11 November, 2006

Today's Quote

"I don't have any solution, but I certainly admire the problem." - Ashleigh Brilliant

10 November, 2006

Today's Quote

"Life is like a train, its bearing down on you. And guess what? Its gonna hit you, so you could either start running when its far off in the distance, or you could grab a chair, crack open a beer, and just watch coming", Erick Forman -That 70's Show ,S07-Ep01

09 November, 2006

Something Fishy

I don't like fish.

I don't like eating it, I don't like having it as a pet -why do people do that?-, I don't like its smell, I don't like its taste, I don't like its bones, I don't like that it takes me an hour to wash its smell off my hand after eating it, I hate its aftertaste which remains in your mouth for the rest of the day no matter what, I hate when fish swim near me, in short, I just hate everything about it. And a lot of people do to, at least a lot of the people I know! And the proof? There's like a million way to prepare fish, and if you think about it, fish doesn't really have a taste, this is even more obvious for squid, it just has absolutely no taste, I almost through up after I eat it, the taste comes from all the stuff you put in the recipe, and chef's all around the world know it...

I really believe that there's a big conspiracy by chef's, for whom fish is like the ultimate challenge. Feed people something that doesn't have any taste, over charge them for it and make them believe like they had the most delicious meal in the world while all the ate actually is herbs and spices and some vegetables maybe... ITS A COMPLETE SCAM GOD DAMN IT!

You will say, ok, so what do I care? Don't eat it moron, nobody's forcing you to do, well, true, but again I'm an eater, if its their on the dining table and I have nothing else to eat, I'll eat it!

Now back to our subject, ok, besides all the stuff I hate about fish, there's one thing that bothers me the most, its price! Fish is like the most expensive thing you could eat almost any where in the world, it doesn't matter if you live in the middle of the desert or on an island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, its still expensive. Don't you think that there's something "fishy" about this? Ok, fish is the only type of food in the world that I know of, or one of the very few, that you spend no money raising it, caring for it, protecting from illnesses, providing shelter or a place for living, nothing, you spend absolutely nothing on fish, until you "fish" it at least!

Even then, did anybody see a fishing boat? Will, here in Alexandria at least, fishing boats don't seem to me like the most expensive boats in the world, they don't look safe either! And what other equipment do you need to go fishing? A net? Have you ever seen one of these shipping boats on TV when they drag fishing net out of the sea and its like swarming with fish? With a net that costs like what, 100-120 pounds at most, and you are catching all this fish. Its simply the most cost effective process I've ever seen.

Compare this to cattle, you spend all kinds of money on cattle, between buying a farm where you could actually raise cattle, you have to take care of it 24/7, feed it, treat it, milk it, slaughter it, transport it, freeze it, package it, its a head ache, but still it could be half as cheap as fish.

Somebody please explain this to me. Cause if I don't get one, I'm going public on the chef-fishermen conspiracy.

Today's Quote

If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

08 November, 2006

Today's Quote!

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. - Noel Coward

Now, here's why boycotting won't work

This issue might seem old, but in the light of the recent poll that found that Denmark is Egypt's second worst enemy, with Israel of course being the worst.

A lot of people argue that boycotting is a very strong tool, and indeed, it had people in Denmark notice that what they did was wrong -at least in the eyes of Muslims- and it could've been one of the most civilized and effective worldwide Islamic demonstration if it wasn't for the violence that occurred. But I'm not going to argue with the effectiveness of such boycotting act.

The major flaw in the boycotting of Danish products in my opinion is the grounds on which this decision was made. Think about it, Denmark was originally, also according to polls by the same people who did this one, was considered a friend of arab and islamic countries, but now after all what happened I suspect that Danish people themselves will think twice before supporting any of our causes in the international arena.

But here's what really bothers me, Danish never killed any muslim, occupied or declared war on any muslim nation yet, we see it as more evil than countries like the united states and Britain. Don't you think that if any country is to be boycotted it has to be the united states? Don't a lot of Americans attack Islam and Islamic countries on daily bases? Don't they produce movies with representations of, not only our prophet, but of god himself? Don't they produce songs that attack everything that we consider holy in this world? Didn't some of their senators threaten to destroy the Ka'aba? Don't you think that a single act of these here deserves a more severe boycotting of American products than what happened with Denmark? At least the Americans will deserve it since most of us already think that America is the "biggest devil"!!

