Dubai's New Theatre

About six or seven years ago, BetterArf and I were at a Dubai Drama Group social evening, at the home of Brian and Sami Wilkie. They are both hugely talented actors, and successful businesspersons. They had just sold a business and were planning to ease off 'work'. Or rather, embark on a new challenge. Brian announced that they were going to start a project to build a proper theatre in Dubai. We were all dead impressed. They were somehow going to raise about Dhs 12 million to build this thing.


After going through many changes of location, design, massive increases in budget, hurdles, hassles, hoops and hullabaloo, the Dubai Community Theatre And Arts Centre (DUCTAC) finally opened its doors just before Christmas last year. It is located on the roof of The Mall Of The Emirates.

I have not had a chance to visit the place previously, but two nights ago BetterArf had a DDG Romeo and Juliet rehearsal there, and I went along to take photos. I have to say I was blown away. The main theatre (CentrePoint) is magnificent. When I heard it was going to be a 500-seater, I thought it would be too big for the kind of shows that were likely to happen there. But having seen it I must say it is one of the best theatre spaces I have ever been in. It is warm and intimate. Sightlines are excellent, acoustics are lovely, you almost feel you could reach out and touch the actors. It is amazing. It's also very red, which I'm sure helps with the intimacy and warmth.

There is a smaller studio space with retractable seating, and the Arts Centre with galleries, studios etc.

SHAMELESS PLUG
Get your bottoms along to DUCTAC this weekend to see DDG perform Romeo and Juliet.

There are two shows tomorrow, March 2 (3pm and 7pm) and two on Saturday (same times). Tickets are a paltry Dhs 50. It's an excellent production that combines elements of the traditional and the modern. Don't miss it! You'll also get to see MamaDuck, who, in case you didn't know, is a remarkably talented actor.

OK, I Was Joking

But you knew that really, didn't you? I could no more quit blogging than I could climb Mount Everest. I just wish you could blog without having to sit in front of a computer or any other electronic device - maybe scribble your words on the side of a goat or something, and squeeze it's whatnot to send it through the goatosphere. I mean, I spend virtually all of my working day sitting in front of a computer, so really I'm not that thrilled to spend 'leisure' time doing the same thing.

But I expect that's the case for most of my readers.

Being almost quite old, I can remember black and white TV, white dog poo (because dog food in the olden days comprised mostly bonemeal, according to an article I read recently but can't be bothered to look up right now), and the complete absence of computers in the home. I was aware of these wardrobe-sized machines that could do maths, but they existed only in a few universities and really big businesses.

I actually worked in a Computer Centre for six months during a two-year-long 'gap year'. I could have invented that term, but sadly I didn't - I was too busy wandering round aimlessly trying to 'find myself' - we didn't have a phrase for that either. This place had big blue machines (IBM) and big orange machines (ICL). That period of my life is worth a post of its own, but for now I'll just say that I knew a bit about computers and they were bloody big things and there was no way that an individual could ever want or need or afford anything like it in their home.

How wrong was I? About as wrong as some famous dude who said, on the invention of the IBM Personal Computer 'the global market for PCs is about five, or six if the Pentagon buys one'.

Anyhoo, in our house we now have 2 fully-functional laptops, two semi-functional laptops and one desktop PC. Between 2 people. We have previously recycled defunct PCs to a Sri Lankan friend of ours who can actually be bothered to fix them up and send them to his family back home (warm glow of satisfaction).

But I digress. Yes, I do.

To those of you who commented on my last post, looking forward with baited breath to some kind of cataclysmic anti-UAE diatribe when I finally leave this country, I hate to disappoint you. That is not going to happen. If you have a boat, don't burn it. Salutory lesson here. I will still have some business here in this wonderful, surreal country, and I do expect to come back occasionally. Getting a bit mellow in my old age, aren't I?

Arabic threatened in Qatar?

In a development that doesn't surprise me but will probably surprise anyone who hasn't been following developments in the Gulf, an educationalist is warning that Arabic is threatened in Qatar, and some Arab children are growing up not speaking it. Recall that Qataris are a rather small minority in Qatar, outnumbered by guest workers from all over the world, mainly from South Asia (especially Kerala), the Arab world, and the Philippines. English has become very much a lingua franca there, and much of the population speaks it far better than Arabic, if they speak Arabic at all.

Qatari children's exposure to English often begins soon after birth, with the hiring of a nanny who is unlikely to speak much if any Arabic, and certain not to speak the Gulf dialect - or as Ms. Al Misnad put it, "the education of the children is left to foreign housemaids, who teach their own language and customs." It continues at school, where about two-thirds of their fellow students are non-Qatari (in practice probably less, due to many expat kids attending expat schools); English is a mandatory subject from first grade up, and the many American universities opening campuses in Qatar are commonly English-medium (for instance, CMU.) In short, it's easy to lead a fairly full life in Qatar with little Arabic, and easy to envision Qatari kids of this generation acquiring English natively.

However, apart from other issues like not giving any statistics or details, the article suffers from the common conflation of classical and colloquial Arabic. "In addition, parents would rather talk to their children in the dialect of their country of origin rather than in classical Arabic, a factor which is also contributing to a general decline in the understanding of the classical language" - as if parents have ever talked to their children in classical Arabic for the past millennium, or as if it were desirable that the children should grow up not speaking their own dialects!

100,000

Finally, I had my 100,000th visitor, about 10 minutes ago. Only took 2 and a bit years.

So, that's it. Quitting blogging now. Thanks for all your support. Tata. Au revoir. Arrivaderci. Ma'salamah.

