tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-192687902011-12-22T05:45:52.086+03:00A sincere attempt to establish a crude alternative perspective.Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.comBlogger691100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-38175386073526746382011-11-16T17:29:00.006+03:002011-11-16T19:16:42.320+03:00

In this iteration of the CABTG series, i will share my recent experience with LG electronics' new distributor in Jordan; New Vision.As any bonafide consumer would do; i answered the sudden impulse urging me to get up and buy me a new screen instead of my perfectly usable old one. and so i did on a Monday, i bought a 55 inch'er from said established, bundled with a 3D blue ray player & set of

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-47497719316273916512010-10-19T06:50:00.003+03:002010-10-19T07:04:18.606+03:00

نشرت هذه التدوينة على حبر، شكرا لفريق حبر لتنقيح وتصويب الأخطاء الإملائية واللغوية:أضعت هوية الأحوال المدنية الخاصة بي قبل عيد الفطر المبارك. هي أصلا متهالكة وفيها صورة أكاد أنا نفسي لا اتعرف على الشخص الذي فيها (شكلا ومضمونا). لم أكن أعرف أن هذا الحادث العرضي سيكون له تبعات تفضي الى أن أتنفس الصعداء حين أستلم هويتي الجديدة بقدر لا بأس به من الراحة التي يشوبها كبر من نوع ما…قصتي تبدأ كأي مواطن

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-31534512309585089582010-09-30T19:12:00.004+03:002010-09-30T20:32:00.156+03:00

7 Years ago, I was a fresh engineering grad, one of my uncles was an investor in what was then the hottest talk-of-town new telecom venture; everything was hyped, from the uninspiring typical name it was given, the choice of technology it ran, to the "miracle" financing it secured and the tasteless celebrity who -dis- graced the launch party, the story of XPress telecom got far deeper

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-72278192673894066002009-08-23T23:47:00.003+03:002009-08-24T00:00:14.118+03:00

One of the negative aspects of our contemporary lives is the fact that we're gradually loosing any sense of surprise... being impressed is becoming a very elusive feeling, but i guarantee you this one will leave a mark.Every country is full of contrasts, and the uniqueness of each country is only matched by the diversities of the human kind, yet in Saudi Arabia; one regularly witnesses extremes

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-78713313701418649852009-07-13T18:26:00.004+03:002009-07-13T18:41:24.649+03:00

Perhaps I made some clunky predictions in the past that proved premature to a certain extent, but the fact of the matter is that whether 3rd generation mobile services are being offered or not, consumer behavior haven’t changed, and thus them benefiting from the advanced features entailed under the umbrella of 3G is and will continue to be limited into certain niches.Mobile network operators paid

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-4454627433806440012009-07-06T09:15:00.004+03:002009-07-12T11:15:47.049+03:00

I have previously written about Zain, or the entity it used to be “Fastlink”, those who know me, and know my background usually dismiss my critique as being subjective and impartial. Never the less, I have a valid case to present and here’s my humble yet pyroclastic flow:The Promiscuous “Free Minutes”I will start with the dishonest offers and terminology convention Zain adopts, where the term “

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-74320195323569447022009-05-24T17:14:00.006+03:002009-07-12T11:40:26.558+03:00

My frustration with the way Jordanian companies and services providers take their customers for granted and generally sport a laid-back attitudes was dramatized with a recent skirmish I had with the said establishment.I have taken it upon myself to write (and speak) about every similar occasion with explicit reference to the establishment’s name, despite having almost deserted my blog, but the

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-76945273348785643902009-02-17T09:34:00.003+03:002009-02-17T09:45:17.675+03:00

This is a syndicated article published on Al-Jazirah daily by a Saudi intellectual, her name is Dr. Fawziyah Al-Bakr, i don't know much about her, but I know that what she wrote was crude, sincere and a small step into recognising the dispicable state of affairs in Saudi Arabia and across the board of Arab nations delusitoinal about their superior ethics and best practices... Alas.لو كنت بنغاليا!

