Monday, May 30, 2005

NON!? (France & EU - Kuwait & GCC)



I think it's really scary, I'm neither french nor European, but it suddenly came to my mind that Kuwait may relate to France..


I had some devilsh-un-controlled-thoughts...

Kuwait & the Gulf:

Back in 1970 -1971, Kuwait was so eager to see {Abu Dhabi, Duabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al-Khaima, Fujaira & Umm Al-Qaiween (now UAE) + Qatar + Bahrain} united, yes it did & the disclosed British Foreign Office Documents re-affirmed that, and I remember a bank-note I saw at my friend's that has the header 'Qatar & Dubai Bank'..

When it didn't go well, Kuwait didn't stop & supported the new union of Arab Emirates (UAE) in it's early years (and before that)...

Kuwait went on, brought an Idea of a semi-Confederation THE GCC, and pushed for its formation, so...

What if such referendum would be taken in the gulf? Kuwait, just like France: a Unity Pioneer in its region, will Kuwaitis turn down their brethren???

what a nightmare !!

Thursday, May 26, 2005

اقتباس اليوم

اهداء الى كل

من يجيب على اسئلة المستنيرين بالجواب الفارغ
علم لا ينفع وجهل لا يضر

من يتناسى بأن الله قد خاطب أولي الألباب مرارا في القرآن

من يريد قتل اقرار حقوق المرأة الكويتية وتعليقها على شماعة الضوابط الشرعية

يقول ابن رشد

لايمكن ان يعطينا الله عقولاً ويعطينا شرائع مخالفة لها

C.E.O.'s, M.I.A. (Friedman)

Moved to my scrapbook

The Best P.R.: Straight Talk (Friedman)

Moved to my scrapbook

Sunday, May 22, 2005

The 'Maddona Saga' in Israel (Ynet)

Heroes
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The Plot:
A famous American singer, used to be called 'Madonna' (Italian for 'My Lady', Mother of Christ) and now calls herself Esther (after a prophet-like Jewish pioneer-ess), visits the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC,

where she was spotted by the Israeli Foreign Minister's spouse, the latter asked the Israeli Ambassador to the US's Secretary to get someone to snap a photo of Esther & the FM's wife.


The Ambassador's secretary, being an Entourage of one of the Israeli PM (Sharon) friends/allies, neglected the FM's request, that's when the Saga goes real...



The FM's wife calling her man:
"Shalom Shalom" he's called Shalom by the way,
"How can you silent about what happened? someone [the secretary] who's recruited by someone [the Ambassador] you didn't want to work their [in the US] gave me a cold shoulder?!?!"

Shalom: Honey, are you sure she meant it??

His wife: "CAIN" screaming her head of (cain is Hebrew for 'yes')

Shalom: Oh great!!

His wife: huh!

Shalom: YES! I finally got an excuse to piss who pissed me before (referring to both the Ambassador & PM Sharon)
He [the Ambassador] thinks he's working for the PM directly, how dare he not answer me, I'm his boss! not the clumsy guy [Sharon]

His wife: and what can you do? (she's daring him)

Shalom: Oh love, you don't know me?
I'm going to cancel the Ambassador's Secretary Job in DC.

His wife: just that!?

Shalom: wait, I'm not going to sack the secretary only, I'll leave the Ambassador without a secretary till he leans, or come back in a one way visit to his relatives in Israel.

His wife: can you do this to one of Sharon's entourage?

Shalom: and what can Sharon do, I'm his only option as a likud member FM, the rest are BiBi [Netanyahu, current Finicae Minister & ex-PM], Ben-Ami [ex-FM & an opposition member] and Peres [Labour & opposition leader].
I'm the FM, I'll cancel a job called 'the Ambassador's secretary' in our embassy there [DC], and when I get an Ambassador of my choice I'll put it back.

(The plot didn't finish the Saga is going on, but who will survive??
Shalom is tampering with Sharon, endangering his position, the Ambassador is left secretary-less and may return to tel-aviv, even the Ball's photographer is threatened to be sacked!!)


