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Category: English Post (Page 30 of 97)

Winter in Tripoli with power cuts

2017-01-06 / / 0 Comments
The cold season is here, and with the cold season comes some unpleasant things.
Flu seems to be taking the population by storm, everybody is forced to get it at least once *sniff, and I’m no exception.


For the German version of this post, please check this post translated by Mrs. Angelika Gutsche

Electricity, again!

Another sad phenomenon that comes with winter is long power cuts, it’s funny that an oil producing country isn’t able to provide electricity to power up the capital, but that’s how it is.
Notice how I said the capital and not the country, other cities don’t have this issue, it’s just Tripoli.

Which is very stupid – if I’m allowed to rant here- because Tripoli has all the services: Banks, ministries, and communication companies, which means that when you cut the power off of Tripoli, you are shooting yourself in the foot, basically.

It gets colder every year!

This winter is very cold, I know that every winter seems to be the coldest ever, but this one is really cold!
And the lack of electricity means the lack of heating and hot water! Actually water in general, because the pumps that are used to lift the water are electric.

“Alternative” ways to keep warm

I pity those who were forced to leave their homes in this cold due to the on going conflict in Libya, it’s a terrible time to be outside, and I can’t imagine how does it feel not to have a place to go to, a harsh reminder to always be grateful of what you have, amen!

With the lack of electricity we had to improvise, we pulled an old grill and turned it into a makeshift fireplace, or what we call in Libya a “Kannon”, it uses coal for warming up the place.

كانون فحم ليبي
A makeshift fireplace, Kanoon.
Maybe thats the only good thing about the power cuts, having the families get together around the fire, the wind howling outside, telling old tales and sharing a good laugh as the fire clacks and hisses.

A fair warning tho, keeping the “Kannon” in a closed room may cause suffocation, and many people over the years died of carbon monoxide suffocation, how many died this year because of the cold and suffocation? Who knows? I know who to blame tho! #GECOL.

Sadly after writing this bit I learned that 7 people in the mountain city of Ghryan has been admitted to the hospital due to suffocation, and over 200 people with Pneumonia, seven of them who are seriously ill.  

Lack of house insulation

Another thing I have in mind is house insulation, we don’t have that, at all! Our houses are just blocks of cement that is extremely hot in the summer (we had the temperature go up to 50 degrees last summer) and really cold in the winter; the exact opposite of insulation!
Which means that we need to use electric heaters to keep the house warm, and those things consume electricity like hell!

A popular beverage makes a heroic comeback!

On a lighter subject, a popular winter drink has found it’s way into our kitchen, powdered millet, known in Libya and many Arab countries as “Sahleb.
كوب من السحلب
A glass of millet.
It’s a coffee like beverage made from: powdered millet, sugar, water and milk; served warm and it tastes very nice! It’s a good way to fight the cold.

Major hit to productivity

I am struggling to get things done, I’m yet to adapt to this lack of electricity arrangement, and trying to sync my sleep cycle with it failed badly!
So much for productivity, I feel like I went back to the 19 century (and watching Sherlock wherever we had power made this idea more plausible).
How am I supposed to get anything done on 7 hours of electricity a day, if these seven hours are the same hours I’m asleep at?

Final words

Here we are in Libya, surviving barely, struggling to make a living when everything seems to be standing against us, with no money or electricity; I am not sure how long this struggle is supposed to last, I’m positive that it won’t last very long (as if we can survive like this for much longer).

This was my weekly post, I hope you are feeling warm and fuzzy reading this, wherever you are.

Please tell me of how you and your families face this freezing cold and power cuts, and share this post on your social media for more engagement.

My 2016 in depth

2016-12-31 / / 0 Comments
I had goals going into 2016, it wasn’t much but I’m glad I made some of them come true.

Things I’m proud of

To be honest, I don’t have much to show for this year, I’m thankful for what I have indeed, but it’s been this situation where nothing can be achieved, I guess staying alive is an achievement to be celebrated.



 
 The gift of life is not to be taken lightly, life should be celebrated always. It’s just this civil war situation that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon.
This year was a tough year, things are getting worse in Libya and it takes it’s toll on everyone, myself included.

1. New job

I got a steady job, the same job I’ve been struggling to get for the last three years as a teaching assistant, despite the need for new teaching assistants the government won’t sign them until the political dispute in Libya is resolved -isn’t that a bit silly?-

sadly now due to financial issues I’m not getting paid (and none of the teaching assistants got paid so far) which makes me wonder if this is better than sitting at home or working part time for startups and non government organizations?

2. Self discovery

I’ve also taken some steps on the path of knowing who I am, according to the MBTI chart I am an ISFJ, knowing that and reading a lot about the subject has opened my eyes on many things I didn’t know about myself, and answered some nagging questions I was desperate to find out, and never really knew how to formulate!

3. My blog

My blog has done very well this year, possibly better than all the past years put together! It’s either I was really bad before or that I got insanely good this year, it goes both ways!

I’ve written a lot less this year compared to 2015, it doesn’t have to do with my “new job”, it was a resolution I took in order to improve the quality of my writing, posting less but meaning more. Being my own worst critic I’d say that the quality of my writing has improved, but not as much as it should.

This leaves room for improvement, I still need to build my blog’s fanbase and newsletter, to be honest I haven’t put much work into that and it needs to be on the list!

