What's up, dude?

When i opened this blog, I thought I would mainly use it to share with you, relatives, friends and unknown people around, my everyday life here in the Emirates as an involuntary housewife. I had a format in mind, I had story to tell, I had pictures to take, I had impressions to share. For those who had not expected my silence, let's say that life had hit me sufficiently hard in the past months to give my brain some rest, and that I did not expect my own silence, either.

And the ideas are still there, do not worry. I want to talk about my driving licence, about my crazy neighbours and their monster kid, about the maid, about my nail polish and the urban plans of Dubai Municipality (what about another amusement park or another mall?^^). I want to share my feelings on Ramadan, which will start next week and that I plan to appreciate from a different (but rather more peaceful) perspective. So yes, I've removed the layer of dust from my lonely keyboard, I've thought a little, and I am back on track.

But to make it easier to follow the succession of ideas, it's important to quickly come back to what happened in the past months. I hope you're fine with bullet points, I had thought of preparing a ppt presentation but I thought I would be a little too much (just kidding of course). Here you go, let's go backwards a little to the main events:

• January: I officially turned into a real housewife, I officially passed y UAE driving licence.
• February: I started looking for jobs and went to my first interviews; but to be honest I seriously enjoy my book-and-starbucks afternoons.
• March: I spent snowy days in Paris watching my sister die. I am stuck with images of the hospital and the funerals, but thank god I had beloved ones by my side. Nothing in the world can replace a husband or a best friend.
• April: Recovery time back in the UAE, looking at the Marina Mall while eating pizza on my balcony. No better way to calm my insomnias than reading even more, night after night, and sending even more applications. I changed my approach and decided not to give a F anymore (= let's not apply to apply, but let's aim at what I really want)
• May: I lost my father-in-law and my grand-father within few days, both great men that I respected and loved truly. I can't remember how many trains I took, but I surfed enough between my homes to know the train schedule. I attended 3 funerals in a week, and rested some time in the quiet and fresh air. More reading.
• June: I nailed my recovery, mixed feelings between denial, peace and fear. I applied even more, and met fantastic people. I have cried a lot, I have smiled a lot. And I got a job.
• July: my monthly horoscope is awesome.

So yes, I am officially NOT a housewife anymore, and my visa will even change. But plans have NOT changed, I will keep on telling you local stories.

Just remember: life is a learning process, and you have a big role in making it the way you want it to be. Making no sense? Well, follow July's Virgo and maybe you'll get it.

World Environment Day 2013

Believe it or not, on this day, I will not be using my cynical tone and disappointed words. On the contrary, this time I anticipated a little and made some research online to see what is going on around me.

Today is World Environment Day 2013, and to my (positive) surprise much is actually going on.

With the motto "Think.Eat.Save", this year's WED invites everyone to reconsider your relation to food, to prevent food waste and food loss and thus reduce your footprint on an everyday basis. I like this approach so much: Not only you are what you eat, but I believe you are also what you waste.

What you cook, what you put on your plate, what you trash, all this has an obvious impact on the environment and on the others. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) gives basic numbers that can help anyone understand where he/she stands, food-wise:

"If food is wasted, it means that all the resources and inputs used in the production of all the food are also lost. For example, it takes about 1,000 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk and about 16,000 litres goes into a cow’s food to make a hamburger. The resulting greenhouse gas emissions from the cows themselves, and throughout the food supply chain, all end up in vain when we waste food"

This time I am extremely pleased to see that the topic is well covered in the news and corporate world. I am not sure the coffees and restaurants in JBR will address food production and waste in their daily menus; however newspapers pinpoints important aspects that deserve attention.

Pic: Khaleej Time

The Khaleej Times for instance reminds that "According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year. This is equivalent to the amount of food produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa."  Local authorities are also fully aware that tones of food are discarded during Ramadan, and that families should engage in the "3 Re" (Re-use, Reduce, Recycle) actively to promote more sustainable lifestyles. The message is here, the message is clear.

Dubai Municipality also engaged in a survey to try and collect information of its residents and estimate their
ecological footprint. I doubt the response rate was high, but the concept, the concern is worth mentioning.

More decided to launch new projects on this specific date:

The National puts forward The Goumbook-Gecostore, the "green connection" to purchase sustainable products online, from cosmetics to LED lamps.

