Do Arabs suffer from a case of bad acoustics?

[N.O.R.F]

As I sat waiting in the hospital (ankle check-up)for the doc to call me in a guy walks in talking on the phone like so loud everyone stopped what they were doing. Then I remembered reading this last week

 

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100129/OPINION/701289932

[Valenteenah.]

One may draw a number of conclusions based on such seemingly commonplace instances:

how loud a person speaks tells a good deal about their level of fanaticism.

“This typical raucous voice is associated with an offensive attitude and sense of haughtiness that characterise the Arab personality when dealing with other nationalities.”

A little bit harsh, soo maaha?

[NGONGE]

Can't access that site for some reason. Can't you just post the article here?

[Jacaylbaro]

A clamouring voice is an outstanding characteristic of Arabs, isn’t it? But does it influence their ability to come up with sound ideas and formulate decently argued opinions? asked Saleh Abdelazim, an Egyptian writer, in the comment pages of the Dubai-based newspaper Al Bayan. And if a loud voice serves them somehow in daily life, does it help in any way when it comes to making decisions on foreign policy and dealing with antagonistic powers?

 

“In the mall, for instance, whenever I turn to see where a loud voice is coming from, be it laughter, screams or a conversation, I’m sure to find either a group of Arab men, or an Arab woman raucously reprimanding her son, or a bunch of Arab youths chattering at a high pitch. Even at airports abroad, when my ears catch a loud voice, it is more likely to be Arab-flavoured.”

 

One may draw a number of conclusions based on such seemingly commonplace instances: how loud a person speaks tells a good deal about their level of fanaticism. “This typical raucous voice is associated with an offensive attitude and sense of haughtiness that characterise the Arab personality when dealing with other nationalities.”

 

Arab culture needs to rehabilitate its members, starting from homes to schools to public institutions.

 

Irish MP’s piety did not prevent her adultery

 

Iris Robinson, 60, is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly and a staunch follower of Protestantism. She fights for God’s laws to be carried out by the government and once called homosexuality “an abomination,” wrote Ahmed Amiri in the Abu Dhabi-based Al Ittihad newspaper.

 

After her rabble-rousing statement, her husband, who is currently taking a timeout from his position as first minister of Northern Ireland, had to go out and clarify that it wasn’t his wife who ruled that homosexuality was an abomination, but God.

 

It wasn’t too long before this “virtuous lady” and her husband became the talk of the town. Her adulterous relationship with a 19-year-old youth was uncovered and her lobbying to get him a £50,000 (Dh300,000) loan to start a business was all over the media.

 

“Now, nobody would have cared one second for this old woman had she been an ordinary person, having no practical influence on public interests and nothing to do with politics and the government. But a misdeed naturally multiplies if it is done by a decision maker, especially when they lay claim to religious integrity.”

 

Ms Robinson is, nevertheless, setting no world precedent. In the Arab world and elsewhere, there are loads of political figures and parties who put on the face of faith to cover up despicable agendas.

 

Gun possession cult: Yemen’s big issue

 

While many Europeans disapprove of the spread of armed police forces in their streets in purported efforts to counter terrorist threats, Yemenis find it the most ordinary thing in the world to see civilians and servicemen alike carrying arms with or without reason, wrote Hassan Haidar in the London-based Saudi newspaper Al Hayat.

 

“For more than 20 years, we’ve been hearing that 60 million guns are circulating in Yemen, which is about three times the number of the population,” the writer said. “But this figure has considerably increased over the past 10 years, especially after the 1994 secession strife.”

 

Yemenis even make jokes about their relationship to guns. If you ask a Yemeni about the country that tops their favourite immigration destinations, they would probably say the United States, because there they could buy however many guns they want.

 

And this sort of mindset is not to disappear any time soon. Yemeni children are still exposed to a culture that treasures free access to guns and holds arms possession in great esteem.

 

True, the central government has tried on more than one occasion and spent millions of dollars to collect guns by buying them from their owners, but entrenched allegiance to the family and to tribal traditions impeded those efforts.

 

Questions Israel won’t ward off forever

 

As the US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, was concluding yet another fruitless diplomatic tour in the region, the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, declared that this last visit by Mr Mitchell’s will bring the White House closer to understanding the “truth” about the Israeli government under the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote Mazen Hammad in the opinion section of the Qatari newspaper Al Watan.

 

Mr Erekat said Mr Netanyahu’s favourite move is “readily bouncing the ball off into the Palestinian court”, a manoeuvre that won’t fly any more with a US administration that is waiting for the Israeli premier’s unequivocal response to two key questions: Is Israel willing to resume the negotiations with the Palestinians from where they’ve left off when Ehud Olmert led the Israeli cabinet? Does Israel accept that the area of land to be given back to the Palestinians be equal to the plots of land that have been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war?

 

This means that Israel will have to painfully determine which settlements it is really intending to annex and which current Israeli territories it is ready to concede in exchange. “It seems that we’re getting closer to that judgement day.”

[N.O.R.F]

EDIT!!

 

Ngonge, there is something wrong with that page.

 

Originally posted by Valenteenah.:

quote:One may draw a number of conclusions based on such seemingly commonplace instances:

how loud a person speaks tells a good deal about their level of fanaticism.

“This typical raucous voice is associated with an offensive attitude and sense of haughtiness that characterise the Arab personality when dealing with other nationalities.”

A little bit harsh, soo maaha?

Val, ever seen mid Carab'a get worked up? They think they win arguments by shouting the loudest

 

The piece is written by an Carab I think.

 

Ngonge, you should always read The National.

[NGONGE]

^^ It's a silly article, saaxib. The kind you get on here when new kids come in and say 'are Somalis the most godless, pretty, loud, etc'.

 

The author, obviously, has not looked at any nationality other than Arabs. Or else, he would have known that Africans, Greeks and South Americans are much louder than Arabs.

 

Can't access the site for some reason.

[N.O.R.F]

^They might well be louder but Carabs are still loud

[NGONGE]

^^ They are. But the idea itself is silly. It's arrogant in a very queer way. A sort of 'lets criticise ourselves because we are the most important people in the universe and nobody else comes close'.

[Juxa]

somalida yaa ka kheylo badan, seriously you can hear from a block away.

[N.O.R.F]

^quite true but for us it's more the women folk

[Valenteenah.]

Guess you haven't heard Faaraxs chatting in public for a while.

 

I think the loudest people I usually hear are West Africans/Timo jilic. Second to us, of course.

[Jacaylbaro]

Egyptians cid ka qaylo badani ma jirto .......

[Juxa]

norf actually in my experience it is the men, i thought inay dhago-la yihiin due to all that shelling back home.

 

islaamaha are bit reserved in public at least

[N.O.R.F]

Val, ever been on public transport with a couple of islaamo chatting away? They would be at the front of the bus and you at the back but by the end of your journey you know about the problems they have with their kids, their health problems and last night's Universal TV shows

[FIDHIN]

somalis are very loud, specially reer somaliland dats why we have alot of pple called Qawdhannn, which means sum1 who is very loud