Latest in Opinion Highlight
Latest in Opinion
COMMENTARY: An unknown future for Egyptian art
By Mariam Hamdy There is concern about the future of art in Egypt after last year’s uprising. Questions on the impact, longevity and artistic merit of the works tackling the Egyptian revolution are heard at every gallery opening, with answers ranging from the wildly optimistic to the dismally cynical. This year, with over 70 percent of …
The brain drain panic returns
By Jagdish Bhagwati NEW YORK: While developed countries are angst-ridden over mostly illegal immigration by unskilled workers from developing countries, a different set of concerns has surfaced in Africa, in particular, over the legal outflow of skilled, and even more importantly, highly skilled, people to developed countries. This outflow is supposedly a new and damaging “brain …
Egypt: Facing economic challenges
By Oxford Business Group CAIRO: The New Year sees a very different Egypt from the one that welcomed the opening of 2011, being in the process of instituting multi-party democracy, while trying to reshape the national economy. However, many hurdles still have to be overcome to ensure social, economic and political stability. 2011 will be remembered …
Peeling, meeting, and shopping
By Esther Dyson NEW YORK: In mid-December, while trying to understand what was happening in Russia, I checked Twitter and found a tweet that somehow signified everything. It was from a young woman, and it said, in Russian: “Gotta sleep! Tomorrow I go to [face] peeling, then to meeting, and then to shopping.” All three words …
Mabrouk, ya Masr?
By Maria Golia I used to live in Bab El Louq and loved every dilapidated inch of it. Birds filled the mango tree outside my window, chattering like mad and occasionally, astonishingly, perforating their chatter with a second or two of perfect silence before starting up again. I used to fantasize about how downtown would be …
Obama reads Tantawi the Riot Act
By Philip Whitfield CAIRO: Help me out here. Let’s read some news items together to prove I’m not completely mad. First a newsflash: Three PR gurus paid $4.3 million (plus expenses) to flack for SCAF in Washington DC dumped them after lawmakers harrumphed: Is there no shame in this town? Update: Cairo says it did …
The non-communicable disease paradox
By Martin Tobias WELLINGTON: Albert Einstein is reputed to have said that “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Yet the current debate about the global epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) — chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer — has ignored this advice. Policymakers have oversimplified the challenge …
Afghanistan’s terrorized women
By Mohammed Musa Mahmodi KABUL: Recently, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) office in Kudoz province reported the rescue of a young woman who had been imprisoned in her in-laws’ dungeon for seven months. Fifteen-year-old Sahar Gul was forced to marry an older man who serves in the Afghan army. She was then kept in …
Crossroads: The Egyptian revolution one year on (Part 2)
By Tamer Bahgat and Khalid El-Sherif Purported analogies have been drawn with the military’s role following the Revolution of 1952 on one hand and after the 2011 uprising on the other. However, basic examination of the two eras shows that there is no valid comparison to justify the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)’s approach …
The truth about negotiations
By Alexios Arvanitis ATHENS: When people and countries negotiate, they often talk about their interests as though they were the only matters that could elicit agreement. In casting his veto at the European Union’s December summit in Brussels, British Prime Minister David Cameron said, “What is on offer isn’t in Britain’s interests, so I didn’t agree …
How do we know if and when the two-state solution is no longer feasible?
By Ghassan Khatib With the passing of time, discussion over the permanence of the two-state solution is increasing among Palestinians and, to a lesser extent, Israelis and others involved. Although the official line of both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority is that the two-state solution is the path of peace, a lot of changes …
An Indonesian’s hopes for the US role in the Asia Pacific
By Singgih Nugroho SALATIGA, Indonesia: US President Barack Obama’s November visit to Bali in November 2011 to attend the 19th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asia Summits was his second official visit to Indonesia in his role as president. In November 2010 he gave a speech at the University of Indonesia in which …
The Eurozone’s strategy of pain
By Jean Pisani-Ferry BRUSSELS: For the third year in a row, the Eurozone is the weakest link in the world economy. In 2010, attention was focused on responses to the crisis on the Eurozone periphery — Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. In 2011, the crisis moved to the core, with Italy and Spain feeling the heat, and …
The Arab Spring is an opportunity for Israel
By Natalia Simanovsky TEL AVIV: The Israeli government and security establishment are viewing the sweeping changes in the Middle East and North African region with apprehension. While it is human nature to fear the unknown, the recent developments represent a window of opportunity for reshaping the region. That is not to say that the dangers facing …
Calling it Sharia shouldn’t make it scary
By Jon Pahl PHILADELPHIA: What’s so scary about Sharia, or Islamic legal principles? According to a recent decision from a US Federal Appellate Court — one level below the Supreme Court — not much. The recent decision of the 10th Circuit Court effectively blocks implementation of Oklahoma Law 755, also called the “Save Our State” measure. …
Demilitarizing Muslim politics
By Shahid Javed Burki ISLAMABAD: Can Muslim governments free themselves from their countries’ powerful militaries and establish civilian control comparable to that found in liberal democracies? This question is now paramount in countries as disparate as Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey. To predict how this struggle will play out, it helps to understand the region’s past. Since …
Egypt’s Brotherhood toes fine line on economy
By Una Galani / Reuters Breakingviews The Muslim Brotherhood’s economic platform isn’t likely to be fully implemented, but it offers a good glimpse of the type of policies they will push for in the months to come. Few of the ideas of the movement’s Freedom and Justice Party are new or radical. Furthermore the long-repressed faction …
Honor the heroes
By Philip Whitfield CAIRO: Some causes are worth dying for. None are worth killing for. The nation’s psyche swirls in pools of anger and guilt, innocence, righteousness, contempt, remorse and sorrow. If only the euphoria could echo one year on. Unlocking Egypt’s potential is proving harder than many had imagined. At times it’s an ideological brawl. …
Crossroads: The Egyptian revolution, one year on (Part 1)
By Philip Whitfield “The Egyptian voices will be heard, and if not heard, it will be only because the blood already shed has not been enough…” With these words, Saad Zaghloul, one of 20th Century Egypt’s most celebrated nationalist revolutionaries, gave voice to the fierce, unrelenting aspirations of a people struggling to regain their freedom. Many …
A year on, have we lost the plot?
