Well, it had to happen one day, now I have to work for a living.

In the spirit of engendering tolerance, and to expose the many good things that the Bahrain Finance House has done, in not only bringing running water to the depths of Africa, building mosques in Germany and Sao Paulo and of course the various schools it has funded throughout the Third World; they have approached me to run their many philanthropic efforts with particular emphasis on spreading the idea and ideals of tolerism by utilising Mahmood’s Den to the full.

Some of you might have questioned the various technical issues we have had over the last week. These, I can now declare, were caused by BFH’s technical staff, Rackspace and myself diligently working at stabilising the Den as we believe that due to the project I have been employed to do will substantially increase the load on the site; therefore, we have bought another server from Rackspace and have now completely and successfully migrated the Den to a load balancing arrangement to ensure reliable and expeditious delivery of content to readers.

Although I cannot divulge the financial arrangements, I can tell you that the ownership of the domain mahmood.tv is in the process of being transferred to a foundation which will be the umbrella organisation for these new efforts. In doing so, I am very happy with the financial arrangements and can tell you that although money was never a motivation – doing good of course supersedes these mundane considerations – I am now financially secure.

Needless to say, this would never have happened had it not been for your help, my friends. Without your visits, readership, comments, criticism and genuine love that I felt, this would never have happened.

What can you expect from Mahmood’s Den going forward?

The same, but much richer!

Plans have been put in place to employ full-time staff (one technical to take care of the server, development and theme creation and two sales and marketing) while we intend to hire many freelancers operating in the same areas BFH concentrates on, these freelancers will file reports on activities in their areas as well as news stories and analysis. Of particular interest is the exposition of corruption in those countries and how that impacts our delivery of sustenance and education in those territories.

There should be a press release from BFH later on today which I shall repost here of course.

Thank you once again for your support and your friendship.

Comments

Hisham

1 Apr, '07 at 9:03

So cool! Congratulations, mahmood! Considering your one-man effort track record so far and how it has had a major impact on Bahrain, I’m sure your new expansion will for sure mean even more good stuff!

Again, all the best…all I would suggest is to keep the “one-man” feel of the site, and to have the posts in your own voice, as that’s one main reason why we love this site. It is a blog after all!

All the best,
Hisham@LFD

Cradle of Humanity

1 Apr, '07 at 9:09

I don’t quite understand, so Mahmood’s Den will cease to be a blog? It’ll be more like a news website with a freelancer reporters?

Cradle of Humanity

1 Apr, '07 at 10:50

OK.. April’s Fool?

Dana

1 Apr, '07 at 10:51

people please check your calendars 😀

vagabondblogger

1 Apr, '07 at 11:00

Very happy for you, but confused – you’re not leaving us with a bunch of strangers are you?

Mitmallel

1 Apr, '07 at 11:20

For the last 2 hours I’ve been thinking of something to write, until a minute ago I refreshed the page and looked at my calendar :biggrin:

milter

1 Apr, '07 at 11:40

Mahmood,

I wasn’t aware this day was celebrated in this manner in Bahrain, too.

I hope you won’t get The Department for Antisocial Behaviour chasing you with silenced guns for this cruel act.

Maha

1 Apr, '07 at 11:57

:w00t: soooo happy for you my dear brother
all the best inshalla…love you xxx

Gillian

1 Apr, '07 at 12:44

Ha ha ha!!
Very well done Mahmood. I believed you for a minute. Thank you Dana for pointing out the date.

:tongue:

Hani AlYousif

1 Apr, '07 at 12:48

I almost believed you until I thought that the “I’m rich!” crowing was getting a bit out of hand, even for you!

Good one.

Capt. Arab

1 Apr, '07 at 12:52

April Fool????
Too good to be true so fast…..

flavio

1 Apr, '07 at 13:21

I was like, BFH? what does Bahrain Financial Harbour has to do with mahmood.tv, then decided to re-read your post, ah its Bahrain Finance House. OK. But I never heard about Bahrain Finance House. KFH owned? ok..lemme read other people’s comments…ok.. they all keep talking about the calendar. umm ok, i dont really have one in front of me but let me check the date. DAMN!!

Dude

1 Apr, '07 at 13:23

congrats :biggrin: !!

Bahrainiac

1 Apr, '07 at 13:38

You got me! :wink::tongue: Now seriously, what’s with the load times to the site? :dizzy:

sandy

1 Apr, '07 at 13:39

yeah! April fool

blogfather does it again!

(Mabrook)

Ali

1 Apr, '07 at 13:46

“I sure will miss Mahmood’s Den” .. That was my immediate reaction until I read Dana’s comment :blush:

Barry

1 Apr, '07 at 13:52

The very first thing that came to mind here is “April Fool’s Day”. I am 100% sure you know very well about this day.

Butterfly

1 Apr, '07 at 15:47

I was totally confused .. BFH .. freelancers .. Sales and Marketing! I thought a new television network is about to start :biggrin:

Mitmallel

1 Apr, '07 at 15:48

I have to agree with bahrainiac, the load times are quite high.. and alot of errors yesterday and the day before ..

Anonymous

1 Apr, '07 at 16:45

BFH haaaaahaaaahaaa

sillybahrainigirl

1 Apr, '07 at 17:19

nice one!

Ash

1 Apr, '07 at 18:33

Now that you are financially secure at last, Mahmood, I’d like to invite you to accompany me on a guided tour of Switzerland’s world-famous spaghetti groves: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6505837.stm