April 2 2004

Orphan’s Day

So many people love the Dream TV satellite channel. It offers special programs and has one of the most successful advertising facilities.
Today, April 2nd, Egypt celebrates the “Orphan’s Day”, and Dream TV decided to celebrate the occasion with all children who have no families and no parents by gathering the kids and other people including some celebrities in Dream Land.
I think this is a very human touch that will make so many children know they’re remembered and thought of.
If you’re in Egypt, why don’t you go participate in this social activity and add more smiles on the faces of those lonely children!
If you’ve never heard of Dream TV for one reason or the other you can read about an interview made with Dr. Hala Sarhan about Dream TV and its concept.

Category: Arab Societies, Media, International | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 2 2004

High-Tech-Fans Products

Among the most common problems a person can get when constantly sitting in front of a p.c. screen are the: tensed back, cold fingers, and headache.
And because of its concern about customers satisfaction, Hama offers a “healthy”, creative, one of a kind product, which is a
USB-massage ball that guarantees a bit of relaxation in your office:) .
This USB –massage ball is simply connected via USB, and starts vibrating in a click. It’s also considered economic.
Its vibrations give a comforting massage that relieves stiffness and pain. I personally liked the product, and hope they’ll keep on thinking of creative solutions for this tiresome life.

Category: Cool Stuff, General | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 1 2004

April Fool’s Day, April’s Lie, Or Poisson d’Avril:

Ancient cultures used to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1. But in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar, the “Gregorian Calendar”, to replace the “Julian Calendar”. The new ordered calendar called for celebrating New Year’s Day on January 1.
Such a big change has been refused by many French people, and some of them didn’t learn about it, so they continued to celebrate on April 1, which gave a very great opportunity for others who have accepted the change and who already learned about it to make fun of those who didn’t, and started tricking them into believing something false.

The French came to call April 1 “Poisson d’Avril”, or “April Fish.” French children sometimes tape a picture of a fish on the back of their schoolmates, crying “Poisson d’Avril” when the prank is discovered.
In 1752, Great Britian finally changed over to the Gregorian Calendar, and called April 1: April Fool’s Day.
Among Arabs, people call this day April’s Lie (Kethbat Nisanl) because most of the tricks are lies trying to make someone believe something false.

But at the time so many people believe April 1 is one of the most light-hearted days of the year for its jokes and tricks, I personally don’t like so much because of the misapplication of people. Some people think that they wont have a great April Lie unless they SHOCK someone else with bad news, like claiming that someone dear to them has had an accident and is in coma, or that someone is hit by a car and is dead, or that someone has had a heart attack and is now between life and death, or that someone is paralyzed… or things like that.
And although such people mean nothing but a joke, and lie only for fun, but they’re not aware of the very dangerous side-effects of their shocking news. Some sensitive people get nervous breakdowns, others get heart attacks, some went blind, some lose their loved ones, and so on. And what I’ve noticed in some cases, is when someone claims they’ve had a car accident when they didn’t, this someone actually has a car accident few weeks later.
On the other hand, I hate it because any news, no matter happy or not, I have doubts whether they’re true, or some kind of April Fool’s Day tricks. So I imagine if someone calls their friend asking for help, and this friend have been tricked over and over again on April 1, there might be a very big possibility that this person wouldn’t believe a word said, and will end up not helping his/her friend who’s in need for help!
Anyway, whether I like it or not, so many people enjoy fooling others on this day, so I guess all I can do is warn you to keep calm and never get so emotionally involved when hearing any kind of news. If someone asks you for help, don’t turn them down, and even if it turned out to be nothing but a lie, then you wont regret being there for that someone. And being an April Fool is much better than being a disloyal useless person.
I’ve just recalled my little sister’s english course presentation in her 1st year of university. It was about April Fool’s Day. I remember how she prepared for it and how she commented on it and the results of her presentation. It was great 🙂 I miss you sis.
For more information about April Fool’s Day Click Here , and for some cool jokes and tricks check this out . You can also send someone an April Fool’s Card .

Category: General | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 31 2004

Star Academy on LBC & WorldBest

Of course I don’t need to get into introductions since this Star Academy Show have had so much attention and success in the Arab World similar to its success in the European world.
Everybody talks about it, people are stuck in their homes just to watch the participants’ every day life, websites have dedicated themselves to cover its latest updates, and, and, and…
Actually, I’m not against having good programs, even if they were an imitation of someone else’s idea as long as they try to make it match people’s tastes and respect their traditions. In short, sometimes programs of a certain kind are considered extremely open to eastern countries, just like many programs are considered rather conservative to western ones.
So it’s not wrong to choose a program that was a great success, but it’s smart to modify it with one’s own touches, to give it a creative more suitable spirit than just having it as a copy.
Anyway, the Arabic Star Academy of Lebanon has gathered thousands of audience, and succeeded in getting both their attention and support. Whereas some other people thought it was
unsuitable in terms of religion or politics . According to some religion people, Star Academy doesn’t match religious morals, in the sense of having people of both sexes put together all the time, and exposing their everyday life which should be kept private. On the other hand, they consider it a cheap imitation and request modifying some certain aspects. Some went as far as boycotting the whole program, which I find so tough. I mean I do understand what they’re trying to say, but life isn’t only black or white, there should be some flexibility. And instead of stopping some show that has got the youth’s attention, we could work on it to make it even more successful in our own terms.
Now to politicians, some believe that such a program keeps the youth away from getting involved in their own countries’ political concerns. They believe the program draws their attention far away from some core problems and true concerns that will never be solved without their participation and their attention. I agree with them on one point, that this generation is way out off track when it comes to belonging to their homelands and trying to play a role in solving their own problems. But this isn’t only the fault of the so many fun-shows on TV, it’s the fault of the society itself that doesn’t raise them on a strong base of political knowledge and doesn’t encourage them to try to be useful members of society.
How would youth express themselves freely when they know they’ll be put in prison if they said something “against” the policies applies in their countries?
Therefore, before blaming it all on Star Academy or any other program, let’s clean up the infrastructure of our brains and organize our societies as a whole. In this way, not only Star Academy, but even 10 similar programs wont stand in the way of people being involved in building a healthy society.
Yesterday, we watched WorldBest. Unfortunately we missed some of it, specially the part of the Lebanese Bruno performing. But well, at least we watched the results. The French Elodie was the one who won, she truly deserved it. She has a beautiful voice, sings right and is elegant as well. Of course, others who didn’t win shouldn’t be sad, because they reached advanced levels. Not to forget that not all were singing in their mother language, and this plays a very big role. The confidence of someone singing in a foreign language, even if they’re fluent, is less than those who are singing in their own languages.
I really wished Bruno will get higher positions, but never mind, he participated and represented Arabs over there and this is wonderful by itself. I liked the voice of the Chilean Monica, and the Argentinean Emanuel, they were really good. But I was shocked with the Russian 17 year old Julia. I mean in the review of her songs and all, she had a great voice, but unfortunately she chose Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn”, which doesn’t match her beautiful voice, and although she sang with feeling, and she did it right, but still the layers were unfair to her strong voice.
Anyway, I wish all participants the best of luck, and hope they’ll be all happy for those who win.
For the details of WorldBest in French Click Here , for Comments on it in English ClickHere

Category: Entertainment, Media, International | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 30 2004

28 Years And For As Long As It Might Take…

Today is the Palestinian Land Day. A Day Palestinians use to raise their voices and remind us all of their Land: PALESTINE, the land they lost by force, the Land that they will keep on struggling for until they get back.
This Holy Land where the three religions were born, and where the three religions should live in peace. It was never created for violence to come kick out this land’s peaceful people, take their rights, kill their children, kill their animals or burn their trees.
Today when no one could find the word Palestine on a map, but can find it kept inside the hearts of people who allowed themselves of seeing the truth, people who believe in human rights and conscious.
28 years, and the Palestinians didn’t forget their dream of getting back peace to their country. 28 years and they didn’t forget Palestine, neither did we, nor did them who took it in the name of “religion”, “superiority” and “being more worth it”.
Religion is a synonym for peace; peace is a synonym for love; love is a synonym for sharing; sharing is a synonym for fair; fair is a synonym for happiness; happiness is a synonym for appreciation; appreciation is a synonym for remembering; remembering is a synonym for longing; longing is a synonym for home; and home is a synonym for PALESTINE…

