بلادى

توحشتك يا بلادي... يا بلاد احبابي
لعب بيك الدهر وخلاك جروح ودم
سلاح ورصاص صبحو هما حكامك
و ما عاد فيك حاجة زي ما كانت
متغرب عنك وبعيد عليك
زايدة الوحشة في قلبي وزايد همى
ما حد في يوم يحساب ترابك يشهد حرب
ويوقف الجار قدام الجار
يلعن هالسلطة وهالفلووس
اللي تخلي الناس تنشرى وتنباع
حالك يا بلادي ما هو حال
وربك يستر شين مازال

My Heart is crying Blood

This and That

So, we finally reached 2011. Wow, time is running. This is something that everyone says once in a while, but we only recognize the meaning it certain things. Kids starting school and they were just playing in diapers. A study finished and you still remember the day it started. There are lots of examples. On the other hand, there are some moments, when you are looking forward to something you feel that the time is not going fast enough, your exams don't want to end, your vacation is still far away.

I am writing without a real purpose, i am just putting some thoughts into words. Today is already the second day of the new year, and lots of people speak about their plans for the new year, i am planning to ........, but i don't like the idea of starting it at the beginning of the year, does this mean that in the middle of the year, if i am not the person i want to be, i should continue my way till i reach the end of the year and then plan to change? There should be a beginning in every day. However, plans are not something wrong, they are not accomplished in one day anyway. Change take time, it will not come on the first of January.

I think that it is for now.
I wish everyone of you a pleasant and nice and peaceful 2011.

Descisions for Life

I have been away for awhile, and i think that everybody got used to this, but i am really always intending to blog and post, and i never find the time to do it. It seems to me that don't have time for breathing.
Anyway, i was thinking about decisions that people are making for their life, why are they so important? What type of decisions are so important in life??
Choosing the right partner? I think this is one of the most important decisions in life, choosing the person you are going to spend the rest of your life with, share dreams, share happiness and sadness, raise children together and depend on each other. So, if there is someone you are thinking to marry, you have to ask yourself a lot of serious questions, and try to answer them to know your decision. It is not a heart decision, it is a minds decision, feelings have to get out of the equation.
The other difficult decisions are regarding the study and job you are going to take. Are you interested in this field of study, what is the job you want to do, can you do it? do you have a chance to get it, can you start your own thing, is this all worth it?
Right now am i asking my self is this all worth it?? The energy and time spending on study or work if you don't have to do it? Is it all worth it, Men don't have a choice, they have to work, and in many cases they are not in the position to actually choose their favorite job, but a lot of women have the choice, leave out the women that work to help their husbands, speak about woman who work for their own sake, what does own sake mean? To have more money? to fulfill own dreams? How does this decision effect her own life? is she going to be under stress or is she going to feel happier? How does this decision effect her children? Her family and house?

The good thing, you can always quit, start again and try it? The answer for all of these questions vary from woman to woman. Everyone has his own priorities and based on that the answers will be different. Anyway, good luck for those who work, those who don't want to work, those who are thinking about work, and those who are looking for work.
And Koll 3am and everyone bekheir.

Addicted to electronics

I don't know if it is good or bad to be intesrested in all these high tech stuff that comes out week after week and month after month in all fields, new phone (smart of course), new electronic book reader, new 3D TV, new laptop, etc......

People are saying they don't have any time any more to do things, and i think i know why, lets watch TV just a bit, oh i haven't checked my mail yet, i have some sms that i have to send, and by the way sms are free, you get so many deals and things to do and at the end you say why are the hours just passing by and why am i not spending enough time with my family and friends.

On the other hand, we are not used anymore to entertain ourselves, play a family game, doing some things without electricity, imagine you don't have electricity for one week, i think everyone will go crazy.

Even when i try to keep my self limited with the computer or the phone i find myself spent hours with0ut having any benefit, oh and don't forget the lack of physical activity, you can do everything right now from your cell or laptop, shopping, banking, paying bills and lots of things more, you don't have to go out anymore and waste your time in the croud outside, or waiting for your turn at the line.

I thought they clame that they are saving time not wasting it.

Libyan University Standards

I know.... I know.. It has been a while since i last posted something.

However, in my mind, there are many posts coming and going, i am doing something, and i start preparing the next post, but it never reaches the keyboard. I feel the time just slipping like water through my fingers without anything effective being done.

