The Nomad and the Olive Branch

I really don't like to talk about war in general: it's an ugly, murky "fact of life" that we all have to deal with, all driven by the selfish desires of madmen and people who seek to sow discord between human beings for all the wrong reasons you can think of, whether it be "racial differences" or simply because "these" people are somewhat "trying" to "kill" you, because "they" pose some "clear, present and imminent danger" to you and others. Of course, it can get more complicated than that as people compete for resources, power, and anything that can be of advantage to them. But in many cases, there is what we call "ethnic strife". Why the heck should there be ethnic strife? Could it be based on some family feud that evolved into a conflict between tribes that are supposedly of different ethnicities? I mean, why do we human beings have to invent such labels and use them to justify our own selfish po...

The World is full of interesting people, of many shapes, sizes, cultures, religions, races, and personalities. The many possibilities within each and more categories that define us as human beings multiplied together only allude to the many combinations that spring out of this, thus giving us an impression of how different people tend to be, and how we as people try to be ourselves in society. However, this is not the case today. While variation tends to be more pronounced within societies than among societies when it comes to genetics and appearance, among many other genotypic traits ( 1 ), there also seems to be a control beyond the grasp of genetic factors that limits the variation of such personas. In English, this means that your genes really don't have any control over who you are more than other things. The majority of such factors tend to be social, or, for lack of a more sensical term, sociological, meaning that they are controlled not by one's genetic disposition or i...

As a regular computer user, I've come across different virus-scanning software programs that helped me keep my computer and my data safe. Among them were McAfee Virusscan 5, Norton AV, Norman AV (I thought they were the same), and McAfee Virus-scan 8 and 10. I thought I was in for the best security protection when Windows Live OneCare came out, and decided to subscribe to its services in order to give it a shot. I was like, "Hey, it's coming from the guys who made Windows, so I'm sure they know whatever hits it and whatnot." Boy, was I proven wrong. Let's just take a look at what this software really is ( 1 ). Overall, it appears to be a copy of McAfee Security Suite, which comes loaded with an anti-virus, a firewall, an anti-spyware module, spamkiller, etc. Windows Live OneCare, however, comes with an anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, backup utility, disk cleanup, disk defragmenter, an anti-phishing filter, and... that's about it. The beta version itsel...

The title of this post barely describes the despair and distrust that many Palestinians now have for the main political parties, Hamas and Fatah. This wave of conflict in Gaza that has just fired up was started by Fatah's targeting of Hamas members and politicians, along with their compliance and collaboration with Israeli soldiers in kidnapping such politicians and other innocent people that may have entered in the way of these soldiers. But now, Israel seems to only watch the conflagration that is firing up in both Gaza and the West Bank, definitely benefitting from this new discord and discontent. Personally, I am disappointed and disgusted that both parties sink to such a new low, and it looks like that they're not going to recover. Hamas responds to the attack on PM Haniya by killing Fatah members in the street and throwing them off the tops of buildings, while Fatah joins this bashfest and does the same. Fatah and Hamas make it worse by fighting each other in the open, an...

Why, you ask? Well, considering that their government has been helping the states defeat the UIC in neighboring Somalia by invading the nation and making way for U.S. Navy Seals to enter and make an even bigger mess... of course, that's after they helped the corrupt transitional government, again backed by the U.S. A "diplomat" by the name of Nurudin Farah was in Somalia during the time of this unrest, and he watched the chaos unfold right before his very eyes. However, he paints a different picture that many people are used to seeing in neocon PR. According to the New York Times (thanks, Mr. Abu Khalil), Over Christmas, Ethiopia, perhaps intending to provide a gift for the festive season to its American ally, invaded Mogadishu and expelled the Islamists. With thousands of Ethiopian troops in the country — and only a few African Union troops from elsewhere — savage battles took place in Mogadishu between the transitional government army (backed by Ethiopia) and the Islam...

Courtesy of Al Jazeera Arabic... What a shame. I was watching the networks this morning... NBN-TV, NewTV, Tele Liban, Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN... The incompetent nutcases in the Lebanese government whine about the Lebanese Army getting shot at, while turning the other way when the issue of indiscriminate shelling of civilians, let alone Palestinian civilians, is brought up. These refugees aren't safe in their new homes now. It's unbelievable. There is no need for such a crisis to occur, and the Lebanese Army's disproportionate response to the attack made it all the while worse.

It's a "Java Malfunction"...but I'm not talking about the computer program that is constantly being used by thousands of websites that are trying to deliver their material in as organized and attractive a way as possible, and not even about coffee gone horrible. After watching this disturbing video on YouTube, I opened my eyes more to the supposedly troubled archipelago that we know as Indonesia, the most populous self-proclaimed Muslim nation. Apparently, from the surface, we see nothing but news of fanatics, bombings, murders, hurricanes... things that make your heart cringe or, in the case of the massacres that have been taking place over the past few decades, ache... But what is plaguing Java and Indonesia in general? Is it religious conflict in the form of Muslim fanatics vs. Christian fanatics? Is it just a case of hate crimes between religious communities? Could it be ethnic strife? Could the corrupt Indonesian government have a hand in this? Or did it simply ...

The Zionist P.R. is abuzz with news of a Mickey Mouse moniker on Al Aqsa television, Hamas's equivalent of Hizbullah's Al-Manar, telling children to "annihilate the Jews" and that one day Muslims will rule the Earth. I actually fell for the P.R. that spewed it out, until my sister found the video on YouTube and was considerate enough to show me. After watching it, I concluded that the video was heavily butchered and the translation was waaay off.Why do I say that? First, the translator was MEMRI, the same organization that made a pitiful translation and coverage of the Wafa Sultan debate . MEMRI is known for snippetting MidEastern media output and horribly translating what is being said on Arab television. Second, even if MEMRI did turn out to be a "reliable" source, there were many translation mistakes evident, as well as quotes that were taken out of context. At 00:18 , "Farfur" (فرفور, a play on the Arabic word that means "mouse") gi...

I couldn't help but delay my rant on the GOP "debates", but after watching a program hosted by Ahmed Mansour on Al Jazeera last night, I decided to post instead about a topic that "required" my attention during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal . I was watching Mansour interview a British anti-war activist, and as the program continued, they called a number in Jordan. They could've called me so I'd give my opinion, but apparently they weren't calling an ordinary follower of the news. They called the symbol of Abu Ghraib himself , Hajj Ali al-Qaysi , who is now an Iraqi refugee in Amman. Ali al-Qaysi went on a little spiel, denouncing the occupation of Iraq by colonialist governments who have interests that totally oppose the interests of the Iraqi people (and rightly so). But that's not what caught my ears. What really caught my ears was his mentioning that there were mercenaries present at the base that worked for American corporations. He mentione...

About a year ago, I decided that I had enough of reading opinions and propaganda outlets, so I started a blog of my own and posted on it. It wasn't until I realized that what I wrote and saw and had feedback on had more of an effect on my outlook on things than what I read that I began to obtain a clearer state of mind that saw things for what they were and not for what I wished them to be. Apparently, I'd have lived in more of a bubble if I read more than I blogged. I guess it was because blogging itself made me actively read, as opposed to passively read, all materials and pieces of information out there that existed on the net and elsewhere, and thus it helped me process this information more and more as I actually engaged in producing feedback to what I read and came across. Perspectives do change over time, and that's guaranteed, but I never expected mine to change so drastically over a course of 365 days. Allow me, then, to reflect on how my perspectives have changed ...