Blogosphere: May 8, 2007

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.

Pick of the week

Replacement…

BetterArf has been clearing out her handbag.
She found this receipt (which says "husband" on it). I don't know what's worse:
1) She bought a new husband rather than using her undoubted charms to acquire one for free
2) She bought it from a toy shop
3) It only cost 17 dirhams
4) She cannot remember buying it and has no idea where it is now
The mind boggles.
http://webmasterdubai.blogspot.com/

Demands for change

The weather was hot, the temperature was certainly over 40 degrees Celsius and the humidity wasn't forgiving and neither was the sun, but the intelligentsia of Bahrain gathered yesterday in front of the Parliament building to demonstrate in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day, in solidarity with Isa Al-Shayji, who is demanding that MP Mohammad Khaled's parliamentary immunity be lifted in order for him to stand trial, accused of publicly insulting him and, of course, to show the community's refusal of that heinous Press and Publications Law of 2002 in which journalists could be (and have) summarily imprisoned for simply practising the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression and demanded that that law be withdrawn, amended or replaced.

The number of people present were a cross section of society but all of whom share a basic understanding that they support the basic human right of the freedom to express oneself without fear of persecution.
http://www.mahmood.tv/

Blogger's vision

I am proposing creating an organisation that deals with championing the causes of blogger and freedom of speech in the Middle East, at least as the first step, since it seems that 90 per cent of the cases of blogger intimidation and oppression comes from this region anyway.
This new organisation / committee / coalition / whatever would exclusively bring focus to our causes, champion them and push for our protection. It would do so by utilising a strategy that doesn't only rely on bloggers and the media to pressure governments.
http://www.sandmonkey.org/

Jumeirah Beach on a Friday night

We park our car, amongst the huge array of cars parked ... At midnight, the place was certainly bustling with activity ... people were arriving, with picnic bags, beach mats, tents, all set to have a night out ... People from all walks of life ... shy couples, noisy teenagers, happy families, serious footballers.

On walking further down, we find many many people, playing ball in the water, swimming around ... having fun, barbeques, hookah ... they had it all planned ... It was as if we were on Mamzar beach or Creek park on a Friday afternoon except for the fact that it was close to 1am.

Thoughts ... As I lie down on the cold sand and stare at the night sky, and listen to the sound of the waves crashing down & people playing around ... the song Shiny Happy People by R.E.M. comes to my mind.
http://facecrowd.blogspot.com/

Learning Arabic
A friend suggested I join him at a conference. He promised free food, so how could I resist?

The only charge for the "free" food was listening to the presentations at the conference, so I sat down in the auditorium.

The first speaker began in Arabic. I didn't understand one word, but at least I recognised that he was reciting poetry by the meter and the rhyme.

At the end of the poem, he got a standing ovation. Only two of us (a Frenchman and myself) didn't stand up and cheer wildly (apparently, the Frenchman doesn't understand any more Arabic than I do).

Then the English portion of his presentation began: "Analytic and Algebraic Topology of a Locally Euclidean Metrisation of an Infinitely Differentiable Riemannian Manifold."

And I am happy to report, for that one brief, shining moment, I understood the Arabic every bit as well as I did the English.
http://dubaiatrandom.blogspot.com/

The jaw of probability

One thing that's really bugging me, especially these days, when details are so important, is that you have to explain what you need 1,000 times to someone who should understand in an instant what you need, without having to repeat yourself and rephrase 2,000 times. That's 3,000 times unecessarily exercising your jaw, saying the same thing over. It could have taken 1,501 times less time when someone with a half-basic brain could have understood.
That's my mathematical philosophy for the day - it shall repeat itself tomorrow, and the day after - and there's no going back, as per the law of probability.
http://desperateprincessdubai.blogspot.com

Ouch! Pins and needles

Yesterday I went for my first session of acupuncture Very interesting. Started out with me filling out a questionnaire about my general health, but very weird questions. Like were the backs of my hands and feet warmer or cooler than my palms/soles of my feet? As I had just walked there briskly (because I was late) in 40C heat and was sweating from every pore it was kind of hard to answer accurately. Also lots of questions about my bladder and bowel output (size, colour, quantity - yuch!)...

Fortunately when I got in to see him things got a bit more normal. I described my back problem history and he prodded and poked me a bit. He asked me how bad my back pain was at that moment on a scale of 1-10, with ten being as bad as it ever gets. I told him 5/6. He then asked me to take my trousers off and stuck a couple of hatpins in my inner thigh - ouch - now how bad was the pain? Amazingly, it did actually feel better.

So I said 3/4. At which point he twiddled with the hat pins and pushed them in further - ouch, ouch - now how bad is it? Resisting the temptation to say "If I tell you it's gone, will you leave the hatpins alone?" I said it was down to a 2.

More twiddling and pushing, which sent a flash of pain up my leg - aha, that apparently was what he was looking for. Then a couple of more needles in the side of my left hand - not painful, thank goodness - and then he left me to "relax" for 30 minutes.
http://wifeinasuitacase.blogspot.com