Email
"I don't like the tone of surrender in your voice.." she said. My soul sister and friend has in fact accurately identified the issue despite all my attempts at deception.
I wonder how long can one keep living a charade?
Never mind, I have an announcement...
Dear all,
I will be away to a place where connection will be a problem. I may be able to check emails but blog will be next to impossible. I hope to return with a happier outlook; the Highlander you always knew and maybe even loved.
To each one of you individually whether you still read me or have stopped a long time ago and just came back now to check, I will say please never be quick in your judgment of others or anger towards others. It is easy to make statements , but it is impossible to retract them and delete a harm when it is done.
Dhafer is looking as usual after my blog until my return inshallah.
Thanks for your patience.
Highlander
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Advantages of lack of internet
The recent storms in Tripoli knocked out my flimsy phone line resulting in no internet.
I don't have enough motivation like before to sit at an internet cafe and check blogs so Dhafer was kind enough to release your comments while I enjoyed the silence...one week with no internet = three books read, 50% more time with family and 100% completion of 'to do list'.
Hmmm maybe I should no longer be connected ?
The recent storms in Tripoli knocked out my flimsy phone line resulting in no internet.
I don't have enough motivation like before to sit at an internet cafe and check blogs so Dhafer was kind enough to release your comments while I enjoyed the silence...one week with no internet = three books read, 50% more time with family and 100% completion of 'to do list'.
Hmmm maybe I should no longer be connected ?
Friday, February 01, 2008
Leave no Libyan child behind: sequels of non- islamic adoption
A couple of years ago I received a heartbreaking email from an American woman called Shannon.
Shannon’s father was a Libyan exchange student in the 70s and dated her mother and they had a child. Apparently he either did not know his girlfriend was pregnant when he left or knew and could not face his folks back home. Whatever the story Shannon’s parents were in their first year of college, so they must have barely been 18-19 if not younger.
In those days Libya used to send students with a distinction (and others who simply graduated)from high school to American universities and colleges. It probably was a big deal for the guy to actually have a girlfriend and enjoy things he would not normally do at home.
Although a large number of Libyan male students ended up marrying their American girlfriends as attested by the many Libyan-American marriages we have, this guy must have been too young to marry and he probably went back home too quickly being simply an exchange student. I’m not trying to excuse him, but just to put a perspective on what might have happened.
So Shannon’s mum gave her baby up for adoption because her own mother forced her to. It seems that adoption in the US in those days kept the child in total ignorance of who his/her parents are; which is something that Shannon has suffered from heavily. Shannon who did not know her origin met with some racism and bigotry in the USA where she was born and raised American (after all she is half American).
She says : “obviously I was raised in the US but not just the multi-culture US [but]Missoula Montana where there is no culture except native American and straight up white American”. Since I did not want to take her word for it - a simple Google search shows that 93.57 % are white according to this.
I am hoping she was not traumatically discriminated against as I understand that America is a land where racism has been eradicated and any reference to it is vigorously wiped out or punished by the civil society.
I have not done much research on it , though from the Mel Gibson case I have understood that for example Jews have a special standing and anything that would insult them is forbidden because they suffered so much in WWII. Accordingly I assume that other minorities are treated in the same manner and defended just as much as Jews since they are just as important in America, where everyone is American regardless of ethnicity, religion, race or origin. But, this post is not about racism, so kindly don't dare any of you turn it into one, the racism post is in the pipeline but not just yet.
So Shannon wrote to me looking for a friend from Libya to learn about Libya and Islam. I offered her help in finding her dad but it turns out she had found him and her mum too. I was so mad and sad at the same time at how can a Libyan child be raised by strangers and in total ignorance of her heritage, ancestry and religion and where she has no opportunity to make a choice.
This feeling of loss has resulted in Shannon having a messed up life in which she too had to give her baby for adoption as a teenage pregnant mother. But although at least this time her daughter Chariti has a better life, I view it as another Libyan blooded granddaughter lost somewhere in America! Another tragedy . Shannon struggled hard to make a decent life for herseolf. She has started her own blog a while back to come to terms with her story and to campaign for the right of adopted children to know their lineage and biological parents. Bravo Shannon. She also was published and is writing a book.
This is an excerpt from 'Ethiopian poet, playwright and author Lemn Sissay, 39, [who] was raised by a white family in the north of England. Here he tells how his life often felt like an experiment.' [ref] I found it relevant to the topic.
Shannon has found out that in Islam ‘adoption’ is different than in the Western world . Basically the children if of known parents keep their surname and are cared of as one of the family (or in an orphanage if there is no family) but always know whom they belong too originally . I think this is better because sometimes people might end up falling in love with their genetic siblings which is incest in many cultures and religions - as witnessed in this much publicised story below:
"Twins who were separated at birth and raised by different families met later and married, unaware that they were brother and sister" [ref 1] .
" if you don't know you are biologically related someone, you may become attracted to them and tragedies like this may occur." [ref 2] And part of the attraction is because you are related so you already like each other a lot without knowing why. A good example is the German couple below which is even worse because they had children:
" Patrick Stübing, an unemployed locksmith, and his sister Susan have had four children together since starting a sexual relationship in 2000. Three of the children are in foster care, and two have unspecified disabilities.
The couple, who live near Leipzig, grew up separately and only met many years later. Their supporters say they will fight until incest is no longer regarded as a criminal offence, arguing that the law is out of date." [ref 3]
Basically I think Islamic adoption law is fairer and more just. You will get a more balanced individual who would not be always racking his/her brain ‘who am I?’ . I mean we already have enough identity problems as it is without adding another dimension.
This story has made me wonder how many unknown Libyan kids there are out there, it has also reminded me how much I get angry when some foreign mothers (mostly of so called Western origin) who finding that life in the ME is not exactly what they had in mind decide to leave and raise their children in the West. They resort to literally 'kidnapping' them because their governments give them immediate nationalities and protection. They end up raising kids who are estranged from their heritage and are simply other Europeans or (Americans). It made me think that my tribal mentality still prevails , kids born of Libyan fathers are first and foremost Libyan, then they can be something else - that's my personal opinion. Of course if the father is not Libyan then they belong to their father’s country foremost.
At this point I would like to say that no matter what was his excuse her father should have done the correct thing and married the woman and taken his daughter back home after divorcing her if she really did not to want a life with him or made other arrangements that would safeguard his own flesh and blood - because sometimes Libyans and other Arabs are accused of kidnapping if they even want their children back home for the summer or in cases of divorce and custody fights [ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 ]- (for the record in my opinion for children of international divorce if the father is Arab they should go back to the father point blank; if an Arab woman on the other hand marries a Western guy then she should weigh the consequence very well! but that's another post so I kindly request we don't overspill about it in the comment section because I will not post the comment).
To get back to the story I would lay the blame more on Shannon's biological Libyan father because he knew the rules of paternity and how important that is for us, while Shannon's mother only did what was normal in her city/country, namely give up the child for adoption as she had no means to shoulder the responsibility nor did her parents want to. After all she was barely a child herself. I am adamant that no child with a Libyan drop of blood should be left out.
Shannon found her dad , but he died in an accident before she could meet him. I wish she had been able to come to Libya and get his surname and proudly wear it because that is rightfully hers even if she was born out of wedlock. I don’t care whether her parents were married or not she still has a right to his name and to the protection of the tribe, she is still our flesh and blood.
Go read her blog it sounds like a movie . I’m proud of you Shannon and hope to see you one day here in Tripoli. You’ve come a long way babe, and it' s good to see you blogging again.
May God bless you and keep you safe. Amen.
PH :) I think she qualifies as a Libyan blogger wa la' ?
A couple of years ago I received a heartbreaking email from an American woman called Shannon.
Shannon’s father was a Libyan exchange student in the 70s and dated her mother and they had a child. Apparently he either did not know his girlfriend was pregnant when he left or knew and could not face his folks back home. Whatever the story Shannon’s parents were in their first year of college, so they must have barely been 18-19 if not younger.
In those days Libya used to send students with a distinction (and others who simply graduated)from high school to American universities and colleges. It probably was a big deal for the guy to actually have a girlfriend and enjoy things he would not normally do at home.
