Egypt: Reading about Mounir Said Hanna Marzuq and his sentencing in which he was found guilty of 'satire' after a colleague reported him and his poem to the Egyptian authorities has made me wonder to when will we be living in such authoritarian regimes... He has been sentenced to three years and was fined L.E. 100,000 for insulting president Hosni Mubarak. It seems also that the Orthodox Church leaders of Egypt are working hard to raise 90,000 L.E. to avoid Marzuq's jailing.
What does satire really mean? To when will we accept misinterpretations of laws, constitutions, human rights, etc. and definitely the 'Godly' profile of leaders around this region? What kills me is who told them they were Godlike? Haven't they looked into the mirror? Don't they shit, swear, lie, fart, yearn, desire, etc. like anyone else?
Enough.
Spread the words of Marzuq:
زغلل
ونورد فيما يلي إحدى قصائد منير حنا:
زغلل
زغلل زغلل زغللنى ياللى حبك جننى
زغلل زغلل زغللهم ياللى شكلك جننهم
كورال
زغلل زغلل يا مزغلل زغلل ع الكل خليت الدنيا حلوى وفل الفل
١- المرايا بتزغلل على واحد بس ولكن انت يا مزغلل زغللت الكل
٢- فلاش الكاميرا بيزغلل قبل الصورة ولكن انت يا مزغلل صوت وصورة
٣- زغلل زغلل يا مزغلل منين ماتروح بتخلى الدنيا حلوة وفيها روح
٤- زغلل زغلل يا مزغلل زغلل وقول مش أى حد ينفع يبقى زغلول
٥- اوعى تبطل تزغلل يا واد يا زغلول خليت الدنيا حلوة والفرح يطول
٦- زغلل زغلل ع الليلة وع الحاضرين خليت الناس فى حيرة وكمان تايهين
٧- زغلل زغلل ع الحفلة وع الحاضرين خليت الناس فى غفلة وكمان تايهين
٨- زغلل زغلل ع الفرح وع الحاضرين خليت الناس فى مرح وكمان تايهين
(for further readings check this link)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Kuwait's Salafis call voting for women a sin
KUWAIT: After a long civil rights battle in 2005, Kuwaiti women finally could practice their right to vote. Since then, women had to struggle to put that right into concrete action. Much still needs to be done for women seeking a political role in this oil-rich emirate to prevail over religious conservatives.
Although women have been granted full rights to take part in Kuwait’s general elections, as long as they adhere to Islamic law, their participation in political life is still very modest. According to a report by Freedom House released last year, 27 women ran as candidates in the 2006 and 2008 parliamentary elections. But none of the female candidates have won a seat in the country’s National Assembly so far. The international pro-democracy group also noted that only 35% of Kuwaiti women voted in the 2008 elections.
On Monday, the Salafi movement, which believes in a strict fundamental interpretation of Islam, called for the boycott of female candidates in parliamentary elections scheduled for later this month. Fuhaid Hailam, a Salafi politician, told Al-Arabiya Channel that voting for women was a “sin” in Islam. He based his judgment on a saying by the prophet Muhammad, who reportedly asserted that a nation will not prosper if it is led by women.
The group’s statements were condemned by civil rights groups in Kuwait, which boasts one of the most democratic systems among neighboring kingdoms.
A Short Brief of 2009 Elections:
A total of 108 candidates including five women filed nominations papers for the May 16 general elections on the first day of registration as many hopefuls expected a more-than-normal change in the elections.Twenty-one candidates filed in each of the first and second constituencies, 28 in the third, 26 in the fourth and only 12 in the fifth district.
The May 16 polls will be the second in a year and the third in as many years in this oil-rich Gulf state which has been rocked by a series of political crises. The outgoing parliament was dissolved after Islamist MPs filed three requests to summon the prime minister for public questioning over allegations of misuse of public funds and mismanagement. Since 2006, five governments have resigned and three parliaments have been dissolved in OPEC's fourth largest producer which has amassed a huge surplus but where many development projects have been stalled by political bickering.
Elections in Kuwait is usually an individual process (with the absence of any formal political parties). Citizens base their electoral decisions based on family, clans/tribes and religious sects. With a patriarchal family structure, women have been voting according to what their husbands, brothers and sons have dictated on them. Also another element that was evident in previous elections, is the absence of women trusting other women's abilities.
Mubarak, who became the first women minister in Kuwait in 2005 after women received full political rights, said she was optimistic that she will enter the history books for a second time. "I was the first woman to become a minister. I am looking forward to become the first female to reach the national assembly" she told reporters after registering to contest the polls from the first district. Mubarak resigned after two years in the cabinet after Islamist MPs threatened to grill her over a fire that killed two people in Jahra Hospital in 2007.