Category: Palestine | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 30 2004

Great News for All the Women Out There:

It turns out housework reduces cancer risk. Not only this, but even the ones who already have cancer can decrease the risk of death, improve survival and reduce the tumor size 🙂
Which means the more active you are, the healthier your life will be. Therefore, drop those electric helping machines, dismiss your maids, stop being lazy and get moving girls 😉
For more details about the research Click Here

Category: General, Women | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 30 2004

Work Diaries (1) : Living the “One Fine Day” experience :)

My job puts me in the weirdest situations. Best part is that I have to “manage” one way or the other, to deal with different people of different levels, different cultures, and last but not least, different LANGAUGES!!
Lol, yep, languages, the key word to my stickiest situations. When I was a kid and started learning English as a second language, I was so damn excited and thought: “I’m gonna be special, I can speak English”. Shortly after that I realized that it is great to speak English fluently, but you can’t be special when almost all people around you speak English. And because I adore something called languages, I thought I should be specialized in a new language in university. Back then the only choices open were to learn either French, or English/ French, or German, or English/ German. And because the third language taught in many private schools was French, I though German would be new and special, and why not prove my English skills at the same time? So I ended up double majoring English and German. I was SURE three languages will unlock all doors of communication and working in future. It was until I got to Tunisia that I knew I was WRONG 😛 people speaking French and all is something I’ve already talked about 100 times before, but it isn’t what made me realize that 3 languages are not enough. It was this job I have. I was hired for my good English in the first place, and was assured I wont need to use any other language except for Arabic. But from day 1 I figured out that French comes as free gift with the package of my post, lol, it’s ok because I can handle myself and my course is helping me improve. But the disaster is when I need to contact an English speaking fellow in somewhere like MEXICO for example. Now the problem is not with the person himself, but in how to get to that person when no one else around speaks neither English nor French nor German!!
I had to call a Mr. Lopez, I dialed the number and there someone picked up:
Him: Hola! ———————– (I understood nothing)
Me: Hi, this is Eman, from … Tunisia, I need to speak to Mr. Lopez please.
Him: hahaahahaha (laughs) ———————– (once again I understood no word)
Me: Sorry, don’t you speak English?
Him: No , No English (hahahaha)
Me: Parlez Vous Français?
Him : Hahahaha, ———– el español, —- el inglés es secundario,——-
Me: Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
Him: hahaha,——– el español, ——
Me: Mr. Lopez!! Lopez!!
Him: Señor Lopez———-
Me: ok forget about it, bye.
Him: hahahaha

After hanging up I go to the manager and explain the disaster, he was shocked that such a big company has not a single employee that speaks English! But he made it clear, that it was urgent and I have to get to Mr. Lopez in any way.
So I had to figure out a way, and I had no other choice than this “very smart” idea, lol, well, I went to freetranslation.com, and opened dictionary.com just to double check if words are somehow the same and if the syntax is right, although no online dictionary could give a 100% accurate and correct context, but better than nothing right! Anyway I wrote sentences that might be said in such a situation with all answering possibilities -that I could think of- , created a word document with the conversation possibilities and called again:
Him: Hola! ————–
Me: Hola mi nombre es Eman, yo soy de Túnez, yo necesito hablar con Sr. Lopez por favor.
Him: hahahaha (first time I know why he laughed: my terrible accent), El no está aquí (which means he’s not here)—————— (couldn’t keep track :P)
Me: Cómo pueda yo lo alcanzo, es realmente urgente? (how can I reach him, it’s really urgent).
Him: ———————————- (not a word matched any of the answers I had) and then he went on :—————————-
I know he thought I knew Spanish, so I explained: Yo no puedo hablar español, por favor lo hace corto y me da su número de móvil (I can’t speak Spanish, please make it short and give me his mobile number)
Him: no ninguna señora, usted habla muy bien (no no madame, you speak very well), and then he went : —————————–
Me: QUE ES SU NUMERO DE MOVIL ? (WHAT IS HIS MOBILE NUMBER?)
Him: ————————— (said the numbers in Spanish)
Me: gracias y adios (thank you and bye)
Him: hahahahaa, adios, —————–

