Click for Freedom: Reporters Without Borders organises internet freedom demo

If you care for the freedom of people to express their thoughts on the internet, this news is of use.

Peter Griffin of Caferati, a writers group having more than 2,000 members worldwide and a Dubai chapter too, posted me in on it today.

Reporters Without Borders has organised an international cyber demo to support freedom of speech on the internet.

All you have to do to support their campaign against internet censorship is to visit the Reporters Without Borders website (www.rsf.org) between 2 pm on Tuesday, 7 November, and 2 pm on Wednesday, 8 November.

They have also launched the Arabic version of their website coinciding with this campaign today.

Once you are there, you could also vote for the campaign on a live world map.

What does this have to do with the UAE Community blog, you might think? It concerns all citizens of the world, I would say. And I am sure the owner of this blog, Secret Dubai will agree.

According to their website: "Each click will help to change the “Internet Black Holes” map and help to combat censorship. As many people as possible must participate so that this operation can be a success and have an impact on those governments that try to seal off what is meant to be a space where people can express themselves freely."

Read more about it here:
Reporters without borders organises 24-hour online demo against Internet censorship

farrukh
Copywriter & Journalist in the UAE

[Crossposted on: Farrukh's writing blog]

A Million Dollars for a Thought

When an organization like Arab Thought Foundation which lists 'promoting attachment to Arab principles, values, and identity ' as its primary goal, stipulates a contribution of 1 Million US Dollars for you to be considered as their Board of Trustees member, what could be wrong?

Origins of Dubai local community

I have started a discussion on the origins of the Dubai Local community. Have a look

http://localexpatriate.blogspot.com/

And would appreciate some contribution to this discussion from other bloggers.

A lost Humanity between International justice/justiceS:

Watching Saddam’s trail on T.V reminds me of the day of Slobodan's death. Slobodan, this guy who killed more than 300 thousands of human being, who was the reason of the homelessness of two million Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian people and who was the reason of inflaming the sectarianism wars in the Balkan! I mean no one can ever justify what he did… he was bad yes! And I was enjoying the fact he was being trailed in Tahiti… but why he was the only war criminal to visit Tahiti? And why Saddam is being trailed while there are worse leaders than him. I mean there are others who should’ve been treated the same way! Like for example Gorge Bush. Let’s say for attacking Iraq under a false reason (the removal of the mass destruction weapons) which took the lives of 100 thousands Iraqis and 2 thousands of young American soldiers whose lives were wasted in a dirty nonsense war (and the counter is still ON!)…. What about the war in one of the poorest countries "Afghanistan"… do you really think that chasing AL Qaeda needed all this destruction?! If you do, I don’t think so myself. I don’t think that whatever he was chasing has a rational ethical justification of demolishing complete villages and cities on the heads of its inhabitants… I swear even demolishing animals home on their head isn’t a human act! What about if they weren’t cats but human beings! I’m not going to mention Sharon, because apparently he is being trailed by God now… generally the leaders of Israel need to be trailed… for what? For all the humanitarian crimes they did after the World War 2 starting by Deir Ycine to Kafr Qasem, to Bahr AL Baqar& the Swees to Sabra and Shateela, to Qana all against a whole country real owners! I started to think of the Russian leader for his contributions in this field of war crimes toward the Sheehan people! Where is the international Justice in all of this! I mean how the criteria of the justice concept can be ever fixed! WHERE THE HUMAN COMES FIRST AND THE HUMANITY IS THE BASIC AUTHORITY OF ANY DECISION OF ANY KIND.

While the minor war criminals are in jails while the massive ones are ruling the world! The easy rationalization of what is happening is that the winner leads the other… where the stronger indicates the concept of justice in an arbitrary way to convict whoever he wants and to vindicate the ones he want! BUT this means we should stop talking about international common justice and start to talk about the international justices. This means we should start to admit to ourselves that what is going on in this world is dirty and inhuman. This means that bush has the right to kill 100 thousands in Iraq NOT because it’s the justice but because he is the strongest… I can’t understand why Slobodan was the only one to be trailed? Is it the international justice! Walla I don’t think so… there must be other reasons, strategic reasons! Or maybe its just one of the international justices! I’m totally mixed up… why should I bother myself, I mean I’m safe, I have food/Water/Money/Home/Family and all what a person would want… why would I care for what happens to others! Why would I cry seeing a child I don’t know starving to death, or care about an old man who I don’t know crying over his killed son? And why am I so touched by all these kind of stuff we watch everyday in news…! Maybe because I’m a human? With human feelings? Toward other human... So how come those who caused all this didn’t feel what I feel!

Guest Workers

Interesting article from the Los Angeles Times about a problem with farming guest workers.

Note that the going rate is $9 US per hour., a standard working day is 8 hours, so $72 US per day or 260 dhs per day. This is for unskilled labor to work on a farm.

The company that hired them, Sierra-Cascade Nursery of seasonable, Calif., is now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, which oversees the guest worker program. They lied to workers about food and living conditions, etc.

This happens everywhere, not just here. The upside about the California story is that the federal govt. has gotten involved and the workers have representation from a nonprofit group set up to represent guest workers.

Perhaps something similar in the UAE would be a plus. Most articles you read in the International press bring up the labor problems here, not a positive thing for the country.

Al Jazeera - best known Arab Brand?

Forbes Arabia has just published a report on The Top 40 Arab Brands, which puts Al Jazeera at #1. The complete list also appears here.

This survey:
- Started off with 80 Arab brands from various industries
- Included brands which have been created and owned by an Arab company
- Was done thru an exclusive online survey of 1,200 consumers in 19 Arab countries of GCC, Levant and N.Africa, including Yemen
- Utilised the services of YouGov plc, which has been lately presenting some interesting insights with Gulf News

A few points that struck me are as follows:
1) Quite mysteriously, the first 7-star hotel in the world - Burj Al Arab - appears at #7.
2) Airlines are the best-represented category, led by Emirates (2nd). All the carriers except Saudia are present in the list.
3) Jarir Bookstore - a Saudi books / stationery retailer appeared among first 10 - before Emaar!
4) Quite expectedly, all the major TV stations are in the list.
5) There are 5 brands from Juices / Milk /Beverages category (I was expecting some others too!)
6) Strangely, Ajmal - a quite reputed and recognised name among Oriental perfumes - didn't even manage to stay within the first 20 positions.

However, CampaignME's Richard Abbot feels that long term vision helped these brands to reach top-of-mind among Arab consumers. The publication feels that "... the list is genuine. It hasn't been made up by an editorial team and it hasn't been paid for by sponsors" unlike Superbrands, whose last issue funnily did not include Emirates!

(cross-posted here)

Welcome back to Beirut.

"At a Halloween party at the C-Lounge in Beirut, some danced on the bar and competed in a contest for the title of sexiest woman."

Katherine Zoepf writing in Thursday's INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE on the diminishing population of men in Beirut:

BEIRUT: This is a city of nightclubs, but the night life is something else these days, and not just because of the feverish edge sharpened by the war last summer.

By 8 p.m., women in their 20s and early 30s are prowling in packs of five and six, casting meaningful glances at any and all passing men. In the bars the women dance for hours - often on top of the bar - and legs, midriffs, bare shoulders and barely covered bosoms are offered for public admiration.

Samir Khalaf, a professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut, said the scene astonished his American colleagues. "They are just shocked," he said. "'This is Lebanon, the Middle East?' they say. They can't stop talking about all the belly buttons, about all these highly eroticized bodies. You see it everywhere here, this combination of consumerism and postmodernism and female competition."

The full story is HERE, which made me want to be several years younger and go to school HERE.

So I have a question for UAE bloggers who are either Lebanese or spend time in Beirut: do you think this article accurately reflects the social scene in the city?

DISCLAIMER: the above photo is the one that ran with the article...

Lets go IPO fishing

Well often have I heard people referring to Dubai Stock market as fish market. One of the guys from a reputed ad agency went to the extent of convincing me that ofcourse it is known as fish market and Emmar was once referred as Hamour. But being aware of the professionalism that Dubai extends to its departments I though this would change. I mean the stock exchange won't turn into a money minting institution itself and would play the role of a true 'Stock Exchange' , focusing on its regulatory status. But then again I think the government is busy buying real estate around the world they don't want to play their role on their own. Therefore came the DFM IPO. I was shocked when I read the KT headline 'DFM unveils trendsetting Dh1.6b IPO'.

First they made people loose money by trading in a unregulated volatile market hyped on the name of the city it exists in and now they want to thrash out savings on the name of nearly failed institution itself. With Dubai rising as a very expensive city and loosing it business edge what is gone make DFM work. I don't know. Any sucessful investors I ever met in UAE were the ones who traded in IPOs in case of DFM I am not even sure of that.Here is some interesting food for thought on UAE stock markets from 'Your Say' section in GN.

Saddam Hussein sentenced to death

from here...

"Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity by a Baghdad court and sentenced to death by hanging."

Traffic

Is it just me, or in the past two days, have I seen more people being pulled over by the police than normally what I would see in an entire month?

UAE tops boycott list

Quote:

Based on the material compiled by the Commerce Department, it appears that at least seven Arab countries, including ostensible US allies such as Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Iraq, are enforcing the terms of the Arab boycott more energetically this year than in 2005.

