Madinat Al Hareer

Translated to 'City of Silk' is a proposed 250 square kilometer planned urban area in Subiya, Kuwait, an area just opposite Kuwait City which, upon construction, would include the Burj Mubarak al-Kabir , the world's tallest structure, a natural desert reservation of 2 square kilometres, a duty free area which will be beside a new airport, in addition to a large business center, conference areas, environmental areas, athletic areas, and areas that concentrate on media, health, education, and industry. The City of Silk will also include numerous tourist attractions, hotels, spas, and public gardens. As of this time, it is unclear as to the scope of this project, if it has received any approvals, or if it has the required funding; however, the city will be built in individual phases with total completion within twenty-five years. The development will cost an estimated 25 billion Kuwaiti Dinars (86.1 billion USD). Burj Mubarak al-Kabir should not be confused with the Al Jaber Tower proposed by the famous Italian architect Amero Marchetti, part of the planned "ethic city". If built the Al Jaber Tower would reach 1852 meters.

Dr Ibrahim al Khouly Responds - Part 1

Dr Ibrahim Al Khouly of the Al Azhar university responds to Wafa Sultan the hypocrite liar that is backed up by organizations such as AIPAC, Arabs for Israel, and other Zionist organizations.. This part of the program on Al Jazeera is not translated by the propaganda Memri TV organization, which is a zionist organistaion which has a sole responsibility of highlighting everything that is shown on arab channels that support their zionist propaganda of showing the arabs as Anti-semites, racist, radicals and support terrorism..

Dr Ibrahim Khouly Responds - Part 2

Dr Ibrahim Al khouly of the Azhar University refutes Wafa Sultan, they don't show you this part on memri tv..

All Hail King Bush

Bogota: Building a Sustainable City (Parte 1/3)

Masdar City

This is great. I didn't know this was going on in Abu Dhabi, hope i can get a job there some day ;)

Nuclear Energy

There has been for a while now a discussion going on, on my facebook account message thing, where people discuss random political topics, which is interesting because there are people from different parts of the world who are involved and stuff. So the latest topic of discussion was Nuclear power, well specifically Iran's nuclear power program. Now I was thinking to myself, why nuclear power in the first place, and this is what i came up with! enjoy..


anyways there is no point of having a nuclear program for 'peaceful pruposes' these days. it is clear that using nuclear technology for the production of energy has more cons than pros, and nations like France, Germany and Britain are already shutting down their nuclear power stations, or are planning to do so in favour of sustainable, renewable energy.
All those dumb arab countries that are going after 'peaceful' nuclear programs mainly for energy are not getting it, while they pay billions to countries like france, russia etc to develop their countries civil nuclear capabilities/technology, they are wasting their money, instead they could have spent that money on building and researching renewable energy alternatives, which is inevitably the future for energy, and not nuclear power plants, unless there is a way to deal with the disadvantages of having nuclear power plants mainly concerning the safety of such plants, and how to deal with the waste that is produced from the nuclear reactions and so on.

You have to give credit to countries like Algeria and Syria, for they are atleast thinking about renewable energy. In the case of Algeria, they already have a couple of power stations that work on Solar power and Natural gas and are planning to build more Solar power plants in the future. Syria are working on increasing their knowledge on renewable energy, where research collaborations between Syrian and European (Austrian, German, Norwegian) Universities is going on, with Syria planning to build its first factory to manufacture photovoltaic cells in the country and probably in the region, with the help of a Ukranian company, the project involves both the private and public sector.

But there is still a long why to go, and with the oil barrel reaching 117 dollars last time i checked, I believe those Arab, and other oil exporting nations can actually spend some of that oil revenue on researching and building renewable energy sources/plants.

In that case it makes me wonder why those nations are after nuclear power in the first place (including iran), which makes me doubt it is for "peaceful" purposes. Don't get me wrong I am not against countries having Nuclear weapons right now, since there are still nations that are defying the non proliferation treaty and not signing it, and other nations that have signed this treaty and are still increasing their Nuclear weapons, it is only far for other nations to obtain nuclear weapons and nuclear technology, to balance the military strengthens, since we live in a world where in any moment some Nation can declare war on the other.

