Interesting Documentary / Interview (Aqeel The VHS Collector)

I stumbled upon an interesting documentary titled "Aqeel the VHS Collector"; you can read a little about the background of the video here. Well worth a watch.

Aqeel The VHS Collector from Moath on Vimeo.

Saadiyat in a limbo

'More than 130 artists have said they will boycott the Guggenheim museum in Abu Dhabi over what they say is exploitation of foreign workers, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.'

(click on image for full article)

This pertains to Saadiyat Island and their spin-off projects of borrowed culture & art.

I wonder if this boycott threat would make any difference?

Would it prompt the concerned bigwigs to speed-up corrective measures enabling this artificial island to be up & running at the earliest?

Under The Knife

"Some plastic surgeons in Dubai are reporting an increase in business despite the global economic slowdown. An industry that once catered mostly to women is becoming increasingly popular among Dubai men.

"The number of men seeking cosmetic surgery has increased tremendously. A good 30 per cent of men are seeking liposuction. A common procedure for men is called male breast reduction which is on the rise because people are getting more conscious. Other popular procedures include botox, liposuction, rhinoplasty, body lifts and hair transplants," says Dr Parashar.

While the ratio between men and women is evening, the nationalities seeking procedures still remains a broad mix. Surgeons report the mix to be made up of around 50 to 60 per cent western expatriates and 40 to 50 per cent local and regional residents with the latter percentage slowly increasing."

More here

A rarely seen scene

Something rarely seen nowadays. An old cafe -Gahwa Sha'beya- with customers that are mainly old Emarati fishermen. Relaxing, chitchatting, and oblivious to the hustle and bustle of modern cities around them.
God bless them.

I only saw such pictures of old UAE in the early 70s.

Caring for Dubai's race camels

Dr Akbar's patient refuses to enter the surgery room. She kicks and growls. But Dr Akbar is used to dealing with stubborn customers as he treats Dubai's racing nd breeding camels.
Today's patient is not eating, and suffering from gastric problems. She is a valuable race camel (Camelus dromedarius) and her owner is concerned.
"He was offered 3 million dirhams (£550,000) for her, but he did not want to sell. She is a speedy racer", says Dr Akbar, director of the Dubai Camel Hospital, UAE.
He continues: "I am going to perform an endoscopy to see if she has ulcerations in her stomach."

.....................................................

Full article here. (check out the cool video too)

Freej Folklore

Just to let you all know that Freej Folklore, the major Arab theatrical production that's running at the Madinat Jumeirah Arena from the 8th-17th January, is offering two tickets for the price of one up until Thursday. We're blogging the run-up to the event here and the official website's here.

"Emirates See Fiscal Crisis as Chance to Save Culture"

"“This is a blessing; we needed it,” Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, a political science professor at United Arab Emirates University, said of the fiscal crisis. “The city needs to slow down and relax. It’s good for the identity of our country."

......

“I hear this complaint over and over, but what is the solution?” said Abdul Ghaffar Hussain, a businessman and writer. “What should I do, go to the street with a stick and chase people out? You have to be reasonable.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/world/middleeast/12dubai.html?pagewanted=1

I wonder, do all Emaratis feel this way?

A fumble on the beach has given freedom a dirty name

From The Sunday Times

October 19, 2008
A fumble on the beach has given freedom a dirty name

Minette Marrin

‘Why don’t we do it in the road?” That was the question posed by the Beatles in 1968 in the song of that name. The expected answer, quite clearly, was: “Why not?” That year, 1968, was the dizziest moment of the era of letting everything hang out, so to speak. Doing it on the road was really the least one could contribute to the cause of liberation and universal love.

It wasn’t the aggressive John but the nicey nicey Paul who wrote the song. It seems that while with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India, he had seen two monkeys doing it in the road and thought what a good idea it was in all its natural simplicity.

“A male,” McCartney said later, “just hopped on the back of this female and gave her one, as they say in the vernacular. Within two or three seconds he hopped off again and looked around as if to say, ‘It wasn’t me’, and she looked around as if there’d been some mild disturbance . . . And I thought . . . that’s how simple the act of procreation is . . . We have horrendous problems with it and yet animals don’t.”

As a model for human sexual relations, I think there are a couple of things wrong with this vision, whether in the road or not. However, this song was hugely influential; you could almost cite 1968 as the end of sexual modesty in public. It might be unfair to hold the Beatles entirely responsible – there were plenty of much sexier bands. But this song did coincide with and express the beginning of a time of astonishingly flamboyant sexual exhibitionism. In answer to McCartney’s siren call, countless people have taken to doing it wherever they fancy and insisting on their human right to do so. Even tiny children dance to pop music, to adult encouragement, with all the bump and grind of a slaggy old stripper.

Now, 40 years on, we have a couple of well-to-do British expatriates in Dubai shamelessly and drunkenly doing it on the beach. Thou hast conquered, / O pale Liverpudlian. Last week Michelle Palmer, 36, from Rutland, and Vince Acors, 34, of Bromley, southeast London, were sentenced to three months in prison in Dubai for having sex outside marriage on a public beach and offending public decency. They were also fined about £200 and will be deported when they have served their sentences. They were lucky: their punishment could have been much worse.

I have absolutely no sympathy for them but I do think that given the permissive culture of the country in which they grew up – they were born only a few years after 1968 – it is understandable, if depressing, that they themselves didn’t see much wrong with their behaviour.

From their perspective it is apparently quite normal for two strangers to meet at a hotel brunch, drink themselves silly and proceed to perform sex acts on each other in public. It is normal to insult a policeman who has the effrontery to caution them, regardless of the law, and to carry on. That is what Britons do at home and abroad. They belch, vomit, copulate, litter and barge their way through public spaces, dressed like hookers and louts, defying the police without shame or modesty. British expatriates are some of the worst: overpaid, oversexed and all over the place.

Palmer and Acors are appealing against their convictions. Yet by Palmer’s own admission, she was drunk and they were kissing and cuddling. “We didn’t have sex together,” she insisted. “I was lying on top of him.” This is rather to miss the point.

No one cares much whether DNA evidence proves that there was no exchange of bodily fluids. What went on was an affront to the standards and laws of Dubai, which all expatriates are well aware of. If you don’t like the law or the culture of another country, you should stay away. If you go there anyway, you should keep your views to yourself and when in Rome behave as the Romans.

That is not only common sense and a way of staying out of nasty foreign jails. It is more importantly an ancient moral obligation, which all healthy cultures have observed. As a guest, you must respect your host and his feelings. Everyone knows that Muslim cultures believe strongly in modesty and privacy; it is simply rude to go about half-naked or drunk and snogging and shagging in public in an Islamic country, an insult to the host culture as well as a disgrace to our own. I can’t help secretly sympathising with the senior prosecutor in Dubai who said he wished the couple had been given a longer sentence.

Is it surprising that so many Muslims around the world despise us for our decadence when we express our sympathy with British men and women who behave like this? There is something clearly despicable in the permissiveness and hyper-sexualisation of western culture; the result is broken families, unwanted children, sexual diseases and a state of agitation which drives the young into chaos and crime.

This might seem a long way from a fumble on a beach and certainly I would agree that many Muslim cultures take their modesty to extremes of repression. But the connection is there and Muslims, including British Muslims, are right to make it.

PC Plod in this country, however, does not make it. Last week a senior officer recommended that the police should turn a blind eye to sex in public, to avoid offending or distressing people seen doing so, and to protect the human rights of those who frequent open spaces to have sex, particularly those in pursuit of dogging and cottaging, who might easily be alienated or humiliated. His advice is contained in 21 pages of guidance on policing sex in public.

This is the kind of attitude that gives freedom a dirty name. No wonder so many Muslims here look down on the host culture and try to isolate their sons and daughters from its unthinking libertinism.

If we expect ethnic minorities here to respect the host culture, we should make sure it is worthy of respect. If we expect them to behave according to our standards (such as they are) when they are here, so should all British citizens respect their standards when over there.

