Kojo Annan = $300,000

Big deal! what is $300,000 compared to $ 9 billion?

Kojo with $300,000.

Coalition Authority (US govt) with missing $9 billion.

What a pile crap!

Anyone, "Do the math pls", what Kojo did is like stealing a grain of sand from the desert as opposed to what the Coalition Authority (or US govt more precisely) is hiding up their sleeves. I call this hypocrisy to make such an ordeal of Kojo but oh yeah, African American can be slashed to pieces.

Investigation for corruption and mismanagement in the Iraqi Oil for Food program should be directed at Bush's administration. Someone show the people of America what the US govt is doing. They are cheating both worlds (the Americans and the Iraqis) at the cost of blood and dollars.

4 women of Egypt

Yeah, this will be my first review of a movie/documentary: so here we go, this is the finest documentary I have ever watched from a Political perspective.

It's about 4 intellectual activist Egyptian women: Amina; a socialist/ not religious, Shahenda; a Muslim by label but more of an atheist who lost her husband to a political assassination, Wedad; a grounded Christian who is an author and a militant nationalist and lastly, Safynaz who is a political journalist and a very strict Muslim (I loved her character the most, it was hilarious how she would lose her mind when discussing Islam with Shahenda).

What I found particularly incredible about this documentary is the dynamics of their friendship, different religious backgrounds and different beliefs in Political systems, however, they were inseparable and the love they had for one another was so pure. Most of their ideas were diverse, nevertheless, that never diluted their deep friendship. Their arguments would be so intense and extreme at times, however, their tolerance levels would end their debate with a passionate laughter.

These women entered Nasser's days after the revolution in the 50's and they were politically passionate, faced personal tragedies and they shared national dreams that forced them to share prison cells too.

I found it adorable when Shahenda and Safynaz would talk about their experiences when they lived in the US. How they would tell Americans "we're cool, some of us drink, smoke, we even wear mini-skirts". Their life stories were too adorable especially when they were younger and how they tried to blend with the western world. Or Shahenda being the only young woman during a demonstration she was right at the front of the crowd demonstrating and back then, it seemed to be a very unusual behaviour (almost wrong for that matter). Safynaz also said back in those days, if you didn't go to prison, you had to have a very good reason for not being in. Being in prison was something they took pride of"

In conclusion, this documentary was remarkably moving, it made me laugh so hard as well as shed tears and it gives one a much better perspective of Egypt after the revolution in the 50's. From a bigger picture; it shows that the whole world can live in harmony even if their views are extremely opposing.

Giggle for the day!

MEN-opause MEN-strual pain MEN-tal illness GUY-necologist HIS-terectomy EVER NOTICED HOW WOMENS PROBLEMS START WITH MEN??

Go Nabhani Go!

Al-Nabhani takes over Kuwait counterpart in GCC Tennis

March 23, 2005
In a marathon and exciting game, our national team tennis player Khalid Al-Nabhani defeated Kuwait champion Mohammed Abdulreadha 2-1, 4-6,5-7.

Khalid showcased amazing techniques and talents as he dominated the game attended by massive fans.

Earlier, our National Tennis team lost the opening game to the Kuwait side when the Kuwaiti ace Mohammed Abdulredha defeated Mohammed Al-Nabhani 2-, 6-2, 6-1 and the two Al-Nabhani siblings lost in the doubles to the Kuwaiti team 2-0, 6-7, 5-7.

Any updates on Fatma Al-Nabhani? Are Fatma and Khalid related? for those who don't know, Fatma won the gold medal of the first int'l tennis championship in West Asia for young tennis players.

Online Friends

I normally respond to emails in a very pragmatic way where I take each sentence said and respond to it or provide information similar to it etc. Is it better to just reply in a generic way instead of cutting the words to pieces and responding to every letter?

If one needs to lie then I rather not hear anything. I always ask that of people I meet online. Don’t lie and if tempted to then just don’t say anything. This also brings me back to my two rules of communication. One, ask anything you want but two, remember I always have the right to answer or not. What I find really bizarre is that online friends have learnt to adapt to me and I have learnt to accommodate them in ways they need me to.

