Jordan; a 110% behind entrepreneurs. sho bitgol ?!

Nassim was Talking a while back about issue blogging so I thought I'll pitch in to the cup, what I want to talk about today is a fairly simple issue; how regulations, the blessings system and bureaucracy blocks and crushes entrepreneurial spirit in our community. It really is interesting for me to be living in a country and always hearing people say that they are a 110% backing entrepreneurs. while, in reality, they are just paddling backwards when it comes to it.

well the story goes like this, a group of Jordanian individuals came up with an idea that had a lot of potential, something that would raise the level of services in the public schools.

The idea was to centralize the food production for schools, to arrange that all the food that will be provided for the public school to be produced and packaged in a central stations located in proximity to a group of schools and delivered fresh daily to the schools. each meal will compose of a balanced diet, the centralization of the meal will reduce the cost on the students and there will be subsidies and aids. Even 10% of the profits will go into a scholarship & aid fund for the students, without effecting the current break-ups. The element that will be effected is the system in which the teachers at the beginning of the year cut a deal with the falafel store at the corner of the school to provide the cafeteria with sandwiches around the year .... YUM !

So since the project involves the public school system you have to go do the rounds of blessings from various people and more importantly the department of education.
So you go and do your presentation rounds and the atmosphere is mostly reactionary... they will attack you on every front if they feel that you will curtail on their authority, reduce their income streams or be a serious competitor to anything on the market. On the other hand if you have a genuinely profitable idea that hasn't be implemented then you will certainly be blocked, without a reason or justification for that rejection. It's the attitude of "2i7na awla" (we deserve it more) that prevails.

By the way if anybody has the leverage to implement the idea, please make haste and hit the ground running. It's already in the pipeline.

ps. this was supposed to be one of those long posts that dissects things but it kinda never made it there.

Only I.F... (Inflation Fornication)

So after discussing some background about inflation, and heaps of people complaining about it (of course not on here!) and the people discussing whether it's ethical or not, or whether it's an international phenomena that our revered government can do nothing about or not. There have even been voices about holding a strike on May 4th, and discussion ensued on whether it's even a good idea!

With all that talk about inflation I have not once read, from a Jordanian perspective, what are the actual options available for us to fight inflation, or some forecast to where we are heading. The most common thing that gets repeated is "the government is doing the best they can and the population should bear with the situation right now since it will pass"

Inflation is a perpetual problem that faces every economy and it's addressed by the fiscal policy of a country in order to expect it and put measures to control it and meet those expectations.
To fight a sharp rise in inflation both short term and long term plans must be adopted after identifying the main cause for the inflation, which i'll attempt to zero in on later on in this post.

In what follows I'll try to the best of my ability to answer most of those question, atleast from my perspective.

Is sharp increases in inflation an international problem ? if so how are other countries dealing with it ?

simply YES ! inflation rates in many countries have rose to critical level during the past year. Taking a look at inflation rates of countries around us and those who we do considerable importing from:

So we note that Gulf countries have experienced a huge inflation (with Qatar having the lead with its 13.8%) that is expected due to their economical boom and increases in oil prices. The main cause of inflation in those countries are their currency pegs against the dollar, with booming economies and the continued lowering of interest rates on the dollar it is forcing those central banks in the gulf to lower their interest rates instead of increasing it which is causing more inflation. The current method adopted to fight inflation in those countries is to raise wages and cap commodities prices, and they are intervening directly in real estate loans since real estate is the other major contributing factor of inflation. Kuwait broke its dollar peg in may of last year for basket of currencies, although it remained heavily weighed. there is growing pressure on other gulf countries to drop their pegs too in order to be able to maintain the economic growth rather than adopting band aid solutions that will contribute to future inflation. While the other option is to allow their currencies to appreciate against the dollar.

Given that 23% of Jordan imports are from Saudi Arabia, a 16 year high inflation rate is sure to translate into our markets. On the other hand China (inflation of 8% by the 1st quarter of this year) with a share of 8% of Jordanian imports (a figure that sure sounds too low in my opinion) is sure to translate in even higher rates. The inflation in China is a combination of four major factors, the fixed exchange rate with the dollar, the increases in oil prices, the super booming economy, and the developing middle class with the ability for spending.

Currently China is fighting inflation with little success, they are using commodity price controls and fixing the price of gas, they are raising their interest rates and bank reserve requirement and hoping to hold out from attacking the main culprit for inflation which is their undervalued currency against the dollar. if they decide to reevaluate their yuan (Chinese currency) by selling off their dollar reserves (in the form of T-Bills) they are bound to bring down the house of cards.

Focus! so what about Jordan ?

Well For Jordan, as discussed in the previous article, the causes of inflation in order of importance are as follow:

• Increased taxation and lifting of subsidies on commodities which contributed to market uncertainty and sharp increases in the prices of commodities.
  
• A Bubble real estate market that is fueled by speculation due to the low interest rate and enticing loan arrangements which is not reflected with an equal rise in demand.
  
• Increase in commodity prices globally regardless of the first point, coupled with a depreciating currency

Taxation is becoming the sole contributor to the Jordanian fiscal budget, after the privatization of many governmental income streams based on the requirements of free market adoption recommended by the world bank and IMF. The country found no option to reduce the deficit without increasing the taxation and lifting the subsidies, the problem with both is twofolds; one is the timing which came at a turbulent time where there is no stability in global market prices, two in the mismanaged transparency in lifting up the subsidies based on schedule rather than surprise which was the case.

Now that the subsidies have been lifted totally, it will most likely be followed by an increase in taxation, most likely an increase on an already high sales tax.

