Ten Breathtaking, Shocking or just Plain Brilliant Moments in Sports

Continuing on my series of Ten Amazing Moments in Sports (previous ones: here, and here, and here, and here ) ... here are another ten moments in the history of sports that made the world stand on its feet, or just get shocked for a few seconds, showed an extraordinary skill that will never be matched again. Very unusual, strange and freakish moments...

Make sure you raise the volume!


1- Monica Seles Stabbed

She was on ruling the tennis world winning one tennis tournament after another, when a psycho threw a knife at her back during a game. The man was German and he wanted the number #2 player Graf to climb to the number one spot instead of Seles. Indeed she did.

Seles came back to play 2 years later but did not reach her pre-injury level.



2- Wrong Way!! Wrong Way!!
I don't watch 'American' football, but this incident in 1964 happens once in a million years. This Vikings player grabbed the ball and ran with it without any resistance from the opposing team for a very good reason: he was running to the wrong side of the field.



3- Maradona Fighting Back
While playing for Barcelona in 1984, Maradona was deliberately injured by Atheltico Bilbao's defender Goikoetxea. Goikoetxea was proud of injuring Maradona and kept the shoes he used to injure him in a glass box. Maradona suffered severely but was able to return for the second part of the league, and this time Maradona started a terrible fight against Bilbao players. Many of his teammates joined him and the field was a mess.

It took an intervention by the Spanish King, yes the King Juan Carlos to end the war between both campaigns after he called both players together to his palace days later and asked them to shake hands.

Here's the fight:


4- Panenka's Precious Penalty
It was the final game of the 1976 European Championship (Euro 76 if you like!) between Czechoslovakia and Germnay. It went to penalty shootouts. Germany missed a penalty and the Czechs had one last penalty, if scored would give them the championship. Antonin Panenka stepped up and in this critical moment decided to experiment with this new penalty kick. This type of shooting a penalty was named after him. Zidane scored from a Panenka penalty in the 2006 World Cup final.

Check the video to see whether or not Panenka scored.



Trivia: the German player who missed (Hoeness) is currently the director of Bayern Munich.

5- Three Seconds.
This is possibly the most controversial gold medal match in Olympic history. USA and the USSR played the final game in basketball. Up to that game the US had never lost a single game in their Olympic history. It was close game however with the Americans leading 50-49 with 3 seconds remaining. The Russians played those 3 seconds without scoring, however those 3 seconds were replayed three times for various reasons and following mixed decisions from different people. In the third replay the Russians scored and won 51-50. The Americans refused to accept their silver medals. They were sent to them by mail but they returned them. Today, 37 years after the game, the original players of the US basketball team still refuse to accept their silver medals.



6- Answer The Question, Jerk!

Tennis players can get pretty upset at the referee's decision, but nobody was nearly as crazy and rude as John McEnroe. This is one of his very angry moments at the refree.



7- Very Fair Play

Italian footballer Paolo DiCanio was well-known to have bad manners on the field. His career was filled with fights and red cards. However in this game for his team West Ham against Everton, the Everton goalie was on the ground after injuring his knee, and DiCanio refused to score against him. DiCanio, among all others, received the 2001 FIFA fair play award for this unexpected act from DiCanio (who happens to be a very proud fascist)




8- Samir Bannout wins Mr. Olympia

Mr. Olympia is the most elite competition for bodybuilders in the world. In 1983, Samir Bannout of Lebanon competed and won the title, becoming the first and only Arab to date to win the competition. Here is his performance in that competition. He reminds me of my body in 10th grade.





If you're wondering what Jordanian Mustafa Hassanin won, it was an amateur world competition. Great achievment, but it wasn't Mr. Olympia.

9- The Gift

West Germnay played Argentina in the 1990 World Cup final. Argentina played with 10 players after a player was sent off, defended brilliantly and the game was close for a 0-0 draw. However, 5 minutes before the end, Argentinian defender Sensini cleared the ball from Voller. Voller decided to fall inside the penalty kick and Mexican referee decided to call it a penalty. Germany scored and won the World Cup 1-0.





10- Slow, Miserable Death on the Circle.

This is a dark moment in the history of Formula One. In 1973 Roger Williamson was racing in the Dutch Grand Prix when he lost control of his car which caught fire and hit the barriers. He survived the collision but was trapped inside his car which was on fire. Another driver (Purley) stepped out and started extinguishing the fire. No emergency crew showed up to help. There was only one fire extinguisher available and Purley had used it. He heard Williamson's screams from inside asking for help. The first fire truck arrived EIGHT minutes after the accidents. Williamson by then had died of asphyxiation from the fumes.



Hope you liked them,
Hareega

A Tribute to Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died on the same day. That was a very bad day for white women.

Here's a tribute to Michael Jackson, a real artist who was destroyed by child abuse, extreme stress and whatever he was rubbing on his skin.

Let Them Wear Burka

I think burkas are crazy, and I always look at the woman wearing it (if I can) and wonder why is she wearing it. I even felt like throwing a question at a student working with me once just out of interest to see if she truly believes that me seeing her face will trigger my hormones and change me into an uncontrollable raging bull. What have always prevented me from doing so is my manners, or whatever remained of them. I always felt it was a personal decision by that woman, a result of multiple religious and cultural factors that I probably do not agree with, but the last thing that woman needed is someone who she doesn't know coming on and asking her questions about something like her clothes.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy said in a speech last week that burkas are not welcomed in France. The Parliament is preparing for a law that bans the wearing of burkas in France.

I have a major problem with that.

First, they are banning something because they do not like it. A woman who is shopping or walking down the street is not taking away the freedom from anyone else. She is minding her own business. We should not lock people up because we don't like how they look, otherwise we'd be locking up men covered with tattoos, fat people wearing shorts and Nadia Al-Jundi from existing.

Secondly, they're doing the same thing that the religious police is Saudi Arabia and Iran is doing, chasing women and giving them a fine or locking them in jail because of something they are wearing (or not wearing for that matter). It's exactly the same concept. The French government would lower itself to the level of Saudi or Iranian government in interfering with the woman's own freedom to wear what she wants to wear.

Abuse is another excuse the French have for banning the burka. They assume every woman wearing the burka is being forced to do so by her husband. This is actually true in a few cases. However in France a woman can get a divorce is she is being abused by her husband, and there are shelters everywhere for women who suffer from domestic abuse.

Integration into the society is another concern, but you cannot enhance that by forcing a woman by law into wearing what you want her to wear. Besides, passing such law would cause many women covered with burkas to stay home rather than go outside their house.
If you want them to be integrated you have to influence the way they think, if possible, by many other methods that do not violate personal freedoms. It has to be their own decision to put on or take off whatever cloth they want. You will not suddenly open up their mind by dropping a piece of cloth.

