THE X - SPOT

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Michael Jackson Memorial

The Michel Jackson Memorial

I just watched the more than 3 hour Michael Jackson Memorial, televised by CNN from Staple Center in L.A.. It was so moving specially when Usher sang his rendition of "Gone Too Soon" and when he went down the stage toward Michael Jackson's remain. It was so touching.

The other part of the Memorial that I thought was so moving, was when the Jackson family was on the stage on the last part of the memorial service and Paris Katherine, the daughter of Michael spoke briefly and said "I love him so much" then cried. It was so heartbreaking seeing the King's children like that. They obviously love their father.

The speech of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was so moving also. Her speech to me was so amazing specially when she get to the part about the Good Samaritan and that Michael Jackson was "a Good Samaritan" and a man "who cared and loved for the world".

I am a Michael Jackson fan. I became aware of Michael Jackson in the 80's when his "Thriller" came out and I loved him ever since. Michael Jackson will live forever through his music and in our hearts. R.I.P.

Related: My Top 10 Michael Jackson Songs, The King of Pop's Album Soar (Billboard, Week ending July 5, 2009)

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A Good Samaritan in The Desert.

Yanbu Snapshots

We rented a car here in Jeddah and went to Yanbu yesterday afternoon to visit our shop there. This is our second trip to Yanbu with myself driving a car. At first I felt confident driving the car, everything seemed to be going great, that was until our trip back to Jeddah in the afternoon the next day. We decided to stop a while to heed the call of nature and to take a few snapshots from our camera, but I made a mistake taking the car too far from the side of the road, where the ground is too soft and so the wheel of our car got trapped from the sand, we couldn't get out, the more I tried to pump the gas thinking that we could get our wheel free from the deep soft sand, but the deeper our wheel sunk. I tried putting some pieces of woods that we found around the site but it was no use, the car was not going anywhere. Then I got scared, we've only got a small bottle of water and it was mid afternoon and was burning hot.

Then Nelson said we should get help from some passersby. A Pakistani guy stopped and tried to help us. He brought ropes to help our car be pulled from the sand but because it was made of some plastic-like material, it was too weak and snapped. He then get another rope from his delivery truck, but this time it looked like a seatbelt from some old cars and it was made of nylon. We tried to tie it up at the rear of our car and to the front of his delivery truck, then he begun to pull our car out of the sand and sure enough it worked. Thank God! We offered him water and a lot of thank yous after that, without him we wouldn't be able to get back to Jeddah this afternoon and we will still be there on that same spot at this moment. We asked his name and he replied "Mustaq".

Nelson and I want to say Thank You from the bottom of our hearts again to Mustaq. You really are a good Samaritan. God bless you.

*The small picture at the left above shows the exact spot where our car got trapped from the sand.

**The video above shows Mustaq driving his truck, the Pakistani man who helped us.

Link: Trip To yanbu (wordpress)

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Thumbs Up: My Top 10 Michael Jackson Songs

Here is my Top 10 Michael Jackson Songs

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Photos: Riyadh, Dammam & AlKhobar

Here are some of the pictures from our 5 day trip (store visit) in Riyadh, Dammam and Al khobar.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Thumbs Up: Philippines, Winner Of The You Tube Democracy Video Challenge

The Philippine entry was chosen as one of the winners of You Tube's Democracy Video Challange. More than 900 people from 95 countries competed for the grand prize. Watch the Philippines' entry, "Long Live The Fearless Man".

To watch the other winners, Click Here.

Monday, June 15, 2009

"The Kingdom In The Closet" by Nadya Labi

A friend of mine came across a 4 page article on The Atlantic Monthly (on-line) dated May 2007 and I want to share it with all of you. It is called "The Kingdom In the Closet" by Nadya Labi, about homosexuality in Saudi Arabia and her many interviews with different people.

Related: Saudi Gay Scene, In You Tube

Friday, June 5, 2009

Barking At The Wrong Tree? [The Hayden Kho Sex Scandal]

I think everybody is making a big mistake trying to pin down Dr.Hayden Kho in this sex scandal. Yes, he may not be innocent in this case, he was the one who took those sex videos without the consent of his partners, but he was not the one who uploaded them on the internet.

There are actually two issues here. First, him taking those videos without the consent of the women and second, the uploading of those videos on the net. To start with, there would have been no crime if nobody had seen them (the videos) or if nobody had uploaded them on the net. I believe he only took those videos for his own consumption and was not meant for anybody else to see.

This case is exactly the same as the sex scandal in Hongkong, where Ho Chun Sze, the man who was accused of stealing highly explicit photos from Edison Chen's laptop and spreading them on the net with profit in mind.

I think the investigation of this case (Hayden Kho sex scandal) should focus on the person who uploaded the video on the net and its master mind, the person who told Eric Chua to steal the sex videos. Dr. Vicky Belo should be present in this investigation, I believe she's an important person who can shed light to this scandal.

Related: You Tube