If you thought that Burj Dubai is the end of the "Arabian Dream", you are mistaken.

The new race in the Arab World (to be particular, the Gulf region) is building the highest towers.

Few years ago, Dubai announced that they are going to spend few "Billions" of Dollars to build the highest tower in the world, Burj Dubai, a 818 meter high building.

The tower is in progress and any visitor to Dubai can notice this landmark from anywhere around Dubai.

But that was just the beginning of the race to highest. More proposals are coming to reality!

Kuwait is planing to beat Dubai by building its own "highest tower" in the world, "Mubarak Tower," which is going to be a 1001 meter high. So once this tower is built (God knows how many years) it is going to be the highest tower in the world and is going to washout "Burj Dubai" record.

Of course Dubai doesn't like to be a looser, so they are planing to challenge their own record (Burj Dubai) as well Kuwait's Tower and spend more billions of dollars to take back the for Dubai. New proposals are in action and one of them is to build another tower, "Al Burj." Rumors are saying that it will be as high as 1050-1200 meter. So, Dubai wins again, but between Kuwait and Dubai new plans, Bahrain have a proposal to build something in between, "Murjan Tower," 1022 meter high, and the race goes on...

But wait, this is not the end of the "highest race". Saudi Arabia and it's multi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal is going to join the race through his version of the "highest building". But this one is really impressive.

Mark this...

"Mile High Tower" is the name of the tower which Al-Waleed is intending to build. As the name implies, it is going to be a "MILE HIGH", that is 1600 meter high (which is twice the hight of the yet to be highest tower, Burj Dubai). I say impressive because this number (1600m) is really crazy and will be crazy to compete.

(Click picture to enlarge)

"Mile High", the tallest in the world, will be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and no doubt it will beat all the records and hopefully stop the race. For ever! (I wish)

Will Dubai (and others) take a break and spend some of these billions in the development or building something other than towers?

If we have so many "freaks" for height, maybe they should think in spending these billions (or at least some) in building things like the "Space elevator" or something useful other than buildings?!

It's time of the year for Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007. With all my reservations regarding Reporters Without Borders neutrality (having doubt after knowing that France is their financial supporter, although they are an NGO!), yet, their report was always a good indicator, if not the closest to reality - at least from my experiences as a blogger from the Middle East with all the sorrow and sad stories that I went through and heard of - when it comes to measure the freedom of speech in general and freedom of press in particular.

Every now and then we hear about new rules and regulations around the Arab World that makes it harder for press to speak the 'truth'. Not to mention the censorship applied in many Arab countries such as - but not limited to - United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Syria, etc... worst is to know that this list is getting bigger day by day, but with different terms and means such as the official watchdogs of local authorities to monitor and nail bloggers and detain them, e.g. Egypt cases.

Having said the above, lets look on how do 'Arab States' stand this year, but before this, let's note the leading paragraph of the report:

Bloggers now threatened as much as journalists in traditional media

Doesn't sound good news at all... following that by few paragraphs,

Outside Europe - in which the top 14 countries are located - no region of the world has been spared censorship or violence towards journalists.

And who are these 14 countries? Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Slovakia, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, Latvia, Netherlands and Czech Republic. Congratulations to these leading countries, and shame on the rest!

Note that the Big Brother and the Queen are not in the above list. But anyway, they are better than some others.

Back to Arab States ranking, the story is as expected. Looking at the leading countries from the bottom we find that Somalia, Palestine and Iraq are ranked 159, 158 and 157 respectively. Not surprised by this due to what they are going through with the Israeli occupation from one side and from the USA 'Freedom Operation' on the other side, beside Somalia's 'brothers war', but this is not enough excuse for them to be leading the bottom.

The battle raging between Hamas and Fatah is the main cause of the large number of serious press freedom violations in the Palestinian Territories (158th). Hostage-taking, arrests, physical attacks and ransacking of news organisations - the Palestinian media and the few visiting journalist are threatened from all sides.

In Iraq (157th), what journalists fear most are the armed groups that target them without the authorities ever finding a way to put an end to the litany of violence. More than 200 journalists and media assistants have been killed since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003.

Next comes Libya ranked 155, which is not far from Palestine and Iraq, but I guess this country is going through worst that Israeli and USA occupation, so they are excused.