Do not treat a cough by a cough suppressant. Treat it with excising the cancer that's causing it.

Hard Days for Arabic Football

Arab teams had a terrible week. Egypt defeated the World Champs Italy 1-0 and hardly lost to Brazil 4-3 only to be humiliated by the US 3-0 (Don't forget that the Americans scored a 4th goal that the referee did not see). Iraq failed to score in 3 games and was relegated from the first round of the Confederations Cup along with Egypt. Tunisia failed to score at home against Nigeria and drew 0-0, Morocco failed to score against Togo and drew 0-0 and are now technically out of the World cup.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia failed to score at home against North Korea, drawing 0-0 and giving the North Korean the ticket to their first World Cup in 34 years. Bahrain, Qatar and UAE lost 15 out of their 24 matches in the qualifications.

Don't get me started on Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait and our national team (which lost to Bahrain 4-0 recently).

Egypt's great victory against Italy was a great one but apparently due to a lot of luck and a good goalie. To be fair they played a wonderful second half against Brazil. They can do something, but I'm hoping for Algeria to qualify instead of them to the World Cup. Algeria has been one wonderful surprise so far, they finally woke up after two decades of disappointing results.

Let's wish them the best.

Are Jordanian Blogs Not So Great?

I did a little survey on my blog where visitors voted on the overall quality of Jordanian bloggers. This survey is by no means a scientific and the results may be skewed. Besides, those who voted are actually people who visited my blog. Obviously it's people who read blogs so the results might actually be a little better than what they actually reflect.

Worldwide, most blogs are awful. Most blogs are created by people for no obvious reason and they stop existing a few weeks to few months after nobody really reads them. A lot of them are copy+past+youtube blogs and those are doomed to fail. In the US at least I've been through a lot of "mommy blogs" where a mother, usually a housewife with a kid or two posts stories and pictures of her husband and kids. Those are nor awful blogs, but are extremely boring for anyone who doesn't know the person. Finally there are blogs where you feel the person is trying to say something but you can't understand what are they trying to say, or they write in a bad style or very large or very small fonts or whatever reason there might be to keep one away from reading them.


For that reason I'm not very concerned that a lot of Jordanian blogs active right now will disappear. Mine might be among them sooner than I expect. However I am concerned that we have not had any good blogs in a while. It feels to me like many blogs were created over a period of 2-3 years and some of them were great. They discussed many controversial issues, they used a language many journalists in the mainstream media never used, they had pictures and videos of things we encounter in a typical Jordanian daily life. With time a lot of them faded away, and nothing special came by to replace that vacuum. Besides, most blogs were in English and most Jordanians prefer to read and comment in Arabic. A well-written blog like the black iris is written in English and despite the fact that it's well-written not a lot of Jordanians are able to access its content. Mab3oos is clearly a very clever and humorous guy who often crosses many political red lines in his blog but again, he's writing in English and his blog's name is mab3oos and this is a very major obstacle for people to access his blog. A few other bloggers have very interesting articles and I depend on them in knowing about what's going on in Jordan, but again there are many basic issues that we are afraid to discuss. We're afraid to write something that we'll regret writing later on, or from a random comment an anonymous commentator might drop.

Finally, and I don't have the statistics to support this but it sounds like the case, when it comes to reading news or opinions, Jordanians would rather read a newspaper or watch TV than read something online. We are still not a very internet-friendly society especially when it comes to the not-so-young.

Overall, I don't think Jordanian blogs are terrible, but we have plenty of room for improvement. I'm hoping for stronger, more challenging, more controversial and well-written blogs especially in Arabic to start appearing on the internet. As for myself, Hareega isn't going to get any better, medical school has irreversibly damaged all of my brain cells and 70% of my hair.

June 1993

Ahmadinajhad Won. Accept it.

They had elections, whether or not they were fair is something we don't know and I don't think anyone will have the ability to tell. I hate Ahmadinajhad but I like democracy and when people vote, their opinion needs to be respected. I hate it how the US's attitude towards every other country where if "our guy" wins the elections would have been fair and the people spoke up their mind, but when the "bad guy" wins the elections are unjust.

Let Iranians vote for whoever they want to, and if they're taking the streets and are going bring down Ahmadinajhad let them do it themselves. The last time the bad guy was brought down by a criminal military invasion things did not go very well and it was a country a little bit close to Iran both geographically and alphabetically.

This Picture is Not Photoshopped

that's a female guard behind him
and he's wearing a tie under the military uniform
and has a goatee at the age of 67
and he is still Libya's leader after 40 years
And he has the picture of late Omar Al-Mokhtar on his chest, like a prostitute wearing a cross.

Becky's Heart

One of my busiest and most stressful months as a medical resident was the one on cardiology service, where we had to admit and treat patients with heart disease. What made the rotation easier for us was Becky. Becky was a nurse practitioner who knew enough about cardiology that she used to do all the paper work and prescriptions necessary for patients, which normally would take a very long time.

Some residents didn't like her much, perhaps because she occasionally would show that she knew about heart disease a little more than they did, something that harmed their ego. Either way she always did her job pretty well.

Recently she started going home a little early. Other than the occasional complaints when the resident didn't find her around at 5 pm, nobody else complained because she continued to work hard, although not as hard as usual.

Last week Becky asked to take Friday off because she had "things to do". On Saturday she was found dead in her house. She had written a letter about how much depressed she had been, how much struggles she had in her life, then grabbed a gun and shot herself in the head. Apparently she had previously attempted to kill herself by swallowing many pills but she recovered from that incident. She gave life a second chance but life didn't smile back so Becky decided to go and this time she made sure she would go for good and indeed she did.

This was sad and scary. This very pleasant lady has been working with us and was extremely depressed to the point where she wanted to end her life and had a plan for it without anyone of us, doctors, knowing about it or even detecting any warning signs. We treated an enormous number of patients with depression. Every doctor had previously held numerous patients in the hopsital against their will just because they were considering ending their life. We study depression and we know what to do with a depressed person. But all that time we did not pay attention to that lady working with us who had died inside long before we heard about the bad news on a Saturday morning. Depression is a very real disease, and like Becky its victims often seek permanent solutions to temporary problems. I hope she's in a better place.

Unpolished Stupidity

I have a Polish friend, say his last name is Kaczynski. He introduced me to his wife and her name was Polish too. In less than a nano-second I forgot her name.

I wanted to invite them to dinner, and couldn't remember her name and didn't feel like addressing her as "the wife" because that would be a little rude. So I looked his facebook friends and found it: Gizela Kaczynski.

I sent him a text message, "Hi Roman I would like to take you and Gizela to dinner this Friday".

He replied, "Thank you, but why do you want me to bring my mother from Poland to the dinner?"

I'm pretending not to have received the message just trying to come up with an explanation.

