For as long as I can remember, my Arab and Persian peers have almost gotten physical over the true name of this body of water that is known to the world as the Persian Gulf but to many of the Arab countries as the Arabian Gulf. 

I can see why this subject can be a sensitive one, as evident with the Israel/Palestine and Syria/Lebanon land issues.  But the intensity of debate over this in recent weeks is becoming quite ridiculous in my opinion. 

I'm sure everyone remembers the Arabian Gulf googlebomb from a few years back.  But every so often the media and blogging world decides to pick this issue up again and ruffle some feathers.  The sad thing is, too many (self-inflicted) gaps exist between the Arabs and the Persians for a trivial issue such as this to fade away.  We need to move on to more important issues and concerns of our respective regions and the world.

Who cares what this body of water is called as long as it serves it's purpose anyway.  But since a simple scolding will not appease the opposing factions, maybe a simple renaming will.  I suggest that we just combine the two entities, renaming it the Perarabian Gulf (this is not the same as the alternative names listed in Wikipedia).  With both parties  satisfied, the healing of the wounds inflicted by years of hurled insults and name-calling can finally begin.  

And then we can move on to what really matters; if baklava is Greek, Arab, or Turkish.

I'm not joking around, though sometimes it becomes necessary to make light of such a drawn out situation. 

But with all the sides trying to get their way, and everyone living in a biased, impenetrable bubble, there seems to be only one way to solve this age-old problem.  In the words of the doomed Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cake!" 

Why you ask? Because, think about the last time you were shoved into a room full of people you despise, usually to celebrate some unnecessary or exaggerated occassion.   And you're all there usally for just one reason: cake (or a buffet or drinks or something.) 

So, we'll stick some Palestinians and Israelis (including all the media and political influencers) in a giant ballroom, office Christmas party style.   Because God knows that those force you into a room full of brown-nosers, lame jokes, and awkward situations.  But at the end of the day, you know you did your part to inch yourself closer to that promotion, smooth it over with a tense co-worker, and prove to your boss that killing it at karaoke is an indicator of your upcoming performance.

Ok, point number two.  Although I totally get the advantage of a two-state solution, I think that it completely misses the point of mutual respect, cooperation, and exceptance.  They need to LIVE together. Work together, pray together, eat together, be together.  They've supposedly been doing it for thousands of years before, and the only thing getting in their way now is politics and fear.  So if somehow we lift that veil of fear and assuage each side's doubts of the other's humanity, innocence, and good intentions, then maybe their lifestyles can truly return to the peaceful coexistence that all of their prophets have preached and lived for.   It's incredibly sad to see three religions with so much in common replace what should be their natural reality with the illusion of hatred and animosity.  The Muslims, Jews, and Christians of the region not only share common ancestry and traditions, but also have the same religious prophets and teachings up to Jesus.  That is pretty significant.   Who said that the way the story unfolded in the past thousand years hasn't been tweeked and refined to reflect their surroundings and political realities so that it seems none of the people have anything in common anymore?  What happens when you stick a yummy slice of chocolate cake in a room  full of siblings?  Has anyone seen four siblings fight over a piece of cake?  And that's why the only requirement necessary at the Holy Land Office Party is plenty of cake, and the rest will work itself out.

Either way, it's nice to see the initatives the Obama team is quickly taking.

A list of 2008's best triumphs and worst fails.... (FYI - the links with the icons preceding them can just be scrolled over to see what's underneath)

2008 TRIUMPHS

• African Americans - Barack Obama's win helps to immediately better the perceptions of African Americans in people's minds, especially because the image of the president is usually a strong and positive leadership position.
  

•  Organic anything - the green movement doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

•  The Twitter Community  - although not quite as pervasive as Facebook, I'm impressed with the speed and influence of the Twitter community. Kudos!

• Top Ten Lists of everything and anything you can think of. Seriously, we love top ten lists.

• Writers - technically the writer's strike was deemed successful until another lawsuit was filed in November. Maybe this is a toss-up then.

• Racism - I think most would agree that the election of the first black president helps us to begin pushing racial stereotypes over the cliff.

• Britney - All I have to say is, wow, I would have never seen a return like this a year ago.   She's like a one-woman Roman empire.  Disregard that ending though, or maybe............

• Dubai - As Busta Rhymes claims in his new, albeit, controversial song, "We getting Ay-rab money!"  This place is the new Las Vegas.
  

• Swimming  -  Everyone wants to be an Olympian now.

• Tina Fey - She is on fire!  You gotta love her regardless of your political views.  She represents that quirky, slighty nerdy, girl next door in all of us.  And yes she has transformed into a glorious swan from her former awkward and heavier 80's hair days, but that's the beauty of it.  It gives everyone who doesn't look like Angelina Jolie hope. 

