Friday, April 29, 2011

How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis


"Demand and supply certainly matter. But there's another reason why food across the world has become so expensive: Wall Street greed.
It took the brilliant minds of Goldman Sachs to realize the simple truth that nothing is more valuable than our daily bread. And where there's value, there's money to be made. In 1991, Goldman bankers, led by their prescient president Gary Cohn, came up with a new kind of investment product, a derivative that tracked 24 raw materials, from precious metals and energy to coffee, cocoa, cattle, corn, hogs, soy, and wheat. They weighted the investment value of each element, blended and commingled the parts into sums, then reduced what had been a complicated collection of real things into a mathematical formula that could be expressed as a single manifestation, to be known henceforth as the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI)."

Brilliant by Tamim al Barghouti

أميركا تبحث عن زبائن: المجتمع المدني السوري بائس The US seeks clients: wikileaks on the Syrian NGOs

If anyone still had any doubts about how the US seeks to use local NGOs to achieve its imperial designs, please read this article in Al Akhbar http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/11110 or find cable 05DAMASCUS6342
في رحلة البحث الأميركية عن حليف سوري محتمَل، أكان في السياسة أم في المجتمع المدني والمنظمات غير الحكومية، وجدت
 واشنطن صعوبات كبيرةفي إيجاد أطراف جديرة بنيل تمويل أميركي. هنا مقتطفات من برقية صادرة عن السفارة الأميركية ترسم 
صورة سوداء للمجتمع المدني السوري

May 15, the Return to Palestine March: the preparations continue, please disseminate

It has been ages since I have written on the blog. I am posting on the Return to Palestine March blog www.returntopalestine.blogspot.com in preparation for the May 15 event that will bring together Palestinians and lebanese and whoever would like to join to a location at the border. This is a peaceful march, and all palestinian factions and many lebanese factions and members of civil society are involved in preparing it. In other countries, the situation is the same, and it has been a long long time since I have seen the Lebanese and Palestinians working together with a shared political agenda. I will have plenty to say about that and about the March later, but just to give an idea of what is going on, please go to this link and look at the superb artwork that has been adopted by the March. A refreshing change from the classical stuff...

http://www.jamaalyad.org/MAIN/PRJT/PRJT_3AWDE/

Jamaa Al-Yad, an artists' collective located in Beirut, in coordination with representatives from various Palestinian and Lebanese civil society organizations, is providing at the above link a collection of materials (posters, flyers, handouts, stickers, stencils, etc.) to be used to publicize "The Return to Palestine March" and related activities scheduled for May 15 throughout the world. These materials are free to download and disseminate.





Friday, April 22, 2011

May 15 the Return to Palestine March

I'm super busy these days preparing for the march. Please check it on www.returntopalestine.blogspot.com and disseminate widely

