Ministry of Health: A little too late

The German company (Boehringer Ingelheim) that manifactures the drug Silomat® , a cough syrup, decided to withdraw the drug from the market because it predisposes to a potentially fatal side-effect called long QT syndrome, which can cause a cardiac arrest and subsequently, death.

Here's a link to their website with the announcement:

http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/corporate/asp/news/ndetail.asp?ID=4854

Our ministry of health, in turn, decided yesterday to withdraw the drug from the market, because they care for our lives.

The only problem, is that it happened eight weeks late. The warning about long QT syndrome came out on August 31st and we responded eight weeks after that.

Imagine a drug that had to be taken off the shelves of European pharamacies being sold for 2 months in our country without anyone in our ministry interferring to do anything about it.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they were too busy closing up shawerma places to notice the news that pharamcy students around the world were aware of.

Tough Times

I went inside the room of my patient to talk to him. I saw he was awake but he was covering his head with the blanket.

"Good morning Mr. Garcia"

He kept his head covered with the blanket and pretended he couldn't hear me.

"Good morning Mr. Garcia" I said again.

Now he started snoring, pretending he was asleep.

My patient, Mr. Garcia, was not a 5-year old kid. He is 72. What he was doing was a defence mechanism that many sick people have when they get sick, it's called regression.

A lot of people, even the smart intellectual ones, do the same when they become sick. They start behaving like kids, or regressing.

I am no exception.

Towards the end of my medical school, I underwent a surgery for which I stayed for 4 days in the hospital. I was a pain in the ass. All nurses and doctors hated me. I kept asking for certain kinds of food they didn't have. I screamed and moaned and was a total bitch to everyone including my roommate who was an old man a hundred times sicker than me.

A story that I'll never forget was that of Zahra, 25-year old girl from the West Bank who was being treated in King Hussein Cancer Center. She had a rare cancer that was really eating her bones and flesh. Her mother came with her in her trip to Amman and was staying with her all the time. One day I was called because the young lady was refusing to take her medications.

I went to talk to her mother, a relatively old lady who you can tell from the look on her face that she's been through a lot.

She told me, "Zahra is not taking her medications, and she is angry at me"

"Why is she angry"

"She wants Manakeesh bi Za3tar , where can I find these manakeesh?? I looked in the cafeteria they don't have them. I went up the Jordan University Hospital cafeteria and didn't find any. Ma fee manakeesh!"

It was 10 pm. I went and talked to Zahra who was crying a lot. I was trying to talk her into taking the pills, but Zahra wasn't talking at all. She was crying and crying and it was clear that it wasn't all about the manakeesh, but perhaps her devastation about her illness. Her helplessness and feelings of defeat were transformed into rage on her beloved mother, and she started behaving like a little kid who won't do anything unless she eats these manakeesh.

I took her pills from the nurse and gave it to her, and to my surprise she did take them. A week later she developed a nasty infection in her blood and was transferred to the ICU. Her cancer was fairly advanced and the infection was untreatable. She died the next day and her mother returned alone to the West Bank.

Between Zahra's ocean of tears and Garcia's acting in the bed, I realized that the little child in you is the real thing. He's the one who cries for you, the one who screams the hysterical laughs out of your mouth, the one who senses the dangers and the one who lives with you all the way.
He's with you because he is you.

Avec Saddam

This is an interesting video from the eraly 1980s showing a group of French Parliament members including Nicolas Sarkozy (with the black tie) in Iraq meeting with Saddam Hussein!






And here's the famous clip of Saddam and Rumsfeld

Say a "K", Say a "Y", Say an "R", Say a "G",Say a "Y", Say a "z", Say an "S", Say a "T", Say an "A", Say an "N"

And what do you get?

Kyrgyzstan

Our first step to South Africa 2010

Good Luck Shabaaaab

Update: we lost 2-0. We have to win 3-0 on 10/28 to qualify!

Match summary

Date: Last Saturday
Place: Alfonso's house.
Occasion: The football match between Paraguay and Peru.
People watching the game in the house: Nine Paraguayans and one Jordanian.
Temper before the game : Everyone is angry, very angry.
Reason for being angry: unknown.
Youngest person in the house: Alfnonso, 25 years old.
Oldest: His grandmother, sixty-something
Every other word used during the game: puta
Player cursed the most: Cabañas from Paraguay for missing three golden chances
Person who cussed the most: the grandmother
Person cussed the most: Hareega for being a known Argentinian fan.
Referee of the game: some Brazilian, also referred to as a "un puto grande brasilieno" 23 times
Cuss words learned during the game: none, only puta was used.
End result: 0-0
but felt like: Paraguay lost 10-0
People blamed for not winning: Paraguay's 11 players, the coach, the assistant coach, the president of Paraguay, the ex-president of Paraguay and Hareega for bringing in the evil spirit of Argentina to the house.
Number of times Hareega mentioned he's not Argentinian just a supporter of the team: 9
Number of people who believed him: zero
Paraguay's next match: tomorrow
Paraguayans who want to see Hareega during the game: zero
Paraguayans who want to see Hareega ever: zero
The population of Paraguay: six million
The population of Jordan: six million
Most popular sport in Paraguay: football
Most popular sport in Jordan: football
Average IQ (according to Richard Lynn) of Paraguayans: 85
Average IQ of Jordanians: 87
Average IQ of Paraguayans during a football game: zero
Average IQ of Jordanians during a football game: zero.

Marrying a Green Card

"Faris, I might have to spend the next week in your place, is that OK?"

"The whole week! Why?"

"My wife is visiting from Detroit and she's gonna stay the whole week in the house"

Meet my Jordanian friend "Hasaballah". A smart young guy who got a college degree in accounting, has a good job, but a few years back decided to become an American citizen. Hasaballah got married to this lady who has a lot of psychiatric problems. She spends most of the year in Detroit but visits him very occasionally and when she does, she gets paranoid and sometime threatens to kill him.

She once pulled a gun at him in the middle of a fight, and Hasaballah had to run semi-naked in the streets.
I was horrifed at the story, not because Hasaballah almost got killed but because some people in town had to see him semi-naked in the streets.

I used to think it was only an Arab thing to get married to an American to become a ctitizen, until a Latino friend of mince told me about "the marriage plans" he saw in Miami.

He told me that if he married a Mexican lady, he would have to pay her about 8000 dollars total to accept and he'd eventually get the citizinship through her, but if it was a Cuban woman it would cost him about 15,000 dollars because Cuban women would get the citizinship and give it to their husbands much faster. He even encouraged me to get married to one.

I know quite a few Arabs here. Many of them got married to American women for the purpose of becoming citizens. Not a single one of them is happy. They think it's easy and straight forward thing, they sometimes have agreements with the woman to pay her monthly until they get the green card, but a zillion problems arise after they sign the marriage papers. I can go on and on with the unthinkable obstacles they went through that got some of them almost deported or even jailed.