Morale of the story: if there's a funny story involving Polish people, the stupid people in the story might not be the Polish.

BiMonthly Video: Obama in Denny's!!

The Onion news network is a fake news network that is very culturally insensitive and offensive to everyone on the planet as well as incredibly super funny.

Every few days they post a new video that can be incredibly funny, like this one today!

Jerusalem Remembered

That is Jerusalem right after the Israeli occupation on this day 42 years ago. A little painful to watch.
We were a miserable broken nation then.
And I wish we'd be just as miserable and broken as we were right after that defeat.

Virgin For Sale

I'm not talking about the record company, but a real virgin.

Natalie Dylan is a 22-year old student (and prostitute in the making) who is suffering in these tough economic times, so she decided to sell her virginity and the price offered was 3.7 million dollars.



Man, I know with this economic recession everyone was saying , "we're so --ked", but I didn't know it was going to be that real.

Anyway , for that man who's ready to pay those millions, if Natalie doesn't show up, you know how to reach me honey, love and kisses :)

Do You Want to Live Here? Bagdad, Nothing, Why?

Those town names are not only funny, but the story behind naming them is very interesting.

Nothing.

First, we have Nothing, Arizona. This is really a town called Nothing. The locals say that a bunch of drunk guys gave it the name in 1977!

Why

This town was located at a point where 2 major freeways interesected in a Y-shape. They wanted to name the town "Y" but the state refused to give it a one-letter name, so they named it Why.

Here's a store in this town named "Why-Not"

Bagdad

It's a little strange to have a very small town of 3000 people in Arizona named Bagdad. It's basically a copper mine town, that was named after a son and father working in a mine long time ago, and the son asked the father, "Can I have a bag, dad?" Hence the name Bagdad (with the "h" missing)

All of these towns are located in Arizona. Never been to any of them, and not planning to do so.

Outrageous

Per CNN:
"Dick Cheney said today that he does not believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the planning or execution of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

He strongly defended the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, however, arguing that Hussein's previous support for known terrorists was a serious danger after 9/11."

I don't think that those 100,000 who perished or the 30 million who saw their country fall apart because of him necessarily agree with his statement.

Comments of Al-Arabiyyah Readers Over the Air France Plane Crash

I'm ashamed to say that I have all the 289 comments on the news so far.

I don't know much about flying routes, but I'm sure a plane flying from Rio de Janero directly to Paris can never pass through Bermuda triangle!!

Also, some Arabs need to learn how to shut the f--- up.

Here are some genius comments:

مثلث برمودا -

لغز الرقم 6 ........تابعو معي رقم الرحله 447 ومجموه هذه الارقام هو 7 + 8 = 15 ومجموع 15 يساوي في النهاية 6 ... وعدد الركاب مع الطاقم هو 216 و15 اجمعو هذه الارقام فتكون 9 + 6 = 15 اي الناتج النهائي 6

......والشهر هو رقم 6 بالميلادي والهجري وساعة اختفائها كانت السادسه .......اليس امرا" غريبا" ؟؟؟

ما كنها عدت من جنب مثلث برمودا ؟ -

كانت الطائره تحمل 228 شخص أو 230 شخص أو 231 شخص ... لغز الاسبوع ؟ ؟ الجائزه رحله الى فرنسا على متن طائره مشابهه

لا يكون ادخلت مثلث برموداااااااااااااااااا

ولكني أتسائل ,, متى موعد سقوط البوينج ؟؟ لأنه لو تلاحظون ,, كل ماتوقع طيارة أيرباص ,, لازم تلحقها طيارة

بوينج علشان يحافظوا على نسبة المبيعات ,, و سلم لي عالركاب

والله حسيت نفسي في مطار هيثرو بلدن......الذي لا زلت اتذكر فيه انني عندما نزلت اول مرة للندن ....كيف تجمعت حولي المعجبات الشقراوات الجميلات الساحرات........والله لولاتدخل الشرطة واعوان المطار لتفريقيهن عليا.....لوقعت حاجة في نفس يعقوب فقضاها..هاهاهاهاهاهاهاها

نسيتي الرقم 330 اللي يشير إلى نوع الطيارة فـــ 0 +3+3 يساوي ست رقمية وليست أنثوية ، الله يلطف

بالمسلمين منهم وينجي أهل الكتاب المحصنين والمحصنات منهم

لا يفعل مثل هذه الاشياء الا مثلث برمودا.... لا احد يخرج منه ابدا ... الله يستر .... دعيبس الشرير

هل تعلمون يا اخوتي الاعزاء ان هنالك العديد من الطائرات التي فقد اثرها ما ان تكون قد مرت فوف مثلث برمودا هذا

المثلث الموجود في المحيط قد جلب استغراب وحيره العلماء فلا احد يعرف الى هذا اليوم لما تختفي الطائرات فوق هذا المكان بالتحديد

الله ينجيهم بس انا اعتقد انهم نزلو في المحيط الاطلنطي والينزل في المحيط الاطلنطي والله صعب يطلع من هناك لان في سمك القرش ينتظرهم هناك

القرصنة الصومالية الجوية ههههههههههههه

اعتقد انهم دخلوا او اعتقد اان الطيار ان اخطاء الطريق او انه ميل قليل الى مثلث برمودا

نتمنى أن تعرض العربية برامج وثائقية عن مثلث برمودا .. وشكراً

.....

من مسار الطائرة ..... يبدوا انها اختفت في مثلث الرعب

ياناس صدقوني كان عندي شك ان هاي الطائرة تصيبها مكروه رغم التطور والتكنلوجية الموجودة في الطائرة لكن هذ

القدر

ركاب هذة الطائرة الذين جلسوا فى درجة رجال الاعمال حدث لهم نفس المصير ام ان الطائرة من الامام لها حماية خاصة ؟

BiMonthly Video: Awesome Meshwaaar

I posted part of this song 3 years ago but the clip was removed since then from youtube.

Now it's being posted again, full version.

Great song if you've lived in Jordan in the 1980s.

Singers: Ronza and Wahid Jalal (who was played the voice of the Silver, the pirate with the wooden leg in Jazeerat al-Kanz!!)

Crazy Southwest

You can easily find many reasons to love or hate Southwest Airlines. I'm leaning more towards loving these days, mostly because they are the coolest airlines ever. No seating is required, they still do serve you refreshments, they don't charge you 15 dollars for each bag you check-in (which is the most insulting thing ever to any passenger), all their planes are 737s, and that thing above. This is a commercial for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit competition with the picture of a model on the body of the plane.

I guess the person sitting in seating 10F is having a bumpy ride more than the other passengers :)


Another example of their coolness:

and yes they are bitches for money, but everyone is.

