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Who Is Reading Syrian Opposition Web Sites?
E.g., Syrian Revolution 2011 Fidaaldin Al-Sayed Issa, the Swedish administrator of the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page (11 May 2011): “We have analyzed the IP addresses of our users and about 35% are Syrian residing in Syria, 50% are from the Syrian Diaspora around the world and the remaining 15% are other Arabs in other […]
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Middle East News Roundup: Arab Spring, Royal Summer, Islamist Autumn
Egypt Amin Saikal (ABC, 29 July 2011): “The Islamist parties [in Egypt] now stand a good chance to win an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections in November, and also contest successfully the presidential election. . . . According to an Aljazeera public opinion survey, released on July 7, 2011, nearly 50 per cent of […]
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India: The Latest Employment Trends from the NSSO
No sooner were the results of the 66th Round of the National Sample Survey Organisation (relating to data collected in 2009-10) released, than they became the subject of great controversy. Surprisingly, the controversy was created not by critics of the government and its statistical system, but from within government circles! Some highly placed officials found […]
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Let’s Join TEPCO!
東電に入ろう(倒電に廃炉) Among you, gentlemen, here Anyone wants to join Tokyo Electric? Anyone wants to make a name for himself? TEPCO is looking for talent Let’s join TEPCO, TEPCO, TEPCO Join TEPCO, a heaven on earth All the men’s men are joining TEPCO Ready to die a hero’s death Anyone dying for thrills? Come join […]
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You Can’t See It, and You Can’t Smell It Either 2011
It’s safe! It’s safe! It’s safe! It’s safe! Nuclear! It’s safe! It’s safe! It’s safe . . . until there’s a screw-up! It’s safe! It’s safe! It’s safe! It’s safe! Nuclear! It’s safe! It’s safe! It’s safe . . . until it’s not! 誰にも見えない、匂いもない 2011 Music and Lyrics by Rankin Taxi. Performed by Rankin […]
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Blood Channels
“Channels of blood or channels of sedition or channels of the other side — call them what you like. These channels, as illustrated below, are a gun pointed to our land and our people. We the people must stand up, face them, and fight them. We don’t allow anyone to prejudice the security of […]
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Syria News Roundup: Good Protesters, Bad Protesters
USG Discovers Syrian Protesters It Doesn’t Like As’ad AbuKhalil (12 June 2011): “Yesterday, a US official referred to the protesters at the US embassy as ‘thugs.’ But if they were attacking a Ba’th office or a Syrian government building, I am sure that they would not have been described as thugs. So thuggery is not […]
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Syria News Roundup: The Beginning of the End of the Syrian Revolt?
Syrians for BHL Rami Zurayk (Land and People, 8 July 2011): “Is there anyone who follows politics and champions the Arab and Palestinian causes who does not know Bernard Henri Levy? . . . He was one of the first to enter the shattered remains of Jenin on board a Zionist tank to express his […]
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Hugo Chávez Addresses the Nation
Havana, Cuba, 30 June 2011 Now, in this new moment of difficulties, especially since Fidel Castro himself, the very man of the Moncada Barracks, of Granma, and of Sierra Maestra, the eternal giant, came to tell me the hard news of cancer, I began to ask my Lord Jesus, the God of my parents, […]
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Public Spending on Education in India
The failure of the Indian state more than six decades after Independence to provide universal access to quality schooling and to ensure equal access to higher education among all socio-economic groups and across gender and region must surely rank among the more dismal and significant failures of the development project in the country. It is […]
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Tweets from Syrian Opposition Conference Held at Semiramis Hotel in Damascus
27 June 2011 Luay Hussein: This is the first time we meet in front of our people so we have huge responsibilities. Luay Hussein: Those meeting here are not advocates of violence. Fadi Salem: Media was allowed in the first session and Syrian local Radio Cham is broadcasting live. Munther Khaddam: Who would have […]
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US and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood
I can report to you that the US government has been in contact with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. In a recent conference held in London, US and British official representatives met with the former (and still actual) leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, ‘Ali Al-Bayanuni. As’ad AbuKhalil is a professor of political science at […]
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Libya News Roundup
Libyan Rebel Propaganda Exposed Patrick Cockburn (The Independent, 24 June 2011): “Nato leaders, opposition groups and the media have produced a stream of stories since the start of the insurrection on 15 February, claiming the Gaddafi regime has ordered mass rapes, used foreign mercenaries and employed helicopters against civilian protesters. An investigation by Amnesty International […]
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Falling Behind: Life Expectancy in US Counties from 2000 to 2007 in an International Context
Excerpt: Across US counties, life expectancy in 2007 ranged from 65.9 to 81.1 years for men and 73.5 to 86.0 years for women. When compared against a time series of life expectancy in the 10 nations with the lowest mortality, US counties range from being 15 calendar years ahead to over 50 calendar years […]
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We Will Continue Resisting the Occupation
“Yes, Mr. Prime Minister, it’s my fault. Israel’s PR failure is on my account. But after you forbid us from protesting, after you pass the law, everything will be different here. The entire world would know that Israel is a magnificent democracy. Tourism and trade will flourish. Anywhere Israelis go, everybody will know that […]
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All These People
“Where did all these people come from?” “Who cares! Don’t stop. They don’t belong to our circles.” Juan Ramón Mora is a cartoonist in Barcelona. This cartoon was first published in his blog on 19 June 2011 under a Creative Commons license. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). Cf. Victor Mallet, […]
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On a Collision Course with the Muslim Brotherhood
Much of the commentary in the Arabic media in recent days has focused on the realignments taking place across the Middle East as a result of the various Arab uprisings. Ammar Nehmeh, an occasional columnist at the Beirut-based leftist daily As-Safir, wrote that forces that traditionally resist U.S. policy in the region, and that […]
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Electoral Performance of the Left — A Review
The following presentation contains graphic data. Viewer discretion is strongly advised. — Ed. (function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })(); Barbara Steiner is a political scientist based in Vienna and member of Transform.at. Walter Baier is an economist based […]
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Muslim Brotherhood and US Representatives at Syrian Opposition Conference in Antalya, Turkey
So Syrian opposition groups met in Antalya. I closely followed that conference and read about their deliberations and received reports about it. There are Syrian leftists who argue with me constantly that I should not reduce the Syrian opposition to lousy Khaddam or lousy Ma’mun Humsi (a tool of Hariri Inc.) or lousy war […]
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A User’s Guide to Demanding the Impossible
Excerpt: This guide is not a road map or instruction manual. It’s a match struck in the dark, a homemade multi-tool to help you carve out your own path through the ruins of the present, warmed by the stories and strategies of those who took Bertolt Brecht’s words to heart: “Art is not a […]