Imed Chihi | عماد الشيحي

Noori Al-Maliki: best goalkeeper 2008

2008-12-15T20:09:00.004Z

Al-Baghdadya TV journalist Montathar Al-Zidi threw a pair of shoes at President Georges W. Bush at a press conference in Baghdad today. The aljazeera.net readers have made about 5000 comments on the news on the web site, mostly approving of what the journalist did.

I did not post a comment on the article, but I would have approved of Montathar's action had I commented. However, on a second thought I tend to pity Georges W. Bush for what he got himself into after years of random destruction.

Full video here

Teeless cisco.com

2008-12-14T09:51:00.004Z

On Thursday 25 September 2008, a coworker noticed that the cisco.com web site was not rendering correctly:

On closer inspection, I noticed that all the "t" letters were removed from the HTML document. As you can see on the shot above, the style sheet did not load for instance because the statements "stylesheet" and "text/css" lost their t's.

I'm speculating that someone in the web development team decided to "clean up" the pages from tab characters and wanted to ran something like:

$ sed 's/\t//g'

.. but ended up forgetting to quote the "t" or maybe, influenced by web scripting languages, ended up double quoting it.

Hizbollah,terrorists?

2008-07-16T22:48:00.033+01:00

I kept quiet for about two years, but a recent ban on the Hizbollah military arm by the UK government "forced" me to scribble a few words in this post.

As a young boy, my knowledge of Hizbollah was close to non existent. At the time, news reports in Tunisia were putting Hizbollah under a neutral light, so to me, it was just another Lebanese faction of the so many I could not distinguish.

I spent several years trying to educate myself about Hizbollah and I came to the conclusion that it's one of the best organised and disciplined groups I can think of. Most importantly, the popularity of Hizbollah leadership in the Arab and Muslim world is hard to describe in words. For instance, the average western reader would probably find it surprising that even Hayfa Wahbe is an admirer of Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's Secretary General. Now, Hayfa Wahbe (هيفاء وهبي) is the female sex symbol of the Arab world, and on top of that, she's Christian. One would wonder, why such an entertainment figure would voice admiration in public to the head of a supposedly fundamentalist, violent Islamic organisation?

Another example is George Kurdahi (جورج قرداحي), a Lebanese Christian popular media figure (and a lot more respected than Hayfa in my opinion). Kurdahi has made very praising and supportive statement about Hizbollah.

Julia Butrous, yet another Christian Lebanese singer, has done even better: she released a song called Ahibba'i (أحبائي) which is a very elegant praise for Hizbollah, it calls the fighters "builders of civilisation", "a revival of values", "the glory of our nation" and "with you, we'll change the World and make fate hear our voice". To emphasis the irrelevance of Hizbollah's faith in the wider struggle with "Israel", Julia dressed in a black long dress, usually worn by Shiia women.

For the wider arab and muslim public, Nasrallah was a honest, brave, wise and most importantly, a religious figure who laughed and told jokes; Bin Laden was someone who did stand against the American domination, but his leadership and ideology was an embarrassement to the Islamic World. Hence, the emergence of Nasrallah was a God-send event which made millions of people proud, minus the embarrassement.

In the France 5 documentary referenced below, a very religious Christian lady finds that "[Hizbollah] are honest, very honest". Hassan Nasrallah's own son, Hedi Nasrallah, was a Hizbollah fighter himself and was killed in confrontations with "Israel" when it used to occupy Southern Lebanon.

Hizbollah signed a memorandum of understanding with the Courant Patriotique Libre (Al Tayyar Al Watani Al Hurr - التيار الوطني الحر) which represents the Christian majority in Lebanon. The Tayyar is headed by General Michel Aoun, a former head of the Lebanese Army. The question that would come into the mind of the average American reader is: Why would a supposedly fanatic, violent Islamic group take a group of "infidels" for partners? and, even more stunning, why are those Christians admiring the group so much?

When "Israel" was forced to retreat from Southern Lebanon, Hizbollah did not seek revenge from the South Lebanon Army who collaborated with the "Israelis" throughout the occupation of the South. This collaboration resulted in continuous imprisonment and torture of their peer Lebanese, so not seeking revenge was a significant self restraint. Not only that, but in the memorandum of understanding with the Tayyar, Hizbollah officially committed to allow the return and not to seek revenge from the South Lebanon Army members who had to seek refuge in "Israel" after the liberation of the South.

Nasrallah has gained even more respect in the region when he expressed admiration to the very "Israeli" administration he's fighting where it did deserve credit.

Despite all of the above praise, I was not surprised when I found out that the US administration reporters were calling Hizbollah a "terrorist organisation". Robert Fisk explained this quite simply:

"Once you put the Middle East through the filter of the very gutless and cowardly reporting of the [US] journalists, it filters out into what the White House wants or the Pentagon wants or the State Department wants or the Republican Party wants or whatever. I can open, as I did this morning, the New York Times here (..) and its coverage of the Middle East is absolutely, for me, incomprehensible. It's so frightened of telling the truth (..). When you have this diminution of the semantics of this great tragedy as you do in the American press where anyone who opposes the United States power or opposes Israel becomes a terrorist, you're no longer dealing in reality, you're dealing in a fantasy world".

No wonder that the US administration has classified Hizbollah as a "terrorist organisation". The UK administration tried, at least, to be a bit more realistic and explained the ban with Hizbollah's "support for terrorism in Iraq and Occupied Palestinian Territories" and limited it to the External Security wing while acknowledging the noble character of the social activities ran by the party. Obviously, what is regarded as "terrorism" by the UK government statement here is seen as brave resistance by the overwhelming majority of people in the region. The European Union seems to adopt an even wiser approach and, so far, decided not to put Hizbollah on a terrorist list.

Most Western media try to cast Hizbollah under a very negative light, but it's quite difficult to do so without recourse to lies and fabrications at times. Therefore, most outlets keep envelopping it with a cloud of mystery. That's probably why a France 5 documentaty was suitably named: Le mystere Hizbollah, for "The Hizbollah mystery".

Let's review together what happened in the 2006 war between Hizbollah and "Israel" to figure out why they could possibly be branded "terrorists".

Somehow, I find it a bit strange that when a "terrorist organisation" goes to war with a regional super power, the war ends with 1200 Lebanese deaths mostly civilian and 160 "Israeli" deaths mostly combatants. Terrorists are usually the ones who go after the soft targets and try to kill civilians.

