What makes people happy? (MarketPlace)

The Shoura Council has rejected three recommendations made for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Only one of the four recommendations proposed by the Shoura Council Committee for Islamic, Judicial and Human Rights Affairs in support of the commission was approved. (Arab News)

Is this the beginning of the end for the Mutawa'as?

With GPS and electronic compass, cellphones become guides in Japan (NYT)

Tolls and taxes slow down trade in India (CS Monitor)

Over one hundred public libraries in Britain threatened with closure (CS Monitor)

Happy Birthday Fay

Maureen Dowd talks about an event sponsored by the Heritage Foundation. Event title "'24" and America's Image in Fighting Terrorism: Fact, Ficition or Does it Matter?" 24 is a popular TV show featuring agent Jack Bauer, who is played by actor Kiefer Sutherland. here is what Dowd said in her column titled "We Need Chloe!"

"Better to have a panel in praise of Jack Bauer than admit we have no real Jack Bauers to find Osama and his murderous acolytes. Better to pretend that rounding up a bunch of Florida losers whose plan was more "aspirational than operational," as one F.B.I. official put it, is a great blow in the war on terror than to really turn our intelligence agencies and Homeland Security into the relentless, resourceful and fearsome organizations they are in fiction — and should be, given the billions spent on them."

رحلة الألف ميل - للراحل كمال عمار - رحمه الله

حين أتيت المائدة أمتدت
منذ صباح اليوم
وعلى هذا لم يأذن لى الحرس
الواقف بالعتبات
مدوا أيديهم حول البيت سياجاً
من شوك
أقسمت لهم كنت حريصاً أحضر
فى الميقات
ولعنت قطار الرحله عدة مرات
وعرضت عليهم جزءاً من قلبى
أكلتة العجلات
ودعوت لهم بالعمر وسعد الأيام
وبكل عزيز

رحت أبعثر فى الأقسام
أقسمت على الوالد بأبنه
أقسمت على العاشق بالمعشوق
وبدمعه حزن جالت يوماً من عينيه
أقسمت عليهم ألا أرجع قبل مثولى بين يديه
فتثاءب أكبرهم سناً
وتمطى
وأسترخت عيناة
ورمانى بسؤال مكدود النبرات
هل صدقت بأنك حقاً سوف تراه؟

سوف أراه
ما معنى هذا يا حراس الاسوار
دعوتة مازالت فى جيبى لم تمسحها الامطار
ولم يسرقها منى قطاع الطرقات
ولم يأكلها الذئب الجارح..حين تهددنى بالويل
خضت بقدمى السبع بحار
ورأيت الموت القابع عند المنحنيات
يستجدى أرواح المارةفى منتصف الليل
كنت بخيلاً لم أعط الموت
وحرصت على عمرى أملاً فى لقياة
وأتيت لأطعن بسؤال لاأعرف معناة
فيم إذن دعوتكم لى ؟
ساد الصمت لبضع هنيات
خالجنى فيها الاحساس
بأنى أقنعت الحراس
ونظرت اليهم أتلمس وقع الكلمات
قطع الصمت الصوت المكدور النبرات
نحن دعوناك كما ندعو الغير
ليقال بأن العالم مازال بخير
وبأن السيد لازال بخير
وبأن لسيدنا روحاً أنقى من روح الطير
ولم يحدث أن مثل غريب يديه
فلماذا تدخل أنت علية؟
فيامن أغلقتم كل السبل إلية
ووقفتم فى وجه الضيف
ما جئت لأطلب قطناً للصيف
أو صوفاً لشتاء الخوف
بل جئت لأشبع من خبز الروح
وأبل الشفة الضمأى بحديث الحب
وعلى كل إما إنى أخطأت العنوان
أو أخطاء سيدكم فى دعوة أحد الفقراء
وكلآ الحالين سواء
ومددت يدى لوداع
لايتلوه لقاء
ومسحت عيونى لست أصدق
وأنحبست فىٍ الأنفاس

