Viva España 2/2

To wrap up the Spain thingy

We stayed in a flat in Benalmadena Costa, rented from a Basque Family. They’re always in Bilbao every summer. Their flat was quite good.

The Father is a Theologian, he had his Holy Book studies in Jerusalem back in the late 1980s, his degree is framed in the master bedroom, written in English with some Hebrew & Arabic.

Needless to mention, that the living room is filled with religious paintings, icons & statues. Also, as the mother & daughter are obsessed with nature, you can find anything related to national parks & ducks everywhere. One more thing, the mother is extremely obsessed with hats, every empty space on the walls is decorated with her 20+ hats.

Renting the apartment reminded me of “I know a friend, who knows a friend”, because I know a family who knows a family, who knows a family living next door to the family we rented their apartment.

Benalmadena costa is a great place to stay, 15 minutes from Malaga and filled with day & night life. Most of the tourists there are from UK, Ireland, Germany & Morocco.

Pictures from Benalmadena.

We had a great visit to Sevilla, the capital & largest city of Andalucia. The city is vivid, history & present embrace each other there.

Amerigo Vespucci, Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan sailed from Sevilla’s port to explore the world. It is the city of Abbadids & Almohads as well as Flamenco, Paz Vega & Real Betis. Parts of Lawrence of Arabia and The Kingdom of Heaven were filmed in Sevilla. Ibn Zaydoun the great Andalusian poet died there.

We visited Sevilla’s cathedral, the third largest cathedral in the world. It is far prettier than Notre Dame de Paris. The cathedral used to be a mosque, just like scores of churches in the southern part of Iberia. The Bell tower used to be the Minaret (Manara), it’s known as Giralda. On the of strange thing about it, is that it doesn’t have stairs, but an upward tilting ramp that narrows by the time you reach the top. Al-Muzzen (Al-Mo’athen) used to mount his horse and ascend it to call for prayer (Athan).

A little visit to Plaza de Espana was included, it was (as well as Plaza de America) built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exhibition.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have the opportunity to visit Alcazar.

By the way, Sevilla is extremely hot in summer, compared to the rest of Spain. By noon, it reached 41C in the shade.

Pictures from Sevilla.

The last visit to mention was to Jerez de la Frontera. You can call it ‘Spain’s Bordeaux’, and it’s also famous for its Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, one of five royal schools in Spain. Jerez is called Sherry in English (I think you know what sherry is), Brits are the major visitors there, both tourists & businessmen.

In every major street there’s a Bodega (Wine Cellar & Factory). We had a visit to “William & Humbert” (1877). There’s a horse stable near the factory housing around 10 horses, one of the horses is named “Al-Manzor”, named after Al-Mansour Muhammed ibn Abi Amer.

Pictures from Jerez.

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I’d like to wish:

- Ctach-22 a happy first quarter of a century.
- Bu Maryoum & Lil Alien happy blogging anniversaries.
- JC a Happy Birthday.
- Mark good luck after completing the Miskan Project.

Homage

If someone is dear to you, and maybe you’re more to him/her than he/she is to you, show it, live it, enjoy it and embrace every moment in your lives not to waste an opportunity to give love and to be loved.

عيد بأي حال عدت يا عيد

To look at faces, to sense places, to cherish memories and feel that it’s not just you, but everyone & everything is mourning, by silence, tears, pride or remembrance.

I never thought that sadness has a great influence on our souls, and always wondered, “how powerful is sadness?” a day came to let me face sadness, and I lost.

Indeed, it’s the greatest force I’ve ever faced in my life. And I swear I never felt that heartbreak, weakness, grief, scatter and misery before.

I never found a harder task than to assemble myself. To fetch pieces from corners of your life and found that it’s a far fetched aim. Nevertheless, I found out that It’s hard to stand still but it’s harder not to stand proud, grateful and loyal at the same time.

What saddens more is losing a mentor who had a great influence on your life. Who enlightened your thoughts and looked up to you. Who treated you like one of his sons.

(Circa 1950s)

He stepped out of this life, and left behind him a serene wife, benevolent children, a valiant brother and doting sisters, left without pain or sorrow, left with content and faith, left with strength and will, he left with a smile ….

Now I prevail.

