لا صوت يعلو فوق صوت الكويت

Flying flag
Originally uploaded by BloBoz.

It’s a time to celebrate & rejoice, yet, a time to learn from our experiences & flaws.

“a nation that doesn’t learn form its past, doesn’t deserve to live”
-Author unknown.

Happy 45th National Day
and
Happy 15th Liberation Day

C'mon Deeyah!

Deeyah faces death threats, Why?
Because she stood up for what she thinks is RIGHT.

In her videoclip “What will it be?”, she took off a burqa (hijab+niqab+abaya) to uncover a bikini. So?!

Some believe she “desecrated” the burqa & what a burqa stands for deliberately.

That made me start wondering about “Tawba vs. Ridda” (Repentance vs. Apostasy), both within the perspective of muslims, thus, converting from islam to another religion or the other way, is not involved here.
It’s simply the endless argument: Right vs. Wrong.

Muslims typically welcome people who repent & denounce their “pre-repentance” actions & beliefs, and say “Allah hadahum” (Allah guided them [to the straight path]).
But, when a man shaves his beard or when a woman takes off her hijab, and denounce their “pre-apostasy” actions & beliefs, muslims “open the gates of hell” and say “Allah yhadahum” (May Allah guide them [to the straight path]).

What you believe in doesn’t entail being “RIGHT”.
Acceptance & toleration are neither cowardice nor indifference. They are virtues.

What offends you more?:
Miss World Pageants or Suicide Bombers?
Nude beaches or compulsory islamic clothing?
Religious Policemen or the Red Light District?

In “What will it be?”, Deeya poses a considerable question:
“Does the truth only come from the top of a holy man's spire?”
(Read more)

Take a deep breath & ponder steadily …
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Hat tip: The Sandmonkey.

Flesh, blood, rocks, stones, bricks & gold

19th & 20th Centuries: Wahhabis levelled shrines, tombs & houses of “pious” muslim figures in Mecca, Medina & Karbala, and attacked peaceful inhabitants of Mecca & Taif.
20th Centruy: Zionist gangs vandalized mosques in Palestine.
20th & 21st Centuries: Nazis vandalized synagogues & mosques in Europe.
21st Century: Taliban bombed ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan.
21st Century: “Zarqawi & Co” attacked pilgrims of Karbala.

and yesterday, unidentified “malevolents” bombed the Shrine of Imam Ali Al-Hadi & Al-Hasan Al-Askari in Samarra, Iraq.

All the mentioned above had something in common… HATRED.

Words that describe my fury & frustration regarding the bombing of the two Imams Shrine in Samarra, fails to exist.
But I can ‘fume’ about it.

When will humans learn toleration, peace & co-existence?
How many scared places wait to be vandalized?
Is there a ‘benefit’ from all this hatred?

and…

When will humanity collectively value secularism?

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Attachment: Aerial view of Samarra, Iraq. (Link)

ألو... معاك الديوان الأميري

يتابع عدد ليس باليسير من المواطنين والمقيمين نشرات الأخبار اليومية التي تعرض مرارا وتكرارا أخبار استقبالات صاحب السمو أمير البلاد للمهنئين، وشخصيا أجد المتعة في متابعتها للاستماع بما سيطرحه صاحب السمو من أفكار وكيفية انتقائه للكلمات والمواضيع، كما أستمتع أكثر و أكثر بالطريقة المختلفة لكل ضيف في تحية ومقابلة صاحب السمو.

ينطبق على أحد اللقاءات مقولة "شر البلية ما يضحك"، أقصد لقاء صاحب السمو برئيس مجلس إدارة الهيئة العامة للزراعة والثروة السمكية الشيخ فهد سالم العلي.
أعتقد أن الكل يعلم دور الشيخ فهد أثناء "أزمة الحكم"، فما أجمل بل ما أقبح أنا نراه بجانب صاحب السمو مهنئا أو مرغما على التهنئة أو قد يكون مهنئا لنفاق أو رياء ...والله أعلم.