• SNL - After Will Ferrell  and Cheri Oteri left, I pretty much forgot what late Saturday nights were for. Then Tina Fey shows up and now my dvr is set to record every episode.  Should this praise really be directed at Miss Wasilla?
  

• This phrase - Come on. We've heard it so many times that we can't say the phrase anymore without an attempt at a Fred Armisen impersonation of Barack Obama.

• This word - Oh yeah. Say it with me:

  via the NYTimes.

• This video - Please take to time to watch this lecture.  It's beautiful, poignant, and one of the most spot-on narratives of the human conditions I've heard.
  

• Shoes - I love shoes. Obviously more than this guy cuz you could never get my pair flying across the room.

2008 FAILS

• Racism - You didn't think I was actually saying that racism is dead, did you? Oh no, we have a looooong way to go.  Don't you just love us humans?

• The Economy - no comment.

• Private Jets - Like I said, old white men can't fly.

• The Earth - Poor earth. It keeps turning for us and we try to do everything to push it off it's balance.

• The Republicans - Sorry guys. It wasn't your year.

• Pigs, Moose and Turkeys - They always seem to be at the short-end of the stick, but this year they got the royal treatment.
  

• Holiday shopping - Maybe it's good that we've reigned in our spending and given the big, bad corporations a break.

• Plumbers - Say it ain't so Joe.

• Selling poltical offices to the highest bidder - This just doesn't seem to work like in the olden days.

• Televised  interviews - I can't decide if I enjoyed the real or fake interview better.
  

•  Pastors - Not since the Salem Witch Trials have our religious leaders held such sway over the population.

• Nutcrackers - I don't mean the ballet.  I'm talking about the one that got away from the presidency.

• Old White Men - God bless em, but they sure do screw up a lot.

• This phrase - For some reason, U. S. of A-ers seem to be getting a bad rap when it comes to geography.
  

• This word - for all of you playing a drinking game:

  via NYTimes.

• This video - I mean watching the video now I think wow, we gave her a lot of hell.  But I guess it was kinda cheesy. Especially when that little girl in the video came out for Obama.
  

Forget Hillary Clinton! 

I believe these seven unrealized candidates could take this position fourth in line from the presidency and rock it!

1.  Oprah - Who hasn't thought of Oprah joining the Obama administration? She's a great communicator and therapist, and with the money she's rollin' in could single-handedly rebuild Iraq.

2.  Beyonce - A diva with both beauty and brains. I'm sorry but a lady like this can seriously conquer.

3.  Britney Spears - You may laugh now, but who better to pull us out of the gutter by resconstucting the damaged image of America?

4.  Tie between Angelina Jolie and Madonna - Both are world-renowned, invariably civic-minded, and their excellent international connections on almost every continent wouldn't hurt either.

5.  Arnold Shwarzenegger -  I'd only recommend fear as a last resort, but the terminating image he's built around the globe may do wonders for our national security situation. 

6.  Sarah Palin - Awwww, yes, I said it.  Why?  What better way to confuse the terrorists than with a constant stream of jumbling reiterations.   No offense to the governor, though.  She's hot and so could easily distract the bad guys as we slip past and bring democracy.  Plus, she's already friendly with that French dude.

7. And of course, Stephen Colbert - His uncanny ability to work both sides of the ideological spectrum could finally help bring our bipartisan country together.

Or he could just flip off the world leaders who piss him off.

Who'd you pick?

I believe any type of discrimination towards President-Elect Barack Obama at this point is actually discrimination towards his image.  But in the minds of the accusers, they’re one in the same.   Disagreement with his proposals or policies based on sound judgment is one thing; but hatred and anger, the emotions that seem to be running high in the population that voted “against him” (yes, voting against a candidate is entirely possible…look at the Kerry/Bush election) is completely different and just throws us instantly back into the era of crazy McCarthyism. 

Many people just can’t seem to restrain their blatant bigotry any longer, and so begin to throw out baseless claims and fear-mongering stories (my favorite is how he’s a secret Muslim and will inject both Sharia and Marxism into the constitution; wow, now that would be a first.)  This has been happening all along, but now it’s like they unleashed their inner demons, and are setting us up for the apocalypse (amuse yourselves here.)

Anyboo,

I read a great article yesterday interviewing Bill Cosby as he walked up to the voting booth to vote for the first African American president, and it mentioned the possibility of the Cosby Show being one of the factors carving out the path to that historic moment.  Researchers even had a name for it; “the Huxtable effect”, named after the famous family in the show.   “The Huxtable effect” theory speculated that by the Cosby Show establishing the first appealing black family living a normal upper-middle class life, young TV viewers were set up to begin the erosion of remaining stereotypes.  Cosby seemed split on that theory but acknowledged his attempt to help break down racial barriers. 

