January First 2010

New is the year, new are the hopes and the aspirations, new is the resolution, new are the spirits and forever my warm wishes are for you. Havea promising and fulfilling new year .

May this New Year bring many opportunities your way, to explore every joy of life & may your resolutions for the days ahead stay firm, turning all your dreams into reality & all your efforts into great achievements.
A Relaxed Mind, A Peaceful Soul, A Joyful Spirit, A Healthy Body & Heart full of Love..
All these are my Prayers for You..Wish you a Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year :)

Happy New Year Every One,

And After the Fun and the Great Time, Please Think of ....

A- How Are You Going to Make 2010 A Better Year for You?

B- How Are You Going to Make 2010 A Better Year for People Around You ( Families and Others ) ?

:)

Attiutude :)

Never Underestimate the Power of a Great Story :)

Women Since Birth !!!

We Are All Laila , My Mother :)

In my previous post here i talked about the initiative called " We Are All Laila" and explained why i am going to write about my mother :)

My mother is a woman in her 60's , an uneducated and poor, she was not married young like all her peers back then, she was actually 17, which is a bit old at that time in Saudi Arabia. From the beginning she knew she was stuck with an irresponsible man who take drugs , who abused her verbally and physically , she didn't work and can not go back to her family cuz they made it clear it's you alone who is welcome but you should leave your kids, so she had to choose her kids and stuck with the abusive husband . She saw her kids being abused in all ways imagined and couldn't do a thing because there was no one to help her and no one to take care of them. one thing she could do was to stay with them and love them. They grow up and needed to go to school and there is no money for the most important thing and she still doesn't work so she had to ask people for loans, some would give her and ask her not to give it back , like her younger sister and brother who i can not be thankful enough for , the rest she had to get another loan to give them their money back and she was in a circle of debts for a very long time. She could go back to her parents and siblings long time ago but she chose her kids over everyone. Her kids grow even bigger and the trouble began , some of them followed on the route of their father. some simply didn't care.

Did she do it worng? how can you raise kids when your husband teach them that it's ok to go ahead and bring drugs for him , no body will suspect a child, ? how can you raise a child when men molested your child in the presence of their father? , how can you raise a child when your husband take your daughter to a man who claims love and rape her ?. She could of have left, but she stay, they are her kids, she love them and they will be fine. what can she does when her kids start attacking each other ? she chose hardly this time but she had to protect the weak ones and she did. she called the police for one of her kids when his drinking problems was way than her abilities to love him , shelter him, help him and protect him, she had to throw him out of the house when she knew he was dangerous and that he or his drunken friends could hurt her daughters. she still cries at night ,he is her baby son after all and she misses him hugly, but she had to protect the rest. Her kids grow up to be like their father and did the same as he did , abuse her physically and verbally and she still loves them. God, how i wish that she left and would not be stuck with this. Maybe she could have had a better husband and better kids !!

The result 2 out of 6 turn out to be good to her , and she is still strong for these two, cuz she knows that the minute she falls, my sister and i will fall.

That's a short summary for almost 66 years of my mother's life. she is my hero and she still think i should love my father no matter what .

i love you mother :)

Kolena Laila ( كلنا ليلى We Are All Laila ) and My Mother :)

Kolena Laila or We Are All Laila is an initiative to devote a day, annually, to speak up about the problems facing oppressed women in the Arab region. On that day, bloggers publish posts under the title of "We are all Laila" to raise awareness and discuss the concerns of women in Arab societies. "We are all Laila" day was first held on the 9th of September 2006

New Woman Foundation suggested three topics this year:

1- Renewing religious and historical discourses concerning women by encouraging new interpretations of different religious texts and increasing awareness of the stereotypical images of females embedded in the historical discourses.

2- I Want a Right Not a Solution: an attempt to highlight kinds of discrimination exercised against women in order to encourage them to resist and ask for their rights.