Dashti filed to contest her third election and said that chances of women this time look promising since Kuwaiti people are now more aware of women rights and are ready to vote for them. Women, who won the right to vote in 2005, are taking part for the third time as both voters and candidates. They constitute 54.3 percent of the total eligible voters of 385,000. In the past two elections, a total of 54 women candidates have stood but without success.
(For further information check this out)
Although women have been granted full rights to take part in Kuwait’s general elections, as long as they adhere to Islamic law, their participation in political life is still very modest. According to a report by Freedom House released last year, 27 women ran as candidates in the 2006 and 2008 parliamentary elections. But none of the female candidates have won a seat in the country’s National Assembly so far. The international pro-democracy group also noted that only 35% of Kuwaiti women voted in the 2008 elections.
On Monday, the Salafi movement, which believes in a strict fundamental interpretation of Islam, called for the boycott of female candidates in parliamentary elections scheduled for later this month. Fuhaid Hailam, a Salafi politician, told Al-Arabiya Channel that voting for women was a “sin” in Islam. He based his judgment on a saying by the prophet Muhammad, who reportedly asserted that a nation will not prosper if it is led by women.
The group’s statements were condemned by civil rights groups in Kuwait, which boasts one of the most democratic systems among neighboring kingdoms.
A Short Brief of 2009 Elections:
A total of 108 candidates including five women filed nominations papers for the May 16 general elections on the first day of registration as many hopefuls expected a more-than-normal change in the elections.Twenty-one candidates filed in each of the first and second constituencies, 28 in the third, 26 in the fourth and only 12 in the fifth district.
The May 16 polls will be the second in a year and the third in as many years in this oil-rich Gulf state which has been rocked by a series of political crises. The outgoing parliament was dissolved after Islamist MPs filed three requests to summon the prime minister for public questioning over allegations of misuse of public funds and mismanagement. Since 2006, five governments have resigned and three parliaments have been dissolved in OPEC's fourth largest producer which has amassed a huge surplus but where many development projects have been stalled by political bickering.
Elections in Kuwait is usually an individual process (with the absence of any formal political parties). Citizens base their electoral decisions based on family, clans/tribes and religious sects. With a patriarchal family structure, women have been voting according to what their husbands, brothers and sons have dictated on them. Also another element that was evident in previous elections, is the absence of women trusting other women's abilities.
Mubarak, who became the first women minister in Kuwait in 2005 after women received full political rights, said she was optimistic that she will enter the history books for a second time. "I was the first woman to become a minister. I am looking forward to become the first female to reach the national assembly" she told reporters after registering to contest the polls from the first district. Mubarak resigned after two years in the cabinet after Islamist MPs threatened to grill her over a fire that killed two people in Jahra Hospital in 2007.
Dashti filed to contest her third election and said that chances of women this time look promising since Kuwaiti people are now more aware of women rights and are ready to vote for them. Women, who won the right to vote in 2005, are taking part for the third time as both voters and candidates. They constitute 54.3 percent of the total eligible voters of 385,000. In the past two elections, a total of 54 women candidates have stood but without success.
(For further information check this out)
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Kuwait emir calls fresh election once again!
KUWAIT: Kuwait's ruler has dissolved parliament amid a political crisis that has prompted the entire cabinet to tender its resignation. Fresh elections in the oil-rich state are to be held on 17 May. With this in mind, candidates have started their campaigns amidst economical unrest. The submissions have dropped by 20% this year.
Kuwait's parliament has been involved in a series of disputes with ministers, which came to a head with the cabinet's resignation on Monday. MPs had been demanding a further pay rise for state employees - something the cabinet was against. Correspondents say constant political clashes between the cabinet and parliament have delayed planned economic reforms. Sheikh Sabah made the announcement in an address to the nation on state television. Under Kuwaiti law, elections must be held within 60 days of dissolution of parliament.
But in the past, parliament has been suspended for much longer - five years between 1976-81, and six years between 1986-92. The elections in 2006 resulted in a loose alliance of reformists and Islamists securing nearly two-thirds of the seats in parliament. MPs have accused the ruling Sabah family of trying to lay all blame for the impasse on parliament and some have called for changes in the executive branch dominated by Sabah family members.
Above is one candidate 'Wasmi Khaled Al Wasmi', a lawyer running in the 1st area of voting. His campaign doesn't shy off from using Barrack Obama's slogan 'Yes We Can'. Along with the usual passport picture and the slogan, a brief resume of the candidate and an open letter to Kuwaiti citizens make up the second page of his electronic electoral campaign.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
72hrs: The Project
BEIRUT: With two professional cameras, a webcam recording every movement and live feeds all over Gemmayzeh’s main street and also a handy cam capturing the audience’s feedback, Kiki Bokassa locked herself in a glass room gallery on Saint Nicholas Stairs and painted continuously for 72 hours non-stop (Friday, April 24, 2009, 10 am until Monday, April 27, 2009, 10 am).
