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Bahrain: Are Gulf Arabs Lazy?

Ayesha Saldanha · 21:54 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → es

Earlier this week the Bahraini Labour Minister Majid Al Alawi was interviewed in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, and in the interview he said that the Gulf was facing an ‘Asian tsunami' because Gulf nationals are ‘lazy' and 'spoilt' and depend on imported labour to do even simple tasks. He said that that the nearly 17 million foreign workers in the Gulf, mostly Asian, represented ‘a danger worse than the atomic bomb or an Israeli attack'. What do Bahraini bloggers think?

A Commonwealth of India?
Mahmood is looking at the broader political ramifications of the so-called ‘tsunami':

There you have it. It’s official. We - the Arabs - are lazy, greedy and incompetent. Said by the sitting Minister of Labour. The same minister who had his plans to limit the expatriate entry-level worker’s presence in the Gulf to a maximum of 6 years thwarted…is now passionately warning of another ‘Asian Tsunami’ which will result in a complete demographic change in these countries. … Mansour Al-Jamri, the editor of Al-Wasat in Bahrain agrees with him. … Al-Jamri suggests that foreign labour we customarily have and as their visas suggest, should not be classified as temporary due to their semi-permanence in our communities. He contends that what we really have is full-scale emigration. And this, denotes the possibility of them soon demanding their human and political rights. Whether we like it or not, international conventions give them those rights. After all, quite a lot of them have already surpassed the requirements to gain the citizenship in the country they chose to work in even by using local constitutions and laws. […] Without a real intrinsic structural and courageous change, the situation might spin completely out of control and the Gulf Arab will be completely marginalised. As Al-Jamri suggests, it is not too far fetched to have India exerting its major power in our countries by proxy. It will apply inordinate political and cultural influence by virtue of the millions of its citizens gaining citizenships, or even just continuing to live and work in our countries without any measure of control and without investing in the local population’s education and rehabilitation. Al-Jamri suggests that India’s political influence might well develop into making our countries a part of a “Commonwealth of India” soon, as its former citizens will gain positions of responsibility in both private and public sectors, even rising to ministerial positions within the Cabinet.

Commenting on the post, Eyad says:

the most important part of the solution is to be honest with our self, we have to admit our weaknesses and why do we need so many people working for us … we lack so many professionals in a lot of areas specially the technical side of anything, there are many ways to fix this issue and none of them come fast, cheap, or easy, we have to fix our educational system once and for all, there must be a law forcing every company to train QUALIFIED Bahrainis and replace the foreigners in a set period of time.

Johnster comments:

If GCC Arabs are “lazy” and thirdworlders are industrious, then that is the reason to hand out as many passports as possible and the GCC nationals will become, on average, semi-industrious.

Photo credit: Manal

Leave behind the lazy life
In a post on the same subject, Ammar points a finger at the easy life many people have got used to:

Although I don't always see eye to eye with our Minister of Labour, Majeed Al Alawi, I have to admit that on occasion he does speak a lot of sense. … Yesterday Dr Majeed spoke about our laziness as a people, as a country, as a region. … It's true though. We have become accustomed to the lazy life; we have maids hired to get us a glass of water because we can't be bothered to walk to the kitchen, or to tidy our beds because, well, it's too much work for us to do. We have workers at supermarkets and cafeterias who walk to our vehicle to take our order, just because opening the car door and walking in to get what we want sounds like too much effort. We have people hired to carry out the simplest tasks from making our tea, washing our cars, cooking our food, to ironing our clothes, just because we are the elite who have no reason in life to lift a finger. […] But sooner or later you're going to need to know how to do something. This lifestyle isn't going to last for ever; one day all of this is going to go away, as the Asian countries start regaining economic strength, and the workers find it much more attractive to head back home. One day when this lifestyle becomes too expensive to maintain, and your superior self won't be able to afford it. One day when you head to a different country where this sort of thing isn't the norm, and you're going to have to do things yourself. One day when this over-the-top lifestyle fades away, and you're left in a mess, not knowing what to do, or how to act. One day.

In a comment, Evil Odd says:

When you lot stop relying on everyone else to do your work for you, I'll pack my bags and head home. Until then, I'm happy putting my own curtains up, changing the shower-head, cleaning my car, polishing my shoes, fixing the buttons on my shirts, installing a video card on my computer, making tea, cleaning the toilet, cooking, making my bed, and many other little things I've come to enjoy and would dearly miss should they be taken away from me. Oh, I also happen have a full-time job…

And Redbelt says:

I'd rather spend on technology than exploit poor souls with a monthly wage that equals two dinners.
Thank you.