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-61801693402305039442008-12-30T02:38:00.005+03:002008-12-30T02:59:52.389+03:00

For those planning to participate in the Gaza drive arranged by 7iber and the Action committee; but find themselves strangled with time, I'm dedicating two of my company's delivery scooters to collect whatever you intend to send and we'll make the arrangement for the drop-off at the Cozmo location before 8:00 pm free of charge.Please call us at 06-553-5249, SMS at 07-4543-2101 or email as at

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-90983367847101306742008-11-05T03:59:00.004+03:002008-11-05T04:33:20.201+03:00

It’s 2am Amman time, and I just managed to unplug myself from the TV, saturated with the touch-screen displays that each news channel was demonstrating as if it’s a TV first or an unprecedented novelty with all the blunt references to them by news anchors; though credit is due to those who worked on the graphics, content and presentation, otherwise here’s my take before the actual results are out

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-71279495670196154812008-10-30T13:42:00.005+03:002008-10-30T15:55:42.597+03:00

Since I moved back to Amman at the start of this year, I was looking for an alternative to Orange fixed and internet services, not because their services were necessarily bad, but because they're offered by the incumbent who dominated the scene for far too long that they tend to take their customers for granted, and I don't want to be taken for granted.Then a good friend of mine put me on the

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-25075304188504535692008-09-29T22:44:00.003+03:002008-09-29T22:47:51.492+03:00

One can only blame the Jordanian consumer for almost 40% (a guestmate) of his misfortunes including high-prices, low-quality, bad service and lack of choices and alternatives.We sort of have it naturally to get corporations and suppliers to take us for granted and treat us like an old mule...Zain-Jordan announced today that they will start charging their customers for SMS delivery reports, the

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-86631811639999766112008-09-28T21:53:00.003+03:002008-09-28T22:47:45.887+03:00

A very refreshing take from a non-Muslim perspective on the issue of the Islamic Hijab (veil), it shows how much space is there for an alternative perspective on the issue of the Veil rather than the ever so conclusive and figured-it-all-out attitude sported by most of those who are, the least to be said; not in favor of the Hijab (veil) for whatever reason that floats their dream boats... Enjoy:

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-13165821947045374702008-02-04T22:00:00.000+03:002008-02-04T21:37:56.000+03:00

Last summer, my wife got pregnant with our first baby, my reception of the event was as crude as it can get, crudeness apparently became a practice really; yes I was happy about it, I didn't necessarily applaud the occasion, I was mostly overwhelmed with the feeling of yet another no-turning-back moment, like the death of my father, my marriage and some other events and decisions that I've

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-37644083742181827672008-01-22T20:26:00.000+03:002008-02-04T20:32:32.835+03:00

The other day, I took a work partner of mine to lunch, during which I skipped the small-talk and asked him how he feels about the recent development in Gaza, and he replied "Man, let's not start a pointless discussion here", I reiterated "You what? How could this topic possibly develop to a pointless discussion? They've cut-off the petrol supplies for God's sake…" and he responded "and whose

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-74156265322275241032007-12-25T13:04:00.000+03:002007-12-25T13:27:26.726+03:00

It's been well over a year since I wrote for my deserted blog, I can't help but maintain a continues awe of the way time lapses, however; it's not how time passes that made me return to my dear-diary equivalent, but rather the yet another set of momentous events and things that I've witnessed and was intriguing enough that I wanted to capture "somewhere" other than the volatile memory of mine.You

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-45809290108493919272006-12-27T14:00:00.000+03:002006-12-27T14:09:54.574+03:00

It's been a year (and a month) since I first started blogging, and as in all anniversaries of all sorts, one find himself inclined to pause, look-back and reflect upon the period that just went by and contemplate the significance of it, the achievements or milestones or the unfortunate lack of any!But its not only my blog anniversary that just went by, it's been two years since my father passed

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-46563052889744441572006-11-17T20:00:00.000+03:002006-11-17T20:07:44.031+03:00

Apparently, at our sick and unprofessional work environment, if you don't have a walled or partitioned office, it doesn't matter if you're a manager or not, what's important is to have the latter and then command the blunt acknowledgment and attention usually associated with being one (a manager), and I happen to experience both, being an office-less manager and just recently added another key to

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-20488766792839943122006-11-05T11:50:00.000+03:002006-11-05T11:01:37.975+03:00

Four years ago while i was still studying at university, i wrote this essay in an online forum i used to post in, I'm reposting it as-is to capture the true essence of it.little did i know at the time that the thoughts manifested in it will perpetually echo with relevance until today, alas with even wider spread footprint, for we now have the affairs of Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine among

