Trekking

Me and Al Tarq are off trekking for a few days. If I survive it’ll be on the blog
To give ya’all an insight into life with horses I leave you with this excellent, in-depth documentary.

Faulty programming

لخبطة البرامج

The Saudi muttawa have suffered another harddrive crash, causing them to return to their default programming, which is: arresting all and sundry. Because, let’s be real, there is no human behaviour which cannot, in some way, be classified as haraaam!
If only you do enough intellectual acrobatics.
It is of course very easy to denounce charity as an haram offense, as it usually involves two people.
Where there are two or more human beings, there is sure to be zina!

So what’s the latest? Here’s this really nice Saudi man, taking care of three orphans who were actually living on the street (!) he took them into his house, to live with his family, and  he is now facing a khalwa charge from the Commission for the Prevention of Virtue and the Promotion of Vice, because two of them are girls!!!!  (14 and 13 !!!!!)
(Khalwa is the illicit, and in Saudi Arabia criminal, seclusion of people of different sex who are not very closely related)

It went like this:

The former neighbor of two homeless girls and their brother who he took into his home while attempting to find them suitable care through official channels has described his dismay at facing a month in prison after the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) charged him with khilwa, or illegal seclusion with non-related members of the opposite sex.
“It is ironic that I now face a month in prison after the Hai’a arrested me for being in illicit seclusion with the girls,” said the former neighbor of the 13 and 14-year-old girls and their nine-year-old brother. “The case is still being looked into by a court in Makkah.”
The children had been living on the street after being abandoned by the uncle in whose custody they had been placed following their father’s imprisonment and their mother’s remarriage, until their former neighbor saw their plight and took them into his home with his own family while the Ministry of Social Affairs resolved the issue.
He has now spent nearly a year trying to resolve the situation through the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Committee for the Care of Prisoners, and Makkah’s Social Protection Home.
An official from Makkah Social Affairs, which has taken up the case, said the children had been subjected to violence by their uncle, and that an application for urgent shelter had been submitted to the Ministry of Social Affairs.

I do so hope that this charitable man will get out of this mess unscathed. I suppose it’s too much to hope for a reward for such generous actions…

Slacking

Sorry people for being so boring and remiss lately, but, like everybody else in blogsphere, I’m very busy!
I was sick last week, and I am way behind with my work, and we (Al Tarq and me) are going trekking next week!
So I have a lot of preparing to do as well!!!!!

I hope to pull up soon and post more regularly again.

Iranian girl Neda Soltani killed

As we are following the aftermath of the Iranian presidential fraud election with concern, in the Netherlands as well as all over the world, the sad news came yesterday that a sixteen year old girl was shot by the Iranian stormtroopers police.  She wasn’t even protesting: she was merely standing by the side of the road with her father. That probably made her an even easier target for the cowardly bastard hero who shot her from a rooftop. Haunting videos of her death are all over the internet.
I’ve tried very hard to stay clear of them but was caught unawares. I’m not posting it.

No sixteen year old child deserves to be killed by a well aimed shot from what is laughingly called the ”police”; a government institution. If any proof was needed that honest  government in Iran is a farce, we have it now.
Iran is a dictatorship, not by  it’s current president Ahmadinejad, who is only a puppet, but by the fundementalist clergy, headed by Ayatollah Khamenei.

Iranians all over the world are now, right now, rallying under the portret and name of Neda (”voice” in Farsi). But Neda’s life has been taken and destroyed, she is gone forever. Nothing can make this right again. This crime has been done by the instigation of men who consider themselves religious scholars, the representatives of God. Whose thirst for power and oppression will never be satisfied, and to whom the death of innocent children is only a means to an end.

Many people whose only ”crime” is the wish to get back their rights have allready been killed. I fear many more will lose their lives until the religious opressors have been ousted.

From the e-mail of the doctor who supposedly sent the video to the Iranian expatriate in The Netherlands who posted it on facebook, from facebook it went onto youtube and all over the world:

At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart.

