Blog archive all
11th July 2009
English is a wonderfully flexible language. We make up new words all the time, often combining bits borrowed from Latin and Greek: photography (light+drawing), submarine (under+sea) etc.
In Arabic this is much more difficult because the whole language is based on a system of three-consonant word… Read more
10th July 2009
A report from Saba, the official Yemeni news agency, on the 15th anniversary of the north’s victory in the 1994 war:
Subversives attacked Tuesday security forces and people in Yemen's eastern province of Hadramout killing a citizen and injuring two soldiers, the state-run 26sep.net has reported.… Read more
10th July 2009
No idea why I like this picture, but I do. Definitely, I do.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 10 July 2009
10th July 2009
1. A 24-year-old Jordanian man killed his unmarried sister after she became pregnant. He "stabbed her 10 times in different parts of her body with a dagger in front of a group of people before handing himself over to police and confessing to the crime," a police spokesman said.… Read more
9th July 2009
Here we go again. While Egyptian protesters chant that “Germans are the enemies of God”, Yemenis are venting their wrath against France over the Yemenia plane crash.
A headline in the Yemen Observer claims the Airbus was “possibly” hit by a French missile (scroll down the page if it doesn’t… Read more
9th July 2009
I’ve received an email from Corporal Timothy Reece, a linguist in the British Army. He has been looking at my list of English words derived from Arabic and says I’ve missed one – “the word ‘floozy’ meaning a loose woman, or a lady of the night if you will”.
He explains: “This stems from the British… Read more
8th July 2009
I’ve been reading some very gloomy reports from Yemen recently. With unrest in both the far north (the long-runningHouthi rebellion) and the south (revival of separatism), and complaints about the economy almost everywhere, it sounds very bad.
But … People have been making dire predictions about… Read more
8th July 2009
Back to the subject of blogging. The recent report from the Internet and Democracy Project at Harvard is well worth a look. As far as I know it’s the first detailed study of the Arab blogosphere.
The researchers found about 35,000 blogs in Arabic, which sounds a lot but when you consider the total… Read more
28th October 2007
28 October 2007: Distorting desire (2)
Interesting to see a favourable review of Joseph Massad's "Desiring Arabs" in the Jordan Times. The book's publishers, Chicago University Press, are obviously delighted.
As you will see from the review, the book is "basically a modern Arab intellectual history… Read more
22nd August 2007
Homophobia in Lebanon
22 August 2007
Last weekend I found myself at a theatre in southern Beirut attending a discussion forum hosted by the Leftist Assembly For Change. Given their name, it’s probably not hard to work out who they are – a left wing organisation, seeking to promote… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
