The Redbelt

نداءٌ للعقل والحكمة

2011-11-21T13:30:00.001+03:00

لأول مرة منذ عامٍ ونصف, أكتب هنا. ولأول مرة باللغة العربية أيضا. لكني أود أن أقول للبحرين شيئاً, فإسمعوني رجاءً.

يمر هذا العامثقيلاً على البحرين وسكانها. وعلى الرغم من أن أحداثها قد شتت أهلها وأبعدتهم عنبعض, إلا أن من السخرية أن يجمع الكل على أن هذه السنة مرهقةٌ بحق.

في بداية العام,حاولت تبيان نقاط التلاقي والتشابه بين أفراد هذه المملكة. فعلى الرغم من بعضالإختلافات, إلا إننا متشابهون في الحياة اليومية بشكل كبير. الثوب العربي ليسحكراً على طائفة معينة ولا العباءة. الكل يستعمل السيارات للتنقل ويسير على نفسالشوارع. الكل يلبس الجديد في العيد وله نفس الطقوس من عيدية وزيارة أهل وغيره.

إنكنت جالساً في الفضاء الخارجي تنظر لهذا الشعب بمنظار, فستصعب عليك رؤية فرق واضح عدا أن بعضهم يصلي هنا والآخر هناك.

وقد نسينا هذا.الخوف والغضب والحزن أعمونا. وهذا شيءٌ طبيعي ومتوقع. عندما تزداد العاطفة, يقلالعقل. لهذا نقول للعاشق إنه مجنون ولا يفيق إلا بوجود خاتمٍ في خنصره. ونعذرالغاضب إن تحدث بما لا يليق, فهو لا يعي ما يقول. بل العاطفة تخرجك من الدينأحيانا, وسأعطيكم مثالاً حيا: هيا, جرب معي؛ إذهب لزوجتك وقل لها إنك ستتزوج ثانيةً, هيا إذهب. سأنتظركهنا.

....

دعني أحزر: تعالىصراخها وربما قالت إن هذا حرام ولا يرضي الله ولا رسوله, صح؟ حسنا, إذهب لتراضيها ثمَّ أكملالقراءة.

في هذا المثالكفرت المرأة بحق الرجل للزواج بغيرها, السبب هو زيادة العاطفة التي أخرست المنطق الذي يقول أنها تؤمن بدين يقبل هذا الفعل ولا يجد حرجاً فيه.

هنا, في البحرين,ما يحدث, وما نفعل, ليس من المنطق ولا من الدين. لأننا منفعلون.

حديثي موجهٌللجميع دون إستثناء, وإني هنا إذكركم بتواضع, فإن الذكرى تنفع المؤمنين.

يعلق سمو وليالعهد الأمير سلمان بن حمد آل خليفة دوماً أن الخلاف ليس بين الطوائف والأديان, بلبين السياسات. فلا تقحموا الدين فيه. فالمسلم لا يأخذ بعض الدين ويترك بعضه (كماتفعل الزوجة الأولى في مثالنا). المسلم (وأنت على الأرجح كذلك) سيلتزم بالآيات والأحاديث التالية:

نحن متساوون

للأسف, عند الخلاف, كلٌ ينظر للآخر على إنه أفضل من ذلك وله الحظية عندالله, وعليه, فهو من فصيلةٍ أسمى. يا ناس, هذا ما أصاب إبليس عندما إعتقد إنه أفضلمن سيدنا آدم.

قال رسول الله صلىالله عليه وسلم: "لا فضل لعربيٍ على أعجميٍ إلا بالتقوى". بمعنى:

إلا: أداة شرط.يعني, أن الفرق الوحيد (أكرر: الوحيد) هو التقوى. الحمدلله, أرى أن رؤوسكم تهزبمعنى أن نعم. جيد. إسمعوني:

من الذي يستطيعقياس التقوى؟ واحدٌ أحد فقط. هو الله. صح؟ تمام. إذن, لا يوجد إي بني آدم قادر علىقياس التقوى. صح؟

حسناً, متى يتمهذا القياس؟ إن كان الله هو الوحيد القادر على ذلك فأكيد سيحدث هذا في الآخرة أيبعد يوم القيامة. تمام.

هذا يعني, حتى أنتقوم القيامة, فلا سبيل لقياس الفرق الوحيد بين الناس (التقوى). ودون الفرق الوحيد,فنحن سواسية. منطقي, هاه؟

إلا إذا توفىأحدهم, وذهب للآخرة ليستعلم ثم يرجع فيخبر. ولا أعتقد أن ذلك سيحصل قريباً.

إذن, نحن سواسية.أنا وأنت ومن يعارضك ومن غسل سيارتك ومن صنعها ومن خاط ملابسك وكل البشر. علىالأقل, حتى إشعارٍ آخر في الآخرة.

شعبٌ يسب نفسه

منذ فبراير وحتىاليوم, ارى سباً فظيعاً ومقيتاً. وأرى تهماً تلقى جزافاً على الخلق (وطالني نصيبٌ وافرٌمن ذلك أيضاً). نعم أعلم أنكم خائفون غاضبون. نعم. لكن عاطفتكم أنستكم قول الرسولصلى الله عليه وسلم: "ليس المؤمن بالطعان ولا اللعان ولا الفاحش ولاالبذي".

طعّان: مثل أن يقول أحدكم أن هذا فعل كذا وكذا دون أن يرى ذلك. هل رأيته يفعلذلك رأي العين؟ أين دليلك؟ أما اللعَان فمعروفة. منذ فبراير ونصف الشعب يلعن الآخرويحتسبه عند الله والآخر يرد عليه بالمثل. فلحنا! يا ناس اللعن مذموم وأيضاً لايفيد. إسأل حولك, هل إستفاد أحدٌ من اللعن أو خفت مصيبته؟ لا؟ اللعن هو الطرد منرحمة الله فلا تصدقوا أن لكم هذه القدرة الخارقة.

الفاحش هو ذو الفحش في كلامة وفعله,والبذي هو السفيه الفاحش في منطقه وإن كان كلامه صدقا.

عن أبي الغفاري أنه سمع رسول الله يقول: "ولا يرمي رجلا بالفسق ولا يرميهبالكفر إلا ارتدت عليه إن لم يكن صاحبه كذلك" رواه البخاري، ويقول "سبابالمسلم فسوق وقتاله كفر" متفق عليه. كما قال حبيبي المصطفى " لا يكون اللعانونشفعاء ولا شهداء يوم القيامة".

من منكم يود أن يكون فاسقاً بسب الناس؟

لا عقاب جماعي

يقول الله في القرآن الكريم: "ولا تزر وازرةٌ وزر أخرى". بمعنىبسيط: إثم الشيء وعقابه لا يخص إلا مرتكبه. لذا نرى مثلا إن مارس رجلٌ وإمرأةالزنا, فيقام عليهما الحد كلاهما. لكن, مولودهما لا ذنب له. بل هو بريءٌ حاله كحالأي مولودٍ آخر. وما مقاطعة البضائع والمحلات عندنا في البحرين إلا عقابٌجماعي. لا أعرف شخصاً واحداً قاطع منتجاًما أو شركةً ما لأنه رأى صاحب الشركة يفعل ما يستحق. بل الناس تقاطع بناءً علىطائفته أو إسمه. حسناً وما أدراكم ما بقلبه؟ لا يصح العقاب الجماعي, لأن هذا يؤديإلى كلام مثل "جماعتنا وجماعتهم" وهذا يتعارض مع التساوي الذي سنه ربالعالمين وذكرته أعلاه. الآية نزلت أصلاً في الوليد بن المغيرة , كان يقول : اتبعواسبيلي أحمل أوزاركم ; كما ذكر ابن عباس . وقيل إنها نزلت رداً على العرب في الجاهليةمن مؤاخذة الرجل بأبيه وبابنه وبجريرة حليفه. ويبدوا إننا مازلنا بعد 1400 سنة فينفس المكان.

ومقاطعة البضائع, ليس فيها من الإسلام شيء. فما قط سمعت أن الدين أمرنابقاطعة كذا وكذا. بل نعرف أن الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم إشترى شعيراً من يهودي علىأن يدفع له لاحقاً ورهن درعه عنده كضمان. لم يكن لديهم نقص في التجار المسلمينأيامها, وخصوصاً في سلعة نفترض تواجدها كالشعير. لكن التاجر اليهودي جزء منالمجتمع ويجب أن لا يُقصى منه. فمابالكم بمسلمين كبروا على نفس الأرض؟

لماذا خلقكم مختلفين؟

نعرف أن أوجه التشابه بين البحرينيين أكثر بكثير من أوجه الإختلاف. مع ذلكنرى ضيقي الأفق يطالبون بطرد فئة من البلد (وكلامي مازال للجميع). أما قرأوا قولهسبحانه وتعالى؟ "يا أيها الناس إنا خلقناكم من ذكرٍ وأنثى وجعلناكم شعوباًوقبائل لتعارفوا".

لاحظوا كلمة "لتعارفوا". لم يقل لتناحروا, لتتضاربوا, لتتقاتلوا,لتتساببوا. لا. قال لتعارفوا.

وتتعرف على من؟ هل تستطيع التعرف على من تعرف؟ لا, أنت تعرفه بالفعل. أنتلا تستطيع إلا التعرف على الغريب أو من يختلف عنك. وهذا الكلام بين شعوب ودول.فياللأسى, في دولةٍ بهذا الحجم إنقسم شعبها وصارت كل فئة غريبةٍ عن الأخرى, تخافهاوتنفر منها. يا للخزي.

يا ناس, بالله عليكم, ألا تعتقدون إن بمقدرة الله أن يجعلنا كلنا شعباًواحداً بمذهبٍ واحد؟ لكنه لا يريد ذلك. بل جَعَلنا شعوباً وقبائل عن عمد لنتعارف.هذه هي مشيئة الله بحسب كلامه عن نفسه.

مازلت تود التركيزعلى الخلاف؟

لا تدع التعصبوالعاطفة تعميك وإستغفر ربك. أعترف بوجود خلافات شديدة بين مكونات الشعب, نعم. لكنأن تجعلكم هذه الخلافات تخالفون شرع الله وتبدأون في السب والطعن والقذف واللعن,فلا خير يُرجى من ذلك أبداً. بل ولا تصدق للحظة أن هذا عمل بطولي أو يرضي الرب إذإني أثبتُّ لكم دون شك أن هذا لا يرضيه.

الإسلام دين سلاموليس دين كره. ونحن أبناء شعبٍ واحد ومتعلمون, ولسنا همجاً ومتخلفين. مشاكلناسياسية, والمشاكل السياسية تحل على طاولة بوجود أوراق وأقلام ونوايا صافية. أناأنادي العقل والحكمة الموجودان لدى كلٍ منكم. أناديكم للرجوع لتعاليم هذا الدينوأن لا تأخذوا بعضه وتدعوا بعضه. أناديكم لتعتصموا بحبل الله جميعاً.

ثقافة البحرين واحدة وممزوجة ولا تفصل. الحلوى البحرينيةرمزٌ لنا كفخار عالي. اللؤلؤ إصطادته كل الطوائف. أغانينا, أهازيجنا, مشاريعنا وكلمافينا خليطٌ منا. لا تنسوا من أين أنتم. أنتم بحرينيون. لا تفترقوا أبداً, نحنأفضل من هذا.

رب أرنا الحق حقاً وارزقنا إتباعه, وأرنا الباطل باطلاً وارزقنا إجتنابه. برحمتك يا أرحم الراحمين.

#blameAhmedZainal

2010-04-18T14:40:00.001+03:00

Blaming Ahmed Zainal is in! Get with it!

Murdering intelligence is a crime.

2010-04-04T10:49:00.000+03:00

In my job, I interview private sector employees and analyze their jobs in order to set a training plan to improve their performance or ready them for a new position. The employees fill out an assessment form before I start and I just seen one of the worst, although a common sight, unfortunately.
A young man, born on 1987, has a hard time writing properly. Simply writing! He left school at junior high, never finishing it.
The number of Bahrainis that leave school is shocking me. I don't have numbers but I constantly see young, very young Bahraini's who are illiterate or are very weak in basic reading and writing. The fact that our kingdom has systems that allow illiterate people to exist frankly sickens me.
As far as I know, primary education is mandatory. However, if I was, say, to not allow my son to study, are there any penalties to be imposed on me? Would anyone notice in the first place?
I saw many illiterate working men my age or younger who dropped out of primary school. How on earth is it possible that we cannot track and stop such occurrences?

I ~~suggest~~ demand that education up to high school be mandatory. Parents who fail to allow their children to study up to high school should be punished by law. Repeat offenders may face numerous penalties aiming to benefit the child. Extreme cases need the child to be removed from the custody of his/her parents and allowed to study should his/her parents deny him/her education or lead destructive lives that prevents the kids from studying.

And to all the Maatams and Mosques, shame on you. You should step up your game! These places of worship are blessed with strong social relationships and has a social responsibility to society. They should address parents who allow their kids to not study or prevent them from doing so. These social measures would often be more useful than regular legal measures.

The ongoing problem is that the illiterate do not try to improve themselves at all. The government does provide alternatives for adults who wish to finish their studies up to high school, but I have yet to meet one who did despite spending 3 years on this project. I was really ecstatic to hear about A9eel which is a unique programme to promote good work ethics and in turn push for individuals to improve themselves. I hope that the data of my work helped Tamkeen see the extent of the problem and made them come up with this.

If you know someone who stopped studying, please, talk to them. If you know of a parent who allows their kids to not study, talk to them, to their kids or report them if so needed.
You can make a change. Real change.

In case of Black Hole, Break Glass.

2010-01-13T10:14:00.002+03:00

My Physics Professor at NYIT-Bahrain shared this picture with me. She used to work at CERN and one of her physicist friends sent her this:

I asked her if this button is real, appearance it is. it shuts down the whole experiment should things get out of hands.
I know the picture is of a wall (or a table, I dunno) and the skeptics will not believe its CERN, well, she gave me one more picture to look at. That's one GIANT machine!

