Can we be friends?

I had a wonderful weekend, I managed to spend two days with one of my closest friends. My consciousness was so absent from Kuwait to the extent that I felt that I was back in my flat (In England of course), in the cold weather with heavy rain knocking against my window and the central heating blasting in the background. I slept with this thought and a huge grin on my face...

I googled a friend of mine's name (I know it is sad). I found a link for a post on someone's blog for her, so I clicked and read it. Although I had heard the short version of what was there, I was shocked to read the fine details.

So, this is the

link

to the post, I really recommend you to read it. It will make you appreciate a lot of things in your life..

Happy reading..

Realities of "تكويت القمامين"

اليوم في القبس, السيد محمد مساعد الصالح ما قصر في مقاله "تكويت القمامين" حيث اقترح أن الكويت عليها التخلص من عمال القمامة البنغاليين و تكويت عمال النظافة. المقال ظريف جداً و شوية يشوبه بعض أحلام اليقظة. أنا بس عندي ملاحظات صغيرونة

احنا ما خلصنا من التفرقة بين "الأصيل" و "المو أصيل" و الطائفية و العنصرية علشان نعطي مجال جديد للتفرقة بين الأوادم في الديرة

أبو طلال بّرقع عملية تكويت القمامين و قال " فتح كلية خاصة في جامعة الكويت يدخلها الحائز على الشهادة المتوسطة و تكون الدراسة فيها سنتين يتخرج بعدها الطالب ليعمل قمامي". أنا بعرف يعني على باله اذا طرح موضوع الشهادة راح يغري الكويتيين اللي على بالهم ان كل واحد عنده شهادة صار شي. و بعدين تخيّل القمامي لمّن يتخرج و أبوه يشتري له سيارة مرسيدس

و بعدين شنو راح يصير في العيد لمّن القمامين الكويتيين يبون يعيدون؟ أنا أتوقع راح يصير عندهم نظام الخفارة مثل الدكاترة. بعد شنو, هم جامعيين

طبعاً بو طلال نسى نحاسة الكويتيين. فإذا قمّام كويتي يبي ينتقم من واحد راح يهمل خمام بيته لمن يخيسون الأهل

و من منو القمامين راح يتزوجون؟
I think there will be a serious gene-pooling problem within the garbage- families’ community

أنا عندي اقتراح أحسن: ليش ما يجنسون عمال النظافة البنغاليين و خلاص؟ بهذه الطريقة راح تتم عملية التكويت بدون اية مشاكل جذرية تعرقل مسار حياة المواطن الكويتي المخلص لوطنه

P.S. There was no need to waste half of the column talking aimlessly just to slip in the fact that you have a flat in central London!

Nobility doesn't reside in your nationality

I watched a brief report on Mobility India Charity organisation. It is an organisation based in India and aims to serve disabled people, mainly, who lost function of their legs due to Polio. Taking into consideration the level of poverty in that part of the world, this organisation came up with a cheap way to replace limbs of disabled people. That was done in such a way that those prosthetic limbs are functional as well as modifiable as the individual grows or changes in needs. One has to mention that the prosthesis are hardly sightly, however are functional. I was really taken by what the people who worked for this organisation did.

They work so hard to perfect the gift of independence..

You might think now, but why the picture with the African children? well, this charity have done so well that they are going to extend their services to Ethiopia where similar high trends of disability due to polio exist. It is beautiful to see such non-profitable 'business' extending far and wide with the sole benefit of making others happy..

It just amazed me how those noble 'Indians' have achieved so much with modest opportunities. Unfortunately, so many Kuwaitis think they are far superior than those Indians just because God decided they are Kuwaitis. We are nothing but couch-potatoes who are making no difference in our children, let alone in the rest of the world. I hope one day that Kuwaitis will realise that nobility doesn't reside in their nationality.

Advantages of living in Kuwait: 1. Public holidays

As days go by, I slowly come to realise the advantages of living in Kuwait. So, I decided to run this series about the positives of the lifestyle in this part of the world.