Now comes Syria as rank 154 and they are also excused because the are in "continuous state of war" against God knows who?! (if you know, let me know).

Who's next? Saudi Arabia (148), Egypt (146), Tunisia (145), Yemen (143), Sudan (140). Great mix and match. Rich and educated countries with poor and highly illiterate percentage of the population countries, that if we give Sudan the excuse like their Palestinian, Iraqi, Libyan and Syrian brother and assume that they are in war against 'poverty'!

Algeria (123), Jordan (122), Bahrain (118), Morocco (106) and Lebanon (98). Not really good and can do much better, specially Lebanon. Next comes Qatar (79), United Arab Emirates (65), Kuwait (63) and Mauritania (50), which is the best position that any Arabian country could reach this year, so congratulations to Mauritania for being at least among the top 1/3 of the list!

Some non-European countries have made their first appearance in the top 50. They are Mauritania (50th), which has climbed 88 places since 2004, Uruguay (37th) and Nicaragua (47th).

Wow! Big hand for them.

Quoting the report again and looking at the Big Brother:

There were slightly fewer press freedom violations in the United States (48th) and blogger Josh Wolf was freed after 224 days in prison. But the detention of Al-Jazeera’s Sudanese cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, since 13 June 2002 at the military base of Guantanamo and the murder of Chauncey Bailey in Oakland in August mean the United States is still unable to join the lead group.
[...]
We regret all the same that only two G8 members, Canada (18th) and Germany (20th), managed to be among the top 20.

And as a blogger, this is the worst part of the report:

Government repression no longer ignores bloggers

The Internet is occupying more and more space in the breakdown of press freedom violations. Several countries fell in the ranking this year because of serious, repeated violations of the free flow of online news and information.

In Malaysia (124th), Thailand (135th), Vietnam (162nd) and Egypt (146th), for example, bloggers were arrested and news websites were closed or made inaccessible. "We are concerned about the increase in cases of online censorship," Reporters Without Borders said. "More and more governments have realised that the Internet can play a key role in the fight for democracy and they are establishing new methods of censoring it. The governments of repressive countries are now targeting bloggers and online journalists as forcefully as journalists in the traditional media."

At least 64 persons are currently imprisoned worldwide because of what they posted on the Internet. China maintains its leadership in this form of repression, with a total of 50 cyber-dissidents in prison. Eight are being held in Vietnam. A young man known as Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for blog posts criticising the president and Islamist control of the country's universities.

Free Kareem!

Complete list in attached image (click to enlarge).

I admit I have missed the news when it was announced end of last July, but better late than never.

Honored to be Bahraini by soul for living in Bahrain for the last four years, I am very happy to know that Wafaa Ganahi, a 23-year-old teacher from the Law Faculty of Bahrain University, won the title, while the first runner-up was Miss Egypt Shaimaa Mansour and Miss Lebanon Rula Bahij, 23, was the second runner-up. Out of seventeen women from 15 countries attended the final competition.

On the other hand, what does this contest and these photos tells us other than the general perceptions about such events? Well, for me they mean a lot.

First, let me congratulate Miss Arab World, Miss Bahrain. She deserved it, and this leads me to my first note. As you can see from the attached photos, Miss Bahrain is a veiled lady, which leads to the conclusion that Miss Arab World - as well miss world - does not need to be unveiled to win a beauty contest. At least in beauty standards if you agree with me that veil does not hide beauty. I know that bikini show in such beauty contests is suppose to be a standard event, which probably every male in this universe are looking for :-) but Miss Arab World, and Miss Bahrain broke this rule - if I may consider it as a rule - and won for her beauty, real beauty. Not only that, but she also received official tribute which reflects how open Bahrain is.

Second, I'm not surprised to see some unveiled beauties from the last place one can expect, such as Saudi Arabia. The girl is gorgeous, but I bet that she is on the 'top wanted list' by Saudi religious men now, not for anything related to terrorism, no, but for her unveiled beauty and daring to show up. In my terms, Miss Saudi Arabia won Miss Arab World for her braveness to participate with all what we know about how she was perceived in her home country. Most probably she lives outside Saudi and her dreams to visit her homeland vanished forever.

