How Blind Are We?

Need tech support

Can someone please tell me how I can post video clips (YouTube) on my blog?

Merci Kteer.

Naughty Abbas!

Ehud Olmert once again spared no effort in publicly humiliating Mahmoud Abbas while cameras were rolling for what was supposed to be a photo-op during their recent meeting.  Mahmoud Abbas in turn spared no effort in once again confirming to the whole world what a measly weakling he is.  

This took place when the despicable crooked and absolutely disgusting Olmert rebuked Abbas for meeting with Samir Qantar.  As if it were any of his business.  Abbas seemed apologetic and if I heard correctly he claimed that he was taken by surprise by this meeting.

Olmert lectured Abbas on how "he is a man of peace and how he should meet people of peace".  

If this is the case then Abbas had no business sitting with a crooked, Nazi, and outright racist named Olmert.  If Abbas was not insulted by the belittling and the complete disregard for the office he holds by being publicly scolded by a scoundrel, well let me break some news to you Abbas...every Palestinian with an iota of dignity was.

For God's sake Abbas, have some backbone and let us for once feel that the Palestinians are sort of in good hands.  Your response was such a disgrace, I am absolutely appalled.

President Abbas, on this first day of Ramadan, how about I suggest that you skip fasting from food and start practicing fasting from salivating over and kissing the ass of those who have publicly exposed yours.  God will probably forgive you for not fasting, but I doubt you will ever be forgiven for selling your soul and making a pact with the devil!

Shame on Jordan Television

And on Lana Mamkegh.

On the morning that the whole literary and Arab worlds are mourning Mahmoud Darwish, the Jordan Television has nothing better to present on its morning show except an interview on laser surgery.

What makes this a bigger shame is that the presenter is non-other than Lana Mamkegh, a writer herself who out of all people knows the hefty loss that we endure with Darwish's passing.

Instructions from "up above" might now come to do something. But whatever they do, they would be doing too little, too late.

Darwish is a great figure, and maybe it is a blessing in disguise that he was not mourned by JTV. Tribute by such mediocre institutions might not be a tribute at all!

محمود درويش

إلى أمي

أحنُّ إلى خبز أُمي

وقهوة أمي

ولمسة أُمي ..

وتكبُر في الطفولةُ

يوماً على صدر يومِ

وأعشَقُ عمرِي لأني

إذا مُتُّ,

أخجل من دمع أُمي !

خذينيِ إذا عدتُ يوماً

وشاحاً لهُدْبِكْ

وغطّي عظامي بعشب

تعمّد من طهر كعبك

وشُدي وثاقي ..

بخصلة شَعر..

بخيطٍ يلوِّح في ذيل ثوبك ..

عساني أصير ُإلهاً

إلهاً أصير..

إذا ما لمستُ قرارة قلبك !

ضعيني , إذا ما رجعتُ

وقوداً بتنور ناركْ ..

وحبل غسيل على سطح دارك

لأني فقدتُ الوقوفَ

بدون صلاة نهارك

هَرِمْتُ فردّي نجوم الطفولة

حتى أُشارك صغار العصافير

درب الرجوع .. لعُش انتظارِك!!

Mamamouchis

I just read an article about a show taking place at the Tate in London entitled "the Lure of the East" and subtitled "British Orientalist Painting".

In this article the author shows the fascaination as well as the desdain that the West held towards the East (mostly Turkey and Iran). This is done through the portrayal of selected artworks produced during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

It is amazing to read about the way in which this apparent fascination of the East was expressed, and which was through obsessing over its fashion. Several Orientalists (Europeans) actually adorned the garments of the East in a desperate attempt to fit in.

The article then moves on to describe one Robert Shirley. "Between 1608-1613 and 1617-1624, Shirley wheedled his way into the Iranian court and was dispatched on European missions on behalf of Shah Abbas of Iran.....The Briton, who took himself very seriously, was portrayed several times wearing Iranian court attire, or so he thought,"

The article goes on to say that "The result (the depiction of Shirley) irresistibly calls to mind the famous scene in Molière's satirical comedy "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme," where a man from the newly rich bourgeoisie aspiring to aristocratic status has himself decked out in a pseudo-Turkish outfit before being hailed with a bogus title, "Le grand Mamamouchi."

Mamamouchis and bogus titles....sounds familiar!

A new siren in town

The frequency of police sirens these days has increased for some reason.  The sound of sirens has also changed.  Amman is coming of age, and with it comes a new fleet of police cars.  Strangely enough, the sound of the sirens does not bother me.  In fact I like it.  The sound of the new sirens is exactly the same as the ones heard in Paris or London.  So everytime I hear a police siren goes off, I just close my eyes and pretend that I am on vacation somewhere in an exotic city in Europe...until I am rudely awakened by: "Honda zarga, wasse3 tareeg"

If you love Google

You will probably like cuil (pronounced cool).  

A new search engine developed by an ex-Google designer.

 

A non-ending Diana day!

I am sitting outside in my garden at the first circle.  All of a sudden the voice of Diana Korazon is echoing all over.   It just hit me that there is a concert at the Citadel (Jabal Al-Qal3a) for Diana Korazon and Assi Hellani.  I never realized that I could attend concerts at the Citadel for free. Diana, "merci kteer" for this revelation.

Merci Kteer

There was an interview with Diana Korazon today on JTV's morning show.  Everytime she wanted to say "thank you", she would say "thank you kteer" or "merci kteer" (not to mention the sudden switch to the lebanese accent).

I can live with the "thank you kteer" (Maybe).  But the "merci kteer" was too much for my gentle ears.

I suggest from now on, anyone who wants to qualify for the "merci kteer" should be required to carry on a non-stop conversation in french for at least five minutes, otherwise they should stick "shoukran kteer"!  Come to think of it, it would probably be much better if they just keep quiet.

Noblesse oblige

King Abullah's II visit to Balqa' is telling of the begging custom that has become the modus operandi of the day.  

I happened to see the King's visits on TV to several Governates all over the Kingdom. The audience of each visit was more or less indicative of the level of needs of the various governates where these royal visits took place. During these encounters several notables of the communities in question gave speeches of welcome fused with list of grievances for which they were seeking relief.

There is nothing wrong with having poor communities voice hardship and seek the support of the government. In fact it is great that such calls fall directly on the lion’s ears. After all, empowering and providing safety nets in areas where government intervention is necessary, is but one of the most important mandates entrusted to the public sector.

My surprise came specifically at watching the latest town meeting that took place in Balqa Governate. To me, a brief survey of the notables of Balqa and the big families that are hailed from its great capital Al-Salt, tell me that there is a lot of wealth residing there. I have no statistics on which I base my observation. It is merely an observation.

Nevertheless, assuming that my observation is valid, I am sure that we could agree that a goverante that houses such wealth should not wait for the king to visit so that a petition for a hospital or a school or a program or I don’t' know what, gets acted upon.  These very needs should be the trigger point to be proactive in addressing the civic needs of any given community.    

As I was watching all the extremely well dressed and obviously well off notables hold the microphone and talk (petition is more like it), I could not help but think to myself “To whom much is given much is obliged”.

Finally, there is no disrespect intended by this post to the great people of Balqa’. In fact this is probably one of the greatest goverantes of Jordan. However, what I noticed in the Balqa’ town meeting could apply countrywide on all those who are given but do not see the need to be obliged.

Amman

“Out of all of you, I may be among the earliest residents of Amman, and have recollections of it when it was but a village at a time when it would have been an exaggeration to refer to it as a city…. At that time each one of us knew everyone else, their phone numbers, and every car in town.”
Late King Hussein bin Talal, during a visit to Greater Amman Municipality shortly before his passing.

A recent post by Mohammad Omar reminded me of how much I really love Amman. My childhood memories are all nestled within the charming corners of Amman, its streets, its stairs, the small shops with shopkeepers holding tight to their grid-lined debt notepads, and the wee hours of the morning when the hara kids would all gather to wait for the school bus to pick us up in loads.

Amman has changed and with it so has its spirit. To say that I wish it remained the same would be unrealistic at best, and selfish at worst. All I can say is that no matter how it changes, Amman remains the darling of many of us who grew up knowing it as a village. We might feel protective over it and in the process resist much needed change. No matter what happens, Amman to me is like a kid, I might have a burning desire to discipline it out of concern, but at the end of the day I can never turn my back on it. It is deeply and so dearly engraved in me.

