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Arabisc: Asian Games, Democracy and Models

Amira Al Hussaini · 12:32 · Middle East & North Africa , East Asia

lingua → zht · zhs

Why was there no celebration of the Arab heritage in the opening of the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, and what is the relationship between democracy and models and why is an Egyptian blogger asking his readers to watch award-winning movie Good Night and Good Luck?

These are some of the questions our North Africa and Middle East bloggers hope to answer this week.

Bahrain-based blogger Haitham Sabbah doesn't seem to be so pleased with the Asian Games opening ceremony and wonders why the Qataris failed to include any representations of Arabs in it.

إفتتاح جميل بل رائع ما رأيناه الليلة في حفل إفتتاح دورة الألعاب الآسيوية على أرض الدوحة، عاصمة قطر الشقيقة. ولكن أين العرب؟
شاهدنا السفينة والبحر كما هي العادة في كل الإحتفالات المشابهة لمناسبات رياضية خليجية عل الأخص. كما شاهدنا لوحات فنية وتراثية وحضارية أسيوية رائعة مثلت حضارات شرق أسيا، فقط! نعم قطر أسقطت العرب من قاموس أسيا.
السؤال هو: أين العرب في كل ما قدِّم؟ أين الحضارات العربية؟ أين التراث والفن العربي؟ أين حضارات الأردن وسوريا وفلسطين ولبنان؟ أين حضارات اليمن والعراق؟ لماذا تجاهل المنظمون القطريون العرب وحضاراتهم؟ أليست هذه واحدة من أهم المناسبات التي يجب أن تستغل لإطلاع العالم على حضاراتنا وتراثنا؟ أم أن أسيا مقصورة على شعوبها الشرقية؟
فالننسى العرب. أين بلاد فارس؟ ولماذا تم تجاهلها هي الأخرى؟

“It was a beautiful opening for the Asian games in Doha, the Qatari capital, but where were the Arabs? We saw the dhow (ship) and the sea, which was expected and similar to all the openings of sporting events in Gulf countries in particular. We also saw spectaculor folkloric shows which represented the civilisations of South East Asia alone! Yes, it seems that Qatar has omitted the Arabs from Asia in the Atlas. The question is: Where are the Arabs from all that was shown? Where are the Arab civilisations? Where is the Arab heritage and arts? Where are the civilisations of Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon? Where are the civilisations of Yemen and Iraq? Why did the Qatari organisers ignore the Arabs and their civilisation? Or is Asia restricted to its Eastern people only? Let's forget the Arabs. What about Persia? Why was it ignored too?,” he wrote.

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Chile: 27 Hours of Love

Rosario Lizana · 12:11 · Americas

Last Thursday marked the begininning of the biggest charity event in Chile, called Teleton (ES) . Carola (ES) explains a little of its history:

La historia de Teletón comenzó a escribirse en diciembre de 1978, en Chile, cuando el famoso conductor de Televisión Mario Kreutzberger, Don Francisco, asumió un compromiso público con las personas con discapacidad -en especial niños- decidiendo hacer algo en su beneficio. La meta que se había planteado era enorme, unir a un país entero en torno a una sola causa. Los medios de comunicación, los patrocinadores, los benefactores y un excelente elenco artístico participaron en el primer gran evento de América Latina.Por primera vez en nuestro continente se transmitió un programa de 27 horas de emisión continua que no tenía otro objetivo sino brindar ayuda solidaria a estos niños, recaudando recursos económicos para atender y ayudar a niños con discapacidad, fomentando la cultura de la integración y la participación ciudadana” (texto Teleton Mexico)

The history of Teleton began writing itself in December of 1978, when the famous TV conductor Mario Kreutzberger, Don Francisco, took up a public commitment with the disabled people -especially kids - deciding to do something for their benefit. The aim was big: to unite a whole country in one cause. The media, the sponsors, the benefactors, and excellent artistic team participated in the first big event of Latin American. It was the first time a 27 hours show was sent out continually in our continent, with no other goal than to provide solidarity to the children, collecting economic resources to help disabled kids, promoting a culture of integration and civic participation.

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Links for Mon, 2006-12

Central Asia & Caucasus

Peter explains how the grounding of a Czech military plane carrying the country's army chief of staff and deputy defense minister by Turkmen authorities is a bad sign for regional stability and military cooperation.

Americas

Yon Ayisyen writes (Fr): “As we approach elections, officials cannot afford to admit that they are loosing the fight against insecurity, hence they tell us that the situation has improved and that they are making progress.”

Sub-Saharan Africa

Chilibean writes about Pushplay, a South African version of Netflix, “A new way to hire DVDs has launched in Cape Town. The service is called Pushplay and the way it works is that you sign up, pay between R89 and R139 per month for up to 3 DVDs. The DVDs are delivered to you and you return them when you are done. Yup, that’s right, you return them when you are finished with them, no late fees.”

Americas

On Tuesday night, writes Nick Buxton, “the Bolivian Government completely unexpectedly passed an amended land reform bill that aims to redistribute up to a fifth of the country, land that it designates as ‘unproductive' land in the hand of a small minority of rich landholders. It passed the law, the same day as 10,000 indigenous and campesino farmers descended on La Paz in four different marches that have crossed the country.”

Sub-Saharan Africa

Togo-based Expat French blogger Marie visited Ouaga 2000, a neighborhood in Burkina Faso's capital of which she writes (Fr): “Ouaga 2000 is a neighborhood in which you find only mansions … There, you don't feel like you are in [Burkina Faso capital] Ouagadougou. The mansions are built by ministers, people highly placed in government … It is pretty disgusting … The worst is that there is absolutely no one. The mansions are empty. Their purpose is to welcome VIP's during occasional meetings and conferences.”

Americas

“Chavez is president and Venezuela is 61% red and 39% blue. Which is to say, morado (”purple/bruised”) writes Sebastian Delmont in a post titled “Venezuela es #9D0062″, after the hexidecimal representation of purple in HTML. Daniel Duquenal is poetic with his late-night reflections: “It is around midnight. A soft rain keeps falling. Rosales has just given his concession speech. I am very sad but at the same time strangely liberated. There are noises on the street, and I go to look at my window and I see a group of young women, with red shirts and flags. The shirts carry different slogans, political slogans that are. And I realize that these women, coming form some celebratory party, were also the umpires at that voting center, now exhibiting freely their partiality.” A.M. Mora y Leon posts pictures and excerpts from the mainstream media as well as Venezuelan citizen journalists and Boz has his standard five points of analysis.

Americas

Ana Maria Salazar looks at newly inaugurated President Felipe Calderón's latest cabinet appointees. Colin Brayton criticizes the human rights record of Secretary of Governance Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña.