October 22 2003

Ramadan Kareem

A great Arabic saying that means the holy month of Ramadan is generous. This is the right adjective to describe Ramadan, for it is generous in all ways.
First of all as you fast your meals are cut into two, one “Iftar”, and the second is “Sohour”, which means you’re cutting expenses 😉 On the other hand in both meals you eat less than what you are used to eating in other months. So you find that the food that you are used to eat for lunch for example is in Ramadan enough for you an a second person. When you invite people and you cook as it’s a normal day out of Ramadan, you’ll find that half the food remained untouched on the table. So your food budget decreases. Why’s that because when you aren’t eating for around half a day and then you wanna eat when it’s the time for Iftar, your stomach doesn’t accept food so easily, it takes in only the basic needs, so you find yourself “full” so soon.
Other than that, Ramadan is generous because in it you share the poor people their daily life, a life with no food and drink, so you feel with them and you find yourself sharing them your food, you go on giving them food, money, clothes and stuff that they need, and this is generosity.
And above all that, in Ramadan people feel like praying more and they have this spirit of Islam, because they share all the poor people around the world their suffering, so God doubles our bless, Ramadan is generous with rewards for good people.
And last but not least, the yummy food offered specially in Ramadan, which reminds me of this sweet that is made in the Middle East and isn’t available here unfortunately, it’s Qatayif, I MISS IT 🙁 There is a number of other tasty sweets but Qatayif is the one I miss most. Of course part of Ramadan’s generosity is the offers and low prices of good in all stores and shops, hmm, this is really nice.
Not to forget the TV channels challenging each other to offer the best shows, programs and movies, all that is generous for us as people, isn’t it!
In short Ramadan’s bless surrounds us and its generosity is in each and every way. I just wished it’s be more generous and gather me with my family which I already miss and will miss even more in Ramadan, because with my Family everything has a different taste. Our home is decorated with Ramadan lamps, lanterns, table covers, serving papers, lights and even the key medals have Ramadan signs on them…
This year it’s expected to be on either the 26th or the 27th of October, so Happy Ramadan to all Muslims of the world and Ramadan Kareem to all of you, and for you smokers and coffee addicts, hold on tight 😉
Guess I got excited… can’t wait for Ramadan to BEGIN :))

Category: Just Personal, Religion | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 15 2003

Let’s Play … For Nature :)

Yesterday it rained like crazy in Tunisia. I love rain, it’s so great and watching the rain drops fall on the ground, the sound they make and even the touch of rain on your skin is just incredible.
There are years when a country lacks the bless of rain, you can see all people complaining and blaming God or nature for not having enough water. And when it comes in big quantities causing floods, you hear all people also complaining for the loss of crops, or the ruins of their places, or the dirt left at their house doors …etc. What made me get to this idea that I’m sure a lot would find crazy or childish in a way but I wont lose anything if I shared it with you .
I thought that it’s true rain becomes a danger when it causes floods and blocks streets and ruins everything, no matter how good the infrastructure is, when it rains too heavy everything will be flooded and a lot of things will be damaged. And the next day you’ll find responsible people organizing the pumps that will take all excess waters and blow them I don’t know where. The point is the waters will become dirty and wont be used, they’ll be pumped away and WASTED instead.
So I thought why doesn’t every citizen in every country help the authorities control excess waters, use them personally and even send them to countries that need waters.
How, well here comes the nice part, this could be applied through water containers spread by people and authorities as well, spread all over the country. I got the idea from my parents. Back in time when I was a little kid, I remember when it used to rain , mom and dad used to make us play this very useful and great game, they called it “water collection”, the game consists of any means of collecting water: bowls, bottles, plastic boxes, jars, vases, and anything deep. It’s played in the rain season. Each member chooses something to collect waters and places it anywhere he/she likes. Our parents chose the best places of course as they were more aware what part would enable to collect water better. And the next day at the same time we placed our things, we get back to them to see who collected most, and of course we kids always won as our parents always poured from their containers into ours 😉 Now the next step of the game is to suggest ways to use the collected water, some would use them to water the indoor plants, others would suggest using it as drinking water for the birds, or in cooking or washing and cleaning and so on. As for me I always used it to increase the water level in the aquarium we had 😛 I thought the fish would be happy to experience swimming in rain water, lol, poor fish they’d be swimming in peace and then I come and pour the water and they’d all go like: bug, bug, bug… and there’ll be kind of a “water-twister” in there as I poured strongly, and the happier I was, the stronger I poured 😛
Anyway, back to the main idea, I thought applying this game would really be helpful. Why don’t we spread containers on the roof, balconies, put some on the window edges…etc, rainwater is pure we could use it in any way. Why don’t authorities build certain containers and collective tanks and spread them in streets and farms. Other than that when a farm is flooded, instead of pumping the excess water in the sea, we could clarify it and use it, if it was more than enough we could send it to parts that weren’t lucky enough to get enough water average. The rain is falling anyway, and there might be floods no matter what we do, but it makes a difference when we use at least 2% of the falling rain at first, with time we’ll figure out better ways to collect and use the water, there has to be a first step though, even if that step was so simple. On the other hand we teach everyone to care for the environment and play a role in saving the wasted waters and using it. We implant the environmental awareness in our children, we teach them that teamwork helps in many ways.
It’s just a thought, maybe if I was specialized in environmental issues I’d be able to apply that theory some day, but I hope the ones who are specialized would think of something similar to avoid the terrible loss of that pure water and benefit from it in the best way possible.

