What about our Seniors??

What about our seniors???
This question came in to my mind in the last time. The weather was very nice last week, allowing us to go out for walks and to go to the playground. In fact, whenever you pass by a park you will see a lot of seniors either walking around or sitting on banks and reading. Actually sometimes i see them even doing sports like jogging or cycling. I am speaking about the ages starting from 60+.
It is true that the social system in a country like Canada is not so family oriented, often you find elderly people living alone and taking care of their own, without anyone even cheking on them from time to time. However, they stay active till the end, they keep themselves busy and healthy. They don't sit down and wait for their time to come.
While in Libya, the social system is more family oriented. You would almost never find an elderly one living alone. If someone gets older his sons/daughters will take full care of him. But they are not active, they are sitting, watching TV, you find some sitting in the streets playing cards. In some cases you will even find an old man cycling, but not because he wants to stay active, instead he is in need and doesn't have a car to move around.
Overall, i find it sad that there are no activities for seniors in Libya. The only thing that i can think of is that some families go all together to their farms or the beach for some change.

Taking a difficult Desicion

For someone living abroad, one of the desicions to take is to leave your kids with a babysitter or put them at a daycare, mainly of both partners are working or studying. In Libya this would not be a big issue, mainly because either of the grandparents will take care of the kids when the parents are away.
While living abroad means that you have to decide, first will the woman go out or not and second where to put the kids.
If the woman chooses to go out and study or work the search for a caregiver for the kids begins, and this is the difficult desicsion. Is there anyone who can take care of your kids as you are doing?? mainly if they are still young and not in the school age.
What are the main points you have to look for at a caregiver??
Trust?? education status?? health check?? police check?? References??
You have to watch your kids very closley, their behaviour, their little bodies, their reactions.
Too many times i have heard of babysitter hitting the kids they are taking care of. Trust your kids more than anyone, trust your feelings. A false desicion made by you will have bad effects on them.
A nother choice is to put your kid at a public daycare, which is controlled and monitored by several persons and not only by one, but your kid will have a bigger chance of getting sick and learning bad habbits.
However, never forget, nothing is more important that them, always choose what is best for them and not what is cheaper and more convinient for yourself.

Blooooodaa

It is always something nice to see a little kid doing something funny, from time to time i watch these kinds of movies because they put a smile on my face.

FW.........

How many times you get forwarded e mails from your friends????
There were times where i used to get tens every day, while now i get them only every ones in a while. However, if you think about these e mails, you can mainly put them in three categories: funny mails, religious mails and the last category is the one that i don't like, warning e mails.
Warning against a shampoo type, a tooth paste, a power drink or even chocolate, my problem is the way in which such e mails are written: hidden hate speech and usually a lot of lies. I got used not to read such e mails, because they make me angry, they say to much without any proof or reference, so it is a way of making trouble, if we are able to think and question there are others who take everything as right and who might make wrong actions out of this information.
If i read something in the newspaper, for example about a product that might be harmful, i would want to share it with my friends, i would show a reference for it, i would look up a proof for that, so that it is believeable for others.
The other thing is the promises you find in these emails, publish it and you will get (Ager), i doubt that i will get something back by publishing lies.
Please make sure that what you are forwarding to your friends is true and trustworthy, so that you can get something out of forwarding it to others. Don't be just a name in the long long long list of forwarder, do not let some people trick you into something only they know what is the truth behind their actions.

I hate rasicm

It is facing people everyday, no matter where they are, and no matter from where they are.
First I wanted to define it correctly to have a good picture about it. "Racism, by its simplest definition, is discrimination based on race. One with racist beliefs might hate certain groups of people according to their race (i.e., bigotry), or in the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits. Racism typically starts with, though is rarely confined to the assumption that there are taxonomic differences between different groups of people. Prejudices on other grounds would strictly categorize as discrimination to national or regional origin, religion, occupation, social status or some other distinction." [Wikipedia]

All of us got used to the idea that the West has a bad idea about Muslims and Arabs, we might even faced some actions that showed these bad feelings against us, mainly for those living abroad. Violence against some of us, hate speech, or sometimes insults just because you look like you are. We go to Libya, let’s talk about Libyans now, and say: they have a problem with us Muslims, they see only bad news on TV, and they don't see the actual picture. We love peace, we are normal just like them but with traditional and cultural and religious differences. Friends and family ask us if we had problems abroad, some may had while others not. But all of this is not my issue, my question is: " why do you want the others to accept YOU, if You don't accept the others?????" I was chatting with some Libyans, we were talking about the difficulties living abroad, the experiences we had, the relations to the citizens and how they treat US in their country, since WE ARE the FOREIGNERS in their country while at the same moments they were speaking about some other foreigners as people less than us.
We complain about racism, but we are racists too. How many times you've heard people speaking bad about other Arabs in front of you? I can't even count the times; the funny thing is that we are racists even between each other. Tripoli, Benghazi, Zwara, Jbalia. Isn't this true??
How come we expect people to accept us if we don't accept the others?
I thought no one is better than his brother? How come you are a Muslim and at the same moment you think you are better than another person. Only you work and good deeds will tell if you are better than the one you are looking down at. Maybe someday the people you are now ignoring will look to you from paradise while you might not be with them.

