Donkeys dyed to look like zebras – news story, Oct. 2009.

Donkeys dyed to look like zebras – news story, Oct. 2009.

Evidently donkeys at Marah Land Zoo in Gaza City were dyed with black stripes because real zebras would be too expensive to bring to Gaza.

Let me spin this topic a bit from its original meaning and then turn it back upon itself.

I love to drink zebras.  The coffee store, I seem to frequent, simply has such strong coffee that I had to drink mocha’s to keep from having my eyes well up with tears due to the strong coffee flavor.  The same coffee store’s mocha was a bit harsh, not smooth.  I complained to a barista one day and they suggested that I add white chocolate; what a difference.  The name for the drink was zebra, white and dark chocolate.  When done correctly the drink has a hint of marshmallow but that is when the barista makes the drink perfectly.  I now had a perfect coffee drink with white and dark chocolate.  I order nothing else.

The zebra drink has meaning beyond the delicious sipping of overly strong coffee with dark and white chocolate.  It is a politically correct drink.  It represents white and black America.  Both the dark and light are blended together to formulate a delicious blend, a third if not totally new taste.  I had a sociology teacher tell me that the mixing of the races would meld societies and less conflict would result.  He recommend that we date people from other races.

The Palestinians and Jews are like white and dark chocolate.  I do not mean to associate white with Palestinians due to the order of my writing and dark with Jews or vice-versa.  What I do wish to convey is two opposites that will never come together until they have a really strong coffee element added to the mix. I like my drink hot and, if I may extend the association to that part of the middle east, is also really hot with conflict.

That donkey painted with black stripes can be seen symbolically in many ways.  For me it should be symbolic of Palestine and Israel’s conflict.  I see two opposite colors artificially painted stripes side by side, touching but not running together to form an overall  gray animal.  The donkey stands for the region full of politicians that exemplify, in their actions and dogmatic rhetoric, the alternative word for a male donkey, jackass.

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