I know he’ll love it when I carry him around on my shoulders, when I give him piggy-back rides and when I throw him up and catch him as he laughs his bottom back to earth. I know I’d get tired of carrying him that long (he is getting bigger and heavier you know). So I know I’ll beg him for a short break, but we’ll spend it conspiring and talking about our plan to rule the world! He’d want us both kings, or else he’ll reject the throne, and I’d laugh hysterically … I mean why not!

I know …

We’ll have serious conversations about toys and dinosaurs … and I know I’ll have to come up with a less dramatic explanation why they don’t roam earth anymore. He’ll ask me to read him his favorite bedtime story forever and I know I will, at least until he starts finding them boring. I know we’ll build sandcastles together and then he’ll bury me neck deep under the sand and proceed to do all kind of crazy stuff with my unprotected face, but I know I’ll laugh from the bottom of my heart.

I know …

I’ll take millions of photos of him, arm-wrestle with him and pretend he beat the crap out of me. I know I’ll teach him how to be honest, respectful, how to love people and not to bully anyone and how not to take crap from anyone. I know I’ll teach him what life is all about as we stroll down parks and beaches, his little fingers barely making it around one of mine. I know it will probably come as a shock to him when he learns that daddy is not really a superhero (but I won’t lie about the fact that I do possess Superbabies raising powers). I know I’ll promise to listen and pay attention to him, give him all that time that he needs and always be there for him, and God willing, I know I will.

I know …

I’ll be missing him so damn much when I go to work every day and can’t wait to get back home to lift him up and squeeze him in my arms. I know we’ll both have a high pitched genuine laugh …. until I feel a small hand pulling on my shirt. I look down and there she is: “Daddy, it’s my turn now!!“, she’d say, reminding me how blessed I am with not one, but two little angels.

We always express compassion and sympathy towards people who get put behind bars for speaking their mind. It’s wrong, inhumane, unjustifiable and it could be you or me. We’re even more concerned when those arrested were not even accused of that horrendous crime to begin with, but we are absolutely enraged when those arrested for committing no crime are people we know and whom we interact with.

This is the case of Anas Maarawi, the Syrian blogger and founder of ArDroid, who dedicated most of his time and effort to blog about the Android OS in Arabic, when there were no Arabic resources on the web at all. Anas, who’s always been a supporter of open-source software, now finds himself confined under lock and key.

This is the latest of the Syrian regime’s atrocities committed every day under the pretext of “reform”. According to close sources, Anas was “detained on Friday 1-7-2011 in Kafarsousah, Damascus. No information about him ever since”.

Anas is not a fake virtual identity and he’s certainly not an American man pretending to be a lesbian fighting a fictitious battle, although I now wish he’d get half of the international support the fake Syrian Lesbian received. Anas is real and is in desperate need for any support he can.

Please, tweet about Anas with the #FreeAnas hashtag. It’s a fact, the Syrian regime has people monitoring the internet, and if they get pressure from people the world over are demanding Anas’s freedom, hopefully they will feel obliged to release him. Some good people have already created a Free Anas Facebook page and a Free Anas blog and some banners people can put on their websites and blogs to raise awareness about Anas’s ordeal.

Finally, my thoughts and prayers are with Anas’s family and friends in these hard times and I hope he’s in good health and will soon return to his loved ones to do what he does best: promote open-source code.

Anyway, here’s some of the cool stuff I saw there:

Yes, it’s legal in Barcelona, and there are shops to improve the experience

La Rambla is an awesome, busy and a highly entertaining street in Barcelona

Street Spray Paint – La Rambla

Cool Street Performances – La Rambla

Sagrada Família (Gaudi’s Unfinished Church)

Gaudi’s Casa Batlló

Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf

Barcelona’s beautiful alleys. Barcelona made me realize how much I admire alleys and passages. I’d aimlessly roam the streets looking for the next alley to stand and gaze at it in complete wonderment at how it came to be.

Citadel Park

Plaça de Catalunya

Museu Picasso (The Picasso Museum. No pictures allowed inside)

And the coolest ad I’ve ever seen was in Barcelona!

And then there was graffiti … a lot of graffiti!

And that’s really it folks! It was a bit difficult enjoying what you’re seeing and taking a photo or video of it at the same time, so there were some missed photographic opportunities, but, to pat myself on the back, I think I did a decent job at documenting it. All in all, Barcelona is an awesome city, with awesome people, awesome weather, very good food and great company!

Perhaps it’s also worth noting that these high-res photos and HD videos were all taken from an iPhone 4. I think their quality is awesome, but you can just imagine how much beauty a DSLR would’ve brought back!

Verdict: if you’re preparing a list of cities to visit, make sure you’ve got Barcelona there.

* Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, one of the Spain’s seventeen communities, and hence the title of this post. I have also become fascinated by calling my short journeys ‘jobs’ as they are not really a result of any vacation planning, but are work-related trips. Obviously, I am not complaining here.

