Category Archives: The rest of the world

Lebanese Politicians Visit North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un

27 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by in LB Culture, LB Social, Lebanon, The rest of the world, World

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After visiting Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, third class Lebanese politicians (not main party leaders) continued their successful visits to the leaders of the world of free resistance; this time going to North Korea.

The Lebanese delegate met Kim Jong-un on Thursday morning and discussed how bad they believed the situation is in the west with their unbearable living standards, and how North Korea is on track to beat imperialism. Kim Jong-un expressed to the delegate how he experienced the corrupted west first hand while studying in Switzerland, rightly validating the reason why North Korean government employees currently get paid only 3$ per month.
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Gangnam Style: One Billion Views and The Decline of the Mainstream Media

21 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by in LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, Social Media, The rest of the world, World

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Slightly away from politics this time, but not far from the media. I couldn’t get away from the fact a non-English YouTube video has just crossed one billion views and became the most watched online video ever. You probably guessed, it’s the Gangnam Style by Psy.

One billion views for a video supposed to be satirising the posh style of some area in South Korea is a massive number, considering the world online population is 2.4 billion. Unbelievable times we live in. A time when you don’t need to be first featured on the mainstream media (MSM) to be famous or talked about. You don’t need to speak English or originate from the west. You even can have some anti-American past like Psy. The video is unbelievably silly but cool. Lots of colours and moves with moving rhythms. I personally liked the kid at its first part.

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To Drone or Not to Drone

11 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by in Caricature of the day, The rest of the world, World

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When Benjamin Netanyahu called for an enforcement of a red line in regards to Iran’s nuclear project, he didn’t think the line could be as close to him as 25km, or indeed this close to Dimona nuclear site. The downing of the unidentified drone over Israel last Saturday marked that red line. It occurred less than two weeks after Iran’s announcement of the deployment of a domestic-built reconnaissance drone with a 24-hour flight capability.

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The Details of The Conversation Between The Lebanese President And The Iranian Ambassador

18 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Foreign Policy, LB Politics, Lebanon, Politics, The rest of the world, World

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A few conversations took place yesterday between the Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar (Ghadanfar) Roknabadi. It started with a phone call…

(ring ring ring, ring ring ring, ring ring ring…)

Ghadanfar: errr…hello

Michel: oh thanks for picking up, at last.

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The Right Response to The Anti-Islam Movie

16 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in Arab World, LB Culture, Lebanon, Other Arab issues, The rest of the world, World

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I didn’t intend to comment on that anti-Islam and anti-Prophet movie originated somewhere in California, but seeing the reaction it caused makes it difficult for me not to be involved. The movie caused some strong reactions across most Arab and Muslim countries including some violent ones in the newly established Arab Spring countries like Egypt and Libya.

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Israeli Hate Culture

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in LB Politics, MB Culture, Media Monitoring, MicroBlogs, Press, The rest of the world, World

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I am convinced the violence that historically plagued the Middle East is rooted in the culture of hate that is widely spread and established in the region. We see it in form of sectarianism, religious or ultra-nationalist forms, but we – rightly – beat ourselves for having this disease, while Israel claims to be a democracy and peace-loving country.

Israel continuously fear-mongers about the ‘savage Arabs’ that live around them who want to throw them in the sea, and use children in their militant activities – which is no doubt the worse type of all.

A main differentiation of existence of the hate culture in Israel is its promotion on the ‘state’ level, and not on the level of some rogue elements or parties in the society. Israel is as worse as, if not way ahead of, its neighbourhood in this respect. Israel is the place where militancy and war-readiness is seeded in their children minds.

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So Which Countries Have The Most Negative Influence?

16 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by in MB Social, Media Monitoring, MicroBlogs, The rest of the world, TV, USA, World

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Can you compile a list of the top four and bottom four countries which had respectively positive and negative influence over the world?

Of course, I have my own list in mind, but funnily enough I have a similar one here compiled from a recent 22-county poll conducted by GlobeScan (an international opinion research consultancy) and the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland – Program on International Policy Attitudes.

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American media spin on Iran: who is the threat to whom?

15 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Media Monitoring, Politics, The rest of the world, USA, World

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In whatever way I try to read some Western commentary on Iran’s nuclear issue, I see Saddam Hussein, his Weapons of mass destruction programme (WMD) and the spin around it by George Bush and his administration.
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Ayatollah Khomeini returns…like a cardboard – A Lebanese version

05 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by in Caricature of the day, Media Monitoring, Press, The rest of the world, World

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It’s surely one of the most bizarre ways to commemorate an event. Iran has marked the 33rd anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s return to Iran from his exile before the Islamic revolution took over power in 1979, by re-enacting his journey with a replica of him, made of an oversized cardboard cut-out.

