The appearance of a girl wearing hijab in a video of an Egyptian singer is making controversy. What do you think? Is it OK for a girl like this to act in such a role, or it just doesn't make sense to you? # »
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Jason Kottke says the Sony Librie "would be huge," but only if "Sony opened this up and used normal flash memory like everyone else."
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Haifaa al-Mansur was interviewd by Turki al-Dakheel. You can watch the interview on Al-Arabiya TV today at 1100 GMT. UPDATE: Al-Arabiya did not show the interview! Anyone knows anything about this? # »
After their meeting this week in Texas, Crown Prince Abdullah and President George W. Bush agreed that Saudi Arabia will work to reduce oil prices. Later, however, Adil al-Jubair, a consultant of Prince Abdullah, said both parties know there is not much Saudi Arabia can do about oil prices. Because even if Aramco increased the production, refiners in the States will not be able to handle the extra amount produced. Maybe I have no idea how the oil market works, but from my point of view, as a simple Saudi citizen, I do not understand why a country that makes most of its revenues from oil would try to reduce the prices. Saudi Arabia is not the only player in the market. I think Saudi Arabia, and other oil producers, should make it clear to the rest of the world that the era of cheap oil is gone forever, and it won't be back. Don't you think that $45-50 is a good price? I think so. # »
Thomas Friedman: "My biggest problem with nominating John Bolton as U.N. ambassador boils down to one simple fact: he's not the best person for the job - not even close." # »
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Haifaa al-Mansur was interviewed by the Saudi news channel El-Ekhbaria. It was the first time I see the Saudi director talks. She does not seem to know how to express her ideas by words, but I think it is good that she gets the attention she deserves. Al-Mansur has filmed most of her documentary in Hassa, my hometown, where she was raised. The interviewer was emphasizing on the controversy the documentary has made. Al-Mansur said this documentary, which is her first long feature, is a simple work. "I was only delivering the views of women in this country. When I made this film, I did not have a certain ideology in my mind." Al-Mansur who said she "love[s] cinema," is not sure if she was going to make another documentary, because she prefers making drama.
I think it is such a good thing that this documentary is provoking controversy. This country needs controversy to teach people how to respect others' point of view. I was glad to see al-Mansur, who says she is a moody person and can work only when inspiration hits her, was answering all the questions, no matter how tough they were, with a pretty smile on her face. I feel really proud. # »
I think it is such a good thing that this documentary is provoking controversy. This country needs controversy to teach people how to respect others' point of view. I was glad to see al-Mansur, who says she is a moody person and can work only when inspiration hits her, was answering all the questions, no matter how tough they were, with a pretty smile on her face. I feel really proud. # »
Badria al-Bisher: Sheikh Ayedh al-Garni did not stand by his words for more than twenty-four hours. # »
It is really weird when a person asks others to consider his feelings, while, in the same time, he does not give a rat's ass to others' feelings. It is also weird when the same person considers others' behaviour as disrespectful, just because he admits that they can be better than him in some aspects. # »
Since I moved to Riyadh in 2001, I used to live in the university dorm. In the dorm, I had my own room, and in the room next to mine, there was my life-long friend, who is also my cousin.
As living in the KSU dorm was boring and had many restrictions, my cousin and I have decided to leave it and move to an apartment outside the campus. But because we can't afford renting an apartment on our own, we had to have two more roommates. I thought we were lucky enough to find two guys who originally come from our hometown, and one of them used to be an old high school classmate. Moreover, the four of us are studying at health care-related colleges; I'm in pharmacy, my cousin in physiotherapy and the other two are med-students.
Living in the apartment has many advantages, but it has its drawbacks. Since we moved last fall, I discovered some simple rules which could help anyone to survive sharing the apartment. Here is the list with no particular order:
1- People are dirty: If someone dropped something on the floor, it would remain there forever, unless you remove it yourself. During our very first week, I found an empty Pepsi can in front of my door. I've decided I'm not going to move it. The can stayed untouched for three weeks.
2- People do take stuff: If you put something in the fridge, don't expect to come tomorrow and find it, especially full Pepsi cans.
3- People are mean: Today is your turn to do the dishes, so expect that every single dish, spoon, fork, knife, glass and anything washable to be... dirty. They did not intend to do it, so don't take it personal.
4- People are lazy: Don't ask your roommates to do anything. Because even if they say they will, they won't. They wish they could but they were umm... busy or something.
5- People do not respect time: You don't have a car, and your roommate tells you he would give you a ride to the college. Don't expect him to be on time.
6- People are helpless: Roomies will help you to find anything lost, as long as it belongs to them.
7- People are droppers: Do not throw the remote control to the other guy. Studies say chances are 97.7% he won't catch it. Consider delivery hand to hand as a second solution.
8- People are stupid: No water in the bathroom? Please don't tell me you were expecting you roommates to tell you so. Use your noodles!