99 Red Balloons

Ninety-nine dreams I have had

Every one a red balloon

Now it's all over and I'm standin' pretty

In this dust that was a city

If I could find a souvenir

Just to prove the world was here

And here is a red balloon

I think of you and let it go

The Turth About Forbidden Lies and Norma Khouri (No Spoilers)

I was not sure whether or not I should be going to another movie about Jordan. I saw Body of Lies and that was terrible. However, Forbidden Lies seemed like a very serious documentary, dealing with a very real issue: honor killing in Jordan and the book : Forbidden Love that Norma Khouri had written a few years back and was revealed to be a hoax.

A local movie theater here in Tucson decided the movie was so good that they were going to squeeze it into their schedule and show it only once on a Wednesday evening. I was really hesitant to go. Despite the ugliness of honor crimes, I was not looking forward to seeing another movie showing us as clueless Bedouins who beat up women and watch all their movements and deprive them of any right, something that Norma Khouri had claimed in the beginning of her book. But with town half-dead in this heat, I had nothing better to do.

I was surprised by how many people showed up (more than a 100), even thought the movie was already on DVD. My only wish was for it to show something positive about Jordan. ANYTHING.

Briefly, Norma Khouri wrote a book about her best friend (Dalia) who was honor-killed sometime in 1997, and the father who murdered her got away with 3 months in jail. She wanted to tell her story to the world. The book became a best seller, and was well-received in the West. However, many stated-facts in the book were clearly big fat lies. (for example, as a spoiled Shmesani kid myself, I immediately recognized that books @ cafe did not exist before 1997).
Norma responded by saying that she had to modify a lot of things in the book to protect people. The director of the movie goes Norma a chance to defend herself. It also interviews and interacts with a few Jordanian personnel who work on honor killings in Jordan, including Rana Al-Husseini.

The movies is fantastic. It has many twist and surprises. It's really one of the best documentaries I've ever seen and an example on how looking for one piece of truth leads you to the full truth. I very highly recommend it to any person interested in honor killings, Jordan, or journalism overall. And at times it's very funny, we really got some sense of humor.

Regardless of what you think of Norma, her story could have been true and it did happen to many women and will happen this year and the year after. However writing a bunch of lies about her country and her people did hurt the cause of these victims and the country itself. If you think differently let me know!

Finally, the take-home-message from the movie could be: Jordan River does not flow through Amman! HAHAHAHAHA

here's the trailer:

Football's Malignant Fever

The following happened in Nigeria, not Abdoun.
Hareega

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Eurosport- A Manchester United fan in Nigeria killed four people when he drove his minibus into a crowd of Barcelona supporters after his team lost the Champions League final.

The crowd in the town of Ogbo were celebrating Barcelona's victory after the match when the bus drove into them. A police spokeswoman said 10 people were injured and the driver was arrested.

"The driver had passed the crowd then made a U-turn and ran into them," she said.
Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0 in what was hailed as a dream final between two of Europe's best clubs. Both teams have large fan bases in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

Diary of a 20-something Ammanite

I'm writing this just to tell you how awesome I think I am. I mean I really keep surprising myself with how much great of a person I am. On many occasions I say something really smart that surprises people, they don't say it but I'm sure they just feel it. Also I'm sooo good looking. I always pick my clothes carefully and I look fascinating when I enter a room and all eyes turn on me. I'm so great to be with, and I have a lot of awesome friends who look great in all places and always say the right things. I don't know what it is but I just feel I'm a very special person and everyone else wants to be like me. Still not sure why I feel so great, could be my parents who are like the most important people in Jordan and everyone respects them, or maybe my house which is really huge and designed by that French designer my father brought from Paris to design our awesome house. My car is awesome and everyone in Jordan dreams of riding in it.

My school is the best school in the Middle East and my teachers were the best in their colleges so I must be great like them. I also have a great voice and can sing in 4 languages and I always rock in Karaoke nights. I have appeared on 7 editions of Layalina and I have like a 1000 friends on facebook many of whom are from those weird countries and have those weird names who just want to be my friends because I am soooo frickin' awesome.

I love myself more than anything else. When I look at myself in the mirror I want to kiss myself and make love to myself because I'm a super cool Jordanian and best-est-est human that ever existed and I am the hottest piece of shit that ever stepped on this planet. I am so special. I love myself and love everyone and love everything and everyone and everything loves me back.

I only hate narcissists.

واحد وستين عاماً من العزلة

لا تصالحْ!
..ولو منحوك الذهب
أترى حين أفقأ عينيك
ثم أثبت جوهرتين مكانهما..
هل ترى..؟

BiWeekly Video" Great Debate on WaterBoarding

This is a great debate on a absolute trashy morning show in the US named the View, that occasionally hosts interesting hosts, like a former governer named Jesse Ventura. He's against waterboarding while the blonde girl from Survivor is for it.

This comes as part of my bimonthly aweomse videos with less than 500,000 viewes on youtube

(At the end, Ventura mentions Sharon Tate, who was a young actress murdered in mysterious cicrumstances 40 years ago. Great quote!!)

Sex in..... Gaza????

As I was surfing through dozens of infectious disease journal Icame across this interesting article in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases (Volume 13, Issue 3, May 2009, Pages 334-341 ) about the prevalence of Chlamydia among women visiting infertility clinics in Gaza. Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) in the world.

The study was conducted by researchers from Al-Azhar University, The Islamic University and the Medical Military Services all located in Gaza in 2005 and 2006. 109 women were screened, and 20.2% of them were found to be infected with Chlamydia.

Although Chlamydia is a very common cause of STDs, it is not the only one. The study did not investigate further if the same group of women or other women were infected with other STDs, which is very possible. At the same time we cannot extrapolate this high percentage of infection to the rest of the community living in Gaza because women who visit infertility clinics tend to have a higher chance of being infected with an STD.

I am still somewhat surprised. I will assume that most of these women were infected by their husbands. Men can get this infection from women or men. These results should be an eye opener not only to people living in Gaza whose last worry is getting an STD, but also to other people living in the Middle East. Gaza is not exactly known to be a safe haven for the sexually promiscous, and yet one out of five women there carries an STD. I wonder how the results in Amman or Dubai would look like. Chlamydia is easily curable, but other STDs (like syphilis, HIV, HPV) harbor very serious longterm consequences on those who are exposed to them and their human and economic cost can be incredibly high for countries with tight budgets like Jordan or Palestine.
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To read the abstract for free, click here.

Suing Jordan

A Jordanian-American couple living in Las Vegas are suing Jordan after their son, Firas Zaidan. They claim he was beaten to death which being arrested there.

For details, do not check any local Jordanian newspaper. Check this local Vegas paper.

I Know Who Killed Me

A story about corruption in a Latin American country like Guatemala might sound boring, until you watch this personal video of a lawyer.

