February 4 2005

Stella Awards

Mit den “Stella Awards” werden in den USA jedes Jahr die absurdesten und sinnlosesten Gerichtsprozesse ausgezeichnet.
Die “Stella Awards” wurden von der real existierenden Stella Liebeck inspiriert. 1992 kaufte sich die damals 79-jährige Stella einen Becher Kaffee bei McDonald’s, nahm ihn mit ins Auto, klemmte ihn zwischen die Beine und fuhr los. Das Heißgetränk schwappte über und verbrannte ihre “intimen” Stellen. Sie verklagte McDonald’s (sie meinte, Fastfood Restaurants müssen auf die Temperatur des Kaffees hinweisen und vor solcher unsachgemäßen Transportvariante warnen). Ein Gericht in New Mexiko sprach ihr daraufhin eine Schadensersatzsumme von 2,9 Millionen Dollar zu. Seitdem werden mit den “Stella Awards” die bizarrsten und absurdesten Gerichtsurteile ausgezeichnet.

Auf der offiziellen Homepage der True Stella Awards finden Sie neben den Originalfällen noch ein Archiv mit den ‘Preisträgern’ der letzen Jahre, ein Diskussionsforum sowie eine Mailingliste.

  • English for the curious 🙂
    The Stella Awards were inspired by Stella Liebeck. In 1992, Stella, then 79, spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee onto her lap, burning herself. A New Mexico jury awarded her $2.9 million in damages. Ever since, the name “Stella Award” has been applied to any wild, outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits. This is the official website: True Stella Awards, where you can find the cases, and the winners of past years.
    The winners of the 2004 Stella Awards are available here. You better take a look, they’re really weird and the cases are sometimes even stupid 😀

Category: General, Media, International | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 2 2005

Swimming To The Top…



Maria Asfoura, a thirteen-year-old Palestinian swimmer from Bethlehem, is an example of the Palestinian persistence in proving real talent and achieving success regardless of all difficulties.
She is a living proof that Palestinians are strong and ambitious people who will let nothing stand in their way, not even occupation.
Her dream is to raise the Palestinian flag at the 2008 Olympic Games in China.

Her journey began at the age of six when Maria’s swimming instructor recognized her natural gift and encouraged her to enroll in the De La Salle sports club in Bethlehem. With the encouragement of her trainer at the club, Musa Nawawreh, and her parents she developed quickly. In her first race in Ramallah, she received a gold medal and that really encouraged her to work even harder.
Considered the best Palestinian swimmer her age, Maria specializes in the freestyle and butterfly strokes at 50 and 100 meters. She has competed well in China, Germany, Jordan and Algeria and her trophy case proves it, with her 31 gold medals and 30 some silver and bronze medals. Maria has also traveled to Greece to be with the Palestine team at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, to show her support.
And since it’s sometimes hard to balance school and swimming, Maria gets a lot of support from her teachers who often visit her at home on weekends to tutor her for classes that she has missed. The Israeli occupation presents its fair share of challenges as well. Born to Palestinian parents in Colombia, Maria is able to travel on her El Salvadorian passport to leave Palestine through Jordan. Otherwise, it would be much more difficult to receive permission to leave through Jordan. “When I travel I see the difference; what it’s like not to live under occupation” she notes. Maria finds comfort when other athletes at competitions abroad express their solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom. In Greece and Algeria she and other Palestinian athletes were even asked for their autographs.
Maria is now training for next summer’s World Championships in Montréal, Canada. The challenge of proving herself on the world stage is something Maria looks forward to.
“Although we have to struggle for freedom, we also have to keep working and training” Maria says.

We wish you the best of luck Maria, hoping your dream will come true and we’ll see Palestine’s flag raised high up in the sky reaching out for millions of people in the Olympics and wherever you and other Palestinian athletes go.
We are so proud of you…
Via: This Week In Palestine.

To learn more about Maria, visit her website where you can find a photo gallery and information about her life in both Arabic and English.

Category: Entertainment, Palestine, Women | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 1 2005

UNFAIR!

