Arabianism

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2010-09-12T20:38:00.000+03:00

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Cheers.
http://arabianism.net.

You are not welcome

2010-08-31T07:56:00.000+03:00

A couple weeks ago, I decided it’s time for a vacation. I have a visa to the US but for someone who hates flying, the trip is unbearable. UK was the best option. It’s only 5 hours from Beirut and London was always on the list of cities I wanted to visit. It also helps that I have friends there who promised to show me around.

A week ago, I filled the visa application, gathered most of the requested documents and booked an appointment. The appointment was last Wednesday. Less than 48 hours later, I received an SMS informing me that my documents are ready to be collected.

I got the visa. A multiple entry visa.

Dear Arab countries, if the USA and the UK believe that a Palestinian’s disposable income is good enough for them, where do you get off denying us your precious visa? Aren't you ashamed of yourselves? Do you even feel ashamed? It hurts that western countries welcome Palestinians but you, Arab countries, won’t. Few years ago, I applied for a visa to visit my parents in Kuwait. I tried for a whole year to get it. I never did.

What a disgrace. The Arab League is nothing but a joke.

Television Fail

2010-08-24T09:16:00.003+03:00

I don’t watch TV much. The last time I watch extensive amount of television was during the World Cup. But in the last couple of days, I was Internet-less most of the time. I had to resort to television, the old fashioned source of entertainment and news.

This reminds me of classic Comic Book Guy quote:

Kent Brockman: Excuse me, did you see the six o'clock news?
Comic Book Guy: No, I get my news from the internet, like a normal person under seventy. Farewell, dinosaur.

But I digress.

Al Arabiya You ‘Twit’

A couple of days ago, I saw Al Arabiya’s report on the Twitter race between Britney Spears and Lady Gaga. Did you catch it? That was damn fine reporting, wasn’t it? I especially liked the part where Al Arabiya said the race is getting very competitive on the ‘TWIT’ website. Even more astounding was the image of Google Search accompanying the report. Hey, it’s all Internet after all.

OSN, where details are not important

Between their shows, OSN Comedy plays a lot of promos, jingles and other crap. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they have their ‘OSN Top 30’. I’m guessing it’s the top 30 best moments from TV series. The number One spot went to ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ as highlighted at the bottom of the screen. That’s quite interesting...especially when the clip they are showing is of ‘House MD’. Hey, they are all medical shows after all.

The house that should replace all buildings in Lebanon

2010-08-21T14:00:00.005+03:00

German architect Rolf Disch built the home, called Heliotrope, to follow the sun throughout the day. The structure features triple panes of thermally insulated glass to strike a balance between letting light in and keeping the house cooler inside.

A giant 6.6-kilowatt-capacity rooftop solar panel called the Sun Sail slurps up the rays of energy, pumping them into the home and grid. Solar thermal collectors on balcony railings act as water heaters and radiators. On cloudy days, the house can be heated with wood chips and solar thermal heating.

The Sun Sail itself rotates separately from the house, adjusting itself to the best possible position at all times. This gives it a 30% to 40% advantage in energy production over traditional rooftop solar panels.

The house is green inside as well. Waste water goes through a purification system for reuse, and rain water collects in a rooftop basin. The toilet system turns human waste into compost.

Source

I am not a tree hugger but with little to no electricity and temperatures reaching 41C in the summer, the house is what this country needs.

Do you even know what PR is?

2010-08-21T11:02:00.004+03:00

This is what you get when you search for Public Relations (PR) jobs on Monster Gulf.

Sales Manager
HR Manager
Arab Sales Executive
Secretary to CFO (WHAT?!)
Head of Supplement Sales

This is what you get when you search for Public Relations (PR) on Bayt.com.

Public Health Consultant
Senior Sales Representative – Hardware
Customer Relations Executive
Senior Admin and Facilities Executive
IT Project Manager
Technical Consultant
Estimator
Human Resources and Administration Manager

The list of unrelated jobs goes on. Granted there are jobs related to the PR industry but, seriously, how hard is it to have a proper filtering system?

This proves that the concept of PR is still lost on many and education is lacking.

Idiot at Company X: Hello. Monster Gulf? We would like to advertise for an opening. The position is Secretary to CFO.

Monster Gulf: Sure. We will place it under Secretarial category.

Idiot at Company X: No. Put it under PR.

Monster Gulf: But this not a PR position.

Idiot at Company X: Never mind that. My boss doesn't know what PR but he said it’s the buzz word and he requested this category.

Monster Gulf: That should be fine. Many people don’t know what PR is anyway so you’ll get away with it. Pleasure doing business with you.

Our universities suck, apparently

2010-08-21T05:19:00.002+03:00

If you thought the American University of Beirut (AUB) is the best university in the region, well, you are wrong.

According to ARWU’s top 500 educational institutes of 2010, the best universities in the Arab world are King Saud University and King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals.

Who would have thought! I actually know nothing about both universities but congratulations for making the list.

What’s even more intriguing is out of the 22 Arab countries (14,000,000 km2) only the above two universities made the list. On the other hand, seven different universities made the cut in tiny Israel (28,000 km2) and 25 made the cut in Japan (378,000 km2). Now what does that tell you about the educational system in the Arab world?

I still say the AUB got snubbed.

When it comes to crazy news, Saudi will always deliver

2010-08-21T04:10:00.000+03:00

The headline: Saudi judge considers severing spine of attacker who paralyzed man.

The story: In a variation of the ancient eye-for-an-eye punishment, a judge in Saudi Arabia has asked hospitals whether doctors would sever the spinal cord of an attacker convicted of paralyzing a man with a cleaver.

While a leading hospital in Riyadh refused to perform the operation (kudos), a sadistic hospital in Tabuk said it has no problem doing it.

Makes you wonder if the doctors at that hospital actually took the Hippocratic Oath or forgot the line that reads: I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

Dear Saudi, you never cease to amaze us. Another two steps back in educating the world that Islam is a compassionate religion.

Apology for the inconvenience

2010-08-20T02:01:00.001+03:00

If you are subscribed to Arabianism's feeds, you will notice some older articles are being posted as new. This is my bad. I had a couple of issues with the comments section of the blog and I had to delete a couple of posts and republish them.

Cheers.

No UAE visa to Palestinians since March

2010-08-18T18:12:00.000+03:00

According to Emirates Airlines visa office in Beirut, they have been 'instructed', since March 2010, not to issue visas to Palestinians (Watheeqa holders).

There you have it. UAE is added to the list of Arab countries which deny entry to Palestinians.

I have nothing more to add at this stage.

The word 'terrorist' is missing

2010-08-18T01:14:00.003+03:00

Texan dude, Patrick Gray Sharp, filled up his truck with explosives and tried to ignite it near a police station in Texas yesterday. He also attacked the policemen with his gun before he was killed.

Sounds like a terrorist attack to me. The Gawker and AP articles, however, do not mention the word terrorist or terrorism. Shocker! Now had the guy had an Arab name, the articles would have been written in a completely different way.

I’m just saying.

