Author: Mohamed Marwen Meddah

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

Childhood, Illness And Missing School

While doing some random surfing, I came across a list of the top 5 illnesses that cause kids to miss school.

These illnesses are as follows:

1. The Common Cold
2. The Stomach Flu
3. Ear Infection
4. Pink Eye
5. Sore Throat

The main two that I personally got hit with as a kid, and that kept me from going to school sometimes, were the common cold and sore throat.
Until I ruined it for myself, that is…

The thing is that after a few times of falling sick and not having to go to school, I found that the best solution to not go to school on those days when I just didn’t feel like it was to act like I’m sick.
So I’d fake coughing, sneezing, having a sore throat, fevers and whatever was necessary to get me out of going to school, and it worked like a charm. It was almost the perfect crime.
But the problem is that once my father left, and school had already started, I’d be up and about, perfectly healthy, jumping around, running, playing and having the time of my life.

Needless to say, everyone noticed that, it’s hard to stay discrete with all your fun and games at that age, so after a number of times of me doing it, and then getting myself caught in the act, a decision was taken…

The decision more or less went as follows: No matter how ill you are, you’re going to school. Even if you’re dying, you go to school and then come back home and die.

Of course, I’m exaggerating a bit, and of course I did get to stay at home when I was really sick, but my acting days were mainly over and I had to cope with going to school everyday whether I felt like it or not, well at least most of the times.

Randomly…

Randomly, out of nowhere, there was a big fat universe sitting around…
Randomly, this universe exploded and expanded into its current state…
Randomly, solar systems were created in which planets rotated around central stars…
Randomly, planet Earth was created with the characteristics we all know today…
Randomly, a single cell living entity came into being…
Randomly, this single cell evolved into many different, yet independently perfect species…
Randomly, these different species kept evolving to their current states today…
Randomly, one of these species became the human race…
Randomly, every single little organ, with every single tiny detail and every exact function was perfectioned and tuned in the human body…

And randomly, here I am writing this post…

What a wonderful world of coincidences…

Work: Job, Environment And Money

It’s evaluation period at work, that time of year when tension gets so thick sometimes it could be cut by a knife.

It’s also the time when a lot of people, depending on whether or not they get a raise or promotion, how much the raise ends up to be, or what that new position is, start thinking about their jobs, and if they should maybe consider moving to some other company.

Personally, I think there is a very simple equation to all this, which mainly consists of the balance between job, environment and financial satisfaction.

The main questions a person should ask himself are:

Job: Do I enjoy my job? Am I still learning new things in it? Am I gaining useful experience from it?

Environment: Do I like working in this company? Is it a healthy environment? Do I get along well with my colleagues?

Money: Am I comfortable with how much I’m getting paid for my job? Do I feel that I’m being compensated for my efforts? Is my salary advancing at a healthy pace?

Lucky are the ones who get to answer yes to all those questions; for the rest, it’s a game of balance between how many “yes”, “no”, “almost”, “barely” answers they give to those answers across the three areas.

For example: If you’re happy with your job and with the environment, then you can easily bring yourself to accept a salary that is a bit lower than what you wished for; and that applies in all directions.

Of course I’m not for a person staying in a job he hates just because they’re getting paid well, in fact I’m totally against that. But if the person’s job satisfaction is a bit less than perfect, but he’s very happy with his salary and the environment he’s working in, I think he could bring himself to hang on in there a little longer.

Personally, I’ve been applying this principle throughout my career, and up to now I’m very proud of how things have played out for me.

Work life isn’t all about the job, nor all about the money, nor is it about the environment; it’s a combination of all those to make up a whole experience, a big part of our life; and just like we do with life, we have to balance between all the different elements to get the most out of it for our future.

Pizza Cono, Pizza In Cones

Pizza ConesI think if there’s any country in the world that could compete with Italy itself in the number of pizza places and pizza consumption, it’d definitely be Tunisia; There are at least two or three pizza places in every street or corner of every city.

So why am I writing about yet another one?
Well because this ones sell pizza that’s not quite like the pizza we’re used to finding everywhere.