Although a large number of Libyan male students ended up marrying their American girlfriends as attested by the many Libyan-American marriages we have, this guy must have been too young to marry and he probably went back home too quickly being simply an exchange student. I’m not trying to excuse him, but just to put a perspective on what might have happened.
So Shannon’s mum gave her baby up for adoption because her own mother forced her to. It seems that adoption in the US in those days kept the child in total ignorance of who his/her parents are; which is something that Shannon has suffered from heavily. Shannon who did not know her origin met with some racism and bigotry in the USA where she was born and raised American (after all she is half American).
She says : “obviously I was raised in the US but not just the multi-culture US [but]Missoula Montana where there is no culture except native American and straight up white American”. Since I did not want to take her word for it - a simple Google search shows that 93.57 % are white according to this.
I am hoping she was not traumatically discriminated against as I understand that America is a land where racism has been eradicated and any reference to it is vigorously wiped out or punished by the civil society.
I have not done much research on it , though from the Mel Gibson case I have understood that for example Jews have a special standing and anything that would insult them is forbidden because they suffered so much in WWII. Accordingly I assume that other minorities are treated in the same manner and defended just as much as Jews since they are just as important in America, where everyone is American regardless of ethnicity, religion, race or origin. But, this post is not about racism, so kindly don't dare any of you turn it into one, the racism post is in the pipeline but not just yet.
So Shannon wrote to me looking for a friend from Libya to learn about Libya and Islam. I offered her help in finding her dad but it turns out she had found him and her mum too. I was so mad and sad at the same time at how can a Libyan child be raised by strangers and in total ignorance of her heritage, ancestry and religion and where she has no opportunity to make a choice.
This feeling of loss has resulted in Shannon having a messed up life in which she too had to give her baby for adoption as a teenage pregnant mother. But although at least this time her daughter Chariti has a better life, I view it as another Libyan blooded granddaughter lost somewhere in America! Another tragedy . Shannon struggled hard to make a decent life for herseolf. She has started her own blog a while back to come to terms with her story and to campaign for the right of adopted children to know their lineage and biological parents. Bravo Shannon. She also was published and is writing a book.
This is an excerpt from 'Ethiopian poet, playwright and author Lemn Sissay, 39, [who] was raised by a white family in the north of England. Here he tells how his life often felt like an experiment.' [ref] I found it relevant to the topic.
"I remember my mother often saying to me: "Don't look at me with those big
brown eyes." She probably never meant it negatively but it meant that I grew
up with a fear of my own eyes.
Shannon has found out that in Islam ‘adoption’ is different than in the Western world . Basically the children if of known parents keep their surname and are cared of as one of the family (or in an orphanage if there is no family) but always know whom they belong too originally . I think this is better because sometimes people might end up falling in love with their genetic siblings which is incest in many cultures and religions - as witnessed in this much publicised story below:
"Twins who were separated at birth and raised by different families met later and married, unaware that they were brother and sister" [ref 1] .
" if you don't know you are biologically related someone, you may become attracted to them and tragedies like this may occur." [ref 2] And part of the attraction is because you are related so you already like each other a lot without knowing why. A good example is the German couple below which is even worse because they had children:
" Patrick Stübing, an unemployed locksmith, and his sister Susan have had four children together since starting a sexual relationship in 2000. Three of the children are in foster care, and two have unspecified disabilities.
The couple, who live near Leipzig, grew up separately and only met many years later. Their supporters say they will fight until incest is no longer regarded as a criminal offence, arguing that the law is out of date." [ref 3]
Basically I think Islamic adoption law is fairer and more just. You will get a more balanced individual who would not be always racking his/her brain ‘who am I?’ . I mean we already have enough identity problems as it is without adding another dimension.
This story has made me wonder how many unknown Libyan kids there are out there, it has also reminded me how much I get angry when some foreign mothers (mostly of so called Western origin) who finding that life in the ME is not exactly what they had in mind decide to leave and raise their children in the West. They resort to literally 'kidnapping' them because their governments give them immediate nationalities and protection. They end up raising kids who are estranged from their heritage and are simply other Europeans or (Americans). It made me think that my tribal mentality still prevails , kids born of Libyan fathers are first and foremost Libyan, then they can be something else - that's my personal opinion. Of course if the father is not Libyan then they belong to their father’s country foremost.
At this point I would like to say that no matter what was his excuse her father should have done the correct thing and married the woman and taken his daughter back home after divorcing her if she really did not to want a life with him or made other arrangements that would safeguard his own flesh and blood - because sometimes Libyans and other Arabs are accused of kidnapping if they even want their children back home for the summer or in cases of divorce and custody fights [ref 4, ref 5, ref 6 ]- (for the record in my opinion for children of international divorce if the father is Arab they should go back to the father point blank; if an Arab woman on the other hand marries a Western guy then she should weigh the consequence very well! but that's another post so I kindly request we don't overspill about it in the comment section because I will not post the comment).
To get back to the story I would lay the blame more on Shannon's biological Libyan father because he knew the rules of paternity and how important that is for us, while Shannon's mother only did what was normal in her city/country, namely give up the child for adoption as she had no means to shoulder the responsibility nor did her parents want to. After all she was barely a child herself. I am adamant that no child with a Libyan drop of blood should be left out.
Shannon found her dad , but he died in an accident before she could meet him. I wish she had been able to come to Libya and get his surname and proudly wear it because that is rightfully hers even if she was born out of wedlock. I don’t care whether her parents were married or not she still has a right to his name and to the protection of the tribe, she is still our flesh and blood.
Go read her blog it sounds like a movie . I’m proud of you Shannon and hope to see you one day here in Tripoli. You’ve come a long way babe, and it' s good to see you blogging again.
May God bless you and keep you safe. Amen.
PH :) I think she qualifies as a Libyan blogger wa la' ?
Friday, January 25, 2008
Each soul can only bear so much
A week ago I felt I'd reached once more rock bottom. I wallowed in tragedy and forgot the vow I had taken upon myself in 2006 "Nobody and nothing is worth the hours I lay in bed pondering my own misery or even death ". Then your letters started filling up my inbox, and I found out how much people care regardless of opinions and disagreements. I want to thank all of you who sent me letters and left comments here. The special thanks though will go to Maya M and her beautiful post with the adapted poem "when things go wrong".....
However, it was Safia's comment that woke me up . How could I forget that beautiful Quranic verse she quoted? Below is the full version:
"286. La yukallifu Allahu nafsan illa wusAAaha laha ma kasabat waAAalayha ma iktasabat rabbana la tuakhithna in naseena aw akhtana rabbana wala tahmil AAalayna isran kama hamaltahu AAala allatheena min qablina rabbana wala tuhammilna ma la taqata lana bihi waoAAfu AAanna waighfir lana wairhamna anta mawlana faonsurna AAala alqawmi alkafireena " [ref]
Safia put her thumb on the problem and the solution ( thank you sis). Read the translation and you will understand:
"286 On no soul doth Allah Place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Pray:) "Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our Lord! Lay not on us a burden Like that which Thou didst lay on those before us; Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith." [ref] emphasis mine .
I had a flash of understanding, it was so simple really :)
Highlander could bear the burden, it was the "someone had become the sole list" who did not have enough strenght to bear it and preferred to jump the train early on.
So if God Himself does NOT burden us human beings with more than we can take, who was I as a human to expect another human to accept more than that human could bear ? Nah that would be too much on the poor soul. That was when a big smile formed on my face, their was no need for desperation anymore.
A week ago I felt I'd reached once more rock bottom. I wallowed in tragedy and forgot the vow I had taken upon myself in 2006 "Nobody and nothing is worth the hours I lay in bed pondering my own misery or even death ". Then your letters started filling up my inbox, and I found out how much people care regardless of opinions and disagreements. I want to thank all of you who sent me letters and left comments here. The special thanks though will go to Maya M and her beautiful post with the adapted poem "when things go wrong".....
However, it was Safia's comment that woke me up . How could I forget that beautiful Quranic verse she quoted? Below is the full version:
"286. La yukallifu Allahu nafsan illa wusAAaha laha ma kasabat waAAalayha ma iktasabat rabbana la tuakhithna in naseena aw akhtana rabbana wala tahmil AAalayna isran kama hamaltahu AAala allatheena min qablina rabbana wala tuhammilna ma la taqata lana bihi waoAAfu AAanna waighfir lana wairhamna anta mawlana faonsurna AAala alqawmi alkafireena " [ref]
Safia put her thumb on the problem and the solution ( thank you sis). Read the translation and you will understand:
"286 On no soul doth Allah Place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Pray:) "Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our Lord! Lay not on us a burden Like that which Thou didst lay on those before us; Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith." [ref] emphasis mine .
