Quest for the Arab Startup Formula

Dr Thur leaving Stanford to teach online - 500,000 Students at a time!

2012-01-31T11:57:00.001+02:00

Digital Age is on the brink of disrupting Education from centuries-old traditions. From online courses, to Apple's iBook2, to Khan Academy, to many more. How would this wave, Education 2.0 if I may call it, affect our Arab world? Looking forward to that.

Classrooms With 500,000 Students
http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/01/30/classrooms-with-500000-students/

Professor Sebastian Thur (AI legend), announcing leaving Stanford:

"Having done this [teaching an online course attended by 150,000 students, 264 getting perfect score, none at Stanford], I can’t teach at Stanford again…It’s impossible…there’s a red pill and a blue pill and you can take the blue pill and go back to your classroom and lecture your 20 students. But I’ve taken the red pill and seen Wonderland."

Old (2010-2011) blog posts are here

2011-12-23T02:10:00.000+02:00

For the period Jan 2010 to Dec 2011 I worked for Microsoft as Developer Evangelist in Jordan. I created a blog on MSDN. You can read my posts during that period here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/msjordantech

with this, most my old blog posts are "re-linked" here. from now on, it's a new beginning.

Another "Calorie is not a Calorie" Researcher

2011-12-23T02:01:00.003+02:00

(an old post from my lost blog ehcafe.com - Oct 2009)

(hat tip to Chareffine)

Robert Lustig, MD, a UCSF pediatric neuroendocrinologist, says that sugar, especially the fructose part, is very harmful. he says that a calorie is not a calorie because fructose-calories do not get digested the same way in the body:

http://www.ucsf.edu/science-cafe/articles/obesity-and-metabolic-syndrome-driven-by-fructose-sugar-diet/

very similar to Taube's explanation.

simulating a brain at chemical level

2011-12-23T02:01:00.001+02:00

(an old post from my lost blog ehcafe.com - Oct 2009)

(hat tip to Husam)

A fascinating project! They are simulating a rat's brain at the chemical level. They expect that in less than 10 years, they will be able to reproduce the exact behavior of the human brain on a single computer. They are probably a bit too optimistic, but I would not say that this goal is unachievable.

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/out_of_the_blue/

Stanford ATOZ Battle of the Diets: Atkins wins

2011-12-23T01:58:00.001+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, Oct 2009)

Chris Gardner, a professor of nutrition at Stanford University, and a 25-year
strict vegetarian ran an impressive study petting 4 diets for a whole year. The
attrition rate is one of the lowest in such studies, around 20%.

The lecture is very interesting if you have the time, but if you insist on
results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo

Great site of Top University Lectures

2011-12-23T01:56:00.001+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, Oct 2009 - i'm sure many more are available now)

http://www.academicearth.org/

30 days on McDonalds... and losing weight!

2011-12-23T01:55:00.000+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, Oct 2009)

This guy, a 50 years old, spent 30 days on McDonald's only:

http://www.chazzweaver.com/

results: he lost 8 pounds, lowered his Cholesterol, and kept his 6-pack!

He's interviewed in the (Down Size Me) documentary (a response to Super Size Me):

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2005/06/downsize_me_pro.html

http://chazzweaver.com/site/projects/down-size-me/

his book seems interesting. will be looking for it.

Confusing Gary Taubes and Metabolic Advantage

2011-12-23T01:54:00.001+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, Oct 2009)

Many low-carb websites and authors have attacked Gary Taubes, the author of Good Calories Bad Calories, on the understanding that he supports "Metabolic Advantage". I think this is a misunderstanding of what Gary Taubes says. I think what he outlines is more of a carb-metabolic-disadvantage, and not a meat-metabolic-advantage.

For those not in the "low-carb" debate scene, Metabolic Advantage (wikipedia) is the claim by Atkins & other low-carb dieters that eating Meat does not make a person fat. They claim that meat calories somehow do not contribute to accumulating fat when consumed in a low-carb diet. In a way, if you're on atkins-diet, eat as much as as you want, and you'll never get fat. The body somehow gets rid of these extra calories – possibly through higher resting metabolism, etc.

Many "scientific" low-carb dieters, like Anthony Colpo, and anti-low-carb advocates, hold this to be one of Atkins false claims. And the science if admittedly weak on this area.

However, for some reason, many (including Anthony Colpo and Muata Kimdibe – the CNN Mr Low Fat) say that Gary Taubes, in his book Good Calories Bad Calories, supports Metabolic Advantage. However, I think this is not accurate. In a way, Gary Taubes says that Carbs have a Metabolic Disadvantage.

Here's what I think Gary Taubes says:

Due to genetic variation, people have different metabolic rates. He sites an interesting study where inmates at a prison were forced to overeat (10,000 calories per day) for a prolonged period of time. The variation in weight-gain was great – one inmate increased only 2-3 pounds, while another around 30 pounds. Varying metabolic rates between people – due to activity and genes – is not a controversial statement even for the non-low-carb advocates.
Gary Taubes then shows that eating refined carbs causes the body to store most of the energy instead of consuming it in the body. Thus, in a way, he says that refined carbs have a metabolic disadvantage. People will burn less calories (as a percentage of what they eat) when they eat refined carbs that raise the insulin level in the blood.
As a result of storing most of consumed calories as fat in high-carb diets, people will remain hungry longer. Thus they overeat to satisfy their body's needs.
Notice that Gary makes sure to explain that this metabolic disadvantage is not always true in all people: the excessive storage of fat happens only when there's an insulin-related problem. Some humans have the genes to always handle insulin rollercoasters well. Most people develop insulin-related problems as they grow older. (Very similar to causes of diabetes).
He also shows enough evidence that the Human Body tries to maintain a certain ideal weight. The body manages many factors (including appetite and resting-metabolism) to try and maintain a certain body fat or body weight. Usually this is more of a range than a specific point (even though Gary never says that explicitly).

Thus, with all of this, one can see how the misunderstanding of what Gary really said comes. He says if one eats a low-carb diet, then their body will come down to the ideal weight point and try to preserve it regardless of the extra foods one might eat every now and then. However, this ideal weight is not necessarily a point – but a range. I personally noticed that people on low-carb usually hit the upper limit of the range and stop.

So to get to single-digit body fat percentage, one has to watch calories in addition to diet. A lot of times this also requires exercise - which seems to change the body's internal ideal weight point. Notice that since most people have the ability to digest some carbs in a healthy manner, one can still eat some carbs and remain at a healthy weight.

The Beginning of the WWW (The Google History of the Internet)

2011-12-23T01:53:00.001+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, Oct 2009)

EhCafe has posted a new item, 'The Beginning of the WWW (The Google History of
the Internet)'

Newsgroups: alt.hypertext From: timbl@info .cern.ch (Tim Berners-Lee) Date: 6
Aug 91 16:00:12 GMT Local: Tues, Aug 6 1991 9:00 am Subject: WorldWideWeb:
Summary WorldWideWeb - Executive Summary The WWW project merges the
techniques of information retrieval and hypertext to make an easy but
powerful global information system. [...]The WWW world consists of documents,
and links. Indexes are special documents which, rather [...]

Music composed by Birds

2011-12-23T01:52:00.001+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, sep 2009 - i guess this is the type of thing you would just share on twitter these days :-))

A flock of birds landed on 5 phone lines in front of photographer Paulo Pinto – forming what looked like notes on the musical staff. Composer Jarbas Agnelli saw the picture and actually expanded that little piece to actual music. Listen to the music and see the photo in this very nice video – the music composed by birds:

Saudi ranked 13 worldwide for "Ease of Doing Business"

2011-12-23T01:51:00.001+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, sep 2009 - i wonder what it is now)

(hat tip to my friend Basil Abbas for sharing)

Ranking Chart Link: http://www.doingbusiness.org/economyrankings/?direction=Asc&sort=1

Saudi Arabia is celebrating its rank at #13 out of 183 countries this year.

Previous Years for KSA: 2008 – 2009 ranked #13 2007 – 2008 ranked #16 2006 – 2007 ranked #38 2005 - 2006 ranked #67

The criteria in measuring this rank was based on the following factors: 1. Starting a business 2. Dealing with construction permits 3. Employing Workers 4. Registering Property 5. Getting Credit 6. Protecting Investors 7. Paying Taxes 8. Trading Across Borders 9. Enforcing Contracts 10. Closing a Business

The first 20 countries are: Singapore 1 New Zealand 2 Hong Kong, China 3 United States 4 United Kingdom 5 Denmark 6 Ireland 7 Canada 8 Australia 9 Norway 10 Georgia 11 Thailand 12 Saudi Arabia 13 Iceland 14 Japan 15 Finland 16 Mauritius 17 Sweden 18 S Korea 19 Bahrain 20

Worth to mention: Bahrain is 20 UAE is 33 Qatar is 39 Kuwait is 61 Oman is 65 Tunis is 69 Yemen is 99 Jordan is 100 Egypt 106 Lebanon 108 Morocco 128 Iran 137 West Bank 139 Syria 143

Reference: http://www.alriyadh.com/2009/09/09/article458232.html

Rome & Carthage

2011-12-23T01:50:00.001+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, sep 2009 - this topic still fascinates me!)

Rome & Carthage: The Arrogance of "Democratic" Supremacy

In 149 BC, The Roman Senate took advantage of a minor disagreement with Carthage to wage a war (the last Punic war ~150BC). Unsurprisingly, at the end of which, the Romans triumphed against Carthage. Carthage sent a delegation surrendering the city and giving up all their weapons to Rome. But the Roman Senate decided specifically that "Carthage was to be razed to the ground, no stone was to be left upon another, the soil was to be ploughed and strewn with salt." Needless to say, all of its people were either slaughtered or sold to slavery.

Which begs the question, WHY!?

The decision was not that of momentous anger by a tyrant individual, for that Rome was a Republic. The decision was debated and decided by the ~200 representatives of Roman people.

The decision was not that of military, for that even the famous Roman General that carried it out, Scipio Africanus, was against it. He followed the orders anyhow.

So, WHY!?

One cannot but think these days at the real value of democracy, try to understand the pros and cons beyond the usual clichés and banner-style statements like "democracy is the solution". And to do so, there is nothing like learning the History of Rome, through which one can re-live Democracy on fast forward. There are many bright spots, and some deep bleak ones.

Rome has started as a Kingdome and turned successfully into an expanding Democratic Republic for 400 shining years. But then, and just like magic, it turned into an Empire, and finally presented historians to this day with a mysterious fall after another 400 years.

I am not an expert in this field, but I have gone through Rome's history recently, and I find some aspects extremely interesting to share and contemplate upon. One of these events is Rome's verdict on Carthage, described above.

And this brings back us to the question, WHY!?

The answer is, because the Romans were the strongest nation at the time. They simply could do it, and so, they did it. "War Mongering" is the term.

This brings a second question: how come a group of highly educated Roman elected-senates come up with such an unjust and inhumane decision?

Simply, (and it took me a very long time to realize this answer) democracy does not guarantee making the right decision. Democracy guarantees agreement: that most of the attendants will agree on the decision. In another way, that the disagreeing portion will never be large enough to overrule the decision by power (or so is the theory).

Democracy is a lot like human-desire. It requires a high degree of discipline and dedication to actually be guided correctly. Democracy requires that we be active and objective all the time so that it won't be misused. Democracy cannot function with a passive population.

Democracy is not ethical by itself. The ethics of democracy are that of its people. Democracy does not tell us right from wrong. But it can tell us what we ought to be doing about it. Things are not right or wrong just because 51% of people said so. Morality is independent of statistics.

Seems intuitive… but in the same time, it is very easy to forget this and fall in the same mistakes again and again…

good review of "The Cholesterol Wars"

2011-12-23T01:49:00.001+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, aug 2009)

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Daniel-Steinberg-Cholesterol-Wars.html

I wish this guy has a review of Good Calories Bad Calories.

Gary Taubes is wrong?

2011-12-23T01:48:00.001+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, july 2009)

I think I have finally found a book that argues for the Cholesterol-Hypothesis: that tries to go through the scientific evidence and show that Cholesterol indeed is the main cause of heart disease.

The Cholesterol Wars by Daniel Steinberg
http://www.amazon.com/Cholesterol-Wars-Skeptics-Preponderance-Evidence/dp/0123739799

I read so far 2 books that present the opposite argument:

Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary taubes
The Great Cholesterol Con by Anthony Colpo

I believe one has to read books with differing points of view to get to the right conclusion. I'm looking forward to reading The Cholesterol Wars.

Unfortunately I cannot find reviews for this book on the low-calorie forums. I call on Gary Taubes to review this book. Essentially this book says that Gary Taubes is wrong. Fat and not Refined Carbs are the evil components of our diet.

One Page summary of Good Calories Bad Calories by the author - a diet that works

2011-12-23T01:47:00.003+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, aug 2009)

Gary Taubes summaries the 3rd section of the book, which is concerned with obesity and diets.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/print-article.aspx?id=139058

Carb vs Fat Hypotheses (links)

2011-12-23T01:47:00.001+02:00

(old post from my lost blog at ehcafe.com, july 2009)

EhCafe has posted a new item, 'Hypothesis" (links)'

There's a debate raging in the scientific arena so far about Carb-Hypothesis vs Fat-Hypothesis. Is eating Fats that cause heart attacks and obesity, or is it refined carbs like sugar, white bread and white rice.

These are links for talks and articles by Gary Taubes who advocates the Carb-hypothesis:

2007/2008 Good Calories Bad Calories book

Metabolic Syndrome X, in wikipedia

Taubes 2001 article, the soft science of diet.

Taube's original 2002 very-controversial article in The New York Times, Big FAT Lie

Interview with Taubes following his 2002 article, the Inside Story

An article about the "lack" of science on losing weight by working out "We Cannot Work it Out"

A lecture at UC Berkeley in 2007 following publication of his book "Quality of Calories" (webcast)

A lecture at Stevens Institute of Technology in 2008, Big Fat Lies (webcast)

must have book "good calories bad calories" (first impressions)

2011-12-23T01:46:00.001+02:00

(old post from ehcafe, july 2009)

I am half way through an amazing book. I wanted to give few first impressions here. I'll be writing more posts on it soon.

"Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes.

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Gary-Taubes/dp/1400040787

Gary Taubes is a senior writer in Science Magazine. He's the only journalist so far who won the best scientific writer award in the US 3 times. I heard an interview with him a while ago and have been waiting for his book.

He spent 5 years reviewing the scientific evidence for the past 150 years on heart attacks, obesity, far, carbs, and certain diseases.

He comes up with an interesting conclusion that reinforces what I've read in several places so far:

1- Fat and cholesterole are NOT harmful. they are actually very evolutionary-suitable for our bodies.

2- Carbs, especially simple ones (sugar, rice, and white flour) are extremely evil because they mess up our hormones by constantly affecting insulin. Keep in mind that these food substances became prelevant only in the last few hundred years! (rice might be an exception in certain gepgraphies)

3- According to research, Carbs are definitely the main cause of: Diabetes, Obesity, and Heart Attacks

4- There's a strong evidence (not conclusive yet though) that Carbs are also the main cause of Cancer and Alzeheimer!

The funny thing, this books shows very clearly that the evils of Carbs (or at least that it causes obesity) have been known for a very long time (e.g. the arabic proverb eating bread brodens shoulders). He shows that the whole cholesterole-hypothesis really dates only back to the 1950s until now, and that it's based on weak evidence that was pushed up because US and Europe were having what seemed like a heart-attack epidemic and they had to do something. Cholesterole was easily measurable and so it provided and easy and clear "recommendation" albeit a wrong one. (reminds of an Einestein quote: for every complicated problem there's a nice simple solution that is wrong).

hope you like the book like I do. My wife and I are rethinking our whole diet - what we should feed the children, etc. very tough. we'll see where we get.

Jordan – the cradle of internet start-ups

2011-12-23T01:45:00.001+02:00

(old post from ehhcafe, june 2009. interesting to see how startup scene in jordan has come a long way)

Jordan – the cradle of internet start-ups

from Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper.
Hat tip to 360east.com

(first paragraph…)

Tom Gara

Last Updated: June 07. 2009 8:39PM UAE / June 7. 2009 4:39PM GMT

Thinking outside the box: driven by a need to create jobs for an educated young population, the heart of technological entrepreneurship beats fast in Jordan.

