Year: 2008

Caramel (Sukkar Banat)

A few days ago we watched Caramel (Sukkar Banat), a Lebanese movie directed by Nadine Labaki.

I heard a lot about the movie and read many reviews of it on several blogs, and had wanted to check it out for months before I got the chance to.

The title Caramel refers to an epilation method used in the Middle East that consists of heating sugar, water and lemon juice.

The movie is a romantic comedy that revolves around the intersecting lives of five Lebanese women. Layale works in a beauty salon in Beirut along with two other women, Nisrine and Rima. Each one has a problem: Layale is stuck in a dead-end relationship with a married man; Nisrine is no longer a virgin but is set to be married to a Muslim; Rima is attracted to women; Jamale, a regular customer and wannabe actress, is worried about getting old; Rose, a tailor with a shop next to the salon, is an old woman who had devoted her life to taking care of her mentally unbalanced older sister Lili, but has found her first love.

The film doesn’t refer to any of the political problems or recent warfare that has troubled Lebanon. Rather, Labaki’s tale paints everyday people with everyday problems.

I have to confirm the reviews; I really enjoyed this movie and think it’s a great effort from Nadine Labaki as her first feature film. I totally recommend it to everyone.

[More: IMDB, Amazon]

links for 2008-05-28

Back From Casablanca

I got back from Casablanca (Morocco) last night, after a very busy couple of days.

I was there to participate in the “Maghreb Citizen Journalism Workshop” organized by IREX and MEPI.

The event went really well, with some really great presentations, input and discussions from the panelists and participants. I personally talked about “Emerging Technologies for Citizen Journalists”, touching on stuff like micro-blogging, RSS, mashups, and social networking.

It was awesome to meet so many interesting people in one place, some I had already met before, others I only knew online, and of course some I was introduced to for the first time.

Due to the tight schedule, I didn’t really get to go anywhere in Casablanca, other than the old souqs of Bab Marrakech. I really wanted to visit the Hassan II Mosque at least, but wasn’t able to. Hopefully I’ll get to do that in another visit to Morocco.

Casablanca, to me, felt like a cross between Tunis and Damascus. Tunis because of the architecture and the people, and Damascus because of the full streets and the mad driving.

My flights in and out of Casablanca were aboard Royal Air Maroc, the Moroccan national carrier, and based on some feedback I heard, I was really expecting the worst, but it turned out a lot better than I expected. In all aspects, it’s a lot better than the Air France flights between Tunis and Paris.

links for 2008-05-22

Maghreb Citizen Journalism Workshop In Casablanca

These past couple of days, a number of my friends, who happen to be bloggers or who follow the Tunisian blogosphere more closely than I have been able to do recently, have been telling me about the the “BIG” discussion, and in some cases fight going on in the blogosphere about the “Maghreb Citizen Journalism Workshop”, being held in Casablanca this coming weekend.

Last night and this morning, I thought I’d check things out myself and see what the whole fuss was about.

Well, it turns out that a number of Tunisian bloggers are totally against this workshop, and are calling out for everyone to boycott it, and putting labels on bloggers who are participating in it. Why? Well, because the workshop is organized by IREX and MEPI, who are financed by the US department of state; hence a connection with George W. Bush and the conspiracy theory that this workshop plays right into his evil plans for the region, or something like that.

Well, I’ll tell you what; I’m participating in this workshop, and not only that, I’m a panelist at the event, talking about “Emerging Technologies for Citizen Journalists”.
And most of all, I don’t care what anyone thinks of me or labels me for it.

My views have been made clear time and again on this blog on various issues, especially when it comes to Bush and the US government’s policies in the Middle East, and how wrong they have been and continue to be.

But, whether this be the simple blogger workshop that it is, limited only to blogging and citizen journalism issues; or even it were bigger in scope, taking in some geo-political aspects as well; I’d still take the same decision and go.

Any such event is an opportunity to pass your thoughts and opinions, and it’d be a shame to miss that; boycotting such an event would just be a passive act, which I can only view as negative.
The keywords for me are: “Engage”, “Dialogue” and “Being Heard”.

On the other hand, I respect the decision of people who hold views other than mine, and I don’t feel the need to label them or accuse them of anything, everyone has their way of doing things and their way of seeing things, the key is for us all to respect our different opinions.

Nakba

In my name, and in the name of Jewish people throughout the world, an indigenous population was almost completely expelled. Village names have been removed from the map, houses blown up, and new forests planted. In Arabic, this is called the Nakba, or catastrophe. In Israel, this is called “independence.”

— This land was theirs by Hannah Mermelstein; The Jewish Advocate, 24 Apr 2008.

[Via: Lawrence of Cyberia]

links for 2008-05-14

Bits & Pieces

Wow, it’s been over a week since I blogged here, mainly because I’ve been very busy working on StartUpArabia, and on some new extensions and side projects for it, but also because I haven’t really been in the mood to write a well-rounded post.

This post should pretty much sum up a number of my random thoughts and some interesting links that I’d like to share.

– USA: It’s about time Hillary Clinton stopped acting foolish, it’s time for her to drop out of the race now. Barack Obama is clearly going to get the nomination, and he deserves it.

– Zimbabwe: It’s going to be a run-off now between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, even though I’m quite sure there was no need for one. Anyway, I hope there won’t be any more violence, that Morgan Tsvangirai wins and that Zimbabweans can turn a new page starting this year.

– Lebanon: What a shame! Hezbollah using their arms against Lebanese people?! Do we really need that? Thank God this situation has passed, but this has to never happen again. And would you choose a President already, for God’s sake.

– Tunisia: The Tunis Sports City project has gotten the green light from the parliament, and should be officially launched this week. It’s a huge project, only shame is that I think a lot of trees are going to have to go to make place for it.

Enough about all that though, here are some interesting links that I enjoyed and thought I’d share with you:

– Not Always Right (Funny and stupid customer quotes)
– FontStruct (Create your own fonts online)
– Geek and Poke (Funny web2.0 comics)

High Morale Makes Creativity Cheap

“In my experience, the thing that has the most significant impact on a movie’s budget — but never shows up in a budget — is morale. If you have low morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about 25 cents of value. If you have high morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about $3 of value. Companies should pay much more attention to morale.”

— Brad Bird, Pixar; ‘Pixar’s Brad Bird on fostering innovation in the workplace‘

[Via: Kottke]

Tunis International Book Fair 2008

Something you can know for sure about me is that I never miss a book fair; as a book worm, that’s the stuff I live off of.

Tunis’ annual international book fair opened yesterday, mainly today for the public, and so the plan was clear, we’d go book shopping today.

As has been the case over the past years, there’s a big percentage of religious books, the same ones, just published and packaged differently, all over the fair; some uninteresting politics books here; some children books there; some whatever elsewhere; …etc.
And the big challenge is to dig through all of that to find some real gems and interesting books. As I never miss these book fairs, I know where to go now to find the stuff I’m looking for, although I keep an eye open for other surprises.

The booths I always visit are:
– Dar Al Saqi, Lebanon (For Arabic books)
– Maktabat Al Madbouli, Egypt (Arabic books)
– Univers du Livre, Tunisia (English books)
– Maktabat Jareer, Saudi Arabia (Arabic books)

I’m quite happy with what I’ve accomplished today and the books I got to buy, both the ones in Arabic and the ones in English.
I’ll be going back again, maybe tomorrow, to revisit some booths, and to maybe get some French books too.

If you have some other must-visit booths, please do leave a comment telling us about it.