3 posts tagged “olympics”

I was going to blog today about how ridco it is that the Bejing Olympics has managed to fake just about everything possible from fireworks to kiddies singing.

Then I came across a fantastic blog by a young egyptian guy. No doubt it hasn't even graced the pages of an Aussie newspaper but the big news here has been about how a very famous Lebanese singer was murdered in her apartment in Dubai recently.

The news reports coming out about the murder were all over the shop. I have constantly been seeing reports that contradict each other... first it was suicide, then murder. First the hitman got away, then he was caught. First the hitman was killed in custody, then he wasn't. Then I read about how an Egyptian newspaper had been pulled off the shelves after implicating a very high profile Egyptian in the case. Hmmm.... I guess it shows a little how news is reported on here... or not reported on. I always thought you should make sure you have your facts right before publishing a story.

Being Egyptian this bloggers post shed a little more light on the behind the scenes of this story. Got to love how the government have the ability to dictate the news in this region.

On a lighter note his blog has a hilarious account of a recent engagement party he attended. I would pay good money to take a few of my closest friends to this party for a good old laugh...

Yay the Olympics are upon us. A whole month where you don't have to think about what to watch on TV, the choice is always, Olympics. It is the first time for me to watch it outside my home country, which so far has been interesting. In Aus, they prioritise the sports that Aussies are competing in, but the UAE only has eight athletes.... It's going to be amusing to see what gets priority.

I had the joy of watching the opening ceremony at my local (an Aussie themed bar called Bidi Bondi) in Arabic. Hard to know what the hell was going on or who we were looking at on the screen. But fun all the same. Usually in Aus the swimming events dominate the first few days of the Olympics.... not here. Instead we had the joy of watching women's handball (you wouldn't mess with those women they look like they would eat you), a little boxing and some shooting of course.

I was thinking that the Olympics is probably the only sporting event where Israel competes against the rest of the Arab world. However, I wasn't surprised when I went to Arabian Business's site this morning and its leading story was about how an Iranian swimmer had pulled out of his heat because he would have to compete against an Israeli. Apparently Iran and Israel haven't competed against each other at the Olympics since 1979.

I also found out, and I guess if I thought about it for long enough I could have figured it out on my own, Saudi's team includes no women. And that of the eight Emiratians in the team, two are sheikhs and two are sheikhas. One of them, Sheikha Maitha Bint Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is competing in Taekwondo is Sheikh Mo's daughter.

There is rumour about that Dubai is going to put in a bid to host the Olympics... In a place where construction ventures only previously thought of as a dream come true, it would certainly be able to handle the games. Typically held in August... the summer heat could prove a trifle difficult for the marathon runners!  

I don't even need to rant about this article I don't think.... perfect example of the local 'news.'