Earth Hour

Let's celebrate Earth Hour...

Turn off your lights, electrical lights that is, for one hour tonight.... Starting from 830pm to 930pm.

Lend your supports to the initiatives to make our Earth, our home, a better one.

An hour of our time will go a long way....

Sent from Haza Hilmy's BlackBerry® device

Of the Letter and Countdown

I was expecting it actually... since the day that my boss told me that my contract won't be extended... and since the day that I told them I want to come home. There's a related entry in Bahasa Malaysia HERE.

So, on Sunday afternoon, I received it... by hand from the HR Director himself.

Last day of employment (or the last day on "Host Company" payroll): 17th May, 2010
Repatriation leave: 7th May ~ 16th May, 2010
First day of employment in "Home Country": 18th May, 2010

If everything goes a planned, InsyaAllah, we'll be back in our beloved Malaysia on the 8th May, 2010 at about 935pm.

So, that's it... my "Tour of Duty" days in Dubai are numbered.... and I'm actually counting them down now.

Still, there some items need to be settled... the car, the visas, the bank, personal effects shipment and etc.

Hope everything will be okay... and we'll go back home to Malaysia with a happy feeling that we have spent 2 wonderful and eventful years in this land....

Istanbul (New Year 2010) - A very belated entry

This way to Istanbul

Actually, our year-end holiday plan could be called an Ad-Hoc one because I initially planned to take my family to Tehran. That was my plan from a few months ago. I made a promise to my wife that I will take them somewhere for a vacation when I have a 4 day weekend during the New Year break.

Due to the instability in the Iranian capital, I turned to Cairo. But, unfortunately the Economy Class seats were all sold out. Only the Peak Economy seats were left vacant and at the price that I couldn’t afford.

One of my colleagues suggested Istanbul. I checked the flight tickets, searched for the accommodations... and the rest I will share later... in a nut shell (I am not much of a writer...)

30/12/09
I went to have my hair cut in the morning. All the things to bring with us to the Turkish capital were already packed.

At about 12:00 noon we left the house to catch the taxi to the airport.
We brought:
1. One suitcase of clothes
2. One small bag of food items and
3. Two knap-sacks and my wife’s laptop computer
4. Our Sony H-50 camera and the Nikon compact as a back-up
This was actually considered light for our standards.

Upon arrival at the airport, we checked in our two larger bags at the self check-in kiosk and went on to the passport control and the departure hall.

We performed Jama’ and Qasr for Dzuhur and ‘Asar at the prayer room and walked to the boarding hall for our flight to Istanbul... EK121. We checked in at Terminal 3, but had to walk all the way to Terminal 1 for boarding. But since everybody was in a good mood, nobody complained.

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The flight took us to Istanbul in about 4-4.5 hours. We didn’t have any problems with the immigration and the luggage delivery.... everything went well (except that they didn’t informed us at which carousel our luggage should be collected from).

Coming out from the Arrival Hall, there were so many people around, most travel agents, waving the placards with names on them. I was looking around for my name when my wife said, “there it is...”. In capital letters “HAZA HILMY ZEAN”.

The agent ushered us to a corner as he was also waiting for some other passengers. After about ½ hour of waiting, he took us out to the waiting shuttle bus (a big van, actually). We got the first taste of Istanbul’s weather.... It was not very cold to my standard (I’ve experienced colder temperature when I was in Iran) but not to my family. They never experienced this kind of weather before (which was why I wanted to take them for the winter vacation in the first place).

The trip to the hotel took us from the Ataturk International Airport to the heart of Istanbul in about half an hour’s time.

The taxi stopped a few meters from the hotel, Star Holiday Hotel, just in front of Diva Nyolu Cadesi (or Diva Nyolu Street). It will be our home for the next 3 nights. It wasn’t very cold actually... except when the wind blew.

We checked in and with the help of the hotel staff, climbed three flights a narrow staircase to our room, a quad-room, in the 3rd floor. The room wasn’t that big for a quad-room... there was hardly any space to walk around... but we were not actually planning to stay in the room all day.
The room has 3 beds; 2 in the front and there’s another one, a bigger one, in a small “sub-room”. It’s separated from the rest of the room by a door-way.

Once we were settled in, we went out to see the night-life... It was about 8pm and quite chilly...even at night we could see that Istanbul is a beautiful city.

The night out in Sultanahmet

We walked around the Sultanahmet area... checking out the sights and sites... took some pictures... and went back to the hotel when Apit was beginning to have one of his “Apit penat lah...” acts...