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-44245086070651285632006-10-15T14:12:00.000+03:002006-10-15T13:32:04.607+03:00

The company I work for (bravO) was busy in the past month testing the international push-to-talk service with XPress, Wallahi I don't recall experiencing a truly new mobile service since the first time I sent and received SMS back in 1999.The mere thought of being able to connect instantly (less than 3mS) with your business associates, friends and family abroad to make instant queries or have a

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-17918803535459108082006-10-11T12:59:00.002+03:002006-10-11T11:57:25.338+03:00

Though I didn't have the endurance exhibited by Bakkouz and his long email skirmish with Amina the orphan and herIntoxicated-to-death father, however I found this pilot scam email I received yesterday interesting.Did he/she actually spent some actual human-time on customising such message, or is web-crawlers are now smart enough to relate a name, a theme among other info to the email they hunt!At

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-22339698004708207332006-10-08T13:11:00.000+03:002006-10-08T12:12:35.116+03:00

Next will be surrounding the Ka'ba with advertising billboards like football stadiums to milk out petty pilgrims, why not?If it was a matter of dedicating certain delicacies (Qatayif, Samosa …etc) to this season then I wouldn't have given this despicable state of affairs a flying thought, but what we're witnessing here is an outright exploitation of the holy month of fasting with total disregard

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-55756676516490877612006-10-08T12:15:00.000+03:002006-10-08T12:16:57.413+03:00

My avid readers, the don't-call-me-Sheikh site feed address was changedfrom http://dontcallmesheikh.blogspot.com/atom.xmlto http://dontcallmesheikh.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/summarykindly amend your aggregators accordingly.A tip to all those who migrated to Blogger beta and are using the new templates, your old site feeds will eventually disappear, circulate the new one accordingly.

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-21884114601265704402006-09-18T18:00:00.000+03:002006-09-18T17:11:10.446+03:00

And I used to foolishly think that the term "مصاروه" as a shortened acronym of " Egyptian foremen/workers" back home was racist & repulsive; welcome to Saudi, where one's nationality decide on one's profession.Take for instance this signboard just off our office at a petrol station, it reads "Eyad Carwash, trained African labours", Needles to point out that the only benefit from stressing the

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-35369984783385272502006-09-13T10:00:00.000+03:002006-09-13T09:51:01.857+03:00

Blogger platform help. How can I upload AND place a JPEG banner instead of the one in the template? Please help, it'll be rewarding, rewarding I tell you (visually at least)…

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-4779280048903795532006-09-06T16:00:00.000+03:002006-10-31T12:23:41.111+03:00

Once again, another episode in the Jordanian telecommunication sector, notorious for its plentiful surprises, Marwan Juma an old-school figure in the IT & telecommunication scene in Jordan resigned from Batelco and joined the ranks of XPress as the CEO, taking over from Mr. Suleiman Ma'ani whose been the latter's CEO since its establishment back in late 2002.The drastic changes in XPress is

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1157352326319210762006-09-05T03:00:00.000+03:002006-09-04T10:36:48.380+03:00

The photos speaks for themselves, but mind the awkward angles they're taken at, they were shot in a drive-by fashion as I thought to myself that those who put too much effort "covering" up their houses will probably be really pissed-off if they found someone –a foreigner especially- taking photos of the very entity they're "covering" away from voyeuristic intruders!Let's start with this one, the

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1156340094715495102006-08-24T02:30:00.000+03:002006-08-23T16:39:00.050+03:00

This piece of news & pictures came from an insider, apparently hundreds of MobileCom customers who subscribed to some car competition gathered in front of MobileCom HQ sometime ago to claim their car after receiving a SMS message from MobileCom congratulating them on winning a promoted car.The insider said that an employee at the marketing department sent the message to some 1,000 customers (who

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1156059962217254822006-08-20T22:30:00.000+03:002006-08-20T10:46:02.246+03:00

During a spontaneously arranged trip I had with my wife (Yes, I got married few weeks back) to Aqaba, I had an unfortunate incident at the Movenpick hotel while I was checking-out from it, the incident reminded me of how “third-world”* we can be right in the midst of our thinking rather than our surrounding.A quick back rounder, this leg of the trip was never planned, my wife and I were roaming

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1155716665186700732006-08-16T22:30:00.000+03:002006-08-16T12:26:17.283+03:00

