Sunday, December 31, 2006

Wrapping 2006


1350 AH
Originally uploaded by iDip.

If you're looking for Cairo's photos, you will find them here.

As for Saddam's execution, I'm happy & I don't mind "slaughtering" him on the 1st day of Eid Al-Adha.

==========

Before we depart to a new year, I decided to "squeeze" my memory and highlight 2006 major events, on different levels.
If something is missing, blame it to George W. Bush.


2006

Kuwait
- Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed... DEAD (RIP)
- Year of the 3 Amirs.
- Year of the 3 Governments.
- 200 KD
- Nabeeha 5
- The Amir dissolved the Parliament
- Waleed Al-Jeri quits.
- Kuwaiti women vote for the first time in 45 years.
- a new Parliament.. more Islamists, less pro-Governmnet MPs & less Liberals.
- 2 information Ministers resigned (Anas Al-Rshaid & Muhammed Al-Sanousi).
- Dr. Ahmed Al-Rub3y's health (wishing him the best)
- More Kuwaiti satellite channels (Nabeeha Tahaluf, Al-Kawther, Flash, Al-Adalah, Funon & Qubbat Al-Parlaman)
- Kuwait Stock Exchange... "I'm going DOWN".
- Saleh Al-Nefeesi... DEAD (RIP)
- Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Mutawwa... DEAD (RIP)
- Jasem Al-Sager... DEAD (RIP)
- Ali Al-Jassar... DEAD (RIP)
- Abdulaziz Al-Saud Al-Sabah... DEAD (RIP)
- Abdullah Zakariyya Al-Ansari... DEAD (RIP)
- Saleh Al-Shaye.. DEAD (RIP)
- Al-Waseela
- Rumours about a "black constitutional coup", the Amir denies.
- B.O.T.
- Corruption
- Debts
- Jamal Al-Omar
- Al-Jwaihel
- Kuwait (club) vs. Brazil.
- Krispy Kreme in Kuwait.
- a real FREEZING winter.



Middle East & North Africa
(formerly known as "The Arab World")

- New sovereign Iraqi Government
- Saddam Hussein's Trial, Death Sentence & Execution.
- Al-Ikhwan's overwhelming victory in the Palestinian Elections (Hamas), and a relative victory in Egypt's Elections.
- Al-Salam 98 Tragedy.
- Hamas & Fath "eating" each other.
- Israeli War against Lebanon.
- Lebanese factions "eating" each other... and still do.
- Iraqi "slaughtering" each other... and still do.
- First Elections in UAE
- Elections in Bahrain
- Samarra Explosions.
- Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid... DEAD (RIP)
- Sheikh Pierre Al-Jemayel.... assassinated (RIP)
- Mirza Jawad Al-Tabreezi... DEAD (RIP)
- Sharon "DEAD" among the living.
- Al-Zarqawi... DEAD
- Naguib Mahfouz... DEAD (RIP)
- Abdelmenem Madbouli... DEAD (RIP)
- Fuad Al-Muhandis... DEAD (RIP)
- Majda Al-Khateeb... DEAD (RIP)
- Sheikh Abdulameer Al-Jamri... DEAD (RIP)
- Ismail Shammout.. DEAD (RIP)
- Wonderful Asian Games in Qatar.
- Coptic Churches attacked in Alexandria.
- the "Union of Islamic Courts" controls the Somali capital, then the interim government -backed by Ethiopia- "conquers" the capital.
- Iraq & Syria are "Friends" again after more than 2 decades of "diplomatic boycott".
- Oman hesitated to join the GCC single currency (due in 2010).
- Husni Mubarak "offers" Constitutional Amendments.
- Freej.



Worldwide
- The danish cartoons controversy
- The Pope controversial remarks
- Italy won the World Cup
- Milosevic... DEAD
- Pinochet... DEAD
- Gerald Ford... DEAD
- Shamil Basayev... DEAD
- Oriana Fallaci... DEAD
- James Brown... DEAD (RIP)
- Castro in Hospital
- Iraq Study Group (ISG) & its report (a.k.a. Baker-Hamilton's Report)
- Democrats victory in the mid-term congressional elections.
- Chavez re-elected.
- Montenegro.. the lateset member in the International Community (UN 192nd member)
- Military Coup in Thailand.
- Qatar.. a non-permenant member in the UN Security Council (2006-2007)
- Oil reaches 71$ per barrel.
- Rumsfeld resigns.. Gates gets in.
- Ban Ki Moon elected as UN Secretary General.



