Hassan Blasim becomes first Arab writer to win Independent Foreign Fiction Prize - Book... - 0 views
BBC News - #BBCtrending: Why George Orwell is trending in Egypt - 0 views
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George Orwell, the author of the famous novel 1984, is trending on Twitter after a student was arrested while carrying a copy of the book. Egyptian on social media seized on the perceived irony of the situation and a well known journalist remarked, "that the book is now more popular than ever in Egypt." The reports however may be false and the Giza Security Directorate, General Mahmoud Farouk says the novel had nothing to do with the arrest. Instead it is reported that the student was carrying materials supportive of the IS. The charges against the student remained unclear.
How Muslim Women Are Challenging the Status Quo - 0 views
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This article is about an interview with Katherine Zoepf. In the interview, they talk about her new book "Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World". The book is about her journey to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern countries. In her journey, she gained rare access to the lives of these young women.
Wasta, Work and Corruption in Transnational Business | CONNECTED in CAIRO - 0 views
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Girgis worked for a company that insisted as part of their global corporate culture that there be no “corruption.” Six years after opening its office in Egypt, they continued to be plagued by behaviors they understood to be “corrupt.”
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I explained that wasta referred to a network of informal loans and favors traded by Arab men in order to move up in the world.
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Encouraged by my open, neutral tone, Girgis opened up further. “My father mortgaged family lands to pay for my college,” Girgis said. “I owe him everything. If he asks me to find a job for his brother’s son, how can I say no?”
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This article is from the point of view of an anthropologist who was brought in as a cultural consultant to mediate an issue of "watsa" for a corporation in the Middle East. The company prides itself on its lack of internal corruption, and in turn hired a man named Girgis who grew up in the Middle East but lived and received an education in the US. In Girgis's first year he hired one of his cousins, which the supervisors saw as corrupt hiring practice. The author, and hired consultant, explained to the company supervisors that watsa was an "investment and return" framework in Arab culture, and that there are economic parallels between Arab families and businesses, families existing as economic units. Girgis conveyed that anywhere else in the world he would run the office by the book, but in the Arab world he must also adhere to social norms. The result of watsa through Arab eyes leads to greater loyalty, and less likelihood for deception and theft. The article basically introduces the idea that while in the Western world this may be seen as corruption, it is an embedded part of culture in the Middle East.
Walls of Freedom book website - 1 views
Censorship authorities confiscate three books on arrival - Daily News Egypt - 0 views
Can Libya Rebuild Itself After 40 Years of Gaddafi? - 0 views
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the man has hollowed out the Libyan state, eviscerated all opposition in Libyan society, and, in effect, created a political tabula rasa on which a newly free people will now have to scratch out a future.
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Jamahiriya, a political system that is run directly by tribesmen without the intermediation of state institutions
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the problem is, of course, that much like in the former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe, virtually everyone at one point or another had to deal with the regime to survive.
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This article from News Week basically paints a picture of Libyan history and how Gaddafi's reign devastated the state economically, socially, and politically. Author Dirk Vandewalle uses the phrase "a political tabula rasa" which in Latin means a blank slate, to describe the fate of Libya after Gaddafi's rule and convey the extent to which the country has to literally reconstruct every component that makes up a society and its government. He highlights major events that led to the downfall of both the Gaddafi regime and the Libyan state as a whole such as Arab nationalism, Jamahiriya, the Green Book, security apparatuses snuffing all opposition, terrorist incidents, isolation and international sanctions, the Lockerbie bombing, weapons of mass destruction, human right violations, divide and rule policies, and his use of oil revenue to fuel his insurgency. Vandewalle concludes the article with uncertain ideas thoughts towards Libya's future and the way the state is going to literally rebuild themselves from this "blank slate" that Gaddafi left behind.
Books by Amin Maalouf, Rabee Jaber, and Sonallah Ibrahim to be Turned into Films | Arab... - 0 views
Iraqi novelist Ahmed Saadawi wins Arabic Booker 2014 - Books - Ahram Online - 0 views
Lawrence Wright | Overheard with Evan Smith - 1 views
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I heard this interview on KUT one evening and I thought it was really pertinent to our class discussions on Egypt. You can listen to the podcast or watch the interview via this link or download the podcast on iTunes for free, it is an author who just wrote a book on the Camp David Accords of 1978 and he discusses the book and the events during the interview.