Friday anthem - Mawtini

Mawtini (Arabic - "My Homeland") is currently the national anthem of Iraq, but the anthem has its roots in Palestine. The anthem was written at a time of anti-British fervor in the Palestine Mandate, 1934, just before the Arab revolt against the British mandatory government erupted in 1936. Since then, it has become a song used in many Arab countries, and is in its second stint as national anthem of Iraq. There's a clear anger in the song, a sense that there's a fight on against external enemies who are denying security to the homeland--common in national anthems, certainly true of the Palestine in 1934 as well as today, and true in Iraq as well.

Best lines (from the first verse, referring to the homeland): Will I see you? / Safe and comfortable / sound and honored / Will I see you in your eminence / reaching the stars?

See Wiki for the full lyrics and a good Latin transliteration.

The Youtube I post here is a beautiful rendition from Iraqi singer Ilham al-Madfa'i along with pictures of Iraq. Note that he changes two lines in the second stanza--to what end, I don't know.



There is also a good version here which posts the Arabic lyrics along with a chorus singing the song. I don't have any clue what the rest of the site is about, but it's a good rendition of the anthem.

Will WA go for Obama?

I certainly don't have any unique insight on this, having been out of the state for one and a half years, but certainly a lot of people I know who are still there are excited about Obama; polls show Obama out in the lead. While Clinton has a 6-3 superdelegate advantage in the state, the #3 for Obama is the just-now endorsement of Gov. Christine Gregoire; Clinton's mostly committed a long time ago. Obama drew a packed house at KeyArena as they were turning people away at the doors an hour ahead of time. Amazing. It will certainly be a proud moment for me if my home state votes for change!

Chad: back to normal...

Looks like everything in Chad is, as much as possible, back to normal--i.e. most people are still poor, the government is dysfunctional and corrupt, and instead of rebels in the capital, there's just a low-level insurgency. Seemed as though Sarkozy was really going to go through with not supporting Déby's government for a little while... then it turned out they just got the Security Council to legitimize it. There's certainly a good case for France to support Déby, for the reasons in my previous post, and really no argument that the rebels are a better option; but it will be disappointing not to see some serious pressure on Déby's government on human rights and transparency at this point.

Tadić reelected in Serbia

Pro-European candidate Boris Tadić won reelection by a slim margin in the runoff over nationalist Tomislav Nikolić today; the margin was 51.6 percent to 47.7 percent. (See my previous post on the results of the first round). Turnout was reportedly again extremely high, even higher than the first round at 66 percent, as Serbs knew the stakes today. I guess we can probably expect to see Kosovo declare independence shortly, then...

Commemorating Palestinian villages

According to a report in Ha'aretz, the Jewish National Fund will place signs in parks which were formerly occupied by Palestinian villages. For those not familiar with the Israeli land ownership system, the Jewish National Fund owns some parts of Israeli land but is also the custodian of "absentee lands"--i.e. lands of Palestinian refugees (including those who were in Israeli territory at the cease-fire but not actually on their land).

About 500 former Palestinian villages were demolished. According to the organization Zochrot, which is fighting for the commemoration, there are 86 former villages within the boundaries of national parks; the JNF has reportedly will commemorate 31, placing information about the villages on their former sites.

There are different ways to look at this move. A cynic would say that the JNF wants to accelerate the process of historicizing and making everything a fait accompli, as has always been Israel's strategy; but realistically, it's almost certain no Palestinian will return to these demolished villages to live. Note that the organization, Zochrot (Remembering), which is pushing for the commemoration, supports the right of return for Palestinian refugees, so they clearly hope that such moves will keep the memory alive as older refugees who went through Nakba continue to die out. I would think a bigger question is, what about the other 450 villages that aren't yet commemorated?

It's also sad that most of these plaques will probably be vandalized by right-wingers. The Ha'aretz article shows a standing sign which had already been mostly removed. Just another reminder that the issue is far from being ancient history.