For more check the following links:
Madonna came between them
The fall of Silvan Shalom
End of road for Ayalon
Shalom to dismiss U.S. envoy

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Democracy 'a la Koweit'

Note: Despite being published in May 23rd Newsweek issue, this article is obsolete since yesterday. By passing 'Women's Rights' Bill, Democracy 'a la Koweit' became different.
=== === === === ===



Letter From Kuwait: Equality, of a Sort

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By Carla Power
Newsweek International

May 23 issue - Getting to the heart of Kuwaiti democracy seems hilariously easy. Armed only with a dog-eared NEWSWEEK ID, I ambled through the gates of the National Assembly last week. Unscanned, unsearched, my satchel could easily have held the odd grenade or an anthrax-stuffed lunchbox. The only person who stopped me was a guard who grinned and invited me to take a swig of orange juice from his plastic bottle.

Were I a Kuwaiti woman wielding a ballot, I would have been a clearer and more present danger. That very day Parliament blocked a bill giving women the vote; 29 M.P.s voted in favor and 29 against, with two abstentions. Unable to decide whether the bill had passed or not, the government scheduled another vote in two weeks—too late for women to register for June's municipal elections. The next such elections aren't until 2009.

Inside the elegant, marbled Parliament itself, a sea of mustachioed men in white thobes sat in green seats, debating furiously. The ruling emir has pushed for women's political rights for years; ironically, the democratically elected legislature has thwarted him. Traditionalists and tribal leaders are opposed. Liberals fret, too, that Islamists will dragoon their multiple wives into voting, swelling conservative ranks. "When I came to Parliament today, people who voted yes didn't even shake hands with me," said one Shia cleric. "Why can't we respect each other and work together?"

Why not indeed? By Gulf standards, Kuwait is a democratic superstar. Its citizens enjoy free speech (as long as they don't insult their emir, naturally) and boast a Parliament that can actually pass laws. Unlike their Saudi sisters, Kuwaiti women drive, work and travel freely. They run multibillion-dollar businesses and serve as ambassadors. Their academic success is such that colleges have actually lowered the grades required for male students to get into medical and engineering courses. Even then, 70 percent of university students are female.

In Kuwait, the Western obsession with the higab feels overwrought. At a fancy party for NEWSWEEK's Arabic edition, some Kuwaiti women wore them. Others opted for tight, spangled, sheer little numbers in peacock blue or parrot orange. For the party's entertainment, Nancy Ajram, the Arab world's answer to Britney Spears, sang passionate songs of love in a white mini-dress. She couldn't dance for us, alas, since shaking one's booty onstage is illegal in Kuwait. That didn't stop whole tables of men from raising their camera-enabled mobile phones and clicking her picture.

You'd think not being able to vote or dance in public would anger Kuwait's younger generation of women. To find out, I headed to the malls—Kuwait's archipelago of civic freedom. Eager to duck strict parents and the social taboos of cruising, young Kuwaitis have taken to Bluetoothing one another in cafes, beaming flirtatious infrared e-mails to one another on their cell phones. At Starbucks in the glittering Al Sharq Mall, I found only tables of men, puffing cigarettes and grumbling about the service. At Pizza Hut, I thought I'd hit pay dirt after encountering a young woman who looked every inch the modern suffragette—drainpipe jeans, strappy silver stilettos and a higab studded with purple rhinestones. But no, Mariam Al-Enizi, 20, studying business administration at Kuwait University, doesn't think women need the vote. "Men are better at politics than women," she explained, adding that women in Kuwait already have everything they need. Welcome to democracy, Kuwaiti style.

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7856373/site/newsweek/

Monday, May 16, 2005

Finally! 16th May 1999-2005


16th May 1999:
H.H. Amir of Kuwait issued an Amiri Decree that allowed women to vote and run in the Elections, but the Parliament voted against the Decree by a small margin (2 votes).


Exactly six years later

16th May 2005:
The Parliament votes for (35) women's rights to vote and run in the Elections, with (23) MPs against and (1) abstaining (That's the Speaker, Jasim Al-Khrafi MP).

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Finally, our 'Laming Half-Democracy' morphs into an almost full one.
It's so good for now, but there are two more things that some want to be done with:-
1- Rights for Kuwaiti of ages between 18-21. (I agree with)
2- Right to vote for the Military, both of the Ministries of Defence & Interior. (I agree for the Ministry of Interior Military Personnel not the Defence's).

As long as I'm not a decision maker, I avail my self of this occasion to congratulate every single Kuwaiti, without any exception.

