Acrobatic Martial Art Football!

كلمة عاصفة لضاحي خلفان تميم في مؤتمر الهوية الوطنية

أبوظبي- ا ف ب
شنّ قائد شرطة دبي الفريق ضاحي خلفان هجوماً عنيفاً على الوجود الكثيف للوافدين، الذين صاروا يشكلون الغالبية الساحقة من سكان الإمارات، محذّراً من "انهيار المجتمع الإماراتي" إذا إنهار حكم السلالات الحاكمة. وتحدث خلفان في مداخلة له في "ملتقى الهوية الوطنية"، الذي عقدته وزارة الثقافة الاماراتية الثلاثاء 15-4-2008، بمشاركة عشرات الشيوخ والوزراء، وأعضاء المجلس الوطني الاتحادي، وأكاديميين، للبحث في سبل تعميق الهوية الإماراتية وحمايتها، وسط العولمة والزحف الكبير للأجانب.

وحول التحديات الامنية التي تواجه هوية الامارات قال خلفان "أخشى أننا نبني عمارات ونفقد الإمارات", موجها حديثه الى شيوخ وحكام البلاد. وبذلك يشير خلفان، الذي سبق ان اطلق مواقف مثيرة للجدل, الى الفورة العمرانية التي يغذيها الى حد بعيد اقبال الاجانب على تملك العقارات، بعد ان اتاحت لهم قوانين جديدة تملكا حرا في بعض المواقع. وتشير ارقام شبه رسمية تدارسها المجلس الوطني الاتحادي, وهو مجلس تمثيلي تم انتخاب نصف اعضائه للمرة الاولى في عملية معقدة غير مباشرة في 2006, الى أن عدد سكان الدولة بلغ في نهاية 2006 نحو خمسة ملايين و631 الف نسمة نسبة المواطنين بينهم بحدود 15.4%. وحذ خلفان، الذي اعتبر ما تشهده الامارات "هجرة العواصف", من "كارثة" اذا لم تتخذ الدولة قرارات حازمة في موضوع "خلل التركيبة السكانية" في المرحلة الحالية التي قال انها "مفترق طرق". وعرض على الحاضرين مقاطع تسجيلية لأعمال شغب يقوم بها أجانب أضافة إلى سيارات محترقة ومحلات مهشمة بفعل تحركات احتجاجية للعمال الوافدين, كما عرض صورا لشوارع في دبي مكتظمة بالآسيويين وشوارع مزدحمة. وقال في هذا السياق "تخيلوا هذه الأعداد الهائلة من البشر, الأسيويين, في ساحات الدولة, ساحات تخلو من المواطنين... حرق وتدمير, الى اين نسير؟". وذكر المسؤول الامني أن عمالا أجانب "اغلقوا شوارع ودمروا منشآت, ويقولون هذه حقوق عمالية" في اشارة الى تقارير اصدرتها منظمات دولية لا سيما "هيومن رايتس ووتش" تدين ما اعتبرته سوء معاملة للعمال الأجانب في الإمارات. وإذ رحب خلفان بوضع رئيس الدولة الشيخ خليفة بن زايد آل نهيان سنة 2008 تحت عنوان "سنة الهوية الوطنية", قال "لقد تأخرنا (في معالجة الوضع) واقول انه اذا تمكن ابناء اولياء العهود الحاليين من حكم الامارات, فتكون الدنيا بالف خير". الا انه توقع الا يبقى نظام الحكم الحالي اذا لم تتخذ تدابير وان المجتمع الاماراتي سينهار اذا انهار حكم السلالات الحاكمة. وخلفان الذي قال انه كان ليتطرق الى مواضيع اضافية لولا وجود وافدين في القاعة, اعتبر ان الديمقراطي باراك اوباما "ابوه كيني واسمه حسين وينافس على الرئاسة في اميركا, فهل نريد ان ينافس كوتي (اسم هندي) على الرئاسة عندنا". واقترح المسؤول الامني حلولا قال انها "استراتيجية" مثل "قيام اتحاد خليحي يمنح جنسية موحدة, وتجنيس الخليجيين الذي يطلبون ذلك, ووضع سقف لعدد الجاليات على الا تتعدى كل منها نسبة 25% من المواطنين والحد من تملك الأجانب" للعقارات. كما طالب المواطنين بالاكثار من الزواج والانجاب "لإن الانجاب قليل".

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/04/15/48364.html

Malek Jandali: A Truly Hidden Syrian Gem.

"Echoes from Ugarit" - Malek Jandali - World's Oldest Music!

Brilliant stuff!

Malek Jandali, a Syrian composer and pianist, has managed to compile, refine and restructure the oldest music notations ever found in the history (dated back to 3400 bc):

Ugarit, Syria is the birthplace of alphabet and music notation. Excavations of the ancient Phoenician city, Ugarit, in what is now modern Ras Shamra north of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast of Syria, uncovered cuneiform tablets that date back to approximately 3400 BC. This is the oldest music notation in the world! The interpretation of the music notation of Ugarit is a challenge and several "reconstructions" have been published.

You may listen to sample of his music in the introduction of his website:

http://www.malekjandali.com/

Or on this youtube video (for those who do not know Arabic, please fast forward to 1:38 ):



Unfortunately, and due to our great Syrian PR fiasco, I still do not know how to get his recent CD, but I am going to find out soon insha'allah.

The Disgusting Post

So Dubai Municipality has finally made it compulsory for all public buildings to have built-in sewerage treatment plants.

The idea simply states that sewage from within the building will first be treated/recycled, and then it’ll be pumped again to the building for re-usage.

