October 2007

Heh?!

I’m not even sure where I should begin given the many cool highlights of this experience. To make it easy, allow me to go about it day by day. So, let’s get started.

Day 1: Saturday, 20th October.

I arrived and checked into the hotel at about 5.30pm. By then, I was aware that the organizers were going to take us the bloggers out for dinner. By 7.00pm I was downstairs at the lobby waiting, unaware that the Arab guy waiting nearby was none other than Lebanese blogger, Mustapha of Beirut Spring. A few minutes later, the Egyptian Sandmonkey showed up. I was already expecting his presence after reading this post on his blog.

It was really cool finally getting to meet Sandmonkey whom I’ve been reading religiously for almost two years. He’s as crazy and entertaining in real life as he is on his blog.

Two CSIS staff members approached us. We thought Mohammed of Iraq The Model, the most well-known and ehm pro-US Iraqi blog in existence was joining us. He wasn’t.

20 minutes later, the five of us, Sandmonkey, Mustapha, the two CSIS staff members and I were talking blogging and politics at the restaurant. It was great. Two hilariously true and memorable quotes are the following:

• “We are not sensible people. We are emotional people.” Sandmonkey.
• “China deals with the world as it is. America deals with it as how it would like it to be.” Mustapha of Beirut Spring.

We finished dinner early and I didn’t want to head back to the hotel so I suggested shisha. The provocateur and controversy instigating Sandmonkey agreed and so we both left to the nearby Adams Morgan Street.

Here we were, the Sandmonkey and I sitting down and chilling face-to-face after almost two years of reading each other’s blog and exchanging occasional emails. I have to say it was a profound experience. It’s funny how it felt like I knew him for ages even though I had only just met him for less than three hours. The feeling was mutual. Not surprisingly, we talked and laughed a lot.

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I received this in my inbox a few days ago. It’s from a Sudanese working in a medical field in UK.

Dear Drima,

Salamz,

Just a brief email to thank and commend you on your outstanding blog. It seems to me (and probably a lot of modern Sudanese) to be a blog that really represents our true feelings and convictions (though a lot of us might not confess it publicly). You seem to be quite mature for your 21 years, I remember at that age my interests were definitely in more crazy things.

Love your wit and humour, the mystery of your identity also heightens the fun. To round it up- thanks man, keep it up- its great having an honest brave reasonable voice out there, specially when the rest of us are too lazy, busy or scared to share our true views.

Shukran ya zol!

Salamz

Muahahaha! More fan mail! More! MORE! It helps me keep my ego inflated. Yippieeee! Okay, I kid, I kid. It’s just nice getting something like this besides the hate mail you know? And for what? For simply having a different opinion which I’m not enforcing on anyone. Haha! Alright, showing-off time is over. Back to normal blogging.

So it’s the 14th of October and it’s my second time in the country and in Chicago. The euphoria isn’t as strong as it was during the previous visit but it’s still very nice to be here again though.

This time I arrived in the country at Washington DC’s Dulles International Airport. The journey was crazy. Being stuck so high in the sky for more than 20 hours is simply cruel. God bless Steve Jobs and Apple for inventing the iPod. I would have been bored to death without it.

Arriving in Dulles International Airport wasn’t pleasant. My process didn’t go smoothly. No, no, I didn’t receive harsh treatment at the hands of the Customs and Security officers. They were a bunch of cool guys – rigid and strict – but nonetheless very friendly. The problem wasn’t them. It was the freaking finger-print scanning system. It was down! It took quite a while for them to settle everything and I almost missed my flight to Chicago.

~~~*~~~

Chicago’s weather is lovely. Okay, maybe not. It’s not winter yet but to me it seriously feels like one. I’m finding it too damn cold and windy. That’s why I partially love it. This is the first time in my life that I get to go out wearing four layers of clothes (two short sleeve T-shirts, one long sleeve and a jacket). Even in the apartment, I wear my socks most of the time.

The weather here is prompting me to reconsider one of my childhood’s mini-dreams ie. building a snow man. What? Why not? I’ve never ever seen natural snow in my life, let alone play in it. I’d love doing that one day but I’m going to have to get used to a weather that is much, much colder. If I don’t, even plans for postgraduate studies in a few years from now in Canada or snowy parts of America might be put off. Sigh! Canadians, how the hell can you manage to survive up there when I might actually die down here?

Speaking of death, grave yards here are so damn nice. They are so green and tidy. Maybe that’s why some Americans love them as appropriate picnic destinations and dating spots.