و ان لم اجد كلمات تسطر المشاعر فلا تخلوا حروف الاولين عن ذلك رغم تفاوتها

فرحم الله جرير حين قال

ان الوداع لم تحب قليل

ورحم الله المعتمد بن عباد الذي قال

فيما مضى كنت بالأعياد مسرورا
وكان عيدك باللذات معمورا

وكنت تحسب أن العيد مسعدةٌ
فساءك العيد في أغمات مأسورا

واجاز في الفراق فقال

قبر الغريب سقاك الرائح الغادي
حقا ظفرت باشلاء ابن عباد

نعم هو الحق وافاني به قدر
من السماء فوافاني بميعاد

ولم اكن من ذاك اليوم اعلم
ان الجبال تهادى فوق اعواد

و رحم الله الجواهري حين رثى زوجته بقوله

في ذمــــة الله ما ألــقــى ومـــا أجـــــدُ
أهــــذهِ صـــخـــــرةٌ أم هـــــذه كــبــــدُ

قد يقــــتلُ الحزنُ مَنْ أحبابه بعُدوا
عـــنه فكــــيف بمَــنْ أحبابُه فُقِدوا

تجري على رســلها الدنيا ويتبعها
رأيٌ بــتــعــلــيــلِ مـجــراها ومعـتقدُ

أعــيـا الفــلاســفـــةَ الأحــرار جـهلُهم
ماذا يــخـــبي لــهــم فـي دفَّــتيه غدُ

حُـــيـــيــتِ ( أم فـــــــــراتٍِ ) إن والدةً
بــمـــثل مــا أنــجــبتْ تُكنى بما تلدُ

تــحـــيــةً لــم أجـــد مــن بَــثِّ لاعــجها
بُــداً وإن قـــام ســـــــداً بيننا اللحدُ

بالروحِ رُدي عــلــيها إنــهــــــا صِــلةٌ
بــيــن المــحــبين ماذا ينفع الجسدُ

بكـيتُ حتى بكى من ليس يعرفني
ونُــحــــتُ حــــتــى حــكاني طائرٌ غردُ

كـــمــــا تـــفــــجــــر عـــيناً ثرَّة حجرٌ
قــــاسٍ تــفــجـــر دمــعــاً قلبي الصلدُ

مـــدي إليَّ يــــداً تُــــمــــــدَدْ إليكِ يدٌ
لا بــد في العيش أو في الموت نتحد

ناجــــيتُ قـــــبرك أستوحي غياهبه
عــــن حـــــال ضـــيـفٍ عليه معجلاً يفد

ولفــني شـــبـــحٌ مـــا كــــان أشبَهه
بـــجَـــعــدِ شعركِ حول الوجه ينعقدُ

مُنىٍ وأتــعــسْ بها أن لا يكونَ على
تـــــــوديعها وهي في تابوتها رصدُ

لعــلـــني قــــــارئ فـــي حُــرِّ صفحتها
أي العــــواطــــفِ والأهــــواء تحــتشد

1/10

Pollution 2

For a larger version (B&W) click on the picture.

After reading Zaydoun’s post about the cloud of black smoke (Link), I decided to take a photo of it.

Thanks Zaydoun

You can see how this cloud extends over Kuwait City’s skyline, I noticed this cloud for the first time back in 2003. At that time KOC decided to operate one oil field only in Al-Rawdhtain Oil Fields north of Kuwait (Because of the War in Iraq), and then the smoke got thicker and more visible. I think by now all the fields are operational, but why the cloud still hangs over Kuwait City, that is if my assessment was right.

The picture above was converted to black & white for a better view, if want to take a look at a larger version (cloloured), you can find it here.

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Off subject
Interesting examination of wikipedia in the Guardian (Link)
Cheers Mate

BTS

"Bloggers Tagging Syndrome"

Tagged by Catch-22,

Seven things I plan to do:
1-Buy a new laptop
2-Arrange my study (#3)
3-Learn a new language
4-Visiting friend(s) (abroad)
5-A new Agenda
6-Buying Moleskines
7-Read (like before)

Seven things I can do:
1-Not making [phone] calls for 5 days & more
2-bear whiners
3-Stay awake for 40 hours
4-Make Candles
5-elaborating & summarizing
6-Impersonate
7- Acquire languages

Seven things I can't do:
1-Have a siesta (cause I’ll sleep till the next day)
2-Drive with a manual gear
3-not using my computer
4-Eat Tuna
5-Hunting/Fishing
6-believe in a complete ideology
7-Devolop films

Seven things I say most often:
1-Look at the bright side
2-so what?
3-Yallah 9uba7 khair
4-3abaly
5-lalalala (no no no)
6-afa (different usages)
7-why not?

