North African Jewry has produced great philosophy, history, and medicine, as well as music, art and poetry.
The Amilcar Notes (Part 8): Tunisia’s Jews Then and Now (2 of 2)
read more
Human Rights
The Return of Waterboarding?
During the recent Republican presidential primary debates, three candidates said without hesitation that they would authorize waterboarding as an interrogation technique if elected president. In their recent memoirs, both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney admitted with evident pride that they had approved the technique.
The Amilcar Notes (Part 7): Tunisia’s Jews Then and Now (1 of 2)
The strange story of one of the few Jewish members of parliament in the Arab world.
Shedding Light on Immigration
Huong, a Vietnamese-American artist and activist, seeks to capture the magnitude of America’s immigration debate in her latest mural project, “Immigration – The Wall of Borders.” In a recent visit to FPIF, Huong was keen to emphasize the scale of the mural: eight feet high and over 200 feet long, with a planned expansion to some 400 feet by the time the mural is unveiled in Miami in January 2012.
The Gulf Cooperative Council and the Arab Spring
The Saudis in particular, and the other Gulf States in general, are fearful of two main threats, real or perceived. The first threat is Iran, which challenges their long-held religious and ethnic tenets. The second threat is the Arab Awakening, which challenges them ideologically and politically. The two threats seem to be connected now, and they will only be more so in the future. The Gulf State strategy seems to be based on the assumption that the stability of all Gulf regimes can only be disturbed by outside forces.
Two Cold War Milestones
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il consolidated communist rule. Czech leader Vaclav fought against corrupt communists. Yet they had some things in common, besides dying a week before Christmas. They both abandoned careers in the arts to become reluctant politicians, and they stabilized their respective countries during difficult times.
Russians United against United Russia
In the past two weeks a number of different rallies took place in Russia. The most memorable of these, on December 10, was the biggest protest in Russia since the fall of communism. People in cities all around Russia went onto the streets. In Moscow, estimates of the number of protestors ranged from 25,000 to 100,000. Although organized by a range of groups and political parties with few common goals, the protests are united around one issue: the alleged vote rigging by the United Russia party.
The Amilcar Notes (Part 6): Tunisia — U.S. Recognizes Need to Change Its Mid-East Policy
Its policy toward Tunisia shows that the United States has finally realized — perhaps too late – how much damage it’s done in the Middle East.
In the Garden by the Lake
One anonymous commentator says
do Suu Kyi and Hilary have
the same hair stylist what
they don’t realize is Burma is
very hot both climatically and
politically pulled back hair
off the face is best.
In the garden they hold hands like
long lost sisters.
Asia Stands Poised to Join 2011’s Global Revolution
If Asia takes a cue from the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, the world’s governments might face the haunting specter of working people of all countries uniting.