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Arabisc: Action from Dubai and Kuwait's Shopping Malls

Amira Al Hussaini · 20:47 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → zhs

The whole world is a stage and it is more so at Dubai's City Centre, which is considered one of the largest malls in the Gulf.

Bahraini blogger Mohammed Al Mubarak sums up his recent visit to the mall, where he literally sees the world pass by.

ناس كثيرة تأتي و تذهب
أفراد و عوائل
عرب، هنود، غربيون، جنسيات أخرى
فتيات حلوات، رجال بكروش، أطفال
ناس أنيقون، ناس غير أنيقين
رجل يمشي و هو يصور بالفيديو كاميرا
أناس يحملون أكياساً كثيراً
شباب يهرولون، أناس بأزياء غريبة
فتيات و نساء بملابس ضيقة و قصيرة..
فتيات و نساء مغطيات بالكامل…
فعلاً إنه يوم عادي، في مجمع دبي سيتي سنتر..

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Russia: On Ramzan Kadyrov, Again

Veronica Khokhlova · 19:40 · Eastern & Central Europe

At his 3.5-hour annual press conference today, Russian president Vladimir Putin has offered praise for Chechnya's prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov, in response to a young Chechen journalist who pointed out that 70 percent (approx. 770,000 people) of the republic's able-bodied population were unemployed.

Complimenting Kadyrov seems to have become somewhat of a trend here. Recently, another Chechen journalst, Timur Aliev - LJ user timur_aliev, editor-in-chief of The Chechen Society newspaper, the Chechnya editor of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) - has noted (RUS) that Kadyrov does deserve some praise. (This is the second translation of timur_aliev's thoughts on the controversial 30-year-old Chechen leader; the first one was posted on Global Voices on Sept. 15, here.)

And again about him, Ramzan Kadyrov

I'm reading the news on Yandex. With Chechnya, there's only one topic - the possible change of [Chechnya's president Alu Alkhanov] for someone else. Either for Vakhayev, or, skipping him, for Ramzan. What's basically is the same piece of information is being repeated over and over again.

I don't understand one thing - where's the sensation here? Did anyone ever doubt that Kadyrov would become president? And even if he wouldn't, what's going to change because of it? He is doing a lot for the republic as prime minister, too. He's extremely popular. Though sometimes he gets criticized - but what government doesn't?

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UXcamp, Information Architects in Panama & 2007 Panama Jazz Festival

Melissa De Leòn Douglass · 12:27 · Americas

#1: Jorge Arango reports on the first UXcamp - an user experience gathering in Panama.
Last night BootStudio hosted what is probably the first user experience gathering in Central America: UXcamp. We had a pretty good turnout, and folks (web desigers and developers, for the most part) seemed genuinely excited about the issues being discussed:

I started things off with an explanation of user experience design for the web and information architecture.
Jorge Yau spoke on how to improve the usability of blogs.
Harold Maduro presented a case study of his work in redesigning the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s website, stri.org.
Leon Kadoch explained how he’s designing a site for kids.

#2: Stephan Schuab reports on the same event: UXcamp, Information Architecs in Panama

Information Architecture is an interesting topic and important when you are working on web applications. It doesn't matter so much what technology (PHP, J2EE or .NET) you use to implement your application. From a software developer's perspective IA is about narrowing down the specification for the application and define the user interface (the user experience as they say, hence "UX"). To a lot of other people who do not create applications, but merely static websites IA is about structuring the information and creating a proper navigational structure. Note that it's not about graphics design. This is the last step and one of the goals of UXcamp is to teach people that the actual design comes last. Read the complete post here…

#3: The Panama Report features Rob Rivera's "brutally honest" style of writing, this time the subject is "The Panama Sex Guide," or a comprehensive guide of what goes on in Panama when it comes to sex as a touristic attraction.

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Pakistan: Blog-o-vacation

Omer Alvie · 11:46 · South Asia

I'm back! …or didn't anyone notice I was gone? Anyway, as I was not able to attend the Global Voices summit in Delhi (as I am still waiting for the approval for my Indian visa after three months), I consoled myself with a trip to my homeland, Kingdom of Lesotho. No, just kidding, I was off on a well-deserved vacation (if I may so myself, as no else would) to Pakistan. My days there were much prized perusing the wares of what the cities of Lahore and Karachi have to offer. Even had the opportunity to meet a lot of the Pakistani bloggers whose blogs I frequent and highlight in my post here at GV. But before I get into that, let me call your attention to the recent post by Teeth Maestro, who also happens to be the co-founder of the Don't Block The Blog campaign, in which he details a new solution to by-passing the blanket blogspot ban still in force in Pakistan.

Having some problem surfing to blogspot websites with pkblogs I had resolved to try and find another solution, I went on a prowl for good solution after a massive hunt I came up with the idea of setting up a secure SSH tunnel in combination with FoxyProxy Plug-in on FireFox.

During this vacation, I had the opportunity to visit some of my favourite places, in Lahore, including the Lahore Museum. If you ever get the chance to visit Lahore, this place is a must see or else the authorities will not allow you to leave the city (or that should be the policy for all visiting tourists, if I had anything to do with it). The best part is for 10 Rupees they allow you to photograph inside the museum. I went ape, and took (more…)

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Lebanon: Violence, Paris 3 and Cluster Bombs

Moussa Bashir · 07:31 · Middle East & North Africa

The past week was a violent week for Lebanon. Fighting broke out around one of the universities in Beirut between pro and anti government students. This was two days after a general strike, accompanied by riots, that was staged by the opposition. On the same day of the strike, the government, represented by the prime minister and other ministers, was taking part in an international conference to aid Lebanon in Paris (Paris 3 Conference). As a result there were many posts discussing these topics in the Lebanese Blogosphere. Most of which can not be mentioned here because of lack of space and time. I have chosen a representative sample, especially those that have not been mentioned before in a summary. In addition to the topics mentioned, there are posts on the issue of the Israeli cluster bombs leftovers from last year's July war that are still causing casualties.

Posts about the violence:

The Arabist summarizes a lecture/analysis about the situation and the fears that the violence may escalate into a civil war:

Khoury and Traboulsi said that it is not in Hezbullah’s interest to start a civil war, and that Hezbullah knows this; but the movement it started–which has been using the exact same methods as last year’s “cedar revolution” to topple the government–has now painted itself into a corner, and Hezbullah’s allies (Syria and the party of Christian General Michel Aoun) may be pushing for a war because they have virtually nothing to lose from it.

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