It's not worth it.

Flying Without Wings

Even if you've never read any medical journal, I invite you to read this medical article, at least its title, published in the British Medical Journal, a very prestigeous medical journal.

I still can't believe this was published. Sheehan would have turned this down!

Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials

The authors were investigating if any trials were done to see if parachutes really did save lives of people jumping from very high altitudes! They didn't find any and they recommended doing trials to prove that.

Published in their December 20th, 2003 issue , Volume 327(7429).

Searching for a testicle

Today I had a craving for testicles. The "baid ghanam" or goat testicles that are extremely delicious and sold everywhere in Jordan. I haven't had them in more than three years and I decided to start searching.

I went to Albertson's and saw the guy at the meat section. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to ask about goat's testicles for sale. I decided to ask if they had beef's testicles because that sounds more "manly".

"Hello there"

"Good morning sir, how can I help you?"

"Um, do you sell beef testicles?"

"What?"
"Beef testicles ?"

"Is it for Halloween?"

My face turned red, and I started sweating like crazy. "No, it's to eat"

"Um I don't think so sir, I didn't know there are people who eat this stuff"

I pretended to be innocent, "my friend had them in Mexico and he told me they tasted good, never mind, bye!"

I decided to go to a different store (Walmart). They had a huge meat selection.

The person selling meat was a lady. I waited a little bit to see if a guy would come over, but she was the only one selling meat that time.

I decided to be casual in my question, as if I was asking about any other item in the store.

I came close so nobody can hear me and asked, "Hey do you have testicles?"

"What?"

"Testicles, do you have testicles?"

"I don't understand your question" and she really really looked confused.

I started sweating again, this time I was drenched in sweat, and my heart was beating. I asked "do you sell beef testicles here?"

"No!", she answered.

"Any kind of testicles? sheep or goat?"

"No we sure don't"

"Ok thank you".

Although I really needed to buy other things but I felt very embaressed that I ran away from the store as if someone was chasing me.

I called a Jordanian friend in town. "Dude, they don't sell testicles in Tucson!"

"Yes, pretty much everywhere in America they don't sell this stuff, unless you go to an Arabic store and order it in advance, you might get it a week later"

"That sucks"

"Don't worry, I got some tongues from Phoenix"

"Oh that's awesome, will you cook them?"

"Yes, tonight, will see you then"

I guess if you can't get what you want, be thankful with what you've got.

ملاقط مشتعلة

Thank you Malaget for hosting me in this very rare interview.

It's very rare because it's the only interview I had.

Too fast to be true

That's when she became World Champion and the fastest woman on earth



and that's how she ended up, today, in tears and shame....




Reminds me of Ben Johnson when he won his gold in 1988 and broke the world records, but it turned out he was cheating and was stripped of his gold medal and his dignity

Phagocytosis

Have you noticed that we, Jordanians, tend to throw a lot of food in the trash?

We fill our dishes with plenty of food that ends up thrown away?

Most of the manasef served in traditional weddings gets thrown away.

This was just a quick observation.... in a nation where more people are getting hungry.

Sahtain!

Jordanian Facebook-ers, Listen to the Word

Ten things you should and shouldn't do on facebook

1- No more bikini pictures please! Your french bikini might match your thick lebanese accent but the hair under your armpit is enough to cover the heads of ten bald men.

Next time a picture of you with little clothes covering you up will be in the morgue after your distant cousin chops your head off.

2- Stop making groups saying, "If a thousand people joined this group, my insecure ugly cracked up friend will come visit us in Jordan this year"

Excuse me, but is he the new Messiah coming to Jordan to save the world? And if these groups do work I'll make a one, "If one thousand people joing this group we'll cut his head off and make this head his new profile picture"

3- When updating your status, write something useful or shut the hell up.

Don't write "I'm at work". We know it's a surprise that you got off your ass and started working, but why are you announcing that?

And those annoying losers who never stop counting.... from day 30, "30 days to go, 29 days to go, 28 days to go..."
I feel they wake up every morning to log in and change the number.
If I give a shit about what you're counting down for, I would have called on day "30 to go" to ask. If I care about you I would have known what are you counting down for without checking facebook.

4- For some relatives, I'm sorry if I didn't add you as a "super-relative" or "super-friend" on facebook. I didn't know you ever existed before facebook came out.

5- For those idiots who post their birthdate and address and email on facebook, are you crazy? Don't you morons hear about identity theft? Don't you know that 70% of identity thefts are done by people who know you? May you also leave your credit card number and three of your contacts in case I needed them? If you're such an idiot then you deserve it.

6- Stop joining all these "I'm Christan/Muslim and very proud" groups. I'm not God but I can assure you the angels are not dancing in heaven when someone joins these group. The last time you were religious was when you prayed to not be caught kissing in the car.

7- You can't start a group for charity purposes and not donate anything. You can't support Darfur when you can't locate it on the map. You can't join a group to help poor kids when the members in the group are more than the money you've ever donated to anyone, including the beggars you cuss when they knock on your car's window.

8- I know you have a multiple personality disorder, but you don't have to prove that by placing more than one person in your profile picture.

9- You don't get to be my friend if you haven't called me in five years. My drunk neighbor knows about me more than you do and I don't even call her a friend, at least not when she gets arrested.

10- Having 700 friends doesn't mean you're popular. Having pictures of you hanging near the swimming pool edge doesn't mean you're a good swimmer, and all kids under the age of 3 months are very ugly. They look like zombies with their bald heads and protruded eyes so stop taking pictures of them. Besides, it's really hard to capture the rare moment when they're not screaming, peeing on the floor or shitting in your face.

Respect to the world,
Hareega

Let's Talk Science: Is AIDS going to threaten Jordanians?

Few hundreds, just a few hundred Jordanians carry HIV. It's always been around that number.
Am I concerned?

The Ministry of Health has warned in 2006 that not enough measures are being taken to prevent the spread of AIDS in Jordan.

Let's look at numbers:

We have some of the lowest percentages of HIV positivity in the world (0.01-0.1%), but what's worrisome is having plenty of undiagnosed cases. One might carry the virus for years before being diagnosed with it. In Jordan, people may die without being diagnosed with the illness.

Here's a scary fact: In the US, there are nearly one million reported cases of HIV. However there's another quarter million who do not know that they carry the virus.

There are 334 reported cases in Jordan. If you extrapolate the data above to Jordan, we can assume we've got 400 or more cases of HIV in Jordan.

But it's never that simple.

In the US, HIV is always looked after. It's always being tested, in emergency rooms and the smallest community clinics, among the straight and the gays, among the young and the old.

