Previous President Bush and ex-Prime Minister Blair were holding talks one day. They announced afterwards that they have decided to kill 20 million Muslims and a dentist. The world wondered and protested, and the press and media expressed curiosity and interest; why a dentist?
We seem to be programmed to ask the wrong questions. We are interested in matters that matter least; while other crucial matters pass unnoticed, and are produced unworthy of interest. Crucial matters do not build much interest, and do not gather huge followings. We seem to glorify the trivial on the expense of the pressing issues of our times. And thus alas, this has brought us one-too-many catastrophes.
The problem is twofold really. One for trading the trivial for the fundamental. And the other, for allowing the corporate elitists to produce us the reality we live in. Our time and energy are not endless; we are here not for long. And the planet is not in its brightest condition. We ought to get involved and get interested in things that are truly important; important to us, society and the environment.
02 June 2009
31 May 2009
Jordanian temper
We in Jordan breathe fire. Our tempers hit the ceiling roof; reach the boiling point. Hot steam and wasted energy are the bursts of a big balloon we all are sometimes. Whether we are driving, shopping, or jogging we are preys to our own vulnerable tempers. We are owned by our sharp tempers. It is clear to me that sometimes we don't even see how trivial the matter is. Sadly, anything switches our buttons.
I suspect we are the result of an unfortunate accumulation of endless wrongs. The conditions of a man is in fact his maker. I mean consider the following facts; the average Jordanian smokes heavily, do not regularly exercise, has an unhealthy diet and most of the times earns less than he spends. All of these are common factors for an urban madman, or aren’t they? But then again there are some of us who earn more, beautifully eat and exercise and yet fume over why he or she was cut off on the road! I have witnessed some angry faces on the road the last couple of months here that were no joke at all. In fact they were close to psychotic. And I know of occasions where for example a road rage turned to races that killed people.
What is the real chemical that fuses the Jordanian mind, I don’t know! Albeit, I feel it is in the air everywhere; like an electron begging for a nucleus to explode. What is it that makes people in Jordan jumpy? Why don’t we just chill?! Lay back and breathe quietly when things get frantic? Why do we really have to be stiff about everything.
I suspect we are the result of an unfortunate accumulation of endless wrongs. The conditions of a man is in fact his maker. I mean consider the following facts; the average Jordanian smokes heavily, do not regularly exercise, has an unhealthy diet and most of the times earns less than he spends. All of these are common factors for an urban madman, or aren’t they? But then again there are some of us who earn more, beautifully eat and exercise and yet fume over why he or she was cut off on the road! I have witnessed some angry faces on the road the last couple of months here that were no joke at all. In fact they were close to psychotic. And I know of occasions where for example a road rage turned to races that killed people.
What is the real chemical that fuses the Jordanian mind, I don’t know! Albeit, I feel it is in the air everywhere; like an electron begging for a nucleus to explode. What is it that makes people in Jordan jumpy? Why don’t we just chill?! Lay back and breathe quietly when things get frantic? Why do we really have to be stiff about everything.
30 May 2009
Rebel without a Cause
The little child becomes ready to rebel against his world the moment he is exposed to another. It’s an encouraging motive to know that if I fail this predicted recurrence of my life, that all of my ancesters lived alike, there is an alternative one out there. For the first time in humanity we now know how everybody lives on the planet! we have access to different moralities and alternative virtues. And thus we rebel everytime we are triggered by our own elements. The notion 'i know better and i could do better' is the engine that encourages this shift. This dilemma has grave consequences to our societies and local principles and customs.
I have grown up in a constantly changing world. In the making worldwide, was a world of rich and open culture that was both Anglophonic and liberal in culture. But it was made appealing and inviting that I capitulated entirely and became a 'global cosmopolitan citizen'. This was I suppose in exchange for my possible adherence to my local society; that is being eroded at the rate of our negligence and departing. It is uncertain to know for sure which ways I would have been better off individually; but certainly the fabric of locality and society is not a winner in this formula.
