African Heads and Art
From this morning’s e-mails – I think this is a sincere one. If anyone wants to contact this artist, his e-mail is:
africanhead_art@yahoo.com
Good day sir\ma
it is a great pleasure of getting across to your wed site. Am Mr KOLA OWOLAWI JUNAID am muslim an artist am the founded of african heads art and cultural gallery african heads art gallery was base in lagos and osogbo osun state in nigeria
i participated in my first art exhibition at GENEVE COMITE INTERNATION committee of the red cross ICRC am one of the winner in the art competition i also exhibit at US Embassy in lagos ,IITA ibaban German cultural Center , British High Commission ,american international school,Britsih high school, National art council in Accra Ghana i received an award for up coming artist an many more
i will like to make an inquiry on if i could join the Qurain cultural festival or organizering a cultural art exhibition on Qurain words, painting adire ,batick ,tye and dye and other local fabric art work for up coming this year.i will ilke to know if it could be organizes and what was the general registration or inquiry is needed for the exhibition thanks you.
please if you ilke to see the samples of the art works i will be glad to show it
Why I Love A-Word-A-Day
This is today’s entry from Anu Garg’s A Word A Day.
Wordsmith.org The Magic of Words
This week’s theme
Words from Obama
This week’s words
cohere
with Anu Garg
Tomorrow Barack Obama will become president of the US, and not a moment too soon. This week we’ll feature words from Obama, words from his books, speeches, and interviews.
Unlike most politicians, who hire ghostwriters, Obama writes his own books. He’s a gifted writer. Reading his words you can see his thought process. He’s not one who sees the globe in black and white. He has lived outside the US and has been exposed to other cultures. He realizes that just because someone has a different set of beliefs, just because someone looks different, doesn’t mean he’s wrong — sometimes there can be two ways to do something and both can be right.
Obama is to be commended for his accomplishments. We’ve come a long way in this country. But we still have far to go before we can call ourselves truly unbiased. Real progress will be when any capable person can have a fair chance at winning the highest office, even someone who happens to be, say, a black gay vegan atheist woman.
Anything is possible… but don’t hold your breath.
cohere
PRONUNCIATION:
(ko-HEER)
MEANING:
verb intr.: To be united; to work or hold together.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin cohaerere, from co- (together) + haerere (to stick).
USAGE:
“I learned to slip back and forth between my black and white worlds, understanding that each possessed its own language and customs and structures of meaning, convinced that with a bit of translation on my part the two worlds would eventually cohere.”
Barack Obama; Dreams From My Father; Times Books; 1995.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. -Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)
Here is what Anu Garg isn’t saying, and my guess is he hasn’t thought twice about it. He is an American. He was not born in America, he immigrated to America – as most of us did, meaning our forefathers and mothers came from Europe, from Africa, from Asia and from India and the Middle East and – and – and. As an immigrant, as an American, he is free to say what he wants. Free to be happy Obama is president, and at the same time free to say that the system is not yet free enough.
I also totally love it that his quote for today is from Martin Luther King, who we are celebrating in America, on this national holiday.
We don’t have to agree. I love it that he is passionate about his beliefs, and that he provides A-Word-A-Day as a public service, entirely free, every day sending a new word, defined and used in context, to subscribers in every nation in the world. I admire people like him, like the Rajab family here in Kuwait, like Andrew Carnegie who started most of the small town libraries in the United States, people who use what they have been given to give back to the world-at-large.
You can see A Word A Day leads my blogroll. You can subscribe by clicking on the blue type above. 🙂
Fighting Pornography
For the last week, I have been beset by some of the filthiest spam I have seen in a long time. Most of it goes straight to spam, thanks to WordPress’s effective filters, but occasionally, one passes. I think there is a major effort going on to test the filters and see what can get through. It puts pressure on me to check the blog frequently and eliminate anything I see that is inappropriate.
Most of this spam takes you to pornographic sites. I hate porn. It degrades those who indulge. It gives people an unrealistic idea of what sex is all about. It infects normal relations with unrealistic images and expectations. And those images are engraved on your brain, spoiling what is good and beautiful, smearing it with what you have taken in on those sleazy websites.
I have said it before and I will say it again – those women and men are PAID. They are doing those things because they were PAID. The animals are doing it because they are forced – as are some of the humans. It is like prostitution – no, yours is NOT the biggest they have ever seen, they are saying that because you are PAYING them.
That is fantasy. If you get your head straight, reality is 100 times better than this degradation can ever be.
You have a choice. Please choose NOT to support these websites, which are trying to appeal to the very weakest parts of your character. These websites are not just a crime against women and children – they are a weapon against the goodness of your own character.
