I’m off to Makkah today to perform the Hajj pilgrimage. I’m going on behalf of my late father, who never had the chance to go.

Take care and see you when I get back inshallah!

The Bahrain chapter of Entrepreneur Organisation (EO), has an excellent Communication Chair, who is none other than my friend and Bahrain’s “Blogfather” Mahmood.

Twice a month, Mahmood sends out an “expose” about one of our members.  It was my turn recently, and I thought I’d share what he “exposed” about me.  Here goes:

- New in my iPod:
Adele, she’s amazing.

- What I’m reading:
إسلام بلا مذاهب، للدكتور مصطفى الشكعة. Before that I read a book about the history of Shiites‪.‬  In light of the recent ‪(‬or ongoing‪?)‬ crisis‪,‬ I‪’‬m working hard to understand my Shia brothers better‪.‬  I‪’‬m trying to separate fact from fiction about the other noble sect‪.‬

- Non-profit I support:
Be Free, an anti-child abuse programme run by amazing people.

- The town and country I was born in:
Offenbach, Germany.  Born to a Saudi father and German mother.

- Spouse, kids, pet:
Alia, wife of 12 years.  Three Kids, Selma (9), Laith (7) and Tameem (2.5).

- Favorite get-away:
I don’t think I have one!

- Favorite restaurant:
Lanterns and Sato.

- My secret talent:
Clapping with one hand.

- Last live concert I attended:
I don’t remember! Probably something in La Fontaine.

- The drink I like:
Green Tea

- If I wasn’t an entrepreneur I’d be:
Depressed.

- Ask me about:
Marketing, sales, customer service and employee motivation.

- My nick name:
Manfred von Richthofen

- Get to know me over coffee/lunch/drinks:
Lunch.

- My pet peeve:
Waiting for the government to announce reforms so that we can get on with our lives.

- I would do just about anything for a:
Day with just nothing to do.

- My business (makes me feel):
Happy, important, self-satisfied and fulfilled.

- The best business advice I have ever received:
“You’re not in the ‘thing’ business; you’re in the marketing of the ‘thing’ business”

- Number of employees:
We’re the smallest we’ve been in years.  I think we’re about 16 now.

- Elevator speech:
“I’m in the business of enhancing, improving and changing people’s lives in just 23 minutes.”

- The length of time I’ve been in EO:
Proud member since 2006!

I hope you found that somewhat interesting.  By the way, if you’re interested in joining EO please get in touch.

Talk soon.

دخلت الحجرة، ورأيته من الخلف، جالساً على كرسيه، يقرأ.
ذهبت إليه والشوق يحرق كياني!
عانقته بحرارة، وقبلّت خديه و رأسه، وقلت له “الله يحفظك و يطّول في عمرك!”
نظر إليىّ و ابتسم إبتسامةً جميلة… رقيقة…
إستيقظت من النوم، و بكيت… و بكيت… و بكيت

ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ

يسألني الكثير”هل أنت مثل غازي؟” والإجابة الصريحة أني لست مثل غازي، ولا أسوى ظفراً من أظافيره النبيلة. و لكني أحاول أن أكون جديراً بحمل إسم هذا العملاق، وأحاول… وأحاول…
رحمك الله يا بابا، يا أحسن الرجال.

Anyway, I want to share some random memories from the holiday:

“Kiss the frog”

Last week the kids were playing on one of those big jungle gym things at the resort we were staying at.  There were a couple of other families there, one of which was from somewhere in the south of the US, judging from the dialect.  The father wanted to take a picture of his son next to a poster of a cartoon frog, that was hanging next to the jungle gym.  The conversation went something like this (imagine with a Southern dialect):

Father says “Come here son let me take a picture of you next to the frog.”

The son obediently stands next to the poster and replies “Okay.”

Father continues “Go ahead and give the frog a kiss.”

“No!”

“Boy! Give that frog a kiss!”

“I don’t wanna kiss the frog!”

“Don’t mess with me boy! I said give that frog a kiss!”

“No, I don’t wanna!”

“Kiss the frog boy!”

“No!”

