Sunday, August 19, 2007

Shame on the National Villains

To whichever axis they want to drive us, to wherever destination they want to deport us to thrive and get reputed, to whatever destructive or peaceful situation they want to reach, to whenever time of their imagination they glad to restore, they will remain our devilish villains and we will keep our attachment to our homeland. They want it a farm, a forest of conflicting confessions, an unbearable place to live, a discriminative land where the mind vanishes and the instincts rules, where ignorance flourish and knowledge imprisons, where the money speaks and expertise silence, where the strong eats the weak and the wrong rapes the right, where the bats establish their dark kingdom and the light got veiled by spiders' webs, owls' feathers, and rusted doors. They want it a Moredore, we want it a Shire. We will win, they will get lost in the dungeons of history where they can meet their look-alikes.
Its shame to remain acting as herds. Its shame to ignore our seperate identities and personalities and blend with their plans that did prove to bring war and destruction, separation and hatred, disintegration and erosion. Its shame for what so ever reason to remain silent while they rule, to keep our mouths shut while our nation is being torn apart, to drain our human powers and keep the shades.
Its a big shame to have a country who brought Jobran, Sabah, Fayrouz, Abou L Hisin, Wadih, Majida, Amin, Elijah, the Rahbanies ... etc to lack the least ethics of commemorating those giants while they are still alive. Just to make them feel that their years that passed weren’t for nothing. Its shame not to build statues, name the streets, museums, theaters, libraries, and the like with their names just if not to reward them but to advertise our culture among foreigners who just love to visit the home of cedars, the origin of the alphabet, the land of consecutive civilizations, the place of diversity, and the destiny where all Arabs seek shelter to invent and conceive.
Its shame to have Fayrouz not yet honored while her voice is used as a healing remedy in Denmark, while her music is taught in schools, where the whole Lebanese folklore and heritage is drawn by her voice. Its shame to wait until the artist or writer or singer fade away until the government remembers to honor him and give him/her the silly, cheap, meaningless medal. What they need is to feel that the efforts they invested for the sake of their country and its people are being appreciated.
Until our people awakens from the paralyzing environment they have been driven to, our nation, yes our nation, will remain under erosion by all means until the time comes where there will not remain unless those politicians and their “Yes Sir” puppets.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The Universe Conspires

We have heard a lot of stories in life about the positive or negative chronology in some people's lives that may have driven them into success or failure in accordance to the elements that fused together to form their past and orients them into the future.
We have watched many movies, heard about destinies, learned about fate, but we have always to think about it as a process that is meant to happen regardless to what a person plans to do with his time in his life; I believe, at least, that whatever we plan to do, we are always destined to face what the universe wants us to face. As Paolo Coelho says in his fable "The Alchimist". When a person wants to achive his destiny, the whole universe conspires to help him. It sounds contradictory, but no in depth it is the same. At the end, we are destined to reach our destinies.

I dont want to deflect from what I want to write about, but rather I think it will be confusing if I cut parts from the whole. I wish I will have the time and ability to summarize the subject keeping all the richness in the content.

Many personalities are formed due to deprivations caused by social neglectness or financial shortage. But when the person have the money, the means, and the "effective & total" social acceptness and integration, then we may think, why this person needs to achieve his dream? while here, yes, its the case, where the main reason lies within the family; the building block of all societies.

This person was brought up with a golden spoon in his mouth. Everything he wanted was there. Financial excess, notieable family, his dad ranked high in the diplomatical, governmental, and educational fields; his mother was fully educated; they toured the world for work reasons and melted in different civilizations where he took the good from each and left the bad. He is a mixture of knowledge, wrapped with an interesting personality, enthusiastic, curiuos, achieving, interesting, close to the heart, professional, well oriented and brought up, family directed, collectivist, simple and complicated in the same time, nationalistic, socially noticed, multi lingual, presentable, and what the hell I am doing, I will never end counting his goodies. He is a very interesting person to sit and talk to, to summarize.

