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jsawin

International Monetary Fund - YouTube - 0 views

www.youtube.com/imf

international fund youtube

shared by jsawin on 23 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • jsawin on 23 Feb 15
     
    Oil prices have been declining since June 2014.This trend presents new economic realities for oil-exporting countries in the middle east.
jshnide

Hamas Terror Group to Officially Join Palestinian Authority - So Now What Happens to th... - 0 views

www.theblaze.com/...-to-the-400-million-in-u-s-aid

hamas Palestinian Authority fatah aid u s

shared by jshnide on 13 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • jshnide on 13 Apr 15
     
    Hamas and the PA have officially joined to form a unity government. The US sent the PA $400 million in aid, but now the funds are being shared in one way or another.
amarsha5

Jordan is at 'boiling point' as it struggles with Syrian refugees, King Abdullah warns ... - 0 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...ugees-King-Abdullah-warns.html

jordan refugees support UN fundraising ISIS syria Politics

shared by amarsha5 on 04 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • amarsha5 on 04 Feb 16
     
    Jordan is asking for more help with the millions of refugees flowing into the country. The UN is fundrasing for more than $7 billion in funds to support Jordan in the relocation of Syrian refugees.
irede123

Military Fears ISIS is Eyeing Drug-Smuggling Routes to Enter U.S. - US News - 0 views

www.usnews.com/...g-smuggling-routes-to-enter-us

ISIS routes u s

shared by irede123 on 11 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • irede123 on 11 Feb 16
     
    As oil prices plunge, and ISIS get less income, they are finding new ways to fund their activities. One such way is through drug smuggling into the US, from South America.
aromo0

Background on Case No. 173 - the "foreign funding case" Imminent Risk of Prosecution an... - 0 views

www.fidh.org/...-funding-case-imminent-risk-of

Egypt woman government NGO

shared by aromo0 on 29 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • aromo0 on 29 Mar 16
     
    NGO's in Egypt are facing the possibility of prosecution due to new laws passed. The entire human rights movement is being attacked by the Egyptian government.
aromo0

Mozn Hasan: defender of human rights in Egypt - 0 views

www.globalfundforwomen.org/mozn-hassan

Egypt human rights women equality

shared by aromo0 on 29 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • aromo0 on 29 Mar 16
     
    About Mozn Hassan, the founder of Nazra for Feminist studies. The global fund for women advocates for equality.
aromo0

Donors: keep out | The Economist - 0 views

www.economist.com/...non-governmental-organisations

ngos egypt donors rights

shared by aromo0 on 06 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • aromo0 on 06 Apr 16
     
    Egypt is requiring all NGO's to seek permission from a government appointed committee before being able to receive foreign funds. The government is attempting to filter out those organizations that promote the western vision.
aromo0

NGOs lose ground in Sisi's Egypt | openDemocracy - 0 views

www.opendemocracy.net/...os-lose-ground-in-sisi's-egypt

ngos egypt human rights

shared by aromo0 on 06 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • aromo0 on 06 Apr 16
     
    NGO's in Egypt are now required to register under law 84/2002 but this law restricts the movement, development, and funding of NGO's. Speculations are that the government is attempting to downsize the number of NGO's in Egypt.
aromo0

VOICES: Women's Rights in Egypt - Re-examining a Revolution | Middle East Voices - 1 views

