Global Voices in French attended the meeting, and below are links to some of the reflections of participants during and after the eventful meeting. There is also a YLVP Flickr photostream, several videos on YouTube. And a #YLVP hashtag on Twitter on twitter.

Stockholm-based journalist and media researcher from Jordan, Rami Abdelrahman, reflects on the program on a series of videos he uploaded on his blog Rami's Wall:

Another Jordanian blogger who participated, was Mohammad Azraq who in August summed up the first part of the program in Sweden in a post on Global Voices. The focus was largely leadership and teamwork with a component of training in social media tools.

In addition to the Arab participants, five Swedish journalists took part in the program. Among them, was Alexandra Sandels who described in an article on Lebanon news website, Menassat, how participants were divided into small groups and given the task to develop an idea for an innovative project using social media tools. Ideas ranged from web portals for alternative musicians in the Middle East, to an online graffiti network, and a web-based recruitment agency for volunteers interested in working with human rights organizations in the Arab world.

Panel Discussion: Europe and MENA - Connected or not ?

Global Voices in French participated in a panel discussion in the closing seminar for the program “EU-MENA, Connected or not?” hosted by Javeria Rizvi Kabani, Project Manager of YLVP, and Mikael Jönsson, Director of the Swedish Institute in Paris. The debates were streamed live, and are now archived on bambuser.com. Alice Petrén, from the Swedish Public radio moderated the discussion.

- Ozan Sunar, founder of the Re-Orient Festival in Sweden who migrated from Turkey to Sweden at age 6: “We are well-connected, not only by curiosity, also by fear.”

- Jan Henningsson, Senior Advisor to the MENA department, Swedish ministry of Foreign Affairs (@ahmal) tweeted: “There must be a way out! an amazing story about Saudi and Swedish poets! As a poet and a writer I am speechless!!!”

- Claire Ulrich, editor of Global Voices in French, introduced Global Voices Online and its mission of translating the words of global bloggers, not just related to news, conflicts, but also many glimpses of daily life: such as the cup cake rage in the Middle East, or a high-society murder in Egypt. Middle East and North Africa stories are particularly well-represented on the Global Voices in French website, with over 100 posts translated in September and October 2009.

MENA countries featured in 100 GV in French posts over 2 months

- Lucas Welsh, Director of Soliya.net, explained how his non-profit is developing media and communication tools and skills to enable students to share and distribute perspectives from around the world.

The contributions from the room steered the panel's conclusions to the issue of identity, or identities. What about Westerners accepting their Muslim fellow-citizens' culture beneath their own varnish of human rights, asked a young Swedish-Palestinian journalist. No doubt guidelines for further discussions on this topic is will be useful to politicians of the European Union. The topic of the second panel discussion was: “How can leaders of tomorrow capture the opportunities provided by new technology to create a more open, connected and equitable word.”

Saudi Arabia is gearing up for the Haj season, where millions of Muslims will converge to Mecca to perform pilgrimage. At Crossroads Arabia, John Burgess writes:

With Haj due to start in just a couple of weeks, the Saudis are really bearing down on the issue of an outbreak of swine flu. Saudi Gazette reports on a conference of Saudi medical emergency experts to make sure that plans are locked down. The article notes that residents of Mecca and Medina will be among the first Saudis to be offered swine flu vaccines. This would help to establish a sort of fire-break in the case of a rapid spread of the disease.

In Turkey, the situation isn't as acute. Turkish blogger Erkan  admits that he was more afraid of previous pandemics:

I did not have a single moment of panic, I declare. I do not know why. I was more worried with crimean congo hemorrhagic fever or bird flu.
However, there is a low level panic feeling about swine flu now here in Istanbul, too. What is promising is that many ordinary people are in fact following authorities and try to take measures as much as they could. They are not fatalistic and they sure are not as indifferent as I am.

Meanwhile, at Memories Documented, Jordanian Qwaider shares a conspiracy theory:

A friend of mine, is one of those believing in every possible conspiracy that involves pharmaceutical companies. She would argue for hours on how vaccines are bad, and how the companies are deliberately taking actions to “reduce the human population” starting with the young, the weak and the ill.

He adds:

I think people are scared, and when people get scared they create demons, and feel afraid and threatened by them. When people are afraid many stick to the norms that they are comfortable with.

But diseases might require a person to go out of their regular routine to get better…

I'm not sure, but I believe in science… I really do, and I would take the words of doctors and pharmacist over the words of any conspiracy theorists no matter how hard they tried to convince me.

And The View from Fez, from Morocco, has the following update on H1N1:

Forty-two new H1N1 cases were confirmed on Thursday in the cities of Casablanca, Tanger, Marrakech, Fès, Benslimane, Oujda and Meknès, the health ministry said.