I find it a bit strange that a regular army fires millions of cluster bombs, most of it in the last 72 hours of the war, and refuse to provide maps of their locations to the United Nations. The estimated 100,000 unexploded bombs have already killed around 80 Lebanese civilians. Usually, a terrorist organisation would have recourse to explosive devices in order to cause indiscriminate death among civilians.

About 24 hours after the cease fire was signed by both parties, the "Israeli" military sent a commando into Lebanon in the hopes of capturing Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's Secretary General. Hizbollah maintained its committment to a cease fire and did not retaliate. Usually, a terrorist organisation has no respect and does not abide by the agreements it signs, if it does sign anything that is.

When a terrorist organisation takes prisoners, it usually tortures them and, in this case, sodomise them too. A civilised group would show respect for the unarmed captured combatants.

From what the two conflicting parties have done so far, there is clearly a lot of terrorism here, but it was not perpetrated by Hizbollah. By the way, I used the term "terrorist" so many times already, and I'm not sure it means the same thing to everybody, but this is a bigger topic that we shall discuss in another post.

What I would suggest to those branding Hizbollah as terrorist is simply to seek all points of view before casting a judgement. A first step would be to listen to what Hizbollah is saying and learn about their ideology from them themselves rather than from so called "Israeli" terrorism experts. This interview of Nasrallah by Edward Peck would be a good start for instance.

Blogging in Arabic, English or both?

2007-08-12T17:24:00.001+01:00

I started this blog about a couple of years ago, but I didn't really write much. I was posting roughly about an article per two months. One question which keeps coming to me is: which language should I use to write? Being an Arab, I'm supposed to write in Arabic. Being in the UK, it made sense to write in English. Actually, as a Tunisian, it wasn't entirely odd for me to write in French even.

Most of my writing went in English because I felt like I needed to tell the West so many things, not about myself, but about where I come from. However, I think I still feel a massive urge to write in Arabic, so I created a new blog where I will only post Arabic articles. Jeeran means "neighbours" in Arabic which is, in my opinion, what blogs are about.

This blog will receive, from now on, only English posts.. with an Arabic touch, of course.

The Tuninter 1153 ditching

2007-07-21T15:47:00.002+01:00

Tuninter is a small airline company operating mostly within Tunisia with some short services to southern Europe. On 6 August 2005, flight Tuninter 1153 between Bari, IT and Jerba, TN, on board an ATR-72 aircraft crash-landed in the sea near the Sicilian coast of Italy. 16 of the 39 occupants died including 2 crew members. Tuninter got only two aircraft, the picture on this post shows the very same plane which crashed (Habib Bourguiba الحبيب بورقيبة). This is the first fatal accident in the history of Tunisian civilian air traffic since it started in 1948.

The Aviation Safety Network have a record for the accident. It seems like the aircraft was fitted with the wrong Fuel Quantity Indicator which was reading fuel quantities about 2000 Kg higher than the actual levels. The Fuel Quantity Indicators for both the ATR-42 and the ATR-72 looked the same and were fitted the same way, but used different algorithm to calculate the fuel level.

I know very little about the airline industry, but my basic engineer's guess tells me that such a critical subsystem should not leave room for confusion. Design common sense would suggest using as many common parts as possible across models to reduce manufacturing costs, but not when people's lives depend on them.

I recently found the 5-minute recording from the blackbox:

The conversation was a mix of Arabic, French, English and Italian. A blogger has published a transcript of the conversation. The mechanical engineer Chokri didn't make it, but the pilot survived although he was badly hit. A survivor said: "I saw the pilot on the wing. He was in a terrible state and blood covered his face."

Here is the same transcript with little corrections I made. The commander is Chafik Al Gharbi (شفيق الغربي), the second pilot it Ali Kebaier Lassoued (علي كبيّر الأسود).

Hours 15,34' 33"
- commander: check whether it started. Leave it, leave it.. in the name of God, most compassionate, most merciful. What's the ditching procedure?
- second pilot: [incomprehensible] (with Palermo air traffic control)
- commander: confirm the distance, please.
- Palermo control: [incomprehensible]
- commander: confirm the distance, please.
- Palermo: the distance is now 20 miles.
- commander: I think… we are not able, we are not able to reach the terrain. We are at four thousand feet and we are not able, we loose both engines. Can you send for us helicopters or something like that?
- second pilot: ditching.. ditching (talking to self while going through the procedures manual)
- commander: fast, fast.
- Palermo: I can advise.
- second pilot: preparation. . Cabin crew: notify. Sign: on. DPWVS: off. Set it to off there. Cabin and cockpit door: prepare.(reads out loud the ditching procedure)

3'33" to the splash down
- commander: it's better we turn towards that ship, it's better if we turn towards that ship.
- second pilot: should I put [incomprehensible], no?
- commander: no, no, the wind is strong, the wind is strong. Oh! God be clement. In name of God the merciful one, the clement one, in name of God, the merciful one, the clement one...
- second pilot: cabin and cockpit: prepare.
- commander: so this one still doesn't start?
- second pilot: no, it refuses to start.
- Palermo: 1153, Palermo, be informed that we informed ... the ships... Your position is about 22 miles now radial 20… 036,… radial 036, 22 miles.
- commander: uhhh, the battery! Unable, unable to reach, 2200 feet. There are two boats, we are going to join them, left side, heading 180, can you call them please?
- commander: try again, try again (trying to restart the engines)
- Palermo: heading 180, confirmed?
- commander: which one have you ignited, which you have ignited? (stressed tone)
- second pilot: the right one.
- commander: go, go. The other one, the other one!
- second pilot: already did, it refuses to start!
- Palermo: Tuninter 1153, Palermo, say again!
- commander: there is a boat, there is a boat… left side… I'm going to put there. 1100 feet. In the name of God the merciful one, the clement one.
- second pilot: auto, press, dump.
- commander: prepare for emergency ditching.

