Saturday, December 31, 2005

Why it sucks to be a doctor





To start with, nobody likes me. Mothers pray day and night for their sons never to meet me. If any of your friends or family heard you are visiting me at my office, they'll be concerned and if they heard you have to see more doctors, they'll freak out.

All people hope to never see me near the end of their life. They wish to die suddenly in their sleep, or from a sudden heart attack or a car accident or a plane crash or even be suddenly killed in a terrorist attack than to die slowly with me around, no matter how much care and effort I'll be trying to provide to people. All the prayers focus that my face won't be the last thing people will see before they die. Even I feel sorry for people who die that way.

People think I'll be damn rich not knowing that when I'll turn thirty I won't be having a single shilin in my pocket, let alone not be in debt.

When I eventually ask people for money for their visits, they'll talk about the inhumane doctor who works for money, but they have no problem in paying ten times that amount of money to watch Hayfa Wahbi shaking her body.

It's almost impossible for men to miss an invitation to lunch or an important sport match, and rarely do ladies miss their appointment with a hairdresser, but when it comes to missing a doctor's appointment that's perfectly ok. Who hasn't ever missed a doctor's appointment for God's sake?

I see people dying from terminal disease yet have to answer them when each asks "When will I get better?"
I see old people left alone to die and worse I see their families showing up once they do telling me I could have prevented his death from the cancer that has eaten his body.

I see women getting divorced when they lose one breast and children being beaten almost to death and young girls being impregnated by their father.

Unlike other people, if my patient cusses me and my family I have to ask about what's bothering him- and for readers don't think of cussing bcoz I'll kick your ass ;) I can spend the whole night trying to stabilize one patient and next morning when he wakes up he'll carry his bag and walk away saying how bad he was treated because because the water in the shower wasn't too warm or the food didn't have enough salt.

Even if people didn't pay a penny for their health care they usually won't look for a way to thank you, but a way to sue you. They smoke for 50 years and drink and are one human being overweight however they blame me they got a heart attack.

If you see a doctor smiling, he's not necessarily happy. It's only part of his job.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Rated R, based on a True Story...

هذه المحادثة يوم عيد الميلاد في احد المنازل العربية في الولايات المتحدة الاميريكية

تجلس في السيتتينغ رووم عائلة كبيرة من ضمنها حريقة

الموضوع: جدال حول قطعة من الارض وعما اذا كان من الظروري تعزية احدى العائلات برجل توفي قبل اسبوع

تبدا عفيفة (ام سام) النقاش اللاهب: شفتو جاسر قال بدو اياني ابيعو حصتو بالارظ و ماييبي يدفعلي حقها عسنة
....
و هنا انفجر زوجها سلمان صارخا: والله هال اسسهول اذا بحلش عنا لالعن ابو شنباته

بسام قاعد عالجاعد جنب سلمان وطس نفخ ارجيلة على الحضور معلقا " مش قلتكلكو وي شودنت توك معو اخو هالعرصة

في هذه اللحظة احس سام ابن العشرين والذي سكب اربعة غالونات من الجل على شعره المصدي في الصباح، احس انه بصفته رجلا
الان ان عليه ان يعلق
....
فسحب الارجيلة من خاله بسام و شفط نفس ثم صمت لخمس ثوان و نطق الجوهرة

" ك** اخت هال لااايف"
ثم عادت عفيفة لتعلق " قال مفكرني ناسية شو سوا مع رحمة اخوي بالبيت لما بيعه حصته بيه بالنايتي سيفين
"
سلمان ..." مش بقلك اسسهول وابن شرم
****"
بسام ... " انا اخر مرة قعدت معه قلتله فايس طو فايس اتفه على ز*رك انت مش زلمة
"
سام ... " ك* اخت هال لااايف
"
و في هذه اللحظة استرعى انتباه تيسيير (تيرري) ان حريقة جديد على الجلسة وريما يجب تغيير الموظوع

تيرري... سمعتو عن ابو عبدة ، ابدكوش تروحو تعزو ؟
سلمان.... " انا بروحش، بس مات ابوي الله يرحمه....
ام سام..... "تعيش"
بسام.... "تعيش"
تيرري... "تعيش"
ابو تيرري "تعيش"
سام " ك* اخت هال لااايف
"
سلمان مكملا ".... بس مات ما اجا عزاني اخو هالكلبة
"
بسام.... " ساقط وكل عيلته ساقطة.... اخوه متجوز قحبة وقال جابلي اياها عالبيت عالثانكس قيفينغ
"
وهنا اطبق صمتا كاد يبدوا ابديا على الجلسة، فقد استنتج سلمان و عفيفة ان بسام عمل عشاء اثناء الثانكس قيفينغ في منزله دون ان يدعيا اليه
و كسر تيرري حاجز الصمت الرهيب .... " انا بقول واحد من الفاميلي لازم يروح يعزي، اي ما بصيرش هيش
"
ونظر الجميع صوب ربيع الشاب المهذب الجالس في الزاوية
...
سلمان " ربيع ابيش غيرك يروح يعزي الاسسهول
"
ربيع "بس والله يا عمو لا بعرفو ولا بعرف عيلتو ولابعرفوني
..."
وهنا احتد صوت بسام " بس انت اقرب واحد عليه، فيفتيين مينتس من عل هاي واي وبتكون عنده، انت زاببوزد تروح عنده مش احنا
"
و هنا انسل حريقة من بين الجماهير الغفيرة واتجه صوب المطبخ ونادى على ابن خالته وبدئا يدقان بما تبقى من سدر المنسف
....

