Syria : A serious need for reform

Syria : A serious need for reform

Syria is away from the siege it found itself in it during the last decade and especially after the invasion of Iraq. we can say that it is a victory for a brilliant syrian foreign policy and its effective tools . The pressures on syria are in its lowest grade maybe from 2003 and there is no real external threat for Syria except that traditional one which Syria has adapted to it during more than 50 years : Israel .
We all know that Israel is a real threat on syria .
It is clear and undoubtable and every one who knows a little about history knows that it is not only occupying Golan heights of syria , but also threatening the heart of Syria as the crusaders were doing during the middle ages.
we should now focus on our internal issues without ignoring the external . In Syria , there is a real and serious need for reform .
Reform is a must for syria and without it ,we will face a dark future and angradual increase in poverty in a country where 40 % of its population could be classified as poor. The dissolve of the middle class is something clear for witnesses. Increasing of slums at the edge of the big cities and the clear increasing in prostitution and begging in syrian big cities are indexes for the country economic situation.
Some statistics suggest that more than 5.3 millions of syrians are living below the poverty line . This number is forming about 25 % of total population which counts almost 21 millions . the numbers which are published by syrian government are tricky and based on its own view of poverty and the daily life needs.
The offical numbers of the Syrian centeral statistics office which is a government institiuation suggest that the number is far lower than 5.3 millions . It suggests that only around 11 b% of syrian are living below the poverty line.
Without a real internal reform and fight against corruption , all the victories in the foreign policy will be abolished and will be as a desert mirage.
The classification of Syria as a resistant country is meaningless if this resistance has not been accompanied by a real reform and by real decrease in poverty and a fair distribution of the wealth. This wealth is monopolized by a minority (not exceed 10 % of the population). The transformation of the Syrian economy from the social economy to the market economy has lead to what we are seeing daily in Syria .

Mustafa Hamido

Pecha Kucha Night # 5 - Kuwait

Last Thursday Pecha Kucha Night # 5 - Kuwait City, was held in the Museum of Modern Art. This is my favorite of all I attended, for various reasons, the first and foremost is for the people I got to meet and talk to, familiar faces from far, lovely atmosphere all in all, the crowd was very live and active this time. Also the presentations and presenters were interesting and very passionate about what they present. Here are bits and pieces of what I've seen there


Hussa Al-Humaidhi was the first presenter, with Sout Al-Kuwait which started as a small idea then grew up to be a social group trying to spread the awareness towards the constitution, Democracy, local laws and the Kuwaiti people's rights to participate in making Kuwait a better country through those tools.

Then Zeyad Boarki presented his passion for photography, that grew with time, the special thing about his presentation is that he illustrated the story of many, any observer would notice that photography is growing among Kuwaitis and Flickr is one way to see the that the Kuwaiti photography community is growing in a very pleasant way and we do have MANY talented in that field.

Amani Al Thuwaini & Farah Al Haider, were amazing :} they are two simple girls with a passion for ART! They try to spread the awareness about art and their wish to grow art in Kuwait, one of their hopes is to have an institute to teach art in Kuwait. Art is one of the many abandoned interests in Kuwait and has little attention from people.

Lewis Chapman, An Englishman, his family moved to Kuwait in 1996 and he has been living between Kuwait and UK since then. His art work influenced by many scenes in Kuwait, his drawings are very real in an amazing way, especially when it comes to shades,  the interesting part however was that he repeatedly drew people walking away :] a thing not many focus on and frankly I thought it was charming! It gave a whole new perspective to the scene he was drawing. His website above will show you how creative this man is :}


Dari Al Huwail spoke about the Kuwait Diving team, that is under appreciated in my opinion, those guys are VOLUNTARILY doing our beloved country environmental favors, they are really sea angels! From helping sea animals, coral reefs to cleaning & picking up junk from the bottom of our sear and more,,,, they did it all, with out any financial benefit! They deserve all the support we can give them, through their website you can connect with them and know how can you help :]


Sama Al-Wasmi presented her lovely blog High Street q8. Sort of the Kuwaiti version of the Sartorialist that I once posted about and in the comments I discussed with Forza at the time the possibility of having a Kuwaiti version of The Sartorialist, Sama made it a reality :] With a few rules of keeping the personalities anonymous and taking faceless pictures, she shows the real everyday life fashion, caught with her eye and lens an interesting new addition to the Kuwaiti community/ blogging community to be more exact.

Yvonne Wakefield, a teacher in Kuwait University who portrayed her self as a pomegranate! When she first spoke I did not think that I would like what she will say! Then when I LISTENED and saw her art I realized how deep is the symbolism of the pomegranate, through the phases of her presence in Kuwait and the problem she faced with her visa, that prevented her from going back to her homeland "USA" when she wanted to. Along her portraits and words, I realized yet again how powerful is painting, how through brush strokes and a canvas she could emphasize a life, feelings and hopes. Her art work is currently exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art.

Lulwa & Balsam Al-Ayoub are two Kuwaiti girls who play fencing and presented Kuwait in many international sport events. In the presentation there was a picture shows their mother Fatima Al-Omani representing Kuwait back in 1967 and her daughters following her footsteps to raise the name of Kuwait worldwide. The two girls did not stop at this they also continued to participate to encourage children in the Kuwaiti community to participate in sports.

Ahmed Al-Gharabally the CEO of Masahati.com spoke about his project. Masahati is a new Kuwaiti online real estate selling website, that aims to ease the process of looking for a real estate in at the comfort of your home. The presentation was very nice, it started from how the internet market is growing and how it evolved, then after a gathering with friends back in 2008 he decided to make his online real estate website, to cover a gap in the Kuwaiti market. I think its a good project that will benefit more people and will grow in the future.


Last presentation was done by Talal Obeid, an independent self-taught graphic designer. To begin with I am very biased to this talented man, not only because he was one of the first bloggers I knew back when I started blogging in 2004 but because he impressed me with his work! his illustrations like a t-shirt design that he merge the Arabic culture with famous internationally known figure like Darth vader or Om Kalthoum a famous Egyptian singer. His projects vary from putting his illustrations & graphics on posters/ logos/ T-shirts,, etc. Nevertheless, all that amazing work is SELF developed :) that is where he WOW'es me, I respect that in him, to be a young self dependent and taught artist that created suck amazing work.

Away from the presentations and amazing live music, I had a lovely evening, I met old friends, made new ones, smiled from far and seen lovely smiles, seen a lot of nice people and really loved the whole friendly and enthusiastic crowd :] PechaKucha night #5 in Kuwait City is a HUGE success, really interesting presentations and presenters, lovely crowd. A big thank you goes to Dr. Aseel Al-Ragam who introduced this even to Kuwait.

For previous PechaKucha coverage in Kuwait:
PKN#4
PKN#3

P.S: for the full review with all the pictures you can visit this link.

Plastic or real cork?

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http://online.wsj.com/community/groups/wine-241/topics/plastic-real-cork-better-way

Land of ice and fire

Last weekend I visited the area of the country which has been hit worst by the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. I can't deny that the experience was rather overwhelming. The weather was nice, but the ash blew in my face and above the volcano spewed out more ash and tephra. Many volunteers are working in the area, helping the farmers to minimize the damage for the coming summer. The task is overwhelming, but when many people come together, with one goal, everything is possible.

Afterwards I went to the other side of the volcano to see where the lava flow is coming down the mountainside, melting the ice as it slowly moves downwards. 

Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy so I couldn't see the eruption itself. 

There are some more pictures here.