I have been observing with a tearing eye, with a broken heart what has been happening to Lebanese people in their own land.

Each one of us considers his home to be his shelter that protects him from all dangers and harms, but when this home turns into pieces of paper that does not shield sound or vision; it becomes something that is the exact opposite of a shelter.

How can you feel safe when you are exposed even if inside these walls you always called home? Who turned you shelter into your trap? Who kicked you out and did not even give you the chance to leave?

Many questions and many disappointments; we see all these lifeless faces on TV and on the net; and we feel crippled. Our Lebanese brothers and sisters in Lebanon need more than just a cheering or a condemning crowd and that’s why we at Jeeran decided to do something about it.

Bloggers for Lebanon is a project that is sponsored by Jeeran, Save Lebanon and Jordan River Foundation.

Please join us in supporting our brothers, sisters and children in Lebanon by providing what they don’t have in these circumstances; if we cannot share their air and their fight; the least we can do is share what we have with them as they need it more than we do.

Help us promote this project by adding one of our banners to your site, or by spreading the word; the effort and the cause are worth it and we thank you for your cooperation.

How many times we heard or said that little things do matter and do make a big difference? How many times we saw big changes happen from small twists of faith? How many movies did Hollywood produce to prove that if you can go back in time and change a tiny detail in events, the whole future will alter and turns of events would differ?

Such concepts really fascinate me, because there is nothing absolute in this live. Nothing is 100% right as well as nothing is 100% wrong. Something might be so insignificant to you but could change someone else's life altogether. What you consider to be a big problem and a tragedy in your life might be an everyday event in another part of the world.

Look around the world and look around you, we can say that we are luckier than a large span of the whole wide world. It is true that others' misfortunes make you count your own blessings and look at your life from a different perspective.

From the blessings that I have counted in my life; I can see, hear, talk, smell and touch. I have two loving parents and a great family; blessed with a brother, four sisters and seven nieces and nephews. I have a roof over my head; I have clean clothes to wear and a nice comfortable bed to sleep on. I had the opportunity to get the best education and I did get great education. I have food on my table every day and hunger was never a part of my life. I have a car and I get to drive freely. I have a job in a great company and I enjoy the company of wonderful colleagues. I get to live in my home country, enjoy my freedom and live in dignity. My country is safe to live and is governed by laws to protect citizens. I have a great faith and I get to thank God for all these blessings and more.  

Somewhere around the world; there are a lot of people living in misery, war and hunger. They don’t have a constant supply of food; they live day to day. Lots of children do not have mothers or fathers or neither; they don’t get to experience the love of the family and are deprived the opportunity to get education and live in dignity. A lot of people are in a continuous fight for their own lives and their children's. A lot of women get raped and their privacies are invaded in the cruelest way; their lives get shattered in minutes and they are killed afterwards or left scarred with so many physical and mental wounds that will never heal. Some people's biggest worry is how to provide food on the table for the next meal. A lot of people fight death, hunger, occupation, sickness … etc.

Two completely different pictures; two worlds under the same sky sharing the same air; same people here and there; they all cry when sad and smile when happy, they all worry for their kids and the future, they all sleep and wake the same, they all feel fear and pain, they all fall in love the same and most importantly; when they die they die the same as their souls leave their bodies for the last time!

All religions; all prophets taught us that the fortunate must share some of his fortune with the unlucky or less blessed. To acquire a balance in this life; we must learn how to give as much as we learn how to take. God has blessed us with so many things but what are we doing to show our gratitude for all these blessings? Is it enough to pray and say thank you God for everything that you have given me? Is this what God wants us to do? Isn't it a valid point that God has given us so much to pass the blessings to others?

Somewhere in the world; $75 can put someone in a private school for a whole year. This amount of money can be only a lunch bill for a couple or a group of people. What are we doing to give back God and show gratitude? How are we helping to make the world a better place to live in? People die around the world as we indulge in big parties and pour so much in empty celebrations. While we worry what toys to get our kids in their birthdays; other kids do not get a warm loving hug because they don’t have parents; they only think of a loving tap on the shoulder and toys are an impossible dream.

