What a shame

Since my last malnutritioned post, I have been so preoccupied with my busy academic and friends-full life, that I could only browse and browse and read other peoples' blogs and not updating mine.

So, here comes the update in no particular logic or order
1- My acne problem has cleared up, only to be replaced by another type of annoying smaller version of it :-S
2- I realized that the less I stress, the more glow I emit and the cuter I look afterwards.
3- Newsweek is weak and the Economist is my new addiction
4- I could be so bored at times, that I would actually buy some trinkets online to be shipped to me from Japan to decorate my gadgets with.
5- I am writing this right now in an attempt to avoid my statistical analysis of some useless data that adds nothing to the world or my personal growth for that matter
6- I am becoming more and more superficial as I grow older (at least this is how I see myself now) (No! I refuse to be a superficial woman!)
7- I miss the Gulf and want to elope there, alone!
8 - *Staring at the ceiling at the college's library*, ahhh I wish it is not almost 9 pm now and I do not have to go home with my final incomplete again!
9- Will Hillary quit already? and make news channels interesting and worth watching once again
10- I am so super glad that my peeps (Russians) have resumed their control and won the GOLD at the Ice Hockey World Championship! (It took us 15 years!)
11- On the other hand, I'm very ashamed at the JEM's attack on our Capital in the Sudan. Wallahi fa'9i7a le alhukuma!!! Allah yistur 3ala alli jaee.


That's it for now, better resume analyzing my data


Missed blogging :-)

Men, cars, women, dogs, SMALL, big

Just tell me! What's up with big men and small dogs, and small women and big cars?!

I'll be back to vent out!

Ibrahim El-Salahi lecture in NYU

This is an event I hope all Sudanese support.

Check it out

Moral Deterioration

Look at what happened to us (Sudanese). 20 years ago we were praised and referred to as the prototype of morality, decency, honesty, and all the other virtues. What happened to us?

Someone explain it to me!!!

Russian Perspective on the Sudan

Southern Sudan is learning to smile again, according to Russia Today website. A three part report from the southern border of the Sudan, a Russian correspondence conducted some journalistic work and broadcast its first part


Not pollyannaish at all

Gibbons plans for 2008

According to the Telegraph, Gibbons is contemplating China.

And this article, on the Buzzle enumerates a number of advices to the notorious teacher, should she venture to cause another wave of my culture is holier than thou's :-)


Quite funny

John Granville, Rest in Peace

My heart goes out to Granville's family in Buffalo, NY and elsewhere. May his soul rest in peace.

At the wee hours of the first day of the first month of 2008, John, aged 33, was shot as he was driven home by his Sudanese driver, Allah yihamu, returning from a New Year's party. Most articles on the net rehash the same information.

Some of those could be read here, here and here.

A compendium to this CV and his radio distribution project in the Sudan could be found at the USAID website

John’s fellowship focuses on community participation in government and NGO capacity building in South Sudan. Using tools such as community needs assessments and interactive problem solving models, John works to create collaboration and cooperation between citizens and government. Currently he is working to bring radios to the population of South Sudan in order to maximize the impact of USAID’s broadcasting initiatives in the region.
John is a former Peace Corps volunteer and has worked in Sudan as a consultant for USAID and GOAL-Ireland. With GOAL, he designed and implemented an HIV/AIDS Participatory Action Assessment. He has studied as a Fulbright Fellow and received an MA in International Development and Social Change from Clark University in 2003.

In my humble opinion the perpetrator(s) could be

- Sudanese: which I wouldn't entirely dismiss given the latest surge of hardcore Islamist sentiments towards anything and everything Western.
- Al-Qaeda: regardless of what's portrayed in the media about that organizations elements in the Sudan, I do not find a direct causal relationship between John and his activities in particular and their resentment other than him being an American diplomat.
- Non-Sudanese: After my last visit to the Sudan I was dumbfounded by the aggrandizing infiltration of Ninja non-Sudanese women in my very neighbourhood who were married to mid-calf jilabiya wearing, bear growing followers of the Prophet from Syria, Somalia and Iraq. Those did not hide their scornful stares at ME, in my own court, for my non-Islamic appearance.


