What the 70s brought to the world?

This post is dedicated to people born in the 70s. It is a celebration of their third decade. This is a teeny tiny list of some famous people born in the 70s.

 

Queen Rania, 1970	Google guys Larry Page, 1973 Sergey Brin, 1973
Dana Perino, 1972 Former White House press secretary	Tiger Woods, 1975
Aishwarya Rai, 1973	Asma Al-Assad, 1975
Twitter guys Jack Dorsey, 1976 Evan Williams, 1972 Biz Stone, 197?	Kate Winslet, 1975
Matt Damon, 1970	Leonardo DiCaprio, 1974
Kate Beckinsale, 1973	youtube guys Steve Chen, 1978 Chad Hurley, 1976 Jawed Karim, 1979
Penelope Cruz, 1974	Charlize Theron, 1975
Jennifer Connelly, 1970  Angelina Jolie, 1975 Gwyneth Paltrow, 1972 Jennifer Garner, 1972 Ben Affleck, 1972 . . .	Samantha Power, 1970 Pulitzer prize winner (one of my favorite activists)

 

There are many more influential, and gorgeous, people in their 30s but I just wanted to make this quick list.

p.s. Jaraad was born in 1973 and he hopes to make some waves very soon.

البلدة الصغيرة

هذه قصه سمعتها من أحد الأصدقاء وأسردها لكم:ـ

 

يحكى أنه في مكان ما على هذه الأرض كان هناك بلدة صغيرة بها عشرة منازل فقط

كان جميع  أصحاب هذه المنازل يعملون في زراعة القمح ، وكانوا جميعا في سعادة وانسجام

ولكن كان هناك سر مشترك بين ابناء البلدة العشرة فقد كان كل واحد منهم يسرق قمحا من جاره طمعا في أن يزيد من غلته

ولأن الجميع كانوا يسرقون من بعضهم فقد كانت القرية في حالة من التوازن فما يسرق من أحدهم دون علمه يعوضه بما يسرقه هو من جاره

في أحد الأيام قرر أحدهم التوبة وعدم السرقة

ما حدث هو أنه عندما قرر هذا الشخص عدم السرقة لاحظ ان غلته في تناقص دائم ونتيجة لتكرار السرقة منه أصبحت عائلته تعاني نقصا في الطعام ادى الى احساسها بالجوع

وهكذا أصبح هناك خلل في توازن القرية بعد أن كانت في سعادة وانسجام.ـ

 

 

ملاحظه: هذه القصه لا تدعو او تشجع على السرقة ولكنها مجرد سرد لقصة قد تكون من الواقع أو من نسج خيال صديقي

A student arrested in a classroom

See what happened to a student who refused to leave a classroom. I think, sometimes we need to use force to enforce order even in  classrooms. [link]

Think green – From inelegant plastic bags to stylish tote

Chapter II – Businesses recycle individuals reuse

By now, everyone has some knowledge about the danger of using plastic bags. You may have read or watched a show about how plastic bags take 500 or 1000 years to decompose or biodegrade. You may know, or not, that these plastic bags end up in the ocean or somewhere in the wild. We produce and use so many of these bags we don’t know where to dump them anymore. The earth reached a catastrophic level now, partly, because of these plastic bags. Under the sea creatures and over ground birds and animals are dying because of them.

I still remember the day when my family was preparing to leave our small apartment in Kuwait in 1988 to resettle in Jordan. Before leaving, my mother cleaned our empty apartment in such a way that no one could ever tell a family had lived in this apartment for about 16 years. She scrubbed floors, washed windows and did everything possible to make the apartment as new and clean as possible. My mother didn’t clean the apartment to get back the deposit since there was no such thing at that time. I was 15 years old back then and so it didn’t make sense to me why she had to clean the apartment since we are not living there anymore. It was the logic of a young boy who thinks for the moment only. So, I remember that I asked her why she did all that cleaning. Her answer was “if we don’t clean the apartment the new tenants will talk about us.” It didn’t matter to her that we are leaving to a new country and the new stranger tenants don’t actually know us. But from her perspective she wanted to make sure that the new tenants are satisfied and happy with the cleanness of the apartment.

I know I learned a lesson from my mother that I need to take care of things that others will use later on. Since we don’t know when the last day of life is, let us not treat the earth as we are the last people to live on it. Our children, grandchildren and may be many more generations to come will live on this earth and they themselves want a share of what the earth can offer. Be thoughtful and considerate to the next generation. Let them think of you as a hero, as someone who worked hard to save them the trouble rather than the greedy bear that ate the whole pie.

