الله يهدينا.

العرب اللّي من جنسية متشعتلة و بيتفلسفوا ععرب تانيين، و يقولولهم خلّيكم بحالكم و ببلادكم.. و بيقعدوا يقارنوا إنّه الخرة اللّي همّ فيه أحسن من خرة ناس تانية، و هاي المقارنة المفروض تلقائياً إنّه ما تعطي العرب من دولة معيّنة الحق إنهم يعطوا رأيهم بأي شأن خارج حدودهم السياسية.. الحدود اللّي الاستعمار كونّلهم ياها أساساً!

 أوّلاً مش مسابقة هيّ على فكرة. و عادي جدّاً إنه العرب يهتموا بكل ما يحدث في كلّ بلادهم بشكل عام. ما إحنا مهتمين عشان كلنا بنفس الهم. و بعدين لو كنّا كلنا اهتمّينا ببلاد عرب وقعت حتّى لو مش بلادنا، كان ممكن نشيلهم و نساعدهم بدل ما نفرجي العالم إنّه زي ما عادي راحت فلسطين و العراق و محدّش حرّك ساكن، زي ما ممكن الباقي كلّه يولع. و هادا اللّي عم يصير. بيكفّي هبل "إنت سوري فما تتدخل بمصر"، لو سمحتوا، عشان قرفتونا. النّاس بأوروبا رايحين جايين من بلد لبلد و بيشتغلوا مع بعض و بيتعلّموا لغات بعض، و بيتعلّموا من جامعات بعض و انتوا نازلين تسبّوا عبعض عشان واحد جزائري قال شغلة ما عجبت واحد سوداني. الله يهدينا من التخلّف اللّي إحنا فيه يا إخوان. 

Thank you, life.

I’m sure I've learnt a lot from, and about life. But I’m more interested in things that I haven’t learnt yet.

I remind myself daily that I still haven’t learnt how to save as much money as I want to. I still haven’t learnt to be more accepting of certain people. I still haven’t learnt how to be courageous enough to make life altering decisions. I still haven’t learnt how to let go of little things. I still haven’t learnt how to shut up when I really should. I still haven’t learnt how to set my priorities straight. I still haven’t really learnt what my priorities should be!

And evidently, I still haven’t learnt how to be very grateful. Because even though I admit learning a lot from and about life, I’m still fixated on what I haven’t.

But I'll try to work my way through the previous list. Preferably starting from the last point.

A scream of my own!

Can you hear the world screaming, too?

We're just constantly screaming! 

Let me list down the sources depicting our agony on a daily basis:

1) Social media. Everybody is yapping about something or another. Like this blog, and many you will read today, and have read before.

2) TV. AKA the most serenity polluting device known to man. 

3) All those wars, protests, thefts, requests, agreements, and amendments or/and news about your country whether you're there it not.

4) Advertisements. BUY THIS! LIKE THAT!

5) Work. Your boss. Your client. Your coworker.

So the bottom line is, why can't we just shut up? If we are ALL screaming, who exactly is listening?!

Zenah for King of The World

First of all, happy new year to you all. Especially to those who are “positive” and “optimistic” because I think they’re the only ones who TRULY believe that they can “make it” happy. You guys are lucky.

But for those of you who are skeptical about the world and its dynamics, and can afford a little pessimism at the start of the year, here is a rant for you:

In the new year, I would like us, the employed, to refuse corporate slavery. The system of this world is taking a wrong turn, and we seem to be too engrossed in being too annoyed all the time, that we BELIEVE that this is how life should be: annoying. However, look around you, and you will notice that the world is not meant to be annoying. There’s a happy sun, a caring moon, chirping birds, colors, and smells. There is a reason there is a literary beauty to these things, which as corporate slaves, living between four walls (or even two half walls if you have a cubicle), we are deprived off.

With full realization that what I’m about to throw out there isn’t simple (yes, Captain Obvious, spare us), I am going to express how I imagine how things should run in my head.  I repeat: IN MY HEAD.

You guys know that the life we live was at a rise, and we have reached the climax, and now we are at the downfall. So in order to cushion the blow, this is what I would do if I were to become the king of the world:

1)  The world should be based on merit and potential. Meaning, one should get to places because one truly EARNED it and not because one had financial abilities. Those who are in poorer countries should at least get ONE opportunity to fulfill their potential. No one is born a janitor, or a laborer, they just were not presented by an opportunity to fulfill their utmost potential. Meaning, better nurturing opportunities will be presented.

