Ahmed, My Nephew

A conversation between my sister and her 7 year old son...

Ahmed: Mom
Mom: Yes honey
Ahmed: I don't want to go to school tomorrow! I don't want to go to school... period.
Mom: That's fine by me... but why?
Ahmed: I know how to speak both English and Arabic just fine, and I also have some basics in French. I think I am covered
Mom: OK! No worries, but just answer one question for me, Okay?
Ahmed: Yes mommy
Mom: What does globalization mean?
Ahmed: I mean I am Arabic, and such word in English is no big deal to me
Mom: Fine, then tell me what is عولمه (which is a translation of the same word in Arabic)
Ahmed: Well, what I really meant is that I am Kuwaiti.
Mom: Fine. Then don't go to school
Ahmed: *SHOCKED*

At the gas station

Mom: See that guy filling our car with gas? The poor man did not get the chance to finish school
Ahmed: *Silent*
Mom: So Ahmed... .when you grow up, just tell me which gas station you like and I will work all kind of "wasta" (connections) for you

At night, before Ahmed went to bed

Ahmed: Mom
Mom: Yes honey?
Ahmed: Please wake me up for school tomorrow
Mom: Sure :-) Good night baby :-*
Ahmed: Good night mom

Working Late Hours

Moral of the story: In these days of cost cutting, leave the office EARLY!


Thanks Youssef :-)

Sara & Rami Dilemma

Earlier in the day, I was sitting on my desk as I heard what seemed to
be a conversation between three of my co-workers… Eman, Sara, and
Janet. I did not really know what they were talking about, but sounded
like who's doing what in regards to house chores!



Janet, the lady full of wisdom

Eman, married for some years now

Sara… a newlywed ;-)



Apparently Sara started a very blameless conversation of how her and
Rami, her hubby, divide their house chores



Sara: He does the dishes, laundry, garbage, I do the cooking and house cleaning!

Eman: House cleaning as in dusting your dining table?

Sara: Yeah! That is pretty much cleaning!!!

Janet: You wont do his chores if he skips them??

Sara: Nop! I wont… he wont do cooking if I don't cook!!!



Then my manager, Omar, got into the conversation… then other
co-workers! It basically went from three people to seven in less than
10 minutes! I was on my desk laughing hysterically at their
conversation and expressions!



Sara would say the funniest things like "I wont do the dishes, I will
leave them in the sink because its his task and not mine, and when I
need to use them, I will clean only for myself.. like a plate and a
set of silverware for me only" or something like "He is fine with it,
he is enjoying it… he was doing all of these things before we got
married, so it's a plus that I am now cooking and cleaning"



As the day goes by… and around 2:50-3:00PM I pass by to see new
members added to the conversation. Sara was getting too defensive at
this point. So I decided to stick for this round since I missed the
first one, and I asked



Ansam: What if there are dishes piling up in your skin?

Sara: I wouldn't mind… I would rather discuss this with Rami as in
when is he gonna do the dishes, but I wont do it!

Ansam: And you will let the dishes/utensils pile up with no problem?

Sara: yeah!!!!



Then my manager pass by on his way to the pantry and asks: Are you
still discussing Rami/Sara issue?

Janet: Yes… Sara is the hot topic today!

Sara: We are FINE like this!!

Ansam: why don't you get a dishwasher??

Eman (from far away): SHE ALREADY HAVE ONE!!!!

Sara: Its just not my thing! It's Rami's!!!!!!!!

Janet: Talk to me in one year and see how things will turn around!
Like when he comes from work directly to the couch holding the remote
control and tuning in ESPN!!! What will happen then?

Sara: Then lets talk about it next year!

Daniel: Ansam, what side are you on?

Ansam: I am somewhere in between!

Daniel: No! you gotta make up your mind and be on one side

Ansam: Well… What if he's sick? Would you do his chores?

Sara: Yes, and he will do mine if I am sick

Ansam: Well OK then! I don't want to be on any side hehehe!



I walked back to my desk and never heard the rest of it, but I am sure
its gonna surface back up soon hehehehe

Poor Sara, under the spotlight!

How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood?

Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day?

However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly one can get back their focus on what's important.

David J. Pollay explains his story in this way….

Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab.

Here's what happened……………

I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car's back end by just inches!

The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy - and I mean…he was friendly. So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"

And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."

"Many people are like Garbage Trucks.

They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it.

And if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did.



"I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do it anymore."

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.

Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't.



Believe that everything happens for a reason. Never let the Garbage Truck run over you…

Amazing Story

In 1986, Dan Harrison (see picture above) was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University.

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Dan approached it very carefully.

He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.

As carefully and as gently as he could, Dan worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.

The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments.

Dan stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.

Dan never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Dan was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son.

