For someone who calls himself a blogger, I admit being an embarrassment to the local blogging community! I average around one post every 2-3 weeks now (and that is only on good days, or when I am hit by an inspirational thunderbolt! which by the way hasn’t been happening very often recently).

So what happened?
umm.. NOTHING! I simply haven’t been blogging because my life is BORING!

Or so it was… before I decided to get engaged..!
Yes fellow readers! I shall be the knight in shining armor for a night..!
And by orders of her royal highness my queen, I am not allowed to discuss any matters of the engagement on my blog till further notice.

The below is something gay I have designed in photoshop, I am still trying to come up with a proper map to the house. So do check again for any updates..

More to come soon!

House Map

Forgetting to count the calcium in the 1 Liter of Fat Free Laban I like to gulp in every night before bed… I overdosed on calcium..

Sadly.. it did not speed my recovery, but gave me irregular bowl movement, continuous headache and nausea, and endless hours of surfing the net for a justification for all of this that is happening to me!

One of the sides I experienced is a contentious feeling of thirst; I used to take in at least 2 liters of water everyday in the form of pure water for a good two days without much difference. I’d still wake up in the middle of the night with a dry mouth and an aching shoulder.

The other annoying side is that, no matter how much water you take in. It always tastes salty! Not sea water salty, just.. salty in an annoying way.. This my friends was the eye opener!

I wasn’t good at it; I haven’t nagged on my parents for a while now. Amazingly, buying my own water and bringing it to the house helped! Dad soon felt sorry for me (the shoulder probably helped) he called the company to change the filter in just about 3 days time! I stood there while the guy worked staring at him as he talked about the inflation and how changing a simple water filter will now cost me 6 BD when it used to cost only 3 dinars 2 months ago. Yea yea yea, I thought to myself, finish up and let me drink some real water and quench my thirst.

15 Minutes later, 6 BD poorer with a glass of water in my hands…
Nothing changed; the water STILL tastes the same!

It was then I realized that I was probably overdosing on calcium and linked it to all the other sides. It’s been a week now, all the other sides subsided and I still think our house water tastes funny! Even that I’ve seen the guy changing the water filter with my own eyes!

To cut a long story short, I soon remembered a filtered plastic pitcher I used to use back in the States (link), it’s being shipped as I type this from Amazon. I am not sure if it will be of any help but.. I have really grown weary of…

Water filter companies are everywhere around the country, I don’t even know if they are regulated or inspected by the ministry of health! To what I know it’s just a water filter that is supposed to “filter to water to drinking standards”! Nobody knows what standards, nor are there any tests that are available for us to conduct and compare the purity of the water we are drinking!

Wait.. there is more to it! checking my own shower.. I have noticed calcification.. some white crusty deposits of what looks like the oxidation powder that forms up used car batteries..

I am not a chemist or anything, but seriously.. how much of this is REALLY being filtered away.. and how much of it is really left to our kidneys to take care of?

Bottled water isn’t necessary a better option, according the New York Times (Source)

In 1999 the NRDC tested more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of water. (This is the most recent major report on bottled water safety.) While noting that most bottled water is safe, the organization found that at least one sample of a third of the brands contained bacterial or chemical contaminants, including carcinogens, in levels exceeding state or industry standards. Since the report, no major regulatory changes have been made and bottlers haven’t drastically altered their procedures, so the risk is likely still there.

The NRDC found that samples of two brands were contaminated with phthalates, in one case exceeding Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards for tap water. These chemicals, used to make plastic softer, are found in cosmetics and fragrances, shower curtains, even baby toys, and are under increasing scrutiny. They’re endocrine disrupters, which means they block or mimic hormones, affecting the body’s normal functions. And the effects of exposure to the widespread chemicals may add up.

That is the case in the United States, and personally speaking.. I wouldn’t think our standards are any better. Let alone the fact that bottled water is over priced, over 95% of cost is bottle, label, lid and transportation and the plastic it’s being sold in, that is if you overlook how bad those bottles are for the environment.

As a temporary measure, I got some natural sweeteners that I have been adding to my weird tasting filtered water till I get my pitcher.. which I hope will fix this whole taste thing…

In the US City water systems must issue annual “right to know” reports, telling consumers what is in their water. I still don’t know what’s in mine.. do you?

