McNamara Ground Ops Coffee Machine: Friday demos in Benghazi, Mosul and Cairo

Since the last post, February 15, the battles in the east of Libya began. We learn today that over 2,000 people died fighting Qaddafy's army in Benghazi(بنغازي). This afternoon, there were shootings in Tripoli against the people as the Qaddafy clique attempts to stay in power in a tiny area of Libya, in its capital, Tripoli. Popular committees in Benghazi meet and send arms to defend the people of Tripoli and bring down Qaddafi so as to establish a free Lybia. Today, there were huge prayer meetings thanking God that the people of Benghazi had liberated itself. Huge crowds celebrating.

...also demonstrations for better standard of living in Yemen, and Iraq today. As we wake up in the US, and as they go to sleep in the Mediterranean, the revolutionaries have taken over a small part of Tripoli from the Qaddafy army.

It is quite surprising that it took a whole week for the western powers to send in ships to evacuate their workers there. Only today did a Canadian plane arrive in Tripoli airport, only to turn around and go back empty because there were no Canadians waiting to get on.

Libya was a prison house of different minorities. In Libya state TV showing Qaddafi addressing Green square today, I see a banner of The Tuareg Youth, a desert tribe who speak Tamaziqa, and who were not allowed to speak it. I didn't even know the Tuareg were in Lybia. In an interview yesterday on Al-Arabiyya with a Tamazikht organizer in exile in London ...he said 50 Tamazikht officers had defected right from Qaddafy's army...or perhaps were killed It wasn't clear to me.

The Lybian ambassador in the UN, Abdurrahman Shalgham denounced Qaddafi's talk about "glory" right in the UN...he had heard the stupid rabble-rousing speech Qaddafy gave to his supporters today from a wall in Tripoli. Previously this rep had stalled, while his assistant rep denounced the regime. But today, he did, too. Curiously, even though China had to evacuate over 5,000 workers from Lybia today, in the Security Council, China is not supporting France's suggestion that the bank accounts of 25 Lybians(Qaddafi-ites) be frozen.

I wish I had recorded the Lybian ambassador's (Abdurrahman Shalgham) emotional rejection of Qaddafi's killing of the Lybian people.


1:19am Feb. 26, 2011..still the 25th at the UN in New York

Café de Flore, Paris

Je suppose que c'est de la galanterie de parler enthousiaste des femmes du mouvement 25 janvier qui ont parle courageusement a la télévision égyptienne ce soir. Pendant que le New York Times parlent de la haute bourgeoisie--Baradei et autres--qui veulent que le transition vers un gouvernement parlementaire aille lentement, ces jeunes la disaient "non..maintenant...vite, dissoudre les appareils, la police, etc., et laisser le peuple faire ce qu'il doit faire! Vraiment quel courage de dire ça au télévision. Elles sentaient intuitivement la puissance des grèves qui continue et que le général Tantawi continue a dire quand il est au télévision que tout le monde doit retourner a la production. C'est vraiment de beaux temps pour l'Egypte ces jours ci.

Une autre dame, un peu plus vieille, mais non moins forte a parler, disaient que l'argent des corrompus es en train de s'en aller ailleurs. Nous sommes témoins donc a un situation révolutionnaire ou la bourgeoisie n'a plus confiance et commence a s'enfuir avec tous ce qu'ils ont. Est-ce qu'il y a, ou est-ce qu'il va émerger, un Fidel Castro ou un parti bolchevique pour saisir les banques et commencer une distribution des plantation aux agriculteurs? Avec l'armée en charge, c'est presque comme le "bon vieux temps" du roi Farouk et les Anglais dirigeant le pays avec leur troupes.

Si je n'étais pas si vieux, je serai la en vendant le manifeste communiste en Arabe et en parlant de Malcolm X et Fidèle.

Dommage que je n'ai pas enregistre ces femmes du mouvement 25 janvier.










All accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, shall be under the article of
Café Flore, Paris; poetry, under that of Fishawi, Jeddah or Cairo; learning under the title of the Shati Tea-and-Falafel-shop, Gaza; foreign and domestic news, you will have from
McNamara Ground Ops Lunchroom, Detroit; and what else I shall on any other subject offer, shall be dated from my own apartment.

Egypt News: McNamara Ground Ops Lunchroom, Detroit

After the occupation of Maidan Tahrir on January 25th and the resigning of Mubarak on February 11th in the face of mounting protests, including strikes in Textile and Steel, and the formation of neighborhood committees, Egypt is open to a wide debate on the future goverment for the first time. As apparently directed by the Pentagon, the Egyptian Armed Forces are letting people vent their steam, hoping to keep a bourgeois government and the private sector strong, corrupt, and wealthy, while the country suffers from poverty and impossibility to export and produce because of the Israeli blocade--the Israeli Navy, and the very existence of the state blocking normal land travel between Egypt and the rest of the Arab World and Europe.

Although the Army and Police, by saying they are now "with the people" have got cars moving through Tahrir, women in large numbers are protesting in front of various ministries and the Egyptian TV does phone interviews with what seem to be commettees of self defense in Arish, with arms, which have not yet submitted to the be coordinated by the Army "calming" forces.

General Tantawi, the Army head of Command, on Egyptian TV,calls for all strikes to cease and production to return to normal so that the country can eventually hold democratic elections. It is strange to see the Army so overtly in control. The TV is quite sophisticated in showing outspoken demonstrations and demonstrators, and at the same time, giving the biographies of the Generals and broadcasting the commanding voice of Tantawi. Doubtless the Pentagon and Obama are watching how they do this, taking notes from the Egyptians on how to do it when Americans start resisting the cut-backs, unemployment, high cost of food and poverty here. There is no mention of the outside world, just Egypt and the "wonderful" Army. That is how the US ruling class will do it too. "We're all Americans, rebuilding real democracy" under an Army Command--the command and the Army and Police that saved us from the makers of Baluch rugs in Afghanistan, who were going to "get us" with their flying carpets, I suppose--?












All accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, shall be under the article of
Café Flore, Paris; poetry, under that of Fishawi, Jeddah or Cairo; learning under the title of the Shati Tea-and-Falafel-shop, Gaza; foreign and domestic news, you will have from
McNamara Ground Ops Lunchroom, Detroit; and what else I shall on any other subject offer, shall be dated from my own apartment.

Fishawi tea shop, Khan al-Khalili, Cairo

Il n'y avait que les vieux et les touristes hier dans les allées du Café Fishawi. Tout le monde étaient dans Maidan Tahrir pour manifester contre le gouvernement. Peut-etre ces assemblées étaient les plus grandes depuis les funérailles pour la mort de Gamal Abd An-Naser en 1970. Une trentaine de morts (ou blessés) par la police, mais il n'y avait pas beaucoup que la police a pu faire. L'Egypte, quand ca bouge, c'est comme aux Etats Unis: ca bouge vite.

Les Etats Unis etait vite à annoncer qu'ils pensait que le gouvernement etait "stable."

Shati' Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza...listening to Tunisia from the coast

Far away to the west of us, on the north african coast of the Mediterranean, people have risen up from their seats in the cafes and demonstrated for food and against unemployment in Tunisia. There are new voices in the debate over the crisis of the banks, a crisis which is being put on the backs of working people. This morning Al-Arabiyya tv interviewed the workers outside the headquarters of the Merchant Marine in Tunis. Last night an Egyptian Al-Arabiyya tv interviewer was in Sidi BouZid interviewing a man, who seemed to be FOR the old government staying a while, and a woman, Omaiz, who said the important thing was democracy and tackling the unemployment problem.

Below is the end of the interview, so that these Tunisian accents in good, clear--but slightly different from Palestinian--can be heard on this blog. Mr. Hussein, Mrs. Omaiyaz, and the moderator.
pro-and-conSidiBuZeed-Tunisia.mp3

Saint James Restaurant, London...Dunkin' Donuts, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

There was an interesting passage in the New Headway Academic Skills Reading Final yesterday that stated that most British students went to study at the University of Paris between the early days of Oxford in the 1000's up to 1169, when Henry the Second forbade students to study in Paris.

Here I am at Dunkin Donuts where the only reference to those wonderful London kindney pies at St James Restaurant (or coffee shop, with white linens) is the fact that I have to get back to my room to relieve myself...must go now because there is a man smoking a cigarette. Ugh


Je suis venu pour essayer le WiFi à Dunkin donuts, qui est juste devant Jarir Plaza à Dhahran, près de l'université.

Pas aussi "athletique" que d'aller à Starbucks à Doha, mais j'étais au Starbucks hier et il n'y avait pas de réseau. Ici il y un réseau Wifi avec Quiznos Subs à coté. Il faut que je mets mon clavier français sur ce netbook.

Je l'ai fait. Maintenant

A bientot des salonsde cafe au moyen orient.

Café de Flore, Paris

Continuing our coffee qnd dqte tasting series, here in Saint Germain des Pres, with the finest of service, well dressed waiters in their long white aprons and black vest coats, with the perfectly white napkins replaced by the yellow paper napkins now at Les Deux Magots, ... we continue.

Rashudiyya. these long, brown dates have a bamboo-like, cane suger-like taste. The smells are like the dry surface plants of the desert, and the surface of the date is a bit flakey. Inside, the date is soft and has a little hint of bitterness in its taste. It is sweet, yet bitter at the same time. It is like eating dark chocolate with minimal suger, although one is sure there is plenty of natural sugar in Rashudiyya dates. Interestingly, the root verb ra-sha-da, in Arabic is the word for guide, and gives us the name for the first four "good" or "righteous" caliphs, khulafa' al-Rashidiin, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali-. The plural of rashiid (رشيد), which means "rightly guided," "having the true faith," reasonable, intelligent, discriminating, mature (in Hans Wehr); ---the plural of rashiid is rushada' (رشداء), meaning "full legal age," mature (in Hans Wehr), is also the name of the famous North Egyptian town in the Delta, Rosetta, where the "Rosetta stone" was found. The Rosette Stone gave the key to Champollion to decipher Pharaonic Hieroglyphs.

Café de Flore, Paris

Coffee and date tasting at Café de Flore, continued tonight past midnight on my birthday.

Khudrii, which means "greengrocer" in Hans Wehr, but comes from the root verb "green"--خضري-- in Arabic. These dates are somewhat dry and hard, once they are demi-sec, one might say, like a fine red wine. Fine Khadri --خضري فاخر--are less expensive than fine 'ajwa or Rashudiya, and they are perhaps more of the common man's date. But, being somewhat more dry than the sticky dates, the pit comes out easily from your mouth and your fingers don't get sticky

The taste is less sweet, and more like a fiber cereal than other, more expensive dates. Khadri have a slightly muddy, kind of starchy, dry, earthy taste. This is really a fine woody taste (like the fine woods for making perfume in Arabia, i.e. 'oud--عود) with a hint of far-away Michigan oak-tree and acorn nut tannins and an easily identifiable fresh ginger taste.

Café de Flore, Paris

All accounts of gallantry shall be from Café de Flore, or Les deux Magots--better--in St. Germain des Pres.

Prime "ajwa"--soft "paste-like" black dates from Medina. These dates have a very rich, chocolaty texture with a hint of desert sage and woody tannins.

Best tasted with good Ethiopian or Yemen roasted-"torrified" to a very light brown, or with the southern Arabian preference of nearly unroasted, "green" coffee with cardamon.

