شَعر البنات

I don't like quoting, but sometimes I can't help it!

Hareega

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كنت في صغري أطارد بيّاع «شعر البنات»، بين الحارات، كان لدي شغف بالبنات، والسُكّر وهل في العمر اعذب من مشهد الجدائل، وطعم السكر في الفم؟

«شعر البنات» خيوط زهرية وأحيانا حمراء وأنت تلونها بحسب الصبغة المتوفرة بالسوق ولكن حال ان تضع هذه الخيوط في فمك فانها تتحول على الفور الى سكر اي تعود الى حالتها الاصلية.. ونحن شعب أثقلتنا مرارة العُمر ولهذا نحب السُكّر.... العالم يحب ان يلعب بخصل شعر البنات ذلك ان مداعبة الشعر فيها تعبيرات عفوية عن الحب، أما نحن فنأكل كل الشعر ذلك ان أكل شعر البنات فيه تعبيرات عفوية عن الجوع.... كانت «الهرايس» تستهوي الاطفال، وأحيانا كان هناك حلوى اسمها «كرابيج حلب» و«اذان الراعي» وايضا كان هناك محلول اصفر حامض الطعم اسمه «ذيل القط».. وآخر اسمه «الكلاج».. ولا انسى «العوامة»، وثمة اصابات مرافقة لكل هذه المشتقات تدب في امعائنا لحظة تناولنا لهذه الاشياء.... انا تميزت على كل اقراني بمطاردة،

بياعي شعر البنات في الزوايا والحارات، وحين أصفو مع نفسي اتذكر ماذا فعلت بي البنات وماذا عمل بي شعرهن

الانتماء للدولة الاردنية، ليس حالة فكرية تحتاج لتنظير، هو ليس مقالة، وهو ايضا ليس اتهاما.. او ازمة شيوعي مرتد.. هو طعم، وهو حاسة ايضا.. والاردن ليس سوى سُكّر في الفم

حين عدت الى مطار عمان ذات ضحى، اوجعني الأرق، لم اشعر بسلم الطائرة ولا بكذب الاشتياق، ولا بشريط الذكريات كل ما شعرت به هو طعم شعر البنات في الفم، جاءني وطني في لحظة من العُمر بتفاصيل الصبا وبطعم السكر فقط.....

الاردن سكر ونحن نحس بطعمه.. ترى تحت اي خانة يوضع هؤلاء الذين وأظنهم ذاقوا شعر البنات مثلما فعلنا، تحت اي خانة «يوضع هؤلاء الذين هاجروا للعمل في الصحف والفضائيات، ويسمحون لتلك الاخبار ان تمر لا بل يحررونها بيديهم، واحيانا يذيعونها بأفواههم وكلها شوك وعلقم، هل يا ترى حين يغادر الفرد وطنه يصبح طعم السكر في فمه علقما، وشعر البنات رمادا».... «فيصل القاسم» أمضى 30 عاما من حياته في بريطانيا، ولم يعرّج على وطنه بكلمة واحدة بل في كل لحظة كان يوظف المشاهد والضيف لخدمة الموقف القومي للرفاق، لماذا نحن نختلف عن هؤلاء.... لماذا ضيعوا طعم الاردن، وذرّوا شعر البنات في رماد العيون

الولاء للوطن مشكلة حسية، وليست مرتبطة بالتربية ولا بالقيم ولا بالدين او العرق، والحس هو موقف فأنت تتجهم حين تأكل شيئا مالحا وتبتسم للطعم الحلو.والاردن علّم كل من عاش على ارضه ان يذوقه وان يشمه وان يطارده -مثلما كنا نفعل في الصبا-... أنا ما زال طعم بلادي في فمي، وخصل شعر بناتها في أناملي.. وسأطارد حُلمها اللذيذ الجميل، وسأدافع عنه، أما الاخرون.. فمن اين نحضر لهم حس.. من لا يحس بطعم وطنه هو ليس فاقدا للحس وحده بل لكل شيء.... للعلم هناك أغنية لكاظم الساهر تقول «منين أجيب إحساس للي ما يحس».