If you spend a lot of time reading about start-up internet companies in the Middle East, the same country pops up time and time again: Jordan.

It is one of the smallest nations in the Arab world, lacking the population of Egypt, the wealth of the Gulf or the history of Syria. But what it has, without a doubt, is the most exciting community of technology start-ups in the region.

Interesting research by Egyptian American

2011-12-23T01:43:00.001+02:00

(old post from ehcafe apr, 2009)

Nanotechnology is a very promising and facinating science. Today I learned about Dr Mostafa El-Sayed's research in this space. Dr El-Sayed, an Egyptian American, got the 2007 (awarded in late 2008) National Medal for Science - the US highest honor in the field.

The father-and-son research team at Georgia Tech, Mostafa & Ivan El-Sayed, pioneered a very interesting cure for skin cancer using golden nanorods . This initial solution is able to cure 100% of cancer cases in lab animals. They expect to have a human-cure in about 7 years. The technique mainly consists of sending golden nanorods in the body that attach to cancer cells only. And then these rods are heated using low-power laser beams that kill only the cancer cells, leaving the body cancer-free.

I've heard the theoretical side of this technique several times as a possible futuristic solution for many of the tough diseases. However, it's very nice to read that this is becoming a reality fast.

Great job by the likes of Dr El-Sayed and his team.

Nuclear Jordan

2011-12-23T01:42:00.000+02:00

(old post from ehcafe)

Middle East is definitely heading to change in the next 20 years.
Saudi Arabia is shooting to become an industrial hub in the region, possibly hosting China's port and factories to the African Market.
Jordan is planning to become an IT and Nuclear provider in the region. Few articles on the net:
1- Jordan plans to build a nuclear plant by 2015 (and a uranium mine by 2012)
2- Jordan signs agreements with France, Canada, South Korea, Russia, UK, USA, & China regarding nuclear cooperation
3- US's Department of Energy to build a Nuclear Waste Facility next year in Jordan
4- Why Nuclear Power Plant makes sense for Jordan by a Jordanian Professor

what is most interesting, is that while #1-2 are for the long run, US is very fast to building a nuclear waste facility next year. I wonder what they'll put in it.
Is it possible that after 20 years we'll end up simply with a waste facility, and nothing else!

It's worth mentioning also that the whole region is turning to Nuclear Power. Algeria, Egypt & GCC (Arabian Gulf) countries are discussing the nuclear option seriously at this point.

"The Next 100 Years" by George Friedman

2011-12-23T01:40:00.001+02:00

The Next 100 Years: A forecast for the 21st century by George Friedman is a very interesting book that made some noise, and even was on Farid Zakaria's book of the week section. I read the book recently, and following my notes. I first present a summary of his bold predictions, and then discuss each.

Quick list of predictions:

US will remain a super power for 100 years.
China will collapse by 2020
Russia will have a second collapse (the first being the soviet one) around 2020s
The next 4 powers until 2060: Japan, Turkey, & Poland
A World War 3 (space war) between US-Poland vs Japan-Turkey
The great US-Mexico confrontation of 2100 (since a war might not be possible to happen)

US super power for 100 years

Friedman claims that US is just in its beginning of its ascension to power. And he insists, despite all the economic problems now, US will become even a grandeur super power in the next century. One scan through the first few chapters doesn't fully explain why. However, the lines of the argument become clearer throughout the book.

Friedman provides a brief explanation of Geo-Political analysis. The idea is that there are certain geographic and political properties of each region and country in the world that control its future. Friendman states several times that no matter who is the president of the US, given that US is a global power, it will act in certain ways that are inherent in its position.

In a way, Geo-Political analysis is similar to Value Investing - in that it assumes that there are fundamental properties for successful companies/countries. Countries who have them succeed. otherwise, they fail. eventually.

What are these fundamentals? and why US has them? Friedman lists the following:

US is a large country, huge market, rich resources, and faces 2 oceans
US controls the oceans of the sea - thus controls the the global lines of commerce.
US has a low population density. This will play a huge role in US dominance starting 2030, when the populations of the advanced world will be decreasing and they will be competing for immigrants. Immigrants will prefer US.

Notice that "current economic state" is not listed. Friedman doesn't say this explicitly, but he seems to think that if the fundamentals of the US are correct, it'll be able to get out of any situation it is in - even if that involves a show or power or even war.

This way of thinking is foreign for us - generation dot-com. We tend to believe that the smartest country economically gains dominance. We do not think consciously about the possibility of war to gain wealth. In a way, Friedman says that if Japan poses economic danger to US, the US may prevent Japanese fleets from exporting good or importing raw materials. China buys a lot of the US bonds. If US doesn't want to pay back, or wants China to buy more, "persuading" China might not be a totally economic formula.

Friendman further presents his own interpretation of few US history incidents:

the great depression (I have to look at the book again to summarize this correctly, TBD)
the 50-year cycle. He claims that the dominant socio-political landscape changes every 50 years. Each cycle starts with a president who truly represents the needs and hopes of the new dominant group, and ends with a president trying desparetely to apply old solutions to new problems and fails to satisfy the new dominant group. The groups are:
* 1775-1825: aristocrats, english?
* 1825-1875: fronteirsmen, Irish?
* 1875-1925: ? can't remember
* 1925-1975: city dwellers, wasp?
* 1975-2025: suburbs (because of highways)
finally, the credit crisis: I have to review the book to say what exactly

China's Collapse by 2020

Friedman claims that China's economy is just like Japan in 1980:

The debt-to-GDP is very high, and the cost of money is artificially low (government controls the savings rate of the citizens and what companies get the loans). Japan's debt-to-GDP was ~%20 when the banking system failed there. China's is estimated at %25-40. He doesn't explain where the numbers come from.
Thus, he says that just like Japan in the 80s, Chinese companies' success depends on volume of exports, not profit margins. They need high revenue to pay off their debt and get more. This is why their prices are very low.
Thus, on the site of first US recession (since US is china's biggest market), Chinese companies & banking system will fail. He expects that to happen by 2020
He explains that even though China is communist, it had good relations with the US because of Cold War. my enemy's enemy is my friend.
He also claims that China's political unity depends on economic success and payoffs. Thus, the country might go through a civil war (similar to that of Mao) between the poor center and the rich coast. The coastal cities are rich because of foreign relations.

Russia's Collapse in 2020s

He predicts that Russia will go through a second rise, and then a second fall.
The fall will be due to stretching their economy and … have to review the book. I think has to do with the ountries around it.
the most interesting outcome will be the rise of Poland & Turkey - backed by US - to stand for the russian giant. And Japan to a point.

The next 4 super powers: Japan

He predicts Japan will start building a navy power, and once china falls, it'll try to expand its control in the region. US will back it to stand for Russia. It'll seem very friendly power until ~2050.

more details tbd

The next 4 super powers: Turkey (The Islamic Khilafa)

Friedman asserts that Turkey is already an economic power. He says that islamic world has many divisions and internal fights to keep islamist busy. but turkey will take more of a cultural "role" and lead/control the islamic countries of the middle east. much like the ottoman empire before. turkey will get a lot of help from US to stand for russian influence, especially in the baltics and the black sea.

The next 4 super powers: Poland

Poland will be US's first line of defense against russia. thus, it'll become strong, and it'll build influence around east europe. eventually, european countries will see Poland just like the Sovient Union before.

The next 4 super powers: Mexico

Mexico is friedman's surprise. he says it has all the fundamentals to become a super power. it's in north africa - the strongest of the continents. its economy is already big. he asserts that the social problems we hear about are the labor pains of delivering mexico from its indsutrial phase to modern state.

A World War 3 (space war): US-Poland vs Japan-Turkey

This is an interesting chapter. Friedman reiterates that US will get in a war not because it wants to, but because super powers act in predetermined way, and it'll see it as "protecting itself".

in short, turkey and poland will have conflicts, and US will side with Poland, nudging turkey. Japan will also feel restrained as its sphere of influence expands. Turkey and Japan feel that doing a surprise hit against US would send a message to US that it's not the only power in the world.

So, turkey & Japan will blowup US's most advanced (3rd generation) space surveilance system. They will also conduct earth attacks at all known hyper-sonic missle locations. US will respond by using its 2nd generation & secret missle locations to get back very quickly at Japan & Turkey.

Most interestingly, Friedman predicts that WW3 will be very peaceful. He says advanced weapenory will limit casualties to armies and no civilians, and even that to maybe few thousand people. Economic destruction will be big. He also it'll happen quickly.

After this, US will live its golden age (just like after WW2). that's until the big mexican-us confrontation at the end of the ccentury.

The Great US-Mexico Confrontation of 2100

Friendman says that even UN predicts that population in the world will decrease by 2050. He says by 2030 the need for working-age immigrants will become very clear in all advanced nations (europe more than US). these advanced countries will compete for immigrants. US will remain the favorite because of its incentives + population density is still low.

This will cause many immigrants, especially Mexican, to move to US starting 2030s.

unlike all other groups, mexican immigration will cause the "cultural border" between us/mexico to move north.

By ~2080, development in robotics will reduce the need for more workers. Also the economy would get used to functioning in a decreasing population (unlike now when people expect real-estate prices to keep going up - which won't be true after 2030/2050). As a result, US will attempt to stop immigration from Mexico.

This will evolve into the big US-Mexican confrontation by the end of the century. I say confrontation and not war because Friedman predicts that some mexican/us citizens will be senators in both houses across the border. The situation will become weird, where mexicam americans will have a mexican government in the US.

The final outcome of all of this is not clear, and it remains an open question at the end of the book.

Conclusion

The book is very interesting. for me, the biggest takeaway are:

geo-political analysis makes sense, even though something seems missing
future is weirder than fiction
i'm keeping my eye on china. us is in recession now, and let's see what happens there. this is his first prediction. this is something he's been saying since 2007 .

Overall, very interesting book.

5/5 on Arrabi's scale. (this is whether it's worth reading, not that I agree with it)

Fibonacci (Ibn Bonacci) studied in Algeria?

2011-12-23T01:34:00.002+02:00

Interesting what one learns every day.

Fibonacci (1170-1250) - Filius of Bonacci i.e. Ibn Bonacci - was raised as a child in Bjaia, Algeria - part of Almohad’s Dynasty at the time (~1200AD). His father was a employee of Pisa city (of Italy) as their "trade post contact" in Bjaia. Bonacci wanted to "make use" of his stay in Bjaia and insisted that his son studies in its schools before they go back to Italy!

He went to the "accounting school" of the city there, where he learned Arabic-Hindi numerals, and loved them. He traveled until the age of 32 around the Mediterranean learning with Arabic Mathematician until his return to Italy. That’s when we wrote his most famous book, Liber Abaci, which popularized the use of Arabic numerals in Europe.

Here’s a quotation from Fibonacci’s book :

"When my father, who had been appointed by his country as public notary in the customs at Bugia acting for the Pisan merchants going there, was in charge, he summoned me to him while I was still a child, and having an eye to usefulness and future convenience, desired me to stay there and receive instruction in the school of accounting. There, when I had been introduced to the art of the Indians’ nine symbols through remarkable teaching, knowledge of the art very soon pleased me above all else and I came to understand it.."

interesting…

(SOLD) used Black Macbook 2008 2.4GHz for sale in Amman

2009-06-24T23:08:00.000+03:00

(ok, sold)

Hello,

Since I cannot find a good classifieds website, I'm putting this on my blog.

I have a very nice Black Macbook, model 4,1 (this is the one released just before the unibody one).

Bought in September 2008 and rarely used. It's in like new condition. This is the high-end macbook.

Screen: 13.3" inches

CPU: 2.4 GHz

HD: 250 GB

RAM: 2 GB

Superdrive DVD burner drive

Video Card: Intel GMA X3100, 144MB shared memory

wifi, bluetooth, built-in webcam, firewire, etc.

Apple Specs site (MB404LL/A the highest configuration one)

price 800 JD or best offer.

let me konw if you'd like to see it.

I have moved to EhCafe.com

2009-03-12T20:25:00.001+02:00

I have a new blogging home! along with a bunch of brilliant cool friends:
http://www.ehcafe.com/

to subscribe:
http://www.ehcafe.com/feed/

Great article on Drupal CCK

2009-03-05T09:39:00.001+02:00

I don't know why Drupal CCK project page has any artciles like this - a simple description of the underlying DB structure.
too bad this is for 5.x. I hope it didn't change much in 6.x. I am new to drupal so still learning

http://www.lullabot.com/articles/an_introduction_to_the_content_construction_kit

Aswat Concert Jan 24th - the best yet!

2009-01-29T11:04:00.000+02:00

We presented Aswat Concert this past Saturday 24th. We had a full house - and actually had to turn some people down. Our small group is a full orchestra now, with multiple lines of music and violins, base and alto. Our guest director Dr Sari Dwidar from Egypt did an amazing job. Also thousand thanks to Nabila Mango, the driving force behind the group. Check out the video below.

Mohammad Asha, Dr Evil, is Acquitted & FREE

2008-12-17T02:52:00.000+02:00

"Doctor Evil" as some British newspapers dubbed Mohammad Asha, has been acquitted by the UK courts & set free!
I hope the British media would clear his image just like it associated it with terrorism.

Mohammad & I went to the same Jubilee high school in Jordan. He was few years younger than me. It's great that he's finally free. Too bad he had to waste more than a year of his promising life waiting in custody.

news:
(2 page details on him, the incident, and the reasons for keeping him as a suspect)
http://www.timesonl ine.co.uk/ tol/news/ uk/crime/ article5353487. ece

(on why he was a suspect - very short)

http://www.theheral d.co.uk/news/ news/display. var.2475757. 0.Glasgow_ Airport_terror_ attack_Profile_ Mohammed_ Asha.php

(on his mistreatment by UK police)
http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 2/hi/uk_news/ 7773727.stm

Eid Mubarak - a self portrait

2008-12-08T00:37:00.000+02:00

:-)

my photo on schmap.com

2008-11-26T03:13:00.001+02:00

San Diego - Surfing at Pacific Beach
Originally uploaded by arrabi

you can see it under San Diego Pacific Beach
http://www.schmap.com/sandiego/introduction_neighborhoods/#r=none&mapview=Map&tab=Places&p=2028D10&topleft=32.99427,-117.30549&bottomright=32.55607,-117.11254&i=2028D10_23.jpg

Debate: Muslims for McCain vs Muslims for Obama

2008-10-27T19:58:00.000+03:00

Looking forward to this very interesting debate:
http://muslimmatters.org/2008/10/26/live-debate-muslims-for-mccain-vs-muslims-for-obama-oct-30th-10-pm-est/

from the site:

When?

Oct 30th 2008 @ 10 PM EST

How does it work?

The debate will take place on MuslimMatters.org. Format will be chat-box.

Can the audience ask questions?

You can ask questions by placing them as comments on this post (preferred) or e-mailing them to live@muslimmatters.org (deadline for questions: Oct. 29th midnight PST).

amazing creative site - create a movie a click

2008-10-25T11:06:00.000+03:00

check it out:
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20081024115052467

amazing site: you write the script, and in few minutes you have an animation movie of your own.
truly very creative concept and implementation.

60% of internet traffic is P2P!!

2008-10-18T02:54:00.000+03:00

and according to eMarketer.com, video might throttle the internet in the coming years.

Mysterious Incidents

2008-10-17T17:37:00.000+03:00

Mysteriously, things seem to happen in our house. As I pick my bag to work, I find out that the straps, which usually just hang there, have been clicked and tied together. Later in the train I notice a little cup coaster in the outside pocket. Finally at the office, I open my bag to find a pretend-teacup, just for me, in case I want some tea while at work...

The mystery of having a daughter... a blessed mystery.

Direct Instruction - for Jordan?

2008-10-02T20:48:00.001+03:00

I am reading an interesting and entertaining book these days, Super Crunchers. (a very good review) The book emphasizes the importance of using Statistical Evidence for making decisions in every aspect of life where data is available.