Since real estate speculation has been a major contributor for Jordanian economy and we are already reached the peak in that market, it will most likely put even more pressure on the speculators translated by higher level of defaults at banks and a slow down in the real estate market akin to the one experience in the early 90's after the second gulf war estate boom.

Short Term solutions

Currently those are some of the short term solutions that might be able to curb the inflation rate and help elevate the consequences on the citizens.

• Lifting of subsidies and revaluation of commodity prices that are set by the government should be fixed to a schedule that is transparent to the citizens while taking into account the shortages that might occur before each increase. That will help price stability in the market. stabilizing the prices of certain staple commodities as was done with natural gas is also encouraged but not to overburden the budget. (prices of natural gas, bread, livestock's grain and hay prices have been fixed)
  
• The increase in productivity and private sector profits haven't been translated in higher wages coupled with low interest rates encouraged debt while discouraging savings. The salaries for the private and public sector should be increase accordingly and the minimum wage to be reevaluated based on current prices. (lip services increases in salary that doesn't meet the cost of living increases)
  
• To maintain the investment in real estate which is a main driver of the economy in jordan it is encouraged to fix the price of iron. ( the government reduced the sales tax on iron from 16% to 8%)
  
• Limiting the amount of loans given out by public banks in order to limit the supplies by a requirement to increase the reserves.
• Encouragement of farming and agriculture projects that are provided with governmental protection in form of loans and tax exemptions to satisfy the country's local needs for staple commodities especially grain. To ward off the inflation and speculation of the global market and to make it viable to be competitive locally with the governmental backing.
  

Long Term solutions

On the long term the major problems that are facing Jordan are ever increasing petrol consumption without any semblance of independence or capitalization on years of dirt cheap oil. The shortage of water supplies and the dependence on seasonal rain reservoirs, and wide economic restructuring.

• Re-investment of the privatization capitol in forms of alternative energy, in terms of nuclear, solar or wind energy sources in order to provide part of the countries energy needs and to drive up a new sector into economic growth. The solution and pipe dreams of oil shale and petrol wells being found in Jordan do little since they will come at a time period that will demand more cost effective solutions for Jordan and Shale oil as it stands currently will provide little of our energy needs at too exuberant of a cost, and talk about petrol beds being found conveniently at this time is a bit too frowzy for my taste.
  
• A solution to the ever dwindling value of the dollar, which with the current adopted policy of the fed will continue on deteriorating. So a solution to this problem will be necessary to remove some of the downward pressure on the Jordanian economy.
• A tightening of the budget is required, and by that I mean to act like the economy we are and not put up appearances for appearances sake. Till now, year over year our fiscal budget has been mushrooming endlessly.
  
• Economical transparency of the government budget and investments, plus the democratization of the process as has been worked on since the year 2000 is required to be followed upon, and careful attention needs to be given to the water shortage issues and methods of circumventing the problem with diplomatic ties with neighboring countries is needed.
  

Conclusion

Well I tried to be optimistic as much as possible. but i Got bored towards the end and had to wrap up, My only hope in the short term lies in the workers and people of jordan. It would be of extreme importance to start a co-operative consumer watch to help market forces and bring down commodity prices. That would be done by sharing consumer price information and boycotting the higher priced retailers. All that it requires of the consumer is to share their grocery bill with an aggregator and follow up on market prices and shop at the cheapest available option based on the data. that will surely control the supply cartel from increasing the prices too rashly.

On the other hand wages needs to pushed up from within the institutions, and the lowest paid workers need to organize in order to realize their fair share of the profit to translate into higher wages. Anyways am writing in English so all this falls to deaf ears in my opinion.

What is interesting is the latest brain storming session came to the conclusion that everything is dandy and the denizens have been through worse so there is no need to do anything to rectify the situation and we need to stay the course.
So dear denizens, please drop your pants and bend over cause you might as well start enjoying !

ENJOY !

feverish mind, scorching skies, and spontaneously combusting income

A long overdue post that has been fermenting for like three months and when do I decide to finally write it and post ? Yes, you guessed it (err probably not), when I'm operating on a fever with multiple system failures (not my computer, I mean my body with that) because it's the best excuse to have when someone calls me raving mad after this.

So whats the most appropriate topic to rave mad about when your temperature is setting new highs ? well inflation of course !

so lets start of with what is inflation ?

Economic condition characterized by an increase in prices and wages, and declining purchasing power. Inflation is usually measured by changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The result is diminished purchasing power, and frequently a lower rate of savings as wage earners put more of their disposable assets in consumption, and less in long-term savings. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. It occurs when there is too much money in circulation relative to the production of actual goods and services.

thats pretty self explanatory so essentially it means that everything becomes more expensive.

So what causes inflation ?

hmm... in that definition they mentioned something about an increase in money supply (that reminds me of something that happened here in '03, I wonder) , but what the hell does that mean anyways ?
thats just the tip of the iceberg of causes and only half of the views available from an economical point of view, but I'm just another average mo so lets consult with them pundits and see what they say since am mainly interested in sharp increases in inflation I'm gonna focus on that only.

So turns out that sharp increases in inflation beyond the fiscal policy estimates (about 3-4% for a growing economy) is attributed to the following:

• Depreciation of exchange rate
• Rapid growth of money supply: An increase in loans by banks and building society borrowing due to low interest rates or incentives.
• Food shortages, increase in oil prices and lifting on subsidies when a country is Dependant on imports.
  
• Increases in consumer confidence and home prices translated in a increase purchasing power.
  
• Faster economic growth in other countries: economical growth is tied to inflation so while their services and prices are going they are not matched by the country and hence that is reflected in an increase in price of goods and services that isn't matched.
  
• Rising labor costs: an increase in wages that isn't translated in an increase in productivity with strains the demand and supply relationship.
  
