Are long distance relationships ever healthy?

Just wondering. Been in one only once and didn't see anything good come out of it except emotions of nostalgia, frustration and sometimes even anger because of time and space keeping me away from the loved one.

How do people manage it? how can it ever be made successful? people can be patient at the start of a relationship but once they have established their needs, then what? how can they be fulfilled? I'm not pointing out the physical presence but even mentally, how does it work by textual communcation and voice communication? everything has a threshold, then what? what next...

Forget long-distance... is what I'm thinking.

What has our world come to?

It's just one of those days when I can't help but think and think and think. In the East, Israel constructing a wall which is over 300 miles long to seperate itself from the land that is controlled by Palestinians, capturing Saddam Hussain may lead in the rebuilding of Babylon, Sharam ElSheikh gets hit again with close to a 100 dead... in the west, people fighting for equal rights and at the same time abandoning parts of their Bible. In this day and age, it seems like animals have a lot more respect for one another than humanbeings...intelligence has only taken us all to hell. We have dumb ass suicide bombers targetting innocent civilians, distorting the peace in many cities and all this just because of some evil politicians. A Brazilian (legal immigrant) moves to London 3 years ago to work as an Electrician and gets shot 7 times in the head and once in his shoulder for the acts of other suicide bombers. Everyone is at risk today. London is not the only city in Fear. Even in Oman not long ago a few fanatics were planning to plot an atrocity to their own people. Where is humanity? does it require a translation? a slap perhaps on some cheeks?

Just a rambling for the day!

Muslim Me

Morgan Spurluck (the guy who did "SuperSize Me") is someone I really admire. He has started a series of documentaries and this one was about being a muslim for a month. He got Dave Stacy to experience this; a religious Christian in my opinion but always thought a Muslim meant a man with a gun in his hand.

Of course, the experience was not easy for Dave. There were a lot of arguements, confusion, but as the days went by, he ended up building a friendship with the muslims.

Morgan took a stab at this documentary because he claimed that Americans don't hear good stories about Muslims after 9/11 and he thought this documentary would be a powerful one to change people's perspectives on Muslims.

Dave ends up going to Michigan in a city that is heavily populated with Muslims. As a matter of fact, it is the most populated city in the US with Muslims and Arabs.

The funniest part of the documentary is when Dave was shocked and taken back when he was told that the God Muslims worship is the same God that Christians worship.

Overall, the end results were very positive.

Thumbs up to Morgan for his work!

Omani Students Needed

Shell have recently rebranded their Recruitment Toolkit and would like to test their new service with a cross section of fresh graduates.
They are looking to get an opinion from their target audience globally and specifically, from 40 Omani graduates (0-3 years work experience), both male and female and from any discipline.

As a reward for the time taken, Shell will give every applicant who
completes the survey £20 voucher to use on the Amazon online site on a product of their choice.

I have included you as part of the participants in this exciting
project. Please pass this on to any other Omani you know who would be interested (as long as they have recently graduated from university - i.e. less than 3 years ago).

Anyone interested can email shell@careersinafrica.com with the subject of the email as "Shell - Oman". They need to include in the email the year they graduated and their degree major.

Mega Cheap People

What's the deal with cheap people? how does one deal with them? Lately, my way has been to simply avoid them but still, I get this strong urge to tell them what I really think of them and that they need to change their crappy ways.

This acquaintance I know bought a fake designer's handbag and when we went out for a group dinner, she was making an announcement that she bought this handbag from Dubai for over 5,000 DHS. Why lie? Nobody asked you to begin with. She's almost 32 and even a 12 year old wouldn't behave that way.

The thing is, she's not the first person I come across who is this way. I knew a guy back in college who went around lying that he bought his Benz for $100k and it turned out that he bought the car from an auction market for $30k and placed a fake monogram on it displaying that it was the higher range. He failed to realize that some people are smarter than him. He said it was a 1994 model and that's when everyone figured he was lying because the monogram on his car was a model that was out in 1996. I had a good laugh about that.

Nevertheless, I still can't comprehend cheap people. Thing is, they're not poor or financially tight - they're just plain cheap. Everytime I go out with this one particular girl, she would never pay for her coffee or pastry - NEVER?! For me, I don't care, I can pay for her but I just can't digest the cheapness. Don't people have a little pride and dignity? perhaps some manners?