Few years ago, I asked a dear friend of mine, Nora Boustany (Columnist at the Washington Post) to write something about her working years in Amman. What she wrote sums up why many passers by consider Amman addictive, and why it is beloved by anyone who gets a taste of its charm. Nora wrote:

“The clear, sun-bathed days waiting for me always made coming back to Amman a special homecoming. But even the pale blue moonlight over its pink stone houses has its own magic for me. The city with its open spaces and hills, whispering fortunetellers and sprawling palace became my second home. After the turmoil of Beirut in wartime, the uncertainties of Washington as a chosen exile and my travels across the obscure medinas and bazaars of the Middle East, Amman is where I felt most comfortable. It is where my spirit was able to roam freely and wander to feed itself. Its modernity, romance and truth will always draw me back.”

Bloogy boring!

I recently noticed that an increasing number of bloggers in Jordan (and some Arab countries) are expressing boredom of blogging and lack of enthusiasm for writing. Some are even contemplating end of blogging all together. It seems that the novelty of the blogsphere as well as of blogging has worn off. I strongly believe that the censorship imposed (implicitly) has a lot to do with turning the blogsphere into an increasingly boring venue for sharing ideas and expressing one's self.

I started blogging in 2007. I had a lazy start, but then my frequency of writing picked up as the months went by. Today I find myself bored as well. I also find that the past 18 months have been a great learning experience as far the local online community is concerned.

My most stark observations about the blogsphere in Jordan is how overwhelmingly negative it tends to be. Sometimes, I honestly feel mentally tired from the constant bickering that takes place without really presenting the issue in question within a reasonable and well structured context. I also noticed that there is a sense of elitism among certain bloggers, that reminds me of the obnoxious or nerd-ish cliques one finds in high school. More disappointing is the tendency of some bloggers to become a reflection of the mainstream media packaged in somewhat semi-critical tones that serves at nothing but to insult the reader's intelligence. The most annoying blogs are those whose authors wreak of narcissism.

Having said all of that, I must not forget my immediate impression and surprise when I started surfing the Jordanian blogsphere: how eloquent certain Jordanians are and how widespread they are.

One thing that our blogsphere lacks is humor (with the exception of Hajjaj maybe). I guess we, Jordanians, are not known for it. Or as any drama teacher might tell me, making people laugh through writings is probably one of the hardest things to do.

Finally, I must admit that I was pleased to read various bloggers express disappointment and boredom from blogging as well as from the blogs out there. I have been feeling it too. To see that I am not alone, means that there is definitely something that is driving the blogsphere into the annals of the "quite" boring.

By the way, I did a little exercise on a blog aggregator. I listed the number of postings per month and per year over 31 months. Sure enough, the general feeling out there can be backed by actual figures. The number of postings has been falling over the past few years. The rate of the fall is not alarming. However, one would expect that as time goes by the number of bloggers to grow, and with it the number of blogposts.  Not so.  

 (see graph - blue:  2006 - red: 2007 -- yellow: 2008)

Mind twister

This exercise must be done in your head only . Do NOT use paper and pencil or a calculator. Try it!
Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000 . Now add 30 . Add another 1000 . Now add 20 . Now add another 1000 Now add 10.

What is the total?

Did you get 5000 ?

Wrong!

Correct answer is 4100!!!

Moral Hazard

Moral hazard is a term that is predominantly associated with finance and financial transactions. For example, in insurance, it “means that people may take greater risks than they would do without it because they know they are protected, so the insurer may get more claims than it bargained for.”

Lately I have been thinking of moral hazard and its applicability in politics. If we assume that political action is insurable against risk, then who would be the insurers as well as the regulators? More important who determines what the threshold of risk is and at what level to pull the plug?

As long as our branches of government remain weak in exercising their main mandate of providing checks and balances, the risk of moral hazard will most likely be there. The dangerous part is that, unlike business, the price we might pay for the risk associated with poor political action might be too painful.

Moral hazard in politics may lead politicians to take serious and poorly calculated risks given that they seem to be under the false impression of being bailed out (as long as they are in bed with the regulators). Little do they know that there is no free lunches, and the bail outs will one day accumulate to levels of claims for which the final bill is too expensive and the outcome is extremely hazardous!

“Brown Envelope” Culture

I just read this term in an article about the poor state of corporate governance in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “Brown envelope” refers to cash kick-backs (bribes) that are usually handed out in brown envelopes. Corruption is reported to be across the board, especially in the construction industry given the large-scale projects that are taking place there. Moreover, the article points out that the Middle East is especially prone to this culture given that it is a predominantly cash-based economy. According to a recent report poor corporate governance in the GCC is estimated to cost the region close to $300 billion a year.

Speaking of corruption, economist Paulo Mauro of the IMF wrote an interesting and informative paper on the causes and consequences of corruption. A lot of what Mauro argues could be applied to our economy.  Other work on corruption points out to an interesting fact that shows that sometimes corruption has a favorable effect of increasing the levels of efficiency in an economy!

P.S.  Brown envelope....some "people" love you!

Bunnies and Play Boys

I spent last weekend at the Dead Sea. On Saturday morning I got a call from my 28-year old friend, who is the son of a friend of mine. He is someone I see as a young brother and I genuinely like him. He told me that he was staying at the same hotel where I was. So I invited him over for a drink.

He arrived to my room with a beautiful young girl who is obviously his girlfriend. She was wearing a bikini and a matching dress on top. The dress was short and quite open from the chest side. Her outfit was extremely uninhibited, and she had the good looks to make it all the sexier. From carrying out small talk here and there, I realized that she was a decent girl. She definitely came from a very good family. She would not in any shape or form qualify for a cheap girl. She is liberal, but that's about it. From our small talk it was evident that it was not their first time at the Dead Sea. I also sensed that they had at times spent the whole weekend there, meaning that they stayed overnight. All of which would have been absolutely irrelevant had I not known the culture he comes from.

Suddenly I was faced with the hypocrisy that I have abhorred about our society all along. Leading on girls with the promise of love and maybe even marriage, when I know for a fact that when it comes to the “I do’s”, this poor girl will be automatically eliminated form the list. A list that is in the making by the mother who is continuously surveying the family for any “good” girl worthy of her son. Most probably the mother has already in store a “cousin in waiting”. It is for sure that the cousin is also veiled since this happens to be part of the selection criteria. The lucky cousin would now be waiting for prince charming to be done with screwing around so that he can claim his virgin trophy.

I am normally enchanted when I see couples, especially young couples who seem in love. It gives me hope for the beautiful things in life, for nothing beats the beauty of love. Seeing this couple, however, aroused in me exactly the opposite feelings. I was extremely uncomfortable. I felt protective over the girl; while at the same time my affection to the guy made me feel extremely sorry for him. I know he probably wishes he was free of the shackles of his family, mother, and his whole upbringing. Sadly, no matter how much he pretends, what this poor girl did by being normal and open with him, was making sure that the relationship between them would be stripped of any normalcy. By being touchable she has automatically moved herself into the league of the "plagued untouchables".

I wish I could take this girl aside and explain to her what she got herself into. I wish I could explain to her the signs of what to look for. Maybe I should come up with a generic list to be given to all, and not exclusively to this girl in particular. The list would apply because what I saw with this couple this weekend seems to be the norm and not the exception. Young men choosing to lead a double life in their bachelorhood, which they eventually revert to in their married life. Deception and dishonesty are traits once engraved, no marriage certificate could alter.

I like the idea of the list. I will call it the “young women salvation” list. How about “make sure he introduces you to his mother” as a first rule on the list. I am sure my new list has a lot in common with the energizer bunny in that it can go on and on and on. Energizer bunny…hmmm….. maybe rule number two should be “make sure he does not mistake you for an energizer bunny!!! “

Funding a Festival

Now that the dust surrounding Jordan Festival has “sort” of settled, a key question remains to be answered: the return on what seems to be a relatively huge investment.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear a government official directly involved with this “Festival” justify the return as being simply non-monetary. The official explained that the crowd that this “Festival” has so far drawn shows that it managed to attract visitors from various countries, implying an increase in the number of visitors to Jordan (yet to be proven, but let us assume that it is correct). This line of reasoning is at the heart of the multiplier effect argument that many in the tourism private sector have been calling for when reaching out to the government. Needless to say that these calls have always fallen on deaf ears. Therefore, to see a government official reason along these lines is refreshing to say the least.

The problem with believing that the government is suddenly strategically thinking along multiplier effect lines is that it contradicts facts on the ground. If Jordan Festival has been the muse that inspired the government to start thinking along these lines, then how about the far more important muses within the tourism industry that need to be treated with such enlightened thinking.

Unfortunately, the way I see it is that arguing that Jordan Festival will manage to attract more visitors to the Kingdom is only a selective choice of an argument that happens to serve the government side in this particular instance. My feeling comes from watching the government on numerous occasions employ a selective choice of “buzz” arguments that are built on weak (or non existent) premises simply to justify losing propositions. If the government has all of a sudden realized the importance of tourism as well as the multiplier effect that it creates, it should then take a serious look at the industry and the “milking” approach it applies towards it. The tourism sector is one of the most promising sectors for the economy of Jordan. It is, to use a cliché, the “oil of Jordan”. More important the tourism industry is built on pillars made mostly of private investors, who unlike the organizers of the Jordan Festival, look for real return on their investments. If buying and selling land becomes more lucrative than sustaining a whole industry through building the necessary superstructures (hotels, restaurants, etc), then what the government is doing by not paying enough attention to the laws regulating and “truly” encouraging investing in this industry is simply driving a very serious group of investors into non-productive sectors of the economy. The government needs to stop looking at the tourism industry as a cash cow to milk, and instead start looking at it as one of the most serious strategic sectors of the economy. It should stop looking at it with dollar sign lenses that promise to finance the treasury because of failures elsewhere in the economy. This shortsighted approach is robbing the country of much needed real opportunities embedded in sound strategic plans that could truly unleash the true potential of this lucrative sector.

Finally, and to go back to the “Festival”, if the government is serious about looking at its return in non-monetary terms, it needs to back its argument up with transparent and clear disclosures. Dodging fair and reasonable questions by throwing fancy arguments does not cut it. After all, the Festival is a relatively huge investment that is funded by taxpayers’ money. Failure to come out with satisfactory answers will only add to the cynicism that is already attached to it.

In hindsight, it seems that the best thing that ever happened to this Festival was probably the whole boycott fiasco. It produced an unintended consequence that resulted in adding it to the list of taboo subjects that no one is allowed to question or even talk about…unless it is to praise it of course!

The Rumor Mill.....Then what ?! (Part 2)

The recent talk of rumors and innuendoes reminds of Yogi Berra's: "Deja vu all over again!" "Deja vu" three years ago, August 17, 2005 to be exact, when we woke up to major news headlines reporting severe lash out on rumor mongers:

اما الحكي في الصالونات ..وهي غير موجوده والحمد لله الا في بعض مناطق العاصمة والتي يمارس بعض روادها او اصحابها تسريب
الاشاعات والاخبار الكاذبة الى الصحافة الاجنبية لخدمة اجنداتهم الخاصة او الاستقواء على هذا الوطن من خلال علاقاتهم ببعض الجهات الخارجية.

واريد ان يعرف هؤلاء الاشخاص ان لا احد يستطيع ان يستقوي على الوطن ولا علينا لاننا على حق وانتماؤنا لهذا الوطن اقوى بكثير من كل من يحاول الاستقواء بأي جهة أخرى ..وانا اعرف هؤلاء الاشخاص واعرف اهدافهم وحركاتهم حتى انا ما سلمت من «الطخ والحكي الفارغ».

كل الظواهر السلبية في حياتنا العامّة كان لها حصّة في الخطاب..الصالونات السياسية, والصحافة الاسبوعية الصفراء, والتسريبات والإشاعات وإلقاء اللوم على الآخرين، وكذلك الظواهر الاجتماعية-الثقافية المنهكة كالواسطة والمحسوبية, والتعطّل بانتظار الوظيفة المكتبية. 

وأعطى الخطاب أمثلة دقيقة وحيّة من أداء الطبقة السياسية "عندما يكون الواحد في المنصب كل شيء صحيح وعندما لا يكون في المنصب كل شيء غلط " وطال النقد اولئك الذين يستقوون بـ"التوجيهات من فوق" لتمرير ما يريدون. فأيام الحسين رحمه الله كان يقال انها تعليمات "من فوق" والآن يتمادى هؤلاء بالقول انها من "رأس الهرم"!.

To quote the famous Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr:  Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose (The more things change, the more they stay the same).

Hindsight is Red...Foresight is Blue

What do Cirque du Soleil, Home Depot, e-Bay, Federal Express, Southwest Airlines, and CNN have in common? They all share Blue Ocean strategy as a main reason behind their success.

Blue Ocean strategy is most likely to be triggered when "competing in overcrowded industries is unlikely to sustain high performance. The real opportunity is then to create blue oceans of uncontested market space." The contrast of Blue Ocean strategy is what is recognized as the Red Ocean strategy (red as in bloody). Red oceans "represent all the industries in existence today—the known market space. In red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are well understood. Here, companies try to outperform their rivals in order to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the space gets more and more crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products turn into commodities, and increasing competition turns the water bloody."

In turn "Blue oceans denote all the industries not in existence today—the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. There are two ways to create blue oceans. In a few cases, companies can give rise to completely new industries, as e-Bay did with the online auction industry. But in most cases, a blue ocean is created from within a red ocean when a company alters the boundaries of an existing industry".

A comparison between these two strategies is well described in the following diagram:


Blue Ocean strategist had little concern with hindsight, and all of them acted with the conviction of a 20/20 foresight.  If I had a single wish at all in the world of business, it would be to appreciate and apply the "zeitgeist" (spirit of the time) the way these luminaries did, and which eventually led them to the clean blue oceans where they pioneered truly uncharted territories.

All excerpts and diagram are quoted from:
W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. "Blue Ocean Strategy." Harvard Business Review October 2004

If it ain't broken...break it!

Jerash Festival is permanently canceled. The incoherent reasons reported behind discontinuing a festival that we have all grown accustomed to for over 20 years leave plenty to be desired. This cancellation highlights an arrogance in the decision making process that disregards any ramifications of such an ad hoc move. More important the scrapping of such an important cultural event calls for the need to have meaningful transparency and straightforwardness in breaking to the public news of what many might perceive as an "arbitrary" and an "irrational" decision.

The announcement of this news should be a case study in "what NOT to do" in handling the media when it comes to matters of great importance to the public. The first lesson, never underestimate the intelligence of the audience receiving the news. The second lesson, you better have a good reason in explaining the need for such a drastic move. The third lesson, the people responsible for such a decision should have their finger on the pulse of the general mood out on the street instead of seeming to give it the finger. The fourth lesson, have alternatives ready and easy to understand; claims that "Jordan Festival" is the substitute should shed light on what this Festival is and why it is assumed to be a better option than the one canceled. Finally, those responsible should have made sure that there is one spokesperson for this very serious decision. Instead, we have seen several officials talk with more versions than we can count of what this "Jordan Festival" is supposed to be. In essence, by beating around the bush, they have not only managed to confuse the public, but they have also managed to rob any goodwill that might have been attached to it.

This is as far as the decision making process is concerned. What bothers me even more is that the funding for the alleged substitute huge event is still unclear. Had it been a private sector initiative, it would not have been an issue at all. However, the event is supposedly funded by the government through the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB). This Board receives its funding from the public sector as well as through levies collected from the private sector. The overall budget of the Board does not exceed JD 7 million. The mandate of the Board is to market Jordan worldwide. Any simple calculation reveals that the programs of JTB by far exceed the budget set for it. The question then remains, where is the money coming from for at least this "Jordan Festival", and at what marketing activity's expense? Moreover, have the stakeholders funding this Board been consulted on these drastic measures, at least the private arm of them? Afterall it is their money that is partly funding all of this mess. My gut feeling (a bit more than a gut feeling) tells me they have not.

Jerash Festival was a great event that needed fine tuning through ensuring responsible and effective management. The lack of good oversight should have never been a reason for discontinuing such an important public and national outlet. The JTB (if they in fact had anything to do with the cancellation!) should have been savvier in building on a know-how that has been in the making for the past couple of decades. They had the perfect venue and material to make their job easier in marketing Jordan. Instead they or "someones" have managed to expose JTB's overall incompetence in the most public, humiliating and controversial ways.

Throwing the baby with the bathtub is what we are eventually witnessing with this whole Jerash Festival fiasco. The sad part in all of this is that the people who should be holding those responsible accountable are the very people we do not want to hear from. I personally have become sick and tired of hearing the representatives of the people pushing their personal agendas in the name of the public good.  In the final analysis we are once again reminded of how the ineptness of the legislative branch has left the arena wide open for the executive branch to play without any hope for a much needed accountability.