• Higher taxes and increase in raw material costs.
  

So yeah I guess it was nicer when it was simply an increase in money supply, but those are the main reasons for inflation

So now that I'm done with that bit of background --rolling up my selves-- I'm gonna dig in and try to localize all of this in a nice way(as much as my delirium allows) . Hell i'm even talking Jordanian economics ... i just hope i don't come off the same way "dr." fanek comes off to me.

So what's up Jordan ( thats a definite hat tip here) ?

So let's see what is the inflation rate in Jordan ? It's 5.4% in 2007 thats a nice drop from the 6.25% in 2006, thats damn dandy !

2007? like last year ? like the year when i first started to feel the pinch. prices didn't increase ... oh wait ! remember in the definition of inflation they mentioned something called CPI (consumer price index) , what the hell is that ? do we have one ? how did they calculate the inflation in the first place ? Well lets pay the department of statistics a visit and see if there is anything about it.
OK, it's here . Great more numbers ! so essentially the CPI is calculating how families spend their money and how much is the increase in price of the commodities and comparing them to the prices of base year.

So lets take a look at the Jordanian CPI break down:

• The break up of household expenditure is 39.72% on food, clothing and shoes 4.85%, housing and living expenses 26.40% ( of which is notable fuel and lighting is 4.29%, home related expenditures 16.93%, and rentals 15.77%. did i mention that rentals are mentioned twice in every year ?).
  
• those expenditure break ups are based on survey done in 1998 and hence taken as the base year. they never change in all of the CPI calculation so it means that expenditure break ups are disconnected from inflation. hmm... maybe that last point is due to my fever ignore it.
  
• After 1999 the base year is taken as 2002 in terms of prices of the products. so the base year for the CPI of 2000 is 2002. Our main export should be clairvoyant economics researchers.
  

I guess its just my tendency to be a philistine and be confused by number so i might have misunderstood somethings there and in the end they make perfect sense and the 5.4% inflation rate of 2007 will hopefully be reduced to around 4% this year, and i'm happy that i didn't let my fingertips go on and write the rest of my thoughts about the CPI.

Number munching gives me indigestion, give me the meat !

So I looked at the CPI and left me in more confusion ( I hope it made more sense to you), so lets look at the factors for inflation and how they relate to Jordan shall we ?

First of all the depreciation of currency, some how i feel like i talked about this before, so our currency is still worth 0.709 $ since it's pegged. So the depreciation must come from the dollar ? how is that doing lately ? Well the dollar lost about 38% of its value against the euro since 2003, and as of today it lost 11% of its value in the last six months. that means that saving accounts at banks are loosing value rather than gaining. In turn that is putting some pressure on the purchasing power of the JD since accordingly Jordan is an import heavy country when it comes to staples, food and oil. So check, we definitely are experiencing a considerable monetary depreciation.

In the past 5 years the number of banks offering their services to the consumers in Jordan has quintupled or even more. With that easier access to loans and other debt instruments became available, coupled by the real estate bubble and influx of immigrants helped to expand the money supply pool considerably in the span of a relatively short period of time. so definitely CHECK, we did have that plus the interest rates since they are pegged to the dollar have been near zero rates through out the decade and seem to continue based on the FED's latest woes and trends.

If you haven't noticed the consumerist shift in Jordanian society in the last 5 years then i'll just apologize on behalf of my fever, but for now i'll just say double CHECKS on that. As for other countries, lets see Europe ? china ? Saudi Arabia ? did I miss anyone of our main import countries ? or did I misunderstand that year over year they have performed better and better ? anyways I'll leave that as undecided just for fevers sake ( apparently, one symptom of fever is the repeating of the word fever. I'm so gonna suggest that to webmd)

While consistently higher taxes since 2004 has been the bi-annual diet of us denizens, the wage increases have only started lately. Did I miss any of the points ?

Oh right, there was that thing about food and oil prices. OK, so international oil prices increased more than 400% since September 2003 that must do something for inflation. While local prices have increased by more than a 100% (hey i can't remember/find how much the price of gas in jordan was in 2003 so if anyone knows please tell me). As for food prices, the problem has been brewing since early on in the turn of the century since the acts of deregulation and adoptiong of free market economics couple with "global warming" lead to a decades law in food reserves and it just happened that those condition kept on piling along others and only hit us real hard recently...CHECK !

So essentially we got a full mark on the inflation check list, damn we are good! so now that am done with the background, I'll tackle what has been done by the government and the citizens and other such things.... but i'll have be lucid for that so am off to nap and get better.

ENJOY!

ps. note a 4-5% inflation rate is expected and doesn't require a government to take drastic actions to fight inflation since fighting inflation comes at the cost of economic growth

Quantam philosphy - Implications

Out of the window is the law of noncontradiction, simply we have a physical proof that something can be in two states at the same time that are contradicting. it is evident not just from the this experiment of particle and waves but from others including quantum spin.

This staple of a premise being logically impossible to be true or false, right or wrong, dead or alive removed from any subjective view does dent universal logics (there are universal truths in our world philosophically) since it says that we each "create" our world rather than participate in it.

Secondly that our subjective influence on one such system influences other systems that are entangled with it. In quantum physics there are entangled particles, particles that have made contact with each other, think of it like 2 billiard balls hitting each other. When a measurement is made on one of the particles the other particle is exhibiting the opposite. So this spooky action states makes fertile ground for some new age ideas, think telepathy of particles or perhaps evidence for remote viewing.

Being the subjective interpretation that it is, in essence it is inferring that rather than the universe is being, it is becoming. To an extent it is alluding to the fact that our consciousness is shaping our universe into what we perceive as reality. Dare i say that it tells us that we might have a soul ...