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31/12/09
We were awakened by the Fajr Azzan... from multiple directions... for a country without any official religion in its constitution, Islam is something special here... historically and spiritually. We can see from afar, there were a lot of mosques (camii in Turkish) in Istanbul and when it comes to azzan, every mosque would seem to try to outdo its neighbour. The closest mosque to our hotel was the Agha Firdaus Camii and the Sultanahmet Camii (or the Blue Mosque).

We went to have breakfast at the 4th floor terrace... just overlooking the Blue Mosque. If we panned our view to the left, we would see the Haghia Sophia (or Aya Sofiya), a one-time cathedral, then a mosque and now a museum.

The breakfast was simple... freshly baked bread (the size of a small coconut), hard-boiled egg, cheese, some pickles, fresh olive, thinly-sliced sausages, tea and coffee, fresh milk... but it’s enough to keep us full until lunch-time.

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Inside the boat - Bosphorus Cruise

The agenda for today will be the Bosphorus Cruise. So, we took the tram from Sultanahmet station, past Gulhane and Sirkeci stations towards Eminonu station. We got off and went directly to the Eminonu Port just a few meters away from the tram station. It was about 1045am.

The official Bosphorus Cruise boats were already departed and we chanced upon some people who offered the “mini-cruise” for TL20 per head.... Apit would get to ride for free.

So, off we went... from the quay just adjacent to Galata Bridge towards Bosphorus Bridge... one of the two bridges connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. The other one being Fatih Sultanmehmet Bridge, about 7km up the Bosphorus Strait from Bosphorus Bridge.

The view was ultimately breathtaking... the undulating movements of the small boat were almost forgotten and ignored... the only thing that made us dizzy was the smell coming from the diesel engine. We were with about 20-30 more tourists on the boat... most of them looked European or Caucasian.... I think we were the only Asians on the boat. We saw the Dolmabahçe Palace, which used to be the administrative centre of the Ottoman Empire as well as the Presidential resident of Kamel Attaturk.

On the boat - Bosphorus Cruise

We also saw so many beautiful buildings... seagulls and cormorants were everywhere, feeding in the waters of the Bosphorus, perching on the side of the jetty or simply flying along following the boats.

At Beylerbeyi town park

Our small boat made a u-turn upon crossing under Fatih Sultanmehmet bridge and made a stop-over at a small town of Beylerbeyi, just next to the Asian side of Bosphorus bridge. We spent about an hour there, appreciating the weather and the view and taking pictures.

At about 130pm, we board the boat for the last leg of the trip; a return leg to Eminonu. We arrived about 40 minutes later. Since we hadn’t had lunch yet, I bought a fish sandwich at a nearby stall. A meal of the sandwich and soda cost just TL5. To kill the fishy taste, you had to eat it with some salt and lemon juice. We finished the small lunch and headed to the next destination which was the Masir Carsisi or Egyptian Bazaar or the Spice Bazaar.

It was the 2nd largest bazaar in Istanbul after the Grand Bazaar. We weren’t planning of doing any shopping, so each of us pick a small souvenir for ourselves and a few more for friends and family.... that was it.

We went back to the hotel to take a much needed rest. We were planning to go to Taksim Square that night to watch the new year celebration.

After solat (about 630pm) we went out and have Turkish kebab dinner at a road-side restaurant halfway between the tram station and our hotel. We had our first taste of authentic Turkish cuisines and the aromatic and tasteful Turkish apple tea.

Then, we took the tram towards Kabatas station. Kabatas is the last tram station in the Zeytinburnu-Kabatas tramway. After that, we had to take the Taksim Fenikuler train. It is a train system that connects Kabatas and Taksim Square. It actually runs up the hill towards Taksim Square in an underground tunnel. The train itself was design to tilt at about 40o – 45o.

Taksim Square is located on top of hill.... it serves at the gathering points for Istanbulis.... equivalent to our own Merdeka Square. It is a place where people gather for almost everything from demonstrations to celebrations. But we didn’t wait for midnight because judging by the in-coming traffic of people, we were sure that at midnight there would probably be no place for us to even sit down.

So, after taking a few snaps of pictures, we decided to leave Taksim Square. We went down the stairs to the Fenikuler station to buy the tokens for the ride back. That was when I realized that my wallet was gone.... (but I don’t want to tell sad stories here....maybe another time.... just maybe)... hehehe. Luckily, we still have some TLs because I split the TLs between my wife and me.

So, we went back to the hotel and called it a day.

