Housing Project for the Poor

I personally think that this is a great thing to do

A large sector of the population are suffering from poverty, and by that I mean;
they literally don’t have a roof over their heads.

Every morning when I am driving to come to work; I tune in to Fann FM
channel and listen to Mohammed Al Wakeel and his phone conversations with
people. He reads the headlines from the major newspapers and this morning this
was the most important. His Majesty the King launched the first stage of the
housing project for the poor, and there is actually a reward for the governorate
that finishes its project first; this reward is half a million JD’s.

Really; thank you Your Majesty.

You can read the full story here

The
first sight of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob also turns to the
left.

- Chicago Tribune

I
am sure that we all remember all the times that our moms yelled at us to turn
the volume down cause everyone in the house are not able to listen to each
other. 

My
mom used to fight with me all the time because I just thought that it is not
the same if you listen to music at a lower volume; it will not give the same
effect. The eighties were quite crazy in this regard and I remember telling mom
that Tina Turner was actually related to me and that’s why I feel so attached
to her, and mom used to call me “majnooneh”

I
can’t help but smile when I think of those good old days. I was never able to
study unless I was listening to music or watching TV. Me and my friends; we all
had collections of posters and photos of our favorite singers, but we did not
dare hang them in the rooms as that was just too taboo J

I
really don’t remember when the first sign of maturity appeared with me, because
I got so tied up with studying and working and it became of minor importance
that I listen to loud music. Of course I still listen to music; but not too
loud!

Actually;
I give my sisters at home a hard time about this, asking them to turn it down,
but naturally; they never listen to me and mom keeps laughing as they are actually
getting back at me for her, so I guess it is true what they say: what goes
around does actually come around.

When you live in a small place like
Amman; its likely that
wherever you go, you will run into people you know or knew at a point
of time.

This happened to me lately in two
different occasions, and boy they were
different.

The first time; it happened at
Safeway where I usually do my grocery shopping. I was so absorbed in my
task
going through the place and walking from one aisle to another to find
my stuff
(on a side note; this has become a difficult thing after the expansion
they
did; Safeway now is too big!). Anyway; while I am doing that; I hear
someone
calling my name. I turned around to come face to face with someone I
really
wanted to erase from my memory.

She was standing there with her
family surrounding her; her husband ogled me and then left her side
pretending
to look around, and to tell you the truth; I never thought about why he
did
that, because I couldn’t care less.

I really did not know why she wanted
to talk to me; after all; we were not friends, we have nothing in
common and
she never approved of my “actions” back at uni.

I wished I could have turned away
and just left her standing there; but being the polite me; I shook her
hand and
smiled, and she started chit chatting about her work, her life, her
kids … blah
blah blah

I haven’t seen her in 11 years, and
all she could ask me was: did you gain some weight?

Did I gain some
weight??????

God! What a stupid question! As if
it is not so obvious that I did gain weight.

She did not ask about where I work,
or if I got married or what I am doing now or if I am seeing some of
the old
friends … NO!! she just was interested in my
weight!!

For a moment; I thought: how do you
answer such a question? And I decided to go for the simplest form of an
answer
and said: yes, I did.

If I told her that I am suffering
from a bad case of lazy thyroid; and that stupid doctors of Dubai gave
me wrong
medication for a year … etc., she would have thought that I am
justifying my
situation in fear of her judgment, so I decided to keep my mouth shut
and say
bye with a smile.

The second time happened today, but
it was Cozmo this time. I heard her calling my name and I turned around
to see
an old friend whom I lost contact with a long time ago; I was actually
happy to
see her. She introduced me to her son (5.5 years, pretty face and nice
hair),
he smiled and kissed me saying hi aunti. WOW! I really loved the kid.
We talked
and exchanged numbers to keep in touch from now on. It was a pleasant 5
minutes, and it felt like we were never apart.

What is so amazing about this is
that I realized that I have the same feeling towards these ladies as I
had a
decade ago; the one I liked I still like and the one that stood on my
nerves;
well, she still does.

This makes me think about reunions. If
we ever have one; would I be interested to go? Would I be comfortable
seeing
people I almost forgot about? Am I willing to put myself in a situation
where I
am judged according to how I look or my marital status or any shallow
standard
that shadows the way we are perceived?

Come to think of it; why would I do
that? And what would be the gain? Do I need anyone’s approval to feel
successful?

Well the answer is NO! N and
O

That was a stage, and it is over. There
is no need to go back and open closed wounds, because if you do; you
will never
know what you are going to get.

Wear a
smile and have friends; wear a scowl* and have wrinkles

– George Eliot,
1819-1880, English Female Novelist (pen name of Mary Ann Evans)

I was talking to one of my best friends last night,
and he was telling me that if I force myself to smile; I will feel internally
happy and this will reflect on everything I do or say; it will even affect
those around me and they will start feeling happy as well.

Thinking about what he said; I believe there is a ring
of truth to this and that it does make a difference to you and those around you
if you were wearing a smile rather than a gloomy face.

We all remember the great saying that you move less
muscles in your face if you smile and this translates to less wrinkles (I don’t
think that cosmetic companies would appreciate what I am saying here … kidding J)

This small humanly gesture that we call a smile; it
makes your face look more beautiful, yet we are so mean to ourselves and those
around us by not smiling. It has become a culture in Jordan that we Jordanians do not
smile, and keeping the scowl is actually “wajaha” or reflects
seriousness. But who said that a mile contradicts with this? Why do we deprive
ourselves from this feeling?  

So remember that after you brush your teeth, show them
off by smiling even if to yourself in the mirror, and see what this does to
your morale. Verify these theories of the connection between smiling and
happiness; maybe these guys are right after all and we have been left out all
that past time.

Don’t forget what they say: Keep smiling because you
will never know who is falling in love with your smile.

*Scowl: Frown

The most damaging phrase in the language is: “It’s always been done that way.”

 -Rear Admiral Grace Hopper

Once I read a story about five monkeys: “What Fools Can Learn From Apes.” The story goes:

“Start with a cage
containing five monkeys. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put
a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs
and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the
stairs, spray all of the monkeys with cold water.

“After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result — all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water.

“Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

“Now, turn off the
cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new
one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To
his horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt
and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be
assaulted.

“Next, remove
another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The
newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer
takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Again, replace a third
original monkey with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and
is attacked as well. Two of the four monkeys that beat him have no idea
why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are
participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

“After replacing
the fourth and fifth original monkeys, all the monkeys which have been
sprayed with cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey
ever again approaches the stairs.

“Why not?

“Because that’s the way it’s always been around here.”

It’s really
funny; how we follow the way things have been done always without
asking ourselves why or what can be done to improve it. Why are we
afraid of change? Is there an internal feeling inside each of us to
stop us from daring and attempting to reach out for what we really
want? Are we afraid of the cold water?

Think with me; isn’t this what is really holding us back from realizing our full potential and making our dreams come true?

Why don’t we have the courage to change?