Tag: The Gulf (not Saudi)

How not to apply for a job in Dubai

A Canadian web designer gets rather racist when asking for a job:

From: Amir Saffar
To: Mike Platts
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 9:11 PM
Subject: RE: hi again

it’s very simple Mike. You are interested in my profile and i wanted to know how much you were able to pay. no response means: you either can’t pay that much, or you only hire indians and pakistanis who don’t ask for a good salary.
but dude, i am neither indian or paki and i have never worked for less than 2000 usd/month. You got it now!?

Amir

Read the whole exchange.

Wikipedia blocks Qatar

A Qatari server has been running spam attacks on the Wikipedia page for Qatar, so Wikipedia has blocked its IP address. And that means that most Qataris are now unable to edit the page for their own country:

Whilst the ban is due to spam-abuse coming from the IP address in question, the fact that this belongs to the country’s sole high-speed internet provider has the unintended consequence of stopping Qatarese from editing the wiki. The ban has raised concerns about impartiality — the majority of Al Jazeera journalists operate out of Qatar, for example. This raises a number of issues about internet connectivity in small countries — what other internet bottlenecks like this exist?

Update: Actually this story has apparently turned out to be false (see comments) — sorry, and thanks for to those who let me know.

The world’s biggest lens is Qatari

This will only be of interest to photography geeks: legendary lens maker Carl Zeiss has just unveiled a made-to-order only 1700mm F4 lens. The first of its kind has Arabic writing on the side and the emblem of the state of Qatar. It weighs 256kg and is gives you three times more telephoto than the biggest existing commercial lens (the kind use for sports photography). My question is what do they want with it? Is a Qatari prince into some kind of extreme bird-spotting? Or long-range voyeurism? is this to enable them to see from one end of the country to the next? Peek into Saudi Arabia? I don’t know, but this is a gadget you basically have to be Qatari to afford.

More pretend elections in the Gulf

All the excitement about political reform in in the Gulf — especially the small Gulf states — is pure propaganda, in my opinion. Now the UAE wants to stage elections, although of course they won’t change who’s actually ruling the place. Same thing for the recent “democratic flowering” in Kuwait. I just don’t see how there can be a democratic flowering in Kuwait while the al-Sabah are still around. Same goes for the Makhtoums and the al-Sauds. Meanwhile in Bahrain — probably the most democratic place in the Gulf because of its internal divisions — they are preparing to rig elections. Of course, in some of these places people (well, the minority of people living there that are actually citizens) might simply not care about democracy as the long as the rent money keeps flowing and the cheap foreign labor is docile and aplenty. If India or Sri Lanka were to annex Dubai, I think I’d fully support them.

Yemeni newspaper’s lawyer threatened

The lawyer of the Yemen Observer was threatened by extremists while he defended his client for publishing the Danish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad:

Two young bearded men threatened the defense lawyer of Yemen Observer in the court room that they would have killed him if they have power.

Khalid Al-Anesi, who defends Mohammed Al-Asaadi, editor-in-chief of the Yemen Observer, in the south east of the capital, was alerted minutes before the death threat by a close friend, as he described him.

Abdullah Al-Farza’e, who was introduced later as an Imam of a mosque, attended the hearings on purpose which is just to alert Al-Anesi of plans to attack him by young radicals. “Al-Farza’e heard about the plan and moved to the court to warn me,” Al-Anesi said. “I trust him.”

The two young men, who failed to escape from the court, are detained for investigation. They came with a large group of long-bearded people who fill the small courtroom, where the judge looks into the case filed by the general prosecutor for press and publication against Yemen Observer and its editor for republishing fragments of the Danish cartoons with a huge X over them last February.

The trial against the Yemen Observer was brought by individuals who thought the paper was attacking the prophet, even though it had only published pictures of the cartoons covered up and alongside a critical article.

Miles on Jazeera, AJI

Hugh Miles, who wrote a book on Al Jazeera, has a “Think Again” piece in Foreign Policy debunking various myths about the channel. Nothing much new in it, but it’s a good overview of the facts many get wrong.

One interesting issue is about Al Jazeera International, the English-language channel that should launch later this year. Hugh says:

The network’s coverage will “follow the sun” throughout the day, airing from Kuala Lumpur for 4 hours, Doha for 11 hours, London for 5, and Washington for the remaining 4.

I believe that’s a different schedule than originally intended, since AJI wanted to split its airtime evenly between its various headquarters. I’ve been hearing through the grapevine that there’s trouble brewing at AJI’s top management, with the Emir of Qatar intervening personally to make sure Doha has more airtime. Apparently it hadn’t been made clear to him that the idea was to split airtime between each region, and now, a few months before they’re supposed to launch, AJI has to look for extra staff in Doha to be able to handle a 12-hour or longer shift. He is reportedly very intent on boosting Qatar’s image through AJI and wants Doha to dominate. Well, it’s his money… On the upside, if you’re looking for a job in the Gulf, AJI is still hiring!

The entire episode does make you wonder about Nigel Parsons’ management of the whole thing, though.

Incidentally, I had a piece about AJI in the recent issue of TBS, looking at how it’s perceived in the States and the still unsolved mystery of what it’s “soul” will be like — CNN or the original Arabic channel.