There's an Audience Out There

I got bored of blogging and frankly didn't have much time to do this anyways but now I see that there are still people out there who read my blog even after almost a year of no updates...wow!
Now, since I've graduated from college I have all the time in the world to do this so.....let's do it!!!

Lebanon Out Of The Closet

There's a great show on SBS (a tv network here in Australia) called 'Dateline'. On their last episode they aired a segment called 'Lebanon out of the closet'. It was based on gays in Lebanon!!!! If anybody knows lebanon and lebanese people, they would know that they are considered as the worst muslims in the Arab world and Lebanon a very 'liberal' country in the Middle-east even more than UAE. Since being gay nowadays is hip, homoism has spread to Lebanon too and it looks like Lebanon's gone gay!

The show focused on a couple of gays and one of them was a male belly dancer in Beirut by the name of Mousbah. His manger supported him by saying that he's good at what he does and the people enjoy watching him which is the real issue here and 'who cares if he is gay?'. At that moment I thought to myself, eveybody cares if he is gay in a country where 70% of the population is muslim!!! This isn't the United States of America, there's no 'democracy'? Infact, Lebanon has a law (according to shariah law) against homosexuals. But shariah law applies to muslims and since the muslims don't act like muslims in Lebanon I guess it doesn't apply to them. While in Saudi Arabia, it is implemented and the punishment for homos is death sentence.

Another gay they focused on was George Salhab, he whined about his brother-in-law beating the hell out of him when he found out he was a homo (what else did he expect him to do?). This guy tried to suicide but he says 'God saved him'. Unlike the gays in the west he happens to believe in God...How unusual?

There was gay girl called Sarah Abu Ghazal who was from a muslim family but she had not yet told her family about her other life. She and some others have started a movement called 'Helem (dream)' to 'educate' people about homosexuality. Yeah, right...educate!. I guess its always going to remain a dream.

Its so weird how most of these gays are christians and can speak english fluently, I would think they definately would have to lived in some western country to be exposed to homoism. If they haven't then I don't know what's going on in Lebanon??

Hand of Fatimah

Yesterday, at work a colleague was wearing a pendant shaped like a hand and she asked me if I had heard of it and what it was called in arabic (assuming that I knew arabic since I'm a muslim). Ignorantly, I told her that I had never seen it and didn't know what it was called. She told me that it has a 'significance' for both jews and muslims. She was half jewish and half something.

I found out later in the day that its called 'Hand of Fatimah' (Prophet Muhammed's daughter) or 'Khamsa (Five)' in Arabic. Apparently, it is used for protection against evil eye and any other evil, especially for girls. It has an eye at the back of the hand. It is usually worn by Algerians and is very famous in France. I can see why women like to wear it, its a very beautiful piece of jewelry.

Being a non-superstitious muslim, I knew this was a load of crap and a piece of some jewelry can't prevent evil from happening to you. But this was something that I hadn't heard of and it was an addition to my not-so-vast knowledge.

Girl With A Pearl Earring

Well, I'm back! My exams are over which means I can catch up on my movies, chill and finally update my blog. I noticed that it took some people a month to visit my blog and comment on the posts.

I've seen a couple of movies since the end of my semester. The most interesting of 'em was 'Girl With A Pearl Earring'. I thought it was a really good movie. The silence element was the thing that made it so good. Even though it was so silent and slow, I never lost interest in the movie. No one said anything in the movie except for " Yes, master or Yes, mistress", they just looked at each other, but you could figure out what was going on.

When this movie came out 2 years ago, I thought it would be boring because even in the trailer no one said a thing except the voice over. what do you know it turned out to be good.

I can imagine reading the novel. There is always so much description in a book which would have made it very very boring.

I guess this movie was nominated for a couple of Oscars. If you haven't seen the movie I recommend you do. (Word of caution: Most guys might not like it because theres no action in it and its a little slow)

Father Murders Teenage Daughter

Heres another story about a dumb Arab. There are just too many of 'em. Anyway it goes like this.

A Kuwaiti killed his 13-year-old daughter by slitting her throat in front of her siblings because he thought she was not a virgin, newspapers reported yesterday.
The 38-year-old father, identified only as Adnan, blindfolded and handcuffed his daughter, Asma, before murdering her late Tuesday as she pleaded for him to spare her life, Al-Rai Al-Aam said.

After cutting her throat a first time, the man swapped the knife for one with a sharper blade while his daughter bled and screamed in pain as her two brothers and a sister watched, the daily added. It said forensic examinations proved the girl was still a virgin.

World No.1 Beaten!

Yes its true, Roger Federer lost tonight to world no.4, Marat Safin in a 4 hours and 30 minutes marathon match. Marat has a lot of endurance, which prooved to be a big edge over Federer, in the 5th set. I guess Safin got his birthday present. Speaking of birthday, the audience sung the 'Birthday song' at the end of the match (that is sooo Gay!)

I came home early from college to watch the match, but it ended up to be a big disappointment. It felt like I had lost the match at the end. I still can't believe it!! Ahhhhhhh. I think its going to take me sometime to get over this.

I think I'll listen to Nick Carter now to help me get over.

Australian Open

The tournament is just unbelievable! It is so exciting to watch Federer play his best tennis. If you haven't heard of Roger Federer, you probably have been living under a rock for the past two years. He's the world No.1 right now. He has won quite some titles. The atmosphere is really exciting here, since the australian open is held each year is Melbourne.
The match between J. Johansson and Agassi was 'phenomenal'. Johansson set a world record of 51 aces in a single match. Agassi was so helpless against Johansson's 222kmph aces. But unfortunately Johansson lost the match in the end.
I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's match between Federer and Agassi. Its going to be something!

Malbari Sets Record

Hassan Abdullah, 60, a pilgrim from Kerala, India, has set a record for a pilgrim when he entered the holy Kaaba for the 29th time this Haj. He has visited Makkah more than 110 times and performed Haj 40 times. As a leader of Indian scout, he has been able to visit the inside of the holy Kaaba along with presidents and diplomatic groups from foreign countries. He has rubbed shoulders with kings and presidents and cherishes the photo taken with King Faisal during one of his visits.

Brass Crescent Awards

So, the First Brass Cresent Awards are over. Felt more like the Academy Awards. Thank you Alt.Muslim and City of Brass for doing this.

For those who didn't know, I was nominated in two categories- Best New Blog and Best Female Blog. Even though I didn't win, I'm happy for those who did (...not!) Hahaha.

Congratulations to everybody who won. I have to say most of the blogs nominated were really good. Remember to vote for me next year.
I'm glad this is over. Now I can move on with my life :)