In Jordan that's not the case, and most patients with HIV present with the full-blown picture of AIDS with all of its complications because none of the many doctors who have previously seen these patients thought about the disease.
Doctors almost never ask their patients about sexual practises, and if they do patients almost never say they're having an extramarital affair, let alone being homosexual.

The UNAIDS estimates that the number of HIV-infected Jordanians is greater than a thousand.
Now here's another fact: AIDS in Jordan is not a disease of homosexuals. Most infected individuals acquired it by heterosexual sex.

The following makes me concerned:

1- Young people are having more unprotected sex. There's an assumption that only vaginal sex can transmit the disease, not knowing that anal intercourse poses a more serious risk for the transmission of the virus. Many Jordanians especially men are having unprotected sex outside Jordan and plenty of them acquire sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) before coming back home. They get treated for most STDs but and HIV test is usually not performed. With antibiotics being sold over-the-counter in Jordan, the incidence of STDs might be much higher than recorded.

A good example is the Jordanian peace-keeping force in Croatia in the early 1990s where ten soldiers acquired HIV during a short period of time. They were detected because of a close health surveillance performed by the military hospitals for soldiers in peace-keeping forces. They might have been easily missed if they didn't have the opportunity (or rather the option) to be tested for HIV.

2- Homosexuality, though present for a long time, is becoming more public in Jordan and homosexual activities are on the rise, yet sexual awareness is almost non-existent among Jordanians including many highly-educated citizens.

3- Ignorance and unjustified fear. I've taken only one 50-minutes lecture about HIV during my whole six years of study in a medical school in Jordan. We had an HIV-positive patient in the University of Jordan Hospital and the DOCTORS there refused to take care of him because they were afraid of transmission. A Jordanian physician here describes how a hospital in Amman in 1998 refused to treat an HIV-positive patient because they were afraid of transmission of the illness.

Almost all Jordanians don't know that HIV is different from AIDS, and that people carrying the virus nowadays can live more than 25 years even have a normal life span if they get treated.

Most people don't know that HIV is treatable while hepatitis B and C infections are much more difficult to treat and have killed and are killing thousands of Jordanians. Most people think that AIDS is an illness of only the gays and drug users.

AIDS is not a major problem in Jordan. I believe all the numbers the Ministry of Health releases about its prevlance in the country. What makes me nervous is the future, perhaps the very near future, and I have some good reasons to be worried.

A real black September

قتلناكَ.. يا آخرَ الأنبياءْ
قتلناكَ..
ليسَ جديداً علينا
اغتيالُ الصحابةِ والأولياءْ
فكم من رسولٍ قتلنا..
وكم من إمامٍ..
ذبحناهُ وهوَ يصلّي صلاةَ العشاءْ
فتاريخُنا كلّهُ محنةٌ
وأيامُنا كلُّها كربلاءْ

نزار..

Of mice and rabbits and dogs and men

We've had a few problems with animal right activists. They frequently broke into our labs and "freed" mice and rabbits that we've been experimenting on.

We changed the lab doors into well-locked ones and no more animals were freed anymore.

We are currently in the process of developing a new drug for valley fever (coccidiodmycosis) which is an infection very common in Southwest USA. This time we got some sponsorship from animal lovers because valley fever affects dogs as well as humans!

I'm not sure they know that, but lots and lots of rabbits and mice will be sacrificed (killed) during this research.
They probably consider dogs more important than mice and rabbits.
I consider humans more important than all of these animals!

The departed

He believed in peace but did not see it coming so he stepped aside.

It's sad to see how patriotic and intelligent Palestenians were put aside and gang members are reigning with their guns.

It appeared to me as if Haydar Abdil Shafi died a decade ago and not just yesterday.

Dear our Censorship Hero Mr. Nabil Al-Momani

Thank you for visiting my blog today. You've promised to be a permanent reader and I hope you'll keep your promise.

I'm really surprised about the announcement that you will start watching blogs and everything they contain. I thought you've always done that, but as they say "late better than never."

We need you here. Our Jordanian blogsphere is polluted with cracked, uneducated, totally rude, unpatriotic, anti-freedom ignorant Jordan haters.

I need you here. I need you to teach me to love my country, to watch my words before I regurgitate them in public and hurt my people, and most important of all, I need you to teach me freedom.

I wish you a great day navigating our blogs. I hope to meet you soon and who knows, I'm going to have lunch now so maybe I'll find you in my food and water and then we can have a long chat.

Sincerly yours,
Ignorant Hareega

(And dude, if you're still at work can you please ask someone to arrange all my articles into categories, I never knew how to do that, would really appreciate it)

هل يتحمل الأردن وجود شعبين على أرضه؟

يبدو أن الاردن بدأ تدريجياً ينقسم إلى جزئين، ويبدو أن الشعب الواحد بدأ يتحول إلى شعبين

.
كل شعب له أرضه وأهدافه و طموحاته وحتى لغته الخاصة

أنا لا أتحدث عن الأردني والفلسطيني
ولا أتحدث عن الاردنيين والعراقيين

أنا أتحدث عن شعب نسبته في الأردن قليلة لكنه يملكه كله بشوارعه وأنفاقه وأراضيه وبناياته وقريباً جدا سيملك أبنائه وبناته

وشعب آخر كان في يوم من الأيام سعيداً بحياته المتواضعة فخوراً بانتمائه لوطنه وراضياً بما كتب عليه الزمن لكنه بدأ يفيق على نفسه ووجد أن القليل جداً من أبناء وطنهم قد طاروا إلى المقدمة وتركوهم يلهثون في الخلف

ورغم أن الهوة بين الغني والفقير يدأت بالاتساع والطبقة المتوسطة بدأت تنصهر بتسارع رهيب إلا أن هذا لا يمثل المشكلة الرئيسة المشكلة أن الغني بدأ ينسى أو يتناسى أن الفقير إنسان حي بدأ ينسى أنه أردني مثله وأن عليه حقاً عليه كمواطن بدعمه

أيام زمان كان من الصعب أن تعرف الغني من الفقير فكلاهما يلبس نفس الملابس وكلاهما يتحدث نفس اللغة وكلاهما يأكل من طبق واحد وحتى إذا ما عُرف الغني فنادراً ما كنت ترى حاقداً أو حاسداً لأن الغني كان يستحق نقوده

المشكلة في الأردن ليست وجود الغني والفقير بل المشكلة أن الاردني الغني نسي أن هناك أردني فقير

نسي أن معظم الأردنيين يعيشون خارج عمان وفقد كل أحساس بالمسؤولية تجاههم هناك منازل في الاردن لا تصلها المياه والكهرباء إلا بواسطة وهناك مدارس لا يوجد فيها معلمي توجيهي وهناك آلاف من الطلاب لا يملكون ما يكفيهم شراء حقيبة جديدة أو كتاب أو حتى قلم