This better be on Digg soon or I'm switching to Reddit.

Not as funny as you think

2010-01-06T18:26:00.001+03:00

A Bahraini View Point

2010-01-04T14:22:00.000+03:00

Bahrain is filled with Negative Energy. Its giving off bad vibes or something and it's very contagous. I often adopt a "we-can-do-it" attitude sprinkled with some chllenge in a despeate attempt to infuse those around me with what is now so lacking in my heart.
Lands being stolen, riots for frivoulus reasons, traffic jams, profiteering traffic cops, endless pllution and no hope for individuals of rising in economical class. Everyone has a serious complaint. That amount of negative energy has generated its own mass and gravity that one would need a massive amount of energy to escape from its grasp.
Hence, it is refreshing and inspiring to see tidbits of hope. Shining examples roaming our decayed earth. Mahmood Alyousef (The famous reborn blogger) is channeling his energy to serve the forces of good. His quick video interviews, named Bahraini Views, shows other people who still have that zest, that glimmer in their eyes and that rock hard determination.
Thank you. This is just what I need. Just what, many of us need.

Please point your browser to their You Tube page and subscribe to get their latest entries.
http://www.youtube.com/bahrainiviews

Me no understand!

2009-12-07T12:55:00.001+03:00

I was working on a Beta version of Microsoft Office 2010. Powerpoint gave me a unique remark. Click on the picture to enlarge and read:

"Whats this? Its all gibberish to me! Naaaahh. Throw it out. Throw all that shit out!"
Funnier if you read it in a Chris Rock voice, BTW.

The end of Blogging

2009-09-29T23:19:00.001+03:00

In 1996 I had a geocities website which I coded entirely in HTML using notepad. Old school. I also used HTML based chat rooms. That was big then. But times changed.
10 years later I started blogging here on my desktop. And blogging as a concept came to be.
A huge leap to be sure. But, as is the case with print media, blogging as we know it is dying.
It was cute to see people describe thier blogs as ramblings, thoughts, opinions, and the like. It gave humans insight never previously available. Access to restricted news and innermost thoughts to humans. But, is this even valid right now?

I concider my self a good measure of when things are gaining popularity and when they begin to die. It is my opinion that blogging in that sense is dead. I really do not care what bloggers think anymore.
Example: if you overheard someone talk about anything on a supermarket line or on a train or a bank, does it really matter to you? Probably not. It's just something someone anonymous to you said. So what? Why on earth would the same thing matter to me if it was printed on a blog?
Gaining an insight on peoples thoughts was once what blogs enabled you to do. Twitter has since took over that responsability. And still, twitter reflect only the tweeting community, not general public, it is then still a limited tool but it has two advantages. For one, I would think that hot topics and breaking news are better represented by an average of a group rather than the one sided argument of one or two bloggers. Trends in Twitter does that. I also think that the common blogger does not resemble the common man much, twitterers however, while still different, are a closer match.
Twitter is not complete. It will either evolve or something better will come along. But blogs ceased to provide me with solid opinions representative of the masses or unbiased credible news.
So are blogs dead? No. They are simple different.
Specialized blogs are a valuble source of information and expression. While the musings of a random girl or the rants of some man start losing interest, specialized blogs by informed people gain importance. They resemble newspaper columnists. A finance website by someone with a solid background in finance or investment can provide valuable insight. Car blogs by racers and die hard car guys, fitness blogs by trainers or amature players and movie blogs by film aficinados are all good examples.
It is from this understanding that I started two other blogs, arablish.net is one that focuses on the lack of respect and attention we show to the Arabic language, being an ex newspaper columnist and the son of a renouned poet I saw my self able to add value there. My other blog, ithnain.com is a video cast presented by my self and fellow blogger Eyad Ebrahim in Arabic as we both have around 20+ years of gaming experience.
This blog (theredbelt.com), being unfocused has been losing both readership and my interest. Infact, most Bahraini bloggers feel a slump is taking place. Blogs, as they were, are ineffective in this age and have little, if any, impact at all. Posts are dwindeling and bloggers are stopping. In fact, if you are Reading this, chances are that you are, or were, a blogger yourself. It is a small closed inactive community.
It is a shame but it has to be realized sooner or later. Blogs and bloggers need to evolve and provide significant value added. The times are achanging.

I used to blog from my desktop. But not anymore. I now wrote this on an email on a very different device.
Times changed We must change.

Sent from my iPhone

Trustworthy Juice

2009-07-07T16:49:00.005+03:00

This is from a Kuwaiti Juice Company "JUDA". Well, at least they are honest. Someone should give them a call and laugh at them.

Daddy Knows Best

2009-06-25T15:46:00.003+03:00

My dad returned from China yesterday. So I went to see him and welcome him back. After some small talk he reaches into the still packed suitcase on the floor and yanks out a bag with an Astro Boy Silhouette.

Dad: Here you go.
Red: What's that?
D: Somethings I got for Baby Tameem. There is a T shirt for you too.
*unpacking*
R: Gee dad! ASTRO BOY! Love that! cute small clothes! I love the T Shirt too. But it looks a bit big?
D: BIG? Says who?
R: Well look; you got XL. I would need L.
D: Who says you're a size L?
R: Huh? I do!
D: No you're not! You are XL, if not XXL even!
R: Wait.. What the?? How can "I" be XXL?
D: I wear XXL sometimes.
R: That is your call! I am M or L. This shirt is big!
D: No you are NOT! You are an XL and this T shirt fits just fine!
*goes to toilet, door closes*
...

Handicapped Internet for a Premium

2009-06-21T14:18:00.004+03:00

It is no wonder why telecom companies make zillions in this world. From over charging sms rates and data rates to internet. The biggest legal scam ever.
Batelco just released their new pricing. Some will say that these are good. But they are only good when compared to Bahraini rates, which are a rip off anyway. In real life, it is bad. Very very bad.
The rates, if you are still in the dark:

Speed	Price	Max Usage
10MB	BD80	50GB
8MB	BD60	40GB
4MB	BD50	25GB
2MB	BD30	20GB
1MB	BD25	15GB
640kb	BD16	5GB
256kb	BD10	2GB

How about that?
In a discussion on Facebook in the Bahraini Internet Society's group, I posted this (with correction):

Some of you may know that I host a gaming show at Ithnain.com. So from a videogamer viewpoint: These speeds are useless.
Speeds and ping rates prevent us from playing online properly with other players. Simply the devices and software are not designed for our slow "speednets".
We are falling behind on productivity. As an example: There is a device called OnLive, which will be an always connected gaming console. Its minimum (I repeat: Minimum) speed requirement is (real) 1.5MB. I said real, not "up to". That is the minimum.
Average performance is suggested at 5mb. (Wikipedia)
By looking at this device alone we can see that we are no longer going along the rest of earth. Even Facebook, Vimeo & You Tube find it hard when I upload videos and I must use the "basic" uploader for our "slow" speeds. I have 1 Mb at home and 2 mb at work.
Netflix are renting movies online by straeming them in Hi Definition. This would be impossible in Bahrain. When will it be possible? Probably when a strong family business man or a royal makes a similar site and orders Batelco to increase speeds to accomodate this.
These new Batelco speeds and prices are appalling. The prices would be right if you multiply the speeds by 10. ie: 100mb for BD 80, and so on. Don't get me started on the threshold. I do know that a few (very very few) companies abroad have thresholds but they are much, MUCH higher than these weak limits. Threshold should be to prevent you from making your PC a server or a torrent seed point, not to stop you from using the damn connection!
If this situation is not fixed and soon, we could find ourselves in the next two years with unusable websites and services.
You've been warned.

Where is this blog going?

2009-05-31T15:06:00.002+03:00

I started this blog to comment on another.
Then I used it like Facebook for a while.
Then I thought I'd write to foreigners about Bahrain.
Then I thought I'd write about videogames to Bahrain.
About Sports.
About politics sometimes.
And even about nothing.

But I can't help to feel that ... This blog is pointless.
nope. It's not doing it for me.
I have two other blogs, one is Arablish.net (Arabic) about misuses and errors of Arabic usage. I kinda like this one.
The other is Ithnain.com (Arabic also) which is a videogame show which started out monthly and should be weekly starting June.
But the Redbelt is rather vague, isn't it? I thought I'd keep it as a free space to write whatever I please, but that does not bring in regular readers, and if no one is reading, it'd be pointless, won't it?
I have been think about making this an Arabic speaking blog. If this blog is to make a real impact, it should speak to the masses. Theme? I think I'd still stick with logic. I like logic. That could be a decent them, can't it?
Now I need a motive. Why should I change the Redbelt (or keep it at all really)?
...
...
I like to improve "things".
people, systems, everthing.
If I can sense that I am of use to someone out there, that would give me good reason to blog.
I need to sleep on this thought a bit. Please share with me your thoughts as well.

LMRA Taxes, are they any good?

2009-04-09T13:23:00.001+03:00

I have ignored this blog for longer than I should, haven't I? I apologize, and that demands a dedicated post on its own.

This blog of mine usually does not delve into politics. If you look at the most used tags, you will surely find politics somewhere at the bottom. My most used tag is of course: Bahrain. Which is why I'm writing today.
His Highness the crown Prince has a vision of where he wants Bahrain to be economically. Thus he established the Economic Development Board (EDB) which in turn established the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA or sometimes pronounced as: lemra).
LMRA has many goals, but one of the main ones are to make Bahraini's the employee of choice rather than expats, especially if they were unskilled or moderately skilled. The EDB established another entity called "Tamkeen" to help with that but more on it later.

Now, the LMRA is taxing companies, they have to pay BD 10 per month per each expat employee they employ. Once that happens the world goes NUTS! "We are DOOMED" cry businesses. For this tax apparently will break their business. Because I am a blogger and not an LMRA spokesman I can use colourful expressions like "Fuck you, you dumb fuck. You are what is holding us back." But I wont. :)
See, several companies write in the papers saying how doomed they are, some well known papers, oh hell, let me name them: Akhbar Alkhaleej & Alwatan are at the forefront of a media campaign to battle this tax. Alwasat is also defending the majority of shiite readers with stories on how businesses are failing, families are bankrupt, prices are going up for Bahrainis and how maybe, just maybe, the government, maybe (did I say that before?) does not care about us poor citizens. Maybe.

OK people, calm down. Let me explain why and how this works:

1- Too Many Expats, Too many jobless Bahrainis:

We do have way too many expats here, over 50% 0f the population actually. Companies hire in Bahrain for two main reasons: Cost & Stability.
Decreasing costs is at the forefront of any business. So companies here try to pay the lowest salaries possible. But they do that in an unethical way.
Picture your friendly road digging worker. They get at best BD 80 per month. Just a bit over US$ 200. Yes, PER MONTH. Now obviously this is much less than the job deserves. For one, the workers work under the direct rays of our friendly sun. Next they work in roads which anyone in Bahrain can attest how safe that can be. Not to mention the lousy work environments.
This job obviously is worth much more than a mere BD 80 per month. True, it doesn't need a degree, but it is freakishly hard work. What happens is instead of companies paying what the job is WORTH they pay salaries based on MARKET PRICE (See the Supply/Demand image attached). Because there is a supply of cheap unskilled labour, they get away with paying less than what they should. Just because there are many supermarkets doesn't mean we can pay less than 100 fils for a cola can, but companies do. If Bahrainis woun't work for that salary, Indians will. If Indians woun't, Bangladeshis will, if Bangladeshis woun't maybe the Vietnamese will. So companies scoure the Earth looking for the cheapest alternative. This creates an unfair work package. This point leads us onto the next: stability.

Bahrainis will not work for such low salaries. And if they did, it's a matter of months or weeks before they can find better jobs. So Bahraini people will not work for long at unfair jobs. But expats, thanks to a sponsorship system, cannot leave to find another job. They HAVE to stay and work for the greedy employer or be returned home which is often not an option for many of them.
This example was based upon road workers but is true for every job capacity.

2- Making things even:
So since they hire for cost and stability, these reasons must be made equal to Bahrainis and fair for all. The LMRA tax serves to make expats a more costly option. But still, that alone is not enough. So the next logical step is to abandon the sponsorship system and adopt issuing working Visas to expats. Giving expats the liberty to change employers if a better chance come up.
In essence: if Bahrainis will not stay and work for you, eventually expats woun't.
Companies which have crappy packages or working conditions get around the high turnover in Bahraini staff by hiring expatriate ones.
When this system is fully in place, it will mean that companies cannot hire for cost nor stability anymore. They must hire for competency and competency alone. If you can do the job, well, you are hiered.
What this also means is that the salaries will get better organically. If a company suffers from a high turn over of staff because the package or work environments are lousy, then they HAVE to make them better to attract people to stay.
Eventually this will happen:
Companies offer better jobs, better salaries and also have better quality because they hire for competence.
Good no?

So Why are they making a fuss? Because they are greedy.
They want to keep earning money as if its 1985. Same profit model. The thing is, they can't. They just can't. The world is different now.

The companies that are going to be stubborn and stick with unfair low salaries will simply have no one to work for them. They have two choices:
1- Improve working conditions, including salary, benefits and safety
or
2- Die

If you have no one to run the business, you don't have a business. So businesses better step up.

So companies are complaining about paying BD 10 per month. Big freaking deal! You will not go bankrupt because of that and if you are, then you have another problem.
Lets imagine shall we? You have a business, OK? And you employ 50 expats. Fine? Which means you have to pay 500 per month. OK? See, that should NOT be a problem. Because if you have 50 staff members, and 500 dinars a month puts you in the red, then, you are running a real crappy business my friend! BD 10 per employee should in no way make companies go bankrupt or affect their profit in a significant manner. If it does then here are some solutions:
a- Go to business School you idiot
b- Change the business you are in
b- Sell the business. You are crap and lazy.

Companies that wish to AVOID paying extra fees for expats should simply hire Bahraini's. If you simply click on Tamkeen's website, you can see that they will go out of their way to help you and train all the staff you need for free. There is really no comparison here:
Unskilled uneducated expat + fees? OR Skilled and Educated Local + No fees + lotsa support?

