Bla Bla Bla

Validation required... approval pending!!!!

2010-03-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

I know this is not part of the series I said I would write but it was something that just struck me a few hours ago… A thought that has touched me as I am sure it has touched every one of us...

Here goes...

Only the weak need acceptance from others, only the self conscious need validation from others, only the insecure need confirmation that they are good enough…

And you know what… A weak, self conscious and insecure person I most certainly am…

I do, as does everybody else in this world need to have myself and my decisions validated, I need acceptance from others, I need to see approval in some one’s eyes to be able to feel completely good about myself. Who of us doesn’t need that, and for those of you who are thinking “I don’t” you are in all likelihood more insecure and weaker than anybody else or you are simply crazy

We all need acceptance, approval, validation and confirmation of our decisions, actions, morality, and choices… and it takes a brave person (bearing in mind that bravery is not strength or absence of fear, but rather weakness and presence of fear and yet possessing the will to move forward) It really does take a brave person to admit his or her weakness and vulnerability and to admit that they do require a certain measure of acceptance and approval from somebody

Now with that being said the options in this world are slim pickings as to who we can depend on or seek approval or validation from… It starts off with parents and family, moves to teachers, crosses to peers in school, to colleagues at work and finally to society at large or a combination of any of the above… It is only natural to turn to these sources for one of our most basic of needs… acceptance and validation

Now that on it’s face sounds pretty ok… only when you consider that they too are looking for acceptance and approval and are seeking it in the same areas you are, which in turn creates a vicious cycle where everybody is looking for the same thing in the other while no one being able to actually provide it for the other, I remember I used to think about the “hip” kids in school and how everybody admired them (or in other words approved of them and gave them acceptance), and how I wanted to be like them also to be approved of, and usually these kids were the buff type of guys that could get any girl and were suave and cool… of course naturally they also had people who they admired and simply mirrored and those people also had people who they were simply mirroring and so on and so forth… and when I think of those days I realize how ridiculous I was to seek acceptance from equally weak and insecure people who were only accepted because they were mirroring other insecure and weak people as well…

Finally now I realize where true power and comfort and confidence are derived from, for you see I am still equally as weak and insecure as I ever was towards He who I seek acceptance from, but what changed is that now I am strong and confident and no longer seek approval from other people…

Now the “Person” I seek approval and acceptance from is not a human being like me with all the inherit flaws and weaknesses that I and every human being have, but rather from a superior Entity, from a source that can actually give me that measure of approval of who I am, the confidence in my choices, the strength in my decisions, the acceptance and validation of what I do letting me “know” that I am right because I am following an entity who is never wrong…

And Ultimately that acceptance, and validation finally gave me the confidence and stability that enable me to look the world in the eye and truly and in all sincerity not give a crap what it thinks of my desicions, and not give a damn if it approves of my actions.... for I have already found my acceptance, and have finally been approved

Peace out

From Frank Sinatra to 50 Cent and back!!!

2010-03-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

How the hell did we go from Frank Sinatra to freaken Akon and 50 cent…

Just in case you are not familiar with the show business industry, let me provide a context…

In show business of any kind, movies, magazines, songs, music videos, TV shows… whatever the nature (and for the purpose of this post we'll take music as an example)… all of these things have one thing in common…Their success is all based on either sales, or ratings. Of course like everything else the people in those industries are in it for the money, they want to make profit and produce, record, shoot, or write what they believe will be attractive to the Listener, viewer or reader, basically they make what they believe is a product that will meet the audience’s expectations and taste. And it is those who make what appeals to the audience that make it big and become rich and famous… In other words, when the song or movie or music video is produced and it appeals to people’s taste more and more people will buy it or pay to see or listen to it which in turn makes the creator of that product rich and famous

And herein lays the context… If we look at this theory from the opposite angle, then we can say that whatever hehe “Art” that is out there today is a mirror reflection of people’s taste… and that the most accurate way of gauging society’s general taste and what appeals to it, is by looking at who the biggest players are in the market. For example the biggest “musicians” these days are people like Lady Gaga, Akon, Justin Timberlake… The reason why they are soo successful is that their product aka “music” is making great sales records, because more and more people buy and listen to it since it is actually appealing to the general taste of society…

Now that we have established a context we can move on to the truly ugly reality… when you look at what these people produce and realize that this is what people actually like and want to listen to, the picture becomes truly scary.

How the hell did we as a society go from “Love & marriage go together like a horse and carriage” to freaken “I’m gonna take you to the candy shop and let you lick the lollipop”… how the hell did female artists change from “you made me strong when I was weak because you loved me” and singing about love and intimacy to a super freak singing songs like “3” talking about how much fun it would be to have 3 or 4 or 5 guys in bed all at the same time… And for the love of God somebody please tell me how it is actually the standard today where a guy says “I am trying to find the words to describe you without being disrespectful” and then immediately moving on to describing (very respectfully so) how fine that girls booty is shaking on the floor and how he would “very respectfully” like to take her back to his place for a one night stand until they both get sore.

The horror is not in the nature of the music or in the words, the true horror is in the fact that those are the most successful “artists” of our day, which according to the context provided above, means that their so called music actually matches society’s taste…

I don’t really know how this happened, and how society’s taste of art has sunk soooo low and become that vile and despicable, but I know one thing for sure… we are definitely doing something wrong, and a change needs to be made. Something is certainly not right when art goes from “I can’t live without you” to “I can’t live without banging you”…

And to be perfectly honest, whatever is wrong with society just has to be in some way or another linked to our standards of behavior… what we now define as acceptable practice… I mean it is not so surprising to see how low art has sunk when teenagers in schools are wearing pants that say “juicy” on the butt, or wear hot shorts to P.E class, or when guys are exposed to an insane amount of nudity everywhere they go and their sole priority / interest in anything is primarily sex…

Is it really that surprising that we have sunk so low with our taste and preferences, when the average age of first sexual experience was 18 just a mere 70 years ago and now it is 14 and sometimes 13 in some countries, when now even Nuns in churches who used to protect and cover their bodies can now display a bit of cleavage, when a guy who is 21 or 22 that is still a virgin is considered a retard, and guys are only granted bragging rights dependant on how many girls they have had… when dating at the age of 13 and 14 is “normal” practice and completely acceptable by parents and teachers and society as a whole, when the words “saving yourself for marriage” are cause of laughter not admiration, when looking good is now defined by how much skin or curvature a woman exposes, and that beauty now needs to be validated not by how feminine a woman is or by how beautiful her face is but rather validated by how many men are ogling her and thinking up the most obscene of thoughts, when now sex is not even something that 2 people do when they are in love “let alone married” on the contrary, we are coming up with crazy insanities like swinging and sex buddies and it is now more of a physical sport rather than an intimate pleasure between 2 people… And finally when being faithful is something to be ashamed of and being secular is what is “in” these days, when a belief in a set of moral principles set forth by what faithful people believe is an Almighty God himself is something that is just silly, and believing that we all evolved from a giant bowl of undercooked chicken cream soup is making quite a bit of sense

And I know that we are not all doing what I mentioned above, but apparently whatever the heck it is we ARE doing is somehow causing it

It’s time to wake up and realize that what we as a society believe to be ok… is anything but.... not to mention that the line we drew to separate what is acceptable and what is not needs a serious change

And for the love of God, recheck and revisit what the hell we as a people should define as… "Normal"

More to come soon isA

Peace out

let the therapy begin

2010-02-27T06:56:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and readers…

As opposed to my usual articles which are quite long this one is different… this one will be… Extremely long ;) haha

WOAH WOAH wait a sec, hold your horses… just hear me out for a sec…

This is one of those topics that I have been very eager to discuss and share my thoughts about, but the problem is that it is a topic that is soooo multilayered and goes deep into several other issues that make it impossible to discuss all at once… Therefore I will be releasing this topic as a part of a series…

The first chapter of the series is this one which will simply introduce the general theme and the issues I wish to discuss in future posts… so here goes

Practice, Practice makes perfect…

If it is one thing our world and the people who manipulate and steer the world have learned and applied picture perfectly… it is definitely that… That practice makes perfect… or in other words “conditioning”

As a society we truly have become conditioned, and I am not talking as in physical condition or conditioned to harsh times or to running 12 miles a day or even to accept the horrible corruption and insane freaky norms of today’s society… all of that is nothing compared to the ultimate conditioning tune up our world has gotten latley…

To become so conditioned that all of that not only exists and we accept it’s existence in a deffening silence… but we have to the point where we now believe it to be………………… “normal”

It is a strange thing this “normal business… and even stranger when people are conditioned (re-engineered sounds more accurate though but whatever) to start thinking that what we have now is normal.

A study was done in the 1960s in the U.K in a series of schools when they made the move from Grammar schools to a more comprehensive schooling approach. Basically what they did is, they tested the Kids and they told the kids that got a mark of “D” that they in fact got an “A”, and the told the kids that got an “A” that they had scored a “D”… They continued that approach for the three months duration of the experiment.

Not surprising was the result… at the end of the 3 months the kids had become conditioned, the ones that actually scored “A”s were scoring “D”s, and the “D” students were actually scoring “A”s now… But the wasn’t the interesting part, although it quite adamantly shows the power of conditioning, but the most amazing bombshell was not the transformation that happened with the Kids it was what was happening with the teachers.

See the results of the kids were switched without the teacher’s knowledge, and after being their teacher for quite a few years, their teachers started talking and behaving very positively towards the “A” students which were in fact the “D” kids, and they started ignoring and paying less attention to the “D” students although in reality they were the “A” Superstars

Again it all just goes to show the power of conditioning… and how people transform and shift their behavior depending on what they have been conditioned to…

In the upcoming posts I will be discussing a wide range of fields, and issues that we as a society both Egyptian and as a global world have become conditioned to accept as normal… Issues, like Politics, relationships, Education and general social dynamics… so stay tuned… and start considering as of now… exactly what in the name of everything that is holy is NORMAL…

Peace out

The Ultimate Truth... redefined

2010-02-08T05:22:00.000-08:00

I know that sounds like a pretty darn cocky statement, like I actually know what the ultimate truth is and even more that I would be able to redefine it…

I have heard from quite a few of my friends that it is impossible for them to believe in one ultimate truth... and to be honest who can blame them I mean look at the world around you… every time we think we finally found the truth, it up and changes again… We “KNEW” at some point that the earth was flat, we were “CERTAIN” that the earth was the center of the universe and there is no doubt in our minds that the “facts” we know now are just that… irrefutable “facts”, solid “truths” that no one can argue

Gravity, the fact that the sky is blue, so many facts and truths that as far as we are concerned could change tomorrow or at least our understanding of them and how we define and quantify them changes… I mean heck, even damn Facebook changes… every time I get used to it and start thinking this is it, they change it to what apparently is a much better user interface… And I am sure that like facebook, everything in this world will “improve” or change or be enhanced, and all of that is again relative to how much we know and how we as individuals identify what exactly is “better”.

All in all it is safe to assume that there is no certainty in life, everything changes and our understanding and development of new technology also changes our own capacity to look at the same thing and see it from a different angle or see it in a different light all together... so considering what I just mentioned and by looking at history, the smart money says that it is impossible that there exists an ultimate truth that is everlasting or won’t change in time. It would be nonsense to believe that there is a single truth or fact out there that was, is, and forever will be… the idea of an absolute ultimate truth is just absurd…right???

This kinda made me think about something… in my mind I started saying “hey wait a second” that doesn’t make any sense at all… I mean yeah all the physical solid things change but what about the metaphysical… what about the stuff that you can’t really put your hands on but know is there for sure…

It could be that they discover years from now that what runs inside my body is not blood it is just over priced ketchup that yes… but it is impossible that anyone tell me that my feelings are false, no one can tell me that in my deepest moments of fear that what I feel is not true, that in my greatest moments of triumph my Happiness is not real…

Which in turn has led me to think, if my emotions are true, and considering of course I cannot touch anger, smell love, hear hatred, or taste fear, then how on earth can I quantify or measure them…?

I thought and thought and thought but was never able to put a number on it. I mean I thought I can measure how angry I become by how bad I punch something or someone, I thought I could measure how much love I have for someone by figuring out exactly how much I want or need or even desire that person but ultimately I failed miserably to define those feelings. But one thing was certain in my mind… those feelings although I cannot quantify or measure them are nevertheless “TRUE”

And then it hit me… and I realized how wrong I was in my approach…

Have you ever tried measuring heat for example using a pair of socks, or measure how fast a car is going by using a skillet. Of course not, you are smart enough to know that for everything in this world there is a specific approach and that you don’t try to understand or comprehend things by using methods or equipment that is not designed for that purpose at all…

Apparently I wasn’t so smart, and I had finally realized what was wrong in my approach… it was not the desire to prove or disprove an absolute truth or understand it if it exists, it was in how I was trying to define it calculate it or relate to it all together

At last I had come to realize that to measure or even understand what is metaphysical I should not use my physical senses… trying to use physical senses in order to understand what cannot be seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled was futile… it was a dead end…

Finally, I realized what I should have ages ago… in dealing with what is supernatural in what is beyond the limited ability of my physical senses to comprehend… I had to rely on something else entirely

I started remembering what went through me when I stood in front of the many miracles that surround us day in and day out, The sunrise, the waterfalls of Brazil, the serenity of the desert… what it is like to love, and as I remembered, I realized it wasn’t their size, or smell, or sound that overwhelmed me… it was the humility and sheer happiness I felt that was amazing… and as true as my feelings were and are, I remembered one final thought…

Although Allah has said
"We will show them Our signs in all the regions of the earth and in their own souls until they clearly see that this is the truth..." (Quran 41:53)

I realized that my eyes can deceive me, my ears can play tricks on me, my nose may be runny from my last cold, but what will always be true, is my happiness as I read the Quran, my humility as I pray, my anger when I hear someone insulting Mohamed, or Jesus or Moses or all the other Prophets… and my serenity as I sleep with Allah's name being the last I mention

Ultimately I realized that to connect with God or Allah, or any spiritual essence, to be able to relate to what is truly “true”… my body wouldn’t really be of any help… I cannot quantify spirituality by the miracles I measure with my physical sense, but I can relate to it using my spiritual senses… and therein lays the ironic twist…

To make sure my spiritual / metaphysical sensory systems were working I had to nurture them just as you have to eat to taste touch to feel, see to watch… My soul needed to be alive, it needed to be nurtured with humility, faith, submission, gratitude and love for something that is much greater than any one person or anything material… And that that way was the only way I ever would be able to grasp the beauty in things, the spirituality in myself, and to understand the “truth” that a body cannot… the “truth” that only a spirit can comprehend…

Inspired by a song called “open your eyes” by Maher Zain and the amazing story of an Australian dude called Rubben Abu Bakr
Here are the links for them

Rubben’s story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFFGYendf-Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9yaxDn1_MQ&feature=related

Open Your eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm6NtnU0yXw

Peace out

Animal Planet live and talking

2009-12-31T03:56:00.000-08:00

You are as brave as a lion, beautiful as a Gazelle, disgusting and perverted as a pig…

Throughout history, our fellow inhabitants of this earth from the animal kingdom have been used to describe our behavior or looks or attitude as humans.

We use animal attributes to either praise, or denounce and insult one another depending on the message we wish to convey.

Now I don't really consider myself a big student of Philosophy or anything but I must say, this is one of those times where I had a philosophical epiphany and thought of this from a very unique perspective.

Science has now proven without a shadow of a doubt that animals communicate in their own languages. Turns out there is more to barking, and meeeyawing that meets the...ear... hehe. But it has been proven that for example whales and dolphins communicate using sound waves, birds have specific chirps that they use to assemble their ranks, even the darn philosoraptors in Jurrasic park had this squeaky sound they made to coordinate an attack.

And here is where I started thinking about the reverse theory of us using animals to praise or insult other people.

When we talk and we wish to praise or even glorify the action of a person or that person themselves, we usually do so by comparing them to certain animals and likewise when we want to insult or ridicule a person. We say things like, blind as a bat, dumb as an ox, strong as a bull, brave as a lion, beautiful as a gazelle, or also to describe actions we say things like, swims like a fish, is sharp like a hawk, or eats like a pig, and many many other things…

And here my friends is the 64 thousand dollar Question I guess…

If when we as humans talk and want to praise or insult other people from our own species, we do so using other species and their attributes, and now that we know that animals do in fact communicate and have their own languages,

I wonder if they also praise one another or insult one another, and the even bigger question, is…

If they do insult and praise one another, do they do so using other species and their attributes too???? Species like uhhhhh say uhhhh…. Human beings for example…..

If yes

I truly am scared to wonder if they use us to praise… or to Insult one another and too afraid that technology might once go as far as translating what animals say…. Will we here a Gazelle praising a lion and saying "wow Mr. king of the jungle, you are truly Nobel, a real (human)"

Or would we actually hear a Lion insulting a hyena by saying "you are such a treacherous bottom feeding piece of shit... I mean God Damn... you are practically........ (Human)"

Peace out

Weapons of mass distraction

2009-12-27T03:39:00.001-08:00

That was the title of the new comedy show by brilliant comedian Robin Williams, and a comment he made, while he was running for president in his movie "Man of the year"

I have to say though, there may just be a bit of truth to that statement, much more than it being a simple comedy quip it actually holds a whole lot of truth in it.

It seems that in every time in age, the world can always rely on it's greatest weapon yet… Not nuclear, bio, or chemical warfare no no no… but rather the weapon that has become the weapon of choice for corrupt governments, the weapon that uses fear as bullets, and gullibility as its primary target. That weapon is also the same thing used by any good magician. They make you look to the right, while on the left they are moving an elephant to the top of a tall building or making a tank disappear. A simple equation of "Misdirection"

Unlike Magicians though, that use misdirection to awe their audience and entertain them. Governments are now trading on fear and using misdirection as a way to either justify horrendous acts, or to get people to not pay attention to them and shift their focus on something else entirely.
Now is it really a surprise to anyone nowadays that whenever shit happens or is about to happen, we are thrown a bone which usually appeals and triggers our deepest and most profound fears to the point that we just simply sit back and look the other way while unspeakable crimes and monumental failures are silently accepted all because we are afraid…

It's just like that anchor news caster in the 1976 movie "Network" once said

"Banks are going bust, supermarket clerks keep a gun under the counter, punks are running around in the streets and there seems to be no body that knows what to do, and there is no end to it… We know the air is unfit to breath, and the food is unfit to eat, We sit in our homes watching TV and we see the news man saying today there were 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes and we sit there as if that is the way it is supposed to be… We know things are bad, worse than bad, things are crazy… So we don't go out any more, we sit in the house and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller and all we say is "PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE IN OUR LIVING ROOM, JUST LET ME HAVE MY TV AND MY TOASTER AND I WON'T SAY ANYTHING… JUST LEAVE US ALONE!!!!"
That is exactly what happened and is exactly what is still happening…

Neo Con theorist Karl Schmidt says that in order for a society to exist they need an enemy image. And the best way to unite a people is by giving them a common enemy image they can all relate to i.e hate and fear. Today, right now, apparently that has worked on pretty much the whole earth. Today the whole world is joined in fear and horror, from their common enemy… Terrorism... a fabricated enemy, designed to serve a certain purpose and so far quite successful in doing so I must say

Is anybody surprised that every time, things are going wrong, somebody somewhere launches a terrorist threat or attack?
Years ago, 9/11 was used to justify what we now know was an illegal war, and every time any body questioned the war, all news papers published headlines of "Arrested suspect of terrorism" "Terror suspect interrogated" and my personal favorite "Believed to be linked to AlQuaida"… What you don't know is that almost all of these suspects are released without charges… but that is after they make the headlines for you to see and fear

It seems terrorism is in our face 24/7 as the inescapable focus of our existence.
I mean common, track down the history of events in the last decade. Every single time shit happens somebody blows something up in the name of a holy Jihad, or is arrested mere seconds before he executes his dubious ploy. Not to mention that every time the world kinda forgets a bit about Alquaida, immediately guess who is back, just like Tupac, Osama bin Laden pumps out a new video to the world pretty much saying HELOOOOOO, I am still kheer… be afraid…BE VERY AFRAID

And today is no different. The COP15 is falling to shreds, nothing has been concluded except that the Kyoto protocol is no longer applicable and the world is outraged by the fact that nothing has come of it except that they now realize that the need to set another summit and talk maybe in 2 years time. The whole world is outraged and suddenly shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…. Silence as the world watches in horror as another terrorist trying to blow a plane up. Over night the focus shifted from the environment to "oh crap it's terrorism"

How much longer will we be fooled by this nonsense, how much longer will we be played, and will our fear of this super monster who's power is only exceeded by the brilliance of the governments who created it to serve a a political agenda.

By the way a kinda interesting timeline can be seen here

1993 attacks on the world trade center …2 weeks later legislation for the initial draft of the patriot act was voted on in congress but didn't pass cuz unfortunately that particular attack only killed 6 people

1995 bombing the Murrah Federal building Oklahoma City, immediately afterwards a legislation was passed that stripped Americans of some basic rights, but still that wasn't enough to pass a full scale monstrosity like the Patriot act especially because the "terrorists" in this event were actually American and in no way whatsoever related or linked to Islam or Alqaida or anything of that evil sort ;)

Then finally…

9/11… staged, deliberate and either designed and executed by the government or at least they allowed it to happen to justify horrible actions later

7/7… same case… and was used to remind the British people of why Britain followed suit and went to Afghanistan

All the Osama videos… perfectly timed to shift the focus of people from the world falling apart to OH MY God he is still alive… ok Obama take 30,000 more troops, take the whole damn country if need be, illegal wire taps… sure why not, torture and denial of due process…absolutely… just make "them" leave me alone and let me be safe in my bubble"

The U.S was on the brink of revolution… they threw a black man on stage and now everybody is happy

And now that silly Nigerian fellow, and all of a sudden nobody is complaining about the war, about the deployment of more troops, about the fact that there is no withdrawal plan or date, people even gave up on their worries of global warming and the environment… just protect us from terrorism is the general concenses

Whether you believe in my theory that it is all a planned strategy based on creating a fictional monster to strike fear into the people and distract them from the real issues… whether you believe that or not… you simply have to admit
Something is really fishy about all this

Adlai Stevens once wrote
"The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to the freedom of the mind, are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-communism."

What has changed now is that cloak has morphed into anti-terrorism.

