Month: December 2003

First 5+5 Dialogue Summit – Tunis 2003

So today and tomorrow, Tunisia is hosting the first 5+5 dialogue summit with the participation of ten leaders from the western Mediterranean region.

Our President is receiving the heads of state and government of Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Mauritania, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Malta.

The agenda of the Summit will include various items of interest to the Mediterranean countries such as those of common security, stability, political consultation, economic cooperation and trade, regional integration and various social and cultural issues.

I think it’s great how Tunisia is playing more and more of a pivotal and center-stage role in the world today, and how it’s pushing forward a lot of great initiatives and ideas.
Makes me more and more proud of being Tunisian every day 🙂

For more info, visit the official website for the First 5+5 Dialogue Summit – Tunis 2003.

US denies Iraqis the right to choose

They went there with their tanks, their guns and a false claim that they were going to liberate Iraqis and give them democracy.
And now, they deny them the first and most important right they should have, which is the right to choose who they want to rule them.

The US rejected the plan by Iraqi census officials to count the country’s entire population next summer, prepare a voter roll that would open the way to national elections in September and enable Iraqis to vote themselves for who they want to rule them.

Instead they want to set up a forced dummy puppet government (

Lablabi

Last night, after picking up my wife from her French course, we decided to go and have Lablabi for dinner.

Lablabi is a Tunisian speciality which is especially great in winter time, it’s basically bread crumbs, chick peas, some spices, an egg, olive oil, and a lot of harissa (our famous hot sauce).

I haven’t had lablabi in a long long time, maybe over 6 years. And my wife never tried it before even though she heard a lot about it since she came with me to Tunisia.

So, it was her first time and she liked it a lot, even though her mouth nearly caught fire with all the hot sauce that was in it, and as for me, i loved it, and it was a delight eating it again.

Winter is late this year, and is barely beginning, but i have a feeling that we’ll be eating lablabi more often this winter 😉

Jewish exodus threatens Israel

Alarm over emigration levels is growing among Israel’s political leadership as the country’s Jews seek to escape the violence in the country and the deepening recession.

“Israel is falling apart and enough is enough” said Ms. Shalev, who works for a delivery service in Tel Aviv.

“I feel betrayed,” said Hila, 37, whose husband, Dror, is also 37. “I don’t want to raise my children in such a brutal society. … My grandparents had such high ideals. What has become of Israel makes me so sad and bitter.”

“There is big concern about what is happening,” says Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency, a government body responsible for bringing Jews to Israel. “This is why finding a peaceful resolution is so important. At the moment people do not see a solution and this is the tragedy. The insecurity drives them crazy. It’s like Russian roulette ? you don’t know when it is going to hit you.”

The government wants to bring another million Jews to Israel by 2010. Yet figures released by the ministry responsible for helping new immigrants show that an estimated 760,000 Israelis are living abroad, up from 550,000 in 2000.
Just 23,000 people are expected to move to Israel this year, the lowest figure since 1989.
A quarter of the Americans who have come to Israel since 1989 have left.
Many families are heading for Canada. So far 6,000 Israelis have moved there this year, double last year’s total.

Demographers have warned that at the present rate, Jews will become a minority in Israel and the occupied territories within 20 years.

Read the full article: Jewish exodus threatens state’s composition.

Another interesting link: Ta’ayush (Arab Jewish Partnership).

Everything Eats Everything

I’ve been getting some hits lately on my old post Fish are friends not food !, and a comment i read there yesterday by a vegetarian got me thinking again about vegetarians and carnivores like me 😛

I agree with vegetarians that animals are friends, in fact not only animals, everything alive, including plants, are friends.
So why don’t we stop eating plants too ??

If we just think of it a bit more, we’ll see that we eat animals and plants to survive. Animals eat us, other animals and plants to survive. And plants eat us, other plants and animals to survive, it’s a whole circle of life, a food chain.

