WINNERS OF THE OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS

Once every four years I found myself watching many of the Olympic Games for about two weeks.  During the last two Olympics I had a few tears rolling down my face when I saw Palestinian athletes competing and presenting Palestine for the first time in the history of the games.  This round I was focused on another issue that attracted my attention.  I saw the tear of happiness in the eyes of the gold medal winners.  My own emotions played tricks on me and occasionally I feel my eyes are tearing as if I am sharing the triumph of these gold medalists.  Searching deep in my soul, I came to the conclusion that my tears were not shed because of these outstanding athletes, but because of another much more profound reason. To me I look at the collective number of medals won by any nation and I realized that this could be a measuring stick I could use to evaluate various countries.  The outcome of this unscientific method appears to have a merit in placing the Arab nations in perspective.

Countries with the most number of Olympic medals are those who are prosperous and respectful of their own citizens.  These countries appear to value the life of their own citizens.  I start to think of the Romans who were brutal with their gladiator games to please the public.  These gladiator games end with the killing of the animals and human alike under the cheers of many thousands of people gathered in huge stadiums. What if the Olympic adopted the gladiator games! That would be quite entertaining to many dictators and tyrants in the world. What if the Olympic committee agreed to include the killing of people by their own government! In this case the gold medals will go to the tyrants of the Middle East.  The president of Syria will probably surpass Mike Phelps by winning more than 20 Olympic medals. However, no matter how many medals the tyrants of the Middle East would wins, they will continue to be jinxed by the wrath of their own people.

My heart is bleeding for the people in the Middle East. I often wonder what it takes to lift up the Middle East nation to the point where the most Olympic medal may be won by them.  Going back to the 1982 when many Palestinians were massacred by their own fellow Arabs is very depressing. This back in time does not seem to be good enough since the revolution of Palestinians ended up with the Oslo accord.  Perhaps going back to 1973 when Egypt and Syria initiated a war against their enemy may not be helpful either because they end up with an unconditional surrender signed in Camp David in 1979.  Going back in time to the Ottoman Empire that govern the Middle East for several centuries is determinant to the soul since this awful time ended with Sykes–Picot Agreement signed after WWI that allows the British, French, and Russia to tore apart the entire region into small mini-countries. This led a French army officer (Henri Gouraud) to kick Saladin grave in Damascus in July 1920 and said “The crusade war had ended; now wake up Saladin we have returned. The cross has triumphed over the crescent.”

Going back further in time does not seem to be soothing to the soul, but is worth visiting Baghdad in 1258 when Hulagu Khan led the Mongol hordes and destroyed it. These Mongol hordes despised and destroyed anything they cannot understand. They destroyed the grand library of Baghdad, containing countless precious historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy to make a passage across the Tigris. It was said that the waters of the Tigris ran black with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river and red from the blood of the scientists and philosophers killed. As a result, Baghdad remained depopulated and in ruins for several centuries, and the event is widely regarded as the end of the Islamic Golden Age. The painful truth is that a single Persian named Ata Al-Mulk Juvayni led the Mongol to Baghdad. This evil person was appointed as governor of Baghdad by the Mongols in the aftermath of the destruction. Ata Al-Mulk Juvayni surprisingly was born in Juvain, a city in Khorasan in northeast nowadays Iran. Does the history repeat itself? May be, the name Al-Mulk resemble the name of the current governor of Mesopotamia appointed by the invaders of Baghdad in 2003.

Traveling back in time does not cost a penny.  It just needs some imagination and an open mind.  So I traveled back in time to 20 September 1187.  I imagined myself standing in the rank of Saladin’s army that arrived outside the city limit of Jerusalem. It only took his army twelve days to liberate Jerusalem and end the first Kingdom of Jerusalem established by the European Crusaders. On October 2, 1187 Saladin liberated Jerusalem and gave the choice to the Crusaders to leave Jerusalem or stay and live by the rules.  His belief and obligations did not allow him to massacre the Crusaders who ruled the land with iron fist and massacred hundred of thousands of Muslims in Jerusalem. Perhaps the people of the Middle East need to reset their own time to October 2, 1187 and start all over again especially when their cities and towns are completely destroyed by their own tyrants as has been seen in Syria.  You will rebuild beautiful towns and cities and will rear children who will compete for the real gold medals.

Omar Manasreh
02 August 2012