Whoever the perpetrator is, they fill me with opprobrium for their heinous act of shedding the blood of an innocent soul (I do not care if he was a CIA agent working undercover as an USAID worker). This assassination is an act of shame!!!


Condolences to AbdulRaham Abbas' family too. Inna lillah wa innah ilayhi raji3oon.

Benazir Bhutto ASSASSINATED

I still am shell-shocked!
I did not believe it when I read the headlines on the BBC.

The first woman head-of-State of and Islamic country has been brutally killed with a shot to her neck and another to her chest as she was leaving an election rally this afternoon, before the assassin set off a suicide bomb.


May Allah rest her soul in peace and my heart goes out to her family and friends. No one should depart this Earth in such a fashion

Best RSS Reader!!!

I am usually 5 minutes late in catching up with gossip. But when it comes to technology and computer related stuff, I am at least 5 years late.

Anyhow, since I have decided to conserve some of my energy and time, I began using the so-called RSS Readers. My first choice, and last for now, has been the Feed Reader or quoi? This software brought back the memories of my dial-up connection in the ME. I enjoyed the luxury of not having to type the URLs of my favourite sites, blogs, and newspapers, but the updates were really slow. Thus, I removed it!


I would really appreciate it if you folks share with me your experiences and what you use for your RSS Readers. I think I got used to saving time and my lazy self cannot properly google it


Merci mille fois

Toilet Wedding

I think Charmin has gone just a bit over the board and the bride went a lil' loco. Why on Earth would any bride want to wear a toilet paper made wedding gown. One would answer me, an eco-conscious, green-minded bride. I think I will assent to that. But tying the knot in the loo, and a public one, for that matter is certainly insane.

On December the 19th of this year, a Kentucky couple from Lexington were pronounced a man and wife in a public toilet, and a temporary one also. She wore a wedding dress made of toilet paper. You can't discern that, but in my viewpoint it looked very cheap and cheesy.

Read about it here, here and here.

La! ahhama haja innu the gown won a 2007 Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest sponsored by Cheap Chic Wedding (I intentionally wouldn't post a link to their site. The idea is ridiculous). Don't these people have anything more meaningful to do?!

Are Russians the Black Whites?

Let me start by saying that YES, I will be stereotyping and here I am practicing my right to free speech. Therefore, I suggest that this post is looked at as an amusing piece that many of us, the Russian Women, can identify with. Also, many of our traits are shared with our African-American sistas. I just love observing that everyday on the streets of the hotchpotch of this metropolitan city of NY

Here are a few of the things I've noticed:


First, most Russian women are in love with the bling bling and the mink furs. That grandeur has no limits. Anything and everything worn must shine like a 10 Carat diamond. Also wearing tight outfits and giving mini-skirts a new definition :-)

Second, Russian women like to be spent on graciously and lavishly. An uxorious man exists to spend on a woman and that's about it :-)

Third, most Russians are able to get along and adapt into living in neighbourhoods of non-Whites. The only whites I see in predominantly African-American or Caribbean blocks are the Russians. Oh for goodness' sake, Russians drove out Black communities from Coney Island :-)

Four, just check the most recent Russian rap songs. The beat is so cool and hiphopish I actually feel proud we've assimilated into that genre so smoothly.


C'est tout for now

You scratch my back, I scratch yours

This is Russian politics (and perhaps others'), but if you scratch my back I will scratch yours. I will assure you the presidency, but only if you guarantee my premiership. But then of course, the PM office will be more influential than that of the president's.

Oh, Medvedev, what a silly lil' boy you are. (I will elaborate on this later)

Volodya (diminutive of Vladimir) never ceases to amaze me.

Sneak Peek

So far these are the posts that I did not publish because one of the following:

1. They are controversial, and might cause me trouble
   
2. Lack of expressive words that could convey exactly what I want to say
3. I'm being lazy

But, I promise, I will very soon :-)

So you think you're all DAT?

I hate subways! They are filthy, stinky, crowded, depressing, dungeon-like, leaking, rat-infested, beggar/vendor dwelling, artist/dancer Hall of Fame. Is it not enough that I have to commute using those means? Must I endure these daily sightings и к этому by paying what I could fill my car with, had I been able to drive it to work, in yet again more congested, toll-infested, pothole marked roads!!!!!!!

