Culture Clash Anyone?

I experience culture clashes quite often.Whether its in the middle east or anywhere else.I think many people experience the feeling of confusion and awkwardness when they are caught in between two different cultures.That are practically the complete opposite of each other.I have a particular interest in one culture more than the other.

But sometimes I have trouble understanding each and every single custom.Its just going to take a little time and a lot of patience.
But I think I pretty much have most of the basics down.So its not too bad.And I also understand the language very well.So I do have that advantage to be thank full for.



Don’t stay out too late.

( I don't go out very much so I don't have to worry about that )

Go in your room. The plumber is here to fix the water.

( umm ok.... )

Don’t walk around the house in white socks

( I wear slippers or sha7ata )

Put your underwear on the inside line and the clothes on the outside.That way men on the street can’t see your underclothes.

( I don't get the point. Everybody wears underclothes )

You want to shower today? Again? You just showered yesterday!

( I'm sorry but I have to shower daily! )

Turn the hot water heater off after you shower.

( Real plumbing that you don't know about )

Don’t go in the elevator if there is a man in it. Take the stairs.

( I have always been afraid that the power would go out and I would get stuck in the elevator.)

Put olive oil on your yogurt. It makes it better.

( Olive oil tastes good on practically everything )

Drink tea with your breakfast. It makes the food taste less dry

( I'll drink tea with anything )

Don't stand on the balcony.They will think you are a bad girl.

( no comment )

Don't wear a short sleeved shirt.Wear a long one

( I bring my jeans jacket everywhere I go just in case )

Fold the napkin before you blow your nose

( lol whats the difference )

Don't go to bed with you hair tied.

( I haven't been tying my hair for a while )

Don't cut your nails at night.

( huh? )

Don't look outside the car window.

( Its not my fault your windows are not tinted )

Don't sit with your male cousins so much.

( They are my cousins! )

No,thats not how you fold the grape leaves.

( Will you please show me how then )


Perhaps some of this advice is useful

Sho ya Nancy?

Lebanese artist, Rabih Mroue, will premier his new performance, "How Nancy Wished that Everything was an April Fool’s Joke", at the Tokyo International Arts Festival from March 23 -27, 2007. The new multimedia production, conceived from Beirut after the July War of 2006, is a cross between "stories" and "histories" of individuals and society, reflecting the ever-changing situation in Lebanon.

The performance is written by Rabih Mroue and Fadi Toufic, directed by Rabih Mroue and performed by Lina Saneh, Hatem Imam, Ziad Antar and Rabih Mroue. Animation is by Ghassan Halawani. Set design and graphic work is by Samar Maakaron. This performance was co-produced by Tokyo International Arts Festival, Festival d’Automne Paris and Ashkal Alwan.

شكر خاص

shukr khas la kil il jaysh il libnani.Allah ya7meekoun ou Allah ya7meh libnan.

بدأت هنا

It all started with Johnny Tremain.It was probably the worst book I was ever assigned in all of my school years. Dali Lama: Not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck." (thanks Dareen)

It was a very monotonous book and it was extremely boring.But there was something in that book that caught my attention.The Freemasons.Who were these people, what did they do? Little did I know I was to embark on a journey and a quest for knowledge.I call it my "Intellectual Movement".Not only did I research and study for long hours but I slowly began to find my true identity along the way.My journey has yet begun and my only true destination is Paradise.Not only did I research about the Freemasons but I researched a plethora of topics.I have learned so many things and have matured a great deal on this journey.I have found the purpose of life and I see things from many different lights.


So I guess Johnny Tremain wasn't so bad after all.....





Bit dalak bi elbi ya Libnan mah mar sar.Wojoudak sa3adni bil ra7li.Biz3al minak shway ba3dan borda 3atoul.La ano mafi mitlak.

john lenon

Musicians have always exploited Music as a means of propagating political ideas. Political ideologies are ingeniously diffused without the listener having to confirm affiliation. John Lennon was recognised as much as a 'thinker' as he was a musician. He was hailed by many, and still is, as a proponent of Democracy. Below is illustrated how John Lennon incorporated Marxist and communist ideologies into his music, in the famous single, Imagine.


