In the following five days, we celebrate a joint occasion: Thanksgiving and Eid ul Adha.
Regardless of what religion you follow and what culture you belong to – and it could be any day really, and anyone passing through here – I hope that during this period we can focus our collective conciousness on the sharing of goodwill, and giving thanks for all the positive aspects in our lives.
Happy holidays and stay safe wherever you are.
When any of us mentions the word cancer, our voice level tends to go down and the word reverberates in the air like an anathema. Many of us would opt not to go for cancer screening simply because we are afraid of the results. Often, however, early detection and treatment does save lives.
When someone you love has cancer, the last thing he or she needs is a debilitating sense of doom and morbidity. It’s hard enough dealing with the disease without having to deal with other people’s fears of their own mortality.
Cancer patients need a positive uplifting environment where there is not only love and support but also a happy lighthearted rapport between surrounding family and friends. A sense of humour is a vital part of healing and recuperation. If anything, smiling and laughing makes us feel better regardless of the situation we are facing.
Thanks to Melody for sharing.
Recently in Kuwait, a man was arrested for voyeurism:
Arab expatriate in Salmiya arrested for watching husband and wife having sex
KUWAIT CITY, Nov 17: An Arab expatriate was arrested in Salmiya on charges of voyeurism.
Reportedly, a man discovered that the Arab had been watching from his balcony as he and his wife had sex, and immediately called the building watchman. The watchman then called up security officials, who arrived at the scene and arrested the accused.
He was referred to the authorities and a case was registered.
It makes me wonder where this couple was having sex. On the roof? On their balcony? In front of the windows?
Why weren’t their curtains closed? Was the guy on the balcony supposed to avert his gaze and look at the pigeons flying in the sky? Why do people sit on their balconies anyway? Frankly if something juicy was happening within my view, I would definitely watch. Shamelessly, too.
It reminds me of this hilarious case in the USA a short while ago which is the opposite:
Man arrested for making coffee in his own home while naked
The American was in his own home, walking around naked. A woman and her son happened to pass by and reported him to police. Imagine being fined and jailed for walking around naked in your home.
Whatever will happen when they start selling those spy goggles where you can see everything that happens behind closed doors?
Sometimes there is just no way you can please a man.
On their second wedding anniversary, a Saudi woman wanted to surprise and please her husband so she used one of those artificial virginity hymen kits distributed by the Chinese company Gigimo.
Did he enjoy deflowering her again?
No.
He divorced her and accused her of faking her virginity on the night of their marriage.
I say, dear ladies, forget about pleasing your husbands on your wedding anniversaries if it’s going to end up in a bloody mess.
How important is identity? And is it better to remain anonymous or be known by one’s real persona?
Belle du Jour’s secret identity was revealed today in The Sunday Times. She is research scientist Dr. Brooke Magnanti who worked as a prostitute to pay her way through graduate school as she could not find a job to support her as she prepared her PhD thesis.
She looked at me and smiled. She started to say something, and then paused, waiting for the women behind me to pass.
When the coast was clear, she smiled again and said (referring to something the woman behind me had said to her):
” She said if you become a Muslim, you will go to Jannah (Heaven).”
I was busy stretching and hadn’t thought twice about anyone’s religion.
“What?” I asked, not because I hadn’t heard her but because I was stalling for time, so that I could absorb what she was saying.
My eyes fell upon a small gold cross around her neck.
“Ah, you’re Christian?” I asked, only to reaffirm what I had already guessed.
I was going to go on an idealistic spiel about the importance of “good” traits in a human being, but then I kept quiet and resumed stretching, with a placid smile on my face.
I wasn’t going to convert anyone today, or be converted.
simple things make me smile
sometimes out of the blue
like driving past
two sparrows
frolicking in a puddle of water
on the side of the road
taking a bath
while my car whizzes by
oblivious to all
but the moments they share
yes
that is Love
We wake up to headlines like:
“Significant Water found on the Moon” and the Web is full of news coverage about NASA’s affirmations.
But no one made such a big hullaballoo when India’s space misssion made that claim several months ago: India’s lunar mission finds evidence of water on the Moon
Today, the news is that the Chandrayaan discovers magnet on the moon .
Whatever next will be revealed, folks? Stay put for the greater revelations to come.
Who buys your underwear?
And what kind of underwear do you enjoy wearing the most?
Brief Encounters: What men’s underwear says about them
Let’s stick in a poll for the fun of it:
and
This morning
I worked in the garden.
I unraveled.
I undid. I separated
I trimmed. I chopped.
I sawed. I entwined.
I watered profusely.
I climbed horribly rickety ladders.
I teetered, I tottered, I perspired, I sweat
and
I spent time thinking of nothing at all.
