It's late. I'm tired... but my eyes are too swollen to shut so you are going to be lucky enough to get a post after all this time. And of course lucky means get ready for some news you are not going to like, because that's just the way it is.

• Take this quiz or this one, then let's drown our sorrows together because the candidate most likely to match us and, in my opinion, save the world, will probably not become president.
• Over a million are displaced by Tabasco floods. No food, no power. Anyone still want to pooh pooh global warming?
• Is Zain sending anyone else impossible messages about money owed after they have already thanked you for paying your bill? It's probably only me and my electronic curse.
• Ok, so i'm too tired to make it a long list of bad stuff .

We can also try something that might get a smile out of you. And if you smile...I smile.

• Take a look at the young Aboriginal men dancing to Zorba the Greek. "Elcho Island dancers take 'Yolngu Zorba' to the world"

Just askin...

When will the price be too high?

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When will "democracies" believe in everyone's rights?

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Will this Exodus be remembered forever in rituals?

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When are we going to start feeling shocked?

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I don't know about you...

But this scares the bejeeeezuz out of me...

Been having "stinging eyes and sore throats and headaches" ? You are going to love reading this..

And by love, I of course mean the don't bother to pack just run far, far away kinda love..
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In case you need more reason to do that...here you go.
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Iraq in Fragments is on dvd
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Aid Agenecies that need our help in Iraq are:

• IMC (they have done great work in Iraq and Lebanon and all over the world)
• Save the Children (They help Iraqi refugee children)
• Refugees International

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Facebook and political activism...hmmm..
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A child dies of malaria every 30 seconds... How many children will be gone by the time you turn away from this page?

All it takes is mosquito nets to save lives.. The season for generosity and giving is soon upon us. The cost of a lunch could save several lives...One net can protect up to 5 babies.

• Buy two nets for a few Dinars at Oxfam Unwrapped (they have tons of other great things)
• Nothing but Nets is an organisation that provides life saving nets to those who need them.

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I detected a sadness in the eyes of my favourite blogger the other night... I thought maybe I was seeing things in the blackout, or maybe it was the fact that I had interrupted her workout... But I guess it was more than that..because she sounds sad too these days..

And I leave her with lines we have all spoken here:

גֵּר הָיִיתִי, בְּאֶרֶץ נָכְרִיָּה

Exodus 2:22

I was really missing this country...on my month of hotel hopping and racist encounters with certain white folk... but of course the joy at being back in the arms of the fatherland was short lived...Because them arms are brutal.
The pretty cozy mask we all knew was a bit too plastic fantastic is melting fast in our summer of wretchedness... Don't talk, don't be, don't complain and hope the big sticks won't come down on you.. And really I am beginning to despair...because all the protests and songs and slogans are just getting old and worn and frankly comic. And when I say comic, it's that dark thing that eats you inside because it looks so dead and stupid.
And as if it were not enough to see the goose stepping in the corridors of power and know that there is nothing like law and order or rights or compassion in this tiny blot on the planet that thinks it is king of the world, you have to deal with people closer to home that make you understand why this country is flushing itself down the toilet of history.
Is there a prejudice we haven't excelled at? A form of hatred we haven't dressed up in with a moronic pride? What hope is there for a place that fears change and destroys diversity and despises anything other than its bland and rotting self? And to have to do daily battle for the tiny,tiny crumbs of progress and for the ghosts of something humane and generous in people's souls to show itself, only to wake up to everything having automatically rewound to something even further in the putrid past, is outrageous.
I don't have any solutions. Not today.

What do Kuwait, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast have in common? Yup their embassy staff in the UK commit assault, because they can...
German embassy staff drive over the speed limit... tsk...them Germans.

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Live Earth--This Saturday.

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If you have been hibernating you may not have heard that the US is experiencing the worst drought ever... Yup even a lake caught fire...
Anyway, the situation has made the Governor of Alabama come up with a solution that I bet you will envy for its ease and practicality...
Get out that holy mojo for a week of prayer...
And well if the rains don't come down it will undoubtedly be because there was a faithless hedonist among the worshipers that ruined the whole desperate act... and if the rains do come down, make room in the pews, hallelujah!
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Ok, ok what do Kwt and Alabama have in common?
No, silly, not wishful thinking...
They both have a government monopoly on something... And I'm letting you do your homework.
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Goodnight...and no way is luck comin' sniffin' by these parts...

I have been slack...in so many ways. Posting, responding to comments...sorry...and it's not just because I am practicing for the new law...akh the new law...There is no business like monkey business, and there are no monkeys like ours...Could we get them in these getups and let them find somewhere far away for them to trash and degrade...Because there is so little left to love here...especially when yellow sky days like these dim that much more of it. The plants on the windowsill are roasted and crispy, and no amount of water will salvage them...So that's one less thing that depends on me being here...But I stay I stay...for a little longer.
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In news from other failed states... Christie Whitman got a belated orchestra of hisses and boos at a hearing about poisoned air at ground zero... back in the first weeks of the cleanup she said "I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C. that their air is safe to breath and their water is safe to drink" (EPA) ... except, well... Lots of people knew it wasn't and said so...Medical Aftershocks December 2001.. And the EPA seems to have known that "some of the World Trade Center dust was as caustic as drain cleaner, but that neither the EPA nor FEMA, both of which were informed of the results, ever released the findings" (Fair) And it gets creepier... if you can imagine that.
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Venezuela is preparing to defend itself againt a US invasion...I guess Chavez recognises it as the new American pastime...
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The UK may need a new Noah...
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And I need an early lunch...Bye.