By Rania Al Malky First there was Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution, then came Libya’s bloody war, Syria’s ongoing crimes against humanity, Yemen’s forgotten struggle. And somewhere in between there was and continues to be Egypt’s so-called “revolution.” The closing statements by Mubarak’s lawyer in court earlier this week encapsulate the absurdity of the situation Egypt finds itself …
Egyptian culture: Year zero
By Joseph Fahim Last year started with the usual attractions: A batch of award-winning films and a couple of commercial fares for the mid-year vacation season, a number of independent theater productions, the standard slew of assorted musical offerings and diverse exhibitions representing different art schools. Then the revolution erupted and the entire spectrum of Egyptian …
A year on, has Egypt’s revolution stalled?
By Lin Noueihed / Reuters CAIRO: A few dozen activists huddle around tents on a grubby traffic island in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, a forlorn reminder of the revolutionary ardor that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule. A year on, the revolution that youth activists spearheaded appears to have stalled as the military rulers who replaced Mubarak seem …
Asia in the Year of the Dragon
By Haruhiko Kuroda MANILA: This is the year of the “Black Water Dragon,” an astrological cycle that indicates change, but with a measure of calm, sensibility and prudence. The people and governments of Asia certainly hope that this proves to be the case, but uncertainties — from within and without the region — are growing rapidly. …
Accepting the inevitable: A nuclear Iran
By Mamdouh G. Salameh The only sanctions able to hurt Iran are those that ban its crude oil exports, but getting the international community to agree on such sanctions is virtually impossible. The international political and economic repercussions of these sanctions would be so huge that they are not worth pondering. Even if, by the very …
Does debt matter?
By Robert Skidelsky LONDON: Europe is now haunted by the specter of debt. All European leaders quail before it. To exorcise the demon, they are putting their economies through the wringer. It doesn’t seem to be helping. Their economies are still tumbling, and the debt continues to grow. The credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has …
Africa: Winning against AIDS
By Michel Sidibé Winning the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) 2012 is something millions of people across Africa are dreaming of right now as the continent’s most prestigious football tournament gets underway in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. As nations join together in solidarity, spurring on their teams they should not forget that they are already winners …
Mubarak and the Wolf Brigades
By Rania Al Malky CAIRO: When this is all over and we look back to 2011 in 20 years’ time, the single most important outcome of the January 25 uprising will be the fate of Mubarak, his immediate family and their close-knit clique, some now basking in Tora prison while others continue to run the show …
Iraq’s politics, Iraq’s problem
By Christopher R. Hill DENVER: The narrative of contemporary Iraq is becoming etched in stone: United States troops are leaving, and the country is falling apart. Iraq, we are told, is once again on the brink of dictatorship, this time under the Shia politician Nuri Al-Maliki, who has been prime minister since 2006. The notion that …
The major geostrategic challenge of 2012
By David Menashri The year 2012 commenced with an escalation of hardnosed rhetoric between the United States and Iran. More than ever, the drumbeat for a military strike on Iran was heard, aimed at disrupting its military nuclear program. Iran responded with threats warning of the consequences of any such attack. Top US officials made their …
Repairing the global plumbing
By Mohamed El-Erian NEWPORT BEACH: More than three years after the global financial crisis, the world still has a nasty plumbing problem. Credit pipes remain clogged, and only central banks are working to clear them. But their ability to do so is waning, posing yet another set of risks for Western economies blocked by too little …