Arabic Coffee shop

[Nilgiri]

If I recall you are a Keralite (from Kerala)

Tamil, but close enough . Keralites are really very close to us....they are part of the greater "Tamilakam" from the BC era.

BTW, I forgot to tell, I have written this before many times so I am not making it up, I have always had cordial ties with Indian users from Kerala that I have interacted with here @Levina and that friendly Indian guy that lived in New Zealand, forgot the username and others that I cannot remember the usernames of, also in person.

Yup I remember it all.

You have to remember there is a certain prism that this forum comes through dominantly given:

a) defense/geopolitics oriented
b) named affiliation with one country

So certain things rise psychologically and get enshrined and favoured over other things that are suppressed, cast away and get sunk and not allowed (meaningfully) to resurface. Its not a level neutral playing field in the end...especially on some specific sensitive matters that are moulded+crystallized by a) and b) in concert....as interpreted and enforced by the higher-ups that run the place.

This takes toll on lot of certain identities and narratives (no matter how genuine and valid perspectives they can be), as everything seen through that prism by those that hold most weight here...and enough "bulk" membership that support it.

Hence you see lot of Indian members have left too, and likewise for your Arab community which was once lot more diverse here.

Agree with rest of your post. Well put.

 

[Indos]

Your statement makes no sense, lol and is a oxymoron. Turkish coffee derives from Arabic coffee and is basically a copy of Arabic coffee rebranded under a new name but without the cardamom flavor and variety of Arabic coffee. Turks were exposed to coffee thanks to the Arabs after all. The same Arabs that invented and first used coffee as a brew in Sufi monasteries of Arabia in what is modern-day Yemen and Southern KSA many centuries ago.

Hallo bro @ArabianEmpires&Caliphates, I also like to discuss a bit about coffee here. I am right now prefer tea more than coffee, but I like coffee which is sold in Coffee shop like Starbucks and local ones. But never drink it alone, always with friends or in some business meetings. Coffee is the best company for talking and discussing something with other people.

Yes, most Arabs have long ago moved to Twitter, Reddit and many other platforms, me included, but some Arabic forums (traditional bulletin boards) are still going strong. Few things stay static nowadays.

I see Indonesian members are growing but mostly they only talk defense and stuff related to Indonesia, you can see many people lurking in our defense thread. I also have seen many good Indonesian posters are active in Quora as well, it will increase our present here if somehow they can find this site, many of them I notice have good English and knowledge. You maybe can try to bring Arab community in Quora by making a question like " Have you heard about Pakistan Defense Forum or something like that.

Arabs in PDF are still exist, but Malay ethnic Malaysian and Japanese/South Korean are almost non existence here. Look like they are a bit not comfortable with Chinese members dominance here. I have tried to come to Youtube Channel with so many proud and nationalist Malay Malaysian commentator and asked many of them to join PDF but so far they are not interested.

Anyway I have mostly been busy with "real life" until the Covid-19 nonsense as I graduated not long ago and was/I am working for a large company in Europe (chemical engineering is my field) to gain valuable work experience and to improve my CV before a potential return. Since I have legs in both worlds and family, I am somewhat of a nomad and divided. Far from alone on this front though even here (PDF).

Are you Saudi citizen or Denmark citizen bro ?

Zero sport (I am a huge football as in soccer not American football that I barely watch, sorry mate) and NBA "fan". As in I like watching it, especially the playoffs. Things stopped when everything became interesting and as long-time Laker fans I had high hopes of us winning our first title since 2010 with LBJ, AD and a rejuvenated Dwight Howard.

I have made a thread about basketball, maybe you can join there. Mostly discussing about FIBA Asia Cup Qualifying and 2023 FIBA World Cup that will be hosted by Indonesia/Philippine/Japan. I also played basketball in high school and university and it is my favorite sport but not following current NBA games. But I do follow Indonesia national team games and some time get a lot of fight in Youtube channel with Philippine fans since they also like to follow our team games and some time show superiority in their comment since their team is the best in our region

@Indos

Stay safe brother.

Wishing everyone a blessed Eid.

Thanks brother, yup this unprecedented event is effecting our life and our plan. I also hope you stay safe there in Europe since the infection rate is quite high there.

Ya, we hope we get blessed Eid and can achieve our plan and dream this year despite coronavirus outbreak. Amen.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

Tamil, but close enough . Keralites are really very close to us....they are part of the greater "Tamilakam" from the BC era.



