Samarkand - Crossroads of cultures

Samarkand (Uzbek: Samarqand, Самарқанд, Tajik: Самарқанд, Arabic and Persian: سمرقند, Russian: Самарканд) is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province.The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study. The Bibi-Khanym Mosque remains one of the city's most famous landmarks. The Registan was the ancient centre of the city. In 2001, UNESCO inscribed the 2750-year-old city on the World Heritage List as Samarkand - Crossroads of Cultures.

Tashkent ... Uzbekistan

Telyashayakh Mosque (Khast Imam Mosque)
Contains the Uthman Qur'an, considered to be the oldest extant Qur'an in the world. Dating from 655, it was brought by Timur to Samarkand, seized by the Russians as a war trophy and taken to Saint Petersburg. It was returned to Uzbekistan in 1989.

Uzbekistan ... A magnificent country

Tashkent طشقند
(Tash in Turkish language means stone. Kand, qand, kent, kad, kath, kud—all meaning a city—are derived from the Persian/Sogdian, kanda, meaning a town or a city. They are found in city names like Samarkand, Yarkand, Penjikent etc.).

Art Gallery of Uzbekistan

Chorsu Bazaar .. Near the Kukeldash Madrassa, this huge open air bazaar is the center of the old town of Tashkent.

Palace of Prince Romanov .. During the 19th century Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich (1850-1918), a first cousin of Alexander III of Russia was banished to Tashkent for some shady deals involving the Russian Crown Jewels. His palace still survives in the centre of the city. Once a museum, it has been appropriated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Open art gallery .. next to Independance Avenue

Palestine 1948-2009

Translation of Haroun Hashem Rashid poem in commemoration of occupied Palestine. Sang later by Fairouz:

We shall return

We shall return one day to our village

and drown in the warmth of hope
We shall return though time passes by

and distances grow between us.

O heart do not drop wearied

on the path of our return
How it wounds our pride that birds

will return tomorrow while we are still here.

There are hills over there

sleeping and waking on our pledge
and people who are the love,their days comprised

of silent waiting and nostalgic songs

Places filled with willows as far as the eyes can see,

willows tired and bent over the water

while afternoons in their shade

drink the smell of silence and purity of happiness.

We shall return,the nightingale told me

when we met on a hill,
that nightingales are still there,

living on our dreams

and that among the hills of yearnings

and the yearning people is a place for us
O heart how often has the wind scattered us

Come along, we shall return, let us go.

Gaza sky rains Israeli white phosphorus and cluster bombs over civilian homes

Israel is bombing Palestinians in Gaza with white phosphorus and cluster bombs. Images of the brutal damage inflicted on women and children are seen on the wide media coverage of Algazeera. Meanwhile, Israel bans international journalists from entering the Gaza strip.

White phosphorus and cluster bombs are internationaly banned weapons. A war crime that will haunt Israel for a long time. A true holocaust.

Agatha Christie at ... Room 203 Baron Hotel in Allepo

Allepo ... 10:30 pm on the 19th Dec 2008.

The receptionist gave me the keys to room 203. As I climbed the stairs, my heart was beating with excitement, thrill and fear. I entered the room, and what a feeling. A very different life experience. Why not, for this is Agatha Christie's room ... where she stayed at the Baron Hotel in Allepo and wrote "Murder on the Orient Express" back in 1934.

Room 203: the Agatha Christie room.

You could imagine the English lady seated on the Thonet chair at the dark dressing-table with its bevelled mirrors, its fine marquetry, and its gold-handled drawers. These are the original furnishings from the 1920s.

The 2nd floor of the Hotel Baron is a journey through the history of the 20th century: Lawrence of Arabia slept in Room 202; from the balcony in Room 215, King Faisal declared Syria's independence. The Presidential Suite was occupied in turn by Sweden's King Gustaf Adolf, Egypt's Jamal Abdel Nasser, Syria's former President Hafiz Al Assad, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (the founder of the United Arab Emirates), and the American billionaire David Rockefeller.