Your top three most annoying things about Lebanon [Survey]

2010-08-17T22:11:00.000+03:00

According to a recent survey, published on August 15 in The New York Post, the most annoying thing in New York is people who block subway doors. The Post carried out the survey with 300 residents to find out what they don’t like about the city. The rest of the top 10 is as follows:

2. Tourists

3. Cabdrivers on cell phones

4. Drivers who block the box

5. Panhandlers

6. Hipsters

7. Bike delivery guys

8. Film shoots that take over the street

9. Street fairs

10. Tip jars everywhere

Here's an idea...how about a survey to find out the most annoying things in Lebanon?

Choose your top three most annoying things in Lebanon. If this post gets enough replies, I’ll compile the data and share the final list. If you don’t live in Lebanon but have visited the place before, you can still take part in this survey.

My top choices:

1. Electricity shortages

2. Internet bandwidth, plans and pricing structure

3. Traffic

The prize you don't want to win

2010-08-17T01:48:00.000+03:00

As a news junkie, I scan and read news from all over the world. I actually make a game out of it. The which-region-wins-the-most-depressing-news-of-the-day game. Unfortunately, the Middle East always wins…and by a landslide.

Below are the three ‘most interesting’ top stories from different regions around the world today*. Play along with me here, I promise it gets a little interesting.

Europe

‎Thriving German economy gives Europe a boost - report‎
Energy Costs Push Prices Up Sharply in Europe
EU Threatens KLM Over Ash Compensation

South America

TAM, LAN intend to form 'number one' South American airline
Latin America looks to the wind for its clean energy
‎The Kindness of South American Strangers

Australia

Australia facing possibility of hung parliament
Ricky Ponting: Australia can beat England 5-0 in Ashes
Katy Perry Crashes Prom, Performs 'Teenage Dream' In Australia

North America

Indians in America debate over mosque near 9/11 site
Tyra Banks apologises after outcry over America's Next Top Model
BP's Gulf Well: One Of America's Biggest Oil Fields?

Africa

S.Africa's Aspen to buy Sigma drugs arm for $804 mln
Journalists campaign against press curbs‎
Naomi Campbell must apologise to the children of Africa‎

Most (if not all) of the top stories from around the world could not be more mundane or soft, don’t you agree?

Enters the Middle East.

US More Likely to Bomb Iran
The War Against Iran Begins
Mistrust Frustrates US Effort to Get Israelis, Palestinians Talking
Israel to reject new peace talks‎
5 killed in car bomb explosion in northern Iraq
Gaza future vague five years after unilateral Israeli disengagement
Bombing Iran

The Middle East, ladies and gentlemen; the world’s leading and only source of negative, depressing and terrifying news.

And we wonder why people are scared of this region! Leave it to us to spice up the world’s news. What’s fascinating is that our headlines have been the same for years. They really haven’t changed much, have they? They will probably remain the same until the next ice age.

We have been reading about the Palestinian–Israeli talks for decades now. Not a day goes by without reading about a tragic suicide bomb in Iraq. Every day we read about the increased tensions in the Middle East. Alas, the world remains amused with out stories.

We just have a knack for creating and spreading negativity to every corner of the world. If we have positive stories to share, it rarely goes beyond the walls of this region; or the world chooses to ignore them. On the other hand, our disastrous news, get the cover pages.

Seriously, when was the last time you heard a depressing story from Finland or Belgium or Brazil or Malaysia or Denmark or Cyprus or…the list goes on. How come there are no war predictions in other parts of the world? I think Canada’s most read negative stories of the year are RIM BlackBerry fiasco and temperatures rising to 36 Celsius. That’s it.

Don’t you think it’s about time the ‘negative news’ crown was handed over? We have been on that dreadful thrown for decades. We should be able to let go by now.

Well one good thing about our news is that we provide the world’s media with enough content to keep the media industry alive. I honestly cannot imagine the news without horrendous stories from the Middle East. We also provide the world with entertainment. They watch and laugh. We are a nonstop action-horror-comedy blockbuster.

This experiment works flawlessly 99% of the time. Try it yourself.

P.S The post was written at 2am and published at 9:40am.

Chaos in a Beirut neighborhood

2010-08-17T00:35:00.000+03:00

My neighborhood in Beirut erupted into chaos around midnight tonight. Some of the residents in the area threw bricks on the streets and tipped over the trash cans, causing the main road to be blocked.

When the police arrived, the residents blamed their actions on the frequent electricity cuts in the area, which caused businesses and individuals to suffer.

Today, the electricity was cut more than eight times for a total of seven hours. This has become a daily occurrence. A week ago, it was cut for more than 9 hours. While residents of other areas can subscribe to third-party providers (Ishtirak), it is forbidden in our neighborhood. In the scorching heat and high level of humidity, the residents are left without light and air conditioning.

Below are the pictures I took from my balcony. Click to enlarge.

How about a geography lesson?

2010-08-15T01:39:00.000+03:00

So I was searching Google Images for pictures of Arabs to add to some of my posts, I observed something interesting.

When you search for ‘Arabs’, Google’s algorithm suggests ‘Muslims’ as a related search. Two things come to mind here…

A. Google tells us: search for Muslims to get better results of Arab pictures.

B. Arabs don't have many images worth seeing.

Of course I am being silly here. Algorithms are designed in a unique way. But, Google, really? No other suggestions come to mind?

When you search for Indonesia, which has the highest population of Muslims, this is what Google suggests:

A search for Israel? Nope, no mention of the Jewish faith.

Only the Arab world seems to be associated with religion. Quite common since 9/11, no?

Back in June and following Barack Obama's speech in Cairo, most of the headlines, if not all, read: 'Obama addresses Muslim world'. Hmm! What about the 26,000,000 Christian and Jewish Arabs? What about the atheists? No love for them?

Here’s a small geography lesson:

Indonesia has the highest population of Muslims.
Nigeria has the second highest population of Muslims.
None of the top four countries with the highest population of Muslims are Arab.
In the top 30 countries with the highest population of Muslims, only 10 are Arab.
There are 25,000,000 Christians and 900,000 Jewish people in the Arab world.
Geographically, this region is called the Middle East and not the Muslim World. At least this what my geography schoolbooks in Kuwait taught me.
Islam is neither a nationality nor a race.

Interesting paragraph from an article I read long time ago:

Just last week, I heard somebody describing a person as "looking Muslim." People don't generally look Muslim, just like they generally don't look Christian. They might look Arab, but even that's questionable because there are many races that live in the Arab world. Needless to say, Muslims in the Middle East look different than Muslims in Africa or Indonesia. Source.

Dear world, can we not confuse geography with religion anymore? Thanks.

P.S. Click images to enlarge.

My follow list in 11 categories

2010-08-14T22:25:00.000+03:00

Twitter is truly fascinating. It’s a planet on its own. A virtual one. Much like the real world, It embraces different characters and personalities. Over the past 2 years, I have been religiously active on Twitter. On an average day, I spend enough time on Twitter to virtually ‘know’ and characterize tweeps into different categories.

Turns out there are 11 different ones.

The Poets.

They not only make you envious of their remarkable talent but their words are so electrifying, you instantly go into a state of trance.

Recommended Arabic poetry blogs:

http://pascalassaf.blogspot.com/

http://danyawad.wordpress.com/

http://elianebader.blogspot.com/

http://mhdbadr.blogspot.com/

The Angels.

