What I Would Really Want You to Do

To tell you the truth, I named this blog "watanan" because I am worried about my identity. Many Arabs living in America or any other western nation probably share my worry that stems from the chance of a war between my homes. At this point in history, the West has Arabs and Muslims under the microscope; they are seen as the enemy. This vision is created and perpetuated daily by a complex process of misinformation to which the immigrant Arab and Muslim communities in the West have been effectively silent.

If you were paying attention to the news, the drums of war have begun. The US has increased the number of its troops in Iraq and shipped new weapons to Israel. British and American troops have moved from hot spots in Iraq and are probably at the Iranian and Syrian borders. Israel has developed a new brigade to attack Syria and Iran and is investing heavily in improving the safety of its shelters. Britain, Canada, and Australia have been recruiting aggressively into their militaries. Even Saudi Arabia has recently received new fighter jets from France. The US had secured French and now German support against Iran. Can you hear the drums now.

So, what should you do? Should you just stay tuned, as the war comes to a theater near you, or maybe to your bedroom TV! Or should you "do something." I recommend the later, because watching TV can probably increased your weight! The least you can do is to EDUCATE the people around you about the misinformation directed at them, ask them to stop watching TV, and MOTIVATE them to say "no to war, no to any war".

This brings me back to my little blog. I would like you to send me answers about few questions: how can you become a citizen of the west with roots in the east? How will you cope with a large scale war against Arab or Muslim nations? And what should Arabs and Muslims living in west do to bring peace and prevent war? Please, ask your friends that might have an opinion to participate. I would like your participation to be in a paragraph form and to include answers to all of my questions. I will post all your opinions on my blog to have a living archive of our voices.

Lastly, I believe that there are better fields that we should send our men and women to than the fields of battle.

Lebanon One More Time

I have not heard the speech of Bashar Assad a couple of days a go, therefore I cannot comment much on it. I did however hear the responses by Hariri, Jumblat, Hizbullah, American and European politicians. It shocks me as a follower of the events how naïve the March 14th group are. If Hizbullah was a patriotic resistance, as most Lebanese politicians have expressed during the latest conflict, we would therefore assume that Hizbullah will not accept disarmaments if there were no guarantees that the army will perform as good as they did if Israel attempts to attack Lebanon again for any reason. The empowerment of the Lebanese army has been a subject that the minister of defense in Lebanon has stressed with expressions of frustration in a recent interview on the LBC TV. Such guarantees cannot be given by any foreign superpowers or Israel; these guarantees have to be based on an internal evaluation of the Lebanese army. Lebanese elected officials, government, and military experts should agree upon its current and desired capabilities and the steps to be taken in between. Such empowerment of the army would only be effective in Hizbullah’s view, if and only if the Lebanese government aligns its role in the region with Hizbullah’s view of Lebanon’s position in the conflict with Israel, that is the expulsion of Israel from all occupied Arab territory and the return of prisoners. The only guarantee for Hizbullah would then be to have more influence either in the army and the ministry of defense or in the parliament. Such changes are still far away in Lebanon, as they would require dramatic change in the election law and the composition of the government. In the meantime, Hariri and Jumblat went out lashing against Damascus’s latest declarations, giving Hizbullah the opportunity to say with full calm, that they also disagree with Damascus. One more nominal victory for Hizbullah in Lebanon!

Fat

I see a lot of obese patient in my clinic. As you probably know obesity is an epidemic in the United States and disadvantaged populations are hit harder than the rest. In many of my encounters with my obese patients, I observed the following:

• Most of my patients do not know what a calorie is! I will not define it here but most people will understand that a 200 pound person jogging for 10 minutes will burn 150 calories, one can of soda.
• What also shocks me is the amount of soda and other sugar rich drinks these patients consume. Some of my "soda drinkers" consume 2 liters of regular soda per day. A few actually consume 6 liters of soda per day. And guess what happened, they could not sleep!
• The next problem many of my patient suffer from is the wrong impression that exercise will solve their problems. No, no, no. It is caloric restriction that will do it.
• Some also think that diet modification will work. For some, it will, but for most of my patients, it will not. The results will be the same if one eats 4000 calories per day of junk food or of good food. At some point I advised one of my patients to stop drinking soda. Three months later he came back and complained that he gained more weight. When I asked him how much soda he was drinking, he said that he stopped drinking it completely. "Now, I drink juice" he said, with some pride. Two cartons of Florida's orange juice!!!
• Plate size: this is a cultural issue. In the US the plates are very big while in most eastern cultures the plate is small. I think plate size gives certain feed back to the eater!
• Most of my obese patients do not have a scale. This is killer if one claims to be on a diet and not have a scale!
• Lastly, most of my obese patients do not know what their weight should be and their best guess is more than 20% above their ideal body weight.

In conclusion, to get rid of extra weight: set your goal, eat less, and monitor you progress frequently