It is genius to drive and seduce the individual out of his own comfort and into an appealing unknown. One is dumbfounded by the tremendous system put forth to this effect. it is surely and effectively homogenizing the world. In one century we have witnessed more rebellions than we have had in the previous five that have always served this purpose. Is this global trend part of a global conspiracy to weld the nations at the expense of their own heritages and customs? In every aspect of life, we witness rebels of every kind; e.g. rebels in the family, in the workplace, at school…etc. Rebelling in essence is not necessarily a bad thing, unless it is rebellion against our own norms and realities. More than ever nowadays our children are equipped with alternatives to what we say and believe, and more than ever now we don’t matter to them.
Saeed
I have grown up in a constantly changing world. In the making worldwide, was a world of rich and open culture that was both Anglophonic and liberal in culture. But it was made appealing and inviting that I capitulated entirely and became a 'global cosmopolitan citizen'. This was I suppose in exchange for my possible adherence to my local society; that is being eroded at the rate of our negligence and departing. It is uncertain to know for sure which ways I would have been better off individually; but certainly the fabric of locality and society is not a winner in this formula.
It is genius to drive and seduce the individual out of his own comfort and into an appealing unknown. One is dumbfounded by the tremendous system put forth to this effect. it is surely and effectively homogenizing the world. In one century we have witnessed more rebellions than we have had in the previous five that have always served this purpose. Is this global trend part of a global conspiracy to weld the nations at the expense of their own heritages and customs? In every aspect of life, we witness rebels of every kind; e.g. rebels in the family, in the workplace, at school…etc. Rebelling in essence is not necessarily a bad thing, unless it is rebellion against our own norms and realities. More than ever nowadays our children are equipped with alternatives to what we say and believe, and more than ever now we don’t matter to them.
Saeed
26 January 2009
The Gaza Poem: Burn in the Sun
Burn in the sun till the sun burns out
And cover in mud till you earn your right
Vent to the skies till it vent it all out
That children lying dead cross your mind
Shiver in a wind that takes you ill
Uncover and sleep in a cold night
Windowless on a fire field of hell
And step onto the shattered glass in plight
Burn in the sun that the sun comes out
And pray so 21 days and nights
Pray for the masses at the foothill
Naked lonely in the shadow of the stars
Silhouettes in the shades of the burning nights
They burn till their sun comes out
But burn with those who burn inside
And beg and beg to the silent skies.
Burn in the sun till the sun burns out
And just leave a tear lying beside a child
Just send a cover so that it does not shroud
The bit of sanity left behind your closed eyes
Burn inside till it burns no more
In the blaze of the phosphorus skies
Burn more when you see the acid wane
Flesh upon souls that cease in pain
Burn in the sun till the sun burns out
For the nights are gone and our days are out
Saeed Omar
And cover in mud till you earn your right
Vent to the skies till it vent it all out
That children lying dead cross your mind
Shiver in a wind that takes you ill
Uncover and sleep in a cold night
Windowless on a fire field of hell
And step onto the shattered glass in plight
Burn in the sun that the sun comes out
And pray so 21 days and nights
Pray for the masses at the foothill
Naked lonely in the shadow of the stars
Silhouettes in the shades of the burning nights
They burn till their sun comes out
But burn with those who burn inside
And beg and beg to the silent skies.
