My Name In The West


During the sixteen years of living in the west (Great Britain, Canada and the USA), it has
not been easy to use my first name despite its simplicity. It has never been easy to spell, or
to give over the telephone. I do not disagree on how unusual and unfamiliar my name
sounds.
Strange names is part of what the countries above are experiencing due to the movements
of different cultures "back" to them. To the English I would say; sorry but the British
empire came home.

One of the most bizarre incidents my name has generated happened when I was in England
working on my degree. A lovely new student, "Alison", formerly a policewoman at the
Yorkshire police force, decided to join the scientific community and finish up her masters degree in
pharmacology. She had asked me once if I have a Christian name. Since I was not Christian, I
replied: "no", I do not. Few days had past when she asked me the same question again. A mutual
student friend "Michael" told her why should he get a Christian names?. For my surprise, at least,
she answered: everybody in world has a Christian name. The argument lasted for about10 minutes
with Alison still convinced that I should have a Christian name. God help Alison. She might have
asked this question a million time by now.

Should I change my name?.

It is, however, helpful to have an easy and "accessible" name. Some of so called foreigners have
chosen names based on their original names. For example, Mohammad or Mahmoud turns to be
"Moe" or "Michael", Ibrahim turns to be "Ibraham" or "Abe" and so on. These name changing
tactics require diligence and knowledge of the outcome. I will give an example, a friend of a
friend had changed his name to Paul (just because he looked like a Paul?). Now, Paul is easy to
pronounce to English natives and to people who have the sound of the letter "P" in their language.
However, in Arabic there is nothing similar to the sound of the letter "P" except for the "B" sound.
Therefore, that friend's name had changed among his arabic friends from Paul to Baul which
means "URINE" in arabic.
When the table is turned, a lot of Moslems who are not arabs (arabs form at the maximum 15% of
the Moslem population) choose to name themselves with arabic names (frankly I do not know who
is honored by this). Sometimes the names are considered hilarious to arabic speakers. Examples;
Saminah an Urdu name which has the same meaning in arabic provided saying it with the correct
pronunciation as Thaminah, which means precious. In Urdu, the sound of "th" as in the name
Thelma is not in the language. Naturally, it will be replaced with the sound of letter "C" as in
France. In that light the meaning of that name will become "fat" as in "fatsu". To add insult to
injury, Thaminah is a female name. The examples are endless.

More Language


There are urban legends about the pronunciation of different alphabets and the fun which might
result because of that. In 1993 and on a July day, we the arab student community in Manchester
decided to march in protest to the lack of military actions to stop the Bosnian holocaust. The
meeting place was a park beside Manchester University campus on Oxford road. The car parking
space was scarce, a friend (Sadiq) had parked his car on a single yellow line on a Saturday
afternoon, which is allowed. Just To be sure, he went to a mounted police officer and asked him:
"Can I bark here?" and of course what he meant was "can I park here?". The English
police officer had his wits on his shoulders that day when he answered back with a question: "I do
not know.. Why do not you ask the horse?". By now my friend had understood the joke and
wanted to play along.
Reached up,"May I bark here?" he whispered in the horse's ear. The horse, irritated from the
noises my friends had made, moved its head up and down. Sadiq walked away from the horse and
told the officer that the horse said "it's Ok". Laughing so hard, by the time he got to us his eyes
were tearing, we laughed together and marched for Bosnia where it should not be any laughter that
day.

The stories never end, I guess it is a part of my adventures in the west.

The Middle East

What does the word (phrase)middle east means to me?

The middle east? Corruption, war, constant fighting, oil, desert, heat and unbearable sun.... all the
nasty stuff in the world?.
This is not the middle east.
It is in the middle of the east, to the far east, from Great Britain when the latter "was"(during the
time of "discoveries") the center of civilization. However, the word "DISCOVER" has big question
mark on it. Simply, you cannot discover something which is there, already. The British explorers
(friendlier word) went and hired two Sudanese guides to take them where the Nile originates. After
2 weeks they reached the lake which keeps the Nile flowing. They went back to London and
published their findings in the Journal of British Geographical Society as they have "discovered"
the Origin of the Nile, they named the lake Victoria same as most of the cities on their way.
In London at Hide Park speaker's corner, a gentleman by the name Roy (as in short for Royalty) has
said that when the Brits got to Africa, they screamed so loud:"WE DISCOVERED AFRICA". Out
of fear, the Africans jumped on the trees and this is why the Brits never saw them, and this is why
in South Africa they teach school kids that they arrived to Africa before the Africans (the blacks).
During that era of "discovery", the middle east was divided and the names of cities were decimated
to fit the non arabic tongue and worse the middle east was shared and given away. The stories of
the story teller Lawrence f Arabia (the uncrowned king of the Arabs) still resonate. The only
problem is that this heritage of taking or discovering was not respected by the following British and
French generations and felt responsible for the atrocities which was made on their behalf
(less than 40 years ago, over 1.5 millions men died fighting the French in Algeria and north Africa).
So it has become just a bad legacy and was abandoned. But who will take the brunt of
the age of discoveries. The bad arabs whom have been fighting for what is theirs
for over a century?. The discoverers made sure that arabs will never get what is theirs.

