Disclaimer: Somewhere on this blog are multiple grammatical mistakes, spelling errors and obscure Star Wars references.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

UAE wins the Gulf Cup!

Today, Ismail Mattar helped UAE secure the Gulf Cup final and led UAE to its first ever victory in the Gulf Cup since they first qualified for it.

Congratulation to the locals going crazy outside my house. Now we can hear their cars go on and on till the wee hours of the morning. To be honest though, this is quite a victory considering we beat Saudi Arabia (The main Arab country that has been to the World Cup Final round) and other big countries like Kuwait etc.

All around town, you can see scores of happy fans riding in their vehicles, hazards on, windows rolled down, flags baring and horns blazing in tune. Good on 'em Emiratis!

Go UAE!!!

xx

M

Saturday, January 27, 2007

American People are Stupid



Forgive the title, but that was the title of the video itself, and it helps my hits.

I saw this video a long time ago and was since unable to find it until no less than 5 minutes ago, when my friend Sana, found it on Youtube and showed it to me.

Not much to say really. The video does all the talking.

[Edit]

I only saw the video again, after posting it. And I must say, the Average American is so bloody ignorant it's not funny.

Q: How Many sides does a triangle have?
A: 1) None
2) Four

wtf?!

Q: Name a country starting with, 'U'.
A: 1) Utah
2) Utopia
3) Ugoslavia

Those answers and more were said by the many Americans to feature in that Video. I'm not stereotyping, but to the non-ignorant Americans: Time to clean up your own yard before you set out to others don't you think?

PLEASE comment, because I really want to know what people think about this video and it's implications...

xx

M

Monday, January 22, 2007

and..and...aanndd... ARSENAL WIN THE PREMIERSHIP!!!

Ok so we didn't really "win" the premiership per se, but I know that I'm most DEFINITELY not the only Gooner who thought that.

Foot-In-Mouth disease is not very hard to come by but this takes the cake. I had 3 Mancs in my house watching the match. Right about the 82nd minute, when the Mancs thought they had the game, the witty comments started pouring out of their mouths. We were all ODed on pizzas and sodas so it was all in good nature. That all changed in the 83rd minute when RvP blasted the ball into the roof of the goal equalizing the score. Suddenly the only voice heard was mine. It was all square at 1-1, which was good considering we came up from behind. I would have been happy with a draw, we would have avoided our first defeat at Emirates Stadium. Pleased with myself and the performance of the team, I settled down into the couch to watch the last few minutes of the game. Extra time had been announced. 4 minutes. The match was good as sealed as a draw.

That is, until Eboue's cross found Henry's head, which led the ball to the back of the Away Team Goal at Emirates Stadium in the 93rd minute. That was it. Pande - fucking - monium. Henry's bullet left van der Sar no options but to stretch and watch that ball hit the back of his net. Soda was spilled on the floor, kids were left crying, cars stopped midway across the driveway in front of my house because all that could be heard was, "YYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" emulating from villa no. 7.

That was one of the best matches you could have watched in a while.

Life is good once again...

xx

M

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Hello again...

Greetings fond (and the occasional not-so-fond) readers!

As promised, I now blog on this website sitting on the first floor of my new house. Majority of the shifting has been completed. Thing is, with Desi families, shifting breaks down into two MAJOR halves.

1st Half: Shifting ALL the furniture, things, clothes, electronics, closets, shoes etc etc.

2nd Half: Shifting the Kitchen.

Basically,
with an Indian family, time period is as such:

Total Time Period = Time Taken to shift everything + Time Taken to shift kitchen.

The Indian family thrives on, or rather inside, the kitchen. And unfortunately, for those Indians that don't (including Yours Truly), we end up getting a lot of the hard labor tasks. We've had at least two carfuls of spices, daals, garam masala's and other desi stuff moving in from the old house and from what I hear we're only half done. There's a desi family for you right there. A lot of the stuff is still in boxes in our new garage, and my father is fuming that we're slow on the unpack. What's the ladies' excuse?

"We're still bringing the kitchen from the old house!"

And by, "We're" they mean Mali-is-driving-up-and-down--bringing-pots-and-pans-that-we-will-never-use... Yup. I have been officially demoted from Third Son, to Driver. I feel like a courier service. WHY CAN'T WE HAVE SMALLER KITCHENS!!!!???

Although to be honest, the big kitchen is responsible for our lovely cuisine, so I guess the ends justify the means.

Ehh, what the hell. At least I'm driving...

xx

M

P.S. Note also that the QOTD Column has resumed :P

Sunday, January 14, 2007

The Freeze...

W.E.F today, CWMG goes under a, 'freeze' as my internet account gets disconnected coming midnight. The connection will then be rewired to the new house, and till we don't get the computer there, there will be no more updates on CDWMG.