“I said kiss that frog…”

At that point I walked out of the room otherwise I would have burst out laughing.  In fact I walked around outside laughing to myself.  That was one of the most bizarre conversations I’ve ever witnessed between a father and his son…

Land of The Fat

Every time – and I mean every time – two things take me by surprise when I go to the US.  First, is the size of meal and drink portions in restaurants – they’re just huge!  I’ve rarely finished a starters and main course, it’s just too much food.  The second thing is the amount of obese people.

There are a lot of overweight people here in the Gulf – one of the highest obesity levels anywhere – but the US is without a doubt the undisputed heavy weight king when it comes to global obesity (pun originally unintended, but left in when I noticed it).

Of course while in Florida we visited the various Disney theme parks, and what saddened me was the number of overweight people using motorised scooters to get around.  Had more of them tried to walk, surely this would have helped them get in better shape.  I even saw what appeared to be perfectly healthy children, but that were overweight, being pushed around in wheel chairs!

As one American acquaintance told me, “The American people have lost their sense of shame! My late father would not have been caught dead on a motorised scooter, even though walking became agonising for him in the last few years of his life.”  If we in the Gulf don’t do anything about our expanding waist line crisis, we’ll be there soon too.

Speaking of Disney…

We had a magical time of course.  As an entrepreneur I admire Disney greatly.  They have perfected the art of extracting money from people while making them smile.  Something every entrepreneur should learn to do.  Also, I admire their perfection of systems and operations.  Imagine the effort it takes to make something like Walt Disney World run smoothly, day in and day out, 365 days a year.

The number of things they do is just mind boggling.  A quick example; they paint the fence around main street daily.  They even check the weather and humidity forecast to make sure the paint dries just in time before the gates open in the morning.  Now that’s attention to detail!  If you’re a business owner, ask yourself how much attention are you paying to the details?  Personally, I do quite a bit, but nothing compared to Disney.

I’m also becoming a great fan of Walt Disney the man.  You just have to admire a man with so much vision.  I plan to read a lot more about him in the future.

My love/hate relationship with British Airways

We used BA for all of our flights.  I like them because they are usually on time, and quite consistent in everything they do (which sadly is not the case with GF).  But I’m no fan of their service.  I find the service rather cold, rushed and ever so slightly bossy.  And it makes no difference which class you travel in.  And what I really can’t stand is how they turn off the entertainment system 40 minutes before landing.  Why oh why must they do that?

But I do want to give credit where credit is due.  We had a wonderful experience when we checked in in Orlando to London.  We were taken care of a lady named Robin Ravey, if I’m not mistaken.  And I have to say Robin was the friendliest customer service agent I’ve ever encountered.  After we checked it with her I made sure to send BA an email complementing her.

Heathrow Terminal 5 Security

Our flight from London to Bahrain was from Heathrow Terminal 5.  I like the terminal.  What really took me by surprise this time around was how friendly the security staff were.  After we checked in yesterday we went through what must have been the nicest security check ever.  They were very courteous and patient, and even gave the kids stickers!  Wow!

However, I was surprised when they asked me to take my iPad out of my bag, before taking it through the x-ray machine, as they usually ask for laptops only.  Sadly, in my rush I forgot to take the iPad back and left it there.  D’oh! I’ll see if they can send it to me somehow…

That’s all for now, talk to you soon.

Photo source: The Chrstian Monitor (csmonitor.com)

By all accounts, the crisis is officially over and dialogue will start next month.  God willing, real progress will be made.  I just hope no one acts stubbornly – we saw a lot of that during the crisis.  Before I talk about the lessons learnt, allow me to talk a bit about me and the crisis.

The Crisis and I

The crisis was without a doubt one of the most stressful things I’ve ever lived through.  It hurt me to the core, and I dare say it changed me forever.  Interestingly, I’ve had several suggestions from people saying I should “get into politics”, and two people even suggested I should start my own political society.  The ironic thing is that I was never really into politics before the crisis started – subhan allah.

As I have mentioned before, I did not take the February 14th crisis very seriously when it started.  In fact on the night of February 14th, I was being interviewed by my wife for her radio show (note, if you’re a Transformation Times – formerly Zen-Do Times – subscriber you’ll get the audio CD of the interview free with this months’ newsletter).