~~~*~~~

Everything in Chicago basically looks the same. Nothing much has changed. I’m not as crazy about taking hundreds of photos next to the same landmarks and scenery as I was the previous time, but I was happy to get another chance to visit some restaurants I loved eating in.

Kabul House has some great Afghani cuisine. It’s a blend of Indian and Persian flavors. Pita Inn serves wonderful Arab food. Both are small restaurants but your taste buds will be satisfied.

Olive Garden didn’t disappoint, although some friends do ridicule me for being such a huge fan of the apparently “fake Italian chain of restaurants”. Fake or not, I like it. One thing I do hate though is when they start singing those retarded birthday songs in Italian. Oh my, it is so annoying.

A new amazingly unique and great restaurant I ate at for the first time here is none other than Fogo de Chão. You can expect the best Brazilian cuisine ever! For about 60 dollars per person, you can eat all you want. The food was absolutely orgasmic. While it was excellent, the overall experience was also nasty.

It’s too tempting not to stuff yourself like a Thanks Giving turkey. Try to resist or else. You may very well find yourself sitting on a “magical seat” composing super cool symphonies rivaling those of Beethoven.

Cuatro was another super lovely restaurant. They have amazing desserts and if you go on Friday night, you can expect a live Latin Jazz Band.

~~~*~~~

After spending an enjoyable week at Chicago, I packed up and flew to the kitchen of world politics, Washington DC, “the Belly of the Beast”.

To read posts from my previous trip to the United States, check them out under the following category: US June ‘06.

I just arrived. The journey was a total killer. I’m so drained. Me going to get some good, good sleep. After that, posts on the conference shall begin.

Okay so I’m still at the conference enjoying myself. I don’t have a laptop and I’m busy. Washington DC, “the Belly of the Beast” is wonderful. I’ll update you in 2 or 3 days when I’m back home. This has been one hell of a cool experience. The best part has been meeting other bloggers I read religiously. They include the man behind Iraq The Model. More Later!

Meanwhile check out this interview I did.

Remember my previous post on the SocialRank powered Sudan’s DailyVoices?

With more blogs on Sudan to read, I am having a harder time finding the hot posts of the day. It’s annoying going through each blog trying to find an interesting story or discussion.

… Well, SocialRank is a super cool mathematical algorithm which monitors the activity and social interactions occurring in the “Sudan blog community” real-time and determines what’s popular! More on how it works here. [it's sort of like Google's PageRank except this is called SocialRank and it's for blogs]

Some countries I’ve been waiting for just launched. It’s going to be a lot easier now finding the hot stories in the Iraqi blogosphere. Iraq’s DailyVoices is now officially in operation. Here’s a list of more locales:

• http://israel.dailyvoices.com/
• http://iran.dailyvoices.com/
• http://palestine.dailyvoices.com/
• http://southafrica.dailyvoices.com/
• http://dc.dailyvoices.com/
• http://newyork.dailyvoices.com/
• http://london.dailyvoices.com/

I hear they’ll be rolling out new improvements and cool features. What do you think of the recently launched DailyVoices? Please let me know your feedback.

Hmmm…

Me, me, me, I know why, I know why, please let me answer.

Ehm ehm, it’s a conspiracy. Shhhhh!!

Yes, it is. Apparently the tobacco and alcohol lobbyists are the ones behind the lies and propaganda exaggerating the dangers of the relatively harmless drug and making it seem similar to the very dangerous ones such as cocain, heroin, ecstacy and meth. Plus these greedy lobbyists know very well that if marijuana gets legalized, their profits will come diving down like a crazy World War II Kamikaze.

Okay fine, let’s get serious. Yes, there is some truth to the aforementioned but are there other reasons? Why is it illegal? No, not in Sudan. There even alcohol is illegal. After all it’s a majority Muslim country and most Muslims want no alcohol or marijuana (for the record I don’t smoke weed or drink alcohol but I do enjoy shisha).

I’m talking about America. Alcohol is super abundant here and it’s legal but weed isn’t. Why? I mean scientific research shows that both substances - unlike other hardcore drugs - are relatively the same in terms of harmful effects. Some even say alcohol is more harmful than weed. In mainstream American culture, alcohol is a part of most adult social gatherings (just like it is in many other places in the world). Why is the attitude towards marijuana different and why is it illegal? 