BlogIraq

When you have been forced to leave your homeland what do you do? You blog of course. BlogIraq misses Iraq but he does not miss the violence. He writes:

Being away from Iraq has many good points, like the ability to breath. In Iraq, things have got to the point where you become scared of the air you breathe. ...

I don't know how to fell. I fell glad for being away from this. And I fell sad for being away from my country. I miss all the happy days back home. I miss my my family,college, my friends, and practically everything. Some times I just strongly wish that all this was just a dream. A bad bad dream. And I will wake up the very same Thursday, March 20th, 2003, and there is no war and non of this happened.

How would you feel if you were in my place ?

He also has found the first Google office in Baghdad so expect some fun news on his blog.

Rock in the sand

An Arab while crossing a desert came across a huge rock half buried in the sand. Written on the boulder was:TURN ME OVER AND YOU WILL BENEFIT FROM ITThe Arab felt assuming there was a great treasure hidden underneath it worked mightily to turn it over. He succeeded after several hours. But there was no treasure there, only an inscription on the underside of the rock:GREED IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL

About The Crocodile

I mentioned yesterday that BetterArf had bought me a crocodile. No, of course it's not a real one, it's a fairly realistic 8cm-long plastic model. The reason I wanted it was because I was putting the finishing touches to a new website, and what some of the pages really needed were pictures of crocodiles.

By the way, the site in question is called The Joking Cousins Of Xanadu-du, and it combines elements of social networking, blogging and a kind of virtual world. We're calling it 'tribal networking'. It's a project I'm doing in partnership with an old buddy in the UK, and the aim is to raise lots of money for desperately poor communities in Mali, Africa.

You're all invited to visit the site to find out more. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Actual paid memberships even more so!

Bloggers In Jail

For God's sake, what is wrong with this region? We have heard of bloggers being arrested, Mahmoud in Bahrain is facing a defamation case, and now an Egyptian blogger has been sentenced to four years in jail for 'insulting Islam and [Egyptian president/dictator] Hosni Mubarak'. Egyptian Blogger Gets 4Years

What the hell is wrong with Middle East governments? Are they so weak that they cannot stand a little criticism? Is it the end of the world when somebody points out that Egypt's Mubarak is a dictator? This is not exactly news, now is it? As for 'insulting Islam', why is that considered a crime? People everywhere have different views of various religions, not all of which would be welcomed by the followers of those religions. But to throw people in jail for speaking their minds is just totally barbaric.

I'm sorry, people think what they think, and you cannot stop them from doing it. Governments cannot legislate that people must think what they think. Not real governments, anyway. I have always been unable to understand why such a populous country as Egypt, supposedly a democracy, has allowed Mubarak to continue in power for so long. They have the political mechanisms to get rid of him, don't they?

But here's the point. Nobody, in any place or at any time, should be threatened with jail time for simply saying what they believe, unless they have actually slandered, libelled or defamed someone. Journalists, bloggers, the average Abdul on the street should be free to say what they like: how can it be otherwise?

Throwing people in jail, blocking blogs, closing down newspapers, imposing censorship. These are all, ultimately, pointless, inhumane, barbaric activities. They show lack of respect for individual God-given rights. No Government can legitimately take those rights away from people. I am disgusted by the actions of the Egyptian government in this case.

Roger Waters Review

You'll be pleased to know I've almost recovered from the spectacular hangover that I woke up with this morning. And I can remember a fair amount of last night's events.

My plan yesterday was to get a taxi and arrive at Media City for the Roger Waters gig by about 6pm. The gig was scheduled to start at 8.30, and I had little doubt that it would do so. There was a slight problem with BetterArf - she had to be at a photo-shoot for the Dubai Drama Group's upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet. This was at the Mall of the Emirates and was due to finish at 8pm. So, just about enough time for the several cast members who were also attending the concert to get down to the venue.

However, during the afternoon, BetterArf called me to say she wasn't feeling great and was going to give the gig a miss. But she had arranged an alternative wife to accompany me for the night, as long as I promised to behave myself. Alternative wife was then put onto the phone. Sounded a lot like DubaiBilly to me! Hah.

As the day went on, our plans to meet up changed several times, and eventually he arrived at my house at 7pm. I ordered a taxi, we drank a beer or two and waited. Taxis normally arrive in about ten minutes, but by 7.30 there was no sign. So we decided to walk down to Ibn Battuta Mall - there are always stacks of taxis there, but they never ever respond to calls for bookings. I guess we arrived at Media City a bit before 8pm. Plenty of time to get in and get a few beers and then enter the arena where we found a nice place to stand near the back of the huge crowd. I'm told there were 15,000 people there: this is big for Dubai, but it is actually the smallest venue that Waters is playing on this tour.

I have to say at this point that I'm always a bit wary when attending gigs in Dubai - the organisational skills, or lack thereof, of the promoters can make or break the experience, no matter how good the performers are. Fortunately this one was organised by Richard Coram's 'The Talent Brokers', and they certainly know what they are doing. Service at the bar was rapid, the toilets were clean and plentiful, the queue to get in was rapidly processed. Actually the bar was amazing. As is normal at these kind of events, you have to buy vouchers for your drinks first. Then you queue again to actually get the stuff. But at this bar there was no queueing - there were about twenty Filipina girls, each standing behind a Fosters font. We were spoilt for choice of which one would fulfil our order! Marvellous.