2) No job will be beneath anyone. Every living individual will have to work two months out of their year in a physically laborious job. Because a. Soft hands aren’t attractive, and b. people need to have more appreciation for things they take for granted. Those who are already working on physically laborious jobs will be given the abovementioned opportunities to achieve their utmost potential the rest of the time.

3) Which brings me to the element of time. No living individual should work for 9 hours, and spend two hours on average commuting. That’s just preposterous. You work for 9 hours, an hour at best commuting back and forth, and an hour getting ready for work. Those are 11 hours of your day wasted. Out of the remaining 13, you will sleep for 7, giving you five hours to do whatever you want. AND FIVE HOURS AFTER WHAT? After continuous mind strain and endless cacophony. Therefore, work hours should be reduced to 6 hours a day. And they should start at 6 AM and end at 12 PM. Why? Because at 12 PM you have time in the day to do stuff. Deadlines CAN wait. 

4) Kids and parents will finish work and school at the same time. It is such bullshit that parents and kids start their day cycle at different timings and barely coincide in the above-mentioned five hours.

5) There should be a maximum amount of income. Enough for living COMFORTABLY, but not enough for luxury. No, nobody needs a Bottega Vaneta bag, or a Porsche or whatever.

 6) The notion of nations will be dropped. Personal contributions to society need to give appreciation for the contributing individual, and not flaunted as a social/national accomplishment. i.e: if a German guy invents the cure for cancer, it’s not pride for Germany. It’s just pride for the individual. (of course considering at this point in time things will have become better for other people who have been given opportunities to achieve their potential)

Now I'm not a political expert. And I'm not sure if this is quite socialism, or democratic socialism, or anti-imperialism. Big words you guys. But what I do know is that this sounds like it is impossible to achieve but I think that just like there were enough tools to create dynamics that that are just so rightfully wrong, there are tools that make them rightfully right. (This is philosophically open to a debate which I welcome. I love arguing about the notions of right and wrong). However, when we reach a consensus, I think there is a way. I have developed a sense from the course of my study that there are a lot of mathematical and statistical models that can be implemented to make better decisions and allocations! As king of the world: MY AIM IS TO BUILD AN OPTIMIZATION FUNCTION FOR THIS WORLD AND SOLVE IT. My fellow engineers, let’s stop working for the wrong people, and embark with me on this journey to lead mankind to its salvation. Plus, wasn't everything in this world an arguably ridiculous idea just like this one, which got blown out of proportion?

Alright. This rant was brought to you by I-had-to-work-two-hours-on-my-day-off and it is now over.

Zenah is in London

I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I created a blog entry, but I'm now on vacation and I have the time (and most importantly, the peace of mind) to write an entry!

So I'm in London, been here for two days, and it's FREEZING! I'm from the desert! People with camel fat pads on their feet can walk on burning sand, and not on rain (even when in boots)!

I decided to come to London for two reasons: 1) My childhood best friend (Nicole) and university best friend (Hala), and childhood neighbor (Alaa) are here (all are from Dubai too, by the way) 2) I wanted to go to a new destination.

The day started off quite badly. Hala only yesterday asked Nicole, who's been here for a month and a half only, if she had been stolen yet. Nicole was super happy that she hadn't been..........Yet. It only took 24 hours for that fact to change. Today Hala, Nicole, Alaa and I were at H&M on Regent street, and what do you know? Nicole's iPhone was stolen! The girl بالغربة flipped out! She started mourning her parents' pictures and Whatsapp messages! We had a five minute fit while comparing بلاد الأجانب to Dubai, where you can just leave your phone on the table and come an hour later and find it there (that actually happened to me). You know, the very Arab thing to do. So anyway, Nicole was beyond being in a bad mood, so she decided to head home, while Hala, Alaa, and I decided to go eat as Nicole gets her space so she mourns her phone in peace.