So these are the conditions and the scenes I see before I get to work/school, so why should my day be any better?

Anyhow, what bothers me even more, is the disgusting subway riders that shove, push, and stomp you. I mean c'mon! The other day I was boarding a train during the rush hour and his dimwit who was already on stood facing the boarders and deliberately pushed everyone away who, God forbid, brushed against him, with full force!! What a baboon!

Oh Goodness, there are so many incidents that I can stay here forever reciting them, but those morons need to know that they are nothing but animals! 7ayawanat!
From now on, if you push me I'll push you like there is no tomorrow! I will step on you with my heel and I don't give a hoot what you'll do you, you chimpanzee.

Back to Sudan; two men, five years, infinite agony

Finally after more than five years, two Sudanese detainees were released from Guantanamo. Adel Hassan Hamad and Salim Mahmoud Adam .

Watching their brief interviews on TV, filled me with a rush of immense anger that was only attenuated by my sense of helplessness. One of the detainees described his detention as being buried while being alive. Sad indeed.

But, I am very glad they've reached their loved ones in the Sudan

Read about it here, and please have a look at the ridiculous comments which reflect the opinions of a majority, rather than a minority in the US of A.


related site : Project Hamad

Absurdity

وااااااه فضيحتاه

ياخوانا لي متين إحنا حنكون مفضوحين قدام الخلق والعالم ؟؟؟

يعني اللي يسوا وما يسواش بقى شايفنا ناس متطرفين اللي في أقل حاجة بنادوا بالإعدام. وحسي جات المقالة دي عشان توري الناس أن الشعب السوداني شعب مهوس بالجنس منذ الأزل. يعني ما معقول الأجانب بقوا دايرن يعرفوا سر الطلح وحفرة الدخان
!!
ما معقول ما معقول؟ يعني هي دي الحاجات اللي بتميزنا عن باقي الشعوب؟ الطلح والدخان؟ أها والحاجة الجاية شنو؟ التمباك والسعوط؟

يعني وين العادات والتقاليد والممارسات التانية؟ ولا هو بس الختان؟ وقطع الرحط؟

أنا متأكدة إنو المقال ده ما إتكتب إلا عشان واحد سوادني ولا سودانية وروا الحاجة دي ، اللي بتحصل جو البيوت، للخواجة. ده شنو القرف ده؟؟؟؟

وواااااه فضيحتاه

Iranian Exiles in the U.S.

What: Screening of a Film "Caught Between Two Worlds" by Simin Farkhondeh & Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri

When: 12/12/2007 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm

Where: 365 Fifth Avenue in New York, NY at Segal Theatre

Summary: Depicting the lives of Iranian exiles in in the U.S., this documentary tackles acculturation, language, the traumas of revolution and the hostage crisis, religion, and life in post-9/11 America.


Have a sneak peak to decide if you want to watch it

Panel Discussion on "Tolerance and Theocracy"

I know the weather isn't encouraging at all in NYC, but if you are interested in Iranian domestic politics, carpe diem !

Today, at

Kellogg Conference Center - 15th Floor School of International and Public Affairs Columbia University 420 West 118th Street

A panel of prominent scholars will hold this panel to inaugurate the newest issue "Religion and Statecraft". Among the speakers are Dr. Abdul-Kareem Soroush, the vociferous Iranian secular / religious reformer scholar. I admire his writings and staunchly believe that change is feasible through his vision.
Actually, he has been dubbed the Erasmus of Islam by the Finns


P.S. It seems that his webpage has been terminated for some reason. It contained a collection of his essays and excerpts from his books.

Perfunctory yet inciting remarks!

Words must be well thought about before uttered. I did sympathize with Ms Gibbons when she was jailed in Sudan, but I do not understand her when she expressed fear of being raped in prison.

"I had no justification for thinking that. But that was my worst terror - that they would come in and teach me a lesson by raping me or that they would hit me."

That would have been an interesting headlines "Raped for defaming religion". Shouldn't Ms Gibbons as an academic refrain from throwing such remarks in such a perfunctory fashion?


More here