Today, the highlight is Public holidays.

During the past 2 weeks, I was suffering from serious shortage of sleep to the extent I thought I had some sort of illness. Work was, and will be, hectic especially as people are returning back from holidays. I cannot afford taking some time off, nor I had money to go away again after the disaster I endured few weeks back. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Saturday is a holiday for the celebration of 'Isra & Me3raj'. I decided to do serious sleep. Thankfully, after 2 nights of semi-hibernation, all the illness-like symptoms have disappeared and I can say that I am officially functional again. Had I been in the UK, this sleep-shortage would have accumulated for days on end until I came down with a flu.

Therefore, I would like to submit special Thanks to the hard-working, ever-so-sweating ministry officials for allowing us to have free-lazy days....

Now, you must be wondering why on earth I have Alicia Keys on this post? Well, I was hung on this album for the duration of the waking hours of this weekend. I had 'if I ain't got you' on repeat most of the time. Although I am mainly into alternative music, but I love Alicia's voice.

Love, oh sweet love

I remember coming back home and finding your lengthy comment on one of my posts. It was then when I instantly fell in love with the way you write. Back then, I had only accumulated a modest number of posts, yet I was still looking forward to reading your comments either after work or evenings. Until the wedding night…

I cannot describe the heightened excitement I felt when I realised that you were online at the same time as I was. I was hesitant at the start of making the move of asking you to chat with me on MSN messenger, but I think my yearning for an intellectual talk did not deter me. Little did I know that being forward was going to set my foot on an emotional rollercoaster I thought I’ll never be up to.

When you asked me whether there are things I love about you, I was thinking to myself ‘how could he doubt it?’. My love, there are zillions of things I find and consider great about you. If I had thought that you lacked fundamental things in a person, I would not have fallen in LOVE with you.

Fat Free

Why are women more self conscious about their bodies than men? And why are men, no matter what shape and form they come in, always think that they are God’s gift to earth?. I suppose it all starts from the early days of Human kind, when God created Adam and then Eve. Men think they are the perfect sex because God made Adam first. But, unfortunately it did not occur to them that God perhaps thought that the man s/he created was not perfect enough, so Adam was modified a bit and Eve, the mother of all women, was made to be top notch of perfection.
I believe the issue of body image starts from the type of clothing a culture expects a person to wear. When you think of it, we are used to men wearing suits, they come in different colours and patterns but they stay suits, consisting of a jacket, shirt, tie and trousers. However, when it comes to women, there is a countless variety of different clothing that will unduly makes a woman think too much about the way she looks. This thing not only applies for the western society, but also to the majority of the world.

The society puts a lot of pressure on females, for example, when a man takes his girlfriend to meet his family for the first time, the female gets subjected to a length of criticism after the nerve-wrecking meeting starting from the way she looks, and especially her weight. Speaking from a personal experience, I always had a comment or two about my weight from friends’ parents. And to top it all, every time I went to visit their house over a dinner party or whatever, there was usually a flying comment about whether I lost or gained weight. When a female applies for a job, her appearance and body image is of prime importance for the majority of ‘female-required-jobs’.The media puts pressure on the female celebrities, the examples are plenty as one has to just watch the E! channel and observe the weight-relating reports.

And you know who else puts pressure on females? Females themselves!!!! Every time you walk aimlessly down town, the only gender that always stares back at you and eyes you from head to toe are FEMALES, its very rare that males do that in broad day light in a country like England unless they are under the influence of alcohol or some kind class A drugs! Another example is in the gym, females tend to look at each other and think to themselves ‘ I wish I had a bum like hers’ but men don’t do that! I even questioned some of my mates about whether they look at fellow athletes in the gym, and the answer was ‘ no’.

So, I wonder, who is to blame in this never-ending quest to form fat-free women?

Back from holidays (A bit of a late post)

Hello everyone, I am back!

Going back to my 2nd homeland had a different flavour to it this time. One of the major differences is that I am no longer a student and obviously this meant that i had a lot of dosh in my kitty. It was such a pleasure to be able to look at everything knowing I can afford it this time.

