Vote.. if you see its worthy!

I submitted my photo under the theme Elegance to JPG Magazine, if it receives enough votes it will be published in the March issue!

Click here to view!

FIRE...!!!

As me and the Mrs. arrived at the famous Sawari Mall for some weekend shopping, we heard the whaling sirens of ambulances and fire trucks. Just a few seconds passed and we saw these trucks and cars speeding into the parking lot of the mall. After asking a few bystanders who arrived before us, it appeared that the famous Lebanese cuisine "Shami" restaurant was on fire because of an electrical short circuit! Thank God no one got hurt as the mall turned into a ghost town as people rushed out. I didn't forget to whip out my mobile to record this moment for my faithful watchers and readers:

Warning... Lots of talk coming ahead...!

Four Weddings.. And more weddings...!

Everyone loves weddings right? People are happy, free food, and maybe getting a chance to dance. Yeah all that is great, but not when weddings last till 3 or 4 AM! And here is the thing, weddings in Saudi Arabia are actually NOT mixed! So what you have is that you and your wife (or sister, mother, whatever) are attending the same wedding, but ironically the men's side usually finishes around 11 PM or midnight, while the lady's side doesn't finish till dawn...!

So what happens is that I finish dinner, then tea, then some "mingling" with people I may not like, and I am done with all that by 11! I call up my lady (of course barely hearing her over the screaming loud speakers) and she usually informs me that the bride and groom actually haven't started the ceremony yet (which they call here in Arabic "Zaffa" ). So I am stuck having to mingle some more here and there, maybe fiddle a bit with my mobile phone, deleting those unwanted numbers and editing others, or maybe I just try to wonder away with my thoughts.

Even with all that done, I look at my watch and its still 2 AM... "Honey, are you done?" ... "No sweety, they just served dinner now!" ... Excuse me? Dinner at 2 AM?? I think if you try to explain to Europeans or Americans that there is actually a "dinner" served after midnight, you would probably be labeled insane... And now I have to wait for another hour or two and drive back home half awake, which is dangerous since sometimes weddings occur in Makkah which is an one hour drive from Jeddah where we live.

Why cant we just have normal weddings where everything wraps up at midnight max? Why are Saudi families competing with each other who has the longest weddings? The problem is that women usually don't have a problem, they got the Sound system and maybe a female singer inside, plus they consider talking as their favorite sport. Its us husbands, sons, and brothers who have to mingle and fiddle with our mobiles till the crack of dawn...


Pimp My Ride!

The first day of the vacation witnessed my first event photoshoot for "Layalina" magazine. Actually it happened by chance while I was driving by the sea and spotted a large number of teens grouped around something.. Turns out its a show for pimped up cars!

I called up my editor and asked her if she is interested, then set up my gear (which luckily I had in my car trunk) and started shooting my heart out! I really had fun, and its not just cause I LOVE photography, but also cause this actually gave me a large boost in my self confidence. I mean there you are, carrying this huge sophisticated camera around your neck and shooting at everything, plus you are getting to stand in front of all the other viewers and granted special access, with a society like we have here you are bound to get a stupid remark or more from someone. Also I got to work on my conversation skills where I had to talk to the sponsors and organizers of the show, not to mention making what I call "cigarette buddies" which are basically people you ask/they ask you for a smoke.

I took over 100 photos that day, not to mention a few videos for my channel on youtube.com , have a look at one of them:





Let's Hit the Beach...!

The second day of my vacation wasn't so bad either, went out for lunch then some bowling with my wife and sisters. But deep down I was worried about the rest of my vacation and how there is not much to do in little ol' Jeddah. Just then I got a phone call from a good client of mine which went something like this:

Him: Hey Ahmed, I want you to fix me a flight to Cairo.
Me: Ok sure, sms me the details and I will tell the guys to work on it
Him: Great! By the way how's your vacation?
Me: Starting to get boring man
Him: OK why don't you hit the beach? Rent a beach house or something... Or tell you what, did you know that I own the "Canary Resort" by the sea?
Me: Yeah I heard something like that...
Him: Well take your family and head out there, pick whichever cabin you like and its yours till Friday!
Me: That's great man, thanks! But how much?
Him: Oh shut up!