They say you can’t really know a person until you meet him/her face to face. I say there’s always an exception to the rule. On my Twitter list, I have few angels. They always offer unconditional love and support. I don’t have an ounce of doubt that in real life, they are also angels.

The Activists.

They are the ones that are true to their cause. Full of determination and dedication. You don’t have to agree with their ideologies but they still make you believe that people can make a difference and that the world could be a better place. You learn a lot from them.

The Chandler Bings.

They are the ones who shower us with cynicism and sarcasm in 99% of their tweets. Much like the ‘Friends’ TV character, I believe they use sarcasm as a defense mechanism. And “OH. MY. GOD” most of the time you wish they were standing in front you so you could punch the living daylight out of them. Still, they are entertaining.

The Comedians.

In 140 characters or less, the comedians can make you cry with laughter with their snappy tweets and remarks. I usually don’t follow individuals who don’t follow back but for the comedians, I will always make an exception. Unlike the Chandler Bings, who try to be funny but instead make you cringe, the comedians are genuinely hilarious.

The Photographers.

I never really appreciated the art of photography until I joined Twitter. I follow brilliant amateurs who could easily pass for professional photographers. They really make you appreciate the art. Every shot is a masterpiece.

Recommended photography blogs:

http://photo.jarofjuice.com/

http://bilalhouri.com/

http://dubai.posterous.com/

The Playlists.

To create the perfect music collection, I would seek The Playlists' tweets. Hands down, they have the best taste in music. Every #nowplaying tweet is worth checking out.

Recommended blog:

http://whygrowup.tumblr.com/tagged/music

The Stoners.

Ok, they might not be actual stoners but their tweets surely indicate they are high on something. They simply make you go “WTF?!” Appropriately enough, they come out and ramble late at night. Great fun if you have insomnia.

The Techies.

They provide you with the best tech related support, information and news. I am not talking about the likes of Engadget or Mashable or the self-proclaimed geeks. I mean tweeps who live and breathe technology. Whenever my mind is in tech mode, I focus solely on their tweets.

The Romantics.

Painfully and hopelessly in love. They tweet random romantic thoughts and always choose love songs in their #nowplaying tweets. It’s sometimes endearing, but mostly depressing.

The Journos.

A must-follow to get the news as it breaks. Great bunch. There is a black sheep in every flock, however.

Do you have the same categories?

My Ramadan wish list

2010-08-10T19:16:00.000+03:00

This is will be my first Ramadan in Lebanon in 8 years. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I decided to create a wish list for the month.

This Ramadan….

May Arab countries’ hearts soften and allow Palestinians and Watheeqa holders to enter their ‘sacred’ land.
May Arab countries unite over serious issues, not just BlackBerry banning.
May Gaza get peace and electricity.
May Beirut get electricity all day.
May the humidity decides it’s time to vacation outside Lebanon.
May the fireworks in Lebanon wait till Eid.
May traffic have mercy on us.
May stores not hike Vimto and grocery prices.
May women show less skin (only during Ramadan).
May ‘True Blood’ episodes show less soft-core porn (again, only during Ramadan).
May people not tag me with Ramadan pictures on Facebook.
May Twitter be extra entertaining.
May people have more patience.
May people thank more and whine less.
May my family, friends and tweeps be always happy and healthy.

Blessed Ramadan everyone.

Majestic Lebanese art

2010-08-10T17:09:00.000+03:00

In the Middle East, Lebanon has always been the center of attraction when it comes to art.

I pass by my favorite exhibition every day and thought I’d share pictures of some of the fine art the country has to offer.

The below collection is currently on permanent display in Beirut and other areas. It has been there since May 2010. Unfortunately, the new collection is expected to arrive only when the next circus is in town. The ~~clowns~~ artists are already hard at work retouching their wrinkles with Photoshop.

If you are in Lebanon and want to visit the gallery, no need to take a cab. Just look to your right and to your left. For your convenience, the gallery is sometimes hanging above you on what seems to be, a laundry rope. Entrance is free.

Kudos to the exhibition organizers for setting up the gallery in record time. I went to bed one night and the next morning, the exquisite paintings were vomited all over Lebanon. Sadly, the artists are always short of cash. They could only afford to pay the ~~thugs~~ organizers to set up the exhibition but not to take the glorious canvas down, lucky for you.

This post is sponsored by Lebanon Tourism.

P.S. At the risk of sounding negative, Lebanon is indeed the place to visit if you are an art lover.

Saudi through the eyes of American Dad

2010-08-08T21:12:00.000+03:00

I am a huge fan of Seth MacFarlane’s animated series. While Family Guy is his most popular work, his best and funniest, in my opinion, is American Dad.

One of the funniest episodes on American Dad is the two-part ‘Stan of Arabia’.

Stan Smith, a CIA agent, upsets his boss. Instead of being fired, Stan gets relocated with his family to Saudi Arabia. Read episode summary here.

The episode aired in 2005 but I watched it again today and thought it deserves a mention on Arabianism for its depiction of Saudi Arabia.

While MacFarlane’s depiction is not 100% accurate, it does highlight several stereotypes and America’s perception of the Kingdom. Instead of boring you with text, I will illustrate in images from the episode.

A Saudi man pampered by his three wives.

Stan's wife, Francine, arrested by Saudi Virtue Police for going out in public without a man.

A Saudi man's Harem.

Stan, a conservative, adapts to Saudi culture. One of the best quotes by Stan is in this scene: "America does not want to enslave all Arabs...just the ones who have oil. Praise Allah."

In Saudi, men are happy, women are not.

Stan gets a second wife to help Francine with the 'cleaning and cooking'. He can't pronounce her name. He calls her Thundercat.

After dancing half-naked in public, Francine and the Smith family are sentenced to stoning for being infidels.

A Saudi Prince 'wasta' saves the day.

MacFarlane is known for his edgy racists gags and for pushing the envelope. If you have a good sense of humor, you will find both episodes entertaining and hilarious. MacFarlane takes shots at both Saudis and Americans.

Naturally, Saudi media was not too thrilled with the episodes. Arab News had this to say.

Plan B

2010-08-08T14:51:00.000+03:00

Is the financial crisis really over? Our regional media says the future is bright. As Professor Hubert Farnsworth would say, “Good news, everyone!”

But when you talk to business owners, friends, employees and ex-clients, the story is somewhat different. You get the feeling that the future is as black as Beirut at night during brutal electricity rationings.

Some of the quotes I heard lately, and these are their actual words:

We are not making money

Our budget is cut, yet again

I need plan B

I’m working on plan B

It’s a matter of time before we shut down

Our business has shut down

Our project is stalling

I’m gonna try Saudi

More layoffs in my company

I sent my CV everywhere

Screw the loans, I’m running away

We are accepting ridiculously low fees to survive

Our competition fee is still way lower than ours

That’s not good news at all!

Let’s assume the future is in fact bright. When will it be bright? When business are dead? When people are laid off and are overwhelmed with debt? When expats lose all their hard earned savings in stalled projects?

I had a rather depressing interesting conversation with one my of ex-clients. Over the past 12 months, their budget for PR has shrunk 80% and it is set to shrink even further. When the crisis started, they laid off a significant number of staff from their Middle East offices. The crisis is presumably over but the layoffs continue to take place.

The company my cousin works for, a US financial firm, recently shut down its operations in the Middle East. Like anyone didn’t see that happening in the financial sector.

In the world of regional PR, competition is very tough. The days of big PR budgets are long gone. I hear agencies are pitching competitive retainer fees to stay afloat; especially when the number of PR agencies is quickly replacing the number of construction cranes in Dubai.

In media, and according to a random tweet, a leading English publication in the UAE is cutting jobs. This follows the demise of Emirates Business 24-7’s print edition. But it’s not just print. Recently, I noticed that two regional online publications have stopped updating their sites. Their last piece of news was over a month ago. I asked the editor of one of them and he confirmed that the publication is kaput. If online is not doing well, what hope is there for print?

My sabbatical is almost over and the above is not comforting. Time to follow the steps of the soon-to-be-unemployed and think of plan B.

I appreciate that our media is trying to give us a glimpse of hope but a reality check, every now and then, is highly needed.

Good luck to all.

When Arabism and technology collide

2010-08-05T07:56:00.000+03:00

There’s no doubt that in this part of the world, politics plays a key role in our daily lives. Some choose to partake, others choose to avoid.

Then there are those who suffer from paranoid schizophrenia, thinking that governments are after them and watching their every move.

I refer to the editor (and I use the term loosely) of Arabcrunch.net.

Once upon a time, this website, despite its atrocious grammar, used to be a great source of technology and Arab startups information. Lately, the website has turned into a source of controversial political articles and delusional patriotism.

As a fan of the old format, I find one of his recent articles sad and alarming.

It all began when the US State Department launched the Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) last month.

The program targets each element required for the success of SMEs in the Arab world, offering support in areas including training and mentoring, funds, as well as networking opportunities to promote their businesses.

Somehow, this initiative, which I think is in favor of Arab entrepreneurs, was devastating for Arabcrunch.

The editor’s paranoia quickly kicked in and he published an outrageous article and a dreadful letter slamming the initiative. You can read the entire article and the embarrassing letter he sent to the US State Department here.

Excerpts from his article…

“Then I moved on to ask Steven from the State dep. that we do not feel comfortable at ArabCrunch to have the U.S State Department competing with us, since the US federal government has over 1 trillion USD in yearly budget, 1 million soldiers, Nukes, around 1 million CIA, FBI and other intelligent personal inside USA alone let alone the company that operates under other cover and let alone in other countries around the world.”

“I told him we can deal with the private sector competition, but not with (the only) super power like the US government. This move is 100% against the capitalist principles and the free market ideology that the United States government has been professing around the world for decades. I also told him that this sound like Communism.”

“After the event Greg Behrman from the US State Department and a Member of its the Policy Planning Staff, has proposed that I meet him along with Steven in order to discuss and “collaborate” off course I said NO, as the term “collaboration” meaning becoming spy in the spy world.”

“Our sources who are close to the U.S State Department and the US Department of Defense have informed us that if you do not find ways to collaborate with the State Department they will destroy you.”

In his awkward letter to the US State Department, the editor said:

“This makes me honestly scarred and not just worried about ArabCrunch but also about my own personal safety. US gov. is a super power, we on the other hand are Nada. Also I am not sure how would the US government feel about a small non American entity that is competing with it, in some of its projects and that is growing day after day. As i have no intention in leaving or closing ArabCrunch at any case.”

Did you giggle? Did you shake your head in disbelief? Me too!

I read his article a couple of times. First, to understand what he was rambling about and second, to read between the lines. It’s obvious that the editor’s paranoia is purely business related. His only concern is losing to competition, as indicated in his article several times.

If he was a true hero, he would have welcomed such initiative that would give Arab SMEs and entrepreneurs worldwide support and exposure. His arguments are irrational and idiotic at best.

His article is nothing but a cheap attempt to gain the sympathy and support of Arab - and mainly Muslim- readers by evoking their emotions, again, under false patriotism, to gain more readership and popularity for his 'business'.

Once the article got published, several people commented. I was one of them.

Following my comment, which he obviously hated, he quickly replied and insinuated I was ‘funded’ by the US and work with the US State Department. I wouldn’t have expected anything less from him.

The article now has 46 comments; some were in support of the editor while others criticized him for being way out of line with his article. My favorite comment was:

Disgusted Friend | August 4th, 2010 at 1:49 AM #

Who the hell do you think you are? Do you really think that your tiny ArabCrunch has been really doing any mentoring in the market?

You did not even get your tiny user-base in organic growth, all users have registered based on your personal request over and over again, which was fun for a while but became annoying later.

So I would advise you to stop wasting your life and our time reading such stupid articles like this one.

If there was a freedom I would sue you for extreme stupidity and exaggeration, and trying to mislead your readers by involving proof without citing your sources.

The US Department are doing this work to actually create and encourage entrepreneurship while you’re doing it to fill your wallet, so who are you trying to fool with this patriotism stuff?

As they’ve said in the comments, create a personal blog or something if you feel like ranting.

Following a series of negative comments, the editor updated his post with this disclaimer:

Update: ArabCrunch has positive opinion about the American people and nothing against any nation, in case you got mixed up.

My advice to the editor is to try and be an impartial reporter and to go back to what made his site popular in the first place, technology related news. Leave politics out of it. Otherwise, you will definitely lose readership to competition and judging from the comments, you already did.

Not once have I read a political or religious article on Engadget, TechCrunch or Gizmodo. Only in the Arab world, politics and religion invade every aspect of our lives, including a technology website.

P.S. For the love of god, get an English editor or proofread your articles before publishing them.

[Photos] Tweetup

2010-07-29T08:10:00.000+03:00

I had the pleasure of meeting few tweeps from Lebanon yesterday. It was my first tweetup and I honestly didn’t know what to expect.

I have to say, Lebanese tweeps are the coolest since Homer said “Do’h!”

The attendees were:

@FunkyOzzi @abzzyy @beshr @aymanitani @Jennhaddad @bahaafe @DanyAwad @meinlebanon @beirutdriveby @PascalAssaf @wael_nabbout @RaafatHamze @AssaadTh @marriamb @GeorgeZamroud @Shanty2 @NaLoves @LaraZankoul and @bigsamDUBAI

Thank you all for a great evening and special thanks goes to @FunkyOzzi (who I forgot to mention on Twitter last night) for organizing the amazing tweetup and @DanyAwad for suggesting it.

I recommend you follow all of them. Most of them are bloggers as well. I suggest you read their blogs. You won’t be disappointed.

I look forward to meeting all of you again soon.

P.S. I learned yesterday that there’s a Facebook page called LebTweetups. If you haven’t visited it yet, go ahead and do it now.

Uncool hacks

2010-07-27T19:33:00.000+03:00

I don’t know about you, but I believe journalists who slam and mock their competition, publicly on Twitter, are unprofessional and uncool.

I have no idea if it’s acceptable within the journalism code of ethics and I don’t care. It’s still wrong.

A few pointers….

Spending your day scanning competition articles and tweeting their flaws - for popularity and a few giggles - says nothing but a big LOSER. You are intentionally trying to tarnish their reputation. Do you honestly think this will gain you more readers? Pathetic.
May I suggest another aphrodisiac? How about investigating and writing newsworthy articles?
Enough with the superiority complex. Your publication is not without its flaws. People who live in glass houses ….
You should stick to bashing PR folks. You are doing exceptionally well at that. And don’t worry about their feelings. They don’t give a crap. They get paid a lot. The more you bitch, the stupider you look.
Leave crappy journalism trashing to PR folks. Let them return the favor by tweeting your failings.

Remember, you are accountable for everything you tweet. Don’t let it come back and bite you in the ass. Seriously, stop acting like a child.

Peace out.

Taking advantage of tourists

2010-07-26T12:34:00.000+03:00

I went to ABC Mall Achrafieh this morning to have breakfast with my cousin. After breakfast, we decided to hit the shops.

While browsing inside one of the shops, a Saudi women walked into the store. Naturally, the saleswoman ignored my cousin and I to attend to the ‘khaliji’ lady.

Items in the store had no price tags for some reason.

“How much is this piece?” asked the lady. Saleswoman replied without checking the pricelist:
“$600.”

Shocked, the Saudi lady put the piece back.

“And how much is this one? Saudi lady asked again.

Lowering her price, and again without checking the pricelist, the saleswoman replied “$500.”

Saudi woman looked at us, smiled, and put the piece back on the rack.

Right then, she decided to give the saleswoman a piece of her mind.

Imagine a Saudi Julia Roberts in that infamous Pretty Woman scene…

“You just lost a customer.”

“We have the same collection back home and it’s half the price. You still have this notion that because I’m from Saudi, it’s ok to rip me off. When will you learn not to take advantage of tourists? It’s my fault I chose to spend my shopping money in Lebanon. Let your items collect dust on your rack.”

Kudos to the Saudi woman. Other retailers, take note.

Screw you all

2010-07-21T20:29:00.000+03:00

I am strongly against organizations going silent when in a crisis or under scrutiny (Hi, Etisalat). However, when you decide to be arrogant and hire nitwits for PR, it’s better to shut up.

Sharjah Electricity Water Authority, AKA Stopping Electricity Without Accountability, AKA SEWA, has been under a lot of heat lately because of power outages in the Emirate. Keep in mind the temperature in the UAE sores up to 50 degree Celsius in July. Read more about the Sharjah power outage.

Not only did SEWA take their sweet time to respond to the issue, but they provided the public with one of the most heinous statements in history:

Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority, which provides power in the emirate, said the cuts were not unusual. “They are just ordinary power cuts,” a spokesman said without providing further information.

Source: The National

Here's my interpretation of SEWA’s statement: “Screw you all. We will do whatever we want and we don’t have to justify it to the public.”

SEWA, you disgust me.

Et tu, UAE?

2010-07-21T16:55:00.000+03:00

Following my Watheeqa: A true-life tale of horror post, I received several message confirming that the United Arab Emirates has indeed stopped issuing visas to all Palestinians.

I’m testing this.

I applied for a visa to the UAE last week. So far, it has not been approved. The feedback I’m getting is “it’s still with immigration.” This is never good news. In the past, I used to get the visa in two working days.

I guess I will have to wait until I get a definite ‘approved/rejected’ answer. I will keep you posted.

Before I forget, I would like to thank everybody who read, tweeted and commented on the Watheeqa post. A special thanks goes to Palestine Note, Arabist, Malarky News and Arab News Blog for publishing / linking the article. I did not expect the post to be this popular. I am honored.

Where do you live, man?

2010-07-17T09:19:00.000+03:00

Watching American TV teaches you many things about the US, its culture and its history (history?). Take Political Correctness (PC) for example. Without my addiction to movies and shows, I wouldn’t have heard of the term.

According to Wikipedia, PC denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, disability, and age-related contexts.

Groovy!

But much like any ideology in the good ol’ US of A, extremism takes center stage. If interested in hilarious examples of political correctness, Google is your friend.

For kicks, let’s see how some of these terms would fit in the Middle East.

Did you know it is politically incorrect to say ‘black coffee’? The correct term is ‘without milk’, racist! Well that memo certainly did not reach baristas in the Arab world. Every time I order Americano at Starbucks, the barista asks: “Black?” Should I correct him? Does he really care? More importantly, do I really care to invest in such conversation? “I’ll have it black, please.”

The politically correct term for a midget is ‘little person’ or ‘vertically challenged’. The translation of both in Arabic is terribly insulting. I wouldn't dare blurt them out to find myself surrounded by a gang of midgets punching the butter out of my nuts. (Get it? It’s because they can’t punch higher, says the person writing about political correctness.)

It is politically incorrect to say garbage-man. The correct term is ‘sanitation engineer’. (Okay, was your reaction ‘WTF’, too?)

Arab reaction to Sanitation Engineer

Knock Knock

“Who is it?”

“The sanitation engineer.”

“Is there something wrong with the building?”

“No, I’m just here to collect the garbage.”

“Ya akhul sharm...Zabbel wo 3amilli 7alak mhandes?” (You are a garbage-man posing as an engineer, you SOB?)

It is politically incorrect to say Merry Christmas. The correct term is ‘Happy Holidays’. Can’t you just picture it? Call it 'happy holidays' in the US and you are a politically correct liberal. Call it 'happy holidays' in the Middle East and you are an extremist. I will stick with Merry Christmas, thank you.

But enough with the American examples.

The idea behind this post stemmed from a tweet I thought was politically incorrect. The tweet was by fellow Arab on my Twitter timeline. When I argued, his reply was “where do you live, man?”

He does have a point. I mean let’s face it, in the Arab world, the term ‘politically correct’ does not exist. We grew up politically incorrect and we were never corrected. PC was never part of our tradition or upbringing. In fact, the more politically incorrect you are, the more chuckles you get.

And am I that of an idealist to enforce an American ideology ( criticized by many Americans, mind you) on people in this part of the world? I certainly am not and to each his own, I say.

For ‘educational’ purposes, let me share with you some of the politically incorrect and racist terms in our part of the world.

Disclaimer: Do not take offense in the list below. It is nothing but stereotypes and many, including myself, do not condone such terms. Not all Arabs are politically incorrect.

Maid of any nationality = Sri Lankan (common term in Lebanon)
African = Slave/Negro
People from Al-Said (Egypt), Al-Tafila (Jordan), Al-Khalil (Palestine), Homs (Syria) = Dim-witted
Lebanese man (as viewed by other Arab nationalities) = Effeminate accent, showoff
Lebanese girl (as viewed by other Arab nationalities) = Easy, plastic and materialistic
Jordanian man = Grouchy, blatant
Jordanian women = Butch accent
Palestinian = Bebsi (Pepsi)
Palestinian in Lebanon = Dark skinned refugee, country destroyer
Syrian in Lebanon = Labor, undercover intelligence agent
Lebanese in Syria = Cheap clothes shopper
Kuwaiti = Rich, arrogant
Saudi men = Rich, deprived
Emarati = Rich, lazy
Saudi women = Ninjas
Indian man in the GCC = Cheapskate, Hindi (said mockingly)
Westerner in the GCC = Condescending, loser in his country
GCC organizations preferring westerners = Inferiority complex
Russian women in UAE = Khow much?
Filipino = Gay
Journalist in the UAE = Copy & paste, spoiled, lazy
Animal rights activists = Idiots
Single women working abroad = Spinsters
Single adults moving out of their parent’s house (applies to males and females) = Whores
Gay = Abnormal
Fat = Cow, mule
Seeing a psychiatrist = Crazy
Arab professional belly dancer = Prostitute
Shakira belly dancing = Artist (the double standards in this region, sigh!)

If you think of other terms, leave a comment.

Holy Father Google

2010-07-14T09:00:00.000+03:00

A friend posted a link on Twitter to a blog post on the France Burqa Ban. The post is by Saudiwoman’s Weblog. I suggest you visit the page. She has an interesting point of view on the topic.

But my post is not about the Burqa ban.

What caught my attention on that page was the targeted ‘Ads by Google’ part. The ad was for an Arabic website called Almaseeh2020.com (Christ 2020). I am not very religious so I won’t read much into it but it’s interesting how Google Ads work. An ad for site that preaches love for Christ and Christianity on a Saudi based blog with several topics covering the Islam and the Muslim communities. Hallelujah!

Note: Due to the length of Saudiwoman’s Weblog post, I took one snapshot of the first paragraph and another one of the ad (placed at the bottom of the article) and pasted them together.

Watheeqa: A true-life tale of horror

2010-07-12T12:33:00.000+03:00

What is that dreadful looking thing in the below picture, you ask? Why it’s a Watheeqa.

In English, a travel document that has suffered a neurodevelopment disorder and could not fully mature to become a passport. Sad? Not quite there.

I, disgracefully, was born with one. I didn’t ask for it. I don’t care for it. But I’m stuck with it.

I am not unpatriotic. I love Palestine. But this hideous excuse for a passport does not identify the nationality of its holder. Neither a Palestinian, nor a Lebanese. I am labeled as a refugee. Tragic? Not quite there.

Watheeqa

The story began when my grandparents were ‘shortlisted’ to be amongst the 1948 Palestine Exodus ‘elites’. Yes, that was a joke. They were actually expelled from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. They fled to Lebanon and were given the Watheeqa, a you-have-no-rights-whatsoever-except-to-live-here gift. My father inherited it and so did I.

It’s been sixty years since the exodus and leaders of the world still can’t figure out what to do with us. Our issue is apparently beyond any level of intelligence or attention. The world sees us as the plague or as the AIDS epidemic in the 1980’s. No one wants to deal with us. No one wants to acknowledge us. No one cares to help us.

Oh, did I mention there are several version of the Watheeqa? There’s the Lebanese one, which I hold and the Syrian one. But the worst of them all is the Egyptian one. If you hold that ungodly Egyptian Watheeqa, you might as well give up and pray there’s a better afterlife.

What are the perks of holding a Lebanese Watheeqa? We’ve covered that already. You get the right to live in Lebanon. Oh, and you don’t need a visa to get into Lebanon. Joy!

Now let’s cover the other side of this cosmic souvenir. The drawbacks.

Holding a Watheeqa instantly makes you the lowest common denominator. You and livestock share the same privileges.

Let me shed some light.

Disclaimer: The below list is based on a personal experience. Your garbage bin experience might vary.

I was denied the college major I desired because my choices, as a ~~human being~~ nobody Watheeqa holder, are limited. See my previous post.

In Lebanon, I cannot be a white collar employee. I once applied for a job and the company owner did not shy away from saying: “You are qualified but I would rather give this job to a Lebanese.” Charming, isn’t he? I was waiting for him to say, “if we ever needed to paint the office, we will call you.” Nevertheless, I managed to get a job in a different company through a family connection. When I asked for a Letter of Recommendation, the request was denied because I was working ‘illegally’ and the owner did not want any legal hassle. If I had gotten a legal work permit, I wouldn’t hold a white collar position. You see, as a refugee, I am only allowed blue collar jobs. That’s $50,000 worth of university education down the drain.

I mentioned earlier that Watheeqa holders are avoided like the plague. Example: If you plan to get married, forget it. No father wants to give his daughter to a refugee. I have been told this to my face. Even women holding the same document don’t want to marry a Watheeqa man. Which is fair. After all, why should they and their future children suffer?

What’s worse than a Watheeqa holder? A Watheeqa holder in the Arab world. Except for the United Arab Emirates (bless them), not one single Arab country will give you a work permit and a residency. Most Arab countries won’t even grant you a visit visa. When my parents were living in Kuwait, I couldn’t visit them. I tried for two years to get a visit visa. It was denied every single time. On the other hand, the USA granted me a 5-year multiple entry visa in five seconds, but Kuwait still refuses to recognize me as a person. Another example, when my ex-boss in Dubai offered me a position in Qatar, the opportunity did not come to life as my Qatar visa was denied. Similar incident with Saudi Arabia.

Arab countries will grant westerners visas on arrival. I have to suffer. Shame on you Arab world. You deserve every word of criticism. And you pretend to care and wonder why most Arabs migrate to Canada, Australia and the US. When in reality, you are thrilled to wash your hands of our issues. You are labeled as ‘weak’ and you will be weak for centuries to come.

Again, it is truly shocking that after 60 years, the Watheeqa dilemma still exist and no one is willing move a bone and find a solution. How much longer do we have to endure this unjust and appalling hardship? Is there anyone strong enough to answer that?

For the record, as a Watheeqa holder, I am not allowed to visit my home country. Heartbreaking? Yes.

If you don’t like it, leave

2010-07-11T10:26:00.000+03:00

A common phrase uttered by those with an average IQ of 50. I’ve heard/read it many times by imbeciles who can’t engage in a rational conversation. Not a day goes by without someone posting this phrase on the comments section on Arabian Business.

They barf: “Don’t criticize. If you don’t like it, leave.”

Retards.

Lately, it’s been heard a lot in Lebanon. You see, Lebanon has solved all of its political, social and economical issues (get the sarcasm?)and now the people are focused on one single problem: the right for Palestinians to be humans. Or as media would put it: the right for Palestinians to work.

Social security? Well, I never.

How dare Palestinians get any civil rights in Lebanon? How dare they major or work in medicine, journalism or law? The blasphemy!

Yes, we will take their $50,000+ tuition fee but to have the choice of what to study? like human beings? Na-ah!

Yes, they can spend a fortune buying houses and register them in their Lebanese wives’ names, but for their children to inherit those houses? Ain’t gonna happen!

And “ If you don’t like it, leave.”

Well Mr. Imbecile, allow me to paste an excerpt from an article published in the Daily Star titled: ‘Lebanon wins if Palestinians are granted the right to work’.

More than 90 percent of Palestinian refugees spend all their income in Lebanon contributing directly to the Lebanese economy. Allowing them to work will, it is estimated by the International Labor Organization, double this figure and dramatically spur growth. Current financial benefits to the Lebanon economy from her Palestinian guests include the following:

As a large percentage of Lebanese continue to leave the country for study and employment, this creates serious gaps in Lebanon’s economy as well as a steady demand for skilled and unskilled labor in the Lebanese labor market. Palestinians refugees are willing and able to fill this chasm. Yet the economic benefits of full and legal participation by Palestinian refugees in the Lebanese labor market have been willfully underestimated through political resistance to granting them basic rights.Granting Palestinians the right to work will not take Lebanese jobs.

