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allieggg

The U.S. Is Giving Up on Middle East Democracy-and That's a Mistake - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...282890

middle east democracy institutions Bush Obama Congress

shared by allieggg on 29 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • democracy assistance to the region, which will drop from $459.2 million to $298.3 million
  • Today’s Middle East is a product, at least in part, of failed democratization, and one of the reasons it failed was the timid, half-hearted support of the Obama administration.
  • the significant impact Western leverage and “linkage” can have on democratic transitions.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • “it was an externally driven shift in the cost of suppression, not changes in domestic conditions, that contributed most centrally to the demise of authoritarianism in the 1980s and 1990s.” They find that “states’ vulnerability to Western democratization pressure… was often decisive.”
  • it is also worth noting that President Bush acknowledged the existence of a “tyranny-terror” link—the notion that the root causes of extremism and terrorism can be found in the region’s enduring lack of democracy.
  • the administration’s approach to the region is characterized almost entirely by ad-hoc crisis management and traditional counterterrorism approaches. Its one larger-scale reform initiative—a half-hearted proposal for a
  • We argue that the U.S. and its partners now need to consider a very different approach to Middle East democracy assistance.
  • Conventional democracy promotion activities tend to focus on the process and “retail” aspects of democratic politics—things like elections, political party training, get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaigns, and civil society enhancement. While these are undoubtedly important, they are insufficient to deliver lasting reforms. Authoritarianism in the Arab world has proven time and time again—even in supposedly post-revolutionary settings such as Egypt today—that it can weather the annoyances of elections and civil society.
  • What is needed are more systematic reforms focused on fundamental institutions. These include things like constraining the military’s role in civilian domains of governance, deep reform in the security and justice sectors including law enforcement and policing, and comprehensive “renovation” of the civil service sector. These are large-scale, long-term, and expensive undertakings that far transcend the modest parameters of most U.S. democracy promotion programs.
  • we make the case for a new Multilateral Endowment for Reform (MER) that would tie significant levels of financial assistance—in the billions of dollars—to reform commitments and benchmarked implementation performance by partner nations.
  • provide a real incentive for countries to embark down a path to deeper and more enduring political reforms while retaining the ability to pull back funding if they do not deliver.
  • allieggg on 29 Sep 14
     
    This article begins by illuminating the regional democracy assistance cuts that are dropping from $459.2 million to $298.3 million It explains that the Bush Administration began the quest for democracy in the Middle East, and the Obama administration has only continued in his footsteps. The author presents the viewpoint that the U.S. approach to Arab democratization has been in the form of "ad-hoc crisis management" rather than "large scale reform initiatives." Promoting democracy in the form of democratic politics are insufficient, elections and political parties have consistently proved to weather away and fester further civil strife. Consequently, the article proposes a new approach to the region conflict. This approach calls for "systematic reforms" focusing on basic institutions such as the civil service sector, justice and law enforcement, and the military's role in governance. The idea is that addressing these lacking departments in the arab world will eventually pave the way to a smoother democratic transition. 
lking5

Nations Trying to Stop Their Citizens From Going to Middle East to Fight for ISIS - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-against-foreign-fighters.html

shared by lking5 on 15 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • lking5 on 15 Sep 14
     
    the US is pushing for a legally binding UN Security Council resolution that would make all countries take action to prevent the flow of citizens into terrorists groups, like ISIS. action may include evoking people's citizenship or passport suspect of terroristic activities or aiding terrorists, but before any crime is committed.
sheldonmer

Egypt activist's suicide grips social media - Yahoo Maktoob News - 0 views

en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/ps-social-media-092302791.html

Egypt egyptian revolution social media aftermath suicide

shared by sheldonmer on 16 Nov 14 - No Cached
    • sheldonmer
      sheldonmer on 16 Nov 14
       
      This article is a dark story about the aftermath of the Egyptian Revolution. Social has been an outlet for positive change, but just as positive things travel, sometimes negatives travel even faster. Zainab El Mahdy, a graduate of Cairo's Azhar University, was involved in many protests in the Egyptian Revolution. She has committed suicide because of a depressive streak following the uprising. This article goes on to talk about the backlash of social media and how the youth are starting to move away from it now that they see its downfalls. A statement by the "April 6" Facebook page reads, "Each one of you in Zeinab's place shares her dreams of a modern, free country that respects people's lives and honors their freedom and dignity.. Each one of you who is depressed and is struggling with helplessness and hopelessness like Zeinab did: You must not forget, that .... your life is the most precious thing for us,"  
jreyesc