Isn't this a double standard that we, people who claim to be victims of double standards in politics, use with others too? Did we just find it much easier to boycott Danish products than boycotting USA? Well, that is the reason why I didn't participate in the boycotting of Danish products, its not because I'm not a good Muslim who defends his faith against the attack of these infidels, its because I found it to be a bluff.

So excuse me, but we ARE a nation of hypocrites.

07 November, 2006

Today's Quote

It may be that your whole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.

WTF?

Now, thats funny!!!

I was trying to go to the Reporters Without Borders website to show my support to their campaign against internet censorship and guess what? Their website was blocked already...

I have no comment on this one... You already know it :)

06 November, 2006

The Real Fight

Someday, we the Muslims, are going to rule Rome, invade Europe and kill all the Jews. But hey, just a second now, doesn't that makes us also imperialistic? which is exactly the thing we're criticizing the americans and the west in general for doing right now?

The United States is the strongest power on earth, militarily or economically and nobody can argue with that. But, why do we think that superpowers always have to be fair with weaker countries, and arab countries in general are amongst the weakest in the world right now unfortunately. What benefit could the United States ever get in solving the Palestinian issue and kicking the Israeli's out of there? Anybody who thinks that a superior power is going to be fair to him and not look after its own benefit is only fooling himself and the only way to get your rights from it is by becoming a super power yourself, only then well your demands be met and you're going to be treated fairly.

One of my personal believes is that we are managing the palestinian issue very badly, mainly because our current leaders and policy makers are a bread that lived through some of the weirdest times on arab countries, they all have the attitude of not recognizing the other, unwillingness to open discussion and think that it is our faith to fight the Israelis and kill them all.

I don't like Israelis myself, but I've also always been against generalizing. I'm against the way we are taught in schools to hate Israelis, or Jews in general, and in my case I was even taught to hate everybody who didn't agree with the "salafi" way of interpreting Islam. You can't say that all Israeli's are criminals, they're all army reserves, but aren't all Egyptians too? or at least all the males? I think that some Israeli's, even those still active in the army have more moral fiber than we do. I don't know if any the story that some fighter jets pilots refused to bomb targets with civilian palestinians [1] [2] while our own leaders had no problem bombed us, their own citizens probably even the same religion, with chemical weapons. Was that Israeli pilots better human being that the people who executed the orders to bomb Halabdja with chemical weapons under the Iraqi regime? What about the Israeli peace activist? The ones who oppose their own government and sympathize with the palestinians? Why do we hear nothing about them? What about the americans who travel all the way to Israel to show their support for the palestinian people and get killed, and if you never heard about it, and you probably didn't just look up the story of Rachel Corrie, an american peace activist who was killed by an Israeli Bulldozer.

It makes me laugh when I read in the Egyptian newspapers that the Israeli president is going to be prosecuted for sexual harassment, at least he's going to be prosecuted! The highest figure in the Israeli government is going to be stripped of his immunity because of this and prosecuted, I don't think anything like that is nearly going to happen in Egypt. Have you no shame writing about other peoples flaws and forgetting our own?

Why is it the dream of every arab to kill all the jews in the world?
How do we say that jews and christians had their best days in the world when they were living in the Islamic state when you see now the way we treat our own Christian citizens? And why did we kick all the jews out of Egypt when abdulnasser was ruling? Are all the jews in the world responsible for whats happening in palestine? Is it really the dream of all the jews to have their own country in Palestine?

When I was reading "ra2fat al-haggan" novel, there is a part that stopped me and made me think a lot, when ra2fat was on the ship going to Europe and the young jews were with him and he didn't believe that they were not going to Israel, he actually had to convince some of them to go with him!

Did anybody know that most Jews actually oppose having their own country because according to their faith this would be the end of their faith? Don't you think that we are the victims of a propaganda machine that is still working today?

Do you really think that 5 million jews could manipulate the policy of the United States? How, money? Don't we have filthily rich arab people too? why don't we use them to control the states ourselves? Why do american politicians give a lot of care to the Jews and ignore the arab constituents? Its because arabs in the states are a mirror of the state of arabs themselves in their own countries, divided.

