Blog archive all
21st July 2009
I’ve been talking rather a lot about Yemen since this blog started – partly because the situation there is worrying and partly because it’s getting so little attention from outside. Put simply, the fear is that Yemen could turn into another Somalia or Afghanistan.
An article in the Yemen Times… Read more
21st July 2009
I was taken to task by a friend the other day for mentioning the “murder” of Yasser Arafat in the same breath as conspiracy theories about the death of Princess Diana and the Kennedy assassination. The idea that Arafat was murdered is far more plausible, my friend said.
The murder question re-… Read more
21st July 2009
The amateur Egyptian poet who was sentenced to three years in jail and fined $18,000 for “insulting” President Mubarak in unpublished verses has had his sentence quashed by an appeal court.
That is good news. But why do these ludicrous cases keep cropping up in Egypt and other Arab countries? My… Read more
20th July 2009
Contrary to popular belief, women are not banned from driving in Saudi Arabia. There’s no law that says they can’t drive. It’s just that, er … they have a lot of trouble getting a licence.
The same can be said of the Jeddah Film Festival: not banned exactly, but stopped. The five-day event was due… Read more
19th July 2009
Mauritania is one of those out-of-the-way off-the-radar Arab countries that rarely get much attention. I must admit I have never been there myself, though I have flown over it a couple of times – which in the circumstances probably makes me something of an expert.
Anyway, Mauritanians were voting… Read more
18th July 2009
Recriminations continue over the Yemenia Airbus that crashed off the Comoros islands at the end of June, and it’s becoming reminiscent of the row between Egypt and Boeing after Egyptair flight 990 plunged into the Atlantic in 1999. In that case, investigators claimed the co-pilot deliberately… Read more
17th July 2009
You may remember a flurry of media excitement a month or so ago over whether Hizbullah would win the Lebanese elections. It didn’t, and so Lebanon dropped off the world news map again.
Almost three weeks on, incoming prime minister Saad Hariri (or Mini-Hariri as the Angry Arab likes to call him) is… Read more
17th July 2009
The Obama administration seems to be dusting off old Clinton-era plans for peace between Israel and Syria, looking at the stumbling blocks last time around and checking for new ways to overcome them. Fred Hoff, an adviser to George Mitchell’s Middle East team, has been in Israel this week exploring… Read more
15th July 2009
Two men have been arrested in connection with thetriple killing in Lahj province last Friday. They are said to be a son and brother of the main suspect, Ali Saif Mohammed. It is not clear if they are actually suspected of involvement in the killing: the Yemeni authorities often arrest innocent… Read more
15th July 2009
I'm not posting here today.Instead, I have written for Comment Is Free about the Palestinian ban on al-Jazeera and the wider pattern of government-media relations in Arab countries.
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
