ihath

Dear Ms,

After reading an article in NYTimes about an english expatriate and ex FYTimes contributor who set up 10 blog sites ,thinking to turn them profitable.....The idea of blogging is pretty simple ,all you have to do is setting up a clear plan to make your site attractive to the readers and can high traffic .....While I was thinking of an arabic blog site ,I came across this one ...My curiosity kept me reading some of the posting of the blogger and I came out with couple remarks.
1..Why some people ,just are not proud of whom they are...to which side you belong??why are you ashamed of where you come from...Strange and weird??You forgot to celibrate the EID ..let me believe that...if you want to fake something just do it right..how about forgetting Halloween...If your house maid was a born Canadian(very strange of you to mention that she is from Eritria when she is living in Canada)would you forget to live her a card or any kind of christmas greetings....Shame Shame on ppl who have no personality.....Sure Mustapha Has it ...instead of talking proudly of him ,you must take a lesson from Alakaad's experience .Go read his Biography and how became a producer of such caliber in hollywood ,they asked him to change his name...Did you change it yet,or thinking....may they call you using your adopted canadian name....Someone from an arab country living here in US came to my working place and introduced himself as abe....Strange isn't??...after greeting him n introduced myself,he was embarassed and said "am Ibrahim"...making excuses that american cant pronounce his name....That is just BS...some ppl has no dignity...imagine if an american go to the middleeast and change his name....wouldn't be funny....
People make mistakes but to disolve yourself really is not the best way to go.

Proud Arab american...I will take that american back...Proud ARAB living in a stolen land    

So proud you sign yourself as Anonymous? Sign your name next time!

ihath, I am so glad I found you. Check my blog for today's post devoted to....YOU!

lisa schamess
the truth hurts    

Anon: Interesting comment. Strange how individuals can read the same posts and come away with very different impressions and understandings. Personally, I think that you confuse dignity and self-respect with arrogance and conceit.

What are you afraid of losing? You'll know that you never had it to begin with if your first inclination is to chastize others for failings you think that you don't have while ignoring those that you have and others don't. Your comment is but another ugly "American" comment on this blog, and the irony is that you consider yourself a "proud ARAB living in a stolen land" with the "American" removed. Too funny.    

nice story ihath. I think it is an unappreciated fact that toilets are completely unpredictable, and if you set out to fix one, be prepared to hear the details of your efforts repeated for years to come. My favourite happened to my friend. I will spare the details, but in the end, she managed to get a firetruck with several firemen come to her house at 2 AM to turn off the valve on the tank.    

To Mr or Ms AngloGermanicAmerican,

Thank you for making the time to comment.First of all,I don't see anything strange when different people read one situation diffrently and come out with diffrent impressions and undestandings.Let me give you a lively example that shows you clearely how the world and the logic work...Since everyone is different in his/her own way,even when you compare yourself to your siblings,Do you consider yourself identical to any of them??your brother .sister,mother or father,friends ,classmates,obviously most people will answer by no except some who will say yes.Then your analysis of any event/situation is most likely to be different than all the others....a slim person who wants to keep himself in shape may hear some ppl saying to him you are killing youself..put some meat on your bones,but you find others saying ..you really look fit and good for you ..you are healthy n better than to be fat and ugly.

Stolen Land

If happened you went to philly and had a walk by the marina,sure you won't miss the statue of Columbus...the criminal butcher ...Since the personality has its finger prints on the american history,sure you wont just walk by without reading some of the writing and poems about this man/who discovered this land and killed its own people to get some gold ordered by the queen who thretened him if he comes back empty handed.....NOT a Stolen LAND??? I will pass...My comments may offend some...never that was my intention to offend you or shamess....this is reality and i comment on it...I lived in several countries and came across alotttttttttttt of ppllll ,knew them for long period of time...and came to the conclusion (repetitive singn of disease)..lost personality... disolving..loosing who you are whre you come from because you lack the confidence and have no courage to build yourself and prove that you are a person who you should be respected regardless Origin/color/religion...etc...Some ppl are scared to say their own name ...especially someone with name Mohamed for example..some choose to hide it somehow,some change it try to be called Med or Medi( sick)..I heard one guy said that he was half christian and half muslim....another recent experience in the last couple years...Kurds from Iraq love to pretend not speaking arabic when they lived in an an arabic enviroment, when their native language was arabic..When i start talking to him arabic he undrstands perfectly and tell him i had a classmate who was kurd n had no problem communicate in arabic...they will say I speak a little and I forgot most of it....how about that..... what you call this...crazy...myself I had a classmate who was kurd from syria but was not weak like most whom I came across..it is funny and makes me throw up sometimes ..what kind of ppl are they....not the kurd(the weak who frail to stand up and say yes am who Iam.

Am I wrong?? may be to some who are few and exception,,This just confirms the rule.
peace
My name is adnan am not anonymous ..I clicked on one of the icon available on this blog..that was the reason.    

Adnan: You didn’t answer my question, “What are you afraid of losing?” Only you can answer the question yourself. Stated a different way, what is it about Ihath’s posts that you find threatening? It is my belief that if you answer the question honestly, you too will marvel at your first comment above.

In your first comment, you imply that Ihath is “ashamed” of where she came from; you ask her to “which side [do] you belong” presumably referring to your division of people into two groups: those who are proud of who they are and those who are not; you suggest that forgetting to celebrate EID is a fabrication and suggest that “if you want to fake something” try faking forgetting about Halloween. Then you pull out the shame card: “Shame Shame on ppl who have no personality.” Personality, according to you, is something that resides in the retention of one’s name, “Mustapha has it” and we should all take a lesson from him who refused to change his name. But, apparently due to the fact that you have read a few of Ihath’s posts and have concluded that Ihath lacks personality, you inquire whether Ihath has changed her name or is thinking about it, “may they call you using your adopted canadian name.”