In the arena itself, the stage was set. At the back of the screen there was a huge LED screen showing an image of a table top with an old-fashioned radio, an ashtray, and a whiskey bottle and glass. At 8.30 on the dot, a hand appeared on the screen, twiddled the tuning dial (soundtrack: white noise, a snatch of Abba, a bit of a news broadcast, and then: Pink Floyd). The lights came up, the band were there, and off we went! The stage was flanked by two massive video screens showing close-ups of the action.

The small print on the tickets said that photography was not allowed and cameras would be confiscated, so I left my camera at home. Actually I might have got away with bringing it - security at the entrance was fairly lax, and within the arena it was either very discrete or non-existent. But everyone and his dog was recording the show on their phones. I took a few totally terrible photos with my phone: here's one of them...


The first song concluded with a kind of Mexican wave of fireworks in front of the back screen - left to right at the top, then right to left from the bottom, and repeat.

Here's the set list (stolen from somewhere else - I was too entranced to take notes myself).

In the Flesh?
Mother
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Shine on You Crazy Diamond
Have a Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Southampton Dock
The Fletcher Memorial Home
Perfect Sense 1 & 2
Leaving Beirut
Sheep

(intermission)

Dark Side of the Moon:
Speak to Me/Breathe
On the Run
Time
The Great Gig in the Sky
Money
Us and Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse

Encore:
Another Brick in the Wall (part 2)
Vera
Bring the Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb

Highlights for me were 'Leaving Beirut' and 'Perfect Sense 1 & 2'. 'Leaving Beirut' was very cleverly done. In the recorded version Roger does a voiceover that explains the story. On this tour, he doesn't do that, but there is a wonderful cartoon-style video on the big screen that explains the story and highlights some of the lyrics. The line 'not in my name Tony, you great war leader you' got the biggest cheer of the evening. 'Perfect Sense', from 'Amused to Death', is one of my absolute favourite pieces of music, especially the verse that is sung by P.P. Arnold:

When you add it all up
The tears and the marrowbone
There's an ounce of gold
And an ounce of pride in each ledger
And the Germans kill the Jews
And the Jews kill the Arabs
And the Arabs kill the hostages
And that is the news
And is it any wonder that the monkey's confused
He said Mama Mama, the President's a fool
Why do I have to keep reading these technical manuals
And the joint chiefs of staff
And the brokers on Wall Street said
Don't make us laugh, you're a smart kid
Time is linear
Memory's a stranger
History is for fools
Man is a tool in the hands
Of the great God Almighty
And they gave him command of a nuclear submarine
Sent him back in search of the Garden of Eden

All I can say is Wow. The performers were faultless, the sound, light, special effects and pyrotechnics were all stunning. I might quibble that the man himself did not connect with audience in any way, but you can't have everything. In fact, come on Keefie, it was the best gig you've ever been to right? Well, yes, says Keefie, it really was. Sensational.

Getting home was slightly problematic. I'd lost DubaiBilly near the end when I went to the loo and couldn't find him again, but we were heading off in different directions anyway and the alternative wife thing was going nowhere. I had expected to see a fleet of several thousand taxis outside the venue, but guess what? Another cock-up by Dubai Transport: not a single taxi to be had. So I started trekking over some fairly rough ground in the direction of the Hard Rock Café - there's usually a few taxis there. In my tired and emotional state I tripped over something, grazed my knee quite badly and acquired a massive bruise on my thigh. But I was feeling no pain: the phrase 'Comfortably Numb' springs to mind. I did eventually get a cab, and I suspect that Ahmad from Pakistan got a gigantic tip.

BetterArf said I was very relaxed when I got home. And I was happy too: not only have I just seen the best gig of my life, but she's bought me a crocodile*.

*I'll explain that tomorrow.

Frananglais in Cameroon - but what exactly is it?

The BBC has recently reported that "Teachers in Cameroon are concerned that the new language frananglais - a mixture of French, English and Creole - is affecting the way students speak and write the country's two official languages." An interesting language contact story, in a remarkably multilingual country none of whose own languages are used for official purposes; shame you can read straight through the article without being any the clearer on whether Frananglais is a system in its own right or just what they choose to call the local brand of code-switching between the two. Many of their examples suggest a French syntactic frame with English vocabulary inserted ("Tu as go au school", "Tu play le damba tous les jours?") - raising the possibility that certain English words consistently replace their French counterparts, while others remain in French - but other examples suggest plain old code-switching, ie shifting from one language to another in mid-sentence ("Tout le monde hate me, wey I no know", "je ne suis pas sure about this"). The one other example of frananglais I could find online is very much in line with it having a French frame with English words (and at least one Italian one) inserted, but there simply isn't enough data to see whether the replacement is systematic or ad hoc. I wonder if anyone can tell me :)

Quand je tellais aux djo de came put leur hand dans la marmite ici ,les djo me tellait que je ne suis pas reglo,que sam est un reglo,l'autre que france foot ne prenait pas en consideration de tels votes,et l'autre que je devais plutot appuyer ma petite au lieu de stay ici un saturday afternoon a game come les muna.(au fait moi je l'ai appuyé hier).Je remercie tous les toileurs qui ont sensibilisé le peuple et qui continue a do leur work reglo.Un seul mot....................jusqu'à ce que notre muna soit en haut sur tous les yahoo de ce web.Je vous en prie camez ici sur yahoo italie,la situation se fait inquietante,que les djo des state là quando tout le monde ici en europe nang deja began a do ce qu'ils Know.C'est notre arme segrete,la force du muna c'est le jour,et nous les grands continuons a work meme la nuit grace aux djo des state.J'ai began a speach avec notre frananglais parceque les djo tell qu'ils y'a des Mazembe ici qui boblé nos tactiques et vont les appliquer pour eux memes.Alors il faut qu'on leur show qu'on peut speach sans qu'il ne yah rien..... - Saittout, le 26/10/2006 à 15:33, Lions Indomptables

UPDATE: Language Log has a helpful post on this, citing some literature. See comments also - apparently it is very much a system rather than code-switching.

