Sabbah Report » Algeria

Arab in Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:12:50 +0000

It's time of the year for Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007. With all my reservations regarding Reporters Without Borders neutrality (having doubt after knowing that France is their financial supporter, although they are an NGO!), yet, their report was always a good indicator, if not the closest to reality - at least from my experiences as a blogger from the Middle East with all the sorrow and sad stories that I went through and heard of - when it comes to measure the freedom of speech in general and freedom of press in particular.

Every now and then we hear about new rules and regulations around the Arab World that makes it harder for press to speak the 'truth'. Not to mention the censorship applied in many Arab countries such as - but not limited to - United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Syria, etc... worst is to know that this list is getting bigger day by day, but with different terms and means such as the official watchdogs of local authorities to monitor and nail bloggers and detain them, e.g. Egypt cases.

Having said the above, lets look on how do 'Arab States' stand this year, but before this, let's note the leading paragraph of the report:

Bloggers now threatened as much as journalists in traditional media

Doesn't sound good news at all... following that by few paragraphs,

Outside Europe - in which the top 14 countries are located - no region of the world has been spared censorship or violence towards journalists.

And who are these 14 countries? Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Slovakia, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, Latvia, Netherlands and Czech Republic. Congratulations to these leading countries, and shame on the rest!

Note that the Big Brother and the Queen are not in the above list. But anyway, they are better than some others.

Back to Arab States ranking, the story is as expected. Looking at the leading countries from the bottom we find that Somalia, Palestine and Iraq are ranked 159, 158 and 157 respectively. Not surprised by this due to what they are going through with the Israeli occupation from one side and from the USA 'Freedom Operation' on the other side, beside Somalia's 'brothers war', but this is not enough excuse for them to be leading the bottom.

The battle raging between Hamas and Fatah is the main cause of the large number of serious press freedom violations in the Palestinian Territories (158th). Hostage-taking, arrests, physical attacks and ransacking of news organisations - the Palestinian media and the few visiting journalist are threatened from all sides.

In Iraq (157th), what journalists fear most are the armed groups that target them without the authorities ever finding a way to put an end to the litany of violence. More than 200 journalists and media assistants have been killed since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003.

Next comes Libya ranked 155, which is not far from Palestine and Iraq, but I guess this country is going through worst that Israeli and USA occupation, so they are excused.

Now comes Syria as rank 154 and they are also excused because the are in "continuous state of war" against God knows who?! (if you know, let me know).

Who's next? Saudi Arabia (148), Egypt (146), Tunisia (145), Yemen (143), Sudan (140). Great mix and match. Rich and educated countries with poor and highly illiterate percentage of the population countries, that if we give Sudan the excuse like their Palestinian, Iraqi, Libyan and Syrian brother and assume that they are in war against 'poverty'!

Algeria (123), Jordan (122), Bahrain (118), Morocco (106) and Lebanon (98). Not really good and can do much better, specially Lebanon. Next comes Qatar (79), United Arab Emirates (65), Kuwait (63) and Mauritania (50), which is the best position that any Arabian country could reach this year, so congratulations to Mauritania for being at least among the top 1/3 of the list!

Some non-European countries have made their first appearance in the top 50. They are Mauritania (50th), which has climbed 88 places since 2004, Uruguay (37th) and Nicaragua (47th).

Wow! Big hand for them.

Quoting the report again and looking at the Big Brother:

There were slightly fewer press freedom violations in the United States (48th) and blogger Josh Wolf was freed after 224 days in prison. But the detention of Al-Jazeeraâ€™s Sudanese cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, since 13 June 2002 at the military base of Guantanamo and the murder of Chauncey Bailey in Oakland in August mean the United States is still unable to join the lead group.
[...]
We regret all the same that only two G8 members, Canada (18th) and Germany (20th), managed to be among the top 20.

And as a blogger, this is the worst part of the report:

Government repression no longer ignores bloggers

The Internet is occupying more and more space in the breakdown of press freedom violations. Several countries fell in the ranking this year because of serious, repeated violations of the free flow of online news and information.

In Malaysia (124th), Thailand (135th), Vietnam (162nd) and Egypt (146th), for example, bloggers were arrested and news websites were closed or made inaccessible. "We are concerned about the increase in cases of online censorship," Reporters Without Borders said. "More and more governments have realised that the Internet can play a key role in the fight for democracy and they are establishing new methods of censoring it. The governments of repressive countries are now targeting bloggers and online journalists as forcefully as journalists in the traditional media."