At the top of the list is the UAE, which made 40 boycott-related requests during the period of January to June, followed by Syria, with 20.

This report runs contrary to this recent posting here.

Lack of rules in the blogging world

Brian Ashby has written a piece in Emirates Today about freedom of speech in the blogging world. The main point of his piece is that any Tom, Dick or Layla can spread all kinds of erroneous information through blogging, free of the legal framework that constrains traditional media.

His conclusion . . .

It is because of blogging’s lack of rules, therefore, that the Pentagon has had to launch its new team to fight the bloggers on their own terms. It is also this lack of rules that is currently blocking blogging’s future success.

Without development, sophistication and maturity, it will never possess the power or authority of existing media.

While the cost for this necessary evolution must not be an overzealous restraint on its essence – freedom of speech is a human right – responsible free speech is a necessity for living in any society.

. . . seems to be suggesting that some sort of restraint, “responsible free speech”, needs to be put in place, although not one that is “overzealous” . At least that’s the way it reads to me. What do you think?

My opinion is that the Internet has been uncensored so far (at least in most of the world) and society hasn’t collapsed, so why start now? Far better to encourage people to participate in the Internet, understand its flaws and pitfalls, so they can discriminate for themselves between reliable and unreliable sources.

Mohammad Ali

Recently the news of the Patel family crash came in the papers. The Patels, an Indian family of four, were taking a U-Turn on Al Khawaneej Road when their car was hit by a speeding national (4WD, 150kph). Both cars burst into flames and the whole Patel family died on the spot.

The son, Mohammad Ali Patel, was a Grade 7 student of my school. I was shocked to here the news. I had heard of so many deaths on Dubai's Roads, but now it really hit me. Someone I had been close to, someone I had seen, had become a victim of Dubai's roads. Suddenly I felt the real danger out there.

After hearing this news, I wondered how his friends at school must be feeling. I wondered how it must be for them to just have one of their friends disappear. Then I thought how it could happen to me.

All this while I had looked at the road statistics, but then they were just numbers. Now they were real people. They could even be people I knew. I thought how I would feel if I lost one of my friends to a car crash, which was entirely possible. I thought of them driving around Dubai in their small cars with all those mad drivers around them. It was like seeing a close friend being dropped into a tank full of sharks.

For now I pray that Mohammad Ali rests in peace. He was only 12. He had many ambitions. All that is gone because of a car crash. In seconds, the whole family has vanished from this world.

His young sister Sanaa , who was only nine, also died in the accident. I wonder how it must be for her friends.

I pray that it never happens to me.

The Gulf News article on the crash is at http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/10/27/10077798.html. The National who hit the Patels suffered severe burns and is undergoing treatment, though we can all guess what kind of punishment he will get.

Religious Sexual Harassing

After an eight-hour day at college, I step down my bus and hear "Masha Allah! Masha Allah! Masha Allah!" chants thrice and look around to notice an old man gawking at me.

A perverted smirk and a shameless stare added to the malevolence of his appearance.

I felt the urge to throw my 900-page book at him, or whack him with my hand-bag but it wasn't his fault. You see, I must have provoked him. Covered from head to toe, with only my face and hands exposed, I was displaying too much of 'meat'.

Moreover, why did I feel disgusted? 'Masha Allah', when roughly translated means "God has willed it." It's used to express appreciation of what you see while reckoning Allah's intentions. It's also used for the purpose of keeping the evil eyes away. How thoughtful of him to sexually harass me in undue holiness! How thoughtful of him to ensure I didn't become a victim of anyone's evil eyes!

Besides, after a mentally-draining day, and exhaustion oozing from every pore of her face, a girl wants to be complimented on how she looks. And it should be very flattering to receive such appreciation in public from a random man her father's age walking down the street ...

Business Networks - Good Business

I happened to attend a networking event on Wednesday in le-meridian. It was hosted by a supposedly very BIG, INTL business networking organization. After this experience it occurred to me, that its a good business model to start a business/social network. I mean they didn't have any focus. There was no material underlining their objectives or focus. We were charged dh35/ person, pretty steep for a shared bowl of nuts, ofcourse no food or drinks were included in that. After sweating for 3 hours in the lawn I realized its no use, hardly was I able to bump into any decision makers. Least I would have expected would have been a list of members or organizations to get leads into. I mean it was lacking the fraternity feeling and thus people standing in segregated groups without having a feeling that they are member of something that units them.

I think the success of any such network lies in being small not big, as the bigger they get the more focus they loose and eventually end up becoming pick up parties. For example the Toastmasters ( public speaking clubs) or Lighthouse Clubs (construction industry) and such others. More of you frequent visitors to such networking event can be a better judge but my initial feelings weren't so great.