Less than 1' 55" to the ditching
- Palermo: you are at about… now the position is approximately… 20 miles to east of the field
- commander: Unable to reach, unable to reach
- second pilot: not in a position to reach land. Tuninter 1153 unable to reach the field, we see two ships on the left side, big boats. We try to land… to ditch near of them. If you can call them, please…
- Palermo: [incomprehensible]….we call the military.
- second pilot: before ditching. Optimal ditch altitude. Minimise impact slope. Brace for impact (reads out the ditching procedure)
- commander: good
- second pilot: [incomprehensible] (reads on, seems nervous)
- commander: did it start? try the other one

Less than 27" to the ditching
- commander: is that the sound of the engine?
- second pilot: the same, the same, it does not want to make anything
- commander: God be clement, God be clement
- second pilot: gear level… up… ditch push button before.
- commander: go, it's over now, help me Ali. Be alert Ali. Chokri, get ready, Chokri get ready.
- Chokri: I am ready
- commander: we're touching the sea.
- commander: in the name of God the merciful one, the clement one, in the name of God the merciful one, the clement one

Splash-down hours 15,38' 53"

المغرب العربي الكبير

2007-06-01T20:51:00.000+01:00

أكتب اليوم في إطار مبادرة للمدونين التونسيين لجعل يوم غرة جوان/يونيو/حزيران ٢٠٠٧ يوما مخصصا لمسألة المغرب العربي الكبير.
إنطلقت مسيرة هذه الوحدة رسميا في سنة ١٩٨٩ و لا أزال أذكر مشهدا جميلا من إحدى القمم المنعقدة في تونس عندما تولى الرئيس التونسي بنفسه قيادة المرسيدس الرئاسية يصحبه فيها الرئيس الجزائري و العقيد الليبي و الرئيس الموريطاني و الملك المغربي.
الإنطباع السائد عن هذا المشروع في تونس على الأقل ينم عن شيء من التذمر من بطء بناء الإتحاد. قد يكون ذلك بسبب التقدم النسبي لجيراننا الأروبيين في وحدتهم، غير أني أرى أن الحصيلة إيجابية رغم هزلانها وأضن أن المستقبل سيشهد تسارعا في نسق الإندماج إن شاء الله.
منذ حوالي ١٢ عشرة سنة كان حال البلدان الأعضاء أكثر قتامة فقد كانت ليبيا تحت حصار دولي جامح و كانت حرب أهلية تقطع أوصال الجزائر و كانت تغمر موريطانيا أجواء فساد خانقة و كانت تونس تعيش مواجهة بين الحكومة و حركة النهضة فضلا عن الخلاف الأبدي بين الجزائر و المغرب حول ملف الصحراء الغربية.. لحسن الحظ تبدو الأوضاع اليوم أقل تأزما.

في تونس، إنتهت المواجهة بين الحكومة و حركة النهضة و بدت آثار الإصلاحات على مستوى المعيشة و البنى التحتية و آداء الإدارة و ليس أدل على ذلك من النتائج المشرفة للبلاد على مستوى العديد من المؤشرات العالمية.
في ليبيا رفع الحضر فعليا و بادر القذافي بإنهاء برنامج تسليح نووي عاد على ليبيا بمكاسب ديبلوماسية قد يكون أهمها إعادة العلاقات مع الولايات المتحدة. في سياق آخر يبدو أن مجهودات ليبيا و نجاحها النسبي في إفريقيا بدأ يرفع من شأنها عالميا.
في الجزائر إنتهت أعمال الترهيب و التقتيل و لم تبقى سوى حوادث متفرقة نرجو أن تنتهي.
في المغرب يبدو أن محمد السادس قد وضع البلاد على طريق التحديث و يبدو أن المغرب يحضى بإحترام و تقدير دولي مميز. علاوة على ذلك تقدم المغرب بمقترح مشجع لحل مشكلة الصحراء الغربية. و الأرجح أن هذا الإشكال يمثل أحد أهم العوائق لتطبيع نهائي بين الجارين و بالتالي لنجاح المغرب العربي.
أما في موريطانيا فقد حصلت معجزة صغيرة عندما قام الجيش بتسليم السلطة لحكومة مدنية بعد أن نظم إنتخابات ناجحة.

قد يكون هذا تصورا مفرطا في التفاؤل و لكنه يروق لي..

Recent readings: Orientalism

2006-12-29T18:37:00.002Z

Edward Said is an American academic, he was born in Palestine and lived in Egypt for some time before immigrating to the United States.

Orientalism is a classic that Said had put with great care, the book had simply changed the way the West looks at the "Orient". It had even created a negative tone to the word "orientalism", modern western scholars are apparently distancing themselves from being called "orientalists".

The book re-examines the term "orient" and what it actually means to the Western reader, or maybe what it was made to mean to the Western reader. Orientalism argues that the West actually made its own Orient and that the Orient as know in the West is actually the Western discourse about it.

To illustrate the idea, Said gives as an example the way Orientalists made their "scholarly" analysis of the revolutions and rebellions against the colonial rule in Africa and Asia. For instance, in their analysis of the Arab revolt in Egypt, some Orientalists gave the impression that the Arab "violence", is somehow due to inherent tendencies to chaos rather than to legitimate pursuit of freedom and independence. Colonialism needed to be justified with orientalist theories like "Arabs/Africans/Indians are incapable of self-governance".

The book goes through the representations of the Orient since medieval times, this was essentially anti-Islam rant fuelled by the religious authorities in Europe. Said spends a good part of the book describing the orientalism of colonial times which is the period when "Oriental Studies" in Europe became of great importance to the colonial mouvements in Britain, France, Belgium, Germany and others. Indeed, one of the most central ideas in "Orientalism" is that the orientalists were essentially serving the colonial interests. Some critics blame Said for ignoring other orientalists who were not affiliated with colonial authorities and seemed to be solely interested into Oriental arts for instance. Mahmoud Darwish put this in his stunning beautiful symbolic style in a poem called Tibak (طباق):

نيويورك. إدوارد يصحو على كسل الفجر

يعزف لحناً لموتسارت

يركض في ملعب التِنِس الجامعيِّ.

يفكِّر في رحلة الفكر عبر الحدود

وفوق الحواجز

يقرأ نيويورك تايمز

يكتب تعليقَهُ المتوتِّر

يلعن مستشرقاً

يُرْشِدُ الجنرالَ الى نقطة الضعف في قلب شرقيّةٍ

يستحمُّ. ويختارُ بَدْلَتَهُ بأناقةِ دِيكٍ

ويشربُ قهوتَهُ بالحليب

ويصرخ بالفجر: لا تتلكأ

Orientalism, just like Said described, is still alive and well. Bernard Lewis, a British now living in the US is probably the best example of Said's orientalists. Despite his strong disagreement with Said, Lewis is regarded as a major figure of modern Middle Eastern studies. When Lewis justified the war in Iraq with "we free them or they destroy us", he summarised what Said has been trying to tell us in his book.

Despite my disagreement with some of Lewis analysis, I think his extensive research may give the Muslim world some very useful clues on how to regain more status and accelerate development. I will try to make my next politico-historical reading a Lewis.

