the synthetic jungle

Pork hits Qatar like a hurricane

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:23:49 -0800

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Eman al-Obeidy "deported" from Qatar

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:40:00 -0700

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#FIFA rules to suspend Bin Hammam

Sun, 29 May 2011 12:37:00 -0700

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A day of #fakeprotests in Qatar

Sun, 29 May 2011 12:36:00 -0700

The scene at Rumaillah Park, where alleged protests and the ensuing police crackdown was supposed to occur

Full details of the fake protest here as well as some analysis of the reasons behind it.

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Dorothy Parvaz is free!

Wed, 18 May 2011 03:12:00 -0700

That's the news that broke this morning on Twitter by @FreeDorothy:

YEAH! DOROTHY HAS BEEN FREED!!!! SHE IS SAFE AND SOUND IN DOHA FROM IRAN! THANK YOU FOR EVERYONES SUPPORT! SHE WILL BE COMING HOME SHORTLY

The Al Jazeera reporter was arrested at the Damascus airport nearly three weeks ago, and subsequently deported to Iran.

She is safe and in good health, Al Jazeera English reported.

Fiancee Todd Barker, who has flown to Doha to meet Parvaz, told the Seattle Times he received a phone call from her last night at around 9:30 p.m.

"The family and me are elated, and we're really grateful to the Iranian authorities who treated her very respectfully," Barker said. "It's over."

He added that the first words she said to him were: "I'm so sorry." He said Parvaz should arrive in Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday or the day after.

Parvaz will head to Canada shortly, reports say.

Check back here for updates on Parvaz throughout the day.

UPDATE: Seattle Times: Barker said that Parvaz told him that she had been held in solitary confinement in Evin prison in Tehran. She was questioned by Iranian authorities and kept from contacting her family during the time, but she told him that she was treated well and respectfully.

This post also appears on Doha News

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New DCMF director vows to take measured approach

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 02:00:00 -0700

By Omar Chatriwala and Shabina S. Khatri

The Doha Centre for Media Freedom has been promised "full freedom and full support" from its government-appointed advisory council, its new director, Jan Keulen, said at the launch event of its new English website.

The 61-year-old Dutch journalist is the former programme manager of Free Voice, a Netherlands-based non-profit media organisation that promotes media freedom in developing countries. He was brought on board to re-launch the centre after an almost two-year hiatus, following former director Robert Menard's abrupt departure.

Keulen is no stranger to the Middle East, and made clear he plans to take a more measured approach with the centre than his predecessor.

"Freedom is not the same thing as anarchy, and we have to build freedom. If you are impatient, freedom will never come," he told local journalists at the Sharq Village and Spa yesterday.

In his presentation, Keulen emphasized that the centre will focus on training and research efforts, in addition to the resumption of its "direct assistance" programme to journalists in need.

Qatar focus

The journalist and author, who has reported out of Beirut, Amman and Cairo, also indicated that he will push for media freedom in Qatar.

"I'm going to work hard to make the centre a credible organisation. We want to serve the Qatari media sector," he said.

"I need the help of the media. Without your cooperation, this centre is not going to work."

Speaking at the launch event, Dr. Hamad Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, Qatar's Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage and chairman of the centre's advisory council, stressed the importance of a free and vibrant press amidst the current upheaval across the Middle East.

The Doha Centre for Media Freedom is a non-profit organisation founded in 2007 and funded by the Qatari government.

Al Kuwari assured those gathered that the government would not interfere in the activities of the centre.

When he and the centre's new director were asked about long-awaited reforms to Qatar's media law, Keulen said:

"I don't want to go into the details of the proposed press law - it is my first week on the job, and that would be very arrogant of me," Keulen said. "But to my understanding, it is a proposal, and we hope to weigh in on the debate."

Criticism

Days into his new job, Keulen is already drawing the ire of some local media, including the Peninsula, which criticised the choice of a non-Qatari citizen as director of the centre in a front-page editorial.