Today I went to the bank (one of the prestigious yet highly complicated in procedures) to check some work-related documents. The place was full, I had to wait for my turn. I was lucky enough to find a chair next to the cash-distributing ladies. There were two long queues, and although it’s not a habit of mine to stare at people while they withdraw money, yet my place forced me to at least overhear what’s going on.
While I was trying to keep myself busy checking some papers, I heard a guy begging the counter lady to allow him to withdraw more than the maximum limit for an emergency.

Lady: Can’t you see you’ve got only 100 Dinars left in your account? You can’t withdraw the whole amount!
Guy: Believe me it’s an emergency, I’ve been dealing with this bank for 3 years, never done anything wrong, I will put in some money as soon as possible, you should trust me.
Lady: Sorry, rules are rules, can’t do anything to help you.
Guy: Ok, let me talk to the manager and I’ll sign any kind of guarantee, I just need the money, it’s highly urgent!
Lady: Sorry, the boss does not involve himself in such issues.
Guy: Please, help me, I’m ready to do anything, anything at all…
Lady: Next please…

AT THE SAME TIME IN THE QUEUE NEXT TO IT
Man: I need to withdraw 2500 Dinars.
Lady2: your account has only 2300 Sir, you’ve been using your credit card a lot lately.
Man: Oh, I gave it to my wife to do some shopping, that explains everything.
Lady2: so how much would you like to withdraw?
Man: I guess I have no choice but withdraw the whole amount, you see I wanna buy stuff, really good quality.
Lady2: But you know our rules Sir, there should be…
Man: Seems like you don’t know who I am!
Lady2: You’ve been our client for 1 year, I know
Man: I can make you lose your job if I like, where is your manager?
(the lady calls the manager, he comes down, gets an explanation)
Manager: he wanted the whole amount you give it to him, you don’t even think twice about it.
Lady2: But the guarantees, our rules boss!!
Manager: They are not made for him. He’s a VIP. (he looks at the man) Ok Sir, you can go now, no worries about filling your account, consider this bank your own…

The guy in the next queue decided to benefit from the presence of the manager, he runs to him and explains the situation, the manager replies:if someone told you this bank is a charity institution, someone has made a BIG MISTAKE! Get out of the way son…

Category: Arab Societies, General | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 1 2005

BABA 2004 Results

AquaCool won the award for Best Palestinian Blog in BABA 2004.

Again, my thanks go to Haitham and Mahmood who’ve put great efforts in these Awards and brought Arab bloggers together, and thanks to all who voted for AquaCool and who made me win this Award.

Congratulations to all those who won, and all those who participated 🙂

Category: Arab Societies, Media, International | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 31 2005

THE “Examiner” Pulls Offensive Ad.

On Jan. 27th, the Examiner pulled the offensive advertisement it published earlier this month.

The Examiner: “It has been brought to our attention that a recent advertisement published in Media Week promoting The Examiner has caused concern and offence to readers. On behalf of Clarity Media Group and The Examiner in Washington and San Francisco, we sincerely apologize. Clarity Media will immediately remove this advertisement from their campaign and new artwork will be used for the remaining duration of the marketing program.”

I really respect their positive response and congratulate them on caring for the opinion of their readers.
Hoping that all news agencies and media sources will always investigate every issue they choose to publish to always guarantee the credibility of their agencies and win the satisfaction of their worldwide readers.

Via: PalestineBlogs

Category: General, Media, International, Palestine | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 31 2005

BABA 2004

Well, as all participants probably know by now, the voting in BABA 2004 has been stopped due to some irresponsible actions of some irresponsible individuals.

I would like to thank our friend Haitham and Mahmood for creating the FIRST Arab Blogger Awards EVER! What happened does not make their efforts less, and does not mean they failed in any way.
It’s enough to point out that they have united an unbelievable number of Arab Bloggers, ones I never heard of, and ones that really deserve being known.