This takes the total of confirmed cases to 592, including 297 cases in schools, the ministry said in a statement.

All the patients are receiving home care, with medical check-ups, said the ministry, adding that none of the cases is complicated. The ministry made clear that no case of death was documented in the country.

Moving on to lighter observations, Jordanian Hareega writes:

I understand how terrible H1N1 can be, but if you smoke 3 packs of cigarettes and enjoy a ginormous seder of mansaf (Jordanian rice dish) everyday don't worry much about H1N1. Something else will get you faster.

In the same post, Hareega adds:

Seven Jordanians died of H1N1 so far. Ten times that number died while watching our football team lose to UAE 3-1. We need to set our priorities straight. Before vaccinating the nation send our football players to jail.

In video segments of three to five minutes, Aramram highlights various phenomena that exist in Jordan. Amahl Khouri and I decided to do an interview with Aramram for the second phase of the Young Leaders Visitors Program being held in Paris later this month, and find out more specifically about their work on the dialogue between the subcultures and ethnicities that a live in Jordan:

In addition to their work in Jordan, Aramram hopes to expand and do similar projects in other Arab country to encourage young people to embrace the information age and utilize the internet to its full potential.

Courtesy of © Maya Zankoul, mayazankoul.wordpress.com

As many as 300 Lebanese chefs gathered yesterday in Beirut to make the largest ever plate of hummus in an attempt to claim the reigns in ownership of the popular chick pea dip.

The new world record is part of an ongoing campaign in Lebanon to reaffirm the country's claim to a number of dishes being produced in Israel - with the ownership of hummus being one of the main quarrels.

Israeli and Lebanese producers of hummus have been logged in a stiff competition for the growing global appetite for the delicious Middle Eastern dip.

Lebanese producers claim Israel is ripping off ‘Lebanese' dishes and promoting them worldwide as their own.

The Israelis, for their part, were the previous world record holder for the largest hummus plate, prompting the Lebanese to react.

Officially in a state of war, the two countries appear to be widening the battle front to incorporate the fight for hummus.

The question now remains will other producers of the same dish, including the Syrians, Jordanians and Palestinians, enter the food fight?

Lebanese bloggers have offered their viewpoints on the battle for hummus.

Maya Zankoul ridiculed the battle with a humourous caricature of the event:

Yesterday, Lebanon broke the world record by making the largest hommos plate. I passed by the event location after the plate was made, and did not find it THAT big… So I imagined that after a while someone else would take the challenge of breaking our record and so on and so forth. W ba3den (and next)? Come on someone has to stop this nonsense!

Similar sentiments were echoed on The Cedar Tree blog:

At first, I heard about the largest kibbeh plate and I thought those Lebanese women were so cute. Then came the fight for the largest hummus plate and I thought this is starting to become ridiculous. But despite my personal opinion, apparently the Lebanese feel very passionate about their hummus and so we’re officially in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest hummus serving. I hope everyone’s happy about it. Can we move on now? No. There’s only one more fight left (let’s hope it’s the last) and that’s for the largest tabbouleh plate, scheduled to take place tomorrow on the 25th of October. Okay, now I’m thinking are these people out of their minds? What’s the point? So we make it into the book and then what? Don’t get me wrong; I LOVE Lebanese hummus, but I really think there’s way more important issues that are WORTH fighting for besides food and world records.

There are two questions I would like to find the answer for. One, how much money was spent to make this event today and two, what happened to all the hummus?

A blog post on A Diamond's Eye View of the World revealed equal bemusement (or amusement) to the event:

I agree that having Israelis and pseudo-Israelis try to correct my pronunciation of “hummus” as “KHumus” - say it with extra phlegm for full effect - is beyond irritating. But claiming a dish by cooking an obscene amount of it? And being PROUD of this? And creating an embarrassingly lame slogan - in English, no less? Good God.

In adding another dimension to the battle, Asad Abu Khalil at the Angry Arab blog highlighted that the origins of  hummus may not even be Lebanese, but Palestinian:

“”No one has the right to call hummus and falafel his national dish,” said Siham Baghdadi Zurub, a Ramallah-based chef and author of the Arabic-language cookbook The Palestinian Cuisine. She argued that in fact Palestinians were the first to make hummus of chickpeas, since the crop was plentiful, rather than from fava beans as done in Egypt and Syria. “Putting copyright on certain dishes is a selfish trend that reflects insecurity and lack of common sense.”"

