Earth Hour. And although I would like to look at the brighter side of things — pun intended — I find it increasingly difficult to appreciate a cause that revolves around hype. I am not here to say Earth Hour is nothing but a social movement; on the contrary, I do believe in the cause. The faith I lack is in how people would maintain their commitment to the cause a long time after the lights are back on.After #EarthHour is over, it will be just like Iftar in #Ramadan: binge consumption.— Kinan Jarjous (@jarofjuice) March 31, 2012And herein lies the problem: we want to feel part...

It’s almost 1 AM, and I sit at my desk at loss of words for what I want to write. A maelstrom of thoughts storm in my mind, leaving me confused and battered as the ebbs of the day sail me to long hours of introspection. This is not a post for me to talk about these political movements that are shaping our world. Nor am I going to talk about how, every day, I feel there is something bigger out there for me to do, to discover, and to shed light on. This time, there will be no rants about nonsense that bothers me every day. And there will be no talk on the meaning of life or uncovering The...

Last Christmas, I put myself up for a challenge to write out and custom-make all the Christmas greeting cards I’d be sending out. I had a good idea on what to do: for every person I would be sending out a card to, I would draw, using graphite, on the card and handwrite a message on the back and/or handwrite a letter along with it. What I learned from the experience — other than the letters occupied wider space and have become more ornate since I stopped writing in my journal — is that not only is it rewarding (oh, the joys of handwriting a long essay!) but it is more personal,...

Here’s the thing about being human: we love bullshitting ourselves. Admit it: how many monologues have you had in an attempt to justify your actions, your fears, your success, your habits, or anything else? And how many times have those monologues changed in direction in the span of a day, or an hour?A few days ago, I was driving to work and part of my regular route takes me through the formerly-dreadful roundabout on Al-Khail road, which was jammed in traffic. The culprit turned out to be dead traffic lights, giving everyone authority over the road and resulting in a semi-deadlock.That...

I did it. Finally. After months and months of complaining about social media — and this is from someone who works in the media industry — I decided to put my cynical self to the test and deprive myself of everything digital (with the exception of WhatsApp, which serves to be my SMS app replacement). And what better time to begin with my experiment than when I went back home to Syria before Ramadan, the place where I usually unplug from the online world? With your run-of-the-mill social networking applications hardly accessible, self-control and restraint should have been easy.Should have...