New Glasses

For the past few months I felt that my eye sight was deteriorating and I kept thinking that I can not see as good as I used to, of course many of my good friends told me that it was my age catching up with me, how comforting! I have been watching TV adverts about Specsavers which deal with eye sight tests and glasses for a while now, they always show their 2 for 1 offers on glasses frames which sounds good as here in the UK you have to pay for your eye tests and glasses unless you are on social security. So I called my nearest branch and made an appointment which I attended yesterday morning.
I have never been for an eye test before and was not sure what to expect, as soon as I walk in i am confronted by hundreds of frames, all shapes & sizes, plastic & metal, designer & cheap frames I thought this was so confusing. I had my eye test which lasted about 30 minutes, it includes tests for Glaucoma and eye pressure and was very professionally done and the people working there were very friendly, after the tests were finished it was found out that my eye sight in general is perfect (Alhamdulellah) but I was told I needed reading glasses which I could use while working on computers as well, I agreed to that and so moved on to the next stage where they tell you about their 2 for 1 offer on glasses, this offer only applies to designer glasses that cost upwards of £90, I was told that I need anti glare and anti scratch which cost another £30 then came the step that I really hated, choosing a frame! as I said they have hundreds, I looked at the cheap ones first and they really looked awful and as I wanted 2 pairs, there was no point paying for 2 cheap pairs when I could buy 1 expensive designer pair costing a little more and get another for free, so I moved to the more expensive section and got really confused, frames by Hugo Boss, French Connection, Ralph Lauren, Monsoon and many others! most of the frames looked similar, at the moment the fashion in glasses is the 60s look with rectangular lenses and plastic frames which actually look really good.

There was a member of staff with me to help me choose, at one time I had about 10 pairs in front of me which I tried on, they all looked OK but still had no idea what to choose as I had to choose 2 pairs, I kept thinking maybe I am too old for this style, maybe this style is for more trendy people. Eventually I settled for a RED OR DEAD pair and the other was OSIRIS, the truth is that you are paying more for the name as most of them look similar, after adding up all the extras & the test's fee they managed to take a large chunk of my money and the offer did not sound so good anymore, anyway it needed to be done and now I am looking forward to Friday morning as I will be going to collect my new trendy designer blah blah glasses and I am looking forward to my friends reaction when they see me wearing them (or am I?).

Niqab Encounter

Saturday evening after the kids returned from their Arabic school, we went to the cinema as I have promised them to go and see Charlotte's Web , the film is based on the famous book written by E B White. Its a story about a friendship between a spider and a pig! Amir as usual wanted to sit at the front which is terrible as I usually cant see much if I sit there, he sat on his own, I sat with the rest of the family in the second row just behind him. I thought the film was well made with a good message for children about the values of friendship even if its between a spider and a pig!

Because of their Arabic school taking most of the day, I booked the evening show, what I did not like was the large number of teenagers running and shouting and being very rude all over the cinema, the kids felt a bit intimidated and stayed close, the people working there kept their eyes on the teenagers, most of these kids came to watch Charlotte's Web, there are 5 other screens showing other films, many of them were using their mobile phones and generally making a lot of noise but after a warning from staff they became very quiet and we all got on with watching the movie.

Yesterday I went to Tesco as I always do on Sundays to do the weekly food shopping, I only took my son with me, after we finished shopping I went to the shortest til but as always whichever til you chose, it seems to last the longest. In front of me there was a Muslim couple with their young child, they had a trolley packed with children's food, all sort of jars filled with baby food, 100s of jars, my first reaction was how come they have so many food jars that contain meat! I myself do not have a hung up about Halal or non Halal meat, I believe that there is no harm in eating food as long as its prepared by the people of the book, for my home I only buy Halal meat & chicken but if I go out and eat at a restaurant or fast food bar then I have no problem in ordering a cheese burger saying Bismellah and eating it. the couple in front of me looked very strict, the man with a long beard, the woman in full Niqab, I just assumed that they would never touch what they would consider non Halal meat, as the man was packing his shopping in plastic bags, his wife just stood there watching, she did not attempt to move a finger, it was taking a long time and Amir started to get bored and noisy, eventually the female cashier started to help him pack his shopping which I thought was good of her but if I was in her place then I am not sure if I would do that seeing the wife is not helping, after what took ages I got there paid for my shopping and started walking towards the car, the lady in Niqab was standing in front of me in the car park, she was staring at me, I looked at her I just saw her eyes and immediately realised that she was a white English convert, I continued walking when suddenly she started shouting at me what are you looking at? she repeated it few times but I chose to ignore her, actually I chose to do what she wants the whole world to do that is to ignore her and treat her as a non entity, obviously she has problems and hang ups about her Niqab or she would not have shouted at me and what for? for daring to look her in the eyes! Few minutes later as I was loading the shopping in the car, her husband came over to me, looked at me I looked back at him then he went back to his precious wife and probably told her that he sorted me out, Yeah Sure!