A little bit off subject piece: I'll think about keeping the blue button on the right menu until 2007 electoral campaign, or replacing it by another one.
=====================================
You can Refer back to some of my previous posts about this issue:
Coloured Revolutions
Yes
ًWomen Rights 1992-2005

الآن

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Qatar on the List!

I red a news story on the 'Telegraph' Arts section (below), people may read it in different ways, but what intrigued me were the lines in red.

Qatar is on my A-List now
===============================

Scandal of the sheikh and his £1bn shopping spree
(Filed: 30/04/2005)

Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar was the biggest art buyer in the world - now he is under arrest, and his purchases are the subject of an investigation into alleged misuse of public funds. Louise Baring reports on an affair that has gripped the world

Last year, in a single week of Islamic sales at London's top auction houses, one man spent more than £15 million. It was the culmination of an eight-year shopping spree that had seen the 38-year-old become the biggest art buyer in the world, as he scooped up objects and works of art to the tune of more than £1 billion. At this year's Islamic sales, however, which concluded yesterday, he has been a notable absentee. In the art world this week, there has been only one subject: his mysterious disappearance in a fog of scandal.

For Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar is under arrest in the Qatari capital Doha, pending an investigation into the alleged misuse of public funds -on the orders of his cousin, the all-powerful Emir. According to fresh reports in the respected monthly The Art Newspaper, Islamic art dealer Oliver Hoare, better known as a lover of Diana, Princess of Wales, has now had his name dragged into the investigation.

Al-Thani, whom I interviewed three years ago, first stepped into the limelight in 2000, when he spent more than $15 million on 136 vintage photographs, including masterpieces by Man Ray and Alfred Stieglitz, from Hamburg photographer Werner Bokelberg's collection. He also set a world record at Sotheby's a year earlier when he paid £507,500 for Gustave LeGray's mid-19th-century seascape, Grande Vague: Sete. "Sheikh Saud swooped down as if out of the blue," recalls Philippe Garner, a writer and photography expert who is now a director of Christie's. "He wanted fabulous examples of work not just by the great photographic masters, but in many other fields as well."

Al-Thani is a second cousin of Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the ruling Emir of Qatar. As chairman of Qatar's National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage (NCCAH), Al-Thani has been buying art on behalf of the Emir for the past eight years, helping transform Qatar into a world-class cultural centre complete with five new museums. The 88-year-old Chinese-American architect IM Pei has been flattered out of retirement to design the capital's Islamic Museum, now close to completion. Meanwhile, Santiago Calatrava, the renowned Spanish architect, has set to work on a photography museum. Central to the design are two feather-like wings that will open and close to according to the light, to protect the photographs.

"The great masters are artists, not photographers. They merit a museum in their own right," said al-Thani in our interview at a London flat off Portman Square three years ago. A handsome, reticent man, Al-Thani threaded cabochon ruby worry beads through his slender fingers as he explained why Qatar needs five museums: "Unlike Turkey or Egypt, we have no art-historical tradition. His Highness the Emir would like Qatar to become a cultivated country."

The Emir can afford big dreams. A tiny country that juts off Saudi Arabia, Qatar now pumps 900,000 barrels of oil a day, and will soon become the world's largest producer of liquid natural gas. While keeping a firm lid on political dissent, the Emir, who deposed his father in a bloodless coup in 1995, encourages cultural and educational projects. Four American universities, including Cornell Medical and Carnegie Mellon, have opened branches in the past two years and a fifth is expected soon.

Al-Thani has meanwhile collected feverishly across the board: Islamic art (his greatest passion), vintage photography, rare jewels, objets d'art, 18th-century French furniture, natural history books and specimens, vintage cars, textiles, Egyptian and Roman antiquities, Art Deco furniture - even sweeping up entire libraries in his wake. A $9.57 million (£5 million) Fabergé egg bought at Christie's in New York in 2002, the Jenkins Venus - a £7·9 million Roman marble statue from Newby Hall in Yorkshire - along with a complete set of Audubon's Birds of America for $8·8 million (£4·6 million) are just a few examples. Armed with a "wish list", the Sheikh made offers even when works of art were not available. "He treated both museums and old family collections like a shop," observes one critic.

Stored in air-conditioned warehouses just outside Doha, the bulk of the treasure is destined for display in the new museums that will run along a corniche that circles the bay of Doha. While a small selection of Islamic pieces have already gone on display during the annual Doha Cultural Festival, al-Thani is also said to have bought for a lavish personal collection - the full extent of which is a source of much speculation.

