Last night(wednesday) I went to the Kuwait Advertising Awards. There is so much I can complain and nag about the night, such as how unorganized it was.

First, invitations said 6pm. Apparently, they meant come at 6 and wait in the hall standing up, before we let you in, where you have to find your seats… which oh by the way, there might not be seats for you, since a lot of people who showed up weren’t invited.

Second, we had to suffer through major production issues such as sound not working, dvd getting stuck, music at the wrong times, blinding lights, major spelling mistakes, and even wrong naming winning companies.

Third, several agencies apparently submitted work thats over 3 years old. We were told that you can only submit work thats two years old, whereas I found out from one agency today that they were told they can only submit work from 2004. Anyways, I was surprised to find extremely old ads, as well as extremely new ads, ads that were released after agencies submitted their work to the Kuwait Advertising Awards.

These are stuff I can think about now on the top of my head… its almost 2 am …

Anyways, bad organization, bad production, and questioning nominations = KAA

I was chatting with a friend in Lebanon who is off work today because it’s Lebanon’s Independence day and out of curiosity she asked me when was Kuwait’s Independence day and I told her February 25th. She asked who Kuwait became independent from and I informed her the British. THEN she asked me what year Kuwait became independent, and I couldn’t remember so i googled it only to find the following:

Day of independence: June 19, 1961 (independence from Britain).
February 25, 1950 is however celebrated as the National holiday.

So let me get this straight… National day isn’t independence day? Kuwait doesn’t celebrate independence day? What is national day?

On the sixth day, God turned to the Angels and said: “Today, I am going to create a land called Lebanon, it will be a land of outstanding natural beauty. It shall have tall majestic mountains full of snow, beautiful sparkling lakes cutting forests full of all kinds of trees, high cliffs overlooking sandy beaches with an abundance of sea life.”

God continued, “I shall make the land rich so to make the inhabitants prosper, I shall call these inhabitants Lebanese, and they shall be known as the most friendly people on earth.” “But Lord”, asked the Angels, “don’t you think you are being too
generous to the Lebanese? “Not really”, replied God, “just wait and see the neighbors I am going to give them!”

This is an oldie but I love it because it really has some truth to it.

General Facts:

1) Lebanese society is one of mutual imitation.

1.1) In Lebanon, everybody is observing you and you are observing everybody else.

1.2) In Lebanon, people don’t go out to have a good time - they go out to show the community that they’re having a good time.

1.3) In Lebanon, people don’t buy goods because they like them, but because they think other people like them.

1.4) In Lebanon, fashion and collective hysteria coincide.

1.5) In Lebanon, incapacity to keep up with your neighbors’ level of consumption relegates a human being to nothingness or otherness (see Hegel on otherness).

1.6) A Lebanese will go into debt to buy something he doesn’t need in order to impress people he doesn’t like.

Civil Wars:

2) Some historical Lebanese civil wars: The I-have-a-more-expensive-cellular-than-you wars, The I-have-more-Sri-Lanki-maids-than-you wars, The I-have-a-new-Mercedes wars, The My-Leather-Jacket-is-better-than-yours wars.

Lebanese Contributions to Ethics:

3) A Lebanese has the right to break the law if he sees others breaking the law.

3.1) A Lebanese has the right to throw garbage out of a car window if he sees others throwing garbage from a car’s window.

3.2) A Lebanese has the right to smoke in a non-smoking area if he sees others smoking in a non-smoking area.

3.3) A Lebanese knows that it is acceptable to bribe officials when he sees others bribing officials.

3.4) A Lebanese has the right to run a red light if he sees others running a red light.

The Lebanese Constitution:

4) A politician will always pass power to his eldest son.

4.1) A politician will always give his family and his followers government jobs.

4.2) Because of an outside conspiracy unrelated to 4.1, Lebanon has the highest rate of useless public servants in this part of the universe.

4.3) A politician has a duty to enter into conflicts of interest.