Monday, April 18, 2011

مثقّفون لبنانيّون مع الشعب السوريّ

مثقّفون لبنانيّون مع الشعب السوريّ

أصدر عدد من المثقفين اللبنانيين، بينهم أسعد أبو خليل، دياب أبو جهجه، رامي زريق، رائد شرف، سماح إدريس، عدنيّة شبلي، ونرمين الحرّ، بياناً تضامنياً مع الشعب السوري، جاء فيه: «نحن الموقّعين والموقّعات أدناه نعلن تضامننا الكامل والعميق مع الشعب السوري المُنتفض على الظلم، كما سبق أن تضامنا في الماضي ونتضامن اليوم وسنتضامن غداً مع جميع العرب الثائرين على الأنظمة المتسلطة الجاثمة على صدورهم، من السعودية والبحرين، مروراً بليبيا والمغرب والجزائر وغيرها»، لافتين إلى «نفاق بعض المثقّفين الذين هبط عليهم الوحي (النفطي) فجأةً، فندّدوا بالقمع في سوريا بعدما صمتوا صمت القبور عن القمعين السعودي والبحريني، أو اختلقوا لهما الأعذار الواهية ذات العناوين السيادية والعروبوية الكاذبة».
وتابع البيان أن «ما يجري في سوريا من عمليات قتل جوالة، وما يتسرّب من صور وشرائط فيديو مريعة تنذر بمجازر مقبلة، إنما تتحمّل مسؤوليّته الأولى والرئيسية السلطات السورية القائمة، التي لا تزال تعمل بقانون الطوارئ السيّئ الصيت، ضاربة عرض الحائط بكامل مطالب الشعب السوري المحقة، في الكرامة والحرية والديموقراطية والقضاء على الفساد المتفاقم والمحسوبيات البغيضة، وغير ذلك مما لا يُمكن أن تفي به كلمة الإصلاح وحدها».
وعبّر الموقعون في بيانهم عن التشكيك «في رواية السلطات المذكورة عن عصابات جوالة مجهولة الهوّية؛ فهذه الروايات تهدف في رأينا إلى تبرئة ما ترتكبه تلك السلطات من جرائم قتل وتعذيب وتنكيل، ناهيكم بأن كلام الرئيس السوري (بشار الأسد) عن متظاهرين غُرّر بهم مهين للشعب السوري، ذي التاريخ الوطني والعروبي والثوري العريق».
وعلى الرغم من الأنباء عن «تدخلات خارجية» في الأحداث السوريّة الأخيرة، أشار البيان إلى أن «حركة الاحتجاجات والمعارضة ذات أسس وأسباب داخلية مُحقة. ومن حق الشعب السوري أن يطالب بتغيير جذري في بنية السلطة والمجتمع، من أجل بناء حكم ديموقراطي يرسي عدالة اجتماعية وحكماً نزيهاً، ويقوم بتحرير الجولان المحتل من العدو الصهيوني. أما الوحدة الوطنية الحقيقية، فلا تتم بإعمال سيف البطش والقمع في رقاب العباد، بل بتوفير أسس المساواة والعدل بين مكوّنات الشعب على اختلافها».
وختم البيان موضحاً «إذ نعبّر مجدداً عن تعاطفنا البالغ مع الشعب السوري، نشدد على ضرورة التنديد بتدخلات حلف شمالي الأطلسي الذي تحول إلى عضو غير مُعلن في جامعة الدول العربية. إن حق الشعب العربي في جميع الأقطار العربية في التحرر والتحرير لا لبس فيه، ويجب ألا تطمسه أطماع الاستعمار القديم والمتجدد ودعاويه الزائفة. إن الأكاذيب الإعلامية لتغطية ما يجري في سوريا والبحرين والسعودية وعُمان وليبيا والجزائر والمغرب وكل قطر عربي آخر لن تنفع. فما أطلقه في تونس الشهيد محمد البوعزيزي لن يتوقف حتى تعم وطننا العربي شمس الحرية!»
 http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/10256 (الأخبار)

Friday, April 15, 2011

مرقد عنزة

مرقد عنزة

رامي زريق
من كان يصدق أن الفرعون حسني مبارك وأولاده ومافيا المال والاستثمارات الفاسدة قد يمثلون ذات يوماً أمام محكمة تحقق في مصادر ثرواتهم؟ ومن كان يحلم بأن تنقلب الأمور رأساً على عقب وأن يتراجع بعض كبار الأثرياء، ممن يتمتعون بسلطة تفوق سلطة الدولة في بعض الحالات، عن استثمارات مشبوهة ويعيدون للشعب بعضاً مما كسبوه بنحو غير مشروع؟ ومن كان يتوقع أن الثورة قد تؤدي إلى إعادة النظر بالسياسة الزراعية المصرية التي هدفت منذ ما بعد الحقبة الناصرية إلى تشجيع الاستثمارات الرأسمالية الضخمة على حساب صغار المزارعين، والتي أدت إلى إعطاء الأثرياء «تسهيلات» للحصول على مساحات شاسعة من الأراضي الزراعية؟ فقد نقلت مجلة «فوربز» الأميركية (وهي مجلة متخصصة في شؤون الأغنياء) في نسختها الإلكترونية خبراً عن تنازل المليونير السعودي الوليد بن طلال عن 40 ألف هكتار من الأراضي في دلتا النيل كان قد اكتسبها عام 1998 بهدف استثمارها في مشروع زراعي ضخم. وكان مكتب المدعي العام في مصر قد وضع يده على الأرض بسبب الشكوك في شرعية الصفقة، بحسب خبر نقلته وكالة رويترز. يعاني لبنان تعديات يومية على الأراضي من زمرة صغيرة من المتنفذين الذين يتحكمون بالبلد ويحلّقون فوق القانون. ليس من الضروري البحث بعيداً لإيجاد دلائل على هذا الواقع: يكفي النظر إلى الأملاك البحرية وإلى وسط المدينة وإلى مشاعات بعض القرى التي علمنا أخيراً من الصحافة أنها تتعرض لعملية وضع يد من جهات «مجهولة» ربما كانت قد أتت من المريخ طمعاً بمرقد عنزة في جبل لبنان. كل هذا يحصل علناً عبر تغطية قانونية وعبر مراسيم تسنّ خصيصاً لتسهيل نهب الشعب. هذا الشعب نفسه الذي يجتمع في الميادين ليصفق لمن ينهبه... أهلاً بكم في لبنان.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Capitalism will free you