Either way, I’m just happy to see him enjoy this historic moment, as well as Martin Luther King Jr.’s children, the 106 year-old woman mentioned in Obama’s speech, and every other African-American and minority; or everyone else who was moved to tears by that heart-warming moment when he walked onto the stage with his family.   I believe many people who didn’t support him or vote for him still felt the global sigh of relief in seeing this country move forward.

And I think regardless of who we voted for, we can all agree that THIS is an awesome game!

Barack Hussein Obama.......(cue scary Halloween music)

Stop it! Please just stop it! Stop saying his name as if it were a very dirty
word. Stop saying his name as if fireballs were going to come flying out of our mouths
and laser beams shoot out of our eyes.  Actually that would be pretty cool, I
take it back.

But seriously, what the freak is wrong with us? Who the heck cares what his name
is? Are we that measurably shallow? The name of a person now legitimately
exceeds his credentials? Confucius and Aristotle would roll in their graves.

Ok, fine. So, Snoop Doggy Dog might not fly over with the American and global
society......but it's a freakin made up name!

Yo, peeps, listen up......President Snoop in da hizzy!!   Raise up yo gin n' juice to the may-an!

Hmmmmm..........

So, after about  5 days, I still find it pretty surreal to think about who the new president is.  I mean it still feels as if it's six months ago and we're in the middle of the presidential campaigning.  I guess that happens when you've been following something for so long and it gradually builds up over time, so you begin to naturally expect some kind of gratifying and over-the-top finale - like in a show, or a video game.

I mean the election seriously unfolded like a Mortal Kombat video game......funny but actually pretty sad.  The potential leaders of our crumbling country were usually too busy character assassinating each other to think about how to save the country from financial terrorists.

Most of us don't even really know why we love or hate someone or something anymore. We just let other's paddles steer us down unknown rivers of beliefs - beliefs that our own subconscious feelings should be navigating.

Ok, I know we've come to a point in our society where the "thought" of abortion (or no abortion) trumps the presence of integrity in our future political leaders. Fine, I get it. Those who run the country don't have to be honest or compassionate or intelligent or dignified or well-read. I accept that, and that's partly the reason why I decided to avoid running for a political office in the future. If the people have more faith in their hair stylists than their political and religious leaders (guilty as charged, hi Joe!) than you can't blame me. So maybe my idea of fusing politics and fashion isn't that bad of an idea. Because what woman have you met that doesn't put full faith in that little black dress on a Friday night? I think I heard more about the colors of Obama and McCain's ties than the subprime mortgage crisis. Case closed.

First blog entry, wow. Never thought this would happen but here I go....

I'd like to speak (write) to whoever would like to listen about the things I think about each day when certain ideas/topics/news items arise.  Maybe it's to validate my existence; or maybe it's just to know someone out there is also thinking the same thoughts as me and I'm not crazy/idealistic/confused.

 First off....

So happy to be part of a country that finally elected the first African American President.  Americans were able to prove their humanity to the world after a long, dark period, and I love that I was part of that history.  I have always been proud to be an American, but now I'm glowing

.

Second....

As mentioned previously I am an American, but I have so many labels these days that I'm worried I'll soon lose count.  I'm not going to rattle off my long list of titles, but instead will give clues throughout my entries (If anyone cares to figure out what the hell I am or even read my thoughts; I take comfort in the fact that my mom will currently be my most outspoken fan.........and critic)

ok......first clue, I have been/could be/might be discriminated based on some of these labels, though my counterparts have and still are fighting to disconnect the images that come to mind when said labels are mentioned..............so I guess wish me luck.  Also I love very flavorful food and gossiping about the minute details of others' existence (wow, how therapeutic to come to terms with this)

On to other thoughts...

Does anyone else's skin crawl when people so openly express their racist/close-minded/isolated thinking? Maybe that answer is a given...but it sometimes seems so very easy to gloss over the observance of outright sillyness in someone elses thought process. Why don't we call them out?  Why do we pretend that the snake is not poisonous while simultaneously letting the venom work its way into the body of society? Am I losing you?  By now, I'm sure some people out there think this blog is about either jewellry or zoology.

And now you may come to the point of asking "What the heck is this blog about anyway?"

I've been advised when writing a blog to keep it simple and specific......and I am going to do the complete opposite.  I have lots of passions and lots of comments. So if you're interested in politics, philosophy, human rights, fashion, psychology, technology, culture, animals, and other things that fascinate me, you've come to the right place. Granted I'll be talking about these things through the lens of my own experience, I hope at least one person walks away with a new perspective, a better understanding, or at least some mild amusement.

Thanks for your time nation. Back to work