Have I Ever

(Thang Long Photo)


Have I Ever

Have I ever told you
that if I sit really still and silent,
sometimes. I like to think
I can hear your heart beating
in time with mine?

Have I ever told you
that when I watch you speak to me
through lines and cords,
and bytes and ram,
I imagine
your voice,
whispering into my ear?

Have I ever told you
that I wait out each day
in anticipation,
wanting
only an hour or two,
just a second in space and time,
to feel close to you?

Have I ever told you
that there has been times,
when I ached for you,
ached for you so badly,
that the emotions overwhelmed me..
and so I sat and cried?

Have I ever told you
that sometimes,
I will reach out,
touching your name
on this cold screen before me,
wishing
I could reach in
and pull you to me?

Have I ever told you
that after the first time I heard
the sound of your voice,
thousands of miles away,
I sat up all night,
turning the conversation over and over
in my mind,
examining it,
like some newly discovered species of flower?

Have I ever told you
that I would give everything up,
just for one night
to be able to lay near you,
to feel your chest rise and fall
with each breath you take,
just to know that you are real?

Have I ever told you
that I dream of you often,
I dream of you reaching out
and touching my hand,
simply to let me know
that you are there,
and everything is okay?

Have I ever told you,
have I still yet to tell you . . .
that I love you?








SAUDI FOILS OIL ATTACK PLOT

Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had arrested 208 militants for involvement in cells planning an imminent attack on an oil installation, as well as attacks on clerics and security forces.

A cell of eight militants led by a foreign resident planned an attack on an oil facility in the Eastern Province, it said. Saudi Arabia has been building a 35,000-strong rapid reaction force to protect installations after a failed al Qaeda attack in 2006 on the world's largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq. One of the cells was planning to smuggle in missiles.

SAUDI SUFFERING HUGE SHORTAGE OF ENGINEERS

Saudi market is in need for 240,000 engineers but that there are only 110,000 currently employed in the kingdom, of which Saudis make up only 20%.

Saudi Arabia is embarking on an ambitious economic plan to develop its infrastructure and construct six new cities that are expected to attract more than 300 billion Saudi riyals ($80 billion) in investment.

The Ministry of Labour has said that it has issued 878,737 working visas in the first nine months of this year, showing a 57% increase from a year earlier.

CHILD LITERACY IN ARAB ARE AMONG THE WORST IN THE WORLD

Morocco, Kuwait, Qatar and Iran, along with Indonesia and South Africa, take up the bottom six places in the study of ten-year-olds’ reading ability across 45 countries.

The study is another reminder of the poor state of education in the Arab world, which has frequently come in for criticism for not supplying enough qualified graduates to fill positions created by the region’s booming economies.

Bird Flu Update:



Recently, over 200,000 birds are being culled in Saudi Arabia following the discovery of a new outbreak of bird flu at a farm close to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday.
It is the second table-egg farm in the Al-Kharj region to be hit by the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease, and the third in the Riyadh province in two days.

So far bird flu cases have only been detected in the central Riyadh area, but fears of the disease spreading are beginning to grow.

Riyadh’s municipality had closed down several restaurants in the city that sell chicken from unidentified sources.