2011 update

It’s been over a year since my last post.  A lot has happened since then. Still in Canada – busy working away, but we now have a little boy who is the joy of our lives.  He is 15 months old right now and growing fast! K and I are growing old! Our hands are full with him running around, he learned to situp, roll over, crawl and walk in the blink of an eye! He busily sucks up all the information that we throw at him and has learned to point and vocalize. Don’t have much time to do much with him around, and the blog is the last thing on my list of priorities.  It’s been a great year, full of fun and awesome memories. Hope that good things continue to come our way. And if you read this K – I love you. Thank you for sharing this with me.

Back in Canada….

Wow, almost a year since my last post… but I am back in Canada.  Will stay here for another few years hopefully, and then move to where life takes me.

Happy New Year!!!

Hello Readers,

I just relocated to Kenya from Dubai, and I have to say, its a fucking culture shock being back here and actually living here.

Lots to say, now that I have internet at home (finally!), but just want to wish everyone a happy 2009!

“Lara Croft” Alison Carroll In Mall of Emirates, Virgin

I walked into Virgin yesterday, and saw a huge stage with Tomb Raider Posters around it. It turned out that the new Lara Croft, Alison Carroll, was going to show up there. So wifey, cousin and I got invited to the VIP section and sat around till she showed up. Alison is the new poster-woman for the franchise starring in the upcoming Underworld game.

I haven’t seen any other real life models around which the game had been developed, so I am not an expert on commenting; however, Alison looked like any other girl that you might bump in the bar or the train, but a little glammed-up. Anyway, she was nice enough to answer our questions (I am sure she’s paid to do that ….) and we took a few pics with her and were even interviewed on MTV.

All in a day’s work, this is the second celeb I have bumped into in Mall of Emirates.

Kenya spare some change?

I was in Kenya for work last week, with some colleagues who were travelling to the country for the first time.

We were in Tanzania before and they were complaining about how unfriendly Tanzanians were.  Being the proud Kenyan that I am, I immediately told them about how friendly Kenyans were and how we always have a smile on our faces.

Immediately upon landing in Nairobi Airport, we were greeted with a smile …… and an open palm.

I tried to tell my colleagues that bribery was a part of Africa and people would find any reason to get money from your, but the manner in which it was done was brash and unabashed.  Like taking a bribe was a part of life and part of the immigration process.

It didn’t stop there.  It seemed that all of Kenya, or Nairobi(Nai – robbery) was looking at any way to squeeze money from visitors there. From the Bellboys to the Cab drivers to “Five Star” Hotels, everyone seemed to be out to gyp visitors out of their money.  Case in point – many of the hotels in Nairobi – (Serena, Intercon) used to charge a set amount for a bed and breakfast.  Now they charge USD$ 25 for breakfast – which is cereal, eggs, sausages and bread.  For Kenya, even with the economic status of the world currently, this is exorbitant! The least a hotel can do, after paying over USD $ 200  a night at a ‘five’ star hotel is feed you breakfast!

At one of the restaurants in Nairobi, The Tamarind, a waiter told us about his daughter getting married and he was expecting a big fat tip from us.  Not that I haven’t heard this story before, but how it was propositioned was a shock to me. He literally asked us to give him money.

We were there for three days and in the course, asking for money in one form or another was a repeat performance by Kenyans.  My colleagues left Kenya with a soiled image of Kenyans.

To me, it was a shock.  I kept on thinking about how we had come to this position.  From what I see, there are two layers to this.  The outer one is trying to exploit visitors as much as possible and the inner one is the easiest way to make money – begging.  Maybe our reliance on tourism was taking a negative turn for us.  It seemed like we have corrupted our morality and our humility to get here.  Then I got thinking about the fact that the govt. of Kenya doing the exact same thing with the World Bank.  Getting on its knees and begging for handouts.  It was appalling.  No wonder, many Kenyans don’t have any shame in begging.

I don’t know, maybe its the fact that I have been out of the country for far too long.

We have so many resources, industries, stability and it is a shock to see people doing these things. If we cannot pull our act together, there are many beautiful places in the world that tourists can head to.  If our tourism industry is in a decline we only have ourselves to blame for exploiting and disgusting tourists out of the country.

The world’s fate lies in the hands of the American People…

As many people accross the United States lie awake through sleepless nights of impending foreclosure, we, across the rest of the world, can only await the wave of financial doom to hit our front door.

I think that this crisis cannot come at a better time than it has.

I am truly sorry for many Americans who have put their blood and sweat into building a home for themselves only to lose it to this financial crisis.

However, the question remains: could this have been averted were it not for the billions of dollars pumped into unwarranted wars? Could this have been avoided if the outcome of the last presidential election was… different?

I think that this might be a great wake up call for America to sit up and rethink their ‘freedom’ and put their country in the hands of someone worthy of the challenge.

Whether we like it or not, the worlds fate is intertwined with the the US world’s largest economies.

America – for the sake of the rest of the world, vote smart.

In the meantime, all I can say is O B A M A, O B A M A.

Job in Kuwait – Canadian Technology Firm!

Please find below the details of a good friend in Kuwait looking to employ at his firm.

Canadian Firm looking for a Support Engineer.

We offer our clients Speech Recognition Solutions, during and after implementation they need to be supported for any technical issues and or requests.
We are looking for the candidate who would like to work as a Support Engineer to fulfil those requests from the clients.

Skills:
+ Telecommunication experience in an IT role
+ support experience
+ Database administration
* .Net Programing is an asset
* Speech recognition is an asset
* voice and IP would be great.

Experience required: Minimum 2 years.

English is a must.

training will be provided for the right candidate when hired.

• Industry: Information Technology
• Job type: Full-time
• Salary: 250-300 KD

Please email    jobs at provisiontechnology dot co m

Love All

Whoever watched last night’s Wimbledons mens Final must admit that it might have been the best match played in the history of the game.

It was action packed till the last second.  Although Nadal won well deservedly, he could have not lost to a better opponent than Roger Federer.

Hat’s off to Nadal for pulling off an unseemingly fantastic win and kudos to Federer for fighting back like a true champion.  Like a friend said to me last night after 7 odd hours of intermittent tennis between the rain, “these two have changed the face of the game forever”.

Excuses, excuses, excuses

A lot has happened since I last updated this blog…

The new Iphone has been announced for release, Obama is kickin’ ass, earthquake in China, violence in Lebanon, death of an Emir in Kuwait and the death of an Emirati Prince, purchase of an engagement ring.. etc etc etc.

I really haven’t had time to sit down and write! There are so many things that I am juggling right now, I don’t even have time to think!

MJL has been trying to help out by posting but unfortunately he is in the middle of his thesis for his masters, so things have been a little slow.

Anywho, the big day is looming closer and I feel so unprepared!  I am hoping that everything works out flawlessly.

That’s all from me for now. More when I have time!

Mjl – Guest Writer

MJL will now be contributing to this blog on and off as a guest writer. MJ is an old, old friend.  Our last journalistic work together was on an article for a student newspaper when we were both broke students. Truth be told, the article was a ticket to get free food from the local grocery store(it kind of worked – we got impeccable service there after our article was published, and even a bonus of fruitcake on Christmas), but that’s another story to tell.

MJL will be contributing his expertise on critiquing movies (in less than 24 hours after I last wrote that no-one else could review movies on my blog!).

Welcome to the blog MJL. Give ’em hell!