Ubuntu- hunhu: Food for thought

"[...] When I dehumanise you, I inexorably dehumanise myself".

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution 101

Blogger subzero blu posted some great tips which can help for maintaining peace.
I personally think they are useful both in politics and relationships, which is why I'm going to copy paste them below. For further details check the original article on this site.

"1. Slow down the action
2. Listen well
3. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt
4. Acknowledge the other person's feelings
5. Be strong without being mean
6. Try to see a conflict as a problem to be solved
7. Set your sights on a "win-win" solution
8. If you don't seem to be getting anywhere in solving a conflict, ask for help
9. Remember that conflict, handled well, can lead to personal growth and better relationships
10. The true heroes and heroes of today's world are not the Rambos.[sic]"

Keyword Analysis August 2007


I'm sure you missed that aspect of my monthly posts especially as it shows interesting searches of how people end up here :P

10.34% al-libiya satellite web site
10.34% highlander blog
10.34% ly domain dispute
6.90% libyan women
6.90% why foreign men think lebanese women are beautiful?
6.90% libyan women dress
3.45% listen to album mbc new hits last prime
3.45% second life avatar french maid ( => he he he some people are obsessed)
3.45% pastor hagee idiot
3.45% the best of arab girls 2007
3.45% alone white rock arabic deodorant
3.45% watch grendizer free
3.45% pre-marital blood checkup
3.45% catchy sermon titles
3.45% life in syria
3.45% libyan blogs
3.45% syrian girls
3.45% farse control ait delete
3.45% lybia alyoum site
3.45% common roberto iza ( => who is this guy ?)

PS can someone tell me is it Lebanese, Syrian or Libyan girls ? Basically this to me means that Arab girls in general are the prettiest LOL

Adventures of locked blogs: another cyberterror

Yesterday I wanted to update my post about Karima, to my dismay I discover that the 'publish post' button had disapeared from my dashboard and instead there was the following messsage:

"Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive. You won't be able to publish posts to your blog until one of our humans reviews it and verifies that it is not a spam blog. Please fill out the form below to get a review. We'll take a look at your blog and unlock it in less than two business days. If we don't hear from you, though, we will remove your blog from Blog*Spot within a few weeks. We'll contact you after we review your blog."

It was the first time I realised that my 4+ years of blogging were held hostage; good and bad memories, friends, experiences, everything could be lost in one click. This event opened my eyes to the need of backing up which I've been wanting to pursue but kept postponing. Now it had become an urgent matter.

Obviously since I'm posting today, it means my blog has been unlocked. It was a good coincidence in a way to have filled out the form just when people were waking up in the US and Google offices we opening. I could see someone from Google going through my blog and by 0300 AM my time I received this email:

Hello,
Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared for regular use so thatit will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger andsign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for yourpatience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

I guess I was lucky but I did spend an agonising 12hrs thinking about how to save my blog. People on 3 continents at least were busy helping me, and I want to thank them from my heart.

PH who personally backed up all my blog patiently on his hard drive, thank you 3azizi. Then Chris who got me in touch with Ezou who offered several websites and solutions (for example here) Thank you gentlemen. They all walked me step-by-step (yes I'm technically challenged :P). I also want to thank all of you my friends who left comments and tips here.

Internet is amazing and you find friends all over this planet: Africa, Asia and America all connected during those precious hours.

Although, the Blogger Team did their job quite promptly, I feel slightly disappointed at being let down so quickly, what if I did not have such great friends ? Would I loose all my precious online moments in the wink of an eye?

First Libyan woman car rally pilot (updated)

Browsing through the March issue of one of my favourite Libyan glossy magazines Albayt ( click here for the online version ), I was pleasantly surprised to see a Libyan woman participating in a car race ; namely the Butterly Rally for Ladies a desert rally held in Tunisia this year.

<= this photo of Karima courtesy of Albayt.

According to jounalist Mohamed Zurgani who interviewed her for Albayt, Karima Yaacoub is a lively, spontaneous person with an adventurous nature. Karima loves speed and has always dreamt of taking part in international events since as far as she can remember.

From the official website for the event 'Rally des
Papillons' I discovered that this event has been an annual affair since 2004.
The website is rich in photos, media appearances etc... (hotties guaranteed for the 'shallow' among us he he he).
Don't go trying the above feat yourself, it's very dangerous trust me LOL.






Karima's dream has finally come true by being the first Libyan woman to participate in a car race.

Team Libya made up of her and copilote Nasser Hawas reached 4th place in the top five classification.

Congratulations.



Did I not say before that Libyan women rock :P!

Update 23-08-2007

Thanks Braveheart for bringing to my attention that Karima came second in the recent Morocco Rallye (Casablanca). Another source here. She is getting better!

Mokusatsu : ignore OR let's weigh this before we rush in ? ( updated)

" A mistake in translation may have triggered the atom bombing of Hiroshima. There is evidence that the word 'mokusatsu' used by the Japanese government in response to the US surrender ultimatum was translated as 'ignore' instead of its correct meaning 'withhold comment until a decision has been made"
(Cutlip, Center and Broom, 1985).

Flashback:

(1) Postdam Declaration on July 26 1945 to define the terms of Japanese surrender.