This is a free country and luckily for them they can wear what ever they want but to expect that people react normally to something so unnecessary in European countries as wearing a niqab then they should think again.

40 Winks are Good for You

It is official, taking an afternoon nap maybe good for your heart especially for young men as a six year study in Greece found out. The study found that taking a 30 minutes siesta at least 3 times a week would lower the chances of a heart related death by 37%! This study also found out that napping might help you to relax and reduce your stress levels. Apparently countries where siesta is common have a lower level of heart disease, this applies to the Mediterranean countries mainly. Many stressed people would be tempted to have an unhealthy behaviour such as smoking or unhealthy eating, napping is the best solution and it is healthy.

Even though I have been living here in the UK for many years, I think that afternoon napping is in my blood, there really is nothing better than a short sleep if I can get away with it, usually around 3 in the afternoon I get so sleepy that I can hardly keep my eyes open, if I am not at work then I would certainly go to bed and enjoy every minute of it. I have a colleague here at work who comes from Egypt, he would fall asleep at his desk every afternoon, real deep sleep with snoring sometimes, I am a light sleeper so I only manage short few seconds of sleep at a time and always wish that my bed was here, as I always say to my friends, there is no better invention than a comfy warm bed, priceless! So if you are caught napping by your boss just tel him/her that you were just having a healthy moment and need to look after your heart.

Bunny Rabbit

My kids have been nagging me to buy them a bunny rabbit for some time now but I have always said no mainly because both of them have a medical condition that can get worse from contact with furry animals, my daughter Aida has Asthma and my son Amir has Eczema. They both know that I can not get them a furry pet for these reasons but still they beg from time to time and promise that they will look after it and clean its hutch blah blah blah, of course they will not do anything like that if I buy them the rabbit.

This brought to me memories of my first ever pet when I was a child and living in Libya, I have 3 brothers and we used to nag our parents to get us a pet, our mother did not like cats & dogs very much and always refused but after so much nagging they both agreed to buy us a rabbit, my father (Allah bless his soul) got this very big box and filled it with hay and put it out side, it was to become our rabbit's home, he then brought home this beautiful white rabbit which we liked a lot, it was not a dog or a cat which were our first choice but still we thought the rabbit is good, we never gave it a name, I do not know why but it seems in Libya then you only named dogs and cats other animals didn't have any names! We looked after the rabbit and we used to take it out of its hutch and play with it, it used to run inside the house but my mother always insisted that we cleaned after it which we did, this rabbit had a favourite place which was behind the guests sitting room sofa which is a room that my mother was very proud of and always kept closed unless we had guests, she did not like the rabbit being there but we used to tell her that we took it out and put it in its hutch this carried on for few months until one day...

My mother went in the guest sitting room to give it a good spring clean, she moved the sofa to clean behind it and shock disaster, there was a hole in the wall, dug by our sweet rabbit while it spent long periods relaxing under the sofa, my mother screamed that this had to stop, she said to my father that the rabbit will have to go or she will go.

My brothers and I liked this rabbit and just could not imagine it leaving the house so we started to think where would our mother go??

Next day we all sat round the dinner table, my brothers and I were very quiet, my mother was pleased and my father started to serve dinner, it was Rice & ROAST RABBIT!! we did not want to eat our pet, we were upset, my father enjoyed every piece of it, all we had was some rice.

Enjoy your Dinner!

Brick Lane & Columbia Road Markets

Yesterday being a Sunday and a boring day so I decided to go and visit Brick Lane market in East London, it is one of the oldest street markets in London, it is situated in an area famous for its immigrant population.
It still retains some of its Jewish character as the street is dotted with Bagel cafes that have huge queues of people queueing to get a salt beef bagel, I really wanted to buy one but just could never be bothered to Que for food.

I arrived their early at about 10 am, the market opens every Sunday between 9 am & 2 pm, it was still not very busy, in my long years of living in London this was my second time there, the first time being only few years ago.

This market is famous for selling just about anything, from dodgy videos to rubbish old furniture, in fact some stands have piles of old clothes that you would not give a second look yet many people seem to be buying them.

Brick Lane if very famous for its Bangladeshi population, so much so that most of the streets have their names written in English & Bengali. After I took the above picture I noticed the Fax number starting with 071! this central London telephone code changed from 071 to 0171 in the mid 90's then changed again to 0207 in the year 2000, these cheapskates have not updated their numbers yet :o)

This stand was selling fresh crusty bread and pastries, really nice

These people were literally selling dodgy electrical goods loaded at the back of this van, one of them got angry when I took a photo and kept asking me if I was a market inspector, I kept saying I am a tourist but he said: mate you do not look like a tourist.

A Libyan home dream! all sorts of pots & pans, every shape and size

Here they were selling these massive carpet rolls, I have no idea how people that buy them would take them home?? They must weigh a ton!

The market has a huge fruit and vegetable section but I did not bother to check it

This section specialises in bicycles and their spare parts, some of the bicycles were old some new, I bet many stolen bikes end up here

This stand was selling these really weird tops for women, they looked like they were made out of paper, this woman could not take her eyes off them, I would not like to imagine her wearing one :o)

Fishing Tackle stand

Remote control anyone?

This is the entrance to Beyond Retro, which is a big shop that specialises in designer second hand clothes, it was not that cheap and some of the goods were OK but I could never buy second hand clothes, as I say to my friends I have an image of a poor guy getting run over by a bus or shot dead then his clothes end up in one of these shops, I have two friends who like buying second hand clothes, I always make them feel sick when they tell me they bought something because I keep saying check for stab marks and those stains must be blood, this person had a horrible death how could you wear his clothes :o)

inside this shop the first thing I noticed was the many Ra Ra skirts hanging everywhere!

Lots of second hand shoes probably belonging to dead women :o)

Have you noticed what is hanging at the top right corner? yes more Ra Ra skirts

more second hand clothes and yes you guessed right more Ra Ra skirts, if Ra Ra skirts make a come back this shop is going to make a lot of money, they have them everywhere even in the men section!!

Cowboy boots and hats!!!

I found this Asian man selling Peacock feathers at £2 for 6 feathers, I really thought that no one buys them anymore, I mean they are really horrible :o)

This shop is called HEBA !

This stand was selling fresh sea food at a reasonable price and had a long queue, this was the end of Brick Lane market, it was an enjoyable walk but there was nothing there for me to buy, the market is not as popular as it used to be, it is mainly full of rubbish, even the people that go there have changed, it used to be full of all ethnic minorities especially the Bangladeshis now it is full of Eastern European mainly Polish Bulgarians & Romanians, I suppose coming from ex-Communists countries where everything is still very expensive, this market must seem like heaven to them.

I decided to continue walking towards Columbia Road Flower Market which was only a few minutes walk away but a completely different world, the area starts to look better, you see beautiful small streets with lovely houses.

The Flower market was very busy and very well stocked with flowers, indoor and outdoor plants sold at a bargain price, the first thing you notice is that the people here are mainly middle class English people out on a Sunday buying flowers and plants and generally enjoying the atmosphere.

All sorts of plants were on sale, this section had beautiful Palm trees

Here I was pretending to be taking pictures of the beautiful Cactus plants but the truth I was trying to take a picture of this dog! but it kept turning its face away from me, it was a black Pug with a very ugly face but cute at the same time.

More beautiful narrow streets with cafes

This band was there entertaining the crowd

Shop selling garden ornaments :o)

More garden furniture

By then the market was too busy for me to walk and it started to feel like a street in Cairo so I decided to go home

You can avoid the crowd like I did by walking on the pavement, most people would be walking in the middle of the road to look at the plants, well it was another good and entertaining day in good old London, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Ambassador To The Stars

I have been requested by Cofman to write something about the Arab Diva Fairuz...
I was not sure where to start or what to say about this legend who has enchanted us over many decades with her magical angelic and haunting voice, I hope that I did her some justice in this post and I hope Cofman approves.
A brief history of Fairuz, she was born in Beirut in 1935 to a Maronite Christian family and her real name is Nehad Haddad. Fairuz has been singing since the 1950s and she has received many awards of the highest ranks from many Arab & European countries including Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur Awarded by President Jacque Chirac, France, in 1998.

