Author: Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Mohamed Marwen Meddah is a Tunisian-Canadian, web aficionado, software engineering leader, blogger, and amateur photographer.

Hamed Is Gone

A few days ago Hamed passed away…

Hamed was born in the city of Sbiba, in the governorate of Kasserine, in the west of Tunisia, almost 90 years ago.
He never got married, nor did he have kids; even though he dreamed of having a son to take care of and love until the last days of his life.
In the war, a bomb exploded in front of him, and the shock made him deaf and mute.
Some time after that he moved to Manouba where my grandfather offered him a room and a job on his farm.
He was there as my mother and her siblings grew up, and later as I, my sister and cousins grew up.

Over the years, he was nothing less than a member of the family.

About a month ago, he became very ill…
My uncle took him to Sbiba, to his brother’s house, to spend some days there with his family…

A few days ago, he passed away…
Personally it felt like another grandfather of mine had passed away…

Hamed, God bless you and may you rest in peace…
You were a great man, you will always be remembered and your memory always cherished…

Tunisia: One Of Top 53 Places To Go In 2008

The New York Times recently published a list of the 53 places to go in 2008, and Tunisia ranks 3rd in their list, directly after Laos and Lisbon.

Here’s what they have to say:

Tunisia is undergoing a Morocco-like luxury makeover. A new wave of stylish boutique hotels, often in historic town houses, has cropped up alongside this North African country’s white-sand beaches and age-old medinas, drawing increasing numbers of well-heeled travelers. The Villa Didon (www.villadidon.com) in Carthage, for one, has a restaurant originally run by Alain Ducasse. Indeed, TripAdvisor ranks Jerba, a resort island off Tunisia’s southern coast, as the No. 1 emerging spot in 2008.

Four other Arab countries were featured on the list: Libya, Egypt, Kuwait and Algeria.

It’s really cool to see that Tunisia is getting more interest and becoming a better known tourist destination outside of Europe as well, where most of our tourists usually come from.

Check out the full NY Times article here: The 53 Places to Go in 2008

After Annapolis; Peace Or More Illegal Israeli Settlements?

On the heals of the Annapolis peace conference in which Israel and the Palestinians agreed to move forward on bringing peace to the region and launching talks on final status issues, which are supposed to end up with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state; Israel doesn’t seem to want to stop building illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land, and it has been revealed that money will be put aside to construct 740 new buildings next year.

The construction ministry’s proposed budget for 2008 includes 500 apartments for the Har Homa area in east Jerusalem, and 240 at Maale Adumim, just outside Jerusalem and one of Israel’s biggest West Bank settlements.

Despite calls to freeze all settlement activity, Israel insists it will continue to build.

That shows how much Israel is really “committed” to the peace process, and how it will do anything to undermine it and keep things going as they are with it taking more and more land from the Palestinians, tightening the siege around them even more and doing as it pleases with total disregard to Palestinian lives and rights.

The quartet, that is supposed to be pushing for peace; the United Nations, that useless puppet; and the whole world just sit around watching.

Of course in the end, the failure of any peace negotiations will be pinned on the Palestinians, as usual, and things will go on like they have been for years; until we approach the end of another US president’s term and they suddenly feel like leaving on a bright note: that they at least gave Middle East peace a shot.

I don’t know why we even bother let our hopes get lifted by these peace conferences, agreements, negotiations and crap anymore. It’s obvious that until Israel is held accountable for its actions just like Palestinians are, there will be no peace!

10 Forgotten Humanitarian Crises That Still Largely Exist

I just came across an article about ten humanitarian crises that should have gotten more coverage in the year 2007, but didn’t, and that have been more or less forgotten, even though they still largely exist.

–Colombia: Internal refugee crisis after four decades of civil conflict Large numbers of Colombians live in areas controlled by militia or guerrillas, with basic human rights under threat and unpredictable violence.
– Sri Lanka: The civil war between the government forces and the separatist Tamil Tigers, taking a horrendous civilian toll.
– Somalia: Violence and increasingly ferocious guerrilla style attacks surpassing even Darfur in its horror and hopelessness.
– Burma: High levels of malaria and HIV made unimaginably worse by the negligence of a regime that spent only 1.4 per cent of its budget on health care.
– Niger, West and East Africa and South Asia: Malnutrition leading to the deaths of five million children under the age of five.
– Chechnya: Torture, abduction, and wars leaving psychological and physical scars on the civilian population with large numbers of people suffering from high levels of anxiety, insomnia and depression.
– Zimbabwe: Inflation at 12,000 per cent, three million fleeing the country, 85 per cent unemployment, collapsed health care system, 3,000 people dying every week from HIV/Aids.
– Central African Republic: Hundreds of civilians executed and at least 100,000 people caught in the crossfire of rival armed groups, fled their villages and are hiding in forests and bush.
– Democratic Republic of Congo: Hundreds of thousands of homeless people hiding in the forest because their villages are no longer safe, scavenging food to stay alive, trying to dodge the rampant cholera, and in the case of women avoiding sexual violence.
– World: 500,000 people to be diagnosed with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis this year. There have been no major advances in treatment of the disease since the 1960s.

[Source: 10 humanitarian crises forgotten (but not gone) – Belfast Telegraph]

IDF in Gaza: You are the law. You are God.

A quote by an IDF soldier that gives a clear picture of the Israeli forces’ illegal actions in Gaza and the state of mind that drives them.

“The best thing is that you’re not obliged to follow any laws or rules. You feel like you are the law. You are the law. You decide. It’s as if the moment you leave Israel and pass through the Erez Checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, you are the law. You are God.”

— Comment by one of the IDF soldiers interviewed by Israeli psychologist Nofer Ishai-Karen.

[Via: Lawrence of Cyberia]

Things You Should Never Include on a Resume

I just came across this really interesting list of the 25 things you should never include in your resume.

I agree with most of the list, but the top ten ones for me, in no particular order, are the following:

1. What You Hated About Your Last Job
2. What You Hated About Your Last Boss or Co-Workers
3. Irrelevant Job Experience
4. Lies About Job Experience
5. Lies About Educational Background
6. Negative Thoughts, Words or Ideas
7. Prejudices
8. Information About Your Family Members
9. Every Job You’ve Had Since You Were 16
10. Low GPAs

Read the details and the rest of the list here: 25 Things You Should Never Include on a Resume (HR World).

Peter Jackson On Board For The Hobbit

Great news came out today that Peter Jackson, director of the “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy, will be will taking part in the making of “The Hobbit,” the prequel to the great series, as well as a sequel to it, after settling disputes with New Line Cinema over LOTR residuals.

MGM and New Line will co-finance and co-distribute the two films,

Stardust

A couple of days ago, I watched “Stardust“, featuring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro and Sienna Miller.

I’d heard about the movie on TV a number of times, but there wasn’t much that pulled me in to see it. But then a friend at work told me he had seen it and that he actually liked it. So when I got the chance to see it, I was like: why not.

It turned out to actually be quite a nice movie, that I enjoyed. It’s sort of a light fairy tale about a young man who makes a promise to his beloved that he’ll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm that lies beyond a wall on the borders of their small village, finding himself on a fantastic journey and adventure with stars, witches, pirates and more.

I really like fantasy movies like this one and “Big Fish” for example, and how they take you on this amazing ride through a wonderful world of magic and imagination.

It was good seeing Michelle Pfeiffer back in action, she was very good in this movie; and Robert De Niro was really funny.

I think it’s a nice movie worth seeing if you’re into the genre. I think I’d give it an overall score of:

StarStarStarStarNo Star

[More: Amazon, IMDB]