A felow uni colleague speaks of her time in Israel this July

Haringey Green Party: Released from Israeli jail: "Well I spent yesterday trying to chill out after a rather expensive long weekend in an Israeli jail. I guess most people already heard that..."

A felow uni colleague speaks of her time in Israel this July

Haringey Green Party: Released from Israeli jail: "Well I spent yesterday trying to chill out after a rather expensive long weekend in an Israeli jail. I guess most people already heard that..."

Don't forget!!

Food glorious food

When it comes to matters of food I consider myself more of a consumer then a creator but for you, I'm willing to try the other side...

Quote of my day

"Whoever’s sin was because of [carnal] desires, hope

for him (as he may repent and be forgiven),

but whoever’s sin was out of pride, fear for him.

For indeed, Adam sinned out of simple desire, and was

forgiven; Whereas Iblis sinned out of pride, and was

cursed. " - Sufyaan bin Uyainah

[not a hadith]

I don't often post religious epithets or hadeeth that much anymore but some of which I hear I am compelled to share.

Presenting the blogging premier of.....

I am ridiculously proud to present a short production by a very dear friend of mine Nada Aboudahab. A young fashionista taking trend out of the box and giving it a courageous kick up the behind. This is her awesome contemporary vision representing one of the edgy shoulder pieces by designer Dean Sideway.

VERR from Volt Magazine on Vimeo.

....yep! I know her :D

Fury over advert claiming Egypt revolution as Vodafone's

Vodafone advertisement produced by JWT that suggests the phone company helped inspire the Egyptian revolution.

Vodafone is facing a backlash in Egypt over an advert suggesting it helped inspire this year's revolution in the country.

The three-minute commercial featured excerpts from a Vodafone ad campaign entitled Our Power, which was launched three weeks before an anti-government uprising swept the country. The video goes on to show images from protest rallies in Cairo's Tahrir Square before claiming: "We didn't send people to the streets, we didn't start the revolution … We only reminded Egyptians how powerful they are."

The short film features screengrabs of Facebook and Twitter messages posted by Egyptians approving of the Vodafone ad campaign, then an audio recording of Hosni Mubarak's resignation as president being announced on TV.

In fact, many pro-change activists blame Vodafone and other mobile phone companies for following Egyptian government orders and implementing a communications blackout at the height of the revolution. They have condemned the advert as a "sickening" attempt to push up sales by "riding the revolutionary bandwagon", and an insult to the hundreds who died in the struggle to bring down Mubarak.

"Apparently this tagline inspired people to take the streets," said prominent blogger Mohamed El-Dahshan in one of many angry and satirical responses that have spread across the web. "I mean, never mind the years of activism, the protests, the decades of cumulated grievances, the terrible economic situation, the trampled political freedoms, the police brutality, the torture, etc. Nah – we just watched a Vodafone ad, and thought: 'Hey! We're powerful! Let's topple the president!'"

Vodafone has strongly disassociated itself from the commercial, which was produced by the international marketing firm JWT. "The company does not have any connection to this video and had no prior knowledge of its production or posting on the internet," said Hatem Dowidar, the chief executive of Vodafone Egypt.

The advert appeared on the public website of JWT, which was hired by Vodafone Egypt to mastermind its recent communications strategy. The agency said the video was for "internal use" only and "not intended for public display". It has since been removed from the website, as havecopies posted on YouTube.

Egyptians queued up to vent their disbelief online. One YouTube comment said: "Are you guys seriously planning on leeching something out of this after you cut the phones and internet, after protesters who were being shot at could not call others and warn them about being shot at by snipers because of you? SHAME!"

Pro-change activist and former Google executive Wael Ghonim, who became an international media star of the revolution following his arrest and subsequent TV interview about the ordeal, also denounced the advert as unethical and accused JWT of using his name in the advert without permission. Meanwhile, a new website namedihatevodafoneegypt.com has rapidly become an online sensation.

To make matters worse for Vodafone and JWT, both the original ad campaign and the latest video feature Adel Emam, a veteran Egyptian actor who initially denounced the pro-change protests in January and has been widely derided in Egypt for his close links with the Mubarak family.

Vodafone is one of several firms in Egypt that agreed to shut off its mobile and internet networks in the early stages of the revolt as the government attempted to isolate anti-Mubarak protesters. It also allowed the Mubarak regime to send out anti-revolutionary text messages en masse to subscribers. It said it had no choice and has since apologised.

The firm is facing a series of legal challenges over what some critics have called its "complicity in dictatorship". It is accused of passing on information about opposition activists to the Mubarak regime's security services – a claim seemingly confirmed by Vodafone's global head of content standards, Annie Mullins, in February 2009 but later denied by Vodafone Egypt.

