No Woman, No Cry!

From my weary eyes falls another unwanted tear
The poet Elizabeth Bishop says in One Art that:
The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent, to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
I agree, somethings should be lost, be it one's innocence, virginity, ability to forgive or not forgive...whatever it may be...bas tears are tough to loose!
Bob Marley says it best:
Everything's gonna be all right!
So no, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry.
I seh, O little - O little darlin', don't shed no tears;
No, woman, no cry, eh.

Sorry Thierry Henry

I have just read the most upsetting piece of news-ok not most upsetting bas it is quite high up there. I am a huge Arsenal fan, have been so for the past couple of years, have watched them go from the top of the Barclays Premiership league to number 7!!! I was even confused the other day since I support both Real Madrid and Arsenal and they were playing each other in the Champions League, and I ended up cheering for Arsenal!!!!
But today while surfing through BBC news, I was blown away when I read Israel Seeking Goal with Arsenal. It goes on to tell us how Arsenal has signed a two-year, £ 350,000 deal to promote Israel as a tourist attraction!!! I mean honestly...then it goes on to say how Arsenal got permission from the officials in the United Arab Emirates, whose national airline bought the naming rights to the new stadium. The humor of what is being said hit me in the next sentence, when it says-like a footnote-that the UAE does not have diplomatic relations with Israel...la2 balla!!! Bas the UAE is more than happy to-in effect-co-sponsor a walking, goal shotting, advertisment for people to go and visit Israel...how could this every be justified?
I am angry with my team for even considering doing this, and for such little money (I mean for fucks sake, at least ask for a bit more), but for an ARAB country to actually allow this to happen on something that they have sponsored!!! I mean Emiriates airlines has pretty much paid for the new Arsenal Stadium, do they not have enough power or maybe more to the point-guts to say NO...you will not help get tourism for a country that is occupying another country-and not just ANY country but an Arab one at that!!!!!
"We think football is a great product and we think it will assist Israel become a more popular destination," Mr Kieth Edelman, Arsenal's managing director said. I went to the Israeli Minsitry of Tourism to check out what it has to say about it. In Press Release you find a link to a Word document...reading it made me want to rip each and every photo that I have of Thierry...and bury my head in a pillow and cry-ok exaggeration bas you get my point-according to the agreement, Israel becomes Arsenal's official and exclusive travel destination. The country's tourism ministry joins sponsors like NIKE, Thomas Cook and Emirates Airlines. "Israel will become known as a preferred travel destination amongst millions of people in Britain, Europe and the world," says Tourism Minister Avraham Hirchson.
I really wonder what the slogan will be...any ideas?????

Instant Pleasures

I have just gotten my iPod Nano, and am very excited about it-it really is quite tiny, sorry but I was surprised how tiny it was. I had the iPod mini before, and I completely fell in love with it. It made my trip on the London Tube so much more pleasent, trips on the bus, on the plane...just became a joy. I loved going out for walks in Edinburgh-where I was for university-and kind of making a soundtrack for each day. I had broadband in the UK, so I was able to download all sorts of music and thus kept my ipod updated with all the stuff that I like old and new. But when I first got to Amman I didnt have broadband, and so was forced to listen to the same music for over three months. Finally now my torture is over and I can enjoy new music again.
What I don't like about the ipod, is exactly that, you get bored of your music. Changing the song is so easy, all you have to do is swirl around for a bit and click...new song...while before when I had a Diskman (why wasn't it called Discwoman?) you would have to stop, pull out the new cd you wanted to hear and blah blah takes ages, and how annoying was it when you only wanted to hear one song on this new cd???? But you would enjoy it even more somehow.
I miss those times when I didn't have the iPod and I would sit listening to the radio, and there would be rubbish on, but I would hold out...and then your song would come on...and boom you jump up, top volume and you start dancing around your room/house...to the annoyance of my parents (who ended up memorising all my favorite songs because of this policy). Even better, you are in your car, stuck in traffic-I drove in Beirut so I know what it feels like to be stuck for HOURS with the dude in the car next to you reading his newspaper!-and you are listening to the radio, and you are putting up with all the tripe that comes on...and then it comes...the song...the one and only song for that specific mood you are in...and you blast the music...and start singing at the top of your voice!!! What am amazing feeling...how much I miss that...really enjoying a song, because you knew that the next one will be horrible again...and then you wait and wait...and another 'perfect' song comes on and your pleasure is orgasmic!

