green eggs&balalee6

It doesn't matter

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:05:00 +0000

Why Boycott?

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 06:43:00 +0000

I’ve had many many kind conversations with people who are worried about what’s going on in the country and have limited access to facts to decide for themselves. So I decided to write this instead of writing a million whatsapp responses.

What the hell is happening?

The Amir has decided to change the election law, which regardless of it’s constitutionality (there are people arguing both sides), is a breach to the basic democratic principle of separation of powers. The Parliament oversees the branch which the Amir appoints, the executive branch, Prime Ministers and through him ministers; how could parliament keep the government in check if the government has the upper hand in how parliament is selected. Imagine this: restaurants decide who the health and safety inspectors are and how they do their job, how safe is that? Without a separation of powers there is no democracy.

How did the elections law change?

Formerly, in the three elections that passed: 2008, 2009, 2012. Voters in Kuwait’s five districts chose four candidates on their ballot. The top ten candidates in each of the five districts became MPs. So, we each got to choose 40% of the winners.

The Amir decided to change the law to five districts and but each voter selects only one candidate. That means each of us gets to decide 10% of the winning members of parliament.

What’s the big deal, one man, one vote is the way it is in the biggest democracies?

Yes and no. This is not a valid comparison. In most places with one “man”, one vote, only one representative wins the election. Meaning, the voter is actually choosing 100% of the winners. Also, Kuwait has no official party system, so while voters in other democracies choose between party A and party B (and party C in one some places), we vote for individual people without a party platform. So when people in other countries vote for one person, they’re voting for a whole list of policies. When I vote here, I vote for policy A from person A, policy B from person B, etc...

So, we vote for good people who will reject the law in Parliament?

First, the law requires 33 members of parliament voting against it. It's naive to think this number will be achieved.

More importantly, voting legitimizes the way this law was pushed forward. The very act of voting means you agree with the executive branch (Amir and Ministers) meddling in the legislative branch (parliament). It means you believe it is okay for the government to dissolve parliament and change the elections law every time they feel threatened by parliament or simply disagree. Voting means you do not believe in the basic principles of democracy.

Boycotting is not an ideal option. But it’s the loudest message and the biggest act of commitment to democracy we have at the moment.

Alone.

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 20:31:00 +0000

(image from here)

There's a word for it?!

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Thu, 31 May 2012 23:22:00 +0000

Lessons from Kuwait: Harvard is for dimwits

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:44:00 +0000

Dear Kuwaiti high school graduate,

Congratulations! Graduating highschool is a big deal--not really, but it's the biggest thing that has happened in your life at this point--yay! for! you!

Now, if you plan on living in Kuwait for the rest of your life read on; if not, go toss and fetch your graduation cap like you're your own pet.

Harvard, MIT, Oxford...any Ivy League, Oxbridge institution or any top University that you've been accepted to needs to be crossed off your list RIGHT THIS MINUTE! Sure, you're smart and want to get the best education and be surrounded by driven people, good for you--but you need to think about your future.

Your GPA will be all that matters when you apply anywhere in Kuwait. Well, that and your family connections but we won't get into that today. So take those acceptance letters and frame them if you need the validation but do NOT go there.

Top universities are for dimwits who think education has inherent value. Kuwait is no dimwit, my friend.

For a bright Kuwaiti future, this is what you do: Find a University program in Egypt, Philippines or Kuwait, where you can get an 8.0 out of a four point scale and go there.

Trust me on this one.

Regretfully,
An IDIOT who has learned the hard way.

P.S.: no offense to Zagazig University, it might actually be respectable I dunno.

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 18:01:00 +0000

(via postsecret August 9, 2011)

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:56:00 +0000

I want to ~~stare at this~~ live there for the rest of my life.

Drafts: Arabs and journalism

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:10:00 +0000

This is a post from my draft folder. Some ideas may be underdeveloped.

(image)

March 16, 2011

As someone who's interested in journalism and public discourse, it surprised many when I got annoyed at the public for overcelebrating Aljazeera's involvement in Arab revolutions.

Because the idea of journalism isn't fully developed in the Arab world, people have undeservingly celebrated Aljazeera even as it does 75% of it's job.

The fact that no news organization in the Arab world is actually doing it's job completely makes Aljazeera the one-eyed king of the blind.

The idea of free journalism is one of the tenants of free society. Journalists brings facts to the table, not commentary, not judgements (atleast not explicitly).

What Aljazeera did in Egypt, although it was a valuable role, was not the role of free news media. It was propaganda plain and simple. Propaganda most of us liked but propaganda nonetheless.

Then again the problem is probably mine. I need to manage my expectations. It's unreasonable to expect credible journalism from an institution funded by an autocratic government.

I think Aljazeera's credibility as a news organization will be tested over and over again throughout this wave of Arab turmoil.

Take back Jihad.

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 08:21:00 +0000

via

I was lucky enough to take part in Erbakan's funeral procession last week. Standing in the street surrounding Alfatih mosque with the millions who were chanting "Mujahid Erbakan!" I entertained one question all day:

What happened to us that the word Jihad scares the daylight out of us?

Why have we allowed those fringe elements to not only hijack our religion but make our values of fighting for what we believe is right and living for a worthwhile cause obsolete?

I think it's time we take back Jihad. It's time we called those who live and die for worthwhile causes a mujahid.

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:13:00 +0000

I'd secretly vowed to stop writing about politics all the time on here. But this caught my eye:

Alrai had this both in its print and online newspapers.

I remember late 2009 when ir7al's sign was first seen online. People were irate. How dare they put someone's face with a red slash through it! He's a shaikh! It's disrespectful!

Now, a newspaper is using it. Oh how the world changes.

Very proud of ir7al for doing what they did.

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 09:35:00 +0000

“I don’t want to impress people I wouldn’t cross the road to talk to. I want there to be a strict door policy at my club. I want to go, “You can’t come in. You won’t like this. And I don’t want you to like it.” -Ricky Gervais

واحنا شكو بتونس؟

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 07:48:00 +0000

My 15 month old nephew started walking recently. And at first, whenever he unfurled his hand from the table's edge to walk two steps and land with a thud on the couch, he would squeal with joy. His face lit up with excitement as he walked around. Every time he left the safety of the couch behind and ventured into the middle of the living room we would all watch intently with both worry and delight.

I remembered Abdulrahman, my nephew's first few steps while watching Tunisia's protests. The familiar Oh-my-God-did-you-see-that feeling was back. It's thrilling to realize that Arabs are capable of ridding themselves of tyranny. That people, like you and I, are a force that can change the course of history.

I love what's happening in Tunisia. What comes next is a mystery and I pray for a real democracy and prosperity in Tunisia.

What do Tunisia's events have to do with Kuwait? Aside from providing an example of the power of the people, nothing.

We don't have a despot who's in power illegally. We don't want anyone exiled. We don't even have a personal problem with the person we're calling on to resign. We want the law applied equally to everyone. We want people to take responsibility for their decisions.

Any parallels being drawn to say we want a total revolution and regime change is a lie. Some people have a limited mental capacity and they have a hard time understanding relativity.

From day one all we've called for is responsibility and reform. Tunisia or no Tunisia, we won't back down.

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 07:45:00 +0000

"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

-Goethe

Why I'm going to Parliament tomorrow...and you should too

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:09:00 +0000

This is the choice we have:

a) Live in a country that has three types of citizens, 1-Shyoo5, 2-their "service providers", and 3-others, in that order.

When a Shaikh breaks the law, he gets sentenced, goes through this huge charade of going to jail and knows he's going to get released a few days later. (Compare to how Khaled Alfadala, who criticized the PM's squandering of public funds was treated.)
Or when the "service provider" e.g. Juwaihel does something wrong, he gets flown out of Kuwait on a private jet, brought back to safety. When he does something stupid and gets beaten up, he's taken to the ICU even when it's not required and gets VIP treatment.
When an academic says something they don't like, they send the police, an institution drafted to ensure the security of citizens, to drag him out of a house and beat him up and then leave him in the street unconscious. And then they charge him with crazy State Security crimes and decide to keep him locked up for 21 days before his trial even begins.
Those who speak for the government, even those who spread hate speech, are given free reign on all television stations at night. When those who were beaten, even if they are members of Parliament, are censored out of the media. The government closed Aljazeera's local offices for airing video Kuwait's Ministry of Interior used in it's fake press conference (I still don't understand how it's justified).

b) Live in a country where equality and justice is guaranteed for all.