The careless cultural imperialism of British expatriates abroad – their selfish, insensitive, sluttish behaviour – must be partly to blame for the cultural hostility and separatism that are growing among Muslim minorities at home here today. That is one good reason, among many, for not doing it in the road, either home or away.

minette.marrin@sunday-times.co.uk

Legal Magic

Legal Magic is a new UAE-based poetry group:

A group aimed at joining together committed poetry writers who are working towards publication in English, Arabic and other languages in the United Arab Emirates. Where poets meet together to offer valuable criticism; to set up poetry readings, performance poetry and other poetry-related events in the UAE; to help poets achieve book publication and to further the goals of poetry and poets in the multicultural setting of the UAE.

To join, or just learn more, visit Legal Magic

A Snapshot of Dubai, Arab Melting Pot

"My friend Puneh from Tehran loved it, but Nazir couldn't stand it. She lived in a house in Dubai complete with lilac bushes and European aspens in the front yard, gardeners who kept the lawn manicured and neighbors from Europe, the Middle East and North America, who drove Volvos, Porsches and Jeeps.

"So many interesting people," says Puneh, an art dealer. "I felt so free, as a person, as a woman and as an individual."

"This pompousness, this manufactured perfection. There is nothing real about this city," says her friend Nazir, an artist. "I could hardly breathe anymore. I wouldn't have been able to paint a single painting there."

Nazir lasted in Dubai for eight days, precisely the duration of his first show, before fleeing back to Tehran. After that he would spend long hours talking to Puneh on the phone, begging her to come home. She did—and regretted it. What she gave up was a life in the most modern, fast-paced, flashy and superficial city in the Middle East."

more HERE

Africa Day in Abu Dhabi

On June 18, starting at 7:30pm, the African Embassies in the UAE come together for Africa Day, celebrating all things Africa. More information at www.crdsom.org.

History of Education

My post about Islamic sex education created a divide among fellow community members, i wanted to put forward my opinion to some muslim and non muslims for better understanding of a islamic opinion regarding sex education .... i meant no harm or did not mean to target anyone in perticular....some of the members pointed out that religion, culture should be separated from the education....

Every individual has his or her opinion and no one can force it to change, nor can i. My posts are meant to share my opinion as we live in a country that is home to many nationalities and cultures.... Its all done in Good faith and to create an understanding between each other....

Well the comments i got made me think about the Education part and its relation with religion and culture, is it related to culture and religion or is it not...i came across History of Education in Encarta...It gives you a fair idea that birth of education is directly connected to culture and religion......

Some of us think what we learn in schools make us a better person and thats called education.. While culture educates a person , so does religion and our life we live teaches us lessons as well...

So i forward this link in good faith so people including me can understand and take it as a reminder of relationship between culture, religion and education....... they all go hand in hand... or atleast have connections in the past, present or future...

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761561415/History_of_Education.html

P.s... this post in not dedicated to any perticular individual so please try not to take it personally.... i think atleast it will make us look back in history and remind us the basics of education...i believe most of us dont know, to be honest i did not know untill i read it.

OPEN DOORS OPEN MINDS

It is very important for us to understand religion and cultures of the country we live in. The Shaikh Mohammad center for Cultural understanding has been set up to bring down barriers between people of different nationalities, and to help understand the traditions, customs and religion of the UAE.

I hope people living in United Arab Emirates atleast visit once, Open the Doors to their hearts and Open their Minds. I have come across lot of people who chose to live here for monetory reasons but in their hearts don't respect the culture and religion of UAE. Here is the chance for some of them to learn and understand...

http://www.cultures.ae/index.php

Watch your language

Link - Gulf News - Nation's Mother tongue loses in the race of languages

Languages are like computer operating systems. The more people who use them, the more useful they become and the more people who adopt them. English has become the Windows of languages - And similarly loved and hated. Individual decisions on adoption affect everyone.

Culture and language are closely interwined. What happens to a culture when a language falls into disuse? Certainly many of those in the culture will feel threatened. And when threatened there is a desire to place blame. Does the blame reside in the encroaching language? In fellow members of the culture who have switched to the new language?

Can the native language be protected without closing the culture to economic exchange with the outside world?