Friends & The DEC...

Who said the Internet was no good? it sure has many good sides one of which is finding long lost friends and relatives.

2 weeks ago when I was searching Facebook I found a name that seemed familiar so I sent the guy a message:


Hello xxx
are you my cousin?
my mother is xxxx.

Few days later I got this reply:

Yes, I am your cousin.
How did you find me? I just talked to my mom to ask about you and she says hi and sends you her regards.

These relatives moved to the USA nearly 30 years ago and we have lost contact with them, my mother would sure be happy to hear this news :o)

AS if that wasn't enough, I got a message from this Libyan lady that lives in the USA too asking me if I was THE Nasser that is the son of Aunt Aida! instantly I recognised her as our neighbours daughter that I have not seen since 1980 when she was still a young girl, we exchanged messages and updated each other with what has happened in our lives since, afterwards I was left with a good, some times sad feeling with lots of good memories playing in my mind.

Although I was never a fan of facebook as I find it quite childish at the best of times and mainly use it to keep in touch with some people but these recent events made me use it more than usual and now I feel facebook does have a good side :o)

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The DEC Gaza appeal banned from broadcasting by the BBC and Sky has been broadcast by other British channels as from today . while there is no surprise that Sky banned it as it is and always has been a supporter and a mouth piece for Israel, on the other hand the BBC used to be proud of being impartial and trying to tell the truth, by refusing to show an appeal which is aimed at helping the civilians in Gaza shows that the BBC is playing in the hands of Israel just like Sky and as for the excuse that the money raised by the appeal might by hijacked by Hamas, well the people running the DEC appeal thought was a ridiculous excuse as they themselves know how and where to distribute the money and they stressed on the point that they are a reputable organization and they assured everyone that the money raised will go to the suffering people of Gaza, the British people have always donated to the needy and they will continue to do so even when some big suits try to stop them by their form of dictatorship.

Here is the appeal as seen by the British public:

Please help them if you can, God bless you

Feeling Vomitty!!

Few days ago I became yet another victim to the Norovirus or what is commonly called as the vomiting bug! Man talk about feeling vomitty! it lasted for about 2 days, the problem is that sometimes you need to do things but the nausea goes with you everywhere, I even had to take a plastic bag with me in the car just in case. although when you are that sick you hardly eat anything, mainly fluids yet the vomit keeps coming, no idea where from and just makes you feel like going to bed and switching off completely but the tummy will not let go, oh its so disgusting, hope no one is reading this while eating, of course I am much better now AlHamdulellah and back to normal and just keep laughing at how I was running to bathrooms all over the place as the bug kept playing games with me.

The best comfort I found was a bottle of 7 Up constantly by my side, it is highly recommended even if it is supposed to be a junk drink! my friends keep laughing at me for saying that I feel vomitty but I think this is the best way to describe it.

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It was the time for me to upgrade my mobile phone (how time flies!!) this is usually a bit of a headache for me as I never know what new handset to get and what are all the new applications in them are for or whether I need them or not! luckily when I went to the Orange shop I was given a choice of the 2 newest handsets they have, one was free, the other was for about £50 extra, I opted for the free handset and I am very happy with it so far, it is the new Samsung Pixon with touch screen.

Nice phone although I am still struggling with some of its features and finding the PC Suite difficult to manage unlike the Nokia PC suite which is straight forward. the touch screen feature is very good and simple to use and the camera quality is great with 8MP, glad I don't have to worry about upgrading for a long time now

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A new travel agency opened in London specialising in travel to Libya, it is called Eye Of Libya here is how they describe themselves:

"Eye of Libya Ltd. (EOL) is an inbound tour operator and travel agency that offers all facets of inbound travel and business development consultancy around Libya"

Check their website for more information.

What Co-Existence??

Co-exist!! seems like such a joke these days, when I came to this country as a teenager I was faced with a much wider culture that included people of all colours and religions, as time went by I became more aware of other people's cultures and customs and I started to appreciate and respect everyone and learnt that we all can co-exist, that was something I was always proud of then things, bad things, started to happen yet I always tried to keep an open mind, the Israel-Lebanon war made me question many things and now after ceasefire was declared in the Israel-Gaza war, I am not sure if I can still believe in co-existence.

We all watched the atrocities committed by the Israeli army in Gaza, we witnessed the biggest child massacre in recent history with more than 400 Palestinian children killed, yet we saw at the same time that almost all of the Israeli nation supported the killing, how can I co-exist with people like that? I used to believe it was possible, I am not sure any more! Of all the people in the world, the Jews were always singled out for the suffering they endured, no one should dispute their suffering and the massacres they suffered, they went through the Holocaust that is a fact but there are other facts that they try to hide or brush under the carpet, these are that many others suffered the same, gypsies, disabled people, people of other religions and different orientation were killed too but no one dares to talk about them, why is that?? why is it that what happened in Bosnia, Kosovo, Rowanda and other places is not called Holocaust? why cant the Jewish community accept that suffering was not exclusive to them? what happened to them was wrong but they can not force the world to feel guilty for ever and they must accept that any commemoration of the Holocaust must include other victims too including Palestinians.