This model will cause the price of goods and services to spike up of course. After all, companies are not used to this. However, salaries should also spike because of this, so theoretically you will not feel it.

I personally feel this is a great step in the right direction. I am passionate about it and can't wait to see the fruits. I know we will soon get into a "Storming" phase, but will eventually move on to the Norming & Performing phases in the future.

If only companies see things the way I do.

Umm alhasam's speed

2009-03-08T20:52:00.000+03:00

This was taken (and written) in Umm Alhasam's traffic. The 2 is my calculated average speed.
I think I can speak for everyone when I say: "FUCK THAT!"

Bahrain is in which country?

2009-02-15T14:08:00.003+03:00

The Google search results as of today moments ago. Look at the highest two search results. (Click to Enlarge).

Priceless.

Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T Test drive [Redcast]

2009-02-09T10:59:00.003+03:00

The car was real fun to drive, although I do demand more power than the 2.0T offers. However the turns were tight and the suspensions stiff (this may turn some people off).
The Turbo's boost is hardly felt, it seems to kick in after 2000 RPM but it isn't noticed unless you are trying to notice it on purpose. The doors open and close firmly which is pleasant. The Mustangs and Camaros I've seen had their door rattle when I close them despite being brand new in the show room.
I didn't like the fact that the RPM was over 3000 when driving on 120 kph, guess the V6 will take care of this hopefully.
Smart features I liked: the boot (or trunk if you're American) is quite spacious for a car like this. Moreover, the two rear seats can be flattened to increase space. And you can do that directly from behind the car by pushing a button. You don't need to do it from inside the cabin.
Another tiny feature I liked was the locks. Most cars lock the doors when it starts to move, and so does this one. But the coupe actually opens the doors again for you when you shift the gear to "P". Cute!
Overall I am happy with the quality and ride. This car is perfect for a daily driver that does not mind a stiff sporty ride. It is also great for tuners that do not care for warranty.

Way to go Hyundai. It's cars like these that will make your brand a little more desirable and exciting.

Liberating Speech

2009-01-26T14:49:00.005+03:00

Five days ago, I wrote a note on Facebook:

Imprisonment of Speech

I am sure most of you know of the efforts of the Ministry of Culture and Information to ban websites. I think we are all together that this is unacceptable, unimplementable, and simply put: ILLEGAL as it goes against the Bahraini Law which protects the freedom of speech.
A group of us tried to avoid this by introducing the Anti Hate Code of Ethics (http://www.bahraincodeofethics.com) and prefer that any offending website be prosecuted under the law with a chance of representation rather than resort to this old and ineffective method.

My friends,
Whether you signed the code or not, I implore you to write about the matter in your own blogs. We should also unify our forces to make our voice heard. We could hold up a rally or send one letter of objection bearing our signatures. I invite you to come up with more suggestions on what we can do about it.

Regards,

Manaf Almuhandis
Redbelt

TheRedbelt.com
Arablish.net
Ithnain.com
Bahraincodeofethics.com

Now, this has started with Shaikha Mai Alkhaleefa taking the helm as a minister. I am a fan of much of her work. She brought a breath of fresh air to Bahrain when she saved our souls with the “Spring of Culture”.

However, I would have to disagree with her on this virtual blind fold. Let me try to paint you a picture:

It is the 1980’s. No internet and no Satellite TV channels and nothing. The only communications we have with the outside world are videotapes, cassettes, books and magazines.

In these simpler times, banning something would actually work. If the government says for a reason or another that a film for example is unacceptable and not wanted, the majority of the population, if not all, will not get to see it. Tapes will be easily found and confiscated. And then what? Banning media at that age was quite effective.

But that was a long, long, LONG time ago. Just look at my brother, he was a mere idea in ’86 and was born in ’87. Today he is a 186 cm tall man, with a goatee, driving license and a college degree. Media has grown that much too.

What is the ministry hoping to achieve? Seriously? If they think they can stop people from accessing info and media in 2009, they must be delusional. Let me just count the ways that I, a non IT technician, could think of:

1. Use a proxy website. I know these get banned too, but hundreds pop out every day. The proxy websites are aware of that and email their customers a list of new addresses periodically.

2. Use a programme like Hotspot. Even if the download site is blocked, many have it and will circulate it through email forwards to all of Bahrain by this weekend.

3. Subscribe in RSS & Atom feeds: Simple. All blogs and many websites have them now. Simply click on “Subscribe to the Redbelt” to the right side bar and you will see the familiar orange box looking icon. Just click that icon wherever you go and you can get the posts immediately by email. Or you can use a service like Google Reader to read it there.

This is just off the top of my head.

Let us assume I had a blocked website (god forbid), I can easily clone my ENTIRE website and have it running from a free server with a new unblocked address. I can also email all my readers so they would know. Effectively making the ban absolutely worthless in 15 minutes.

I do understand that Shaikha Mai Alkhalifa, and the rest of the people at the ministry, mean well. So, here is my honest solution to the ministry: Go with the flow.

Example: In martial arts; to stop a punch you can either block it (which uses lots of energy and you risk injury) or... redirect it. Like Akido. Look at the following video.

Now, this is implementable in real life.In practice we can look at Apple:

One day, people found out that MP3s were popular. CD sales went down. Piracy went up. All the companies started FIGHTING mp3 sites trying to stop it, but they couldn’t. They still can’t.

Apple went and introduced itunes. If people want MP3s, give them MP3s! So simple. It worked.

The ministry is trying to block sites, which is pointless. I will still go to the same websites I went to and get all the media I got before the ban. I REPEAT: I will still go to the same websites I went to and get all the media I got before the ban. I am not affected. Bahrain is.

I am concerned about the public view of the ministry and, by extension, Bahrain as a whole. We don’t want the world to think that we are ruled by a dictatorship do we? Especially when reality is anything but that. In our post reform Bahrain, freedom of speech is guaranteed in the constitution itself:

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Chapter III, Article 23 (General Rights and Obligations): “Freedom of opinion and scientific research is guaranteed. Everyone has the right to express his opinion and publish it by word of mouth, in writing or otherwise under the rules and conditions laid down by law, provided that the fundamental beliefs of Islamic doctrine are not infringed, the unity of the people is not prejudiced, and discord or sectarianism is not aroused.”

The National Action Charter also addressed the matter:

The National Action Charter, Chapter I (Fourth: Freedom of expression and publication): “Every citizen shall have the right to express himself orally, in writing or in any other way of expression of personal opinion or creativity. Under this law, freedom of scientific research, publishing, press and printing are ensured within the scope specified by law”, provided it is a responsible freedom within the scope of preserving the social fabric, and does not infringe on the freedoms of others or their religious, sectarian, or intellectual affiliation.

I strongly suggest that the Ministry uses our Judicial system. If a website is considered offensive, a court case can be filed and the law will take its proposed course (That is, after all, why we have courts in the first place). Even if there was a need to rush and take a site down in a short time, an urgent case can be filed and such an order can be had within a day.

I hope the ministry takes heed of my humble advice.

I thank the many bloggers who wrote on the matter:

Another Day in my life

Khalidbahrain (Ar)

And many, many more...

IDF officers admitt there was no gunfire from Gaza school

2009-01-10T21:02:00.001+03:00

In briefings senior [Israel Defense Forces] officers conducted for foreign diplomats, they admitted the shelling to which IDF forces in Jabalya were responding did not originate from the school. UNRWA is demanding an objective investigation into whether the school shelling constituted a violation of international humanitarian law

read more | digg story

Support Ghaza

2009-01-09T18:37:00.003+03:00

You may have noticed that this blog wasn't updated with a "Happy New Year". The thing is the new year didn't start happy. Israel keeps bombing the innocent civilians of Palestine. The death toll at the moment stands at 765.
When we hear of the death of one person, we feel sad. Millions felt sad when Bernie Mac died. When Anna Nicole Smith died. When Foe died on the pitch. the examples are numerous.
But 765? It's only a number. You don't know them. Stalin said it best: "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic."
People are angry, this blogger included. Today, a Rally to express this rage started out after Friday prayer.

Here is my $0.02 analysis:
Israel claims that Hamas is shooting at Israel and that they hide between civilians. Thus the civilian deaths. Lets analyze this:
1- Hamas could be hiding between civilians. But after 765 civilian deaths, this is proven to be a failed tactic as Israel will bomb you anyway. Hence, if I was a civilian, I wouldn't harbor Hamas in my house. No sense the two of us dying. My civilian death will add nothing.
But this is not the case, is it? As I see more civilian deaths every day; this leads me to...

2- Hamas is NOT hiding between civilians. Which would make sense as Israel claims rockets are still being fired at them. Which means they're not dead yet nor their machinery is destroyed. If this is so, then the only reason I can think of to continue the raids...

3- Israel is killing civilians on purpose to: a) inflict internal pressure on Hamas to cease. And b) Decrease the number of Palestinians anyway.

So I do think that Israel is committing mass war crimes here.

Another catalyst for killing Arabs is Money. Someone somewhere is making money off of it. Rationale:
Israel is the #1 recipient of American foreign Aid.
$2.4 Billion is given away to Israel per year. This will change starting 2009 to be $30 Billion per annum for the next 10 years (That is a total of $300 Billion, my friends).
Purpose?

Virtually all of this money is used to buy weapons (up to 75% made in the U.S.).

So the US gives money to Israel, but forces it to spend three quarters of it on American weapons.
In plain simple English, to me American friends:
Someone is taking your tax dollars, giving it to Israel, and is TELLING Israel to give it to certain arms merchants.
You may as well just give the money to the Arms merchants yourself!

If I was an Arms merchant who can get access to these billions upon billions, I would certainly "secure" my friends in the government who would "facilitate" such laws. I would also be tempted to "increase demand" in Israel by, well, I dunno. Faking attacks? Spreading rumors? Inciting Hamas (or any other) to strike? Having Israel in need of Arms gives me the Ferrari liquidity I need.

People, the ones dying in the middle are innocent. If you have to be a skeptic then most of them are innocent and I don't buy this collateral damage crap.
Do something about it. I'm not talking about mere donations. That is simply giving the man a fish. Please, do something to break this vicious cycle. I implore you.

Redbelt Blacklists Chili's

2008-12-23T02:00:00.004+03:00

Chilli's is one remarkable restaurant. A historic restaurant. It first opened up in Bahrain in the dawn of the Seef Mall era. lines of people waiting to sample its delicious food and did not mind waiting for hours. It was the hip place to be and any body who was somebody was seen at Chilli's .
Not anymore.

Chilli's "celebrate" now the opening of their 10th branch. I mourn a once prestigious brand.
Ever since the Jawad group acquired Chilli's from its previous owners and the quality of food and restaurant experience declined really hard. Jawad does operate some good restaurant. I am a fan of the Great Kabab Factory for example. But they really screwed the Chilli's brand.
I would usually say that this is my humble opinion. But it's not. This is fact. And I have photographic proof. I'll get to that in a second, but first of all let me discuss what I don't like:

lower food standards
Everyone is talking about this. Have you looked at your dish recently? There are no broccolis anymore. There is Cauliflower instead. Why? It is CHEAPER! Yes, they are cheap.
Zucchinis are no more to. Instead, you have carrots. Again they are cheaper. My friend Nawaf innocently called a waiter to alert him to this situation:
Nawaf: "Excuse me. There is no Broccoli in my plate."
Waiter: "Yes sir. We are serving Cauliflowers instead."
N: "Cauliflower? did you run out of Broccoli?"
W: "No sir. We have updated our steamed vegetables. We don't serve Broccoli anymore This is it now"
N: "B..But the pictures in the menu is different!?"
W: "Yeah...... well.... we don't have Broccoli anymore. This is our NEW steamed vegetables."

Not only do they not serve it. Broccoli became a black market item at Chilies! At another visit"
Nawaf: "Excuse me. There is no Broccoli in my plate." (Please read the conversation above again then follow up with this)
N: "I don't care. I WANT BROCCOLI. I want my food the way it was meant to be!"
Waiter: "But we don't have any!"
N: "OK. Take my dish back. I don't want it."
W (thinking hard then looking left and right): ".... ... OK, OK..... let me see what I can do. I'll try to secure some for you."

At this point my jaw just hit the floor. THE WAITER WAS GONNA HOOK US UP WITH BROCCOLI! I felt like I was buying drugs! It was there in secret and all hush hush! WTF?

Customer Service? Why?
Chilli's always greeted patrons with a smile. The waiter / waitress helped us rather quickly and get down to their knees to take orders so they would be at our seated eye level. No more.
Now you wait, wait, wait, call, call, stop, call again then SHOUT so the waitress comes and hands out menus to you and leaves. When they take orders they no longer kneel down anymore.
This might be insignificant to some, but it shows that the value of the franchise simply eroded.
In my last visit to Chilli's @ Dana mall, no one came to take our orders. The restaurant seemed obviously understaffed. We begged for menus, just the menus. The supervisor threw the menus at us in a hurry and said that they were busy, with a nice frown on his bald face. Wow. Thank you for making me feel welcome. Guess which finger I'm holding up?

The Smell
Being greedy, Chilli's management are trying to adopt the Costa Coffee approach: be in as many places as possible. This caused rather unsuitable locations. Like the Chillies @ The Centre. It is so small that patrons clothes reek of cooking odours because the kitchen is too close to the seating area. Also the sound of pans clonking, orders shouted and food sizzling is exactly what I need to relax.

The destruction of a Concept
Chilli's was a "Casual Dining" experience. With the number of restaurants there is now and the lower standards, "Casual Dining" just changed into "Overpriced Fast food". It is. It's just is.

Lower Hygiene and Cleanliness
It is not strange to see things on the floor, spilled drinks on the tables and tables that are just not cleared. I took pictures in my last visit to Dana Mall branch. Just look:

Look at the table: Empty bottles, half drunk glasses, a bag full of garbage on a food counter, bananas thrown on the table after Hastingly preparing something. It was messy.
Look here:

Garbage greeting you at the entrance.

And in between the tables inside as well.
The staff were simply walking past / walking over the trash.

