Now you see it.....now you don't

Today, I had a big task at work, to clear my electronic data from my computer. I wrote about this last week and today was the day that I had to move all my electronic files, folders etc. Where do you start, I have endless number of documents, lots of drafts and final documents, some duplication and some just back up files. Some I worked on long time ago and some are as recent as last week. I had lots of things already organised in big folders (yes, I am not totally hopeless) but I still felt overwhelmed by the task at hand.


So, I decided to do this in a tidy and organised fashion (OK, OK, no need to laugh) I decided to do it the quick way. I created a new folder and called "work old PC" and then moved everything to it, just as they are. 'I will look into them later' I told myself. The files were so big and took a long time to be transferred to my external drive but it was done at the end. Then with one click I deleted the folder from the main computer after it was transferred. Just like that, one click, one button and it was all gone. More than 8 years of work, research and teaching just gone from the PC, as if I was never there. All you can see on the old PC was my log in name.

There is a book on Amazon called "Now you see it, now you don't: lessons in sleight of hand" by Bill Tarr. Shows you how to do magic tricks and when I deleted the files it felt like that, a magic wand that cleared everything. Then I thought, what if we can do that in real life. Just one click and the problem is gone, one button and 'done' pain deleted. But if we can do that, then we have to be able to run the risk of deleting the good things by mistake or accident. I don't really fancy backing up my relationship in 3 different ways like I do with my documents in case they get lost. I am confident in the love, support and friendships that I have and am sure they can not be lost by mistake, or with a click of a button. As much as I would like for the bad things to be taken away, I know that God in his wisdom is writing the story of my life, weaving it all, dark colours and bright ones, all together to make a wonderful complete picture.

Enjoy life with all its ups and down, no back up and no system crashes, invest in what matters as when it is all said and done only two things remain, your faith and your relationships.

Wish you were 'THERE'

You know the deal, you go on holiday, you are having a great time and you pick up few post cards and send them to a select group of people with the words “wish you were here”. But why do we do that? While running around on holiday enjoying yourself, you think of those who could have made it even better and more enjoyable. You imagine the good times that you could have with someone who is not actually there in this lovely holiday spot and wish they could be there to share this time with you.

So what do we miss? We miss the fun times, the laughs, the jokes, the silly faces and the kind words. We remember how late we stayed out or how much fun we had with someone. Although we remember the bad things, we do not miss it. I never heard someone says: ‘I miss going to get treatment for my teeth’, or ‘I miss the shouting I used to get from my nasty teacher’. We remember it all, but we do not miss the ugly things. As we pass through each other’s lives, we will leave lots of memories, good and bad, but for people to miss us, it will be the good things they have to miss. So, do not work hard to leave bitter taste in people’s mouths by leaving them with bad memories otherwise you will get a card that says

Wish you were ‘there’…away from me!

No Comment!

New task

As I get ready to start a new position in a wonderful location ( see the photo above), I have the very interesting task of moving my belongings from my current office. I have endless amount of books, papers, documents, etc that I have accumulated over the years. However, it is my electronic belongings that will take a long time to tidy up. In theory, the electronic belongings are not as obvious as books, papers etc, however they are very important and no one can help me move them. At work, I have access to 3 different offices with 3 different computers, I also have electronic legacy with photos, address and information on websites and university files. Thinking about how to work through it in an organised way is a bit daunting.

But as I think about it (this is the stage I am in at the moment, just thinking, no actual packing just yet), I realised how many electronic information I have out there!

email accounts, store accounts, Face book, twitter, eBay, paypal, online calendars, photo libraries, online banking, supermarkets online shopping, documents storage and many other accounts I have online.

With every account comes user names, passwords, security information and even some silly details about  pet names or shoes size! How are we dealing with this volume of information and belongings and what if something happen and I can not for the life of me remember my passwords? Do I need to leave my electronic "belongings" in my will?

I am sure I do not need to answer these questions right now and I better concentrate on actually doing the packing and tidying up to move to my new office in time, only to start creating more legacy somewhere else.