Is it happening in Kuwait?

While performing my “Kuwait News” readings ritual, I found an alarming story. It says that Trina Flowers (an American national) was hired by a “technical institute” in Kuwait, and then faced problems regarding an unpleasant incident with Kuwaiti students from the royal family.

I can’t judge the story by some little readings, but it brings up a dangerous issue, which shocks me, and it is:
Is this happening in Kuwait??!!

Then, I found comments by Trina Flowers in a Kuwaiti blog, she said:

“I have written a book about my case and I would bet that the Kuwaitis who have been a part of this won't find it entertaining either (such as a high court judge that forged court documents and then produced this false evidence to a couple of sheiks who knew what he had done). His name and the evidence is in my book along with the transcripts of the recorded conversations.”

I really don’t find it entertaining, my main concern in not the people with power or connections. What I do care about is our Judicial system, if court documents were “forged”, I think we (as a country) is in a great dilemma. Not because she’s American, but because she’s a human – period

I wish there’s some kind of misunderstanding. If not, who erred must be charged, regardless of who he is.

Links:
Relevant Press Release
Trina Flowers Comments

Viva España 1/2

First of all, I feel obliged to like to thank Mark for the advices he bestowed when I was up to buy my new Digital Camera. Thanks again, with a D-SLR like the Nikon D50, my trip was well documented.

Moreover, my heart goes to May Shidyak and her family. Terrorism will never silent honest voices around the world.

And back to Spain, I had a great time & company this summer. I’d like to thank Paco, Rosana, Florencio, Minoo, Pliar, Fernando, Mamen, Agatha, Christina, Mourad, Massi, Na’ema, Miriam, Pepe, Nadia, Hasan, El-Jefe, Anna & M for all the help they offered. (I hope some of you read blogs ;)

This year I tried as much as I can, to avoid ‘Homeis’ (i.e. Kuwaitis), not that I don’t like them, but to get a real sense of a vacation abroad, I can dwell with them for 11 months and that’s quiet ample. Maybe that’s what I’m doing now.

For this post, let’s start with Cordoba. One of the greatest cities in Europe, if not the world (and I’m not exaggerating). History swirls the air, every corner has a story and every brick include talks for itself. It was (with Baghdad) two of the most populated cities in the world around 10 centuries ago.

The jewel of the City is La Mezquita-Catedral, wich was a mosque (Al-Masjid Al-Jami3), after the Spanish Reconquest a cathedral was inserted in the middle, so now it’s two temples in one. Inside “La Mezquita” (the way people of Cordoba like to call it) you can travel in time just by turning your head from right to left. With La Juderia (Jewish Quarter) as well, you can explore three different religions, in one place.

Of course, I didn’t miss the opportunity to capture the sense of Cordoba with my camera, or try to. (Photos from Cordoba).

In Malaga, we attended the annual fair (Feria De Malaga). A week in august that marks the Reconquest of the city. We had fun as everybody did. People were singing, dancing, playing or drinking almost all the time. (Photos from Malaga).

One day, we decided to go to Cadiz (aka “The Little Silver Cup), so obvious it’s the city of the football team, which is doing well (nowadays) in the Spanish Liga, as far as I know.

Due to the snaky, narrow, windy and high mountain road to Cadiz, the mission was NOT accomplished. My friend who was driving is phobic to heights (I don’t know what do they this condition).

Instead, we made short visits to Tarifa & Algeciras (Europe’s Gates to Africa).
While Tarifa was filled with surfers because the Mediterranean and the Atlantic bump into each other there and the waves & winds are Ideal for surfing. Algeciras was filled with immigrants (from morocco) and with ‘Hasheesh’. As Fernando puts it, in Algeciras instead of saying ‘Hola’ you’ll be greeted with ‘Queres Hasheesh’!
(Photos from the road trip).

To be continued …