Saleem Ayoub Quna, Author at CrossFireArarbia

Nobel: The Merchant of Death

Saleem Ayoub Quna
January 28, 2025

By Saleem Ayoub Quna

One must really feel sad to discover that, he or she, has been used or manipulated for a long time by others who pretend otherwise! It will be much worse if one does not do something about it, afterwards.
This is I discovered when I accidentally learned more about the most prestigious international prize called the “Nobel Prize” in its five major categories: Physical science, chemistry, medical science, literature and peace.

This prize is well known worldwide for two main reasons. But we tend to focus on one and disregard the other. The first reason is the prize founder’s name, “Alfred Nobel”, became associated with the most important award man can aspire in modern times, in terms of money and prestige. It is the most prestigious and sought after award in the world!

I dont know ifi told you This XD…..But its ALL of THEM, no exceptions
– Alfred Nobel pic.twitter.com/uqSPVDfIAd
— The Son of Man (@TheSono71468392) December 17, 2024

The other less known reason, but nevertheless no less important, is that its holder’s name is the only one which is, exclusively, linked to the invention of “dynamite” in the late 19th century! That invention was a turning point not only in this man’s life or his country, but in the course of world history. Dynamite was first used to dig out tunnels, build dams, railways, open canals between oceans and so forth. Automatically, that helped, already advanced industrial nations in Europe, to develop and strengthen their economies and improve scientific achievements at home and abroad.

The invention of dynamite which is a kind of ammunition, gradually proved to be most profitable and rewarding enterprise for those involved in it. The appetite to use them became phenomenal to the extent that the number of humans killed, just after the historical invention, drastically surpassed all those who were killed, anteriorly, by other more conventional weapons or natural disasters. The whole issue later became an integral part of manufacturing military hardware which kept developing and expanding until the world reached the era of “weapons of mass destruction” that is causing all the pain and trouble facing people everywhere on this planet since then.

While this multi-faceted tragedy and drama is going on, many people around the world, especially among the cream of the cream strata of scientists, intellectuals, inventors and leaders, and they are in the thousands, working independently or for famed institutions, are counting the days and hours, to see their names, at least, nominated for one the five categories prize, without the slightest effort on their part to know the original story behind all of this big historical farce.

A second turning point in the life of Alfred Nobel took place in 1888. That year a brother of his with the name of Ludwig who was visiting the city of Cannes, south of France, passed away. Alfred had five brothers. A local French newspaper, taking Ludwig for Alfred, picked the news and ran a report on its front page with a dramatic title: “The merchant of death died”!

When Alfred read the paper he was upset. He started contemplating ways to redress this personal dilemma and re-polish his tarnished reputation. It was not until 1895, i.e. seven years after he was described as merchant of death, and just one year before he died, that he decided to include in his will a paragraph that detailed the criteria and conditions of specified financial rewards under a special fund called the “Nobel Prize”, to be granted to all candidates, regardless of their nationality, religion, color or ethnical background. In that year, Alfred’s business empire included 90 operating factories of dynamite and ammunition scattered around the world!

However, the first award distributing ceremony did not take place until 1901 in Stockholm on the 5th anniversary of his death.

Among the hundreds of nominees for the different categories of the award and since its inauguration in 1901, the Nobel Prize was declined by two candidates only: A Vietnamese politician and negotiator named LE DUC THO who was nominated along with no other than Henry Kissinger, to share the Nobel Peace Prize, saying that he did not deserve it because peace was not achieved in Vietnam yet at that time in the year 1973.

The second candidate who declined the prize for literature was the French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre, saying that he always declined official honors.

Conclusion: Trying to be nominated for the Nobel Prize especially for “Peace”, let alone accepting it is not so different from believing in fake prophets or opportunist politicians whose actions and deeds categorically contradict their preaching and teaching. I have no illusion that any of those who genuinely work for peace on this earth, but “circumstantially” get nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, will one day, refuse to be trapped in this silk web!

This opinion was especially written for Crossfire Arabia by Saleem Ayoub Quna who is a Jordanian author writing on local, regional and international affairs and has two books published. He has a BA in English Literature from Jordan University, a diploma from Paris and an MA from Johns Hopkins University in Washington. He also has working knowledge of French and German.

Opinion

Trumpography!

Saleem Ayoub Quna
January 13, 2025

By Saleem Ayoub Quna

Yes, this is the only way I could come up with to describe the special type of approach and fascination, just recently demonstrated by US President-elect Donald Trump, versus the science of geography.

As we all know, geography has for centuries, drew the lines not only between countries and peoples, but also built demarcation signs for different nations to respect each other’s space, identity, culture, way of life and freedom.