3- Women Who We Don't Know: using blogging and other media to bring to light women role models besides underprivileged, marginalized women; choosing examples that are usually ignored by mainstream media.

http://kolenalaila.com/

http://kolenalaila.com/en/

So i decided to Write about number 3 in the coming post and i will write about my hero , my mother :)

i just saw " Avatar". A long movie, but worth it if you are into sc-fi movies. The message of the movie was beautiful, first time you see a a sc-fi movie talking about other people out there without labling them ''evil'', actually it's us ''people from Earth'' who are the evil this time and we are fighting a battle that is not ours which remind you of our real life on Earth.

on Earth, we fight , kill each other and launch wars ,why ? . we have no respect for our mother "Earth" , no respect for different cultures and traditions, we want things to be our own ways. and the strong must rule the weak , we want what others have or else.... and we call this ruling the world, strong nations and weak ones. civilized societies and barbaric ones because we like labeling, little do we know that our mother is the one suffering , and when your mother is in pain you are going to feel it whether you like it or not. we do not how stupid are we.

sorry i driftied away from the movie :) . Well, if you have almost two and half hours of free time between your hands and love sc-fi, don't miss it.

And one last note, the technology used in this movie was AMAZING and James Cameron has done beautiful job with this movie.

If You Are in Saudi Arabia and Can Help, Please Help Um Ibrahim

i just read this on the Saudi electronic newspaper 'sabaq''.

It's about the 50 year old widow Um Ibrahim. Um Ibrahim can not move in her house or even go to the bathroom without the help of her two daughters due to her 250 Kg weight. She is a diabetic lady who suffered from a stroke in her lungs after the death of her husband. Her weights has stopped her from moving and eating normally and her poverty has stopped her from having the necessary medication.

she lives with her two divorced daughters and their five children in an old house which she can not pay the rent for ,a kind man has paid half the rent , she has no furniture and nothing to help them with the cold and the hot weathers.

i know that there are a lot to discuss about the way this lady lives in a rich country but this is not what this post about, it's about helping this lady. So if you are in Saudi Arabia and can help, please contact the editor or call the following number :-

(0569756611).

here is the link of the story -in Arabic- :-

http://www.sabq.org/sabq/user/news?section=9&id=27

pictures of Um Ibrahim and her rented house :-

Merry Christmas Angie and Susanne :)

I wish you two lovely ladies a merry Christmas with your loved ones.

And anyone who reads or even pass this blog and who is Christians i wish you a great and a merry Christmas :)

The World of Fatwa in 2009 !!!

Al-watan newspaper, a Saudi newspaper, has issued a report about the bizarre and most talked about fatwas of 2009. seems like those sheiks are either looking for their 15 minutes fame or think the world is depress enough so let's entertain the people with these fatwas or maybe the opposite and they think screw people and to hell with them ,let's confuse them even more.
The good thing is that there are other sheiks who think of nothing but to make things easier for people in the light of Islam and to those i raise my hat - i hope we won't hear that hats are 7aram or forbidden in the 2010 fatwas-

here are some of these fatwas :-

1- Yoga is forbidden cuz it's -according to Khaled Abdularahman aljer'e- is an old Hindu pagan practice .

2-mixing between men and women is not forbidden in Islam-according to ahmad Algamde-
And finally the truth .

3- clapping is not forbidden -according to Abdalazia alfwzan-. woow that's original i didn't think that people still believe in this .


4- Cinema is forbidden, -according to Khaled saud Albelehd- why ? reason #2 :- because cinema based on spreading love , romance, and sins and it's known that people who goes there kiss and do bad stuff. shame on you people who goes to cinema, thank god we don't have it. and if you ask him why not TV ? don't be smart , the guy had answers for all. he said that in TV there are other things beside love and romance and there are no mixing so guess what?? no kisses and doing bad things.


5-to name this fatwa, let me explain something first about it. as most women in Saudi Arabia got no where to work but being teachers and cuz cities are full so most teachers and sent to far away villagers- i should write about my experience one day- and cuz women don't drive , they need a driver to take them to their villages and a group of 3 to 10 teachers travel everyday with that driver who could be a man from the same village or from their cities . so some women after a while marry their driver, don't ask me why? is it love? understanding? just marriage? who knows -yea and our driver asked my father for my hand, i used to sit close by himso i guess the guy fell in love or so, and of course i said no- uffffff. long introduction, now here is the fatwa, it's forbidden for a teacher to marry her driver ???? because it's based on interests, maybe material or she wants to take advantage of him so he won't take money from here. god knows.


