A long overdue dedication

A couple of weeks ago, I encountered a news item that transformed my mood into what I can only describe as a mix of sadness, quiet anger and helplessness. The news was of a jailed Iranian journalist and activist, Mr. Hoda Saber, who had died of a heart attack resulting from a 10-day hunger strike. "Mr Saber, who was in his 50s, began his strike on 2 June to protest about the death of fellow opposition figure Haleh Sahabi, during an incident at the funeral of her activist father." On the face of it, there is nothing about this tragedy that specifically warrants an emotional reaction from me. I had never heard of Mr. Saber and his death will in no likelihood affect my life. However, it was these reasons specifically that made me tweet this news story over and over. It was because I had never heard of him, because millions have never heard of him and never will, while he languished in jail and died alone, that I was saddened. It was because my life was not affected by his death that I felt culpable for being indifferent.

The social contract I never signed

Having just left the Ahliyyah School for Girls on the First Circle, beaming with pleasure at a lovely concert I had just attended (Thanks to the wonderful Dozan wa Awtar Singers), my friend Kariman and I embarked on what soon proved to be the most stressful drive in recent memory for the both of us. Apparently, we had not been warned that Rainbow street and all its side streets, were to be avoided at all costs on a Friday evening. To reach the Second Circle, which normally takes 3 minutes, took us exactly 1 hours and 30 minutes (from 9.20 pm until 10.50 pm. I can prove these numbers). Now having grown up in Beirut and still driving there quite often, I have to admit I've been through traffic like this, many many times, before. This was not the problem.

Untold tales of courage: Najla's story

A few months ago, I attempted to start a series of posts about courageous women who lived some amazing stories during the Lebanese Civil War. I started with one about my friend's mom but then never pursued it. Until today. The story for this post is very special to me, because it was written by my own mother. After some digging, I found out, from her obviously, that she actually kept a diary of everything that happened to her during the war. I asked her which one stood out more than the others, and she gave me this piece during the Israeli invasion of Beirut, in July 1982. What's below is my own translation, under it is the original in Arabic (more or less). I hope you take the time to read it, because it truly is a story of almost mad heroism that I am proud to be at least genetically linked to. And I think that with the direction this country is headed, it's very appropriate to remember the war, because this really should not be an option ever again...

32 - الحياة في بيروت

لقد انتهيت للتو من قراءة كتاب "32" لسحر مندور التي كالعادة سحرتني بولعها برأس بيروت والحياة اللطيفة ولو المحدودة فيها وأحببت أن أشاطر هذا المقطع من الكتاب:

وبينما أسعى لوضع السماعتين في أذني، أنتبه إلى أعصابي تتراقص على حافة الانتفجار. لماذا، لماذا هذه المرة؟! أستقصي السبب وأكتشفه. سائق سيارة الأجرة يعاني من عادة تبدو أنها خارج قدرته على السيطرة: يطلق زموره كل 10 ثوانٍ، "بيب" واحدة، سريعة، رتيبة، تثقب فراغ الشارع. كما أنها تبقى على ثباتها في ظل تواجد المارة فيه، حتى ولو كان اتجاه سيرهم يأتي في غير اتجاه سيره، أو كانت معالم الرياضة الصباحية بادية عليهم، أو كانوا يترجلون للتو من سيارة خاصة، أو من سيارة أجرى أخرى، أو على دراجة نارية، أو يتفرجون على واجهة عرض تجارية، أو يهمون بالجلوس في مقهى، أو يفرحون للقاء بعضهم صدفة في الشارع، أو يسيرون بشكل عادي جداً، لا يهم، يطلق زموره، باستسلام تام لعادة يتعايش معها، بسكينة، وبغض النظر عن العالم الخارجي.

أنصح بهذا الكتاب كما أنصح بآخر جميل للكاتبة وهو "حب بيروتي"، فسحر تتكلم لغة المدينة وتعرف مشاكلها اليومية، التي تتعامل معها بالكثير من الفكاهة لأنها تدرك بأن العالم قد يكون كبيراً جداً لكن رأس بيروت تبقى الملاذ الأول والأخير، وكل من عاش فيها يعلم بالضبط ما يعني ذلك.

