Showing posts tagged middle east
by Farhad Moshiri and Shirin Aliabadi  Perverted Collage, 2003 (above) effectively explores possible contradictions and paradoxes regarding censorship in Iran. The collage gathers together a collection of family magazines, many of which feature young girls on their covers. Iran places no restrictions on female dress before the age of puberty, and magazines commonly use this as a kind of loophole enabling them to depict looks that are censored on adult female models. Western audiences are increasingly sensitive regarding the use of children in contexts which might be seen as prematurely sexualised or exploitative. In Iran, the substitution of small girls for adult models does not pose any such moral dilemma.

by Farhad Moshiri and Shirin Aliabadi 

Perverted Collage, 2003 (above) effectively explores possible contradictions and paradoxes regarding censorship in Iran.

The collage gathers together a collection of family magazines, many of which feature young girls on their covers. Iran places no restrictions on female dress before the age of puberty, and magazines commonly use this as a kind of loophole enabling them to depict looks that are censored on adult female models.

Western audiences are increasingly sensitive regarding the use of children in contexts which might be seen as prematurely sexualised or exploitative. In Iran, the substitution of small girls for adult models does not pose any such moral dilemma.


  
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Why Does Syria Make White Guys Do Stupid Things?

— Melissa Wall, a journalism professor who specializes in Middle East media

From Melissa’s blog:

First there was the Gay Girl Blogger of Damascus who turned out to be a white American male graduate student with too much time on his hands and an uncanny ability to fool a lot of people.

Now, it’s two “citizen journalists” who’ve taken a road trip to Syria, drawing on their extensive cultural understanding of the Middle East acquired through the Occupy movement in the US. Huh?

Look guys, Syria already has activists and citizen journalists. Who are Syrian. Who live there. Who are at terrible risk. So, please pay attention to the real hereos of Syria like blogger Razan Ghazzawi and her compatriots at  the Syrian Center for Media and Free Expression and stop feeding these sideshows.

(Source: melissawall.wordpress.com)


  
Computer generated image of a $1 billion island resort set to open in 2015 in the UAE “The resort will be located on the artificial island of Al Marjan in the United Arab Emirates. It will feature sports facilities, a marina, luxury hotels, villas, an amusement park, a club museum and a futuristic 10,000-seat stadium with one side open to the sea” View high resolution

Computer generated image of a $1 billion island resort set to open in 2015 in the UAE

“The resort will be located on the artificial island of Al Marjan in the United Arab Emirates. It will feature sports facilities, a marina, luxury hotels, villas, an amusement park, a club museum and a futuristic 10,000-seat stadium with one side open to the sea”


  

Will Saudi women make Olympics debut?

“But not everyone has had the chance to compete. Saudi Arabia is one of only three countries — along with Qatar and Brunei — which have never sent female athletes to an Olympic Games.

That may change in London this year after a groundbreaking meeting with Olympic and Saudi officials, but it raises a bigger question — are the Arab kingdom’s women actually ready to compete in top international sporting competitions?”

(Source: nicewebtools.com)

  

Artists make prize-winning video from junk email

“A video installation, called “A Letter Can Always Reach Its Destination,” featuring people reading from scam emails, is one of the five winning pieces of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize unveiled at Art Dubai March 20.

It is the world’s only art prize specifically for Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian artists and the only one that rewards proposals rather than finished artworks, say the organizers.”

(Source: nicewebtools.com)

  

5 Myths about gas prices, Big Oil and the presidency

by Paul Brandus

“Our national discussion on uncomfortably high gas prices is filled with exaggerations and distortions. It’s time we wised up”

1. Gas prices rise every summer because oil companies gouge us
It never fails. Just as the summer temperatures rise, so does the price at the pump. What a rip-off… or is it?

Most Americans don’t know that gas is made of different ingredients in winter than in summer…

2. We get most of our oil from the Saudis

Newt Gingrich says that if he becomes president, he’ll never bow to Saudi Arabia. The implication, of course, is that we’re heavily dependent on Riyadh for oil. That’s not quite right. Gingrich “the professor” knows full well that our top suppliers are Canada and Mexico. For national security and economic reasons, U.S. oil supplies are well diversified.

3. Oil companies rake in obscene profits

A cross-section of well-known American companies showed profit margins higher, in some cases much higher, than Big Oil: Boeing, McDonald’s, Disney, Apple, and many others, for example. Few Americans complain about the success of these companies…

4. Drilling for oil would solve all of our problems

Shortages aren’t the problem. Storage tanks in Cushing, Okla., the principal North American trading hub for crude, are overflowing. Oil tankers are actually being rented to store oil offshore because we have nowhere else to keep it. And if we did drill, baby, drill, we couldn’t even process the excess oil…

5. We must tap into our emergency oil reserves

President Obama did this last June, remember? Gas had shot up to nearly $4 a gallon amid concern that violence in the Middle East would cause supply disruptions. After we tapped the reserves, gas prices dropped to around $3.20 by fall. Why don’t we do the same thing now? The Strategic Petroleum Reserve — which only holds about a five-week supply of oil (727 million barrels, and the U.S. guzzles 21 million a day) — is meant to be used only in a national emergency like a war. And even if Obama did tap the SPR again, we can only process about 4 million barrels a day. And even then it takes several weeks for the gas to make it to market.  

(Source: theweek.com)

  
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The uprising affected my life for the worse. I am a doctor and used to do surgeries in Homs. Since the uprising started I couldn’t go there because it’s too dangerous. The armed opposition is attacking educated people. This happened to one doctor I know. He was kidnapped and killed.

Doctor, 51, Damascus

From “One year on: Syrians speak about uprising,” an awesome interactive that gives the viewpoints of different citizens a year after the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule. 

(Source: aljazeera.com)


  

Forced marriage causes suicide attempt

“An 18-year old Egyptian girl threw herself off the balcony of an apartment building in Kuwait after being introduced to man she was told was her husband. She was hospitalized for 19 days and according to the paper, none of her family members visited her during this time.”

(Source: english.alarabiya.net)

  

Why is President Obama keeping a journalist in a Yemen prison?

“Unlike most journalists covering Al Qaeda, Shaye risked his life to travel to areas controlled by Al Qaeda and to interview its leaders.” 

“On February 2, 2011, President Obama called Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The two discussed counterterrorism cooperation and the battle against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. At the end of the call, according to a White House read-out, Obama “expressed concern” over the release of a man named Abdulelah Haider Shaye, whom Obama said “had been sentenced to five years in prison for his association with AQAP.” It turned out that Shaye had not yet been released at the time of the call, but Saleh did have a pardon for him prepared and was ready to sign it. It would not have been unusual for the White House to express concern about Yemen’s allowing AQAP suspects to go free. Suspicious prison breaks of Islamist militants in Yemen had been a regular occurrence over the past decade, and Saleh has been known to exploit the threat of terrorism to leverage counterterrorism dollars from the United States. But this case was different. Abdulelah Haider Shaye is not an Islamist militant or an Al Qaeda operative. He is a journalist.”

  
Libya frees two British journalists accused of spying Gareth Montgomery-Johnson and Nicholas Davies work for Iran’s Press TV and were arrested by militia group in February

Libya frees two British journalists accused of spying

Gareth Montgomery-Johnson and Nicholas Davies work for Iran’s Press TV and were arrested by militia group in February


  
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Escape from Iran: One Man’s Journey From Riches to the Torture Chamber to Freedom

(Source: The Atlantic)