هذه المدونة في إضراب

2006-12-25T01:00:00.000Z

A Tunisian in the church

2006-09-30T17:59:00.001+01:00

I have been living in Western countries for a few years now and I have never attended a mass, at a Christian church that is. Actually, I have been living close to several churches in Tunis for a decade and I always thought of visiting the Roman Catholic church in avenue Habib Bourguiba. It never happened for lack of time, lack of determination and mostly for the fear that it may appear inappropriate to the local Christians.

I talked about this to a co-worker and he invited me to attend the mass at the Guildford Saint Saviour's church which I did (with my wife) on 26 February 2006. It was a very worthwhile experience and I'd love to have it again.

To a muslim, the prayer ritual is obviously quite different. It consisted into a considerable amount of singing and music playing which would correspond more to a joyful adhkar (أذكار) session in the Islamic tradition. The person leading the prayer gave a speech about Jonas, that's Yunus (يونس) in Arabic. Except from the mention of the Trinity in the lyrics, I didn't see much conflicting with the Islamic teachings.

The common belief that muslims cannot pray at a church or at synagogue is not totally accurate. When Syria was conquered by Muslims in the 7th century, Christians and Muslims were praying at the same church (Saint John maybe) alternating services on Fridays and Sundays. Later when Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (عمر إبن الخطاب) conquered Jerusalem (القدس), he commanded that muslims shall not pray in Christian worship places for fear that it may establish a tradition of possessing churches in the future.

It happened the day of my visit that the church was ogranising a kind of informal meeting to discuss about "Is nothing sacred?". Assured by the ones who invited me, I attended; the discussions addressed several topics like some show I didn't know about but which appeared to be blasphemous, the muslims reaction to the Danish cartoons and so on. At the very end, I asked permission to comment on a question by one of the attendees: "do Muslims take their religion more seriously than us?" and (briefly) on the Danish cartoons affair.

My point of view was essentially that for muslims Islam has been a power that brought scientific, social, military and economical advances and it's still being regarded as the social system that turned a bunch of desert warring tribes into masters of the World. Islamic Civilisation owes all of its achievements to Islam, therefore, I think this is why the Islamic religion has this great esteem for Muslims. The US channel PBS used a nice expression to describe this: Islam -- Empire of Faith, it's a documentary which runs over 3 episodes: The Messenger, The Awakening and The Ottomans.

The Christian church in the West, on the other hand, was more regarded as an obstacle to Western advances. Tales of blasphemy charges against scientists are still vivid in the minds and I believe that this has costed the church a lot of credibility over the past centuries. That's obviously the opinion of someone who knows very little about the history of Christian church(es).

The Danish cartoons affair deserves a post by itself, but at the church I only pointed out that the violence the media has described happened in inherently violent and instable places, namely Gaza, Palestine, Nigeria, Pakistan and such. The cartoons were a mere trigger for communities already under tension.

The reactions to my visit were mixed, someone from the church's staff said that what I did was "brave", another attendee was staring at us for the whole session and gave the impression that he didn't like us being there. Many others expressed sympathy and escorted us on the way out, some even asked us to come again. Thank you all for the warm welcome.

M. Ahmadi Nejad and G. W. Bush

2006-08-30T19:27:00.001+01:00

The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad had called, in a press conference, for a public TV debate with United States president George W. Bush.

The White House dismissed the invitation as "just a diversion from the legitimate concerns that the international community, not just the US, has about Iran's behaviour." It's probably worth noting here that what the US speaker refers to as "the international community" is only a handful of countries, namely Great Britain, the US, France and Germany; that's only 4 (6 if you count Russian and China) countries out of about 200 and is, in my opinion, a very long way from being "the international community".

This is not the first invitation of direct discussions with the US Administration which the Iranian president made. President Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad already wrote an 18-page letter to his American counterpart about a similar topic 4 months back. The letter had seen a similar fate to the public debate: turned down.

I think this could have been a golden opportunity to ease the tensions between Iran and the US. I'm sure there are tons of mis-understanding piled up on both sides, since we're still talking about the "Great Satan" on one side and the "Axis of Evil" on the other.

On a less serious note, I believe that the US Administration is right about avoiding this confrontation: George W. Bush, who is not well known for his eloquent speeches, will certainly have a hard time talking about World affairs with a Civil Engineer who holds a MSc and a PhD in transportation systems? Even the CNN readers think their president doesn't stand a chance.

Childhood comics: Sinan - سنان

2006-08-26T16:32:00.001+01:00

Sinan was one of the comics that marked the childhood of millions in the Arab World. My sister had a Sinan T-shirt when she was about 4. It's one of these comics made in the 70's and, very successfully, translated to Arabic. The translation of these Japanese anime is usually done in Syrian and Lebanese studios; Young Future and Space Toons are names that come to mind. I believe that Sinan's English name is Beaver.

The opening song is still vivid in my mind 25 years later, it goes like..

سنان يا سنان

يا خير الأصدقاء
في الغابة الخضراء
سنان يا سنان

شعارك الوفاء
يا خير الأصدقاء
ها نحن بإنتظارك
سنان يا سنان

سنان يا سنان
يا نفحة النسيم
بطبعك الكريم
سنان يا سنان
و رأيك الحكيم
يا خير الأصدقاء
ها نحن بإنتظارك
سنان يا سنان

سنان يا سنان
صديقنا الأمين
في غابة الحلوين
سنان يا سنان
الكل سالمين
يا خير الأصدقاء
ها نحن بإنتظارك
سنان يا سنان

The closing song, equally beautiful, goes like..

ما أحلى أن نعيش
في خير و سلام
ما أحلى أن نكون
في حب و وئام

لا شر يؤذينا
لا ظلم يؤذينا
و الدنيا تبقى تبقى
آمال للجميع

ما أحلى أن نعيش
في بيت واحد
ما أحلى أن نكون
في وطن واحد
الحب للجميع
و الخير للجميع

Sinan was a very brave young squirrel who always helped the needy and did all he could to bring happiness and joy to those in sadness. Every episode would address a typical social situation, no guns, no flying robots, just plain goodness and big-hearted behaviour. Sinan was supported by his friends Lala and a young bear (forgot the name). The bad guys were a gang of Foufou the fox and Farfour the bear, led by Sharshoor the wolf. The Sharshoor gang were not terribly bad, they were just a bunch of idiots giving Sinan a hard time.

I really cannot make any sense of the "modern" comics a la Pokemon, I just can't get the point.. or is it just me growing too old?