Re-cap of the different coffee shops--Addison and Steele's, The Tatler

Flore, Fishawi, Shati, McNamara
All accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, shall be under the article of
Café Flore, Paris; poetry, under that of Fishawi, Jeddah or Cairo; learning under the title of the Shati Tea-and-Falafel-shop, Gaza; foreign and domestic news, you will have from
McNamara Ground Ops Lunchroom, Detroit; and what else I shall on any other subject offer, shall be dated from my own apartment.

I once more desire my readers to consider that as I cannot keep an ingenious man to go daily to Flore’s under two euros each day merely for his charges, to Fishawi’s under six rials, nor to the Shati without allowing him some plain American, to be as able as others at the learned table; and that a good observer cannot speak with even Tuna (sandwich from the vending machine) at McNamara’s without clean paper napkins; I say, these considerations will, I hope, make all persons willing to comply with my humble request (when my gratis stock is exhausted) of a “visit-with-advertisement” a piece; especially since they are sure of some proper amusement, and that it is impossible for me to want means to entertain them, having, besides the helps of my own parts, the power of divination, and that I can, by casting a figure, tell you all that will happen before it comes to pass.

“All accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, shall be under
the article of White's Chocolate-house;[57] poetry, under that of Will's
Coffee-house;[58] learning, under the title of Grecian;[59] foreign and
domestic news, you will have from St. James's Coffee-house;[60] and what
else I shall on any other subject offer, shall be dated from my own
apartment.

I once more desire my readers to consider that as I cannot keep an
ingenious man to go daily to Will's under twopence each day merely
for his charges,[61] to White's under sixpence, nor to the Grecian
without allowing him some plain Spanish,[62] to be as able as others at
the learned table; and that a good observer cannot speak with even
Kidney[63] at St. James's without clean linen; I say, these
considerations will, I hope, make all persons willing to comply with my
humble request (when my gratis stock is exhausted) of a penny a piece;
especially since they are sure of some proper amusement, and that it is
impossible for me to want means to entertain them, having, besides the
helps of my own parts, the power of divination, and that I can, by
casting a figure, tell you all that will happen before it comes to pass.”
Tatler, Steele Tuesday, April 12, 1709

Even though I have removed all references to Project Gutenberg, this was nicely pasted in from the Project Gutenberg Tatler, which says, "This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net".
posted by 3011 @ 12/01/2005

MacNamara Ground Ops Coffee Machine snackroom honors Mohamed Bouazizi

Rising food prices and unemployment sparked protests in Tunisia last December, which grew larger after the death of Mohammad Bouazizi, who burned himself to death in protest when police arrested him for selling food without a permit. His death was the tinder box for the beginning of protests, forced the President, Zein ed-Din bin Ali, to leave the country. Protests continue to this day calling for a new republic without traces of the old regime.

from my appartment

Al-Arabiyya montre le vieux Jimmy Carter au Sudan, mais les grandes Chaines imperialistes, CNN et BBC ne le montre pas. Ah, Jimmy, c'est toi, avec ton evangelisme chretien qui a eu l'idee de virer de l'aide militaire pour le sud du Sudan pour bientot mettre Darfour au pieges de tes amis dans les grands societes de Petrol. Maintenant les imperialists mangent les fruits de leurs efforts a diviser le Sudan pour bien avoir un petit protectorat pour "leur" petrol, et, en plus, un autre base militaire americain pres du base de Djibouti.

Pensee du 13 janvier 2011

...bien que il y a de l'avncement politique dans les droits des opprimees ethniques du sud Sudan, en meme temps et ca n'est pas tout a fait bon pour les imperialists, non, plus. C'est pour cela que maintenant Jimmy est avec Bashir, au nord pour verifier qu'il y aura toujours du conflit dans la region. Que les imperialsists sont complexe dans l'epoque de leur declin!

Shati Tea and Falafel Shop

Terrible storms all day today and tonight, affecting the coast and the interior of Gaza.