(2) "On July 27, the Japanese government considered how to respond to the Declaration. The four military members of the Big Six wanted to reject it, but Togo persuaded the cabinet not to do so until he could get a reaction from the Soviets. In a telegram, Kase Shunichi, Japan's ambassador to Switzerland, observed that unconditional surrender applied only to the military and not to the government or the people, and he pleaded that it should be understood that the careful language of Potsdam appeared "to have occasioned a great deal of thought" on the part of the signatory governments—"they seem to have taken pains to save face for us on various points." The next day, Japanese paper reported that the Declaration, the text of which had been broadcast and dropped on leaflets into Japan, had been rejected. In an attempt to manage public perception, Prime Minister Suzuki met with the press, and stated,
"I consider the Joint Proclamation a rehash of the Declaration at the Cairo Conference. As for the Government, it does not attach any important value to it at all. The only thing to do is just kill it with silence (mokusatsu) it. We will do nothing but press on to the bitter end to bring about a successful completion of the war"[...]The meaning of the word mokusatsu, literally "kill with silence", is not precise; it can range from 'ignore' to 'treat with contempt'—which actually described fairly accurately the range of effective reactions within the government. However, Suzuki's statement, particularly its final sentence, leaves little room for misinterpretation and was taken as a rejection by the press, both in Japan and abroad, and no further statement was made in public or through diplomatic channels to alter this understanding. [...] On July 30, Ambassador Sato wrote that Stalin was probably talking to the Western Allies about his dealings with Japan.
"There is no alternative but immediate unconditional surrender if we are to prevent Russia's participation in the war. ... Your way of looking at things and the actual condition in the Soviet Union may be seen as being completely contradictory." [...]On August 2, Togo wrote to Sato, " ... However, it should not be difficult for you to realize that ... our time to proceed with arrangements of ending the war before the enemy lands on the Japanese mainland is limited, on the other hand it is difficult to decide on concrete peace conditions here at home all at once. "
At 04:00 on August 9, word reached Tokyo that the Soviet Union had broken the neutrality pact, declared war on Japan and launched an invasion of Manchuria. [wiki ref here - basically the Soviets had no intention to lobby for Japan].

But what did the Japanese statement really mean ? It seems many articles were written about this such as for example William J. Coughlin (1953) says " the statement announced that the Cabinet had taken a stance of mokusatsu, which can be translated as either “making no comment on” or “ignoring” something. According to the article, when the statement was issued, Japan’s media construed the message to mean that the Cabinet was ignoring the ultimatum, while the intended message was that comment was being withheld pending an announcement. The article investigates Japan’s rebuffed attempts to get the Soviet Union to mediate a peace, the internal debate within the Japanese government over surrender, and the intent of the Cabinet’s message. The author asserts that Suzuki’s ambiguous choice of wording led directly to the United States government’s subsequent use of the atomic bomb against Japan."

This week was the anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, was this slaughter necessary to stop the war or was it an expression of a bigger ego and a chance to try the scientific feat and achieve world dominance ?

I know the Japanese were not the 'good' side here but I'm not sure about the H- bomb being so good either. (18-8-07 It is the A- bomb sorry and thanks for all those who pointed my mistake in the comment section).


If you want to read a brief chronology of the Japanese surrender please click here. If you are interested in more debate about translation of mokusatsu with which you may agree more than what is stated above click here.


I simply find this theory fascinating. If there was a time machine would events have gone differently?

A dream come true

In October 2005 I wished aloud for a Libyan blog aggregator , in December 2005 LY-Hub blog was created by Hannu, in March 2007 , I created Libyan Blogroll , and in April 2007 Libyano gave us the wonderful Libyan Bloggers A-Z directory and the cool watermelon logo.


They are all great methods to keep with the ever expanding Libyan blogosphere, but none of them updates the posts to let you see at a glance who posted recently, i.e. none of them really had the function of an aggregator :).


Today PH has realised my original wish from 2005, he actually designed it! And although the main reason is that because his sister and family have become blog addicts too :P I want to thank him from the bottom of my heart. Because the layout is perfect now, and it is useful for all the Libyan bloggers family.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Libyan Bloggregator - tada .

So we got logos, blog lists with Libyan bloggers and those blogging from Libya, we have social interaction places, a non ending selection of cool blinkies by newbie Libyan blogger Mujahada ( welcome to the blogosphere to her ) and we also have a fully working rss feed aggregator ! Yipppppppppppeeeee

What more could I ask for now...ah yes if you are not featured leave a message to be added.

Libya featured in Miss Arab World 2007

Congratulations to the Bahraini contestant for winning the pageant, Wafa is gorgeous check Mahmood for the official photo.

I once overheard a friend state that the most beautiful women in the Arab world are to be found in Syria - he in fact compared them to the fabled houriyas of Paradise.

What I did not know until Khadijateri brought it to our atttention , is that Libya took part in the competition as well. For more photos see here ( hattip Khadijateri ) .

<= Does anyone know who she is ? and who designed her dress? Both are understated beauty.

I may sound biased but I think in terms of beauty that Libya has a fair share of diversity and attractiveness rate. Libyan women are 'hot'.