6 December, 2012 — Middle East Research and Information Project
Hani Shukrallah, the distinguished former editor of al-Ahram Weekly, laments the “decline and fall” of the Society of Muslim Brothers from a partner in a diverse Egyptian nation to a narrowly partisan faction willing to beat up opponents, “the very caricature of itself as painted for years by its bitterest enemies.”
31 October 2012 — Eric Walberg
The West’s attempts to destroy the Iranian economy through heightened sanctions—including most imports, oil exports and use of banks for trade operations—is having its affect. According to Johns Hopkins University Professor Steve Hanke, Iran is facing hyperinflation, with a monthly inflation rate of nearly 70% per month and its national currency, the rial, plummeting in value against western currencies. Iran is the latest casualty to be placed on his Hanke-Krus Hyperinflation Index, which includes France (1795), Germany (1922), Chile (1973), Nicaragua (1986), Argentina (1990), Russia (1992), Ecuador (1999) and Zimbabwe (2007), countries which experienced price-level increases of at least 50% per month.
12 October 2012 — Al Ahram Weekly
New challenges grip Palestinian camps in Lebanon, writes Franklin Lamb from Chatila Camp
12 September 2012 — Eric Walberg
This year’s Toronto International Film Festival highlights the new direction in filmmaking: Iran is the enemy du jour, but at the same time it is not longer kosher to praise everything Israel does, notes Eric Walberg
15 February 2012 — Eric Walberg
Ard ard (Surface-to-surface): The story of a graffiti revolution
Sheif Abdel-Megid
Egyptian Association for Books 2011
ISBN 978-977-207-102-9
Graffiti — the art of the masses, by the masses, for the masses — has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and arguably to Pharaonic Egypt. Sherif Abdel-Megid, a writer who works for Egyptian television, boasts that Egypt‘s revolution and the explosion of popular art that followed it finds its roots in the decay of the Sixth dynasty in Egypt‘s Old Kingdom, following the reign of Pepi II (2278-2184 BC), credited with having the longest reign of any monarch in history at 94 years (Mubarak, eat your heart out). His own decline paralleled the disintegration of the kingdom and it is thanks to Pharaonic graffiti that we know about it. Continue reading
9 February 2012 — Eric Walberg
All the meticulous plotting to avoid Ukraine’s Orange Revolution resulted in — Russia’s very own coloured one. But Russia is not Ukraine, discovers Eric Walberg
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11 January 2012 — Eric Walberg
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass (1871)
18 November 2011 — Eric Walberg
The eviction of demonstrators last week is an ominous metaphor for ruling elites, whose own days are surely numbered, ponders Eric Walberg
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28 July 2011 — Eric Walberg
The massacre in peaceful Oslo was a replay of this earlier horror in reverse – no longer the Jews as victims but as the inspiration of terror against non-Jews – as Israel extends its wars not only to Greek ports and French airports but to Norwegian children’s camps, complete with rabbinical blessings for the murderers, notes Eric Walberg
13 July 2011 — Eric Walberg
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s younger half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed in Kandahar on 12 July during a gathering in his house, according to Kandahar’s Canadian Governor Tooryali Wesa. He was shot in the head and chest with a AK-47 fired by Sardar Mohammad, a former bodyguard to another Karzai brother Qayyoum.
7 July 2011 — Eric Walberg
The financial flip-flop of Egypt’s revolutionary government, first requesting and then declining a $3 billion dollar IMF loan, highlights Egypt’s hard choices at this point in the revolution, but is a good sign, says Eric Walberg
22 June 2011 — Eric Walberg
As the Western elite gathered in picturesque St Moritz to grapple with pressing world crises, the outsiders met in the bleak steppes of Central Asia, writes Eric Walberg
26 May 2011 — Eric Walberg
As Russia gears up for its election season this winter, Putin’s Popular Front and Rogozin’s nationalist front are playing an old Soviet melody and even borrowing a tune from revolutionaries in Cairo. Eric Walberg recognises the refrain
The New Dark Age 