Starbucks, Doha--a suburb of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Voici ma premiere connection wifi avec mon HP Mini netbook. Je suis a Starbucks, Doha. Je dois vite quitter pour aller a Farm 5 acheter du poisson.
A bientot sur Qahawi Al-Bahr Al-Abyad Al-Mutawasat

Shati' Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza

We're outraged that the state of Israel can't even take good care of the land they've stolen. There is a fire burning the area of Palestine behind Haifa and the jerks running Israel can't put it out.

Shati' Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza-du marché de Gaza, en direct

image left: oil pipelines in the desert, photo taken from the airport bus between Dammam International Airport and the Saudi ARAMCO compound in Dhahran.

Ci joint, le rapportage de Hanan Al-Masri, de Gaza à la télévision Al-Arabiya.
The Israeli governement has announced that next Thursday, Israel will announce that some formerly prohibited items will be lifted--a decision that is not worthy of mentioning:
قرارٌ لا تُرى الحكومة المقالة اهمية تُذكَر

Most food and drink still comes through Egypt, she says. I will attempt to transcribe the rest of her report today at a later time. Enjoy listening to her nice Palestinian accent and the accents of the women she interviews in the main market of Gaza city while you read my blog today on the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Saudi Arabia.


The media in the US is mostly covering the oil spill. The coverage is too American. It distracts from the ecological disaster that imperialism causes in Africa and the Middle East. The citing of Thomas Sankara's speech to the Paris Tree conference is much more appropriate:

Nor can the worked-up consciences of a multitude of forums and institutions—sincere and praiseworthy though they may be—make the Sahel green again, when we lack the funds to drill wells for drinking water a hundred meters deep, while money abounds to drill oil wells three thousand meters deep!

As Karl Marx said, those who live in a palace do not think about the same things, nor in the same way, as those who live in a hut. This struggle to defend the trees and forests is above all a struggle against imperialism. Because imperialism is the arsonist setting fire to our forests and our savannas. Paris, Feb. 5, 1986



It should be pointed out that the Oil pushed out from under the sands of the Middle East Countries, comes at the price of millions of gallons of precious well water. The Oasis of Al-Hasa, near ARAMCO in Dhahran is nearly depleted of water because of the huge amounts of water needed to push the oil up from under the desert. The Island of Bahrain used to be all oasis, but now is dry because so much water was used to push out the oil. I guess it is the huge tonnage of water in the Gulf of Mexico which allows offshore oil to be extracted so cheaply. It is this very tonnage of water which keeps the oil gushing out without the Americans having to spend on water pumping, or having to deplete their natural water supply, as the Saudis have to do, in order to keep up with Exxon's and Chevron's, and the other big sisters', demands.

The sanctions on Iran are the way Imperialsm prohibits Iran from developing nuclear energy which could be used to form massive desalination projects to obtain water to pump out their oil, insead of depleting the natural underground fresh-water supply. Even as they are, the current desalination plants in Saudi Arabia, merely to provide waste water, are marvels of technology, much more of "an effort to make the desert bloom" than anything the rogue state of Israel did in the days when their propaganda claimed Palestine was a desert which their immigrants had "made to bloom."
Indeed, the 1947 Israeli immigrants to Palestine, at the bidding of the colonial powers, actually destroyed the water and irrigation system built through centures of practical experience, when they destroyed the 500 Palestinian villages.

If you read this blog, please tell your friends how imperialist policy is depleting the water in the Middle East and Iran.

From my appartment

A collage: Plate of frike and chicken, lettuce from Syria, olive oil from Palestine, Apple OS X, Nadira Sururi poem called "Rejection" in Opening the Gates, Mandela at Havana with Castro--"How far we slaves have come," Pathfinder Press, Dome of the Rock, Mada'in Saleh postcards, l'Officiel des Spectacles


First The Mavi Marmara, then The Rachel Corrie; soon another. Why it is becoming another way to make the Pilgrimage, just like in Chaucer's time, when the Wife of Bath made several pilgrimages all the way to Palestine! The difference this time is that when one arrives off the coast of Jaffa and Akka, pirates occupying the land board your ship and deport you to Jordan or, if you are from an imperialist country, on a plane back to Ireland or America. I sit back in my apartment, glad that I can at least eat Palestinian food... things like my Shammoute ("Jaffa") oranges coming to my from Tripoli, Lebanon, and Frike (فريكة), one of the special foods of Palestine. And the box is from Palestine! I washed the frike, soaked it in a little water, and then, after melting some margarine and a little olive oil in a sauce pan, I added a fair amount of chicken broth and cooked it until it was soft. Had a special sweet taste.