4.4) A Lebanese will always vote for a candidate from his village even if he knows that he is a corrupt idiot.

4.5) A Lebanese politician will always promise to fight corruption.

Lebanese Modern Culture:

5) Lebanese modern culture is about conformity to Western ideals and the careful removal of every bit of national originality.

5.1) A Lebanese feels superior to other Lebanese if the goods he consumes do not come from Lebanon.

5.2) A Lebanese has an inherent contempt for everything his country produces.

Poverty and the Class System:

6) In Lebanese society, contempt for the poor is metaphysical.

6.1) The Lebanese class system is fluid and based on the monetary worth of the individual, as a result:

6.2) The Lebanese differentiate themselves very rigidly from those they consider as being part of the lower class.

6.3) In courtship, a Lebanese man will use a woman’s poverty as a bargaining chip.

6.4) A Lebanese woman feels insulted if a poorer man asks her out.

6.5) Lebanese society has a caste system in terms of nationalities: Sri Lankans are somewhere on the bottom level, but slightly above garbage, whereas the French are slightly below God.

6.6) A Lebanese will treat a world-renowned Nobel winning Pakistani astrophysicist as garbage and will kiss the foot of a French imbecile (if he happens to have a nice Parisian accent).

Conspiracy:

7) Every single thing wrong in Lebanon is caused by an outside conspiracy.

7.1) A Lebanese is not responsible for the massacres during the civil war even when he was the one doing the shooting.

7.2) Members of Lebanese society will condemn confessionalism as practiced by other confessions, while cheerfully practicing it with other confessions.

7.3) It is always their fault.

Lebanese Superiority:

8) The Lebanese are superior.

8.1) Did you know that Shakespeare was actually Lebanese? (Sheikh Zbeir)

8.2) Did you know that the Lebanese invented the alphabet (and not those slightly-above-garbage morons from the Indian sub-continent)?

8.3) The Lebanese have an inborn knowledge of every single subject in the universe, including medicine and philosophy.

8.4) Every single Lebanese is a board-certified doctor.

8.5) Any Lebanese will prescribe you antibiotics, anti-depressants and sleeping pills if you ask them nicely.

8.6) Because of an outside conspiracy unrelated to 8.5, Lebanon has one of the highest rates of medicinal drug addiction in the world.

8.7) A Lebanese becomes a philosopher after he reads “The Prophet” by K. Gibran.

8.8) “The Prophet” is the second greatest book in history just after the Bible. Did you know that Gibran was Lebanese?

Marriage:

9) A Lebanese man will never marry a woman if she is not a virgin.

9.1) A Lebanese woman will never have sex with a man if she thinks that he is marriage material.

9.2) Unrelated to 9.1, all Lebanese men’s wives were virgins before marriage.

9.3) The marriage of a woman is the affair of the whole extended family and of the neighbors.

9.4) Pressure on a woman to get married is applied by the whole extended family and the neighbors.

9.5) An unmarried woman with a Ph.D. is a failure.

The reason I haven’t posted in days is to allow this “phase” I am going through to pass. Unfortunately, it hasn’t and I feel like I am going to blow up. Everything was going just fine, more than fine, in everything in my life. I must have jinxed myself.

I worked so hard to get to where I am today. I did enjoy the serenity and calmness for a couple of months, and when I realized things have become stable and it’s time to bring myself forward and make some changes, problems started occurring. Some problems were forced on me whilst other problems, I created myself.

I remained content since I knew I still have my job to enjoy but since I came in this morning, all I have been facing at work are frustrating obstacles. I am sick of cleaning other peoples messes. I had planned a day during which I can accomplish some real good work instead I got stuck fighting with clients and colleagues.

I have even considered keeping things in my life as they are just so that I won’t deal with the problems but I am also sick of being passive about things. I have been told to be patient but I have been patient a long time for several reasons.

Because of the way I feel I have started to vent out on people on things I would not vent out before. My nerves and anger need to be controlled a lot more but I simply am tired.