Fairuz has been called many names, The Neighbour to the Moon and Ambassador to the Stars are but only a couple of her names.

Here is Fairuz at an early performance with the beautiful song Khedni خدني

To many Fairuz is the symbol of the love of our countries, she sang about Lebanon, about Mecca, about Palestine and she sang the best songs about Jerusalem, here is a selection of some of these songs that I am sure most of you know and love:

This song is about the struggle of Muslim & Christian Palestinias under the occupation

I had the privilege of seeing Fairuz twice, both concerts were here in London, the first concert was in the late 80s, I remember at that time seeing Fairuz posters on the London red buses advertising her one night concert, I tried to get tickets but surprisingly I was told that they were sold out even before they started advertising it, luckily I had a friend who was a member of the Lebanese/British friends club who told me that they had tickets but were only for sale to members, he managed to get me 3 tickets as 2 friends wanted to go with me. The concert was held at the Royal Festival Hall besides the river Thames, we arrived on time but there was a slight delay because Fairuz had to be interviewed for the BBC 6 O'clock News because she actually broke the British recorded for the highest price paid for a ticket in British history, the record holder used to be Frank Sinatra who's tickets were sold at £600 each at the black market, Fairuz's tickets at the black market were selling at £1000 each! To think that I paid £35 only! of course most people attending the concert were very rich Arabs, the concert was beautiful and well organized, Fairuz was as classy as ever.

The second time I saw Fairuz was at Olympia in the late 90s, the venue was very big but someone made a mistake with the organization of the concert, it was the last day of Ramadan, many people did not buy tickets as many still had to fast one more day so the venue surprisingly was half full, the very expensive seating in front of the stage were empty so when they announced that anyone can sit there I was quick as a flash and got a fantastic seat. Fairuz was as elegant as ever as she stood there singing, a one point during one of her songs a group of young men and women got off their seats and started dancing in front of the stage, Fairuz stopped singing straight away and pointed to the music orchestra to stop playing, she just stood there staring at these people until they got the message and returned to their seats only then she started singing again, this is how respectable and classy Fairuz is.

Here is some more songs by Fairuz, get a coffee, relax and enjoy

This is one of my favourite Fairuz songs: Nehna wel Amar Jeeran:

Fairuz usually sings the farewell song at the end of her concerts, children then would start throwing flowers at her feet so here is the farewell song

Fairuz being a Christian is actually famous for her Christian hymns which are very beautiful to listen to, unfortunately YouTube did not have any videos but the hymns are available as audio only, so I decided to make a slide show of Fairuz and use a hymn as the audio for this video, listen to her angelic voice singing about Mary Mother of Jesus (Peace Be Upon Them):

YouTube has many more songs that I really love but most of them have their embedding feature disabled so you can only watch them on there.

UNITE for Children UNITE against AIDS

I know I have written about this crime few times but I will not stop writing in support of the children, this is the least I can do for my country's neglected tragic victims.

Here are some recent quotes from some news organisations regarding this matter:
140 journalists from 30 countries signed a petition demanding the immediate release of the five Bulgarian medics and Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya. A total of 144 people signed the petition on Friday on the 53rd winter meeting of the Journalists' International Ski Club. Representatives of the media in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the UK, Israel, the Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, Slovenia, Romania, Argentina, Sweden, Russia, Bulgaria and Morocco have put their signatures on the petition. [SNA]

Bulgarians prepared an unprecedented shows of solidarity with five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya ahead of the eighth anniversary of their arrest, AFP reported. Prayers for the five nurses and a Palestinian doctor began Thursday in Sofia's mosque and were to continue Friday with masses at the Alexander Nevski Christian Orthodox cathedral, the Jewish Synagogue and the Catholic, Armenian and Evangelist churches in the capital. Bulgarian students were also planning to march to the Libyan embassy on Friday. [FIA]

Bulgarian Parliament expressed deepest concern and sorrow over the ongoing tragedy (!!) of the Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor jailed in Libya, whose imprisonment mark the eighth year, Parliament Speaker Georgi Pirinski said Saturday. Pirinski said the Parliament stresses on speeding up Libyan judicial proceedings and procedures which should take into consideration evidence and proof of innocence of the Bulgarian nurses. [KUNA]

Do you know what these quotes have in common?