This lawyer, named Rosenberg, had previously defended a client named Khalil Musa. Khalil Musa was later assassinated, and Rosenberg claimed the president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, had a hand in it.

Rosenberg (the lawyer) then felt threatened, so he taped this video. It was a message to his people in the case he got murdered.

Indeed, he got murdered six days ago.

Then the tape was released.

It's about 9 minutes, you may just watch the first 15 seconds to know why it's causing a huge crisis in Guatemala.



Anyway, if I die soon, it's because the Lebanese song director Jad Chowayri assassinated me. I'd love to get that bastard in trouble.

Another Reason to Stand Against the Death Penalty

Paul House, convicted of killing and raping a woman in 1986, freed from prison 22 years later.
He was scheduled to be executed next month.
How can one be against abortion but for the death penalty?

Another Awesome Football Video

This is one of those moments that makes you appreciate how awesome football is, with all its surprises and unpredictibiliess (is this a word?)

Khoshi Khoshi Khoshi

Hey Saudis: Can you please.... Stop Raping Your Children?

The word marriage can let you get away with a lot of things, especially in the Arab world. It legitimizes sex between unmarried adults, prostitution, forcing a women into sex with her husband, and recently, it was clear to everyone how "marriage" was a way for low-life pedophiles into practising their sick paraphilias in a country that has the reputation of being very conservative, whatever conservative means these days in Arabia.

To define pedophilia, you have to define what a child is. There's an argument whether 16 or 18 should be the legal age of marriage. When the child's age is less than 15, the arguments start to fade away. However when you start arguing that children as young as 10 should be allowed to consent for marriage, you are an absolute moron.

We had a lot of strange practises in old times. A lot of other countries did. We are not in any way better or worse than most of them. However through the process of civilization nations started evolving into better ones. A major key in civilization is the well-being of all people living in a community, especially those who can easily be abused, like people from a certain ethnicity, religious background, women and children. Those groups had nobody to speak for them. Most nations who advance are the ones that pay attention to those little people.

In Saudi Arabia, there is nobody to speak for women or children. Raping a child is very traumatic, and it leaves them with terrible psychological consequences they will rarely ever recover from. For the little girl in the fifth grade, all what she can see and feel in those marriages is a man (usually an old guy) touching her genitals and forcing her into something very awful, very strange and impossible to understand for someone her age. It really doesn't make it any better when the government tells her that she's supposed to live with this abuser for the rest of her life, being under his command in whatever he does. Her only slavation would be if her man picks up another girl from the third grade to be his wife and let her go.

This is child rape. Do not spice it up. Do not defend it.

Sikis

Enjoy the six goals that Barcelona hammered Real Madrid's net with. I apologize for Real Madrid's fans for not posting their 2 goals: they were not well-deserved.

Seriously, if it wasn't for Real's goalie Casillas, it would have easily ended 15-0.

Your Facebook Status: Your Short Diary

A friend told me she stores her facebook stati. I liked the idea, you look one year back and it reminds of things, usually tiny things that can bring memories from good times you had. I'll do this every year or so. The most recent are first...

- America: STOP YOUR SEXISM. if you're gonna allow women to breastfeed in public, you should allow men to urinate in public without being charged with "public nudity". Men are human too

- is upset that "bitch" isn't part of my cell phone's sms auto-dictionary , I may need to start calling people by their real names

-is asking people not to panic over the swine infleunza, even though if you get it your skin will PERMNANETLY BECOME PINK AND YOUR FECES WILL SMELL LIKE BACON, FOREVEr, but don't panic , calm down...

- You know you're not eating healthy when the fire alarm goes off every time you fart


-encouraging people not to panic about the swine influenza, even though IT CAN TRANSFORM YOUR FACE TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE A PIG IF YOU GET THE INFECTION.... DO NOT PANIC PEOPLE, DO NOT PANIC


-As much as I love myself as much as I hate narcissists


-I'm so amazed by the enormous amount of asbestos found in the office and already considering giving donations for mesothelioma research


-wishes the government was just as a creative and aggressive as the influenza virus

-Free medical advice from Dr. Masannat: to stop a hiccup hold your breath for 20 minutes

-Fuck Susan Boyle.. ok? FUCK SUSAN BOYLE. F-U-C-K S-U-S-A-N B-O-Y-L-E

- microbiology 101: candida smells like baked bread, Pseudomonas smells like grapes, gram negative anaerobes smell like my car

-So annoyed by my neighbor who keeps trashing the street every Saturday night. I think it might be the right time now to make him an offer he can't refuse

-I terribly miss Jordan around Easter time (not as much the rest of the year)


-I received a coupon from Southwest for a free drink on one of their flights. I'll be happy to mail to anyone who wants it but I guess it will stop at four mailing stations before it reaches your address.


-Every insect on this planet -or at least my bathroom- can be shrunk to a third of its original size with only 10 cc of Absolut Vodka


-Dust, heat, cold, rain, poop of unkown origin on the road, knowing about every accident, road closure and song dedication in Tucson, Phoenix, Yuma and LA, middle fingers, dead dogs, dead cattle, talking to voices in my head, voices talking back... things you encounter when you drive from Tucson to LA


-I'm totally against the death penalty, except for those who make collar shirts without those small pockets. Those designers need to be executed naked upside down in public stadiums and beaten up afterwards Mussolini-style


- haven't done my taxes yet, in hope to be picked for Obama's cabinet...


-Fever is not a state of vanco+zosyn deficiency, thank you very much


-I do not like all those facebook quizzes, at least those that tell me I'm a lesbian


-Will always stand behind Argentina, led by the most genius super-human to ever touch a ball and dance with it, the greatest human alive Mr. Diego Armando Maradona... Diego, football's your bitch

- Message to all my patients: I'm now officially accepting tips. On the door of my clinic you'll find 2 cups: kindly drop your tip in the blue one and your stool sample in the green one


-decided to be his own primary care physician, and has already talked himself out getting a rectal


-Keep your toothbrush 6 feet away from the toilet seat to avoid contamination. Or you can just do like me and bring a toothpaste with a very powerful mint flavor


-I realized today I'm not exactly slim enough to walk between 2 parked cars. My apology for setting off car alarms at the UMC parking today

-Does solving complex Math equations on my butt make me a smart ass?


-wondering if my neck pain, ear numbness and the delicious taste of gram (-) anaerobes in my mouth have anything to do with my visit to the dentist last week


-Can't stop smelling the 1930 World Cup Argentina Football shirt he got on ebay. mmm that arousing smell of sweat from 80 years ago, can't wait to buy the shorts


- Is it normal to get high for 3 hours after visiting a dentist?


-Staying in Sedona is like marriage; it's great only in the very beginning and most people say they're having much more fun than they actually are.