Really? Yes, and that is winning (to borrow from the great Charlie Sheen).

It was completely unplanned and that’s what’s so cool about it. A couple of days ago I went to the Dinner in the Sky’s location to meet the franchisee and check out the venue and the feasibility of hosting events, or recommending some sort of a loyalty scheme program to clients, and the Dinner in the Sky guys, Dreamdays, invited us for a test drive. I happily obliged.

You get strapped to your chair on a safe platform with a roundtable on it, while a crane slowly pulls it up, reaching heights more than 160 feet . Obviously, the Dinner in the Sky is for those hungry for the adrenaline rush more than the food itself. I must say the platform is completely safe and is very stable. While you’re up in the sky, the platform rotates so everyone on board gets a cool view.

The Dinner in the Sky concept is not new, but this time around they chose the Dubai Marina area as a location, where the view of JBR Towers and the Dubai Marina Yacht Club is (perhaps this is not the best use of words here, but it is) drop-dead gorgeous!

Oh and fyi, there are no toilets up in the sky, so you know, do whatever you have to do before you get up there.

The other night I watched The Kingdom of Heaven, and then went straight to bed. That night I had a weird dream where I was accompanying a very angry Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi in the city of Dubai. I don’t usually remember dreams, but I vaguely remembered this one after a colleague asked me what I did the day before.

Statue of Salah Al Deen - Al Karak, Jordan by Mark Kirchner

All my efforts to remember the dream went in vain, so I wrote this in attempt to picture what my contemporary conversation with Salaheddin would’ve been like:

صلاح الدين: من أنت وأين أنا؟
.أنا حسين … وانت في دبي يا أيها القائد صلاح الدين
صلاح الدين: دبي؟ ما هذه؟ وفي أي عام أنا؟
.دبي هي مدينة من مدن الإمارات العربية المتحدة … وإنت في العام 2007 ميلادي
!صلاح الدين: أحمدك وأشكرك يا رب! لقد أتممت رسالتي … واتحد العرب أجمع! شكراً لك يا رب
.يا صلاح الدين … الإمارات العربية المتحدة هي دولة وحدة من الدول العربية التلاتة وعشرين Not Really
صلاح الدين: إذاً فكيف تقول أن الإمارات العربية قد اتحدت؟
.والله ما أظن إنه هالفكرة ممكن تصير أبداً
صلاح الدين: وما ذاك الذي أراه؟ من هن تلك العاريات الكاسيات؟
هدول سكان المدينة يا صلاح الدين. ن
!صلاح الدين: مستحيل! قد أكون في بلاد الهند أو في بلاد الإفرنجة، لكنني لن أصدق أبداً أنني في دولة عربية
!صلاح الدين: أرني طريق مسقط رأسي يا حسين … العراق
!والله العراق يا سيدي حالها مش أفضل من حال أي دولة عربية، استلموها الأمريكان بحجة تحريرها، وأسقطوا حاكمها السابق، اللي على فكرة كان تكريتي زيّك بالزبط
!!صلاح الدين: ما الهذيان الذي تتفوه به يا فتى؟ إلهي أعني على ما أثقله على كاهلي هذا الأحمق
!صلاح الدين: حسنٌ، حسنٌ … فلنذهب إلى مملكة السماء … القدس … وستعود الأمور إلى مجرياتها بإذن الله
والله يا صلاح الدين مش عارف شو بدي أحكيلك عن القدس بالذات … بس كمان القدس بطلت إلنا. صارت لليهود خلص … والعرب اللي ساكنين في فلسطين ماكلين هوا، وعم بقاتلوا بعض.
صلاح الدين: اخرس يا رجل!!! إنتبه لما تقول … وإلا والذي نفسي بيده لاجتزيت رأسك على الفور …القدس لنا يا هذا … وقد حررتها بيدي هاتين !!! ن
… بقى قبل يا سيدي .. الوضع اختلف الآن .. العرب متفرقين … والوضع زي ما إنت شايف يعني …. بس الحمد لله We’re doing fine … Really
صلاح الدين: يو أر دوينج فاين؟! قبّح الله وجهك يا رجل! … تكالبت عليكم الأمم، واستولى الأعداء على القدس وبغداد … وتقول لي: يو آر دوينج فاين؟! واحسرتاه … أغرب عن وجهي أيها البغيض!!ض
.طول بالك علينا شوي يا زلمة، يعني زي كإنك محملني ذنب الأمة العربية كلها
!صلاح الدين: يا زلما؟ إذاً دلني على أي مكان على هذه الأرض لأحشد جيشاً جباراً لتحرير بلاد العرب
والله يا صلاح ما أظن في بكل هالعالم هادا المحل اللي بتحكي عنه
صلاح الدين: ما … وأ … جب … جب

This is the part where Saladin gets a severe heart attack while he was struggling to utter the word “cowards”, and where I don’t try to help because he and I know that he doesn’t belong to this time.