In the main dining room on the ground floor, the Hotel Baron once held lavish banquets in their honour. Today, the guests have their breakfast here, surrounded by wood-panelled walls, massive double doors, crooked lampshades, and ceramic tiles of green, beige and brown. It's the details that make the Baron so unique: the chunky, grass-green telephone system at the reception; T.E. Lawrence's, Lawrence of Arabia's, bill framed and displayed in the lounge.
In 1909, amongst the gardens on the outskirts of Aleppo, the Mazloumian family built the first floor of the current building; the second floor followed in 1911, and the third in 1940. In recent years, this top storey has been thoroughly renovated and modernised.

Agatha Christie trilled a cheery "Good morning!" every day as she descended the broad staircase on her way to the terrace; there, she sipped tea while writing "Murder on the Orient Express".

It was an exceptional unforgettable night in Room 203 at the Baron Hotel in Allepo.

Amman Sunset ... The day when the Sun was on fire

Clouds look like smoke coming out of a Sun on fire !

I took the picture in October 08 from the highest point in Abdoun looking West.

FM 100 Hue Test

The FM 100 Hue Test is a seemingly simple test of your ability to discern close hue relationships, a sort of “color IQ test”. The interactive is provided by x-rite, a company that makes Munsell-based color measurement products.

It consists of four bands of small squares of varying colors. Each band represents a scale of colors between two specific hues, represented by fixed squares at either end. The task is to rearrange the drag-and-drop squares within each row to set them in the appropriate order of hue.

When you get down to the fine discrimination between hues that are very close, it becomes harder than it seems at first. You get a score at the end, “0″ being perfect, and the opportunity to compare your score to others of your gender and age group. There is also a feature, that I was unable to take advantage of because I came up with a perfect score, that allows you to see the color ranges within which you had the most difficulty discerning the close hue relationships.
Scorekeeping and the game-like element aside, this is an enlightening exercise in comparing closely related hues, something of concern to anyone working in color, particularly painters looking to match the colors they see when mixing paint.

As always when viewing or judging color, whether in isolation, on a palette, in a digital color picker or in a painting, the important factor is the relationship of a color to its adjacent colors.

The test is this site http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77

Carlos Latuff and Stephen Walt .. The Israel lobby

"Right now, this has become a subject that you can barely talk about without people immediately trying to silence you, immediately trying to discredit you in various ways, such that no American politicians will touch this, which is quite remarkable when you consider how much Americans argue about every other controversial political issue. To me, this is a national security priority for us, and we ought to be having an open debate on it, not one where only one side is being heard from."

(Stephen Walt, professor of international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, on a University of California, Berkeley, TV show called Conversations With History last fall, speaking about the chilling effect of the Israel lobby).

Read 'Ferment Over 'The Israel Lobby'' by Philip Weiss'

Cartoon by Carlos Latuff (Brasil).

Oil-rich food

Another picture that is worth a thousand word.

Courtesy of قصيدة

Tunis ... a city with a soul

How true

A Wise Quote

The most important thing in
Communication
is to hear what ins't being said

Paul Drucker

Uganda .... A beautiful African country

Different types of clouds formation .... fascinating ... particularly the lower transperant layer of clouds.

Different fruits ... natural .... no chemicals .. no fertilisers ... Fascinating colours, types and set up.

Kampala down town fruits market.

Nathem Hamed

Born in 1951 in Iraq. B.Sc degree in Fine Arts from the Fine Arts Academy, Baghdad University 1976. Master degree in Drawing from Baghdad University 1981. One of the most distinguished impressionist artist in Iraq and the Arab world. Studied painting under the great artist Faik Hassan. Renowned for his strong interest in the Arab townscapes and preservation of the urban and architectural heritage. Participated in many solo and joint exhibitions in many countries.

Paul Panossian

Paul Panossian is an American artist of Arminian origin. Born in Los Angeles 1965. His strength is in the composition of his paintings. Panossian displayed an inherent artistic ability. His yearning desire to draw and paint prompted his elementary school teacher to recommend professional painting instruction; his parents gladly provided the needed means and opportunity to learn and grow under the tutelage of professional artists from the age of six and continued private instruction throughout High School.

In 1988, Panossian graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Art from California State University, Northridge where he had the opportunity to study under master artist, Hans Burkhardt. After completing his formal education Panossian went to Europe to study.

Trained in traditional art with an emphasis in oil painting, his personal artwork is characterized by intense colour, sophisticated composition, and a painterly technique that has been immediately widely recognized.

US foreclosures and ...... US-financed Israeli houses

Free Gaza ... "Siege-breaking" boats trip sailing today to Gaza

"Siege-breaking boats". A campaign to attract attention to the siege enforced by Israel on over 1.5 million Gazans. No electricity, no medicine, no fuel, no services, no freedom to travel .... an absolute unprecedented human catastrophy ..... Follow the activities of this brave initiative of the 44 pro Palestinans on 3 boats sailing today to Gaza .... on http://www.freegaza.gov/

Water formations ..... natural art work

Water comes after Space in being a fascinating matter. Water formation are real art work.

Quit smoking

Be Special

Grace by Alice Heath

Hillary Clinton conceding speech

Hillary Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama yesterday. A truly fine conceding speech. If she has won anything, this graceful speech was her true victory. An exemplary model in descipline, good sport and clear intelligent choice of words.

Ramshackled by Kathryn Stats

فلسطين 1948-2008

سنرجع يوما إلى حينا

ونغرق في دافئات المنى

سنرجع مهما يطول الزمان

وتنأى المسافات ما بيننا

سنرجــع يومـــا
شعر: هارون هاشم رشيد

سنرجع يوماً الى حينا............و نغرق في دافئات المنى
سنرجع مهما يطول الزمان...... و تنأى المسافات ما بيننا
فيا قلب مهلآ و لا ترتم............على درب عودتنا موهنا
يعز علينا غداً أن تعود...........رفوف الطيور و نحن هنا
هنالك عند التلال تلال............تنام و تصحو على عهدنا
و ناس هم الحب أيامهم............هدوء انتظار شجي الغنا
ربوع مدى العين صفصافها......على كل ماء وهى فانحنى
تعب الظهيرات في ظلها.........عبير الهدوء و صفو الهنا
سنرجع خبرني العندليب...........غداة التقينا على منحنى
بأن البلابل لما تزل..................هناك تعيش بأشعارنا
و مازال بين تلال الحنين ..........و ناس الحنين مكان لنا

فيا قلب كم شردتنا رياح.............. تعال سنرجع هيا بنا

Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe (1948)

Every year Palestinians commemorate the Nakba ("the catastrophe"): the expulsion and dispossession of hundreds of thousands Palestinians from their homes and land in 1948. In 1948 more than 60 percent of the total Palestinian population was expelled. More than 530 Palestinian villages were depopulated and completely destroyed.

To date, Israel has prevented the return of approximately six million Palestinian refugees, who have either been expelled or displaced. Approximately 250,000 internally displaced Palestinian second-class citizens of Israel are prevented from returning to their homes and villages.

560 roadblocks in the West Bank

There are, today, around 560 roadblocks established by the Israeli Occupation forces in the tiny area of the West Bank, which is an incredible number. No roadblocks have been removed; each and every one of them stands in witness to the fact that Israel's promises are not fulfilled and that their declarations and statements on peace are hollow and meaningless.

The $7 billion that were promised at the recent Paris conference to jump-start the Palestinian economy are useless, for without a minimal freedom of movement, there is no way that the economy of the Palestinians can be put on its feet.

The West Bank has an area of 120 km x 50 km.

Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff creates artworks that call on the world to condemn Israeli holocaust of Gaza

Carlos Latuff's statement:

I'd like to beg all viewers to spread this image anywhere, as a way to expose Israeli war crimes against Palestinians. Use it on t-shirts, posters, banners. Reproduce it in zines, papers, magazines, and make it visible everywhere. Here is the high-resolution version for printing purposes.

Thank you in the name of every suffering Palestinian.

Ghassan Abu Laban - A great talent from Palestine