My attempts went unheeded to uncover with which a driver I went to Bethlehem

I moved back to Ramallah ... 

The camel in Jericho ... 

I grew up learning the Islamic narrative during our prophet Mohammad (PBUH)'s era. I touched upon how challenging the reality where he and his companions lived. This peaked when he showed the people his prophecy and the religious message that he excruciatingly got across to them. Some welcomed this message and believed in while other defiantly rejected attempting to prove its falsification. 

Our prophet didn't give up and set out on a long journey to Madina and sent his messengers abroad to show the Islamic message. 

At that time, the way the transportation used was remarkable. It was quite traditional as there was no kind of mechanical advancement. Therefore, camels were used to move to different areas inside and outside the Arab Peninsula. That image of the camel loaded with goods walking on the burning sand in the desert, became an inferential icon as a tool of transport and travel that our prophet (PBUH) took advantage of, and also Arabs, in general. 

Cartoon clarifies how camels were used to travel. Source:
Wikipedia

This, indeed, what I sew in our curriculum, a cartoon image shows a line of camels loaded with goods walking in the desert and people sitting on their curved backs driving them. This objectifies the lifestyle of Arabs until 20th where camels used to move across the desert given to their capabilities to walk for long distances and stamina; they can stay for much time without eating and drinking water. That's why it's called "the ship of the desert" in Arab societies. 

During my cultural exchange activities, I realized that there is a stereotypical image in the West that we in the Eastern Arab societies still use cames as a methods transport and live in tents. It stirred my attention up to uncover why do westerns thing so? And what do they think about riding camels?
I found out that their media outlets convey such stereotype to their peoples who end up thinking that Arabs still don't have technological advancement, no cars or other modern ways of transport. 
How come?! Aren't we in the 21st century where social media revolutionized databases making it accessible to all peoples around the globe?  Isn't this sufficient to see that there are even very luxurious cars in Arab countries being imported from the original companies? How funny!

A general scene of the camp, where shacks and barns

Anyhow, during 9-10th of this Jan, my German friend invited me to celebrate his 70th birthday with his friends from Germany in Auja, a small village in Jericho district, where we were hosted by a Bedouin family at camp, we slept over there and enjoyed our time chatting and narrating different stories. They cooked a dish of chickens and vegetables underground in a place called "Zarb." It's being heated up by burning firewood inside. 
I pondered the Bedouin nomadic lifestyle and how they manage everything. I had questions about their lives, circumstances, and other social issues. "It's the lifestyle that can't give up on one day. I grew up here and have spent my years here at this camp and in these shacks. So, I can't imagine how unbearable my life will be if I move to a cosmopolitan area away from this charming nature," said one of the residents.
I observed that children have responsibilities at the camp, too, they feed the cattle, take care of them, and organize the whole process under their family's supervision though they do so independently, which impressed me seeing them at this barn especially this cute kid who is estimated be at age of 3 watching his sister put the fodder into the iron pot for the cattle to come and eat it up, and hugging the little sheep. It's interesting that those children are learning to be responsible for their duties and developing stamina in order to overcome the challenging situation that the future doesn't give them a clear answer whether this situation would be easier or harsher as Bedouins have never had stability in their life, which restricted under the unsteady political status quo surrounding them.  

A girl and her little brother with the sheep at the barn

The next day, we had a tour in the Old quarter of Jericho that contains amazing monuments that go back to different civilizations long centuries ago. So, it's one of the oldest spots in the world that archaeological documents clarify. 
What I had unexpectedly is the chance to ride a camel that I had been looking for to do. It was my attempt to take a photo of me riding a camel and show it off that if it's considered something uncivilized or unadvanced to ride a camel instead of using a car, I would say, there is no problem using it and if it's really symbolizing our culture in the eye of the Westerns, I would say it's a proud.
Why not, every society has certain tangible items or things to do reflect their culture which is appraised. 

