Posts tagged literature
US policymakers hope they can control the Arab Revolution
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a US think tank is hosting a book launch for “The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East” by Dr. Marc Lynch. US policymakers hope they can control the Arab Revolution and shape the nature of change according to US interests.
In The Arab Uprising, Dr. Lynch examines the emerging regional landscape in the Middle East, one in which, he argues, the old heavyweights - Iran, al Qaeda, even Israel - have all been disempowered, and nations like Saudi Arabia are powering a new cold war. Dr. Lynch highlights the new fault lines that are forming between forces of revolution and counter-revolution and shows what it all means for the future of U.S. foreign policy. Deeply informed by inside access to the Obama administration’s decisionmaking process and first-hand interviews with protestors, politicians, diplomats and journalists, The Arab Uprising is an unprecedented and indispensible guide to the changing lay of the land in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Revolution will be Digitised
At the centre sits the Establishment: governments, corporations and powerful individuals who have more knowledge about us, and more power, than ever before. Circling them is a new generation of hackers, pro-democracy campaigners and internet activists who no longer accept that the Establishment should run the show.
Cultural Cleansing in Iraq
Why Museums Were Looted, Libraries Burned and Academics Murdered
by Raymond W. Baker, Shereen T. Ismael, Tareq Y. Ismael
Why did the invasion of Iraq result in cultural destruction and killings of intellectuals? Convention sees accidents of war and poor planning in a campaign to liberate Iraqis. The authors argue instead that the invasion aimed to dismantle the Iraqi state to remake it as a client regime.
Post-invasion chaos created conditions under which the cultural foundations of the state could be undermined. The authors painstakingly document the consequences of the occupiers’ willful inaction and worse, which led to the ravaging of one of the world’s oldest recorded cultures. Targeted assassination of over 400 academics, kidnapping and the forced flight of thousands of doctors, lawyers, artists and other intellectuals add up to cultural cleansing. This important work lays to rest claims that the invasion aimed to free an educated population to develop its own culture of democracy.
Wasla
Wasla, the first Arabic citizen newspaper was an early indicator of the Arab Awakening; in March 2010, Gamal Eid, the executive director of Arabic Network for Human rights Information said,
We issued this newspaper knowing that trouble is ahead. We expect some to adore it and others to bitterly challenge us on it. In fact , those are the Arab bloggers . They address topics in defiance to all traditions and stereotypes. They are determined to claim their full right to expression and opinion. These are thoughts of the youth , their loud voices, assert they exist and have their own opinions , worries and stances with which we should touch base first and then debate.
ARAB YOUTH
Social Mobilization in Times of Risk
EDITED BY SAMIR KHALAF, ROSEANNE SAAD KHALAF
In 2011, thousands of Arab youth took to the streets to demand their freedom. Although it is too early to speculate on the ultimate outcome of the revolutionary uprisings, one auspicious feature stands out: they reveal the genesis of a new generation sparked by the desire for civil liberties, advocacy for human rights and participatory democracy.
Arab Youth explores some of the antecedents of the upheavals and anticipates alternative venues of resistance that marginalized youth, from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine to Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Iran, can mobilize to realize their emancipatory expectations. Themes covered in this unique volume include the forging of meaningful collective identities in times of risk and uncertainty; youth militancy, neighborhood violence and youth gangs in distinct urban and suburban settings; the surge of youthful activism in political movements, advocacy groups and welfare civic associations; and youths’ expressive outlets through popular arts, street music and popular culture.
Emerging Arab Voices
Beautiful Trouble
From the Arab Spring to the American Fall and beyond, a new global people’s movement is being born. The impossible suddenly seems possible, and all around the world ordinary people are trying out new tools and tactics to win victories where they live. In the shadow of austerity and ecological crisis, the urgency of this political moment demands resources that will transform outrage into effective action. Beautiful Trouble is a toolbox for the next revolution.
The Invisible Arab - The Promise and Peril of the Arab Revolutions by Marwan Bishara
Reading excerpts from Marwan’s book, it is striking that he does not see the root of the problems in the Arab world to be deeply intellectual, but rather sees the problems as structural, and misuse of political power. Such an analysis would be most welcomed if it were true because then the problems afflicting the Arab world could be easily solved. The book however is an important contribution to the debate about the future of the Arab world. One hopes that this debate will be wide, deep and inclusive because transformation of the Arab world can only happen when the Arab world has built its transformation upon a profound understanding of human advancement.
It’s my contention that the roots of Arab problems are not civilisational, economic, philosophical, or theological per se, even if religion, development, and culture have had great influence on the Arab reality. The origins of the miserable Arab reality are political par excellence. Like capital to capitalism, or individualism to liberalism, the use and misuse of political power has been the factor that defines the contemporary Arab state. Arab regimes have subjugated or transformed all facets of Arab society.
Spring fever: Arab writers reflect on a tumultuous year
Eight Arab writers reflect on the Arab Revolution:
Tamim al-Barghouti, a Palestinian poet. He is a visiting assistant professor at Georgetown University’s Centre for Contemporary Arab Studies.
Laila Lalami, a Moroccan-born writer and critic, and associate professor at the University of California, Riverside.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, an Egyptian blogger. He was jailed for 56 days for refusing to recognise the authority of the military prosecutor. He was released on December 25.
Mourid Barghouti, a Palestinian poet.
Cairo: My City, Our Revolution, by Ahdaf Soueif
Ahdaf Soueif - novelist, commentator, activist - navigates her history of Cairo and her journey through the Revolution that’s redrawing its future. Through a map of stories drawn from private history and public record Soueif charts a story of the Revolution that is both intimately hers and publicly Egyptian. Ahdaf Soueif was born and brought up in Cairo. When the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 erupted on January 25th, she, along with thousands of others, called Tahrir Square home for eighteen days. She reported for the world’s media and did - like everyone else - whatever she could.
The Clash of Ideas
The Ideological Battles that Made the Modern World— And Will Shape the Future
Stefan Weidner’s new book “Moving towards Reason – Debates about Islam and the Islamic world from 9/11 to the Arab revolutions” is a plea for a balanced and unprejudiced criticism of Islam
Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America Edited by Keith Gessen, Astra Taylor, Eli Schmitt, Nikil Saval, Sarah Resnick, Sarah Leonard, Mark Greif, and Carla Blumenkranz
The first book to explore the Occupy movement in depth, with reportage and analysis. The book conveys the intense excitement of those present at the birth of a counterculture, while providing the movement with a serious platform for debating goals, demands, and tactics. Articles address the history of the “horizontalist” structure at OWS; how to keep a live-in going when there is a giant mountain of laundry building up; how very rich the very rich have become; the messages and meaning of the “We are the 99%” tumblr website; occupations in Oakland, Boston, Atlanta, and elsewhere; what happens next; and much more.
Revolution is as unpredictable as an earthquake and as beautiful as spring. Its coming is always a surprise, but its nature should not be.
Revolution is a phase, a mood, like spring, and just as spring has its buds and showers, so revolution has its ebullience, its bravery, its hope, and its solidarity. Some of these things pass. The women of Cairo do not move as freely in public as they did during those few precious weeks when the old rules were suspended and everything was different. But the old Egypt is gone and Egyptians’ sense of themselves-and our sense of them-is forever changed.
That the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil can shape the weather in Texas is a summation of chaos theory that is now an oft-repeated cliché. But there are billions of butterflies on earth, all flapping their wings. Why does one gesture matter more than another? Why this Facebook post, this girl with a drum?
- Page 1 of 8
- Next »
