That Libyan Metaphor on my Mind. Smoking the Peace Pipe in Tripoli, 1996, Free & independent...

On the occasion of the criminal aggression against Libya, we offer a founding text of The Sacred Narghile site, launched 1999.

The source is: Cafes, Hookahs and Conversation.  Rive, Universita del Mediterraneo (Rome), n°5, 1997 : pp. 47-53 (note: English version by Italian translator, not by the author).

Many readers will remember its universally famous beginning: “Although it is a familiar object for a billion people in the world, the four hundred year old hookah seems struck by a strange silence. Most encyclopaedias overlook [...].

 

In Libya, last year [that is: 1996, Folks!], at night fall, a walk around the part of the capital awash in the orange glow of magnificent street lamps, was a constant temptation to linger awhile in a good-natured atmosphere. Under tall palm trees, right in the middle of a colourful crowd of young men and women, of whole families and old men the waiters of an open air restaurant could be seen rushing between the crowded tables and the kitchen. After the meal, those who ordered a hookah that was already set up at their table would be provided with a kursy (pipe bowl, in clay or in metal, depending on whether the hookah was an arguila or a shisha) full of apple-flavoured mo'essel (tobacco aromatised with molasses).

Sometimes, the waiter would alternate this with the distribution of new live embers for burning the tobacco. Freedom Square, located in the city centre, is where during the daytime taxis for Tobruk, Benghazi, Cairo or Tunis wait far a full load before leaving. Their cosmopolitan customers assemble at the coffee house on the esplanade. There many of them order a hookah full of their favourite tobacco, chosen from the wide range of mo'essel brands on offer, mainly imported from neighbouring Egypt, It is also quite usual far customers to bring their own tobacco.

[...].

NEW (MAY 2011):Independent Scientific Journal (Jamahiriya) Publishes Debunking Critique (in green color!) of HOOKAH Totalitarian Science


CONCLUSIONS

Libya, like hookah, is a metaphor. The war on the former is based on huge hoaxes (bombing of civilians, ““African” mercenaries”, etc.) that have now been exposed (browse this site) just like similar mega lies about the latter (1 hookah = 20 to 900 cigarettes).

RELEVANT READINGS

Yves Traynard. Tripoli d’Afrique. Revue Qantara, Paris, IMA, n°29, Automne 1998, pp. 66-39.

Yves Traynard. The Shisha Ban. Etudiant solidaire 2007 (24 Jul)

http://ytjournal.blogspot.com/2007/07/shisha-ban.html

Left: Café de la Médina : 3 fumeurs de chicha (Tripoli – Libye)(copyright: Yves Traynard)

>> Some objective articles covering the war against Libya:

JULIEN SALINGUE et HENRI MALER. Les mots de la guerre au service de la guerre ? Lexique médiatique de la guerre de Libye

http://www.mondialisation.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24108

Julie LEVESQUE. Libye : Les médias et la propagande en faveur de la rébellion

http://www.mondialisation.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24095

CENTRE FOR GLOBAL RESEARCH

http://www.globalresearch.ca

CENTRE DE RECHERCHE SUR LA MONDIALISATION

http://mondialisation.ca

MICHEL COLLON

http://www.michelcollon.info/Ecartee-du-jeu-l-Union-africaine.html

URUKNET (INFORMATION FROM THE MIDDLE EAST)

http://www.uruknet.info

LE GRAND SOIR

http://www.legrandsoir.info/Libye-je-me-refuse-a-hurler-avec-les-loups.html

PIERRE PICCININ

http://pierre.piccinin-publications.over-blog.com/

______________

YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH OR HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe"™, Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there!

TUNISIAN GRAFFITI ! Pushing the Revolt Forward, Against that Totalitarian Antismoking Ideology So Alien to Tunisian Culture !

Watch VIDEO "ROUGE JASMIN" on "Le journal de Personne"

"Le Jasmin c’est désormais le nouveau parfum, de ces jeunes tunisiens qui ont donné leur sang pour mettre fin à la corruption, l’abolition des privilèges… quel sublime sacrilège !