middleeastvoices.voanews.com/...e-examining-a-revolution-99467

rights egypt women muslim brotherhood

shared by aromo0 on 05 Oct 14 - No Cached
micklethwait liked it
  • The setbacks women experienced since the Muslim Brotherhood gained political power vary, from the approval of a constitution that lacks a clear statement on women’s rights
  • istorical feminist figure Doriya Shafiq from school textbooks.
  • he Women Deliver conference, coined as the largest meeting of the decade focused on the health and rights of women and girls.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • I’m not defending the Islamists, but I’m saying that the general mood around the world is more conservative. And this is clear in particular in the case of anything related to women, whether rights or services or freedom
  • Tallawy pointed out that in Egypt the political hurdles are intensified by a strong wave of anti-female sentiment where women’s actions are policed at all times, coupled with a decreased emphasis on education in favor of marriage and homemaking.
  • women’s causes is further hindered by the fact that non-governmental organizations operate within a framework of harsh government restrictions and a perpetual lack of funding. But she also believes that women’s rights groups have not changed their ways enough since the revolution, often working in a reactionary way rather than developing new ideas or tackling the deeper issues.
  • So we have more work to do on the real common issues between all women, and to develop their sense of empowerment to make choices, set their own priorities, and express themselves well.”
  • more on-the-ground interaction and research will be required. The second consideration, Abouzeid believes, must be the high rates of illiteracy, which can be addressed by utilizing audiovisual media campaigns, along with changing a media culture dismissive of women and their plight.
  • kristaf on 05 Oct 14
     
    The article from June of 2013 addresses the issues women face in Egypt and the causes of those issues. The article reflects on the need for women to identify the roots of their injustices and seek opportunities to prevent further restrictions on their rights. The article concludes by recognizing the means that will work best for encouraging women to pursue their rights, such as sing audiovisual media campaigning as well as well as developing "their sense of empowerment to make choices."
  • ...1 more comment...
  • yperez2 on 03 Mar 15
     
    This article mentions setbacks in the progress to women rights. These include setbacks by the government and societal norms within the culture.
  • yperez2 on 03 Mar 15
     
    This article mentions setbacks in the progress to women rights. These include setbacks by the government and societal norms within the culture.
  • aromo0 on 17 Feb 16
     
    Re-examining a revolution that is needed in order to create a better environment for women. The Muslim Brotherhood coming into power damaged women's rights.
ralqass

Saudi Arabia's Tesla Roadmap - 0 views

www.bloomberg.com/...vestment-fund-bad-news-for-oil

shared by ralqass on 21 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • ralqass on 21 Apr 16
     
    Old certainties of demand and supply are obsolete.
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. 
wmulnea

Oil and Terror: ISIS and Middle East Economies - 0 views

www.investopedia.com/...-and-middle-east-economies.asp

shared by wmulnea on 02 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • ISIS's economic cost is significant not just for Iraq but also other Middle Eastern countries.
  • Iraq has the fifth largest oil reserves in the world and third highest in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia and Iran.
  • Part of ISIS's rise in Iraq can be attributed to sectarian politics.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • part of their dissatisfaction came from the distribution of oil revenues. 
  • The mismanagement of oil revenues is also manifest in Iraq's poor infrastructure
  • Though currently the Iraqi government has reserves and surplus funds, mounting expenditures and falling oil prices has economists to project that Iraq will run a deficit next year.
  • it is running a self-sustaining economy, making it the world's richest terror group.
  • Thankfully, 6 of 8 Iraq’s major oil fields lie in the Shia South, which is unlikely to come under ISIS control.
  • It sells crude at a steep discount, at a rate of USD $30 per barrel
  • Turkey runs a huge trade surplus with Iraq, which is likely to slow down dramatically due to lower demand from Iraq.
  • Jordan and Lebanon, which have both absorbed a large number of refugees.
  • Iran’s position seems to be the trickiest of all in that its interests align with those of the US in its fight against ISIS
  • Falling oil prices have definitely curtailed Iran’s ability to intervene without serious consequences for its economy. Iran needs oil prices well above USD $100 for it to balance its budget,
  • Any cooperation between Iran and the US over ISIS could lead to a gradual withdrawal of sanctions, which would allow Iran to sell its oil on the open market and generate revenue. The flip side is that Iran’s oil would surely depress oil prices further.
  • Saudi's allegiances have become muddled.
  • it finds its interests are aligned with those of Iran, a traditional foe, both of which are against ISIS.
  • Russia needs oil prices near USD $100 to balance its budget and Iran needs high oil prices to support its nuclear program.
  • Regionally, ISIS will disrupt and degrade the economy of several states, and that in turn may lead to further political chaos -- which is precisely ISIS's goal.
fcastro2