Norman Finkelstein: Future TV interview

Ahh yes.. the interview that went very wrong and in the completely opposite direction to the intended propaganda of the future tv channel.

Logical Comments About Saudi

Well the MP says it all. It is true that everytime 'terrorists' are caught, they, most of the time, happen to be from Saudi, and most of the time are found fighting with the same goals as those of the US gov. The MP points out a good point which is how come non of those terrorists ever go and fight in Palestine?

The Double Standard

The double standard of freedom of speech. It is freedom of speech to ridicule and mock islam and muslims, but when it comes to the Holocaust you are sent to prison, because there are laws against those who are antisemitic.. I think it is official now. Europe's new sacred religion... the Holocaust..

The Pantsir-S1

New Russian built Syrian Air defence system. I wonder when the next Israeli fly over would be?

Noam Chomsky : Doctrine of fear

Well a video to back up what I want to say. A video of Professor Noam Chomsky explaining how the US government, the current or past, have either made events, or used other events in order to keep the population in fear so that what ever the government tells the people it should do, the people will comply. In the case of the current administration it is the use of Terrorism that has helped keep the people in a state of fear,with the help of the events of 9/11.
Now whether or not you believe 9/11 was a planned terrorist attack by Al Qaida, or whether its a false flag operation carried out by the US government or one that was carried out by foreign intelligence agencies (i.e. Israel, which has carried out false flag operations and espionage operations in order to force the US to back up their agenda in the past. Such operations include that of the USS Liberty, 220 marines that were killed in lebanon, or operations such as the Lavon Affair in Egypt). Whatever you believe is not of relevance to this, i don't know why i mentioned this but anyways... the point is that the US government controlled by the Neo-cons had used this incident, and continue to do so in order to pursue their agenda and goals, which are definitely not of the best interest of the American people.

The Iraq Story You Don't Hear About

What actually happened in Iraq, and who were behind the atrocities that were carried out by the Saddam regime.

Mother, Daughter Reunion

Rehab Kanaan is a famous Palestinian poet. In the beginning of the second intifada she appeared on many Palestinian tv stations and read her poems about Palestine.

Rehab lived with her family in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. In September 1982, Lebanese forces (lead by Elie Hobika) with the support of the Israeli army (lead by Ariel Sharon), entered the refugee camp and created a massacre where 95,000 Palestinians were killed by the Phalangists.
Rehab's family were all massacred, except for her daughter whom she thought was also dead, and so her daughter grew up not knowing that her mother was still alive, and her mother thinking she was dead.
When Rehab appeared on TV one of her neighbors in the Sabra and Shatila camp recognized her Rehab. The Abu Dhabi TV station got a call from Rehab's previous neighbors after which the TV set up an interview with rehab to talk about her poems and achievements not knowing that her daughter is in the studio.

Using Islam

Transforming the religion of Islam, to suit the agendas of those who are muslims, and those who are not can be clearly seen. We can see people quoting different verses of the Quran to back their claims, at times non are true. Only those who are open hearted and believe in the good that lies in every human, will be speaking about the true face of islam, not politicians who seek to use Islam to benefit them selves and to fulfill their agendas.

Study: Syria's Real Estate

I was reading an update report on the real estate sector in Syria done by the Kuwait Financial Center Highlighting the major changes in the Syrian economy in regards to real estate. I will bullet point the findings.

• The governments' 5 year economical plan which is aimed at attracting foreign investors and liberalizing the Syrian economy has so far been able achieve a growth of 3.5% on average in the past 2 years according to the IMF.

• Notable Developments include: opening up in economy, and reduction in taxes driving the real estate market; increase in apartment prices by 20%; residential prices increase due to favorable demographics and the increase of foreign business executives; commercial supply growth rates continue to lag demand growth rates; 1Mn Sq meters of real estate projects launched during the past 2 years.

• New projects include: Eighth Gate (Emaar), Damascus Hills (Emaar), Damascus Financial District (Aref Group), Syrian Bonyan City (Bonyan Group), Futtaim Project (Futtaim Group), Palm Village (Bin Laden Group), Latakia Tourism Projects (Diar), Kiwan Project (Kharafi), Nasser Gardens (Kharafi),.