Tomorrow's session isn't a panacea for all our problems, I do realize that. But it's a message that working for a government that disregards it's citizens' basic rights to private property, free speech and congregation is not acceptable anymore.
It's a message that we're done with a Prime Minister who not only squanders public money like it's birdseed but persecutes those who criticize him in anyway.

I will be making my choice loud and clear. Tomorrow, I will be standing outside Parliament, standing for a better Kuwait.

8:30 a.m. outside Parliament. (Closed door session almost guaranteed.)

Be there.

Or you lose your right to complain when they come after your people.

This changes everything...

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:30:00 +0000

Dr. Ubaid Alwasmi being pulled by force out of MP Jima'an Al-Herbesh's house by high ranking police officers, Major General Khalil Al-Shamali and Colonel Shukri Al-Najjar, seen in the video.

This isn't even about the right to a peaceful assembly anymore.

This is about security forces violating personal property,going into someone's house to find a wanted person without any kind of official warrant.

This is about police brutality.

This is about the government running amok, acting like a mob, without respect for the rule of law or it's people.

This is about our dignity.

This is about making sure no person drunk on power decides to take your house, fire you from your job because they don't like you.

This is about not having to dance on command.

This is the about the right to feel safe in your home.

This is about knowing that if they can do this to a respected law professor, they can do this to you.

If this disgusts you as much as it does me, say something. Anything.

Don't come running in 20 years when a shaikh spits on your kid and you're forced to say "ماي ورد طال عمرك".

حق اليور ياحبه

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 08:20:00 +0000

شوف حرية بلدنا

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 18:04:00 +0000

Trampling Juwaihel, trampling the Constitution

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 06:19:00 +0000

(photo)

I really didn't want to write about this. But sane people saying insane things on twitter have finally driven me to it.

When a football game ends beautifully and a fight breaks out in the crowds, it doesn't nullify the game's result.

What happened yesterday at Diwan Alsa'adoun was beautiful. Twenty-six people representing a diverse segment of the population spoke for the constitution and against the government's plain to void it.

Even people for the government, MP AlHuraiti/ MP Hussain Mizeed spoke unequivocally for the constitution and for preserving Parliament's role as a watchdog over the cabinet.

It was a beautiful event that expressed clearly how frustrated everyone was with government and the disdain it has for us.

Unfortunately, while MP Msalam Al-Barrak was speaking at the podium, we heard shouting outside. (We were in the basement.) Organizers stopped us from going out or having anyone come downstairs till the mayhem was over.

Al-Barrack stopped for a few seconds and but continued speaking ignoring the chaos in the diwaniya (visible from the big screens).

Word was Juwaihel spat at Musalam's face as he walked across a big screen, an obvious provocation. Juwaihel got beaten up by a mob outside, while the police, who were too busy giving out parking tickets, didn't step in to stop the fight but waited for orders.

He got really hurt. It was a sad event. I wish it hadn't happened. It's wrong to beat up people with which we disagree. But I won't waste my tears on him. Aljuwaihel knew what he was getting into in coming, he took a calculated ($$$$) risk.

On a more personal note, I was shocked by the reactions of people I consider sane, logical and funny online. People were spewing his hate all over the place. "اللي طقوه مزدوجين" ..."هذوله لفو"... "هذا اللي ياخذه السعدون من البدو" Comments about not the constitution changing but the people are veiled racist comments about bedu. Let's not kid ourselves with our talk about unity.

The people who beat him up were so very wrong but I can find a few excuses for them: group mind, emotionally charged setting, young age...whatever. But for someone who was sitting at home tapping at a keyboard spewing hate, what's their excuse?

