Latest in Opinion Highlight
Latest in Opinion
Editor’s Letter: Egyptians between the two Gamals (5 of 5): Sisi in Nasser’s suit, Sadat’s tongue and Mubarak’s fist
Since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi on 3 July this year by the military with support of the masses, Egypt is witnessing a unique example of governance models: all-in-one leadership style. Officially, we have Mr Adly Mansour as the interim president of the country until the so-called roadmap is accomplished sometime hopefully this coming …
Qatar launches politically sensitive survey into low football match attendance
By James M. Dorsey Qatari authorities, in a bid to counter criticism that the Gulf state lacks a football culture as well as a sense that low attendance of matches could constitute a form of protest, has launched a politically sensitive survey to gauge reasons for its empty stadia. The survey on the website of …
Who is beating up ‘am Helmy with a shoe?
In the Middle East and Egypt, people have gotten used to utilising the words “shoe” and “slipper” in verbal insults. Of course, the physical usage of the items exists, as demonstrated by the Iraqi journalist with the former President George Bush junior. We have also witnessed women living in low-class neighbourhoods use slippers to beat …
Why Egypt’s army is bad at doing business
By Farah Halime General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi must be revelling in the image of an all-powerful oligarch created by the media. Apparently he reigns over a sprawling economic empire that journalists describe (in now rather clichéd terms) as so varied that it covers everything from the production of flat-screen televisions and pasta to refrigerators and …
Interests
Our dear military, we have a problem, and one that needs to be addressed immediately. We seem to have conflicting interests, and I fear that those interests, or rather your interests, will destroy this country for years to come, against the wishes of all of your supporters. Allow me to break it down for you, …
Inclusive entrepreneurship
Gedety was too good to be true. Yasser El Zahhar, its founder, had the idea to start a social business that would employ non-working Egyptian women to make products that working Egyptian women could use to make quick, but healthy meals for their families. All he would need to do is buy his agricultural …
China’s air zone announcement threatens major Asian crisis
By Andrew Hammond US Vice-President Joe Biden’s trip to Japan, China and North Korea this week comes at a moment of major diplomatic tension in the region. Only last week, Beijing unilaterally declared a new “air defence identification zone” to much international concern. The zone covers an area of land and sea that encompasses islands, …
Egypt’s street politics and the freedom of assembly
By Ronald Meinardus Egypt’s turbulent transition has entered a new phase, with the first signs of a political realignment. The clear division of Islamists and anti-Islamists – or to bring it to the point: the polarisation of pro-30 June forces and their opponents – is dissolving. The military backed government is losing support among the …
Palestine, Israel and The Jewish State
By: Fadi Elhusseini While analyses have abounded examining the details of the “secret” talks and evaluating the positions of the negotiating parties in the Middle East peace process, prominent Israeli writers have intensified their efforts, on “Israel’s imminent existential threat” with much fanfare. Despite the fact that such writers are not officially members of the …
Fractured state
The military continues to descend into further violence, making new enemies and weakening the legitimacy of their allies along the way. How long can they weather the political storm?
The perils of American disengagement from the Middle East
By Peter Schwartzstein It must be remarkably gratifying -even amusing – for many Egyptians to watch the United States scrambling to get back in their interim government’s good graces. How tempting it must be to throw John Kerry’s increasingly flattering overtures back in his face and kick the US to the curb after its supposed …
Masters of war
By Dr Cesar Chelala In a move consistent with his past positions on international issues, Senator Robert Menendez, the Democratic Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused the White House of using “over the top” rhetoric and “fear mongering tactics” to try to stop new sanctions on Iran. These new sanctions were to …
Iranian breakthrough and Obama foreign policy success
By Andrew Hammond A historic interim deal was reached on Sunday 24 November in Geneva which will see Iran’s nuclear programme curbed, at least temporarily, in exchange for limited, phased international sanctions relief. This sets the stage for the possibility of a comprehensive agreement in 2014. Pre-empting criticism from some countries including Israel and Saudi …
Is the Protest Law a turning point between two eras?
Since 30 June and until now, there has been a struggle between those who have united over the fall of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. They are comprised of the hegemonic state movement and the democratic movement. This conflict manifests inside the cabinet, as well as different state apparatus, leading to a noticeable state of …
How many times does Egypt have to do this to get it right?