Iraq Accuses ISIS of Using Chemical Weapons Including Chlorine Gas - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...381920

ISIS ISIL Iraq Chemical Weapons chlorine gas

shared by jreyesc on 14 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • radical Sunni Islamist group is also being accused of committing attacks using chemical weapons.
  • Islamic State attack in September caused 11 Iraqi policemen in the town of Dhuluiya to seek treatment for symptoms consistent with chlorine gas poisoning.
  • chlorine poisoning
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • raqi officials also claim that ISIS used chlorine gas in two other attacks
  • "We are aware of the reports but cannot confirm details and are seeking additional information.
  • If confirmed, these attacks would be the first chemical weapons attacks in Iraq in several years
  • “it obviously can affect tactical decisions within that strategy.”
  • jreyesc on 14 Nov 14
     
    Iraq is accusing ISIS of using chemical. the first event happen back in September, where a doctor saw clear signs of chemical weapon use on a victim.
nicolet1189

No LOL Matter: FBI Trolls Social Media for Would-Be Jihadis - NBC News.com - 1 views

www.nbcnews.com/...media-would-be-jihadis-n226841

FBI surveillance internet recruit jihad

shared by nicolet1189 on 19 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • conversation via Skype, a “trusted brother” who was actually an undercover FBI employee, “told Basit that he could help get him inside Al-Nusra. …
  • updating techniques it has used since the early days of the Internet to engage the enemy on services such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
  • arrested and charged the next day with supporting a foreign terrorist organization.
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • Sheikh’s case and several other recent terrorism prosecutions shed light on the growing importance of social media in the battles unfolding in Syria and Iraq -- both as a recruiting tool for Islamic terrorist groups like ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front, and as a means for the FBI to pre-emptively nab the would-be jihadis.
  • raises questions about the FBI’s conduct in attempting to head off terrorist recruits and whether they incited them to actions they wouldn’t have otherwise taken.
  • using fake social media identities to engage them
  • catfishing” by luring him into a personal relationship with a phony online persona.
  • During the investigation, the FBI published a webpage that purported to recruit individuals to travel to Syria and join Jabhat al-Nusra (
  • posed as a Syrian nurse and "used a Facebook page which promoted the ideology of Islamic extremism" to contact the suspect,
  • been able to expand their reach far beyond the traditional jihadi recruitment pool to a much wider audience -- including English-speaking Western nationals."
  • FBI at times goes too far to reel in American Muslims, most of them young, who are sympathetic to the Islamic extremist cause.
  • her client is “a lonely, mentally ill young man with a tremendous desire to be liked,” which made him susceptible to a paid FBI informant’s online encouragement.
  • Suspects began posting on Facebook or other social media expressing support for or seeking contact with one of the Islamic groups fighting in Iraq and Syria and were then engaged by informants or undercover FBI agents.
  • social media counterterrorism operations,
  • 'Don't go there in any way, don't go there in thought or expression, don't even toy with the idea of becoming foreign fighters.'"
  • eventually agreed to join Al-Nusra, purchased a plane ticket to Beirut and prepared for his journey to jihad
  • informant, however, suggested that Sheikh instead join the Al-Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate t
  • provided Sheikh with contact information for a supposed Al-Nusra agent.
  • could help get him inside
  • face up to 15 years in prison and fines of $250,000 if they are convicted
  • sending a message to potential terrorist recruits is indeed important.
  • defense attorneys in all four cases may argue that the FBI actions amounted to entrapment -- the act of tricking someone into committing a crime so that they can be arrested
  • making examples of individuals
  • sought to make contact with al Qaeda officials on Facebook and other social media, but instead drew the attention of an undercover FBI agent who presented himself as a recruiter for the terrorist group.
  • "ISIS recruits are more likely to reach out in the online universe seeking advice on how to reach the land of jihad than to consult the guidance of a traditional cleric or local community leader
  • that universe and creating honeypots to draw in and capture potential ISIS recruits, they can help sow doubts in the minds of would-be jihadists in the overall reliability of the Internet as a medium for recruit
  • Justice Department plans to review federal law enforcement practices on creating fake Facebook pages in light of an incident,
  • nicolet1189 on 19 Nov 14
     
    This article discusses the strategies of the FBI in trying to arrest potential jihad recruits. The article discusses several cases of individuals arrested for attempting to join ISIS and the implications involving each case.
diamond03

