Dying
March 16, 2013, 6:26pm
3 notes
Current #Egypt crisis not really about politics. It’s about the ongoing breakdown of the Egyptian state, which political dialogue won’t fix.
— Eric Trager (@EricTrager18) January 27, 2013
January 27, 2013, 2:33pm
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link» [Algeria Hostage Crisis] The Algerian authorities "will not meet the demands of terrorists and refuse any negotiation"
Not sure this site’s reports/updates are really reliable.
But now there are enough materials to be really worried about.
- Algerian govt maybe taking really firm stance that ‘We aren’t going to negotiate’ (yikes)
- Number of hostages could be more numerous
- Terrorists making more drastic demands: stop French operation in Mali, release prisoners, etc.
Obama/Hillaryshould be reacting and moving faster. Though not sure how much public attention this hostage crisis is going to receive.
20 H 40: The Islamist group claims that the terrorist attack was required on the part of France to immediately cease its military intervention in Mali, in a statement received by the Agency Mauritanian ANI. The kidnappers promised in return not to take the 41 Western hostages say they hold.
20 H 30: According Dahou Ould Kablia, the Minister of the Interior and Local Government reported the news website TSA, the two victims are Algerian and Columbia. Besides the attack would have killed twelve wounded.
20: 00: The kidnappers demanded the release of 100 Islamic terrorists detained in the country before releasing the hostages said an employee of the site of BP AFP.Adding that “the attackers demanded that the Islamists are conducted in the region of northern Mali.”
19 H 40: The United States confirms the presence of U.S. citizens among the hostages held at the site of BP oil In Aménas. The U.S. State Department, however, did not give details on the number or identity, the name of security.
19 H 15: The Algerian authorities “will not meet the demands of terrorists and refuse any negotiation,” said Ould Kablia Dahou, the Minister of the Interior and Local Government, on national television.
19 H 06: The hostages are more numerous than we think. The figures are constantly changing. According to the Journal du Dimanche (JDD), those still in the hands of the Islamist group would be at least a hundred. In an interview with the French newspaper Regis Arnoux, CEO of CIS Catering - that provides catering services, hospitality and logistics at the site of In Aménas-BP said that 150 employees of his company would be among the hostages. ”150 Algerian employees of our subsidiary Cieptal are currently held on the site of the BP consortium. They are not allowed to leave the base. ”They would not be held captive 41 foreigners but more than a hundred.
French CEO adds that “a group of sixty terrorists from neighboring countries, heavily armed and well equipped, attacked the base that night. They would then kidnapped all expatriates, whatever their nationality, have grouped and attached. Algerian employees, they do not have the opportunity to leave. They are retained within the site. The situation is very worrying. ’
January 16, 2013, 3:10pm 0 notes
There is a real good band from UK (math rock) I want to post - but band’s name is too insensitive for another year or so in USA, so I can’t.
January 03, 2013, 8:51pm
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link» The observer state of Palestine, Ian Buruma, Project Syndicate
Keeping the Palestinians divided between Islamist revolutionaries and the more business-minded Fateh suits Israeli purposes admirably. As long as Fateh keeps things more or less under control on the West Bank, and all Hamas can do is periodically lob missiles across the Israeli border or occasionally blow up bus, Israel can easily live with the status quo. Those Israelis who believe that a two-state solution cannot be achieved feel vindicated; those who simply do not want two states to coexist are equally well served.
From the current Israeli government’s perspective, then, the correct strategy is to keep the Palestinian government on the West Bank weak and off balance, without quite bringing it down, and to contain Hamas with periodic displays of military power (while destroying long-range missiles that can do serious damage to Israel).
Israeli policies are not genocidal, as some commentators, not always free from anti-Semitic animus, like to claim. Many Palestinians have been killed under Israeli rule, but their number is not even close to the number of Muslim civilians who are still being tortured, murdered, and maimed by Muslim governments every day. Israel is, however, a semi-imperial power, using traditional colonial methods: ruling by proxy, dividing potential rebels, rewarding obeisance and punishing opposition.
Colonial history shows that this type of rule is fragile. Humiliation is not a firm basis for long-term stability. There comes a point when promises of independence no longer convince anyone. Fomenting violent resistance by demoralising those who might still listen to reason is an invitation to disaster. The chances of a peaceful settlement vanish. Violence is all that is left.
It is one thing for colonies to blow up on the other side of the world. It is quite another if the colony is just next door, and the colonial power is surrounded by countries with limited sympathy for a mess that is largely of its own making.
- Very strange (or absurd?) way of defending Israel - probably to make the (repeated) claim that Muslim population are told about Israel-Palestine crisis to distract the situation they are in - under their own each government. (Not genocidal - or it’s about proportionality, collective punishment (though UN said legal on Gaza), and so called occupation and apartheid situations - ethnic cleansing. All combined it’s quite. Problem is Israel and Palestinians don’t have communication channels on these, and international communities/outsiders somehow never really operate as fully committed, effective mediators/referees. It’s a very very odd situation - lasting probably ever since 1948. Very weird.)
