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My BBC Arabic Interview

I wanted to wait till it was broadcast, but well I couldn’t hold it any longer, lol, last week, I was interviewed by the BBC Arabic Service. Wow…

It was about Arab bloggers and blogging in the Arab world. The talk was about blogging in general, how I started blogging, how I choose the topics I talk about, why I blog in English, if there were any common characteristics between bloggers…etc.

It was really nice, although I was a bit tense, I mean it’s the BBC for God’s sake, lol…

The interview is for a new program called BBC Xtra that should be aired in early June.

Eman, my wife, was interviewed too, and so was Haitham.

It’s great to see that more attention is being given to Arab bloggers. I hope the attention continues to grow.

Canadian Natalie Glebova is Miss Universe 2005

Miss Canada, Natalie Glebova, was crowned Miss Universe in the 54th annual pageant held in the Thai capital of Bangkok.

The brunette from Toronto was chosen over Miss Puerto Rico Cynthia Olavarria.

Natalie Glebova is a model and motivational speaker to grade school and high school students.

When she was asked what she considered the biggest challenge of her life. She said it was remaining optimistic.
“I always try to maintain a positive outlook on life,” she said.

Well, she deserves to win and I totally agree with her that remaining optimistic is the most important thing in a person’s life. It’s not easy to do, but very important to be able to keep going.

U.S. Legitimizes Use of Nuclear Weapons

Bush pushing new “let’s use nuclear” policy…

Under the cloak of secrecy imparted by use of military code names, the American administration has been taking a big – and dangerous – step that will lead to the transformation of the nuclear bomb into a legitimate weapon for waging war.

No longer are nuclear bombs considered “the weapon of last resort.” No longer is the nuclear bomb the ultimate means of deterrence against nuclear powers, which the United States would never be the first to employ.

In the era of a single, ruthless superpower, whose leadership intends to shape the world according to its own forceful world view, nuclear weapons have become a attractive instrument for waging wars, even against enemies that do not possess nuclear arms.

The nuclear policy that the Bush administration continues to formulate, including plans for a preemptive nuclear strike against states that do not possess such weapons and the development of new nuclear weapons – is a recipe for disaster.

[Source: Haaretz]

This is very dangerous and disastrous. Plans like these should not go through.

This would truly open the doors of hell, dragging the whole world into an even worse cycle of violence and spreadout nuclear war.

French Voters Reject EU Constitution

French voters have overwhelmingly rejected the European Union’s proposed constitution in a key referendum.

Almost 55% of people voted “No”, with 45% in favour. Turnout was high, at about 70%.

The vote could deal a fatal blow to the EU constitution, which needs to be ratified by all 25 member states.

President Jacques Chirac accepted the voters’ sovereign decision and said that he had noted it and intends to respond.

It appears that his reponse will come as a government shakeup with strong signs that the prime minister will be replaced.

I haven’t read all of the proposed EU constitution, but I have read some of the main points it deals with, and most of it seemed quite logical.
Anyway, it’s not my decision to make, it’s that of the French people, and they have spoken for themselves.

Personally, I admire how European countries are building their union, and how they do it step by step and always include the people in the decisions. It’s amazing, and I wish Arabs could learn a lesson from Europe and I’m not talking about Arab unity here, I’m talking about a real democratic process, I’m talking about putting step-by-step programs and plans for the future, I’m talking about putting the will of the people first. That’s what’s really important.

[Sources: BBC News, CNN]

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia Reported Dead

Is King Fahd dead?

Reliable sources in the Saudi capital Riyadh said Friday King Fahd is dead, reports the Saudi Institute.

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia has been dead since late Wednesday, according to several well-placed sources in the capital Riyadh who spoke to the Saudi Institute, a pro-democracy think tank in Washington, on condition of anonymity.

The government also canceled all military leave, “a sure sign that something is happening,” said the Saudi Institute.

[Source: UPI]

The Saudi government denies it and say that he’s in the hospital but in a stable condition and that tests are being run.

Anyway, I really doubt that.
When these kinds of news start breaking out, they seem to always turn out to be true.
It’s always just a case of the government trying to win some time to figure things out and stabilize things before officially announcing it.

We’ll wait and see…

We’re in Jordan

So, what do you know?
All of a sudden, we’re in Jordan.
We just flew over here last night.

Eman’s whole family are here this time, and it’s been great seeing and being with all of them again 🙂 We really missed them.

