Which would you rather be exposed to: those pesky new “naked” airport scanners , or … rodents? In Israel, mice are being trained to sniff out bombs and drugs, in a system researchers say will be more accurate than pat-downs, x-rays, or sniffer dogs. The mice would be hidden in a…
Continue reading …Some 20,000 protesters joined together in Yemen’s capital for a “day of rage” against the country’s president, rejecting his plan to quit in 2013, the BBC reports. Elsewhere in the city, about the same number rallied in support of President Ali Abdullah Saneh; the pair of protests are the…
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Judging by reports from Cairo, the west does not understand that one of the greatest antiquity collections on Earth is in danger If petrol bombs were being thrown in St Marks Square in Venice , or outside the British Museum , what would reports say? We would never stop hearing about the threat to humanity’s cultural heritage. Yet, as I scan the news sites for the latest reports from Cairo, it is strange how little stress has been placed on the unique importance and fragility of the contents of the Egyptian Museum, which stands at the very heart of the unfolding tragedy. That is why I must reiterate my previous attempt to draw attention to this silent witness and victim of events . No, works of art are not people. The violence to protesters who had been so peaceful is nightmarish. But a nightmare scenario is also unfolding for the antiquities of Egypt . As I already stressed earlier this week, the collection of the Egyptian Museum is one of the greatest on Earth. This is where the golden mask of Tutenkamun is kept; the mummies of the pharaohs, and so much more. The image that has haunted me all week is of a very ancient and very spooky tomb statue in the museum: it keeps coming to mind because I have seen nothing like it anywhere else – and because it is made of wood. Old, dry wood. All these treasures could vanish in smoke so easily. My initial assumption was that the western media were downplaying the museum because it seemed less important than the lives at stake and the future to be won. It was even being said that to draw attention to looting was to do the propaganda work of the regime. But now I am starting to wonder if people in the west even know or care what is in that building. It is a great museum. And it is in peril. Museums Egypt Egyptology Protest Hosni Mubarak Egypt Art Sculpture History and history of art Jonathan Jones guardian.co.uk
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Demonstrators clash with government supporters in Tahrir Square, as political unrest across Egypt enters its 10th day
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Egyptian Mohamed Saad speaks from Alexandria about his involvement in the last 10 days of anti-government protests We are now into our 10th day of demonstrations. I had moved to London to live with my English wife last year, but returned home to Alexandria for the protests to help my family and friends. On the first day, last Tuesday, I was hit with a huge stick on my feet by the police. They turned Technicolor yellow and blue. We made it clear we had come in peace, but it made no difference. All the time we chanted: “Peace, we are demonstrating in peace”. Why do we need Mubarak to step down? Because he has abused his position. Not only has he been president for 30 years, he has used emergency law throughout that time. These laws, which are only supposed to be used in a time of war, gave police the right to check you wherever and whenever they wanted. They often took people off to a secret place, and they would never be seen again. Egypt has been a police state throughout Mubarak’s regime. What we want is simple – democracy. We don’t want Mubarak’s son as the next president; we want free elections and the right to choose the best candidate to be president. The mood here is positive among the young people. We feel we are doing something very great. We feel the country is now ours and that we can change anything. In Alexandria we have had problems with the police. Last Friday the police and the army ran away from the city. After 4pm on Friday you couldn’t find one police officer or soldier in the city. We burnt down all the police stations, except one in our neighbourhood. We also burnt the government building. There was nobody inside, but there were thousands outside with petrol from the cars. With no police in the city, some people went to the shopping centres and to rob everything. Jewellery shops and clothes shops, they took everything and there was a lot of fighting between the looters. Ten people went to one store to steal everything and they ended up killing each other. You can imagine all the young people in the street with the big swords and big thick sticks. My neighbourhood, Mohram Bek, is near the prison Segn el-Hadra which holds 4,000 people. A few days ago, the prisoners were released. Nobody is sure who did it, but we believe it was people close to Mubarek, who wants to create chaos and set Egyptian against Egyptian. Now we have to protect the neighbourhood against looters and former prisoners. On Tuesday evening Mubarak made a speech on TV and he said he will do what the people want, but a lot of people didn’t believe him because he said it in 2000 and 2005. I