Me, riding the camel for a short distance 

Therefore, riding camels isn't a justification to stereotype or look down on a certain group. Our ancestors used animals to travel and even in the battles like horses, not only in the East but also, in the Wast.
By this, I want to show that every human society was established on various traditions are inherited from the ancestors who had managed their lives and social values accordingly. As a result, their grandsons maintain on as a valuable part of their identity. Even though camels aren't significantly used as a means of transport anymore due to the technological advancement, it still represents as an icon Arabs, especial in the Arabian Peninsula, perceive it as part of their heritage, which can't be discredited. 

The last day in 2018. What I have had in this going year?

Finally, this year has come to an end, and it´s an experience made me point out to the fact that our time is running swiftly without realizing it! I really feel that 2018 began yesterday and today is going to an end. 
How can we realize it? How can capitalize on each day without losing it? It´s like something in your fists but you can´t control it! This is my feeling though. 

What I remember during this year, days begin and after a short period, the end. 

I used to start my day with certain tasks and then find myself in the evening without a realization that the day has just ended. Sometimes I finished the tasks, while some tasks were time-consuming so that I needed more days to get them done. The lifestyle I had begun living years before and continued in 2018 is practiced within an atmosphere full of diversity that I used to live up to in my small world, my room. Even though this world is very small compared to what´s going on outside, I assure the possibility of being conversant with lots of matters around the world. 
World´s sociopolitical and cultural affairs made me preoccupied with to the degree I sometimes found myself shackled up by these affairs. Thus, my social relationships locally significantly declined, I no longer go to social occasions, like weddings, graduations ... etc. I observed that in 2018, just attended very few occasions and paid only some visits to relatives during religious holidays, and of course, parents, brothers, and sisters.  
In this matter, admittedly, I became really uninterested much in social integration anymore that 2018 experience showed to me. It´s the result of openness to the world that invaded my life. But, I can´t dwell upon the point that this isn´t an enjoyable experience, at all! In the end, I want to do things make me happy and my life easier. It´s life inherently full of task, duties, errands, and activities to move on with, to make it easy, to live it peacefully, and if there is a certain problem, it requires us to do these stuff to overcome and retrieve the state peace.

It´s our nature, human beings, we tend to live in peace or within a constant status of quietness and serenity. However, the evil power can´t be left out in our writings, as they tend to undermine this peace or that quietness. 

2018 was a year of hope for me, a year that I exerted strenuous efforts to make my dreams come true, no matter how much was accomplished as long as there are a solid hope and belief that everything will be attainable one day.

Meanwhile, and as a Palestinian blogger still living in Palestine, the surrounding socio-political troubles let me down and made me lose the hope frequently. However, the stuff I´m doing was like a weapon defended me against sometimes unbearable challenges. This pushed me to go through a "telepathy" process that stirred up by such questions kept hovering over my head, "Would I one day get out of this troubled realm?" Would I one day live within the status of quietness?" "Would I one day get rid of those obsessions that overwhelmed me due to long years of living within a social realm still struggling with social restrictions?"

It ´s a reality that I didn´t create, and I will not tend to contribute to creating, either. I was born within such a tense atmosphere. Therefore, I´m not guilty of what´s going on, it´s not my fault. It´s the tangible result of human beings´ conflicting orientations and ideologies that they believe in, which led them to create such a reality. Yes, it wasn´t my guilt to have been within such a realm.

2018, was a year that gave me the chance to explore new stunning things around the world, this was being managed through the multilingualism journey that I began setting off on 8 years ago, and moved on with up till now. It´s the endless journey that I´m proud of. It gives me stronger hope every day, as it paves the path to me to reach out amazing friends and success stories that empower me to be stronger enough and able to grapple with this life´s circumstances that is full of complexities and dilemmas left me to explore how other peoples manage their life.
Upon engaging with lots of conversations with friends from abroad either on social media or at events, I always concluded our conversations that, "Kindly, don´t look at the empty side of the cup, but at the filled side!" There was a long argument behind this. For instance, the matter of committing suicide caught my attention much, especially in industrious and rich countries where stability. I argued that you own what millions around the world don´t own, so why do you murder yourselves?! This kind of conversation I used to manage for the purpose of making people think well before stepping in tragic decisions. 
Of course, our world is full of challenges make people psychologically unable to resist, but, there is always an alternative might be hidden somewhere, just pursue it. 
The most important thing, this year was colorful with the possibility of learning new things almost on daily basis was really smooth since these languages opened up the gates to explore whatever I wanted. These languages, English, German, and Arabic my native,  tied me up with their special worlds, that I can´t easily resist their taste. I ended up being addicted to stick up with the melting pots. 
What made this experience even more promising, my involvement with ITALKI Co, a global network for teaching almost all the languages around the world. It´s the new job I began as a teacher for my native language.
I have had an amazingly diverse experience with students from different backgrounds, that I have a strong expectancy to enhance my knowledge with them.
To sum up, life is always full of challenges that sometimes it´s not in our power to get rid of or water their effect down. Therefore, we should consider the amazing things that we could do and push them out to the reality and inspire people around. This what makes life wonderful!             

A day before the last day of 2018

How globalization enhanced abandoning some of the social and traditional behaviours in my society?

Over the first 15 years of my life, almost up till the beginning of the 2000s, I got used to seeing ladies in my village using "Taboon," a small traditional oven, like a mold made up of calcareous soil mixed up with hay. The process of making begins with converting the soil to mud by adding water and hay, and then, is dehydrated under sun rays and shaped as a circular mold. The next step is burying it under the ash that comes out of burning piles of animals' dung.

A Palestinian lady bakes bread in the Taboon.

To keep the warmth up, a metal cover put over it, and small pieces of stones thrown inside to put the fermented dough on directly to become loaves ready for eating. 

This traditional oven was remarkably used in the 20th century and even until the beginning of the 2000s in Palestine. I remember that my mother had one 12 years ago, but decided to demolish it as the time was indicative that it's no longer suitable to keep working on although was still valid for baking bread, roasting chicken, and cooking food. Moreover, it was an energy-saving tool used up the natural resource, like animals' dung and olives remnants, taken after grinding it to extract oil, then being piled up to burn it and heat Taboon up.

Upon the appearance of the technological era in my society, particularly, social media, ladies in my village began gradually to deviate from using traditional ovens to baking bread, thinking that needless to be preoccupied with collecting animals' dung, mostly, that of the cattle, and dehydrate it under sun rays, then throw it off on this ground "Taboon" and burn it, which found as a burdening and time-consuming process. Not to mention, this process keeps the clothes somewhat stench and full of dust, as the ash keeps coming out of.

A Palestinian lady takes off a loaf from the Taboon.

Therefore, they resorted to modern electric ovens when they had seen people in other societies using them, which facilitated the whole process.

The same thing with donkeys, I used to see a lot of donkeys were used by farmers to plough their fields and load different portable stuff that farmers needed to cultivate these fields, as well.

Ridding donkeys became an icon reflecting the peasantry life in my society; how farmers are very linked with their fields in a harmonious way, which can also be described as bonds of loyalty to the land.

In the present day, donkeys are no longer used, farmers use modern tractors and cars to access their field quickly. By this, they could load their vehicles with heavier stuff and equipment needed to work in their fields, as donkeys couldn't carry heavy stuff previously. Therefore, I barely see donkeys, and the last time saw a donkey was three years ago in comparison to the past were passing by my house every day.

A Palestinian old man plough his field using his donkey

Social change expanded to the social relationships, for instance, I used to see people from the same neighborhood, gather together at a certain place to begin narrating different stories; as well as, they were cooking together and helping each other with many tasks. This was turned upside down, those people no longer meet with each other, especially individuals who belong to this current generation, you find them busy with new matters, like smart electronic devices, which led them to keep off resorting to libraries and narrate them on a roundtable. 

People nowadays are grappling with a new globalized lifestyle that has overstepped the usual standards; they are no longer rely on natural resources of food, ladies find it easier to buy already canned and cooked food that just requires a few minutes to prepare, unlike before, people significantly preferred to get their food mostly from the fields, they were not consuming KFC, Hotdog, and many more of myriad of artificial nutritious products.

By these transformative forms taking place, I would say that my society is remarkably globalized by consuming what's coming in from other societies. Seriously though, people, particularly the current generation, found it more comfortable to give up the traditional standards that are gradually being melted away into the new globalizing mantle, and cope with the modern standards.  