الرجل الغريب والنورس

وأخيرا تغبر الطقس؛ جبال الثلوج المتراكمة ذابت بعد شتاء قاس. الشمس ترسل أشعتها الدافئة وتدعو الناس للخروج من بيوتها؛ كلنا مللنا من كآبة وبؤس الشتاء وبتنا نستعد لصفارة الانطلاق
الربيع ههنا، زقزقة العصافير، رائحة التراب الأسود والعشب من فوقه، والألوان تكاد تعمي العيون التي اعتادت على درجات الأبيض والأسود
الملابس الثقيلة اختفت في زاوية بعيدة لتترك مكانا للألوان الزاهية والأقمشة الخفيفة
بدأنا ننتظر الصباح لنقرر إلى أي حديقة ننطلق؛ نسرع إلى الخروج فقد أصبح البيت مظلما كئيبا مقارنة بتلك الحدائق
نأخذ الماء والخبز في طريقنا ونتسابق مع الدقائق لنلحق بالحافلة المارة أمام بيتنا؛ ونكتشف أننا لسنا لوحدنا؛ الكل خطرت له نفس الفكرة والكل يرحب بقدوم الربيع
وفي إحدى تلك الحدائق، وبينما نحن مستمتعين بالأكل والهواء المنعش نظرت حولي لأرى ذلك الرجل يشق خطواته على العشب الأخضر، فكه الأعوج وشعره الأبيض الخفيف يعبران عن عمر طويل تركه ورائه، التجاعيد العميقة في وجهه وظهره المنحني يجعلونك ترأف لحاله. كان يمشي لوحده مخاطبا نفسه مهمهما بأصوات بدت لا معنى لها
كنت أراقبه عن كثب غير واعية بنفسي، كان كل شئ من حولي متكاملا
وتغيرت الصورة، حدث فيها خلل وتبعثر الشعور بالانسجام
انطلق الغريب في اتجاه سلة المهملات، وبدأت يداه تبحث بين أكياس النفايات، يفتح الكيس تلو الآخر، يقلب صناديق الأكل المرمية. رحت أحلل المنظر الغريب، لم تبدو ملابسه قديمة ولا بالية، لم يشبه شكله المشردين الذين أراهم كل يوم يلفون الشوارع بحثا عن بضعة قروش
لم أعد أستطيع انتزاع نظري عنه، خفت أن يلحظني ولكنه كان منغمسا في عمله غير ملاحظا لشئ حوله. ظننت أنه قد يكون جائعا، ترددت في أن نناديه ليشاركنا لقمتنا ولكنني أخيرا تراجعت وظللت أراقبه
من حولنا عائلات أخرى ولكنهم لم يشاركوني اهتمامي، لم يأبه أحد بالرجل المسكين مرسلا يديه بين الأوساخ والبقايا
فكرت في حل اللغز ولم أجد حلا مقنعا وأكملت أكلي مراقبة إياه
ولم ألاحظ أن اللغز بدأ ينحل، كنت متعمقة في التفكير سارحة بأفكاري لأجد الصورة أمامي باتت تؤول إلى الإتقان
الرجل العجوز الرائع رمى بقايا الأكل إلى جانبه على الأرض، شرائح البطاطا التي رماها سرعان ما اختفت في أفواه طيور النورس الجميلة؛ وهو يناديها مخرجا من جيبه قطعة قماش ليمسح يديه المتلطخة، سمعته يقول لها تعالي هنا لتأكلي
شعرت بالحب لهذا الرجل الحنون، ملأني إحساس بوحدته، كم تمنيت أن أصافح هذه اليد الرحيمة لأشكرها
وبعد أن تأكد من اختفاء كل الشرائح اختفى من تلك الصورة المتقنة ليترك ورائه فراغا أسودا
نسيت الرجل وأكملت استمتاعي بهدوء الحديقة ولكنه ظهر مجددا ولكن في صورة مختلفة
قررنا العودة ققد اختفت الشمس لبرهة الآن، أخدنا حاجياتنا وانطلقنا، أرسلت نظري لصورة أخيرة من الحديقة، لأجد الرجل الحنون واقفا يمسح يديه مرة أخرى ولكن إلى جانب سلة جديدة، وطيور النورس تتشاجر على اللقيمات التي وجدها بين النفايات.ذكرني بالرأفة التي أمرنا بها رسولنا الكريم والتي باتت معدومة بيننا كبشر قكيف الحال بالحيوانات؟

مصدر الصورة

Knowledge.

What about your knowledge?? This question is moving around in my head since days.

The main reason for me thinking about this was seing how my classmates have a basic idea about almost each topic that comes up in class. I do not mean the knowledge from out course books. I mean the knowledge that we gain from reading newspapers, different books, listening to documentations and other types of programs.

To be honest, i feel embarassed of my general knowledge. Although i am reading a lot and i am trying to know more but it seems not to work out with me.

I am willing to read and to know more but nothing wants to stay inside my mind, all the information that i am reading seem to vanish after some days.

What execuses do i have? Let's see:

Not enough time to read.

Not really concetrated.

Not interested.

Busy with house, family and studying.

Are these really sufficient reasons? No, they are not.

Mainly in Libya you see people forcing their kids to study their school books and learn them by heart, but do they encourage them to understand what is written in those books? Or do they encourage them to ask questions and try to find the answers else where? No, not everyone is doing that. I am looking here at the different kids and i am trying to follow how they are teaching them. They are actually teaching them to think on their own, and not to follow the adults. They don't keep them silent because it might seem (3eib) in front of the others. They do not teach them to be rude, instead they are well behaved but at the same time questioning everything. i want my kids to grow up with this attitude. And i want to teach it to my self too.