From the Jordanian Blogosphere · Global Voices
Roba Al Assi

The Jordanian blogosphere reacts to the current disasters around the globe. Ahmad Humeid offers his condolences for Hurricane Katrina, criticizes the relief effort as being “miserable”, and notes that “what is really sad is that the affluent whites managed to escape while the poor blacks were left behind.” Jameed also emphasizes that human tragedy is human tragedy. Yazan Malakha reblogs a post on Via Roads to Iraq that remarks on the “signs of disregard for Arab life in the right-wing American press and the entire Israeli press are a small but unmistakable reminder that, for all the Western bluster about democracy and freedom, there doubtless remains a kind of global apartheid.”
Haitham of Sabbah's Blog notes how Muslims do not practice anti-semitism as the Westren media likes to advertise, and shares a bit of local news- “Bahrain Human Rights Society is now headed by Huda Azra Nono, a Jewish lady from the very tiny Bahraini Jewish community.”
Beisan, meanwhile, posts about how she had hoped that 2005 would be better than 2004 but that hope is proving to be futile with the Hariri assassination, the Iraqi Stampede, and Hurricane Katrina.
On the cultural front, Lina posts about the Arab Cultural Night that was held in Ireland as a part of a youth camp, and wonders “how long will this beautiful rich heritage endure and stand in the face of cultural erosion?” She also says that she is very pleased to find out that the 2nd International Cultural Forum is taking place in the Dead Sea. Lulu of CafeLulu discusses a TV show entitled “Pickles, Inc.”, whereas S.C. of Utopia mentions that this year will be the birth of Shashat's Women's Film Festival in Palestine, which aims to increase public awareness of women's creativity and the implications of representations of women. Madas contemplates a very interesting question- “When did we become Arabs?”, and says “the idea of an Arab identity is fresh of the over, it is that new.”
Meanwhile, two of the creative portion of the Jordanian blogosphere share some of their experiences. Amin Matalqa expresses his excitement for starting his first year at the American Film Institute and keeps us updated. Laith Majali, on the other hand, lets us in on how his career as an editor started and shares pictures of himself impersonating famous characters.
The 6th Jordan Planet blogger meet-up has also been announced for the 14th of September.