Saturday was the commencement of the 2008 UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism… Among the graduates were our friend James…

Alf Mabrouk ya habibi, and I’m glad you kept the hipster spirit by wearing your classy Zannouba flipflops..

The event was inaugurated by Neil Henry, the school’s dean, who mentioned Mohamed Maree in his speech and called for his release…

The highlight of the event was our friend Omar Fekiki’s speech..

Omar gave a very moving speech about the role of local fixers in aiding Western reporters, risking sometimes their own lives, and called on his fellow class graduates who will be international reporters in the future to treat them with respect and share responsibility for their security and safety after one leaves the country where s/he were reporting from…

I was sincerely touched by what Omar said, but this was nothing as sweet as what was to come.. Omar called his girlfriend, Ban, from the audience, and proposed to her in public amid massive applause and cheers from all the audience… She said YES:)))

Alf Mabrouk ya James… Alf Mabrouk ya Omar…