Geography in this sense is good and useful. But when some men at the top in the past failed to read its subtle codes, problem happened. History is rich of such incidents. Take for example Genghis Khan of Mongolia in the 11th century, Napoleon Bonaparte of France in the 17th century, and Adolf Hitler of Germany in the 20th century.

Who do think would be a good candidate today to replay the role of one of those who once misread the language of maps?

No one on earth can tell what’s really was going on in the mind of Donald Trump, the newly re-elected President of the US, when he talked the way he did, about his plans for his country’s second door neighbors and allies such as Canada, Mexico, Panama and even faraway Greenland, all in one coup, just few days before he takes office!

Surely, Trump’s hands are full at home and abroad. But it seems that his biggest obsession next to blaming Joe Biden for all mischiefs at home and abroad, is China!

China, he is told, is doing well. Not only its business and reputation are flourishing all over the world, including in the US, but also at home, where the standard of living and economy is impressively on the rise.

In addition to all of these strong cards China holds, its army must be the biggest in the world, plus its nuclear arsenal. Trump is aware of that too.

China for its part, is talking about Taiwan, the American and Western success story, since the end of WWII. China wants it back as part of its territorial national sovereignty. The US, Taiwan’s government and its people (23 million) and the West, do not agree to that, saying that the current world order has been constructed on the results of that war which they won, as did Communist China.

The current situation in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which harbors among others, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan is part and parcel of that glorious history.

Pembelian Greenland oleh Donald Trump: Kontroversi dan Biaya yang Harus Dibayar! https://t.co/3lkCGNSYzH
— Harian Haluan (@haluanharian) January 13, 2025

Trump, to his own credit, is aware of China’s credentials. He obviously realizes the meaning of a full scale war with China. In some way, Trump thinks, and this goes also to his credit, that economy could be more important and effective than military force with equal rivals!

So to get out of this self-dug quagmire, Trump’s imagination takes him and the whole world, beyond all known classical boundaries of imagination, that politicians and strategists have experienced before.

Here, emerges the other hidden side of Trump, the visionary leader who, most probably, is living an illusion that he could be the greatest American President since 1776! Maybe, he thinks that, if George Washington, 250 years ago was chosen to become the first President of this vast rich country, it is now time for America, under his watch, to change the course of history and adjust some lines of geography again!

So what is he coming up with? He wants to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, because, first it is appropriate, and second because it is a more beautiful name! Thanks God that he did not suggest to name it the Gulf of Trump!

But what are the facts on the ground?

The Gulf of Mexico was known since Mexico and Mexican civilization were born nearly 3000 years ago. The US as such came to exist less than 300 years ago. The coast line of the Gulf of Mexico makes the waterfront boundaries of states that were taken by the American colonizers, as a result of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. Look at the map again!

Other inland states such as Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Kansas and others were all also part of Mexican territory before that war. According to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo signed between representatives of the two governments of the US and Mexico at that time, Mexico had conceded all these territories to the strong and better armed Americans. In brief, more than 50% of what constitutes the USA today, was originally Mexican, but still the names of all these states are still Spanish, not English!

Looking north, Trump beholds Canada, a vast and sparsely populated land with lot of rich natural resources. Why not make it the 51 state now? If the Founding Fathers managed to conquer all these states that make half of the country today, from Mexico 200 years ago by force, why not invite Canada to join the Union, without a fight? Together they would make a great beautiful landscape, and a unique merging venture, Trump fantasizes!

Then he turns to Panama Canal! He wants to take control of this strategic water way between South and North America, because he does not like the news that the Chinese are using it to market their merchandise!

Finally, he looks way up to the Atlantic Ocean and spots a huge island covered with ice, where nearly 60,000 people live. They formally and willingly are loyal to the Danish Crown in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. According to the Mercator Map Projection, Greenland is as big as Africa, although topographically Africa is 14 times larger. But that does deter Trump from wanting to annex it to America as well!

The only way Trump would convince those 60000 Greenlanders to accept his offer would be to offer them all full-board stay in three star Hotels in America which do not belong to his hospitality empire of course, but are owned and run by a Cuban businessman, who was once granted political asylum in Florida along with other Cubans soldiers, after the American planned invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, during the JFK presidency in the early 1960s, had failed!

With this nostalgic note, I want to close, by sincerely hoping that this Trumpography bubble will not be around after Trump himself is gone four years from now!

Opinion

The Day After in Syria is Simply Bleak!