My hand watch was just pointing around 10 AM, time I drive out the house heading to work. I pack my stuff, hit the pedal. Two minutes later, right at the VERY FIRST TRAFFIC LIGHT in my 45 minute drive to work. A car drove right into me..

Hitting my driver side door.. throwing my car against the side walk before continuing it’s way to hit another car that was parked by. The last thing I saw before the green light is the car driving right into me. 5 minutes later, I was waken up by a passer by (I apparently fainted – or slept- right after the accident) the guy came out of no where and was shouting at the top of his voice that I should get out of the car “RIGHT NOW”. I look around, everything was so smashed up! My shoulder ached so bad, a couple of empty seconds passed by before me realizing what happened.. Little did I know, this was the beginning of my new adventure into a one-armed existence!

I jumped out of the car through the passenger’s door, went to the near by costa coffee to get some water, I sat down at the side of the road looking at the other car and the scene as a whole..

Not less than 20 people came out of their cars for help (or curiosity.. depends how you look at it really), I silently watched as everybody asked how “bad” the girl was hurt. Not ONE even looking towards me, I tried holding my hurt shoulder.. didn’t get any attention either.. an ambulance soon came to pick her up. I had to wait to finish the paperwork with the police officer for another half an hour in the sun, before WALKING back home. Being a GUY in a car accident, nobody even offered to give me a ride home!

I drive to the hospital, get my shoulder checked. The doctor smiles at me and whispers, Good News! No broken bones, just a deeply fractured clavicle (collarbone) and then gave me a choice of oral or intramuscular pain killer. I gladly chose the latter before walking right out of the hospital door, for free! You apparently get treated for free if you were involved in a car accident! Sweet huh!? أشكر القيادة الحكيمة

The good news is that it’s not broken and the girl that drove into me is actually in a better situation than I am (and came out without a scratch), the bad news is that the pain in my shoulder that is just so intense, that I can’t even move my arm…in any direction..! Not only that, I wasn’t even given a sling or anything! I don’t even look injured! The doctor insisted that there is nothing that he could do, and let me go back home loaded with a handful of painkillers which I shoved down like skittles the first couple of days.

I always thought how cool it would be to break my arm as a kid, I always wanted one of those casts so my friend can write all sort of COOL stuff all around it.. today it hurts me to even TYPE, and there’s nothing cool about that!

By the third day I realized that I am not doing my body any good with the pain killers, I decided to be a MAN and stop taking them. It took me only 2-3 hours before it started to hurt to even breathe in deeply and everything just started to become an adventure! Dressing up now takes me 20 minutes, turning the steering wheel in the car means unbearable pain, and it’s very normal that you wake up in pain in the middle of the night because you rolled on your injured shoulder!

What is really annoying is that my precious car is still parked near the scene of the accident! I couldn’t move it anywhere, the agent won’t take it without an accident report from the General Directorate of Traffic, and my insurance company refuses to take it to their yard without the same report.

The report can’t be given to me, now that the case should be routed to the Public Prosecutor because the lady has crossed a red light resulting in the accident. It has been two weeks for me without a car, or a replacement car AND I will have to pay a 10 BD fine to Riffa Municipality because it’s apparently an offence to leave a damaged car anywhere, I have moved the car again, waiting to be fined yet again OR the wake up of conscious of the girl that hit me..

It really feels good to let the entire story out…
I haven’t nagged in a while..

Thanks to a genius idea by some entrepreneur who decided that the carpark lot I have been renting the past 2 years from BMMI one building away from the Bank I work for was permanently closed down and a hotel is now to be built in its place.

I didn’t have much of a choice, it was either I pay 70 dinars a month to rent a parking lot in the carpark building (which is also full by the way, and I had to pull some strings just to get them to offer me a spot) or just park right under the Financial Harbor… for free.

It didn’t take much thinking, the very next morning I turned my car around heading to the financial harbor and fixed my mobile’s stop watch to time the gap between the red lights on the traffic light I had to cross.

Five minutes exactly; gave me all the time I needed to park the car, fix my sunshade and walk to the traffic light as it turned red signaling me to cross.

Everything worked like a charm, until last Thursday.

As I was heading back to the car from work, 7:30 PM I was stopped by a uniformed police officer right beside the stop light, he was waving that I turned left.. I really didn’t recognize what he was trying to say till I approached him.

His teeth caught all my attention, the were as BROWN.. no no no, I don’t mean brownish white.. I mean.. BROWN! It was the most disgusting thing I have seen in ages, I froze there staring at them.. thinking.. what on god’s green earth could have caused this? Tobacco? No way!! Qat? Lack of fluoride in drinking water?

All of a sudden pieces of the article I have read in wikipedia about the contaminated drinking water in Yemen ran to my head before he actually opened his mouth even louder..

What used to be a 5 minute walk to my car is now taking 15 minutes, all of this after an 8 hours shift.. That is just about enough to keep me nagging and cursing all the time till I reached the car.

It wasn’t till the next day that I told the story to my laughing father, when I knew that there were “royal convoys” driving across the highway at that time back from Kuwait.

I still don’t get it, whoever was in those cars was either driving along the highway or stopping at the stoplight (Which is highly considering the number of uniformed officers at the traffic junction). Why wasn’t I allowed to cross the damn street!!

What kind of security precaution will have the pedestrians not crossing a street to their cars, but have them wandering all the way on the side of the highway right beside the speeding cars!

I don’t usually drive around pointlessly, the way traffic jams in just about every traffic light anywhere around the country isn’t exactly an ideal way to soothe out and relax.

I was driving back from Manama (picking my tickets for Jump tonight) when I spotted a guy hitchhiking, he looked young 20 some short and thin standing there in the middle of the highway, I turn on my danger lights and stop he opened the door and asked “Are you going to Sitra”, “Yeah.. yeah I nodded.. Just get in before someone drives into my car now”.

Now this is something I don’t casually do! Having a stranger sitting in your passenger seat without you having a clue where you’re heading to feels a little weird. I turned the volume down on my mp3 player, the last thing I need right now is a lecture from a stranger who wants to guide me to the rightful paths of heavens. I look towards him and simply.. sime.. plainly as we cruise across the Sitra bridge.

It was then when he decided is the right time to start a conversation.

Ok.. I am 25, I drive a crappy white sunny. Does give the impression that I’m married and living alone? Or is it because of my accent? Shii’tes can’t live in Riffa right? I just play along.

Yes, like I am going to discuss my personal finances with a complete stranger now.

You can imagine how the conversation went on from there; I dropped him to where he stayed and went on with my way, still shocked by the negativity this youngster carried, how could anyone live with such dark views when it comes to the future of their own country? How could one wake up everyday carrying such hate towards everything and anything that resembles Bahrain?

At least back in the 90’s youngster in the same age group as he is would probably share more or less the same amount of hate and distress, but at least there was hope back then, there was a savior in sight. One with a clear vision and objective, a shadowy agenda but that’s a whole different story altogether. While someone like Mr. Hitchhiker here has no faith in anyone, or anything. Has completely lost hope! To the extent that he would just blame anyone and anything for all the problems in the world. I mean.. to blame the royal family for inflation? And he is supposed to be educated aswell.. well, at least he looks it..

Such mindsets are the ideal breeding grounds for extremism and even terrorism eventually, but who is to blame really?

The guy was raised in a way that he would completely rely for everything he needs to government, be it free schooling, health care and even the daily chores of the house and what have you there is always someone to take care of it for him, it is only natural that he would continue to rely on the government for housing and a proper income, how do you expect him to walk out of university and compete out there when he has simply never done it before?

Or maybe it is the government to blame after all, it is easy to throw accusations left and right but boy do we have some depressed souls in this country!

Event Link

Invitation tickets this time! I swiftly made my way through the short queue and the security checkpoints to the comfy black chairs only meters away from the stage. I sat there contemplating, it is the very same stage the Fairouz sang on just a couple of days ago.. everything looks different from here! You get to see the minutest details of the stage, the lighting, feel the whole experience! I remembered how that huge fat guy with a ghitra was blocking half my view the other day and whispered to myself, it really pays to be someone (or know someone *cough*) in this country.

I must admit that I went in with pretty high expectations; I was anticipating something with around 4-5 dancing couples and a solo guitarist.. But boy was I underestimating the power of the flamenco dance!