-For lent I'm giving up rational thinking. The church should honor me: not only am I giving up something, but all my patients will start praying more


- is going to become vegetarian for some time. That measure is expected to increase the population of beef worldwide by 300%


-just knew that Viva La Vida was chosen as the best song of 2008. I guess Jizzed in My Pants wasn't sophisticated enough for those chauvenistic judges.


- is so glad he personally participated in physically doing a fecal transplantion today. I can't get that aphrodisic smell out of my nose


-is experimenting with matches while listening to Sunny came home... (Kathy if you're reading I'm just kidding I swear to God)

-if facebook wants to add "Like" beside each status, they should also add "Doesn't like" or a middle finger as well.


- is still bidding heavily on Mafioso Joe Bonano's eyeglasses. He can't wait to lick them to taste the suspense (and blood if he hadn't cleaned after his victims)


- is observing Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. In his memory I will throw bananas at my neighbor's door and take a dump in their backyard


-is spending Valentine with person I love the most and will always love and serve more than anybody in the whole world... I'm dating myself

- A woman with 6 kids decided to have 8 more and is asking for donations. I'll donate money to do whatever it takes to push those babies up where they came from


-watched Waltz with Bashir. It will ruin your day, make you feel helpless, useless and weak, and will suck your soul. You really really have to watch it.


-is tired of explaining that Jordanians do not eat dogs or cats (but a pair of old fashioned juicy goat testicles....hmm.. we would kill for that)


- is suffering from FUFS(Fucked-Up Foot Syndrome). The major risk factor for FUFS is insisting on wearing your new shoes even when they're too small for your feet


- is working on his visa renewal. Plenty of paper work, paying lots of money, mailing stuff, whatever it takes to not end up selling falafel in manhatten

-is shokced Comcast viewers in Tucson had to see that naked-men ad during the Super Bowl. Ads like these should only be on COX.. (baaad joke, i'm going to hell)


- is excited about Arizona playing in the American football Super Bowl today, until then he's watching a REAL football game between Liverpool and Chelsea


- is watching the debates about stimulating the economy. Here's my suggestion for a great stimulus package: Jessica Alba


- is learning new things from his infection control rotation. From now on he'll start washing his hands after each rectal exam


- is now convinced by the voices in his head that he can light his brain farts. Hey Tucson Fire Department: Watch Out!

-watched My Bloody Valentine. A bit scary but very inspiring. It inspired me to bring an ax to work tomorrow

- George W. Bush: FUCK OFF.

-on this great Martin Luther King Day I'd like to send my best wishes to African Americans living in South Dakota, all 3 of them

-is glad that all passengers survived in that plane crash in NYC. Not only that, but those lucky bastards will get back their 15 dollar luggage check-in fee

-had it with those patients who don't show up to clinic because they're sick or "got the flu". I'm an INFECTIOUS DISEASE doctor for God's sake...!

- I love big butts is a great morning song.

- is devastated about the terrible massacres happening in Gaza every day.

- is wondering if stealing the bible at his hotel room would be considered a sin. I may have to read the bible to know (will be skipping the 10 commandments)

- wishes everyone a non-tragic, non-catastrophic, satisfactory acceptable new year.

- is starting the period of saving lots of money on haircuts. Hint: become bald.

- the curious case of Benjamen Button: the curious case of how a shitty terrible awfully long movie gets excellent reviews.

- is pissed from his neighbor who blocked his garage. I'm gonna tell her 2 little kids today that Santa is fake. Merry Christmas!!!

- watched slumdog millionaire, it's a proof that you can have a wonderful Indian movie with very little dancing, and with the movie lasting less than 9 hours

- congrtulates his friend Rob for making his first solo flight. I would also like to tell people that I bought a new Hoover and assembled it myself. So we're even.

- OK, no more Christmas carols before 12/24. Remember, even when Jesus himself was born there were no Christmas carols on radio.

- is tolerant to lactose, intolerant to lactose fermenters....

- I don't know about you guys, but I don't really like it when my patient on the vent wakes up for a second , looks at me and then gives me the finger

- is excited about doing his first stool transplantation. It really saves lives. Give me feces or give me death.

- saw Quantum of Solace today. What a quantum of bullshit.

- believes that women should be independent. They shouldn't blindly follow what their husbands tell them to do, except of course if you were Hillary Clinton

- is shopping for tickets + hotel in Oralndo this January. Hey Congress, you bastards, I want an 800-dollar bailout

- because it's very cold in most states now, why the hell don't they send all their firefighters to LA? Montana and the Dakotas: redistribute your firefighters

- is planning on attending the World Cup in 2014 in Brazil, can't wait for the tickets to go on sale in February 2013

- strongly advises everyone to never iron their shirts while wearing them. Those irons can be very hot.

- has some sewage leakage in the house. Thank God it's being fixed now by Joe the Plumber.

- will be missing Tina Fey.

- Obama, will he pave the way for a Kenyan invasion of America?Will 50 cent become his advisor? Will he erect a statue for Stalin? just predicting new McCain ads

- enjoyed looking at the first plane ever flown successfully by humans in 1903. I'd rather fly with this plane than with Southwest.

- discovered a new disease, and called it Frozen Ball Syndrome (FBS). The major risk factor for FBS is going from Arizona to D.C. without bringing winter clothes.

- was glad to have a poster at the IDSA meeting. He was also glad to go thru the experience of being ignored by 13 thousand people from every corner of the world

- misses the smell of formalin in the morgue from the days of his second year medical school. He'll go smell his jar of pickles to bring back the memories

- can't imagine how someone's ass can get kicked for one hundred years? Any idea, Cubs fans?

- is hoping his new thick old-fashioned eyeglasses with the super gigantic thick lenses will add to his nerd cred

- is suspending his clinical research to focus on the economy.

- People should not complain about things they get for free. If you don't like the new facebook quit using it.

- watched "Burn after Reading". Can't wait to see its sequel... "Forget after Seeing"

- McCain never failed to shock me. I think he will win this thing. Shit!

- shouldn't have tried that massage-sofa at Sam Levitz today. My apology to the workers at the store. They'll know why tomorrow.

- is amazed by the 8 gold medals Mike Phelps got in Beijing. I bet I can get more medals, but fart-lighting isn't considered an official Olympic sport :(

My Experience with Swine Influenza

I sat down with four other infectious disease physicians in a small room this afternoon to discuss a problem: we don't have any drugs left to treat influenza.

It was worse, we were running out of kits that do the rapid test to check for influenza. We have to run test that take a long time to come up with a result

We had 10 patients who almost certainly had the swine influenza virus, which makes me think we have hundreds of cases only in town. In the US, it's almost certain there are thousands of patient with the infection who are yet to be diagnosed, and probably will never get diagnosed.

