Global Voices Online

Raja describes his visit to what seems to be a tourism medical center. The first in Lebanon. The hospital feels like a five-star hotel. Family members take turns visiting their sick sibling, parent or child. While one or two are continuously present in the hospital, the others go shopping, head to the beach, or even go skiing. At the end of the trip, everyone's happy, the khaleejis (Arabian Gulf resident) for getting better and having a blast, the Medical Center for the paying client, the doctors because of increased employment opportunities and the Hotel, as well as other enterprises that benefited from the visiting family.

Recent Links also in Middle East & North Africa

Iranian students in Paris criticized Iranian government and its repression policy against Iranian students and opposition in a meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian president's advisor in Paris. Here are the films [fa].

Regine, at we make money not art, introduces us to photographs by Bas Princen of Cairo's Mokattam Ridge or Garbage City (Zabbaleen) - where a community of mainly Coptic Christians live and make a living out of collecting, sorting and disposing of Cairo's waste.

Iranian authorities released Mohammad Ali Abtahi,former vice president and blogger on a $700,000 bail one week ago after his lawyer said he had been sentenced to six years in prison. Human rights activists reported [fa] that a few days ago Sasan Aghayi, a blogger and journalist got arrested in Tehran.