President Habib Bourguiba 1903-2000

2006-08-03T15:11:00.001+01:00

I still recall that text in the primary school describing the triumphant return of the Supreme Leader (المجاهد الأكبر) after the negociations with the French. The photo in the text was showing him riding on a military Jeep with a soldier sitting on the hood and plenty of people cheering him around.

That was Habib Bourguiba (الحبيب بورقيبة), the first president and founder of modern Tunisia. My grandmother used to break in tears remembering Bourguiba. "Si Lahbib", as some Tunisians like to call him, has been educated in the legendary Sadiki School (المدرسة الصادقية), then followed some higher education in law and political sciences in University of Paris, France. I don't know the curriculum by heart, but let's just retain that Bouguiba was a lawyer and a journalist. After graduation Bourguiba has quickly turned into political activism and managed to found a new party that headed to fight for independence from France. This costed him years in French jails, he was also too close to the firing squad at times.

What Tunisians find special about Bouguiba is his magical and charismatic way of addressing them: very open and improvised speeches in plain Tunisian dialect. In الحبيب بورقيبة - سيرة زعيم or Les Trois Decennies Bourguiba for the version in French, Tahar Belkhadja (الطاهر بلخوجة) descibes his experience and his relationship with the President in some very revealing ways. The book sums up quite nicely the personnality of Si Lahbib. Tahar Belkhodja gave an interview and appeared on another program on the Al-Jazeera channel some time back about his career in the government where he revealed yet more details about the President.

Habib Bourguiba was obviously not a perfect leader, he was still regarded as a dictator who didn't believe in sharing power. He almost publicly admitted his reponsibility for the assassination, in Germany, of Salah Ben Youssef who led the communist opposition. By the way, Tunisia has gone through a painful communism experience which turned to be catastrophic and the gaovernment had to pull back with a historic public apology from Bourguiba in the 60's. The last 10 years of Bouguiba's rule had plunged the country into a true mess and a dangerous political chaos.

The World still remembers Bourguiba for some pioneering initiatives like the Civil Status Code (مجلة الأحوال الشخصية) granting revolutionary rights to women: women gained their right to vote in Tunisia before Switzerland. Bourguiba was so proud of this achievement that the only mention on his grave is: "محرر المرأة" or "Liberator of the Woman". He also had a wiser approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict: despite acknowledging that the creation of Israel was a historic unjustice, he called Arabs to accept UN resolution 181 to secure the part proposed and keep fighting afterwards to free the occupied parts. Unfortunately, the answer to this offer was thrown tomatoes and burning of the Tunisian embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Regardless, Bourguiba always stressed on the integrity of the Tunisian people: Jews and Muslims. In 1982, after the Beirut siege by Israel, the Bourguiba government (actually, his wife Wassila Bin Ammar) brought a resolution to the deadlock by offering to host the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and implement the agreement sponsored by the UN. The Bourguiba "government" maintained the Education allocation at around 30% of the budget, compared to 1.5% for Defense.

Another significant event in the career of Bourguiba is his his opposition to the German in WW2. Bourguiba was emprisoned by the French at the time and the Germans, after occupying Tunisia, offered to release him and push him to power in return of his support; amazingly, the Supreme Leader turned down the offer. He once said "I wouldn't have fought France so fiercly hadn't I loved France so much". In May 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy says about him:

Like President Washington, President Bourguiba is a revolutionary, and like President Washington he also, when the revolution was won, had the sense of judgment, self-discipline and strength to attempt to bring good will and peace among his people and to the people of the former occupiers of his country and his surrounding neighbours.

The relationship with Moammar Al-Gaddafi, leader of Libya, was flaky at times and one of the best remembered speeches was almost an impromptu interruption of the Colonel in the Palmarium, now a shopping centre in Tunis. Listening to this talk today makes me think that the person was a serious politician.

Based on a medical report declaring Habib Bouguiba senile to govern, he was dismissed on 7 November 1987 and spent the remaining 13 years of his life in a government-owned house. Just like the Godfather, like him or hate hime, Habib Bourguiba has marked modern Tunisian history for ever.

50 years on..

2006-03-20T20:08:00.001Z

In the middle of the 19th century, Tunisia was still ruled by the Husseinite dynasty which has Turkish roots. The Ottoman Empire had controlled, to different degrees, the political life in Tunisia for about 3 centuries and the similarities between the Turkish and the Tunisian flags are not accidental.

As the Ottoman Empire started to wane and the colonial mouvement was at it's highest, the Italians and the French started to eye Tunisia as a potential colony. The foreign debt started to weigh heavy on the Bey's Government and they had to give in to French pressures and sign the Bardo Treaty which established the French protectorate.

On 20 March 1956 a delegation of Tunisians signed the Protocol of Independence with France after 18 days of negociations. France recognised the right of Tunisia to manage its own foreign affairs, security and defense, effectively ending 75 years of French protectorate.

The country prides itself with a relatively high standard of living, a very wide middle-class base, pioneering women status and impressive economic achievements. An utmost priority was given to Education since the establishment of the republic in 1957. Tunisia has done a pretty good job at maintaining an identity shaped by 3000 years of history while embracing modernity and this does reflect in a very welcoming and open attitude of most Tunisians. Some work still needs to be done for a more efficient press and a more active political life, but we're almost there.

Today, with fellow Tunisians, I celebrate the 50th anniversary of the independence. An independence which we all owe to a few brave men who conducted a continuous Jihad in all its forms: political, cultural, unioninst and, to a lesser extent, military. The Government launched a website with a nice summary about the event.

Names like Habib Bourguiba, Farhat Hached, Mongi Slim, Habib Thamer, Mohammed Daghbagi, Hedi Ben Jaballah, Abu Al-Kassim Al-Chabbi, Moncef Bey and others will be remembered as heros..

A Dream Deferred

2006-03-05T13:19:00.001Z

Roheet Shah of the American Islamic Congress commented on a previous article with a note about an event organised by the Hands Across the Middle East Alliance (HAMSA).

The event is called The Dream Deferred Contest which calls for American and Middle Eastern youth to write an essay about what they think of the civil freedoms situation in the Middle East. I don't know of the motivations of this contest, but I think it's going to be an interesting opportunity to see how the situation is seen from different standpoints.

Unfortunately I don't qualify because of my age: I'm not a "youth" anymore. I wished I could contribute, but I will try to put some thoughts about the subject here.

