The list thus far:
This little gem of a piece had me recollecting the fear v. love scene in Donnie Darko. The way religious fear and democracy promotion are tied together in this article is the most bizarre marriage of ideas. I will make bold the highlights. Is fearing God the only way to motivate people? How very Jonathan Edwards!
I am going to try to maintain a picture collection of the most monstrous, recent or new architectural projects in Kuwait. I am also accepting ideas. My goal is to regularly post a picture of something I come across. Some criteria I am looking for include but are not limited to the following:
I just found out about a movie released last year entitled "8", which is actually a collection of eight short films, each based around one of the eight Millennium Development Goals, directed by: Abderrahmane Sissako, Gael Garcia Bernal, Mira Nair, Gus Van Sant, Jan Kounen, Gaspar Noe, Jane Campion and Wim Wenders. Has anyone seen it? The official movie website can be found by clicking here. The UN MDGs (for a direct link, click here) include the following:
For most of the readers from Kuwait, this might be old news, but for some of you abroad (or new to Kuwait), I highly recommend this movie. I had the privilege to see it in IMAX two years ago when I came to Kuwait to visit for the first time. It was playing in the Scientific Center's cinema. Unfortunately, youtube does not do it justice, but it is a captivating film nonetheless.
Finally some Earth Day coverage! Congrats to ACK for hitting several points I mentioned in my Earth Day blog entry: education and beach clean-ups.
"BEIRUT (AFP) — As Beirut prepares to don the mantle of UNESCO "World Book Capital City 2009," Arabic novels are enjoying an unprecedented boom across the Middle East, breaking taboos on topics such as sex and religion.
The Lebanese capital was chosen as the world's literary centre this year "in the light of its focus on cultural diversity, dialogue and tolerance," according to the UNESCO selection committee.
There is no shortage of literary fodder as book readings and launches are scheduled across Beirut daily for the last week of April. Among books being showcased will be a wealth of latest offerings from leading authors.
"More than 100 novels were up for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the Arab version of the Booker Prize) in 2008/09 -- and that's an unprecedented number," said Fakhri Salih, a former jury member for the award and current chairman of Jordan's association of literary critics.
The prize was awarded to Egyptian author Yussef Zeidan for his book "Azazil," which centres on changes in religion in Arab countries around the Mediterranean in the fifth century AD.
The novel quickly gained popularity as a genre in 2002 when Egyptian writer Ala al-Aswany published the highly successful "The Yaacoubian Building," a novel-turned-movie depicting regime corruption and the rise of Islamism in Egypt.
The publication was followed by a flurry of works that delve into taboo topics, primarily sexuality and religion, in countries where such books had been historically banned and where the novel was almost non-existent.
"The production of novels in Gulf countries exploded in recent years," says Rana Idriss, who heads the Beirut-based Al-Adab (Literature) publishing house.
In 2005, for example, Saudi author Rajaa Alsanea found fame with "Girls of Riyadh," a book that traces the lives of four young women in the ultra-conservative kingdom." (for full article, click here)
| Host: | |
| Type: | |
| Network: | Global |
| Date: | Monday, May 4, 2009 |
| Time: | 3:30pm - 10:00pm |
| Location: | Marina Mall, next to Hallmark |
| Phone: | 66800815 |
| Email: |
Come to the Starbucks Earth Week celebration to watch “The Story of Stuff”, an interesting English short film, and enjoy a very special coffee tasting.
WHERE: Starbucks Salem Al Mubarak St. (opp. Fanar Mall)
WHEN: Monday April 27, 2009 6pm - 8pm
Seating is limited, so please confirm your attendance by return email: dana.salman@alshaya.com, or sign up at the store.
For more information, please call: 22581680
The ever-unfolding drama of the women's police force really fascinates me. I will continue following up and posting for as long as articles are written about the matter. Congratulations to the brave female officers unafraid to defend their merits. As I had criticized in my earlier post on the policewomen controversy, I am happy to finally see that female officers were interviewed for this piece.
"KUWAIT: Raised in a society dominated by men, Hanan wants to prove that Kuwaiti women are just as good as males in serving in the police force.
The 19ـyearـold Kuwaiti is among the first female police officers who recently graduated from academy in the conservative Gulf Arab state where many believe a woman''s place is at home.
"When people said that women will not be able to work as police officers I wanted to prove to them that women can actually make it," said Sergeant Hanan AlـSaybaei. "It was not a childhood dream, but I took it as a challenge."
The move is the latest step that the U.S. ally has taken towards greater participation of women in society after granting them the right to vote and run for office in 2005.
"It''s an unprecedented step. (Police) was restricted to local men, and women''s participation is now a reality," said former oil minister and political analyst Ali AlـBaghli." (for full article, click here)
* By the way Mr. Al-Baghli is also the chairman of the Kuwait Human Rights Society, who after some research, I've seen is focal on women's empowerment as well as foreign labourers' rights in Kuwait.
1. Get the newspapers more involved.
Kuwait Times: "Failing Education"
Where are the books in Kuwait? The other day my friend showed me a second-hand bookshop/vinyl store in one of the downtown souks that I had never seen before. The problem is that the owner said it would be closed for another two months because they are redoing the place. However, he let us look inside. Later that day, I noticed for the first time the Central Library that is located off of the Gulf Road. I had never known about it before.Last night I went to Entertainment City for the first time with three of my friends. We of course jumped at the opportunity to get into queue for the first rollercoaster ride we stumbled upon. We went into an entrance and saw that there was no line, but realized that other people were going into another gated queue area directly next to where we had entered. I remarked to my friends that it was strange that they would have two entrances next to each other, and that one would be non-functional. So, we left where we had been waiting to go into the other waiting line. We were waiting and talking when suddenly I saw a big group go into the original entrance we had gone into.
