Bloggin' through the Middle East
Exploring Middle Eastern blogs proves to be a fascinating crash course in the area's cultural, history as well as current events. With so many people, or Americans I guess I should say, are confused by nature of the conflicts, the actual geographic make-up and basic traditions/customs, diving head into the community through personal blogs serves as an invaluable tool; you can get the information not always discernable between the lines of news articles.
Given the rampant misconceptions of how Mid-Easterners live, it's amazing that there is so much on the Internet that reveals a much more diverse population.
I stumbled across Chan’ad Bahraini, which opened up a number of questions and ideas. First, I admit, I know nothing about the country Bahrain; I think I had forgotten it was part of the Middle East (I quickly discovered that Bahrain has approx. 650,000 residents, about 35 percent of which are foreign-born.) But, the site is a journal of sorts for a man who was born in Asia, but has lived in Bahrain most of his life, except for college in the Unites States. (Chad’ad refers to a fish found in the Arabian Gulf; the blogger had decided on anonymity and refers to himself as this fish.)
He writes about the injustice he sees in the Bahrainian government; most recently, activists have been targeted and jailed for speaking out (perhaps some of the reasons behind the blogger’s anonymity). He says:
I should have done this a long time ago. As Nido points
out, Abdullah Mohsin, an activist and a blogger, is one of several
people who have been locked up by the government since December on
charges of “stealing weapons”. There have been serious allegations
of torture of the detainees. Abdullah has been suffering from kidney
problems, having to be admitted to
hospital briefly.
As Nido points out, Abdullah would not hurt a fly, and the charges against him are clearly cooked up. I got to know him at the countless protests and demonstrations he attended, always in his dark suit and white shirt (no tie), quiet, very polite, and an extremely nice guy.
In Kuwait, a self-proclaimed Internet junkie (they aren’t just American creatures!) maintains the blog Forza Kuwait. He keeps up on all aspects of Kuwaiti life, from pop-culture to technological gadgets to national (“Kuwait,” he writes, “my great country [at least in my eye] has its ups and downs, but it is still my country.”) and international news.
Showing a little of the competition between the Middle
Eastern countries, he most recently asked in a post if the United Arab Emirates
are jealous of Kuwait because luxury car negotiations/sales.
His observations, while vague and somewhat unshaped, do offer a citizen’s perspective into daily, political life:
The government raise the white flag !
March 17, 2008
if the news that are flying by are right , that the government have resign then the government have raised the white flag
It has thrown the Towel
We can declare the clinical death of ” respect to the law ” which was in a coma for the past years
They may dissolve the parliament which would suck , because that mean voting will be on June ( when the parliament is dissolved , the election is set up to be 2 month after day of dissolving ) and June is hot as hell and I’m planning to travel in June
One of the most compelling sites I found was Days of My Life, an Iraqi teenage girl’s online diary. Calling herself Sunshine, she exposes the very harsh, frightening realities of Iraq. Reading her words, I can’t imagine waking up everyday with safety not guaranteed; it make you realize how much you take for granted. The latest entry is a letter a friend of hers wrote remembering a brother who was recently killed by a car bomb.
Sunshine, only in high school, wrote just this just a few weeks ago:
It has been the hardest two week in my life.
First we were threatened by terrorists who wanted to kill my dad, I spent the
whole nights thinking, and crying, I was in shock, and terrified.
I couldn’t study anything, I couldn’t concentrate and I did horrible in all of
my exams, I am expecting low marks, during the classed I kept wondering with
tears in my eyes, what will happen next? Will they Kill my dad? Kidnap one of
my family members? Why ? we’re not rich, don’t belong to any political party,
very simple family, and never harmed anyone, what do those terrorists want?
Money? Or they just want to terrify us?..
On Friday morning, my mom told me that dad was asking her to take care of the
kids, and his parents, I went to my room, opened my book to study but I burst
into tears, and cried for long time until I was unable to open my eyes, and my
book page was completely wet. I throw the book away, and kept blaming myself
and cry for not doing my best to fix my relationship with dad, I was telling
myself, what have I done? If something bad happens to dad, I won’t forgive
myself ever, part of me was ordering me to go to my dad, apologize and make
sure he forgives me for every time I was adversarial to him, for every word I
said and made him upset, for every night I slept without wishing him a good
night, but I couldn’t, I was tight, I don’t know why..
I suffered from horrible headache and insomnia, I want my dad to see me
publishing my first book, graduating from the best collage, being successful
person in my life, and more important I want to be so nice to him and make him
forget everything, every disparity we had, & every time we argued, I hope
he’ll forget those memories.. and be proud of the girl he raised, although he
tells me he’s proud but I want to make him even more prouder..
Dad wasn’t prefect with me, he’s out of temper and not optimistic, we have very
different personalities that’s why we argue a lot.. but I know he loves me more
than anyone else, and want the best for me, he’d do anything to make sure I
have the best life ever, it is just that we look at the same thing and see it
in different way, we have different perspectives . we love each other , but for
some reasons, our relationship became bad
I want my dad to remain safe, and I’ll accept him in the way he’s.. and I
wouldn’t replace him with any father in the whole planet ..
My dad doesn’t know how did I feel in the last 2 weeks, how did I spend my time,
or how sorry I was, he doesn’t know how terrified I felt from the idea or
losing him, I was really worried, and I realized how much I love him, but I
don’t have the courage to tell him..
I’ll give 200% of my energy to fix our relationship, I know my friend R would
do anything to bring her father back to life, or even spend one more day with
her daddy, remember the good days together, and apologies for every time she
acted selfishly or bothered her father, she was devastated when she lost him ,
she wore black clothes for a whole year, locked herself in her room, and I was
really worried that she may loose her mind or become more depressed . until now
her eyes fill with tears each time she remember him, I feel her pain, and know
how much does she miss her dad.
After reading that, how do you get back into your day? Your troubles, worries seem petty and trite.
But Sunshine’s blog serves as an example of the power of this medium. How else could journalism students in Chicago instantly feel the pain that so many experience on the other side of the world, and with such vividness? News article about the Iraq situation give you the nuts and bolts…and while the images and tales sadden or frighten us, we become immune. Here, we feel her pain; she is not some stranger’s story in a strange land, but a girl who loves her father and worries for his life—most of us can put ourselves in her situation and become overcome with her same emotions.
