Latest in Tag: opinion Highlight
Latest in Tag: opinion
Egypt: A nation floating in greyness
By Mohammed Nosseir Life has certainly always been full of many colours. Despite the recent attempt being made to use new, non-traditional colours that have never been used before, only two colours – black and white – should define the relationship between a state and its citizens (in other words, whether the rule of law …
Egyptian spectator ban: Flashpoint for conflict and statement of weakness
By James M. Dorsey An Egyptian cabinet decision to end the suspension of professional football in late March but reinstitute the ban on spectators attending matches could spark renewed clashes between militant fans and security forces. The decision against the backdrop of mounting evidence that Egyptian general-turned-President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has no apparent intention of easing …
Reefs are not just pretty, saving them pays off
By Dr Bjørn Lomborg Biodiversity – the range of species we share our planet with – is important, but can we put a value on it? And can we estimate the benefits and costs of conservation? Professor Anil Markandya and two other economists (Luke Brander and Alistair McVittie) have written three new, scientific papers …
Libya: Armed chaos and dividing spheres of power
Libya is witnessing armed chaos and division of regions as well as cities, while battles and conflicts are occurring between extremist militias and the Libyan army near Libyan cities. A lot of militias spread in Libya; all of them were formed after the fall of Gaddafi’s regime. The major armament assets of these brigades came …
Prosperity amidst turmoil, Egypt sees some light
By Ahmed El-Wahsh With the inauguration of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to the presidential palace, one of the key highlighted sectors that needed up turning and nutriment was Egypt’s economy. On 11 February, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it had started witnessing a “turnaround” to the Egyptian economy, eight months into Al-Sisi’s reign …
Football racism highlights Europe’s struggle with transition and entrenched racism
By James M. Dorsey Recent football-related racism highlights European nations’ tortured transition from ethnically relatively homogeneous to multicultural immigration societies amid a resurgence of entrenched racial, including anti-Semitic, attitudes that flourish in times of economic crisis and are not limited to Muslim communities. Fans across Europe have lined up on both sides of the racism …
On Copts, Libya and nationalism
By Wael Eskandar One of the most astounding phenomena following the brutal slaying of 21 Copts, who had been kidnapped since December 2014, is the hyper-nationalistic reactions within Egyptian society. These reactions of immediate unquestioning support to military response in Libya extend to numerous revolutionary hardliners who are greatly opposed to Al-Sisi’s rule, yet found …
Whose lives matter in current day Egypt?
By Semanur Karaman On 9 February, in response to the deadly police violence that left 40 football fans killed and dozens murdered in Cairo, Shadi Zalat compared the price of a ticket to the price of life. Unfortunately, in present-day Egypt, the rhetoric behind the comparison is a saddening one as lives of ordinary civilians …
We refuse to be enemies
By Dr Cesar Chelala I have just returned from a concert by Gabriel Meyer Halevy, an Argentine-Israeli musician. He is the son of Marshall Meyer, an American rabbi who lived in Argentina during that country’s “Dirty War” in which thousands of people became “desaparecidos.” Marshall Meyer’s work helped save the lives of dozens of people who were …
Football deaths renew spotlight on Egypt’s notorious security forces
By James M. Dorsey A stampede at a Cairo stadium earlier this month, much like a politically-loaded football brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said three years ago, is shining a spotlight on Egypt’s unreformed, unabashedly violent, and politically powerful police and security forces amid confusion over what precisely happened and how many …
UAE embarks on global campaign to market its brand of autocracy
By James M. Dorsey The United Arab Emirates has embarked on an all-out effort to broaden its regional influence and achieve global acceptance of its autocratic definition of terrorism that encompasses all non-violent, legitimate expressions of political Islam. The effort competes head on with Qatar’s pro-Islamist approach to soft power. It involves participation in the …
What do strategies fighting terrorism and extremism rely on?