As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Dan and his son Dan Jr. were standing.

The large bull elephant stared at Dan, lifted its front foot off the ground, and then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Dan couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant.

Dan summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Dan's legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn't the same elephant.





Thanks Linda :-)

Randy Pausch

This is a very moving video! It reminded me of Tarek, my cousin who passed away earlier this year and suffered from pancreatic cancer! May his soul rests in peace.

The video below is called "The Last Lecture" given by Pausch!


I cried so much while watching this video! This man is such an inspiration! He is so brave and full of life. I admire him. He is also about few weeks younger than Tarek.

You can read more about him/The Last Lecture by clicking here.

Or check out Randy's Site.

Why!! Whatta Morning!

This is one helluva morning.. It started with me waking up 10 minutes late –than my usual time- (and YES! 10 minutes makes a BIG difference, especially when I am carpooling with my sisters which we have been doing and rotating since we moved to our new house).


Well anyway, after I drop them off, I head to where I work, and there I was…. finding this amazing car parking spot, but there was a jerk parked next to it who opened his door SO wide to SHINE HIS SHOES!! I waited for about 20 seconds, he looked at me but didn’t move… instead he continued shinning his shoes like there was no tomorrow! I can't believe those people, I didn’t want to honk or get angry, so I parked elsewhere!!


I reached the elevator…. and there he was about 10 meters behind me. Normally I would press the "open door" button if I see someone approaching. In his case, I was not close to the button, and someone else in the elevator said to his friend; "Push the close button" they were laughing… apparently he was a friend of theirs and they were teasing him. He started running faster to the elevator, dropped something, and when he picked it up the door was closing.. I looked at him EXACTLY the same way he did when he was shinning his shoes!

Karma Rocks! LOL

Great story on Gandhism

I received this by email earlier this week, and thought of sharing it with you all :-)
Ansam
________________________________


Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Non violence, in his June 9 lecture at the
University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story:

I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and had no neighbors, so my two sisters and I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies.

One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, since I had all day in town, my father asked me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced.

When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, "I will meet you here at 5:00 p.m., and we will go home together."

After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest movie theatre. I got so engrossed in a John Wayne double-feature that I forgot the time. It was 5:30 before I remembered. By the time I ran to the garage and got the car and hurried to where my father was waitingfor me, it was almost 6:00.

He anxiously asked me, "Why were you late?"

I was so ashamed of telling him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said, "The car wasn't ready, so I had to wait," not realizing that he had already called the garage. When he caught me in the lie, he said: "There's something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn't give you the confidence to tell me the truth. In order to figure out where I went wrong with you, I'm going to walk home 18 miles and think about it."

So, dressed in his suit and dress shoes, he began to walk home in the dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads.

I couldn't leave him, so for five-and-a-half hours I drove behind him, watching my father go through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered. I decided then and there that I was never going to lie again.

I often think about that episode and wonder, if he had punished me the way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at all. I don't think so. I would have suffered the punishment and gone on doing the same thing. But this single non-violent action was so powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday. That is the power of non-violence.

Banana Republic

Banana Republic opened in Kuwait :-)

Many people will be writing about it, but I have decided to take a different approach and write about its history...
Source: Wikipedia

The original Banana Republic was founded by Mel &Patricia Ziegler in 1978. It was a two-store safari and travel-themed clothing company. The majority of sales came from its eccentric catalog, which presented high-end and unique items with chatty, usually fictional, back stories from exotic locations, as well as more pedestrian high-volume products deliberately spiced up with a similar treatment. The company competed directly with the J. Peterman catalog later satirized on the TV show Seinfeld.

As Banana Republic expanded its retail operation, it became known for the themed decoration in its stores, often featuring authentic elements, such as real Jeeps and foliage, as well as atmospheric elements, such as fog and steam.
Gap Inc. acquired Banana Republic in 1983, eventually re-branding it as a mainstream luxury clothing retailer. The eccentric tourist-oriented items were phased out and were replaced with more of the "casual luxury"-type items for which the brand is currently known. For a time, Banana Republic ate into Gap's consumer base. To set itself apart from Gap as a more up market brand, Banana Republic occasionally buys and refurbishes historic buildings for its retail locations. Today the company operates more than 400 Banana Republic stores in the US (including Puerto Rico), and 24 stores in Canada. It has also recently opened 2 stores in Tokyo, Japan.

Banana Republic offers clothing in women's regular and petite sizes as well as in men's.

Recently, some men's stores were converted to sell petite sizes as well. It has also recently signed franchising deals in Malaysia, Singapore, and the UAE.
In 2007, the first Banana Republic store will open at the The Avenues mall in Kuwait and Grand Indonesia Shopping Town in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Banana Republic announced that it will open stores in Korea and the UK in January 2008.