6-if a player score a goal in a football match and then bow to god as being thankful, it's forbidden. -according to Saleh Mogbel aleseme-why ? it's an insult against Islam because if this is a blessing from Allah? cuz if it's ,then we should ask for Allah's help in our Friday prayer !!! woow this guy is really something unique . now if non-Muslims saw you in let's say one of the European league-which of course our players won't be in ever- they will think that you are bowing to them, bad bad European fans, or they might think that this is a movement against them which would definitely increase Islamophobia. ohhhhh how sweet of you to think of our image in the world sheik :)


7-women can travel without a male companion . why ? it's safe for women to travel alone. again this is a good one but still can be changed in 2010.


8-in Egypt , some sheiks forbid eating "fasekh" or the salted fish they eat in one of their celebration calling it dirty and disgusting,. so if you don't like it don't eat it !!! what ?? shall i issue a fatwa saying gums are forbidden !!!


9-this is hilarious , after the international tribunal issued a warrant against the Sudanese president , sheiks in Sudan issued a fatwa saying that the travel of the Sudanese president outside Sudan is forbidden. why the hell didn't you say that what happens in Darfur is forbidden in Islam.


10-still in Sudan where the next fatwa comes out, demonstration is forbidden in Islam, cuz they are corrupting and destroying the society . we can demonstrate politely and secretly if you want !!


11- AlOda, who is a very well known shik and very open and has lots of argue about him since he point out things other sheiks hate to point, said that if a girl lost her virginity and repent , then she can fix this by restoring her virginity, why ? here is a good reason , because he said that he have heard a lot about honor killing since Islam doesn't allow this killing , then the girl should protect her self by doing so. God bless you AlOda.


these are some of the fatwas and i am sure 2010 will be enjoyable as well. and please don't ask me to be respectable with these sheiks because they didn't respect themselves or the people they are dealing with and talking to.


I , also, happens to know that Islam is here to make the lives of people easier , why aren't they ?

Announcement...

This is a very small announcement and it means nothing much . I decided to change the name muse to my real name which is Wafa' . Nothing much but in case you see that name in the comment section in your blog , it's still me :)

Ten Reasons Why I Hate Winter !!!!

1- have to wear lots of clothes which i hate, i am a nudist, lol but miss the short pants ..etc.

2-can not enjoy cold drinks and have to have hot drinks which i hate .

3- get sick A LOT , which is the state i am in right now, new diseases suck and old ones are even worse.

4-have to stay at home most of the time.

5- the cold wind hurts my face and ears.

6- the day light is shorter.

7- like to skip work cuz i like to spend more time being warm in the bed.

8- become lazy.

9-hate getting out of the shower after a warm shower.

10- Because we don't have snow .
and yes i do hate to not be able to wear my open high heels, i have to wear boots :(

The Blind Side

I just watching the movie " The Blind Side ". I was waiting eagerly to see this one , so you know when your movie doesn't meet with your high expectations !! . Well, it was a good one and there are some moments when my tears fall down, but other than that it's OK.

What i really like most about , is it that when we do good in helping someone and thinking that we might change the other person's life , it's actually ours that changed .

And what i like even more is that the movie is based on a true story.
Good movie but not a must to watch and surprised that Sandra Bullock was nominated for a Golden Globe for it , but who knows.....

The End of the Year .

