Security Scare

The story linked here popped up in one of my feeds, not sure which. I read it with growing horror - a half-Arab, half-Jewish woman and two Indian men were reported for 'behaving suspiciously' on a flight that had landed in Detroit from Denver.

Note it had landed, not that it was waiting to take off.

The plane was moved to a secure area and all three were removed from it by armed officers. They were cuffed, searched, held in cells for hours, strip searched and interrogated. I do heartily recommend you follow the link above and read her account - it makes for frightening and depressing reading.

Given my own recent experiences with airport security, it once again made me wonder quite why we are all putting up with this. Totalitarianism and terrorism must not be allowed to dominate our societies, and yet with this type of 'security' that's just what's happening.

When Egypt Stopped Laughing

Image via WikipediaOver the years, I have watched Egyptians laugh at themselves and the regime they live under. It's a particular type of humour I have noticed most in the Levant - a sort of gallows humour that makes a joke out of the lack of freedom and the ubiquitous mukhabarat.

Every time elections would come around, people would laugh about how he was going to lose this time. When he polled the upper 90 percentile of votes as usual, people would laugh at that. Jokes would be cracked about the lack of freedom, respect and hope for the future (or the rising price of food) because, well, what else could you do?

It struck me the other day that the Egyptians simply stopped laughing.

Colleague Marwa got out of Alexandria on Friday - her eyewitness account of the journey she and her husband took is the stuff of adventure novels - roadblocks, burning tyres and the fear of driving through teeming, excitable crowds as people bang their hands against your car roof, an awful din that makes you cringe and fear the metal will cave in. The guttersnipes burning tyres, unaware of why the world has suddenly gone mad, but capering around in great glee at the sudden anarchy.

As we can all see from Al Jazeera's stunning coverage, the situation is deteriorating and looters are roaming the streets. Communities are coming together to protect themselves, rather in the face of a strategy that appeared to be built around pulling the police out and letting law and order break down (even giving it the occasional shove in that direction, apparently) - Marwa's mother's apartment was saved at the last moment by a neighbour, the men have come together now and blocked the street so that the residents are safe. The army, she reports, have been unfailingly polite and pleasant and have refused to use force against the protesters - something that Al Jazeera's coverage has also shown.

But it would appear to me that things are inevitably going to get worse before they get better whatever the outcome - food supplies will come under pressure as travel around Egypt is rendered nigh on impossible by roadblocks and gangs of thugs (including those carrying government issue firearms). Medical supplies will be stretched and a wide range of basic services are already going to be under pressure, which will only increase the longer the protests carry on.

Everyone I know is quietly hoping they'll be able to laugh again soon - a different, more carefree laughter, perhaps.


One minor triumph to have come out of all this has been Al Jazeera's. I have been watching their coverage of events and it has been very, very good indeed - BBC quality reporting with an authoritative voice and a wide range of viewpoints rather than constantly repeated reports and whole minutes of text snippets with a repeated sample of the same parping theme tune. It has also focused on the news - not constantly nipping off to talk about how some footballer sprained his earlobe or some manager was 'sick as a parrot' but thought it was 'the rub of the green'.

If you're interested in what's happening in Egypt, give AlJaz a spin. It is streets ahead of anyone else.

Border Rats

Image via Wikipedia

I am fascinated by the emergence of a new border crossing between Dubai and Sharjah. As you likely know, a 20Dhs surcharge has been levied between Dubai and Sharjah and vice-versa in an attempt to cut down on the problem of cabbies refusing to take inter-Emirates fares. This is mainly because of the fact they have to return empty: Sharjah cabs can’t pick up in Dubai and vice-versa. There’s a certain wisdom in that because if you didn’t have that rule in place, and enforce it with extreme severity, every single cab in Sharjah would be spending all day in Dubai, where the pickings are far richer.

Of that Dhs20, in Sharjah at least, Dhs15 goes to the company and Dhs5 to the driver to compensate him for the inconvenience. The idea goes back to the days when the traffic in Dubai was horrendous and a return to Sharjah would easily take an hour or more. Now the traffic’s flowing, it’s almost irrelevant – but it remains in place. Alongside any small carrot offered to the drives by this surcharge comes a big stick – drivers are fined by the company for refusing fares (as well as a whole rake of other misdemeanours).

Now cost-conscious passengers are taking cabs to the Sahara Centre shopping mall, which sits on the Sharjah/Dubai border and then walking across the short sandy piece of wasteland that dips down to Dubai. There, Dubai taxis are now queuing up to take ‘em to their destination. Problem solved – no Dhs20 surcharge. And, to many people in the Emirates, saving Dhs40 on a shopping or sight-seeing trip is a big deal. The taxis don’t really mind, either – they never made much, if anything, out of the damn surcharge in the first place.

