Aukment is a film starring Qatar martial arts actor, Ahmad Al-Suilaiti. I didn't actually know there was a Qatar martial arts actor, but I followed the link from Mr Q's blog post on Celebrity Qataris.
The film is actually based on Ahmad's own story. According to an interview on Qatar Happening, Ahmad ran away to Thailand to become a proffessional fighter and, as in the story, ended up joining a martial arts camp.
We're fascinated, and will try to find out more. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer below...
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The film is actually based on Ahmad's own story. According to an interview on Qatar Happening, Ahmad ran away to Thailand to become a proffessional fighter and, as in the story, ended up joining a martial arts camp.
We're fascinated, and will try to find out more. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer below...
Qatar Visitor Friends
Tags
film naruto wallpaper 8:00 PM New Google SEO Bandung, Indonesia
A Qatar tourist guide today decided to shut down its paper publication, and to concentrate instead on its website.
It's not a huge or frequent publication (Qatar Explorer only updates its book every two years) but it is significant in that it is the first sign of a global trend coming to Qatar.
Across the world newspapers are going bankrupt. Faced with new competition from community news sites and from aggregate news sites like Google and with competition only ever just a click way, online brand loyalty has disappeared and online revenue is increasingly unable to support bloated newspaper and magazine outfits.
Yet despite the explosion of online web content - and traffic - in Qatar (we have seen our own website go from a few hundred visitors a month to over 70,000 in just two years) newspapers and magazines seem to have continued on oblivious.
Half hearted attempts at websites often break multiple web standards and SEO guidelines, and high prices are charged for advertising - often many multiples of what companies can pay for equivalent online exposure.
It's not a huge or frequent publication (Qatar Explorer only updates its book every two years) but it is significant in that it is the first sign of a global trend coming to Qatar.
Across the world newspapers are going bankrupt. Faced with new competition from community news sites and from aggregate news sites like Google and with competition only ever just a click way, online brand loyalty has disappeared and online revenue is increasingly unable to support bloated newspaper and magazine outfits.
Yet despite the explosion of online web content - and traffic - in Qatar (we have seen our own website go from a few hundred visitors a month to over 70,000 in just two years) newspapers and magazines seem to have continued on oblivious.
Half hearted attempts at websites often break multiple web standards and SEO guidelines, and high prices are charged for advertising - often many multiples of what companies can pay for equivalent online exposure.
Qatar media has been warned - very directly. At an ICT media conference the founder of Now Public, who had jettisoned the traditional new business to form a participatory news service fuelled by a mixture of traditional journalism and crowd reported, urged Qatar newspapers to get their online act together.
That's not to say that every organistion in Qatar is behind the times. In addition to Qatar Living, Al Jazeera, the Qatar based Arab News Network, has been groundbreaking in its use of the Internet. Not only has it leveraged social media sites such as You Tube and Flickr to reach an audience previously unavailable (and in some cases consciously blocked by US censorship), it has also enabled citizen journalists to report directly from areas such as Gaza. But Al Jazeera is not a newspaper threatened by falling print sales!
The real effect of the Internet in Qatar may be concealed by the huge population explosion, which has seen Qatar almost triple its population in the last four to five years. With a steady flow of new customers the effect of the Internet revolution on newspapers in Qatar could be hidden.
However, with one newspaper editor telling me she got more response to a classified in Qatar Living than in an ad in her newspapers, the days of print publication may well be numbered!
Also see: Qatar Newspapers
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Bandung, IndonesiaThe real effect of the Internet in Qatar may be concealed by the huge population explosion, which has seen Qatar almost triple its population in the last four to five years. With a steady flow of new customers the effect of the Internet revolution on newspapers in Qatar could be hidden.
However, with one newspaper editor telling me she got more response to a classified in Qatar Living than in an ad in her newspapers, the days of print publication may well be numbered!
Also see: Qatar Newspapers
Paper Publications in Qatar: The (very) beginning of the end?
Posted by BEST TRAVEL GUIDE on Monday, June 22, 2009
Now don't get me wrong, as someone who moved to the UAE in 1998, I also share their frustration but I don't understand why people can't see that 'The Dark Side of Dubai' is a parody. It's so obvious. Just look at the melodramatic title of the story and the piece is jam-packed with over-used Dubai travel writing cliches ("One Thousand and One Arabian Lights", "Dubai Disneyland", "the architecture of the pharaohs as reimagined by Zsa-Zsa Gabor", a "Neverland built on the Neverland"), gross exaggerations (every expat has maids and whole armies of staff, every expat is a CEO etc), and stereotypical characters (Western expat with a Range Rover, "Filipino girl behind the counter", he meets the Emirati at Starbucks, everyone is drunk and partying all the time, blonde Dutch girl in hotpants... p-lease). It's laden with so many historical and factual errors ("in the mid-18th century, a small village was built here." He should have added 'overnight'!), and racism (just read the thing), that it can't possibly be presented as serious news commentary, certainly not something a high quality paper like The Independent would print as truth.
And it's funny on so many levels. There's a whole parody of the simplistic 90s anti-globalization rhetoric first year uni students might have referenced in a "Modernisation and Globalisation" class: the 'East' being consumed by the 'West' and its junk-food mega-brand pop culture with the references to Starbucks, Pizza Hutt, Nando's... we should be shocked that the Emirati is wearing 'Western clothes' of blue jeans and a Ralph Lauren shirt - and that he drinks a Coke! C'mon, this is 2009! It has to be a joke. We all know globalization is far more complex than that and our understanding is far more nuanced now. I mean, he actually uses the term "third world".
Still not convinced it's a parody? If you were too gob-smacked to notice the dreadful writing the first time around, take another read. An example: "Thirty years ago, almost all of contemporary Dubai was desert, inhabited only by 'cactuses' and tumbleweed and scorpions." And where was John Wayne? The set of a Hollywood Western comes to mind, right? When was the last time anyone saw native cacti in the Dubai emirate? That very sentence is a clue that this is a piece of fiction. And then there's the surrealism: Hari taking notes in Harvey Nichols as he listens to a sales assistant telling him about a £20,000 taffeta dress! And the melodrama: "And I stop writing." This is too funny. Perhaps it was an April Fools joke-story (like the Dubai double-decker boutique hotel bus announcement from Mr and Mrs Smith) and Hari missed the deadline? But I, for one, am hoping it's a series.
Pictured? That's me... looking for tumbleweeds and cactus. I know where to find scorpions.
*** If you see this story and pic elsewhere, it's because the content has been STOLEN. It's appearing on a number of sites without permission, but, trust me, invoices are on the way!
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The Dark Side of Dubai: a hilarious must-read parody of the Dubai-bashing genre
Posted by BEST TRAVEL GUIDE on Thursday, April 9, 2009
I find it curious how reporters work sometimes. I answered a few questions last week for a reporter who was writing a story on Dubai for a travel news syndication site that produces 'news' stories that are then picked up (or not) by their subscribers. Although I answered just a couple of questions from a long list of questions I suggested were better directed toward a Dubai Tourism spokesperson and a real estate expert, a brief part of one of my responses in effect became the story. So far it's appeared on a travel insurance website (take a look here at: More to Dubai than Glamour Alone). What I find odd is that the suggestion was that my answers would contribute to a much larger story but instead they became the story. Which leads me to wonder... was there ever a 'story' in the first place? Or had the reporter's editor just directed the writer to come up with a story on Dubai, any story on Dubai? Which explains the odd combination of questions directed to me. Or perhaps there was an idea for some kind of story initially but because the writer couldn't find anyone else to comment, my quote simply became the story. What do you think?
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"More to Dubai than Glamour Alone": when an answer becomes a story
Posted by BEST TRAVEL GUIDE on Thursday, March 5, 2009
You probably think there is no comparison, right? The freelancer has all that wonderful freedom, can pick and choose her jobs, sleep in if she wants, and be all creative all day. The retail job is mundane, monotonous, dull, and pays badly. Well, think again, and take a read of this insightful piece by freelance writer, Caitlin Kelly, who sometimes writes for the New York Times: 'My Retail Job, Crazy as it Seems, Keeps Me Sane'. As for me, I'm too busy with the guidebook writing to even blog at the moment. I'm rising around 7.30-8am most mornings (too late for my liking), after three attempts that start with the first alarm that goes off at 6.30am - ah, how I remember the days when it only took one alarm for me to bounce out of bed. But the late starts are because I'm not going to bed until 2am. I'm working 15 hour days at the moment. I should be doing 18 to meet these deadlines, but 15 is all I can manage, as I've been leading this crazy existence for a while now. So, a retail job is not sounding too bad after all, after reading Caitlin's story. Well, these guys look happy, don't they?