Need I say that absolute determinism is out of the question at this point, since the idea that the universe is like a big machine where everything has been set in motion from day one with no influence that a person can have on his past, present or future. Since simply that holds out to be false experimentally :P It is the more of a free-will universe where to some extend determinism deals with out past but holds little influence on our future and doesn't predict our future .

In fear of making this post more disjointed than it already is, I'll stop this series at this in hope of expanding on it later on, sorry for making it long but I tried to cut it up as much as possible. I tried to limit my explanation as much as possible too, so I don't know if i made any leaps of logic.

Thanks to Observer for serving as the inspiration to these posts based on you post about determinism and the view that you can build a computer big enough to map out the paths of all humans if given enough information, and I hope I made you re-think that possibility. Sorry it took so long to write this too.

Quantum philosophy - What it means

In the previous post, I mentioned the double slit experiment. In that experiment the Results are determined by the subjective outlook of the observer. If he wants to see light as waves it will be waves and if he wants it to be particles it will act as such. but never both at the same time.

The results of that different experiments were replicated in several more complex ones, that address any other possibility of experimental error, the mathematical models correspond to the results.

So What does this all mean ?

Interpreting the experimental findings has been the unorthodox part of quantum, since it threw determinism and the mechanistic view of the universe out of the window. It is the attempt to bridge the gap between what happens at the subatomic level and why it isn't observed in our universe at a larger scales.

The most widely supported view is that of the Copenhagen's interpretation which simply says that every particle is described by its wavefuntion that dictates its probability to be found in any place, and upon measurement that wave collapses placing the particle into what the subject is expecting of it with that measurement and that every measurement influences the end result. wave function in this interpretation means more of a non-committal mode rather than an actual wave like movement of particles.

Just in terms of reference to other interpretations in case you are saying that what this suggests is way too woo like and way too far fetched that it can't make sense (who said the universe should make sense). I won't discuss Hidden variable interpretation since it is old, and mostly a discarded attempt to hold on to classical mechanistic view of the world


Many World interpretation
this is the interesting interpretation that explains that instead of what happens after something is observed and all the other possibilities are discarded to form the current reality. It says that all those probabilities actually occur and we are only able to perceive one of those realities.
Those realities (universes) are part of a bigger multiverse which encompasses all those universes. If it happens that any 2 universes happen to intersect then they would end up merging into a single universe. It helps remove the fact that we are participants in shaping the universe (atleast the one that we live in) and back to participants... Do you remember Sliders.

Quantum Philosophy - Prologue

My knowledge of the subject is rudimentary, from my perspective, so I'll try to explain to the best of my abilities. Plus I'll try to place my tendency to go to the moon and back when discussing something on a leash.

To start the subject up, I'd like to quote something that was said in the course "introduction to quantum mechanics". The professor started the class by saying this (paraphrase):

Look, if you teach an introductory course on quantum mechanics, and the students don't have nightmares for weeks, tear their hair out, wander around with bloodshot eyes, etc., then you probably didn't get the point across.

A lot of great thinkers in the past had a tough time swallowing what quantum mechanics indicated about our reality, Einstein was quoted on the subject saying "God doesn't play dice with the universe".

Essentially while classical Newtonian physics can predict every fall of the sparrow, quantum mechanics can only leave us with possibilities. The real trouble with quantum mechanics doesn't arise from the fact that we can't predict the future in it ala classical physics. The real trouble arises from the fact that not only is that the future is indeterministic, the past is also indeterministic. Also that the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics doesn't arise from our own ignorance like statistical probabilities it is an inherent attribute of the system .

Still reading ?? REALLY ?

Since the days of Democritus it was thought that everything tangible in this universe is made up of atoms that form the building blocks of our reality, Well quantum mechanics is the study of subatomic particles, the building blocks of all the universe.

So lets look at a simple experiment. you remember the science experiment where you have a tank of water and u place and object with two slits and turn on the wave generator to see how waves interfere with each other ? And do you remember them referring to light as both wave and particle in nature.
Well that experiment can be done with light.

double-slit experiments reveal that photons,
the quantum entities giving rise to light and other
forms of electromagnetic radiation, act both like
particles and like waves. A single photon will
strike the screen in a particular place,
like a particle (left)- But as more photons strike
the screen, they begin to create an interference pattern
(center). Such a pattern could occur only if each photon
had actually gone through both slits, like a wave (right).

If that isn't baffling enough, if you only permit one photon to pass through the slits. The interference pattern is still observed suggesting that wave went through. But when you add an apparatus that can detect which slit the photon passed through the interference pattern disappears. This experiment can be replicated on electrons, neutrons, atoms, and theoretically to other bigger things.

It is as if what we are experementing on is making future predictions and providing us with the answers that we want to see.

I'll stop here for this post, and let you think about what implications such result can have.

Abrupt fall season finale review

Given that the Fall season has been cut short by the writers guild strike this warranted a preemptive season finales to most of the shows, so here is a review of things so far that will be edited in case they change their mind.

Just for the record I fully back the writers guild strike and it is their right to do what they did and they better answer to their very reasonable demands and allow us to enjoy our shows. if you are interested in reading more about that read here


Heroes Season 2:
Verdict:watchable (orgasmic on the last 4)
Actually if anyone benefited from the strike it's this show, after a train wreck of a premiere and plots stretching too thin with the introduction of not 1 not 2 but 8 main characters, in 6 separate plot lines. The people were losing interest and losing it quickly. then comes the strike and they decide to clean up the mess that they started and try to recapture the glory of the first season.
And Boy did they do just that, the final 4 episode were heart racing adrenaline on TV, we all knew someone had to die because they can't maintain that many characters for the story to be meaningful (highlight for spoilers) but why did they kill Nikki, what do they have against Mika. Even though I didn't see Nathan's death coming and i thought that Partman should have captured the assassin atleast ... oh well things are finally shapping up for the individuals to group up and stand against the corporation. on the other hand did Adam serve only as a detour to the plot to get us watching syler whacking some heads off again ?(spoilers end) we'll have to wait and see whats going to be happening in Volume 3.


