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April 23, 2008
Another Good Conspiracy Theory Down the Drain
Al Qaeda says an Israeli conspiracy didn't do 9/11. And, it adds, Iran started the Israel conspiracy rumor. Is that itself a conspiracy rumor?
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 02:43 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack
March 07, 2008
Saudi Arapia? Hib-hob from the Land of the 2Moskz
Over at the Washington Post, Faiza Ambah tells the tale of a Saudi hip-hop crew who dream of stardom and self-expression. Unfortunately, their Saudi parents and kinfolk are not so enamoured of these kids now performing a real-life version -- allowing for musical genre differences -- of the movie Dirty Dancing (whose own star is, incidentally and sadly, fighting for his real life).
But even as they rap in praise of Islam and their mothers, and against the war in Iraq and terrorism, their biggest hurdle has been convincing family, friends and Saudi society that they are not simply trying to imitate a decadent Western lifestyle.
Continue reading "Saudi Arapia? Hib-hob from the Land of the 2Moskz"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 17, 2008
Kosovo flags & Arab Sats
A brief note, the coverage today of the Kosovo declaration / celebrations on Al Jazeerah and on Al Jazeerah was quite interesting: the actual Sat broadcasts focused quite a lot on the Kosovo-American flag pairing and US ... conditional support I suppose. Interesting imagery to be dominating the screen. The US could stand for this sort of positive imagery more often. One does not often get imagery on the Sats of hidjab wearing ladies leaning out of cars waving American flags wildly.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:37 AM | Comments (18) | TrackBack
Whither Arab Sats? The 'Arab' (authoritarian dinos) broadcasting code
The Financial Times worthy article on Al Jazeerah's response to the Mubarek led censorship drive is worthy of some reflexion.
The key portion of the so-called media code is:
“The commitment to freedom of expression is a main cornerstone of Arab media activity, provided that the practice of this freedom should be informed by a sense of awareness and responsibility in order to protect the higher interests of Arab states and of the Arab nation,”
Of course the Arab states "higher interests" (never mind the polite outdated fiction of the 'Arab Nation') really means the interests of the dictators to provide turgid non-news. Now, taking Morocco as an example, with a relatively free-ish media under a media code that is perhaps nearly as potentially cretinous, it is true that application is as important as a law (above all in circumstances as obtain in MENA were law is more an expression of potential intent than binding law). But effects?
Continue reading "Whither Arab Sats? The 'Arab' (authoritarian dinos) broadcasting code"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:16 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
October 25, 2007
The Magic Kingdom
Last week, I decided it would be interesting to watch The Kingdom, an action movie that followed four FBI agents sent to Saudi Arabia to investigate a massive attack on an American housing compound. I went not because I expected it to be intellectually stimulating (it wasn't) or because I figured I'd learn useful things from the film (I didn't), but because I wanted to see how Hollywood portrayed Saudi Arabia. Save for the surfeit of British villains, Hollywood is a useful barometer of American perceptions of a particular part of the world; there is a reason so many bad guys were Russians during the Cold War.
Continue reading "The Magic Kingdom"
Posted by dubaiwalla at 11:40 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
October 11, 2007
Ayaan Hirsi Ali proves that even stupidity is dangerous
Today I was mulling over how the average person might view Ayaan Hirsi Ali based on the image she has cultivated for herself. A commenter on Brian Whitaker's blog captured this perception quite well:
Below is a segment from an colunm written a couple of days ago by Sam Harris & Salman Rushdie. It from the LA Times."Hirsi Ali was immediately forced into hiding and moved from safe house to safe house, sometimes more than once a day, for months. Eventually, her security concerns drove her from the Netherlands altogether. She returned to the U.S., and the Dutch government has been paying for her protection here -- that is, until it suddenly announced last week that it would no longer protect her outside the Netherlands, thereby advertising her vulnerability to the world.
Hirsi Ali may be the first refugee from Western Europe since the Holocaust. As such, she is a unique and indispensable witness to both the strength and weakness of the West: to the splendor of open society and to the boundless energy of its antagonists. She knows the challenges we face in our struggle to contain the misogyny and religious fanaticism of the Muslim world, and she lives with the consequences of our failure each day. There is no one in a better position to remind us that tolerance of intolerance is cowardice."
Try telling Ayaan Hirsi Ali that Islam Is not fascism.
There are two problems here. One is that (ill-informed) people apply the actions of a few murderous whackjobs to an entire religion. The second is that Ayaan Hirsi Ali actively encourages this misconception by making grossly uneducated assertions about Islamic tenets/beliefs, which are then lapped up by people who don't know any better.
