Cruel

It was none other than Guardian technology section editor and blogger Charles Arthur who, via his report on his blog, turned me onto a most amusing little corner of the Internet which I, in turn, feel compelled to share with you.

As if to show that the mighty Guardian can, indeed, take it on the chin, Charles reports on the fascinating affair of The Guardian's very own home grown scandal - that of the 'gap blogger'. The gap blogger, a young chap called Max, has been given a slice of the Guardian's blog in which to report on his travels in his 'gap year'. A gap year is the year between school and university that many, often well-to-do, British kids spend backpacking around the world and discovering themselves. Incidentally, I do think that people who set out to discover themselves are often just trying to travel away from the fact that what there is there to be discovered is very little indeed.

So Max, apparently no different from any other 19 year old, gets to write on a British national newspaper's blog. A break which few aspiring young travel writers could expect to get. The fact that Max's travel writer dad is a Guardian contributor introduces a beguiling whiff of nepotistic sulphur to an otherwise drab contribution: Max's first piece is really no more or less than you'd expect - a little silly, naive, slightly clumsy and perhaps gawky. What's perhaps surprising is that The Guardian Blog is supporting such a poor contribution.

And this is where we get to the real fun of the affair: the tide of abuse that nestles in the comments. It's even possible that the phrase gap blogger might enter our dictionaries or even transform into a real life honest-to-goodness meme.

I do recommend a flick through Max's first (and last?) post and the consequent howls of rage from readers. The criticism is nothing less than coruscating - and the volume of comment is quite remarkable. It's a rollicking good read and a fantastic example of social networking at its most... social or anti-social? You decide!

New Blog Gets Glittering Gala Launch

Last night saw the glittering gala dinner launch of new Dubai food blog, The Fat Expat at the Fairmont Hotel, Dubai. The red carpet was worn to shreds by the sheer weight of expensive leather that travelled up it as the paps snapped like the snarling gang of flash-happy jackals that they are and the greeting line’s arms and cheek muscles were aching, sore and in one case left in spasms with the sheer amount of celebrity meeting and greeting before the glamour of the evening kicked in.

OK, so I lied. Last night saw me and HMHB having a few drinks and wrangling over restaurants and chefs and things as well as lifting a glass to the new Blog. Thanks to 7Days, by the way!!!

Talking of new sites and snappers, do please dedicate a few minutes to going here. This is the new, fabby and generally phototabulous website of the highly talented Taline Jones (nee Tutunjian), also known as ‘T’ and ‘that girl over there just swore at me!’, depending on who you’re talking to at the time. T is a dear friend, ex-colleague and deeply talented photographer and anyone who’s got any sense will wire her thousands of pounds to have her on retainer right away.

Toasts all round, then!

Gross Stupidity

144 posts by me. Gross stupidity indeed...

Poetic Justice

I do hope you remember the story of Jordanian expatriate blogger Husain (Who-Sane) and his father, who was so appallingly treated in an Amman hospital that he is still recovering over a month later.

Husain's blog post on the affair started a hue and cry that made it to many other blogs and so to the daily newspapers and eventually resulted in such significant word of mouth and consequent broad public awareness of the tragic plight of his father and his ill-treatment at the hands of the hospital's staff that the King himself became involved.

Well, the director of the hospital has now been sacked.

Which is by no means the end of the story, but probably an appropriate stepping point.

Strange Searches

I’ve done this type of thing before, but remain amazed at the ongoing results from searchers of things on the Internet wot end up here. So here here are some of the stranger and more persistent search strings used by people in order to find this furtive and exclusive blog in the recent past. Some of them really do have me wondering…

Tollgate how to destroy tollgate
It's probably furious Salik victim Half Man Half Beer. Whoever it is, they're obviously looking for hints and tips on how to make your own Salik-beating RPG or something…

Aquafina water horror
Quite a few people have come by to the Aquafina post. I’m glad. I hope more see it.

Fake spring water
Fake Plastic Chickens
Fake Chicken
It seems that you get directed here by Google if you search for pretty much anything fake. I’m not sure how to take that… I am consistently amazed by how many people get here searching for Fake Plastic Chickens. They must all be terribly disappointed when they get here. So, because I'm a cutie really, here’s a link for all you fake plastic chicken seekers!

Metallic sea-green truck
I am really not sure what’s going on here, but I reckon if you can’t find one of these in the Sharjah car souk, you’re done for. I once bumped into a Detomaso Pantera there, BTW. Amazing thing to find in a hot dusty Gulf backroad...

Camps naked
Spare a passing thought for Nigel the Newbie Nudist, searching away for some furtive fun and getting a daft post from me instead…

Syria acid attack irish girl souk
Russian girl face slash
These are the two most worrying ones, particularly the latter (as I’ve reported before), which really unsettles me because of its frequency – whoever you are…

Yes but no but yes
I can only imagine its Matt thingy searching for himself…

Pink pepper tabloid Gulf News
I like that one. It’s got something hippy 1960s Syd Barrett lyric to it… I wonder what the hell the searcher was looking for?

Russian girls in Dubai
You have to SEARCH for them?

Burj Dubai Tilting
Burj Dubai Collapse
Shame on you! It’s not collapsing – it’s a great step for mankind!!!

Blue fig basil fakes
Had to add this recent one. I cannot begin to wonder what the eagerly anticipated result was supposed to be...

Blog Gets Action, Justice

Jordanian expat blogger Husain (Who’s-sane) posted up the appalling story of his father’s disappearance in Jordan on September 2^nd. His ageing father had gone missing and the frantic family spent a week looking for him, finally tracking him down to a hospital which they had been calling constantly to see if he, or anyone like him, had been admitted. Husein reports that by the time they found him, his father was critically ill because of the abusive treatment he had received at the hands of the wilfully negligent staff of the hospital

The full story is here. It’s been viewed over 3,700 times and drawn over 200 comments, the vast majority from truly horrified people who undoubtedly sparked major and widespread word of mouth awareness of this appalling situation. The story was also picked up by ‘conventional’ media and ran widely. The combination of word of mouth, blog and media resulted in Jordan’s Minister of Health, Dr. Salah Al Mawajdeh, getting involved and, yesterday, visiting the hospital on behalf of King Abdullah, promising action against the staff and the best possible treatment for Husain’s father. That post is here.

As pal and passionate social media advocate Gianni will tell you, over 40% of journalists surveyed in the UK said that social media affected their work. Over 60% cite blogs in their articles (and over 70% read blogs). In short, this shows how blogs - even in the under-Internetted Middle East - are capable of breaking major stories into national media as well as driving significant word of mouth.

Husain’s blog helped to get action and will, hopefully, also get justice for his father and the family. Which I, for one, find really quite cool.

Public Relations Quote of the Year

My personal favourite public relations quote of the year so far comes from Andrew Lee Butters, posting a story on the Kurdish PKK on the most excellent Time Middle East blog:

"If radical guerillas stuck in the mountains had good media advisors, perhaps they wouldn't be be radical guerillas stuck in the mountains."

It's so good that I'm going to have it made into a T-shirt.