My naïve conclusion

I feel like I’m ten years younger writing this post, saying something that should be basic to any curious and intelligent being who is well into her thirties. But I justify it as delayed maturity caused by a late onset of teenagehood at the age of 21. So here goes.

I recently read an article by Adam Curtis about development of the concept of humanitarian intervention (obviously spurred by the highly debated western intervention in Libya). It goes without saying that this extensively researched piece is a must read. However, in summary, Curtis describes how a group of French philosophers, innately interested in helping victims of injustice, started a thought movement that justified intervention aimed at achieving this justice, by force. Needless to say, that journey was a bumpy ride that in my opinion can no longer be seriously defended, for two main reasons. One is that when you use violence, for whatever reason, you will attract the vilest people who would jump at the opportunity to take advantage. The second is that no matter how well you think you understand the situation on the ground, how many experts you consult with and how smart your weapons are, you can never predict the outcome of the intervention and ensure that more innocent lives will be saved than if you hadn’t lifted a finger. So humanitarian work reaches another dead end. Where do humans go from here?

Giving the term "matching clothes" a whole new meaning

I'm currently attending CityScape Abu Dhabi, an exhibition and conference on real estate in the region. The exhibition obviously hosts booths of regional players showing off their luxiourous residential or tourist projects and investments. The booths are actually quite fancy and in most cases tasteful. But something caught my attention and increasingly disturbs me. The women representing the exhibitors are not only required to wear the same clothes (in most cases extremely short skirts), they are also dressed in accordance with brand, i.e. The same exact colors as the logo. The men, on the other hand, are simply wearing suits. What exactly does this mean? That the women exhibitors are actually exhibition items, like the branded pens and chocolates? Are they also on offer somehow?

Something is not right here.

What about ME? (A guest post by Bana Bashour)

I was recently sitting at a café in Miami when two teenaged girls walked past me with similar t-shirts saying: “I love ME”. It was obviously a play on the I love NY t-shirt, so I wondered why these young ladies felt they had to express their affection towards the Middle East. Was it out of solidarity? Out of concern? Was it that the recent developments in Egypt and Tunisia moved them so much that they had to express their admiration for that part of the world? It was only then that I realized that ME was not an acronym. These young ladies were simply expressing their affection towards themselves, and doing it so the whole world would see.

That is not a surprising image in the 21st century. Facebook and Twitter provide the ideal forum for people to share every detail of their lives, every mood they are going through and every meal they have eaten. In fact, they are so encouraged by others who “like” their statuses (the likers were probably referring to themselves and their own feelings towards the relevant experience/mood/meal). It’s not a bad thing to love oneself, it may not even be a bad thing to be self-centered, for after all, our “self” is the only lens through which we can see the world, and having a better understanding of this “self” enables you to understand the world and other people better. So what’s the problem?

The Daily Show comes to the Arab world

There is no denying that The Daily Show's Jon Stewart has become a household name not only in the US but in the Arab world as well. With his extensive coverage of world hypocrisy, Stewart has transformed comedy into a serious form of television and become one of the most trustworthy news sources out there. From US republicans and democrats to state leaders throughout the world, he spares no one. Here's a classic moment in the show on America's Freedom Packages:

The Daily Show - America's Freedom Packages
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

A personal message on recent events in Amman

Friday, March 25, 2011 will be marked as a sad day in the history of Jordan. It is the day we were bombarded with images of Jordanians throwing rocks and insults at other Jordanians who were protesting peacefully in the streets of Amman, demanding real reform. This group was not chanting "down with the regime" or the king. They just wanted a better country and were inspired into action by events in Egypt and Tunisia. Reckless, yes. Admirable, definitely.

The more I read about this, the more I became convinced that this was a case of a simple misunderstanding (I use "simple" in the loosest meaning of the word). Most of the stone throwers seemed convinced that the protesters had only one intention: To dethrone the King and establish an Islamic Palestinian state in Jordan. Those Jordanians truly believed they were defending their country. Misguided, yes. Needs addressing, definitely.

The generation gap

A couple of weeks ago, I attended one of the events of the Israeli Apartheid Week in Amman in which Attallah Hanna, the Archbishop of Greek orthodox of Jerusalem, was giving a talk. Upon arriving there, I immediately noticed that the age group of those attending was markedly higher than that of other events I had recently gone to, such as the Hashtag Debates at Makan House and Freedom Choir at Balad Theatre. I didn't think much of it and thought maybe this topic appeals more to the older generation than it does to younger crowds, who are now busy changing their own countries (to be fair I did spot a few familiar faces who present at all 3 events).

