text:
Richard Whittall:
The Globalist's Top Ten Books in 2016: The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer
Middle East Eye: "The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer is one of the weightiest, most revelatory, original and important books written about sport""The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer has helped me immensely with great information and perspective."
Bob Bradley, former US and Egyptian national coach: "James Dorsey's The Turbulent World of Middle Eastern Soccer (has) become a reference point for those seeking the latest information as well as looking at the broader picture."
Alon Raab in The International Journal of the History of Sport: "Dorsey's blog is a goldmine of information."
Play the Game: "Your expertise is clearly superior when it comes to Middle Eastern soccer."
Andrew Das, The New York Times soccer blog Goal: "No one is better at this kind of work than James Dorsey"David Zirin, Sports Illustrated: "Essential Reading"
Change FIFA: "A fantastic new blog'Richard Whitall of A More Splendid Life:"James combines his intimate knowledge of the region with a great passion for soccer"Christopher Ahl, Play the Game: "An excellent Middle East Football blog"James Corbett, Inside World Football
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
The Iran Nuclear Deal: Rewriting the Middle East Map
Posted by The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer at 6:03 PM 0 comments
Labels: Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, United States
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
American Pharaoh: Ex-U.S. coach Bradley has Egypt on brink of WCup (JMD quoted in SI)
Grant Wahl>INSIDE SOCCER
Former U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley is trying to lead Egypt to its first World Cup since 1990.
Look. There's Bob Bradley, the American coach of the Egyptian national soccer team. On a warm September night in Cairo, Bradley and his wife, Lindsay, arrive at the open-air El Prince restaurant in Imbaba, a vibrant working-class neighborhood in the Egyptian capital. Two years after a popular revolution, two months after a military takeover, one month after the mass killing of 800 protesters, the country remains on edge. A car bomb, the first in ages, went off the other day. Its intended target: the Minister of the Interior. Authorities just extended the state of emergency, including a curfew of 11 p.m. on most days and 7 p.m. on Fridays, the holy day, the day of demonstrations.
And yet in a divided country of 85 million, at least one unifying force has no opposition these days, and this bald 55-year-old coach from Essex Fells, N.J. -- the most visible American in Egypt's daily public life -- embodies that hope. As Bradley walks into the packed restaurant, diners rise from their tables and give him a standing ovation. Cellphone cameras go into overdrive. The waitstaff commences a chant, in English: "World Cup! World Cup! World Cup!"
Look. There's Bradley again. It's Sunday morning, and the coach and his wife are seated in the back of a Kia sedan inching through Cairo gridlock. Along the way they pass signposts of their two years in Egypt: the headquarters of the country's most famous club soccer team, Al-Ahly, with murals along its walls depicting the 74 Ahly fans who died in last year's Port Said Stadium tragedy; the home base of the Egyptian soccer federation (including Bradley's old office), which was torched by angry ultras after the court ruling on the Port Said deaths; and, finally, the Children's Cancer Hospital, where the Bradleys have donated their time and money as they've become an unexpected and deeply valued part of the Cairo community.
Inside, meeting young cancer patients and their parents, Bradley kneels low, offering smiles, ready with hugs. He and his wife are naturals, connecting with kids who've lost their hair, kids on IV drips, kids half-asleep in the arms of their tired-eyed parents. "Who's your favorite player?" Bradley asks one ailing boy.
"Aboutreika!" the child cries out, referring to the national team's star midfielder, Mohamed Aboutreika.
"Yeah," says Bradley. "Me too."
In another room Bradley encounters a beaming father. "You're the American Superman!" he says. "You're going to take us to the World Cup!"
Look: It's the word Bradley uses most often to start sentences, an unvarnished Jersey Guy way of talking. Even his Egyptian friends have started using it. (These days Egyptians also see any bald white guy of a certain age and yell, Bob!) But there's more to it than that.
Look. No, really. Look. Use your eyes. Observe. Think. Bob Bradley did not come to Egypt to blow a whistle and stick his head in the desert sand. "Wherever you live, this ability to look around you and be aware of others, this is what you try to do," he says. "We live here. We're aware of what's going on."
In August, one month after the Egyptian military overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood and president Mohamed Morsi, Bradley watched from his high-rise apartment on the bank of the Nile as protesters marched toward Ramses Square, only to encounter police forces. Black helicopters and smoke filled the air. Bradley heard gunfire pushing back the crowd: POP! POP! POP!
"Up until the last few weeks you always knew when and where things were heating up," he says. "Cairo's a huge city, and things just carry on. But for a few days it was more random and reckless." On Aug. 15, the U.S. State Department advised all Americans living in Egypt to evacuate the country. Ninety-nine percent of foreign soccer coaches in his situation would have left long ago.
But the Bradleys stayed. "Look, as I've gotten to know these players, we're brothers," says Bradley. "We're in something together. If this is who you are, you challenge people to be in all the way, and you explain what that means. Then you have to show them that you're in all the way. That's just how it is."
And while he stayed, the most amazing thing happened: The Pharaohs kept winning, kept advancing toward this soccer-mad nation's third World Cup berth and its first since 1990. You could throw any obstacle at Bradley's team -- a suspension of the domestic league, players who were earning no money, empty stadiums for home qualifiers, political divides within the squad, the uncertainty and turmoil that come with each day in Egypt. Before their last World Cup qualifier, against Guinea last month, some Egyptian players had to use magic markers to write their numbers on their shorts. Still, nothing has stopped the Pharaohs.
Of the more than 200 national teams that have chosen to participate in qualifying for World Cup 2014, the last one with a perfect record isn't Spain or Germany or Argentina. Only Egypt -- Egypt! -- has been spotless. Six games, six victories. And now comes the final test: a two-game home-and-away playoff starting on Tuesday at powerful Ghana. Only the winner will advance to Brazil next summer.
Mido, a former Egyptian star forward who now works as an analyst for Al Jazeera, says that his countrymen were skeptical at first of the American coach, imagining that Bradley would care only about fitness and the physical aspect of the sport. But he has won them over. "I think he has done great," says Mido. "He has been so strong mentally to stay in Egypt with all that's happened. The easy option was to leave, but he chose to fight."
The story of Bob Bradley and Egypt began transcending sports a long time ago. Now it's a symbol of hope for a nation. "It would be great for [the team] to qualify and experience with the Egyptian people the joy of caring about something together," says Jeffrey Stout, a Princeton religion professor and a Bradley confidant dating back to the coach's time at the school, from 1984 to '95. "That is what Bob could imagine ahead of time. What he couldn't imagine is how significant it would be for him and the team to behave well in public under circumstances where almost nobody else does. In a crisis situation for a country, there's this one place where people are doing the just thing in front of everyone, every day. And getting a group with differences to show what it's like to have relationships that don't involve dominating each other [and to hold] each other accountable -- that's a thumbnail sketch of what democracy is.
"For them to do that? That's a big deal."
Egypt is hardly what Bradley imagined as a next destination after he was fired by the U.S. following a Gold Cup-final loss to Mexico in July 2011. He aspired to a job in Europe and believed (not unreasonably) that he'd built a worthy résumé during his nine seasons as an MLS coach and, especially, four years with the Americans. That history included taking the MLS Cup in 1998 with the Chicago Fire, beating Spain to reach the 2009 Confederations Cup final and winning the U.S.'s '10 World Cup group, ahead of England, before losing in the Round of 16 to Ghana. But European clubs didn't bite. "When you're an American, earning respect and getting your foot in the door is hard, whether you're a player or a coach," says Bradley. "I feel strongly that with everything I've done, if I were German, Dutch, Spanish, French or Italian, I'd have had many opportunities in Europe."
Egypt came calling for several reasons: Bradley had impressed its federation by coaching the U.S. to a 3-0 victory over the Pharaohs in the 2009 Confederations Cup, and he had worked closely with an Egyptian-American, Zak Abdel, his goalkeepers coach with the U.S. and in MLS.
Egypt had soccer talent -- the team had won three straight African championships, in 2006, '08 and '10 -- but after a series of World Cup qualifying failures, Bradley saw the importance of breaking through and reaching Brazil in '14. For years Bradley had preached to his players and his children the value of embracing new challenges. Now he turned that expectation on himself. "When opportunities come along, you don't look back," he says. "Don't be afraid to put everything you have into something. If you're worried about the outcome, you don't get anywhere."
Bob Bradley and his wife, Lindsay, sought ways to help Egyptian children and families in need.
Scott Nelson/SI
Bob and Lindsay went all in. With three children all in their 20s and out of the house -- daughters Kerry and Ryan lived in L.A.; Michael, a U.S. midfielder, plays in Italy for Roma -- the timing made sense. "I was like, O.K., let's try this adventure and see what happens," says Lindsay, a former lacrosse standout at Virginia. Instead of living outside Egypt or in a gated compound on the outskirts of Cairo, the couple chose an apartment in Zamalek, close to the city center. The idea: The new coach couldn't know his players unless he had a sense of life on the ground in the post-revolution metropolis.
For more than a century, Egyptians' soccer passions have been tied to politics. Al-Ahly, founded in Cairo in 1907 by opponents of the British protectorate, served as a meeting point for the students who staged the '19 revolution that gained Egypt independence. One of the team's first presidents, Saad Zaghloul, also acted as the head of the country's nationalist party; and Gamal Abdel Nasser would hold the Ahly post (despite not being known as a soccer fan) before serving as the nation's president from '56 to '70. Meanwhile Al-Ahly's archrival, Zamalek, was known as "the King's Club," for its British sympathizers.
During his 29 years as head of state, starting in 1981, Hosni Mubarak fostered close ties with the national team, not least during the glory years of the Pharaohs' African three-peat. The national team's doctor still has a photo of himself and Mubarak on the wall of his office at a Cairo gym.
As Egyptian soccer expert James Dorsey points out, extreme fan groups, or ultras (especially those supporting Al-Ahly), played a pivotal role in the Arab Spring as part of a street-savvy resistance that helped overthrow Mubarak's regime in February 2011. Depending on whom you listen to, that support may have led to the tragic events a year later, on Feb. 1, 2012, when Al-Ahly visited Al-Masry, a team in Port Said whose fans had clashed in previous years with their Ahly counterparts.
"I'll remember it forever because I saw it on TV live, and I've seen it hundreds of times since," says Bradley, who was watching from the hospitality room at Cairo Stadium, where he was scouting a game alongside his wife and Abdel. "The final whistle blows and fans come running onto the field, and Ahly players are running for their lives. What immediately hits you is that there are police on the field, and they're not doing anything."
Someone shut off the Port Said Stadium lights. Someone bolted an exit gate, trapping the Ahly fans inside. It was a bloodbath. Ahly's players managed to escape to the safety of their locker room, which soon became a makeshift morgue. One young Ahly fan died in the arms of Aboutreika, a 10-year veteran of the team.
Back in Cairo, the Bradleys left the game with Abdel, who translated radio updates to their growing horror. Ten people are dead. ... It's up to 25. ... O.K., now it's 40. ... Fifty now. ... They're saying 74 dead. "Lindsay was crying, and Bob wasn't saying anything," Abdel recalls. "I'd never seen him like that before."
But Bradley did have questions -- lots of them. The coach reads about Egypt constantly (even on Twitter, though you'll never see him create his own account), and what he's learned from media and from his own experience applies as much to Port Said as it does to Egyptian life in general. "It's always easy to see what's on the surface," says Bradley. "What is harder to understand -- what's more complex -- is what goes on beneath the surface."
It's unlikely that anyone will ever know exactly what transpired in Port Said, but Bradley felt it was his duty as a leader to show the Egyptian people that he understood what they were going through. That included risking the wrath of authorities by saying on Al Jazeera English that he believed Port Said had been a massacre (implying premeditation), as opposed to spontaneous fan violence. "Exactly what went on, how it went down -- I still don't know," he says. "Nobody does. But look, this was a massacre."
At the time of Port Said, Bradley was only four months (and one game) into his national-team tenure. He and Lindsay could have taken the first plane out of Cairo. Instead they did something that astonished Egyptians. One day after the tragedy, they joined thousands of marchers at Sphinx Square in support of the victims and their families. The next day, they attended a memorial at Al-Ahly headquarters. "I hugged each player and looked into his eyes," says Bradley. "I knew what they had seen in that locker room. I could read it on their faces."
From that moment on, nothing would be the same in Egyptian soccer. The domestic league was suspended. Several players, including Aboutreika, announced they were retiring from the sport. A year later, in March, angry Ahly fans would set fire to the Egyptian federation building after a court acquitted seven of nine police officials from the Port Said case.
But in those searing days of February 2012, Egyptians noticed something in their new American coach, who quietly donated money to the victims' families. He was one of them now. When the Bradleys met with the families of the deceased, mothers gave Lindsay photographs of their children, young people in their teens and 20s who'd gone to a game and had never come home. Mother to mother, they knew she would understand.
How many of you have heard of Bruce Springsteen?"
New Jersey to his core, a fan of the Boss for life, Bradley thought at least one of his players would raise a hand when he asked this at one of his first team meetings. To his dismay, nobody did.
"Who is he?" asked midfielder Hossam Ghaly.
"Come on, friend, and sit with me," said Bradley, who started playing Land of Hopes and Dreams on his iPhone. The lyrics applied to Egypt too, Bradley thought, and so he had Abdel translate some for the room: Leave behind your sorrows/Let this day be the last/-Tomorrow there'll be sunshine/And all this darkness past.
In many ways Bradley has approached the Pharaohs the same way that he did the U.S. team: Keep practices relatively short, high-energy and organized to the minute; demand teamwide accountability and the willingness to say constructive things that others (including the coach) might not want to hear; and preach the purity of the team, the need to rely on the inner circle of players and coaches, shutting out all distractions, all excuses for failure.
But, recognizing that he's in a new environment, Bradley has also summoned all of his powers to connect not just with his players but also with the Egyptian people. In long conversations between Bradley and Stout, the Princeton professor, they spoke about respect as a concept that resonates with Mediterranean cultures. The two friends have talked about what it means to Egyptians for Bradley to identify as a family member more than as a U.S. citizen. Bradley, for example, often refers to his players, publicly and privately, as "my brothers." And yet there was always the understanding that those players would only believe in Bradley if they saw him back it up with his actions every day.
In his meetings with players, Bradley addresses challenges that he never faced as the U.S. coach. After Port Said, Al-Masry goalkeeper Amir Abdelhamid -- a reserve for Egypt -- expressed concern about driving to the national team camp in Cairo because his car's license plates identified him as being from Port Said. Meanwhile, with domestic players not being paid while the league is suspended, the strain is palpable.
Not every player has bought in. Before a friendly against Chile in February, Bradley informed Egypt's veteran first-choice goalkeeper, Essam El-Hadary, that he wasn't going to start. At halftime El-Hadary told a journalist that he was retiring from the Pharaohs, which became the big postgame story. El-Hadary believed he could force Bradley to recall him, but instead the coach thanked him the next morning for his services. Bradley hasn't brought him back since.