Anyone who has been on these flights should get checked for TB..
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Michael Moore's new film Sicko tackles the health industry...
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"Colony Collapse Disorder" anyone?

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We would like to congratulate Kuwait on recognizing the danger posed by ozone depletion, almost a whopping twenty years after the Montreal Protocol made it more than obvious... It's like suddenly getting all excited about bell bottoms and polyester...
We ratified the Protocol in 1992...
We are still trying to replace ozone depleting products with safer alternatives...
And now I must get back to more behind the times reading...
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I leave you with Mary Oliver once again:

"Plus, too,
it's love almost too fierce to endure, the bee
nuzzling like that into the blouse
of the rose. And the fragrance, and the honey, and of course
the sun, the purely pure sun, shining, all the while, over
all of us."

From the poem Hum

Been a bit out of the loop lately, but hey we made international news today... We are one of the countries arming the criminal regime of Sudan, despite a UN embargo...
And we thought we were plum out of reasons to be proud of this little troublemaker state of ours...
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The Republicans are still insisting on filling the office at the top with donkeys...
Which might be why so many are defecting...
But they're not worried, they have Diebold on their side...
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I don't know about you but I am looking forward to candlelight and star gazing during our coming summer blackouts...
Thanks to terrible planning, ignoring the fact that we have an abundance of renewable energy sources like the sun, and constantly being on our knees before our major non-renewable national oil gods, we can expect our gluttonous consumption and the rising planetary heat to result in a series of power cuts in our hottest months...with all the accompanying health hazards..

"The effect of global warming appears to be with us already... The consequences could be water-rationing and the threat of blackouts, as demand for air-conditioning and refrigeration soars in the summer, disrupting economic activity and potentially costing business millions"Observer

But don't worry, the country that bought you oil spills and fires in gas pipes on oil fields is thinking newkulur... Did someone say one way ticket out?

Holy, Holy
Since we are hurtling to yet another barbaric stage of human conflict...
History is a good teacher, who is a good pupil?

All flights out of Dubai Airport have been grounded indefinitely...
So far due to a Bangladesh bound plane having an incident that injured 14 people...
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Today at 5pm this film will be showing at Layla Gallery cinema as part of this week's French Film Fest.
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The sky is really pretty..
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Tomorrow at Shaab cinema at 4:30 this film will be showing as part of an independent film fest...
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Wednesday there will be a Brazilian short film fest at Beit Lothan...
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Next week will be dry and barren as always..
Thank you.

Some articles about the first Arabic production to be staged at the Royal Shakespeare Company... By a Kwti theater company with a pan-Arab cast.
From The Financial Times--- The Guardian--- The BBC
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As a special gift for National Day, Kuwait confirmed 20 cases of bird flu in falcons, chickens and turkeys...Then they confirmed 5-7 more cases today. We can trust that our efficient and responsible authorities will be working day and night to keep us safe.
And now onto news I don't have to have a gun to my head to write...
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Your choice of coffee could help heal the scars of genocide... While taking some vitamins could increase your chances of dying... and eating ice-cream could help you get pregnant

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An Egyptian blogger is jailed...
Some suggest:

"Contrary to the optimism of the Nineties, that it would allow oppressed peoples to escape censors and read forbidden opinions, the net is proving surprisingly easy for dictatorships to control."The Guardian

Really?
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And Iran Iran Iran...akh, that disease Iraq had a few years ago, the one where they were responsible for everything bad in the world, seems to have infected Iran... So if you feel a bit under the weather, if your car won't start, or your marriage is on the rocks or that raw meat you had last night just didn't sit too, well...it's probably all Iran's fault. Those busy Iranians seem to be responsible for everything from arming Iraqi militants to planning to partition Iraq, to kidnapping Yemeni Jewish children...And they are apparently doing all those pesky things (and we are hearing about them) right when the US plans to attack Iran...

You know what they say about comedy, it's all in the timing.

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Seymour Hersh has a new article about US plans to attack Iran ... He warned us a year ago and even long before that...but we were all too busy, eh?
Fisk says Lebanon will be the First Victim of the Iran Crisis
Kucinich says: "The justification chosen by the Administration is the one circumstance in which a President could bypass Congress and still wage a military conflict" The Nation
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"Russia's president accused Washington of seeking world domination, undermining the UN and other international institutions, monopolizing world energy resources, destabilizing the Mideast by its bungled occupation of Iraq, and unleashing a new nuclear arms race by planning to deploy anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe." Toronto Sun ...News to anyone?

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You have probably heard all the hoopla about Al Gore's whopping electricity bill...a day after he was celebrating his popularity at the Oscars came the 'scandalous' news that his electricity bill should shame the eco-warrior... Kieth Olbermann responds.
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And tonight, look up at around 11:18pm (20:18 GMT) to watch the moon start to move into the earth's shadow...for the best lunar eclipse in a couple of years.

Today there is only a poem...

Sulayman Al-Bassam is in Stratford, the birthplace of Shakespeare to put on an Arabic production of Richard III at the Royal Shakespeare Company...

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mmmmm...mmmm..we have GM crops on our shelves...
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A new Islamophonic podcast at the Guardian...have a listen.
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A study from the University of Chicago says that you can help fight Global warming by going vegetarian...because eating meat is worse than driving a car... That's also what the UN said a while ago...go easy on the carcass munching.
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Speaking of eating dead bodies, my years of decimating the cow population of England might not make my brain go spongy if doctors have indeed started to reverse vCJD
They better be quick about it though...I feel it galloping behind me on the ghost of what became my beef burgers.
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Gotta run...