Chances are that you have already spotted at least 3 to 4 of the intrusive “لتشيك مزارعكم” graffiti littered all over Amman and rumored to have even reached Irbid.Every single person I asked if he/she knew someone who could basically “fence my farm” failed not to refer me to a number they think they saw scribbled somewhere near! Think of repetitive subliminal message engraving.Brand recognition

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1152540996716879902006-07-11T04:00:00.001+03:002006-07-10T17:24:13.623+03:00

I’d like to share (and comment on) these random photos I took throughout last week.For those who were in Saudi up to the early nineties this will definitely sound nostalgic, a vantage yellow taxi with an old Saudi plate number and hand scribbled side “stamp".I found it abandoned next to our office this morning out of the blue, given that it’s against the law to be driving a car with old plate

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1152426794217441732006-07-09T20:00:00.000+03:002006-07-09T09:58:35.800+03:00

A comment spammer(s) managed to lure me into clicking on what apparently seems to be yet another new Jordanian aggregator.What seemed wrong right from the start was the statement made under the coming-soon banner, which clearly drives off all those who are already registered with another existing Jordanian aggregator!Unless the creators of the two sites were fuming foes, I see no reason why the

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1151417809825569342006-06-28T04:00:00.000+03:002006-06-27T17:16:49.963+03:00

When my Aunt (my father's sister) met my fiancée's grandmother (her father's mother) for the first time during our engagement "party", there was an elusive sense of familiarity between them that was thrusting through both minds.They both went home & started scratching their heads to aggregate their rusty memories with the underlying question; "Where do I know this woman from?"My aunt had an

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1151309752114619742006-06-27T09:30:00.000+03:002006-06-26T11:43:32.090+03:00

Leave a short comment if you do!I’ve known Wonho for almost 8 years now & he’s a good friend of mine. Beside his socially engaging personality, multi-talented nature & (sort of) charming-at-first-encounter charisma; the guy is eccentrically different than "us".The late king in his famous saying “من شتى المنابت و الأصول” (From all routes & origins) was inspiringly broad enough to include his

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1151222517935562102006-06-25T22:00:00.000+03:002006-06-25T11:01:57.950+03:00

Qwaider from the Memories Document blog has put together a very interesting piece, which I obviously didn’t agree with, so I wrote a comment which is worth a dedicated blog entry of its own. Links: The entry & the comment (in case you’re more interested in what I had to say)Shameless egoistic self promotion? Indeed…

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1150902349499239042006-06-22T05:00:00.000+03:002006-06-21T18:09:44.426+03:00

According to the infamous online magazine Elaph, Fastlink was found guilty by a court ruling in the alleged corporate-espionage case MobileCom have put forward against the latter a couple of years ago!Elaph is blocked here in Saudi (you get used to the imageless blog entries on blogger along with the purposelessly blocked sites), I got the piece through a mirroring server, I would appreciate it

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1150620925634533212006-06-18T23:00:00.000+03:002006-06-18T12:00:02.670+03:00

“عدالة السماء” (heaven’s mercy/justice) apparently took revenge last night for the hundred of thousands of massacred Iraqis & Afghanis killed by US forces while fighting terrorism (and as a bonus: bringing them justice while at it), along with the chronic oppression of Palestinians that was only made feasible by the American support of the Israeli apartheid!I despicably hate America’s guts (not

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1150379633976023612006-06-16T03:00:00.000+03:002006-06-15T16:53:53.996+03:00

Flickr is now unblocked here in Saudi, obviously after I lost any interest in back checking all the pictures I was unable to view for the past months, in return, Wikipedia is now blocked! IF only I can find the sexually-deprived surfer who sought refuge in sex-related Wiki articles.There’s a good possibility that this blockage will be a long termer, the folks at the Internet unit in King

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1150092887392299322006-06-12T20:00:00.001+03:002006-06-12T09:14:47.393+03:00

check your mail!

