December 16 2004

Eine Sozialstudie

Vorurteile gibt es viele, Fakten weniger. Ausländische Mädchen und junge Frauen in Deutschland sind weit karrierebewusster, als die gängigen Klischees es behaupten. Eine neue Sozialstudie über das Leben von Migrantentöchtern des Familienministeriums ist gespickt mit Ãœberraschungen. Junge Muslimas haben ehrgeizige und sehr konkrete Berufspläne und zählen zu den “Bildungsaufsteigerinnen”. Die muslimischen Eltern unterstützen ihre Töchter dabei. In der aktuellen Debatte wird aber die Lebensweise von Migrantinnen als Integrationshemmnis diskutiert. So werden z. B. ihre religiösen Bindungen oder eine starke Familienorientierung als Ausdruck mangelnden Interesses an Integration, Bildung oder an ihrem Lebensumfeld gedeutet. Dass dies von der Realität und auch von der Selbstwahrnehmung junger Migrantinnen keinesfalls gedeckt ist, zeigt die neue Studie. Erstmalig wurden junge Migrantinnen im Alter von 15 bis 21 Jahren türkischer, griechischer, italienischer, ehemals jugoslawischer Herkunft sowie Aussiedlerinnen in Deutschland repräsentativ und umfassend zu einer Fülle von Themen befragt. Die Studie gibt unter anderem Auskunft über Bedingungen des Aufwachsens junger Migrantinnen, die Bedeutung der Familie, Schule und Ausbildung, Partnerschaft und Religiosität.

Quelle: Islamische Zeitung

December 16 2004

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Me

Inspired by Subzero Blue:

  • I love traveling, but hate flying, and I’m scared of heights.
  • I’m fascinated by languages, love knowing the origins of words, and enjoy linking languages together.
  • I have a history in car accidents. When I was in the 4th grade I had the worst one, in which I lost a friend.
  • I love cooking, and I love eating what I cook more than what others cook.
  • I’m hard to impress, hate arrogant people and can’t stand fake ones. I don’t forget good or bad, but I don’t act accordingly.
  • I love nature, love to hang out in the green, and I need fresh air.
  • I don’t fear challenge, and I never get tired or bored of trying.
  • I try to avoid harming environment or wasting its sources in my everyday life.
  • I’d rather play music than listen to it… and I just hate following musical notes, it has to be spontaneous.
  • One of my wishes is to have my own non-profit organization in which I can help needy people.
  • December 15 2004

    Environmental Quote…

    “The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river”. ~Ross Perot

    December 15 2004

    Linux 4 Arab



    I think this Linux 4 Arab logo is simply adorable 😉

    December 14 2004

    A Day In My Life… “Youm Fi Hayati”

    Is a wonderful program I watched on Dubai TV last week. The program can be considered a type of reality programs, a very successful one, and better than many of the silly ones offered to watch people do nothing useful.

    “Youm Fi Hayati” as it’s called in Arabic, is presented by the Egyptian Mariam Ameen, and teaches people to respect each others careers, lives, abilities or even disabilities.

    There are 4 participants in each episode. They’re divided into 2 groups of two. In each group, one of the participants lives the life of the other with all its details for 2 days, yes, whole 48 hours. This offers the participant the chance to know how the life of his partner in the team goes, what difficulties he/she faces, and how he/she manages.
    Of course not all participants succeed in adapting to the life of the other, and this is decided by the audience, who watch the filming of those 48 hours.
    The program is so touching, it makes people know what it’s like to be someone else, makes people thank God for what they’ve got, and work harder to become better. It’s truly moving and a lot of emotions are involved.
    Last episode, a famous journalist had to live the life of an amazingly talented disabled man from UAE. The journalist had to use the wheelchair, was prohibited to use his feet and had to go through the other’s whole life, from his job, to his leisure time hobbies, to his social relationships, everything. It was amazing and sooooo touching!
    And the other participant, a Saudi student had to live the life of a Lebanese man who has a bee farm and is responsible for honey production. It was hilarious, specially with those many bee bites, ouch! 😉

    I just love programs that serve a humanitarian goal!

