The Melody Arabia Channel and AL-Qa`idah's Secret Messages. So those of us who get all Arabic channels available through Dish Network, have been receiving a new channel. It is a channel of music videos owned by Jamal Marwan, grandson of Jamal `Abdun-Nasir (his father is Ashraf Marwan, the sinister intelligence tsar under Anwar Sadat who worked closely with Kamal Adham, King Faysal's chief of intelligence). The channel, not unlike US and European music videos, is a factory that produces an unending supply of sexist images and misogynistic clips. There is an abundance of the vulgar Lebanese "singers"--males and females. And when people wonder about Al-Qa`idah's secret messages, I may know where they are. They maybe part of the text messages that run as a ticker in the bottom of the screen. You see: there you read the usual love and dating messages, as in: "leave him, he is a jerk;" "leave him, he is an alcoholic"; leave him, he is stingy;" "leave her, she does not love you;" "why ruin a great relationship"; "how can she not love me, I am so great"; etc. And then you suddenly read: "Hamid. Don't forget to drop the potato in the pot tomorrow at noon." I mean, I may be too suspicious, but what is that??? And Western musical trends arrive to Lebanon, sometimes 10 or 20 years too late. Take the new Lebanese "singer" Jad Shuwayri: his new video clip features him doing the...Michael Jackson moonwalk? Moonwalk? As I watch that channel while working out (while listening to my own music, thank you), I realize this: how much of the production of Arab aesthetics or bad taste is determined and shaped by Saudi funded enterprises. Think about it: from the religious fanatical messages of Wahhabiyya to the sleazy and sexist Arab music videos, it is all brought to you and me by Saudi oil money. And what are going to do about that?