And then it started... One and a half hours of a talk, to people who completely disapprove of Israel, on how criminal Israel's actions are. I will not say that the Archbishop said anything that I disagreed with in principle. The problem is, he was just preaching to the choir (pun intended). My friend, Kariman, kept turning and asking me, "Is he gonna propose practical solutions?" I would just shrug, hoping that he would, knowing he won't. Because obviously, if he had practical solutions, he wouldn't be in Amman, talking to a group of people who enthusiastically applaud every time he said "Arab unity" and "Nasrallah". A woman next to us kept yelling "Yes! You are right!" at the end of each point. I am sad to say, and with all respect to the Archbishop and the struggle of his people... I was not inspired.

To motivate or not to motivate

This is not a blog post but I wanted to share this with you. It's a video debunking the myths on what really motivates us. It's a relatively old theory that I've encountered many times in the past few years, but this video is to the point and extremely entertaining (who doesn't like things explained to them in cartoons?). It also forced me to think more about my work and helped me set clearer objectives for myself. This is a must watch for anyone whose career is an essential part of their life. Here it is:

In the wake of the quake

Less than a year ago, I started suffering from knee pains and was diagnosed with what is basically weak muscles in my legs. The doctor told me that all I had to do was strengthen those muscles by doing daily exercises. I went back home excited and determined that I shall overcome this and exercise myself into well-being. So I embarked on a regiment of a 5-minute muscle strengthening exercise that I would jot into my daily calendar to make sure that I am consistent in applying it. Within a week, I started noticing an improvement. However, two weeks later, I also noticed that I was skipping days and just over 2 months after my initial diagnosis, I had completely stopped. Currently, every now and again, when my knees pains become too much to handle, I do a couple of days of exercise and think to myself "This is silly. I need to go back to doing this on a daily basis. No need to ruin my already weak knees at such a young age." But I never do.

Now, replace every "knee pain" in this story with a problem the Arab population is facing, "doctor" with "group of experts (economists, scientists, or even doctors)", "exercise" with the solution they prescribed and tell me if this isn't exactly how almost every issue is handled in our countries: Identify a problem, find a solution, start implementing, and lose steam really really quickly. Anyone who has been involved in the public sector in Jordan or Lebanon will know exactly what I'm talking about.

What we really need

A while back, my mom was planning a business trip to a certain Arab country but realized she didn't have sufficient time for the visa. Since my dad knew the ambassador, he decided to call and see if there was any way to issue the visa earlier. As soon as he started explaining the situation to him, the ambassador interrupted "Speak no more. I understand. You want to make sure her visa gets denied without implicating yourself. Consider it done!" Of course my dad then assured him that this wasn't the case at all and he had no problem with the fact that his wife, a PhD holder who owns a well known establishment for making educational toys and books for children and teaches at the American University of Beirut, travels on business.

Everyone wants a piece of the revolution

Before we get into this, I'd like to clarify two things:

1. I am fully aware that the situation we are in is most likely the result of years and years of bad government policies and opportunistic behaviour by a select few.
2. I am even more aware that I will probably never make an impact in the real world, because my ideals are too extreme and frustratingly impractical.

Fortunately for me, and maybe unfortunately for you, technology has given me this platform to let my voice be heard, if only by a small number of people. I know that a lot of us are still high on the domino effect of democracy that started with Mohamed Bouazizi's desperate act of giving up on his country. Yet, we are struggling to find our own path, some of us asking for reform, others for a secular government. I am not quite sure, however, if we are just riding the wave of revolution or if there is a genuine desire (I had argued in an earlier post that I don't believe there is a real need) for change. Are we certain that we don't just want the desire to change, instead of change itself?

Are we all Egyptian?

In solidarity with the Egyptian revolution, many have claimed "I am Egyptian", joining Facebook groups, changing their status or tweeting similar support statements. Personally, I never had it in me to make such proclamations and I couldn't quite understand why. Until Monday, around midnight.

