Latest in Opinion Highlight
Latest in Opinion
Sabahy’s bottom dollar bet
By Johannes Amin Makar For some time, a bit of an insane mind seemed requisite for one to enter the presidential race in Egypt. Various indicators contradicted a fair battle, and for many, contesting Al-Sisi had everything of a nutty business. The sanity claim appeared to be honoured when the little credible Mortada Mansour announced his …
Climate change, diminishing of conventional energy, and economy growth
By Eng. Hisham Farouk Mostafa In 2001, the German government greeted delegates from all over the world to Bonn in the first conference discussing climate change and the diminishing of conventional energy sources. A series of summits have since been held globally and based on the Kyoto protocol, signed in 1997. That human activity is the …
Democracy and modernisation are universal values, not western products
By Mohammed Nosseir Democracy and modernisation are not western products that the west is trying to export to certain countries that have a shortage. They are universal values that, for many reasons, the west was able to espouse and implement before other countries. Among these reasons was a particular mix of culture, law and leadership that …
Egypt: The youth win
The pillars of Mubarak’s regime and the aged forces of Egypt’s counterrevolution were preparing to “impress the world” (as goes the rhetoric that is used in privately owned, pro-Mubarak media) by a historic turnout at and unprecedentedly long queues outside polling stations in the first presidential election after Mohamed Morsi was ousted on 3 July. Supporters of …
Force-feeding prisoners is a criminal act
By Dr Cesar Chelala The decision by US District Court Judge Gladys Kessler determining that the US military can force-feed a Syrian detainee at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a well intentioned but wrong decision. It allows the US government to continue a criminal practice that has been widely condemned by medical professionals and …
Syria: A better approach
By Matthew Timmerman Now well into its fourth year, the crisis in Syria stands as the world’s worst refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide exactly 20 years ago. It’s believed a variety of Syria-specific circumstances have resulted in the scope of the disaster witnessed, the most notable being the nature of the stalemate. Not just any …
Qatar misses the plank on labour reform
By James M. Dorsey A long awaited and much hyped announcement on a reform of 2022 World Cup host Qatar in response to condemnation of its controversial kafala or labour sponsorship system has sparked more questions than answers and costs the Gulf state an opportunity to gain the upper hand in a bruising debate that …
A not so good omen
Music is a powerful means to stimulate the memory. Certain songs take me back to specific moments in my childhood, university years, and adulthood. The song Bushrat Kheir (“Good Omen”), recently released by Emirati singer Hussain Al-Jasmi for Egyptians in celebration of these presidential elections, will always remind me of Monday and Tuesday of this …
Salafi choices during the presidential elections
By Nader Bakkar From an intellectual point of view, the Salafi movement is a rich one, distinguished by varying interpretations within the same school of thought and containing both positives and negatives simultaneously. A group of scholars and independent preachers that belong to this movement have preferred to withdraw completely from the political scene and …
ElBaradei’s unknown known
Egypt’s media have been in campaign mode leading up to Monday and Tuesday’s vote. Official, quasi-official and the social media are dedicating their undivided attention to the presidential elections with reports, interviews and analyses that tackle the two candidates’ platforms, credentials and implausible promises. Yet, an Egyptian Nobel laureate and former presidential hopeful, who, respect …
Would voting legitimise elections?
By Wael Eskandar It is no longer necessary to wait for the actual voting process to determine whether the upcoming elections will be free and fair. The idea of fair elections has been dispelled by the manner in which the current regime has operated on a variety of issues. While the counting itself may eventually …
One flew over Egypt’s cuckoo’s nest
By Johannes Amin Makar It does not take much to consider Egypt a madhouse of giant proportions. An average walk in the streets of the country’s capital, Cairo, is all you need to rub shoulders with its audio-visual mania. Deafening horns, the hums of the, at times not so romantic, 1,001 minarets, and cars chasing around …
Egypt outlook: The struggle between a pessimistic present and an optimistic future
By Ahmed Abou El Saad and Eric Swats The Egyptian economy Since 2011, Egypt has been hit hard by both ongoing political volatility and social unrest. Four key economic indicators have underscored this reeling economy: an increase in T-Bill rates, a decrease in Net International Reserves, the depreciation of the Egyptian pound (EGP) and a …
Protest and human rights shape debate on awarding of mega events
By James M. Dorsey Mass protests against Brazil’s hosting of the World Cup, Turkey’s loss of opportunities to host sports events and controversy over 2022 World Cup host Qatar’s labour system are impacting the global sports world’s thinking about the requirements future hosts will have to meet. The impact is likely to go far beyond …
Egypt’s rule of law: Strong on paper, shakier on the ground
Earlier this month, Egypt’s cabinet passed a law confronting one of the country’s worst epidemics. The new sexual harassment law both increases fines against offenders and expands actions which are defined as harassment by law. In a country where it has been estimated that 99.3% of women are sexually harassed, the amendments to the Penal …
And a toast to you all…
On 22 January 2012, two days before the then MB-controlled parliament convened for the first time, I hosted a party at my house. The moment you enter the door of the apartment, you face a big banner that said: “The Muslim Brotherhood are coming… quickly grab a drink or two”. Needless to say, the guests …
The fascist tendencies of a proud nation
By Rasheed Hammouda and Mohamed Ibrahim For the previous installments: Part one and Part two This is the final installment of a three part series. The aim of this series is to dispel the increasingly widespread belief held by both supporters and detractors of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi that the circumstances he faces and the …
Netanyahu’s nose
Dr Cesar Chelala As the Middle East peace talks face another standstill, Israel’s Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, is quick to blame the Palestinian side. And most of the Western press dutifully parrots Mr Netanyahu’s lies. Palestinians have been guilty of stalling the peace talks, too, but for different reasons. The main weakness of Palestinian …
Tomorrow’s Egypt
By Johannes Amin Makar “For a century and a half the Arab world has been following a negative policy. It has known what it wanted to do away with, but it has not known what it wanted to build. […] Democracy was only a veil for dictatorship. Constitutions framed in the interest of the people of …
To stop terrorism, Egypt needs support and reconciliation
By Daniel Nisman When he is (eventually) elected to Egypt’s Presidency, former Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi knows the Everest of his policy goals will be restoring the country’s floundering economy. But before he can take on the monumental task of ensuring food and petrol stability to a largely impoverished country of over 85 million, Sisi …
Israel continues spying on the US
By Dr. Cesar Chelala As Middle East peace efforts go through another round of failure, information published by Newsweek magazine indicates that Israel has been conducting spying activities in the US. Although the main targets are industrial and technical secrets, they have a connection to national security that makes these activities by a US ally highly reprehensible. This is not the first …
Editor’s letter: Europe and those Arabs (2): The good Muslim citizen
How many times did we hear the term “good Muslim” either within the Muslim communities or others in Europe? I assume many. But have we ever thought of the scale of differences and miscommunication due to the misuse of this label? To start with, being a good Muslim is nothing but a myth, which applies …
Coptic Christians and political activism before 25 January
Coptic Christians have, since 1952, lived according to what might be considered a tacit agreement between the church and the state, one whereby the state committed itself to the protection of Copts, the principles and rules of equality before the law, and equal opportunity, and the church reciprocated by absorbing the activities of Coptic Christians …
Lax FIFA policing of political interference in football focuses on Egypt
By James M. Dorsey World football body FIFA has dispatched investigators to Egypt to probe allegations of government interference as the country prepares for potentially risky bids to host two international tournaments, the 2017 Beach Soccer World Cup and the 2018 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup. The FIFA investigation and the bids come against the …
Egypt must earn back its tourists
By Alexander Liddington-Cox Egypt’s tourism industry is in pain and travel warnings from foreign governments seem a fair scapegoat for their sufferings. But these warnings are reasonable responses to continuing security threats that are again embracing tourists. It’s up to the winner of this month’s presidential election, not foreign governments, to make the case that it’s …
The calm you carry with you
After nearly two years I bid everyone a bittersweet goodbye
My liberal times in Oum al Dounia (Part 3)
By Dr Ronald Meinardus After nearly eight years at the helm of the Cairo Office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty (FNF), Germany’s liberal think tank, Dr Ronald Meinardus, who has on and off contributed also to the editorial page of this newspaper, is leaving Egypt shortly. Following is the third and last part …
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ‘lost’ legacy
By Dr Cesar Chelala I met Gabriel García Márquez and Fidel Castro at the Convention Palace in Havana during a medical meeting I attended in Cuba in the early eighties. I also had the honour of being extensively quoted in one of his articles, “Con las Malvinas o sin ellas,” (With or Without the Malvinas). …
In a league of his own: Sisi’s loving embrace
By Rasheed Hammouda and Mohamed Ibrahim This article is the second of a three part series. The aim of this series is to dispel the increasingly widespread belief held by both supporters and detractors of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi that the circumstances he faces and the actions he takes are similar to those of his predecessors, …
Jail sentences re-position Egyptian football as potential protest venue
By James M. Dorsey An Egyptian court has sentenced 12 militant football fans to five years in prison in an expansion of the military-backed regime’s crackdown on its Islamist and non-Islamists opponents that could ultimately re-position football as a major platform of protest. The fans, members of Ultras Ahlawy, the well-organised and street battled-hardened militant …