I am now spraying this blog against filth. You are warned.
NBK Scam Letter
This is a total hoot. Like I really have an account under the name “Intlxpatr”. My friends, if you get this letter, do not click on the blue type and go to the website which will LOOK a lot like NBK, but will not be NBK. DO NOT give them any information, none! If you have the slightest doubt, go to your bank directly, but do not give these identity thieves any information!
From: info@update.com
Dear valued Watani Online Bank member:
Due to the number of incorrect login attempts, your Watani Online Bank Account has been locked for your security.
This has been done to secure your accounts and to protect your private information.
In case the login attempts were not done by you..
At Watani Online Bank we care about your security .
So, for your protection we are proactively notifying you of this activity.
If you did not trigger this lockout, follow this link to Log on to your Watani Online Account:
Click here to unlock your online account
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Thank you for using Watani Online Bank !
Out of Control
I can’t help it, I watch my statistics. I watch them even though they are totally out of my control. The truth, as I see it, is that when I write, mostly I write about things that interest me, and when I think I am writing about something that interests you, I often get it wrong.
Some of the best posts come out of nowhere. As my friend and I were leaving downtown heading home the other day, we passed the ruins, and the light was so good and the ruins so begging to be photographed, I jumped out and – literally, snapped some shots. I had my friend waiting patiently in the car, I didn’t want to be perceived as photographing the British embassy and all the security problems that could involve – so I was snapping and snapping quickly, without a lot of thought or effort, and that post is another one of those which my commenters then helped write, and helped educate us all. The same is true with several posts – ones that I just toss off, or tiny news items I share with you end up getting huge hits months later – totally out of my control.
Every year, the day after Christmas, my statistics take a huge dip. The first year, I was shocked and discouraged, the second year, I was disappointed, but this year – ho hummmm. They are now creeping back up to where they were, and I just have to put this all in God’s hands – I can call this “my” blog, but I have to laugh at how all I really can do is to provide content, and then trust that it will go where it is meant to go.
Today the statistics showed that I have passed 2,000 blog entries. This one is 2002. People have made almost 14,000 comments.
Thank you for being a part of this amazing experience. Some of you I have come to know as you comment regularly, some of you I have conversations with in the background, a very few of you know me in real life and give me material for some of the posts, and some, I am guessing, are Kuwaiti students away at university who hunger for a glimpse of home and check in for the sunrise over the gulf and weather. The vast majority of you glance through, and never stop to say hello. (Aaarrgh!)
My very favorite posts are the ones YOU help write. You share information, you correct my erroneous impression, you give me ideas where to go for further research. You share your photos. You share your recipes. You share your grandparents’ stories. Thank you. Thank you. Please come back often. 🙂
Photo Contest at Anamigo.com
From my morning e-mails, may be of interest to my photography friends out there. Bu Yousef, send them a photo or two of your pigeons!
Hi
I’m writing to let you and your readers know about a photo contest that’s going
on over at Anamigo.com. There’s a daily prize of $25 and a weekly prize of $125,
totaling $300-a-week for the cutest pet photos (voted by users). Anamigo.com is
a new online community for pet lovers and their pets. It doesn’t cost a thing
and all you have to do is join. I’ve put together this minisite which explains
everything:
I thought this might be something you would like to share with your readers. Feel
free to steal anything from the news release and if you are able to post, or
have any questions please let me know.
Thank you so much,
Dan
—
Dan Krueger
dan@anamigo
http://www.anamigo.com
An Eye for an Eye – Does Revenge Change Anything?
I have been following my own post with interest. The truth is, there is a huge part of me that agrees with you, agrees with Ameneh, who wants her attacker to suffer as she has suffered, to pay for the life he has stolen from her.
I used to be a lot more idealistic than I am now. I can remember the two times in my life I came face-to-face with who I am, viscerally, in my gut.
The first time, I was living in Jordan, and I awoke in the middle of the night. I heard gunfire. My husband was out of town – that happened a lot. Things like cars breaking down, heaters going out in the dead of winter, ants attacking (don’t even ask), those things always waited for my husband to be out of town. Now gunfire.
I finally called my British neighbors, who called their Security office, who said it was probably just the police shooting packs of dogs who attacked the sheep at night.
I knew, though, that night, that if I had a gun in the house, I would shoot anyone who came through the front door to protect my son. I had never thought of myself that way. I had never considered myself a killer. And I knew I could kill, without a second thought, to protect my son.
We all have times when we find out who we are, what we are made of. Men who go off to war and kill for a living have to live with their actions for the rest of their lives. Many, many live with regrets.
People who lived through the Invasion of Kuwait endured and suffered unimaginable horrors. Many won’t even talk about the things they saw or had to do.
