"I hope...I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Quran which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness."
-Napoleon Bonaparte in a letter in Egypt in August 1798

Bonaparte's letter was a historic failure to address the people of Egypt, trying to convince them of his good intentions. His own warships spoke louder than his soft words and challenged his credibility before people did.

Obama's speech does not lend him a prettier face, though it is the least Muslims expect from him. With an army in Afghanistan, another in Iraq, and a funded arsenal in Israel, the US has a lot to say and to do to gain Muslims respect. Sheikh Obama needs to walk the walk, and I'm pretty sure that there are many more people in the Muslim world that want to give him a chance than in his own country.

What did you think about the speech? What do you think were the positive and negative points it tackled?

A Jew could loath fascism at one level, but identify with its brutality at another. Such splitting is deeply characteristic of what we call human weaknesses. Thus some Jews could develop a national chauvinist reaction to the Holocaust, in which they might be expected to unto others something of that which had been done unto them and their families.
- From "Overcoming Zionism" by Joel Kovel

To Matan Vilnai,

I can't be more disgraced of the human race as I am today after your comments were heard on the beloved Army radio. I can't be more ashamed of the stage that the world is giving you and your fellow Zionists, that day to day swallows bigger pieces of justice, freedom, and the common least denominator of humanities. I can't be more embarrassed of the human inherited culture of inequality, oppression, inferiority, and thirst for blood. Your words have been a disguise and a humiliation to the world, while "the world remains silent".

I wonder if you have consulted any of your neighbors about how horrifying and destructive it is in the "Shoah" you want to bring the Palestinians. Have you asked Aharon Appelfeld if making a new concentration camp like the one he escaped from in Gaza will be any escapable ? Did you ask David Grossman if your plan of resurrecting Nazi practices will bring any peace to the Palestinians he interviewed ? Have you asked - in Arabic please - the stolen land of settlements you live in if she is any thirsty for more blood ? Have you ever thought what it is to lose your wife or any of your kids and nobody cares to mention them or their names or their families or that it was their last walk on the beach ?

I don't understand your words unless they I blend in a historic mixture of Apartheid, racism, and religious Jewish superiority. It has been always shyly mentioned and related to Nazism, but you didn't like this vague and not opinionated stand. You wanted Israel to stand out as the land of Israel does on Arabs land. Your "Shoah" will not be different; will it find its bread and wine from the flesh and blood of Gazans, but their bones will bury you beside the Nazis prophets and their tears will write your name on their Hall of Shame.

Mr. Vilnai.. We are hearing in the news about the waged war against civilians in Gaza. We hear about families being killed, dozens of kids murdered, and more than 30 people were victims of your army's barbarism. You might be implementing your wishes to rage a bigger "Shoah" or "Holocaust" against Gaza, but these wishes will find themselves right beside Yitzhak Rabin's dreams that it would sink into the sea. Gaza was built by the little dreams that grow a country everyday with every sweat dropping from thick brows. Gazans will live on olive oil and zaatar and grow thin skin and big hearts, that will have hopes that outlive your words legacy.

A Palestinian

It's irrelevant for people in Gaza if I condemn their violence or not. It's irrelevant because I am not accepted as a preacher. You can't preach your morality on people living like this: in slums, refugee camps, and surrounded by fences - Azmi Bishara

Mr. Abu El Gheit - Egypt foreign minister - volunteered to preach people in Gaza on their resistance, but never revealed but an ugly face of Egyptian monarchs. Abu El Gheit said that any Palestinian that would "break" Egyptian borders will have his legs "broken". It's been a while since we heared fascists like Yitzhak Rabin ordering the army to "break their bones". So much for the History that teaches fascists to learn from each other..

It would be ridiculous to continue mentioning Abu El Gheit's notes about the Palestinian resistance against Israel and the effect of launching home made projectiles and rockets towards Sdeirot. His retarded comments just reflect the IQ requirement that is needed to be part of the Egyptian regime that is practicing occupation on Egyptian "peasants". It's a rhetoric argument to blame resistance and an occupied nation for their given right to resist. The resistance did not starve people in Gaza, nor did they cut their electricity fuel, not did they embargo themselves, but the occupation did.

The current situation in Gaza is upsetting the Egyptian government because it screams that they are a group of "sell outs". By standing by and enforcing the status quo on Palestinians in Gaza, there is nothing to be understood more than this scandalous stand of the Palestinians suffering. Israel's ambassador in Egypt was talking about building a wall along the boarders between Gaza and Egypt to continue their from-the-Nazis-to-the-Zionists wall building traditions.