I hung up and my boss was like: “ Few minutes ago you had a problem speaking to that Spanish guy and now look at you!! You never mentioned you can speak Spanish!!” , I replied: “yeah, because I never spoke Spanish”, and then explained the trick. I really remembered my favorite movie: “One Fine Day”, I’ve always loved that movie, but I never thought I’d ever be put in such an embarrassing situation, not only this, but also the names me and George Clooney were looking for were the same: “Lopez” looool. Anyway, after laughing my head off, I finally called this Sr. Lopez, who spoke fluent English. I explained the urgent matter and he said:”I will get back to you with the information you need as soon as I reach the office, which is 3 hours from now, because it’s FIVE in the morning!”.
It was till then that I realized why there was not a single English speaking person to help me out. The one who replied was the guard!! And he doesn’t need more than Spanish to communicate simply because he’s not supposed to get calls at 5 a.m.!! I was embarrassed like hell. And well, it’s not that I only disturbed the guard and the poor guy in his home, but I also wasted my time translating and putting phrases together!!!
Ah, c’est la vie, if we don’t make mistakes we’ll never learn, and if we don’t piss off people, we’re never human 😛

Category: My Work Diaries | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 30 2004

Assistenzärztin wird Millionärin

Die 38-Jährige aus Bietigheim in Baden- Württemberg, Assistenzärztin Maria Wienströer, ist die erste weibliche Kandidatin, die eine Million Euro bei Günther Jauchs Quizshow „Wer wird Millionär?“ gewonnen hat.
Super, oder?
Und während viele Gewinner/in meistens mit: “ich weiß noch nicht” auf die Frage: ”Was werden Sie mit dem Geld tun?” antworten, Maria hat ihre Pläne ganz einfach geäußert. Will sie ihr altes Auto und ihre durchschnittliche Wohnung wechseln? Nie!! Sie wird ihre Ausbildung zur Fachärztin für Allgemeinmedizin abschließen und eine eigene Praxis eröffnen. Und noch mehr, Maria will ein Teil ihres Geldes einer Hilfsorganisation “Leprastation” spenden. Ideal, nicht wahr?!
Ich bin ganz froh für Maria und bin mit ihren eigenen Zielen sehr beeindruckt. Sie ist weder egoistisch noch gierig. Sie ist ganz hilfreich, strebsam und genügsam.
Mehr über Marias Gewinnung und Pläne finden Sie hier .

Category: Posts in German | 1 Comment on Assistenzärztin wird Millionärin
March 29 2004

When My Sister Left To Canada…

So by now my sister and her family must be having a good night sleep in their new home. Yes, they’ve left Jordan to Canada this weekend for good. And what really shocks me is how I feel about all this. I mean I’m not in Jordan any longer, and I already don’t see her nor her family, but still, when I heard the news of her immigration, I had a weird feeling. First I was so happy for her, she’s always wished to go live there for so many reasons, specially insuring a better future for her kids. But then I started missing her like hell, more than I already miss her and her family. I felt she’s leaving my sight to somewhere so far, and that she actually left me to somewhere else. It is weird, I know, but it just happened. I really miss her even more. And every time I remember that she left without me being right there around her, helping her pack, taking care of her two little boys, supporting her and cheering her up, I feel terrible, and I wish I’d go back in time to be there for her. And well, one thought I really hate like hell is the fact that her baby boy will grow up not recognizing his aunt (me) 🙁 I love her kids, specially the 3 year old, as I spent around 2 years with him, and I was there when he came into the world. He’s so cute and so well-behaved, and his voice, it’s just like an angel. He just learned his first few words, and can have this very cute little baby conversation, no baby vocabulary, but grown-ups’ vocabulary with this amazing baby accent 🙂 and this little other devil, he’s still few months old, but has a unique devilish smile that captures your heart, I love them so much. May God be with all of them every step of the way…
Immigration isn’t easy at all, and to take such a decision is not as simple as going like: ok, I have a better option why don’t I just pack and fly to where I want to.
It’s hard for both the immigrants and the ones who love them. And only now that I’m all grown up, I realized how hard it has been to our great mother to leave from place to place with the five of us with no one helping her in any way when the circumstances didn’t allow dad to leave with her. Only now I understood how strong and brave she was to go through such experiences over and over again. I wish we could pay her back in any way, we’ve been the naughtiest kids any family could ever have.
As for sis, I just wish her and her family the best of luck, a stable life and a happy secure future. But well, having my brother there will sure make it so much easier for her. Specially that she and him make a great team together, and they’re still best friends 🙂 she always cared for him, not only him, but all of us actually. And boy oh boy, one shouldn’t miss their gatherings, it’s so fun, you can’t stop laughing, both are magnificent. I’ll miss their presence when I visit Jordan next time, and I hope we’ll be able to gather all together again and have one of those hilarious conversations.
I also hope that mom and dad will get over missing the three of us, three? No, the SEVEN of us, my big brother, my big sister, her husband and her two little cute boys, me and my husband. And well, I wish that if my other sister and brother had to leave Jordan, then they’ll end up either in Canada or in Tunisia, not any other place.
I miss them all, I miss being with them, and I can’t wait to see them.

