I Present you, the promo for my coming documentary:
In Case the video does not open, here is the link on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHUoXhoyF2c
Audio:
Stay tuned for the full length documentary
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
On the long complicated process of relationship approval in the Arab Societies
Last Thursday, I was enlightened by the phenomenon of Erayet al Fat-ha, the reading of the opening. This is a step that you have to take in order to hang around your boyfriend without being perceived like a total slut in front of your family, if you had a typical egyptian family, that is.
Erayet al Fatha, is like a pre-engagement. It is basically when two families gathers up in order to acknowledge that their son and daughter are going out and that they might decide to get married later on. This phenomenon usually takes place in houses where religion is put first.
So what happens in an Erayet-Fatha?
Nothing much, you and your boyfriend/ girlfriend invite your family members, preferably the males only, because let’s face it in this society; the males opinion is a thousand times more valuable than that of the female’s. Then, you all just sit down, all dressed up and read the first verse in the Quraan, the same one that Muslims read in all their famous five prayers.
But hey, don’t get too excited because according to religion you still can’t go out together unless you have someone with you, to watch your every move, you know in case you decide to do something *wink**wink.* As the prophet "Whenever a man is alone with a woman the Devil makes a third." and who wants a devil being his third, and still if you are a girl and you are alone with a man in this society, you are the devil in disguise.
But hey, don’t get too excited because according to religion you still can’t go out together unless you have someone with you, to watch your every move, you know in case you decide to do something *wink**wink.* As the prophet "Whenever a man is alone with a woman the Devil makes a third." and who wants a devil being his third, and still if you are a girl and you are alone with a man in this society, you are the devil in disguise.
Final Project Journal:
Final Project Journal:
During the last week I have roamed around the PVA with my voice recorder interviewing professors in the fields of, Visual art, music, film and theater, recording what they know about the history of the PVA, and also where I could find out new information.
Unfortunately, I found out that there are no archives concerning this particular subject other than archives containing the sound of previous concerts.
I have as well, gathered sound bites of people playing instruments around the PVA, to use as Nat sound, also I interviewed some art students.
My next step would be touring around the heads of the four departments in the PVA, as well as trying to gather sound bites from theater, perhaps maybe attend a play and record the sound.
Moreover, at the moment, I am listening to what I have already gathered in order to sort the information in them and write a script to find out what more I need to know. And what to as the professors I am going to interview next.
During the last week I have roamed around the PVA with my voice recorder interviewing professors in the fields of, Visual art, music, film and theater, recording what they know about the history of the PVA, and also where I could find out new information.
Unfortunately, I found out that there are no archives concerning this particular subject other than archives containing the sound of previous concerts.
I have as well, gathered sound bites of people playing instruments around the PVA, to use as Nat sound, also I interviewed some art students.
My next step would be touring around the heads of the four departments in the PVA, as well as trying to gather sound bites from theater, perhaps maybe attend a play and record the sound.
Moreover, at the moment, I am listening to what I have already gathered in order to sort the information in them and write a script to find out what more I need to know. And what to as the professors I am going to interview next.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Journal #4: Long Form Audio Documentary #2
http://www.prx.org/pieces/15305-rn-euroquest-48-sex-and-consequences
As being easily bored as I am, as well as highly appreciating spending my time doing things other than my school assignments. It is surprising that I chose a 23 minute documentary to listen to, when the assignment required a minimum of eight minutes. However, I chose this particular documentary to listen to, which is Sex and Consequences by Radio Netherlands because I found it highly interesting. I listened to the voicer at first, and I was immediately attracted by the energy of the piece I felt it was not going to be boring because of the choice of music that was chosen as a background to piece, also the voice of the announcer is far away from being boring. And most importantly the topic which is about the consequences of legalizing prostitution in the Netherlands as well the emotional consequences of terminating pregnancies.
The piece is full of interesting information, as well as facts. Like the fact that prostitution was not legal in the Netherlands till the year 2000. And why prostitutes in the Netherlands prefer wearing white Legendre’. The piece is full of interviewees, which are interesting to listen to. Amongst them was Saskia fenghainan, the editor of radio Netherlands world Dutch affairs who is an expert on the subject and she highlighted a lot of important points. She was introduced her she started talking; I thought that that was a nice way to do it as the listener became more ready to know who she was.
I like the variety of sounds present, the music, the natsound, along with the variety of people speaking made the piece really interesting. Also putting many people provides many angles of view to subject making the listener willing to listen more and more to see the opinion of other people.
