The Makiav3llian Enchantment…

Last night, my dad, Myra, Marlon and I went to meet up with my dad’s friend in The Gardens and we were treated well by our gracious hosts Tita Mimi and Tito Joel. My dad was actually catching up with old buddies. All of a sudden I found myself flashing back to 1992, Dubai.
It was the Jurassic period back then, where laptops was just a concept and the mobile phone was a unique car installation, hence its name. The thing that actually struck me most is the concept of community. The people of McDermott was a closely knit community, where Thursdays was not only Disco or bar day, it was "invite our friends for dinner" day. The day after, it would be Safa Park , Jumeirah Open Beach or out of Dubai trips. Work would resume and you would know that the following week someone would be inviting you over. Then there was the bowling league, darts tournament and the summer basketball league. Let us also not forget the Family Day where all employees get together, sponsored by McDermott.
These were the times of old and it was the best of times. It wasn’t the events nor who invited who, it was the presence of being with other people, a community socializing. I got to know my Mom and Dad’s colleagues and their children. I got a few friends that made Dubai life for children a little less toxic. I met my best friend Dervin during those times, don’t know if he still acknowledges me, we’ve been so far apart.
Now, as I have grown older and working, the only colleagues I know are co-workers with very high insecurities with their jobs, a logistics boss who has a very dumb-founded (and I do mean dumb) look when asked a logical question and his sister who seemingly likes to say "Shoo Kabayen" that she’s slowly looking like an attention deficient patient. I just can’t seem to establish the relationship of yester years. The sense of belonging to a community is gone. Where socializing is now down with your Friendster and Myspace,. You have to be connected to the net, register and sometimes have to pay to be part of a community. It’s just sad that we are all caught in the advancement of technology, fast pace of the times and the call of money.
I had the honor and pleasure of being a part of the 90s, sometimes I wish it can be brought back. It will live on as memories but maybe I’ll try to bring in a couple of old school moves. Well looks like I’ll have to make my own retrogression.

I was actually coming from the 9PM shift and on the way home yesterday when I felt a real urgency to eat. I was quite hungry indeed and since I arrived at the Gold Souq Bus Station at 10:30, I felt betrayed to find out that the shwarma stand was already closed. To top it all off, I had to meet Marlon and Ate Lyds in the fish market to buy food for this month. I was desperate and I was going to forage for food, the question was where? There were no known fast food joints nearby, so I made an immediate stop to my local coconut vendor (in the fish market) and asked for my favorite buko juice and coconut meat combo, I did ask for 10 pieces to take home with me to treat my kidney stone. Thinking that one will suffice, it looked like one piece wasn’t enough, Omani coconuts tend to be smaller in size and meat content. So without hesitating, I just looked around to find something to eat and well seeing a date stand, I began to think what a wonderful combination this would be. Coconut Juice / Meat and Dates. Coconut Juice is sweet and sometimes bland in flavor and the meat is a great substitute for rice. Dates on the other hand are sweet and have fiber and some vitamins. For someone one on a diet, I think this combination is a good deal. Eating at least ten dates can give you the energy you need without the fattening stuff and with a little support of coconut, you get a filled up belly with the meat and nice healthy liquids without asking for diet based soft drinks. I think it’s wonderful since these are all natural ingredients, no fattening contents, energy packed and best of all fills an empty belly. Unfortunately, this does not containing anything which will slim you down quickly but it will help during those times when you want to slim down the natural way. Its pretty practical too since you can buy a half kilo of dates and it will last you up to 3 - 4 days (availability is a big question though), the coconut however needs to be fresh. Actually Arabs have lived long because of this. Their diet consists of dates and camels milk, with a little hint of Suleimani tea. I think I should throw a banana into the mix for potassium.

Television series has been the trend as of late. I never really understood the hype behind ER and Law and Order; I never really watched it and hardly cared at all. I do know Soap Opera’s like Bold and Beautiful and TV series like Knotts Landing, and Dallas. I am not a fan my parents did watch it and of course I got into the habit. All this time, I never did pick up any values from them. Just taught me more about betrayal, infidelity and some of the most controversial topics during the 80s era.
Beverly Hills and Melrose Place took their turn in the 90s. Reality series then came in and the work related TV series came, yet I still do not see anything of great value. Let’s face it; TV is filled with sex, violence and our so called reality. Other may see my view differently but the TV series Prison Break has put the values back in the telly. There are a lot of interesting series now making ground breaking advancements in their scripts like Lost, 24, Heroes, Desperate Housewives, Dirt, Smallville but I think Prison Break tops them all.
Alright, so there is sex and violence, but it contains more than that. It isn’t just a TV series about criminals, murderer or convicts in the slammer who are trying to get out. There is an air of reality in it. Makes you want to appreciate the fact that you have never veered in the wrong path. Actually the first season is about the genius of Michael Scofield and how he engineered an amazing escape. Within the subplot of the first season, we see the development of the characters. Season Two saw their escape and you see how the lives of these convicts intertwine. What impresses me the most is the human values they actually point out. Despite the killing and conspiracies, you begin to see love that actually surrounds their motives. Scofield, Linc, C-Note, Sucre, T-Bag and the other actually teach me a lot of things. Brotherly Love, Love for country, Love for family. Yes, it’s funny because it’s an entertaining series but sometimes I don’t care about the plot anymore but the emotions involved. There is a bad man trying to be good but was rejected by a good family, a brother pulling out all the stops to save his innocent brother, a lover separated from his girl and a family man sacrificing all for family. I would recommend you to see it, run a half day marathon and enjoy. There are still things we can pick up from television and I am glad that there are still some values in TV, or at least justification of it.