U.N. concerned by Islamic State's ability to unite Afghan insurgents - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...state-un-idUSKBN0MC20920150316

UN ISIS Afghanistan

shared by fcastro2 on 16 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • The United Nations is concerned by the presence of Islamic State in Afghanistan but says the militant group's power to unite insurgents is more significant than its capabilities in the war-torn country
  • forces
  • attempts are under way to broker an end to 13 years of conflict between the Taliban, who were ousted in a U.S.-led war in 2001, and Afghan and foreign
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Afghan forces killed 10 fighters who claimed to be part of Islamic State on Sunday
  • growing numbers of disgruntled Taliban fighters have joined the militant group that has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq
  • significance is not so much a function of its intrinsic capacities in the area but of its potential to offer an alternative flagpole to which otherwise isolated insurgent splinter groups can rall
  • U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's latest report to the Security Council on Afghanistan said a handful of Taliban commanders had declared allegiance to Islamic State and that an increasing number were seeking funding or cooperation with Islamic State.
  • The radical Islamist group has declared a caliphate in the territory it controls in Syria and Iraq. A U.S.-led alliance has been targeting Islamic State with air strikes in Iraq and Syria for some six month
  • Militants loyal to Islamic State have also been exploiting chaos in Libya, while Boko Haram, which is seeking to carve an Islamist emirate out of northeastern Nigeria, has pledged its allegiance to Islamic State
  • "an alignment of circumstances that could be conducive to fostering peace talks" between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Officials said last month the Afghan Taliban has signaled it is willing to open peace talks.
  • continues a frank dialogue with the Taliban on humanitarian access and on human right
  • fcastro2 on 16 Mar 15
     
    The UN is concerned by the presence of ISIS in Afghanistan but says the militant group's power to "unite insurgents is more significant than its capabilities in the war-torn country."
sheldonmer

Egyptians visit Washington to defend their 'revolution' - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the ... - 0 views

www.al-monitor.com/...si-human-rights-terrorism.html

United States egypt egyptian revolution washington

shared by sheldonmer on 03 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • during an anti-Morsi and anti-Muslim Brotherhood protest in Tahrir Square in Cairo, June 28, 2013. (photo by REUTERSAsmaa Waguih)
  • group of influential Egyptians sought to convince a dozen Americans that the removal of elected president Mohammed Morsi in 2013 and his replacement by Field Marshal Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was a plus for Egypt’s political evolution and US interests.
  • Morsi had violated the constitution by claiming dictatorial powers in November 2012 and acquiesced in the brutal beating of demonstrators in front of the presidential palace. Crime rose during Morsi’s tenure and Egyptians were afraid to walk the streets or send their kids to school, she told Al-Monitor.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • The Americans, in turn, criticized Egypt for criminalizing the Muslim Brotherhood, killing more than a thousand people and detaining thousands more, including journalists and secular liberals, in the aftermath of Morsi’s ouster.
  • Coptic and other Christian leaders and a representative of the Ministry of Endowments. T
  • told Al-Monitor that the Egyptians conveyed their support for Sisi, who, after ruling as head of a military council that replaced Morsi, was elected president in May with a large percentage of votes, although a smaller turnout than in the previous presidential election.
  • Zaki said the delegation also expressed their view that while “we know we are moving toward a strong state, a strong state needs civil society and political opposition.” The third message, he said, was that Egypt wants US support in the fight against terrorism.
  • Washington has praised Cairo for mediating last summer’s Gaza war between Israel and Hamas and expressed sympathy for those fighting Islamic extremists, such as the Egyptian soldiers killed in the Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 24.
  • l some restrictions on US aid to Egypt and many analysts in Washington assert that Egypt cannot return to stability while repressing major components of its society. They also criticize an impending edict for civil society groups to register with the government, which has led many respected foreign-funded nonprofit organizations
  • encouraged the Egyptians to embrace political and religious pluralism. “The Egyptians should understand that no government can deliver peace, prosperity and law and order that does not involve all sections of society,” he said.
  • “Don’t deal with us like a teacher with a pupil,” said Nashwa el-Houfi, a columnist for the daily newspaper Al Watan. “No one has the whole truth. You have part and I have part.”
  • Another plea was for Americans to stop acting as though they knew better what was in the interests of a country with a recorded history going back 7,000 years.
    • sheldonmer
      sheldonmer on 16 Nov 14
       