We’ll be here for three weeks of relaxation and fun.

I personally truly needed some time off from my everyday life, work and all the stress that comes with both of them. I’m sure Eman needs this break even more than I do.

I’ve got a long to-do list as usual with some things carried over from last year, but something I really wish I get to do is to meet all our Jordanian blogger friends. That’d be cool.

This time, we’ll be spending all of the 3 weeks in Jordan, mostly in Amman, but we might try to visit some other places outside the capital too.

Finally, it’s good to be back in Amman. It’s always a delight.
It’s a very beautiful city in it’s own special way.

Guantanamo Probe Finds 5 Quran ‘Mishandling’ Cases

So, Newsweek weren’t that wrong after all…

The commander of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said Thursday an investigation had identified five incidents in which the Quran appears to have been mishandled by his personnel.

The five suspect incidents were among 13 involving alleged mishandling that were culled from a review of about 31,000 documents representing three years worth of records.

Ten allegedly were by guards and three by interrogators, said Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, who has held his job since March 2004.

“We found that in only five of those 13 incidents, four by guards and one by an interrogator, there was what could be broadly defined as mishandling of a Quran,” he said.

[Source: CNN]

I wonder how he “broadly defines” mishandling the Quran?

Nokia 770 Tablet

Nokia used the LinuxWorld Summit in New York this week to venture into new turf and launch a new product that is a step away from their core mobile phone business.

The Nokia 770 is a tablet PC for use in the home to browse the Internet and check e-mail primarily. Sporting an 800×480 screen with zoom facility, on-screen keyboard, WiFi connectivity and Bluetooth, the machine runs on the Linux operating system and Nokia’s maemo development platform.

Other bells and whistles include an Internet radio, RSS reader, image viewer and media player.

This looks like quite a cool product.
It’s a big risk for Nokia to move away from phones and all, but I respect that they had the guts to give it a shot.

I don’t think I’d ever think of getting something like this for myself, unless I got everything else on my gadget list, but still I wish them luck with it.

[More: Linux Devices]

Emigration

Yesterday, I found these really interesting numbers about Tunisian emigration on Zizou from Djerba‘s blog.

– 80% of Tunisian youth would like to emigrate.
– 80.000 to 100.000 Tunisian youth leave Tunisia each year (Some come back of course).
– 25 to 35% of Tunisians abroad are jobless.

According to statistics from 2003, the number of Tunisians abroad is 850,000. 6000 of them are students.

Even though these numbers might not be 100% accurate, I do believe that they are pretty close to reality and I think they’re very interesting.

I’m sure numbers like these are reflected throughout the Arab world with only slight differences.

A common idea between Arab youth nowadays is that the only solution to a better life is to emigrate. The choice of countries to emigrate to depends on the country of departure, for example in French speaking North Africa the most popular destinations are France and Quebec (Canada), in the Middle East it’s more like Canada, USA, New Zealand…etc.

But it’s not always true that a better life awaits these emigrants. As numbers show, a lot of them end up jobless and on the streets.
Still some are able to build great lives, that’s true too.
It all depends. It’s pretty risky.

I think the whole issue of emigration is a very sensitive one. It’s a shame when some of the best minds in the country as well as its youth find themselves tempted to leave. It’s a big loss for the country. But still I do understand how some of them feel.

Amnesty Slams U.S. & Israel on Human Rights

In a 300-page annual report released today, Amnesty International state that human rights are in retreat worldwide and that the United States bears most responsibility.

All over the world governments are increasingly rolling back the rule of law, taking their cue from the U.S.-led war on terror, the report said.

“The USA as the unrivalled political, military and economic hyper-power sets the tone for governmental behavior worldwide,” Secretary General Irene Khan said in the foreword to Amnesty International’s 2005 annual report.

“When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a licence to others to commit abuse with impunity,” she said.

“The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has become the gulag of our times, entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law,” Khan said.

She also noted Washington’s attempts to re-define torture, circumvent its own ban on the use of it as well as restrict the application of the Geneva convention.

The report also accused Israel of committing abuses that constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes.
It criticised the Israeli use of Palestinians as human shields, extra-judicial killings, systematic house demolitions, torture, collective punishment and closures and deliberate killing of civilians.

Some 700 Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupying forces last year alone, an increase from the previous year’s figure of 600, according to the report. About 150 of these were children, many killed deliberately and unlawfully.

[More: Amnesty International, CNN, BBC News, Al Jazeera]