Sunday, July 22, 2007

Turkey, i must be getting something wrong

I meet people of Turkish descent on frequent occasions, who still pledge allegence to Mustapha Kamal Ataturk, ,who properly cry his memory as we speak, who pay attribute to his grave and offer flowers, who never visited Mecca and probably is not on their agenda, who never spilled a tear for prophet mohamad or any other prophet for that matter. A few month back, huge masses organized public demonstration calling for a wildly secular Turkey. I cannot but be forced to believe that separation between State and Religion is so explicit over there. Today I find out that Turkey's ruling AKP won 48.1 percent of the vote in a landslide national election victory after two thirds of votes had been counted. The AKP has presented itself consistently and credibly as a new type of Islamic-oriented party. Who voted for AKP then?

Ammar Sajdi

Starting Salaries, how much should you be making

Average Starting Salaries in the USA witnessed 3-6% increase this year.
Compared to starting salaries in Jordan, the figures shown below are obviously sky high. However, it is worth mentioning that the taxing system in the US is also equally unforgiving
Engineering, by far is the best paying job




Source: Yahoo finance

Friday, July 20, 2007

Zade Dirani returns to Jordan! musical performance

Accompanied by a 30 piece orchestra, Zade returns to Jordan for his first public performance in more than six years. Anybody can suggest if this worth attending


ammar

Mish Tabee3i



Where else could you possibly witness such a scene?
pciture taken by Ayaa Almusa

Similar Minds

http://similarminds.com/

most of us have some personality issues; compare your personality to the norms

http://similarminds.com/personality_disorder.html

ammar

Monday, July 16, 2007

Mabruk -- engagement season @work

A substantial percentage of ppl were I work are getting engaged/married . i mean in the last few month and until the end of this year, the percentage is more than 50%. Two men from Informobility (mobile based software development company) got engaged to Two women from REALSOFT. This month one person got married at PALCO, Next month 2 people from REALSOFT are getting married. The month of Oct, two couples, and the month after another 2 couples, at the end of year one person, and just now, i received an email announcing that another women in REALSOFT got engaged. Never before, REALSOFT, Informobility and PALCO witnessed that high rate of coupling. Anybody would like to apply for job, get paid and become a potential marriage candidate.

female circumcision

I was shocked to learn that female circumcision is widely practiced in many countries especially in Africa. It was the death of a 12-year-old girl in Upper Egypt a few days ago that triggered an angry barrage of appeals from human rights groups to both the government and the medical profession to act swiftly and stamp out the practice.

after this incident, Egypt has announced that it is imposing a complete ban
on female circumcision (also known as genital mutilation)

Why do people conduct this practice, Does it really inhibit women excitation. I though this is all in the mind anyway?

additionally, i do not recall having come across any Islamic recitation in support of female circumcision. However, male circumcision is widely practiced all over the word for Hygienic reason (if among other things)

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Bahrain and Iran

I read a Local Bahraini newspaper yesterday an article quoting high ranking Iranian official as saying that Bahrain is an Iranian Island. Bahrainis of Iranian decedent tend to agree while Bahrainis of Arab decendent do not agree.

The following extract from wikipeadia sheds some light into Bahrain modern history

From the sixteenth century to 1743, control of Bahrain drifted between the Portuguese and the Persians. Ultimately, the Persian Afsharid king, Nadir Shah, invaded and took control of Bahrain.
In the late eighteenth century, the al-Khalifa family invaded and captured the islands from their base in neighbouring Qatar. In order to secure Bahrain from returning to Persian control, the Emirate entered into a treaty relationship with the United Kingdom and became a British protectorate. The population of the island was estimated at less then 10,000 persons.
The British withdrew from Bahrain on August 15, 1971, making Bahrain an independent emirate

By The way, Bahrain was the first country to find oil in the region and that was back in 1932.

Suffice it to say that even though i only spend a few days in Bahrain on monthly basis, but i do enjoy my stay and get very well with the Bahrainis. I drive illegally in Bahrain because the Bahraini authorities do not acknowledge Jordanian Drivers licenses nor an International Driver license issues from Jordan. Taxis (not only expensive) but are rare commodities, you could easily wait for 45 minutes (under 44 Degree temperature) waiting for a Taxi, which incidentally happened to me and my colleague Mohammad Mansour outside the Ministry of Social Development. Even after the 45 minutes, we ended up calling a friend.

I will travel back to Amman tomorrow early in the morning, it is only 2 hour flight.

