My take on The Social Network

*Spoiler alert*-ish

Can anyone finally sense the birth of a new genre in the film industry? Are you all, like me, surprised that it took so long? Online social networking! Of course. All the stories you can come up with. Sure, there's been a few movies here and there: You've Got Mail, Julie and Julia… I can't think of any more. OK, maybe less than a few. But The Social Network is not just a movie about social networking. It is THE movie that pushed the genre into the limelight. And if you have any interest in its history (I'm talking 7 seven years here), then this is a must. The producers will tell you it's a movie about betrayal and enemies, about good guys and bad guys. They want to get you interested. But they don't need to do that. We are already interested because we are all living it. This film is about our era. An era where a woman from Lebanon can write a film review that a guy from Brazil may read and think, "I can do better than that." Think of the possibilities.

The little things

This is a picture from today's Addustour concerning a news item on water costs and government subsidies. But that's not what I want to talk about. The caption below the picture translates into "Ministry of Water Secretary General in the Press Conference". Now you tell me, from the picture, which one is the Secretary General? Would you ever consider that it's not the man with the large red microphone who seems to be hogging the conversation and speaking with authority?

Well it's not. It's the lady in the back, who probably looks like she's writing minutes or just watching the audience.

Just thought I'd share this. Cause in the end, regardless of achievement, it's the little things that matter.

The drive back

I spent all of yesterday at a waste disposal site in Jordan. Obviously, it was not a very pleasant experience. I saw the the site of the accident where one worker drowned in an industrial waste pond (hopefully from suffocation and nothing worse). I also visited a site where brand new clothes from the industrial estates were being burnt because they did not meet the specifications to be exported, no one was willing to pay customs on them and there was no mechanism for giving them to the needy.

On the ride back from the site, I was involved in a heated discussion between driver and the environmental engineer who accompanied me on the visit. Basically, the driver was upset at what he saw, saying that people shouldn't have to work under such conditions while the engineer was complaining that no one takes the environment seriously in this country. The driver was adamant that concern for the environment was a problem for other, more affluent people to worry about. While the engineer couldn't understand what the driver would lose if he segregated his waste and every once in a while brought a bag of papers into the office to place in the recycling bin, the driver couldn't understand what he would gain if he did.

My electronic scrapbook

OK so I know that blogs aren't that in these days. People don't feel like reading much. But I'm going to start using this to save my own thoughts and ideas, regardless if they ever materialize. Could be useful, could be not. But I wanna give it a go.

So let's do this. And welcome to my electronic scrapbook.