No Wonder the Middle East is in Deep Shit

Beirut contradictions

THE NEW DOWNTOWN

Woman Grieves loss - Iraq WAR

A woman grieves after her daughter and husband were killed in a car bomb attack, outside a hospital morgue in Baghdad December 13, 2006. The car bomb exploded in a crowded area of Kamaliya in eastern Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 25, an Interior Ministry source and police said.

13 Dec 2006 REUTERS/Kareem Raheem

Iraq WAR

A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter patrols over Baghdad during sunset, December 13, 2006.

13 Dec 2006 REUTERS/Nikola Solic

Lebanese Parliment

No More Tears

Zebra :)

Women in Bandar Lange where fashion imitates nature.
Photo by Ali Agha Rabie

I love this picture

Demonstrations Egypt Vs. Lebanon

EGYPT











LEBANON






If I ever decide to participate in a demonstration it would be in Lebanon for sure :)

Eva Green Vs. Hala Shiha

Don't they look alike?

Takhtakh of the 21st Century

Our new Egypt office is in Maadi, I recently many work colleagues from Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco in different business meetings in Cairo. I was surprised that they all commented about the famous books "Alghaz Al-Mu3'amiroon al-7'amsah" (the five adventurers)?! Takhtakh, Loza, Noussa, Moheb, and Atef. The great dog Zanger and Al Shwaweesh Forko3, and the Inspector Samy :) They all said that they loved reading them ask kids and they wish they can find some copies so their kids would read them today.



I remember that I probably started reading the “Alghaz” when I was around 7 or 8 years old, my neighbors and I used to dig our grandparents attics in order to collect the old versions and wait passionately until a new release “loghz” is out.
I always thought that this was a typical Egyptian stories and as I was living in Alex I always wanted to go to Cairo in order to see Street 9 where allot of the adventures happened. In one of the books they taught us how to unlock a locked door by slipping a sheet of news paper under the door, insert a wire in the lock hole to push the key, you slide the sheet under the door and yahoooo you got your key. We practiced that trick for days :) My grandparent’s doors were almost 3 meters high so you had enough space to slide the key but when I went home I was extremely disappointed the trick did not work :(

Whenever we played the five adventurers in my grandparent’s garden in Alex every boy wanted to be Takhtakh of course survival was for the toughest, it always ended up as a wresting game :)



I was so shocked when in 2002 "Al Moughamiroun al Khamssa" was transformed into TV series (M5) my heroes have been modernized in a silly way, in a sort 21st century adventurers. In these modern series the 5 adventurers traveled through time using a special machine, to stop the villain "Phi" and save humanity.

I still prefer the original heroes and I was happy that the TV series were a big flop it shows that kids these days still have taste :)

Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale

I went to see the new James Bond movie today Casion Royale before it is removed from the theater. What can I say? There was a time when well-built Bond girls emerged from the sea like Aphrodite. In Casino Royale, the latest 007 film, Daniel Craig himself does emerges from the sea the exact way so many Bond girls before him have.. Craig actually is the `Bond girl' in `Casino Royale'.

In 40-year plus this is the 22nd Bond film which makes it one of the longest running and most successful film franchises of all time. Daniel Craig becomes the sixth actor to take on the role of the famous MI6 British agent. When we compare Sean Connery ’60s. and ’70 than the ’70s and ’80s Roger Moore then the brief appearance of Timothy Dalton in the late ’80sand most recently Pierce Brosnan, I’d believe that Craig Daniel would be rated 3rd best, at 38, he's the youngest Bond since 1969.

`Casino Royale' is based on the book, in which Ian Fleming introduced the character to the world in 1953. The movie begins with James as just another government hack, and because this is a Bond prequel, we don’t see any of the old villains like Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger instead, a private banker called Le Chiffre (with a nifty ocular scar that bleeds bright-red tears) who is searching for a mere $150 million (a sum that’s a fair bit less than the cost of making and marketing a James Bond movie), not impressive at all.



In every other Bond film, there are fast cars, exotic locations, and an implacable enemy. There are also beautiful women. This time I am too disappointed:
(1) Not as many big explosions.
(2) This James Bond is blonde.
(3) No Q.
(4) No gadgets.
(5) Not enough hot cars.
(6) James Bond actually falls in love – with a ‘real’ woman.
(7) Bond plays Baccarat!
(8) Daniel’s Bond reminds me too much of an underwear model
When Bond starts to type his resignation letter on the boat in Venice he's wearing an Omega Planet Ocean watch with a black strap. When he finishes typing and closes the laptop he's wearing an Omega Seamaster with a silver strap - a completely different watch.



What about the Bond girls? The gorgeous Caterina Murino portrays a henchman's wife (Bond prefers his women married) a babe he takes back to his hotel room for a roll on the floor that causes serious rug burns, while Eva Green plays treasury agent Vesper Lynd, assigned to keep tabs on 007 and the government's stake money. Lynd manages something we suspect few if any women have succeeded at; cracking Bond, she is the one who finds a place in Agent 007's heart. Bond was actually willing to quit MI6 in order to sail around the world with her. Unfortunately the acting chemistry doesn't make it believable?!!!



If you haven’t read the novel you would find Vesper's last scene, underwater, a little ambiguous. She intentionally breath in water as a form of suicide, it's in the script. In the novel she takes pills!!!!!!!!!!

It was good, full of action. But I'm still not sure where it ended. Was it the torture scene, or final scene in the movie? It just seemed like they ended it, because they were running out of time. No charm, no class, no hot Bond girl, weak villain, awful fight scenes, no Q, no wit, no jokes, simply worth a matinee.

Riots in Carrefour

A Japanese company invented a new type of Eco-friendly bra that can be converted into a shopping bag. The “No! Shopping Bag Bra” is designed to promote the reduction of plastic bag consumption.

Can you believe that????!!! When the bra is worn, the “shopping bag” portions are folded away inside the bra cups, where they serves as extra padding. The bra quickly converts to a shopping bag by removing the bag portions from the cups and connecting the hooks on the bra’s underwire. The lace cups serve as decoration along with the shoulder straps, which are disconnected and tied to the top of the bag as ribbons.

I don’t understand where will the conversion happen?! So the lady arrives to the shop she decides to buy groceries she reaches the counter starts to open the buttons of her blouse take off her bra and convert it into a shopping bag??!!! Wow!!! Carrefour watch out?!!! What happened downtown Cairo is nothing compared what will happen if Egyptian women start to use this eco-friendly technique :)

Attention shoppers the bra is available in red, blue, green, yellow and pink . The bra is made from the Teijin Group’s ECOPET brand of polyester fiber, which has been recycled from plastic bottles through the company’s patented EcoCircle recycling system.

The Worst US President of All Time?

Is Bush really the most disastrous leader in US history? The press, historians and politicians seem to be saying he is either the worst or only Fifth worst.

Rolling Stone: “George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace”
Rolling Stone: “George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever”
Rolling Stone: 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a "failure."


Washington Post: “It's unfair to claim that George W. Bush is the worst president of all time. He's merely the fifth worst. In the White House Hall of Shame, Bush comes behind four other Oval Officers whose policies were even more disastrous: James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and James Madison.”
“he will be remembered for the Iraq conflict for generations, long after tax-cut-driven deficits, No Child Left Behind and comprehensive immigration reform are forgotten. The fact that Bush followed the invasion of Afghanistan, which had sheltered al-Qaeda, with the toppling of Saddam Hussein, will puzzle historians for centuries. It is as though, after Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor, FDR had asked Congress to declare war on Argentina.”