Continue reading "Ayaan Hirsi Ali proves that even stupidity is dangerous"
Posted by eerie at 08:14 AM | Comments (58) | TrackBack
October 04, 2007
USS Liberty sort-of followup: Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune does a service by giving the USS Liberty-attack veterans a full say. As I discussed many weeks back, the case deserves full fresh investigation. At the time, I shared my own developing conviction that it was more likely than not a case of culpable mistaken identity rather than a willful attack on an American ship (at least when it was ordered). The article erodes that conviction somewhat -- I'll downgrade mistaken identity from "buy" to "hold" -- but essentially the attack-with-foreknowledge argument often goes back to the same flaw: the belief that merely by defeating the "innocent mistake" claims by Israel and Fans, the only other conclusion is Israeli foreknowledge of the ship's American-ness before the attack began.
Continue reading "USS Liberty sort-of followup: Chicago Tribune"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:41 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
September 26, 2007
Abu Aardvark on The Surge & The Sunni Leadership
A personal favorite political magazine's blog presents a personal favorite political institute's video of an Aqoul favorite blogger Marc Lynch, aka Abu Aardvark, speaking at a conference at the CATO Institute on THE SURGE. The professorial Father of Aardvarks opines about the recent Iraq Sunni insurgent-US military cooperation, but bases his insights on Arabic language media and internet communications of Sunni community leaders. The conclusions he arrives at are basically that the Sunni leaders are stating to their very anti-US constituency that cooperation with the USA is merely tactical and the result of insurgent victories which forced the US to assist them in certain common aims of fighting al-Qaeda and fighting some Shiite militias. They view the government and al-Sadr as "Iranian" and they eventually want the entire US occupation out. In addition, the conditions are such that further sectarian fragmentation is underway and no matter how long the US stays, it appears the conditions will remain ripe for sectarian war. Informed readers, have at it.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 13, 2007
Iran War On the Way: More Evidence
It appears that I may have been right to call attention to those saying a war on Iran is being rolled out by the Administration. An informed and expert source in DC affirmed it to me as well a few days back. And it looks like the usual suspect sources are now marketing it. (Love the part where we can mysteriously tell that the Germans really want us to attack even as they back away from sanctions against Iran. Saying "no" when they really mean "yes", those Teutonic teases!) Michael Ledeen appears to be the one whose job is to incite the converted; he who says that al-Qaeda and Iran are interchangeable terms and at one point called Dubai, an "Iranian colony". Man, all them dang camel jockeys are the same and interchangeable, and that thinking is how one manufactures a war. Anyway, Aqoulites and Aqoulite wannabes with Iran-specific knowledge are needed to weigh in, now and in the future.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:19 PM | Comments (19) | TrackBack
September 07, 2007
Bin-Laden Versus Bin-Laden, same day
Osama bin-Laden on Sept. 7 2007* -- "19 young men were able, by the grace of [God], the Most High, to change the direction of [America's] compass."
Osama bin-Laden on, um, Sept 7, 2007 -- "burning living beings is forbidden by our religion, even if they be small like the ant, so what of men?"
In addition to terrorist, criminal, fanatic, and other filth-and-foul words, we can now add "what a fatuous dick".
Continue reading "Bin-Laden Versus Bin-Laden, same day"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
F**kin' Alif, Dude! Arabic School Opens in Brooklyn
The Khalil Gibran International Academy school has opened in New York, part of the public education system. Being a wacko libertarian, I have my reservations even about public schooling as a general concept, but allowing it to be a virtue and necessity, still what advantage is it to have a specialized school devoted to Arabic culture and language for kids in Brooklyn USA? Folks, there does exist a private education option for establishing such things, if felt needed. This has a Euro feel of separateness to it, combined with the related US cult of the Great God Diversity. But I thought we yanks had passed on the "separate but equal" thing in public schools. Naturally, of course, the Daniel Pipes squadrons of haters-of-all-things-even-appearing-Muslimish-and-socially-acceptable made an unbelievably laughably weird xenophobic stink over it (Pipes: "learning Arabic in-and-of-itself promotes an Islamic outlook"). They even got the first chosen principal fired for correctly explaining that intifada in Arabic means a shaking-off, thereby apparently establishing that a school that teaches the Arabic language should most definitely not teach it accurately.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:47 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
September 02, 2007
Tehran: A Sore US Wrecks? Iran War Looming?
