3 year anniversary

Well, activity is a little low right now (but more is to come) - I do however want to commemorate that now in late November is the 3 year anniversary of this blog! I began in November 2005... not bad! I certainly never imagined it at the time and have appreciated the energy I have put into this hobby-project enormously. I hope you can enjoy further!

Sharjah mosque

The Sharjah heritage area housed this pretty mosque by the corniche.

Bloggers

Bitte Hammargren of Svenska Dagbladet highlights bloggers in the Arab world in her most recent post.

I've linked this post from Pop the casbah before but it's a good overview on the same topic. Also Global Voices gives you more links to Middle East bloggers!

Downtown Sharjah

Sharjah looks sort of like old Dubai, but nothing like the new Dubai.. do you follow me?

Last picture shows the fort amid the more modern bank buildings.

Museum of Islamic civilizations

The Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization is the nicest I have seen in the UAE so far. It even had a nice cafeteria and a really decent museum shop! Really good exhibition on Islamic science to, with interactive aspects.

Brief Central Asia update

Afghanistan is slightly outside what we usually think of as Central Asia, but is firmly geographically in it. Al Jazeera ran an update on the war against drug production.

Human Rights Watch reports on the situation for women in Kyrgyzstan.

Maybe most important and interesting in this selection is the interviews with the Swedish journalist who reported from Andijan in Uzbekistan - here from Svenska Dagbladet. We never went to the Ferghana valley during our visit earlier this year, but having seen the country it still feels urgent.

Sharjah corniche

More sights along the Sharjah corniche. I guess Gulf trade has looked pretty much like this for a long long time - and the mix and mingle between old and new is fantastic.

Turkey

One of several postings of links - a little bit thematized this time... - that have been waiting for quite some time for me to publish. If I find I have more within a reasonable timespan - I will probably add and republish...

BBC reports on the renewal of historic wine-making, - not wholly uncontroversial...

BBC also discusses the status of historic churches in Turkey - museums or living shrines?

A paper by Svante Cornell and Magnus Karaveli ask whether AKP and their particular brand of modern Islamic politics will reform Turkey?

ICG explores Ankara's relations with Kurds in Iraq and the Barzani administration in the north.

The mayor of Batman dislikes his namesake film, reports Dagens Nyheter...

Karin Olsson from Expressen discusses reforms in Turkey in view of the Swedish Eu-preisdency 2009.

Hosn fortress in Sharjah

In downtown Sharjah, between the heritage and arts areas, a replica of the old fort, rebuilt by the current Sheikh from memories of his childhood, stands as a museum.

Sharjah, like the Creek area of Dubai, has a more genuine and old-fashioned feeling (even if it is hardly really old by regional standards).

Sharjah dhow harbour!

Walking along the Sharjah corniche, this is what meets the eye. My favourite is the first picture, with any number of cars on board a dhow, but the leopard sofa further down is great too!

Film from Afghanistan - the Makhmalbafs do it again!

This time it is Hana Makhmalbaf who directs a new Iranian film on children in Afghanistan. I'm sure it is both beautiful and heart-wrenching and would love to see it.

In Stockholm, it opens tomorrow at Zita.

Friday update: Dagens Nyheter meets Hana Makhmalbaf.

Looking forward

After a period of low activity here i now do have some new photos. However, my camera and my computer are not fully cooperating with me, so it may yet take some time before I can show you dhows and abras and other aspects of UAE boating life - recently taken during some excursions last week.

I also have a shot of the new apple of my eye - an Iranian nomad playing an important role in my everyday life.

But I can share a couple of links (out of a large accumulated mass of links yet to be sorted and commented...) on a Swedish visiting programme for young Arab leaders and on programmes for visiting Arab journalists.

11/11 - 90 years

It's 90 years since the First World War ended on the western front - symbolically with a truce beginning at 11:11 on the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

In the part of the world where I move it has profoundly changed history and geography. The map and developments in the Middle East were changed to the core and the parts which were not sorted out but frozen still haunt us. At home in Sweden, we were less involved, but of course not unscathed.

Niclas Ekdal previously of Dagens Nyheter sees important similarities with our time.