Category: World News & Politics

Middle East Freedom Index

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked 20 countries on 15 indicators of political and civil liberty.

The EIU scored each country on a 10-point scale, awarding one point for the least political freedom and 10 for the most.

The indicators used to score freedom in each country are: Election of head of government, Election of parliament, Fairness of electoral laws, Right to organise political parties, Power of elected representatives, Presence of an opposition, Transparency, Minority participation, Level of corruption, Freedom of assembly, Independence of the judiciary, Press freedom, Religious freedom, Rule of law, and Property rights.

The results came out as follows:

1. Israel 8.20
2. Lebanon 6.55
3. Morocco 5.20
4. Iraq 5.05
5. Palestine 5.05
6. Kuwait 4.90
7. Tunisia 4.60
8. Jordan 4.45
9. Qatar 4.45
10. Egypt 4.30 		11. Sudan 4.30
12. Yemen 4.30
13. Algeria 4.15
14. Oman 4.00
15. Bahrain 3.85
16. Iran 3.85
17. UAE 3.70
18. Saudi Arabia 2.80
19. Syria 2.80
20. Libya 2.05

[Source: BBC]

WSIS Reflections

So, as my previous post already told you all, I was at the Kram Palexpo, as it’s now being called, for the World Summit on the Information Society; One of the greatest events that have ever been held in my dear country Tunisia.

I’d like to talk about the organization a bit before I move on. I think Tunisia has done a really good job organizing this event. The badging process was really smooth and practical even though there were a lot of people. Security is really high. The Kram palexpo has been extended to cover the space needed for the summit, the ICT4ALL expo and all the parallel events. In short, I’m really proud of Tunisia’s organization of the summit.

Now back to the summit itself…
One of the main points everyone was talking about and wondering about going into the summit was Internet Governance; Will it remain in the hands of the US or will a world governing body take it over.
As expected, things will remain as they are with the US holding on to full control of the internet.

News reports chose to put it this way: “the delegates reached to an accord that leaves the supervision of domain names and other technical resources unchanged. They agreed instead to an evolutionary approach to Internet management.”
Which is a nice way to say that the US told everyone to buzz off and keep their hands off the internet.

As I said earlier, I took a quick tour of the ICT4ALL expo, which I will certainly have to go back to in these coming days.
I met a number of old friends (offline ones as well as online ones), as well as some new great and interesting people.

Now, some of you might be asking what I was doing there and how I got in.
Well, today was mainly part of my participation in a really exciting project called ReachOut which is organized by the British Council and CholertonShand, in partnership with the WSIS Youth Caucus.

The project’s idea is to encourage and enable open discussion between young people from Arab countries and the United Kingdom about issues raised by the United Nation’s World Summit on the Information Society.

So a group of really interesting people came together today from different Arab countries (Libya, Jordan, Palestine, Kuwait, Syria, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia), and we got to know each other, visited the Kram palexpo together, and then went back to the British Council where we had a live video conference with another group of equally interesting people at Oxford University in England.

The topics discussed revolved around the different uses of ICT as a tool for development and its role in globalization, culture, dialogue, e-learning, …etc.
It was a very rich discussion that we all hope to build upon and create projects out of the ideas we’ve been brainstorming about.
The event was and will continue to be blogged live here.

I’ll be going back to the Kram palexpo tomorrow, and will hopefully meet some more interesting people that I’ve gotten to know online and get to talk more to the people I met today.
I will also be taking a lot more pictures and trying to get some good quality ones, as the ones I took today were rushed and ended up not so good.
Anyway, I put some online on my flickr here.

Quick Blog From WSIS

This is a live post from the Kram palexpo, where the World Summit on the Information Society is being held. I’m currently on a tour in the ICT4ALL section where countries and companies from all over the world have put up their shiny stands and presentations, scattered leaflets right and left…etc.

It’s been great meeting a number of old friends from other countries, as well as some new interesting people from all over the world.

There’s certainly a lot of interesting stuff and ideas floating around.

I’ll be taking some photos and writing more about this later, as I still have a lot to see and more people to meet.

Prince Charles to plead Islam’s cause to US

The Prince of Wales will try to persuade George W Bush and Americans of the merits of Islam this week because he thinks the United States has been too intolerant of the religion since September 11.

The Prince, who is on an eight-day tour of the US, has voiced private concerns over America’s “confrontational” approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam’s strengths.