Friday, December 23, 2005

Diary from Arizona.... Bart TWO

I don't know if i've mentioned that before my i love my underwear- kalaseen. In america most grown-ups wear boxers, but i adore el kalsoon and i treat it with respect and will never get rid of it. Obviously my family remembered that and they sent me 2 pieces of kalsoon that i have forgotten in Amman six months ago with their friends who were coming to Ariozna, and the friends called me telling me that they have "el-gharath" so i drove 2 hours to phoenix to bring "el-gharath".

One of the reasons i left my previous apartment was because many strangers have touched my kalsoon- ok don't get me wrong, i left them in the laundry machine for a week (i was busy jeez), and there's one laundry room to serve the whole compound i live in. Eventually the apartments manager gabba3at ma3o o 7aka hatha abu el kalaseen el double X-large etha bedoosh yeeji ysheel kalaseeno ana bashelllo iyyahom, so once after i ran off kalaseen i remembered my good old kalaseen in the laundry and i went there to pick them up, and i found them out of the laundry machine on a table nearby , forjeh lal raye7 wel jaay welli beddo yakhodlo kalsoon ye3mal menno baradi aw sharshaf lal tawleh bye3mall, so i was mad and i decided that if it comes to my kalaseen i am out of here.

So I moved to a new apartment. My mother visited me 3 months ago and cooked me mlookhiyyeh, and left it in the fridge so i would have it the next day. I forgot to eat it next day and the day after it became too stinky to be eaten, but i was disgusted to throw it away. I wasn't disgusted by the dirty socks on my sofa or the 3-cm think layer of dust on every surface in my apartment, but i was disgusted from a 2-day old mlookhiyyeh. Those 2 days became 3 months and i witnessed the evolutionary change of a green mlookhiyyeh into white then black then colorless all in my fridge. Eventualy my friend was afraid my neigbors would think i'm hiding a dead body in my place, so he himself threw the mlookhiyyeh away, 100 feet far from my apartment.

Some of the teams i worked with were strange. Once my supervisor was the husband of another doctor my level in the team. They were both Indians and newly married, and it was easy to feel the romance of the newly-wed coubble in the team. He preteneded to be el za3eem wel team leader bas awal ma teeji marto begleb zay el bisseh o beblasho yetbassamo la ba3ath o mesh nages ella yetla3 3ala shajara o yseer yghanneelha chukarmare mankoo. Later I worked in another team where everybody from doctors to pharmacists to medical students were women, and they tried to be as much professional as they can, bas walla kont mestashgefli akamenn wa7deh, bejanneno o bettaakalo bi kharaahom. Working with women all that time made me know the best ways of waxing, dealing with PMS, and who are the sexiest ten men alive.

I am discovering Tucson more and more. It's really nice but a special area is the South. Eveyobdy there is latino who would commit suicide if restaurants stopped making burritos. Many of the mehhhicanos are illegal, so Seyadet el Ra2ees george bush sharrafna bi zayara la Tucson last month where he had a speech starting with a very intelligent observation .... "Those who enter the country illegally violate the law."
so based on that genius statement you can conclude how effective his visit was in solving that problem

It's also a poor area, and you can still see some old Volks beatle cars not working and 4 big men pushing the car bi nuss deen el shoob edfesh ya alejandro o dezz men 3endak ya santiago and they're sweating all over o bantaloonhom full of sweat msa7wel o nuss teezhom embayneh bi nuss el share3.....


Another thing people enjoy there is cocaine, it's sold everyhwere and we always get patients
who've been smoking it men for ages. They get very sick and we treat them for a long time, and just before they leave bag3od ma3hom o bamsek el mareed o ba7keelo ma benfa3 haik ya ostaaz ortega you have to stop smoking this shit, bi7keeli mashi wala yhizzak, but after he leaves home bog3odlo jalset ons with his amigos o berja3elna 3al ICU mesh gader yetnaffas.


