Black and White

If Africa is called the Black continent, Africans can boast that they have the whitest clouds ever seen. I find it quite a phenomenon that the clouds there are so white and thick that the sight is overwhelming.

The seen of the moving white clouds evoke the strong meaning of the Chinese saying: " The vast sky does not hinder the white clouds from flying".

Quick results

I am preparing for my trip to Senegal for the Annual General Assembly of FCIC. I have 2 days to go, and I have just finalised arrangemnts with IDB, member firms, reservations, Visas ,speakers, translations and reports. The internet is a blessing, and I can not comprehend how things were prepared 10 years ago without mobiles and emails. Yes Friedman, the World is flat.

Having said this, I sometimes hope that results could have quick answers such as: Find x.

Thank you Moinuddin for sending me a list which answered my question quickly: the 18th or the 20th?

Fine Arts

I have a passion for fine arts; in particular Water, Oil and Pastel paintings. A good saying that I read and fondly remember :"If you look at a glass mirror, you see your face. If you look at a painting, you see your soul". Isn't that lovely?

Well, I love fine arts. You will see me attending all art exhibitions in Jordan. While abroad, my outside working hours program is predictable. I would look for local art; in galleries, on street pavements, and under the roofs of the down town shops and houses.

Although I am not an artist myself, I appreciate fine arts. I did not understand how appreciation of fine arts could exist within a non artist. My good friend, the talented pioneer Iraqi Artist Saadi Kaabi, gave me a simple answer. He said that a person would enjoy and appreciate Music but it is not necessary that he should be a Musician. Likewise is the case of Art.

This did not prevent me every now and then from rolling up my sleeves and paint. This painting on this post is of my own making.

The Swahili language

During my two visits to Tanzania, I enjoyed reading the Street ads and Public notices in Swahili language . It is written using the English alphabets. In almost every sentence, you find one or two Arabic words. Hence, the overall meaning is concluded.

I took this photo of a tanker in Dar EsSalam. The words on the back says: Maji Safi which has the same meaning in Arabic an Ma'a Safi. Wizara e Fida are two Arabic names for Wizarat Al Fida meaning Ministry of Silver (ie Ministry of Finance).

The influence is even greater in Zinjibar. The Music played on Al Qanoon is very similar to our melodies and musical rythms of Hijaz, Biati etc. What a nice country and lovely people.

Amman Stock Market

No one knows where the market is heading. After an extraordinary rally in 2005 and the first quarter of 2006, prices collapsed. However, on the long term value in addition to cost should be the criteria for deciding which company is a good investment. You need to pay less and get more. Lower cost and higher value.

Some investers kept on buying while the prices fell in order to get a lower average buying price. What a mistake. If you are in a hole, you do not dig deeper.

If the fundementals of a company are strong, eventually its shareprice will improve. Things do not happen overnight. You can not produce a baby in one month by making nine women pregnant. In business, things have to take their time and there are no short cuts.

The English language

This is probably one of the most intelligent essays I came across on the web in a very long time, and I thought that I must share it with you. I hope you enjoy it, as much as I did.

Let's face it -- English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find
that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are
absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your
house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the
creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all).
That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.

Space and Beauty

Who among us has never looked up into the heavens on a starlit night, lost in wonder at the vastness of space and the beauty of the stars?