It was a JOKE, Michael!

[qatarperegrine]

Last August we heard that Michael Jackson might be moving to Bahrain for the anonymity, and on a lark I posted Photoshopped pictures of him in a thobe and abaya.

Five minutes ago, Justin just brought to my attention this recently Farked article: Michael Jackson spotted in women's clothes at a mall in Bahrain.

Augh!

---

In other news, a day at work reminded me why I love living in Qatar. And, relatedly, it makes me insanely happy to work somewhere where the Big Boss has this on his wall:

Comments

[ravensword.livejournal.com]

You know, I thought of you when I saw that article this morning.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

So you read about Michael Jackson in women's clothing and think of me -- scary! ;-)

aparently

[andreas_schaefer]

a lot of people take it serious http://news.google.com/news?ned=de&ncl=http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/dyn/news/vermischtes/585851.html&hl=de
( 5 German language newsvenues - with the Berlin Morgenpost nominally to big to be stupid )

Re: aparently

[qatar.livejournal.com]

I don't speak German, but I love the headline "Jacko shoppt in Frauengewand." It sounds wonderful.

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

Good for the boss! I love despair.com.

I noticed in the article that it said the Bahrain Sheik's name was "Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa". Does that make him the son of the Qatari Emir, Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, or are those just common names? I get the "bin" - that's in all sorts of cultures, as "bar" or "Mac" or "-son" or "-vich" - but what's the "al" mean again?

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Chuck pretty much rocks.

"Al" is just the definite article, but in names, the part after the "Al" is the family/tribe name. The Khalifas are the rulers of Bahrain, and used to rule Qatar too until the Al Thanis booted them out. So the royal families are not related in any way that I know, although I wouldn't be surprised if they've intermarried. It does strike me as interesting that an Al Thani would name his son Khalifa, but what do I know.

[aristopheles.livejournal.com]

Arabic doesn't have a word for "of": you just put the possessor after the possessed.

It's called idaafa.