I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.

The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know.

Edit: I have thought it over and am posting a video after all. This is what really happened. This regime kills innocent girls, this regime is based on terror. This regime is evil. Khamenei and his faction of Islamic scholars are pure evil.

Warning:  it’s very graphic.

On this footage you see Neda and her father just before she was shot by a cowardly army-sniper, you can see they are just standing at the side watching:

And do not forget, Neda is one of many, The Iranian regime has no scrupules shooting innocent girls.

Solstice

Last night was the Summer solstice, the longest day of the year. From now on the days wil get shorter again. I love the long summer evenings. One solstice I want to be really up north, when the sun doesn’t go down at all.
For now I feel sadness, like everything which was growing and hopefull is now diminishing and will dwindle into nothingness.

Clouddragon in Houston 2

So, while in America I have been visiting supermarkets, pharmacies, hospitals and museums. And a lot of restaurants! I had planned to do a lot of healthy cooking for Bedu, but in the end Q took us out for dinner quite often! We were so tired at the end of the day. However, I did cook, and felt very good about it, very domestic!

I have been everywhere, from a high end lovely restaurant in the Dallas museum, to a diner, to the hospital restaurant, and a hookah bar! You know, except perhaps for the diner, which was far more interesting as tasty, I had some really nice food! I had been expecting very unhealthy ”American fastfood” would prevail, but we did have very nice dinners!
One or two restaurants were soooo very cold that it detracted a bit from the fun… Next time I really need to bring a blanket to these places….
I actually got nosebleeds after a few days because of those airconditioners!

We went to a hookah-bar, that was a great treat for me and on my list of ”things to do”. We sat outside in the warm evening air, and had lovely food, and smoked hookah. There were many different dishes, and they were all very nice. I loved it.
There was so much and so many things to eat that I was absolutely stuffed!
I was a bit tired.

My photo’s have come out very vague, so here’s to the left my dream hookah!
Because I have now learned how to smoke hookah, and one day I’m planning to have one of my very own

It’s quite difficult to do it absolutely right….
But lots of fun!
I am sinking: I’ve smoked hookah, next time I’ll probably start drinking alcohol, and God only knows where it all will end!

At the Houston Museum there was a very lovely exhibition on ”Treasure of Afganistan” These were excavated in the thirties and sixties of the last centuries.
I had a quick runthrough allready with Carol on the second occasion we went AWOL. Not only that, Carol also took me to her favorite icecream parlor for some very tasty icecream. We had to be back in time to relieve Q from his hospital duty, but we also took the time of exploring a very nice small lingerie shop. I brought a perfect little top.

On my very last day I went to the Museum again, this time with Q.
Here you see Q and his car, the museum was across the road.
Q has a very nice car, not such a huge one, very elegant. Quite the right car for me to be driven in. (Feeling Hyacinth Bucket-like now)

Q is holding a can of diet-coke. One of the benefits of hanging around with Q is that one is néver out of Diet-coke!
We roamed the museum all morning, I had another opportunity of visiting the wonderful Afganistan exhibition. It was the last day. The Houston museum has a very nice collection: they have at leats one work by about every great artist of the last few hundred years!
We had another nice lunch, it is quite possible to make some very healthy food choices in America.
The only thing I didn’t like were the softdrinks: they all come from a tap with added sirup, not a bottle, and all smell and taste very strongly of chlorine. So I kept to mineral water.

I was very sorry not to have met up with Lofter.   I was so looking forward to it, but in the end we couldn’t make it. I had also been looking forward to meeting other people from blogsphere, Carol had planned we would meet up with houstonian for example, and that didn’t work out either. We have been só busy! But I was most sorry for not meeting Lofter ! 

My lovely visit was at an end, and I had to say farewell to Carol…   Q was going to drive me back to Dallas. Here you can see the enormous (naturally, in Texas) statue of Sam Houston! We passed on the highway.

Another fascinating view of an American highway: every small town has their own watertower!

We had left very early, so as to be prepared for any eventual problems. We also needed to stop for some gas, and after we filled up the tank we stumbled upon the most famous beefjerky producer in Texas! Woody’s smokehouse.
Of course in Texas you always have to be prepared to be charmed by some extremely friendly Texan, and this was no exception. After getting my lil’ brother a T-sjurt, some Jerky and a cap, (I was bound in honour to bring him gifts and had had no time for shopping other than grocery-) I was caught in the clutches of a huge Texan Beef Jerky Master Chef! Who fed me several different pieces of fascinatingly differently prepared Jerky, including his latest invention, and so ofcourse I had to buy more of the best jerky on the planet! I had no idea there were so many different kinds of jerky!

So, anybody who travels on interstate 45, between Dallas and Houston, Centerville, exit 164: do go there! You will not be dissappointed. Needless to say I relished the whole experience

Dallas…

More highway…

Now Q said I still had not eaten some real TexMex food, and so he dragged me to this great restaurant!.

And of course I had another lovely lunch. My last one with Q…

After the lunch we had to go to the airport and I had to board my plane back to Holland.

I miss you Carol, I miss you Q, and I miss all the lovely Texans!

(but I don’t miss the Polarblast-airconditioning)

Men, urine and hygiene

What is it with human males and urinal hygiene?
Why do human males, especially those who live in what is generally accepted as ”civilised society”,  a world redundant with toiletary inventions and extra strong disinfectants, consider it ok to urinate in all sorts of public places?
What is on their mind as they pollute public spaces with obnoxious smelling urine?

~I can drink lots of beer and here’s the proof…
~I am too lazy to go to a proper loo and here’s the proof…
~I believe in natural relief…
~X was here…
~Or: this is the territory of X…
Like dogs do?
You know one of the irritating things about walking a male dog when you’re in a hurry is that they don’t just take a pee, they are very careful to do it in little batches, so you have to walk the whole block so they can deposit the carefully measured amounts on every selected object…

Why is it that men’s loos are generally such a disgraceful revolting mess????
An Arab man-friend told me some muslim men urinate in the washbasin in a fully equipped Western men’s bathroom. WTF??? He pointed out some guy in a thobe who was in the men’s bathroom with him and he told me he had actually seen him do it! Eeeehhhk!
I have seen a documentary where they scanned the walls of the men’s toilet in a restaurant with special light, and the frigging pee was up the wall! I mean really up the wall to the ceiling!!!!
What do men actually do in there???
I mean I know they have a little wanker, like a hose sort of thingy, so what do they do? Try and see if they can actually get it to the ceiling? Do they swirl it around while admiring the pattern of yellow droplets flying through  space?
If I have a party at my house including men, the first thing I do when I have kicked my guests out is put on a couple of gloves and start cleaning my loo. I know, pretty disturbed but I want that yellow stuff off my walls ASAP!!!!!!
And trust me: It’s never as bad as in the documentary, but I never clean the walls without cause either….

To cheer up the ”Women of the World” there has been this really cool invention: The Urinal Fly!
Apparently, men are fairly easy to program: you attach a fly inside a urinal and suddenly all men try to ”get the fly”.
The urinals in Schiphol airport have been fitted with this new invention some years ago, and apparently (besides gaining world fame) with amazing results!!!
”Maintenance crews at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam reported in 2005 that adding a fly target to urinals reduced bathroom cleaning costs by giving men something to aim at.”

Clouddragon in Houston

After the Tutanchamun exhibition Q and I drove to Houston, night was falling and the full moon rose, it was a very nice drive.
Houston by night:

And at last I met Carol!!!!! Big smiles, big hugs, but because it was late it was also time to go to bed.   The next morning Carol went to the hospital to be with her relative, and Q and I went to a wallmart to get some groceries in. Something which really touched me while in America is the extreme friendliness and helpfullness I encountered almost everywhere in Texas.

And of course it was also very nice to have my own personal driver and guide: Q!
While in America I have been to three supermarkets, two pharmacies, hospitals, (almost every day) and two museums….

While visiting Carol’s relation we had to wear yellow paper abayas and duckbill niqabs, blue plastic gloves, and disinfect for about half an hour before we could enter the room.

I did my best to help brighten the room up, I wanted to do a lot of different things, but in the end I didn’t have the time needed, anyway:

Arab horse

Wish

The day Carol got to do her tests we spend the whole day at a different hospital.
There is a weird obsession with airconditioning in America; although it was allready very hot and humid outside, and a slightly cooler atmosphere would defenitely have been appreciated, all internal spaces are very, very, very cold. Setting the airconditioning on ”Polarblast” isn’t really more comfortable folks!!!
I was forced into the habit of bringing coats everywhere I went. And even that wasn’t enough at times; I was still either sweltering outdoors, or freezing inide! It’s like being in the Netherlands only the other way around!
The other hospital was even colder! We were running around all day in that hospital. We had expected to have many waiting sessions, and there is wifi inside the hospitals
We had brought our laptops, but in the end only used them for 15 minutes as the running around process, and waiting while they can call you out any minute, didn’t really accommodate relaxed surfing….

Snatching a very quick lunch while warming up on the terrace of hospital 1. It was great to go outdoors and snatch some much needed warmth outside.  All those huge buildings: whole city-blocks of the city of Houston, are only hospitals!!!! And they keep on building as you can see.

Carol and me warmed up and able to smile again later in the afternoon. We were actually AWOL: we were back from hospital 2 and should be reporting at hospital 1 but we were in a rebellious mood and decided we needed another warming up session and some private talk! We hardly had time, or opportunity, to have a real girly-chat while I was in Houston! I must mention that while we were running around on all the different floors of hospital 2, Q took over the duty of sitting with Carol’s relation, all dressed up in yellow abaya, duckbill and blue plastic gloves all day! Trust me, two hours and you think you are in hell wearing all that stuff!
Q is a hero!

Girlfriends warming up!

Want to see something really, really pathetically nerdy?
Here you are: Three nerds having a tea-break!

From Left to right: Q, Aafke, and Carol. Three nerds, sitting behind their computers and actually: really enjoying themselves!

We used to pop over and have a look at each others laptops, and we did actually talk as well!
Almost like normal people….

One night Q took me to The Houston Imax to watch the new Star Trek movie…
For another date….
I actually managed to stay awake for most of the time.

But that wasn’t all my fault: I was suffering from hypothermia, which makes you fall asleep before you freeze to death. Talk about ”Polarblast”: That theatre was só cold that I was getting frostbite! I had to snuggle up close to Q to stay warm…..

What happened to my apple?

Has it been waterboarded?

Has it been tortured?

Has it been shot?

Or has it found freedom and an American lifestyle? Maybe even hook up with a juicy, sexy, Californian Orange???

The contraband apple

Before boarding the train to Schiphol, my first stop in my travel to America, I had been given an apple by the friendly friend who looked after Zora and took me to the station.

Now, I was very tired, hadn’t slept the night before, and wasn’t so hungry in the train. I arrived at Schiphol after 07.00 and still wasn’t hungry. I boarded the plane and got snacks (yuk!) and dinner (????) and spend most of my time dozing and watching movies half remembered.

Completely forgot about the Apple…

I arrived in Dallas. The customs person asked me if I brought this, and that, and ”agricultural produce”
”Is an apple ‘agricultural produce’??? Whooops! I was whisked away, put onto a different track, all alone (snif!) armed guards, came to a desk, and brought out the offending apple.
My apple was confiscated!
After leaving my lovely apple behind, and answering more important questions, for which they took me at my word (!) I was let free.

I don’t know, but I’m sure they ate my apple.