It's sad how this pathetic cheapness can reflect on their personality.

Statistics

Ten Leading Causes of Death in the U.S.:

Heart Disease: 699,697;
Cancer: 553,251;
Stroke: 163,601;
Respiratory Disease: 123,974;
Accidents: 97,707;
Diabetes: 71,252;
Pneumonia/Influenza: 62,123;
Alzheimer's Disease: 53,679;
Nephritis and Nephrosis (kidney disease): 39,661;
Septicemia (blood poisoning): 32,275; and
Assault or Homicide (including terrorism at 14th): 16,775, including 9-11.
Terrorism alone would come in way down the list at 3,000 people.

LIGHTNING STATISTICS:
Over 1,000 people get struck by lightning every year in the US, and over 100 of them die as a result of the strike.

AIRLINE SAFETY STATISTICS:
1,028 fatalities in U.S. air traffic accidents from 1992 through 2001; the total worldwide was just under 7,000.

HOMICIDE STATISTICS:
This currently includes terrorist victims.
Deaths Annually: 16,765 (2000).
Age-Adjusted Death Rate: 6.1 deaths per 100,000 population (2000).
115,000 homicides by firearms from Jan. 1, 1991 through Dec. 31, 2000.

ACCIDENTAL DEATH:
Deaths Annually: 97,902 (2000).
Death Rate: 35.6 deaths per 100,000 (2000).
Cause of Death Rank: 5 (2000).
Motor Vehicle Deaths: 43,354 (2000).

Knowing the statistics, we can make a threat assessment of death by terrorist attack:

Terrorist attack is 2 or 3 times more likely to take a life than lightning, averaged over the past 10 years. But you are 10 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

The chance of being killed by a firearm is 38 times greater than by a terrorist attack.

Accidental death is 323 times more likely.
Automobile accident alone is 137 times more likely.
Your chance of death by disease is 8,000 times greater.
Your chances of dying in an airplane accident in the USA are one-third the chance of death by terrorist attack.

Take a cool, rational look at these dangers that confront us and the resources we have to fight them. Pretend that you are in charge of making a decision in your own community of 100,000 people, and you have a billion dollars to spend protecting them with the following probable benefits. What do you choose?

You can extend 4,000 lives if spent on disease prevention.
You can extend 323 lives if spent on accident prevention.
You can extend 38 lives if spent on homicide prevention.
You can extend 1 life if spent on terrorism prevention .
You can extend .3 lives if spent on lightning prevention or aircraft safety.

Source: http://www.ospolitics.org

Tharwa Project

Has anyone ever heard of a group called the Tharwa Project?

This is their website: http://www.tharwaproject.com/

In brief, from the website itself:

The Tharwa Project is an independent initiative that seeks to provide a free platform for the discussion and dissemination of ideas that can contribute to raising the standards of civic awareness in the Broader Middle East and North Africa Region. Due to the wide scope and complexity of this objective, the Tharwa Project operates on different levels and includes a number of components and programs, each focusing on a particular topic that goes to the heart of the Awareness Gap separating this Region from the developed world.

I wonder if they are affiliated with NDI or other American organizations in any way. The website appears to be very balanced and amongst the journalists, Haytham Mouzahem is quite a decent one. Apart from that, the bittermelon folks (www.bittermelons.org) are very distinguised in the work that they do, and are not a sell out to niether side (Americans or Anti.).
The same with the list of donors, the people sound fairly good.

I wonder what others think! I hope more people participate too.

Iraq's Diaries

IRAQ's Diaries -- May 2005
By Wafaa' Al-Natheema

In the bottom of the diaries, there is a list of three incidents describing the American involvement in car explosions and in the killing of Iraqis, yet Washington’s politicians and the media portray most of the car bombs as events by Iraqi or (foreign) Moslem terrorists. Please forward the list to as many national and international media outlets.

--------------------------------

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule
you,then they arrest you,
then they fight you,
then you win!"
Gandhi
-------------------

After I soapen* (apply soap on) my face and as I was pouring water on my head and face, it hit me that I am actually in Baghdad. I smiled at the realization and felt good. This was in the morning of Sunday, May 1st. Taking a shower after two days of no sleep and breathing thick dust while in Aleppo, Mosul, Baghdad and the highways in between, was a tremendous feeling.