The informed blogosphere and newsosphere are abuzz with rumors* that a US war, or a sustained attack (i.e.war), on Iran is being put out for aggressive marketing by Administration innards this week. Events will prove this true or false. Regardless of the rightness or wrongness of such a thing, if it is being planned, I do wonder if the questions and considerations below have been addressed.
Continue reading "Tehran: A Sore US Wrecks? Iran War Looming?"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:28 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
August 25, 2007
Syria's Consideration: A Realistic Travelogue in A Surprising Place
I must say something nice about the Washington Times, which normally has MENA-related fare along the lines of FoxNews and this type of swill. I saw this story a short time back of a travel-writer's visit to Syria in the dead-wood version, but not online. Now I see it is online. Amazingly, the writer actually seems to have taken note of the place and reported it and experienced what normal travelers there would notice, although one might find it too saccharine for its non-comments on the ubiquitous Leader & Family photos, or the pervasive poverty. Still, entitled sincerely and without guile The Kindness of Syrians, it is well done and refreshingly rooted in relevant reality; excerpts for you link-avoiders below the break. (Elsewhere on deeper questions of wealth and poverty, AbuFares has this to say; more on that at another time. Now back to the W. Times.)
Continue reading "Syria's Consideration: A Realistic Travelogue in A Surprising Place"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 16, 2007
"There are no Enrons here"
So a new issue of MEB Journal is on line, and this month's cover story is an overview of the Arabic-language business channels. A pretty fair overview, with a couple bits of news (evidently, there's a new station specializing in Islamic finance about to open), and this one remarkable statement from a CNBC Arabia spokesman, talking about whether business news in the region is hurt by companies' lack of transparency:
“We do not face obstacles in providing coverage,” says Ghani, adding that public figures are actually quite keen to talk with CNBC. “I think it’s a misperception here that companies are not transparent. Business is very much straightforward in the Middle East. There are no Enrons here,” he muses.
The mind, she boggles.
Posted by tomscud at 06:23 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
June 18, 2007
Ayaan Anti-Hirsute Ali: Son of Deuteronomy of Gath
Monty Python's Life of Brian meets real life as this woman gets to speak in public as if she knows what she is talking about. Saracen-slayer Ayaan Hirsi Ali was speaking at the National Press Club and I accidentally heard it on the radio. At first I didn't know who it was until a stream of simple-minded inanities about Islam versus the West narrowed it down fast. No transcript available, only memory, but I had to belly-laugh and nearly spew as she explained Islam's rigidly came from the fact that it takes its Scriptures as literal and divinely authored unlike, um, Christianity. In the Christian Scriptures, she explained, the books are not fixed as being written by God, but are said to be written "by people . . . like Paul . . . and Deuteronomy." (That's exactly what I heard, folks.) What an expert guide for us on religion and progress! O, why did I have to be a Monty Python fan?
Continue reading "Ayaan Anti-Hirsute Ali: Son of Deuteronomy of Gath"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:30 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
June 05, 2007
USS Liberty: Error? Probably. Reinvestigate? Certainly.
Among the Mideast Six-Day War's 40th anniversary issues will be the June 8, 1967 attack by Israeli military forces on the USS Liberty, an American naval intelligence ship. In international waters near Egypt's Sinai peninsula, the vessel was torpedoed by Israeli Navy vessels, following repeated strafings/napalmings by Israeli Air Force planes. A special remembrance was held at the Navy Memorial (7th and Penn) in DC on June 8. Despite my own newer conclusion that the incident was indeed a result of Israeli errors, rather than an assault with foreknowledge of the ship's American nationality, I do think the incident should receive long overdue U.S. public investigation and hearings .
Continue reading "USS Liberty: Error? Probably. Reinvestigate? Certainly."
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:43 AM | Comments (27) | TrackBack
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 | Comments (34) | TrackBack
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?
Continue reading "Middle East conflict analysis"
Posted by secretdubai at 12:04 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
March 08, 2007
Public diplomacy and playing to your audience
Some of you might have seen this New York Times article at the end of January about a new reality show being broadcast in the Middle East:
“On the Road in America” looks, on first viewing, like the sort of television show that Al Jazeera and MTV might produce if they could be coaxed together in front of an editing terminal. A 12-part reality series, currently being broadcast throughout the Middle East, “On the Road” features a caravan of young, good-looking Arabs crisscrossing America on a mission to educate themselves and the people they encounter along the way.
There was also an interview on NPR with a Palestinian-Lebanese participant and the Israeli cameraman who had been on the crew accompanying the trip.
