[Dawn] ALMOST a year has gone by since citizens of various Arab nations rose up against long-entrenched dictatorial regimes but their frustration has not been assuaged. Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, is the only nation which has seen an orderly transition to democracy with the election of a constituent assembly. Elsewhere there is tumult. Yemen`s President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... has signed a deal, promising to step down after three decades in power but there is reason to be cautious. He has backtracked on promises to hand over power several times. Mr Saleh`s stubbornness has brought his impoverished nation to the brink of civil war with hundreds killed since the protests began. Yemeni activists also question why the deal gives Mr Saleh immunity from prosecution. Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last. They discussed the officers's efficiency rating system... Cairo`s Tahrir Square is once again rife with protests. Dozens have been killed as the authorities have violently put down demonstrations. The protesters want a quicker transition to democracy and are suspicious of the military`s intentions to tinker with the constitution. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt`s ruling military council, has made overtures to the protesters yet many Egyptians feel the generals have no intention of handing over power.
The Gulf is also in flux. In Bahrain, the head of a government-appointed commission has said the sheikhdom`s forces "used torture and excessive force against demonstrators" to smother the strategic nation`s forgotten revolution. This has strengthened the opposition and human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... observers` claims that the Bahraini state discriminates against and is brutal towards its own people. The state now needs to back up claims it will punish those involved in abuses. The commission has also established there is no proof of Iranian involvement in fomenting protests, a strong indicator that the movement is homegrown. In Kuwait, several opposition activists were locked away recently after protesters stormed parliament and clashed with police last week. The opposition has called for the prime minister`s dismissal and parliament`s dissolution in the wake of a corruption scandal reportedly involving the premier -- a royal -- and several politicians.
Major questions remain about the direction of the Arab Spring. In nations where dictators have fallen (Egypt and Libya) it remains to be seen whether the people`s democratic aspirations will be thwarted by a new set of autocrats. Yemen`s and Syria`s future is also uncertain given the tribal and sectarian divisions within those societies. As for the Gulf monarchies, they will put up the toughest resistance to change. One thing appears certain: much ground still needs to be covered before the Arab masses can reach their goal of establishing representative governments that ensure full social, political and economic rights.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Major questions remain about the direction of the Arab Spring
#2
Unfortunately they are. You'd of thought such gulliable, stupid people would have long since triggered Campbell's "Universal Discipline" and auto-darwinated themselves but sadly they appear to be much like cockroaches.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division ||
11/26/2011 9:06 Comments ||
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#3
much ground still needs to be covered before the Arab masses can reach their goal of establishing representative governments that ensure full social, political and economic rights.
I thought such things as representative government and democracy were considered un-Islamic in some circles, like Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/26/2011 17:52 Comments ||
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PUBLIC- sector education in Pakistain, particularly at the primary level, is adrift and rudderless. Although the country is in the midst of an `education emergency`, it appears the state is doing very little to rectify matters. Though the alarm has been sounded in the past, yet another reminder of the grim state of affairs has come in the form of a baseline study conducted by the Aga Khan University`s Institute for Educational Development under the Strengthening Teacher Education in Pakistain project. The study, which covered nearly 200 schools in seven districts of Sindh, found that around 70 per cent of teachers teach for only 15 minutes in a 35-minute period. Ten per cent teach for less than five minutes. The study also indicates that the surveyed schools suffered from high rates of truancy (only 56 per cent of students attended classes regularly) while pass percentages were largely abysmal. Gender bias in schools was also a major concern. The study may have been limited to specific districts, but it would not be wrong to assume the situation is similar across Sindh.
Though millions of school-age children are out of school in Pakistain, the project`s coordinator pointed out that the children that are enrolled are not being educated. This depressing reality should shake the state out of its slumber. Simply enrolling children to fulfil statistical obligations is not enough; once in school efforts must be made to actually educate these young minds. The state is not fulfilling its constitutional obligation by turning a blind eye to the woeful standards of public schools. The study offers numerous solutions -- enhancing teachers` morale, improving the capabilities of head teachers, etc. Yet these and other policy prescriptions cannot deliver until the state demonstrates it has the political will to do what is needed to stem the rot in education.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Well when the previous generation got Physics PHDs with thesis like "How many jinn can sit on the head of a pin?" WTF do you expect?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/26/2011 3:37 Comments ||
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I thought this would be about the U.S. or Europe.
Well, it could....
Posted by: no mo uro ||
11/26/2011 4:25 Comments ||
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it appears the state is doing very little to rectify matters.
Is the state doing anything to rectify any problem whatsoever? I doubt it.
#8
Thing, if Aquinas was right, then angels are each one of a kind, and so even if they were fermions their quantum numbers would all be different. Question 50 point 4. Pile them on.
(Dunno how citing Tom would go over in the Land of the Pure)
Posted by: James ||
11/26/2011 18:31 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