He was self dependent while he was 18. He started his higher education abroad and entered the show business from its broad doors, where he didnt notice himslef until he became a celebrity, dressing from international designers, lemos waiting for him in the airport, his travels increased in number, his money maybe accumulated, but on the other hand he became driven away from his friends, his time consuming job ripped him off the society. Instead of joining friends during the weekends he buckeled on making up his university projects. He shined academically, his thesis was published on the university website, but he started to think, should I give all my life to being a celebrity? or something should change? a change that should drive him back into society, into friendships, into reality... and that was his choice.

He shifted into media production, accepted certain middle eastern offers and rejected others. He did a variety of researches regarding middle eastern media implications and the perception of the male in the east. He thrilled there.

Life continues, his work improved in the middle east; His trials to stay and work in Lebanon vanished after the Hariri assassination. He left Lebanon and noticed that he either has to leave to England (his home land) or to Dubai to meet an offer there; the Dubai choice won.
His father's death left a mark in his mind. The idea that his father during his sickness didnt notice him left a trace inside him. And imagining the family house without his dad was terrorising. He stayed beside his father in his last days making sure not to shed a tear. His father's death took place during his absence and he wasnt able to attent his funeral.

After moving on, and trying to create a new life momentum, he stood again facing the reality that friendships are a waist of time in the middle east. People reffered to him as a British while he insisted that he is Lebanese. Friends appeared and disappeared just after discovering that not all were true friends. Some were hypocrates or selfish or looking for a certain benefit.

Again, destiny plays its role. The entire universe conspired to let me know this person. Indulge in the great life and business experience he got in the yet young age. I am satisfied and relaxed in having a friend who can handle a fruitful dialogue, talk about interesting things other than cars, fashion, and clubbing. Other than shallowness, silliness, and lameness.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

VACATION SENSATIONS


It's just true that when you are waiting for something eagerly, time slows down and crawls in a much slower momentum until you feel that a year have passed and these few days yet havent. Thats fine if all things are kept equal i.e when you reach what you were waiting for to happen, then time keeps its slow momentum. On the contrary, it rushes in a sense that you come back to your previuos status and environment as if nothing happened. Well yes, maybe its true that happy times vanish quickly while routine one's dont.
Anyways, 7 days still have to pass until I ride the plane back to my homeland. A short stay which I am not ready for yet since with all the traffic in my schedules, I feel I will end up of nothing from the whole thing. Among seeing my family, my friends, and my village; splitting the residence between Beirut and the mountain; finish my long shopping list; meeting my 20+ friends, hanging up with them, and some social activites all seem appealing to me, but I think I will not have the other choice of doing them all. Come one, can any one do all in a few days stay?? Here comes my decision to priortize those activites which is a safe road map at least to finish my short vacatio feeling that I did something, not time went and I didnt do even something of everything.
I am cheering for it, whatever it will be eventhough security fears are leveling up in Lebanon. I will be there in the most critical period in the Lebanese history. But who cares, I want to enjoy it and disable my policized part of my brain. At the end if anything is to happen, everyone is doomed to his fate.
So, wish me a nice stay.
END

Sunday, July 22, 2007

WHY BE COMPLICATED?

When we look around, after going back to nature, we realize the unbearable harmony that exists; We sight a great simplicity thats surrounds the whole place, even though from beneath and inbetween the cliffs and bushes, there lies the most complicated life chain that we can imagine. But who cares, since we entertain our senses with that breath-taking beauty that reliefs the soul from the inside and strips away all real-life burdons. This is the healing natural process. But when we go back to our cement bunkers, to our tall scruptures, to our partitioned offices, we regain the stressful moments that can be simple just if we all agree to make them so. All technology created, computers and databases, printers and faxes, cars and planes, telephones and mobiles, msn and facebook, were meant to simplify the way we live our lives; but some do just the opposite... they abuse those tools and complicate them until we become really the most tortuous creatures who complicate things just to complicate and thats it, and here I want to specify the Lebanese expatriates who are living and working in Dudai. When a Lebanese travels, he bring all the lebanese society complications with him/her. Instead of releafing his/her soul from what they know it is complicated, they carry all the compliqué, sauvage, cliche's they have and export them to the new society and new country. And this will never change. If we go back to Lebanon, I knew something that stunned me yesterday. For those ladies who will read this note, if you plan to visit the Lebanese beach resorts, please abide by the following in order to be considered INN. If you miss a step, you will be out-fashioned and vulger. So, when you lady decides to visit the beach, make sure to do ALL of the following:

1- put a Hayfa-style full makeup on you face, eyes, cheeks, and neck.

2- do your hair. Dye it well, dry it, iron it, and make it extra smooth in order to make it reach your waist.

3- Use the most expensive perfume u have. Cine'ma, Nina Ricci, Burberry, Channel ...etc because this will elevate your social standing and first-beach impressions.

4- wear a 2-piece swim suit. A Bikini ya3ni. NEVER use the one-piece suit.

5- wear the 10 + cm shoes. less than that you are OUT.

6- do ur nails, manicure and pedicure not one of them. DO BOTH.

7- bring your expensive new mobile phone. A Vertu will do the job.

8- carry your CK or Versace hand bag. Dont forget the showl and the branded towel, it is important since it will be your unipole on the beach.

9- walk like a model, dont give any slight attentions to others. just walk with your nose touching the clouds, and your $500+ sunglasses ON.

10- choose the best location on the stands and if you call the guy and be rude to him to seat you in the best position, that will be extra great since your rudeness will dominate and will attract the attentions of others.

11- dont sit silly, every second take your mobile from your sac and check for calls. If no one is calling, then call whoever. Appear busy and demanded.

So, ladies, feel safe by following the above directions and avoid being a subject for those complicated sitting waiting for a victim to talk about.

When I heard some of that, I felt that we may be in a very peacefull country, where the economy is experiencing a never-ending growth, job vacancies are in thousands and security have never been better. Ouh My GOD.

On the contrary, from an incident I knew last year, an American lady wanted to go to our beach resorts near Jbeil. She went with all her American innocence to the beach without noticing that her end will be there. She wear the one-piece swim suit; that was the first big-mistake; she took her casual towel with her where some hair-dye spots from several previous usages, and her hair was wrapped behind. After she reached there, she started to witness the weird gazes arrowing towards her, she melted and sinked in the sands praying, plz plz dont look at me. Her fault was that she went spontanuous and simple, she didnt complicate it.

So guys and girls, stay simple, behave naturally, avoid verbose and unnecessary dialogues, hide your properties, and express who you really are. Why be complicated when you can be simple and relief yourselves from the stressful burdun. Remeber, social integration doesnot happen solely by being materialistic.

END

Thursday, July 19, 2007

To Lebanon August 2, 2007


I am still counting the days. When will Thursday August 2, 2007 finally come. Usually time passes quickly; but one a person is eager for something, time snails. I was thinking about it yesterday. I know the feeling of riding the plane and heading to Beirut, but I started thinking of the coming-back feeling. I know it will not be that easy. It will be a trip from heaven to hell although I love Dubai. Being surrounded with your family and friends, with your villagers and relatives, with cool fresh air and green fruitful trees is definiltly different from the artificial Dubai and its sands.
Anyways, I will make use of the time and have fun and will leave the thinking of the comming back till it comes.
END

SONY TZ


It was the SONY VAIO day to launch the 2 new products in UAE. The VAIO TZ business-oriented notebook and the fashion-oriented VAIO CR. The Event took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel at Dubai Media City at 11:00 am.

I represented ART at the event. Everything was just in place when I arrived; I felt the SONY rays emitting all over the place and I expected something special to appear just when the host declared ceremony start.


A well designed stage with a HUGE VAIO print. A giant projection screen and 2 stand to the right and left of the audince, sound effects, and spot lights. The Japanese joury were sitting, they appeared SONY branded, and the media filled the hall. Every one in place and ready to welcome the new born SONY VAIO TZ & CR.


After a presentation from the Marketing and Communication MAnager and the GULF office representative, the babies appeared on the stage carried by the well-suited models. The TZ was just a professional creation, small and carbon-fiber coated and light weight not exceeding a 1.2 kg. Small and elegant but armed with all the weapons a business wo/man needs.


The turn came for the CR. The same models changed their dressings into funky-elegant fashions, each carrying a certain-color VAIO CR comlementing their fabrics colors and accessories. At this time the stand were uncovered and the real trial session started. I didnt miss the opportunity ti try the TZ. I carried it, touched it, and felt its carbonated material. Its 1mm screen with embedded camera was the innovation by itself, since no one can imagine how can these Japanese embedd a 1.8 mp camera in the 1mm or so screen frame. They are really people from another planet and belong to a different time.


I will not forget to mention the 1 GB memory stick that I received as a souvenir. I was really planning to buy one, but why not have one for free??


In a 5 minute chat with the Japanese Marketing Manager Sunao Sakata, I tried to inquire about the functionality difference between the 2 models. Before the launch, I read th whole booklet and founf just hardware differences that are not a big deal between the two. I knew that the main difference lies in the design, material, and Windows Vista version. In a word its practicality that differs and not functionality in addition to the price for sure. The TZ retails at 7990 Dhs while the CR retalis at 3890 Dhs roughly speaking.

Its convincing to me, but since I gave my baby Canon EOS 400D my word, I will postpone the TZ for now. My Toshiba Satellite is soo huge man. Its soo huge. It doesnt appeal to me anymore.

END

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Intentional Rudeness


When a person abides by the usual life standards and rules of decent communication in everyday life, at least he should expect the same in return; that was the case and still with a break that happened yesterday. I may have forgotten that when it comes to rudeness, I am the master of it. But my calmness is always dominating my behavior because it’s my personality first and second I am not a trouble seeker. I always try to do my job calmly, professionally, and without any outer intervention since those interventors that may assist are not my type of people especially after a battle of smoking-nonsmoking issues and when I really concluded that a wall is a wall no matter what approach you use with him.

I feel like writing today; I will not dig into the incident but rather I am glad it happened. This had arisen in me the same feeling that I once had regarding recalculating all decisions I have made and I am thinking to make. But this time I am sure that any decision I will undertake will come without mercy, and definitely without any regret.

Things are back under control. I was obliged to take away my usual calmness and mask up the rudeness that I know how to use. I didn’t need explanations and apologies that came from the responsible person, but rather I needed to show that when it comes to messing things up, I am the wrong one to mess with. I rarely be like that and don't like to be, but sometimes with piling conscious and unconscious conceptions, all will flood in a moment, and with me they flooded but I controlled the amount. I think that was sufficient for this first time, but the coming one, if it took place or dared to happen, I am sure, I am very sure, the flood will be devastating this time.

It will appear vague, I know, to the readers and they will ask what the hell he is talking about, and I know that some curious people will stay digging until they know what exactly happened. I say clearly that no one is allowed to ask since no answers will be given. So, please save your time; although I know that I may disseminate some tips to some.

END

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

COLD


Its the first Cold flew I catch in Dubai. It's not a wonderful thing to wite about, but I found myself archiving it. I feel soo terrible today; dizzy, down, tired, sleepy, and misconcentrating. Its a terrible feeling to have as I usually remeber the sleepless nights of fever and headaches.
Few more days to come and then it will be over, but the definite thing is that it ruined my up-comming weekend.
I HATE COLDS.
END

Monday, June 18, 2007

Najwa Karam sings Bashar


Its not a new thing to happen that Lebanese singers appraise Syrian leaders in their songs. But this time the timing and the content are suspicious. I dont blame Najwa Karam for singing to Bashar Al Assad, since any refusal may cost her her life. But what cought my attention is the content; there is after a series of literaly chosen sentences of Hafiz, Basel, and Bashar, a continuous repetition of the word "إستقرار", which means "Stability"; This means chose Bashar for a second post in order to maintain the stability of Syria, other than that unstability and terrorism will florish. Weird ha, well no; The syrian regime is a professional establisher of terrorist groups under various names, car bombings, assassinations, and the like. Bashars latest term for destroying Lebanon came today through Al Siyassah newspaper is "I will plaugh Lebanon". This is what we used to call a brother.
END

Sunday, June 17, 2007

N B N ::: REVEALED


I don't know if such incident, if it happened on FUTURE TV or LBC, to what extent the Syrian representatives in Lebanon would have wrapped it out and shut it down. I bet on that, that if things are the other way around, then Al MANAR, Hizballa's mouth, would have added a new secterian program to its grid, welcomming its audiences' calls showing the severity of the terror that March 14 have reached. They would have created a dditional news casts to cover the issue, New Tv would have supported with their "Special" slot in their news to truncate additional bashes on that, and Al-Diyar newspaper would have extended its analysis in the local news section to allow the near and the far to know what happened and put themselves in the victims' shoes.
NBN did a drastical error. I will not talk about the punishment the anchor received, but in a country like Lebanon, facing what its facing, would have driven street rampants and chaos in reaction. I dont support the issue being dimmed out, it should be a lesson for all journalists not to say the shit about political issues that may hurt the other's opinion feelings. NBN has no right from now to allege neutrality.
The danger lies here. Now if any attack would have happened to Ahmad Fatfat, Minster of Youth and Sports, then a great question mark will be drawn against March 8 gurillas. On the other hand, this event had provided an immunity to Fatfat since the terror hand that is stricking Lebanon will avoid causing any hurt to him in order not to ease the mission of accusations from the March 14 allies towards March 8 group.
If anyone doubt what I said, just visit the link below:
END

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Meridional Overturning Circulation


Recently, I have seen my self writing a lot about environmental issues related to climate changes around our globe. Maybe the reason was the past GONO cyclone or maybe my over admiration to the topic not from now, but all over my childhood years. After a couple of articles about the over all weather changes and GONO cyclone, I read a topic alos related to climate change few days ago which I find it interesting to re-write using my language to dilute its extra scientific text that any reader may not understand. But since I am good and familiar with the matter, humbly, I will share the knowledge with you in as brief as possible.

Throughout thousands of years, It has been discovered that the earth has undergone a series of climate changes or if we can say Ice Ages seperated hundreds of years apart. The discovery was the result of the extensive study for the Greenland's Ice plate that reach the hight of several miles and is considered the most precious element that helped and still helps scientists to dig out more and more data about the past climate and global changes.

In brief, Ice cores hold an amazingly detailed record of Earth's climate. Each year, snow falling on glacial areas accumulates, piling on top of thousands of years of past snow, compressing the snow into yearly layers of ice, like rings inside a tree trunk. Preserved in the ice are tiny bubbles of ancient air that tell the composition of the atmosphere at that time. The amount of dust in the snow tells how windy the climate was. The thickness of the layer tells how much precipitation fell that year. Most importantly, the amount of the "heavy" isotope of oxygen, 18O, lets scientists infer the average atmospheric temperature, since water vapor with "heavy" 18O molecules condenses out of clouds more readily at cold temperatures.


What the scientists found was surprising and unnerving. Scientists had known from previous ice core and ocean sediment core data that Earth's climate had fluctuated significantly in the past. But what astonished scientists was the rapidity with which these changes occurred. As seen in the above Figure, the ice core record showed frequent sudden warmings and coolings of 15°F (8°C) or more. Many of these changes happened in less than 10 years. And in at least one case 11,600 years ago, when Earth emerged from the final phase of the most recent ice age (an event called the Younger Dryas), the Greenland ice core data showed that a 15°F (8°C) warming occurred in less than a decade, accompanied by a doubling of snow accumulation in 3 years. Most of this doubling occurred in a single year.

Current theories on the cause of abrupt climatic change focus on sudden shut downs and start-ups of the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) (also referred to as the thermohaline circulation), a complex network of ocean currents in the Atlantic. The Gulf Stream forms a portion of the MOC. The Meridional Overturning Circulation transports a tremendous amount of heat northward, keeping the North Atlantic and much of Europe up to 9°F (5°C) warmer, particularly in the winter. A sudden shut down of this current would have a ripple effect throughout the ocean-atmosphere system, forcing worldwide changes in ocean currents and in the path of the atmospheric jet stream. Studies of North Atlantic Ocean sediments have revealed that the Meridional Overturning Circulation has shut down many times in the past, and that many of these shut downs coincide with the abrupt climate change events noted in the Greenland ice cores.