Third, I'm really surprised and happy to see beauties from other conservative Arab countries such as Miss Yemen and Miss Sudan. They are setting new standards along with Miss Saudi Arabia and breaking all the stereotypes that we hear day and night by the Western media. Yes, behind the Hijab's, Niqab's and Burqa's we have very pretty ladies and we are not ashamed of showing them, in a modest way. A new generation will always fight the taboos for better life.

Last but not least, as a Palestinian, I'm proud to see Miss Palestine participating in this event despite all what Palestinians and the occupied lands are going through day and night by the Israeli terrorist occupation. Unlike Miss Israel, just imagine how many crosscheck she had to pass to reach an Israeli occupied port to be able to travel to Cairo for the event. Even if she lives in Israel, her journey will be under the same rules that govern the travel all Arab and Palestinian from Israel (more humiliating example).

Alright, enough blah blah... back to business, here are some photos I gathered from different sources around the web. In no particular order, take a look at Miss Bahrain, Miss Libya, Miss Saudi Arabia, Miss Lebanon, Miss Tunisia, Miss Egypt, Miss Morocco, Miss Kuwait, Miss Iraq, Miss Jordan, Miss Syria and Miss Algeria.

(Click thumbnail to enlarge)

I don’t know how many of my friends around the Gulf received this alert from Greenpeace, however, here it is for the use of everyone:

From: Hussein Fakih [hfakih@diala.greenpeace.org]
Date: Feb 4, 2007 10:20 PM
Subject: Greenpeace: opinion poll
To: [haitham.sabbah@gmail.com]

Dear Mr Haitham Sabbah,

I am an activist in Greenpeace (the international environmental independent organization). Greenpeace have recently discovered that some of the products that are now in the markets in Qatar Kuwait and the UAE are contaminated with Genetic engineered organisms. And in parallel with our work with the authorities there, we are currently conducting a web survey on Genetic Engineering for people in Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE. It would be great if you can take a minute of your time to fill out the survey at http://www.greenpeace.org.lb and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.

In case you have any question please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Best regards and i hope i am not disturbing you.

Hussein Fakih,
Greenpeace Internet communications:
Website:http://www.greenpeace.org.lb
Weblog:http://weblog.greenpeace.org/diwan/

عزيزي هيثم الصباح،

أنا ناشط في منظمة السلام الأخضر العالمية (غرينبيس وهي منظمة بيئية عالمية مستقلة) وقد اكتشفنا مؤخرا وجود مواد ملوثة بالكائنات المهندسة الجينية في اسواق كل من الامارات والكويت وقطر. وبموازة عملنا مع السلطات المختصة نسعى الى استطلاع رأي سكان الامارات والكويت وقطر حول موضوع الهندسة الوراثية. لذا نرجو ان نأخذ من وقتك أقل من دقيقة لاستطلاع رأيك حول هذا الموضوع. يمكنك ان تجد رابط صفحة الاستطلاع على عنوان مدونة منظمة الوارد اعلاه او على موقع المنظمة باللغة العربية (http://www.greenpeace.org.lb) اذا احتجت اي معلومات اضافية فلا تردد بالاتصال بي على عنواني البريدي.

مع جزيل الشكر,
حسين فقيه
غرينبيس

Sounds scary, I know. While I personally don’t prefer any Genetic engineered food, some still says that it is safe! (Read Ziad comments following one of my posts around two years ago).

On the other hand, I’m sure that this goes beyond the three countries mention in the report. In fact, I have at home (living in Bahrain) the same Corn Flour example they are showing, and it doesn’t say anywhere that it is Genetic engineered, and I’m sure that plenty of other Genetic engineered food is around the place, ‘unidentified,’ all around the Middle East.

Are we cheated internally or externally or both? What is the position of our health officials about this type of food? How can they allow to display such food without forcing the supplier to mark it clearly as Genetic engineered? And last but not least, any one with experience who can give us the pros and cons of this myth?

In the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, in between 168 indexed countries, our beloved Arab countries makes sure to be among the worst.

Here is the list in order from "best" to "worst":

Kuwait - 73
United Arab Emirates - 77
Mauritania - 77
Qatar - 80
Morocco - 97
Lebanon - 107
Jordan - 109
Bahrain - 111
Algeria - 126
Egypt - 133
Palestine - 134
Sudan - 139
Tunisia - 148
Yemen - 149
Libya - 152
Iraq -154
Syria - 153
Saudi Arabia - 161
Oman - ?

