Ayesha Saldanha · March, 2009

Latest posts by Ayesha Saldanha from March, 2009

Palestine: The Importance of Plastic

In Gaza, Eva Bartlett describes how plastic sheeting is playing an important role: “The siege is still on and cement is still unavailable. Major reconstructions and repairs won’t happen for a long time, just as the thousands of houses needing to be re-built won’t be so until Egypt and Israel...

Bahrain: Internet Puzzle

Bahrain blogger Hussain Yousif has a question: “As a provider, I know that deals for installing and configuring censorship solutions are held between the ISP’s and the providers. The providers are at most agents\resellers for an international provider. The new thing is that the “UNIFIED” solution is suggested by the...

Bahrain: A Mother's Perspective

Rick Beeman is an American living in Bahrain – and he asked his mother to write about her experience of visiting the country: “Here I am on the other side of the world for the first time in the Middle East… Bahrain so far has shown me some very beautiful...

Bahrain: YouTube Filtering On The Way?

Bahraini blogger The Dude believes that the Ministry of Culture and Information is planning to both block the torrent protocol, and to filter content on YouTube, and he is outraged: “Youtube is the world's biggest forum for self-expression. It nurtures creativity. It teaches. It entertains. Surely this is what the...

Palestine: Question for Galloway

Gull from the Gaza Beach has a question about British MP George Galloway, who was part of a recent convoy to Gaza: “Galloway said we are giving to the Hamas 100 vehicles and all of their contents, I ASK WHY? Are all residents of the Gaza Strip Hamas?”

Arab World: Culture, Culture Everywhere

Across the Gulf various cultural festivals and literary events have been taking place in recent weeks, and in this post we hear from some of the region's bloggers who have attended them. However culture is not a politics-free zone; even a book fair or a cultural festival can be a source of tension...

Palestine: Book Based on Gazan Blog

Posts from the group blog Moments of Gaza are part of a new book: “Maximilien Le Roy [Fr] from France, showed his kind support to Gaza and its victims through art. He recently made a book [Fr] that includes quotes from this blog and drawings inspired by the events on...

Palestine: Gazan Blogger to visit UK

Gazan blogger and photojournalist Sameh Habeeb is on his way to London to start a speaking tour: “I'll be speaking at the parliament, touring at colleges and universities to bring more awareness about Palestine and the last war launched against Gaza.”

Libya: Berber Archive to Close

Lameen Souag reports at Jabal al-Lughat that a valuable online resource will soon close, possibly for political reasons: “Tawalt is a nine-year-old Libya-focused Amazigh/Berber website with a remarkable collection of audio recordings and resources for some of the least well documented Berber languages – those of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt…If...

Palestine: Need for Change in the Journalists’ Union

Fadi Abu Sada argues that the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate should not wait for political permission before holding its elections: “Palestinian journalists as a community need to pressure the Syndicate and take clear steps to not only set the soonest date possible for elections but also to hold them outside of...

Palestine: Carrying Rocks to Syria

Samuel Nichols, who works with the Christian Peacemaker Teams in the West Bank, tells us about a request he received from a Palestinian refugee in Damascus: “Please go to my village just outside of Haifa. Bring me back something. A rock, a handful of dirt, anything.”