The hummus tug of war between Lebanon and Israel also captured the attention of Twitter users:

Whether it is to be considered a matter of national pride or source for comedy, the latest battle for hummus undoubtedly adds another twist to the firey relations between Lebanon and Israel.

As bloggers around the world geared up for October 15 to write about climate change and the environment, the Israeli blogosphere focused on a different date. This year, environmental organizations, activists, and perhaps bloggers as well, will mark October 24 as a day of climate change protest across the Middle East.

Events are being organized under the auspices of Friends of the Earth Middle East and 350.org. Activists in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria are all expected to participate. 350.org provides lists of regional protests, including one for Israel, while the Green Prophet blog supplies an additional list for all known Middle Eastern activity.

The name “350″ sources from the idea that:

350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.

Our current count is 387.

Blog Action Day

A number of Israeli blogs have chosen to use Blog Action Day to bring the issue of climate change to the forefront, advocating for continued attention to the issue beyond the designated day.

JGooders promotes the Jewish Climate Change Campaign, urging readers to get involved with Jewish Social Action Month (JSAM), which begins on the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, starting October 19. JSAM, JGooders explains, will be commemorated by social action events in Jewish communities throughout the world.

While communities and environmental activists seek to raise awareness in the global community, what better way to get their ideas across than through images, videos in particular?

Alison Avigayil Ramer of Your Virtual Community Organizer posts “Top 10 Climate Change Videos for Change.org's Blog Action Day.” Among these is a video called “Flat,” by Israeli filmmaker Nitsana Bellehesen, which portrays the world in 2050. The video shows boys and their fathers visiting an exhibit dedicated to the female breast– which no longer exists due to the cancer induced by environmental and atmospheric toxins.

At one point, a boy points to a photograph in the gallery and says, “Look at that one. That baby is eating her breast.” The father responds, “Well, that's actually how babies used to be fed.”

While viewing of this powerful film is highly recommended, you should be warned that there is explicit nudity.

Ramer encountered the film, which was shown at the Breast Fest 2009: A Film Festival that Targets Breast Cancer, at the hub for social entrepreneurs where she works in Tel Aviv. She writes:

Web video can be an extremely effective way to raise consciousness about a sustainable business or cause. Video is a great interlude to all the text online and is relatively inexpensive to make, share and watch. The moving images and music can captivate an audience and convey thousands of words in just a few minutes. Especially today, now that we have numerous ways to share video on social networks and blogs, video has great potential to become viral and carry your business, non-profit organization or cause to thousands or even millions of viewers.

Note that while thinking about climate change can be disturbing, that feeling of discontent should lead to action, not apathy. At Judaism and the Environment in the Talmud, Carmi Wisemon, executive director of Sviva Israel, a prominent environmental organization, writes about the role of reflection in Jewish practice.

Israel and the Jewish world have just celebrated the holiday of Sukkot, in which they build huts where they eat meals with their families, spend quiet meditative time, and sometimes even sleep under the stars. Like Shabbat (the Sabbath), as well as many other Jewish holidays, Sukkot provides the opportunity to cease all action and think about our place in the universe.

Wisemon writes:

So this Sukkot [holiday], as we relax in our sukkot [huts], and admire the natural splendor of our lulavs and etrogs, think about the deeper meaning of the holiday. We can all do our bit to prevent climate change, and that includes a 2,000 year-old tradition of praying for rain to fall– neither too little nor too much– in Israel, but also in the Philippines, Indonesia and even Atlanta.

On my own blog, The New Jew, which focuses on philanthropy and social innovation, I published a post on “Caring About the Environment, Jewishly.” There I share a speech by environmental activists who urge us to think about how the practices of traditional Judaism connect us to the natural world.

Shabbat– is an ecological treasure! A day to rest from shopping, manufacturing, driving!

Kashrut (keeping Kosher)– the idea that what we eat matters, that it’s upon us to minimize suffering of animals! We need to update this to take responsibility for the full impacts of what we eat, the stuff we buy, and what we put into landfills. We vote with our dollars and with our forks for the full story of our food and our stuff.

Brachot (the blessings over our food)- invite mindfulness of where our food comes from. To bless food we have to figure out whether it grew from the ground or a tree; from there it’s a short step to thinking of how it was raised, whether the people involved in getting it to us were paid a fair wage, whether its story helped or hurt our environment.

In keeping with the natural theme, Elisha at O'Sprinkles profers beauty through photography and reminds us what our fight is really about: growth and renewal in the natural world.

As you finish up October 15th, urge yourself to use Blog Action Day as part of a continuum. How can you reduce your carbon footprint, improve the way you use natural resources, and reassess your consumption patterns?

The Jewish Climate Campaign leaves you with some suggestions.