The E.U. verses Non E.U. Question

First things first, the E.U. question. Yes, it's true, you must hold an E.U. passport to qualifiy for any job position in the territory. Unlike its neighbors, Spain & Italy, the French mostly follow this rule.

However, it is still possible work in France if you are non E.U. if have can obtain the "Carte Sejour". As a non E.U. person, the easiest option is to enroll in a French language school in France. Once enrolled, the language school will issue you an "attestation" stating that you have committed to lessons with them and you can use it to get a student visa. The student visa allows you to work 15 hours a week. At the end of your visa, for however long it is, if you have a job at that moment you can renew your visa as a carte sejour. With this you can legally work full-time. This is probably the easiest route no matter what your age.

If you have mastered the French language and/or have absolutely no interest in long term lessons of any kind, the other option is to become a "Profession Liberale". It means a free-lance professional. While you can do this in any domain, "English Teacher" is probably the easiest to break into as you are a native English speaker, so it will tempt potential clients to choose you over a French person. To do this you apply for a long term visa, similar to the student visa process but longer, stating that you will support yourself as a Profession Liberale. Once in France you can register yourself with URSSAF the government entity that oversees profession liberales. The registration is actually the easiest part of this entire process. Then you are free to start looking for work. BUT, looking for work means looking directly for clients. You're not going to be able to work for a language school unless it's a short term contract deal. You are working for yourself so it would demand a high level of French. So again, if you're not there yet on the French, opt for the student visa choice:)

All in all, the E.U. issue does'nt have to be an obstacle to living and working in France. However, it does mean that more work and money will be required just to set up. Also know that there is no way to avoid the visa paperwork in your home country before coming to France and without a doubt, it will continue when you arrive.

How to Teach English in France

Where to start...

Finding an ESL teaching position in France is not the same as in many other countries. It requires more rigor during the job search and some significant money for the start-up. Despite France's high unemployment rate, it is however possible to secure a job but it will take a longer to find.

France is not the country to live and work in if you want to spontaneously show up and immediately earn cash. You need a game plan. The first component is where in France, do you want to based? If you want an ESL job, it means you must chose a city where there is a demand for English. Unfortunately, the small romantic village in the middle of the country, where most of us would love to live, has a population with an average age of 60. That means low demand for work, let alone English. You want to be based or live near a large city. Paris is ideal and offers by far the most options for jobs. However, many people don't want to live in a city so large. If you are one of these people, here is the criteria for a workable city(not village)almost anywhere in the world.

1. It has a university- University towns equate with young adults who might need English for their studies, for a semester abroad or just because they enjoy speaking with foreigners.

2. It has an economic center that depends on the international community- Cities with office parks for technology or transportation, for example, are good because it insures a base of young professionals who need English for their job.

3. It is a dynamic city- Cities that are/and promote a cosmopolitan attitude are best because ultimately our potential clients are people who are interested in foreigners or foreign things. Cities or towns where there are already a lot of foreigners and where there is constant change for improvement are ideal.

Next, arm yourself with the appropriate qualifications. As a general rule, ESL employers look for a college degree of any discipline and a TEFL/TESOL certificate. Yes while there are exceptions, lacking one or both of these items makes your task woefully more difficult. For those of you who already have qualifications for teaching in main stream education in your home country, French employers typically disregard them unless said qualifications were obtained in France. (I didn't make the rules...don't shoot the messenger)

With credentials obtained, you would next incorporate them in a C.V. written in French. In most other countries in the world, that I know of, where English is in demand, this is not neccessary... a C.V. in English would be suitable. At any rate, I suggest you have a C.V. and cover letter professionally translated if you are not fluent in French.

Lastly, get the English language school addresses for your target town and send them out. Hiring times are early September, late March/early April. Forget looking for a job in the summer, its vacation time in France.

Ironically, even though a C.V. should be written in French, it is most likely possible that the interview can or will be conducted in English. So you don't need to be a fluent French speaker to get or hold an ESL job.

Roger Waters

Great title, don't you think?

Tomorrow night, Roger Waters, 'the Creative Genius of Pink Floyd', is playing a gig on the grass across the lake from my office. Instead of just working late and enjoying a free, but invisible, show, I have bought tickets.

I've been an admirer, rather than a rabid fan, of Pink Floyd since, ooh, seems like forever. But I lost the plot a bit when Waters left in 1985 (Wright had already been fired), reasoning that none of them on their own could be anything like as good as all of them together. This was proved to me about four years ago when BetterArf and Offspring got me a post-split Floyd CD, 'the Division Bell'. Not shite exactly, but nothing at all to write home about. I lost interest in them really, so when Roger Waters played Dubai about three years ago I just ignored it. Waters had got such totally bad press from the other members of the band after the split that I might have been more interested in buying tickets for a gig by Satan himself.

What changed my mind was seeing Waters and the Floyd reunited at the Live 8 London gig in 2005. I Limewired a track by Waters called 'Leaving Beirut'. This doesn't appear on any album but is as beautiful and moving as any song that Pink Floyd ever recorded. After that I bought Waters' operatic double-album 'Ca Ira', followed by 'Amused to Death'. He truly is a genius.

