Tag Archive: The Middle East
Hey people! It’s been too long since I’ve actually done a blog so I thought I would feel ya’ll in to what’s going on in Aprilslife. College has started. It’s been pretty busy with helping Steven apply for college and the actives we’re involved in. This year I’m involved in SGA (student government). That has been fun! 🙂 I’ve never been involved in SGA before so this is all new to me, but so far it has been great. I’ve gotten involved with Wesley this year. I involved in Wesley last year but not as well as I should have been. Sadly, I can’t attended BSU (Baptist Student Union) due to classes. We, also, taken year book photos a few weeks back. Between classes, Wesley, and SGA things have been pretty crazy. But, it’s all good though. lol
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/palestine-wins-unesco-seat-143002573.html
Palestine won full admission into UNESCO, the United Nations science, education and cultural heritage organization, in a closely watched vote in Paris Monday. Global diplomacy hands view the 107-14 vote as a benchmark carrying larger implications for the Palestinians’ bid for state recognition before the UN Security Council. Both the United States and Israel have strongly opposed both initiatives.
The United States, Israel, Canada, Germany, Sweden and Australia were among the 14 nations voting against the Palestinians’ UNESCO bid, while 107 countries–including France, Spain, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, India, Russia, China, South Africa and Indonesia–voted in favor. Fourteen nations–including the United Kingdom and Italy–abstained.
Washington, which called the UNESCO vote “premature” Monday, has threatened to cut off funding to UNESCO if Palestine is granted membership. The United States currently accounts for about one-fifth of the organization’s budget.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also rejected the UNESCO vote, and warned it would set back peace process.
“This is a unilateral Palestinian maneuver which will bring no change on the ground but further removes the possibility for a peace agreement,” the Israeli ministry said in a statement. “This decision will not turn the Palestinian Authority into an actual state yet places unnecessary burdens on the route to renewing negotiations.”
Palestine’s successful UNESCO bid comes as Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair is due to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House Monday.
Blair has been trying to advance the Quartet’s efforts to get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, asking each side to lay out their specific terms for resolving the issues of borders and security for a two-state solution. Meanwhile, Israeli officials have been depicting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as an unworthy peace partner.
Abbas, in turn, has recently reiterated his periodic threat to dissolve the Palestinian Authority–a move that if carried out would presumably give Israel the burden of administering, funding, and coordinating security for the West Bank’s Palestinian population.
http://news.yahoo.com/tunisia-counts-votes-first-arab-spring-election-011055438.html
TUNIS (Reuters) – Moderate Islamists claimed victory on Monday in Tunisia’s first democratic election, sending a message to other states in the region that long-sidelined Islamists are challenging for power after the “Arab Spring.”
Official results have not been announced, but the Ennahda party said its workers had tallied the results posted at polling stations after Sunday’s vote, the first since the uprisings which began in Tunisia and spread through the region.
“The first confirmed results show that Ennahda has obtained first place,” campaign manager Abdelhamid Jlazzi said outside party headquarters in the center of the Tunisian capital.
As he spoke, a crowd of more than 300 in the street shouted “Allahu Akbar!” or “God is great!” Other people started singing the Tunisian national anthem.
Mindful that some people in Tunisia and elsewhere see the resurgence of Islamists as a threat to modern, liberal values, party officials said they were prepared to form an alliance with two secularist parties, Congress for the Republic and Ettakatol.
“We will spare no effort to create a stable political alliance … We reassure the investors and international economic partners,” Jlazzi said.
Sunday’s vote was for an assembly which will sit for one year to draft a new constitution. It will also appoint a new interim president and government to run the country until fresh elections late next year or early in 2013.
The voting system has built-in checks and balances which make it nearly impossible for any one party to have a majority, compelling Ennahda to seek alliances with secularist parties, which will dilute its influence.
“This is an historic moment,” said Zeinab Omri, a young woman in a hijab, or Islamic head scarf, who was outside the Ennahda headquarters when party officials claimed victory.
“No one can doubt this result. This result shows very clearly that the Tunisian people is a people attached to its Islamic identity,” she said.
REVOLUTION INSPIRED UPRISINGS
Tunisia became the birthplace of the “Arab Spring” when Mohamed Bouazizi, a vegetable seller in a provincial town, set fire to himself in protest at poverty and government repression.
His suicide provoked a wave of protests which, weeks later, forced autocratic president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia.
The revolution in Tunisia, a former French colony, in turn inspired uprisings which forced out entrenched leaders in Egypt and Libya, and convulsed Yemen and Syria — re-shaping the political landscape of the Middle East.
Ennahda is led by Rachid Ghannouchi, forced into exile in Britain for 22 years because of harassment by Ben Ali’s police.
A softly spoken scholar, he dresses in suits and open-necked shirts while his wife and daughter wear the hijab.
Ghannouchi is at pains to stress his party will not enforce any code of morality on Tunisian society, or the millions of Western tourists who holiday on its beaches.
He models his approach on the moderate Islamism of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
The party’s rise has been met with ambivalence by some people in Tunisia. The country’s strong secularist traditions go back to the first post-independence president, Habiba Bourguiba, who called the hijab an “odious rag.”
Outside the offices of the commission which organized the election, about 50 people staged a sit-in demanding an investigation into what they said were irregularities committed by Ennahda. Election officials said any problems were minor.
“I really feel a lot of fear and concern after this result,” said Meriam Othmani, a 28-year-old journalist. “Women’s rights will be eroded,” she said. “Also, you’ll see the return of dictatorship once Ennahda achieves a majority in the constituent assembly.”
Ennahda’s preferred coalition partners may reassure some opponents. Ali Larayd, a member of the party’s executive committee, said it was ready to form an alliance with the Congress for the Republic and Ettakatol, both secularist groups respected by Tunisia’s intelligentsia.
The Congress is led by Moncef Marzouki, a doctor and human rights activist who spent years in exile in France. Ettakatol is a socialist party led by Mustafa Ben Jaafar, another doctor and veteran Ben Ali opponent.
The only official results released were from polling stations abroad, because they voted early.
The election commission said that out of 18 seats in the 217-seat assembly allocated to the Tunisian diaspora, 9 went to Ennahda. Its closest rivals were Marzouki’s Congress on four seats and Ettakatol, which won three.
The highest-profile secularist challenger to Ennahda, the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) conceded defeat. It had warned voters that modern, liberal values would be threatened if the Islamists won.
“The PDP respects the democratic game. The people gave their trust to those it considers worthy of that trust. We congratulate the winner and we will be in the ranks of the opposition,” a party statement sent to Reuters said.
Ennahda’s win was a remarkable turnaround for a party which just 10 months ago had to operate underground because of a government ban and which had hundreds of followers in prison.
In a slick and well-funded campaign, the party tapped into a desire among ordinary Tunisians to be able to express their faith freely after years of aggressively enforced secularism.
It also sought to show it could represent all Tunisians, including the large number who take a laissez-faire view of Islam’s strictures, drink alcohol, wear revealing clothes and rarely visit the mosque.
Secularist opponents say they believe this is just a cleverly constructed front that conceals more radical views, especially among Ennahda’s rank and file in the provinces.
The party’s final election rally last week was addressed by one of Ennahda’s candidates, a glamorous woman who does not wear a hijab.
On the fringes of the same rally, stalls sold books by Salafist authors, followers of a strict interpretation of Islam who believe women should be covered up and that the sexes should be segregated in public.
(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by  Tim Pearce)
http://news.yahoo.com/turnout-key-moroccans-vote-kings-reforms-091824853.html
RABAT (Reuters) – Moroccans voted on Friday in a referendum on a revised constitution offered by King Mohammed to placate “Arab Spring” street protesters and the “yes” camp was tipped to win despite boycott calls by opponents.
The new charter explicitly grants the government executive powers, but retains the king at the helm of the army, religious authorities and the judiciary and still allows him to dissolve parliament, though not unilaterally as is the case now.
That falls far short of the demands of the “February 20” protest movement, which wants a parliamentary monarchy where the king’s powers would be kept in check by elected lawmakers.
However the movement so far has not attracted the mass support of popular uprisings that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt. It urged Moroccans to boycott the vote and said a low turnout would back their calls for more radical reforms.
Turnout stood at 26 percent by midday local time (1100 GMT), according to the interior ministry. Preliminary results were due to be announced late on Friday, a ministry spokesman said.
“I voted ‘yes’ because we have to obey the Commander of the Faithful,” retired agriculture ministry engineer Samira Denguir said in the middle-class Hassan suburb of the capital Rabat, referring to the king’s religious role.
“A large ‘yes’ vote with a high abstention rate or spoiled ballots is not a great result, and the monarchy, Makhzen and (political) parties know it,” said Lise Storm, senior lecturer in Middle East politics at the University of Exeter in England.
The Makhzen is the royal court seen by many Moroccans as a largely unaccountable and shadowy political and business elite.
The 47-year-old ruler has had some success in repairing the legacy of human right abuses, high illiteracy and poverty he inherited after his late father’s 38-year rule ended in 1999.