Yemen (149th) slipped four places, mainly because of the arrest of several journalists and closure of newspapers that reprinted the cartoons. Journalists were harassed for the same reason in Algeria (126th), Jordan (109th), Indonesia (103rd) and India (105th).

But except for Yemen and Saudi Arabia (161st), all the Arab peninsula countries considerably improved their rank. Kuwait (73rd) kept its place at the top of the group, just ahead of the United Arab Emirates (77th) and Qatar (80th).

[...]

Lebanon has fallen from 56th to 107th place in five years, as the country’s media continues to suffer from the region’s poisonous political atmosphere, with a series of bomb attacks in 2005 and Israeli military attacks this year. The Lebanese media - some of the freest and most experienced in the Arab world - desperately need peace and guarantees of security. The inability of the Palestinian Authority (134th) to maintain stability in its territories and the behaviour of Israel (135th) outside its borders seriously threaten freedom of expression in the Middle East.

Reporters Without Borders compiled the Index by asking the 14 freedom of expression organisations that are its partners worldwide, its network of 130 correspondents, as well as journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists, to answer 50 questions about press freedom in their countries. The Index covers 168 nations. Others were not included for lack of data about them.

- Questionnaire for compiling a 2006 world press freedom index
- How the index was compiled

Evaluation of Middle East can be found here (and Middle East Index - PDF).

The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Arabic-language blogs. It was initially published at Global Voices...

The Blazing Middle East

Third day after the beginning of the never ending Middle East conflict; Israel/Lebanon war, the Arabic blogsphere speaks.

Ranging between anger, celebration, condemnation and support, on both sides of the conflict, the bloggers views vary depends where they come from. Some sound extreme, others sound objective and reasonable, but all hopes that this ends with persistence peaceful and just solution for all, soon.

From Bahrain, Ali glorifies the Shia't Hezbollah operation and call them 'the most honored arab,' yet condemns Sunni's conspiracy against Hezbollah. He said:

From Jordan, Rami simply lay few unanswered questions, he said:

Moodless from Kuwait see this as 'Policy of Foolishness':

From Lebanon, in her last post, Eve first draws the sad pictures of the atrocities, damages, death at door steps, buildings, bridges, airport and all Israeli air raid targets. The second part of her post reveals her wishful unity against Israel aggression. She said:

From Egypt, Jar el-Kamar looks at Hezbollah operation from different perspectives and tries to understand who is benefiting from what:

Last but not least, Osama, a blogger from Palestine post few photos of debris on the Israeli side, caused by Hezbollah rockets and Israeli civilians sitting in shelters and title the post with one line; "They are suffering as much as you are."

Update: This post is highlighted on the CBS Public Eye website:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2006/07/14/publiceye/entry1805900.shtml

Few days ago, AFP interviewed me by email. Today, I was happy to find that the interview was published in few places.

First, here is Aljazeera version:

Weblogs soar in Gulf states

Internet blogs are giving rise to a new breed of Arab activist as ordinary residents increasingly use them to press for political rights and civil liberties in conservative Gulf states.

According to Haitham Sabbah, a Bahrain-based blogger and Middle East editor for Global Voices, a programme launched last year by the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School in the United States that tracks and collects blogs worldwide, there are now about 1,000 Gulf Arab bloggers, up five times from 2004.

The bloggers write in Arabic, English or a mixture of both. They are eager to set themselves apart from both newspaper and web columnists writing for established sites as well as the hugely popular Internet bulletin boards that often have a militant Islamic bent.

Typical was a recent posting by a 33-year-old Saudi man. "Are we destined to just listen to the news of all the big changes around the world as we await a good deed from our king?" he said in his blog.

And in one notable case, blogs in Kuwait were used to rally support last month for street demonstrations in favour of election law reforms.

Saudi experience

Saudi Arabia has the Gulf's biggest blogging community with about 3O0 bloggers, more than half of them women according to a Saudi blogger. With Saudi's population of 23 million, it has one of the highest internet penetration rates in the Arab world.

"Saudis are by nature not politically active and fear speaking out, so it is going to take some time," says Sabbah.

Popular Saudi blogs by women include Farah's Sowaleef, A Thought in the Kingdom of Lunacy, and Saudi Eve. They are peppered with sharp-tongued criticism of their male-dominated society and logs of rare escapades from an environment that demands obedience and modesty.