did believe him because he seemed to be talking with such sincerity. It made sense, too – he is old, and probably doesn’t have time for another period in power. Yesterday I got up at 11am. I hadn’t been to bed ’til 4am because I had been doing shifts guarding our streets. There are around 500 men living in our street and we are like special security. Every two hours we’d change guard. The women stay inside the house and we are on the street. We have checkpoints at the beginning, middle and end of the street and make all passing cars stop for us to check they are ‘clean’. The night before that I didn’t get to bed ’til 8am. We’re all exhausted. So much has happened since the start. Most of the shops are closed now. The ones still open have doubled the price for food. We have enough food at the moment, but plenty of people don’t. If it stays like this for another week it will definitely erupt into civil war, and that is what Mubarak wants. And that’s what happened yeserday. We did fight against each other. There were terrifying sights. In Cairo, men on horses and camels rode into the middle of demonstrators, and hurt many people . They have come in from the neighbourhood of the pyramids, and we all believed they have been paid to do so. The story going round is that they were paid by one of Mubarak’s party £100 each to ride into the crowds with their sticks. They were not dressed in any uniform. What I do know for sure because it happened right in front of me was that people who worked in government were called on their mobile phones and told that they would be paid £100 to go on protest in support of Mubarak. Most refused to go, but some did. The ones who went didn’t have aims or dreams for a new future, they were just looking for the money. One of my friends went, and I don’t think I will be able to have a relationship with him again. He didn’t just sell himself, he sold us out as well. What if someone said: ‘I’ll give you £1,000 to kill your friend’, he would agree. But Alexandria was relatively peaceful compared to Tahrir Square in Cairo. At about 2pm, I went with friends to the hospital to give blood for the injured. It was a good feeling, I’m helping people – giving blood for our people. I gave half a litre, but if they asked for more I would give more. Although the demonstration was peaceful something horrible happened in front of me. There were three guys who were obviously plain-clothed policemen and two girls, and the girls said to them: “Mubarak is a shoe like you”. To be [called] a shoe is a huge insult here. You can imagine how the men reacted. They kicked the girls to the ground, and continued kicking and punching. There was a lot of blood, and then they were taken away in a car. Nobody intervened – everybody knew if they got involved they would be arrested and anything could happen. The police shot teargas at demonstrators and we were burned with what seemed like a form of acid. After we saw this, my friends and I went home. Because the demonstration was finished as far as we were concerned. By now the Mubarak supporters, many of whom we think were bussed in, outnumbered us. These were a mix of people – criminals, some just looking for money and some government workers. When we do guard duty on the streets, my friends and I are carrying swords which are about three foot long. It is the first time I’ve ever carried a sword, and my neighbours were laughing at me and asking what I was going to do with it. Before the uprising the only people ever seen with swords were the bad guys. They asked me what am I going to do with two swords. I said I won’t do anything, and if anything bad does happen I will throw them away and run away to my house. The bad thing now is so many people have weapons. When the police stations were burnt down, people went in to steal all the guns. When things settle down I want police to check bad houses and take the weapons away from people. We are praying that everything will end soon because we are so tired and want to sleep, and we know people are going to run short of food etc. All we want is Mubarak to stand down. On Tuesday when Mubarak said he would stand down in a few months and wanted to make a peaceful transition to new government, I believed him. He spoke so well then, and I accepted that. But after what happened today I can’t accept that. The police used helicopters and guns and acid against their own people. He has to go now. It’s 1pm now. I was on duty ’til 5am last night. I’m on the streets, and I wish you could see what I’m seeing. The police, the army and the people working together to save the country. This is a great sight. We have a saying in Egypt: me and my brother against my cousin, and me and my cousin against any stranger. If people come in from outside we will be united. We don’t want help from anybody outside – we don’t want the Americans involved even if they are on our side. We have to sort this ourselves. • Mohamed Saad was talking to Simon Hattenstone Egypt Protest Middle East guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A 17-year-old boy in Karachi has been arrested for blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad in a school exam, drawing widespread condemnation, reports the BBC . Human Rights Watch called for the boy’s release, saying that for police to lock him up was “mind boggling.”