One of the examples the book talks about is Direct Instruction (DISTAR) teaching method. According to the book, this was the most successful teaching method tested in the huge Project Follow-Through educational experiment that the American government conducted in the 60s/70s.

The method is outrageous: the course is fully-scripted! The teach simply goes through the script.
However, its success rate is huge. Thinking further about it, I think it might prove very useful in basic-learning classes, like languages or basic math, where a lot of concepts need to be learned. This is of course as opposed to classes that are supposed to expand critical-thinking like Philosophy or Algorithm Programming.

This method might be a perfect fit for teaching English in Jordanian public schools.

The method was devised at University of Oregon. They have a favorable article about it here. Many teachers in the US do not like this method, calling it "teacher-proof" method. However, I'm interested in learning more about it.

Here is a graph on the effectiveness of this method compared to others.

Delta vs RJ (JFK to Amman)

2008-09-30T01:56:00.000+03:00

Delta has recently started offering direct flights from JFK to Amman. Thus, ending Royal Jordanian's long monopoly over such routes.

did anybody try Delta? so far I found one review only. would appreciate more input. I'm trying to decide where to buy tickets for my upcoming trip.

so far:
1- Delta prices are about $300 below Royal Jordanian, which is a lot (~20% difference)
2- Delta is said to have a private security company that does "additional screening" on the ground at Amman airport. Passengers have to hand over their passports and answer questions to that company first, and THEN go to the Government passports line.
3- Delta, just like other American airliners, are said to provide very little leg space (compared to European & RJ flights). not sure if this is true.
4- Delta flights are also rumored to have much more American Government/Army Officials. RJ flights have more children :-)
5- No matter what one can say about RJ, they do have good delicious food. American Airliners usually do not... However, Delta must be loading food from Amman, so, not sure.

if anybody has more info, that would be great.

Who serves in US Military, the poor or rich?

2008-09-23T00:55:00.001+03:00

Thanks to Freakonomics blog, I came across this interesting report, "Who Serves in the US Army?" by the Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank - not related to the army. One can suspect that their goal is to enhance the army's image against the usual stereotype that most of the army's recruits are poor people with no future prospects. Most of the report focuses on new recruits statistics, especially since 2001.

Below is an interesting graph showing the percentage of recruits from the different income brackets. More interestingly is the lower graph that compares the percentage of recruits to that of the population.

Psychology of Liberals vs Conservatives

2008-09-17T21:47:00.000+03:00

Two amazing articles that discuss the psychology of the psychologists who analyze Liberals & Conservatives. The articles provide an insight into how the two rival groups think and evaluate each other. Highly recommended reading:

The critique by Michael Sherman (shorter & to the point)
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge256.html#shermer

The original article by Dr Haidt (long & worth it)
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge256.html#haidt

the same link also has commentary by several scholars on this subject. Very interesting.

the question is: can we apply such analysis on the Jordanian political scene between Elitist, Tribal, Religious, & Progressive camps?

Intelligence, Racial Groups, & Inheritence

2008-09-05T02:53:00.000+03:00

I found today a very interesting survey paper of differences of IQs between different racial groups. (jump to page 16)
http://faculty.mwsu.edu/psychology/Laura.Spiller/4503_Tests/intelligence_knowns_and_unknowns.pdf

(it also has interesting section of make/female differences. in short, higher testosterone = higher spatial/movement intelligence = lower verbal abilities. math differences are complex)

interesting points:
1- Asian Americans, while they have higher SAT/GRE/Academic scores, have the same average IQ.
2- Average IQ of kids in Taiwan, USA & Japan is the same (~101-105), even though Math test scores are higher in Japan & Taiwan.
3- Asian Americans achievements, had they been those of whites, indicate an average IQ of 120, about 20 points higher than the US average. This is a testimony that hard work and discipline can increase one achievements as if they are 20 points smarter.
4- Hispanic Americans average IQ is same as the rest of the US.
5- African Americans score about 15 points below average US IQ test, BUT more recent studies show that this difference is decreasing to about single digits. much discussion is included in the paper on possible explanations.

Another interesting finding (though still controversial): Most of the intelligence is inherited from the mother, not the father.
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/men/thank_mom_for_brains.htm

Newsweek: Forget Harvard, Top Iranian Universities

2008-09-04T20:46:00.000+03:00

Newsweek came out with a very interesting article recently about the rare excellence of Iranian Universities:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/151684

This article enforces what I see in many computer & robotic competitions that I follow. Iranian universities, and even high school, get top honors.

The question that begs itself is: how can they do it?
The article's explanation is rather shallow: all these top students want to leave Iran so bad, education excellence is their ticket out.

However, this doesn't explain why other 3rd world countries with even worse conditions do not produce such high caliber of graduates at that rate (egypt, sudan, bangladesh to name few) (important note: there are definitely excellent students from these countries, but not at the same rate).

The Iranian Educational Excellence is definitely a case of system phenomenon. Iranian students excel in so many fields and universities run by different people. Thus, it's not the result of one or few individuals. So, how can we explain it?

I don't know much about Iran, so all these reasons are really just speculative. I would love if somebody with knowledge of the internal state of Iranian education can shed some light:

1- Individual Motivation of students to leave the country and work & study outside is definitely a reason.

2- Possibly the war with Iraq in the 1980s and the embargo forced Iran to rely on its own resources to repair and produce weapons. This must have lead the universities & army to become very efficient and enter the growth cycle of Research - Manufacture - Test - Research again (to enhance) - etc.
I noted in a previous post that this cycle of enhancement is essential for development of educational systems in any country. I personally think that the excellence of American Universities comes from a similar cycle with the Industries. This keeps the stakes high at the universities, thus politics relatively low.

3- An initial excellent seed: it's possible that the Shah's 1950s scholarships have seeded the universities with excellent professors who brought best practices from western universities. This initial group of professors helped grow the Iranian Universities in the right direction and through the challenges and tests of later years.

but, again, as I said before, I don't know much about the internal situation of Iranian education. All these reasons are speculative. I would love to hear a more educated explanation of this phenomenon.

Oil in Jordan?

2008-08-28T00:57:00.000+03:00

From a very informative post by Dr Abu-Jaber of Yarmouk University on the possibility of Oil Fields in Jordan. As you can see in the map, about 66% of the oil in the world is concentrated in what is called the "Oil Corridor" - which results from the collision of 2 tectonic plates.
Unfortunately, Jordan is not on this corridor - but the possibility of "some oil" is present.

Walt Disney of the Arab World?

2008-08-27T20:14:00.000+03:00

Suleiman Ma'rouf Al-Bakhit has founded Aranim, what seems to be one of the first Arabic Comic-book companies. Here's an interesting article about his company:

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.info/search_index.php?news_id=34471&page=detail_news

He started on his own, but then got funding from King Abdullah Development Fund (not sure if he got $2-3 million or if he's waiting for that amount in the next 3 years, article not clear).

He complains about lack of comic cartoonists in Jordan and the Arab world. He pays freelance artists from all over the world to turn his sketches into actual comics. I hope this will eventually garner enough interest in Jordan to produce able local artists.

seems like a nice beginning. good luck Suleiman.

Ikbis.com's Competition: 3alaRasi.com

2008-08-26T00:56:00.000+03:00

This is not really new, but it is news to me. The competition for the Arabs eyes (pictures & videos) has gotten hotter: after Ikbis.com now we have 3alaRasi.com

they even have a Facebook Application: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=9781705765

The company behind the site: Erum of Um Uthaina
http://younoodle.com/startups/erum_creative_productions_l_l_c

headed by Mohammad Al-Ramini
http://younoodle.com/people/mohammad_al_ramini

who knows more about it?

The real ranking of olympics

2008-08-24T20:31:00.000+03:00

A medal-density by population ranking:
http://darkprofit.com/beijing-2008.php
very interesting

Rank	Country	G	S	B	T	Official rank
1	JAM - Jamaica	6	3	2	11	13
2	BRN - Bahrain	1	0	0	1	52
3	MGL - Mongolia	2	2	0	4	31
4	NZL - New Zealand	3	1	5	9	26
5	EST - Estonia	1	1	0	2	46
6	AUS - Australia	14	15	17	46	6
7	GEO - Georgia	3	0	3	6	27
8	NOR - Norway	3	5	2	10	21
9	SVK - Slovakia	3	2	1	6	25
10	SLO - Slovenia	1	2	2	5	41
11	LAT - Latvia	1	1	1	3	45

iWoz - review of Steve Wozniac's new book

2008-05-01T22:36:00.000+03:00

After years of being an icon of the PC revolution, Steve Wozniac talks!

iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon
How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It

I would say this is a long-awaited account of Steve Wozniac on how it all started. And actually, towards the end of the book, he says that he wrote this book partly to set the record straight.

My take aways from the book:

Steve is a SIMPLE COOL NERD! This is the main take away from the book. The book reads as if Steve is sitting with you in a coffee shop and telling you a story.

I love the simplicity of the book.
He repeats himself every now and then, and asks simple rhetorical questions like "do you believe that"
He uses simple diction, and sounds very excited all the time.
He actually goes into detail explaining his original designs - showing how much he actually enjoys this stuff. If you are a CE student, you'll enjoy the book.

Steve Wozniac single handedly designed the Apple I & Apple II.
Apple company became a huge success directly because of Steve's designs of these 2 machines.
Steve was a true whizz kid! he was designing circuits since elementary school!
In high school he designed a very nice 8-bit calculator - I could relate to that :-) of course he actually implemented his design and showed it off in science fairs.
Steve didn't do any major design work since Apple II. He founded a company that didn't succeed afterwards.
Steve Jobs brilliance was bringing the right people to turn the Apple II to a great success. The original market by the 2 Steves was to sell Apple II to hobbiests (similar to Radio Hobbiests)
These people are:

Mike Markkula: he was an Intel millionaire who retired in his 30s. This guy truly saw the revolution possible with the Apple II: a cheap micro computer. According to Wozniac, this guy told them they will become a Fortune 500 company, that they will start a whole industry, that people will eventually use the computers for every day tasks - the 2 Steves just thought it was a cool device. Jobs had more of a business sense of the potential, but not like Mike. Mike also was the first real investor in Apple.

For example, Mike is the one who insisted that they support Floppy Drives - something very new at the time for PCs.
And, Mike is the one who convinced makers of VisiCalc to produce it for the Apple II.

Michael "Scotty" Scott: Scotty is a forgotten character in Apple's history. However, he was the CEO who took Apple to the largest IPO since Ford. He was pretty much "fire" in 1981, after he fired about 50% of Apple's engineers thinking they were redundant. That was known as "Black Wednesday". Wozniac seems to really like Scotty. I've never heard of him until this book.

Steve Wozniac was behind many "landmarks" in the bay area that I really like:

Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose my daughters favorite spot in the valley.
The San Jose Ballet Company
Shoreline Amphitheatre

After Apple II, Steve pretty much became a cool nerdy multi multi millionaire, who just jumped from one project to another trying to do "cool stuff", like through the "US" music festival, fly airplanes, buy and build huge houses, ...
Steve did not produce a great design or product after the Apple II (well, the CL9 universal remote control was cool, but I would say nothing as cool as the Floppy Drivers he wrote for Apple II, what I consider his last great achievement.)
Ah, Wozniac claims that he's the one behind the Keyword & Monitor idea. He says that he started it with Apple II, and after that all companies imitated it.
And, Wozniac also claims to be behind the "whosh" sound in the floppy disks. He says that behind his drivers, the floppy disks made clicking sounds because they were constantly getting stopped and started. He came up with the design to keep them rotating at high speed, and just slowing them down to read. This brilliant design allowed Apple II to have the highest disk access speeds for several years. I can't find evidence for this story though anywhere else but his book.

In a nutshell: a very nice, informative, and entertaining book. read it.

New Job Search website from Jordan targeting Worldwide audience

2008-05-01T22:28:00.000+03:00

Orfalis, an entrepreneurial software company in Jordan, that acts and feels like startups, has gone public with their latest venture:

http://www.jobbind.com

This has been a "secret project" for a while. The company built a very nice internet-searching technology that allows them to find jobs and update them directly from the companys' websites.

I love their UI - it's simple yet professional. The flow of the pages and usability are great.

The site is still in Beta. Try it out, and send them feedback.

Orfalis were the creators of iCuisine, the first wireless restaurant management software in Jordan (where waiters took orders on wireless PDA like devices).
Then, they came up with TickerChart.com, which is the de facto technical analysis tool for all Arabic Middle East Stock Markets.

"Golden Era" of Saudi Arabia

2008-05-01T22:24:00.000+03:00

With the oil prices through the roof, and Saudi's massive investments in education and infrastructure, I think it's fare to call it the "Golden Era" of Saudi Arabia. And, I think this is Saudi's chance to secure their post-oil future.

Saudi Arabia in `Golden Era,' Credit Suisse Says

May 1 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group recommended buying shares of Al Rajhi Bank, Saudi Arabia's biggest bank by market value, as well as Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co. and said the country is in a ``golden era.''

The brokerage also initiated coverage on Riyad Bank and Almarai Co. with ``outperform'' ratings. Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the world's biggest chemicals maker by market value, received a ``neutral'' recommendation.

``Oil prices are at an all-time high; hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure investments are expected to drive growth,'' analysts including Mohamad Hawa wrote in a note. ``The government is continuing to diversify its hydrocarbon-based economy.''
...

This boom is in the opposite direction of the US economy:

Gulf States May End Dollar Pegs, Kuwait Minister Says

My little google maplet - draw addresses on google maps quickly

2008-04-27T12:12:00.000+03:00

Google Maps allows developers to provide javascript to create little utilities that interact with the map. I created a little maplet that allows you to create pointers for any list of addresses you provide in a simple text box.

try it out by licking here.

Wedding Standards in Jordan!

2008-04-14T23:22:00.000+03:00

A number of the "elders" of the city of Salt in Jordan issued the "Social Conduct" document. This document recommends limits on the extravagant spending people tend to do during social events, like Weddings.

http://www.assult2008.org/Sult%20Collections.aspx?ID=1&CM=21

The greatest thing about the document is that it's a people initiative - not the government. It's endorsed by the tribal elders, thus socially acceptable - at least within the city of Salt.

The document is written in "politically-correct style" ... so be patient, and don't pick the details. look for the real advice :-)

few portions:

ومن أجل ذلك كله كانت وثيقة السلط الشعبية وكان ابناء المدينة روادها الأوائل الذين هدفوا من خلالها الى ما يلي:-

3.جسر الهوة الاجتماعية التي تشكلت بين الطبقات الموسرة والطبقات الأقل حظا.

5.توفير الوقت والجهد المبذولبن بدون هدف ولا جدوى لممارسة طقوس أقرب ما تكون الى العبيثة وجلد الذات.

6.أزالة الحواجز أمام الشباب الراغبين باقامة بنائهم الأسري ،وتسهيل الطريق لهم للوصول الى حقهم الطبيعي المشروع بالزواج.

11.العودة بالناس الى القواعد الدينية السليمة بعيدا عن البدع التي تراكمت في حياتهم بحجة الحرص على الوفاء للطقوس والشعائر الدينية مع أن الدين الإسلامي والدين المسيحي منها براء.

and

3-للمخطوبة الحق في:

متأخر معقول وزفاف لحمايتها من أي تعسف مستقبلي شريطة أن لا يكون خارجا عن المألوف.

لبسه من الذهب لا تزيد عن ألفي دينار, ويعتبر هذا الذهب هو الشبكة وهو المهر.