Here is my problem with revenge – you have to live with the consequences.
If I had shot an intruder, even thinking it was a criminal, I would have to live with that the rest of my life. Even NOT shooting an intruder, I have to live with the thought that I would have, that I was fully prepared to kill. It still haunts me, even though I didn’t do anything, even though I just thought about it.
I like what This Lady said. I want this man punished, but if we choose to inflict the same punishment on him, don’t we lower ourselves to his level? I think life imprisonment would be worse. On another blog, dealing with the same topic, one Iranian woman wrote that if this man is blinded, some female in his family will be chosen to take care of him for the rest of his life, feeding him, preparing his meals. She, too, will be sacrificed, lose her own life to the obligation of taking care of this blinded villain for the rest of his life. Wouldn’t we all be better off if he were locked away, never to be free again?
I published the photo with the original article because I was shocked and intrigued by it. In spite of her blindness and disfigurement, this woman is laughing, and her mother is hugging her. In many ways, her life is blessed. Because God works in amazing and wonderful ways, we know that he can use this terrible act to do great things in her life, bring her peace, bring her new understanding . . . we don’t know what he can do, but we can trust that her life is not over, that he can still use her to fulfill his purpose in this world.
Reading your comments, trying to find my own response has been a challenge. As I said – if it were me, if it were my sister, God forbid – I know I would want revenge. I know that fiery outrage lives in all our hearts; the desire to take an eye for an eye. I know that dragon in my own heart.
And yet . . . I am left with this very uneasy feeling that revenge and retribution are neither deterrent, nor satisfying. I trust that if this sentence is carried out, God can even do great things with this violent assailant, that he can work in his heart and give him a new way of seeing, he can bring him to repentance, he can do great works, even in the heart of this sinner.
My greatest, gravest concern is for Ameneh. She seems to be a very stable, courageous woman. I fear that revenge can act as a poison in her soul, that the punishment, if inflicted, will eat away at all the goodness of her life. I fear for any of us who become obsessed with revenge at the cost of who we were created to be.
You have been very forceful in your expression of belief that the sentence should be imposed. Don’t you harbor any misgivings about this, no matter how small?
New Doha Museum – International Herald Tribune
It’s the most wonderful feeling in the world, hearing from old friends, even old friends you have never met. Blogger Kinan is one of those dear friends – I always enjoyed his blog entries, and I miss him, as he enjoys his new life in Sweden, working towards his advanced degrees.
But oh what joy, getting a note this morning with encouragement to read an article he found on the New Doha Museum of Islamic Art in the International Herald Tribune. You can read it too, by clicking on the blue type. 🙂
Muslim Prisoners in France
One of the things that keeps me blogging is the input I get from my readers. Behind the scenes this morning, I was sent two fascinating articles. This first one, from blogger Facts and Doubts, is an article from The Washington Post on Muslim Prisoners in France – and Europe.
Here is just a short excerpt from an article you will want to read:
This prison is majority Muslim — as is virtually every house of incarceration in France. About 60 to 70 percent of all inmates in the country’s prison system are Muslim, according to Muslim leaders, sociologists and researchers, though Muslims make up only about 12 percent of the country’s population.
On a continent where immigrants and the children of immigrants are disproportionately represented in almost every prison system, the French figures are the most marked, according to researchers, criminologists and Muslim leaders.
“The high percentage of Muslims in prisons is a direct consequence of the failure of the integration of minorities in France,” said Moussa Khedimellah, a sociologist who has spent several years conducting research on Muslims in the French penal system.
In Britain, 11 percent of prisoners are Muslim in contrast to about 3 percent of all inhabitants, according to the Justice Ministry. Research by the Open Society Institute, an advocacy organization, shows that in the Netherlands 20 percent of adult prisoners and 26 percent of all juvenile offenders are Muslim; the country is about 5.5 percent Muslim. In Belgium, Muslims from Morocco and Turkey make up at least 16 percent of the prison population, compared with 2 percent of the general populace, the research found.
I had no idea. And my eyes were opened to food being a big issue in prison – but of course. (smacks head) Thank you, Facts and Doubts, for passing along this fascinating and enlightening article.
Anonymouse
While visiting another blog, I learned a new trick. I know most you you already know how to do these things, but some of us who were not born into these new technologies take a little longer to learn all the tricks you take for granted.
From my blogging friend in Damascus, Souvenirs and Scars, I learned about Anonymouse where you can go to access websites that may be blocked in the country where you live. Pretty cool, huh? I am betting that there are others I don’t know about – how on earth do any of these countries think they can block the free flow of information? That bell can’t be un-rung!
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Here There and Everywhere 