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
A New Dawn (and Glimpses from the Inauguration)
“Are you able to watch the inauguration from work?” I type an IM to my son.
“Nah, I’ll have to catch some of it later,” he types back. He has victims to interview and briefs to prepare – it’s a normal day, not a holiday in his state.
I am glued to the screen. AdventureMan comes home and joins me, just in time for the swearing in and Inaugural address. WOW. Our new President is inspirational. He doesn’t tell us it is going to be easy. He says we are all going to have to work hard to turn things around. He reminds us that together, united – we can do it. Wow.
AdventureMan said what was most exciting to him was that we are celebrating 200 years of peaceful transition of power. The pendulum has swung right and left and center, administrations have changed, and by the Grace of God, it has happened peacefully.
Taking the oath of office:
Crowds watching in Kenya:
Inaugural speech:
An estimated 1.4 million Americans stood hours to watch Obama become President in temperatures below freezing:
Singing the national anthem:
Signing his first documents as the US President:
What? You thought I forgot? Here is the new dawn in Kuwait – a pearly morning, another great day in Kuwait. Thanks for your patience. 🙂
Big Blob Sunrise
Good morning, Kuwait!
We almost missed the sunrise this morning; the sky is full of cloudy haze and when the sun came up, there was just this big bright mass, you could hardly tell where the sun was. A few seconds later, the diffusion ended slightly and I grabbed a photo, but my camera had a hard time figuring out where to focus.
I am not complaining. We need rain. We need rain desperately. We had such a terrible time, last year, when so little rain fell and every small wind picked up soil and whirled it around. When I came to Kuwait, over three years ago, I remember thinking how GREEN it was here, compared to Qatar. So many trees! Even in the desert! Now, I fear for the greenery, I fear for the water table. Kuwait needs rain. Maybe it’s time to organize another big prayer for rain, like they did just before the rains last year?
Mubarakiyya Food Court
Several people have asked where the Fatayer Man is in Mubarakiyya.
Here is what the area looks like:
Here is a GoogleMap of the area (isn’t this amazing? Isn’t GoogleEarth amazing? I can’t believe such great technology is give to us for free. I wish I were smarter, I wish I could put arrows on the map, and stars, but I can’t figure out how to do that . . . yet!
You will see three lines of white running parallel – those are covers over the walkways in the main part of the souks. There are others, but this is the heart, where they sell vegetables, meat and fish. You walk straight down one of them until you get to the open court – you will see a mosque. In the GoogleEarth photo, you will see a round gold circle – that is the dome.
Just below the mosque, in the photo, you will see restaurant seating areas. The one closest to the entrance to the “food court” is the Malik al Saj, or King of (a particular type of) Bread; it is written on a great big blue Pepsi sign, and there are lots of waiters there eager to seat you. The food is fresh, and very good.
Now look at the map again. You will see more seating lower in the photo, over to the left. It is just around the corner from the other restaurant areas. This second area is where the fatayer man is. Just go down around that corner, peek into the restaurant areas until you see him hard at work, and then sit in the area just in front of where he is working. If you order tea, in this cold weather, they will bring you a pot with a charcoal heater, to savor while your fatayer is baking.
You can find these tea-heaters in the souks, too, but don’t use them inside, because they need charcoal, and using charcoal inside is a really bad (as in fatal) idea.
Words you need to know if you are not an Arabic speaker:
Chai – tea
fatayer – a breakfast bread filled with “jibn” (cheese), Halloumi (salty cheese) zatar (thyme-sumak spice mix) or jibn/halloumi wa zatar (cheese/salty cheese with thyme-sumak mix)
shish taouk – marinated, grilled chicken on a skewer
semak – fish (some of the fish served is amazing)
mixed grill – mixed grill 🙂
Happy eating! Go while the weather is cool and wonderful!
Rain Almost Over Kuwait
We had beautiful rain this morning – but about a kilometer off the coastline. Can you see those lines coming out of the low-lying clouds? Look at how thick and grey those clouds are at sunrise – doesn’t it look like rain? And yet, just an hour later, the clouds have thinned and – yep – it looks like another glorious day in Kuwait.
Warmer, too, did you notice? We threw off one layer of blankets last night.
Have a great day, Kuwait!
Mr. Ken’s Sunrise
Another expat with a view-to-die-for sent me some photos today I want to share with you. First, I want to share his description of what he went through to get the photos, LLOOOLLLL!
I had to open the window to take the pictures because they are, understandably, very dirty on the outside (12th floor apt). It was a little chilly so I had closed the window waiting for the sun to show. When it did, the lock and the window had jammed (from lack of use most likely) so I wasn’t able to take the last shot I wanted. Ironically, the lock on the window popped out about three hours later all on its own (probably solar heating).
Here is the first one – I just love the blue-ness of it!
