Malek's Moorish Tales

With the current (or barely past, depending how you look at it) crisis, and with claims that some people had actually forecasted it long time ago, I started looking at was out there... I stumbled upon the the open your eyes DVDs ...

I have to confess that the first few videos about the financial system did get my attention... Is the fractional reserve system a good one? was the first US Dollars fiat money a better one?

As I kept watching these conspıracy theory DVDs though, I got a lot more skeptical very quickly... As I believe in open mindedness, I went on watching (though skipping many videos, and just watching the first moments of many). I saw in most of the first ones, although not something believable, a glımpse of some form of respectable opinion, mixed in the middle of a flood of unfounded and totally unbelievable pseudo-facts. Most of them had A perspective that centered around the Judeo-Christian culture, but that is something one gets used to in the current world... Until I started hitting the juicy stuff...

One of those videos has the title of "the light behind masonry" where a guy called "Bill Schnoebelen" explain masonry (supposedly he was a mason of very high degrees). From the start, he tries to make masonry look like a satanic worship (for all I know it could be), so I watch (I have been intrigued by masonic practice for years now), until he starts saying things that went contrary to things I know very well. He said the Muslims had an efficient way to convert souls, and that it was putting a scimitar above somebody's head, then ask him to convert, and if he said no, cut his head... he then went into explaining why Islam has the moon as a symbol, and said that the god of Islam, Allah (by the way, Allah is Arabic for "The God" as it is very simply using the article "al" in front of the word "Ilah" which means god), was not God. "Allah was the moon, a rock" he exclaimed!

It is actually interesting that a guy that thinks he has both a high intellect and first hand knowledge can be so cavalier... It is even more interesting that he tries very hard to make it "Judeo-Christians" against "Mahometans"... The problem is that the only relation between Islam and the moon is the calendar. Islam uses a lunar calendar. Well, Judaism uses a mixed solar and lunar calendar. does that make the god of the bible (the Judeo-Christian god) an offspring of a star and a rock ?

Actually, the most interesting aspect of the whole series of videos, is that it has actually given me a much more positive impression of the masons, and more astonishingly, of the illuminati (if they actually exist)... In almost all of the videos, they are globalists, thriving to achieve global world government! How can this be the evil plan ? more balance in the world, with less privilege to the west? I would call that great good, or alternatively, morality... These are supposed to be a few evil people, conspiring to achieve what I would call a more just world!!! and what is the downside? they are not preaching Christianity the way he wants them to!!!

Off course I don't give much credit to any of that stuff, but my only worry about masons has always been that they seem to be a secret society of the powerful, giving them more opportunity to network and be even more powerful... If all they're doing is trying to make the world a more just place, then long live conspiracy! and long live masonry!

   I promised I will be telling stories about Cairo, so here it goes ...

    Sleeping by the Pharo's tomb: Patrick, Cigdem, Shiraz and I were down inside the Mycerinus pyramid, and there was a nice guide showing us around the sarcophagus and treasures room. Before going back up, they all tipped the guide (I must confess, I was a bit miserly on that one). The guy was so happy with the tipps, and was telling us if there was anything else he could do for us … Well, Patrick asked if we could sleep by the toumb, and I seconded his joke … off course, everybody laughed and we left. Later on that day, Patrick found out he had made a mistake while tipping the guide, and gave him more than he thought he did. So we figured we had a good start on bribing him into letting us sleep by the tomb … Maybe next time, who knows ?

   Can I have some Hummus please ? on Sunday, Steven was going crazy about Hummus, and not accepting to have been in Cairo for more than 24 hours without having it. The problem is that we were at an Indian Restaurant at the Oberoi hotel in Giza (close to the pyramids). So he kept asking for Hummus, and they kept telling him again and again that this was an Indian Restaurant. Since he wouldn't stop asking for Hummus (which is simply the arabic word for Chick Peas), they brought that bowl with Chick Peas in a sauce ...

    Cigdem’s pyramids : The first day, when we went to the pyramids in Giza, we didn’t really buy any souvenirs (except for the perfumes I will talk about later on). When we (I believe it was Cigdem, Patrick and I) went to Memphis and Sakkara on Tuesday, she needed to get some presents for family and friends, and was looking at pyramids. She finally closed a nice deals on some small pyramids, and since she thought she got a nice deal, she took two sets of three pyramids each. Later on the same day, at Khan El Khalili (After the closing session at MDC), she was thinking she would need more presents, and spontaneously started thinking of getting more pyramids … after strolling about a certain number of shops, she finally found one that had the same pyramids she had bought in the morning, but they wouldn’t sell them to her for the same price. There came Stephen, who started to bargain for her. To make the story short, he started, at one point, to propose a Yukon DVD for the pyramids, and the shop owner refused. Well, it was a great laugh, and Cigdem got her 3 new sets of 3 pyramids each (I joked about her using them as Lego pieces) …

   The American selling souvenirs at Khan El Khalili : this story actually started when Stephen started to bargain for the rest of the gang. At one shop, he started (again) to offer Yukon and Whidbey DVDs for souvenirs, and while squeezing the shop owner so much on the prices, the guy simply told him that he would like to see him selling the stuff and whether he would still be talking about the same prices (I spare you some details that I have to sensor, both to avoid wrath from Steven, and because this blog is not adult only content …). Anyway, here is Steven selling the souvenirs, trying to get the walkers by to buy his stuff, and making the bargaining a blast … one great moment was when another shop owner (or so he said) stopped by, and Steven offered him a Yukon DVD for his entire shop (we never saw the shop or even knew if it existed), and the guy accepted …

   Party to Damascus: Throughout the trip, Steven has been evangelizing … a song. He finally got both me and Goksin singing it with him. So let’s all hum together : Its Official, Raise Your Glasses, We’re Gonna Party to Damascus …

That is just part of the story, and I will probably be blogging about Cairo for quite some time ...

What is the Sphinks looking at (the credits go to my friend Patrick Hynds for thinking of it)

Pizza Hut and KFC ...

MDC04 is over, and it was a great conference, and a very warm atmosphere for all of us speakers.

One great thing about conferences is the get together, and on this one, my good friends Stephen, Cigdem, Goksin and Patrick were here, and I made new Friends ... and that certainly keeps the level of suckiness very low ...

We were a nice gang of RDs and Microsoft People out here in Cairo. Stephen Forte , Patrick Hynds, Goksin Bakir, Cigdem, Lee, Shiraz and I formed a happy gang, that did most of our visiting and shopping together. I have quite a few stories to tell, and I'll catch up with them as soon as I get back home. But to keep suspens high (and to have a checklist to help me not forget anything), I have stories about sleeping by the Pharo's toumb in the pyramid, the american selling souvenirs in a shop in Khan El Khalili, Cigdem's pyramids, the whidbey barter, partying to damascus, public bargains, and other things as well ...

That was not a challenge, was it ?