Yup I remember it all.

You have to remember there is a certain prism that this forum comes through dominantly given:

a) defense/geopolitics oriented
b) named affiliation with one country

So certain things rise psychologically and get enshrined and favoured over other things that are suppressed, cast away and get sunk and not allowed (meaningfully) to resurface. Its not a level neutral playing field in the end...especially on some specific sensitive matters that are moulded+crystallized by a) and b) in concert....as interpreted and enforced by the higher-ups that run the place.

This takes toll on lot of certain identities and narratives (no matter how genuine and valid perspectives they can be), as everything seen through that prism by those that hold most weight here...and enough "bulk" membership that support it.

Hence you see lot of Indian members have left too, and likewise for your Arab community which was once lot more diverse here.

Agree with rest of your post. Well put.

My basic knowledge (by no means an expert) suspected the closeness of people of Kerala and Tamils just due to geography alone. If I am not wrong, Tamil Nadu is next door. May I ask, out of pure interest, what is the difference (if there are any other than the obvious one in the form of a different nationality) between Tamils of India and Tamils of Sri Lanka? Also where Tamils in India, albeit only sentimentally, somehow involved during the Sri Lankan civil war between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority?

Also the Sri Lankan Moors have always intrigued me due to the Arab link. Arab settlers in Sri Lanka are well documented and there are different theories about the Sri Lankan Moor and the degree of their Arab admixture (by now it is diluted and probably only limited to paternal lines/surnames/identity) but from what I know of they are mainly Tamils with Arab admixture, Arabic linguistic influences and obviously an adherence to Islam. Fascinating community, sadly I am yet to encounter a Sri Lankan Moor in person. Met a few Tamils in the West but they were Catholics and a friendly/peaceful bunch.

I know that I can google this but what is the main ethnicity of Goa? Do Tamils live there?

Well my friend, I am well aware of the dynamics of PDF and some of the agendas that are deliberately kept alive/pushed forward and that many of us are keyboard warriors and that you rarely engage in truly objective discussions for the sake of knowledge exchange etc. Of course we should not overreact but this is often the case in many threads. Given the volatility/complexity/feelings running high topics/nature of the internet, it is no surprise, really. You see it everywhere online to a degree at least.

Well, sadly the Arab community is hardly existing lol (active that is) and far from as diverse as it once was. I miss the discussions with say the many various Saudi Arabian users that we had here of various regional, sectarian, political etc. backgrounds, let alone other Arabs.

I see that brother @Gomig-21 (rightly) prefers to stick to topics related to Egyptian defense related developments (from what I have seen so far after his return) rather than involve himself in the political topics or general topic. Whenever a thread is made about the Egyptian army or a new military deal, 90% of the posts are not technical in nature or geopolitical but "Arabs this and that", "How, I thought that Egypt is bankrupt", "incompetent something", "Israel something", "KSA/GCC funding something" and you know the usual drivel.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, I have seen 10-15 threads (I kid you not) based on largely distorted/ignorant drivel/half-truths about the upcoming collapse of KSA, GCC, the Arab world and what not.

You might remember something similar between 2013-17, when ISIS rule in KSA/Arab world was predicted, state collapses, bankruptcies, all-out wars and other ignorant drivel accompanied with the usual nonsense. It was during that period that 90% of the active/many knowldgeable/diverse bunch of Arab users left for good from PDF. From then on it has only gone in one direction but fair credit to certain moderators for reaching out to us and doing their best in terms of moderation. I don't envy their jobs, I must say.

I wrote this post rather quickly as usual and sorry for the length, this is a hallmark of mine at times on PDF for good and bad.

If you bother, take your time trying to reply to my questions, my brain is out of control and once you wrote Tamil, I needed a few curiosities answered.

Hallo bro @ArabianEmpires&Caliphates, I also like to discuss a bit about coffee here. I am right now prefer tea more than coffee, but I like coffee which is sold in Coffee shop like Starbucks and local ones. But never drink it alone, always with friends or in some business meetings. Coffee is the best company for talking and discussing something with other people.



I see Indonesian members are growing but mostly they only talk defense and stuff related to Indonesia, you can see many people lurking in our defense thread. I also have seen many good Indonesian posters are active in Quora as well, it will increase our present here if somehow they can find this site, many of them I notice have good English and knowledge. You maybe can try to bring Arab community in Quora by making a question like " Have you heard about Pakistan Defense Forum or something like that.

Arabs in PDF are still exist, but Malay ethnic Malaysian and Japanese/South Korean are almost non existence here. Look like they are a bit not comfortable with Chinese members dominance here. I have tried to come to Youtube Channel with so many proud and nationalist Malay Malaysian commentator and asked many of them to join PDF but so far they are not interested.



Are you Saudi citizen or Denmark citizen bro ?



I have made a thread about basketball, maybe you can join there. Mostly discussing about FIBA Asia Cup Qualifying and 2023 FIBA World Cup that will be hosted by Indonesia/Philippine/Japan. I also played basketball in high school and university and it is my favorite sport but not following current NBA games. But I do follow Indonesia national team games and some time get a lot of fight in Youtube channel with Philippine fans since they also like to follow our team games and some time show superiority in their comment since their team is the best in our region



Thanks brother, yup this unprecedented event is effecting our life and our plan. I also hope you stay safe there in Europe since the infection rate is quite high there.

Ya, we hope we get blessed Eid and can achieve our plan and dream this year despite coronavirus outbreak. Amen.

I am actually not a big coffee or tea drinker myself (I mostly drink bottled mineral water without any gas) but I do enjoy a good cup of coffee in the morning or tea in the evening. I used to be but many years ago I started drinking mostly mineral water. It is the most healthy/natural option long-term actually. A bit "boring" but you get used to it being your main "drink".

I have never been a member of Quora and I am not very familiar with that platform. Most Arabs online have long ago moved to social media platforms. Twitter in particular is very popular but unfortunately there are many bots and lots of trolling/political nonsense due to ongoing events in the Arab world and much polarization. Facebook is very popular too. Reddit is popular among the diaspora etc. Traditional bulletin boards are still going strong (the most popular ones) but seem to gain fewer new members and mostly deal with specific topics and interests.

The Indonesian community on PDF seems to be growing or maybe that is just my assumption?

Well, I have noticed that. Not seen any Japanese, Korean, Malaysian (ethnic Malay) etc. users around here. In fact many Arab nationalities have never been active on PDF from what I know of too.

I am a citizen of Saudi Arabia as you know. EU citizenship too hence me having "legs in both camps" and family in both KSA/a few Arab countries and Europe/West.

I have to be honest with you here brother, the only real sport that involves KSA that I follow closely (as in watch most games) is football/soccer (national team and certain AFC Champions League games and big league games/derbies) and all the other sports are mostly with a half-closed eyes or through news, Youtube clips or checking results. When I was a small kid and had more time, I was following our athletics teams and occasionally basketball.

The problem with KSA/most of the Arab world/if not all of it, is that we are football obsessed/crazy and that football is our number 1 sport. All the other sports barely get any attention although KSA is doing well in traditional sports such as horse racing, falconry, sailing etc. Car racing too KSA is doing well in although that is obviously not a traditional sport. KSA hosted Dakar Rally earlier this year and has hosted Formula E and will host Formula 1 in the future also like Bahrain and UAE has been doing for years.
Many once (ancient sports) such as wrestling (which originates in the Arab world actually) etc. are barely in existence today on a professional level from what I know. Also due to the Sahwa period (last almost 40 years until last years under MBS and opening up on this front and many others - luckily) sport, other than football (where KSA is a traditional Asian football power house, only Japan has won 1 Asian Cup more than KSA and we have more final appearances than anyone else despite last 10 + barren years - club football - AFC Champions League we are doing well, Al-Hilal are the current Asian club football champions), many other sports were not given much coverage, support etc.

Anyway now many sports are receiving more focus, funding, more children engage in them. For instance women sports are growing quickly. Even a women's football league has been created. But once again (unfortunately/fortunately) most of the focus is on football but this is slowly changing somewhat from what I have seen and now other sports are becoming more and more popular such as handball, volleyball etc. Anyway parents in KSA, if their children will pursue sports, will not bee too happy, lol, in general, as that is considered a waste of talent/a waste by many for good and bad. Hence why many of our sportsmen being Afro-Arabs as they tend to come from somewhat poorer socioeconomic backgrounds.

Well, I wish Indonesia all the best in basketball and I will be cheering for Indonesia.

Thank you for your well-wishes and yes we can only focus on improving ourselves. It will be a very surreal Eid al-Fitr in many ways.

It seems that Indonesians are football fanatics as well.

BTW from my Indonesian friends, I have noticed that Indonesian are in particular fanatics/big fans of English Premier League football and teams such as Manchester United, Liverpool etc. I personally prefer Spanish club football which is the most popular league in KSA and Arab world. We hosted the Spanish Super Cup (Real Madrid, FC Barcelona Atlético de Madrid and Valencia took part - the 4 largest Spanish clubs) in Jeddah in January and it was a big success. Most popular teams are the two Spanish giants.

Off to bed I must go, fuel is running low my friend.

 

[Nilgiri]

By all means ask questions as you like, its good place to interact more casual/relaxed (coffee shop afterall) here...away from the constant overbearing noise/drama in other parts of forum

May I ask, out of pure interest, what is the difference (if there are any other than the obvious one in the form of a different nationality) between Tamils of India and Tamils of Sri Lanka?

Its actually somewhat similar to arab situation (when you have immediate neighbouring arab countries...say KSA and yemen...or say algeria and tunisia etc).

Their language is Tamil, but a somewhat different (overall) dialect compared to us mainlanders. They have sub-dialects within their island (in rough geographic patterns as northern, eastern, western (colombo) and central/southern...arguably for them the northern dialect is the "prestige" dialect given the presence of the main historical tamil cultural hub on the island i.e Jaffna).

We similarly have sub dialects too (again largely sub-regionally oriented). The most extreme different sub dialect in one to the most extreme different one in the other would still (especially in these days) be able to understand 70% or more I would think (and can find bridges to get to 100% with little effort). More regular dialect you understand 100% from get go....of course you would likely immediately know the speaker's origins.

Culturally everything is broadly the same, as there is lot of variety within TN state (on mainland) to begin with. Similarly we understand malayalis quite easily (esp with some training/interaction) and vice versa....though we cannot really speak each other language without learning it. The split between our two languages is overall pretty recent compared to the other southern languages (Kannada and Telugu).

Ceylon Tamils overall tend to be more conservative on lot of matters (and more liberal/socially mobile in others)....in many ways their language keeps lot of the very old Tamil we no longer use in mainland. Similar in many respects to Quebec French vs Mainland French today.

Lot of this has interplay with written Tamil being quite different language to spoken Tamil too. (I believe Arabic is somewhat the same situation)...and how much of the "written language" is also used for "official" and "colloquial" spoken (this varies and gives one major input to the basic variety in dialects).

Also where Tamils in India, albeit only sentimentally, somehow involved during the Sri Lankan civil war between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority?

Yes a number were, it shaped lot of politics in mainland TN as well....even exerting pressure federally at times (Indira Gandhi for example had a local political ally in TN that she could not abandon, and this shaped India's federal support regrettably to the Tamil Tigers in late 70s and early 80s initially till that splintered and blew back on everyone collective faces later which is long story of itself).

The sentimental reason had its play (but also lot of detractors who felt it was none of our business) in greater population as well. But it started losing critical support among the (previously sympathetic+interested) TN mainlanders during the 90s, esp after the assassination of rajiv gandhi and continued blatant terrorist actions by the tamil tigers.

Also the Sri Lankan Moors have always intrigued me due to the Arab link. Arab settlers in Sri Lanka are well documented and there are different theories about the Sri Lankan Moor and the degree of their Arab admixture (by now it is diluted and probably only limited to paternal lines/surnames/identity) but from what I know of they are mainly Tamils with Arab admixture, Arabic linguistic influences and obviously an adherence to Islam. Fascinating community, sadly I am yet to encounter a Sri Lankan Moor in person. Met a few Tamils in the West but they were Catholics and a friendly/peaceful bunch.

"Moors" are very interesting people for sure. They are part of the larger aegis of Muslim Tamils who have co-existed with larger Tamil culture for many centuries now.

For example on our side of the palk strait....one of the most famous religious songs (enjoyed by all Tamil people of all faiths) is by the Muslim singer Nagore Hanifa (The song lyrics roughly are about extending your hand to Allah, and he will give). The Nagore dargah (on east coast Tamil Nadu) rightfully holds a very esteemed place in Tamil overall culture.

Similarly when I listen to the Sri Lankan Moor devotional songs (from what I have come across so far), I am also very easily able to understand the message...they follow similar themes and musical aesthetics. They really are a broader community in Tamil culture as a whole.