Category: Just Personal, Nature & Environment | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 10 2003

A Wonderland Called Tunisia :)

It’s been already one year since I left Jordan and came to Tunisia to live in it for good. I must admit that it’s a very beautiful country indeed. Once you set foot in the national airport of the capital Tunis you find posters and ads about Tunisia, most of them are in French and German. An expression I noticed in those ads and posters repeatedly was the one saying that Tunisia is the “Country of Light”, unfortunately I arrived at night so I couldn’t understand what that meant! But next day in the morning I got it! The light is so strong and shining, you can barely keep your eyes open during the day, even if you were pointing your eyes to the ground, you do need sunglasses or at least a cap! And with such a strong light you can see the beauty of colors clearer and you could enjoy its reflection on the sea waves in a magnificent way. And no matter if it was summer or winter, the light is always so strong, with one difference that the clouds in winter might not cause your eyes to drop water if you were lifting your head up high!
Other than the beautiful landscape, the sea, mountains, green fields, and the desert, there is something that is a Tunisian specialty, something that shocked me when I knew it and couldn’t understand right away, it’s their Arabic!
We all know that there are always 2 ways to communicate with people in any country using their own language, you either speak the formal or informal language, so you either speak the Official or the Slang English, you either speak the Hochdeutsch or the German Dialekt, you either speak the Fos’ha (formal Arabic) or simply the used dialect! Now before going to Tunisia I knew that they have a dialect that is so much DIFFERENT than all the spoken dialects in the whole Middle East countries. I got somehow prepared for that and I was counting on the Fos’ha if I reach a dead end with any Tunisian citizen I’d be communicating with. My first surprise was when I went to the mini market near home to ask for some stuff, I didn’t know all the words in their dialect, so I had to use the dialect of the Middle East Areas, and oops, I noticed that a lot of the words in the Middle East normally and really BAD and impolite ones when used in Tunisia so I had no other choice but to get back to the Fos’ha, and still the woman didn’t understand and she started asking me for details, she was speaking 2 words in the Tunisian dialect and 20 other in French, lol, I only know some basics in French, I didn’t understand what she was talking about, and we ended up talking in signs, I point to something and she gets it to me. As for the things I couldn’t find by myself, I had to forget about them till I either learn them in their dialect or in French…which aren’t that much different by the way. For instance, I got cold and went to the doctor one day, a Tunisian doctor, I explained to him that I’m not Tunisian and started explaining what was wrong with me, I used Fos’ha, no use, I tried my own dialect, it got even worse, I used English, no one listening, I tried to explain using some words of their dialect, and all I got was a mixed face looking at me as if I was kind of a retarded or something. Sign language was my only savior. And after pointing at my throat, nose and head, he was like: AAAAAAAh, you’re suffering from what we in TUNISIAN call BRONCHITE!!
I thought bronchite sounded a little bit FRENCH!! And it turns out to be a French word but is one of the French words that are now used in the Tunisian dialect, so it’s Tunisian as well!!
After a while when I understood 85% of their dialect and while I was having a discovery walk in the neighborhood I saw some words written on billboards, on the busses, metro stations and almost everywhere, I knew that was Arabic, but it was neither Fos’ha nor dialect, and only then I realized that Tunisians have their own Arabic Fos’ha that they use in advertising, radio, tv, and in official ceremonies!!! That was the FIRST time EVER I hear those words, loool, I mean in the Middle East and the Gulf Areas as well as Egypt they all use the same Fos’ha, but in Tunisia they use something totally different. The thing is, Arabic language is a very rich one, you could find more than 3 words for one meaning, and Tunisians chose the “least used, or the never used” words and built their own Fos’ha that is so similar to the Fos’ha of some other countries like Libya, Morocco and Algeria. But talking of the dialects, the Tunisian and Libyan dialects are easier and slower than those of Morocco and Algeria, who depend on a mixture of 97% French and 2% Arabic mixed with barbarian, I assume 😛
Anyway, after a whole year, I can say that I understand the Tunisian dialect and their own Fos’ha 99.5% and can speak them both fluently 😉
Another lovely thing I experienced here is the antique shops, the ones selling in those shops are unbelievable. I was visiting those shops and I couldn’t but be shocked of how each and every one working there is ready to speak at least 3 languages fluently!! So you find someone asking a German group: “Komm herein, bitte, wir haben neue Sachen da drinnen… (please come in we have new stuff inside)”, and then two American tourists walk by his shop, so he tunes to English: “hi, welcome, come and take a look over here…” and then he suddenly speaks Italian and French…etc.
Not only in such shops, but even in tourists’ areas and in restaurants, it’s amazing and I like it 🙂
Tunisia is a beautiful country with all languages available to communicate with tourists, and someone with 3 languages is supposed to find a job so easily… that does not apply to me though!

