Having a small business in Bahrain is nothing less than a Sisyphean task. It’s agonising. Heart wrenching. Soul crushing. Doesn’t end. And one has to deal with a myriad of hindrances to business. Growing a small business is an even harder enterprise. Everything is lobbied at you not to succeed. One of the main detriments …
This quote came to mind this afternoon from an Arabic novel I read a while ago by the Tunisian writer Ahlam Mosteghanemi. The quote goes something like this: “Nothing hears the most nonsense in the world as a painting hanging in a museum”or in Arabic: “لا شئ يسمع الØماقات الأكثر ÙÙŠ العالم مثل لوØØ© ÙÙŠ …
It’s been so long that writing these words seem so foreign to me. When I started blogging, we weren’t limited to 140 characters, nor was peoples’ attention span. Our experience wasn’t curtailed into how fast a thumb can flick through pictures in an endless stream of blur. We had the time to actually stop, evaluate …
What’s the average life of a business? I don’t know for certain, and I doubt anyone else in Bahrain or the Middle East knows either. Statistics of this sort are just not prioritised, and if they are, then they are not published. US statistics suggest that, on average, a Fortune 500 company lasts around 40 to 50 years. …
Here comes Ramadhan. The month where almost no work gets done When productivity of just about the whole Muslim nation grinds to a halt And efficiency is not even a concept to be tolerated Where people willingly stay up all night, and sleep all day Where gluttony is the rule And piousness is only the …