Tradition of female genital mutilation persists in Egypt - SFGate - 0 views

www.sfgate.com/...utilation-persists-5904358.php

tradition female genital egypt revolution politics

shared by diamond03 on 19 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • Tradition of female genital mutilation persists in Egypt
  • Raslan Fadl, the first doctor in Egypt to be put on trial for committing female genital mutilation
  • still practicing
  • ...28 more annotations...
  • Residents call him a well-respected figure in the community, known for his charity work.
  • could not be determined whether any were at his office for “circumcision
  • Fadl’s continued popularity demonstrates the challenges to curbing the practice in Egypt,
  • 90 percent of
  • key precedent for deterring doctors and families in the future.
  • criminalized in 2008,
  • Sunni Muslim religious authority has declared it dangerous and without any religious justification
  • slow reduction in the rate of the practice but that it is still widespread.
  • A verdict is expected Thursday in Fadl’s trial
  • two years in prison.
  • one of the highest rates in the world
  • s little outcry against the practice.
  • nothing happened to them.”
  • without it, a girl would be “sexually voracious,”
  • dangerous for her”
  • Muslims and Christians,
  • Genital mutilation involves removing all or part of the clitoris and labia minora
  • 29 countries,
  • “purification.
  • cleanliness or to prevent a girl’s sexual desire from running out of control.
  • ncircumcised daughter will be unable to marry
  • Social pressure is strong:
  • not easy getting the landmark case to trial
  • Soheir’s family initially filed a police report saying she died as a result of the mutilation but changed their story after reconciling with the doctor
  • Prosecutors were slow, preferring “for the matter to end
  • latest survey, conducted in 2008, showed 91 percent for women age 15 to 49 have undergone the procedure.
  • 15 to 17, the rate is down to 74 percent,
  • ore families are deciding to forgo it.
diamond03

Human Rights Watch calls for anti-FGM measures in Egypt | FIGO - 0 views

www.figo.org/...nti-fgm-measures-egypt-0014805

human rights egypt revolution women

shared by diamond03 on 01 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • Human Rights Watch calls for anti-FGM measures in Egypt
  • “take clear action
  • an end in the country.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • doctor and the fathe
  • doctor was charged with conducting the practice, he insisted that it was for medical purposes and not simply as a form of FGM.
  • first ever FGM trial
  • , 13-year-old Sohair al-Batea’s father was charged with
  • , the organisation said that significant steps need to be taken to enforce the laws
  • HRW says that existing laws need to be enforced properly with the help of greater commitment from local authorities in particula
  • “The authorities must send a clear message to the police, prosecution and the courts on investigating and prosecuting those who perform FGM
  • Rothna Begum
  • for HRW.Posted by Paul Robertson Other relevant links
  • diamond03 on 01 Dec 14
     
    It is clear that Egypt needs to take greeter actions in ensuring FGM is completely banned. Rothna Begum is a women's rights researcher who focuses on the Middle East and Africa. The doctor claims to have done the procedure other medical purposes other than FGM. 
wmulnea