Its so nice to be able to find some exquisite interesting people online and spend hours exploring such people without really knowing them. Human contact is very important for me and I just find it odd developing an aquintance let alone a friend online. But it has happened so I guess these things just take time, adapting to all this technology and globalization is too much for me.

I suppose I have changed and sometimes that change is subtle and at other times it hits us like a brick wall. I guess it just depends on how often we take a moment to look around acknowledge our surroundings and come to term with our changes and so forth. Having said that I do think the human evolution in each individual is a fascinating thing so in that way I nourish in it.

A little about Samsara

In the Buddhist cosmology, one of the realms of being is that of "hungry ghosts." These r beings w/ immense bodies but pinhole mouths, so that they r continually driven by unsatisfied desire. When someone once asked the Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh what life is like in the realm of hungry ghosts, he answered with 1 word: "America." The culture we live in, the one that has conditioned us, does not prize yielding, giving up, letting go, relinquishing.

In the Buddhist world view, the entire conditioned reality in which we live is called samsara: the world of birth & death, arising & passing. This is our life. One of the amazing attributes of samsara is that no matter what we have or what is available to us. We know that somewhere out there, there is always more. The potential for dissatisfaction is infinite, because in this world of change, there is no end to arising & passing away, and the possibilities for comparing & wanting are endless.

(I am skipping a paragraph which illustrates a simplistic example of samsara — to continue.)

The preeminent aim of dana is to free ourselves from the conditioned internal forces of craving, clinging, & attachment that bind & limit us. If we r always looking 4 some object, person, or place to create a sense of completion for ourselves, we miss entirely the degree to which we are whole and complete in every moment. But clinging to samsara is like leaning on a mirage. It cannot uphold or sustain us—there is nothing there. We practice generosity to free our hearts from that delusion, so that we can find & enjoy the force of essential happiness.

So the benefits of generosity r very powerful. As we cultivate it, our heart will stop sticking to things. It is as if we have been making a tight fist for a long time, and slowly the fist opens. We experience relief and happiness as that grip loosens. When the mind becomes suffused with the feeling of generosity, it moves out of a sense of rigid confinement and limitation to a space of being boundless, Our world opens up because we can let go. We can relinquish, and we are not afraid. We do not have to hold on.

Salzberg, Sharon. Lovingkindness: the revolutionary art of happiness. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc. © 1995 pp 202-204

Palestinian kills sister

3/19/2005 9:49:5
Source ::: AFP

JERUSALEM A 17-year-old Palestinian girl, who became pregnant after her father raped her, was strangled to death by her brother in a so-called honour killing in the northern West Bank.

The teenager was strangled by her 27-year-old brother on Wednesday in Bala’a town near the northern city of Tulkarem. Arrested by Palestinian security forces, the brother admitted he had killed her to “erase the shame” after her pregnancy began showing.

He also admitted knowing that his sister had become pregnant because their father raped her. Police are now hunting the 52-year-old father, who witnessed the murder, and has since disappeared.

A Palestinian women’s group said the girl had reported the rape to the police after learning she was pregnant. “The police did not arrest or even question the father,” the group charged in an open letter published in another paper. Signed by the Palestinian Working Women’s Society for Development, the letter called on the Palestinian parliament to adopt laws to protect women from all forms of violence.


Are humanbeings retarded? you kill your sister because you father raped her? wanted to erase shame? if he really wanted to do that, he should've killed his own father - that's how I'd define a so called "honour killing". Honour your sister you piece of crap.
Life just isn't fair for such women. I hope these men rot in hell.

30 in court after Saudi raid on gay wedding

By Brian Whitaker, March 19, 2005
The Guardian

Saudi Arabian security forces have arrested 110 men at a "gay wedding" party in Jeddah, a Saudi online newspaper reported. Al-Wifaq, which has connections with the Interior Ministry, said the authorities raided a wedding hall on Monday night after a tip-off and found the men - all Saudis - dancing and "behaving like women".

