Time for new keys

Now that I own nothing in Amman... I have given out all my keys... Nothing is left expect one thing...
Embrace my new future and start my new adventure...

This is the last post from super devoika in Amman... very soon I'll be leaving Amman to live in Sydney... and there I shall start a totally new life... New keys will reside in my old dear keys-chain...

Soon reflect upon will have a new flavor....

Till then... I bid all my faithful readers a warm goodbye...
Until we meet again... I wish you well ;-)

Fi Aman Allah

Where will our Higher Education System take us?

A question I have to ask after seeing a video of University students not knowing basic answers to basic questions... One girl thought Hungary is a planet in the space while another thought Berlusconi is a brand for modern cars tires!!! But when asked about Nancy Ajram... they just all knew the answer!!! And then I saw one of the many videos about the recent fight that took place at Jordan University... The University I graduated from and worked at for 3 years....
These two videos and my own experience after teaching at University level for almost 6 years I have to wonder about the efficiency of our Higher Education System...
I think that the problem has many dimensions playing at it and causing it...
One of the most important dimensions is our High School Education... as I quoted before in one of my posts... it seems that our Education system is based on established facts and information and to be a good student is to confine your thinking to these establishments... most of the information there are dull, old and irrelevant... Yet these information are what will take students to the next level of their education, their "Higher Education"...
Besides these textbooks, students are not encouraged to read... Reading is one of the greatest habits that most Arab countries lack... How can we solve this problem? I honestly don't know... I don't understand how can people live without reading? for me I was brought up to read and was encouraged by my dad's collection of books and my parents habits of reading.... and thus reading became a natural act..
But it is not reading that can only open up people's minds... getting into serious or dare I say intellectual talks with peers,  family and  friends is as influential... this has to lead me back to the educational institutions... how much are we allowed to question? Are there red lines that we shouldn't question? Shouldn't everything be tested to stand against reason? When we start thinking about everything around us and discussing these issues with others, our minds will start to expand... we will realize what intrigue us and try to find out more about that and here the books and reading enter...
Even better, now we have the Internet... sometimes I literally hold back my tears when I think about the magnitude of the Human Intellect that is laid before me... just a click away..  however this click seems to be a curse to most universities than a bless... 
Anyways back to my post...
So now... we have one dimensional students pursuing their higher education... most of these students didn't choose what they want to study but were forced by the way the system functions to study whatever major... How can they excel in what they are doing? Why would they be compelled to read and expand their minds?

What is to fill their minds? for no matter what... the mind has to be filled? Hence enter Nancy Ajram, et al...

Aside from that you have people who are given chances to enter into Universities based on other considerations which we all know about... some of these students would have extreme loyalty to their tribes and clans...

So... to sum things up...
You have one dimensional thinkers... non-readers... pop culture worshipers... forced paths followers... clans and tribes supporters... all forming the largest portion of our future generation... How can we then be surprised of the  videos above?

So what is the solution? What do you think ought to be done?
How can you recreate a whole generation?
I know that we have some bright people here and there... but these are not enough... there must be a way out of this... and I'm talking about massive change before our Higher Education System takes us any LOWER than now...

Happy New Year!

This year has been different... That's all I can say...
And since I don't celebrate New Year... I'll just leave you with a great comment I received last year from one of the very few people I admire, Maverick... Hoping he won't object to that..

[[[ Mr Maverick Returns said...