Three years is not a particularly long time. In fact, in the history of nations, it’s not more than a blip on the timeline. Yet, in three years, Egyptians have seen events repeat themselves again, and again. They’re about to see it happen again with this forthcoming constitutional referendum – a recurrence of a bad …
Keeping Egyptians in check
A 16 year old boy, the son of an acquaintance, went to attend the Ghana-Egypt match dressed in an Al-Ahly t-shirt and holding a fireworks stick. The boy watched the match, left and was taking a cab when the police arrested him, charging him with participating in Mohamed Mahmoud clashes. Why is this alright? Because …
Thy will be done
In this column we have often discussed the past and the present, so let’s for a minute discuss the future. Make no mistake, this is not a column about hopes and aspirations and dreams of an unlikely future if we all did this or stopped doing that. This is about reality, and how despite everything …
Will women Rise Up as Egypt’s entrepreneurs?
Rise Up, Egypt’s first major entrepreneurial summit held in Cairo on November 24-25 was a resounding success. It brought together many different and important players from the entrepreneurial ecosystem: investors, accelerators, corporates, civil actors and entrepreneurs. Between the panels, talks, workshops, hackathons, makeathons, and ideathons, it was hard not to be inspired or to …
The Muslim Brotherhood’s new initiative: Many motives, one dead end
Over the course of a few days, the Muslim Brotherhood has released two very different statements. One is defiant and was issued by their imprisoned leader, ex-president Morsi, who warns that, “Egypt will not recover from its crisis until the coup that removed him from power has been reversed.” Later on Saturday, his supporters, the national …
Polarisation
Since the 25 January Revolution, Egypt has witnessed fierce debates. Torn between the novelty of the Democratic experience and other factors newly thrown in the mix such as Religion, and identity, the country continued to descend into chaos. Every passing instance and each event have continued to present an opportunity to label and take sides. …
Egypt remains confused by White House policy
By Adel El-Adawy Conversations with senior Egyptian officials indicate that Washington should focus on preserving its strategically important geopolitical interests, not on using aid suspensions to influence the country’s domestic politics. There is consensus among Egypt’s political elite that no country could replace the strategic relationship with the United States. At the same time, the …
The Zamalek uprising
Two weeks ago dozens of Zamalek residents organised a protest to denounce the district’s deteriorating conditions. For over five years an infestation of new cafes and restaurants spread like wildfire in the Zamalek area. With no urban planning in mind nor care for the old island’s infrastructure, people dubbing themselves small and medium sized business …
The new world of export controls
By Dr. Paul Freedenberg and Dr. Michael R. Czinkota In the summer of 2009, President Obama announced a plan for a complete US export control reform (ECR). Then Secretary of Defence Gates argued that the system was “overly complicated, contains too many redundancies, and in trying to protect too much, diminishes our ability to focus” …
Saudi survey: Majority of Saudis favour women’s right to sports
By James M. Dorsey A vast majority of Saudis favour women having the right to fully engage in sports in a country that has no official facilities for female athletes or physical education programmes for girls in schools, according to a Saudi sociology researcher, who has put forward a series of recommendations at a time …
Is the democratic dream still possible?
In previous articles, I went over the economic-social map and explained how there is a case of fluidity between socio-economic classes, leading to an overlap of interests. Therefore, what is needed is a political initiative that bypasses socio-economic classes or one that unites them. One of the reasons behind the strength of the Islamist project …
Beyond Definitions
A couple of weeks ago, on a beautiful sunny Friday, I was having breakfast with a young and brilliant economist, who is a friend of mine. I asked for her opinion on how Egypt is doing economically, and if there was a term that actually defined our economic state. She laughed hysterically, then told me …
The social businesses to turn Egypt’s black skies blue
It’s that time of year. Black skies over Cairo and all over Egypt’s Delta mean the rice farmers are burning their straw. They will be burning about four millions tonnes of rice straw these recent weeks so they can prepare their fields for the next planting season. While we’re all struggling a little bit harder …
Egypt’s future
By Ronald Meinardus An apt definition of politics is the discussion and implementation of decisions related to the future of society. The political decision making process is influenced by myriad factors, conflicting interests and inconsistent perspectives thereby frequently impeding clear strategic choices. Predicting the political and economic future is the realm of analysts. As these …
Is the worst over for Egypt’s economy?
By Farah Halime Could Egypt’s economy be on the road to recovery? Some indicators suggest this might be the case. According to Reuters: Egyptian business activity shrank for the 13th month in a row in October but at a much slower rate, suggesting the economy may be improving after months of renewed political turmoil. The seasonally …
Obama knows best
By Tony Badran, Now. America’s allies are troubled. At the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme that took place in Geneva last week, the US administration came close to giving the Iranians significant sanctions relief while allowing them to continue uranium enrichment and construction on the plutonium reactor – thereby preserving Iran’s short-cut to a nuclear …