Yes, they all failed even to mention the more than 400 infected Libyan children, as if their case is not an ongoing tragedy and as if they do not deserve any support.

I have found an interview done by a female Libyan journalist with some of the victims and their families, I tried to translate extracts of the interview as best as possible, I am not going to translate what the victims think of the Bulgarian & Palestinian medics, I am only translating the parts about the forgotten victims of this tragedy, the journalist is called Zainab Shahin, here is some of what she wrote:

The pen really shakes between my fingers as I try to write words that might help to draw a true picture of the bitter life suffered by children and young people that were sentenced to death just because they went one day to a hospital in Benghazi to get some medical treatment. A death sentence that has nothing like it happen before. What do I write about? I can not find the words to describe a tragedy that befell children, young men & women, families, in fact a whole community.

Young people that had dreams, ambitions and hopes that died a delayed death. A real tragedy that the world never experienced before.

I sat with them, they told me their feelings, what they want to be done. I decided to put it as it was.

Ali Al-Agouri is the father of a girl called Istabraq, she is infected with the HIV virus, I was shocked when I saw him as he arrived for the interview, he was walking like a dead man, his sadness for his daughter made him loose interest in life, his wife told me that her husband suffers from serious heart conditions and that he needs surgery. I decided to go over to him to avoid him using the stairs, I was confronted with a man that could not even take his breath, holding his walking stick he shook hands with me and said this is what they have done to us, my daughter was injected with the virus that is eating her childhood, I suffered my first heart attack when she was admitted to Intensive Care some time ago, now I suffered my second heart attack, with all of that I do not think about anything except my daughter, his tears started to roll down his face he then asked why is the west ignoring the victims?

Faida Al-Tarhuni is the wife of Ali and the mother of Istabraq, she said: I was admitted to the Benghazi children's hospital with my daughter for 4 days in 1998 to Ward B (Ward B is where the Bulgarian nurses worked) we went there to get medical treatment just to find out that our children have been injected with death. I can not describe to you the shock we felt when we were told that our daughter is one of the infected children.

These are difficult days, on one hand we have the delayed death sentence for our daughter, on the other we suffer from being shunned by our community, this has happened to all the victims families, as you know the Libyan society is very conservative and did not know this illness, suddenly without any introductions it found itself face to face with this disease, in the beginning we felt like guilty mothers, do you realise the size of this tragedy? after that our children were shunned, in fact there are some uneducated families that removed their children away from our daughter in case they get infected, my other children suffer too just because their sister is infected, I want to say that the tragedy does not stop at the infected children only but it reaches the families and the society, we can not be quiet about this crime.

Mabrouka Al-Khatab said: I was admitted to this hospital with my son Samir for 3 days in Ward B where the Bulgarians and the Palestinian doctor worked. people like us tasted death, fear and bitterness, it happens to us every moment with our children, who tried what we suffer from? our loved ones, our friends and our relatives deserted us, I have another child that suffers from psychological problems because of his brother's illness and from waiting for his death.

Her infected son Samir Hamad Issa spoke and said: I hate the medicines, I have been taking them for 9 years non stop, the question that I have is why did they do this to me and the others? I did not commit any offence.

Istabraq Ali Al-Agouri, the little infected girl said: I hate the medicine too, when is this damn thing that is with us all the time going to stop?

I hate the injections, I am always saying to my mother I wish you never took me to the hospital.

Mabrouka (Samir's mother) then said: we thought the whole world was going to stand with the victims but the world ignored our children that were sentenced to death. no crime ever committed was as horrible as this crime that was committed against our children.

Moftah Hassan Ali Hassan was born in 1988, here he tell his painful story: I was admitted to hospital suffering from high temperature, I was injected with the virus, this is my case I am the one that suffers even with all the problems I caused for my family. when we were young children we did not know anything about what happened, now we are adults and know everything, there are 78 of us, men & women waiting for our deaths.

No amount of compensation even if it was billions of pounds would buy me back my health or give me back my body that was injected, I might say that I am happy with my friends and family but when I put my head on the pillow at night I can not describe to you the feeling of fear. They took my future away from me, I was doing very well at primary then secondary school, I left school because I kept thinking that I am going to die. who or what is going to compensate me for that?