80 men were later released, but 30 appeared in a Jeddah court to face charges. Despite the heavy penalties for homosexuality, most Saudi cities are said to have underground gay networks which organise parties in private villas, and sometimes in hotels.

Comment: I thought I was reading a story from Monaco! "gay wedding" in "saudi arabia" is as believable as cobras dancing in Alaska or better Sabah singing for Madonna. Does anyone really believe the story? I mean "seasoned journalist" (modesty!!) it s a bit fishy and if there was a wedding they would have turned it to a funeral...
I dunno!

Top 10 Reasons Why Paul Wolfowitz Would Make a Good World Bank President

March 4, 2005
Institute for Policy Studies by John Cavanagh

1. He would follow in the great tradition of World Bank president Robert McNamara, who also helped kill tens of thousands of people in a poor country most Americans couldn't find on a map before getting the job.
2. It helps to be a good liar when you run an institution with employees who earn over $100,000 a year to pretend to help billions of people who live on less than $1 a day.
3. With all his experience helping U.S. companies grab Iraq 's oil profits, he's got just the right experience for doling out lucrative World Bank contracts to U.S. businesses.
4. After predecessor James Wolfensohn blew millions of dollars on
"consultations" with citizen groups to give the appearance of openness, Wolfowitz's tough-guy style is just what's needed to rid the World Bank of those irritating activists.
5. Unlike former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, another one of the four leading candidates, at least Wolfowitz hasn't failed at running a Fortune 500 company.
6. Unlike the Treasury Department's John Taylor, another leading candidate, at least Wolfowitz doesn't want to get rid of the institution he would head.
7. While earning a University of Chicago Ph.D. , he was exposed to the tenets of market fundamentalism that have reigned at the World Bank for decades.
8. He has experience in constructing echo chambers where only the advice he wants to hear is spoken.
9. He knows some efficient private contractors who build echo chambers for only a few hundred billion dollars (cost plus, of course).
10. He can develop a pre-emptive poverty doctrine where the World Bank could invade countries that fail to make themselves safe for U.S. business, modeled on the U.S. pre-emptive war doctrine he helped craft. John Cavanagh is the director of Institute for Policy Studies.

For more information about contenders for the World Bank's presidency, visit: www.worldbankpresident.org

Beirut Demonstration - Day before Yesterday

Beirut,March14,05

Two words - Mind Blowing!

Iza al-sha'abu youman arada al hayat, fala budda an yastageeb alqadar.

Dina Powell, an American of Egyptian descent who speaks fluent Arabic, is being named to a top State Department public diplomacy job

The move is seen as part of an effort by the White House to improve its image in the Arab world. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will announce Powell, currently head of personnel at the White House, as her choice for assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs and deputy undersecretary of state for public diplomacy at noon on Monday.

Powell, who came to the US from Egypt as a child, will serve as deputy to Karen Hughes, a confidante to President Bush who was to be officially named undersecretary of state for public diplomacy at the same State Department ceremony on Monday.

The choices of one of Bush's closest advisers and of an Arabic speaker illustrate the emphasis the White House attaches to trying to improve the way Arabs view the United States, long seen by Arabs as favouring Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and resented for supporting repressive Arab governments.


I hope that this might not be some sinister plan against Arabs in particular muslims. My cousin thinks it's horseshit! I still have not made up my mind.

Quick Thought

I actually had a quick thought so I'll jot it down.
Think about how families came into existence. Was it necasserily due to blood relations?
What I'm finding out is, everyone needs a family or an immediate circle of close friends (family), to trust them, support them mentally, truly hope for advancement (unlike our blood family??).
Humans are supposed to operate in small groups and live off that same group.
Atleast you have a solid circle of comfort, rather than a whole globe of people to compare oneself with.

So bottom line is, comparing ourselves to the world is impossible, because everyone has his or her own platform that were built on. The secret is, don't compare yourself with the world, because as we are perfectionists, we want to master all trades.

We live in a family or circle that masters different aspects of life and depend on each other, which is not a comforting thought, but it is the truth. Anyway, this is part of what was going through my mind however words are easy to spit out, but never the same as the picture in my head.

