STORIES, STORIES

RANTINGS OF AN ARAB MALE by Hakeem Jomah Unpopular opinion time!  I believe that man is a product of his environment.  I ALSO believe that, given certain catalyzing factors, man can regress or progress despite his environment.  The Arab male is molded to believe from day one that he truly is a king in his own right; with that comes the mandatory responsibility to provide for and nurture a family financially and emotionally, and play a part on the disciplinarian front.  And right off the bat, that's gargantuan pressure. They're ALSO bred and molded to believe in a mandatory self-entitled pride and unearned respect from his family, and it's up to the Arab male to figure out on his own how he goes about doing that. But he's so used to being spoonfed everything that he skips the "how to earn it" part, and jumps right into the "expecting to be respected" part. I'm an Arab male, I've lived this. A lot of people have th...

IN SEARCH OF THE ARC by Kathryn Narciso She takes a long, deep drag off her cigarette, stares a hole through me, and blows tendrils of cloud into the air between us. What is he? she interrupts my pitch. It’s like telling the story of Jesus in two sentences, and just as I have crucified him all over again, the blood red-lipped evangelist goes back to the major character’s obsession. She blows a split second smoke in my face again. He is…   She exhales another.  I watch it curl up in the air and disappear into everywhere. He is a carpenter? Except he’s not. If I were really telling the story of Jesus, I would have not seen her eyes narrowed at the unsure tone of my voice. You didn’t watch it. But I did, I approached her cautiously. I just can’t remember. Perhaps teased by her own sneaking suspicion, she smiles at me. No, you didn’t watch it. I really did. Let me tell you another story. FIRST ACT Against her genius, ready to prey on any si...

You guys. I turn 32 today. My first order of business at this new age is to reinforce (to myself) my worth as a person by doing my best at what I do, which currently is my job, as a publishing manager slash editor slash publication writer slash proofreader. And I do that while sitting at the Media Room of the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) here in Malaysia, where my editorial team and I are covering a 3-day event – the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) 2015 . All around me are journalists, activists, government officials, NGO members and start-up CEOs who are crazy serious about transparency and fighting corruption. They are angry, driven, impassioned as they discuss, debate, step around and propose actions on the topic of promoting integrity in all aspects of their professional and personal lives. IACC Chairman Akere Muna wears a bow tie. Bow ties are cool. The all-female panel moderated by Jess Search (in blue), Chief Executive at ...

by Tamim Kashgari I always find it funny when people try to be objective. I find it even funnier when they get all hot and flustered when I point out the underlying bias that they have to even present the point they made. But that is because I have a belief that objectivity outside of the hard sciences is in practice and concept a fallacy and a waste of time to both attempt to achieve in your own work and to actually expect from others. I'll demonstrate this using the field of history, a subject that I am familiar with, and a subject that has, since its inception, been regarded as one whose active role it is to define a single, unbiased and true rendering of human progress across time. Now, before you turn into an asshole and spit out platitudes like "History is written by the victors”, let me just stop you right there, because we actually have a number of historical work from losing sides in conflicts pretty much running for the entirety of hist...

One time in my parent’s home in Jeddah, while digitizing our old family photos, I stopped to really look at my parents and their faces. Both he and my mother had the good looks of the young and privileged, the strong features that would aid in their graceful aging in the years to come – prominent cheekbones, jawlines, distinct eyebrows, unobtrusive noses, eyelashes for miles, svelte frames. What beautiful people they were from a relatively objective point of view.  I envied them this, and once afterwards had a conversation with my father – one of many that we have – that led to a discussion of physical appearances. Being an artist in every sense of the word (he paints, he sketches, he produces art installations and professional photography, he writes, and he mixes all media), it was inevitable that I would be curious (as an adult) about his take on human attractiveness. After all, he is in the business of finding beauty. This was an online conversation a few months ago, a...

I have been roped into a beautiful opportunity to share my voice with the world. Not my real sound-making voice – more like my thoughts through (hopefully) size 12 Time New Roman font. ( It's Arial. - Ed ) But my words are meaningless without context of who I am and what I do. So allow me to begin with a brief explanation.  I may belong to one of the few genders the human race has to offer, but my heart strings strum with the natural beauty that surrounds me. Food has, and always will be a comforting companion of mine. I am a jack-of-all-trades and an expert of none, but I am quite learn-ed in the ways of business, visual arts, how to operate useless gizmos and delivering awkward jokes. Like the one about women's rights in Saudi Arabia, that one's a knee-slapper! I identify with the Arab community as well as with Virginian "culture". Although truth be told, I am generally considered a weirdo here and there and everywhere else in between and beyond.  ...

Here’s what it’s like to be poor:  It’s embarrassing. It’s mentally exhausting. You’re constantly thinking about money and how to acquire it in the shortest time possible. And because you’re embarrassed and so mentally exhausted, you never make the smartest decisions and almost always end up doing the wrong thing. I think that’s why the rich get richer and why banks will only give credit cards and loans to people who don’t actually need it – because they know this is the vicious cycle of being poor.  I used to think there was a difference between being poor and being broke, but now I think it’s pretty much the same thing. Being poor means that you have no choice, you were born into it, and the world is not helping you out of it; in fact it pushes you deeper into poverty with its politics and socio-economics. Being broke means you’re just stupid with your finances and you have a steady (if sometimes unreliable or inconsistent in amount) source of cash, and you end up ...

Gakkou Gurashi – A Matter of Perception by Carcass H Initial impressions: Let us begin with a happy moment: perfectly normal girls attending their classes, as if it was school as usual. What is unusual, however, is the presence of a unique club within the school. I’m sure the students in most schools have extra-curricular activities, such as participating in clubs (gardening, language, sewing) or sports-based activities such as football, baseball or track. Well, the exciting premise (I’m lying) here is that our main characters are part of the School-Living Club, where the main activity is… living in  the school. Our happy-go-lucky protagonist, Takeya Yuki, seeks out fun school activities such as camping and tests of courage, while the other club members seemingly go out of their way to entertain her whims.  Mental Anguish Before we continue to the end of the episode, those watching the show with a keen eye will likely see a few things amiss in ...