I had a flash of understanding, it was so simple really :)
Highlander could bear the burden, it was the "someone had become the sole list" who did not have enough strenght to bear it and preferred to jump the train early on.
So if God Himself does NOT burden us human beings with more than we can take, who was I as a human to expect another human to accept more than that human could bear ? Nah that would be too much on the poor soul. That was when a big smile formed on my face, their was no need for desperation anymore.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Desperation
Is a state in which all hope is lost or absent; but would the wish/need to escape that state lead to the employment of extreme measures ? is death the only exit ?
This loss of hope feels strange since the people in your entourage see that your life is full of success on all levels. Yet you know better because you have spent a whole afternoon thinking with whom you could share this and mentally crossing out the people from your list because someone had become the sole list.
You project the image of an enchanted life, yet you bleed inside since that faithful day, a day which you kept postponing although you knew that sooner or later it was going to happen.
You pray and dream that you have died everynight you go to bed only to wake up to the same reality: that of the thorns that started to encircle your heart and the ice that is creeping in..
Is a state in which all hope is lost or absent; but would the wish/need to escape that state lead to the employment of extreme measures ? is death the only exit ?
This loss of hope feels strange since the people in your entourage see that your life is full of success on all levels. Yet you know better because you have spent a whole afternoon thinking with whom you could share this and mentally crossing out the people from your list because someone had become the sole list.
You project the image of an enchanted life, yet you bleed inside since that faithful day, a day which you kept postponing although you knew that sooner or later it was going to happen.
You pray and dream that you have died everynight you go to bed only to wake up to the same reality: that of the thorns that started to encircle your heart and the ice that is creeping in..
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Highlander's top blogs choice: Happy 2008
Happy new year - inshallah this year will bring satisfaction of the soul and material success to you all.
A few months ago I thought of doing " my own Libyan blogs competition and give the Highlander Award for excellence or originality once every three months or bi-annually".
Well here we are it's the first day in 2008, time to reflect on the past year and deliver the goods... they are not in any particular order! suspense ?....
tada
- Duniazad and her blog Dunia. Erudite work
- Tasnim - political analysis
- AngloLibyan - well rounded diverse topics
- Safia Speaks - the adventures of a Libyan woman abroad
- PH - smart - wise yet fun
- Lebeeya - one woman show
- White African - a breath of fresh air
- Braveheart - a Libyan knight
From the Arab blogs Riverbend reigns as Queen supreme while Zaydoun from Kuwait Interrupted is the most interesting.
The trophy for honourary Libyans goes to Ibeebarbie and Globetrottingen!
But honestly all the Libyan bloggers are unique :P check Braveheart's Award too :)
A big virtual hug from Highlander
Happy new year - inshallah this year will bring satisfaction of the soul and material success to you all.
A few months ago I thought of doing " my own Libyan blogs competition and give the Highlander Award for excellence or originality once every three months or bi-annually".
Well here we are it's the first day in 2008, time to reflect on the past year and deliver the goods... they are not in any particular order! suspense ?....
tada
- Duniazad and her blog Dunia. Erudite work
- Tasnim - political analysis
- AngloLibyan - well rounded diverse topics
- Safia Speaks - the adventures of a Libyan woman abroad
- PH - smart - wise yet fun
- Lebeeya - one woman show
- White African - a breath of fresh air
- Braveheart - a Libyan knight
From the Arab blogs Riverbend reigns as Queen supreme while Zaydoun from Kuwait Interrupted is the most interesting.
The trophy for honourary Libyans goes to Ibeebarbie and Globetrottingen!
But honestly all the Libyan bloggers are unique :P check Braveheart's Award too :)
A big virtual hug from Highlander
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The rape weapon and the long arm of justice: East or West, is it simply a man's world or judiciary and government double standards ?
A couple of weeks ago the news outlets were busy with the story of the latest Saudi rape victim filled with outrage (as everyone should) at the fact that the victim was treated as a criminal and sentenced (gasp) to prison and 200 lashes. This crime happened in 2006 but seems to have come to light now. Rape is a crime and I have no other words to describe its potential for physical and emotional trauma. Saudi Arabia's judiciary was trashed for the way it handled the case. Human rights or the lack thereof were invoked...
You can read the details here and here. The case "has aroused controversy at home and condemnation abroad. US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said the sentence was an outrage and urged President Bush to put pressure on Saudi King Abdullah." Wow even foreign governments were getting involved... which I guess is good for the girl since apparently it resulted in her 'pardon' last week.
Meanwhile I'm wondering where is the international support for Jamie Leigh Jones also gang raped by her US compatriots in Iraq (in the Green Zone mind you) two years ago [ref]. Jamie has just now been able to voice her ordeal.
" I said, 'Dad, I've been raped. I don't know what to do. I'm in this container, and I'm not able to leave,'" she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas. "We contacted the State Department first," Poe told ABCNews.com, "and told them of the urgency of rescuing an American citizen" -- from her American employer. Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones' camp, where they rescued her from the container." [source] and more of these stories are coming forward see here.
I have not seen the same level of condemnation as about the Saudi case in the world - very little about this case outside US media and nothing front page.
Strange.. clearly Jamie and the Saudi girl are both victims at the hands of men from their country. Jamie is seeking justice but her coworkers apparently have immunity and cannot be prosecuted.
While the Saudi girl got more than she bargained for by being put along with the accused- she still received justice because readers and governments alike have simply skimmed through the lines that mentioned " In October, the men were convicted and sentenced to two to nine years in prison for the assault." [ref]and went for the chance to bash some Arabs and Muslims.
The Qatif girl has the support of her family and so does Jamie, why the cover up in Iraq? it makes these people no different than the men in Saudi Arabia.
Finally it brings a sinister thought to my mind- if these contractors brought to rebuild Iraq could do this to one of their own and cover it up - what have they been doing to the Iraqi women/ men or children if some of them are gay or pedophiles?
They must be getting away with murder.
A couple of weeks ago the news outlets were busy with the story of the latest Saudi rape victim filled with outrage (as everyone should) at the fact that the victim was treated as a criminal and sentenced (gasp) to prison and 200 lashes. This crime happened in 2006 but seems to have come to light now. Rape is a crime and I have no other words to describe its potential for physical and emotional trauma. Saudi Arabia's judiciary was trashed for the way it handled the case. Human rights or the lack thereof were invoked...
You can read the details here and here. The case "has aroused controversy at home and condemnation abroad. US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said the sentence was an outrage and urged President Bush to put pressure on Saudi King Abdullah." Wow even foreign governments were getting involved... which I guess is good for the girl since apparently it resulted in her 'pardon' last week.
Meanwhile I'm wondering where is the international support for Jamie Leigh Jones also gang raped by her US compatriots in Iraq (in the Green Zone mind you) two years ago [ref]. Jamie has just now been able to voice her ordeal.
" I said, 'Dad, I've been raped. I don't know what to do. I'm in this container, and I'm not able to leave,'" she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas. "We contacted the State Department first," Poe told ABCNews.com, "and told them of the urgency of rescuing an American citizen" -- from her American employer. Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones' camp, where they rescued her from the container." [source] and more of these stories are coming forward see here.
I have not seen the same level of condemnation as about the Saudi case in the world - very little about this case outside US media and nothing front page.
Strange.. clearly Jamie and the Saudi girl are both victims at the hands of men from their country. Jamie is seeking justice but her coworkers apparently have immunity and cannot be prosecuted.
While the Saudi girl got more than she bargained for by being put along with the accused- she still received justice because readers and governments alike have simply skimmed through the lines that mentioned " In October, the men were convicted and sentenced to two to nine years in prison for the assault." [ref]and went for the chance to bash some Arabs and Muslims.
The Qatif girl has the support of her family and so does Jamie, why the cover up in Iraq? it makes these people no different than the men in Saudi Arabia.
Finally it brings a sinister thought to my mind- if these contractors brought to rebuild Iraq could do this to one of their own and cover it up - what have they been doing to the Iraqi women/ men or children if some of them are gay or pedophiles?