مش عم بتخوت

هناك طلاب في الاردن لا يملكون ما يكفي شراء قلم

هناك طلاب في الجامعة يتحسبون من رفع أجرة السرفيس أو الباص قرشاً واحد

هناك الكثير من المبدعين الذين رغم كل تلك الظروف تفوقوا على أنفسهم وأبدعوا في التوجيهي لكنهم عادوا إلى حلب الأبقار لأنهم لا يملكون ما يكفي سد أقساط فصل واحد من الجامعة في ظل غياب شيه تام عن رعاية الطلاب المتفوقين

الأردني الغني أصبح له عالمه وأرقامه وأناسه وأصبحت كل رحلة له خارج دولته الزمردية مغامرة محفوفة بالمخاطر يلاقى فيها شعباً أردنياً مختلفاً عنه متخلفاً فوضوياً بتعريفه مُجرد من الحضارة العمانية الصارخة التي يتفاخر بها أصدقائه النرجسيين

الفقيرليس أعمى فهو براقب كل هذا بحسرة لكن حسرته تتحول إلى غضب والأردني الفقير غضب كثيراً في الماضي ومن كنا نعتبرهم أكثر الناس إخلاصاً للوطن ثاروا قبل ذلك لأن التاريخ علمنا أن حتى أكثر الناس وطنية غالبا ما يفضلون مصلحتهم الشخصية على مصلحة الوطن رغم الشعارات الرنانة بعكس ذلك

الكثير من الامبراطوريات العملاقة خنعت عل ركبيتها والكثير من الحضارات العظيمة والدول الجبارة انهارت واختفت من على الخارطة والأردن دولة صغيرة بسيطة لا يتحمل وجود شعبين يتلك المشاعر المتعادية وأتمنى أن نتعلم ونتصرف قبل أن نندم

Of dogs and men

Michael Vick....

This football player was arrested and charged in arranging fights between dogs, where the loser dog in the fight is killed in front of cheering people.

News channels never stopped talking about him and describing how horrible this behavior was.

He apologized and asked for forgiveness, and discouraged everybody from doing the same. He will probably serve some time in jail.

I just remembered something I posted more than a year ago,
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."

It's sad to realize that humans sometimes worth less than bitches.

Thank you for not killing me

Accompanied by my brother and father, I was flying from Tucson to Vegas.
Airlines: Southwest.

We took off from Tucson for this one-hour flight. About 15 minutes into the flight, we heard a weird noise, probably coming from under the plane.

A few moments later the pilot made an announcements, "Folks I think we have a technical problem in the landing gear, we have to return and go back to Tucson."

Then he added, "but don't worry, everything is OK."

I was wondering if the landing gear is not functioning, why are we returning to Tucson rather than continuing to Vegas. It would not matter if we crash in Tucson or Vegas.

It didn't feel great as the plane was taking more curves and returning to Tucson. I was thinking how many passengers in the hijacked 9/11 planes did not know they were being hijacked in the beginning. "What if the one talking to us was not the pilot but some crazy hijacker?", I thought.

I also remembered the jetblue flight last year that almost went into flames because of its landing gear malfunction. Ironically the jetblue passengers were watching their own landing live on the TV screens inside the plane!
Here's a video of the jetblue incident on live TV:



The plane landed peacefully in the end. I got a letter from Southwest 2 weeks later, "....shortly after takeoff, the Pilots received an indication that the landing gear wouldn't retract. As such, the Captain made the decision to return to TUS (Tucson) to have the problem inspected. Our Maintenance Department reports that the mechanism that helps lift the gear and holds it in place wasn't working properly."

They also sent each of us a 100-dollar voucher!

I did some Internet search that showed that Southwest had a terrible landing gear problem just TWO MONTHS before my flight and they hand to land emergently in Oakland. Now I'm not so happy!
I guess that when you pay 49 dollars for a flight, that's what you will get.

Rules of Hesitation

Last week, my Jordanian friend here in town called to invite me to iftaar.

I was glad to be invited, but I was wondering how many times should I refuse before finally accepting to come.

"Hey Faris come to iftaar Friday"

"Thanks for the invitation but no thanks"

"No you have to come......"

"But then your wife has to cook.... ma beddi aghallebha"

"No please come we're cooking anyway"

"No thanks I'll be OK"

"No please come "

"No thanks"

"please come"

"No thanks"

"please come"

"No thanks"

"Please please please"

"Ok I will, what time?"

"6.30"

"OK thanks man, you know there's no need for that"

"No you have to come"

"No I'm OK ma fee da3i"

"No you have to come"

"No balash balash"

"No please please"

"No thanks"

"no please please please"

After a serious thought that he might think I don't want to come, I finally accepted and had a great mansaf.
-------------------------------------------------------


Americans on the other hand take yes as a yes, and no as a no.


On my first Christmas eve alone in the US, I was on-call at night in the hospital with my senior resident.

My senior resident then asked me, "What are you doing tomorrow (Christmas)?"

"Nothing"

"Ok my sister is making a dinner for the family. You can join us if you want"

I thought it would be nice for me to go, but of course, subconsciously, I answered, "No thanks"

He seemed a little bit dissatisfied with my answer, but didn't say anything.


Next moring he told me again, "you know I won't feel offended if you don't come".

Now I was between a rock and a hard place. I don't want to make him upset but at the same time he's not insisting, he's not pulling his hair and didn't point finger on my nose, didn't threaten to never speak to me again or never talk to anyone in my family for the rest of his life. Where's the swearing? Where's the fighting and grabbing? Where are all these oaths to divorce his wife if I didn't show up?

I said accepted. I sometimes find it hard to tell this story because I didn't want to be looked at as that dirsty cheap man without honor who accepted an invitation only from the second time.

God please forgive me.

Heart and Mind

Just got back form a lecture about dyslipidemia (high cholesterol) and heart disease.

The talk was great, the speaker is an international expert on this topic. Other doctors and I were invited by a drug company to attend the lecture that took in place in a restaurant in town.

We were served bread with some very good butter, steaks with mashed potatoes and gravey, and had a great dessert with ice-cream and cheesecake.

Feeling of guilt? A little bit. I should have eaten ALL of the ice-cream, it was so good.

Maybe our next lecture about lung disease will be sponsored by Marlboro

Worse than shit

A week ago, I started sensing a bad smell, a smell worse than shit, coming from my kitchen. I cleaned it, but the smell worse than shit persisted. I cleaned the 3 dishes and 2 glasses I have very well, the smell worse than shit was still there!

I cleaned my fridge and threw everything out, and the smell worse than shit was getting worse.
I cleaned the kitchen closets, the kitchen floor, the kitchen drawers, but the smell worse than shit never went away.

I started having doubts that my neighbors above were killed and that the smell worse than shit was their bodies', but seeing them smoking something suspicious on the balcony proved to me otherwise.