So tomorrow is the last day of the year, hijrah year of course, and in about 14 days 2009 will be over.
Usually the end of the years means nothing to me, i don't celebrate them but like to watch the celebration of other countries on TV. not like gluing to the TV but whenever i see a report about that end of the year celebration, i watch.
I hate resolution and i know i suck at them, but there are somethings that i tend to do mostly for me to help me get through life. And i already started cuz i can not wait to start in 2010 and it's stupid of me to wait to do them. so my list includes : -
-losing the extra 5 kilos and then if i am free i will lose more, lol.
-start taking medication seriously cuz diabetes is a bitch- excuse my language-
-enjoy my life even if there are more and more obstacles in the way.
-laugh as much as i can
-care less about people
-do more things i like, like reading more books and learning a new language.

hmmm, what else? well. those are the ones i have in mind and starting to do already, but the process of a happy life is a never ending one and infinite, so lots will come along and will meet them when i meet them- i know it's a stupid line - .

P.S: an idea for a huge laughter , watch the show ''the Big bang theory'' , have anyone seen it ?

Inspirational :)

Back to School, for the Zillion time !!

So tomorrow is the first day at school after two weeks off -Eid AlAdha Holiday- , and i hate it and still waiting for the news saying there will be more off days, though i know it wont happen.
It's fun to have sometime off but then you get to get back and it's not a cool experience at all.You get to get used to sleeping early, waking up early, school works, shitty boss, and lots and lots of endless stuff, and when you are ready and OK another holiday comes , that would be after about two months for another two weeks !! and then a month or two of school and a week off.
It's shitty and i love it and hate it. love the beginning of the holiday but they are not that great as they used to be , you have nothing to do but read and watch movies, sleep and lots of it, food which means more weight and the malls. ''sigh''. yalla what can we do, should start preparing for tomorrow .

Surprised Kitty :)

After series of serious posts, here is something amazingly cute. i saw the video in Rehab's Blog and couldn't resist not showing it .

Jeddah Aftermath: Is it the Time for Punishment ?

All Saudi news are talking about the new orders by the King about what happened in Jeddah. It's good that there will be compensation for those who died, who reached over 100, , but i wish and hope that the committee they form is not going to end with nothing and that it will name names . Justice need to be served for everyone, those who died, those who lost their property and everyone in the city of Jeddah. We will wait and see.

This is the piece from Arab News newspaper.

King Abdullah orders probe, compensation Muhammad Humaidan | Arab News

JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah ordered an immediate payment of SR1 million to the family of each person who died in last week’s flood in Jeddah. The king also ordered the setting up of a high-level committee that will be headed by Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal and will consist of Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majed and representatives of various ministries. The committee will study the extent of the damage due to the calamity. It will also study the causes of the crisis and recommend ways to ensure that it does not happen again. “It is painful that many countries, some with even less potential than the Kingdom, experience similar rainfall almost every day, but there are no devastation of the magnitude we witnessed in Jeddah and that saddens us,” said the king. He also said that those responsible for this tragedy would be taken to task. “We cannot ignore the fact that there were mistakes and failures on the part of some departments and it is our duty to identify those responsible and take action against them.” Earlier, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal speaking at a press conference, attributed the catastrophe in Jeddah to the delay in implementing drainage projects in the city. He also cited the ongoing construction on valley passes in most of the affected districts as being the reason for the tragedy. He assured the people of Jeddah that all measures had been taken to deal with any emergency situation. “We are facing problems for which we should find immediate solutions. We have committees currently assessing the damage, pointing out the causes of the disaster and suggesting remedies,” he said. He said money was already being paid to people who have been provided accommodation. “The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the second deputy premier are very concerned about the condition of Jeddah after the rains and floods,” he added. Prince Mishaal, director of Civil Defense Maj. Gen. Saad Al-Tuwaijri, Mayor of Jeddah Adel Fakieh, director of Jeddah police Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Saadi Al-Ghamdi and director of roads and bridges in Makkah region Mufrih Al-Zahrani also attended the conference at Prince Khaled’s Jeddah home. “The catastrophe was big. Of course crises happen everywhere else in the world. We should consider what happened in Jeddah with rationality and impartiality, not with emotions. We convey our condolences to the families who lost their members in this tragedy and assure them that the lost ones are also our sons and daughters,” said Prince Khaled. He added rescue and recovery work was still continuing and would finish in days. Al-Tuwaijri said the Civil Defense has all the necessary tools and qualified staff to deal with any type of emergency. He said Civil Defense personnel had been involved in similar situations outside Saudi Arabia in the past. He added the Civil Defense dealt with the disaster as was required and would deal with new developments as necessary. When Arab News questioned him why no evacuation plans had been drawn up despite the Baladiyyah being warned last month that the lack of drains and expected heavy rains could result in disaster, Fakieh conceded lessons had to be learned. He however added that evacuation plans were the responsibility of the Civil Defense. There was also the issue of where to evacuate people, he said, adding it would have been disastrous if they had been moved to the path of floods. In any case, the primary concern had been the sewage lake in a hill east of the city, he claimed. Prince Mishaal said the catastrophe has sounded a warning bell as to what might happen in the future. “We should never allow what happened to repeat itself in the future,” he said.

