RIP Michael Jackson, Legendary Musical Genius And King Of Pop

June 26, 2009 – 11:17 pm | Leave a comment

Michael Jackson, the legendary musical genius and king of pop has passed away at the age of 50 after suffering a fatal heart attack.

I learned the news this morning by accident while I was on IMDB looking for a review about a movie. While the site was redirecting me to the search results page, I saw the news on the right hand column, and I froze. I couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t be possible. Michael Jackson can’t just die like that!

Of course he’s not going to live forever and neither is any one of us; but he can’t just die like that!

Michael Jackson isn’t just anybody, he is a music legend by all standards, his songs were the soundtrack for a whole generation’s best moments growing up, his sound is as enjoyable and awesome today as it ever was.

I can’t remember one childhood or teenage memory of mine without a Michael Jackson song dominating the charts and breaking new ground with its musical style and its video going steps further than anyone else.

We went out for a drive a bit earlier and we played The Essential Michael Jackson album that was released a few years ago with some of his greatest hits, and a flood of memories came back to my wife and I, and it struck us how songs he wrote a decade or two ago still sound amazing, fresher and more creative than any song out there.

There never was, is or will be anyone like him; a perfect performer, entertainer and musical genius.

Everybody knew Michael Jackson, from all generations, in every little corner of the world. He was the ultimate celebrity.

Michael Jackson the man might have died, but Michael Jackson the legend will live forever through his music that will continue to entertain for generations, and will continue to be as fresh and exciting as it was the day it was released. He will live forever through the memories of a whole generation of people who grew up with his music, trying to moonwalk just like him, buying jackets and gloves like his, watching in endless admiration whenever he performed.

I was a fan, through his great days when everyone was crazy about him, and through the hard times when it felt like everyone turned against him and started calling him a freak. I am still a fan, and always will be. I enjoyed and still enjoy every single album he released. Michael Jackson and his music will always hold a special place in my heart and in my household.

To this day, it’s still eating me up from inside that I wasn’t able to attend his concert in Tunisia, that happened just days after I moved to Jordan in 1996. Now, I’ll never get the chance to ever see the King of Pop live, an experience of a lifetime.

Rest in peace Michael Jackson; We love you; you’ll always be remembered and missed.
The world has lost an irreplaceable King.

» Everyday Me, Music | Leave a comment

We Should Choose The Right Path, Not Just The Easy Path

June 4, 2009 – 4:16 pm | Leave a comment

It is easier to start wars than to end them. It is easier to blame others than to look inward; to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share. But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path. There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This truth transcends nations and peoples - a belief that isn’t new; that isn’t black or white or brown; that isn’t Christian, or Muslim or Jew. It’s a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization, and that still beats in the heart of billions. It’s a faith in other people, and it’s what brought me here today.

– Barack Obama, ‘A New Beginning‘ Speech in Cairo

» World News & Politics | Leave a comment

Companies And Their Bureaucracies

April 28, 2009 – 7:25 pm | 1 Comment

Most companies build their bureaucratic rules to manage the small percentage of wrong people on the bus, which in turn drives awaythe right people on the bus, which increases the need for more bureaucracy to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline, which then further drives the right people away, and so forth.

Jim Collins, Good To Great

» Here & There | 1 Comment

On Motivation…

April 25, 2009 – 10:23 am | 2 Comments

Spending time and energy to “motivate” people is a waste of effort. The real question is not “How do we motivate people?” If you have the right people, they will be self-motivated.
The key is to not de-motivate them.

Jim Collins, Good To Great

» Here & There | 2 Comments

Tunisie Telecom To Launch BlackBerry In Tunisia At Last

March 24, 2009 – 4:30 pm | 1 Comment

Tunisie Telecom, Alcatel-Lucent and Research In Motion (RIM) have announced that Blackberry will finally be launched in Tunisia.

At launch, Tunisie Telecom will be offering its customers the BlackBerry Pearl 8100, BlackBerry Pearl 8120, BlackBerry Curve 8320, BlackBerry 8800 and BlackBerry Bold 9000 smartphones, as well as service on BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Internet Service.

According to the company, based on its distribution agreement with RIM, Alcatel-Lucent will take advantage of its strong local presence in the region to provide Tunisie Telecom the end-to-end implementation, launch and on-going support for delivering the solution to the market.

