Dogs & Snakes are welcomed

The Year of the Dog will start tomorrow.

What do we have for tomorrow in Kuwait?

The Kuwaiti National Assembly (parliament) will have two meetings:

The first (at 09:00): to approve the Cabinet’s designation of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad as the 15th Amir of Kuwait (an unanimous vote is expected).

The Second (at 12:00): is for the consented Amir to take oath.

So what?

• “the year of the dog is expected to bring many changes in the economic and political fields as well as in daily life”.

• “will be better than the last year of the Rooster”.

• “The year is also said to bring good business and a prosperous economy”. (Link)
  

Good news for Kuwait, but what about Sheikh Sabah?



He was born in the Year of the Snake (1929), and according to the Chinese Zodiac he:

• "Is driven to success”.
• Is “influential in higher circles”.
• Has “a killer sense of humor, with which” he baits his “attractive traps”. (Link)
  

• “will be able to communicate with the public and function effectively in group activities”.
• “can take control and bridge gaps during times of confusion and panic”.
• “will be loyal to friends and have an army of supporters”.
• “will succeed in banking, insurance and real estate investments”. (Link)
  

• “Hours ruled by the Snake: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.” (the national assembly will vote in this time period).
  

• “Direction of its sign: South – Southeast” (and Dar Salwa is south-southeast to Kuwait City).
  

• “Diplomatic”. (Link)
  

Happy Doggy Year

The Kuwaiti Interregnum

We're living history!
Pass it to the next generation, before their memory turns into a swiss cheese like ours.

(click on the image below for a larger view)

What is an interregnum? Read

=======================
PS: If you haven’t read “Al-Rai Al-Hur”, check it out. He wrote a new article on Friday.
PS 2: Naif Al-Mutawa a “Kuwaiti comics entrepreneur” on NY Times.

Trying to heal a country

Kuwait had enough.

فهي الوجود الثابت ونحن الوجود العابر

Each camp addressed their points constitutionally, unconstitutionally, legally, badly, disrespectfully and rigidly.

What do we have? a solution … maybe

Trying to be or pretending to be optimistic – like our parliament speaker – was faced by facts of predicament. The ‘Ruling Crisis’ (aka ‘azmat al-hukm’) was just like boxing:

Round one goes to Sheikh Sabah, round two goes to Sheik Salem, round 3 4 5 …. and who was getting hurt and beaten up?
Kuwait, the Constitution, Sheikh Saad and citizens.

Some say "Look at the bright side, we followed what the constitution says".
Well, you ‘shredded’ the constitution habitually and assassinated its soul.

Unfortunately, we claimed that we are the ‘Democracy Oasis’ in the gulf & the Arab world… but are we?

We lived in a dream, a very sweet one. One day, someone with a bright smile passed away. He wasn’t just someone, he was -for years- our ‘safety valve’, the ‘balancer’ and a patron for all.

Now, that the ruling family reached a solution (as we were informed by everyone except Kuwaiti officials, see: Kuwait TV), I hope that everyone who hurt Kuwait will never forget what he/she did. History will never forgive and Kuwaitis will never forget.

Courageous sons and daughters of Kuwait are the ones who acted with ‘wisdom & reason’. But ‘Elders’, ‘Wise men’, daily newspapers and Officials were bound to interests or a greater power.

Our Heroes won’t be some people of big headlines & posters, nor SMS & rumours.

I can’t count and name every commendable person, but I’d like to name the ones I knew they did what they can in the name of Kuwait:

Jasem Al-Saqerجاسم الصقر,
Yousif Al-Nisfيوسف النصف,
Yousif Ibrahim Al-Ghanemيوسف ابراهيم الغانم,
AbdulAziz Al-Shayaعبدالعزيز الشايع,
Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Mutawwaعبدالله العلي المطوع,
Yousif Al-Hajjiيوسف الحجي,
Ahmed Bezee' Al-Yaseenاحمد بزيع الياسين,
Ahmad Al-Saadoun (MP)احمد السعدون,
Mishary Al-Angeri (MP)مشاري العنجري,


Mobi,
Jandeef Khaan,
Rasheed Al-Khattar,
Bu Salem,
(The guys behind ‘Sahat Al-Safat’)

And more and more….

فالكويت كانت بأهلها وبقيت بأهلها وستبقى ان شاء الله بأهلها

PS:
Some may not agree on all the names I mentioned above.
Therefore, I’d like to say that those names are what I discreetly think did what was right during the crisis.
Opinions may contrast –as we watched lately- but the main idea is one: “Kuwait first & Last”.
In addition, naming people you think did the right thing at the right time is an undeniable right to everyone.

=================
Last but not least, I’d like to thank misguided for the help he bestowed to ‘reshape’ my blog.

