Tuesday, July 25, 2006

change

change
i am beginning to change...

38 comments:

  1. Be strong. We hear you. I wish we could do more.

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  2. Hey Mazen,
    I sent you an e-mail saying that the exhibition of your drawings is finally being held in Madrid (Artepolis, C/olivar. Opening on August the 5th. Will play "Starry night" and hopefully will get loads of feedback from people attending to send to you.
    Stay well,
    Pablo

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  3. Hi Mazen

    Be strong - you would not believe how strong the anti-war sentiment is, even here at the end of the earth in the land of the kangaroos. Even the routinely pro-war anti-arab mainstream media are leading every bulletin with the bombings in Lebanon.

    Reading you daily makes me cry and laugh almost in equal measures. I wrote you a piece yesterday which I will try to find a way to record and send

    Peace

    Phil

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  4. ps you are NOT paranoid.

    We are living in a world where large numbers of people of all persuasions seem to think they can convince others to agree with them by bombing the living shit out of them

    ...crazy world...

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  5. i stumbled on your images and i can not stop looking at them. i stare over and over and feel a sense of hopeless for you.

    i wish that there is something i could do or say. i get frustrated when the media message is still not the truth and i wish the world could all collective view your images.

    Rudy



    i thought of making a shirt with your image and wear it everywhere i go.

    as has been said, please BE STRONG.

    we are here and we HEAR you

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  6. Hi Mazen,
    receiving you fine.
    nb HA Hez?Hizbollah had their web site closed a year or so ago, I dont know how they expected a USA based server to host it. Nor would I expect those 2 guys at google to help me find HA's new english language site, if there is one. But I dont expect that individuals like your good self would be booted off blogger/flickr

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  7. Has it been 1967, after the Six Day War, or early 1968? George Brown, than Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Great Britain), said about Israel and his neighbours (again drunk?):
    "For the Middle East there never will be a solution, only consequences".
    Golda confronted with that sad provocation, replied:
    "Well, he belongs to the family"...

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  8. Wish I understood what's going on so I could form an opinion, take a side.
    Reading what you write and looking at your drawings makes me so sad.
    Drank a bottle of Chateau Musar before the bombs began to fall; before they took the hostages; before the constant news of yet-another-bloody-crisis in the Middle East.
    But the Musar tasted so good. I want to get a case from the vinyard as soon as I can.
    They say a wine tastes like the soil it's grown in and the hands of those who make it.
    Lebanon must be the most beautiful place in the world...
    Keep your chin up mate. Keep drawing and telling us all what's going on.

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  9. Wish I understood what's going on so I could form an opinion, take a side.
    Reading what you write and looking at your drawings makes me so sad.
    Drank a bottle of Chateau Musar before the bombs began to fall; before they took the hostages; before the constant news of yet-another-bloody-crisis in the Middle East.
    But the Musar tasted so good. I want to get a case from the vinyard as soon as I can.
    They say a wine tastes like the soil it's grown in and the hands of those who make it.
    Lebanon must be the most beautiful place in the world...
    Keep your chin up mate. Keep drawing and telling us all what's going on.

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  10. Wish I understood what's going on so I could form an opinion, take a side.
    Reading what you write and looking at your drawings makes me so sad.
    Drank a bottle of Chateau Musar before the bombs began to fall; before they took the hostages; before the constant news of yet-another-bloody-crisis in the Middle East.
    But the Musar tasted so good. I want to get a case from the vinyard as soon as I can.
    They say a wine tastes like the soil it's grown in and the hands of those who make it.
    Lebanon must be the most beautiful place in the world...
    Keep your chin up mate. Keep drawing and telling us all what's going on.

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  11. sorry about multiple entries last comment - first ever post on a blogging site and sadly I got it wrong...

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  12. Mazen
    please dont stop drawing and writing
    ur blog is important for us

    hatem

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  13. Hi Mazen I appreciate your work. I have to say that I find too many texts sent to you quite silly, kind of "I support you" (while drinking a beer in front of my computer ?). Too much fucking silly heroism there man. You have a kid. We should all be advicing you to leave the place. If you were alone I understand. With a kid its completelly insane. Pushing your heroism stupidly we are pushing you to stay there. Israel is using chemical weapons. NO JOKE: CHEMICAL WEAPONS- The most horrible criminal terrorism.You will stay there to make the hero with your blog, risking your kid to receive a chemical bomb?
    They will not stop until killing the whole Hezbollah. the world is allowing them to do it. Think a minute. best wishes.L

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  14. Hi mazen,

    http://july2006.forumco.com/default.asp

    is an open forum where all help is appreciated. Can you link it on your blog?