Laser Hair Removal

Anyone has tried it?

Men or women, any response would be appreciated.

Do you have to start shaving the body parts that you want the laser treatment on?

Does it hurt when the actual procedure is conducted on you?

Is it really true that the hair would not grow back? I understood that any part of the body would need at least 2-3 sessions. Has anyone been dissapointed and ended up doing a lot more sessions?

Has it left any discoloration or severe complications after the procedure?

Yalla people, advise please.

What about me?

1. I call myself masquerader because I like playing harmless tricks.
2. I get out of my way to make malicious evil people cry.
3. I easily get bored and restless around a lot of adults. Sometimes, the one and two yr olds keep me entertained.
4. I love strong and sensual people. People that can exist completely and comfortably within themselves remaining true to themselves despite any circumstances.
5. I'm humble, together and sane yet spontaneous, stupid (intended stupidity) and funny.
6. I need all of my senses to be stimulated to their maximum capacities at times. Sometimes, that makes me so high that I can walk straight into a door/wall. Yeh, clumsiness is my last name.
7. I am confident enough to love who I am, because I know who I am and wise enough to know that I will never fully know.
8. Rude people easily provoke me.
9. I see beauty in the ordinary all the time.
10. I have the habit of talking to strangers all the time and I can't help but stare at ppl who pick their nose in hope that one day they realize that they shouldn't pick their nose in public.
11. I'm a coffee-holic & water-holic - it's a good balance.
12. I'm too good to my friends and some people around me.
13. As days go by, my phobias and endless fears are disappearing. Now, I only fear Ghosts!
14. Mommy and Daddy are my heroes.
15. At least once a week, I think of a way to stash up or make money as much RO 400,000 for very specific reasons.
16. I live like a millionaire without spending much money and that feels damn good.
17. I love Japanese and Arabic food. I don't like Italian or French.
18. I don't enjoy being at movie theatres. Perhaps, because they mostly screen hollywood predictable crappy no-brainer movies. I rather watch independent/international/ low-budget flicks. I hate horror, action and sci-fi movies.
19. I'm not "textbook" normal.
20. I crave for troubles and risks and I'm helplessly delusional sometimes which is fun.
21. I don't care about rules and protocols of society. I object living with controlling factors cuz I like to breathe.
22. I seek odd knowledge, unusual people (preferably extraordinary who can teach me something new).
23. Soup fanatic (wild mushroom soup/tomato soup/corn chowder) - yep, I make them.
24. My music is internationally influenced but my thing is Trip-Sexy-hop.
25. As a growing girl, I hated two things: cartoons and dolls.
26. As a grown woman, I love games - someone, take me to a fun fair!
27. I am a person who's not scared to stand behind her beliefs no matter how controversial.
28. I'm sensible but not logical all the time.
29. I'm responsible but not practical all the time.
30. I'm dependable, clinical and very sarcastic.
31. I can't stand ppl who marinate themselves in perfume.
32. I actually find it funny when adults intentionally open their mouths wide open while eating.
33. For the last 9 years, a lot of my friends like me to pluck/fix their eyebrows.
34. Sometimes, when I try to envision something, what I end up seeing in the real was actually what I Saw in my mind.
35. I can't stand ppl who always want to dominate conversations.
36. I can be very loud and a lot of people who don't know me think I'm an arrogant b*tch from hell with a temper the size of a beast. I actually enjoy that. It's too funny to actually know that someone finds me intimidating. If only they knew.
37. I wish I was a doctor specialising in heart surgery. Other times, I wish I was an artist.
38. All men who ever showed interest in me was for one specific reason, I'm so difficult. That may explain my enjoyment as a kid playing hide 'n seek.
39. Nobody can ever guess where I'm really from although I'm a pure Middle Eastern.
40. I hate palm pilots
41. Hairy men (moderately) are sexy but not when it's sticking out of their nose and ears. I like a man does not care about his appearance and showers at least once/day.
42. I hate BMW's
43. Ghostwriter is my best friend.
44. Been obessessing to buy a Range Rover but I'm over it now. I simply can't afford that!
45. I'm hyper sensitive. My heart can be broken to pieces. Even strangers can leave a scar in my heart.
46. Errr, yes, I can be dramatic. I'm from Venus, I'm a woman and to top it off, I'm Middle Eastern.. hell, I'm dramatic.
47. As a kid, I wanted to wear the orange overall (muscat municipality) and pick up trash then I changed my mind and wanted to wear all black and be a housebreaker so I can steal toys.

