for you and your family, and i hope your neighborhood like all the ones that are still "safe" will be spared by the 500 kilos bombs getting down on the southern suburbs.

    mazen

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  7. ... Here fat and comfy in america i can only wonder about the suffering and death. It seem so unreal on the news... Its so easy to debate with friends about what the problems in the middle east are and that violence is the problem not solution... easy when its not your families and friends having their houses and lives crushed by unfeeling, unthinking bits of falling exsplosive death. The drwalings speak far louder than fox news to me. While I wory about dumb stuff like how much homework i have and about how my dvdplayer doesnt work.... people die... and I can do nothing. My government wont listen... it wont mater anyway... I can just hope you live. Hope doesnt seem comforting to me...

    Live... and this too shall pass.

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  8. Amazing blog. Reading your words, viewing your art, made the situation in Lebanon real for me in a way that the newspaper headlines never could. Perhaps blogs like yours are the answer, a way for us--people all over the world--to see each other *as* *people*, human beings who live and love and breathe and bleed. Not as Other, not as casualties of war or collateral damage, but people just like ourselves. Thank you for lighting a tiny candle in the darkness. Your work has touched me, moved me, educated me. And now I must think of what *I* can do. You have given me much to think about.

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  9. On resistance and trumpets ... and drawings ... earlier, you wrote, like: "2 drawings that i made yesterday were not cool at all. i mean they were ugly. Having these kind f considerations for such trivial shit while people are killed drives me crazy. i recorded two hours of bombs + trumpet from my balcony yesterday night. some bombs were really close (what kind of mouthpiece do the israeli pilots use to have this sound?). the tension you get in your playing is incredible. Now i feel bad to draw or play music while people are burning. i convince myself by saying it is my only way to resist. that i have to witness. that it is very important. but i am not really convinced. i try to be a fucking witness. to show a little bit what's happening here. in my own way. but having regards for what is a good drawing or a good music track drives me crazy. i cannot stop saying after a bomb: "yeah, this one was huge. i'll leave a long silenc then make a small sound to balance the track." this is totally crazy!

    No. It´s not crazy at all. Having regards for what is a good drawing or a good music track is, now, more important than ever. It is regard for good resistance. As long as you keep up exactly this regard, the way you expressed it above, war does not define you: you define war. Which is the ONLY way, I think, to stay a good witness.

    B brave

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  10. amazing mazen:
    my karate sensei told me to stay alive in order to help the ones you love, so keep on playing!

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  11. Hi Mazer,

    It is said in the IRA anthem: "No surrender is the warcry of the belfast brigade".

    As i see this: "NO SURRENDER is the warcry of the Beirut Citizens".

    Keep on playing, keep on resisting.

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  12. i have a dream,

    if all resistants were like you,...
    we would have had drawings all over the world...

    MAGIC!

    Rafaella

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  13. i have a dream,

    if all resistants were like you,...
    we would have had drawings all over the world...

    MAGIC!

    Rafaella

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  14. Mazen i cannot leave the house. I'm here in Bern, Switzerland, the wheather is wonderfull and i am ashamed what's happening in this world.I'm reading your texts and look your drawings. I'm a "Voyeuse" who is powerless. Tom and Anna are in Amman now. They are very priveleged and know that. A lot of your people are not. I pray for an end of the violence. Pleae keep up working. Joke

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  15. I hope for your great country peacefull future again
    fakhere.Iran

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  16. All I was trying to say is that there is still some Hypocrites in this country who think that Israel is doing us a favour in doing all this, and that if they still had the arms they would have helped her.
    And from the other side, some other people left to Farayya in the mountain or to the different beach resorts on the untouched cost, where they can enjoy the good weather and a nice cigare and of course stating that they are resisting, without even giving a helping hand to the fleeing people.
    I want to do more than watch TV or check the internet every while, I want really to resist but until now I can't imagine how.
    What you are doing is very god but unfortunatly I am not an artist, so all I can offer is maybe to publish your book after all this ends.
    any other ideas?
    PS:I am really curious to see the 2 unpublished drawings...

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  17. Hi Mazen,
    You probably won't remember me, I'm Francisco Lopez, from Argentina, and we had a little e-mail contact some time ago, over at the improvised music mailing list...
    Anyway, I just wanted to drop a line, but I don't really have anything to say.
    I would love to get there to play some music with you and the bombs...

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  18. our thoughts are with you all the way from bloomington, in, usa

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  19. resist?
    did you spoke with hisbala
    stopping terror

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  20. i think Hisbala helping you
    if you do not like it
    tell them to stop the terror

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  21. what I see is a man saved by a nation's catastrophy.