It’s like a sort of dusty Checkpoint Charlie, an exchange of prisoners across the border wastelands – at the weekends and rush-hours, a shuffling horde of surcharge escapees meet waiting cabs, like sand flowing between the marbles of the system.

Now the informal border-crossing arrangement has sprung up, we can perhaps look forward to the growth of a ‘speed bump community’ – some enterprising souls will start flogging candy floss and newspaper twists of roasted peanuts, then they’ll become semi-permanent and before you know it, we’ll have the new border township of TwentyChips.

Numerologist

Image by 27147 via Flickr

This post is scheduled to publish at 09.09.09 09.09.09.

On the evening of the 20th, you could get away with 20.09 20.09 2009.

Next year, all the fun happens in October. After 2012, we can calm down.

Well, it beats posting about the damn Metro.

Little Gem

Image via Wikipedia

You might have seen that a company is to turn a lock of Michael Jackson's burned hair, scooped up after the infamous Pepsi commercial accident, into a diamond.

If not, you can read the whole scoop here.

The website of LifeGem, the company proposing to undertake the transformation of a dead pop star's burned hair into a collection of valuable, limited edition diamonds (an undertaking that is, I am sure you will agree, in no way sick or macabre), is well worth a visit. It had me in helpless heaves for oxygen, blinded with tears and snivelling as if someone had tased me then hit me with a powerful dose of mace.

The homepage kicks off well:

The LifeGem^® is a certified, high-quality diamond created from the carbon of your loved one as a memorial to their unique life.

I was already giggling like an idiot at that. The carbon of your loved one. Nice. But it got better. A lot better. The FAQ had me hooting (instructions on how much of your loved one to send are included. In case you're interested, one cup of loved one should do it), particularly when they take great care instructing potential clients not to send all of their loved ones.

But LifeGem's Precious Pets service, here finished me off. I was down for the count, helpless and moaning in pain by this point.

Please go there. It will make your day and you will all love me more for having shared.

1937 and all That

Image via Wikipedia

Remember this blog post about Mahatta museum in Sharjah and the old Imperial Airways flights?

I happily rambled on about Air Outpost, the documentary that was filmed in 1937 about the desert airport of Shar Jar - we have had a copy of this amazing film for many years on videotape.

Well, now it's online. The National has snaffled a copy and posted it up on its website - so you can now go here, watch it and decide for yourself if I was right to call the Brits in it 'preposterous'! The original blog post has more background on the fillum.

Enjoy!

Air Outpost

The Amateur Anthropologist

Image via Wikipedia

I discovered Google Silences yesterday. What’s a Google Silence? It’s when you’re having a big fat old argument with a colleague that’s degenerated from debating solid, intelligent, factually based arguments into ‘Is so!’, ‘Isn’t so!’.

It's at this point that the person you’re arguing with goes suddenly and terribly quiet.

Why?

Because they’re Googling the topic you’re arguing. A Google Silence is followed by two possible outcomes.

“Ha! I OWN you, punk!”

Or

“This is a stupid argument anyway and I think we should move on.”

The Monster is Dead

Image via Wikipedia

So Michael Jackson's dead. I had to switch off the television to stem the tide of grief. It doesn't seem more than ten minutes ago we were all being entertained by the sight of him dangling children over balconies, facing charges of child molestation and struggling to cope with a mountain of debt from an insane lifestyle that his ailing career could no longer maintain. The world gasped as his increasingly macabre visage leered out at them, caked in make-up and scarred by surgery after surgery, a grotesque mannequin piping platitudes in a ridiculous, squeaky-soft voice.

He died two weeks before the massive series of 'comeback' concerts, a 50 year-old man rehearsing, no doubt, to push himself through punishing routines that would defeat a 20 year-old as he put everything he had into that all-consuming gamble to try and win over the world that had turned its back on him. We can only wait and see if it's confirmed that he rehearsed himself to death.

The villagers chanting 'Kill the monster' as they marched on the castle with their burning brands are now clamouring to get in front of the cameras and wail about how they missed the monster and how he wasn't a monster really, but a globe-spanning entertainer that brought joy to millions and whose loss will be felt by the whole world.

And I sat there wondering why these people who had so much love for Michael had stood by as he sank into penury, turning away from him and tutting at the freak show. The outpouring of saccharine grief was, indeed, too much for me to bear.

Geek

Image by Larsz via Flickr

Some side effects from this morning's Business Breakfast slot, with no particularly massive point to make, it's just that I found them interesting. But then I'm a geek, no?