The interview with Wael Ghonim, Head of Marketing at Google MENA who was detained for over 10 days during the January 25 revolution, was as disturbing to me as it was beautiful. It was disturbing because watching the raw honesty and pain in which Ghonim spoke somehow helped me connect every single event that's been happening in Egypt, not for the last few weeks, but years. The horrific torture and murder of Khaled Said was not a one-off incident but a systematic mode of operation by the Egyptian regime, a regime that has no problem running over peaceful demonstrators as if they were insects. It is only now that I see the ugliness in its full form. These are not spontaneous protests by people who have had enough. This is a well-planned long term revolution of a people who have had enough a long time ago, but were waiting for a spark to ignite their flame.

Let's talk about sex

I want to share with you a story that I heard recently from a 23-year-old woman, let's call her Rana, who comes from a well-off middle class family and has just returned to Amman after obtaining her degree from a university abroad. As Rana enthusiastically started work at a well-respected Jordanian firm, she soon found herself face to face with what I believe is one of the biggest issues facing working women today. Rana's 40 something-year-old superior, let's call him Ra'id, turned out to be, to put it mildly, a flirt. Of course this is a problem that can easily be handled, just don't encourage him, and if needed politely push him away.

Change in the Arab world, where do we fit in?

It feels like a historic moment and people have gone crazy trying to be a part of it. From Facebook, to Twitter to demonstrations outside embassies all over the world, we, as Arabs, are obviously craving something. But is it the same thing? I think that's a very important question we need to ask ourselves. I look around me and I see a revolution in Tunisia over an economic situation that has deteriorated beyond what the people can accept. Will change give them what they want? I don't know. Maybe. At least waste from corruption will decrease. What about Egypt? I hear statements like revolution of the "middle class poor", educated professionals who don't have a chance of a decent life because the system has become too corrupt to accommodate them. I can relate to that.

So a Khaleeji guy walks into the Interconti lobby

I'm sitting in the Doha Intercontinental lobby with a friend having a drink and minding my own business. An Asian woman shows up, sits at the piano and starts playing some pretty mediocre music, as you normally do in hotel lobbies. Soon we notice two local men standing right next to her saying things like "Hello. How are you? What is your name?" The woman is obviously annoyed and does not respond. Then a male hotel employee shows up to the rescue, takes the men aside and starts talking to them. "Please. The woman is playing the piano. She cannot chat." One of the neanderthals responds "But I want her to come and sit next to me." The employee says "You cannot ask her now. You have to wait until she's done playing." An angry response comes "You don't tell me what the rules are!" I'm not sure how they finally resolved the issue and quite frankly I don't care. All I could think about was how many times an employee did not show up to tell that guy to respect the woman playing the piano.

Wittiest bits of comedy (in my humble opinion)

Comedy is a tricky thing. How many times did you think a movie was hilarious only two watch it a few years later and curse yourself for being so silly? I don't think it's only because we grow up and change or become more mature. I think comedies become less funny as we develop as a people. I suppose we can say that they can become irrelevant. Of course some don't fall into this trap. And that's what I think constitutes a good comedy. The best example to illustrate this is Friends and Seinfeld. Despite the heated debate on which show was best, I think few people can now argue that Friends is a classic. Although I was big fan of the show, I now watch most episodes with unease, wondering how I wasted so many hours of my life on one-liner jokes. Seinfeld, however, is still as great today as it was in the 90s. I won't go into why. It just is.

And for this post, I want to share with you a few moments of comedy that have stood/should stand the test of time. They are mainly stand-up, and unfortunately I couldn't find a single one by a female. You will also not find Eddie Izzard or Ricky Gervais, cause I think these go into the Friends category... Sorry.

So in these crazy times, I hope you enjoy 30 minutes of meaningful laughter and please share your own.

The death of the retweet button*

When I first heard the term Social Media, I didn't quite grasp its significance. But then I delved into it, by joining Facebook, Linked In and Twitter and started hearing things like "You're not supposed to do stuff like that on Linked In" and "What do you mean you didn't "like" it? That's why he's angry with you." and the more common "That's not really appropriate material for Twitter." Of course I now use these expressions too, as the medium quickly develops into an independent society with etiquette, norms and yes, traditions. Since I'm not really an expert, I am not going get into the sociocultural theories behind all this. What I want to do is just express my amazement at one specific phenomenon.