First off, it's not very clear to me why Americans, or the West in general, are so concerned about freedoms in the Middle East: is it because some think that the lack of freedoms is causing trouble back home? is it by pure compassion? Then, what freedoms are we talking about here? Is it the freedom of speech? the freedom to live in peace? the equality between genders? and what's the "Middle East"?

I am very excited about this event because I'm sure that what the American youth will write is going to be very interesting; interesting, not only because the latest American attempt to bring freedom to the Middle East has been desasterous so far, but also because the image of the Middle East displayed by US media is so distorted and, in my opinion, amounts to lies at times.

It's interesting also to see what the other side of the river thinks. Many in the Middle East are reluctant to take the West for an example of freedom because they don't think that they really need a freedom that makes 42% of British babies born to single mothers, that makes 600,000 people in Europe die from Alcohol-related causes per year and that makes 40% of all registered marriages in a German city take place between gay couples. Wasn't it the same freedom of press and speech that established an anti-semetic atmosphere in Germany in the early 30's which led to an attempt to exterminate a whole People?

It's hard to imagine that someone sane can reject freedom and democracy, but on a second thought, one may question whether they are really worth the price. The French Revolution, a symbol for the modern, free and democratic republics, has rampaged through France behading people for pronouncing the word "King". Some bright minds of France were lost victims of an excessive quest for freedom. The United States had to exterminate the native Indians, fight a bloody war against the British rule and another bloody civil war to build a "free and democratic America".

Obviously all this comes in a global situation where it seems common sense to regard the West as the beacon of freedom and the Middle East as a hole of darkness. Although I don't agree to this black-and-white classification, I think that, generally speaking, it's a lot easier to communicate one's ideas in the West than it is in the Middle East.

I also believe that it's the freedom to express difering views that guarantees a reasonably good governance. Without a trusted justice system, there's very little room for any economic, social and technical development. I'm almost sure that the wide-spread corruption in many Middle Eastern countries is holding back development. In the 12th century, Abdu Ar-Rahman Ibn Khaldun (عبد الرحمان إبن خلدون) said that "العدل أساس العمران", that is "justice is the foundation of urban life".

In my opinion, the Western attempt to "bring freedom to the Middle East" are mostly making the situation worse. For some, it's enough reason to reject an idea because it comes from America.

In my humble opinion, I think that if the motivation America is to bring democracy, then I would beg them to leave their tanks home: help people get jobs and democracy will follow. If the intention is to keep the extremists from attacking America, then the fix is even easier: "if you want to fight terrorism, then just stop bombing people".

At times I just think that maybe it was better to just leave the Middle East alone. Muhandas Gandhi once said: "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"

United Kingdom -- First impressions

2006-02-01T04:25:00.001Z

We have been in Great Britain for about 10 months now and I thought I should write down some of my first impressions about this place. This is definitely not pretending to be a scientific evaluation, but a mere side scratches of a newcomer. It's also worth noting that we only saw part of the South West (Surrey) which seems to be in a more favourable situation than the rest of the country.

The name
It's still a bit confusing for me to make a clear distinction between Britain, Great Britain, England and the United Kingdom. It seems like the official name is "United Kingdom" although the top-level Internet domain name for this country is actually GB (and not UK) as per ISO 3166. England seems to be used to indicate the largest island.

Food
Food was probably the most noticeable difference for me. The British seem to heavily consume ready-made and frozen meals, grocery stores contain huge sections of this type of food. The "hot food section" is usually a tiny corner that the shopper can barely spot, hot food is almost synonymous with roast chicken. The national junk food is fish and chips which is usually a portion of deep-fried, breaded Cod fish with potato fries.
The other significant food in the UK is alcohol, it seems to be an integral part of the social life and there are shops dedicated to nothing but selling beer, wine and spirits. It's very common that people head to the pub (bar) right after work, everyday at times.

"Bloody"
This seems to be the term to use to express anger while avoiding vulgar expressions. It appears to be socially acceptable.

Transportation
A very good roads network. The underground service is well-designed and reliable. There's a problem with the cost though; parking is very expensive at several GBP per day, gas is at an average of 0.90 GBP per litre and diesel is usually a little more expensive than gas. Trains tend, apparently for safety reasons, to run slower then in other European countries, a round-trip from Guildford to Cambridge costs about 36 GBP which is, by Tunisian standards, a lot.

Health Services
The National Health Service (NHS) is the public authority running the Government's health services. The state is controlling almost all aspects of health care, patients need to register with a local General Practitioner (GP) who coordinates all their health service needs. The first general impressions are not very positive so far, but we had a very good experience with the emergency service.

Queueing
Fellow Tunisians have a lot to learn from the British on this matter, everyone queues, everywhere.

Urban organisation
All buildings look exactly the same: red-brick walls with tiny rooms and really tight doors, I often wonder how they could take sofas inside the house. Actually, whe I moved I shipped a 3-seater sofa to my address in the UK, unfortunately I had to sell the item on e-Bay (for a fraction of the price) because I simply couldn't take it upstairs. Some modern buildings tend to use more metal and glass. Roads are usually a bit tight compared to Dubai or the US. Some of the roads suffer a little damage, clearly because of rain water.

Media
The Independent is my preferred newspaper. I don't have exposure to many popular TV channels, I only receive five of them. I listen to BBC 4 Radio daily and I find it great, Radio Tunis has to do a lot of restructuring to reach this high standard; too much music has exactly zero informational value.
The British media has the particularity of being shocking without turning politically incorrect. Showing body liquids and extreme nudity on TV is somehow a form of joking here and I recall seeing postcards with human genitals in London. I find it an interesting form of humour. Some say that the British were shocked so many times that they hardly find anything shocking.

No middle finger
Extending the middle finger as a vulgar sign of extreme offense does not work in Britain. The British express the same by extending both middle fingers of the same hand (the ones closest to the thumb). The legend says that in earlier times, when British archers were captured by the French, they had their fingers chopped, at least the ones used to throw arrows. Therefore, showing off the fingers is used as a sign of defiance.

An Introduction to Islam

2005-12-25T23:33:00.001Z

The University of Washington organised a series of conferences after the 11 September 2001 events aiming at making a better understanding of the context and consequences of the terrorist attacks and what happened after.

Dr Jere Bacharach professor of Middle East History and director of the Jackson School of International Studies gave an impressive presentation about "An Introduction to Islam". This is a brief, yet comprehensive, overview of the social and religious values of Islam in connection with its historical context.

There are tons of lectures about Islam, but what I find special about this one is that it's so light, factual and so easy to digest without getting into any kinds of embarrasement due to political sensitivities and such.

