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Arabic hashtags finally trending worldwide on Twitter
Kuwaiti Hamad Al Sabah tweets:
@hmalsabah: Twitter is finally allowing Arabic hashtags to trend worldwide #كلام_مصري_مترجم pic.twitter.com/tb84Nkrk94
Netizens are using the hashtag, which translates to Egyptian Talk Translated, to translate Egyptian expressions and idioms.
Music for a better future. Screenshot from Mideast Tunes’ Indiego campaign video.
M. Lynx Qualey, blogger, who is interested in Arab and Arabic literature, wrote a series of posts introducing acclaimed Arab poets, novelists, and short-story writers’ favorite Arab reads of 2012. She started with a list of nonfiction books, then followed by a list for poetry [En] and fiction [En].
Kim Kardashian completed a visit to Kuwait and is now visiting Bahrain. Here's Brian Whitaker's take on her visit.
Empty plot of land turned into garbage dumpster
Mark from Kuwait complains about an empty plot of land behind his home is being turned into a garbage dump. More »
“Gulf countries awfully quiet about Gaza,” tweets Foreign Policy editor Blake Hounshell. Lebanese journalist Antoun Issa adds:
@antissa: Amazing how eager GCC are to arm Arabs to fight each other, while disappearing completely when it comes to Palestine. #Gaza
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is made up of Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Anti-government protests are planned in Kuwait tomorrow. Ahmad Al Kandare tweets [ar]:
@AhmadAlkandare: Kuwaiti foreign minister: “We call upon the Syrian regime not to oppress and prevent peaceful demonstrations.” The Government of Kuwait: “Tomorrow's demonstration is prohibited and will be faced with force.”
A mall in Kuwait is holding a Facebook contest to promote child safety in cars. Mark blogs about the initiative here.
Blogger Mathai from Kuwait writes about a summer fires he saw in an industrial area. He shares a photograph.
Kuwaiti blogger Mona Kareem discusses the latest political developments after the Constitutional Court ruled the parliament was elected unconstitutionally. “So is the court acting political? This can only be fully read in relevance to the steps that will be taken by authorities in the coming days. If authorities re-dissolve and call for elections, then we need to observe what games the government would like to play next, if any,” she writes.
Writing on openDemocracy, Bidoun activist and Global Voices author Mona Kareem, profiled here, says that social media is providing the stateless with a voice online.
Mark, from Kuwait, lists the places which have put up Christmas decorations in the Arab Sheikhdom. Tune into the comments for reactions.
From Kuwait, Mark shares a news item about an Arab motorist who was fined by a policeman for “having bad breath.”
“If they’re issuing tickets for bad breath then my previous joke about how sunglasses should be banned might actually happen,” he blogs.
Social Slave from Kuwait discusses limits on internet users in the country and what is being done about it in this post.
Shams Ali, from Kuwait, publishes on her blog An image and a thought [ar], images of artwork pieces that look like rainbows, but are made from …..garbage.
Congrats are pouring in after Kuwait-based blogger Lebanese Mark won a lawsuit. He was sued by a restaurant for a review he posted in his blog.
Desert Girl on Kuwait draws our attention to police torture in this post. “My heart goes out to the families of the victims. Imagine being a mother and reading about how this happened to your child? In their own country,” she writes.
On Twitter, @kuwaiti (Ar) asks the Kuwaiti Ruler to join Twitter “to get closer to his people and understand their opinions.”
From Kuwait, Mark shares the story of Abdullah Al Moussawi, a talented nine-year-old football player whose chances at stardom were cut short. Find out why.
Kulsum, an Indian living in Kuwait, shares a recipe for mutton korma here.
Gulf Cup 2010 kicks off in Aden, Yemen, on November 22. Yemeni blogger Omar Barsawad reflects on the significance of having Aden host this football championship which brings together teams from Iraq, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Desert Girl on Kuwait wants to know whether she has a gay following.
From Kuwait, Mark asks: “Did anyone feel an earthquake around 2:25PM?” He adds: “Looks like an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 hit near a city called Kazerun in Southern Iran.”
The discussion continues on Kuwaiti blog Five One Eight about the Bu Qutada wa Bu Nabeel series which created a rift between Kuwait and Morocco. More on the story here.
“Over the past two months, there have been 23 reported cases of suicide or attempted suicide by migrant workers in Kuwait, meaning that about every 2.5 days a migrant worker commits or attempts suicide in Kuwait,” writes Fatima, at Mideast Youth.
Kuwaiti journalist and blogger Mohammed Aljasem was released on bail after spending 48 days behind bars for allegedly defaming Kuwaiti Prime Minister Shaikh Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah. Supporters have set up this blog, in Arabic and English, to update readers on the case.
(Probably) taking the cue from Bahrain, “Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior plans to disallow the BlackBerry Messenger service < " tweets Sultan Al Qassemi, from the UAE.
Martin W. Lewis from GeoCurrent Event blog reviews Ralph Lewis’ “Blood Borders” article on the idea of a complete reshape of Middle East borders in order to fit more appropriately the ethnic and religious affiliations of the region.
Brian Whitaker reports on a vote buying scandal surrounding a poetry contest in Kuwait here.
ArabTweeple is the first directory indexing more than 15,000 Arab Twitter users.
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Based on the Wikipedia list of countries, details.
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