Dancing in Central Station of Antwerp

Last year in March, a group of 200 dancers emerged out of nowhere in Central Station of Belgian city of Antwerp and started dancing on the "sound of music" melody plyaing out from the speakers at the different corners of the big hall. It is in fact a some sort of promotion to the musical by the same name.




Check the surprise on many people faces and their reaction to the suddenly jumping young and old dancers.



Thanks to Loulou for that

Wake Up Call

Yes, its a wake Up call

a wake up call for a blogger who's missed by many, and not only by me. I am not talking about those who suddenly decided to give it a try and leave everything behind, as if the effort put on writing and publishing what they think and want to share with the whole world (through this blog) is nothing but a waste of time.

There are some bloggers who just feel lazy to write anything, any more

Others who decided to quit everything for good, because they saw that their case, their cause where they decided to put forward in front of everyone did not catch a lot of people's ears or eyes.

I can't exclude myself from this situation, because I didn't even posted anything for sometime now, so it is my wake up call as it is for others I love to visit and to read their posts.

I feel sorry (and sad) that there are bloggers who originally had the intention to let the world know their story, but like many blogs around, the story did not have an end, and many people just kept on visiting that blog hoping, just hoping that one day they can read the end of the story.

I had a conversation with one of those excellent bloggers on the reasons he put a halt to his blog, he told me that "there is no use to continue"... "I am writing about my suffering, my agony, what happened to me in a specific point in time, but what is the use? will someone be helping me out? is there a solution?"

Another brilliant blogger has a habit of locking himself up when he is feeling lonely or maybe having problems with his surroundings, at the end... no new posts

In both cases, those bloggers are depriving people and visiting their blogs from sharing with them every single letter, every single word...

These letters and these words are not just empty

The sharing is much more valuable to many readers, it is about sharing feelings, maybe, or reflecting certain self-experience of that reader, or sharing the fun and joy that blogger or the other is posting on his or her blog.

Yes, it is a wake up call for all bloggers I used to read... who are missed, not only by me, but by many. Those bloggers who are in my eyes and mind left a trace with their precious words, experience, feelings, and events.

The Lost Symbol

Robert Langdon is again embarked into a new adventure.

A lot of people are looking forward to this, especially after the Da Vinci code and Angels and Demons.

I read the Da Vinci code and I watched the movie, it was, but it was crap if we compare it to the book and the magic it brought along with the story

Angels and Demons... Did not read or seen the movie - heard was good and lot of good reviews written about it on the internet.

However, I read Deception Point, and was not that impressed - no comparison here, with other books.

The new book by Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol (in fact it had another working title: The Solomon Key) took from the writer six years to complete. In it, the story is taking Robert Langdon, the Professor of Symbology, deep into the world of one of the most (if not the most) controversial "society" in the history of mankind i.e. freemasons

I asked myself the question while reading the Da Vinci code couple of years ago whether Dan Brown's main motivation to write about Symbology was in fact influenced by the myths and facts of the freemasons on one side and the facts regarding the chronological events in history after the establishment of our modern calender to this day, on another hand. However, I was almost sure that one day Dan Brown would write a full novel on the freemasons, whether Langdon playing the main character or someone else, and here we are ready to read such an adventure.

The novel came out yesterday to retailers in the United States, in English language, of course. For Arabic speaking friends, they have to wait because there is no Arab publisher announced yet that they will translate the novel very soon - I don't have doubts that the same publisher of previous books will do the job, but we have to wait.

Not the same thing for Dutch speaking friends, it will be out next month in bookshops in the Netherlands


I can't wait till I get my hands on this book.

Finally, two wishes:
First: I hope the book would be as good as the Da Vinci code
Second: they won't ruin the essense of the story when making the movie in 2012

Don't Always Believe in What the Police Say

So he is not addicted to alcohol and drugs! The killer of Arzu Erbas, his name is Nevzat K., 41 years old is also has no records by the police related to violence or anything related in the past. All this stated by the suspect defense lawyer, Niels van der Laan, today, which bring us to put forward the same question: from where and on what basis the police spread the news of a drug and alcohol addict killing a peaceful woman in mid day?

In such an important case, I say important because of the circumstances and the victim, and after all the silence from the police side now and suddenly this news erupts out of nowhere to tell us that the main suspect has a different record than it was thought. Another week, we might hear that the suspect is free and the police was mistaken with the identity with someone else because all Turks and Moroccans are look alike!

This is scary, for normal citizens to think that way, which would make them loose trust in the only tool to enforce law in the country. For that reason, reliable sources such as the police must not make such a grave mistake...

I am not exaggerating

Take and Give Away?

This is funny! It is like the opposite to the "give and take" situation! Maybe because it happened on the same day and within minutes that I read two pieces of news on Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates!

The first news headline is about Abu Dhabi hospitals charging patients up to Dhs 1,000 ($272) for swine flu tests, which are free in Dubai, by the way, according to The National website. Patients, wary of the side effects of Tamiflu, have been demanding the tests in order to avoid taking the anti-viral drug unless they are specifically infected. However, the tests are often unnecessary, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it recommends that otherwise healthy patients who have flu-like symptoms but no other complications need not be treated with antivirals or tested for the virus.

The second piece of news is concerning a $150 million gift from the government of Abu Dhabi to the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, with the aim of developing tools and processes to reduce the pain children experience before, during and after surgery. According to the New York Times, the gift to the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington will be used for pain research. “Our hope is that this gift will be transformative and lead to new medical technology and breakthroughs that improve health care for children around the world,” said Yousef Al Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States.

The full article from the New York Times is here, interesting read telling the story of how this gift was given and a background on this institute.