Some have been troubled by the Sheikh's willingness to pay vast prices at auction for certain objects (he forked out £94,850 at Christie's last year for an Iranian pottery tile estimated at only £1,000-£1,500). One high-end Islamic dealer delicately suggested to him that it would be a better bet to buy privately before the sale. Unused to criticism, al-Thani turned on his heels.

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Although seldom spotted at sales - he would send an agent or bid over the telephone - al-Thani likes being photographed. The late Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn and his friend David Bailey have all been pressed into service. Avedon's portrait shows him wearing traditional Arab dress with a rare gazelle, a paw resting on his shoulder (al-Thani breeds endangered wildlife, particularly birds and gazelles, at Al Wabra, his desert estate), while Newton asked for (and got) $70,000 a day for a three-day sitting. Al-Thani subsequently asked Newton if he would mind meeting his sister. He was a little put out when the photographer invoiced him for an additional €18 to cover the drinks.

"My family thinks I am crazy," al-Thani said in an interview with The Art Newspaper following the Maastricht fair last March. Perhaps the Emir and his clan disapproved of the vast sums he forked out at auctions. Perhaps it was his seemingly boundless personal extravagance. Bailey recalls accompanying al-Thani on a spur of the moment trip to the Philippines in his Gulfstream jet to visit a parrot breeder (the men share an unlikely passion for the birds), while on another occasion they flew off to visit IM Pei's museum in Kyoto, Japan's cultural centre. The al-Thani family may also have been upset at Sheikh Saud's purchase of the Jenkins Venus - a sensuous female nude.

"Al-Thani has a wonderful eye, and a stunning visual memory. But if he wants something, he'll just buy it - regardless of price," says his friend Bailey. According to The Art Newspaper, Qatari officials are now looking at three 2002 invoices from Oliver Hoare Limited for Mughal jewellery bought by al-Thani totalling £19·2 million. The jewellery was originally bought at auction for less than a tenth of the price. Hoare has said that he was not the original puchaser, and it is not unusual for rare objects to increase in value: dealers can quite legally charge the best price they can get. But, as The Art Newspaper says, these mark-ups appear to be unprecedentedly high. Friends say Hoare has done nothing wrong and that elements hostile to al-Thani are feeding information damaging to him to the press.

Some speak of "palace coup" by envious rivals. Yet the Emir of Qatar remains a conservative man for whom many areas of public -and private life are closed to scrutiny or debate. One businessman and collector from the region argues that the Emir would never allow a member of the royal family to be so publicly disgraced unless he thought he had good reason.

Whatever the case, Bailey last saw him at a dinner with their wives (al-Thani is married with three children) in New York in late February.

"At that point, rumours of a scandal were already swirling," Bailey recalls. Within a couple of days, the photographer discovered that al-Thani's telephone lines and mobile had been cut off. Auction houses, art dealers and experts meanwhile received a letter dated February 16 stripping al-Thani of his powers as chairman of the NCCAH, adding that Dr Mohammed Abdulraheem Kafoud - a former education minister - has stepped into his shoes. While Qatari officials claim that plans for the five museums will move ahead, the Qatari Audit Bureau is now investigating allegations of a "serious misuse and misappropriation of funds".

Back in London, it is in the saleroom that al-Thani has had the greatest impact - both in photography and in the Islamic field, where his countless acquisitions now rival Sheikh Nasser al-Sabah's collection of more than 20,000 objects on display in the National Museum in Kuwait City.

"I admire Sheikh Saud's passion, but I'm very much aware of the potentially destabilising force when a collector arrives on the art market with seemingly unlimited resources," says Philippe Garner. "It can lead to unrealistic expectations on the part of vendors."

Al-Thani is as colourful and exotic as one of his rare birds. His disappearance had an immediate impact on the Islamic sales of the big London auction houses this week. Christie's reached £3·2 million compared with £11·1 million last April; Sotheby's £2·1 million, down from 2004's £7·3 million.

"He was one of the most fascinating men I've ever met," adds David Bailey.

"I miss him."