Just to allay your fears, and to smoothen your disgusted faces, I’ll clarify few points:

1- The water that will be re-treated is only the type of water that is known as (gray water), meaning the drain water from bathtubs, washbasins, kitchen sinks and showers. (Amusingly, the water that carries excrement is known as ‘black water’ very apt for the American security contractor). Recycling feces-laden water is much more complicated story, so you don’t have to worry about that.

2- The water output from the treatment plant will be pumped and reused in places where there is no contact with human body. Such as toilet cisterns and irrigation. Try to shrug off the images of you showering in somebody else’s waste.

3- The treatment plant will have an emergency discharge to the public sewerage system. In other words, your building won’t be flooded with dirty water if the treatment plant breaks down.

4- There is not supposed to be any foul smells emanating from this tiny treatment plant. Everything is sealed and ventilated through pipes that run at least 10 meters up over the building. But given the level of professionalism and the quality of contractors we have here in Dubai, you’d have to expect everything.

Oh forgot to tell you; this only applies for buildings, which are under design. So if you’re buying a property off the map now, then this post should be useful to you (or more precisely, to our bottom…)…and I am still not sure whether this will apply for residential buildings as well… stay tuned…

Hallelujah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsa_xWLOghg

Tagging Along.

My dear friend Abu Fares , has tagged me once again.
This time the challenge is to confess why is it, and for what purpose, that I am tormenting people with my insignificant and pointless writings- an otherwise activity called blogging.

"What is the purpose of your blog"

I honestly have no idea. I was never invited to the blog-sphere. And as with the case of a real life event, I thought I’d just tag along; I just became a blogger. No purpose in mind. No mission statement.

My march toward blogging was not out of the blue. It started with having the privileged access to DSL connection (admittedly, here at work) in Dubai three years ago. I first found using the email during working hours quite useful. But it was work-related and not as much fun as violating work ethics and wasting few hours doing nothing but entertaining myself and burdening the company’s connection with lots of download streams. I found internet radio quite entertaining. Ever heard of George Noory and his apparently popular show called “Coast to Coast AM”? Well, I didn’t know at the time, it really sounded like innocuous fun at the beginning. But after a while of listening I came to realize that the whole show was revolving around extraterrestrials and UFOs.

Now the guests of the show are the actual gems; colorful bunch of conspiracy theorists; you only need to listen to them for 30 minutes and a great wave of fear will furl around your neck. The world will cave in and the Apocalypse must be none-further than tomorrow.
Am I digressing?…khali walli, you chose to read my blog then I’ll command you. Ok?!

I stopped listening to George Noory a while later.

By that time I had the comfort of an internet connection at home. It was then when I started co-managing some Yahoo Group for residents of Dubai. It was a good experience, doing all the moderation and helping people with info. I got to know few people through this group and meet them in real life. Inexplicably, they both reside in Atlanta now, even though they come from different parts of the world.

A Filipino friend of mine who works in Afghanistan (he swore to me that he doesn’t work there as an evangelist, but I digress) and who visits Dubai quite often, had once gave me the URL of his blog. It was more like a photo blog where he posts party photos and all. I liked the concept of having a web diary. OK. My social life wasn’t as glitzy and as hot as my friend’s, but I can always lie.

I managed to find my way to blogspot website and post few entries. (check my early pathetic posts for a sample). The knock-down punch for me setting off blogging was when I was virtually kicked out of a conservative American forum called “free republic”. Apparently, you are free to join the free republic, but God forbids you offend the neocons by posting anything sane or balanced.

By that time the war in Lebanon was raging, and I was very angry at the dull and partial coverage of the war by the Arab media. I came across blogs with political commentary, which I enjoyed a lot. I’ve even chimed in here and there with anonymous comments.
But the real thrust to my blogging life was after I came back from vacation, November 2006, that was when I came across Syria Planet, and a whole bunch of excellent Syrian blogs. I was pleasantly surprised. Blogs like, Abu Fares, My Stupid Corner, The Syrian Brit, Abu Kareem, are like anecdotes to the woes of homesickness.

While I was ploughing forward in this arduous mission of blogging, I met several interesting bloggers who are based here in the UAE. Jar of Juice comes to mind as a witty and funny blog where I always get a laugh and unwind. Dubai Consumer Mirror is one of the best blogs here in Dubai, even though Mory hasn't been active recently. I wish him a quick and energetic resurgence! Kaya is one fellow blogger whome I once described as 'uproariously funny'!.

You see, I've been more of a commentor than a blogger recently, I like the UAE Commiunity Blog since the topics and the kind of discussions that take place are very close to the daily struggle here in Dubai. Traffic, law, inflation, events and announcements, it's always interesting to read different point of views on the developments in this diverse town and get invloved in a fierce arguement every now and then (the partly hilarious, partly grumpy Nick comes to mind in this case).

When you think of a real diary, you think of a place of refuge. Where you, after a long tiring day, will sit down and contemplate on the outcome of a day; where have you gone wrong (or right), where are you heading in the next few days or weeks or maybe years?. I don't look at my blog as that sort of thing. I actually keep my own private thoughts inside my mind and let them simmer. There is always a trajectory line leading somewhere ahead with own position like a blip on a radar. My own radar. I always found it hard to share this with anybody else, something now I shamlessly admit!

So what is my blog to me and why do I blog and for what purpose?... I still don't know how to answer, it's funny that I am now back to my old hubby listening to radios and more specifically a guy called Alex Jones (more or less the same as George Noory, look him up in the internet, they are all supporters of Ron Paul!)... However, the kind of connection I have with other bloggers is too dear and important to squander that easily. So I always try to keep doing what I've initially set abhout doing; tagging along.



Mind if I tag along?