I know that blogging has taken a backseat to other social media platforms, but I do believe that blogging will be great again!

4. Radio head

Some of my good friends kept suggesting I should be on the radio (not sure if they mean I’m ugly and I need to be heard not seen or something else), so I’ve decided to give radio a chance. I’ve started to contribute to WTSLTY “Wrestling talk show Libya”, and I’ve attended comi-con with them in a very special episode.

I’ve also taken an internship at t radio Alsa’aa 90.7, first starting as a guest on some of the shows, I learned some things about the business!

The gift of moving on

I tend to over think a lot of things in my life, mostly the past and it’s events specifically.
I’ve set a goal for myself last year to move on past all the things that trouble me and hinder my progress as a human being, did I manage to achieve this seemingly easy goal? Well to a certain degree.
Moving on isn’t as simple as pressing a button! It requires time and effort in order to be able to move on, luckily life keeps pushing new obstacles down the road, which helps letting go of the old!

Thinking about my past won’t change it, it would waste the time I should be living in.The gift of moving on, it’s something that shouldn’t be taken for granted!

I’ve also learned some valuable lessons in life that I might share in a later post, some of them seem like  basic things, while they truly mean so much!

A quick site update

  • My blog has reached 189,400 thousand views, just a tad bit shy of 200 thousand views!
  • I have removed Disqus from my blog, it didn’t sync old comments and it confused people! I haven’t received a single comment the whole time it was installed! 

What do you think of this post? Did you review your past year? And what are your goals for the year to come? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
For an Arabic version of this post, click here.

Life lessons learned, site update included!

2016-12-08 / / 0 Comments
I’ve taken some choices in life that seemed at the time to be casted in stone, little did I know that life has its lessons to teach me and to show me the error of my ways, and today I decided to share these revelations with you!

Coffee anyone?

For a while I quit drinking coffee because I thought it contributed to my anxiety attacks. I didn’t take the fact that I put too much coffee and sugar into my mug into consideration,  that probably triggered the anxiety attacks.

 

Coffee anyone?
Coffee anyone?

Later I found myself forced to drink coffee just to sober up in the morning.

My everlasting love and hate relationship with Facebook

If anyone blogged more about the dangers of Facebook then we need to start a fan club! In many posts (in Arabic and English) I deemed Facebook as the devil and urged everyone to delete their profiles.

Facebook logo
Facebook logo


I kept saying that it took my life away and rendered me sleepless and distracted.
Strange enough when I logged to delete my account I felt guilty for doing so and that my eyes burned me as if I saw something I wasn’t supposed to see! The power of thought never seizes to amaze me!
 
I was back on the site a year later to create a page for my blog, I admitted that in a previous post. 

This means one way or another that I have a profile on the site and that I use it from time to time to post to my page, I’m not active on the it and still think it’s bad for productivity tho.

Whats the lesson from these stories?

The lesson learn from my coffee and Facebook abstinence that moderation is the key! 

 

Moderation is the key!
Moderation is the key!

Facebook didn’t take my life away, I let it do so by logging in too often! And I put too much coffee in my mug which made me jumpy and more anxious.
 
Coffee in small amounts is a great beverage and Facebook has benefits despite all the bad things I said about it (and stand by to a certain degree).



One more lesson to add

Later in life I had bad experiences with a couple of less than perfect android phones, which lead me to the conclusion that ALL android phones are bad and that I should preach that to everyone that hears me.


Before that I resisted getting a smartphone and I was willing to pick a fight over the idea, I was into QWERTY phones which are great for writing fast, but not much more than that sadly.

I saw smartphones with touch screens as unusable overly priced under powered PC attachments and that PCs were the real deal, and Samsung’s touchwiz made things worse for me!

  
I took my laptop to school in public transportation and even when traveling abroad, let me tell you it is very stressful going around with a laptop fearing that it would be stolen at any minute, let alone the fact that the laptop is a heavy piece of equipment (5.2 pounds to be exact, charger and other things I carry around not included!), and to make things worse I didn’t have a backup of my important files!! I set a password over the HDD to prevent data tempering in case the laptop was stolen tho.

Not using a smartphone while travelling meant I wasn’t benefiting from the VOIP services smart phones support like Whatsapp and Viber, more cost to be added to the travel expenses because I won’t get a smartphone!
 
 Looking back I must of looked very stupid using my laptop in public to write notes or to watch something, while the people I looked down on had much lighter and efficient devices that served many purposes.   

Later on as my laptop got older and started to show it’s age, a smartphone became my companion on the road and my laptop turned into a PC! 
 
Lesson learn here is that generalization is always bad and a sign of an immature mind, passing judgment and being stubborn is also very bad and limits one’s personal growth.

In the end I think it’s important to look back and evaluate the choices and decisions made and see if they were the right call or not, everyday is a new day and we shouldn’t take our old mistakes with us forward.

Site updates

  • On a lighter note I reached 175,000 views on my blog. Not half bad huh? 
  • I also added a Disqus widget so placing comments would be easier!
  • I set up a poll to see if it’s easier to use for you guys as some readers reported the comments section isn’t visible on the mobile version of the site.
  • The poll results were 100% yes! (two inputs only to be honest).

What do you think of this post? Did you have a recent change of heart you would like to share with me? Leave it in the comments below.

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