جهاز شخصي (جهاز العرس) لا تتعدى الف دينار ,يزيد قليلا أو ينقص قليلا حسب الظروف

أثاث بيت يتناسب مع قدرة الخاطب وكفاءته المالية وظروفه الأجتماعية

توصي الوثيقة أن يبادر أهل العروس لتحمل جزء ولو بسيطا من مستلزمات بيت الزوجية أو لتغطية بعض النفقات الإضافية المترتبة على الخاطب,دعما منهم وتشجيعا لمبدأ الشراكة الزوجية التي يفترض أن تشمل كل شؤون الحياة المستقبلية ضمن الشرع والعرف السائدين

ثانيا:مراسيم الزواج

-3إخراج عنصر السيارات تماما من زفة العريس داخل المدينة إذا كان بيت العروس قريبا من بيت العريس وإذا كان بعيدا يكتفي بعدد محدود من السيارات إطلاق أي زامور يمكن أن يزعج الناس وأن يكون هنالك التزام تام بقواعد المرور المرعية
5- يستمر المواطنون في إلغاء عادة تقديم السجائر واعتبار هذه العادة من الماضي الذي انقضى وإلغاء عادة إطلاق الأعيرة النارية أو المفرقعات بما في ذلك الصوتية والضوئية بكل أنواعها

10- الغاء عادة النقوط النقدي والعيني إلغاءا تاما مع إبقاء الباب مفتوحا أمام كل من يرغب بسداد نقوط ساب

I think it's a very good start.

Human Mizmar

2008-04-12T03:06:00.001+03:00

simple physics & pen game

2008-04-12T03:04:00.000+03:00

Play Games at AddictingGames

Amazing lecture: Combined human-computer intelligence

2008-03-29T22:47:00.000+03:00

Amazing lecture, on how to combine human & computer intelligence through games.
a new novel idea that can have so much effect.

Underground Arabic Music Wiki - Initial Thoughts

2008-01-21T12:24:00.001+02:00

Update (Jan 21st, 2008)
Qwaider and Ruba are on board for the project. Qwaider has graciously accepted to host the site on his servers. He suggested using ScrewTerm wiki engine, which seems to be a full-featured and easy to deploy & use wiki engine made with .NET. We'll work on few ideas and then decide how to proceed.

Since I went to the USA to study, my interest in Arabic Music grew. As a result, I made sure to take music lessons whenever I visited Jordan in the summer. To my surprise, I found out two facts about Music in Jordan: coming from the outside it's very hard to find good music teachers or instruments, AND, there is a LOT of creativity and amazing work that remains hidden for years and years. Most of the musicians know each other - and once you start taking lessons with one of them (usually not at the "elites centers"), you get introduced to this "underground scene" of music lovers. They have their own jokes, hangouts, and sources of income. Just imagine smart people who decided to pursue music in this age in Jordan - they ONLY do it because cannot live without it. Unparalleled is the level of excitement and ambition I see in their eyes.

Long ago I thought of creating a website to bring music lovers together and allow others to discover their works and projects. However, that idea went dormant (along with Arabic Literature Review site) until I read this very very nice article by Ruba Saqr (thanks to Ruba for introducing me to her work, and to Qwaider for her blog's link).

Ruba Saqr asks: when would there be a project to compile the complete list of Jordanian works?
I think the time is when we decide to do it. I suggested the idea of creating a Wiki page, and she seems to really like it.

As a result, I created this blog post, to put the idea out there, and hopefully get some feedback on it. I do not want to do this alone. I wish this project to grow as a group-effort satisfying the needs of its goals.

If you can help or you have suggestions, please feel free to add them to the comments below.

The Project Proposal

Mission: connect the cultural musicians and music fans in the Arab World together.

Goal: create a collaborative site (wiki site) and allow fans and musicians to populate it with info about Arabic musicians or musicians interested in Arabic music, their works, and activities, and any other related content that would serve them (e.g. lesson announcements, instruments exchange, etc.).

For example: The site will allow you to see a list of all jordanian musicians. For each musician, you'll get links to their sites or any fan sites. The site will also list all their works. Some works can be promoted into their own pages with info about the piece - and reviews on it. Each article will have multiple tags, thus, you would be able to search for "jazz musicians in Irbid".

Hopefully, you can also listen to pieces or view videos right there. The site will inform you what Music teachers are available close to you. The site will also facilitate musical instruments exchange. The site will also have pages about other music-related areas, like instrument makers, and sound technicians, etc. The site will have a calendar/list of events of those cultural musicians. The site can also have music-info (e.g. about Oud, about Maqam Rast, etc.) - or we may just link to wikipedia.

FAQ

What do you mean by "cultural musicians"?

I want to exclude pop musicians who work just for money. Those have different needs and goals and do not need volunteers working for them. I want to include those who love music for its "cultural" value - for its sake, and not for money. For example, the wiki we create might have a page about Amr Diab, but it is not the site's goal to talk and serve the needs of Amr Diab.
Is this limited to Arabic Music only?

No. Whom to target with the site is still an open question that I want group decision on. However, my idea is to make the site arab-centric. Thus, the site will include any Arab musician interested in any type of music, or any human being interested in Arabic music.
Why Arab and not Jordanian?

Why not? we speak the same language (even when we speak English), thus communication on the site is easy. And the music is very similar. And, the culture is very similar.
Why not include Turkish and Persian?

Middle Eastern music has A LOT in common. Just look at the names of Maqams. However, the site is about the social aspect of bringing musicians together. To create an efficient site, we have to draw the limit of its 'core audience' somewhere. If we start including 'similar' countries, we'll end up with the whole world, thus diluting the focus to help Arab musicians in the first place.
Does this site exclude non-Arab citizens of Arab countries?

NOT AT ALL! This site is for any music activity of Arab musician. Arab musicians include all citizens of all Arab countries: I would love to see a page on Amazeghi music from morocco, or Nubi music from Egypt, or Chechen music from Jordan, or Armenian music from Syria, or Kurdish music from Iraq, etc.

Open Questions

Arab vs Jordanian?

I suggest making the site for all Arabs. However, each country will have its own site, since the communication and connection within the same country is usually the easiest and most practical.
What do you think?
Cultural vs Pop/for-profit musicians?

I suggest having the site focus on the "left behind" musicians, and not those who are in the "music industry". Music industry usually focuses on the least-common-factor aspect of music that appeals to largest number of people. Thus, producing mostly very simple and non-thoughtful music. If somebody wants to create a page for Amr Diab, then go ahead. But, that won't be a 'goal' of the site.

what do you think?
Arab vs Neighboring countries?

I suggest keeping an Arabic feeling to the site to capitalize on the cultural and language commonalities between the participants.

do you think we should include Turkey and Iran? maybe Spain? and Greece? how about African music?
Non-Arabs interested in Arabic Music?

Living in the US, I truly respect those who spend loads of their time and money learning Arabic music while it is not in their culture. They pay a lot of money and try very hard to find a good Oud to buy, or developing a reference site for other musicians (check Mike's Oud site). Thus, I'd like to include them as part of the site.

what do you think?
Why not just add pages to the Arabic Wikipedia?

Unlike Wikipedia, our goal is not to collect data, but to create a hub for communication. Pages like "instruments for sale" or "reviews of tracks" do not fit Wikipedia.
What do you think?
Why go with Wiki? why not ...?

I personally think Wiki is suitable because we can make it into anything we like. And, for such big cultural project, we really need participation of all those involved.
what other alternatives you would suggest?
Allow anonymous editing?

I prefer not. This is not a site for online music surfers, but for real musicians and their real fans. Thus, I think all people registered in the site must register with their real names. I hope this would reduce spam and fights.

What do you think?
Which wiki engine?

I don't know many. I like MediaWiki (the one used for Wikipedia). but I really don't know much about wikis. What do you suggest?
Where to host?

I have no clue. I was looking into cheap hosted wiki solutions (e.g. pbwiki.com). What do you suggest?
What to call it?

I'm not sure yet. Email me privately if you are afraid of somebody stealing the domain name :-)

Next Steps:

Discuss this on the web for ~5 days.
Choose a 'core group' of interested people to proceed.
Discuss and agree on the open questions. Share results on the web.
Devise a work plan.
Execute the plan.

If you're interested in helping, add a comment below, indicate that, and let me know your email address.

thanks,
Muhammad

"strong little men" a nice photo

2007-12-30T13:13:00.000+02:00

Our Winter Concert

2007-12-25T21:33:00.000+02:00

The few past months were very busy. Part of this is due to Aswat, the very nice community ensemble for Arabic Music. Most of the players have other more formal lives during the week. However, we gather on Sundays and we live in a different world of Arabic music. Most of them are not even arabs, but just very interested in the arabic music - either for change, or for it itself.

We had our biggest and nicest concert so far on December 1st, 2007. I uploaded few videos of the concert:

Checker is SOLVED! and a robotic fly spy!

2007-07-21T00:19:00.000+03:00

Scientists have created a tiny fly robot for surveillance purposes.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19068/

The Checkers game is pronounced DEAD! It's SOLVED. There's a book of moves now (well, a computer program), that is guaranteed not to lose. How did they do it? they ran the program for 18 years!
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn12296-checkers-solved-after-years-of-number-crunching.html

My beautiful retarded new phone Motorla KRZR

2007-07-19T20:56:00.000+03:00

This phone looks good but IT IS HORRIBLE TO USE!!

The Camera is very nice 2MP. The Sound is very good. But USABILITY IS ZERO!

I'm sure the designer of this phone does not use it!

Examples of Problems:
1- Just try to get to the Calendar: you have to go to Main Menu, Settings, Tools, and then Calendar. WHO PUTS THE CALENDAR IN THE CONTROL PANEL!?!?

2- The utility buttons on top (usually OK & Cancel) KEEP CHANGING POSITION. Each window redefine them in a contradictory way. Sometimes OK is on the right, sometimes it is on the left. !?!?

3- The phone book is SLOW. When I look for people, I hit "down arrow", and then click "2" 3 times to get to the C letter. Usually, the phone book is so slow to come up, it catches only the third click. I have to delete all the letters I typed, and then typed from beginning. When this happens EVERYTIME you want to look for somebody, it is IRRITATING. My 3 years old nokia was faster.

4- There many many options that cannot be customized. For example, I cannot redefine the shortcuts menu!?!?

5- If I set a special ring for somebody, even their SMS use that ring. WHY WOULD I WANT THAT!? I want a simple beep for my sms, and an id ring only if somebody calls me. There is NO WAY to do this with Krzr.

Ah.... please, take back your phone, and send me my old Nokia back!

The youngest Oud Master in the world, 15 years old!

2007-06-28T00:02:00.000+03:00

I found this video by coincidence. Amazing video of Mohammad Abo-Thikra, who graduated from Beit Al-Oud (house of Oud) Academy at age 15. He studied with Naseer Shamma, considered to be the best technical oud player in the Arab world.

It is sad that such great accomplished is not known except by coincidence! Arab organizations, even well respected ones like Beit Al-Oud, do a very bad job announcing their news.

Globalization and small-shops owners

2007-06-22T04:14:00.000+03:00

This interesting article shows an example of Globalization's good and bad effects:
Efficient big companies raising the bar, and on the other hand small-shop owners losing out

Chain Reaction: the story of Jordan's first chain pharmacy

In short, it talks about Pharmacy One, which is a chain-pharmacy in Jordan. In few years, this pharmacy has expanded into 17 branches, and it's taking business away from many pharmacy owners who have been in business for over 30 years.

what is the solution for these small-pharmacy owners?
are they the unavoidable collateral damage of Globalization and modernity?
or should the government enact laws to prevent Chains from providing better service or cheaper prices?
or maybe the government can offer educational programs to help those owners understand the new rules of the game? (but those go only so far)

It's a hard problem. It is even much harder if you are (or know) somebody who is losing his 30-year-old business to one of those efficient chains.

Similarly, an investor chose Hai Nazzal, which is a relatively poor neighborhood in Amman, to build a mall. That was a surprising step at the beginning. But soon it attracted almost all shoppers in the area. Many of the old clothes shops in the neighborhood closed up as a result... what do you do with these people who support usually big families? One can talk as much as he likes about free market, development, and globalization... but, to have a sizable portion of the population lose their livelihood in a short period is a real problem.

I'm not saying flip the laws, raise walls, and halt free market... one must find a solution to ease it on all these unsuspecting citizens who lost their livelihood within few months.

do you guys know/thought of any good solutions for this problem?
I think soon most of the arab world will fall into it soon.

More interesting posts about Globalization & Arab World:

Jordan’s Pharmaceutical Industry and Tomatoes

Industrial Jordan in the Age of Globalization

Aswat's June 2nd Concert

2007-06-07T01:33:00.000+03:00

Aswat, the San Francisco Arabic Music Ensemble - part of Zawaya.org, had a very nice concert last Saturday June 2nd, 2007. As some know, I play the Nay with them. They are very professional, and a lot has gone into preparations of this concert.

Here's a video of the very first piece we performed. It's a Sama'i (a common form in classical arabic and turkish music - it's made of 4 parts, where 2nd part keeps coming back). This piece was composed by Safar Ali, who was a prolific classical Arabic music composer from Egypt (1884-1962). It's in Nahawand maqam, which is similar to the Western Minor scale.

More videos soon inshallah. Hope you like it:
(note - wait for the short Nay solo part towards the end)
Credits: Video by my brother Saad Arrabi - check the nice smooth zoom-in & out movement.

Islamic Finance - the science of fraud

2007-05-26T00:30:00.000+03:00

The state of most "islamic financial solutions" offered today by many "islamic" banks are almost joke-like. Many of those are exact replicas of regular interest-based solution but with "fancier" names. Instead of interest, they change "rent", and instead of calling them "bonds", they call them "sukuk"... is this really the spirit of islamic finance? Why would islam give us a different system... if it is actually the same underneath!?

One of the bravest and most articulate defenders of true islamic finance is professor Mahmoud El-Gamal or Rice university. He published the following article in Financial Times. I think it says much. Read the whole article at
http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=special+report+islamic&y=0&aje=true&x=0&id=070523000775

One of the most popular [phony islamic finance] models is the sale/lease-back bond structure, known by the exotic name sukuk al-ijara. A bond issuer sells some real estate or other assets to a special purpose vehicle, which raises the funds by selling share certificates. The SPV leases the assets back to the issuer, thus collecting principal plus interest and passing them along to sukuk holders in the form of rent. At the end of the lease, the SPV sells or gives the property back to the issuer.

A nice read "Inside the Madrasa"

2007-05-15T00:56:00.000+03:00

A very nice piece by an intriguing Islamic intellectual:
Inside the Madrasa by Ebrahim Moosa. I met Dr. Moosa at Stanford in 2000. He was a visiting professor and I was a visitor to the Ramadan daily Iftars.

The article talks about Dr. Moosa's years studying at Indian Madrasas. I've heard about the Madrasa system from different people, and about the rivalry between the Deobandi schools vs others. This article brings to light many of these schools and their interesting development - information one wouldn't get but from an insider.

This is the first article I read by Dr. Moosa, and I have to say that I'm impressed. I'm interested in reading his Ghazali book now.

My type of exercise

2007-05-09T23:06:00.000+03:00

Check this article

'Exercise pill' switches on gene that tells cells to burn fat

Makes normal mice resistant to weight gain on high-fat diet

By giving ordinary adult mice a drug - a synthetic designed to mimic fat - Salk Institute scientist Dr. Ronald M. Evans is now able to chemically switch on PPAR-d, the master regulator that controls the ability of cells to burn fat. Even when the mice are not active, turning on the chemical switch activates the same fat-burning process that occurs during exercise. The resulting shift in energy balance (calories in, calories burned) makes the mice resistant to weight gain on a high fat diet.

If you love Amman...

2007-04-27T03:38:00.001+03:00

You must MUST read "Story of a City" (Seerat Madinah) by legendary writer Abdel Rahman Munif (author of Cities of Salt). It turned out that although he is Saudi, he was raised in Amman.

A very beautiful book - soon inshallah I will share parts of it here.

Muhammad

Nice read

2007-04-27T03:28:00.000+03:00

The 4th most sited economist Gregory Mankiw shares some of his 'work habits':

My Rules of Thumb
http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/mankiw/papers/My_Rules_of_Thumb.pdf

it makes a very nice read.

Book: Kite Runner by Hosseini

2007-04-20T00:41:00.000+03:00

The Kite Runner is the first novel by Khaled Hosseini. It's supposed to be the first novel published in English by an Afghan... and that was 2003. The novel has also won several awards, and was a favorite for several book clubs, and was a top 10 best seller in 2005 (check the novel's wikipedia site).

Why all this? I don't know!

