Commencement

After witnessing commencement at Dickinson College this afternoon it was announced that a Dickinson Alum had received a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue a Masters in Egypt this coming year. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret the relation between this and in February with the revolution that occurred. But I think that it is pretty amazing that a fellow Dickinsonian, not even one year after the College had to pull their two students from Cairo will be studying there in the fall.

Just felt the need to get that down and out there, maybe after this all sinks in I will re-post. Also will post once I am able to digest Obama's speech from last week in connection to the upcoming APAIC conference and its meaning etc...

Feel free to help me draw meaning.

Libyan Civil War

The crisis in Libya has continued now for months with seemingly no end in sight. It has grabbed the media's and US attention while unrest continues throughout the Arab world. It seems like half of Gaddafi's government has defected while at the same time his loyalist military is still decimating the Libyan rebels.

This brings to question whether the international community is doing enough and what actually can be done by other countries. The "no-fly zone" that was imposed awhile ago has seemed to help but has not done enough to turn the tide in the favor of the rebels. Recently Obama has announced that armed predator drones will be deployed over Libya in order to aid the rebels. With the military technology today it begs the question why not just find and assassinate Gaddafi? My reasoning is that killing Gaddafi would only send the country farther into Civil War. I believe that the only option would be to somehow force Gaddafi to step down and force a transfer of power to a coalition government until a permanent solution can be agreed on.

Any thoughts? Discuss....

Israel and Gaza

Recently there has been an uptick in cross-border violence between Hamas in Gaza and Israel. Highlighted by an anti-tank rocket fired at an Israeli school bus and the subsequent (expected) heavy retaliation by the Israeli military. As of today Ehud Barak has stated that Israel would observe a truce if Hamas stops firing into southern Israel. Now at this point it is wait and see, hopefully the violence will die down and some sort of normality and calm will take its place, but one could only hope.

Framing and Censorship

Recently I came across a video that was posted on my friends Facebook with the title, "A story you won't see in Arab media". This raised the question of what would the video contain that wouldn't be shown in the Arab media. The video's caption reads "the story of a Palestinian who was brutally attacked by Hamas and was saved by Israeli Soldiers" and was posted on Youtube by the user JewishMessiah. 

With all of this information with out even clicking on the link one can draw conclusions on the message that the video is trying to convey. It would be reasonable to conclude that the user is Pro-Israel, based on their user name and that they are attempting for the video to contribute to the ongoing debate on the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

The issue of framing and censorship come into play when considering the claim made by the user that the video would not be something viewable in the Arab media. The assumption of censorship is another thing entirely, but before watching the video the viewer is able to prejudge the content.

K'naan

In our class we talk a lot about different forms of media and how it portrays a message. One form that is personally one of my favorite is music. One of the more recent artist's that I started listening to is K'naan, many of you should recognize his song "Waving Flag", which was the song of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. However the original song, I think is much better and tells a bit of the struggle that he has gone through in his life. K'naan was born in Mogadishu, Somalia and later moved to New York and then Canada, learning English only by listening to rap music and mimicking the language.
A lot of his music is telling of the struggle of life in Somalia and truly gives a lyrical perspective what life is like in Somalia.

The video below is from the NPR Tiny Desk Concert Series and it features three of his songs along with some good commentary by K'naan and the members of NPR.

Blogging on Twitter

Twitter has been something for me that has fluctuated between being a useful academic resource and another waste of time/tool for procrastination.

What category it falls under definitely depends on what you make of it. For example last night I was using Twitter to follow a Red Wings hockey game while in the Library and I used it as an escape from doing my reading for class the next day. I had become hooked on the updates from the Red Wings Twitter feed as my team mounted a comeback, which led to overtime loss.

Than there are times like this afternoon where I opened up my twitter and looked at what Marc Lynch and Andrew Carvin were saying about what is going on in Libya. This led to me reading an article by Lynch posted by Carvin on Twitter about the war that is on going in Libya, and this page included in an extended interview that Lynch gave to NPR on the issue that provided greater detail on the issue.

These are two polarized ways in which Twitter can be used.

Arab Media then and Now

Over the course of this semester we have discussed the dynamic shifts and role that media has played in the Middle East and North Africa. It is interesting to consider how this shift has occurred from a strong State controlled media to a day an age where anyone with a cellphone and/or the internet can participate in the international discussion on current events. The innovations that have occurred regarding Twitter and other various websites have allowed people like me and our class to follow events as they are unfolding in real time on the other side of world.

Where as in contrast to even 20 years ago it would have been very difficult for a class like ours to follow current events. Let alone participate in the international discussion with people half way across the world.

Situation in Egypt

What is amazing to me is how the media attention has such a limited attention span. The extent of which I didn't really notice until I began looking back in my Twitter feed at links that were being posted showing all of the unrest still going on in Egypt. Naively I guess I thought that everything was beginning to work itself out. They had appointed a Prime Minister, I had watched videos of him being ushered in on a wave of applause, with him promising that things will change. But for the past days I have noticed that there are still videos of protesters clashing with the army and the army having a very difficult time maintaining the necessary amount of control of the state.

I also saw this video that was posted by Arabzy who I follow on Twitter, click CC for English subtitles. But It is a boy retelling his story of capture and torture by "security" forces. Now he was held for 22 days and I don't know when the video was shot but it was uploaded today. And I think it adds perspective on the events that are still unfolding in Egypt. I think it is important to take into account that just because the media is no longer focused on the issue, doesn't mean it's no longer worth paying attention to.

Democracy in the Middle East

As you all know we need to use Twitter for class, and as I was just searching some of the countries there that are currently experiencing the shock wave of revolutionary activity (read: protests) I came accross a tweet by BorowitzReport, which said "Democracy sweeping every Middle Eastern country that Bush didn't invade. #iran #Egypt #Tunisia #Yemen #Algeria". Not only is this some what ironically comical it is true. And I believe there is a reason that the Neo-Conservative Bush Doctrine didn't work in the Middle East. I think it is because he focused on the wrong countries. By wrong countries I mean countries with no history of democracy at all.

Neither Iraq or Afghanistan have any history of wanting a democracy or having reformers that have tried to bring some form of democracy to their countries. However, there are countries in the region (i.e. Turkey and Iran) that have a historical relationship with democracy. To avoid the conclusion that I came up with these ideas on my own, I read the book "Reset" by Stephen Kinzer. Kinzer goes into the historical relationships between Turkey, Iran, and democracy. Atta Turk and Reza Shah both brought reforms to their respective countries.

I will save the details of the reforms and history for another post possibly. But for now it is important to keep in mind the fact that a state can't expect to implant democracy in a country that has no history of it; and I think it is even more important to focus on a fostering democracy in states with that history.