The Secret Diary of a call girl:
Verdict:must watch
that was one of my favorite shows and a pleasant surprise, hailing from the UK with the sexily matured Billie Piper in the lead as a sassy call girl and her escapades in the sex workers world. It is both hilarious , avantgarde and only something the brits are gonna make.





the IT Crowd season 2:
Verdict:watchable
just as hilarious and qwarky as the first season, and it even warranted Maurice a cameo in nickelback's rockstar music video. Since am not that good at conveying comedy here i'll just leave it at that both "work outing" (Ep. 1) and "moss and the German" kept me cracking up for so long that i thought I'll need an inhaler


Dexter Season 2:
Verdict:orgasmic
(on going but finale should hit us soon during the next week)
Can we say Amen for the heartless serial killer(though he is most certainly discovering one) and for the writers for pulling through a remarkably well written season that both developed all the characters, and even incorporating "the secret" and making fun of it. The introduction of Lila was amazing, she is one of the most intriguing and blazing characters to hit the screen in ages, she embodies the spirit of Eros in every meaning of the word. I hope he doesn't kill her


Prison Break season 3:
Verdict: touch it with a 10' pole
I honestly think it lost its sparkle and lost any interest I had in it after they did something very stupid with the plot and (spoiler)killed off Sarah, i kept on watching to find the twist and hoping for the twist but that evaporated eventually and i lost interest(end spoiler) so its most definitely going to be off my to watch list.






Weeds Season 3:
Verdict:orgasmic
I already attested my love to Nancy Botwin, and having some evangelical religion thrown into a cali community proved to be interesting to say the least, and did I mention that Mary-Kate blew me away with her depiction of Tara, a pusher with a religious motif of spreading love !
so we get beatings, gangs, a foot fetish porno, lesbianism, mammograms, ghosts, flying poop, ingenious usage of crosses, more milf weed and much much more. now what show can touch on all that and remain funny and not get serious about it.


Reaper Season 1:
(ongoing)
Verdict:watchable
My light hearted fun, plus I like sock he's hella cool every work place needs a "sock" to make it a much better world. So parents sell his soul to the devil and now he's his lackey, and boy does the devil like to mess up things. So you capture the souls with vessels, my favorite was the pigeon now think how would that work ! supernatural comedy, kind like Buffy before it started to get too convoluted.

Honorable mention, supernatural (for being consistent and a good filler) & Claymore (which has been the best anime series i've seen in a long long long time)

ps. links to torrent files and search are on the title.

observers, lions, helpers and goats... a look through the kaleidoscope

I was going to name this post perceptions but I have been posting too many single word titled posts, so I went with something more bamboozled.

It's really fascinating the faculty of our brains to fill in the gaps of what we think we see. Whenever we meet someone for the first time, we already have a grid in our brains for the things that we look for in people that we would like to know.
So as soon as we see as much as a shadow we blistery start forming and filling up that grid of ours, whether we like it or not (we try to not like it since its prejudiced and judgmental) all of us start churning our gears as soon as we something eye catching :)

It's always a challenge (atleast personally speaking) to put that grid and try to match it to the reality and see how you did. Lets face it, do we really want to spend the time to get to really know everyone we meet ? I'd like to think not, so that ability is fundamental social filter and being PC about it is just faking civility which is worse in my book that being blunt. (god there is this co worker that always start a conversation with "keefak sadeeqi (tr. how are you comrade)" while she definitely doesn't stand dealing with me"

The way others perceive us is a very important gauge to who we really are to the world. So for the past few years I started doing something that was fairly weird to people around, I'll go asking them "who am I?" with a series of question to highlight good points, faults, eccentricities whatever they are willing to share and for as long as they can bear me.

To not come off as a total boltless nutjob i limit it to a once a year fiasco. One thing I explain to them is that no matter what they decide to share I will not be offended and I will not hold their honesty against them (alas that is rarely enough reassurance) and some of the things you find out about your self are really interesting. especially the motifs they see in you, and some of the disinformation that you can't help but emanate which requires a bit of working on your self to clear up, call it tightening up you character bolts.

The main reason i do this is that, for the people I care about atleast, I would like the person that I know I am at this point to be as perfectly aligned with the person that other people see.

So while I was writing the last post about people who I interact with here I felt like doing that, I just thought it would be fun but on the other hand I am worried that people will get offended. So whoever might be offended or they just don't feel like sharing what am about to write please tell me and I'll remove it :)

The challenge is that moving online we lose facial expression which are usually more honest than the person would like to be, but words and especially the adjectives used are a huge indication to what type of personality an individual holds, well read ? inbred ? sociopath ? emo ? blond? you know what am talking about. factoring in some info, and the ideas they hold and you can connecting the dots... so shall we experiment ?
(the order is chronological btw and its of the people that I interacted with the most)

Summer
Zodiac according to bambam: Leo
Summer is definitely a unique breed, if am going to assign a personality type it would be a type 3 Achievers, Performers, Succeeders. a very healthy one at that, she is highly adaptable to whatever environment she is placed in and a social chameleon, and through it all she hasn't lost her own unique personality and has her priorities straight. the proof of her adaptability and courage in confronting the unknown is the mere fact that she is here ! its not an easy thing to tread the generations as easily as she does.