Is it the End for Messengers !!! Google Wave

Have you heard of Google wave ? . If not , then watch some of its features in this video




It's more of an email and a messenger at the same time. seems so cool. Unfortunately , not every one can have it right now, it's similar to Google mail when you have to be invited by someone. Anyhow, i just got an invitation and got my Google wave, and when you got your wave, you will get some invitations to spread and this is their message for the invitation :-

Invite others to Google Wave

Google Wave is more fun when you have others to wave with, so please nominate people you would like to add. Keep in mind that this is a preview so it could be a bit rocky at times.

Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.

Happy waving!Google Wave is more fun when you have others to wave with, so please nominate people you would like to add. Keep in mind that this is a preview so it could be a bit rocky at times.Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.Happy waving!">

And right now i have only 8 invitations to spread. Does any one want one? if so, please send me your Google email and i will send you an invitation right away :)

Hope Amid Tragedy :)

I just watched the movie " Precious" and what a beautiful movie it is. It was dark at a lot of moments but you can see hope getting through these rays of despair and sadness . a great reminder that it's never too late, that you can get out of the worst situations. a reminder that your family are not necessarily the ones you were born to. A reminder that you can find love in the unexpected places. A reminder that no matter what happened to you by your parents, you still can be a good parent yourself. A reminder that people don't have to be having the same believes, values or life style to love you or you love them.
There are scenes where i couldn't but look away, cry and get my heart broken over them. But then there is this beautiful things coming to this girl and you know it and you know she knows it and i was just waiting for.

If you have the chance to see it , don't hesitate to do so :)

Sad Days for the People of Jeddah :(

We all know that Jeddah is bad in the time of rains but not this bad !!! . It has been raining for the last three days at the western province of Saudi Arabia, here in Medina it was beautiful and lovely -thank god no accidents were recorded- a bit worse in Mecca but the worst was in Jeddah where between 77 and 83 have been dead . Ironically most of the dead were non-Saudis and the poor, even death know how to discriminate. lots of head should be rolling the following days , lots of unfaithful and corrupted officials, but i am not optimistic about that, they keep gambling on our forgetting nature. There are some warning today that more rain will fall on Jeddah,Mecca and Medina. Allah yestor . May Allah protect the people of Jeddah and take care of them . Ameen.

For more on the incidents there, here are some links: http://saudijeans.org/2009/11/26/jeddah-disaster/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8380501.stm http://saudiaggie.blogspot.com/2009/11/rain-in-thuwal-and-lots-of-it.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/middleeast/2009/11/091126_ss_saudi_floods_tc2.shtml (in Arabic )
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/middleeast/2009/11/091127_wb_suadia_rain_tc2.shtml (in Arabic )
And these are more pictures about what happened (pictues taken from Alsharq alawsat newspaper and الشبكة الليبرالية السعودية and alwatan newspaper) http://www.montdiatna.com:8686/forum/showthread.php?t=125457

and watch this videos

And Happy Eid :)

It's been almost two years where a groups of celebrations from different religions occur at the same time !! great timing to learn how to coexist and live happy and move on to take care of the things happening around us, is not it ?

Well, tomorrow , Friday the 27th of November, is Eid AlAdha for Muslims, so whether you celebrate it or not , eat meat or not , it's a beautiful time for families and loved ones and......... Happy Eid :)