Others incidents & events
- 2 Hajj Seasons.
- 3 Eids in one Year.
- 06/06/06
- Launch of Al-Jazeera International.
- Ziad Al-Rahbani is "active" again.
- "When the People Spoke" 1 & 2 by Amer Al-Zuhair... God bless him.
- NYChick disappears, appears again.. then re-dissapear.
- Bu Maryoum dissapears... the appears in a new blog.
- Zort... did he quit??
- SheWrites (N.) returns.
- Mad M blogs again.
- Purg lauchs his new blog.
- Shosho.... blog-less.
- Sheba writes in Arabic.
- Sa7at Al-Safat became a nation-wide blog.
- Ayya's blog got blocked briefly after publishing a scandal.
- Maryam made her dream come true.
- Fadi & Mar leave Kuwait to Dubai.
- Samboose is a mom... "microchip mom".
- Sam & Denise leave Kuwait to Thailand.
- Ali & Musaad launch the first Kuwaiti podcast... Deera Chat.
- 7tenths doesn't blog.
- Fractal00 stops blogging... converts to moblogging.
- Swair got married.
- Shurouq made her "15 minutes" of fame on Future TV.
- William Waker got married.
- 1st Annual Kuwait Blogs Awards.
- Q moves Kuwaitism to a new home.
- Papillona quits & return.
- Temetwir got the Master.
- Exzombie's (and friends) short movie "3arayes" made the 1st place, and got MP3 players.
- Judy Abbot moves to a new "home".
- Boghazi quits.
- Laialy_Q8 & Erzulie... graduated.



On the personal level
- Job Promotion
- First nephew
- a new Laptop
- a new cellphone
- Rooms Switching
- Desert Camp
- met wonderful bloggers
- 2 vacations in one year
- a Friend's Mother... DEAD (RIP)
- another Friend's Father... DEAD (RIP)
- a third Friend's Grandmother... DEAD (RIP)
- a fourth Friend's Father... DEAD (RIP)


Happy New Year :)

Friday, December 29, 2006

عدنا والعود أحمد... من جو بارد إلى أبرد


Mubarak the Hubly
Originally uploaded by iDip.


إذا لم أجِد فـي بـلدةٍ مـا أُريـدهُ
فــعندي لأخـرى عَـزمـةٌ و رِكابُ
-أبو فراس الحمداني


قضيت أياما جميلة في "قاهرة الملل"، تقهره ولا يُنسَب إليها، أمشي في شوارعها نهارا وأراقب الناس على اقدامهم وفي سياراتهم وسيارات الاجرة و"متشعبطين" في "الاتوبيسات" ومتراصين في سرادق "المترو"، وعلى دوابهم النارية "الموتوسيكل"... فأجدهم مثقلين بهموم الحياة اليومية، يتأففون من الازدحام، ومسلمين رئاتهم للتلوث، يسابقون عقارب الساعة لكي لا يقطعهم سيف الوقت
وأتابعهم ليلا يهيمون على وجوههم في الشوارع وعلى "الكباري" والكورنيش.. أو يغتالون الوقت على القهاوي أو أو أو... فالقاهرة لا تخلو من الخيارات

إلا أنهم رغم كل ما سبق... لا يفقدون حس الفكاهة العفوي، نكت وحواديت يتحدون فيها قساوة الحياة، فيحيلون السياسة والاقتصاد والرياضة والدين والقضايا الاجتماعية واخبار أهل الفن والادب... الخ، إلى أعواد تتشابك كالمشربية، فتلتقى مرة وتفترق بعد ذلك، إلا أنها في النهاية أجزاء من مشربية واحدة يطلون منها على الحياة، فيتعرفون عليها دون أن تميزهم، فهم بالنسبة لها ملايين من المجهولين، تتعرف على أحدهم لتنساه، لكنهم لا ينسونها
لذا فالقاهرة ليست مقصودة ببيت شعر أبي فراس الحمداني المعلق أعلى الموضوع، بل إنها نقيض الـ"بلدة" الذي ذكر

التقيت خلال الاسبوعين الماضيين بمجموعة ضئيلة من تلك الملايين، إما عن سابق معرفة وصداقة أو بمحض الصدفة أو بترتيب الاقدار والبشر
مجموعة تعدها الاصابع والارقام، وتعجز عن عدها المشاعر