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Egypt: 40th Cairo International Book Fair

Eman AbdElRahman · 21:49 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → es

I always love and wait for this time of the year. Apart from celebrating my birthday, it’s the coldest and most beautiful, a mid-year vacation all around the country. And there is always my special reason why I love this time the most - The Cairo International Book Fair.

On January 23, President Mubarak opened the 40th Cairo International Book Fair, where other 28 countries participated with books from over 743 Arab and foreign press houses, in addition to other side cultural events.

Egyptian Bloggers surely didn’t forget to have their say on such event, as well as the books it brought and their visit to the fair.

Bella, wrote in her blog “Afkar moba’athara” or “Scattered Thoughts,” complaining about the high prices of books and the lack of organization.

كنت اعتبر معرض الكتاب احتفالية استعد لها بتوفير الاموال وإعداد قوائم بالكتب التي اريد شرائها
وبمرور الوقت وارتفاع اسعار الكتب تغير الوضع
ولكن اهتمامي بالمعرض مازال كما هو ولو اني اصبحت اضيق أكثر بالسلبيات الموجودة في تنظيمه والتي تدل على طريقتنا العبقرية غير المسبوقة في تنظيم هكذا احتفاليات !!!

I used to regard the Book fair as my festival. I'd save the money and care to write down my wishlist from year to year. As time went by and the prices increased, things changed a little. However, my passion for the fair stayed the same, though I get frustrated even more by the drawbacks in its organization.

Mokhtar El Azizi, an Egyptian translator wrote about “A trip to the book fair: humiliated citizen”.

ذهبت إلى سور الأزبكية وقد بدا المكان أكثر تنظيما وإنسانية من ذى قبل، على الرغم أننى لازلت أرى أنه من الضرورى توفير مكان بسقف أسمنتى لتجار الكتب من سور الأزبكية والسيدة زينب. تم عمل قوائم وعوارض حديدية وشد عليها بأغطية بلاستيكية، وهذه الأغطية لا تمنع المطر عن الكتب بكفاءة. وبالفعل تضرر بعض العارضين هناك وأصاب المطر بعض الكتب. ولا أكاد أذكر أى سنة لم يهطل فيها المطر أثناء فعاليات معرض الكتاب.

I went to “Soor El Azbakya” [*] , and the place looked more humane and organized, unlike before. Already there has been made iron shelves, and plastic covers, but sadly these covers didn’t efficiently prevent rain from reaching the books. I barely recall a year in which no rain fell during the book fair that’s why I still believe its necessary to provide a place with a concrete roof for the book sellers from “El Sayeda Zeinab” and “Soor el Azbakya”.

أرضيات كثيرة فى المعرض بحاجة إلى التغيير، فالبلاط متآكل مما كوّن فخاخا طبيعية. أنا شخصيا اتكعبلت أكثر من مرة. معلوم أن أرض المعارض بمدينة نصر لا تستقبل معرض الكتاب فقط، بل معارض أخرى كثيرة، صحيح أنها ليست بحجم معرض الكتاب لكن المكان مفتوح طول العام ومرافقه تستهلك بشكل مستمر

The floor of the Exhibition halls need to be changed. I personally stumbled more than once. It is known that the exhibition centre in Nasr City does not just receive the book fair, but many other exhibits. True, other exhibits are not as big as the book fair, but it is open through out the year and so its facilities are consumed constantly.

Yehia El Masry, wrote in “My primary visit to the book fair this year”:

النهاردة روحت معرض الكتاب دي تعتبر زيارتي الرئيسية الحاجة الوحيدة الكويسة إن المعرض النهاردة كان فاضي لكن في حاجة متلخبطة مش عارف أحددها لغاية دلوقت بس ممكن في الزيارة التانية تكون إتعدلت لأن النهاردة لسة أول يوم و معظم الدور الصغيرة كانت لسة بترتب الكتب

Today I went to the book fair and that’s supposed to be my first. May be being less crowded was the best thing about it this year, but I feel there is something wrong I can not comprehend until now. Probably it would be fixed by my second visit, since it was the first day in the exhibit and most of the books in the small halls weren’t placed in order yet.

In the meantime, it’s obvious that Bloggers’ books are taking the lead on almost everyone’s wish list this year. As Tarek Amr mentioned in his Global Voices Online post Egypt: From blogs to books, this year marks at least three main blogs transferred into books, for Rehab Bassam, Ghada Mahmoud and Ghada Abd El A’al in addition to other bloggers celebrating the publishing of their books.

