one evil side ..

Specially for Sameh, Samboora, Carlo et al.
Have you guys ever ran into mafiwasta.com?
This is just one evil side of the shining Dubai!
Don't miss the post about the worldcup :)))

شوفتوا الحرامي

استجواب أولمرت لشرائه شقه يقدر ثمنها ب1.6 مليون دولار ب 1.2 مليون دولار فقط!!

على الصفحة الأولى في الأهرام !! وكأن لسان حالهم شوفتوا الحرامي؟!؟

ثقافة الإلتصاق

أجزاء من مقال أعجبني ل"أشرف عبد المنعم" في أهرام 28/7:

جميعنا سجناء ثقافة متلاصقة المسافات إلى حد الإختناق ، ثقافة لا تعرف البراح ؛
ترى هل تلاصق أجسادنا في محيطنا الجغرافي الضيق، الذي حصرنا نفسنا فيه طواعية، هو السبب المباشر وراء ثقافتنا المتلاصقة التي نحياها؟؟
أم أن فكرنا المبني أصلا على تلاصق المسافات هو الذي دفعنا لقبول تلاصقنا الجسدي و الفكري الذي نفتقد فيه بصيص البراح؟؟

...عيون لغيرها فاحصة متفحصة.. راصدة لأدق التفاصيل ، و لا تجد في ذلك عيبا، ولا ترى فيه ولا شبهة إقتحام أو تطفل
ترى من يكون هذا؟ ومن أين له هذا؟ ولماذا يفعل هذا؟ بل ولماذا لا يفعل هذا؟
و ترى من تكون هذه؟ ولماذا ترتدي هذا؟ و ولماذا تتحدث إلى هذا؟ و لماذا لا تتحدث إلى هذا؟؟
أو ليس هذين زوجين؟ لماذا لا ينجبان؟
وهذان الزوجان لماذا إكتفيا بطفلين؟ و هذان، لماذا بطفلين لا يكتفيان؟

سخف، وتدخل، وتراشق ما بعده سخف ، ولا بعده تدخل، و لا بعده تراشق!!
بنايات شاهقة،حاجبات للرؤى ، جاثمات على الصدور، متلاصقة تفقد العين نعمة الشعور بالفراغات و المساحات!
و كذلك تفعل بالآذان ؛ منفرط وهن جدران هذه البنايات تتسرب الأصوات، فإذا بالناس فاقدون لأدق الخصوصيات؛ بعدما لم يعد يحول بين المرء و جاره حاجب أو ستار!
و تراشقت القصص و الحكايات و الأفكار و الأسرار، حتى أنه ما عادت فواصل الحياء تفصل بين الناس نهارا و ليلا وسط ثقافة التلاصق و التراشق ؛ فمات الحياء و شابت الولدان!

حين يدب فرح في بيت ، على جميع أهل الحي أن يدفعوا لهذه الفرحة ثمنا .. و اتسحق الطبول و الزغاريد الرؤوس سحقا، ولتتوقف المركبات جميعها قدر المستطاع!
و حين ينعق الحزن في بيت، فليتجرع الجميع ذات الكأس .. و كما تفرض الصلاة بالميكروفونات في كل مكان ؛ يفرض أي شخص أغنية أعجبته من نافذة منزله أو سيارته أو دكانه!

إن الناس في مجتمعنا ما عادت تستنكف حتى رائحة بعضها البعض وكأنها توائم ملتصقة ليس أمامها سوى إحتمال وضعهم، الناس تشابهت في الشكل و المضمون ..
فقد نسينا فيما يبدو أننا أفراد تعيش في جماعات و ليس جماعات تعيش في أفراد !!

إننا بحاجة إلى مساحات فاصلة بيننا في الفكر قبل الجسد ؛ بحاجة إلى فراغات تسمح للفرد التنفس الجسدي و الروحاني؛
بحاجة أن نخرج من جلود بعض و ننفض ثقافة الوصاية و التفكير بالإنابة و الزج بالذات في صميم روح الآخرين .. دعونا نحيا بعض البراح

the "Ghool" or the "Fool"?

Just food for thought ...
After they declare a cease fire, who do you think will be the first to break it?

A War of ... Goddamned Choice!

I found this article in a Google search for "disproportionate reaction"!!

"Haartez" is known to be more leftist than the other two wide-spead Israeli dailies. But the article is worth the 2 minutes read at least to know that some ( .. few) of them see the blood-thirsty madness in what they are doing!!