The Egyptian revolution, part 2

Another cartoon by Carlos Latuff on the military rule currently in Egypt. The speech bubble has the words, "Do not be afraid, I am your friend, hahahahaha".

The revolution continue with more protests and more uprising.

PEOPLE WANT THE FALL OF THE REGIME.

There goes the Neighborhood

Gingerbread "person" anyone?

The birthday week for my blog continue with some of my old posts. Here is the gingerbread person post. Enjoy.

This is the last straw I think. The news that we are now supposed to change the name of gingerbread man to gingerbread person or gingerbread people as it is not politically correct anymore.

I don’t like gingerbread anyway (nothing personal really) but I had so much fun helping in my local school with making gingerbread man with the kids, it was fun and messy experience. I was trying to follow the recipe while running after the kids who are trying to taste the dough that had raw eggs and stopping others from dipping their toys in the honey or making tracks on the floor with the flour. However, eventually we made the gingerbread man and they were really nice.

So what is the problem with calling them gingerbread man? And who exactly got offended by that? And where is all this political correctness taking us? and what is next? protest against snowman? Most women -in my opinion- do not actually mind what we call those ginger cookies, and it is not– as far as I am concerned - an equality problem in anyway. When God created us both men and women, He created us on His image, equal in His sight. Equal in being sinful, equal in our need to His grace, equal in being human and equal in our need to be accepted and loved. But saying that, He gave us different talents and different characters and so different ways to contribute and make a difference.

So when it comes to fitting that IKAE bookcase with instructions that only an expert in Egyptology can read and understand (as it seems to be in Hieroglyphics), men are well talented to do that and most women will have no problem accepting that. On the other hand, cooking, tidying and baking “gingerbread man” is enjoyable and women love doing that. I might be still sticking to the old stereotype but I believe that the issue is not who does what or what do we call things, gingerbread men or postman or chairperson etc. The point is that we are all accepted as equal in God’s eyes and it does not matter who does the ironing, what matter is that we are equal in being people who need to be loved and accepted as we are.

Micah Challenge

(I first wrote this post back in 2007).

Isabelle Caro posed for a series of provocative photos to highlight the tragedy of anorexia. She says she now weighs almost 4 1/2 pounds more than she did when controversial photographer Oliviero Toscani captured this image.I was shocked by the images of this anorexia campaign. It aims to ban size zero models from all fashion shows. But the fact that as a society we became so obsessed with our image to the extent that some people are dying trying to achieve their ideal weight is really hard to understand. In the mean time, still our actions or in-action a lot of the time, causing the death of people who live thousands of miles away, people who are now "size zero" not because they choose not to eat but because there is no food for them to eat. I think the idea to help them is there, but we must be really ashamed that now in this day in the 21 century there are still people dying of hunger in Africa. Join the Micah Challenge http://www.micahchallenge.org.uk/, let us stop both hunger in Africa and size zero models. Let us move from being self obsessed to acting justly, loveing mercy and walking humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).

Happy Birthday Blog

Few days ago, my blog turned 4 years old. I can't believe it, approaching the ripe old age of 4 as a blog is a big milestone. I posted 205 posts so far, I wrote about so many different things, from art to anorexia, politics in the Middle East to traffic jams on London's trains, I wrote about books I read and articles I could not understand.

As I read through some of my old posts, I enjoyed reliving the times where they were written. Socrates was reportedly worried about the written word - in books etc- and its availability will have an effect on retaining information. He argued that knowing that the information could be accessed anytime in a book will discourage real learning and retaining information direct from the source. I felt a bit like that reading some of my older posts. I know they are here, always here, I can read them at anytime and so - like anything I know that I can get to at anytime - I never did.

So, as a way for celebrating the birthday of my blog, I will re post some of the earlier posts. You can also check "Popular Posts" for some of the most read post. 

 And to steel the famous catch phrase from Bruce Forthsyth: Keeeeeeep Blogging.  

Shall we play fair?



A great book by Steve Turner

I make castles           You be ghost

I kick football            You be post

I play teacher            You be taught.

I play crime squad     You be caught.

I play tag chase    You be it.