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1149941849535453002006-06-11T02:00:00.000+03:002006-06-10T15:17:29.610+03:00

Even if you were not a mobile savvy, chances are you’re well aware of the term 3G, the future-fantastic mobile ”genera” (the –dominant technology is called UMTS) that promises to revolutionize the way we communicate, you’ll be able to do "wonderful" stuff like video calling from your mobile, watch miniature digital TV broadcasting & wireless broadband internet (not). In Saudi 3G (they even claim

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1149509768172970382006-06-06T02:00:00.000+03:002006-06-10T11:26:32.946+03:00

Perhaps one of the most eccentric acquaintances I ever made with anyone was my omni encounter with a young Canadian guy named Adam, our mutual friend (Maher) introduced me to him when he came to reside in Jordan working as a pilot for a newly established charter airliner.Beyond the hype that surrounded his death, the portraits in glossy English magazines & the instantaneous mourning of the

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1149161151501370322006-06-02T00:30:00.000+03:002006-06-01T14:25:51.506+03:00

I did not choose to adhere to Islam because of anything you might think I’m susceptible of! I’m not unique but I also don’t merely fit to neither of the typical profiles you can easily label me with to satisfy the flawed sense of apprehension & security being an inclusive liberal who’s so sure he (& a couple of she’s) got it right with such a mindset!It wasn’t because I was partially raised in

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1147768778368168002006-05-16T23:00:00.000+03:002006-05-16T11:51:17.436+03:00

Western societies are maturing with their endeavor of establishing a flexible & capacitating set of social norms & standards to the point that organizations are now not only defending the rights of homosexuals (or more inflammably: GLBT), but also the right of the latter to choose to revert back to their (I can’t help but say it) instinctual heterosexual (normal) status!In the meantime, at this

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1146650744750839802006-05-03T23:00:00.000+03:002006-05-03T13:07:00.090+03:00

Following the topic led by a number of entries about the maids (domestic workers, huh?) in Jordan, methinks that being sympathetic towards those we hire to work for us in our homes is rather a flawed approach to a circumstantially unique issue; what’s needed is a degree of empathy, beside the social aspect of the issue!In my case, our house back home is rather large, and I must confess we had two

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1145950422175243992006-04-24T22:00:00.000+03:002006-04-25T10:33:42.203+03:00

Last Wednesday, my fiancée called me up; utterly irritated by some segregating gibberish she heard over the radio "البث المباشر" on her way to the university, folks were speaking of how “we” helped the Iraqis & Palestinians and this is how “they” pay "us" back by terrorizing “us”!She wrote the following piece and in my unbiased –could it be?- humble opinion, I think it’s crude & cordially sincere

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1145786951884925252006-04-24T00:00:00.000+03:002006-04-23T15:38:22.343+03:00

Back in the eighties, when a female cousin of mine decided to delve into the exclusive corporate world here in Saudi as a manager of a high-profile confectionary factory, she had to do it remotely through a fax machine, teleconferencing and a side-kick male manager physically acting on her behalf! Today however, a different story is being told!6 months ago, a sales-rep came back from a sales-call

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1145350154945383622006-04-18T23:00:00.001+03:002009-07-06T16:48:50.412+03:00

During my last trip to Amman, I called an electrician to come and fix something & when I gave him my mobile number –not on Fastlink (Zain)- he reiterated in protest “ما في عندك خط فاست؟” “Haven’t you got a Fast number?”… I paused for a second & thought to myself; either Fastlink (Zain) has a one hell of a cult-following inducing marketing strategy or we are just a bunch of easily milked

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1145196365608772112006-04-17T03:00:00.000+03:002006-04-16T17:19:26.800+03:00

It’s probably hard being an Arabic-speaking Saudi when you walk into any food outlet here (in Saudi) where you feel the need to speak another language in order to munch on a meal of your choice*; if it wasn’t for the -obviously essential- business sense of the owners who literally programs their (decreasingly non-Saudi) staff to speak the essential restaurant’n’trade Arabic!A typical dialogue at

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1145172427439693782006-04-16T10:15:00.000+03:002006-04-16T18:55:41.776+03:00

My speculation months back was well-placed, MobileCom is going ahead with it’s rebranding to become yet another Orange under the France Telecom cluster.It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll tackle the issue of it’s already axiom-ed misunderstanding that Orange is an Israeli company! from the press release, the new CEO bluntly referred to this explicitly…Not a very smart move in my book! It’s

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1144919851580133412006-04-13T22:00:00.000+03:002006-04-13T12:17:32.296+03:00

This turn-off statement that the MS grammar checker makes almost every time I finish typing a sentence is partially responsible for the recent lack of posts here at my blog, despite the many drafts I have jotted in the past month with no will to neither proof-reading them or to hit the publish button!Why should I consider revising a perfectly sensible & meaningful long sentence that I wrote on MS

