No More Harmonious Music for Kuwait - Based Music Distributors

Music distributor, Music Master, has shut down its Kuwaiti operations due to censorship of foreign language albums and artwork; The dilemma of Palestinian refugees; Apparently, foreign wives to Saudi nationals must be weary of taking on too much of their husband's culture.

2:48 AM [2]

Music Master pulls out of Kuwait over censorship woes

Music distributors can have quite the field day in the Middle East with the steeping level of censorship. This is the case with Music Master, who decided to end their professional relationship in Kuwait due to increasing demands to censor albums and artwork for popular artists like Beyonce and Lady Gaga. "I didn’t even know they were in Kuwait. I actually can’t think of one place that still sells new CD’s now that Virgin has closed down."

Annie's New Letters (& notes) [3]

The Middle East's "invisible refugees"

Refugee status is a difficult one in the complex terrain of contemporary international relations. It is especially difficult for Palestinians who have been occasionally shuffled out of the Middle East, which has jeopardized their abilities to return to their homeland. "Despite vulnerability for Palestinians across the region, Arab states have resisted permanent resettlement solutions outside of the Middle East out of a fear that they would jeopardize the Palestinian right to return to their original homeland, putting the collective goal to return at loggerheads with the individual's best interests of safety."

American Bedu [4]

Saudi Arabia: Foreign Wives – Don’t Become Too Saudi!

This Saudi-based American blogger warns her contemporaries (a.k.a foreign women who have married Saudi nationals) against becoming to Saudi. Why? Chances are that if he married a foreign woman, it is her "exotic" qualities that lured him, not her propensity to adapt to the complex Saudi culture. "In some cases, the husband realizes that the foreign woman he loved and married has become a Saudi stranger to him. What happened to the woman he met and fell in love with because of her differences? What does the man do in such cases?"