Google is the place where 30% of the Internet goes every day - and it spends an average of 8.5 minutes of that day on the site. As we know, those minutes are spent looking for stuff and clicking on the results - including those lovely, lucrative little Adwords. In fact, Google's Q1 2009 revenue was equivalent to the entire US ad spend on print media. Not bad for a few clicks.

In fact, Google's revenue is equivalent to something like 17% of total global TV advertising spend ($123 billion according to Informa). That's not bad for a single provider, no? It's certainly bigger than any single network. Google's pretty good at growing stealthily wealthy, actually.

Ranked #4 globally by Alexa, Facebook currently gets 19% of the Internet's eyeballs every day, BTW. Interestingly, people spend over four times as long there, though - an average of 25.3 minutes a day are invested on Facebook.

The time people spend on Google appears to be a little more productive, however, Facebook's revenues for 2008 were $350 million.

Twitter's revenue - and, indeed, its revenue model remains pure speculation...

A Nony Mouse

Image via Wikipedia

Whenever I get an anonymous comment on the blog, my heart does a little sinking thing.

Anonymity is the Internet’s great gift and at the same time its burden. It allows people the freedom to be who they truly are, to shake off the bounds of convention and propriety that tie down our everyday lives. It lets people share opinions they otherwise could not voice, speaking freely about their employers, their relationships or their governments. It lets people confess and share, unburden themselves and shout joy without having to worry about reactions, restrictions or repercussions.

It also lets people be mean, shitty and petty without ever having to worry about having to face their victims. It makes people into cowards.

I made the conscious decision to blog and express my own opinions under my own name (I think the only person to do so in the UAE at the time, but I’m sure I’ll be corrected on that one!). That’s something I’ve always done – as a journalist and as a commentator, columnist and contributor to TV, print and radio. I might be wrong, I might be a gob, I may well be a complete arse, but at least I’m out there taking it on the chin in public.

People that don’t have the strength of character to express their negative opinion or unpleasant reaction in the same way do irritate me. If I can be a brave boy, so can you.

Rarely have I seen anonymous comments on blogs justified by a reasonable fear for personal safety – more frequently they’re driven by vested interest. A distressing number of people representing companies still comment anonymously on blogs thinking that they can’t be ‘found out’. That is not the case – I’ve said this lots before – people who host websites, including blogs, can gain access to an amazing degree of highly granular information on visitors who are almost invariably traceable through their IP.

It’s not always about vested interest, of course. Sometimes anonymous comments are just from people who can’t be bothered to do the log-in thing. And sometimes they’re from people who are setting out to crap in someone else’s cornflakes but who don’t have the guts to do so in person. This last is the one that gives me the sinking feeling – a little slice of snarky nastiness dumped into someone else’s life by a person that doesn’t have the guts to do so openly.

Which is why I never bother taking up the conversation with anonymice. Just thought I’d get that out of the system, folks...

Obama in Cairo

"The history of the relationship between America and the Muslim World is deeper and more complex than the common perception might suggest. Thomas Jefferson taught himself Arabic using his own Quran kept in his personal library, and had the first known presidential Iftaar by breaking fast with the Tunisian Ambassador at sunset."

Just in case you're interested:

The Whitehouse Blog.

The Facebook Video feed for the speech, to be given at 2pm Dubai time.

I think this is potentially the most important American speech in 25 years...

(PS, the comment from brn to this post is that most embarrassing of things, a comment that's more insightful and readable than the post it adorns. Recommended reading, then!)

The Palestine Festival of Literature

I have been following, wide-eyed, the progress of the Palestine Festival of Literature team as they have been blogging, Twit-picking and Tweeting their way across Palestine since the 21st March.

This brave, perhaps even foolhardy little band of authors and poets, including British comedian and intrepid maker of popular travelogues Michael Palin, has been travelling around Palestine, taking the Festival to Palestinians because the Palestinians aren't free enough to travel to any one location by themselves.

The aim, as one of the participants puts it, is "To confront the culture of power with the power of culture," - the official mission is to bring writers and artists from around the world to Palestinian audiences, to initiate and organise cultural festivals and workshops with students.

It has been compelling viewing - for the relatively small audiences following the blogs, Twitter feeds and other social media channels the Festival team has used have been treated to the sight of the Festival team squeezing through checkpoints, having their first night event banned by the Israeli military, being shut out from the Dome of the Mosque and other delights.

It's sort of close to my heart - my nasty little book-writing habit led me to pen a book called Olives that I guess has heightened my awareness of and feeling of connection with the people of Palestine, although it's always been a constant element in my 20-odd years mooching around the Middle East.

