Reading List: Jordan’s Urban Refugees

A good overview of the issue of Syrian refugees in Jordan, with the beginnings of practical advice that won’t leave Jordan mired in a perpetual economic, health, and education crisis:

Jordan must harness the talents of its new, albeit temporary, residents: changing work permits to allow more Syrians to find legal employment, encouraging Syrian refugees to start businesses that hire locals, and allowing international agencies to put Syrians to work on refugee-related projects. These measures may provoke opposition from some Jordanians […] But Jordan derives significant benefits from the Syrians’ presence, including billions in aid earmarked for solutions to domestic issues that predate the refugee crisis. Integrating Syrians into the local market could help energize the moribund economy, and help shore up the refugees’ self-sufficiency and sense of purpose, preparing them for their return home when the conflict is over.

The suggestion to approve Jordan’s latest aid package request, however, would have to be carefully monitored. It could certainly help if applied well to the above initiatives, but too easily will perpetuate the subsidy and patronage system that weakened Jordan even before this latest influx of refugees.

Original article by Marisa L. Porges in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/opinion/jordans-urban-refugees.html

Reading List: Friedman’s “The Other Arab Awakening” explained

An excellent article on Your Middle East by Mohamed Hemish: http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/opinion/friedmans-the-other-arab-awakening-explained_19933

On Sunday, the controversial Thomas Friedman published a new article on the Gulf states sure to fire up a new twitterstorm of angry responses. In it, he claims these countries are “evolving” to their citizens’ needs, using such platforms as twitter and Facebook to promote dialogue between governments and the people. (I guess he doesn’t know that the majority of Saudi social media users are pro-government, and that some countries are even seeking to force users to reveal real-life identities so they can be prosecuted for any negative comments.)

Hemish delves into the most significant counterexample to Friedman’s argument, showing how many crackdowns there are on those who speak their mind, and how little government officials are listening to local voices:

The famous columnist does not seem to be aware of the extent of the crackdown on any dissent by the states’ ruthless authoritarian governments. He does not seem to be aware of the countless reports issued by human rights groups over the years condemning the systematic violations of human rights, freedom of speech, unlawful arrests and disappearances and the attempts to control social media and the Internet.

Hemish focuses on the UAE and Saudi Arabia, but there are many other prominent cases in Kuwait and Oman — I won’t even get into Bahrain — that illustrate these points.

(I also wonder, if the officials Friedman glorifies are so responsive, what happened to #women2drive or #الراتب_ما_يكفي_الحاجة or …)

This is of course not to say that there is no reform, but reality is hardly the rosy picture Friedman paints either:

How about the fact that just recently a blogger was sentenced to 7 years in prison and 700 lashes for charges of “insulting Islam.” The man, however, was blogging on his website about religious reform and dialogue. The man had been in jail since June 2012 before he was convicted a year later.

The Saudi government also announced on December 2 that it wouldstart monitoring YouTube along with other websites in order to “contain” content and reduce “violations.” The chairman of the Saudi Audiovisual General Authority, Riyad Najem, said that individuals who wish to engage in those websites would have to obtain permissions that include the regulations and terms for using them in the Kingdom.

Voting on Egypt’s new Consitution

(Adapted from article on Ahram Online)

Article 2: “Islam is the state religion, Arabic is its official language and the principles of Islamic Sharia law form the main source of legislation.”

Article 9: “The state is obliged to provide equal opportunities for all citizens, without discrimination.”

Article 11: “The State is committed to achieving equality between women and men in all the rights stated in this constitution. The State is obliged to take the necessary measures to ensure the appropriate and balanced representation of women in parliaments and local units, as organised by the law, and enable them to reconcile the duties of family and work, and protect them from all forms of violence. The State is committed to providing special care for motherhood and childhood and women who are poorest and most in need.”

Article 18: (allocates three percent or more of the country’s total Gross Domestic Product to the health sector.)

Article 38: (mandates the imposing of progressive taxes on income.)

Article 52: “Torture in all its forms is a crime without a statute of limitations.”

Article 53: “Citizens are equal before the law; they are equal in rights, freedoms and general duties. There should be no discrimination based on religion, faith, sex, ethnicity, race, color, language, disability, social class, political affiliation, geography or any other reason. Discrimination and incitement to hatred is a crime punished by the law. The state is obliged to take appropriate measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination. The law regulates the forming of an independent commission for this purpose.”

Article 64: “Freedom of belief is absolute.”