عبدالهادي راجي المجالي

Arab Men and Sex

A Jordanian guy came to America earlier this year with his mother to visit some relatives, and rented an apartment close to mine. Being a single Arab, this guy started hunting for girls to have sex with. In less than a week he started sleeping with his German neighbor and later another American neighbor.

Sometimes I call his mother who seems to be a relatively conservative religious old lady, and when I ask her if Salem (fake name) is available, she'd just laugh and reply "Walla Salem ma3 el banat, beshrab gahweh!!" I would guess what (beshrab gahweh) means and she knows very well what (beshrab gahweh) means! But it looks like she's not very concerned.

Today I called and asked again "where is Salem?"
and she answered "walla ya khalti hayyo ma3 Amanda bel berkeh, ballahi i7keelo bekaffeeh hamaleh!!"

So she knows everything. She knows that he is having sex with all these women but the only thing she does is asking me to do is help him stay away from women. I was wondering what if that lady had a daughter sleeping with American men instead? Would she have the same response?? Wouldn't that Arab girl be killed or at least dismissed from the family?

Salem called me again today and he told me the good news: He's returning to Jordan to get engaged to a girl who is very conservative, never ever had a boyfriend, doesn't talk to guys and doesn't even have the cell phone number of any guy. Way to go!

I don't blame it all on men. I think women and mothers are to blame for raising such men with this sick mentality, men who regard themselves and gods who can sin then repent in a scheduled manner, and women are ready to forgive their husbands anything in their past but know that their husbands or fancies would leave them if he discovered that she ever dated a guy.

Morocco.... Morocco..... Moroccoooooooooooo

A few hours ago Morocco's soccer team qualified to the semi-finals of the Youth World Cup in soccer after defeating Italy in penalties, after they drew 1-1 in full time, 2-2 in extra time.
The Moroccan goalkeeper , Borgadi, saved 5 penalties during the match.

There are special feelings when it comes to Morocco playing soccer. In 1986 I was six years old, but I clearly remember the joy everyone had when Morocco defeated Portugal 3-1 and qualified to the second round to become the first Arabic and African team to ever do that. In the second round they played Germany with all its stars, and the Moroccans played pretty well, until 4 minutes before the end when Germany scored from a free kick, and I remember my father o howeh besarrekh o beshalle3 sha3ro and saying "jabo il goal men el khozga"-they scored from the hole. It looked like there was a hole in the Moroccan defence wall from which the Lothar Mattheus- ma ghairo- scored the goal. In that year the Moroccan keeper Badu Zaki yes3ed rabbo ma azkaah was chosen as the best player in Africa, the first golie ever to win that title.

again in 1998 Morocco qualified to the World Cup. In their final match they played against Scotland, and humiliated them 3-0 and were supposed to qualify to the next round to play against Italy. As we were ready to celebrate we got the shocker, Brazil lost to Norway in the final seconds allowing Norway to qualify instead of Morocco. Again in 2002 Morocco was on the verge of qualifying but lost strangely in their final match of qualifications and were relegated.

Last week I paid el ghaali wel nafees to watch the World Cup at home, but forgot that the games will be played early morning when I'm at work, so today I kept checking the results second by second on the internet. Morocco was leading 2-1 in extra time and Italy scored a shocker five minutes before the end. The flashback of my father getting mad and pulling his hair and screaming "el-khozga" came back, but Morocco had a talented goalie who saved FIVE freakin penalties and we saw another junior Badu Zaki being born today, paving the way for Morocco to become the World Champions in youth soccer.

Sorry for the red fonts which might be annoying, but such topic can only be written in red!

Our sculptures destroyed

In school days I got to know what Eraag el Ameer is and its historical importance. Very honestly I forgot why, but I remember our Arabic teacher Salim M3aani and his excitement whenever he used to talk about it! Anyway, the name was in my mind, until I started my driving lessons. Since my instructor was wise enough to feel I was a threat to everyone who's driving at a distance 500 meters or closer to me (and I still am), he would take me to vacant areas so I wouldn't be killing people everyday.