Who is going to compensate me for not being like any of Allah's creations? I feel sad, I love football but I could not play it because of my illness.

Hassan Al-Shebly, father of Zainab said: we have been suffering from this tragedy for the past 9 years, there is no crime worse than this crime, prior to the discovery of this mass infection in 1998 Benghazi's Children Hospital did not have a single case of HIV infection. There must be an investigation they must search for information to find out who is behind this tragedy that history has never seen before and will not forget ever.

Wael Ahmed Abusnina said: I am at university, I was born in 1984 i.e I am a grown up man and do realise the tragic situation I am in, medically I am dead as I am infected with a deadly virus, I keep leaving university then come back because I feel there is no point in studying, I am dead.

Psychologically I am destroyed from the inside, I will not keep quiet about my case ever, my life was stolen from me, who will compensate me for that?

Global Voices

For the past few weeks I have been reading this new blog by a Libyan female on Global Voices, this blogger, Fozia Mohamed, usually blogs on Mondays and what she is actually doing is writing about what other Libyan bloggers have been saying the previous week prior to her post, it is like a highlight of some of the Libyan blogs, it can be very interesting reading what she thinks of our topics.

Go on log on her blog and check if you have been included in one of her posts, you might be surprised, do check all previous posts, she only started at the end of December 2006.

Bad Back!

It has been raining and a bit miserable this weekend but that is London, it is all part of living here. Amir my 6 year old son has been asking me for some time to take him out on his bicycle which he had for over a year but only ridden few times, mainly because of the weather and me being lazy, so yesterday afternoon I took him and bike out for a ride on the pavement and around the block, after few minutes of bending down to hold the bike and giving him few pushes I felt my back snap but I had to continue going and pushing and encouraging him until he had enough and said he wanted to go home, believe me that was a relief for me and my poor back.

This morning I have a very stiff back and move like a Hyena, if only kids knew what their parents have to go through just to keep them happy but I suppose I must have caused my parents to have sore backs too, this is life!

On another subject, the other day I was walking in an area in London called Maida Vale on the Edgware Road, not far from the famous Arab haunts, I passed by the building that you can see in the picture below which is called STUART TOWERS and I remembred when 5 or 6 years ago this building made headline news in many Arabic countries, can any one guess what happened there?

I will give some clues, if you are not an Arab or middleeastern then it is unlikely that you would know the answer, this building was associated with a very famous Arab.

Go on guess who it was and what happened!!

UPDATE: That was very easy I think, lebeeya got the right answer straight away and she wins a bag of WALKERS crisps!

In 2001 The Egytian actress Soad Husni سعاد حسني jumped from one of the top floors of STUART TOWERS building and killed herself, strange thing I just found out on Wikipedia, it says the actress was murdred before her body was thrown from the top, this I never knew before, as far as I know she committed suicide.

Here is another link with more details about this story sent by Safia Speaks.

London This Morning

Winter came back with a vengeance this morning. London has not seen this much snow in years

My thoughts are with our dear daughter / sister, Lebeeya, this blogger has always cheered us up with her happy posts and funny comments, wishing her the best and InshaAllah all goes well with our dear pet: Shalfuta.

Who is Michael Shields?

I think now that the whole world knows about Libyan justice or lack of it as Bulgaria and other EU countries have continuously made sure everyone knew about it and in a way if their nurses are free of the crime of infecting 100s of Libyan children with the HIV virus then who can blame them!

I just wanted to mention this case which is well known here in the UK concerning Bulgarian miscarriage of justice, the reason I am posting about it is to show that no country is immune from miscarriage of justice and that countries like Bulgaria should look at their own door step before they start misleading the world about how justice should be carried out.

This is the case of Michael Shields, Michael is a young English man who in 2005 was accused by the Bulgarian authorities of the attempted murder of a Bulgarian man who received severe head injuries, Michael Sheilds who was only 18 at the time was asleep when this crime happened as witnesses confirmed yet the police arrested him at his hotel, charged him with the crime and was sentenced to 15 years in a Bulgarian prison, after the sentencing another English man, Graham Sankey admitted to committing this crime and announced that he was prepared to co-operate with the Bulgarians and that Michael Shields should be freed. Surprisingly the Bulgarians refused this confession and insisted that they have the guilty man.

There was a lot of anger in Britain at the time and even some MPs called for the suspension of Bulgaria's entry t0 the EU unless they free the innocent man.