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  15. dear kpc,
    well, where would i go? even if i take my kid, all my family, friends and books are here.
    i would leave the country whenever i am sure i can go back whenever I want, not with a permit from ehud olmert.
    it is difficult for me to convince myself to stay, but there is something deep inside that won't let me leave.
    maybe it is better to die from a phosphorous bomb rather than from a lung cancer in 3o years.

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  16. Keep it up! You're doing a great job, better than any newsstation...

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  17. read the interview with Mazen in the toronto star

    http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1153566556635&call_pageid=968867495754&StarSource=RSS

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  18. Moi aussi je deviens "addicted" de ton blog,

    Pire encore, j'ai maintenant la chair de poule quand to postes un nouveau dessin,

    Je suis en train de faire ce que tu as proposé, je suis en train d'en parler en gens que je croise, que je connaisse, au gens dans les Bar PMU, aux etrangers dans Paris, au fait j'en parle a toutes les personnes qui s'aventurent devant moi

    Merci, Mazen, merci pour tout ce que tu fais...

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  19. I exist in a place so far removed from your world. I watch my 12 year old son play baseball in the cool evening. We have peace. But for how long? I feel helpless when I hear of the agony, pain and fear in your part of the world. Stay sane and I'll do the same. Peace/to you.

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  20. There`s no much I can say...
    I wish I can do something to help.
    I wish I can do something to stop war forever.
    You're doing your part in a wonderfull way. I´m waiting my turn while I mail your adress blog to all my contacts.
    I always dream that internet will keep the good ones in all the world together and virtual friendship will stop every abuse...Perhaps these are the begginigs...
    I sent you all my love and hope.

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  21. Salut Mazen

    Your drawing alas echoes what I feel in Paris with my lebanese and franco-lebanese friends.

    I pray for you NOT to change. Even if you leave Beirut to protect your family in a safer place please keep on posting. We need your drawings.

    I did my best to promote your blog and drawings in Paris demonstrations in support for Lebanon. Serge Seroff and I we promote your work via Artemed Network (www.artemed.net)

    In Paris meetings are not as important as last year in March to call on Syria to withdraw but we do have a significant number of people and media coverage. Also, for the first time, we have permanent sit-in. It's not much really but it's collective action to urge the French governement to do more than sending a Ferry boat or take a daytrip to Beirut just to smell the air.

    Many people feel better when they see your drawings because we instantly know each other that we have a common understanding or feeling of what it's all about. Your drawings make communication easier when language fails.

    Well-known lebanese filmmakers such as Danielle Arbid, Khalil Joreige and his partner Joana, talked about your drawings this morning on France Culture radio station. Yes, "We resist" was promoted on France Culture.

    1982, 1996, 2006...Free Lebanon shall overcome !

    Take care and be strong, you and your family. Even if our life is not threatened, we share your suffering. I'm not having a beer while chatting. Whisky instead ;-) Saha, Mazen.

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  22. Hi Mazen.
    Please be strong.
    I know it sounds easy to say being so far from you. I m in Argentina. But you have to know that here a everywhere a lot of people is working to stop the assasinations.
    Be there, just to listen from you. I ll be here for you, be here for me. let s keep in touch.
    Change but resist.

    Nicola

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  23. HI MAZEN, HI LIBAN,


    CNN IS HAVING A QUICKVOTE


    "Do you think the Israeli military response inside Lebanon is justified?"


    IT WAS A SHOCK TO SEE THE RESULTS
    50%-50% :(


    PLEASE VOTE


    http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/13/mideast/index.html

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  24. Hei Mazen,

    be strong. I 've no words to describe and no mind to understand. I just have a heart who is beating there these days. Take are

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  25. hey, just wondering if in your "links" section on kerblog, you could post the links to 'witnessing (again)' and 'remarkz'

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  26. I am so, so sorry my country is not trying to stop the fighting. I'm ashamed of my government, and of the apathy of U.S. citizens. This is a country of comfort and cowardice. And I AM a patriot.

    Your artwork chills me to the bones.

