Amazon Associate

Two reasons for writing this post:

1) I just became an Amazon Associate. Not because I think that it will make me rich, but I figured that if I’m going to keep referring to items on Amazon.com from my blog, then I might as well get some money from Amazon from time to time.

2) I just bought James Blunt’s new album and I really like (it also gives me a chance to try an Amazon Associate link): Check out Back to Bedlam

PBWiki – Get a Free Wiki

I just got myself a free wiki at PBWiki.com and it’s pretty cool. If you’re not familiar with this, you can check out the PBWiki tour.

Dany’s 5 Months Old

It’s amazing how quickly Dany is growing and changing. He seems to really enjoy interacting with us and is constantly looking for attention. Sometimes he’ll just sit there quietly and keep staring at us until we look at him. And when we do, we’re rewarded with a wonderful smile or laugh. He’s getting more curious about everything around him and when we take him out of the house, he loves to be carried around so that he can explore his surroundings. Because of Dany, even I’ve started noticing and appreciating things that I would have normally walked straight past.

He’s started teething and has this intense desire to lock his jaws on anything he can - his car seat buckle, our hands, our shoulders. He’s always sticking his fingers in his mouth and has a constant “drooling” of saliva. We’ve tried teething gels and teething “toys” but he likes the more “unusual” items around the house. The other day I picked him up and he went straight for my nose! We started giving him solids a few days ago and he’s doing really well. He loves the peach and apple baby food. The banana baby food didn’t go down that well, but that was maybe because it was one of the first things we gave him. He’s already getting a “sweeth tooth” and he doesn’t even have any teeth yet (although we can see a front tooth slowly starting to make it’s way out). Tamy tried to give him Barley cereal this morning but he wasn’t impressed with that at all. But the other day, I was eating ice cream and he started shouting “ah, ah!” so I let him taste a little…and I think I just created an “Ice-Cream Monster”! He insisted on more and more and got really upset when I wouldn’t give him any more.

Best of all, he’s started sleeping through the night (for almost a week now). We haven’t quite nailed the routine yet, so sometimes he’ll wake up but generally he’s starting to sleep in 7 or 8 hour stretches now. When he’s asleep I love to just watch him and long for him to be awake (as crazy as that sounds). He has a wonderful habit of always smiling when he sees you for the first time in the morning or when I come home from work. It just makes me melt. I always thought that I’d be the tough and disciplined dad, but I’m becoming such a pushover. I just want to use every ounce of energy I have to love him as much as I can and I want to do that forever.

Hamas Wins Palestinian Elections

I’m still in shock. I knew that Hamas was likely to win a large number of seats, but to actually win the election just seemed unthinkable. This is a historical moment and I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, I’m excited about the possibility of Hamas taking a path of democracy and influencing significant change (for the better) in the Middle East, but on the other hand I’m very worried. Abu Aardvark has written about this and makes some interesting points:

“we are going to see some major political science propositions put to the test:  does power moderate or radicalize Islamist groups?   Will they be willing and able to work with non-Islamist parties in a coalition?   Will they use their democratic victory to abolish democracy?”

And whilst on the face of it, it seems that the Palestinians have given up on hopes of Peace, Abu points out that:

“it seems fairly likely that the Palestinians vote for Hamas was less about endorsing an Islamist state or violence against Israel than about rejecting the corruption and incompetence of the Fatah Palestinian Authority.  Sweeping away the Fatah old guard would in and of itself be a service to everyone, especially Palestinians but also everyone who wants to see the rise of a competent Palestinian state.”

So the world waits with bated breath as the reality of what has just happened in the Middle East sinks in.

Fatwas are Cool

 
REUTERS
A police officer in Meerut in northern India pursues a young woman who has violated the city’s moral code.

The first time I heard the term “fatwa” was in 1989 when Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called for the death of Salman Rushdie because of his “blasphemous” book “The Satanic Verses“. For those of you who’ve been living in igloos, a fatwa as Wikipedia will tell you is:

“a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue”

And by the way, that doesn’t mean that fatwas are always “calls for somebody’s death”. The vast majority of fatwas are actually about the most mundane day to day matters. But I guess a fatwa on whether you can keep a beard dragon lizard as a household pet doesn’t really make headline news. But it seems that ever since Osama starting issuing fatwas, they’ve become “cool” in the non-Muslim world. We’re already used to hearing the use of Mecca as a slang in the non-Muslim world e.g. “California is the Mecca of the film-industry“. For many of us Muslims, hearing phrases like that is about as irritating as hearing the noise of finger nails scraping down a blackboard.

But now it seems that any term which “advocates an extreme religious or political position” gets described as a fatwa. But it still made me laugh when I read Padma Rao’s article about “The Fatwa against Mini-Skirts“. Now it seems that even in India – a predominantly Hindu country (where even 140 million Muslims are just a minority) a “fatwa” is used to describe the behavior of India’s (mostly Hindu) consersative middle class.