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Do you trust a funeral photo from North Korea?

29 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in Media Monitoring, Press, Syria, The rest of the world, World

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It was a majestic funeral indeed for the North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il yesterday. You can see from the above photo how tidy the scene is. Mourners standing in lines, snowy white background and parades passing by in order. I just wondered if the people were crying because of their leader’s death or they we were just feeling cold.

But with North Korea being one of the highest militarised country in the world (9.3 million or 38% of the total population are military personnel including the reserves), and for a country that responded with a ‘military-first’ policy to a national famine that killed around 1.5 million of its people, you can’t really trust anything that comes out from this country, not even a funeral photo!

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Democracy is down, gender inequality is up [Chart]

28 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Arab World, MB Social, MicroBlogs, Other Arab issues, The rest of the world, World

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 I love these charts, especially when they tell you something you already know! or when they put something in a graphical systematic mathematical geeky way for something you vaguely know…

The relation in this chart is straightforward: when democracy is down, gender inequality is up. No wonder Middle East is at the bottom…oh, sorry, at the top on this chart.

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Why UK riots are not like the Arab Spring

13 Saturday Aug 2011

Posted by in Arab Spring, Arab World, Politics, Syria, The rest of the world, World

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This photo might a bit explain the ‘yob’ culture Britain is currently facing. Obviously, I am referring the guy at the back (or right) not the one at the front who became a Prime Minister later. Some people call these young kids ‘hoodies’ as they usually wear hoodies as a sign of ‘coolness’ (or a face cover from the CCTV cameras as seen in the UK riots this week).

The incident took place during David Cameron’s visit to a council estate in Manchester, more than 4 years ago, to discuss gun culture within the youth! The teenage made a gun gesture towards David Cameron behind his back, ‘on-high’, full of confidence and other stuff in his other hand. He was later charged with drugs offences.

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Sleiman’s Iranian translation

20 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by in MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics, The rest of the world, World

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This is what the Lebanese President Michel Sleiman said yesterday, to an Iranian delegate according to Iran’s news agency (IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency):

…that capitalism has been defeated and the need for global change is vital.

If you want to understand what this is about, you can check the statement here. Personally, I didn’t understand it or in other words I didn’t buy it!
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What people think of Rupert Murdoch

18 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by in Politics, The rest of the world, World

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If you live in Britain, and have taken 2 weeks holiday somewhere where you were completely disconnected from the news, you will not feel home when you come back. All this is because of the media storm caused by the phone hacking scandal of the News of the World in specific, and about Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in general; unbelievable the coverage and fast sequence of events.
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Can you find Israel on Google Maps?

07 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by in LB Social, Lebanon, The rest of the world, USA, World

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When I came across this piece of information stating that Google Maps (or Google Earth) doesn’t cover Israel ‘properly’, I was a bit sceptic and I decided to check myself.

In the past, I came across many aerial satellite maps in many countries as part of my work in engineering, and I know it is quite common to remove/blur/cover any details that can be considered of ‘sensitive’ nature i.e. military or intelligence bases (especially if American in an Arab country!), and any other asset that can be considered of strategic importance (power plants, nuclear plants etc).

But what’s not common is to assume a whole country is a ‘sensitive’ location, and stops it from appearing in the standard resolution of the powerful global open-to-all tool Google Maps; this is exactly how Google Maps treats Israel – a country that can’t be photographed in detail.

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How to be a robot in an interview

04 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by in MB Social, Media Monitoring, MicroBlogs, The rest of the world, TV, World

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This is Ed Miliband, the opposition leader in the UK House of Commons (Parliament), in an interview with the BBC.

Listen carefully to him repeating almost the same answer to every question. Is he a robot or an idiot – at least less idiot than the BBC presenter?

I just hope he doesn’t have to copy-paste Gordon Brown’s policy, else he should let his brother David have a go…

The foreign policy cows

17 Friday Jun 2011

Posted by in Arab World, Other Arab issues, The rest of the world, World

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Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one of them and gives it to your neighbor.

Communism: You have two cows. The government takes them both and provides you with milk.

Nazism: You have two cows. The government shoots you and takes the cows.

Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Do you remember the above? I remember it very well; it was a famous political sarcasm that was widely circulated in 1990s (at my time) about the different political systems. It’s has an older origin though. Believe it or not, these jokes affected my political ‘evolutionist’ thinking then.
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