Liberals vs conservatives

As a relatively new blogger, who has been reading and really getting into the Arab blogs-love the Egyptian ones-I have come to find a few quite annoying. I know this will be controversial, but whatever. Before I get into this, I guess I should place myself, I am quite leftist, well really leftist, so secular, and as a woman in the Arab world, not a big fan of the conservative movements in this region and their policies on women. Eventhough if you look at the Jordanian parliament and some of the laws (nationality, Ahwal Almadaneyeh, etc.) that have been suggested and how they were voted down not only by the conservatives, but also by the women, and the liberal forces within our parliament, one should be careful of to many generalizations.
Bas back to the point, the Arab blogs seems to range from quite liberal to really conservative, and that is great, the whole point is for all points of view to be heard and discussed. But I have been getting annoyed with the fact that some of the liberal ones-for they are the ones I seem to always end up on-are so anti the Islamist movements in the Arab world. I mean there seems to be an attack on movements such as Hamas and Hizbullah, and the Muslim Brotherhood, this is good if the arguments where well thought out and had backing. But some of them are things like look at these pictures they are brainwashing kids...blah blah.
I also find this idea that we secular people have that if an Islamist government is formed, that they will instantly ruin the country. I mean look at what is happening in Palestine...Hamas was voted in-for whatever reason-democratically, and instantly people have decided that they are going to ruin Palestine. This way of think is exactly what happened in Algeria and look at what happened in that country. Instead of allowing the government to be formed and give them and the Algerians see if they were correct to vote them in, instantly the international community interfered and civil war broke out!
There is a real fear and threat that Hamas and Fateh will end up forgetting their real enemy and start fighting each other. Instead of this election that started quite well, ending with a new government-that Hamas wants to be an alliance of the different Palestinian parties-we have different factions saying that they wont work with Hamas. How completely illogical is that and just plain stupid? Why not allow the government to be formed, let Hamas start dealing with the Israelis-because they will have to-and who knows, we might see this party that everyone is so worried about prove everyone wrong. There is the possibility that the expectations of the 'liberals' in the Arab world will come true, but isn't that what democracy is all about? You vote for someone, and when their time is up you decide if you want them back or not.
All over the world where people are allowed to vote, sometimes they get leaderships that they are not completely happy with, or where the international community is not very pleased with, bas they are left alone. Why are the Islamist movements not given the same respect? The argument that they do not give that respect. I think is rubbish and it can not be justified currently, for we have not had an experience with an Islamist government. Some will say look at what happened in Iran, but the method that they came into power was not elections, but out right revolution. Completely different then people going out to vote, where there is a campaign where people give you a platform of their agenda and you decide if they represent you or not.
Back to the bloggers, I just think that extremes-on both sides-are always a bit much, but what I find what is worse is when liberals who are all about opening up and allowing people to be free and think what they want and be how they want, start to lecture the conservatives about changing and not allowing there to be these two sides in our political arena. Isn't that what the Liberals are so worried about, that if the Islamists get into power they won't have the space to speak and be in opposition? Yet they seem to be doing the same, seems a bit like a double standard.

Some Thoughts

You know when you listen to something, and you hear something that is just bizarre, and you start to think like the people talking and it takes to you to sides of your brain that you have never been before. For example I was listening to this podcast, and they were talking about the most intriguing things. So the first thing I found funny was that one should only eat things that look good when they are alive, so that would exclude Octopus, and snails, lotuces-which I ate while in Tanzania YUMMY-bas that keeps things like cows, chicken...well thats kind of it really!
Then there was the thought, why don't companies sponsor the homeless, I mean if you think about it, it is a good idea. The company would get good advertising since the homeless wonder around the cities...but at the same time if they were sponsored then they would have enough money to get off the streets and that would kind of negate the whole point why the companies sponsored...hmmm...ineresting:)
There is a Chinese saying that says she who cuts the wood up warms herself twice-please notice how gender aware I am-now that I think is one of the best little advises that I have ever heard...not to sure how one can apply it to the world today, bas still not a bad thought! There is another one which states a camel is a horse designed by a committee-now how I was explained is that one person has a vision of something-a horse-bas a camel is created when too many people are given the opportunity to comment and make suggestions. You would have to wonder what kind of person would have offered to put the hump...ma hek?
Now on this same show, I was informed that an octopus can fit in a jar, and we would have to wonder about two things, first why would an octopus wanna do that, and if the octopus didn't want to-since she would not really be able to do that, you know go and buy a jar and then put herself in it-what kind of person would think about doing something like that???? But then again when I was a kid I used to love to catch scorpions-in a glass-then we would light a fire all around it, because-and here is a scientific fact I am sure of-scorpions would rather kill themselves then be caught by a predator, so they sting themselves...kind of an animal suicide bomber-ok not funny sorry...so back to my story, we would light the fire around it and then watch as it ran around and then sting itself...damn I was-maybe still am-quite sadistic!!!

Ipso Facto

I love this man, Ricky Gervais, he is an amazing comedian. I am sure people have heard of him, he wrote The Office, and was Brent in it. He is now doing a show on The Guardian web page, and its fucking funny...do check it out...that is if you like British humour. Which to be honest if the BEST comedy!
Here are a few other webpages with British comedians:
Sowerby & Luff's Big Squeeze
and
Simulacrum

And here is the British 'nicepod' remix:
I could eat a knob at night (for all those none brits educated a knob is another word for penis) and they have made a remix of what this guy said on the Ricky Gervais Show on the Guardian. Please do go and download it...listen to it...fucking Brilliant!

Ulcer by 30!