She is an extremely caring individual, and draws a considerable amount of satisfaction out of helping others and especially her family. I think who ever is in her inner circle a lucky person and it would be really hard to fall out of favor with her, not for dependability but because she genuinely cares and will attempt to set them on the course that she thinks is the best one for them with her very own style of gentle persuasion.

Just don't overburden her with bad news and depressing issues all at once, for you might get a glimpse of a total different part of her, not in the confrontational manner but in a longing for solitude attitude.

Through it all I think she can become highly preoccupied with glamor and sparkles, for she certainly likes the pretty things in life and can be highly particular about them. (excellent shopping company if someone else is shouldering the bill if you ask me :P)

finally I think although i didn't notice it at first, but she actually loves being with her family having a quite time at home, and she is certainly bashful or it might be just good old fashioned lady manners that are quite rare these days for me to be able to distinguish.

Seeker
Zodiac according to bambam: Libra
She is the most pure character two (Helpers, Givers, Caretakers) I know. Now she has the ability to genuinely care about the people around her to the extreme which makes her forget about herself quite a bit. Also being doubtful about she is capable off keeps her from truly trying and attaining her potential. shes susceptible to fall in a spiral of despair & low self esteem, don't be afraid to share your feelings when that happens. Its better to do so rather than bottling them up on the long run.
She undermines the amount of help she provides to others. you have an ability to relate to what other people 's needs and you are a very caring person.

The remedy to all that is reassurance, and if there is any criticism, its a must for it to be delivered in the gentlest of methods.
You have to eventually learn to say "no" sometimes, you have to set your priorities and take steps rather than trying to jump to goals. It's also OK to be selfish sometimes, you need to do things that you like to, otherwise you might risk being overburdened and drain from doing so much for others.

All that matters is to try, Its OK to have failures its not the end of the world and at the end of the day we won't appreciate success unless we can contrast it with out failures!

7aki
Zodiac according to bambam: Capricorn
She's an eight (Leaders, Protectors, Challengers)! with a character that refuses to be boxed ...
On the cover she is a life loving easy going person that likes to have fun, she can truly brighten anyones day. The hardworking type but prefers to do so in the shadows, not looking for much reassurance and fiercely independant, I imagine when she was a kid she never really did too good in school but when it came time for her to step up she shocked !
Also on the other hand she has a fierce imagination at certain points i feel like I found a real life calvin, and I bet as a kid she could see a Castle out of a blanket covering the space between two beds.
She's a goal setter and strive to get those milestones, although fleeting moments of hesitation regarding her abilities to tread that road occur from time to time and she will stumble but move on with life for its too short get strung up about such things.
I think she relies on first impressions when interacting which are not always aligned so I guess there were bitter moments due to that. Also sometimes her honesty has a bit of bluntness to it, and being honest i don't think she'll take well to betrayal or someone talking behind her back and if that happens you will forever be in her black book. Curiosity is certainly a driving force to be reckoned with her, and don't to step over some toes but on the other hand it earns her better allies and a more personal connection with people.
Oh and finally give her space to be alone and don't try to control her or she will rebel.

Observer
Zodiac according to bambam: Taurus
A vibrant and gentle soul, and is never seen angry. I think you are a character 9 (Mediators, Peacemakers, Preservationists) and I think if anybody has a problem with you will not be satisfied unless you atleast try to talk it through with them. I think at this point in your life after some(...) turbulence you have found peace in your inner circle and that gave you the guts to try to expand that circle. The weapon of choice being edgy and pushing the comfort zone to the brink, given that its not something innate in you even the controversy is laid out in a thoughtful and gentle manner.
Now what i really like about this is that i feel you have a tendency to inaction, and probably the easier path for you to take is to take non and do nothing to not disturb or piss off anyone but you choose otherwise. For you can see the two sides of any coin and you empathetic to both. Alternatively you haven't over come a slightly tendency to delay making big decision especially when you feel pressured to. Don't be too critical of your self and try to sort out what you really want(i think you already did) and go with it without being too pessimistic. I think some external encouragement and reassurance will take you a long way and I hope you genuinely get that

The other thing, which might be weird to me, is that you have an affinity to the physical realm, I think you don't exactly like chatting online for instance and would certainly prefer to meet face to face with people and interact with them there. So you maintaining a blog is different for you and probably you had to take it in steps to actually maintain it regularly.

Now there is a saying "2ihthar 2il 7aleema izza '3adeb" (*tr*beware of a gentle person if he got angry), and i think that describes you. It's not easy to anger you, and you are able to forgive others for their slights but if it happens that someone pushes you beyond your limits all rules fly out of the window. So I can't really imagine you getting angry

Kinzi
Zodiac according to bambam: Gemini
Enthusiast a character 7 without a doubt, a Puella. I would be seriously interested in where she has been and what she did, for am sure she has a volumes full of life experiences and she should seriously start writing a biography like right now !
Still pretty much a part of her, and unlike most people she has faced her past and moved on, now she is no longer chasing after experiences like she used to for she has set her self to be dedicated to one life long experience of following her framework for life based on what she's been through. So the focus is shifting for me & I to the we and us, but sometimes what she wants to do and what she thinks she should do are contradictory. Especially when it comes to self expression, given how I imagine her as a young rebel I admire the commitment that she has to play it safe.
some people fear showing their true intentions so they feign kindness, she is more likely to be more worried about people thinking that of her when her kindness is truly genuine. I think it does weigh heavy on her how people ascribe a lot of Ulterior motives to her behavior when as far as I see it is that she made revise one stereotype I had of a certain group of people or maybe she is an exception.
After searching endless she sees that she has found her purpose, I think even with the slightly tight grip on house rules her home is a warm and welcoming one. she will definitely go the extra mile for what she believes in which is also a departure from her fickle commitment to finish what she started and being spread too thin doing too many different things at once.