@Joe Shearer @Gibbs and @Chhatrapati might have some stuff to add/correct here. @Naofumi @BL33D might find some interest in this post too.

I know that I can google this but what is the main ethnicity of Goa? Do Tamils live there?

Goans are "konkani" mostly. There are some Tamils there, but not very many...mostly recent immigrants to the area. There are some kannadigas and marathis too (being bordering states of Goa).

The konkani are people like @jbgt90 ...very nice, easy going folks overall.

One of my best friends from middle school times was a Konkani....catholic boy...with portuguese name and everything.

 

[Indos]

I remember you have relatives in the US but don't remember this one, that is awesome to hear and you should try meeting her/him to learn more about Palestinian culture. Does your relative live in Indonesia? My cousins friend actually got married to an Indonesian guy in Gaza and he had his wedding there. I don't remember if he stayed there or they moved out to Indonesia, though.

One of my aunt who are Saudi National married a Pilot who are Malays Malaysian in origin but also a Saudi citizen. As I have revealed in my previous post that my grandmother brother from father side lived in Saudi that later give birth to 2 son (my uncle) and 3 daughter (my aunt) that all live in Saudi now.

My aunt husband first wife is Palestinian (divorced) and has many kids from his first wife. All the daughters are pretty and the sons are handsome, I remember shaking hand with the oldest daughter (16 years old at that time while I was still 20) who is very pretty, I can say she is more pretty than many Hollywood actress. I still remember how soft her hand is and how gorgeous she is with black hair that reaches her leg...

Lol, yeah Indonesian people are beautiful people mashallah, I'm sure their kids would come out beautiful too. I actually wanted to always know if Indonesian people are like Chinse/Japense Asian types or who are they more closer to. You guys have distinct look and some of you pass off as half-Arab or full Arab.

I can say the Palestinian side that make my Palestinian relatives beautiful

Yup, Indonesian people have many variation, and particularly if you live in Jakarta you can have many options whether wanting to get brown, light brown, or white skin ladies since people from different ethnic just flock in here. As you can see when I posted one of my female relative here that you have seen as well, she is more like North East Asian type.

On the other hand, the video that I posted previously, I believe, show that Indonesian also look like South Asian people. So basically we are varied here as DNA also show we have Western Asian, North African, East Asian, South East Asian, and South Asian DNA based on National Geographic DNA project. Here I have made a thread about Indonesian diversity, so you can look it up to know more.

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/unity-in-diversity-indonesian-ethnic-groups.621016/

And here you can see Palestinian guy married Indonesian girl (Sundanese ethnic) and live in here. He is Jordanian but Palestinian in ethnicity. As I suggested previously that you could live in Indonesia and become Indonesian citizen some day

I believe so too brother, it's nice to see Palestinians in Indonesia and eastern side of the world. Nice of Indonesia to host Palestinian students too. Your country is a very peaceful and away from the mess known as ME and I would love to visit your country one day. Looks very beautiful with the classic architecture.

That video that I posted actually is not in Indonesia, but European country.

Actually we are still learning to live under democracy and learn to accept our differences. As we know one attribute of civilian ruled country system (democracy) is the ability to work together despite our differences. We are still not perfect but at least we can say to the world that Islam and democracy is compatible.

 

[Falcon29]

We are on hostile waters but every historically knowledgeable person is well aware of ancient ties between the Arab world and South Asia (dating back several millennia) that manifested itself with ties to the IVC and ancient trade ties.

Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean gives it away. Certain communities in Kerala, Sri Lanka, Gujarat, Pakistan likewise. The fact (some would claim it as a coincidence) that the first mosques outside of the Arabian Peninsula/Arab world were built in what is today Southern India/South Asia. People to people ties manifested today not to mention trade ties which just continues an ancient tradition.

If I recall you are a Keralite (from Kerala) and I don't need to tell how many Keralites work and live in the GCC and have done for centuries. Probably only Baloch (in terms of foreign communities from South Asia) are comparable and a few others such as Sindhis and Gujaratis.

As you say nation state relations and people to people relations are very different, I have never felt that Indians have hated/disliked Arabs for being Arabs or overall. In fact I don't even genuinely think that Indians and Pakistanis hate each other due to being what they are but rather due to recent historical reasons and politics.