"I wore my leopard-printed heels and strategically placed a flower in my hair," read an April posting on Saudi Eve, which has been censored by the authorities since early June.

The Religious Policeman, a blog written by an unnamed Saudi man living in Britain, is on a mission to expose what he regards as the hypocrisy of the kingdom's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the so-called religious police, charged with enforcing the country's strict Islamic moral code.

"The religious police epitomise what is wrong with my country," a December posting read.

His blog cannot be accessed in Saudi Arabia. Authorities there, like other Gulf governments, censor everything deemed offensive to religious and moral values or threatening to security.

Saudi officials briefly blocked most Saudi blogs last year, and a group of bloggers led by Raed al-Saeed, 21, a university student who blogs in Arabic under the name Falsafat bidun Salfa (Philosophies without a tale), formed in March a blogging community that practices self-censorship by not criticising government policies, institutions or religious figures.

Other Gulf countries

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has the region's second biggest weblog community, an Emirati male blogger writing in Arabic was censored one week after launching The Land of Sands in 2004.

But he has found a way to circumvent the internet servers of Etisalat, the state telecommunications monopoly, and continues posting his writings in which he attacks religious leaders.

In the island kingdom of Bahrain, a small blogging community includes former political prisoners, one of whom has led an online campaign calling for a boycott of the country's dominant telecommunications company Batelco for what he deems excessive tariffs.

In Kuwait, one of the only two Gulf countries along with Bahrain with an elected parliament, bloggers ran a "virtual" campaign for election reform in April that spilled on to the streets in a Ukraine-type "orange" revolution.

Three university student bloggers translated a call by pro-reform MPs to cut the country's electoral districts to five to fight corruption into a catchy campaign with a distinctive "5 for Kuwait" orange logo.

Bloggers spread the word online and hundreds of young people waving orange banners demonstrated outside the seat of government on May 5.

The campaign escalated into further protests. A bitter standoff between parliament and the government forced the country's amir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed Al Sabah, to dissolve parliament on May 21, setting new elections for June 29.
AFP

Another version from the same interview was published by Hindustan Times:

Gulf bloggers: a new breed of Arab activists
Press Trust of India
Dubai, June 14, 2006

Internet blogs are giving rise to a new breed of Arab activist as ordinary residents increasingly use them to press for more political rights and civil liberties in conservative Gulf states.

Typical was a recent posting by a 33-year-old Saudi man. "Are we destined to just listen to the news of all the big changes around the world as we await a good deed from our king?" he questioned in his weblog, or blog.

And in one notable case, blogs in Kuwait were used to rally broad support last month for street demonstrations in favour of election law reforms.

The bloggers write in Arabic, English or a mixture of both. They are eager to set themselves apart from both newspaper and web columnists writing for established sites as well as the hugely popular Internet bulletin boards that often have a militant Islamic bent.

There are now about 1,000 Gulf Arab bloggers, up five times from 2004, according to Haitham Sabbah, a Bahrain-based blogger and Middle East editor for Global Voices, a programme launched last year by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School in the US that tracks and collects blogs worldwide.

Popular Saudi blogs by women include "Farah's Sowaleef", "A Thought in the Kingdom of Lunacy", and "Saudi Eve". They are peppered with sharp-tongued criticism of their male- dominated Muslim society and logs of rare escapades from an environment that demands obedience and modesty.

"I wore my leopard-printed heels and strategically placed a flower in my hair," read an April posting on "Saudi Eve", which has been censored by authorities since early June.

Saudi Arabia has the Gulf's biggest blogging community with about 300 bloggers, more than half of them women according to Omran. With Saudi's population of some 23 million it has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the Arab world.

A Kuwaiti woman's blog, "Jewaira's Boudoir", breaches the region's taboos by posting episodes of a fictional erotic tale.

"The Religious Policeman", a blog written by an unnamed Saudi man living in Britain, is on a mission to expose what he regards as the hypocrisy of the kingdom's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the so-called religious police charged with enforcing the country's strict Islamic moral code.

His blog cannot be accessed in Saudi Arabia. Authorities there, like other Gulf governments censor everything deemed offensive to religious and moral values or threatening to society.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has the region's second biggest weblog community, an Emirati male blogger writing in Arabic was censored one week after launching "The Land of Sands" in 2004.

