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 a complete failure to defend national security. The post is definitely worth reading.
Technorati Tags: middle-east, iraq, iran, afghanistan, pakistan, bush, cheney, failure
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 looking at Paul Krugman’s new blog The Conscience of a Liberal, I was struck by this graphic:
The chart shows the share of the richest 10 percent of the American
population in total income – an indicator that closely tracks many
other measures of economic inequality – over the past 90 years, as
estimated by the economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. I’ve
added labels indicating four key periods.
It’s always easy to make disturbing charts or to lie with statistics, but there is something powerful about this chart. It’s simple in its design, but it conveys a disturbing reality about the concentration of wealth in this country.
Wealthy bachelor looking for a submissive partner who will do what I want; Will shower you with money.
If the weapons deals for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Gulf states a few months ago weren’t aggravating enough, the US has now tossed another $78 million to Jordan. This money is basically used to purchase weapons purchases. The authoritarian Jordan monarchy can buy more weapons to make sure that democracy doesn’t take hold in another Middle Eastern state, since we all know that democracy is a dangerous thing. It’s far better to support repressive monarchs who make sure that highways get built, the banks stay, and provide an adequate number of luxury hotels for American officials located close to Baghdad.
Technorati Tags: middle-east, jordan, us, aid
I was walking through Union Square today talking with a new teacher from Friends. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of something strange on one of the recycling signs. I walked over to look closely, and sure enough there is a Hezbollah sticker on the recycling sign. My new co-worker didn’t know what Hezbollah was, but was a bit weired out by the AK-47 and the Arabic. I think she also was a bit surprised that I took out my camera and took a picture.
I headed down south today and visited Tyre (Suur). I knew that the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage list, but I didn’t really know what for. As I walked around the city today, I quickly found out that the city is loaded with some incredible Roman ruins. They are scattered around the city, although there are two mains areas where they are concentrated. The first one is known as al-Mina. There is a well preserved street that runs from the center of town right to the water, where the ancient harbor was. There was also a broken sarcophagus with a well-preserved Medusa design on the side.
There is also a second area known as al-Bass, which is the name of the Palestinian refugee camp. The entrance to this area was located on the far side of the site from where I was walking, so I walked for an ungodly long time in the blazing sun. I kept walking by loads of Lebanese military and UNIFIL troops. The city is full of them. The long walk was worth it. As you enter al-Bass, there is a large necropolis with an amazingly well preserved Roman street. I don’t know how much the street has been restored, but it was the most perfectly preserved Roman street I’ve seen anywhere around the Mediterranean.
After walking through the necropolis, you pass through a large triumphal arch. Immediately in front on you are the remains from the aquaduct running alongside the street. To the left of the arch is the world’s largest surviving Roman hippodrome. I couldn’t believe how large it. There are three sections of seat that are still standing. If the whole ring of seats were still there, the hippodrome could hold 20,000 visitors. In the center of the race track, there was one obelisk still standing. It reminded me of the incredible obelisks in the old hippodrome in Istanbul. The obelisk in Tyre was much simpler.
After, al-Bass I made my way back through town and headed back to Beirut. Along the way, I’ve been listening to M.I.A.’s new album “Kala,” and it’s incredible.
Technorati Tags: middle-east, lebanon, tyre, roman
I splurged for another box of stickers the other day. As I sat in my depressing hostel room watching the news, I gradually worked my way through the box. I started filling up pages in my album, but I still had no Hassan Nasrallah. I was beginning to think that there are no Nasrallah stickers.
Well, I was wrong. Just as I had given up hope, I opened my third to last package, and there was a shiny Nasrallah staring back at me. It was with great happiness that he went into my album to complete my collection of Hezbollah politicians.
Technorati Tags: middle-east, lebanon, hezbollah, nasrallah
Sorry for the lack of recent updates. I’ve been busy with schoolwork, so I haven’t done anything exciting in the last week or so. I have been spending most of my time in the cafes of Beirut working on my Arabic and typing up notes for my classes.
