Where’s our Nelson Mandela?

He continues: “The Muslim world may not be fighting apartheid and colonial repression like South Africans once did, but it has other far more dangerous demons to fight. From ignorance to illiteracy to poverty to violent extremism, we perhaps face even greater challenges than the people of South Africa ever did. Despite its rich natural and human resources, ours remains one of the world’s most backward and dispossessed regions.”

Full L.A. Times Article

Well said.

Morocco loses a beacon of freedom

The closure of the daring magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire is a sign of renewed authoritarianism in Morocco.

Last Thursday, I learned from the man behind Le Journal, Abou Bakr Jamai, that bailiffs had come to the magazine’s office, just as its journalists were putting the final touches on a new issue, to seize its assets. A series of crippling libel fines and debts to the tax authorities had driven it to bankruptcy. “We can already officially announce the death of Le Journal,” Jamai told me. I was shaken to learn that no more issues of Le Journal would appear, although not surprised. It had become clear for several years that the palace – whether the king himself or his coterie of advisers – had given up on trying to co-opt or intimidate the magazine, as it has done with many other publications, and would sooner or later succeed in pushing it into oblivion by economic means.

Full Guardian Article

This is really upsetting.

Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit

Joined by the other three members of the court’s liberal wing, Justice Stevens said the majority had committed a grave error in treating corporate speech the same as that of human beings.

Full NYTimes Article

It will be interesting to see what November’s mid-term elections will bring….

They Still Don’t Get It- Bob Herbert

The question for Democrats is whether there is anything that will wake them up to their obligation to extend a powerful hand to ordinary Americans and help them take the government, including the Supreme Court, back from the big banks, the giant corporations and the myriad other predatory interests that put the value of a dollar high above the value of human beings……

Those at the bottom of the economic heap seem all but doomed in this environment. The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston put the matter in stark perspective after analyzing the employment challenges facing young people in Chicago: “Labor market conditions for 16-19 and 20-24-year-olds in the city of Chicago in 2009 are the equivalent of a Great Depression-era, especially for young black men.”

Full NYTimes Op-Ed Piece

I absolutely agree.  Unfortunately, money and huge corporations talk louder than the needs of the hard-working Americans who make this place so great.  In a lot of ways, I almost just want to be a part of the machine and make my millions to buy myself clout.  How awful does that sounds?  I never would have imagined myself thinking that back in college…

Side note: I may not be a black man, but the likelihood of me finding a job here seems bleak.  Time to get out of here and search of work elsewhere?  A suivre!

Prison term completed, Mauritanian editor still jailed

Mauritanian authorities should immediately release an editor who has served his prison term in its entirety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The refusal to free Hanevy Ould Dehah, editor of the online publication Taqadoumy, appears to be unlawful and reflective of the politically motivated nature of the case.

Full Taqadoumy Article

And:

After returning from a visit to the US, he was arrested in June without a warrant and then sentenced to six months in jail for publishing an article by a woman calling for greater sexual freedom.

Full C.R.I.M.E. Article

So he basically got arrested for allowing a Mauritanian express herself. How absurd!

State Department: Internet Freedom Critical

Listen to this NPR Morning Edition story.

I couldn’t agree more!!

World Cup exit highlights Egypt’s deeper frustrations (LATE)

“What is going on now is the result of years of depression,” said Ahmed Al Aqabawi, a psychology professor at the Al Azhar University in Cairo.

He explained that we were talking about an Egyptian population that constantly witnesses social, financial and political failure, and football was their only ray of light.

“I have never seen Egyptians focused all together on one target as they were before these two games, and that is why the loss was such an enormous disappointment for millions,” he added.

Full BBC Article

Let’s expand, shall we? (I should have posted on this while I was in Casablanca. Apologies.)

The post-soccer match turbulence was directly linked to depression which was due to “failure” (read: frustration), and arguably also repression (perhaps left out for security purposes?).

The intense anger, wrongfully pointed at the Algerian national team (who won, fair and square), manifested itself with such rage and violence because it was the only way for Egyptians to release their penned up frustration.  The disobedience and trash-talking that took place after the match in no way harmed the legitimacy of the Egyptian government and was thereby deemed permissible.  The momentum that kept these ridiculous statements and the hostility towards Algeria going for a week originates from the silenced frustrations of a bleak economic outlook, the lack of civil liberties and an overall disgruntled youth.

Egyptian depression, then, is (as stated in the citation) not a cause but a consequence of these repressed frustrations as well.  However, the defeat in Khartoum was not what broke the Egyptian spirit -it was already broken- it’s what gave it a chance to lash out.

More Men Marrying Wealthier Women

“I’m not married, I would like to be married, and my friends are all in a similar situation,” said Dr. Rajalla Prewitt, a 38-year-old psychiatrist in New Jersey. “We’re having difficulty finding someone where there’s a meeting of the minds, where we can have the same goals and values.”

….

Ms. Zielinski, the fashion stylist, said her best friend, a man, told her once: “ ‘You are confident, have good credit, own your own business, travel around the world and are self-sufficient. What man is going to want you?’ He laughed, but I found that pretty depressing.”

Full NYTimes Article

Because that IS depressing!  And of course there are going to be compatibility problems if men fear successful women.

My theory: A real man can handle a real woman, and vise versa.

Syria’s division of the sexes

[These women in a café] are typical of Syria’s urban middle classes. Successful working women, the main bread-winners for their families, they are strong, and they speak up for themselves.

Still, they feel that society is not ready for women like them.

“Men are scared of going out with an independent strong woman,” Laila told me. “They want a woman who won’t argue.”

Read Full BBC Article

Being scared to date an independent, strong woman is not Middle East specific.  Besides, only recently have men in the West realized that it’s actually more rewarding to do so than date a dud.

The truth is, men everywhere will have to eventually put their masculine pride aside and MAN UP.

After Pharaoh

Of all the crises that threaten to shake Barack Obama’s presidency, few are more volatile than the ticking time bomb in Egypt, especially terrifying for the very reason that no one knows when it might explode. Hosni Mubarak, the 81-year-old former Air Force marshal who has ruled Egypt as a police state since 1981, might leave office sooner than anyone is expecting, opening a power vacuum that could send this U.S. ally, its 83 million citizens, and the regional political order spiraling into a fragile and potentially paralyzing tailspin.

I absolutely agree.