Category: Just Personal | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 29 2004

For And Against The Total Smoking Ban

After considering smoking in buses, public offices and buildings in the Irish Republic illegal, Mr. Micheál Martin, Irish Health Minister, proposed a prohibition on smoking in work places, pubs, and restaurants in January 2004. After months of arguing, the Republic’s government has finally decided to apply this total ban starting from today, March 29th 2004, prohibiting smoking in ALL public places.
Of course this ban has divided people into two groups, one is for the ban believing that it guarantees a healthy environment for the non-smokers and helps the smokers lower their health risks caused by smoking. Whereas the other group is strongly against the ban. This last group is not limited to smokers only, but also pub owners, tobacco industry responsible and some “democratic” non-smokers who believe that such a total ban is unfair and takes away people’s rights of choosing and taking their own decisions, and that they’re more into keeping the division of public places into smoking and non-smoking areas.
Actually, I personally support the ban, because I believe it will really help non-smokers limit their smoking average, decrease their expenses as well as health problems, and prevent passive smoking dangers. I mean when a couple of people decide to go out, one is a smoker and the other is not, then they’ll most probably sit in the smoking area, opening the way to passive smoking. On the other hand, sometimes I feel the non-smoking areas could easily turn into a smoking area, because cigarettes spread their smoke so easily, specially that most of the non-smoking areas are not properly separated, they’re open to the smoking areas in most cases.
So I’m one of the people who are for the ban and respect the courage of the Irish government in this issue.
But that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel sorry for the smokers. It isn’t an easy step to take at all. In fact it might cause some chaos and higher anger-levels among the people in the first year of application, but well, it will be for their own good.
To feel what smokers would feel as the consequence of such a ban, and since I’m a non-smoker, I try to imagine how would it be like if for one reason or the other governments start banning drinking coffee in public! Lol, that would be a disaster, I’m literally a coffee addict, and I’ll be suffering if they threw such a ban! And it’s just coffee, I mean coffee addiction is not as hard as smoking addiction, or at least that’s what I think.
Anyway, I do admire such a brave step, and I do support the ban, I even wish they’d do the same in the Arab countries… oops, that would be one hell of a brave decision. And I wish smokers the best of luck and hope they’ll all quit smoking one day, specially my two brothers 🙂
What about you, are you for or against the ban? If you’re for it, go ahead and support it .
Well, speaking of coffee, I should do something about that, it’s not only that I drink more than 5 mugs of sugared coffee a day, no, I even went as far as getting the ones around me addicted.
And because of the strong smell of coffee all day long, my boss who never drank coffee got used to drinking at least a cup of coffee a day, bad bad me 😛 But well, my husband is trying to help set me free of this addiction, and decided to buy only decaffeinated coffee, which isn’t that bad actually, and I hope it’ll help me get over my coffee addiction 🙂

Category: General, Media, International | 1 Comment on For And Against The Total Smoking Ban