Here are the next two:
He’s loaned his good camera to a friend, so he took these with his cell phone. Great photos, Ken! By the way, every now and then your building management probably schedules a team to wash your windows. They will come in one of those gondola like things. It usually happens the day before the next sandstorm. 😦
Villa Moda Sale
I was out goofing off with a bunch of girlfriends when one said “Let’s go to the Villa Moda sale and see what they’ve got in today.”
These are my bestest friends. I’m the driver. They are all excited. We go.
It is in a building I have always been curious about, that great big building on Gulf Road in Salwa, south of Bida’a circle, the one that has palm trees growing out of it. I have always figured it was a wedding hall or something, and wondered what it looked like inside, so once I got my friends all OOhing and aahing and arms loaded with things to try on and all the Manolo Blahniks, I snuck off and took some photos of the interior, which is sort of Middle-Eastern done by Disney:
All this was just the basement! Literally, a bargain basement, some items marked 90% off. Women were leaving with armloads of clothes, shoes and accessories.
I would love to get a glimpse of the upstairs. 🙂
Rising Dowries in Kuwait an Obstacle to Marriage
From today’s <a href="“> Arab Times
Rising dowries key problem in failed marriages – survey
KUWAIT, Jan 17, (KUNA): Kuwaiti youth oppose vehemently the extremely high dowries and wedding expenses amid an economic and social downturn in the society due to the current economic crisis, according to a recent academic survey. Dowry is always a bone of contention among the families of bride and bridegroom, said the survey, carried out by the Kuwait University.
Young men are more critical of rising dowries than girls, the study entitled “Social Value of Dowries in Kuwaiti Society”, showed. It highlighted the reality of dowries in Kuwait and their relative significance and social impacts, calling for taking into consideration gender differences and social and cultural changes. The survey involved a sample of 700 men and women aged between 20 and 56 from different areas in the six Kuwaiti governorates. It showed that 78 percent of the sample viewed dowries as exorbitantly high, 82.4 percent considered dowry as the key problem in surging wedding expenses, while 28.1 percent believed that Kuwaiti girls pay too much heed to dowry. The respondents are mostly dissatisfied with dowries, with 85.7 percent of the sampled men and 70 percent of the sampled women believing that dowries are too high.
Sometimes, it is the dowry which determines whether marriage can be completed due to familial hard-mindedness and intransigence, it said. The survey attributed surging dowries to women’s employment, education, lack of acquaintance and girls’ young age. It indicated common gender social awareness of social reflections of uncontrollably rising dowries on the entire Kuwaiti society. For instance, young men are now reluctant to marry Kuwaiti girls, resorting to non-Kuwaiti females, spinsterhood is growing and secret and unofficial marriage cases are mounting, it said. In conclusion, the survey recommended that the culture of moderation, especially regarding dowries, should be disseminated pursuant to the Islamic Sharia’ or Law in bid to alleviate the negative social effects of mounting dowries in the Kuwaiti society.
Young Kuwaiti men have told me that Kuwaiti women “cost too much”, that they would rather marry a hard-working Philipina girl, or a western woman, who will work and help with household expenses, than to borrow the money required to support a Kuwaiti woman.
A young Kuwaiti woman told me it is a growing problem for them, too, as they find themselves facing a dwindling pool of eligible bachelors, and that while the men are supposed to be able to support them in a style the same as they are supported by their father’s household, it doesn’t take into account that their fathers also did not always have so much money. It seems to be that both sexes have a clear idea of what the obstacles and problems are, but no one seems to know what to do about it.
Watch Out! Roads Closing for Summit
This is from Al Watan ; I am guessing they meant to say January 19 + 20:
Roads to close 9 hours for summit
KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior on Saturday called all citizens and residents to cooperate with the security personnel to ensure the smooth flow of traffic everyone”s safety.
The Interior Ministry”s Assistant Undersecretary and Director General of the General Traffic Department Major General Mahmoud AlـDowseri told reporters that certain roads will be closed from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m. during the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit that is scheduled to be held in Kuwait from Jan. 19ـ20.
He added that checkpoints will be set up on some roads to ease traffic for all those participating in the event who will be provided with special stickers on their vehicles to allow them to have access to those roads.
All those who try to illegally jump the checkpoints will endanger themselves as they will be prevented from doing so by the security forces and will be prosecuted accordingly, he warned. ـKUNA
Last updated on Sunday 18/1/2009
Clouds, No Rain
It was DARK when we got up at our normal time, and I was wondering “where is the sun?” When I looked out, the answer was clear – it was going to be a dark and cloudy day; the sun couldn’t break through.
I was wrong, so wrong. A mere two hours later, the clouds, while present, are mere wisps and the sun is shining through. It is another sunshiny, glorious day in the winter of Kuwait.
We badly need rain. You can see on the chart below – January is supposed to be the peak month for rain in Kuwait, one inch average. So far this January – nothing. People are shaking their heads, brows furrowed with concern.
Have a great day, Kuwait. 🙂
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