After the press event, the newspaper followed up with an article outlining some of the challenges the centre will face:

To be credible one needs to be concrete and punctual, and we need to deal with the actual and real problems of journalists in Qatar. The risk is that this centre turns into an empty box, an organisation with a challenging name, but with its hand tied.

Rising from a governmental initiative and not a private one, can have this disadvantage. The main problem of journalism in most of the countries in the world is not related to counter powers, but to central power.

For his part, Keulen, has promised to dedicate his tenure to shoring up media freedom in the Middle East.

Iterations of this story appeared on Doha News and the Doha Centre for Media Freedom

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Qatar: A World Cup in the Clouds

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 02:00:00 -0700

A report of a remote-controlled, solar-powered hovering shade, which could be used to cool soccer stadiums in Qatar, has taken on a life of its own, putting the small but wealthy Gulf nation in the spotlight once again.

Almost a week ago, The Peninsula newspaper wrote a brief, three paragraph article describing research at Qatar University for an "artificial cloud", attributing the story to an Arabic newspaper.

Two days later, the story made it onto the BBC Sports page, this time including an animation of the robotic "cloud" from Qatar University. And then the next day, it was on CNN:

And by now, it's had a run in Time, NBC Sports, Fast Company, Bldg Blog, the Daily Mail, Engadget, and io9, to name a few. Perhaps the most amusing - and most retweeted - take on the story though, was by Yahoo! Sports: Qatar stole its artificial cloud idea from television cartoon The Simpsons. In the legendary two-part 1995 episode entitled "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" nefarious power plant owner C. Montgomery Burns devises a plan to create a giant shield that will block the sun and keep Springfield in perpetual darkness:

Their claim that "while Qatar may have added their own twist ... the core idea is clearly ripped from a 16-year-old cartoon", even illicited a response from a former Simpsons show writer:

@thatbilloakley: Qatar better be paying me residuals on this idea: http://yhoo.it/g1EcMo

In its many iterations and reprints, the World Cup "cloud" story has garnered thousands of tweets.

@sgmansfield: Qatar to make man made clouds for the 2022 World Cup... anyone ever heard of sunblock? http://bit.ly/ghd2Ur

@staffordmasie: Nice! Qatar University to create artificial robotic cloud; potentially drop temps significantly on World Cup pitches http://t.co/RnleHP9

@mabdrabbo: Robot Cloud for Qatar 2022 WC ? Cool ! What about the noise of it ? http://bit.ly/dLRoKK #qatar #worldcup #2022 #football

Some joked:

@digitalcastro: Cloud Over Qatar Stadium ;) Great Idea http://twitpic.com/4dohml

@hmalsabah: Is this the Qatar Cloud taking over #kuwait? :p http://plixi.com/p/86752846

Others, however, have expressed exasperation at the seemingly endless life of this thinly-sourced story:

@DavidQatar: @james_Corbett this cloud story is spreading like wildfire-no connection at all to Q2022 - one prof at qatar uni muses on his research..boom

@dohanews: Is the Qatar World Cup artificial cloud story going to circulate on Twitter forever and ever??

Whether or not this US $500,000 construction will be gracing the stadia of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar though, remains to be seen.

This post originally appeared on Global Voices Online. You can also read a Storify version of the post.

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A Libyan in Qatar: I'm very happy that the uprising started

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 02:00:00 -0700

DOHA, Qatar -- Libyans in Qatar support their host country's recent decision to join a UN-back no-fly zone in Libya - evidenced by a pro-opposition rally here earlier this week. While doing some background reporting for the Guardian on this article, I had a chance to catch up with two of the rally participants and put a few questions to them.

On a busy morning at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Doha's City Centre mall, I spoke with Karima Salem, a 25-year old IT specialist with Aspire Academy, as she nursed her cappuccino. At her side in the corner of the cafe, was her friend Lubna Sedig, 24. Both hail from the northwestern Libyan town of Zintan, but have been in Qatar fore more than a decade.

"I'm very happy that the uprising started," said Salem. "I'm proud of them, and just want it all to end, really... we didn't think they'd be able to do it by themselves."

"We've been glued to every clip on YouTube, and on the TV... I watch Al Jazeera, also Press TV, and a channel we found - it's called France 24, we were watching it last night."

On the subject of International intervention in Libya, she said: "I was very happy to hear that Qatar was sending their forces there to help ... some Libyans were not happy to hear that the Americans and the French were there ... it's kind of ironic that in 86, the Americans were bombing us, and now they are bombing with us."

Is she disappointed at limited Arab support for the Libyan opposition and rebel fighters? "In fairness to Egypt and Tunisia, they said they were ready to support the uprising. But in others, Syria and Algeria, we are disappointedm and definitely in the other Arabs."

"I don't blame Tunisian and Egypt, they went through a lot as well."

Salem and Sediq both expressed regret over the death of Ali Hassan Al Jaber - an Al Jazeera cameraman and Qatari national killed while reporting on the uprising in Libya - as well as Al Jazeera journalists detained in the country for weeks.

"My friend and I just want to say that I'm sorry for the Al Jazeera reporters that are being held there ... I think they've been doing an amazing job - fantastic. Al Jazeera is well known for being bold, and for what they say," said Salem.

Regarding Qatar's decision to act in Libya, despite other Arab & Gulf countries rejecting the idea, she said:

"On Qatar's part, it's probably a political move as well. They have the American base here ... I mean to say, it's probably in their interests as well. [But] Sheikh Hamad was one of the first to condemn what [Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi was doing."

The girls say they will probably move back to Libya once the uprising succeeds and things settle down. Although not closely related, they are of the same tribe in Zintan.

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Qatar residents turn out to support intervention in Libya

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 11:37:00 -0700

Scores of people rallied outside Libya's embassy in Qatar on Sunday, calling for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to go.

"I want [Gaddafi] dead - definitely I want him gone," Mustafa Sharif, a 48-year-old Tripoli native, told Doha News on the sidelines of the rally. "We're here to support our people and tell them we are with them."

The event appeared to be government-sanctioned, with a dozen or so policemen cordoning off the area but not making any attempts to break up the crowd of around 100 men, women and children.

Wielding signs and waving opposition flags, the demonstrators chanted, "One, two, three, four - Gaddafi, no more!" whilst Al Jazeera's cameras rolled.

"We didn't know what was going on [in Libya] until Al Jazeera went there," said Hoda, a Saudi artist living in Qatar who is married to a Libyan man.

"Libya is supposed to be one of the best countries in the world ... it has so much money. Gaddafi does't deserve to be president."

Oil-rich Libya has $70 billion in assets and a sovereign wealth fund whose fate has become uncertain since unrest spread throughout the country last month.

Photos from the demonstration

Umm Dareen, a 30-year-old Egyptian woman at the protest, said she attended the rally out of solidarity with her fellow Arabs. But she added that she felt the situation in Libya is very different to that of Egypt, whose long-time president, Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down in February amid popular unrest.

"In Egypt, all the country was on one side - only the president was on the other," she said. "In Libya, people are divided."

Military intervention

As the crowd in Doha chanted "Libya, freedom freedom - Gaddafi, out out", US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen announced Qatari aircraft were taking position near Libya as part of a US-led operation to established a no-fly zone.

The moves by the UN-backed coalition aim to halt Gaddafi's assault on Libyan anti-government forces in the north of the country.

"We all agree on the no-fly zone to protect our people," Sharif said.

Ayman, 37, another Tripoli native at the rally, expressed gratitude towards Qatar for supporting the Libyan people.

"Qatar has been very supportive - letting us protest, participating in the no-fly zone," he said. "[Gaddafi] has been killing our families, and we want this to end."

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Denied entry to Bahrain

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:27:00 -0700

Bahrain awoke to a violent crackdown by police on demonstrators camped out at the country's iconic Lulu (Pearl) roundabout on Wednesday. That afternoon, I boarded a flight from Doha, Qatar to Bahrain, to see for myself what was unfolding in the island nation I once called home.

Hours later, I found myself on a flight back to Doha, without having been allowed to set foot out of Bahrain's airport in Muharraq.

The flight itself was quite uneventful. The plane - an Airbus A321, with a listed 177 passenger capacity - carried less than 30 people. A short line to immigration meant I was at the desk in minutes. Immigration officer asks, "Where are you coming from? Qatar? OK, 5 Bahraini Dinars."

Thumbing through my passport, he suddenly stops and looks me in the eye. "Wait, where are you from? Who do you work for? ... Please have a seat - over there." I can't be sure if it was the Iraq visa, the India visa, or the numerous Qatar & Saudi visas in my American passport he found suspicious. Or perhaps it was my telling him in Arabic that "my origin" is half Indian, half Hispanic.

So my wait began. There were quite a number of other people on the benches too. Anyone who'd arrived with the intention of driving across the King Fahad causeway into Saudi Arabia was being told they'd have to fly. There is a curfew in effect on Bahrain's main highway from 4pm-4am, and last I heard, the bridge to Saudi was closed indefinitely. This of course, due to the month-long protests against the government by opposition groups calling for democratic reforms, a constitutional monarchy and basic human rights.

After about an hour of waiting, and checking in a couple times to see if there was any problems, one of the immigration officers asked, "You used to work for Al Jazeera, right?"

Yes, but I left in November. Now, I actually lecture at Northwestern University in Qatar, and report freelance. "Please, wait."

At one point, I was joined on the immigration benches by journalists from Radio France, UK's Channel 4, and a Japanese photographer. A Ministry of Information officer eventually arrived to check their credentials, and after an hour or so, let them through.

"And what channel are you with?" he asked me. I'm not with a channel, I freelance and teach at a university... "Oh, OK, please wait."

Checking back in at three hours, I asked immigration what the story was. "Please accept our apology," the officer says. "It is too dangerous for you to go to Manama, there is a curfew there, so we cannot allow you for now". Look guys, I really don't work for Al Jazeera (they're banned from working in Bahrain). When will I be able to go? "It will be fine in two or three days, please come back then".

Disappointing for sure, but others had more on the line in Bahrain than I. It was about 5 hours in total until I was actually handed back my passport, alongside a boarding pass for a flight back to Qatar. How they add it up - who gets in, who doesn't - I have no idea. Apparently journalists from the BBC, CNN & the US-funded Arabic-language network Al Hurrah were also turned back.

The Doha return flight - aboard a huge Boeing 777-300, with 335 passenger capacity - was packed. The Russian fellow next to me told me he'd been dogged by the protests, having first stayed at a hotel near Lulu Roundabout when things first got started on February 14, then near the Financial Harbour when that was the scene of demonstrations, then finally at a hotel in the current curfew zone.

Throughout the trip, I didn't have access to the Internet, so kept in touch - and tweeted - via SMS. Upon arriving in Doha, I found I'd missed a complete outpouring of support on Twitter and elsewhere. So to all those who tweeted at me, retweeted me, emailed, Facebooked and more, thanks!

Read this story as it unfolded on Twitter:

Iterations of this post appeared on Boing Boing, Global Voices Online and Doha News

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Al Jazeera cameraman killed in Libya

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:51:00 -0800

Versions of this story appeared on Boing Boing, Global Voices and @DohaNews.

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Qatar's dangerous roads - a special report

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 06:15:00 -0800

Photo by Rana Khaled

For the past five weeks, I've been working with a class of 11 third-year journalism undergraduate students at Northwestern University in Qatar. The curriculum for the Advanced Multimedia course: to investigate an important issue in their community utilizing all of their multimedia reporting skills.

On Thursday, the team of up-and-coming journalists accomplished just that with the launch of Qatar Behind the Wheel . The in-depth report on traffic accidents and road safety in the wealthy Gulf country features articles, videos, photos and data visualizations - all hosted on a custom-built website.

Their findings - based in part on government statistics from the last four years - show an abnormally high percentage of deaths coming from road collisions and make clear that Qatar has much work to do before it welcomes the international community in 2022 for the FIFA World Cup.

Check out the site and leave a comment: http://qataraccidents.org

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Misinformation in the Egypt uprising

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:57:00 -0800

Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera

Widespread protests against the government of Egypt, and specifically longstanding president Hosni Mubarak, are stretching into a seventh day unabated.

Demonstrators continue to rally in the streets across the country calling for Mubarak to step down. And Twitter has been alive with facts, analysis... and well, sometimes speculation.

Check out the piece I wrote for Boing Boing to help separate some of the truth from fiction: "Egypt Lies I Read on Twitter: Debunking Rumors & Misinformation"

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Egyptians in Doha protest against Mubarak

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 03:11:00 -0800

See the full gallery on Posterous

Around 100 people gathered in Qatar to protest against the Mubarak government of Egypt, in a sign that the Gulf nation is not completely isolated from the unrest witnessed in other parts of the Middle East.

The crowd - decked out in Egyptian flags and wielding signs - assembled after Friday prayers in the capital Doha, a block from Egypt's embassy, which had been cordoned off by police. Authorities, meanwhile, sought to deter onlookers from joining the protest, saying it was a banned assembly.

See the full gallery on Posterous

After chanting slogans calling for democracy and an end to President Hosni Mubarak's rule, protesters held janazah (funeral) prayers on the street for those killed during recent demonstrations in Egypt.

The protest in Doha on Friday was in solidarity with much larger rallies being held in Suez, Alexandria and Cairo, in Egypt.

Less than an hour after the gathering began - and at police urging - the demonstrators began to disperse, chanting a thank you to Qatar for allowing them to have their voices heard.

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Flying while blogging

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:42:00 -0800

See the full gallery on Posterous

I know the technology has been around for a little while, but this is the first time I've flown with wi-fi on the plane.

To my understanding, it was previously only available on cross-continental flights in the US, like New York to San Francisco, for example.

This is only a 1.5 hour hop though, Detroit to Memphis on Delta Airlines. Plus, internet service is apparently free this holiday season, thanks to Google sponsorship.

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The 99 teams up with Justice League America

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:00:00 -0800

See the full gallery on Posterous

In the City of Tomorrow - a place purpose-built for mankind to live in harmony - strife is the order of the day, and Superman has given up on humanity. Diana Prince, better know as Wonder Woman, is left to pick up the pieces with the help of a trio of teenage superheroes - members of a group called The 99.

That is the opening of JLA/The 99 - a new crossover series between DC Comics and Kuwait-based Teshkeel Comics. The six-part miniseries debuted in October with issue 1, bringing for the first time The 99 into the American mainstream.

Launched in mid-2006, The 99 centers around a teenage group of heroes (and villains) who hail from 99 different countries, and derive their powers from the (fictional) ancient Noor Stones. In real life, they’ve generated considerable interest - and controversy - because the heroes’ powers are inspired by Islam and the 99 attributes of Allah.

The rapidly expanding superhero franchise is the invention of Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, a clinical psychologist licensed in New York state. A busy man,Dr. Naif frequently travels between New York and his home country of Kuwait, where he lectures at a local medical school and runs the Middle East’s largest private mental health facility.

Between landing in Boston and delivering his keynote speech at Harvard University one weekend, I managed to put a few questions to Dr. Naif about his creations, and the tie-up with DC Comics.

Justice League America/The 99 issue #2 is out now - how has the series been received so far?

From what I can tell - very well. There’s a lot of positive reviews online, both for the storyline as well as, conceptually, the need for this project. Initially, when we first announced the (DC Comics) deal back in 2009, there were some negative comments and a lot of positive ones.These really negative ones were basically based on fear.

You know we have this saying in Kuwait that when you get bit by a snake, you become afraid of rope. And so people basically projected onto The 99what their worst fears were. And I think the comic book coming out, and the positive storyline and the fact that there’s no religious storyline whatsoever in them, helped dissipate all those fears. I saw that come down dramatically after people actually could see and judge it with their own eyes.

Inter-company crossovers aren’t that common are they? How did you get tied up with DC Comics?

We started as DC’s partner in the Middle East, so we started translating Batman and Superman and Justice League into the Arabic language for a while. And by doing so, formed a very good relationship with DC comics.

After the (US) president was inaugurated, there were rumors that he was going to be reaching out to the Muslim world from one of the Muslim countries. Nobody knew where or when, but I immediately went to Paul (Levitz, then DC’s president) and said, “Hey, you know, Marvel pulled a quick shot when he became president.” They put Obama on the cover of a Spider-man magazine, which became one of the best-selling magazines they’ve had for a while.

I said, “But you at DC comics have the opportunity to implement President Obama’s vision in the fictional world.” And I pitched him the idea that Obama would reach out to the Muslim world, and in return, The 99 would reach right back out to their American counterparts.

The storyline would start with distrust, as there’s not much trust between them because of the bad guys - and then move over to trust by the end of the storyline. So that’s the only way you can really deal with these global threats. That’s kind of how it came about.

How old is The 99 now?

As an idea, it was born in the summer of 2003. As an actual product, the summer of 2006. So four years. From that time to the time they showed up on the same page as Batman and Superman was only four years.

Lets get into the background of The 99 a bit more - is there a greater aim of the project, or is it simply to entertain?

For me, I can’t separate one from the other. The product is a pure entertainment product - nobody’s religion is ever discussed, nobody’s politics are discussed, the characters are from 99 different countries. There’s something in there for everybody to identify with, no matter who you are, no matter where you’re from, no matter what you believe or don’t believe.

Now my kind of talking about how it’s been inspired by Islam, and talking about the archetypes I use, you know, basically, is my personal struggle for my own kids’ identity, because I believe very strongly that if you tell a child enough times that they’re stupid, they’re going to believe that they’re stupid, and if you tell them they’re a terrorist enough times, they’re going to start believing they’re terrorists.

So I became very concerned with the fact that most of the people portraying Arabs and Muslims in film are (as) not good guys, and then I think, especially with the media being very much stronger in the US, then that goes global, and you kind of (start to) see yourself in that way, and I think it’s very polarising.

I thought, you know what, let me move the conversation somewhere else, let me create my own universe, where good and bad are defined by universal things that everybody shares - doesn’t matter what your religion is - yet also shows that this is part of Islam.

Have you seen my TED Talk by any chance? Even Superman and Batman are basically Judeo-Christian archetypes. Like the prophets in the Bible, they’re all orphaned, they’re all missing parents. Like the prophets, they all get their message from above through a messenger.

The idea is there are archetypes within these books that obviously have survived time for a reason, and people kind of identify with the storyline. I thought, let me go to the Quran, pull out archetypes and build modern day story lines.

So it just comes down to good storytelling...

Exactly, good storytelling, it’s entertainment. And yet, guess what, it’s tied to the same place the bad guys tie their message. And what that does is it confuses the system, because all of a sudden, the bad guys become bad guys with bad messages, and you de-link them from the religion. Because if the same place can inspire the terror you see in the world, and can inspire superheroes and theme parks and animations that are fun and universal, guess what - the problem’s not the book, the problem’s the person that read the book.

How did everything move so fast, from four years ago having the first comic printed...

The comic book series, we have around 32 now in print, and they’re out in eight languages.

What really helped us is basically, the New York Times interviewed me early December 2005 and sat on the story, because Islam and comics wasn’t really a timely story - and then the world erupted in the Danish cartoon controversy.

So all of a sudden, the New York Times was sitting on a timely story, and even though I didn’t have a product yet, on January 22, 2006 they did a full page on us and The 99 in The New York Times - in the Sunday (edition of the New York) Times. And that led to just unprecedented worldwide coverage, you know, from Tripoli to Tokyo, thousands and thousands and thousands of newspapers and magazines. Time (magazine) three times covered us, Newsweek twice, Wall Street Journal on the front page.

And that led to all kinds of stuff that, you know, we had no business being able to do early on, like selling rights into different languages. So its out in Chinese, Indonesian, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, Arabic, English... We were able to license a theme park which opened in Kuwait a year and a half ago.And then we were able to do back-to-school products, you know as consumer goods.

But the biggest thing we’ve done to date is the animated series, which comes out globally in 2011. It’s co-produced with Endemol, which are the guys who did Big Brother, Star Academy, Deal or No Deal. It’s written in Hollywood by the writers behind Ben 10 and Batman and Superman. It’s in 3D CGI, one of the first animated series ever to be in HD format, and we’re already in the middle of writing season two of the animation.

So basically, this is the biggest step for The 99 so far...

It’ll be the biggest one to date. We’re negotiating live action right now. But that will of course be to a different audience - that will be more to a PG-13 crowd.

Oh, live-action?

We’re in discussions right now, we’re negotiating something. But right now, what’s definite is we started writing season two of the animation, season one will be on air beginning of 2011.

The reason I can’t talk about it is it’s not set in the schedule and when it’s time, I’ll do all the interviews in one shot, but I’ve largely been quiet about it. There’ve been all kinds of conspiracy theories as to why I’m not speaking about it, some are fun to read, but none of them, from what I’ve seen, are true.

President Obama gave you and The 99 a shout-out earlier in the year - any plans to collaborate with the White House?

There hasn’t been. I know they’ve been very supportive - as have other governments, including my own in Kuwait. And I’m not a US citizen.

Obviously, everybody has their own agenda, and as much as our agendas collide, I’m happy to be kind of, you know, helpful. But we’re a for-profit company, we don’t have any government money. I’m backed by investors and investment banks, and funds that are looking for a return in this lifetime. I have actual exits in mind. So in as much as there’s no collision of those things, I have no issue working with anyone.

Back on The 99 - 32 issues out now, how many heroes have been revealed?

In the first year of animation - 16. In the comic books, around 30 so far.

And are all 99 going to be revealed?

I don’t know - most probably. And also, some of The 99, as they get older, will no longer be able to use their stone in a positive way, so someone else will inherit that stone. So there will always be shifts in terms of who Jabbar is, who Noora is, etc. So maybe we’ll be okay with 50 or 60 and conceptually do The 99, maybe we’ll do all 99, I don’t know yet.

How does the JLA crossover fit into the picture?

Right now it’s a six-part miniseries, then they’re going to compile them into a graphic novel and we’ll see. I hope for a relationship that works for both of us. It’s very exciting.

CREDIT: Graphics courtesy of DC Comics

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Aquila Asia does Hajj

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:55:20 -0800

Aquila Asia, a magazine oriented towards "cosmopolitan Muslim women", has covered the annual Muslim pilgrimage in its November/December 2010 issue, featuring a half dozen of my photos.

With offices in in Indonesia and Singapore, the magazine launched earlier in the year promising to promote issues important to women. The Hajj articles include special tips for women.

Check out the PDFs:

Mecca.pdf Download this file

HowtoHajj.pdf Download this file

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An irreverent Hajj primer

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:13:00 -0800

If you haven't seen it yet, check out my special feature article / photo story on Boing Boing today, meant to explain what goes on during the Muslim pilgrimage to non-Muslims.

As per the teaser above, its called Hajj for Heathens.

Worth reading the comments for the article too, and if you have a moment, see if you can't answer some of the questions people are asking there.

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Photos: Doha rising

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:28:00 -0800

See the full gallery on Posterous

As much of the world still struggles to recover from the global recession, Qatar - and its capital Doha - continue to grow rapidly.

Cranes grace the city's horizon in all directions. Each new project aims to be bigger, better, and more ambitious than the last. And throughout, efforts are made to try to marry modernity with tradition, albeit with varying degrees of success.

Check out the photo essay collaboration between myself and Shabina Khatri for QatarVisitor.com: Snapshots from Doha - Glimpses of a rising city

More photos from Doha are on Flickr.

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Hajj replay

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 11:54:00 -0800

Hajj is around the corner again, due to get started on November 14. Millions of Muslims usually engage in the annual pilgrimage to holy sites around Makkah.

Ahead of the pilgrimage, TriggerPit.com has put together a photo gallery and explainer of the rites, featuring many of the photos I took while covering it for Al Jazeera English last year.

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