Saleem Ayoub Quna
December 30, 2024

By Saleem Ayoub Quna

Syria has just turned a gloomy chapter of its long turbulent history that lasted for at least half-a-century. The question now is: Will this new era bring better or worse news for this beleaguered country and its people?

The new local stake holders on the ground and outside players are showing different and often conflicting signals of what lies ahead. A month ago, the totalitarian Assad dynasty regime collapsed, its
dictator fled the country, his strong men melted into the caves, his father’s imposing statues downed and his foreign supporters’ influence, Iran and Russia, evaporated. From this underdog dark side, the game
was over!

But it was not so on the other rising side of the game, where you have the local opposition of multiple groups and their new de facto foreign partners and friends, celebrating the defeat of the bygone oppressive regime.

All they see is a helpless, desperate and a lone prey for the cut! In real terms the country, so far, is being divided into different de facto regional enclaves or mini-states. Each is controlled by its own local
leaders. Members of each community share either the same faith, or speak the same language, or adhere to a host of old norms and traditions inherited from their ancestors.

Both leaders and their followers of each faction are finding themselves at a crucial turning point. Do they want to repeat what their previous leaders did when they, willy-nilly, allowed the central government under the Assad regime, run their daily life affaires, and then when it was too late, discovered that they were either deceived or coerced by the now defunct regime’s agents? Or are they saying no more of this stuff this time, and accordingly acting more independently to preserve their special identity and immune their rights?

The idea of partitioning Syria as we know it since its independence in 1946 is not new! It can be traced back to its pre-independence original format, conceived then by the French mandatory power in the early 1900s, when the Ottoman’s four centuries rule, of the whole of Arabia and North Africa, came to an end.

At that time, France, sanctioned by League of Nations, suggested to divide the country into five main enclaves or mini-states: An Alawite enclave on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean with Latakia as its capital, an Aleppo enclave in the north, a Jabal Druze enclave in the south, bordering Jordan, Alexandretta enclave which was taken by Turkey and renamed as the Hatay province, and finally the dominated Sunni region in the center with its capital Damascus.

Today, the US, with the consent of other good wishers, are openly pushing, by deeds and words, to create an additional enclave in the autonomous Kurdish oil-rich region in the north-eastern part of Syria.
On the Golan Heights, the new strong players are turning a blind eye to the serious Israeli military encroachments inside proper Syrian territories, previously recognized by the world community and UN resolutions. At the same time, the emerging clashes in the east and west of the country and other places in the center, between rivaling armed groups, leave little room for optimism.

The most important step Syrians need today is a constitution that can stand at the same distance from all components of the society. But surprisingly, the last statement attributed to the new top man in
Damascus saying such a constitution might take four to five years to come to life, can only send discouraging and negative signals to all the components of Syrian society and others!

A final question that must be asked: Is Syria nearing to lose its last chance to avoid falling back in the pre-independence fragmentation trap?

Opinion

‘Arab Spring’ Continues Withering

Saleem Ayoub Quna
December 14, 2024

By Saleem Ayoub Quna

After December 2010 when a desperate and angry Tunisian young man of the name of Mohammad Bouazizi, dramatically immolated himself, an unprecedented wave of mass protests against incumbent totalitarian regimes swept five Arab capitals: Tunisia, Cairo, Tripoli, Yemen and Damascus.

The simultaneous civic uprising in these countries was deceitfully baptized as the “Arab Spring”, which initially won the hearts of millions of Arabs. But it did not take long before the average Arab citizen started realizing that it was one thing to get rid of a dictator or topple a regime, and completely another thing to have a plan for the day after!

It was the same course of events in the five capitals except for Tunisia: Street demonstrations, clashes with police, havoc and death, under the watchful eyes of disguised outside interference and finally a forced humiliating departure, imprisonment or execution of the incumbent ruler and his entourage.

In Tunisia, the military sat on the fence! Consequently, the violence and loss of life was minimal there, while in the other four countries the toll was higher and kept rising until the end.

Tens of thousands of Syrians across the country took to the streets on Friday to celebrate “the victory of the blessed revolution,” following the fall of Bashar al-Assad. pic.twitter.com/715xjkbNk7
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) December 14, 2024

The last leg of the fake “Arab Spring” was Syria, where the clashes between the forces of the regime and the opposition groups, mostly of Islamic orientation, dragged on and gradually turned into open urban warfare.

Syria’s distorted model of the “Arab Spring” took nearly 14 years, simply because the regime, at a certain crucial turning point in 2015, resorted to outside direct support, namely from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

Opposition groups in Syria and their sympathizers never forgot or forgave the brutal crackdown they were subjected to in the city of Hama back in 1982 by the Hafez Al-Assad’s regime.