The blogger and journalist, Yasser Thabet bought two new books: “Gomhoreyet el fawda” or “Republic of chaos “ and “Kabl el tofan” or “Before the flood” which is the same title of his blog published this year, where he wrote commenting:

على حافةِ الكون يقفُ المدوِن
ربما يكون باحثاً عن حقيقة ضائعة أو راغباً في لمس سقف السماء بإحساسه وترصيع ملابسه بنجمةٍ أو أكثر، أو حالماً بحرية النفس أو الوطن.

On the edge of universe, stands the blogger.
Perhaps looking for the truth or willing to touch the skies with his senses, to decorate his clothes with a star or two, or wishing to liberate the soul or the homeland.

Mohamed Ebeeh, wrote in “Mn nefsy” about other four books for himself and his colleagues in an Egyptian online magazine “Bos w Tol”.

“Doaa Samir” , “Hob b lon el Banafzeg”, Love in lilies.
“Ahmad Amar”, “Hanen”, Nostalgia.
“Hossam mostafa”, “Yawmyat Modares fl aryaf”, Chronological of a teacher in the country side.
And for “Mohamed Ebeeh”, “Azizi.. 999”, Dear.. 999.

As for myself, and apart from all the complains above; hopefully I’ll go tomorrow morning, and on my wish list few books for modern Arabic literature, biographies and political book writers, in addition to few Current English novels: Mohamed el Maghzangi, Abd El Wahab El Mesery, Amin Ma’aloof, Bahaa taher, Edward Saeed, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Sydney Sheldon and most importantly “Thousand splendid suns” by Khaled Hosseini as well as the Egyptian Bloggers’ books.

——————————-
[*] Soor El Azbakya: is a place where used books are sold at very low prices. Usually students go there to buy their books. During the book fair, the “Soor El Azbakya” is transferred from its original place in El Ataba to Madinet Nasr to make it easier for people to buy the books, used and new.

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Paraguay: An Introduction to a Growing Blogosphere

Muna Annahas · 16:31 · Americas

lingua → pt · es

Editor's Note: We welcome Muna Annahas as our newest contributor to Global Voices Online. This is her first article introducing the a little bit of the Paraguayan blogosphere. Her interesting bridge blog called Muna's Blog and is written from Seattle, Washington.

Photo by Alex-S and used under a Creative Commons license.

For a time, Paraguayans were afraid to express their own minds, especially during the long period of an authoritarian regime, when the country was still presided by the Dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954 to 1989). Paraguayans didn't have the right of free expression and it had almost become a built-in feature for most citizens. In addition, it is sad that some of their personalities were suppressed after so many years of repression. Fortunately the most daring, especially among the younger generation, this is slowing changing and people are opening up about different aspects of their lives focusing on interesting topics like:

* Citizen Journalism
* Personal Blogs
* Academic Blogs
* Political blogs
* Bridge Blogs
* Cultural/Indigenous Blogs

Most blogs are written in Spanish, except for some bridge blogs and journals written by ex-pats. Here are some examples of these different categories in Paraguay:

Citizen Journalism - A very interesting blog called Rescatar [es], which means to Rescue, and hopes to “rescue” the experiences of civil society to learn, exchange and increase dialogue. They also share inspirational initiatives to contribute to Paraguay's development. Some stories focus on the Mennonite community in Paraguay and water rights issues.

Personal Blogs - Written by Luz Maria Toledo, Relatos y Sueños [es] (Stories and Dreams) talks about her dreams and her interesting inner reflections and comments about life with a lot of sensitivity and touch of irony.

Academic Blogs - Masonería Blog Los Arquitectos [es]talks about Masonry, free thinking, humanism and different aspects of Masonry thinking, it is written by Christian Gadea Saguier who is an architect who also has published 2 books called: “El Ministerio de los Masones” (The Ministry of the Masons) y “Los hijos de la Luz” (The Sons of the Light).

Political Blogs - Oasis Libertario [es] is written by Juan Carlos Rojas, a young Law student, who works for a Foundation. In addition, his aim is to promote libertarian ideas and the search for solutions to problems through debate. He also has interesting points of view about Liberty, Communism and Capitalism, as well as the upcoming election season:

En Paraguay existe un ambiente de mucha incertidumbre debido a la proximidad de las elecciones generales. La corrupción y la desconfianza están a la orden del día, así también la falta de ideas en cuanto a las propuestas que tienen los candidatos al electorado. Nos encontramos ante un dilema en donde no tenemos solución.

In Paraguay, there is an air of uncertainty due to the upcoming general elections. Corruption and distrust are at the top of the agenda, as well as the lack of ideas in the proposals of the candidates. We find ourselves in a dilemma that has no solution.

Bridge Blogs - From Seattle, WA, Muna Annahas is a Paraguayan National living far away from her native country . Her goal is to provide readers a glimpse into her “largely unknown” country. She treats readers to tips regarding travel within the country, reminisces about her most recent travels back to Asunción, and what she misses most about her hometown. As an amateur photographer she often illustrates her posts with interesting documentary photos and videos, and she writes her posts mostly in English so more people can understand and learn more about her beloved Paraguay.

Cultural/Indigenous Blogs - El Yacare [es/gu] is a weekly cultural blog about Paraguay's different cultural aspects, cultural activities, Guaraní Language, native population, etc. It talks about “Pea que Amoa” which means in guarani “This and that.” A main focus of the blog is devoted to solidarity campaigns and denouncing injustices against peasant and indigenous groups [es].

El Movimiento Agrario del Paraguay (MOAPA) denuncia la violencia instaurada en los asentamientos Primavera, Los Comuneros y Tapyi Pyajhu de la ciudad de Minga Guazú, a traves de los atropellos sistemáticos que vienen sufriendo desde meses atrás por sectores pertenecientes al oficialismo del Partido Colorado. Estos asentamientos fueron reconocidos con el decreto del Poder Ejecutivo Nº 6294/05, luego de 7 años de lucha por la tierra de manera pacífica pero con firmeza. Se consiguieron 400 hectáreas.

The Agrarian Movement of Paraguay (MOAPA for its initials in Spanish) denounce the violence that took place in the settlements of Primavera, Los Comuneros and Tapyi Pyajhu in the city of Minga Guazú, through the systematic violations that they have been suffering from the past few months at the hands of sectors that pertain to the government party, the Colored Party. These settlements were recognized by Executive decree No. 6294/05 after seven years of struggle for the land in a pacific, but firm manner. They were able to obtain 400 hectares.

There are some ex-pat blogs that I have to include in the next post. Paraguay is all about the experience and now thanks to our bloggers we can definitely know that there is much more happening than what we see in the news.

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D.R. of Congo: tough questions abound

lingua → bn · es

Prompted by a new peace agreement in eastern Congo, Afriqueen returns to Congo Voices to ask,

After the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Why not have a similar Court (in the Congo) that would prosecute all the people involved in the conflict: rebels, rebel leaders, individuals involved in illegal mining etc? The people of Congo can never be compensated for the exploitation of their land, nor all the suffering they have endured. What they need immediately are peace and justice.

The peace agreement in D R Congo received markedly less press coverage than the ongoing crisis in Kenya. In a long article at Eye on Africa, Pascal Kambale draws some interesting comparisons between the role of the West in both countries [Fr]:

Alors que les preuves de corruption du gouvernement Kibaki s’accumulaient et que la petite coterie autour de lui amassait en trois ans plus de richesses illégales que ne l’avait fait celle autour de Moi en 24 ans de pouvoir de ce dernier, l’occident a failli à exercer sur Kibaki le même type des pressions que sur le régime précédent… Ayant survécu aux nombreux scandales de corruption qui ont émaillé son mandat, en partie grâce à la bienveillante indifférence des occidentaux, le président Kibaki doit s’être dit qu’il pouvait aussi impunément manipuler les élections…

[En RDC], à l’organisation International Crisis Group (ICG) qui recommandait au CIAT de faire pression sur le gouvernement de transition pour le pousser à mettre fin aux pratiques de corruption, des diplomates à Kinshasa répondaient que la stabilité des fragiles institutions de transition était une préoccupation plus importante et qu’il fallait surtout éviter de « secouer le bateau » avant les élections de peur de retomber dans la guerre. Une année après les élections, le bateau qu’on voulait éviter de secouer donne l’impression de chavirer dans tous les sens, son pilote incapable de lire les boutons de commande.

While the evidence of Kibaki’s government’s corruption accumulated and the little coterie around him amassed more illegal wealth in three years than Moi’s managed in 24, the West failed to put the same pressure on Kibaki as his predecessor… Having survived numerous corruption scandals, thanks partly to the benign indifference of Westerners, President Kibaki must have told himself that hi could manipulate the elections with the same impunity…

[In DRC], to the International Crisis Group, which recommended that the international community put pressure on the transitional government to end corruption, Kinshasa’s diplomats answered that the stability of fragile transition institutions was the priority, so at all costs ‘don’t rock the boat’ for fear of returning to war. A year after the elections, it looks like that boat looks is keeling over, its pilot unable to read the control panel.

Cedric Kalonji, who we interviewed in November, now has an English version of his blog, thanks to a volunteer translator (NB there is sometimes a delay before the English version appears - look forward to the translation of the latest post, on traffic police). Below a picture of a crumpled bus, he says [Fr En]

Il n’y a même pas à se poser des questions sur les causes de ces accidents tellement elles sont évidentes. Le bus de ce matin bien qu’étant très vieux transportait près de quarante personnes, alors qu’il a une capacité de vingt places. Il faut aussi mentionner le fait qu’au Congo le permis de conduire ne se passe pas mais se vend. Facile donc de retrouver quelqu’un ne sachant pas très bien conduire au volant d’un bus transportant plusieurs personnes.

Je n’ai personnellement jamais passé de test pour obtenir mon permis et en plus, je n’ai pas eu besoin de me déplacer pour aller le chercher. J’ai juste donné de l’argent à un ami qui est allé l’acheter pour moi.

No need to ask why these accidents happen, the reasons are so obvious. This morning, this very antique bus had nearly forty people onboard, while it has a seating capacity of twenty persons only. I must also mention the fact that in Congo, you don’t take a test in order to obtain your driving license, you buy it. It is therefore not uncommon to find someone with very limited driving skills at the wheel of a bus transporting several people.

I personally never took a test to get my driving license and I didn’t even need to go and get one. I just gave some money to a friend who went out and bought it for me.

Du Cabiau à Kinshasa [Fr] posts a dramatic picture of a jack-knifed truck. He says last week there were 20 deaths on the 250km road between Kinshasa and the river port of Matadi. Referring to a new IRC mortality study, which says that Congo’s mortality rate is nearly 60% higher than the sub-Saharan average, he comments,

Derrière ces chiffres que l'on avale chaque matin, autant de drames et de familles déchirées. Il faut parfois prendre une route pour le réaliser…

Behind the statistics that we swallow every morning, there are so many dramas and torn-up families. Sometimes you have to go down a road to realise it…

(There’s something of a pattern emerging here? It's like Theme Time Radio Hour.)

Other recent highlights from the world of Congolese blogs:

Elie catches some poachers and teaches them a lesson they’re unlikely to forget: ‘We confiscated their nets (used for catfish and tilapia), we burnt their boats and spoke with the poachers to increase their awareness regarding the environment and the park after they paid the fine.’

Brian describes fuel shortages in Kisangani:

They are selling 10 litres (about four gallons) at a time, except to their corrupt connections where the gas is being stockpiled for profiteering later on in the crisis… We only have a couple of gas stations and much of the gas in town is sold by resellers. They keep gasoline in barrels or (mostly) small bottles on shelves at the roadside. They’re fairly notorious for stretching their merchandise with other liquids to increase profits. A crisis like this is a boon for some of them who are well connected and can get supply to sell at double or more their cost. The crisis of course also encourages even more secret blends that will make your motor cough, wheeze and seize.

Harper may be responsible for a spike in teenage volunteering interest as, bedridden with malaria in Goma, she gets to meet Ben Affleck. But eager volunteers should take note that last week’s meeting was with Mayi Mayi militia and a group of young soldiers with a “glazed look of submission and rebellion” who “asked for money, my bracelets, a telephone, my hand in marriage, etc.”

Finally, Kaysha unveils a new Sushiraw t-shirt featuring assassinated Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, and, CongoGirl promises to post a new photo every Friday, starting with a picture from Kinshasa’s marché des voleurs of some Kuba cloth from eastern Kasai.

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Serbia: Novak Djokovic Wins Australian Open

Sinisa Boljanovic · 00:36 · Eastern & Central Europe

lingua → es

Novak Djokovic became Serbia's first Grand Slam singles champion, claiming the Australian Open men's crown with a four-set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Melbourne Park.

According to many people in Serbia, the tournament in Melbourne should have been renamed into Serbian Open - because three Serbian players have made it into the finals. In addition to Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic played in the women's singles final, and Nenad Zimonjic competed in the mixed doubles with Tiantian Sun of China.

Serbian blogger Srkiman wrote this on January 27:

EEEEE Alelaleeee Bravo Nole Bravo Nole. Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic is champion of the Australian Open 2008. As soon as the tournament started I felt that I'll write these words: “Novak is the victor!” I congratulate you.

Tsonga proved to everyone that he was an excellent rival. At the beginning it was very difficult, and Tsonga even won the first set. But Novak had more experience, as well as more finals in his career, and that was his advantage.

It was an excellent match which lasted over 180 minutes.

It's not just that Novak won in Melbourne and earned $1,370,000. He has also become Australian Open's youngest tennis player who lost the least games during the tournament.

Bravo Nole!

Novak got 1000 ATP points for this victory and became one step closer to [Rafal Nadal] and [Roger Federer].

We expect more victories from Novak Dokovic in 2008.

Bravo master!

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