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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
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17 Jan, 4 tweets, 1 min read
This isn't widely acknowledged but bears repeating as Norway's financial sector leans more on @BankIDNorge. Palestinians such as myself aren't allowed one. And so we can't have an online identity, online bank account, or even buy things online. This is systemic discrimination.
Norway is routinely ranked among the world's most egalitarian societies. And yet as a Palestinian I experience systemic discrimination for something I didn't choose, which is that I was born Palestinian. Imagine being unable to make online payments in a modern economy in 2021.
I am "stateless", so it's nobody's job anywhere to center me. It is nobody's job to fix this and I have no right to "complain" since "these are the rules". And yet... Norway is the world's most egalitarian society where humans are treated fairly. I just don't make the cut.
An honest question: If someone has to deny me service because of this, acknowledging that often they have no choice, should I at least expect them to treat me with kindness, rather than treating me as if I'm the problem? Is this a reasonable expectation?

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More from @iyad_elbaghdadi

İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
16 Jan
Here's another stream of consciousness thread about something I normally don't want to talk about. How does it feel to know that powerful nation states want you dead? What kind of thoughts do you have to process and get comfortable with?
It doesn't feel like a death sentence, at least not in the short term, because I'm not cynical about my security and I take precautions seriously, and because Norwegian security services have been exceptional. But while it doesn't feel like a death sentence it's a possibility.
You start to think, how will they do it? When, and where? Will it be a bomb - I'd hate others to be hurt on my behalf. A bullet - that's fast, but you don't get to say goodbye. Will it be poison - you get to say goodbye but your loved ones suffer the pain of seeing you waste away
Read 5 tweets
İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
14 Jan
Lately when sitting in silence, in meditation or in prayer, I get this sense of detachment from the ego, as though Iyad is a false self that I'm inhabiting. As though I'm not really Iyad but I'm looking through his eyes
It feels like Iyad isn't essential and isn't really that important. He's a good ego but he's just an ego. He has his own story and so does everyone else and theirs are as valid as his. He doesn't get to pursue his story at anyone's expense, or they at his.
This detachment seems to be persistent. It's heightened when I sit in silence, but carries over throughout the day. It doesn't feel distressing or bizarre, like PTSD dissociation episodes. Rather, it feels warm, wise, and matter-of-fact, and leaves a feeling of deep gratitude.
Read 4 tweets
İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
13 Jan
What's the worst thing Trump can do in his last week in office?
Quick thoughts. Trump is many things but "brave" isn't one of them. He will walk back from incitement because he realizes the extent of his legal exposure. He had a plan and it failed, he knows he can't overturn the election.
That said his efforts will now turn to protecting himself. The worst thing he can do, in my opinion, is destroy evidence and/or deepen the grift by acting on behalf of other actors who he thinks can protect him (or that he fears have leverage over him)
Read 5 tweets
İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
13 Jan
I hold that all human beings everywhere are of equal worth and dignity and that my people are not worth any less or any more. To me it seems bizarre, even stupid, to hold otherwise. I reject all political visions, narratives, and policy agendas that are incompatible with this.
Some people are going to call me an "idealist" (as if that's a slur), or "naive" (when I'm pretty sure I'm smarter than three of them put together). I call myself a human being who understand who he is, who his people are, and who human beings are. It's not complicated.
It's not complicated, but what it entails is made complex by the terrible legacy we have inherited. We didn't choose the past and the past gave us the present - a world brimming with injustice and inequality and a world order that upholds it. Still, a reflection of human ego.
Read 4 tweets
İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
11 Jan
Stream of consciousness thread. Excuse the typos coz I'm not reviewing and not editing, just tweeting as it comes
I think what's happening in the United States is that the country is correcting its identity. The United States for many of its people was already and since its founding a white supremacist country. The United States is adopting a new identity and those left behind are rebelling
Just check what happened last year. Monuments being torn down = old heroes being abandoned. Sports clubs and military bases being renamed. What it means to be an America is being renegotiated by a new generation who are appealing to the promise of equality under one nation
Read 18 tweets
İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
11 Jan
Some morning thoughts: Going from the power of large corporations to the power of large governments doesn't really solve the problem, just like going from the power of large governments to the power of large corporations doesn't solve the problem
It's true that governments can (and should) be far more democratic than corporations, but if we learned anything from the last 5 years it's that even well-established democracies can be taken over by extremists. The more powerful the government, the more damage they can do
Imagine if Twitter was "nationalized" in 2015 and then Trump elected in 2016. Like I said above, going from all-powerful corporations to all-power governments, or the reverse, doesn't solve the problem.
Read 4 tweets

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