World Cup 2006

It is on. Everybody is trying hard either to avoid it or to make time for it. It is a world-class event indeed. In case you're wondering why I am writing in English, well a new job. Larry Page does not have time to listen to my Arabic search engine dither and I have just about given up on ol' Google all togehter. Insular is an understatement of what I can see from the outside.

Anyways, back to the World Cup the talk is about Yahoo! not Google this time. As Google is trying to fit in some Arabic services to bring its language support to an adequate level, Yahoo! seems not give a shit about Arabic all together. No greater its snobbery or is flagrant than in its World Cup portal. You see Yahoo! is a major partner of FIFA and I guess part of the deal is evidently a portal that gives good online coverage of the event.

Take a look at the languages that Yahoo! has to offer:
1- English ( but of course)
2- German (the hosts need their respect)
3- Portuguese (can't upset the Samba "gods")
4- French (well OK, a good chunk of the world speaks French, France is a qualifier too, that helps)
5- Spanish (hmmm, the Mexicans, the Spaniards, latin America other than Brazil, ok)
6- Chinese (China has not made it to the World Cup but you can't say no to one sixth of the world\s population)
7- Korean (now we're getting weird! Korea is a qualifier but not really a popular language as in no UN official language and all)
8- Japan (wowza! OK, Japan has qualified but same that applies to Korean applies here)
9- Arabic! Well no.

You'd guess that with two, not one, Arab countries qualifying to the World Cup we'd get a portal in Arabic, right? Not according to Yahoo!

You'd guess that a language which is one of the acknowledged as official UN languages with two countries whose native tongue it is would qualify Arabic for a portal. Na na. Wrong.

Yahoo! is a business and I wouldn't blame them as much as I would the bastards of FIFA. Good for nothing fat cats! 2 billion in World Cup revenues ey? Who audits those punks anyway? I would like to know how much do they pay themselves now that they have managed to reduce football to an elitest spectator sport!

Shame on us Arabs as well who bend over and take it from behind watching our language being ignored the way it has been ignored and keep our traps shut. But wait, I do want to complain. There must be a feeback hyperlink on the portal site, n'est-ce pas? Mon dieu, not at all.

Good luck! Saudi Arabia, good luck Tunisia. God help the Arabic language.