This April 7, 2009 opinion piece from The Independent is one of the most forboding, but in-depth articles I have read on the perils of the Dubai city-model of urban development. It is lengthy but captivating, well-written and reflective.
"Dubai was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging. Johann Hari reports
The wide, smiling face of Sheikh Mohammed – the absolute ruler of Dubai – beams down on his creation. His image is displayed on every other building, sandwiched between the more familiar corporate rictuses of Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders. This man has sold Dubai to the world as the city of One Thousand and One Arabian Lights, a Shangri-La in the Middle East insulated from the dust-storms blasting across the region. He dominates the Manhattan-manqué skyline, beaming out from row after row of glass pyramids and hotels smelted into the shape of piles of golden coins. And there he stands on the tallest building in the world – a skinny spike, jabbing farther into the sky than any other human construction in history.
But something has flickered in Sheikh Mohammed's smile. The ubiquitous cranes have paused on the skyline, as if stuck in time. There are countless buildings half-finished, seemingly abandoned. In the swankiest new constructions – like the vast Atlantis hotel, a giant pink castle built in 1,000 days for $1.5bn on its own artificial island – where rainwater is leaking from the ceilings and the tiles are falling off the roof. This Neverland was built on the Never-Never – and now the cracks are beginning to show. Suddenly it looks less like Manhattan in the sun than Iceland in the desert.
Once the manic burst of building has stopped and the whirlwind has slowed, the secrets of Dubai are slowly seeping out. This is a city built from nothing in just a few wild decades on credit and ecocide, suppression and slavery. Dubai is a living metal metaphor for the neo-liberal globalised world that may be crashing – at last – into history." (for full article, click here)
They are the tiniest capillaries of the economic crisis— they were always the smallest units of the chain.
big men who left their nowhere villages through a network of transnational agents passing them off.
The migrant labor to the GCC countries became the great baton race of the global economy
but they are truly the voiceless, not a genocide, not a humanitarian crisis, not anything spilling over to our edge.
The poetry in their story requires a squinting of the eyes, ears to the pavement, holding in a breath
to hear the muffled lifesong left behind in the trunks of the abandoned cars at the airport,
to feel the bodyache bad posture of the old luggage slumped on the sidewalk,
to see the loanshark lurking behind each eye inside each man made redundant
their wishes caught in wet concrete or pacing the construction cranes like stray cats unable to climb down
these little ants unload an unfinished skyscraper off their backs, clutching a plane ticket stub as they exit
for some, globalization is a about the wait—waiting for us to recognize them in these modern wonders
Ever since writing the entry on driving in Kuwait, I cannot help but see the highway public service slogans on every overpass I go under along the ring roads and highways here in Kuwait. I had written a couple on the blog entry earlier, but my list has gotten longer since then. I try to write down each one I see the moment I pass by them, granted I have a pen and paper. They are slowly becoming my little obession! Keep your eyes out for them, and maybe we can start a collection.
One by one, it seems some of the main buildings of Old Salmiya along Salem Al-Mubarek Street are coming down. Half of the shops on the ground floor along the street on many of the buildings are empty. One of my favorite buildings, a big retro-teal, circular apartment complex seems to be in its last stages of life as well. Does anyone know what the plan is for that area of town? Is the bulldozer coming to take down all these buildings that look like ghosts of their former selves? What will Old Salmiya become and what is the development plan?
Global Policy Innovations announces the Spring 2009 Poetry Contest.
Theme: Spring is a time of renewal, something that is clearly needed in the global economy in 2009. Carnegie Council'sPolicy Innovations invites you to write a poem that captures this time of growth and send it to us. What do innovations, ethics, and globalization mean to you personally? Paint a moment of emotion—an instant of transformation, personal or political—illustrating humanitarian heroics or global solidarity. We will select a handful of winning poems and publish them in a special issue later this spring. Feel free to send us your poem through email, as Twitter #haiku, or viaFacebook.
Deadline: April 15, 2009
Length: 10 lines or less
Original Work: All work must be original and unpublished reflections on the contest theme.
Publishing: The winning submissions will be published under a Creative Commons license on the Policy Innovations website.
Prize: Literary fame! Policy Innovations is a nonprofit, noncommercial global commons for ideas on crafting a fairer globalization. As such we run no advertisements and rely on thoughtful and generous readers and writers such as you.
Contact: info@policyinnovations.org
Dar AlـAthar AlـIslamiyyah
Invites the public to a lecture by Dr. Juan Antonio Souto on ''The Great Mosque of Cordova; The Umayyad State of AlـAndalusـmade architecture''
(Lecture in English)
Date: Monday, April 13, 2009
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: AlـMaidan Cultural Center ـ Abdullah AlـSalem School,
Maidan Hawalli, Near AlـShaab Leisure Park.
Tel: 25636528 / 25636561 Fax: 25653006
Eـmail: membership@darmuseum.org.kw
Website: www.darmuseum.org.kw
Fellow blogger and director smArchitecture, Thomas Modeen, put forth the manifesto touched upon in his presentation at Pecha Kucha Night some weeks ago.
My best friend, Mark, who lives in Chengdu, China was interviewed by NPR while shooting some hoops. Mark is one of my idols, and certainly my main encouragement for starting up a blog. Check out the soundbyte here.
Please tell me where in the article the interviewed person is able to demonstrate that segregation has been a success. I failed to find out. It seems like it has only created nightmares in terms of ensuring everyone graduates because the school effectively has to double its course supply. I am including the photo of Mr. Al-Azmi so that if you see him on the campus, you can just ask him yourself.
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