June 19, 2011 – AhMedia احا صحافه

MY FATHER WAS AN AVERAGE MAN, WITH A BRILLIANT MIND!

My dad was a small petite man, with an enormous nose and sharp piercing small eyes; he wasn’t a heavy-handed, intimidating father figure. However, he believed that to survive raising a large family of 10 on $7 monthly salary, you needed to be vigilant in reconstructing our family values.
First, to put our house in order, he gave us character-based nicknames; our original Arabic names had been either those of a prophet or a servant of God, Muhammed, Ahmed, Abdelraffe, Aabdellnasser, Abdelaal, etc… didn’t reflect who we really are, so I became the Sursarah, the small cockroach; my mom was Walad, one of the boys; the skinny one was Feseekhah, dried fish; the enigmatic one was Brovdaah (I still have no idea what it means); the oldest was Abul-ossi, the father of sticks; then, the comfort-seeker was Oomdah, the mayor; the youngest was Hando’ah, the cutie; and my only sister was Al-arousah, the beautiful bride.
He wasn’t a religious, zealous man; he was what you could call a moral relativist. He would quietly pray the mandatory five daily prayers without lecturing us. He would tell us biblical stories to spread his moral ploys; each story would have a disguise message made to shape our outlook on life. The prophet said: to sleep hungry is to be merry, he would say when one asked for late meal. “The Hebrew people got lost in Sinai for 40 years, you know” he reminds us when we drifted to our ways, and if you don’t listen to his advise he would say “Well suite yourself but remember; Noah’s son didn’t make it ” .
He was a frugal man; to my dad, consumption was an evil state of depletion. Nothing terrified him more than one of us breaking into the kitchen to snack before mealtime. It was a violation of house golden rules. He even developed a home security sound-code alert system reflecting the level of threat to any domestic consumption around the house. Regardless of where he was, he managed to monitor and sense what was going on in our kitchen even in his sleep. Clearing his throat was a special warning alarm to alert us to his level of annoyance. He would clear his throat once if you broke into the kitchen, twice, for opening the refrigerator, and three “ahems” meant don’t touch that cold watermelon.
A conservationist before it became fashionable; He would walk around the house turning off radios, stoves, electricity and shut windows— as his daily mission to defeat ominous waste.
Reusing old stuff around the house for him was a divine resurrection ritual. Eating questionable leftover food was his small triumph over the tyrant of the decaying process. Sending the mail in used envelopes was his personal signature, reusing old batteries even for just a few minutes was magical, and for him, nothing was ever too precious for him to be wrapped in scraps of old newspaper.
My dad was an average man who never wanted to be a hero, he passed away a few years back and finally is resting in a divine place where there isn’t much to do or to say— the way he always wanted, god bless you dad.

Ahmed Tharwat/ Public Speaker
Producer/Host of the Arab American TV Show Belahdan
Minnetonka, MN
Blog at: ahmediatv.com

My dad was an average man..!!