They must be getting away with murder.
December 2007 favourites from the blogosphere Updated
Kaboobfest
" I was fourteen years old when I first began to study Hebrew. The only Palestinian in a class full of American Jews, I spoke of how I believed in peace, in tolerance, and in coexistence. But deep down lay another reason I was not so candid about. To learn the language of the oppressor was crucial, I knew. You taught me this lesson at a very young age.[..]Palestine is where we learn how love is painful, justice is an abstraction, and nationalism is a crime."
Libyano's comeback post
Lebeeya on PH's post Iran's Nuclear Program
Healing Iraq
Kaboobfest
" I was fourteen years old when I first began to study Hebrew. The only Palestinian in a class full of American Jews, I spoke of how I believed in peace, in tolerance, and in coexistence. But deep down lay another reason I was not so candid about. To learn the language of the oppressor was crucial, I knew. You taught me this lesson at a very young age.[..]Palestine is where we learn how love is painful, justice is an abstraction, and nationalism is a crime."
Libyano's comeback post
One of my best friends came back from Greece to stay here forever so everyone is bothering him with WHY DID YOU COME BACK HERE??!! like him I faced this question so many times before, I can never think of leaving Libya forever, there are things here you wouldn't find anywhere else like not getting a speed ticket no matter how fast you drive :P and a very long list of things you find here that makes us live outside this world
Lebeeya on PH's post Iran's Nuclear Program
America is always on a lookout to identify ‘a free pass’ to enter any developing country. They don’t really care about the authenticity of the pass. If they don’t find any plausible pass, they create one.
Healing Iraq
The sheikh has the choice of accepting insurgents, or worse Al-Qaeda, to operate in his territory, risking that Americans come after him and his family, destroy his property, or kill them all in a strike against "suspected insurgents." Or, he could join forces with Americans to form an "awakening" group, and then risk that insurgents come after him for collaboration. Or, he could simply pack up and flee the country, like millions of Iraqis facing this dilemma decided to do rather than choose one or the other. The Iraqi government or Iraqi security forces are clearly not an option in this equation for well-known reasons.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
My new baby
I finally found the laptop of all laptops a precious gem
is that not a beauty ? for the specifications and other details click here- unfortunately I had to accept Vista !
I finally found the laptop of all laptops a precious gem
is that not a beauty ? for the specifications and other details click here- unfortunately I had to accept Vista !
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Congratulations on Eid Al Adha Updated
Dear All,
I'm interrupting my now fabled itinerary to find the perfect laptop ( for my pocket and dreams) to wish you Eid Mabrouk to you and your families and loved ones.
Along with choosing a laptop which is a long process I am also working on my promised Highlander Award on which there is no voting but only my personal choice of who gets the award based on meritocracy, style, originality and a lot of other criteria but always remember that you are all unique.
For those of you who have just tuned in to my blog here is a summary about Eid Al-Adha which I posted a few years ago. Thankfully this year no one is being executed either so we shall be spared the spectacle.
Salam and enjoy the break
عيدكم مبروك
Highlander
Update 25/12/07 I tried to make the round of all Libyan blogs and wish fellow blogs Happy if I missed anyone then it was not intentional but mashallah you are now so many !
Dear All,
I'm interrupting my now fabled itinerary to find the perfect laptop ( for my pocket and dreams) to wish you Eid Mabrouk to you and your families and loved ones.
Along with choosing a laptop which is a long process I am also working on my promised Highlander Award on which there is no voting but only my personal choice of who gets the award based on meritocracy, style, originality and a lot of other criteria but always remember that you are all unique.
For those of you who have just tuned in to my blog here is a summary about Eid Al-Adha which I posted a few years ago. Thankfully this year no one is being executed either so we shall be spared the spectacle.
Salam and enjoy the break
عيدكم مبروك
Highlander
Update 25/12/07 I tried to make the round of all Libyan blogs and wish fellow blogs Happy if I missed anyone then it was not intentional but mashallah you are now so many !
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
On Iraq
I haven't written about Iraq for a while... not because the novelty factor was gone, neither because the shock factor was not possible anymore but because Iraq has joined the other issues vyeing for attention. I have not read Riverbend for a while but this post brought my tears down and reminded me of a time before 2003 which many Iraqis are nostalgic about - almost another era and only 5 years ago...
"I had resigned myself to the fact that we were refugees. I read about refugees on the Internet daily… in the newspapers… hear about them on TV. I hear about the estimated 1.5 million plus Iraqi refugees in Syria and shake my head, never really considering myself or my family as one of them. After all, refugees are people who sleep in tents and have no potable water or plumbing, right? Refugees carry their belongings in bags instead of suitcases and they don’t have cell phones or Internet access, right? Grasping my passport in my hand like my life depended on it, with two extra months in Syria stamped inside, it hit me how wrong I was. We were all refugees. I was suddenly a number. No matter how wealthy or educated or comfortable, a refugee is a refugee. A refugee is someone who isn’t really welcome in any country- including their own... especially their own.[...] We live in an apartment building where two other Iraqis are renting. The people in the floor above us are a Christian family from northern Iraq who got chased out of their village by Peshmerga and the family on our floor is a Kurdish family who lost their home in Baghdad to militias and were waiting for immigration to Sweden or Switzerland or some such European refugee haven.
The first evening we arrived, exhausted, dragging suitcases behind us, morale a little bit bruised, the Kurdish family sent over their representative – a 9 year old boy missing two front teeth, holding a lopsided cake, “We’re Abu Mohammed’s house- across from you- mama says if you need anything, just ask- this is our number. Abu Dalia’s family live upstairs, this is their number. We’re all Iraqi too... Welcome to the building.”
I cried that night because for the first time in a long time, so far away from home, I felt the unity that had been stolen from us in 2003. "
I haven't written about Iraq for a while... not because the novelty factor was gone, neither because the shock factor was not possible anymore but because Iraq has joined the other issues vyeing for attention. I have not read Riverbend for a while but this post brought my tears down and reminded me of a time before 2003 which many Iraqis are nostalgic about - almost another era and only 5 years ago...
"I had resigned myself to the fact that we were refugees. I read about refugees on the Internet daily… in the newspapers… hear about them on TV. I hear about the estimated 1.5 million plus Iraqi refugees in Syria and shake my head, never really considering myself or my family as one of them. After all, refugees are people who sleep in tents and have no potable water or plumbing, right? Refugees carry their belongings in bags instead of suitcases and they don’t have cell phones or Internet access, right? Grasping my passport in my hand like my life depended on it, with two extra months in Syria stamped inside, it hit me how wrong I was. We were all refugees. I was suddenly a number. No matter how wealthy or educated or comfortable, a refugee is a refugee. A refugee is someone who isn’t really welcome in any country- including their own... especially their own.[...] We live in an apartment building where two other Iraqis are renting. The people in the floor above us are a Christian family from northern Iraq who got chased out of their village by Peshmerga and the family on our floor is a Kurdish family who lost their home in Baghdad to militias and were waiting for immigration to Sweden or Switzerland or some such European refugee haven.
The first evening we arrived, exhausted, dragging suitcases behind us, morale a little bit bruised, the Kurdish family sent over their representative – a 9 year old boy missing two front teeth, holding a lopsided cake, “We’re Abu Mohammed’s house- across from you- mama says if you need anything, just ask- this is our number. Abu Dalia’s family live upstairs, this is their number. We’re all Iraqi too... Welcome to the building.”
I cried that night because for the first time in a long time, so far away from home, I felt the unity that had been stolen from us in 2003. "
Monday, November 26, 2007
Finding a laptop and Windows Vista
My current laptop is exhaling its last breath; what with its fan becoming increasingly louder, its battery hotter and its memory ultra crowded despite regular reformatting processes in addition to the letters on the keyboard merely becoming the ghosts of past shapes. Basically, I need a new laptop ....
My current laptop is exhaling its last breath; what with its fan becoming increasingly louder, its battery hotter and its memory ultra crowded despite regular reformatting processes in addition to the letters on the keyboard merely becoming the ghosts of past shapes. Basically, I need a new laptop ....
How can this be achieved if you have budget constraints, big dreams and a strong attachment to a particular product/software.
