The Pakistani Spectator

Would you please tell us something about you and your site?
My name is Sara Abdel Azim, a 21 year old (not before next month) digital media and engineering student at the German University in Cairo, currently working on my bachelor project in Stuttgart, Germany on facial expression recognition based upon video streams.

I love to constantly continue learning, experiencing and creating new things, regardless how insignificant they may be, which could probably be why my general interests are quite diversified.

I’ve started Ramblings of a Restless Mind in 2006, but because of my procrastinating nature and lack of motivation at that time, I had a very long break from blogging until the beginning of this year. But it’s back now, alive and kicking.

I created it to share my personal interests, experiences, thoughts and pointers with whoever it may concern.  I try to keep this organized by having the “Wednesday Recommendation”, “Thursday Art Attack” and the Friday “Love List” posts each week.  This also helps with my procrastination issue because then I feel the obligation to post on the specific day, not just leave it till an undefined “later”. The rest of the days of the week are left for if I have the time or feel like it.

Do you feel that you continue to grow in your writing the longer you write? Why is that important to you?

 

Definitely! The more a person practices any kind of skill, the more that skill is enhanced. The more the skill is enhanced, the more that person feels confident about it and eliminates his/her self-doubt.  And the worst enemy to imagination and creativity is self-doubt.

So why not refine your skills if you have the chance? It’s an opportunity for personal improvement on so many levels. And not just my own, but I’d like to believe that through my writing someone will get his/her thoughts provoked and will be motivated to write him/herself… and so the chain continues.

I’m wondering what some of your memorable experiences are with blogging? 

 

I guess it’s the feedback I get from people concerning my “Love Lists”.  It’s exhilarating when someone tells me they wait for Friday to read them or that they actually cheer them up. It excites me even more when people actively take part in it and share the things they love themselves, no matter how small. Always feels like I’ve got something good going on over there.

What do you do in order to keep up your communication with other bloggers?

The three golden blogger tools; commenting, blog networking websites & forums and “Visitors” widgets.

Blogging, like one’s social life requires keeping in touch, and nothing delivers that more than those three.

What do you think is the most exciting or most innovative use of technology in politics right now? 

 THE INTERNET! People have never been so connected before. They’ve never been so expressive about their standpoints and all sorts of material has never been easier to get. You’re always going to find all possible sides of the coin. Sites like YouTube, twitter and similar platforms make it easy for a party to get a message through to millions upon millions of people. I guess that would be one powerful tool when it comes to politics.

Do you think that these new technologies are effective in making people more responsive?

 

Well, the ability to comment on whatever I want and reading what other people of diverse backgrounds had to say is definitely an advantage. It serves as a rich environment for mind picking. But it’s up to us in the end to make out what’s true and what’s not from the jungle it’s becoming, researching well and using our common sense before jumping into something… or at someone.

What do you think sets Your site apart from others?

Me. =)

If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success in life, what would it be?

I believe that nothing is difficult and one could do whatever he/she sets his/her mind on doing, and I guess my stubbornness helps a bit, so I don’t give up easily either.

What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life? 

 

The happiest was when one of my best friends called me up while I was helping out at a conference one day and told me that we had been accepted from quite a number of people to do this particular project in Germany. People around me were considering tying me up in a stray jacket.  But I hope that that happiest moment would be superseded with the one when we hopefully finish this bachelor project with flying colors, insha’allah.

I don’t recall many gloomy times, but I guess the gloomiest was when my grandmother died. She had had Alzheimer’s for years and was already bedridden for quite some time, but it was the way it affected my mom that affected me the most.

If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?

I’m a huge fan of travelling in general, so picking only three destinations of them all would be a chore!

My number one choice has been for a long time, and still remains, Greece because I’m very interested in their mythology, apart from it being an extremely beautiful country.

Then the second would be the moon. When I was younger I was kinda convinced that someday I’ll be up there.  I’m far from being convinced now, but with everything else aside, it would make one heck of a visit.

Other than that, hmmm, Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Cape Town), India (Delhi, Mumbai), the Alps, the Andes mountains, China (the great wall, forbidden city, etc), Petra, Venice, Florence, Finland (to see the aurora borealis), and that’s just scratching the surface, really… I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist.

What is your favorite book and why? 

 

The best of all books is without a doubt the holy Quran.

On a more humanly basis, my favorite is “The Prophet” by Khalil Gibran. In the book, a prophet who has lived in the foreign city of Orphalese for 12 years is about to board a ship which will carry him home but he stops first to discuss many issues of life with the people. It’s the smallest book in page count that I have read, and the one that took me the most time to go through. It gets you to contemplate a lot.

What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)?

I think it’s what most people out there notice first as well, the eyes… in conjunction with the person’s body language.  I like to observe that a lot.

Is there anyone from your past that once told you you couldn’t write?