The show started on time, dimming those bright spot lights pointed directly towards the crowd (which weren’t bothering me the least thanks to my seating) and the stage was lighted beautiful revealing 3 guitarists and two singers.. It wasn’t long before the tones of their guitars filled the air above interrupted only by the cries coming from the speakers of a near by matam.

As soon as the lights turned on to the maximum, this grey haired guitarist spontaneously caught my attention; he held the guitar up high without using his knee or a stool as a rest. It was master guitarist Pena, I recognized him from the website; little did I know that this man happens to be Spain’s most important living flamenco guitarist today, he lead two breathtaking solos and three or more trios with the two other male guitarists.

The dancers were three (Two males and a female), each performed alone before all three gathered up in one magnificent dance signaling the end.

The dancers were full of energy, the handclapping and the rattle of the heels, the strong warm voice of the vocalists made the night a truly unforgettable experience, and just the thought that this very music is centuries old made me literally hear the chants of the jews and the gypsies of Andalucía in the background. The two hour show left the 2000 some attendees only

I still went in with the perception that this will be an electrifying show of sexual tension, dances where you could just sense a multitude of emotions of love and sexuality; I was taken away by the bright color, the beautiful dancing, the customs and most importantly the music for me to wonder. Did our MP’s and our “conservative traditions” took love away from the flamenco dances, or is it truly a solo show.

I still wonder..

I was one of those lucky enough to get my hands on two (yes.. TWO) tickets for the concert of Fairouz in one of the events organized in the third annual festival of the “Spring of Culture”.

It was a beautiful breezy night to queue outside, took me just about 15 minutes to get through the security checkpoints and inside the designated concert area, amidst whining and nagging fans that were forcefully stripped of their mobile phones I queued and watched VIPs guided by “even organizers” asking me to step a side for them to pass.

Perhaps I was too excited to remember that this is Bahrain after all.. a country where the only place you would find people equal in their rights and obligations is in the constitution.

The stage was perfectly positioned, allowing chilled sea gust unobstructed access to the gathered crowd; I made it in just about 20 minutes before the official start time and found some good seats all the way towards the rear right back of the seating area which was practically empty when I walked in. The crowd was the most heterogeneous one you could imagine, there were a couple of French Ladies that were in the queue ahead of me in line (And I knew they were French because they were talking in English to a Bahraini guy who was accompanying them), an American couple sat right beside me, and in front of me sat 3 Saudi ladies who found no better way of spending that seemingly endless hour and a half we waited talking about nothing but their husbands and kids.

It took me a while to realize, there is not a Bahraini in sight! None! It was only later that a number shyly walked in, sticking out among the crowd like a sore thumb.

It was just about an hour and a half that I waited before the concert actually began, an hour that practically seemed endless as I witnessed people hopping from one class seating to another in desperate hope for a better view behind the back of the event organizers. I soon also allowed my self and my friends to move to another seating class.. “This is a night to remember, what difference would it be if I was caught and returned back to my original seat” I thought to myself,

At just about 9:20 PM, the accompanying band started with the intro from the play Mais AlReem (ميس الريم).. it was only two minutes later that Fairouz made her appearance on stage.

With a beautiful prudish greeny-grayish dress, I stood up clapping to the “Ambassador to the Stars” as she walked into the stage from behind the curtains, standing not so far away from where she stood when she sang back in 1984, the songs just kept coming.. in batches of 3.. after each she disappeared behind the black curtains as the band played short songs for a few minutes before she comes back in and the rejoice continued.

That is to name a few of the songs she sang, the rest I admit I haven’t heard before.
The music just kept coming, it was something among the words.. the lyrics.. the rhymes that kept me attached.. the poetry in the songs I never heard.. kept me attached.. only to be broken by a proposed “20 minutes interval” which was not so surprisingly stretched into one whole hour after which she returned in an angelic white dress to continue.

I’m not sure if you heard the news yet, we now officially have three female judges in the Kingdom of Bahrain after his majesty the King recently issued royal decree number 8 for 2008 naming Fatima Hubail as the third female judge in the country after Ms. Muna AlKawari and Ms. Duha AlZayani.

