So on that terrace, I like to take a pause from life; sit in my own bubble and completely let go of the baggage I carry around. It restores my peace and balance and almost elevates me into a state of clarity. The cloudy skies, cold breeze, strange faces and unfamiliar scenery set the perfect atmosphere to detach yourself from who you think you are and allows you to see deeper inside your consciousness.

I also use that time to stimulate my creativity. I take my laptop or notebook and try to .. well, just create. And that day, it was exactly what I was doing. Laptop in front of me, beautiful scenery in the background and I was in my own world.

Now picture that serenity – me creating, birds chirping, ducks quacking, plates and spoons cling-clanging, the smell of rain mixing with coffee and me absorbed in a faraway place from everything that is fake, materialistic and annoying – and then imagine your typical khaleeji guy in vacation attire entering that picture. Yikes!

Every cell in my body clenched as my tranquility deserted me. He was a big guy – let me remind you again – in his khaleeji vacation attire; so his idea of “blending in” was three quarter pants (which I personally believe to be one of fashions biggest mistake for men and its almost rare that a guy can pull it off) paired with a t-shirt that brought attention to all the wrong curves, and of course unnecessarily accessorized with brands; for men that meant the Gucci set: wallet, belt and cap – as if wearing one of those items alone wasn’t bad enough.

One look at him and I had to suppress my gag reflex. He was a sleazy looking guy. And that wasn’t because of his short curly hair that was drenched in gel (either giving the illusion of bald spots or accentuating their existence). I knew instantly he was on a hunting spree; scavenging for a khaleeji girl to start a summer fling with. I held in my breath and prayed he wouldn’t approach me.

My prayers weren’t answered.

Him: law sama7ti…

Me: na3am

Him: shlonech

Me: …

Him: enti ga3da testa5dmain el internet??

Me: haih

Him: 3ajeeb! Shlon ??

Me: wireless..

Him: 9dj??? Ya3ni bdon wyrat???? 3ajeeb..

Me:….

Maybe you had to be there to get it. But the guy was making a fool of himself and I was feeling embarrassed on his behalf. Was this his idea of starting a conversation?

Let me tell you about Arabs. It might sound stereotypical but hey I’m an Arab and I think I’m allowed to criticize my own herd. Arabs are a trendy bunch. And when old trends die, they create new ones.  For some time now we have seen an evolution of cloned trends gone bad. Today the infamous trend isn’t about abaya’s tucked in skinny jeans, or the one hair color which, defying the science of beauty, apparently suits all. For the past several seasons, it is traveling that’s in style. They flock from across the globe to the same cities to hang out at the same streets and sit at the same cafes and show off the same possessions. The newly rich are there for obvious gloating reasons. I travel for exactly the opposite reasons. I was on that terrace to forget the khaleeji materialism and to avoid cheap ways of picking up girls. They believe they can get away with that behavior simply because we entered a different area code, and therefore all is allowed.

I was going to conduct a research in order to have a scientific basis for my claims, but I decided I had my own theory and that I was going to run with that, thankyouverymuch.

First, my (lack of) sense of time goes beyond not knowing what day it is. Often our stories start with, “Yesterday,..” or “Two days ago..” or “Last week..” to set a time frame for the anecdote. Why do we set time frames? Maybe you mention the date because you think its relevant or maybe you’re just used to starting stories with the date. Maybe because the timeliness of the story determines how interesting and exciting it is. We’re used to news and gossip being hot and fresh. No one likes day-old doughnuts.

This introduction is important because I’m easing you into my complicated and chaotic mind. Time frames play a very specific and deliberate role in my stories. They’re not there to illustrate freshness. They’re not relevant… at all! Mainly because, if I say ‘Two days ago..’ my story probably did NOT occur two days ago. It could have been as far as two weeks ago. How should I know? I have no sense of time! The only reason I set a time frame is because of continuity. I say ‘Two days ago’ because later in the story, I will need a “future”. I will need to use “the next day.” Sometimes I will start with ‘Two days ago’, end with ‘Two days later’, and still be talking about the past (when I should be talking about the present: -2 + 2 = 0.) I’m not REALLY talking about TIME, I guess it’s more about SPACE. (I have never needed to emphasize so many words in one article before.)

That takes care of the what. Now let’s move on to the why. Why does time not play such an important role in the way I see the world? Why are my time stamps so inaccurate? I asked myself that question and this is what I came up with. I call it ‘The Messy Room’ theory.

Picture a Messy Room. Now picture a Messy Person. This messy person is completely oblivious to the mess in the room. Messy person is completely functional in spite of the messy room. In fact, the mess does not exist to this messy person. Now picture Tidy Person in the Messy Room. The mess in the room plays a large (and stressful) role into how tidy person views the world around him. Tidy person is so aware of the mess and this awareness causes him to be in tune with the mess. Even unconsciously Tidy person could already be planning his near future around the Messy room. Tidy person is thinking, “I have to tidy this room. The clothes don’t belong on the floor, they belong in the cupboard, etc.” In other words, Tidy person is already mapping out the room, noticing where everything is and where it should be.

Now apply this theory on me. I am a person who is astonishingly unphased by deadlines and time limits. I don’t feel any pressure about being late. I am not intimidated by Time. I am never on time. I have never engaged in any kind of daily routine (because routines are usually embedded in time frames.) Just like Messy person, I don’t see time because I don’t care about time, and therefore, time doesn’t exist to me. Time is just a concept I use in conjunction to something else, usually as an illustrative tool. Time, to me, is not as continual or omnipresent as, say, planet rotations or oxygen. I mean, I know it is, (I see time in a larger sense because we age, for example), but in my day-to-day life, Time is just a language that I don’t speak.

The Palestinian/Israeli conflict is one that everyone likes to put their noses in and have an opinion about, and this irritates her. Why, she asked, aren’t people worrying about the Sri Lankan civil war, the Kurds in Turkey or Kashmir? What is this obsession with the Jews and the Arabs?
Sure, war trends come and go, (Darfur is very in right now) but the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is, like fur or the pantsuit, timelessly trendy.  The point here is, while it is normal to sympathize with victims, if you are foreign to the conflict, how personal are you allowed to get? If you are not Jewish or Palestinian, is it fair to harbor anti-semitic or anti-Islamic/Arab sentiments and take sides?  But if people foreign to the conflict are not being personally attacked, why are they taking the war so personally?

When the invasion on Iraq happened in 2003, I was 19, living with a diverse group of students in an apartment in France. In the evenings we would get together to watch television. The invasion had just started and was being covered extensively in the news. Unconsciously, I was leaving the room every time a news program came on and was woken up to this fact by a planned confrontation by the other students. At the time, I was the only Arab student in the house. I was immature and youthfully egoistic. The general affairs of the world didn’t interest me much. But for some reason, I took this war personally. I couldn’t bear to hear about the atrocities happening to the Iraqis, or to hear them crying and screaming, let alone to see them carrying the bodies of family members through the streets towards the camera begging for help. I didn’t realize my sense of Arab compatriotism went so deep until the other students sat me and down and apologized for being insensitive about how this could affect me, because it was so close, because I was Arab. I didn’t question why I cared because I didn’t expect to care at all, but their confrontation made me understand a part of myself I didn’t know existed. I don’t know if being Arab is a valid enough reason to have such strong feelings about the Iraq War,  but the feelings were there and the attack was taken personally, and it wasn’t a stand out of duty or allegiance to the Arab nation, it was such a strong sentiment it overtook unconsciously, and by surprise.  

Six years later I continue to follow the Iraqis and their plight. I continue to care, but not with the same intensity. When I came across this account of an Al Jazeera cameraman who covered the battle in Fallujah, the fire that flared my 19-year-old heart was rekindled, and once again I feel an active anger against this war. How this man stood with his camera in the middle of it all, with an extra eye to magnify the butchering and destruction happening all around him, I will never understand, but will profoundly respect.

The Author: Deanna Molinaro

You can read the entire book, and her other works, with illustrations online. go.