At least 64 persons are currently imprisoned worldwide because of what they posted on the Internet. China maintains its leadership in this form of repression, with a total of 50 cyber-dissidents in prison. Eight are being held in Vietnam. A young man known as Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for blog posts criticising the president and Islamist control of the country's universities.

Free Kareem!

Complete list in attached image (click to enlarge).

Miss Bahrain, Miss Arab World 2007 and Stereotypes

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:49:39 +0000

I admit I have missed the news when it was announced end of last July, but better late than never.

Honored to be Bahraini by soul for living in Bahrain for the last four years, I am very happy to know that Wafaa Ganahi, a 23-year-old teacher from the Law Faculty of Bahrain University, won the title, while the first runner-up was Miss Egypt Shaimaa Mansour and Miss Lebanon Rula Bahij, 23, was the second runner-up. Out of seventeen women from 15 countries attended the final competition.

On the other hand, what does this contest and these photos tells us other than the general perceptions about such events? Well, for me they mean a lot.

First, let me congratulate Miss Arab World, Miss Bahrain. She deserved it, and this leads me to my first note. As you can see from the attached photos, Miss Bahrain is a veiled lady, which leads to the conclusion that Miss Arab World - as well miss world - does not need to be unveiled to win a beauty contest. At least in beauty standards if you agree with me that veil does not hide beauty. I know that bikini show in such beauty contests is suppose to be a standard event, which probably every male in this universe are looking for :-) but Miss Arab World, and Miss Bahrain broke this rule - if I may consider it as a rule - and won for her beauty, real beauty. Not only that, but she also received official tribute which reflects how open Bahrain is.

Second, I'm not surprised to see some unveiled beauties from the last place one can expect, such as Saudi Arabia. The girl is gorgeous, but I bet that she is on the 'top wanted list' by Saudi religious men now, not for anything related to terrorism, no, but for her unveiled beauty and daring to show up. In my terms, Miss Saudi Arabia won Miss Arab World for her braveness to participate with all what we know about how she was perceived in her home country. Most probably she lives outside Saudi and her dreams to visit her homeland vanished forever.

Third, I'm really surprised and happy to see beauties from other conservative Arab countries such as Miss Yemen and Miss Sudan. They are setting new standards along with Miss Saudi Arabia and breaking all the stereotypes that we hear day and night by the Western media. Yes, behind the Hijab's, Niqab's and Burqa's we have very pretty ladies and we are not ashamed of showing them, in a modest way. A new generation will always fight the taboos for better life.

Last but not least, as a Palestinian, I'm proud to see Miss Palestine participating in this event despite all what Palestinians and the occupied lands are going through day and night by the Israeli terrorist occupation. Unlike Miss Israel, just imagine how many crosscheck she had to pass to reach an Israeli occupied port to be able to travel to Cairo for the event. Even if she lives in Israel, her journey will be under the same rules that govern the travel all Arab and Palestinian from Israel (more humiliating example).

Alright, enough blah blah... back to business, here are some photos I gathered from different sources around the web. In no particular order, take a look at Miss Bahrain, Miss Libya, Miss Saudi Arabia, Miss Lebanon, Miss Tunisia, Miss Egypt, Miss Morocco, Miss Kuwait, Miss Iraq, Miss Jordan, Miss Syria and Miss Algeria.

(Click thumbnail to enlarge)

Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 19:32:15 +0000

In the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, in between 168 indexed countries, our beloved Arab countries makes sure to be among the worst.

Here is the list in order from "best" to "worst":

Kuwait - 73
United Arab Emirates - 77
Mauritania - 77
Qatar - 80
Morocco - 97
Lebanon - 107
Jordan - 109
Bahrain - 111
Algeria - 126
Egypt - 133
Palestine - 134
Sudan - 139
Tunisia - 148
Yemen - 149
Libya - 152
Iraq -154
Syria - 153
Saudi Arabia - 161
Oman - ?

Yemen (149th) slipped four places, mainly because of the arrest of several journalists and closure of newspapers that reprinted the cartoons. Journalists were harassed for the same reason in Algeria (126th), Jordan (109th), Indonesia (103rd) and India (105th).