Qwaider
Zodiac according to bambam: Virgo
Am split to whether he is a character 5(Observers, Thinkers, Investigators) or 6(Loyalists, Devil's Advocates, Defenders), his pride and fort lies in his knowledge and others wanting that knowledge. On the other hand there is certainly boundaries to which that acquired knowledge can impede on his traditions and belief system. Its a lot harder for him to stretch those boundaries for the single reason that he sees no purpose in that.

He certainly has a considerable amount of knowledge, and always tries to base his remarks based on that. Which to some might seem like he is flaunting it but I think he sees it as it provides his the credibility to say what he did.

He is a person that relishes system, give him a system and he will follow it to a T. Its what provides him security, he is committed and hardworking. On the other hand when confronted with random happenings that are outside the rules he might overreact and be indecisive and procrastinate for the fear of failure. So its not a natural ability for him to gauge his reactions in his relationships, and he might lost some friends along the way but on the other hand the ones that stuck with him he is faithful to them and a source of aid.

Fear for him stems out of insecurities, things that happened aren't forgotten easily and can linger for a while. If any of those are exploited there is no guarantee what might be unleashed on the perpetrator so i will stop there...

Now I tried my best to side step any land minds as much as possible, so there is no reference to any personal history, acts, religious affiliation, or any other thing that might earn a label or be called skeletons, laundry or baggage. Even though i already wrote my perceptions of everyone here am not going to post them without your permission. thats why only summer's is visible cause i already asked her and if there is anything you want me to remove and more than willing to do so.

Oh and yeah i know that its not your zodiac probably and you don't believe in that maybe but I just felt like putting it up there since i like to guess those, a pet peeve of mine (which I suck at btw).

Please am not doing this to start any wars or create rift am just trying to call it as i see it, and no am not a sycophant am just doing what i felt like doing you can call me selfish. so skip the name calling if you please

ENJOY!
grr.. hopefully
and no puzzle today since i don't have any in mind after writing this
ps. nour i haven't interacted with you much hence i couldn't come formulate anything :)

Tough love

We have forgot how to tough love, somewhere along the point of trying to create the safest environment for kids to grow up in we forgot how much life sucks at certain point.

We raise up our kids with an idealistic expectation from the world, where everyone is honest and no one gets hurts. we shield our kids from the slightest of harms and encapsulate them in a bubble till they are ready to get married.

Kids growing up nowadays are really a sorry bunch, they are getting ready for the shock of their life once they start to look life in the face. It's entirely different to the view painted by their parents on how life should be. For they are the most beautiful, intelligent adorable and utterly one of a kind children that need admiration from everyone they meet because its just what they are accustomed to. then comes life to ruin everything and they find out the truth that there are more beautiful, adorable, intelligent and truly exceptional kids in the world, and they are not all winners. poor kids !

Not just in that sense, we forgot to tough love in the sense that kids are not allowed to be kids anymore. Kids are supposed to go out and play, break stuff, get hurt, bust a leg, get in trouble, feel sick and get dirty ! We raise kids in a highly sanitized universe thats about 500 square, the meters in size, the lucky ones get to play in their back yard. if they dare to do anything remotely dangerous and fun they need to be crippled with protection and pads, and if they do it anyways. oh boy if they dare to climb a tree, for instance, they are going to be reprimanded HARSHLY. I just love this next bit, whenever there was a kid in the class that used to be active and the life of the class the comment was that he was a lively and social kid and he used to be tolerated and even admired at times. now that kid is run over by doctors and diagnosed with ADD along with other fun acronym and his system is overloaded with pharmaceutical drugs to conform to our view of idealism -_-'

We seem to have forgot that without those experiences of failure, pain and the pleasure of earning successes and conquest we are robbing the kid of one of the most important character development tools. We are restraining kids to a limited reality were we teach them that they are the best and if they are hurt by the rest of the world then that world is just jealous of them and they can always defer the reason for their failure onto others.

The funny thing about all this is that latter on, us grown ups, start complaining about the younger generation how they are a bunch of wusses that can't handle life and its responsibilities. how these days kids are depressed and are cry babies when they are faced with failure.
News flash we created them that way, the reason we did that is that at one point we believed our own delusion that the world today is a much dangerous place than it used to be and we need to protect the younglings from it for as long as socially possible.

In fact the world is a much safer place these days, kids having a higher chance to live to their 20's than any other point in human history. Yes there are the occasional unfortunate events and stories, but it shouldn't be the case for us to confine our children even more every time we hear of another kidnapping, accidental death or whatever other news that makes you want to bubble wrap your child from the harms of the world. It's not true that those occurrences are more common these days than they were in the past, in reality the media these days are able to play on the parents fears and blow these stories out of proportions, and they are better equip to access and propagate such stories.

The right way to go about it is to equip the greenhorn to deal with life and all its ugliness, for without experiencing some hardship in life they will fail to appreciate its beauty and in contrast they will find it utterly boring and bland. They shouldn't be given mixed signals either, don't teach your child to be modest when you actually demand from him to be the best at everything regardless of the means. Teach them tolerance, and that everyone is special in their own way and they shouldn't be discouraged by failure it should server as their impetus to find what their specialty is.

