Archive for August 18, 2007
“…and I asked Abed, my driver, to head south..”
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“Senior military commanders have told the Government that Britain can achieve “nothing more” in south-east Iraq, and that the 5,500 British troops still deployed there should move towards withdrawal without further delay.”
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“It was the powerful Iraq that provided the threat then, and the weakened, chaotic Iraq that is threatening now. Jordan has a permanent “stability issue,” as one U.S. official describes it. In the past, it was intimidated by its two powerful neighbors, Israel and Iraq; now it is troubled by the weakest of the weak, [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“Protesters held signs reading “No to settlement products” and “Stop the Israel-EU Association Agreement.””
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
Did I not tell you that the Syrian government will backtrack from the stance of Faruq Ash-Shar` toward the Saudi government? A Syrian official statement today said that Ash-Shar` did not say what he actually said about Saudi Arabia. You look at the Saudi media, and there is a campaign against the Syrian government, and [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
The most articulate person in the world is the Aljazeera’s Cairo analyst of the Egyptian stock market, `Adil Muhsin. The man can talk non-stop unendingly without catching his breath, and he manages to make sense too. And when he speaks, you always feel that he overstays his welcome: you always feel that they can only [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
I swear. I saw a segment on AlJazeera on the new play by the talentless Mansur Rahbani, and it was so embarrassingly bad. It looks like a show that an elementary school group would put, with a big budget. Also, the music of Mansur is plagiarized from the talented `Asi (who was generous to produce [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“The war of 100 days and more against radical Palestinians in the Nahr al-Bared camp has also shredded any sense of security in Lebanon. Fatah al-Islam, with an ideological link to al-Qaeda and many Iraq war veterans, remains in control of a square kilometre of the now-destroyed camp after more than three months of shelling [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“A new law swept through Congress by the US government before the summer recess is to give American security agencies unprecedented powers to spy on British citizens without a warrant.”
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“Income inequality is usually measured by a country’s Gini coefficient, in which 0 is perfect equality (everyone has the same income) and 1 is perfect inequality (ie, one household takes everything).”
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“Mrs Clinton might be portrayed as a communist on talk radio in Kansas, but set her alongside France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, Germany’s Angela Merkel, Britain’s David Cameron or any other supposed European conservative, and on virtually every significant issue Mrs Clinton is the more right-wing. She also mentions God more often than the average European bishop. [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“But of the ten places with the highest correlation between being female and (relatively) satisfied, nine are mainly Muslim: Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Palestine, Jordan and Morocco.”
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“Gallup’s pollsters asked a standard question: how satisfied are you with your life, on a scale of nought to ten? In all the rich places (America, Europe, Japan, Saudi Arabia), most people say they are happy. In all the poor ones (mainly in Africa), people say they are not. As Angus Deaton of Princeton University [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
He “was once asked to list the biggest influences on his life. His answer was, “My mom, my dad and our president.—
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“France has 82 universities, teaching 1.5m students. All are public; none charges tuition fees; undergraduate enrolment charges are a tiny €165 ($220). All lecturers are civil servants. Universities cannot select students, who can apply only to ones near them. The results speak for themselves. Not a single French university makes it into the world’s top [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
Less than a $1 a day. (Click to enlarge NOW).
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
“Contrary to the cherished American notion that our racial and ethnic diversity makes us stronger, Putnam has found quite the opposite, at least in the short term. The greater the diversity in a community, the less civic engagement it shows, he says. Fewer people vote. Fewer volunteer. They give less to charity. They work together [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
Middle East Expertise in the US government. Look at this. Could it be more dumb? “The military says the soldiers were attacked at their outpost Thursday with heavy small arms fire that came from the Honest Muhammad Mosque in Tarmiyah.” Honest Muhammad Mosque? Are you kidding me? Where do they get those Middle East experts [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
““Anthropologists have the opportunity right now to influence how the national security establishment does business,” writes Ms. McFate in an email from Afghanistan, where she is a senior adviser to the Human Terrain System project. A Yale University-trained anthropologist, she has been the target of bitter criticism from the anthropology establishment on account of her [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad
Al-Arabiya TV has 30 minute daily segment in which the press is reviewed, and discussed with a visiting professor or journalist (always a male of course). The host (Jizelle Abu Jawdah) is quite good. Very competent. Today, she hosted Lebanese journalist `Adil Malik (a relatively moderate journalist who started with the state TV in Lebanon [...]
Posted on August 18, 2007 by As'ad