Imagine that there was no heaven, it's easy if you try 1

No hell below us, above us only sky 2

Imagine all the people living for Today 3

Imagine there are no countries 4

It isn't hard to, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too 5

Imagine all the people living in peace, Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of Man

Imagine all the people sharing all the world. 6

You may say that I am a dreamer, but I'm not the only one

I hope some day you'll join us when the world be as one. 7


1. The attack on Religion. Marxism propagates Religion as an obstacle toward economic prosperity. Russia was once the seat of the Muslims. Bukhara and Samarkand were the centers of Muslim learning and civilisation. Imam Bukhari was from Bukhara. Communism openly and systematically almost destroyed Islam. It is no coincidence that architectural designs within the former Soviet Union look like mosques. Thousands of mosques were destroyed. The Ulema (scholars) were persecuted, books were burnt. It is only after two decades of struggle and Jihad that the Soviet Union was tamed.

2. The belief that there is no Jannah (Heaven) or Jahannum (Hell), that there is no Aakirah (Hereafter).

3. The attack on 'self interest', the guiding principle of Western economies.

4. The attack on Nationalism. The idea of a world view, a one world government, a 'New World Order'.

5. Once again the attack on Religion. According to Lennon these ideas are not fantasy but are practically achievable.

6. The belief that everything belongs to the State. The abolition of private property, individuals should worship the state and recognise it as their 'Rabb' (sustainer).

7. A century after Marx's death, there were well over a billion persons who were at least nominally his followers. That fact led many communists to hope that the future might well see the eventual world triumph of Marxism.

(taken from 'Music Exposed' by Siraj Yusuf Lambat 'Time Publications')

The specific trait which distinguishes man from all else in creation is his ability to read all of God's signs.The human intellect is in a sense the ultimate decoder which when is refined and polished can witness the face of the divine in all of its many modes in all of creation; for as the Quran says: "Wheresoever you turn there is the face of God"(2:115). To see all the signs of God and be called to the remembrance of God in all modes is thus the human norm.Islam understands such knowledge to be the goal of all religions.This is not the knowledge of facts and information but knowledge of things as they are in themselves.A knowledge in which everything is given its proper place because everything is seen in relation to God, and the relations between things are understood on the basis of their relationship to God.

From this point of view to know something outside of God is not to truly know them, for nothing can exist outside of its relationship to God; no existent exists outside its dependence upon Absolute Existence.It is for this reason that the Prophet Muhammad (sws) would often pray: "Oh God show me the things as they are in themselves.Show me the truth as the truth and give me strength to follow it.Show me falsehood as falsehood and give me strength to avoid it."

سري سانكاراشاريا

When the mind
becomes purified
like a mirror,
Knowledge is
revealed in it.
Care should
therefore be taken
to purify the mind.

- Sri Sankaracharya

قلق جدا

Ma3zoumi 3al 3asha il youm 3and nas. Ma ba3rif sho bedi 3amil.
Khayfi shway ou maba3rif sho bedi ilbous.Shilta la haydeekil post
la ano ma 3ajbitni izyadi.Ba3dni 3am bitktoub ou ma khalastoun.
Bas khalisoun ra7 ib3atoun.Mashghouli ikteer hal iyam ou ma 3am boufda.
3am doub kil il tayib il shatwiyi ou 3am bikwi kil il ityab il sayfiyi.
Mabsouta ikteer inou 3am bit erib il sayfiyi.Inshallah inzal 3al libnen ha
sayfiyi.Lazim la ano fi 3aris mouhim ou daroori roo7.Ou kamen bedi 3awid
3an sayfiyi il madyi.Hayda kil il kalam for right now.

new currency

I have no idea whether this currency is actually real or if its just a hoax.I found this while I was doing some research about Iran.I have heard a lot of
conspiracies about General Aoun and why he has been putting his hands together with Al Seyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Possible conspiracy: General Aoun knows that the Shiaa in Lebanon are gaining more power, so if he has acceptance of the majority he might be approved to get a higher position than where he is now.

Anything is possible.....
But I try not belive everything that I hear especially when it comes to politics.

Lebanese Advertisement

Lebanese advertisement is really intriguing.It really makes you want to eat foul.Im not a very big fan of beans but when it comes to foul and hummous I can make some exceptions.

world press photo of the year

Mad Cow

When dozens of chickens went missing from a remote West Bengal village, everyone blamed the neighborhood dogs.

But Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, eventually solved the puzzle when he caught his cow -- a sacred animal for the Hindu family -- gobbling up several of them at night.

"We were shocked to see our calf eating chickens alive," Ghosh told Reuters by phone from Chandpur village.

The family decided to stand guard at night on Monday at the cow shed which also served as a hen coop, after 48 chickens went missing in a month.

"Instead of the dogs, we watched in horror as the calf, whom we had fondly named Lal, sneak to the coop and grab the little ones with the precision of a jungle cat," Gour Ghosh, his brother, said.

Local television pictures showed the cow grabbing and eating a chicken in seconds and a vet confirmed the case.

"We think lack of vital minerals in the body is causing this behavior. We have taken a look and have asked doctors to look into the case immediately," Mihir Satpathy, a district veterinary officer, said by phone.

"This strange behavior is possible in some exceptional cases," Satpathy said.

Hundreds of villagers flocked to Chandpur on Wednesday to catch a glimpse of Lal, enjoying his bundle of green grass for a change.

"The local vets said the cow was probably suffering from a disease but others said Lal was a tiger in his previous birth," Ajit added.

apni chahato

You should keep control over your desires

Who knows when they'll come true?

There is great joy in the search for truth

The rest is all in vain

man ki lagan

Fashion in Iran

During the reformist period, restrictions were relaxed to allow women to wear bright colours for the first time since the revolution.

But right-wing conservatives are outraged by what they see as western permissiveness now creeping into Islamic dress.


Rules apply to all mature females, but interpretations differ sharply

There is also a growing awareness that heavy-handed police action like raids, arrests and closure of fashion boutiques simply do not work.

And interestingly, though he is an ultra conservative, President Ahmadinejad did not bring about the crackdown on un-Islamic dress that many feared.

"Observance of hijab has got worse since the new government because Mr Ahmadinejad is not that strict on this issue," complains Mrs Bayat.

"Mr Ahmadinejad thinks we should not use force when acting on this issue so as a result hijab has become weaker" she says.

expensive sandals

arabic english translation

مقبلات ‎‎= Kissers
مقلوبة ‎‎= Upside down
جوز هند ‎‎= Hinds Husband
معمول بالجوز ‎‎= Made in husband
قمار‎‎= Moons
مكتب المراجعات ‎‎= Vomit office
لم أهرب قط ‎‎= I never escaped a cat
يتقبل ‎‎= To be kissed
السلطة المطلقة ‎‎= Divorced salad
خطر على بالي ‎‎= Danger on my mind
لا يمت لي بصلة ‎‎= He does not die to me an onion
كفيل ‎‎= Like an elephant
جوزين جوارب ‎‎= Two husbands of socks
نه أُمي ‎‎= He is my mother
حقك علي ‎‎= Your price on me
خليها على حسابي ‎‎= Keep it on my mathematics
سعيد كتب كتابه على فيفي ‎‎= Happy wrote his book on In In
حباب ‎‎= Loved a door
دستور يا أهل الدار ‎‎= Constitution home parents
قدر ظروفي ‎‎= Evaluate my envelopes
ليش يابعد عمري ‎‎= Why after my age
ظروف قاهرة ‎‎= Cairo envelopes
راحت عليك ‎‎= She went on you
من هون لهون ‎‎= From here to here
يستر على عرضك ‎‎= Cover on your wide
طبيب عصبية ‎‎= A doctor on a young girl
أنا أدفع الحساب ‎‎= I push the mathematics

Antonymns in Arabic

Antonyms in Arabic are a strange phenomenon. There is a whole category of words that mean one thing as well as its opposite. For example, the word, "saleem," means the one who is cured as well as the one who has just been bit by a snake. The word baseer, means one with great sight and insight, but also means blind. Mawla means master and slave and wala means to follow and to lead, The word umma, which is usually translated as nation, means the entity that is followed, or the guide, as well as the entity that follows and is guided.

Arab Proverb

When your son is young, discipline him; when he grows older, be a brother to him.

hayda libnan

The Phoenicians, the ancient Lebanese, were the first to develop an alphabetic script in 1100 B.C. They did so to facilitate their prosperous trade further.

The Phoenicians sailors were the first to explore the coasts of West Africa and Britain in 1000 B.C.

Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East that does not have a desert

On January 22, 1976, a guerrilla force blasted into the vaults of the British Bank of the Middle East in Bab Idriss, cleaning out the contents of the safe deposit. The boxes of cash and other valuables were estimated by former finance minister Lucien Dahdah at $50 million. It was the single most lucrative bank robbery in history, occurring during the worst civil unrest period ever in Beirut, Lebanon.


Lebanese society is one of mutual imitation.

In Lebanon, everybody is observing you and you are observing everybody else.

In Lebanon, people don't go out to have a good time - they go out to show the community that they're having a good time.

In Lebanon, people don't buy goods because they like them, but because they think other people like them.

In Lebanon, fashion and collective hysteria coincide.

A Lebanese will go into debt to buy something he doesn't need in order to impress people he doesn't like.

Some historical Lebanese civil wars: The I-have-a-more-expensive-cellular-than-you wars, The I-have-more-Sri-Lanki-maids-than-you wars, The I-have-a-new-Mercedes wars, The My-Leather-Jacket-is-better-than-yours wars.


The Lebanese Constitution:

A politician will always pass power to his eldest son.

A politician will always give his family and his followers government jobs.

Because of an outside conspiracy Lebanon has the highest rate of useless public servants in this part of the universe.

A politician has a duty to enter into conflicts of interest.

A Lebanese will always vote for a candidate from his village even if he knows that he is a corrupt idiot.

A Lebanese politician will always promise to fight corruption.

Conspiracy:

Every single thing wrong in Lebanon is caused by an outside conspiracy.

A Lebanese is not responsible for the massacres during the civil war even when he was the one doing the shooting.

Members of Lebanese society will condemn confessionalism as practiced by other confessions, while cheerfully practicing it with other confessions.

Lebanese Superiority:

The Lebanese have an inborn knowledge of every single subject in the universe, including medicine and philosophy.

Every single Lebanese is a board-certified doctor.

Any Lebanese will prescribe you antibiotics, anti-depressants and sleeping pills if you ask them nicely.

Because of an outside conspiracy Lebanon has one of the highest rates of medicinal drug addiction in the world.

A Lebanese becomes a philosopher after he reads "The Prophet" by K. Gibran.

soura helwi

bima inno

http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/osc/lebanese/Music/Ziad/BemaIno.ram

bima ino kil shi indeef bima inno shifna Afeef

bima inno shighli khafeef wil 7ali midri keef

Helen Zughaib

Helen Zughaib is an Arab American artist living and working in Washington, DC. She received her BFA from Syracuse University, College of Visual and Performing Arts. Zughaib uses gouache and ink on board, to transform her subject matter into a combination of colors and patterns, creating a nontraditional sense of space and perspective. She feels that her background in the Middle East allows her to approach her experiences she has in the United States in a unique way. Zughaib hopes to encourage dialogue and to bring understanding and acceptance between the cultures and people of the United States and the Arab world. Zughaib has exhibited widely in New York and in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan area. Her paintings are included in over eighty private and public collections.

Anywhere but here

Am I destined to be some where? A certain place that I have been wanting to be since as long as I can remember.I only get a little taste of it.But I'm supposed to be there.That's where I should be.I have been dreaming about it a lot recently.Even with all its deforms I still love it.Lebnan jenneh 3ala arid.Hayk bi oulo.

Anywhere is better than here.Fake mechanical push the button robot kind of life that has no meaning.The kind of life where you go to a neighborhood and you get lost.Because all of the houses look exactly the same.The kind of life where it feels like you are eating bland mush or plastic rubber.The kind of life where you cant go outside for a little walk because it isn't safe.The kind of life where there isn't anything interesting or beneficial on television.The kind of life where you get singled out because of your ethnic group or religion.The kind of life where the constitution applies to only a selected few.The kind of life where animals are treated better than actual people.The kind of life where its ok for men to exploit women.The kind of life where there is no where to go and nothing to do except work.

The kind of life that is meaningless and pointless.What kind of life is this? Am I living the American dream?

The problem is everybody wants to be westernized instead of modernized.Nobody can stop the world from changing.I hope that there will still be a little special place on this earth for me that I can call home before it turns disfigured.Wait... hold on one small split second.A place that I can call home? What am I thinking? Home isnt here.Did I forget the eternal bliss of paradise? Isnt life supposed to be just a small test.I always knew that there was something better than this.There is more to life than just this.