Episode 16 - is it for real?


Recoded: aug 2007
Locations: istanbul, turkey; amman, jordan; the israel/jordan border; jerusislam, tel aviv, jaffa, israel
Tags: august penguin day, dotan mazor, matan kaminer, eldad brin, the dome of the rock, jerusialm, hair cut
Music: The City Awakes by stefsax and Revolve by His Boy Elroy
About: on my way through the middle-east, i found my self in isreal with a real hankering for falafel and in a desperate need of a haircut... i hope you enjoy!
THANK YOU: dotan mazor, matan kaminer, dana gordon, iddo dror, adylin luckle, ...and the family of luckles..., eldad brin, shachar shemesh, the person who invented falafel, judas, the romans, moses, mohammed, jesus, mary, mom & dad

day 40. live from the holy city

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pinch me

day 39. planning for day 40.

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245195609 5Fe5169Bfe M forty days. yikes! frankly, i'm surprised that i still have my sanity...

speaking of sanity, i called up the indian embassy in ciaro and they told me it take five days to process visas. so, knowing reality to be somewhat a figment of consciousness, i'm not worrying about my visa until i walk though a metal detector and finally sit down with someone.

if you are planning on doing something as insane as this venture. you have two options, one get an ambiguous visa while you are in the states, OR drop into the indian embassy in paris or london. both locations will expedite same day visas (or following day visas) if you are willing to pay twice the price.

despite these headaches, tomorrow i'm venturing into one of the craziest cities in the whole world. tomorrow, i'm heading to jerusalem...

don't misunderstand me. i'm calling the city crazy, not because of all of the religious zealots that flock annually... no, not because of them... i'm venturing to the "holy" city because it's one of the oldest cities in the world and the "old city" is smaller than a square mile.... oh and did i mention the all the small tiny streets?

oh and if that didn't wet your whistle, i'm looking forward to finding a bus to Bethlehem to experience this lovely "security fence." i really don't understand the whole thing... from my conversations with activist, matan kaminer, this issue is deeply rooted in economics.

from my conversations and terse research, the Ashkenazi jews have long oppressed the middle eastern jews and Palestinians (muslim and christian). let's not even get into the armenian and Moroccan side of things... 'cause, that really starts to blow my mind...

nonetheless, with a country that is the cradle to three of the world's largest religions... let alone, a town that is cradle to three of the world's largest religions... it's bound to be crazy. maybe i'm too secular. maybe i've long lost my faith in a specific religion, but one thing has emboldened my perspective from the past few days...

these "holy warriors" would love to have an iphone, ipod, imac, internet, youtube, air conditioning, power, clean water, transportation, education, the opportunity to travel and the ability to move freely. so many of the Israeli's whom i've come across live a comfortable middle class southern californian suburban lifestyle. from shopping mall to shopping mall, from strip mall to strip mall, from gas station to gas station... the modern israeli is no different than the community i was born into nor the midwestern community i grew up in.

hopefully, tomorrow i will get to see a different perspective.

Couchsurfing solicitation for accompaniment in the jerusalem-yerushalayim / israel groups.

(photo discovered on fejron's flickr feed but obviously stolen from somewhere else...)

day 34. join me into a journey of insecurity


today, i venture into the unexpected.









see you in israel...

Africa & Middle-East

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''My second continent is Africa, but i'll be passing through the middle east first. From Aug to September, I will bounce around looking to cover as much as possible. If you have something to add, please feel free!''

== '''Week 6''' ==
* '''9 - 15 Aug'''
* [ Tel Aviv]
* [ isreali open source community conference] - aug 10 (thanks Zohar Stolar)
* hang out with [ dotan mazor]

== '''Week 7, 8, 9''' ==
* '''19 Aug - 6 Sept''' [ Egypt], [ Cairo]
* '''Guide & Translator for the first week''' [ Omar Abdel Wahab]
* hang out with the guys and gals at [ OpenCraft]
* [ eglug] egyptian free/open source community
* [ mardini] - programmer and partner of OpenCraft
* [ manal and alaa] bloggers and drupal peeps
* [ Nora Younis] - activist, flickr'er and journalist
* [ Amr Gharbeia] - activist, programmer and translator
* [ Abdel-Monem Mahmoud] - activist blogger
* visit [ Khalid Baheyeldin] and his brother to discuss open source translations programs
* 25 Aug - [ open craft conversation] on drupal
* [ Great Pyramid of Giza]

=== '''Seas to Sail''' ===
* South Atlantic Ocean
* Indian Ocean


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