ومامعنى هذا ...أين القصر وأين الحراس
أوحقاً ذلك .. أم أطياف من وسواس
أم أنى أحلم فى رائعة الظهر
ولكن جراحات الرحلة مازالت فى الصدر
ياربى.... أعنى ماذا ستقول الناس

European governments are very engaged in the debate about Gunatanamo. But why are the Arab governments silent about the subject? (Link)

كما يحب - للراحل كمال عمار - رحمه الله

البابُ دُقَّ. قُمتُ واضعاً على فمي ابتسامتي

رسَمْتُها كما يجب

ْودُقَّ ثانياً أسرعتُ واثقاً بخطوتي

أهلاً حبيبتي

لكنني وجدتُ بائعَ الجرائدِ العجوزْ

بدا عليه أنه رأى ملامحي

وهْيَ تموتُ فجأةً بلا سببْ

أراد أنْ يقولَ ما الذي أتى بهِ

لكنه اضطرب

ْوارتعشت جفونُهُ فحطّمتْ سكينتي

حين أتتْ حبيبتي

لم تجدِ «الأشياءَ» في انتظارها كما تعوَّدَتْ

لم تجدِ ابتسامتي

تساءلتْ

وكُْفها تمرُّ فوق جبهتي

حبيبتي.. أنا كما يجبْ

فقط كأنَّ بائعَ الجرائدِ العجوز

ْيصفعني بقبضتي

Many Americans may believe that this lesson has been learned and that U.S.-sanctioned abuse is a thing of the past. Far from it. Yes, Congress last year passed the McCain amendment, which prohibits "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment of all prisoners in U.S. custody. But it has become increasingly clear that the administration has not accepted that ban as the last word. It still has not renounced the right to subject some detainees to practices such as "waterboarding," or simulated drowning, even though they violate the law. It has yet to adopt clear standards governing the interrogation and treatment of foreign prisoners, or return to full compliance with such treaties as the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. Until this situation changes, there will be more of the lawlessness and simple confusion that have led to hundreds of cases of abuse, and dozens of homicides, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

From WP Editorials (Link)

The US Ambassador to Iraq paints a gloomy picture of the country in a message to the US Secretary of State (WP) & a Link to the PDF of the memorandum.

A different Noah's Ark, or how the world is building seeds' bank from virtually every variety of food on the planet. (WP)

The plight of female bloggers in Saudi Arabia from today's CS Monitor. It is time for their oppressors to zip up their pants, get their heads out of their asses and think with their heads not their cocks.

The Prophet (PBUH) in his Farewell Sermon urged men to be kind to women. The teaching of Islam reminds us that heaven's is at our mother's feet. And the Prophet (PBUH) told his followers three times to take care of their mothers' (and hence womanhood) three times before instructing them to take care of their fathers'. Yet the self appointed Cyber Imam's don't get it.

Some of the blogs mentioned in the article are Green Tea, , Saudi Eve and Classic Diva.

The King: Gael Garcia Bernal, William Hurt, Pell James, Paul Dano & Laura Elena Harring (James Marsh)

The Lake House: Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves & Christopher Plummer (Alejandro Agresti)

Lemming: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Laurent Lucas, Charlotte Rampling & Andre Dussollier (Dominik Moll)

Nacho Libre: Jack Black, Hector Jimenez, Troy Gentile & Ana de la Reguera (Jared Hess)

