Things I learned over the past four years...

graduation cap cupcake originally uploaded by clevercupcakes

It hit me last night that I've been out of college for four years this May. I decided to channel all my freak out emotions into an advice piece for recent grads:

1) Being a lifeless drone is a choice most people around you will make. You don't have to do it.

2) Your friend's lives will diverge, some will get very demanding jobs, others will have families, others will leave to go to grad school. Friendships will require more energy and time if you want to keep them.

3) Networking with men (for women) is much more difficult but necessary. Do too much of it and you're easy and too eager, do too little and you limit your access to opportunities. Find yourself a comfortable balance.

4) Most people don't know what they're doing, you're not the only one. Make it up as you go along, be confident in your ability to learn.

5) If you don't get married, it's okay. People are going to treat you like your dying but you're really not.

6) Be happy for other people's successes, life isn't a race, you're heading to different destinations anyway.

7) Find something you'd like to get involved in, (especially if you have a soul-sucking job) do something for other people.

8) Ask for what you want (I'm still working on this one) if you don't know what you want ask for what you think you want. If it turns out you don't want it, thank people for their help and move on.

9) Don't put yourself/undermine yourself especially not in front of people. They will believe what you say about yourself. (Don't be cocky either, no one likes that.)

10) Take a deep breath, it'll all be okay. (I think.)

إهداء إلى سمو رئيس مجلس الوزراء الشيخ ناصر المحمد الصباح

Annnnd we're in

.i am change.
Originally uploaded by skye.gazer

Four Kuwaiti women won last night's parliamentary elections. Aseel Al-Awadhi, Rola Dashti, Ma'asouma Mubarak and Salwa Al-Jassar. Congratulations Kuwait, we can almost hear the wheel of cultural change turning slowly.

Even Thikra Al-Rashidi, a woman MP candidate running in conservative tribal district, had extremely good results and was in at 15th place. That is progress.

For that and more, I am ecstatic.

الثالثة ثابتة

6:30 a.m. : Alarm goes off; first time I wake up this early in easily 9 years.

7:30 a.m.: Leave house, head to a school in Kaifan to monitor elections as a KTS volunteer.

7:45 a.m.: Get kicked out of first classroom by unaccommodating judge.

7:46 a.m.: Get kicked out of second classroom. Decide to stop asking about checking polling stations, walk around to check signage around school.

8:05 a.m.: All five polling stations are open, old ladies begin filing in.

9:30 a.m.: Leave polling center to get food. Drive to Starbuck's in Adailiya where apparently everyone who's working for any candidate in District III is there.

10:00 a.m.: Back to school, asking judges for permission to monitor from inside the classroom.

11:ish a.m.: Notice traffic slowing at polling station. People are sitting around waiting for voters to show up.

12:00 p.m.: Head to my own polling center to vote.

12:ish: Parking far to avoid being double parked. As I'm walking into the building, I try to choose four from the six candidates I had in mind.

12-ishish: I'm getting dizzy from the sun, walk into the empty polling station (good timing on my part) check four names. Fold paper. Hand ballot over to the judge. Watch as he puts it in the clear box.

1-ish: Drive to KTS. Watch Dr. Salah Al-Ghazalli's interview on Alrai. Realize that most volunteers were rudely kicked out at the school's gates.

1-ishish: Meet friend at McDonald's (we're a classy bunch); where I find my thirteen year old sister who's helping a friend's uncle's campaign. Tell sister to stay off the streets. (Which I think is great advice at any age.)

2:00 p.m.: Still dizzy. Probably dehydrated.

5:30 p.m.: Drive back home. Too dizzy and tired to do anything anymore. Call KTS supervisor, tell her I can't show up at poll closing.

How'd your day go?

Hibernating

Passengers originally uploaded by naughton321

“You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, & you believe you are living. Then you read a book, or you take a trip, & you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous & might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. & then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, & it awakens them & saves them from death.”
-Anais Nin

Who wants to be a millionaire?

At a young entrepreneur meeting earlier today, several men talked about wanting to be millionaires; one of the attendees even mentioned wanting to have 6 billion dinars (1 Kuwaiti dinar = 3.4 US dollars).

It threw me off, I've never thought of wanting money. Financial freedom, absolutely, and I've learned to quantify it too. Enough to travel, buy gifts for loved ones and afford the best health-care if anyone around me ever needs it.

Money's nice don't get me wrong, you'll never hear me complaining of "excess money", but to want to work towards a number is a foreign concept.