Inspired by Sarah Mclachlan who changed the lives of one million people around the world in just three minutes; inspired by the touching song and video she made; my words come to you in hope they might touch your hearts as much as this work of art has touched me. Under the title "World on Fire", Sarah shot the clip of this song in a $15 cost when a real clip would cost $150,000. Where did the rest of the money go? They changed the lives of one million people around the world.

Listen to the song here and check where the money went here.

The question is now; what can WE do to help and how? Why don’t we start something to help in our own community? There are so many people who could use our help and I am sure that we all can afford to spare something and help the poor and unlucky to get better chances in life and create better futures for them and their families.

قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: "مثل المؤمنين في توادهم وتراحمهم كمثل الجسد إذا اشتكى منه عضو تداعى له سائر الجسد بالسهر والحمى" (البخاري ومسلم)

Our Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) said:  “The similitude of the believers in regard to mutual love, affection and mutual-compassion is that of one body; when any limb of it aches, the whole body shares the agony, sleeplessness and fever that arises from it.” (Al-Bukhaari & Muslim).

Inspired by Hareega’s post; Look Around, I remembered that a couple of years ago, I saw a flash movie that depicts earth as a small place of a population of 100 people, keeping the percentages and proportions exactly the same.

You want to know the shocking statistics and how lucky you are? Click here to watch the movie!

(You need flash to view the movie)

"5/2/2006  

The General Assembly of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) elected today HRH Princess ‎Haya Bint Al Hussein of Jordan as the 13th FEI President. The other contenders for the position ‎were HRH Princess Benedikte of Denmark and Freddy Serpieri (GRE).

The voting took place over two rounds; Princess Haya received 82 votes in the 2nd round.

‎“I promise to do everything in my power and to work tirelessly to serve the institution and the ‎people who have done me the honour of placing their trust and belief in me. Our beautiful, noble ‎sport is seeped in tradition, history and grace. I will do all I can to protect and advance it, in all its ‎forms,” HRH Princess Haya said. ‎

HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein (JOR) is the daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan and wife ‎of HH General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. She has been ‎riding internationally since the age of 13. In 1992 she won the individual bronze medal in Jumping ‎at the seventh Pan Arab Games and the following year she was elected Jordan’s athlete of the year. ‎After years of intensive training in Ireland and Germany, she qualified for and took part in the ‎Games of the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney in 2000 followed by a participation in the 2002 FEI World ‎Equestrian Games at Jerez de la Frontera. She has represented Jordan at the FEI General Assembly ‎on several occasions. HRH Princess Haya is member of the IOC Athletes and Culture and Olympic ‎Education Commissions and president and founder of the International Jordanian Athletes Cultural ‎Association. She is the first Arab and first woman to ever become Goodwill Ambassador for the ‎United Nations World Food Programme. ‎

HRH Princess Haya has been elected for a term of four years, i.e. until 2010." ‎

Apparently; the heated arguments that we have witnessed on our blogs the past couple of weeks, are not close enough to what has been going on around the global blogosphere. What we have been seeing and/or reading urged me to take a virtual journey around the globe and read for myself what the other side had to say …

Needless to say, the anger and rage was not limited to Muslims only; and they are not all on the same side, trust me when I tell you this. 

Some were just angry that the Muslims got angry, claiming that there are evident contradictions and clear double standard, as how can Islam be a religion of peace and tolerate terrorism or at some extreme point, promote it.

Quoting one of the bloggers: "The followers of Islam say, "Islam is a peaceful religion". But when commenting on the Danish cartoons, they say, "Death to the cartoonist, death to the newspaper, death to the editors, death to Denmark". So much for peaceful." Read more …

Some felt that this is a sort of a payback for something and found it to be an opportunity to deliver a message: "My heart is bursting with an expression of agreement with the cartoon, shouting a big "Yeah!" in reaction against terrorism, and those who fund it, and those who defend it, and those who complicitly avoid talking about it or doing anything about it." Read more …

Some thought that this incident should be a lesson that we all must learn from: "The Great Muhammad Cartoon Scandal has been very educational. One thing it has taught me is that many, many Muslims around the world simply don't have any real understanding of Western culture or the Western mindset.

