Persiflage & Paroxysm

Mass retail sucks! It used to be that retailers' focus was the customer's needs and trying to serve those needs. Retailers would pride themselves on getting the products that people wanted. Today, many make the same claim but in reality what they do is try to sell the stuff wholesalers and importers supply them with regardless of quality or customer needs. The supply chain is dominated by large importers and wholesalers who are completely disconnected from the customer, as such a supermarket for example can't serve the customer the way they should or would want to. The result of this is that supermarkets too have become part of the machinery of mass retail that is controlled by bulk buyers and wholesalers.  Supermarkets developed tricks to try to sell crappy product to unsuspecting customers, they try to convince customers that they need a certain product when they really don't, they have become pushers working for an imperson al machinery of bulk trade. One tric...

A year ago, Istanbul entered my thoughts, not the modern metropolis of 13 plus million people, rather the idea of Istanbul . I started searching for work there via the internet, checking out rental rates in and around the city, transport and food prices, but it was just an idea, something to consider, an option to have. Istanbul it seemed would never leave my thoughts and its path and mine would cross on several occasions. As a young kid I went with my parents on a summer vacation to Istanbul back in the early 80s.  Several events conspired to bring me closer to this city, maybe it was fate, maybe God was trying to tell me something, whatever the reasons were, events have brought me closer to this city and to exploring my Ottoman heritage. Being a Levantine Christian, such an idea as considering the Ottomans a part of our common regional heritage is simply unacceptable. Discussion of the Ottomans is nearly always done in disparaging and unflattering terms and inclu...

I arrived in Istanbul on November 10, a day whose significance to the Turkish nation was not immediately known to me being a wide-eyed foreigner with only a cursory knowledge of Turkish culture and history. It was a Sunday and the streets were packed with families, couples, groups of young people carrying Turkish flags, wearing red and white buttons and pins on their chests with the image of the Father of the Nation, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. It was clearly a special day. After a little research online I soon learned the significance of the day, it was Ataturk Memorial Day. This display of national cohesion and the people’s deep sense of pride in their Turkish heritage were clear to see on that day. It is that spirit of cohesion and pride in their national identity that I envy them for because it is something so many Lebanese lack. To understand the Turkish nation better one must understand its painful past, one must go back to the chaotic final days of the Ottoman State , it...

I rarely comment on the garbage that populates the internet, I rely on reasonable people, intelligent people to distinguish fact from myth and fiction. But then something comes along that raises my ire, this time it was microwaving cats! Yes, I hear all you intelligent people out there: 'How can anyone believe such nonsense?' Well, apparently there are many people out there who would swallow the most absurd suggestion if it came from a YouTube video. Even respectable media organizations have been taken in by this crap. This apparent spate of cat microwaving videos on the internet is spreading like some world-wide epidemic of idiocy. But did anyone ever stop to think and ask a vet or medical professional if any living creature, cat, mouse, or whatever can survive being microwaved?! Seriously, people, think about it, if the body temperature of a mammal goes up just a few degrees you get a severe fever that can lead to convulsions and ultimately death, what do you think ...