As a 27 year old woman, who works, is finishing her PhD, trying to find a man to love and fall in love with her, an ulcer by 30 does seem like a likely thing, but I have added another element. I let people get under my skin, like the Frank Sinatra song-but not romantically-I mean it more when it comes to people I have around me. Joni Mitchell says it perfectly: Everybody'’s in it for their own gain, You can'’t please '’em all, There's always somebody calling you down.
I let people's atitudes towards me and the way they deal with me effect how I am...I don't know how to explain it, but if I think that someone is upset, then I get upset, if someone annoys me...then instead of telling them to shuv it, I get all worked up. I have these two friends, who have the best attitude and I wish I could be like them, they always tell me lulwa il biz3al byirda...they don't let things get to them...if someone pisses them off, or annoys them, then they either stop talking and thinking of them, or they just tell them to fuck off...I know it might sound like they are heartless, but they aren't like that with people they care about, I see them if they upset someone they love then they go out of their way to reconcile with them and work things out. But when it comes to people on the periphery then they just don't allow it to get to them.
I on the other hand, seem to allow people who I don't care about get to me, they fuck up my mood, I get angry, and then my whole day or night is ruined. I end up staying up late at night, thinking about what someone said, how they said it, why they said it...when I am done with that, I turn to what I said, how I said it, and why didn't I say something else? You must know those moments where someone says something and you reply only to think about it later and think of a thousand ways that you could have answered better...how I wish I had a time machine for those day!
Bas seriously what a fucking waste of my time, and my effort, on people that are not worth the time of day...and writing this blog about it, seems a bit pointless...and a waste of time and energy (not only mine bas your also...sorry)...bas still...I need to talk/write about this.
This is a genuine call to the people of the blog world, does anyone have a way to deal with people like that...people who just get on your nerves and they do it over and over and over again and all you can do is allow them too...fuck what a shite way to be!!! Some people say being caring is a good thing...bas to be honest I just want to strangle those people. I hate feeling like this, and feel a bit stupid writing about it, and I know that some annoying person is going to write a comment along the lines of "well if you feel stupid writing about then why did you?" All I am going to say is: shuv it!
Guess writing this did help :)

Stupid Girls!!!

Soft spoken, eye-batting, hair flicking, and one of the most annoying species ever to exist...they prance around our cities, in the coffee shops, bar, offices, as if they could possible for someone to look like that without at least three to four hours of hard work! I am sure a lot of you know who I am talking about, they are the sort of women who when you walk next to them you go from feeling that you are one darn pretty looking cookie to thinking that you could have at least put in another hour of so before leaving the house. I hate those women...I also find it very odd that women somehow are unable to be friends...as in we get a long, but somehow something always seems to get in the way...men want to see cat fights, well all they have to do is listen to how woman speak to each other sometimes...they might be smiling but the claws are out!!! There is a whole list of things that might get in the way...they range from having bought the same pair of shoes-and wearing them on the same night-to men. Now here I have a nice thing to say about the other sex, I have noticed-from extensive research-that men seem to have a set of rules-unwritten and unspoken-that they follow when it comes to how they deal with each other. One of the rules that I wish-with all my heart-that women would follow is, that guys have this shotgun rule-who ever calls a girl first gets to have priority in flirting and being with this particular girl. So if two guys are at a bar, at a party, and they see a girl, whoever says first "hmm...I think she is hot" seems to win...the other guy will back off.
Now with women, the opposite seems to happen, when a girl tells her friend, oh I think he is hot...the female friend instantly-it seems-become attracted to that SAME guy, and goes out of her way to get him. I have heard the most bizarre stories-and experienced quite a few-one story that I love, is about this girl who started to bake a cake-chocolate no less-for this guy that her good friend was interested in...she seemed to have taken to heart her mom's advice: to get to a man you have to go through his stomach!!!!
I was listening to the radio this morning, and heard for the first time Pink's song, Stupid Girls, and I completely fell in love with it. Baby if I act like that, that guy will call me back What a paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl Baby if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back Push up my bra like that, I don't wanna be a stupid girl These are another group of women that I despise, now women who choose to act stupid to use men, well that is kind of ok with me-if a guy is dumb enough to fall for it then great-bas the ones who annoy me are those who REALLY believe that this is what men want, and actually care about what men want enough to act like this.
The women who really get under my skin are those pathetically weaklings...you know them we have all met them...they come and are like "oh why does this happen to me" blah blah...and you try and help and they seem to be getting on and then slip and they are back to the SAME old habits...and they get hurt, talk about it, sort themselves out for a day or two and then SLIP...these habits can be anything from over-dependence on people, feeling that they will never be able to success...yada yada...and the list goes on. I don't hate them because they are weak, we are all weak in certain things I guess, but I hate the fact that they can't get their acts together and actually try and CHANGE...the concept seems foreign to them...they just keep doing the same old shite, and then come and cry to me. I get very annoyed, and I end up screaming and they end up crying and I look like the bitch...that is another thing...the crying thing...why oh why do some women resort to tears???? oh how I hate women who cry when I am trying to talk to them about something serious, be it constructive criticism, because they upset me, or we are arguing...the tears start, and yes we all feel bad...as Eddie Murphy said, " men see those tears, and they are like OK"...but I still hate them, and when they leave the room and I have retracted everything that I have said-eventhough I meant all of it-I hate them even more...and just want to kill them!!!!!