In the quicktime movie,attached below, is an experiment with doing a blog with Quicktime Broadcaster. Remember, with Quicktime broadcaster and a Mac, you have to use the internal microphone and set things to mono, as the Mac does not record in stereo, except with applications like Garage Band. I'm reading this: ...from Nadira Sururi's, "Female Contractions"--a poem which forms the Chapter heading for other Arab Women writers on "Rejection" in Margot Badran and Miryam Cooke's Anthology:

She did not know
Nor her family knew
But the bridegroom Was a Ghoul
They sang and sang...
‘He’ll feed you
Fatten you
And on your wedding day
Will eat you...’

They sang and sang
She wept and wept
And then sang
‘I don’t want. I don’t want.
I’m no fool
He’s a ghoul
Wed? To a ghostly host? Am I?
Fed? His bridal-roast? Am I?
She wept and wept alnight
‘He was alright except

At night he was a goat’
They sang...Alweddingnight
She wept and sang and wept and sang
Alweddingnight
At dawn he slept
At last she crept. Away
She went. Away. Unwed.
They sang, resang...
Unwed...She left...Away...
They sang...

... in the book I reviewed in 1975 for an English Language Jordanian newspaper, Female Contractions, by Nadira Sururi, RSS Press, Jordan 1975; this one poem of her poems and illustrations is published in Opening the Gates an Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing, edited by Margot Badran and Miriam Cooke, Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2004, p. 123.

from my apartment-listening to theater in the beautiful Palestinian accent

Hanan al-Masri reported on a play being performed in Gaza. I recorded her TV coverage from Al-Arabiyya TV--the recording starts a bit into the report, and the volume is a bit low until a raise the volume of the TV. Below is the recording and to the left is me in front of my apartment with Shamouti oranges(the original "Jaffa orange" behind me.

Recording of Hanan Al-Masri commenting during the play

Café de Flore, Paris-à la recherche du café Yémen

Je viens de retourner de Al-Khobar, ou j'ai acheté encore de figues--cette fois de Syrie--et du café éthiopien, moyennement torréfié --pas bien--et légèrement torréfié: un peu mieux; et comme ça l'arôme du chocolat existe un peu.

J'ai lu une article par un aficionado du Café qui a visité les agriculteurs du café au Yémen et il a dit que pour vraiment avoir l'origine du café il ne faut pas trop le brûler, et je crois qu'il a raison. "Le french roast," et le "Expresso roast" sont goûtés pour l'odeur de la torréfacteur, et pas pour le café. Je crois que le café du Yémen ne doit pas être trop brûlé, trop torréfié. Les vrais amis du café, torréfient leur café eux mêmes avec une machine à pop-corn ancien et américain!!!

cuilliere verse le poudre--spoon pours the ground coffee stir coffee and water








heat kanake









boil 1










boil 2












pour





















second cup; spoon pours coffee into kanake








second cup; spoon-full

Shati Tea and Falafel Shop, Gaza

February 1, 2010 Israel repremands a couple of Israeli army officers who ordered phosphorous bombs dropped on the UN warehouse in the center of Gaza City today.

I found, from a course website of an English teacher in Virginia, that some of Nadira Sururi's book, Female Contractions, is in the Margot Badran anthology of Arab women writers: Opening the Gates: A Century of Arab Feminist Writing. Ed. Margot Badran and Miriam Cooke. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990.