Come on do not be party popper Tonight is New Year's Eve so it's going to be FUN you will be HAPPY. Maybe this year local councils will provide FUN POLICE, who have the authority to enter any premises where they suspect there's not enough fun and order everyone to wave their arms and take photos of each other's arses. This is what our society expect from us. They have stolen all our real celebration and given us some commercial surrogates to make their coffers richer and richer. But that is not enough they want to control our minds, we cannot think. That is so not permitted. They must rule on us. They have stolen our dreams but given us the green $1 bill. (f*** them) Just look at the average European country. We used to have a real Christmas with traditions rooted in pagan Rome (or earlier) then Byzantine Anatolia and in Catholic western culture....Father Christmas was basically a green man that brings gifts to the homes of the good children. We have lost it for the sake of Coca Cola. I do not give a toss if his dress green or red...but is the principle and the fact that slowly slowly Christmas has lost any kind of importance. Now is just important to buy useless stuff that will re thrown away or placed on eBay in less than 24 h. and the next day lets' all rush to he sale to buy more more and more! Where is the principle of Christmas gone??? Or what about Halloween ?? It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints, one of the most important Catholic day when live and death come very close. Again it has been stolen by some stupid american corporation as their national too stupid too think with their only brain cell dying of loneliness in an empty head but for sure fat with McDonald belly! now for hallowen we buy spiders, bat, masks, sweets, pumpkins, etc etc for a multi billions trade every year that has nothing to do with the real meaning of the traditional festivity. No matter what we celebrate Christmas at 50C in Australia with fake snow, in communist Bejing they must have found a similarity between the fake Father Christmas red jacket and the Communist flag and, Christmas trees are in the street of Cairo because obviously is the traditional Egyptian tree and I have been told that some fat Saudi is renting out next year the Kabba that he will cover it in red with reindeer and sledges for the two weeks ultimate Christmas grotto for the sake on some green dollars and possibly some new army contract. The very same for New years eve we must be happy becasue next year is going to be better this is the rule and we should buy buy and buy! We have all welcomed these changes because now we are glad to live in a secular society but when you have emptied a celebration of its meaning you have lost that celebration. Full stop. Now we can go on pretend to be happy, next year is going to be better, they told me on the TV and on the papers (it must be true) with our new shoes and my new leather jacket. Last year I was told my 2009 would have been great instead was crap...where should I go to get a refund?? Let’s drink more and more tonight is the night when you're not only allowed but encouraged to get drunk, even the Archbishop of Canterbury is saying so. This annual weirdness is supplemented by the fact that it comes so soon after our crazy Christmas. In every other culture from the Iron Age onwards, festivals involved the community going outwards and celebrating communally, but we do the opposite and turn everything towards isolation, we shut absolutely everything and sit indoors getting stuffed of food and brainless TV They created an expectation of perfect dinners and presents, that makes people feel a Christmas Police inspector will be round in the afternoon, to sit in the corner with a clipboard making notes about unsatisfactory mince pies. It is getting late...I must rush get changed wear my HAPPY mask and fill by glass ...now empty...before the Police inspectors come and knock at my door! Thanks God next year is going to be better.]]

Wishing you all who celebrate this a Happy New Year... Maverick where ever you are... Hope this year was good and the next will be better... =)

And lastly to My Mohammad...May this be the last New Year Eve where you are 9 hours ahead of me...

The Narratives* | 25

25

The palantír showed her the image...
The Future turned out to be something else...

Did the palantír lie? or didn't she know how to see...
Where did the girl inside the palantír disappear?


* The Narratives: stories, events, and scenes that happen[ed] inside and around my head…

Let me tell you something about the education system!

[[[
Scott: Let me tell you something about the education system.
Poppy: Oh, go on, then.
Scott: It produces left brain prisoners.
Scott: Do you know what that means?
Poppy: I do.

Scott: Well, I'll tell you. Our brain has two sides. The left brain and the right brain. The left brain... Keep going, keep going. The left brain is information, data.
It's dead. The right brain is individuality.
It's where the soul lies.
And the education system, it works like this -
"I will give you a world view. And if you repeat my world view, if you reconfirm my world view, you will pass your exams and you will go higher and higher and higher and you will become a policeman, a magistrate, a lawyer, a general, a politician, and you will be happy and you will succeed. But if you think for yourself, if you think outside of the box, then you will be unhappy and you will fail. "

That's how the education system works.
]]]]]


From Happy Go Luck movie...

To err is.... =)

Thought of You!

Once upon a pond...

I am who I am... because I was given iced blue glasses to look at ducks with love... and to understand what it means to be free...

