“The Money is Greener On The Other Side”*

We’ve moved offices. Finally!!
We were literally sitting on each other laps at our office in the Emirates Towers for the last couple of months. The company is growing and "podding"!
We got a much larger space in our neighbouring Dubai International Financial Centre, which is supposed to be the HUB of the finance world.

BUT I HATE IT!

So we have a larger space with bigger and newer disks. And so we all have indoor parking spaces.

BUT we don’t have anything else!

No Starbucks! No Lina's! No Nafoora! No Scarlets! No Patchi! I mean what will I eat?!

No Villa Moda! No Jimmy Choo’s! No Armani Jeans! No Areej! Did I say No Villa Moda??!! I mean really what did I do to deserve this!!!




* This is the line that was proposed for "we've moved" ads... but the boss didn't like it...while I love it!!!

Back To Dubai

We’ve made it back to Dubai from Beirut… with half of our nails left in the floors of Rafik Al Hariri’s Airport!!

I can’t really blog about the Beirut trip, since however long I’d write, I would never be able to describe all the feelings and all experiences I encountered there.

But the followings are the highlights…

1. Inside Rafik Al Hariri Airport: Damn, everyone working is an Arab, from the Passport Control officers, to the luggage helpers, to the bathroom cleaners!
2. Outside Rafik Al Hariri Airport: Damn, everyone drives like crazy! The rule to drive is to drive without rules!!
3. The Suicide Rock (Rock of Rawshe) and the best “Turoms” I’ve eaten in a very very long time. Even if it was too hot and burnt my tongue!
4. The site where Rafik Al Hariri was blown: Sad!
5. I'm a millionaire.... in Lira's (Lebanese Pounds)! Hiba & I put our heads together to figure how to convert currencies!! It's easy... remove the last 3 zero's and times it by 3!!!
6. Baalbak: Men can’t lead so take control. Best touristic pictures since I was a kid. And Hizb Allah t-shirt! Go Nasr Allah!!
7. Giita Caves: What was that all about? Could anything be more boring?
8. Awtar Restaurant: Oh My God! Cinderella leaves the party at midnight....running!
9. Solidere (Downtown): I could live here!!! I just need a rich husband to pay the bills!
10. What happened to the lovely friendly (and sometimes over friendly) Lebanese people? Or Did they all move to work in Dubai leaving the bitchy and mean back in Beirut?
11. You Party Animal You! Pyjama Slumber Party in the Metropolitan Palace!
12. ABC or Abbassiya?!! Why can’t they just stick to one language!
13. Verdun: Thank God the visit was not longer, or I would be in deep financial s***!
14. Only 6 of them in 3 days!!!
15. Rafik Al Hariri Airport: We Don’t Want To Leave!! Please Keep Us!!! Maybe they would have kept us if we were not so hyper and loud! Damn!
16. Dubai Airport - Bus Terminal: Monkey on the loose, Jassem swinging happily!
17. Back to work! I need a Vacation!

Beirut Here I come!

Bassam needs to go to Beirut for a business conference. But since he is not feeling well, Aminah who is on leave, decided yesterday to join him. When Jassem heard Aminah is going, he decided he had to to go with his fiancée. Of course, he can’t just go, as Bassam will not be available to chaperone. So… I will be going. Hiba is also going! And we leave tomorrow!!

The five of us, the gang, are planning to paint the streets of Beirut R.E.D!!

Beirut…here we come!

At The Emirates Palace

I had to skip my tajweed lesson today. Aminah and Jassem had to get their blood tested in Abu Dhabi to finalize their marriage contract. And of course, I had to chaperone. So Aminah and I went to Abu Dhabi and met with Jassem there.

Each time I visit Abu Dhabi I hate it more and more. The men there are creepy. They stare and stare and you could actually feel them stripping you off. URGH!

But this time, even the women were bitchy. I was picked on by a woman guard in the blood test department for no obvious reason other than she was obviously green with envy. Women at the mall (I had to get my starbucks hot chocolate in the morning) were ready to bite! URGH!

But the day was not all bad. For their first lunch together as a couple, Jassem took Aminah (and of course I) to the Emirates Palace, and in his dad’s Rolls Royce. Yes, elegant enough for me!

Going in the hotel was like entering huge empty spaces made of marble! I was not very impressed by it. We went to refresh at the toilets before going to the restaurant, and I could easily say that the New Burjuman toilets on the third floor are way more luxurious!

