Friday, May 9, 2008
One more thing to check off..
Ok so here's the deal.. check out the news item published on
TUESDAY, 22nd APRIL 2008.. lol..
Our sister paper snubbed
"MANAMA: Iraq's Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshiyar Zebari yesterday expelled our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej's reporter from a Press conference at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa. He gave instructions to Iraq Embassy Plenipotentiary Minister Ahmed Shafeeq Al Agha to bar Abdulla Al Mannai from a round-table Press gathering, on the sidelines of the conference.
He also levelled insults at the newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Anwar Abdulrahman and Deputy Editor for Foreign Affairs Sayyed Zahra.
When asked for reasons for such a hostile attitude, the plenipotentiary minister told AK's reporter: "We refuse to deal with people like you! We don't mean you in person, but Anwar Abdulrahman and Sayyed Zahra".
"Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshiyar Zebari himself wants this message to reach Anwar Abdulrahman", the minister told the reporter, even handing him his business card.
When the reporter was preparing to leave, the minister kissed him, saying: "We don't deal with people like radicals Anwar Abdulrahman and Sayyed Zahra who are both hostile to Iraq".
Abdulla was even denied transport. He had earlier travelled to the Press conference venue in an Iraq Embassy car.
Akhbar Al Khaleej has published many editorials denouncing the invasion of Iraq as a disaster. "
Yes, it was my moment to shine.. this was followed by 3 days of streams of denounciations from multiple bodies, and I wrote a 1500 word column about it. It was basically the talk of the town!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Parliament – Helmets and Pads Not Included
A good friend of mine told me once a long time ago that she doesn’t understand why people call for cultural tolerance since the word tolerance inherently means keeping people at an arm’s length, when we should be calling for cultural understanding. Now change cultural to sectarian in that sentence, and apply it to our Parliament, and I would be happy with simple appeasement and civility.
Today, I attended my first session of the Bahraini Parliament, and although I expected a fight since there was a major issue on the table which certain parties in parliament and admittedly their puppet masters, the government, did not want to be addressed, I did not expect there to be a serge of sectarian tensions and sectarian remarks strewn across the floor. I’m not taking sides in this issue, yet, but I have to say that the lack of ability to compromise and the lack of knowledge of the political game at hand and in some cases the fundamentalist views of certain members from “both sides of the aisle” is causing this parliament to do more harm than good. It seems to me that our great MPs, all of them, have lost track of what’s important, the people.
How they hell do you get a racially charged parliament to pass secular laws that benefit the whole population, and if this continues, this will definitely spill onto the streets and then what? Mayhem again? Back to the days of the mid 90’s when
However there is one crucial element missing. You see, In any work place you will always find a clown, a trouble maker, a hero, a simple person who doesn’t care much about anything, a conciliatory person, and a leader. In our parliament (the workplace of our great MPs), though, there seems to be an over abundance of wanna be heroes and clowns, and no leader what so ever for MPs to look up to.
Today the session got to a point where I feared that it would turn physical like it did once before, and even though I don’t think that this issue will resolve itself soon, I do believe that if a solution is not found to the core issues facing parliament, then becoming a Bahraini MP will be like participating in an extreme sport, helmets and pads not included.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Rest In Peace - Katherine
The email that I sent out to my close friends and those who knew or heard of Katherine when I heard of her passing was something along those lines. I find myself thinking of her frequently these past few days, especially the moments I spent with her and Andrew in the hospital and again at home during my visits to
The only problem is I cannot find one bad thing to say about her except that she was so stubborn and hard headed, but even that was part of her charm, and probably was the reason why she was able to take her illness and everything else happening around her with such confidence and strength, and is probably the reason why she survived for so long. She passed away less than 3 months after her wedding, but I'm sure that those were the happiest days of her life.
I miss her, as I'm sure everyone else who knew her does. Rest in peace Katherine, there simply aren't too many people around like you these days.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Worries and Dreams
So, after finally being able to walk thanks to a couple of "well placed" shots (sitting is another matter though :P), I can resume my regular posts.
And the dreaming part, well, that's even worse! Before I even start most things, I've already dreamt up the outcome, the glory and the success. So, before I make a deal, I've already dreamt up how much money I'm going to make off of it, and debated with myself how I'm going to spend the money, and what kind of new investments I'm going to get into, and probably how much those investments are going to make me. And right after I spent 5 min. with a girl that I like I've probably already dreamt up the wedding night, honeymoon, how many kids we'll have (maybe even named them), our house, and what arguments would lead to a divorce. This happened without fail, every.. single.. time.. with the exception of once, where even though I wanted it to work out the most, I "knew" logically that it wouldn't. Of course they didn't know this, actually, no one knew this till now...
EXHAUSTING!! I mean, between worrying and dreaming, I almost have no time to live. Who cares if the cat got hit by a car? It's its owners' fault for letting it out. Who cares if this 15 yr old girl is "experimenting" with boys? The worst that could happen is she gets pregnant and it's her parents' damn fault anyway. My friends are all adults, and they can take care of themselves. And if she agrees to move here and marry me, then I'd be the happiest man alive, but If she doesn't, then I might as well make lemonade with the lemons I have.
So I decided on the following:
What good is it going to do anyone if I worry or dream? All that I can do is give advice, help, and love unconditionally. If they don't want to listen it's their own fault, and I might be wrong anyway. I will help if asked and help in the most intrusive way possible if not asked to help. This is not because I know best and they might not even need the help, heck I can't even get my own life straight, but because, even though I'm not going to be an obsessives worrier, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I found out later that I was able to help, and didn't.
As for the dreaming, every time I dream about the end before it even begins, I will remind myself that I probably should've been on my private jet right now heading to China to seal a multi-million dollar deal, and instead I'm sitting on my computer writing this. And maybe, just maybe, if I had spent less time dreaming and more time working, I'd actually be on that plane.
Monday, January 28, 2008
OUCH!!
"OWWW.. stupid gout. This transformation thing is not going to work without a full (health) makeover. OWWWW!! I think I’m taking the day off tomorrow!!!!"
For those of you who do not know what gout is I present this:
"gout - [gout] – noun 1. an acute, recurrent disease characterized by painful inflammation of the joints, chiefly those in the feet and hands, and esp. in the great toe, and by an excess of uric acid in the blood."
Yes, yes I couldn't move and forget about sleeping. My gout was so bad I wasn't sure that I wanted my foot anymore. So I hopped my way to the car, got in and drove myself to the hospital (for those that were wondering it was my left foot that was hurting), got a needle in the ass, and now I'm much better. Anyway, I looked like a complete fool, in my Stewey PJs and Homer "slippers". Pain can be a big wake-up call, so I decided that enough is enough and I have to take better care of my health. Here's a picture of myself in my "hospital outfit"... It was just too funny.. I had to share!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
On The Turning Away
On the Turning Away
Dear Mr. President by Pink. If you ignore the personal attack on Bush, which, even though I don't like him, I do not condone, it's a song for everyone.