Still what does the middle east means?.
I was told a story by a female colleague who was flying from England to Australia for a vacation at
one of the former colonies. That story tells that the plane had a scheduled stop in Bahrain, and this
is when she was terrified, since she was in "the middle east". The Lebanese might start shooting at
the plane, she feared. To my surprise for the lack of the geographical knowledge, I answered: there
is over a thousand miles between Bahrain and Lebanon. To my other shock, she said :
Really?, I thought the middle east is one country where all the fighting happens. I was puzzled by
the thought that may be she meant that the middle east is one tiny country, and the gab on the
earth's surface will be filled by the British Island and the Isles of Man and white (less than 10
square mile each) and Northern Ireland.
The middle east is the origin and the land which gave birth to almost all of the civilizations on earth
which had led to the current knowledge and sciences.
I was born in the arabic peninsula, or what is famously known as Saudi Arabia. This land which
my ancestors had ruled parts of it and from there they went to spread the words of knowledge until
it reached Spain and the rest of Europe. This land folds history, art, knowledge, remains of great
people homesteaded that land. In that land ancient cities such as Makkah and the city of my place
of birth Taif. Taif is the city I will never forget, the city of fruits and sweat water which runs down
from its mountain springs. The city of a ten thousands years of known history.

Pets and Vegans

It is remarkable how the human nature can change over few generations. In years past, people used
to love their pets and at the same time they have never grew so helpless if something ever happened
to that pet. I am not talking cruelty to animals, but simple natural phenomenae like life and death.
The hippy movement of the 1960s, started when grown men and women used to run around half
naked with flowers in their hair trying to connect to the trees and earth. This movement and Disney
cartoons have created a soft hearted generations. This behavioral outcry, in my
opinion, have created along with the distinctive fashion of that era (vanished by the end of 1970s)
some ideals which produced irreversible changes in the western societies. One of these ideals is the
extreme un-natural love to house pets (do not judge me yet).
Admitting I could be cold hearted sometimes. Since my childhood, which had since long gone,
I have never hurt an animal unnecessarily. I eat my meat and my vegetables. I reckon that my life is
balanced around that. For number of years, an increasing number of people chose to be vegetarians
or vegans as they have called themselves in the US, to distinguish themselves as true vegetarians
from some of so called vegetarians in which consider chicken and fish some sort of vegetables.
Are they wrong in their thinking?, especially the aggressive party which chose to bomb dairy farms,
universities and other animal product based industries. It is difficult to generalize, certainly being
a "vegan" is a life style which deserve to be understood and respected as a choice for others. As
for me, I do not think I will stop eating meat same as other God's creatures like lions, tigers and
cats. Will dogs be vegans one day? most of human vegans have dogs as pets and they feed them
what dogs and wolves eat in the wild .. Meat!! Does it make since to them??, I do not know but it is
a "moral issue".

When I was a child back in Saudi Arabia, we were on a picnic when my younger brother and I
spotted some lambs. We loved them so much we begged my father to buy them for us. We went
home that day with two newborn lambs, in their first few days of their lives. Few days past and the
male lamb died due to cold and God knows what else. The other one which was a female survived
and we named her "Sheikha" or princess in English. Sheikha lived to be a nice looking ewe. As the
months had past, Sheikha was the happiest lamb in the "middle east".
A patriarchal decision was made, the family had to move to the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh.
We could not take Sheikhah with us and since a lot of guests will be visiting to say farewell, my
father decided to take Sheikha to the local kitchen and cook her for a fancy dinner. We understood
that as children without a fuss. We were saddened by the news, but the reality was she was source
food as well. By that we differentiated between loving an animal for the joy it brought to us and for
it being an animal. I remember when my father brought Sheikha back, cooked that is, we raced to
see what does it look like without her white shiny wool coat. Sheikha that day even tasted as good
as she used to look.
Telling this story here or in Canada or in UK made the head turns, what a contrast?. Although I
believe that on the farms of these countries incidents such this happens all the time. I believe
it goes like this scenario... what happened to "Freddy" daddy?, ... oh .. he went to cows heaven .. Oh Fred is
playing with other calves his age. The fact could be in the case of the non vegans that they would
think that the supermarket makes the meat.

Facts about International Aid

People help each other. Countries form alliances to help each other. Help comes in so many
different shapes and forms. Some of these alliances are for military help and protection or
sharing intelligence information and so on, like WARSAW or NATO.
On a more tragic side, if natural disasters like famine or an earthquake, or may be just direct,
indecent, interference of one country into the affair of another country (like democratizing them
by force, US "democracy" vs Iraq situation, as my belief and others that democracy is not just the
act of voting (and will be subject of another article).
When these disasters make a country reach the breaking point and there is not an
alternative except getting help. This help is where "International Aid" comes in play.

What is International aid?
In the early 1930 leading to the late 1950s, England had constructed an aid package to the
government of the "United kingdom of Egypt", as a case of forced international aid.

The international aid came in a form of monetary fund, which was aimed to help building
railways, the main focus in mind was the British ability to move their troops around, north and south, at no cost to them.
To help paying back the French and British banks which financed this "un-necessary budget
expansion", the International monetary fund (bank) has to establish a payment plan, with enough
profit to compensate for the "good deeds".
The aid was administered by steps. The United Kingdom of Egypt has to become 2 independent
countries, Sudan and Egypt(south and north). Second, the new countries were barred from
controlling there own finances, because they might realize their potential and become rich. If
they do that (get rich) they cannot be owned by England and France or used for a political
pressures in that area (this is another benefit for the international aid, buying political
favors and stands in exchange for aid ). In short, they were ordered to forget the propsects of oil and the
massive agricultural economic products like grain. At that time, England had cotton
shortages which might threaten its huge aspirations to control this massive cotton industry in
Africa. So, cotton was the crop of choice for Egypt and Sudan. A whole field of
cotton will be bought for less than the price of barrel of oil (by the prices of that time and this time)
which also takes full year to grow. Until this day these countries continue to pay money
which spent on their own destruction. So they exported cotton to the French and the
British and the British and French sold them grain and food they should have grown.

Aid as a Propaganda: "a city can lend a hand".
In 1992-1994 there was a massive drought which swept Somalia, Ethiopia, South of Sudan
among other areas surrounding these countries.

Normally, people imply and force certain conditions on
the poorer countries to get the aid. Aid conditions will be like reduce the political will and power, and allow these
countries to be controlled by the richer nations(not arguing if this is good or bad idea, it could be both).

Other conditions included that all refugees from these countries which
reached all corners of the globe are to go back as soon as the bad conditions end.
Waves after waves of Somali refugees were coming to United Kingdom mainly to Liverpool and Manchester cities. As
soon as these refugees started piling up, Manchester city counsel refused to deal with them.
Volunteers, including myself and many great friends which still live in England, started asking
questions on how to rectify this situation. We heard the speeches and the love of the British to
help the Somalis which "could be" true. So what went wrong? The United Nations
delayed transfer of funds to Manchester city council. What a pity? To counteract the problem we
collected money, food, cloths and temporary residential arrangements with local families (moslems
and non moslems). We have almost contained a problem facing about 3500 people
whith thousands more to arrive. Finally, the city council
received their money about 25 days after the initial crises. The problem persisted for
another 3 years. Every time.the funds run out or delayed the city council will threaten
to ship everybody back to Somalia (even if they are not Somalis).

Grants as an International aid:
Some of the International Aid comes as, vouchers or even in a form of coupons, sort of
speak. Also, comes as money to local companies to supply food and equipments through local
merchants (business people). Sounds innocent, think again. This is an economic boosts for local companies
which have enough influence in the market place or in the political campaigns
contributions. The most famous country practice this type of International aid is the USA. So,
how does it work?. Let us say that a country in Latin America had an earthquake.
The helping country has to devise (through also speeches and good gestures) a plan of help
and announcements. The response will be: to give that country an aid as a loan (has to be
paid by monetary fund or by "the fund of the political stands" as a blackmail. Example,
Honduras sending 336 and the Philippine sending 50 troops as gesture to "invade" Iraq with the Adolf Bush troops).
My reservation is that when people see the aid on TV most think that there are no attachments to
the sacks of grain (the famous blue and white sacks) or oil supply (Halibruton) and
other helping materials.
To sort it out: if this aid package is a loan package, the government which receiving the aid will
pay for all items and necessities even if a toothbrush, by the price which already determined by the
lending ("aiding") government. If agreed, companies will start
supplying the aid, on pure profit capitalistic values. Example, a blanket worth $10, will cost in
excess of $200. A liter of milk at the inflated supermarket prices will not exceed
US$2 but will be supplied at a cost of US$10 or more (it reached US$27, in some recent incidents).
For the politician (president, prime minister, head of state), he is, in part, fulfilling campaign
promises to these business men who paid and waited. However, for the not knowing
they will be moved by a feel good speech, and make your citizens feel proud unknowingly
that some times the UN is the one who is paying for what is claimed to be a donations and aid
to the needy. As volunteers and charity workers, there are a lot of good feelings.
The last example is a business idea got pushed as an aid package with minimum face
of humanity. Writing these facts does not mean there is a lack of good well and good old
fashioned, heart felt compassion towards other people. While in USA I had seen aid
workers and young people who will make their nation proud. However, when Adolf Bush
remove the real face of decency from the decent and genuine acts of these people, this is
when the aid from a country like USA will be compromised by unethical practices (like
embedding CIA agents among volunteers at the peace core and other youth organizations,
which was always criticized by the UN) adding to that is to wrap aid by business greed and
personal wealth.
My best hope that this last concept will not be the reality of international aid and that all of humanity
would help unconditionally. I also hope that richer and more prosperous countries due to the
advantage of their geographical locations make them more aware and not to forget less fortunate
countries which had become less productive due to natural disasters which caused sometimes
years and years of continuing struggle.


I thought I will share some of my experiences.