About 60% of the novel was truly interesting. The Afghani author was writing about his childhood in Afghanistan - way back, at the time of the King, before the communist coupe. That was very amusing, because it was real. The description of his father, the Kites competition, his Hazara friends/servants/relatives - all this was just very sincere and nice. The description of Afghan community in Fremont, CA was very interesting. I actually took a drive there and ate at a restaurant while reading the novel to "live in the same atmosphere". It was very similar. The part in the novel about "Nang and Namos", one's pride and dignity, was also very interesting insight into the Afghani mentality.

However, the other 40% of the novel was terrible. It read like a very bad action hindi movie. The action sequence was oversimplified and obviously made up. His whole story about walking in Afghanistan during the Taliban was so "cliche", it made the novel very weak. Reading about the author later on, it seems it left Afghanistan in the 1970s - thus he never lived through the communist government nor Taliban. His images must have come mainly from CNN and, and possibly some Afghan sources.

The Novel also had many weak spots for tying events together. It was obvious that the author went through the novel once, and then went back and added "connections" later on. The problem is that these connections were too obvious, too direct, and generally didn't fit in the context.

For example, at the end of the conversation with the INS officer, the officer says - out of nowhere - "did you promise that boy you'll take him to America", "Yes", "That is dangerous business, making promises to kids."

Why would anybody say that?
well, because in 2 scenes afterwards, the main cahracter breaks the promise the little kid attempts suicide!

By shear coincidence, the wife's uncle is an "INS Officer" who has been working there for many years. Later in the novel, the guy needs a hard-to-get humanitarian visa... and surprise surprise, the Uncle uses his connections to get it.

Even the "research" that was done for the novel, (e.g. the visa laws for adoption), are used in bulk - thrown at the reader, and did not help at all with the plot. They seemed to "solve themselves" quickly and with only one move.

There are many such instances that only show a certain immaturity in the author's style. No surprise, this was his first novel.

Thus, after all this, again, I'm not sure why this novel has become so popular. From an American point of view, the novel is very "politically correct", it denounces the Taliban and shows them as pure evil, it rails about "double standards with women", "women should be able to sleep with strangers before marriage just as easily as boys", ... I think to a point this played a role why this was a book club favorite.

Supposedly the author is coming up with a second novel soon. It'll be interesting to see if it does as good.

now... I'm looking for my next book. Any suggestions?

1984, the movie

2007-04-11T04:13:00.000+03:00

As I said in a previous post, I read Orwell's novel "1984" recently. Yesterday I got to see the movie.

I had a hard time finding it. Blockbuster and Netflix both do not carry it. When I used to live in Seattle, Scarecrow Video, the biggest movie store west of the Mississippi, was my ultimate destination for all these rare movies. However, we don't have such nice places in the bay area (yet).

Fortunately, the Peninsula Library System had a copy of this movie. One have to respect public library systems in this country.

The movie is interesting: it was filmed between April and June in 1984 - the same period in which the novel takes place.

If you didn't read the novel, the movie is disappointing and vague. The movie excels at reproducing the atmosphere of the novel: the Big Brother police state, the people, the cars, the military everywhere, the "ministry of truth" offices and the "ministry of love" policemen, etc.

However, the movie does a very bad job at developing the story. Orwell's treatment and development of events and dialogs in the novel is just brilliant. And it makes the novel, in my opinion, a very fine piece of literature. This is in addition to its compelling political and philosophical message. The events in the movie seem to happen sequentially without much explanation or proper build up.

I am not very surprised that very few places carry the movie.

If you have read the novel and want to "visualize" the world of 1984, then definitely see the movie. Otherwise, don't ruin the story for yourself - pick up the novel and read it.

1984 and Brave New World

2007-04-10T02:05:00.000+03:00

I have just finished reading 2 of the 3 "dystopia" classical novels of all time. I read Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. I left our Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. (Well, there are several other famous dystonpian novels, like Animal Farm and Anthem... so 3 is not really an accurate number).

Quickly, 1984 explores what would life be like if a totalitarian communist regime is able to take over the world in the 1950s. The novel follows Wilson as he lives in 1984, with the 'Big Brother' government taking care (and micro-control) the life of every citizen (party member) very closely (supposedly to prevent social injustice).

1984 has truly shocked me. Orwell is a master writer - he immerses the reader in the events and the thoughts of his characters to the deepest level. Every word, every move, every feeling, I was able to feel throughout. The novel is also very smart - it does not patronize the reader or insult the reader's intelligence.

This is usually a very good feature about a novel, except that, in the third part, Wilson is taken to the "Ministry of Love" (internal intelligence) for torture and interrogation. And in this third part, I was extremely exhausted and disturbed. The description of torture was not gory, but it got to you. The Big Brother's ministry of love did not want to just kill its enemies. It wanted to brainwash them into admitting they were wrong in the first place - not just say that, but truly mean it. Thus, most of the torture was extremely mental and ... oh, how disturbing.

The novel, just like Orwell's Animal Farm, is usually thought of as anti-communist/anti-socialist. But it's actually not. Orwell himself was a socialist. However, and as he said, the novel is against any tyrannical system of whatever ideology. In 1984, the 'Big Brother' is described to look a lot like Stalin.

However, some of what the Big Brother government said reminds one A LOT of what is happening today.
One sentence was "War is peace" - "we wage war to achieve peace"... hm..., where did I hear that before?

The second novel, Huxley's Brave New World, was OK. I think it is of much less quality than Orwell's. Huxley seems to have had few ideas, and then he created a novel around them. Orwell was closer to a philosopher. His characters were much deeper and much more believable. Huxley's novel seem patronizing at times by "pushing" the reader into hating or liking certain characters. One wouldn't love or hate them for their ideas, but rather, as done in hollywood, but other attributes like the way they talk or how nice they behave.

Brave New World is about a futuristic "utopian" world where the government also tries to make every person very happy all the time by "encouraging free sex, drugs, and conformist ideas" for all the citizens. The novel then compares this world with the "savages world" (which is supposed to be today's world). The comparison and the bulk of the philosophical discussions take place when "John", a "savage person", is brought to live in the utopian world.

Both were made movies. It'll be nice to fetch them out. I know both Blockbuster and Netflix do not carry either of them. I guess they are too academic for their tastes.

It would be very nice to find an Arabic "dystopia" novel. I don't know of any.

H1-B visas reach quota in 1 day!

2007-04-06T02:10:00.001+03:00

By late Monday afternoon, USCIS had already been flooded with 150,000 H-1B petitions. It can only accept 65,000. Many of those workers will go to tech companies, such as Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., and Intel Corp.
Those lucky enough to get in before the door closed will have to cross their fingers and hope that they survive the next round. To be fair, USCIS said it will randomly select the winners of H-1Bs from among the entire pool.

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5PIZQOZKEZJN2QSNDLSCKHA?articleID=198800022

TV on USB

2007-04-04T23:24:00.001+03:00

Watch HDTV with a usb device!
http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/detail.php?id=2261

(testing email blog submissions)

Book reflections: Common Sense by Thomas Paine

2007-04-04T22:30:00.000+03:00

Thomas Paine published his famous book/pamphlet titled 'Common Sense' during the US Revolutionary War (1776) as an articulation of why US wanted to secede from England. (I read the audiobook)

The book can be viewed in two ways:
1- A historical one: understanding why George Washington & friends thought that US should be independent.
2- An interesting argument in Political Science & the "optimum form of government".

I've always wondered, what made the US what it is now? from an isolated colony to a super power?
I've also wondered on how revolutions take place. For example, the French Monarchy was supposedly strong, and yet, somehow a group of many uneducated hungry and poor people were able to carry on a revolution that changed the way people think of governments since then.

Same goes for the US. The American revolutionaries viewed seceding from England as a coupe against the idea of monarchy.

But how can normal people, who go about their daily errands and pursuit of bread and food, how can those people elevate to such abstract thinking and cause a revolution? This was the most interesting aspect of the book for me.

There is no straight answer to these questions. The spirit one feels by reading the book is the only answer.

I think the book is another proof that Democracy cannot be brought or imposed - it really has to develop and evolve and change within the people themselves until they want it. And there shouldn't be any preconceived ideas on how to implement it. We really should start with a white slate.

For example, in Hamilton first proposal to the parliament, he suggested that they elect a president for life! An idea that many of today's politician find the opposite of democracy. However, the fact that he was free tos uggest it and get everybody to discuss it - and discuss all the basics of what they want, all of this has resulted in a system that was custom made for the USA and tailored to their needs and aspirations.

Social structures can never be imported - and when they are, they cause many harmful side effects, and usually do not even achieve their goals. The example I like to use is usually the Jordan Educational System (and the system in the arab world - and many other 3rd world countries)

I've deviated away from the book. So, in conclusion - a nice book to get a feeling of the political thought at the time.

(drafted 6/3/06)

Book thoughts: Slaves in the Family

2007-04-04T22:27:00.000+03:00

I've recently finished reading Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball. Following are some of my thoughts on that book.

1- The book is about the history of the slave-owning Ball family and the lives of their slaves, from the creation of the Charleston British colony in South Carolina all the way to the 20th century.

2- I've read American history from different points of view before, but I've never seen something like this. This book provides a personal-history of the US, how ordinary people perceived and dealt with state-level events and wars.

3- Apparently, during the American revolution, England promised "freedom" to slaves who joined the English army. Many slaves escaped their plantations and went to Canada or South America. Of those who were not captured back or got killed, a good number ended up going back to Africa and starting a new city, deservedly named "Freetown".

4- Some of the ex-slaves at Freetown sat down and wrote their memoirs, how they were captured from Africa, all the way to how they made it back. I'm sure these books show the amazing power of the human will. I'm looking forward to reading some of them.

5- The book shows the very-long-process of abolishing race-inequality in the US (which is still going on). Many of us, new 'visitors' to the US, think that slavery & race-inequality were old issues that were solved long time ago, and we wonder why some make a big deal of it. We think that race-problems here are just like Jordan's north vs. south or Irbid vs. Sarih or even Palestinian vs. Jordanian thing.This book shocked me that it's actually way way worst!

6- Quick history of the slavery question (very good article about UK here and generally here):

The question of the "legality" of slavery goes back to 1772, when English court ruled that James Somerset, a black slave, should be free.
UK started a gradual abolition movement until 1833, the time of the Emancipation Bill. On the way, they used "freed slaves" as a bargain method against the Americans during the revolutionary wars.
USA, on the other hand took much longer. They started by "prohibiting the slavery trade" in 1792. South Carolina, out of all states, voted to allow it. This went on until the US isseud a Federal Act to stop it completely in 1830. In reality, slaves kept being smuggled into the country, but at much lesser numbers.
In 1850, a freed black slave (look for his name) was taken as a slave again. He went to court to request his freedom. The case went all the way to the Supreme-court, where they decided "The constitution grants rights to 'free white men', and since he's a slave, he does not even have the right to file a lawsuit"!! Thus, he was kept a slave. This cuased a great uproar and mini-slave uprising that killed around 200 white men. The army interfered and killed and tortured many of the involved slaves.
North & South were divided about slavery. civil war took place. North won.
Slavery was abolished, and so did much of southern states economy that depended on them. Freed people migrated to northern cities, where a new age of city-race-discrimination has started.
Race segregation was made into law. (separate and equal slogan).
African Americans got organized in many movements to change the situation: some political, some internal, some on the verge of violence. People usually point to Matrin Luther King Jr as the peaceful and Malcolm X as violent. I think they were both political. There were other more radical movements.
In the 60s & 70s, the civil rights movement took place and removed the segregation laws. Discrimination still exist, but at least it's not explicit in the laws anymore.

Towards the end of the book, the writer flies to west africa, and looks for the city from which many of his family's slaves came. He looked for the sons of the black warlords who sold other blacks into slavery. He convinced them to do a collective apology to the spirits of the many vanished slaves. A hollywood-style ending for the book.

Apparently, in Africa, sending people to slavery was one of the tribal punishments. For example, if you kill somebody, you are sold into slavery.
Some warlords looked at it as protecting their own tribes. Their way of subsisting in poor land was to invade other tribes, sell them to slavery, and try to save and free their own tribesmen from slavery. Apparently, until today, some of the local 'african heroes' are those who were abel to free their kensmen from slavery on the expense of other tribes.

The book also talks about the different 'types' of slaves. Apparently, the best strongest slaves came from east africa. Some of the worst (somewhere on the west coast) were bad because they would commit mass-suicide by jumping off the slavery ships instead of being sold. Pretty much, slave 'hunters' stopped getting those tribes because they were not worth the "investment".

horrid!

(drafted 6/5/06)

The Kloran, book of the ... KKK!?

2007-04-04T22:01:00.000+03:00

I'm reading Freakonomics, which is a great read if you're looking for something light, funny, very useful, and enhances one's way of thinking.

One of the very interesting facts it brought to my attention is that... the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist group, used a "secret language" between members. Many of the names had "KL" added to it.
Surprisingly, the name of the KKK's "bible" (or book of laws) is: Kloran. (The full text is available here).

Also, the "vice president" is called the Klaliff!! (see page 3)

Rituals: going around the "Klabee" (page 5). OK - so, not exactly. The Klabee is to the side and this is just the way to "sit down", not really a prayer ritual. But still, the illustration they have is just soo.. similar!

And keep in mind that in the first page of the "Kloran" it says that the Christian Bible & the US Constitution are the "greatest safeguards of liberty" (page 2).

Why? go figure!
I have the feeling that somebody pulled a prank against them, and then it was taken seriously!
I'll be looking. I'll let you know if I find out. Do you know? please leave a comment :-)

(drafted 7/7/06)

Jordan fertility rate falling in half!

2007-04-04T21:34:00.000+03:00

Jordan's fertility rate fell from 7.4 in 1976 to 3.2 in the most recent census, completed in 2004. This is expected to fall even further to 2 children per mother by 2020.

Very interesting article:
http://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com/weekly01.asp?id=2768

San Diego - Seaport Village

2007-03-31T12:03:00.001+03:00

San Diego - Seaport Village
Originally uploaded by arrabi.

We took an incredible roadtrip to San Diego - my first vacation in a very long time. Behind the convention center, they have a very nice little shopping area called Seaport Village. They have very interesting looking trees there. The sky colors in san diego are amazing - for the 3 days we stayed there, the sky looked so surreal.
Ah... it's nice to go to San Diego again.

The problem of education in Jordan

2007-03-14T19:46:00.000+02:00

I wrote this article awhile ago, and it has been put aside for a long time now. It really reflects my own opinions on the problem - a non-expert on education. I was hoping I would be able to expand this into a real paper under an education professor, but that didn't go through. I hope that by sharing it on the internet, I can get enough constructive feedback to refine and review the ideas here.

I know it's rather long. I will try to write up a shorter summary for a future blog entry.

Please be kind and provide feedback.

The problem of imported educational systems
in Jordan

(edited, first draft)

1 Introduction

1.1 Abstract

In this article, I argue that most of the educational system in Jordan was copied mainly during the colonial era. This system, by virtue of being conceived in a different society, prepares the Jordanian graduates to participate and solve the problems of the originating societies instead of the local one. This phenomenon has resulted in a disconnected educational system from the society it resides in. The latter situation, I argue, is one of the root causes for many of the educational problems that exist today in Jordan, the Arab & Muslim world, and possibly many other third-world countries; furthermore, it extends to affect other areas like industry, culture, and the overall progress of civilization. The article explains that there is no fixed ready-to-use solution. The solution is in the process of rethinking the educational system and designing it with the needs of the local society in mind, thus providing a creative, dynamic framework to evolve the system over time as necessity dictates.

1.2 Motivation

“You must start right from the beginning, letting your buildings grow from the daily lives of the people who will live in them, shaping the houses to the measure of the people’s songs, weaving the patterns of a village as if on the village looms, mindful of the trees and the crops that will grow there, respectful to the skyline and humble before the seasons. There must be neither faked tradition nor faked modernity, but an architecture that will be the visible and permanent expression of the character of a community. But this would mean nothing less than a whole new architecture.”

Hassan Fathy

“Architecture for the poor” p.p. 45

This article desires the same, but for education.