How do you console a devastated heart?

Out of the many traditions and cultural practices that we have, having the three-day condolence open houses period is probably one of the wisest rituals that we observe. Although the event itself might seem overwhelming, and although the preparation for it is always troublesome given the sudden nature of it, it is still nonetheless a much welcomed distraction for the loved ones of the deceased.

I visited a bereaved distant friend today whose mother (a very close friend of my mother) passed away suddenly few days ago. Her sister has just passed away less than three months ago after battling a terminal illness. She only had this sister. She has no brothers. Her father is late since long time ago. While visiting I could not help but stare at her today at the condolence house and think to myself "how do you console someone who has lost so much in less than three months"? How does one empathize with such a life transforming loss? I kept on wondering on what is going through her mind and how is she coping with such tremendous pain. Shortly after, I found myself moving closer to her and telling her that "we are all here for you". I really meant it. We as in my mother and my sisters. This is one sister we would so wholeheartedly welcome and would love to be part of easing her pain.

Life can be cruel sometimes. Or maybe that is life, and we better get used to it. Whatever the case may be, losing a loved one must be one of the hardest tests that any human being goes through. Losing two loved ones in a row must be so painful, all I can do is hope that she will take me up on my offer.

Signs you are getting old(er)

When calls for any type of recruits specify candidates born after the year you finished college
When MTV comes on and you hardly know any of the groups playing
When the combined age of several colleagues at the office starts equaling yours
When you start switching to anti-ageing facial creams
When you start looking ridiculous calling someone 3ammo (even though he had always been 3ammo)
When men start asking for your baby niece’s hand
When most of the actors you grew up watching pass away
When the cool songs you grew up listening to become "classics"
When certain clubs become off limit and certain restaurants become inappropriate “FOR PEOPLE YOUR AGE”
When some of your childhood friends end up as some hot shot in some hot post (mostly government)
When your friends start having cholesterol problems
When your married friends start getting divorced
AND....When your single friends stop considering marriage

Sounds of the First Circle

I live in a charming area of Amman called the first circle. With the onset of the spring and summer seasons, I now spend a lot of my free time at home sitting outside. I am amazed with the variety of sounds I hear concurrently.

This morning I decided to pay a special attention to the sounds I grew accustomed to hearing and yet never took notice of. As annoying as some of them might be, I strangely find them all combined adding to the charm of my neighborhood.

Some of the sounds I was able to capture are the following:

* Birds Churning
* Tree leaves moving in the breeze
* Car engines
* Music coming from cars driving by
* Music announcing the presence of propane gas cylinders sellers' trucks
* Call for prayers, which are preceded by loud noise coming from turning the mosque's speaker on. Prior to the actual call, the neighborhood is also subjected to listening to the ending of a religious program broadcast from the same station from where the recorded call is coming
* Television programming coming from my neighbors’ house
* Distant private conversations coming form my other neighbors’ house
* Cats meowing
* Conversations of passers by
* Kids playing in the street
* Phones ringing coming from neighbors' homes

My favorite though is a new comer to the neighborhood. It is a truck that has been showing up lately carrying a loudspeaker. The call is for any scrap for sale. I just love it:

“illee 3ando khorda llalbai3…thlajjat…ghassallaaat…haddeed mawasseerr….tankaat lallbai3....ayy shee khordah lallbai3....illee 3andoh khordah lallbai3…”

Mohammad Al-Assad wrote an interesting piece on this called "Soundscapes of Amman". After my little experiment this morning, the article is amazingly accurate.

Honor Thy Sister!

Hymenoplasty is the restoration of a woman’s hymen. A hymen is the thin vaginal membrane that normally breaks during the first act of intercourse. Hymenoplasty and hymen are the subjects of a newsarticle that appeared in the International Herald Tribune headlined with non other than “For Muslim women in Europe, a medical road back to virginity”.

As I was reading this article I kept on getting increasingly uncomfortable with the subject matter and the way in which it is exposed. Why label Moslem women? Why not expose the matter as a tradition inflicting conservative societies regardless of religion and nationality? Moreover, it bothered me because it touched on a topic that has occupied us under the pretext of attaching notions of honor to it. An honor I am still grappling with the true definition of it. A form of honor that has produced nothing but a monopoly to a retarded pattern of thinking. A pattern that has served at nothing but to reinforce a stifling culture that is more concerned with women’s tissues than with issues that really make a difference.

After reading the article, my immediate reaction was to resent the fact that this topic is now exposed for the whole world to read. I hated how this topic is targeting and stigmatizing Moslem women. I abhorred what is obviously yet another form of Moslem bashing. I was disgusted by the fact that our double standards in dealing with everything has now been drilled down to this minute level. The resentment that started with anger at the reporting of this story was soon redirected towards the reasons why we even have this dirty laundry exposed in the first place.

Why is the hymen so important? And how does a hymen break? Doesn’t it always take two to Tango? If one Tangoer has a hymen and can be punished for breaking it, then how about the other Tangoer, the breaker? How come he gets to have the choice to “dishonor” his partner and then in the same breath turn against her and call foul.

A closer look at the "breaker" would also suggest that he probably has sisters who are losing their virginity to the same type of hypocrite who might also have sisters who are as well being treated by yet another coward with the same disdain, hypocrisy and denial. And the circle of deceit keeps on getting bigger and more incestuous.

The whole hymen issue is only reinforcing the web of lies that we find our young people entangled in. Whether we like it or not, young people are humans who have feelings and who would and could act on these feelings in ways that are romantic and sometimes physically intimate. Denying this fact of life will only perpetuate an implicit endorsement of dishonesty and deception. Virginity be it for men or for women is a matter of choice. Denying this right to choose is as futile as our attempt to believe that our honor hangs on whether a hymen is in tact or not. If it were that simple, we should then always remember that hymnoplasty is there to restore what we so dearly cling to as our cherished honor.

People I admire and why

Nasser the office boy. Exemplary work ethic.
Nelson Mandela. The light at the end of the tunnel.
The street cleaners. Thanks to them we can freely brag about how clean our city is.
Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashed Al-Maktoum.  His guts leading his country to glory.
The guy whose advertising is seen all over Jordan about his farm fencing services “LeTashyeek mazare3kom”. Persistence, persistence, persistence!
Robert Fisk. The synthesis of courage and integrity.
Prince Khalid Al-Faisal. A true gentleman.
Sellers at Friday’s Souk Jara. Entrepreneurship at its best.
My sister. Her zest for life.
Mohammad Al-Asad. For always reminding me how much I love Amman.
My mother. Her beautiful heart.

Big Brother Is Not Watching You

He is breathing down your neck!

We grew up accustomed to toning down whatever politically critical thought we had while talking in public or over the phone, landline that is. Some might even have gone to the extent of making up code names just in case. And this “some” might not have been any public figure or someone remotely suspected of being eves-dropped on. It seems that this was embedded in our subconscious as we were growing up in less than democratic cultures. We were and still are conditioned to hold back, simply because unbeknownst to us, big brother might be watching.

Exit analog Big Brother, enter digital Big Brother. Research shows that we have voluntarily aided and facilitated the intrusion into our lives and privacy by simply using our cell phones, e-mail, internet, etc. Satellite technologies have been perfected to the extent of having some digital dude sharing live the most intimate moments of our lives, sight and sound! E-mails have provided a platform of readily available material into our most private communications. Internet has us classified by tracking our patterns of navigation and behavior that we are nothing more than a mere variable into a sophisticated algorithm being run by some wacky scientist.

As is the case with technology, some might argue that it is a double-edged sword. The insights provided by this new form of digital benign big brother could be useful for marketing, medical or whatever purposes by narrowing down the behavior patterns of a targeted segment. The benefits could also be argued as highly useful in figuring out patterns of movement of big crowds that could prove vital in catastrophe scenarios or in urban planning issues. Whatever the case might be, the prospects of getting this too close for comfort are scary. A case in point is a recent research on cell phones that concludes that we are creatures of habit. The research is hailed as a breakthrough. “The cell phone researchers pointed out that their paper moved the field forward significantly because people hold on to their phones, and so the movement of individuals is more closely tracked than it can be with paper currency that is passed from person to person". (It turns out that there is a site where movement of paper money can be tracked www.wheresgeorge.com).

Finally, I wonder how the above media combined with the highly secret technology being developed and researched in full force in the USA could result in. The technology I am referring to is nano-technology. The little that I know of it is enough to give me the creeps.

Intelligence in the sense of prying is moving forward in ways that we are totally unaware of. If this all results in us creating a monster bigger than what we can eventually control remains to be seen. In the meantime, we should not be blamed if we end up acting like a bunch of paranoid freaks!

Why?

Why would anyone spend $200 billion on a project connecting the Gulf Arab region with Muslim Africa. A 28.5-kilometre bridge is the project's centerpiece and it will carry vehicles, trains, natural gas and water. Other components of the project are two cities in Djibouti and Yemen. The bridge aims to provide a safe route between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa region, as the waterway between them is highly dangerous due to Somali pirates. "I am sure there are much cheaper ways of controlling these pirates!!!" More important, I don't understand why this is the best use of $200 billion in two of the poorest of the world’s low-income countries where more than 45 percent and 42 percent of the Yemeni and Djiboutian populations respectively live in poverty. why?

Why would anyone want to be on one of the zillion diffferent lists that come out every five minutes? Lately we have seen the power 100, Arabian Business Women, the world's most influential people, The world's billionaires, the world's richest Arabs, the world's this and the world's that. I really do not get it why would anyone be interested in such idiotic lists...why?

Why would any Arab care who wins the American presidential elections? I really do not understand why we always keep on fooling ourselves by protrarying one candidate as Arab friendly while the other is Israel friendly. Isn't it time we learn that there is only Israel friendly when it comes to the Amercian Presdient. Didn't we learn our lesson with G.W. Bush? The truth of the matter is both candidates are always two faces for the same coin. Did we forget Harry Truman's words in 1948 during an election year when he claimed that "the Arabs need us more than we need them.” Implicit was the underlying message that Jews were more important to Truman’s election than Arabs. As Truman himself once said: “I’m sorry, gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism. I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents.” Why would things be any different now...why?

Nostalgic songs

Madonna's Isola Bonita was playing on the radio this evening while I was driving back home from work. Suddenly I had so many memories rushing in reminding me of my high school and college years. So I decided to recall back all the songs that I could remember and that were part of a very special time of my life.

I'll be watching you (Police): High school in Massachussets. Parties full of kegs and wild kids going absolutely mad.

I just called to say I love you: Italy days. Window shopping during the fall in Via Nazionale in Rome. Wishing that someone would call me to tell me so.

I can’t fight this feeling (REO Speedwagon): The first concert I went to during my freshman year in college. I remember crying because I was home sick.

I want my MTV (Dire Straits): College years. Gingris student union and our hang outs there.

Cheri Cheri Lady (Modern Talking): Undergraduate years in Connecticut. For some reason this group reminds me of a ski trip that I did with a bunch of friends. One of which I had a serious crush on.

Girl From Ipanema (Ella Fitzgerald): Super fun summers in Perugia.

Embrace me (Tania Maria): More fun summers in Perugia.

Ahmad Jamal: The greatest Jazz painest of all time. Umbria Jazz, how I fell in love with Jazz.

Material Girl : The beginning of my fascination with Madonna. I still can remember how mesmerized I was with this video clip.

Relax (Frankie goes to Hollywood): Well all I remember is that I had no clue what this song was all about. Naive does not even begin to describe it :-)

I wear my sunglasses at night: The drives my friend Ahmad and I used to take in the countryside of Connecticut on our way to our horseback riding classes. Ahmad was fascinated with the notion of wearing sunglasses at night. He actually used to do it. Amazing how I always think of him and those famous rides everytime I hear this song.

You came (Kim Wilde): Washington DC, Arlington Virginia, and the beginning of a dangerous liaison.

Papa don’t preach: No comment. No not me. Irene and some wild Kuwaiti dude :-)

True Faith (New Order): Irene without the Kuwaiti dude

Happy man (Chicago): The best dedication I ever got. No dedication will ever be the same.

I can see clearly now: The day I was informed that I got a job of a lifetime. I remember driving in Washignton DC with the volume blasting while listening to this song. Mind you part of the reason for the overwhelming joy then was the fact that I was broke.

Life Imitating Art

The recent unfolding of various political events locally and regionally has come in such an organized orchestrated manner that one cannot help but wonder who is the maestro behind this brilliant orchestration.

Amid all the chaos, there is a method that has become predictable even to the most politically unsavvy. It reminds me of the use of foreshadowing in literature, where careful use of hints and clues suggest what is to become reality later.

Locally we have seen this with staged scandals that miraculously become a matter of fact once people get slowly but surely primed to accept them. Be it the idea of a casino or the sale of prime strategic assets, to name a few. Whatever the issue is, there is a crafty propaganda machine working the media in ways that are extremely conniving. Being at the receiving end, one cannot help but be suspicious and critical.

On a more serious level is the unfolding of events on a regional level. The past decade has been notorious for that. We have seen talks of a Shiite crescent, the circulation of a new map for the Middle East, Condoleezza Rice’s carefully timed declaration of the birth of a new Middle East, the division of Iraq into three provinces, and recently the reconciliation between opposing factions in Lebanon leading to the end of the recent stalemate there. Following the Doha accord, speculations about the weakening of the Arab moderates and the rise of extremists (in this case Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas) have been on the rise.

My view on all of this is paradoxical. I do not happen to subscribe to nor disagree with either argument (Moderates versus extremists). There is one thing for sure, what we are seeing today is an opening act to a finale that we will end up with tomorrow. And the end seems grim. At this point it is a matter of reading the signs and following the clues and hints we are systematically receiving on daily basis. I have a strong feeling that this is the same situation we found ourselves in over a decade ago with the hammering of Iraq which eventually culminated with 9/11, the grand opening of “Al-Qaeda” on the international scene which eventually lead to seizing full control over Afghanistan and more important to the occupation of Iraq. The polarization of the region in the era of a monopolar world is puzzling to say the least. Unless having both polars work against each other serves a higher interest invisible to the ordinary observer. History of the region is repeating itself. The demise of our region in the past came at a time when the modus operandi of the “higher interests” was “divide and conquer”.

Going back to my foreshadowing theory, the question remains what are the signs that we should be looking at carefully today in order to decipher the notes of the symphony at play?

The best answer that I can think of for now comes from a scene in “Shakespeare in Love”:

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery

Hodgepodge

Fighting terrorism. Fulbright grants have been withdrawn from Palestinian students in Gaza because Israel is stopping them from leaving. When asked about it at an Israeli parliamentary hearing Wednesday, an Israeli Defense Ministry official recalled that the cabinet had declared Gaza "hostile territory" and decided that the safety of Israeli soldiers and civilians should be risked only for humanitarian concerns. Higher education, he said, was not a humanitarian concern.

Size matters. A federal appeals court in Washington has ruled, properly, that American currency discriminates against the blind because the bills are too hard to tell apart. This was a ruling of a lawsuit filed by the American Council of the Blind.  This is all instigated by the fact that all US paper currency different denominations come in the same size making it hard to differentiate.

Gays in Jebal Amman. An interesting post I recently read at www.black-iris.com. The stark contrast in everything in Jordan is just amazing.

Origins. It is believed that the first mention of the word nerd is found in Dr. Seuss’s “If I ran the Zoo”. 

Speaking of nerds. Google is expected to generate $ 20 billion in advertising revenue alone. Google is also developing Android, mobile software system, which is expected to directly compete with Apple's iphone. Apple should brace itself for a serious run for its money.

Speaking of nerds 2. Windows 7 is the successor of Windows Vista. By the way I lost track of all Microsoft Windows OS launches. I remember there was one launch years back that included a lot of dinosaurs and it looked like a movie trailer for Jurassic Park.

Flattery. Someone recently complimented me by noting that I think like a man. Given that I think that I am a woman, I am not sure I like that.

Nepal is a republic. The 239-year-old Hindu monarchy is abolished.

You Learn...

After a while you learn the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul.

And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning,
and company doesn’t always mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses are not contracts,
and present's aren’t promises.

And you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead...

With the grace of a woman,
not the grief of a child.

And you learn
To build all your roads on today,

Because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans,
and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

After a while you learn that even sunshine burns
if you get too much…

So, you plant your own garden,
and decorate your own soul...
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure…
you really are strong,
you really do have worth.

And you learn, and you learn…
with every goodbye,

You Learn…

(Poem by unknown)

A lie told often enough becomes the truth

Except for the lie named Israel.

The latest chapter in the crafting of this lie is the argument that Israel’s creation sixty years ago was tantamount to bringing to life a nation that was destroyed.

Imagine if all destroyed nations go back to reclaim their lost nations after thousands of years.