- And yeah, occupying force’s morale/dignity issue. (Martin Van Creveld)
December 06, 2012, 5:25pm 0 notes
[Sandy] Re: Rockaway, Jot 2
- I am realizing that actually when people say Rockaway it’s bit more larger section than I see (from Coney Island/Bottom Center part of Brooklyn) as Rockaway.
- I am having hard time to really get my head around to (different) situations ongoing different parts of NY and NJ. Even through Twitter, it’s really hard to gather episodes? from different locations -
- though I’m hoping eventually when power is back etc, people’d write about them. So that the whole episodes will somewhat show up.
- At this point, I’m really stuck with Manhattan” focused reporting and spotty local issues reporting. (It’s really annoying.)
November 02, 2012, 9:55pm
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Does someone know Moslike’s contact?
I have a question re: Islam/Quran
and I think he is the best person for this question.
The level of reading - methodologies he developed - he is the guy - I should throw this question.
But I failed to get in touch with him before he left Tumblr :(
He said there will be several days but he just got off in 24 hrs. Anyway I will be writing it up so that in case I can ask someone else.
But I do want his take, also want to let him know that my thinking came this far :(
August 31, 2012, 2:59pm
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Tumblr note count is weird
A person posted - it can’t equal to 0 (zero)
Not really mathematical in that sense - breaking ontology
August 25, 2012, 8:34pm
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Anger as Iran bans women from universities
In a move that has prompted a demand for a UN investigation by Iran’s most celebrated human rights campaigner, the Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, 36 universities have announced that 77 BA and BSc courses in the coming academic year will be “single gender” and effectively exclusive to men.
It follows years in which Iranian women students have outperformed men, a trend at odds with the traditional male-dominated outlook of the country’s religious leaders. Women outnumbered men by three to two in passing this year’s university entrance exam.
Senior clerics in Iran’s theocratic regime have become concerned about the social side-effects of rising educational standards among women, including declining birth and marriage rates.
Under the new policy, women undergraduates will be excluded from a broad range of studies in some of the country’s leading institutions, including English literature, English translation, hotel management, archaeology, nuclear physics, computer science, electrical engineering, industrial engineering and business management.
The Oil Industry University, which has several campuses across the country, says it will no longer accept female students at all, citing a lack of employer demand. Isfahan University provided a similar rationale for excluding women from its mining engineering degree, claiming 98% of female graduates ended up jobless.
Via 
saharfakhri
saharfakhri August 20, 2012, 8:45pm
359 notes
Sorry that - No happy news or content posts - really recently
but I’m withstanding :(
August 06, 2012, 1:16pm
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“
“This leads me to conclude that the bigger story that links Syria with the other Arab uprisings and recent Middle Eastern developments is that the will and actions of indigenous Arabs, Iranians and Turks will always have a greater impact than anything done by powers abroad. The striking inability of the Americans, Russians and their assorted allies to shape events in Syria follow similar serial failures in recent decades in their attempts to promote Arab-Israeli peace, democratic transformations, economic trajectories or other such strategic issues.
Only when local people across the Middle East took matters into their own hands did conditions change, and history resume. The sentiments of ordinary people such as those in Bab al-Hawa, Midan, Deir al-Zor and Deraa are far more significant that the pronouncements of the world’s powers. The sooner we learn this lesson, the better off we will all be.”
Only when local people across the Middle East took matters into their own hands did conditions change, and history resume. The sentiments of ordinary people such as those in Bab al-Hawa, Midan, Deir al-Zor and Deraa are far more significant that the pronouncements of the world’s powers. The sooner we learn this lesson, the better off we will all be.”
Rami G. Khouri, Syria embodies the end of colonialism, Daily Star Lebanon
Nah. Colonialism or its legacies aren’t going to end for another quite, quite while. (But things also have been quite much in ‘hands’ of local organizations and people quite some time. I do think.)
Sometimes I think Arab writers put in too much emotional stuff into English IR discourse without clearly punctuating/indicating so. And this may be such case.
Indigenous - local and ordinary human groups - I don’t know how closely we are really looking at, understanding those people either. I’m not sure they are ‘constant’ types or more of ‘variables’ (changes very swiftly) - either. We’ve already seen that elsewhere - probably enough times. If there is going to be an exception - that’d be great though.
July 23, 2012, 7:26am 1 note
Memo: Israel re: Tal Law, July 2012 - Fundamental issue put into hasty chamber of (worsening) coalition politics show (*’political farse’)
Kadima has 28 seats in Israel’s parliament. Its departure would not immediately undermine Netanyahu’s government but could seriously weaken his large coalition and move up national elections, now expected to be held in November 2013.
Ya’alon accused Kadima of “creating a deliberate impasse,” telling reporters the government could survive without meeting the August 1 deadline by following the current exemptions policy pending new legislation.