So when it was announced that he was heading this way again (and at Media City, rather than the, for me, inaccessible Tennis Stadium), that was definitely a date for my diary. He's gonna do Dark Side of the Moon and other Floyd hits, but I hope he'll slip some new stuff in there too.

I saw the Floyd live once. At the Knebworth Festival in the UK in 1975 (over 31 years ago!!!!!!). A bunch of us from school had hired a minibus for the day. This was in the days before building-sized video screens, and we were sitting about a mile away from the stage, but I do believe those dots on the stage were Waters, Wright, Gilmour and Mason. But hey, the tickets were £2.75! Standing tickets for tomorrow's gig are Dhs 265, about £37. 'VIP' seated tickets are Dhs 595, about £83. The only seats at Knebworth were patches of grass.

By the way: this blog has not been produced as part of the Roger Waters marketing campaign. I only mention that because about a month ago Cliff Richard played in Dubai at the Tennis Stadium. A few days before the gig I received an email from the Netherlands(!) Cliff Richard fan club, hoping that I was going and would blog about the gig before and after(!). Nice try but no cigar. I have no opinion on Cliff Richard - not a very positive one anyway.

But I'm looking forward to tomorrow night like a kid looks forward to Christmas.

Iraq The Lasting Love ~~ ~~ العراق... اسميك المحبة

New blog by MixMax, actually a Photo Blog 3 posts strong so far, and as the author says:

"History tells the world about Iraq and the determination of its people, these beautiful souls, which kept on living and sharing harmony among each other despite everything they faced. People who built and rebuilt, set example of strength, intelligence, inspiration and love. However, they kept their lasting love, Iraq, alive and beautiful all around the years... The pictures and stories here is a living proof"

there you go, need i say more?
:) give it a whirl, you'll like it.

A red Light in the afternoon

/*-----------
I'm porting an entire post here from new blogger The Red @ At World's End. sorry but i really thought this was worth reading:
-----------*/


I know I should be writing my thesis instead of blogging but I just don't feel like it. Don't know if I would finish my project or not, all I know that I should not quit because I'm no quitter.

Any way, I think that there is to much to say about the Iraqis situation outside their country, especially in Jordan.

Today I was in a cab going to place called Swaifiah, we stopped for a red light and a newspaper seller came out of no where begging us to buy one. I knew that he was an Iraqi immigrant from his accent, seeing the condition he was in and the way he begged for anybody to buy something from him made me shiver. I had to give him some money, after all we Iraqis should help each other till the black clouds surrounding our country pass. I gave him some money and told him that it was a gift and I don't need a news paper. The guy looked at me and threw back my money which was more than enough to buy a dozen of his newspapers, he told me that he's no begger and that I should keep my money if I don't want to buy something.

In Iraq this kind of thing almost never happens, it never happened to me, and to see the guys shape as if he hadn't eaten anything for days and the condition of his clothes and still having this kind of pride after all the things we've been through and knowing that things might get even worse and still keeping our pride and dignity made me proud that I'm an Iraqi citizen, I wanted to go out in the street and shout it out loud. I got hold of my self and kept quite knowing that doing such things would get me into more troubles that I already have.

Some might wonder why a guy would leave his own country and wander in a foreign city selling papers, gum and cigarettes. My answer to you is "Watch the friggin news!!!".

After all that being said I should go back to my work and I want you guys to pray for all of us that maybe one day we'll get back home.


----------------

please, post any comments on Red's blog. thank you :)

Science In The Home

BetterArf disappeared into the kitchen early yesterday evening, ostensibly to get herself a glass of vino tinto. Little did I realise that she had really gone to carry out a scientific experiment into fluid dynamics. It was only as the experiment approached its conclusion that I became aware my services as a research assistant were required, but quick.

Read the full exposition here.

Regrettably I did not have the presence of mind to dig out the camera to grab photos of the kitchen in its wine-flooded/splattered state. But this is what the box looks like in the aftermath:

Suhbat

Suhbat (Companionship) with the Auliyaa is imperative for moral reformation and spiritual elevation. Without the company of the Auliyaa this is not normally possible. Suhbat of the Auliyaa has been the Sunnah of the Ummah from the very inception of Islam.In the first phase it was Suhbat with the Nabi (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). Then followed the Suhbat of the Sahaabah and then of the Auliyaa.

Semitic snake spells pop up in Pyramids

Prof. Richard Steiner claims to have deciphered a previously incomprehensible section of an ancient Egyptian inscription as a spell against snakes written in a Semitic language. Dating from 2400 BC, this spell, engraved on the pyramid of King Unas, would be the oldest attested West Semitic inscriptions (apparently in the dialect of Byblos), and nearly as old as the oldest Akkadian inscriptions. The idea of Semitic speakers being seen in ancient Egypt as specialists in snake magic is strangely reminiscent of the story of Moses.