Shortly before the creation of Israel, Winston Churchill expressed his views regarding the violations of the Zionists in Palestine in an obvious attempt to justify the illegal transfer of Jews to Palestine:

"I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."

This of course all depend on who the dog is and where the manger exists.

Farewell Lucy!

On May 7 I lost Lucy.

Lucy was poisoned by the Shouneh municipality in the Jordan Valley. She was 6 years old.

I will not get into the cruelty of putting down stray animals in this way. Let alone being indiscriminate in doing so and killing animals that have homes and are held dear by their owners.

Lucy was a super friendly and a well-trained dog. She befriended all the neighbors and everybody knew her around here. She probably was on her way to visiting one of the many neighbors who all considered her as theirs. I used to love hearing the kids call her name whenever we would go for walks. She especially loved my next-door neighbors. Their Friday BBQs were vital in building this relationship.

I will miss Lucy a lot. She was my buddy. There was a special bond between us. She always gave me the impression that she could guess my mood. And she always managed to lift it up whenever it was down.

I loved how protective she was. I also loved how tolerant she was towards things she deemed acceptable by me. Despite her hatred of cats, she learnt to be protective of my mother’s cat “Fulla” simply because she knew that this cat was part of her family.

The loss of Lucy breaks my heart. It really does. This is the first weekend that I am here without having her come greet me at the door. I miss listening to her bark and footsteps outside. The Ghor without Lucy is not the same.

3antar is now all what is left of Lucy. He is her one-year old son.

America’s Falafel

McDonald’s is America’s Falafel.

Our McDonald's is Falafel.

How I wish that things remained this way!

Instead we have opted to replace our highly nutritious fast food with pure garbage. Junk food with fancy names offering processed to death meat, chicken that looks like it had just gone through cosmetic surgery, and food that is high in calorie and low in everything else.

I am always happy to see the kings of Shawerma and Falafel doing so well. Even if this means traffic jams at the first or the third circles in Jebel Amman. What I see in this jam is a tradition that is still alive in this part of town….a tradition that is dying in many parts of Amman….a tradition that has offered us human food for humane prices.

We grew up accustomed to falafel and humus during some evenings and for breakfast on many Fridays….I hope we do not lose this very dear part of our lives for the sake of some fancy clown parachuting on us in the name of globalization and free trade.

A check list

I need to check on the following:

Mohammad Al-Durra:
Mohammad would have been twenty this year. He was killed in year 2000 by the Israeli army in cold blood. Even though the whole world knows that Al-Durra was killed by the Israeli army, no one nation with the so-called moral authority has ever attempted to bring Al-Durra's killers to justice. His killers are still at large.

Sami Al-Hajj:
Still in prison and on hunger strike for over a year now.

Gaza:
Still under siege. No idea on whether Fatah and Hamas are friends again. The last thing I heard is that the Palestinian negotiator Azzam Al-Ahmad was unable to reach President Abbas to get his OK for the deal proposed by the Yemenis for peace between Fatah and Hamas. Abbas was unreachable because he was meeting with US vice president Cheney. Azzam went ahead and signed only to find out later that he had no authority to act. And they expect us to believe this! Give me break!

Iraq:
Still under US occupation. Lost count of everything else.

Beirut:
latest pretext to hold the country hostage still holds: no president. I am now looking forward for the sequel showcasing the talent of the Lebanese in ruining their country. Ya haram!

Syria:
The level of presentation of all the countries at the recent summit was intended to either humiliate or support Syria. I personally was glad the summit took place. It was a crash course in showing the divisions created in the Middle East by the latest version of the cold war. It clearly showed the shift from bipolar world to a multi polar one. With one polar having the lion's share in the Arab world...in particular in countries whose leaders did not attend!

Egypt bread:
Managed to do what Israel failed to. It mobilized the army.

Fouad Al-Farhan:
112 days in prison and counting.

The latest wave of Israeli settlements in Palestine:
Still premature to check on them. Need to come back when they become a de facto matter.

EMOS

My 16-year old niece was describing a bunch of boys she saw somewhere in Amman who seemed to her as a bunch of “emos". I had to stop her and ask her to explain what the hell is an “emo”?

She said you know “emotional” with a total American accent. I told her, please enough with this American bullshit accent and I asked to her to pronounce normally…she answered back “shoo…what do you want me to say “emoshanaillle”…So I said you don’t have to make fun of Arabic accent to be speaking properly. Besides I told her why are you guys (her generation) imitating everything American…? why can’t you try to be authentic? More Arab? The answer was a snicker and another “shoo….what do you mean?”

Shoo…? Shawee….to all this Americanized generation who has nothing authentic about it, and which seems to be all about imitation and pretension. Allah yirham ayyam el harra wa mughamarat elbaskalaitat wa lulu wa tabboush! We were not fluent in English then, but we sure did know how to speak life!

To dear or not to dear?

Do you ever judge formal e-mail senders by the way they start their messages?

There are those who start with “Tallouza, blah blah blah” and there are others who start with “Dear Tallouza, blah blah blah” and then there are those who go direct into the subject without even bothering to address the recipient.

I find the first kind of e-mailers to border on the arrogant in the name of professionalism. In fact I can even picture the emerging breed of Jordanian yuppies (all genders) , metrosexuals and all too well-known digital gurus (mostly men) who belong to this category. As for the second kind, I find them to be courteous and humble senders. Finally there is very little doubt in my mind that the third type is likely to be obnoxious and rude.

One small confession: I used to belong to the first kind when I used to work in the US. I never thought anything of the lack of salutation. When I started working in Amman I had difficulty adopting to the dear thing. I have now come to terms with the fact that not to dear is normal in the US while in Jordan I am finding it pretentious. Did I confuse you?

The Joys of Tolerance

Imagine if everyone looked like you, thought like you, dressed like you, ate like you, smelt like you, and spoke like you…imagine how boring that would be.

Now imagine if you did not accept, hated, made fun of people because they did not look like you, did not dress like you, did not eat like you, did not smell like you, and did not speak like you...imagine how intolerant you would be.

Tolerance is a gift that only the enlightened is blessed with. Appreciating difference is the closest way to acknowledging that we are the same deep down inside. It is the only way to be in touch with our humane and empathetic sides. Learning to appreciate difference is the first step in learning to enjoy life and to love one’s self.

Today we are surrounded with countless divisions (poisons) disguised as Muslim, Christian, Sunni, Shii, Catholic, protestant, black, white, Jordanian, Palestinian, Saltee, Karakee, Nabulsee, Khaleelee, and so on and so forth. With all these choices.....what choice do we make?

One of my favorite philosophers, Michel Montaigne, wrote in one of his essays what must be the most beautiful description of what any civilized person should aspire to be:

“I am not guilty of the common error of judging another by myself. I easily believe that in another’s humor which is contrary to my own; and though I find myself engaged to one certain form, I do not oblige others to it, as many do; but believe and apprehend a thousand ways of living; and, contrary to most men, more easily admit of difference than uniformity amongst us. I as frankly as any one would have me, discharge a man from my humors and principles, and consider him according to his own particular model. Though I am not continent myself, I nevertheless sincerely approve the continence of the Feuillans and Capuchins, and highly commend their way of living. I insinuate myself by imagination into their places, and love and honor them the more for being other than I am. I very much desire that we may be judged every man by himself, and would not be drawn into the consequence of common examples”.

Whose little finger?

What if the following comment made by Rod Parsley, the spiritual guide of the American presidential candidate John McCain, were drawn in a cartoon?

“Islam: The Deception of Allah……..The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion [Islam] destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."

To rephrase my question, what is so different between what the Danish cartoon portrayed and what this ignorant teleevangelist is saying? Which incident is more serious? Insulting the religion of Islam or insulting the prophet Mohammad? One is an offensive visual image and the other is an offensive mental one. If you ask me, they both attack the same thing. They both insult Islam. They both spew venom against Moslems.

McCain is now visiting the Middle East. I do not recall any talk of boycotting him, or at least boycotting American products. I do not even recall any mention of these remarks in the Arabic media.

Are we so gullible that we have become wrapped around the little finger of “some power” that is working us as it sees fit?

Thank You But No “Thank Yous”!