My dream machine is light, slim, pretty, powerful and includes DVD long battery life, webcam all the works. Easy? think again, here are the narrowed down choices:
pretty , ultra portable and practical.
My second problem is that most 2007 models carry the Windows Vista software while I have just finally come to terms and made my peace to accept gasp (insert gulping sound) Windows XP, I refuse to upgrade. So I decided to check what do my blogger buddies think:
Anglo Libyan recently bought this , updated to Vista and loves it.
Safia updated to Vista, her review deserves a place in a magazine, she says: " So far (less than 24 hours) Vista has been running stable and okay. Not a great invention to ooh and ahh about, but an interesting little improvement to Windows XP. I think I´ll keep it."
Adam has actually issued a warning "Whatever you do - do not, I repeat not, buy a computer with windows Vista on it. It will be well invested money to pay extra for the good old and solid Windows XP."
So between bloggers taking the Vista to the stars and those dragging it in the gutters; Claim 2B wise's opinion is the one which made me dig in my heels and remain in the non-Vista camp.
He starts with a comparison between Mac and PC and simply tears down Mac's marketing strategy. "i never thought about a Mac computer until this crazy advertisement ofMac Books are hitting around almost everywhere trying to lower down the pc's oddsby counting and mentioning apparently nonstabilty nonreliability incompatibilitiesof a PC.but hey wait a moment ?aren't Mac is just Trying increase their selling by adopting the intel processors which arebasically created for PC and also correct me if i am wrong Mac Introduced Boot camp which allows you to use both operating system in one device.But would it be possible to fully benefit from both ?this is what i would hear from users Now why would Mac Do such a thing ?i believe that you can do almost everything with a pc with no need for having a mac on the other side you can do nothing by a mac but playing with sound video graphic editingand? what else oh yes playing chess and some really boring games".
But here comes the best part "for those who created windows Vista i ask you only one question why? if i was in bill's position i would go for trying perfecting Xp in stead of ending it's services on 2011 i would tell Microsoft one thing i have regret nothing in my life but one thing which is buying an original Vista.I'd rather call it windows disaster in stead."
Wish Bill Gates is listening... sigh
Now I know I don't want Vista; remains to decide on the laptop... your suggestions are most welcome as usual.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
The Patriot and the Racist: a tale of two citizens
Israel is an ally of the US and is rewarded handsomely for it. They are there holding the front in the Middle East against the barbarians (that would be the Arabs - for those who don't know their 101 of the Middle East).
The US is waging a 'war on terror' which has been kind of dragging on, I'm not going to get into the discussion that it seems to have increased terror and not reduced it because this depends from which angle one is looking at it.
However, the point is that the US is in Iraq since 2003, and it is not leaving soon ( even next year is not soon enough) . So it needed/needs to have intelligent people on the ground or at least people who use intelligence to their advantage. That translates into people who know local language and culture. Unfortunately regardless of the purported mission to liberate Iraq - after the weapons of mass destruction turned out not to be there - and with 'free Iraq' turning into THE centre for world terrorism; the Iraqis and by extension other Arabs have become the enemy numero UNO ( OK I'm not forgetting that 9/11 had a lot to do with Arabs labelled with terrorism). Basically this means that American soldiers are not feeling safe in Iraq and need to learn some etiquette of the culture in addition to Arabic because their indigenous translators are being hunted down.
You're now wondering where is this post heading? well hold on be patient.... The US government realised a bit late that Arabic is really an important language for its world operations ( I'm tempted to write dominance). Problem is it's easier for Arabs to learn English ( or any other language ) than for Anglophones to learn Arabic. It gets worse when we learn that members of the military despite the security need do not really feel motivated to learn Arabic because they cannot pick up dates.
Basically, "if American soldiers want to learn the Iraqi dialect, they're going to have to spend many long hours in cafes with Iraqi men, drinking tea, playing backgammon, arguing about soccer, and watching Al Jazeera"
So when native Arabic speakers ( including US citizens some not even Muslim - if that could be a valid reason) step in to fill this gap and show their patriotism by training the marines in Camp Pendleton for essential survival in Iraq become terror suspects because they spoke Arabic on a plane ( hattip Angry Arab) then something is definetly wrong .
" The six men were segregated and detained while the airline helped more than 100 passengers find hotel rooms".
What kind of signal does that send to Americans of Arab descent? that their patriotism and love of the country is never equal to that of non-Arab Americans? That America is not united in how it views its sons and daughters?
Is that the face of prejudice speaking? It seems that people are conditioned to believe that non-English speakers are the enemy always.
"Now a group of psychologists is suggesting that such potentially fatal language prejudice may be one of the earliest lessons we learn in life. Researchers at Harvard and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales have found that infants as young as five months old prefer speakers of their own language to speakers of other languages, even before they themselves can talk. They even prefer speakers of their native dialects (Spelke et al., “The native language of social cognition.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 24, 2007)." [source]
Apparently "language is a political issue in the U.S., and both sides in the American immigration and language war will greet this research as reinforcing their position [..] it seems pretty clear that exposure to other languages early on in American history, during colonization, through the first waves of immigration and since the post-1965 immigration boom, hasn’t produced universal tolerance in this country, linguistic or otherwise. Instead, it’s reinforced the American preference for monolingualism and magnified demands for assimilation or expulsion.
The historical American rejection of foreign languages stems not from a preference for “our own kind” but rather from a false sense that the U.S is so special, so powerful, so imbued with divine mission, that we don’t really need the rest of the world, or its Babel of languages, to get by. "
Maybe just maybe stooping to learn a foreign language could actually bread diversity and tolerance. If the woman on the plane could understand Arabic she may have learned that the other passengers maybe talking about how sexy the stewardess really is :P or that they are as great an ally as Israelis, perhaps more than she ever will be. For a country priding itself on tolerance it is painful to see such suspicion and racism, yet I stand in awe at it's justice system because the mistreated passengers are now allowed to sue the airlines!
Still I'm wondering who in this story is the real patriot and who is a waste of taxpayers money?
Israel is an ally of the US and is rewarded handsomely for it. They are there holding the front in the Middle East against the barbarians (that would be the Arabs - for those who don't know their 101 of the Middle East).
The US is waging a 'war on terror' which has been kind of dragging on, I'm not going to get into the discussion that it seems to have increased terror and not reduced it because this depends from which angle one is looking at it.
However, the point is that the US is in Iraq since 2003, and it is not leaving soon ( even next year is not soon enough) . So it needed/needs to have intelligent people on the ground or at least people who use intelligence to their advantage. That translates into people who know local language and culture. Unfortunately regardless of the purported mission to liberate Iraq - after the weapons of mass destruction turned out not to be there - and with 'free Iraq' turning into THE centre for world terrorism; the Iraqis and by extension other Arabs have become the enemy numero UNO ( OK I'm not forgetting that 9/11 had a lot to do with Arabs labelled with terrorism). Basically this means that American soldiers are not feeling safe in Iraq and need to learn some etiquette of the culture in addition to Arabic because their indigenous translators are being hunted down.
You're now wondering where is this post heading? well hold on be patient.... The US government realised a bit late that Arabic is really an important language for its world operations ( I'm tempted to write dominance). Problem is it's easier for Arabs to learn English ( or any other language ) than for Anglophones to learn Arabic. It gets worse when we learn that members of the military despite the security need do not really feel motivated to learn Arabic because they cannot pick up dates.
Basically, "if American soldiers want to learn the Iraqi dialect, they're going to have to spend many long hours in cafes with Iraqi men, drinking tea, playing backgammon, arguing about soccer, and watching Al Jazeera"
So when native Arabic speakers ( including US citizens some not even Muslim - if that could be a valid reason) step in to fill this gap and show their patriotism by training the marines in Camp Pendleton for essential survival in Iraq become terror suspects because they spoke Arabic on a plane ( hattip Angry Arab) then something is definetly wrong .
" The six men were segregated and detained while the airline helped more than 100 passengers find hotel rooms".
What kind of signal does that send to Americans of Arab descent? that their patriotism and love of the country is never equal to that of non-Arab Americans? That America is not united in how it views its sons and daughters?
Is that the face of prejudice speaking? It seems that people are conditioned to believe that non-English speakers are the enemy always.
