Year: 2006

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Last night while zapping through satellite TV channels, I came across this scene in a movie with Dick Van Dyke and Benny Hill.
My wife and I automatically detected it and knew it was from a movie that was a big favourite for both of us in our childhoods: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

It’s a movie we’ve both seen tens, if not hundreds, of times as kids, and it brought back a flood of sweet childhood memories.
We remembered the bits we loved, the bits that bored us and the bits that scared us with that damn childcatcher lollypop man.

I remember when I came to Tunisia, and none of the other kids in the family had seen it, I’d always keep taking the video tape of it around with me showing it to them, until it got lost in my aunt’s house at the end.
I hated her and her son for a long time after that because of it 😛

I’m not sure if a movie like this one would work for today’s generation of kids, but for us it was one of the coolest movies around and we greatly enjoyed it.

The story was cool, the songs were great and the acting was good; It was one of the best kid movies of its time.

I guess it’ll live forever in our memories and in the inner child of everyone of us who experienced it.

Long Live Chitty Chitty Bang Bang…

Iran daily holds contest for Holocaust cartoons

Iran’s best-selling newspaper has launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust in retaliation for the publication in many European countries of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.

The daily paper Hamshahri said the contest was designed to test the boundaries of free speech — the reason given by many European newspapers for publishing the cartoons of the Prophet.

“A serious question for Muslims … is this: ‘does Western free speech allow working on issues like America and Israel’s crimes or an incident like the Holocaust or is this freedom of speech only good for insulting the holy values of divine religions?'” the paper said on Tuesday.

Davoud Kazemi, who is in charge of the contest, told Reuters that each of the 12 winners would have their cartoons published and receive two gold coins (worth about $140 each) as a prize.

[Source: Reuters]

Thoughts On The Danish Cartoons Discussion

I’ve been observing comments and reactions from both sides on the danish cartoons conflict on my blog and others, without getting too involved with them, trying to see where they go, and I’m very sorry to say that they’ve been moving without direction further up a blocked alley.

The whole conversation keeps turning into a big Islam vs. West, clash of civilizations style discussion, in which the westerners bash Islam and Muslim countries, and Muslims bash the West.
All of a sudden the talk is about the state of women rights in Saudi Arabia, Israel and its existence, laicity in French schools, …etc.

This obviously shows that there are many lingering issues on both sides that are just waiting to burst open and be debated, and that this caricature subject simply brought a chance for each side to let go.

But the way it’s being done now, it’ll only deepen the row between us all, increase the misunderstanding and grow whatever hatred some hold.

It’s clear this is not the way we should approach it. What we should do is drop our preconceptions of each other, come in with a clean slate, with a spirit of open-mindedness and understanding, and then talk unbiasedly and respectfully about all these issues, trying to come to a better understanding of each other.

Everything has been distorted in this world; from laws, to religion, to concepts, to philosophies; and the only way for us is to go back to the basics, and build upon them.

Blogging, What Next?

I remember some time ago, on the way to a meeting with a client, a friend from work and I were talking about my blog and how I never imagined it’d get me into the World Summit on the Information Society, and then to London for the Global Voices Summit, …etc.
He said it was all great and stuff, but then asked: “But then what?”
This is a question a lot of non-bloggers ask, and it’s quite a logical question actually, I mean nothing really goes on forever, not even our passion for certain things, everything seems to move on, leave place for something else.

The question actually brings up two thoughts, which are:
– What will come next after blogging as a net phenomenon?
– What will come next for this blog?

Regarding the first point, I think it’s obvious that we’re moving more and more towards a more open, more social, more discussion oriented internet. So just like the old static website and discussion forum converged into a blog, I expect we’ll be seeing more and more communication technologies and ideas being merged to create the next big thing.
And with higher connectivity and faster connection speeds, more and more will be realizable and accessible to more people.

As for what will happen to my blog, well I’m having a great time with it now, and I don’t see myself letting go of it anytime soon.
I mean, in the end, I think I’ll always have something to write about, an opinion to share, a flag to raise, and a need to express myself. And the way I see it, this blog will exist as long as all that does.

So in response to my friend, and all those who ask this question, a blog is not something you do to get somewhere, you do it because you feel like it, because you have this certain need to. So when you blog, you’re not really thinking of what you’re going to do in the future.
Of couse there are the professional blogs and profit-oriented blogs, and those have specific goals, but other than that a blog is more or less a personal space for the blogger to write about his personal or professional thoughts, experiences and ideas.

Blogging vs. Psychiatry

There’s been a lot of talk about blogging vs. journalism in the past, discussing whether bloggers compete with journalists or not, and what kind of relationship there can be between the two.
Personally, I think the relationship between blogging and journalism is more or less a clear one, in that they complete each other, and can hold one another accountable.

Another interesting thought though is blogging vs. psychiatry.
A lot of people are using their blogs as a space to vent, unload and just get things off their chests. They talk about their everyday lives, their problems, their highs and lows, almost everything. And it makes them feel a lot better to be able to do that.
They also get genuine feedback from readers who comment more or less because they’ve started to care for this person in one way or another.

I can’t but compare this kind of blogging to a session with a psychiatrist, after all, he just asks you to talk about what’s annoying you, your life, …etc and he tries to analyze it and give you some feedback that could be of some help to you.

The difference is that with blogging you’re not limited to your one hour session, so you can say all you want to say, when you want to and just like you feel it. You’re also getting genuine feedback from people who care a lot more than your shrink does, because in the end he’s just doing it for money, they’re doing it because they want to.
And of course you’re saving yourself a lot of money.

I wonder if there are any psychiatrists out there who have thought of this and who have felt even a bit threatened by blogging.

Of course, blogging can’t solve everyone’s psychiatric problems, after all psychiatry is a science and takes years of studies and practice to perfect, it just has some therapeutic effects that could help some people with some specific problems out.

In fact, I don’t see why blogging can’t complement the work of psychiatrists in some cases and be one of the things that they advise some of their patients to use.
Of course I expect royalties for my idea from both the psychiatrists and blogging services 😉

No To Violent Response Over Danish Cartoons!

Yesterday, the embassies of Denmark and Norway in Syria were attacked by demonstrators and torched.

Today, demonstrators in Lebanon set the Danish consulate in Beirut on fire too.

From the very start, Muslim religious leaders and clerics have been going on and on about this and telling people not to react violently to these cartoons. And from the video footage of the attacks on the Danish consulate in Beirut, we can see a number of religious leaders trying to stop the people from what they’re doing, trying to stand in their way and make them leave.
And all Arab TV channel have been showing a number of Islamic leaders or Imams condemning these actions and attacks against these embassies and consulates.

I too would like to strongly condemn these attacks and say that they are totally unacceptable. Violence is never a solution to anything. It just complicates things more and adds fuel to the fire.
This is not the way Islam, our religion of peace, tells us to respond!
These violent reactions harm our religion more than the cartoons or any disrespect the west could show!
This has to stop!

links for 2006-02-03

Fact International: A New Paper on Islam

A new weekly newspaper has been launched in Jordan to campaign against “blatant distortions” of Islam by portraying a moderate image of the religion.

Fact International is being published by a media and research institute based in Amman with articles in both Arabic and English, according to chairman Zakaria al-Sheikh.

“Fact International