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"A couple of years ago when I first started reading travel articles about all the new develop- ments in Dubai, I could never have guessed that this would happen," Erica from Blissful Travel wrote in response to my post on Dubai yesterday, which was actually a pointer to Terry's post on Dubai's Global Reporting Meltdown over at Wide angles, wine and wanderlust, so read that first. I spontaneously began my response to Erica this morning with "I couldn't have imagined it either... unless perhaps I'd given it some serious thought..." So I did give it some thought...This should probably begin with "Once upon a time..." Because I'm thinking this is a bit of a fairytale, a rags-to-riches story. Well, that's how The Media likes to make it out. Or rather have it play out. You see, in the beginning Dubai was a media darling. She was Cinderella after her makeover at the ball. Or - because I should use a more contemporary analogy - she was like the beautiful young starlet who suddenly appears on the Hollywood scene. She gives an okay performance in an indie film, but she's attractive and has charisma. She wears the glammest dress and most gorgeous gems to the ball, or rather, the Oscars, and all of a sudden she's in the spotlight. Everyone's talking about her. And The Media starts writing about her. Everybody catches on and suddenly she's everywhere. She's on every talk show, every gossip site, in every magazine. Life couldn't be more perfect for this rising star. Who wouldn't want this much attention? Everyone wants to be her, to be with her, to live her glamorous lifestyle, to feel part of her 'in' crowd. But then she makes a mistake or two... a bad dress choice or movie role, a bad boyfriend? And then she really messes-up in their eyes... perhaps a racial slur? Filmed taking drugs? Or worse, in a none-too-flattering position in a park (or at a beach?) without clothes on? But the starlet doesn't care. She was an indie film goddess to begin with after all. She fascinated and intrigued long ago - even if it was just her friends and family. So then, The Media turns on her, her fans (who never really knew her anyway) turn on her. They're all against her now and are gleefully showing her at her worse, and printing all those bad hair days. The thing is... there's a career and a livelihood at stake here. So what will the starlet do next? Is an image makeover in order? Or does she need to prove that she can really perform? (Because her family and friends know she can shine.) Should she even care? SohHow do you think this story is going to play out? Because we know we're nowhere near an ending yet... naruto wallpaper 3:06 PM New Google SEO Bandung, Indonesia
Once upon a time in Dubai: when the fairy tale doesn't unfold (or get told) the way they wanted it to, Or, Why the media needs to grow up
Posted by BEST TRAVEL GUIDE on Thursday, February 26, 2009
Speaking of Dubai, the little city-state has taken quite a beating in the media lately with a number of negative articles about its apparent economic meltdown, written as if the rest of the world weren't in recession. My partner and co-author Terry Carter, who is also a writer and photographer who blogs at Wide angles, wine and wanderlust, has posted about recent coverage in 'Dubai's Global Reporting Meltdown' in which he analyzes the sloppy journalism that at times verges on racism. Take a look and let us know what you think.
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We have long been a fan of Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera has annoyed the Americans and the Brits in the past, so much so that it was rumoured that the two allies were thinking of bombing their strongest Arab allies' news channel.
However, the fact that Al Jazeera has been thrown out of almost every country in the Gulf (Israel, surprisingly, is one of the few that has not expelled them at some point or other,) and that they have received threatening mail from Al Qaeda suggests that they have annoyed almost everyone at some point or other.
Which is what a good news channel should do.
Al Jazeera does something that has not been done by a news channel before. It gives the Arab people a voice. And recently it has hit the news itself for its reporting of the harrowing conflict in Gaza, with feature articles in the International Herald Tribune amongst others.
It has done so not only for its reporting of the news, but for the way it is reporting it.
One of Al Jazeera's problems is not getting the news - it has 6 reporters in Gaza, and is the only major network represented there - but getting it out to an international English audience.
For while their Arabic audience is huge, in America their audience is tiny - and at times deliberately blocked.
As a result the channel has turned to social networking to get their results across.
Internet users can follow Al Jazeera's updates on Twitter, and their You Tube channel has received over two and a half million views.
Their viral efforts may have been helped by the fact that they have a Qatar blogger, Mohammed Nanabhay, co-leading a digital leap team.
It may well take a blogger to understand the communicative and viral potential of the internet.
And with six out of ten youngsters in America now getting their news from the internet, that potential is huge.
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Al Jazeera naruto wallpaper 9:00 PM New Google SEO Bandung, Indonesia
Al Jazeera has annoyed the Americans and the Brits in the past, so much so that it was rumoured that the two allies were thinking of bombing their strongest Arab allies' news channel.
However, the fact that Al Jazeera has been thrown out of almost every country in the Gulf (Israel, surprisingly, is one of the few that has not expelled them at some point or other,) and that they have received threatening mail from Al Qaeda suggests that they have annoyed almost everyone at some point or other.
Which is what a good news channel should do.
Al Jazeera does something that has not been done by a news channel before. It gives the Arab people a voice. And recently it has hit the news itself for its reporting of the harrowing conflict in Gaza, with feature articles in the International Herald Tribune amongst others.
It has done so not only for its reporting of the news, but for the way it is reporting it.
One of Al Jazeera's problems is not getting the news - it has 6 reporters in Gaza, and is the only major network represented there - but getting it out to an international English audience.
For while their Arabic audience is huge, in America their audience is tiny - and at times deliberately blocked.
As a result the channel has turned to social networking to get their results across.
Internet users can follow Al Jazeera's updates on Twitter, and their You Tube channel has received over two and a half million views.
Their viral efforts may have been helped by the fact that they have a Qatar blogger, Mohammed Nanabhay, co-leading a digital leap team.
It may well take a blogger to understand the communicative and viral potential of the internet.
And with six out of ten youngsters in America now getting their news from the internet, that potential is huge.
Tags
Al Jazeera naruto wallpaper 9:00 PM New Google SEO Bandung, Indonesia