ثرثرة رجل منفرد للراحل كمال عمار رحمه الله

تسألنى ما بال حديقتنا
كفت هذا العام عنالإثمار
والظل أرتد وأضحى مثل النجم السيار
قاص وقريب
تسألنى.. ؟ حسناً سأجيب
حتى لو كان القول يسوء
ذالك أنا صلينا من غير وضوء
وزعمنا أنا أطهر من حبات الثلج
وكذبنا حتى صارت أعيننا دون جفون
حتى لما رحنا نسعى للحج
صرنا نخدع ملامح الزورق
حتى لا نعطيه الدينار!
تسألنى ما بال حدقتنا
كفت هذا العام عن الاثمار
ذلك شىء لا يدهشنى .. حتى لو أنبتت الأحجار!
الخفاش تدلى من بين الاغصان
والأحزان..
فى دخلنا تتلوى كالثعبان
وامتلأت أدراج الأسرار
إن نكتم ينشق الصدر..أو ننطق ينفتح القبر
وعلينا أن نختار!!!
*****
جدى كان عظيماً وكريما
وهاباُ يعطى دون سؤال
جاء أبى
فانخفضت أقسية الجود...أصبح لا يعطى إلا من يسأل
وأنا
جئت الكون عجوزاُ وعقيماُ....سألونى فهززت الكتفين
ومضيت أثرثر بالكلمات المختنقات
عن أطفال ولدوا بعيون للخلف..
ونساء مدت ساقيها فى الطرقات.. بحثاُ عن ليلتهن الاولى بعد الألف
ولم يسأمن التكرار..!!
تسألنى ما بال حدقتنا
وأنا أسأل ؟! ما بالك تسأل
وكأنك تجهل أن الشوك حصاد الشوك
وكأنك تجهل!.. أن الدمعة بنت الأحزان
فليرحمنا الرحمن

U.S. Muslim Clerics Seek a Modern Middle Ground. The story of Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir (NYT)

Web-based software to edit your videos (NYT)

Today is Father's Day in the US. And here are a few stories of fathers from Iraq (WP)

Five minutes prior to his meeting with the US President in Baghdad, the Prime Minister of Iraq was told of the arrival of the US President on a secret trip. One of the remarks made by the President and repeated on TV is "Thank you for having me". As if poor al-Maliki had any say in the whole affair.

On the PBS TV program "The News Hour", Senator R. Lugar (Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee" repeatedly referred to al-Maliki as the President of Iraq. The transcript of the program does not reflect this, you have to watch a video of the program

The Bush administration repeats the mantra "we fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here." Them" are the insurgents in Iraq. To the average Iraqi who was oppressed by Saddam, suffered from years of sanctions and now endures the mayhem in Iraq, this only means that his life is not as valued or important as a US citizen.

John Walker Lindh (aka the American Taliban) is serving a 20 years sentence in a Federal prison. John, who now goes by the name Hamzah, is forbidden to speak Arabic, in accordance with a gag rules imposed on him. So when a fellow Muslim inmate greets him in Arabic "al-Salam Alikum" and he answers "Wa Alikum al-Salam" he ends up in solitary confinement. His story was discussed on NPR this afternoon with Tom Juno, the author of a lengthy article about him in the July issue of Esquire.

عبارات مكتوبة على سيارات نقل مصريه

مصر ام الدنيا

تعمل حسابي أقدرك تهزر معايا أعورك

الحلوه لما تتدلع تخلى الاسفلت يولع

ما تبحلقش كده يا لوح دي جت بطلوع الروووح

ما تبصش كده يا عبيط الحلوه دي بالتقسيط

سوقوا بالراحه يابهايم أصل سواق العربيه نايم

من رساله تلقيتها من س م ق وشكرا لهل فلقد ذكرتنى بكتاب قديم عنوانه هتاف الصامتين عن الشعارات الموجوده فى ذلك الوقت على الحيطان

Jim Lehrer (Host of the News Hour) talks to Zbigniew Brzezinski and Walter Russell Mead about President Bush's remarks upon his return from Iraq (News Hour)

The United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants counted 644,500 Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan in 2005, or 2.5% of the population. Since 2003 889,000 Iraqi's have moved abroad as refugees. (NYT)

Dar Jamail talks to Amy Goodman about Iraq on Democracy Now

Islamic banking goes nationwide in the UK. (BBC) I say, when will the Muslim world catch up with this trend?

In a global survey, the Pew Research Center finds "Global Image of the US is worsening". (NYT) And for that they actually spent time, effort and money.