It sounds like the show could be reasonable TV, and even (maybe) a tiny step forward in understanding on all sides. There's an element of "ZOMG A REALITY SHOW FOR ARABS!" in the coverage which irritated me (it's not like there aren't fifty million reality shows already on the air), but was willing to discount as an artefact of writing for an American audience.
Continue reading "Public diplomacy and playing to your audience"
Posted by tomscud at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 10, 2007
Independent Jewish Voices
As many have heard and read, on 5 February a number of UK newspapers carried a declaration by a newly founded Jewish group that seeks to challenge the current Jewish establishment in Great Britain.
Continue reading "Independent Jewish Voices"
Posted by MSK at 11:04 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
January 16, 2007
Wikileaks.org leak: Site for the Whistleblower?
A new project, wikileaks.org is out of the bag, ahead of schedule. News leaked of the new site's proposal to unite international cybernerd expertise with political dissidence to create a place where persons can safely post leaked government documents with minimal fear of direct detection. The technical feasability and security value I know not, but here is where they provide basic info, with link to a sample of a leaked document allegedly from the Somali Islamic Courts movement. For MENA-watchers, or more probably US-MENA watchers, it may be a site to keenly watch.
Continue reading "Wikileaks.org leak: Site for the Whistleblower?"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 05:55 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
January 09, 2007
Little Mosque, Big Hype
It's common knowledge that all sorts of goods and services sell better if they are marketed using a terrorism/clash of civilizations angle. Every time I visit the bookstore, I see new and republished titles with prefaces and back covers that unsubtly use this type of framing to draw attention to otherwise dry material. In light of this cultural obsession with terrorism and Islam, it's hardly suprising that a new Canadian sitcom about small-town prairie Muslims has attracted an absurd amount of international attention. Local media, apart from regurgitating the usual cuddly sentiments (this show could only happen in fuzzy wuzzy multicultural Canada, US networks are too gutless and xenophobic!), have focused on CBC's publicity blitz for Little Mosque on the Prairie in the face of sagging ratings and the predictable dominance of American television programming in Canada.
Continue reading "Little Mosque, Big Hype"
Posted by eerie at 04:28 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
January 05, 2007
Saddam Execution & Recent Events: A Moroccan Perspective
The casual reader of Tel Quel, a trendy francophone Moroccan weekly, or, to a lesser extent, of Le Journal hebdomadaire, might be forgiven for thinking that the average Moroccan is more interested in the depenalisation of cannabis, the right to convert to Southern Baptism or whether algebra will be taught in Tamazight than in events in the Middle East. One Tel Quel journalist wrote "Je n’aime pas le Hezbollah" ("I don't like Hezbollah"), thus showing how disconnected this magazine is from the broad strands of Moroccan public opinion - fiercely pro-Palestinian, pro-Hezbollah and anti-US.
Continue reading "Saddam Execution & Recent Events: A Moroccan Perspective"
Posted by Ibn Kafka at 05:10 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack
December 22, 2006
Al Jazeera English on The Daily Show
By now many have seen the Daily Show clip about Al Jazeera English from 13 December, where Samantha Bee visits the Washington DC office of AJE and, finding it utterly boring and just not the right format to captivate Americans, proceeds to "jazz it up a bit".
Continue reading "Al Jazeera English on The Daily Show"
Posted by MSK at 02:01 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack
December 20, 2006
Stupid statement from Robert Fisk
From an interview with Robert Fisk in the UAE's Gulf News:
Has the proliferation of the alternative media – particularly online – helped present truer pictures?Blogs are not a useful alternative press. I don't use the internet much, as I don't have time and there's no system of accountability. I know many journalists and writers now read everything online and then use it to write pieces, but that's just mirror journalism.
Well Robert, if you "don't use the internet much", how in God's name are you placed to comment on whether blogs are a useful alternative press or not? Given the immense censorship in certain countries, it is only via the internet - and these days, usually in the form of blogging - that citizen journalists and actual journalists are able to get stories out. Making a broad and dismissive statement from a platform of self-confessed ignorance is hardly the behaviour of someone worth heeding, is it?
Posted by secretdubai at 07:09 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
November 24, 2006
Labor Rights in the UAE: An Update
In the UAE, a new agreement means middlemen are to be cut out of the labor supply chain bringing workers to the country from four countries that serve as major sources of manpower.