So, besides the tobacco and alcohol lobbyists, what are the reasons? Maybe economic ones are also part of the answer. The “underground” economy is worth billions in various American states, especially California. Legalization will mean bye bye to all that money.

Any other reasons?

Just a random question that popped into my head after stumbling on a Facebook cause calling for the legalization of marijuana.

Oh and in case you didn’t know, Elephant presidential candidate Ron Paul basically supports its legalization. He thinks it will free more time for cops to go running after the real criminals instead of catching non-violent people who use it recreationally. Those who oppose him have begun calling him the Pot Candidate.

I first came across the story while reading TechCrunch. It turns out China isn’t just stealing Google’s traffic but also the traffic of other Western search engines!

See TechCrunch’s new post on the issue for the details.

Yaaay to China’s wonderful regime! It has just declared cyber war on America. Best of all they’re using American technology to steal the traffic. Apparently they’re pissed off by Bush’s move to award the Dalai Lama.

Here what happens. Interesting and amusing!

… is in a few days. It will be held in Washington DC and it’s going to have quite a huge international attendance of about 700 people.

The conference is organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank based in Washington DC, in partnership with numerous institutes which include Princeton University. The conference’s name is ”Overcoming Extremism: Protecting Civilians from Terrorist Violence“.

I have been invited as a guest. I have come to find out that there are like-minded people watching my humble blog from far away and are impressed by it.

Two people I know about fairly well are going to be present as speakers. Firstly, Ammar Abdulhamid and secondly, the notorious and misunderstood Irshad Manji. I look forward to conversing with them and also attending the numerous sessions which will include one about the impact of new media on society and politics. As a blogger and a person interested in new media and Web 2.0 technologies, that’s where I’m most relevant.

You can view the impressive list of speakers who will be sharing their perspectives with everyone during the event right here. They range from bloggers, Professors, journalists, counterterrorism experts to victims of terror, film directors, sociopolitical analysts, Al-Azhar educated Muslim scholars and human rights activists. This should be a lot of fun.

Meanwhile, I’m enjoying Chicago and still finishing up my drafts. I’ll begin publishing them as soon as I’m done.

I leave to Washington DC early this Saturday. I might then go to NYC to meet one of my best friends and return to DC on Sunday. The conference begins on Monday.

If anyone who lives in New York is interested, I can try to make some time early Sunday and meet up somewhere in Manhattan (if I do go).

Oh and by the way, I’ve tagged all my posts from last year’s trip to the United States under: US June ‘06. Reading them now after all this time is funny. One year can make such a huge difference in a person’s way of thinking. More on that in upcoming posts.

Anyways, cheers yo! Ama go and try to find me a bagel.

The miracle that is known as Dubai. Its ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum is one hell of a man.

Watch this 10 minutes video or read the long article to find out more. Overall, Dubai is a success story like no other in the Middle East. And no, Dubai’s economy doesn’t rely on oil. In fact oil and natural gas make up less than 8% of it.

What are the Saudis going to do once their oil runs out?

Yeth yeth, of courth. The Egyptian government hath alwayth thupported free thpeech. Praith be to Hothni Mubarak, the greatetht prethident ever.

There were some tensions over U.S. criticism of human rights in Egypt. Rice told their press conference that in her talks with Mubarak and Aboul Gheit she brought up the issue of the detentions of four independent newspaper editors given prison sentences or put on trial for criticizing Mubarak.

“When we touch on issues we considered sensitive and internal, I listen. But my response is always that it is due process,” Aboul Gheit retorted. “This government does not interfere in Egyptian legal procedures.”

Buahahahahahahahahaha!