MaRock (Morocco) and Yacoubian Building (Egypt) two films reviewed in the CS Monitor

Mourad Benchellali was a detainee at Guantanamo Bay talks of "Detainees in despair" (NYT)

Englishmen, heat, beer & world cup not necessarily a good mix (NYT)

A report to be issued tomorrow will show the extend of fraud associated with FEMA's work during hurricane Katrina. The report shows that some of the $2,000 debit cards issued were used for vacation, pornography, professional football tickers, strip clubs and a sex change operation (ABC World News Tonight)

Terrorist in a bootleg T-shirt

Arriving at JFK from Dubai recently, I was stopped at customs by an officer from the Department of Homeland Security and directed to a drab backroom filled with Arabs, South Asians and Africans. I wasn't surprised, really, having just spent six months working and traveling in the Islamic world — Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and Pakistan. If ever there were a DHS red-flag candidate, I was it, and I assumed this was just protocol. (From LA Times, and gets more interesting)

At the Movies

Cars: Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt & Richard Petty (John Lasseter & Joe Ranft)

Clean: Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Beatrice Dalle & Don McKellar (Olivier Assayas)

An Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore (Davis Guggenheim

Look Both Ways: William McInnes, Justin Clark, Anthony Hayes & Andrew Gilbert (Sarah Watt)

A Prairie Home Companion: Garrison Keillor, Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin, Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep, Maya Rudolph & Kevin Klein (Robert Altman)

Commenting on the suicide of three prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., the commander of the detention camp told reporters in a news conference "I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us." From NYT

I call his words an act of stupidity.

Zarqawi's Rosebud Moment

The US Military had a chance to score big in the aftermath of Zarqawi's death, but they blew it. According to Reuters here is the time-line to events in Washington following the operation to take out al-Zarqawi:

Wed. June 7, 2006 3:45 p.m. White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley, who left congressional meeting for calls from Iraq, speaks with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and is told Zarqawi believed killed.

Thu. June 8, 2006 7:31 a.m. Bush makes first public comment. "Zarqawi's death is a severe blow to al Qaeda. It's a victory in the global war on terror, and it is an opportunity for Iraq's new government to turn the tide of this struggle."


Fri. Jun. 9, 2006 before 11:00 a.m. Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, briefing military reporters at the defence department from his post in Baghdad, said he learned that al-Zawqari was alive after getting briefings on the military operation that netted al-Zarqawi and several others.


Why did the Military wait for almost 30 hours to divulge this piece of information, which must have been known at the time the first reports were dispatched to Washington?

According to the same report, Iraqi forces arrived at the scene followed shortly by US personnel. By that time al-Zarqawi was placed on a gurney (by Iraqi's according to the story). Caldwell added "He (al-Zarqawi) mumbled something but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," Caldwell said.

Now all of Citizen Kane's fans, conspiracy theorist and legend makers in the Middle East and the rest of the world will have a field day with the following questions: why did we wait over 40 hours to inform the public that he was briefly alive? And what did he say (in Arabic, I presume, while surrounded by Iraqi forces) prior to his final demise?

Islamic Center dedicated on Marine Corps Base in Quantico (WP)

A "hole in the wall" helps educate India's slum children (CSMonitor)

According to a Gallup survey, Muslim women don't see themselves as oppressed. (NYT)

Two articles in the Christian Science Monitor about Syria. One deals with Muslim video games developed by Afkar Media located in Damascus. (Link) The second deals with students bold moves advocating democracy. (Link)

Africa's future as the next outsourcing hotspot. Article talks (among others) about Egypt in general and the new business park by the Pyramids (I think they are talking bout al-Qariah al-Dhakiyyah) (The Independent)

NYT editorial (6/6/06) "Degrading America's Image" ends with the following "It defies belief that this administration is still clinging to its benighted policies on prisoners after the horrors of Abu Ghraib, the killings at American camps in Afghanistan and the world's fresh outrage over what appears to have been the massacre of Iraqi men, women and children in the village of Haditha."

Google introduces Google Spreadsheets and the word-processing program Writley (NYT)

The Theban mapping project includes articles, maps & images of the Valley of the Kings (Luxor, Egypt) and the necropolis. (Link)

The Amazing PDF Reader

You can listen to any PDF instead of reading with Adobe Reader 7.0 or 6.0, and the short cut is:

Ctrl+shift+b - to hear the entire Document
Ctrl+shift+v - to hear the page
Ctrl+shift+c - to resume
Ctrl+shift+e - to stop

Open any PDF File and test.... unbelievable.

