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...

I won’t be discussing politics here but what caught my attention while reading this article on the Washington Post is that a few good men have pledged to marry the women who have been recently raped (the point of who is the rapist is not my point of discussion). “It made us so mad. Such an injustice. We have decided, we will marry them,” said Ibrahim Kayyis, a 32-year-old baker from Jisr al-Shugour, a town that was stormed by troops. To reclaim their “honor,” families in Syria have been known to kill raped female members. Even if families allow such women to live, they are...

I remember in 97 when I was in NYC, often I was asked if I would like to have tap water or bottled water. Even when watching shows, I see people filling in water from the tap, and often wondered why the hell would someone do that. Then again when I was in Saudi I knew exactly where our water came from – we used to fill an underground well in our villa and I knew exactly how that well looked like from the inside. Though we had it cleaned and painted and sterilized, it remained a well and the trees and plants in the garden always found their way to penetrate through. So for me tap...

Scammers have come a long way since Nigerian business lords or headless limbless orphans looking for that $1 donation by Microsoft. They’ve now hit the Facebook Marketplace! Here is the listing: As you can see it’s too good to be true. And indeed, it is. They’ve hit the consumer’s soft spot – those shiny, exorbitantly expensive Apple products – and offering them for a very good price. They’ve listed their email for further inquiries (a .org) and I sent them an email. I thought they may harvest my email but took the little risk anyway. They...

I just got this from my friend. If you’re in the UAE it would be great to join: Subject: help package 50,000 basic school kits and 50,000 hygiene kits for the Children of Gaza Dubai Cares is joining a united front of UAE-based relief and charitable organizations to pledge humanitarian assistance and mobilize the UAE community to help the children of Gaza. There are approximately 275,000 students of primary school age in Gaza and Dubai Cares is asking for your help to support them in this time of need. Here’s how you can help. Dubai Cares is currently recruiting volunteers to...