Libya's civil war: That it should come to this | The Economist - 3 views

www.economist.com/...factional-chaos-it-should-come

shared by wmulnea on 11 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • It is split between a government in Beida, in the east of the country, which is aligned with the military; and another in Tripoli, in the west, which is dominated by Islamists and militias from western coastal cities
  • Benghazi is again a battlefield.
  • The black plumes of burning oil terminals stretch out over the Mediterranean.
  • ...69 more annotations...
  • Libya looked like the latest fragile blossoming of the Arab spring
  • Army commanders, mostly of Arab Bedouin origin, refused orders to shoot the protesters
  • the revolutionaries cobbled together a National Transitional Council (NTC) claiming to represent all of Libya
  • Volunteers from students to bank managers took up arms, joining popular militias and only sometimes obeying the orders of defecting army commanders trying to take control
  • In August Western bombing of government bases surrounding Tripoli cleared an avenue for the revolutionaries to take the capital.
  • Recognised abroad, popular at home and enjoying the benefits of healthy oil revenues—97% of the government’s income—the NTC was well placed to lay the foundations for a new Libya
  • he judges, academics and lawyers who filled its ranks worried about their own legitimacy and feared confrontation with the militias which, in toppling Qaddafi, had taken his arsenals for their own.
  • militia leaders were already ensconced in the capital’s prime properties
  • The NTC presided over Libya’s first democratic elections in July 2012, and the smooth subsequent handover of power to the General National Congress (GNC) revived popular support for the revolution.
  • Islamist parties won only 19 of 80 seats assigned to parties in the new legislature, and the process left the militias on the outside
  • The Homeland party, founded by Abdel Hakim Belhad
  • tried to advertise its moderation by putting an unveiled woman at the head of its party list in Benghazi
  • The incumbent prime minister, Abdurrahim al-Keib, a university professor who had spent decades in exile, fretted and dithered
  • He bowed to militia demands for their leaders to be appointed to senior ministries, and failed to revive public-works programmes
  • which might have given militiamen jobs
  • Many received handouts without being required to hand in weapons or disband, an incentive which served to swell their ranks
  • the number of revolutionaries registered with the Warriors Affairs Commission set up by the NTC was about 60,000; a year later there were over 200,000. Of some 500 registered militias, almost half came from one city, Misrata.
  • In May 2013 the militias forced parliament to pass a law barring from office anyone who had held a senior position in Qaddafi’s regime after laying siege to government ministries.
  • In the spring of 2014, Khalifa Haftar, a retired general who had earlier returned from two decades of exile in America, forcibly tried to dissolve the GNC and re-establish himself as the armed forces’ commander-in-chief in an operation he called Dignity
  • The elections which followed were a far cry from the happy experience of 2012. In some parts of the country it was too dangerous to go out and vote
  • Such retrenchment has been particularly noticeable among women. In 2011 they created a flurry of new civil associations; now many are back indoors.
  • Turnout in the June 2014 elections was 18%, down from 60% in 2012, and the Islamists fared even worse than before
  • Dismissing the results, an alliance of Islamist, Misratan and Berber militias called Libya Dawn launched a six-week assault on Tripoli. The newly elected parliament decamped to Tobruk, some 1,300km east
  • Grasping for a figleaf of legitimacy, Libya Dawn reconstituted the pre-election GNC and appointed a new government
  • So today Libya is split between two parliaments—both boycotted by their own oppositions and inquorate—two governments, and two central-bank governors.
  • The army—which has two chiefs of staff—is largely split along ethnic lines, with Arab soldiers in Arab tribes rallying around Dignity and the far fewer Misratan and Berber ones around Libya Dawn.
  • Libya Dawn controls the bulk of the territory and probably has more fighters at its disposal.
  • General Haftar’s Dignity, which has based its government in Beida, has air power and, probably, better weaponry
  • the Dignity movement proclaims itself America’s natural ally in the war on terror and the scourge of jihadist Islam
  • Libya Dawn’s commanders present themselves as standard-bearers of the revolution against Qaddafi now continuing the struggle against his former officers
  • Ministers in the east vow to liberate Tripoli from its “occupation” by Islamists, all of whom they denounce as terrorists
  • threatens to take the war to Egypt if Mr Sisi continues to arm the east. Sleeping cells could strike, he warns, drawn from the 2m tribesmen of Libyan origin in Egypt.
  • Yusuf Dawar
  • The struggle over the Gulf of Sirte area, which holds Libya’s main oil terminals and most of its oil reserves, threatens to devastate the country’s primary asset
  • And in the Sahara, where the largest oilfields are, both sides have enlisted ethnic minorities as proxies
  • ibya Dawn has drafted in the brown-skinned Tuareg, southern cousins of the Berbers; Dignity has recruited the black-skinned Toubou. As a result a fresh brawl is brewing in the Saharan oasis of Ubari, which sits at the gates of the al-Sharara oilfield, largest of them all.
  • Oil production has fallen and become much more volatile
  • oil is worth half as much as it was a year ago
  • The Central Bank is now spending at three times the rate that it is taking in oil money
  • The bank is committed to neutrality, but is based in Tripoli
  • Tripoli may have a little more access to cash, but is in bad shape in other ways
  • Fuel supplies and electricity are petering out
  • Crime is rising; carjacking street gangs post their ransom demands on Twitter
  • In Fashloum
  • residents briefly erected barricades to keep out a brigade of Islamists, the Nuwassi
  • “No to Islamists and the al-Qaeda gang” reads the roadside graffiti
  • Libya’s ungoverned spaces are growing,
  • Each month 10,000 migrants set sail for Europe
  • On January 3rd, IS claimed to have extended its reach to Libya’s Sahara too, killing a dozen soldiers at a checkpoint
  • The conflict is as likely to spread as to burn itself out.
  • the Western powers
  • have since been conspicuous by their absence. Chastened by failure in Afghanistan and Iraq, they have watched from the sidelines
  • Obama washed his hands of Libya after Islamists killed his ambassador
  • Italy, the former colonial power, is the last country to have a functioning embassy in Tripoli.
  • Even under Qaddafi the country did not feel so cut off
  • Dignity is supported not just by Mr Sisi but also by the United Arab Emirates, which has sent its own fighter jets into the fray as well as providing arms
  • The UAE’s Gulf rival, Qatar, and Turkey have backed the Islamists and Misratans in the west
  • If oil revenues were to be put into an escrow account, overseas assets frozen and the arms embargo honoured he thinks it might be possible to deprive fighters of the finance that keeps them fighting and force them to the table
  • Until 1963 Libya was governed as three federal provinces—Cyrenaica in the east, Fezzan in the south and Tripolitania in the west
  • The old divisions still matter
  • the marginalised Cyrenaicans harked back to the time when their king split his time between the courts of Tobruk and Beida and when Arabs from the Bedouin tribes of the Green Mountains ran his army
  • Tensions between those tribes and Islamist militias ran high from the start.
  • July 2011 jihadists keen to settle scores with officers who had crushed their revolt in the late 1990s killed the NTC’s commander-in-chief, Abdel Fattah Younis, who came from a powerful Arab tribe in the Green Mountains. In June 2013 the Transitional Council of Barqa (the Arab name for Cyrenaica), a body primarily comprised of Arab tribes, declared the east a separate federal region, and soon after allied tribal militias around the Gulf of Sirte took control of the oilfields.
  • In the west, indigenous Berbers, who make up about a tenth of the population, formed a council of their own and called on larger Berber communities in the Maghreb and Europe for support
  • Port cities started to claim self-government and set up their own border controls.
  • Derna—a small port in the east famed for having sent more jihadists per person to fight in Iraq than anywhere else in the world
  • opposed NATO intervention and insisted that the NTC was a pagan (wadani) not national (watani) council
  • Some in Derna have now declared their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the caliph of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.
  • In December the head of America’s Africa command told reporters that IS was training some 200 fighters in the town.
ajonesn