===============================

Martin Luther II in Brazil??!! (NYT)

Lately, I watched 'Luther', a movie that Joseph Fiennes plays Martin Luther in.
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Today - by coincidence, I found a piece in NYT op/ed section that relates a bit to the movie, you can call it 'The Potential Second Reformation of the Holy See"


Here it is:

SÃO PAULO, Brazil

Here in Latin America, the great remaining heartland of Roman Catholicism, some Catholics have a blunt warning for Pope Benedict XVI: unless the Catholic Church changes course, it may come close to committing suicide.

Latin America sometimes feels a bit like Martin Luther's Wittenberg in 1517, on the eve of the Reformation. There is a growing gulf between many independent-minded churchgoers and grass-roots priests on the one hand, and the cardinals and the pope on the other.

"I resent them," said Alessandra Katiane da Silva, a 21-year-old who goes to Mass and was wearing a necklace with images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. She said she could better judge her contraceptive needs than elderly cardinals, then added, "We have to take care of ourselves, because they're not looking out for us."

While the Latin American church has a conservative wing, many Catholics seem like Ms. da Silva - soured by some Vatican dogma but still identifying strongly with a local church and finding spiritual comfort there.

The result is that many local Catholic parishes have quietly seceded from the Vatican's control on sexual issues. The pope can thunder against birth control (other than a method based on timing a woman's cycles, derided by critics as "Vatican roulette"), but 70 percent of Brazilian women use artificial contraception. So the pope pontificates, and his flock here yawns.

"The Catholic Church's ban on condoms doesn't function here in Brazil," said José Roberto Prazeres, a psychologist at an AIDS center in São Paulo. "We partner with priests to give out condoms."

A prominent gynecologist, Albertina Duarte, said that she had never had a patient who was so Catholic that she objected to most forms of contraception. "Never," she said. "Never in my 35 years as a doctor."

Latin America is still the most dynamic part of the world for Roman Catholicism, accounting for 40 percent of the world's Catholics. But throughout Latin America, the number of evangelicals, especially Pentecostals, is surging, quadrupling in Brazil during John Paul II's papacy. Some Brazilians warn that at this rate Brazil could eventually become a predominantly Protestant country.

Some conservatives say the problem is that the church went touchy-feely and permissive after Vatican II, and they note that the evangelical sects gaining ground are more morally demanding, not less. But the more common view here is that the church has squandered its authority with positions that strike parishioners as backward, not uplifting, on divorce, birth control and the role of women.

Pope Benedict once fretted that on such issues the church "risks appearing like an anachronistic construct." In an essay written when he was a cardinal, he stuck with traditional values but acknowledged that many foresaw this bleak choice: "Either the church finds an understanding, a compromise with the values propounded by society which she wants to continue to serve, or she ... finds herself on the margin of society."

That's the tug of war being fought in places like Brazil, with grass-roots priests often trying to stay in tune with parishioners, while the Vatican tries to stay faithful to its values.

"There is the hierarchy of the church, and then there's the church that really functions at the local level," said the Rev. Valeriano Paitoni, a priest widely admired in São Paulo for running first-rate shelters for AIDS orphans. He was disciplined in 2000 for encouraging people to use condoms to protect against AIDS.

Most Brazilian Catholics, he said, want to see changes in the church's stance on birth control, homosexuality, marriage of priests and the role of women in the church. "If the church doesn't have the courage to take these issues up, and listen to science and the world, then there'll be a disaster," he said, adding that he is still optimistic that reforms will come.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Vatican responded to reformers like John Wycliffe and Martin Luther by circling the wagons. Luther had hoped to remain inside a reformed Catholic Church, but the pope excommunicated him, and the result was the Protestant Reformation.

I can't help feeling that today, Pope Benedict and the cardinals may be facing a similar choice. Unless the Vatican reconnects with ordinary people here in the Catholic heartland, the tens of millions who find spiritual meaning in their pews but have been turned off by many church positions, then the Vatican's obstinacy may yet kindle a Re-Reformation.

