Halloween

Last night as i was in my old place waiting for the owner to come so i can hand him his keys and get over with the move, i opened the door only to find a bunch of kids wearing masks and make-up, yes for halloween, they were trick-or-treating me…

I was shocked to say the least.
I mean, there never ever was halloween in Tunisia, so where did these kids come up from ?
These were kids ranging in age from maybe 4 to just a few years younger than me, and they were going around from house to house as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
I know i must sound like some old-fashioned guy, i’m not, but i can’t help but wonder how something that never existed in the Tunisian culture has been introduced into it like this.
Are the next generation being brainwashed by foreign television stations ?
I mean after all, i think it’s pretty weird for muslims in a muslim country to be celebrating Christmas and now Halloween, what next ? Hannukah ?.

Maybe i’m over-reacting, but i think this is worth thinking about. Maybe we should start thinking twice about what our children are seeing on TV and how much of an effect it is having on them.

Medina Festival

The Medina Festival began last night in Tunis. This is a festival that takes place every Ramadan here, and i think it’s great. It’s a very culture rich festival with artists from many countries performing.

I just got the program for this year’s festival, and on first look, it seems great, but nothing that’s truly my style and that makes me jump off my chair and go running for a ticket.
Interesting stuff though, there are concerts by: Mayada Bsiliss, Marcel Khalifa, Son Cubano and Jos

Beautiful Introduction to Tunisia @ Lonely Planet

One of my favourite sites and TV shows is Lonely Planet, it just hits the right spot for me, someone who’s in love with travel and discovering different new places.
So every once in a while, i drop by the Lonely Planet website to check out some new places i would love to visit.

Today, out of curiosity, i checked out Tunisia to see what they’ve written about it, here’s the beautiful introduction:

Tunisia’s list of visitor attractions would do justice to a country twice its size. From the stone-age settlements near the oasis at Kebili to the space-age sets of Star Wars (parts of which were filmed at Matmata), its lush-to-lunar landscapes have seen more action than the New World nations combined. Spend a few days here and you’ll agree: daydreaming at the famous Roman ruins of Carthage and El-Jem is almost as good as stepping into Virgil’s Aeneid and knocking one back with Dido, while a day’s dawdling on the north coast’s beaches will leave you wondering why Hannibal ever left.

Tourism remains very low-key throughout most of the country, though if you’re looking for resort life you can find that too. Be it Tunis’ French-Arab culture collage or the Sahara’s unthinkably massive expanse, you’re going to be impressed with what you find in Tunisia. After all, they’ve had 3000 years to prepare for your visit.

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 🙂