When asked whether or not blogging is a waste of time, I expressed that in the Arab world it’s far from it. In fact this is the only way for us to truly communicate with one another considering the amount of censorship we have to deal with and also lack of tool to communicate with people of neighboring countries.

Mideast Youth is a perfect example to revolve the conversation around because it exemplifies how we’re bringing together youth from all over the Middle East to discuss the issues that affect us all. This is especially true when it comes to minorities whose presence you can witness here on the site, as a way for everyone to not just understand them but also a way for us to involve them in our everyday lives, even though they are still isolated in many ways. We are using the power of blogging to change that.

We also discussed internet censorship and how people risk their lives blogging about certain controversial topics, with more bloggers being arrested than journalists sometimes. Young people are generally frustrated with lack of opportunities and freedoms and I explained how sometimes this leads to young people turning to negative influences, like drugs, as one of the ways to cope with this societal oppression. Blogging is dangerous but only because thinking and self expression is considered dangerous.

Thanks to DW Radio for giving us the opportunity to discuss Mideast Youth and what blogging means to many of us here.

Google is very excited to be invited by PICTI and PITA to support local Palestinian software developers and entrepreneurs. Thanks to UPP and USAID, Google is offering specialized training days in the West Bank.

In alignment with our core mission, “to organize all the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” we would like to provide training on localized tools to spur economic development for Palestinians.

You can register and see the schedule in this page.

Thanks to Google for living up to their mission and we hope that they will be doing this in other Arab countries as well, especially Syria, which has a big and growing scene of developers and entrepreneurs in need of international recognition and support.

If anyone is attending this event, please send us the details of how it went!

Since last week, Blue Host, the hosting service which is used for this very blog [and Kamangir as well], and the number one recommendation for WordPress hosting by WordPress itself, has adopted a policy of suspending its Iranian users. In some cases the bloggers have been given a short notice in order to back up their data and leave. This is despite Bluehost’s good reputation in the blogosphere.

The matter of fact is that many of these bloggers, including Arash Kamangir who blogs at kamangir.net, have no connection to the Iranian administration and have had to take use of a foreign hosting service in order to freely express their opinions.

We have never blamed the hosting companies themselves, many of their staff members have apologized for not being able to do business with us, and that they’re simply abiding by the rules of their government. But we cannot say that we weren’t disappointed and outraged at the policy itself, not by the fact that the hosts are following it. Why can’t they make an effort to distinguish between government and non-government hosting? Do they realize how many people they’re keeping out? Regional hosting is unstable and incomparable, so we rely on services abroad for our work. Most importantly it’s an issue of security. A lot of bloggers who practice their right to free speech rely on outside services to maintain their anonymous status, myself included.

We have been banned from not just dozens of hosting companies but also these services:

Amongst many others that we may not currently be aware of. I’m a programmer by profession, so you can imagine my struggle with this. Because of my own government, which I have nothing to do with, I am restricted from using many services. Each is either forbidden by the Syrian government or forbidden by the USA, so what am I to do? How can we liberate ourselves from these illogical chains.

At Mideast Youth, breaking the barriers is something we have been doing for years, and something we think we are good at. We would like to extend our help and support to users who are suffering as a result of these policies:

This is ideal for bloggers. We are working on something to cover the needs of more sophisticated sites that require database access amongst many other things.

This is a temporary solution for those who need time and money to figure out what their next step is, or to seek for hosting services in Europe or any other area that does not have the same policy. We can keep hosting you for a year or more.

Due to lack of funding and therefore, resources, this is all we can offer for now and hope that some of you will find it useful.

We can host up to 40 websites, currently, but will acquire extra space if we feel that people need it. We have a feeling a lot of professional bloggers already have backup plans lined up for them, so we are starting small to measure the urgency and need for our services and will act accordingly depending on the results.

Contact us for more information.

I’ve been following topics on the website for months as they kept dragging my attention, until I decided that it’s important to spare some time in this busy life for an honost word.

And I volunteered assisting in hosting and technical issues related to this site’s server as it’s my educational experience.

Enough about myself, I’m honored to announce that MideastYouth.com continues the hard work and starts a new Arabic website to open a platform for Arabic speaking youth to engage in discussions concerning Middle Eastern and North African matters.

Check it out. Please join if you are interesting in being a contributor.