I was traveling much of last week, then recovering from jet lag over the weekend, and at the same time quite busy finishing off various projects. Hence the conspicuous absence of new posts in the last ten days. Unfortunately, two days ago my DSL went kaput and it will take a few more days to [...]

[Thanks, Francesca.]

This is great online activism. Tunisian blogger Astrubal has used data
of plane spotters to track the plane of Tunisia’s Ben Ali on its visits to European cities. Comparing dates and destinations with official
newspaper annoncements, he suggests it could as well serve the First Lady’s shopping endavours.
(Via crisscrossed.net)

German scholar Thomas Demmelhuber recently presented an interesting paper on Egyptian-Chinese economic relationships at the German Orientalists Day in Freiburg, Germany.
These are the main points:
The rise of Egyptian-Chinese economic relations needs to be seen in the context of the Nazif cabinet which took office in 2004 and tries to orientate the Egyptian economy towards foreign [...]

Al Hayat’s Muhammad Salah uses Cairo’s seasonal “black cloud” of pollution as a metaphor for Egypt-US relations. There are some interesting ideas there about mutual blackmail, notably over Hamas — which Cairo has visibly warmed up to recently — and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The conviction even prevails among Egyptians that US reform plans have evaporated [...]

Middle East Online has a translation of a Monde Diplomatique article I’d previously linked to on the reversal of agrarian reform in Egypt. This excerpt deals with the new law passed in the 1990s that has led to many farmers losing land and helped former landlords regain land they had been forced to sell under [...]

Readers may be interested in reading this profile of Egyptian novelist Alaa al-Aswani from last week’s Le Mondes des Livres, accompanied by a review of the recently launched French edition of his last novel, Chicago.
We had mentioned Chicago when it came out earlier this year, while Baheyya had reviewed it.
Click on the image below to [...]

The US Embassy recently produced a CD of old interviews from the Voice of America Arabic service archives. (VOA Arabic was canceled a while ago, to be replaced by the much-criticized, pop-heavy Radio Sawa). The interviews — of major Egyptian writers, artists, singers such as Naguib Mahfouz, Mohamed Abdel Wahab and Tahia Carioca — are [...]

I’ve been wanting to put up for a while this audio file of Ibrahim Eissa’s speech at the massive press conference at the Journalists’ Syndicate on September 14th. Here is one (poorly) translated excerpt.
“We succeeded in saving the soul of this umma, which seemed about to die in the hospital of President Mubarak, and which has [...]

A new letter from the imprisoned blogger Karim is available here in English, follow the links for the Arabic original.

From the blurb:
When they’re not actively attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction, ‘Axis of Evil’ countries such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea are busy enjoying their region’s finest dishes. And their ‘Axis of Somewhat Evil’ cohorts, such as Cuba and Syria, are at it too. With over one hundred recipes, from soups and [...]

International Crisis Group – Hizbollah and the Lebanese Crisis:
Looking back over the past ten months, Lebanese can feel somewhat relieved. The massive demonstrations in December 2006, followed by a general strike and clashes between pro- and anti-government forces with strong sectarian overtones, as well as a series of assassinations and car bombs, brought the nation [...]

Below are some anti-Mubarak activist videos, some quite funny.

YouTube – The Mubaraks to children’s songs
YouTube – Gamal at NDP conference
YouTube – To President Mubarak: sankyoo
YouTube – Egypt’s Shittiest Family
YouTube – The Mubaraks in cinema

The very last one is the best, to the tune of the theme song from a movie (I forget its name) about [...]

A fragrant potpourri handpicked from the internets:

The sun sets early on the American Century, by Philip S Golub (Twilight of empire)
IntelliBriefs: Egypt: Security, Political, and Islamist Challenges (Long paper on Egypt)
Iraq – Kanan Makiya – Saddam Hussein – New York Times (Dexter Filkins profiles Kanan Makiya)
“Cervantes’s Golden Age” by Scott Horton (Harper’s Magazine) (Don Quijote, [...]

How else would one explain the following?
Israel seizes Arab land near Jerusalem:
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has ordered the confiscation of Arab land outside east Jerusalem, the army and Palestinian officials said on Tuesday, reviving fears that the occupied West Bank could be split in two.
Hassan Abed Rabbo at the Palestinian local government ministry said the [...]

The WSJ is running an interview with Robert Zoellick, the new president of the World Bank,in which Zoellick’s idea of increasing the Bank’s focus on the Arab world is explored, albeit briefly. The impression I get from the interview excerpts below is that Zoellick is very much informed by his experience as US Trade Representative [...]

A mixed grill of hyperlinked morsels:

BBC NEWS – Egypt Bedouins in angry protest (the continuing Bedouin upheaval in Sinai)
Asia Times Online – Memories of monarchies revived (King Farouk nostalgia)
SyriaComment – Ticking Clocks and ‘Accidental’ War (Alastair Crooke on Iran/US/Israel)
Rural Egypt returns to the ancien regime, by Beshir Sakr and Phanjof Tarcir (land reform in Egypt)
The [...]

Two pieces about Egypt’s current press clampdown are worth reading in light of yesterday’s press strike. Egypt: September of discontent by Amira Howeidy puts the pressure on the press in the current political context:
The problem now is that the authorities seem convinced that the private press, especially al Dostour, has more power than the state [...]

Having used yesterday’s hugely successful press strike (22 newspapers did not come out, tons of blogs) to overhaul the design, welcome to the new Arabist.net: now in a great-tasting, sweet-smelling, 100% organic new flavor.
Hopefully this is the beginning of the introduction of new features to the site (more within a few weeks), but aside [...]

As part of the Why Democracy? project, a documentary has been made on Egypt’s Shayfeenku, an anti-corruption watchdog borne out of the Kifaya movement in 2005. It will be playing on different TV networks and cinemas across the world (on al-Arabiya in the Middle East on 5 November at 2100 GMT), check the listings for [...]

When Andrew Hammond writes about Arab media, I read attentively — from Arab Media & Society:
Powered by vast petrodollar resources, thus began a concerted Saudi attempt to dominate the world of cable and satellite television media in the Arab world and steal the thunder of Egypt, once the leader of Arab media in the 1950s [...]

Because I’m too lazy to write them up.

WINEP (Arab regimes and democracy)
The Victor? – The New York Review of Books (Iran, Israel and the US)
Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | The changing face of the news (the crackdown on Egypt’s press)
Khaleej Times Online – Shia activist arrested in Egypt over torture book
The National Interest (Arab Spring [...]

A Minnesotan university decides to ban a Desmond Tutu appearance because of anti-Israel comments he made — Banning Desmond Tutu:
Tutu’s appearance—slated for the spring of ‘08—was made possible by the university’s partnership with PeaceJam International, a youth-centered project that taps Nobel Laureates to teach young adults about peace and justice. For four straight years, the [...]

The LAT has a great piece by Ashraf Khalil on Arab actors in Hollywood dealing with prejudice and typecasting — More work, one role for Arab actors:
“What kind of a name is that?” the voice coach asked at the end of the lesson. The name on the check he’d been handed by his student didn’t [...]

Funny quote in this otherwise bog-standard succession story — With tough moves, Egypt moves to ensure stability whenever post-Mubarak era dawns:
Some, even in the opposition, believe it should, because a military-backed candidate would have wider acceptance.
But the army — led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, a Mubarak loyalist — has been largely segregated from Egypt’s [...]

Mango Girl says it so I don’t have to — Ethnically based land rights challenged in Israel:
A development to keep track of – the Jewish National Fund, the para-state authority for land use in Israel, is being ordered by the Israeli High Court to overturn its Jews-only land lease policy. Nothing could be more central [...]

The State Department has launched its own blog, Dipnote. I expect much spin and PR for Karen Hughes, and hopefully some helpful tips about seating arrangements and other etiquette issues. Since policy issues will not be discussed with any degree of seriousness (after all there is a press office to handle that) it’d be nice [...]

Saudi Arabia’s media influence:
Saudi Arabia’s takeover of the region’s media is a reflection of what is occurring globally where a handful of multinational companies increasingly dominate the media. This spills over from entertainment into news coverage.
To Saudi Arabia such control is paramount in an era when the media is increasingly pervasive, because Riyadh’s political and [...]

Science and the Islamic world, an essay by a Pakistani scientist on the decline of science in the Islamic world in my favorite magazine (not really), Physics Today:
In the Islamic world, opposition to science in the public arena takes additional forms. Antiscience materials have an immense presence on the internet, with thousands of elaborately designed [...]

Freer markets but unfree minds in Egypt: decent Rami Khouri column, but I’m not sure where he gets his info about job creation from. There has been some, but not “millions” and certainly not enough to make a difference.

Ibrahim Eissa’s latest trial started today, and while he decided not to attend he may have an interesting defense strategy based on his allegations that President Mubarak is in poor health:
Eissa pointed out that the president’s health would be raised at each court hearing, “meaning that those who brought the case want his health to [...]

Your best friend hates you: prolific Muslim Brother Ibrahim Houdeiby’s latest article, perhaps his best one yet, on Egypt’s promotion of anti-Americanism and how it relates to the “engage the MB” debate. He concludes with an interesting argument:
In the era of “neo-terrorism,” or micro-terrorist groups, this increasing hostility only means a threat to American national [...]

Cairo Moving More Aggressively To Cripple Muslim Brotherhood:
CAIRO — After imprisoning or prodding into exile Egypt’s leading secular opposition activists, the government is using detentions and legal changes to neutralize the country’s last surviving major political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Brotherhood leaders and rights groups contend the government is clearing the stage of opponents in politics, [...]

The Israeli government and President Bush are right about the UN Human Rights Council: it does not fairly spread blame for human rights abuses. But the problem is not that it blames Israel too much — it does quite an appropriate job in that. It’s just that it should also focus on other countries, including [...]

‘Polygamy’ soaps irk feminists in Egypt:
Cairo: Egyptian pro-women groups are disappointed that several TV serials being shown on local and Arab TV feature polygamy as a recurrent theme.
“I have been working in the field of women’s welfare for more than 20 years and I have never seen so many polygamists in Egypt as portrayed in [...]