Legacy overshadows shame

Just for the memory .. Zizou's Legend will survive a headbutt in the heart of The Matrix





... and wins a well-reserved golden ball !!

Noooo?!! ... Siiiiiiiiiii !!!!

This WAS incredible!!















This WAS History!!









This WAS Crazy!!

















This WAS Football !!

رباعيتين ماشيين مع بعض

أنا اللي بالأمر المحال إغتوى

شفت القمر نطيت لفوق في الهوا

طلته ما تلطوش ايه أنا يهمني

و ليه؟

ما دام بالنشوة قلبي إرتوى

عجبي

وسمعت نقطة ميه جوه المحيـــــــط

بتقول لنقطه ما تنزليش في الغويط

أخاف عليكي م الغرق .. قلـــــت أنا

ده اللي يخاف م الوعد يبقي عبيط

وعجبي

صلاح جاهين

في الهزيع الرابع

في الهزيع الرابع وسط ليل الإنتظار

عندما يخبو الرجاء، والمنى تبدو بخار

إذ بصيص الأمل يختفي ولا منار

في الهزيع الرابع تستجيب سيدي

في الهزيع الرابع حيث لا يبقى خيار

يعجز العلم ولا ينفعن سعي الكبار

قوتي تخونني و يضيق الإختبار

في الهزيع الرابع تستطيع سيدي

في الهزيع الرابع واضحا يبدو المسار

عبر أمواج الدجى نحو فجر الانتظار

كنت مرساة النجاة عاملا خلف الستار

في الهزيع الرابع تتراءى سيدي

....

فريق ترانيم السماء

وَلَيْسَتْ خَلِيقَةٌ غَيْرَ ظَاهِرَةٍ قُدَّامَهُ، بَلْ كُلُّ شَيْءٍ عُرْيَانٌ وَمَكْشُوفٌ لِعَيْنَيْ ذلِكَ الَّذِي مَعَهُ أَمْرُنا.

(عبرانيين 13:4)

TISK is here :)

So excited to Blo2 this breaking newz ...

The heavenly TISK (Tia Iskander) just landed on our dusty Earth ... Hallelujah :)))

Mabrook to the beloved FISK & MISK :)

When I say '" I'm back " ...

I’ve been away for some time. The past few weeks have been among the most agitated in my life so far. Agitated is really the word … Roaring winds, blinding dust, deafening storms, crashing waves ……. I could have written so many things, but it’s just too agitated for me to write. May be I am not the dramatic writer who would write best during his worst times... not yet at least.

Anyway now that the smoke is going down, or may be I’m just getting used to it … I want to say “I’m back”!

“I’m back” ... It should be a relieving thing to say … but it’s very puzzling sometimes.

There is always this fear that back is backward, the fear that back is a move with a minus sign. I don’t believe this is a rule but it certainly puts a tough question to answer for anybody making a back decision.

I must have ready answers for all the questions “I’m back” implies. This is often a reason that keeps you from having something back to your life, or resuming something you were once doing and stopped, or returning to a place you left.

To whomever ...

To whomever I said before you have to go back home “Egypt” to raise your kids there, where they would have an إنتماء and a هوية ; I apologize and I say it out loud “GATNI SETTEEN NEELA” :-(

... فمع أنه

فمع أنه لا يزهر التين

ولا يكون حمل في الكروم

يكذب عمل الزيتونة

والحقول لا تصنع طعاما

ينقطع الغنم من الحظيرة

ولا بقر في المذاود

فإني أبتهج بالرب

وأفرح بإله خلاصي

الرب السيد قوّتي

ويجعل قدميّ كالأيائل

ويمشيني على مرتفعاتي

فأغني على آلاتي ذوات الأوتار

19-17 : 3 حبقوق

Normal = Status Quo

Now I am thinking in a Word document … mind not very clear … thoughts not organized … no sequence prepared … no conclusions planned …

Normally as soon as I come back from a vacation or trip, I am required to resume my normal life that was briefly interrupted. I have to resume living my normal morning, my normal evening and my normal nighttime … living my normal weekend and my normal Monday and normal Tuesday and normal Wednesday … my normal job duties and normal communications with my colleagues; my normal pastimes and normal relations with friends and people around …

At this point where I am slowly letting myself to get absorbed again into my usual “normal”, sometimes I am able to have an outside look at my normal day-to-day; and every time I do that, many questions arise. Questions about these normal routines that occupy my time and my mind and my life.

Sometimes I ask myself about the reason I do some usual routines. I ask myself when did I start doing this or that; when has it become part of my normal life. For some things I wonder if I was the one who consciously included it to my life; or was it a need or a necessity or circumstances that let it into my life. Questions about how much do I like one normal routine or another, and how does it compare to my ex-normal life back in Egypt. Things that I would like to include in my “normal” routine but can’t get used to do; and habits that I got used to but that I don’t like.

This is the time where I feel the most an urge for a life restructure and for a change in my normal routines. But the human tendency for stability and steadiness and the normal life that imposes itself once the hours and the days start their constant flow, strongly oppose the impulsive urge for change and reorganization.

Life order contrasts with life change and reform. It’s similar to the basic conflict in politics between parties seeking to conserve social order and others seeking social change. Hmmm … unluckily democracy and elections are not applicable in my case. Until now, it has always been the status quo (الأمر الواقع) that says the last word every time.

This is not all there is

This is not all there is
This is the preschool
The tryout
The practice workout
The warm-up lap
The staging area
The dress rehearsal
This is the temporary residence
The camping tent
The womb
The glimpse
Only the seen, the heard, the imagined
The visible tip of the iceberg
The vapor which appears then vanishes
This is just the beginning
This is not all there is …

And as if that weren't enough ... !

When they aren't asking questions
They're making suggestions
And when they're not doing one of those
They're either looking over your shoulder or stepping on your toes
And then as if that weren't enough to annoy you
They employ you.
Anybody at leisure
Incurs everybody's displeasure.
It seems to be very irking
To people at work to see other people not working,
So they tell you that work is a wonderful medicine,
Just look at Firestone and Ford and Edison,
And they lecture you till they're out of breath
And then if you don't succumb they starve you to death.

Ogden Nash

Who Runs Your World?

Do I really have that much free time??!! Mmm … This was not done on office hours anyway :) … and I really liked the survey … It raised again these human diversity thoughts that I’ve been wondering about lately.

Here it is … BBC presented this program and launched an online survey for people to send their comments and opinions about who runs their worlds …

I’ve read the comments. But what’s more crazy than this is that I was not as much interested in answering the question myself as I was by the diversity of the answers! It's overwhelming! Note that more than 90% of the people who commented are from the UK; so the diversity is even within the same society.

So I’ve read them just to compare them and ponder on the differences between people … and when the idea of blo22ing the thought came across my mind I decided to sort them out (the comments) and tag them :) … Not that I care if it is gonna be read by anybody on The Blo2; but I found it interesting enough to me anyway.. So if you started reading and you decided it's boring already just press Back or Alt+F4, I don't mind.

All what’s after bulleted points is copied from the online survey. The headings are mine.


Me! … answer number#1 ! ... Ego proves the center of the universe!!

• I run my life. I don't consider my government to hold any authority over me. Whatever power the government has over me is minor and truly not very significant in terms of what really is important in life.

• I run my world! Everything I do in my life is my choice. I choose to go to work to earn money to pay my bills to keep on the right side of the law to respect my family and friends and to keep learning. As long as I have choice, I run my life!

• I run my world, followed by money as a close second.

Media, Companies, Governments, and all those valid conspiracy theories:

• The media runs a good portion of the world.
  
• Companies like the major soft drinks manufacturers and petrochemical producers hold governments in the palm of their hand. Governments in turn keep us all firmly beneath their thumb or heel, depending on naive beliefs in freedom and democracy to gain compliance from an accepting majority.
  
• The simple truth is that the corporations run the world.
  
• Robert Murdoch and the Carlyle Group
  
• International agencies (World Bank, IMF, etc.) or powerful foreign governments (US, EU) control the lives of most people on this planet.
  The multinational corporations do. Politicians have a very much peripheral influence in these modern times when everything is sacrificed to the goal of maximizing profits for the larger companies, their owners and shareholders, no matter what the cost to the environment or human quality of life is.

Money … and the Rich … a common answer

• It's safe to say that money runs my world.
  
• Money or lack of.
  
• The world is run by the people with the most money
  
• The wealthy throughout the world are controlling and choking the life out of humanity.

Family,Wife,Kids … another common answer:

• It is my family.
  
• Our wonderful three month old daughter, without a doubt.
  
• A power-sharing pact between mum and girlfriend
  
• I used to think it was me, then I got married and it was my wife, then my son was born and now it's him!

Sexes:

• Right now I would have to say men. Women haven't really had an equal opportunity to influence the world such as man has. Still today men are continuing their dominance in the world.
  