Of course Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah’s response to help Assad’s regime in 2015, was not an act of charity. Each party had their own agenda and motivations; Iran sought to ascertain its regional clout, while continuing to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon through Syria and Iraq; Russia wanted to strengthen its foothold in Syria in a move to counter balance American encroaching measures in northern-eastern Syria, the oil rich land, where the latter supported the local Kurdish population.

Hezbollah was paying back the debt for the Syrian regime that facilitated the transfer of Iranian military hardware.

Today, Syrians are celebrating the end of the 53rd year of the rule of the Assad dynasty, except, maybe by a handful of them. As the saying goes: Loss and defeat are born orphans; victory and success gets many adopters!

The Syrian groups who took over from the previous regime are multiple in number and diverse in outlook; like an art work of a mosaic, from a distance, it looks picturesque and colorful, but from within and in detail, it clearly lacks coherence and chemistry.

As things stand now in Syria and its surroundings, there is not much room for optimism, despite the big change! Many outside players are gossiping about the future of this beleaguered country in ways that reveal that what they are doing is more than gossiping. They are working on concrete ideas and plans for the day after in Syria while, during the coffee breaks, they watch those who are dancing and chanting in the squares and streets of Damascus!

Opinion

Trump Recycled!

Saleem Ayoub Quna
November 28, 2024

By Saleem Ayoub Quna

CROSSFIREARABIA – In his younger years (in the late 70s and early 80s of last century), Trump, the rising and flamboyant businessman, when asked by reporters about his presidential aspirations, repeatedly said that he did not want to become a president!

Time has just proved that he was lying even at that early stage! But it was a lie that took a nap that lasted nearly four decades! The nap finally came to an end in 2016. Trump was the first person who could not
believe, his own eyes and ears, that he won the race to become the 45th President of the US!

Prior to that surprising outcome, the vast majority of polls, indications and analyses were in favor of his rival, the veteran Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Another interesting coincidence in Trump’s path to the White House, then and now was the fact that his two rivals in the two races were women! This last race in November, however, was unexpectedly different in that he won by a large and significant margin, one which the Americans label as a “landslide victory”!

New book by psychologist about Trump. “He is the “episodic man” who sees life as a series of battles to be won. There is no connection between the moments, no reflection and no potential for growth when one is compulsively in the present.

https://t.co/GHZnMqXQuw
— Duty To Warn 🔉 (@duty2warn) March 15, 2020

Even during the shorter nap or forced absentia from real politics, when “sleepy” Joe Biden occupied the White House for four years, Trump was not never absent from the public eye and the thirsty and nagging American media. He frequently appeared in the media sitting in courtrooms, in different locations (States), frustrated yet polite, listening to more than 30 allegations, leveled against him by Attorney Generals, of breaking the rules of the land.

The question number one in the US and around the world today is this: Will Trump repeat himself, or should we expect a recycled Trump? Either way, someone around him will, definitely, remind him that the world has significantly changed since his interrupted presidency back in 2020!

This someone would also remind Trump that he was not the only one who must have learned his lesson. Others did that too, especially his country’s big so-called “adversaries” or rivals around the world, the likes of China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and others!

His country’s allies and friends, the likes of the European Union, the Ukraine, Japan, South Korea and Israel must have also done their homework, and were readying themselves for this expected day as Trump has re-merged from his forced absentia.

Whatever the case might be, Trump’s second term will be even more newsworthy and consequential! The issues at stake are huge and complicated, such as the illegal immigrants from South America, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the commercial war with China, NATO relations, the Ukraine-Russian war, the war in the Middle East and other problems.

If Trump and his new hand-picked team think they can handle all these issues in the span of four years, they must be either over optimistic or naïve. Remember when Trump back in the 2016 presidential race against Clinton, kept saying he will build a wall along the borders with Mexico to stop the flaw of immigrants and workers to the US and vowed that Mexico will pay the cost?

Has the new Trump’s team prepared an answer to that question? If I were part of that team, I would take a look at the US-Mexico borders and statistics today first. Trump may have the luxury of changing faces and hats of his team. But he cannot escape from his own instincts and mentality as a bossy powerful and cunning businessman as he faces a new dynamic world order, in which his country happens to be just the number one player!

The issues at stake today are much intimidating and bigger than Trump’s credentials, ambitions and instincts! Yes, he can tackle some pending socioeconomic problems at home, apply “anesthesia” techniques to address other international problems like the situation in the Middle East or the relations
with China or Iran or Russia, but he cannot ever put an end to any of the above, once for all in just four years!