After shocks

A 5.2 earthquake hit southern Lebanon yesterday at 12:36 and was felt in Amman.
Several shocks were registered in the past few months.
If fact, i read a couple of times, reports by Israeli spokesmen that they are expecting a major earth quack to hit the region similar to the one that affected Palestine and Jordan back in 1927.
I have also read reports by Jordanian officials denying these statement based on the assumption that science has not yet reached a way to predict earth quacks. Having said that, this morning newspapers warned that citizens of Jordan are to expect a series of earth quakes this coming month. Does this mean that now we can predict earth quacks, and then, what about what the Israelis are predicting!

While still taking about prediction, it is worth while mentioning that snow is expected in Amman starting Monday afternoon. It seems to me that we will have a white Tuesday

Ammar

The Witch of Portobello

I started reading this Novel on my way back from Muscat 2 weeks back.
It was an interesting novel and presented subtle ideas through the mysterious personality of Athena (A Romanian Gypsy adopted by a Lebanese family) Athena was given the name Sherine Khalil by her family.

The rather unusual personality and attitude of Athena (Sherine) coupled with profound philosophy by the author makes the novel attractive (at the beginning). Later on, things do not sustain the excitement level, as i felt that the events become mundane with some redundancy to an extent that i am no longer attracted to the novel, but yet determined to finish it.

Some excerpts from the novel


"Everyone is looking for the perfect teacher, but although their teachings might be divine, teachers are all too human, and that's something people find hard to accept. Don't confuse the teacher with the lesson, the ritual with the ecstasy, the transmitter of the symbol with the symbol itself. Tradition is linked to our encounter with the forces of life and not with the people who bring this about. But we are weak: we ask the Mother to send us guides, and all she sends are signs to the road we need to follow.
Pity those who seek for shepherds, instead of longing for freedom! An encounter with the superior energy is open to anyone but remains far from those who shift responsibility onto others. Our time on this earth is sacred, and we should celebrate every moment"

It is paragraphs like these that really made me enjoy the novel. However, the style started strong at the beginning, but starting fading away as you flip on pages

Another nicely depicted dramatic situation is clear in page 41, when Sherine Ex-husbands asked her shy she reacted so calmly when he told her that he wanted a divorce, she said
“Because all my life, I ‘ve learned to suffer in silence”. This might not what really what people do in reality, but this philosophy is shared with other writers, for example, The Syrian poet Nizar Qabani expressed something within the same lines explaining to his beloved that his silence does not necessarily convey a message of carelessness. The poem is called إلى تلميذة قُلْ لي- و لو كَذباً- كلاماً ناعماً قد كاد َ يقتلني بكَ التمثالُ...

الى ان يقول
إن الحروفَ تموت حينَ تقالُ
ومن ثم

لا تجرحي التمثالَ في إحساسه فلكم بكى في صمته... تمثالُ

Below is the entire poem
الى تلميذه........ رائعة..لشاعر نزار قباني
قُل لي –ولو كذباً – كلما ناعماً قد كادَ يقتلني بكَ التمثالُ
مازلتِ في فن المحبّة .. طفلةً بيني وبينكِ أبحرٌ وجبالُ
لم تستطيعي – بعدُ – أن تتفهمي أن الرجال جميعهم .. أطفالُ
إني لأرفض أن اكون مهرجاً قزماً .. على كلماتة يحتالُ
فإذا وقفت أمام حسنك صامتاً فالصمتُ في حرم الجمال.. جمال
كلماتنا في الحب .. تقتل حبنا إن الحروف تموت حين تقالُ
قصص الهوى قد أفسدتك فكلها غيبوبةٌ .. وخرافةٌ .. وخيالُ
الحب ليس روايةً شرقيةً بختامها يتزوج الأبطالُ
لكنةُ الإبحارُ دون سفينة وشعورنا أن الوصول محالُ
هو أن تظل على الأصابع رعشةٌ وعلى الشفاة المطبقات سؤالُ
هو جدولُ الأحزان في أعماقنا تنمو كروم حولة وغلالُ
هو هذه الأزمات تسحقنا معاً فنموت نحنُ .. وتزهر الآمالُ
أن نثور لأيّ شيءٍ تافةٍ هو يأسُنا .. هو شكنا القتالُ
هو هذه الكف التي تغتالنا ونقبل الكفَّ التي تغتال
لاتجرحي التمثالَ في إحساسة فلكم بكى في صمته .. تمثال
قد يطلع الحجر الصغير براعماً وتسيل منه جدالٌ وظلالُ
إني أُحبكِ.. من خلال كابتي حسبي وحسبك
.. أن تظلّي دائماً سرّاً يمزقني .. وليس يقالُ..

