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This week in Israel: a “political earthquake” and lots of fun stuff - not just politics

Lisa N. Goldman · 17:34 · Middle East & North Africa

This week, much of the Israeli blogosphere is in a tizzy over what the media lost no time in dubbing a “political earthquake”: Ariel Sharon has left the hawkish Likud party, which he helped found and has virtually defined for years; he has formed a new centrist political party that was briefly called National Responsibility. After a couple of days that name was rejected in favour of Kadima (Forward). Yup, there's already a Wikipedia entry about the new political party, even though it's less than one week old.

Quite a few prominent Likud members jumped ship to follow their leader, and some well-known Labour politicians have left, or are considering leaving, their party to join Kadima as well. The Israeli parliament, or Knesset, voted to disband the current government in the wake of Sharon’s move, and national elections have been scheduled for March 28.

So now we have Amir Peretz rejuvenating the until-recently moribund Labour Party (see last week’s roundup of reactions to Peretz’s election to chariman of Labour), a shattered and possibly permanently sidelined Likud party and a new centrist party led by Sharon. In two weeks, the domestic political landscape has changed completely. For journalists and politics junkies who happen to be bloggers, this is fabulous stuff. There’ll be tons and tons of material to talk and write about for – oh, weeks and blissful weeks.

But don’t worry if you’re not interested in politics – Israeli bloggers are writing about plenty of other stuff too and there’s a roundup of miscellaneous posts following the political roundup.

Reactions to the Sharon earthquake

Allison Kaplan Sommer of An Unsealed Room has written several insightful and frequently hilarious posts about the events of the past week. For hilarity, check out her interpretation of Ben-Gurion University President Avishay Braverman’s speech, in which he announced that he was joining the Labour party: “The very unsubtle subtext of the speech was, ‘Yuppie Ashkenazi White People! Fear Not from the Labor Party! I won't let Amir Peretz turn into Fidel Castro! We're Social Democrats like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair!’” More of Allison’s not-to-be-missed commentary is here, here and here.

Imshin of Not a Fish writes, “Sharon and Peretz are both nasty bastards, both sly, corrupt, cynical politicians. Is Peretz any nastier than Sharon? I doubt it. Love them or hate them, the thing is that both are people who get things done, make things happen. Who would have believed the Gaza disengagement would actually happen?”

Bert of Dutchblog Israel writes, “The most positive result of Sharon's decision to leave the party of which he was one of the main founders seems to be that in the coming elections Israeli voters will have two very clear options to choose from, at least as far as our presence in the territories is concerned.” But in the same post Bert also worries that Sharon, like Rabin, is a one-man show. Who will carry out his plans if the septuagenarian leader is incapacitated while in office? Read more of Bert’s incisive commentary here, and here. (more…)

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Turkey is Typing…..

Deborah Ann Dilley · 16:59 · Middle East & North Africa

Welcome to the week that was in the Turkish Blogosphere….
Both Metroblogging:Istanbul and Turkish Torque reported this week about the new Picasso in Istanbul exhibit at the Sakip Sabanci Museum from the 24th of November till the 26th of March 2006. Continuing with the art theme Metroblogging:Istanbul also revisited a topic that they originally covered last month but has recently been covered in the local television station. As part of a new security survallience system in the city of Istanbul the police have installed/in the process of installing 4000 security cameras on the streets. This system, called MOBESE has spawned a group of university students to protest it called NOBESE. They perform and protest in front of these cameras. According to Metroblogging, their motto is “since we are being watched, why not perform?”

Turkish Torque writes about the ongoing discussions of the Turkish National Identity and posts an interesting article from Dogan Hizlan from Hurriyet Newspaper entitled “Our Leaders Don't Have Any Hobbies”. He writes about how Turkey is changing, specifically in relations to the Turkish Military involvement in the government. He says: “Turkey is changing faster than some of us think. Where this change will lead Turkey, that's another discussion of course. But at the descriptive level, there are things happening in Turkey today that would be unthinkable just a few years ago.” Torque also gives a more personal reaction to a proposed ban on smoking law in Turkey.

Mustafa Akyol from The White Path was recently interviewed by the BBC about Intelligent Design, the sound file of the interview is available for download.

Mavi Boncuk has a few book reviews posted: “Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery” by Nabil Matar, “The Ottoman Story Today” by Virgina Aksan, and information about the 1795 Barbary Treaties taken from the “Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America” edited by Hunter Miller.

This week I decided to focus on some of the more personal postings from Erkan's Field Diary, an excellent archive of information about Turkey and the EU. Erkan writes about the power a professor has in jumpstarting the campus shuttle. November 24th was Teacher's Day in Turkey and a picture was posted showing some gifts that his office mate received. Also a new picture of Ataturk was posted that is interesting to look at. And finally Erkan notes that in the new Freedom Press Survey, Turkey has advanced its ranking in regards to the freedom of its press.

Flipping through the archives of Talk Turkey I came across this older post about the Young Turks radio show on Satellite radio. The Young Turks advertise themselves as a “liberal nationwide (US) talk-show”, and while a US newsradio program doesn't overtly seem to be about the Turkish blogosphere, one of the members of the program, Cenk Uygur, is a Turk. He blogs on the Huffington Post mostly about issues that occur in the US, but should also be added to our list of Turkish bloggers.

Amerikan Turk has a short but very funny post speculating why Turkey lost to Brazil in the 2002 World Cup (and it probably isn't a reason you would normally think of). Also within the realm of speculation is this post: Is Turkish Raki a defense against birdflu?” Finally, he has a post about reaching out to the Turkish Community in Rhode Island (which I understand is rather large) to find other local Turkish athletes.

