I wanted to imagine what would be my feelings and thoughts every time I wear a different hat. So I started with where I live. I wore the American hat. Then I thought, there are many "American" hats. Here is what I came up with:

Republican Hat: I agree with Georges Bush policies when it comes to be tough on terrorists, tax reduction. But spending is out of control, so is the extreme right grasp on his decisions. What happened to moderate Republicans? I guess we don't exist anymore.

Democrat Hat: I hope that Georges W Bush dos not give speeches from now till end of his term. Thank god for our law that prevents a third term for the presidency. Where are the Democrat leaders? how come we don't have any inspiring one? Is boring John Kerry all what we have?

Cindy Sheehan hat: All what the American moms are going thru is nothing but the results of electing a War monger in the white house. Have I been a pro active mom, I would have started this campaign before my son died.

American Average Joe's hat: What is up with this oil price increase, I thought we went to war to bring the prices down. What about the budget deficit, the third highest level was in October? How come my government still increases spending and I can't?

Then I thought, I can't be 100% American. From time to time I need to wear my Lebanese hat:

Why are we still wasting time and not controlling the Palestinian arms? Why Hezbollah still has armed people in the streets? Is this a special attraction to Foreign Investments? Why Aoun is trying to align himself with lahoud (traitor number one. Yes there is numbering of traitors in my dictionary: Jumblatt is in the sixth position right after Berri, Karmeh, Franjieh, Nasrallah). Should I invest in Lebanon and my country is ranked 80th in the transparency level worldwide?

Then I thought, along the Lebanese Hat, I need to wear the Syrian one. After all, I have lots of Syrian friends: When do you think my government would start acting, as “we the Syrian people, are not alone in the world? When will my government join the 21st century and allow some freedom. We have enough smart people to have an open economic system. Does my government think it will survive with the governing 70's mentality? Does Bashar think that a police state is good for us, or evne for himself? Why don't we have good relationship with any foreign country except for Iran? Is everybody wrong, and just us the Syrians and the Iranians right?

I would like to think that the "Lebanese" media pushed Ghazi Kenaan to commit suicide, but does he think I am that naive? Does he think that I could believe that Ghazi Kenaan has such a sensitive feeling that he could not take the accusations of the Lebanese media? After all, Farouk el Sahri3 was cute when he issued that statement. Finally, I feel like imploring Bashar to bring Syria in the 21st Century. We need it so badly.

And since I was in this area of the world I thought I need to wear the Iraqi hat: My heart started beating faster. All I can think of is the Lebanese civil war. It started with a problem of the Palestinians but it took toll on all the country. I am afraid the same will happen in Iraq. It started with the unjust invasion of the US but it will end with a civil war that would take the whole country into total destruction. I wish I can tell all the Iraqis to learn from the Lebanese experience, and ALL are losers in a war. Nobody wins. It took the Lebanese 30 years to learn that. Should it take us that long?

Finally I thought an Arab hat can be a closure for my imagination:

Why am I not proud of being Arab? I don't deny being an Arab, but truth to be told, I am not so proud of it. We have every component to be the leaders of the world, yet we are miserably failing. We constitute the only part of the world where human rights are decreasing according to the UN. We have natural resources that many developed countries dream of, yet we don't use them to prosper, we use them to increase the misery of our people. When will my leaders wake up from illusions such as the one portrayed by Al-Jazeera? When will be back to be leaders as we were in the past?