The difference in our readings is a bit more than the difference between one person viewing a slim person as too thin and another individual viewing the same person as “really fit.” I’ll bet you that Ihath even retained her maiden name following marriage. :)

My point to you about your statement that you are a “proud ARAB living in a stolen land” with the “American” removed had nothing to do with the “stolen land” part. You see, in both real life and in virtual space, it has been my experience that in some circles the term “American” is synonymous with a number of unfavorable human characteristics. Americans, you see, are arrogant. They are conceited, believing that they know what is best and won’t listen to others nor make any effort to understand the perspective of others. In short, Americans in these circles are viewed as proud, arrogant, ignorant, hypocrites. My point to you is that your comments sound American, despite your protestations to the contrary. :)

Ihath is sharing, you are dictating. Ihath isn’t providing answers, but you somehow have found them and determined them to be wrong headed. Too funny.

Here’s my theory. You are not as confident as you profess. Nor do you understand the meaning of the words “dignity” “pride” or “self respect” when applied to individuals. Because you misunderstand these concepts and lack confidence, you have completely invested your identity in membership in a particular group. Apart from the group, you have no real identity. Just a guess and wildly speculative I know.

Do you know what I find most distressing about your comments? You completely miss Ihath’s reverence, love and respect for her Arab tradition.    

Dear Ihath,

Your husband and I have much in common. We both underestimate how long it will really take to do household repairs. And I bet we both secretly enjoy this kind of activity with its frustrations. Especially when it's the first time. Perhaps it is an alter ego that infects our brains, and becomes active on weekends?

I do need to replace our toilets. They are old and were the cheapest models I could find. Now they are not flushing as well as in the past. Now I have a good estimate of how long it will take me to replace them. :-)

Later...    

"but then the kids young and old wouldn’t have had so much fun on a snowy Sunday"

hahahaha

this story reminded me of my father who as of late likes to start messing around with his old computer until it stops working and then spend all day trying to fix it in the most inefficient possible way
lol

anyhow I guess everyone needs a hobby..... even if it's a totally trivial/useless one
xD

-javier    

nice story !
thanks goes to ihath...

realy i liked it

M. Gamal
Egyptian~~    

Dear Ihath,

http://www.iraqvote.org/

Any Iraqi's in America who want to vote, see the site above ASAP. I've heard that it was not publicized well. It has the US voting locations and info.

Later...    

Hi Ihath, I see your visitors are plumbing the saphenous depths again (eyeroll). Whoever mentioned two people (or more) reading one thing and coming away with different ideas - well yes. Recently I read a book, passed on to me, which brought back many pleasant memories for no reason I could identify, all the stories sounded oddly familiar - then I remembered years old student houseshare days when one of my housemates was readng or had read the book and was so mightyly impressed she relayed many of the stories therein to the rest of us (in our shared house). So, while the stories were far from my realm they also are within it. Anyway, it is a fantastic read and I have not touched another book since I opened it and will not until I finish (which is unlike me, misfortunately a reader of many infidelities and holding several books dear at one time while discarding others part way through).

Thank you.    

Dear Emigre,
Your welcome.


I have a funny feeling that your old roomate is planning a near assault on your ears .... be prepared

:-)    

I hope not, am so over earbashing I would probably just go to bed with another book for a week with the sheets tucked up around my lobes and consider disconnecting for life.

:\

Thanks for warning.    

Although... on the other hand...    

Dear Emigre,
It has been so long since I have hand written a letter. Perhaps I have lost the ability to write with a pen altogether. Sometimes we need to lose something in order to appreciate its beauty. O! the beauty of opening a mail box and finding an unexpected package in between the bills and flyers. The excitted rush while unwrapping mysterious layers. The nostalgic feel of paper crinkling in between my hands. The faint smell of somebody from far away. A well of yearning, gets unleashed. O! ... This internet thing is so lacking. I think I will spend the next two weeks going to bed with a book of short stories in hand and disconnect the internet. Recently, a friend gave me a book. To her I am grateful.    

Fine as imagination may be, sometimes nothing beats reality. Still, p'raps we are just escaping escapism? Hope you stick around.    

The only aspect of life over which we have unfettered control is our attitude. Though eyes may roll, it is attitude, as I am using the term, that defines our reality. Perceptions or understandings are always shaped by our attitude, and more often than not, attitude is the doorman who either admits or denies entry into our minds. Perhaps my greatest fear is to be misunderstood.    

Nothing deep to say here, just a chuckle at your day's adventures ...
My sister and I undertook to renovate our mother's kitchen. That was, oh, two and a half years ago. There is still a board missing from above the door, and it needs some paint on the parts that were painted once before we had to fill in part of the frame to fit the new door ... but the sink, cabinets, countertops, lights, new stove and carpeting are in! Now we're about to tackle the bathroom. The toilet is waiting out in the barn.    

I guess the upshot of my comment is, we are more alike than we are different. But I like the differences, too. It's what makes life interesting.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I see the so-called Minutemen vigilantes patrolling the U.S. border to keep those "foreigners" out. Most of the Minutemen I've seen don't look the least bit Navajo or Lakota ... maybe they're albinos.    

It's too bad AngloGmncAmerican feels the need to control other peoples attitudes by analysis. Sometimes, AG, you are denied entry because other minds DO understand you.    

that was awesome.it has been the most intresting article i've read till now.well i think tat if ur husband goes thru this article he'll be a bit upset initially but finally he'll adore u like anything.one thing that i came to know about u thru this article is that u r a lucid woman and a superb wife.    

I want to quote your post in my blog. It can?
And you et an account on Twitter?    

Anonymous, Yes you can.
I have a twitter account which I never use, it is @ElenGhulam