Blogosphere: May 6
Find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds
Gulf News web editor Adam Flinter plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds.
Star blog: Reel bad
Does the Hollywood film and TV industry fairly represent Arabs and Islam? Does Hollywood contribute to the creation of anti-Islamic perspectives in the minds of movie-goers?
Jack Shaheen may have found the answers to these questions. In an article in Gulf News entitled Hollywood portrays Arabs in ever darker shades, Gulf News reports that: "American films and TV dramas shot since the 9/11 attacks have reinforced screen images of Arabs and Muslims as fanatics and villains, ingraining harmful stereotypes".
Jack Shaheen's books Hollywood's Verdict on Arabs after 9/11 and Reel Bad Arabs - How Hollywood Villifies a People document that too many Hollywood films and TV dramas have portrayed Arabs and Muslims in a stereotypical way.
Ten word Arabic
Arabic is not an easy language for speakers of the Romance languages. It's not impossible, but it's not easy. Worse, pretty much everyone speaks English and people are often more keen to use their English than listen to you mangling their language.
The following ten words will allow you to get by, have meaningful sounding conversations and serve you well in any number of situations and scrapes. The investment required to get from this to speaking proper Arabic is so great, and the commensurate rewards so small, that you'll probably never progress beyond Ten Word Arabic.
The grass isn't greener
We complain about the problems we face in Dubai, and rightly so. But too often I hear people making an unfavourable comparison, saying that it's so much worse than "back home".
As I've said before in these "reality check" postings, that isn't true. They're looking back through rose tinted glasses. "Back home" has many of the same problems, in fact they're often worse than here. And of course, there's the crime. Here's another example.
"Back home" for me isn't a big city with all the usual big city problems, but the New South Wales Central Coast, a rural area of small seaside holiday towns and villages.
Here are six of the ten news items on the local newspaper's website from the Friday edition. First, a favourite Dubai topic, traffic…
No more paradise
First a ban on smoking in public places, next a hike on the cost of a packet of cigarettes: the UAE is in danger of losing its reputation as a smoker's paradise. Just a year ago the idea that smokers would be restricted on where they sparked up, or that they would have to pay more than giveaway prices would have been unthinkable. Now that double whammy is on the cards.
A new federal anti-smoking law is expected to be passed at the end of the month, with a public smoking ban in place across the emirates by June.
What is dubai?
In an attempt to experience Dubai…. All images and expectations on what Dubai is, and how a week in Dubai would be like....failed. And a more real, lively, image was drawn. I failed to observe all the fakeness described by those who visited Dubai. I'm so glad that my first trip was such a rich experience of human interactions in a wonderful way.
I'm glad that if I'm asked what is Dubai today…. For me … It's a walk on the beach barefoot with inspirational people, talking about how we can make a change…. It's a sleepless night in the lobby, enjoying Egyptians' sense of humour on everything and anything….. It's a sincere conversation with exceptional thinkers… who are young… but will make the change… It's a desert, full moon heart to heart conversation… It's a think outside the box experience… It's taking a step forward... into the future... It's an observation of transformation… it's seeing artistic ways of sleeping (Lina)… It's listening to your thoughts in a different voice… It's sharing… it's talking and walking and not being judged… it's tolerance… It's laughing and crying with people you have never met before, but deep within you , it feels as if we never really lived away… It's a hot topic discussed in the bus... it's being sleepy all the time, but yet try hard and THINK and try to be CREATIVE.
Directions
Although I'm quite keen on learning how to cook Indian and Middle Eastern food while here in Dubai due to the widespread availability of key ingredients and spices, I still crave some of my mom's Chinese and Vietnamese homecooking as well as other Asian foods that I am used to eating in New York.
Since my mom's not here with me and Dubai isn't New York, it's up to me to re-create my mom's most scrumptious recipes as well as those dishes that I can't get in Dubai's restaurants.
Thus my foray a couple of months ago to Karama which is about a 20- minute drive north from my apartment (on a good day). I had heard that in Karama there is a Korean grocery store and that it was "behind the post office," and that there is a Thai grocery "next to Venus restaurant." Yes, all great and wonderfully precise directions…
