The Arab Bumpy road...

You kidnap Hamas people, we kidnap Fatah people. In addition to the quagmire that Israel has created in Palestine, Palestinians have created more fear and tension by kidnapping and fighting one another. This comes as part of the latest disasters to hit the Arab World.

Its not enough what Israel has been doing for the past 50+++ years,

its not enough what the US-led invasion has done to Iraq,

its not enough that people in Darfur are dying every day,

Palestinians are at each others' throats in a tit for tat civil war that no one wants to address.

Its funny how we all go about our own business,

Governements are silent,

NGOs are silent,

The UN is silent (as always)

while mayhem erupts everywhere, people are killed in scores, while we continue to go to work, go shopping, attend birthdays, and basically live our lifes without a second thought for what is happening around us.

I rant and rave about the state of the world, but is there anything we can do? Could I join an organization or send some sort of aid or what???

I don't get it,

Israeli officials have began construction of a Jewish temple on the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, and what are Arabs and Muslims doing? Uhhhhhh, let me guess, "Nothing"... oh, yes, nothing...

We stand by while our scared sites are destroyed, we stand aside when people are killed, when their homes are destroyed, when their children are orphaned, and we basically do nothing!

It makes me afraid to raise my children in this world, it just makes me feel insecure, and forever apprehending the next disastor to hit us.

God help us all,

Love,

SoulSearch

Toothache

Massive impulses of pain running through my brain, alerting me to major roadworks required for my pulsating tooth. Something totally weird is happening to my wisdom tooth, it has decided to turn the other cheek into its firing range, sending bullets of shock to the side of my cheek where its has caused major traffic jams!!!

I can't eat, can't sleep, can't think, can't see!

All I can hear in my head is ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

I need loads of painkillers to be dumped into my system to dull the ache of this darn tooth.

Although I have had an inherent fear of dentists all my life, hence the painful punishment, dentist here I come.

Beirut Burning...again

It was just another day in the life of many Arabs, your usual dosage of Iraqis killed, Palestinians made homeless, and along comes the latest carnage in Beirut. Two intelligent Arabs decide to have a swing at each other, dragging the rest of the country and the entire Arab world into mayhem, confusion, and every other aspect of fear and insecurity. I watched in confusion my country on fire. Stupid young men wrecking their country, burning tyres, smashing cars, and burning them while they're at it, and planting fear and instability to a country that has yet to rise from the crippling 33 days of intensive Israeli air raids.

We were getting ready to go out to dinner, my folks were excited that we would sit down and have a meal together in a fancy restaurant when we switched to Jazeera and saw Lebanon being pulled to more sectarian carnage. Dinner was cancelled, frenzied telephone calls to my aunts, my uncles, and my cousins, who all live in Beirut. All they could say was we're all fine, what else could they say. We watched in shock the brave Jazeera correspondent and his entrepid cameraman who documented what happened between the two main parties of Lebanon.

Hizbollah and Future movements both trying to hold the reins that will pull the cart. Both leaders appealing to the youths to get off the roads.

The result 5 people killed, 3 of them soldiers trying to prevent this war from spreading.

300+ people injured and in pain, scarred for life.

More people leaving the country, more people will not visit the country for fear, while tourism is the bloodline of Lebanon.

The result: instability, fear, shock and more tension on the bumpy Arab road.

We need to realize that sectarianism is a pit that can swallow us whole. We need to understand that Sunnis and Shiites need to put aside their differences and stop categorizing themselves by sects. In a country such as Lebanon, the society is a complex web of sects and releigions. We need to live side by side, and realize that at the end of the day, we are all the same, we all want the same thing, we all have the same needs, dreams, fears, and ambitions.

To Lebanon,

may peace prevail,

always,

Love,

SoulSearch

Driving in Bahrain

Today is the 10th anniversary of my driving lisence. I have officially been a driver for the last 10 years today. I've driven far and near. I wonder if there was a way we could calculate how many kilometers we've driven for all these years. Besides the car that is!

Driving in Bahrain is always exciting, your adrenaline levels can never settle down. You either have a Saudi zigzagging all over the lanes in front of you or a Qatari driver flashing his full beams for you (slow coach) to move as he is getting ready to fly.

It was 18th January 1997, when my mom took me to my 4th Driving Test, (yes 4th- don't laugh- nothing gets done without a Was6a), and I passed!

It was kind of freaky to be driving a manual, I don't understand why the Traffic Directorate wants to take us through that torture?!! They want you to go up a hill inside the driving school, then they want you to parallel park, then they ask you to signal 3,000 times while you are on the same lane (@#$%) why?

Hardly anybody drives a manual in Bahrain. We all get automatics in the end. I couldn't drive a manual if my life depended on it now. It was 10 years ago, and I wouldn't be able to balance the clutch and the gas pads today!!

The nicest thing about this experience was that when I did pass, my mom cried! That is a big deal, she hugged me really tight and was so happy for me that she actually had tears in her eyes. If you guys knew my mom, you wouldn't expect her to cry when I passed a driving test, but she did, and it was really sweet.

Love you momsie,

Driving in Bahrain has never been more exciting, we have niqab-wearing women driving alongside us now, thanks to the previous honorable chamber of deputies, one of their main achievements was granting women who cover their face, save their eyes, the right to drive on our roads! Oh, it makes me feel very safe!!! not!


Love,
SoulSearch

Amazing Screen

One of my professors from Uni just sent me this awesome video, which is about an interactive typeface interactive screen, that would be the best birthday gift ever! hint, hint, to my husband. But the east is unfortunately always comes last when it comes to technology. How many years do you reckon it will take Arabs to reach that level of research and innovation?

Enjoy the presentation...

Love,
SoulSearch

http://www.videokarma.com/todays-video/2006/11/25/minority-report-type-advanced-interface.html

Its c-c-c-cold

The Gulf Daily News ran this article today and it sure is chilly out here in Bahrain!!! I was driving to work this morning and it was 10*C. I wrapped up my daughter in so many cardigans the poor thing was walking to class like a robot! :) But its very cold, and January will probably break more records!
I love winter!
Enjoy

Love
SoulSearch


The coldest December on record!

LAST month has officially been declared the coldest December on record, the Civil Aviation Affairs Meteorology Directorate said yesterday.
"Last December, the mean temperature recorded was 16.2C, which was the lowest recorded since 1902, when it was 16.8C," said a spokesman.
The month had also been reported earlier as the wettest-ever on record, with the total rainfall measuring 119.6mm, breaking the previous record of 96.2mm, in 1974.
He said the wettest-ever January on record was in 1959, when Bahrain had 135.9mm of rainfall. The average rainfall for the month of January in any given year on record stood at 18.4mm, he added.
The spokesman said the unsettled and cloudy conditions experienced yesterday were expected to clear later today.
"Even though the weather would stabilise, it is expected to get colder over the next few days, with strong surface winds of up to 20 knots," he said.
The spokesman said the night temperatures would plunge to around 9C over the next few days, with the maximum hovering around 15C. The maximum recorded yesterday was 18C, while the minimum was 13C.

Source GDN
Bahrain

Scores killed in Baghdad university

How much longer do people have to die for the honorable US President to admit he was wrong and get the hell out of Iraq?

Because of the large amount of news and information we are bombarded with about wars, casualties, and explosions, we sometimes tend to fail to realize the extent of the tragedy carried by a news article. Read the one below (Courtesy of AlJazeera) and see the highlighted words, 65 people killed. Not one, or two, which is just as bad, but 65 people, people who were, mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends. There probably were fathers, brothers, cousins; in other words these people who were mass murdered yesterday were human beings. regardless of their religion, their affiliations, their tendencies, they were fellow human beings. To all of them and their families, may they all rest in peace. Furthermore, what is worse is that these thugs are targeting University students and professors, that is they are trying to start yet another brain drain in the country.

We will grieve for them in our hearts, and I will continue to write about all the victims of this tragedy, in the hope that one day, peace will prevail.

Love,

SoulSearch

Scores killed in Baghdad University

The bombs were exploded as students and staff left the university [AFP]
Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has said "terrorists and Saddamists" were behind the bombing at al-Mustansiriya University.

At least 65 people were killed when a car and a suicide bomber exploded outside the University on Tuesday.
More than 100 people were injured in the blast, mostly students and staff leaving the university.
Al-Maliki said: "They [those responsible] carried out an ugly crime against humanity targeting the innocent students of Al-Mustansiriya University."
An official at the university said: "The majority of those killed [in the explosion] are female students who were on their way home."

The university blast was the fourth bomb attack in Baghdad in the space of a day, following earlier attacks on police and near a Sunni mosque in the Iraqi capital.

In other violence, at least 45 people died in a series of attacks around the capital earlier on Tuesday. Suicide bomber at university gates
A police source said that the car bomb exploded near the main gate of the university in an area where students wait for minibuses and cars to pick them up to go home.
The suicide bomber then blew himself up near a second gate as people fled.

The university official said that classes had been cancelled for two days after the attack.

Iraqi toll
UN: More than 34,000 Iraqis killed in 2006

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Books

According to Time magazine, the top ten books of all times are as follows:


Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
Middlemarch by George Eliot

I love books, I love to be lost in the plot, to shut out the world and indulge in the lives of the characters. I love the way my book always waits for me faithfully by my bedside, just waiting to roll out the events in my head. Books are my great escape. I love every book in the list above, and I love much much more.

Below is a list of my Favorite books of all times:

The God of Small Things, by Arundathi Roy
A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey
Master of the Game, by Sidney Sheldon
RoseMadder, by Stephen King
The Bluest Eyes, by Toni Morrison
Not Without My Daughter, by Betty Mahmoody
The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown

There are loads more that I would love to add to that list. I will continue in another post.

List your favorite books! I would love to hear from you.

Love,
SoulSearch

Palestinian Homes Destroyed, Courtesy of The US of A

It never ceases to amaze me how the United States of America pretends to be the beacon of freedom, and consequently running the world, exporting their version of democracy, and still turn a blind eye to the attrocities committed in many parts of the Arab World. And I don't mean the attrocities committed by the Arab regime, but by American troops or their ignorance of in-your-face crimes. Vis a vis Palestine, Iraq, etc.
Most noted of these crimes against humanity are the destruction of Palestinian homes in the name of security for the Israelis.
Today officials from Hamas have declared that they would never recognize Israel, and they have my total support. If I were a Palestinian why in the world would I accept the fact that Zionists from all over the world were put on planes and ships and brought to my country to share my home? and not only that, but to slowly, slyly and shamelessly kick me out while they're at it, and leave me stranded in a refugee camp somewhere on the street? My children homeless, my belongings destroyed, my security shattered?
Imagine being a refugee in your own country for nearly 60 years?
And Hamas is being punished (along with the rest of the Palestinians) for not recognizing Israel.
To hell with Israel and their recognition.

The United States is a key player in the politics of this tragedy. The Palestinians live in misery while Israelis enjoy the spoils of war, and float on Palestinian blood, just below the surface. One day this will all blow up in their face and they will then realize that the crimes against humanity that have been committed against the Palestinians will be the scar they have to live with for the rest of forever.

Tonight the government of the United States can rest assured that another Palestinian family has been added to the long list of refugees lining up under yet another tent, in the cold winter, while we snuggle up with hot cocoa in our hands and under our warm blankets.

To Palestine, with Love,
SoulSearch

Garfield

There have been many, many times in 2006 when I may have

disturbed you...
troubled you...
pestered you...
irritated you...
bugged you...

But today I just wanna tell you that in 2007
I PLAN TO CONTINUE!!!!!!!

I just got the above cartoon from a friend of mine. I love garfield. His aloofness has always intrigued me. He is like a King upon his throne! He loves food and sleeping, two of my favorite things in life!!! Sharing it with you guys! Enjoy

Love,
SoulSearch

Why the Arrogance

After 28 years of living on planet earth, I realized not too long ago that Arabs have a thing. They have a thing against other nationalities, and I discovered that this feeling of hierarchy is ripe in Bahrain.
I was quietly waiting in the bank yesterday, there were quite a few people and the queue was pretty long. There were a couple of Indian workers who were right in front of me. They had been waiting as long as I have and maybe even more, but I get called by the guy behind the counter.
I protested saying, "But these guys were here before me."
"Don't worry about it, they can wait," he said.
"But....but....but..."
"Its okay, dont' worry," and he was all smiles, snatching my papers and proceeding with my transaction.