The palestinian issue is not the cause of our troubles, its because of our failure that we have a palestinian issue. And the only way to solve it is to hold back the spending on militarization, because honestly, do you think we are going to fight any time soon? and fight the real fight, the fight against injustice on our own people by our own leaders, the fight against poverty, the fight against illiteracy, the fight for our own freedom, only then, when we are a nation that respects itself that we can demand respect from others, only then that we can solve the Palestinian issue.

05 November, 2006

El 5elfa welly by5allefooha

There are a lot of things about living in Egypt that makes me wonder if I'm really living in the 21st century or is it that there's just something magical about Egypt that makes its people stay the same while everything else around them is changing.

women circumcision for example, magic, superstition and the supernatural world in general, virginity, divorce, polygyny... You see all of these issues come and go in the media probably when they have nothing better to do and they want a sure hit... its the "fart bag" theory by Mahmoud El-Sa'adani all over again and weather it requires wodoo2 again or not.

Polygyny in particular always made me think, yes it is permissible by Islam to marry more than one woman, but, really, do you think anybody does for any other reason than sex? This is yet another way where a part of Islam was taken, manipulated, and under the influence of our man-made culture it gave an opportunity for perverts to have sex with more than woman "fel-7alal"... Before you all attack me and start spreading accusation right and left, don't you think that Islam made this practice ok to solve a particular kind of problem? All "tashree3at" in Islam were put there to serve a purpose that will eventually make the society better... but, is this why man people practice polygyny now? Have you ever heard of a single case where a man is married to more than one woman and there was no problems cause that are far worse than if he stuck with his first wife? Is their a relationship between the fact that people who get married to more than one woman have like a gizillion kids?

Is not being fertile reason enough to destroy a marriage? I see kids all over the place and to be honest, I don't think that anybody is doing any better job than anybody else bringing up his own kids, that is if he gives a damn in the first place about them growing up into responsible human beings. It actually makes me wonder of the relevance of having kids anymore, especially with our world not getting any better, is it a good decision to burden ourselves emotionally and financially to introduce yet more people to this over-crowded planet?

If we are still living in farms and own our land and work on them growing corps then having kids, and even at relatively young ages, is a good source for good and reliable labor! Think about it, I believe this is the main reason why peasants like to have many kids and get married at very young ages, because their lifestyle demands such measures. But, unless you are a peasant, and unless you're so egotistical that you actually believe that the world needs more people like you? Because other than that, If I have learned anything from my parents and all the hell I and my brothers put them through, all this pressure, all this money spent, then it is to not have any kids.

But lets say you are crazy enough to get married... and lets say that you found someone and you've met her family and all is going well, just after the "fara7", there's the first obstacle, virginity. Let's say your wife was -el 7amdolellah- a virgin, which I don't get the relevance of especially with the invention of "re-verginization" operations. But, answer me this question... why is their is always this pressure on the newly weds by their in-laws to get pregnant as soon as possible? Is it suddenly your responsibility to ensure the continuity of the human species? Are you the last fertile couple on Earth?

But again, let us forget about this, let's say that you are a "normal couple" who had a young baby like 10-12 months after marriage and you have successfully ruined the only pussy you are allowed to touch -from now on, its the death penalty, and by stoning too-. Let me ask you a question, what difference in the world does it make if the baby is a boy or a girl? Let me take you back to the peasant mentality because its the only way I could explain the relevance of the sex of the child. Again you're a poor peasant who's starving for a another loyal laborer to work on his land, if you get a girl, you're surely going to let her help you after she has grown strong, all peasant women do, but, as it is the customs of peasants before your daughter reaches 20 years old, maybe even 18 or 16, she's going to get married and belong to someone else's household and start working on their land, you have given him free labor and you have lost an 18 years old investment! A boy on the other hand is going to stay with you helping you with your own land, not only that, he is too going to get married and doing so, you have gained another free laborer too! Thats a good return on a night of fun, don't you think?

Now, unless you are a peasant who needs free labor, you are not allowed to discriminate between a boy and girl. But again, el sharaf yabettelkalb, el sharaf!!! And don't let me get started on that, but if you gotta, Isis said it all here.

