Category Archives: Arabiana

Blog About Palestine Day 2009

Posted by za3tar on April 21, 2009 63 comments

***UPDATE #1:*** A Facebook event for this initiative has been created. Please join the event and pass the message on to your friends (more info here).

***UPDATE #2:*** Topic Suggestions and a preliminary list of participating bloggers has been published here.

***UPDATE #3:*** A sample harvest list of blog posts contributed to this event has been published here.

Dear all,

It is my pleasure to invite you to this year’s second annual Blog About Palestine Day. Thanks to your efforts, last year’s event was a huge success with more than 70 articles published in at least 4 languages. I am confident that with your continued contribution and the contribution of new bloggers, this year’s event will turn out to be an even bigger success.

May 15th of this year is the 61st anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba –which marked the beginning of the modern age Palestinian plight and suffering. This date is remembered annually on local, regional, and global levels.

I am certain that many in the blogosphere will dedicate some posts to commemorate this tragic event. However, inspired by last year’s success, I would like to start a formal initiative to encourage everybody to dedicate one post on Friday, May 15th, to talk about Palestine or the Palestinian Experience.

There are no restrictions on what you can write, or the language that you can use. Really, anything that talks about Palestine, or the Palestinians; in the past, present, or future; political, social, economical, or any other aspect is welcomed. The goal of this event will be to share thoughts, and raise awareness about the Palestinian situation. Hopefully, with everyone’s support, this will be such a spectacular event that it will catch the eye of the mainstream media (specially that the Palestinian situation is inadequately and incorrectly represented in most of the western media outlets).

Blog About Palestine Day

FAQ:

  • Do I have to be Palestinian / Arab to participate ?
    No, everybody is welcomed to join in on this effort.
  • Does it have to represent the Palestinian point of view (or be a positive article) ?
    No, you are free, and encouraged, to write whatever you want.
  • Does it have to be about the Nakba precisely ?
    No, you can talk about the history of the Palestinian plight, current internal and external affairs, or outlooks for possible future resolutions to this conflict and how do you think can we achieve and maintain peace.
  • Does it have to be a political article ?
    No, you are free to talk about any aspect of the Palestinian life inside and outside Palestine. You are free to talk about whatever you want.

I would appreciate it if you could help me spread the word about this event. For your convenience, i have created some simple counters and web buttons for this event. You can find their code below:

Thank you in advance for your help and support.





**NOTE:** Blogs *hosted* on WordPress.com (and possibly other engines) might face some trouble embedding JavaScript code as is done above. If this is the case for you, you can use the following web buttons below:

Blog About Palestine Day
Blog About Palestine Day
Blog About Palestine Day
Blog About Palestine Day

Sonoma made in Jordan

Posted by za3tar on April 19, 2009 5 comments

Was out shopping (in a mall USA), passed by a sonoma shirt, pleasantly surprised to find the displayed sticker stating that it was made in Jordan :-) … it’s about time :-D

(it is hard to read, but the printout on the shirt says “made in Jordan in the second line after the L)

A Belated BAJD Post

Posted by za3tar on March 20, 2009 2 comments

I have to apologize for not submitting a post for the Blog About Jordan Day on time. The truth is that i have been extremely swamped for the past few weeks. In any regards, i think better late than never to submit. What follows is my post for BAJD which is really a reflection of a recent conversation i had with a friend of mine.

It is no surprise that the world is facing a huge economic crisis. Jordan, and indeed the rest of the Arab world, has not been spared from this crisis. As we all scramble to recover, it is worth noting that we face additional challenges. Although Jordan has shown many good development projects that aim to expand the potential of students and entrepreneurs, we should observe that that this development has not been uniformly distributed across the different areas of the country. Most of these initiatives have concentrating on the capitol Amman, which makes sense since it is the biggest city in the country. However it is just as important to provide good opportunities to residents of the other places of Jordan. This will dampen the disparity between Amman and most of the rest of the country.

One way this could happen is by expanding infrastructure projects to the rest of the country. Infrastructure projects are great because they employ a large group of people to build and provide benefit a large group of people for a long time after they are built. Infrastructure projects include upgrading schools, hospitals, waterworks, electricity, roads, ..etc. As great as these projects can be, we have to realize that the government’s has a limited amount of financial resources (specially in this global crisis).

So what can we do ? This is a perfect opportunity for citizens to contribute to the well being of their future, their children’s futures, and the country as a whole. For example, many people these days prefer to buy land and keep it until it gets expensive and then sell it. All this time the land sits underutilized. Why not grow something on it for example ? This would require working hands, but there are many people who are out of work and would be available to do this job. Plus the land’s produce can either increase the export of the country or at least feed a few more hungry families.

I think the road to a bright future for Jordan, and many other Arab countries, is through citizens trying to utilize the limited set or resources that we already have. When i compare our situation to that of people from other emerging developing countries (like China and India) i notice that what we lack is a grand vision of how should we move forward as a unit as a country. No doubt that Jordanians and Arabs are skillful people, so imagine what we can do if we put our hands together and look forward ?