A "Kindled" reading :p

I was watching the ever so amusing ‘Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ today and Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO was the show’s guest speaker. Interestingly Bezos brought with him an electronic device called Kindle to the show. I am not sure how many of you know of it, apparently it was first introduced in 2007 and just recently a Kindle 2 came to the market. The Kindle is an electronic device that reads books that are stored digitally, something like e-books, it can store up to 1500 books, the device itself costs $399 and each book is for $9. Which is very pricey. This is what it looks like.




Now as usual Jon Stewart was messing around and poking fun at Bezos and his device, which was all so funny. However, even though I believe that technology is handy and has helped advance the way we carry out a lot of essential tasks, I was disappointed that it also came down to making reading books an electronic experience. It is reliable, to the extent that it is needed, that we have e-books online, which can also be printed, but to make all books digitalized into a device removes a distinguishable exercise and ritual that people, for centuries, used to practice.

Reading a book is not always a task or job to be done, but is rather considered something people to do as a past time. There is something gratifying about the activity of reading an actual book that cannot be replaced with an electronic device, the aspect of holding the book and turning the pages as you read, feeling the paper and getting a waft of the paper’s smell are all part of that experience. You can almost tell how much a book has been read from the state of the paper, its feel and smell, and those features are also what makes one book distinguishable from the other. The Kindle does have a “paper-like” screen, but that isn’t the same thing at all.

I don’t know how many people feel the same way, but I know there is nothing that would compensate reading a material book, especially with a cup of coffee :p

Freej Folklore

This post is a very late one, but regardless I really want to share it with everybody.

Freej Folklore is an Arabic theatrical production of the largest in the Middle East about the Arab and specifically Emarati culture which is directed by a young Emarati man called Mohammed Saeed Harib. His idea initially started as a cartoon on four Emarati women displaying the Emarati heritage and culture in modern U.A.E., Freej means neighborhood in Emarati Arabic and is the name of the cartoon.

Last year Harib decided to take the idea of the cartoon a step further and masterminded this theatrical production and put together a team for it. Luckily, one of Razan’s friends had tickets and hence we were all able to go. I was truly impressed by the show, it was spectacular. I feel so proud knowing that an initiative and potential is being put forward to convey and demonstrate the culture of U.A.E. to the diverse expats living in the U.A.E. for many years. What is even more impressive is that there is a show in Arabic and in English, which reaches even a wider audience. I was so thrilled by the show that I went twice.

The show started with a recapitulation of the most famous Arabian legends and characters such as Aladdin, Ali Baba and Ibn Batutta and gradually closed up to U.A.E.’s culture. The production integrated the cartoon characters with human performances using 3D affects which made it very flamboyant.

The dances, costumes, music, 3Daffects, graphics; you name it, were all so cohesive together and gave it a grand feeling.

I tried taking as many pictures from where I was sitting, but with a failed attempt, my camera couldn’t zoom that far, so the pictures below are from the show’s blog and main website. However, I did take some very immature videos and put them together, I hope you get a sense of what’s it like. Although, I have to admit that I noticed the crowd wasn’t too enthusiastic, especially the Emarati crowd. You will definitely notice our loud voices from the video, we were wooing and clapping like anything, we all really enjoyed it.

Notice the Arabian costumes the men on the horses are wearing, they reminded me of the Arabian men and deserts Coelho talks a lot about in his books, I somehow visualized them like that. The dance and music I mostly enjoyed and hardly ever get to see is the “Al Yolla” which is the men with sticks dancing to the beat of the drum, this part is pure Emarati culture, music, costume and dance and is followed by another one with younger kids twirling swords. The girls’ swinging their hair is the corresponding traditional Emarati female dance. Ah I also specifically like how the images of the very many tall real estate buildings that Dubai is fueling its economy on AND some construction sites.

Here is a description of ‘Al Yolla’ that I found on the show’s blog http://folkloretales.blogspot.com/2009/01/friday-night-at-freej-folklore.html

This is the main website http://www.folklore.ae/main.html

‘"Al Yolla"is the most popular battle scene dance in UAE culture. It's performed by a group of men using their sticks, swords or sometimes rifles. With rhythmic stepping to the beats of traditional musical instruments like the doumbek - which is made of ceramic and goatskin. It's used as a percussion instrument. Also the oud - a string instrument.

The Yolla dance gets performed at weddings and special occasions. The men form 2 or 4 rows, alternating their forward & backward steps to symbolize victory and defeat.”

Current Work

Almost all of you do know that I have taken the semester off and will be working until May/June and that I have kept my options between the following two; GRC (Gulf Research Centre) and AC Nielsen. Well without going into much detail, based on the work, time, payment and need, AC Nielsen was the final choice.

What is AC Nielsen? Well it is a marketing research company, its headquarters are located in the States, but it has branches in all parts of the world, which makes it a global marketing research company, they have branches in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

So what is “marketing research”? Basically any company, organization or firm that sells a product or a service or would like to introduce a new product or service, would first conduct a market research to obtain a better understanding of the consumers wants, needs, tastes/ preferences and the like. In order to go ahead with the research, the company would go to a marketing research company that would study the project and the needs of the client and accordingly propose a concept and methodology for the research. For example, should it be focus groups, in home interviews, individual in-depth discussions, the age group, nationality, males/females, do you need competition consumers and the like. And so that is what Nielsen does.

Now I already have been doing part time work for Nielsen last semester. I translated recorded interviews, from Arabic to English, in the form of transcripts. Usually when the research is in the Middle East and the clients are English speakers, translation of what has been said during the focus group discussions is required. Translation is needed in two forms, the first is spontaneous translation and that is when the discussion is taking place the client would be present in another room, and spontaneous translation is needed for the client to understand. The second is in the form of transcripts, as I explained above.

The Nielsen in U.A.E. and Egypt are the main branches for the Middle East, meaning if research was done in let’s say KSA, it would be sent to U.A.E. for the final stages of analysis and presentation. So Nielsen is constantly busy and has several projects taking place in a month. Different people take care of different projects, thus they are in constant need of free lancers/part-timers/interns to assist. I usually translate transcripts for Badri and Hisham whom work in one department. As work comes and on my availability I do it, sometimes it is instant translation, sometimes it is just transcripts which I can do at home and get paid for per group translation. I am still doing this work with them.

The stable monthly paid job I got there until May is with a very sweet lady called Yomna. She is the research manager; I am working with her as an intern. She mainly takes care of the last two stages after the field work is done, which is the translations, interviews etc. she does the analysis and the presentations which are to be presented to the clients. She mainly takes care of Nestle projects, as you are aware Nestle has many products all around the world. The current one I am working on is for MILO, which is a chocolate energy drink by Nestle. Their research is on how they can improve the image of MILO with a distinguishable character. Now for whoever knows, MILO in Syria and apparently in KSA has become the generic name for any chocolate drink and this has led to it not having competition. So they want to find out what is the best way to promote the drink with a new image. So now after the interviews in KSA and Syria have been done, I need to listen to the audio recordings and create an analysis sheet after which a presentation would be put together.

Hmm last week, I got asked to do work with another person in the company, Mutaz, on a project for Al Jazeera, the Arabic one. Al Jazeera wanted to conduct research on its viewers and competitors’ viewers. Research was done in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and KSA. So apart from the work I do with Yomna, any other work , such as the one with Badri and Hisham, gets paid for separately as well, per group or task. Everyone there is really friendly, so it is great working with them and the extra money never hurts :p ah so remember the new skill I learnt last semester, part of my Soliya course, well I knew it would come in handy ;) part of the work I did with Mutaz was editing videos and adding subtitles, basically making short clips. That work was a killer though, he just received the videos from KSA and was on a short deadline, meaning I had to first watch 15 groups and make 40 clips, within two days. Thankfully that is over and done with :)

Although much of this work is marketing, it is rather interesting and oh it is amusing when you hear the interviews and what people say, although some can be boring.

Hmm so that must have filled you in with all that I am currently busy with, which is why this post is late…I started working two weeks ago. This work does take time but is worth it and a lot is learnt. Plus I need the money and it is good being busy. The variety in projects and type of work helps in making it less tedious.