How does one shut down the Meridional overturning circulation ? To answer this, we first must describe the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt (Figure 2), the system of interconnected ocean currents that girdle the planet. At the surface, ocean currents are driven by the winds, and so move parallel to the wind direction, except where continental land masses block the way. Water can also move vertically in the ocean. High density water sinks, and low density water rises. Salty water is more dense than fresh water, and cold water is more dense than warm water, so that wherever we find cold, salty water, it tends to sink.

In the tropical Atlantic, the sun's heat evaporates large amounts of water, creating relatively warm, salty ocean water. This warm, salty water flows westward toward North America, then up the East Coast of the U.S., then northeastward toward Europe, forming the mighty Gulf Stream current. As this warm, salty water reaches the ocean regions on either side of Greenland, cold winds blowing off of Canada and Greenland cool the water substantially (in the up-Figure , these regions are marked with white circles labeled, "Heat release to the atmosphere.") These cool, salty waters are now very dense compared to the surrounding waters, and sink to the bottom of the ocean. Thus, the oceanic areas by Greenland where this sinking occurs are called "deep-water formation areas". This North Atlantic deep water flows southward toward Antarctica, eventually making it all the way to the Pacific Ocean, where it rises back to the surface to complete the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt. It takes about 1000 years for the water to make a complete circuit around the globe.


Since the Great Ocean Conveyor belt is driven in part by differences in ocean water density, if one can pump enough fresh water into the ocean in the key areas on either side of Greenland where the Gulf Stream waters cool and sink, this will lower the ocean's salinity (and therefore its density) enough so that the waters there no longer sink. The Atlantic conveyor belt and Gulf Stream current will then shut down in just a few years, dramatically altering the climate.
The key question remains: how much fresh water is needed to shut down the Atlantic conveyor belt? No one knows the answer. Scientists are pretty sure that the last two abrupt coolings seen the the Greenland ice core, the "Younger Dryas" event and the "8200 years before present" event (1st Figure), both occurred when huge North American glacial melt-water lakes flooded down the St. Lawrence River into the North Atlantic when the ice dams restraining the lakes broke. The sudden addition of low-density fresh water presumably partially or totally stopped the sinking of ocean waters in the North Atlantic, slowing or completely stopping the Meridional overturning circulation. Once the fresh water got into the North Atlantic, it stayed, puddling on top of the ocean and freezing in winter. The Meridional overturning circulation stayed shut off for about 1100 years during the Younger Dryas event, then suddenly restarted, for reasons scientists don't understand. Current computer models of the climate cannot reproduce the observed sudden shut-down or start-up of the Meridional overturning circulation at the beginning and end of the Younger Dryas period.

Other sudden shut downs of the Meridional Overturning Circulation observed in ice core and ocean sediment records are not thought to be due to sudden melt-water floods into the North Atlantic. These events may have happened simply because Earth's climate system is chaotic, or perhaps because some critical threshold was crossed when increases in precipitation, river run-off, and ice melt put enough fresh water into the ocean to shut down the Meridional overturning circulation.

So the current studies are relying on the probability that global warming may result in a new shut down on the Conveyer Belt. The studies state that with the increased increase in global temperatures, heavy rains will increase river run-offs and polar snow melts which will all dump in the ocean increasing the fresh water amount in the ocean, which may decrease the density of the high salty cold water and stops it from sinking and thus shutting down the stream. But what is still vague is how much freash water shoulf be pumbed in order to shut down the stream. Apparently, in the current measures, this will not happen in the following 100 years, so we are still safe, but will our children and grand children be?

GONO Looked like that

The perfectly formed GONO system wasn't just a severe cyclone, but its shape and appearance also were astonishing as seen below: