My column is out at Truthdig, entitled “Egypt on the Brink”. Excerpt: “the opposition says it is withdrawing from parliamentary elections scheduled for April… The Brotherhood government under Morsi has not placated Egypt’s powerful working class, which has seen its wages decline. The demonstrations that have roiled Port Said, a Suez Canal city of 600,000, […]
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Middle East
Austerity and the threat to Democracy, in the US, Europe and the Middle East
The “sequester” is actually, of course, the American form of austerity, or cut-backs in government spending during a recession. Austerity, or stingy government in Europe has kept employment extremely depressed compared to what it would have been with government stimulus, as Paul Krugman argues. Saturday, there were massive protests throughout Portugal against Scrooge policies by […]
Muslim Opposition to the Muslim Religious Right Grows, from Egypt to Bangladesh
The headlines this week were full of stories from the Muslim world about Muslims attacking the Muslim religious Right, whether the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or the Jama’at-i Islami in Bangladesh. The rise of the religious Right in politics is producing a backlash throughout the region. Part of the backlash comes from secularists of Muslim […]
Harlem Shake as Protest in Tunis
Hard line Salafi fundamentalists (who are small fringe in Tunis) showed up at a language school in Tunisia’s capital on Wednesday to attempt to stop the filming of a video clip of the Harlem Shake, electronic-music performer Baauer’s internet sensation in the Trap genre. One of the Salafis had on military khakis and carried a […]
Hagel Confirmed, but Bloodied by American Nationalists Seeking Wars & World Dominance
The GOP senators have their own foreign policy, and it isn’t the same as that of President Obama or Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. For them, the US is a 900 pound behemoth that can boss the world around with its high-tech military at will. Their foreign policy is to shoot first and ask questions […]
“Argo” as Orientalism and why it Upsets Iranians
The taking of US diplomatic personnel hostage by radical Iranian activists and angry crowds in November of 1979, and then the backing for this action of the government of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was profoundly illegal. I know some of the former hostages, and deeply sympathize with their trauma. Nothing justifies what was done to them. […]
Bahrain’s Agony Continues 2 Years Later
Bahrain national dialogue talks began again on Sunday as two small parties came back to the table after a token protest against what they called street violence. Last week saw the commemoration by the opposition in Bahrain of the second anniversary of its Arab Spring protests, demanding a move toward constitutional monarchy and a better […]
A Different View of Iran, 2013 (Video)
Meh Heyd did a mash-up of iPhone video he just took on a trip to Iran and set it to music. In the US we seldom see this kind of footage, which humanizes the place:
Palestinian Prisoner Jaradat’s death in Israeli Cell Provokes Further Protests
Arafat Jaradat was detained by Israeli authorities near Hebron last Monday at a protest of illegal Israeli squatting on Palestinian land. On Saturday the 30=year-old was reported dead in an Israeli jail cell. Thirty-year-old men are so healthy that the major cause of death for them is accidents, so the death is very suspicious. Palestinians […]