E-mail: nicholas@nytimes.com


Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Demographics of Israel (Ynet)



Jews: 5,260,000 (%76)

Arabs: 1,350,000 (%20)
"Others"*: 290,000 (%4)


Jewish & "Other" Israelis born in
Israel: 4,485,000 approx. (%65)



Jewish & "Other" Israelis born abroad: 2,415,000
approx. (%35)
in


Former Soviet Union: 950,000 (%13.76 approx.)
Morocco: 157,000 (%2.27 approx.)
Romania: 110,000 (%1.6 approx.)
N.America (mostly U.S.) : 77,000 (%1.11 approx.)
Poland: 64,000 (%0.66 approx.)
========================================
*Others are mostly new immigrants who are not recognized as Jewish by the Interior Ministry.
========================================
More on Wikipedia



Famous Israeli Figures born in the Middle East
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Yazd, Iran: Moshe Katsaf (President)
Isfahan, Iran: Shaul Mofaz (Minister of Defense)
Iraq: Rabbi Ovaida Yousef (Religious Leader of 'Shas' Party)
Baghdad, Iraq: Benjamin Ben Eli-Azer, a.k.a. 'Fouad' (ex-Minister of Defense)
Kurdistan, Iraq: Yitzhak Mordechai (ex-Minister of Defense)
Tunisia: Silvan Shalom (Foreign Minister)
Morocco: David Levy (ex-Foreign Minister)
Morocco: Shlomo Ben-Ami (ex-Foreign Minister)


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P.S.: Benjamin Netanyahu (a.k.a. 'BiBi') was the first Israeli born Prime Minister.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Bin & Bin Co.

Early P.S: I'm writing this post in English because this computer lacks an Arabic keyboard.

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When I was exploring Kuwaiti blogs, I found a blog with Links to the Official websites of two Sheikhs or Imams: Bin Baz & Bin Othaimeen...

I felt so sorry for him/her.... why....

Because of two things:-

1- Imam Bin Baz -being (he's dead now) a blind man- missed the opportunity to see our sphere "The Blue Planet", so he said that Earth is Flat (not the Flatness in Thomas Friedman's latest book), and adding that the "Kafara" or who follows them are disrespecting the Quran by denying this FACT...

BUT

After arriving back to Saudi Arabia, Prince Sultan bin Salman Al Saud (the 1st Arab Astronaut) met the sheikh and told him that after being in the space and watching the earth from above, he "discovered" that earth is not flat,

SO

the distinguished Imam changed his mind and denied the Flatness of Earth.


2-Imam Bin Othaimeen (dead as well) issued a 'fatwa' that prohibits Muslims from congratulating 'Nasara' (Christians) for Christmas, because sharing this occasion with the 'Kafara' includes a sense of sharing their belief in Trinity & the crucifixion of Jesus.

Anyone: are you willing to follow any of them?!!
I won't!!

With Dubya using it, iPod is losing its COOLNESS!! (NYT)

Moved to my scrapbook

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Firefox: 50 Million and still counting!

The image “http://www.spreadfirefox.com/celebrate-50m.png” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
I never believed I'll find a real reliable, secure, light and efficient browser in my cyber-life...

Not anymore, after using Firefox for the 1st time last November I knew that there are still good guys on the web.

I used IE (name any version since 1996), and Netscape (4.0 to 7.0) and Opera as well, with each I faced a problem:

- With IE I'm not safe AT ALL! and I need to debug and respond to error messages every now & then, plus it hasn't got the tabs delicacy.
- With Netscape I couldn't view some pages made with Frontpage (by Microsoft), and it's not a light software.
- With Opera I couldn't read Arabic fonts properly and kept switching from left to right all the time.


BUT


with Firefox my days got better, I'm able to enjoy my time on the web, saving headaches and feeling the great sense of security ... there are good people to rely on in Mozilla ........ Trust Mozilla, why?? have you ever heard of a company that would give you money If you found a bug in its browser other than Mozilla!??

Last but not least, this blog didn't get any post from any browser other than Firefox, it works great with it, either with my Mac or PC, so stop pondering and go & download Firefox for free NOW & forever.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Honey, I think the world is FLAT!! - Friedman

Moved to my scrapbook

شكر للنائب فلان الفلاني

مقال وجدته صدفة يتعرض لموضوع يعتبره البعض صغيرا
ولكنه يحتاح الى التشخيص ولكن ليس
كما يشخصه المقال

الاحد ١ مايو-ايار ٢٠٠٥

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لافتات الشكر و العرفان
- علي فهد العجمي