Today I went to Tripoli. The bus stopped at a military checkpoint, and a soldier came aboard. As the soldier approached me, I handed him my passport. He took one look at my name (my full name is Abram), and he started asking me questions. What happened over the next half hour was a paranoid Lebanese soldiers asking me about my clearly Jewish name (اسم يهودي) and he wanted to know what I was doing in Lebanon. I kept trying to explain that I was a student, but it didn’t help that my LAU ID said “visitor” and was technically expired. He also seem rather unfazed by the large Buddha tattoo on my arm. His response to my tattoo was “camouflage.” If Israeli spies are now getting tattoos, much less Buddhist tattoos, things have changed among the majority of Jews. After checking back with his superiors in Beirut, he finally allowed me to get back on the bus. I’m not so sure that my fellow passengers were happy to have the “yahudi” back on the bus.
When we arrived in Tripoli, I first went to the Taynal Mosque, which has a beautiful exterior. It looks like the Mamluk era mosques in Cairo.
I next visited the “New Baths,” which were built in the eighteenth century. The baths had an amazing marble floor, and there were designs in the ceiling that made incredible reflections in the water on the floor. Next to the baths was the al-Muallaq mosque, which was built over the main road.
I then headed into the main part of the old city. I instantly felt like I was in another country. Tripoli felt so unlike everywhere else I have been in Lebanon. The streets were narrow and packed with people, and there was amazing architecture all around. I could have spent all afternoon just walking around those crowded streets.
I climbed up to the citadel to get some good views of the city. The citadel itself has been rebuilt many times, so it has an interesting mix of architectural styles. It’s hard to classify the building as anything other than a citadel.
After the citadel, I entered into the main part of the old city, with the Great Mosque and the various suqs and madrassas. I spent a while exploring this area, before gradually making my way back to the bus station. Old Tripoli is rather small, but it’s a great city to explore for a day.
Technorati Tags: middle-east, lebanon, tripoli
In today’s Independent, there is a detailed piece by Patrick Cockburn on President’s Bush “surge” in Iraq. Cockburn looks at what has been achieved after six months. It’s some grim reading, but well worth it.
Technorati Tags: middle-east, iraq, cockburn, surge
I think it was the third or fourth day of my Arabic class when Maha brought in a copy of the latest trend in Lebanon: a sticker album for Lebanon’s political parties and past politicians. She showed it to the class, and I was instantly impressed.
A few days later there was a post on the Time Middle East blog by Andrew Lee Butters about the stickers. He does a good job filling in the information about stickers. I started to look around a bit for the stickers, but I had no luck. I even spent one evening on a mission to find the stickers with a few other SINARC students. We visited a few stores, but had no luck.
Yesterday I was in a Virgin Music, and I struck gold. They had a bunch of the sticker albums and loads of the stickers themselves. I ended up buying sixty packs of the stickers, and another student bought fifty. We spent the afternoon opening our stickers, while watching the ManU-Chelsea Community Shield match. I got all the major politicians except Hassan Nasrallah. Apparently he’s a hard to find sticker. It makes me wonder who is making these stickers. By only printing a limited number of Nasrallahs, it may be a political statement. But at the same time, it means that the demand for Nasrallah is being driven up and he’s becoming more desirable. No matter how you look at it, Nasrallah is the hardest man to find in Lebanon.
