Middle East - Anthony Ham [5]
Al-Bawaba (http://www.albawaba.com) A good mix of news, entertainment and phone directories, with everything from online forums to kids’ pages.
Al-Jazeera (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/) The CNN of the Arab world provides an antidote to Western-driven news angles about the Middle East.
Al-Mashriq (http://www.almashriq.hiof.no) A terrific repository for cultural information from the Levant (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Syria, Turkey). Some of the information is a bit stale but its range of articles, from ethnology to politics, is hard to beat.
Arabnet (http://www.arab.net) Excellent Saudi-run online encyclopaedia of the Arab world, collecting news and articles plus links to further resources that are organised by country.
Bible Places (http://www.bibleplaces.com) Interesting rundown on biblical sights in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
BBC News (http://www.news.bbc.co.uk) Follow the links to the Middle East section for comprehensive and excellent regional news that’s constantly updated.
Great Buildings Online (http://www.greatbuildings.com) Download then explore digital 3D models of the Pyramids of Giza and İstanbul’s Aya Sofya, plus lots of other info and images of monuments throughout the Middle East.
Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com) Up-to-the-minute news from an Israeli perspective. Sections include a blog page, tourism news and a link to the 24-hour Western Wall webcam.
Return to beginning of chapter
MUST-SEE MOVIES
The Middle East is so much more than a backdrop for Western-produced blockbusters such as Lawrence of Arabia, the Indiana Jones series and a host of biblical epics. For more on Middle Eastern film Click here. The following movies are likely to be available in your home country or online.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) may be clichéd and may give TE Lawrence more prominence than his Arab peers, but David Lean’s masterpiece captures all the hopes and subsequent frustrations for Arabs in the aftermath of WWI.
Yilmaz Güney’s Yol (The Way; 1982) is epic in scale but at the same time allows the humanity of finely rendered characters to shine through as five Turkish prisoners on parole travel around their country. It won the coveted Palme d’Or in Cannes.
West Beirut (1998) begins on 13 April 1975, the first day of the Lebanese Civil War, and is Ziad Doueiri’s powerful meditation on the scars and hopes of Christian and Muslim Lebanese. This is the film about the Lebanese Civil War.
Savi Gabizon’s Nina’s Tragedies (2005) begins with a Tel Aviv army unit telling a family that their son has been killed in a suicide bombing and ends with a disturbing but nuanced look at the alienation of modern Israel as it struggles for peace.
Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad’s Paradise Now (2005) caused a stir when it was nominated for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar in 2005. It’s a disturbing but finely rendered study of the last hours of two suicide bombers as they prepare for their mission.
* * *
The average age of people living in the Gaza Strip is 16.2 years, while for the West Bank it’s 18.7. Iraq (20.2) and Syria (21.4) also have young populations. Turkey (29), Israel (28.9) and Lebanon (28.8) have the highest average ages. The average age in the UK is 39.9 years.
* * *
The Yacoubian Building (2006), an onscreen adaptation of the best-selling Egyptian novel by Alaa al-Aswany, is a scathing commentary on the modern decay of Egypt’s political system. Its release marked the rebirth of Egyptian cinema.
Caramel (2007) is a stunning cinema debut for Lebanese director Nadine Labaki. It follows the lives of five Lebanese women struggling against social taboos in war-ravaged Beirut.
The biggest budget Egyptian film in decades, Baby Doll Night (2008) is at once a thriller with the threat of terrorism at its core and a thoughtful evocation of the complexities in relations between the Muslim world and the West.
Return to beginning of chapter
TRAVELLING