Hamas to pay victims of Gaza war

Hamas says more than 20,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in Israel’s Gaza offensive [AFP] Hamas is set to hand out money to Gazans afflicted by Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip. The territory’s government was due to start giving out the money, expected to total about $45m, on Sunday - a day after a Hamas committee was established to oversee relief efforts. Ahmed al-Kurd, the Hamas-appointed minister of social affairs, also heads the National High Committee for Relief which will distribute the money to those who lost family members or their homes. “It will be the only body to oversee and supervise the rescue. We will be in contact with all other bodies, whether local, national or international, to organise the relief,” al-Kurd said. Re-building Gaza Al-Kurd did not say how Hamas had raised the funds for the Strip, which has been under a strict blockade since the group took control of Gaza in June 2007. “We are a government that is in charge of all of Gaza,” he said. “The ministries have budgets, they have funds, just like in the rest of the countries of the world.” Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for Gaza’s de facto government, said that Hamas would grant €1,000 ($1,300) for the family of each “martyr” killed in the three-week-long conflict earlier in the month and €500 ($650) to for each one of those injured. He also said that Hamas would pay €4,000 ($5,200) for each family whose house has been completely demolished. He said that more than 20,000 Palestinian houses have been either completely demolished or partially damaged during the war. More than 1,330 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli offensive, which Israel says was aimed at stemming rocket and mortar fire from Gaza. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians were also killed. ‘Death by blockade’ Both sides declared unilateral ceasefires last Sunday and Israel completed its withdrawal from the territory on Wednesday. Al-Kurd would not specify the role the relief committee would play in rebuilding efforts in the battered territory, but demanded the lifting of Israel’s blockade of the Strip and the reopening of Gaza’s border crossings. “From now on we will not accept a slow death by blockade. We sacrificed in this war … and we did not sacrifice our youth to return to square one.” The Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has said that it should lead the reconstruction efforts, which it said would require about $1.9bn in aid. Abbas’s Fatah group were pushed from Gaza in June 2007 when Hamas took control of the Strip. Al Jazeera – English

Why Screen Savers can be really helpful!

Well, if you are checking weird stuff at your work computer make sure that you have a good screen saver, log out or Screen lock system when you go to the bathroom …. Sometimes it is really embarssing if you leave your monitor looking like what it looks in the picture. Moose, we know that you were not checking porn!

Psapp – Monster song

iSlim!

It is getting more frightening on how the gadgets are trimming their baby fat and they are going Slim and Lite (PSP & DS) … the new iPod Nano fits in between my keyboard buttons, frankly, it is fantastic, but it doesn’t have ANY weight which is scary a little! a guy like me who is used to BULK MASS of stuff (Fat PSP, Gamecube, SonyEricsson) is finding his way into the trimmed slim market of false media: Nintendo DS Lite, iPod Nano, PS2 Slim.

So it is a relief at least … it is not only the people who are obsessed with their sizes but also their gadgets who want to feel like a celeb as well!

On the brighter side, by the way, The Nano is awesome! i got tired after stuffing it with 300 songs and it is 8gb i need to stuff good stuff in it, also there is the cool games, Audiobook, Podcasts, Movies, Photos … On the down side, the wheel is not as great as i thought the older iPod felt like, it is good, but not great in gaming for example, The EQ is just BS … it doesn’t really do anything! Photos are a hussle to upload, you have to sync your folder to your Nano .. a time has to come when people won’t need the stupid iTunes to manage their iPods! seriously, iTunes is the next ugliest thing after Windows Media Player …. God bless VLC!

So yes, it is slim and VERY Slick, you might need to consider your deal if you are the violent physical type, it is not for you then, it is very feminine in look, not that it is a bad thing, but it is not the Cool Zune (i said something good about Microsoft, ew!), Apple borrowed the Sony Ericsson Shake to shuffle idea, and threw the iPhone Slide the Screen eye candy … So in General it is a nice player (for your room, docked, attached somewhere!)

Crazy wheel Painting

Have we established yet that we (at Near east media) is a bunch of crazy whacked up silly people who can talk about mostly anything and do crazy stuff … and even get them published!? i think so.

So for the newest Torque Magazine issue, Mirza thought that it is a cool idea to do a painting with a remote controlled car; we all jumped in joy, YES, that is whacky! Farah and i went searching for a big sheet to paint on in the basement, and while waiting for the door key, we enjoyed a little game of mini football, i won! an hour later we were all up the roof having fun with a small car and loads of paint! what a joy!

You can see the metamorphosis from the Torque word to a monkey face in blue and red, the car is still in a good shape though, but we’d like to annouce a bid for the drawing and the car (the car is just annoying in coffee breaks) but the painting is utterly awesome and if you do not get it someone will frame it soon and tell his friends “guess who (what) drew that painting?” …. She will be like “Beethoven!” _of course she hangs out with the wrong people alot!- .

If you have cool whacked up wicked ideas let me know, we would love to be the excutors of free thinking anytime anywhere.

Peace yo.

The Original pickled people are back

What happened to be a cool fad of the 80’s is back, god we are so lame we can not even start our own fads and crazes we go back retro everytime we want to be cool.

Anyway, Tamara at the office got this from London (I guess) which is a cool jar with pickled faces in it, it is VERY funny and cool, you can make people laugh when you show them this!

Shit, i am colored!

Yes, we all do the singing in the bathroom, it is not fun to “get it out” if you do not really get it out.

Say what you need to say

Another great YouTube cover by Boyce Avenue for John Mayer’s SAY.

Little voices from Gaza (2)

These kids’ lives won’t be the same again ever, as the Israeli invasion has taken away from them their beloved ones and left them with sorrow and misery for the rest of their lives, or maybe as in Mria’s case, they took her ability to move around as she is full paralyzed and now her father is fighting for her right to be medically treated at an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem.

It makes me think: Is there a god in this universe? and if there is a one: is he looking and smirking at what is going on? maybe we have a sadistic “god” after all who enjoyes playing “dolls” with us. At the end of the day, these kids will look up to the sky and pray to that god, but, will he listen?

Little Voices from Gaza

We are living a very sad dark era for mankind!

If you know Arabic then you will know understand this Refugee kid in Gaza explaining the bad situation his people and him are going through, and if you do not know Arabic please read the translation script i wrote for you below:

“Let everyone see our situation and our “children” how they are scattered in the classes; sitting only on the tiles with no food, water and electricity. Is this a life? this is a siege! this is the biggest siege, this is the greatest siege -for Israel-.

I say, look, look at us how we are living here, thrown out, we don’t play, laugh, learn or watch cartoons! I switch the TV on and the only thing i see is funerals, shooting, death , tanks,war and invasion, there are no Kids shows to amuse me or learn from them, no cartoons, no games, nothing amusing. It’s all funerals: carrying martyrs or shooting around.

We are here without any food, water (drinks). There is nothing here! we are cast out here like dirty beggars. Look at other people (nations) how they are happy, laughing and having fun. We’ve been under siege for about two years so far, we don’t eat, we don’t drink, and no one is doing anything for us, “they” won’t open the borders for us to let food and stuff to get to us.”