القضية هي أن الديوان الأميري يتصل بالجهات الحكومية ومؤسسات القطاع الخاص والمجتمع المدني، لـ"يتشرفوا" بـ"تأدية واجب التهنئة" لصاحب السمو أمير البلاد.
البعض يقبل لأنه يريد التهنئة ويؤيد ما يسمى بـ"معسكر" الشيخ صباح.
البعض الآخر يجد نفسه مرغما على التهنئة.
وهناك من يتخذها فرصة للظهور في التلفاز لـ"يتشيحط".
أيضا يجدها البعض فرصة لمقابلة أكبر رجل في الدولة.
و الكثير الكثير من الأسباب التي تدعوا الناس للتهنئة عن قصد أو عن غير قصد، سواء باللقاء شخصيا أم بالنشر.

أشار الكاتب عبداللطيف الدعيج (في جريدة القبس) إلى "النفاق" المستشري في الكويت خلال فترة "العجاف" الحالية.
Link1 - Link2 - Link3

الوزارة والهيئة والديوان والعائلة والقبيلة والحسينيات والدواوين والشركة والمؤسسة و و و و كلهم يهنئون، يهنئون صاحب السمو وسمو ولي العهد وسمو رئيس مجلس الوزراء و الوزراء الشيوخ فقط.

فويلا للكويتيين من ظاهرة "أم أحمد العجافة" المستشرية، واعلموا أن أسوء العمل هو حجب الحق أمام ولي الأمر واستبدال الحق بعبارات النفاق، فإن ردد الجميع شعارات الإصلاح ومحاربة الفساد و"الله لا يغير علينا" فسلام الله على البلد.

إذن من هو المصلح؟ ومن هو المفسد؟ ومن ومن.. لقد "ضاعت الحسبة"

وعلى قولة أحمد فؤاد نجم
و هو مولد ساير داير... شلاه يا اصحاب البيت

Who monitors corruption?

I assume you heard of the Global Corruption Report of 2006 (by Transparency International).

Al-Watan published a translation of the part on Kuwait, today. (Link)

What puzzles me is that the part on Kuwait was done by the Kuwait Economic Society KES. (See: Rola Dashti)

So does that mean that Kuwait has reliable & responsible NGOs?
Or does it mean that the part on Kuwait was biased & deficient?
and
will the Government try to persuade the KES to "trim" its monitor on corruption in Kuwait, as a deal to support women & businessmen candidates in 2007 Elections? (See: Conspiracy Theory).

or am I being skeptic today?

No Qatari gas, blame it on the Saudis

From the news:

"The $2bn gas pipeline project between Qatar and Kuwait, first agreed in July 2000, is probably not now feasible…" (Link)

More @
الشرق
الرأي العام
إيلاف

The real "Hailag"

Reema asked what does the term “Hailag” mean.

It’s hard to lay down a firm definition of the term “Hailag” nowadays, since people disagree on how to use it and who to describe with. Nevertheless, we can track it back in history.

According to Yousif bin Essa’s book “Safahat min Tareekh Al-Kuwait”* (Pages from Kuwait’s History).




Al-Hailag were (pages 64 & 65):




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*: A 90 pages mini-sized book that documents Kuwait’s timeline since early 1700s until the decease of Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah 1915.

To my valentine

أنت هديتي

حكومة الدقة و نص

On 14/2/2001, Al-Rai Al-Aam published 'leaked' information about the new government. Everybody knew it was Sheikh Sabah's government (ex- PM's 1st deputy & FM) not Sheikh Saad's (ex-Crown Prince & PM).

People nicknamed it the "Valentine's Cabinet" and the "Hala February Cabinet".

On 9/2/2006 AD - 10/1/1427 AH (today) KUNA publishes 'confirmed' information about new cabinet:

By: Al-Qabas - Edited by: iDip.