I play kick box     You be hit.

I play hero           You be man.

I play film star       You play fan.

I play farmer         You be pig.

I play doctor         You be sick.

I play leader          You be led

I play soldier         You play dead.

Libya now by Carlos Latuff

Media...what media?

Tonight at 10 pm Cairo time (9 pm GMT), there will be an electronic protest on line against military trails for civilians in Egypt. As I was thinking about this today, I found this website Cartoon Movement by Khalid Albaih. The media is playing a very big role around us everywhere and especially with the Arab Spring in 2011. Here are 2 images from Khalid site on the media role. I am off to catch up with the online protest!

Life is hard, but.....

"Life is hard"...one of my friends said to me and I agreed. It is so difficult sometimes. You look around and you try and make sense of situations that are really difficult. Then you look worldwide, and there is no much comfort out there either, wars, famine, crimes and brutality. In the middle of it all we start to drown between our personal problems/challenges and the world's sufferings. The results....tiredness and frustrations most of the time.

But while we were away on holiday, I had a chance to think of so many things and reflect on God's creation. I thought of the times when people were dying because there was no simple antibiotic or the times when hot water was luxuries that the poor could not afford. I remembered when we used to go to a phone office to ask to be connected and make a 3min phone call to the capital, when phone numbers were 4 digits! Remember when education was just for the wealthy? when women were still fighting to get some of their rights?

There are so many problems around us, but there are so much that we are enjoying and taking for granted. The beauty of nature, the vast oceans and the blue skis. The education and the travel and the medical advances. I am under no illusion that as I write this, there are millions of people who are still suffering and fighting for their rights. However, in the middle of a gloomy world, let us not be consumed of the darkness of the night because the sun always shine at the end.

2011..what is so different?

What is so different about 2011? since the start of the year, images of protests, riots, famine, tsunami and more are still coming.

From Syria, Bahrain, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to the riots in London and the massive earthquake in Japan and the famine in Somalia.....these events are seen every year, but this year seems to be extra special. Something is happening deep in the hearts to people and I am not sure what it is. It is the scale of these events that make them extra special. It seems that Roland Emmerich's movie, 2012 will be true!

Dear Tomorrow

Dear Tomorrow
I know I can not rush you to come any faster, but please don't let us down. All we are asking is justice in Egypt. Mubarak's trial is tomorrow, will it actually happen? will it take place? will he turn up? will anything really happen? or will it be another frustrating step?

We want to see real change, we want the military trails to civilians to stop, we want to know what happened to the 2000 people who are still missing since the start of the revolution. We want justice to those who lost their lives at the hands of the government's snipers. We want fair society and a real, strong and fair government - not puppets. We want an end to the military rule and fair elections. Too many have died already and many more are still in hospitals across the country nursing their wounds since January 2011. We are tasting freedom but we still want more.
All we can say is, we can't wait.
Yours

A Battered Wife

Imagine the scene … a dim light in small house, a woman sitting down crying with her hands covering her face. In comes a big guy into the room and looks at her and ask her to stop crying. She does not want to listen to him. She tells him it is over between them, as she removes her hands from her face; the light is shinning on the marks on her face of the fight they had.

But he sits down and try and talk to her, he tells her that he loves her and that she is the one for him, he says that she pushed his buttons and made him so angry that he had to hit her, he tells her that he wants the family to stay together and for the sake of the kids she must stay with him. He tells her that he is not like other guys who beat their wives so badly that they end up in hospital when their men are angry, and it is only few bruises on her face and it will heal very quickly. He tells her that he knows best and she is better leaving all the decisions for him and not to interfere in the future.

Now….this is what is happening in Egypt at the moment, A battered and helpless wife's relation with the one who is in charge, the one the wife used to love. Look at the army arresting and killing innocent civilians, “but we are not like the Syrian or the Libyan armies” you hear them say. “We know best and for the sake of stability of the country we need to rule with an iron fist”. “Some people are protesting so much and stopping normal life and so we had to intervene by force” the “you pushed me to do it” story. So many excuses and while the battered wife used to be able to call for her neighbours for help, at the moment the world is watching and getting more immune to the numbers who are getting killed each day. The majority respond by saying: “but at least it is not like Syria”. True, but how do you feel if I say to the people of Norway after the killings last week, “ah at least it is not like the twin towers in USA” This will be the most inappropriate thing to say.

A life is a life; injustice hurts whether it is against 10 people or 1000 people. The whole police force in the UK was under huge, long and expensive investigation for the unlawful death of a newspaper seller in London during a protest last year. What is happening in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Palestine and many other places is not acceptable on any level. However, brutal force in one place does not excuse extreme force in another.

One thing about battered wives, they may believe the lies first, but they soon learn to stand up and defend themselves. I believe that Egypt will.

A Rabbit or a Tortoise...You decide

You know the story, the race between the rabbit and the tortoise, where the rabbit decided to sleep most of the race thinking that he can jump in last minute and win while the tortoise steady and slow progress made it the actual winner at the end.

We were told the story many times with the emphasis on the laziness of the rabbit and the hard work of the tortoise. This is true but there is another element I think to this great story.

Look around you and see so many people acting like the rabbit, at work, in high positions and even as they treat each other and they have the rabbit attitude which is: “I can get up at any moment of this race, jump two huge jumps and win the race; I can do it because I am THE RABBIT”. It is true that the rabbit could have won the race in two big jumps, the problem was his timing. Look at the middle eastern governments; offering reforms to issues after things reached the point of no return, thinking that they can at any point offer a big gesture and HOORAY, problem solved. Or look at relationships, some people take others for granted thinking, “I can always come back with a big promise, a nice gift or a huge change and I can win them back”. It is the rabbit all over again, two big jumps and I will be the winner.

However, no matter how clever you are or how fast you are you need to jump at the right time otherwise you will be left alone on the sidelines wondering “how did it all go wrong?”

Just remember ..... The plan is in HIS hands

I am never tired of seeing Tahrir Square in Cairo looking like this. This photo is taken today 29 July, in a 42C heat with people from all backgrounds gathering to voice their anger about the delay and the lack of progress after the revolution.

There are lots of problems still and so many rumors and stories from every direction. Some are worried about the Islamic influence and some of the extremists voices and some are concerned about normal, poor people who are still suffering in silence.

One thing that keeps me very optimistic.....6 months ago, all safe betting were that Gamal Mubarak, the son of Mubark senior, will be soon in charge and will be the next president. No one could even dream of a different scenario or question the outcome. However, God had a different plan. People were praying for Egypt for years, for delivery from injustice and victory to the poor and oppressed. For the torture to stop and for the corruption to end. The thing was we did not know HOW will God sort it out. We prayed and prayed but never thought that it will be like that. Remember David in the old testament? A young boy coming in with a stone to overcome the giant! NO WAY. When Pharaoh went after God's people in Egypt, God opened a way in the SEA!

There are so many examples, but the problem is, God never comes too early and never does things our way. It is always in a BIG, MARVELOUS AND MAJESTIC WAY. So, plan what you want and fight as you wish, but just remember...God still has the plan is HIS hands.

If at first you don't succeed...try try try again

The Egyptian revolution received great reviews from everyone as if it was a new movie. It was massive, peaceful and quick..no problem then..the world clapped, Mubark left and the media pulled their cameras and back to their comfortable cool studios.

The truth is that the revolution is till going and going strong, people wanted to give the new government a chance to work and make a difference but after 5 months it was clear that nothing has changed. More civilians been tried under military law, all those accused of killing protesters are still in their jobs and Mubark is still getting a nice tan in Sharm El Shik. So, it seems that the motto of the Egyptians now is: If at first you don't success, try try try again.

It is 42 c temperature in Egypt but the weather did not seem to stop anyone from protesting. The latest protest started a week ago and people are now sitting in in Cairo-Tahrir sq and other squares across the country and they are camping out!

WHY...because they want real change and I believe they will get it.

Freedom will not come easy and will not come quickly, but it WILL come as long as people want it and willing to work hard to get it. Long Live Freedom.