We went to Mezzaluna, the Italian restaurant. Since the weather was still sandy, we sat inside instead of the terrace. The décor was not spectacular but rather average. The food was not particulary outstanding. The desert was good, but I won’t die if I don’t have it again. And the company was crazy!! Jassem kept getting hyper and hyper by the minute and didn’t care that we are in a “prestigious” place. It was obvious to the staff that he was trying to impress the girls and luckily I don’t have to go there again!

We later on had some tea at the lobby where I noticed the low quality of the furniture. If the owners paid a lot of money for the décor, then they were certainly robbed! The tea was ok!

Full and with duty done, we returned back to Dubai. A couple of hours later, Jassem followed us to Dubai. Yes, it seems that he will be always coming to our home in Dubai!

One Down….Some More To Go!

It’s windy outside.

A sand storm with rainy intervals is turning the day to a hell of a muddy day.
Luckily we didn’t have the same weather yesterday.

The 16th of March was the day Aminah got hooked. She is officially engaged, actually she is legally considered married. Her fiancé, and my new brother in law, is called Jassem. Another J in the family!

Even though the day was only celebrated through a small men’s dinner reception, long preparations were going on for the last two weeks. Our house seemed to be like a workshop, with men constantly going in and out bringing extra chairs and tables, arranging flowers (everywhere), fixing lights, and adjusting the stereo system with extra speakers (for the family-only party later on). Actually we never had this number of men in our house before except when it was built!

The celebration started around 7 pm, when Aminah was asked to go down to sign the marriage contract. From that minute and till around 11 pm, Aminah suffered from what I called the Niagara Falls. The girl kept crying every few minutes. Actually it was more like weeping than crying! I think she shed tears within those few hours more than she ever did in her 25 years! The girl was hysterical that she even asked me to HUG her tight and to PROMISE her that I would never leave her after she get married! Hmmm now that was a Kodak Moment! Queen Bitch (as she likes to be called) seeking comfort! Actually, thinking of all the expenses endured, I’d say it was a MasterCard's Priceless moment!

Many things went wrong throughout the evening. The band that was supposed to come at 7:30 pm never showed up. The special enhanced stereo system blew up after the second song! But you can’t take the party out of the Balfaqaih’s! We connected two speakers to a laptop and got the dance fever out.

At 2 am, the pride changed into jeans, and I followed suit. We later on went out for the special one dirham ice cream from Hardee's. Perfect ending!

Now that my sister is officially married, my father could sigh with some relief: One down, few more to go!!!
Good Luck Dad!

i i i (and some scratching!)

I feel like a monkey.

I ate something bad on Saturday. Fajitas from Chillies for dinner and the next morning I kept running to the toilet every 15 minutes.

Even though I was able to work, I needed to be close to the comfort of my own private toilet. So I skipped work yesterday and today, but I remained available online. Smart move, as it turned out that anything I ate went out within minutes. Now I understand why there are bulimics in the world! Darn it’s the easiest diet!

Concerned about my health, my sister told me that bananas fight diarrhoea. For someone who eats a banana not more than once a year, this was a challenge. My grandmother, may Allah bless her, took upon her the responsibility of feeding me bananas. One after the other.

Today, and after consuming more than a dozen bananas I feel like I should be swinging from a tree and calling Tarzan. Hey, at least he had a nice body!

Forget London!

Harvey Nichols opened in Dubai.
This could only mean one thing: A Financial Disaster for me.
No wait, let me rewrite that:
A FINANCIAL DISASTER FOR ME!

Understanding my situation, I made sure I delayed my visit to HN as long as humanly and tolerably possible.

On Friday afternoon I went out shopping. I had to find a gown for the coming all hush hush family event.

The plan was to start the shopping trip from Ibn Battota Mall and go all the way to Deira passing all the shopping malls in between.
The second mall enroute is of course Emirates Mall.
And I went into HN with a mantra repeating endlessly in my head “I’m only going to take a LOOK and JUST at the gowns.”

Just going to take a look at the gowns!!! HA!!

I actually didn’t go and look all around HN, an accomplishment which I’m proud I was able to delay to another date. I just looked at one department (the women casual wear) and came out with two bags!! And a huge dent in my bank account that made me detour back to home immediately instead of continuing to Deira! And no, the gown I went shopping for was not in any of the bags!

While drinking in the euphoria resulting from the purchase, I couldn’t shake the strange feeling that engulphed me when I came out with bags from HN in Dubai and not in London!!

Visiting Harvey Nichols on Knightsbridge was always the highlight of the shoppings trips my family had during our summer vacations in London. We would dress properly for the occasaion (you need to wear your best when shopping at the best!), take the District lane from Richmond to Hammersmith change to Picaddily Lane (save on the transportation so you can spoil your self without any guilt) and spend the full day roaming the different floors of Harrods and HN.
When I lived in London, however, Harrods lost its appeal and Harvey Nichloas became the favorite stop for shopping. Even during the sales, HN remained glamourus!

And now, Harvey Nicholas is in Dubai! Admittidly not as big as I would have loved it to be, but definetly large enough to think more than few times about going to London. What other attractions left in London? The milkman stopped bringing the glass milk bottles with the fresh loaf of bread every moring ages ago. The black taxis have disappeareed long time ago. The red telephone booths and the red double deckers are all gone. Nothing left in London for me now, but the memories of childhood and school, that like the rest of London’s features will end up in a junkyard. This junkyard. Sooner or later.

Munich Spunich

I was excited to go and watch Munich the week it was released here in Dubai. So I went last night with Hiba and Aminah.

I went to see it and I was thinking “Spielberg will now justify the killing of those suspected Palestinians under the Eye for Eye law”.

But to my relief it was not really that way. At all.
It even showed that the killings of the Israeli athletes were not premeditated, but more of a panicky response and out of vengeance to the German police that attacked the kidnappers at the airport. Basically it was a poorly contained situation that whirled out of control and then continued by the butchering of many people.

The movie as a whole was good. It would have been great if it was SHORTENED. The last 45 minutes were stretched unnecessarily. It was long and bordering to cause suffering to those watching!

As a whole, the acting was good from all actors, the dialogue was good, the filming was good and if you have nothing to do for three hours, go and watch it!

The Sword of Islam

Many non Muslims believe that Islam was spread by the sword. I.e. Be a Muslim Or Die.
This belief comes from ignorance of historical facts or taking parts of Quraan and Hadeeths (the Prophet’s, peace be upon him, sayings) and then misinterpreting them.


When talking to uninformed non-Muslims, one of the first questions I get asked is this:
How can Islam be called the religion of peace when it was spread by the sword?


If Islam was spread by the use of fierce force, then how come there are millions of adherents all over the world at a time when the Muslim countries are considered to be the weakest in the world?

Islam was spread by force, but not the sword. The force I’m talking about is the natural influence of truth, the power of reason and the might of logic.

Muslims who would spread Islam, would be the ones who follow the Quraan. It is stated in the Quraan in 2:256:
"Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from error".
So even if the Muslims wanted to force the people (especially those they love) into Islam, how can they, when they can not compel them into religion?


So lets brainstorm a bit…


Islam = Peace

Islam comes from the root word ‘salaam’, an Arabic word that means peace. It also means submitting one’s will to Allah.
This means that Islam is a religion of peace, which is acquired by submitting one’s will to the will of the One & the Mighty, Allah (swt).


Islamic Spain

Muslims ruled Spain for about 800 years, and never used the sword to force the people to convert. However, when the Christian Crusaders came to Spain, they wiped out the Muslims and forbade Muslims of performing their religious duties. The Secular European countries nowadays prevent the Muslims of practicing their faith by using their power to prevent them from studying or working if they cover their heads!


What about the Coptics, the Indians and the rest?

Since the beginning of Islam, about 1400 years ago, Muslims ruled Arabia. If Muslims used the edge of sword to convert people into Islam, how come today we have about 14 million Arab Coptic Christians, who’ve been Christians generation after another? Wouldn’t all those Arab non Muslims been forced to convert into Islam?
Same thing applies to India which was ruled by the Muslims for about a century, and yet 80% of the population today is non-Muslim. If Islam was spread by sword, wouldn’t the population there be 100% Muslim?
I00 % Muslim population is seen in Indonesia & Malaysia. But there was no Muslim “army” that went invading to these countries. Nor was a Muslim army sent to the east coast of Africa, where Islam has spread rapidly.


Islam is the Fastest Growing Religion in the World

It’s easy for me as a Muslim to state that Islam is the fastest growing religion in Islam But here is a sample of non Muslims stating the same fact.

In an article written by Gayle Young for CNN in 1997, Islam was reported to be the second-largest religion in the world after Christianity, and the fastest-growing religion.


Michael Burkert, an Evangelist, wrote in article, titled: Will Islam Convert Europe saying:

A news report on German television recently proclaimed that, “Islam is the fastest growing religion in Europe, and that within 20-25 years, the majority of Europeans will be Muslim.”

ISLAM IS THE FASTEST GROWING RELIGION in Europe today, mostly through immigration, but also due to conversion of duped, deluded Europeans. (LOL, no comment!)