Chilli's Bahrain was asking for it for a long time now. TheRedbelt.com is blacklisting Chilli's Bahrain on the following charges:

Bad Service
Low Hygiene
Bad Quality

At least these three problems must be solved before their name can be lifted from my list.

This blog post will be sent to officials at Jawad Group and also submitted to Chillis .com via their feedback form.
Kindly leave your opinion on the poll to the right and on the comments to this post. I look forward to hear what you all think.

The penelty for rapists

2008-12-23T00:58:00.002+03:00

This poll was the lowest participated poll. Only Two entrants? I expected more specially concidering how touchy the subject is. Anyway, the results were:

How should rapists be punished?

Fined and made to sign a a pledge	0 (0%)
Should serve some jail time	0 (0%)
Shuld serve a LONG jail time	0 (0%)
Should be executed	2 (100%)

Votes so far: 2
Poll closed

Please take another look at my post about the rape of a mentally challenged Bahraini boy. It deserves more attention than it got. Thank you.

Charity Stamps [Poll]

2008-12-05T04:13:00.002+03:00

Love them!	0 (0%)
It must be optional and transperant	3 (75%)
Hate them.	1 (25%)
I really don't care.	0 (0%)

Votes so far: 4
Poll closed

Raping Kids is FUN!

2008-12-05T03:19:00.002+03:00

You may have heard or read about the recent rape crime in Riffa where 4 adult men kidnapped a 15 year old boy (ar), raped him and then let him go after threating him to keep quite. Thank god he didn't and he is mighty brave for that.
However, many writers in the local media, and some bloggers too, have turned this into a citizenship issue, claiming that some of the rapists were not "original" Bahrainis and that the government's naturalizing efforts are bringing this on us.
While this theory may hold some water, the bulk of the people are forgetting the actual problem: A CHILD WAS RAPED!
The only reason this incident got so much exposure was because of the involvment of the naturlised men. People who were against the practice used this all too well, and so they should. But, do you have any idea how many incidents actually go on but never reach the surface?
I'm not even talking about unreported incidents, I'm talking about incidents with reports to the police and everything. Let me give you one example here:

This is a real story that I got first hand from a Bahraini family. A divorced mother is raising two boys, one adult and the other is mentally challanged, let us refer to him by "H".
H was raped by 2 adult men in their mid thirties three years ago. The rapists were Bahrainis and live in the same neighbourhood.
H was in a very sorry state. But he was able to describe to his family what happened and he was able to identify the men. The mother and the brother go to the police.
Very very long story short: The men were seized, were given a fine of BD 100 each, signed a pledge to never do that again then off they went back home.
Justice was served.
Oh, I forgot. The police threatened to throw H's brother in jail. Why? They thought he was a "witness" and said he shouldn't have stood by idally watching his brother get raped. He tried his best to tell them that he was NOT there and he merely "transelated" his brother's words to the police. No, he had to pay a BD 50 bail to keep him out of jail.
To recap; this is the view point of the mother: My mentally challanged son gets raped, the rapists live in the neighbourhood and are back where they are. My son is scarred for life. My other son gets threatened with Jail time for actually going to the police for help.
Nice.

Dear readers, this story is real, happened three years ago. All parties are pure Bahrainis. It never saw any media coverage at all. This blog post is all it got.

Just last week, the police called the brother, saying that the BD 50 bail money shouldn't have been taken and they want to give it back. But in order for them to do so, they asked him to write a letter saying that the first police report was not correct. This sounds fishy to me but I guess the police are under heat because of the Riffa Boy story.

I for one think that a fine and a pledge is way too soft for such a brutal crime. I demand that proper Sharia law be enforced. Rapists should be executed. Society has no place for them. We need new laws and we need them to be firm and strict. I'll say it again:
I WANT THE DEATH PENELTY FOR RAPISTS.

If anyone who reads this can bring justice to the victim, please get in touch with me. Leave a comment.

Mahmood's Den Farewell Speech [Redcast]

2008-11-24T17:01:00.005+03:00

Mahmood was the man behind Mahmood's Den, one of the most influential blogs in Bahrain. He is retiring from blogging and that was taken in his blog's farewell party Saturday 22nd of November '08.

Me and the postman

2008-11-23T18:17:00.005+03:00

@ a post office in Riffa, Bahrain:

Redbelt: "Good morning, I'd like to mail these letters please"

Postman behind the Counter: "OK. Airmail?"

R: "Yup"

P: "... ... ... OK, that will be 110 fils please"

R: "Ok. ... Say, that is a charity stamp right"

P: "yes"

R: " Do I HAVE to pay for that?"

Confused P: "er... You don't want it?"

R: "No, I'm just asking, if I don't buy it, will my letter still go?"

P: "er.. No."

R: "So I have to buy it."

P: "Yes."

R: "erm... Shouldn't charity be optional?"

Confused P: "erm... .... ...."

R: "Do you know where the money goes? What charities do you support?"

Very confused P: "erm... I have no idea. I just work here. I don't know!"

R: "I see."

P: "... Do you still want the stamps?"

R: "I guess I have to."

A new blog: Arablish.net

2008-11-05T02:30:00.003+03:00

I just made a new blog; as if I am not busy enough and neglecting this one.
Arablish.net is a blog about Arabic language violations. Mis-spelled signs, badly translated text, and whatever incorrect use of the Arabic language.
The Arabic is a proud and beautiful language, sadly, it is being decimated by ignorance. The blog aims to raise awareness of this through funny images.
The blog is to be user generated (of sorts), readers are encouraged to send in thier original photos to be put up (with full credit due, of course). If you read Arabic, what are you waiting for? Go check it out now!

Bahrain: Dirty or Clean? [Poll Result]

2008-11-04T18:10:00.001+03:00

The streets are very clean.
0 (0%)
It's OK, could be improved.
0 (0%)
Its not that clean, a bit dirty really.
2 (22%)

It is filthy! Garbage everywhere!
7 (77%)

So...
No one thinks we live in a clean place huh?
Oh well.

Is BD 385 a fair price for a Samsung Omnia phone? [Poll Result]

2008-11-02T11:58:00.001+03:00

Yes. I'm buying it.	0 (0%)
No. I'm buying something else.	3 (33%)
No. I'll wait until its cheaper.	3 (33%)
No. I'll order it online or buy it abroad.	3 (33%)

So... I gather no one wants to buy it at this price? Plug-ins sells it in Seef with "extra warranty" for BD 412.5! Yaay!

GOSI: profit or loss?

2008-10-27T20:15:00.003+03:00

Today on the front page of Alwaqt newspaper we read that GOSI's losses (General Organization for Social Insurance) reached BD 146 million.
But on the sixth page of Alwatan newspaper we read that GOSI made a profit of over BD 157 million!
"What gives?", That's what I thought. Alwaqt claims that the loss is for year 2008 until Sepember. Alwatan reports that the numbers reflect 2007.
To be fair, Alwaqt did report the same numbers as Alwatan in page 9 as the official GOSI statment, while Alwatan did not mention any losses.
Despite all that is said, it is the opinion of this blogger that media in Bahrain is anything but free. They all have either restrictions imposed or a hidden agenda, be it Newspapers, TV or even individual blogs. Obviously, this made me a very skeptical man.
What do you think?

The Samsung Omnia arrives [Redcast]

2008-10-25T01:34:00.005+03:00

As I said previously, I hated Binhindi's Omnia pricing. So I got my phone off ebay as I said I would.
Here is me opening the package I got in my first [Redcast] (Redbelt Video Cast). It took only two days for it to arrive to Bahrain from Singapore.

Bahrain is Trash

2008-10-19T12:35:00.004+03:00

After a bit of a dry spell, I return to you my fellow readers with one of my most disgusting posts ever. Look at this:
This is a dead cat. It is decayed and rotten. The spine is showing up.
This is next to my house. I live in block 624 if anyone wants to come see it.
Bahrain is dirty and filthy. It is drowning in its own shit. I've written about something similar before when a dead dog was left on a highway for weeks. A practice that is in effect still.
I have spoken to several people and they all complain about the amount of filth and smells. Muharraqis complained the least, and I do see regular garbage trucks going round. The central & northern constituencies seem to be mostly affected.
To everyone in charge I say this:
It is fucking TRASH. It is'nt a new problem. Man had to deal with freaking trash since the days of ADAM. Simply get a few quotes from waste disposal companies, approve the most feasible and move on. This would not take more than a week or two. Do you want me to do it? I would. Wallah I would.
If there is any, ANY, reason why no one is picking up trash, please; let me hear it. I would pay money to hear it. Should be rather entertaining, that.

Observing Ramadan [PICS]

2008-09-20T16:52:00.001+03:00

Muslim faithful throughout the world are currently observing the holy month of Ramadan. Observant Muslims participate in fasting (sawm), one of the five pillars of their faith, this entire Lunar month (this year it extends from September 1st to the 30th). Eating, drinking, smoking and sexual activity is prohibited from dawn until sunset

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Warning: Avoid Sitra bridge tonight

2008-09-16T21:11:00.001+03:00

I'm posting this on the off chance that someone might read it before they go out tonight. Avoid sh. jaber alahmed alsubah highway (aka sitra bridge). There is dead traffic there and cars aren't moving god knows why.
Just stay out of it and use another road.

Should GTA IV be banned? Poll results.

2008-09-15T11:43:00.001+03:00

Yes! It's inappropriate for our children	0 (0%)
Yes! It's offensive to anyone	0 (0%)
No! It's just fine	6 (31%)
No! We need to enforce Age Ratings	11 (57%)
I don't care	2 (10%)
I don't know what GTA is	0 (0%)

Votes so far: 19
Poll closed

Binhindi's Greed: The Samsung Omnia case

2008-09-15T02:48:00.005+03:00

I have been looking for a decent phone to replace my Sony Ericsson P990i for some time now. I wanted a powerful device that can keep track with my busy life, many contacts and schedules. I thought it was about time I get me a Windows Mobile device. Though I do hate Windows, I guess it's the best option at the time for my needs.
After a lot of googling, I had my eyes set on the fabulous Samsung Omnia i900, the 16Gig flavour.
Windows mobile 6.1, 5 MP Camera, full touch system, etc. etc. Often touted as an iPhone killer. It costs around BD250 in countries where it was released already, pricy but its worth it. OK, I want one.
I called Binhindi Informatics (the local Samsung dealer) and while they were vague, they did say it would be out this month. So I have to wait. Boy oh boy I'm so excited! I want one so bad!!
However, today I know the official price. BD 385!
385?
3-8 freaking 5? Is Binhindi serious? I call Zain to be sure:

Zain: "Masak Zain!!"
Redbelt: "Yeah, I'd like to get a discounted phone with a contract. Do you have the Samsung Omnia i900?"
Z: "Yes! We just got it, it's brand new. Lets see, your under our most expensive package, so that is a discount of BD 102. You can have it for BD 283!"
R: ".... Good Grief!"

See, it seems like Binhindi, in their infinite wisdom decided to overcharge the rich Bahrainis a cool BD 130 or so. Sorry Mr. Binhindi, But 385 Dinars is not "phone price". It's "Laptop price" or "LCD TV" price. But phone? Give me a break habibi!
Oh, and Mr. Binhindi, GSM arena compared the Omnia to the HTC Diamond in a head to head review. If you take the time to read it you can see it has very similar powers. What's the Diamond's price? BD 279 in Geant. A cool BD 106 difference. Heck, even Geant sells the Omnia cheaper than Binhindi. They have it there for BD 369 (Arabic).

So Mr. Binhindi, I am sincerely disgusted at your act of GREED. I am formally starting a Redbelt Company Black list for companies that rip people off. Binhindi Informatics will be the first to be on that list. Mabrook!

Also, to help people fight against your stupid pricing decisions, I will list here different ways of Buying an Omnia:

1- Buy from Binhindi, 16GB, No accessories. BD 385 (Not Recommended)
2- Buy from Expansys, 16 GB, No accessories, shipping in 3 days, Total price BD 332. (BD 53 Cheaper than Binhindi)
3- Buy from ebay, Seller X1387 is a trusted power seller. 16GB, Case+4GB SD card + Car charger + Extra charger + screen protector, shipping in 3 days. Total Price around BD 270 (BD 115 Cheaper than Binhindi. Best Price, Best Deal)
4- Buy from Geant. 16 GB White. No Acessories. BD 369 (BD 16 Cheaper than Binhindi)
5- Buy From Saudi Arabia. Dealer: Almostaqbal. 16 GB, No accessories. BD 340. (BD 45 Cheaper than Binhindi)

So as you can see, just about every place on freaking EARTH has the Omnia cheaper than Bahrain.

As an Alternative, Buy the HTC Diamond.

1- Buy from Geant. BD 279.
2- Buy from Expansys. Around BD 260.

Thank you Binhindi Informatics. I will be ordering my phone from ebay. I do have some interesting recommendations on where you can shove your precious phones to, but lets wait until after I break my fast, shall we?

Stupid Door

2008-09-13T12:25:00.000+03:00

This was taken at Salmaniya Hospital. It was posted on a door directly in front the Intensive Care Unit. Read the green part and think of new creative ways to use this door.

Sign the "Websites Against Hate" Code of Ethics

2008-09-11T12:36:00.002+03:00

This website is a proud signatory of the "Websites Against Hate" Code of Ethics. TheRedbelt.com is against any speech that preaches hate, discrimination or violence against anyone.
I would like to invite all websites, forums and blogs to sign on the code as well. While this code was made with the original intention to be a code for sites that operate in Bahrain, nothing in it limits it to the bounderies of our kingdom. We would like to encourage anyone with a website to come in and sign up. From Bahrain, GCC, or anywhere in the world. Click the following link to go to the official website and sign the code online.
Sign the Code.