I started thinking it might have been the lizard we killed last week because I didn't throw all of her body out, but I remember the remainder of the body was left in the sitting room and the smell worse than shit was coming only from the kitchen.

Finally I thought to myself I gotta buy a new soap with a powerful scent and clean the whole kitchen the get rid of this smell that is worse than shit.

I threw my old soap in the trash outside. A day later the smell worse than shit started coming from the trash. I picked up the soap and smelled it. It smelled worse than shit.
Morale of the story: never clean your kitchen.

9/12

Just like all calenders skip February 30th , I was hoping it would start skipping 9/11.

On that day things larger than planes were hijacked and values more precious than the Twin Towers collapsed.

Under no circumstance was that attack justified and under no circumstance it should be justified in the future.

I stole this tribute for the victims from youtube:

Add this number

202-456-1111

Call this number in the US NOW!

Express yourself, speak up. Don't be silent. Your voice might be heard, can't guarantee that though, but you should try.

You won't lose anything, you won't be punished in any way just for the call. You should be free to speak up. SPEAK UP for God's sake. Nobody will know how you feel unless you talk.

I already called. It's your turn. Whether you're in the US or Jordan or anywhere in the world, you should call this number above.

مخلفهم و ناسيهم

قبل أكمن يوم جبت سيرة البنت الحديثة الولادة اللي لقوها بالحاوية بعد ما أهلها زتوها

اليوم جريدة الرأي ذكرت اكتشاف طفلين لقيطين

واحد منهم عند الجامعة الأردنية والثاني دخلت أمه فيه على أحد الجوامع وتركته بعدين هربت

رد فعلي الأول إنه هؤلاء الآباء والامهات ما عندهم انسانية ولا ضمير

لأنه الجرائم مثل هيك ما كانت تصير أبدا بالاردن ولا حتى أيام الطفر

لكن هناك احتمال ولو صغير إنه الأم اللي تركت ابنها بالجامع كانت إنسانة طبيعية

لم تكن إنسانة خالية من العواطف والحنان بل كانت تفكر بابنا وما زات تفكر به وربما ن تسامح نفسها على ما فعلت
وربما حن عليها قلبها ترمي ولدها بالحاوية قالت برميه بالجامع بلكي لقطه ابن حلال دار باله عالولد

حتى الأم -وممكن يكون الاب- اللي رموا بنتهم بالحاوية قالوا يمكن الحاوية أحسنلها من العيشة اللي راح تعيشها

كثير شغلات عم تصير بالاردن بتخلي الانسان يحس إنه قيمته كإنسان عم تتدهور و سعره عم يرخص مع إنه كل إشي

حواليه عم يغلي

Bin Ladin in Australia

As Bush was visiting Australia (not Austria as Bush misspelled it yesterday), an Australian comedian dressed like Bin Ladin and sneaked to where Bush was staying. Security saw the man and jumped on him and got him arrested.

Bill Maher was joking about it, "they immediately knew he wasn't Bin Ladin, because they were able to catch him"

And this is how we say "Welcome to Tucson"

The Mrs. America contest was held yesterday here in Tucson, Arizona.

A few days before that, one of the contestants, Mrs. Tennessee, was walking outside her hotel when she saw a big spider coming her way.

Scared to death, she moved out of his way but a snake nearby jumped on her foot and bit her.

Mrs. Tennessee was rushed to the hospital where she spent the night in the ICU.

Three days later she was discharged from the hospital and was able to compete, and guess what? She came second after Mrs. Wyoming.

Here's her photo after she left the hospital.

Oh Pavarotti

I was never an opera fan, but was really hoping that one day I can go to one of his concerts.

Looks like that will never happen!

R.I.P.

From the trash, back to the trash.....

The baby the moment she was found

If you live in Jabal Amman, watch it before you throw your trash in any of their trash boxes. Yesterday they found a newborn in one of their trash boxes.

The baby was seconds away from being smashed and killed if it wasn't for the man who picked her up.

It's very possible that other newborns were thrown away and killed by their parents.

Was the baby lucky she was saved? Maybe not! When she grows up she'll probably go back to the trash to pick up empty soda bottles to sell them for piasters...
You decide.......

A Jordanian Battle in Vegas

Location: The Treasure Island hotel in Las Vegas.

Time: Last week

People:

1- Hareega with brother and father

2- Cousin (of my father's age) and his wife.

Cousin, "What do you wanna do now?"

As usual, I suggest eating.

Hareega: "Wanna eat in their buffet?"

Cousin, "Yes, I'll wait for my wife to come back from the restroom"

Hareega, "Ok I'll go get the tickets for tonight's show then I'll see you at the buffet, join us when your wife comes back"

I got the tickets then headed toward the buffet. You have to pay first, so I stepped forward to one of the cashiers and handled her my credit card.

"Five people please"

As she took my credit card, I saw my cousin from a distance. Our eyes met. He saw me handling the credit card to the cashier lady and he knew it: he realized I was about to pay for him and his wife.

In the blinking of an eye, he started running to the cashier. My 60-year old cousin was running faster than Sa3eed Owaitah. He pushed aside a couple of people waiting on the line and threw his credit card on the lady's desk.

He looked at me straight in the face, "Shame on you, shame on you", he screamed.

I screamed back, "No way you're gonna pay, no way", then I looked back at the cashier lady and lowered my voice but spoke seriously, "I gave you my card first, you gotta use my card, OK?"

The little lady took my card and was about to process it, but my cousin's voice escalated, "No, take my card ...."

The little Asian lady sitting was confused. "I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do!"

I told her, "Just take my card"...

My cousin looked back, "I swear by the life of Badee3a that I'll pay"

Badee3a is a close relative but I'm not sure what exactly is her relationship to me. There's also more than one Badee3a in the family, all of them are born before 1920. They are frequently sworn by the Masannats. To be the person sworn by is a great privilege in any Jordanian family.

I was confused now, thinking to myself, "I still have to pay, but he's just sworn by Badee3a"

I still had to show resistance.

"I'll pay this time, you pay next time"

My cousin was furious, "No, I swear by the souls of Fatha (his late mother) and Metri (my late grandfather) that I will pay. Put your card back in your pocket. Khallisni"

I realized that I just lost the battle. Nobody dares to resist swearing by the lives and souls of Badee3a, Fatha and Metri. Without uttering a word, I placed my card back in my wallet.

I was really surprised security did now show up to the scene.

Observing the sorrow in my eyes, once nice couple offered to help, with the man saying, "Hey man it's OK you can pay for us if you want".

I didn't answer and stepped forward towards the restaurant, drowned with my defeat and silenced by my shame. Although that had saved me more than a 100 dollars, it left my dignity with an open wound that time will not heal. The delicious food could not overcome the bitter taste of defeat. Since that day I started reconsidering my tactics for next battle.