How Egypt is keeping its women trapped in zombie society - Your Middle East - 0 views

www.yourmiddleeast.com/...rapped-in-zombie-society_26800

Egypt womens rights zombies

shared by ajonesn on 29 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • he majority of families would rather have their daughters in an unfulfilling, even miserable marriage, convinced that she will somehow find a magical way to adapt, than see her alone
    • diamond03
      diamond03 on 29 Sep 14
       
      This is so sad and disturbing!
  • Female independence is looked down on,
  • true religious scholars are the first to reject any form of overt or clandestine female oppression
  • ...47 more annotations...
  • there is hope
  • intellectual women today stand in solidarity
  • woman's marital status is mutually exclusive from her value and right to lead a healthy, fulfilling life of her own.
  • suffering economy
  • women
  • society
  • spinsterhood
  • marriage in Egypt really means.
  • trapped
  • declining marriage rate in Egypt,
  • “transforming her into a commodity for the highest bidder.”
  • family to be the pillar of one's success
  • pros and cons,
  • codependence is highly favorable in the Middle Eas
  • typical Egyptian female's life, is to pursue an auspicious college degree
  • regarded as a supporter or sidekick,
  • “...an archaic notion that defines a woman's value by her husband's status”
  • improve her chances of finding a proper suitor
  • lifelong purpose of securing a husband.
  • he standard sequence of events for a typical Egyptian female's life, is to pursue an auspicious college degree (to improve her chances of finding a proper suitor, and assist her future children with their studies), possibly add to her assets by acquiring a mediocre job for a year or two (under the pretext of killing time and elevating her practical wisdom), and eventually fulfill her lifelong purpose of securing a
  • ones who suffer are those who can't find a “star.”
  • pressure from three distinctive sources
  • their rights and full potential, desperately seeking approval before they reach their “expiration date.
  • “Stepford wife model”,
  • incompatible matc
  • transforming her identity, s
  • driven towards more extreme measures.
  • parents employing psychological abuse
  • subject to such scrutiny
  • generation of women
  • oblivious t
  • conforming comes naturally to a lot of women,
  • On one hand
  • (parents-peers-society
  • quoting religious commandments promoting marriage,
  • coerce their daughters
  • into submission
  • threat of eternal damnation
  • (should she fail to perform this role and still wishes to enjoy her life then she will have indeed committed sacrilege and is a covertly regarded as a disgrace regardless of any other achievement)
  • peer-pressure;
  • still under the impression that exceptions do not exist .
  • 25-40
  • “business marriages”
  • Egyptians have a problem with evolution
  • persecute anomalies
  • educated middle class that crowns the highest rate of unmarried wome
  • women can hardly take care of themselves and that is the norm.
  • ajonesn on 13 Apr 15
     
