Arabic speaker required to translate a Yusuf Islam track

Tonight's BBC Radio 4 Front Row interview with Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens, was the sort of gushy interview that one would expect from the BBC when faced with an anti Imperialist Muslim 'artist'. 

But one part struck me as rather odd. The interviewer, Samira Ahmed, asked about his reworking of "You are my sunshine", and made reference to the Arabic added in his version of this 'all American folk-song'.

Yusuf Islam says about his Malian group "They tried to mirror the words, you know, "You are my sunshine" but they did it in a slightly more personal way." 

Then Samira Ahmed made a very odd little, what sounded to to me rather conspiratorial, giggle; as though she knew what the Arabic meant.

Maybe we should all know... Anybody speak Arabic and are willing to listen to some Yusuf Islam?

Downing Street and the importance of foreign languages

The Daily Telegraph reports that the Downing Street website is being launched in a foreign language. What language is the website being launched in? One of the European languages? Maybe French, the language of diplomacy? Maybe German, the second or third language of much of Eastern Europe? Spanish, the language of much of South America and indeed now much of North America? Japanese, the language of much of international banking? Chinese, the language of the most populous nation on the planet and an increasingly powerful international player? No, the language chosen is Arabic.

A spokesman for Number 10 said "We want to be as accessible as we can to people across the world and this is an important step forward in our efforts to do that." An odd choice of first language, or maybe not as Tony Blair forlornly tries to win the hearts and minds of the Muslim world.