In stark contrast to the non-Palestinian work force, Palestinians represent a numerically modest fraction and pose no threat to job opportunities for Lebanese employees. Indeed, granting the right to work which includes improving the work conditions and safeguards for the Palestinians currently working in the so-called “informal sector” (i.e., illegal employment or black market rendering them potentially liable for exploitation, dismissal, fines and/or jail) will also benefit Lebanese who are forced to compete against below minimum wages earners who are non-Lebanese.

Another interesting article (Arabic) worth reading was published in Al Awda Magazine, titled 'The Palestinian in Lebanon 2010'. Thanks to @Ammouni for sharing the link.

The above post is based on my personal life and the unfairness I endure as a Palestinian in Lebanon. Even as half Lebanese, I don’t get any rights in Lebanon. I soon plan to write a post on the horror of being a Palestinian in the Arab world. Stay tuned.

CNN: Disconnecting the Middle East from the rest of the world

2010-07-08T10:44:00.000+03:00

Dear CNN,

I can't say I was shocked to read that you had to let go of Octavia Nasr, senior editor of Middle East affairs. Your action only confirms that CNN c aves to right wing neocons.

I will not get into how absurd it is to fire an editor, who's been dedicated to you for the past 20 years, over a misinterpreted message on Twitter. But, I would like to bring to your attention that the UAE President, H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has offered his condolences and tribute following the demise of Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. Will you succumb to pressure and shut down your studio and offices in the UAE?

Just in case you missed it, leaders of Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey and of many other nations have paid tribute to Fadlallah.

You better get in touch very soon with your advertisers, such as Qatar Foundation, Mubadala, Masdar, Orascom and others, and explain your fictional loyalty to the Middle East.

You are a great contributor to the death of freedom o speech and to disconnecting the Middle East from the rest of the world. You should be ashamed.

Sincerely,

Arabianism

Update I: A Facebook group was created in support of Octavia Nasr. You can join the group here.

Update II: Octavia Nasr has not tweeted since CNN's unjust decision but Twitter user, @meetsamer, has been in touch with her and posted that Octavia has been feeling 'strong as a nail'. You will have the last laugh, Octavia.

Twitter: The privacy, the failure and the rudeness

2010-07-06T18:29:00.000+03:00

A rather interesting day on Twitter today. Unusual to say the least.

I woke up at 7am and scanned the online news. I came across an article defaming a wonderful person on my follow list. To protect the privacy of this person, I decided not to tweet the article but instead send it to her via direct message as a heads up. She graciously replied back.

Few hours later, someone else came across the article and decided to tweet it. The storm of retweets followed soon afterwards.

All the tweets were showing support for the concerned person except for one tub-of-lard-chandler-bing-wannabe tweeter.

But I won’t waste any time on him.

In my opinion, it would have been better if the article was not mentioned publicly on Twitter until the concerned person expresses her views on the subject, even if it was with good intentions. The PR in me thought tweeting the article, without an official 'statement', would escalate things and make them worse. That's why, I refrain from tweeting about it or mentioning any names in my post.

As expected, the storm of tweets are now causing people to speculate.

But all I have to say to the concerned person is I genuinely hope the defaming article does not cause you any issues. I would like to assure you that you have many fans and supporters behind you and I am sure you will have the last laugh.

Speaking of PR…

Later in the day, yours truly, tweeted the above message which caused quite a stir.

For the past few days I have seen plenty of tweets related to a ‘Twitter Retweet Contest’ campaign by Nahel.com

I am a big supporter of social media campaigns that are executed properly. Wild Peeta, Du and Geek Fest are examples of brilliant social media marketing.

On the other hand, a campaign that asks you to “retweet to win a prize” is nothing but utter spam. I have seen and unfollowed plenty of those spammers over the past two years.

Shockingly (and immaturely, I might add), few of the so-called marketing experts defended the spamming by Nahel.com. Unsurprisingly, they are the same people who organized this disastrous campaign on behalf of Nahel.

Not only did they not have a logical explanation to their defense but they had the nerves to be rude and insulting to other tweeters who labeled their campaign as a 'failure'.

It is worth mentioning that a lot of people are taking part in this contest to win the prize. Nevertheless, I am confident that once the competition is over, Nahel’s follow list will drop significantly. Like one smart tweeter said, 'there is no brand loyalty'. That's why I agree, the campaign is a failure.

Blogging community raises awareness against racism in Lebanon

2010-07-05T20:38:00.000+03:00

An interesting post from the Independence ’05 blog is buzzing all over my Twitter timeline today. The subject is racism.

In brief, a tourist was denied entrance to the Beiruf Club in Lebanon because she was black. You can read the rest of the article here.

Appalling, disgusting, shameful are some of the words that come to mind after reading the post. We are a nation that gets enraged when Lebanese are discriminated against in international media and Hollywood movies. Little does the world know, in our country, there are a bunch of assholes who are no better than prejudiced Hollywood writers.

I am not generalizing. In fact, the reaction of the Lebanese blogging community and Twitteratis prove that not all condone such despicable acts.

Over lunch, I shared the post with some relatives and they also had some racism related stories to tell.

A family member informed us that in one of the resorts in Northern Lebanon – The Palma to name and shame – the management forbids “colored people” not only from swimming in the ocean, but from dipping their feet in the water.

Shocked and infuriated, the family member approached the manager of the resort and told him: “do you think we have cleaner feet because we are Lebanese?”

Expectedly, she received a standard 'resort policy' PR response.

So, to the pricks of Beiruf and Palma, next time someone calls you a “sand people/terrorist/brown” because of your race, remember, an eye for an eye.

Until we educate the ignorant and destroy racism, how about we add "Fair-colored Skin Only" to our tourism ads.

Bayt.com adds more jobs, unemployment imminent

2010-07-04T09:14:00.000+03:00

This is yet another Bayt.com failed banner post.

Bayt.com have updated their disastrous website banner. They now proudly have 20,308 jobs for their 4,500,000 job seekers. That’s a 0.45% (still less than 1%) chance of securing a job with them, a slight increase from the 0.42% chance they had in June 2010.

In layman’s term: your chance of securing a job is still slim to bupkis.

Bayt, seriously, basic marketing! That banner is not doing you any good. It’s about time you destroyed it along with the destroyed dreams and hopes of your job seekers who come across it. Replace it and replace your marketing team immediately.

P.S Thank you for giving me material to blog about. I have nothing against you but that banner is just wrong.

Beirut barbershop experience

2010-07-01T18:02:00.000+03:00

My favorite barbershop is in one of the busiest streets in Beirut. The shop itself is stuck in time. It’s like a scene from a 50’s movies. A pair of scissors, a comb, one seat, a small aquarium and that’s about it. You won’t see any modern decorations or fancy lighting. Hell, you won’t even see a hairdryer.

But I go there because each visit is an episode out of a sitcom.