AME Info goes for PTL Solar, "one of the region's leading solar energy solutions provider, brings a unique concept of going green with launching SOLCART, the first ever portable solar energy source powered by independent solar off-grid systems".

So yes, today, when I read all this, I have hope and I look forward to the next move.

"And that was enough to make me feel infinite"

Like my father wisely said, life hasn't been easy or fair to me this spring. Fair enough, indeed I had my share and i don't mind taking some time for myself. So far my manucure holds, but i still feel this strange impression to be lost while looking by the window from my 28th floor.

But I probably got used to the rythm of Dubai, after my one-year anniversary here. Because the first thing I wanted to look at, at 3am, was the construction sites down my residence and see how they have progressed after 3 weeks away from the country. I know things generally move fast around, and i was not deceived: the tram station is now built, and another floor of the tower's foundation is ready. There is a new spa, a new tailor, a new kindergarten, and the community gym should be ready soon.

There is just an obvious impression of being disconnected, each time I come back here. It is not especially a bad feeling: it is a strange mix between ecstasy and vertigo. The point is, you just need to understand it and make sure you're in the right mindset, to surf on these two feelings without falling into one particularly.

Fortunately, I have things to look forward to, preventing me from staring at the towers for no reasons, with no purpose. I am willing to end my housewife status soon, more than anything. Don't take me wrong, sleeping late, hanging out at The Walk, and caring about nothing, all this is quite pleasant. But it's not me, it's not what I had in mind when moving here. But until I sign something, I will keep on looking by my window and wait for the city to change.

Because I was standing in the tunnel. And I was really there.

Happy Birthday, Keavy

There are strange moments in life where you meet people and connect instantly, with full heart and no doubt. Your instinct gives you no warning signals, your guts tell you you just want to be "best friend forever" with this person, and you open yourself immediately. 

That's the way i felt when i met Keavy some years ago. We were both volunteering to help organize an international conference in Lille on gender, science and technology, and we shared the same dorm. While the other girls were hard to catch, Keav was immediately ready for fun and story sharing, and so i fell in love with her.

The conference was a week long, and took place in July 2008. Since then we've managed to keep in touch via Facebook (what a great invention for such stories) which would inform one another on her life in the US, on mine in Europe. Pictures, birthday wishes, after all, even though there were no real discussions, it was enough by then to know the other person was there.

Like every year, Facebook tells me today is her birthday. So I go onto her wall, write birthday wishes, and send her my "warmest hugs from Dubai". Having some time I also decide to check her latest pictures, then read the messages people left. Until I understand the clear truth.

Keavy has died. And I had no idea.

I searched a little, to learn she died in a plane accident (she was a pilot).  I got of course very sad and nostalgic, but then smiled immensely: Keav loved flying, she experienced her passion and shared it with her beloved ones until the end.

What angered me the most, however, is to realize the accident did not happen recently. She died in July 2011, almost 2 years ago. And I had no idea.

Since then, someone had been posting on her wall, on her behalf. New pictures, some links. What i thought was just updates on her life ended up being  a page for people to remember, to write, to mourn. And that just hurt me more in a way than knowing she had gone.

In view of my current loss, and of the information I have posted myself on Facebook to share sad news with people I do not know, I feel angry at myself too. Soon I will close my sister's page, to prevent such terrible misunderstanding from happening again. Remembering a lost one should go beyond a page on a website.

Keavy would be 27 today. Happy birthday, girl.

Earth Day 2013

Earth Day takes place every year on 22 April, which makes it...

oh well, today.

Well done for planning, dude.

After couple of years embracing sustainability with my heart and body - applying in my private life some principles supposedly sustainable - i have placed Earth Day on the same level as the Earth Hour, the Intertional Women Day and the World Water Day. I might not fully agree with some of these dedicated days (i do not understand for instance why 8 March should be the only day when gender equality, women health, education and so many other topics are addressed), but I do care.

To me, in these days lays the hope that important questions, relevant to the future of our planet and to mankind, are addressed publicly and broadly. On these days, people get informed, documentaries are broadcasted, debates are held. In Denmark, Earth Day was the occasion for schools to organize workshops for the little ones so they learn about the planet, its water, its resources, food, or waste. Drawing trees on recycled paper to address the natural limitations of our world. In Sweden there were demonstrations on climate change, to gather citizens and politicians on the next square and exchange constructive ideas.

Even though these topics hold in their core great amounts of inequalities and injustice, I associate these open discussion days with democracy, hope, common future.