Bokassa wanted to offer a chance to watch a painter in action where the artistic progress and journey on canvas was played live on screen. People were also given the chance to stand outside the gallery’s window and witness hours in the artist’s life in a living space designed for the event.
After the event, Kiki Bokassa will pay tribute to a 1964 Yoko Ono performance. In one of the city theaters, she will wear a painted dress, and ask spectators, each in turn, to cut a piece of this dress (made during the 72-hour performance). The cutting of the painted dress is intended as a pacific protest against all forms of violence anywhere in the world. Half the dress will represent human life, the other half, our environment.
Just a brief profile of Kiki Bokassa:
Born in Paris in 1975, Marie-Ange J.B. Bokassa (alias Kiki) is an autodidact artist of Lebanese and Central-African backgrounds. Kiki has over the past years participated in several exhibitions in Lebanon and overseas. Her paintings are displayed in private collections from the Arabian Gulf to the American Midwest, through metropoles such as New York.
She is also a writer and an active member in society, directly involved in a wide-range of humanitarian causes to which she devotes much of her time. In 2005 she started engaging in several humanitarian efforts, including the creation of non lucrative children’s books and activities such as “Let Me Tell You A Story” publication and “Paint for Peace” workshop. She also holds reading sessions under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture, and works as an art educator periodically, by training children and volunteers in public schools and public spaces all over the country.
(For further info check this out)
Bokassa wanted to offer a chance to watch a painter in action where the artistic progress and journey on canvas was played live on screen. People were also given the chance to stand outside the gallery’s window and witness hours in the artist’s life in a living space designed for the event.
After the event, Kiki Bokassa will pay tribute to a 1964 Yoko Ono performance. In one of the city theaters, she will wear a painted dress, and ask spectators, each in turn, to cut a piece of this dress (made during the 72-hour performance). The cutting of the painted dress is intended as a pacific protest against all forms of violence anywhere in the world. Half the dress will represent human life, the other half, our environment.
Just a brief profile of Kiki Bokassa:
Born in Paris in 1975, Marie-Ange J.B. Bokassa (alias Kiki) is an autodidact artist of Lebanese and Central-African backgrounds. Kiki has over the past years participated in several exhibitions in Lebanon and overseas. Her paintings are displayed in private collections from the Arabian Gulf to the American Midwest, through metropoles such as New York.
She is also a writer and an active member in society, directly involved in a wide-range of humanitarian causes to which she devotes much of her time. In 2005 she started engaging in several humanitarian efforts, including the creation of non lucrative children’s books and activities such as “Let Me Tell You A Story” publication and “Paint for Peace” workshop. She also holds reading sessions under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture, and works as an art educator periodically, by training children and volunteers in public schools and public spaces all over the country.
(For further info check this out)
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sois Belle et Vote = Be Beautiful and Vote
Photo copyright Menassat
BEIRUT: With the election season getting hotter as the long awaited day approaches, election campaigns are certainly becoming more and more controversial. The new campaign 'Be Beautiful and Vote' (I first saw it on Beirut/NTSC blog) has become the latest billboard campaign to hit a nerve esp. with the Beirut-based Feminist Collective who have created a spoof version of the campaign (Be Intelligent and Vote Blank in addition to a hand written heading saying 'because no one cares about your rights) and listed 12 reasons on their blog for why they consider this campaign offensive to women.
The campaign initiated by General Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) plays on a famous French saying: "Sois Belle et tais-toi" (Be Beautiful and Shut up) by changing the second part into 'Vote' as part of their campaign to target women voters. But it has certainly raised some eyebrows particularly with the Feminist Activist Camp that denounced the whole attempt as a direct offense to women.
Personally, I don't know what FPM's initial intention was from such a campaign, but what I know is that they certainly haven't studied their target group, in this case women voters. Instead of creating a horizontal communication with those women they have resorted to a rather vertical one in which women have ended up on the lower end of that discourse. So please, stop thinking that you know how women think and instead start concretely involving them in every level of the democratic processes!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Bicilavadora a pedal powered washing machine
Machine could produce clean clothes and local jobs
In places where electricity is scarce and you don’t want to spend your day by the river doing laundry, how about settling for the Bicilavadora pedal powered washing machine instead? Taking four years worth of development so far by an MIT team, the Bicilavadora is composed of an oil drum and bicycle running gear for its main components. As for the machine’s outer housing, the standard oil drum is cut apart and welded back together for a shorter barrel in order to allow even puny humans to pedal it, so that mom and dad can have a little quality time together while the kids learn to help with the housework. We guess it will use rainwater to rinse the clothes inside and at the same time could be built locally and thereby create jobs.
