The Spread of Opium to Iraq

One of the well known consequences of the invasion of Afghanistan had been the dramatic increase of opium production over the last few years.  As much of the traditional economy is ruined as a result of fighting and warfare in country, farmers are often forced to turn to growing opium poppies.  It’s no longer just [...]

America’s oil addiction is not OPEC’s problem

I know it’s been a while since I’ve last blogged, but I’ve been busy with school.  I was also in Barcelona for a week.  But now I’m back….
In today’s New York Times, there is an article about President Bush pointing out to the Saudis and OPEC countries “the toll that high oil prices are having [...]

Not another president who knows nothing about the world, please.

It’s been bad enough that we have had a president for nearly eight years who still can’t pronounce the name of the country he invaded or its neighbor.  We now have Mike Huckabee running for president, and doing scarily well in the Republican polls, who thinks that we should build a fence along the Mexican [...]

Manchester United vs. Mecca

In describing the crowds at Mecca during the Hajj, one British Muslim had this to say:
My family gave me good advice but you can’t convey the enormity of
being here. The largest crowd I’ve seen is 70,000 at Old Trafford.
I wonder if there could be songs about the players at the mosque in Mecca.
Technorati Tags: middle-east, [...]

Pictures can say so much

Here is a photo of the police who have surrounded Benazir Bhutto’s residence in Islamabad.

The “Anti Terrorist Squad” on the officer’s shirt sums up perfectly the recent actions by Musharraf.  He says he is imposing martial law because of the threat of terrorism, and then he turns the police on Pakistan’s own political leaders. 
Technorati [...]

Democracy is a long forgotten ideal

Everyone knows that the Bush administration doesn’t really care about democracy. They have taken away people’s rights in the United States (wiretapping, imprisonment, and the lack of habeas corpus to name a few). They abandoned any hope for democracy in Egypt a few years ago. The US supports the Saudi authoritarian monarchy [...]

Have you facebooked Emile Lahoud?

When I was in Lebanon this summer and talking to young people, they often asked if I was on Facebook. I knew that the social networking site that was once the exclusive domain of students from Ivy League schools had grown into a global phenomenon. I even knew that Facebook allowed people like [...]

Busy with school; busy with the news

It always seem to happen in the fall.  School begins, and I ease up on my blogging.  Part of the reason is that I spend so much time blogging in my classes.  All my classes that I am teaching right now are using blogs.  It’s difficult keeping up with four different blogs and trying to [...]

Nothing left of Bush and Cheney

In one of the most complete analyses of the Bush administration policy in the Middle East and Central Asia, Barnett Rubin looks at the litany of failures in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq over the last six years.  He points out that it’s not just simple mistakes on the part of Bush and Cheney, but it’s [...]

Contemplating the value of my dollar

Going to Montreal used to be a quick vacation for little money.  But as of yesterday, the trip doesn’t sound so appealing anymore, since the value of the US dollar is equal to the Canadian dollar.  I do somehow imagine that there are lots of Canadians smiling at this fact.  This afternoon, as I was [...]