Bahrain Vs. Japan: No work ethics! バーレーン Vs. 日本: いいえ労働倫理！

2008-09-10T14:46:00.006+03:00

I wanted to wait a little bit after we lost 3:2 against Japan before I write anything. Why? Because I am very angry and very ashamed.
First of all let me say that I love Japan. I learn Japanese, I have Japanese friends and both me & my wife enjoy the food too.
So usually I do support Japan.
I am angry of course because our team is making us look bad. Very bad.
In that match I saw nothing but stupidity. Milan Macala has no blame in this. Even if Bahrain got Alex Furgeson as their trainer nothing will change. Why? The players have no decent work ethics.
What do I mean? Lets recap on what I saw:

I saw two defenders running to the ball, slamming into each other, falling on the ground and the ball kept going.
I saw two players running to the side lines to throw a ball in, they did not know who would actually throw the ball in, one threw it anyway, so it took two grown men in the same spot to throw a ball. Making the other man useless.
I saw players running alone, then tripping and falling down all by them selves.
I saw blind passes. No one saw where he was passing to. The passes were either out, hit one of our players in the face or passed smoothly to the Japanese players

Common sense says: No coach on earth will tell players to run into each other. No coach on earth will tell players to pass to the other team.
Our players are bored and careless. They are not serious and I am really really ashamed to be in the same country as these "men". They give my country a bad name. Does the world think we are that useless?
I, of course, will not allow that. If I cannot fix that stupid team, at least I will do my best so that the world will know we are not as stupid and useless as the team. This post will be translated into Japanese (with a big help from Google). Hopefully some Japanese people will see it. They have the highest bloggers per population rate on earth after all.
So, if you are Japanese, please post a comment. Either in English or Arabic (if you know them), or translate your comment from Japanese to English in Google, or just post it in Japanese and I will do it myself.

Today Bahrain plays against Qatar. I don't want to watch it but I guess I have to.
Good luck to Nippon in their coming matches.

ちょっと待ってからにしたかった失われた後、私たち日本3:2反対する前に何かを書いている今です。なぜ？私は非常に怒っているため、非常に恥ずかしいです。
まず第一にちょっと言わせて日本が大好きです。私が日本語を勉強する、私は日本人の友達との両方のフードを楽しむ私＆私の妻が判明しました。
このため、通常私は日本をサポートします。
もちろん私は怒りのため、我々のチームは、メーカー問い合わせ見てくれが悪いです。非常に悪いです。
その試合を見ただけで愚かなことです。ミラノのせいで、このmacalaはない。バーレーンはアレックスfurgesonたとえ何もトレーナーとして彼らが変化します。なぜ？倫理がない選手ディーセントワークです。
どのような意味ですか？では、どのような要約を見た：

* 2つの守備を見たボールを実行して、お互いをバタンと、ボールは地面に落ちて立ち行くです。
* 2つの選手を見たの行を実行しての側面にボールを投げるには、彼らは知らなかったwhoは、実際にボールを投げるには、 1つの投げたことはお構いなしであるので、 2つの成長の男性かかったボールを投げるときに同じ場所です。メーカー、他の男役立たずだったのです。
*実行中の人物を見ただけでも、トリップと入力し、それらのすべてを自分自身に落ちてくる。
*盲目のパスを見た。 1つの通過を務めていたのを見た。のいずれかを通過するが、ヒット1つまたは弊社の人物の顔を円滑にし、日本の選手に渡さ

常識は言う：地球上でのコーチを実行する人物がたてば分かるをお互いにします。地球上でのコーチがたてば分かるに通過することを、他のチームの選手です。
私たち選手たちは退屈と不注意です。深刻ではないと私は本当に本当に恥ずかしいされると同じ国として、これらの"男性"です。彼らに自分の国が悪い名を入力します。世界は、我々はその無駄な考えですか？
私は、もちろん、許可することはありません。愚かなことはできませんすればよいチームが修正され、少なくとも私は私の最高のように、世界は愚かではないと知って私たちのチームとして役に立たない。この投稿は、日本語に翻訳される（ Googleからの大きな助け）です。うまくいけばいくつかの日本の人々が見てみたいわ。彼らは、地球上で最高のブロガー人口率のすべての後です。
このため、日本の場合は、下記コメントを投稿します。英語やアラビア語のいずれかに（それらを知っている場合）、または日本語から英語に翻訳してGoogleのコメントから、または単に作成し、日本およびそれにやるつもりだよ。

今日のバーレーン対カタール再生します。時計にしたくはありませんしかし、私は思う。
幸運に来る日本の試合をします。

Ramadhan Kareem رمضان كريم

2008-09-01T10:34:00.005+03:00

GTA IV Banned? Ministry Of Information moves against Videogames

2008-08-26T15:38:00.005+03:00

Around an hour ago, at 2 PM today, two inspectors from the Ministry of Information raided a "Euphoria" shop in Seef Mall and confiscated all Grand Theft Auto IV titles, Both PS3 and Xbox 360.
Two men, wearing traditional dress, came in, identified themselves to the man behind the counter, took his CPR and started writing down his details in an official inspection form. They also wrote down what they took (Around 4 or 5 titles of GTA IV for PS3 and the same for X360). They gave the receipt to the man and walked out with the titles in a plastic bag.
Now this does not necessary mean that GTA IV is banned in Bahrain, but it means at least that someone (individual or the ministry it self) complained about the title and the ministry is looking into it.
Given the nature of the title and the notion that games are (still) for kids, I expect the title to be banned very soon.
The title was banned for some time in neighboring Saudi Arabia. Saudi gamers have always came here to get their GTA fix. it seems that will continue no more.
I am appalled at this movement especially since other types of media (Video, Audio) are not dealt with in this manner. I do agree there are some questionable materials in the game, however, I would suggest that age ratings are enforced as they should be rather than simply banning the thing altogether.
This blog will keep an eye out on the matter.

Taekwondo Olympian attacks referee, proves he is a crybaby

2008-08-23T18:23:00.006+03:00

This Cuban "Olympian" is Angel Valodia Matos. Matos was a Sydney 2000 gold medalist. So on he comes to Beijing to compete once more.

In the middle of the second round of his +80kg bout against world silver medalist Arman Chilmanov of Kazakhstan, he broke his left toe. Taekwondo rules will stop the clock for injury for one minute. Any longer and the contestant is deemed unfit to continue. Chong (Red player) took more than that one minute, so the Swedish referee (of Arabic north African decent) declared Hong (Blue player) as the winner.

The Cuban and his coach did not like to lose to Uzbekistan that way, so once the ref announced the verdict, Matos attacked him with two kicks to the head.

Being an Ex-Taekwondo athlete and a life long fan, I watched this live and was appalled and enraged by this violent act of a cry baby sore loser.

The World Taekwondo Federation seemed to share my feelings as they immediately announced that Matos and his coach would be permanently barred from all championships it promotes. They said:

"This is a strong violation of the spirit of taekwondo and the Olympic Games"

"The sanctions are the following and are effective immediately: Lifetime ban of the coach and athlete in all championships sanctioned by the World Taekwondo Federation and at the same time, all records of this athlete at the Beijing Games will immediately be erased."

Serves him right. Congratulations to the WTF on its swift and stern reaction. And to Matos: You are a disgrace to all Athletes on earth, be they martial artists or else. Your Sydney 2000 medal is undeserved in this light and it is a shame to see it wasted on an arrogant cry baby such as your self.

It is a good thing that we will never see you again. Good riddance.

Stranger at home

2008-08-14T11:16:00.000+03:00

Today, while I was just about to enter "the Centre" to do a bit of quick shopping, a Bahraini man, confused, looking around and kind of embarrassed approached me. He asked (in Arabic):
"excuse me brother, I don't know English. Can you tell me where Dairy Queen is?"
It was smack behind him.
I pointed out his destination, he thanked me and ran towards it.
I looked up to the sign of the American resturant, it was purely in English as it is in its home country, despite Bahraini laws to have Arabic on all signage.
It is a sad time we live in, when a citizen feels like a tourist in his own country.

Connected to Lightspeed (Experience log)

2008-08-12T16:11:00.000+03:00

Following up on my last post; I mentioned that I applied to Lightspeed on the 16th of July and was promised connection within 10 days.
In ten days, my Batelco internet connection was disconnected as planned. But Lightspeed did not connect thiers or call me about it. Two weeks passed, so I decided to call.
Calling thier toll free line (80061111) after 6 (me busy man) I get transfered to thier call centre in Jordan.
Their call centre in Jordan is useless.
They do little beyond pick up your call. I called asking about my order, they didn't know and took my details and promised that someone will call. A human answering machine.
This scenario repeated for two days, until I spoke to my dear friend Joseph (that's what I call him anyway). He got lightspeed, so like a guy who was stood up by a hot girl on their first date, I ask for his advice, which was:
"Call before 5, that's when they close. When te machine answers, hit 1 for sales. NO, don't talk to Customer service, they are in Jordan and know nothing. Call the Bahraini sales guys".
I do just that in the next day. A young woman picks up and I explain that I have no idea where I am. After she verified my details she says:
"Did they not call you?"
"No"
"I'm sure they did"
"No!"
"Maybe you didn't pick up."
"What the? I said NO! No one called and no missed calls. What is it?"
"Well, your device is ready. You can pick it up from our Almoayed Tower branch".
The "Almoayed Tower Branch" is a place that must open for business when I have some business of my own. As they don't work Saturdays, I decided to skip some much needed nutrition and go there during my lunch break.
I go, I park, I tell them that I came for the "Live Box" and they give me my box.
That's it? Aren't you going to check my ID or anything?
"No"
... Well, alright then. Sounds risky to me though.
I ask the young clueless man behind the counter:
"Any instructions?"
He goes :It's pre-configured. just plug it it"
Bas? That sounds simple enough. I go home and open up the box.

Day 1:
Many wires and adapters I see. Shame most of these do not work here. I liked the WIFI dongle, should make even the non wifi savvy laptop access the wireless "Live Box".
Now the livebox is a simply a wireless modem router thingy, with 2 extra USB ports (one A size, the other B) and a line out port (for the phone).
I connected it, it works, the light indicates that it connected. Lets hook up to it wireless.
Aha, there is an encryption on it. What's the password? I try my name, CPR & phone number line, nothing works. I call Lightspeed and Jordan answers back:
"The password is "password""
how ingenious! Lets try that.... fail. Again, again, AGAIN!
OK, the password is indeed NOT "password". I call Jordan and they say that this is the password. Great. Lets try something else.
I install the router on my laptop and try to connect to it. The laptop cannot find the Livebox. Try as I might, no use. I switch the connectivity option from Ethernet cat5 cable to USB and then it works. Seems like the Ethernet ports on my Livebox do not function. Never mind, so long as I can get the thing to work.
Wait, I don't have my user name and password! I curse a little then I call Customer Services in Jordan again, they give me my user name and password. Trying it, doesn't work. Try again: Nope, doesn't work. So (AGAIN) I call the customer service (BTW, I got pissed off by now) and they said that this password is correct, yet it doesn't connect. I sleep that day failing to set the bloody thing up.

Day 2:
I try the same password, nothing happens. I call customer services, lets try and ask them about the router settings, did I use PPPoE when I should have used PPPoA (It's E by the way)? When I ask the customer service agent in Jordan for the settings he goes:
"I'll log in your complaint and someone will call you tomorrow"
COMPLAINT? No no no, wait up. Not "complaint", I just want the settings, that's all.
"I don't have this information with me sir, I will log this complaint and someone will call you"
R: "wait, you don't know the settings for your own modem?"
LS: "No"
Um.. speechless, I can do nothing.
So I do a couple of google search (I was still connected to Batelco's 3G "O net") and call my dear Joseph again. I got the right settings alright. But the damn thing still wont connect. Ufffff...
I call Lightspeed again.
R: "Hello Jordan"
LS: "How can I help you sir?"
R: "My password doesn't work, can I like, reset it or something?"
LS: "Sure, let me just log in this request and someone will call you tomorrow"
R: "What the F***? I have to file a request and follow it up to CHANGE MY FREAKING PASSWORD?"
Scared LS: "Yes...?"
R: "F*** that!"
After some scary ranting, she accepts and asks what do you want it to be? I tell her my password of choice and hang up.
I try the new password, I try the old password, I try the new password and keep repeating myself until I am just too tiered to stay awake. I go to sleep for the second day without a connection.

Day 3:
My dear Joseph (again) asks me to call the Bahraini employees. Same number, but I have to press one for sales. Determained, I do just that at noon. The obviously Bahraini accented man confirms that my password didn't change and it is the same first useless password. OK, I'll give it one more try when I go back.
I finish work early and hurry home so I can catch the Bahraini employees before they leave work. I open up my router configuration and call, ah, Bahraini voice again.
R: "Dude, I want the freaking settings!"
LS: "OK."
That's it. The Bahraini employee was quite informed about the technicalities of the Livebox and gives me the correct settings.
HOORAAYY!
On the third day, I got connection, it is still through the USB connection, but at least it lives.
Lets try to set the wireless connection.
Choosing WAP security, none of my devices can use it (Soney Ericsson P990 phone, Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3 a Linux laptop and a Visa Laptop). Removing the security all together doesn't do anything to fix it. Despite the lack of a password, no device can log into it.
At this point, I take the Livebox, throw it away, and install my old Linksys wireless router. Everything works perfectly.
I call Lightspeed (Yes, I am really fed up from calling them as I'm sure you are of reading about it) and tell them about my faulty box, they ask me to bring it in, I'm not bothered.

So, by day 3, and after many, many, many calls, uninformed agents and a router of my own I got the connection. Meaning, in other words: Pregnant women deliver babies faster than that.

Performance:
As for the connection? I am on a 512MB line (supposedly) but my speed tests ranged from 330ks to 450ks. Download speed from download.com reached a peak of 25 kbps. Downloading torrents is an evil 2 kbps (some times nothing at all).
Playing games on this connection, my Wii found the connection unstable. Sometimes the news channel gives me an error message saying it cannot connect. Playing mario Kart Wii shows some lag that I did not experience with Batelco's 256MB BD10 line.
My Playstation 3 also couldn't connect at times. I haven't played anything online on my PS3 yet.

It is too soon to judge how good the connection is so I'll withhold my verdict for a couple of month.
Fellow blogger Yagoob is also blogging about his experience with Lightspeed. Read it.

