My baby is turning 1 years old today. So, it's her first Christmas and birthday. Love you Kiki!
If you have next to nothing, how do you decide what you want most of all? Photojournalist Linda Solomon visited the Salvation Army shelter in Raleigh, North Carolina and put that question to the kids living there. Linda gave disposable cameras to the kids and told them to photograph what they most desire.
A 7 year old girl took picture of a bed because “you’re not as comfortable sleeping on the floor”. One little boy just wanted good friends to play football with. Sometimes, you can’t beat the philosophy of children …“An iPod can have a dead battery, but a friend can stay with you all the time you need them.”
Another girl wanted the opportunity for something that several people take for granted and squander away by partying and carelessness. She dreams for the chance to go to college when she gets older.
These kids are dreaming about the simple things in life…to see their mother smile…to have a home…to have their family be together again…we should really all appreciate what we do have, especially during the holiday season.
One of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to hear interesting stories from people who live all over the world and this is one of them. In a small town in the countryside between London and Oxford, they celebrate Christmas is a really wonderful way. On Christmas Eve, about 2,000 people gather at this village (I wish I knew the name) and they all hold candles, enjoy a huge bonfire, and sing Christmas carols. Then, the people from the neighboring village across the Thames River cross the river carrying tall candles to join them. The houses and buildings have lights and fresh powder snow is on the ground and trees. Doesn't that sound perfect and so magical for Christmas?
This might be totally insignificant, but I was just wondering the names of the large numbers, i.e. what comes after a trillion? The largest basic number that I found is called a Googolplex, which coincidently is the name of the multiplex cinema on "The Simpsons". Obviously, there are even larger numbers that this, but I just thought to keep this fun, we'd keep it as simple as possible.
The simpliest way to write this is 
.
This number is impossible to even write down in a lifetime, you can spend every second writing zeros and you will never be able to do it. As a matter of fact, one googol is greater than the number of all of the elementary particles in the known universe. Even if all the matter in the known universe was converted to paper, there would still not be enough paper to write this number down...it's that big.
Since I have moved to Qatar I've had to make conscience choices about my appearance, especially the way that I dress. I always get asked if I have to wear a hijab (headscarf), but in Qatar it is not mandatory, so I don’t. To be a prestigious person in Qatar, I do not wear tank tops, shorts, or any skirts above my knees. Back in the US, I wore some really low cut clothes and now that I look back on it I feel a little ashamed. I started out dressing more conservative to respect the culture and Muslim influence in this country, but what has emerged is respect for my body, therefore more respect for my inner self.
My dog is a Pomeranian-Maltese. Her name is Kiki. She was born on Christmas Eve 2005, so she is almost 1 years old. She is happy-go-lucky and just loves everybody…and yes, she is spoiled.
The day that we got Kiki, as we walked to the car to go home, I set her in the grass and she immediately started following me and tried to climb in the car. She batted her little eyes at both of us and fell asleep on the car ride home.
She loves to jump and climb. She will climb on top of the couch, climb onto the counter, and then jump off. I would try to stop her, but the second you say “no!”, it’s too late and there she goes. I thought for sure that she was going to hit her head and get brain damage, but she always manages to be amazingly okay.
Her favorite toy is a stuffed animal dog that is about the same size that she is. She sucks on the stuffed puppy’s paw, like a person sucking their thumb. She is crazy about soccer. She has played soccer since we got her and she chases the ball and even stops the ball. When we play soccer, it’s just a fun time for all of us.
This past summer we got Kiki her own pool. People who came to our house asked “oh, do you have a baby?” We would respond, “nope, it’s for our dog.” Primarily, the pool for Kiki was used as her drinking hole, and she didn’t want to drink out of her dog dish anymore. If she was thirsty, she wanted to go outside to drink out of her pool.