Actually, the taste of winning is great, I can’t deny that, but I never focused on that when I’m nominated in any awards, I’ve always looked for new people, wanted to know how other bloggers of other cultures think, what topics concern them, and things like that, because that’s what interests me in blogging, this is why I created this blog in the first place, I never created it to enter competitions. Knowledge, opening more doors to new blogospheres is what I consider the real profit… that’s why I believe BABA 2004, was a success.

Again, thank you Haitham and Mahmood for BABA 2004, looking forward to BABA for the years to come. And last but not least, my deepest appreciation to all those who voted for me in any category 🙂

Category: Arab Societies, General | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 31 2005

If I Were…

Another post inspired by Subzero Blue (I was so excited that I added 5 more points to the list :D)
If I were a musical instrument, I’d be a flute.
If I were a song, I’d be “I will survive”.
If I were a word, I’d be “Hope”.
If I were a color, I’d be green.
If I were a home, I’d be a country house.
If I were a place, I’d be a green mountain overseeing the sea.
If I were a car, I’d be a 4×4.
If I were an animal, I’d be a wild horse.
If I were a fruit, I’d be a mango 🙂
If I were a language, I’d be Arabic.
If I were a piece of art, I’d be a painting.
If I were a machine, I’d be a camera.
If I were a season, I’d be spring.
And if I were environment, I’d get rid of all human beings 😛

Category: Just Personal | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 28 2005

Work Diaries (16): business trip to UAE

I’ve been working really hard lately, and during my one year in my current job I’ve trained myself into various software applied by the company I work for. As I was told, I’ve been doing a great job 🙂 so the manager in the mother company put my name on the list of employees to go for a business training in UAE which was supposed to take place last November. The trip is to give me a professional training in the software. My boss approved, and everything was fine. I was thrilled. I even thought I could convince my husband to get few days off so that we’d share this experience together. The trip was postponed till February, and I was asked to wait for a final confirmation to book my flight.

Yesterday, my boss comes to me and says:
Boss: Please book me a flight to UAE next week, I’m going for a business trip.
Eman: Consider it done. How long are you going to stay?
Boss: Well you know, a week, till the training is complete. Remember! The software training you were going to?
Eman: Yes, I do, it was supposed to be in February as well.
(my brain started functioning: GOD!!!!)
Boss: Yep, it is your course!
(talking to myself: I HATE YOU)
Eman: But… the training is for the software I’m working at, you don’t use it and..
Boss: Eman, they’ll train me, I’ll meet up with some old friends, have some good time, come back here, and train you what they trained me!
(OH I HATE YOU! You go, have fun, get all the nice part of the story, and I DO ALL THE WORK TRAPPED IN THIS OFFICE, NO SIR I wont let you go with it, I will speak up this time, this is so unfair)
Eman: NO! ….. no need to worry about anything sir. I wish you a nice trip.
(and I’ll probably go KILL MYSELF)

Category: My Work Diaries | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 28 2005

PalestineBlogs.com

Viva Palestine!

Haitham Sabbah announced the launch of PalestineBlogs.com, echoing the sentiments of Pro-Palestine and Anti-Zionist.
The new blog will provide users with a comprehensive overview of Palestine’s current and previous issues; news clippings; reblog news; debate forum (forum currently under construction) and a lot more.

Invitations will be sent soon to some pro-Palestine bloggers to join the editing team. However, all Pro-Palestine and Anti-Zionist bloggers are welcome to join too. If you are interested, kindly contact us at: admin [at] PalestineBlogs [dot] com.

I would also like to thank Haitham for this great idea and congratulate him on his constant efforts in putting his creative ideas in action.

I’m so happy, and can’t wait to be a part of this 🙂

Via: Sabbah’s Blog

Category: Palestine | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 27 2005

Our Little Adha Corner :)

And this pic is of the corner we made for the Holy Eid Al Adha in our home. It has mom’s chocolates, greeting cards my family sent for the occassion, the Holy Quran, some other chocolates and some ma3moul I was strong enough to resist eating 🙂

Category: Just Personal, Religion | LEAVE A COMMENT