Israel was outraged when the Vatican called Gaza a big concentration camp, outraged?!! what the Israeli army did was just like what the Nazis did, a genocide against helpless people, if they do not like to hear that then tough! wake up Israelis and smell the roses, your country is conducting war crimes and many of you are supporting it, supporting the use of illegal weapons such as White phosphorus and DIME bombs, doctors in Gaza are seeing new and dreadful types of injuries that they are not used to (check some of the awful pictures on My Being Days Blog) so again Israel is doing what the Nazis did, using the people of Gaza to try new weapons bought from America yet many Israelis talk about their own suffering while wearing designer sunglasses, drinking cappuccino outside their pretty street cafes and say that what we see on TV is nothing but Palestinian propaganda!! can we co-exist with these people?? can we co-exist with child murderers and their supporters?? I am not sure any more ....

For as long as Israel is occupying Palestinian land and for as long as Israel is treating Palestinians as subhuman beings and subjecting them to a continuous Holocaust, I can not see co-existence between Arabs & Israelis.

Arab Leaders Prayers at the Opening of the Arab Sumit!!

دعاء افتتاح القمة العربية

"اللهم ثبتنا على كراسينا، وبارك لنا فيها، واجعلها الوارث منا، واجعل ثأرنا على شعبنا،
وانصرنا على من عارضنا، ولا تجعل مصيبتنا في حُكمنا!،
ولا تجعل راحة الشعب أكبر همنا ولا مبلغ عِلمنا، ولا الانقلاب العسكري مصيرنا،
واجعل القصر الرئاسي هو دارنا ومستقرنا،
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اللهم إنا نسألك فترة ممتدة، وهجمة مُرتدة،
والنصر على الشعب، والصبر على المعارضة،
ونسألك الحُسن لكن لا نسألك الخاتمة أبداً، !
اللهم ارزقنا معونة لا نسرق بعدها أبدا،
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اللهم لا تفتح أبواب خزائننا لغيرنا،
اللهم أعطنا كلمة السر لحسابات الحكام السابقين لنا في بنوك سويسرا،
اللهم وفق أمريكا لما فيه خيرنا،
اللهم اغفر لـ (جورج بوش) فإنه لا يعلم أننا لا نعلم، !
اللهم وفقه لما فيه 99% من أصوات الناخبين،
اللهم نجهِ من أي إعصار أو كارثة طبيعية لأننا سنلوص مع شعوبنا من غيره،
اللهم عليك بشعبنا، أما أعداءنا فسنتفاوض معهم.
اللهم ارزقنا حب أمريكا، وحب من يُحب أمريكا، وحب ما يُقربنا إلى حب أمريكا،
اللهم أمركني ولا تأفغني،
اللهم برطني ولا تصوملني،
اللهم فرنسني ولا تسودني،
اللهم ألمني ولا تؤلبني،
اللهم أني أبرأ إليك من الاستعانة في حكم شعبي بأحد، ولا حتى بصديق، ولا برأي الجمهور.
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اللهم أني أعوذ بك من كرسي يُخلع،
ومن شعب لا يُقمع،
ومن صحيفة لا تُمنع،
ومن خطاب لا يُسمع،
ومن مواطن لا يُخدع،
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وأعوذ بك من أن أجلس على الكرسي ثم أقوم أو أ ُقام عنه،
اللهم ثبتني على الكرسي تثبيتا، و شتت المعارضة تشتيتا، ولا تبق منهم شيطاناً ولا عفريتا.اللهم آآآآآآآآمييييييييين

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Posted as received by Email

Shoes & Flowers!!

After a week of freezing weather here in London, the weather has improved a bit, it is now possible to go out for a walk, something that was a bit of an ordeal last week, I really feel proud of the people that attended the Saturday march against the war in Gaza that took place in London, that day was the coldest day here so far with temperature well below zero yet according to the organizers more than a 100,000 people attended, on Sunday another march took place in London, this one was in support of Israel, 4000 people took part, I think this basically shows where support lies in Britain, the British people took the side of justice.
With all the propaganda that Israel is bombarding the world with, their worst enemy has been the Israeli army spokeswoman, I think she is called Major. Libovic or something like that, as a Scottish friend of mine told me that when ever she is on screen, be it BBC, Al-Jazeera or what ever, she just makes him laugh with all the crap and denials of the Israeli crimes that otherwise are confirmed by the UN and other organisations, this woman with the nasty smirk should be fired by the Israeli army, she really is showing them as the murdering criminals that they are, I think she has done more favours to Hamas than the Israeli army!!

