Just to clarify, I am 100% not responsible for the intro script. Sparsh’s extra strength margaritas might be. Happy new years.
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Whether Avatar is racist is a matter for debate. Regardless of where you come down on that question, it’s undeniable that the film – like alien apartheid flick District 9, released earlier this year – is emphatically a fantasy about race. Specifically, it’s a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white [...]

In Jordan, like in most societies, conversations among friends and family frequently turn into complaint circles with long lists of frustrations directed at the local and national governments, unresponsive banks, damaged roads, and corrupt officials. In September 2008 four Jordanian technologists developed Ishki to serve as a complaint brokerage which collects and organizes complaints from [...]

This sounds idiotic, but I was really hoping to leave the Middle East without new friends, and without a desire to learn more about yet another region/culture/language. ‘Make new friends, and keep the old’ sounds great, but it has its limits and I reached those a while back. But it is hard not to fall [...]

I’ve been back in the United States for four days now, but I still feel like I’m stuck in first gear, always ready to take a nap but never able to fall asleep. The end of December is, in many ways, both exciting and challenging. I need to wrap up all the projects of [...]

Five years ago I boarded a flight from San Diego to Boston to attend the 2004 Internet & Society conference at the Berkman Center. This was just a month after George Bush won the 2004 election and so there was an element of group therapy to many of the panel discussions. 2004 was the year [...]

Salam Pax in Beirut for the Arab Bloggers Meeting.
Six years ago:
One day, like in Afghanistan, those journalists will get bored and go write about Syria or Iran; Iraq will be off your media radar. Out of sight, out of mind. Lucky you, you have that option. I have to live it.
Salam Pax, 2003

Four and a [...]

It’s probably not what they’re looking for, but whenever anyone tells me that they are headed to Santorini, my one and only recommendation is that they head to Lucky’s for the world’s best souvlaki. Call it what you will – souvlaki, shawarma, kebab, gyro, döner – it is the Mediterranean version of the burrito which [...]

I’m in Istanbul this week with my new partner in crime from Kyrgyzstan, Bektour Iskender. Together we’re holding a three-day workshop on digital media production and distribution for affiliates from Internews’ Eurasia program. Bektour was recently in the United States where he took some excellent photos of a protest rally in Los Angeles, New York [...]

I’m not a religious person. I’m probably too individualistic, skeptical, rebellious, and contrarian for any kind of dogma, hierarchy, or groupthink. Also, I spend more time each month thinking about how I want my burger cooked than if god exists. On the other hand, there is something about the ritual, charity, and moral bravery of [...]