Month: September 2004

Cat Stevens Not Allowed into US

The British singer Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, is due to be sent back to London after being refused entry to the United States yesterday.

The US authorities say the decision was made on national security grounds.

Mr Islam was on a flight from London to Washington when officials realised his name was on a “watch list”. The plane was diverted to another US airport.

Muslim groups in Britain and the United States have criticised the decision, saying Mr Islam is a man of peace.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement that the move “sends the disturbing message that even moderate and mainstream Muslims will now be treated like terrorists”.

[More: BBC]

Now this is real bullshit…
This guy has been singing and working for peace for ages even before he became a muslim, and he hasn’t missed a chance without condemning terrorism, and now he’s on a terrorist watch list?
What the hell are these people thinking?!

Home

What is the definition of a home?
And why do we always have to have a clear answer for that which is limited by a certain place for us to build our lives around?

The concept of a home is strongly rooted in us and in so many of our major decisions. A home country, a home city, a home town, a home team, and the list goes on.

But what actually ties us to a certain place to make it our home? What defines a home country?
A home country to most is the place they were born, a place where they spent most of their lives, a set of memories and experiences, a history.
But some others have a home country they’ve never ever been to. They are born somewhere, have great memories and build lives there, but still they regard some other country as the home country they cherish so much.

So, even though being born somewhere and having lots of memories in it makes you love a place, it isn’t the essential element in making it your home country.

So what is it that ties a person to a place and makes him call it his home?
And why does a person actually need a place to call home in the first place?

The second question is easier and more logical to answer. I think a person needs to have somewhere to call home in order to have some sense of belonging, to have a place to look forward to going to, to have a place of their own that they can brag about and say wonderful things about, to have a place that they can identify themselves with.

As for what ties a person to a place and makes him call it home, I think how it’s being decided in many people’s brain is by their origin. Their parents are from that country so they are too. Full stop. It doesn’t need that much thought for most.

But why?
What happened to all the “Home is where the heart is” stuff, to personal choice and to following what’s better for a person?
Why doesn’t a person choose his home based on what he likes, what suits him better, what makes him more comfortable?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m maybe one of the proudest Tunisians alive. My home country is Tunisia, my home city is Bizerte and the list goes on and I’m proud of each thing in it and wouldn’t change it for the world.
But in reality, I’ve spent more of my life outside Tunisia than in it, and when I am in Tunisia I rarely even go to Bizerte, my supposed home city.

What I’m saying is that maybe we should not over-tie ourselves to our so-called home places. It’s great to have them and to use them as a certain source of pride and belonging, but not to over-obsess about them.

We should always be open to choose our home away from home depending on our choices.

Plus sometimes it’s necessary not to live in your home country and only visit it every once in a while to keep loving it, as sometimes living in it can be a nightmare, lol.

Kerry’s “Top 10 Bush Tax Proposals”

So John Kerry appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman yesterday and joked (believe it or not!) about changes under President Bush’s tax plan.

His list went like this:

  1. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.
  2. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.
  3. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.
  4. The reduced earned income tax credit is so unfair, it just makes me want to tear out my lustrous, finely groomed hair.
  5. Attorney General (John) Ashcroft gets to write off the entire U.S. Constitution.
  6. Texas Rangers can take a business loss for trading Sammy Sosa.
  7. Eliminate all income taxes; just ask Teresa (Heinz Kerry) to cover the whole damn thing.
  8. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.
  9. Hundred-dollar penalty if you pronounce it “nuclear” instead of “nucular.”
  10. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.

I’m betting someone wrote that for him 😛

Free Gmail Invites

So, I’ve got 6 Gmail invites to give away, and who better to give them to than you guys here 🙂

So, if you’re interested in getting a fast and cool 1GB email account, just leave me a comment here with the email address you want me to send the invitation to.

If your comment is lucky enough to be among the first 6, you’ll receive your Gmail invite asap.

Back in Tunis

So, the days flew by quicker than time has ever been and I’m back in Tunis now.

I wasn’t able to do all the things I wanted to do, nor visit all the places I wanted to visit, nor see all the people I wanted to see.
Sorry to everyone I couldn’t meet either because our schedules didn’t match or because I ran out of time. I really wanted to see you all.

My visit to Jordan was a great one and I truly wish I had more time to spend there. It was really a lot of fun and a great change.
Of all the countries I’ve been to and visited in my life, Jordan is truly my second country. It fits me like a glove.

I’m back to work today.
I’m still getting into the mood for that though, I guess I’m still functioning in vacation mode, lol.

Moving Photolog to Flickr

I’m currently in the process of moving my photolog to Flickr, as it’s friendlier and more feature rich.

So with time all the old photos will be moved there and you can expect a bunch of new pics to be added of my trips to Jordan and Syria.

Two Years of Marriage

Yesterday was our 2 year marriage anniversary 🙂
WOW, I can’t believe it’s already been 2 years. It’s like it all happened yesterday.

So what did we do yesterday?
Well, there was the usual life stuff, then my wife went to get her hair done, and I went to Abu Rmeilah bookshop and bought 2 programming books. What a geek I can be sometimes, lol.

After that we went on with the tradition we started on last year’s anniversary. We figured out that as we have birthdays to get gifts for each other in, then maybe on our wedding anniversary we should celebrate ourselves as a couple, a single entity instead of 2 seperate ones and so get one gift for both of us 🙂
So, we went over to Mecca Mall, and bought ourselves and our home some really cool stuff.

Then we went home with a psycho taxi driver who slightly missed about a 100 good opportunities to get us killed.

After that we got dressed and went out for a nice romantic dinner in one of our favourite restaurants before we got married 🙂

When we were done with that, we got ourselves back home and celebrated with my wife’s family.

In short, it was a really nice day 🙂

These past 2 years have been so great and full of happiness, surely the best 2 years of my life, and hopefully we will go on to make the coming years even better Inshallah.

Phone Booth

Now, Phone Booth has been out for quite some time now, but well, I only got to see it a couple of days ago, even though I’ve been wanting to rent it for a long time.

It’s a really good movie.
Joel Schumacher does a great job directing this movie and Colin Farrell carries it wonderfully.

The whole movie is shot around a phone booth. You wouldn’t imagine something like that to be much fun, but it’s great and it so sucks you in, you start imagining how it would be if you were in that phone booth.

This movie is a must see for anyone into thrillers. Very enjoyable.
I’ve actually seen it twice already.