"Now a group of psychologists is suggesting that such potentially fatal language prejudice may be one of the earliest lessons we learn in life. Researchers at Harvard and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales have found that infants as young as five months old prefer speakers of their own language to speakers of other languages, even before they themselves can talk. They even prefer speakers of their native dialects (Spelke et al., “The native language of social cognition.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 24, 2007)." [source]
Apparently "language is a political issue in the U.S., and both sides in the American immigration and language war will greet this research as reinforcing their position [..] it seems pretty clear that exposure to other languages early on in American history, during colonization, through the first waves of immigration and since the post-1965 immigration boom, hasn’t produced universal tolerance in this country, linguistic or otherwise. Instead, it’s reinforced the American preference for monolingualism and magnified demands for assimilation or expulsion.
The historical American rejection of foreign languages stems not from a preference for “our own kind” but rather from a false sense that the U.S is so special, so powerful, so imbued with divine mission, that we don’t really need the rest of the world, or its Babel of languages, to get by. "
Maybe just maybe stooping to learn a foreign language could actually bread diversity and tolerance. If the woman on the plane could understand Arabic she may have learned that the other passengers maybe talking about how sexy the stewardess really is :P or that they are as great an ally as Israelis, perhaps more than she ever will be. For a country priding itself on tolerance it is painful to see such suspicion and racism, yet I stand in awe at it's justice system because the mistreated passengers are now allowed to sue the airlines!
Still I'm wondering who in this story is the real patriot and who is a waste of taxpayers money?
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Post- Ramadan blues
Ramadan has come and gone; the Eid el Fitr followed it and warmed our hearts. Thank you friends and readers for your best wishes each one made a difference.
This year Ramadan and Eid have been very special to me. I enjoyed every bit of it and the Eid was wonderful with all the individuals who made it so. This year like every year our house was full, only this year it was even more so. I took lots of photos to try and capture the moment, with the cousins, neighbours friends and uncles and aunts, and also the pets. No none will be published – sorry!
I've written about the Eid before, so if this is your first time on my blog, please read this post to familiarize yourself with the rituals and traditions.
Meeting the immediate and extended family is the highlight of this three day celebration. The children can catch up with each other and play. I liked Khadijateri's initiative: "Bringing along a deck of Uno cards was a very good idea. It kept the older kids busy. I also brought my laptop along and filled all the boys mp3 players with music, so they were happy. And the smaller kids played with some pre-school/toddler games I put on the laptop just for the occasion.[sic]" (She probably is their heroine now! ). Moreover, it is also an occasion for the grown ups who may not meet often in these busy times to find out about each others news, the trivial and the important. However, in such a large crowd there will most probably be no time for intellectual discussions as fellow blogger Khadijateri laments: "Aside from interrogating each other about where they bought their Eid clothes and how much they paid for them, they talked about all kinds of really stupid and boring interesting things."
It does not matter what the conversation is about, we are among our people (family and tribe) so all masks are down, there is no need to compete about Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare or even climate change LOL, who cares even the best hair removal method can make for an interesting topic: P
For me the Eid "is my favourite Muslim feast, and it is one of the most important in the Muslim calendar, on a par with Christmas, it is not an orgy of food at least not in Libya. It is more of a time to put feuds and misunderstandings aside and thank God for his blessings. It is the time to forgive and be forgiven by friends and family. In brief it is a time to start a new leaf, turn the page and clean one's heart and soul in a process which started in Ramadan with the discipline of fasting. This is the real meaning of the Eid and Ramadan and this is what I strive for. My own jihad "[more].
Here's to many more happy Eids to come and kisses and hugs to those who have made my Eid so special.
More serious blogging will resume shortly!
Highlander
Ramadan has come and gone; the Eid el Fitr followed it and warmed our hearts. Thank you friends and readers for your best wishes each one made a difference.
This year Ramadan and Eid have been very special to me. I enjoyed every bit of it and the Eid was wonderful with all the individuals who made it so. This year like every year our house was full, only this year it was even more so. I took lots of photos to try and capture the moment, with the cousins, neighbours friends and uncles and aunts, and also the pets. No none will be published – sorry!
I've written about the Eid before, so if this is your first time on my blog, please read this post to familiarize yourself with the rituals and traditions.
Meeting the immediate and extended family is the highlight of this three day celebration. The children can catch up with each other and play. I liked Khadijateri's initiative: "Bringing along a deck of Uno cards was a very good idea. It kept the older kids busy. I also brought my laptop along and filled all the boys mp3 players with music, so they were happy. And the smaller kids played with some pre-school/toddler games I put on the laptop just for the occasion.[sic]" (She probably is their heroine now! ). Moreover, it is also an occasion for the grown ups who may not meet often in these busy times to find out about each others news, the trivial and the important. However, in such a large crowd there will most probably be no time for intellectual discussions as fellow blogger Khadijateri laments: "Aside from interrogating each other about where they bought their Eid clothes and how much they paid for them, they talked about all kinds of really stupid and boring interesting things."
It does not matter what the conversation is about, we are among our people (family and tribe) so all masks are down, there is no need to compete about Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare or even climate change LOL, who cares even the best hair removal method can make for an interesting topic: P
For me the Eid "is my favourite Muslim feast, and it is one of the most important in the Muslim calendar, on a par with Christmas, it is not an orgy of food at least not in Libya. It is more of a time to put feuds and misunderstandings aside and thank God for his blessings. It is the time to forgive and be forgiven by friends and family. In brief it is a time to start a new leaf, turn the page and clean one's heart and soul in a process which started in Ramadan with the discipline of fasting. This is the real meaning of the Eid and Ramadan and this is what I strive for. My own jihad "[more].
Here's to many more happy Eids to come and kisses and hugs to those who have made my Eid so special.
More serious blogging will resume shortly!
Highlander
Saturday, October 06, 2007
"The Right Kind of Wrong":
Happiness.. Now and Forever!
Which is why I will share the video here ..... and its lyrics below.
Eid Mabrouk !
I know all about,
Yea about your reputation
And now it's bound to be a heartbreak situation
But I can't help it if I'm helpless
Every time that I'm where you are
You walk in and my strength walks out the door
Say my name and I can't fight it any more
Oh I know, I should go
But I need your touch just too damn much
Lovin you, That isn't really something I should do
I shouldn't wanna spend my time with you ya
Well I should try to be strong
But baby you're the right kind of wrong
Ya, baby you're the right kind of wrong
It might be a mistake
A mistake I'm makin'
But what your givin I am happy to be takin
Cause no one's ever made me feel
The way when I'm in your arms
They say your somethin I should do without
They don't know what goes on
When the lights go out
There's no way to explain
All the pleasure is worth all the pain
Lovin you, That isn't really something I should do ya-hey
I shouldn't wanna spend my time with you ya
Well I should try to be strong
But baby you're the right kind of wrong
Ya, baby you're the right kind of wrong
I should try to run but I just can't seem to
'Cause every time I run your the one I run to
Can't do without what you do to me,
I don't care if I'm in to deep yeah
I know all about,
Yea about your reputation
And now it's bound to be a heartbreak situation
But I can't help it if I'm helpless
Every time that I'm where you are
You walk in and my strength walks out the door
Say my name and I can't fight it any more
Oh I know, I should go
But I need your touch just too damn much
Hey-yeah
Lovin you, yeah, isn't really something I should do
I shouldn't wanna spend my time with you ya
Well I should try to be strong, I should try to be strong
But baby you're the right kind of wrong (right kind of wrong)
Baby you're the right kind of wrong
Baby you're the right kind of wrong
Yeah baby you're the the right kind of wrong
Happiness.. Now and Forever!
Which is why I will share the video here ..... and its lyrics below.
Eid Mabrouk !