# 40

I started listening to Classicals recently, I loved Mozart's symphony 40,
here's one version of it


and here's another version , with glass!



Great music, but I can't forgive that moron Mozart for stealing it all from Fairuz.

Another one

Antonio Puerta

(1984-2007)

A cardiac arrest on the field, another in the locker room, and today he lost the battle....

Before him, was Feher (switzerland) in 2004:

and Foe (Cameroon) in 2003:

Update: Cause of death of these SEEMINGLY healthy atheletes is related to arrhythmias, which is an irregular heart beat, some sort of abnormal electricity in the heart, or due to an enlarged heart problem called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (not dilated cardiomyopathy-thanks abu el-Qaqish for your alarming message) which predisposes to these abnormal heart conductions.

My 2 cents:

1- These abnormal heart beats are usually missed by the general physcial exam a doctor perfoems in his clinic, even several EKGs (takhteet qalb) can be totally normal.

2- There are currently only TWO specialists in Jordan in abnonral hear conductions (arrhythmias). Many Jordanian cardiologists claim they are specilaists in these but they're lying. Having said that, some basic and common heart irregularities (like atrial fibrillation) can be treated by an internist or a cardiologist, but the more complicated ones like the ones causing death in the players above need a specilaist. Again, two in Jordan for more than six million. Cheeeeerz!

صراع الجبابرة

الزمان: يوم أريزوني حار جداً
المكان: شقتي الفاخرة
قرر الأهل زيارتي من ما وراء البحار فقررت تنظيف الشقة لأول مرة

أثناء محاولتي تنظيف السجاد قمت بإزاحة إحدى الكنبايات

فوجئت بوجود مخلوق زاحف غريب

نظرت فيه جيداً لعلني أتذكر إذا كنت قد قابلته قبل ذلك

تأملت في عينيه الناعستين و شفتيه الحسناوين فقام بمبادلتي بجحرة دبت الرعب في

قلبي المرهف وأكمل هو زحفه ليختبأ تحت الكنباية المجاورة

اتجهت بسرعة نحو أقرب شبشب كي أقوم بمصع وجهه لكن حجم ذاك المخلوق ولون عينيه الفسفوري أرهبني قليلا
اتصلت مع الأخت سطيفاني إحدى المسؤولات عن إدارة الكومبليكس المتخلف حيثما أعيش

"مرحبا.... وانا بنظف بالشقة لقيت حشرة كبيرة جدا تحت الكنياية"
"واو واو طيب بحكيلك مع البيست كونترول بيجو الثلاثاء الجاي برشولك البيت"
"ما في حدا ييجي هسا يشيل هال حشرة"
"لاء بيجو الثلاثا"
"بس هاذي كبيرة "
"هل هي حشرة ام حيوان"
"بعرفش، يا إما حشرة كبيرة أو حيوان صغير"
"طيب لمن تعرف شو هي إحكيلي لأنو إذا حيوان بحكي مع ناس بيجو بلموه هسا"
"طب مهو كل الحشرات حيوانات"

لم تعلق اسطيفاني على ملاحظتي البيولوجية العقيمة بل أقفلت الخط وتركتني وحيدا أصارع أفكاري وانا أفكر كيف سأتخلص من هذا الكائن

الحي الذي أقسمت بتراب أريزونا أنه لن يبق حيا يعبث في أمني واستقراري
نظرت إلى الهاتف وبعد تردد شديد قررت طلب المساعدة

اتصلت مح أحد الشباب الأردنين

" اسمع لقيت شغلة تحت الكنباي"
"شغلة؟"
"اه صرصور او سحلية او خنفس بعرفش"
"طيب شو المطلوب؟"
"بعرض النور تعال اقتله"
"بتعرفش تقتله لحالك؟"
"لأ"
"كبير؟"
"شوي وبعدين عامل كاموفلاج لونه بني مثل لون الكنباي شكلو صارلو ساكن عندي خمسميت سنة"
"يا خسارة الجيش الشعبي فيك، عم بتغدى مع مرطي بس أخلص باجيك"

وقفت بجانب الكنباية حاملا الشبشب النووي وانا انتظر خروج ذاك الحيوان الفاسق المختبئ كالعواية تحت الكنباية

ابتعدت مسافة آمنة وانحنيت على الارض مبحلقاً لعل وعسى استطيع التعرف أكثر على تفاصيل ذاك العدو البغيض فبل المواجهة الدامية لكن

هذا اللعين استطاع تحصين نفسه من المراقبة

فكرت بوسيلة حربية لاستفزازه ليخرج فقمت برش ما تبقى من علبة الديودورنت تحت الكنباية لكن العدو لم يحرك ساكن واستمر في تصعيد الحرب النفسية إلى أعلى دراجاتها

بعد عدة دقائق مرت كالدهر وصل الصديق المناضل لابسا الشبشب في قدم وحاملا الفردة الاخرى استعدادا لخوض المعركة

"وينو؟"

ودون كلام أشرت بسبابتي نحو الكنباية البنية فاتجه إليها ذاك النشمي ودون تردد رفش الكنباية جانباً ليبحث عن العدو الماجن

"ولك هاذي سحلية!"

أغمضت عيني وانا استمع الى أصوات زئير الشباشب وهي تقصف عمر العدو الخسيس

بعد عدة ثوان من الصمت الرهيب فتحت عيني سائلا، "شو صار؟ مصعتها؟

" لاء، شكلها شّلفت"
قررت لحظتها الانضمام للمعركة

"اسمع أنا يدور بالمطبخ وإنت دوّر عليها تحت الكنبياية الثانية"
وقبل أن نبدأ بتنفذ الخطة استعملت السحلية عنصر المفاجأة وباغتتنا بالظهور على الحائط والالتصاق به
"أقلك روح جيب مسّاحة أو مكنسة"

قمت بالطيران نحو الخزانة و أحضرت المكنسة وناولت صديقي الشطافة واتجهنا بقلوب من حديد نحو الحائط ثم انهال عليها بالشطافة وفصل رأسها عن جسدها ثم أكملت عليها بالمكنسة فاعصاً إياها ومنهياً آخر فصول حياتها البغيضة مكللين المعركة بنصر آزر واختلط العرق بالدماء ورغم أن كلاً منّا يعيش على الطرف الآخر من الشارع إلا أننا توحدنا و رفع كل منا شطافته أو مكنسته محتفلين بنصر لن تجرأ كتب التاريخ على نسيانه

Very Jordanian

This song isn't originally Jordanian, but it is now!



Late Fares Awad, we talked about him before

The Art of Testing !

Although the ten-hour American Board exam that I just had was probably the most important test in my life, I went to the test as if I was going to a regular day of work.

It's not my cool tempers, or over-confidence, it's just the indifference any doctor develops after a while.