Luckily enough, the weather was splendid throughout my stay there and I had a blast getting everywhere on foot, something I do not get to enjoy in our scorching hot Kuwait. I pigged out on every junk there is in the UK, shopped til i dropped and stayed up so late (something I do not get to do much during working days).

You see, holidays are not complete until you you get shit forced down your throat. I was looking forward to getting back home to show off my new clothing items and to get back to my 'addictive' workaholic routine. So, I get to the airport and only 5 minutes away from my terminal, I hear on the news that bloody British Airways went on strike. I happily got stuck in the airport for 2 nights, and had to queue for up to 6 hours to get my flights re-routed to get back home. I managed to get to Kuwait after spending almost 24 hours travelling. and to top it all up, my luggage did not arrive with me, which made me ever so miserable.

Anyhow, I am safe and sound and that's what is important. For the first time in my life I did not suffer from post-holidays depression, and that is thanks to the BA strike! I hope I will be fully recovered for my next trip.....

Post-birthdays and holidays

I had a splendid birthday!

At work, I had a mini-birthday party which was nice and sweet of my colleagues. I received beautiful presents on that day and I felt like a little child getting excited all over them. I ended up my long day of gift-receiving by having dinner with my friends in Marina Crescent.

Unlike Fadibou (a fellow blogger) I did not get the disco-ball bash, but there is always my 30th-birthday in 4 years time.

Well my friends, I am going away on holiday for couple of weeks. Don't miss me too much...and I shall blog back once I am over my post-holiday blues...

See ya later

Krabi

This is a picture which I am very fond of. I took it in Thailand, in Krabi (pronounced gab-ee) and obviously on the beach.

What do you think it is of?

Holy Fridays

After being in Kuwait for almost a year now, Fridays have started to feel lazy for me. I successfully managed to switch over the Sunday feeling to the Friday feeling...
Despite having an important task to complete today, I decided to veg on my bed and watch telly all morning. So, it got a little boring....

What I wanted to share with you my friends today is a small talk about religious scholars. In the Alqabas today, on page 9, there is an interview with almufti Dr. Moahammed Raafat Othman. I must say this, following reading his ideas and thoughts I developed a lot of respect for the guy. Few points which I thought were interesting:

1. Breast enhancements, alfatwa = Makrooh:

I think the guy doesn't like women with large breast full stop

2. Face lifts, alfatwa = ja'ez:

The guy likes younger looking women

3. Cloning is acceptable between husband and wife:

Why do they need cloning when they can have sex?

4. It is ja'ez for a pregnant women to abort her baby in order to treat the husband with stem cells: controversial, but I think the fella expects this from his wife

I think our 6ab6abaee should learn a little from Dr. Moahmmed. This guy is well brave and very open-minded. I might not agree with some of his fatwas (What's new!? babs always has an opinion), but I think his ideas and views are a good step in the right direction. The sad point is that, those muftis usually end up being labelled as freaks, psychotic or demented. This I know for a fact, is because I once was sat with some religious fanatics who were discussing the 'Kuwaitis who converted to Christianity'. Those extremists, whom should be in a mental institution themselves, were claiming that every person in Kuwait who publicly went with his views, ideas or opinions about religion has a file in the Psychiatric hospital. It is sad that the Kuwaiti mentality, or more correctly the middle-eastern, is continuing to deteriorate. It is a misfortune to witness this wonderful part of the world going through the dark ages when the rest of the globe is at the tip of civilization and intellect.

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS)

I get a kick out of learning new things. When I come across something new in my practice, I usually go home and immediately read about it. I am ever so grateful for the internet as it responds to me as fast as my impulses.

God, in his mysterious ways, allowed me to meet this jolly child with PWS. I never heard about it so I was very much eager to read up on it. So, for anyone who is interested, the link is provided.

UK website for the support group: http://pwsa.co.uk/

USA website for the support group: http://www.pwsausa.org/

(This post is dedicated for Abdulaziz, a happy 6-year old)