It is very difficult to plan ahead in a place under war. My plans were to stay for four days in Mosul before leaving to Baghdad, but I was shocked to learn that women alone are not allowed in hotels, a month-old regulation. Women have to accompany a male guardian! As a result I had to take another cab to continue my (becoming very long) journey to Baghdad. I arrived in Baghdad at 6:30 PM instead of 4:30/5 pm (on Saturday, April 30th) because their majesty the American military drivers closed the highway four times and cars had to be diverted away from its path into snake-like, not-paved narrow roads. Whenever Iraqi drivers see American tanks, they push on the breaks and begin driving with a speed of 20-to-30 Km per hour and make sure they are so far away.

I was so proud of Iraqi drivers who didn't wait for the American nonsense and instead always had some back routes to continue driving and get back to the same highway at a later location to avoid the Americans' guns (known to Iraqis as GC) or be affected by their unwanted presence! In other words, they return to the same highway, but far ahead of the American tanks to continue driving to their destination. At these scenes, few phrases passed by mind about the American might, the English phrase “eat your heart out” and the Egyptian term “Tozz”
____________________
It is now 3:35 PM on Sunday, May 1st. Since 8:30 AM, the American helicopters flew over the houses in our area more than eight times. They fly so daringly low, no wonder they provoke retaliation! I don't know who advises them to do so!

May 1st was a holiday commemorating Labor Day. Today's lunch was okra stew with rice, grilled Sboor (one type of Iraqi fish) and salad.

Around 9:30 PM, we watched a report on Ash-Sharqiyya TV Satellite about the burning of Ashorja Market. This is an important site in Baghdad. It has been two weeks since the market was burned, yet the Iraqi government failed to do any repair or give financial aid to the rebuilding of the market, something the previous Iraqi governments (since the 1950s) are known to doing. The report was excellent. It aired the grievances of several shop owners and employees. It was indeed disappointing to learn that the government has done nothing since this market got burned, not even to pass by and offer condolences or ask if they need help with anything.

----------
Monday, May 2nd -- I went with my young cousin to the Internet café. We arrived at about 10 AM. I couldn't use the Internet because of a Satellite problem. We waited until it was 11:10 AM and decided to come on the next day. The Internet Satellite problem was due to interference by the Americans. We don't even need to go to an Internet cafe had the phone lines been functioning because we (like many Iraqis) have computers at home. Why leave the convenience of home and risk being in the unsafe streets of Baghdad? Inconvenience is a funny word to use over here because it is taken for granted. Complaining about these matters is even funnier. Complain to whom? Knowing there is a list of problems daily, one has to prioritize the matters which necessitate complaint and/or immediate action. Nobody seems to have a say in Iraq, but their majesty, the Americans, not even the foolish puppets that they have installed before and after the fabricated elections.

******

On Tuesday, May 3rd, we went to the Ma'moun market to shop for food and cotton-made clothes. We needed a mobile calling card. I was very surprised to learn that the per-minute rates were compatible with those in the USA and Europe. In fact, in some cases even more expensive. The card costs 12 cents per minute for domestic calls. Phone cards are sold in $10, $15, $20 and $30. As of the end of April, one dollar equals 1470 dinars. Knowing people's very low salaries, I don't understand how can people afford to buy them! This is happening in a country where more than 70% are unemployed.
----


....In Baghdad, many areas get limited electricity (up to three or four hours only per day).
Many others (such al-Hurriya area) have never had electricity for weeks or months!

To read the rest of IRAQ's Diaries, access: http://zennobia.blogspot.com/

Book Tagged

I see I've been book-tagged by Muscati so here goes:

How many books do you own?

If it's just novels, then I'd say about 80-100. If it includes painting, photography, home-improvement, cook books, self-improvement (believe it or not), bibles, comics, sciences, business, health, literature, Political, Philosophy etc.. then I'd say about 300.

What's the last book you bought?

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Last book you read?

The Exception to the Rulers by Amy Goodman

Currently reading?

Now the geek in me comes to surface. I'm reading on programming (work related). No leisure time for now.

A book you've been reading for long but never got around to finish?

Sole Survivor (it's been a year now)
Catch 22 (it's been over 2 years)
One thousand years of solitude (it's been almost 4 years)