Let me explain.
We eat animals and plants, that’s easy, no further explanation needed.
Animals, either eat other animals that are further down the food chain, or they eat plants, and occasionally if they find a human around they won’t hesitate to eat him/her.
Plants: some plants eat animals/insects and the rest feed from the soil, which is enriched by the minerals of the decaying bodies of animals and humans.

So basically, everything eats everything, and when it’s part of the food chain, there is no problem with humans eating animals or plants, it’s only normal and natural, and in the end of the day, the chain will be completed and each will be eaten too.

I think the main problem is with abusing animals, and killing them for leisure,decoration or whatever else.
That’s the real problem which is against nature’s laws and which is unethical and sick. It’s murder and should be totally forbidden and punished.

Arabs & Camels / Canadians & Penguins

I just read this on the Where is Raed ? blog, and it made me laugh my ass off, lol…

“One of the restless questions in my head is about camels, why are camels related to Arabs in the western media? (besides the question of why my italiana girlfriend dumped me, this camel thing is really annoying me)
I mean .. it’s just like me having an image in my mind about canadians and penguin .. Hey! are you really Canadian? Cool! Do you have a penguin in your bedroom? Do you eat them?”

It’s totally true, there’s this very wrong stereotype image of arabs in the west. They imagine an arab as a turban-head with a camel, which is so damn wrong !
It bugs me a lot too, and i think that it’s a sign of how uneducated and uninformed the people who think that way are.

Religions

I think i’ve always been a very open person when it comes to religion, willing to listen and learn more about all religions and beliefs, a topic that truly interests me.

As a muslim, i find Christianity and Judaism very close to Islam, which is only normal as they are all the words of the same God, and as Islam tells us to believe in all the prophets that were sent by God including Jesus and Moses.
The only differences between these religions’ holy books and teachings are the ones that were influenced and changed with time, resulting in a number of versions of the Bible and the Torah.
Thankfully the Quran didn’t go through this versioning problem, and only one version is available, which is the very same one there was when prophet Mohamed was around.

Another religion that really interests me is Buddhism.
I’ve always been really curious about it, and last year when i visited Thailand it got me even more interested in learning more about this religion and it’s ideas and teachings.
So, i started searching online and reading books to get an idea about this religion, and well i found that most of it is very logical.
I say most not all because there are some details like reincarnation that i don’t see logical proof to in the sense of the same spirit living on, i do believe though that life carries on, and that when one life ends, life goes on and another starts, but the spirit for whom life has ended is never reborn.

Anyway back to what i was saying, i found that the main ideas and truths that Buddha reached when he was enlightened are very logical ones.
And what i found even more interesting is that they don’t contrast at all with my beliefs as a muslim, in fact they offer explanations to some of the things God has asked of us.
After all, i believe that any religion has to be logical, and there have to be reasons why we were told to do certain things and avoid others, if that is not the case then the religion just makes no sense, and why would anyone follow something that doesn’t make sense ?

I think that in the end of the day, if we put all these logical religions together, and go deep into their main concepts, ideas and teachings, we’ll find they all rotate around the same principles that point us in the direction of peace, happiness and love of all humans and beings.
So, why is it that we keep fighting among us and sticking it to religion differences, when in fact our religions are not all that different ?!

Kill Bill – Vol. 1

“Revenge is a dish best served cold !”
Now that’s the opening line of the movie, and from that early on, i knew i’d love it.

Yep, i saw Kill Bill – Vol. 1 last night, and i loved every second of it.
Tarantino is truly THE man.
His movies and style are just so unique and great.

I love what Quentin did with this movie.
You get all sorts of cool stuff going on, from moving back and forward in time, to switching to Japanese manga animation at times, to using black and white in a big combat scene, to fighting with the lights turned off, and mostly a lot of violence and gore.
The soundtrack is awesome and is a very important character in the movie.

The story is great and fun too. I’m always for good revenge stories.
All in all, this is one hell of a great movie, and i can’t wait to see Volume 2. Till then i’ll keep on watching this one over and over again 😉