9- People are disgusting: If you've found some unknown bodies around, and you have no clue what the hell they are, do not try to know. Do not touch, leave immediately.
10- People are rude: No matter what happens, the only person to expect hearing the phrase "I'm sorry" from is YOU. # »
As living in the KSU dorm was boring and had many restrictions, my cousin and I have decided to leave it and move to an apartment outside the campus. But because we can't afford renting an apartment on our own, we had to have two more roommates. I thought we were lucky enough to find two guys who originally come from our hometown, and one of them used to be an old high school classmate. Moreover, the four of us are studying at health care-related colleges; I'm in pharmacy, my cousin in physiotherapy and the other two are med-students.
Living in the apartment has many advantages, but it has its drawbacks. Since we moved last fall, I discovered some simple rules which could help anyone to survive sharing the apartment. Here is the list with no particular order:
1- People are dirty: If someone dropped something on the floor, it would remain there forever, unless you remove it yourself. During our very first week, I found an empty Pepsi can in front of my door. I've decided I'm not going to move it. The can stayed untouched for three weeks.
2- People do take stuff: If you put something in the fridge, don't expect to come tomorrow and find it, especially full Pepsi cans.
3- People are mean: Today is your turn to do the dishes, so expect that every single dish, spoon, fork, knife, glass and anything washable to be... dirty. They did not intend to do it, so don't take it personal.
4- People are lazy: Don't ask your roommates to do anything. Because even if they say they will, they won't. They wish they could but they were umm... busy or something.
5- People do not respect time: You don't have a car, and your roommate tells you he would give you a ride to the college. Don't expect him to be on time.
6- People are helpless: Roomies will help you to find anything lost, as long as it belongs to them.
7- People are droppers: Do not throw the remote control to the other guy. Studies say chances are 97.7% he won't catch it. Consider delivery hand to hand as a second solution.
8- People are stupid: No water in the bathroom? Please don't tell me you were expecting you roommates to tell you so. Use your noodles!
9- People are disgusting: If you've found some unknown bodies around, and you have no clue what the hell they are, do not try to know. Do not touch, leave immediately.
10- People are rude: No matter what happens, the only person to expect hearing the phrase "I'm sorry" from is YOU. # »
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Abdul-Rahman al-Rashed: The solution is not to shut down music channels, but to educate our children. # »
Wafa Bin Laden: "I'm lost. (...) I am American and I want to live in the States." The niece of Usama Bin Laden wants to be a pop star, but no recored company wants her. # »
Islamists think this cartoon is insulting. I don't think so, but what the hell. They have benn insulting everybody for years!
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# »Monday, April 18, 2005
Sheikh Ayedh al-Garni eats the words he said during an interview in the documentary Women with No Shadow. # »
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Spell with Flickr is a neat trick to write words with photos from Flickr. (via Desperately Wandering) # »
Farooha, the new Saudi hot girl blogger I found lately, and a KSU mate, has a great post in which she takes on all things from Shittes, to Star Academy, to KSU useless courses. A great post, but it is hard to comment on/link to it because she combined everything in the same place. Hint: eggs, one basket ;-) # »
The Saudi director Haifa al-Mansur has premiered her new documentary at the French consolate in Jeddah. This time, al-Mansur takes on the issue of women's rights. The documentary, called "Women with No shadow," includes interviews with Saudi women of different ages, backgrounds and ideologies. Would viewers in the country be allowed to watch it? I hope so. I will ask my geek friends at KFUPM to search their LAN, and hopefully they will find it.
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# »Hisham Abdul-Rahman, the Saudi contestant at Star Academy, the Arabic version of the talents show Fame Academy, has won the competition against Amani Swaisi from Tunisia, and become the winner of the second season of the show. The race was close and the competition was tough, but Hisham won at last. Many Saudis said they could not access the voting numbers last night, due to the overwhelming number of calls. Congarats to Hisham. Congrats to Saudi Arabia.