"All companies in Egypt are trying to use revolutionary and nationalist imagery right now to drive sales and in most cases it doesn't concern me," said Ramy Raoof, an activist with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights who had his own Vodafone Egypt service cut off for several months under orders from Mubarak's apparatus.

"But when the communications companies try it – the ones who handed out our personal information to state security, the ones who shut down our lines and who helped the government cut us off – it's too far. People are talking about compensation but we don't want money. We want to see people on trial."

Vodafone is not the only mobile firm to come under fire for its alleged use of revolutionary material for marketing. Rival company Mobinil launched a huge advertising campaign at Cairo airport with billboardsfeaturing quotes from world leaders such as Barack Obama and Silvio Berlusconi praising the Egyptian revolution, stamped with the Mobinil logo.

"We have not used any images of the Egyptian revolution at any time in any of our external promotional material," a Vodafone spokesperson told the Guardian. "Any suggestions to the contrary are incorrect."

• Jack Shenker
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 June 2011 15.15 BST

Tupac - I wrote this song in '94 [by Dave Chappelle]

A day at the zoo

A big part of me hates the idea of a zoo, I would go as far as to say that it is somewhat wrong. In fact its an incredibly archaic system of storing animals for selfish gain but then you look at London Zoo who use the money they raise into research and breeding and conservation, then there is the institutionalized side of me that says its normal and that there is nothing wrong with it and it is that side of me that usually wins over....

So I visited one of my favourite place in Cairo... Giza Zoo. For me, the animals at Giza zoo make up the background scenery, what I love to see most are the people, normal 'working class' Egyptians enjoying a family day out at the zoo. I don't know what it is exactly that entertains me so much at being around the general nas (people) of Cairo and usually it can become quite suffocating giving the sheer magnitude of the population here in Cairo. I thnk its the fact that here its a controlled environment, its magnificently green in contrast to the generally yellow country surrounding it without the young pubescent guys that holler at you from the sidelines or the random Taxi that follows you down a street convinced that you need his services lol. Basically, its full of happy people flowers and paths without pot-holes. My kind of place to be :)

Georges Kazazian - Tal el Amarna

Can't wait to see this live at Al-Azhar park June 16th Cairo!!!!! the best setting for the best sounds yayyyy (www.alazharpark.com)

Ta7ya ya Misr

Not long touched down in Cairo town. Staying out in the 'suburbs' area known as tegamo3a in a compound called Al Rehab, the place where I've had my fondest memories of Egypt so renting here was an urge of nostalgia. However I am pretty cut-off from the hustle and bustle of the city. Transport remains at an abundance and yesterday I found myself mooching around Giza Zoo.

Can't wait to start my internship with soliya on Monday in Tahrir and to set foot on the soil of the revolution. Along with that and all that I have in stall here with 'Draw a Smile' and our peers 'Face', as well as the reason for my presence in Egypt <3 I am Happy Al Hamdulilah rab al Akram xx

To do list

Agenda for today; Print research articles for my essay on 'The Wilton Dyptych' Take an anti-hystemine Mow the lawn Read the articles spark the barby... (unfortunately this is for my amusement only) ...To be continued

"No amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future. Go easy on yourself, for the outcome of all affairs is determined by God's decree. If something is meant to go elsewhere, it will never come your way, but if it is yours by destiny, from you it cannot flee." [Umar Ibn al-Khattab]

Essays

So, I publish my essays on my blog under the page heading of 'If you think you can handle it'.To be honest I can't imagine anyone reading them only for the fact it isn't necessarily aesthetically pleasing and blogger makes publishing on a page difficult at the best of times.

The latest entry is an essay I wrote for my Judaism module about The Kabbalah. I actually enjoyed researching and writing this essay. I am currently writing an essay for the explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity for my Christian theology class, and I'm surprised to say that both themes are really quite similar. That is that they both seem to have eventuated via the philosophical questions of a believer to the nature and character of the Divine.

Any way it's all there if you are interested.......

The sea Draggon

So I was watching the Eden channel on sky to ease me out of my slumber and they were filming this amazing almost mythical creature called the sea draggon (like i was saying i was still somewhat groggy from sleep so couldn't tell you too much about it) but thought I would share Gods beautiful work with you all

The last few weeks have been...

Came across this from my blog feed:

“Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.”, Thomas Paine

Found it quite apt

Focus

Today, is a trialing day. Why is it that sometimes you wake up full of the air of promise, ready to embark on your 12 hour journey in the world of possibilities and other days your irritable, pessimistic and put-out by the sheer fact that you have to wake up and slave away to the schedule you've imposed on yourself.

So, there I am, butt to butt in the narrow corridor of a 'South Western' train being yelled at by the other disgruntled commuters who like me didn't wake up on 'the right side of the bed'. I try to take my irritated mind out of my hostile environment and pick up my kindle and start to read. I get a seat which forces me to try to put the day in a different light so I sit staring out on to the world with my usual 'lets change my energy' incantation (this usually consists of a sharp word or two with myself about gratitude). My mood slowly starts to shift and I am no longer in need of my 'London mantra'. A man in a suit sneezes rather loudly and as usual no one raises an eyebrow or batters an eyelid, the 'cold' demeanor of the English is one I'm always trying to surpass so I offer my 'bless you' as a charity which results in a 'how dare you take note of me' look from the man in question until he buries his head back into his news paper.

Sigh, 'don't let it phase you' I tell myself holding strong to the up-lifted disposition I earlier trained for. Eventually, I arrive at my final destination, fall up the stairs ready to laugh off my embarrassment as i lay on all fours splayed against the cold concrete, only to realise that people are actually tutting as they clamber over me. I route-march the mile walk to university, arrive to my lecture on time only to be told that it has been cancelled. I receive my 'marked' paper for an essay from last term realising that my marker couldn't even be bothered to write more than a sentence for the explanation of my rather poor mark.

Here, I am in the university library writing this out so I can mentally throw all the bad bits away and get on with some work. Yes, throw away the bad stuff.... Is that possible? I wonder...

Even a smile is charity

I have often tried to keep business and pleasure seperate but have made a huge mistake in doing so with this blog and my involvement (over the past year plus) with Draw a Smile.

Draw A Smile is forever keeping us all busy and what with the encroaching deadlines at uni I have often needed a productive distraction for breaks in reading. Essentially for me, thats where the Draw a Smile blog emerged from. However it has long been apparent to the founder (Ahmed Ali) and I that alot more can be said for what we (smilers) do on a day to day basis. Although we have the web site and the facebook page they are often used as a marketing or advertising tool where as every vollunteer that works at DAS has thousands of experiences to share. Experiences that have changed our lives and shaped our memories.

Please check us out, you don't know what your missing!

Website: http://www.drawasmile.org.uk/

Blog: http://evenasmileischarity.blogspot.com/ (still in progress)

Aid EGYPT - the quest to help our heroes

As some of you that pass through my blog may know, I am a very proud and devout member and one of the managers to Draw a Smile. Draw a smile is now a registered charity raising thousands of pounds week by week by the invaluable effort of young people in the UK. It aims to do one thing only which is to Draw a Smile onto the faces of orphans worldwide. The majority of the group, self excluded are Egyptian which is why it made sense to start this astronomical task within a country they were familiar with. Draw A Smile now has a sister organisation called aidEGYPT which, of course was fuelled by the protests that started and ended this month.

Last Sunday I had the rare opportunity to attend a Draw A Smile/Aid Egypt function as a guest and experience the impact of the message myself and others strive so hard to deliver; that Together We Can!

The charity Dinner was held at Assaha restaurant renowned for its ambient interior and high standard food although none of the 100+ attendees that Sunday night noticed a bit of it. Along with a fantastic speech given by a young UK Egyptian male that decided to go over during the crisis and see what was going on for himself, was this video made by a fellow DAS member and friend.

It is my pleasure to share it with you all, whom ever may be watching and hope that it breeds the same level of consciousness into you that it did in me.

Allahu Akbar

Words to make you seem smart

I have never understood the real reason for writers/scholars etc to use such In-pronounceable, long-winded, phrasing/wording when such a simpler universal word always seems to exist within its shadow. I seem to find myself reducing paragraphs down to sentences that make far more sense from these convoluted texts;

con-vo-lut-ed

kon-vuh-loo-ted

-adjective

complicated, intricately involved.

My point entirely! why not just say complex? Sure, it could just be my lack in intellectualism and I would accept that if it wasn't for the fact that I KNOW I am not the only one to complain about this!

Yes I am ranting on and yes I love language! But come on, I have 10,000 words to write by the end of 2 months time (shouldn't really be using them all up on here either :/) do you know how much reading that is! Aye-Kerrumba!

So, I am going to build up a little vocab list hoping it will help to make words like convoluted hold the same value in my pea-brain as its counter part 'complicated'.

I guess the best way would be to start it on its own page so as not to disturb any light reading (which is often than not all my blog offers). And please don't judge if my ignorance becomes oh too evident on such a page :s