After seeing images all over the world of people throwing their shoes at Israeli and Egyptian embassies (this was never directed at the honourable people of Egypt) it was very moving to see pictures of people throwing flowers at the Venezuelan embassy in Amman, Jordon because of their stand by the Palestinian, something not a single Arab country did or even tried to do, it was heart warming and comforting to know that there are countries and people all over the world that are horrified by these crimes and are standing by the people of Palestine but the tragedy is that the Israeli crimes are worse than ever and they do not care about what the world thinks of them yet they were very offended when the Vatican described Gaza as a big concentration camp, how is it that the Israeli army can not see that they are doing exactly what the Nazis did?

Many people from everywhere show their support by any means they can, YouTube is becoming the place for many to air their support for Palestine and anger against Israel, here is a song by Greek singers, there are many more including a song by Michael Heart:

Here is in my opinion the best song by Fairouz dedicated to Palestine, Old Jerusalem فيروز - القدس العتيقة even after all these years it is still as moving as ever, Allah bless the people of Palestine for they have no one else.

This report by Al-Jazeera about the family massacred and the injured left without help for 4 days is heart breaking, how can any one watch 6 year old Abdulla with his horrific injuries and his helpless father without being moved? this boy lay injured for 4 days, his arm and leg rotted while Israeli soldiers stood outside preventing help from treating him, is this Israeli justice, is this what Israel is telling the world it is doing to help the civilians?

What Can We Do?

Like many others, I have kept away from blogging mainly due to the bad news that ended 2008 and still going in 2009, the situation in Gaza has worsened and many of us are just feeling completely useless, I feel sick of expressing my views, I am fed up with posting pictures and banners and joining support groups on Facebook and what ever, the suffering still goes on and most of us are resorting to prayers as we believe God's wisdom will prevail inshaAllah.

Watching the news here in the west can be a joke sometimes, I do like the coverage provided by Al-Jazeera English Channel, I feel its reporters have become heroes just like any Palestinian civilian going through this, the BBC coverage has been as always, reporting most of the truth, showing some sympathy with the Palestinians while giving some support to Israel, on the other hand watching some of the American news channels has become like a joke, something to make you laugh when you are feeling very stressed, the biggest joke is Fox News who continuously talk about the suffering of Israelis under Hamas rockets, one American reporter who is a middle aged woman said that the Palestinian women and children suffering we keep seeing on TV is nothing but Hamas propaganda put on TV to get the world's sympathy yet the Israeli propaganda machine is working full time, every time an Israeli politician comes on TV, be it Al-Jazeera, BBC or Sky News, they just keep repeating themselves over and over again, so much so that news presenters keep urging them to move on and talk about something else, here is a report by the BBC on Israeli propaganda.

Of course some of the press here in London is very supportive of Israel, yesterday I had a Look at London's only evening newspaper, The Evening Standard, there was a major headline inside about the anti-Semitic attacks happening in London, as you can see from the picture, it says: Synagogue set alight!, when reading the article, it says someone broke a window and they think they tried to set it on fire but they failed!! I mean this is hardly setting a synagogue alight, all this headline is doing is trying to swing public support just like the crap we keep hearing about how Palestinians are firing bombs on kindergartens and schools in Israel, international media has been illegally banned from Gaza by the Israelis, they show what they want to show, even Israelis are watching Al-Jazeera because it is the only channel with reporters in Gaza and I must stress that their reporting has been quite fair to Israelis, they are showing any damage happening in Israel due to Hamas rockets even though it is very minimum.
The public opinion of a large number of the British public has changed towards Israel in recent years especially after the war in Lebanon in 2006, this latest war has given Palestinians even more support here, there are demonstrations, calls for collecting aid and money to help Gaza are everywhere, even some celebrities including singers and artists have protested strongly, it is at times like these that I feel proud of the decent British public, of course there are many that support Israel but anyone with a tiny bit of brain can see the crimes being committed, these people are supporting genocide and murder, how can they sleep at night when they know that over 200 Palestinian children have been killed in just over 10 days, these children are precious, they are not collateral damage as they keep telling us, supporting the civilian Palestinians is not supporting Hamas or any other groups.

What can we do help?? not much really, please keep praying for the innocents, Palestinians and Israelis.

I got the following beautiful prayer in Arabic by text yesterday:

أللهم انصر أهلنا في غزة وثبت أقدامهم وفرج كربتهم وإنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون