Enver Pasha, 1881-1922
The BBC produced a fascinating documentary on the Ottoman Empire in World War I with rare footage. This is archived online on Youtube in several parts.
Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5
Category Archives: YouTube Watch
Sponge Bob in Winterland
The future belongs to the young, no matter how much older generations try to shape that future. Educations plays a key role, as does the whole family context, but in the past century it is the expansion of media that has establishing a seemingly hegemonic control over the curiosity of the young. Disney launched the careers of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, not to mention the lily white Snow White or comfortably brown Bambi. In my day there was Woody Woodpecker, but my son’s generation was mesmerized by the Ninja Turtles. I have not kept up with cartoon evolution, but I had heard something about a cheesy character named Sponge Bob. It seems that there are many episodes of Sponge Bob available in Arabic on Youtube. The image above is from an adventure in a hibernating-bear-in-an-igloo winterland.
I have seen Arabic translations of Western and Japanese cartoon shows before, and anthropologist Mark Peterson has written a fascinating ethnography (Connected in Cairo: Growing Up Cosmopolitan in the Modern Middle East, Indiana University Press 2011) about the Pokemon phenomenon and other comic characters in Cairo. It is important to remember that the urban generation that has taken to the streets in the Arab Spring and lives and dies through the social media has also been brought up in a steady diet of cartoons, both comic books and videos. While academics have been arguing over the impact of erudite Orientalism, there is a far more potent source influencing the thought of the young: I call this “cartoonality,” the shaping of opinion through fictional non-human or ultra-human cartoon characters. Continue reading Sponge Bob in Winterland
God of Revolution
A recently uploaded Youtube video speaks to the frustration from the violence that has enveloped Iraq, Syria, Egypt and elsewhere. Check it out here.
No Palestinian Idol at World Cup?
Palestinian Arab Idol Gets Booted From World Cup, and Shakira’s Response Was Perfect
by Milana Knezevic, PolicyMic, February 13, 2014
Palestinian Arab Idol winner Mohammad Assaf says he has been banned from performing at the World Cup opening ceremony this summer — and that Shakira is boycotting.
He said at a press conference earlier this week that he was supposed to sing at the show kicking off the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, but that because of some “countries” or “groups” — no one was specified — his record company was told this won’t happen after all. He also said that Colombian superstar Shakira, who sang the 2010 World Cup anthem “Waka Waka,” has refused to perform at the ceremony because of it.
Assaf rose to fame last year when he won the regional singing competition Arab Idol, and was especially lauded for his performances of traditional Palestinian music:
Hear the winning song on Youtube here
In the process, he gained some high-profile fans. FIFA President Sepp Blatter visited Palestine last summer, and said he would invite Assaf to sing at this summer’s World Cup.
It was reported then that Assaf and Shakira might sing together in Brazil, but now it appears both will be staying away from the festivities. Continue reading No Palestinian Idol at World Cup?
Yemen’s Silver Jewelry
Anyone who has visited Yemen knows that there is a rich tradition of silver jewelry. One of the most ardent collectors of Yemeni jewelry is Marjorie Ransom, whose book Silver Treasures from the Land of Sheba: Regional Styles of Yemeni Jewelry is due out later this year. There is an informative interview with Ransom in a Youtube video from Yemeniati.
At the Cave of Hercules
There was a time when the flat earth Mediterranean ended at the Pillars of Hercules. On a recent visit to Morocco, Anouar Majid visited the “Cave of Hercules” at Cape Spartel and recorded the sounds. Check it out on his blog by clicking here.
The Death of Bryan
by Ian Burrell, The Independent, October 18, 2013
The British public has such “poor religious literacy†that a modern audience would be baffled by the Monty Python film The Life of Brian – because it would not understand the Biblical references, a senior BBC figure has claimed.
Aaqil Ahmed, the BBC’s head of religion and ethics, told The Independent that failings in religious education over two generations were undermining public understanding of contemporary national and international issues. “You had generations that missed out. We have poor religious literacy in this country and we have to do something about it,†he said.
He was speaking at the launch of an ambitious three-part BBC2 series which will address the subject of pilgrimage from a broad perspective and is intended to attract the interest of Atheists as much as religious believers.
“If you tried to make The Life of Brian today it would fall flat on its face because the vast majority of the audience would not get most of the jokes. They don’t have the knowledge,†Ahmed said. He questioned whether modern audiences would appreciate that the “great joke about the Sermon on the Mount†in the 1979 Python film, where a woman asks “What’s so special about the cheesemakers?â€, was a reference to Jesus’s words “Blessed are the peacemakers†from the Bible. Continue reading The Death of Bryan
Goodbye, Lawrence, Goodbye Mr Chips
The extraordinary British actor Peter O’Toole died yesterday at the age of 81. His most famous movie, without question, was Lawrence of Arabia. But he made many other performances, including Becket (1964) with Richard Burton, a remake of Goodbye Mr Chips in 1969 and the hilarious spoof, The Ruling Class (1972). I had the privilege of meeting O’Toole at the Chicago Humanities Festival in 1997, when he gave a stirring reading of his latest autobiography. You will find numerous obituaries, but here is the one in The Guardian.