PS: Does not with Arabic files.

At the Movies

Banlieue 13 (District B13): Cyril Raffelli, David Belle, Tony D'Amario, Bibi Naceris & Dany Verissimo (Pierre Morel)


The Break Up: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston, Jon Favreau & Ann Margret (Peyton Reed)

Keeping Up with the Steins: Daryl Sabara, Jeremy Piven, Garry Marshall & Doris Roberts (Scott Marshall)

Sketches of Frank Gehry: (Sydney Pollack)

X-Men: The Last Stand: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen (Brett Ratner)

Muslim Staff Members on Mission to Educate Congress (NYT)

From Maureen Dowd's column today "Teaching Remedial Decency " about plans to do refresher courses for troops in Iraq about war, ethics and rules of engagement.

There's no way to teach someone not to shoot an unarmed woman or child. If somebody doesn't already know why they shouldn't murder a baby, it's not clear that a refresher course will help.

The problem with brushing up on core values is that if you don't know them by a certain point you can't learn them. You can't teach remedial decency, any more than you can teach remedial ethics to White House officials who vindictively leak information about critics of the war after vowing not to leak.

.....
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The invasion that was supposed to help terrorism has made it worse. The invasion that was supposed to make America more feared and beloved has made us more hated. The invasion that was supposed to banish post-Vietnam syndrome has revived it.

Zaha Hadid: A Diva for the Digital Age

"Zaha Hadid: Thirty Years in Architecture," her first major retrospective in the United States, gives New Yorkers a chance to see what they've been missing. The show, which opens tomorrow in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's rotunda, spirals through Ms. Hadid's career, from her early enchantment with Soviet Constructivism to the sensuous and fluid cityscapes of her more recent commissions.

It illuminates her capacity for bridging different worlds: between traditional perspective drawing and slick computer-generated imagery, between the era of utopian manifestos and the ambiguous values of the information age.

Born in Baghdad in 1950, Ms. Hadid came of age in an era when the Middle East was enchanted by Modernity: its glamorous forms, progressive aura and faith in the future. Early on, she soaked up the cosmopolitan values that bound cities as diverse as London, New York, Moscow, Beirut and Berlin.

She was raised in one of Baghdad's first Bauhaus-inspired houses. In the late 1950's she observed the construction of Gio Ponti's planning ministry, a replica of his Pirelli Tower in Milan, a symbol of postwar Italian style. (NYT)

Germany's external intelligence service, the BND, said yesterday (June 1, 2006) that it knew about the American seizure and detention of a German citizen 16 months before the country was officially informed of his mistaken arrest. It was unclear whether that information had been passed on to senior officials.

Germany had previously maintained that it did not learn of the abduction of its citizen, Khaled el-Masri, until he returned to Germany in May 2004. (NYT)

Lockerbie & Haditha

Lockerbie
On delivery of the letter, a Libyan bank was to transfer $2.7 billion, or $10 million for each victim's family, into an escrow account as compensation for the bombing. (CNN)

Haditha
The relatives of each victim were paid a total of $2,500, the maximum allowed under Marine rules, along with $250 payments for two children who were wounded. (NYT)

Afghanistan, Unraveling (NYT Editorial)

Afghans have long been renowned for their hostility toward foreign troops on their territory, as the 20th-century Russians and the 19th-century British learned the hard way. Until now they have made a conspicuous exception for the 21st-century Americans, who helped them shake off Taliban misrule and then promised their poor and war-shattered country an international rebuilding effort on the model of the post-World War II Marshall Plan.

More than four years later, Afghanistan's patience is running out. America's military presence is seen as narrowly focused on Washington's own agenda of hunting down Al Qaeda fighters and indifferent to Afghan civilian casualties and Afghanistan's own security needs.

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Most Afghans do not want to go back to the horrors of the recent past. Washington needs to re-enlist their support by demonstrating that it cares not just about Afghanistan's strategic geography, but also about a decent future for its people.