One last thought before I end this… Mark my words… there is a reason why American media is constantly writing about and showing demonstrations and riots in Iran… I promise you this is a prelude to a train that never comes late… next thing you know they will be talking about Iran is an unstable government and cannot be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction (kinda reminds you of the rants they made about Saddam doesn't it)… but I promise you it is coming sooner than you think

First they create the monster image, sell it to the people, make them afraid, and then say we will save you… but it's gonna cost you some freedom and a little bit of your dignity...

fair price if you ask me :(

Peace out

Naked truth

2009-12-22T11:49:00.000-08:00

Hey all

this time it is just a question that I would like to state, in the hopes of finding an answer that is the least bit logical

Why is it that Donald duck is always walking around butt naked, but seems to insist on wrapping a towel around his usually naked butt everytime he comes out of the shower :)

Peace out

A white country finally elected a black man as president.... in 1970

2009-12-21T15:01:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody...

As a form of changing what has become a series of looooooong posts I will make this one very short.

Setting aside, His character, his constants rambling and zero action, even his winning a damn Nobel Prize that was based entirely on his "promises" as opposed to his actions... But for me the fact that when President Barak Hussein Obama was elected, the world in General and the American people in specific rejoiced so much tells me something...

The fact that everybody was sooo giddy about this, to the point that they stopped complaining about the stuff that big old W was doing (granted it is still happening to this day, the patriot act, the wars, no plans of withdrawal from Afghanistan or Iraq, Healthcare crisis, a busted economy and much more... hmmm kinda makes you wonder if that was the plan... to distract the general public from all of that by putting up a black man that will aledgedly carry the banner of hope but hey that is a story for another time)

My issue here is, if racism really didn't exist in America why all the fuss about a black man being president. I mean if racism was not an issue, don't you think that for a black man to become president, would be just as normal as a white man... If racism really didn't exist and was completely and entirely annihilated why is it that the U.S bragged so much about electing a black man, I mean it really seemed that they were trying to prove that something wasn't there that in fact was and still is very much there.

For you see, I remember another black man being president, but when he became president the only discussion was about whether or not he was the best man for the job... pretty much the same discussion you would have about any president regardless of the color of his skin.

The sad truth is... We only remember the fact that he was black now, as we whiteness Obama's election... never before did we even realize that we had a black president in a predominantly white/brownish country :)

The FACT is... It is because the issue of racism really did not exist, do we not even realize the very simple reality that 3 decades before Obama... ruled a great Black leader over a majority of whities right here in Egypt...

Rest in Peace president Muhammad, Anwar Al Sadat... Black President 1970-1981

Peace out

Russian Roulette

2009-12-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

Wouldn’t it be nice if scientists knew what the hell they were talking about…

I mean really… there was a time when science was a tool that served humanity and it’s wellbeing as opposed to companies, conglomerates and money making mongers

Unfortunately today science is serving and has become a slave of greedy corporations that buy and pay for scientific research and manipulate the outcome of studies, to promote their agendas weather these agendas are purely financial or even political. And governments are playing along as well and that is what is scariest. Governments, who openly and notoriously admit to taking financial contributions for election campaigns or governments that subcontract military, scientific, social, public, and health contracts to for profit organizations whose sole aim is making more and more money not at all the silly and irrelevant cries of starving, kids, dead soldiers, wars and an allegedly dying planet.

Right now for some reason or another Darwinism’s Evolution and Natural selection is quite “in” these days… and Although I am completely against the idea, that all the wonders and harmony that we see around us in a perfect balance is the result of a crap shoot but hey, I always say to myself who the heck do you think you are to squash the ideas of others just because you don’t believe in them.

Apparently the scientific community does not share my tolerance towards other ideas. As one can clearly see after watching a brilliant documentary called “expelled” (a must watch by the way) More and more scientists who for the longest time have been praised for their genius and amazing work, have been fired, shunned even from the entire scientific community for committing the outrageous, sinful, blasphemous and horrendous act… of merely mentioning the possibility of Intelligent Design in a class room or in a paper they published. That alone… just mentioning that possibility is grounds enough to disqualify any scientist or scholar from their job and from their title even and not allowing their papers or studies to be peer reviewed.

How can that be… How can that be!!!!

Just mentioning or proposing an idea or theory that is against mainstream science or in other words “bought and paid for science” can get you fired and expelled.

You are free to Google and see for yourself the countless cases of where this was exactly the case… starting from today all the way back to the days of Galileo where you will discover the ugly truth… that the days of the inquisitions and church dominated science are still upon us, they just changed names to peer review and academic accreditation and politically dominated science

Same thing is happening with the worlds hottest topic today and I mean hottest…

Global warming is killing us… the end is near… doom is upon us and all that garbage.
And while we the people are getting blamed because apparently our very existence is killing the planet. You will not find a single report in mainstream media even discussing the possibility of the theory that is being perpetuated all across the world via internet. No scientist dares to discuss the idea that global warming might just be a farce, and those who actually do have the guts to discuss that theory can’t find a media outlet that is brave enough to run the story. Why you ask??? Well for the same reason the other scientists are now shaking in their boots for even mentioning Intelligent Design or creationism

Theories and studies now show, that the earth has temperature cycles according to solar flares and the proximity of the earth to the sun. And according to some scientists we are experiencing the same thing we experienced in the dark ages about 1000 years ago and that the world’s average temperature now is well within the average and acceptable range.

Other theories that suggest, that the earth is in fact, cooling down as opposed to burning up.

Not only do we as the people not know the problem itself but we are being blitzed by a massive number of things that we simply “must” do to prevent our own annihilation. But to make things even better most of these things are contradicting in their nature

Don’t drink from the tap water it is full of hazardous waste vs. don’t drink bottled water they use over 1.5 million barrels of crude oil to produce their bottles which is enough to power 100,000 cars for an entire year (and that is just in the U.S alone, global statistics say that it is in the billions of barrels, and that is just for production) and less than 30 % of those bottles get recycled

Recycle or the planet will die, vs. Don’t recycle because studies show that the recycled material takes as much as 8 times longer to decay and reintegrate into the environment making the world fuller and fuller of trash and waste

Don’t eat meat because studies show that eating meat contributes more to pollution than driving a car due to the contaminated run off from slaughterhouses vs. we should eat a whole lot of meat because livestock itself emits more than 18% of all greenhouse gases because of farting all day long

Don’t drive cars they consume fossil fuels and are dangerous to the environment vs. don’t drive a hybrid because hybrid batteries contain nickel which is mined in a very few locations on earth such as Ontario, plants that have caused so much environmental damage and acid rain that NASA uses the “dead zone” around it as test sites for their moon rovers. Also worth mentioning is that the nickel is then transported to a few process plants mainly in Europe to be refined then to china where it is cheaper to make it into nickel foam then off to Japan where the technology is available to make the battery itself and then all the way back to the place where they are going to install the bloody battery into a car. Considering the fuel, and emissions required for all the transport and manufacturing of nickel based hybrid batteries it adds up to about 50% more than what you need to build and drive a hummer.

Drive hybrids or electric cars… they are better for the environment vs. Studies showing that it is also much cheaper to drive electric, and hybrid cars which in effect will cause more and more people to drive which eventually leads to just about as much pollution as is being produced today from driving good old fuel cars

Use alternative fuels such as ethanol vs. To fill one SUV with pure ethanol requires about 175 to 200 Kg of corn which translates to the amount of calories required to feed a fully grown person for an entire year… and that is just one tank full

And the silliest of all is the study that shows that walking contributes more to green house gases than driving since people walking more means they will eat more which also means that they will fart more and the increase in food consumption also increases the proliferation of slaughter houses.

All the while conspiracy theories say that the reason why those scandal e-mails about global warming being a hoax were leaked on purpose because Mr. Barak - Yes we can - Obama himself intends on stating that his government has no intention of honoring any of the Kyoto protocol terms. That is the same government that is responsible for roughly a full quarter of the carbon emissions in the world, and is the world’s leader in lobbying for living green and fighting global warming all the while refusing to give China the second in line in emitting greenhouse gases with a whopping 20 % the technology to make it’s companies and manufacturers greener

Now I am not a scientist, nor am I scholar of any kind and I have absolutely no way of discovering which of these studies is the right one, especially after considering that the source of all of these studies are some of the most reputable Universities and Labs in the world. And I alongside the rest of the human race who are clueless as to what we should or should not do are left with a sense of helplessness and futility. Overwhelmed by the horror of how near the end is according to all of this information and faced with an even greater horror…

The only place we rely on to guide our actions or provide us with proper information as to what is good for us and for the environment vs. what is not. Is the same place that is manipulating us and diluting us into buying more and more worthless junk for the sake of money hungry corporations… junk that might very well end up being harmful to us and to the planet as opposed to helping us and it

I guess our best bet is to go with God and His rulings…

Oh crap… I am sorry I forgot I am not allowed to mention God or His existence either…

Peace out!!!

Democracy at it's best.... (Take 2)

2009-12-04T18:28:00.000-08:00

You know… I do hate to be the cynical bastard of the group, but then again some one has to be that guy, and I don’t see why the heck it shouldn’t be me…

I have pondering one very simple question all day, and I have yet to come with a single satisfying answer… so I am hoping some one out there can offer one

Here is my Question:

What if tomorrow in any country doesn’t have to be Switzerland or anything any country whatsoever. What if the majority of that country decided to kill the minority of the same country… Exactly how would that notion be squashed under the umbrella of a democracy?

I am being serious here for real… what if tomorrow morning a country’s majority decided to eradicate the minority or the symbols of a minority or simply and kindley ask the minority to get with the program believe and behave the way the majority wants them to or they will have their heads chopped off… how does a country go about to handle that situation while maintaining their democratic integrity and responsibility in the same time.

I only wonder about this issue because it wasn’t all too long ago when the world was faced with that question and the answer to it, was to hell with democracy and world war II was the end result.

If you really think about it, it wasn’t all that different from this silly ban on minarets in Switzerland. One day the Nazis woke up and decided HEY… we are the majority and the minority needs to die. A little while later Jews were being butchered and gased by the stock pile, any body who spoke against the third Reich was either imprisoned, interrogated and tortured, or much simpler than that they were simply shot dead by a Gestapo firing squad.

If you really think about while putting all morality, ethics, and any resembles of righteousness aside and simply think is raw technical terms. What the Nazis did was the essence of democracy. The majority decided and their decision was put in effect… it’s as simple as that really.

Now you apply this glorious insanity called majority rule and apply it on Blacks in America, where there was the time when the majority spoke and the minority of blacks back then were subject to slavery and lynching. That also was a majority decision, one which has to be… I say again HAS to be honored by any government that claims to be a democratic one. Same thing in Serbia, and technically speaking also in Palestine / Israel cuz the fact is the Palestinians outnumber the Israelis 4 to 1… why hehe “democracy” is not applied there is something I guess I will never understand but heck that is another story for another time.

It seems to me that “Democracy” isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be… at the very least I would suggest that in each “Democratic” process from here on out, there is a guardian that is appointed with the power to overrule the majority decision in case that decision is simply a wrong one… as to who that guardian should be… I sincerely hope that it is not the Swiss government

Peace out

Congratulations Algeria and Thank you

2009-11-22T07:12:00.000-08:00

Dear readers...

I am sorry to exclude some of you but this particular post is dedicated to Arab people specifically Egyptians and Algerians....