Since I joined medical school, and for the past 11 years (ages 16-27) I, and my colleagues, had plenty and plenty of different kinds of exams, tests, and challenges, that makes an eight-hour MCQ exam sounds like a computer game.

Exams like rotating around a big room with human heads, shoulders and legs placed carefully on tables in the morgue where medical students having to identify the different structures in a human body.

Exams like cutting off frogs' heads , watch their legs move while they're beheaded, or just examining carefully urine samples....

Exams where examiners are brought from outside hospitals even outside Jordan especially for YOU, to evaluate YOU, and give a grade for YOU.

After college, it's time to think of going to America. There's those freaking USMLE exams, where you're supposed to get a very high score, or else you'll never specialize in the US.

If you get a low score , you have the option of repeating the test, in SEVEN YEARS.

These are crazy 8-9 hour tests each costing over 700 dollars, that you got to spend a year or two preparing for them.

During residency we got an 8-hour test every year, the purpose of which is unclear. Really even those who fail it are not affected. It's just a test because we have to have tests although we were done from medical school a few years ago.

So today I felt a bit tired from doing exams, until I heard from one of the cardiology fellows, a married guy with 2 kids, who was preparing for his 14-hour cardiology exam, and then I thought that I was lucky.

It's 8 pm now and I have slept only for one hour in the last 48 hours. I'm so tired but I drank so much coffee that I can't sleep! I feel my eyeballs will pop out from my head and fall on the keyboard!

I'll go listen to some Fairuz....

He knew..... and we know that he knew

This man is Nostradamus, he had excellent predictions of what was going to happen in this war in Iraq.
The only problem: he's Dick Cheney!
This interview was back in 1994

Funny stuff

The Japanese are the most creative.
Here is a candid camera clip, where a hundred people start running after a person and see how he reacts.
I liked the reaction of the old man in the beginning, he didn't care at all!



Remember FRIENDS?



This weather lady is a total embaressment to the station!!

قرار منع بيع الشاورما قرار متخلف

يعني إذا زادت حوادث السير هل نهد الشوارع ونسحب رخص السواقة من الجميع؟
لو رسب طالب في امتحان هل من العدل أن نُرسب كل الطلاب

في مطاعم بالبلد كل عيشتها تعتمد على بيع الشاورما وحالات التسمم من المياه والغذاء والهواء سببها فشل الحكومة والحكوات التي سبقتها في تطبيق القوانين

زهقنا شغلة أنو المواطن يتحمل مسؤولية تياسات الحكومات المبجلة
الحكومة لما اتيس هي المفروض تتحمل السؤولية مش تروح تسكر كل الابواب اللي بيجي منها الريح عشان تستريح

بعدين من وجهة نظر طبية أهم سبب لانتقال العدوى هو العامل نفسه إذا مثلا ما غسل إيديه واذا بطل يبيع شاورما فما زال من الممكن ينقل العدوى عن طريق الفلافل والحمص والزيتون والسم الهاري

مهو لما اتظلكوا تحطوا مهندس وزير للصحة بعمرو ما حدا راح يفهمكوا هالحكي

How we need to honor..... honor crimes

She was 25.

She was fighting for her life. Rushed to the emergency room in a critical condition with a low blood pressure, bleeding inside the abdomen was suspected. The surgeons and gynecologist (woman's doctor) took her to the operation room and opened her abdomen.

They found multiple adhesions (eltisakaat) and a pregnancy that could not progress because the baby was implanted outside the uterus, that's called ectopic pregnancy.

The doctor had no option but to remove her uterus (ra7em), ovaries and tubes.

It would become impossible for this young lady, with no children and two previous unplanned abortions, to become pregnant again.

She was tested for what could be causing this, and turns out she had a sexually-transmitted disease.

Again, she's 25, and she comes from a conservative environment.

We turned to the husband, who also comes from a conservative background. He confessed that in some of his travels outside Jordan for work, he had sexual encounters with some women in the Far East.

He got infected but wasn't too concerned, sometimes these infections don't cause symptoms. He took some pills and the infection was gone, but prior to that he had passed the infection to his wife not knowing he had one, and of course not telling her about the women he'd met in his trips.

I saw her, as a student, a few days after the operation.

I asked her, "How old are you"?

"Twenty-five and a half"

I was surprised why did she emphasize "the half"
"For how long have you been married?"
"Ten years, exactly ten, I was fifteen and half when I got married"

"Do you know what happened?"

"I know everything"

".... the infection...?"

"Yes" and she looked up as if she didn't want to comment further.

She was laying there, in a bed out of six in a crowded room in one of Amman's hospitals. Silent, broken, shaken, phsycially healing but emotionally traumatized.

He did it, he slept around, and betrayed her and her got the infection, but she's the one who suffered, maybe because life is unfair and maybe because you don't always receive as much as you give even if it was your teenage years and half of your life, or maybe she was just lucky that she would never get pregnant from that man, called husband.

Beside her was the husband, the strong powerful teenage-loving macho, who can travel and sleep with a woman after another without being responsible for the consequences.

He was looking down, maybe ashamed of what he did, or maybe just planning a new marriage, how he can get rid of this woman, this machine which had become useless after it lost the capacity to have kids.

I was always against honor crimes.

Now I'm having second thoughts. The only thing is that they might be directed against the wrong gender.

Don't touch my Falafel

Steal the land, kill the people, terrorize the kids, occupy the villages and cut off water and electricity from everyone, but don't ever think of stealing my food!

And the great, fabulous and charming Israeli Kofiyyeh! (Thanks Marcy Newman for the link), didn't wanna post the picture here, there's already too much pollution in this entry.

Great short poem

I woke early one morning,

the earth lay cool and still,
when suddenly a tiny bird,
perched on my window sill,
it sang a song so lovely,
that slowly all my troubles
began to slip away.


It sang of far off places,
of laughter and of fun,
it seemed his very song,
brought out the morning sun,
I pulled back the covers,
and crept slowly out of bed,
and gently shut the window,
and crushed his freaking head,
I'm not a morning person

(Dedicated to everyone who has to wake up at 6 AM. Poem was copied from somewhere else)

Bloody

I can't forget the face of a friend and a colleague, a doctor who worked with me in King Hussein Cancer Center, a day after he was beaten up by the sons of a patient he had seen before in the Emergency Room.

He saw the patient who was terminally ill with cancer, and after carefully evaluating her case he figured that there was no reasons for he to be admitted to the hospital since the hospital has nothing more to offer.
He passed this information to her 10+ sons and relatives waiting outside who were still in denial of the whole condition. They insisted on her coming in to the hospital. My friends refused because of the shortage of beds and more importantly because there was nothing else to offer to a lady who has cancer in every cell of her body.

The sons followed him upstairs and, while the young tough security guy was watching, the doctor was beaten up and developed a large hematoma (blood collection) behind one of his eyes and a brain concussion.