One day I was driving away from the city, maybe closer to Eastern Amman, until we got closer to an area kolha ghanam o kherfaan, 3am yaaklo o ber3o, very dirty and so empty, even scary, and i noticed it looked like a group of 100 empty houses or chambers built on a hill.
Then my instructor looked at me "yalla yabu el fawares hayna wassalnaak la 3raag el ameer"

"NA3am?"

"bas terja3 e7ki la abok ennak soget la 3raag el ameer, yalla leff werja3 o ma tensa el 3'ammaz, wella btosgot bel emti7aan, 7otteli 3a om kalthoom o sa77eni etha shofet shorti....etc"

I felt sorry for what happened to Samia Zaru's sculpture last week, and we heard voices asking to protect sculptures or pieces of art like "the Family" that Zaru brilliantly built. But where are the voices calling to save our historical places found everywhere in our country, including Amman. Every year i hear different things about how the precious things that we have in our country but nobody knows about them.
We need something like "the Kingdom of Heaven" so we can know how significant was Kerak in old times (and still is khawa nawa!) ?? We're talking about KINGDOMS which have existed in Jordan.

If the Greek and Romans have no voices now it's still worth listening to the voice of rationale. I've met some Americans and Europeans who knew a few things about Jordan that I've never heard about! I'm sure if Eraag el Ameer is some place in America, we'd find ten commercial centers and 100 restaurants and 3 casinos and an airport built around it to attract tourists, and we'll find Arabs and Jordanians coming from everyhwere to visit it and take pictures. If we don't know how precious our country is we shouldn't expect foreigners to.

Khabeesah

Khabeesah.......

I wish i can know the great mind behind its discovery, or better say invention.

A super-thin and super-delicious layer of grape dried in certain way that you can have nuts included within, and you keep eating and the more you eat the more hungry you get, to the point i started suspecting some that some sort of drugs may be injected into this incredible brownish substance.

My grandmother has been making Khabeesah for half a century, and i have been eating it for the past quarter century. Many times I tried watching her make it, but still there's a secret in that damn Khabeesah that I can't know, some secret in its making that only God Almighty and jeddeti know it. Maybe the other old woman in Salt know it as well, but i have tried many "Khabayes" and the best one i had was my grandmother's, welli mesh 3aajbo yballet il ba7ar.

Before I left to America I was certain there were many things I would miss, people, places and faces, good shawermas and khabeesah. Now my grandmother is too old to even eat Khabeesah, and I don't think i'll ever have her khabeesah again, but i wish that secret of transformation of grapes and nuts into khabeesah will be revealed, at least during my age!

Would you blame her?

Layali was showing me the wounds on her legs .....
"So the bullet came from this side, and it penetrated my bones and came out from my foot. There's another in my thigh, and a couple more in my right leg".

Layali was the Sudanese patient I was asked to see recently. She was admitted to the ICU three weeks ago after she ingested large amounts of a very toxic substance. Why? Suicidal attempt. Reason? bad living situations.

This thirty something woman spent half her life in the very ugly atmosphere of war in Southern Sudan. She was shot multiple times, she lost some of her loved ones in war, then there was hope: immigration to the most powerful country in the world. This is her second year in the US and things seem just to get worse. Although she's more safe but she's not more secure, and her life in the refugee camp doesn't seem to get any better, and problems started rising with her husband and kids. Moreover, she does not fit into this new environment. She found herself grabbing a high bottle of antifreeze and swallowing it, to the last drop. She came to the ER vomiting and short of breath and was placed on a ventilator for 2 weeks. Now Layali is breathing on her own and she's almost recovered, but I wonder after we send her out tomorrow out of the hospital, will I see her again next week in the ER after shooting herself in her the head or after swallowing 50 kinds of pills?
And should we blame her for "losing hope and faith" and "giving up so fast", or should we blame the world who is neglecting her suffering and the suffering of hundreds of millions of people all around the world?? Should we blame those who start the wars or those who die from them? Should we blame the woman who had bullets wandering thru her body or blame the ones who made that bullet itself? If Layali eventually killed herself, I'll ask her children to be proud of a mother who was strong enough to stand hell-on-earth for a very long time and worse, stand the neglect and apathy of our indifferent world.