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01/01/2010

Ain and Apit enjoying themselves at the Blue Mosque ground

I went to settle some issues in the morning and promised to meet my family after Jumaat solat. It was the first experience for me to listen to the Friday sermon and perform solat with tourists all around me, sitting on the outer rim of the square. I guess, on Fridays, they don’t restrict visitors to the Blue Mosque or Sultanahmet Camii for Muslims only.

I rendezvous-ed with the family later, right after I finished doing some errands and the ‘Asar prayers. We went for a tour around the Sultanahmet Mosque and Aya Sofiya. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to enter Aya Sofiya as it was already late and the visitors’ entrance already closed. We just took some pictures and went instead to the Topkapi Museum. On the way there, we stopped by the road-side shops because my wife was looking to buy some souvenirs to bring home.

The museum was also closed by the time we arrived at the entrance, and once again we were only able to take pictures outside the huge museum complex. We walked back to our hotel......the kids were already tired and in need of a rest.

We had dinner in the room... just to finish off the food that we brought with us... When kids were settled down, my wife and I decided to go out and experience the cool Istanbul night, just the two of us.

We took a walk along the tramway towards Gulhane tram station... taking some pictures along the way... while appreciating the wonderful Istanbul night.

We got back at about 1100pm... tomorrow would be our last day in Istanbul.

Me and Hotel Manager, Mr Altin Decko

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02/01/2010
We got up early and started packing our things after breakfast. After bidding farewell to our host, we took the tram to Ataturk Airport.

From Sultanahmet station, we travelled by tram to Zeytinburnu station. It’s a transit station to the airport. From Zeytinburnu, we took the Metro line towards Havilamani (airport).
The journey took us just under one hour.... and it rained and hailed halfway through the tram and metro ride.

We arrived at Ataturk Airport, checked in, perform Dzuhur and ‘Asar prayers (Jama’ and Qasr), had a light lunch at BK and went straight to the boarding gate.

That’s the end of our Istanbul trip... but deep in our hearts, we knew that 2-3 days were not actually enough for us to really experience Istanbul. We made a silent promise that we will return one day, one fine day, InsyaAllah.

Hachiko, the Faithful Dog

In 1934, a bronze statue of a dog called Hachiko was erected at the Shibuya Train station in Tokyo, Japan. The story of this dog is mentioned below.

Hachiko was born in 1923 and was owned by Eisaburo Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo. The professor used to take a train from the Shibuya Station every day to go to the university. Each day Hachiko accompanied the professor to the train station when he left for work. Upon returning, the professor would find the dog patiently waiting for his master and wagging its tail. This happy routine continued until one fateful day in 1925, when the professor was taken ill on the job and unfortunately died before he could return home. As usual, the dog waited at the train station that day for his master to return back. However, seeing that he wasn't coming back, Hachiko waited till night fell and retuned back home. The next day Hachiko went back to the train station again, waiting for his master to come back. He patiently waited till sunset and then retuned back home. The dog was so devoted to the professor that he continued to visit the train station everyday for the next 10 years! The people who passed the loyal dog each day were so touched by his story that they erected a statue in his honor in 1934.

In 1935, Hachiko died at the very same spot where he used to wait for his master.

Dear readers, we should take a lesson from this story for ourselves. By reciting the kalimah of Tawheed, all of us have taken an oath to be loyal to our Master, Allah Ta'ala. Now, we should look deep into ourselves and check to see how much love we really have for Allah in our hearts.

Source: Partially extracted from Wikipedia and Fabulous Travel.com.

Dubai International Peace Convention (DIPC) (17th - 19th March, 2010)

With the motto of "Aiming Global Unity Through Peace", the DIPC is held under the patronage of H.H. Syeikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai.

The world renowned Islamic scholars and orators will be holding talks, along with handling Q&A sessions. Notable personalities such as Syeikh Yusuf Estes, Syeikh Dr Hussein Yee, Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al Afasy, Adv. Mayan Kutty Mather and etc. will be talking about various subjects.

For more information, visit http://www.peaceconvention.com/Home.aspx

** An update (21/03/10):

My wife and I went on the 2nd and he last day of the conference... and for the first time in our lives, we were the witnesses to the Shahaadah proclaimed by our new new brothers and sisters. Alhamdulillah, they were shown the lights by Allah to return back to the righteous path of Islam. To tell the truth, I just couldn't hold back my tears... All that I could do was just to praise the Almighty Allah... Allahu Akbar!!!!