Burn in the sun till the sun burns out
And just leave a tear lying beside a child
Just send a cover so that it does not shroud
The bit of sanity left behind your closed eyes
Burn inside till it burns no more
In the blaze of the phosphorus skies
Burn more when you see the acid wane
Flesh upon souls that cease in pain
Burn in the sun till the sun burns out
For the nights are gone and our days are out
Saeed Omar
27 October 2008
the need to hang on
wave upon wave, upon the shores
unto thousands of crystals
breaking on the moors of our cores
sifting us, from us, like filters
the shiny crystals we are; and cherish
the weak are bound to break and perish
for the rest withstand the heartaches in pain
like a shore after a million ridges, remain
and sometimes we survive the winters
the sun on whom shines in despair
above the helpless and the needy
the rays that ought to reach everywhere
draw the fairness for the greedy
for life and justice on this earth
are plain for the eyes of the just
to crowd a concourse in pursuit
and march onto the palace of the despots
who dim the sun and curl the ridges
and prodcue the world we all got
unto thousands of crystals
breaking on the moors of our cores
sifting us, from us, like filters
the shiny crystals we are; and cherish
the weak are bound to break and perish
for the rest withstand the heartaches in pain
like a shore after a million ridges, remain
and sometimes we survive the winters
the sun on whom shines in despair
above the helpless and the needy
the rays that ought to reach everywhere
draw the fairness for the greedy
for life and justice on this earth
are plain for the eyes of the just
to crowd a concourse in pursuit
and march onto the palace of the despots
who dim the sun and curl the ridges
and prodcue the world we all got
05 September 2008
History and Cats
I got Zuzu a couple of weeks back. the brother of my friend brought her home. and my friend disliked her and wanted her out of his place. so it ended up with me as doing him a favor.
i love cats and i am happy zuzu is here. its been 10 yrs i havent lived with cats. i cared for a few and fed some constantly wherever i was. but not lived with a pet cat since i was a teen in Sweifieah, Amman during the early nineties. i remember the wildest cat i had was Tiger; what a rebel cat he was. i remember how difficult it was to gain his confidence since he was a veterean street cat bruised on the mouth and the tail. he looked as if he had lived thru 2 world wars and is now full of memories and life has made him the tough guy he was. lol. thats how i remember him. his voice was very funny, yeah he had a character of his own. if Marlon Brando was a cat, Tiger would have been him! he went missing for some weeks before we discovered his body fur flat on some street in our neighbourhood... RIP Tiger!
Lulu II was something else, well bred good looking cat. i raised her since she could barely walk... i cant remember how we got her. she died horrifically though, i begged my father to take her to a vet but took me very lightly and his famous words: "what is this all about, its is just a cat, grow up!" . when her symptoms went dire, she barely walked and lost her balance and sight. i held her that day till her last breath... it was an awful experience and i remember crying hysterically afterwards. i always blamed myself for I might have fed her something sweet. after her death, i remember thinking how awful this world was and how insensitive our human nature is and how awful it is especially in our society towards each other and animals.
I remember the black one-eared, one-eyed cat back in Kuwait. kids in our neighbourhood picked on it and i guess one had her ear as a medallion. she used to sneak to our veranda on the ground floor and i used to feed her around midnight every night until my mother discovered that. she used to fear her and spread rumours in my head that cats transmit horrible diseases and give me unreal examples of kids who went cookoo because they raised cats when they were kids like me. i didnt buy it. i loved the black ugly cat for some reason. fed her throughout the 80s. she just disappeared one day and never saw her again.
i found Lulu (the first) at the attached caravan that was behind our old building in Nugra in Hawali, Kuwait. the 2 girls who lived there called me when they discovered her infront of their door steps. they knew they had to tell me because i was the one who loved cats around there. it was dark and they led me to their door step. Lulu was siamese with white fur and blacl/brown tail. beautiful blue piercing eyes. she had a silver neckless too. she also had rabies! and a circular hairless spot on her upper leg. it was clear that she was dumped by someone and Lulu found her way to the nearest home. i always imagined she was dumped by a nice car roaming around in our old and poor neighbourhood. i m sure they thought that at this densely populated place, someone might be able to take care of this cat for them. releasing them from probably any guilt. well that someone was me. and i immediately knew something was wrong with her, but i just picked her up and brought her home. cared for her throughout that school year until i guess summer vacation came along and we had to leave to Amman. i gave it to a friend of mine to look after her. when we came back after 2 months, her condition was worse. i later found out that she was locked in a one meter square bathroom all this time. my friends mother hated the cat and was not tolerant at all. i remember the moment when i brought Lulu back to our aprtment, she was extatic and jumped all around. it truly showed how much she missed the place and maybe me too. around the time my parents discovered that there was something wrong with her, they sent her to a vet and immediately tried to convince me that she was danger. we had to dump her away. we drove with her in our new 1985 Mitsubishi Gallant into another neighbourhood. my sister was with me and we were trying to choose a spot. the whole thing was so ironic.