Not really, my English teachers had always praised my writing in their classes and some friends keep telling me they like my writing as well. One of them even wants me to start considering writing short stories, hehe… I’m the one who didn’t believe it was good enough.

How bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?

From what I’ve seen, by optimizing the page’s search engine page rank through, possibly, link love, permalinks or whatever else method there is. Then with enough traffic, they add something like Google’s Adsense, Chitika or writing sponsored posts, as PayPerPost provides.

I guess it would be nice for someone with a passion for writing to make some extra money on the side while doing what they love, but I don’t like how there are blogs that are way below quality, with hardly any content at all and a zillion ads all over the place.

Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?

I don’t think that’s the case. Blogging is just another hobby for some, like drawing, playing an instrument or whatever else.  I wouldn’t say someone who could play the guitar well (without it being their actual profession) has an awful lot of time on their hands. They prioritize their tasks and give that hobby whatever amount of time they find suitable. Sure beats aimlessly flicking through TV channels for hours.

What role can bloggers of the world play to make this world more friendlier and less hostile?

 

Bloggers bring their culture, traditions, environment and own spices to their pages for everyone in the world to see. It gives everyone else the opportunity to have an insight at what they’ll never get from a travel website or brochure for example. With better understanding between people of different backgrounds and origins, having friends (even if they only know each other from their posts) from all over the world and getting educated enough about our differences, in my opinion, will make people more empathetic and compassionate about others who they previously had a set, clichéd idea about.

Who are your top five favourite bloggers? 

 

Hussein Fahmy’s personal blog.

Laila’s Thoughts & Tips.

Baheyya: Egypt Analysis and Whimsy

Umar’s “http://www.umarpirzada.com/blogUTP.

Amr Adel Amin’s amradelamin.blogspot.comlogodaedaly.

Is there one observation or column or post that has gotten the most powerful reaction from people?

The one that got the most reactions until now would be the “toxic vs healthy love” post.  I had left a few questions and comments open for controversy and that was exactly what I got. Apart from that, the post where I asked for help choosing a header got a lot of responses. People seem to like polls very much =)

What is your perception about Pakistan and its people?

Well I’m not really informed about Pakistan apart from it being an Islamic country in Asia, but I’ve had a few Pakistani friends when I was much younger in Saudia Arabia and they were extremely friendly and generous people (if my memory serves me right, hehe).

But I don’t think it’s not one of the countries with much exposure.

Have you ever become stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger?

No, not really. Every readable, not-bombarded-with-ads-and-has-no-content, blog that I’ve passed by is unique in its own way and has its own flavor. It’s like swimming through a pool of skittles.

What is the most striking difference between a developed country and a developing country?

Gosh, how this reminds me of business class! I guess the most obvious differences would be the country’s Gross Domestic Profit, infrastructure development, per capita income, education enrollment or adult literacy rate.

In a developed country, the average income would be high and the economies and markets would be advanced. In a developing one, the country wouldn’t generally have achieved a significant degree of industrialization in relation to its population and would have a medium or low standard of living. And I think in developed ones, there isn’t such a big gap between the rich and the poor.

What is the future of blogging? 

 

It’s becoming extremely popular worldwide and a whole lot more powerful. Soon, it will probably be a type of media that is as dominant as sharing videos on YouTube. But coming along hand-in-hand with that, is an amplification of the responsibilities on the bloggers themselves regarding their attitudes and contents. With great power comes great responsibility, said Spiderman.

Apart from that, I think in the future some governments might impose some regulations on their bloggers as well, because blogging will become so dynamic and influential, it’ll have the potential to create a change.

You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?

I find it less difficult to find the right words or organizing thoughts when I’m writing formal emails, reports or anything else that requires writing skills and I believe that’s because of the practice I’ve been getting through my blog.

And about the personal life, having people I know reading my blog gets them to know me better, even if just a little bit. It allows us to discuss things, address certain issues and opinions more directly and possibly getting me to be more open.

What are your future plans?

I don’t really have a rigid plan for the future. Que sera, sera.

I’d like to continue my studies though, possibly be a professor at the university, travel a lot, have my own arts and crafts or designing business on the side, have an established comic production, have a healthy happy family and accomplish something that I’d be remembered by… roughly speaking.

Any Message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?

I wish them the best of luck and would like to invite them to help in the globalization process, to voice their thoughts and opinions and to aid in reducing the stereotypes and clichés.  Most importantly, I’d like to thank them for reading this far through the interview.

Last 5 posts by The Pakistani Spectator

• Interview with Blogger Tikun Olam - November 30th, 2008
• Interview with Blogger EngSpeak - November 29th, 2008
• Interview with Blogger Jeff Noble - November 26th, 2008
• Interview with Blogger Jan Marshall - November 24th, 2008
• Asif Zardari: ‘India & Pakistan Share Blood Ties’ - November 24th, 2008

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