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?

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

Friday, November 11, 2005

Today is a different day






عازز علي النوم طيفك على بالي


و في الليلة الظلماء يفتقد البدر
نفتقد طلة الحسين ، و نفتقد صوته الحنون و قدرته المذهلة على التماسك و بعث الثقة بالنفس في احلك الظروف
و كل الثقة بقائدنا ابو حسين، وحمى الله الاردن

Thursday, November 10, 2005

The names, God bless their souls

You can also find them on http://www.alghad.jo/?news=55728

أسماء شهداء وجرحى التفجيرات الارهابية في عمان

التخصصي

الوفيات
مصعب أحمد خورما (32 سنة)، عمر عبد اللطيف حسين (49 سنة)، أشلاء مجهولة الهوية، أشلاء مجهولة الهوية.
الإصابات
الدكتور ظاهر سليمان هاشم (عراقي الجنسية)، إيمان خالد (عراقية)، وهبي جون (عراقي)، شريف عبد الغني الجلاد، محمد محمود السوباني.

المركز العربي

ثلاث وفيات
الإصابات
كارت فيلر (45 سنة، سويسري)، أحمد فتحي بخيت (21سنة)، حسين عبد الله الفاروق (29 سنة)، أكرم ماجد الشامي (30 سنة)، دينا غازي عقل (24 سنة)، سناء سامي شفافوج (52 سنة)، رنا عبدالله الفاروق 24 سنة, فادي يعقوب جريس 25 سنة, خلود كامل العتال, فارس انيس العلمي 22 سنة, فادي العشي, دينا عقل, غالب خضر محمد علي 53 سنة (عراقي).

الملكة علياء العسكري

الوفيات
بشار محمد حمد, جمال محمد محمود 37 سنة, باسم عبداللطيف نمر علي 47 سنة, فتاتان مجهولتا الهوية.
الإصابات
عرفات بشير عرفات 29 سنة, هاني وليد رضوان بركات 24 سنة.

الاردن

الوفيات
طفلة مجهولة الهوية, يوسف الحمصي, عارف عبدالرحمن زرقيه, عوني احمد يحيى, بيري باتسولانو 55 سنة (اندونيسي الجنسية), محمد احمد علي 42 سنة, ابراهيم عزمي مصطفى, هيثم مهنا عبد الكريم. فارس العتيبي الرنتسيس, حبيب خميس خلف (عراقي الجنسية), ثمانية اشخاص مجهولو الهوية.
الإصابات

عبد العزيز قاسم يوسف, أميرة عبد الرحمن دعاس, جهاد, فتحية دعاس, رندة يعقوب, سوسن ابو حليمة, صالح يوسف, عمار الكيلاني, محمد غازي العتيبي (سعودي الجنسية), محمد حسن ابو شنب, زياد جمال فارس, قاسم يوسف الامير, انس الاطرش, رولا العمر, بتول عوض, حسن خميس, بشار محمد دعاس.
مستشفى الشميساني

الوفيات
علي محمود عبدالله العلي 26 سنة, مثنى حسين عبدالرحيم مصطفى 35 سنة, الدكتور مازن سامي عباس 40 سنة (عراقي).
الإصابات
عمار محمود شاكر جودة, مصطفى العقاد, شريف شوقي (مصري).
المستشفى الخالدي
الوفيات
محسن طالب عباس (عراقي), ارقم حسن عبدالرحيم, احمد خضر حسن.
الإصابات
كرم عدنان نوفل 30 سنة, نبكي سترو 34 سنة (اندونيسية), هيلرا نقولا سام سبانج 66 سنة (المانية), ارت تربتون 76 سنة (المانية), ديتي وجين 64 (المانية), سمير علي فاروق 57 سنة, احمد علي شكري عطاري 28 سنة, يزن حسن مجاهد 20 سنة, زيد هاني المصري (اميركي), مالسبرجر برجني (المانية).
مستشفى ملحس
الوفيات

مجهول الهوية.
الإصابات
باسمة رؤوف الالوسي 62 سنة (عراقية), مروان عمر علي فاروق, فايز محمد سليم.
مستشفى الاستقلال
الوفيات
ميس محمد سليمان (رادسون)، علي حبيب نصر الشمري.(رادسون), فتحية احمد عبدالله عياش 55 سنة. (رادسون), دانا (موظفة في فندق حياة عمان), مجهول الهوية.
الإصابات
مجهول الهوية الإصابة بالغة.
المدينة الطبية
الإصابات
عصام جبر محمد 31 سنة, راكان العدوان 24 سنة.

سباع الليل منا تهاب...... و بالعوز سلاحي عالباب






I never thought I'll have so many enemies in my life, but today that changed.

I never thought I can hate people so much, today that changed.

I never thought I'd miss my country that much, but today I wanted to be there more than ever before, even if I was to be in that wedding in Raddison SAS or waiting in the Hyat Amman lobby.

For me and every Jordanian, many things have changed today,

But Amman will never change, and will stay the most beautiful city. We will not change and we will stay united to get those animals who tried to shake us, and we'll get those who sent them and those enemies who lived among us for years and years.

Any names please?

IF you know names of casulaities in the attacks today and you're 100% certain about it please let us know, I only know that my direct family members are Ok but we need to know about everybody else.

God bless Jordan.

People kept cheering for al Qaeda until it came and took away your own sons and daughters.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Some good old jokes!!