    -Blue

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  27. To kpc:
    You twist facts.
    Israel does not use chem weapons in Lebanon.
    Never mind, this is not the place for such discussions.
    Mazen be strong.
    Zvi - Miami - Israel

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  28. We're horrified at what's happening in Lebanon, just as we were appaled by earlier Hizbollah rockets into Israeli villages. Of course, Hizbollah would claim that was merely done in retaliation for some previous Israeli sin, which was certainly in response to an even earlier event. And so it goes. "Your Grandfather killed my Grandfather, so I am obligated to kill you." Can this cycle never end? Should Israel not have responded to rockets and soldier kidnapping? What is the "correct" amount of retaliation. I don't know the answer. Do you?

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  29. Zvik has said…
    To kpc:
    You twist facts.
    Israel does not use chem weapons in Lebanon.

    ---

    right Zwik - it is proven fact that Israel do not use chemical bombs.
    They use outlawed phosphorus and cluster bombs - the pictures from the hospital from the burned victims are horrible at best.

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  30. Thanks Mazen for taking your time to answer. The main thing is the kid, he needs you and your mum safe, alive and out from there, with him. Even if you have a cancer (which I do not think yet) he will have you. As much as you re with him and his out from that nightmare is better for him. You have your books and your family there, we know. Your kid has you and his mum, thats it. Think on him. Go to France, You can go.
    We apreciate this incredible work in the blog. But everything has a limit, Maybe is not so long. Its just out of there for some weeks. But is completelly unpredictable now how far the things can go. You read the newspapers and everybody seems to be out of a minimum of logic. To come back will be easier than leaving. maybe very soon it will be just impossible.I have no interest in this comment. I had a kid a few months ago. I know how deep it is, how strong it is. I can imgine how sad must be for you to leave your place. I left mine, maybe it was a mistake. But now GO to the safest place for him WITH him and your girl.lots of love.

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  31. this situation seems to be insolvable,
    people are just hypocrits; one day they say this, another that.
    especially in the middle east...

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  32. mazen, i agree...
    you've been so brave and your work as been so important to all of us, we don't even have words to describe the feelings you've communicated through it... but i don't think people around the world have the right to ask (not even one lebanese more) to sacrifice himself, in this case just for them to know "how's the war from the inside", sitting on their sofas thousands of miles away. that's a huge, inhuman sacrifice. something very important should be done, and perhaps if you and your family could be safe from now on, we could then, all and together, try to help you and your country more effectively in the future. in a way, we need you out of there too: to denounce and speak, to draw and play music in the name of. love, peace and tranquility, that's what i wish you, your parents, son, girlfriend, ex-wife, family...

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  33. Please keep writing and drawing and telling the world. My thoughts are with you.

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  34. hi mazen,
    just a dropping a line to say i missed to understand once more. i've tried, read everything, spent time with every drawing. they are amazing. but the sharp irony doesn't touch me anymore in this special moment. when i read your kid and his mom didn't go i just felt sad. maybe i just don't understand.
    but i'm totally on the same wavelenght with what kpc wrote not long ago. i couldn't say that any better. he has a kid i've not, probably that why he can find much better words than i do. so, please just think again, and again. i know you are, though.
    once more with admiration and love.
    alessandro.

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  35. guys thanks for your worries. really. but i do not wish to try to explain this more than in the drawings. please continue saying whatever you think, but don't exect answers from me. sorry and keep posted.
    mazen

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  36. I just read about this blog in The New York Times article "In Beirut, Cultural Life Is Another War Casualty" By JAD MOUAWAD (here's the link to the article http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/arts/31c...ml?pagewanted=1 )
    I wonder when we'll ever have the chance to live a normal life... call me insensitive but this article out of all the articles about the dead and wounded made me cry because i believe that culture is life itself without it there's no purpose or reason for human beings to live. We live in such an unstable country that it limits our productivity, it's sad because i personally believe that we in lebanon have one of the most talented artists in the world yet they are opressed by trivial political and military conflicts. When will this stop? When will we LIVE? I really loved this blog, if only there were more people who thought more like you out there.

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  37. hello Mazen,
    I've just found your blog on the nytimes. You're doing a terrific job! and I''m so glad to realize the entire world is here with us. Please, keep fighting with your words, with your art; this is what the world really needs to understand we love each other. It's about compassion and love and sharing.
    By the way, a very small good news is the poll on CNN has changed to 49YES and 51 NO ("Do you think the Israeli military response inside Lebanon is justified?")
    So, this is for Athena - thank you for mention the page and I do encourage all of you to vote and change the results!

    http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/13/mideast/index.html

    keep close and united - against war and genocide! love 4 all,
    beatrice

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  38. I'm impressed with your site, very nice graphics!
    »

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