Category Archives: Random

A Bank in Jordan Fires A Christian Woman… For Refusing To Wear a Veil

I’m sick of articles shared by Lebanese “activists” that tell us how neighboring countries, such as Jordan, have more “freedom” than Lebanon. You tell them it’s not true, they ask for an example outside your basic Lebanese pride.

Well, here’s one for you. A Jordanian Christian woman was fired from her work not because she was incompetent, not because she wasn’t good at what she did but because she refused to wear a veil.

The woman, named Vivianne Salameh, was asked to hear a headscarf which goes with the uniform the bank, Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank, enforced for female employees earlier this year. Five other Christian female workers had already caved in. She refused to wear the veil. The headscarf doesn’t conform with her principles, she said.

The uniform the bank imposed on female employees wasn’t even registered at the trade and industry ministry, which means their initial uniform, despite them being “Islamic,” didn’t impose a headscarf.

Following the bank’s logic, it should be allowed for other companies to fire women who wear the veil. Right? Aren’t they breaking uniform? But other companies don’t do so because there is a very simple thing that seems to have eluded this bank: the concept of freedom of religion.

Muslim women are free to wear the veil, they are also free not to. Christian women are not supposed to wear a veil, according to their religion. Forcing them to is violating their freedom.

But how would a bank that’s straight out of the dark ages know that?

It’s a sad day when refusing to wear a piece of clothes means your source of living gets cut. I praise Vivianne Salameh for standing up to her faith. She’s exactly the type of people these retarded banks need.

Facebook, “Social” Media & Stupid People….

Imagine this real-life scenario.

You come back home and check Facebook. It’s late at night so the timeline is slow. Someone has shared a picture from an album they titled “:D:D.” The title they gave their post is: R.I.P, I will miss you. You look at the picture and at the album’s name. It’s a while before the idea connects in your head.

You look at the picture and you know the person in the picture. It’s someone from your family. Yes, you just found out they died from Facebook not a few hours later via a phone call like your parents intended to tell you.

Now imagine this other real-life scenario.

You get news that your grandma is sick so you book an airplane ticket to Lebanon to see her. The moment you land, you check your phone. The messaging service of choice, in this case BBM, is full of people who have changed their statuses to the typical “R.I.P” stuff.

The former scenario happened to me a few hours ago. The second one happened to a friend. I had heard of similar incidents happening to other people as well.

It seems that even when it comes to death, people are quickly losing their head. Why in the name of everything that is holy would anyone want to make a Facebook “scoop” out of the death of a loved one? Shouldn’t they be grieving instead?

Shouldn’t people have that common-sense fuse that perhaps not everyone has been told about the death in question and they should refrain from updating their Facebook status thirty minutes after the person passes away, while their body is still warm?

I have the answer as to why people like that do what they do: stupidity, lack of class, lack of consideration…

Will they care? Absolutely not. All they care about is getting those coveted Facebook likes and comments. The post in question in the scenario that happened with me now has 23 likes and 19 comments. Mission accomplished? I think so.

Fifty Shades Trilogy: Fifty Shades of Grey – Book Review (EL James)

The Fifty Shades trilogy, whose three books are currently are the top three sellers in the United States, is anything but tame. The first book, titled Fifty Shades of Grey, should have been titled Fifty Shades of Scarlet. That’s how your face will be while reading it – especially if there’s someone peaking at your copy.

Ana Steele is a soon-to-be college graduate in her early twenties who’s asked by her best friend, Kate, to go and interview a self-made young enigmatic billionaire named Christian Grey at the HQ of his company. Knowing nothing about him, the interview isn’t exactly top notch. But it works well enough for Christian to develop an interest in Ana, who reciprocates the feeling.

What Ana doesn’t know is that Christian Grey is controlling, seriously into BDSM, with a playroom in his huge Seattle apartment, and who wants Ana to be his submissive beyond anything he’s ever wanted before.

Fifty Shades of Grey is carnal. There’s nothing that happens in the 500-pages book apart from the two main characters having sex all the time. The sex scenes are also graphically detailed. Fifty Shades of Grey is porn on paper.

Ana Steele is so one-dimensional as a character that she can’t even remotely draw you in. For a self-proclaimed virgin who can’t wait to be deflowered by Christian, she sure develops an insatiable need for sex. Her character is so shallow that the few moments where she appears to be different are marred by what immediately follows: her relapsing into the girl/women who can’t but seek Christian’s approval. The words “oh my” are present at every sentence to signal her astonishment as she explores the boundaries of her body, reveling in the eroticism of it all. Her “inner-goddess” never gets enough. And it quickly becomes grating.

Christian’s need, on the other hand, is never fully explained. While he is the more interesting character, the potential complexity is barely touched, never delved in. He’s left to his rough exterior, barely ruffled. And if Ana’s needy for sex, she can barely keep up with Christian who never seems to get enough. It eventually becomes repetitive, not adding anything to the story but useless pages to increase the book’s spine.

Fifty Shades of Grey doesn’t manage to go five shades deep, it remains afloat, blowing you, no pun intended, with sex scene after another, after another and then some. It’s a shallow, useless read. It’s repetitive beyond imagination. The characters initiate intercourse using the same gestures: biting their lips, cocking their heads to the side… that you get to smell it coming, no pun intended – again, from a mile away. The success of this book baffles me. I am not a reader of erotic fiction and I don’t think I’ll ever be. But if an erotic book at least had a plot to support it, I can comprehend people going for it. Fifty Shades of Grey has nothing in it.

I pity the person who had to do the audiobook for this.

2/10

Memorial Hermann, a Houston Hospital, Live-Tweeting Brain Surgery

The day has come where Twitter is used effectively as a learning tool in medecine. Memorial Hermann, an institution based in Houston, Texas is currently broadcasting updates and answering questions during a brain surgery that’s going underway right now. You can check out their Twitter account here.

As a sample of what they’ve been talking, I took the following screenshots:

They’ve also tweeted a few pictures live from the operating room, as well as a brief video of the brain while they operated on it.

I think this is great. While I am familiar with some of the terms they’re throwing around, I think this a great educational opportunity for medical students, current MDs, and knowledge enthusiasts. I hope they do this again some other time as well because it sure is interesting.

 

To All Med Students: The Rise and Fall of Medicus Studentus

This is an absolutely hilarious video done by medical students at the American University of Beirut (AUB) that was presented during an annual gala dinner which serves as a fundraiser for the Lebanese Medical Students International Committee (LeMSIC).

I was fortunate enough to watch this firsthand at the aforementioned gala dinner and I thought it was totally awesome. Other med students, you will eat this up. For those who have nothing to do with med school, here’s the setting you need to put in your head: cut-throat competition, your med school books are neo-scripture. Caffeine is your BFF. You also hate everyone.

It’s long but definitely worth it. And hey, we have unlimited internet at night now. So why not?