But except for Yemen and Saudi Arabia (161st), all the Arab peninsula countries considerably improved their rank. Kuwait (73rd) kept its place at the top of the group, just ahead of the United Arab Emirates (77th) and Qatar (80th).

[...]

Lebanon has fallen from 56th to 107th place in five years, as the country’s media continues to suffer from the region’s poisonous political atmosphere, with a series of bomb attacks in 2005 and Israeli military attacks this year. The Lebanese media - some of the freest and most experienced in the Arab world - desperately need peace and guarantees of security. The inability of the Palestinian Authority (134th) to maintain stability in its territories and the behaviour of Israel (135th) outside its borders seriously threaten freedom of expression in the Middle East.

Reporters Without Borders compiled the Index by asking the 14 freedom of expression organisations that are its partners worldwide, its network of 130 correspondents, as well as journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists, to answer 50 questions about press freedom in their countries. The Index covers 168 nations. Others were not included for lack of data about them.

- Questionnaire for compiling a 2006 world press freedom index
- How the index was compiled

Evaluation of Middle East can be found here (and Middle East Index - PDF).

Arab GDP Improving

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 09:53:01 +0000

According to the annual report of the Arab Economic Unity Council, the Arab GDP is improving.

Her is the summery:

Arab gross domestic product reached $860 billion in 2004 compared to 746.1 billion the year before.
GDP growth ranged between 1.2 and 6.5 per cent while the GDP per capita rose to $2879 in 2004, compared to 2572 in 2003.
The report exempted Egypt from the recorded rise in per capita income, where it dropped by 7.6 per cent as a result of the fall in the exchange rate of the Egyptian pound and inflation.
Bahrain ranked first among the Arab states in containing inflation that reached 0.40 per cent in 2004, compared to 2.2 per cent the year before, while Sudan recorded the highest inflation of 17.1 per cent. In Egypt, it dropped to 4.1 per cent from 4.6 per cent.
Inflation also rose in Kuwait, Jordan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania and Yemen.
Value of Arab exports increased to $397.4 billion last year, or by 30.4 per cent, from 304.6 billion in 2003. Arab imports posted a growth of 34.2 per cent, rising to $241.9 billion in 2004, compared to 194.8 billion in 2003.

The European Union came first as a trade partner of the Arab states, receiving 28.2 per cent of Arab exports in 2003, compared to 29.2 per cent in 2004. Exports to the US rose from 8.4 per cent to 10.2 per cent, to Japan from 17.1 per cent to 18 per cent.
The share of the Arab exports to Southeastern Asian countries fell by 13.3 per cent to 12.4 per cent, while the inter-Arab export compared to the overall Arab exports dropped from 8.4 per cent to 8.1 per cent.

U.S. Ranks Sixth Among Countries Jailing Journalists

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 19:08:42 +0000

The United States has tied with Myanmar (the former Burma) for sixth place among countries that are holding the most journalists behind bars, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Each country is jailing five journalists. The United States is holding four Iraqi journalists in detention centers in Iraq and one Sudanese, a cameraman who works for Al Jazeera, at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. None of the five have been charged with a specific crime.

This year, a total of 125 writers, editors and photojournalists were held in jails around the world on Dec. 1, 2005, the report said.

Among the listed countries that are holding journalists behind bars, Algeria 3, Tunisia 2, Libya 1 and Morocco 1.

Press Freedom in the Middle East

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 22:08:58 +0000

WAN Press Freedom Report: The Arab World One of the Most Troubling Regions

The World Association of Newspapers's press freedom review was presented to its Board, meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 14 November. The report states that the Middle East and North Africa is one of the most troubling regions in the world for press freedom, and events in recent months have proved no exception.

The report, fully available at http://www.wan-press.org/article8600.html , says:

- Ongoing violence and instability in Iraq have made the country the most dangerous place in the world for media. At least eight journalists have been murdered in the past six months, bringing the yearly total thus far to nineteen. Most of the victims were local journalists, many falling victim to attacks by insurgents.

-Social agitation in the tiny kingdom of Bahrain has brought out the less tolerant side of the normally accommodating government. In the past six months, at least three bloggers and Internet users affiliated with the website Bahrain Online (www.bahrainonline.org) have been detained and released.

