Can you imagine a cube of Swiss Cheese, without its eyes - the holes in it? Or a Swiss Knife without the compass or the screwdriver? This is exactly what the Swiss people want to do with mosques. A mosque will remain a mosques without its Minarets, and it will still function the way it is supposed to function without them. But it will then loose its architectural identity and beauty.
Oh, wait a moment, may be the Swiss people have problems with identities. Switzerland itself doesn't have enemies nor allies, it's just neutral. Switzerland doesn't even has its own language, people there speak three or four different languages. Yet, the people there are not French, German, Italian, Romanian, nor Swiss. In fact, this diversity makes the question of a national culture a recurring issue. It's just like water, colorless, odorless, and tasteless.
So, may be that's why they want everything to be just neutral and with no identity. Everything including the buildings there.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Suicidal Mood
Sometimes I get into a certain mood, and I like to call it suicidal mood. In fact, it has nothing to do with committing suicide, but it is a mood where I have enough courage - and sometimes carelessness - to do stuff I normally don't do in my other moods.
It's the suicidal mood that lets me get rid of stuff I used to store at home, although I never use them. It's also the mood that let's me say something to some girl that I'd never say in my other moods. It also lets me make crazy decisions and take uncalculated risks.
The suicidal mood is like courage pills, it makes me ready to fight dragons with my bare hands. And the good news here is that I never regret what I've done during that mood, on the contrary, I like the insane actions I do then, may be because I myself am insane.
Just remember that you have to fight fire with fire, and life itself is crazy, so you have to fight it every now and then with craziness.
It's the suicidal mood that lets me get rid of stuff I used to store at home, although I never use them. It's also the mood that let's me say something to some girl that I'd never say in my other moods. It also lets me make crazy decisions and take uncalculated risks.
The suicidal mood is like courage pills, it makes me ready to fight dragons with my bare hands. And the good news here is that I never regret what I've done during that mood, on the contrary, I like the insane actions I do then, may be because I myself am insane.
Just remember that you have to fight fire with fire, and life itself is crazy, so you have to fight it every now and then with craziness.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
It's not a Football match for God's Sake
During the early days of the internet, the Egyptians were surprised to know that people living in Europe and the US believe that we live in tents and travel by camels. I am sure that the internet has helped western people now to be more reasonable and they only need few strokes on their keyboards to know that we started using cars more then one hundred years ago, and that we have multi-thousands years old buildings.
Now, I believe that the BBC reporters are internet illiterates. Let's face it, those guys may not have enough money to travel to Egypt. They also may not be that fluent in Arabic. Yet, they would have better used their keyboards to know more about the ongoing tension between Egypt and Algeria. Then they would have known that people here are not mad because we lost the match, as they said on their website. People here are mad because the Algerian fans attacked them with stones, knives, and bottles after the match, and many Egyptians were wounded then. They are also mad because the Algerians have attacked many Egyptian companies based in Algeria.
Now it's time for "The Internet 101, BBC Special Edition".
There is a website called Google.com. Yes, there are some other search engines like Bing but let's postpone this to our advanced lessons.
Now you can use Google to search for some keywords like "Egypt", "Algeria", and "Football". You'll then be able to find many Egyptian blogs and other sites which will help you understand what I am talking about.
Now remember, you have to keep practicing how to use Google till our next lesson.
Now, I believe that the BBC reporters are internet illiterates. Let's face it, those guys may not have enough money to travel to Egypt. They also may not be that fluent in Arabic. Yet, they would have better used their keyboards to know more about the ongoing tension between Egypt and Algeria. Then they would have known that people here are not mad because we lost the match, as they said on their website. People here are mad because the Algerian fans attacked them with stones, knives, and bottles after the match, and many Egyptians were wounded then. They are also mad because the Algerians have attacked many Egyptian companies based in Algeria.
Now it's time for "The Internet 101, BBC Special Edition".
There is a website called Google.com. Yes, there are some other search engines like Bing but let's postpone this to our advanced lessons.
Now you can use Google to search for some keywords like "Egypt", "Algeria", and "Football". You'll then be able to find many Egyptian blogs and other sites which will help you understand what I am talking about.
Now remember, you have to keep practicing how to use Google till our next lesson.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Dear Google Blog Search ... You Suck
Every time I give Google Blog Search a try, I realize that it sucks more then the previous time. May be I am dumb or something, but the presence of the word "Blog" in the service, gave me the feeling that it is intended to let us search into blog posts, but the truth is that Google - which is by the way the owner of one of the most popular blog hosting services - can't differentiate between blogs and newspapers.
Today, I wanted to find what people are saying about the war taking place in Yemen, so I searched for the word "Houthi", and guess what, 8 out of the top 10 results I received there were from newspapers, news sites, and even forums.
So, it's either Google is not very familiar with the World Wide Web, and doesn't know what a blog is, or their Blog Search Algorithm is a piece of shit.
Today, I wanted to find what people are saying about the war taking place in Yemen, so I searched for the word "Houthi", and guess what, 8 out of the top 10 results I received there were from newspapers, news sites, and even forums.
So, it's either Google is not very familiar with the World Wide Web, and doesn't know what a blog is, or their Blog Search Algorithm is a piece of shit.
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