تلفاز 11: لقاء السعودي بأناه العليا

في سبتمبر 2011، انطلقت قناة "تلفاز 11" على موقع YouTube بإدارة مجموعة من الشباب، هم علي الكثلمي وابراهيم الخيرالله وعلاء يوسف وفهد البتيري نجم برنامج "لا يكثر". والحقيقة أن برنامج البتيري كان النواة الرئيسية التي جاءت منها قناة "تلفاز 11". تقدم هذه الشركة الآن 20 مشروعاً بين الكوميديا والتوك شوز وألعاب الفيديو. ويجمع غالبية أفرادها، حب صناعة الأفلام، الذي ربما يلعب دوراً هاماً في اختلافهم عن صانعي الاسكتشات المعتادين على YouTube.

ستتم تلفاز 11 عامها الرابع في سبتمبر المقبل، مجددة مهمتها المعلنة: "الاحتفاء بالمخيلة والطموح والإبداع". كنت قد تحدثت مع البتيري والكلثمي قبل انطلاقهما عام 2011. أخبراني عن محاولات القنوات الفضائية تحويل برنامجهما إلى عمل تلفزيوني، ورفضهما الدعوات لمعرفتهما بالقيود المفترضة. بعد ذلك بسنوات، صرح علاء يوسف، المدير التنفيذي، في حديث لمراسل أمريكي قائلاً: "إننا نعرف التابوات المعتادة: الجنس، السياسة، الدين". فماذا عنها؟  

تيمات تطفو في كل أعمالهم، يتلاعبون بها بخفة، يختلقون سيناريوهات متطرفة، ويجرونها إلى أقصى افتراضاتها، يلقون بالفكرة كقنبلة إلى الضفة الأخرى من الطاولة، أو بالأحرى إلى الوجه الآخر من الشاشة. كثيراً ما تجد المشاهد السعودي في أعمالهم، لأنها بطبيعتها تفاعلية، يواسونه في الكفاح ضد الملل اليومي والثبات الرتيب، ثم يسخرون منه أحياناً أخرى، حينما يمارس بوليسيته ضد فنهم. هذا الصراع الأخير يأخذ أشكالاً عدة في إنتاجهم المرئي، أسميه هنا لقاء السعودي بأناه العليا.  

Who decides how to rank Arab women?

It took Western media a few weeks after the toppling of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to bring up the question of women’s rights in relation to the Arab revolutions. The question is certainly not innocent considering the deployment of women’s issues in war propaganda and the presumed image of Arabs as incapable of intellectual revolutions that can bring about values of equality and freedom, presuming these values exist elsewhere.

The recent poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation does not diverge from this discourse. On social media, women and men have been debating the methodology and outcomes of the poll. Although the status of Arab women did not witness any significant developments, a critique to this report is necessary to highlight how problematic these polls are, particularly when measured on “human rights.”

Raids on Gulf Migrants: Pictures and Thoughts

In the western Yemeni town of Haradh, on the border with Saudi Arabia, Ethiopian migrants sleep out in the open near a transit center where they wait to be repatriated. Source: Reuters.

In the past few weeks, 200,000 undocumented immigrants were deported from Saudi. Arrested in raids, left to sleep in the open air, piled in front of migration offices, and shown every kind of discrimination and abuse, those immigrants continue to be deported by the country that is home to King Abdullah’s Interfaith Dialogue Center.

Simultaneously, Kuwait follows its “big sister,” deporting hundreds in the past few weeks. Pictures of those migrants are taken without their permission, while policemen pose proudly as they fulfill their national duties. Racism is a living legacy in the Gulf, softened by Western powers and overlooked by media that would prefer to cover the story of a handsome man being deported from Saudi rather than those of the tens of thousands deported.

* Continue reading this article in AlAkhbar

Are bloggers journalists?

Here's my talk with Al-Jazeera English show "The Stream", in case you missed it.

Tunisia Trolls Obama

Following my Global Voices post on the #TrollingObama Tunisian social-networking-attack, I was interviewed by BBC TheWorld on this wave. Listen to the recording here.

Bahrain: Liliane Khalil, Another Blog Hoax or Propaganda?

On 2 August 2011, British blogger and PhD Student, Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) wrote a post about his investigation into the identity of an alleged Arab-American Journalist named Liliane Khalil (@Liliane_Khalil). Jones traced back all the social media accounts of this persona, only to discover that she had made up all the events she attended, the interviews she conducted, and the people she met. In addition, she claimed to have worked at CNN in Atlanta and as a journalist for Turkish newspaper, “Sabah” who in fact denied knowing her. Three articles she claimed were published by “Sabah”, were actually copied from Reuters.

Jones also tried to analyze the relationship between Khalil and the Bahraini regime, especially since she was supposed to have been the US Bureau Chief of Bahrain Independent (a pro-regime newspaper that mysteriously disappeared). In her online communications, Khalil has been in favor of all Arab uprisings except for the one in Bahrain, which she described as a plan hatched in Iran. This has led people to wonder whether she is either an agent of Bahrain, or whether it could be a Western hoax, as in the recent “A Gay Girl in Damascus” blog, which turned out to be authored by an middle-aged American male professor.

Continue reading this post on GlobalVoices