  

  

Globalizing culture ... The needed beneficial project for the globe! 

"Globalization is the process of the shrinking of the world, the shortening of distances and the closeness of things." Thomas Larsson 

When I read such a definition to globalization, I find myself exploring everything around me without paying much efforts to do so, as everything is under my sight!
Therefore, I conceive the world a better place if we create a status of rapprochement among all societies. This requires overstepping the traditional thinking towards globalization, as it's all about "products invaded our society from other totally different societies." These products or brands are part of a new culture came into our society. What's needed is the bridge to get global societies into dialogue to see one another up-close in order to find solutions for certain dilemmas available in other societies. 
It became very obvious than ever that the world at the brink of growing dilemmas, like homicides, drugs, suicide, climate change, human rights, racism, sexism ... etc. These are considered the impediments that the world goes through, which are being developed with new challenges affect stability in all societies. For instance, they mainly erode the state of sociopolitical security, and whenever security is violated, lots of other sectors end up being starkly affected. 
In addition, it's illogic to address that these impediments are only relevant to certain society, ethnicity, or culture, but, they are global affairs matter all societies. Meanwhile, it´s undeniable to point out to the fact that the rates of these dilemmas are varying from society to another. For instance, in Denmark, such rates are barely existent or quite lower than in Mexico or other African countries due to a high poverty rate that led to deteriorating internal security. Eventually, this is a global phenomenon facing all societies, which demands strenuous joint efforts to stand up against with the perfect solutions. 
As such, it´s also kind of a plague these societies are suffering from, and I think it´s time for dialogue to set up a strategy to fight it.

"Issues like human rights and war, ecological problems, drugs, and crime, economic instability, and inequality are seen as global rather national problems that require global coordination or global interventions for a solution." Luke Martell

How can we work for depleting this phenomenon then? I think globalizing cultures, is the most needed process to exert much effort more than ever. By this, the gap of ignorance among the plagued societies, considering the reality of the extent to which they are globalized makes them immensely exposed to change that these societies are endlessly seeking in order to create a state of stability in all walks of life. 
So, who is comfortable with the aforementioned dilemmas?! Of course nobody.
When we bring various cultures together, we´ll be able to introduce how other societies tackle such dilemmas with their innovative tools, or to present the fact why these societies don't have such dilemmas? Or, how have they overcome this?
Of course, the openness to other societies shows new perspectives, orientations, strategies, thoughts ...etc. which might be inspiring for the host society, or the globalized society per se. To bring up an interesting example, over the past years, I observed how much my society has been advancing in many fields by bringing in new cultures. Therefore, my people could understand that lots of dilemmas incessantly in need of cooperation with outside societies in order to bring in new beneficial ideas. On the other hand, when my society becomes completely modernized, it'll be a role model and productive receptive to lucrative opportunities for more investment with these societies. Otherwise, this process is hampered by the existence of the aforementioned dilemmas, which leads to undermining its reputation, which is necessary for these societies to come and invest in. 

"Palestinian poverty will not be reduced without Palestinian participation in the processes of globalization." Ariel J. Leinwand

This in terms of the economy, that I can imagine without cultural exchange, this sector won´t be developed, and I highly believe it's one of the most promising tools for solving lots of problems. Other than that, acculturation process curbs misconceptions that we need more than ever nowadays for overcoming global problems, as well, like racism, discrimination, xenophobia ... etc. that sadly media outlets, especially the growing social media, don't significantly show the positive sides in other societies to encourage the people of other societies to come in and invest in. This is the needed beneficial investment that not only for the globalizing sides but also, for the globalized ones. Indeed, it's time to conceive what does our image mean in the mirror of the other.

"The UN agencies help countries to join the international trading system and enact business-friendly legislation. Markets don't function in a vacuum. Rather, they arise from a framework of rules and laws, and they respond to signals set by Governments and other institutions." William Robinson

Such channels are what we should pay close attention to achieve our goals of strengthening cultural ties, as they have a strong presence in the host societies. Moreover, along with the track of them, linguistic institutes play instrumentally, too, they show the cultural values, history, success stories, so on and so forth. It´s all about the convergence of views they provide.