Qui indique, qu’il n’y a pas, qu’il ne peut y avoir d’autre souverain que le Peuple.
Pas d’autre destin que celui qu’il se choisit : le sien.

La Tunisie vient d’ouvrir les yeux du monde sur ce qui est désormais possible : la Révolution…
Quitte à mourir autant mourir pour les autres…

Un peuple qui se soulève comme un seul homme
Ce n’est plus Rome, mais Carthage !
J’ai la rage, pas vous ?"

 You heroic angry folks of Tunisia have made your government immediately lift censorship on information (at least for a while).

As  Michel CHOSSUDOVSKY point out("Tunisia and the IMF [International Monetary Fund]'s Diktats"), Ben Ali was not a "dictator":

« General Zine el Abidine Ben Ali , the defunct and deposed president of Tunisia is heralded by the Western media, in chorus, as a dictator.

The Tunisian protest movement is casually described as the consequence of an undemocratic and authoritarian regime, which defies the norms of the "international community".

But Ben Ali was not a "dictator". Dictators decide and dictate. Ben Ali was a servant of Western economic interests, a faithful political puppet who obeyed orders, with the active support of the international community.

Foreign interference in Tunisia's domestic affairs is not mentioned in the media reports. The food price hikes were not "dictated" by the Ben Ali government. They were imposed by Wall Street and the IMF. 

The role of Ben Ali's government was to enforce the IMF's deadly economic medicine, which over a period of more than twenty years has served to destabilize the national economy and impoverish the Tunisian population.”

 However, as almost all other peoples of the world, you don’t know that international research on tobacco smoking is much more censored than in Stalin's times. This is important because Tunisians are also world famous for being a narghile smoking people.

You were also not probably informed that Tunisia is (as many other States) a signatory member of an international totalitarian convention: WHO FCTC (“Framework Convention for Tobacco Control”)(Arabic,  English, French). 

In its name, imperialist powers will soon interfere in your daily lives and home affairs of your cherished new State, as this happened in Lebanon recently. Here are a few examples of  what FCTC “provisions” entail: Sex Warnings in Egypt and Sex Warnings in Lebanon

You people of heroes, would you call this “science” or  even “prevention”? Is this what you want for your country ? More civil servants to be paid with your money for this ? CONCLUSION

RESIST TO THE END ! Once social peace is back in your lovely country and a decent life granted to everyone of you, don't forget to demand from your new revolutionary government that it withdraw from the infamous FCTC anti-democratic “treaty”!

RELEVANT READINGS

Michel Chossudovsky. Tunisia and the IMF's Diktats: How Macro-Economic Policy Triggers Worldwide Poverty and Unemployment

Thierry Meyssan: "Washingtong Facing the Ire of the Tunisian People"  As you know, the opposition to pseudo-science is universal: ** FCTC critique from the UK (1)

http://frank-davis.livejournal.com/133676.html 

** FCTC critique from the UK (2)

http://f2cscotland.blogspot.com/2011/01/learning-about-framework-convention-on.html 

** FCTC critique from the USA (1)

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/06/fctc-commentary-1-implementation.html

** FCTC critique from the USA (2)

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/05/fctc-commentary-2-proposed-tobacco.html

** FCTC critique from the USA (3)

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/06/international-tobacco-control-gone-awry.html

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, DON’T MISS:  

US-led FCTC ““waterpipe”” smoking pseudo-science in pre-revolutionary Tunisia:

Cross-Eyed ««Waterpipe»»™ Antismoking Millionaire Casts Longing Glances at Tunisia!

[updated (text & images Jan 17, 2011; Jan 21, 30 (roundtable image: courtesy of Debatunisie)]

[added Feb 27]  CAUTION: although a neigbouring country sharing common traits (a similar classical and modern Arabic  language in particular), the case of Libya is completely different from Tunisia. The reasons can be found here (Libya & Imperialism) and there (A Masterminded Uprising)

YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH OR HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe"™, Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there !