• Women, pure and simple. When I was a child my mother ruled me, and before I had my child my wife ruled me. Now my daughter rules me. As far as my memory of my family history goes, it was my grandmother who ruled my dad, and my other grandmother who ruled my mom and her dad.
  
• The three 'm's: Men, money and media.
  
• Thank god women don't rule the world.
  
• Women obviously rule the world; it is clear from the number of men who do not realize that that they are doing a good job.

Nature … would make some sense these days:

• Nature runs my world. I try to respect and adapt to the environment. Katrina shows that no matter how much we try to bend the environment to our needs, nature still has the last say.
  
• Tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, global warming and other natural disasters should make it clear that humans control over the conditions of their own existence is very limited

GOD!! ... Only ONE out of more than seventy answers !!

• It is Jesus Christ my God.

Our own tragedies rule the world:

• Long term illness coupled with intolerance from our so-called "society" seems to run my world.
  
• My world is run by the nexus of corrupt bureaucracy, politicians and businessmen.
  
• Three things run my world, the bills, my wife and my kids. As a middle class family the bills are always more than we can earn, but we survive with 2 full time jobs.
  
• I think it's the lawyers and judges who run it. They hold power over everybody, bar none. A judge or a magistrate can order child support to the tune of half of your earned income; they can separate you from your child, and make you into a marginalized father and second class citizen all in a blink of an eye. And lawyers are, of course, their cohorts.

Fear, Fate, Hatred rule the world

• Fear runs my world.
  
• Chance, some would say fate, runs the world.
  
• It seems as if hatred, greed and stupidity rule the world

Sarcasm rules the world!! :)

• Isn't it a real pity that all the people who know how to run the world properly are just too busy cutting hair and driving taxis!
  
• Sad as it seems, my 11-month-old yellow lab. My wife and I do not have any children (yet!) so we decided to give it a test run with a fur-kid. She basically runs the house and our lives. I never understood how people can be so obsessive about pets, until we got Buffy. We have become that annoying couple who can talk of nothing but "our little girl". We try not to, but I can understand, finally, how much more children truly rule parents lives.
  
• This is actually a meaningless question.

Where is your candle?

They asked me where is my candle..

I said my candle has gone off; the strong wind blew it off just after it started to light brightly. The glow didn't go far when suddenly it was gone. I couldn't fight back the wind, neither did my candle. It was just blown off in silence. if u really want my candle light to shine again, please lead me on to a burning fire, to light up my candle.

~~~~~~

They asked me again where is my candle..

I said my candle was stolen while I was walking by lighting the dark street with it. I was trying to light things up for everyone, but a selfish soul took it away to capture the light just for itself. I am looking for my candle, I miss my flame. If you really want my candle light to shine again, please find the thief who took away my candle, and punish him for all the dark that came.

~~~~~~

They asked me again where is my candle..

I said my candle melted... Yes it burnt all the way through and was all melted down now. It shone for a long time and led others for a good way to go.. It melted because it was burning constantly, everyday and every hour. If you really want my candle light to shine again, please remember the times when it was glowing brightly, and the road will lighten up at once. I am sure all the light didn't go in vain

~~~~~~

They asked me again where is my candle..

I said I don't know, I never noticed my candle, I never knew its light was that obvious. How did u know about my candle? How could u see the flame? I didn't care if it was lit or not, and now u ask me about my candle? I can't help you my friends, I have no clue about my candle. If you really want my candle light to shine again, please search for it with me and help me make it light for once.

~~~~~~

They asked me again where is my candle..

Believe me when I say I never owned a candle, never held it in my hand, never knew I should have a candle and never thought of fetching for one. If you really want my candle light to shine, please get me one and teach me how to light it up!

~~~~~~

Where do you keep your candle?!

~~~~~~

Lillian Girgis

Beautiful Day!!

ياللا بينا ياللللللا نقضـــي يوم جميــل
دا انهــارده واللـلا يوم مالوش مثيـــل

... It makes me laugh too :D

This little refrain Mama used to sing it to me every morning on our way to the pre-school nursery of Mme.Alice across the street in El-Daher before she goes to work… that makes me 3-4 years old then!!!
I am amazed how fresh and clear the picture of this little daily walk stayed in my memory. We always laugh so much when we remember it :)

But this morning, just like every morning since many months ago, I wake up bored, lazy, sluggish and uninterested… think Garfield in his worst Monday.
And suddenly while getting off the bed, I find the very old morning jingle popping in my mind unexpectedly.
It just made me reflect for a second why my daybreak mood and spirit is becoming so apathetic. Why don’t I sing my song every morning?? ...