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Recalling the Egyptian Revolution
In the aftermath of the recent presidential elections and the sentencing of Hosni Mubarak, the attention of many observers within and outside Egypt has turned to the complexities of the country’s immediate future. This focus is entirely understandable given Egypt’s prominent place in the wider Arab world and the intractable challenges it now confronts. But it has also entailed a certain emotional and intellectual distance from the transformative events that transfixed the world in January and February 2011. The uprising that took most visible form in the Tahrir Square protests is already retreating into the twilit realm of history and memory.
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US democracy programmes aided favoured groups in Egypt
Employees at US group alleged programmes are less about helping Egyptians and more about serving American interests
IRI officials deny doing anything improper and dismiss the former employees as disgruntled. But the workers’ small revolt, unknown to most, was significant because it reflected a growing sense in Egypt that US-backed democracy programmes were less about helping Egyptians and more about serving American interests.
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Corruption runs deep in the Middle East, poll finds
he Media Line Staff
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Amman, Jordan David Rosenberg / The Med – It’s been a tough year for officials on the take in Jordan.
Spurred by chronic street protests, whose list of grievances is topped by official malfeasance, former Amman mayor Omar Maani was arrested on fraud charges in December and two months later, Mohammad Dahabi, former director of Jordan’s intelligence service, was taken into custody on charges of money laundering.
The year is not half over, but Jordan’s Anti-Corruption Commission has already referred 41 cases of suspected wrongdoing to the judiciary. Even a member of the country’s anti-corruption panel, Sanaa Mihyar, was detained briefly this month. She and her old boss, Amer Bashir, a former deputy mayor of Amman, have been charged with graft in connection with the purchase of two garbage trucks.
Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), fighting corruption has been the clarion call of Arab Spring protestors, ensnaring once untouchable officials in places like Egypt and Libya. But if a survey published this week by the accounting firm Ernst & Young and the security consulting firm Perpetuity Research and Consultancy International is correct, the anti-corruption drive has barely scratched the surface. -
The Coming Arab Identity Crisis – The Atlantic
As independence movements pushed out European imperialists, Arabs were finally no longer second-class citizens in their own countries. Wahab’s song for “a perfect unity” captured a goal that today, as democratic movements sweep the region, has returned to once again fill Arabs with hope and pride.
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The Syria Crisis: Is Al-Qaeda Intervening in the Conflict?
There are several elements in the ongoing violence in Syria. There is the use of security forces by President Bashar Assad’s regime; there are the reprisals and counterviolence by hodgepodge mix of defectors and armed civilians constituting the Free Syrian Army; and then there are coordinated attacks like last week’s twin car bombings near a military-intelligence branch in a Damascene neighborhood, which reportedly killed at least 55 and wounded hundreds.
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Democracy in Development
Spending on foreign assistance by developed countries decreased in real terms in 2011, the first such decrease since 1997. Given ongoing economic troubles in the United States, Japan, and Europe, flat-line or declining aid budgets from OECD countries are likely to be the new normal. But foreign assistance from emerging economies is growing fast, albeit from a low starting point.
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Read work of all Pulitzer Prizes awards
Columbia University has named its 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners. Huffington Post and Politico each won their first Pulitzers, for national reporting and editorial cartooning, respectively. The New York Times won two awards, and the Philadelphia Inquirer won for Public Service after a difficult year. The Associated Press won for an investigation into NYPD practices. Below is a list of the winners and finalists with links to their honored work and their own coverage of their victories.
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One in three young Arab women jobless – survey
One in three young Arab women are unemployed in the Middle East, compared with eight out of 10 young men, a new study has found.
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The research, which surveyed 7,670 young adults aged 23 to 29 across 22 Arab countries, said women in the region continue to be held back by cultural and constitutional constraints, despite many being well-educated.
The findings are based on a new Silatech index report ‘Workforce Participation Linked to Wellbeing Differences Among Young Arab Women,’ which examines reasons behind young women’s workforce participation.
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The Land of Broken Promises
In 1958, Baghdad was featured in Time magazine—not as a hotbed of revolutionary, civil or sectarian strife, but for its ambitious plans for the world’s most famous architects, among them Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto, to recapture through their modern buildings the city’s former glory.
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Slide Show: In the Caves of the Nuba
The Nuba people of southern Sudan live among a series of stone massifs west of the Blue Nile. It is said that there are ninety-nine tribes, with scores of languages between them—but they are culturally united. Nubans regard themselves as the descendants of the Nubians, the most ancient indigenous people of the region. They have been fighting the Islamist military regime in Khartoum off and on for three decades. The first war, as they call it, ended after a 2005 U.N.-brokered peace agreement, and, after a referendum, statehood for South Sudan. The Nuba were left out of the independence deal. War broke out again soon after.
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Eating Cinnabon in Damascus
As the country began a slow opening to global markets, dozens of foreign chains set up shop in Syria. Costa Coffee opened up in Damascus Boulevard, the outdoor mall adjacent to the Four Seasons, and launched seven other locations throughout the country. From fried chicken to French cuffs, other brands followed — KFC in 2006, Mango in 2006, and Zara in 2011 — all trying to capitalize on Syria’s established middle class.
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Egypt artists “reopen” street by graffiti protest
After Egypt’s ruling military sealed off streets around Cairo’s Tahrir Square with walls of imposing concrete blocks, a group of artists decided to reopen the avenues on their own – in the public imagination, at least.
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Paintballing with Hezbollah | VICE
We figured they’d cheat; they were Hezbollah, after all. But none of us—a team of four Western journalists—thought we’d be dodging military-grade flash bangs when we initiated this “friendly” paintball match. The battle takes place underground in a grungy, bunker-like basement underneath a Beirut strip mall. When the grenades go off it’s like being caught out in a ferocious thunderstorm: blinding flashes of hot white light, blasts of sound that reverberate deep inside my ears.
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Colonial Exhibitions and Staging of Arab Spring
Watching a popular uprising in real time was indeed a dramatic experience. As viewers tuned in (or streamed in) to the violence, courage, and uncertainty of events in North Africa this year, many of them had the impression of witnessing the “actual” events, free from the framing tactics and analytical bias often found on the six o’clock news. A host of new media celebrities became household names as they reported live from Tahrir, and news outlets such as Al-Jazeera saw an unprecedented rise in viewership. Spectators were made to believe that a return to the event “itself” was once again possible after decades of being locked into what Jean Baudrillard called the hyper-real. The revolution in-and-of-itself seemed to unfold before our eyes, creating a fetish for real-time revolt. Read more
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Entire Clans and Villages Fleeing Syria, Inquiry Finds
Entire Clans and Villages Fleeing Syria, Inquiry Finds. A United Nations inquiry commission on rights abuses in the Syria conflict described the uprooting of extended clans and villages by armed forces bent on crushing armed resistance. Read more
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Ali Ferzat: Revolution redefines art in Syria
That cartoon reveals Ferzat’s own dealings with President Assad, where he soon found the rhetoric of change fell far short of the reality. He recalls that when Mr Assad first came to power, the artistic community in Syria tried to win him over to its side. Ferzat himself was allowed to start his own satirical magazine – the first independent paper to be licensed for decades. Read more
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Shirin Ebadi: A Warning for Women of the Arab Spring
I hope that in the countries where people have risen against dictatorships, they will reflect on and learn from what happened to us in Iran…Since women make up half of the region’s population, any democratic developments must improve the social and legal status of women in the Arab world. It appears the Tunisian society has strong civil institutions, and there is much hope that democracy can take hold there. But in Egypt, many political actors are talking about returning to Islamic law, which could result in a regression of rights for women and girls similar to what we experienced in Iran in 1979.
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Arab Spring Fails to Allay Women’s Anxieties
AMMAN — Like many Tunisians, Maroua Ben Salah, 23, never imagined that her life and her country would change so drastically in a matter of days… Read more
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Physical attacks on journalists reached record high in 2011 — report | The Jordan Times
AMMAN — Around 87 violations of press freedom took place in 2011 including an unprecedented number of physical assaults on journalists, according to a report issued by the Jordanian Media Monitor (JMM) on Sunday… Read more
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Syria Hit List Targets Thousands
A 718-page digital document obtained by Mother Jones contains names, phone numbers, neighborhoods, and alleged activities of thousands of dissidents apparently targeted by the Syrian government… Read more
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What Is Al Qaeda Doing in Syria?
Yesterday, Iraqi forces arrested the head of Ansar al-Sunna — an Iraqi insurgent group Iraqi leaders say has links with Al Qaeda — as he tried to enter the country through its border with Syria… Read more
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Cairo: My City, Our Revolution by Ahdaf Soueif – review
It was on the 15th day of the Egyptian revolution that I first encountered Ahdaf Soueif in Tahrir Square. She wore big round sunglasses that swallowed her face, and a dark scarf covered her head and fell over her shoulders. It would have been easy to dismiss her as just another spirited revolutionary, but a flock of fellow protesters grew around her, and followed her, and stuck… Read more
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Blame, Responsibility, and How We Talk About Syria – The Atlantic
In the corner of many Twitter avatars is a small Syrian flag. Whether pro-Assad, pro-opposition, or something else entirely, it is the same flag, the red, the white, the black, and two green stars… Read more
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Arab revolutions: How to set Syria free
Getting rid of Bashar Assad requires a united opposition, the creation of a safe haven and Western resolve… Read more
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Libya falters under weight of militias and rivalries
TRIPOLI, Libya — As the militiamen saw it, they had the best of intentions. They assaulted another militia at a seaside base here this week to rescue a woman who had been abducted… Read more
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