houn

Oh I’m gonna buy this place and start a fire,
Stand here until I fill all your heart’s desires.
Because I’m gonna buy this place and see it burn
and do back the things it did to you in return.

Ah ah ah, ah ah ah…

You said “I’m gonna buy a gun and start a war,
If you can tell me something worth fighting for.”
Oh and I’m gonna buy this place is what I said.
Blame it upon a rush of blood to the head.

Honey,
All the movements you’re starting to make,
See me crumble and fall on my face
And I know the mistakes that I’ve made,
See it all disappear without a trace.
And they call as they beckon you on,
They said start as you mean to go on.

Start as you mean to go on.

You said “I’m gonna buy this place and see it go,
Stand here beside my baby, watch the orange glow.”
Some will laugh and some just sit and cry,
But you just sit down there and you wonder why?

So I’m gonna buy a gun and start a war,
If you can tell me something worth fighting for.
And I’m gonna buy this place is what I said,
Blame it upon a rush of blood to the head,
Oh to the head.

Honey,
All the movements you’re starting to make
See me crumble and fall on my face
And I know the mistakes that I made
See it all disappear without a trace.
And they call as they beckon you on
They say start as you mean to go on
As you mean to go on,
As you mean to go on…

So meet me by the bridge,
Oh meet me by the lane
When am I going to see
That pretty face again

Meet me on the road
yeah, meet me where I said
Blame it all upon
A rush of blood to the head

-By Coldplay

Journalist and blogger Ahmad Reza Shiri will have a permanent threat hanging over him as a result of the suspended sentence of three years in prison handed down by a court in the northern city of Mashad on 8 January, Reporters Without Borders said today. He was reportedly accused of writing articles in his blog calling for a boycott of last February’s legislative elections.

“Suspended sentences are often used to silence journalists who bother the authorities,” the press freedom organisation said. “The fact that this type of sentence has now been applied to a blogger shows the importance that weblogs have assumed in Iranian society.”

Shiri said he was arrested in February 2004 and spent 21 days in detention because of what he had written in his previous blog, Iran Azad (Free Iran). In June 2004, a Mashad court gave him a suspended sentence of a year in prison. The authorities also closed down his blog and confiscated his computer. But he started up another blog a few months later: www.roozname.blogfa.com .

He told Reporters Without Borders that this month’s conviction is directly linked to the first one. He said the intelligence ministry asked for his case to be retried on the basis of new charges, including the fact that he gave interview to foreign radio stations. So the case was retried by another Mashad judge and this time he got a three-year suspended sentence. He will have to serve the sentence in prison if he gets into any kind of trouble with the authorities during the next five years.

Wow…For the first time, I feel how democratic our Arab countries are!

Today is Friday, and my Fridays have all become short days during which I do nothing but sleep and sleep and sleep until I can not lay in bed any longer (or on my mattress, which I place on the floor).

Well, for few weeks now I’m unable to recover from whatever has got to me, I was beginning to worry about my health after I spent days not eating well and not sleeping until my eyes blurred and for two days a horrible headache affected me badly. I guess I can’t blame anyone for this, unfortunately.

The other day my brother stopped by a petrol station and I went in the supermarket to buy a sandwich, a cat sneaked in, and God knows how much I hate cats!! not to mention that they scare me. The cat once saw me opening the fridge’s door dared to come closer…and…I managed a small cry (I hate it when I do that too), the supermarket man came quickly and opened the door for her to leave. I must tell you that a dream with a cat trying to to touch me in it is a nightmare in my perception.

It’s so good to find a place where you can talk about silly things (like the ones I’ve just told you about) when you have no one to annoy with your irrelevant boring stories of your life.

Foreign Ministry officials told Ha’aretz that Israeli officials have been trying to convince Jordan to change the policy.

[Via JTA]

A letter from the Aljazeera cameraman prisoner in Guantanamo, to his British lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith (the first of three letters)

Punished for three grains of rice and four ants
By Sami Muhydin al-Hajj,

Guantanamo Bay, November 6, 2005

Dear Clive:
Let me make a confession: I cannot stop asking myself this question, why do they punish me? It is becoming an obsession, but I cannot get it out of my head. All these punishments began when they put me in prison in Bagram, Afghanistan.

They only allowed us to go to the athroom twice a day, the first time just after dawn and then just before dusk. We could only go when it was our turn. I remember that once I was very desperate and I whispered to the man in front of me in the queue, to let me get in front of him. The soldier, guarding us, bellowed with fury, “Do not speak!” and then ordered me to get out. He tied my hands to a wire and left me there all day on my feet and shivering with the cold weather. Eventually, I soiled my trousers, to the enjoyment of the soldiers and the whores present.