I got the chance to travel some places outside Tucson. I visited my sister in suburbs of Chicago, and when my mom visited me we went to Vegas and it was nice to meet some relatives there. I wasn't impressed by the fake eiffel tower fake venice or fake pyramids but i what i liked the most was the very real giant TV screens in hotels that broadcast live sport events. Each screen of these is larger than my apartment. I might end up watching the world cup there, i can't wait till it starts... all what i care for is to see Argentina kicking some Brazilian ass and after that i don't care if Argentina loses 10-0 to Saudi Arabia I just want Brazilians to know that maybe they play soccer well but they are not god.

Xmas is coming soon happy holidays , it's so strange how it's more acceptable to say merry x-mas in jordan than it is in america. Next time someone would tell me happy holidays i migh tell him send me your mama so i can enjoy my holiday. Anyway Xmas is boring here, there's one neighborhood where all hosues are decorated for Xmas, otherwise you'd feel that Xmas is more enjoyable in afghanistan than it is in tucson.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Diary from Arizona ....

ta7iyyeh gawiyyeh men Arizona 3aroos el janoob o bawabbeh America 3ala el makseek


Winter has started in this beautiful city and I'm so happy we got rid of the heat, it was unbearable.During summer time people were almost celebrating in Tucson after breaking our local record of 39 consecutive days with a temperature greater than 100 F, o lalli ma be3raf ye7seb 100 F is 40, o lalli be3raf ye7seb it's 37.8, to me and everyone else these numbers were bullshit, they only help in putting Tucson in the news because there was no other way to do so. No matter what numbers were, summer here was a real hareega, and everyone had to develop his own ways of survival. Ya3ni when you visited someone awal eshi bethayfook is water, and you gotta drink what equals to sahreejain mayy everyday to avoid getting dehydrated. When I sat in the car i avoided rubbing my ass frequently with the seat because any unncessary friction could start a tragic fire.

Nuss el ma7allat has "Sun" and "Desert" and "heat" in their names, pretty much like we have hussain in our companies and swaag el khothra.

People still can't pronounce or spell my name correctly, both my first and last name. They can spell and pronounce the names of all qaeda members well but when it comes to Masannat I become Matasat or Masafat, and sometimes they just say Dr. Masa as in masa el khair yes3ed masakom. My first name is never said correctly and now I'm being called Fairoz since there's another resident with me from Pakistan whose name is Fairoz-and he's a guy by the way, so both of us are now Fairoz. Once I wondered if he had a great voice but after i heard him singing i got diarrhea for three weeks with strange nightmares and some depression.

Finally I decided to play Karate. I started taking classes in July and in 10 days I announced my retirement. My coach was a lady in her mid-50s and she taught me some basic moves and then we started playing karate... in the beginning i thought to myself "hal men el rujooleh enni athrob 7orma??" Well I didn't need to think a lot because that 7orma rafhsat bi batni, she then slowed down and kept teaching me more basic movements in the next 2 classes, and by the third classes i joined the rest of the class. The rest of the class consisted mainly of 8-12 year old kids, i wanted to beat the hell out of them, but once i saw them fighting with each other i realized that i'm the weakest person in the whole training center.

The coach introduced me to the rest of the class and despite the size difference i could easily spot those 10-year old chinese kiddos looking at me and smiling very confidently thinking "ta3aal ya abu karsh bedna nemsa7 el ard feek mase7". I had a flashback form when I was 6 years old practising Karate and they had to kick me out after i refused to take the white belt exam because i was crying all the time. This time i wasn't crying but during the entire class kont ga3ed 3am bakhra ta7ti so i eventually decided to quit playing before i would become the joke of the karate center........

Monday, December 19, 2005

Conversation with a very old man




This conversation took place between me and an old man suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, which caused him to have a severe dementia (loss of memory)

I was examining how bad his symptoms were

Hareega : "When did the bleeding start sir?
Patient: "I think i had it for a very long time" - his nursing home said it was 2 days only.
Hareega: "Sir do you have a family I can talk to?"
Patient : "I don't know" - and he smiled
Hareega: "I mean do you have a wife, daughters, sons....etc??"
Patient "I don't know" - now he started laughing.
Hareega : "Do you know where are you now sir?"
Patient "Mississippi" - we were in Arizona
Hareega : "Ok Sir do you know who is the president?"- common question to test general knowledge

Patient smiling "yes it's Ronald Reagan"
and as if he realzied he was wrong, so he asked me "No?? Not Reagan?? What happened to him?"

I avoided answering because Reagan died of Alzheimer's Disease and I didn't want to upset my patient, but then i thought hell what he's gonna forget my answer pretty soon.

I left the room and called the nursing home to get more details about his condition and check whether or not he has a family. I felt so sorry for this man and how he is unable to remember over 80 years in his life and the close people he knew and lived with for a very long time.

We figured out later that he had colon cancer which cannot be removed and it would kill him in months. We tried to contact his family for a long time but couldn't reach any for over 2 weeks.

I used to feel pity for that man but now I feel he is so lucky he cannot remember anything. He can't remember his so-called family who have not asked about him for a long time, he can't know when will he die or how bad his disease is. He started living life day by day just like children who don't think of the future. Probably by the time he dies he'll think that the hospital is his house and the patient in the next bed is his brother and the doctors are his children.

