:
Fri - Oct 22 -

CLARK COUNTY BROUHAHA -

*The Guardian yesterday ran up the white flag and called a halt to 'Operation Clark County', the newspaper's ambitious scheme to recruit thousands of readers to persuade American voters in a swing state to kick out President George W Bush in next month's election.

The cancellation of the project came 24 hours after the first of some 14,000 letters from Guardian readers began arriving in Clark County. The missives led to widespread complaints about foreign interference in a US election.

[ ... ]

Albert Scardino, the paper's executive editor for news, simultaneously denied and conceded that an early halt had been called to the project. "It is roaringly, successfully completed. It has been an overwhelming triumph," he said.*

:: From David Rennie for The UK Telegraph ::

... ... ...

+ And a good time was had by all!

It probably generated a lot of traffic for The Guardian, a British publication which most Americans probably had never heard of before. In this regard, one could claim it succeeded.

...

:
Fri - Oct 22 -

AZZAMAN IN ENGLISH ! -

Some time ago, I begged for an English-language translation of the main headlines from Azzaman, so we could know what's on Iraqi minds these days.

I just found such a link on IRAQ THE MODEL Hopefully, this will facilitate better understanding and communication between Iraqis and the Anglosphere.

Thank you, Mr Albazzaz.


:: Azzaman in English ::

...

:
Fri - Oct 22 -

WHAT EGYPT'S WATCHING -

*Post-satellite revolution Ramadan extravaganzas now feature hundreds of programs, talk-shows, game shows and mosalsalat (soap operas) as opposed to the old days when a handful of programs albeit of much higher quality were enough to make our heads spin...*

This year's offerings include:

*...Mahmoud El-Masry, scriptwriter Medhat El-Adl’s fictionalized biography of Egyptian millionaire Mohammed El-Fayed. In the world of wealthy businessmen and beautiful women, the series trace El-Masry’s journey from Alexandria’s waterfront to London’s high society.*

+ This article is a rather comprehensive guide, in case you're curious.

:: From Sherif Awad for Egypt Today Magazine ::

...

:
Fri - Oct 22 -

CITIZEN SALAM PAX GOES TO WASHINGTON -

*I vaguely remember staring for too long at a huge wall full of magazines and newspapers and wondering: who has the time to read all that? I bought everything that had the word Iraq on the cover.*


+ Suggested TO DO list for Salam:

1) Visit Thomas Jefferson's house.
2) Read ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM.


Anyone else have any suggestions for Salam???


:: From The Guardian - day one

...

:
Fri - Oct 22 -

IAN KATZ WAS JUST THE BEGINNING -

This article appears today
in another foreign newspaper.

But Katz's crash helmut wasn't made of aluminum foil--
at least he had a sense of humour!

*...the [U.S.] Department of Homeland Security's... Immigration and Customs Enforcement component is trying to match names of visa violators nationwide with those on secret government terrorism databases, "intensifying" efforts in the days leading up to the election and triggering new fears that people are being targeted based on religion and ethnicity. Arab-American citizens will be implicated as well, as during previous efforts that were ostensibly aimed only at Arabs and Muslims who were not citizens...

Arab-Americans... believe... that these are ways of disrupting the observance of Ramadan and, more importantly, of preventing Arab-American participation in the upcoming elections...*

:: Excerpted from:

*Arab-Americans should vote to fight imposed silence*

By Alia Malek
Special to The Daily Star of Lebanon.

:: The Daily Star - Opinion Articles ::

...

:
Thurs/Fri - Oct 22 -

A MOTE IN THE EYE -

*Many Arab newspapers have condemned the new US law authorising the State Department to monitor anti-Semitism worldwide and produce annual reports critical of those countries where it is seen to be prevalent.*

:: BBC NEWS - law perturbs Arab press ::


:: There are over 300 million Arabs in the world.

:: There are about 6 million Israelis. And, purportedly, about 12 million Jews in the world.


:: According to a recent U.S. report... Freedom of Religion in Saudi Arabia does not exist either in practice or in law.