Continue reading …The New York City Council voted to ban smoking in parks, beaches, and public plazas, the Daily News reports. Amid speeches on friends lost to smoking and arguments for civil liberties, members were divided, 36 to 12, in favor of the ban. Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a call for the…
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The staggering lack of opportunities for young people in Egypt and across the Middle East, especially young entrepreneurs without political connections, is clearly an important motive for the protests The firestorm of events across the Middle East over the past few days can’t be explained by long-term development factors: the link between politics and economic development (or lack thereof) is complex in the extreme. Still, the staggering lack of opportunities for young people, especially young entrepreneurs without political connections, is clearly an important part of the mix. That includes people like Mohamed Bouazizi, the 26-year-old whose self-immolation sparked the protests which brought down Tunisia’s president, and which in turn set off the remarkable events unfolding in Egypt. The Middle East has witnessed an incredible expansion of both youth populations and education over the past 20 years. Fully two thirds of the region’s population is below 24 years old. Tertiary enrollment in Egypt has climbed from 14-28% since 1990, and in Tunisia from 8-34%. Cairo University alone has around 200,000 students. But while educational opportunities abound, jobs do not. Unemployment among 15-24 year olds in the Middle East and north Africa is the highest of any region in the world, averaging more than 25%. In Egypt in 2005 that number was 34%, in Tunisia it was 31%. One big reason is anaemic private sector growth. And behind weak private sector performance is exactly the kind of favouritism that drove Bouazizi to desperation. Before coming to CGD, I worked in the Middle East and north Africa department of the World Bank for a year — not nearly long enough to become any kind of expert, but long enough to meet some. A report by some of my more seasoned colleagues looked at the region’s private sector in some depth. It noted that while Egypt might have been one of the top 10 performers on the bank’s own Doing Business reform measures in recent years and other countries in the region were also rising up the rankings, there was a big gap between de jure reforms and de facto implementation: “Firms in MENA are much older than in other parts of the world… Business managers are also older than elsewhere. Incumbent firms face less competition. Except in south Asia, fewer registered firms per capita are found in MENA… These are all symptoms of a discriminatory business environment that prevents the entry and exit of firms… the networks of privileges and the nexus between politics and business hurt the credibility of governments and reformers in particular. The perception that connections are an important source of competitiveness (some say the most important) discourages many would-be entrepreneurs… The large proportion of entrepreneurs… believe that rules and regulations will not be consistently and predictably applied [and] explains why policy reforms may not have a strong response from investors.” With good private sector jobs mostly limited to the few companies with political connections and government jobs largely the preserve of an older generation, there weren’t many places for young graduates to go but on to the streets. Given that, few in the Middle East or north Africa will have been surprised that frustrations have boiled over – even if the scale and early success of the protests has shaken regional leaders from the Atlantic to the Arabian Sea. Nic van De Walle suggests term limits for heads of state would do the region a power of good. Perhaps the same should apply to the employees and managers of privileged private firms and state-owned enterprises. In his CGD book, Overcoming Stagnation in Aid Dependent Countries, Nic argues that withholding aid can be a powerful lever for change — when countries are aid dependent. But it’s hard for me to see the crisis in the region as mostly a story about aid. Net Official Development Assistance (ODA) amounted to just 4% of central government expenditure in Tunisia in 2008 according to the World Development Indicators. It’s true that in Egypt in 1990, net ODA accounted for 36% of government expenditures. But by 2008, that figure was 3%. That year, ODA and other aid to Egypt was worth only 11% of tourist receipts or 14% of manufactures exports. And while Mubarak received a range of other types of diplomatic and military support from the United States, there are a number of long-lasting dynasties in the region that aren’t on the friends list of any major donor. In Pakistan, like Egypt a big US aid recipient that doesn’t always do what Washington would like, Nancy Birdsall emphasizes that billions of dollars in American aid can’t even guarantee the passage of fairly basic economic reforms — let alone fundamentally change the calculus of a political leader struggling to hold on to power. All of which suggests that what happens next is in the hands of the leaders and people of the region, not the diplomats and foreign officials who are watching from afar. Thanks to Wren Elhai for adding to this blog post. Egypt Middle East guardian.co.uk
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