Aramex is organizing an emergency donation campaign, with support from Majid Al Futtaim Group in the UAE, to collect and deliver aid supplies to the afflicted people in Gaza.

Needed materials: First Aid kits, medical emergency supplies, chronic illness medication, personal hygiene products, non-perishable foods, new clothes, tents and blankets.

Please ensure the validity date is at least 6 months for food and at least 1 year for medicine.

Aramex collection bins are located at the following locations:

In the UAE*: Mall of Emirates, Deira City Centre, Sharjah City Centre, and
Ajman City Centre.

In Jordan, at Aramex offices at the following locations:

– Khalil El Salem Street, Khalda – Amman – Mecca Street, building #33, near Social Security Corporation – Amman – Ameer Mohammad Street, Zarqa – Malik Faisal Street, Irbid – Royal Jordanian Building, Haya Roundabout, Aqaba

Aramex Media Bookshops in:

– Khalil El Salem Street, Khalda – Amman – Thaqafa Street, Shmeisani – Amman – Downtown – 9th Sha’aban Street, towards 1st circle – Amman – Shop & Ship, 4th circle – Amman

Act now, every donation counts.

• Donations in the UAE are accepted starting January 1st until January 11th 2009.

There is a Facebook Group that you can join to spread the word about this campaign. From this group I copied the pictures below, which show young Jordanian volunteers in action at the Aramex logistics center in Al Qastal area. There has been an active drive by the Action Committee and 7iber.com to mobilize volunteers to help sort and pack relief aid.

I lit a candle for our friend Sofian Hijjawi, who passed away one year ago on the 2nd of January 2008.

He was a designer, a rebel, an irreverent critic, a funny story teller, a small package of amazing vibrancy and a friend of many.

He is best remembered by me by his funny stories and unexpected gestures. When my third son Sinan was born, he came to our house with a small sack of rice, true to Palestinian tradition! You never forget a gift like that.

The photo on the screen behind the candle in the background has a story.

In November 2007, I met Sofian and his partner Annie at the American University of Dubai for an event on Arab typography. As we where leaving, we started making funny remarks at the University’s fake classical architecture.

Then Sofian insisted I take a photo of him running towards the buildings. He dashed off and I snapped a blurry photo..

He joked and said he’s running towards science and knowledge.

It was the last the last photo I took of him.

He’ll always be remembered with a smile.

“As the world welcomes the new year, the people of Gaza receive 2009 with constant bombardment and bloodshed. Let us stand in solidarity with them on this occasion as we gather at Al-Hashemiyah Square in Downtown Amman for a candlelight vigil on New Year’s Eve between 11:30pm to 12:30am.”

Check the Facebook event page.

I have been in state of shock and numbness since the Israeli attack on Gaza started. It feels like words, demonstrations and vigils can’t change anything. Maybe the best thing to do is to help Gaza with money, food, blankets and clothes.

I will not be adding anything if I address the Jordanian and Arab audience through this blog post. People here are already angry, sad, sickened by what is happening. And while almost all the anger is being poured on Israel, some are also angry about Arab and Palestinian actions that helped bring this tragedy about.

But I also hope that through civilized action and writing, at least some in this world will take notice of what’s happening:

• That’s Israel is acting in a totally barbaric manner, pounding Gaza with advanced weaponry, in response to primitive rockets.
• That the people of Gaza, already impoverished and brutalized, have been subjected to an unfair blockade that has cut them off from the world. These are people who have been bottled up in a strip of land and punished again and again and again.
• That despite Israel’s claims of targeting only Hamas militants, civilian casualties are prevalent. There were several scenes of whole families being wiped out and parents seeing all their children killed.

So if you are reading this post in Israel, the US, Europe or anywhere else in the world, just take a moment tonight and think of the civilians of Gaza. Think about the future and how it will be shaped for a people that is being bombed into submission by the “democratic” state of Israel that owns nuclear weapons and commands one of the world’s most powerful armies.

Think about it and talk about to someone you know.