there was also the mother who ate her offsprings when i secretely nursed her delivery at our veranda. a marvelous and shocking experience. i remember i was so furious about it, that next time i heard another cat do this i went on with some friends trying to punish the mother cat. i hit the mother cat with a pebble right on the head. i always regretted this!
another thing i regret is something i can vaguely remember, but happened nonetheles. it was summer 1983 at the building my father newly built then in Ashrafiyyeh, Jordan. my second cousins who lived in the shanties of the area since 1948 were wicked enough to put me up to a challenge. they challenged me to go and pick a kitten they saw and throw it off from the roof of our building. they were exuberant about it. i naively picked her up and climbed the stairs to the third floor where we lived and climbed on to the roof, opened the doors and off to the edge and dropped the cat. there was the daughter of Dr. Akram (who helped my mother when she was giving birth to me in Germany because she had this condition caused by cats), was on the ground floor and scremed and begged me not to do it. but i did. my second cousins who had not stopped laughing told me to come down again and pick her up and do it again because she was not dead yet! and i did that. this will never leave me...
so fast forward to Zuzu who is in my lap right now. just like a baby. every time i leave in the morning to work she starts crying at the door, scratching it with its paws and jumping on the handle. lol
cats have it their own way and will never understand you until you understand them. and i love this headstrong characteristic, they are like no other pet. one has to be consistent with them for them to be ok with u. because they remember everything. and they have a good learning capability, which is fun.
i love cats and i am happy zuzu is here. its been 10 yrs i havent lived with cats. i cared for a few and fed some constantly wherever i was. but not lived with a pet cat since i was a teen in Sweifieah, Amman during the early nineties. i remember the wildest cat i had was Tiger; what a rebel cat he was. i remember how difficult it was to gain his confidence since he was a veterean street cat bruised on the mouth and the tail. he looked as if he had lived thru 2 world wars and is now full of memories and life has made him the tough guy he was. lol. thats how i remember him. his voice was very funny, yeah he had a character of his own. if Marlon Brando was a cat, Tiger would have been him! he went missing for some weeks before we discovered his body fur flat on some street in our neighbourhood... RIP Tiger!
Lulu II was something else, well bred good looking cat. i raised her since she could barely walk... i cant remember how we got her. she died horrifically though, i begged my father to take her to a vet but took me very lightly and his famous words: "what is this all about, its is just a cat, grow up!" . when her symptoms went dire, she barely walked and lost her balance and sight. i held her that day till her last breath... it was an awful experience and i remember crying hysterically afterwards. i always blamed myself for I might have fed her something sweet. after her death, i remember thinking how awful this world was and how insensitive our human nature is and how awful it is especially in our society towards each other and animals.
I remember the black one-eared, one-eyed cat back in Kuwait. kids in our neighbourhood picked on it and i guess one had her ear as a medallion. she used to sneak to our veranda on the ground floor and i used to feed her around midnight every night until my mother discovered that. she used to fear her and spread rumours in my head that cats transmit horrible diseases and give me unreal examples of kids who went cookoo because they raised cats when they were kids like me. i didnt buy it. i loved the black ugly cat for some reason. fed her throughout the 80s. she just disappeared one day and never saw her again.
i found Lulu (the first) at the attached caravan that was behind our old building in Nugra in Hawali, Kuwait. the 2 girls who lived there called me when they discovered her infront of their door steps. they knew they had to tell me because i was the one who loved cats around there. it was dark and they led me to their door step. Lulu was siamese with white fur and blacl/brown tail. beautiful blue piercing eyes. she had a silver neckless too. she also had rabies! and a circular hairless spot on her upper leg. it was clear that she was dumped by someone and Lulu found her way to the nearest home. i always imagined she was dumped by a nice car roaming around in our old and poor neighbourhood. i m sure they thought that at this densely populated place, someone might be able to take care of this cat for them. releasing them from probably any guilt. well that someone was me. and i immediately knew something was wrong with her, but i just picked her up and brought her home. cared for her throughout that school year until i guess summer vacation came along and we had to leave to Amman. i gave it to a friend of mine to look after her. when we came back after 2 months, her condition was worse. i later found out that she was locked in a one meter square bathroom all this time. my friends mother hated the cat and was not tolerant at all. i remember the moment when i brought Lulu back to our aprtment, she was extatic and jumped all around. it truly showed how much she missed the place and maybe me too. around the time my parents discovered that there was something wrong with her, they sent her to a vet and immediately tried to convince me that she was danger. we had to dump her away. we drove with her in our new 1985 Mitsubishi Gallant into another neighbourhood. my sister was with me and we were trying to choose a spot. the whole thing was so ironic.
there was also the mother who ate her offsprings when i secretely nursed her delivery at our veranda. a marvelous and shocking experience. i remember i was so furious about it, that next time i heard another cat do this i went on with some friends trying to punish the mother cat. i hit the mother cat with a pebble right on the head. i always regretted this!
another thing i regret is something i can vaguely remember, but happened nonetheles. it was summer 1983 at the building my father newly built then in Ashrafiyyeh, Jordan. my second cousins who lived in the shanties of the area since 1948 were wicked enough to put me up to a challenge. they challenged me to go and pick a kitten they saw and throw it off from the roof of our building. they were exuberant about it. i naively picked her up and climbed the stairs to the third floor where we lived and climbed on to the roof, opened the doors and off to the edge and dropped the cat. there was the daughter of Dr. Akram (who helped my mother when she was giving birth to me in Germany because she had this condition caused by cats), was on the ground floor and scremed and begged me not to do it. but i did. my second cousins who had not stopped laughing told me to come down again and pick her up and do it again because she was not dead yet! and i did that. this will never leave me...
so fast forward to Zuzu who is in my lap right now. just like a baby. every time i leave in the morning to work she starts crying at the door, scratching it with its paws and jumping on the handle. lol
cats have it their own way and will never understand you until you understand them. and i love this headstrong characteristic, they are like no other pet. one has to be consistent with them for them to be ok with u. because they remember everything. and they have a good learning capability, which is fun.
03 September 2008
Nostalgic to Um Kalthoum
'Amal Hayati' translated 'the hope of my life', was by far my most overplayed teen song in high school. for many arabs my geenration, it would be an odd and an old irrelvant song to our times. i cant recall a particular reason why i landed on this type of vitage music, which is at least 50 yrs old. i just loved Um Kalthoum, still love her and this song especially.
its like repeated poetic verses played over a sleepy solo-like violin/s, paving the way to a roller coaster of tunes put together in an epic like symphony. the song picks up rythym many times though in a steady arabic drum pace... and she rises the pitch after imploring her perfect love in a most unrealistic romantic one way dialogue... fit only for oriental love maybe..
the songs dialouge is a powerful embodiment of feminine love. the fulfilment of its emotion must be the true love we all dream and read about. if ever anyone like the lady in Amal Hayati exist, she must live far away from everything and every place I know.
the song is magnificent and an intillegent emotional roller coaster. most of what i love about this song is the compound memory of both Um Kalthoum and how i envisioned her narratives throughout my teens... here is a translation...
_____
Hope of my life
O love that has costed much;
one that does not end
O beautiful song
that my heart has heard,
and cannot be forgotten
take all of my life
but today, but today, let me live
let me aside you, leave me
in the lap of your heart
and leave me dream, leave me
and i hope my time wont wake me up!
i have never tasted passion like your passion
i have never liked my life, if it wasnt for you
i accepted my wishes, and accepted this life, and accepted love
the first time we met I gave you my heart; my heart
more than this joy i dont dream
more than what i am in, i dont ask
after my contentment with you
if my life persihes, i wont regret
and it is enough to wake up to your smile saying 'Ya Ein'
i d hear it like a song,
that says 'my love does not end'
let me aside you, leave me
in the lap of your heart
and leave me dream, leave me
and i hope my time wont wake me up!
whose love, have made all life love
whose closeness, woken my life and my heart
and you along, it is hard to blink an eye; not even for a second
it is hard to see your beauty and sweetness fade
thus i miss you, thus i long for you
longing for you, and you and you
i wish i can call you with a word that has not been called upon you, by anyone
a word that measures up to all of your love
measures up to all my yearnings
a word like you; and who is like you!?
for the like of you, have not seen another
o my love, however long my life is with you, its days would be few
for the happiness and passion in your love, could not last us long generations
your love have fulfilled my heart and thoughts
illuminated my night and make me live longer
----
sounds better in Arabic as translation takes away that special arabic context that can only be understood completely if you were an Arab; an Egyptian mostly.
heres a link if you want to hear it: http://songs1.6arab.com/omkalthoom..amal-7ayati.ram
its like repeated poetic verses played over a sleepy solo-like violin/s, paving the way to a roller coaster of tunes put together in an epic like symphony. the song picks up rythym many times though in a steady arabic drum pace... and she rises the pitch after imploring her perfect love in a most unrealistic romantic one way dialogue... fit only for oriental love maybe..
the songs dialouge is a powerful embodiment of feminine love. the fulfilment of its emotion must be the true love we all dream and read about. if ever anyone like the lady in Amal Hayati exist, she must live far away from everything and every place I know.
the song is magnificent and an intillegent emotional roller coaster. most of what i love about this song is the compound memory of both Um Kalthoum and how i envisioned her narratives throughout my teens... here is a translation...
_____
Hope of my life
O love that has costed much;
one that does not end
O beautiful song
that my heart has heard,
and cannot be forgotten
take all of my life
but today, but today, let me live
let me aside you, leave me
in the lap of your heart
and leave me dream, leave me
and i hope my time wont wake me up!
i have never tasted passion like your passion
i have never liked my life, if it wasnt for you
i accepted my wishes, and accepted this life, and accepted love
the first time we met I gave you my heart; my heart
more than this joy i dont dream
more than what i am in, i dont ask
after my contentment with you
if my life persihes, i wont regret
and it is enough to wake up to your smile saying 'Ya Ein'
i d hear it like a song,
that says 'my love does not end'
let me aside you, leave me
in the lap of your heart
and leave me dream, leave me
and i hope my time wont wake me up!
whose love, have made all life love
whose closeness, woken my life and my heart
and you along, it is hard to blink an eye; not even for a second
it is hard to see your beauty and sweetness fade
thus i miss you, thus i long for you
longing for you, and you and you
i wish i can call you with a word that has not been called upon you, by anyone
a word that measures up to all of your love
measures up to all my yearnings
a word like you; and who is like you!?
for the like of you, have not seen another
o my love, however long my life is with you, its days would be few
for the happiness and passion in your love, could not last us long generations
your love have fulfilled my heart and thoughts
illuminated my night and make me live longer
----
sounds better in Arabic as translation takes away that special arabic context that can only be understood completely if you were an Arab; an Egyptian mostly.
heres a link if you want to hear it: http://songs1.6arab.com/omkalthoom..amal-7ayati.ram
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