Women and their stories

The show last night was great,  listening to artists, antrepreneurs, educators, those that progressed from sevretaries to CEOs, philanthropists and a person that created a centre for children with special needs out of sheer need.

I believe that every woman on earth has a story to tell,  the story will be interesting to the young and the old so go ahead women! tell your stories and be proud as you have every right to be proud and brag about your abilities and your achievements! why? because we lead multiple roles in our lives and we juggle few balls with success (not always) further more not every one can do this with absolute precision like us.

sleep tight tomorrow is the first of March.

Being Blind

The other night my friend and I went to Andrea Bocelli's recorded concert at IMAX  (the grand movie theater located at Meydan hotel). The original show was recorded from Portofino-Italy, and I think it was also on Valentine's day. The whole thing was magnificent and the songs were inspiring! I was surprised that the singer had his eyes closed all the time, I thought he is a crowd shy person? But when in most scenes his eyes remained closed I asked my friend and she said that he is blind!! I was so surprised, for two reasons, one he walks, moves, sings and plays the piano like a person who sees well, and that no where it was written that he is blind. 

I was of course ashamed of myself for not knowing that he was blind, not that it would have made a difference, I would have still gone to the show, but just not to feel like idiot when I mentioned to the woman next to me about my ignorance she was surprised! Now I even love his songs more. 

Then I was thinking of our countries, do we encourage people with disabilities? The only places we see blind people is on the streets begging! And if the person is not begging then he or she will not be working, or doing anything of any importance. We do have some well known writers who were blind, one was a poet in  Islam named Alaasha, and an Egyption writer called Taha Hussain. I must research more blind or deaf known Arabs just to prove myself wrong. 

Is it the society that brings up the best in people no matter what body deficiencies they have? Or is it the person himself who aspires to become something and ignores his deficiencies and only focuses on his or her talents? Is the talent taught or from within? Do we need to have schools that look after creative people or we must leave the job to each and every school on the face of earth? Should the schools be free so everyone can get the chance to go to there to be discovered? Should the governments look after those with deficiencies and try to find if they are talented in one way to the other? Or the families should do that?

I don't know really, there are many questions in my mind? One of them is of course did everyone who attended the show in Portofino knew that Andrea Bocelli is blind? Or it didn't matter for them as they went to listen to his entertaining voice only? 

I will leave the answers to my questions to the educators. 

Men and their hysterical moods

Many people talk about how women are not understood and how they have varying moods especially when it's closer to the monthly hormonal changes or closer to being menopausal etcetera etcetera as the King used to say in The king and I movie (a classic that I can watch Yul Brynner go on and on with no boredom at all); however if you think about it men also have their moods. No one want to say this as all of us are scared from them, being stronger and all, but if one watches men closely one would notice their hormonal changes too. For example take my husband, he went to sleep last night with a big smile on his face soon after his friends left when they concluded their 6 hours Domino game!! Yes 6 hours of table bashing, voice raising, jokes cracking, nuts munching, smoked fish digging, and lots and lots of cigarette smoking. But when he woke up this morning, his mood was suddenly low. When I reached the office he was chattering away with his two business associates, I asked something and he flared up! What the hell! What was that for I thought? 

Difficult to explain really, don't even go there as there could be a hundred and one reason of why a person screams! It could be because an insect had bitten him, a snake went under the table and bit his legs, or just to exercise the throat muscles. My advise is to run in the other direction and fight for your life, when a man screams anything can happen! Also don't even go there...

Jokes apart, we need to have a solution for the ups and downs of moods that seem to be infectious in men these days.  One of my friend found out that her husband is married with two children, another one found out that her husband is a pimp, a third one found out that he takes drugs and had used all her money on drug purchases, a fourth one found him with his secretary, shall I go on? Of course if you think about it one can only imagine women doing stuff like this? I don't think so! But, we are the ones that are branded of being moody and having bad hair days, to the extent that our hair had fallen and if you take a picture from the top to our heads no one would think that its the head of a woman, total boldness in the centre just like bold men's heads. 

I am not going to narrate here what men do to annoy women, nor will I continue to make funny remarks about these mirages of men, because I know that there are few good men in this world and one cannot generalize I bet you though that those few good men are married to women from hell.

Peace be upon you!