For that... I will always be thankful...

100 Days of Solitude and Gratitude...

100 days are almost left before one of the biggest steps I'll ever take in my life..
A step that will make me leave my family, my friends, my job and my city... and for the rest of my life... leave my solitude....

My plan for these coming days is to [try to] cherish every moment of my solitary life and to be grateful for all the wonders and miracles my family, my friends, my job and my city had brought to my life..

Change is always good. And when you have a great [for-ever] companion waiting for you then the good becomes the best...

Happy Eid...

Tomorrow Most Muslims around the world will be celebrating their Eid... and for all of those who managed to live Ramadan truly... I say Happy Eid... and May you be showered with more of God's grace, love, peace and blessings...




And yeah... Enjoy the ma3mool season... =)

Ramadan 2010

More of these stunning photos here at the Boston Globe

hat tip to Shabana...

Eat, Pray, Love

Yesterday I finished reading in one of New York Times bestsellers novel! [Eat, Pray, Love]... Was I blown away by it? No. Is it a good book? Yes.
The novel is an autobiography of a woman who is searching for inner peace after going through an ugly divorce, a broken heart and so on... in her quest she goes to Italy to eat... to India to pray and to Indonesia to find balance [and fall in love]... The novel is based on the novelist [Elizabeth Gilbert] own true story.
There is a sense of humor in Gilbert's style which brings you closer to the characters and the story feels more true. Her depiction of the feelings that go inside her is authentic and you can feel her pain especially at the beginning of the novel [the part in Italy]...
But as we move to India and the stories about spirituality come flying in... her words feels exaggerated and at some points pretentious. I'm not a pure spiritual person yet I do believe in spirituality. Still the experiences she wrote about is hard for me to fathom as real. Also at this point she started to contradict herself I think because she was trying to exaggerate!!! So at some point she would say she had never understood how meditation is and how hard and impossible for her to feel anything but then she would tell you that once before she had an out-of-this-world experience with the Divine while mediating!! For me this was a bit confusing and unbelievable.
In the last part where she moves to Indonesia... she starts with a positive attitude toward the place and all of people and customs but then her American attitude creeps in and you start feeling that she is becoming a wee bit condensing... but this is how I felt and not necessarily true for all.
And of course the part where she falls in love is not very strong or convincing. 

This novel is going to be a movie soon... with Julia Roberts playing Gilbert. I wonder how the movie will be? Since the director will only choose what he thinks will appeal to the masses!

On a final note... today marks the beginning of the month of Ramadan for Muslims. So for those who fast during it... I wish you will eat, pray and love.... and may Peace and Blessings of the Divine sweep through your hearts and bring you more love and serenity.

تفاحة مكزوزة

قبل قليل كانت ابنت اختي مريم و البالغة من العمر سنتان و نصف تخبرنا بالتالي:
ماما راح تشتريلي كمبيوطل عليه تفاحة مكزوزة زي تاع اوسيله

=)

Lab Tajribi... another step

Lab Tajribi | Experimental Expressions is a non-physical art atelier for experimental art and forms of expression. Currently the lab is mine... but hopefully it will attract other experimental artists in the near future....

I'm still moving in there so visit us again...

Go Down the Capitalism

Lab Tajribi...

Flyvertising!!!

I honestly don't know how to feel about this new technique of advertising... No doubt it is shocking and had an impact on people inducing them to interact... so I think it was a success...
I guess I like it after all...



Source

Thanks Dana for sharing it with me...

Mohammad Walks!

	Lupe Fiasco .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Mohammad Walks, Lupe Fiasco

One Tree

[[When Thomas brought the news that the house I was born in no longer exists. Neither the lane nor the park sloping to the river nothing. I had a dream of return... multicolored joyous... I was able to fly...& the trees were even higher than in childhood because they had been growing. During all the years they had been cut down..] Czesław Miłosz


In a Memory of my Good Tree... With Love!...

Nakba!

May the dream of return come true...