Month: January 2005

Happy Sheep Eid

Eid El Adha, the big Eid, the feast of the sacrifice or the Eid of the sheep as some call it is tomorrow.

Prices for sheep sky-rocketed as they always do around this time of year, but nevertheless most Tunisians went out and bought their sheep for the big day even if they had to get a new credit to do so.

This Eid comes with the end of the Hajj, and is the day in which muslims worldwide sacrifice sheep in commemoration of the prophet Abraham’s story with his son.
Half of the sacrificed sheep is kept and the other half should be given to the poor.

We’ll be going to my parent’s place for lunch and then maybe doing some visits to the close family.

Eid Mubarak to everyone.
May it be a happy and blessed Eid for you all.
And don’t eat too much meat 😉

Father & Son (Ronan Keating ft. Yusuf Islam)

Growing up in a music loving family, I was surrounded with all types of music ever since my childhood. My uncles and aunts played and taught different instruments and my dad was as big a music fan as I grew up to be.

So in my childhood other than listening to all the music that was coming up in the 80’s and then 90’s, I also listened to older stuff from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s that my dad used to listen to.

Of course, I had my faves from the music in that era too, and one of my favourite singers was Cat Stevens who later became known as Yusuf Islam when he became a Muslim.
I really like his music, songs and lyrics and among my favourite songs by him is one called “Father & Son”.

The song was covered by Irish boy band Boyzone in the early 90’s and has been re-released again now by Ronan Keating (former lead singer of Boyzone, another fave singer of mine) featuring Yusuf Islam himself.

This version of the song is really nice too, sort of a mixture between new and old, Ronan’s warm voice and Yusuf’s smooth vocals carrying the great lyrics ever so beautifully.

The song is a dialogue between a father and his son, and the lines I love the most are when the father says:

… Take your time, think a lot,
Why, think of everything you’ve got.
For you will still be here tomorrow,
but your dreams may not.

I love this song…

CPB: Committee to Protect Bloggers

The Committee to Protect Bloggers is a new clearinghouse for information on bloggers who are punished, threatened or otherwise disadvantaged for what they post on their blogs.

The Committee has four primary spheres of activity.

– CPB will serve as a clearinghouse for information on incarcerated members of our community, as well as those whose lives have been taken from them because of their enthusiasm for the free exchange of information that blogging allows.

– CPB will serve as a pressure group to force unrecalcitrant governments to free imprisoned bloggers, and make restitution for tortured and murdered ones.

– CPB will bring to bear the formidable communicative power of the blogosphere to keep pressure on governments to stop

– CPB will act as direct agents in negotiations to free imprisoned bloggers.

[Via: BoingBoing]

Big Lies

“The great masses of the people … more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one, since they themselves lie in little things, but would be ashamed of lies that were too big. Such a falsehood will never enter their heads and they will not be able to believe in the possibility of such monstrous effrontery and infamous misrepresentation in others … Therefore, something of even the most insolent lie will always remain and stick — a fact which all the great lie-virtuosi and lying-clubs in this world know only too well and also make the most treacherous use of.”

Adolph Hitler
Mein Kampf
1925

It seems Bush has been taking a few lessons from Adolf Hitler’s book.

[More: Billmon]

Best Arab Blogs Awards 2004

Update: Technical problems seem to be solved. You can vote now.

So, the voting for the Best Arab Blogs Awards 2004 opened yesterday.

Subzero Blue is nominated in a number of categories, but will only win if you guys want it to and vote for it.

Here are the categories Subzero Blue is nominated in:

– 2004 Best Arab Blog (English) Vote here
– 2004 Best Tunisian Blog Vote here
– 2004 Best Blog Design Vote here
– 2004 Best Everyday Life Blog Vote here
– 2004 Best Humour Blog Vote here
– 2004 Best Personal Blog Vote here
– 2004 Best Photography Blog Vote here
– 2004 Best Politics Blog Vote here
– 2004 Best Technology Blog Vote here
– 2004 Best Music Blog Vote here
– 2004 Best Essayist Blog Vote here
– 2004 Best Culture Blog Vote here

Thank you 🙂

Will Life Be Worth Living In 2000 AD?!

July 22, 1961, Weekend Magazine

What sort of life will you be living 39 years from now? Scientists have looked into the future and they can tell you.

You will be whisked around in monorail vehicles at 200 miles an hour and you will think nothing of taking a fortnight’s holiday in outer space. (I wish!).

At work, Dad will operate on a 24 hour week. The office will be air-conditioned with stimulating scents and extra oxygen – to give a physical and psychological lift. (Yeah Right!).

In commercial transportation, there will be travel at 1000 m.p.h. at a penny a mile. Hypersonic passenger planes, using solid fuels, will reach any part of the world in an hour. (Oh Yeah!).

Read More: Will Life Be Worth Living In 2000 AD?.

Muslims In The West

Tariq Ramadan has written a great new article on the role of Muslims in the west in the evolution of Islam worldwide and in the new reform movement that is being born.

“The reform movement that is in the process of being born has as its first requirement knowledge of the comprehensive message of Islam, its universal principles, and the tools available to help human beings to adapt themselves to their society as well as to change the world.”

[…]

“Western Muslims will play a decisive role in the evolution of Islam worldwide because of the nature and complexity of the challenges they face, and in this their responsibility is doubly essential. By reflecting on their faith, their principles, and their identity within industrialized, secularized societies, they participate in the reflection the Muslim world must undertake on its relationship with the modern world, its order, and its disorder.”

I totally agree that the Muslims living in the west have a very big responsibility to take a more active and positive role in the dialogue between civilizations and in the evolution of Islam.

These muslims should stop identifying themselves as

Iraq Was Free of WMDs

The White House has confirmed that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has been given up by the United States.

Contradicting the main argument for a war that has cost the lives of more than 15,000 Iraqis and over 1000 US soldiers, the US’ top weapons inspector has declared that Iraq was free of WMDs before last year’s invasion.

So there you go, as everyone already knew, over 16,000 lost lives for nothing!
Oh of course, we’ll be hearing all that talk about the removal of Saddam Hussein from power being for the good of the whole world, but try telling that to the families of the people who died in this war!
Was the removal of one man worth all those lost lives?
Is Iraq any better now than when Saddam was in power?
Is the world any safer now than before the war?
I honestly don’t think so!

[News Source: Al Jazeera]

PeerCast, P2P broadcasting for everyone

I just found PeerCast, a P2P (Peer to peer) program that enables anyone to become an online audio and video broadcaster without the costs of traditional streaming.

So basically anyone can download this, throw it on their server and start their own online radio or tv station, creating more options for people than is normally found on commercially funded sites.

It’s open source, has a low memory footprint and CPU load.
It streams a number of formats (MP3, OGG Theora/Vorbis, WMA, WMV, NSV) and supports all popular media players (WinAmp, XMMS etc…).

I think this is a great and really interesting tool that makes setting up projects like this cheaper and more accessible.
I hope we see some Arab online radio and tv stations popping up here and there in the near future.

I’ll try playing around with it a bit when I find time to, but I don’t think I’ll be starting a station of my own anytime soon.