Arab Spring Carpets

This will be my last blog post for the Spring. Thank you my dear readers (all seven three of you). Stay tuned for the fall return...oh the suspense!

I'll end on a colorful note as part of my effort to insert more color to this blog. Beloved "Arab Fall" and "Arab Spring" carpets by talented and avant-garde Lebanese designers bokja.

From the designers' words to your eyes:

Bokja’s map of the “Arab Fall” interweaves imported jeans as a backdrop for the sad reality of an Arab world where imported fads and fast foods have replaced timeless traditions and native delicacies: 

That was then, this is now in the hopeful season of the Arab uprisings: 

The flying elephant serves as a reminder of all the inane slogans that have been forced upon generations of an incredulous citizenry across the region.

It is this awakening that delineates Bokja’s Arab Spring map.

The background is an old valuable carpet (representing our core values) that should be the basis of any new start.

The carpet is in a dilapidated state, like many of our discarded ideals and is in need of resurrection.

The mood is that of optimism and rejuvenation.

The symbols are many, among them a woman riding a horse on the road to a new and unknown world.

If I could say a word the Spring carpet is, of course, awesome...an artistic tapestry and momento in offering to this propitious time in the Arab world when the Arabs have staked a claim to their dignity, proud of their ancient heritage, as the wellspring for their collective future. 

What I like best is the rooster raised forth from Tunisia as the crying call to the Arabs...the home of the Arab uprisings. 

And Handala. The little Palestinian refugee symbolizing (for me, anyhow) that the Arab uprisings, the Arab fight for dignity and freedom, will not be complete until freedom for the Palestinians has be achieved...until the refugees return...until the world stops turning its back on Handala. 

Neat carpets!