WESTERN ALLY
A staunch Western ally, Morocco under King Mohammed has stepped up cooperation against terrorism and illegal migration, notably with the European Union which is keen to avoid the spread of Islamic militancy along its southern shores.
But while his personal popularity is expected to swing many voters in favor of the reforms, the margin of victory could be eroded by resentment at wide disparities between rich and poor, and a sense of alienation from the political elite.
“I’m not voting because I couldn’t get my voter card and to be totally honest I couldn’t care less. If they really mean good they would have done it years ago,” said market trader Younes Driouki, 29, heading to the beach with his surfboard.
Results of an online poll conducted by independent portal Lakome.com showed 52 percent of 51,200 participants saying they would boycott the referendum. The vast bulk of the rest said they would vote in favor, but such a low turnout would raise questions about the credibility of the exercise.
Some 13 million people registered to vote — more than 6 million fewer than the 19.4 million Moroccans over 19 years old in a 2009 census. Moroccans above 18 are eligible to vote.
Hamid Benchrifa, an analyst from the Social Development Agency, said the disparity may be due either to voters not updating their identity cards after changing address, or a simple lack of interest in politics.
The February 20 movement has brought together Islamists bent on setting up an Islamic caliphate and secular left-wingers focusing on what they see as rising levels of corruption.
They say they will continue their common fight for a system of parliamentary monarchy and more curbs on the king’s powers.
(Editing by Mark John and Mark Heinrich)
It’s been a great week for BeyoncĂ©’s confident, fist-pumping, female-anthem-making alter ego Sasha Fierce. She rocked three major stages to rave reviews: the “Billboard Music Awards“, “Oprah’s Farewell Spectacular,” and “American Idol.” But she’s also receiving some deserved attention for her impressive acoustic rehearsal footage.
Following the “Idol” broadcast, BeyoncĂ©’s husband, Jay-Z, posted behind-the-scenes footage of his wife singing her new emotional ballad “1+1” in her dressing room. Accompanied by a pianist and her background singers, BeyoncĂ© simply stands in front of a vanity mirror with her head humbly held low and eyes closed as she belts her way through the lyrics while her mother, nephew, and cousin, among others, watch in awe.
  the song, BeyoncĂ© pledges her unconditional love for someone special. “We ain’t got nothing but love, and darling you’ve got enough for both of us,” she sings.
Jay-Z, who actually videotaped the clip, stressed the uniqueness of the stripped-down run-through. “This is the dressing-room rehearsal for ‘American Idol,'” he wrote on his Life+Times website under the pseudonym Andy WarHOV. “‘NO MICROPHONE. No effects.”
Fans online are equally pleased, saying this raw performance reflects the depths of BeyoncĂ©’s talent. “Amazing pitch! Great control over her voice. No reverb, microphone, fade-in/out, vocaline, compressor, emlodyne, autotune, logic audio or protools needed,” Denasimone commented on popular urban blog Concrete Loop, one of the first sites to post the video.
Jay-Z described BeyoncĂ©’s “pregame” show as refreshing. “Sometimes you need perspective,” he wrote. “You’ve been right in front of greatness so often that you need to step back and see it again for the first time.”
But of course, BeyoncĂ©’s “Idol” experience wasn’t the only cool “Idol” news to break this week. On Wednesday night, the show named its 10th winner, Scotty McCreery. Elsewhere in the latest happenings in the music world, Justin Bieber and girlfriend Selena Gomez confirmed their boyfriend-girlfriend status when they shared an on camera kiss as the 17-year-old pop singer headed to the stage to receive a Billboard Music Award. The demand for Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” album caused the servers at online retailer Amazon to crash, as eager fans rushed to take advantage of the 99-cent presale promotion. And the Grammys caught flack from music veterans Carlos Santa and Paul Simon who demanded that the respected National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences reinstate the 30 categories it eliminated earlier this year.
Hopefully, this recap gives you the information you need to be pop culture experts at Memorial Day barbecues this weekend. Enjoy. We’ll see you back next week.
So, if you’re reading this one of two things have happened. 1.) You were bored and was looking for something to read or 2.) You like to read my blog posts. But, hey your reading my blog and I aperate that. Thank you. 🙂 Let see what can I put in today’s post. Well, I really want to learn the Japanese language, but the problem is I’m not sure how I can do that. I mean there aren’t many people here in Grenada willing to teach me. If any of know someone please let me know. What else, uhm….yea I’m looking for new ways to study up on math so I’ll be ready for the ACT in September. So yea that’s it. If you have anything you’s like to see me post or anything like that please leave a comment. Bye.
aprilslife 