Since we should always start with ourselves before telling people what to do here are some few things I already started doing as my part of saving our beloved earth.

	In the office, I asked everyone to use the back side of printed papers. These papers could be printed on again or used as scratch papers.
I wash coffee cups I buy from different coffee shops and reuse them for one more time when I make my own coffee at home or in the office.
	I reuse Alfredo sauce jar as a cookie jar.
And finally my favorite shopping totes. The red one is cold and hot temperature keeper.	and this one is a more modern tote than the very colorful one my grandmother used to use. Although, may not be as durable as hers.

Lessons from people’s stories

When you just feel you hit rock bottom you hear a stranger’s struggle with a fatal or chronic disease, you thank God, stop whining and continue with your life.

In a not very related story this amazing video shows how obsession can sometimes be fatal. Many times we are obsessed or addicted to doing things that eventually will bring no good to us. We know this fact but why we keep doing what we know will not help us or harm us amazes me. The video has many metaphors, everyone can relate differently.

Think green – Sharing & Reusing

I will be writing couple of posts about this topic; thinking green. My objective is to learn to be more considerate to the future generations who want to consume and make use of the earth’s resources as much as I do. I will explain why frugal living should be “in” or “cool” and abundance consumption and extravaganza spending are not. 

Chapter I – Sharing and Reusing

Sharing

I was lucky, though it is debatable, to be the eldest among my two younger brothers because when I grew up as a kid I was the first to wear any garment I had at that time. Also, I was the first owner of all the baby gears or toys that I received.  My younger brothers on the other hand didn’t have the luxurious life of being the first to wear a garment or the first to own a toy, at least not for every article they wore or used.

If you are not the first child in your family most probably you reused something your older brother or sister used before. It could be a stroller, a crib, or clothes. Your parent didn’t buy you a new stroller or a new crib not because they don’t like you as much as your older brother or sister it is because there is no reason to throw away a good stroller, or discard a toy and buy a new one. It is the smart people business model.

During the 70s and 80s I used to live in an apartment with my family. It was normal for neighbors to borrow stuff; like extra dining chairs if a neighbor is inviting many guests, or kitchen utensils, or even one onion or a tomato to finish the day’s cooking. Neighbors were more than happy to help lending their stuff because they were sure they will get help when they needed one.

Reusing

Selling used items is different from one place to another. In some countries in the Middle East it is usually done on Friday in a big flat place where people sell their used goods. In the US it is known as a garage or yard sale (see picture) where the family sells some of their used furniture, clothes, electronics, etc. 

People should never discard anything unless it cannot be used any more. They should either sell it or donate it. I and millions of people around the world would have never dreamed of owning a car if it is not because of the first genius rich guy who decided to sell his car to buy a new one. Later, selling used cars became one of the best business models in the world. You never heard any one lowering down his/her voice, out of shy, when they announce to a family member or a friend that they bought a used car. The joy and excitement of buying a used car for millions of people is the same joy and excitement for those who can afford to buy a new one.

Buying used goods should not be for the poor or for the frugal people. The same reason why we never feel shy to tell someone that we bought a used car, we should never feel shy telling people that we bought a used item.

In general, newlywed couples in Jordan buy only new electronics and furniture. It is a matter of pride that the groom should only buy new electronics and furniture even if it meant a heavy debt to be paid for five or ten years. Imagine how much the newlywed couple could save if they buy used goods. It is ironic how people believe that debt is nothing to be shy from whereas buying used goods is full of shame.

Quote of the day

Your smile is the sun, ma chere. And fallen men, we need the sun.

The curator in The Brothers Bloom movie

A survival lesson from a toad

This poor postage stamp-size waterfall toad doesn’t have teeth to show but he for sure is a hero. Unlike the sometimes commonly used idiom “show your teeth” to indicate readiness to face and conquer one’s troubles, this toad teaches us heroism in a different way. He showed his teeth when he took a last second [suicidal] decision, like no other. The narrator, Oprah Winfrey, asked “is this suicide?”  Sometimes taking a decision, when we don’t know the consequences of this decision, is the bravest thing to do. Believe it or not I wanted to hug and kiss this toad. But I smiled, laughed, and watched the clip again and again. I am so watching this Life 11-part series.

Click on the picture to watch on YouTube:

Standing ovation for this toad!

Update 1: Melicieuse informed me that the video doesn’t work outside USA. Sorry for that.

Update 2: Whisper found another link to the video. It seems this one works in Jordan. The narrator in the video is British not American .