لو دامت لغيرك... ما اتصلت إليك

حكمة نقرأها على المدخل القديم لقصر السيف
فلتكن اذن امام عيني كل من بيده مصير الحكم في الكويت



فلو كان للاشاعات سوق لكان سوق الكويت الاول عالميا هذه الايام.... فرفقا بالكويت

ولنبتعد قليلا عن اشاعات الهواتف و الرسائل ولنرى ما نشر حتى كتابة هذا الموضوع عن اجتماع الاسرة الحاكمة

الصحف الكويتية

القبس
الافتتاحية - الخبر

الوطن

السياسة
الافتتاحية - الخبر

الرأي العام

الانباء

(click on the images below for a larger view)

مواقع اخرى

ساحة الصفاة

ايلاف

وتذكروا ما قاله الامير الراحل خلال القاءه النطق السامي في مجلس الامة عام١٩٩٧

"مؤمنين بأن الكويت هي وطننا الخالد جاعلين هدفنا الأسمى سلامتها والحفاظ عليها قولا وعملا فإنه لا وجود لنا ولا عزة لنا إلا بوجودها عزيزة قوية إذ هي الوجود الثابت ونحن الوجود العابر فلنحرص كل الحرص على وضع مصلحتها فوق أي مصلحة كانت لنفوز بحاضر كريم ومستقبل عزيز"

From Denial to Grief

Originally uploaded by chek chak.

Woke up to at 07:15 after having 3 hours of sleep, my sister tells me not to leave bed and continue sleeping "mako dawam el-yoam" (no work for today), and she was acting in way like "please don't know" and my parents were still asleep. Then she left my room… Where is she?

I felt some suspicion… "what's going on?" I looked for my cellphone to find messages saying "Sheikh Jaber passed away. RIP"…. It took me around 15 minutes to get myself out of the state of denial, doubt & disbelieve. Passed away? He's sick.. yes.. but?! No "he WAS!?"

Then clouds of sorrow kept shadowing me, I feel them now while writing this…


I stopped thinking about him as "The Sovereign" but as anyone of us, I'm thinking of his family, relatives, friends and fellow citizen … all of them… I feel sorry for him, for Kuwaitis… for every single kid (including me) who sang for 'Baba Jaber'.

I never thought of post-Jaber Kuwait, things will never be the same again, and I wish for better not worse.

محلل يا بومبارك

Archives: iDip (2)

This episode is about two issues of “Noor Al-Islam” Magazine (Egypt), issued by “The Preach & Guidance Ulama* of the Egyptian State”.

What surprised me is that this magazine is still available by the same guys. (see: Al-Azhar).

*Ulama: Religious Scholars.

In both issues I chose topics from the “Islamic World NEWS” section. So we can put ourselves in their shoes and think the way they did 67 years ago.

(click on the images below for a larger view)

• Date: 21st of January 1939.

The Cover

About “New Egyptian Exports” in a cultural sense, referring to Egyptian movies and lottery tickets.

• Date: 22nd of March 1939.

The Cover

The story on the top is about some “governmental efforts” in Egypt regarding “perverted” music.
The other story is about how Transordan started to charge any “safira” women (unveiled) in public -a charge equivalent of 5 Egyptian Pounds-, and I don’t know what did they mean by “safira”, a women not covering her face, head/hair or body?


More episodes to come.

Archives: iDip (1)

This is the first episode of a mini-series of archival magazines & newspapers. I will occasionally show some selected articles, photos & ads.

The first one is from: “As-Siyasa Al-Usboo’eyya” (Egypt)

Date: Saturday, 4th of October 1930

(click on the images below for a larger view)

The Cover

Taha Hussein’s latest book (at that time) “Fi Al-Adab Al-Jahili”



A new calendar for 1931. Note that it's in Lunar and Coptic months, in Arabic & French (not English).



Showing Adolf Hitler as a “capable leader of the German Fascist” (or “Fascism”).


More episodes to come.
=================

I would like to thank the talented & helpful blogger misguided for his enlightening topics about technology. I –finally- renovated my blog’s header.

P.S. Why people were complaining about Eid & its holiday? I don’t see any boredom or “suckness” in it!

All I want for Eid...

ibook
Originally uploaded by tussenpozen.

.. is this

دعاء البحث عن المفقود

Inspired by Shurouq's post "Baaaaa3"

اللهم يا خالق الامم العديدة
ومهلك الاقوام العتيدة
ومجزي ذا الاخلاق الحميدة
ادم لنا بها حياة سعيدة
واجعل لها عودة جديدة
واعد لنا بالبشرى الاكيدة
ابنة يورك الجديدة

NYchick's blog (NYdaily) is "not found" for unknown reasons.


NYchick,

Please report to the nearest blog.

يا حية يا ام راسين

What do you prefer, reading or listening?