    I enjoyed this article because it uses terminology that is not typically associated with this topic. The author compares Egyptian women to zombies, stating that they must "play-dead" or be "obliterated and shunned."
fcastro2

UN plan to relocate Syrian refugees in northern Europe | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...approach-syrian-refugee-europe

refugees europe syria politics

shared by fcastro2 on 25 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • “orderly relocation” of thousands of Syrian refugees from southern Europe to richer countries in the north, and is pressing the EU to agree to a year-long pilot programme
  • the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, has approached senior EU figures to get backing for its pilot programme
  • new approaches, which could be achieved within the existing Dublin framework, were urgently needed:
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • is a radical departure from current EU policy, which forces asylum seekers to apply for asylum in their first country of entry, under legislation known as the Dublin law.
  • We need to convince them that it is better to go legally, that there is an alternative to months of suffering
  • More than 3 million people are estimated to have fled the country in the past four years, and although the vast majority have remained in neighbouring countries – Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan – thousands have tried to make the perilous journey to Europe.
  • Most of those who survive the Mediterranean crossing – and more than 3,000 died last year – end up in Italy and Greece
  • 42,000 Syrians ended up in Italy in 2014 alone
  • apply for asylum in their country of arrival. But only a tiny minority do. In practice, many migrants simply slip through the net and move, vulnerably, around Europe.
  • Syrians who chose to move irregularly across Europe could be reduced if people were allowed to legally travel onwards to join family or move to countries where they have language skills or work opportunities
  • Syrian conflict has exacerbated a refugee crisis in north Africa and the Middle East
  • The proposed relocation, which would start as a one-year pilot programme, would focus only on Syrians who have been recognised as refugees in Italy and Greece and would depend on an initial voluntary commitment from member states
  • previous attempts to reform the Dublin law have been met with fierce resistance during internal EU discussions
  • UK and other northern European countries have fought in both domestic and European courts to defend the right to return asylum seekers to their first country of entry
  • arguing that protection and accommodation conditions in Italy and Greece are inadequate
  • stressed the importance of states upholding the Dublin regulation
  • the commission is discussing with the member states on how to ensure a more balanced distribution of resettled refugees among all member states. We wil
  • Cochetel acknowledged that only a significant interest in building a new system would create a change in behaviour among desperate migrants
  • Last month Turkey become the largest country of asylum in the world
  • massive irregular secondary movements feeding trafficking, leading to human suffering and exploitation
  • fcastro2 on 25 Mar 15
     
    The European Union is having some issues with Syrian refugees not staying in the country to where they first applied for asylum. This, and the ever growing number of Syrian refugees in Europe, has lead to a call to reform the Dublin Law. 
sambofoster

Empowering Women, Developing Society: Female Education in the Middle East and North Africa - 2 views

www.prb.org/...eMiddleEastandNorthAfrica.aspx

women education middle east

shared by sambofoster on 27 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Selected Socioeconomic Indicators in the Middle East and North Africa
  • he United Nations has articulated the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include goals for improved education, gender equality, and women's empowermen
  • The region's oil-based economy, which produced tremendous wealth in some MENA countries, reinforces the region's gender roles. In a number of MENA countries, the use of capital-intensive technologies that require few workers, along with relatively high wages for men, have precluded women's greater involvement in the labor force.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • In addition, the benefits of female education for women's empowerment and gender equality are broadly recognized:
  • While 53 percent of the women said that the decision should depend on the children's capabilities, 39 percent said that the son should go to the university, compared with only 8 percent who said that the daughter should go. The survey also found that mothers of children who had never attended school were more likely to cite the cost of education as a reason for not educating their daughters than for not educating their sons.
  • As women's educational attainment in MENA countries has increased, more women have moved into the job market. But women's participation in the labor force is still low: Only 20 percent of women ages 15 and older in MENA countries are in the labor force — the lowest level of any world region.
  • But those rates are lower than rates found outside the region. In France, for example, women make up 45 percent of the labor force; in Indonesia, which is home to the world's largest Muslim population, women make up 38 percent of the labor force.16
  • Women in MENA countries are twice as likely to be illiterate as men are and make up two-thirds of the region's illiterate adults. The gender gaps in education vary greatly across countries in the region but are generally wider in countries where overall literacy and school enrollment are lower. In Yemen, for example, the illiteracy rate among young women (54 percent) is triple that of young men (17 percent). But countries that make political and financial commitments to reducing illiteracy, as Jordan and Tunisia have, generally see significant improvements in reducing illiteracy and narrowing the gender gap (see Figure 6).
  • mcooka on 27 Jan 16
     