Ten years ago I was 15. I was in college and anorexic by appearance. I remember a lot of my energy was focused on trying to prove who I was to others. But if you had asked me who I am, back then, I wouldn’t have really known. I just remember wanting to stand out at all costs. My life rocked back and forth between one influenced by peer pressure, and another which my subconscious mind sought me to follow. I ended up pursuing both because choosing one was too tough a task for me at 15. I loved books, writing, collages, photography, art, scrap books, magazines (Sugar), stray cats and skateboarding – but I was really just a poser compared to my sister. I wasn’t a fan of food, I hated zucchini and I liked my french fries with mayonnaise. My dream was to write a book. I loved anything Gothic. I wrote to tons of pen pals. And that year was when I first started taking special interest in my hair; I chose it to differentiate myself and it served as a cool – and rather colorful – competitive advantage over others. Well ahead of my time, I was a sexopedia (in the making). I found sex fascinating, and not in a perverted way. My favorite website was hottopic. I was insecure and sometimes lacked confidence. I hardly said a word in class and hated those that had no trouble being themselves around teachers. I dreamed of running away and of becoming famous for being “the first” at doing something. One of my main goals was to collect enough money to build a half pip ramp in our backyard.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

But when I started writing this, I really wanted to point out that a lot happens in a period of 10 years. People grow and change, others don’t. Some stay hooked on their past while others live their lives by the day. Is there a point to my post? Not really. But I was in the mood to sit and reflect on myself. To find a trend, understand my character and to see how I could become better.

S.

Every respectable Arab blogged about this, and I’m not better than any of them. Actually, I probably am, but here it is! The ultimate list…{with a wiki-type link to the Anime News Network and a youtube link -both when available}

Some names seem unfamiliar at first, but watch a YouTube clip and you’ll be amazed at just how many cartoons you actually watched back then! 

 رانزي المدهشة – About / YouTube Clip

تاو تاو – About / YouTube Clip  [I have a special love for this cartoon, madree laish]

سالي – About / YouTube Clip

خماسي – About / YouTube Clip

سانشيرو – About / YouTube Clip

أليس في بلاد العجائب – About / YouTube Clip

مغامرات نحول , بشار – About / YouTube Clip

بسمة و عبدو – About / YouTube Clip

عدنان و لينا – About / YouTube Clip

فلونة – About / YouTube Clip

غريندايزر – About / YouTube Clip (One of the best)

هايدي – About / YouTube Clip

جونكر – About / YouTube Clip

ليدي ليدي – About / YouTube Clip

ليدي أوسكار – About / YouTube Clip (never got into this one too much, i don’t even remember what it’s about)

النسر الذهبي – About / YouTube Clip (This has got to be the WORST theme song in the history of television – painful!!)

رعد العملاق – About – YouTube Clip (one of my personal favourites)

رامي الصياد الصغير – About / YouTube Clip (the tangee3at in this cartoon are only matched by the ones in Captain Majed)

سندباد – About / YouTube Clip

حكايات عالامية – About / YouTube Clip (I love love LOVE this cartoon, LOVE IT!!)

النمر المقنع – About / YouTube Clip (I hated this one, it was shit)

زينة ونحول – About / YouTube Clip (this is one of those that I only watched when the only thing on the other (3) channels was News – which when i was a kid made me feel ufff 7ar ow rasee e3awernee or camel racing..same feeling ba3ad lol )

 كابتن ماجد  - About / YouTube Clip   (The Godfather of 80′s cartoons)

وادي الامان – About / YouTube Clip

الرحالة الصغير  - About / YouTube Clip (I have been searching for this cartoon FOR YEARS! YEARS!!!! I  never knew what it was called, I thought it was a girl not a boy, and it never occured to me that it was a version of The Little Prince. I still can’t believe I found this. This YouTube user rocks. I love him.)

اخي العزيز – About / YouTube Clip

توته في المريخ – About / YouTube Clip  

جورجي – About / YouTube Clip

جزيرة الكنز – About / YouTube Clip

حكيم الاقزام – About / YouTube Clip

ريمي الولد – About / YouTube Clip

رحلة العجائب – About / YouTube Clip

رحلة عنابه – About / YouTube Clip

سهم الفضاء – About / YouTube Clip

سوسن الزهرة الجميله – About / YouTube Clip

سبانك – About / YouTube Clip (this one was so funny)

صاحب الظل الطويل – About / YouTube Clip (Every girl’s favourite after Sally)

