Saturday, January 28, 2006

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

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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.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

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.


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

Friday, January 20, 2006

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"

Sunday, January 15, 2006

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.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

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.
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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!

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

All I want for Eid...


ibook
Originally uploaded by tussenpozen.
.. is this