I used to feel pity for him but now I feel pity for myself.

(P.S. the picture above is for a different patient, stolen from google)

مستشقفها






والله اني مستشقفكي يا ادريانا ليما

اي لو بلف الكرك كلها بلاقيش احلى منكي

يلعن عمر ستي محلى الطاقية على رااااسكي

حرقتني حرق هالخسة........ بتتاكلي بخراكي يا بنت فرانسسكو

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

صباح الخير




انحرق البيدر.... و خرب الزيت والزعتر.... والعصفور حزين

اليوم اول صباح الخير بدون ابن دبين
حريقة

Monday, December 12, 2005

Together in the University of Jordan, 35 years ago!!






If by any chance you studied in the University of Jordan in the early 1970s, you probably came across those 2 faces without knowing them.

One is Abdullah Azzam, a professor in Islamic Law , who later became Osama Bin Ladin's spiritual mentor.

The other is John Abizaid, who was attending the Univeristy of Jordan during that period. In 2003 he became the Commander of the US Central Command.

I guess you can tell from the pictures which is which!

Such contradictions!

اتذكر ... تختخ ونوسة ولوزة... ورشيد

My friend Dr. Nakhleh Abu Yaghi has an outstanding talent in writing,
He allowed me to steal some of what he wrote to place them in my blog

This is something he wrote at the beginning of the war on Iraq in 2003....
hope you'll enjoy it
Hareega


أتذكر... أتذكر جيداً حصص الإجتماعيات... كان هناك وطن عربي من الشام لبغدان... كان هناك يمن شمالي و يمن جنوبي... كنا ننسى أن النيل يمر بالسودان أيضاً... كان لكل بلد صادرات وواردات... حقول النفط في ليبيا جاءت في الإمتحان النهائي...
أتذكر بعض كلام عن كامب ديفيد و عن رجل يدعى السادات و عن غضب على مصر البلد الذي تأتي منه المسلسلات على التلفزيون...
كنت أعرف لاعباً مشهوراً اسمه جمال أبو عابد سجل هدفاً من بعيد في مرمى العراق... لكن لاعباً آخر اسمه أحمد راضي كان دائماً يسجل فينا الأهداف... أحمد راضي ذهب مع رفاقه ليلعبوا في كأس العالم... الكل يشجع العراق و أحمد راضي... كانوا يلبسون الأخضر الزاهي اما الآن فالمنتخب العراقي يتشح بالسواد...
كانت معلمتي تنهرني إذا وجدت في يدي أحد "الألغاز"... "إقرأْ شيئاً مفيداً !" كانت تقول... كنت أهز رأسي و ما أن تبتعد حتى أغوص في الكتيب الصغير فألتهمه التهاماً... كان لهذه المغامرات أبطال كثيرون... محب و نوسة و لوزة و عاطف و تختخ... ثم كبرت قليلاً لأكتشف أن ذات الكاتب محمود سالم قد خرج بسلسلة جديدة تدعى "الشياطين ال13"...
كانت قصصهم جادة أكثر لكن هذا لم يكن بيت القصيد... كانوا فريقاً من مختلف الدول العربية و قد اختيرت أسماؤهم بعناية... رقم 1 أحمد من مصر... رقم 2 عثمان من السودان (اسم شائع جداً هناك حتى أن أحد زملائي الأطباء من السودان اسمه عثمان!)... وهناك بوعمير من الجزائر و زبيدة من تونس و سعد من السعودية (كان يربي سكسوكة جميلة ) ... وهناك شاب من فلسطين وآخر من سوريا و صبية من الأردن... وربما خانتني الذاكرة في بعضهم لكنني أتذكر جيداً أن رقم 13 كان من العراق... كان فتياً وسيماً و ذكياً جداً و كان اسمه ... رشيد
فتحت خزانة الكتب فطالعني شريط عمري بأكمله... كتب قليلة من أيام المدرسة... تاريخ الأدب العربي... القضية الفلسطينية... المجتمع العربي... كتب السنة الأولى في الجامعة... كيمياء و فيزياء و أحياء و كتاب بغيض عن علم الخلية... أخذ صدري يضيق و أزحت مراجع الجراحة و السيكولوجيا أبحث عن كتاب صغير بحجم الكف...
أكتشفت أنني أملك قصصاً كثيرة لنجيب محفوظ و توفيق الحكيم و الجزء الأول من الشوقيات...! من تحت الغبار انتزعت مغامرة ذات غلاف أسود رسم عليها شيطان صغير معقوف الذيل... "اللص الألكتروني" كان العنوان... و على الغلاف السعر بالعملات العربية المختلفة... عشرة قروش... تملكني ذلك الشعور القديم بالتشويق و تذكرت تفاصيل القصة كلها... كان الشياطين عائلة واحدة... يحمون بعضهم و يتعاونون لنصرة الخير...في حكاياهم لذة لا تقاوم...روح الفريق و العائلة و الأصحاب... و رائحة الوطن العربي الواحد...فتحت الكتاب على عجل كمن يشتاق لرؤية أصحاب العمر... طالعتني الأسماء و الصور القديمة و عبق الأيام الخوالي... وجدت أحمد من مصر و الأسمر عثمان من السودان و الجميلة ريما من الأردن...بحثت بحثت ولم أجد رشيد
...
نخلة الياس أبو ياغي

---------------------------------

Hopefully one day, someone will find Rasheed ..