Unfortunately, the talk in which he announced this is only available in Hebrew ("Proto-Semitic Spells in the Pyramid Texts") - he is apparently writing up a publishable work on the subject in English - but the link contains the texts themselves (p. 7) and their transcriptions (pp. 3-4) - the bold bits are those claimed to be Semitic, while the rest is regular Egyptian. He also has up a response in English to criticisms of his claim, which apparently were not long in coming. My Hebrew is not nearly good enough to understand most of the translations he gives, but here's a couple of bits I think I got:

236: ''kbbh iti itii bitii'' = Chant: Come, come, to my house!
281: ''mmin inw 333 twb ś if w-inw hnw'' = Who am I? Rir-Rir - sweet of smell in my nose - I am they. (there just has to be a translation error in this one - probably made by me)

From these, you can see a number of recognisable Semitic words - ''iti'' for "come" (Arabic أتى 'atā, Syriac 'atā), ''bit'' for "house" (Arabic بيت bayt, Hebrew bayit, Syriac bayt-ā), ''mmin'' for "who?" (Arabic من man, Hebrew mîn, Syriac man), ''twb'' for "good" (Arabic طيب ṭayyib, Hebrew ṭôb, Syriac ṭāb)... Specifically Canaanite features, if any, are less conspicuous; the assimilation of Proto-Semitic ''n'' to a following consonant presumably found in ''if'' "nose" (Arabic أنف 'anf, Hebrew 'āp) is found in Canaanite, but also in Akkadian.

One Year Ago...

http://webmasterdubai.blogspot.com/2006/02/i-lurve-you-all.html#comments

The End is Nigh..

or at least its damn close.
So says the Iraqi college student blogging from Jordan known as The Red .

"Many threats surrounds us nowadays and we all just sitting here waiting for our fate.
Just what are we waiting for thats the question that been bothering me for quite a while now.
Did we gave up hope? Are we waiting for someone or something to take us out of our misery? or are we just satisfied to were our action has taken us? and is there a way to go back and fix the mistakes that we've made?
Put a big question mark after the last one, too many question and no one got the answer to any one of them.

These days we lie to each other, talking behind our best friends back, steal for fun, and sometimes even kill for fun. What are we trying to achieve? and what are we getting from doing all that, the answer is NOTHING.

How to make this world a better place to live? anybody got an idea?

Now why am I asking too many questions that I know no one can answer and moreover why am I doing it on my first post?
I really donno, maybe I got bored of this life and maybe I got sick of hearing the same bullshit everyday, the excuses and justification of wars, pollution, poverty and diseases that surround us.
The ones that we hear about in the news and never raise our voice against it.
maybe thats why, or maybe I just have a really bad fever and needs to go to sleep right now.... well think I should GO to bed, its 4 am damn it."


well, like the man said, bolt down your shutters, and grab on to your socks. we are at world's end!

check him out At World's End.

latest addition to the Blogosphere, found this just 10 minutes ago, and due to me having a headache the size of Mosul, i decided to copy-paste Red's first post instead. much more better than anything i could have ever done.
now where is the freaking tylenol?

A Note from Satan

A Note from SatanThe day has comeWhen I, Satan, will play you dumbTo approach 'The girl/ boy' is hardso today break the ice with a cardYou will send it to them with zealfinally they will know how you feelOh Muslim dont you seeI watch you with gleeFor now I have you trappedYour heart once inclined towards Allah, I have snatchedI have now started you off on the slippery roadTo Jahannam the dreadful

A Baghdad Artist

Beauty is more than skin deep as this blog shows. Baghdad Artist blogs his/her art. And beauty is not only in the eye but in the thoughts as you can see from this quote:

Women are constantly challenged in this new Iraq. Awaiting their moment of peace, struggling to raise children while nurturing a family, maintaining a pulse within a war torn country, all of this and more strains the essence of feminity, quells the aspirations for civil rights and leaves hope suspended. And in this land, life continues against the greatest of odds. Simply, these paintings delicately touch the image of women within a frontier of unknown limits and unknown ends.

Blue Screen of Censorship for TECOM

The papers today are awash with stories related to telecoms: Emirates Toady headlines with a story about rumours of a third entrant into the retail market in the UAE. TRA denies all knowledge.

Gulf Snooze carries a couple of stories, one that says conventional telecoms companies need to embrace VOIP or die (I paraphrase). The other brings us the good news that du (the new telco, soon to start mobile operations) will be connecting TECOM to the proxy any day now and therefore that Media City's tagline 'Freedom to Create' becomes even more meaningless than it has been up till now. Interesting to note that du, the monopoly-breaker, will still have a monopoly within TECOM, Emaar and Nakheel properties. Du is 20% owned by TECOM Investments, who about a year ago took over SahmNet, Emaar's own telco. As TECOM is wholly-owned by Dubai Holdings (who also own propery developer Nakheel), they are given preference in supplying telecoms infrastructure to all new Nakheel developments.

Of course, it is not fresh news that the Broxy will be imposed on TECOM (collectively Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and Knowledge Vamlet). But what is interesting is the disingenuous tosh used to justify it. Gulf News says:

Asked why users were not free to choose what sites they visit, Mohammad Al Ghanem, director general of the TRA, said the TRA was not out to "police" the citizenry of the UAE.

"We are not inventing a procedure or a process," he told Gulf News. "This is implemented in every single country but with different limits and different categorisations."

Mr Al Ghanem, that is not an answer...

Al Ghanem said the TRA desired to avoid any negative impacts on businesses residing within the free zones, and promised exemptions for companies with a legitimate interest in keeping unfettered internet access.

Breaking with the commonly perceived notion that the free zones had their own sets of telecommunications laws, [Mohammad Al Gaith, the TRA's manager for technical affairs] said the reason the free zones weren't previously covered under the filter was technical, not jurisdictional.

New telecom operator du provides Internet service in the free zones, and problems had arisen over implementing the proxy filter over du's network.