So, who wants to be a millionaire?

And now we know your caliber

It's true, Dr. Aseel is suing whoever did the video of her recording. Although she's completely within her right to do so, it just reeks of hypocrisy.

Politics isn't always good clean fun, there's always mudslinging involved. I had hoped Dr. Aseel's freedom of expression ideals could have stood the test of this campaign. I guess it's all lip service.

Dr. Aseel, former MP Ahmad Al-Saadoun's had worse things said about him. Personal attacks against him and his family > Recording of something he said in a public forum taken out of context. Al-Saadoun has never filed a complaint against anyone during the span of his political career.

But I guess it's unfair to compare you to a real politician.

Thanks Dr. Aseel now we know.

via Dr. Aseel's website:

د. أسيل تطلب التحقيق في الإشاعات المفبركة

تقدمت د. أسيل العوضي بشكوى إلى النائب العام تطلب التحقيق في موضوع الإشاعات المفبركة والتعدي على الخصوصية ومحاسبة المتسبب حسب قانون الجزاء، نافية ما تردد عن دعوتها لحجب مواقع إلكترونية لأنه لا يتماشى مع مبادئ الحرية الديمقراطية التي تؤمن بها، مشيرة إلى أنها تؤيد حرية الرأي والتعبير في إطار القانون الذي ارتضيناه جميعاً، ومن حق الشعب الكويتي أن يعرف من وراء هذه الحملة، ومن يحاول اختطاف العرس الديمقراطي لأمور جانبية بدلاً من التركيز على القضايا التي تهم المواطنين.

ونفت د. أسيل العوضي إستهدافها أي من المدونات الكويتية، وأكدت أنها تولي المدونات الكويتية كل إعجاب واحترام على دورها الفاعل والوطني في مراقبة السلطات والتعبير عن هموم الشارع الكويتي، لا سيما وقد كانت لها بصمات لا ينازعهم عليها أحد في قضايا الديمقراطية كحق المرأة السياسي وتعديل الدوائر الإنتخابية.

ونبهت د. أسيل العوضي الشعب الكويتي إلى الحذر من الإشاعات، ودعت كل مواطن حريص على تقصي الحقيقة ودقة المعلومة إلى استقصائها من موقعها الرسمي الإلكتروني

:

!@#$$$#@@$%^^&%$#

No more free, easy The Daily Show. International Licenses! MY TOES!
Hello proxies, torrents.

Jon, why must you do turn me onto a life of crime?

10 worst countries to be a blogger

The CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists) issued The 10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger. Muslim-majority countries make up half, four of which are Arab countries.

Dear candidate,
If your website doesn't work on firefox or safari, I'm not voting for you.
XOXO,
G

Tis the season: Aseel vs. hijab

Aseel's alleged words about hijab have caused an uproar in my social circles. Personally, I believe it was her in the recording because it's hard to mimic the way someone speaks in both English and Arabic. I'd love to be wrong.

Regardless, her statements aren't shocking to me as I'm familiar with her extreme liberal views.

Her personal beliefs do not concern me, but what does is the lack of respect in the language she used and her extreme naivete. At the very least, have the decency to write the ayah down if you're going to be preaching about it.

Although I'm not convinced she'd make a great politician, I still think she'd be good for women in general.

Reblogged from May 21, 2008:

"Aseel: the anti-Haleema

Although, I'm wasn't in a position to vote for Aseel Al-Awadhi, third
constituency candidate, nor do I agree with her ideology completely, I think
she's great for Kuwait.From Nouriya Al-Sadani to Rola Dashti*, never before have
we had a young(-ish) feminine soft-spoken candidate running for elections.
Kuwaiti women seeking powerful positions, whether real or fictitious (as in TV
soaps), are always older, more androgynous and generally deemed
"undesirable". (Sweeping generalizations, shame on me). Aseel in a way, is the
anti-Haleema Boland.

This elections' lesson: You don't have to be a ditz to make it;
politics isn't for butch girls."

Why are the liberals reliving the 70's?

Why are the liberals so insistent on fighting the battles of the 70's and 80's again? With all due respect to Dr. Ahmad Al-Khateeb his affinity to history and old battles has deemed him irrelevant to the political conversation.

I think it's imperative that Kuwait's young are familiar with its history in order to have a nuanced understanding of today's attitudes. But our issues at this point are much more important than left-right struggles at the Co-op level.

Watch Dr. Ahmad's AlKhateeb here, here and here.