Monday, September 24, 2007

Ahmedi Najad speech at the University of Columbia


A few days ago I heard a lot about Ahmedi Najad visit to the US and his awaited speech at the University of Columbia. To its credit, the university has defended its decision to invite Ahmedi Najad to speak.
Last night around 9:30, I saw the speech live on TV, surprisingly the University president started by attacking his guest!! He was extremely disrespectful to the president of Iran, the following are some quotes from the opening remarks of the university president:
“Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator."
"You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated," Bollinger told Ahmadinejad about the leader's Holocaust denial. "Will you cease this outrage?"

I found what the president of Columbia University did was extremely disrespectful to not only the president of Iran but also to the people of Iran, whether they support him or not, he does represent the people of Iran and he is an elected president of Iran.

I thought Ahmedi Najad handled it very well, I even watched many political analyst on US TV networks giving him credits. Ahmedi Najad started by saying, in Iran we do not disrespect our guests and Ahmadinejad retorted that Bollinger's opening was "an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here." "There were insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully”.
On the issue of the holocaust, he asked two questions, why aren’t people allowed to approach it from a different prospective? We never stopped studying physics and math, why should we stop studying the holocaust??
His second, question was, if we take the holocaust as given, It happened in Europe, why are the Palestinians paying for it for the last 60 years?

To tell you the truth, I never thought he is that intellectually advanced, his opening remarks was very thoughtful and displayed a signs of a very knowledgeable and intellectual person. I had my reservation on the guy, I still do, but after last night I have a lot of respect for him
If you missed the speech, please try to watch it on youtube, it had a lot of sparks and was very interesting.
There is a lot of discussion of what have been said, if anyone finds an interesting article,please post the link in the comments so we all can read about it.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Bahrain Map is gone


As of two days ago, one of Bahrain's famous icons is no more. Bahrain Map has been demolished!!
We all refer to the area as Al-Kharitah (the Map) area. I never understood what value this icon had, its nothing historic and its like every other statue we have in the streets, why Bahrain Map is so famous???
After all the reclamations i dont think it was accurate anymore, so it had to go!!
The truth is the icon have been demolished to make way for a new desperately needed over fly.


Sunday, September 16, 2007

Bahrain International Hospital


I have decided to post some articles that were written by my friends. So to all my friends if you have any thing in mind please send it to me and i will post it, whether i agree with it or not

The following article is by my friend nick named Golgo13


A not-for-profit corporation is a corporation created by statute, government or judicial authority that is not intended to provide a profit to the owners or members (Source: Wikipedia). Examples of that are Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, International Hospital of Bahrain………WHAT!!!! Wait a minute Bahrain International Hospitals is a not-for-profit institution …Yes I am afraid that's what they have posted on their Web page " We are a not-for-profit organization. We put back all excesses in charity work, and assistance to the Community, as well as updating services and equipment for the service of the Community". http://www.ihb.net/index1.asp?id=about
As far as I know they are they are the most expensive Hospital in Bahrain (45 BD for a consultant), number one public enemy for insurance companies, patients have nightmares about their bills, you don't get treated unless you pay first ( emergency cases included a Few years back ) and I even heard that Doctors have a target to meet. American Mission Hospital is also a non-profit institution but look at the difference.
So next times if you visit BIH remember that the Dinars you are spending are going for a good cause.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Ramadan confusion begins!!!

I think Bahrain, as small as it is, is the most confused country when it comes to Ramadan. Last years we had 3 different dates for the start of Ramadan!!

When it comes to Sunnis they go with whatever the government (so do some Shiaa). The government hold a Ramadan committee which have never ever seen the moon, so they out source it to Saudi. The good thing about Sunnis, they are united on when Ramadan starts and ends.

Now when it comes to Shiaa, the confusion begins. Every Shiaa Sheikh has his own committee, Shaikh Al Asfoor has his own date for Ramadan so does Ayatollah Najati, the same goes to Shikh Essa Qassim and so on. They keep people wondering until midnight about when Ramadan starts!
I don’t know how Iran does it but they do know in advance ( they use some sort of calendar) . I don’t understand why the Shiaa is Bahrain can adopt one system and get it over with.
With all these advance technologies how can we not know when it starts?? They only reasonable person I find when it comes to Ramadan is Aytollah Fadhlullah (with all the reservation some Shiaa have on him) , I think he is only voice of reason. He uses advance Astronomy, he is a believer is science. Thursday is the beginning of Ramadan according to science and it’s when I begin my Ramadan.

I think the main reason why we in Bahrain are confused so much (especially shiaa) is because it’s a struggle for power, each sheikh wants to showoff or confirm the power they have.
I suggest we make a deal with NASA and send 2 Shaikh (one Shiaa and one Sunni) on a space shuttle, when they reach out of space, open the window for the sheikhs and make sure they see the moon and then get back!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Light Speed, or No Speed!


A friend of mine wanted to share his experience with the new Lightspeed inet service. So i am posting his article, i think it will shade some light on their services. BEFORE u subscribe to them read this:


I was very happy to know that the unlimited Internet is back to Bahrain, thanks to Batelco for applying a downloading limit which has sent us ages back in technology.

So when I first read about Light Speed ad on the newspapers I directly went and subscribed in their service and all the fun began! They disconnected me from Batelco’s internet “which was the right thing to do since I already had Batelco’s internet on the same line I wanted the new internet to be on” and while they promised me that ill be getting the internet service after two days from disconnecting Batelco, I was left without internet for nearly a MONTH!!! Imagine one month without being able to check your email and being totally disconnected!! so after a month I was happy that the internet finally worked, the speed I subscribed for is 1mb but the actual speed that I’m getting is maybe around 256kb!! And it worked for two days and it went out for another week!! It came back for a day again it went out!! And the dilemma is still continuing.

I work from 8 till 5 and when I go home I like to surf the internet and check my email, and this is the only time I can know if the internet is working or not, so if I come back from work and see that the internet is not working I would naturally try to call Light Speed and guess what! Nobody will answer your phone call!!! They don’t have a help desk or a hotline.

Now thanks to companies like Light Speed which makes Companies we hate the most like Batelco Look so good and so professional.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Force feeding makes women beautiful!!

Personally, I like slim girls. The kind of girls who takecare of them self, not only hair and face (*hint) but girls who look good overall, especially body wise.
Now I do have some friends who like a girl who has a normal figure (a little less then chubby) and I have noticed that the old school khaleeji men like chubby girls.
However, I have one friend who really surprised me, he likes them big. In his words “I like meat!!!”. Once I was with him in the car and he went “LOOK at the GAZAL WOOOW” and I looked , imagine my surprise!
I came across this article, apparently in Mauritania obese girls are considered pretty!! Not chubby but obese!!! They go to extreme measures to make sure the girl get obese
In other parts of the country though, young girls are taken to 'fat farms' where girls are force fed dates, and large amounts of couscous and other foods loaded down with calories. One owner of a 'fat facility' was expecting some young seven year old girls to fatten up. "They may cry and fight but we will succeed in making them beautiful. "They will be happy and find a good marriage despite their protests", claims the owner."They will be beautiful." The girls were expected to weigh between 60 and 100 Kilograms after treatment. That is around 150 to 220 pounds.
To show how serious this is, “One woman complained about her husband telling her that after loosing her extra pregnancy weight, he no longer found her attractive. He told her if she didn't gain the weight back he would divorce her. “
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/218657/force_feeding_makes_women_beautiful.html