Month: February 2007

Holy Land, Holy Blood

Over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since 2000. Since the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada in September 2000, until late January 2007, the Israeli army has killed 5,050 Palestinian men, women and children, wounded 49,760 others and detained 10,4000 others. 351 Palestinian women have been killed, 150 patients have died at checkpoints and 66 others have been killed due to beating by Israeli settlers. 36 medical staff have been killed, 9 members of the press, and 220 sportsmen.

According to B

World’s Fattest Countries

Tunisia ranks #86 in the index of the World’s Fattest Countries, which I guess means we’re pretty fit compared to people in a lot of other countries.

The top 10 of the world’s fattest countries goes as follows:

1. Nauru
2. Micronesia
3. Cook Islands
4. Tonga
5. Niue
6. Samoa
7. Palau
8. Kuwait
9. United States
10. Kiribati

You can go on and check the full list of the world’s fattest countries.

[Via: 2:48AM]

The Devil and Miss Prym (Paulo Coelho)

I recently finished reading another one of Paulo Coelho’s books: The Devil and Miss Prym, which was a pretty good read.

As usual Coelho touches upon another important subject that leaves you thinking, re-thinking and exploring your inner self.

The book explores the parameters of Good and Evil, the eternal struggle between them, and their impact on the human soul, passing a message that there is no such thing as a person, or as humans in general, being inherently “good” or “evil”, all humans have both good and evil within them and what defines them are their choices, an idea that I totally agree with.

It might not be as powerful as “The Alchemist” or some of his other books, the characters might not be as full of life, and maybe the ending could have been stronger, but still the message does get across, and the goal of getting you to think is accomplished, something I love about Coelho’s writings.

I personally enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to people who have already enjoyed reading one of Coelho’s masterpieces.

My score for this book is: 7/10.

Buy it now!

Oscars 2007: The Winners

The Oscars were on last night, and here are the results for the main categories:

Best Picture: The Departed

Best Directing: Martin Scorsese for “The Departed” (At last!)

Best Leading Actor: Forest Whitaker for “The Last King Of Scotland”

Best Leading Actress: Helen Mirren for “The Queen”

Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin for “Little Miss Sunshine”

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson for “Dreamgirls”

Best Animated Feature: Happy Feet

Best Documentary Feature: An Inconvenient Truth

Best Music (Score): Babel

Best Music (Song): An Inconvenient Truth

Best Visual Effects: Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

For the full list of winners in all the categories, check the Oscars website.

The Hole In Man

… A Man sat alone, drenched deep in sadness.
And all the animals drew near to him and said: “We do not like to see you so sad… Ask us for whatever you wish and you shall have it.”
The Man said:”I want to have good sight.”
The vulture replied:”You shall have mine.”
The Man said:”I want to be strong.”
The jaguar said:”You shall be strong like me.”
Then the Man said:”I long to know the secrets of the earth.”
The serpent replied:”I will show them to you.”
And so it went with all the animals.
And when the Man had all the gifts that they could give… he left.
Then the owl said to the other animals: “Now the Man knows much and is able to do many things… Suddenly I am afraid.”
The deer said: “The Man has all that he needs. Now his sadness will stop.”
But the owl replied:”NO… I saw a hole in the Man… Deep like a hunger he will never fill… It is what makes him sad and what makes him want… He will go on taking and taking… Until one day the world will say: “I am no more and I have nothing left to give.”

That day isn’t too far away now…

[Quote taken from Mel Gibson’s movie Apocalypto]

[21/02/07] News Bytes From Tunisia

A round-up of some of the interesting news coming out of Tunisia these days…

Minister of education and training has announced that all Tunisian schools will have access to ADSL and WIMAX internet connections before June 2007.

A zero emission project, which is part of a Tunisian-Japanese cooperation agreement, is currently underway at the Borj Cedria technological park South of Tunis; it aims at creating photo-voltaic fields in order to generate some 260 kilowatts of energy, that can be used in several fields such as pumping of water for irrigation purposes, the recycling of used waters after treatment, the recycling of solid waste, the setting up of solar lighting lamps, as well as the building of a prototype for producing 1.5 Kilowatt of low-temperature wind energy destined to water pumping.

The neurology department of the University Hospital of Charles-Nicolle in Tunis, has successfully tested a new breakthrough surgical treatment which is destined to stop epileptic fits among patients suffering from this neurological disorder.

Tunisian lute virtuoso, Anouar Brahem will open the third edition of

Re-Evaluating Your Goals

Ten questions to ask yourself when you need to re-evaluate your goals and take a big decision on whether you should go on, simply change strategy or totally modify your goals:

1) What barriers and roadblocks are in the way of achieving your goal?

2) What 3 actions have you taken in the last week to move your goal forward?

3) Do you sense that your original goal might be flawed?

4) Do you struggle with the execution of your goal?

5) What resources have you tapped to meet your current challenge?

6) Does your original goal still put