Digital tributes to Oman's best-loved blogger

There have been few more poignant blogs than that of Ali Mehdi, whose last post on the 'Sleepless in Muscat' page was a poem dated May 3 2008. "The red rose in my hand / Petals flow in the air / Has passion died? / Is there no more flair?" were the writer's final four lines.

Mehdi's words are all the more poignant because, according to the Oman Community Blog (which Mehdi himself founded), the 29-year old writer died a few weeks later. "Ali was without a doubt, Oman's most prolific blogger. He was also an aspiring poet who self-published two books of poetry," wrote 'muscati' on the community blog on 21 June.

'Passion's Death..', the title of Mehdi's poem, is still attracting comments from online readers. Some are tributes; others contain praise by people who do not appear to be aware of Mehdi's death. Countless other Gulf-based blogs contain tributes to him.

A comment by famed (and blocked) UAE blogger 'secretdubai' caught my eye. "A gentle reminder to any of us who may have quite active online lives separate from (offline) friends and family: do leave some kind of information about your online friends to a trusted family member," wrote the author. "On a more serious note it can also be important to leave a list of online account names and passwords (especially business or finance-related ones) with your solicitor".

It's an important point, and key for families dealing with the loss of a loved one. In 2005, Yahoo! was issued with a court order to give the contents of an e-mail account to the father of US Marine Justin Ellsworth, who was killed in Iraq. Some email providers – such as Google and America Online – allow next-of-kin to access e-mail accounts of the deceased by submitting a copy of the death certificate.

While there are practical advantages to accessing the email of the deceased, the case with blogs and social networking profiles is much more subjective. While next-of-kin can usually apply to have such information taken down using the normal legal channels, some choose not to do this. Earlier this year, for example, it was reported that the family of 20-year-old Andrew Enriquez, who was killed in a car accident in September 2007, continued to write on his Facebook profile after his death. "Enriquez's older sister, Amanda Enriquez, comments on his page at least once a week," it was reported on www.alligator.org.

So it goes with Mehdi's blog, which is still attracting comments from his many online friends. One blogger suggested that "someone should continue with this blog if they can manage to get control. In the memory of Ali". However, although I did not know Ali Mehdi personally, I can't help thinking that there is some beauty in his blog remaining online, with 'Passion's Death..' as his last post. It is a 'digital tribute' to a young man who was, as one blogger writes, "a very bright and intelligent person".


online@business24-7.ae

The writer is the Online Editor