The other place

That is said, but what is the other place? The Khaleej Times alerted me to the fact that in Sharjah (the third largest city in the UAE) they are having an international book fair. (At https://www.khaleejtimes.com/entertainment/uae-will-smith-guest-speaker-sharjah-book-fair) and the title gives us ‘Actor Will Smith to be guest speaker at Sharjah International Book Fair’ this is fair enough. I wasn’t aware of a book fair there, let alone an international one. We are given “The 44th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) is taking place from November 5 to 16 at Expo Centre Sharjah, welcoming an exceptional line-up of global authors, including Nigerian literary icon Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Italian theoretical physicist and bestselling author Carlo Rovelli, and Irish Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch.” And it is not the only event happening, we are also given “Meanwhile, the 15th Sharjah International Publishers Conference, organised by Sharjah Book Authority, opens on Sunday at Expo Centre Sharjah. The event will feature more than 30 professional workshops focused on the future of publishing, along with dedicated networking and deal-making forums. It will bring together thousands of publishers and professionals from across the globe, including senior figures in publishing, marketing, artificial intelligence, copyright, and international market development. There will also be a series of workshops for publishers, experts, and distributors from around the world to exchange experiences and explore avenues for collaboration.” And these events are visited by “1.82 million visitors attend book fair this year; most of them aged 35 to 44” I am a little upset that this doesn’t get a much wider audience. An event with almost 2 million should get a wider international view and it seemingly does not. I only learned about this as Will Smith is taking the centre stage. If not, I might not have known. That is a little sad, but this is what life offers. We only have a limited amount of time to spend on outer events and today I learned about this and I missed the 43 previous events. And Sharjah isn’t just a village (it is much bigger) setting the setting of over 1.5k+ activities, 2.2k+ Exhibitors from 112 countries and showing over 1.3M+ titles. As I personally see this, it might be one of the biggest book fairs in the world. So why does this not get additional attention? We see all kinds of reporters doing the same thing and why is this not on their agenda? One of the highlights is shown next week when Sheikh Sultan allocates AED 4.5 million to enrich Sharjah’s libraries with the latest works from SIBF 2024. This is definitely worth mentioning. When was the last time someone put some serious coin into elaborating the Library in Sydney (or Burwood)? How much was added to the stockpile of the Library in Amsterdam? It might be a lot, I really don’t know. But that is what the media is for, educating and informing us, not repeating the news from May on why Superman could be banned from Australian cinema’s and the fact that Hoyts showed it with the ‘news’ of “July 10th 2025. Science Fiction Themes and Violence. Trailer; Watchlist. Follows the titular superhero as he reconciles his alien heritage” gives the signal that there is something massively wrong with the Australian media and as such I wonder when they will wise up and give us actual news (like the international book fair in Sharjah) which runs from November 5th until November 16th from 10:00 in the morning until 22:00 in the evening. As such you can let your inner bookworm go nuts 12 hours a day and for 11 days, how is that for your book needs? 

Guests from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nepal, UK, America, Kazakhstan and several other countries, including a prince from Bel-Air, a rather fresh one. So you can wonder what is wrong with western media not giving (as far as I can tell) any time and space for this international event which has almost 2 million people attending this event. 

I think it is time to ask the western media some heavy questions whether it helps them to play courtesan to the digital dollar, because as I see it, the difference between the Western media and the Dodo is rather thin, perhaps even too thin.

Try to see if you can get something on Dr. Zubair Farooq. He is apparently the first Urdu poet from the UAE. He created 40 collections of Urdu poetry and ghazals. In addition, he has written poetry in Arabic and English. It seems like it is something on the side, but that is how you learn and how you grow. I have no idea how Urdu reads, but as he also created poetry in English, it might be worth finding out more about him. A small remembrance on Poetry. It is a literary art form that uses the aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings beyond the literal. Poets use careful word choice, sound, and rhythm to stir imagination and emotions, often employing devices like rhyme, line breaks, and meter. Poetry differs from prose by its structure and emotional depth, though the line between them can sometimes be blurred. 

My smallest exposure of self inflicted poetry could be seen through:

In creation of taxes, I stay silent
It is how I think it is meant
To not surrender your wallet for goods never gotten
Is one way to set your emotions to rotten
Not to blame the rich and many other kittens
It is merely the lack of options that got me smitten
And not in a good way, as such I sway
To avoid whatever taxes I must pay

Yup, not the best form of poetry, but I never got that class in school, it never mixed with Chemistry or Physics. So have a great day and see what you can learn today.