al-Jazeera is ****ing awesome!

[Zoid]

I've only had the english version of channel for a few days, but I'm impressed. Impressed by the level of quality, the topics covered and byt he fact that there actually is a dissenting voice in this whole quagmire of Washington-directed crap that passes as "news".

I mean i've seen **** here that doesn´t even get mentioned in news media in Sweden or BBC or CNN... It's good, solid journalism showing the other side of the US war on terror and tearing down the western lies and propaganda!

[Spec]

And you are positive they dont have lies and propaganda?

Journalism is journalism.

Spec.

[Datajack Franit]

PRAISE ALLAH

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Spec
And you are positive they dont have lies and propaganda?

Journalism is journalism.

Spec.

Have you watched FOX News?

[Lorizael]

I probably shouldn't be posting in this thread, given that I'm on a government computer.

[Arrian]

It's good, solid journalism showing the other side of the US war on terror and tearing down the western lies and propaganda!

And no doubt advancing some anti-western propoganda. So, if you watch both, maybe it all cancels out... maybe.

Heh, I remember watching Iraqi TV during the invasion. That was fun, though I had no idea what they were saying.

-Arrian

[Q Classic]

Hey, Zoid? Take your anti-American bull**** elsewhere.

DON'T QUESTION THE TRUTH OF FOX NEWS!

[Combat Ingrid]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
PRAISE ALLAH

QFT


I read Al-Jazeera online occasionally, nice to get a different perspective once in a while

[Zoid]

To prove my point: I just watched a 5 minute piece on Venezuela! In Sweden it would've been a 30 second clip showing the "public uprising against the evil tyrant" And a 3 minute interview with our Foreign Minister saying Chavez is a problem and must be dealt with...

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Hey, Zoid? Take your anti-American bull**** elsewhere.

DON'T QUESTION THE TRUTH OF FOX NEWS!

[Asher]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/00D20179-FC51-4A77-B184-5B544EA9C0A3.htm

Canada's game
By Brendan Connor in Edmonton, Canada.

No love lost: The physical aspect of hockey is a key aspect for fans [GALLO/GETTY]
A lone figure darts back and forth on a frozen ice rink in a park on a sunny afternoon.

You can hear the sound of his skates slicing across the ice, carving and slashing as he builds up speed and executes tight turns.

That sound is accompanied by the echo of a frozen disk being jiggled at the end of a long stick, and occasionally fired against the wooden boards that surround the ice rink.

It's a sound that resonates throughout Canadian cities every winter.

The sport is hockey.




Here, it's never referred to as "ice hockey". It’s just "hockey" and it's Canada's favourite game.

Hockey's heartland

The city of Edmonton, in the western province of Alberta, was once key to the fur trading industry in this part of northern Canada in the 19th century.

It's now become a large and bustling place, and the people who call it home are a hardy lot. The winters are long and cold and the nights come early, but here, they actually welcome the arrival of winter, because it also marks a renewal of their annual love affair with the sport of hockey, and the NHL's Edmonton Oilers.

And there are few places where the game is more popular than here.

This team has been one of the most successful in the professional game in the last 25 years. Five times over that period the Edmonton Oilers have won the coveted Stanley Cup, emblematic of the championship of the North America-wide National Hockey League.

Rod Phillips is the play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Oilers, having broadcast their games since they joined the NHL in 1979.

He's seen it all, and has described hundred of goals by legends like Wayne Gretzky, Jarri Kurri, Mark Messier and other Oilers stars whose jerseys have been retired in the rafters of this arena and who are fondly remembered.

Asked to describe Edmonton's love affair with hockey and what it is about the sport that is so attractive, Phillips says he sees several reasons.

Matt Greene of the Oilers [GALLO/GETTY]
"I think part of it is because we live in a city that is a winter wonderland for 6 months a year, and hockey is a winter sport. We've all played it, and we all love to watch it at the top level.

"I would venture to say that nearly everyone at this game tonight has played hockey on some level, kids hockey, recreational, or more serious and competitive, at one point in their lives. It's something you grow up with here and it stays with you as a way of life in the winter.” he says.

"It's also a fast, exciting game. It's played on slippery ice, by players wearing steel blades. They skate up to 35 miles an hour, the players are big, and there are huge collisions, and hard shooting.

"Everyone in the league now can shoot the puck a hundred miles an hour. There a lot of scoring chances in a game. As spectator sport goes, it's fabulously exciting."

From his perch in the broadcast booth high above the ice surface, Phillips sees the plays develop. He sees the precision and crisp passing that leads to a goal, and will go as far as to call it “artistry.”

"The great players play it at a level where their creativity is beautiful. The game seems to slow down for them because they see everything. No-one was ever better at that than Wayne Gretzky. When you can be skating at breakneck speed, and fire a pass to a teammate who's also skating at full speed, and he can shoot it on a net which is a pretty small target, I think those skills are just fabulous," says Phillips.

A team for the people

Out in the arena's concourse before the game, Oiler fans treat this night out like a celebration of their team.

They stream through the souvenir shops snapping up the expensive team paraphernalia, they file up to the bar and concession stands to load up on drinks and food, and they'll happily tell you what they like about the game.

"It's our game. Everyone in Canada plays hockey!" says a fan named Duane.

"Yep, hockey since we were born. We love it" says a teenaged girl wearing an Oilers jersey, heading to her seat, loaded down with popcorn and drinks.

"It’s about the blood and sweat that goes into every play. It's an art form.” she says.

"I love hockey." says Aaron, while leafing through the jerseys for sale in the souvenir shop.

"It's fast, it's exciting, there's hitting, fighting, scoring. It's a game that has it all. Never a dull moment" he says.

"I think the athletes are impressive. In terms of physicality and emotion, when compared to other sports, they’re a 9 on a scale of ten." says a 60- year old fan.

"I'm new to it myself, but I like it" says Angus, a visitor from Scotland.

"The sport is fast, the players are huge. It’s great !"

Game on

Time for the game to begin and the gladiators emerge from their locker room and take to the ice, cheered by their adoring fans.

The TV broadcast people cover every nuance of the game for fans at home who haven't got a ticket to be here.

Eventually, the Oilers win over the Minnesota Wild with two late goals, and they leave the ice to cheers and congratulations all around.

And the people of Edmonton go home happy.

The radio talk shows that evening are full of analysis and the re-living of every subtlety of the game. People talk over their favourite plays and players as they leave the arena.

The next day, it's back to dealing with the winter in this northern city. Trying to embrace it, trying to enjoy it, and counting the days until the next Oilers home game.

[Harovan]

Why do you hate freedom and support terrorism, Zoid?

[Geronimo]

Re: al-Jazeera is ****ing awesome!

Originally posted by Zoid
I've only had the english version of channel for a few days, but I'm impressed. Impressed by the level of quality, the topics covered and byt he fact that there actually is a dissenting voice in this whole quagmire of Washington-directed crap that passes as "news".

I mean i've seen **** here that doesn´t even get mentioned in news media in Sweden or BBC or CNN... It's good, solid journalism showing the other side of the US war on terror and tearing down the western lies and propaganda!

How do you determine what is lies and propaganda?

Gut instinct? truthiness?

[Datajack Franit]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/32FAB544-A7F3-4AA5-B60D-BF348F32A1D4.htm

UPDATED ON:
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 02, 2007
11:53 MECCA TIME, 8:53 GMT


NEWS MIDDLE EAST
Cairo book fair sets religious tone
The Cairo Book Fair covers 80,000 square meters with some 1,400 stands of books and CDs [EPA]

Organisers of the Cairo Book Fair, the largest book exhibition of its kind in the Arab world, have said they expect some two million visitors on the fair's last day on Sunday.

Religious works have dominated the 39th annual Cairo Book Fair while literature and scientific texts have taken a back seat.

Millions of Cairenes have been thronging to the fair giving it an air of carnival on the vast exhibition grounds covering 80,000 square meters in northern Cairo with some 1,400 stands of books and CDs.

The fair easily dwarfs similar events held in Beirut, Abu Dhabi and Casablanca.


"It is a representation of the conservatism in society," said Adel Abdel Moneim, an Arabic language and literature lecturer, who has been coming to the fair for years, referring to the vast numbers of inexpensive religious books on offer.

"Still for someone who likes to read or follow new publications, the book fair every year is a golden chance," he said.

'Guest of honour'

Following the example of the Frankfurt Bookfair, the Cairo event has designated a country as a "guest of honor", with Italy this year following up from Germany's emergence last year.

The event has included literary salons held far from the restless crowds surging through the crumbling fair grounds including one featuring Claudio Magris and Antonio Tabucchi, Italian intellectuals and Alaa al-Aswani and Gamal Ghitani, Egyptian writers, discussing cross-cultural communication.

"We still have a long road to travel, but there are encouraging signs of dialogue between the cultures and that can take place through more mutual translations," said Antonio Badini, the Italian ambassador to Cairo.

"It is true that the number of publishers from outside the Arab world were rather few and we are trying to encourage them to come," said Nasser al-Ansari, the fair organiser and head of the country's largest publisher, the General Egyptian Book Organisation.

Naguib Mahfouz

By far the most popular figure at this year's book fair was recently deceased author Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt's own Nobel winner, whose novels about families in Cairo's popular quarters introduced Egyptian literature to millions around the world.

"I think that his [Mahfouz's] books will be the great success of this fair," al-Ansari said.

"Apart from the religious books of course."

Of the 700 Egyptian and Arab publishers at the fair, the vast majority stock religious books on their shelves.

"Even we reserve about a quarter of our catalog for them," al-Ansari said.

Television preachers

Korans of all styles, from the simple to the leather-bound, share shelf space with collections of religious sayings and fatwas as well as their more modern incarnations on cassettes and compact disks.

The collected works of late venerable preachers like Egypt's Sheikh Mohammed Shaarawi and Saudi Arabia's Abdel Aziz bin Baz were present as well, though there was stiff competition from the young "new look" television preachers like Amr Khaled.

"It's become a real business, but this fundamentalism comes from Saudi Arabia and stays with the cynical encouragement of the powers that be," said Alaa al-Aswani, a best-selling Egyptian author whose social satire the "Yacoubian Building" has achieved fame far beyond Egypt's borders.

Anti-Christian

The fair also has its darker sides, with anti-Christian polemics advocating conversion to Islam as the only solution to a flawed religion and of course plenty of editions of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" for sale.

"It makes up a big part of our success, especially among the 18 to 25 crowd," said Mahmud Abdallah of the Syrian-Egyptian Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi publishing house.

"Allowing the sale of books like 'Mein Kampf' is a total scandal," said Mohammed Arkoun, professor emeritus of Islamic history at the Sorbonne, for whom the Arab cultural production, at least as seen through the lens of the Cairo Book Fair, "reflects above all, a certain emptiness."

Censor

Partly this could be because certain books didn't make it to the fair. As Lebanese publisher Dar al-Adab discovered when the boxes containing works by Milan Kundera, Nikos Kazantzakis and noted Egyptian authors Nawal al-Saadawi and Edward al-Kharrat were missing.

"We knew from previous experience that the censor had banned them," said Nabil Nofal, a member of the sales team, adding that they never receive official notification or explanation for why the books weren't allowed.

According to literary observers, subject matters involving sex, controversial politics and attacks on religion set off alarms among the censors.

TEH RELGION OF PEAS

[Spec]

Originally posted by Zoid


Have you watched FOX News?

I am not comparing it to Fox News. You are picking the worst of the worst. Please...

Everywhere in journalism, you always have a percentage of lies and propaganda. May it be 5% or 95%.

Journalism is journalism.

Fox news, is not journalism.

Fox news up.

Spec.