-In Yemen, social unrest appears to have led to direct reprisals from the government in recent months. Premeditated attacks on the press have also been recorded.

- Initial high hopes concerning the political future of Lebanon in the wake of the withdrawal of Syrian troops and the June parliamentary elections were dampened by the 2 June murder of popular political columnist Samir Kassir.

In a similar attack, May Chidiac, an anchorwoman with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, was seriously wounded in a car bomb attack in September.

-Egypt's first democratic presidential elections in September put the country's predominately state-controlled media to the test. As expected, coverage was found to be biased in favor of President Mubarak, although opposition candidates were given print space and airtime.

-In Algeria, the government has continued to employ defamation laws to crack down on opposition journalists over the past six months, rounding off a thoroughly disappointing year for press freedom in the country.

-The gruesome murder of a journalist in Libya in June shone rare light into a country that is normally shrouded in darkness due the lack of any independent media.

RSF activists protest outside Algerian embassy in Paris

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 21:43:58 +0000

Unfurling banners and handing out leaflets, a score of Reporters Without Borders activists demonstrated outside the Algerian embassy in Paris today to mark Algerian newspaper editor Mohamed Benchicouï¿½s 500th day in prison. Related posts: The Saudi Embassy in Doha-Qatar deprives 1300 journalists from their religious rights Israeli Embassy was warned The Embassy is in the [...] Related posts:

It’s the oil, stupid!

Haitham Sabbah — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 09:08:09 +0000

Shamelessly from the Political Musings of intectus

For years now, British Petroleum (BP) has published a fascinating annual report entitled Statistical Review of World Energy. Publicly available on their website, this report provides excellent insight into the sources and uses of fossil fuel energy around the world. Now what does this report have to do with the political issues canvassed on this blog? As it turns out, quite a bit.

When dinner party talk around the world turns to the behaviour of the neo-con controlled Bush regime, people tend to fall into two broad groups, pro-Dubya or anti-Dubya. The pro-Dubya group believes Bush's desire to spread neo-con democracy and freedom is unadulterated altruism of messianic proportions. On the other hand, the anti-Dubya group believes that Bush uses the cloak of democracy and freedom to further an agenda driven by oil.

Certainly, in so far as the illegal invasion of Iraq is concerned, the sound trashing of the original claims of Saddam's NBC weapons laid open the bare-faced pack of lies Dubya and his mates, Blair and Howard, peddled around the world over this war. But now that Team Neo-Con has well and truly trashed Iraq, who do we think is next on their agenda?

We all have our suspicions that Iran is more likely to be next to get it in the neck than North Korea. But we may not have evidence beyond our gut feelings. Or do we? Judge for yourself, after reviewing the following analysis based on BP's goldmine of information.

Let's travel back in time to the year 2000 when Dubya moved into the White House after stealing the presidency through a finagled Florida ballot. His neo-con priests would have impressed upon him, the need for America to control directly or by proxy, global oil supplies.

For a modern industrial society like America cannot allow others to dictate terms of America's very existence by possessing the ability to turn off the oil tap. Don't believe this? Remember the oil crisis in the 1970s? That was sparked by an Arab oil embargo against the US for supporting Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

By the way, there is nothing wrong in a nation wishing to obtain energy security. But when does legitimate protection of energy supply become an excuse for controlling global energy supply through illegal acts of war? Not an issue, I hear some say - it's part and parcel of global politics. Remember one of the key reasons for Japan going to war in the Pacific? It was because they were denied access to oil and other raw materials by the Western powers of the day, including the US.

Japan believed they had legitimate reasons to launch their four year campaign of rampage, pillage and terror throughout the Western Pacific. If it was wrong then for Japan to go to war over blockades, then surely it must be even less justifiable for the US to launch a war based on a pack of lies.

But I digress.

The pie graph below shows the regions around the world from which the US imported oil in 2000. Notice that nearly 50% came from the Middle Eastern and Central & South American regions combined. North America (ie domestic US, Canada and Mexico) accounted for just under a further 30% of oil imports.

Source: BP p.l.c.