Many Muslims don't seem to understand that the angrier they get the more we want to continue creating and spreading cartoons. If they laughed at them or ignored them then the 12 original cartoons would have been restricted to Denmark where a few readers of one newspaper would have seen them. Now that protests and riots have spread around the globe the offending cartoons have been reprinted in most European countries and are on countless Internet sites, where they will be available forever.

The effect of their anger has been to spread the images they are angry about. Countless millions have seen what they didn't want anyone to see."

And he adds: "This scandal has driven another nail into the coffin of the myth of the "Moderate Muslim." For years we have been told that most Muslims do not support the fanatics, that the terrorists have "hijacked Islam." So where are these moderate Muslims? They are harder to find than Bigfoot. In fairness I had one Muslim commenter who did not like my cartoons but said he supported my right to post them. But that's one guy." Read more …
 

Another expressed that he was touched by a picture of Muslims praying peacefully more than all the rage expressed by the majorities, and I guess a picture is really worth a thousand words, check what he had to say:

"This one picture of a Muslims in Denmark, gathering to pray, this one touched me more than the ones of screaming, livid Muslims in Palestine. There are so few of them, quiet, and just praying calmly in a public terrace. The angry ones are home, and angry amongst angry buddies.

I wonder how these guys feel." Read more …

I really wanted us to take a deeper look at what the other side is thinking and expressing. Some of the blogs and comments were very hateful that I could not allow myself to quote them.  Read here to get a clearer idea of what I mean(*).

This makes me really wonder; isn't the way we deliver the message is as important as the message itself? Sometimes delivering the right message using the wrong method defeats the purpose and kills the initiative.

Effective communication takes place when the message delivered is exactly equal to the message received, and right now, we need to resort to wisdom and give rage some time off. This is really getting out of control and at some point we have to draw the line.

So when will this end? What would be enough? How long will it take to understand that the whole issue was driven out of proportion? What does it take to make it stop and for the whole world to move on?

Frankly, I wouldn't have heard about these cartoons if they were not turned into such a big deal by those who are mostly against them; us, and millions of people around the world were just like me, so what did we gain by spreading them and the debates about them? You tell me!!

(*) Please note that the post here was very unbiased and not offensive to any party in this dispute, however; some of the comments were of an offensive and hateful nature and that is what I was referring to.
I am obliged to bring this to your attention as part of my blogging integrity :)

Thank you Chad for bringing this to my attention and I apologize for the misrepresentation.

The New 7 Wonders Foundation has launched the first-ever global vote to choose 7 wonders out of 21 nominated ones. Petra is one of the nominees and therefore; this is a call to all of us to vote for our heritage to be one of the chosen 7 wonders.

The voting has already started and it will last for a full year. The results will be announced in Jan 2007, so do cast your votes now.

You can find all the information on how to vote on the official website for the foundation; click here to visit the website.

To give you an idea about what the nominations are and they are listed here by code as on the website:

CODE 01: Acropolis - Athens, Greece

CODE 02: Alhambra - Granada, Spain

CODE 03: Angkor – Cambodia

CODE 04: Chichen Itza - Yucatan, Mexico

CODE 05: Christ Redeemer - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

CODE 06: Colosseum - Rome, Italy

CODE 07: Easter Island Statues – Chile

CODE 08: Eiffel Tower - Paris, France

CODE 09: Great Wall – China

CODE 10: Hagia Sophia - Istanbul, Turkey

CODE 11: Kiyomizu Temple - Kyoto, Japan

CODE 12: Kremlin / St. Basil - Moscow, Russia

CODE 13: Machu Picchu – Peru

CODE 14: Neuschwanstein Castle - Füssen, Germany

CODE 15: Petra – Jordan

CODE 16: Pyramids of Giza – Egypt

CODE 17: Statue of Liberty - New York, USA

CODE 18: Stonehenge - Amesbury, United Kingdom

CODE 19: Sydney Opera House – Australia

CODE 20: Taj Mahal, Agra – India

CODE 21: Timbuktu – Mali
 

As you can see; the competition is aggressive, so we better do our duty and vote for Petra to make it to the finalists.