According to Tunisie Telecom’s site, the unlimited email and navigation plan is at 60 Dinars per month, which sounds pretty good. No details were provided on the site for how the devices themselves are priced.

More details about the available plans and prices are available here: Tunisie Telecom BlackBerry Solutions.

[Via: Trading Markets]

» Tunisia, Web, Tech & Design | 1 Comment

Enough With The ‘Online Advertising Is A Failure’ Talk

March 24, 2009 – 11:06 am | 4 Comments

Between yesterday and today, I’ve read at least 3 posts/articles that talk about how online advertising is a failure, one of them on TechCrunch yesterday by a guest writer (Eric Clemons), one on the Economist, and another on MediaPost’s online video insider.

The latter focuses only on online video advertising, and it’s quite an interesting read, that raises some clearly valid points that are worth considering by anyone making a foray into online video advertising. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that online video advertising is dying as the writer has done; I think that it’s just still maturing, and needs a bit more time for it to fit in perfectly into the whole online advertising puzzle and get to where everyone wants it to be.

Anyway the first two articles I read just feel like they’re a blast from the past, it’s as if they were pulled out of the archives from back in 2001 after the dot com bubble burst and a bunch of online companies went down in flames.

In fact, it’s as if some people are blaming the woes some online companies are going through now because of the bad economic situation on the fact that online advertising is a failed model. As if everyone is doing perfectly ok, and it’s just internet companies that are having problems.

It strikes me how many people still don’t get it.
You’d think that by now, after all these years, more people would have seen the light and recognized that online advertising, when done right, is the most effective, most targeted, and most measurable form of advertising there ever was.

I mean, no matter how skeptic you are of online advertising, you can’t argue with the power of being able to target an ad at a specific person who perfectly fits the profile of your potential customer, and who is actually interested in what you have to offer, and then measure exactly how effective your campaign was and how much you made out of it.

It’s true that not everyone can rely on online advertising 100% as a revenue model to sustain their business, but that doesn’t make it any less important or effective as a model; all it means is that every internet business has to have its own combination of ways to generate revenue as part of their business model, which holds true for any type of business, not just online ones.

In the end of the day, if a bunch of restaurants fail and shut down, it doesn’t mean the model of selling food to people doesn’t work, it just means that those restaurants did something wrong: either choosing the wrong location, not marketing well, choosing the wrong type of food to serve, providing bad food or bad service or whatever other reason.

» Thoughts & Scribbles, Web, Tech & Design | 4 Comments

Tunisia To Get A New 50 Dinar Banknote

March 23, 2009 – 12:40 pm | 3 Comments

Ah so it seems we’ll be getting a new 50 Dinar banknote in Tunisia… (I know this news is about a week old, but I just found out about it.)

The Governor of Tunisia’s Central Bank (BCT), Taoufik Baccar, announced that the bank will issue a new 50 dinar banknote.

Baccar said that the new banknote will represent the literary scholar, Ibn Rachiq Al Kairouani, ten days following the launch of festivities celebrating Kairouan as Islamic Cultural Capital for 2009.

Mr Baccar who made the announcement during the international colloquium on “Numismatics and the history of money coins in Tunisia”, also said that the choice of the scholar to illustrate the banknote was in line with Tunisia’s rootedness in Arab Moslem sources.

Ibn Rachiq Al Kairouani (999-1063) who was born in Mhamdia near Tunis, was a poet, writer and literary critic. He is known for his magisterial “Al Umda”, a treatise of literary criticism in two volumes, written during the golden age of Arab culture.

There are currently three types of banknotes in circulation in Tunisia, ten dinar notes, twenty dinar notes and thirty dinar notes.

[Source: Tunisia Online News]

This actually makes monetary sense, especially with where prices are going; now if they’d only kill that damn stupid 30 Dinar note! I mean, what the hell were they thinking?! Someone must’ve been seriously drunk the day they came up with that.

It’s quite funny though how because Kairouan is the Islamic Cultural Capital this year, Tunisia is all of a sudden trying to revamp and present itself as a very Islamic country, very in touch with its Muslim roots and all, even inviting Sheikh Qaradawi (who has been very critical of Tunisia before) over.
It’s certainly very convincing, don’t you think? (Yeah right!)

» Tunisia | 3 Comments

The Problem Of Dubai: It’s Not A Melting Pot

March 22, 2009 – 4:06 pm | 7 Comments

I’ve been in Dubai for almost three months now (oh, how time flies by), and being the highly adaptable person I am, I have managed to fit in rather comfortably very quickly, and I have to say that I really like it here and am enjoying my time a lot.