In this Gala dinner of puppet Arabs, Clinton sells us the revolution that we achieved. She then proceeds to give us a pat on the head telling us that we're not so bad after all, we're almost humans, but there is still a long way to go. While at it, she tells us she'll soon be sending Margaret Allbright with a can of Coke to help us swallow the neoliberal reforms she intends to push for. Welcome to the US-sponsored New Beginnings.


"In the medium term, as Egypt and Tunisia continue building their democracies, we will work with our partners to support an ambitious blueprint for sustainable growth, job creation, investment, and trade. The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation will provide up to $2 billion to encourage private sector investments across the Middle East and North Africa – especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. And we look forward to working with Congress to establish enterprise funds for Egypt and Tunisia that will support competitive markets, provide small and medium-sized businesses with access to critical low-cost capital. Our Global Entrepreneurship Program is seeking out new partners and opportunities. And we want to improve and expand the Qualified Investment Zones, which allow Egyptian companies to send exports to the United States duty-free.
To spur private sector investment, we are working with Partners for a New Beginning, an organization led by former Secretary Madeleine Albright, Muhtar Kent of Coca-Cola, and Walter Isaacson of the Aspen Institute. It was formed after President Obama’s Cairo speech and includes the CEOs of companies like Intel, Cisco, and Morgan Stanley. These leaders will convene a summit at the end of May to connect American investors with partners in the region’s transitional democracies, with an eye to creating more jobs and boosting trade.
Under the auspices of Partners for a New Beginning, the U.S.-North Africa Partnership for Economic Opportunity is building a network of public and private partners and programs to deepen economic integration among the countries in North Africa. This past December in Algiers, the Partnership convened more than 400 young entrepreneurs, business leaders, venture capitalists, and Diaspora leaders from the United States and North Africa. These people-to-people contacts have already helped lay the groundwork for cross-border initiatives to create jobs, train youth, and support start-ups. And there will be a follow-up meeting later this year in Morocco."
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/04/160642.htm

Egypt land deals violated the law: why am I not surprised?

"Since 1998 Alwaleed has invested $127 million in 100,00 acres (40,470 hectares) of land in the Nile River delta Tushka agricultural project (also known as Toshka). The land is owned by Alwaleed’s Kingdom Agricultural Development Co., which is part of his Saudi-listed Kingdom Holding investment vehicle. Egypt’s public prosecutor’s office said Sunday it froze the land controlled by Alwaleed because the original sale of the land violated the law, Reuters reported on Monday."

http://blogs.forbes.com/kerryadolan/2011/04/12/saudi-billionaire-prince-alwaleed-in-egypt-land-dispute/

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Engaging change

My talk at AUB on food and the Arab uprisings has been uploaded here http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=609422701132

Monday, April 11, 2011

The smell of flowers

In nature, the blossoming of flowering plant is a necessary stage in evolution. The smell of the flowers attracts pollinator insects, which help in the process of fertilization. Flowers then turn into fruits. Fruits carry seeds, which, if the conditions are adequate, germinate to produce a new generation. This is how the survival of the species is ensured.

Flowers that do not get fertilized just wilt and die. Hence, blossoming and the emission of scent are vital for attracting pollinators and ensuring the continuity of life. Competition for pollinators is tough. That’s why plants smell differently, to attract different types of insects. Some plants even emit putrid smells to attract scavenging insects.

The Arab Spring may be in full bloom, but some places smell better than others.

In Egypt and Tunisia the uprisings are bearing fruits. In spite of the violent events of last Friday, when the army attacked the Tahrir square demonstrators leaving at least one dead and scores of injured, reforms appear to be well on the way. This is not to say that counter-revolutionary forces are not deployed, and that there are no pressures to hijack the revolutions. However, the people (at least a significant part of it) are aware of that and will not allow it to happen. They are pressuring the military and obtaining concessions. Mubarak and his sons have today been asked to appear in front of an investigation for corruption. More will come. The road is long and arduous, but a process is engaged and it won’t stop easily.

Libya is not doing well. The opposition is politically immature, to say the least. It consists of a semblance of a militia that has no formal training, and that is fighting a war on a ground that would need a conventional army. This situation has been imposed by Qaddhafi, and the outcome has been appalling. The neighboring Arab states, Egypt and Tunisia, are not in a state in which they can offer any effective support to the opposition. The US and Europe’s intervention, disguised under a UN resolution and under NATO command is a disaster, and will make the new Libya a pawn in imperial hands. Analysts I have talked to believe that the next step is a NATO land intervention followed with the establishment of military bases in the East of Libya, while Qaddhafi will be allowed to retain the West. The bases, close to Egypt and to the oil sources of Libya, will serve the dual purpose of controlling Egypt and keeping it from deviating too much from the “normalizing with Israel” path. Eastern Libya is sending whiffs of Iraqi Kurdistan, first no fly zones, then “ground support”. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are soon talks of “oil for food”.

In Yemen, the maturity of the opposition is what is keeping a civil war at bay. It has resisted a call for arm in a country where everybody is armed, and where one can buy anti tank missiles off the shelf. In spite of attempts by the well-organized Islamists Islah party to control the uprising, the opposition has been able to remain diversified and to thwart take-over attempts by the military, the Saudis and the US. It is deeply political, and knows what it wants. Did you know that Sana`a was called that city of the eternal spring?

Bahrain and Palestine will stand forever as a monument to Western hypocrisy. The military crackdown on the Bahraini opposition, which is made out of civil movements, has been violent. Saudi forces have entered the country and established a rule of force. Hundreds of activists, citizen journalists and writers have been arrested and repressed. Gulf countries have justified all this with accusation of an Iranian conspiracy, although the US itself saw no signs that “Shiite-led Iran was behind the unrest”. The Bahraini people have been rejecting the Khalifa rule for decades, and at least 70% of the country is opposed to the corrupt monarchy. The recently released wikileaks documents have shown how much the ruling dynasty has opened the country to the Israeli Mossad and exposed the level of collaboration between Bahraini and Israeli intelligence.

Meanwhile, Israel is proceeding with its business as usual approach in the region, assassinating people left and right, and killing and wounding scores of civilians in Gaza. This hasn’t raised a single hair from an eyebrow in the face of those same NATO people who are so concerned by the fate of the Libyan civilians but refuse to apologize for “collateral damage” inflicted by their bombing onto the rebels. Israel is also widely believed to be behind a recent air raid that left two dead in Sudan a few days ago. In Sudan! Did you hear anything about it except a mild “tremor” in the Western press? I didn’t. Israel hasn’t even denied the accusations.

Syria is the big unknown. Things are deteriorating daily, and the regime’s crackdown is violent. Bashar al Asad might have missed a historical chance of reform. I am not surprised: autocrats don’t believe in reforms, and the regime has too much to lose if it did engage in anything but cosmetic changes. But Syria’s special situation has to do with the potential slippage into sectarian conflict, which would leave the country bloodied and destroyed. Some around me cynically argue that this is a necessary step towards emancipation. I am not sure that an Iraq situation in Syria is desirable, even at the humanitarian level. Everyone in Lebanon and the region is watching Syria very closely: it sits between Iraq and Palestine, and its geostrategic significance cannot be understated. Day after day, I become increasingly convinced that the Syrian uprisings will not be stopped and that the people will continue pushing for their rightful demands. The important issue now is to prevent counter revolutionary forces from taking over the uprising and sending the country into a destructive political spiral. What role Iraq and Turkey will play in that remains to be seen.

Whatever the future brings, the Arab Spring has finally come to us, after a long and desolate winter. The changes that have taken place are irreversible. We have changed. Society has changed. We have regained our belief in our abilities, in our self-respect and recovered our dignity. We are confident that we can build our future. We realize it will take time. But we also know that our children are not condemned to live forever under antiquated dictatorships. We feel Palestine is closer than ever. We can smell the orange blossoms in the orchards of Haifa.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

