If you have been following this blog for a long time, then you probably have noticed that I don’t link to Arabic content that much anymore. I used to link to plenty of Arabic pages in the past, but since more than half of my readers can’t read Arabic I decided to stop linking to Arabic content except when the link is too good not to share. Still, I follow many Arabic websites on daily basis and find a lot of stuff that’s worth reading, so I’ve been thinking of some way to share this stuff with those who can read Arabic.

I don’t usually use del.icio.us for my bookmarks management, but I think the ultimate social bookmarking tool can serve my purpose here very well. I have been bookmarking Arabic pages that I think worth reading with a certain tag so you can find them easily in one page. You can find the this page here, with my comments and notes under every link, and it will be updated about several times a day. You can also subscribe to the page’s feed.

UPI: “Saudi women have been appointed as advisers to the rubber stamp Consultative Council, reflecting a bid by the Muslim conservative kingdom to introduce change.”

Asharq Al-Awsat have published a column by Mona Eltahawy today. It’s been more than a month since they published anything by her, and they have not provided any explanation for the long absence. So much for professionalism. I made a mistake, that column was by Amira Eltahawy, not Mona Eltahawy. Apologies.

The Comittee to Protect Journalists have issued their report on press freedoms in Saudi Arabia. The report concludes that Saudi Arabia has loosened press shackles, but religion and politics are still perilous topics. The report is worth reading, and if you feel like laughing then check out what Saleh Namlah, an official in the ministry of information has to say. “If children fight with each other, you say go to your room. To the writer you say please do not write. It’s a way of calming things,” he said. Can we understand from this that our respected ministry deals with writers and journalists as children? How about bloggers? Oh, they are just infants, you don’t need to worry about them.

I was reading Asharq Al-Awsat this morning and found a photo of yours truly on their media section, where they have a special feature on blogging from three countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Egypt. Blogging in Saudi Arabia has been attracting a lot of mainstream media attention lately, but I have to say that this piece by Shaker Abu Talib is the worst coverage so far. Very poor reporting with a clear lack of focus. The reporter did not even bother to contact any of the bloggers, and instead he copied small parts of some old posts by the likes of Mashi 97 and Abu-Jouri. It is ironic how guys like Asharq Al-Awsat keep on talking about professionalism and absence of standards in blogging while they are not able to produce a small piece of decent reporting on a subject like this, where sources are easily available and can be reached with a click of a mouse.

Tariq Al Homayed, editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, responds to Mona Eltahawy article in the IHT. It is a lenghy respnse by Al Homayed to defend his newspaper, where he accuses Eltahawy of lying. He also says Asharq Al-Awsat’s professionalism is more than IHT’s prfoessionalism, which, looking to the state of Arab media that the former is a part of, is hard to believe. However, despite the lengh of the response, Al Homayed failed to tell us why Eltahawy columns don’t appear anymore in the paper.

My right hand hurts so bad I hardly can type. If that, and my mother’s constant nagging are any indication, I guess I’m spending too much time online. I could try to mouse goofy as Meg Hourihan suggests, but I think I will take a couple days off(line). Maybe I’ll go out to breath some fresh air, meet some friends, and read a book or two. Later.