Travelogue: Najd

Last week, the Saudi police forces clashed with wanted terrorists, they captured two terrorists, and lost some policemen. (Link)

What am I talking about? I’m just giving hints…

While the whole world (well… almost) was planning for the new year's eve, I headed with friends to Najd (Saudi Arabia), and there were no signs of celebrating 2006, and to be fair.. I didn’t observe anything related to the Georgian Calendar.

Day 1:

• Back from work, packing in 20 minutes.
• Arriving to Al-Zilfi at night.
• Sipping shots of Arabian coffee with “Gudoo3”*, or shall I call it “Gulf Tapas”.
• The ‘Welcome Supper’.
• Drinking Tea and ‘Asfar’*
• Chitchats
• Sleep

Day2:

• Breakfast. It consisted of bread, ‘qishta’ (gaimar), honey, ‘fool’, lentils, something like “Tamriyya”*, ‘Mgalgal’*, Milk & Tea.
• Chitchats.
• Drove to Al-Jway, a desert place north-west of Zilfi, where we passed through “Hajrat Al-Jway”*.
• Later on, we stopped near the dunes to have a 1-hour-picnic.
• Headed to Alaga (“E3liga”)* and visited an elder relative of a friend.
• Chitchats with the old man. Who talked about his memories of Kuwait, in the second & third decades of the last century.
• Visited the southwestern side of Zilfi, where Kuwaitis own some ranchs (Al-Nisf, Al-Bader, Al-Sayer & Al-Roumi). The only Kuwaiti ranchs far from where we were are Al-Ghannam’s (the west-centre of Zilfi) and Al-Shaya's (west on the road to Al-Qassim).
• Heading to ‘Rawdhat Al-Sbila”*. Where we had lunch and a short picnic until the sunset.
• Back to Zilfi.
• Dinner.
• Chitchats until midnight in a freezing weather next to the fire. It was around 5-7 Celsius.
• Sleep.

Day3:

• Breakfast.
• Visiting “El-Mu6al El-Gharbi”* for a photos session.
• Lunch at a friend’s relative place. (a Kuwaiti living in Zilfi).
• Heading to Al-Bkairiyya (West of Braida – Al-Qaseem).
• Tea & coffee chitchats with another friend’s relative.
• Shopping at Al-Bkairiyya’s market.
• Heading to Al-Badaye’ (El-Bidayi3), around 25kms south of Bkairiyya. To visit another friends’ relative, and to have some tea, coffee & ‘Asfar’* chitchats.
  
• Back to Bkairiyya.
• Dinner.
• Tea, coffee, ‘7abag’* and Hibiscus chitchats.
• Sleep.

Day4:

• Breakfast.
• Heading back to Zilfi.
• Shopping for “Sowayegh”* at Zilfi’s market.
• Visiting a house & a farm.
• Heading back to Kuwait.
• Stopping near Al-Dhana’s* dunes. (Photo session).
• Arriving to Kuwait.
• Back home, just 1 hour before New Year’s eve to celebrate with the family.
• Reading around 6 webpages of missed blogs entries in Safat.
• Sleep.

Happy New Year

Day5:

• Today.

Photos from the trip.
=================

• “Gedoo3”: it was dates in the old time, but now it’s anything sweet to have with Arabian coffee. If you visit “Diwaniyyas” you will know it.
• “Asfar”: it means yellow in Arabic, and it’s how Najdis call the ginger & saffron hot drink.
• “Tamriyya”: Mashed dates with some butter/oil and spices, it varies depending on the place/country/region you have it in.
• “Mgalgal”: A baby-camel stew, that I swore never to taste it.
• “Hajra”: plural “Hjar”, a tiny village in the midst of desert, the population varies from tens to hundreds. The only thing “Hjar” share is mosques. Schools, police stations and clinics are not always available.
• “Alaga”: pronounced “e3lega”, the northwest centre of Zilfi, where you can find old houses & farms.
• “Rawdhat Al-Sbila”: A side of the desert east of Zilfi, it becomes green in spring time due the rain floods in winter that goes down from “Twaig” hills/mini mountains east of Zilfi. “Al-Sbila" is known from “Al-Sbila Battle”, when Saudi loyalists (led by AbdulAziz Ibn Saud) fought the Rebel Wahhabis (led by Faisal Al-Duweesh) in 1929.
• “El-Mutal El-Gharbi”: a “Mutal” is a high land overlooking an urban or rural area. This one was a towering sea of dunes overlooking Zilfi from the west.
• “7abag”: are dried mint leaves from Hayel ("7ayil"), boiled to make an aromatic drink.
• “Sowayegh”: singular “Sogha” are gifts that you bring home after travel, for relatives and friends.
• “Al-Dhana”: Pronuced “Ed-hana”, is a desert north of Najd, with endless sea of dunes.