ASLAN MEDIA COLUMN: THE CONNECTION
There's a lot of information out there. We connect the dots and give you the bigger picture.
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Lebanon in Limbo
- Published on Friday, 22 April 2011 12:23
- Category: The Connection
Over the past thirty years, Beirut has hardly been a quiescent city. But as revolutions and democratic movements sweep across the region, the current political chaos in Beirut is somehow going unnoticed.
Nothing has changed in Lebanon, where political infighting has left the country without a government for more than eleven weeks. It’s a mess that the country has seen all too often.
Update Egypt: Avoiding a Return to Tahrir Square
- Published on Thursday, 07 April 2011 17:04
- Category: The Connection
Last month, John McCain, Republican Senator from Arizona and 2010 presidential candidate, made an uncharacteristically prescient observation about Middle East foreign policy: “Let's give moral support to these [protesters] in Syria, but let's not take our eye off Egypt. Egypt is the key.” McCain’s statement is timely: what has happened since Mubarak left office two months ago? It would be naive to think that the struggle in that country ended on February 11.
Just this week, the government passed a law against protesting. A month after Mubarak left office, the government has yet to lift the 30 year emergency law (the government maintains that it will lift the law before September elections). In response to the continued suppression, activists on Facebook organized a march to “Take Back the Egyptian Revolution” last Saturday. With increasing unemployment, rumors of a potential cut to a significant food subsidy, and an economy that is expected to get worse before it gets better, what will come of the Arab world’s model democracy movement?
Cherry Picking Battles: U.S. Turns Blind Eye to Bahrain
- Published on Thursday, 14 April 2011 08:13
- Category: The Connection
The U.S. government once again joined the “blame Iran” game this past week, as Arab regimes across the region are pointing fingers at Iran, blaming it for popular protests in their countries. Dismissing rampant unemployment and unpopular, repressive state tactics, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Egypt have all at one time or another claimed that Iran has somehow deceptively sent protesters into the streets.
Iran's Nuclear Power: The Question of Bushehr
- Published on Monday, 28 March 2011 17:32
- Category: The Connection
