Like the Song – “rainy Days and Mondays” today has been a cold and dreary day in NYC. Even our dog Caesar was not up for a long run; probably still tired from yesterday. We’ve spent it in pyjamas watching movies and eating just about everything. That waistline isn’t going to go down at this rate. We have also basically congregated around the television our laptops, magazines , and newspapers as complementary fare. Reading blogs and answering in them during commercials, or parts of the movie we have already seen and want to skip over. Interrupting each other as we come across something of note.
I have been worried about Susie back in Saudi Arabia, because her husband has undergone by-pass surgery. A frightening episode to go through by all means. Please send some good vibes and prayers her way. Her blog has always been of interest to me. She is not at the moment a high-powered multi-tasking woman, but stay at home like many of her counterparts in KSA – Arab or otherwise, after living most of her life in the States. And I can see the things that can delight or irk you when living in places like KSA. Her latest ‘moment’ with an interaction between her husband and his physician an example of when profession, culture and gender meet at the boxing ring. My husband certainly didn’t approve of the physician’s behavior, regardless of long-standing friendship. The ‘joke’ was in bad form. I agree and am truly sorry Susie had to face an issue that was unnecessary considering the outcome resulting in her husband’s subsequent surgery.
At times I wonder if our world is less tactful because we see and know too much and can voice it; or because we have weathered down our parameters of what is prudent to say. Thought is free, but spoken words pay and demand a price.
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Earth Hour has come and gone. We didn’t even get ‘a blink-out moment’. But we did decide to have a late ‘candle lit’ dinner for the family, once our guest had left. We peppered our conversations with the day’s moments, basking in some quiet time. Candles can make that happen, guess the glow is mesmerizing enough to put you in another mood, time, and place.
Bottom Fish
Western view of the valley below us
Since we like to watch those eco-documentaries, ‘Life’ the Discovery Channel’s latest mini-series has been scheduled for tonight. We’ve been talking more about the environment, especially thinking of the diminishing water tables in Yemen. All of which is in direct proportion to the increase in Qat planting and population growth. More of the first than the latter. We have seen how the eco-system in Yemen has been depleted and scared not only by increased Qat production, but by garbage that can’t be contained properly – cascading down once beautiful mountains. Or by the inability of Yemeni to come up with recycling companies to keep the plastic bags from choking the few trees that are left! My husband and I agree that when a population ‘forgets’ how to deal with waste, subsequent health issues, and uncontrolled or regulated farming practices – all goes to pot real fast.
The Manhattan of the Desert
But the literacy level in Yemen has not reached a ‘tipping point’ where old reliable and traditional methods can be recovered and used, nor where newer ecologically friendly ones can be used to their advantage. Wind mills is one I would like to see some entrepreneurial person take on. There is enough wind blowing at good speed to keep them going to power up the country. But the society has been high-jacked by commodities and Qat their population sorely spends on. Not to mention its political atmosphere, too complicated chameleon – like to make sense of at times. Though Tariq Ali tries to make some sense of it in his article this weekend in the London Review of Books review called “Unhappy Yemen”. Please read it and let me know what you think.
Rainy days and Sundays. How was your day like?
Shadjar Al Noor ...Really? 
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