Now the following pie graph below shows proved global oil reserves by region in 2000. Notice that the US drew only 27% of its oil from the Middle East despite the region having a whopping 63% of proved global reserves. Contrast this with the fact that the US drew 20% of its oil from Central & South America despite that region having only 9% of proved global oil reserves. So you can see that back in 2000, the Middle Eastern region didn't have overwhelming leverage over the US in terms of oil supply. But the rest of the world was in fact far more dependent on Middle Eastern oil than the US.

Source: BP p.l.c.

Just how dependent other countries are on Middle Eastern oil (in contrast to the US) is easy to see in the following table of exports against imports by region. In this case, the data are from 2003, as 2000 figures are no longer available. The standout dependencies on Middle Eastern oil are China (40%), Japan (79%) and Other Asia Pacific (72%).

Remember what Dubya said of China when he first gained office? For those who've forgotten, he identified China as a strategic competitor to the US. Only China has shown itself to be prepared to shove back when shoved by America. With China on a path to becoming a superpower capable of challenging US control of the Pacific inside this century, it's now obvious why the neo-cons are so eager to resort even to illegal wars to ensure America controls directly or by proxy, Middle Eastern oil supplies.

If the neo-cons succeed, they believe that they can control China by threatening to turn off the Middle Eastern oil tap. Don't believe this proposition? Then stay tuned for more evidence.

As for Japan, it looks like they aren't going to pursue a less obseqious foreign policy towards the US any time soon, huh? And if any of the other Asian and Indian sub-continent natives get too uppity, well they'll just have to be reminded who controls their energy lifeblood.

Turning to Europe, notice that it imports about the same proportion of its oil as the US, from the Middle East. A far greater proportion of oil sourced is from within Europe (Norway) and Eurasia (Russia and former Soviet Republics such as Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan). So it's more difficult for Europe to be influenced via the oil lever.

Source: BP p.l.c.

The next table shows proved oil reserves by country in the Middle East region in 2000. Countries politically unsympathetic to the US are highlighted in red text while those that are politically sympathetic or under proxy control are highlighted in blue text. Notice that Iraq and Iran have the second and third largest proved oil reserves after Saudi Arabia. We all know what happened to Iraq in 2003. Guess who controls their oil resources now?

Since seizing control of Iraq, isn't it interesting how Team Neo-Con has now been emitting bellicose noises at Iran? Officially, the Bush regime claims that Iran's nuclear program is capable of military applications. But why is this more of an immediate threat than North Korea's admitted possession of nuclear weapons and very public test firings of missiles designed to deliver nuclear warheads?

If it was good enough for Dubya to fabricate evidence of NBC weapons to invade Iraq, why isn't it good enough for him to invade North Korea, given their admissions? Instead, we find the neo-cons' focus is on Iran with its probable nascent nuclear program. Interesting lack of consistency, isn't it?

That's why we shouldn't be surprised if and when some sort of confrontation with Iran occurs before the end of Dubya's presidency. And if, perish the thought, another Republican sits in the White House, expect more of the same.

By the way, even though Syria is one of the founding members of Dubya's Axis of Evil, they can still sleep easy. They are very, very unlikely to be invaded by the neo-cons any time soon. Just like that bleak death camp, North Korea, I suspect Syria has little of something called oil to warrant an invasion. I mean, Team Neo-Con doesn't just go to war over a small drop of oil, you know!

Source: BP p.l.c.

As the table below shows, Venezuela has the absolute lion's share of proved oil reserves in the Central & South American region. What's the significance of this fact? Well, as the very first pie graph in this post shows, the US imports a fifth of its oil from Venezuela. This means that the US would have particularly strong reasons to ensure a politically pliable Venezuelan leadership holds office down south.

But in 1999, Venezuelans voted to replace a corrupt pro-US leader with a leftist ex-paratrooper. Sickened by corrupt politicians and the elite lining their own pockets, voters decided to back Hugo Chavez because he promised tough political and social reforms. After taking office, Chavez began to pursue a foreign policy far less aligned towards the US.

Unsurprisingly, the Bush White House then began to run a line that Chavez wasn't acting in the best interests of Venezuela. Along the way, an unsuccessful Right wing led coup against Chavez fortuitously arose out of nowhere but sparked little adverse comment from the neo-cons. Strange, huh?

Source: BP p.l.c.

