Tag: Internal Writers

Iraqis often say that Iran and Saudi Arabia fight their wars with each other in disregard of the Iraqi people. The geography of the area explains how this is so. Iraq sits directly between the two. It might also be said that other superpowers, the United States and its on-going challenger, Russia, also fight their power struggles over the backs of various nations. Much of the world sits between the goals of these monoliths (at least from the perspective of a Eurocentric world map) and suffer constant manipulations. That Russia…

In the last 10 years, a lot has changed. In 2007, the idea of a smartwatch that could tell you if you have an irregular heartbeat, or that knows the best time to wake you up in the morning, seemed like science fiction. Now it is science fact. The lines between science fiction and realistic predictions for the future are blurred. So, what about the next 10 years? Sure, you can’t always make future projections based on historical trends – but we can try our best! Here are some of…

A few months ago, the Prime Minster of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, was visiting President Putin, attempting to illustrate a political point by using an ancient Jewish religious story. Putin had no patience for it and responded: “We now live in a different world. Let us talk about that.”. We indeed live in a world in which adult men, who should know better, try to use or misuse God to support military aggressions. This subject could easily fill volumes of books, but I will discuss only a few thoughts on the matter. There…

During my visit to Tripoli, I was able to observe various tendencies that alerted me to a complex regime of white supremacy and orientalism. Today, weddings do not only resemble the unification of two individuals, but also a way in which excessive spending, West-centric styles and contest for socioeconomic and class supremacy take place. Although it is neither typical Libyan or Arab tradition, bachelorette parties and bridesmaids have become an essential element of a wedding. In addition, the way in which wedding halls, tables and chairs are set and decorated…

Since the presidential election, many of us in the US have been outraged. To us, people such as Donald Trump and Steve Bannon belonged to a lunatic fringe element. It still seems unfathomable that Trump was elected to be our President.  We feel a huge amount of betrayal from our fellow Americans; we feel as if we were ambushed; except those people were among us the whole time. But where do we go from here? We go with a new awareness that we must listen to everyone’s voice and be aware that there…

This year’s election of Donald Trump will determine the fate of many Americans and the rest of the world population. The election exposed an alarmingly real division in American society. A division that means there is yet a lot for the ‘land of the free’ to work on. Clinton’s supporters can be divided as such: those who genuinely believe in her ideologies, mission and objectives, those who believe that it is about time ‘the greatest country in the world’ elect a female President, and those who are faced with no…

If we were to sit back, put aside everything we had learnt, all the ideas that were passed down to us from one generation to another, what would we make of the meaning of marriage? By definition, marriage is the union between a man and a woman as partners in a lifetime-committed relationship. And if we were to add bits and pieces of the meaning of marriage in our society, we would start to understand the cultural lines that bound us and perhaps start to unravel the potentially problematic features…

By Linda Wesson Not long ago a lovely thirteen year old girl named Hallel Ariel was killed by a seventeen year old boy named Muhammad Taraireh. He broke into the settlement home where she lived and murdered her in a vicious knife attack. There is never a good enough reason for killing an innocent person, whether from Israelis on the occupied Palestinians or vice-versa. It may be because of a very sick mind, and I do believe that this was the case in the killing of Hallel Ariel. I’m finally…

I would like to thank Laura Hawkes for her inputs to this article. I would also like to thank Lorenzo Raffio for his constructive feedback during its development. *** 1. Introduction Today, only 36% of Arab youths feel that the Middle East has improved in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.[1] Given the current turbulence, the idea that “democracy is incompatible with the Middle East” has become a popular – and rather problematic – argument. It is a problematic argument because: It is an argument that dehumanises Arabs and reduces them to case-studies…

On Thursday 23rd June, about 52% of British voters chose to leave the European Union. The decision had serious implications. The pound sterling became volatile, Scotland is considering another referendum for independence and there’s talk of Northern Ireland uniting with the Republic of Ireland. The City of London, who also voted to remain, is in shock. Furthermore, the majority of young people voted to stay in Europe, but their vote was outnumbered by an older generation who will not have to live with the consequences of this huge decision as long…