I felt totally awkward, the poor workers just kept looking at the whole fiasco in front of them without a single word of protest!

I was flabbergasted!

We Arabs always think we are better than others!

When we will wake up to reality?

Somebody wise once said: "All people are created equal" when we will stop this arrogance.

We are not "شعب الله المختار"
People who think that way are usually doomed. We need only to look back and learn from history. There is nothing special about us.

So to the guys I had to cut in that bank yesterday. Sorry.
I hope one day we all understand that we all eat, drink, sleep, love, hate, cry, and die, just like everybody else.

Love,
SoulSearch.

My Favorite song

We all search for the perfect time, a time when we are given space to be who we are, who we want to be, without pressure, nothing else I have found describes this feeling more than this song. Alanis Morisette says it best. Enjoy the lyrics,,, and think about it!

Utopia

We'd gather around
All in a room
Fasten our belts
Engage in dialogue
We'd all slow down
Rest without guilt
Not lie without fear
Disagree sans judgement
We would stay and respond and expand and include and allow and forgive and enjoy and evolve and discern and inquire and accept and admit and divulge and open and reach out and speak up
This is utopia
This is my utopia
This is my ideal
My end in sight
Utopia
This is my utopia
This is my nirvana
My ultimate
We'd open our arms
We'd all jump in
We'd all coast down
Into safety nets
We would share and listen and support and welcome
Be propelled by passion, not invest in outcomes
We would breathe and be charmed and amused by difference
Be gentle and make room for every emotion
This is utopia
This is my utopia
This is my ideal
My end in sight
Utopia
This is my utopia
This is my nirvana
My ultimate
We'd provide forums
We'd all speak out
We'd all be heard
We'd all feel seen
We'd rise post-obstacle, more defined, more grateful
We would heal, be humbled, and be unstoppable
We'd hold close and let go and know when to do which
We'd release and disarm and stand up and feel safe
This is utopia
This is my utopia
This is my ideal
My end in sight
Utopia
This is my utopia
This is my nirvana
My ultimate

Love
SoulSearch

To my future readers

Why did I decide to have a blog?

Although my blog is still in hiding (hehehehe), I hope that one day I can make a difference. No matter how small or insignificant.

To live in peace, health and happiness and to save our earth from the destruction that we are imposing on it; to forget our arrogance, our egotism, and acknowledge our fragility.

Love,
Soulsearch.

Snow

The latest cold weather spell in Bahrain has made me feel a nostalgia for Lebanon. I was there last winter and the snow that covered Beirut for the first time in ten years was amazing! I cuddled my kids all day while drinking "Ahwe" all day. I went up to Jounieh and played in the snow. I wonder when snow will fall in Bahrain.

Hope of the future

Thinking back at all the times I ventured into the world to seek a purpose in life, each time there was a new direction, a new interest, a new idea, and never the time or the opportunity to continue what I started. What is it that keeps people going? You wake up each morning, you brush your teeth, send your kids to school and then you're caged in a cubicle at work for the rest of the day. By the time you get home, its dark and you can't do much nor do you have the energy to do it. You miss your kids and you feel guilty about leaving them for so long, at the end of the day, what is it all for? Are we really progressing? Is this speed train we're on going anywhere or is a free fall to the pit of the earth?

I've discovered that people need Hope. Its what we live for. Its the smile of my daughter when she reads her first word, or the happiness I see in my son's eyes when I buy him (yet another) shiny red car. Children are the hope, we feel they are the embodiments of our dreams, actual people that can make our hopes and dreams for a better future come true.

Children are what keeps us going, and you would only understand that once you have a child of your own.

I want to go home and give my children everything I can. To enable them to be better men and women than ourselves.

To Amina and Seif.
I love you both.

SoulSearch online

Welcome to my blog. A place where I share my thoughts and sentiments about my little world. And the wider world around me. My opinions and my feelings for humanity.

Just a place to be me. Independent, loving and involved.

I may not have the time to write all the time, but I definitely need to keep a record of life's experiences whether good or bad.

Welcome to the World of Hope

:) ...