On Thursday afternoon, I had the opportunity to go to Dahiya, the Shia suburbs in south Beirut with some of the people from SINARC. We went to visit Hezbollah’s memorial to last summer’s war with Israel. Before reaching the memorial, we saw some of the sites that had been bombed by Israel. After having spent most of time in West Beirut, a trip into Dahiya was eye-opening. West Beirut is filled with pictures of Hariri and his assassination. Dahiya is full of destroyed buildings, rubble, and construction projects to rebuild homes. Walking through the area was one of the most personally difficult experiences I have ever had as a traveler. I know that I am in an incredibly privileged position that allows me to travel all over the world. I couldn’t help but feel how privileged I was that I was able to walk around the streets and take pictures of destroyed buildings. At the same time, I felt completely awkward doing so. I was taking pictures of people’s homes that had been destroyed in a war. Here are a few of them:
After walking around Dahiya, we headed over to the Web of the Spider (Bayt al-Akkabout). Before visiting, I had read Charles Levinson’s blog about the memorial, so I had an idea about what I was getting into. The site is designed to commemorate Hezbollah’s victory in last summer war and to acknowledge the destruction caused by the Israelis. We began by entering a tent designed for groups of visitors and news conferences. There was a podium set up with a microphone, and behind the podium was a backdrop with the logo for the memorial. One of the people who run the memorial gave an explanation of the place and why it was set up. He mostly talked about the actions of Israel and the decisions to use the pieces of destroyed tanks and helicopters in the exhibit.
The memorial begins with a few displays of destroyed Israeli vehicles outside. There are some tanks and remnants of a cluster bomb. The vehicles are partially buried underground to symbolize Israel’s defeat, according to the guide.
Charles Levinson does a good job describing the second part of the memorial:
The first exhibits are two reconstructed Hezbollah bunkers. One looks
like some sort of command post. There is a manikin dressed like a
Hezbollah fighter in fatigues with an AK47 slung over his shoulder.
He’s eyeing a wall map of “Occupied Palestine”. There’s a desk with a
laptop computer, a walkie talkie, a phone and two korans. On the other
side of the passage way there is another reconstructed bunker, this one
made to resemble the rooms where Hezbollah fighters sleep. There are
two manikins here, one kneeling in prayer, the other relaxing on a
mattress on the floor, a koran in his right hand, his left resting
casually on an AK47. A radio blasts old Al Manar news reports from the
front lines of last summers war, mixed with martial anthems.
The main part of the exhibition is a large tent with an assortment of pictures from the war and various Israeli and US leaders. Under each pictures are quotes from the leaders that are profoundly disturbing. There are also various exhibits about the extent of damage and death in Beirut, as well as exhibits showcasing Hezbollah’s military capability and weaponry. In the middle of the exhibit is the remains of an Israeli helicopter that was shut down, and is now hanging suspended from the ceiling. The room was packed with people looking at the exhibits. I’ll use Levinson’s word to describe the Hezbollah video game that was also on display:
Young boys crowd around an animated film shown over and over called
“Special Force 2: Tale of the Truthful Pledge.” It’s basically a first
person shooter video game where the shooter takes out distant tanks
with some sort of RPG and charges after the enemy with his AK47. It’s
shown to heavy opera music resembling Carmina Burana.
The final part of the exhibition is in a separate tent. It’s a multimedia display with pictures, videos, and flashing lights showing on a massive screen set up behind another destroyed Israeli tank. The videos were mostly scenes of Israel’s attacks, Hezbollah’s army fighting back and targeting Israeli tanks, and a few scenes of launching rockets at Haifa. This part of the memorial was one of the most powerful. I had never seen any of the footage of Hezbollah’s army, and I was amazed how disciplined and organized it seemed. The western media always talks about Hezbollah’s militia. After this video, you realize it’s not a militia, it’s a full blown army. The video sequence culminates with Hassan Nasrallah’s victory speech. Throughout the video, lights are flashing around the destroyed tank and sound effects fill the room.
On my way out, I picked up some Nasrallah’s air fresheners from the gift shop, as well as a few other items. As I began to make sense of the exhibit, I kept comparing it to two other similar memorials I had visited. In Hanoi, Vietnam, I visited the memorial to the American War, and in Nanjing, China, I visited the memorial to the Japanese Rape of Nanjing. I must admit that the Hezbollah memorial is the most powerful and engaging. At the same time, I was also disturbed by the way in which the memorial glorifies Hezbollah’s military accomplishments. If the memorial had simply focused on the destruction caused by Israel, it would have been a more powerful statement to the rest of the world. But by including so many displays of Hezbollah’s military capability, it will only be used by outsiders to confirm that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.
Technorati Tags: middle-east, beirut, dahiya, hezbollah, akkabout