If the agreement works, it will go a long way towards bridging the gap between what workers expect when they leave their home countries, and what they actually receive. However, this is a big 'if,' especially given the the number of regulations regarding workers that already exist but remain unenforced. Nevertheless, the agreement would serve the interests of both workers themselves and the companies that hire them. Workers are often cheated by unscrupulous agents into illegally paying large sums of money to secure jobs, and these funds are often secured by pawning the family jewelry or through loansharks charging exorbitant interest rates. When the workers in question find out how much they will actually be paid, they are not happy. All too often, low morale- also caused by poor working conditions- has led to work disruptions, as workers have put down their tools in protest.
Continue reading "Labor Rights in the UAE: An Update"
Posted by Top Secret Anonymous Guy at 10:20 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
November 15, 2006
Al-Jazeera International: Setting the News Agenda?
Fortunate enough to have a stinking cold and be bunged up in front of the TV all day I managed to catch the inaugural day of Al-Jazeera International. Concurrent on Al-Jazeera's Arabic network there was back-patting self-congratulatory coverage and on the English sister network presenters like Riz Khan used their first shows to to take the opportunity to explain what the shows were going to be about, what the remit was, what they hoped to achieve etc.
Continue reading "Al-Jazeera International: Setting the News Agenda?"
Posted by Meph at 04:15 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
November 14, 2006
Rack Your Brains
In a democracy, the media often twists a reasonable statement into a ridiculous soundbite which gets propagated widely, and causes unnecessary defensiveness on the part of the speaker. A far bigger problem, however, is that not enough people challenge the ridiculous claims of speakers in authoritarian countries (or indeed by speakers in the so-called free world about faraway places that their populations know little about).
Continue reading "Rack Your Brains"
Posted by dubaiwalla at 11:41 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
November 11, 2006
Arab Media: Al Jazeera Newspaper
Likely lost in the American elections noise and the Israeli Gaza invasion, an interesting item reported in the FT among other sources on Al Jazeera planning a competitor to the hoary old pan-Arab dailies, Al Hayat (my personal favourite), Asharq Al Awsat (All Saudi views, all the time...) and of course Al Quds Al Arabi (old school Arab nationalism, I found them shrill and boring when I bothered to read it).
A worthy concept, but I am afraid the very physicalness of newspapers make them too easy to ban (by the way, I remain puzzled why Hayat hasn't been found in Maghreb for decades) or pressure.
Continue reading "Arab Media: Al Jazeera Newspaper"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:55 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 26, 2006
Sheikh Hilali, Imported Imams and the Cultural Divide
Since I'm sick and daytime television is unbearable, thought I might write a bit about the emerging controversy around Sheikh Hilali, an Australian imam who recently made some rather provocative observations about women during a speech on marital relations and adultery.
The story is splattered across the front page of The Australian, which offers an mp3 version of the speech, along with an edited English transcript (which I'm sure only captures the boring parts).
Currently, the primary media hook seems to be that Hilali compared unveiled women to meat that gets snatched up by cats because it is left outside, uncovered. This is clearly drawn from the one-page English transcript noted above, which contains little substance save for the frankly bizarre and crude remarks about cats, meat and fridges (and some gratuitous mudslinging at People of the Book).
Continue reading "Sheikh Hilali, Imported Imams and the Cultural Divide"
Posted by eerie at 11:45 AM | Comments (33) | TrackBack
October 22, 2006
Spinning in different languages or proper adjusting of message to audience?
Following up on some small debates on MEMRI mendacity and accusations of doubletalk between English and Arabic on the part of Arabophone intellectuals, I found the following article from Reuters interesting, amusing and also thought-provoking: Diplomat acknowledges U.S. "arrogance" in Iraq.
The essence of the story, the head of US public diplomacy Near East bureau, Alberto Fernandez, apparently (I have been too busy to watch TV myself) acknowledged the US has bollixed up Iraq due to arrogance and stupidity. The US government has forthwith claimed (re the English) it is a misquote.
A moment to reflect on the problems of structuring messages and communicating between languages, based on the longer text of the same Reuters story from the NY Times Reuters feed.