Another article written in 2004 in the Sunday Times by Dearbhail McDonald and titled Ireland's Muslims Go Speed-Dating:

Islam is the fastest-growing religion in Ireland. The number of Muslims in the republic quadrupled from less than 400 in 1991 to almost 20,000 in 2002, according to the latest census figures. There are an estimated 3,200 Muslims living in Northern Ireland. Each week, conversion ceremonies — for Irish and other nationals who want to convert to Islam — are held at Clonskeagh mosque.

And some more:

"In fact, religion experts say Islam is the second-largest religion in the United States... Islam has 5 million to 6 million members, followed by Judaism, with approximately 4.5 million..... And Islam is believed to be fastest-growing religion in the country, with half its expansion coming from new immigrants and the other half from conversions." By ELSA C. ARNETT Knight-Ridder News Service

"The religion of Islam is growing faster than any other religion in the world." MIKE WALLACE, 60 MINUTES

"Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, a guide and pillar of stability for many of our people..." HILLARY RODMAN CLINTON, Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1996, p.3


Now, I’m confused, what sword was used to make Islam the fastest growing religion in the US & Europe?


Quotes from Non Muslims on this Myth and it is a Myth!

A Quote from Jew For Allah (A site that will give you insights on the Jewish faith from an ex Jew) for De Lacy O'Leary in 'Islam at the Crossroads,' London, 1923.

History makes it clear, however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated.

Thomas Carlyle, a famous historian, in his book "Heroes and Hero Worship", refers to this misconception about the spread of Islam:

Much has been said of Mahomet's propagating his Religion by the sword. It is no doubt far nobler what we have to boast of the Christian Religion, that it propagated itself peaceably in the way of preaching and conviction. Yet withal, if we take this for an argument of the truth or falsehood of a religion, there is a radical mistake in it. The sword indeed: but where will you get your sword! Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one. In one man's head alone, there it dwells as yet. One man alone of the whole world believes it; there is one man against all men. That he take a sword, and try to propagate with that, will do little for him. You must first get your sword! On the whole, a thing will propagate itself as it can. We do not find, of the Christian Religion either, that it always disdained the sword, when once it had got one. Charlemagne's conversion of the Saxons was not by preaching.

You can find more from Heroes and Hero Worship at Lectures on Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History.


Just before I end…

Dr. Joseph Adam Pearson, a gay Christian biologist and President of Phoenix Evangelical Bible Institute, calms non Muslims about the Islamic sword as Muslims have something even more fatal than a nuke! He said:

"People who worry that nuclear weaponry will one day fall in the hands of the Arabs, fail to realize that the Islamic bomb has been dropped already, it fell the day MOHUMMED was born"

And I end with a link to the Islamic song Mount Hira by Zain Bhikha. Enjoy!

And the Glass Shatters!

The Daily Mirror a couple days ago wrote about a teenager who “has gone from worrying about long division to wondering how to bring up a daughter she didn't even know she was expecting.”

The news reminded me of the comment written by “Anonymous” in an old post of mine.

Anonymous, this post is another reply to your idiotic comment! Enjoy!

The Mirror wrote:

6 March 2006
EXCLUSIVE: MY SURPRISE BABY AT 13

By Robert
Stansfield
CRADLING the baby she never knew was growing inside her, 13-year-old Charlotte Maddox still cannot believe she is a mum.
For months after sleeping with a boy of 15 she dismissed fleeting pains as a tummy bug and thought she was "a bit podgy" because of overeating. Her parents noticed nothing unusual.
Then two weeks ago, racked in pain, Charlotte went into labour with baby Sophie - and at last the astonishing truth dawned.
She said yesterday:
"I was screaming in pain and shouted 'I've got to push something, it's
coming!'
"That was the first time I realised I was pregnant and about to become a mum. Suddenly the pain disappeared and I was in total shock. "The
next thing I knew was hearing Sophie scream for the first time. I was so
relieved she was safe. Then it suddenly hit me that I was a mum.
"My whole life had changed in three hours. I went from feeling a bit poorly and worrying about my homework to holding a newborn baby in my arms and worrying about a young life.
"I couldn't believe it was happening. I kept thinking 'This can't be true, this isn't real'. I can't do long division but I can make a little person. It doesn't seem right at my age."
Her disbelieving mother Samantha, 35 - who arrived on the scene as Sophie writhed in pain - shared the overwhelming shock.
She said: "I lifted her shirt, saw this tiny bump and suddenly realised what was happening. I just shrieked 'Oh, my God!' and called an ambulance. I was stunned. Gobsmacked.
"I keep asking myself how I didn't notice Charlotte was pregnant. But even she didn't know."
Today Charlotte, who conceived while she was temporarily in council care, vows to cherish the child she so obviously loves. But she has no desire to see Sophie's
father. She said: "I don't want him involved in looking after her. I don't
think he even knows about her. "He wasn't the nicest boy in the world and I
think we're both better off without him."
But Charlotte's dad Troy, 45, is furious and considering suing the council.
He said: "She was put into a foster home to keep her safe. It's ended up destroying her life. Why didn't anyone know what was happening? The council has a lot to answer for." Charlotte - 8st and 5ft 6in - lost her virginity on her 13th birthday while staying at the care home because of behavioural problems. She said: "I know I was very young but I didn't feel forced into it.
"It just happened and I felt ready. At the time, I really liked the boy - he made me feel special. "I don't regret having sex but I do regret what has happened. We should have used protection but I didn't know enough."
Charlotte, who slept with the boy twice, returned home in September last year. But she did not tell her parents - who run stables in Paignton, Devon - of the relationship.
Over the next nine months her weight hardly changed. She said: "I never had morning sickness and Sophie made just a tiny bump. I thought I was a bit podgy and put it down to eating too much.
"When my periods stopped, I thought I was coming down with an illness
and waited for them to start again. I guess I hoped the problem would go away if
I didn't think about it.
"No one noticed I was pregnant, not my teachers, mum or dad. I was waiting for an adult to tell me what was wrong with me. But no one ever did."
The unsuspecting youngster was playing with her brothers and sisters - Thomas, eight, Phoebe, six, Jacob, five, and Tabitha, three - on February, 19 when she gave birth to 6lbs 10oz Sophie. Suddenly, she was hit by a piercing stomach pain.
Anxious to lie down, she went inside to rest. Her parents were out of the house.
Charlotte said: "My body was hurting all over. I couldn't stand or sit. I just remember feeling really dirty and only wanting a shower. But I couldn't move."
When Samantha and Troy came to check on her minutes later they found her crippled in agony.
Samantha said: "She was lying there in so much pain, complaining about her tummy.
"After it struck me what was happening my instincts took over and I went on autopilot. My only priority was to make sure Charlotte was OK and the baby was going to be all right.
"The ambulance came in about five minutes and paramedics delivered
Sophie after three hours. "As we knew nothing about the pregnancy, we assumed
the baby was premature and I thought Charlotte would be taken to intensive
care.
"She was kept in hospital overnight before we were told she'd carried Sophie for the whole nine months and both of them were fine."
Dummies, bibs and Babygros now lie scattered across Charlotte's bedroom, replacing the school books and teenage magazines that used to be on the floor. The new mum spends hours cuddling her daughter.
She said: "Sophie's now the most important thing in my life. I regret what's happened and wouldn't do it again. But I don't regret having my baby. I'll just love her as much as I can.
"It still hasn't sunk in properly. It's really weird that Sophie's mine, something I
created. She's got my eyes and nose and it's like seeing a little version of
me there.
"I love her more than anything, but it's going to take time to get used to it.
"When Sophie wakes me at night to be fed or have her nappy changed, it sometimes takes me a while to realise it's not all a dream and it really has happened."
Charlotte is too young to receive child support but can rely on the support of her loving parents.
Troy said: "We're fighters. We don't have an easy life, but we're going to work as hard as we can to make sure Sophie gets everything she needs.
"Of course we're worried about Charlotte, but she's holding up well. She's been through so much and has still managed to come out of this smiling.
PEOPLE will judge us, but we don't care. Charlotte didn't get pregnant in our care and we'll stand by her through thick and thin. She's our daughter and we'll love her whatever happens."
Condemning the care home, he added: "Charlotte was taken into care because we couldn't get her to behave. But she was never out having sex while with us. We knew exactly where she was.
"Our daughter lost her innocence while in care. I feel sick to think of her with that boy. But I don't blame him. They were young and didn't know better. The adults should have been protecting them."
The care home has since closed. Torbay Council has promised a full investigation.
A spokesman said: "We're continuing to work closely with the mother and her family to ensure they get all the necessary support."

No, This Is Not Your Last Name!

I had to activate my corporate credit card this morning (Yes My Own Corporate AMEX! I had to restrain myself from initiating it in Villa Moda!)
The person I spoke to at AMEX to activate the card asked me for my last name.
I told him Balfaqaih.
He said “what?” and then “hold on please.”
When he came back he said can you give me your full name.
I felt like saying no I can’t give it to you as it’s mine, and I don't like sharing... but I didn’t think he would get it.
So I said “Jeehan, J E E H A N, Balfaqaih, B A L F A Q A I H”.
He then exclaimed: “Balfaqeeeeeh!” in a tone that seemed as if he was correcting MY pronunciation of MY last name.
I wanted to shout at him What The Bal?!! but I remained polite.

After all... I still did not use the card!!