One of the things I love about Dubai is how mixed it is, and how you get to meet people from all over the world every single day; That is always a great thing to me and a very enriching experience.
A friend of mine called it a World City (Global City) because of that, and I agree. 

There is another side to that coin though, which is behind the problem of Dubai. Unlike other global cities, Dubai is not a melting pot, and that’s where its problem lies.

If you take any of these other cities, you’ll find that the majority of people have moved there to settle down, build a life, invest in their future; and as a result of that they work hard, they blend in to the fabric of the multi-cultural society, they build strong personal relationships, they develop a sense of belonging, they care about the city, and the country, and they contribute to its growth and its cultural richness; because it is home to them, and their lives and those of their children are closely tied to it.

Dubai, on the other hand, is just considered a station by the majority of people living in it; they come here and they’ve already decided that it’s going to be only for a few years, and then they’ll be moving on to somewhere else, or back to their home countries. That means that they’re not as involved, they don’t develop a strong sense of belonging, they don’t really invest much into personal relationships, they never really care enough.

And that makes a world of difference, and everyone visiting Dubai feels it. Not everyone knows how to put it in words, but some of the things I’ve heard most, from before ever setting foot here, are that it feels ‘fake’, that it’s too materialistic, that it lacks identity …etc.

And why is it this way? Simply because it’s almost impossible for expats to be granted citizenship, and so sooner or later they’re going to have to leave, if not at their own free will, it’ll be because a point in time will come when they’re no longer allowed to stay.

And so people plan it in advance, they don’t let themselves get too attached, they don’t invest more personal effort than they have to, they don’t feel they have any obligations towards the city or the country, and their time is reduced to revolve around a main mission, which is in most cases acquiring money; which all explains the feeling visitors get.

Of course, I understand the point of view of the government here, and that opening the door to immigrants from all over the world, from different backgrounds, cultures and religions, will permanently affect the country in many ways; and of course it is a choice, and one where there is no absolutely right or wrong answer.

Personally, as with every other expat in Dubai, I know that I’ll be here for a few years only before I move on, but as with every other place I’ve lived in throughout my life, I’ll be blending in, I’ll be building friendships, I’ll be playing my role and contributing whatever I can, and I’ll be enjoying myself along the way.

Home to me is where my little family is, and where I lay my head down to sleep at night; and for these coming years, my home is Dubai.

» Thoughts & Scribbles | 7 Comments

Subzero Blue Photography Section Launched

March 21, 2009 – 11:59 am | 3 Comments

Seeing as Flickr is now totally blocked here in the UAE, the only options I had were to either move to another service or do what I’ve been wanting do to for a long time and launch a dedicated photography section under Subzero Blue.

So today, I took a bit of time to install pixelpost, and create a spot for my photography here: Subzero Blue Photography.

I didn’t move all the photos I have on Flickr to here; just the ones I enjoyed the most (either the end result, or the process of taking the photo).

After a busy period with me not taking that many photos, I’m hoping to have more time to take more photos from now on, and the best of them should be shared on this new photolog.

For those outside the UAE, my Flickr account will still be active, hosting my older photos.

# Subzero Blue Photography

» Everyday Me | 3 Comments

Flickr Now Totally Blocked In The UAE

March 16, 2009 – 12:35 pm | 10 Comments

Today, Du followed the lead of Etisalat and went ahead and blocked the photo sharing service Flickr, meaning that Flickr is now no longer accessible from the UAE through any of the ISPs.
I’m guessing it’s because of all the x-rated material that is available on Flickr. But, it’s not like blocking Flickr is going to stop people who look for that kind of material from finding it.

This totally sucks! All my photos are hosted on Flickr where I have a pro account, and now I’m unable to access my photos or upload any new ones because of this.

In fact, before even moving to Dubai, my mind was made up that I’d go for an internet connection with Du and not Etisalat, specifically because of Flickr, and now they’ve gone ahead and let me and so many other people down with this move.

The following is the message anyone on Du will face when they try to access Flickr starting this afternoon.

I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do for my photos now and whether I’ll just join another service or just launch a photo blog section here under Subzero Blue. I’m currently leaning towards the latter option; at least that way I’ll have more control over my photos. Will keep you updated.

» Everyday Me | 10 Comments