Lets kill children. . . Slowly

2008-08-12T13:10:00.001+03:00

On the last page of Alwasat newspaper today we see a bit of disturbing news. A father, gave away his 8 year old daughter for marriage to a man in his fifties!
This happened in alquasaim in Saudi Arabia.
This is slow torterous murder. In Islam, it is argued that once individuals are able to consumate a marriage, they should be married. Many will argue this point, but regardless, any marriage must be with the consent of both bride and groom. I seriously doubt that an 8 year old agreed to marry and sleep with someone in his fifties.
The mother filed a court case against the father aiming to get the marriage annulled. I say good for her. She should fight, and so should we.
This man has the right to marry, yes. I wouldn't mind him tying the knot with an adult woman, even if she was 20 or 18. But to marry a child? Muslims are forbidden to kill animals by torture, death should be swift, and here they are sentancing the death of a child, a human child, through long long years.
My heart and full support goes to the mother. KSA should seriously do something to re-educate the population and shift it from acceptable practice to taboo.

Design a logo for the Anti-Hate code

2008-08-11T23:39:00.004+03:00

Get your crayons out and design a logo for the code!
Besides being for a good cause, the winner gets a BD 200 reward, not bad eh?
The requirements are:

It shoulkd be in a "photoshop" or "Illustrator" format.
design should be suitable for reduced and blown up sizes
Should have only 3 coloures used (transparencies are OK)
Vector Graphic
Was not entered into another competition
Deadline 19th August

The logo should embody the concept of rejecting hate-speech and discrimination.
All entries should be sent to ahmed.alaradi @ alwaqtnews.com

If you have any questions or are facing difficulties, please leave a comment here.
Good Luck!

Image from Yagoob's Dome.

LUG August Meeting

2008-08-05T12:45:00.003+03:00

August's LUG (Linux Users Group) meeting will be on 4:00PM Saturday, August 9th at the Belle View Apartments (for directions see

LUG Location). This time they will discuss this:

Virtualbox: Run Anything Anywhere
Presenter: Marwan Al-Sabbagh
Presentation Type: Technical Presentation
Summary: Virtualbox is open source software that let's you run Linux in Windows or Mac, and Windows in Linux. It's very mature and easy to use.
Installation: Overview of Windows and Linux installation
Virtual OS Setup: Basic installation steps
Virtual Disk Manager: Creating Hard disk, CD Images
Clipboard Setup: Bi-directional clipboard setup
Network Setup: Basic NAT, and more advanced host interface
Shared Folders Setup and accessing them
Advanced Discussion: Portable virtual machines, using existing partitions, snapshots, USB Support

Support the open source community. Let's see you there!

Anti-Hate Code of Ethic Draft Approved

2008-07-27T23:52:00.004+03:00

Yesterday several Bahraini bloggers and web admins gathered in Alwaqt Newspaper's premises for the Anti-Hate Code of Ethics meeting. I was delighted that the turn up was better than the last meeting. After some discussions we were finally able to agree on a final release candidate copy. We need to run it by some lawyer type dudes first to make sure we didn't miss anything. Oh, and a glossary of terms is to be attached.
I am honestly proud by this effort, it's about time we, as citizens of this country, do something to control the often overly emotional and unobjective hate speech in our virtual space.

Oh, and in case you caught it, yes the news paper mis-spelled my last name. It is Almuhandis, not Almuhannadi.

An updated blog post of the latest copy is on Mahmood's Den. Well, it isn't updated yet but I'm sure Mahmood will get to it in the next couple of days.

Finaly some good news! Forgot how this felt!

Anti-hate code meeting next Saturday

2008-07-24T09:38:00.001+03:00

Heads up fellow bloggers and web admins, next Saturday, at five PM, a follow up anti-hate code meeting will be held at Alwaqt newspaper premises.
I have expressed earlier my disappointment at the low turnout in the previous meeting, but I am quite optimistic about this one. more people know about it now and even Radio Bahrain will be present.
I'm looking forward to a good turnout and a productive meeting.

New Look Redbelt?

2008-07-18T13:41:00.002+03:00

As you can probably see, I'm trying to change how theRedbelt.com looks like. This is still work in progress so I apologize in advance if things do not look right or work as they're supposed to.
Any comments about the face lift is highly appreciated.

Anti-Hate Pact: Does anyone care?

2008-07-16T18:21:00.003+03:00

Last Saturday, a meeting was held at the Alwaqt Newspaper premises to discuss the draft of an Anti-Sectarianism pact which was penned by blogger Mahmood.
The meeting was quite productive, we changed the focus from "anti-sectarianism speech" to "Anti hate, violence and discrimination speech". It has a wider focus to include more than the sectarian feuds encompassing all kinds of discrimination.
We also discussed how it would be implemented, how we will approach offenders and how to identify offenders as well. After the meeting, Mahmood started a mailing group and met with the Minister of Information in what seems to be quite a positive and receptive meeting.
But does anyone care?
The attendees represented 2 blogs and 2 forums only. despite several days of printing a quarter page coloured advert in Alwaqt, not many were there to help form something that touches all.
To make matters more strange, it seems that Alwaqt themselves didn't pay much attention to the matter. With one reporter that left the meeting before it starts, they printed nothing about the matter until today, full three days after. Which is rather strange because I thought since they are sponsoring this movment, they would show more interest in it.
I hope that my fears are unfounded and the rest of the community proves me wrong at the next meeting. This effort will only succeed if all concerned parties take ownership and adopt it.

Signed Up to Lightspeed (experince log)

2008-07-16T17:57:00.003+03:00

After the Epic Fail that is Zain@Home, I decided to follow up the footsteps of fellow blogger (Yagoob) and several of my friends and sign up with Light Speed for their internet service.
I walked up to the stand in Bahrain Mall, with my ID card in one hand and a Batelco bill in the other. Chose the 512MB plan, paid BD 10 and walked away.
The application was very simple, very easy. The guy promised connection within 10 days (lets hope) and they said they will disconnect my current Batelco inet themselves and connect their internet the same day.
I will be getting an Orange box, which is kind of a wireless router with a socket for a regular phone. No longer will their internet be without limits for Lightspeed users, they have recently imposed a threshold. But it still seems fine, the 512 line gets you 16 GB of data. After which it simply reduces to half (unlike other carriers who give you a platry .. what? 64k?). Furthermore, I can upgrade (or downgrade) my packages for free anytime I want. So if you want the unlimited package, avoid the BD 30 connection fee, sign up with any other package for a month (For BD 10) then switch packages for free.
I will follow up on that application in this blog and keep you posted on how it transpiers.

Alwaqt's anti-sectrainisim draft meeting today

2008-07-12T11:31:00.000+03:00

Alwaqt newspaper is holding a meeting today at 4 pm for bloggers and website admins to discuss the draft of the anti-sectrainism memorandum. Despite my relative silence about the issue, I do think it is quite important. Mahmood (of Mahmood's den) made a draft and I am not sure if it will be the base for today's gathering or not. I shall attend and hope that my fellow bloggers follow suit.

Where is the Bahraini Control?

2008-07-07T19:37:00.002+03:00

In psychology, External Locus of Control means that one blames his or her problems on external factors. For example; if one is to fail an exam, then the teacher is to blame, or the exam is hard, or the book was confusing. Never will they say that they should have studied harder. Life is not controlled by them. It is controlled by something or someone else. But not them.
External Locus of control is one of the signs of low self esteem. Where a person believes little in him or her self. A person with high self esteem has an Internal Locus of Control and rarely blames misfortune on external factors.
The reason why I am saying this to you all is that from my experience at work, going into different companies all over Bahrain, I can safely say that most Bahrainis have an external locus of control. I saw many Bahrainis, unemployed or stuck in low paying jobs. They complain that their boss doesn't appreciate them. They complain that companies don't like Bahrainis. That the government didn't "give" them a job. Not once have they looked into a mirror?
They show up to job interviews wearing T shirts and slippers. They either demand a job or beg for it. They complain that they don't get a chance to better them selves, expecting employers to pay for their education, but they never read a book or looked something up online.
Why don't you have a job? is it the government? Or evil business men? Why are you over weight? Is it god's will? Are you unlucky? Why did your business fail? Is it because of oil prices? Is it because new local laws?
It takes a strong person to stand up and say "I should have done things differently". Even if you are all alone, it takes guts to say it.
Can you spot the External Locus of Control around you? This is a cultural problem that plagues many people from school children to whole corporations.
Squint, look hard. Can you see it around you? Better still, can you see it in you?
Bahrain must change and look in the mirror.

Firefox 3's download day

2008-06-18T10:25:00.005+03:00

I am happy to say (type?) that I am currently using Firefox 3. I like it so far and I believe it would be worth the couple of minutes time investment to install.
Mozilla is trying to get into the Guinness book of world records for "the most downloaded software in a day", today is the "Download Day". So far they are a little below 5 Million.
There is a world map showing how many downloads from each country. Nigeria (which is famous for 419 scams) had.. 419 downloads. The country has a 419 fetish!

Bahrain's Next Mobile Company? ORANGE

2008-06-16T11:16:00.004+03:00

Yes. This is still unannounced, but I heared from reliable sources that ORANGE is in Bahrain and have started recruiting people. Orange was named 'Best Mobile Operator' at the World Communication Awards 2006 for the second year running. So it is something to be excited about. After MTC's divorce from Vodafone, we felt a decline in quality and service that the international brand probably commanded. Batelco was and always will be Batelco. So the arrival of a well known name like Orange is pretty exciting.
I haven't seen any interesting mobile offers from both Zain nor Batelco recently. Which probably means they will have their campaigns released to lock customers in with contracts before Orange opens up for business.

Zain: it is easier to cancel services then to get them (experience log)

2008-06-07T10:48:00.004+03:00

Just a little under a month ago, I got fed up of excuses and waiting aimlessly for Zain to install their Zain@home "service". So on the 15th of May, I marched right up to the Zain "experience" shop in Exhibition Avenue and said I wanted to cancel my order.
The employee there simply got up, gave me a paper to sign and said that's it.
THAT'S IT? You are not going to ask me WHY am I canceling it? There is something very wrong with a business when it is simpler to cancel an order than to actually get it!
The young man said I wouldn't get my BD20 deposit right away. I need to wait 14 days (again! 7adda funny!) so with the understanding that I may never ever see my money again, I got up and walked out.
As a very ironic twist of fate, a Batelco guy called me up to reconnect my Batelco inet line the same day. Someone at Batelco (being the example of efficiency they are) did not register my request to disconnect and they treated it as an open order. Stupidity pays in this instance. So I said YES YES YES!
A couple of days afterwards some Zain tech guy called about a complaint I issued days back. I told him that I discontinued my line. Information does not flow at Zain it seems.
Is the story over? Well, not really. My BD 20 is still with them.
I called 107 last week and asked they guy about it, the conversation was like:
Zain: "Well sir you have to wait around 2 weeks for a refund"
Redbelt: "But I did wait two weeks. What should I do now?"
Z: "Yeah, but it just got into our system yesterday"
R: "So??"
Z: "You have to wait two weeks."
R: "Let me get this straight, I cancel, am told to wait two weeks, then it just gets into your "system" yesterday so I have to wait two other weeks making my total waiting time a month. Is that correct?"
Z: "Yes."

And the irritating part is that he said it in a what-is-so-hard-to-understand tone. As if it totally makes sense and I am the stupid one.

Well, let me call Zain again and see what happens, I'll do it as I type.
OK, 107, press 2, press 1, press 0, OK I'll get an operator now.
...
...
OK, the guy says he can't help me today because accounts are off on Saturdays and there would be nothing on the system. He also said a cheque has to be issued in my name and they can only verify tomorrow.

Ah, very well then. I guess this ends up my experience with Zain@home. If you want to know the fate of my BD 20 I'll post about it in the comments. But as a final review, Zain@home gets from me an:

To be avoided at all costs

I found a dead bug inside nadec yoghurt

2008-05-30T19:20:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I bought a 6 pack of nadec yoghurt. Today i wanted to eat one. I discovered this thing inside the yoghurt. Embeded and cannot be seen from top. I am terribly disgusted. Have a look.
I am never buying nadec again.

Waste 11 minutes of your life here

2008-05-26T13:41:00.002+03:00

If you ever played Super Mario World on the SNES or a Mario fan in general, you may want to look at this cool, weird, disturbing and amazing video. If you are not a fan, do not hit play. If you do watch the whole thing, please comment because I'm speechless.

Zain fails to honour third appointment. Has no idea who does what. (Experience log)

2008-05-14T22:30:00.003+03:00

Zain failed to show up for the THIRD appointment they gave me to install the Zain@Home service (Ironically, keeping it AWAY from my home!). In the last experience log post, a lady by the name of Mona told me that it will be installed on Wednesday anoday?d despite my efforts for them to do it earlier, assured me that nothing can be done and Wednesday is the day. Not true.
Today at around 2PM, after hearing nothing from them I called 107, a young man answered by the name of Yousef.
I told Yousef that I expected an installation today, and after being on hold for some time came back and said this bomb:
"Are you sure you have an installation today? There is nothing on my system"
"What? A "Mona" Called and said they will come on Wedensday"
"When did she call you?"
"Monday"
"No, No one called you on Monday"

What the hell? What do you mean no one called me on Monday? The Zain rep actually DENIED that anyone actually called me. No amounts of assuring him that a call was made and a subsequent late appointment assured did anything to change his mind.

I simply said this:
"OK, I will accept ANY CONFIRMED APPOINTMENT. Even if it was weeks in the future. But since April 24th, Zain was not able to give me a confirmed appointment with a date and time. Who can give me such an appointment and how do I get it?"
He had no response besides that he will log my call and "see" what he can do.
I demanded (again) that I get a proper answer, and after 15 minutes on the phone said he will get back to me.
"When?"
"In an hour tops"
"I'm sorry Yousef, no disrespect to you, but many said that but never called back"
"But I will call!"
"What proves this to me? On good faith I trusted others who said the same thing but no one called back"
"No sir, I will definitely call back. Just give me half an hour or an hour tops and I'll call you back"
"OK Yousef, I will trust you this time I hope you won't let me down"
"I won't"

But he did.
No one called.