Recent readings: Léon l'Africain

2005-12-04T23:33:00.001Z

I'm starting off this new section to do a very rough review of books I read lately. There has been some time since I didn't read sustainably.

The first book in this series is Léon l'Africain by Amin Maalouf (أمين معلوف) or "Leo Africanus" (الأسد الإفريقي). I have read the original version in French.

Amin Maalouf is a Lebanese novelist living in France. He has covered in a very elegant style the West's relationship with Islam, Muslims and the Islamo-Arabic civilisation in general.

In Léon l'Africain, Amin Maalouf depicts the life of a genuine figure of the 15th-16th century: Hassan Al Wazzan (حسان الوزان) or, maybe, (حسن الوزان) known to the West as Jean-Léon de Médicis, the geograph. Hassan was born in Granada (غرناطة) in modern day Spain, he moved to Morocco as part of the massive Muslims and Jews migration after the Inquisition.

Hassan gets elevated in the ranks of society and becomes a minister/ambassador to the ruler, he visits Timbuktu, Mali which was a very developed and prosperous city at the time. His childhood friend goes into a rebellion movement and their ways cross in fantastic ways.

A quick journey to Tunis, Tunisia, then a trip to Constantinopole and a settlement in Cairo, Egypt. From Egypt, he travels back to Tunisia fearing the Ottomans, but gets abducted in Jerba, Tunisia by Sicilian pirates to end up between the hands of the Leo (Leon) X, the Pope in Rome, Italy.

Hassan Al Wazzan told us about the stressful last days of Granada and the mood of dispair that was established, the news of Jews being burnt alive in other districts was to tell Granada Jews and Muslims alike they were next. In all this, there was the voice of Astaghfirullah, who was always there to remind the city of what they did wrong and that they were getting what they deserved. Reading through the chapter, you'd find that Astaghfirullah was, somehow, th e same voice that we hear today but prefer not to listen to.

The life of Hassan Al Wazzan was used by Amin Maalouf to tell the story of so much happening in (today's) Spain, France, Italy, Egypt, Mali, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey. This fantastic tale of a figure that lived in the West and in the East is very captivating and Amin Maalouf made it hard for the reader to halt for a pause.

The Passions of the Christ

2005-10-12T21:22:00.001+01:00

I saw The Passions of the Christ about two weeks ago and it was quite a different kind of movie. It seems like Mel Gibson became an expert in illustrating pain, sacrifice and suffering.

I'm not proficient in theology, but the story of Jesus (PBUH) as described by the movie was exactly what I have learnt about the matter in the Islamic tradition. The fundamental difference is of course on the notion of Jesus (PBUH) himself; Islam, categorically and by definition of God, refuses the idea of a "son of God".

The movie used the original Aramaic language spoken by Jesus (peace be upon him) and I discovered it was so close to modern Arabic. Well it was not really a surprise since it's just another semetic language like Hebrew and Arabic. What was suprising though was the striking similarity: with careful scrutiny, an Arabic (and for the matter maybe also a Hebrew) speaker can probably recognise 40% of what they were saying.

In the beginning of the movie there is a discussion between Judas and some Jewish clerics where they say "thlatheen, yehouda" that is "30, Judas". Arabic for this is "ثلاثين، يهودا" which reads exactly the same.

In Aramaic, Jesus (PBUH) seems to be called "Yeshua". His name in Arabic Yesou' "يسوع". I should acknowledge that I still don't know the diffrence between Issa (عيسى) and Yessou', a commentator may have the nicety to clarify.

Other examples are: sallo (pray/صلوا), malou (what's wrong with him/ماله), beini ou beinek (between me and you/بيني و بينك), la (no/لا), man abak (who is your father/من أباك), ana howa (I am he/أنا هو), koum (get up/قم), akhdhou al akh (they seized him "the brother"/أخذوا الأخ).

I had some discussions with some Christian friends and they appear to believe firmly that Muslim's God is different from theirs, stressing the fact that it's called "Allah".

What many seem to ignore is that Allah or Al-lah (الله) is just Arabic for "The God", therefore "my God" is Arabic for Ilahi (إلهي). Around the end of the movie, Jesus (PBUH) looks up the sky and screams for God's help saying: "Ilahi!".. I hope you got the point by now.

Italian influence in Tunisian spoken Arabic

2005-10-03T19:22:00.001+01:00

Very few Tunisians realise this, but quite a few words of our spoken dialect of Arabic come from Italian, not Arabic nor French. Of course we use French words, but when we do we know it's French, but many of the words below are regarded as authentic Tunisian terms.

Italians have been to Tunisia several times: in the 2nd century BC as conquerors, in the 17th and the 18th centuries as immigrants and in the 20th as tourists. When the French protectorate started in 1881, there were 12000 Italians and only 700 French in Tunisia (*). The number of Italians grew to 85000 in 1921. The French protectorate turned into full scale colonisation, but that's another story.

As Italians came in fleeing oppression and poverty, they were well perceived by the population and quickly got fully integrated. In contrast, French came in as colonials and maintained an oppressive attitude. Well, that was occupation, so no wonders here.

Here is a list of words which were doubly verified by my wife and myself using BabelFish and an actual Italian national (thanks Ezio). I'm listing the Arabic term as pronounced by Tunisians, the Italian word, the English translation of the Italian word and the Arabic translation of the Tunisian term.

armatoura/armatura/armor/درع
zanzana/zanzara/bee/نحلة
farfattou/farfalla/butterfly/فراشة
feeshta/festa/festivity/عطلة
jornata/giornata/daily salary/أجر يومي
fatcha/faccia/face/وجه
ratsa/razza/race/عرق
mizirya/miseria/misery/فقر
sigaro/sigaro/cigarette/سيجارة
bousta/busta/postal pack/طرد
shroubo/sciroppo/sweet drink/شراب
trino/treno/train/قطار
makina/macchina/car/آلة
qwattro/quadro/frame/إطار
cougina/cucina/kitchen/مطبخ
gatt,gattous/gatto/cat/قط
tassa/tazza/cup/كأس
sabbat/ciabatta/shoes/حذاء
calcitta/calze/socks/جوارب
babbaghayou/pappagallo/parrot/ببغاء
coubirta/coperta/cover/غطاء
carrita/carretto/carriage/عربة
guirra/guerra/war/حرب
bala/pela/shovel/رفش
forshita/forchetta/fork/فرشاة
blassa/piazza/place/مكان
basta/basta/enough/كفاية
stamba/stampa/printer/آلة كاتبة
cabbout/cappotto/coat/معطف
soubia/seppia/octopussy/قرنيط
jilat/gelato/ice cream/مثلجات
rouba fikia/roba vecchia/ملابس قديمة
gazouza/gassosa/gaseous drink/مشروب غازي

It goes without saying that I'm no linguist and no historian, these are just notes from what's surrounding me. Any additions or comments are welcome.

