Month: June 2006

For bread alone

Moorishgirl points out that Paul Bowles’ translation of Mohammed Choukri’s For Bread Alone has been re-published:

Luckily for those of you who would like to finally get your hands on this seminal Moroccan novel, Telegram Books in the UK is re-issuing it this month, so I’ll be sure to pick up a copy when I’m in London in July. You can also get it on Amazon.co.uk. You’d better get a copy and read it, or you are dead to me.

Damn right. Find out more about Choukri here.

3alaa to be released!!

State security prosecutor ordered today the release of detained leftist blogger 3alaa Seif al-Islam, who’s been locked up in Tora Prison since 7 May. 3alaa’s actual release, however, isn’t expected to happen before sometime tomorrow or Thursday, because of the notorious red-tape and paper-work his lawyers have to go through.

Mabrouk ya 3alaa! Mabrouk ya Manal!! Continue reading 3alaa to be released!!

Sacked activist finally gets his pay cheque

Ahmad el-Droubi woke up in the morning to a postman knocking on his door. When he opened the letter, it was nothing but a sweet cheque from his former employer that had his unpaid salary and consultancy fees.The cheque Droubi received this morning signifies two things: First, it is an implicit acknowledgement from his company that he was unjustly dismissed. Second, it shows campaigning does work! Yes, Droubi wouldn’t have gotten back part of his rights, if it was not for you dear readers.
On behalf of Droubi, I want to thank everyone who expressed their solidarity and support, and for all those who took the time to write the company management protesting the activist’s dismissal. The fight is NOT over though, as there are still unsettled issues here. One: The dismissal is still unjust, and our friend is still unemployed. Two: We still need a financial compensation for this unjust dismissal. So please dear readers, keep those emails to the management coming, till they do the right thing.

Mabrouk ya Droubster.. We hope we’ll hear more good news soon.

It’s the thought that counts

The American State Dept just released its list of gifts given by foreign heads of state to visiting American regime big wigs. Most of it’s pretty by-the-numbers stuff—Tayyip Erdogan gave George Bush a desk set sort of thing. Yaaaawn. But a couple of these things make you wonder what the message was. Abdullah II gave him a sniper rifle, I guess we’d have to read the note to find out if this was a jab at his foreign policy (anybody remember Ari Fleischer’s “one bullet� crack about regime change in Iraq?) or encouragement to become a better shot. The best one, though, has to be the Sultan of Brunei, who apparently handed over a copy of The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook. No need to listen for a double entendre here. This little gem, published by Chronicle Books back in 1999, offers (supposedly carefully researched) advice on how to get out of various sticky situations: Crocodile got your arm? Tap on its nose. Trapped in a sinking car? Open the window. Presidency in a tailspin? Well, maybe that’s where the sniper rifle comes in…

Oddly, there’s nothing listed there from Hosni. Is that because they don’t have to list stuff they paid for?

Mona Tahawy fired from Al Sharq Al Awsat

I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! Al Sharq Al Awsat fff… ffff… ffff… fakes its liberalism? So says Mona al Tahawy, who lost her column as house liberal there:

The trouble with Asharq al-Awsat, beyond its disturbing acquiescence to Arab regimes, is that it claimed a liberalism that was patently false.

Before my ban, Asharq al-Awsat launched a Web site in English. Designed to show Western readers how liberal it was, the site suffered from Yasser Arafat syndrome. Just as the late Palestinian leader’s statements in Arabic and in English were sometimes contradictory, the newspaper in Arabic would abide by the red lines that govern criticism of Arab leaders while in English it ran roughshod over those very same lines.

A column I wrote tearing into the Egyptian regime for allowing its security forces to beat peaceful protesters and to sexually assault female journalists and demonstrators was spiked from the Arabic newspaper and Web site but appeared in its entirety on the English Web site.

Every journalist working in the Middle East has had to pull punches, no matter who they work for — Arab papers, American papers, British papers. When it’s not the Saudi royal family, it’s a Hariri or an Emad Eddin Adib or a Rupert Murdoch or a Conrad Black, or indeed a Sulzberger. Of course with the Saudis it’s chronic and non-negotiable. But hey, come on Mona Al Tahawy, they gave you a place to start and now I’m sure you’ll do fine in the IHT and elsewhere. I look forward to reading your devastating columns on Saudi Arabia, perhaps?

One good question in the column though: how do your reach Arabs with a liberal message (if you are a liberal columnist/thinker/broadcaster etc.) when the press has so many red lines? Since these regimes are not changing their ways anytime soon, I suspect the answer will be partly TV (as Al Jazeera has already done) and, for a smaller but quickly growing audience, the internet, which is capable of being much more transgressive than TV.

World Refugee Day in Morocco

Today is World Refugee Day. I recently received an email announcing this forum for Sudanese refugees in Egypt and elsewhere. Good luck to them, and I hope the debate on the recent handling of last year’s sit-in continues there.

Meanwhile, in Rabat, Ursula went to a sit-in in front of UNHCR’s office this morning. Here is what she reports:

I wanted to write something on immigration when I came to Morocco, and I’ve been researching a story for the last few weeks. The thing is, there are (at least) two types of immigration going on: the immigration of Moroccans to Europe, and the immigration of SubSaharan Africans to Morocco (and then perhaps Europe). This post will be about the second. The terrible irony being that Morocco—a country from which millions have emigrated to Europe, where they face discrimination—treats immigrants and refugees on its own soil in a shameful manner.

Continue reading World Refugee Day in Morocco

Gaza beach deaths

Jumping back in to the blogging game from Gaza… Rumors have it Palestinian factions will announce agreement tonight, but for now with regards to the beach deaths, Hossam mentioned Saturday’s Guardian report. In fact all three British tabloids, Guardian, Telegraph and her majesty’s Times took the Israeli army’s account to task on Friday and Saturday, but it was the Times that had the more damning account, including an internal UN radio call contradicting the crucial Israeli timeline of events: Continue reading Gaza beach deaths

MERIP on Iran, twice

MERIP has published two interesting articles on Iran in the last week. The first looked at the strategic Iran-Israel rivalry, arguing that posturing in both countries had to do with their self-image as the region’s only real powers and their need to be counted as a player by the region’s superpower, the US. The article contains some interesting info on the Iranian position on Palestine, for instance, where despite much posturing there has been relatively little real help (an anecdote of a 1979 meeting between Khomeini and Arafat is quite enlightening in this regard.) Continue reading MERIP on Iran, twice