Reminsince- The VOLZZ

Do you remember this piece of machine?

Where I come from, it is not related to hippies or the anything of that sort. When I see what is known in Lebanon as the "VOLZZ", I remember all the electric contracting equipment, since that was my father's occupation. A whole arsenal of wire bundles of different gauges and colors, in addition to the orange pipes (narbish or narbish, i dont know). It also bring memories of crates of Oranges and Lemons from our small orchard (the piece of Land is called "il Zirnebeh"). It is also associated with going to school, since that was one of the favorite mode of transportation for the promising young masses, and more specifically with a man of the name "Abu Hassan Salemeh", a driver who used to own one of these and had the Naughtiest kids at school (Kadmous, in Tyre).

I saw one here in th heart of the Midwest today. The mere sound of that Automobile (which, of all the cars in the world, can only be mistaken for an older VW beetle) gave rise to an endless array of old memories.

The VOLZZZZ. The car of the people.

And as an engineering tidbit: Did you know that its engine, as well as the beetle's did not use water for cooling??
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So We Won't Forget!!كي لا ننسى

Watching this picture reminded me of a grim fact about us, "the human race". WE JUST FORGET, Want to forget or just shovel those unwanted memories into the back of our skulls. What got to me tonight is that while I am going out, playing sports and watching movies. The mother, father, uncle and siblings of that girl are sitting somewhere and dealing with the implication of loosing her.

(Please post links and comments about pictures which affect/affected/affecting you. Just to remember that month between July and August of last year)

Pride

Chicago. A bustling city of 2.8 million souls. A small Dunkin Dougnuts stand. The guy looks Japanese, turns out he is Nepalese. "where are guys from", he asked?. "Lebanon", we replied. "You Lebanese are brave people, fighting those Israelis.", he comments with a thick accent. We smile. I take my order. My friend, who likes the conversation, tells him how beautiful Lebanon is. I sit, take out my snadwish, with "You Lebanese are brave people" echoes in my ears over and over and over.....

لبيروت

الجو العام هذه الأيام يعبر عنه القول التالي

إن اليوم لناظره قريب

The Photo that is still making it to the news. read more.

Forbes Hails "The richest year in human history"

We should mourn the fact that even more money is going into the pockets of even fewer people.

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City of God

"In front of him are two kids, one about 6 years old and another about 10, both shot in the foot. He points the gun at the wailing younger one. He has to choose. Has to impress the gang leader. His hand quiver. his face sweats. He don't want to do it, but has to impress the big boys. has to Prove he is a man. In a moment of contradiction, the killers heart softens and coldly looking at the little boy, turns the gun to his right and shoots the other. The first kill. A moment when humanity is permanently snatched out of a human being."

New roommate with a Netflix account = Lots of movies, and in this case (City of God) a nightmare. But I still do recommend it.

Divide and Conquer

Silently sitting on the floor of my half-empty apartement, my guts were boiling with anger and bitterness as I read Robert Fisk's Latest Columns. It is titled: "How easy it is to put hatred on a map".

The most sickening part is this:

“Buy Time magazine, dear reader, turn to page 30, and what will you find? "How to Tell Sunnis and Shi'ites Apart." Helpful, uh? And after this, are columns of useful, divisive information. "Names," for example. "Some names carry sectarian markers... Abu Bakr, Omar and Uthman ... men with these names are almost certainly Sunni. Those called Abdel-Hussein and Abdel-Zahra," (I have never in met an "Abdel-Zahra" by the way) "are most likely Shi'ite." Then there are columns headed "Prayer", "Mosques", "Homes", "Accents" and "Dialects", even - heaven spare us - "cars". The last, for those readers not already reeling in disbelief, tells us which car stickers to look out for (spot a picture of Imam Ali and you know the driver is Shia) or which licence plate (Anbar province registrations, for instance) means a probable Sunni driver.”

What is sad and Ironic is that even a westerner, Robert Fisk, is telling about the conspiracy and we are still not listening. Sectarianism is so deeply rooted in our subconscious that even if we don’t like it, we either get swept by it or just watch it as a daily routine, but never manage condemn it. It is just a way of life.

They have changed the name of our part of the world many times: the Arab world, the Middle East, the new Middle East, the greater Middle East. While we are still label each other sunni, shia, who is more arab and who is less arab, while the truth is that it all does not matter to "them" as long as we fight and they reign.

Predominantly optimistic in nature, I believe that time is on our side and tides will sooner or later turn in our favor, and we would, slowly but surely, wake up from our prolonged hibernation.

Childhood Flashback-Learning Bike Riding

Yep. It was something like that....and My brother shouting "Stop looking at that paddles and watch where you are going"!!!!

My last project, inshalla...Testing Turbocharger Actuators. Interesting and fun, but not as high-tech as it sounds. It is a series of 3 sequential tests, about 45 minutes each, during which I have to watch a pointer, make some changes and enter data.Well anyway, I watch that Pointer all day, going back and forth.

As the pointer Going up, this place comes to mind. and this one too(Image by Sietske). Then she comes. Followed by him. and her.......

@#$% The stop button should have been pressed a while back.

Ok. Redo.