Review: Classical Ships of Islam

Last Wednesday there was a lecture on Classical Islamic Boats by Dr. Dionisius Aguis and hosted by the Qatar Natural History Group. I was there with a friend who, like me, is also interested in these “unexciting” subjects. We arrived at 6:58pm, just two minutes before 7:00pm, when the lecture was supposed to start.

Just a few moments after taking our seats the talk began and it was fascinating, this world of naval history. If only I could focus on what the lecturer was saying.

Review: The Green Box Part II

I received my Mixed Box today! This is how it looks..

Review: The Green Box Part I

Dear reader, As promised in my last post I went ahead and registered with The Green Box to try their innovative method for in season produce shopping and eating!

The Green Box

I was referred to this website a few days ago of a fairly new business here in Qatar, I’m sure every health food conscious individual will love the idea behind it! I certainly do! And this is why…

Cordoba in The Muslim Era

For those interested this is my review of the “Cordoba in the Muslim Era” lecture with Dr. Farhat Hussein.

Overall it was very interesting except for two things that really bugged me:

First was that the speaker arrived half an hour late, his excuse being that, and I’m paraphrasing here, “It’s my experience in this region when you say 7 o’clock people usually arrive 7:30″… hmmm… did I ever mention how I am annoyingly-obsessively conscious of my time?

Second was a teeny tiny line in the welcoming speech. Something about “…soldiers of Islam against the infidels…”  Huh? Did they just offend the non-Muslims in the audience? I thought DICID stands for Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue? I’m confused.

Kura

Dedicated to a teen who absolutely loves the game… and to someone who demands shorter posts to read…

By: Bint Khalid

Kurat al qadam, mostly known as Kura, which is ‘ball’ in Arabic, or  sokker, or futbol, or voetbal, or soccer, or football… despite the slightly different words and alphabets used to describe a sport, everyone knows this abbreviation: FIFA.

Thank You Michael Slackman

By: Bint Khalid   (in response to a New York Times’ Article)

It is a sad misfortune for Michael Slackman to come for a week’s stay in Qatar, point to the sense of disappointment and the outward appearances of Qataris without looking into the deeper underlying causes of their dissatisfaction.

Now except for Slackman’s heinously shallow portrayal and generalization of Qataris’ characters, I as a Qatari would like to raise my right hand, and solemnly swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God. Deep sigh. What Mr. Slackman has divulged in his article “Affluent Qataris Seek What Money Cannot Buy”….

Is the truth.  

But…Is it the whole truth?