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Sweet Revenge In Frankfurt









Argentina will play in the group of death, with Holland, Serbia (a powerful team) and the Ivory Coast (one of the strongest teams in Africa).

Argentina will be looking to kick some Dutch ass on June 21st in Frankfurt, to take revenge from their loss in the final eight in 1998 in France.

Enjoy the pictures above from their encounters in 1978 Final Match when Argentina thrashed Holland 3-1 to win the cup, and 20 years later when Holland won 2-1 by Bergkamp's goal in the final minute. the first picture is funny!

Click on the picture to enlarge.

شريف جدا جدا

حرامي لنغ ٢٠٠٥ نازل عالسوق

مستر شريف محمود شريف الحسن ، لطش ابو ٢٥ مليون ليرة و شلف

والتاس الله يعينها بس ما زال بنظحك عليها وبتصدق اي واحد بلبس بدلة و بطلعلها ورقتين ثلاثة تثبت انه مستثمر، و تثق به اكثر واكثر اذا كان جده وجدك مع بعض بنفس المدرسة (غالبا ما تكون كلية الحسين او الكلية الاسلامية)
على اية حال... ماذا يجني الانسان لو ربح العام كله و خسر نفسه

Thursday, December 08, 2005

The Middle Class in Jordan : Yeslam Raasko






The presence of a big middle class is vital. It's the class the fills the gap between the rich and the poor, and as this class increases in size, the gaps starts to narrow. In Jordan, such gaps between the very poor and the very rich have existed, but never as bad as they are now.

In old days, it wasn't easy to distinguish a rich family from a less fortunate one. Both lived in the same area, both put on the same clothes and even both had the same kind of car. Despite the variable income from one to another, the rich maintained living a simple life and used the extra money they had mostly on education. This kind of simplicity was unifying.

What we're seeing now is an unbelievable gap between the 2 classes that exist in Jordan, and the middle class consists only of those who are not very rich in Jordanian standards or very poor, and most of this class are people who strive daily to avoid falling into poverty.

The essentials are getting more expensive. It's heart-breaking to see very smart students who cannot make it to a public university because they cannot afford 400 JDs for registration and tuition fees. A lot of people limit their transportation because they can't afford going on a bus more than 2-3 times a day, while expensive cars are driven by 18 yr-old men who believe they are the middle class because their parents cannot afford more expensive cars that their friends have.

As the financial gap widens, the emotional gap between people widens, and they start feeling they live in 2 different countries and will hardly feel for each other. The rich will treat the poor as someone who's naive, illiterate, stupid and a potential thief. The poor will look at the rich as a corrupt bastard who didn't work hard to become rich. Based on events from our recent history, Jordanians will not take it, and I hope it won't be too late before the government recognizes that.

Monday, December 05, 2005

How much can these children love America?









Will these Iraqi children remember the day people were allowed to vote more than the day they lost their parents ?

Will they think of this was as a war on terror or a war of terror?

This war has transformed each of these children to a potential "Bin Ladin" when they grow up.

Can't Americans stop singing "we didn't start the fire" for just one day?

Thursday, December 01, 2005

George Bush: Enemy of Humans







Geroge Bush started the dirty war telling his people that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction,
used against innocent civilians,


Well, he's right,

Weapons of mass destrution were used in Iraq, but only a year ago in Fallujah.

Watch this documentary from an Italian TV channel, and thank God that America is not occupying your country.

In English: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_110805Z.shtml (and click on the link)
If it's not working... http://www.web-world.ch/mirror/fallujah/

In Arabic: http://www.thepencil.org/mm/iraqus.htm

Treatment of homosexuals!!

I'd be very interested to see how will UAE officials -not doctors- treat homosexuals.

It's been shown time and time again that homosexuals have normal sex hormone levels. Hormones do not determine sexual orientation. Their levels might affect the libido (interest in sex) and the sexual functions such as erections.

Many people (not doctors) think that a low testosterone level causes someone to become gay. That is not true. I knew that the gays caught in UAE will be given hormonal treatment. I suppose they'll be given a male hormone, either testosterone or something like it. What this will do is increase their libido and interest in sex, so they would want more to have sex with other men and In case they're going to prison in those tiny cells with many other males that can be a bit dangerous.