    Statistics on Middle Eastern education. The gender inequality in the education. Reasons the litteracy level is so low and analyzing why there are has been a recent curve up in education.
  • sambofoster on 04 Feb 16
     
    Education is a key part of strategies to improve individuals' well-being and societies' economic and social development.
petergrossmanseu

Obama cautious on Syria plan as opposition yet to commit | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...syria-government-idUSKCN0VW0UA

obama syria plan opposition reuters

shared by petergrossmanseu on 24 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • petergrossmanseu on 24 Feb 16
     
    A Reuters article discussing the possible cease fire/truce that is supposed to occur over the weekend. The article does a good job of highlighting the uncertainty amongst various groups as to what the terms of the deal will be.
mcooka

Schooling in a crisis: the case of Syrian refugees in Turkey - ODI HPN - 0 views

odihpn.org/...e-of-syrian-refugees-in-turkey

refugee schooling crisis turkey Syria camps education

shared by mcooka on 17 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • The Syrian civil war has created one of the largest and most intense episodes of human suffering of the early twenty-first century.
  • 387,883, with 200,039 living in government camps and 164,143 living in rented apartments
  • Turkey’s efforts to meet the needs of refugees have been spearheaded by the Afet ve Acil Durum Yonetimi Baskanligi
  • ...36 more annotations...
  • majority of refugees are women and, especially, children; of the 200,000 refugees in Turkish camps, about 60% are children.
  • t was left to him to find tents, wooden flooring, carpets and paving bricks, desks, chairs, drawing boards, teaching aids and, of course, textbooks
  • urkish Red Crescent
  • acquired through AFAD channels a
  • egging
  • he result
  • ten large tents with floors
  • drawing boards
  • electricity
  • computer projectors.
  • limate control consisted of large fans
  • he pre-school director in Islahiye Camp used empty office and storage space in the warehouse to house five rooms full of loud young children
  • preschools enjoyed the largest proportion of age-group participation.
  • camp schools are administered by Turks
  • curricula are not recognised or sanctioned by the Turkish education authorities, and so licenced Turkish teachers cannot be assigned to them.
  • amp education directors rely heavily on volunteers from among the refugees themselves
  • time and instruction with the children is often inconsistent
  • not be able to teach in Arabic
  • There is little incentive for parents to commit their children to learning a new language
  • Closely related to the issue of language is the curriculum
  • eenage students in the camps generally do not have access to the secondary schooling
  • Indeed, one source of tension between Syrian parents and the Turkish authorities has been the Syrian demand for special classes for advanced students whose preparations for university entrance exams were interrupted by the war.
  • Syrian schools have opened outside of the camps with funding from the local government,
  • using the Syrian curriculum and books salvaged from Syrian schools and reproduced
  • Gaziantep
  • namely Syrian demands for the separation of the sexes in classrooms
  • Syrian parents also tend to insist that their daughters wear headscarves (hijab) in public and in schools, while it is illegal for Turkish teenage girls to cover their hair at school.
  • Tensions over the separation of the sexes, curriculum and language of instruction are compounded by the politics of Syrians’ refugee status
  • y contrast, the Turkish government chose not to officially recognise the Syrians as refugees as defined by UNHCR, and did not ask UNHCR to register the newcomers as refugees.
  • officially designate Syrians as refugees would limit Turkey’s involvement in the Syrian civil war,
  • Turkey has allowed arms and non-lethal aid through its territory to supply the Free Syrian Army
  • here are also concerns that Syrians, desperate for income, take jobs at lower wages than Turks
  • Even guests can outstay their welcome, and with no end in sight to the civil war and no prospect of a return of Syrians to Syria, Turks are beginning to question how long they can sustain their assistance. I
  • une 2013 AFAD began accepting offers of financial and other aid from outside agencies, including UNHCR and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
  • The schools developed in Syrian refugee camps in Turkey provide valuable models for establishing schools for rapidly growing refugee populations.
  • The next critical challenge for Syrian education in Turkey is what to do with the growing number of Syrian teenagers who need to finish their high-school studies at accredited schools in order to compete for places at universities in Turkey or elsewhere.
  • mcooka on 17 Feb 16
     
    This was probably the most interesting article I have read about education in the MIddle East. It is from the "Humanitarian practice Network". This article is about Turkey and the Syrian refugees, who are not documented as refugees, and the growing desire for improvements to education. Right now, the education which is in place for Syrians is adequate for a temporary stay of preserving knowledge. It is not designed to be used long term, to advance students, or to prep them for universities. This article looks at those issues and tensions which are happening currently in Turkey
amarsha5