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# »Thursday, April 14, 2005
Thomas Friedman: "If your name is Muhammad and you are a 21-year-old single Arab man and you have not visited Disney World yet, well, you may want to consider Euro Disney, because your chances of getting a U.S. tourist visa are very low." # »
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Monday, April 11, 2005
A Saudi businessman offered Laila Rouass, Footballer's Wives star, £1million if she would have dinner with him, but she turned him down. Money can't buy a date? # »
A British expatriate: "This is outrageous. I've never seen any supermarket turn away unaccompanied men. I have money to spend but after the discrimination I've suffered today I can assure you that I won't be coming back here." # »
Last night, I watched the long-awaited match of Real Madrid against Barcelona. The Classico was one of the finest matches I've watched in a while. Real's superstars got over their low performances and played one of the best matches in the season so far. Zidane, Ronaldo, Beckham and Helguera were the best. However, with a six-points lead, Barcelona are still the favourites to win the La Liga title. The match ended 4-2. Zidane, Ronaldo, Raul and Owen scored for Real Madrid. Eto'o and Ronaldinho scored for Barcelona. # »
Sunday, April 10, 2005
I have an idea for a wiki about my hometown, Hassa. The wiki will contain "all things Hassa," and it can be in Arabic and English. Hassa does not have a city guide. I think a wiki like this could be a city guide, and much, much more. It could be a great help to my local community. Now, I need someone to host it and set it up. # »
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Today, Crown Prince Abdullah is going to be at the university to attend a conference on the partnership between the university and the the private sector. What I hate about visits of officials is the security regulations. Whenever an official comes, all students are forced to park their cars far away form their usual parking space next to the college. I don't understand what kind of security plan is this: "To make the place safer, keep all cars as far as possible." I have a better plan: "To all students: Don't come to university on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday." # »
Friday, April 08, 2005
I have added my firs contribution to the Arabic Wikipedia. I have created a page about the Saudi footballer Sami al-Jaber. Now I know some people might say: you couldn't find anything more useful to add than a bio of a footballer? First of all, I don't care. And second of all, I can write whatever I want. In other parts of the world, they call such thing freedom. # »
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Connecting Cultures is "an initiative designed to bring young people from the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia together in order to enhance cultural awareness and promote mutual and environmental understanding." # »
Internet Filtering in Saudi Arabia in 2004 is a report by The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. # »
Another great column by Lubna Hussain. Read this:
It really is a sad state of affairs that in a country that claims to uphold the highest of moral values, women are subject to this source of harassment and unpleasantness on a daily basis. My daughter upon witnessing such an event declared, "Mum, I am ashamed to be Saudi." (...)# »
Strange indeed that an uncovered face implies soliciting this kind of humiliation. What then of our sisters who are covered from head to toe? Are they spared such lascivious attention? The answer of course is a blanket “no”. If anything, I would venture to profess that they are more frequently victimized than the rest of us as they appear to represent an even greater challenge: The allure of the unknown.
The FDA forced Pfizer, the world's largest drug company, to stop selling the painkiller Bextra, citing concerns that the drug can cause a dangerous skin condition and is at least as dangerous to the heart as other painkillers. # »
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
When journalists ask officials in Saudi Arabic about the discrimination against Shiites in the country, they usually answers, "there is nothing in the law discriminates against them." But what everybody else than the government can see is that there is a clear discrimination. In fact, I think it is even worse when the government applies some kind of unwritten law against such minority.
Here's an example. This incident happened to a close friend of mine. My friend's father owns a business in my hometown, Hassa. However, my friend is the one who practically runs the business. He is very ambitious, and he has some big dreams. One of his dreams was to expand their business by starting a factory to manufacture machines directly related to their original products.
He has a plan, he has resources, and based on the government's claims of encouraging new industries in the country, he decided to start the first step in the project which is getting the required permissions of the ministry of agriculture. He made the required papers, and sent them to the ministry's branch in the city. After few days, the ministry called him to come to their offices in order to receive the reply.
When he went there, the official told him that his project did not get the required permission. My friend, unpleasantly surprised, asked about the reasons of rejection. The official said, "you know, your name does not qualify." (الاسم ما يأهل) An expression that simply means, "you are not allowed because you are Shiite."
My friend was so depressed that he called me to discuss migration to Canada! I felt so sorry for him, but also felt so angry on this behaviour by the government. The government does not allow Shiites to own large businesses, to become ministers, or even to become principals of elementary schools, and they shamelessly deny any kind of discrimination! # »
Here's an example. This incident happened to a close friend of mine. My friend's father owns a business in my hometown, Hassa. However, my friend is the one who practically runs the business. He is very ambitious, and he has some big dreams. One of his dreams was to expand their business by starting a factory to manufacture machines directly related to their original products.
He has a plan, he has resources, and based on the government's claims of encouraging new industries in the country, he decided to start the first step in the project which is getting the required permissions of the ministry of agriculture. He made the required papers, and sent them to the ministry's branch in the city. After few days, the ministry called him to come to their offices in order to receive the reply.
When he went there, the official told him that his project did not get the required permission. My friend, unpleasantly surprised, asked about the reasons of rejection. The official said, "you know, your name does not qualify." (الاسم ما يأهل) An expression that simply means, "you are not allowed because you are Shiite."
My friend was so depressed that he called me to discuss migration to Canada! I felt so sorry for him, but also felt so angry on this behaviour by the government. The government does not allow Shiites to own large businesses, to become ministers, or even to become principals of elementary schools, and they shamelessly deny any kind of discrimination! # »
Sunday, April 03, 2005
DHL appoints Ghada al-Idreesi to be manager of customer service centers in Saudi Arabia. Al-Idreesi is the first Saudi woman to occupy such position. # »
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Khaled al-Taweel: "The least that can be said of the Kingdom's present Internet infrastructure is that it is pathetic." # »