This is not much spoken about on PDF between the average Arab (in particular those of us with ties to Iraq and the GCC - you can imagine that the case is different for other Arabs due to geography and history) and various ethnic groups in Iran (Baloch, Lurs, Persians, Arabs), in particular from Western/Southern Iran (where most Iranians live) have a rather close history/interactions. To this day UAE is the largest trade partner of Iran in the region, lol, despite all the hostility between the regimes. The average Iranian, nowadays with a smaller income than the average Iraqi, is generally a humble person, far from the many keyboard warriors here on PDF.

BTW, I forgot to tell, I have written this before many times so I am not making it up, I have always had cordial ties with Indian users from Kerala that I have interacted with here @Levina and that friendly Indian guy that lived in New Zealand, forgot the username and others that I cannot remember the usernames of, also in person.



My problem when it comes to lack of sleep (and I have a messed up sleep pattern already in general - far too little sleep) is that when exposed to extreme lack of it, I become easily irritated (normal) and in general not the same person but rather aggressive/lack of patience/lack of focus. I thus eventually need to recover the sleep that I need and can hardly function without the necessary 6 hours of sleep. In particular if physically active the day before (training). I don't know how some people that sleep less function. Did Trump not claim that he sleeps 4 hours each night? For a 70 + year old with his schedule, stress and responsibilities? Sounds surreal.

Agree with you, sleep is a big problem nowadays especially for young generation that was exposed to technology as children. They developed bad sleeping habits that stuck with them to adulthood. My sleep schedule hasn't been good in general either and I gotta fix it after Ramadan. Going to incorporate a lot more exercise which does help in getting more refreshing sleep. Lack of sleep or not enough of it can certainly cause irratibility and feeling of mental and physical exhaustion.

Trump doesn't seem to sleep much based off his tweets. He may have a genetic condition that enables him to get off with only 4-5 hours of sleep. I would have loved to have such a condition , lol.

 

[Gibbs]

Also the Sri Lankan Moors have always intrigued me due to the Arab link. Arab settlers in Sri Lanka are well documented and there are different theories about the Sri Lankan Moor and the degree of their Arab admixture (by now it is diluted and probably only limited to paternal lines/surnames/identity) but from what I know of they are mainly Tamils with Arab admixture, Arabic linguistic influences and obviously an adherence to Islam. Fascinating community, sadly I am yet to encounter a Sri Lankan Moor in person. Met a few Tamils in the West but they were Catholics and a friendly/peaceful bunch.

There are 3 distinct Muslim groups on the island, The Moors origins in the middle east and North Africa (Sinhala name for them is Marakkala or from Morocco) These groups mainly reside in the South West Corner and the Central Districts of Sri Lanka, They were thought to be the first Muslims arrivals predating European colonization on the island by centuries.. Married to local women and well integrated and are trilingual, Some Moors have Sinhalese names given to them by successive Kings as honors for their service to the nation

The 2nd wave of Muslims are of South Indian origins are the largest in number, First bought over as indentured labor by the Dutch from the Coromandel and Malabar coastal ares of South India for large scale tobacco plantations along with thousands of other South Indians mainly from whats now Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Although now categorized in the larger group within the Sri Lankan moor category, These communities are spread island wide but mainly in Colombo, North West in Mannar and Puttalam districts (People that lived in the North but was ethnically cleansed by the LTTE) and in the Eastern Districts where they're the majority community.. They speak Tamil and are indistinguishable from Tamil's unlike the Moors of Middle Eastern origin, Not as integrated in to the wider community as the Moors are

Lastly but not least you get the Malays, People from the Malay peninsular and Java in south East Asia, living mainly in Colombo and Galle and Hambantota, With their own distict and colorful culture and language Bahasa Malayu.. And are Triluingual

And you get your smattering of Borah, Memons etc

Their language is Tamil, but a somewhat different (overall) dialect compared to us mainlanders. They have sub-dialects within their island (in rough geographic patterns as northern, eastern, western (colombo) and central/southern...arguably for them the northern dialect is the "prestige" dialect given the presence of the main historical tamil cultural hub on the island i.e Jaffna).

Also perhaps that Ceylonese/Jaffna Tamils and Plantations/Indian Tamil communities tend to regard themselves distinct as well, I presume due to latter being considered a more recent arrival

 

[Indos]

The Indonesian community on PDF seems to be growing or maybe that is just my assumption?

It is growing, in the old days the active members are only me, Nufix, Nike, and Rexot Xinwing. And many lurking now, you can check on Indonesia Defense Forum to confirm it.

I have to be honest with you here brother, the only real sport that involves KSA that I follow closely (as in watch most games) is football/soccer (national team and certain AFC Champions League games and big league games/derbies) and all the other sports are mostly with a half-closed eyes or through news, Youtube clips or checking results. When I was a small kid and had more time, I was following our athletics teams and occasionally basketball.

The problem with KSA/most of the Arab world/if not all of it, is that we are football obsessed/crazy and that football is our number 1 sport. All the other sports barely get any attention although KSA is doing well in traditional sports such as horse racing, falconry, sailing etc. Car racing too KSA is doing well in although that is obviously not a traditional sport. KSA hosted Dakar Rally earlier this year and has hosted Formula E and will host Formula 1 in the future also like Bahrain and UAE has been doing for years.

Many once (ancient sports) such as wrestling (which originates in the Arab world actually) etc. are barely in existence today on a professional level from what I know. Also due to the Sahwa period (last almost 40 years until last years under MBS and opening up on this front and many others - luckily) sport, other than football (where KSA is a traditional Asian football power house, only Japan has won 1 Asian Cup more than KSA and we have more final appearances than anyone else despite last 10 + barren years - club football - AFC Champions League we are doing well, Al-Hilal are the current Asian club football champions), many other sports were not given much coverage, support etc.

Anyway now many sports are receiving more focus, funding, more children engage in them. For instance women sports are growing quickly. Even a women's football league has been created. But once again (unfortunately/fortunately) most of the focus is on football but this is slowly changing somewhat from what I have seen and now other sports are becoming more and more popular such as handball, volleyball etc. Anyway parents in KSA, if their children will pursue sports, will not bee too happy, lol, in general, as that is considered a waste of talent/a waste by many for good and bad. Hence why many of our sportsmen being Afro-Arabs as they tend to come from somewhat poorer socioeconomic backgrounds.

Well, I wish Indonesia all the best in basketball and I will be cheering for Indonesia.

Thank you for your well-wishes and yes we can only focus on improving ourselves. It will be a very surreal Eid al-Fitr in many ways.

It seems that Indonesians are football fanatics as well.

Yup, I also like football when I was still in high school, but it is difficult to get 22 players to play. I dont like playing Futsall though, full scale football game is more interested to me. The last time I played it when I was in first year in university.

You are right Indonesian is a football crazy just like Saudi but I stop watching football because my national team achievement seems stagnant. Always getting frustrated when I watch my national team. Lost interest already but we are going to host 21 years old Football World Cup in 2021 and currently has good under 20 (U-20) team that can beat Iran U 20 just recently.

Our raising star is Eggy Maulana Vikri (19 years old) that is now playing in Europe league as striker. He plays for both senior and junior national team (U20).

BTW from my Indonesian friends, I have noticed that Indonesian are in particular fanatics/big fans of English Premier League football and teams such as Manchester United, Liverpool etc. I personally prefer Spanish club football which is the most popular league in KSA and Arab world. We hosted the Spanish Super Cup (Real Madrid, FC Barcelona Atlético de Madrid and Valencia took part - the 4 largest Spanish clubs) in Jeddah in January and it was a big success. Most popular teams are the two Spanish giants.

Off to bed I must go, fuel is running low my friend.

Yup many become big fans of European competition particularly English Premier League. Even one of my friend (female), went to Europe just to watch Football last year, LOL

BTW where do you find your Indonesian friend bro ? Saudi or Europe ? Are they your university friends ? Just curious.

 

[bsruzm]

Turkish coffee derives from Arabic coffee and is basically a copy of Arabic coffee rebranded under a new name

It's not rebranded or a copy. Turkish coffee tastes nothing like Arabic coffee. I honestly struggle drinking Arabic one.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

@Nilgiri

A very informative reply to my questions, buddy. Appreciated. Looks like many similar dynamics are at play among the Tamils and nearby communities as you allude too. You are correct about the spoken dialects and written language.

@Falcon29

Sleep (suffice to say) is crucial. When not enough of it your body is running on low fuel and the negative impacts of sleep deficiency are numerous. It is not particularly healthy either to put it mildly.
However the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns as well as Ramadan is a bad cocktail in this regard if you ask me.

Yes, it looks like Trump is a lithium battery of some sort. I can do with 6 hours of sleep on a regular basis but anything below that several days in a row and it becomes a problem.

@Gibbs

Thank you for your contribution. From what I have read the Sri Lankan Moors are called "Moors" due to their Islamic faith not due to any connection to Morocco. That also seems highly improbable given the geography, recorded history that we know of etc. The Arabs that have been settling, interaction with local populations and controlling/engaging in trade in the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean region were all mostly from Arabia proper.
Most of the Arab-descended communities in South Asia, Swahili coastline (itself an Arabic name), Comoros, Horn of Africa, South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia - the Arab-Indonesian community numbers some 5 million people - only the Chinese have a similar presence in Indonesia in terms of numbers as an outside group) were originally from KSA (Hijaz), Yemen, Oman etc. Anyway this community has always intrigued me. Maybe if I encounter a Sri Lankan Moor one day, I will get more answers from the direct source.

@Indos

That is good to hear. At least the Indonesian community is growing and not shrinking like ours, lol.

The first sport that I played as a kid was football and I played it regularly for almost 2 decades. I was quite good but once I reached the high school age, it was mostly only recreational. Now I mostly just watch it and play occasionally.

Yes, an interest in a sport is often associated with success stories or you engaging in that sport yourself. For instance I have zero interest/knowledge about many sports due to a lack of exposure.

With Indonesia having this huge population (soon will probably hit 300 million), being such a football crazy nation etc. Indonesia is bound to improve their results. It is all about the football infrastructure (quality of football stadiums and training fields, quality of trainers and managers, quality of the football federation and all the local branches, exposure, money, time) and you will see the results. If KSA invested as much as we do in football in other sports, the results would show eventually as well.

Some nations have advantages such as height (for instance people in KSA are some of the tallest in Asia if not tallest on average), our Afro-Arab community is highly athletic etc. So KSA has some advantages here from the get go but if not taken advantage of it does not matter.

I know that Indonesians are great at badminton because it suits the typical/average Indonesian built and the sport has a strong history/is very popular in Indonesia. The result is success.

Yes, people traveling to Europe just to watch football is very common. When I watch random football games from Europe, I often spot Arab tourists from the GCC just by the traditional clothing (typically older men, not young people like me, lol.)

As you know and as we have discussed many times, there is a large community of Saudi Arabians of Indonesian origins and a large Indonesian community in KSA. As my family ties are based in Hijaz it is impossible for anyone not to have interacted with either group. So childhood friends/people that I know and also people that I have encountered in Europe. From my university days as well.

It's not rebranded. Turkish coffee tastes nothing like Arabic coffee. I honestly struggle drinking Arabic one.

It is basically same thing and originates from Arabic coffee. I already explained. There are many different ways to prepare Arabic coffee. I much prefer the real deal than Turkish coffee which I find blend based on what I have tasted. Each to his own and it does not matter.

 

[bsruzm]

It is the same thing and originates from Arabic coffee.

Originates is a different thing but saying it's a copy is sheer ignorance.

 

[Saddam Hussein]

It's not rebranded or a copy. Turkish coffee tastes nothing like Arabic coffee. I honestly struggle drinking Arabic one.

I ended up in the hospital from Turkish coffee, the doctor prescribed me Arabic coffee as a cure. Since then I kept to Arabic coffee.

 

[bsruzm]

I ended up in the hospital from Turkish coffee, the doctor prescribed me Arabic coffee as a cure. Since then I kept to Arabic coffee.

Don't get offended, I mean they taste way too different. It's not the same thing. People should exprience both to understand, but telling people that it's a copy, rebrand is ignorance at best.

 

[Indos]

@ArabianEmpires&Caliphates @Nilgiri

These are some of the comment I bring from Youtube comment about how is the frustration of Indonesian on their Senior Football National Team

U16 : avangers
U19 : power ranger
U23 : fantastice four
Senior : teletubies

U16 : Lambo
U19 : Porsche
U23 : Ferrari
Senior : bajaj

U16: Khalifah Abu Bakar
U19: Khalifah Umar
U23: Khalifah Turki Utsmani
Senior: Dajjal

U 16 = THOR
U 19 = SPIDERMAN
U 23 = IRON MAN
SENIOR = NOBITA

 

[Saddam Hussein]

I use instant filter coffee