The First Weekenders Group

If we move fast, we can curb the film world's male bias

Going to movies directed by women as soon as they are released is a pragmatic and enjoyable form of feminist activism

Natasha Walter
Tuesday September 26, 2006

This is the sort of activism that we should be participating in...and this is the sort of stuff that I miss the most about living in the UK. Makes me want to go back. :(

The Month has started!

The countdown to Eid has started for me...but more importantly this Ramadan is that I have decided to give up drinking for the whole of the month. I am not doing it so much out of respect for my fellow fasters...but more because it is detox and I want to see if I have the ability to do that. Don't get me wrong I am not an alcoholic, but I enjoy my glass of wine/gin and tonic/Mexican beer...also I guess it is a bit out of respect. I have Christian friends who don't drink during Ramadan, so you would think that a born Muslim would at least attempt it!
I heard the strangest comment last night, a group of people were sitting having a drink and talking about what they are going to do this Ramadan, and one of them stated-loudly or how else would I have heard it-that he plans to have a drink just before Iftar today, and if anyone wants to join him. Now how rude and unneeded is that?!?!? Especially to say it out load, in a public place. No wonder people get violent sometimes, I mean even me who doesn't believe in any of this wanted to get up and slap him a few times. I have no problem with people drinking, but there is NO need to make it such an obvious statement, sit at home, text/call your friends, and invite them over for a pre-iftar drink!
Anyway so that we don't end this post on a negative note,
I wish all those who are fasting a Ramadan Mubarak.
All those who are forced to fast a Ramadan Mubarak.
and all those who are not fasting a Ramadan Mubarak.
Enjoy the tents, and enjoy the Mint Tea!

Taybeh Festival: village fete meets 'Oktoberfest'

Villagers enjoy the beer and the festival atmosphere

A unique event took place in the occupied Palestinian territories at the weekend. The village of Taybeh, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, held their second ever beer festival.

Modelled on Munich's 'Oktoberfest', this Christian village welcomed over 1,000 international and Palestinian visitors to enjoy their packed programme of traditional, and not-so-traditional, musical and theatrical events, and to support their local produce, including their renowned Taybeh beer.

Rest of article

Maan News Agency
Date: 19 / 09 / 2006

Leap of Faith

As I stated earlier, I am revisiting old episodes of Lost. In the third episode of Series two, there is a discussion between Jack and Locke over what is easier to believe or not to believe? I for one always thought/felt that people who believed in things such as fate, destiny, serendipity, or religion seemed to be taking the easier option. Its nice to believe that things are mapped out, that there is someone who is taking care of us who is on the look out for us. It seemed to me that they were taking the responsibility of their actions and placing it in some other 'beings' hands. But then again maybe people who don't believe-such as myself-are also taking the easy option. We have decided that everything needs to be questioned, that everything needs to be challenged, which in my opinion is a good thing-but what if in some cases it is OK just to accept things? To let issues, dramas, people, situations just go! To believe that situations we find yourself in are part of a bigger plan, a plan to get us to where we are 'supposed to be'. That place might be good, bad or just neutral but it is a place. I know that I have thought it a number of times, if I had not failed my first year at university, I would have met the people that I ended up meeting, I would not have had the experiences I had. For sure the logic is I would have had others, and maybe they would have been better, but it shows you how things sometimes happen for with or without reason. I guess it how we read these 'reasons', 'signs' whatever you wanna call them, is how we become who we are.

In the case of Lost is is all about the button should they press it or not, should we believe that if we don't press it the world would end, so should we not press it just to prove that the world won't end? I didn't like that fact that they pressed the button-made them a slave of it in the end, I felt that Jack should have stood his ground. But at the same time I understood why HE had to press it, what if the world did end? Would someone want to have that on their score card? I guess also for a Man of Science like him-in my case a woman of science-its with a feeling of relief that we press the button...the we take the leap of faith, guess my question is why not sometimes just believe in something?

Time...

I was watching old episodes of Lost last night and realised that I had always wanted to create a time capsule. So I started to think what I would put in one????
I came up with at least 10 things here they are:

1. My Ipod with all my songs, as well as the top 10 from the BBC Radio 1 web page of the day I put it in the capsule.
2. A homemade video of a day of my life...including seeing my friends, talking with my parents.
3. A DVD with the first and last episode of my favourite shows: Sex and the City, Lost, Alias, OC, and Bold and Beautiful!
   
4. A hard copy of The Guardian and Al-Quds Al-Arabi, and Al-Ghad, and of course Heat and Glamour magazines.
   
5. A copy of my-completed-PhD!!!!
6. A few stands of my hair-in case that when they find the capsule making clones is legal and I will be reborn!!!
7. One Jordanian Dinar.
8. A spoon, fork, knife and chopsticks-in case they don't use them anymore!
   
9. The recipe for Mjadara, Ma2loubeh, and Knafeh.
10. A letter.

Any other suggestions?

The pope

I found this article by my favorite Karen Armstrong on the Guardian. Please do read it.
We cannot afford to maintain these ancient prejudices against Islam

The Pope's remarks were dangerous, and will convince many more Muslims that the west is incurably Islamophobic

Karen Armstrong
Monday September 18, 2006
The Guardian

9/11

I was printing out my masters dissertation, in London. When I got a phone call from a friend of mine, telling me "New York is on fire". I laughed and went on with my printing.
Then I saw people running into the common room of my dorm, and went down just in time to see the second plane go into the World Trade Centre. For the rest of the day all I could do was sit in front of the TV and watch as it all unraveled. Watching people jumping out, and the buildings fall. It really did look like a movie, of course I don't believe these things until I called my parents to see if AlJazeera has also confirmed it. So I call my dad, and get the green light.
At the point I realise that one of my good friends-who's family lives in New York-I had not see all day, so I call him, and he is in such shock that I run over to the pub where he has been drinking, watching, and trying to call home since it all started to happen. I just sit there, no knowing what to say, how to consul him...what does one say?
How did that day effect the world? In so many ways, and we all know them. How did it effect me? (yes very self-centred) Well I was on my way to DC...I had an internship with an NGO there, and I was so excited. I had worked on my parents all throughout my Masters to convince them that I needed a year off to decide if I wanted to do a PhD. I of course realised that this was not going to happen anymore. I then had to go to Saudi for two months-and was so bored and frustrated that I applied for a PhD. Which has been the pain in my backside since 2002!
But the good thing is I got to go to Tanzania...and oh my god how self-centred is this post...bas 3adi...let other people get into the political ramifications of it...I mean we all know about it...we have all seen what has happened to the world since those plans crashed into WTC!
Lets just hope that it won't get any worse.

An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Happiness

Happiness is truly a strange feeling. I had a very strange conversation with my mom last night, where she was kept asking me if I am happy. I kept telling her inno yes mama, for the first time in my life I truly happy. I am healthy, my friends and family are around me, I love Amman-to a certain extent-my PhD is in it's final stages, and I will either find a job here, or go somewhere else-preferable Cairo or New York. The strange thing about the conversation is that she didn't realise that, I reminded her how many times I used to call her from Edinburgh and cry because I was so unhappy, and that here I had not done that. But really do any of us go around saying that we are happy? I sure don't, I know that I am make it unbelievably obvious when I am miserable-to everyone around me-but when I am happy I just get on with life. Isn't that the point of happiness, that you just move along in your life and not have to constantly be thinking about it, reanalysing it, worrying about it? You are just happy. No? As Milan Kundera says: Happiness is the longing for repetition.