While I’d love to own a lucrative web-front for import/export of shrimp and related marine life, this website is not even vaguely related to the crustacean as some would start to assume.
It’s just a logo, man. Stop emailing me about it.
Archive for ‘Uncategorized’
The Dark Side of Dubai
by on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
The BBC published a documentary and related story on labor exploitation in Dubai, planting reporter Ben Anderson amidst construction workers living in terrible conditions, as they work on luxury properties in the city.
“The latrines are so filthy we cannot use them, we are so disgusted. The roads are full of garbage and waterlogged. Living and moving about here is a great problem. We suffer greatly,” one of the workers told us.
We decided to find out for ourselves.
Armed with a secret camera we sneaked into the camp to be met with the smell of raw sewage. Sewage had leaked out all over the camp, and workers had to create a network of stepping stones to cross it and get back to their accommodation blocks. One toilet block had no water supply and the latrines were filled with piles of raw faeces.
The documentary itself is sadly unavailable on the BBC’s Panorama website outside the UK.
Egypt on Strike Update
by on Monday, April 6th, 2009
It looks like the police “visibility” campaign succeeded in limiting the scope of today’s strikes. They were deployed in large numbers ahead of the protests, according to this BBC report.
Al Arabiya reiterates that the strike “fizzled out”:
Dozens of activists, students and members of the banned Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested, though there were no reports of mass arrests. A police crackdown over the weekend resulted in at least 30 arrests, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.
Visiting Turkey, Ctd.
by on Monday, April 6th, 2009
More from Obama’s Turkey statements, as posted on The Atlantic:
But I also want to be clear that America’s relationship with the Muslim world cannot and will not be based on opposition to al Qaeda. Far from it. We seek broad engagement based upon mutual interests and mutual respect. We will listen carefully, bridge misunderstanding, and seek common ground. We will be respectful, even when we do not agree. And we will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better — including my own country. The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country — I know, because I am one of them.
The narrative of mutual respect is a powerful one. It’s a message Obama has espoused in his interview with Al Arabiya, and at various other venues. Last week he said at the G20 that the US was a peer among nations, and that he would listen, not dictate.
I have to say it’s gripping rhetoric. Many of the slights perceived in the last few years by the Arab and Islamic world were about encroaching on dignity – the violation of Iraqi sovereignty, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, expanding Israeli settlements, cartoons insulting to the Prophet Muhammad. It destroys the basis of rhetoric chastising America for its arrogant foreign policy, whose face was George W. Bush.
Mr. Obama, keep tearing down this wall.
Don’t Fear the Dark
by on Monday, April 6th, 2009
The National carried a piece on the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi’s visit to a child abuse victim, who was taken to the hospital by parents who claimed her horrific injuries were sustained by falling off a bicycle:
In a statement, Abu Dhabi Police said the girl had been brought into hospital by her father, who lived in Bani Yas, bleeding and suffering from burns, with knife cuts and bruises over her body.
Her father had initially said the youngster had fallen off her bicycle, police said, but a medical examination confirmed she had been “severely abused”. The father and stepmother were subsequently arrested by police.
One can only hope that such a high profile visit by one of the country’s leaders lends enough confidence to abuse victims to speak out, and not bear the suffering in fear and solitude.
More data after the jump.
Population Forecast: Diminished
by on Sunday, April 5th, 2009
The UN published its annual World Population Prospects report, showing declining birth rates in a number of Middle Eastern countries, with an alarming 1.95 average children per woman in the UAE from 2005-2010.
The global replacement fertility rate, which is the number of children born to every woman to guarantee 0 global population growth, is around 2.3.