The Arab press is not all blood, conspiracy theories, Jew-hatred and America-bashing, of course, and major Arab newspapers, like all others, once in a while contain humorous anecdotes from the Arab world. Saudi Arabia’s Arab Press newspaper and the Egyptian newspaper al-Wafd recently carried two such stories that exemplify this aspect of the Arab press.
According to the Saudi newspaper, a man from Khorma in the desert kingdom killed his goat and ate it in revenge for the hapless animal having eaten the man’s earnings from a day at the goat market. The story from October 2, entitled “Angry Man Takes Revenge on His Goat”, described the events as follows:
“Returning home with SR1,900 from the sale of goats in the market, the man placed the money in the stable and went to pray. On returning he found that a goat had eaten all but SR260 of the money. The man flew into a rage, slaughtered the goat and invited his friends to eat it.”
Egypt’s al-Wafd carried another kind of food-related item recently entitled, “Australians Can't Handle an Egyptian Diet”. The tale therein is of a shipment of the Middle Eastern sweet called halawa (or halva, as it is known in Israel), which caused, according to the report, “a crisis between the Egyptian and Australian health ministries.” The newspaper account explains: “Officials in Australia sent an angry complaint to the Egyptian health minister, claiming that many Australians suffered from stomach pains after eating the delicacy. However, the Egyptian producer of the halawa said that there was nothing wrong with the product. He shrugged his shoulders and said that Australians just weren't used to such a heavy food in the morning.”
According to the Saudi newspaper, a man from Khorma in the desert kingdom killed his goat and ate it in revenge for the hapless animal having eaten the man’s earnings from a day at the goat market. The story from October 2, entitled “Angry Man Takes Revenge on His Goat”, described the events as follows:
“Returning home with SR1,900 from the sale of goats in the market, the man placed the money in the stable and went to pray. On returning he found that a goat had eaten all but SR260 of the money. The man flew into a rage, slaughtered the goat and invited his friends to eat it.”
Egypt’s al-Wafd carried another kind of food-related item recently entitled, “Australians Can't Handle an Egyptian Diet”. The tale therein is of a shipment of the Middle Eastern sweet called halawa (or halva, as it is known in Israel), which caused, according to the report, “a crisis between the Egyptian and Australian health ministries.” The newspaper account explains: “Officials in Australia sent an angry complaint to the Egyptian health minister, claiming that many Australians suffered from stomach pains after eating the delicacy. However, the Egyptian producer of the halawa said that there was nothing wrong with the product. He shrugged his shoulders and said that Australians just weren't used to such a heavy food in the morning.”