We went home a little late last night... because Dr Zakir Naik was giving his talk... he wasn't scheduled to give any talks, but, I guess, due to respect to a man of his stature, he was given a cameo appearance.... But it seemed like his appearance was what people had been waiting for.... Read more about Dr Zakir Naik HERE

** Another update (22/03/10):

We left a bit too early that night when the Q&A session with Dr Zakir Naik was just starting. A friend who stayed back related that a total of 25 brothers and sisters made their Shahaadah that night and revert to Islam... Masya Allah....

UN rejects export ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna

By MICHAEL CASEY, AP Environmental Writer Michael Casey, Ap Environmental Writer – Thu Mar 18, 2:24 pm ET
DOHA, Qatar – A U.S.-backed proposal to ban the export of Atlantic bluefin tuna prized in sushi was rejected Thursday by a U.N. wildlife meeting, with scores of developing nations joining Japan in opposing a measure they feared would devastate fishing economies.
It was a stunning setback for conservationists who had hoped the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, would give the iconic fish a lifeline. They joined the proposal's sponsor Monaco in arguing that extreme measures were necessary because the stocks have fallen by 75 percent due to widespread overfishing.
"Let's take science and throw it out the door," said Susan Lieberman, director of international policy with the Pew Environment Group in Washington. "It's pretty irresponsible of the governments to hear the science and ignore the science. Clearly, there was pressure from the fishing interests. The fish is too valuable for its own good."
As the debate opened, Monaco painted a dire picture for a once-abundant species that roams across vast stretched of the Atlantic Ocean and can grow to as big as 1,500 pounds.
It has been done in by the growing demand for raw tuna for traditional dishes such as sushi and sashimi. The bluefin variety — called "hon-maguro" in Japan — is particularly prized with a 200-kilogram (440-pound) Pacific bluefin tuna fetched a record 20.2 million yen ($220,000) last year.
"This exploitation is no longer exploitation by traditional fishing people to meet regional needs," Monaco's Patrick Van Klaveren told delegates. "Industrial fishing of species is having a severe effect on numbers of this species and its capacity to recover. We are facing a real ecosystem collapse."
But it became clear that the proposal had little support. Only the United States, Norway and Kenya supported the proposal outright. The European Union asked that implementation be delayed until May 2011 to give authorities time to respond to concerns about overfishing.
Fishing nations from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean complained any ban would damage their fishing communities and that fears of the stock's collapse were overstated. Libya, in a rambling defense of its position, went so far as accusing Monaco of lying and trying to mislead the delegates before calling for the snap vote.
Japan, which imports 80 percent of Atlantic bluefin and has led the opposition to the ban, acknowledged stocks were in trouble but echoed a growing consensus at the meeting that CITES should have no role in regulating tuna and other marine species. It expressed willingness to accept lower quotas for bluefin tuna but wanted those to come from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, or ICCAT, which currently regulates the trade.
"Japan is very much concerned about the status of Atlantic bluefin tuna and Japan has been working so hard for many years to ensure recovery," Masanori Miyahara, chief counselor of the Fisheries Agency of Japan, told delegates. "But our position is very simple. Let us do this job in ICCAT, not in CITES. This position is shared by majority of Asian nations."
Afterward, Miyahara welcomed the decision but admitted the pressure would be on his country and others who depend on the Atlantic bluefin to abide by ICCAT. It ruled in November to reduce its quota from 22,000 tons to 13,500 tons for this year. The body has also vowed to rebuild the stock by 2022, which could include closing some fisheries if necessary.
"I feel more responsibly to work for the recovery of the species," Miyahara said. "So it's kind of a heavy decision for Japan too. The commitment is much heavier than before."
But the European Union's Gael de Rotalier said the vote set a worrying precedent and showed there was widespread mistrust about giving CITES any role in marine issues.
That could bode ill for several other proposals still pending, including several regulating the trade in sharks and one dealing with red and pink corals. If that would occur, a meeting that was expected to boost the protection of marine species wood be seen by many environmentalists as a failure.
"We were expecting to have a real debate but it was not possible," de Rotalier said. "There was a strong feeling in the room against any involvement of CITES in marine issues. They were making it a matter of principle and not looking at the merits of the case."
The tuna defeat came hours after delegates rejected a U.S. proposal to ban the international sale of polar bear skins and parts, suggesting that economic interests at this meeting were trumping conservation.
The Americans argued that the sale of polar bears skins is compounding the loss of the animals' sea ice habitat due to climate change. There are projections that the bear's numbers, which are estimated at 20,000 to 25,000, could decline by two-thirds due by 2050 due to habitat loss in the Arctic.
But Canada, Greenland and several indigenous communities argued the trade had little impact on the white bears' population and would adversely affect their economies.

More HERE