The wave of thank you ads that flooded the newspapers lately is somewhat sickening. These thank yous are mostly addressed to heads of companies for the annual salary increases and in some cases for bonuses as well. The ads are presented in the usual flowery designs with even more flowery language. Everytime I read such ads I quiver. If there is such a thing as a collective Freudian slip, this trend is one. It clearly shows the centralization of the decision making process when it comes to the development and wellbeing of the staff. It is also indicative of the lack of proper job evaluation and adjustment processes in the companies concerned. In addition, the fact that acknowledgments were made this year shows that salary adjustments are an exception rather than a norm indicating a serious disregard was made in the previous years. Some might say that this year the adjustment was exceptional. Well extraordinary circumstances call for exceptional measures. Regardless of how unusual this year has been, appropriate measures taken by good management practices should never be thanked. It is the duty of any self-respecting entity. It is simply fulfilling one’s end of a contract. In the same way the employees should satisfy their end of the contract by offering the best that they have to offer. I strongly believe that good managers find the best thank you in a job well done. Anything else is nothing but a mumbo jumbo of hot air.

The repeated episodes of this pretentious and at best insincere gestures show the weakness of the management processes leading employees to resort to such hypocritical tactics in an effort to please a man or woman who is running the company as his or her own show. Besides, in such an environment, who usually makes such decisions? I would not be surprised if those thanked are in one way or the other in on the fact that they are being non-discreetly thanked and shown appreciation in such public display of nonsense.

Once a thank you is meant to massage the ego of an egomaniac and once it is done in such a public manner as advertising it in an ad in the newspaper, it ceases to be genuine. It loses its essence. It then becomes a subliminal message to all readers of how retarded the thankers and the thankees are.

The wave of this breed of thank yous has permeated into other establishments within our society. We are now hearing of thank yous for the delays in hiking prices of some energy prices for few weeks. Thank yous for taking measures to temporarily overcome and remedy incompetence in government planning and execution of foreseen measures. Thank yous for delaying the inevitable. Thank yous for providing decent housing, Thank yous for properly utilizing tax payers’ money. The way I see it, as long as there are endless disasters in store, there will be endless thank yous.

Finally I must stress that I love the whole notion of gratitude and of thanking people for any good deed or any generous gesture. In fact I find it as a necessary and minimum courtesy. I love calling friends after a lunch or dinner to let them know how special it feels to be invited. If someone does something nice to me, I always like to say thank you. I especially love doing it when it is least expected. I really love doing it because I genuinely feel it.

Thank you for reading this post.

مواطن سعودي غير صالح.....فؤاد أحمد الفرحان

اليوم تجاوزت الثلاثين من العمر بسنتين.
كم بقي من الوقت؟..متى؟.. سألت نفسي..
ألقيت نظرة سريعة على حياتي الماضية، فوجدت أن كل المؤشرات تقول بأنني متجه لكي أكون “مواطن سعودي صالح”..
..
..
“مواطن صالح” في الطريق لتحقيق طموحه..
منزل جميل، سيارة فارهة، عائلة مستقرة، أصدقاء للترفيه عنه، وحساب بنكي يقيه عواقب الدنيا..
“مواطن صالح” ليس همه إلا نفسه..
لا يهمه مصير المسجونين بلا محاكمات..
ولا بكاء الجياع من الأيتام..
ولا ظلم النساء..
ولا قلق الشباب..
ولا عبرة الفقراء..
ولا خوف الناصحين..
ولا صرخة المظلومين..
ولا قهر المنهوبين..
ولا خنقة المكلومين..
ولا رعب الآمنين..
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“مواطن صالح”..
لا يهمه جاره…
ولا جار جاره..
لا يهمه كذب الوزراء..
ولا نفاق المسؤولين..
ولا تزوير الإعلام..
ولا سحت البنوك..
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“مواطن سعودي صالح” لا يهمونه كل أولئك ..
أو..
يهمونه.. ولكنه يخاف..
يخاف أن يعبر عن رأيه.. لأنه يرى بأم عينيه بأن من يعبر عن رأيه يزج به خلف القضبان..
أو ربما يخاف أن يعبر عن رأيه لأنه يرى بأن رأيه لا يقدم ولا يؤخر..
أو ربما يخاف أن يعبر عن رأيه لأن الكلام في الشأن العام ليس من الإسلام كما يقول علماء السلطان..
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اليوم وقد قضيت من السنين 32 عاماً قررت أن لا أكون “مواطن صالح”..
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قررت أن أعبر عن رأيي بكامل إرادتي وذلك لعدة أسباب..
أولها.. لأن خالقي خلقني حراً ووهبني حرية التعبير عن رأيي..
و ثانيها.. لأن الحرية والعدل والمساواة والكرامة والشورى هي من صميم رسالة ديني..
وثالثها.. لأن هذا وطني وموطني..
ورابعها.. لأنني أهتم بكل أولئك..
وخامسها.. لأن التعبير عن رأيي يريحني نوعاً ما عندما أضع رأسي على الوسادة وأتذكر كل أولئك..
وسادسها.. لأجل مستقبل رغد وخطاب وكل أطفالنا..
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قررت أن لا أكون “مواطن صالح” وأن أقف مع المسجون واليتيم والفقير والشاب والمرأة والشيخ والناصح والمظلوم والمكلوم والمرعوب..
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لن أنتظر حتى أبني منزلي..
ولا حتى أن يتضخم رصيدي البنكي..
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“عودة عباس” لا تخيفني..
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لأجل رغد وخطاب ومستقبلهما سأعبر عن رأيي ولن أكون “مواطن سعودي صالح”..
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كل عام وأنا بخير.

Attitudes Leading to Our Demise

The world is becoming absurd. I am constantly reminded by Barbara Tuchman's famous saying, which dangerously applies to where we stand today:

“Three outstanding attitudes – obliviousness to the growing disaffection of constituents, primacy of self-aggrandizement, [and the] illusion of invulnerable status – are persistent aspects of folly”

Does this remind you of the world we live in and the arrogance of power we witness today?

Turkey: A Pious Act

Turkey has embarked on a controversial project to carry out revisions of the Hadiths, the collection of sayings attributed to Prophet Mohammad.

I would highly recommend reading the entire article in order to have the full idea put into perspective. In the meantime, I would like to share with you few excerpts from the article that particularly drew my attention:

“The argument [for the revisions] is that Islamic tradition has been gradually hijacked by various – often conservative – cultures, seeking to use the religion for various forms of social control”

“Turkey is intent on sweeping away that “cultural baggage” and returning to a form of Islam it claims accords with its original values and those of the prophet”

It is interesting to see that the only secular Moslem state is the one taking such bold initiative. Would Saudi Arabia ever consider joining in with this crucial exercise that touches on the essence of Islam? Or would there be too much conflict of interest in having the support of the most religiously conservative Moslem country in the world? As Moslems, we always learnt that Islam was special because of its flexibility, agility, and ability to be the religion of all times. I hope we not only learn about it but also see this applied in action.

Assuming good will and best of intentions, this project should be backed by every Islam loving person because it has the potential to free it from the kidnappers that have sabotaged it for so long.

Holocaust in Gaza: No “Breaking News” for CNN

This morning while downloading my e-mails, I received a “CNN Breaking News” e-mail message. Given that there is a Holocaust being committed by Israel against the Palestinians, I was sure that the news was going to be about Gaza. I was wrong; it was about the President of Ecuador ordering troops to the borders with Colombia.

This got me curious so I went back to check what CNN breaking news messages I had received in the past few days. Sure enough there were few CNN breaking news alerts and sure enough none was about Gaza.

Had the situation been reversed, and had Israel been the subject of holocaust threats by a Palestinian official, and had tens of Israeli women, children and innocent civilians been slaughtered by Palestinian attacks, would this have been treated any differently by CNN?

Foresight is 20/20

I am a psychic with the sharp vision of a falcon when it comes to Palestine. What’s happening in Gaza is dumbfounding. What is more shocking is the universal silence towards what is clearly a premeditated attempt for collective punishment and massacres of innocent civilians. This is Tal el-Za3tar all over again! This is Sabra and Shatila all over again! This is Jenin all over again! This is the oppressed becoming the oppressor! This is the Nazis once again!

I can tell you with great certainty what the repercussions are going to be for Israel, the neo-Nazi predator nation of today, NOTHING. My next prediction is that the Arabs will issue a strongly worded  lukewarm condemnation. There will be an attempt aimed for media consumption to investigate the latest "disturbances" in Gaza. Some group of ministers might be lucky enough to get an unexpected vacation at Sharm E-Sheikh. The good news is that for those who are annoyed by this trouble maker called Gaza, not to worry, the whole issue will be forgotten in a matter of few days.