فرصة تاريخية

فرصة تاريخية

رامي زريق
قلبت الانتفاضات العربية كل مفاهيم «الثورات»؛ إذ إنها أتت مباشرة من الشعب، من دون المرور عبر الجهات التقليدية التي تدّعي تمثيله. وكانت «الجمعيات غير الحكومية» (NGO) هي الغائب الأكبر عن الميادين؛ إذ لم يُسمع لها «حسّ» خلال فترة الاعتصامات إلا في بعض العواصم الغربية. أتى هذا «التقصير» كصفعة على وجه الجهات التي كانت تمهد لحصول الانتقال «الديموقراطي» العربي من خلال متعهدي التنمية والممولين من وزارات الخارجية الغربية والناطقين بالخطاب المنمط والمشبع بالعنصرية عن الجندرة والحرية والديموقراطية والإسلام السياسي والإرهاب وثقافة السلام (مع إسرائيل) والبيئة. من أهم الدلائل على هذا الإخفاق، اللقاء الذي حصل في واشنطن في 16 شباط الماضي برعاية وزيرة الخارجية الأميركية هيلاري كلينتون، والذي أُطلق عليه اسم «الحوار الاستراتيجي». جمع اللقاء قياديي الـ«NGO» من العالم، لكن لم يتحدث في الجلسة الافتتاحية أحد سوى كلينتون وممثل أفغانستان وممثل مصر. لام هذا الأخير الحكومة الأميركية لعدم توفيرها الغطاء السياسي والدعم الكافيين للثوار، قبل أن يعلن أن المجتمع المدني المصري يمثّل «الشريك الدائم على المدى الطويل» للولايات المتحدة. نحن اليوم على منعطف مفصلي من الانتفاضات العربية. تجول كلينتون من بلد إلى آخر لدعم الجهات الموالية لسياسة الإمبراطورية والمنتفعة منها. ها هم يتكلمون اليوم على «خطة مارشال» جديدة تمتن المقاربة النيوليبرالية في بلادنا وتشرع أبوابها للشركات العابرة للقوميات وتخضعنا لخدمة الاقتصاد الأميركي. ألا يجدر بمنظمات المجتمع المدني أن تلتقط الفرصة التاريخية وتؤلف جبهة عريضة تتكلم بلغة جماهير ميادين التحرير وتقاوم عملية الاستيلاء على الثورة؟

Food and the Arab Uprising


This is the text of my talk at the AUB event: 

Engaging Change in the Middle East- Reflections on Regional Transformation




Food and the Arab Uprisings

Rami Zurayk
April 7, 2011


The Arab Uprisings or Arab Spring or Arab Revolutions, whichever way one wishes to call the sea of change that is sweeping through the Arab World, have elicited plenty of debates and polemics. But one thing all professional and amateur analysts agree on is that it is the most important event of the past 50 years, since the decolonization process. Analysts also concur that it is far too early to understand how and why did this process take place at exactly this juncture in time. Yet, they cannot help themselves (and neither can I) to try and provide explanations and interpretations. One of the most common assertions is that the uprisings were triggered, at least partly by high food prices. Just try Googling “food” and “Arab uprising” together and your browser will be swamped with articles and posts irrefutably attributing the Arab protests to the escalating world food prices. I would like to address this claim.

To the external observer, this is a no-brainer. Food prices at the end of 2010 were at their highest since the notorious food crisis of 2007-2008, and they seemed set to continue rising. Experts from international organizations, think tanks and NGOs were sternly warning of a global food crisis, which could degenerate into violent protests. The crisis of 2007-2008 had led to global social distress and political unrest. And while Arab governments had taken some measures to mitigate subsequent crises, these appeared to analysts to be insufficient.

The 2007-2008 crisis had led to riots in several Arab countries, including Egypt and Yemen, and these had resulted in loss of life among the protestors. There had already been, in 2010, street protests in Mozambique which had been violently quelled. The Arab World was expected to erupt. After all, there was a history of “bread riots”. They had happened in Tunisia and Jordan in the 1980’s as a response to the IMF imposed structural adjustment policies. They had happened in 2008 in the wake of the food crisis. They will happen again: that was the logic.

Why would the Arab World be so prone to bread riots? Well the region is wholly dependent on food imports. Figures of Arab food insecurity vary between “80% of the food consumed is imported” to “50% of the calories consumed are imported” depending on the sources used. But whichever way one looks at it, the situation is the following: we are the largest importer of food in the world and Egypt alone is largest global wheat importer. Yet, we also are the cradle of agriculture, and the center of origin of most of the major domesticated species in the world: wheat, barley, lentils, chickpea, olives, grapes, goats and sheep. A large part of the region used to be known as the Fertile Crescent. It still looks like a crescent, but the fertility is long gone.

The causes of our food dependency are complex and composite. They include ecological, structural and political reasons. The region is drought-prone and fertile lands are limited. It has one of the highest population growth rates in the world and is rapidly urbanizing. It also suffers from what I call the double oil curse.