Today’s episode guest starred an elderly man in his 70’s. During his 10 minute haircut, the elderly gentleman literally had 10 stories to share.

The first story, naturally, had to be the reason why he’s getting a haircut. It turned out that his daughter’s best friend is getting married. Obviously, he had to let us know that the wedding will cost $50,000 and it will take place at the Phoenicia Hotel.

It’s always the Phoenicia, isn’t it? It could have easily taken place at the Karantina dumpster and people would still say Phoenicia. But who’s questioning?

Then he had to inform us that the bride and groom had to borrow the money to pay for the wedding.

The sentence, of course, ended with ‘ki$ ikhton shu hibil’.

The he added “as you all know, the bride comes from money.”

None of us knew who the bride was but out of respect, we said “yes.”

From the extravagant wedding and the loser bride and groom, the elderly gentleman’s next story was the World Cup.

He didn’t care for the teams or the matches. He preferred to bitch about the post matches celebrations and noises in the streets of Beirut.

The sentence, of course, ended with ‘ki$ ikhton shu hibil’.

But what’s an old man without naming and shaming.

True to his age, the elderly man’s next story was to share the names of all the crooked Mukhtars in the neighborhood.

The sentence, of course, ended with ‘ki$ ikhton killon 7aramieh’

When someone at the shop asked him which Mukhtar he preferred. He gave us the name of what he thought was an honest man. Unsurprisingly, it was a member of his family.

Not to sound like the elderly gentleman, I will not mention the rest of the stories. But like I said, a visit to the barbershop in Lebanon is ‘filmed before a live studio audience’. And I was one of them.It is by far the best place to go when the power goes out and you need an hour or two to kill.

The evolution of Emirates Business 24/7

2010-06-30T10:08:00.000+03:00

Emirates Business 24/7 print edition has met its demise. This doesn't come as a shock. In fact, most people are surprised it didn't come any sooner. The online version will be revamped and relaunched later this year, a desperate move to keep the title alive.

For kicks, I designed a tribute picture to highlight the evolution of Emirates Business over the years. Click here to see the image. Note: Emirates Business 24/7 actually claims to be the first and only publication in the UAE to provide the readers with first-rate business news that you can use.

Arab countries do the ICANN-CAN

2010-06-29T12:18:00.000+03:00

Saudi, UAE and Egypt can now have domain names in Arabic. A move praised by many so-called ‘experts’ in the region. In may 2010, Egypt’s ministry of communications launched its Arabic domain. Few other companies are expected to follow.

No one is expected to use it!

The Internet has been accessible for users in Arabiansim land since 1995. By the start of the millennium, it became a necessarily and widely used. Interestingly enough, you didn’t need to be bilingual to be online. Arabic was sufficient for many users to log on and chat, research, shop, play games, participate in forum discussions and more.

All they needed was 3 simple steps:

Turn on the computer
Open the browser
Look for Google or Yahoo in your favorites or bookmark bar.

For the past 15 years, new Internet users, with basic knowledge, have been following the above steps. With search engines providing the ability to search in Arabic, the Internet has been an easy ride for monolinguals.

And change is never easy. Once you are used to a simple functioning method, it is very difficult to adopt a new one.

Even if users wanted to use Arabic domains, unless they actually know the domain, they would still need to follow the above steps to search for it.

So why the Arabic addresses? If it’s not benefiting the users, who does it benefit?

Is it another fake symbol of Patriotism and Arabianism? Does it make companies and organizations prouder to have Arabic URL addresses? Have they just woken up to this after 15 years of hibernation?

What I really would like to know is why are the so-called experts calling this a positive change? Is their business card that empty and need to be cluttered with yet another URL? More importantly, will those experts adopt this change and create Arabic domains for their websites? I sincerely doubt that.

Even the BBC called the new Icann (net regulator) move “historic”, yet the article failed to mention the benfits of having an Arabic URL.

In my personal opinion. Arabic domains are nothing but a 'prestige' which will lead to familiar PR stunts. Just wait and see the flooding of press releases with headlines such as: “First telecom company to have an Arabic domain” or “First bank to have an Arabic domain”, etc.

Honestly, before we brag about Arabic domains, I would rather see more Arabic content and users online. That would be the historic change.

رسالة اعتذار للغة العربية

2010-06-26T08:31:00.000+03:00

العزيزة اللغة العربية،

قرأت "سأحمل روحي على راحتي والقي بها في مهاوي الردى، فاما حياة تسر الصديق واما ممات يغيظ العدا" للشاعر الفلسطيني "عبد الرحيم محمود" وأنا في الحادية عشر من عمري وكان بداية مشوار عشقي لك وللشعر العربي. ومن شدة تعلقي بعذب كلماتك، دفعتني للاشتراك بمسابقة الشعر العربي والحصول على المرتبة الخامسة على مستوى الدولة.

وللأسف،كان المشوار قصيراً....وافترقنا.

ومرت الاعوام وتخليت عنك. واستبدلتك بالرويات والاشعار الغربية.

وها انا اليوم اعتذر. وأكتب رسالتي وأنا بخجل من ركاكة اسلوبها وضعفها اللغوي. فلقد هجرت الفتحة والكسرة، والضمة والشدة. هجرت القاف وهجرتك.

وأعترف يا لغتي العزيزة بان لولا مهرجان اللغة العربية ويوم دوّن بالعربي لما تذكرت ولما اعتذرت.

يسألونني: ايهما افضل لك للكتابة وللتعبير؟

أجيبهم ورأسي منحني: الانجليزية.

يسألونني: من تلوم؟

أجيبهم: نفسي.

ولكني اليوم أعاهدك بأني لن أنساكي ولن أقتلك. وأتوسل اليك لتقبلي اعتذاري، متأملا ان نفتح سوياً صفحة جديدة لأثبت لكي صدق وفائي.

أقسم بأني اشتقت اليك ولكلماتك ولشعرائك.

المخلص،

عاشق اللغة العريـية

"هذه الرسالة مهداة لمهرجان اللغة العربية ويوم دون بالعربي."

Social media deserves its own day

2010-06-25T10:16:00.000+03:00

After all, we spend endless hours each day on Twitter and Facebook.But it’s not all in vain. We genuinely believe in social media, despite what certain pundits would have you believe.

Not only do we use social media tools to connect with friends and tweeps, but we also help spread and break the news, support and promote businesses, express opinions, engage in discussions, solve problems, share insights and change perceptions.

With 400 million Facebook and over 100 million Twitter users, Social media is a force to be reckoned with. And if you choose to ignore it, you will end up at the bottom of the chain.

In our region, there are 15 million Facebook users and despite being relatively new, Twitter has managed to attract 40,000 users in the Middle East. (Figures by Spot On PR)

Social Media Day (#SMDAY) is set to take place globally on June 30^th. Mashable is taking the lead in creating and organizing the meetups “to celebrate the revolution of media becoming a social dialogue.”

In Lebanon, social media advocates – AKA Maniachi – are taking the lead in organizing the event locally.

You can register here for the event. The venue is yet to be confirmed but the Maniachi team are asking you to suggest the venue. Poll closes in less than 2 days.

If you are in Dubai, you can register for SMDAY here.