The American people have seen enough Muslims behaving badly all over the world; Saddam, Gaddafi, Assad, Ossam, Hezbollah, Zarqawi, Nidal and with the American administration illusive war on terrorism crusade; this list gets longer by the day. American people in a dire need for a reasonable Muslim, a man who taught me everything I needed to know about life, without ever sitting down and talking with me about life; Please meet my dad. My dad was a small petite man, with a big nose and sharp piercing small eyes; he wasn’t a heavy-handed, intimidating father figure. However, he believed that to survive raising a large family of 10 on $7 monthly salary, you needed to be vigilant in reconstructing our family values.
First, to put our house in order, he gave us character-based nicknames; our original Arabic names had been either those of a prophet or a servant of God, Muhammed, Ahmed, Abdelraffe, Aabdellnasser, Abdelaal, etc… didn’t reflect who we really are, so I became the Sursarah, the small cockroach; my mom was Walad, one of the boys; the skinny one was Feseekhah, dried fish; the enigmatic one was Brovdaah (I still have no idea what it means); the oldest was Abul-ossi, the father of sticks; then, the comfort-seeker was Oomdah, the mayor; the youngest was Hando’ah, the cutie; and my only sister was Al-arousah, the beautiful bride.
He wasn’t a religious zealous man; he was what you could call a moral relativist. He would quietly pray the mandatory five daily prayers without lecturing us. He would tell us biblical stories to spread his moral ploys; each story would have a disguise message made to shape our outlook on life. The prophet said: to sleep hungry is to be merry, he would say when one asked for late meal. “The Hebrew people got lost in Sinai for 40 years, you know” he reminds us when we drifted to our ways, and if you don’t listen to his advise he would say “Well suite yourself but remember; Noah’s son didn’t make it ” .
He was a frugal man; to my dad, consumption was an evil state of depletion. Nothing terrified him more than one of us breaking into the kitchen to snack before mealtime. It was a violation of house golden rules. He even developed a home security sound-code alert system reflecting the level of threat to any domestic consumption around the house. Regardless of where he was, he managed to monitor and sense what was going on in our kitchen even in his sleep. Clearing his throat was a special warning alarm to alert us to his level of annoyance. He would clear his throat once if you broke into the kitchen, twice, for opening the refrigerator, and three “ahems” meant don’t touch that cold watermelon.
A conservationist before it became fashionable; He would walk around the house turning off radios, stoves, electricity and shut windows— as his daily mission to defeat ominous waste.
Reusing old stuff around the house for him was a divine resurrection ritual. Eating questionable leftover food was his small triumph over the tyrant of the decaying process. Sending the mail in used envelopes was his personal signature, reusing old batteries even for just a few minutes was magical, and for him, nothing was ever too precious for him to be wrapped in scraps of old newspaper.
My dad was an average man who never wanted to be a hero, he passed away a few years back and finally is resting in a divine place where there isn’t much to do or to say— the way he always wanted, god bless you dad.

Ahmed Tharwat/ Public Speaker
Producer/Host of the Arab American TV Show Belahdan
Minnetonka, MN
Blog at: ahmediatv.com

