I’ve been reading lately, and this book was one of these that I really enjoyed. I wrote about it over at my Arabic blog; check it out if you were interested.

“It’s also getting back at men, God knows how much they get on our nerves so what’s wrong with rattling theirs? We don’t steal but, yes, we manipulate them to get ourselves a good bargain. Sometimes it only takes a bit of smiling, a bit of softening the voice or a bit of leaning over across the counter. It’s harmless,” a 24-year-old girl, who doesn’t mind using her goodies to get something she wants, told Arab News. Way to go, girl! Manipulate us!

In 2002, Silvija Seres was visiting Saudi Arabia and spent a few weeks in Jeddah teaching at Dar Al Hikma College (do you remember Karen Hughes’ visit last year?). Silvija took a lot of photos, and some of them are really good. This one is dedicated to a friend who was craving for mu6abaq last week ;-) via as

Lakhdar Brahimi: “Yet all the diplomatic clout of the United States was used to prevent a cease-fire, while more military hardware was rushed to the Israeli Army. It was argued that the war had to continue so that the root causes of the conflict could be addressed, but no one explained how destroying Lebanon would achieve that.”

Here is a brief history of the Saudi currency.

Abu Aardvark has an interesting post on Arab political blogs. He says there isn’t an Arab blogophere; instead, there several Arab blogospheres. Does it really matter? I mean when was the last time when Arabs formed one entity? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for pan-Arabism, but in a medium like blogging I think individuality is more important.

Meanwhile in Dubai, pink taxis will be deployed at places frequently visited by women, to provide a “women-only” taxi service. The taxis will have pink roofs, pink seats and interiors, and other features to give the vehicles a feminine touch. The taxis would be easily identifiable on roads and would only stop for female passengers. Taxis with female drivers currently only operate at Dubai International Airport to ferry female passengers and families. The service proved very popular that the city decided to expand it.