First of all I would like to say congrats to Algeria for their victory. Now I actually am being serious about this I am not being sarcastic or anything. I would also like to say thank you... For some reason or another (although I know in my gut I am not really an optimist) I always look at the glass half full and see the good that is possible behind every bad event or situation. This situation is no different.

As one of my favorite characters… V (from the movie V for vendetta) once said when asked if he though that blowing up parliament is going to change anything, he said "there is no certainty only opportunity". Here we as Egyptians have the opportunity and it is only an opportunity to revisit the drive behind our anger, the direction of our scorn, and the people whom our wrath should be brought upon. And maybe / hopefully ask ourselves the right questions to which the answers are brutal, but provide the only hope for us to better ourselves.

1. Are we really so surprised that the world in general and the arab world in specific really hates us so
consider the fact that yes we did provide a whole lot of help to them back in the day... and God help us we have reminded them of it everyday ever since. Whenever they would succeed we were always there to remind them that their success is because of us. Not rejoice with them and feel proud of calling them our own brothers but constantly take the credit for something we haven't done and only assisted in maybe 50 years ago.
Consider what a good percentage of the Egyptians abroad do. Those who make it big rarely ever show their faces or identify themselves as Egyptians and the rest... well they are quite the despicable image / representation of Egypt to say the least And let us not forget that regardless of how accurate or not that image may be it is still the only one being shown and therefore the only one that can be used to label Egyptians.

2. Are we really angry at the Algerian mob in Sudan or are we simply being angry towards them because we have already given up any hope that our anger towards our own government would affect any change.
Consider the government that knew full well what was going to happen and saw the events unfold live and yet did absolutely nothing to prevent this hideous scenario or assist it's own citizens while they were being butchered.
Consider the government that sent 3 airplanes of C-130 class loaded with 80 special forces units per plane down to Aswan in what we all though was a diversion or cover up so that these soldiers can cross undetected to Sudan and maybe help out in case a riot started but in fact they were just going to Aswan for training.

Consider a government that has so far done nothing to present our case to the world, or FIFA, or anything, they didn't even use a damn cell phone camera to capture anything and prove it
Consider The government that so far has given us nothing but mass media nonsense and a speech full of crap delivered by a half dead man who was only able to stand straight cuz he was pumped full of adrenaline and medication to make his speech resemble that of a mammal
Consider the government that did what it does best, talk a whole lot of hot air and promise a zillion promises only to deliver none
Consider a government that treats it's own people like cattle on their own soil and expect others to treat them well on theirs
Consider the people who stand for all of what their government does, and respond by silently doing nothing about it.

3. Are we so angry at the Algerians because some crack heads which do not resemble all of Algeria gave the Egyptian crowd a hell of a beating, or are we simply angry because we got the crap beat out of us period
Consider asking yourself had the Egyptian crowd been in their shoes and we had the upper hand... then consider the honest completion of that sentence... will it be we would have never done this, or would it be that we would have done worse
And if you are having doubts about answering that last question... consider the many citizen led campaigns on Facebook, mainstream media, Teen magazines, and blogs and pretty much every medium you can think of. consider the content of those campaigns the pictures of an algerian belly dancer, Hassan Shehata holding an algerian player in a bride's dress and much more... long before the match ever started here in Cairo.
And bare in mind that if you say…. Well they did the same then you in effect are just like them and the only thing you are pissed off about is that 2 groups of idiots went to a fist fight, and it just so happened that they had bigger guns

4. Had we won, would we have been graceful about it, would we win with class and sportsmanship like conduct or would we have rubbed it in their faces for another 50 years to come

5. Finally ask yourself this... are we really in shame of what happened or ashamed of ourselves, our incompetent government, our own failures and inadequacies and taking it out on them simply because it is much easier to do that then confront our own selves and our own reality too afraid of the answers that we might discover

And now to top it all off the smug Israeli government so graciously offered to mediate the peace talks between Algeria and Egypt.

Not to mention the question that is most frightening of all...

After considering all the above... what are we as Egyptians doing about it aside from blaming everything on everybody except ourselves

The answer is too horrifying to say, so I will simply and very generously say... not even close to enough

Peace out

P.s Yeah I know… I will get hate mail….
Bab el sheteema maftooh fel comment box

Discrimination 101

2009-11-16T05:58:00.001-08:00

Action.... shooting up a camp or school or something
Motivation.... unkown
Investigation.... still in progress
Labels... according to the gender discrimination pamphlet provided below

Black man.... a violent nigger from auckland
Yellow man... Kamikazing bastard/ communist or "Commi" for short
Brown man.... Sand nigger muslim / even though he maybe hindu but that doesn't matter
Muslim man... Arab terrorist even though he is really from new zealand but that doesn't matter either
White man... Temporary insanity... he just snapped when he saw the horror of his pet frog die... poor bastard
American / European.... post traumatic disorder, his mom didn't hug him enough so he became violent... and justifiably so as well... just so you know ;)
G.W Bush.... well that would be National Security / war on terror / bringing democracy and peace to the world
Islrael... The right of self defence

And now you know...

p.s just a quick follow up... it's amazing how a kid not having been hugged enough by his dad seems to be a more or less acceptable justification or at least reason to explain why he or she become violent... while on the other hand 60 years of rape torture, oppression and persecution appears not to be a good enough reason to explain why a minority of palestinians have gone mad, and are firing rockets or blowing shit up

Peace out

Sorry about the cursing

2009-01-07T05:25:00.000-08:00

Hey all....

Just wanted to say sorry about how much I cursed the last post... but obvioulsy a was a little bit pissed off hehe

peace out

Bullshit...

2009-01-06T10:05:00.001-08:00

Imagine in all these action movies you watch, when the bad guy takes a civilian hostage and uses him or her as a human shield from the brave L.A.P.D or FBI agent. Now Imagine if the agent says... eh you know what fuck it hama... I mean the bad guy chose to fire from behind a human shield so fuck them and their shielf I am gonna fuck them both up and BAM!!!! shoots the hostage in the head, and then starts shooting at the bad guy. Now imagine if the damn bad guy, took several human shields.

It is so ridiculos to see these damn IDF, or Israeli officialls talking about how it is hamas's fault that civilians are dying... you know what if you are so gad damn self rightous, you would never allow yourself to sink to your opponents level. And I mean it is not even sinking to that level the damn Hamas guys, fired a billion rockets and injured 4 people, in response the israelis injured over 3000 and killed over 600, at least a quarter of that civilians. They fired from a school, you bombed the damn place, with children inside... what the hell is that. whatever anyone does, there is never a justification to fire on a fucking school even if my enemy did it, that doesn't allow me to retaliate with the same inhuaminty. That is if and only IF we say that Hamas fired on schools. Not remembering that schools, hospitales, and civilian buildings have a long history of being fired on from the IDF a 60 year old history actually, and the names of the schools and hospitales and such that have been destroyed by the IDF long before HAMAS was even created is way toooooo damn long to list

Moving on to the really amusing part of all of this... you hear so many israelis, talking about defending ourself, help us, Israel is under attack, Hamas attacked us, we are forced into this...bla bla bla... It seems that the israeli government has a memory span of a few months, anything before that is non existant accoridng to them.

Hamas has been attacking you for 8 years you say, you have been fucking up Palestine for the 60 years, shit you have a 52 year head start.

Hamas has been firing rockets for 4 weeks, you have been violating every rule of warefare there is for the last 4 years, with increasing road blocks and check points after promising to decrease them, holding more palestinians hostage and torturing them than ever before, embargoes, random military sweeps, making the palestinian people live in refugee camps on their own soil.

You say you have the right to defend yourself, agains harm to your land and people, what the hell happened to the palastenian's right to do the same. Hamas didn't start this, one israeli administration after the other spiraled this, after decades of rape, murder, destruction, torture and oppression, what the fuck do you think they will do of course they will do something and chances are they will do something stupid and unethical like firing rockets at civilians. Which apparantly gives the ethical, self rightous, god fearing, peace loving, war hating pure and kind people on the Israeli gov. to fuck up the lives of 1.5 million people as a punishment for the actions of a few thousand. Killing 200 civilians women and children and injuring over 800 of the same variety.

Bear in mind I don't condem Israelis, as much as I don't condem the palestinian people, but rather condem Hamas for giving a blood thirsty, sadistic, maniac gov. a good enough reason to launch this attrosity.

Peace out

I hope

It is official

2008-12-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gents...

it is official... I herby officially declare my status as ......

Home Sick .....sniff....sniff

peace out

Brazilian Estyle part 2…

2008-11-19T13:47:00.002-08:00

I have always said that I love brazil, and I meant it and still do, I mean I am in love with the damn country, with the people, the culture and everything, but there are certain things that I just don’t understand.

The lack of spoken English is just insane, I mean I was at the international airport of the capital of the country the other day and at the International airport of the capital, not even the damn tourist information desk clerk could speak English, by the way did I mention that this was at the International airport of the capital of brazil. Although in the spirit of being fair, he did speak a bit of Spanish…

Also the amounts of alcohol served and consumed are just overwhelming. I mean you hear about beer being offered on long distance flights, and you hear about nice liquor being served on first class. But here they had a god damn beer happy hour on a 1 hour flight. The entire damn aircraft was drunk about 3 seconds into the flight. Happy hours are in bars not on commercial airliners.

Also the traffic police and control systems are super. First of all I have been driving at least 2 or 3 times a week in downtown sao Paulo, I have yet to be stopped once to be asked for a license or anything, and pretty much most people I know have expired licenses, cuz they say they have been driving for god knows how many years and they have never been stopped. Second which is a concept we should definitely implement in Egypt. All radars in the city and on highways are not only visible but they have at least 3 signs each telling you that there is a radar coming up, and what speed you should reduce to. So pretty much everybody drives like mad and then slows down at the radars and then goes back to mad driving. It is simply beautiful hehe.

These are just some of the things that I just don’t get, in this country, but as said before though I simply love it here.

Peace out

Sidenote

2008-11-19T13:47:00.001-08:00

Oh yeah… on a random side note,

For those who argue at least Americans are free to speak their mind, let me tell you they are not. They are only free to do so in confined areas called free speech zones. and in any rally or presidential apearance or something of that sort, if you are wearing or carrying anything that is non supportive, secret service has the right to remove you.

For those of you who would say, well forget the U.S, what about some countries in Europe, like Sweden, or Norway, or whatever. To you I say the following.

Although I don’t remember the exact words, but at some point, Martin Luther King once said something along the lines of

Do not measure a man by where he stands in times of peace and prosperity, the ultimate measure of a man is where he stands in times of despair, and controversy.

I happen to believe that that statement is applicable on not just men but pretty much everything including countries and governments . So I will measure their democracy when they have a crisis, not when they are at times of peace and prosperity. And to those who would say well why are they prosperous and we are not, I say, well… let us just agree that throughout their history they probably had less countries trying to invade them and had to go through a many wars as we had for the last century alone

Peace out

Al demokrateya al halazoneya...

2008-11-18T17:56:00.000-08:00

Hey all

I don’t really know or understand how, but for some reason I think that I understand “Terrorism” a bit better…

Just the other day there was a report on CNN called “Inside the mind of a terrorsit”. Tell you the truth about 80% of what both the “Terrorist” and the reporter said was utter bullshit. The reporter was just yelling and calling the guy a murder and a cold hearted bastard. And the guy was misquoting the Quran, and saying weird things… anywho… all I could think of was the following the guy…that terrorist was right…

Obviously not about misquoting islam and all the bullshit he said, but he was right about something. He asked why is he the only one being labeled a terrorist, and why was he the only one being condemned. He asked questions like why is he a terrorist and everyone else who blew bombs or shot guns in the U.S was simply a criminal. The act was one and the same but the penalty was very different. And then he got even deeper, and asked questions why is George Bush labeled a terrorist as well, and the U.S labeled a Terrorist aiding and harboring state. I mean why is Afghanistan all of that because they allegedly harbor, and give aid to Al Qaida, and a man who allegedly was responsible for 9/11 (yes I said allegedly cuz I don’t believe that he did, but that is another story for some other time). But in the same sense, the U.S give aid to Israel and they just bombed the living shit out of Lebanon less than a year ago, and are until this day killing, raping, and imprisoning Palestinians, I mean they are still holding a blockade around Gaza and not even allowing medical, and nutritional supplies in, isn’t that terror, and if it is isn’t in this case the U.S gov. a supporter and helper of terrorism.

The guy was making sense, a lot of it but what really got me was when I started thinking and comparing on my own, for example:

Action: Bombing a place
Motive: A war for a certain belief and principal
Tools used: for lack of ballistic and cruise missiles, his own body wrapped in a big ass bomb, or home made grenades, and AK-47s
Result: a few and yes I said a few because they really are a few in comparison, die and a few more get injured
Consequence: a wide scale man hunt and a persecution of an entire religion, due to a single act from a certain someone, and what is more. The condemning of entire countries, and labeling these actions as acts of terror, and launching a war against them. And for those caught, it is prison and death row.

Now let us take a look at the flipside of that coin:
Action: I will let you choose…(Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan….and the list goes on)
Motive: if not for greed, resources, and oil then we will just say that the motive was and here is the kicker the preservation of democracy, which in other words can be… A war for a certain belief and principal (ring a bell hehe)
Result: a few hundred thousand, maybe even a few million dead, and millions more homeless, orphaned, widowed, and pretty much fucked for life (not to mention a couple of decades of radiation)
Consequence: N O T H I N G…

Here is a war launched under the umbrella of that Iraq has WMD, now that we found none, you would think some one would have said something, but in fact he was re-elected. Here is a war that after the scandal of not finding jack shit they said it was because Saddam Hussein was a bad man, and his people didn’t like him, I say shit G.W junior is the most hated president in the history of presidents, hell there is more people that don’t like Bush than there are Nixon. So Saddam took decisions in a non democratic fashion, well Bush stated to congress, I am going into Iraq with the concession of congress, or without it.

Then we all watched Abu Gharib and the horrors that were suffered by the prisoners at the hand of the American Army, then we heard about Guantanamo, and that now a man can be taken into custody, locked up and tortured for life, without even a damn trail, or the right to face his accuser which is the highest form of honoring freedom and democracy wouldn’t you say.
And again you would think some one would object, result was a few of the most impotent responses in the history of the UN. (Seriously it is like Robin Williams once said “ The UN is like a L.A Traffic cop on valium, going sssssttttttooooooppppp uhhhhhhhh, stooooppppppp uhhhhhhhh)

Then we watched the U.S gov, demonstrate how democratic it is and how much it values liberty and democracy, by pretty much violating every civil right there was. Unjustified wire taps, phone surveillance, arrests and imprisonment without trial, detainment of anyone and anything under the umbrella of national security, searches of homes, businesses, offices, documents computers and pretty much everything else without a warrant. And again you would think that someone would say or do something…but apparently the world stood silent and accepted this, and for the American people, there is very little to show that the people especially youth even care about all of this.

Which brings us to the real terror, the image and the fear that governments have been successful in creating in the hearts and minds of the people. Making them so afraid, to the point that they are either completely oblivious to the countless violations of the liberty and democracy they value so much, or they don’t even mind that these violations occur and that they do not wish to fight back as long as they are safe, to truly demonstrate that ignorance and selfishness have reaches and all time high.

So again I ask my question? Why are these radicals that call themselves Muslim called terrorists, and the U.S gov, and every other gov, that helped or stood idle watching labeled by the same. Is it because one has a beard and primitive weaponry and does it from a cave, and the other does it in an air conditioned room in his presidential residence, while wearing a nice suit and using a smart bomb or missile. Is this the difference

And another question presents itself… which is equally as disturbing…

Why is it you never hear about the countless Palestinians, or Iraqis, or Afghans or Lebanese that die each day, entire families erased, women raped, children mutilated, elders, shot, and men tortured. You never hear of them, and on the rare occasion you do, it is a line that flashes in that red tab on the news at the bottom of the screen. But then on the other hand, when an American dies, you get the whole thing, full media coverage, the flag covered coffin coming out of the airplane, surrounded by guards. And you watch the 21 shot salute, the you see the family on The Oprah Show, then the guys from Extreme Makeover home edition do the house while Dr. Phil helps the family deal with the after math of the trauma.

I am left with nothing else to say except, rabena yekrem gamee3 el haywanat el bey2olo el nezam fe masr kharban we mafeesh horeya, amreeka feeha horeya, we demokrateya.
God bless the U.S and god bless their efforts to help the world be as democratic and free as the U.S is, and god bless hehe democracy

Hehe democracy…..what a drag

Kan ma3akom Adham Abdel-Salam ma3 bernameg, Ya demokrateya ya

Peace out

Ya Masr ya Gamda awiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

2008-10-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hey all…

I am truly sorry for not posting anything, but first was Ramadan and that was just too hectic of a time for me with the same routine pretty much every day. I go to work, come back, go to practice come back, pray Taraweeh, read a chapter of the Quraan and go to bed. So a. not a lot of free time to do anything else, and b. not really a lot of new things to report. After Ramadan though things started kicking back into gear. And I am approaching the final leg of my internship here, with less than 4 weeks to go.

The excitement is overwhelming, every time I think about going back home even if for a brief 2 weeks, I get chills running down my spine. But here is the thing, I am constantly telling people how much I miss Egypt, and how desperate I am to go back there even if just for a brief little bit. But when I really thought about it and started thinking… what is it that I really missed, you know. Exactly what are the things that make me so eager to go home. So I started thinking about that, and to my surprise the list was not only freaken endless but what was a real shocker were the things on that list, things that I have come to take for granted or even maybe hated when I had them and now that I don’t I miss them all like hell.

Things like the guy who called for prayer in the mosque near my house. I mean let me tell you this the guy had the sound of a constipated frog, he sounded like a wounded Rhino. I swear he used to wake me up at like 4:30 and all I wanted to do was just walk down and stab him in the neck with a pencil, it was that irritating. And to my ultimate surprise, I actually miss the bastard, I ain’t joking, I swear I am dead serious, I miss the little bastard, as sick as it is I actually miss him. You know things like that, things that I have not really realized how valuable they were until I lost them.

Shitty food, from Amo Hosny, Abdo Talawoth, the ability to order home delivery for pretty much anything at virtually any time of the night, Ashraf Farghaly, elmicrobasat, EL taree2 El da2ery, el feloos ely mafeehash coins keteera (I hate coins)…etc, and I know these and a lot of others may seem superficial when compared to other things but I truly miss them

On the other hand though I also miss certain personal things, I miss the sight of veiled women, I miss not having to ask if the food doesn’t involve pork of any sort or alcohol, I miss not having to worry about prayer times cuz every time I have to pray the entire damn city sounds like one big mosque and no matter where you are you will hear it one way or another, and also because on every single street there is at least a mosque or 2 where you can just walk in a pray. I miss the safety (don’t get me wrong though I am as reckless as they get over here) where everyone screams and yells and throws a shit fit cuz I decided to take a bike ride at night, or because I left the car unlocked, or because I walk alone at night (in one of the best neighborhoods mind you), I miss my ability to go out with one friend and be on the street at 3 o’clock in the morning. Not because we were our at that time but because we never really had to think if it was dangerous or not. And I know a lot of you say no it isn’t as safe as it used to be, it isn’t as safe anymore, I got mugged and no one did anything, but let me tell you this, I know for a fact that over 80% of my friends would help out a stranger without hesitating for a second if that person was in danger or needed help, I know I would, and I know that most of their friends would do the same as well, cuz at the end of the day, birds fall alike. So yes I know it was better back in the day but still is very good today, and all that is needed is to remember that goodness and act upon it you know. And common, look at Egyptians for the love of god, most are out until the breaking of dawn, we travel down the wildest roads at night with no fear (except for inbound truck drivers or stuff like that hehe).

I can go on forever though with the list of things I miss about Egypt, and right now all I can think of is that in less than 4 weeks my feet will be standing on Egyptian soil, and god damn wouldn’t that be a glorious day…

Peace out

2008-09-05T13:22:00.000-07:00

Thank all of you who have waited and have been staying tuned...

Finally and without any commotion or introductions... Please follow this link which will take you to quite possibly the happiest day I have had in a loooooooooooong time, and to the most rewarding feeling and experience one can ever have...

Enjoy the flight.... literaly hehe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KAzulNI85U

Bring the rain...

Stay tuned

2008-08-20T18:17:00.000-07:00

Very exciting stuff comming up...so stay tuned...

The eagle is comming back...so bring the rain...

peace out

lessons from History

2008-08-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

These things happened, and they were glorious,….. and then we fucked up the end game…

That was a quote from a U.S Senator back in the 80s his name was Charlie Wilson.

Now here is my advice to you, A. watch Lions for Lambs, and B. watch Charlie Wilson’s war.
Both movies are insanely well made, and they truly give you some sort of insight as to how politics really work. While the U.S has helped create a regime of Muslim Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, prepared them, trained them, and provided covert weapons in estimated dollar amounts of over 1 billion U.S dollars which back in the 80s was a shit load of money. They did all that, provided the training, intel, and weaponry and munitions to help a militia army of rebels and guerillas, to fight off the very enemy of the United States (the Soviet Union back then). After all of that, the very same government that spent over a billion dollars under the umbrella of helping democracy and aiding a country in need and fighting for a good cause, then refused to spend a single god damn penny on helping that country rebuild it’s infrastructure. Now I am not talking about the infrastructure of helping them build a new baseball stadium or a luxurious Harvard like university campus, but even the simple and most necessary and most basic of needs, like, hospitals, schools, even houses instead of living in damn tents, basic utilities like clean water, or nutrition.

It is amazing how and what people do just because it suits their own personal agenda or self interest, and cover it under an umbrella or righteousness and morality, and when they have satisfied their own needs they just back away and leave the mess that they have created behind.
Ironically though, this was not the end of it. After all of what has been done, the same government that help create, empower, and support an organization that would help them destroy their enemies covertly without it ever getting it's own hands dirty (not to mention wasting their own people’s lives or putting anything but money on the line), then left that organization out to dry, they abandoned ship as easy as that, just because that organizations existence was no longer necessary. And to make things even worse, after abandoning ship mid way, and leaving a gigantic ass mess full of blood and destruction behind, they turned around and framed the same organization they supported for a horrendous act of terrible violence, and used that false accusation to invade the same country they allegedly tried to help.