      This article talks about how some Americans feel like Egypt did itself a disservice by getting rid of Morsi's rule. This article describes the conversation had by some members of the Egyptian delegation that were invited to Washington by Hands Along the Nile Development Services. This articles goes on to talk about different issues regarding U.S., Egyptian relations and basically was the U.S. condones and what it doesn't, as if it mattered.
  • kristaf on 03 Nov 14
     
    The article mentions the views of Americans and the views of Egyptians regarding the state of Egypt with concerns surrounding the Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptians were able to carry a message to Americans. Egyptians voiced their want for U.S assistance with terrorism. 
jreyesc

This Is How ISIS Smuggles Oil - 0 views

www.buzzfeed.com/...this-is-how-isis-smuggles-oil

money Oil Smugglers ISIS ISIL Syria

shared by jreyesc on 13 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • Turkish-Syrian border
  • The militants can make more than $1 million a day selling oil from fields captured in eastern Syria.
  • In recent months, the government has vowed to crack down on illicit oil, and police have targeted smuggling routes, seizing oil drums and digging up pipelines.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • helped make ISIS the world’s richest extremists.
  • Rebel groups targeted oil resources from the regime in battles often overshadowed by higher-profile fronts in the war — namely in the provinces of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, where there were refineries and oil fields.
  • Strapped for cash, the rebels smuggled some of the oil to buyers in Turkey, whose government was one of the Syrian opposition’s main backers, having already opened its borders to activists, fighters, and refugees.
  • Omar would receive a call from a commander in the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the U.S.-backed rebel coalition, telling him to head to the Syrian side of the border.
  • If he took in $1,500 in a night, he would give $500 to the FSA commander and another $500 to the Turkish border guards. “You can’t really say that we are smuggling oil, because we take permission from the Turkish side and the Syrian side,” Omar said. “But since it’s under the table, we call it smuggling.”
  • it controlled Raqqa, and soon after it was battling for control of the rebel-held parts of Deir Ezzor.
  • As ISIS gained new oil fields, Omar kept smuggling. He may have worked along an FSA-run border, but he knew he was buying the oil from middlemen who had taken it from ISIS’s hands.
  • For ISIS, the profits were startup funds as it built up its self-styled caliphate, buying weapons and paying salaries.
  • U.S. airstrikes now targeting its oil infrastructure, ISIS can make over $1 million a day from the trade
  • ISIS controls 60% of the oil-producing resources in eastern Syria, he said, plus a handful of marginal oil fields in Iraq.
  • The group sells most of it within its own territory in Iraq and in Syria — which covers more than 12,000 miles, a size comparable to Belgium, and includes some 8 million people, a population approaching Switzerland’s. Desperate residents need the fuel to run their cars, generators, and bakeries.
  • It was the worst example of a wartime pillage that has stripped Syria of everything of value, from scrap metal to precious artifacts. “I just want to show the world what they are doing to my country,” he said.
  • jreyesc on 13 Nov 14
     
    ISIS has become very rich extremist group because of the oil smuggling business they are involved in.
allieggg