Of course, normal Egyptians stood from day one to support Palestinians and their cause. Abu Trika - the Egyptian famous soccer player - made his stand, and the rest of people in Egypt, clear and received the most dignifying yellow card in field. Here is the video..

When screams for help weren't heard, begging for the human sense in everyone in the world didn't reach out, lighting a million and 300 thousand candles wasn't enough to light up dark cold nights, women in Gaza decided to break through the walls of stone and steal on the boarders while UN men were not up to the task. I woke up this morning on the news of thousands crossing the boarders to Egypt regardless of Ramallah's Karzai, Israel's Zionist supremacists, and the rest of the blind world. Every family has the challenge now to buy its children food and milk, and maybe some diesel to startup their backup generators to cope with the need to stay in the 21st century.

While Americans were celebrating their history of civil society struggle against hatred and disenfranchisement - based on race and gender - through the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., another system of hatred and religious supremacy is shading another part of the world. The human tragedy continues in a different style, where KKK hoods were replaced by IDF helmets. The continuous mass-lashing and group punishment continues in Gaza Strip for their democratic choices.

The humanitarian depth of this problem is not but an echo to the political situation supported by stupid politicians in Israel, Palestine, and US. The 2 neighboring states solution continues to illustrate lousiness and ridicule throughout the results. One state is allowed to create an acceptable theocracy and religious supremacy, and the other to serve that picture with a supply of partial human workers. This is a denial of human dreams of a just distribution of rights and status. Standing against this is another chapter in human struggle against German Nazi's, S.African Nats, and now Jewish Zionism.

What attracted me to buy the Fourtine magazine this month was their cover page little title "Khartoum Boom" .. This reminded me of Hashim .. and all our conversations about the virgin land of Sudan that we have ever studied it as the "food basket of the Arab countries" .. it also reminded me of my older brother's weird projects that included a farm in Sudan .. he just loves this idea and thinks of Sudan as the best place to do it .. eh .. why not .. Fourtune magazine agrees ..

Google Earth surprised me with the highlight it has on the area of Darfur as a crisis area .. though I couldn't find Palestine, Iraq, Chechnya, Kossovo, Oganda, or any related legacy crisis areas on the map .. well .. this markets the common public image the American's have about old tribal fightings that was bloated through Robert Murdouch's owned big media across US and UK .. if you are naive enough to ask why would they do that .. I would answer by telling you that in 10 years .. the production of oil in Sudan might move from 0.5 million barrels to 3 millions a day - as per the report .. good answer ?


well .. "Sudan ranked the 1st on this year's "failed states" list compiled by the Carninigie Endowment for International Peace in Washington" .. interesting enough .. this ridiculously failing state is scoring 9% economical growth last year .. Foreign investment rose to around $5 billion .. it is the oil that drives the trend .. but not Chevron nor Royal Dutch Shell .. It's Chinese Nile Petroleum Company ..

here is a good lesson .. Sanctions enforced on Sudan are hurting west more than Khartoum .. hurting companies' chances to make use of the great chance .. China is getting the most of these sanctions and flooding Khartoum with investments .. workers .. Why not .. if it was the biggest customer of their oil .. When Hu Jintao - the Chinese President - visited Sudan .. he was treated in Sudanese traditional generosity because of the respected role played in Sudan ..

The question is about Arab Entrepreneurs that should not miss such a chance in Sudan .. They would be welcomed for sure to play a part of building and constructing Sudan's real image as the "treasure basket" of the Arab world .. I think my Sudanese friends would have a say in that ..

Today I was at the airport police section following up with a case that involves me against my boss as a part of a labor dispute we hadn't settled yet ..

this is not the point ..

I was reading at the walls ..
criminal cases in 2004 : 348 ..
criminal cases in 2005 : 345 ..
criminal cases in 2006 : 606 ..

by the way .. my case number was 500+ (no need to tell the exact number) .. and we are still in mid 2007 .. we should expect more or less around 1000 cases for 2007.. which is showing a doubling trend across the time of the buildings boom ( eh .. not babies boom like US's 1945 ) ..

what was more interesting than these numbers was my file waiting almost 25 days in the hands of incompetent and weakly educated police personnel .. there is a brain and 20 members in the records section .. this is an example that you'd find in all the departments of the police around Dubai ..

sad .. right ?

This is only one part of the story .. everything else seems to be connected to threads of dangers .. after we all heard about the high risk mortgages problem in US and the black Thursday stock markets lived the past days ( Arab stock markets were off for a weekend except Egypt .. luckily ) .. The market keeps bloating the balloon created by people riding the bull ..