[Update: Unsurprisingly this is showing signs of setting off, what was it called in comments, a stupid storm: I point to Bou Aardvark's note on the issue. I wonder if the stupid storm on the part of pornstarlet wannabes like Malkin will actually deprive the US of one its few capable interlocutors on the Arab Sats, in some cretinous recreation of Soviet style purges for not following party lines]
Continue reading "Spinning in different languages or proper adjusting of message to audience?"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 12:23 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
October 17, 2006
Iraq the Mortal: Lancet reports 800 gazillion slain
I'll probably update or followup as time permits (have updated now after the break), but we should note the recent study issued by The Lancet, which alleges some absurd figure for Iraqi deaths from coalition and other violence post-US invasion -- a followup to their earlier study (see below for link to abstract), which at least had a broad enough confidence interval to fig leaf the foolishness. When I begged my government in 2002-3 not to enter this stupid war and occupation with all the cruelty and foolishness it would entail, I neglected to leave out the fact that it would perpetuate mass gulllibility among those who think "Bush & Co." is Hitler, and that any accusation should stick. And those, like the media, who think peer-reviewed medical literature is face-value gospel. Thankfully, a responsible and serious set of critics of the invasion/occupation/budding civil war, the Iraq Body Count, who actually ask critical questions and document the same matters in real time, has issued a serious commentary listing enough red flags about the Lancet study to decorate a communist banquet.
Continue reading "Iraq the Mortal: Lancet reports 800 gazillion slain"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:29 PM | Comments (27) | TrackBack
Debating the merits of MEMRI, chez Clive Davis
There has been a flurry of email in the wake of Clive Davis's thoughts on MEMRI spin. Clive has posted updates to add reader opinions, but I'm collecting the correspondence here to engage our own peanut gallery (and perhaps lure Clive's readers over here for a wee discussion).
First, a brief summary of events: After Clive's initial post, some emails were exchanged between Meph and a couple of uninformed wankers, which he dutifully recorded in a follow up entry, More on MEMRI. A few more emails have since been sent from our side, including a signature Lounsbury response.
Continue reading "Debating the merits of MEMRI, chez Clive Davis"
Posted by eerie at 07:54 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack
October 14, 2006
Muhajabah and Heretic ponder the Offenderati
Last week, a devout Muslim friend and I had another productive talk about the state of Muslim-West relations over lunch. Actually, it wasn't lunch per se, more a stroll through the local bookstore as she was fasting and I was not.
I really don't know why she likes me. Perhaps she is trying to draw me back into the fold as it were, but I enjoy her company and find her observations astute and refreshing (as an aside, I am always amused when women view me as a "project", someone who needs to become more social, outgoing, faithful, less eccentric, etc).
In any case, the Muhajabah, while strolling through my favorite corner of the bookstore (World History/International Political Science, obviously), made an observation that recalled recent discussion of "Professional Offenderati" here on Aqoul:
"Do you think these wild-eyed types in Pakistan call their bosses to ask for the afternoon off because they need to throw things at the US embassy and burn the Pope in effigy?"
Continue reading "Muhajabah and Heretic ponder the Offenderati"
Posted by eerie at 04:38 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
MEMRI Mendacity, brief thoughts
Following up on my Lounsbury comment about a fine illustration of MEMRI's mendacity with respect to its pretensions of providing a window on Arabic/Islamic discourse, as identified via this post at Dean's World, I thought I would blither on a bit about this and other nasty spin.
There is certainly an emerging and quite nasty strain of bigotted or at least xenophobic reactionary commentary in the West with respect to Islam generally - and let me insert here for the sub-literate that in noting this I am not intending to excuse the Islamic world of its own version of this nor deny there is a sad and often disgusting strain of violence-mongering as our own bint ash-shaitan illustrated in her note on Saudi mosque nonsense - and it strikes me that MEMRI is an agitprop operation that is specifically trying to feed that now.
Continue reading "MEMRI Mendacity, brief thoughts"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 10:58 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
October 11, 2006
Tash ma Tash: Serious Saudi Satire or Child's Play?
The Tash ma Tash controversy rages on and has been adequately reported in both Arabic and non-Arabic media as well as on the blog of our own Lounsbury. However, apart from the obvious religious knee-jerk reaction that has sadly come to be expected when the world is dealing with something apart from sombre doom and gloom of the Wahhabi institution, there have been some interesting and disturbing reactions that reflect some entrenched attitudes towards free speech and criticism.
The attitude towards comedic parody laced with political observation differs widely. In Egypt for example, despite the long-standing heritage of presidential domination and totalitarianism, political satires, most prominently Mohammed Subhi's "Mama America", get away with a lot and resonate with the concerns of the Egyptian public. The Egyptian actor Adil Imam's "Al-Irhabi" (The Terrorist) in the 90's was one of the first indigenous Arabic works to tackle and put a human face on the phenomenon of homegrown terrorism and Syria's Duraid Lahham has a long history of political satire, the play "Ka'sak, ya Watan" ("Cheers, o homeland") being one of the most moving works deriding the weakness of the Arab states in confronting Israel, where hope in a bright Arab future is metaphorically killed off in the death of Dureid's new-born baby Ahlam (= dreams).
