Month: July 2013

Alarabiya news channel just another propaganda tool

In the past the news channel in the middle east were nothing other than propaganda tools,

they were tools to influence the public opinion, but since a decade the Arabic news channel AlJazeera have tried to change this reality.

Al Jazeera was the first western style news channel in the Arab world, it was covering stories with as much professionalism and objectivity as top western news channels (like the BBC for example).

AlJazeera was always covering the news from the Arab population point of view (which often contradicts with the interest of Arab monarchs and rulers), many attempts were done to silence this channel, but the best attempt was launching a competing channel called “Alarabiya”

I’m not a big news junkie, so for me visiting these sites was on rare occasions, until the recent Arab spring events, when i started checking the news of the region more and more.

It quickly came to my attention that Alarabiya is actually just another propaganda tool, it was so biased that it no longer even tried to give the impression of neutrality or objectivity.

The simple rule that apply to the Alarabiya coverage is the “Saudi foreign relations”,  When saudi arabia monarchy support a team, Alarabiya will portrait this team as Angels, and when the monarchy opposes a team, the Alarabiya will show the team as devils !

Nothing worth commenting or criticizing, because that’s the state of most news channels in the region!

The drop of water that is too much:

The reason i decided to write this blog, has nothing to do with the political agenda of the alarabiya but rather with the propaganda nature of the channel,

i came across an article about how Saudi arabia got 2 bronze medals in the chemistry Olympiad in Russia, the article had a picture of 11-12 kids with the flag of saudi arabia held by saudi student, in addition to other flags held by other students, the article goes on and on about how proud the minister of education is, how the state took care preparing these candidates etc ….

except 1 issue they did not mention the rank of KSA or the number of medals other countries got (see below), because when put in perspective, the achievement done by saudi student is very weak , and it shows the weakness of education in KSA, this might bring dissatisfaction from the population, to avoid that, Alarabiya transformed the 2 medals into an accomplishment ,  the same way the communist propaganda media operates!

 

Here’s the count of medals: (judge by yourself, whether 2 bronze are worth applaud of the education system or criticism)

Country Name
Gold
China Yuyang Dong
China Weiwei Sun
Chinese Taipei Chun-Yi Chen
Korea JOON YOUNG HONG
China Zhihao Cui
Hungary Gergo Salyi
Korea Chi-won Hwang
Slovakia Štefanko Dominik
Belarus Sergei Kuzovchikov
Russia Nikita Shlapakov
Chinese Taipei Chih-Chun Pai
Singapore Anlong Chua
Kazakhstan Kairat Ashim
Poland Michał Magott
Vietnam Phan Quang Dung
Korea Dong-Han Shin
Turkmenistan GADAM MYRATGELDIYEV
Singapore Yuxin Cao
Singapore Yongjie Lin
Ukraine Oleksandr Vyhivskyi
United States David Lu Liang
Hungary Eszter Szekely
India Surya Sai Ritwik Nimmagadda
India Parth Shah
Thailand Jiratheep Pruchyathamkorn
United States Runpeng Liu
Ukraine Andriy Stelmakh
Kazakhstan Azim Amanzholov
Chinese Taipei Ching-Ting Tsai
Ukraine Mykyta Onizhuk
Poland Tomasz Damian Kudłacz
Uzbekistan Bekhzodbek Boltaev
Russia Evgeny Gulyak
Moldova Serafim Buiucli
Silver
Austria Felix Eder
United States Stephen I-Ming Ting
China Peiyao Wu
Poland Piotr Krzysztof Wróbel
Azerbaijan Balagardash Cabrayil Bashirov
Vietnam Le Duc Viet
Czech Republic Roman Beránek
Thailand Tas Yusoontorn
Korea Jin Wook Rhyu
Germany Maximilian Keitel
Russia Artem Boichuk
Germany Morian Sonnet
United States Saaket Agrawal
Turkey Mustafa Başaran
Hungary Peter Bolgar
Norway Xiaotian Li
New Zealand Feng Zhou
Chinese Taipei I-Hsiang Li
Iran Mahdiyar Amani Tehrani
Czech Republic Adam Přáda
India Avishek Das
Romania MARIA ANDREEA FILIP
Australia Alexander Matthew Turner
Australia Samuel Jacob Alsop
Japan TOSHIYA FUKUNAGA
Slovenia Nejc Čeplak
Indonesia Ryan Bagus Fitradi
Thailand Watchara Ouysinprasert
Japan KOICHI OKAMOTO
Austria Martin Reiterer
Czech Republic Kamil Maršálek
Iran Hirbod Heidari
Indonesia Ivan Kurniawan
Belarus Aliaksandra Dzemidovich
Romania DUMITRU CALUGARU
Indonesia Putu Ivan Budi Gunawan
Iran Ashkan Khavaran
Vietnam Ho Quang Khai
Japan KOICHIRO MASADA
Denmark Frederik Munkholm Soendergaard-Pedersen
Japan TAKAHIRO HANEBUCHI
Lithuania Dovydas Draksas
Croatia Ivan Jakovac
Lithuania Antanas Radzevicius
Belarus Andrei Shved
Vietnam Nguyen Quoc Anh
Belarus Mikalai Artsiusheuski
Thailand Sirajuk Khongviwatsathien
United Kingdom Kwong Ching Philip Leung
France Valdo Tatitscheff
United Kingdom James Pinder
Romania ADRIAN MURGOCI
Lithuania Vytautas Peciukenas
Hungary Czipo Bence
Slovakia Stanko Štefan
Serbia Isidora Banjac
Russia Michael Iagofarov
India Anmol Arora
Slovakia Malinčík Juraj
Serbia Marko Nešić
Germany Can Philipp Kocer
Latvia Mikus Puriņš
Iran Arya Aminorroaya
Poland Paulina Mieldzioć
Bronze
New Zealand Scott Huang
France Jean Michalland
Armenia Vardges Tserunyan
Bulgaria Vasil Hristov Vasilev
Austria Paul Lorenz Türtscher
United Kingdom Guy Lewy
Australia Chenming Tang
Ukraine Khrystofor Khokhlov
Latvia Ervīns Cauņa
Lithuania Violeta Stojalnikova
Turkey Kerem Muslu
Argentina Priscila Vensaus
Canada Ji Sup Kim
Slovakia Nociarová Jela
Singapore Haitian Fang
Canada David Pechersky
Romania MIHAI GRIGORE PRUNA
Denmark Frederik Brændsgaard Nørfjand
Indonesia Jason Mahadika Nathanael
United Kingdom Ravi Ajay Shah
Kazakhstan Zhassulan Binazar
Argentina Paula Florencia Borovik
Brazil Nicholas Costa Lima
Estonia Maria Krajuškina
Tajikistan Samaki Valizoda
Canada Isabelle Yang
Italy MATTIA CALVELLO
Kazakhstan Bogdan Zagribelnyy
Azerbaijan Sona Adam Guluzade
Italy LORENZO TERENZI
Spain Damia Torres Latorre
Netherlands Johannes Cornelis Jacobus Mertens
Malaysia Jer Yong Chan
Argentina Lautaro Vogt
Mexico JULIO CÉSAR GAXIOLA-LOPEZ
Croatia Mihael Eraković
Turkey Nesibe Akmanşen
Germany Conrad Maximilian Szczuka
Switzerland Patrik Oliver Willi
Croatia Zvonimir Jurelinac
Mexico ARTURO MARTINEZ-FLORES
Costa Rica Marlon Enrique Varela Suárez
Turkey Furkan Tozkoparan
Austria Felix Frank
Croatia Filip Kozlina
Brazil Maurocélio Rocha Pontes
Slovenia Patrik Gubeljak
Pakistan Muhammad Ahmad Khan
Armenia Vahe Gharakhanyan
Finland Kim Kristian Kuntze
Tajikistan Behruz Nosirov
Estonia Lona-Liisa Sutt
Czech Republic Kryštof Březina
Moldova Alexandru Cotos
Israel Marah Zubi
Cyprus Soteris Soteriades
Estonia Uku Erik Tropp
Moldova Laura-Iuliana Munteanu
France Clement Robert
Latvia Gatis Ogle
Switzerland Boris Lukas Stolz
Denmark Ada Maria Krzak
Slovenia Matic Proj
Italy VALERIO LOMANTO
Uzbekistan Dilshoda Doniyor qizi Artikbaeva
New Zealand Ka Yin Keniel Yao
Syria Issam Alannouf
Pakistan Muhammad Zain Raza
Australia Ben Alexander Francisco Anandappa
Spain David Prieto Rodríguez
Saudi Arabia Ahmed Mohammed ALFAIFI
Malaysia Ziqing Liew
Cyprus Filippos Ioannou
Brazil Vitória Nunes Medeiros
Syria Yazan Ghannam
New Zealand Xin Yi Ou
Brazil Lívia Rodrigues de Araújo
Peru Alberto Einstein Flores Turpo
Israel Ori Taichman
Uzbekistan Biloliddin Baxtiyor ugli Sharobidinov
Switzerland Mario Michele Oreste De Capitani
Israel Ronny Frumkin
Netherlands Ymro Nils Hoogendoorn
Serbia David Koprivica
Pakistan Huda Zahid
Saudi Arabia NORAH ABDALLAH ALSABTI
Cyprus Christos Miliotis
Denmark Theodor William Lundberg
Tajikistan Somon Hakimov
Peru Alexander Francisco Segovia Razo
France Dorian Canham
Bulgaria Tsvetelin Iliyanov Iliev
Israel Roi Elia
Latvia Artūrs Šilovs
Honorable mention
Belgium Annelies Landuyt
Spain Sergio Cuesta Galisteo
Estonia Mihkel Kotli
Uruguay Ana Paula Nova Roybal
Norway Marianna Wrzos-Kamińska
Sweden Samuel Nils Johannes Backman
Canada Sabrina Ge
Bulgaria Boyan Ivanov Peychev
Cyprus Maria Fala

 

 

Blogging the free media

This is my 100’s post, to celebrate it i’ll write about Blogging!

In these times when Media outlets are supposed to be independent & neutral, while they have proven themselves again and again not to be, blogs are offering some fresh air of free and independent opinions!

Sometime ago, the media used to care about small and medium businesses, we used to see reports or interviews on TV and articles in the press, this has decreased dramatically, instead businesses are relying now on  Blogs outreach to tell their stories, if this indicates something, it definitely indicates the smaller and smaller role mainstream media have in our societies!

More and more people are getting their news from websites instead of the TV station, and more and more people are getting their news from websites that are not affiliated with media conglomerates!

DragonFly year

For a couple of years, i have been noticing weird insect swimming insects in the small pond near my house, i wondered what they were, but never had a way to find out, i guessed they were larvea / nymph for something but never was interested enough to do an extensive investigation.

Year to year, i had an impression these insects are getting bigger …

This year to my surprise, they went up the plants in the pond and started metamorphosing !

And this helped me realise finaly that these were dragonflies, and dragonflies may stay in larval stage from 6 month – up to 5 years , depending on the species of dragonfly!

So either, the species in my pond stays a long time in larval stage ( few years)
Or simply the weather conditions were adequate this year, not too hot (around 24-25 celcius) and raining very very often ( at least once every 3 days)
Previous years, at this time of the year, the pond used to be dry or at best having verry little water!

I can’t really determine whether this species takes too long to morph or simply the weather conditions were inadequate.

I imagine such images could be of some scientific importance, so you are free to use them without attribution (won’t mind if you can link to this post though 🙂

I’ll try to take as much photos as possible, ps these photo were not taken same day, the 2 groups of photos have 4-5 days between them.

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