You may be familiar with the concept of the oil curse. Lured by the easy rents obtained from the oil economy, states tend to decrease their investments in the productive sectors, which eventually leads to lower rates of economic growth. For multiple reasons, the farm sector of the Arab World was the first to suffer from this curse. The second level of this curse is that the presence of large quantities of oil in this part of the world (more than 35% of global oil reserve, Saudi Arabia is the last “swing producer” meaning that it can increase its output in response to increased demand) is itself a source of troubles. It attracts the voracity of rich, powerful industrialized nations whose appetite for fossil fuel is insatiable. In their bid to control resources, anything is allowed, especially the support of subservient undemocratic authoritarian hereditary corruptocracies.

Subservience comes with a whole economic package, usually a hideous chimera of neoliberalism and dictatorship. These regimes establish partnership with a small but powerful compradorial business elite who uses political influence to carve highly profitable deals. They are usually very respected and earn the name “entrepreneurs”. They are more interested in trade, import, export and real estate speculation that in investing in the productive sectors and can strongly influence policy. This contributes to the further decline of farming and of local food production: why invest in farming and waste good earning opportunities through buying and selling? The natural next step is real estate speculation, in which land becomes a commodity the exchange value of which is far higher than its use value, removing it from its agrarian vocation. In Egypt, for instance, the liberalization package imposed in the 1990’s reversed the partial land reform of Nasser’s era by liberating land rents and paving the way for the expulsion of farmers who then migrated towards the cities. Many among them ended up in Tahrir square.

Incidentally, Syria is the only country that used to be reasonably food secure from a combination of local and external sources under a centrally planned economy. This is disappearing today through the combined effects of droughts and economic liberalization.

There are many other dimensions to the relationship between food and the Arab World. For example the region is the main producer of phosphorus in the world. Morocco alone controls 40% of global production. Jordan is a major producer. Phosphorus is an essential plant nutrient and a non-renewable resource. It is used to make phosphorus fertilizer, without which modern food production could not take place. Oil, another Arab specialty, is also essential to modern food production, and food prices are largely tied to oil prices. Moreover, the Arab world being the largest global food importer should allow it to create effective monopsonies and obtain favorable trading terms. But none of this is ever used to improve food security. Instead, we are made to feel powerless and dependent.

But what does this have to do with the uprisings? The answer is: everything and nothing.

 For one, Arab regimes initially fully subscribed to the food riots theory and dismissed the uprisings as a yet another protest of the hungry. They took measures such as subsidizing essential foodstuffs and symbolically raising wages. They thought that they could quell the popular uprisings with a few tons of bread. They did not realize that we were hungry for freedom, something they cannot buy and distribute to shut us up.

This is not to say that socio-economic realities did not play a role. Food prices were used to mobilize for the protests. But the people did not rise to demand more bread. The revolts were directed against the regime: the dictators and their associates from the rich ruling business class. They rose against those who create the system that keeps them food insecure, that keeps them hostage to the benefaction of the ruler. They rose because the moral economy of the state had collapsed, and with this collapse came food insecurity. Food security is a key determinant of dignity. It is a determinant of freedom. It is a basic right, not a charity. People want food security because it is a component of citizenship. We are not bellies waiting to be fed, we are human beings seeking freedom.

But there is another side to this issue: Regimes come, regimes go come but this does not necessarily mean that the problems disappear. How can we talk about sovereignty in the absence of food sovereignty? We rose and brought down some symbols of the regime. What are we to do next? There are millions of small farmers who can barely feed themselves. They live, forgotten, in the margins of our world. Illiteracy is overwhelming; poverty affects 40% of the Egyptian people at least. One million people need urgent food aid in the wake of the uprisings. The US and Europe are going around trying to make development “deals” and influence new governments. There are talks of new Marshall plan for the Arab World. Is this really what we want? More foreign interference when we were seeking less interference?

Is it not time to work on new ideas on how to change our world, free it from need and make it fair, just, equitable and sustainable?  Can we even have a revolution that is not based on ideas? I will conclude by reminding ourselves of the words of the great African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral's (I never tire from this quote): "every practice produces a theory, and that if it is true that a revolution can fail even though it be based on perfectly conceived theories, nobody has yet made a successful revolution without a revolutionary theory". It is time for us to develop our own revolutionary theory and to practice it. 

Loaded bananas


"Contrary to claims by Chiquita Brands International that its payments to Colombian paramilitary and guerrilla groups over more than a decade were extorted, internal company documents released here Thursday strongly suggest that the transactions provided specific benefits to the banana giant.
The documents, which were published by the National Security Archive (NSA), an independent research group, raised questions about the factual basis for a 2007 plea agreement between Chiquita and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under which the company was fined $25mn for paying the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), which was designated a terrorist group by the State Department in 2001." (Thanks Marcy)

http://english.aljazeera.net//indepth/features/2011/04/20114813392621189.html

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

«خطّة مارشال» أميركيّة لربيع الثورات العربيّة

لم تكد مصر وتونس تستعيدان أنفاسهما وتمسكان بخيوط الواقع المستجدّ داخلياً، حتى قرع ضيف ثقيل جرس الباب: «أنا الولايات المتحدة الأميركية جئت لأبارك لكم وأساعدكم، وأحجز بعض الغرف والمساحات لي». إدارة أوباما انتقلت من مرحلة التصفيق للثورات إلى مرحلة الجدّ: خطّة مالية استثمارية أُعلنت لـ«مساعدة الديموقراطيات العربية والنهوض باقتصادها». والعرب مضيافون بطبيعتهم

http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/8515

Sunday, April 3, 2011

165 مليون دولار لإطعام مليون عربي بعد الاضطرابات

165 مليون دولار لإطعام مليون عربي بعد الاضطرابات
الأحد, 03 أبريل 2011
دبي - دلال أبو غزالة
أكد مسؤولون في برنامج الغذاء العالمي لـ «الحياة»، أن المؤسسة العالمية تحتاج حالياً الى 165 مليون دولار لاطعام مليون عربي تضرروا من الاضطرابات السياسية في المنطقة العربية، في اطار برنامج يمتد ثلاثة اشهر. وقال مدير قسم تنمية الاعمال في المنظمة اشرف حمودة في حوار شارك فيه مدير مكتب البرنامج في مصر، جيابليترو بورديجنون، ان 600 ألف شخص في ليبيا يحتاجون الى مساعدات انسانية فورية، إضافة إلى 280 ألف شخص في تونس و180 ألف شخص في مصر، عدا عن العالقين على الحدود الليبية.
وأشار حمودة الى ان المؤسسة العالمية قد تحتاج الى اكثر من هذا المبلغ، في حال استمرت التوترات السياسية في عدد من الدول العربية، وباتت تنتقل من دولة الى اخرى، فيرتفع معها عدد المتضررين، بسبب انعكاسها على اقتصادات المنطقة التي يعاني معظمها من غياب التنمية ومن ارتفاع اسعار مواد الغذاء. ولم يخفِ المسؤولون في المؤسسة العالمية انها تمكنت حالياً من جمع 65 مليون دولار من هذا المبلغ لغاية الآن من الدول المانحة ومساعدات للقطاع الخاص، لكنها تحتاج الى اكثر من مليون دولار اخرى، لتغطية حاجة المتضررين من الاضطرابات السياسية، التي انطلقت اولى شرارتها من الفقر والبطالة.
وأظهرت تقارير دولية حديثة ان عدد الفقراء في المنطقة العربية يتجاوز 35 مليون نسمة، كما تعتبر البطالة التي تصل الى 54 في المئة تحدياً انمائياً رئيسياً في معظم دول المنطقة. واكدت نائب مدير قسم الشراكة الخاصة العالمي في المؤسسة الدولية مونيكا ميرشال ان برنامج الغذاء العالمي كان يتوقع حدوث اضطرابات في العالم جراء ارتفاع اسعار الغذاء وانتشار الفقر، لكن الأمر حدث اسرع مما كان متوقعاً.
وقالت الناطقة الاعلامية في برنامج الغذاء العالمي، عبير عطيفة، ان المؤسسة اطلقت نداء في بداية الاضطرابات السياسية في المنطقة لجمع 40 مليون دولار لتغطية الحاجات الملحة خلال ثلاثة اشهر. وهناك مشكلة في الامن الغذائي في المنطقة التي تستورد اكثر من 85 في المئة من حاجاتها من الخارج، في وقت ارتفعت اسعار الغذاء العالمية بصورة جنونية، لا سيما ان طبيعة المنطقة صحراوية تعاني من قلة مساحة الارض المزروعة.
وأضافت ميرشال ان «مشكلة الامن الغذائي، موجودة في المنطقة قبل اندلاع الازمة السياسية، لكنها تعمّقت بعدها». وطالبت الدول المانحة ومؤسسات القطاع الخاص بان تقدم التمويل المطلوب، حتى يتمكن برنامج الغذاء العالمي من تلبية الحاجة الملحة الحالية للمنطقة، إضافة الى الحاجات التنموية. وأشارت عطيفة الى ان المؤسسة العالمية ليست لديها موازنة لتلبية حاجات المنطقة، وانما مهامها تعتمد على الاحتياجات والظروف الطارئة، حيث تطلق نداءات الى الدول المانحة، مثل اميركا وكندا والاتحاد الاوروبي.
وأكدت ان السعودية تبرّعت عام 2008 ببليون دولار للبرنامج، وهي تعتبر اكبر منحة حصل عليها في تاريخه، إضافة الى مساعدات تلقتها سابقاً من كل من عُمان والامارات، لدعم برامج المؤسسة في العالم العربي.
ويدير برنامج الغذاء العالمي حالياً برامج تنموية وغذائية ومعالجة الجفاف في كل من اليمن وسورية والاردن والسودان، إضافة الى مساعدة اللاجئين الصحراويين في الجزائر و1400 لاجئ عراقي في سوري

