Today’s anecdote goes out to all of those out there who still do not believe in this little concept called global warming. We are moving towards the middle of October and still it was almost 80 degrees Fahrenheit (about 27 degrees Celsius) in Northern New Jersey. I honestly felt like it was the middle of August all over again when I had just returned from my summer trip in Europe. It is time for us to clean up our own act so that we can hold the greatest polluters responsible with a clear consciousness. A whole other blog could be written on that topic though so let’s focus back on the Middle East and North Africa.
The articles I will highlight are the beheading of guest workers in Saudi Arabia, the sudden change of mind of one of Syria’s main supporters, and Egypt’s creeping advances towards democracy. As always there will be some links at the end of the post that I think deserve particular attention so make sure to check these out (two of them are very picture heavy for those of you who get tired reading my post).
Adding insult to injury
Why is it significant that Saudi Arabia just executed eight Bangladeshi guest workers publicly and condemned three others to prison terms and flogging over the murder of an Egyptian citizen in 2007? Saudi Arabia just like many other states which are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an organization akin to the EU, houses a significant number (usually in the millions) of guest workers from Asian countries. Lured with the promise of high wages, those workers are literally held hostage in countries like Saudi Arabia, getting paid a minimal wage. They are only allowed to leave after their sponsor, who has to be a Saudi Arabian citizen, returns their passport to them which is collected at the time of their arrival. Now take this serf-like system of employment and throw a dead body into the mix. How easy would it be to frame a group of non-Arabic speaking guest workers at your mercy for committing the murder of a Muslim? Put them in front of a Shari’a court that only operates in the Arabic language and they will not even be able to defend themselves. By no means am I trying to defend the murder of a human being, because who knows maybe those eleven Bangladeshis were guilty of the crime. Yet, the justice system in Saudi Arabia is too quick to hand out the death penalty (in this case beheading) to too many. And it would be no surprise to me if this case of further abuse would be seen as adding insult to the injury of servitude that the guest workers in GCC countries are experiencing.
A turn in events, well maybe
Even those of you out there who dislike the UN and call it a useless bureaucracy have to admit that the UN’s Security Council responded appropriately when it came to protecting the Libyan rebels. Without the legitimization by the Security Council of a NATO intervention in Libya, the rebels revolution would have been stopped in it’s tracks at Benghazi. Granted, whether or not Western powers should intervene in MENA countries is another issue that some might have here, but overall it can be agreed that many lives were saved when Colonel Gaddafi’s troops were kept from taking the rebel’s capital city. Yet, as appropriate as the response by the Security Council might be, any decision made by it is dependent on the agreement of the five veto powers, and this is where the current uprising in Syria comes into play. In the past, both Russia and China have vetoed any kind of condemnation of the violence committed by the Al-Assad regime in Syria. A condemnation would be a necessary precursor to any kind of resolution calling for military intervention, so in effect the Russians and Chinese representatives have prevented the Syrian rebels from receiving support like the Libyan rebels did. Now with a new call by President Medvedev of Russia for Al-Assad to facilitate reforms or step down, the pressure for the repressive leader of Syria has increased. An abstention from Russia on the Security Council would make an intervention in Syria more likely. Maybe that is why the Syrian regime has warned other states from recognizing the newly declared National Council that stands in opposition to Al-Assad. A repeat of Libya is definitely not in the interest of the current regime. The pressure is on.
Why aren’t we doing it like them?
Do you remember the old cheesy saying that you hear every time the question comes up of why history is important: “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” No other saying could be more appropriate as the Egyptian public looks westward and wonders at the sight of Tunisian democratic progress “why aren’t we doing it like them?” Are the Egyptians doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past as they enter another alleged ‘transitional period’ that leads to the holy grail of democracy? Keeping in mind that the last transitional period heralded in by Egypt’s military lasted sixty years and was everything but democratic in nature, another junta of generals should bring about a certain unease when it comes to Egypt’s political future. The Tunisians are due to vote on the 23rd of October, while the Egyptians will have three staggered elections to determine the members of the lower and upper house who will then draft the resolution. Both houses will be elected by next March. This will leave the Egyptians lagging behind five months in the democratic process, even though Egypt’s revolution was successful only a month after former President Ben Ali of Tunisia was ousted. So why aren’t they doing it like them? The thought lies near that we are in for another round of autocratic rule.
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