Pizza Cono, like its name actually suggests, sells pizza in the form of cones. It is pizza dough shaped into the form of an ice cream cone, and filled with your favorite combination of cheese, sauce and toppings.

I was hesitant at first to go and check it out, I was expecting something that looked interesting but wasn’t so good to really eat. But one day recently, we found ourselves in the area, hungry and feeling like trying something different, so: why not.
It turned out pretty good in fact, quite practical when you need to grab something to eat on the go. I imagine a really good option for people working in the area.

I still prefer regular pizza; one of the joys of eating pizza to me, other than its delicious taste, is its form and the way I get to hold a good old slice of pizza in my hand and eat away at it.

Anyway, it was nice to try out, and if you’re in the area, check it out, if only for the sake of trying something new and different.

Oh and the whereabout of this place: It’s in the Les Berges du Lac area, behind the Mosque.

SBA Airlines, A New Tunisian Low Cost Airline Carrier

SBA Airlines is a new low cost carrier airline of Tunisia, based in Tunis. It will operates a hub and spoke network, linking several European and African international destinations.

SBA airlines plans to start scheduled operations by the end of 2007 to Lagos, Nice, Manchester, Warsaw, Bremen and Amsterdam from Tunis using A320s.
And when the new airport in Enfidha opens, it will eventually launch more destinations like New York, Montreal, Johannesburg, Bombay, Shanghai, St Petersburg, Nairobi, and Stockholm..

SBA Tunisia was created jointly by Tunisian Sami El Aouini, CEO, and Swedish Bejae Taylor, Chairman.
The airline company has already obtained an agreement for its creation and has formally applied for a “Principal Accord” with the Tunisian Office of Civil Aviation and Airports. The company is currently awaiting acquiescence from the governmental agency.

Personally, by default, I always encourage such new projects and businesses. I think it’s a great idea, something that’s missing from the Tunisian airline scene up to now. I wish them all the best of luck.

SBA Airlines

[Official Website: SBA Airlines]

The Top Ten Worst Phobias To Have

So it seems that if there are any ten phobias that you wouldn’t want to get, especially if you’re a man, they are the following:

10. Papaphobia: The Fear of the Pope
9. Xylophobia: The Fear of Wooden Objects
8. Hellenologophobia: The Fear of Complex Scientific Terms and Greek Terminology
7. Porphyrophobia: The Fear of the color “Purple”
6. Gymnophobia: The Fear of Nudity
5. Ostraconophobia: The Fear of Shellfish
4. Stasiphobia: The Fear of Walking
3. Pantiphobia: The Fear of Everything
2. Venustraphobia: The Fear of Beautiful Women
1. Eurotophobia: The Fear of Female Genitalia

I can’t believe some of these things really have names. Some place, somewhere, someone in the word creation department had a lot of time to waste.

[Source: The Top Ten Best and Worst Phobias to Have ]

Another Arab Journalist Jailed For Doing Their Job

First there was Taysir Alluni, the Al-Jazeera reporter, who was sentenced to jail for 7 years in 2005 because of an interview he did with Osama Bin Laden in 2001, accused of collaborating with Al-Qaeda.

Then there was Sami Al Haj, the Al-Jazeera cameraman, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 while he was going for a journalistic assignment in Afghanistan, and has been held in Guantanamo Bay ever since.

And now, there is Pulitzer prize-winning Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been imprisoned by the U.S. military in Iraq since April 2006 without a trial or even being charged. The military claimed then that he had suspicious links to insurgents, but now they’re saying that he is a “terrorist” who had “infiltrated the AP.”
In the 19 months since he was picked up, Bilal has not been charged with any crime, with the military sending out a mix of ever-changing, false or overblown claims.
And now even though the military says they’ll be taking him to court in an Iraqi court, there’s still nothing about the date, what charges will be brought against him, what evidence they have or anything.
The common belief is that Bilal’s crime was taking photographs the U.S. government did not want its citizens to see.

Who’s next on the list of journalists, simply doing their job, to be thrown in jail under the claim they’re terrorists, just because they’re Arabs and covering something the US and its allies don’t want covered?