• Demand for high end residential units is on the rise leading to price and rent hikes. (due to increase in foreign executives, and political turmoil in neighboring countries, i.e. 1 million Iraqi refugees)

• Tourism sector most promising sector in terms of contribution to GDP growth. Tourism revenues amounted to $2.3 billion in 2005.
  

• According to the ministry of tourism, the current hotel capacity cannot handle any increase in the number of tourists. Syrian hotels are considered over priced and over classified despite the fact that most hotels are in need of renovation, and their rates to be re-quoted to compete with other countries.
  

• The building and construction sectors are expected to witness more growth upon the launch of many real estate projects.
  

• One of the main pillars of a healthy economy is the size of its investments. Syria is working hard on attracting new investments through allowing the private sector to invest in the areas that were hitherto restricted to state monopoly, which include banks, insurance companies and cement factories.

The report continues and if you want to read it, its on:
http://cm2.zawya.com/researchreports/
p_2006_09_12_01_48_17/20070430_p_2006_09_12_01_48_17_013449.pdf

Harirri Witness Missing

The brother of a Syrian witness in the inquiry into former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri's assassination accused France of involvement in his murder in comments published on Wednesday.

"The French authorities helped facilitate the disappearance of Mohammed Zuheir al-Saddiq with the aim of his being liquidated by another party or they liquidated him themselves," Imad al-Sadiq charged in a Syrian newspaper interview.

"My brother was under the protection of French authorities," he told the Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the Syrian government.

Saddiq, who lives in Damascus, accused "Lebanese parties", including Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, of having plotted "with the French to kill (my) brother".

"The assassins want the finger of blame to be pointed at Syria, on the basis that it was the only party to benefit from his disappearance."

Hezbollah also accused France of involvement in Saddiq's disappearance.

"Is France in possession of information capable of swaying the investigation and hiding it?," Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said in a statement sent to AFP.

He added that the affair "raised many questions about France".

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday that the witness, a former intelligence officer, had disappeared from his suburban home in the French capital.

"But I do not know under what conditions and if there was a police presence to watch him," he said.

Saddiq, who was under an international arrest warrant requested by a Lebanese prosecutor, was detained in October 2005 in a Paris suburb in connection with the February 2005 assassination of Hariri.

France refused to extradite him to Lebanon because it had not been given guarantees that he would not face the death penalty if convicted.

Saddiq's family says it has had no contact with him for two months.

Newspaper reports in 2006 quoted him as saying that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his then Lebanese counterpart, Emile Lahoud, ordered Hariri's assassination in a massive Beirut car bombing.

A political crisis that has rattled the country since the murder is widely seen as an extension of the regional confrontation pitting the United States and its Saudi ally against Iran and Syria.

Source: AFP

Free Tibet

Most of you have probably seen what happened during the Olympic relay in London and Paris. At times it was funny to watch the frightened faces of the person carrying the Olympic torch, and how the policemen slip and fall trying to stop the protesters from reaching the torch, not to forget the fire extinguisher.

Not to give the wrong impression I do support and respect the right of people to choose the way they want to live and be governed, and to do whatever it takes to achieve those goals. But then again, one must use logic, to compromise on specific goals in order to reach other goals when things seem to be complicated and there is no other way around them. May I also add that by saying "do whatever it takes" does not mean to go off and start terrorizing others in the sake of a free nation, because the life of a person is more valuable than a thousand nations.

So therefore I agree with the notion of a 'Free Tibet' whether or not Tibet was always part of China or not.
The Dalia Lama said "Based on my belief that the only way to achieve our goal is through dialogue and peaceful human contact, I have, over the last fifteen years, tried to engage with the Chinese government in serious negotiations on the future status of Tibet. Tibet has been an independent country for over a thousand years, and I believe that the Tibetan people do have the right to choose independence. However, it is also a political reality that Tibet is now tinder Chinese rule".

And the Chinese government says "anything except independence can be discussed".

Here is where the Tibetans have to compromise. Should the Tibetan leaders negotiate the Chinese and secure the sustainability of their culture, heritage and religion, and then build on that to create a more prosper nation within a nation, would be the best solution, because logically no external pressure on China due to the Tibetan issue will be able to force the Chinese to give more to the Tibetans than the Chinese are ready to give. After all China is a rising super power, and who wants to pressure something like that?

Anyways, whats interesting is that the issue of Tibet only comes in times like these, I rarely hear of any protests going on here supporting a Free Tibet, and the stories that I hear about the Chinese human rights violations are sometimes too extreme, that I give the Chinese the benefit of the doubt.

here is the link to the bbc where videos of the protests are shown.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7334545.stm

Muslim Brotherhood: Opposition?

After the semi successful protests that took place in Egypt on the 6th of April, in which the muslim brotherhood didn't take part in, are yet again calling for their supports to boycott the local committee elections in Egypt, which has sparked alot of confusion to whether the muslim brotherhood, are really opposing the current government or supporting it.

It wouldn't make sense for any reason to boycott these elections, because no matter what, there will be elections, and if the two members of the ruling party win in the elections then that will be an excuse for the current government to say that the majority of the people in Egypt support the ruling party, and it is only a minority who are provoking these protests and strikes. That is the case if the elections are not rigged in the first place.

On the other hand, there would be no blame on the opposition if they went into the elections. They will show that the elections are rigged, in the case the ruling party gain a landslide win, which will give the opposition more valid reasons in order to go against the ruling party. And in the case the elections are legitimate, then they should gain more power in the government, or at least in the local committees, which is a step forward.

I really do not understand the reason why the muslim brotherhood decided to boycott the elections, as it is not in the favor of the opposition in my opinion.
I apologize if my analysis has been shortsighted but this is how i see it, and i completely disagree with the decision of those that are going to boycott the elections.

6th of April: what is going on?

In response of the strikes and protests in Egypt that took place on the 6th of April, Egyptian police detained tens of people in a couple of districts that are being accused of instigating protests and strikes, whereas clashes between people and riot police took place in the city of Al mahila al kubra.

Sources have said that more than 10 members of the "kefaya" movement have been detained in Cairo and sent to a central security camp. In the city of Balteem in Kafr Al Shyekh 8 protesters were detained one of which is a woman, who were trying to organize a protest in the city.

Notable arrests have been that of the head member of the committee of freedoms in the journalists union, Mohammad AbdulQudus and the secretary general of the suspended labour party, Majdi Husain, whereas sources have reported that 55 people have been injured during the clashes, 5 were police officers.

Witnesses have said that they saw protesters attacking police cars, and tore the pictures of the two members of the ruling party in Egypt that are running in the elections of the local committees which will take place on Tuesday.

Witnesses have also said that the police in Mahila (considered to be Egypt's largest industrial area) used tear gas and rubber bullets to separate the protesters whom in turn bombarded the police with stones, as well as breaking the windows of taxi cars and a passing by train.

Police said that before clashes occurred, 200 people were detained.

In response to the protest calls, people in the Suez ceased their activities, and according to sources from "Kefaya" and the movement of Independence of Universities, said that attendance of students dropped in Universities and schools, in both Cairo and Al Geza, which witnessed an unusual absences.

Almouftinoun

Al mouftinoun are people who create 'fitna'. Fitna is the short movie created by the racist Deutsch politician Geert Wilders.

If you have seen or heard about the fitna movie, this is the response created by the Arab European League.

Follow Up: Egypt

For the latest news on what is really going on in Egypt right now check this other blog out:

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/

People Rise in Egypt

For the first time people in the an "arab" country have decided to go against their government in a pursuit to change the status quo in Egypt. I cannot recall anytime in any "arab" country where the people, the citizens of that country have ever been the reason for the fall of a government, a corrupt government, and a corrupt leadership.
This has to be one of the most exciting times the "arab nation" is going through, I just hope that this would carry on and not end by tomorrow, I hope that the people have finally awaken to the injustice they have been dealing with for so many years, and I just hope that if this succeeds, for it to carry on to other "arab" nations.
This shall be the start of the end of the injustice, persecution and humiliation of the "arabs"/muslims in the "arab" countries.

The True Message of Islam

A speech by moez Masoud showing one of the many virtues of the Quran and islam.