Laith
I don’t feel any safer
The much vaunted system of a watch list for people flying commercial aircraft in the USA seems to be growing by the minute. Now clearly, people taking part in suspect activities need to be watched, but apparently: “Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner [...]
America is clearly taking sides…
After subjecting the Middle East, and the world, to one Bolton, it looks like the US has plans to attack the region with another Bolton: Michael Bolton would like to become an ambassador of sorts in the Middle East. “In the Arab world, I’ve been to Dubai, and I’ve performed in Dubai, and I enjoyed [...]
If world leaders played soccer…
(I mean no disrespect to those caught up in the current unfolding tragedy, but I though some might appreciate a little humor). I read an article about leaders in South America who were going to play soccer together at an upcoming summit: “Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Nestor [...]
Cooperation
I thought some might like some more positive news of people working together: Bahrain is helping Filipino refugees escaping Lebanon. Morocco has offered to help other Africans evacuating Lebanon. Kuwait has stepped up and sent aid to both war torn East Africa and tsunami hit Indonesia. 2,500 Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis protest war.
Get Me Outta Here!
Lost in the madness. The plight of the many foreign workers in Lebanon is overlooked by many. By any calculation, these economic migrants are wholly and completely innocent. Sadly, there are already reports of Sri Lankans and Indians being killed. Although at first it seemed that the foreign nationals of developing countries were going to [...]
I got five on it…
Along with being the first to include women, the recent election in Kuwait was also important as a de facto referendum on electoral reform. After the reformists won a fairly clear majority in the election there was some speculation that the cabinet might continue to obstruct the proposed electoral reform, which was what brought on [...]
The Good Kind of Profiling
UCLA Today offers a good profile of Law Prof. Khaled Abu El Fadl and his new book, The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam From the Extremists. From the article: Abou El Fadl believes Islam is poorly understood because its laws have been corrupted by the sordid politics of the Muslim world, especially in Saudi Arabia, where [...]
Strange Days
Ultimately, these are sad days for everyone who is dying and living in fear, whether they be in Palestine, Lebanon or Israel. On a related note, I am finding little sympathy for any of the powers in the region, be they the Israeli or Lebanese governments or non-democratic, non-representative groups like Hamas or Hizbullah. There [...]
Music Moves
Although I am usually against cultural programs that just get people to hold hands and sing by the campfire, music can in theory be a powerful conduit for people to interface in new ways. Even if my cynical spider sense tells me it is just to get tourist dollars, Morocco has been showcasing its diversity [...]
Lebanon…this is getting worse
Slate offers a roundup of what some Lebanese bloggers are saying about recent events there. Now from what I have read on my own random sample of blogs, the author of the Slate piece seems to have pulled her examples from mostly Cedar Revolution types and not a very wide swath of the Lebanese population, [...]
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