Qatar 2022 World Cup: When Israeli reporters faced the naked truth

One week passed after the start of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

For the first couple of days, we had this rainbow controversy that faded away, the Iranian national team saga and the Serbian national football that made it clear it won’t surrender Kosovo.

We also had a bunch of Israeli reporters covering the Mondial who are shocked to see that they are being met coldly by Arab fans attending the great world event that is being hosted by an Arab country for the first time.

Palestinian flags stalked Israeli reporters at the World Cup in Qatar

Arab fans made sure that Palestine reach Israeli households as it seems in the first week of the World Cup.

Here was the correspondent of Israeli public correspondent Corp “Kan” attempting to have an interview with a Qatari vender in a Qatari bazaar in some local market and the young man refuses.

Post COP27: Minimum levels of wins for everybody

The 27^th United Nations Conference on Climate Change “COP27” concluded on Sunday after two dramatic weeks with a statement that included a minimum level of wins for everybody and a huge concern for future COPs as fossil fuels companies are gaining more power and power.

The COP27 logo inside the conference in Sharm El-Sheikh "Bloomberg"

The biggest achievement we have is the victory of the island nations and developing countries in establishing a loss and damage fund.

Yes, it will take years to have this fund operating for real but we all saw the battle those nations had to fight in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Another interesting achievement was recognizing the food problem aka “safeguarding food security and ending hunger”. 

keeping the limit of global warming to 1.5 C as it was another achievement.

Qatar World Cup 2022: A small step towards a greater achievement towards human rights

Qatar managed to do the impossible for real in hosting this World Cup tournament.

The impossible is not building huge stadiums and luxurious hotels thanks to the efforts and sweat of thousands of workers from around the globe, especially from Asia.

Germany's national team wearing "human rights" on their kit last year 
Photo: AFP

The impossible is not about insisting to hold the most important sports event after the Olympics despite the turbulent decade in the Middle East where Qatar played a role larger amazingly than its size and population wisely.

Kodak Agfa Presents: The Blood Moon of Cairo

It is another belated, truly belated post. But once again it is not late to celebrate 2022’s last blood moon lunar eclipse.

Earlier this month, exactly on 8 November Earth had a lunar eclipse that many countries witnessed.

We were among the countries that witnessed

It was the first time I witnessed a blood moon in the mid of the buzzing Downtown Cairo.

I could not take more photos because I did not have my tripod where I was standing.

Siri, show me orientalism in Qatar World Cup !! Tukoh Taka as an example

Two days ago, FIFA has launched its official fan festival anthem for the Qatar World Cup. It is the first “fan festival anthem” for the world cup.

It is called “Tukoh Taka”. It features Nicki Minaj, Maluma and Lebanese singer Myriam Fares. It is in English, Arabic and Spanish.

Myriam and her backup dancers 

Myriam appears while wearing some exotic dancer's suit, it is not even a traditional belly dancer's suit and you got the backup dancers wearing golden veils and I do not understand what the hell that was " I am sorry dear Ruby for slamming you decades ago when you sang while wearing a belly dancer suit in Holland" 

I do not know what “Tukoh Taka” means but I know the song is an insult to the Arab culture and is a blatant example of orientalism.

COP27 at Sharm : 1.5C fight , loss and damage at Santiago Network and some interesting numbers to share

The 27th session of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change “COP27” is going to conclude after hours following many other hours full of drama, political, and economic talks about the future of Planet Earth's environment in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh.

At the loss and damage meeting in the COP27 on Wednesday in Sharm 

In the past 48 hours, news reports came that we as people from the developing countries in the global South should not have our hope high because it seems the conclusions and recommendations as well as pledges of the globe North will be less impressive of the COP27 than the conclusions, recommendations and pledges announced in COP26.

According to official and unofficial sources openly and off the records there are divisions about issues including whether rich nations should set up a fund to cover irreparable damage being wrought by climate change, language addressing fossil fuels use and whether 1.5C should remain the explicitly targeted limit for planetary warming.

Remembering Professor Hamed Gohar: A long belated respect for an Egyptian and Arab scientist

Google celebrated in the Arab world celebrated on Tuesday the 115^th of Egypt and the Arab’s founding father of oceanography Dr Hamed Gohar with a cute and geeky doodle.

Dr Hamed Gohar featured on 15 November's Google Doodle in the Arab World 

Thanks to Google, many Arab newspapers from the Gulf to the Ocean ran small news reports about who that Egyptian scientist was and how he was the first in his field in the region as well as he tried to spread his knowledge to the public audience through his famous nearly two-decades-long “Sea World” on Channel Two on Egypt’s State-owned TV.

World Cup 2022 Qatar: Too late to complain

Just days before the start of the World Cup 2022 in Qatar, there is a noticeable campaign against the Gulf state and its human rights record in the media.

Doha with that huge World Cup 2022 installation 
Photo :Bloomberg 

We suddenly found FIFA's former boss Sepp Blatter who is corrupt from top to bottom saying days before the start of the most important football tournament saying that choosing Qatar was a “mistake” and actually it was a deal and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was behind it.

One week of COP27: Important numbers in the World Climate Coachella’s first week

One week has passed after the launch of the meetings of the 27^th session of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change “COP27” in Sharm El-Sheikh under Egypt’s presidency and there are significant numbers that were shared in those seven days.

The most important and alarming number of all is the annual global carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from fossil fuels and cement in 2022.

COP27 gate in Sharm El-Sheikh "AFP"

According to the Global Carbon Project’s “Global carbon budget 2022”, global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are projected to hit an all-time high in 2022.

The Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and cement have increased by 1.0% in 2022 and the new estimates suggest, hitting a new record high of 36.6 billion tonnes of CO2.

The report attributes the increase in fossil emissions in 2022 to be primarily driven by a substantial increase in oil emissions as global travel continues to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. Well, one look at Sharm El-Sheikh airport and we can see why.

The Coal and gas emissions grew more slowly despite both having record emissions in 2022 from what I understood. You can read more in that report at the World Economic Forum.

It amazes me how this report is not front and centre in the discussions of COP27.

11/11: Busy day in Sharm El-Sheikh's COP27

Worldwide 11/11 is officially associated with the famous Chinese Singles Day or Double 11, the unofficial holiday and shopping festival that celebrates singles and targets them.

Originally a bunch of Egyptian websites, shops and restaurants were planning to jump into the commercialization wagon (you can’t blame them in a time of economic crisis) but now 11/11 has become another thing.

It will be the day that the first US president visits Egypt since 2009 despite it will be a short visit. US President Joe Biden is heading to Sharm El-Sheikh to participate in the 27th session of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change aka COP27 before embarking on a tour in Asia.

Biden in COP26 "Reuters"

It will be a busy day in Sharm El-Sheikh because, on the same day, Saudi Arabia is having its own eco-summit in Sharm El-Sheikh (Do not ask me why they are holding it in Egypt) and of course, there are many questions about whether Biden will meet MBS.

#COP27 in Egypt: Possible Little less action, a lot of more talk ?

You probably know that Egypt is currently hosting the 27th session of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change aka COP27 and you probably following all the controversies following the COP this year which is to be expected.

A COP27 sunset "AFP"

Yes, it has been only 48 hours or actually 24 hours after the first day of the World Leaders Summit which the Egyptian Presidency called "The implementation summit” and there is a small victory which shows the true problem of COPs: This year the activists and global south governments from developing countries managed to include “Loss and damage” onto the agenda of the COP27.

Thursday rave and rants: #Ep4 “Halloween’s special : A girl called Safsaf”

Here is the latest episode of my Podcast in Arabic “Thursday rave and rants” and yet I publish it on Friday instead of Thursday. I am sorry for that but those days it is not easy for real to keep things on time.

Here is the fourth episode of the podcast, it is a Halloween special that should have been broadcasted on Halloween eve but the original plan failed and I released it on Thursday instead.

You can hear the episode on Apple Podcast here.

I apologize for the sound problems but I recorded the episodes in parts.

The boy worker who brought a boy King back to life

On that day from hundred years ago, there was a boy who should have been playing like the rest of the boys of his age but instead, he was working alongside his father and his clan in very hard conditions. 

He was commissioned to bring water to a camp and to serve that camp's local workers and those foreigners with tea as they dug and searched in the rocky valley that looks more like a mountain than the usual valley in your mind for old treasures.

Hussein Abdel Rasoul 

His name was Hussein Abdel Rasoul and he was only 12 years old he discovered the first step that led down to King Tutankhamun’s tomb thanks to his water pottery jar according to the legend the rest was a new history by all measures.