After a Virginia, USA school decided to sell their used Apple iBook laptops really cheap, panic and stampede ensued, as humans exhibited their worst behavior. The local newspaper, the Times Dispatch also has an article and even a slideshow showing people pushing and trampling on falling fellow human beings. Slashdot also has some comments, some from those who attended.

Ahmed Mattar أحمد مطر is an Iraqi poet who have been living in exile for decades, most recently in London.

His style is somewhat reminiscent of Nizar Qabbani نزار قباني but does not have the latter's knack for vulgarities and themes of womanizing.

His poetry is extremely critical of rulers of Arab countries, lack of freedoms, the use of torture, clinging to power at all costs. He also laments the general situation of Arab societies.

Yet another contributed Drupal module that I have written! This new Drupal module allows jobs and resumes to be posted and for job seekers and employers to search them.In effect you can build your own mini monster.ca or workopolis.com web site using this module.More information on the job search project page.

Two presidential candidates in Egypt's upcoming elections have withdrawn from the race. Nawal el Saadawi withdrew her candidacy a few  days a go, though I doubt that she would get much votes, being on the fringe as far as most Egyptians are concerned. A few days later, Saad Eddin Ibrahim also withdrew from the elections, and also said he is boycotting the election, calling it a "farcical electoral process". He said that some people outside have been deceived by the recent cosmetic and token changes, and that the new election laws effectively prevents independant candidates from running.

Ali Abdullah Saleh has been president of Yemen for 27 years. On Sunday July 17, 2005, he announced that he will not seek re-election next year.

This move is unprecedented in the Arab world, where no head of state leaves office voluntarily, whether they are monarchs or so-called presidents.

Here is another Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Fraud Scam that uses a Christian theme.

Any rational person knows that a certain symptom has to be analyzed before its real cause can be diagnosed, and that a correct diagnosis is necessary before the symptom/problem can be treated or cured. Terrorism is no different. If one remembers the first few weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks, there was a lot of discussions in mainstream media about why they hate us and how America's foreign policy played a major role in that hatred. However, as you also may remember, the discussion quickly shifted into belligerent jingoism where Americans were made to believe that they are hated because of democracy and freedom, thus justifying the invasion of Afghanistan and later Iraq.

V for Vendetta is a graphic comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. It explores how oppression causes liberation and resistance movement to develop, and often the latter commit atrocities and abhorrent acts in the name of good causes.The hero, the enigmatic masked V spearheads a ruthless resistance movement that uses terrorist tactics. He takes under his wing a young woman that he previously saved. She begins to question the tactics used. Tagline: "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." As I discuss in another article, the comic book shows that often moral ambiguity and rationalization of atrocities are more prevalent than most people want to think, and that there is a fine line between resistance and terrorism. 

By now the identities of the July 7, 2005 London suicide bombers are known from effects they left on the scene, and possibly DNA testing.

Britain seems to be in shock that they are British citizens and not foreigners. An article tries to probe how Britian's multiculturalism fits (or conflicts) with all this, and probes why there are angry young Muslims there. Partially the problem has to do with how some Muslims struggle to fit in within a Western society, how they may be alienated by racism they experience, as well as how angry they are at images of Muslim troubles worldwide, from Kashmir to Palestine to Bosnia.

Recently, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times has an overall positive article urging others not to see Muslims as suspects after every terrorist attacks. He states:

"The West will do it in a rough, crude way -- by simply shutting them out, denying them visas and making every Muslim in its midst guilty until proven innocent."

However, as usual with Friedman's articles, he has some valid points, mixed with some dubious claims or faulty conclusions. For example, he claims that Muslims do not denounce terrorism enough, and cleric are silent against it.