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  22. Mazen keep resisting in this glorious way! Through your art I mean!
    My thoughts are with you and everyone else there.
    I forwarding this blog as much as I can now.
    nikos

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  23. Mazen keep resisting in this glorious way! Through your art I mean!
    My thoughts are with you and everyone else there.
    I forwarding this blog as much as I can now.
    nikos

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  24. If only Lebanon would have resisted the Hezbollah terrorists or allied themselves with Israel to rid them from your country.

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  25. I`m an argentinian cartoonist (yes, Lopez gave me your blog data)...I`m so sorry about this whole situation. In my case, I feel so bad as I`m part jewish and I have a lot of family in Israel. I hate politics that forces people to hate each other. I dont like Hezbolla (they have responsability in a bomb attack to a comunity jewish building in Buenos Aires, in 1994 where 86 argentinians died and noone was responsible for the bad situation of the palestinians in the west bank). Anyway, I dont like Israel policies either. And a lot of humans are in the middle of this chaos.
    Stop War, stop hezbollah, stop Olmert, stop bombs!!!
    I liked the blog very much!!

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  26. I`m an argentinian cartoonist (yes, Lopez gave me your blog data)...I`m so sorry about this whole situation. In my case, I feel so bad as I`m part jewish and I have a lot of family in Israel. I hate politics that forces people to hate each other. I dont like Hezbolla (they have responsability in a bomb attack to a comunity jewish building in Buenos Aires, in 1994 where 86 argentinians died and noone was responsible for the bad situation of the palestinians in the west bank). Anyway, I dont like Israel policies either. And a lot of humans are in the middle of this chaos.
    Stop War, stop hezbollah, stop Olmert, stop bombs!!!
    I liked the blog very much!!

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  27. Resist Mazen!
    Resist please!
    Resist for all of us!
    Resist for your child!
    Resist for playing your amazing music!

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  28. tony s: get a grip.

    Mazen: Wonderful work. My thoughts with you and your family, and everyone else in Lebanon.

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  29. Who are you "resisting"? This word is thrown around a lot, but no clear distinction is made between those who are truly at fault and those who are themselves "resisting" genocidal terror.

    I hope by "resisting" you are not refering to Israel - the only free, democratic, and humane sate in the Middle East - but to the Islamo-fascist terrorists of Hezbollah and their allies. It is these psychopaths whom you and everyone in the civilised world need to "resist".

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  30. to the guys here called "israel" and "u hoh" :

    please keep at a very concrete level : i can assure you that Mazen is a nice guy ! when he said "resist" i can interpret it as "staying safe, physically and mentally". and i hope he will manage to. do you interpret it as "being a terrorist" or what ???

    please consider this : i believe that this guy has no connexion with hezbollah or syria or the devil or even martians. (well, maybe martians).
    so why should you make him responsible him of hezbollah's actions ?
    how could israelians people (i don't speak of the israelian politicians) consider lebanese people (i don't speak of the lebanese politicians/milicians) responsible for terror ?

    speak & discuss, please !

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  31. Dennis,

    what would you do if you were a lebanese guy in an appartment in beyrouth under the bombs ?
    would you go and discuss with hezbollah ?

    do you think that a person living in a free/democratic/human state can support bombing people ?

    discuss, speak, please.

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  32. It is nothing but a mere slogan to say "Resist" or "Resistance" without making it clear whom or what one is "resisting".

    The people of Lebanon must clearly put the blame where it really lies - Hezbollah, and their Syrian and Iranian backers. If the Lebanese government and people either will not or cannot confront Hezbollah, then Israel has no choice but to go after Hezbollah itself in Lebanon, because the Lebanese government has proven to be a useless fiction which doesn't even have the minimum requisites of sovreignty, i.e. a monopoly of military force within it's own territory, since Hezbollah is apparently more powerful than the Lebanese government.

    It is also important to distinguish morally between those organisations like Hezbollah, Hamas, etc., whose fundamental policy is to kill as many innocent civilians as possible, and the Israelis, who go out of their way to avoid civilian casualties at the risk or increasing their own military casualties. If the Arab and Islamic countries would clean up their own societies and quit allowing terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas to operate within their territories, then Israel wouldn't have to come in and do their clean-up work for them. Of course, since the Palestianian Arabs recently became the first people to voluntarily elect a terrorist organisation to lead them, one doesn't have much hope.

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  33. Dennis,

    you make all lebanese people responsible : so Tsahal has the right to punish (=kill) all of them ?

    do you think that tsahal should continue bombing lebanese people and destroying their country, because the lebanese government is a "useless fiction" ?

    i have a problem with your "moral distinction" : for the moment there are milicia sending bombs on israelian frontier, and an army killing civils in Lebanon.
    and to be honnest, as i am living far away from the middle-east, and considering the fact that my friends, musicians and artists, are under the bombs, i make no practical difference between tsahal and hezbollah : it seems to be just people who think they have the right to destroy life, and that's what they do.

    do you think israel should "do a clean-up work" for all arabic-islamic countries ???? next is syria or iran ? and after ?

    aren't you afraid that this kind of logic will make a global war in the whole middle-east ? don't you think that it will provoque a symmetrical raise of violence ?

    please forget rethoric justification : think what will happen if Lebanon is completly destroyed by Israel !!!
    do you think Israelian people will be safer ????

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  34. Dear Mazen,
    Thank you for your beautiful drawings.
    We send you all our best wishes from London.

    I've just been reading some of Edward Said's essays, written at a different time, but same old context:

    "Yes, the screw turns, but it not only brings more Israeli repression, it also dialectically reveals new opportunities for...ingenuity and creativity...It always falls to the victim, not the oppressor, to show new paths for resistance"

    It's good to know there are alternatives.

    Will send your blog on.
    Take care,

    Angharad

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  35. we shall try to resist also, resist forgetfullness, resist indiferance, resist intolerance, resist ignorance.
    and we hope you do feel us resisting... with you

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  36. Dennis,

    so you have a perfect moral clarity about the situation. and the whole lebanese population (3 millions and half) doesn't understand what you explained.
    so Tsahal (= the army of Israel) needs to clean the arabic world.
    and after that Lebanon and other countries are cleaned up (=destroyed) you don't know what shall happen. but the moral clarity will safe.

    thanks.

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  37. that's it,
    i am becoming a censor myself. i just removed a comment from the blog. and i will continue do with all the comments that tries to analyse the situation (especially when it is on a very low level of reflexion and knowledge).
    THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL BLOG, and it will remain so.
    thanks you all and especially yannick for trying to explain the situation to the gentleman called dennis. but i think if he didn't manage to think by himself yet, it's going to be difficult to even try to talk with him.

    fuck politics.
    fuck israel.
    fuck hizbollah.
    fuck the usa.
    fuck europe.
    fuck the "international community".

    stop!

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  38. I love your drawings . I can´t accept your thoughts. I understand your feelings based on a wrong analysis of the situation. I share your fears ,I can coincide with the meaning of your
    work , I reject the blind prejudice that won´t let you think rationally.
    We should be on the same side.
    Ask yourself,and give yourself the right to know the bare and only truth.
    From Argentina, Lysistrata .-

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  39. So, those who support Israel's right to exist and defend itself are accused of "not being able to think" and are censored.

    Why am I not surprised at this all too typical attitude?

    I guess only comments giving three mindless cheers for Mazen and "Resistance" are allowed?

    Pathetic.

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  40. dennis,

    all your comments but the political ones are welcome on this blog.

    i think there is enough blogs where people are trying to kill each other with arguments. try to find one of them.
    for my part, this is -sadly for you- not my style.

    if you're looking for ahmadinejad, this is not his blog.
    this blog is MY fucking blog. where nobody was arguing (until you appeared) about the right of israel to exist or not.
    to tell you more about MY style, shortly, I'll continue erasing all comments that I don't find appropriate on this blog.

    if you're sad about it, go on blogger.com and open a blog. it is easy, you'll see. 3 easy steps that doesn't hurt the brain.
    i promise to post a link to it on my blog.

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  41. im quite shocked by the latest comments i must say -
    this blog i thought was meant to be a place of hope and resisting humanity for mazen and everybody stuck in this fucking war in lebanon - resisting so that it all doesnt drive them insane.
    what are you trying to do dennis..? everybody writes and thinks and hopes for peace in the future and youre trying to analize and blame and justify violence..? WHAT FOR?
    dont you see how crazy this is..?!

    EVERYBODY deserves to live in peace ALWAYS
    keep on mazen.

    magda

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  42. ah! that's the way to resist.
    although im from israel, i'll leave the "who's blame is it" aside.
    im sure we both feel tired from this war. i don't think most of the people wanted to fight each other, nore to opress eachother. things are so f* complicated, that you don't know what's true anymore.
    right now, we have a lack of dreamers.

    i have an idea of arranging a group in flickr, which encourages pro-peace but not political art. art for the dreamers.

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  43. There are so many people all over the world including my country New Zealand that are totally shocked and horrified by these people using excessive force against your people. We have petitions going to stop this, and marches in Sydney Australia, wish we could do more. Sincerely, Pam.

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