“If the law is not passed by August 1, we shall implement the necessary military directives,” Ya’alon said.
Mofaz wants the new draft legislation approved in parliament before it adjourns for summer recess this month.
- It’s such a critical, fundamental issue - but somehow, the process of re-negotiating the content of the law is carried out in such short timeframe - added with skittish dynamics of coalition politics.
- Either principles and implementation details of the new bill, both require careful, long-term stance anyway.
- But without real deliberation on any of those critical issues - how a new law can emerge?
- Even if it emerges, that means the bill has no real agreements from all sides That seems like simply ‘reaching into another unsustainable’
It’s, to my foreign eyes, looks like an another expression of (problematic) worsening quality of Israeli domestic politics.
Though, by reading into details and few long term visions on this issue - it reads like Religious right will probably accept some compromise.
But I’m not sure that compromise could be worked out sufficiently in such short time frame (before Kadima/Mofaz exits the coalition - which is not really clear - by when? Tomorrow? This week? or little more longer? ) or - more ‘extended’ time frame will be agreed -
Anyway, without more specifics, general view is - like this
- Mofaz/Kadima might exit the coalition. But then general predictions have been Kadima has no future. (Too unpopular)
- Rather there have been calls for (another) new major centrist party to be created. (Haim Ramon) [*which always been there in Israel, but Right usually wins.]
- Will Kadima able to revive its popularity from this incident?
- Or will new Centrist party emerge?
- Until new, replacement of Tal Law gets decided - before summer recess (or even after) - will religious right and their opponents (mixed bunch) - be able to intensify and keep up public mobilizations? (demonstrations. Religious right are preparing their version now.)
Or narrated as below:
Kadima can exit. But by so far it’s predicted to die soon.
It is likely that as soon as Mofaz exits the government - and given Netanyahu’s apparent unwillingness to compromise, he almost certainly will - there will be an immediate push to dissolve the government and go to elections. This will be somewhat difficult to accomplish, since Netanyahu will likely fight it with everything he has, and Mofaz will still be facing the hard reality that Kadima is very unpopular with voters, and will likely lose and lose badly.
Nonetheless, if no resolution is reached by Sunday, Mofaz will not be able to stay in government without forfeiting what little credibility he has left. In addition, Netanyahu - despite his current travails - remains popular enough to make the prospect of elections a less-than effective threat. What happens next, then, is anybody’s guess.
July 11, 2012, 9:32pm
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“
“Abdoul Maïga, director of the Ahmed Baba Centre for Islamic Studies in Timbuktu, one of the main cities under rebel control, says the two groups have widely differing outlooks.
“The MNLA wants to be closer to Europe where it has contacts. In contrast, Ansar Dine is oriented towards the Arab world where it has found support. I don’t know if this support comes from governments or from specific groups, but it’s certain that Ansar Dine’s funding comes from the Middle East, particularly Qatar,” Maïga told IPS over the phone.”
“The MNLA wants to be closer to Europe where it has contacts. In contrast, Ansar Dine is oriented towards the Arab world where it has found support. I don’t know if this support comes from governments or from specific groups, but it’s certain that Ansar Dine’s funding comes from the Middle East, particularly Qatar,” Maïga told IPS over the phone.”
July 02, 2012, 5:39pm 1 note
“
“If it was the Palestinians who started the fire around the settlement, why then did the clash happen in the vicinity of the Palestinian village? It’s customary for settlers to start this sort of thing, and as recorded by the Palestinian Center, they are stepping up aggression even in the context of a drop in Palestinian resistence.”
Not sure how to look at this incident. Isolated cases or - coordination to step up? but I don’t think causing this kind of incident is advantageous for them. No. But ture that such radicalization always create few uncoordinated isolated cases. Have to wait and see. And what is this 972. Are you no better than EI? No analysis, no info. Oh well.
May 20, 2012, 9:29pm 1 note
Jot: Tripoli, northern Lebanon
*There should be more reliable overview piece - by - like NYTimes *I can’t find it yet. Somehow. * But it’s so - local - I have hard time piecing together all fragmented reports from (many) Lebanese English news sites. Headache. So jotting down. Do not trust.
- Syrian regime supporters have been aiming to set up sectarian tension, or even conflict. In Tripoli.
- Then General Security directorate in Tripoli? arrested one Islamist (Sunni?) Shadi Mawlawi (along with a Jordanian) - both are suspected of helping Syrian oppositions, with link to Qatar.
- That sparked the protest from Sunni side. Though Sunnis are not monolithic but they came united on this issue -
- Thus violent clash
- Thus many saying Tripoli fell into the trap set up by Syrians or Assad regime supporters
- Influence of Shiite is generally strong - now in Lebanon, so people are suspicious.
- Then how Christians are looking at this and going to react
I’m still waiting some reliable overview for a layperson.
May 18, 2012, 9:48pm
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