Now to Africa. As the very first pie graph of this post shows, the African region accounted for 15% of America's oil imports in 2000. And as the table below shows, Nigeria and Libya together have 70% of the region's proved oil reserves. And what a surprise to find American involvement or interest in both countries' affairs to the exclusion of attention on other more wretched humanitarian disasters in Africa. No significant oil in those other places - that's their problem.

Source: BP p.l.c.

The last region of note is collectively known as Europe and Eurasia. Here, Russia has the lion's share of proved oil reserves. Now as the red text highlights, the Russian government isn't politically pliable nor sympathetic to the neo-con agenda. So why not cosy up to the Russian oil companies that control the drilling rights?

Unfortunately for the neo-cons, Putin wised up to their support of the former Yukos chief, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and found a way to remove him. Now before we get all teary-eyed over the anti-democratic actions against Khodorkovsky, as Team Neo-Con wants us to be, we need to understand how this man became an oil tycoon in the first place.

When the former USSR disintegrated into its various new republics, state assets such as oil exploration and production rights, were bought for ridiculously low prices by individuals like Khodorkovsky with no proper legal and financial frameworks to ensure Russian citizens (in this case) received commercial prices for their former state-owned assets.

Often, the individuals buying the assets were the same officials charged with selling the assets, or were close relatives of those officials. After all, how else could a 30+ year old man in a country where individual private wealth didn't exist, suddenly become a multi-billionaire overnight? Through his family fortune and business talents previously non-existent in a command economy? Give us a break! We should save our tears for someone more deserving.

Source: BP p.l.c.

Notice that even though the US sourced only 7% of oil imports from this region, Eurasia (comprised of a number of former Soviet republics) has about 35% of proved global gas reserves (in addition to significant proved oil reserves). So why is it that despite not importing significant quantities of gas or oil from Eurasia or Central Asia, the US still has military bases in Kyrgyzstan (landlocked country which borders China), Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; and has struck direct unspecified military cooperation agreements with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan?

What is the underlying strategic intent behind this unprecendented move into a region of zero historical connection and interest to the US?

Is it really in support of the so-called "War on Terror" in Afghanistan, as claimed by the Bush regime? Isn't it a little odd that so much money is being spent on bases all around this region, to find one guy - Osama Bin Laden? And despite the enormous resources expended, they still can't find this guy. Maybe they don't want to find him. After all, if Bin Laden is found, what publicly acceptable reason is there for the US bases to remain in Central Asia?

On the other hand, if these bases remain, direct or proxy control of these resource rich countries places a powerful choke hold on energy supplies to the neo-cons' next big future enemy - China. Now there's a really plausible reason for spending billions of taxpayers' dollars...

Don't see the point? Take out a map of the Asian continent. Make sure you can see from China and Japan in the east, to Iraq and Turkey in the west. Imagine you are President Hu Jin Tao sitting in Beijing. You know your fast growing economy needs reliable energy supplies to fuel its growth.

At present 40% of your oil is from the Middle East, a region under the American thumb. Another 30% of your supply is from the Asia Pacific region, another American lake. While only 10% is from Eurasia (Central Asia), this region has vast resources which could supply a far greater proportion of your energy needs than it does now. And since this region is adjacent to your western borders, perhaps you can achieve better security over these supplies. After all, Middle Eastern oil must pass through waters controlled by the US Navy, as does oil from the Asia Pacific. You know it but unfortunately, so do the Americans.

So their Central Asian bases not only pose a threat to your desire for greater energy security, they also pose a threat of military encirclement. You see, US bases on your western borders (Central Asian republics), US bases on your southern borders (Pakistan, Thailand and Singapore) and US bases on your eastern borders (Taiwan, South Korea and Japan) aren't there to spread neo-con democracy and freedom. They are there to contain you. But ironically, if the shoe was on the other foot - ie Chinese bases in Mexico, Cuba and Canada, to name a few countries, imagine the McCarthy type campaign that would be running rampant in Fort Dubya now!

In summary, Team Neo-Con has a deep agenda in relation to oil. This agenda extends beyond legitimate protection of US energy supply, over to direct or proxy control of global energy supply in the form of a publicly unrecognised Cold War. Under the guise of promoting freedom and democracy, the neo-cons believe they can forestall the inevitable decline of Pax Americana through fair means or foul.