--
(*) المغرب العربي و الإستعمار الفرنسي، نور الدين الدقي 1997

Rage over the Tayseer Alouni case

2005-09-27T19:20:00.001+01:00

Tayseer Alouni (تيسير علوني), one of the Al Jazeera channel key reporters was sentenced to 7 years in jail by a Spanish judge on Monday 26 September 2005.

What started like a bad-taste joke when the reporter was, to his own amazement, arrested in Spain about a year earlier, had turned to be a justice scandal in my opinion.

Being Arab and Muslim myself, I may very well be biaised in judging the situation. But without getting into the subjective agruments, it's a fact that Tayseer Alouni was sentenced some hefty 7 years for having an interview with Ussama Bin Laden.

Now, I cannot grasp what is problematic in doing such a great achievement for a war reporter. Mr Alouni was not the only reporter to have an interview with Bin Laden, a quick Google search told me that a reporter called John Miller of PBS had an interview with the guy too. Mr Miller is most probably not risking 7 years of emprisonment.

I can still recall that in 2002, the US Air Force dropped a bomb on the Al Jazeera Kabul office where Mr Alouni was working. He survived. Later, in 2003 the same US Air Force dropped another bomb on the Al Jazeera office in Baghdad killing the wrong reporter this time. And I saw that live.

It strikes me that the same Spanish justice released Mr Alouni (who's already granted with Spanish citizenship) on bail while he was an accused terrorist posing a major national security threat. More on this from ABC and Al Jazeera.

--
Tayseer Alouni photo from ABC

Processors of glory

2005-09-24T15:07:00.001+01:00

In 1994 (I believe), I had my first encounter with Unix: it was a glorifying presentation of dg-ux by a DataGeneral person, DataGeneral were attending SIB'94 with MASH (Maison Arabe de Software et Hardware). The second time was a brief presentation by a TBM (Tunisian Business Machines) sales person about IBM Aix at the same event in 1995. I started thinking that operating systems running the heavy duty tasks cannot be related in anyway to MS DOS on which I was still having a hard time allocating more than 64 KB. That's when I started contemplating Unix as "the real and true operating system".

Today, I still regard "Unix the concept" as a great technological achievement, but I have a lot lower impression of the way the industry commercialised it. The latter notwithstanding, I managed to collect some of the symbols the Unix golden era: the processors made to run Unix.

This one above is an Alpha 21064 taken from an AlphaStation 200 4/166, it's a RISC processor. Alpha's were made by Digital which was acquired by Compaq, which at its turn merged with hp. Digital is also known as DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), they made the PDP11, maybe the most famous machine to run Unix.

Several versions of Digital Unix ran on this chip: OSF/1, Ultrix and True64. I still cannot tell the relationship between all three. There's a Linux port (architecture name "alpha" or "axp") to Alpha, actually Alpha was the first non-x86 platform on which Linux ran. Red Hat and SuSE had (now discontinued) distributions for Alpha, Debian still has a maintained port.

I remember reading in Communications of the ACM a story about Robert Metcalfe who, in the 70's, got a research grant from Digital in the form of a PDP8 system. The PDP8 was relatively a medium sized machine by the time's standards. Somehow, the system got stolen from the lab and Metcalfe had to call Digital in panic expecting them to storm the place with flocks of cops, but to his astonishment, Digital visited the lab with their Public Relations staff and started an advertising campaign named: "PDP8: the first computer small enough to be stolen".

There is no doubt that Digital has always been a shrine in the eyes of computer engineers throughout the 70's and 80's representing an example of great engineering and shaping a part of the computing history.

This is the Intel Pentium. Well, it was not really made to run Unix, although some of its predecessors did run some early commercial versions of Unix, namely Microsoft Xenix and SCO Unix.

Curiously, modern Linux versions are spreading very well on machines with this chip. It's definitely the most widely deployed architecture of personal computing these days. Intel is moving to the 64 bit arena with the Itanium, but after some time they got it: the Itanium was too intrusive for the industry: it requires new motherboards, new BIOS and new everything. The EM64T, apparently copied from an AMD initiative, was way more acceptable and was absorbed much easier by consumers.

This is the hp PA-RISC, PA as in Precision Architecture. This RISC chip had some outstanding floating point performance compared to its competitors. hp-ux is probably the only Unix to run on this chip in production sites, there's a Linux port (architecture name "hppa" or "parisc") but I think only Debian are maintaining a distribution for it. The last time I saw a Linux "booting" on a PA was in 1999 when I tested the boot code on a hp 9000/715. The 9000 series are the PA-RISC based hp systems, the 800 series are servers and the 700 series are workstations, or so it seems to me. hp are apparently slowly dropping this processor and replacing it with the Itanium.

This is the MIPS R10000 taken from an SGI Origin 200. I was under the impression that SGI were the only users of this chip. It seems like it has some significant wide-spread in embedded devices, Cisco routers and hp printers run on MIPS for instance. The most popular Unix to run on this chip is the SGI Irix, there's a Linux port which doesn't seem to be very popular. I think only Debian maintains a Linux distribution.

This Sun Sparc processor was taken from a SparcStation 2, Sun (the Stanford University Network) started in early 80's. They, like many other Unix vendors, started using Motorola 680x0 then started their own chip business. The nice thing about this is that Sun created an independent organisation to develop the Sparc platfrom so today you can buy a Sparc system from Fujitsu Siemens for example. The primary operating system running on these is obviously Sun Solaris (formerly SunOS), and it's still the largest deployed commercial Unix version. A Linux port (architecture name "sparc" and "sparc64") exists since the late 90's, Red Hat and SuSE had Linux distributions for Sparc but they were discontinued at versions 6.2 for Red Hat and 7.3 for SuSE. Debian still maintains a Sparc port.
I'm certainly missing some important pieces in my collection, namley: IBM PowerPC, Motorola 680x0 and Intel Itanium. I have an extra MIPS R10000 which I'm willing to exchange for a PowerPC, an ARM, an Opteron, a 680x0 or anything with historical value.