Category: Arab Societies, Just Personal, Tunisia | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 7 2003

Getting Started…

It’s unbelievable how things change and decisions are taken in a matter of seconds. Just few seconds ago I was drinking my morning coffee, looking through the window, thinking of nothing at all other than the great taste of this hot coffee. UNTILL I saw this old man crossing the street. He barely had hair, white hair, his face filled with old age signs and mouth contours signifying the loss of almost all his teeth.
He was carrying some big filled bags, and I must say from the way the man’s back was curved that they were some really heavy ones. Taking a closer look I realized the bags were actually garbage bags. So the job of this old man was to transfer those bags into the main garbage tray to be picked up of the responsible ones on time. Now what really changed my morning routine today was the witnessing this really annoying incident…
While the poor old man was walking, one of the bags he was barely holding fell on the ground. He started trying to release one of his hands to grab it, doing his best to curve that old back more and more to get closer to the ground, and what happens when he does all that with those heavy bags over him?! He loses his balance!
So all the bags are suddenly on the ground. I can’t even put into words the hopeless look and the facial expression he had, it was too sad to be expressed.
At the same time the bags fell, a young woman was walking towards the man, and when she was near him she gave him a disgusted look, tried to avoid getting close to the smelly bags with her nose held with her fingers, and simply went away!
A lot would suggest: “What do you expect her to do?!”.
Many questions started crossing my mind ever since this whole thing took place, questions like: why didn’t she actually help him instead of walking away and making him feel disgusting? if the bags were anything other than garbage, would she give him a hand? were the bags heavier for the YOUNG woman than they were to the OLD man? If that’s the case, she could simply walk away without giving him that terrible look of disgust… or is it that helping an old poor man is considered inappropriate for a fine young woman? so what if it was a man, would he help even if the bags were still garbage ones? Or what is the problem?!
From what we hear and see everyday it is so simple to guess what most of the people would do if they’re put in this very same situation: they’ll all walk away. Some would make the man feel he’s a disgusting creature, some will just walk without giving any impression, some will walk away with no outside impression but deep inside they’d love to help the poor man, but they didn’t because of any excuse they’ll make up to feel free of guilt( God, why did they have to be garbage bags… oh, if only I wasn’t already late for work…etc). On the other hand I’m sure that there are some who might actually give the old man a hand for the sake of humanity.
He’s a person after all, not to forget that the garbage is ours and not his, so he’s doing us a favor, well, he does get paid to do that, it’s true, but he’s getting paid for something a lot of us are not ready to do in this neighborhood and many other neighborhoods. At that point I must admit that this little situation kept me thinking a lot, it might be silly for many people, but to me it did make a big change. Because it’s not only the garbage man that so many of us would refuse to help, there is the one shouting for us to catch a thief who has just stolen her bag, a homeless man having no power to ask for help, a hopeless mother announcing the kidnap of her kid in all media resources… There are just too many people who ask for help and what do they get: nothing but watching. A lot believe that watching is enough, for the one asking looks bad, or seems to be lying, or looks dangerous, or is simply a stranger and we’d get ourselves in trouble and investigations for nothing. Even I’ve been through similar situations and unfortunately I was only watching in some. How sad it is for people to become so self-centered and full of fear like they are today. It got me scared of what would life look like in 10 years time or more, maybe even less. Would human beings lose the few principles and morals they’ve got now, or would they get back to the old good virtues they once had?! Let’s wait and see… NO, that could never be the only way to know the answer, specially if we want our race to improve and create a safe surrounding for the coming generations. Then what should we do? We should act in any way possible. I’ve always wished to be a journalist discussing real good issues such as this, but it’s sad that I never became one, and worse than that is the fact that I’m still looking for a job related to helping people and humankind to improve and never succeeded, but that doesn’t mean that I should wait till I’m employed. What happened today urged me to get started, and I thought creating a blog of my own would do the trick, and here I am. To me this blog is the Aqua that will quench my thirst for sharing my thoughts with you, and will Cool the fire in my head every time I experience an unfair situation.
Hope it’ll be the same to you as well…

Category: General, Just Personal | LEAVE A COMMENT