Latest in Opinion Highlight
Latest in Opinion
Government Handouts Won’t Placate People of the Middle East
By Aaron Rhodes and Jacob Mchangama The realization that, just as Libya was being suspended from the United Nations Human Rights Council for its humanitarian atrocities, the same body was about to release a report giving the country favorable marks, has led to a hasty retraction of the report. But in fact, numerous other authoritarian Middle …
A no-fly zone for Libya
By John Kerry WASHINGTON, DC: Leaders around the world are vigorously debating the advisability of establishing a no-fly zone to stop the violence unfolding in Libya. Some cite Bosnia, where NATO took too long to protect civilian populations in the mid-1990s, as a reason to act. Others remember Rwanda, where President Bill Clinton later expressed regret …
Obama of Arabia?
By Christopher Hill DENVER: Not since 1989 has the world seen such an all-consuming, all-engulfing wildfire of freedom and democracy, whose burning passions are sweeping across a region vast and old and desperately in need of reform. From the Maghreb to the Levant to the Arabian Peninsula, Arab history is on the move. A new generation …
A race to hunger
By Bjørn Lomborg SYDNEY: Spectators at February’s Daytona 500 in Florida were handed green flags to wave in celebration of the news that the race’s stock cars now use gasoline with 15 percent corn-based ethanol. It was the start of a season-long television marketing campaign to sell the merits of biofuel to Americans. On the surface, …
Opportunities amidst challenges in Egypt
By Ibrahim Negm As our beloved nation embarks on its difficult but necessary transition from the autocracy of the previous regime to a democratic future embodying the aspirations and desires of the Egyptian people, we have continued to witness acts of great dedication and courage. Over the past month, we have seen the Egyptian people act …
Editorial: Egypt’s constitutional dilemma
By Rania Al Malky In a week that began with the dramatic storming of State Security Investigations premises to stop the criminal burning and shredding of documents; was highlighted by violent, armed sectarian clashes which claimed lives and caused tens of injuries; then ended with an attack on Tahrir Square protesters that cleared the sit-in, the …
Women standing with men for change in the Middle East
By Carla Koppell and Haleh Esfandiari WASHINGTON, DC: In Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Tunisia and elsewhere, women have stood with men pushing for change. In Libya, Iman and Salwa Bagaighif are helping lead, shape and support protesters. And in Egypt, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, one of the oldest and most well-known non-governmental organizations in …
Revolutionary shadows
By Norman Manea VIENNA: What happens after the euphoria of revolution fades? Today’s Eastern Europe, some two decades after the revolutions of 1989, may offer a salutary warning for today’s defiant and jubilant Arab youth that they must remain vigilant. Ever since I left Romania for exile in 1986, my returns have been rare and tense. …
Obama’s tightrope
By Joseph Nye CAMBRIDGE: According to a United States State Department official, the concept of “smart power” — the intelligent integration and networking of diplomacy, defense, development, and other tools of so-called “hard” and “soft” power — is at the heart of the Obama administration’s foreign-policy vision. Currently, however, Obama’s smart-power strategy is facing a stiff …
Higher education: a beacon of hope for Iraqis
By Ahmed Kadhum Fahad NASIRIYAH, Iraq: The level of education in Iraq has been declining as a result of 30 years of war and UN sanctions. Once renowned in the region for its advanced education system and 100 percent literacy rate in the late 1970s, Iraq is now far behind most other countries in the Middle …
The Arab drama
By Bernard Haykel PRINCETON: The Arab world has entered the most dramatic period in its modern history. Oppressive regimes are being swept away, as Arab people finally take their fate into their own hands. The excitement of the moment, however, does not tell us what the future holds. At best, democracy is still off in the …
Obama gets it right
By Ian Buruma NEW YORK: US President Barack Obama has been much criticized for the way he has handled revolutionary changes in North Africa and the Middle East. Actually, he has not handled them very much, at least not in public. That is precisely the problem for armchair warriors watching events unfold on their computer and …
The Mauritius miracle
By Joseph Stiglitz NEW YORK: Suppose someone were to describe a small country that provided free education through university for all of its citizens, transportation for school children, and free health care — including heart surgery — for all. You might suspect that such a country is either phenomenally rich or on the fast track to …
Mr. Cameron, multiculturalism is alive and well in the UK
By Khola Hasan LONDON: The next London train was in ten minutes so I settled down on a bench on the windy platform and began to read my book; The Jews of Islam by Bernard Lewis promised to be a riveting read. I had managed to read only a few pages when a man walking by …
Equality advocates harassed on International Women’s Day
By Safaa Abdoun CAIRO: A planned Million Women March in Tahrir Square calling for equality went awry as counter protesters infiltrated the march chanting against and harassing the women, forcing some out of the square. Some men were chanting “The people demand the fall of women” and “We don’t want it secular, Egypt is an Islamic …
Cut and Paste: Considerations for a new Egyptian government
By Tamer Bahgat and Khalid El-Sherif “We are no longer slaves, and from this day forward, we shall not be inheritable!” Ahmed Orabi, Sept. 9, 1881 The fall of the autocratic government in Egypt is the consummation of a struggle that began almost 130 years ago. Ahmed Orabi’s declaration in 1881 of the right of …
The son also slaughters
By Omar Ashour LONDON: “The enemy of yesterday is the friend of today….[I]t was a real war, but those brothers are free men now.” Thus spoke Saif Al-Islam Al-Qaddafi in March 2010, referring to the leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an armed organization that had attempted to assassinate his father, Muammar Al-Qaddafi, …
Saving the Egyptian revolution
By Shlomo Ben Ami TEL AVIV: Revolutions throughout history have proven to devour their children. Their final outcomes are seldom congruent with their prime movers’ intentions. Too frequently, revolutions are hijacked by a second wave, either more conservative or more radical than what was first contemplated by the initiators of change. What started in France …
Egypt on the path to democracy
By Rania Al Malky CAIRO: As I write this editorial, history is once more being made in Tahrir Square. New Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, appointed on Thursday by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, joins a mass gathering in the epicenter of protests in Cairo to swear a symbolic oath to the Egyptian people. …
Consulting Indonesia on the Middle East
By Didin Nurul Rosidin CIREBON, Indonesia: Suffering from an increase in radicalization and a certain level of religious exclusivity which has lead to vigilante attacks against specific religious minorities, Indonesia is not always held up as a model for others. However, as a country that has had a relatively peaceful political transition and has successfully …
Revolutionary uprisings in the Middle East
By Mohamed El Moktar Sidi Haiba The momentum of the current events is exhilarating; it is all the more so when the contagion is spreading at a never-before-seen pace conferring a historical dimension to the unfolding revolutionary upheavals brewing these days all over the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The psychological barrier of fear …
A woman leading change in Yemen
By Alice Hackman LONDON: With two presidents unseated in Tunisia and Egypt and highly publicized protests across Libya, the recent demonstrations in Yemen are catching the world’s attention. The escalating violence is worrying and only time will tell if it will lead to a quick overthrow of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh or whether change …
Is Syria the next domino?
By Ribal Al-Assad LONDON: With the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes gone and street protests roiling cities from Algiers to Tehran, many people are now wondering which domino might fall next. Syria, whose secular, militarized dictatorship most closely resembles the fallen regimes of Tunisia and Egypt, may not be next in line, but appears nonetheless to …
Global justice and military intervention
By Peter Singer MELBOURNE: The world has watched in horror as Libya’s Colonel Muammar Qaddafi uses his military to attack protesters opposed to his rule, killing hundreds or possibly thousands of unarmed civilians. Many of his own men have refused to fire on their own people, instead defecting to the rebels or flying their planes …
The fine line between freedom and anarchy
By Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor The year 2011 will forever be known as the year of revolt; I just pray that it doesn’t become the century’s most revolting. There are so many revolutions and civil uprisings it’s almost impossible to keep up with them all. And they’re not confined to the Arab world either. The …
Unsettling America
By Robert Skidelsky LONDON: Is there more to be said about Egypt? Hosni Mubarak has been sacrificed to save the military regime. A “strongman” who cannot keep order in the streets is of no use to anyone. Whether “democracy” will ensue is much more dubious. Judging on the basis of Pakistan, and much of the …
Iran watches the new Iraq cautiously
By Sadegh Zibakalam If an observer monitors news coverage of Iraq in the Iranian media, he or she will be surprised at how minimal it is. The scope of news and analysis is limited to a few areas. These include mainly reports on suicide bombings, Iraqi officials’ criticism of US policies on Iraq, and occasional …
Winds of change
By Safa A. Hussein In recent months, newcomers entering Baghdad via the international airport and those who wander around the international zone and its five-star hotels could not fail to notice the ongoing activity of restoration and modernization. The project is supervised by a high-level committee, chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs Hoshyar Zebari, that …
Need versus greed
By Jeffrey Sachs NEW YORK: India’s great moral leader Mohandas Gandhi famously said that there is enough on Earth for everybody’s need, but not enough for everybody’s greed. Today, Gandhi’s insight is being put to the test as never before. The world is hitting global limits in its use of resources. We are feeling the …
No to the law of the mob
With reference to Daily News Egypt editorial by Rania Al Malky (February 26-27, page 5) I’d like to point out that your editorial was just a pamphlet. This is not good journalism. Good journalism is about judgement and facts not throwing around accusations and ideas without analysis. Let me point to a few: • …