Recently Bulgaria agreed to reduce his prison sentence to 10 years but refused again a re-trial.

Here is what the British prime minister Tony Blair said about this case:

"We will continue to raise it with the Bulgarian authorities but obviously this is something where we have got to be very careful about interfering with another country's independent judicial process.
"But, nonetheless, I can assure you that we will watch the case and monitor it very closely and we are in touch with the Bulgarian authorities about it."


For more details about this case visit: Free Michael Shields

Newspaper: Liverpool Echo

What really saddened me is that I have seen many Bulgarian websites that are doing nothing but attack Libya and I do not mean the Libyan government, I mean Libyan people. YouTube has many videos made by Bulgarians for the support of their nurses which is fair enough but what I found unacceptable is the racist and insulting comments made by Bulgarians and some Europeans against our people, some Libyan people have commented back with insults to certain individuals but I am glad to say that non of the Libyan comments were racist or insulting to Bulgaria as a nation, for that I am proud to say that we are more civilised than those ignorant people that are only destroying their country's image.

Here is a selection of what I found but after I censored some of the bad language:

One day you will pay u ****** arab pigs!U all will burn in the Bulgarian hell!

Libya is a nation of cowards....They are the coyotes of the desert; the scum of the Arab world.

Lybians are ***** fanatics!!!Freedom for the Bulgaria Medics!!!You are not Alone

We will destroy your arab scum hole soon libya watch out!

***** Libyans! YOU ARE A DEAD PEOPLE!!!FREE THE BULGARIAN MEDICS!!!

How many Arabs does it take to change a light bulb?..None. Arabs just sit in the dark and blame it on the Jews.Same thing with the HIV infection, but this time they blame foreign medics..

One of the strangest name calling I found which was repeated many times, was calling Libyans, gypsies! as far as I know Bulgaria has many gypsies yet they seem to use this word as an insult, I do not find calling me a gypsy an insult, Libyans are not gypsies but perhaps this shows how some so called civilised nations are racists against their own people, shame.

This was just a sample of the racists war declared on Libyans on the Internet

More Fun Pictures

Pictures from Syria

Does not need any explaination!

The name: The Baldman's Salon!

The name: Mr. Trash for Snacks

No Mirror!!

It is not only in Libya that they get it wrong sometimes!

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Paper Art

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Fruit Love!

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Cute or Not??

UK Muslims in the News Again

Again British Muslims make headline news locally and internationally, yesterday the police arrested 9 young British Muslims in Birmingham, who the police allege were trying to kidnap a Muslim British soldier who is in the UK on leave, the plot is to kidnap him then behead him while being filmed then post the video on the Internet, how can anyone be this vile? how can anyone justify a horrible nasty crime like this and say they did it for the name of Islam? The accused were probably all born and raised in this country just like the London Bombers, I am finding it hard to understand how people that grew up in this society can have so much hatred and are prepared to carry out the most horrible crimes imaginable. The older Muslims in Birmingham are understandably in shock at what happened in their community and have rightly asked everyone to co-operate with the police, this brings to mind the subject of young Muslims in this country (men & women) being alienated and loosing their identity something which seems did not affect their parents, what I do not understand that there are huge Muslim minorities in other countries yet we never really hear of major crimes committed or plotted there, for example France or even the United States of America which has a large Muslim community, they never make international headline news. It seems it is mainly the UK that has a big problem with Muslims even though we have a very tolerant society here but it seems something went wrong and young Muslims are feeling left out and on many cases being accused of crimes that they never committed in the first place like in the now famous Forest Gate incident which turned out to be false and so many other arrests and accusations all over the UK that never came to court, many are suspecting that this new case is just another false accusation probably based on wrong intelligence yet again as this case sounds too gruesome to be true, on the other hand it might turn out to be real and that means the British authorities need to review their way of handling and treating young Muslims as it seems to be going completely wrong perhaps young Muslims should be made to feel safe, should be treated normally and maybe Britain can take lessons from other countries such as America on how to deal with this situation. Thank Allah if this plot was real it did not happen as it would have made the situation for us Muslims here a lot more harder, I pray that the British authority learn and support all minorities and that they manage to take away the feeling of alienation from young Muslim men & women that are turning to the wrong side of Islam it seems just to get an identity in this country, crime & terrorism will never give anyone an identity or a place in society.