Article 65: “Freedom of thought and opinion is guaranteed and every human being is entitled to express his/her views verbally or in writing, by photography, or any other form of expression.”

Reading List: Yemen’s New Ways of Protesting Drone Strikes, Graffiti and Poetry

Juan Herrero / posted on TIME’s website

Graffiti:

An American drone hovers along a main thoroughfare in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. Not a real drone, but rather a 7 foot-long rendition of an unmanned aircraft spray-painted near the top of a whitewashed city wall. Below it, a stenciled-on child is writing: “Why did you kill my family?” in blood-red English and Arabic script.

Painted by Yemeni artist Murad Subay, the Banksy-esque mural sits beside three others also admonishing the United States’ use of drones in Yemen to track and kill terrorism suspects. This drone art is part of Subay’s latest campaign, “12 Hours”, which aims to raise awareness about twelve problems facing Yemen, including weapons proliferation, sectarianism, kidnapping and poverty. Drones are the fifth and arguably most striking “hour” yet completed.

And poetry:

A panel of Yemeni poets whittled the more than 30 submissions down to six finalists and a winner. Frontrunners gathered on a recent Tuesday afternoon to share their work. One by one, contestants read their poems aloud. Some delivered their verse – containing lines such as “From above, Death descends upon us,” “Drones are the friend of our enemy” and “Do you fight terrorism with terrorism?” – more fluently than others, but the small audience of mostly friends and fellow activists greeted all of the contestants with equally boisterous applause. The winner: Drones Without Rhyme, a catchy free verse poem with a familiar theme. The winning poet, Ayman Shahari, beamed as he walked on stage.

As reported by Tik Root for TIME.

Reading List: In Syria, it’s a case of all or nothing

This article’s a little older, but I just came across it and it’s still very relevant.

Rather than advocate for a particular strategy in Syria, Patrick Cockburn, Iraq expert, shows how no approach even comes close to being ideal — but the disorganized, schizophrenic tactic that might be termed “limited engagement” is the least ideal of them all:

Limited intervention means that the stalemate will continue. One of the best chances for peace – the day of mutual exhaustion and realisation that nobody is going to win on the battlefield – is postponed.

(He also seems to be a believer in Zartman’s ripe moment theory.)

He also provides an excellent breakdown of why this conflict is so difficult and complex. Here is one point of several:

So much of what US and British leaders or commentators say about Syria sounds phoney or unrealistic because they focus on only one of the four or five conflicts going on in the country as a reason for intervening. The struggle most often picked as a respectable motive for backing the rebels is the popular revolt against the brutal Syrian police state which started in March 2011. But this uprising swiftly became a sectarian war with the Sunni Arab majority pitted against the ruling Alawite Shia sect and other minorities, such as the Christians and Druze. The Syrian civil war is also part of the intensifying Sunni-Shia conflict that is being waged in the tier of countries between the mountains of Afghanistan and the Mediterranean.
[…]
US and British leaders selling military intervention in Iraq and Syria seldom explained and often did not understand this mesh of conflicts. But these contradictory alliances determine the political map of the region and the reality of foreign involvement in it. It is easy, for instance, to advocate arming and protecting Syrian villagers whose children are being incinerated by napalm dropped by government aircraft. But what if those best able to help those villagers are the veteran jihadi fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who have just chopped off the heads of Alawite prisoners and shot dead a teenager selling coffee for blasphemy? For all the disclaimers, US forces attacking the government in Damascus are in de facto alliance with al-Qa’ida.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/in-syria-its-a-case-of-all-or-nothing-8792975.html

Upcoming Elections

In Algeria, incumbent president Bouteflika intends to run for a fourth term, despite reports of his ailing health; speculation says this is primarily motivated by a desire to curb the influence of the intelligence service (DRS) and its leader, General Mediene. Other candidates are also considering running in the 2014 presidential elections, among them author Yasmina Khadra and insiders Ali Benflis and Ahmed Benbitour, and Algeria’s Islamists are reportedly in discussions to select a consensus candidate. Algerian bloggers currently appear to predict either a Bouteflika or Benbitour victory.

Egypt’s constitutional committee continues to vote on individual articles of the draft constitution. Amendments might include expanding military powers, removing details (Article 219) regarding how shari’a will be interpreted, and a possible ban on religious parties. The final draft is scheduled to be put to referendum on December 3 “or early January next year” (read: no sooner than March), and CSOs wishing to monitor the polls have until this Saturday to apply for permits.

Iraq has set the date of its next parliamentary elections for April 30, 2014, after finally passing its new election law.

Press Freedoms in North Africa

Magharebia reported rising attacks on journalists (325 in the past year), as documented by the Tunis Centre for Press Freedom.

Ahram Online reports that Egypt’s current draft of the constitution would ban censorship–but only of state media and barring “war or public mobilization.” Foreign (and presumably independent) media are not to have full protection from censorship.

Ali Anouzla, the Moroccan journalist arrested for posting a link to a link of a video put out by al-Qaeda, has been released on bail, but Deutsche Welle discusses how actual reform is unlikely.

Reading List: Starvation in Syria: a war tactic

A recent Reuters article discussed the extent of starvation and malnutrition in Syria:

“But nowhere in town was pita bread available. Local doctors said they regularly treat patients for water-borne diseases and that aerial bombardment has damaged the infrastructure, contaminating the water with sewage.

Doctors said that they were observing symptoms of malnutrition such as dehydration, severe weight loss, diarrhea and bloated stomachs.

International have little access to areas hit by violence. Groups like Save the Children are warning of a potential crisis. The agency released a report last month saying that parts of Homs, Aleppo, Idlib and Damascus have been encircled by violence or deliberately besieged.”

It’s important to note this is not just in regime areas, as the report suggests, but that the entire country is feeling the effects of disrupted internal trade and access to markets.

Reading List: Debating Federalism in Yemen

Welcome to the first installment of “Reading List,” a feature I hope to expand on as a way to highlight articles on the MENA region worth checking out.

Today, I recommend Rafat al-Akhali’s “Debating Federalism in Yemen,” published with the Atlantic Council.

The article begins with an overview of the current state of the National Dialogue Conference and its discussions on possible federalist plans. The most interesting part of the article, however, explores why some of these federalist options might not work — at least not without expanding local and municipal authority to counteract Yemen’s long history of a centralized state:

“Without empowering the third level of government with enough authority and responsibility—and explicitly protecting such powers under the new constitution—the NDC delegates will continue to overlook the demands of Yemeni citizens for a government that is more responsive to their local needs. Yemen will move from a centralized system with a single power center in Sana’a to yet another centralized system with two to five power centers that remain out of touch with the ordinary citizen.

An agreement that includes multiple regions or governorates, and a referendum in five years with the option to consolidate these regions, will likely result in maintaining the initial design of the agreement and a failure to consolidate. Once elite and popular interests are aligned at a more local level, there is little incentive to give up these interests and powers to a more consolidated, centralized authority.”

And:

“Existing power centers and elite players can more easily maintain their interests with a smaller number of regions than with a larger number of regions. With only two regions to manage, the political elite can easily maintain control over Sana’a using traditional networks and patronage systems and well-known Southern players will consolidate control over the second region.”

Rafat concludes:

“A five-region federal system with mixed governorates from South and North Yemen, and with substantial authority at the municipality-level, would ideally weaken the power of the current political elite in the North and South and create a more responsive and sustainable governance system.”

Read the full article here: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/divide-and-conquer-debating-federalism-in-yemen

A need for a new beginning

The Middle East and North Africa region is in a time of upheavals and transitions, hope and disillusionment. Its spirit of perseverance has captured the world’s attention. In the midst of individual and national struggles, it is time for these countries to think of how they will lay the groundwork for the future. Some, like Tunisia and Libya, have already made some progress in doing so. Others focus on resolving pressing issues, hoping it leads to one of the many competing visions of an “ideal” future.
Such is the theme of this blog, which will chart the events and paths currently being followed, where they might lead, and what intellectuals abroad can possibly hope to do about it.
The photo above, taken from TIME Magazine, is of the wreck caused by a car bomb in Baghdad. This past week, Iraq has seen a death toll of nearly 300. This is a far cry from the height of surge violence in 2007, but bad news for a country still struggling to find its balance ten years after the U.S. invasion. I like to think that the man standing atop the mess of twisted, rusted metal is looking toward a better tomorrow, however distant or difficult its achievement may be. At a time when Syria is wracked by civil war, crimes against humanity all around, and the destruction of homes and heritage sites; when Libya still has over 500 non-governmental militias; when Iran is girding itself for more electoral protests and the economies of Lebanon and Jordan strain to provide for Syrian refugees — this approach of hard work through optimism seems the best way forward.