Continue reading "Tash ma Tash: Serious Saudi Satire or Child's Play?"
Posted by Meph at 04:32 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
October 06, 2006
Petulance: MENA, American Magicalism & Infantilism
I noted our old amigo Abu Aardvark has a comment on Israeli presence on al Jazeera (and an apparent continued American boycott) that is worthy of consideration, as usual.
I frankly am at a loss to understand how the present American Administration is proceeding in region, other than by pure infantile magicalism. Refusing to talk to "bad actors" and essentially adopting a politico-diplomatic strategy that amounts to "I am going to hold my breath until you change and like me" hardly seems to be an appropriate strategy of a great power. But then considering the cretinous demarches to date, perhaps not talking is best.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 01:15 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 03, 2006
My Fieldtrip to the Right Blogosphere
Apart from daily scans of the Aggregator, I don't have a lot of time to spend reading blogs of any political/religious stripe. I'm not sure how often our contributors venture out into the wider blogosphere either, let alone cultivate relationships/flamewars with other blogs. My mental image of 'Aqoul somewhat resembles a secluded house on the outskirts of a chaotic city, a bit like Professor X's mansion (I'm sure this will lead to a bizarre side discussion on which X-Men are most like our authors/regulars, but let's try to stay focused).
In any case, I don't follow the daily mumblings of ignorant morons wanking on about dhimmitude and the infinite evils of Islam, nor do I routinely comment on blogs other than this one. Perhaps I'm a victim of the echo chamber effect, but I think it has more to do with wanting to spare myself the frustration of seeing the same Islamophobic glurge repeated over and over until it magically becomes fact.
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Posted by eerie at 08:16 PM | Comments (35) | TrackBack
October 01, 2006
TV in the Middle East: some notes
As some of you know, I've just started writing for Middle East Broadcasters' Journal, and consequently have spent the last couple weeks learning some of what there is to know about the broadcasting biz. I may come back to some of the stuff I've been working on once my actual paying employer has had a chance to publish it, but in the meantime, here's a sketch of the overall situation in the exciting world of TV. (Anyone wanting pretty charts and mostly-reliable statistics should check out this Booz-Allen-Hamilton report on the Middle Eastern TV market.)
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Posted by tomscud at 07:22 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Violence, Christians, Muslims - More Fallacious Framing
I caught an interesting article in the Washington Post on Somali shopkeepers and violence which I think is a decent point of illustration of the easy, fallacious framing that often occurs.
Now, in this instance, the article focuses on the xenophobic reaction of Xhosa to Somali shopkeepers, telling known by a name derived from Islamic and Somali vocabulary - baraka, which as many readers know is simply the Arabic for "blessing(s)," although not as the journo incorrectly puts it "God's blessings" as a phrase, merely understood, as in English low church usage that it's God that does blessing. Somalis are known as barakas. Now, the article, aside from some ethnic superficialities, is quite good. However, in reading it and reflecting on how such stories get framed I rather thought it typical of, in particular, Western journo reporting in Africa and elsewhere on violence where an ethno-religious cleavage exists.
[Crossposted from The Lounsbury]
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:34 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
September 20, 2006
Racism? What racism?
Allow me to bring your attention to a particularly poorly written piece of UAE agitprop. The UAE is quite heavily segregated socially - people of different national and ethnic origins tend not to mix together except for business. This has been exacerbated greatly by some rather flagrant racism.
I am not sure what legal sanctions exist regarding discrimination, but it is clear that if these exist, they aren't ever enforced. Housing ads can thus ask for Keralite Muslim bachelors, and job ads for Tagalog-speaking candidates only to apply for positions where these language skills are unnecessary, while nightclubs often turn away non-white people at the door on flimsy grounds. Pay scales differ wildly depending on one's skin color, as does how one is treated by all sorts of people one encounters, ranging from shopkeepers to immigration staff.
There has lately been some very slight movement towards recognizing this and doing something about it. Until now, that is.
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Posted by dubaiwalla at 11:11 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
September 05, 2006
American Media: It's not all fluff and stupidity
We here at 'Aqoul have spent no small amount of time bitching about the sad state of US media (news channels in particular). So it's heartening to note that even the most vapid, empty-headed celebrity rags have taken it upon themselves to educate issues-ignorant Americans on the nuances of Mideast politics.
As we can plainly see, it's not all stereotypical self-absorbed human interest slop for morons.