Mr Al Ghaith, I have been a tenant at Dubai Media City since shortly after its inception 6 years ago. I can tell you that the reason these free zones were not previously proxied was neither technical nor jurisdictional. It was a deliberate decision by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who, in his wisdom, realised that these entities would not be very attractive to potential international clients if their Internet access was censored. That reason is still valid today

Can somebody please explain to me why the Telecoms Regulation Authority thinks it is fit to tell me, or any other Internet user, what sites we can and cannot visit? I know there is a cultural thing with the locals and some others, but surely if they want a restricted Internet then they can request and be given that. For everyone else, we pay more than twice as much for Internet access than anywhere else in the real world, and I think you, the TRA, should respect that and let us have (more or less) unfettered access.

I am sick to death of being treated like a child by these people. Apart from anything else, their obsessive, frequently unreasonable, often illogical blocking of millions of websites, including some of the world's most popular (Flickr again) makes me cringe with embarrassment. We are supposed to be the most free of all Gulf States, but we block Flickr because some wastafarian tells us to.

I despair. And my FTP and HTTPS are still not working.

Mosul Is in Heart

A blog from Mosul, written by an ambitious young communication engineer working at the University of Mosul/Electronic Engineering College/Communication Engineering Department.. right, exactly where I study.

It's all about his life in Mosul, his experiences in college, his ups and downs, and lately his trials to get a visa and study in Germany.

He likes photography, and he has another blog in which he posts some of the photos he takes (My Photo Gallery).

Needless to say, the fact that this guy works on the same floor where my class is and gives me tutorials in Electromagnetic made me immediately a follower of his blog, but I was evil enough to keep him from my readers fearing he would discover my blog.. And now that I know that he knows about my blog, and he knows that I know about his (I will spare you from hearing the long story of how this happened), I can finally announce yet another blog from Mosul, and surprisingly enough, not written by a relative of mine!

Manly numbers in Tashelhiyt Berber

I've been looking at how and why Arabic numbers have been so widely borrowed into Berber, and came across a rather illuminating quote:

"Also, for the numbers 3-29 one frequently chooses the Arabic terms (ie. those in §171.) The women and small children of the Tazĕrwalt-Shlûḥ by preference count (as far as possible) with the Berber numbers, the men by preference (from 10 up) with the Arabic ones. Therefore the Shlûḥ call the Berber numbers laḥsâb (الحساب) ntimġârin, and the Arabic ones laḥsâb niirgâzĕn - ie women's counting* vs. men's counting."

("Auch für die Zahlen von 3-29 wählt man häufig die arabischen Bezeichnungen (s. diese in §171). Die Frauen und kleinen Kinder der Tazĕrwalt-Schlûḥ zählen lieber (soweit es angeht) mit den berberischen Zahlen, die Männer lieber (von 10 an) mit den arabischen. Deshalb bezeichnen diese Schlûḥ die berberische Zählweise als laḥsâb (الحساب) ntimġârin, die arabische aber als laḥsâb niirgâzĕn - also als die Frauenzählweise, bezw. Männerzählweise." - Stumme 1899:102)

If you're interested, and in the vicinity of Cambridge in March, I'll be talking about this issue at CamLing.

* Shurely "old women's counting"?

Bibliography:
Stumme, Hans. 1899. Handbuch des Schilhischen von Tazerwalt. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs.

*%#$ the Proxy

OK, Keefieboy, try to be calm. Don't bash those keys too hard, you'll be needing them when you leave this wonderful country. Deep breath
.................. innn....................... outttt
...................innn ....................... outtt.

OK. I'm calm. I'm CALM!!!

For the last week I have been having a problem with my Etisalat Al-Shamil ('broadband') connection from my mansion. The problem is that I can no longer use FTP. You don't want to know this, but FTP is File Transfer Protocol - a thing that allows you to upload and download files to and from web servers. It's pretty essential if you design websites like what I do. The problem is that I can connect to various servers, but once connected I cannot change folders or upload/download files. Why? Well, some of my research on the web suggested this was symptomatic of a firewall problem. Somewhere in the chain of computers between my labtob and the web server, a little pox is saying 'computer says no'.

So, with the greatest reluctance, I called the Itisalot Call Center in Ajmaaaaan. I say reluctance because many years of experience have taught me that they have a very limited range of responses available to them, namely:
1) 'Your computer is misconfigured, please format your hard drive.'
or
2) 'There is something wrong with your server.'

So we go through that and then I request a phone number for someone who actually knows something about the Itisalot Interweb network. No can do, says the boy on the phone: 'send an email to mailto:help@itisalot.ae. Yeah, right. So I did.

To my absolute and utter amazement I got a phone call from someone who sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Admittedly he did go through the usual 'it's not our fault' routine, but I feel like we are making progress of a kind. But not fast enough.

In the intervening days I've provided this guy with Traceroutes of my connection attempts to various servers in the UK and US. I have suggested to him that it may be a firewall problem. I have told him that I can successfully use FTP from my office in Media City, so configuration of my laptop and of the servers concerned is absolutely ruled out. So now we are at a stage where they are on the verge of admitting that they have a problem, and he's trying to get a meeting together with various departments to sort it out.

Bravo!

The other day I realised that we (BetterArf and moi) have a related problem, and we've had this one for quite a while. We cannot easily access 'https://' domains from our house. This means that e-commerce transactions almost always fail, it takes forever for me to use Red Triangles' online banking, and BetterArf cannot access her work email from here.

So, enough of the Sherlock Holmes. I just thought I'd try something. Forget about Etisalat's restrictive and ill-configured infrastructure, I'll try my own. I have servers in the UK. I set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to one of them. This means that anything I send or receive comes straight from that server without any of the intervening Itisalot stuff getting in the way.