Please spread the word, you can find the instructions and the numbers to vote here.

Before I say anything about the topic of this post, I have to warn you; if you have a sensitive stomach, easily grossed or can't handle the truth; read at your own responsibility.

Two days ago, I was watching a reality show with my parents on one of the foreign channels that you get only if you are paying for what you watch. Anyway; this show in particular was shocking that it got me thinking that I should share the information with you, because if it is happening there; what makes us sure that it is not happening here? How can we be sure that it is a special case to that show or that region?

To clarify what I am talking about; the show was about cameras hidden in big restaurant and hotel kitchens to observe and monitor staff behavior and hygiene, and it turned out to be a horror movie rather than just a surveillance tape.

I know that you might be thinking to yourself now that it is about staff not wearing gloves while working with the food that later will be put on our tables and goes straight to our stomachs, but I am afraid it is a little more serious than that.

I am going to narrate some of the scenes that were captured by the surveillance camera, and I apologize for the details if they are a bit repulsing or disgusting.

I know that the kitchen looks OK, but do you see anyone wearing gloves???!!!

Picture it with me; the location is a big kitchen of a hotel/restaurant. Staff is quite busy preparing food for customers who are nagging to get their food in the minimum possible waiting time, so the scenes vary as follows:

-          A chef is preparing the pizza and is spreading the crust, but get this; he is sneezing on it and working as if nothing is happening.

-          Another chef doing the same as the first one but goes as far as wiping his nose with his bare hand and continuing to spread the crust normally.

-          A lady chef is preparing a dish of Chinese food when all of a sudden she drops the whole pan on the floor, and what she does next is that she collects the food in the pan with her feet (with her shoes on, not that it would be any better if she were barefoot) and then serves it to the customers as it is.

-          A waiter is about to serve a soup dish, but before he does; he stirs it with his bare hand a bit and continues to serve it to the customer.

-          Another waiter spits in the dish before serving it to the customer.

-          A staff member peeing in the ice maker machine!!!!!!!!!

-          A chef peeing in the food that he is preparing.

-          Another goes as far as puking in the cooking pan.

-          A couple get carried away and make love right there while they are preparing the food.

 (Scenes were taken in different locations, obviously!)

These are only a part of the shocking scenes that were shown and discussed, and according to the show; these scenes were taken in large hotels and restaurants that are well known and supposedly reputable.

What made me transfer this to you is the idea that this can be happening under our noses, and who knows what we are eating in these places?!!

So it is not about washing hands, cleaning around the kitchen, wearing gloves and paying attention to the kitchen overall hygiene; it is about the integrity of these people preparing and serving our food.

Just how confident are we that the waiter did not spit in our drinks or put his bare hands in our food after they have been -God knows- where!!

I am telling you; this show has changed my whole perspective about restaurants and eating out, and if I am eating out; I am urged to go enter the kitchen and check what they are doing there.

The questions that come to mind: are owners keen on staff hygiene in general? How often is this checked and double checked? What kinds of penalties do they have for those who don’t follow the regulations? Do they wear the same clothes every day? How often are they washed?

So next time you are eating out be sure not to piss off your waiter, because you might end up getting more than you asked for from him, just for getting back at you!!!

I apologize for the images that I left you with in this post, but I had to share this with all of you because it is a very sensitive issue.

As a gift to all the readers; here is a FREE E-book about Kitchen Hygiene and I hope that you will enjoy it!
Just click on the picture to download!

 Hygiene in the Kitchen

Disclaimer: This post is a general one; not hinting or implying any party in particular; rather it is an observation and some questions that came to my mind.
All images were fetched through Yahoo Image Search!!