Year: 2003

Arab Unity

For ages and ages and ages, there’s been this one big beautiful marvellous dream all us Arabs have had in common and wished for: Arab Unity.
And again and again i hear the same old talk about how we Arabs are united in language, history, religion, culture and so much more that it’s only normal for us to be united.

But unless we Arabs actually do something, it’ll never become anything more than a dream.
I think it’s true that we are united by language, history, religion, culture and all those other things, but we’re also divided by politics, exterior intervention, greed and stupidity.

I mean, when i just think of it and imagine how it could be, i’m left totally speechless in front of it’s greatness and advantages.
I mean we could reach self-fulfilment so easily through unity as complementary resources (natural, human, industrial, …etc.) are distributed throughout all the Arab countries.

The Arab world has been in a steep fall for a long time now, and day after day, we’re being ignored, mocked and humiliated more and more, why should we accept that when we can turn things around totally ?

Even the countries of the European Union who basically have nothing in common are pulling together and going on a path towards unity, because they understand that it’s for their own good. Why can’t we realize the same thing ?

Just thinking of it pops up a billion and one questions in my head about why we don’t unite, and i guess the only answer is that: if our leaders want it to happen it will, and if they don’t it’ll never be anything more than a dream…

So it seems we’ll just have to keep on dreaming…

I hope it’s not for too long…

Napster 2

So Napster 2 is finally out…
Yes, So ?? What’s the big deal ?
I mean what made the first Napster so great and famous was the idea of downloading music for free, but now that you have to pay it’s just like any other music service. They just have a better known brand, i guess.

I like the idea of prepaid cards though, it’s a cool step forward and should win them more downloads from teenagers who don’t have credit cards and who are some of the biggest music consumers.

Anyway, i think it’s annoying how many pay music services are popping up, why don’t they just consolidate their efforts into one good music service, when they know that in the end of the day that’s what they’ll end up doing through costly mergers and acquisitions.

CF_Query2XML Lives on…

It seems like my ColdFusion custom tag CF_Query2XML is still alive and is still of some use to some people as i just got an email from CFXtras.com informing me of a new sale.

This is a custom tag i wrote in CF when ColdFusion was still in version 4.5, and XML was still the new hot kid on the block and support for it was still minimal in all the languages available at the time, and the whole idea was to make it easy to generate well-structured XML from any query.
So basically using this tag, you query your database, pass the query on to the CF tag and it generates your XML for you, as easy as can be 😉

Another interesting tag i wrote is CF_Crypt which is an encryption/decryption tag i’ve used a lot, and which solves the problems that used to happen when using the built-in CF encrypt/decrypt functions.

SYNTAX

SYNTAX: The company i used to work for in Jordan, before taking the decision to leave and come home to Tunisia, have launched their new corporate website and dropped the word “Digital” from their name (they were previously called: SYNTAX Digital, but everyone called them SYNTAX anyways).

I like this new design better than the old one, it’s really true to the SYNTAX style of design and portrays them a lot better.

These guys are truly the best design company in Jordan, and it makes me proud that i once worked there.

To check it out click here.

Why can’t i have that ?

Just came across an annoying banner, lol, it says: 8 days / 7 nights in Tunisia, half board in a 3 star hotel for only 149 Euros.

Why the hell can’t i get prices like that in my own country ?
If i were to go somewhere for 8 days / 7 nights in Tunisia, it would cost me a fortune, and on top of all that i wouldn’t get treated as well as tourists do, lol…

Man, tourists are lucky in Tunisia, they get a beautiful country to visit at a really low price and they’re pampered and treated like royalty too.

Romdhankom Mabrouk

Well today is the first day of Ramadan in Tunisia, so Ramadan Mubarak to everyone 🙂

Woke up at 4:10AM today for Suhour, and we had the Tunisian specialty “Mesfouf” (an even finer type of Couscous eaten with milk, dates, dried grapes and almond), Yummy.
After that i prayed my first prayer of the day on time, yep not only have i started praying, i’m also praying on time, lol, i hope it lasts 😛
Then i went back to sleep only to wake up a couple of hours later, as today work-time changes too (From 8 to 3 non-stop).

I was expecting to wake up in a mess after the tiresome weekend and not enough sleep, but in fact i woke up in great shape, and feeling really good, so hopefully i’ll have a good day today 🙂

We’ll be going over to my parent’s place in La Marsa for Futour (Breaking of fast) today, so i’ll hopefully be passing by this Tunisian sweets shop there to buy some “Zlabia” (one of my favourite Tunisian sweets in Ramadan).

Ah, i can just breathe Ramadan in the air, and it feels great 🙂

Where have i been ?

Haven’t written anything in 3 days. Friday i simply had nothing to say, and Saturday & Sunday were totally exhausting, read on and you’ll know why…

Well, the story began on the second week of my vacation, after my wife’s sister went back home to Jordan. My wife and I started looking for a new appartment that is nice, in a safe good place, a bit smaller than the one we were in, and most importantly cheaper 😉
And well after living the life of a real estate agent for over a week we found an appartment and made the decision to move into it.

And in an effort to make the move before Ramadan we started moving the small and fragile stuff slowly with our car througout the past week to reach a climax on the weekend where we moved a load of stuff with our car and had the movers move the big stuff.

So basically we made it, and last night was our first night in our new home, but God were we totally pooped out !
By the end of the day i was too tired to even blink.

We still have some stuff lying around in our old place, but we’ll be moving them during this week, as we have to give in the keys on October 31st.

So basically, now i’m a resident of Soukra, the name of the residence “Diar Soukra” suggests that, but i don’t know if that’s actually correct, as i don’t what the place is called yet, it’s somewhere between Soukra, Ain Zaghouan, Cit

Divine Intervention

The Palestinian movie “Divine Intervention” by Elia Sulayman has qualified for consideration for nomination for next year?s best foreign film Oscar.

The film, which took the jury prize at Cannes in 2002, tells the politically explosive story of life under Israeli occupation, told in vignettes of reality and fantasy.

This is the first time a Palestinian movie has qualified, and it was accepted despite some earlier speculation that the Academy would not take the submission on the grounds that “Palestine is not a country”.

I haven’t seen this movie yet, although friends of mine who saw it strongly recommended it.
I hope it wins the Oscar, and that i get to see it soon.

‘Just what the environment needs from a car. Water.’

Just came across this image campaign while surfing the DaimlerChrysler website, and i think it’s magnificent.
It promotes the concept of hydrogen driven cars and how they will eliminate all pollutants and evil-smelling exhaust gases.

It’s great to see that some people are actually thinking about the world and the environment, unlike others who only care for war and chaos.

Read more about this campaign here.