I know all about,
Yea about your reputation
And now it's bound to be a heartbreak situation
But I can't help it if I'm helpless
Every time that I'm where you are
You walk in and my strength walks out the door
Say my name and I can't fight it any more
Oh I know, I should go
But I need your touch just too damn much
Lovin you, That isn't really something I should do
I shouldn't wanna spend my time with you ya
Well I should try to be strong
But baby you're the right kind of wrong
Ya, baby you're the right kind of wrong
It might be a mistake
A mistake I'm makin'
But what your givin I am happy to be takin
Cause no one's ever made me feel
The way when I'm in your arms
They say your somethin I should do without
They don't know what goes on
When the lights go out
There's no way to explain
All the pleasure is worth all the pain
Lovin you, That isn't really something I should do ya-hey
I shouldn't wanna spend my time with you ya
Well I should try to be strong
But baby you're the right kind of wrong
Ya, baby you're the right kind of wrong
I should try to run but I just can't seem to
'Cause every time I run your the one I run to
Can't do without what you do to me,
I don't care if I'm in to deep yeah
I know all about,
Yea about your reputation
And now it's bound to be a heartbreak situation
But I can't help it if I'm helpless
Every time that I'm where you are
You walk in and my strength walks out the door
Say my name and I can't fight it any more
Oh I know, I should go
But I need your touch just too damn much
Hey-yeah
Lovin you, yeah, isn't really something I should do
I shouldn't wanna spend my time with you ya
Well I should try to be strong, I should try to be strong
But baby you're the right kind of wrong (right kind of wrong)
Baby you're the right kind of wrong
Baby you're the right kind of wrong
Yeah baby you're the the right kind of wrong
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Libyan Soup: The Best dish in Ramadan
Did I mention how much I love Ramadan? It is amazing what a restful time of year it is for me as I don't have to think about lunch or any other food schedules. Having my Iftar is enough and a little snack for Souhour.
In Ramadan everything tastes so much better. I don't think it is because we are hungry but I like to think that is because of baraka ( or blessings).
My favourite dish on the evening meal is the Libyan soup and this soup only tastes special with watani lamb meat ( watani meaning local. I can never tire of eating it for 30 days in a row so delicious it is.
My Iftar usually consists of a few dates to break the fast and some milk/water then I proceed to attack my salad while the soup cools down. I then just eat some burek or rice or whatever is available to have with it as main meal.
We later have fruits and tea. Nothing wasted, not much bread eaten. Souhour can be leftovers or just yogourt and some dates and water.
If you have a recipe for our excellent Libyan soup please share it here ( I admit I can't cook it LOL )
Did I mention how much I love Ramadan? It is amazing what a restful time of year it is for me as I don't have to think about lunch or any other food schedules. Having my Iftar is enough and a little snack for Souhour.
In Ramadan everything tastes so much better. I don't think it is because we are hungry but I like to think that is because of baraka ( or blessings).
My favourite dish on the evening meal is the Libyan soup and this soup only tastes special with watani lamb meat ( watani meaning local. I can never tire of eating it for 30 days in a row so delicious it is.
My Iftar usually consists of a few dates to break the fast and some milk/water then I proceed to attack my salad while the soup cools down. I then just eat some burek or rice or whatever is available to have with it as main meal.
We later have fruits and tea. Nothing wasted, not much bread eaten. Souhour can be leftovers or just yogourt and some dates and water.
If you have a recipe for our excellent Libyan soup please share it here ( I admit I can't cook it LOL )
Sunday, September 09, 2007
The Best Libyan Blogs: Highlander's Award and the Ramadan Spirit
I have not done the monthly roundups of Libyan blogs for quite a while and lately it crossed my mind that instead I could do my own Libyan blogs competition and give the Highlander Award for excellence or originality once every three months or bi-annually. It's just a way to keep track of the blogger family and increase our exposure and keep us on our toes LOL.
The first one which crossed my mind was Hibo's blog about her late father . I searched and searched and could not find it anymore. It was going to be a brilliant homage to a great contemporary Libyan academic. Hibo explained that she has deleted it.
I know that it has been about a month now since a big misunderstanding took place between a few Libyan bloggers. I was advised to leave sleeping dragons alone since things might be cooling down and the waters may start to flow back again. Yet I feel that everyone is a bit on the edge now and I don't want the Libyan blogs to go the way of some others. I am extremely proud of our family and I want to see the same spirit of collaboration and jest that was there until a month ago. There has been a noticeable decrease in comments on some people's blogs and I think that affects the quality of the conversation. We are all mature people; Piccolina, Hibo and Ahmed have all made an apology, which is very generous of them and shows what pure souls they have.
In my opinion as someone who is neutral, I'd say none of you guys made any mistakes. The story if I recall was that Hibo started a lovely game, in fact her idea is so brilliant that I thought we could follow it up with more quizzes. It would have been so innovative. Piccolina picked on that and made a post from it in which she demonstrated her theory for the correct answer to the quiz. That post was so funny as well and it was absolutely flattering and great as it put Hibo in such a wonderful light. In fact is showed that Hibo is a genius at inventing games and making the Libyan blogs so interesting. The response on both posts was wonderful. Hibo and Piccolina you made such a wonderful team and Ahmed you were so nice to allow yourself to be the first in this online quiz.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure what happened then- why the misunderstanding? But it got out of hand and as the Arab proverb says "if speech is of silver then silence is golden". Things escalated and posts were deleted. What a pity, as those were some of the most beautiful posts which demonstrated the joy, fun, originality and brotherly spirit of the Libyan bloggers and how much we are all young at heart and one family.
So what is my point ? I wish those posts would go up again. If there is something unsuitable in the comment section you can make that not show. The technology is available for that. It is also a few days only to Ramadan. This is the time of the year when we should not hold any grudges anymore not feel any anger/hurt towards anyone. I wish to see the two factions have a virtual hug, kiss and forgive.
Let bygones be bygones.
I have not done the monthly roundups of Libyan blogs for quite a while and lately it crossed my mind that instead I could do my own Libyan blogs competition and give the Highlander Award for excellence or originality once every three months or bi-annually. It's just a way to keep track of the blogger family and increase our exposure and keep us on our toes LOL.
The first one which crossed my mind was Hibo's blog about her late father . I searched and searched and could not find it anymore. It was going to be a brilliant homage to a great contemporary Libyan academic. Hibo explained that she has deleted it.
I know that it has been about a month now since a big misunderstanding took place between a few Libyan bloggers. I was advised to leave sleeping dragons alone since things might be cooling down and the waters may start to flow back again. Yet I feel that everyone is a bit on the edge now and I don't want the Libyan blogs to go the way of some others. I am extremely proud of our family and I want to see the same spirit of collaboration and jest that was there until a month ago. There has been a noticeable decrease in comments on some people's blogs and I think that affects the quality of the conversation. We are all mature people; Piccolina, Hibo and Ahmed have all made an apology, which is very generous of them and shows what pure souls they have.
In my opinion as someone who is neutral, I'd say none of you guys made any mistakes. The story if I recall was that Hibo started a lovely game, in fact her idea is so brilliant that I thought we could follow it up with more quizzes. It would have been so innovative. Piccolina picked on that and made a post from it in which she demonstrated her theory for the correct answer to the quiz. That post was so funny as well and it was absolutely flattering and great as it put Hibo in such a wonderful light. In fact is showed that Hibo is a genius at inventing games and making the Libyan blogs so interesting. The response on both posts was wonderful. Hibo and Piccolina you made such a wonderful team and Ahmed you were so nice to allow yourself to be the first in this online quiz.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure what happened then- why the misunderstanding? But it got out of hand and as the Arab proverb says "if speech is of silver then silence is golden". Things escalated and posts were deleted. What a pity, as those were some of the most beautiful posts which demonstrated the joy, fun, originality and brotherly spirit of the Libyan bloggers and how much we are all young at heart and one family.
So what is my point ? I wish those posts would go up again. If there is something unsuitable in the comment section you can make that not show. The technology is available for that. It is also a few days only to Ramadan. This is the time of the year when we should not hold any grudges anymore not feel any anger/hurt towards anyone. I wish to see the two factions have a virtual hug, kiss and forgive.
Let bygones be bygones.
ما خلقنا السماوات و الارض و ما بينهما الا بالحق وان الساعة لاتية فاصفح الصفح الجمــــيل* إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ الْخَلاَّقُ العَلِيمُ
الحجر / 85 ـ 86
وسارعوا الى مغفرة من ربكم وجنه عرضها السماوات والأرض أعدت للمتقين الذين ينفقون فى السراء والضراء والكاظمين الغيط والعافين عن الناس ان الله يحب المحسنين
ال عمران/ 134
After all is not this what Ramadan is all about?
The Highlander Award for Excellence© will be ushered in on December 2007 until then keep the Ramadan Spirit on.
May the Blessed Spirit of Ramadan guide us all.
Love
Highlander
Saturday, September 01, 2007
A tribute to online friends: Highlander 's fourth birthday. (updated)
Highlander is four years old today and I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the effect of internet on our life.
Before internet, people interested in communicating with other cultures or making friends or even keep in touch used to write letters and use what we now call snail mail. Many of us can surely remember our little pen pals from those exotic far away sounding places.
In recent months the little bug that I noticed was going around is that several bloggers were pouring their hearts out about their friends and friendship in general.
Khadijateri : "Friends are not always forever, I have discovered."
Trabilsia: "Communication is interpreted by each single individual acording to his/her frame of mind.[sic]".
Loulou: " What do you do? Give in to your sense of duty and loyalty? Reach out to her and try very hard to change your perception of her?".
Carmen even devoted two posts: (1) "You hope that you meet people throughout your life journey that'll always stick around and that no matter how bad things get, they just don't go anywhere." and (2) "I always pray that they'll tap into the friendship reserve that we filled up together and realize how much I really do love them."
This is only a sample but basically all these complaints mean friendship IS important otherwise we would not devote so much time writing about it.
I love my friends and loved my pen pals. However, with the explosion of technology that revolutionised communication during the last decade or so, communication is now instant and reaches a wider network and farther then we ever imagined.
We have email, blogs, chat forums and all sorts of other forums. We instant message (IM) each other, Skype, text and leave offline messages. In short we interact and make new friends daily and it is easier to keep up with our old ones.
Before the blogosphere, I was looking for an interface to interact with fellow Arabs online, a place where I could communicate with them in several languages, a social network of sorts where there were like minded and not so like minded people. I stumbled like many Arabs on http://www.planetarabia.com/. ( does not work anymore).
By mid 2002 Planetarabia started shutting down, our emails were erased and features disappeared until one day sometime in 2003 Planetarabia was no longer.
I made so many friends on Planetarabia, Arab and non- Arab (probably a few people hated my guts lol) but I never made enemies. I fondly remember our conversations, discussions and arguments. It was the forum I used to hone in my ideas for those 3 years when I was online. I met several of the friends behind the usernames. Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Kuwait, UK, US, Canada, Israel etc.. so many memories and so many great friends: R, M, Y, S and D I miss you so much. Their numbers are still in my cell phone and though we are no longer on Planetarabia we still are able to keep in touch.
In August 2003 I discovered the blogs and a new way to interact and my comments became long posts on my blog. Funnily enough I came across someone I knew from Planetarabia who also became a blogger, it was so hilarious when we compared notes about those we knew in common. This is just to show that the people you click with, you always will like them under whatever other name they are.
A lot of things changed since 2003 many readers have come and gone among whom I made also some great friends. Many of them who are no longer here but still read me are missed dearly. Others who have chosen to get on with their lives are missed very much.
The blogosphere has changed, the Libyan one has grown from yours truly into a big family. The Egyptian blogs are not as they used to be. The Iraqi blogosphere has a different mood. The Lebanese bloggers have kind of lost hope; the Kuwaiti blogs are not as fun as back in 2005, the Tunisian blogs are different. Yet among all these people I have many friends, brothers and sisters I would die for. I miss you all and I wish we could turn back the clock to before 9/11 and to another era.
I wanted to thank each and every reader and friend who has ever graced Highlander's blog. I learned from you very much. To those of you who know me personally don't worry sooner or later I will get in touch. I won't forget those of you who are no longer in the comment section because you all encouraged me to stay the course.
Planetarabia was a great forum and I am so sorry it closed. I have been able to find one link showing how it looked to us: here and also a piece of news about when the BBC agreed to stream the news on it.
I'm not worried though as I have saved a lot of its webpages over the years and most of the discussions on my hard disk and from time to time I can reread what we said and what we thought and it would spring back to life; the hopes and the innocence but most strikingly the human relations that formed.
In conclusion friends are not only those we find in the conventional way; let's not look a horse gift in the mouth. Also, true friends do last forever, anything else is a 'business transaction' as one of my new blogger friends said in quoting Libyan writer Sadeg Nayhooum.
PS, Has any of you ever been on Planetarabia? Do you want to share and tell me by which name you used to be known there?
Highlander is four years old today and I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the effect of internet on our life.
Before internet, people interested in communicating with other cultures or making friends or even keep in touch used to write letters and use what we now call snail mail. Many of us can surely remember our little pen pals from those exotic far away sounding places.
In recent months the little bug that I noticed was going around is that several bloggers were pouring their hearts out about their friends and friendship in general.
Khadijateri : "Friends are not always forever, I have discovered."
Trabilsia: "Communication is interpreted by each single individual acording to his/her frame of mind.[sic]".
Loulou: " What do you do? Give in to your sense of duty and loyalty? Reach out to her and try very hard to change your perception of her?".
Carmen even devoted two posts: (1) "You hope that you meet people throughout your life journey that'll always stick around and that no matter how bad things get, they just don't go anywhere." and (2) "I always pray that they'll tap into the friendship reserve that we filled up together and realize how much I really do love them."
This is only a sample but basically all these complaints mean friendship IS important otherwise we would not devote so much time writing about it.
I love my friends and loved my pen pals. However, with the explosion of technology that revolutionised communication during the last decade or so, communication is now instant and reaches a wider network and farther then we ever imagined.
We have email, blogs, chat forums and all sorts of other forums. We instant message (IM) each other, Skype, text and leave offline messages. In short we interact and make new friends daily and it is easier to keep up with our old ones.
Before the blogosphere, I was looking for an interface to interact with fellow Arabs online, a place where I could communicate with them in several languages, a social network of sorts where there were like minded and not so like minded people. I stumbled like many Arabs on http://www.planetarabia.com/. ( does not work anymore).
By mid 2002 Planetarabia started shutting down, our emails were erased and features disappeared until one day sometime in 2003 Planetarabia was no longer.
I made so many friends on Planetarabia, Arab and non- Arab (probably a few people hated my guts lol) but I never made enemies. I fondly remember our conversations, discussions and arguments. It was the forum I used to hone in my ideas for those 3 years when I was online. I met several of the friends behind the usernames. Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Kuwait, UK, US, Canada, Israel etc.. so many memories and so many great friends: R, M, Y, S and D I miss you so much. Their numbers are still in my cell phone and though we are no longer on Planetarabia we still are able to keep in touch.
In August 2003 I discovered the blogs and a new way to interact and my comments became long posts on my blog. Funnily enough I came across someone I knew from Planetarabia who also became a blogger, it was so hilarious when we compared notes about those we knew in common. This is just to show that the people you click with, you always will like them under whatever other name they are.
A lot of things changed since 2003 many readers have come and gone among whom I made also some great friends. Many of them who are no longer here but still read me are missed dearly. Others who have chosen to get on with their lives are missed very much.
The blogosphere has changed, the Libyan one has grown from yours truly into a big family. The Egyptian blogs are not as they used to be. The Iraqi blogosphere has a different mood. The Lebanese bloggers have kind of lost hope; the Kuwaiti blogs are not as fun as back in 2005, the Tunisian blogs are different. Yet among all these people I have many friends, brothers and sisters I would die for. I miss you all and I wish we could turn back the clock to before 9/11 and to another era.
I wanted to thank each and every reader and friend who has ever graced Highlander's blog. I learned from you very much. To those of you who know me personally don't worry sooner or later I will get in touch. I won't forget those of you who are no longer in the comment section because you all encouraged me to stay the course.
Planetarabia was a great forum and I am so sorry it closed. I have been able to find one link showing how it looked to us: here and also a piece of news about when the BBC agreed to stream the news on it.
I'm not worried though as I have saved a lot of its webpages over the years and most of the discussions on my hard disk and from time to time I can reread what we said and what we thought and it would spring back to life; the hopes and the innocence but most strikingly the human relations that formed.
In conclusion friends are not only those we find in the conventional way; let's not look a horse gift in the mouth. Also, true friends do last forever, anything else is a 'business transaction' as one of my new blogger friends said in quoting Libyan writer Sadeg Nayhooum.
PS, Has any of you ever been on Planetarabia? Do you want to share and tell me by which name you used to be known there?
Update (11.24 PM)
For the nostalgic among you, Maktoob.com is based on the same ideas as Planetarabia but it simply does not feel the same. Planetarabia was simpler and more streamlined.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)