Hence I officially announce the freeze of the site, and hope to blog away once the computer is set up in the new house.

Till then, take care readers.

xx

M

Sunday, January 07, 2007

We're Shifting! Woot!!! (Pause in Updates)

Yay!

Tomorrow we gain possession of the new house that we're shifting into :D. Today we ordered furniture for the new house and began packing stuff into nice cardboard boxes.

Either way, a quick announcement on that end. With effect from the 12th of January till about the 20th of January, CDWMG (my short for this blog) will remain closed. By closed I mean there will be no new posts and the QOTD column won't be updated.

Therefore there are a few posts in the making, and all those will be published on the 20th or later. Till then, Adios. And I look forward to next logging on to Blogger from our new house. Yay =D

xx

M

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

The Legacy Of Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein's death is now one of the most commonly discussed things in the blogosphere. One thing that I thought should be discussed some more is the life of the man and not his death. Naturally, what people know most about him is his exploits during the Gulf War, his genocide of the Kurds, his apparent 'Nuclear' intentions, and his opponent-torturing/killing, womanizing ways.

A lot of Saddam's past is still unknown to the common layman. A lot of Saddam's past, before he became the 'bad' guy that he was in the war against Kuwait, is relatively not as known as his life after that. Saddam Hussein was United State's puppy for the former part of his life. Conspiracy Theory galore is the name of the game. Everyone who knows about Saddam's rise to power in Iraq, knows that there was one major factor that lead to his rise. The US of A. Noteworthy example: In 1958, General Abdul Karim Qassim, led the army and overthrew the then-King Faisal II of Iraq. This was a year after Saddam joined the Ba'ath Party. About then, the Ba'athists opposed the new government and so in 1959, Saddam was involved in an attempted plot to assassinate Qassim. This plan was backed by the one and only: United States Of America.

In 1963, Qassim was overthrown by some Army Generals who had links to the Ba'ath party. Abdul Salam Arif became the president. Later on in the same year, Arif dismissed the Ba'ath cabinet and arrested the leaders. In 1964, Saddam was arrested. In 1967, he escaped and in 1968, he participated with the Ba'ath party too part in a bloodless coup, where Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr was made president and Saddam his Deputy. But all knew that Saddam was really the moving force behind the party.

As a Secular leader, Saddam did more for Iraq than any other leader in the past.
Saddam saw himself as a social revolutionary and a modernizer, following the Jamal Abdul Nasser (of Egypt) model. To the consternation of Islamic conservatives, his government gave women added freedoms and offered them high-level government and industry jobs. Saddam also created a Western-style legal system, making Iraq the only country in the Persian Gulf region not ruled according to traditional Islamic law (Shariah). Saddam abolished the Sharia law courts, except for personal injury claims.At the same time, Saddam was someone who would outmaneuver his political opponents, or, eliminate them if necessary. It wasn't unknown that political opponents who disappeared overnight were later killed by Saddam's subordinates.

During his 'prime,' Saddam was a good leader, and at various times had very close relationships with USA, France, the then-USSR, and even Iran. However, soon began his downfall with the Iran-Iraq war. This was closely followed with the Gulf War (against Kuwait) where his old allies and supporters USA themselves fought against him.

And the rest they say, is history.

xx

M

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Lyrics To My Favourtie Song.... (part 2)

The song was written into one of their first albums. A small, but interesting story's behind it. Their present bassist is not their original one.

Their first bassist committed suicide, on an overdose of some medical syrup. The band members found him dead with the bottles lying around him. This song was then dedicated to him, with the lyrics written like a final letter to the band from the bassist. Post-production of this song, the band started a campaign against suicide.

A short story, but its interesting to know.

xx

M

Monday, January 01, 2007

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti: April 28, 1937 – December 30, 2006

Two days ago, on the 30th of December, 2006, in the early mornings of Eid al-Adha, Saddam Hussein was hanged from the very gallows that he used as punishment. He was hanged till he died, and in the following days was buried near his home village in Tikrit.

Normally when a, ‘bad guy’ dies in the movies, the crowd gets a sense of relief or closure of sorts. But I think I won’t be the only one saying that, come Saddam’s death, lots of us don’t feel that way. Mixed emotions would be the best way to summarize what goes on in people’s minds. For the crimes he committed Saddam did deserve to die. And in that regard, it’s fair that he got what he deserved. But this simple idea has so many other complications around it that raises two important questions:

1) Was Saddam’s trial a fair one?

2) If it was, then can it be applied to other Head’s of States that are responsible for genocides and deaths of innocents?

These questions, more importantly the second one, obviously have very profound implications. I’m going to let you decide for yourself what’s what.

xx

M

[edit] P.s. This is only a small article to highlight the event. Another article to come up to discuss the event. [edit]