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) encouraged anyone with symptoms resembling influenza to go to the ER. Meanwhile, they told physicians to not check those with mild or moderate symptoms for the virus. So we have more people coming to the ER with large numbers, but we won't be testing them.

Our ER is full, so we are emptying one of our wards and transferring all patients coming in with such symptoms to that ward. Most will not be tested, and only the very sick will be admitted to the hospital and treated. I'm still not sure were will the drugs come from , but they will come from somewhere. Even in America, you'll need someone influential to push some buttons and get some drugs sent to those who need them.

Homeland security (headed by the former Arizona governer) will be shipping doses of Tamiflu (influenza drug) that will be enough to treat 30 patients in our hospital. It's harsh to say that, but I'm glad the first case of swine influenza was reported in Arizona yesterday, which allowed them to send us some Tamiflu. It didn't occur to them that Arizona borders Mexico, and that we have hundreds of people coming to Arizona from Mexico everyday.

And here comes the challenge: we had to make a policy of treating only a certain group of patients who we believe will be the sickest and who may actually die from this influenza. It's not an easy decision to tell someone with the infection that they will not be treated because there isn't enough drug on board.

What makes things less dramatic is the fact that those drugs work only within 2 days of the onset of symptoms, so even without the extreme shortage that we're experiencing we wouldn't have treated a lot of those infected to start with.

Last year I took part of an enormous workshop lead by former Surgeon General Richard Carmona to teach students from the colleges of medicine, pharmacy and law about the dangers and implications of an influenza epidemic. It was a little overwhelming for most participants, but the point we all agreed upon: We can never be 100% ready to face an epidemic. The ethical and economic challenges of any epdiemic can be more dangerous than the epidemic itself.

Take this for example: In 1972 in Yugoslavia, one citizen came back from Saudi Arabia carrying a small pox, and infection that had been eradicated long before that. This one person infected many relatives, and those relatives spread the infection all over the country. The military had to act and lock those infected or even anyone with symptoms in buildings. They forced everyone in the country to be vaccinated, and held checkpoints to make sure everyone was vaccinated, and would force everyone to get the vaccine. They succeeded in eradicating the infection, and thanks to science smallpox has been eradicated from the face of the earth since 1979.

If you think the military would only violate the privacy and freedom of citizens in communist Yugoslavia, think again. If the US was faced with a similar epidemic , it won't be surprising to see soldiers down the streets forcing sick people to stay home, forcing laws that decide on the patients who need to be treated, and shutting down schools and arresting whoever aims at spreading mass hysteria and panic among people.

Fortunately, this current swine influenza epidemic is similar to "the regular human influenza" that have affected everyone of us several times in our lives. Even though the number of those infected will continue to rise, and very few people may succumb to the diseases, it's nothing out of the ordinary and most infected people will recover beautifully. This outbreak showed that we are much better prepared for epidemics than we were a century ago, a lot of work still needs to be done, and influenza will keep mutating and hitting and the next hit may not be as soft as this one.

And Egypt slaughtered all pigs- for this moment I am ashamed of being an Arab, seriously.

Influenza Hits Again

Update (April 29th): One dead in Texas. Suspected case in Israel. There is no reason to panic, I'm very serious. The "human" influenza killed much more people this year and nobody was that anxious about it.

Update (April 28th): 19 suspected cases in Asutralia. Passengers on a plane from New Zealand with a suspected case are being traced. "Swine flu" is probably the wrong name given the virus, but who cares anyway.

Update (April 28th): 2000 cases in Mexico with 149 deaths. Two new cases in Scotland. The flu shot doesn't work. Wash your hands.



Update(April 27th): Two more in Kansas, total of 28 cases in New York. The WHO raises the pandemic alert for swine flu. Obama: "Swine flu cases not a cause for alarm". I agree with Obama , at least for now.

UPDATE (April 27th) : Six new cases in Canada. One suspected cases in Spain.
the good news: two anti-viral medications work against the virus. Don't take them unless you have symptoms.

UPDATE (April 26th): the number of deaths increased to 103 in Mexico. New cases have been reported in Ohio and New York.


Two events took place last week that reminded the world how aggressive and fatal influenza can be. In Egypt, two women died from the avian (bird) influenza infection. Meanwhile in Mexico, 68 people died from another type of influenza virus, called the swine (pig) influenza.

The virus is smarter than humans. It has the ability to change its genetic component in a very unpredictable way that allows it to become more aggressive, more easily transmissible, and capable of infecting those who were vaccinated with a flu shot.

Ninety years ago, during the famous 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic that had nothing to do with Spain, more than 5% of the world population died from influenza. Most of those who died were young and healthy. Very recently and after a lot of controversy, scientists went back and isolated that 1918 virus and infected mice with it, and found that the vigorous immune response of the infected victims caused their death. That explained why the more healthy people died from the infection.

The worrisome thing about the swine influenza infection is that it can be transmitted from human to human. There are currently 8 cases in the US, six in California and two in Texas, and only one of those has been to Mexico and none of them had contacts with pigs.

Influenza can spread on a large scale over the world just like the previous outbreaks did. It has the potential of infecting a large number of people especially in this age where thousands of international flights occur everyday. What's very promising is that vaccines and anti-viral medications can possibly control the spread of the virus before it kills 5% of the world population again.

Obama, the Coward?

A lot of Americans are very angry at Obama. They're mad because he shook hands with Hugo Chavez, because he mentioned opening a new page with Cuba and because he said that America's foreign policy was , at times, irresponsible and reflected a lot of arrogance, something that the whole world and the majority of Americans agree upon.

They are mad because they think that foreign policy should be run the same way a gang must be run. You have to show you've got balls. You have to talk down to other people, and if you think a leader is a dictator, whatever dictator means these days, you should spit on him in front of the world.

They believe George Bush was the right man to defend America and make it stronger, because starting wars was his game, and it showed that America has balls, that America can kick ass.
Those Americans are short-sighted and very unwise to say the least.

Any observer can tell that the US has got much weaker during Bush's presidency. to start with, he was responsible to a great degree of the 9/11 attacks. Numerous pieces of evidence showed that were many alarms of a large attack about to happen on US soil, and he failed to respond to that.

During the few years he ruled the world afterwards, he managed to make America weaker than ever before, and strengthened its potential enemies. Although there were no more men hijacking planes and driving them into buildings, the level of extremism especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan escalated to dangerous levels.

Bush lost his war in Afghanistan. Taliban is very popular these days over there, and they control large areas of land. Taliban thrived not because Mulla Omar was an exceptional leader, but because many circumstances have allowed for something like Taliban to form. Bush killed and captured its leaders, but he has not changed the circumstances allowing for such violent hateful organisations to form.