:: For example, an Indian citizen in Saudi Arabia, tortured and threatened with death if he does not renounce his faith and convert to Islam.


+ Who's kidding who???

...

:
Thurs/Fri - Oct 22 -

WHAT THEY'RE WATCHING -

*...it has been revealed that the television dramas Eish Hayatak for Egyptian actor Nour El Sharif and Abla Kamil, Mishwar Imra'a (A Woman's Journey) for Nadia Al Jundi and Mustafa Fahmi, and Mahmoud Al Masri starring Mahmoud Abdul Aziz are the most screened dramas on Egyptian as well as different Arab satellite channels.*

:: From Al-Bawaba ::

...

:
Thurs - Oct 21 -

AFGHAN FEMALE CANDIDATE -

*Masooda Jalal... has surprised [election] watchers with her fifth place in the vote count, placing her ahead of 13 men.*


:: AFP via YahooNews ::


+ Two of my main lights blew out during a storm last night, so I am blogging in very dim light right now.

...

:
Tues - Oct 19 -

THE ARAB IN THE FLORIDA ELECTION -

*The federal case against Sami Al-Arian... is undergoing a peculiar rebirth in Florida's bitter U.S. Senate race...

Look for charges and countercharges on a TV
near you.*

From Christine Evans
at The Palm Beach Post.

:: Relevant in U.S. Senate race?

...

:
Tues - Oct 19 -

CONTROVERSY SHROUDS
PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE -

*A gathering that riled Duke University alumni, tested free speech and cost the school more than $50,000 for security ended Sunday in peace.*

:: From The News Observer ::


*"After all is said and done, it turned out that this has been a catalyst for a lot of discussion," John Burness, a spokesman and senior vice president for Duke, said Saturday. "Students are given a chance to make up their minds."*

:: From The New York Sun ::


...

:
Mon/Tues - Oct 19 -

More RAMADAN TV SERIES -

There are over 30 Syrian series being broadcast this year. This article by Marlin Dick at Lebanon's Daily Star covers at least some of them. It is linked here via the Google cache version because their servers are currently overloaded.

An excerpt which interested me follows.

*Hebrew-speaking characters are a feature of both dramas on the Palestinian issue. They are coached by Syrians who might have day jobs as professors at the state-run Damascus University, where Hebrew is taught, or television employees at Syria's state-run satellite station, working in the Hebrew-language news broadcast department...

Earlier, the crew transformed an old government building in Safita into the offices of the 1940s-era Jewish National Agency, complete with Hebrew-language signs and Star of David flags...*

+ So, there are no Arabs living in Haifa anymore???

They're pulling your leg ;-)

And, by the way,
where's the Ramadan TV mini-series
about the current tragedy in the Sudan?

Just wondering.

:: Too much of a good thing? ::

...

:
Mon/Tues - Oct 19 -

TALIBAN CENSORSHIP BACKFIRES -

*The Road to Kabul, an Arabic TV serial depicting the love story an Afghan girl and an Arab boy studying in the UK, which invited the wrath of Al Qaeda, has become the latest craze among viewers in Arab world including Qatar...

...the threats issued by Al Qaeda have actually added to the popularity of the serial.

"I leave everything when it is midnight and get glued to my TV set to watch the serial on MBC," an Arab housewife told to The Peninsula yesterday... *

:: From THE PENINSULA in Qatar ::

...

:
Mon/Tues - Oct 19 -

TOOTHED PANSY DEPT -

Being a selection of...

sometimes uproarious and sometimes outrageous
American responses to The UK Guardian's efforts
to crank the current US Presidential Election.

"If it wasn't for America,
you'd all be speaking German."

+ Caution: Adult or vulgar language ahead!

:: Reaction ::

...