As the days went by, it became evident how serious the crisis really was.  At the start of the crisis, I was tweeting frantically trying to calm people down.  I blogged a lot and tried to instil as sense of balance, explaining both points of view as best I could.  Interestingly, I got attacked severely from both sides.  Many in the anti-government camp hated me for being a Royalist.  They called me all kinds of nasty things and claimed I was a government stooge.  And many in the pro-government camp (who were often more pro-government than the government itself) hated me for showing some sympathy to the protestors. Some even called me a traitor. It was a crazy time to say the least! (I’m happy to report though that I also got a lot of support from people telling me that my blog posts and tweets really gave them comfort)

I spent many days meditating and praying.  I kept waiting for wise men to prevail.  I kept hoping and praying until the last minute.  Instead of what I was praying for, arrogance, stubbornness and hatred prevailed.  And as it became apparent that the protestors and their leaders were not interested in dialogue, I – like many -  lost a lot of sympathy for them.

For a brief period I focused on reconciliation and promoting forgiveness, which no one seemed interested in.  I guess no one was in the mood, and the government crackdown had not really gotten into full swing yet.

And as the anti-government camp’s media and social media onslaught continued (and having seen the international media lap a lot of it up) my emphasis shifted more towards explaining the government’s point of view.  Though I wrote a lot, my views can be summarised in these three sentences:

- Yes to the royal family, no to corruption.

- Reforms are necessary but regime change is not acceptable.

- All requests for change should be done with respect and adherence to the law.  Evolution not revolution.

Today I feel a sense of optimism.  There still seem to be small pockets of protests here and there, but I think by and large no one is in the mood for more protests.  Yalla, time for more prayer, hoping that social peace and serenity is brought to our tiny kingdom.  I’m proud to be part of a few initiatives to help  bring peace and harmony to Bahrain.  I’ll write more about them over the coming months.

Okay, on with the lessons I learnt.  Here we go:

1) Things are not always what they seem (or, don’t trust the social media!):

In the early days of the crisis I was on Twitter virtually the whole time.  Judging from Twitter, it seemed like there were thousands of people being killed by the security forces.  The tweets made it look like it was World War III out there.  It took me a few days to realise that the events were massively exaggerated.  I quickly became very sceptical of what was being tweeted.  When it was announced on Twitter the the army was withdrawing from the Pearl (GCC) Roundabout I didn’t believe it.  I hopped into my car and drove there.  I checked for myself and when I saw the army withdrawing I took photos and Tweeted them.  They were then used by the BBC on their website.

But I learnt a valuable lesson, people were supporting their cause “by any means necessary” and inventing and fabricating a lot of incidents.  Over time even seemingly normal videos were interpreted as extreme acts of brutality.  I saw a video filmed from very far away of soldiers standing next to some sort of cage claiming to be Saudi troops “stealing chickens” – what?? There was another fuzzy video shot behind a window screen claiming to show troops beating up a protester.  Having seen the video it could have been that, or it could have been a group having a boisterous conversation, or anything else for that matter.

People saw what they wanted to see.  In fact, just the other day someone tweeted a video supposedly of a very brave women “standing up” to the evil security forces.  It just showed a woman shouting and people running around, half the time the camera was filming the ground.  You have to be really imaginative to see what the tweeter claimed.

I learnt to take things with a massive grain of salt – and I mean massive.

2) When in doubt, stick to your principles:

You know, I think a lot of the so-called heros from either side of the crisis were created by accident.  They said or did something, and people clapped for them as it were.  They enjoyed it and just rode the wave.  It’s easy to let popularity drift you away from your principles.  One has to be cautious and stay grounded.

I admit I had moments of extreme introspection.  I did a lot of soul searching.  In the end I always stuck to my principles.  I wrote what I believed in and never hid behind a synonym.  I confess it was not easy, as a lot of people clapped for me, and then were surprised that I did not agree with them completely.  Some even called me two-faced.

But I want to quickly show my thanks and appreciation to everyone who commented on my blog, from the haters to the admirers.  I learnt a lot from you.  Thank you for your participation.

3) Human nature is strange and unpredictable:

Like you probably, I must have had dozens if not hundreds of conversations with different people about the crisis.  And what scared me was the hatred and polarisation it created.  I’ve seen intelligent, educated people use derogatory and racial remarks that I didn’t even think they were capable of.  Where did all this hate come from?  As one friend recently told me, when people get scared they think with their primal, “reptilian” brain.