In the beginning of the 20th century, most, if not all, Arab & Muslim countries faced the problem of populace illiteracy[1]. Since then, many of these countries have done a great job in providing public education and raising the knowledge levels within the people[2]. These educational systems put in place, have been catching up with the modern technology of the world. Indeed, some individuals raised through these systems were able to join high-standing intellectual circles and participate in the advancement of the world[3].

Today, however, Jordan needs to move to the next phase, and change the educational system from playing the role of imitation to that of creativity and participation. The old educational system might have worked to overcome the first challenges, but now a new system is needed to solve new problems and advance in the new century. And let us keep in mind that, he who follows the crowd, is unlikely to reach further than the crowd.

2 Understanding the Problem

2.1 Education as part of the society

All human communities, big or small, aim to provide its members with the needs of life[4]. However, as societies evolve and grow through time, they develop systems and institutions to support their growth and to participate in the process of expansion[5]. While primitive tribes require each individual to take part in the basic needs of life like food collection, fighting, and producing goods, larger societies organize their members in specialized areas, like agriculture, military, and industry, to increase efficiency and thus allow further expansion.

Each specialized area is made of institutions, like schools and universities, and a governing system, like the educational system. For a second example take the military. The infantry, the air force and the navy constitute the institutions, and the overall system is the offense-defense power of the country.

The main condition for advancing a society is to maintain the synergy between its different sectors[6]. A man would not agree to spend all his day working in a farm if he cannot count on another making and selling him some clothes to wear. In addition to covering the main aspects of life, the different sectors should work in harmony and feed into each other constructively. For example, farming cotton, in the agriculture system, feeds into the clothes manufacturing, in the industry system. As societies expand, the relationships between the systems grow deeper and more interrelated.

If we are to choose the most connected system, in terms of its dependencies to and from the other systems, it has to be education. All the other systems depend on education to provide the necessary workforce, and to advance the efficiency and state of technology used in each. On the other hand, the components of the educational system are highly dependent on the needs of the other systems. If the goal of education is to provide workers and advance the other sectors, it obviously follows that education has to adapt to the needs of the other sectors. If we allow a society to grow on its own, we’ll notice how the educational system is deeply rooted in the society, just like the roots of a tree hold fast to the ground around it.

2.2 Educational Systems through lineage of knowledge

Education is the most explicit form of passing the society’s collective knowledge across generations. This knowledge is much more than dry facts and abstract information. It incorporates generations’ worth of experience in how these facts evolved and came to be known. It includes a rich history of the people who discovered them and their stories. It contains the morals in which these facts should be used. In other words, collective knowledge is the society’s memory through time.

Such knowledge can only be transferred by human interaction within the boundaries of the society. For example, studying Newton’s book, one can learn about the laws of physics. But studying under Newton, the students would also learn how to setup the experiments to induce Newton’s laws. They will learn some about managing scientific institutions (since Newton served also as the President of the Royal Scientific Society). They will even subconsciously gather some of Newton’s personal characteristics, like extraordinary dedication and openness. A student who read Newton’s book learns the laws of Physics. A student who studied with Newton learns to be a physicist. And there is a wealth of difference between the two.

Chains of teacher-student relationships form lineage of knowledge. These lines, in addition to transferring the basic knowledge between generations, they also insure compatibility with the other society’s systems. Teachers teach their students how to make their knowledge relevant to the surrounding sectors in society, because they know, through the lineage of knowledge, how discoveries were made and what they served. The purpose of the educational system is indirectly well-taught through the lines of knowledge.

2.3 Colonialism and importing the educational system

Unfortunately, in the past several hundred years, most of the Arab and Muslims countries went through the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the European colonialism. Both of these periods destroyed much of the societies’ systems, especially education.[7] Lineages of knowledge were brutally cut because teachers represented a threat to the governing bodies at the time. Opposition was not welcomed. Furthermore, to ensure streamlining the new generations thought and thus controlling the other systems, whole educational systems were wiped and replaced by imported ones from the west. Due to the scientific advancement of these powers, the imported educational systems fascinated the colonized populations and caused a reactionary movement to cherish these new sciences and reject almost all of the traditional disciplines.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon has continued even after the independence era, and it is still the norm in the present time. Today, new generations are born into the Jordanian society, but they are totally disconnected with almost all their society’s collective knowledge that has evolved and expanded over hundreds, even thousands of years. Even worse, the new imported educational system is so disconnected with the rest of the society’s sectors, to the point they almost do not contribute to one another, and that is not seen as abnormal.

3 Analyzing the Impact

3.1 An incompatible system that has lost its sensors

An educational system that has evolved within the society and grew with its different sectors, such a system would eventually develop its own two-way communication channels: to sense the changes and needs of the society, and then to react and exert the necessary change and development in the society. Healthy educational systems develop very complicated institutions and channels to act as sensors on the society.

For example, in the US educational system, the research grants, both public and private, act as a great catalyst for sensing the society’s needs and directing the large research body towards the necessary fields. Scientists come up with many research proposals, and the grants system, mainly driven by the government and large companies, fund the relevant and promising proposals. While the industry usually funds research with short-term results, the government balances that by investing in long-term research and humanities. For a specific example of the promptness, let us look at the Artificial Neural Network research between 1950 and 1990[8]. Perceptrons, the earliest form of Artificial Neural Networks, was first advised in 1943 by McCulloch and Pitt and then first implemented in hardware by Minsky in 1951. They are logical mathematical methods that imitate the brain neurons in analyzing data. They showed great success at the beginning in simple shapes recognition. This promising success directed many grants to further study them.

In 1969, Minsky and Papert wrote a book called “Perceptrons” that proved that they have great limitations in solving non-linear problems. Within a year, most of the grants money was redirected away from any Neural Networks research. This shows a great example of how the educational system reacted swiftly to the fact that Perceptrons research was inadequate to the society. However, some government grants kept few research projects going for long-term exploration. In 1986, a book titled “Parallel Distributed Processing” was published by McClelland et al, re-introducing a modified version of Neural Networks that overcame the challenges previously presented by Minsky. This new system showed a lot of promise to the industry, and so it became one of the well-funded research areas until today. Many of the new handwriting recognition programs use some form of Neural Networks. This is another clear example of how a healthy educational system has channels to present new ideas to the industry and exert changes to it.

These communication channels between the educational system and the other sectors in society, do not only help the overall growth, but they also act as a continuous reminder to the personnel in the educational system of its main duty. That is twofold, to provide the necessary work force and to help enhance the other sectors in society.

Now let us think about an imported educational system. Theoretically, if a system is copied, these channels should also get copied as is. However, a channel, by definition, is a connection between two points. While one end is connected to the educational system, the other end should connect with some other systems in the society. The imported educational system did not evolve within the society with the other sectors, and thus it does not know where to hook these channels. Without these channels, people running the educational system work independently and they seem to forget the main aim of education. They become a disconnected body that strives to live on its own. And these channels die. They die not because they do not exist, but also because people forget that they should exist.

3.2 Producing unsuitable graduates and researching unneeded technologies

With the communication channels dead, the imported educational system in Jordan started acting on its own, not using feedback from society and not worrying much about the changes it can bring to society. An educational system prepares the students to participate and functions in its society. In Jordan, the imported educational system prepares students to function, not in Jordanian society, but rather the societies this system was imported from. Graduates come out of the universities feeling that they are out of place. The educational system did not prepare them to function in where they are living. It’s absurd that in many cases in Jordan, the less a student pays attention to the educational system, the more he can succeed in his own society. On the other hand, a top notch graduate is usually most efficient when put in the originating country of the educational system. Take, as an example, the success of Moroccan students in France, the Egyptian graduates in England, or the Jordanian graduates in United States.

While the high unemployment rate in Jordan has many reasons, one of the main ones is that the universities pour unsuitable graduates into the job market. It’s not that there are not enough job openings. Imports are extremely high, and many of these goods can be manufactured locally. For example, Jordan exports raw phosphate and imports agriculture fertilizers made of that very same phosphate. It is just that the graduates were not trained to work and develop in the local industry.

The disconnected state of the educational system also shows in the areas of research in many of the Jordanian universities. Much of the research done is unrelated to any needs in these societies, but is usually a solution to problems found in the originating countries of the educational system. . Even when research papers are done about relevant areas in society, we find that there is a great lack in a mechanism to leverage the results of this research in the other sectors of society.

3.3 Education for missing reasons and the problem of blind memorization

Another very big consequence of losing the communication channels between the educational system and the rest of society, is that the people working in it forget the main aim of this system. Students ask “Why are we studying this?” The teachers wonder “why are we teaching this?” However, the teachers do recognize the general importance of Education. And thus, they start looking for ways to justify going through the educational system from within the educational system itself. They start coming up with reasons like “We educate for the sake of education.” “You have to study to get high grades in the end of the year.” “You get high grades to get recognized and rewarded with gifts.” “You study to be called an Engineer or a Doctor.”

As education starts justifying itself by itself, measuring the success of students gets harder. A praise-worthy student becomes not the one who can implement his knowledge in society, since that channel is missing. The only way to measure students’ performance becomes the literal reverberation of the studied material. And today, looking at the high school certificates, and even university exams in Jordan, we see memorization as the main tool for grading students’ performance.

Education for the sake of education can be useful sometimes in long-term-return disciplines that are very broad, mainly theoretical sciences and math. On the other hand, it’s disastrous in practical and industry-related fields, like business and management. Looking at the current state of Jordanian graduate students in Western universities, they almost all observe that they are much stronger in theoretical analysis but are much weaker in practical sciences compared to students who went through the western system.

3.4 Great imbalance in specialization and majoring for the wrong reasons

With the vague understanding of the reasons for education, students are deprived from their main tool for choosing their higher education major. That absence gives place to minor reasons, like the socio-economic reputation of careers, as the main criteria for specialization. Unfortunately, this process is self-feeding and grows in cycles. If some students with high grades choose a major, its reputation grows, and thus more high-standing students are inclined to pick that major.[9]

This cycle has taken place in Jordan for so long, the reputation and status of each major is rather fixed now. Everybody wants to be a Doctor. If not, then an Engineer. If not, then in some science college. Law school and Business come next. And then towards the end we see Education, Literature, Humanities (Economics, Philosophy, Sociology, etc.) and Religious studies. Jordan & other countries>

All top students end up measuring in Medicine or Engineering because of social pressure rather than their own choice. In a study done in 1990 (?), Dr. Fathi Jarwan of University of Jordan, found that during the period 1980 to 1990, 80% (?) of the top ten high school certificate performers in Jordan are not happy in their careers, and would definitely choose a different path if they go back in time. A realization came too late.

With almost all top students going to Medicine and Engineering colleges, it follows that the weaker students end up filling the Management, Humanities and Economics seats. This great imbalance results in overwhelming lack of entrepreneurial sense in the society. All the smart students learn how to be excellent employees, and the weaker ones are supposed to impress them, rally them, and lead them as managers. The first step, impressing the engineers, usually fails and the whole process falls. Sciences that are supposed to diagnose these social problems and to come up with creative solutions, these sciences receive the least attention from the educational system, and thus end up not performing their job. And the problem spirals deeper with time.

3.5 Two fields that seem to be less affected

Jordan: because this science is directly useful in Jordan.>

3.6 The situation: stalemate

As the educational system communication channels fade away, the other sectors also lose track of these channels and they become indifferent to the changes in education. This kills off any mechanism of incorporating educational system recommendations in these sectors, thus making the future change even harder. For example, researchers who see the effect of industry-research feedback cycle in the west, usually blame the industries in Jordan for not supporting research in local universities. On the other hand, the local industries complain that the universities’ research is so “advanced” it does not relate to their problems. With each side blaming the other, communication channels never take off – not even to learn from their mistakes. Relations are halted, and the situation is a stalemate.

Change is not going to come “eventually.” Calculated and brave steps need to be taken.

4 Proposed Solutions

We must start right from the beginning, letting our education grow from the daily lives of the people who will go through it, shaping the institutions to the measure of the people’s works, weaving the patterns of a university as if on the society looms, mindful of the shops and the factories that will grow there, respectful to the moral values and humble before the heritage. There must be neither faked tradition nor faked modernity, but an educational system that will be the visible and permanent expression of the character of a community. But this would mean nothing less than a whole new system… If I may borrow the words of Hassan Fathy…

4.1 Admit the problem and analyze the situation LOCALLY

If I can only deliver one message from this article, it’s that one-size-fits-all does not work with Education. Furthermore, not just Education, but it does not work for all core systems in the society. The gravest mistake is to try to look for the solution in the “advanced countries” or ask the “foreign experts.” There is no standard solution to this problem. The most able people to solve the problem of education in a country are those who live in it. Our best experts are us, not just that, but we are even the only ones who can help ourselves.

Using foreign minds to solve core local problems is doomed to fail. One of the most famous manifestations of this statement is what happened between Indonesia and Dr. Hjalmar Schacht in 1951[10]. Schacht was the main economic architect for Germany after the First World War. His plans were able to take Germany from a tremendously devastated country deep in inflation to one of the leading industrial nations in the world. Nonetheless, Schacht’s plans in Indonesia ended in total failure[11], simply because he tried to plant the German Economic system in Indonesia; but just like trees planted in unsuitable weather, Schacht’s plans crumbled and died.

After admitting to the problem, and fully realizing that we are the ones who have to figure it out and solve it, we should hire local creative minds and let them study the problem to its details. The effort should be directed towards understanding the intricate characteristics of the local society and finding its areas of strength and weakness. The extent and nature of the problems should be well defined and analyzed.

No assumptions should be left unquestioned. Statements like “it has always been this way” or “the whole world does it this way” should never be used. Basic practices should be thought over and over, like “why do we need 12 years of elementary and secondary education?” “Why do we admit students to school only at age 6?” “Why university departments are divided this way?” “Why do students advance through classes by age instead of speed of learning?” Remember that many of the norms today were not so in the original educational institutions that evolved in the Muslim world. For example, students were admitted to the “Kuttab” as soon as their parents sent them and they did not disturb the teachers. Students advanced based on their speed in learning reading and writing and memorizing Quran. The student-teacher relationship was very close and broad, and beyond mere facts, it covered practice, morals and social understanding.

Before rushing to giving recommendations and proposing solutions, the results of the problem analysis should be circulated. A solution plan should be advised by involving people from all the different sectors of society, not just to get their advice, but also to build commitment. This plan should be flexible to react to unexpected outcomes, in the same time it should be firm since traditional societies, by nature, tend to resist social change, especially on such large-scale. Once the plan is ready, its purpose should be widely circulated amongst people, and it should be carried out in full scale with support from many of the society’s powers.

4.2 Refocus the purpose of education on society’s needs

As the misalignment between education and society is analyzed, sectors like industry will recognize many areas of research that will seem embarrassingly simple or backward. For example, one of the most relevant industrial engineering challenges might be “optimizing work in Shawerma and Falafel shops.” An industrial engineer learning how to optimize big factories might find such an “area of research” rather demeaning and unworthy. Such feelings should be overcome. The heavenly towers of advanced societies are built one block at a time.

While the overall change needed is general to the society, universities today can take many steps to bring this change closer:

1- Industrial advisories: Universities can form advisory boards from the industry to help steer its direction. Such relationship should also create a degree of commitment in the industry to watch research results more closely.

2- Focus on local research problems: Researchers in the universities can be required to keep about 80% of their research areas relevant to local society. Note that it’s important to keep in mind that we will always be part of the world and that generic-world-problems should also get their share.

3- Reverse Balance Majors: Since it will take relatively long time to teach students how to choose the right majors, more emphasis should be put on diversifying popular curricula like Engineering. This is somewhat similar to double-majoring, where students get the engineering title for social pressure, in the same time they get to study what they like and can be creative in.

4- Entrepreneurial & Economic emphasis: Creating companies and businesses requires a certain degree of intelligence, creativity, initiative, and management. Encouraging students from all majors, especially engineering, to take more administration and economics courses would help the overall change spirit and would eventually create more companies and job openings in society. This can translate to requiring engineering students to take more business and enterprise classes, a trend which is already taking place even in Western education – mainly because of the historic narrow focus of Engineering curricula.[12]

5- Discouraging literal memorization: While memorization is a useful skill in education, using it as the sole measure for students causes many unwanted side effects as explained earlier. Dissuading teachers and students from this practice can prove very useful.