US weighs sanctions on Libyan factions to try to halt proxy war - 1 views

www.todayszaman.com/-to-halt-proxy-war_363768.html

UN libya militias armed groups war middle east proxy power vacuum sanctions US

shared by allieggg on 13 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • US sanctions would be separate from potential United Nations sanctions that aim to pressure Libyan factions and militias to take part in UN-backed political negotiations to be led by UN envoy Bernardino Leon.
  • The possibility of using UN sanctions to help bring about political talks has been aired publicly.
  • US officials declined to say who they might target with sanctions or why they felt it necessary to look at US. penalties separate from the United Nations. Nor would they detail what sanctions they would propose.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • United Nations moves slowly or not at all, US penalties could be imposed whenever Washington wished.
  • struggling for power and control of its oil wealth.
  • two potential reasons for unilateral US action.
  • If applied, the United Nations sanctions would target individuals or groups involved in the fighting, rather than their foreign backers, and would freeze their assets as well as impose travel bans.
  • US sanctions could be especially worrisome to Khalifa Haftar, a former Libyan army general who fled to the United States after breaking ranks with Gaddafi and returned to launch a campaign against the Islamists in Benghazi.
  • Western officials believe the involvement of outside powers such as Egypt and the UAE is exacerbating the conflict and that the two countries are arming and funding the more secular forces.
  • Haftar, according to Western officials, has become the major proxy in Libya for Egypt,
  • UAE sees Egypt's leadership as a firewall against militants and has given Cairo financial and military support
  • Saudi Arabia, a supporter of Sisi, is sympathetic to the Egyptian and Emirati involvement in Libya but is not believed to have played any direct role,
  • Qatar and Turkey. Qatar, officials said, has given arms and money to Islamist militias while Turkey has offered moral support.
  • allieggg on 13 Nov 14
     
    The UN is pushing for sanctions to put pressure on Libyan factions and militias to take part in political negotiations. These sanctions would target individual groups rather than the foreign backers involved in the proxy war and would freeze their assets and impose travel bans. US officials have introduced the possibility of using their own sanctions separate from the UN for a few reasons: UN sanctions move slowly if not at all, Washington could impose them whenever they wish. The US places more emphasis on the importance on external actors in the conflict than domestic groups, explaining that these countries are actually intensifying the conflict. 
allieggg

The New Arab Cold War - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...r_saudi_arabia_uae_libya_syria

leadership proxy wars polarization US Saudi Qatar Turkey UAE politics war

shared by allieggg on 19 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • It stretches from Iraq to Lebanon and reaches into North Africa, taking lives in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt's Western Desert, and now Libya
  • this violence is the result of a nasty fight between regional powers over who will lead the Middle East
  • The recent Egyptian and Emirati airstrikes on Libyan Islamist militias is just one manifestation of this fight for leadership among Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). All these countries have waded into conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Bahrain, and now Libya in order to establish themselves as regional leaders.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Yet these regional contenders for power have rarely achieved their goals. Instead, they have fueled violence, political conflict, and polarization, deepening the endemic problems in the countries they have sought to influence. 
  • Barack Obama's attempt to disentangle the United States from the Middle East's many conflicts has only intensified these rivalries. From a particular perspective, Iraq's chaos, Syria's civil war, Libya's accelerating disintegration, and Hosni Mubarak's fall all represent failures of American leadership.
  • Turkish government has become a leading advocate of regime change in Syria. Unwilling to intervene in the Syrian civil war and unable to coax the United States to do so, Ankara turned a blind eye to extremist groups that used Turkish territory to take up the fight against Assad.
  • Yet the war of words between Ankara and Cairo since then and the support that the Turkish government has extended to the Muslim Brotherhood
  • has only contributed to the political polarization and instability in Egypt
  • Qatar has been less circumspect than others in its support for groups fighting in Syria and Iraq, both offering official funding to Islamist groups in Syria and allowing private contributions to groups including al-Nusra Front, al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate.
  • These conflicts have less to do with Iran and the Sunni-Shiite divide than widely believed. Rather, they represent a fracturing of Washington's Sunni allies in the Middle East. Left to their own devices, the proxy wars the Saudis, Emiratis, Qataris, and Turks are waging among themselves will continue to cause mayhem
  • allieggg on 19 Nov 14
     
    This article basically states that since the US's withdrawal from Middle Eastern affairs, regional actors were left to fight over who will lead the region's future. The fight is baiscally a run off between Turkey, Qatar, Saudi, and the UAE, each country doing their part intervening in conflicts aiding their supported side. Rather than achieving goals, these proxy wars have fueled the violence, chaos, and polarization deepening the problems they originally sought to mend. While the US has succeeded in abstaining from Mid East affairs, the question now is whether or not they should continue this resignation or step in to urge for order and peace. 
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