The Independent: “The question "who is the worst US president" is something I have thought long and hard about and the answer is very simple: it is the incumbent president. I had previously thought that Nixon was the worst and there were other candidates such as Warren Harding - but they all pale in comparison to Bush. He has displaced all his predecessors. Nobody has been quite as appalling”


The Guardian: “Americans believe George Bush is the worst president since 1945, while Ronald Reagan was the best, according to a Quinnipiac University telephone poll of 1,500 registered voters”


ABC News: “An increasingly unpopular war, an ethics cloud, and broad economic discontent have pushed public opinion of the Bush administration from bad to worse, infecting not only the president's ratings on political issues but his personal credentials for honesty and leadership as well.”


2001 Nobel Prize-winning economist George Akerloff told the German magazine Der Spiegel "this is the worst government the US has ever had in its more than 200 years of history."

“Bush is quite likely the worst president in the 200-year history of the United States. This has enormous implications for the international community, since his country is not a small republic like the Maldives or Andorra, but a global behemoth.
His power as the most powerful man on earth derives not from a particular intelligence or set of talents, but by virtue of his position as the leader of the dominant military and economic nation on our planet.” Huck Gutman

“Bush is not merely the worst president in recent memory. He's the worst in all US history. And he's won the distinction not on a weakness or two, but in at least nine separate categories, giving him a triple trifecta.” Harvey Wasserman

Compilation of Bush quotes:
"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier."Describing what it's like to be governor of Texas. (Governing Magazine 7/98)
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." (CNN.com, December 18, 2000)
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it." (Business Week, July 30, 2001)

I believe that George W Bush could go down as the worst president in US history. There isn't much that Bush can do now to salvage his reputation from being viewed by the entire world (with the exception of many Americans) as a laughingstock. His presidential library will be built on his main failures: Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina...

The rules of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS when it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict

Disturbing .... Unfortunately, True...


Rule # 1 : In the Middle East, it is always the Arabs that attack first, and it's always Israel who defends itself. This is called "retaliation".

Rule # 2: The Arabs, whether Palestinians or Lebanese, are not allowed to kill Israelis. This is called "terrorism"

Rule # 3: Israel has the right to kill Arab civilians, this is called "self-defense", or these days "collateral damage".

Rule # 4: When Israel kills too many civilians. The Western world calls for restraint. This is called the "reaction of the International community".

Rule # 5: Palestinians and Lebanese do not have the right to capture Israeli military, not even a limited number, not even 1 or 2.

Rule # 6: Israel has the right to capture as many Palestinians as they want (Palestinians: around 10000 to date, 300 of which are children, Lebanese: 1000s to date, being held without trial). There is no limit; there is no need for proof of guilt or trial. All that is needed is the magic word: "terrorism"

Rule # 7: When you say "Hezbollah", always be sure to add "supported by Syria and Iran"

Rule # 8 : When you say "Israel", never say "supported by the USA, the UK and other European countries", for people (God forbid) might believe this is not an equal conflict

Rule # 9: When it comes to Israel, don't mention the words "occupied territories", "UN resolutions", "Geneva conventions". This could distress the audience of Fox.

Rule # 10: Israelis speak better English than Arabs. This is why we let them speak out as much as possible, so that they can explain rules 1 through 9. This is called "neutral journalism".

Rule # 11: If you don't agree with these rules or if you favor the Arab side over the Israeli side, you must be a very dangerous anti-Semite. You may even have to make a public apology if you express Your honest opinion (isn't democracy wonderful?)

World AIDS Day - 1 December 2006

Take Action Today




Around forty million people are living with HIV throughout the world, including 2.3 million children, and during 2006 some 4.3 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

Around 95% of people with HIV/AIDS live in developing nations. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.

The World AIDS Campaign (WAC) slogan is "Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise", which is an appeal to governments, policy makers and regional health authorities to ensure that they meet the many targets that have been set in the fight against HIV and AIDS. This campaign will run until 2010, with a related theme chosen for World AIDS Day each year.

This year's theme, "ACCOUNTABILITY", is designed to inspire citizens across the globe to hold their political leaders accountable for the promises they have made on AIDS.