The Bicilavadora, combining the Spanish words for bicycle and washing machine -- got its most rigorous workout last month when a team of MIT students took the latest prototype to an orphanage in the slums called Ventanilla outside Lima, Peru. With 670 resident children, the home generates enough laundry to keep the washer perpetually busy.
This is another example of how simple creative ideas can certainly help make lives better esp. in developing countries. This is designing like you give a damn! Get inspired people and start with your own communities instead of roaming the shopping malls for the next collection of D&G, Channel, etc. and moving from one Starbucks cafe to the other...
Check this YouTube video out
In places where electricity is scarce and you don’t want to spend your day by the river doing laundry, how about settling for the Bicilavadora pedal powered washing machine instead? Taking four years worth of development so far by an MIT team, the Bicilavadora is composed of an oil drum and bicycle running gear for its main components. As for the machine’s outer housing, the standard oil drum is cut apart and welded back together for a shorter barrel in order to allow even puny humans to pedal it, so that mom and dad can have a little quality time together while the kids learn to help with the housework. We guess it will use rainwater to rinse the clothes inside and at the same time could be built locally and thereby create jobs.
The Bicilavadora, combining the Spanish words for bicycle and washing machine -- got its most rigorous workout last month when a team of MIT students took the latest prototype to an orphanage in the slums called Ventanilla outside Lima, Peru. With 670 resident children, the home generates enough laundry to keep the washer perpetually busy.
This is another example of how simple creative ideas can certainly help make lives better esp. in developing countries. This is designing like you give a damn! Get inspired people and start with your own communities instead of roaming the shopping malls for the next collection of D&G, Channel, etc. and moving from one Starbucks cafe to the other...
Check this YouTube video out
El Sistema Changing the World through Music
VENEZUELA: El Sistema takes poor kids from the slums of Venezuela and trains them as classical musicians. Venezuela's pioneering classical music programme for children has produced world-class artists such as the young conductor Gustavo Dudamel. It has also quietly transformed the social fabric of the country.
Felix Briseno was brought up with his six siblings in a small apartment in Guarenas, a run-down town on the outskirts of Caracas. His father is a security guard and his mother is a housewife. As a child, he says, he found it impossible to imagine the world outside the scrubby grass forecourt where he was allowed out to play. "There are lots of people here who won't even travel the 45-minute drive to Caracas. The horizons are very limited."
While his schoolfriends and siblings scratch a living in local factories, Felix, who is now 22, has made a remarkable transition. He is a classically trained conductor, working with two youth orchestras in Guarenas. Last summer he became the first member of his family to apply for a passport when he travelled to England to attend a music summer school. His dream is to follow in the footsteps of his hero Gustavo Dudamel, the 26-year-old Venezuelan conductor who is one of the world's fastest-rising talents in classical music. "Music has not just opened doors for me professionally," says Felix, "it has opened my mind to a whole world of possibilities."
In the 30 years since its foundation, El Sistema has evolved into one of the most successful community arts programmes in the world. There are 250,000 children studying music under its auspices across Venezuela, from the most remote rural villages to the poorest barrios of Caracas. Its founder, the composer/statesman José Antonio Abreu (according to legend, he started with 11 children rehearsing in a garage), has said that it heralds a "new era in which great art is created by the majority, for the majority". In a politically turbulent country, it has provided a rare point of consensus, attracting support from a succession of governments including, most recently, that of the socialist president Hugo Chavez, who has financed a state-of-the-art concert hall and rehearsal space in Caracas.
I have always believed in creativity and art as the way to help save the world. Here is a country saving their easily lost youth (Could we save ours?) through music that "takes them to a different world" in more ways than one. This is a movement we could learn much from instead of attacking Chavez and the Venezuelan regime why not learn from what they are doing right! They have so much participation that they are making their own instruments. And honestly, I am sick of watching the crappy music clips broadcasting on Rotana... Haifa Wehbe, Nancy Ajram, Ruby, etc. do not represent us and certainly are not what I would like future generations to be hearing 24hrs a day...
Here are some inspiring facts: 800,000 children have been through the program, $80 million dollars from 8 Venezuelan governments has been spent towards helping these kids. Their National Youth Orchestra (they have hundreds of others) travels world wide.
Check out this You Tube on Gustavo Dudamel (one of the program's super stars) and the Simon Bolivar youth orchestra.
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