UAE market lost most of its value .. Emaar's share reached lowest since 2 years .. 10 Dhs a share .. this is the leading stock ..

so .. is the crisis covering only this part ?

inflation exceeded 10% ..
property prices doubled and even tripled in some places ..
education expenses are a nightmare ..
salaries are not moving up ..
people are less well off by 5% a year (inflation - raises) ..

but dude .. Burj Dubai is almost done ..
eh .. I think who are interested in this building getting done are the workers that are getting paid in the range of 150-200$ a month .. these people don't have any type of education that would guarantee them a basic understanding of their rights .. while some white skinned Brits are paid a 100 times more salary for signing the project.

what was more interesting .. is the move of the headquarter of Haliberton to Dubai .. they are contracting with some training companies to train them to exploit people as being a daily practice by companies .. almost 250,000 companies are assigned only 80 labor officers and investigators to check on labor status ..

so .. the turn is going to hit the properties market for sure .. no matter how much was learned from past countries experiences .. what we feel is being done does not exceed giving a daily dose of Panadole to silence the pain instead of visiting the doctor to deal with it .. this worsens it .. and creates a foggy reality that will not continue ..


There is nothing wrong with sitting down and drafting ways to live away from the tall buildings shades to adapt UAE's place and give it its specific context .. dealing with specifics is not going to happen through hiring overseas committees to do so .. creating job knowledge and adequate personnel development will take time and effort .. but it pays off in terms of vision and future of a country's well being ..


so .. my lady .. sneakers aren't too bad .. though they might not give you the shape you are looking for ..

Azmi Bishara has a lion share of the daily media we watch these days.. He comes from my beloved Nazareth - (EL Nasrah) city. and leads the Balad party he established.
Dr. Azmi resigned in the 22th of April after serving for 10 years in Knesset. leaving the charges against him unattended. He was charged to help Israel enemies in 2006 Lebanon war.

Away from the usual media chewing.. Azmi was a clear advocate of communism and Marxism and so on.. as well as a Christian-Arab voice of democracy. A fighter against the proclaimed American-Israeli democratic masks that are proven with time to be as we say.. good words for bad intentions..


To make it short.. where do we stand from Azmi ? is he our hero that fights for real democracy ? is he a new Jazeera tool - as well as Mohammed Haikal - to mix real life with communists/Nasserists dreams ? are we actually trying to fight through these people the overwhelming trend of western-style democracy ? are his wise and well said words actually listened to ?


I remember one time he was on TV discussing the GCC fear from Iran's possession of nuclear technology.. "GCC should be afraid of neighboring a real country like Iran. When we look at Iran, we see a country with a system and a vision.. when we look to the rest of the region, we see no countries - including the country-for-army Israel. In the GCC, the private and public ownership mixed up to make a mess. The country is a single person vision, and the army is a show for his power." .. well .. how far do we understand his advocacy for a new us through these words ?

This is his talk about the last colonial question..

I am posting this note as continuity of the last topic Content Consumerism - Arabs forgot to book a seat ? ..

I wanted in this note to underline the problem of abusing the internet in most developed countries, which creates a worse problem there because of the very limited access to the internet, as per numbers posted everywhere over the web. Very low penetration rates and out of this we have a very low development-oriented use..

so.. is it a use or an abuse ?

I tried my trends.google.com friend to give me a hint about the statistical usage of their search engine based on different search key words.. and the results were very shocking..

I tried comparing the following keywords..
book,
education,
sport,
news,
sex

5 keywords is the limit.. and here are the results:

World usage comparison of keywords - a more sex oriented world

The world is going towards looking for more and more sex over the internet, though the news trend is picking up where media companies turned the whole world into their story and story-tellers..

when we take a zoom in a country with one of the highest internet penetration rate, like US.. here are the results:

US usage comparison of keywords - news are as hot as sex for US searchers

Which gives us a hope that the most sexually-broadcasted country is up to something else..

wait.. we are not done .. the most shocking graph is still to come.. I picked Egypt as the biggest representative of Arab population.. want to see the graph ?

here it is..

Egypt usage comparison of keywords - if you don't have a porno site, no one in Egypt knows you. what about being a porn star ?

Very sadly and considerably broken, I have to leave the graphs and Google trends to tell you the rest of the story..

This is how the bombed bridge looks like in the middle of the road that connects the middle refugee camps with Gaza .. after being bombed ..





Thanx to the rest of the world for giving us the opportunity to live with a challenge .. with an occupation ..

This is my temp office in Gaza .. This is how it looks .. with lights and without .. no no .. without candles and with :) ..

all my respect to the keepers of the land with their hearts and souls .. to the people that got used to stand and never bow .. I love u people .. and I'm sure people are generous enough to share this feeling with me ..