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1141576201422615492006-03-05T19:05:00.000+03:002006-03-05T19:34:58.963+03:00

I had two momentous turning points in my life in a spam of less than two years; my father’s death & my engagement to a wonderful woman I love dearly!Death is generally a tabooed reality, it’s surreal eventuality is not the sort of subject that the average person would like to be constantly reminded of, alas... even when death occurs in the family, we tend to rush ourselves out of its bitter

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1141298218735938792006-03-02T14:00:00.000+03:002006-03-02T14:28:46.676+03:00

My younger brother never fails to amaze me with intermittent outbursts of sheer novelty and unexpected insightfulness, he saw me sinking into a momentary depression as I was driving to the airport to catch my flight back to Saudi, and he handed me over with the following extract from a poem by Al-Imam Al-Shaf'i: ما فى المقام لذى عقل وذى أدب من راحة، فدع الأوطان واغتربسافر تجد عوضا عمن تفارقه

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1139498622721285892006-02-09T18:07:00.000+03:002006-02-09T18:48:29.296+03:00

Picture this: the presenter of this reality show strolls the streets haunting lost souls to salvage, once the entrant is identified (with the prearrangement & endorsement of the applicant), they go through a rigorous set of guilt-trips with a definite dramatic cadence that eventually leads to an emotional –and psychological- breakdown… later on the vulnerable applicant is shown the bright path of

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1138522159796171972006-01-29T10:57:00.000+03:002006-01-29T11:19:37.556+03:00

So I go to my favorite steak joint to have lunch here in Riyadh, and the excessively-nice Filipino host dwell upon me with an apologetic tone “Sorry Sir, we’re not serving butter, would you still like the bread without it?”Finally, a business from the middle of the boycotting hierarchy has made the plunge, thanks to a bunch of almost-Scandinavian cartoonists whose understanding of diversity and

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1137917139717542142006-01-22T10:42:00.000+03:002006-01-22T11:05:39.806+03:00

It'll be a shame if this new "comment" gets buried under an old entry of mine! An interesting read worth being endorsed & aggregated to others as-is.Thank you anonymous commentator:Basem,I will not comment on this post! because reading this one has lead me to read all your previous posts! I have taken every chance online to read one of your posts (not in order but according to interest), and each

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1136727219117659502006-01-08T16:01:00.000+03:002006-01-08T16:33:46.133+03:00

I feel as awkwardly estranged from our society as I would if I was to partake in a gay parade through Rainbow Street; that is the case every time I find myself in a collision course with some of the rottenly deluded norms and axioms taken for granted in our oblivious society! Even when I know for a fact that I’m righteously... right and the stream I’m up against is explicitly wrong.Almost one

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1136467495716419202006-01-05T16:15:00.000+03:002006-01-05T16:35:28.940+03:00

I was intrigued to write this after a stream of entries by fellow bloggers that talked about their customer-experience with certain companies and establishments in Jordan.I’ve spotted the coffee house “Cups & Kilos” during my summer holiday, but only tried it during my last trip to Jordan; I went there a couple of times, the last of which was with my fiancée with a minor related incident!Here's

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1135611410384211082005-12-26T17:59:00.000+03:002005-12-27T11:14:21.690+03:00

When I sample through such magazines, I immediately imagine an English single mother dating a Frenchman with a troubled sex life and a financial leverage to drink tea at the Dorchester hotel in London, in contrast with the profile of their potential readers from Jordan’s upper spheres!First of all, why are they in English? I feel the big “I am Hypocrite” superscript floating on top of me right

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1135430787970793632005-12-25T04:00:00.000+03:002005-12-24T16:32:00.730+03:00

I am a loyal MobileCom customer, though I do find myself skeptical of how they ran their business ever since they entered the market 5 years ago with a favorable duopoly that could have been better utilized to rapidly capture market share and block the polarization of the market to avoid creating a mammoth out of the first operator Fastlink! Beside that, it seems they have finally understood the

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1134203335217440052005-12-10T11:23:00.000+03:002005-12-10T11:28:55.226+03:00

