A Diamond's Eye View of the World

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11/12/09--05:14: stolen dreams, Bahraini-style (chan 1619290)

Sometimes I miss having a television. When I do, its not the long waits on Verizon’s customer service line that come to mind (or at least, not with any fondness!). What I remember are the curiously entertaining monthly visits from my grey-market satellite tv provider in Beirut. I thought of those days again this morning, [...]


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11/14/09--03:47: bar by consensus (chan 1619290)

Now that Lebanon has a government, its time to celebrate. But where to go to toast the new cabinet? In honor of the consensus government, how about a consensus bar? how about … mybar? Of course, there’s a catch: mybar doesn’t exist yet. That’s where all of you come in. And as with many things, [...]


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11/15/09--08:25: taking the “advertising cake”: today’s Arab satellite channels (chan 1619290)

I’m not a big television watcher: I don’t even own a television. But I do watch the television industry – particularly that in the Arab world. This weekend, The National, Abu Dhabi’s well-funded English-language newspaper, published a very interesting piece on the current state of the Arab satellite television industry. Here’s the article, with commentary: [...]


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11/23/09--05:24: “When the midnight camel leaves for Tripoli…”: Bing Crosby’s “The Road to Lebanon” (chan 1619290)

Inspired by QN’s recent musical turn (“it took five minutes,” he claimed when I spoke with him yesterday. “Much less time than researching and writing another analysis for the blog.”), I thought I’d share another musical gem with all of you: The Road to Lebanon, a bizarrely enticing 1958 television special. Think “movie of the [...]


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11/25/09--13:26: that old black magic … (chan 1619290)

Several years ago, my aunt pointed out something I had never noticed: the great frequency with which articles about – and editorials against – magic and sorcery appear in Gulf newspapers. I thought of her observation when I read earlier this month that Ali Sibat had been sentenced to death for his work as a [...]


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11/26/09--04:03: moving from “poor” to “petty”: from مسكين to mesquin (chan 1619290)

Last night I rang in Thanksgiving Eve by reading a little novel with some phrases en francais. One of them used a word that I hadn’t seen before – but which looked a great deal like a word I knew in Arabic. The French word was “mesquinerie”. Doesn’t that look a great deal like “meskin”, [...]


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12/21/09--10:32: minding the social gap in Damascus (chan 1619290)

Hello from not-very-good-at-keeping-up-with-blogging land. I interrupt this general blogging hiatus to share a very interesting article on Damascus’ high-end consumer culture. Those of you who have spent time in Damascus will be as amazed as I am (last trip there: summer 2006) at the long list of brand-name shops and cafes. I’m not a great [...]


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12/24/09--05:24: Levantine literature: translated by the enemy. (chan 1619290)

Merry Christmas Eve to those of you who are celebrating, and for those of you commemorating Ashoura, I hope that it is an opportunity for reflection for you. (And I hope that you are as pleased as I am that Muharram was included in my employer’s “Season’s Greetings” email.) At the start of the month, [...]


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12/25/09--11:05: blogs and bedouin (chan 1619290)

Merry Christmas to those of you who are celebrating today! And to those of you who blog, a less merry bit of news from Kuwait: a proposal to increase the government’s power to monitor blogs produced in Kuwait. The news comes from a Zawya piece published on the 23rd, and it is a bit third-hand. [...]


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12/27/09--09:25: Arabian nights, Christmas-style (chan 1619290)

Santa stockings are a great source of fun for our family. Stocking stuffers run the gamut from nail files and travel earplugs to magazines and golf balls. And they include goofier thinking-of-you items as well. This year, my stocking included this bag of candy: An “Arabian Nights” candy mix? Total, total mystery. All I see [...]


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