But he continues posting his writings in which he attacks clerics and charges their influence is rising in the UAE. "They follow a plan to penetrate the government, media, schools and the laws. They are 'Islamising' our world, mind and life," he told AFP in an email interview.

Also published on Lanka Business Online.

The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Arabic-language blogs. It was initially published at Global Voices!

This week in the Arabic Language blogsphere:

Let’s start with the hard stuff. Tara from Iraq, has some rare seen images:

Tara then writes:

From Kuwait... The Kuwaiti bloggers are playing major role in the recent campaign to modify the electoral law. They launched many online campaigns which were supported by political bodies. However, recently, there is counter unrest between bloggers about the credit of such campaigns.

kila ma6goog writes about this and say:

Speaking of electoral laws in Kuwait reminds us that for the first time, Woman’s will have the right to practice their rights in the coming elections. However, recent news about a fatwa that governs the woman’s vote right makes it sounds fiction.

Zaydoun wrote:

Inspired by the World Cup 2006, which will start very soon, Amal, the Palestinian cartoonist living in the Diaspora at Lebanon published one of her cartoons, which is self-explanatory:

Along the same lines of World Cup fever, Saad writes about the TV broadcasting Exclusivity and the poor people who can’t afford it. He writes:

Ending with blogging itself, Mohammed writes about freedom in blogging and what should govern what bloggers write. Mohammed writes:

The following is an abbreviated translation from some Arabic-language blogs. It was initially published at Global Voices!

From Egypt... Malek who was scheduled to be free few days ago is now officially free. He just made his first post, titled: Free Morning. Malek writes:

Speaking of Egyptian bloggers and the recent reaction of mainstream media, Al Jazeera Network yesterday aired a documentary program about bloggers in the Arab world and focused on Egyptian bloggers. Malek, Alaa and many other bloggers stories were covered. Viewers of the documentary said it was great and will be aired again twice tomorrow.

Bent Mesreya asked her parents to watch the documentary. She wrote about their reaction. She said:

Along the same line of support for the detained bloggers, few Egyptian bloggers are organizing a live music concert; "Sing, Baheya":

The Ghanne Ya Baheya (Sing, Baheya), bloggers (organizers) are welcoming any help. Among these bloggers are, 30 February, Taranim, Seeking Freedom, Ayoub El Masry, Bent Masreya, Tagreba and Shaimaa.

In Kuwait... Following last couple of weeks parliamentary unrest and following the conflict between the Government and large portion of the parliament member regarding the "election zones" law; Kuwait Emir dissolved the Parliament and called for new parliamentary elections by end of June 2006.

The new elections campaign started immediately after the Emir announcement, so did the local newspapers start reporting events and public meetings around the Emirate. However, some bloggers are critical about what pro-government newspapers are showing on their pages.

Jandeef, cut and pasted and then abrogated some photos to prove them fake. The photos that were published by Al-Watan newspaper shows the "Blue-Ribbon" gathering. They are the supporters of the Government proposal for the new "election zones" law. The opponent group is the "Orange-Ribbon" group, which Jandeef seems to be supporting.

Jandeef then writes:

In Lebanon... It was the week of celebrating the anniversary of liberation from the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon.

Watani, in support for the "resistance" (a term usually used to describe the Lebanese Hezbollah fighters) writes:

To Saudi Arabia... On reading and censorship... Tech2click asks, "With the internet betweens our hands, do we still don’t read?" While Saad writes about the brutality of the media censorship.

So, Tech2Click writes about reading online:

Saad has another type of problem with reading. He is complaining about the Media's official type of censorship. He goes far into calling them ignorant. He writes:

The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Arabic-language blogsphere. It was initially published at Global Voices!

Music...

Amal, in her latest cartoon:

“See my Wawa, kiss my Wawa.” The Wawa is the little tiny hurt “ouch”..

In this cartoon; a poor bleeding Palestinian child is begging from a wealthy Arabian man who seems not giving attention and busy listening to one of the most famous, yet currently the most seductive singer in the Arab world, Haifa Wahbi.

