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May 2007 Archives
May 30, 2007
The Curse of Spinsters
From Gulf News Express via The Emirates Economist - "Sad Spinsters: Lonely Hearts".
Dr Mohammad Wafeek Eid, a psychiatrist at Al Musa Medical Centre in Dubai, said most spinsters suffer from anxiety, depression and multiple psychosomatic complaints, including headaches, epigastric disturbances, abdominal gases and discomfort. "They tend to be suspicious and they make those around them uncomfortable. They are somehow viewed as abnormal because they do not go through motherhood – spinsters are the object of social pity. They feel they are unfulfilled, incomplete," he said.
None of the Emirati businesswomen interviewed in the article sound remotely sad or "incomplete". On the contrary they are probably enormously relieved to have escaped a matrimonial life sentence with the likes of Dr Eid.
Posted by secretdubai at 11:13 AM
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Filed Under: Society & Culture
May 28, 2007
Sexy Abaya Fashion & Breathless American Journos
While not entirely terrible, the Washington Post arty For Cloaked Saudi Women, Color Is the New Black - indeed in some ways quite an interesting piece on new Abaya fashion - was moderately annoying. I suppose it's from the Saudi-centered vision (of course it is an arty about KSA, but given my experience that much of the non-Islamic world takes KSA as if it were the standard...)
Of course it does raise fond images of sexy Abaya fashion as seen outside KSA. Never mind the baroqueness of Maghrebine Caftans...
Posted by The Lounsbury at 02:18 PM
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Filed Under: Gulf
, Islam General
, Society & Culture
May 23, 2007
Keep your Sunni side up: Lebanon conspiracy theory #637
Seymour Hersh propounds this conspiracy theory of sorts regarding the rise of Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon. I don't buy it offhand, but there's plausibility in a Saudi role in promoting Sunni anti-Shiite counterweights, with US winks and nods. Any takers?
What I was writing about was sort of a private agreement that was made between the White House, we're talking about Richard -- Dick -- Cheney and Elliott Abrams, one of the key aides in the White House, with Bandar. And the idea was to get support, covert support from the Saudis, to support various hard-line jihadists, Sunni groups, particularly in Lebanon, who would be seen in case of an actual confrontation with Hezbollah -- the Shia group in the southern Lebanon -- would be seen as an asset, as simple as that....There is a supreme overwhelming fear of Hezbollah and we do not want Hezbollah to play an active role in the government in Lebanon and that's been our policy, basically....
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:23 PM
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Filed Under: Ethnic Minorities
, Foreign Policy & MENA
, Islam & Politics
, Islam General
, Islamism
, Levant
, MENA Region General
, Political Development
, Religious Minorities
, Terrorism
, US Foreign Policy
The never ending list of new bans in Islamic finance
Before I mention this amusing theoretical case of a usurious zero interest rate, a few comments about today’s FT Alphaville’s entry on Islamic finance:
Islamic finance - based on a strict interpretation of the Koran that bans the use of interest in transactions
Usury. The Quran bans usury. What the Quran explicitly bans isn’t the topic of the Islamic finance debate. It’s whether any amount of interest constitutes usury.
Concepts such as derivatives and hedge funds, for example, are considered particularly controversial, given the Koran’s ban on gharar (speculation).
Ben Smith, the author of this entry really needs to get his info outside Tora Bora, because there’s no such ban whatsoever in the Quran. The discussion about gharar comes from some hardly known jurisprudence, and it's not even a prohibition. Even the obscure ramblings of those yawn provoking troglodytes have a more nuanced (well, confused) view on it than the one presented above.
Continue reading "The never ending list of new bans in Islamic finance"
Posted by Shaheen at 12:31 PM
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Filed Under: Business, Private
, Economic Development
, Economic Policy
, Islam General
, MENA Region General
May 20, 2007
Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation
You won’t see me taking my hat off for Arab leaders often, but one has to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. Sheikh Al-Maktoum’s initiative of creating a sizeable educational fund is an excellent one. Though there are chances this will just be another isolated initiative, one’s wishful thinking would lead to hoping for more investment into education and research throughout the region.
Continue reading "Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation"
Posted by Shaheen at 02:11 PM
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Filed Under: MENA Region General
May 19, 2007
I dislike racists and I dislike niggers even more
I was sitting with some bledars* who were introduced to me at a Moorish coffee place, and they were complaining about how racist many whites were. They had some pretty legitimate criticisms actually.
A few hookah puffs later, the ranting began over how their peaceful, wonderful and so civilized shithole of a village – one would wonder why they left it – was being invaded by those troublemaking, criminal uncivilized tourists from the neighboring country – but we love their money, don’t we.
To sum up, I became irritated and called them retarded bumpkins. As the Chinesian saying goes, Monkey on a branch pees on Monkey’s head on the branch below. Hopeless humanity.
(*) bledar: French slang (mostly used by French Maghrebis) for recent immigrants from North Africa. Pejorative, has a “yokel” connotation.
Posted by Shaheen at 06:14 AM
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Filed Under: Society & Culture
May 15, 2007
MEMRI Again: Subtle distortions, lies, and videotape
Although I haven't the time for a long discussion, I think it worthy of discussion here Brian Whitaker's item on MEMRI's distortion on the Palestinian TV item.
Well, it's an agitprop operation. Works well, sadly.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 08:37 PM
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Filed Under: MENA Region General
, Media
May 13, 2007
Middle East conflict analysis
It doesn't get much more insightful than this:
MIDDLE EAST—With the Iraq war in its fifth year, the war in Afghanistan in its sixth, and conflict between Israel and the rest of the region continuing unabated for more than half a century, intelligence sources are warning that a new wave of violence in the Middle East may soon blah blah blah, etc. etc., you know the rest.[...]