4.3 Revive the old systems & institutions, and reconnect

As mentioned earlier, much of the society’s collective knowledge have been lost in the Jordanian culture, mainly because of the cut lineages of knowledge. There is almost complete ignorance today of the achievements and research of historic local thinkers[13]. (?) About 95% of all pre-1900 Arabic and Muslim manuscripts are still not in print yet (i.e. few copies exist in hand writing). While scientific facts in there compositions are likely not to be of added value, they contain much of generations experiences and practical findings that would help consume local resources more efficiently and successfully. They would also enhance the confidence of local students by showing them great examples of their own history and tradition. I am sure that many “first discoverer” claims will be found upon studying works of traditional scientists.

The process of reconnecting the lineages of knowledge would benefit humanities and social sciences much in recognizing the state of ideas that was reached at one point, and it will help drive these ideas forward, providing answers to the society’s moral and organizational questions. For example, take the debate of forming leadership and practicing “shura”.

Using old methods with modern technologies can result in great solutions to some of today’s problems. For example, take the success of the Hassan Fathy, an Egyptian architect who studied the old methods of building houses in Egypt to provide natural air circulation and desired temperature using some local building materials[14].

4.4 Benefiting from other society’s advances

While the message of this article stresses independence of thinking, it does not claim that societies cannot benefit from the knowledge and experience of others. On the contrary, the global dialogue plays an important role in enriching thought, diversifying points of view, in addition to speeding up the process of testing hypotheses and drawing conclusions. However, a system or knowledge should not be blindly copied from one society to another, since it might not fit, or even if it did, it won’t be well-integrated.

The main point to make here, is that knowledge from other societies should be brought to the context of the local society before implementing it. The untold assumptions, that might be too common in other societies to the point they are rarely explicitly stated, should be brought up and studied. It is also important to understand how that knowledge fits within its originating society before importing it to the local society – since difference in perception can easily render the knowledge useless or even harmful. As a light example, celebrating the mothers day (?) as the second Sunday in May in some western societies should not be copied blindly to Jordan, chiefly because Sunday is a work day over there. Western nations really celebrate Mother’s day on the “second weekend holiday of May” and not really “Sunday” specifically. After understanding that untold assumption, that Sunday is a day off, the celebration can take place on a Friday instead.

While the example discussed above is rather light and simple, many abstract social sciences, like Economics, hide so many assumptions behind them, and make so broad of generalizations, to the point they may seem transferable. However, experience and deep examination of such theories show that they treat a society like black box, and many of their grand generalizations are based on experimental data that is usually tied closely to the subject societies. Such sciences with little objective basis should be taken with lots of salt. Most of the time, they should be developed from ground up inside the society.

Some might advance the argument that universities should always focus on teaching advanced sciences in order to urge the industry to follow and develop. I agree with this statement with adding “in small steps.” Making inventions will always mean that universities will be ahead of the industry. However, these steps should be small enough to allow the industry to catch up. If the industry fall way back, the channel will be lost and the two bodies will stop the feedback cycle between them, resulting in the disconnected problem we’ve discussed above. This is just like the persons two legs. Each should alternate taking a step to stay in tune. One should not try to keep walking while the other has stopped, or else that person will seize to be.

5 Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate my main points. Societies are made of systems within it, like Education, Economics, Industry, etc. These systems grow only through a feedback cycle between them. They can never be treated as independent bodies, but rather can have a healthy existence only by keeping relations to the other systems. These systems transfer across generations in a society through lineage of knowledge, chains of teacher-student who keep them alive in their full meaning.

Losing much of the lineage of knowledge during the end of the Ottoman Empire and the Colonial age destroyed much of these systems. Further, importing the Educational system from colonial empires to Arab and Muslim countries has made sure to alienate this system from the rest of the society. Today, Jordan lives many of the results of this disconnected state of the educational system, like blind memorization performance measures, unsuitable graduates, unneeded research, and disintegration from the rest of the society like the industry and the culture.

To solve this problem, big changes in society should take place, and the whole educational system should be re-thought and re-implemented with the local society in mind. This process is not easy and not short, but let us remember that the journey of 1000 miles starts with a step.

5.1 Revisions

Date	Changes
5-10-2003	Started writing it. Second attempt (previous one grew to be too complicated and long). Wrote the “Defining the problem” section.
5-11-2003	Wrote the “analyzing the problem” section. Wrote the “the solution” section. Still have the abstract, the conclusion, and parts of the solution to write. Wrote the rest of solution and the conclusion. Abstract to go.
5-15-2003	Wrote the Abstract and the Motivation & Introduction.
5-26-2003	Completed many sections. Incorporated Kanji’s comments.
4-15-2005	Corrected typos
5-27-2005	Edited to narrow the research topic on Jordan
12-2-2005	Fixed few references

[1] UNHD report on Arab World, part 1 (TBD get pp)

[2] Same (TBD pp)

[3] Albert Hourani, Arab Thought in the Liberal Age (TBD pp)

[4] A bit too generic. Rephrase and make the purpose of the paragraph more obvious.

[5] Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (TBD pp)

[6] Same reference (TBD pp)

[7] Look for “Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West” by George Makdisi (or any other works) on Traditional Education and its decline under the late Ottoman period & the colonial era.

[8] History based on AI A Modern Approach 2^nd edition 2002 by Russell & Norvig, p.p. 757

[9] Provide material proofs on this point.

[10] Malik bin Nabi, “Economics” – look for other references

[11] I need proof – a study of this. Nabi’s book is very generic in presenting the results

[12] Read about Fredrick Terman, the dean of engineering of Stanford in the 1930s, who had pretty much started the great relationship between Stanford and the industry, which has come back to help Stanford much in recent days.

[13] Need references to support this point.

[14] Get a reference on this work

Finally, a way to sync files easily

2006-12-12T03:31:00.000+02:00

https://www.foldershare.com/

A friend of mine brought my attention to this product, which Microsoft has bought very recently (November 2006). This very nice website service will allow you sync folders between multiple computers over the internet seemlessly. It also allows a group of people to share documents easily.

Finally, a solution for the file-sync nightmare. Now if they can just make windows home networks easier to setup (without using a login server)!

Some Interesting new Technologies

2006-12-12T02:06:00.000+02:00

Interesting news to share:

1- Solar Cells' efficiency is up to from 28% to 40% and the cost is lowered considerably (i.e. 40% of the light that falls onto the cell is turned into electrical energy)
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196602149

2- A breakthrough in nano-tubes manipulation techniques. Nano-tubes are expected to become the main material of choice for making almost any product - from blood-cell-size robots to computers to finger-tip size cameras to car bodies.
http://www.physorg.com/news84116089.html

3- Pocket Projector: a laser technology that would allow embedding a whole projector inside a cell phone.
http://www.technologyreview.com/BizTech/17860/

4- A new record was set for Machine Translation Quality (using the BLEU test http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilingual_evaluation_understudy). This goes to Meaningful Machines, a score of .65. I have to admit that the advancements in this field will still take a while to materialize in realistic usable products.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/translate_pr.html

AlJazeera on Gramin's Nobel Prize

2006-12-11T02:32:00.000+02:00

Aljazeera LOVES controversy!
The way they presented today's news item about Mohammad Yunus's nobel prize (founder of the Gramin bank) was so weird.

1- They were asking the question "why Mohammad Yunus?". They interviewed a Bangladeshi reporter saying that there are many pioneers in poor community banking field in Bangladesh. He said that Yunus won because he makes the most noise and pays a lot of attention to foreign relations and the public image.

2- The Aljazeera anchor asked an Egyptian expert with these words "How come he won a Nobel prize by giving few dollars to few poor people?"

3- The Egyptian expert said that Mohammad Yunus was not a pioneer, and that Egyptians have pioneered micro-loans in the 1950s from the Nahhas-Pasha days.

4- The Egyptian expert said that Gramin became famous because they gave loans to women who were able to make goods that ended up being exported to foreign countries. Otherwise, it's not that special.

5- They interviewed Mohammad Yunus... BUT, out of the whole interview, they showed ONLY ONE SENTENCE. This is how they presented it:
"In the 3rd largest muslim country in the world, Mohammad Yuus chose to create a bank that is based on Interest. Mohammad Yunus: Islam does not say explicitly that Interest as a whole is Haram; it's a controversial issue and many scholars say that some of it is halal."

6- They also said that the "televised happy reception of Yunus by the poor residents at one of the villages" is "most likely a well-orchestrated PR show"

7- They ended the report by asking "Is Mohammad Yunus using the Gramin conglomerate's reputation and influence to run for presidency?"

That was it!

ya akhi... some times, I just wonder how these Aljazeera people think. Why to present the story in such a manner!?
Even if there are question marks about this guy's Nobel Prize, present a balanced story, present the apparent positive light of it (A MUSLIM GUY winning a Nobel Prize for work in a Muslim Country!! this is huge), and THEN, present the doubts and the questions.

oh..

I need a new Camera.. what should I get?

2006-11-13T20:53:00.000+02:00

This cry for a new Camera is not the usual geek-instinct to upgrade (as Joe, my programming professor, used to say "You mean they make'em bigger?" - he ended up buying a jeep from the Swiss Army that is made in 1950 and has a mere 40km on it!)

No, my need for a new camera is for ... Layan, the little angel of my life. I was very disappointed the other day when I found out that almost all the in-door pictures of her were below par. My warrior, the Pentax Optio 555, while usually great, did not cut it this time.

Here's an example of the noise I get for in-door pictures (people taken out):
Do you see how the wall is grainy? With low light, any 'smooth colors' look grainy - even people's faces or clothes.

This drove me crazy. I don't have this problem with outdoor pictures. My camera does very well there (and it seems that until one has children, most of one's photos are outdoors):

So, with this great reason in mind, I start drafting my requirements for a new camera:
1- Should be able to handle low-light situations gracefully (no flash or ambient flash - I hate flash pics)
2- Should be able to take the 'portrait' shots - where only the person's face is in focus, and everything in the background is nicely fuzzed out.
3- Should be quick - important to capture those invaluable children's face impressions.
4- Image stabilization is possible: shaky images are rather common, especially in low-light indoor situations. A camera with Image stabilization feature - I hope - should help.

With these requirements in mind, what should I get?
After looking through http://www.dpreview.com - which is a great site, I found few interesting options:
1- Canon S3 IS: the S1, 2, & 3, are Canon's family of consumer long-zoom cameras (~10X). My uncle has one, and it's very nice. It has image stabilization (thus, the IS in the name). It's quick (2.5 images per second). It's big (downside, but not very important for now). The low light (high ISO) quality is so-so (check the test here).

2- I'm also thinking about the super compact Canon SD700 IS. It's super compact, and fast with ~2 frames per seconds. The IS seems to work nicely (IS test). The noise, however, it not impressive (test).

3- While reading about the SD700 IS, I read about it's competition, the Fujifilm Finepix F30, as one of the most impressive consumer noise-reduction cameras. They even compare it to the SLR Nikon D50 at ISO800, the the fuji does pretty well (test here). It's fast ~2.2 fps (it seems all new compact cameras are fast). However, the review concludes that the Fuji F30 is really good in low-light, but so-so with out-doors pictures. And this camera does not have Image stabilization.

4- My fourth option is to get a Digital SLR system (single lens reflex camera). Those cameras are bulky, expensive, require additional time to fix images, but... supposedly, they produce the best quality pictures possible.

Between these 4 options... I will start my investigation. As some know. I take a very long time to make such 'electronics' decisions. I expect I won't make a final purchase until the end of the year (1-2 months from now).

I will try to blog as I go. If you know of a good camera, please send your recommendations.

Dignified Exercise!

2006-08-31T01:35:00.000+03:00

"There must be some kind of movement I can do standing up, with the dignity of a human being,"

http://www.shovelglove.com/

How to Make and Use a Shovelglove

Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your "shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, and wood chopping motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and holidays.

I do 50 shoveling motions, 50 right then 50 left; 15 to 20 butter churns, right then left; 20 woods chops in both directions; and then 5-8 curl like movements for which I haven't thought of a good name yet. Then I repeat the cycle until the timer goes off.

Hilarious... caught cheating!

2006-08-31T01:12:00.000+03:00

When people saw this in Chicago, they thought "oh.. don't miss with a Chicago woman!"

Some even followed the unfolding story on Emily's blog, AS IT HAPPENED! (http://thatgirlemily.blogspot.com)

But then... this same billboard appeared in 5 different cities in the US! which slowly proved to be dram-vertising for Court TV!
the details:
http://www.snopes.com/love/revenge/emily.asp

amazing... what is next in advertising land?

Nice poem, to Children of Palestine by I. Tamimi

2006-08-30T21:21:00.000+03:00

it's not a great poem in the classical sense, but its brilliance is in its sincerity. These are not the crafted words of a dreamy poet, but are the true words from the heart of a real person.

http://www.maktoobblog.com/iqbaltamimi?post=83033

"price-tag" on the UN Security Council Seat

2006-08-29T22:56:00.000+03:00

from (Freakonomics blog)

Consequently, it comes as no suprise that now, as a Ph.D. student at
Harvard, she is producing cutting-edge economic research. With
co-author Eric Werker, she has written a paper entitled “How Much is a Seat on the Security Council Worth? Foreign Aid and Bribery at the United Nations.” In this paper, they find that when a country takes over one of the rotating seats on the UN Security
Council, U.S. foreign aid jumps by almost 60%. When the country leaves
the Security Council, the aid falls back to the old levels. The impact
on aid is even larger when there are important international events
(like invasions of Iraq) that put the Security Council in the spotlight.

Skeptic Magazine on AI interesting article

2006-08-26T04:25:00.000+03:00

oh ye of little faith!

Skeptic: The Magazine: Featured Article (why Artificial Intelligence won't make it)

I actually highly disagree with the article. I hope to get to write a response soon.

Dear Lebanon, Thanks God

2006-08-14T22:11:00.000+03:00

Dear Lebanon,

It seems absured to say Hamdellah Ala Assalameh (Thanks God for your safety), but in a way, it does have a meaning. War is like a disease; stopping it is the first step, and next is the recovery.

Yes, I see your scars and broken bones, but you have brave children, who believe in you and love you. They are smart and hardworking, and I believe in them, and I believe in you, and I believe you will be glorious again.

Regardless of who claims "victory", you have been the real loser. The ceasefire decision seems to have focused on "securing Israel." I hope that more decisions and actions will be taken on healing your scarred limbs and rebuilding your strength.

Sorry I did not write you during this month. It has been real hard to read the news, or even the blogs, every morning. I tried to isolate myself and just read history - hoping to see what has brought us to this state. I promise I will write you more often now, and I hope to visit you soon.

I heard an interview with an Israeli professor on NPR (national public radio) this morning. He said that there's a wide-spread feeling in Israel that this is not over. I think I can see how the Israeli army still wants revenge. Allah Yostor. Allah yjib elli feh elkhair.

ma3afah ya Lobnan.

Like your son,
Muhammad

Latest in advertising... check your egg!

2006-07-17T21:43:00.000+03:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/17/business/media/17adco.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

IN September, CBS plans to start using a new place to advertise its fall television lineup: your breakfast.
The network plans to announce today that it will place laser imprints of its trademark eye insignia, as well as logos for some of its shows, on eggs — 35 million of them in September and October.

while this seems bizarre at first glance, ... it's not that of an idea. what do you think?
(intended overlooking of current events)

Welcome, Layan Arrabi

2006-06-26T22:02:00.000+03:00

Leaving the hospital
Originally uploaded by arrabi.

Alhamdullilah, God has blessed us with the sweetest baby Layan on Friday 23rd at 11am. Mother & Baby aare healthy and back at home. A new life has begun, and it definitely has a new refreshing flavor.

What should her nickname be? Layan is just soo.. easy. Suggestions so far: Lolo, Loli, Layano, Layyon, Laylon!?, lonlon..
can't stop :-)

We took this pic on Sunday as we were leaving the hospital. My dear 7amati is with us, which is really great at this point.