So are fatwas getting cool or is it just a sneaky way of pinning it all on the Muslims?

Road Rage in Pleasantville

We live in Pleasantville – not literally, but that’s what it’s like. Beautiful scenery (lakes, mountains, parks etc.), excellent schools, very little crime, people have nice houses, drive nice cars and generally people are extremely polite. It’s Pleasantville - I’m not proud of it, but that’s what it is.

So you can imagine my surprise when I saw two women in SUV’s fighting to get into the Starbucks drive thru this morning. Here’s a photo that I took:

The car on the left was clearly there first, but the woman on the right didn’t give a s**t and continued to barge her way into the entrance of the drive thru (whilst yapping on her mobile phone). Both the cars tried to force their way in…it was kind of like a drive-thru version of that “chicken” game! The woman on the left was fuming and got out of her car. I don’t blame her for being mad – she was there first and told the other woman that (as well as a few “other” things).

The other woman’s response? She drove her over the curb and into the landscaping, hit her car against the Starbucks sign and got in front of the other car. I guess she must have needed her coffee fix real bad this morning.

Also, now I know why so many people have SUV’s here.

Our Baby’s First Credit Card

I’m used to receiving letters from credit card companies all the time telling me that I qualify for their credit card. I keep a small number of credit cards, so usually these go straight in the trash. Now I know that retail stores tend to give a store card to just about anyone “with a pulse”, but I always thought that credit card companies had a higher standard…until today.

A few months back I registered Dany for an American Aadvantage card. We were taking a flight and had purchased a seat for him, so we thought that he may as well start collecting air-miles early! Well today, Dany received a letter from Citibank & American Airlines telling him that had “been selected by Citi” for a “Gold/AAdvantage World MasterCard” (with no preset limit)!!

Come on people…WAKE UP!!! The kid is just 5 months old!! 

Who Really Killed the President of Pakistan?

In 1988 I remember hearing the news of the plane crash that killed the President of Pakistan, General Zia-Ul-Haq, and feeling sad. I didn’t really understand or have much of an interest in politics at the time, but I knew that he was a courageous man who had played an incredibly important role in defeating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. I also recognized him as a deeply religious man who was committed to fighting the corruption in Pakistan. Many just viewed him as a tough and cruel dictator, but he really bought hope to many Pakistanis that finally we had someone in power who would help to create the state that many of us dreamed of. And when he was killed, that hope was gone.

Although the official line was that it was an accident, no one that I knew (who knew anything about Pakistan) actually believed that. He had many enemies and there were many conspiracy theories – the Soviet Union, India, the United States and Benizer Bhutto. Of course, there is always a conspiracy theory about Israel, but I’ve learnt to not pay too much attention to those, otherwise we’d be attributing everything that happens in the Muslim world to Israel (although in some cases, it is actually true).

So when I just read Eric Margolis excellent post about the former U.S. Ambassador to India, John Dean, accusing Israel of being behind the assassination of General Zia-ul-Haq, two things struck me:

1. How Dean’s statements have been completely ignored by the US media.
2. There has never been a full and independent investigation.

Should we really care about ”old news” and something that happened nearly 20 years ago? Well, perhaps not. But we know that the US government prevented the FBI from carrying out a proper investigation (despite the fact the US ambassador to Pakistan and a US general were also on the plane) and the fact that every successive goverment in Pakistan since 1988 has made no real effort to investigate this, makes me wonder more and more that there is a ”real” conspiracy theory behind this. As Margolis points out:

“The 1988 assassination of Pakistan’s President, Zia ul-Haq remains one of our era’s abiding major mysteries. Only the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy has produced wilder speculation and more conspiracy theories”

And to many Pakistanis, this is more important than JFK. So isn’t it time that we really got the truth about what happened?

 

Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

Haroon makes some really good and interesting points about the current situation in Israel. I also never thought that I’d be worried that Ariel Sharon might not be prime minister for much longer.

 

But how things change. Now I’m more concerned about the alternatives.

Are we ever going to see any meaingful and lasting peace in the Middle East?

Thank You David Letterman!

I’m not a regular Late Show viewer, but I do enjoy watching David Letterman when I can. And I’m so happy that I didn’t miss last night’s show and the interview with Bill O’Reilly. That man is so full of s**t and I’m so glad that someone finally told him that last night:

“I’m not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling about 60% of what you say is crap”
- David Letterman

I have never seen Letterman like this – he was on fire last night! He kept his usual “humorous” style but really told O’Reilly what a lot of us have wanted to for ages. And it was an absolute pleasure watching O’Reilly having to sit there and take it (and not be able to get all arrogant like he does when he’s on his own show).

It was classic television and it was (for me) the best of David Letterman. Thank you David!

And if you missed the show, here’s a video of the interview.