It is understood that Prince Charles did not – and does not – believe that the actions of 19 hijackers should tarnish the reputation of hundreds of millions of law-abiding Muslims around the world.

[Via: Thysdrus]
[Source: Telegraph]

Iranian President’s Comments on Israel

All the talk seems to be about this now…

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today lambasted Israel and Zionism and quoted a remark from Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution, that Israel “must be wiped out from the map of the world.”

The president then said: “And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism,” according to a quote published by Iran’s state news outlet, the Islamic Republic News Agency.

The remarks by Ahmadinejad coincided with a month-long protest against Israel called “World Without Zionism” and with the approach of Jerusalem Day.

[Source: CNN]

Personally, and with all due respect, I think this is a very dumb comment.
No matter what this man thinks and believes and no matter what his goals are, saying something like this, at a time like this, is one of the dumbest political moves anyone could ever make.

This will only strengthen the position of the countries that want to take the Iran file to the UN Security Council and help them seek another reason for war.

With this comment, the Iranian president has positioned Iran as a threat to Israel and the US, even though its obvious its just empty talk. But it’s a big point against Iran, that I don’t think will be passed easily.

What does he get out of this?
A standing ovation by the attendees?
Is it really worth it, when it could also mean isolating the country even more and accelerating the start of a war?

This comment puts even friendlier countries against Iran, which is something it doesn’t need right now, leaving it alone and with less support, which is very very bad.

Israel is now suggesting that Tehran should be expelled from the United Nations, and this is only the beginning. I expect we’ll be hearing a lot about this comment in the coming days and months.

BBC Arabic TV Channel in 2007

The BBC World Service has announced it is to set up a new Arabic television channel, in what it describes as its “biggest transformation in 70 years.”

The new station is expected to be a rival to the Qatar-based al-Jazeera, which is itself launching an English-language service next year.

The World Service says its new Arabic language television service is “part of a wide-ranging package of proposals aimed at maintaining and enhancing BBC World Service’s pre-eminent position and impact in an emerging multimedia age.”

The Arabic channel, due to launch in 2007, forms part of a

Online Recruiting

First Al-Qaeda started recruiting online…

Al Qaeda has put job advertisements on the Internet asking for supporters to help put together its Web statements and video montages, London-based Asharq al-Awsat reported.

The “vacant positions” for video production and editing statements, footage and international media coverage about militants in Iraq, the Palestinian territories,
Chechnya and other conflict zones where militants are active.

And now it’s British MI6’s turn…

Britain’s foreign spy service MI6 has turned to the Internet in an attempt to recruit real-life James Bonds.

Applicants are promised foreign travel and must be resourceful and flexible, thrive on a challenge and be able to cope with stress.

“Whether you feel that your strengths could lead you towards operations, intelligence analysis, management, data handling or security, whether you have the skills to design high-tech gadgets or to deploy them in a hostile environment, SIS may have the career for you.”

I wonder if someone could join one of them and freelance with the other at the same time 😛

Asian Earthquake

An earthquake of 7.6 magnitude on the Richter scale, epicentered in Kashmir, hit northern India and Pakistan, around 8:50 AM local time.

The confirmed death toll stands at 1,337.

Effects of the quake, the most intense in the region in a century, were felt hundreds of miles away.

Remote towns and major cities, such as Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, India’s capital of New Delhi and the Pakistani city of Lahore, were shaken.

The same community who blogged the tsunami are now blogging the earthquake. Follow their blog at: http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/.

Our hearts and minds are with the people of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan who have lost their loved ones in these tragic events.
May God help them and may those lost rest in peace.

IAEA & El Baradei Win 2005 Nobel Peace Prize

The U.N. nuclear watchdog and its head, Mohamed El Baradei, won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their efforts to limit the spread of atomic weapons.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee picked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and El Baradei, an Egyptian, from a record field of 199 candidates.

It praised El Baradei as an “unafraid advocate” of measures to strengthen non-proliferation efforts.

The two had been among favorites for the award on the 60th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Nobel Committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said that the prize was not meant as a veiled criticism of Washington, which has often been at odds with ElBaradei on Iraq.

I personally do not agree that the IAEA or El Baradei deserve this award.
They’re far from being objective, unbiased and solely dedicated to the cause of promoting a nuclear free world.
Before the Iraq war, they didn’t do enough to stress that Iraq didn’t have any WMDs and that there was no reason for war, and now the same is happening with Iran with them complicating things and not cooperating enough with Iran.
They’re just another puppet agency in my point of view.

[Source: CNN]