Trafficking is still a problem in the Netherlands, and although it is legalized now a lot of women are working under the illegal sector.
By minute 7 and 30 seconds the topic’s focus changes and moves to Berlin and the situation of prostitution there. And forced prostitution during the world cup. Berlin another country where prostitution is legal.
At this point the piece became more serious and so no music bites were present anymore. At the moment the documentary sounds more like a news cast. These few seconds were informative, but the mood was kind of boring to me, luckily the serious mood did not go on for long. [the reporter here is Mike bouragada from Frankfort.]
Back to the Netherlands with Saski who was reintroduced. The mood broke into a looser one when the interviewer asked her what she thinks about porn.
And from now, we move to a different topic, and the music is back, yay!! The topic now is porn, and what are the issues with porn from a women point of view.
We are taken to the first porn film festival in Berlin with Cinnamon Nipart, and there we are introduced to a new concept which is feminist porn.
She interviews women are seemingly interested in porn however believe that it should be feminized, the mood here is very different than the rest of the piece it is more fun and more engaging.
The topic then moves to unwanted pregnancies but before so, a really creative transition was made. A calm lullaby was played and then the interviewer says that he is a bit sleepy and from then he moves to babies. And then to abortion, the music here is amazing, really relevant; baby lullabies!
He introduces a doctor to talk about depression and guilt that accompanies some of those couples who undertake abortion. Then the show moves to prenatal issues like checking the child for deficiencies.
In conclusion, I thought that the topic was quite interesting, however was a bit unfocussed; in the voicer he stated a two issues that he will be discussing but discussed around 4, partly related issues. I thought that was both good and bad. Good because diversity equals less boredom but bad because if a listener started listening for the latter point he’d have to listen for 20 minutes till he reaches it and that is not time efficient for him.
RN EuroQuest (#48): Sex and Consequences
Series: RN EuroQuest: Public Radio's Weekly European JournalFrom: Radio Netherlands Length: 00:29:59
As being easily bored as I am, as well as highly appreciating spending my time doing things other than my school assignments. It is surprising that I chose a 23 minute documentary to listen to, when the assignment required a minimum of eight minutes. However, I chose this particular documentary to listen to, which is Sex and Consequences by Radio Netherlands because I found it highly interesting. I listened to the voicer at first, and I was immediately attracted by the energy of the piece I felt it was not going to be boring because of the choice of music that was chosen as a background to piece, also the voice of the announcer is far away from being boring. And most importantly the topic which is about the consequences of legalizing prostitution in the Netherlands as well the emotional consequences of terminating pregnancies.
The piece is full of interesting information, as well as facts. Like the fact that prostitution was not legal in the Netherlands till the year 2000. And why prostitutes in the Netherlands prefer wearing white Legendre’. The piece is full of interviewees, which are interesting to listen to. Amongst them was Saskia fenghainan, the editor of radio Netherlands world Dutch affairs who is an expert on the subject and she highlighted a lot of important points. She was introduced her she started talking; I thought that that was a nice way to do it as the listener became more ready to know who she was.
I like the variety of sounds present, the music, the natsound, along with the variety of people speaking made the piece really interesting. Also putting many people provides many angles of view to subject making the listener willing to listen more and more to see the opinion of other people.
Trafficking is still a problem in the Netherlands, and although it is legalized now a lot of women are working under the illegal sector.
By minute 7 and 30 seconds the topic’s focus changes and moves to Berlin and the situation of prostitution there. And forced prostitution during the world cup. Berlin another country where prostitution is legal.
At this point the piece became more serious and so no music bites were present anymore. At the moment the documentary sounds more like a news cast. These few seconds were informative, but the mood was kind of boring to me, luckily the serious mood did not go on for long. [the reporter here is Mike bouragada from Frankfort.]
Back to the Netherlands with Saski who was reintroduced. The mood broke into a looser one when the interviewer asked her what she thinks about porn.
And from now, we move to a different topic, and the music is back, yay!! The topic now is porn, and what are the issues with porn from a women point of view.
We are taken to the first porn film festival in Berlin with Cinnamon Nipart, and there we are introduced to a new concept which is feminist porn.
She interviews women are seemingly interested in porn however believe that it should be feminized, the mood here is very different than the rest of the piece it is more fun and more engaging.
The topic then moves to unwanted pregnancies but before so, a really creative transition was made. A calm lullaby was played and then the interviewer says that he is a bit sleepy and from then he moves to babies. And then to abortion, the music here is amazing, really relevant; baby lullabies!
He introduces a doctor to talk about depression and guilt that accompanies some of those couples who undertake abortion. Then the show moves to prenatal issues like checking the child for deficiencies.
In conclusion, I thought that the topic was quite interesting, however was a bit unfocussed; in the voicer he stated a two issues that he will be discussing but discussed around 4, partly related issues. I thought that was both good and bad. Good because diversity equals less boredom but bad because if a listener started listening for the latter point he’d have to listen for 20 minutes till he reaches it and that is not time efficient for him.
RN EuroQuest (#48): Sex and Consequences
Series: RN EuroQuest: Public Radio's Weekly European JournalFrom: Radio Netherlands Length: 00:29:59
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
News Wrap, Six charity hospitals are being built around Egypt to save pre-mature babies.
News Wrap Script
Music: (Broken Hearts- by Dreamfullofzen)
Intro:
Cast- Al Gam3ia Al Shar3eya is a charity group founded to serve the needs of the financially challenged particularly for taking care of premature babies and babies that are born with health problems who arrive in a family that is unable to pay for their health care. Ten years ago the organization established its first hospital to serve its cause in Nasr city. That was first step, for today there are nine other operating hospitals in addition to six being built as Ispeak.
Dr Ibrahim Abd-El-Haq a Natal consultant and the head of the charity group’s hospital in Nasr city, will be with us to elaborate more, firstly by explaining what qualifies a new born to be considered “premature” or “Preterm” and what kind of patients do they accept in their hospitals.
Sound Bite 1 (Dr. Ibrahim):
The new nate starts from 500 hundred grams to nearly 600 grams. This is named as a premature baby or preterm baby.
Cast -Premature birth is a serious health problem. Premature babies are at increased risk for newborn health complications, such as breathing problems, and even death. Most premature babies require care in a newborn intensive unit (NICU), which has specialized medical staff and equipment that can deal with the multiple problems faced by premature infants.
Sound Bite 2 :
We have more than 12 new natal units which are the one of the biggest units in the Middle East and maybe in the world. We have more than 500 hundred incubators and more than 100 hundred ventilators and these instruments maybe the largest ones in the world or the Middle East.
Cast-The cost of one day of baby care could rise to 1000 Euros in European countries, however,
Sound bite 3:
All this service is charity hospitals which depend on the business man in Egypt, only in Egypt and not outside Egypt. We accept anybody who comes to our unit if he is Muslim or not Muslim and if he is Egyptian or not Egyptian. We deal with all nationalities and all religions. There is no difference between a person and another. It is especially for poor persons, but if a rich person who starts this treatment in a special hospital and after some time he may complain of there is no more, that he spent all his money on that hospital, then we accept that person as well.
Cast-The rate of premature birth has increased by 36 percent since the early 1980s (1). At the same time the rate of poverty has increased and as a result more and more families lose their new born child. Operating these hospitals is not easy [quote] and your help is most needed, if you have money or effort to spare it would do you good to know that you might be saving a life.
Sound bite 4:
The natal unit is an intensive care unit that needs more people who care about these babies.
Exit Music (broken Hearts).
Sunday, November 1, 2009
it is so much more than a Costume... It is a statement.
Thursday the 29th of October was not a typical day at the AUC, it was two days before Halloween, since Halloween was supposed to be on the Saturday following it.
I went to university caught up in the Autumn blues, fed up with life –as usual-, when suddenly out of the blue I saw these cave men running, and giving everyone a wonderful show. They are just students at the AUC who were enjoying themselves and welcoming Halloween, Anyhow, they really made my day, I mean the fact that they woke so early and got in costumes and actually came up with a show, aimlessly, rekindled my lost hope in this world.
Then after a boring class, lost as usual with an empty phone battery, I heard music, and there it was, all I needed a rock concert, right in front of me - and it’s not even my birthday-. It was “faking it!”---that’s the name of the band-- it was awesome, and as if god was helping with the show he made it rain!! And there was more costumes and more excited people! So yea
h, thank God, from now on I am a believer in what I used to call stupid celebrations that are a waste of time. I missed my meeting that day, but I am glad I did. I laughed, I jumped and I screamed and it was worth it.So next Halloween, I will wear a costume, and I bid anyone who is reading my humble Blog to wear a costume too! And just be kids again and laugh and laugh… You know what don’t wait till Halloween, how about you stop working for an hour and do something out of the ordinary for once. I don’t know, maybe go sand boarding or bake a cake or something. Good luck fellows Earth residents.
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