But the topic of this post is not a new topic, i wanted to write about it for a long time now. It is not affecting me only, it is affecting all libyan students and graduates trying to get admitted to good universities abroad.

Especially those fields which does not require an exam to enter a University such as Science, Engineering or Law, you apply, do your language exam, send your transcripts, your graduation Certificate, and if you are very lucky your are amongst the ones who got over 80% at your graduation. Although i doubt that there are lots of libyans students who get this high scores. And this is the point. The way of grading the students in Libya is really more than unfair. I have taken graduate courses here in Canada, and i was very surprised at the grades they are giving, without being close to perfect your just get an A which is a very good. And it was not just any university or any course, but there in Libya, the professors are enjoying having the power to push the students down. to show them how powerful they are. this takes the chance from so many students abroad who are trying to get admitted at universities. Since the lowest grade acceptable here is 75%, and if you have this 75% and there are 5000 students applying, with only 300 positions available, who will look at your 75% if there are 3000 with more than 85%.

Here if they see that you are doing an effort, working, researching, thinking they will give you a good grade, but there, you can kill yourself learning, working, reading, it will not help.

Oh God, everyone of us will remember his professors, which are alone far from being perfect, and i doubt that one of them will be able to answer the exam questions in the short time they are giving us, oh, if they are kind, it is an open book exam, and then forget about trying to answer at all. Or the other professor who missed 95% of his lectures that semester, and only gave us 2, and then at the end he did only one exam, with all the subjects there the time was not even enough if it was the double and laughed and said "inshalla ennaja7kom""

Oh, good, i know so many students here trying to get access, and they are not able because of the low grades, and i am thinking 7asby Allah wa ne3m al wakeel on everyone who was putting his students down for fun, just to feel his power, on every professor who didn't care to do his job and at the end gave his students bad marks, in stead of encouraging your students your just kill every chance for them to enhance their selves.

Libyan Food

I wanted to write about Libyan food forever, but not because i want to see or put recepies, I wanted to learn as much as possible about Libyan food.
As I discovered a love for cooking, I am interested in knowing more details about what ever I can get about libyan food.
But let me start from the beginning, as the Libyans are dividing themselves into groups according to their origin, Tripoli, Benghazi, Zwara, etc. also the food is different sometimes, and sometimes if you don't know someone from the other city you don't know certain types of food, especially if you are not interested in looking outside the box.
In Tripoli the main dishes are (kosksi, reshtat borma, keskas, dolma, mbatten, and many other dishes), then of course you have Bazeen and there is a fight among the different cities, which one does the best one. Then the so called Borma in Tripoli is called Mgataa in other places. Another nice dish is Ftat, el Jbalia are known for it. In Benghazi there is Mathroda and believe it or not, i have just heard about this dish 2 weeks ago, and i have never tried it before, but i will do my best to get it from somewhere. These were the main dishes, there are some other kinds of foods, like 3aseeda, Zomeeta, bseesa, Gsab (sa7leb).
The interesting thing is that the ingredients are almost the same, but there are small differences in the way of cooking amongst families. As you know, common thing here to say is Family xx does the mbaten in oil only, but family yy put it in the oven after frying it. It is nice and interesting, therefore i always like to ask several people, especially the older ones about their way of doing a dish. You can find some interesting information.
As i am trying to make most of this dishes in Canada, there are somethings missing there, and somethings taste differently, but i never miss taking my spices with me from here, i remember a post about the smell of libyan food, and yes, the food smell strongly, but!!!!! without them it is not even half as good. It is true that i don't like to leave the house while cooking, because i know that all my clothes are smelling, but at the same time i would never leave the hrarat out if i cook bosla. (It is the main ingredient for me)
I learned about these spices, their mixture, how they are done, and the other interesting thing i learned about was fish. For the first time in my life i went to see the fish market, so many kinds of fish, and the seller explains what they are, for what best to use them, he was a nice old man and you can see that he knows what he is speaking about. It was nice for me to see people not giving up their proficiency, it is important to have these people, their knowledge because they are a big part of our culture, it is not the cars and the houses. The smell of fresh fish, but as well the smell of fresh vegetables here is great. I cannot remember having the same smell in Canada, it is the smell of my childhood.
I will continue to discover everything about our food, as long as I am here, and I will try to teach my kids how to love our food as well, and by the way, I have heard about a libyan restaurant over there in Canada.
I would love to post pictures as well of some dishes and the fish market, but my camera is not working so i was not able to make any.