They have already demonstrated their preparedness to prosecute illegal and immoral wars to achieve their ends, and have duped most of their own citizens in the same way Big Brother did in George Orwell's classic novel, 1984. Even though the neo-cons have succeeded in subverting the high principles upon which their own nation was founded, they haven't yet accomplished the same mission outside America.

Let's hope they fail miserably.

Can SESAME become an oasis of peace in the Middle East?

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 26 May 2005 21:41:20 +0000

Here's some good news from the Jordan: Israel, Iran, Syria, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Palestine Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Algeria, Jordan and many other countries from around the globe (click below graph for a list of other countries), need no "Open SESAME magic" to be able to cooperate on an advanced scientific project.

In Al-Balqa' Applied University, just north of Amman - and at a comfortable distance from the spotlight thrown by political conflicts - representatives of these countries are involved in developing SESAME, an acronym for Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East.

It's a rare and possibly unique example of scientific cooperation between Israel and so many Arab countries. Libya is expected to join soon as an observer. The UNESCO umbrella had been used in much the same way in the years following World War II to bring together two initiatives: one originating from physicists, the other pushed by politicians to use science as a pathway for regional cooperation and cohesion in Europe. That early "science for peace" effort built the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland-CERN. Schopper states that the Council originally created by UNESCO for the project retains a symbolic presence in the "C" in CERN, which is still governed by a Council with ultimate authority in all scientific, technical and administrative matters.

The political importance of the project cannot be underestimated. Scientists in the region work together in a spirit of cooperation for the sake of developing the Middle East.

SESAME, the Middle East's first major international research center, is a synchrotron accelerator. It uses magnets to create a circular path for electrons traveling at nearly the speed of light, producing a beam of bright ultraviolet and X-ray light, about the diameter of a human hair, that is directed down beam lines to end stations.

An international synchrotron-light source in the Middle East was first proposed in 1997, when peace seemed to be on the way. European and Middle Eastern scientists worked together, and with the contribution of an old German synchrotron, SESAME got underway.

Official website of the project in Jordan is here.

Algeria calls on France to admit 1945 massacres

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 09 May 2005 09:42:24 +0000

While you celebrate victory over Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945, will you admit the massacres of 45,000 Algerians? Related posts: Nigerian Killer Calls Germans Sick of Being Reminded FSB says Jordanian mercenary planned attacks using poison Related posts:

Arab Discriminates Against Women. Why Is That So?

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 17:43:54 +0000

Last week, Guardian-organised event at which more than 100 young British Muslims were brought together at University College London. The delegates came from all walks of life, and held a wide range of views.

The one thing that came across very clearly was that the media are often wrong to refer to "the Muslim community", when the 1.54 million Muslims in the UK have roots as far apart as Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan. More than half the attendees were women; some wore the Hijab, but others looked very "western".

In some ways, the event raised more questions than it answered.

Is deprivation the main obstacle to progress for Immigrant Muslims? Why should Immigrant Muslims always be called on to condemn what goes on abroad? On integration, one delegate asked: "What are we integrating into? People feel well integrated, thank you very much. Why aren't the BNP asked if they're well integrated?"

On table 6, the main subject was : The widespread perception is that Islam discriminates against women. Why is that so?
Out of all the opinions, I was particularly impressed with one of the panellist, Abdurahman Jafar of the Muslim Council of Britain. His answer was:

We agree that Islam doesn't discriminate, but men do discriminate, and men control society," he said. "Muslim men seek to justify that oppression under the guise of Islam.

Although men control all societies. IMHO, in the Arab world, the number of illiterate may be one of the main reasons. According to UNESCO's Global Monitoring Report 2003/04:

The Arab States have some of the world's lowest adult literacy rates, with only 60% of the region's population of 15 and over able to read and write in 2000, well below world average of 80%. The rate is less than 50% in some countries (Iraq, Morocco and Yemen). Woman account for nearly two-thirds of the region's illiterate, a figure not expected to change much by 2015.

As far as eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education, the report states:

Countries that have already achieved gender parity:

Primary education: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Palestine, Qatar and United Arab Emirates

Secondary education: Jordan Kuwait and Oman.

Gender parity prospects:

Countries likely to achieve parity in 2005: Egypt, Mauritania, Oman.

Contries likely to miss parity in 2005 but achieve it by 2015: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria

Countries that may not achieve parity by 2015 either at primary, secondary or both levels: Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates.

What do you think?