Once officials stop giving the testosterone, the body will not be able to make its own because it's dependent on an external source of testosterone, so the levels of testosterone will be very low.

The other possible hormonal therapy is an anti-androgen, something to suppress the tesosterone to suppress the sex drive. What that might do is destory those men's sexual function and let them grow up big breasts! I find this very sick.

Such therapies are totally inhuman and non-medical. It all revolves around politics. Politicans in UAE want to win the public support by treating gays like guinea pigs, and America which abused human rights both directly and indirectly is complaining of such treatment to people they do not care about. Politics is such so dirty that the scientists' opinion comes last even it's the only one which should count.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

A very legitimate question

Haitham Sabbah drew my attention to a situation in Jordan....

We do not have a crown prince.

God bless King Abdullah, but what if he can't serve being a king anymore for reasons like death or sudden injury God forbid.....

Who, legally, will rule the country??

What does the constitiution state??

وصفي و تيسير






ثلاثون عاما ونيف مضت على الرحيل

خير الرجال تموت بالرصاص

وكم اشتقنا لبعض الرجال
حريقة

Monday, November 28, 2005

Risalitna... Strong Work.... Very Strong Work


Like always, we tend to find excuses not to help. The 11/9 Amman attacks was the worst terrorist attack Jordan has witnessed. Other than demonstrations and raising flags, most of us really did nothing to help our country. Very few people showed up to donate blood despite frequent calls by the Jordanian blood bank. I was disappointed to see that we are still selfish

Some ordinary Jordanians decided to make a difference. They have started a campaign called Rislaitna to raise financial support to the individuals and families most impacted by the 11/9 tragedy. The victims are not only those who died or hav been injured, it's their families too. The families who have to find some sort of financial support and pay the hospital bills for the injured ones.

Individuals and entities abroad can transfer money directly to the advertised bank account number as follows:·

Bank Name: Union Bank·
Branch: Jabal Amman·
Beneficiary: YMCA/Risalitna·
Account Number: 53950·
Swift Code: UBSIJOAXXX

Good luck, hope to hear good news!

Very predictable and very boring!



I believe the high turnover of governments in Jordan is a major cause we are having. To hell with the shining CVs of different ministers and prime minister coming and going if it's not doing us any good.

You need time to make plans and a lot of time to execute them, especially when they involve the whole country. Minsiters need time to work and people need time to judge them. If the economy is getting worse, would it be fair to blame tis governement or the one before, or the ones from 2003? If the ilteracy rate is improving shall to which governement shall we attribute the success to?

What happens is that people have different visions, they might all help the country but the fact is that each one is different. It's difficult to go on with something that someone before you has started, this is a fact in Jordan and we've seen it time and time again. I would be surprised if this government lasts for more than a year and we can all agree it wouldn't last more than 2 years.

Then we'll have almost the same exact letter of reisgnation, the same letter by the king thanking the old governement and the same letter appointing the new governement. This has become so boring.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Heroin next door !



This is real !! A hundred years ago, Bayer and other drug companies used to sell heroin along with aspirin as a medication for pain relief before recognizing its side-effects!!

Hopefully in 2100, people will be saying "Can you believe they used to sell tobacco a hundred years ago? "

The best of the best passed away





George Best
(1946-2005)

Pele referred to him as the best player in the world.

His performance reached a peak in his 20s, but had to stop playing after alcohol started damaging his body.

This Northern Ireland and Man Utd star struggled with alcoholism all his life eventually dying from it this morning. He was 59.

Of his sayings ""In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol. It was the worst 20 minutes of my life!"
R.I.P.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Have you seen Zarqawi?? Maybe I did.







If you've lived for a few years in Jordan, you can't completely deny that you've met Abu Musab el Zarqawi, or even had a short conversation with him. Maybe I've met him in Amman or when I went to Zarqa to buy those military boots (basateer) or sat next to him in a "sarvees" or bus.

If I did or if you did , how could we remember ?? I don't remember talking to him or anyone looking like him but after all you can't remember most of the people you had a casual one-time conversation with.

What I'm pointing to is that Zarqawi in some pictures looks just like a regular Jordanian man, same skin color, simple clothes, his beard wasn't that big or non-existant. If you look at Sajeda , the Iraqi terrorist and suicide bomber-to-be, her face is similar to at least 100 nice women I know, starting from the kind-hearted neighbor Omm Rami to some of my mother's friends who treat me as if I'm their son to at least 70-80% of Jordanian women of Sajida's age, not-ugly not-beautiful, head-scarfed, nothing especially attractive in her and nothing especially repulsive other than her thoughts, and she looks older than her real age (35).

There has been a small revolution in the shape of terrorists and now they look like regular people. So , young man, it doesn't matter how "cool" you look, people might still look at you as a suspect, because Zarqawi looked us one day, and even if your mother or grandmother is 70 years old, security at airports might still strip her of her clothes and to look for an explosive belt.