Bush decided not to talk to Iran, because it was part of "the axis of evil" and he doesn't talk to the evil (not sure why he was still talking to Dick Cheney?). Iran now has advanced nuclear weapons that can hit many countries in the region. They have the final world in many decisions made in Beirut and Baghdad, something that never ever happened in the past.

Bush didn't talk to North Korea, because they're evil. Over the past few years North Korea has developed very advanced nuclear weapons that can target many many countries, and they really don't care what the US has to say about it.

Many Republicans argue that the UN is ineffective in minimizing the dangers of crazy leaders. However, when it comes to Iraq for example, the third country in the axis of evil, it was only the UN that was successful in disarming Saddam Hussein of all of his weapons of mass destruction, and it was the US who went to war for absolutely no justifiable reason. Besides the tragic loss that Iraqis had (losing their country and nearly 100,000 people), the US itself lost their economy, thousands of soldiers, and all the respect in the world. Any sympathy the world had to the US after 9/11 was lost during the Iraq war.

George Bush made the strongest country in the world a joke, but was smart enough to still convince his people that he was the tough guy who protected his country from the evil doers. The fact is that his country was struck by a terrible attack because of his negligence, and all "the evil doers" got much stronger thanks to his policy of not talking to them or using the UN to limit their dangers.

Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye

The moment I met you my life changed. Yours too. From one quick look into your hazel eyes I could tell your life story; how you loved your life but life didn't love you back, how much you loved people but all what they did was look down on you and if they had the chance, step on you and treat you like an worthless insect that deserved no respect. You had many questions and I had all the answers. I read you and you read me, and our journey began on a chilly December Arizonan night.

We had our ups and downs. I worked all day long and couldn't see you, and when I came back home we didn't talk much. Our relationship soured one day after another and I only blame myself for that. When I felt I was losing you I chased you from one corner to another. Every time I'd get closer to you you'd slip away. I only wanted to know you better, to feel you, to smell you, even taste your secrets like no man had ever done, but you ran away from me. You were scared of me and I was scared of myself for you made me discover the big coward living inside of me. When I realized what I've done it was too late to fix anything.

Even when you're gone now, I can still see you in my vivid dreams, and sometimes feel you sneak underneath my pillow and touch my lips and perhaps give me a kiss I thought I did not deserve. I didn't mean to hurt you so bad, I didn't mean to make you look smaller every day in my eyes. I now cannot live with the fact that history can repeat itself and I can repeat the same mistake again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Dedicated to the lovely cockroach I found in my bathroom last winter. Since then I've sprayed her with different sprays, including a hair spray, and poured some good Absolut Vodka over her sacred body until she shrunk to a microscopic size. RIP)

BiMonthly Video: Disgusting Domino's

I saw another clip where a Domino's worker coughs intentionally into a sandwish.
this is terrible!
The 2 workers were fired.
This comes as part of my bimonthly videos.

Deaf Man Walking

I saw Mr. Brown last year, and placed on intravenous amikacin, hoping we may be able to stop it in a few weeks.

He had missed a few appointments and finally showed up 10 months later.
I wanted to check him for potential side-effects of amikacin, like kidney failure and hearing loss.

"Hello Mr. Wislon"
"Hello"
"How are you doing?"
"What?"
"How are you doing?"
"Good"
"Are you having any hearing problems?"
"What?"
"ARE YOU HAVING ANY HEARING PROBLEMS?"
"What?"
"Shit!"
"What?"
"I said shit"
"Good" and he smiled.

I went outside and saw my attending.
"Mr. Wislon can't hear anything", I said
"oops!"
"Did he use to hear well last year?", I asked
"Yes, I'm sure he did"
"Shit!"
"I know"
"But I'm glad someone can at least hear what I'm saying"

Take-home message: Never miss a clinic appoitnment.

Jo and Jihan

* JO Magazine now has a website (finally). You can check it here. After Shihan, Al-Ahali, Al-Anbat, Al0-Sabeel, al-Mashreq....etc had their own wbesite, now JO has one. You can only subscribe to it if you live in Jordan, and if you live in Jordan there's actually no point of subscription since you can get it anywhere.

* A Jordanian girl named Jihan attempted sucidide (or as Al-Sawsaneh reproted it: did commit suicide but didn't die!!). Here's a clip of the attempt taken by one of the fifty million cell phone camreras of people-with-nothing-else-to-do (we have fifty million of them). Here's a clip of the incident, with comments focsuing on hijab, Jordanian-Palestinian racism, and want kind of chips was she eating on the roof of the building.

Strange Medicine

Just when I thought Bahrain was among the more progressive Arab countries, this comes up!

"Male doctors may not be allowed to treat female patients"

This, again, confirms my belief that the people who come with such rules are the one most obsessed with sex.

Toxic

Just like most doctors, I really really hate seeing a doctor.

I finally decided to see one after 4 years of no medical supervision.

After she saw my ass-kicking record-breaking weight she asked, "How much do you exercsie?"

"I do not".

I did some blood work. She called back 2 weeks later, "Your blood work is (surprisingly) normal. Your HDL, the good cholesterol, is a little on the low side though..... but that could be from all that exercise you're doing"
--------

You know your lifestyle is not healthy when even your doctor is making fun of it. Also, the way she was making fun of me (her patient) reminded how I was talking to some of my patients on several occasions. I finally got a tatse of my own poison ... and it felt sooo good!

Attitudes and Altitudes

I was talking to a patient who used to work at the Stock Market, "your white count is 0.5 today"

"And what was it yesterday doc?"
"It was 1.0"
"So it's much lower!"
"Well it's not a big difference from yesterday"
Once I said that, he went ape shit on me, screaming for ten minutes, "How come you're saying it's not different, it's half the number, it was 1.0 yesterday and today it's 0.5, it dropped by 50%, it's much worse, I know there's something wrong with me". If it wasn't for the IVs he was hooked to, I felt he was going to get up and rip my face off.

I told him, "I know you're sick, what I meant to say, is that even though your white cell count is much lower than yesterday that doesn't change things because it was very low to start with. You were sick from the start, 1.0 is a pretty low number, so even if it dropped by half, it's still pretty low"

He calmed down a little bit, and I went on, "It's like falling down from 20,000 feet. Yesterday you falling from 20,000 feet. Today you're falling from 40,000 feet. It's just as bad even if the number is doubled. "

His face turned red, not sure why.

I really hate it when my patient scream at me in the ICU.

(P.S. he's doing fine now, that damn HCTZ killed all of his white cells)

Siempre....

I will always stand behind Argentina, the greatest football team that ever played a football game, the most creative collection of heroes who ever stepped on a football field, led by the most genius of all geniuses, the inspration of the most inspired, the poem and song of football, the best human being to ever dance with the ball, the only super-human to ever exist and the greatest man alive Mr. Diego Armando Maradona

Diego, we're your slaves and football's your bitch