Al-Shabab TV
Monday, September 20, 2004
What's al-Shabab TV?
It's one of the few poor channels we used to watch during Saddam's ruling. It was too silly. I didn't like anything in it except for the movies, although it starts too late (About 1:45AM sometimes) No fixed schedules and really dumb advertisements.
What were the news like?
I mostly remember about it:
I searched for Al-Shabab TV on the web and here's some interesting things I found:
Firas from Iraq and Iraqis:
During the war, all the Iraqi channels became unwatchable. It looked like we're winning the war (Who knows!). The only things we see were: violent movies, al-Sahhaf (Our media minister) lying to us with his new discovered words, people injured in hospitals, songs about Saddam.
I remember once, in the war,I and my dad were watching TV, lying on a blanket on the floor in the family room. And al-Sahhaf showed up on TV. I was too sleepy and I couldn't believe my ears. He was using really weird words like tarateer, ulooj. And other weird words to describe the Americans. I even remember him once explaining that "ilj" (Singular form of ulooj) is actually a word.
By the way: al-Shabab TV means: the youth TV. And it was controlled by Uday himself.
It's one of the few poor channels we used to watch during Saddam's ruling. It was too silly. I didn't like anything in it except for the movies, although it starts too late (About 1:45AM sometimes) No fixed schedules and really dumb advertisements.
What were the news like?
- News about Saddam. Who he met, what good thing he did, blah, blah, blah.
- What happened in Palestine.
- Some disasters from all over the world.
I mostly remember about it:
- The girls who are in the advertisements, too dumb.. Especially in the ads about shampoos.
- The big sign of the channel. Each channel has its own sign as you know. Ours is too large and it varies in size according to the channel we're stealing our movies and programs from.
- We once were watching an action violent American movie. I and my sister were too interested, waiting for the next step. And suddenly, a sentence appears in the middle of the screen "That movie shows the violence in the American society and it shows this and they did that, another blah, blah, blah" And they stopped the movie. WHAT? No more? The Iraqi flag appeared and the national song started to play. No more movie..!
- Every Thursday, Uday would appear on TV wearing really weird clothes, trying to embarrass his father, sometimes he would wear a skirt. Our family meetings were in Thursday instead of Friday, and we would all watch Uday with his weird clothes.
- When we have examinations in the mid-year and in the finals, it'll view great movies. While in the summer-break it'll view lousy old movies.
- Each singer can't make his career, till he sings a song about Saddam. This caused that the songs of the only good Iraqi singer Kathim Al-Saher were not televised on TV al-shabab.
- Each day at nine o'clock, they televise a series. The problem is, all the serieses they televise are recorded on CDs. Then a high-ranked person would come and request a specified number of episodes from this series and we will have to suffer to figure out how the episodes are supposed to be organized.
- I asked my sister about what she remembers from this channel and she said: "It steals from all channels, and it's really good :-) ".
- Okay, that's it. Mom remembers Uday only. Dad doesn't remember anything..!
I searched for Al-Shabab TV on the web and here's some interesting things I found:
Firas from Iraq and Iraqis:
I remembered the days when Oday used to put hours of programs about Sadams visits and speeches on Shabab TV and we couldn’t find anything else to watch so we turn off the TV.Nothing else..
During the war, all the Iraqi channels became unwatchable. It looked like we're winning the war (Who knows!). The only things we see were: violent movies, al-Sahhaf (Our media minister) lying to us with his new discovered words, people injured in hospitals, songs about Saddam.
I remember once, in the war,I and my dad were watching TV, lying on a blanket on the floor in the family room. And al-Sahhaf showed up on TV. I was too sleepy and I couldn't believe my ears. He was using really weird words like tarateer, ulooj. And other weird words to describe the Americans. I even remember him once explaining that "ilj" (Singular form of ulooj) is actually a word.
By the way: al-Shabab TV means: the youth TV. And it was controlled by Uday himself.
posted by Najma at 5:30 PM, | 
17 Comments:
Shawn, yes, you've linked to this site before and I visited it. It's interesting.!
Uday wearing a skirt is new for me. But, he was very weird so I'm not surprised.
AlSahaf made me laugh each time I watched him on TV. He needs to start his own comedy show.
AlSahaf made me laugh each time I watched him on TV. He needs to start his own comedy show.
I love this blog as it helps me understand what your life is like. Can I ask for an update on what your stations are like now?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Vile,
Now, we don't watch the normal channels, we only watch satellites.
Sayellites are cheap here and you might even see a house made of mud and has a dish over it !
But we have some Iraqi channels on the satellite, like Iraqia, Sharqia, Al-Diar, Al-Faiha'a.
And some who don't have satellites can watch Iraqia, and we have another Iraqia for Mosul only..
Now, we don't watch the normal channels, we only watch satellites.
Sayellites are cheap here and you might even see a house made of mud and has a dish over it !
But we have some Iraqi channels on the satellite, like Iraqia, Sharqia, Al-Diar, Al-Faiha'a.
And some who don't have satellites can watch Iraqia, and we have another Iraqia for Mosul only..
"Dad doesn't remember anything..!"
Good for Dad! (Maybe he was reading a book!)
:-)
Good for Dad! (Maybe he was reading a book!)
:-)
It wasn't a skirt it was a SCOTTISH KILT
Anonymous above:
A Scottish kilt is just a skirt for a Scottish man! So what's your point? That Uday didn't wear lipstick? He was still a NUT who had TOO MUCH POWER.
Auntie Najma:
Really great post. I kept wanting to hear about what it was like for Iraqis right before and during the war; we Americans never heard much about that. "Vile" is right (why does he call himself such a terrible thing?), we always get interesting and surprising stuff from you. Who else would think to tell us about that television station and what it was like to watch TV in Iraq before and during the War? Nobody else, that's who. This goes into my list of favorite posts from you, along with the one about trying to pray and the one about the electricity traffic light.
MBF :-)
A Scottish kilt is just a skirt for a Scottish man! So what's your point? That Uday didn't wear lipstick? He was still a NUT who had TOO MUCH POWER.
Auntie Najma:
Really great post. I kept wanting to hear about what it was like for Iraqis right before and during the war; we Americans never heard much about that. "Vile" is right (why does he call himself such a terrible thing?), we always get interesting and surprising stuff from you. Who else would think to tell us about that television station and what it was like to watch TV in Iraq before and during the War? Nobody else, that's who. This goes into my list of favorite posts from you, along with the one about trying to pray and the one about the electricity traffic light.
MBF :-)
uuf Yeah u reminded me 'television il-shabab min dar esalam' ... i really wish now that i taped those commercials, would make great comedy
If you say Uday wearing a skirt people think he is a Drag Queen.
If he is wearing a Scottish Kilt he is not a Drag Queen, I mean we hate him but we must keep the truth about what we talk about.
If he is wearing a Scottish Kilt he is not a Drag Queen, I mean we hate him but we must keep the truth about what we talk about.
Even during war people need to find some comic relief somewhere and al-Sahhaf(we called him Baghdad Bob or Skippy)was it. He was so far off the mark in his statements. I kind of grew fond of him.
How is your school reconstruction coming along? Are you looking foreward to going back?
I really enjoyed your waterfall pictures. I always take tons of pictures when I go on vacation. Some day you should visit Hawaii. You would like the scenary there. Although in the fall when the leaves turn color it can be really beautiful here too.
Lynnette in Minnesota
How is your school reconstruction coming along? Are you looking foreward to going back?
I really enjoyed your waterfall pictures. I always take tons of pictures when I go on vacation. Some day you should visit Hawaii. You would like the scenary there. Although in the fall when the leaves turn color it can be really beautiful here too.
Lynnette in Minnesota
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I even remember him once explaining that "ilj" (Singular form of ulooj) is actually a word....
Too funny. What did he say it meant?
Lisan al-`Arab gives as the main sense:
العِلْج: الرجل الشديد الغليظ؛ وقيل: هو كلُّ ذي لِحْية
And more to the point:
ويقال للرجل القويّ الضخم من الكفار: عِلْج.
While al-Baghdadi says:
قال أبو زيد: يقال لكل ذي لحية علج، ولا يقال للغلام إذا كان أمرد علج.
So he was basically calling Americans big strong bearded fellows.
Don't you just love the internet?
By a coincidence, I was just recently reading an old elegy by a poet called Janoob for her brother `Amr and thinking of Brother Sahhaf:
wa-Harbin waradta wa-thaghrin sadadta // wa-3iljin shadadta 3alayhi l-Hibaalaa
Too funny. What did he say it meant?
Lisan al-`Arab gives as the main sense:
العِلْج: الرجل الشديد الغليظ؛ وقيل: هو كلُّ ذي لِحْية
And more to the point:
ويقال للرجل القويّ الضخم من الكفار: عِلْج.
While al-Baghdadi says:
قال أبو زيد: يقال لكل ذي لحية علج، ولا يقال للغلام إذا كان أمرد علج.
So he was basically calling Americans big strong bearded fellows.
Don't you just love the internet?
By a coincidence, I was just recently reading an old elegy by a poet called Janoob for her brother `Amr and thinking of Brother Sahhaf:
wa-Harbin waradta wa-thaghrin sadadta // wa-3iljin shadadta 3alayhi l-Hibaalaa
For those of you who may have an interest in Internet archeology, here are some archives of www.Uruklink.net and www.iraq2000.com
Some examples:
www.uruklink.net
athar-26
Salam (audio .wav file)
OldHis-06
days-18
PicMis-e16
See what you missed when you didn't have an Internet connection.
(The archive site can be a bit slow at times.)
Some examples:
www.uruklink.net
athar-26
Salam (audio .wav file)
OldHis-06
days-18
PicMis-e16
See what you missed when you didn't have an Internet connection.
(The archive site can be a bit slow at times.)
Nice, Really brings back memories... That first happened in what i think was VanDamme's "BloodSport", where the fat yank goes around hitting the skinny chinese dude, then in the end he gets his ass kicked when he zigged instead of zagged!
On another note, Wow ur really active here! I've been here for some time but most of the time I don't know what to write about, I mostly write about things that piss me off, and boy are there many of those around onw or what! anyways girl, keep up the good work, you got urself another vizitor!
oh like, COLLEGE AIN'T EXACTLY DREAMLAND, but take it from me, IT WILL BE THE BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE! cheers!
On another note, Wow ur really active here! I've been here for some time but most of the time I don't know what to write about, I mostly write about things that piss me off, and boy are there many of those around onw or what! anyways girl, keep up the good work, you got urself another vizitor!
oh like, COLLEGE AIN'T EXACTLY DREAMLAND, but take it from me, IT WILL BE THE BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE! cheers!
I'm a new visitor and I love your blog!!! It's so different from the other Iraqi blogs. You just tell what's going on in your life, what you see, what you do, what you think. No politics or anything like that. You paint a wondeful portrait of Iraqi life with your words. This is what the rest of the world doesn't understand and is missing out on. We don't know what it's like in the life of an average Iraqi... Good job and keep it up!!!
great post that reminds me of the old days !!! but say what you wanna say , i would love to watch Al-shabab TV again , and the channel wasn't bad in the last 2 years before the war !!
Thanks for the post !!!
Thanks for the post !!!
Thanks for sharing that with us. That is interesting, especially the part about the movie getting cut off right in the middle (although I'm sure you were mad about it at the time). Memories like that must make you thankful for your Internet connection and your satellite dish.
They showed al-Sahhaf a lot on television here too (people thought he was really funny). Someone even setup a website about him during the war, which is still up now: here is a link.
Shawn.