My love
fragile as the delicate tendrils on this climbing vine,
My love
as tenacious as those shoots,
grasping for a reason,
groping for a way,
to rise up,
to move out.
=====
My love
as beautifuil as the blossoms
on fragile vines,
as transient
as morning blooms
that die by evening.
========
Love grows painstakingly
slowly,
Love with no roots.
Love with no home.
But how much like moths
we were,
repeatedly
burning ourselves
against
this flame
blinded by the intensity
until merciful hands
of spirits stronger than our own,
cupped firm fingers
around us,
dimming the blinding light,
shutting out the attraction, and
granting us
space
.
,
.
and
clear vision.
=====
But
Are moths
ever free?
Manal told us about a newly-wed couple that her friends had told her about.
She said when the young man proposed to the young woman, he had one demand and that was for her to wear the hijab.
The young woman, decided to meet him half way, and agreed to wear the hijab but only in Kuwait. When abroad, she would not wear it.
The young man consented and kept to his part of the deal and they are happy with their discrete arrangement.
But Manal shook her head, as did the rest of the women. This was wrong. Either one wore the hijab, or one didn’t. After all, was she wearing the hijab for Allah or for the people?
What Manal doesn’t know is that her daughter, who also wears the hijab, casts it off when traveling too and enjoys a completely different lifestyle abroad which her husband shares as well.
I think it is better that you refrain from passing judgment, Manal.
AskMen has compiled a list of the top ten hottest Arab women with Queen Rania at number one and a mixture of other women mostly of Lebanese descent in tow.
Don’t feel bad fellow citizens. There are no Gulfite women on the list because we are the hottest secret that will only be unveiled to the select few.
Comfortable companionship,
Easy camaraderie.
I slip my hand
into yours,
and it envelops me
in the warmth
of your love.
A few nights ago I switched the tv onto a controversial talk show I had heard about in passing hosted by Nada Fadhel Dbouk. The show is called For Women Only and aired very late on Scope TV channel. Some women at a recent gathering had mentioned her and how vulgar and risque she was discussing controversial topics. I’d not heard of her before and I was interested to see the show since the topic concerned homosexuality that night and callers were invited to express their opinions and share their experiences.
What followed was not a discussion on homosexuality per se. The calls were all local (Kuwait) and several transgender males to females called in discussing the problems they face in their daily lives and the fear they have of being arrested (some had already spent time in prison simply for looking like a woman when presenting a male ID). At least three of the transgender callers that I recall on the program, sounded very much like women and indeed referred to themselves as females because that is what they felt like. Even Nada addressed them as females although technically, these callers were males as per their official identification.
I was interested to see that Nada tried to remain totally unbiased as she listened to the transgender callers and asked them questions about their lives.
The sad part of the plight of transgender is that even when they are officially diagnosed by doctors that identify their “medical” problem, the papers they are supplied with don’t make a difference. One caller said that she showed the policeman the paper and he scoffed saying that paper didnt prove anything to him and as far as he was concerned, the person in front of him was breaking the law by dressing like a person of the opposite sex.
Callers spoke about how difficult it was to be accepted within their families and especially their parents. They suffered humiliation when trying to live in the way they felt was natural.
It is not easy for male to female transgenders as in many cases, they may be physically and officially still males and this causes a lot of problems when dealing with female only company and issues surrounding them.
One of the callers was a prominent Bahraini civil rights lawyer Fawzia Jenahi who has taken it upon herself to represent those people who feel they should be of the other sex and who have officially been diagnosed as transgender by doctors. It has become her mission to defend people who may feel unfairly represented due to their sexuality.
As is usual on these types of programs, many people commented through sms on the lower ticker on the screen and one got the idea that transgenders were not really an acceptable concept to many viewers and there was a lot of negative or biased descriptions of the callers and the kinds of people they represented.
[The National Assembly approved an addition (Article 199 bis) to Article 198 of the Criminal Code. The amendment states that “any person committing an indecent act in a public place, or imitating the appearance of a member of the opposite sex, shall be subject to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding one thousand dinars [US$3,500].”
“Why are you angry?….Why are you so quick to judge?….I told you… I was speaking to the director and I had to put you on hold…I explained to you…I was busy…Now you call me an ass?!! ( hmaarr.)… Why am I an ass? Why do you use such language? That was wrong of you…”
The man was walking down the shopping aisle, speaking loudly into his mobile phone, spilling his secrets out to others without realizing how loud he was, or if he did, he did not care. How dare she call him an ass!?
I wanted to walk up to him and offer him sympathy. No one should be verbally humiliated like that, especially by the person one loves. The man sounded disgusted but resigned in the end as he hung up with a mild threat.
I wonder if they have made up by tonight and if he was really up to no good as he wandered around the hardware store this afternoon.