I swear had Charlie Wilson known what would happen these days, he would have said much more than just “we fucked up the end game”. And not only does it make one wonder what had Charlie Wilson said had he known the rest of it...

but it also makes you wonder if History is going to repeat itself in Iraq... I hope for the sake of the Iraqi people that it doesn't...

Now just so I don’t leave you with this depressing ass post I have a funny story…

The guys here in Sadia (the company I work for) play soccer every Monday, now I know they are Brazilians but I am not such a bad goal keeper myself so I decided to tag along. The first 2 times were really great I was playing very well, we were all having fun and everything was fine and dandy.

Now at some point while the ball was way over on the opponent’s side of the field I kneeled to tie my shoe, apparently he caught that and took a really long shot. I scrambled to my feet at the screaming of my team mates but was too late and they scored a very embarrassing goal in me. Anywho, a few minutes later their best player was on the move and positioning for a shot. He took the shot and it was a really good one, and damn near impossible to block. I don’t know maybe it was the goal keeping gods that decided I was embarrassed very bad and could really use a win, I mean that is what I thought at first. Because I jumped and I was flying in the air, and I looked like freaken super man and I was going to block this shot and it would have been amazing. Unfortunately for me that theory of mine about the goal keeping gods was very wrong… The ball hit one of my team mates’ ass and changed direction and WHAAAAAAAAMOOOO… right in the groin of yours truly… And all of a sudden instead of looking like super-man trying to block the ball it hit me in the nuts and I went into the feedle position while I was in mid air (which was kinda funny and weird in the same time) and dropped to the ground in excruciating pain. And all the bastards could come up with was (ouch… hmm Adham, I think you won’t have any babies). hehe

All in all the ball was blocked, and I needed an ice patch… so the moral of the story is……wear a god damn cup when you are playing soccer hehe

Peace out

Clarity

2008-07-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

Hey all

You know, ever since I joined AIESEC (to those of you who don’t know it AIESEC is a student run Organization that facilitates global leadership opportunities to it’s members through a massive international network) Anywho, ever since I joined, I have always heard from the people that went on internships how much their respective internships have added to them, helped them grow, and gave them a new perspective in life. And for the last 3 months I was not really realizing how much I have grown and developed. But suddenly it hit me. It wasn’t on a professional level although I have grown quite a bit in the regard as well, but it was that confirmation.
You see for those of you who know me you would know, that I didn’t always have a powerful faith in religion Islam or otherwise. But lately I have started developing a very strong conviction in Islam, and ever since I got here, that faith has been put to the test about 2 trillion times and out of those my conviction has been reconfirmed 2 trillion times.
Although I am not really a person that would encourage a conversation about politics, religion, or morality, but everyday I get sucked into it at least twice, and every time the result is a constant.
Every time I say I don’t drink, or I don’t eat pork, or I excuse myself to go pray, I am always asked why, and what the reason behind that is. Once I say I am muslim, the questioning begins hehe.
Don’t get me wrong though I don’t mind the questions at all, in fact I like them. They give me the opportunity to set the record straight as to why we are who we are. Why muslims don’t drink, why it is allowed to have 4 wives and the conditions and circumstances and rules that govern that, Why we don’t eat pork, why we “kill” people and terrorize the world under the name of “Jihad”, Now here is the amazing part. Every time I talk about this stuff, and I hear myself talking and presenting the logic behind it I am amazed at how much sense it makes. And what amazes me even more, is the reaction of the people around me, I mean not once was there a reaction that did not revolve around a complete amazement as to how logic the whole thing is. To make things even better which I have to attribute to the Brazilian people, I mean I have yet to meet a people who are more generous and caring as these guys here. Most people here started talking on my behalf, I mean I would be having lunch or dinner with some of the guys and one guy comes to join the table with a beer for example. Before I can react or say anything I am already silenced by people who are explaining on my behalf that I am muslim and it goes against my belief to eat on a table where there is alcohol. And immediately the guy with the drink puts it away and orders a coke or something and starts a conversation with me as to why and stuff, and how sorry he or she is cuz they didn’t know I was muslim.

It has become clear to me through this internship, that the most valuable lesson I have learned so far is this… Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, spiritual whatever. People, if they are good people will respect you to no end if you truly are yourself. It is simply overwhelming, just by genuinely being yourself, having a strong sense of self, being aware of who you are what you believe in and sticking to that, people will have nothing but respect for you. Granted some would disagree with your believes or convictions, some will argue with you, while others may start seeing things in a new light and start changing their own thoughts and perspectives, but at the end of the day however it may be, almost everyone will be left with no other option but to respect you for who you are and the strength of your belief. At the very least they would never look at you as a double faced person or a hypocrite.

Peace out

Brazilian Estyle

2008-06-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

I know I have not been completely faithful to my blog lately but it really couldn’t have been helped.
Between having stayed in 4 different hotels and had 5 round trips in the past 3 weeks, I have just been super busy.

Anyways very recently I have started to notice things, but before we get into that, let me just make a statement here.

The world… well let’s put it this way it is smaller than my butt crack, I mean seriously it is ridiculous.
What are the chances of an Egyptian guy meeting a Lithuanian girl, sharing a room in IC Poland 2006, hitting it off, becoming friends, meeting each other again 8 months later in Egypt, then without pre planning this, finding that she is here in Sao Paulo. And to make things worse… we go out to lunch and we are about to leave and I ask where are you off to then she says I am going to this street called “Home De Melo” and asks me if I know it… Tell you the truth I didn’t know how to answer considering that is the street I live in.
So again I say the world is… hehe well it is small reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllly small

Now back to the issue at hand. You know how the same things can take different forms or meanings or shapes depending on where you are. Lately I have been noticing things, and the more I travel around Brazil and the more I get to know it better the more similarities and differences I see. For example… We have street beggars on the street in Egypt right, they sell pretty much anything between bobble head toys and tissues. Well here Begging has taken on a Brazilian form, instead of selling material items, they sell traffic light entertainment hehe… These guys will wait at traffic lights and when cars stop at a red light they walk out and start doing their thing. Some juggle rings or balls, some do pantomime, some even blow fire. But that was not the thing that got me thinking though.

You see Brazil has a culture of “all you can eat buffets” and somehow it is working for them very well you pay a very affordable fixed price and you either have a buffet you have full access to or they have waiters coming in with set dishes from which you can order an unlimited amount. Now I will tell you why that wouldn’t work in Egypt for example. You see I myself have had the honor of being kicked out of a restraint before. At some point about 4 or 5 years ago KFC in Cairo decided to introduce the idea of all you can eat. You paid 40 pounds if I remember correctly and you eat all you want. 2 Friends of mine and I went and to cut a long story short after about an hour of non stop eating the manager of the place came down and said “Here is your money, please leave”

Tell you the truth I don’t blame him but it was still painful hehe. I mean we had more food than a family of 6 would need for a week. Anywho this kind of business in Egypt…hehe …yeah
And it is not just the restraunts or the begging, but Hand signals, certain gestures and stuff, they carry so many similarities and so many differences. And it is just so wonderful to be immersed into all of that and live it day in and day out
Well that is all from my end for now…

I hope all is well with everyone

Be safe

Peace out

Debt of gratitude

2008-06-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

He all

As some of you might know, my birthday was a couple of days ago, on the third to be exact...

Now most of you already know this, Birthdays are not really my favorite events, least of all my own... Don't ask why but for some reason or another I just don't really like that day... and never believed in a celebration on it.

I was however overwhelmed by a surprise that I can only describe by saying it was beautiful

Lena, one of the trainees here, set up a genius plan and the fellow trainees helped in execution.

She contacted some of my dearest friends and had them contact even more, then labored the night before my birthday. The result was overwhelming... I walked into a room where I thought we were having a session at work and to my surprise I found a video on display and before I knew what hit me and what was going on, I was looking at various videos and comments and wishes from some of the dearest people to my heart.

Now if you know me you should know that I am never at a loss of words, I enjoy a razor sharp tongue, and that I rarely surprised, I have a pretty darn good ability to know what is going to happen, how it will happen and when. However, to say I was completely surprised and in awe, would be the understatement of the century. Especially at the fact that Lena was able to get in touch with people that are just so far out of reach.

to top it off, they threw me a little party at home with my favorite brazilian cake a "brigadero"

Again if i say, the day was complete, would be an understatement...

I thank you lena from the bottom of my heart... The day was perfect

All in all, I am really grateful to be where I am, I am having a great time, meeting great people, having amazing experiences and just having a blast. The opportunity is simply amazing, I am learning so much... and My life has impacted others and mine was rocked by the lives of the people I have met here

Finally to all of you who have sent me the amazing, beautiful, and heartfelt words and videos...
you make life worth living, I feel blessed to have met you, and have had the opportunity to share my life with yours.

Thank you lena,

Peace out

Thank you Curitiba

2008-05-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

This marks the end of a three week period of my life that I will never forget…

I have spent the last 3 weeks in a city called Curitiba, and although the city is a bit quieter, for my taste, the experience here was simply overwhelming. And not only because I was in a hotel that had an ass flusher thing that you can use instead of toilette paper… (so long to the damn hemorrhoids, I have had, nonstop since I arrived here) But there is more than just giving my sensitive behind a break from all the toilette paper… ;)

I find myself yet again in awe from how hospitable and warm, and amazing Brazilian people are. Although I have been here for only three weeks, I was able (and it is not really me that made this possible but rather the insanely friendly people here) to make true friends here. And when I say friends I don’t mean the kind that you, have a good time with and move on with your life, and stay in touch through an e-mail every couple of months… I am talking about the real thing, friends that let you into their lives expose their privacy, and share their lives and the intimate aspects of it with you like you have been friends since elementary school.

Aside from the fact that I had a lot of fun in general, I mean I went climbing a couple of times which is really cool by the way, and I also went paintballing, and was about to go skydiving, but the wind gods decided otherwise hehe. But what I take from my stay here is far more valuable than any minutes or hours or even months of thrill or fun. I take several (hopefully) lifelong friendship, that I am quite certain will remain even when we will be continents apart. An actual and true bond and connection to people that have truly impacted my life and made my world a better place to live in.

Ana... I don’t know what to say really, Thank you seems so insignificant of a word for your warmth and amazing hospitality, not to mention your smile that is always on your face, so instead of thanking you I will simply say that I hope to god, that one day I will be able to return the kindness you have shown me. And since you are already my half Egyptian sister, I hope to see you in Egypt some day soon

Fernando... Although we didn’t have the chance to really talk one on one, and spend more time together I will never forget your hospitality man. You are the real deal my friend, respectable, funny, and simply great to be around… I am waiting for your second visit to Egypt, so I can show you that side of it that only Egyptians know ;)

Leila... well let us put it this way shall we, if you stop apologizing to me, you will be perfect. A genuine, and amazing person, a down to earth and beautiful spirit. It has been a privilege to have met you, not many people are as lucky as I am to meet people like you…It has been a privilege and a pleasure to have met you and to know you. And as I know I have a home in Curitiba please know you and Guto have one in Cairo

Guto... (I hope I spelled it right and really sorry if I spelled it wrong). You know what honor is, I believe that because I see honor in you… Therefore I say and mean it when I say it, It has been an honor to meet you and know you, an honor to be your friend and an even greater honor to call you mine. Although I believe you deserve much much more than what I have said, unfortunately I cannot come up with the words that describe how thankful I am to have gotten to know you.

I won’t say good bye just yet, for (god willing) I will see all of you again soon.

Thank you all, and I hope that all of you understand that you have a home in Egypt… My door is open 24/7 (that is if I have an apartment though hehe)

Thank you all for enriching my life and being part of it, and honoring me by allowing me to be a part of yours

See you soon guys

Peace out

Ola... tudo bem

2008-05-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

Hey there...

Hope all is well with everyone...

Well I kinda have been quite negligent to my blog lately, but I was burried with work, I know that is not an excuse but it is a reason hehe...

As said, though i have been working hard last week and I have to say, Sadia is an amzing company and I just feel so blessed to be on this internship. Although many people have warned me about culture shocks and of getting them, it seems as though their concerns were misplaced... Ever since I arrived here, I have been giving culture shocks instead of getting them. I have introduced brazilians to the famous art of egyptian street crossing, I have shattered this guy's concept of muslims by tellig him that muslims actually don't drink or have sex (makes you wonder what kind of people out there who claim to be muslim and yet have no clue what it means to BE muslim), I have demonstrated my egyptian eating abilities in steak houses (which by the way...let the record state that all you can eat buffets are a bad idea in egypt) I swear if I go to the same place again they will kick me out, I simply ate too much for what I paid hehe
not to mention of course that I shattered the hopes and dreams of many by demonstrating that not all arabs are sexist terroritsic bastards (which has been a shock to quite a few people).

So aside from giving people culture shocks my week has been quite the entertaining one, I went indoor climbing, and again let the record state that if any of you try it, put your weight on your legs not your arms. It is something the lady supervisor over there at the climbing place told me, she just told me that about 2.5 hours after I started climbing and my hands and arm muscels were shaking so much I couldn't even manage to hold a damn spoon but hey....

And I also went paintballing for the first time which was a very cool experience and I enjoyed it very much... I also enjoyed the fact that I killed everyone MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA....

Right now I am pondering what to do for the holidays (brazil has like a million holidays per year) I have been working for a month and a week and already have had 2 4 day holidays hehe)

That is all from me for now....

Peace out

Firsts......

2008-05-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

Well howdy there folks,

Today is when I tell you about a few "firsts" I have had...

A few days ago my company, sent us all to their secondary HQ in a city called curitiba...Now aside from the fact that the plane we took was delayed, then the Curitiba airport closed down due to bad weather, so we landed in another airport and took a 3 hour bus from there, arrived at the hotel, at about 3 went to bed at 4:20, and had to wake up the next day for work...it was an ok trip ;)

We will be here (the trainees and I, I mean) for about 3 weeks, so I thought, maybe I will get involved in something, so on the first day of weekend, I wsked around and found a mosque, (we yarenty maroht). Fe3lan ya welad we ya banat (enfekoo fi sabeel allah), well I took a cab from my hotel to the mosque (by the way here is where the "firsts" begin. So as said I took a cab that took me to the mosque afetr getting lost a while, and I walked in and felt strange, something was simply not right, and all of a sudden this guy walked up to me and he was like "Salam ya akhy" I returned the greeting, and he asked if I were Sunni or Shee3a, now normaly I would have said sunni, but for some reason, I didn't feel that it would be the answer he is looking for, and I was spot on the money. Just as I was about to answer I hear the Imam say these words "Sala Allah wa salem 3la Sayedna mohamed, we sala alla wa salem 3la sayedna Ali, ameer, al moslemeen, we shafee3 el mo2meneen". So I withheld my answer,and apologized by saying I had to go to the bathroom, and simply left the entire thing.

Later on I walked aroundthe city, looking for martial arts dojo...And I found one, and today is my first practice yepeeeeeeeeeeee, anywho, the guys over there invited me to join them to go to this boxing championship, and I did which was also a first. In the break I walked out to smoke, and while I was doing that, this girl walked up to me and asked for a light, so I gave her a light, and she kept talking in portuguese (which I don't understand) about something, and I was starting to get that vibe of being uncomfortable especilly that her face was closer to me than usual. Anyways, all I understood was Gusto, which in portugese is "like" so I thought she was asking me about the fights, so I said yeah I liked them and before my sentence was finished, her toungue was basically in my throat hehe, unfortunatley my back was leaning against a wall, so when I suddenly moved back I smashed my head, and her toungue was still in my throat. After pushing her away and from what I think she said being called a bitch (me that is) she left....

So all in all quite the entertaining week, for me I was going to have a fight in a mosque, I watched my first boxing match live, I got semi raped, and I am practicing Mui thai for the first time...

That is all from my side, hope everyone is doing well

Peace out

Abdo Talawoth Hata el mawt

2008-05-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Mesa2 el kheir 3la sha3b masr el 3azeez

First of all I would like to dedicate a very special happy birthday message to my dear president (allah yehra2 omo, matrah ma yeghour) Mr.Mohamed Hosny ebn el kalb Mubarak. And it seems that the genorousity he has always shown us is still in full effect, and instead of buying him presents he in his ininite kindness, decided to give his people gifts in stead of recieving them, and chose to raise fule prices by a margine of about 30%, and to raise the cigarette prices by 25%. So again I say, happy Birthday ya rayes, we rabena etawelena fi 3omrak we yekhaleek leena, ya mdal3na ya mshakhla3na ol le 3adewak rooh et layes...... hashtekna we bashtekna ya rayes.

Now I would like to tell you about my first real meal in Brazil... Now I know one of my earlier posts read my first brazilian meal. But this is the real thing...

Since I have arrived, I have beein eating disgusting food, restraunts, home made food, healthy food...etc... simply distgusting ;). But today I had some real nice food... A guy on the street was selling noodles with chicken, vegtables, and soy sauce. I had a full meal fit for 6 families for under 2 dollars hehe...

I guess once you eat Abdo talawth, or zeezo natana you just have this x factor in you that constantly craves filthy food...hehe

Anywho, felt like that was a memory worth keeping...

be safe everyone and eat more street food (it is the best) also the best solution for constipation, that shit will get you diarrhea like there is no tomorrow ;)

Peace out

Brazilian Family, Soccer matches, surfing, and Santos

2008-05-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

First of all let's get one thing straight...... BRAZIL ROCKS BIGTIME. Now I know it is probably getting boring for you hearing me say that all the time but it is sooooooo damn true. It really rocks, it is a kick ass country, it's like the mother of kick ass countries.

Now that this is out of the way, Yesterday and Today, have been quite the 2 days for me. I have been invited by a friend here from AIESEC "Fernando” is his name, to his place where he and his family live in their City, Santos.

A. the city is amazing, it is a replica of Alexandria or Thessalonica in Greece, it is a costal city with a massive beach and an impressive football team to boot. Yesterday I arrived and we just walked around and enjoyed the city, and then went to a football match where the city team was playing or better said kicking ass against a Colombian team hehe... That was truly fun, and quite the experience. Man are Brazilians dedicated and quite the passionate fans, not to mention slightly aggressive and violent hehe.

Anywho, today was certainly one of the highlight of my stay, not only in Santos but in Brazil generally. Today I borrowed Fernando's bike and rode to a nearby mosque, which was such an amazing experience, to be able to pray Friday prayer after so long of not being able to do so. I was truly happy when I was there, and the Imam delivered one hell of speech. I met a few Arab people and I talked Arabic, for the first time since I came here and we prayed and it was amazing.

I have no Idea what's in store for tomorrow or tonight but I am quite certain it will be extremely fun and enjoyable in this amazing city.

Now, granted I said the prayer was one of the highlights but I hate to say it is not THE highlight of being in Santos.

Just a simple interruption here, this next part is dedicated to Fernando and his family... by far the sweetest and kindest family I have met.

The true highlight of my stay here was being able to meet and interact with Fernando's Family
They comprise of the Following
Joao (father)
Rosanna (mother)
Fernando (Oldest Brother)
Casio (Younger brother)
Vivian (Youngest sister)

Not only were they kind enough to host 4 gringos "foreigners" that they have never met in their home, have us sleep in their living room, cook us breakfast, Lunch, and dinner, letting us make a complete mess of their home, and disrupt their lives, BUT no, they didn't stop there, I don't know how the hell they managed to all of that while managing to apologize about the fact that they don't have enough bed for us, or that the house was a little small, and stuff like that. It was insane. They are toooooooooooo damn kind. And what was very entertaining to me especially is I had to go through the same arguments I used to go to with people in Egypt....

about small things like they being so insistent that I eat, or my begging the mother not to cook something not pork just for me and she completely disregarding it, or pleading with them not to buy us more stuff, or bake more cakes, or letting do anything to help around the house....

ya tant mesh ga3an
walahi lanta wakel
ya tant walahi mesh ader
matza3alneesh wenaby
aboos regl hadretek mesh ader
walahi mayehsal
ya tant tab sebeeny aghsel taba2y
enta beteshtemny ya wad

Not only did it remind me of home but it reminded me of my own family, especially when the mother was worried sick about to hit my with the frying pan after she found out that I was riding a bike alone in the rain in the streets of the city (which apparently is dangerous here, who knew here). The fact that she was that worried like she would have been had it been her own son out there, although she met me less than 24 hours ago is simply overwhelming.

HEHE, I am sorry I just had to laugh, since I just realized that whatever I write here would never be enough to do these people just, and whatever I do will not be able to repay there favor, and whatever I say, will not be enough to explain to you how kind and selfless these people are. All I can say is this.

A study was made by Vox Pupily, and they asked people who were going to brazil why they are going to brazil. Some said the weather, some the beach and some said the natural scenery. But when they were leaving the same study was made and the question this time was what did you like the most during your stay.... An overwhelming 59% answered that it wasn't the beach, or the weather, or the natural scenery but rather the people. I know understand why they said that and agree with that statement...

Thank you Fernando,
Thank you Rosana
Thank you Joao
Tank you Casio
Thank you Vivian

Peace out...

I just don't know

2008-04-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

Hey all...

The reason why I wrote this title for this post is simply due to the fact that I really don't know what to title it under...

So much has happened in the last few days it is simply impossible to put under 1 title...

Well we can start at the beginning, when it was the last day of fiesta before actual work began.

The Sadia trainees, aka. gringos all went to this fair of culture in the old part of town, and it was simply put, amazing... It featured cultural acts and shows from all over brazil, not to mention great atmosphere. I had such an amazing day, watching capoeira people, beautiful dances, and a circus to boot. I also was introduced to my first Brazilian Shawerma hehe...

Anywho throughout the day I was harassed twice by these bums who were drunk up to wazoo and were looking for a cigarette, and when I refused or said that I didn't speak portuguze they yelled and kinda made a scene. After both incidents I simply enjoyed the rest of the day and went back home. It was then that I realized something, this kind of shit happens all the time, similar to Egypt, but the funny thing is, 8 seconds after these guys had left I had already forgotten about them and was just focused on enjoying the day. And I believe that that is what it all comes down to. Shit like that will happen all the time, but it is really up to you to let an obnoxious cab driver, or a drunk bum, or a random guy on the street spoil your day or no. And if all you remember and keep thinking of is that small little incident then you will never experience a single joyful day. So to wrap up it really is your choice whether or not you enjoy your time or let the little things make your day miserable.