Bahrain is also known for the best quality natural pearls, In fact, the government of Bahrain prohibits the sale on industrial pearls in the island of Bahrian. A certificate is issued to prove the authenticity of every purchase. I Went to buy a pearl necklace for my wife, but i went late and the market was closed. maybe next time

Saturday, July 07, 2007

I think PETRA desrved it
7/7/2007
what is with number 7

James Bond agent 007
7 The number of notes in a musical scale...
7 the PH neutral level
7 the no of colors in rainbow
7 the no of days in a week
7 for all mankind - Seven Jeans
7 in the no of bits in Standard ASCII representation
7 dominates in the Islamic doctrines (7 skies, 7 day creation, etc ...)
7 the number of segment needed to represent any digital number (seven segment display)
These are just a few examples, however, the following site gathers lot of information about the number Seven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_(number)
There are also numerous websites that talk about the secret of number seven in the Quran.
The ones i mentioned above and alot more that can be found in many websites are just the obvious one, i am preparing a document to discuss the less obvious one that have amazing and shocking meaning!

many people planed to make this date unforgettable, today can be called a wedding extravaganza
(btw, today is my sisters 20th wedding anniversary)

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Chinese-Made Cars

According to CNNmoney.com (http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/070703/070207_jdpower_on_chinese_cars.html?.v=5&.pf=insurance)
Chinese-made cars are still 5 to 1o years away from reaching a competitive Quality standard of American and European Cars. Chrysler, which recently terminated its team-up venture with Mercedes-Benz, Daimler-Benz after failing to achieve integration benefits, is expected to announce a long-term deal with a Chinese car maker (Chery)to build a small car in China for sale in the U.S. market several years from now.

While this news is floating around Chinese car companies have experienced embarrassing crash test failures in Europe where an SUV and, more recently, a sedan, both intended for the European market, failed crash tests by an auto safety group there. Not only that, but also recalls of toothpaste, toys, tires in the US market is making it difficult for people trying to market such product and penetrate the US market.

One the other hand, i do not think anybody is watching any Chinese product influxing our markets in order to protect the consumers against unsafe or rip-off quality products. I bought a Chinese Nokia charger while in Syria (found no alternative) that failed to charge my mobile for more than 2 minutes before it broke. I have to admit it was cheap, but was like throwing a few dollars in the rubbish can! Prior to that, and in Amman - Jordan, i also bought a Sony Ericsson Charges that lasted much more than 2 minutes, but instead of charging the battary, it supercharged the motherboard of the mobile phone and rendered the entire phone like KFC broasted and crispy chicken. I have to admit then, that the i had a choice between buying the original or like-original (as the shop owner put it) .

This post is not really about chinese-made cars, but more about consumer protection.
Here is Jordan, imported goods have to be cleared by an agency called "bureau veritas" http://www.bureauveritas.com/wps/wcm/connect/bv_com/Group. Aside from being a nuisance, I wonder if it is meant to provide a filteration process of bad product, and if so, is it really doing the right job?

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

enrique iglesias

Enrique is performing tonight Wed, July 4th.
There should be nothing outstanding about it. The thing is, the guy is performing at Damascus-Syria tonight. I came back today evening from Damascus (a 200 Km trip), and the posters are everywhere. I spent two nights in Damascus for EU e-goverment project; i met many nice people with good IT capability that can perform well if given the right guidance. If you think Amman is a busy city, wait till you see what Damascus is turning into, especially with the 1.2 million Iraqis moving in after the american invasion of Iraq

Ammar

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Ta Ta .. Tatataaa

Marriage season is back in Amman
Nomadic Cars swaying across the highway lanes
masses of dangling bodies with camera-equipped mobile phones
taking snapshots of every chaotic moment there and in all direction making them evidents as the contemporary marriage rituals.

The good thing is that we are adhering to cutting edge technology and adapting it real quick
Fancy Cars
Mobile Digital Cameras
Video Cameras
Flash lights
Imported roses
Then gateau is served with diet Coke

Our marriage apparatus is twentieth century!! When it comes to marriage, no one dares to attribute our rituals akin to 3rd world class

A smile in the Mind - Graphic Design

Graphic design is beautiful only when it is witty
Graphic design in appreciable when every time you look, you understand what you failed to observe earlier.
Graphic design is aesthetic when it induces an intense internal feeling of joyful admiration that ceases to recede.
Graphic design is not about funny drawing, it definitely requires a genius to produce and may deem to require a genies to appreciate! Only then a smile in the mind is attainable.
Do you know a good graphic designer? A top notch J2EE is a Plus.

Getting Ref of the View Object referenced by the current Iterator binding for One iterator page without knowing the name of the iterator

Getting Ref of the View Object referenced by the current Iterator binding for One iterator page without knowing the name of the iterator ...