:
Mon/Tues - Oct 19 -

G IN LONDON -

*How can the Iraqis be expected to lead their daily life, let alone build a democracy, when they leave the house not knowing if they are ever coming back?*

:: From Gaith's latest Tigris Tales ::

* * *

On Tuesday October 19 Ghaith will be live online at 2pm [local UK time] to discuss Iraq: the 2003 war, the bloody 18 months since the fall of Saddam and the country's prospects for peace.

:: G LIVE INTERACTIVE ::

...

:
Mon - Oct 18 -

~ MIDDLE EAST BLOGS ~

There has been a proliferation of ME Blogs lately. And many new ones are now listed on Mahmood's Sidebar. You could spend an entire afternoon or rainy weekend surfing Newbies from there.

Plus, exciting news about
the first Bahraini Blog Meet-Up.

Zaydoun at KUWAIT UNPLUGGED says that there has been an article in Al-Hayat about the Egyptian Blogging Phenomenon, but it's only in Arabic so far.

Would the online version of that publication please translate the article into English? Bloggers are always interested in Blogging News.

Mahmood's Den :: Mahmood's Blog

...

:
Mon - Oct 18 -

RAMADAN TV -

Mini-Series cancelled by Qatar TV company
for Jordan due to Taliban-issued threats.

The Road to Kabul

was one of the most anticipated series this year.

Read about its story content here:

:: From Dar Al Hayat ::

...

:
Sat - Oct 16 -

IRAQI CHURCHES BOMBED -

Five Christian Churches in Baghdad have been bombed early this morning:

St. Joseph Church in the Nafaq Al-Shurta area, St. Jacob's Church and St. George's Church in the Doura neighborhood, the Church of Rome in the Karrada neighborhood and St. Thomas Church in the Mansour area.

No casualties have been reported thus far.

:: Albawaba - Iraqi churches ::

...

:
Sat - Oct 16 -

PRINCE'S CINNAMON GIRL -

The BUZZ on young Middle Eastern Blogs right now is Prince's new song and video.

:: MAYA has the lyrics.

:: At KUWAIT UNPLUGGED there is a description about *an Arab-American girl who is fed up with anti-Arab sentiments she encounters in everyday life. The video concludes with her fantasizing about exploding a bomb in an airport as a result of her frustrations...*

:: CHAN'AD BAHRAINI comments that he found it quite moving and is curious to know what might have prompted Prince to explore such an issue in his video and song.

He goes on to say: *although many Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans complain that in the aftermath of 9/11 their lives have become much more difficult, I believe that it will eventually lead to those communities being genuinely accepted in American society.*

And they say you can watch it on LAUNCH.

...

:
Tues - Oct 12 -

US ELECTIONS - Florida - Local Buzz -

MY HOME, MY FORTRESS -

The film Fahrenheit 9/11 has been cancelled on the Century Village apartment complex clubhouse movie schedule in Pembroke Pines until after the election.

It has been replaced with The Stepford Wives.

* * *

+ Increasingly, just as privately-managed shopping malls have succeeded public streets in many areas, apartments have often given way to condos and then to entire gated communities. The elderly residents seem confused about the differences.

"To deprive the people of this movie before the election is almost like the Gestapo would do," Wasserman-Rubin said.

And this moron, Wasserman-Rubin, is not helping them grasp the shortcomings of their situation.

This remark is so tacky and tasteless, not to mention, wildly inaccurate, that it doesn't even belong in a supposedly serious American newspaper. But, of course, she does have the right to make a public fool of herself.

Hmmm, but doesn't this sound suspiciously like the crackpot Bush-Hitler Movement???

Interestingly, the local newspaper's spin on this matter completely circumvents the crucial issue of "censorship" and the rights of private business management.

:: Movie Screening Cancelled ::
-- By Buddy Nevins for the Sun-Sentinel --

...

:
Sat/Sun - Oct 10 -

IRAQ at FRANKFURT -

The walls in my mind are still there . . .

*Hegaz said although a market for fiction was gradually emerging, Iraqi authors were finding it difficult to capture the ever-shifting reality in their country in novels or even short stories.*

:: By Deborah Cole - Middle East Online ::

...