طمطم – About / YouTube Clip

 المغامرون الابطال- About / YouTube Clip

حنان – About / YouTube Clip

رغيف عجيب  - About / YouTube Clip

لوز و سكر  - About / YouTube Clip

بوليانا – About / YouTube Clip

ميمي الصغيره  - About / YouTube Clip

سفينة الأصدقاء  - About / YouTube Clip

الشجعان الثلاثة – About / YouTube Clip

فريق العباقرة  - About / YouTube Clip

نصف بطل  - About / YouTube Clip

زهرة الجبل – About / YouTube Clip

كعبول – About / YouTube Clip

الأحلام الذهبية  - About / YouTube Clip (Not only is this one of the greatest cartoons of all time, it has the best theme song)

عقلة الاصبع  - About / YouTube Clip

طمطوم – About / YouTube Clip (We named my sister after this tomato)

فارس الفتى الشجاع  - About / YouTube Clip

عبقور – About / YouTube Clip (Couldn’t find an arabic clip)

موكا موكا – About / YouTube Clip

سميد – About / YouTube Clip

مغامرات نيلز – About / YouTube Clip

نينجا المغامر  - About / YouTube Clip

بومبو – About / YouTube Clip

ابنتي العزيزة راوية  - About / YouTube Clip

الحديقة السرية  - About / YouTube Clip

بن بن و العم شنبو – About / YouTube Clip (no clip )

الضفدع الشجاع  - About / YouTube Clip

مدينه النخيل – About / YouTube Clip (I had all the toys for this series – I love the attempt at ..rapping? in the theme song)

قرية التوت – About / YouTube Clip

روبوتان – About / YouTube Clip

مغامرات حنين  - About / YouTube Clip

احلى الايام  - About / YouTube Clip

لبيبه – About / YouTube Clip

السيدة ملعقة – About / YouTube Clip (One of the cartoons that makes you believe the world is alright )

فتاة المراعي  - About / YouTube Clip

الفتى النبيل - About / YouTube Clip

في جعبتي حكايه  - About / YouTube Clip

نساء صغيرات  - About / YouTube Clip (For some reason I was always eating oranges when I watched this.)

لوسي – About / YouTube Clip (there are so many cartoons about a girl, it can get pretty confusing)

لحن الحياة  - About / YouTube Clip

شما في البراري – About / YouTube Clip

الراكون راسكال  - About / YouTube Clip

سنان – About / YouTube Clip 

ساسوكي – About /YouTube Clip (ehda2 for Shaika)

الوميض الأزرق – About / YouTube Clip

بحيرة البجع - About / YouTube Clip (A movie, not a series, but wow. Quality.)

بنـــــان  - About / YouTube Clip

مغامرات جامبا  - About / YouTube Clip

فتى النينجا  - About / YouTube Clip

مغامرات بسيط  - About / YouTube Clip

كاليميرو – About / YouTube Clip (a cartoon about loneliness)

لبنى السريعة – About / YouTube Clip

ماروكو الصغيرة – About / YouTube Clip (This JUST misses the 80′s era, but she is the cutest character on television after Shin Chan. Me and my sister always licked Nido while watching this)

*Shin Chan – About / YouTube Clip [ I don't think this exists in Arabic. However it has to be one of the funniest cartoons I have ever seen. A tiny, dirty mouthed kid you can't help loving. I watched this in French. It sucks in English. Probably funniest in Japanese.]

-Mariam

   Speaking on behalf of both of us, if you please, I was thinking about the kind of art that we create. (which is not up yet on here [but soon], and probably not organized enough even offline in a way that would indicate to us that we even own such art). So I was thinking, I wouldn’t throw our creations to the modern pool of ‘randomness’ that you would see in many portfolios. Randomness in not a bad thing, I just think our stuff has a distinct feel to it… a nostalgic feel. Like many artists I think anything I create comes from the past; experiences, encounters, flashbacks, whatever. And like every artist, everything is a little piece of me. Nostalgia was once considered a disease, but now we know how to cure it. There are many ways to feel in your element even when you live far away from home. The fun is in discovering ways in which you can stir in yourself those emotions that remind you of that familiar atmosphere, and make you feel like you’re actually there, even if its for a few intense moments. So when I draw (doodle), write, listen to a song…and I get that tightness of heart, and rush of comfort and excitement, and even if when I look around I see snow falling and strangers pacing up and down the street out my window, I know I’ve actually reached home.

Sometimes it’s even more fun than taking a plane back home.

But it could be that I’m just a little sadistic.

>M<