Here's a little story I heard on a movie once. A man got married to a woman, and after some time, the man noticed that whenever his wife cooks fish, she cuts the tail and the head and put it in the pan. When he asked her why she is doing this, she answered that she always saw her mother do it this way. So the guy decided to research the issue, so he went to her mother and asked her why did she always cook fish this way, she answered that its because she was poor and her pan was smaller than the pan, and since she couldn't afford a bigger pan, she would only cut the head and the tail so that the fish fits in the smaller pan!

Before you do something just because every generation before you did, because your whole ignorant community is doing it, ask yourself a simple question, why do I have to do it exactly the same?

On niqab welly byetnaqqabo

This started as a comment on Isis's post
http://egyptreality.blogspot.com/2006/10/hijab-niqab-my-head-hurts.html
on hijab. As I started writing it I realized that I have too much to say about the issue that I decided to make it a complete post on my blog too... So, here it is:

Dick, Isis, and everybody else who's reading this comment.

I have to say that this is one interesting topic you're discussing here and it is still controversial even in Islamic countries, not only in the west.

I hope that my opinion here might open a new perspective especially that I've been living in Saudi Arabia for a very long while now.

I'll tell you my opinion on hijab at the end, but right not, I want to say that I disagree with muslim immigrants to the west wearing niqab or forcing their daughters to do so. I think that if you agreed to immigrate to another country then you agree to make certain compromises, I'm not saying that he doesn't have to be a muslim, but Islam is really based on five "pillars" or requirements that if you do them then you're a muslim.

I think that its only the most religiously extreme immigrants that chose to cover their whole body, it is extreme even in Egypt! But the issue is, if you are accepting to live in that culture you have to live by their social norm and not force it on the others, if you choose to wear niqab and cover you whole body then may be leaving your home islamic contry wasn't a smart choice to begin with.

I take it on muslims who live in westerns country and not try to accept and really become a part of the society they are living in now but instead hiding themselves behind cover after cover until they are completely insulated from the effect of that society, if you are afraid of it so much, why live there in the first place? And what is the niqab if it is not another barrier between the person wearing it and the society he's living in?

I think that these people live in a type of dilemma because Islam requires muslims who are not able to perform their islam correctly in any place to leave it as the prophet did when he left from Mekka to Al-Madina.

I'm not against covering the hair or wearing hijab, I believe that it is a personal choice, but its a personal choice that necessitates certain transition in a persons life style. Its a sign of humbleness and total abidance by the teachings of Islam thats why the example of the "sexy mohagaba" mentioned by Isis here is completely fraud!! cause being sexy in itself is completely against wearing hijab and the only thing I could understand from such attitude is that this person was forced, either by family or by social pressure, to wear something that reflects an image that is different than what the person believes in.

Western women who live in Saudi Arabia often wear some kind of cover "abaya - 3abaya" which is a black peace of textile worn on top of the clothes, just like saudi women do. Not necessarily because they believe in it, but because they are responsible persons who respect the culture of the country they're living in. I ask for nothing more from muslims when they're living abroad, and there's not contradiction here. One of my veiled friends when she goes to the states she wears an ice mask to cover her hair instead of wearing the traditional hijab she usually wears in Egypt because she understands that the essence is covering here hair not that she has to cover it in a certain way.

The insistence of girls to cover their faces -even with paper as Isis's saying! lol!!! never seen this one before though!- comes from a non-understanding of their own religion and instead listening to the new bread of neo-Islamists who are all around TV now who made these girls think that if covering your hair is good then covering your face is even better!

These people forgot that Islam always asked people not to do more than they could handle or afford, thats why we don't have a system of priesthood in Islam where men and women are not allowed to get married, its because Islam recognizes the needs of the body and well not accept or tolerate not accepting them, also there are a lot of indications on such things in the teachings of our prophet where people are specifically and repeatedly asked to make the easier choice between two good practices!

Covering the face is, at least in my opinion, a political statement that they think that the rest of us are wrong and that they're the only true muslims... the trend of the "Islamic Brotherhood" who were by the way responsible for the spread of extreme understanding of Islam all over the world and who are responsible for the birth of the Taliban and last but not least the guy from Austrailia...