Many things will change, in Jordan and outside.

Working in Womens' Clinics


A speciality I avoided was Obstetrics and gyencology, there were many great things about it however it didn't suit me.

Yesterday however I had to go to the women's clinic as part of my internal medicine trainig. I had my extra-large coffe cup (evth i eat or drink is extra large) o golt lal gahwaji y7ott 2 extra shots of espresso 3ashanni kont msattel. Afraid of getting dehydrated, i drank half a liter of water and headed to the clinic. With all this caffeine and water, I knew that at some point I'd need to pee.

The clinic started at 8, i saw 2 patients and then i felt the urge to rush to go the bathroom. The third patient was waiting golt mashi, footi ya mrs. absar shu, i spent 20 minutes with her then i said yalla abu el hayareg roo7 farre3' el 7umooleh.

I found a restroom beside the clinic, ooops it's for ladies, and there was no men's restroom beside it, i walked a little bit and found another one..... wella ooops it's also for ladies, tab wain il men's restroom??

I looked at the nurse in clinic, and asked her o ana wejhi a7mar wa5thar "where is the men's restroom", she said "there's none. We are all women here, Dr. Brown and Dr. Jones are women and all nurses are women and all patients are women, so why should we have a men's restroom?"

kont beddi afga3ha soot 7000 decible "3ashan el ja7sh elli wagef goddamki" , but i stayed cool..... It was not still 10 am and i had 3 more hours to go, I wish I could have in Amman where i could sneek for a minute outside o wara ayya 7aawyeh and pee o barja3 ya ma7laani. But this is america any peeing outside would be considered public nuditiy and an environmental harm and green peace might ask for my blood.

If any woman reading this thinks that labor pain is the worst pain a human being can have, she has to reconsider this statement. I still had to work and see patients. Many women (even in the US) don't like male doctors to perform a gynecological exam on them, but they had no other choice because their insurance would cover for a different clinic visit, so kano majboreen feyyeh.

I had the thought of going into the women's bathroom but i kinda started caring for my reputation and if i did so my name would be on all local TV stations here since they have nothing to talk about, and my patients would see me o banfathe7, o abooy be3raf bel gossa o betbarra menni ...etc

The clinic eventually ended and i rushed into my car and drove to the nearest McDonald's to pee. I'm sure i scored 3 world records inside their bathroom and i feel sorry no Guiness representative was with me, but the sense of relief is outstanding.

Even after i was done i stood in that disgusting bathroom for 2 minutes doing nothing just smiling at the drug addicts and the drunk coming in and out of the bathroom. Twenty-four hours after that incident i'm still in a stable condition.

From this stand I ask that all men should have equal rights to women. Men are human beings too, and they need to pee.

Harroog

Monday, November 14, 2005

I love Iraqis

It's good to remember that Iraqis lost more than 30,000 people in different attacks since 2003.

IT's good to remember that they've lost millions of people during many wars they didn't want to get involved in.

They had had disasters during weddings, and they lost many children and women, for no reason.

If there are people who can feel our pain, it's the Iraqis.

Why was Jordan attacked?

Why were we attacked? You'll get different answers from different people. The sad thing is that most Jordanians still do not know why. Isn't this frightening?? "Sir,There are people who want to kill you, but you don't know why, so good luck!"

I still remember the happy faces of many students in the University of Jordan, following the 9/11 attacks (I mean September 11th) with them jumping in enthusiasm from one lecture room to another and attaching the pictures of Bin Ladin on different boards in the Faculty of Engineering, where I used to spend part of my time. Calling Bin Ladin a terrorist then would have made most people angry. I remember criticizing the attacks in front of my supervisor who lived long enough in the US and I remember him being really upset and asking me "Are you with them or with us"? (enta ma3na wella ma3aahom). Well guess what .... A few days later I heard the same words from the mouth of George Bush but this time in English. Since then, world politics has been focused on it's-either-them-or-us policy.

Al-Qaeda became very popular. People tried to justify the 9/11 attacks and our multiple personalities flew to the surface by sympathizing with any innocent civilian killed in 9/11 however cheering for Bin Ladin and his alikes:

***Abu Qatadah, the man who bombed 2 movie theaters in Amman and Zarqa in the early 90s and had a plot to bomb al Saha el Hashmiyyeh. He expressed his admiration to OBL several times, before and after 9/11.

*** Abu Ayman el Thawahiri and Omar Abdil Rahman and Islamic extremists in Egypt, where thousands of young Egyptians were brains-washed and considered any Egyptian who pays taxes to the government an ifidel and any tourist a target for Jihad.

*** Zarqawi: One of their sons and their good behaving student, just one among many others.

So we had deadly explosions in different countries and the victims were "innocent civilians". The love and admiration for OBL and Al Qaeda has remained, and every time any such explosion would occur we would find fifty million reasons to disbelieve the claims of Al Qaeda that they are responsible, and that was the difficult thing for me to understand: Those people say they did it, they are proud of it, they're celebrating it, but we didn want to believe them and we preferred to lie to ourselves.

