Someone lost a lot of weight and other important news

Here comes a hodge-podge of bits:

First, here is one of the BBC Arabic anchors. He has lost a lot of weight. What's going on?

He's called Mohammed Saif Al Nasser. I think that means: Mohammed the Sword that is Victorious. Good for him.

Then, the BBC Arabic covered the fact that Obama was in Ethiopia, where he said that South Sudan is doing very badly:

And finally, there's been protests in a refugee camp north of Jerusalem:

I didn't quite catch what it was about. But you can see that people are out in force.

Morocco and Ebola

There is not ebola in Morocco, but the other day the BBC Arabic had a call-in show or was maybe interviewing a panel of experts on precisely this topic anyways.

It was because Morocco is refusing to host the African Cup, which is a soccer tournament, because they are afraid that ebola will spread to their country. So, the African Cup has kicked Morocco out of the tournament altogether.

The callers into the program had all sorts of opinions from:

Morocco is letting fear-mongering run away with them, and now we won't be in the tournament, and it's not fair.

to...

Morocco did what they had to do.

Return to Rwanda

(February 11, 2014)

Here's a story that the BBC Arabic covered on Rwanda. It is a little rare for the BBC Arabic to cover Africa when it is not a major news story. If the peace talks or the conflict is happening in real-time, then of course they will run a story on it.

But this was different, this was more of a reflective piece. I'm only including it here because the UN was all over it. I've always liked the UN, but I just cannot believe how it pops up in every vital, important effort. I never saw that before I watched the BBC Arabic.

The story is about people who fled Rwanda 20 years ago during the genocide, and who still live in the Congo. Here, a UN worker (in the blue shirt) has come to try to convince them to return home.

Many do not want to return. One man said: it doesn't help for the UN to tell us that life back in our society is better for us. We are Rwandans, we know very well what happens over there.

And another man said: people say if we return, we'll be hit, others say we'll be burned. We don't know what's true and what's not.

And the UN worker said: returning can be a matter of life and death. They want to feel like they can trust in their safety before they return.

Here are UN peacekeepers currently in the Congo:

Here is a lush green valley where some of the refugees live (I think):

Fleeing Bangui

(February 7, 2014)

These are Muslims who have been kicked out of their homes in the Central Africa Republic:

That was how the BBC Arabic would introduce the clip: hundreds of thousands of Muslims are fleeing because they are being attacked by the Christians in the area.

But, when you listen to the whole news story, you learn that those Muslims had move to the area only a few months before. As far as I could tell, there had been a coup by a Muslim president, and taking him as their cue, his fellow Muslims had decided to move to the new area. 

But now, the coup is over; the Muslim president is gone; and the Muslims are being attacked; and so they are leaving, under the guard of international peacekeepers. They are going to Chad. I didn't understand all the details there. I wonder why they are going to Chad, because I don't think the report said that they originally came from Chad.

The BBC Arabic has been reporting from the Central African Republic for a while related to this on-going struggle. Sometimes, they focus on the fleeing Muslims and the attacks they face; and other times, they mention that during the presidency of the Muslim man, a lot of Muslims attacked a lot of Christians in equally brutal ways.

Luckily, when the Muslim president saw his country exploding to pieces, he decided - or was persuaded - to give up the power that he had kind of stolen. So now, this lady is the temporary president:

And here is one of the French peacekeepers helping the evacuation of Muslims:

Both the temporary president and the peacekeepers have a lot of work to do, because there's still a lot of tension, and a lot of crime happening that goes unpunished. For example, if I heard correctly, the military is accused of killing some people. The UN has called for an investigation, but it does not appear that will happen. In spite of the new president, things still seem dangerous.

Mr and Mrs A

(December 10, 2013)

On the day of Nelson Mandela's funeral, the BBC Arabic showed footage of all the world leaders gathered there. They kept showing this clip of my two favorite people ever, and no, I am not talking about Tony Blair.

The BBC forgot the mosque

(December 7, 2013)

Check out this article. There's a paragraph in it that says:

Sunday has been designated an official day of prayer and reflection and President Jacob Zuma urged South Africans to to go to stadiums, halls, churches, temples or synagogues.

Isn't that odd? Stadiums, halls, churches, temples, synagogues, and no mention of a mosque. I thought, how strange, because when I heard the interpretation of the live speech on the BBC Arabic, the interpreter definitely included 'mosque'. So was the interpreter making things up to suit his vision of the world, or did the BBC in English forget about mosques?

I went to the original source, the speech transcripts as released by the government of South Africa. In it, the president is quoted as saying:

We call upon all our people to gather in halls, churches, mosques, temples, synagogues and in their homes for prayer services and meditation, reflecting on the life of Madiba and his contribution to our country and the world. (Jacob Zuma)

Isn't that crazy? I searched for the phrase "stadiums, halls, churches, temples, or synagogues" and that exact string was used in lots of news articles on the topic. I don't understand why they all just dropped the 'mosque' and added 'stadium' as a replacement. I mean, I know we're annoying, but really?

Central African Republic

(December 6, 2013)

There is fighting between Muslims and Christians in the Central African Republic right now. The UN voted on Thursday to send French troops, along with African troops, to act as peace-keepers.

This is a good chance to compare BBC Arabic and AlJazeera coverage. On Thursday, the BBC Arabic reported on the UN vote, plus showed footage from CAR: destroyed villages, ghost towns, and people whose parents had been killed and were now in hiding.

I was too tired on Thursday to check what AlJazeera had to say, so I did not check until Friday. I don't have access to AlJazeera television in Arabic, but I could go onto their website. They also had a story about the UN vote in the CAR, but it did not mention the killings and awful things happening. It just reminded the reader that France is a former colonial power and that it is very surprising and suspect that a former colonial power has, within the space of a year or so, sent its troops to two former possessions (CAR and Mali.)

I guess that is fair to point out, and on Friday, in between the Mandela coverage, they talked about that on the BBC Arabic, as well. But at least they pointed out both sides on the BBC Arabic. If there is ethnic cleansing happening, someone should stop it.

Mandela

(December 6, 2013)

Nelson Mandela's death was announced Thursday night (my time). On Friday morning, the whole of the BBC Arabic television coverage was Nelson Mandela, except for a half hour here or there where they also covered a bomb in Yemen, John Kerry's quotes on Israel, and some other things. Here's a synopsis of the Mandela coverage:

One angle taken was: does the Arab world need a Mandela, and has there been any Arab leader that behaved like Mandela? It turns out that Mauritania and Sudan both have had presidents who only served for one term, instead of trying to become a ruler of light and eternity forever. But, as was also pointed out, such examples are few and far between, and subsequent rulers do not share the same ethics (Sudan's current president, for instance, is wanted at the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide.)

They broadcast the speeches of Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, while the BBC interpreter translated into Arabic. The president said: "gather in your churches, temples, mosques, synagogues to pray." It took the interpreter a while to get "synagogue" out of his mouth!

When South Africa's president referred to Mandela as "Madiba", the interpreter said the same. So "Madiba" is a term known even to Arab audiences. The interpreter sounded very sad, either as though he'd been crying, or as though he was tired from a cold.

From 9 am to 10 am, the BBC Arabic transmitted an hour-long show about Mandela's life. It was in English, with Arabic subtitles. I think an Arab audience would have found lots to appreciate. For example, the show interviewed people in South Africa from the time when Mandela was imprisoned. Here's a quote: "If you asked 10 white people in South Africa, they would all tell you that Nelson Mandela is just a black terrorist." Seeing his reputation now, that must be heartening to lots of Arabs who were watching.

Another bonus was that the documentary interviewed a man called Ahmed Kathrada, one of Mandela's closest friends who was imprisoned with him. He has an Arab name.

On the other hand, the show also had past clips of Mandela interviews, in which he said: "We were not terrorists. We NEVER ATTACKED INNOCENT PEOPLE. NEVER." Ahem, ahem.

The American news is also grieving. But I did not know, until I watched the movie "The Butler" this summer, that the US was basically the last country to put economic sanctions on South Africa. They did not teach us that in school! And they did not mention this on the American news, either.

But neither did the BBC Arabic news mention western support for Apartheid back in the day, so far as I was watching and understood.

The BBC Arabic showed the message of condolence filmed of the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. He quoted Mandela as having said: "the struggle for freedom in South Africa will not be over until the Palestinians are also free." You can believe this was not mentioned on the American news, either.

More clips from the BBC Arabic:
- The leaders from Hamas had a spokesman give his condolences
- In Iran, they had a prayer session for Mandela, during the all-important Friday prayers, led by someone someone Khatemi. Woah.
- Lots of praise from Egyptian and Lebanese analysts. I am amazed! I am not used to Arabs praising anyone other than themselves!

Some of the analysts interviewed were reminding the new leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, etc, to take Mandela's example of not holding on to power, and of stepping down after a single term. 

Here's an Arab journalist who was remembering what a special day it was when she got to interview Nelson Mandela, and how she could tell what an awesome person he was, and how it was so very evident how respectful he was towards women:

From 11 am to noon, there was a call-in show where everyone across the Arab world could call in and give their thoughts about Mandela. I only saw the last half, unfortunately, but everything I heard was very positive about Mandela.

One question the moderator asked was: Do Arabs need a Mandela?
The answers: yes, yes, yes.

Half the reason were: Arabs need to learn Mandela's lesson of forgiveness and getting along with your former enemies. The other half of the reasons were: Mandela's long time in prison before his freedom is an inspiration to Palestinians sitting in Israeli prisons right now.

The BBC Arabic had been roaming the capital of Morocco, Rabat, and interviewed random people on the streets on their reactions to Mandela's death:

"Mandela was a something something democratic" (all positive)

"A great man, a solution for everyone that goes by racism."

"He was a great man" + other stuff I did not catch

 "It's a great loss" + other stuff

Zeinab, a lady living in the UAE, called into to say, yes, the news here is of course covering the death, and Mandela is a symbol of peace and against racism. 

Moderator asks: when Mandela left prison, he could have taken revenge and taken up arms, but he did not, he chose dialogue and compromise and peace. Can Arabs learn from this?

Zeinab: what Mandela did is what you're supposed to do as a Muslim, and although we don't do it now, that spirit is within every Arab and Muslim.

Another lady called Jowaan al Ayoubi called in: there is nothing that can be said to properly praise Mandela. A symbol in all people's hearts and he was in prison for 27 years and he left prison in peace, and spoke in peace to all the world's people. He lived in poverty and oppression ...

Moderator: so how can Arabs learn from those lessons?

Jowaan: no, no! That will never happen, because Mandel had such high morals and character. That is what led to the entirety of the world's people to want to follow him even though we were not coerced by weapons. This does not exist among Arabs.

Moderator: don't you think that a period can come when there is an Arab Mandela with the same high character?

Jowaan: well, maybe we can dream about it, but ...

(I am not making this up!) You can watch the call-in show here.