Since everyone seems to be in the business of coining terms these days, I’d like to have a go on that and perhaps credit myself with some novelty while I'm on it! I’d like to coin the term “Typicalism”... It is already underlined with a red scribble by the spell checker, and Google returned no credible references for it, so I’ll entertain no claims over it, perhaps I can prefix it with the tag “

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1133798444313817522005-12-05T18:46:00.000+03:002005-12-05T19:29:43.813+03:00

Consider this: he’s been promoted recently, they modestly fixed his salary, pumped-up his title with a resonating Chief, Senior, supervisor, executive, Team-leader or plain-old Manager, in a choice of pre or post fix to whatever dull job title he previously held, with pressurizing loads of new responsibilities and deliverables, and… that’s about it!No company mobile-phone, vehicle or

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1133630540597524562005-12-03T20:14:00.000+03:002005-12-03T20:33:18.223+03:00

Dedicated to a generation of Ammanites who embraced the eighties with pride…“Flippin heck… what the hell is this doing here?” this is the –mostly- innocent swear that I utter every time I pass by Mecca Mall… since when was it feasible to go for a large scale shopping center in the first place? What’s this Gulf-states-feel of it? I can’t help but be sorry for Ammanites being spoiled with a choice

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1133280386465126222005-11-30T06:05:00.000+03:002005-12-03T12:52:47.316+03:00

Mind you, but this is my third attempt to compile this entry! It was –still- rigorously hard not to feel as yet another self-righteous Saddam apologetic suffering from a fatalist variant of post-trauma romanticism with occasional hallucinations of Saddam’s face engraved onto the moon’s surface while rhetorically touting how Iraqis are destined -and deserve- to have such oppressing tyrants ruling

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1133189548895645862005-11-28T17:40:00.000+03:002005-11-28T18:19:39.336+03:00

I credit this title to Hatem AbuNimeh who coined the term almost 3 years ago while scrutinizing the lack of “theme” in my writings.Tololy’s latest experimentation got me thinking; how big of a role does the linguistic skill exhibited in a given writing affect the crude thought or idea it conveys?Take for instance the comment (3rd from top) posted by an anonymous reader in response to my “I saw a

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1133092654747909852005-11-27T14:25:00.000+03:002005-12-12T13:14:20.130+03:00

I Saw a woman, and a kid… and yet another kid, in fact I've seen a dozen of them playing in the garden beside the pool, whoa... a band of talkative women gossiping while the food was being served by a mob of maids, that is all but too exhilarating, so I decided to retire to a numb bunch of men setting aside for a breather, where am I? or is it where was I before this encounter?This was a scene

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1133001620011047212005-11-26T13:24:00.000+03:002005-11-26T16:30:11.100+03:00

Sabri Hakim’s capture of the business card from heaven induced me to talk –with a hint of rhetoric tendency- about the individual behind this free gracious service.Abu-Islam is actually in the funeral-service business. In fact his company’s name is quiet novel and catchy “موْسسة عالم البرزخ”, I am not sure if there is some sort of a biblical equivalent to this term, but the company’s name

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1132928057852181302005-11-25T16:21:00.000+03:002005-11-25T18:10:16.990+03:00

His name is Shafiq, our company’s eastern region branch office tea-boy and cleaner, due to the limited scope he have during the day, he usually naps his way out day-long utilizing one of the empty desk spaces available. Shafiq pushes aside the keyboard, mouse & pad of an abandoned PC (the monitor would be too heavy though tempting to be pushed aside) to make room for his arms-cum-pillow, and lay

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1132836812247958452005-11-24T14:48:00.000+03:002005-11-24T15:58:05.910+03:00

In a recent flight back to Jordan onboard our national carrier, I picked-up the in-flight magazine “Royal Wings” expecting only the good-for-5-minutes-skim-through while taxing towards the runway, but to my own surprise, I found a reborn version of the magazine that rid itself from the cheap-glossy paper, poorly-translated editorials and rip-off postcard-grade typical imagery of Jordan.It was

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19268790.post-1132823149516259072005-11-24T11:30:00.000+03:002005-11-27T17:39:41.586+03:00

I finally did it... I am now officially a "blogger" I've been intending to start blogging back in September (when I stumbled upon the first blog I saw which was Ahmed's Humeid 360east), so I started writing publishable entries ever since but thought of a home grown blog (to have my own site that is), alas... it was technically too demanding and time consuming, so I retired to the

Basemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07134857444273605793noreply@blogger.com4