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Arabisc: Cultural and Art Week

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Arts & Culture, Film, Food, Freedom of Speech, Politics

The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Arabic-language blogsphere.

This week, johacom was happy to find some cartoons by Arab cartoonist that depict some Official Arab Leaders [1]. He says:

قليلة جدّا هي الرسوم الكاريكاتورية التي تتناول القادة العرب، وهذا رسم وجده جُحَا.كُمْْ بين خيوط الشبكة العنكبوتية العربية داخل موقع الرسام العربي رائد قرعان [2].
The cartoons that depict the Arabian leaders are very few. I found this cartoon on a website of the Arabian cartoonist, Raed Qara'an [2].

Cartoons - Arab Leaders

The Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi [3] standing in front a cave, cuffed and a TV airing a scene of Saddam Hussein [4]. Qaddafi say: “With full-will, we decided to get rid of WMD”.

johacom then follows the above post with another one that list all the Arab cartoonist websites he could find [5]. Comprehensive list, I would say.

From the Gulf, Sadafat reports that United Arab Emirates citizens are against the Food Fair which will allow alcohol and wine to be marketed in it:

عبر مواطنو دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة عن رفضهم الشديد لاستضافة أي فعالية من شأنها المساس بعاداتهم وتقاليدهم العربية وتعاليم دينهم الإسلامي الحنيف، وذلك غداة الإعلان عن استمرار تنظيم معرض للخمور تستضيفه مدينة دبي على هامش فعاليات معرض “غذاء الخليج” .
United Arab Emirates citizens expressed their deep rejection [6] to accommodate any event that may object to Arabian and Islamic culture and heritage, as the preparation for the Alcohol Exhibition which Dubai is hosting carries on as a side event of the “Gulf Food Exhibition”.


In the Saudi blogsphere, Cinema, Beauty and Books were discussed this week.

Emy says the Prince Waleed Bin Talal [7] (one of the richest men worldwide), is sponsoring the production of the first Saudi movie. She says:

يعقد شبان سعوديون يتوقون الى السينما في بلد ليس به دور للعرض ومجرد ارهاصات لصناعة سينما العزم على ادخال المملكة المحافظة الى عالم الفن السابع.

وستشارك سبعة افلام سعودية في مهرجان سينمائي في العاصمة الاماراتية ابوظبي في مارس/اذار في أقوى ظهور للسينما السعودية الوليدة في أي مهرجان.

Young Saudis longing for cinema [8] in a country that has no movie theater and little marks of cinema industry, are firm willing to push the conservative Kingdom to the globe of the Seventh Art.

Seven Saudi films will participate in a cinema festival which will be held this March at Abu Dhabi-UAE [9], in the strongest appearance for the newborn Saudi cinema.

On the beauty side, Fuad Al Farhan says that in a college lecture it was reported that 90 percent of the Saudi females are not happy with their look and shape [10] and that 37 percent of them would possibly go for a plastic surgery.

He then concludes:

لا تعليق. ولكن أعتقد أنني لو فتحت عيادات تجميلية لربما كسبت خلال السنتين القادمة أكثر مما سأكسبه في مجال تقنية المعلومات لعشرة سنين قادمة.
No Comment. But I think if I open a plastic surgery clinic, I might earn in the coming two years more money than that I could earn from Information Technology for the coming ten years.

The books had a good focus from few Arab bloggers. Again with Fuad Al Farhan who went to visit one of the biggest book stores in Jeddah [11], he noted that that very few Saudi citizen labors work in this new shop [12] when compared to other famous Saudi book stores.

On the other hand, Abu-Joori comments on the conflict and tension that ruined a panel about Censorship on Media [13], which was held aside of Al Riyadh International Books Fair. He describe the conflict between the liberals and the devoutly religious panelists and says:

بصراحة مشكلة كل طرف للأخر أن تتميز بالتطرف و الرفض و التعميم .. كل طرف به عيوب .. لكن الحرص على تسجيل النصر تلو الأخر في المعركة المختلقة بين التيارين … تمنع كلا الطرفين من البناء على ما يوجد لدى الأخر من حسنات.. بل إن التركيز ينحصر على تضخيم عيوب الأخر بصورة تهكمية و مليئة بالرغبة في مسحه من الوجود!
Honestly, the problem is that each side is distinguished by his extreme, rejection and generalization .. Each side have flaws .. but the goal to win a battle against the other side … prevents both sides from building on positives of the other side.. in fact focus on magnification of flaws of others in an ironic way and full of desire to erase other from existence!

Last but not least on books, Zeyad Al Saidi and other blogger from Oman [14] are looking forward for the Oman Book Fair [15]. He said:

أما المدونون العمانيون في فقد نشر أحدهم [16] عرض مسبق لما يدور في المعرض قبل الافتتاح الرسمي .
As for Omani bloggers, one of them published [16] some photos of what is going in the Fair before the official opening.