The patient died 2 days later, given that and in addition to a cup of coffee the case was dismissed.

That was not one incident.

Twenty-seven doctors were beaten up this year in Jordanian hospitals.

The last incident occurred in al-Basheer 3 days ago when two doctors and one nurse were beaten up by 4 brothers.

It's still happening, and will keep happening.

I can tell you something: a doctor will never feel comfortable or think properly if he knows there's a ganweh waiting for him in the visitor's area.

قواعد أساسية

إذا ما بتعرف ترسم....فممنوع تطلع عالتلفزيون ترسم

وإذا عندك ضعف في مستوى الذكاء....فممنوع تطلع عالتلفزيون متظاهرا بالذكاء

وإذا عمالك تنتقد من يتكلم قبل أن يفكر فممنوع عليك يا أستاز تطلع عالتلفزيون وتبلش تحكي وتتفلسف قبل أن تفكر

قبل ما تطلع عبرنامج بتفرج عليه أكمن مليون بني آدم مش غلط تفتحلك كتاب تاريخ الصف الرابع بدل ما تحرج نفسك وتحرج معك مرتك وولادك وشعبك كله

The day I wanted to Kill Batir Wardam

I really wanted to kill this guy.

It's not like when you tell your friend "Oh why didn't you tell me about the party, I wanna kill you!".

No, I wanted to kill Mr. Wardam as in : I wanted him to disappear from the planet or at least be kidnapped and tortured and nobody would hear from him again.

To start with, I am a big fan of Diego Maradona. He wasn't only my favorite football star, but my childhood hero. At certain times in my childhood I adored him more than my parents (whom I love so much and I hope they haven't read this).

In 1990 Argentina, lead by Maradona, were playing in the World Cup. I was fanatic about reading al-Rai newspaper, it was the best source of World Cup news given the absence of satelitte dishes that time. I was 11 years old.

Some people didn't like Maradona, some of whom were the neighborhood kids I played football with and intentionally shot the ball really hard into their stomaches until they cried because of that.

But in Al-Rai I noticed this writer , Batir Wardam, who had a strange feeling of hatred towards Maradona. Almost all of his articles were directed against my hero.

I wondered who was that German (excuse my ignorance) who writes in Arabic to express his disgust with Maradona. I was hoping someday he'd stop writing or the newspaper would kick him out, but he kept writing.

Argentina lost to Germany in the final match of the 1990 World Cup. That was a catastrophe. I was extremely upset, but what made really angry is al-Rai's edition two days later (it was July 10th if I'm not wrong as the game was played very late on July 8th). It had a title that the game sucked, and the German performance made Maradona cry.

In the bottom of the page was a separate article trashing Maradona, written by... Batir Wardam. I was really mad, felt like someone wasn't glad enough that such disaster happened to Maradona he even wanted to humiliate him more and drive people against him.

At that point I was hoping to be a MAFIA member (although I was still 11) to go and assasinate Batir. Chop his head or shoot him in his stomach fifty times 7atta yakoon 3ebra leman la ya3taber. I still have that newspaper back home and whenever I used to see his name next to Maradona's picture I would feel like throwing up.

Many years passed by and I didn't read anything for him until recently when I found his blog. It turned out that he wasn't German and that he wasn't that "football terrorist" that I want to murder. I still cannot forget those articles from 1990 but I believe he is a nice guy that still deserve to live. Congratulations Batir ... I gave you a second chance!

Assasination of King Abdullah-I

This is a rare video of a British news bulletin following the assasination of late King Abdullah-I in Jerusalem.
(It's funny how they used to play music while presenting news!)

In Arizona

The news reporter talking on this clip is reporting from a helicopter for a local news channel in Phoenix, Arizona. He was covering a live story of a man stealing some vehicles.

There were other channels covering this story live from theri helicopters. Because the helicopters kept changing position as they were follwing the thief, something bad happened.

Two helicopters of different news channels collided in the air and crashed.
There were four people abroad, they all died.

Why some Iraqi kids get to miss school ....

Jordanians are drinking ... Why I'm not saying Cheers

Drinking is becoming more acceptable in Jordan (at least Amman). I'm not sure if it's more common, because people always drank but it was something frowned upon in Jordan for the past couple of decades, unless you're Christian then people assume you drink, but you shouldn't be encouraging it or bragging about it.

I respect every adult's choice to drink, or smoke, or dance naked on a table inside his house, but we should know better that with freedom comes responsibility.

Teenagers as young as 15 years of age can drink and get drunk in many places inside Amman. I'm not really aware of the drinking age in Jordan because I was never told, even in the driving lesson classes, that it mattered.

People do drink and drive in Amman's streets every night, and people do have accidents because of drinking. Policemen do not investigate and driving under the influence unless the smell of alcohol is all over.

I drink. I adore Fuhaisi wine or a good cold Jordanian Amstel (could never find anything like it in the US), but our society is more tolerant to everything bad that comes with drinking (and smoking) than most societies in the West.

In Germany if you're caught driving with even a very minute amount of alcohol in your blood, your licence is suspended for 2 years. In the US you pay a fortune and attend classes and if it happens again you'll go to jail, and still pay a fortune.

In Jordan, unless you cause an accident, it's "frowned upon".

If you diagree with me go check some of the cheap bars where taxi drivers stop by at night, get a few drinks and then resume driving. If you're saying "A votre santé" several time at night, you probably don't mean it to others.

في أميريكا

صارلها أسبوعين بتشتي عندنا وكل يوم عم تنقطعلها الكهربا أبو ساعة زمان وبتتعطل الإشارات.... وقفت شتا امبارح

اليوم محسوبكو وعلى غير عادتي قررت أتحمم وانا بتحمم انقطعت المي

خف إيماني، مسكت التلفون وحكيت مع الاستاز كريس من إدارة السكن قلتله إيش يا حبيبي يا كريس مش عملة أقل ما فيها ابعوتلنا

مية المنشية نتحمم فيها

حكالي كريس الذي يتميز بصوت أنثوي جدا في ماسورة فقعت فالمية مقطوعة عن الجميع يعني أبو ثلاثمييت واحد ساكن بالكومبليكص

نشفت الصابون من عن مناخيري وهيني هسا قاعد عالجاعد في الفرندة وفي وضع فاضح للغاية مخلف لعاداتنا وتقاليدنا احتجاجا على

انقطاع المياه والكهرباء وأعلنت اضرابا عن الاستحمام في انتظار عودة المياه إلى مواسيرها

On September

Roba got July, Qwaider got August, I'm just reserving September, there's nothing to say now because its end is 2 months away,

Just do me a favor and ....

Twenty years of Hanthala....

Not dead yet, but slowly dying.......

Why I think Jordan needs more Infectious Diseases Speciliasts

I also believe this guy should stop spreading it !!