Also, Ahmadinejad, Iran's nuclear program, bin Laden at large, Moqtada al-Sadr, Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, Fallujah, renegade mullahs, embedded and/or beheaded journalists, oil revenues, stockpiles of former Soviet armaments, freedom, racism, Halliburton, women's role in Islamic society, the Quran, withdrawing troops, economic disparities, Sikhs, Pakistanis, oil, rebuilding, stories of hope, the Saudi royal family, the Holy Land, insurgents, and the tragedy of Sept. 11th.
Living here, working in media, seeing the coverage day by day, this is actually what it's like. After a while one doesn't really hear what is going on any more, it's just one big blur. How are people who work close to these conflicts supposed to deal with media and reader fatigue? How can they continue to generate interest in and support for their causes when the "Middle East" has become something you kind of want to close the door on, even living here?
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Posted by secretdubai at 12:04 PM
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Filed Under: Media
May 12, 2007
Sheikh Up Shakes Up with a Shakedown
Counterinsurgency in Iraq's Anbar province has apparently neutralized some major al-Qaeda elements. Getting smarter, the US has enabled local sheikhs, and rather young ones, to reassert themselves. While this new Corleone-in-diapers is ambiguous on the US presence, one thing is clear. He's gonna collect his cash. The McClatchy Washington Bureau story is just one long "pay me" shakedown pitch.
Continue reading "Sheikh Up Shakes Up with a Shakedown"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 02:24 PM
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Filed Under: Iraq War
May 10, 2007
On the failure of Liberals in the Arab World
I’ll use Liberal in both its classic and modern Anglo-Saxon meaning here. The previous thread’s comments gave me some neuron crunching about this issue. Socialism, from the 50s to the 80s, and Islamism afterwards, are perhaps the two ideologies which mostly shaped Arab thought during the second half of the 20th century.
The socio-economic variables are clearly an indicator on how radical one can be in support of those political lines. But it’s interesting to note that those ideologies enjoy support even among people who otherwise aren’t poor, are educated, and tend to be socially quite loose.
I’ll focus on one reason that has a huge weight in determining political orientations: national causes.
Continue reading "On the failure of Liberals in the Arab World"
Posted by Shaheen at 05:22 PM
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Filed Under: Foreign Policy & MENA
, MENA Region General
, Op-Ed
May 09, 2007
Why Israel is doing Arabs a favor by ignoring the Arab Peace Initiative
Because Arabs can score some PR points out of it, but would face the tough issue of dealing with it if they had to sit and really negotiate it. Or worse, find some formula about refugees that one of our duces would think is a face saving one and come to have to actually implement it. Of course, if we were smarter, it wouldn’t be a tough point at all. But see, in negotiations, we’re idiots.
I know this entry comes a bit late, the Arab Peace Initiative has been put back on the table several weeks ago already, but I felt inspired by a recent discussion of it with a concerned friend. At the beginning of the Oslo process, when Israelis were sending delegations of the finest international law and negotiations experts, Palestinians were sending teams of little bullies, thinking that the kafya military green wearing Sopranos would be as good with their brains as they are with their muscles.
Continue reading "Why Israel is doing Arabs a favor by ignoring the Arab Peace Initiative"
Posted by Shaheen at 12:50 AM
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Filed Under: Levant
, MENA Region General
, Op-Ed
May 07, 2007
Sarkozy: The Mediterranean Union
Sarkozy’s proposal of a Mediterranean Union have been discussed a lot by French media, but with little substance. The fact is, there aren’t many details in the proposal anyway. From his party’s website:
Je favoriserai le développement des pays pauvres, en cessant d’aider les gouvernements corrompus, en mettant en place une Union méditerranéenne avec les pays du SudI will favor the development of poor countries, by stopping aid to corrupt governments, by creating a Mediterranean Union with southern countries
Since most countries of the South happen to be Arab and corrupt regimes, I wonder how his pro-colonial, pro-Israeli, “anti-corrupt” attitude is going to help him cooperate in building any kind of union with them.
Continue reading "Sarkozy: The Mediterranean Union"
Posted by Shaheen at 02:54 PM
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Filed Under: EU Foreign Policy
, Economic Development
, Foreign Policy & MENA
, Levant
, MENA Region General
, North Africa
, Political Development
May 05, 2007
The Forex Wall
I’ve hit it again. The Lounsbury and I have had a brief exchange about this some time ago, and I just discussed it with a Moroccan acquaintance. The guy’s an accountant. Morocco or Tunisia, to quote only those examples among many other Arab countries, impose trade restrictions when it comes to foreign currencies.
The argument I’m given in support for those restrictions is invariably the same: everyone will rush to buy foreign currencies, and the country will have a shortage of it. That such an argument comes from an accountant is puzzling. It totally ignores the fact that markets would automatically balance that demand. If some little buddy is ready to sell his house for a couple of euros, then he must be a moron of epic proportions. And if one’s worried about the resulting exchange rate, then there definitely are ways to control them through market mechanisms.
Continue reading "The Forex Wall"
Posted by Shaheen at 01:11 AM
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Filed Under: Business, Private
, Economic Development
, Economic Policy
, MENA Region General
, Op-Ed
May 02, 2007
New Month Open Discussion
Looks like Eerie and The Lounsbury have been celebrating Sloth Day (AKA May Day for you lefties out there) and forgot to add the traditional new month open thread with their introductory abuse of Aqoul's readers.
So here, for the flag burning, intellectual whanking and other degenerate raving...
Posted by Shaheen at 11:32 AM
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Filed Under: Site News