Today is the last day of the festival with an event taking place at The National Theatre in Jerusalem from 7pm. And then the team of weary artists will leave. But it's nice to think they'll leave something behind them that will perhaps inspire people, to build a heightened sense of expression and to find a voice, a response that will both help them to make sense of the future and to help the world understand that there's another side to this terrible story.

You can look at the team's photos on Flickr, unless you're in the UAE in which case that's not allowed. However you are allowed to connect to the Author blog, including a mesmerising post by Palin, look at the YouTube page or connect via Twitter - it's not too late to do so. There's a story told there that I think deserves a wider audience.

I realised yesterday, looking at the team being hassled as they passed through yet another checkpoint, that I would dearly love to go to Palfest next year.

Let's see what the year brings...

The Gurkhas Have Won

Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife

The following was sent out by email from Joanna Lumley to everyone who'd signed up for the campaign to support the right of Gurkhas who had served in the British military to reside in the UK at the end of their service:

At midday today, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith made the announcement to the House of Commons that the Gurkha Justice Campaign have been fighting for for years. All ex-Gurkhas who have served more than 4 years in the British Army will have the right to settle in the UK if they wish.

After such a long fight, with huge ups and downs, this is a superb announcement.

We simply would not have won this fight without the massive, overwhelming support of all those who have supported our campaign. To the hundreds of thousands of people who have signed Gurkha Justice petitions, lobbied their MP, campaigned, attended rallies and marches - thank you so much to you all. This is your victory. It would not have happened without you.

The Government has now responded to that campaign after court cases, votes in Parliament, a huge media campaign and, most importantly, massive public support. I am delighted, and humbled, at what has been achieved by our remarkable team.

The whole campaign has been based on the belief that those who have fought and been prepared to die for our country should have the the right to live in our country. We owe them a debt of honour - a debt that will now be paid.

With warmest good wishes,

Joanna
www.gurkhajustice.org.uk

Tree Hugger

Three things caught my eye yesterday and today and I thought I'd share them. Do bear in mind they come from someone that doesn't wear organic cotton, eat lentils or hug trees.

The evaporation of the Aral sea.
This image from NASA shows the evaporation of the Aral Sea. Not really a sea at all, but the fourth biggest lake in the world, the draining of the waters from the two rivers that lead to the Aral Sea in the 1960s has had a devastating and exponential effect on the surrounding environment, destroying the local fishing industry and rendering agriculture around the sea virtually impossible. Attempts to save the least polluted northern lake appear to have had some effect - this image appears to actually show a slight improvement on the situation a couple of years ago - but the damage has been done. Clouds of toxic dust from pesticides, biochemical research and industrial activity are swept throughout the barren area, the local population are being eaten away by poverty and sickness, including lung disease and cancers.

The declining polar cap
This time series of images from NASA shows the patterns of ice on the polar ice caps in September and March each year from 2000-2009. It will make you crap yourself.

The Story of Stuff
Someone (sorry, forgot who!) Tweeted a link to this impactful little video yesterday and I watched it. Getting the two links above from NASA the next morning did rather pull me up with a bump. I do highly recommend investing 20 minutes in taking a look at the video - you'll be the six million and somethingth to do so. It's entertaining, amusing and sobering. Not a bad mixture to manage!

It's been a tad controversial - one commentator called it 'Community college Marxism with a pony tail' - activist Annie Leonard certainly doesn't pull any punches. But you'll perhaps be pleased to know that Fox News, that famous left wing think tank and Voice of Reason, has quibbled with the facts presented in the video.

The list of quibbles with the film that Right Wing America trots out was the final, most scary thing of all. Because they don't question the substance of the presentation - just nitpick over facts such as whether the world's top 5 (Leonard) or 37 (Fox) economies are corporations. Wikipedia cites the sources for Leonard's figures, but I honestly don't care. 51 is a shocking number. 37 is a shocking number. And these are probably the least shocking numbers in the film.

Have a nice day!

Wordle

This is a Wordle word cloud of ze blog, found among all the other junk, dross, fascinating stuff and bonkers bits and bobs that clutter the Web thanks to DXBluey.

I am deeply amused by this. But then I have a mental age of 6...

Effical

I thought I'd share something that has really livened up our Christmas shopping.

It's Oxfam Unwrapped.

You buy a gift that benefits a community in need of help somewhere in the world, from assisting olive farmers through to buying a duck for a Balinese rice farmer, training a teacher, improving a community's water supply or a number of other things that will make a difference to someone who needs help more than we do.

And then Oxfam sends your friend/family member a card (or e-card) explaining that you've given them something perhaps a little more special than just the usual gift of something that, if they really wanted, they'd buy themselves.

I know you'll all think I'm being soft in the head, but I rather thought that it was all more in keeping with the spirit of the thing.