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ijones3

Alaa Awad - 0 views

artforum.com/id=30394

Alaa Awad

shared by ijones3 on 11 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • ijones3 on 11 Apr 15
     
    Alaa Awad is a prominent Egyptian street artist who has focused and specialized on women and the Port Said massacre. He was one of the collaborating artists on the famous mural on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, which depicts beautiful, unclothed, ancient women climbing a ladder that represents the revolution.
wmulnea

The Isis economy: Meet the new boss - FT.com - 0 views

www.ft.com/...27-11e4-82c7-00144feabdc0.html

shared by wmulnea on 02 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Iraq’s second city of Mosul looks like a model of success for its new rulers from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
  • But in the back alleys, litter fills the streets. The lights stay on, but only because locals rigged up generators themselves. And under the blare of café televisions, old men grumble about life under Isis’s self-proclaimed caliphate.
  • “We’ve endured international sanctions, poverty, injustice. But it was never worse than it is now.”
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • Abu Ahmed at first welcomed the takeover by Isis,
  • Sunni Muslims in both countries have long felt discriminated against by regimes dominated by rival sects
  • without an economy that gives people a chance to make a living, many say Isis has little more to offer
  • “Compared to past rulers, Isis is a lot easier to deal with. Just don’t piss them off and they leave you alone,” says Mohammed, a trader from Mosul. “If they could only maintain services — then people would support them until the last second.”
  • “They’re operating like something between a mafia, an insurgency and a terror group. Maybe they thought six months ago they were going to function as a state. But they don’t have the personnel or manpower.”
  • the FT found its attempt at state-building has so far failed to win over locals.
  • volunteers handing out sacks of wheat stamped with their black and white seal. They even announced plans to issue a currency,
  • In some cases they say Isis takes credit for systems in place before it seized power. In others, locals say it is stealing the resources of the region it seeks to rule
  • Travellers must stock up on Iraqi dinars to use in Iraq, US dollars for the road and Syrian pounds once they arrive.
  • “I’m against Isis with all my heart,” Mahmoud says. “But I can’t help but admire their cleverness.”
  • Isis struggles to balance its books,
  • services continue to function because of the money Baghdad still pays to former civil servants in Mosul. Isis taxes those employees at up to 50 per cent of their salaries.
  • It is as if Isis is financing itself partly through a pyramid scheme, and this has begun to falter.”
  • Though many now question Isis’s economic management, its military prowess and organisational skills are clear.
  • Isis allows easy movement through its territories to facilitate trade. Trucks passing through are taxed about 10 per cent of the value of their cargo.
  • “I may be a Salafi, but I’m not an idiot,” he jokes.
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