Turkey's Erdogan denounces US support for Syrian Kurds - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-middle-east-35541003

turkey syria refugees support

shared by amarsha5 on 10 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • he refugees have fled an offensive by Syrian government forces and Iranian-backed militias,
  • Turkey says the PYD, on which the US relies to b
  • Syria, is an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • More than 500 people, including dozens of civilians, have been killed since the assault began 10 days ago
  • urkey has already taken in more than 2.5 million Syrian refugees over the past five years and says it will continue to do so in a "controlled fashion".
  • rkey would be indirectly contributing to "ethnic cleansing" in northern Syria by the government.
  • urkey's president asked in a speech: "Are you on our side or the side of the terrorist PYD and PKK organisation?"
  • While Turkey sees the PYD and YPG as offshoots of the banned PKK, the US does not and believes they are the only effective force against IS on the ground in Syria, reports the BBC's Mark Lowen in Istanbul.
  • France's outgoing Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, also questioned the commitment of the US to resolve the crisis in Syria on Wednesday, saying its "ambiguous" policy was contributing to the problem.
  • But he warned: "We feel that we were sold to the Russians, and that the West has abandoned us."
  • joepouttu on 10 Feb 16
     
    Turkey has denounced the United States for providing support to the Democratic Union Party, who any are calling a terrorist group. This is contributing to the bloodshed. 
  • mcooka on 10 Feb 16
     
    Turkey is mad at U/S over their support for Syria's Kurdish group. Turkey claims them as a terrorist group. Refugees are still fleeing from Syria.
  • amarsha5 on 11 Feb 16
     
    US support of Syrian extremist group, the Democratic Union Party, has been denounced by Turkish president Erdogan. The recent fighting has displaced 50,000 people and cut off key supply routes for bringing in aid. Turkey has vowed to continue to accept refugees.w
aacosta8

The Role of Technology in Egypt's Future - A Smarter Planet Blog - 0 views

asmarterplanet.com/...-technology-egypts-future.html

egypt technology development

shared by aacosta8 on 02 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • aacosta8 on 02 Mar 16
     
    IBM has been doing business in Egypt in 1954, and we've continued to invest in the country and support our clients ever since. We're committed to helping Egypt develop a world-class tech infrastructure, even through the turbulent changes in government of the past few years.
eyadalhasan

Saudi coalition challenges U.S. role in Middle East - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Saudi Arabia US middle east

shared by eyadalhasan on 01 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • eyadalhasan on 01 Mar 16
     
    But the United States might be getting a lot less than it asked for. Since Saudi Arabia's announcement on December 16, questions have been raised about the coalition's membership, its commitment to fighting terror and its overall purpose. Many see the move as aimed at bolstering Saudi prestige and countering Iran more than forming an effective fighting unit.
csherro2

Syria: The story of the conflict - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-middle-east-26116868

syria arab spring revolution War politics

shared by csherro2 on 09 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • It has acquired sectarian overtones, pitching the country's Sunni majority against the president's Shia Alawite sect,
  • The rise of the jihadist groups, including Islamic State, has added a further dimension.
  • both sides of the conflict have committed war crimes - including murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearances.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • A UN commission of inquiry,
  • Western powers,
  • said it could only have been carried out by Syria's government.
  • regime and its ally Russia blamed rebels.
  • More than 3 million people have fled Syria since the start of the conflict,
  • A further 6.5 million people, 50% of them children, are believed to be internally displaced within Syria,
  • the total numbe
  • half the country's population.
  • rebel groups are also deeply divided
  • most prominent is the moderate National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces
  • Iran and Russia have propped up the Alawite-led government of President Assad and gradually increased their support,
  • support of Lebanon's Shia Islamist Hezbollah movement.
  • The Sunni-dominated oppositio
  • Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Arab states along with the US, UK and France.
  • rise of radical Islamist militia in rebel ranks and the arrival of Sunni jihadists from across the world has led to a marked cooling of international and regional backing.
  • alarsso on 09 Mar 15
     
    This article delves into the issues of war crimes, chemical weapons, humanitarian issues, and the rise if islamist groups interventions
  • hkerby2 on 31 Mar 15
     
    This website offers eight steps to understanding the Syrian conflict. The sections include: uprising turns violent, descent into civil war, war crimes, chemical weapons, humanitarian crisis, Syrian refugees in the region, rebels and the rise of the jihadists, peace efforts, & proxy war
  • csherro2 on 29 Mar 16
     
    More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war. More than 11 million others have been forced from their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other - as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State.
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