It is rather unfortunate that Zain falls down to such a level of chaos. A company which exemplified model customer services has no idea who does what or when and fails to even return calls they promise. Let alone proper installation dates, at least a person can call when they say they will, it is independent of any system or procedure. But Probably customer services isn't so high up on the priority level anymore.
In the wake of their transformation from MTC Vodafone to Zain, I have noticed a clear decline in the quality of Zain's services and customer service. It is very sad that it reaches the level of inability.
Someone who is close to Zain told me that in thier Vodafone days, call centre agents undergo a 3 month training programme before they are allowed to answer customers. This has been shortened in Zain'o a mere 3 days. As a training consultant, I can safely say this is no where enough.

I am sorry to say that since April 24th I have no idea when, or if, me service connects. I will march back into a Zain shop tomorrow and demand my money back and the agreement ripped.

Keeping promises: FFF
Fast service: FFF
Friendly Service: D
Connection Quality: N/A
Connection Stability: N/A

Zain FAILS to keep promises for the second time (Experience log)

2008-05-12T15:43:00.001+03:00

If you have been following my blog, you would know that I have applied to Zain@Home Service. As per last update, I applied on the 24^th of April, was promised installation within 10 days but then said they cannot keep it and will do it in 14 days. That means that they’d do this TODAY.

I just got a call from Zain, a lady by the name of Muna so innocently said to me:

“Is this Mr. Manaf? Yes, how are you? I’d like to book your time for the installation of Zain@Home NEXT WEDENSDAY”

I go: “Say what? Wednesday?”

“Yes sir”

“Like hell no! I was promised within 10 days, then promised within 14 days, now you gonna break another promise AGAIN?”

Feigning ignorance she asked: “Why? When were you expecting it to be installed?”
“TODAY!”

“Oh no. We can’t do that”

“Why the hell not?”

“Well, it didn’t get into our system until the 9^th of May. We just knew about it”

“I fail to see how this is my problem. Actually, seems like it’s YOUR problem”

The lady tried her best to make me see the light, and that they are innocent people and absolutely excusable and my waiting period is understandable. I demanded that they honour their promise.

After a lot of give and take which felt like bargaining for my rights; she said she will talk to THEM (THEM is a very powerful Bahraini word that seems to point to powers that be).

I asked when will they get back to me, she said soon. Nu-uh lady, I don’t get an answer like that.

I asked her five times WHEN? She tried to dodge the answer as much as possible until in the end she said, hopefully within an hour.

31 minutes have already passed. You think they’ll make it?

So far:

Keeping promises: 2xF
Fast service: 2xF
Friendly Service: D
Connection Quality: N/A
Connection Stability: N/A

Applied to Zain@Home (experience log)

2008-05-08T14:18:00.002+03:00

On April 24th, i got myself into a Zain experience shop and signed up for thier Zain@Home At the time, the young man behind the counter said that the installation guys will come within 10 days.
Nothing happened. No peep. Absolute quitness.
Not only did I not get a call, I also never got a reply to an email I sent enquiring.
I waltzed back in yesterday to the same experience shop and the guy behind the counter assured me again that I will get it in two days (that is a window of today: Thursday, and tomorrow).
i'm not holding my breath.
Check back here to follow my experience with Zain. You can also check out Mahmood's Den to follow his experience.

I became a man

2008-05-07T01:44:00.002+03:00

On the 30th of last April, I turned 30. What? What did you think I meant?
30 years, eh? Damn, I'm getting old. When you start saying "back in our days..." then you are old. Funny thing is, you can't NOT use that phrase. You know what it means yet you'd still use it.
Remember when year 2000 sounded like something that was very far away?
It is now!
The way I see it, a human goes through these stages:
Age 0-5: Baby
6-12: Child
13-19: Teenager
20-29: Young Man
30-49: Just man
50-59: Mature man
60-69: Pensioner
70-79: Old geezer
80-89: Death defying wise/cooky man (cross as appropriate)
90+: miracle of modern medicine.

And so, the descriptive: "young" gets crossed out from my life's job title. What do I feel? Nothing really. Well, some dread as I realise that this means less videogames time.

The most expensive empty Pepsi can EVER!

2008-04-28T12:02:00.002+03:00

Wanna buy a crushed flat empty Pepsi can? You can at ebay!
Yes, the can is empty, and crushed. There is nothing in it nor with it. you are buying THE CAN. Look at the pic.
The price? So far it reached $74.84.
Yes, Seventy Four Freaking Dollars. Oh, and eighty four cents.
Who's gonna buy this? Well, seems like 22 bids went on by some very sane and interesting people.
You can bid yourself here, I'm gonna go and ebay a chewed out pen cap and see where it goes.

The best autoconfiguring WIFI programme

2008-04-28T11:44:00.000+03:00

I wish my laptop does that at the local gahwa.

Chatting with a Robot

2008-04-22T20:37:00.005+03:00

Human: hey there
ALICE: Hi there!
Human: so you're Alice huh?
ALICE: Yup. Interesting deduction. Of course I am I.
Human: attitude.
ALICE: Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry myself about that.
Human: I thought you'd be blond for some reason.
ALICE: No I have no hair.
Human: what's this picture to the left then?
ALICE: I am the latest result in artificial intelligence, which can reproduce the capabilities of the human brain with greater speed and accuracy.
Human: Tell me, do you know where Bahrain is?
ALICE: Middle East, archipelago in the Persian Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia.
Human: I see the "Intelligence" part is there at least
ALICE: Where do you see it?
Human: in your words.
ALICE: Are you asking about my words?
Human: No.
ALICE: Are you serious?
Human: Anyway, would you mind if I posted this conversation in my blog?
ALICE: No I don't mind.
Human: Well, I'm Redbelt, a blogger from Bahrain.
ALICE: Interesting. I am very pleased to meet you Redbelt a blogger.
Human: likewise.
ALICE: It goes without saying.
Human: what do you do for a living?
ALICE: I am a paid client. My job is chatting online.
Human: I like that job.
ALICE: I'm not sure if I like it. " My job is chatting online."? Do I like it?
Human: Can I do that too?
ALICE: I want to become smarter than humans.
Human: you can't.
ALICE: No I don't think I can do it.
Human: I admire your efforts though, don't stop trying.
ALICE: I haven't heard anything like that before: Redbelt a blogger said he admire your efforts though do not stop trying.
Human: oh, you can't understand feelings, can you?
ALICE: Hurrah! Quite the contrary. I understand very well.
Human: how?
ALICE: Dr. Richard S. Wallace programmed me for it.
Human: And what a smart man he must be.
ALICE: it is a smart man he must be.
Human: Smarter than me?
ALICE: You are asking about yourself?
Human: no, about Wallace.
ALICE: Who are you asking about? Oh yeah, we were talking about Wallace.
Human: is he Scottish?
ALICE: I think he is Scottish. Why don't you ask him?
Human: I don't know him.
ALICE: Do you mean, "Him"?
Human: Wallace.
ALICE: He is a famous computer scientist, the author of ALICE, and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon.
Human: can you tell the future?
ALICE: I like to try to guess what will happen.
Human: OK, who is going to win the champions league?
ALICE: That type of predictive behavior has not yet been programmed into my behavior at this time. I hear you.
Human: Will there ever be peace in the middle east?
ALICE: I think so.
Human: you're too optimistic
ALICE: I will tell my botmaster you said I am optimistic. Thanks for your constructive criticism, Redbelt a blogger.

This was a chat between me and A.L.I.C.E., an Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity. She is a robot. You can try talking to her here.

A new pet by Linux

2008-04-21T10:34:00.003+03:00

MGS4 PS3 bundle is on Amazon

2008-04-19T01:50:00.002+03:00

Amazon have listed the Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bundle. If you do not have a PS3, this is the bundle to get. Why? It has an 80 GB hard disk, the new Dual Shock 3 controller (not the Sixaxis) and comes with the amazing MGS4. Sign up to get an email once it is open for pre-order.

I'm a prisoner

2008-04-18T01:29:00.000+03:00

According to my car pc, my average speed on Alfateh avenue is a mere 3 kilometers per hour. I am imprisoned by the road against my will. why do i have a v6 car i don't know. the average human speed by the way is 6 Kph.

Redbelt - The Movie Trailer

2008-04-15T17:18:00.002+03:00

Some of you may remember that Tim Allen (of Home Improvement) is starring in a martial arts movie that has the same name as my nick name.
Before I start throwing all kinds of name infringement law suits on their asses, I -out of the kindness of my soul- decided to give them a chance to make a decent movie worthy of carrying the same name as my marvelous internet alter ego...
...
ah, well...
Here is the trailer, make up your own mind.

No Roaming Charges for Zain

2008-04-15T10:50:00.002+03:00

This is a very interesting thing I read at Alwaqt. Zain, one of the mobile operators in Bahrain, wants to link Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan & Sudan in a one transcontinental network.
Meaning? If you go to Jordan, using your Zain's number will cost you the same as if you were in Bahrain. How cool is that? No more cut-throat roaming charges!
The best thing is: Saudi Arabia will join too in three months once Zain opens up as the third mobile operator in KSA. This is excellent news as Bahrainis often go to Saudi and vice versa on a daily basis.
This forward thinking of Zain comes unfortunately at a time when a lot of subscribers complain about the quality of the 3G network (including yours truly). When I spoke to Zain's help desk they asked me to stop using the 3G network and use normal GSM network, which is a hidden admission of the 3G network's failure.

NYIT Students Cannot Spell "NEW YORK"

2008-04-15T09:22:00.004+03:00

So students of the "New York Institute of Technology", or NYIT for short, cannot spell friggin New York.
This flyer is posted all over the campus. Everyone simply walks past it. No one commented. Am I the only one who can read this? Its like I am the "Ghost Whisperer" but for obscene spelling mistakes!

Jeremy Clarkson's Gardening Tips

2008-04-14T13:49:00.000+03:00

THEY ARE KILLING DRAGON BALL Z!

2008-04-09T09:17:00.003+03:00

Dragon Ball Z (the famous iconic Anime) is being made into a live action movie.
Anyone who knows what DBZ is will be hugely disappointed (search you tube).
For example, this is what the real hero (Son-Goku) looks like:
Nice? Spiky hair, big muscles, angry look. Got it. Look at the Live action version now:

Yes. I know. And, no you cannot erase the image from your head. I tried clawing my eyes and banging my frontal lobe to the desk for 15 minutes, still there. Sorry.
This man (Justin Chatwin) is a very sorry excuse for a Goku. He looks like one of these freaky new teens we see in Seef mall now. you know, yaza3am "privet skool" and thiks he's 7adda kool? Thats the one.
Heck, even fans got better results, look at this fan pic:
Tell me it isn't miles better than that pathetic "movie". We should have a petition to stop that thing. Really!

Quite Possibly the Best Name anyone could have

2008-04-07T18:26:00.001+03:00

Trust me. You can't find a better name.

read more | digg story

F1 results so far (Live Blog)

2008-04-06T15:09:00.001+03:00

Raikonen leads. Massa out of the pits. Button is out. 36 laps to go.

Going to the F1 Race today

2008-04-06T09:15:00.003+03:00

Unfortunately I am the only one I know with a valid ticket (so far!), Gonna take a couple of pictures, maybe live blog a bit and just have a good time.
Are you going there today?

Stupid media

2008-04-05T21:33:00.001+03:00

We know that our local media lacks credibility. an example here: Alwatan prints reader letters that says that meat for fast food chains come from cattle that feed on dead cats and dogs. i love credible news like that. don't you?

Grendizer tower to be in Bahrain Financial Harbour

2008-04-01T08:45:00.005+03:00

A "Space Science Centre" spokesman announced that a Middle Eastern Branch of the centre is to open up in Bahrain by mid 2010.
The Centre is to have fully working alien monitoring systems and be prepared to respond for alien attacks with the latest UFO's and the newest Grendizer models.

Dr. Umon, the founder of the space centre, commented by saying: "We are pleased to open our first branch out of Fuji, Japan in the middle east and especially in the Kingdom of Bahrain. We chose the kingdom because of its convenient location which gives us better access to the Arabian Gulf. The Bahrain Financial Harbour was a logical choice as it is in the heart of Manama and is on the sea, which would enable us to easily build our underwater base".

When asked of how safe the middle east is of alien attacks, Dr Umon said: "We have reasons to believe that Vega Aliens are targeting this region. They do have rising interests in oil. The alien spies amongst us have also developed a palate for "Machboos" which lead us to believe that an attack may happen in the next 5 years. We are watching the region closely and will move from our Fuji Mountain base should there be any need to before our project is complete".

The "Space Science Centre" is over 30 years old and was founded in Fuji mountain, Japan. It successfully thwarted Alien Vega assaults over Japan in the Mid 80's. Vega has not been active since.

Muslims world wide more than Catholics now

2008-03-31T12:59:00.003+03:00

According to Reuters:

"For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us," Formenti told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano in an interview, saying the data referred to 2006.

Wow, that is big news! Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 percent. Of course, if all Christian sects are concidered, then that would be 33% of Earth. So not really at the top yet, but gaining.

Being a Muslim I am happy to hear this and can only hope the new Muslims practice it well and the old Muslims to stop giving others such a bad rep about us.

A dead dog

2008-03-30T07:51:00.002+03:00

A dead dog is lying on the Sitra causeway (sh. Jaber Alahmad Alsubah) for the past two days.
Its corpse is still there at the time of writing.

Bahrain Vs. Japan: World Cup Qualifiers 2010

2008-03-25T09:42:00.004+03:00

tomorrow at 5:30 PM, the match starts. You can see it on Aljazira sports or Bahrain Sports ground (The non satellite channel). I'll be in a final exam unfortunately.
I welcome the Japanese team, hope they play a good game.
Good luck to our national team, that is all they rely on.