King Tut is visiting America

Tahrir spirit didn’t reach MN Science Museum
This Sunday I visited King Tut exhibit at MN Science Museum, St. Paul. As you approach the exhibit gate, the deep authoritative voice of Harrison Ford demanded , “to enter the golden world of the pharoses”, King Tut exhibit US tour, in our drive through culture gives some Americans a snapshots on, as the deep voice of Mr. Ford at the gate tells us, “the riches of royal life in Egypt more than 3,000 years ago”, the exhibit organizers done a great job of that, great lighting, reverent display of the King, to the point I almost tolerated the repugnant Zahi Hawass ‘the supreme council of Egyptian antiquity” as his title in the video flashes, grandstanding lectures and presentation, even his English lecture was subtitled which I think won’t go well with the darling of American media Mr. Hawass, the only spokesperson for Egyptian antiquity for last 20 years. exhibit lighting and the displays, the attention giving to every details is breathtaking, which incidentally much reverence than what Dr. Hawass himself is giving Egyptian antiquities back home, and specially at Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Which looks like a warehouse? At the end of the visit, as you are leaving the exhibit, you are forced through an IKEA style exit into their gift shop, no way out, only to find the 3000 of experience transformed into a Mickey Mouse experience, where the shelves fare full of King Tut paper masks, hats, plastic rings, T—Shirts and other marketing memorabilia. No deep voice talking to you at the gift shop, only young volunteers looking pretty and smiling. But what almost turned me to a Mummy instantly was, as I’m trying to avoid the commercialization of 3000 years history, I spotted at the front of the exhibit a live side poster of Dr. Hawass the modern Egyptian Pharaoh , with his famous American cowboy hat, standing next to a disclaimer that claims all funds generated from the exhibit will be giving to Suzanne Mubarak Children Museum. Only another take confirmed what I just read, Suzanne Mubarak. Have the folks at MN Science Museum heard of the Egyptian revolution and the Arab Spring, haven’t they realized that, Dr. Hawass and Miss Mubarak wear allegedly accused of looting Egyptian treasure and wealth, Miss Mubarak herself had to give back $25m that was donated to the Alexandra library by the international community that she pocketed into her personal account to be let go out of jail, she still under investigation. Dr. Hawass was sent to one year in prison, (bending appeal now), and is accused of using his close association with the Mubarak family to accumulate wealth and fame, according to most Egyptians he is an opportunistic at best and the dictator of Egyptian antiquities at worst, as FP magazine reported “ …In a separate scandal, several Egyptian publications are claiming that Hawass used priceless artifacts in the Egyptian museum’s collection for a photo shoot to promote his fashion line. The photos, seen here, show a model appearing to sit in Tutankhamun’s chair and leaning on frescoes”. There was a revolution in Egypt where millions of Egyptians went to street, put their lives on the line to red Egypt of 30 years of Mubarak dictatorial rotten regime, and here is the MN Science Museum in alliance with National Geographic bringing them back painful memories, ignoring the fact that King Tut Exhibit, the golden Egyptian antiquity treasure is brought to you by the biggest looters of Egyptian Antiquity., Dr. Hawass and Miss Mubarak. I sent a letter to the Science Museum PR department bringing their attention to this clausal misjudgment, they kindly and promptly responded and assured me they are working on changing the sigh and the names. According to Science Museum website, Dr. Hawass came to town to “ … presents… “Egypt Past and Present” on Friday, June 10, 8 p.m. at the Fitzgerald Theater, this is an insult to the millions of Egyptians who revolted and toppled the Mubarak’s regime, and his cronies one of which is Dr. Hawass. The Tahrir Square spirit toppled the Mubarak of of Egypt, we need to topple the Mubarak of Egyptian antiquities. I called on all Egyptians Americans and freedom lovers for protest rally during his presentation, (https://www.facebook.com/events/create.php?eid=228834337128683) lots of people contacted Sconce Museum to ask for cancelling the Mubarak of Antiquities presentation, their I call on MN Science Museum and national Geographic to bring Tahrir spirit to their Exhibit and give the same attention and respect they give to dead Egyptians to the new Egypt and live Egyptians.
Update;
On the morning of June 10th, the day of his presentation I received a call form Dr. Hawass himself the king of Antiquates ask if who could speak with me, he was very generous and personal, he inquired about the rally and our concern, I asked him if he would be willing to speak on camera for a one on one interview, he immediately accepted. I went to the Fitzgerald Theater where he is speaking that night. The security there was unprecedented, around and inside the theater, Mark Leach, Senior Vice President of Arts & Exhibitions Internationale introduced himself, he was edgy and nervous, he took me to a backstage dressing room, Dr. Hawass came a few minutes later, he was energetic and enthusiastic. I greeted him with worm smile, I conducted my interview while security in the room. Dr. Hawass was controversial, pompous, contradictory, his use of English still limiting, he uses language that at time inappropriate, something like “Those Ass whole} the interview is posted entirely on my YouTube channel, and in this blog. After the interview, he invited me to attend his presentation, I was given 3 VIP tickets in a private Box, I know I shouldn’t accept gift from my subjects, but this was the only chance to cover his presentation, the theater was almost full, people wear lining up to sign his book, he was introduced as a rock star, people were fascinated by his entertaining style, kids adored him, his grandiose, self promoting is astonishing, the 1:30 Hour presentation was mostly about himself, his discoveries,and his celebrity friends… that night, the old King Tut was overshadowed by the New King…. Zahi Hawass,

Ahmed Tharwat/ public speaker, Host
Arab American TV show

BeAlhdan
Airs every Saturday on MN public TV

Contact MN Science Museum Media Relations
pr@smm.org
(651) 221-9423 or (651) 221-9412
and Public Radio

By e-mail:
fitzgerald@mpr.org

ALdostor Newspaper reports that he left Egypt far of prosecution… click
http://www.dostor.org/culture/news/11/june/11/44830
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