And for our last item for today's post: the weather in Istanbul. Idil from Ignore me if you Can has a post about being stranded in the rain with a cold. Phanja from The Need to Know writes about the traffic in Istanbul when given even a small hint of snow.

Interesting finds of the week:
1. Wikipedia in Turkish!
2. For you Tarkan fans out there, Tarkan Deluxe.
3. Elvis Fansite in Turkish!
4. Personal website of Turkish Artist Metin Bereketli.

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From the Jordanian Blogosphere

Roba Al Assi · 14:57 · Middle East & North Africa

Jordan: A New Government in the Making
The newly appointed Prime Minster has been announced, being Marouf Bakhit. Naseem Tarawneh thinks that this might help the path to reform. Khalaf says about the newly appointed PM, “Being self made, one would hope that he would respect merit over pedigree.” At the same time, Khalaf, though, is not amused, “What is bothering me is that I feel that these changes don't seem to serve any purpose, except to keep people amused, while the fundamental policies stay the same.”
Abu Aardvark, meanwhile, is uncomfortable in regards to the military background of the new Prime Minster, “I'm still very uneasy about the symbolism and the institutional reality of concentrating power in the hands of the military “.

Politics in Jordan; unsexy?
Meanwhile, the “sudden” interest in politics on the Jordanian blogosphere resulting from the Black Wednesday incident gave way to a lot of speculation as to why there is general apathy towards the political scene in Jordan. Haitham Sabbah wonders if the explosions were a “wake up call”, while Naseem Tarawneh points to a recent study on Jordanian newspapers that showed that there is in fact a lack of local political news coverage. Naseem also says, “Our politics is dominated by constant change in governments, the lack of noticable reforms, and more of the same old same old.”

Life for the Jordanian Bloggers
Ladies and gentlemen, behold, the very first Arabic podcast; Dagdegni, by Reef Fakhouri, George Akra, and Karim Arafat.
Tololy and Sabbah argue the different facets of implementing a dress code in offices, while Yazan Malakha has a post on superstitions, “I find it amusing how we spend our lives doing all sorts of things to protect us from all sorts of evils. Whether those evils are self detonating terrorists, spirits from beyond or a huge stream of carbonated beverage in our face.”
Meanwhile, the monthly Jordanian blogger meet-up for the month of November will be held on Sunday the 27th at Wild Jordan Café at 6:30 PM, all bloggers in Jordan that day, both Jordanian and otherwise, are more than welcome.

Science, Art, Culture, and Technology
Jameed reports about the latest AIDS epidemic on the genral HIV status in the MENA region, especially in Jordan. Lina Ejeilat talks about a new education initiative that is being launched to spread awareness about women’s empowerment and career planning curriculum into 1,500 schools in the West Bank, Gaza, as well as 100 Discovery schools in Jordan.
Eman of Aquacool and Isam Bayazidi report on Jordan's participation in the WSIS summit held in Tunisia this month. Eman writes about the Jordanian participants and provides some feedback while Isam says, “I am glad that light is being shed on Freedom of expression in the internet, specially for bloggers.“
Jordanian movie maker Amin Matalqa posts a link to his latest short, “Obsession“.
Local exhibitions taking place in Amman this month include “Erasing the Black Day“, “Jordan University Exhibition“, and Carmen Calvo at the National Gallery. A little Eastwards, Ahmad Humeid of 360East points to the annual design conference “Tasmeem Doha” held in Qatar early next year.

Freedom in Arabia
Natasha Tynes reports about a study on religious freedom in Jordan, and concludes, “Christians in Jordan enjoy a very good status”, Haitham Sabbah reports to a published a research that reports the status of Political and democracy freedom in the Middle East, as well as a report that reveals that the Arab world is one of the most troubling areas for press freedom.
Naseem Tarawneh writes about abolishing the Jordanian Press Association(of which belonging to is mandatory), which subjects journalists to “constant harassment”.

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Haiti on the Internet - a chat with Alice Eddie Backer

Georgia Popplewell · 12:28 · Haiti , Jamaica

Haitian American blogger Alice Eddie Backer

My conversation with Nicholas Laughlin about the Caribbean blogosphere has elicited some strong reactions from Caribbean bloggers. Haitian-American blogger Alice Eddie Backer, a lawyer based in New York, first came to my attention when she answered my appeal for more Haitian bloggers. Alice then went on to respond to our conversation on her blog kiskeyAcity with a post outlining her own views on the Caribbean blogosphere plus a lively analysis of the online conversation about Haiti, a nation the world is fond of referring to as “the poorest country in the western hemisphere”. Alice took some time out from her Thanksgiving holiday to talk with me via IM on Friday 24 November. Here's an edited version of our chat:

GP: Perhaps you could begin by giving me a little background on yourself.

AB: I lived in Haiti — of Haitian parents — until the age of 18, at which point I migrated to the US. I've since been occupied with attending college (Barnard) and law school (NYU) and have become a lawyer. I started my blog kiskeyAcity about three months ago.

GP: What motivated you to start a blog?

AB: Well, I needed more of a connection to a place to which I was no longer feeling connected any more and which nonetheless made me who I am.

GP: What do you think caused this feeling of disconnection?

AB: First, there's the geographical distance. Second is the fact that every time I watch news of Haiti, I do not recognize the place. I have to ask, have things gotten that much worse? Or was this always the way the world looked at Haiti? Although there is a little bit of the former, I have come to understand that it is mostly the latter.

GP: And how come you chose blogging and not, say, joining an organization?

(more…)

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