The Prime Minister sends the new cabinet disignation to HH the Amir. (KUNA)
HH the Amir issues Amiri Decree #7 of 2006, approving the PM's designation. (KUNA)

This cabinet will last for 1 & 1/2 year (دقة ونص), and the new governmental anthem will be:
قومي تنرقص يا حكومة
Download (Temporary link)

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PS: لا تنسوا الحكومة بالدعاء اناء الليل و اطراف النهار

Archives: iDip (3)

Back in 2001, I was ‘shopping’ for collectable items, my destination was the southern bank of the Seine river near the Latin Quarter.
There was an old french gentleman selling his collection of old books, magazines & newspapers.

While I was looking through his collection, he asked me with his french accent...

• Him: “monsieur, can I help you find what you’re looking for?”
• me: “please! do you have anything about Kuwait?” (while expecting him to ask “what’s koweit?”)
• Him: “Koweit, Koweit, Koweit… Non!”
• Me: (a look of disappointment)
• Him: “what about Iraq?”
• Me: “yeah, close enough” (wondering what it will be about)
• Him: “here you are monsieur”

He handed me an old newspaper with its cover page facing down, I looked closer and… (hint: 1366 years ago)

• Le Petit Journal (France).
  
• Issue #960, Sunday 11th April 1909.

(click on the images below for a larger version)

The cover:

The back cover:

So it was about “Karbala Pilgrims” , and here's the article in page2 about it:



My lousy translation (with some help ofcourse):

Variety
Persian Fanaticism
The ceremonies of [the month of] Muharram –
a page of the history of Islam –
Karbala, the Mecca of Persians –
a theatre parallel to our “mystery” of [the] middle-age –
Religion and patriotism.

The article is 3 times longer, but I chose to show its beginning since the page is too long for my scanner or camera.

It talks about the ceremonies of Muharram, especially on the day of Ashura. The article is ‘geographically’ about Karbala (Iraq) and what does Ashura mean to Shiite muslims, but you can notice that who wrote the article thought that Shiites are Persians only.

If you are willing to buy this issue, it’s available on ebay.fr, or you can browse some of Le petit journal's issues here.


More episodes to come…

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PS: NYdaily has resurrected.
قرت عينكم

It's a DOGGY year

Reason #1 (Link)
Reason #2 (below):

A-My friend's Shar-Peis Lola & Paca (aka: Francisca)

Paca

Lola

B-Mark & Nat's Geo (Link)
C-Fadi & Mar's Miki & Kimi (Link)

BTS 2

“Bloggers Tagging Syndrome”

Tagged by: The Stallion.
====================

Target: Female.

1. Intelligent.
2. Decent.
3. Has a tendency towards exploring new frontiers & learning from new experiences.
4. Humorous
5. Social.
6. Stands up for what she believes in without being dogmatic or narrow-minded.
7. Loves life.
8. Responsible.

Tagging the following 8:

1. I
2. will
3. not
4. do
5. B
6. T
7. S
8. again.

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PS: (from Blogger Status)

"Just a quick reminder that we will be going ahead with a planned network maintenance on Monday the 6th from 7–8PM PST. Blogger and Blog*Spot blogs will be unavailable during that time.

This maintenance won’t fix everything, but it will make things better. I promise."

Bocas

People use their mouths for various usages.
For shouting, singing, cheering, sobbing, reciting …etc

Muslims nowadays prefer to shout, while Spaniards prefer to sing.
On the other hand, Kuwaitis are exchanging their rumours as “proven” predictions, some are shouting though. (expats included)


Today is the last day of Madrid’s Flamenco Festival. Tomorrow will be the last day of Seville’s Flamenco Fashion Show.

And here, I’m imagining flamenco’s rhythmical claps and steps, as well as the steps of a new Crown Prince and a new Prime minister.

That’s when I remembered NiñA Pastori’s (interview2002 – interview2004) “De boca en boca”.

She sings:

“De boca en boca van
de boca en boca van
saltando los rumores”

my lousy translation:
“Rumours are jumping from mouth to mouth”.

Download “De Boca en boca”
(Temporary link)

ما منقاطع تنعرف ليش

الخبر: مظاهرات تطالب بمقاطعة البضائع والابقار الدنماركية

التعليق: ان البقر تشابه علينا

منقاطع
(Temporary link)
من مسرحية ملوك الطوائف لمنصور الرحباني

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PS: