Popagandhi

Slides from my barcamp presentation:

BarCamp Singapore 4 is on tomorrow at Suntec Tower 3, 14th Floor, at IDA Singapore, from 9am to 6pm. Looks like there will be lots of interesting presentations.

I’m on at 1.30pm, with “How to hack your own travel channel life”. I’ll be sharing about travel, writing, photography, the internet, and well, stuff. Sorry I can’t be more specific (I’m still preparing the presentation). If you haven’t already registered, it looks like they’re over-subscribed. See you tomorrow if you are coming, and come say hi!

P.S. there’s an afterparty at Hackerspace, sponsored by Yahoo Southeast Asia. I hope we’ll have something like Hackerspace in Malaysia soon — I would love to have a co-working space there!

keeps the writing block at bay

The Torino Express, Beirut
Downtown Beirut was swanky. Saifi Village was strange. I had to duck into a hair salon and get my hair cut by a gay man in Ashrafieh to avoid the guy following me on his scooter, and the other guy trying to sell me drugs. All I wanted was a steak. Walking around Beirut, glamorous, fashionable Beirut, the party capital of the gay Middle East, where everyone, straight, gay, and in-between, was artsy or beautiful or a bit of both, was mind-bending. Here was a United Nations tank, soldiers armed with rifles. Here was a pockmarked building, riddled with gunshot wounds, the architectural reflection of Beirut’s own wounded but eternal soul. In the fashionably frumpy quarter of Gemmayze, I joined the artsy young Beirut set for a night. Saturday nights in Gemmayze’s many hole-in-wall bars and clubs felt right; in early 2009, this was where Beirut’s heartbeat was to be found. Every couple of years, that changes, according to my friend Dana. Like many Lebanese, she left the country as a teenager because of the war. Never quite settling elsewhere, she joined the permanent Lebanese diaspora in Montreal and then in Dubai. I cannot imagine what it’s like to call such a beautiful, vulnerable strip of land “home”; it must be hard to juggle so many identities. “The New York Times Travel page just ran a story about how ‘Beirut is back’. Bars, clubs, it’s so hip now, yada yada,” I said. “Oh, please. Every five years or so the New York Times “rediscovers” that “Beirut is so different from the Middle East” and “and how we’re a party town,” she scoffed. “It’s a surprise only to them. Every five years or so somethings blows up, the shit hits the fan. Then we’re okay, and we make the New York Times again. And again.” Meanwhile, a gorgeous gay Lebanese man held hands under the table with his strikingly handsome French partner, while Dana ordered us more beer and whisky and expounded at length about how weird it is that Middle Eastern culture places so much importance on what’s been between her legs. I remembered what a foreign correspondent once said about this city being every old-school foreign correspondent’s dream: you could interview the Hezbollah at lunchtime and count on foie gras, wine and beautiful people showing at your parties after, on the other side of town. I love this place.

Next: Homemade Vodka/Russians Dance for Me in the Oldest City in the World

Spotted on the way to Sunrise roast duck in Seapark (Petaling Jaya). (Which is very awesome. But go before noon or you’d have to queue for ages.)

When M. and I both got the chance to move abroad and start new, but separate (if temporary) lives, we started Fortylove.tv to make the best out of two exciting but disparate cities: London, Dubai. Both are cosmopolitan cities. One had a long history, remarkable culture, and was a major world city. Another was desert until 20 years ago, yet rose convincingly from the sand to try to be a major world city. Both, quite notably, had made it simple — and cheap — to gain access to the countries in their respective regions through their low cost carriers. We saw in this an opportunity to go, as my father would say, gallivanting around Europe, the Middle East and India; sometimes together, mostly on our own. We’re talking about US$10 return tickets to Barcelona, US$100 tickets to Istanbul and Sana’a, and that’s after picking from the very difficult list of places like Paris, Valencia, Fez, Marseille, Brussels (for her); Athens, Casablanca, Beirut, Damascus, Cairo, and more, for me.

Ryanair, Easyjet, flydubai, AirArabia, and the like, really did for us in those parts of the world what AirAsia did for us here.

Another little known reason why we started Fortylove.tv: it was our excuse to travel more, do more silly things, meet (and befriend) interesting people. I was particularly interested in making the effort to get the most out of my Dubai experience. That sounds simple enough, but in reality it was quite difficult. In a city like that it was too easy to be immersed in working, partying, and… more working and partying. Many people move to Dubai with the idea that they will see more of the Middle East. Many of them never get around to doing it; it’s too easy to just stay put in the city of fast cars, bright lights, gleaming towers. The fast cars, gaudy architecture and bright lights did nothing for me except make me feel sick. I did not like Dubai very much; I still don’t. I needed to discover the real, gritty bits of a city that wasn’t trying to be something else. I found that in the back streets of Deira and Bur Dubai, in neighbouring Abu Dhabi; in the Friday khushti wrestling matches at the fish market and the freshly baked Afghan breads, in the camel races on weekends. And in the haunting strains of Middle Eastern hiphop.

I went in search of Middle Eastern hiphop but came away wanting to know more about the deeper issues behind their music. It was political, yes, but intense, raw, and ultimately touching. It was very, very good (check out DAM Palestine and The Narcicyst for a start, if you’re interested). The pressing issues weren’t about sex, women, guns or bling, but about ideas such as identity, ‘homelessness’, displacement, exile, war, oppression. Whether or not you agree with their message (a pertinent one that cannot be ignored any longer), it’s still good music.

While seeking out Dubai-based group Diligent Thought, I came across one of their sisters, a Sudan-born, Dubai-raised poet and musician who performs by the alias of Miss Lyrikal Nuisance. That we worked in the same media hub area meant we became fast friends and I learned a lot about life, the world, and that particular region, from her. I took her to the historic conservation area of Bastakiyah (a must, if you’re ever in Dubai) and got her to perform for me. There’s music by The Narcicyst, the Iraqi-Candian Dubai-based performer, as well. You can read more about it here (as well as watch the video), or just watch the video:

If you’d rather watch the YouTube version, it’s here.