Joseph Benzekri | ( Your Middle East | – – “Claiming to fight ISIS can serve as a valuable pretext for defending one’s own interests” The difficulties facing Saudi Arabia and its proxies in Syria should not be conflated with any significant new advantage being enjoyed by their rivals in Iran, writes Joseph Benzekri. Saudi […]
Archives for February 2016
The Evolution of Social Media use in Mideast 5 years after the Youth Revolts
By Damian Radcliffe | (The Conversation) | – – In 2011, the Arab Spring rocked many parts of the Middle East. Regime change in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya saw the departure of long-established – seemingly untouchable – political leaders and inspired ripples of protest and disquiet in many neighboring Arab nations. The tumultuous ramifications are […]
Turkey’s Elections no longer for Democracy but for Nationalist-Conservative Domination
By Umit Cizre | ( OpenDemocracy) | – – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s readiness to circumvent elections, illustrates that promises to end the conflict were contingent on securing a mathematically permanent conservative-nationalist electoral bloc. Two historic general elections were held in Turkey over the course of four months in 2015. The desperate losers in the first […]
How to Empower the Women and Girls rescued from ISIL
Leanne K Simpson | (The Conversation) | – – Violence against women, especially in war, is so pervasive around the world it’s often not considered news. But the barbaric treatment of women by the group known as Da’esh or Islamic State [group] (IS) has for once managed to attract some specific attention. When IS overran […]
Elections in Iran, a Test for the Regime
By Farhang Jahanpour | (Inter Press Service) | – – Farhang Jahanpour is a former professor and dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of Isfahan. Prior to that he was a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard University. Currently he is a tutor in the Department of Continuing Education and a member […]
Anti-Orientalism: Artists 3-D Scan looted Egyptian treasure in German museum
By Cory Doctorow | ( Boing Boing | – – Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles, an Iraqi/German artistic duo, covertly scanned a famous looted Egyptian treasure, the Bust of Queen Nefertiti, from its contested perch in Berlin’s Neues Museum. The hi-rez 3D file is now free to download and print — the artists have […]
Great Barrier Reef Endangered: Ocean turning Acidic from our Our Coal, Oil, Gas emissions
By Mathieu Mongin, Andrew Lenton, Jennifer Skerratt & Mark Baird | (The Conversation) | – – Those of us who have been fortunate enough to have travelled to spectacular coral reefs marvel at their colour and biodiversity. At around 2,000 km long, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world. […]
Kerry warns of break up of Syria; but is that Realistic?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Amid ongoing talks in Geneva around a cessation of hostilities in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday night in a joint telephone call with other diplomats, “It may be too late to keep it as a whole Syria if we wait much longer.” The […]
How the US went Fascist: Mass media Makes excuses for Trump Voters
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The rise of Donald Trump to the presumptive Republican standard bearer for president in 2016 is an indictment of, and a profound danger to the American republic. The Founding Fathers were afraid of the excitability of the voters and their vulnerability to the appeal of demagogues. […]
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