Art Dubai, Art Sharjah, Art Abu Dhabi and so on

Thanks to the British Council and their ventures and persistence, I started to attend the Art in conversation sessions that they hold from time to time. I love art, love the artists, love the galleries, love those that open galleries, and love anyone who has anything to do with art (including those that manufacture the brushes, canvas, paint, thinner, pedestals, knives and sculpturing tools); I also make sure that I visit museums and galleries whenever I am abroad and when there are openings of shows in Dubai and Abu Dhabi too.  I didn't miss the  biennial in Sharjah since its start and also whenever the Emaar Boulivard have a show going on I tend to visit it too.

Yesterday's talk was really great, as they had curators talking about Art placed in the public realm, and how it influences the community and how the community influences what is being displayed.  Apparently in UK displaying art in public involves discussions and consultations with lawyers, police, industry, business people, some government officials, the media and anyone who can have a say on the public display.  Apparently also, the comments can be for or against, and everything is taken into account, sometimes the item is displayed even though there were more negatives than positives just because it can bring controversial dialogues in the public realm and make people think and generate interest to visit the item just to give one's comment.  

I liked the talk of El Seed (http://www.elseed-art.com/), Tunisian street artist who painted a menarat in Tunisia soon after the revolution, he was surprised that the whole world were talking about it including the CNN, BBC and other media, but the media in his country didn't even mention the subject. He was hurt it seems! of course the Tunisian media will not talk about art, they have a revolution to take care of, and people's general feeling was still not too great, so why would ART be a center of the attention to a bunch of people who may not even have bread to eat. His dismay reminded me of the famous saying (let them eat cakes or "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" by Marie Antoinette).  

Sultan's gallery Barjeel and his total involvement with the art community in UAE is to be commended, I took couple of the books he produced for the artists that he displays in his gallery, I really wish him the best, as he will certainly be known as a figure of Arts for generations to come, (http://www.barjeelartfoundation.org/)

So guys, wait for the month of March, the whole country is celebrating art; there will be Art Dubai, the Biennial in Sharjah, the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival I am even thinking of taking the month off to go and watch what the artists are saying. watch this space, as I will be providing you with some news. 

1 2 3 4 Dubai Cares ho ho ho

I am sure by now you have pictured my personality, lazy, cafe goer, discussion lover, dialogue listener, but never never a strict on exercise or sports in general person.  I walk for a while then stop, go the gym then stop, go swimming then stop, shop for gym equipment and bring them home, and after 4 or 5 uses they become a classic cloths hanger! The only sort of exercise that I really enjoyed is Yoga, but that is not exercise, its only a form of thinking about exercise.  Once I attended a lecture and the speaker was saying that the least we could do is visualize ourselves doing exercise and that is aerobic by itself, I didn't try it as its hard for me to visualize myself doing anything but talk.

However I always take any opportunity for doing some exercise and hope for the best, so when my sister told me about the posters that she saw on Jumeirah Road and that I have to join the walk for Education, I tried not to hear her, but the information didn't escape my son's sharp eyes, so he pestered me to go and take everyone in the office as well as the father.  Of course he accepted the fact that the walk is on Friday and not everyone can be an early riser.

I am really glad that I went, you can feel the energy flowing from everywhere; I think half of Dubai had participated in the walk as well as food and drink from many companies.  I loved my yellow teeshirt,  my stickers, and of course the chocolate bar that I munched very quickly before someone sees me and reports me to the kids!!! then I met this woman who was standing at the door waiting for the line to form so we start the walk, she introduced herself and held my arm and we walked non stop behind the Dubai Cares sign held by volunteers, kids and us two.  Of course we both were persistent and this woman was a real leader, shouting at anyone and everyone who walks outside the sign, and kept the whole team intact. Also many kids were chanting slogans (go east, go west, Dubai Cares is the best), or (a walk a walk for education) or (Dubai Cares is everywhere) and so on.  By the time we reached the finish line I was ready to faint, lucky that water was being distributed, a whole bottle went inside my stomach.

I was surprised about the level of organisation and the speed of registration, I think another night event should be held for the other half of Dubai who do not like to wake up in the morning.

Thanks Dubai Cares for making me a wakeup early, and walk!!

p.s. for more info about the walk for education check this link (www.dubaicares.ae/en/campaigns/campaigns-events/2013-activities/walk-for-education-2013.html)