Wednesday 15th November 2006, Al Jazeera English, the first global English language news and current affairs channel with headquarters in the Middle East, launched today at 12.00 GMT to over 80 million cable and satellite households across the globe. On day one, the channel's news teams are deployed doing stories in over 20 countries around the world in addition to their 60 news bureaus.
Broadcasting from within the Middle East, looking outwards, Al Jazeera English will set the news agenda and act as a bridge between cultures. With unique access as the channel of reference for Middle East events, and broadcast centres strategically placed around the world in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London, and Washington DC, Al Jazeera English will balance the information flow from South to North, providing accurate, impartial and objective news for a global audience from a grass roots level, giving voice to different perspectives from under-reported regions around the world.
Qatar is the richest country in the world per capita due to their greatest asset, natual gas. As you can see from the photos below, has drastically changed in the past 35 years, and is still continuing to grow and expand. Doha, Qatar's capital, is now one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
I read in the New York Times that a majority of the farmers in are producing opium because it is a high value crop. So much so, that is one of the world's largest producers of opiates. The reason why I am bringing this up is because this seems to be the problem with a majority of underdeveloped countries. They don't produce crops with both a monetary value and resourcefulness. Realizing that they can help feed their neighbors and also to make a profit is one key.
On top of all of this, the world's hunger rate is on the rise, when it was suppose to be improved. Other agendas and conquests have put the starving on the back burner.
I can only imagine how it would be to not have clean drinking water or how it would feel to not be able to give my child dinner at night. It is terrible feeling that millions of people feel everyday.
The UN's World Food Programme is a key factor in reducing the number of hungry. The problem is that they have too many people to feed and not enough funds. All I am asking is that you be aware of what is really going on in the world.
If you are interested in learning more about the World Food Programme, please visit:
www.wfp.org
Northwest Airlines issued us our tickets in Detroit and we got to Amsterdam okay. When we went to board on the KLM flight to Doha (Qatar), they said that our boarding passes were not valid. The KLM gate agent said that they showed us in their system and they showed us on the flight, but Northwest did not issue us the proper ticket to board the KLM flight. She ended up telling us that it was OUR (me and Morad's) fault for not being responsible to have the correct tickets/documentation. We said to the gate agent "Northwest...your partner...gave us the wrong boarding pass/ticket and that is not our problem." We were both upset.
So, we missed our flight because they would not let us on and then we had to stand in line for an hour to reschedule. We needed to catch the next flight to Doha, which was not until Wednesday (2 days later) and that was unacceptable, so a KLM ticket agent made arrangements for us to get on a KLM flight to Kuwait and then we would have an 8 hour lay over in Kuwait and then we would get on a Qatar Airways flight at 6:00 AM.
In Kuwait, we taxied up to the gate and Morad saw a Qatar Airways airplane parked at another gate. So, we literally ran off the plane and ran over to the Qatar Airways flight which was headed to Doha in 10 minutes. Apparently this plane was delayed for 2 hours and so if the plane wasn't delayed then we would have had to wait 8 hours at the airport. We were so lucky.
We asked the gate agent if we could get on this flight. She asked us if we had any checked luggage. We told her "yes." She said that for security reasons, they could not let us on the flight without our checked luggage. We explained that if we couldn't make this flight, then we would have a 8 hour layover and after 22 hours of travel, we were exhaused. She went and talked to her supervisor, and she came back and told us that if we boarded the plane tonight, Qatar Airways would not be responible for our luggage. Morad and I discussed this for about a minute and then decided to board the plane before it took off without us. Essentially, we risked giving up our luggage to get to Doha to sleep in a bed.
Once we got to Doha, we filed a lost luggage report (we ended up getting our luggage the next day). Then, we got in a taxi to go to Morad's parents house. We planned on surprising his parents because they thought that we were in Kuwait until the next morning. Morad's mom called our cell phone when were were around the block from his complex. Morad told her "yes...we made it to Kuwait."
So, when we walked in the front door, we yelled "Suprise!" and they were happily astonished to see us.