 

Am i demanding, or too optimistic? possibly both, I guess. I just tend to believe hard that one way to support change is education. Call it even "knowledge" if you wish, even "information".

 

You might disagree with my approach; you might have another opinion than your neighbour; you might have your own idea or way on how to improve the world. Fair enough. I still believe however that if you share this idea with your neighbour, he might change his mind, you might reach a compromise, or you might teach one another new ways to progress.

 

Now: Remember an earlier post regarding Car Free Day 2013 in the region? On 13 February, I actually wrote the following:

"I focused on the article over my breakfast tea, nodding with interest, until I realized that this day was actually...today. Well done for planning, dude". 

No joke, I actually use today the exact same words as I used a few months ago. How cynical is this.

 

I realized it was Earth Day 2013 thanks to the lovely Google Doodle of the Day, showing a little land evolving day and night, season after season. By clicking I could make the Doodle rain, I could fix the flower, and I even grew a tree. Just wonderful to start the day with. Without it another day would have passed and I would have looked at the Sheik Zayed Road from my distant 28th floor without any other consideration than the usual one on noise and traffic.

Pics: Google Doodles of the day

 You see my point here: without a doodle I would have missed the day. Without internet and social media (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in my case) I would have forgotten and concentrated my time on my little life instead of focusing on the big picture. I poke myself, as much as I regret the lack of visibility here. I haven't found a trace in the national newspapers, which have been developping papers on the earthquake risks, the current weather conditions (rain, just to mention it) and the new Lamborghini Aventador that the UAE police is now using to patrol.

 

Maybe I should have been more proactive and start communicate about it earlier, long enough to actually trigger reactions, and who knows, implement projects. It could have been something good for the community, and my sustainable spirit would not have hurt either.

 

I have so many memories on constructive discussions while in Scandinavia: why don't we organize a drawing competition in the nearest school? why don't we plant trees to offset carbon emissions, and use this event as an educational mean for the community to understand and respect their environment? Why don't we engage in a public debate to identify the most suitable way to address food waste? Why don't we organize a painting workshop to decorate bikes and promote means of transportation?

 

Too many "why", not enough "let's do it", and inexisting "because" to justify my lack of (re)action.

 

By the way, when i posted "it's Earth Day 2013, is there anything going on on your side?", i got no reply at all. Maybe playing with the Doodle was the most constructive aspect of the day after all.

 

 Happy Earth Day 2013.

 

EDIT 23/04: a friend corrected my mistake via Twitter by forwarding me the following news from the Dubai City Guide website:

"Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC), an independent forum aimed at conserving the environment by strengthening and promoting green building practices in the UAE, marked Earth Day with a screening of the documentary ‘Wild Ocean 3D’ that highlighted the importance of sustainable development"

Let's hope that future Earth Days and other international célébrations related to the protection of our planet will be broadly advertized to increase public awareness as well as individual/political/corporate commitments. 



Writing is an interesting mental process

One of the assignments I was asked to work on, as part of a job interview, is to write on sustainability, disregarding the final format of my essay. I was even given free hands on topic and size, something anyone would hope for to let creativity and critical sense flow. Do I want to prepare a newsletter, or a short novel? a translation work or a critical review of an existing project? I am free.

I left the meeting with sparkles in my eyes and in my brain, so happy I had finally met people that could inspire me that much  in a one-hour-long meeting only. I sat on a plane, mentally preparing a list of topics i could address. I thought it would take two weeks to sit down and think, to wander around in a familiar urban environment with a notebook in my hand, a pen in the other, and to finally express myself.

These two weeks of creativity however changed into three continuous weeks of worries, prayers and sorrow, and sustainability was forgotten to leave its core place to another important thing in life: family. I have lost my sister, I have lost a piece of my heart with it. I have burried creativity along with many emotions to give room to feelings i did not know, allowing me to face a reality that i had possibly denied, head up.

I have lacked sleep, I have pushed myself to the edge where sleeping equals resting (which was not as frequent as I had hoped). I have been reading, a lot, to reach this limit, I have left the light on long.

It's been a month now, and things have slowly started to change. I do sleep, and I do rest. I read because I want to, not because I feel like denying reality. The biggest change is that I manage to wake up at night, with some writing ideas that i forget of course in the morning. But I think, I look, I read, I observe, I register information.

I am back on track.