In light of the strategy of fighting terrorism and extremism, regardless of whether you support or oppose this strategy, we all notice that terrorism is expanding. The strategy was widened to include not only armed terrorists but also any one holding the “Rabaa” sign, even if they do not participate in or provoke direct violence. …
Bilateral Agreements with Russia: Elimination of the US dollar
By Ahmed M El-Wahsh In light of recent events and happenings across Cairo – from the Tahrir memorial to the deaths at the Air Defence Stadium and Vladimir Putin’s visit – Egypt faces an unsettling currency change against its Egyptian pound to the American dollar. With that being said, the Russian leader met with Abdel …
Invest in better energy technology to fight climate change
By Dr. Bjørn Lomborg Climate change has certainly received immense exposure among the most eminent issues of the 21st century so far. The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon argues that it is “an existential challenge for the whole human race”. On the other hand, when over seven million people were asked by the UN what …
Football deaths raise stakes for Egypt’s general-turned-president Al-Sisi
By James M. Dorsey The death of at least 40 militants, highly politicised, and street battle-hardened Egyptian football fans in clashes with security forces raises the stakes for General-turned-President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s efforts to suppress political dissent. The incident is one of the worst in Egyptian sporting history and the latest in a number of …
Keen to project a progressive image, the UAE picks its battles
By James M. Dorsey Projecting an image of being politically and culturally on the cutting edge, the United Arab Emirates carefully picks its battles. Participation in the US-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) has projected the United Arab Emirates as a military force to be reckoned with. Football is the …
Notes from America: How American football…explains America
By Ahmed Tharwat Last Sunday, more than 140 million Americans congregated in living rooms, bars, restaurants to eat, drink and watch the Super Bowl XLIX (49). This is the biggest sporting event of the year, with highest TV rating (39.1 points); the game day ticket price averaging $10,466, it brought more than $500M economic value (debatable) to …
Free trade could make every Egyptian $897 richer yearly
By Bjørn Lomborg With one simple policy – more free trade – we could make the world $500tr better off and lift 160m people out of extreme poverty. If there is one question we have to ask ourselves, it is: why don’t we? In 2000, the international community agreed a set of important targets to …
Qatar asks for time to implement labour reforms
By James M. Dorsey Qatari sports executives, in a bid to refute calls for depriving Qatar of its 2022 World Cup hosting rights, have asked their human rights and trade union critics as well as world football body FIFA to give them more time to address criticism of the Gulf state’s kafala or sponsorship system …
LNG: The way forward
By Ahmed M El-Wahsh Euro-commodity brokers earned a large share of meticulously watched endeavours to source Egypt with approximately $2bn worth of liquefied natural gas [LNG] as they exert great efforts to develop into a sector, which is characteristically governed by large oil corporations. The following three leading companies; Trafigura, Noble Group and Vitol will …
Egypt appoints controversial UAE hired gun as elections monitor
By James M. Dorsey Egyptian-general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s efforts to lend legitimacy to parliamentary elections scheduled for this spring have gotten off to a murky start with the appointment of a controversial, reportedly United Arab Emirates-backed, human rights NGO as one of five foreign election monitors. The appointment of Norway-based Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD) alongside four …
We are all Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh
Martyr Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh was not, of course, the first victim after 30 June. We do not know exactly how many innocent Egyptians have been killed since 30 June. By that, we mean unarmed and peaceful citizens killed, without any use of direct violence in clashing with the authorities, which would, only in this case, result …
United States: A tale of morals and cruelty
By Mohammed Nosseir There is no doubt that the United States of America is by far the most controversial nation among Arabs. Consecutive US Administrations have somehow managed to cultivate an intense love-hate relationship with millions of Arabs. The valid question ‘Why do they hate us?’, raised in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, can …
Notes from America: Unlike the Egyptian sniper, ‘American Sniper’ is glorified
By Ahmed Tharwat A day before the fourth anniversary of the 25 January Revolution, a 32- year -old mother, activist and poet Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh carried a wreath of flowers and went to Tahrir Square to commemorate the victims who lost their lives over the last four years. She did not know that this would be her last walk …
Public health challenges in the Middle East
By Dr Cesar Chelala Despite modest growth and poverty reduction, some important gains in the health status of the population have been achieved in the Middle East, thanks to improvements in technology, health service delivery and public health programmes. However, the whole region still faces important public health challenges. For example, although the region has decreasing …
Violence against women and children costs Egypt $147bn yearly
By Bjørn Lomborg Violence holds a huge cost for our world. Globally, the cost runs to more than 11% of the world’s GDP. But this is not mostly about the highly visible violence that dominates TV and news. Civil wars and conflicts rumble far too long in far too many places like Syria and the …
The significance of Shaimaa’s death
By Wael Eskandar I’ve thought a lot about why the death of Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh has been more painful than many of the unjustified recent deaths we’ve encountered recently. It could be because she’s close to my circles, or because she looked pretty or because of the innocence of attempting to place a wreath of flowers …
Return on equity and bank profitability: Could this exercise help Egyptian economy?
By Ahmed M El-Wahsh Return on Equity (RoE) is an internal performance measure of a bank’s profitability from the shareholder’s point of view, typically measured by the ‘Net Income’ per dollar of ‘Equity Capital’. It is often considered as the most popular measure of performance, as it is easily available to the analysts, proposes a …
Building the Arab knowledge economy
By Omar Khedr Beginning on 28 January, Cairo will play host to publishers, authors, literary agents, as well as avid readers from around the world. Brought together by the Cairo International Book Fair, the oldest and largest book fair in the Arab World, these participants will explore potential partnerships, learn best practices from each other, …
Desalination and the solar solution
By Ahmed S. Nada Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, the late Richard Smalley, once ranked the “top 10 problems of humanity for the next 50 years”. Interestingly, energy and water came in first and second on that list. His rationale for energy featuring at the top was that most, if not all, of the other problems …