    You can watch it on Dubai TV every Tuesday at 22: 30 UAE Time (18:30 GMT). Don’t miss it!

    December 14 2004

    Out Of The Blue…



    The other day, after work, and as I was opening my apartment door I heard this cute little Meow so close to me, and before I could see the source, I felt something rubbing my shoes, and voila, it was this little kitten. I just love cats, but I’m scared of them when they’re too close to me and I don’t know where they came from. It was really weird to find it there, it was so dark and we live in a relatively high floor. The cat started doing these “trained-pet-movements” which indicated it was owned by someone, i.e. it got lost by accident, or maybe they decided to get rid of it for some reason. It seemed really hungry, and since I didn’t trust its cleanliness, I thought I’d just get it something to eat outside. But it didn’t let me go, it stuck to my trousers and kept staring in this innocent irresistible way. After around 15 minutes I managed to escape and locked it in the stairs, I ran to get it some milk. It took some milk, but seemed wanting something “better” 😛 so I spent more 10 minutes chasing it till I locked it again and got it a small piece of chicken. It started eating, but while that it didn’t stop looking at me. I had to get inside and prepare dinner eventually, so had no choice but to lock it again. I started cooking on the melodies of those little “meow” it kept screaming.
    When my husband came we found out it was no longer there. We went upstairs and searched for it, hoping its owners found it. But we found it on the doorstep of an apartment, left in the cold. We thought it was the apartment of its owners, so we left it and went back to our place, and before we got there it was with us rubbing its little head into my husband’s trousers. Yes, it followed us. It was so cute to be left outside. So we took it inside, we created a cozy warm “bed” for it and put it in our kitchen balcony, which is always warm and has a space for the cat to play. The pics above are of the cat in the balcony. It seemed enjoying the warm piece of cloth and the whole place. We went to have dinner, and after we did, we went to check on our visitor to find it has managed to climb and find itself a spot to hang half its body outside the balcony, so we immediately took it inside before it threw itself and get itself killed. And the chase begun! It kept running in the house, discovering the new place, it grabbed the furniture and started scratching it, messing around with the plants, dolls, and almost everything. We almost went crazy 😛 But honestly, we enjoyed watching it get familiar with its surroundings. Anyway, it kept scratching till the poor couch almost got ruined, that was when we finally decided to get it out again. So we took it out, this time next to our doorstep, put some food for it and left it in a warm place. It was a very hard decision to take, but we couldn’t keep it, specially that both of us will leave to work next time, imagine what it can do to the house when it’s left home alone!
    Next morning, we found no trace of it, not inside nor outside the building, most probably someone kept it. And that was our story with the little cat, which came to us out of the blue…

    December 13 2004

    Ilkone Islamic Mobile Phone



    A new brand of mobile phones called Ilkone is rolling out some really cool looking, feature rich Islamic mobile phones.
    Among its many features, ilkone’s i800 offers automatic precise prayer timing anywhere in the world, an alarm option which can be set to sound before and after the call to prayer (Azan) with actual Azan voice which could be automatically set to silence throughout prayer. It is also capable of establishing Qibla directions from anywhere in the world, automatically pointing towards Mecca, giving full text of the Holy Qur’an approved by Al-Azhar, with English translations. It also provides other features such as Hijri calendar converter and automatic alarm for Sohour Imsak and Iftar during Ramadan.
    Moreover, the revolutionary phone is equipped with GPRS Class 12, giving users the fastest internet connection anywhere in the world.
    Via: Subzero Blue

    December 10 2004

    Work Diaries(14): Shoot Me Please!

    I sent an email to our branch in another country. I wrote the following:
    Please ship package by air to (company name) in (country name) as soon as possible.

    10 minutes later I get the following reply:
    Eman, please advise company and country name. Also confirm whether we should ship by air, or sea!!

    December 10 2004

    Kenyan Environmentalist Wins Nobel Prize

    Wangari Maathai, Kenya’s deputy environment minister won Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, to be the first African woman to win the Peace Prize.
    Details…