Alaa has a friend named Jalal from university back in Dubai, who's also visiting, and decided that he should come along for lunch/dinner, and he did. We went to get Thai food. So everything was going great, and chatter and laughter were arising. I don't know how the topic of carpets came along, but speaking of carpets, Alaa switched the subject to Sedar Al Emarat and how uncreative their ads are (Click here to get a taste of their ads). Every household in The United Arab Emirates, has been subjected to their atrocities after Iftar in Ramadan. So Hala and I just went on and on and on and on about how hideous they are, and cracking jokes about how low budget they are. "I can't belieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve they had an executive meeting and someone got an epiphany that a dubbed Japanese woman is actually a good idea in an ad, and people agreed and walked out of the meeting feeling good about it" I said at some point after the ad they released this Ramadan (I can't find the exact ad, but it was an ad for the same collection as this one). And Hala was laughing until she started crying from laughter. So then Alaa says: "You guys wanna know what's funnier?"... We go like: "What?".... "Jalal's family owns Sedar"... And Hala and I start laughing even more from embarrassment!!! "We're so sorry" we say... "but these ads are just HORRIBLE" I add so inconsiderately. I really didn't mean to say that.. But they reallllly realllly are! Anyway, he was a good sport about it and actually agreed that they are quite hideous, but apparently their targeted audience were actually pleased with the ads. So doesn't matter what our generation says about them!

So yeah. All in all, that was a funny anecdote from today that I thought I would share before I forget it forever.

On a side note, I think London without the cold is pretty interesting. And just like Dubai, it has more people from all over the world than English people. I've heard Spanish, German, French, Indian, more than I've heard English. I also LOVE the tube! It's so efficient.

Oh and apparently they have self checkout at Tesco, which is a local supermarket. I was SO amused. I'm sorry I come from the third world, okay?

I'll try to include pictures for the next blog. Until then, good night/day m'dears.

Happy Memory

You guys wanna know a happy memory?

When I was around 10, I had a neighbor my age in Amman. She was Swedish, and her name was Andrea. I once decided that since we have two sunbeds on our roof, we should probably make them beds, and start sleeping there. And we did.

We used to have these blankets that would wrap around you with a zipper. The kind mostly used in camping. The nice thing about Amman is you'd see the stars and the moon clearly, and sometimes the sky would somehow turn pinkish/orangish (I dunno what this phenomenon is, but it occurs). And Andrea and I would find it so amusing, and start theorizing that maybe it's the end of the world, or some monsters are gonna come.

I'm sure I learnt new viewpoints from her but I don't remember. She was actually my first foreign friend. She told me all about how her parents are divorced and how she had a crush on a boy. And I haven't really heard stories like that from the kids around me in school. Such phenomena were still alien.

I honestly don't know how I remembered this, but it was actually cute, and thought I'd blurt it out.

Must I grow up?

I admitted something about myself to myself today. I don’t like getting attached to things because I never get over them. If something enters my life, that’s it. Even if IT decides to exit, I still hold it dear to my heart. Even if I don’t interact with it, ever again.

We had our final senior year design presentation today, which marks the end of my four years in the school of engineering. It hit me right after the presentation (I did great for those of you who are wondering, or would like to see me revel in myself, whatever) that I’m leaving behind what could possibly be the best years of my life. And according to legend, they are. Everything just flashed in my head like a series of Christmas lights on a tree as I drove back home. The first year was kinda horrible because well, long story. Maybe later. But the rest went great. I met the kindest people, the smartest people, and the stupidest people who helped me improve my skills in mockery and sarcasm. I learnt a lot. I became a better writer, a better speaker, a better thinker. I lost, and I won. And I made good bad decisions. The best nights were spent supposedly studying in the engineering lab, and I’d turn them into karaoke nights. We’d sing, laugh, until we’re in tears. Steal doughnuts at 4 AM, then feel bad about it and go pay for them in the morning. We’d just stay up helping each other even if some of us didn’t have work for themselves. 

We literally just lived in AUD for the past 4 years. Some of us even brought suit cases and moved in E101, our infamous Engineering lab. Nights and days would just be spent discussing the definition of right and wrong, the philosophical view points of what life is, argue about who’s gonna be successful or not all as we dip chicken pieces in the purple sauce, from Texas Chicken in the Meadows’ Enoc petrol station, at 3 AM.

At points we hoped engineering would die, and we broke down. We crashed into concerts in Media City that were almost playing on campus anyway, and well, they were right there, and we had nothing to lose.

I can still go on and on. But let me sum it up by saying I just loved it. I loved the days. I loved the nights. I love my engineering friends. And my teachers. The buildings. The memories.

But the silver lining lies in the fact that the next thing that comes along, might as well be something that I won’t like getting attached to. But I will anyway.  And its memory will cause my heart to smile for the fact that it made me happy one day.