My bumper sticker analysis of the situation is that Hamas has not been nice to America, so now America is bringing its sanctioned version of democracy to Palestine. Luckily enough, America has plenty of agents to assist it in doing so. 

While we are at it, remember Mohammed Al-Durra? Well there are serious claims now in court by Zionists contending that "al-Durra could not have been killed by Israeli fire"!!!!!  This is but another example of Israel's audacity in dealing with its crimes and more important another version of state terrorism that Israel is getting away with.  Unfortunately, this is also the sort of vigilance that Arabs have kept over cases of terrorism aimed against them.

And.......this is the sorry state that we Arabs find ourselves in today. 

Fan SMS

I recently created a (harassment) message template on my mobile phone that I send to my friends that reads (begs) "For those of you who have nothing better to do, pleeeeaaasssee check my blog". Today and since I have not added anything new recently, I received an sms that says "Since you have nothing else to do I suggest you update your blog". And like a good girl, I just did.

Adventure Tourism in Afghanistan!

Six weeks is how long Prince Harry was able to be "all that he can be" in Afghanistan. His adventure holiday was cut short from the original ten weeks that he was scheduled to spend due to a media leak. My gut feeling tells me that the leak was an intentional one orchestrated to bail out the prince from what seems to have turned out less fun than anticipated. The staging of the news was done brilliantly where adventure, urgency, Rambo, cool, 007, secrecy, heroism, royalty, glitter, sex appeal, and patriotism were all packaged in one headline. If a picture could tell a thousand words, the picture of Prince Harry told a million to a carefully targeted audience. The message was simply that “War is Sexy and we have Prince Harry to prove it". 

It must be a very hard sell for the USA and the UK to recruit for the wars they have staged in the Middle East when they have a very hard time sticking to one version of why they did start these wars to begin with. Prince Harry should make their task a bit easier now.

Although Prince Harry will be leaving Afghanistan sooner than expected, he and his battle group did perform heroic feats in preventing terrorism and in keeping the world safe. International Herald Tribune reports that "since Harry's arrival, his battle group has been responsible for around 30 enemy deaths".

The prince should join all the legends who throughout the past have served at romanticizing the invasion, colonization and violation of our lands. Great Britain seems to get the lion’s share of these great warriors with Lawrence of Arabia and now Harry of Afghanistan!  

Royal Republics!

Yesterday I heard that Fidel Castro resigned. I was so impressed. I thought to myself that Castro has really done the right thing by clearing the way for a successor. Today I learnt that Fidel Castro’s younger brother, Raul (76 year-young), is now the president of Cuba. Fidel Castro fell faster than a hot potato from the pedestal I had placed him on less than twenty four hours earlier.

I find it ironic that we are witnessing in Cuba what is typical of many political models around us in the Arab world. In other words, republics that pass on leadership based on hereditary rights. The countries that come to mind are Egypt, Syria and Libya.

Egypt and Syria claim a republic for their government model. A republic is defined as “a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president”. A monarch, on the other hand, is defined as “one who reigns over a state or territory, usually for life and by hereditary right”. While Libya’s government model is a Jamahiriya (a state of the masses), which is in theory, governed by the populace through local councils. All three countries claim some sort of participatory process whereby people have a say in the selection and election of their political leaders.

A brief examination of the most recent presidential elections in those countries shows discrepancies and inconsistencies between what the system is in theory and what it is in reality. For example consider the following:

Cuba:

A republic in theory. Last election was held on 6 March 2003. The next election was to be held in March 2008. Could the timing of the resignation of Fidel Castro have anything to do with this? I wonder.
The results of the last election: Fidel Castro was reelected president with 100% of legislative vote.
Raul Castro was elected vice president with 100% of legislative vote.
Now that Fidel is dying, his brother has inherited the presidency.

Egypt:

Last election under terms of constitutional amendment that changed the presidential election to a multicandidate popular vote was held on 7 September 2005.
The election results: Hosni Mubarak was reelected president with 88.6% of votes, Ayman Nour 7.6%, Noman Gomaa 2.9%.
Ayman Nour is in prison today!

Mubarak is now preparing his son Gamal Mubarak to inherit the presidency from him. I am now accepting bets for those who want to speculate on who is going to be the next Egyptian President.

Syria:
The election of the president is done by popular referendum for a seven-year term (no term limits). Last referendum was held on 27 May 2007, and the results were: Bashar al-Asad won as president with 97.6% of votes. I would love to know who is the braveheart who ran against the incumbent pseudo monarch and won the 2.4% of votes.
Bashar Al-Asad inherited the presidency from his father Hafez Al-Asad. This was made possible thanks to a controversial constitutional amendment to the age of the president that allowed Bashar to assume the presidency.

Libya – You are going to love this one
National elections are held indirectly through a hierarchy of people's committees; head of government is elected by the General People's Congress;
Last election was held in March 2006
election results: NA

Saif El-Eslam Ghadafi is widely believed to be the successor of his father Muammar to head the government. I am also accepting bets for those who would like to speculate on who is going to be the next Libyan head of government.

In view of the above, I am at a loss. What shall I call these regimes. They are neither republics nor monarchies. How about I create a new model for this new breed of imposters that I call “RoPublics”; where "Ro" stands for rogue and royal. A Ropublic would then be defined as a royal republic marked by a schizophrenic system of government where everyone pretends that the ruler is a president while in reality everyone knows that he is an imposter acting as a monarch. Presidential elections are held to enforce this state of denial and to reinforce that the people are crazy and that their fears of having their republic turn into a de facto monarchy are nothing but hallucinations.

That dreaded word

I wish I could document the first time someone called me auntie. Little did I know what a historic moment that was. The more people called me auntie, the more I started looking for old buggers so that I can call them 3ammo. All of a sudden the baqqal became 3ammo, the zabbal became 3ammo, the pharmacist became 3ammo, the baker became 3ammo, anyone who looked slightly older was a 3ammo…all in the pursuit of that little girl who still wants to think of herself riding her bicycle and running free in the streets of old Amman…. How time flies and how quickly life passes us by. I can live with auntie for now, but I am not sure how I would handle the inevitable hajjeh!!!!

Monopoly & Israel: How Appropriate

There is an Arabic proverb that says “Iza lam tastahee faf3al ma she’t” (If you are not deterred by shame then do as you please). This proverb accurately describes Israel’s actions in Palestine today. In the case of Israel, the deterrent is not so much shame as much as it is the blind and biased consent and approval of a world that is robbed of its will to do what is right, legal and just when it comes to the Palestinians.

In its violation of Palestinian land and the lives of all Palestinians, Israel has mastered the game of Monopoly. It has continuously attempted to monopolize everything Palestinian, be it cultural, culinary, heritage, you name it. How Humus and falalfel became Israeli national dishes beats me!!! The traditional Palestinian embroidery suddenly found itself adorning hostesses in the cabins of El-Al airlines. Even the dog known as Canaan dog, or as it is commonly known as “baladi”,  is now documented as “Israeli desert dog”!!!! The list goes on and on. The encroachment over the cultural heritage of the people it occupies is somewhat understandable. What else could the borrowed people of Israel show for themselves in terms of history and tradition without revealing how Spanish, Russian, French, Iraqi, Hungarian, Polish, Moroccan, or German they are?

This brings me to the topic of this post: Monopoly, the game some of us grew up playing. The game that got us acquainted with all the landmarks of the city of London without even stepping foot there. The game that introduced us very early on to our entrepreneurial side without even knowing the meaning of the word entrepreneurship. Now Israel has encroached itself onto this game as well.

You see Monopoly is planning to introduce an international version of the game. In an attempt to have people vote on their favorite city choices, they listed cities with corresponding countries. The city of Jerusalem was listed by ignorance and lack of knowing better as Jerusalem, Israel. When the error in referring Jerusalem to Israel was brought up by Pro-Palestinian groups, Hasbro, the mother company of Monopoly,  rightfully removed the reference to Israel. This was enough to mobilize all the powers of denial in Israel in motion. These same powers are the people who fully know and understand that Jerusalem is and has always been legally deemed by the United Nations and the whole world as illegally occupied by Israel. Still they are in denial and they want the whole world to join them in this denial too.

The latest in this saga is that Hasbro has issued an apology to Israel. How ironic! The reference to Israel was correctly removed by an employee whose motivation is the accurate portrayal of facts. Little did this employee know that the higher up he or she gets in the echelon of his or her company, the little need there is for truth and the more need there is for playing dirty politics.

Hasbro and Jerusalem: How inappropriate!!!