[Photo: Star Magazine - August 21, 2006]
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Posted by eerie at 07:07 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
June 27, 2006
Denouncing the 'Islamofascists': Ambivalence & Rhetoric
As any regular reader knows, I rather despise the idiotic term "Islamofascist" as both technically inaccurate (at least for Sunni Islamists) and aesthetically displeasing. A bad, clumsy and frankly dim attempt to dredge up the misty memories of WWII and the 'good fight' against the Nazis. I'd have preferred if its pimps (notably Sullivan, who is often dim in this area) had chosen say a Commie reference, which given Arab Socialist influences on Islamist thinking in areas like economics, would at least have had some relevance to reality.
However, I noted that the controversial Moroccan French language weekly, Tel Quel has in its recent edition adopted the same sort of discourse as illustrated in its cover "The New Fascists".
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 03:47 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
May 30, 2006
Media Savior Secularism: Ruthless Business Empires & Making Liberalism in the Arab World
It is not often I have the occasion to combine three of my negative obsessions: secularist posing, corruption and Egypt into one comment. But uniqely an FT article from 21 May by Roula Khalaf and William Wallis allows me to do just that, covering Orascom, the Egyptian telecoms & everything else giant's plans to launch a Sat TV news channel.
Orascom, whose...non-virginal business practices in region (including some fine accusations of bribery in the context of Iraqi and North African cell tenders) do not immediately lead me to think of its owner as a secular savior - rather as part of the business as usual sorts.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 12:46 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
May 25, 2006
"Dhimmi": Crock Quran? (And I don't care)
(Apologies to Southern African-American folk music.) The apparently false allegations that Iran was preparing a law requiring Jews and Christians to wear identifying symbols has not only resulted in a newspaper retraction, but also has led some to revisit an overused word among much of the Islamophobic blogosphere and elsewhere: "dhimmi". The term, in history applied to Jews and Christians in certain Muslim periods, appears to be derived from some type of legal inferior status imputed to non-believers in the early stages of the Islamic conquests. Lately, however, it has sort of become a kind of warblog/Little Green Footballs type of Islamophobic cult-jargon (cf. moonbat) for one who is a perceived "Uncle Tom", i.e. a non-Muslim who suggests that Muslims may indeed act with ordinary human motives, or that their faith is flexible and not pervasively malevolent.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:33 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack
May 16, 2006
Maghrebine Media II
Now that we have had our little side trip on Somali-Dutch immigration politics (fulfilling all desire on my part to touch on the same, although at Reason.com one can pursue one’s desire to comment on the irrational reactions) , I thought I might return to something rather more profound, that being media in the Maghreb and the recent Moroccan steps to liberalisation.
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 12:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 04, 2006
Morocco, Journos and Media bis, a reply
Encore comment
This is a bit tardy, but Issandr Bey of the Arabist had a comment on my somewhat ill-tempered take on the Moroccan journal, Le Journal Hebdo libel case judgment as well as more generally on the media there and some related developments.
As a distraction from working on a market proposal which I haven’t got the proper information on regardless, I thought I might expand on my comment on The Arabist reply.
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:47 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 29, 2006
On MEMRI & Translations: Winds of Change, a Thread Reply
While we have an upcoming article on MEMRI itself, I was sucked into (well rather I wanted to avoid working on the Quarterly Reporting rot for the US overseers) a discussion of our Wafa Sultan transcript translation at the American Righty blog, Winds of Change. I frankly know fuck all about them so I rather think I annoyed the hell out of them, but no matter. I've decided to reproduce here my last comment, replying to an intriguing example of thinking that perhaps typifies the ideological MEMRI consumer. It certainly was queer. I also note that throughout the conversation I had to urge them to come over and ask questions of Meph et al re partciular points of usage in the translation, etc. Queerly no one seems to have followed up on that. Since I rather slacked on lending Meph a hand due to other obligations, I declined to play the translator.
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 03:36 PM | Comments (36) | TrackBack
March 23, 2006
Wafa Sultan: Bigger, Longer, Uncut - The Full Sultan Jazeera Transcript
Due to the tempest created by Wafa Sultan, 'Aqoul has decided to translate the Arabic transcript of the Al-Jazeera show on which Wafa Sultan for most intents and purposes made her debut. Hosted by Faisal al-Qasim, The Opposite Direction is held in debate format and usually deals with controversial issues touching upon taboo subjects like the Saudi royal family.
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Posted by Meph at 04:04 PM | Comments (166) |