For the time being I am happy that they are raising a generation of overtly medicated, deeply depressed, delusionally frustrated, safe players. who for their lack of acceptance to the harsh realities of life will remain eternally childish and not accept the responsibilities they are meant to shoulder. that in and off its self makes me happy because it guarantees that my generation, even truer to older ones, will maintain their edge over those child like adults for a lot longer than we should ! keep up the good job alarmist parents for am cheering for ya :D



IX EQG PBWK YDISTRNW KQ LNNF KDNIR XNNK QW KDN URQGWT FGK MQVN RNMFQWMIOISIKE QW KDNIR MDQGSTNRM
~ Abigail Van Buren
hint: cryptogram I=I, K=T, and Q=O

Me Vs. I : Ramdan & Eid

Now that both Ramadan and Eid are over i feel a bit at ease about posting this without being lynched since everyone has been so lovey dovey about Ramadan and Eid I didn't want to ruin it(or risk getting lynched for that matter).

As I was growing I had high hopes for Ramadan, you gain a lot of "points" in that month plus u get to earn money at the end... SWEEEET
Now its just the biggest month of hypocrisy, you pretty much know that the religious mask that everyone puts on is just for this month.
Even though pretending to be pious for a whole month does take its toll on their system so they naturally translate their frustration into anger !
so you end up with a month full of over zealous angry people who are just starved and parched instead.

Oh Boy! I love the already religious people in this month too. I'll give it to them that they are less hypocritical Since they are devout year round, but they don't fair any better. Not to be outdone by the former group these guys literally flaunt how religious they are during this month, they find it their right to give you a piece of their mind of how utterly condemned and corrupt you, "fa 2allahoma inni sa2im" is like the priests repentance writs in the middle ages. ABSURD!

Really I like to fast, some how it is relaxing so you don't have to think of all the essential and instincts for half a day and that clears your thought. what i don't like is the way people become oversensitive little twerps that feel the world owes them something because they are being "good Muslims".

Then we have Eid, oh lovely Eid, Really why bother trying to connect with a seasonal family ? for what selfish reason do people do that when in reality you can't rely on them in times of need the way you rely on your true family !

I guess all that matters in our world is to be modest and save face in front of others for the sake of others

9 1 13 14 15 20 18 5 12 9 7 9 15 21 19 19 9 12 12 25
ps. you might win the lotto with those !

Me Vs. I

YO!
bambam: What are you doing at 3:30am writing couldn't this have waited till tomorrow dammit ! i got work tomorrow you know.
No Angel: *crack* * crack* damn those fingers feel a bit rusty, this has been a pretty short Ramadan, but i feel inspired for some reason...
bambam: yeah yeah try to get it done with quickly the pillow is calling me
No Angel: Anyways, was watching the daily show and something brought a smile to my face and warmth to my heart. It was the last part where they had the interview with Tiki Barber the RB and he was talking about a story that touched him and the words "Jordanian fugees soccer coach" where just bolded in my ears. So I just had to find out a bit more so thats what am doing here, as for why now well it just sounded like the right thing to do at that instant. It has been so long since i heard someone genuinely speaking of anything coming from our region that was not just positive but quickly wamed up my heart.

So i started reading about it the team, the kids, and more about coach Luma mifleh. I was really grabbed by the whole thing. I was even more pleased when I stumbled on a post by Natasha (mental mayhem) , i missed that story somehow, but soon i became dismayed by the comments. We have become so xenophobic of media and read a bit too much into the wording that instead of having admiration about what this jordanian woman was achieving some got stuck on the way they mentioned her origins and religion(islam) and even a hint at how she had easy in her life which felt like it was a stab to her integrity in some way. The way the story came out to me and the need to clarify the origins of the team is to put into perspective that this is the south, Atlanta to be specific, these are people who live in bubbles and hate to have them disturbed. The reason the origins of the team matters is because they would/have/are being fought on all the levels, if you have a rosy lovely imagine of white suburbia in the US when you are part of a minority then please dispel it.
bambam: wait wait .... aren't you doing the same thing your are criticizing by reading too deeply into their comments, then again so far all this sounds pretty rosy to me. Hell its too damn rosy, it is even mentioned that there are talks about a movie they are going to be rich !
No Angel: Ya Ya, that aside now you are looking at things skin deep, what she did is truly inspiring to me at least. Here is someone, who with no doubt in my heart, faced her fair share of discrimination. Who still happened to stumble upon her place, where she is at home. she went beyond coach and metamorphosed into a mother to a family of 120. here are a bunch of kids, into a totally foreign environment that is not exactly welcoming them with hugs and kisses. two things are tying them together, their miserable past and they passion for soccer. this women has been able to go beyond all that required to go into really taking care of the families, even starting a small business to help raise the family's earning potentials beyond minimum pay. We all say that we like to help, some of us actually do help but only a few are able to truly help others and that is what is remarkable about this to me.
bambam: Chill out on the dobey there, what next you dissecting Jang's theory ?
No Angel: don't mind that, thanks for the heads up :P but don't digress dammit its already 420 u know !
What am trying to say is that some go out and help out a family, some go and feed an orphanage full of kids, some more do some more of those different things. we go do those and feel good about ourselves and head back to our little bubble. What Ms. Luma Mufleh did is glue families that have been snatched out of their trees and thrown on the ground to practically fend for them selves and give them a fighting chance. she didn't just stick to coaching, she didn't just help the kids out, she didn't just discipline the kids and teach them self reliance. She made their problems her own and their happiness her joy, she is them and they are her ! and here is the shocker, she didn't do all of that on ramadan's only.
You know bam what really left a chill in me, is that the one thing i found common among the Fugees. They mainly came from Muslim countries who were torn from conflict, and instead of stepping up to help, really help, we belittle ourselves by being worked about how they talked about us, how they are not giving us a fighting chance, how they belittle our culture with their caricatures, mainly incoherent angry talk.
bambam: True dat, I just wish u didn't miss the irony that as far as i know ur only good at talking too so just get me to bed and lets lay the philanthropist attitude to rest now.
No Angel: BASTARD !

ps. the puzzle of the post is among the lines