Beginning

I hereby announce this blog started.
First, I feel obligated to acknowledge the person and the blog that inspired me first to start my own humble blog. I admire the constancy with which Riverbend documented her impressions of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 over the period of a few years in her blog "Baghdad Burning." Although I did my own share of critiquing her blog -- which was published later on in the form of two books by the Feminist Press -- she did add another political and academic dimension to weblogging.
Mine is not a political blog per se. It will be more of a mix of social, political, economic, cultural, and personal entries: news updates that are important to the typical Arab. I mean no essentialization here. I'm conscious of the fact that different Arabs from all over the Arab World belong to relatively different cultures that lack monolithity. However, Arabs have always shared a certain background and all that that distinguish them from other nations and influences their general interests and life similarily.

Also, please note that understatements are going to be a frequent occurence in my entries. I'd leave it to you to decide when and why.