فشكرا لكم عدد مشاعر أجهر ما استطعت منها
MAO
Arfana
محمد علاء الدين وصحبه
أحمد ص
أحمد ع
محسن
بو بدر
طنط منى ود.محمد والعائلة الكريمة

ولا أنسى شكر
استاذ مصطفى
كابتن نادر
Humphrey
جاسم
حمدي
أم اسلام
أحمد س
محمد
شحاتة
بوسالم

دمتم وداموا سالمين
وكل عام وكلكم بخير


Happy Holidays :)

P.S.
Travelogue & pictures are coming soon
بس عدوا لي

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

معجبانية وصبية*

http://static.flickr.com/140/327156313_678219e6b4.jpg
الدقي مساء


I always say "Spain is a Gem", but from now on I'll add "and Egypt is a dusty one".
Don't get me wrong, Egypt -Cairo actually- hides & demonstrates different faces of history, art, heritage ...etc, but in a dusty presentation (see: Pollution), this may apply to Beijing as well.

I spent 7 beautiful days in Cairo... and I'm not done nor satisfied yet.

Highlights from the past week:
  • Celebrities are everywhere: Nabeel El-Halafawi, Ahmed Bedair, Saber El-Reba'ey, Hamdy El-Wazeer, Sami El-Adl & Tariq something (I forgot his last name)... I even saw Muhammad Al-Jasem in El-Hussein, he was the only one there wandering in Ghutra & 3gal.
  • First Mall & City Stars.
  • El-Hussein:
- visited the alleged shrine of Al-Hussein bin Ali's Head !!
- Had tea & "Sa7lab" at "Waley El-Ni3am" & El-Fishawy Cafes.
- Made a brief visit to Naguib Mahfouz Cafe.
- Had Egyptian Pancakes from "Fa6a6ry El7ussein".


  • Had lunch at Abou El-Sid, and met a wonderful blogger.... now introduce yourself ;)
  • Tomorrow, we're planning to attend Al-Ahli's training. (they came back from Japan earlier today and jammed Cairo's traffic... like it needs more jams)

You can find some pictures of the past week here.


on a side note...
to my surprise my mom called today and said instantly "Hak kallim M7ammad Sa3eed 7arib!!", and it was a nice opportunity to thank him for the creativity he bestowed upon us during last Ramadhan... and while I was talking to him, I kept hearing kids & grown-ups "screaming" of joy (including my 2 beautiful nieces).


P.S.
To write the post you just read, I turned "Gibran" into a Mosquitoes Graveyard, Macs are attractive, white, bright & "hot". (causalities: 25 smashed & 4 crippled).
يخرب بيت الناموس وسنينه


*مصر يمه يا بهية - الشيخ إمام قدس سره

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Nada más trabajo


Basel & Basma
Originally uploaded by iDip.

After 18 day of continuous work (weekdays & weekends) on a 9-18hrs/day basis...
I escaped to the smoggy Cairo, attended Basel & Basma's Wedding, then slept more than 5 hours for the first time in the last three weeks.

It's my first non-business visit to Egypt since 1996 & the first time not to stay at a hotel...
للمراسلة: ?? شارع أمين الرافعي - الدقي

I have in mind some places to visit (listed below) could you please recommend other must-visit places?

المتحف المصري
الحسين
السيدة
أبو السيد
Sangria
some bookshops.. مدبولي Diwan المكتبة الدينية
القاهرة الجديدة
كشري التحرير
Kastan



وبندحرج التماسي

Monday, December 11, 2006

ما عندي سالفة... قلت أسير

From now on, my Macbook will be called "Gibran". I named it after Gibran Khalil Gibran, not Gebran Tueni, I admire the latter though.

Anyway, this blog will continue its "semi-hibernation phase" due to hectic schedules*.

شعار المرحلة

وإلى لقاء قريب بلا ارتفاع في اسعار الزبيدي والربيان
وبلا بورمية
وبلا مظاهرات في بيروت وطرابلس
وبلا حمامات دم عراقية
وبلا نجاد
وبلا بوش
وبلا ولا شي

P.S.
التسيورة عادة نسائية.. راخ اتغرم وما عندي ادفع.. تسلفوني وادفع لكم لي طاحت القروض؟