Tag Archives: entertainment

Next wave of reality TV: Muslim Top Model

Well, model in the sense of a devout and pious young gentleman tested in Islamic and worldly knowledge; things like actually washing the dead to prepare them for burial, counseling pregnant women out of wedlock and helping orphans.

This reality show happens in Malaysia to great acclaim and a huge following. Their Facebook page has about 45,000 followers and press reports suggest and even greater following among young Malaysian women, all hoping for one of the contestants for a husband.

What do they win? Well, other than the assigned cleric’s blessing, the winner gets an all expenses paid trip to perform the Hajj in Mecca, a car, a laptop, a small cash grant and a scholarship in a main mosque in Madina in Saudi Arabia.

Is this creativity at its best or simply pandering to the lowest common denominator and using modern entertainment programming and spin it so that the maximum advertising/subscription revenue possible is milked?

Regardless, I applaud the Malaysian TV channel whose brainchild this is. They obviously recognised a niche and went with it and found success.

I’m quite sure that this new wave of entertainment is going to grace our own meagre Middle Eastern TV offerings very soon, but as usual, I’m afraid that they’re going to make pretty hash job of it. I hope that should it be replicated here or elsewhere; however, it will be done to propagate tolerance and understanding rather than increase the sectarian rift and strife in our part of the world. I somehow think that knowing the kind of religious stations we have here, it will be the latter that will be emphasised.

Bahraini Views – Abdulla Al Mabad – Raising the Bar

Not succumbing to frustration of having to wait for games to be brought to Bahrain and then made available at extortionist rates, Abdulla took matters into his own hands by researching the games market in Bahrain more thoroughly to take established businesses head-on. A challenge he was happy to take.

He successfully gained the representation of the largest games distributor in the region giving him the opportunity to release games on or before their international debut: even at 1 minute past midnight – resulting in queues of gamers waiting in the dark outside his shop to lay their hands on the latest release at the games suggested retail price or even lower, equating to less than half of what they were regularly sold at his competitor’s!

Abdulla talks here about the birth of Game District and his plans for it in the future.

With eggs on some faces, Hayfa sang!

Hayfa Wahbi sang in Bahrain inspite of objections from Islamist MPs In spite of the “severe” objections from Islamist MPs, Hayfa sang last night at the Gulf Hotel and thrilled the audience who filled the hall with all tickets sold!

What does this demonstrate? Does it demonstrate that the MPs have no authority whatsoever, or is it that the government chose – in its wisdom – to simply stall and ignore them completely and do nothing to let the concert go on?

To me, I think it clearly demonstrate the at the very least the MPs did not choose their battle wisely, they rushed things, polarised opinions, stepped on multiple toes and in the end, the lady sang despite all their objections, resolutely poking her fingers in their wandering eyes while thanking them, even subliminally, for making her show a memorable sellout concert.

Hang on, maybe it was that in the first place, both Hayfa and the MPs were in cahoots. It was a planned PR and marketing exercise to ensure that the tickets – even the expensive ones – sell out completely!

Smart! Those MPs are very very smart!

M.Report S01E12 – Hayfa Wahbi, a clear and present danger

Or at least that’s what our dear parliamentarians and their Islamist sympathisers think. So what’s so special about this lady then, that would make her so damnably dangerous that they’re all frothing at the mouth to bar her from performing in Bahrain?

Well my friends, I hope this vlog will demonstrate that there is really nothing unusual about her, other than being a beautiful lady who can’t sing! But those qualities could hardly be held against her, she is not the first and most certainly not the last person to use what Allah has given her to her advantage.

So sit back, relax, and watch what you will be missing if she decides not to bother with a little sand-pit called Bahrain because of a few neophytes’ deafening braying.