Then to Kandahar:
In full summer, under the blazing sun and walking on the burning soil, one soldier shouts, “You! Hold it there… the second one… the third one and also the fourth one! Why did you speak? Get on your knees with your hands on your head!

We were left like this, under the torrid sun and kneeling on the burning stones until one of us collapsed and the rest went to his aid. [Continue…]

I’ve reblogged this because I strongly believe it is a moral duty more than anything to spread this, to make Sami Al-Hajj heard and let the World know about the injustice done to the prisoners at Guantanamo “detainment camp”.

Laila from Raising Yousuf reports that the big day of elections is less than two weeks away. She has been recruited by the Guardians Unlimited to write about the elections in a series of posts.

From Ramallah Online, in Palestinian village of Al-Walaja people still live under the same conditions caused by Al-Nakba nearly 54 years ago. The Isreali military forces attackd the village and bulldozed Palestinians properties declaring the area to be a closed military zone.

From KABOBfest, the Palestine Solidarity Movement will hold its fifth annual conference at Georgetown University, Washington, DC from the 17th - 19th of Febreuary, 2006. The spokesperson of PSM, Nadeem Muaddi said the divestment from Israel has become a national concern.

Norwegians activists are under attack from Israel’s supporters in the US and Condoleeza Rice threatens with serious political consequences.

What we talk about…

On Ariel Sharon’s health condition:

SteamedPenguin at the beginning, was afraid Sharon would die quickly, then he was afraid Sharon would live.

KABOBfest’s blogger Will’s post number 400 was also about Sharon, Will says he was surprised not to see any news about Sharon’s health on Yahoo frontpage sidebar.

Laila of Raising Yousuf wonders what will Sharon say when he meets all his peaces on his final day, what will he say to his Maker?

Sugar Cubes compared the poor media coverage of Arafat’s sickness and death to the excessive focus of MSM on Sharon’s health and hospitalization. From Arafat to Sharon and recently Abramoff, who decides what’s a top story?

Photo Credit: Raising Yousuf

From peacepalestine, in a letter from Al Jazeera camerman who is improsined in Guantanamo, Sami Al-Hajj, he asks a question which he can not get out of his mind, why are they punishing him?. Sami was tied to a wire out in the cold, standing all day on his feet just because he asked to go to the bathroom, feeling desperate he eventually soiled his trousers “to the enjoynment of the soldiers and whores watching“.

SteamedPenguin, thinks that Taliban = USA : “So I figure a dark hegemonical backwards empire beating up against misogynist, homophobic, anti-education, anti-progress goat-fucking clowns equals itself out.”

Sugar Cubes tried to shed some light on blogging in Arabic.

Read nasrawi talking about his date with Kamanche.

The little things that matter…

Haitham Sabbah has started a campaign to ask blog services to recognize and list Palestine in their countries category. If a blog service does not recognize Palestine intentionally the pledge states that its supporters will not use it.

From Sugar Cubes, Arab-American author and radio show host Samar Jarrah appeared on a Fox News‘ segment called “Your Turn” as a special guest on “Dialogue Between Arabs and Americans” to talk about her book “Arab Voices Speak to American Hearts”, you can read a review of her book here. Samar did a fabulous job tackling different controversial topics of interest to the average American when it comes to Islam and the Arab World. She explained the difference between Islam and culture and talked about women in Islam. About Palestine, Samar says that Arabs still have the question of Palestine in their hearts even after september 11, the Afghanistan and war on Iraq, and they are still looking for a peacefull solution for the Palestine-Isreal conflict. Read the written interview here

From Sabbah’s Blog, a member of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation are trying to educate the U.S. public by airing Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) on several TV stations. The campaign aims at educating the American public on the human rights conditions in the holy land of Palestine and the daily misfortune Palestinians are going through. Imagine Life, as a Palestinian Campain has also made a complimentary film called Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land.

And also the majority of my descendants will be males, if I slept enough to see that day.

Now I feel nostalgic to her voice, and to her songs. I now can see why old men spend time doing nothing other than listening to this unattractive lady with a scarf in her hand, dressing modestly unlike other female singers who reveal of their bodies more than they cover.

It’s funny I always thought of listening to Om-Kulthoom as another “guy thing”, especially that I used to be a fan of Abdul-Haleem, and always thought the love and passion with which he performs his songs are unique. I used to think that men love Om-Kulthoom while women love Abdul-Haleem. Needless to say, I was wrong…