«من لا يشكر الناس لا يشكر الله.. هذا قول صحيح ولا غبار عليه والرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: «المسلم للمسلم كالبنيان المرصوص.. الخ الحديث»، والدين الاسلامي دين قيمه لا تحصى ولا تعد وهو الدين الذي اختتمت به الرسالات السماوية، ونبينا وقدوتنا محمد بن عبدالله عليه افضل الصلاة والتسليم وعلى آله وصحبه الكرام هو خاتم الانبياء والرسل، وللمتأمل في سيرته وسيرة صحابته رضوان الله عليهم جميعا سوف يجد ما يبعث في النفوس السعادة والسرور ولو اردت ان اسوق امثلة على ذلك فلن يكفي الف مقال والف مقال، فالسيرة النبوية شاهدة على ذلك فهذا الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم، عندما رأى متسولا وسأله الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم بما معنى الحديث، انت شاب معافى وتسأل الناس فأعطاه الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم درهما وقال له: اشتر به فأسا واحتطب واجمع الحطب فهو خير لك من مسألة الناس، وهذا علي بن ابي طالب كرم الله وجهه يمتدحه الله من سابع سماء في قوله تعالى (ويطعمون الطعام على حبه مسكينا ويتيما وأسيرا» سورة الانسان.
وما اردت ان اصل اليه من هذه المقالة هو ما نشاهده في مناطقنا وخاصة المناطق الخارجية من كثرة اللافتات التي كتب عليها «شكر وعرفان» وعبر صفحات الجرائد اليومية فهذا يشكر النائب فلان وذاك يشكر النائب الاخر على ما قدمه من خدمة من اجل واسطة له في وزارة الدفاع او الداخلية من اجل علاجه او علاج احد افراد اسرته او ادخال احد اولاده في الكليات العسكرية وما شابه ذلك وكأن النائب هو صاحب المنة.
فبالله عليكم من اوصل هذا النائب الى قبة البرلمان؟
أليس انت ايها المواطن، فإن قدم لك خدمة فهذا واجب عليه، وعليه هو ان يشكرك فأنت جعلت منه نائبا وعرفه القاصي قبل الداني.
ان هناك زملاء لك داخل الكويت قدموا لناخبيهم اضعاف ما قدمت يا نائب المناطق الخارجية ولم نر لافتة واحدة في مناطقهم تشكر النائب ثم ان هناك من هم غير نواب قدموا خدمات ومساعدات لمواطنيهم وابناء جنسهم ولم نر لهم لافتات امثال نقابات العمال ورؤساء النقابات والمختارين، وبعض المسؤولين لانهم يعتقدون ان من واجبهم تقديم تلك الخدمات لابناء جنسهم بدون منة.
اذاً ما هو السر الذي لا نرى فيه الا اللافتات التي تشكر اعضاء مجلس الامة؟
السر ان النائب يطلب ممن قدم له خدمة ان يشيد به ولو دفع تكاليف تلك الاعلانات حتى يقرأها من يسير في الطرقات والشوارع فيشيد به.
ان مثل هذه الاعمال التي يُضحك بها على ذقون الناخبين مصيرها في يوم من الايام ان تُكشف. وكما يقولون في بعض المسلسلات المصرية «العيال كبرت» ان ثقافة ووعي الناخب كفيل بالقضاء على مثل هذه الظواهر.
ولافتة اخرى كتب عليها ابناء المنطقة الفلانية يشكرون النائب فلان على فتح طريق او مستوصف او حديقة.. الخ، هذه واجبات على النائب يقدمها لمنطقته اذا كانت ناقصة للخدمات فما الداعي للشكر؟
واذا اردنا ان نحاسب نوابنا ونكون مثاليين فعلينا دعوتهم كل ستة اشهر من توليهم النيابة، نيابة الامة، نحاورهم نسألهم عن اسباب تقصيرهم في كذا وكذا.
في الجلسة الفلانية كان هناك موضوع ذو صلة مباشرة بالمواطن واذا بك تتغيب عن الجلسة واذ ما صوَّت آخر لغير صالح المواطنين، نحاورهم نسألهم وبالتالي نعري من تعلق لهم لوحات واعلانات الشكر ونعرف الحقيقة.
ان النائب ليس مهمته ان يتوسط لعلاج او ادخال احد في الكلية العسكرية بل مهمته اكبر من ذلك، في سن القوانين والتشريعات التي من شأنها ان تسعد الوطن والمواطنين.
وفقنا الله جميعا لخدمة وطننا وديننا.