We as a society have so much work to do.  At the end of the day we still have to live together.  And our kids will go to the same schools together.  Time to roll up our sleeves and re-sow the torn social fabric.

4) Don’t trust the international media:

No offence to my friends from the international media who read this, but I have to say the media has been extremely one-sided.  They often considered tweets as reliable sources – come on! Of course I’m generalising, but I for one will never ever have the faith I once had in the international news channels and newspapers.  I have to add that our local media wasn’t exactly a bastion of impartiality either.

A quick story, during my recent visit to Shanghai I met a gentleman from New Orleans who lived through the Katrina crisis.  He gave me a completely different account of what happened there.  He told me how a lot of the media came with pre-conceived notions of what happened, and how they would report what they thought would look more interesting and dramatic to their viewers.  He even saw a TV crew scripting what they were going to report that day even though they hadn’t gone out yet.

It was an extremely enlightening conversation. I could totally relate to it.  Just like the social media, the “real” media is not exactly reliable and should also be taken with a fair share of scepticism.

5) Don’t argue with people who’ve already made up their minds:

Of course I always knew this, but this problem really became evident during the crisis.  So many people had made up their mind no matter what.  I know people that even if His Majesty the King were to come and kiss them on the cheek they’d say “look he’s trying to bite me!”  You just can’t win.  I recently saw a tweet by a very active anti-government member (I wonder when we’ll stop using these labels?) saying something like “why do people consider the crown prince the good guy of Al-Khalifa.”

What a horrible thing to say.  To judge a whole family as evil because of a political and social problem is disgusting.  And to judge a member of the family who worked so hard to resolve the crisis so harshly is just inexcusable.  What makes matters worse this person is a supposed advocate of human rights.  What kind of a human rights advocate says such a thing? How can a human rights advocate have so much hate?  To be fair people like this exist on both sides of the fence.  There are people calling for the extermination of shias.  God help us with people like that running around.  It’s really time for wise men to make their voices heard to drown out the haters.

Well my friend, I’ll leave it at that.  There are probably over a dozen lessons I could write about, but I think these were the major ones.

Thanks for listening and talk to you soon.

I’m very excited, a brand new Apple shop is opening this Thursday, and you’re invited!  You know, in the 90′s I used to make fun of my brothers for using Macs.  I thought what a waist of time.  But in the early 2000′s I switched and I never looked back.

Yes, I’m afraid I’ve become one of those annoying Mac advocates.  I can’t help it, Apple products are so cool!  I have a Macbook Pro, an iPhone, iPod (several), iPad and iWife.

Anyway, don’t miss the opening, where the first 100 people will get FREE iPhone covers.  As I understand it, there will also be other prizes and competitions.  Details are:

Event: grand opening of the new Apple retail shop

Where: Seef Mall, Bahrain (new extension, first floor)

When: Thursday the 9th of June 2011 at 12 noon.

See you there!

You know, there’s nothing like a crisis to bring people together.  Here’s a video created by Bahraini film maker Saleh Nass highlighting the unity of the Bahraini people, inspired by Manaf Muhandes’ #UniteBH Twitter initiative. I’m very proud to have contributed to this film!  Hope you like it!

Here’s a Bahrain TV interview I did on Saturday the 19th of February, the day after I wrote my popular blog post on the protests in Bahrain.  I was on the Have Your Say show with Ahdia Ahmed.  I was interviewed along with Mohammed Kayani from MaxMedia and Hussain Al-Mahmood from the Foreign Ministry.  I gave my honest view on what’s happening here in our beloved Bahrain.  Hope you like it and let me know what you think!

Last week I was interviewed by the online radio programme Dare to Be Healthy, hosted by none other than Alia Almoyaed – my wife. The topic was weight loss in minutes, where I spoke about the concept of the DreamBody Centre.

Unfortunately, the call took place on Tuesday the 14th of February (it was planned weeks ahead) the day the protests in Bahrain started.  If you recall, the internet was super slow that day, and the sound quality was not that good.  Also, we got cut off once or twice, and some bits of the call were not recorded.  Having said that, I still think you’ll find a lot of value in the information contained.

For more information about this weekly radio show click here.  Enjoy!

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]