All I was doing was enjoying my favorite meal mloukhieh, until I was stopped by an article I read on the newspaper that I was eating on (an old, unstylish, habit I can't seem to get rid of).
Bassam Shariff, a 58-year-old Palestinian man, was found dead yesterday morning in his car parked on Al Wahda Street, opposite the Pierre Cardin outlet in Sharjah. The palestinian man died in his car last month after living in it for the past THREE years! And where did that happen? In the UA-friggin-E!
Can you believe this nonsense? In a country which boasts the highest rates of millionaires and billionaires in the Arab region ... an old man ... tired, lonely and broke ... slept every night in the front seat of his broken-down old car, till one morning he was found dead.
Though he was living in penury, and had not been keeping well for some time, he would never accept alms from peopleBassam Shariff is survived by his sister who lives in the US and his brother who works as a doctor in Palestine.
I wish I'd known the proud Bassam Shariff, the man who lived and died in his car yet never accepted alms from people. I probably lived about an hour away from Bassam, but I guess even if I knew him he wouldn't have accepted anything from me; his pride wouldn't have allowed him to.
I googled Bassam Shariff and only found ONE lousy mention to his death on another outdated blog. So basically no one really gave a shit about his life and no one gave a shit about his death either.
I only made it through the chicken wing before I realized that the mloukhieh doesn't really taste as good anymore.