So the vacation turned out well after all..! Seems a bit of PR really goes a long way!

No end to the horror that is Guantanamo

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington and Andy McSmith (The Independent)

Published: 09 January 2007

When the first prisoners arrived at Guantanamo in January 2002 they were handcuffed, shackled and wearing hoods. The reason for these exceptional measures, explained the then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, was that the prisoners were highly dangerous. "These are the sort of people who would chew through a hydraulics cable to bring a C-17 [transport plane] down," he claimed. "They are very, very dangerous people."

Five years later none of these "worst of the worst" have been brought to trial. Just 10 have been formally charged while hundreds of others have been returned to their own countries and released. Meanwhile, three have committed suicide, at least 40 others have tried to do so and there are concerns about the mental health of most of the 400 or so remaining prisoners.

"It is remarkable that Guantanamo still exists five years on," said Clive Stafford Smith, legal director of the British group Reprieve, which represents three dozen inmates. "But what is also remarkable is that Guantanamo has distracted attention from other secret prisons the US has. As of August last year we know there are 14,000 prisoners in US custody around the world."
Critics say the low point of the past five years perhaps came in June 2006 when three prisoners - Ali Abdullah Ahmed, 28, from Yemen, and Saudis Yassar Talal al-Zahrani, 21, and 30-year-old Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi - hanged themselves using torn sheets. Lawyers said they did so out of desperation but the base commander claimed it was "an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us". Controversy had previously been stirred in December 2005 when it emerged the US military was strapping prisoners into "restraint chairs" to force-feed those who had gone on hunger-strike.

General Bantz Craddock, head of the US Southern Command, defended repeatedly inserting feeding tubes into prisoners' throats and nostrils, saying: " Some of these hard-core guys were getting worse." There have been numerous reports of abuse, humiliation and torture. Prisoners have allegedly been held in stress positions, locked in solitary confinement not permitted to sleep and been smeared with fake menstrual blood.

Three Britons who were held for more than two years before being released without charge - Asef Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul - claimed they were repeatedly punched, kicked, slapped, injected with drugs, hooded, photographed naked, subjected to body searches and forced to endure sexual and religious humiliation. Mr Ahmed said he was questioned by a British interrogator while a gun was held to his head.

One of the more unusual reports was the so-called Harry Potter torture. Visiting US legislators watched through a one-way mirror as a woman interrogator sought to wear down a prisoner's resistance with a non-stop reading of the adventures of the boy wizard, which reportedly lasted for hours.

Campaigners believed they had achieved a breakthrough last June when the US Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration's use of military tribunals was unconstitutional. It also ruled that each of the prisoners had the right to have their cases heard in court.

But though Mr Bush said at the time he wished to close Guantanamo, just three months later he was successful in getting Congress to pass new legislation that circumvented the Supreme Court ruling and opened the way to proceed with the tribunals. It also backed the administration's decision to refuse prisoners the right to see the evidence used against them.

Last May the UN Committee on Torture called on the US government to close the facility immediately. The same month the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, also said the prison's continued operation was "unacceptable" . Tony Blair called it an "anomaly". But the Government refuses to help eight British residents who are still being held at the prison even though the US has sought their repatriation.

In October the High Court in London ruled that the men did not have the right to be treated in the same way as British nationals. The Foreign Office claims it has no power to intervene on behalf of foreign nationals, even if they were long-term residents of the UK.

The numbers that shame America
1825 Number of days that Guantanamo has been open
400 prisoners are currently detained at Guantanamo
20 detainees arrived on 11 January 2002, the day the detention centre opened. They were hooded and shackled
8 per cent of detainees accused of fighting for a terrorist group
300 prisoners who have been released back to their own countries since 2002
86 per cent captured by the Northern Alliance or the Pakistani authorities for US bounties
70 prisoners who President Bush's administration plans to charge in military courts
10 prisoners who have already been charged
0 number of detainees brought to trial

President Bush reacts to Supreme Court ruling that Guantanamo military tribunals are unconstitutional.

And this is the briefing the President received on his way to the conference...