Muhammad, Afnan, and Layan Arrabi :-)

nice article on Jordan's independence day

2006-05-27T02:08:00.000+03:00

Out of the several articles I read on the topic of Jordan's independence day, I like the article titled " في ذكرى الاستقلال...تحديات ماثلة أمام الدولة الأردنية" by Batir Wardam the best.

Nice job Batir.

Magical HDR images

2006-05-24T01:16:00.000+03:00

Our eyes see a huge amount of light-shades, but digital cameras can save only few of them at a time. The problem is exaggerated when an image has dim spots and strong-light ones. If the camera focuses on the dim spots, the strong-light ones are too white. And if the camera focueses on the strong-light spots, the dim ones are too dark.

A solution by HDR Soft company is to take several pictures with different exposure time/intensity, and then use their plug-in to merge them. Thus, the image will have 3x (or more) the number of light shades in a picture.

The resulting images are MAGICAL. Check this guy's album of China.

Pic of Wadi Rum

2006-05-17T04:05:00.000+03:00

Wadi Rum, Jordan
Originally uploaded by malachei.

mesmerizing!
A picture of Wadi Rum. One must always wait for sunset/sunrise in any natural place. Pictures like this do not come with perpendicular rays.

Nancy overtook Amr Diab, according to Google

2006-05-12T23:13:00.000+03:00

According to Google Trends (thanks to Humeid for his article)

Nancy Ajram's popularity over took Amr Diab's in the first quarter of 2004
And Haifa Wehbe is no match!

http://www.google.com/trends?q=ajram%2C+wehbe%2C+diab&amp;amp;amp;ctab=0&geo=all&date=all

Ah, technology, how useful art thee...... ;-)

petra-opera - any more info?

2006-04-29T04:34:00.000+03:00

petra-opera
Originally uploaded by yanaljr.

Amazing photo by YanalJr!
Does anybody have more info on this event? when is the next one?

Israel Lobby influence in Washington

2006-04-29T02:12:00.000+03:00

Recently I came across an article titled "The Israel Lobby" (March 23rd, 2006), authored by professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt from Harvard and U Chicago. The topic is one not very foreign to many, the "influence of the Israel lobby on the American foreign policy'.

Apparently, and unlike several other books and articles on the same subject (see Findley, Chomsky, Finklestein, Shlaim, etc.), this one is making a lot of noise. Just go to news.google.com and you'll see.

Why? it seems to be the stature of the authors within the think-tanks in Washington and political thought in ivy universities. The authors are known 'centerists' and 'realists', thus they are harder to discredit than the 'socialist & leftist' authors. It'll be interesting to follow the 'sobre followup' (not the angry reactionary) posts on this subject. I found this recent article in The Nation to be very interesting:

Ferment Over 'The Israel Lobby' by Philip Weiss (April 27th, 2006)

Book review: Malcolm X: Autobiography

2006-04-27T02:30:00.000+03:00

Malcolm X's autobiography (I listened to the audio book), is a very interesting piece of work - and MUCH more informative than the movie, but is also incomplete. The book leaves you with more questions about the history of Blacks in America, Nation of Islam, and Malcolm X himself than before reading it. Alex Haley's integrity, the co-author and editor and publisher of the the autobiography, is put under question because of his own agenda (pro-integrationist and pro-civil rights, the opposite of Malcolm X's early thought), and his relationship with the FBI. Furthermore, Haley has intentionally omitted 3 chapters of the book that are supposed to shed much more light on Malcolm's ideas during his last years. Unfortunately these chapters are still not publicly available (see Dr. Manning Marable's interview). I'm looking forward to Dr. Marable's biography of Malcolm X, which is due in the next few years.

Besides all that, the book is a GREAT read, and I have few thoughts about it:

1- Malcolm was an exceptional genius - he's one of those people who would have become Nobel Prize laureate if it wasn't for the circumstances. If Malcolm were to be born into a normal family of this age, he would have went to top schools and did great things. Just imagine what would have happened if Einstein was forced to leave school at age 15 and go live in the ghetto. That was Malcolm. Want proof? obvious things first: he was top of his class by end if junior-high. More, just read or listen to one of his speeches. Can you believe that this guy has finished ONLY 9th grade!? Malcolm was able to re-educate himself while in prison. He did so all by himself. He finished several long-distance courses, one of which was in Latin. Listening to him, one thinks he's a university graduate. Attaining that on your own while in prison... is very impressive. Another indication: his amazing success first as a drug dealer, and then, after conversion, to expanding the Nation of Islam following massively. I would love to see an educated IQ estimate for him.

2- The book paints a GREAT picture of the average African American's life in the ghettos and on the streets. The book does a much greater job than the movie on this point.

3- For example Drugs: I've always asked myself, how can somebody become a drug dealer. It seems so hard and a really big deal, at the same time, the kind of characters who do it seem so average - or even below-average. Malcolm describes in the book how he moved from using drugs, to selling them, to even creating an inter-state base of clientele, and finally the head of an armed-robbery gang, all while he was UNDER 20 years of age. 20 YEARS!!!

4- Nation of Islam (NOI) had a different interpretation of prophethood than mainstream muslims. They believe in a modern prophet, Elijah Mohammad, who learned Islam from W. D. Fard, who in turn claimed that he was God's incarnation on Earth. I say "had" and not "have" because I know they have changed afterward, however, I don't know how much.

5- One of the funny quotes from Elijah Mohammad, explaining why Muslims shouldn't eat pig, is "A pig is a graph between rat, cat, and dog." hm...

6- Charisma: I've learned about the gift of Charisma, but never met a person who had it. Not just affluence or influence, but great Charisma. I've heard that Steve Jobs, Clinton, and King Hussein had it. The story I usually get is that, in their presence, people feel like "water in their hands - they can tell you to do anything and you would do it." Malcolm X must have been one of those few people. His ability to 'feel' the crowd and say just the right words is amazing. He was the Nation of Islam dynamo. His job was to go to new cities, establish a Nation of Islam following, build a mosque, and then move on to the next city. Some claim that Nation of Islam was Malcolm X, and with his death, it became dormant.

7- The big picture of history: now I really want to read more about African American history in the US. I want to know exactly, and from an unbiased observer, what was Malcolm's real role with Nation of Islam? What happened to the 'orthodox muslims' organization he left behind? what was his relation to the civil rights movement? how did it go after his assassination? Is there a 'new Malcolm X' out there? people who accept Malcolm X's thought, where are they now? what are they doing?

I hope to find a worthy book to read on the subject... and then I would write another book review blog.

A trip to Mecca .... California!

2006-04-25T22:39:00.000+03:00

Believe it or not, after driving for 7 hours only, we made it from Santa Clara to Mecca! :-)

We went on a fun-filled roadtrip to Mecca, CA to enjoy their Annual Dates Festival (www.datefest.org) ! it sounds surreal, right!
As we drove south in California, we were surprised by two things: it was hot and dry, a LOT like Jordan

and from the middle of the desert, this Oasis of tall green palm trees emerges

Apparently, the spanish missionaries brought few Palm Trees with them as they travelled north in California. The palms needed hot weather and lots of water - making Mecca, CA a perfect place for it. But nothing major came out of that. The story goes that around 1900, a plant scientist who owned a planeterium, sent his sons to Iraq and North Africa to bring palm trees. They brought a whole bunch. These palm trees grew so well they were enought os tart several dates farms.

Later, as the Medjool date tree was nearing extinction from North Africa because of a disease called "Mbeidin", the French & US governments sent and brought 9 healthy offshoots. These offshoots, to their amzement, grew so well in Arizona & California. The Medjool date soon became the most expensive and sought-after variety of date. And I don't exagerate when I say that some are as big as apples, and they are very sweet and succulant (not dry). I was surprised when I had them during my first Ramadan in the US (back in 1998).

In February of every year, Mecca, CA throws its annual Dates Festival! The festival is both a celebration of dates, (everything dates! date-milkshakes, date-icecream, date-cake, date-with-rice, date-cookies, etc.) ....

and a typical farm-land county festival, complete with cowboy hats and cattle!

they even have Camel, Osrige, Alpaca, and pig races!

It was also great to get a feel of real California there (San Francisco is very different). The people looked Jordanian (well, Latinos ;-)) - and that's not a coincidence, since California used to be part of Mexico until it was forcebly bought by the US in 1846 (along with New Mexico). Interestingly enough, shortly after the Mexican War, the US got into its deadliest, most devastating war - the Civil War between the Northern Republicans and the Southern Confederates. General Ulysses S. Grant (of the north) said (scroll down):

"The Southern rebellion was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican war. Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. We got our punishment in the most sanguinary and expensive war of modern times."

Ah, if only they read history!

Is that a tree?

2006-04-25T22:30:00.000+03:00

Is that a tree? look carefully...

I love it when I spot one of these every now and then, a well-hidden wireless phone antenna. I think this solution is very creative. The picture on the left is in Santa Clara, CA, and the other is in Mecca, CA.

Very nice lightening photo

2006-04-20T03:57:00.000+03:00

lightning over the capital city
Originally uploaded by muha....

it's not just the lightening... the whole image, with the water reflection, and the glowing sky, it speaks to you...

good job Muha...

Marriage is for white people!?

2006-03-28T05:08:00.000+02:00

A very interesting article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/25/AR2006032500029.html

The marriage rate... has been dropping since the 1960s... In 2001, according to the U.S. Census, 43.3 percent of black men and 41.9 percent of black women in America had never been married, in contrast to 27.4 percent and 20.7 percent respectively for whites... In the period between 1970 and 2001, the overall marriage rate in the US declined by 17 percent; but for blacks, it fell by 34 percent.

My sociology professor said that for all societies on Earth, the more "industrialized" the society, the HIGHER is the DIVORCE RATE. Japan was a very conservative country with very low divorce rate... until it became industrialized. US apprarently is getting to the next step: avoiding marraige all together.

I know that divorce rates have been increasing in Jordan... God knows if we'll reach the US rates at one point.

This

"Think outside the Box" ... Bingo!!!

2006-03-27T23:32:00.000+02:00

This is a follow up to Wael's post "DON'T THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX".

There are like around 20 buzz phrases (e.g. "Think outside the box", "customer-focused", "results-driven", "leadership", "empowerment") that every incompetent manager LOVES to use, in both fluent & broken English, and can't say a sentence without them. To make these managers stop, I suggest using the Buzzword Bingo cards! Dilbert tells us how to use them:

Supposedly, the MIT students used one during Al Gore's lecture in 1996!!
A nice buzzword generator:
http://www.petdance.com/bingo
enjoy ya Wael!

To be a Palestinian

2006-03-23T00:24:00.000+02:00

I was born in the suburbs of Akka, in a house built by my grandfather right before his wedding in 1940. Outside the house lies our orange farm, and further down is grand-uncle's. While working as a child in collecting oranges from our own farm, I loved playing at my uncle's. His farm sat at the feet of a moderate hill in the shape of a crescent. At the edge of the land stood my grand-uncle’s house, right on the road that led to the downtown. Behind the house was a small olive garden. The trees there are very old. My grandfather told me once that the first of the Arrabis, Sa'eed, who moved from Arrabah village to Akka around 1700, is the one who planted them. Sa'eed worked with Al-Ardah family, the ruling family in Arrabah, the capital of the Ottoman area of Jineen and the towns around it. He came to Akka to start a new life as a farmer. But it's said that towards the end of his life, he became a sea-trader. He loved to sail in the Mediterranean.

In the summer after I have graduated from elementary school, my father took me in a special visit to the city. As we drove downtown, we passed by several Arrabi farms on the way. About half of the Arrabis lived in the suburbs, but then the other half preferred city life. In the downtown, we made a stop at the Jazzar mosque, and then we entered an old office next to it to pay our respects to Shiekh Khalil Arrabi, the eldest and the guardian of the Arrabis in Akka. I remember meeting some of my distant cousins there; couple of them worked as lawyers; one had just come back from France at the time where he had gotten his diploma. And over there, my father introduced me to his brother-in-law, the principal of the secondary school of Akka, where I would be spending the next 4 years of my life.

Later that summer, I went with my mother to visit her family in Jerusalem. My mother's family, Khalidi, is well established in that great, ancient city. My great uncle, Rohi Khalidi, was one of the few Palestinian delegates in Istanbul, and later the Ottoman ambassador to France. Right next to Al-Aqsa, we visited the Khalidi public library. On a wall in the library, the big Khalidi family tree is carved. The tree extends all the way back to Khaled bin Al-Waleed. Apparently one of his grandsons fell in love with Palestine and stayed here.

In that visit, I met one of my uncles, Natheef, a political activist and the current principal of the Arab Teachers College in Jerusalem, which is the first higher-education institute in Palestine. He suggested that I should go to college in France. He assured me that my uncle Ibrahim over there would help me out. I've never met my uncle Ibrahim, but I know one of his sons. He has immigrated to France a long time ago. I understand he helps many Khalidis go to France to study there. He also said that I may come to Jerusalem to work with him in future summers - maybe learn the Khalidi secrets of trade in politics.

This my life that I have never lived; my great grandfather's olive trees that I've never seen; the oranges I've never collected; the uncles I've never met; the family houses I've never lived in; the ancestors' manuscripts I've never read; the family tree I've never extended; the family entity I've never been part of; the real Palestinian I've never been.

Instead, I am the first Arrabi to be born in the Arab Gulf. The Arrabi dwelling around me was that temporary, British-style, copy-and-paste, house loaned to my grandfather for working at the Kuwait Oil Company. The Arrabi extended family is my grandfather and his sons and grandsons. The oranges are a bedtime story my grandmother would tell before sleep. The family tree wall is a vague myth. Walking down the street to my elementary school, attending my classes, accepting academic awards, fighting during break-time and defending my little brother: I was creating the history of the Arrabis in Abu-Hulaifah. I was striding down new territory no Arrabi had walked before. There were no 'secrets of trade' to be learned, but I was creating them as I went along, for future generations, possibly my to-be nephews. Nothing seemed familiar in that part of land; it was familiar to me as a person, but not to me as a continuation of the legacy of brave men, the long chain of fathers and sons who lived and roamed in our lands.

Nonetheless, I did feel home neighboring the waters of the gulf. The view of the blue sea and the mixed nature of its sand, the smell of seaweed and taste of salty water, that big encompassing body provided me with a connection back to my family. It showed me the common bond between Sa'eed, the first of the Arrabis in Akka, and me, the first of the Arrabis in Kuwait.

Being a Palestinian is like being a budding flower in a jar on the dinner table. You think that it's normal to live as you are living. You think all flowers, just like you, must be growing up on a table surrounded by other creatures going about their daily lives. But one day, while the wooden table is being cleaned and polished, you are put by the window. You look outside, and low and behold, you see fields of flowers. You discover that what you have taken as granted all your life is, in fact, a state of abnormality. You see the flowers in their real life cycle of summer and winter, water and sun, insects and animals, and of course other flowers. You see the old tall sun flowers. You see the new young seeds flying around. But then you look down, and you see the jar you are in, and you realize you will never be able to jump out the window.

To be a Palestinian is to be a Hobbit living on Earth. You have read of the Shire in The Three Books, but you know you will never be able to go there. At times, when multitudes of your Hobbit relatives gather in one place, you sense an emerging unique dynamic of relationships and behavior. You feel that a micro-universe has been created in that exact place, at that exact moment. But soon, reality sets in as soon as the group disbands, leaving you with a glimpse of the Shire and an unfulfilled longing for a place you're not even sure of; a place that might no longer even exist.

To be normal is to be born into the legacy of your people.

To be normal is to be part of history, the bridge between what has come and what will come.

To be normal is to realize the bigger picture, the pattern of humanity, and to carry on your role in that picture.

To be normal is to have relatives, to walk down the street to factories built by your grandfathers, to see art by your ancestors, to live in a house that has evolved from the Earth it stands on and the souls that inhabit it – not mere, mass-produced cubicles of cement, steel and glass.

To be a Palestinian…

To be a Palestinian is to live thinking you are normal, when in reality you are not.

Muhammad Arrabi
8-5-2005

Special thanks to Hala Khalaf and Jennifer Hamdi for great feedback and suggestions to refine the piece (4-23-2006).