And to add insult to injury, not only do we have as endure the ridiculousness and uselessness of our local feminists, but we also have to no deal stuff like the story above. How on earth would an individual with nothing but a law degree and 3 years work experience at some law firm be competent enough to run a court of law? Have we really ran out of “local talents” that we let a 20 some year old kid who just graduated from college and who’s resume includes the jobs of both her parents and siblings? Who enjoy horse riding and reading?

I wonder if it’s really just a stupid decision made by someone and got twisted somewhere up the chain of command to only eventually blossom to this, or is it just another publicity stunt and a desperate attempt to push Bahraini women and hopefully get the story posted on some local newspapers around the gulf, who at the same will just casually mention the historical political reforms around the country.

Source:
AlWasat Newspaper (Issue:1994) 21/2/2008 - (Link)

It’s been a while since I’ve actually turned to my blog to let some steam out, but I guess it’s about time someone speaks about this.

Have you ever come across a blog where you just get this feeling that this will be the last time you go there? But you soon find yourself checking every post just to see the shallowness and utter stupidity of the writer?

Please, for god’s forsaken sake, don’t even try to start writing if you have nothing interesting to write? Why do you write just for the sake of updating the blardy god damn stupid blog? DON’T! It ain’t worth it. If you would just close the fucking account because you will read back a decade later and start imagine how stupid you were.

Some like to blame religion on everything, literally everything. Be it the problems in the Middle East, our crippled stone aged mentalities, or even our sewage system problems! Let’s blame it all on religion! Not only would they sound cool and stick out like a sore thumb amongst hundreds of other Arabic blogs who are praising religion and suggesting it as a solution to every problem known to the human kind!

Ok it might sound “hip” the first two posts, maybe three.. ok four if you stretch it. But when you have you’re entire blog dedicated to bad mouthing religion. You do have a problem!

What’s worse are those other blogs that evolve around feelings. Yeah! FEELINGS!! You see.. I have nothing against people expressing their feelings, I bet it’s nice and healthy.. helps you get you through the day.. something the same line as Dr. Phil shows.. It’s just pisses me off when bloggers beg for sympathy out public and in front of the entire world! Why the heck am I supposed to read post after post that start with “ I feel down today” and “I am so depressed this morning” have some self dignity for fuck’s sake!

Other bloggers just have the worse command of English I have ever seen, or even Arabic now that I have thought of it. I am not proclaiming to be proficient of English, hell my god damn 15 year old brother can write better essays than me in both languages, but honestly nothing pisses me off more than “writers” who can’t write sophisticated English but they try to come out to the world like they can! YEAH! THOSE!! Who’se in desperate attempts end up making themselves look like complete morons and thesauruses addicts!

Anyway, screw it. I don’t even know what I am talking about. I am just here to grumble and this is just some of the things that have been piling up which I just thought of voicing out. Why am I writing all these? Because I am not in a good mood, I heard things I shouldn’t and I sure as hell feel stressed out from my fucking job. Bah, go on with life..

For those of you who were fortunate enough to miss the clip below on youtube, this is Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammad Al Khalifa (Bahrain’s Finance Minister) answering The Davos Question (”What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?”).

The WHO?!.. Environment? In Bahrain?!
I am not sure if it’s just me, or does this really sound like another headline from Akhbar AlKhalij or AlAyam.. something tells me if he went on for another minute he would be praising the political reforms in the country and pledging allegiance to the government and his highness the king, but that’s a different story altogether.

Dare I remind you sir that Bahrain has the sixth highest level of carbon dioxide emissions in the world? Dare I remind you that our beaches literally serve as “litter bins” and are practically unsafe to even walk on? Dare I remind you about AlMa’ameer? About Fasht AlJarim? About Tubli Bay? About the coral reef that was recently just approved to be ripped out to carry out the “Bahrain Bay” project? (More)

It is one thing to fly all the way to Geneva to attend the world economic forum, dress up in a fancy suite and talk the talk, now bringing this talk to reality is a whole different business. I honestly don’t understand how any Bahraini official could even talk about environmental protection issues given the miserable situation of the country, but I guess something had to be said in reply to the question.. And considering the circumstances, talking about the “environment” (like chatting about the weather on a first date) seems to be the easy way out.

You know, public speaking is a hard earned skill that not many enjoy. I often wonder how Arab politicians and leader would sound like if they were to give public addresses to the nations or answer random questions by reports in conferences and such.

But then again, it’s all about the enviorment!