The coach has pushed back on a few Egyptian traditions too, notably the use of the term captain. In Egypt, not only does the player with the most seniority wear the captain's armband during games -- a practice that Bradley accepts as something he can't change -- but the term captain is used frequently as an honorific for anyone who's seen as a leader, even (in Bradley's opinion) blowhards who don't deserve it. After hearing "Captain Bradley" a few too many times at a recent practice, Bradley called one of his equipment managers, Abdullah Mohamed, and asked him to stand with him in front of the team. "Listen," Bradley told them, "every other word here is captain-captain-captain. We have media who used to play on the national team who rip us, and then they come here and you guys show them this phony respect and call them captain. And they're trying to destroy our team. Meanwhile, here's Abdullah. He's a good man. He works hard. He will do anything for us. Look, I've been here for two years. How long have you been here, Abdullah? Twenty years. I'm not captain. He's captain!"
It's a running theme with Bradley. When the Egyptian league was still operating, a television broadcast showed him sitting in the stands next to Abdel and, one seat down, Bradley's driver, Hany Abdel Wadood. When a federation board member angrily demanded that the driver be told to wait in his car outside the stadium, Bradley asked Wadood to move into the seat next to him.
Bradley has won the respect of his players by learning their culture and connecting with them on a personal level.
Scott Nelson/SI
The coach has kept his inner circle small, limiting it to his players and assistants. No relationship has grown stronger than the one between Bradley and Aboutreika, one of the most fascinating figures in world soccer. A few years ago, when Egypt and Ahly were the champions of Africa, the midfield wizard was regarded as the world's best player not plying his trade in Europe or South America. He could have moved to a top international club had he wished; though not particularly fast or smooth, Aboutreika is blessed with a vision for making passes that nobody else could have visualized. But he loved Egypt and made good money, so he stayed, earning the devotion of Egyptian fans. Aboutreika was different in other ways too. Devoutly religious and the owner of a university degree in philosophy, he didn't lack the courage to speak his mind. After scoring a goal at the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, he revealed a T-shirt that read SYMPATHIZE WITH GAZA, only increasing his stature throughout the Middle East.
By the time Bradley took over in late 2011, however, there were whispers that Aboutreika, at 33, was too old. In the days before Bradley's first game, against Brazil, Aboutreika wasn't even starting for Ahly, so the coach left him off his squad. The decision caused an uproar (NEW COACH DROPS STAR MIDFIELDER!), and Aboutreika's dream of making his first World Cup appeared in jeopardy. Yet Bradley took notice: Aboutreika never lashed out to the media in the way that many players would have; instead he said it was on him to earn back a spot in the national team. As Bradley kept an eye on Ahly games, the old Aboutreika reemerged.
Then Port Said happened, and everything stopped. After waiting several weeks to respect the dead, Bradley arranged a meeting with Aboutreika in Cairo. The start of World Cup qualifying was three months away; the player had thought about it and he didn't want to retire after all, he told Bradley. His message was clear: Whatever you need from me, I'll do it. I would love to have one more chance to reach the World Cup.
"I got a sense with him," says Bradley. "When you talk about having a blood brother in this, where you bleed for him and he'll bleed for you -- this was a really good man."
Aboutreika's reemergence has been crucial for the Pharaohs. In his first game back, a March 2012 friendly against Uganda, he scored the game-winner in stoppage time. During Egypt's rampage through its World Cup qualifying group, he started all six matches and scored five goals, including two in the key victory, a 3-2 come-from-behind win at Guinea. What's more, at 34 he's mentoring Egypt's promising young forward, 21-year-old Mohamed Salah. It's no coincidence that at his club team, FC Basel, Salah wears number 22. Aboutreika's number.
Stout hears these stories about Aboutreika from his old friend and shakes his head with wonder. "Here's somebody who gets up every day and asks, 'How do I do the just thing concretely to other people?' " the professor says in Princeton, where he first coached youth teams with Bradley in the 1980s. "Now you have a coach and a player who are both like that? It's unusual to have either of those things in any team, anywhere. The players are gathering around it. It's like Red Auerbach and Bill Russell -- that level of human beings, coming from these different worlds. What remarkable athletic thing can happen because of the way they deal with their business every day and with each other?"
"You meet a lot of people in Egypt who have two faces," says Tomasz Kaczmarek, the Pharaohs' conditioning coach. "They're one way in the media and another way when the camera is off. Aboutreika has one face."
Only sometimes, in today's polarized Egyptian political climate, that honesty comes with a price.
Egypt is so close to the World Cup. Just two games away. Yet it's impossible to separate the Egyptian players from what's happening around them. The military takeover in June removed the Muslim Brotherhood and the democratically elected (but plainly faltering) Morsi from power. The majority of Egyptians now support the military leaders, who cracked down violently in July on massed Brotherhood protesters, a handful of them armed, before outlawing the Brotherhood altogether.
But demonstrations continue. The divide in Egypt persists. "Now, in this country, if you disagree with me, you're my enemy -- that's the mentality," says Abdel. "My older sister here, she thinks [the military takeover] was a revolution. My brother in the States thinks it's a coup. Now they don't talk to each other. Can you imagine? Brother and sister? It's crazy."
As Bradley prepares his team for the winner-take-all, aggregate-goal playoff against Ghana (Egypt will host the second leg in Cairo on Nov. 19), he faces the ongoing challenge of keeping his players together. "At a time when the country is divided, you want to make sure the national team stands together in a strong way," he says.
But that's tough. These days many of his players support the military rulers. Aboutreika, however, backs the Muslim Brotherhood. Occasionally, he and Bradley talk about political stories they've both read. Bradley has always encouraged debate and give-and-take on his teams, but he has never led in the midst of a political crisis. During the turmoil of July and August, Aboutreika was active on his Twitter feed,
@aboutrikamoham1, writing:
I supported Dr. Morsi out of complete conviction . . . in light of the success of the January 25 revolution and the freedoms and expression of opinion that followed ... I think there will be a real democracy and respect for other opinions, but unfortunately this hasn't happened. So I decided not to talk politics. ... But when it has to do with reputation and dignity I will not be quiet.
Aboutreika's pro-Brotherhood statements have caused tension with some teammates, but there has of yet been no noticeable toll on the Pharaohs' on-field chemistry. For his part, Bradley has walked a fine line. "Look," he says, "Treika has had the strength to always stand behind his beliefs and say what he thinks, and that doesn't always work here. But I will defend that part of him forever, because he is a good man and cares about Egypt. In order to focus on doing everything to get to the World Cup, he's picked up on the need to not be high-profile at the moment."
It would be easy to wrap a bow around the Pharaohs' World Cup qualifying success, to view the team as an oasis of harmony sealed off from the rest of society. But life isn't like that. The truth: Much of Bradley's finest coaching has taken place in that spot he so often talks about, beneath the surface. Coaxing a group with conflicting opinions into behaving in public? Holding each other accountable? Finding a way to reach a common goal in the face of so many challenges? For them to do that? That's a big deal.
Aboutreika hasn't tweeted since late August, but one of his final posts struck a note of hope for all Egyptians: Loving your country doesn't mean advertising. It means actions and feelings that translate this love. This love is among the ways that we get closer to God. I love you, Egypt.
Next Tuesday, on a soccer field in Ghana, those actions will recommence.
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20131009/bob-bradley-egypt/#ixzz2liY9Q8X2
Posted by The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer at 11:13 AM 0 comments
Labels: Al Ahly (Egypt), Al Zamalek, Egypt, Ultras, World Cup 2014
Sunday, November 24, 2013
What Role for World Cup in Arab Spring? (JMD in Global Brief)
QUERY | November 11, 2013
Less than a year from Brazil 2014, in Egypt and Turkey alike, the stadiums give the pulse of the protests and the people
A soccer brawl last year, in which more than 70 militant soccer fans died, galvanized significant numbers of Egyptians against the military and security forces. The brawl accelerated the military's desire to turn power over to an elected government.
Eighteen months later, mass protests, involving Muslim Brothers, non-Brothers and street battle-hardened soccer fans took place to oppose the military ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi and the subsequent brutal crackdown on the Brotherhood. Both the coup and the crackdown were backed by a significant segment of Egyptian society.
The resistance to military rule and the security forces by many soccer fans and the youth groups that formed the backbone of the popular uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak out of office in early 2011 is again visible. Today, this is a resistance that has been adopted by a far wider part of the Egyptian public, and indeed reinforced by what many Egyptians perceive to be a restoration of some of the repressive features of the Mubarak era. In other words, even if Morsi had succeeded in becoming widely reviled after only a year in office, the return of the capricious security force brutality that was one of the main drivers of Mubarak's removal has the soccer ultras exercised. This has been evident in various forms of violent pro-Morsi protests inside and outside of Egypt's soccer stadiums.
The impact of soccer fans is, of course, not exclusive to Arab autocracies. It also felt in the region's illiberal democracies – the possible direction of Turkey, for instance. Egyptian strongman General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan see their critics in the same terms – as terrorists who need to be harshly subdued. Soccer fans rank high on both their agendas.
Both Egypt and Turkey remain deeply polarized. Public opinion is fluid. Backing in Egypt for the coup against Morsi is fragile and conditional. Cracks in that support have manifested themselves despite a significant number of Egyptians egging on the military and the security forces to be even tougher in their crackdown on the Brotherhood.
By the same token, Egypt's deep polarization has not left the militant soccer fans untouched. The crisis in Egyptian soccer was famously amplified by last year's deadly brawl in Port Said. And while the ultras as organizations have refrained from joining the fray, many of their members and leaders have, reflecting the gamut of political views in their ranks. For instance, in a twist of irony, many Ultras White Knights (UWK) joined the pro-Morsi protests. The UWK is a fan group of storied Cairo club Al Zamalek SC, which traces its roots to support of the monarchy that was toppled by the military coup in 1952 and replaced by Arab nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser became the club's president and brutally repressed the Brotherhood.
The arch rivals of the UWK, Ultras Ahlawy, the fan group of Al Ahly SC – historically the nationalist club – issued their first anti-Brotherhood statement in more than a year weeks into the current crackdown. The statement ended the group's silence in respect of the government while Morsi was in office. By refraining from attacking the government, Ahlawy had hoped that harsh verdicts would be served in the trial of those responsible for the deaths in Port Said. Ahlawy got only partial satisfaction: while 21 supporters of Port Said's Al Masry SC were sentenced to death, seven of the nine security officials were acquitted.
"The ultras have become fascists. Like Egypt, they have collapsed. They have no values and no real beliefs," said one former ultras leader, who left his group in protest at the political turn that it had taken. In a perverse way, the difficulty of Egyptian and Turkish ultras in defining themselves is not dissimilar to that of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood has yet to make up its mind as to whether it is a social or a political movement. That decision may become easier if it survives the crackdown and emerges strong enough one day to negotiate the terms of a political solution to Egypt's crisis – a prospect that, to be sure, appears increasingly unlikely.
The Egyptian and Turkish ultras, for their part, refuse to acknowledge that they are as much about politics as they are about soccer. Their battle in Egypt for freedom in the stadiums and their prominent role in the toppling of Mubarak, as well as their opposition to the military rulers that succeeded him and the Morsi government, made them political by definition. Those who populated their rank and file were united in their support for their club and their deep-seated animosity toward the security forces. Alas, they were united on little else.
The ultras' fate could change if Egypt continues down the road on which it has embarked – that of a restoration of Mubarak's police state. Repression with little more than a democratic façade could again turn stadiums into political battlefields. The former ultra again: "I'm afraid of the return of the military state. That is not what I fought for in the stadiums and on Tahrir Square. I'm also afraid of the Brotherhood. It's a choice between two evils. If you ask me now, I'd opt for the military, but that could well change once this is all over."
The Turkish ultras have one leg up on their Egyptian counterparts. Carsi, the support group of Istanbul's Besiktas JK, with a massive following across the country, traces its roots to the far left and positions itself as anarchist. Still, despite having wholeheartedly embraced massive anti-Erdogan protests last June in Istanbul's Taksim Square, they, like the Egyptians, are responding to the backlash by insisting on their pro-forma apolitical nature – this after 20 of their numbers were charged with belonging to an illegal organization.
Neither the government nor the ultras have illusions. Both are preparing for confrontations this fall and into the new year – not in Taksim, but in the stadiums and the universities. The prospect of renewed protests has prompted the Erdogan government to announce measures that could have been taken from Al-Sisi's playbook. They include replacing private security forces in stadiums and on campuses with police forces; banning the chanting of political slogans during soccer matches; requiring clubs to force spectators to sign a pledge to abide by the ban before attending a game; and cancelling scholarships for students who participate in anti-government protests.
To drive home the message that protest equals terrorism, a video issued by the Anti-Terrorism Office in Ankara warned that protests were the first step toward terrorism. The 55-second video featuring a young woman demonstrator-turned-suicide bomber warned the public that "our youth, who are the guarantors of our future, can start with small demonstrations of resistance that appear to be innocent, and after a short period of time, can engage without a blink in actions that may take the lives of dozens of innocent people."
As in Egypt, Erdogan's efforts to squash further protests are failing. Fans have been reminding the government that the battle is not over – and indeed may only have just begun – when they chant during the matches, demanding political resignations: "Everywhere Is Taksim Square! Everywhere Is Resistance!" It is a slogan that the Brotherhood has adopted as it has launched regular, smaller-scale protests across Cairo and the rest of Egypt – a tactical evolution meant to avoid the massive demonstrations that risk ending in a bloodbath.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg's Institute for Fan Culture. He is the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog.
(Photograph: The Canadian Press / AP / Amir Nabil)
Posted by The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer at 11:58 PM 0 comments
Labels: Al Ahly (Egypt), Al Zamalek, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Ultras
Qatar launches politically sensitive survey into low soccer match attendance
By James M. Dorsey
Qatari authorities, in a bid to counter criticism that the Gulf state lacks a soccer culture as well as a sense that low attendance of matches could constitute a form of protest, has launched a politically sensitive survey to gauge reasons for its empty stadia.
The survey on the website of the Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA), in cooperation with the Qatar Football Association (QFA) and the Sports Statistics Technical Committee, is likely to produce limited responses given that participants are required to identify themselves by entering their email addresses and the fact that the survey does not include questions about whether club ownership is a factor. To be fair, the survey does not verify email addresses which means participants do not necessarily need to provide a correct address.
The survey is further noteworthy as it seeks to canvass the opinions of both Qataris, who account for a small minority of the Gulf state's 2 million inhabitants, and non-Qataris. It constitutes the second time this year that authorities have used sports to reach out to the county's majority of foreigners.
Qatar fundamentally views foreigners as guests obliged to leave when their professional contracts expire in a policy that was designed to fend off non-Qataris developing ties that could persuade them to make Qatar their permanent home. At stake for Qataris is a deep-seated fear that a foreign majority that has a stake in the country and could adopt it as their homeland would threaten the integrity of Qatari culture and control of society.
Under mounting pressure from the international trade union movement and human rights groups to enforce international labor standards that has recently increased with world soccer body FIFA and the European Parliament joining the fray, Qatar earlier this year organized its first ever tournament for soccer teams of foreign workers in which 16 teams participated. Soccer officials said they were likely to launch a league for 32 teams of foreign workers. Qatari soccer authorities had until then not acknowledged teams made up of foreign workers and Qatari clubs catered almost exclusively to Qatari nationals.
The survey comes as Qatar is taking a public relations beating over working and living conditions of foreign workers, many of whom are involved in projects related to the 2022 World Cup that the Gulf state expects to stage.
The survey, because it is online and in English, targets expatriates rather than foreign workers who hail primarily from South Asia, have at best limited access to the Internet and frequently have a poor command, if any, of English.
The absence of whether club ownership influences match attendance is important because many Qatari clubs are owned by state institutions like the military or members of the Al Thani ruling family who account for an estimated 20 percent of Qatari nationals.
Qatari executives privately suggested earlier this year that the fact that Qataris represent a small minority of the population and that Qatari clubs have hitherto refrained from reaching out to the non-Qatari public may not be the only reasons for low match attendance. They said a third reason was that many Qataris did not want to watch "the Sheikh's club" play – a reference to club ownership by the ruling elite. The executives said authorities were considering transferring ownership to publicly held companies.
Suggestions that some Qataris see non-attendance of local matches as a way of expressing dissent are not the only indication of protest in the Gulf state in recent years. Conservative Qataris have in recent years organized online boycotts of the state-owned telecommunications company as well as Qatar Airways and in a few cases have spoken out to question the ruler's authority to issue decrees. Those criticisms occurred before Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani earlier this year abdicated in favor of his son, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Sheikh Tamim, a sports fan who is widely viewed as more conservative than his father, was expected to focus more on domestic issues than on international affairs. Sources said Sheikh Tamim's conservatism was evident in recent legislation that seeks to regulate behavior in public and reinforce government attempts to increase Qatari participation in the workforce that is overwhelmingly foreign. In a further development, the government recently approved draft legislation introducing a mandatory four-month military service for Qatari males aged 18 to 35 years old.
Doha News this week quoted the editor of Qatari sports magazine Qatar Stadium Plus, Ahmad al Mohannadi, as saying: "Considering the number of cases coming out in the open, the Ministry (of Labor), to say the least, has failed to perform. It's time someone responsible from the ministry gave a true picture of the situation, own up the failures and also tell the world what steps are being taken to solve the problems."
The government in response to a damning report issued by Amnesty International earlier this month said it would increase oversight and enforcement to address issues in the report that include non-payment of wages, "harsh and dangerous" working conditions, "shocking standards" of accommodation and some cases of "forced labor." The Foreign Ministry was further reported to have instructed law firm DLA Piper to investigate concerns raised by Amnesty.
At the same time, Qatar appeared this weekend to be signaling that its foreign policy that is at odds with that of its Gulf state partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), foremost among which Saudi Arabia, had not changed. In a blistering attack on Egypt's military-backed government and armed forces, prominent Qatar-based Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi said Egypt was being ruled by thugs who kill people and steal their money."
Speaking in Doha's Omar Ibn al-Khattab Mosque, Egyptian-born Sheikh Qaradawi, who has close ties to the Qatar-supported Muslim Brotherhood that was ousted from power by the Egyptian military in July, said "those oppressors have killed worshipers, fasters, pious people and readers of Quran who did not harm anybody. The military, police, thugs, and snipers killed thousands in Rabaa al-Adawiya which was obvious injustice," a reference to the Cairo Square on which the Brotherhood camped out for weeks to protest against the removal of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president from office. Hundreds of people were killed in August when security forces brutally broke up the protest.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg's Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same title.
Posted by The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer at 1:07 PM 0 comments
Labels: FIFA, Qatar, World Cup 2022
Saturday, November 23, 2013
What it means to call the bombing of Iran's embassy in Beirut 'sectarian violence' (JMD quoted on Global Post)
Reese ErlichNovember 21, 2013 00:39
What it means to call the bombing of Iran's embassy in Beirut 'sectarian violence'
Syria's civil war is increasingly seen as stoking a regional conflict based on religious differences. But don't forget about political motives, analysts say.
Syria's civil war is increasingly seen as stoking a regional conflict based on religious differences. But don't forget about political motives, analysts say.
BEIRUT — In the aftermath of the horrific twin bombings of the Iranian Embassy here, streets remained strewn with rubble and burned-out cars. Two suicide bombers unsuccessfully attempted to blow up the embassy, killing 25 and wounding more than 150. It made the once peaceful, upper-income Shia neighborhood of Bir Hasan look like a war zone with violence and devastation Lebanese haven't seen in Beirut's residential areas for years.
Many analysts say the Tuesday terrorist attack was retaliation for Iran's support for the government inSyria's civil war. An extremist Sunni Muslim group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, took credit for striking at Iran, which is predominantly Shia, thus stoking the already smoldering religious tensions in the region.
Groups in Lebanon and regional powers such as Iran, Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have all taken sides in the Syrian civil war. While politics remains at the heart of the dispute, the battle has taken on an increasingly sectarian character, cutting along the Sunni/Shia lines of demographically divided Lebanon. Sunnis and Shia constitute about an equal percent of the population, with Christians and minorities making up the rest.
"Sectarian divisions between Sunnis and Shiites have come to dominate the narrative because that suited various powers in the region," according to James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. "The danger is that the imposition of a sectarian narrative begins to live a life of its own."
Holly Dagres, a researcher at Cairo Review of Political Affairs, noted that the the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an Al Qaeda-affiliated group, justifies killing civilians because it's waging "jihad against the Shiites who are seen as kaffirs (infidels). In 2012, the AAB threatened to punish Lebanese Shiites for backing [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad. The bombings are blowback of such support."
"The danger is that the imposition of a sectarian narrative begins to live a life of its own."~James M. Dorsey
The Beirut embassy bombing is believed to be the fourth violent sectarian attack in Lebanon in the past five months.
* In July a car bomb exploded in a Shia neighborhood of Beirut, wounding more than 50.
* On Aug. 15 another car bomb killed 30 and wounded more than 300 in a different Shia neighborhood.
* On Aug. 23, two car bomb attacks in the northern city of Tripoli killed 47 and wounded more than 500.
Extremist Sunni groups were suspected of planting the bombs in an effort to support Sunni fighters inSyria. Tuesday's Iran embassy bombing was a serious escalation because it involved suicide bombers, a tactic not used in the previous incidents.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades named itself after an Arab Mujahideen leader who fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s and died in Pakistan in 1989.
The AAB spiritual guide, Sheikh Sirajeddine Zuraiqat, tweeted his group's responsibility for the embassy bombing, demanding that "all Iran fighters withdraw from Syria and our families [be] granted freedom in Lebanon."
The AAB and similar extremist Sunnis cloak their political views in religious rhetoric against Shiites, according to analyst Dagres.
Such groups "do not accept Shiites because of an array of reasons such as the culture of the sainthood [and] their means of seeking blessing through holy shrines. Although Bashar Al-Assad is Alawite, it is seen as a sect of Shiite Islam and therefore on the side of the Shiites."
Such sectarian hatred is a distortion of Islam used to justify attacks on innocent civilians, according to Reza Sanati, a Research Fellow at the Middle East Studies Center, Florida International University.
"Al Qaeda ideology allows mass, systemic violence on civilians – Muslims and non-Muslims alike – for the attainment of political goals," he said. "In this specific case, Al Qaeda's goal was to attack a sworn enemy: Iran."
The majority of foot soldiers in extremist groups "engage in this behavior for more than religious reasons," said Sanati, "usually for political and for personal profit as well. Many come from poor backgrounds and find this line of work as highly profitable, but obviously very dangerous. The financiers of the extremists are almost always motivated by geostrategic interests, as opposed to just sectarian reasons."
For example, he noted, "The Saudis do not attack a Shia-majority country like Azerbaijan." Similarly, Iran backs Christian Armenia in its dispute with Azerbaijan.
Along the regional sectarian fault line, Iran is predominantly Shia. The difference between the Sunni and Shia dates back to the 7th century, following the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The Shia denomination believed a direct descendant of the prophet, his cousin and son-in-law Ali, should inherit what was a political and religious position and that direct lineage is still what maintains the theological purity of the faith. Iran supports Hezbollah, a prominent and powerful Shia political and military force within Lebanon. And Iran has long supported the secular Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad for geopolitical reasons.
On the other side sits Saudi Arabia, predominantly Sunni, which split from the Shia in the 7th century and followed the rule of a friend of the prophet, Abu Bakr. The Sunni denomination represents approximately 70 percent of the Muslim world, and the Shia represent between 10 and 20 percent.
The Saudi monarchy adheres to a particularly puritanical Sunni set of beliefs, known as Wahhabism. This ultra-conservative view of Sunni Islam is embraced by the more militant regional Islamist movements and opposition groups in Syria. So Syria has become a kind of proxy war, broadly pitting Assad's Iranian-backed government against a Saudi-backed opposition.
Most Western powers side with the rebels fighting Assad, while Russia supports the regime.
This Sunni-Shia tension is exploding elsewhere in the region as well, particularly in Iraq, which is also divided between Sunni and Shia Muslims, along with minority Kurds and Christians. The sectarian violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since the worst days of the US occupation of Iraq in 2005-6.
While outside powers stoke the Sunni-Shia divide, sectarianism has become an increasingly dangerous force, according to analyst Dagres.
"Syria is a grand example," she said. "Even if one is anti-Assad but Alawite, it can get one killed and vice versa. No longer does 'who side you support matter' — it's all about your religion, and it's becoming worse by the day."
Reese Erlich, who is reporting from Syria and Lebanon on a travel grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, is the lead reporter in the GlobalPost Special Report on the Sunni/Shia divide, "In The Land of Cain and Abel," which is made possible through a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Posted by The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer at 10:26 AM 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
Kanye West faces charges of battery and attempted theft in an altercation with a photographer at Los Angeles International Airport, the city attorney's office said Friday.
On July 19, a man flagged down police and said he was taking photos of an "individual" — as airport police described the suspect in a report at the time — when the suspect attacked him.
The photographer was taken to a hospital, but his injuries were not specified, airport police said at the time.
A representative for West did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rob Wilcox, spokesman for the city attorney's office, said each of the two charges carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
Arraignment is scheduled for October 10.
The rapper is scheduled to start a North American tour to promote his new album, "Yeezus," in Seattle on October 19.
TM & © 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Alex Turner knows how it looks: A young British rock band, widely admired for its unflinching depictions of a pub-crawl demimonde, finds huge success at home, then packs up and moves to sunny Los Angeles just as it's on the verge of becoming a kind of national institution.
But if longtime fans of England's Arctic Monkeys are worried that the group has abandoned its unsavory roots, Turner has words of reassurance.
"We used to have a little space on this scuzzy street in Sheffield," the singer-guitarist said recently. "And now we've got one on a scuzzy street in Hollywood instead." He chuckled behind his vintage gold-framed Ray-Bans. "The two are probably equally shady."
Indeed, there's plenty of grime to be gleaned from "AM," the new Arctic Monkeys album, as in the bleary "One for the Road" and the wryly titled "No. 1 Party Anthem," in which Turner describes a late night at what might be any number of joints near the band's new headquarters: "Lights in the floors and sweat on the walls / Cages and poles / Call off the search for your soul."
Still, "AM" does add fresh wrinkles — Botoxed ones, perhaps — to a post-punk sound that arrived on a wave of hype with Arctic Monkeys' 2006 debut, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not."
On that album, which set several sales records and won the United Kingdom's prestigious Mercury Prize, Turner spun his detailed yarns over scrappy garage rock that elicited comparisons to the work of the Strokes and London's Libertines. Subsequent records added traces of psychedelia and heavy metal, some inspired by the group's friendship with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, who co-produced 2009's "Humbug" at a studio in Joshua Tree.
Those elements crop up again on "AM"; Homme contributes vocals to two songs. But here the band — which also includes guitarist Jamie Cook, bassist Nick O'Malley and drummer Matt Helders — juices its rhythmic attack with low-slung beats that feel derived from Dr. Dre's hip-hop productions, while Turner pushes his vocals to a new level of clammy sensuality. In songs such as "Do I Wanna Know?" and "Knee Socks," the group offers a grungier take on the blue-eyed soul-funk style that ruled airwaves this summer.
Speaking with Helders last month at a Los Feliz lunch spot, Turner allowed that Arctic Monkeys' move to L.A. — where the experience of listening to the car radio establishes a whole system of sonic values — affected the band's approach on "AM."
But he also said the record reflects the desire he's always had to keep moving forward — to "not get stuck" no matter where he's doing business. The group's previous record, 2011's "Suck It and See," sounded a bit stuck, he admitted; it's basically a less effective retread of "Humbug."
Latest Entertainment
Yet when Arctic Monkeys wrote the new album's slinky but bruising "R U Mine?" — and then played it on tour last year as the Black Keys' opening act — Turner felt his imagination spark. "The vocals on that song share something with contemporary R&B," he said. "And from there it was like, 'Well, what else can we pull in that doesn't normally go in the rock band box?'"
The folks at home haven't put up much resistance to that dabbling: Last week "AM" debuted at No. 1 on the U.K. album chart, and it's nominated for the 2013 Mercury Prize.
"People were a bit put out when they first heard the Monkeys had gone to America — like 'Have they forgotten us?'" said Matt Wilkinson, an editor at the British magazine NME. "But the album has had such a good reaction here. You can't argue with the music."
Nor with the idea of what defines home anyway for a busy touring act like Arctic Monkeys, whose latest trek is scheduled to stop at the Wiltern from Sept. 29 through Oct. 1. "To me it means having an actual key as opposed to a key card," Helders said. "And having to clean your own towels."


text:
Dress your landscape with fall colors
As summer flowers fade in autumn, a different cast of plants takes the spotlight in the garden. Many of autumn's stars are easy-care perennials that light the landscape year after year.
Most yards will have the right conditions for at least one of the plants in this list. Have a shady corner with room for a shrub? American beautyberry will color your corner purple. Need color in a dry sunny space? Zexmenia daisy offers cheerful gold flowers, no deadheading.
Looking for a small tree? Try possumhaw holly for red berries that stand out in fall and winter. To enjoy sweeps of bright red and green, plant a wavy row of firebush. Or soften the edges of an angular path with the rounded green mounds and maroon seed plumes of Gulf muhly grass.
As a bonus, these plants are hardy and water-wise once established, and they provide flowers, berries or seed for birds or butterflies.
American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
Sprays of berries on arching branches begin turning bright purple in August, lasting into November, longer if songbirds don't eat them. The purple sprays usually outlast the leaves, adding striking form to the garden.
Beautyberry grows to about 4 feet high in the wild but may reach 9 in favorable conditions.
The plant prefers fertile loam but will grow in most soils, and it will reseed in good conditions. Fruit develops best with weekly watering during dry times. Grow in part-shade to shade. It can be acclimated to sunny areas if given more water.
Prune beautyberry a foot from the ground after first frost and when the berries are gone. Moderate deer resistance.
Zexmenia daisy (Wedelia texana)
Tough enough to bloom along Hill Country roads, the plentiful gold flowers of zexmenia daisy are like a patch of sunshine in the garden. The plants are a host and nectar source for several species of butterflies. At least one species of bird, the lesser goldfinch, will visit for seeds.
The bushy plant grows 1 to 3 feet tall in a range of well-drained soils, including clay and caliche. It reseeds readily.
Grow in sun to part-sun. It has high drought tolerance but blooms more with occasional watering during dry times.
The lower woody stems remain season-to-season while upper herbaceous stems die back at frost.
No pruning required. Deer resistant.
Possumhaw holly (Ilex decidua)
A small shrubby tree 12 to 36 feet high, possumhaw holly accents the landscape with bright red berries fall to winter. The berries, which remain on branches after the leaves have fallen, provide winter food for birds such as cedar waxwings, cardinals and mockingbirds.
Possumhaw is adaptable to a range of well-drained soils. For the most berries, plant in a sunny space and water regularly during dry periods.
Prune only for tree health. Fence from deer.
(Hamelia patens)
Plant firebush where you want to see Christmas in the garden. Orange-red tubular blooms and deeper red stems and leaf veins contrast with bright green leaves on this shrub. Firebush grows 3 to 4 feet high and blooms profusely in late summer, continuing into October and sometimes November. Hummingbirds and butterflies frequent the blooms. Flowers develop into berries in years when the first frost is late.
Firebush grows in fertile to sandy soils but will take clay in a well-drained setting. Grow in full sun to part shade. Flowering is best in a sunny spot with weekly watering during dry periods.
The bush dies back at first frost but is root-hardy, especially with a thick coat of mulch and occasional winter watering. Cut back near the ground after foliage withers. Deer resistant.
Gulf muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris)
Spring through fall, Gulf muhly fills a background role as a knee-high fountain of green. Then in October, the clumping grass sends up a mist of pinky-purple seeds that glow in early morning or late afternoon light. Gardeners who enjoy a tactile sense of their gardens also appreciate Gulf muhly's rounded leaves that slide through the fingers.
Experts suggest planting in sandy soil or loam, but the grass is a proven performer in Hill Country gardens in well-drained clay or rocky areas, if amended. Plant in full to part-sun. Will go dormant (straw-colored) during extended dry periods without regular watering. Some gardeners cut the grass back around February to show off spring growth. Deer resistant.
Kathleen Scott writes about gardening and life in the Hill Country in her blog, hillcountry mysteries.blogspot.com.


text:
Airport Delays Point to Sequester Cuts
Airport delays among possible consequences of federal budget cuts.
April 21, 2013 -- Air travel is likely to become even more frustrating than usual, starting today. The Federal Aviation Administration has begun furloughs resulting from mandatory budget cuts for some of its 47,000 agency employees.
It's unclear how many employees are already affected by so-called sequestration, the automatic federal spending cuts that kicked in this year after Congress failed to reach a deal to reduce the national deficit.
The bottom line is that travelers are faced with the real possibility of hours-long delays as air-traffic controllers -- there are 15,000 of them -- begin to take unpaid leave, the FAA says.
American Airlines has said that some of the nation's busiest airports will most likely be affected by the FAA cuts: JFK in New York; Newark; Chicago's O'Hare; LAX in Los Angeles; and New York's LaGuardia.
This is a relatively slow time of year for air travel, so any fallout would likely intensify in the summer, when weekends rival Thanksgiving for busiest air-travel time, travel experts say. Throw in unpredictable summer thunderstorms, and there's reason for worry, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
But there are already signs of trouble:
@akashgoyal tweeted today, "Is our gate agent for real? She's blaming a 45-min delay to my flight on 'government cut-backs' on overhead announcements."
RELATED: LaHood: Sequester Cuts Mean Up to 2 Hour Flight Delays Starting Sunday
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has picked up early signs of delays: Ronald Reagan National is reporting today "several minute increased wait times at TSA security screening," the authority says.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has reported no substantial holdups today with the light travel and good weather.
Airlines for America, which represents most domestic carriers, filed a lawsuit against the FAA Friday in an attempt to block controller furloughs.
RELATED: Sequester Expected to Bring Harm Beyond Staffing Cuts on National, Local Levels
In a statement issued by the carrier Saturday, customers were urged to check their flight status before coming to the airport today.
"Unfortunately, the FAA has not yet provided specific details to the airlines, making it difficult to communicate exactly how customers will be affected," American said. "However, we will make every effort to communicate with our customers as information becomes available."
Ordered to find a way to cut $637 million from the agency's budget, the FAA is forced to schedule one furlough day every two weeks for an unspecified number of employees, which officials say will mean fewer takeoffs and landings.
As ABC News reported Friday, Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood at a news conference warned that passengers could see "a wide range of impacts across the system," adding that "safety is not up for negotiation during the sequester" and "will not be compromised in anything that we do."
"This is not what we signed up for," LaHood added. "[The sequester] is a dumb idea."
ABC News' Genevieve Shaw Brown contributed to this story.


text:
Proof positive that my brother and I both fell victim to a similar strange mania at the age of 18. Here, in 1955, a senior in high school and fooling around with his newly-acquired Lordox 35mm camera, he snapped this Kodachrome self-portrait at his desk in our bedroom. Nine years later when I was 18, I shot my records, including the same Shostakovich album, spread out in our living room,
as seen here
. By that time, "I Like Jazz," a Columbia Records sampler, was no longer around. Posted with my brother's kind acquiescence.
Click image for Comments.
Browse All Photos


text:
Managing Director & Senior Partner
San Francisco - Bay Area
David Mark is a core member of The Boston Consulting Group's Technology, Media & Telecommunications practice. He also plays important roles within the Technology Advantage and Strategy practices.
Since joining BCG in 2014, David has focused on helping clients take advantage of the ongoing transitions in the technology industry: cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and big data and analytics. He advises high-tech clients on their most pressing product, strategy, and innovation issues and has deep expertise in enterprise computing environments and the use of IT for strategic advantage.
David has helped major companies utilize the opportunities created by rapidly evolving technology. These assignments require managing existing businesses for greater value while building new businesses and implementing new business models.
Before joining BCG, David was the chief strategy officer of a Fortune 500 technology company.


text:
So, I just imported my Eudora messages (all 76,683) into PM. Unfortunately, all my sent messages in each folder were marked as "unread," so I had to go in an manually mark folders as "mark all read" (except in folders wherein I had not actually read all the messages, as best I can recall). But, I digress...
I am somewhat colorblind. I used the Eudora label facility extensively. The name of the label was in the requisite column in the index view. In PM, this is not the case. So, I created a custom column called x-mark and compresses all the folders. This took a while. But, again, I digress.
Unfortunately, the mark label is not showing up in the x-mark column. What did I do wrong? The colors alone will not be sufficient. I need to see the mark name.
I have been most impressed by the rapid turn around in these fora. Thanks to all who obviously contribute without compensation. I, for one, appreciate it.


text:
|Story Time
Event Type: Early and Family Literacy
Age Group(s): Toddlers and pre-schoolers
Date: 10/07/2019
Start Time: 10:00 AM
End Time: 11:00 AM
Stories and a simple activity for children aged 6 years of age and under. No bookings required.Venue: Logan North Library Where Are We?
Location: Junior Area
Other Information:
For more information please phone 3412 4140.


text:
Diamond K550KM Order #4592
Order #4592
The Diamond K550KM Mini Van Luggage Rack Mount kit is recommended for mini vans with rectangular or oval shaped luggage rack rails. It has an attractive black anodized finish. It features an adjustment nut for folding or adjusting the antenna. Maximum recommended antenna height is 45 inches. The Diamond K550KM includes an SO-239 UHF base (not shown) and 16 feet of coaxial cable terminating to a PL-259.
(Please see the cheaper K550 configuration if you do not want the SO-239 base and coax cable.
Copyright 2013-2016 Universal Radio, Inc.


text:
A place for Cricket Web members to discuss Rugby World Cup 2003 in Australia
There have been no posts in the last 30 days in this forum.
Try using the controls below to search for any older posts that may exist.
There are currently 1 users browsing this forum. (0 members & 1 guests)
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted.
Order threads in...
Note: when sorting by date, 'descending order' will show the newest results first.
Forum Rules


text:
Anti-Bullying Ambassadors Training for Staff and Students
Isle of man
Tuesday 12th March 2019
9:00am - 3:30pm
This event took place on 12th March 2019, so you won't be able to enquire. They may run the event again in the future. Contact the member by visiting their profile using the 'Member Profile' link above.
Through Anti-Bullying Ambassadors training; The Diana Award equips young people; staff and parents to effectively tackle bullying in their schools; communities and online. This peer-to-peer training empowers attendees with the knowledge; skills and confidence to reduce bullying; and is often highlighted by Ofsted as best practice in whole-school approaches to anti-bullying.
Anti-Bullying Ambassadors Training for Staff and Students
The Diana Award
Thank you for you enquiry.
Your CPD request has been sent to the relevant accredited CPD provider. We hope this is of help.
Click here to search for more CPD courses and events.
Kind regards
The CPD Service


text:
Subscribe to this blog
Follow by Email
Search This Blog
This blog is initiated by Hans A.H.C. de Wit, a Dutch living in Istanbul with a co-blogger Greece. Writing about: politics, cultures, religions, art, daily life, communications, etc. Enjoy! In the memory of Hans! I will try to keep up your work Hans!
Showing posts from March 15, 2011


text:
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Valleyfair Fun
Each year we made a trip out to Valleyfair in Shakopee. Valleyfair is a huge amusement park with an awesome water park. I'm all about the water park. Today myself, Tyler, Troy, Amanda and Ryan headed out for a day of fun. Steve opted out, he has never really enjoyed Valleyfair. He and Topaz mowed the lawn, cleaned the pool, he even text me a photo of Topaz chilling. I'll have to post it!
We began with the waterpark. Bodyslides, lazy river, crushing rapids, wave pool..nothing but fun. I love it..and to spend a full day with the boys, well, that just can't be beat.
Being 10 weeks out from the NPC Northstar meant that I would be traveling with the every present cooler. Eggs and oats, check, protein shake, check, chicken breast salad, check, green beans, check..two gallons of water. Got it!
I went back to the car for frequent feedings and never felt like I was missing out. Nope, didn't need the Dipping Dots, the Chunky Monkey, the Pronto Pups or the Cheese Curds. No thank you!
We had an awesome day. Looking forward to our next visit!
No comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Kablammo! The Editor-in-Chief checks in on the weekend
Also, it's kinda hard to commit ourselves to family and relaxation when we're gleefully bouncing off the walls at the 15-4 bitchslapping that the Jays just laid upon the Beantowners.
Yah chowdah heads! Why don't you take those 15 runs and shove them up Sweet Caroline's pooper?! (Sorry about that. We're not exactly gracious in victory. Clearly, it comes from lack of experience in that particular area.)
A sweep is a sweep is sweep
Just in case you are wondering: Two wins in a shortened two-game series still constitutes a sweep in our mind. SWEEEEP, BoSox biotches!! And (excuse the Portuondo moment here): How sweeeeeep it is!
And while we should heed the perpetual admonitions of the Drunk Jays Fans to simmer down, we're buzzing a little on the idea that the Jays chopped down their deficit in the Wild Card race to seven games. What a bunch of teases these Jays are.
Don't look now, but Adam Lind is making up for lost and squandered time
It's hardly Lind's fault that he wasn't given the ABs earlier in the season, but he's certainly doing quite a job of catching up to the rest of the lineup in terms of counting stats. With his eighth homer this afternoon, he sits just three behind team leader Matt Stairs, and his four RsBI today put Lind at 34 for the season, which is within sniffing distance to Scott Rolen (38) Rod Barajas (40), Matt Stairs (41) and Marco Scutaro (42) in a fraction of the at bats.
We desperately want to see Lind take over the home run lead before the season's up. And it's not that we want to take delight in seeing a dubious player personnel decision proven wrong, but more a matter of wanting to find a reason for hope in 2009.
Roy Halladay: Still awesomely awesome
We say something along these lines every time Roy Halladay takes the mound, but Saturday night's complete game 4-1 win was yet another marvel. That's EIGHT COMPLETE GAMES on the season, more than the entire staffs of 27 other MLB teams. Only Cleveland (9) and Milwaukee (8) have as many complete games as the Good Doctor.
We're not sure if we actually appreciate on a day-to-day basis just how Halladay has moved to a whole other level in 2008. And were it not for the short-sightedness of Baseball Writers Association of America, who generally stop their examination into who deserves they Cy Young votes approximately a half a nanosecond after reviewing leader in the "wins" column, we might be able to have a really interesting debate on the relative merits of Halladay's season versus that of Cliff Lee. More on that in the coming days.
10 comments:
- Darren Priest said...
Seven games? I call that meaningful. So I am really close to watching meaningful games in September.
- August 17, 2008 at 8:29 PM
Tao great post. You did a great fucking job! As for the Jays, ya know the Yanks' kryponite is AJ and Doc.Add in the fact that they have never seen Purcey.....could be a sweep. Can the Jays be like the Rockies last year? I know that the Jays are a tease BUT so what. About a quarter of the season is left and the Jays can climb back into the mix. Amen to that....
- August 17, 2008 at 8:57 PM
- MK Piatkowski said...
About the Cy. Damn Pedroia messes up the shutout which would have put Doc as the league leader there too. At that point, he'd lead in as many categories as Lee. I keep hoping some teams kick Lee's butt so his era goes up as the Doc's goes down. A girl can dream.
- August 18, 2008 at 12:13 AM
- Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...
meaningful games in september, that's all we asked for...and damn right it's a sweep, and there's more where that came from startin tuesday night...fuck boston, and fuck new york. and fuck tampa, too.
wasn't rios just off the hook yesterday? and how about mac and his clutch 2 run double in the first, to really show that we weren't fuckin around. i love mac.
and i hate jason portuondo.
- August 18, 2008 at 12:31 AM
- The Southpaw said...
Alex A told Wilner in an interview today that calling up Lind was NOT Cito's call but that they had targeted calling him up after that road trip in any case and simply decided to co-ordinate Lind with the Gaston hire under the heading of "fresh start" for everyone.
He also said the decision to send him down earlier had to do with Lind trying too hard and putting too much pressure on himself.
He did not address whether or why he stayed down too long.
- August 18, 2008 at 12:51 AM
Now the question when they play the Yankees is whether or not the bats will keep going or if they'll even out after a good series (aka: get shutout).
- August 18, 2008 at 12:53 AM
- The Ack said...
Holy fucking shit!
I watched that air-huffin' Intervention....creeeepy. It's a good thing they sent my guy JVV, Ken Seeley would have sent her running for Staples.
And.....I was also going to ask if a 2-gamer = a "sweep".
Basically, my presence here is totally redundant. I feel shame.
- August 18, 2008 at 1:10 AM
- Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...
we still got love for you, ack, don't worry.
- August 18, 2008 at 11:05 AM
- Darren Priest said...
Notice how the "editor-in-chief" checks in after the big wins over the hated Red Sox.
Consider your thunder stolen, Ack. Tao is a petty, petty man.
- August 18, 2008 at 1:27 PM
Keep raising these young talented players like Lind.
- August 18, 2008 at 10:27 PM


text:
Cheapest shipping from Denmark to Ukraine
The service on this route will be available soon.
Ukraine is a popular country for many activities, and Eurosender can help you send your suitcases or sports equipment from Denmark to Ukraine. With our simple booking platform, you can choose the desired collection date and a courier service provider will pick up your parcel and deliver it from to Ukraine. If you are a company looking for a way to export your goods to Ukraine, Eurosender has a dedicated section for business users too.
Lowest prices & instant quotes (up to 70% cheaper than going direct)
Assistance from our customer support team.
Simple and seamless booking system
Door-to-door pick-up and delivery from Monday to Friday, performed by one of our trusted partners
Special rates for business customers
Fully tracked and secure transport of your goods
Three online payment methods available – credit card, PayPal and bank transfer
Standard insurance of up to 200 EUR included in the price and additional insurance available to purchase at reduced costs
Place an order in few easy steps and let us take care of the rest.
How does it work?
Send a package from Denmark to Ukraine
Eurosender is the best possible news for private customers and businesses that need to send a parcel from Denmark to Ukraine. We work hard to negotiate some of the best rates for international shipping and we only join forces with the best courier services on the market. We have developed an online booking system that immediately displays the price that is relevant for your chosen route and turns the booking process into a remarkably simple experience. Be it a one-time sender or a frequent shipper, with Eurosender everyone can enjoy the best prices for reliable shipping services. If you have managed to successfully place an order on our website, your job is actually done as Eurosender takes care of everything else. And if you still need to ask us something, you can always contact our customer support team, who will be glad to help you.
Send a suitcase from Denmark to Ukraine
Ship a suitcase from Denmark to Ukraine with Eurosender and use the time you would have spent for price comparison on things that actually matter. Our website immediately shows you the final price for any route, with insurance and everything else already included. We can arrange the delivery in accordance with your wishes while our trusted logistics partners always make sure that your belongings reach the desired destination safely and in time. All this at a fraction of a regular price. We accept no compromises when it comes to the quality of the services, which is why we only work with the most reliable courier companies on the market. This way, tracking the progress of your shipment is as relaxing as it can be while our customer support team is always ready to provide answers to any additional questions you might have.
Send a pallet from Denmark to Ukraine
Are you thinking about shipping a pallet from Denmark to Ukraine? In this case, you have come to the right place as Eurosender's pallet shipping platform enables you to easily book a pallet transport on many a transport route. Together with our trusted partners, all of whom belong to the best logistics companies in the business, we will gladly take care of everything else. While you can visit our website and see the prices for certain transport routes right away, our freight department also works hard to prepare tailored offers for all those who also have special requirements. You can count on competitive prices that go hand in hand with low insurance fees and a timely response from our side. Should you or your company require more information, just let us know. Our freight specialists work quickly and efficiently to provide the customers with all the information they need in order to have their cargo delivered in a safe and timely manner.
For more information, check our dedicated page.
Pick-up from any location in Denmark
If you need to ship a package, send a suitcase or organise a freight transport from Denmark, we can find the best offer together with the logistics companies that we collaborate with. A courier driver will pick up the shipment from any location in Denmark. You only need to prepare your package, suitcase or pallet for shipping. After collection, you can track the progress of your shipment online.
Deliveries in Ukrainian Cities
Eurosender covers your shipping needs, whether you are planning to send packages or suitcases to Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, Donetsk or any other Ukrainian city. If you need to take your fishing gear to your destination or if you are simply trying to get your belongings back home, Eurosender's affordable shipping service to Ukraine is a good option.


text:
Posted On: 2020-3-30
Location: Erlangen
Please mention AES001372 when applying for this position.
Am Wolfsmantel 33
91058 Erlangen
Phone: +49 9131 776 0
Fax: +49 9131 776 6099
Email: Send Email
Website: www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm
The Fraunhofer IIS Audio and Multimedia division, based in Erlangen, Germany, has been working in audio coding technology for more than 25 years and remains a leading innovator of technologies for cutting-edge multimedia systems. Fraunhofer IIS is the main inventor of MP3 and universally credited with the co-development of the AAC family of audio codecs as well as technologies for the media world of tomorrow, including Fraunhofer Cingo for virtual surround, Fraunhofer Symphoria for automotive 3-D audio, AAC-ELD for telephone calls with CD-like audio quality, and dialog enhancement to allow TV viewers to adjust dialog loudness as they desire. Through the course of more than two decades, Fraunhofer IIS has licensed its audio codec software and application-specific customizations to at least 1,000 companies. Fraunhofer estimates that it has enabled more than 6 billion commercial products worldwide using its MP3, AAC and other media technologies. The Fraunhofer IIS organization is part of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, based in Munich, Germany. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is Europe's largest applied research organization and is partly funded by the German government. With 22,000 employees worldwide, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is composed of 66 Institutes conducting research in a broad range of research areas. For more information, contact Matthias Rose, matthias.rose@ iis.fraunhofer.de, or visit www.iis.fraunhofer. de/amm.


text:
Friend of victims, suspect in Ottawa slayings speaks out
Andrew Helm had group over for BBQ days before killings
A man who was friends with both the victims in the Ottawa quadruple homicide case and suspect Kyle Flack shared texts he received from Flack after one of the victims disappeared.
Andrew Helm spoke to reporters Monday as Flack appeared before a Franklin County judge.
Helm said he's still trying to come to grips with what happened. He said just a week before Kaylie Bailey and her 18-month-old daughter Lana were reported missing, Flack had been at Helm's home in Gardner along with Bailey, her daughter and their friend Andrew Stout.
"We had a barbecue at our house and everything," he said. "Kyle seemed normal. Andrew seemed normal. Kaylie seemed normal. There was no tension, no nothing, you know?"
A picture taken at that party shows little Lana Bailey inside a toy car.
He said another friend, Steven White, was missing that night. Helm said he believes White was already dead and that Flack didn't like him. When Stout, Bailey and her daughter were reported missing on May 3, Helm said he texted Flack.
"I asked, 'Have you talked to Andrew in the last few days?'" Helm said. "He responded, 'Yesterday.' He said he had plans with his girl this weekend."
Helm said when he heard about the bodies on the farm last week, he was worried about Flack, too. He said he tried to call him, but his phone was disconnected.
He said he became friends with Flack when they both worked for a trash company.
Matthew Andrews said he met Flack there, too, but didn't like him.
"He had a bad attitude against everybody," Andrews said. "He didn't really care."
Carla Fisher, the mother of Steven White, said it was tough to be in a courtroom with Flack on Monday.
"(It was) very stressful, very nerve-wracking," she said. "But it did do me some good to see the victims of the other, you know, the families, that helps."
Flack's hearing Monday only lasted for a few minutes. His next court date is scheduled for July. He is being held in lieu of $10 million bond.
Helm said he hasn't spoken with Flack since his arrest, but he said he has a question for him.
"I'd ask him, 'Why?' You know?" he said.
Helm has spoken with police and they now have copies of the texts that Flack sent to him.


text:
ROCKVILLE, Md. – Ask Montgomery County Councilman Craig Rice what's in that brown bag he's carrying and he'll tell you: Baked beans, an apple and a boiled egg.
"I'm saving the four spears of asparagus I have left for dinner," he says.
Rice is among a group of county officials and residents finishing their fifth and final day of the SNAP Challenge. Participants limited themselves to eating on $5 a day for five days, roughly the same amount granted to people participating in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which used to be known as food stamps.
The local challenge was organized by Montgomery County Councilwoman Valerie Ervin.
"It's very socially isolating," she says. The five-day exercise meant turning down dinner invitations and staying out of the County Council building's cafeteria so she wouldn't feel tempted to break down and stray from her own brown bag lunches.
Rice says he found that he was hungry, and he missed the cafeteria's Peruvian chicken, or another favorite, the onion rings.
But Ervin says she wasn't really hungry. "Except for the day I went to Annapolis and I didn't prepare."
She didn't pack a lunch. All she had was an apple. "So I really got a hunger headache."
Ervin says the experience has been profound for her, especially when she thinks about children who are hungry.
About 34 percent of the county's 149,000 students are eligible for free and reduced meals, an indicator of both hunger and poverty.
"I started to think about food 24 hours a day. How do little kids do this? How do little children go to their school and sit at their desks? They're supposed to be concentrating on what the teacher says and all they can think about is: What's for lunch?" she says.
Ervin says she organized the five-day effort to spotlight the number of hungry people in Montgomery County and to help public officials keep that in mind as they shape public policy.
According to Ervin's SNAP the Silence Facebook page, about 65,200 Montgomery County residents received SNAP benefits in October. For families that qualify for SNAP, the average daily benefit per person is $4.28 per day.
In the D.C. metro area, one in six residents is at risk of or is experiencing hunger – that's more than 641,000 people, according to the U.S. Census.
Related Stories:
WTOP's Kate Ryan contributed to this report. Follow @kateryanWTOP and @WTOP on Twitter.


text:
You know they do it, and now a survey confirms it.
Close to one-third of young drivers, ages 16 to 21, admitted to texting while driving in the past month, according to Consumer Reports magazine.
The survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, found that almost half of the respondents had talked on a handheld phone while driving in the previous 30 days, the magazine said.
Close to 30 percent said they had texted in that time. And some had operated smart-phone apps (8 percent) or used e-mail or social media (7 percent) while behind the wheel.
But most young drivers say they think texting while driving is very dangerous, the magazine said. Perhaps even more surprising, 63 percent of the survey respondents said talking on a handheld phone while driving was dangerous.
It's not just an idle concern. Car wrecks are the No. 1 cause of death for teenagers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, accounting for 35 percent of teen deaths.
One thing that may help stop teenaged drivers from texting behind the wheel is the presence of other teens in the car, according to Consumer Reports.
Almost 50 percent said they were less likely to talk on a handheld cell phone or text when friends were along. One reason may be that many young people are speaking up; almost half said they had asked a driver to stop using a phone in the car because they feared for their safety.
But don't assume that a car full of teenagers is safer than one with a solo young driver.
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety on Tuesday released a study showing that a 16- or 17-year old driver's fatality risk quadruples when carrying three or more passengers younger than 21, compared with the risk of having no passengers.
This finding might seem to contradict the Consumer Reports study but it's just another piece of a larger picture, siad Carol Ronis, AAA Foundation spokeswoman.
"There are other issues like roughhousing, loud music and dancing in the car," she said. "They may not be using their cellphone, but passengers still remain a huge risk."
In a 2011 study, the AAA Foundation found that use of electronic devices was the most common distracted driving behavior among newly licensed teen drivers.
Additional findings from the Consumer Reports survey of young drivers, as reported by PR Newswire, include:
- 84 percent saw other young people talking on a handheld phone while driving
- 71 percent saw a peer texting while behind the wheel
- 48 percent witnessed their mom or dad talking on a handheld phone while driving
- 15 percent witnessed their mom or dad texting while behind the wheel
- 8 percent operated smart phone apps while driving in the last 30 days
- 7 percent used e-mail or social media while behind the wheel in the last 30 days
The survey was conducted online by Knowledge Networks between Nov. 23 and Dec. 13, PR Newswire said.
The full report is in the June 2012 issue of Consumer Reports that goes on sale today.
For more information, visit Consumer Reports' Guide to Distracted Driving & Teen Safety.


text:
Personalized, one-on-one instruction is the secret to improved skills and increased confidence. CoachUp now makes private speed & agility coaching affordable and convenient for athletes of all ages and skill levels.
I train my athletes from the Inside Out, not the Outside In; and I utilize the "5 P" Philosophy that "Perfect Practice Produces Peak Performance."
9.0 Miles away from Stallings, NC
Specializes in speed training, agility, explosion, technique and footwork training.
5.8 Miles away from Stallings, NC
Coach JB: a NBA, NCAA, FIBA, High School and youth experienced performance enhancement professional that bases workouts off of research and current sport science literature.
6.8 Miles away from Stallings, NC


text:
Hey all,
Impoliteness is on the rise, and the Classic-Castle staff members are displeased. We realize that rude behavior runs rampant online due to the internet's anonymous nature, but we expect our members to rise above that. All comments posted on this forum should be respectful, even when voicing a disagreement or criticism. Please remember that your posts aren't just being sent to a web site; they are being read by real people on the other side.
--CC Staff


text:
Tag: soda pop
Quench Your Lips with Soda Pop for Your Pout!
Crazy Rumors, the makers of my favorite, natural, vegan lip balms, have created a brand new line of yummy lip scents – Soda Pop! These fun, fizzy flavors include: Cola, Root Beer, Ginger Ale and Black Cherry. After giving all these flavors...
Read more >>


text:
News Ticker
Anwar Ibrahim's new strategy for Malaysia's top job
Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has revealed his latest strategy to make it to his country's top office.
Mr Anwar has told Australia Network's Newsline program he is in talks to take over the post of chief minister of the state of Selangor.
He says his plan is to use Selangor as a model to prove that his leadership and policies would work for all of Malaysia.
"This is our launch pad," he said.
"This is the richest state, the most effective state, the most popular state and we will showcase how we run through good governance and transparent governance."
The current chief minister of Selangor is the People's Justice Party's (PKR) Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.
The PKR is led by Mr Anwar.
Mr Anwar says discussions about a change in leadership have begun.
"There is that possibility being considered now," he said.
"We do not discount the possibility of a change of guard."
Mr Anwar says one option would be for Mr Khalid to shift into a role as an economic adviser.
Mr Anwar led the opposition to Malaysia's general election in May last year and told Newsline in the lead-up that he would step down from politics if his coalition lost.
Despite a strong showing, his coalition was defeated.
Change of plans
But Mr Anwar now says changing circumstances in Malaysia, including economic and racial problems, have forced him to act.
"I think that compels us to take some drastic measures, including to fortify the state of Selangor as a base for us to challenge the regime," he said.
"We need to put a stop to this race card.
"(But) the thrust of our campaign is still economic policies."
Mr Anwar is contesting the state seat of Kajang in Selangor, where a by-election will be held on March 23.
It's the first step ahead of Mr Anwar's expected bid for the Selangor chief minister post.
The next general election in Malaysia is due in the first half 2018 at the latest.


text:
This is the first post in a series of interviews exploring some of the fundamental questions in our field, like what user experience design (UX) is and why it matters to you. In this article, I've interviewed Alan Cooper, founder and President of Cooper and Chris Noessel Managing Director at Cooper and co-author of "Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction".
How do you design a digital interaction?
Digital technology must respond in a meaningful way when a user expresses their intent. The job of a user experience designer is making this interaction feel natural and nearly invisible. As people around the world increasingly engage with digital technology on a daily basis, the need for smart UX becomes ever more apparent.
Alan says, "When a complex digital device is easy to understand and use, a UX designer has done their job." A skilled UX designer understands the goals and mental models of users, along with the nuances of technology. He or she uses this knowledge to shape the behavior of the technology so that it all seems natural to the user, in just the way a talented author makes you forget the narrator.
Defining user experience design
Digital technology isn't the same as other technologies. For example, chairs are complex machines that provide a service at a user's request, yet people intuitively know how to use a chair. We understand the purpose and behavior of a chair because we have evolved with them. Unlike chairs, humans have not evolved using digital technology, and as such we don't instinctively comprehend how it works. The translation of megabytes and code into a deliverable product that fulfills the needs of a user is done through User Experience Design.
Chris likes to say, "UX designers manage this transition by answering three questions: 'Who are the users?' 'How do they use it?' and, 'Does it work?'" The designer expresses the users' goals through research embodied by tools like personas and scenarios. Then the designer creates a system controls and displays, which helps the user achieve his or her goals.
On a project, a UX designer balances the financial goals of the organization against the limits of technology and the personas' goals. Navigating this collaboration between business, developers, and users can be difficult. Leadership skills and storytelling ability greatly benefit designers so they are able to communicate the value of their design.
What does this mean for you?
The spectacular success of companies like Apple has proven that a great user experience makes the difference between lackluster product performance and market dominance. The investment an organization makes in user experience design rewards them with increased sales and tenacious customer loyalty.
Digital systems already play an enormous role in the world, and that role is growing. More and more analog products have digital components, from automobiles to pill bottles to light bulbs, and that means we have to pay attention to their interaction design and user experience. That's why it's paramount to understand the users' needs. The difference between a smart phone and a dumb one is a smart UX designer.
Related Reading
- Learn how to communicate the value of your design and collaborate with your co-workers in Design Collaboration and Communication