Now that that has been said and done, it is time to tell you about the company I work for. And, I kinda have a request. Please don't hate me or be jealous ok...;)

This company "Sadia" is obviously completely unaware of how @ internships work. I mean seriously not only did they manage to pay the flight to dubai for my interview and the flight to Brazil and back, pay me 2.5 times the average intern salary here, provide me and the trainees, with a private cab to take us to work every day and bring us back, pay for our meals for Lunch, throw us a hell of a reception on opening day, be the nicest most cooperative and helpful management staff I have ever seen and treat us like royalty since we arrived... Now you would think that would be more than enough wouldn't you...well I know i did... But reality was it wasn't enough for them I guess. Before Yesterday we received news that we were to go visit their HR office in a city nearby called Curichiba, it is a city that is about 6 hours by bus from Sao Paulo where I am staying. So obviously as excited as I was I was still kinda frustrated since I dont want to be on a bus for 6 hours, but to my surprise they had already bought the tickets and to my really big surprise they weren't bus tickets, they were airplane tickets and we flew there and back over night, while staying in quite the fancy hotel I must say.

I am quite skeptical though, cuz if they keep this up I really do think they will end up asking for my kidney I think (and tell you truth I don't think my kidney will cover all of this ;))

Anyways, tomorrow is a holiday, and a long weekend will follow so me and the "gringos" are going to this city called santos where we will go to the beach and possibly go to a brazilian football match.

Exciting times I must say...

More to come

Peace out

Culture shocks reversed, and one hell of a hectic day

2008-04-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

Hey all

first of all I would like to apologize, for not posting anything for a while...

And now for the recap of the last few days, which is primarily focused on the day before yesterday, and today

I will spare you the details and let you use your imagination to fill in the spaces otherwise this will be toooo damn long...

Well the day before yesterday went on as any other day of my life here, and was perfectly normal, until I got into bed... hehe don't worry nothing scandalous is going to happen ;)

I got into bed, and just as I was about to wander off into lala land and fall asleep, I noticed the bed was shaking… Since this was my first experience with earthquakes, I didn’t really get it at first. But then the bed started shaking some more and more violently, and I started noticing the building across from us kinda of swaying back and forth (I live on the 15th floor just so you know). Tell you the truth the only thought I had in mind was, hmmmm the chances of my making downstairs before the building falls to rubble are close to zero, and if the building indeed is going to collapse, I might as well enjoy my last moments in this world in peace, so I said my prayers, and went off to sleep like a baby….

The following morning, I was browsing the news and read something about a 5.3 earthquake hitting Sao Paulo, and then I realized, I wasn’t dreaming.

Now you would think things would go slow from there…but they simply didn’t

Now we come to today’s story… Today I went to buy a bike, I figured it would be useful in helping me get around. So I did buy a bike, and about 10 minutes from the store this series of events took place

I woke up to meet what would have been my future Portuguese teacher

He was jewish and once he read my name and figured out I was from Egypt, he kinda started reacting weird

I went with my fellow interns to this Armenian neighborhood, to see how they celebrate the memorial day of Armenia

We got there too late and everything was pretty much done and closing down

We took a bus back home and on the way we decided to stop by wall mart

I bought my bike and we all left, they got on the bus and I followed on my bike

I rode my bike for about 10 min

I damn near gave everyone in the street a heart attack with the way I was riding

I gave Sao Paulo a culture shock by crossing a heavily congested street (Egyptian Style) while
carrying my bike on my shoulder

I continued riding

The left pedal on my bike fell off while I was standing on the bike

I fell in the middle of the street

Got side swiped by a car

Damn near broke my shoulder

Went to a bike shop nearby, to get it fixed

They fixed it and I went an hour later to pick it up, I rode back home

On the way the same pedal fell off again and subsequently I fell off the bike again (no car crashes this time though)

Went back to the shop, and they fixed it again

Rode back home (and don’t worry this time the pedal didn’t fall off (let’s hope it stays on this time)

And now I am home, writing this blog entry

So all in all a quite memorable day for me, and in the spirit of making this day a memory that will last I decided to write about it.

Hope all is well with all of you, and I would just like to add a piece of advice here

If you buy a bike always and I mean always, check the DAMN PEDALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peace out

My Cell Phone # in Brazil

2008-04-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

Hey all

here is my cell number in Brazil....

+55 11 85681878

peace out

Viva Third, world countries

2008-04-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

I have to say... I love the fact that I, was born in, lived my life in, and am in a third world country

I am proud to be from a third world country and I wouldn't change it for the world, But if I did have to change it, just like I did, I am glad I changed it for another third world country.

Before I go on with this post, I would like to make a special announcement.

This post, is purly dedicated, to every god damn blind, blood sucking leecher, that calls him or herslef egyptian. Living on it's soil, breathing it's air (as polluted as it may be) and enjoying all it has to offer and then, not only do they lack the decency of being appreciative, but rather have the ordasity to insult and bitch and moan about how bad it is... So for all of you leechers out there....This is for you.

I live in an appartement with 4 people, 3 guys and a girl, and it just so happens that yesterday they all went to bed early and I was awake late. Anywho, around 2 in the morning, Lena, the only female app. mate we have, woke up and felt very sick, and was shaking bad...

obviously since I was the only guy awake she came to me, so I called a brazilian @er friend Miguel, who was kind enough to leave a party he was at and hurry over to drive her to the hospital.

Now to cut a really long story, involving a lot of driving, 2 hospitals, and the craziest customer service represantitive I have ever talked to, short. we arrived at the hospital, and unfortunatley that hospital was not one that was covered by her russian (she is russian by the way) insurance policy. So we were supposed to pay about 200 dollars for a simple check up.

Since we didn't have that kind of money we started thinking of alternatives, and while we were thinking this doctor came out and asked what was the problem so we explained, and without a second of hesitation she pulled Lena into a check up room and started working on her, and when she couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, she had the on call chief doctor come down and he started checking and examining her. And after all has been said and done, both doctors had the nerve to apologize sincerely that there is nothing further they can do, and that Lena needs blood works and a sonar, and that that was something they can't do for free and explained how sorry they were. (What the hell they were sorry for, is probably something that I will never understand. They checked her up for no charge, could havehad the hospital fire them for using hospitale equipment and facilities for no charge, did everything in their power to help, and then apologized)

Regardless of how the story ends, this is the moral of it. Sao Paulo, and I am assuming all of brazil is relativly similar to Egypt. The system sucks, the governement sucks, and the country is certainly not at it's best. However the people due to the fact that the system is failing them, still have that sense of humanity and urge to help out the people that need their help, even if they were complete strangers. That sense of humanity, generosity and selflessness, is simply overwhelming, and it always reminds me of Egypt, and the people that call it home.

I promise you this, chances of finding a doctor like that in a place like Brazil, or Egypt are 90%, but in Europe chances are closer to maybe 5% if at all.

So at the end I only wish all of you who despise your home so much, I wish that you learn your lesson the hard way since you refuse to learn it the easy way. I hope all of you leave your homes, and go out there to the countries you think are better, where you can experience what it is to loose all of the prevlidges, and I repeat prevlidges that you have come to take for granted.

finally a word to the wise, Travel as much as you may... learn as much as you can, adopt and experience and live out different ways of life, but at the end of it all always remember, who you are and where you come from. Always remember that what makes you...you, and never lose touch or sight of it.

Now Enough with the massive load of cheesyness, and down to the fun stuff....

I am learning capoeira baby WHOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was my third lesson and I think I am getting better and here is how I know I am getting better... I am getting my ass handed to me less times and getting my ass kicked a little less each lesson. Granted I am still getting my ass kicked or handed to me or a combination of the two, but it is happening less, so I really do think I am making some kind of progress. HEHE

Peace out.

P.s I hope you know that you that message you sent me was the trigger of all of the nonesense I wrote in this post, and I wanted you to know that. And I also wanted you to know that i still am wondering what I ever did to deserve a mentee like you.
I still remember ya dalia, every day I remember.....
I am Adham Adham Abdel-Salam, Egyptian, Muslim, and Mentor :)

Thanks ya Dolly

Rage3lek Mafeehash Kalam!!!!!!!!

2008-04-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

Since I have arrived to Brazil, everything was so hectic, from dealing with government paperwork, to parties and everything in between, I barely had a moment to sit by myself and think.

And man, do I wish it stayed this hectic all the time. Today I woke up and basically had nothing to do until 3p.m So I just sat on my laptop, checking mail, and randomly surfing the web, and that is when it hit for the first time... I am here for another 6 months, and as great as that sounds, and as amazing this opportunity or experience is going to be, I can't help but think Imiss Egypt.

Yesterday was the begining I think, we went to this BBQ, and this girl Erika from AIESEC Sao Paulo (which just might be the sweetest girl I have ever seen) had labored the entire previous day, to put together hand made flags of the countries of all the people who were there. And I think that snese of missing Egypt started there, when I saw the egyptian flag.

All in all I feel so blessed, that I am here in a place that is as different as can be from Egypt yet very similar in the same time. A lot of times as I walk down the streets, or randomly talk to people here, I feel just like home.

At the end of it all, I am truly looking forward to this experience, and all that it has to offer, but what I am looking forward to even more, is taking all that I have learned and will learn, and putting it t o good use, back in the place where I belong.

Helwa ya baladi, ya belad teeba, feeky ahsan nas, rage3lek mafeehash kalam...

Peace out

O meu primeiro almoço brasileiro

2008-04-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

My first brazilian lunch, or at least I hope that that is what it means...

Anywho, today I am off to have my very first traditional brazilian Lunch, a full scale outdoor BBQ.

Granted yesterday I had a very traditional meal as well, but it was more Portuguese, than brazilian, "Polineo De bacalia" or Fried Cod fish, it was amazing, the food here in general is super, the brazilians really have some very nice meals.

Yesterday, the @ers here took the Gringos i.e foreigners, to this massive open air market, which is quite similar to the sook el talat, or el 3ataba, it was a massivly crowded place with thousands of people trying to sell all kinds of stuff. And then we went into this really big fruit market, which looks a lot like sook el 3oboor, and let me tell you this, brazilian fruit...second to none.

Later on we went on a tour of the old part of the city, which was simply put, breath taking.

All in all, had any one ask me where they should go for a nice holiday I would have said Cairo, without a second's hesitation, but now, I would still say Cairo in heartbeat ;) but Sao Paulo, is certainly a close second.

That is all for now, I am off to my BBQ, I hope they are ready for my insatiable appetit for meat Muahahahahaha.

peace out

My first post

2008-04-10T15:40:00.001-07:00

Hello all

Never did I think of having a blog or writing in one, however after today I obvioulsy have changed my mind.

I am an Egyptian and proud to be one for that, and as much as I love my country and living there, I also enjoy exploring different cultures, people, and ways o f life.

I have arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil yesterday morning, and man... the place is everything I expected it to be and much much more. Full of life, culture, and a very distinct attitude... It is simply amazing.

Since my arrival people here and @ers in specific, have done nothing but help me and the other trainees to the best extent they know how.... Every one is smiling and every one is just having a great time, helping each other, laughing and just living to the fullest. Even the waiters in restraunts or the ticket guys on buses, every one smiles and tries to help.

All in all my experience here so far, as short as it was is simply amazing, I am already hooked and in love with this country and this city.

I can´t wait for the rest of my stay here....

more posts to come soon

Peace....
Adham from Sao Paulo...OUT...