I was alerted (actually by my mother-in-law) that Amman’s Google Earth satellite photography has been updated. I just checked and it’s indeed true. The previous Amman satellite photos where at least 18 months old if not older. The area in the screen shot above is of the Mecca Street/Medical City Road intersection. As you can see, the photo shows that the intersection is still under construction. Based on that and on the fact that some greenery can be seen in the fields, I guess that the images are from last spring. I checked some other construction sites that I know too to confirm that guess.

The question is: is the quality of the photographs lower. Have you noticed less detail? Or more?

I just feel like making a really sleepy sounding wooo hooo. The iPhone is here. With Orange. Check out the offers here, or just look below.

OK, so the iPhone can be yours in Jordan if you stick to a one year plan with Orange. Plans start at JD 26 per month for a 500 minute “iGold” package. The 8GB iPhone under that plan is JD 299 (and JD 369 for 16GB). If you go for the iPlatinum plan with 1000 minutes, the 8GB phone is for JD 255 (JD325 for 16GB). Then there is the iDiamond plan with 2000 minutes and a JD 159 8GB iPhone (JD 229 for 16 GB). See the detail of the offers and pay attention to the data aspect of them..

These plans are not shockingly great, but I guess they’re ok. If you’re an Orange customer, of course.

Looking at the small print, I discovered that the plans do not allow you to use the iPhone’s data connection on a PC. Come on Orange/Apple.

The big question, which I hope one of you out there can answer, is: will the Phone be SIM-locked to orange? If not, then expect a market for affordable iPhones will develop.

So.. what will I do?

The iPhone is amazing, especially with eh App Store. But just doesn’t cut it for me. I blogged several times about this. I need a good camera on my phone, I need voice dialing and I like to play around with GPS maps. Also I am not about to give up my 10 year old Zain number.

So today, I should be getting my new Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic, which I pre-ordered from Nokia City Mall (Golden Mobile, that is). Incidentally, those who ordered the phone from i2 already got their phone yesterday evening. I envy them.

I want to experiment with the 5800. I am keeping the N95, just in case. In 2009 I might then get the N97.

Unless..

Unless, Apple come out with an amazing new iPhone with a proper camera, good voice dialing and unless Zain also start selling the iPhone. The anti-monoploy authorities in France have just ordered Apple to sell the iPhone to all carriers. Orange in appealing the decision. We’ll see what happens in Jordan in 2009.

For now, I am sticking with Nokia. I will have an 8 GB phone with a big touch screen, a decent Flash-capable browser, GPS mapping (soon with Amman on it), for JD 255 and with no need to switch operators.

That’s good enough for me.

Ever since Nokia opened their services portal, Ovi, to Jordanian users some weeks ago, I’ve been trying to get my N95 registered with the service. So far I tried maybe 10 times with no success.

When you register a device with Ovi, you are asked to enter your telephone number, country and timezone into the Ovi site. Supposedly you should get an SMS form Ovi to initiate the registration process.

I never got this SMS from Ovi.

I am suspecting that Zain Jordan are not allowing the message through. This is extremely annoying. Did anyone out there have success in registering a device on Ovi, from Jordan? Maybe people on Orange on Umnia??

By the way, the other day I sent an SMS to Nokia product authenticity checking number (which I think was a UK number). I wanted to check if the new battery I got was genuine.

I never got an SMS reply.

It might be the same problem.

At the moment, the only thing I can possibly try is to try to configure my phone manually, as attempted in the comments of this blog post.
If someone from Nokia or Zain is reading this, please enlighten me on what the problem might be.

For sale in Amman, Jordan:

PlayStation Portable (PSP)
Color: Metallic Blue
Less than 1 year old. In excellent condition. Original box available.

6 great original games:

Daxter
Avatar
Worms 2
Sonic Rivals 1
Sonic Rivals 2
Pirates of the Caribbean (At World’s End)

Also included:
1 new charger
1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo (Sandisk)

Price JD 275

Leave me a comment if interested. Include your contact details (you comment will not be published, only I will see it)

You can also view this item advertised on Facebook. You can contact me on Facebook too.