طفيلي اشترى حليب منتهي الصلاحية ، زور التاريخ و شربه

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سقطت طائرة تحمل عشرين شخصا فوق مقبرة في الطفيلة وقد تم انتشال سبعة الاف جثة ومازال البحث جاريا

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أربعة بخلاء لعبوا " مونوبولي " .. ما حدا اشترى
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شخص استعمل حبة فياغرا مغشوشة .. وقف قلبه
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غوراني راح عالسودان، صاروا يدلعوه هناك ابو شركس

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مرة طفيلي عم بركض... وقفله واحد بالسيارة ... حكاله: بتحب أوصلك?? حكاله الطفيلي: لا والله مستعجل
__________________

وحدة بتحكي لصاحبها الطفيلي "عنجد مبين عليك هيك شجاع و بطل
فهو بحكيلها : ولك ما هو أنا كمان استشهدت بمعركة الكرامة
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ارهابي اتجوز ارهابية..... زفوهم بسيارة مفخخة

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شخص نادر تزوج إمرأة نادرة .. جابوا ولد مهدد بالانقراض

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طفيلي بقرا صفحة الوفيات، بحكي يا رب ما يكون اسمي معهم
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طفيلي إمّه تعبانة ، راح يجيبلها دوا من الصيدلية رجع لقاها ميتة...... قال : شوف البرادة

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واحد طفيلي لقي كنز راح يدور على الخريطة
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أصلع تزحلق ضرب راسه بالأرض تزحلق كمان مرة
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طفيلي سمع انو الدينار بدو ينزل فرط مصاريه نصاص
----------

A man was stopped by a female police officer for drunk driving.

After asking to see his license, the female police officer said, "Sir, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be held against you."

Swaying back and forth on his feet, the drunk muttered one word, "Breasts."
------------------

The doctor took Dan into the room and said, "Dan, I have some good news and some bad news."

Dan said, "Give me the good news."

"They're going to name a new disease after you."
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I hate bluetooth, iPOD and fax machines





















I feel soooo techonolgically challenged, i always ask for help if i needed to fax a paper, they always teach me how to do it but i fail to learn, i just stand helpless in front of any machine including the small calculaters that old men carry in their dakakeen.

The latest technological breakthrough i can reasonably use are Atari and a DVD player. I feel so ignorant when i see 16 and 17-yr old boys sitting and talking so enthusiastically about the newest cell phones and computers and these new iPOD and blue tooth or bluekhara i feel like an idiot,

i haven't bought a lap top yet because everytime i log into a computer i find 50 different laptops on the screen and i don't know what the hell is the difference between all of them, i get a headache and exit... that has been occuring for the past 15 months.

I feel so defeated .... Bill Gates.... I hate you big time

Saturday, November 05, 2005

I'm still too sensitive


I'm not asking for a war against Israel, actually I'm against any war at least for the next 50 years, but not out of love or respect to Israel.

I still feel too sensitive and irritated to see how Israel established itself as a country over the broken homes and stolen lands of Palestinians who are now fighting for a flag and a land and some dignity.
I still feel irritated by a Europe that ultimately refuses adding any Christian flavor to its union, an America that is standing against any possible Islamic regime, but when it comes to establishing a Jewish-based country we heard no objections or condemnations.

I'm not pro-qaeda or pro-Hamas or pro-any extreme religious organization, including Israel. However I'm still too sensitive to Israel and its flag and will always consider it an occupier, never a friend. The way Israel was created out of nothing and the way palestenians were expelled from their lands is something the entire world should be ashamed of.

Absence of pictures in JordanPlanet

Probably you've noticed the seemingly minor change in JP a couple of weeks ago: No more pictures on the front page. Although the topics in general are becoming more interesting, but the front page of JP looks very dry, some 15-20 topics full of words, but no life, no excitement, nothing attractive. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease bring the pictures back!!

(P.S. that's one of of my very few posts without pictures)

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Fart in the Dark



















Every while and then I keep thinking of the philosiphy of farting. On Average a human being farts 14 times everyday. If i have a patient who's constipated I always ask him whether or not he farted, if he did it's a good sign the bowels are moving. If not... then hmmmm there's a problem because everyobody should be farting.


Some patients don't like the question although I always put it in a nice way "passed gas, flatus??" . An old man once felt really offended and turned the question back on me , to which i answered, "I just did".

The question which has been bothering me for two decades is why do people tend to fart more in the dark. The answer which makes most sense is that people tend to see farting as a shameful thing to do in public, despite the great feeling it brings (unless it's followed by an undesirable biological outcome) . Therefore, once the lights are out, the music begins, bommm bommm bommm chuck chuck ewww ewww bomm bomm chuck ewwww ewww

When I'm doing the long calls in the hospital I might be sitting next to another one writing orders and checking lab results on the computer, when suddenly I hear the voice "bomm bomm" and I look around in horror but to find someone beside me smiling "it's me dude"... 15 minutes later another missile and again "dude dude it's me stop looking jeeez".

The puzzle comes when someone you barely know farts really loud and you don't know what to do, shall I ignore it or just give him a smile enno weslatna 3ammo ya3teek el 3afyeh or pretend it's his way of saying hello and in that case lazem arodd el salaam bi salaam thaani agwa menno.

When you're with your friends you feel free to fart, otherwise they're not true freinds. However some farts will be remembered for years to come. Every while and then you can stop a friend and tell him "btzakkar man lamma ro7na 3al kal7a o lamma rje3na 3al bait daggena bi 3 kyaas gthameh o ba3deeha 7adertak farra3'et el 7umooleh bi wejhi??"

Everyobody farts so don't be ashamed of being a human being, just don't be too human in front of me and keep your farts to a minimum. However in case you're having a conversation and all what you're saying is stupid and doesn't make sense, fart. Fart immediately as people will remember this fart more than your stupid illogical words, as the Arabic proverb says "Law Fasait o ma Hakait".