The Occupation? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller.

Matthew Hogan | Comments (0)
February 4, 2010 05:38 PM

Astonishingly overlooked in past-decade MENA development reflections has been Jewish-Arab concord evident in the 2008 election of celebrity Ben Stein as Palestinian Authority Prime Minister. Some memorable moments: A) PM Stein and a panel of foreign affairs scholars judging an American Idol-style remake of Win Ben Stein's Money (scroll down...[More]

Gulf Labor Markets

dubaiwalla | Comments (0)
January 26, 2010 11:31 AM

Bahrain and the UAE have adopted different approaches while addressing the lack of citizens in their private sectors. Most Gulf states have tried to create quotas for their nationals in private enterprises. Businesses have resisted, fearing less productive workers, and these policies have accomplished little. Oman has been a partial...[More]

Tariq Ramadan Beats City Hall

evaluna | Comments (0)
January 21, 2010 08:07 PM

Yesterday U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton granted a waiver of the bar on U.S. entry imposed on Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, in response to the the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals' recent landmark decision in the denial of a U.S. visa to Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan. The visa...[More]

Religious Misunderstanding Causes Flight Diversion, With a Twist (or several)

evaluna | Comments (1)
January 21, 2010 07:50 PM

But for once, a Muslim wasn't the cause; this time, a paranoid and/or ignorant passenger mistook an Orthodox Jewish ritual object for a bomb, with hilariously idiotic results. (My grandfather was right, darnit - he always avoided tefillin like the plague, to the extent that he would ditch Hebrew school,...[More]

New Month, Year, (Arguable) Decade Open Post

Matthew Hogan | Comments (0)
January 1, 2010 11:28 AM

Have at it....[More]

Yemen: fingers in the dyke.

The Lounsbury | Comments (1)
December 29, 2009 07:16 PM

Reading articles like this from FT.com, on Yemen "Social pressures weigh on poorest Arab state" frankly are depressing even for a MENA optimist. The "good news" is Yemen is building a LNG facility. Wonderful. It will give the state the money to buy more weapons to pretend to assert control...[More]

Wehbe 2.0: A Whiter Shade of Palestinian?

Matthew Hogan | Comments (3)
December 28, 2009 08:57 PM

(Apologies to Procul Harum (Haram?) for whom, unlike the Palestinians, 1967 was good year.) With a lot less denial than the late Michael Jackson, Palestinian women are reported to be aggressively consuming skin-whitening products. This, according to The Christian Science Monitor, which also cites and links to the recent lament...[More]