To be continued

Something IS wrong with Blogger.com today

Just saw muscati's blogger and I'm very very pleased to know that I am not the only one who has trouble posting comments. I can only post comments to my own blog and the only way to do it is to log on through BlogThis! and then add comments. If I directly click on comments; I get the stupid msg that does not make any sense. Glad to know I'm not the only one. At least I know it's not the Gods of the skies conspiring against me :)

Oman & US

Interesting. Oman and US will have a free-trade agreement by year end? I was kind of surprised that the trade between Oman and US totals to only $1 billion/year. If anything, I do hope this boosts our exports and improves our technology and hopefully creating jobs. We can do it sooner than later. Bahrain already has. I hope we do so even before UAE. For once, I need to feel that we're ahead of others. Fingers crossed.

Karami back?

For those who are following the news in Lebanon, Karami has returned as Prime Minister just after 10 days of resigning. What's this a sign of? unity or problems escalating? The lebanese don't feel good about this believing it will only cause more Political instability. Yeah, supposedly half the Syrian troops (approx. 7,000) will move to Bekaa Valley as a pullout plan, however, what does this all translate to? I'm just glad that the Pro-Syrian rally day before yesterday which was organized by the Hezbollah didn't invite any terrifying events to the Lebanese people.

Let's hope for starters that half the Syrian troops do move peacefully to their Syrian territory.

He said "Venti" not "Tall"

I'm not sure if anyone has experienced something like this but yesterday was the third time I experienced this.

At starbucks, I stand in a que, order my drink "Venti Latte", pay for my drink. A man behind me orders a Frappucino, pays for his drink. A woman behind him, orders a "Tall Latte", pays for her drink. We stand behind one another in the same order when we qued to pay for our drinks. "VENTI latte" is broadcasted a loud and this woman, 2 people behind me comes to the front and takes my drink. Since, I'm in no rush, I let her take it waiting for mine. I look over, a latte is being prepared but it's not the Venti size I paid for, it's the Tall size that woman paid for. I tell the guy "umm, I think someone took my drink so may you please prepare me a Venti Latte please". He goes "did the person already leave?", I say "nope, she's sitting in the back". He goes to her "I think you took the wrong drink, were you not the one who ordered a Tall Latte". She goes "oh yeah, I was wondering why it taste funny". Yeah right, it taste funny? I bet if she paid for a Venti, her hearing would have been better. Nice excuse she made though because a Venti usually has 4 shots as opposed to a Grande with 2 shots.

The reason why I mention this is because this is not the first or second time I experience this. Why is it ok for people to walk away with a drink size that's larger than what they paid for? Would they ever walk away with a size that's smaller than what they paid for? How can they notice the smaller size but not the bigger size?

I find it so .. I can't even think of the word. I'm just glad that this time, the person didn't walk away. It's so amusing sometimes but I don't find it fair on me when I end up taking a smaller size than what I paid for. I only do that because I don't feel like bothering the staff who prepare the coffee because that then holds up other people's drinks.

I so wish people would be more considerate!

Just had to let off some steam.

in Lebanon.. possible for an inevitable civil war?

Lebanon's Prime Minister Karami and his government announced their resignation today after 25,000 protestors gathered outside Parliament displaying defiance. I'm not sure how to feel this, just because a Pro-Syrian PM Karami has resigned does not necessarily imply that things would improve. Syria millitary forces are still in the country and President Assad claims that there will a price to pay for the Syrian troop to withdraw implying a settlement with Israel.

Oh well, let's pray for peace, unity and freedom of Lebanon.