Most of my friends know that I was not pleased at all with what have been going on in the Saudi blogosphere in the past few months. I made a decision not to write about that subject again, and I’m not changing my mind. What happened has left me in frustration, and I almost lost hope in the local blogosphere. However, I have recently come across three interesting Saudi blogs which made me convinced why I should keep some hope inside. These blogs are: Magic Kingdom, Icona, and Al-Mufakker. They are all written in Arabic, and they absolutely worth checking out if you can read that language. Every one of these guys deserves a separate post of praise and celebration, but I think it would be much better if you went there and discovered them yourselves. Enjoy.

I was browsing through the Guardian’s Comment is Free, which is a collective group blog, bringing together regular columnists with other writers and commentators representing a wide range of experience and interests, to find that they have recently added a Saudi columnist to their elite. The columnist is Iman Al Qahtani, who writes a weekly column for Al Watan. The Guardian says Al Qahtani is a journalist, writer, and activist. She graduated from the college of art in Riyadh in 2002 with a BA in English literature and science, and has worked at several newspapers in Riyadh. I am very proud of Al Qahtani, and have no doubt her participation on such interactive forum would be good for her, as well as the rest of Saudi women.

Mona Eltahawi, an Egyptian journalist who used to write for the op-ed page in Asharq Al-Awsat, writes for IHT about her banning from writing for the pan-Arab newspaper. Although I follow the website of the newspaper in Arabic and English, I have never considered comparing the translated content. “The newspaper in Arabic would abide by the red lines that govern criticism of Arab leaders while in English it ran roughshod over those very same lines,” she said. I have been wondering on what basis they select to translate some columns by writers while ignoring other columns. If this was intended “to show Western readers how liberal it was,” as Eltahawi says, then this damages their reputation and credibility, and they have to do something about it or they will lose their readers.

(ok, so the St George’s cross is a photoshop mock up, but I really, really want a white MacBook. I know it’s wild, I know it’s dangerous, and I know I can’t afford one because I’m always broke. But damn, is this machine sexy or what?)

For all of you England fans out there (Dotsson, Ash, etc.), our fellow blogger Rio has put the official England World Cup 2006 Album on his website for your to download. But don’t tell anyone about this, ok?

Marina Hyde on the Guardian’s World Cup blog says Saudis are planning to buy a club in Belgium, where they can establish a football academy to send their young players to learn football in Europe. Interesting, isn’t it? This is not a new approach after all. We already know there are some English clubs which have investments in Belgian clubs in order to benefit from their players, in addition to many European clubs who have opened academies in different parts of the world, and who have invested in foreign clubs too.

A very poor performance by the Saudi team. Paqueta made some bad choices; Mohammed Al Deayea and Nawaf Al Temyat would have been much better replacements for Mabrouk Zaid and Mohammed Ameen respectively. According to match statistics, Zaid conceded more than he saved, which a very rare thing to happen by a goalkeeper in the World Cup. I could go on and on, but I’m too depressed.