Stories about Middle East & North Africa from January, 2008
Tunisia: Obama's Religion
“Should I worry about the way Islam is made out to sound like a plague that everyone wants to distance themselves from? Should I be wondering what the religion of a person has to do with them being electable to office or not?” writes Subzero Blue from Tunisia, after reading...
Tunisia: English Radio Show
Tunisian blogger Marouen now has his own radio show. Click here to tune in.
Turkey: US Presidential Elections
Turkish blogger Metin discusses the US Presidential elections in this post.
MENA: Little Interest in US Elections
The Lounsbury says there isn't much interest in the Middle East and North Africa in the US elections at this stage. He further adds: “This being said, operationally or ‘conversationally’ speaking, I would say that there is but passing interest in MENA, except among those circles that may be qualified...
Dubai: Getting to Grips with Inflation
“I've been banging on about the effects of inflation on business, and the economy in general, for a while, so it's good to see that important people are now going public with their concerns. And it's very good to see the media actually reporting it,” notes Seabee, who is based...
Bahrain: Are Gulf Arabs Lazy?
Earlier this week the Bahraini Labour Minister Majid Al Alawi was interviewed in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, and in the interview he said that the Gulf was facing an 'Asian tsunami' because Gulf nationals are 'lazy' and 'spoilt' and depend on imported labour to do even simple tasks. He said that that the nearly 17 million foreign workers in the Gulf, mostly Asian, represented 'a danger worse than the atomic bomb or an Israeli attack'. What do Bahraini bloggers think?
Egypt: 40th Cairo International Book Fair
Eman AbdElRahman is in love with January, all the more because a world-class book fair is just outside her doorsteps. In this post, she shares with us the excitement of other Egyptian bloggers with the event, as well as their complaints, and the cultural extravaganza on its sidelines.
UAE: Investing in Employees
“Dear Readers: What are your thoughts about why UAE employers invest so little in their employees? Or is it just a myth that they don't?” writes John Chilton.
Tunisia: Four Lebanese Jailed for Facebook Remark
Tunisian Subzero Blue wonders after reading about the arrest of four Lebanese students for making crude remarks on Facebook: “When people get thrown into jail for stuff like this you can't help but feel how long the road ahead still is. Should this really be an issue? Don't these judges...
Israel: Relations with the Germans and Poles
Imshin, from Israel, discusses the relationship between Israelis and Germans and Poles in this post.
Israel: First Anniversary
Rahel, from Israel, brings us the touching tale of a cat which was rescued in this post.
Israel: Read At Your Own Risk
Shira, from Israel, posts a picture of a Bible with a warning.
Yemen: Historical Monuments
From Yemen, Omar Barsawad introduces us to two historical monuments from his country.
Iran:”Women Magazine” was banned
Razeno informs [Fa] us that “Women Magazine” after being published for 16 years,was banned by Iranian government today,on 28th of January.The blogger says that this magazine published an article about “martyrdom seekers”. Article's title was “they go to be killed in order to kill”.You can see the cover of the...
Lebanon: Demonstrations, Deaths and Specter of Civil War
Here is a random selection of bloggers’ reflections on yesterday’s incidents which started as demonstrations against electricity shortages and against hikes in prices but ended in riots, shootings and deaths.
Morocco: The Big Cities
Morocco is well-known for lots of things: mint tea, couscous, a film mostly unrelated to the country...And of course, its big cities, several of which were the topic of posts in the blogoma this week, writes Jillian York, who takes us to Fez, Tangier, Marrakesh and Meknes.
Egypt: Abu Tarika
Sports and politics? Eman Abd Al Rahman sheds light on how an Egyptian football player manages to make his voice count on the soccer field.
Qatar: Strange Lights Over Doha
Qatar's bloggers are looking at the night's skies trying to understand what the strange bouncing lights a blogger captured with her camera phone are all about. Is it a UFO, an aircraft, a meteor or Spiderman?
Palestine: Bloggies 2008 Skip Middle East Blogs
Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah accuses Bloggies 2008 of not including Middle East blogs in their categories for this year's awards.
Palestine: Qassams, Gas or Hamas?
Is it the Qassams, gas or Hamas that brought on the latest crisis in Gaza. Palestinian Haitham Sabbah spells out his thoughts in this post.
Israel: Gaza's Electricity Consumption
From Jerusalem, Gideon Lichfield writes about how much electricity Gaza consumes.”Assuming 1.4m people live in Gaza (some say 1.5m), and that its peak wintertime electricity consumption — ie, when Israel isn’t cutting off the fuel — is 250MW (UN figures, though 240MW has also been reported), then that’s 180W per...
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