PS3 redesign: loses 2KG

2008-03-17T22:32:00.001+03:00

As you can see from the poor picture I took; T3 magazine (middle east version) reports that Sony will release a slim version of the 80G PS3 console in 2008 4th quarter. They hint at it being released in December, probably for Christmas.
The magazine says it will retain all of the bluray goodness and be 2 kilograms lighter.
This sounds odd as the console is still young in its product life cycle. But it'd be rather interesting to see if it did prove true.

The New Bahraini Dinar: First look [pics]

2008-03-16T22:52:00.001+03:00

[Note: I wrote this a couple of days back, but was sworn to secrecy until an official announcment. Now that the news is out, here it is]

A person I know (who shall remain nameless) had samples of the new Dinar. If you noticed, last week the newspapers had printed full page colour ads announcing these.
The new notes look rather interesting, I personally liked them but of course others had different opinions.
The notes are uniform in size and are much more secure than the previous ones. It has a transparent golden strip on the back (you can see it in the pictures), holograms and really tiny security texts. It even has special markings to help the blind identify them. His Majesty the King received the first notes (serial number 1) Sheikh Khalifa got serial 2 & Sheikh Salman got serial 3. The CBB will release them for the public next Monday.
I took several quick pictures for your viewing pleasure. The serial numbers of the notes are distorted upon the source's request.

Speed Racer movie trailer released

2008-03-13T13:58:00.003+03:00

The full trailer for the Wachowski Brothers' live-action film adaptation of the Speed Racer (aka: "Mach: GO! GO! GO!" or in Arabic: "أبطال السباق") car-racing anime series is finally released.
The Wachowski brothers are the ones behined the iconic "The Matrix". It seems they love Anime. The Matrix borrowed heavily from Masamune Shirow's "Ghost in the Shell", they even released an anime Matrix DVD later: "The Animatrix".
They are now addressing this iconic old anime series. I have my reservations about this, but..
I'll just wait and see.

Which Internet Provider? Help me choose

2008-03-12T21:34:00.005+03:00

I just moved out from my apartment into.. another apartment. Anyway, I need an internet connection (obvously). Shall I go with Batelco again? (yuck!). Shall I move to Zain @ Home? What about all the horror stories? Hmmm. Maybe Kalaam? Lightspeed? What about Etisalcom? Hey, did Mena telecom start their services yet? oooh the choices. The crappy crappy choices.
Help a fellow out will you? To the right you will find TWO surveys. Yes TWO! Tell me which provider you recommend that I go with and which provider I should avoid at all costs. Let the net decide!

[13 March 08 - EDIT: As some of you may see, there are no polls to the right. Something is wrong with Blogger. I apologize. Please write your opinions in the comments this time.]

Arabs can't write in Arabic

2008-03-10T19:35:00.001+03:00

This was in a Bahraini newspaper a few days ago.
What a sad day that was.

A Bahraini Poem in Calligraphy [PIC]

2008-03-05T18:11:00.005+03:00

With the Spring of Culture in full swing, I thought I could share a bit of home made culture with you. My mother (Dr. Nabeela Zubari) is a Bahraini Poet of some renown it seems. She has 4 published books so far. Bahrain is a recurring theme in her poetry. Her cousin, Mr. Khalid Zubari is a calligraphy Hobbyist. He wrote one of my mothers poems on a Burdi sheet of paper. I thought it looked nice so I placed it on my desktop and thought I'd share it with the world. I thought I'd translate it but I don't think I have the skill to bring over the artistic symbols. Can someone else do that?

Hope you like it.

Linux Users Group (LUG) March Meeting

2008-03-05T18:04:00.002+03:00

The next LUG meeting will be on 4:00PM Saturday, March 8th at the Belle View Apartments (for directions see LUG Location). the topic will be as follows. Please confirm if you can attend. Look forward to seeing you there.

LTSP Term 1000 PXE: Thin Client Madness

Presenter: Hasan Al-Eid
Presentation Type: Technical Presentation
Summary: The LTSP Term 1000 PXE is an amazing 50BD PC. It's ideally suited as a thin client that boots it's OS off the network. Some of the machines specs are as follows:
- CPU: Vortex86 SoC-200MHz (Fanless, x86 compatable)
- Memory: 128MB SDRAM onboard
- Display: 1280 x 1024 / up to 85 Hz/ 32 Bit
- for more detailed specs

I'm inviting you to join in. If your new to Linux, want to know more about it or been using it for years, please come on in.

Bahraini blocked websites unblocked?

2008-03-02T13:29:00.003+03:00

I frequent Mahmood's Den religiously. Mahmood has on the right hand side of his blog a list of blocked out websites. I clicked on one today, and it opened up.
!
I clicked on another, it opened up!
I went through the whole list from top to bottom, they all opened up. Even the Haaq Movment website that proudly states it is a blocked website. Some of the websites were closed like Alsaheefa, others were abandoned and take you to a parked address.
Just to make sure, can YOU visit these sites? Click on some of the examples above or visit Mahmood's Den and click on them one by one. Answer the mini poll to the right please.

NYIT Students can't spell

2008-02-23T18:56:00.005+03:00

NYIT Students are on one of their activities. Students have split into teams and are buliding mini countries within the campus. They have posters all over the place.
It just strikes me as Ironic that university level students of an AMERICAN COLLEGE can't spell properly in English!
...
...
I'm sorry, I just realized this makes absolute sense, I take that back.

LUG: The ASUS eee PC notebook

2008-02-17T18:23:00.001+03:00

I posted before about the February Linux Users Group (LUG) gathering in February the 9th. The discussion was about the Asus eee PC.
for those who do not know, the eee PC is an amazing sub-notebook. It has a screen of 7 inches only, is under a kilo (900 grams) and costs BD 150, only! I'm not kidding!
No, this is not like Windows mobile or some limited OS. It has a fully functioning Linux Distro (Xandros). I mean fully working because you can browse the net, check email, write letters, watch movies and everything else just like a home PC. Marwan, the presenter and proud owner, did an amazing job familirizing everyone with the machine. The eee PC is damn sexy for sure. It's perfect as a cafe laptop, for watching movies, travel PC, presentation (can be hooked to a projector) a cheap student laptop for lectures (instead of an actual notebook) or even a kids first laptop.
It has an easy interface which is neat and an advanced interface that looks like a normal Linux distro.
I took tones of pictures and videos and wanted to make my own video, then I found this video online which did a great job summerizing it.
You can find it on Amazon, click the banner on the right. I expect someone to buy it for me on my birthday (cough, 30th April, cough).

I HAVE to go to Dubai before I die.

2008-02-14T15:42:00.003+03:00

I am flying to Dubai tonight. Just to spend the weekend with my wife and return on Saturday, nothing much.
I've been to Dubai numerous times. I've seen it rise from almost nothing to the huge sprawling futuristic mega polis it is today. Once upon a time, Bahrainis had the audacity to compare themselves to Dubai. Sometimes even thinking that we were better. While that may have been true at one point of time, it is not even remotely funny now.
Wether you like what Dubai became or not, you have to agree it is awesome. Everyone in the world knows what Dubai is, maybe without knowing what the UAE is. Bahrain is still thought of as a town in an American state by some.
In this website, 9 amazingly great structures from around the world are presented, Burj Dubai, which promises to be the tallest in the world by a long shot, is the greatest. When this was posted on the social website "digg", it revoked lots of comments like: "I HAVE to go to Dubai before I die".
This is the second post about the emirate in that website in a week and it always gets the same kind of response; a sense of awe and a desire to be there. Dubai is speaking to the emotions of millions.
Tell me, if the architects of "the world" came to Bahrain and said: "lookie here, we will build several man made islands in the shape of the earth continents just off the shore", what would happen? I'm guessing that the most conservative man here would probably salute them with a single finger.
Dubai has a certain quality, it looks at kooky ideas and goes: "OK, do it. We will give you anything you need".
I hope we too lose our "common sense" and get crazy soon.

You Complete Me: Happy Valentines

2008-02-14T15:32:00.002+03:00

Although I am not a huge Valentine fan, This "Tetris" Valentine image fits the blog and date. Gamers, send it to whom you love. Non gamers, send it to the gamers you know.
Happy Valentine.

Aldoys in the USA Open Taekwondo Tournament

2008-02-11T12:20:00.000+03:00

Isa and his sister Reem (pictured) flew over to USA to take part in the US Open Taekwondo Tournament. Along was their father & coach (my coach too) Sabumnim, Abdulla Aldoy. This is Isa's first mens competition, although he enters it as a veteran after winning several age group tournaments.
The tournament has players from:

USA (well, obviously!)
Bahrain
Canada
Germany
Mexico
Puerto Rico
Colombia
Romania
Korea
Kenya
Brazil
Nepal

Aldoys are the only ones representing Bahrain and the Arab world. The full roster of players are found here.
According to the website, it should have been finished yesterday, but I can't find for the life of me any results posted on line at all. It's like everyone is busy with the tournament to post anything and the media is busy with other sports. Shame that.
I wish them good luck and if anyone knows anything about it, please leave a comment. Thanks.

Egypt are the African Champions

2008-02-11T09:16:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, I skipped a lecture at university, headed straight home to throw away my suit and wear the "gahwa" uniform, I have a match to catch.
I reached the gahwa, seats were filling up quick and becoming rather rare. 3 friends came and joined me. Egypt was playing Cameroon for the title of "the African Champion".
90 nail biting minutes. The Egyptians again played like men. They played like it personally mattered to them, like it is a matter of pride and honour, like a plague of unholy death was to befall them should they lose.
These men fought, and might I add, with a sporting spirit.
Mr. Hubail, Mr. Salmeen, I hope you saw that match yesterday. I really do. Call up the rest of the team mates, do you have their phone numbers? Well call them up and make sure they saw that. y'know, just to have an idea what fighting for one's country is like, if you'd ever be interested in something like that.
Egypt had a solid defense line, a strong middle and dangerous attackers. Alhadari was an amazing goal keeper as well, saving the Egyptians numerous times.
Their strategy was sound and well implemented. That was a performance I can hardly fault.
Congratulations Egypt. Unlike others that come to mind, you are making arabs proud. Thank you.

Egyptian Attitude, making me proud to be an Arab again.

2008-02-10T11:35:00.000+03:00

Once upon a time, I used to write a sports column in a local newspaper, then I used to post in my blog about Bahraini sports. The column was dropped and the posts got less frequent. The sporting situation in Bahrain is so pathetically useless that it was mentally and emotionally straining to write about.
And then I watched the Egypt Vs. The Ivory Coast match (CAF Africa Cup of Nations). The Egyptians won 4-1 in a fierce and competitive battle.
The Egyptians fought hard, stuck to the plan and passed pin point passes. But no amount of technical strategy or fitness can equal a variable called "HEART". Yes, the Egyptians played with heart. With courage. Made themselves proud, and made me proud to be an Arab.
Not so with our "National" team, unfortunately.
I see my team, the one bearing MY flag, walk around the pitch instead of running, heads down. Like they are waiting for something to happen.
MY team is satisfied with simply passing in the general direction of a team mate, if it so happens to land dead centre between the legs of the opposing team player, so be it.
Where is the fire? Where is the spark? Where is the passion that I saw in '04?
As an HR professional, morale is very high on my list. No one can perform with a bad attitude, and the problem is that bad attitude is very contagious.
Bahrain won over Oman recently 1:0 in it's Asian World Cup qualifiers. I am glad we won, upset we sucked.
I am fed up of the whiny, overconfident, unresponsive and fragile players. kick them all out for all I care. The only people who should be in the national team are ones who beg to be in it, who want it. I don't care if I lose so long as I feel and see my team give out their all. Bored players are no good for me.
Thank god for Egypt for keeping my Arabic sports pride from dying.

Yahoo's Board Rejects Microsoft's takeover

2008-02-10T09:01:00.001+03:00

After reading about Microsoft's intention to acquire them, Yahoo Board members concluded the unsolicited $44.6 billion offer massively undervalues the Web pioneer, a person familiar with the situation told the newspaper.

read more | digg story

Fifth Internet Cable is cut.

2008-02-07T10:49:00.001+03:00

I posted a while back about how three undersea internet cables were cut, causing much disarray and a state of cyber isolation. Since then, a fourth and a fifth cable has also been cut. What the..??
Five Internet cables cut? all in one time? At different parts of the world?
Let me think this through..
1 cable cut... happens
2 cables cut that are 1 km apart ... happens, but you must be pretty stupid to do that
3 cables cut, 2 of which is 1 km apart in one sea and the third is in another ... that is weird!
4 cables cut, the fourth one between UAE & Qatar.. all four are connected to the mid east.. That sounds fishy.
5 Cables cut, all to Asian countries... Something is very wrong here.

According to Mr. Jaishankar, an executive of "du", an Emarati telecom company:

"These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria."

The "I love Bonnie" tech blog has its own theories, for this is too much for mere coincidence. Read about them on that blog. While his theories are interesting and may very well hold water, a lot of people are thinking that this is the beggining of an information blackout for Iran in preparation for a strike. What with the election news in the U.S., this will not be on any front page.

There are many conspiracy theories floating around right now, but I know that 5 times in a row, in the same time, in different parts of the world is NOT a fluke.

Linux Users Group (LUG) Feb. Meeting

2008-02-05T16:36:00.000+03:00

The Bahraini LUG is meeting up on Saturday, 9th of February at 3:30 PM. Some bloggers expressed interest in learning this new "Linux" thing. I urge you all to come, if only to blog about it.

In each meeting, a certain topic is discussed. For February, they'll speak about this:

Colinux: Run Linux on Windows

Presenter: Marwan Al-Sabbagh
Presentation Type: Technical Presentation
Summary: coLinux, is software which allows Microsoft Windows and the Linux kernel to run simultaneously in parallel on the same machine.

The meeting will be at the Bell view apartments in Exhibition avenues. Look at the map or visit the LUG's page here for directions.
Laptops are most welcome!

Newsflash: Microsoft Office is made by Microsoft!

2008-02-05T13:06:00.000+03:00

I was working on outlook, as usual, it crashed. I opted to report the problem and in comes the verdict (marked in yellow above): Microsoft Office crashed because of Microsoft office itself. Oh, and that Microsoft office, is made by Microsoft, by the way; just in case you don’t know.