Anyway, i still have another 100 pages to go#

watch out -- bad weather conditions next week

next week shall witness cold, real cold weather condition (just to say the least). Even though it is too early to confirm, but it seems like snow shall previal as well.

Saudi Arabia bans all things red ahead of Valentine's Day

(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia has asked florists and gift shops to remove all red items until after Valentine's Day, calling the celebration of such a holiday a sin, local media reported Monday.

Hijab (Vail) in Turkey, what is the fuss all about

whilst the American are busy with their 2008 presidential elections, the Lebanese are still working out a way to fill the Lebanese state president post, the Palestinians and the Iraqis are mourning their fatalities, the Turks are spending an awful lot of time disputing whether or not Hijab is allowed at their universities. There is always something that i do not get about Turkey. It is a predominantly Muslim country (>98%) with around 60% of its population wearing the Vail. Cannot we just assume that it all boils down to personal freedom of choice,? or at least personal preference? There ought to be some more important for the turks to worry about!

Hijab (Vail) in Turkey, what is the fuss all about

whilst the American are

The Aftermath

Of course, the Aftermath of the snow storm. However, you may like to know the origins of the word "Aftermath"; originally meant "the grass that grows after the first crop of hay has been taken", from an old word "math", meaning to mow

Commonly, on the other hand, it is used to descirbe what happens after

-Queen Alia Amman international Airport was closed all night and was reopened this morning at 9:30 (so my wife can arrive from Dubai today)

-Wide spread freezing after the temperature dropped to below zero during the night

-36 hours of now caused at least 40cm of accumulation in areas like west Shemisani (around 940 M above sea level)

- temperature now At 11 am IS 2.1 degrees.

- bitter cold tonight (-4) with more freezing and hazardous driving conditions

- All businesses , government etc are closed for the second day in a row

- The low pressure system has moved to to the east and we are under the remaining front. Skies will become partly cloudy, some snow flurries every now and then.

-Temperature on the rise tomorrow and Saturday to reach again seasonal average

-Humidity is still high (90%)

-Atmospheric presure is on the rise,, actually has risen by 10 mb since last night confirming the end of the storm

-This storm was marked by high winds all through due to the low value of the atmospheric pressure the prevailed during the storm


-Main roads are open, but one should exercise extreme caution, inner roads are almost close and I do not recommend driving at inner roads without 4x4, as you are bound to get stuck and hamper the efforts of others who have emergencies.

- Have not heard of major accidents, power loss, except on the personal level, i am running out of food supplies! But i will resolve the issue this afternoon

- The fun part is over, the ugly part of melting snow, slippery conditions, cold evening and depressing scenery of dirty snow remians.


The following are pictures that i took this morning from the window of my home











Note the frozen water drops on the left bottom side of the picture indicating the sub zero temperatures

Snow and More snow

It started snowing in Amman after mid night.

This morning, it is bilizard like conditions and still snowing. Unlike last week, it is going to be difficult to get to the office. It seems i will resume work through my VPN.

Snow is to resume at noon, when another cold front will sweep the area

Weather map

Tuesday map

Big weather system -- watch out

(picture on the left is taken last Tuesday)

It seems like a big weather system is coming to the Eastern Med. Deep low pressure system accompanied with really high winds (in excess of 90Km/hour).

The effect of this system shall start tomorrow evening and intensify on Tue, where snow is expected in all Areas. I will not miss it inshalla, as i m leaving oman tomorrow morning to Amman skipping a 48 scheduled stop over in Dubai.

Last time i was in Oman was early this year, the only noticeble change is more Traffic , as every where else in this world.

Is it logical to turn on A/C in Jan

Yes, if you are in muscat.
I left Amman, and it was bitter cold, i arrived at Muscat at around 3 AM, and the outside temperature in the Airport was 20 C. I arrived at the hotel, it was kind of discomfortably warm. Tried to sleep, but to no avail , until the AC unit was turned on.