How it hurts to read it…

At one point in my life, I read so much in the politics and history of our region, and God, how this gave me depression and heartache, especially those books written by Mohammad Haikal…Deception, violence, inadequacy, poor management and devastating loss…I stopped of course after a while, but my eyes still fall sometimes on such news that break the heart:

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/05/14/49834.html

The comments of the readers are painful, showing the deep hostility of each party, all of whom are Arabs and Muslims… is it such a far cry to dream of an International Citizen? someone who respects others religions, beliefs, and cultures? Can we reach a stage in civilization where we can use modern tactics, improved communication and sophisticated tools to create better countries starting down to the top instead of the ugly top to bottom ruling style?…Are we doomed forever with such retardation or can we dare to dream of a better future?…

The name game!!

In her Lovely book “Eat, Pray, love”, Elizabeth Gilbert (a wordy person) describes a game she used to do everytime she visits a new place, she used to give a one word description of the place depending on what feeling it triggers in her and hence the name of her book (Eat:Italy, Pray: India, Love: Indonesia)…I became obsessed with this game every time I experience something or someone interesting, I named the folllowing:

1. Places: Jeddah (Youthful), Riyadh (Strict), London (Royal), Washington (Formal), NYC (Jungle), Vienna (Historical), Singapore (powerful), Alexandria, Egypt (poor bride), Frankfurt (dull), Barcelona (Colorful)

2. People: Saudis & Jordanians(cautious), Egyptians (Critic), Palestinians (Defensive), Lebanese (Charm), Americans (Fun-loving), British (Snobbish)…

Of course, I don’t mean generalization, but the word goes for the most common specimen…

Are we still in hareem days??

I’m shocked!! how dominating our world can be after watching this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRjr_VhZZ6Q

The road to hill is furnished with good intentions…Poor sister and poor women who submit to such domination because it’s the religious and right thing to do…Of course, I have to admit that I still feel a bit uneasy for the first few days after landing in another country when I walk in the streets and speak to people, now I know that the mere walking on the streets is a big thing, now that I’m watching this I can see how big it is for some women, they would never be uncensored, free to roam or find their own ways, they hold the key for men honor and for that they will be imprisoned and watched…Will they be able to claim freedom from a lousy father, brother or husband? would they be able one day to choose a profession or test their creativity? would they ever feel humans instead of sex-stimulating object? would they ever know the real world, it’s huge potential and feel compassion with the rest of human beings? would they ever be able to remove the forced veil on their eyes and minds?… I just wonder!!!

My president is a moron!!!

The car in front me had a sticker that said “My child is an honorable student but my president is a moron”, now that was one of the rare instances where I felt sorry for not capturing the moment with my camera…I really feel shocked for the free expression here in US, a TV analyst can ask John Mccaine if he was too old to be in charge? or media presenting topics like gay and lesbians families and marriage life, and so on…People pose happy and respond in content to all embarrassing questions…We do have presidents who exceeded their eighties and still hanging to the dear throne of failed countries, we have people jailed at the spur of the moment for requesting politely some explanation without touching the identity of those in charge, jails are packed with university professors, scholars, reporters who tried bringing up some matters of concern, and of course no one know when they’ll be released or what they were jailed for…Funny that a friend of mine was telling me that she was thinking that she’s strange for not finding a decent man to marry (a very common phenomena) and she was observing many young men around her and couldn’t really see any worthy match, now I can say a lot about that but the one important thing to say is that our men and women are crushed by poor politicians and unjust systems of education and awareness, men suffered insignificance and crushed women in return, and this all lead to a trend of insignificant men and women in their countries and in themselves, however, I would like to believe that there are some few good men and women left somewhere who survived the massive destruction, otherwise, we would never do well in the future…

Did I miss something along the way?…

I know for sure that I have a malfunctioning memory, I remember answers of exam questions sometime after the exam and remember losing something after leaving the hotel or the plane and fail to recognize a sum of added money to my bill in error until a friend draws my attention, but seeing this video just made me realize it’s my deep focus and ignorance of the surrounding that makes me loses awareness, I started losing focus intentionally I think sometime as a teenager to avoid unneeded annoyance and in an attempt to focus on the positive things, somethings (i.e. focus and awareness) must’ve been lost along with the unwanted stuff, I wonder how many things & most important how many people went unnoticed along the years?… needless to say that in this video I missed the bear!!!…

The signs of love…

A friend is staying over for a month with her mom after a tragic fall at the end of the year that left her knee fractured and caused her to stay behind for the medical treatment instead of celebrating finishing all her study and going back home…That friend is not at all upset form the delay in returning home or her imprisonment at home, in fact, you can hardly detect her face without a little smile, she’s always whispering on the phone or chatting on her laptop until late at night…Sometimes, she’ll go to the backyard to receive a call of 3-4 hours…The signs of love are so beautiful that you can have happiness and content even though your situation is not the ideal one, you can laugh, take things easy and be always in a good mood despite all inconveniences, I’m sure I’ll hear the good news soon after her departure and that I’ll recognize those signs (which are rarely seen) from now on, so to aid anyone suspecting, the famous signs are:

1. When after speaking for hours with the person and hanging up, you feel like you want to talk again.

2. When you keep on reading his/ her messages over & over again with the same level of excitment

3. You walk slowly when you’re together & wishing time would never pass

4. Your heart beats are almost heard when you’re together

5. You always smile when you’re thinking of, listening to or seeing him/ her

6. You can’t notice anyone when you look at him/ her

7. You’re extra focused when listening to romantic songs

Well, many signs can be detected, for me I noted from those in love around me that their mood is always good, but feel free to add any sign, after all, love worths recognition…

Silly things that make the news…

It’s amazing how the women issues are so popular and focused on in our side of the world from the religious scholars despite the fact that all the efforts made are making the lives of Muslim women much worse than it was at the beginning of Islam…What about occupied lands and territories? what about the poor education or health services and most importantly, what about the human development and civil rights?…The failure of the religious teaching methods and the poor preparation of the Islamic scholars have turned Islam away from the true moral values that it was meant to bring to people (The content of knowing God and the dignity of having human rights)…Watching a you tube video from the “The humanity of Islam conference” just make a person wonders what the Palestenian Mufti is trying to say? is this the call of a Mufti “The higher scholar in the religious order” whose land is occupied and whose people is oppressed? Just listening to him made me disgusted and I’m a Muslim, he definitely earned all those bad comments from the Western audience, he represented Islamic teaching in the ugliest way possible, where is the humanity in what he was saying? and this goes along with another video of another scholar who stresses on the importance of keeping a woman hidden and claims all the vices of west (If it really exist as from his point of view) will be brought to us if a woman is allowed to drive…My God isn’t there any worthy cause in life to put their efforts in but the poor women? and yet they failed terribly in scoring any credits…The real tragedy I think is that religious teaching is shaped by men for women while women were somewhere obeying the men and submitting for everyone needs, they were never part of this whole ideology and teaching and never been listened to, their voices and minds where absent from the field for so long and when they tried to restore a presence, they where badly shut down… I will not ever believe that God wanted women merely as tools to serve men’s needs regardless of their own and that they were supposed to be hidden and quiet, trouble is I’m not a religious scholar and no one would put me in TV or in front of a microphone to spill this out…

Just on time to ease my mood…

I have been tagged by Murtadha . I’m impressed with his honest expression of beliefs, and the sincere youthful famous wish of world peace & harmony…it came just in time when I’m in a bad mood and trying to left my spirit, so this seems as a nice uplifting exercise, here are the rules as set by the original player:

1. Link the person(s) who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers’ blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

My six unspectacular quirks are:

1. I procrastinate in routine or complicated errands and this is really killing my credibility little by little (I guess I’m just lacking real passion for things)

2. I put plans for better self management and never apply them

3. I’m an empty half of the cup-oriented person

4. I love my niece and nephew pathetically and fail to see any shortcoming in them, I view them always as little babies and I even talk to them the same way I used to when they were babies regardless of the fact that one is 14 and the other is 8 already

5. I don’t feel belonging to anything completely (I’m kind of hard to classify even to myself, I don’t fit in any defined category, nation, belief or principle…making any self improvement or discovery plans quite a challenge, the good thing is this also makes me compatible with everyone (almost!!)

6. I’m confused about things & ideas most of the times and it gets worse with more knowledge and aging, I don’t for instance see why there were 6 quirks precisely and not 5 or 4 to make life easier? (6 is not a particularly special number like 3, 5 or 7 anyway, where did this come from?)….

Anyway, I have to choose six bloggers and I don’t follow many, so here they are:

1. ٌRaed, for his unique yet funny style in writing, I enjoyed it a lot

2. Trevelyana, in support of her articulate and thoughtful search for correct answers and for Mr. right

3. Nabeel fahad Al-Mojel, for a comfortable place with a friendly feeling

4. Broke Saudi, for a nice and friendly blog in disguise

Why I have only 5? bcoz most of the other good bloggers have been tagged already, and for those ones I picked, it would be fun to know their quirks…

Prophets of the new world…

During the last weekend I attended the conference “Celebrate your life” in the beautiful Chicago city. I received the information through a free weekly newsletter of Cheryl Richardson, a favorite author of mine whom I followed through her books and newsletter for sometime…The event is a series of workshops on self improvements through better awareness of self, others and life skills, the instructors are passionate “life coaches” who were as wise, content & happy as best as a person can be…They were people with deep belief of their missions and roles and commitment to deliver help and support to others through their teachings. Many of them are famous authors and thinkers like “Deepak Chupra”, Marianne Williamson, Debbie Ford and of Course Cheryl Richardson…Ideas like Law of attraction, Ego & false self, the art of self care, gifts of our dark side and much more, I came up from the inspiring speeches and learning experiences with few lessons and observations of my own:

Women are seekers of wisdom and personal growth more than men (most of the crowd were women), explaining why they were entrusted with motherhood

Aging is a way to learn wisdom and reflect on life, to change from physically oriented humans to spiritually- and mentally- -rich humans, wisdom can only be gained by learning lessons of life and by a desire to transfer them to the next generation

Th most valuable thing to award another human being is to respect him/ her no matter how different

To be authentic, recognizing your true values & beliefs is the main goal to reach happiness

Be open to new ideas and thoughts

Finally, I knew why I didn’t get married, and I always thought it was due to coincincidence and luck!!! I was completely off track…But I’ll just keep it for my self

Nothing is impossible, fears & doubts are all in the mind