The artwork is part of a collection by artist Atelier Van Lieshout that Tim Van Laere Gallery recently exhibited in Spain. A quick look at the the artist’s works can show that the he has some sort of an obsession for, ummm, symbolism.

Of course the reporter did not realize that the artwork is in fact a phallic symbol, and that’s why it was published, but a friend told me the reporter is now in deep kaka.

I’m not sure if he’s being punished for running the image in the first place, or for not knowing that it resembles a massive male member, or maybe for the fact that it’s pointing directly at an article on celebrations of Al Mawlid Al Nabawi (Prophet Mohammad’s birthday) around the world!

Here is more info on the production, but in brief, it’s an awesome modern artistic production, by Sonia Sabri and Company, that combines “movement, gesture, expression, music and the spoken word”.

I managed to take the following video during their kick-off press conference at the Abu Dhabi Women’s College two days ago, where some members of the band gave a sneak preview of what they will be offering audiences in both cities. Very cool stuff if you ask me and much more than what I had expected. The first segment of the video shows Sonia Sabri, followed by Shan Bansil, the awesome beatboxer (who surprisingly majored in Mechanical Engineering!), and finally a Shan Basil and Marcina Arnold duet.

The production will be showing in Abu Dhabi on the 26th of Feb at the Abu Dhabi Theater and in Dubai on the 28th of Feb at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre. The show will also be traveling to Jordan in March, and you can follow them on twitter.

Women are females and men are males.

This is but one of the many discoveries Gaddafi unearthed in his book. That’s a fact.

It’s also a fact that The Green Book is filed under “No Shit, Sherlock”.

I particularly like to dedicate it to both Hosni Mubarak, Ben Ali and their entourage, and I really hope to be singing it to Gaddafi soon, but more than anything, I wish I can ask them: How does it feel to be on your own?

The lyrics in bold, I thought, were most fitting:

Once upon a time you dressed so fine,
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you ?
People’d call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall,”
You thought they were all a’kiddin’ you.
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out.
Now you don’t talk so loud,
Now you don’t seem so proud,
About having to be scrounging your next meal.

How does it feel ?
How does it feel ?
To be without a home ?
Like a complete unknown ?
Like a rolling stone ?

Aw, you’ve gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely,
But you know you only used to get “juiced” in it.
Nobody’s ever taught you how to live out on the street,
And now you’re gonna have to get used to it.
You say you never compromise
With a mystery tramp, but now you realize
He’s not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say, “Do you want to make a deal?

How does it feel ?
How does it feel ?
To be on your own ?
With no direction home ?
A complete unknown ?
Like a rolling stone ?

Aw, you never turned around to see the frowns
On the jugglers and the clowns
When they all did tricks for you.
You never understood that it ain’t no good,
You shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you.
You used to ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat.
Ain’t it hard when you discover that
He really wasn’t where it’s at
After he took from you everything he could steal ?

How does it feel ?
How does it feel ?
To have ya’ on your own ?
With no direction home ?
Like a complete unknown ?
Like a rolling stone ?

Aw, princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They’re all drinkin’, thinkin’ that they’ve got it made.
Exchanging all precious gifts,
But you’d better take your diamond ring, you’d better pawn it babe.
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used.
Go to him now, he calls you, you can’t refuse.
When you ain’t got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose
You’re invisible now, you’ve got no secrets to conceal.

How does it feel ?
Aw, how does it feel ?
To be on your own ?
With no direction home ?
Like a complete unknown ?
Like a rolling stone ?

Dictators, your days are numbered.

Wael Ghonim’s interview on Dream 2 TV was not what I expected it to be.

The part that paralyzed me the most, as I watched a very emotional Wael shedding tears and tears of what probably is mixed feelings of pain, frustration, disbelief, angst, joy, sadness and pride, was the fact that Wael was truly one of us!

What I thought would be a young man talking about revolutions, rebellious ideologies, principles, socialism, patriotism, fundamentalism, hatred for fascism, totalitarianism, radicalism, and a lot of other affixes ending with –ism, turned out to be a very, VERY, normal person who had a dream. Just another guy who believed in something pure, something better, a dream he and other “dreamers” realized.

Obviously, Wael is not an ordinary guy. He did spark the revolution after all. But what’s astonishingly cool about him is how ordinary he makes it all look. He kept repeating, after being arrested and blind-folded for 12 days, how he’s not a hero, how he’s not to be symbolized, how he didn’t do anything but type a few words on a few websites on the internet.

But Wael typed the right words at the right time on the right websites and managed to attract the right audiences for the right cause … and lo and behold, Jan 25 was born.

You can watch the interview with English subtitles here.