We were attacked because al-Qaeda got access to Jordanians through their minds. It occupied their thoughts and that's something that metal detectors cannot prevent. We didn't learn lessons from the events around us, and that was a problem because you can't live long enough to learn from your own mistakes. We are a great country with great people but we have to keep in mind that we passionately belong to the third world. We have a lot of problems but we reached a state of despair that we trusted some freaks giving us messages from places we haven't known they even existed more than we trusted ourselves. If we started to love our country more than we love ourselves and worked together instead of against each other, we'll find Zarqawi and OBL slowly disappearing from our lives until we'll forget they ever existed.

Some blood please??

Jordan's blood bank announced that they need more blood donors, especially of the O blood group. If you're O - (negative) then your blood is very precious because it can be given to almost anyone. Any other blood group is still very helpful.

After working in the King Hussein Cancer Center for a few months and trasfusing "gallons" of blood to a lot of patients, I can say there's certainly a potential disaster in the blood bank. If you don't have a relative or friend to donate blood for you, your chances of getting blood is low. They don't have enough reserve and in emergencies like the ones we had, people might be hurt so much because they're not receiving enough blood.

Believe it or not but there are people who have only few family members and cannot get all the blood units they need, and there are people who are completely left by their families even in tragedies like that. There are other victims who are foreigners and just do not have families around. Shall they die because you decided to support them by blowing the horn of your car instead of giving them some blood?

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Saturday, November 12, 2005

كيف مزطوا من المخابرات؟؟

لعل اهم اسباب راحة البال لدى الاردنيين هي قوة جهاز المخابرات، يعني معروف من يوم ما الواحد يبلشوا شنباته يطلعوا بكون في ملف عم بنفتحله في المخابرات لتسجيل كل "المخالفات" ، واحنا عارفين شو هي المخالافات ..... التي من ضمنها التفكير او التخطيط او الاتصال باي شخص يقكر بالمساس بامن الدولة، وامن الدولة يعني امان المواطنين..... و راينا كيف تمت احباط عدة عمليات حاولت المساس بامن الدولة، ومرة ثانية امن الدولة يعني امان المواطنين، يعني امن ابوك وامك وعيلتك كلها و حتى الغيرلفريند
لكن مش كل مرة بتسلم الجرة، والجرة انكسرت اكثر مرة، في الاردن
انكسرتلها مرتين ثلاثة وفي السعودية ومصر اكثر شوي، و في العراق كل يوم بتكسر عندهم مئة جرة.... لكننا في الاردن كانت صعبة شوي نتعلم الدرس،
يعني بس مسكوا الجيوسي و جماعته قلنا المخابرات بتخوث عالشعب اخس عليهم، و بس طشولهم ٣ صواريخ عالعقبة واحد فكح و ضرب
ايلات في الهجمة الوحيدة للقاعدة على اسرائيل قلنا السببوراء الصواريخ هو علاقات الاردن مع اميركا و ارتفاع الاسعار و شقاء العيش....
بس قصة صواريخ عالبلد مش مزحة، و مع انهم مسكو البلطجية بسرعة البرق (ابطا شوي) الا ان وقوع الحادث كان الارما ان هناك خللا ما، او انو الارهابيين صاروا فاهميين للمخابرات كويس و عرفوا كيف يمزطو منها.
اللي فجروا نفسهم عراقين، لكن من دبر هذا العمل مش عراقيين، بل اشخاصا يعرفون الاردن و شوارعها و ناسها احسن مني ومنك و من عشرة زيك، ومن ناس عارفين الاجهزة الامنية والمخابرات و رايحيين عالراديسون والحياة والدايز ان مليون الف مرة قبل ما يخططوا للهجوم، زايريين مناطق ثانية كمان و شافو انها "غير صالحة للارهاب".....
ناس معها قروش واخطر شيء ناس متعلمة وعلى قدر كبير من الذكاء و القدرة على غسيل الادمغة
عم نتعامل مع ناس هاي تك، وتك تك تك انا حيران لان الزرقاوي كان غبيا جدا في المدرسة و كان فقيرا و عايش في حارة ملتعن حرمها بالزرقا ولو واحد اخذوا عالعراق وحكالو هاظي اميركا صدق
، لكن حتى لو اعتبرناه قائد تلك الجماعات الارهابية فانه بالتاكيد لديه الكثير من الرجال ورائه و حوله و خاف الله الكثير الكثير منهم اردنيون عاشوا معنا و اكلوا معنا و جايين هسا يخلصوا علينا بس على مين يا حبيب امك فزتوا بجولة وحدة وجاي اليوم اللي نخلص عليكوا بالضربة القاضية
هارييغا