Bingo!

FTP worked straight off! And much faster than it's ever worked through the Broxy. But, the Interweb fell over. So it helps if I need to do an emergency out-of-hours upload, but not if I want to visit my bank or playboy.com.

Itisalot (sorry, Etisalat, you might not recognise our little jokey name for you), I hope you read and understand this post. It tells you two things

1) The Proxy screws everything up and everyone with more than half a brain hates it
and

2) Stop your Call Center staff from always assuming that the problem is at the customer's end. Because more often than not, it isn't.

Good Character

'A'isha رضى الله عنها said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم say,'By his good character a believer can reach the same rank as someone who fasts and prays at night." [Abu Dawud]

Weather

Hold The Front Page!

The UAE is having weather. If you don't live here, you might not think this is a big deal. But the point is, we don't normally have weather, what we have is climate. The climate in the UAE goes like this: in the summer, it's chuffing hot (up to but never officially exceeding 50°C). In the depths of winter, it can get as cold as, ooh, 17°C. You can expect 4-5 days when it will rain, and a few mornings when it is foggy. This 'winter' has been unusual, methinks. We have had a lot of rain. Yesterday we had half an inch of the stuff in about 15 minutes - thunder and lightning too. Today has been overcast all day. We had a massive shamal (sandstorm) about 1 pm, following which the air was full of sand, no wind was blowing, and El Sol was starting to come out. Just now (from 7pm really), we've had another thunderstorm, and about 15 minutes of really heavy rain.

This rain creates all sorts of problems, of course. Drivers in Dubai, who, with the exception of GCC nationals and locals, all come from places where it rains a shitload more than it does here, forget how to drive in wet weather. They continue to tailgate, drive too fast, attempt rapid lane changes, etc, and consequently end up upside down in their crushed motorcars. Fortunately they are not wearing their seatbelts so they are able to escape.

Locals and GCC nationals don't stand a chance. They just don't get enough parctice at driving in rain.

Here in The Gardens we have the added bonus of a bunch of speed bumps that have been installed on the perimeter roads. You do see the odd speed bump around town that has a gap between its ends and the kerb to allow water to drain through. Regrettably, the speedbumps in The Gardens do not have this clever little design feature, and so they act as dams, creating quite large lakes on the road on their uphill sides.

And usually, when rain is expected, the Municipality sends workers out to empty the sand filters that are a component of most of the drains: when they have done this, they usually leave the drain cover up, thereby facilitating the flow of water. I have not seen any of this happen in The Gardens this year (or ever, actually), so guess what: floods down the hill. Roads around Ibn Battuta Maul under six inches of water. The Maul itself still lacks waterproof roofs.

Still, it could be worse, we could be living in Sharjah where they have no road drainage whatsoever. And it's still only 1428.

New Blogger

OK, today I migrated to the new version of Blogger. I hadn't planned to, but I wanted to do a post on the UAE Community Blog: that has just migrated and so I basically had to as well. It took hours for my 646 posts to move! But I've spent a happy afternoon adding labels to lots of my posts. And I learnt something new. Have you ever been to Toot and seen the sidebar (tootstream) totally inundated by old posts from one blogger? Now I know what causes that, because today is my day for Total Tootstream Dominance! Aharr.

UPDATE: actually what I thought I learned was wrong - I thought this Toot Domination only happened when you upgraded your blog. Not so. It actually happens when you add a label to a post. Hehehe.

New Iraqi Blogs

Hey folks....

Welcome back to the wonderfully placid world of counting Iraqi blogs, I have added 8 new blogs (all found by me) to the sidebar. They include:

1. Semiramis : Another Iraqi blogger-reviewer, we'll have to see if she is as 'neutral' as the ones before her.

2. Nadia N : Has two blogs: Rednecks on Ice for her trivalities, and Leaving Iraq for her more serious-minded politics, possibly her name is Hassibah. (which indeed is kinda funny).

3. Ahmed al-Katib: Arabic-language maktoob blog for formerly Shia but now a hybrid of Shia-Sunni writer, he frequently appeared on TV stations. His book is also worth checking out. It's also nice to know that his blood his been spilt by Shia clergymen (meaning: it's okay to kill him a la Salman Rushdie)

4. Iraqi Medic, Through My Eyes, One Red Devil & Endless Dreamer: All personal Iraqi blogs without any heavy-dose political opinions. Mostly day-to-day life and occasional poetry, check them out to know more.

Black = free: a nice case of polysemy in Songhay, and its converse

Looking through Jeffrey Heath's 1998 dictionary of Koyra Chiini, the Songhay language spoken in and around Timbuktu, I was struck by the following entry:

bibi * a) [intr] be black, dark [cf bii 2] [INTENS: tirik! T, fi! N] * be freeborn, noble (not a slave) * LOCUT: bañña nda bibi slave and freeman alike * [final in compounds involving sorcery, => čiini-bibi * b) [adj] black, dark * c. [n] soot, burnt residue.

It contrasts satisfyingly with the sort of polysemy you tend to get for "black" on the other shore of the Sahara, as in this Kabyle entry from Dallet 1982:

akli (wa), aklan (wa) || Negro. || Slave, servant. || Butcher; profession reserved for the inferior class of aklan (slaughterer and wholesale and retail vendor in the market.) || Male first name often given to a Kabyle child as a prophylactic measure (against envious gazes and the evil eye.) Antonym: aḥerri [free].

It would be interesting to examine the connotations of "black" in more languages...