The messages were disgusting and I ended up un-following a bunch of my favorite tweeters because racism isn't funny. We don't know who beat him up (whether they're bedu, 7athar, shia). It doesn't matter. It shouldn't have any bearing on our judgement of the incident or the event.

I hope Juwaihel gets better soon, I really do. But he isn't the only thing that's being trampled in this country: our constitution is. And I find preserving our constitution and the potency of democratic institutions much more troubling than a bunch of thugs beating up a hatemonger.

Aljarida hates women?

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:07:00 +0000

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Notice the pattern?

Every day Aljarida publishes a picture of a pretty woman with bare shoulders on it's main page (top half). Other newspapers don't do it.

Aljarida, please stop using women to decorate your frontpage. It's annoying and insulting to your readers. It's also extremely unprofessional. Objectifying women is so passe; haven't you heard?

Just stop. Please, keep back page fodder on the back page.

There are plenty of women who deserve to be on your frontpage for newsworthy items, just not the ones you've been choosing. (Also, who the hell is that in green on Tuesday?)

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:01:00 +0000

(photo credit)

There are some people in our lives that we are meant to lose touch with over time. These people come into our lives for a certain time period, enrich it, help in a transition and then completely fade out. We both move on, living life as different people.

There should never be bitterness or sadness about it. It is what it is. We as people are constantly changing. Our interests, our circumstances, our environment and our values are in constant motion.

To lost friends I say, it was good while it lasted. Thanks for everything.

The day Abdulwahab Al-Essa became an internet douchebag

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 08:37:00 +0000

Last Thursday, Abdulwahab Al-Essa, one of Alwatan's main news anchors/Alwatan daily columnist tweeted an insult following (or during, not really sure) the Saudi-Kuwait football game.

The insult, بقايا حجاج, is one tribal Saudis often use to taunt Saudis from the Hijaz (eastern) region. Alessa then tweeted two other mundane tweets and called it a day.

Saudis were livid and rightly so. Some on twitter demanded an apology but all they got was a day later, Alessa deleted that tweet and protected his profile.

The next day , Abdullah Wabran, a Kuwaiti sports commentator, apologized to the Saudis and said Alessa doesn't represent Kuwait (obviously). It's rumored that MP Marzoug Alghanim also apologized.

As much as I find his tweet inexcusable, the actions that followed magnified his words 100x.

Let's go through a few internet rules Al-essa forgot:

1) The internet is a public place/echo chamber. Whatever you say is open to everyone else, even with a private profile, and will be repeated a bazillion times.

2) The internet demands immediate action. Allowing the tweet to go undeleted for the amount of time it did was one of the mistakes he made.

3) The internet is forever. Google doesn't forget. Abdulwahab Alessa's name search results will bring up this insult forever.

4) Take control of your narrative as soon as possible. He should've issued an apology and press release IMMEDIATELY following the incident. It's two days later and he still hasn't apologized. Douchey move. He still hasn't sent out a press release.

5) You can only have one identity on the internet. You're either a news man or a stupid kid who can't handle the consequences of his actions. You can't be both.

Abdulwahab may be young but hiding behind his mother's skirt right now isn't doing him any favors.

I WENT TO HAJJ!

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:48:00 +0000

1889

2010

1888-9

2010

1889

2010

Mount Arafah 1889

Mount Arafah 2010

Pilgrims from Basrah and Bahrain (1889)

My friends and I, hajj 2010

(With our designer cross bags and oversized sunglasses and dettol wipes)

1888/9 photos courtesy New York Public Library Digital Gallery

2010 photos courtesy Boston Globe

VI Questions

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 05:16:00 +0000

(via Alwatan)

1) Where are all the cries about the uncivil language?

2) And why does he sound like a petty teenager?

3) Why are our shyoo5 hailag?

4) Is this really the best one they've got?

5) Didn't he say he's going to shut his pie hole? What happened to that?

6) Is there a cure for diarrhea of the mouth?

How to be Kuwaiti (Woman)

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:34:00 +0000

How to be Kuwaiti (Woman)

noreply@blogger.com (G) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:34:00 +0000