Quoting the late Ghassan Kanafani (a famous Palestinian novelist, revolutionary journalist and writer), Amal writes:

Speaking of the Wawa, Iyas and Laith has produced the Jordanian version of the Wawa song (MP3). On the other hand, Haitham wrote a funny quick tutorial of the Wawa and how to treat it supported by seductive photos of the famous singer, Haifa Wahbi.

Iraq...

During the past few days, an application form has been widely distributed in many cities throughout Iraq urging past Ba'ath party members to rejoin the Ba'ath party. A news report by Al-Basra Net said that the form was distributed among the Iraqi-Sunni's only.

Imad Khadduri disaffirm this news. He said:

Away from war and conflicts, Tara, loves life. She lists here some of the reasons:

Democracy...

In Kuwait; democracy is heading towards a new brink. This evening, the 'Orange Protest' will go out in streets protesting the new government proposal to change the number of election zones.

The protests already started few days ago. On Tuesday, Zaydoun had a foreigner guest from Dubai who is in business trip to Kuwait. When he saw the protest in front of the Kuwaiti parliament during the day, he insisted that he would like to join the protest that was going to take place a the same night.

Zaydoun then said:

A lot of photos from the last few days protests can be found here and here. Note the font colors of the blog like many other Kuwaiti blogs, turned orange.

That was on the peaceful side of protest in the Arab world. The rocky one still continues at Egypt.

The government issued a decree banning street protests.

Wa7da Masrya post short press release by "Journalists for Change", which says:

Ahmed is even more pessimistic. He publishes the Egyptian flag, but upside down and writes:

Zarqa Alyamama even call it occupation:

This is a cross-posting. It was initially published at Global Voices!

The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Arabic-language blogsphere.

It’s not only the English language bloggers from Middle East who are continuously trying to bridge the cultural gaps, but Arabic language bloggers are facing similar tough battle at home, within the Arabic blogsphere itself.

Muslim moderates are criticizing some of the taboos of their system. One of them simply pushed away the unworthy books he was reading, another challenged his authorities to treat Christians alike Muslims treated in the West, but worst is to get kicked out of your school for practicing your freedom of speech.

From Egypt...

Kareem Amer was kicked out from his school because he spoke freely on his opinion about Islam. Last year he was detained for some time in reference of what he published online, and what he argues on forums that discuss critical issues about Islam, especially of what is going on Egypt.

Few days ago he wrote that he broke Al Azhar chains. He said:

In Kuwait...

Jandeef is upset by the way his country's authorities treat non-Muslims. He quotes clips from local newspapers which present the reactions to authority refusal to grant a piece of land for the Catholic Church. Jandeef then writes:

In Saudi Arabia...

Fuad Al Farhan reviews some of the new novels, written my Saudi females. He notices something that all these novels share and he writes:

Quick translation:

Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, has died in his late 70s. May Allah grant him and the Kuwaiti people peace and tranquility.

According to the annual report of the Arab Economic Unity Council, the Arab GDP is improving.

Her is the summery:

• Arab gross domestic product reached $860 billion in 2004 compared to 746.1 billion the year before.
• GDP growth ranged between 1.2 and 6.5 per cent while the GDP per capita rose to $2879 in 2004, compared to 2572 in 2003.
• The report exempted Egypt from the recorded rise in per capita income, where it dropped by 7.6 per cent as a result of the fall in the exchange rate of the Egyptian pound and inflation.
• Bahrain ranked first among the Arab states in containing inflation that reached 0.40 per cent in 2004, compared to 2.2 per cent the year before, while Sudan recorded the highest inflation of 17.1 per cent. In Egypt, it dropped to 4.1 per cent from 4.6 per cent.
• Inflation also rose in Kuwait, Jordan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania and Yemen.
• Value of Arab exports increased to $397.4 billion last year, or by 30.4 per cent, from 304.6 billion in 2003. Arab imports posted a growth of 34.2 per cent, rising to $241.9 billion in 2004, compared to 194.8 billion in 2003.
• The European Union came first as a trade partner of the Arab states, receiving 28.2 per cent of Arab exports in 2003, compared to 29.2 per cent in 2004. Exports to the US rose from 8.4 per cent to 10.2 per cent, to Japan from 17.1 per cent to 18 per cent.
• The share of the Arab exports to Southeastern Asian countries fell by 13.3 per cent to 12.4 per cent, while the inter-Arab export compared to the overall Arab exports dropped from 8.4 per cent to 8.1 per cent.