Saturday, April 2, 2011

No such thing

"“There is no such thing called the Mediterranean diet; there are Mediterranean diets,” says Rami Zurayk, an agriculture professor at the American University in Beirut. “They share some commonalities — there is a lot of fruits and vegetables, there is a lot of fresh produce in them, they are eaten in small dishes, there is less meat in them. These are common characteristics, but there are many different Mediterranean diets.”" (Thanks Annia)


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/magazine/mag-03YouRHere-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

Friday, April 1, 2011

I'm speaking at this event: Engaging Change in the Middle East- Reflections on Regional Transformation

panel-e-card-noRSVP.jpg

April fool-Shimon Peres on the Arab Uprisings: Someone in the Guardian has a wicked sense of humour

"That is why successive Israeli governments have given their full support to the efforts of Palestinians in the West Bank to build their own economy, their own institutions, and their own security forces." (Thanks Karim)


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/01/palestinians-science-soil-arab-uprisings

الفكرة قبل الثورة

الفكرة قبل الثورة

رامي زريق
على درب تحولها إلى ثورة، تواجه الانتفاضات العربية بعض العثرات غير المفاجئة. ففي الواقع، لا أحد كان ينتظر أن يجلس الثالوث المكوَّن من الإمبراطورية وأعوانها وخدامها مكتوفي الأيدي وهم يشاهدون الشعب العربي يستعيد حريته وسيادته. كان من المعلوم أن ثالوث الهيمنة سيبذل جهده لتفريغ الانتفاضات من مضمونها وسيحاول استيعابها كما يحصل في اليمن وإلى حد ما في تونس ومصر، أو أن يقمعها بالعنف كما في البحرين، أو يركعها قبل إحكام سيطرته عليها، كما في ليبيا. قد يكون من المفيد الآن، لأحرار العالم العربي وثورييه، القيام بمراجعة نقدية لأحداث الأشهر الماضية، المفصلية في تاريخنا.
لا يمكن إنجاز مراجعة مثل هذه في مقال صحافي، لكن المساحة هنا تتيح لفت النظر إلى بعض الأمور الأساسية، أهمها غياب نهج سياسي متكامل ومشترك بين الثوار ومجتمعهم. لقد بيّنت التجربة الديموقراطية المصرية الجديدة التي تجسدت بالاستفتاء على التعديلات الدستورية حدود نفوذ “الشباب” من ذوي التوجهات اليسارية، الذين طالبوا بدستور جديد. فقد أظهرت نتائج التصويت أن النشاط على الفايسبوك قد يكون ملائماً لحشد الناس في ساحات التحرير عندما تكون الظروف السياسية مواتية، لكنه لا يكفي لقلب موازين القوى في غياب مشروع سياسي متكامل يحاكي آمال الطبقات المقموعة والمستغََلَة ومطالبها، ويقدم حلولاً قابلة للتطبيق تحظى بدعم وتأييد شعبي واسعين. مشروعٌ مثل هذا من المستحيل إنجازه في ظلّ فراغ إيديولوجي. هناك حاجة ماسة لإطار فكري يمثّل منطلقاً في تنظيم العمل، ويكون ركيزة لرسم سياسات بديلة وعادلة في شتى القطاعات. في غياب إطار فكري مثل هذا، قد نستطيع تفكيك النظام وفضحه، لكننا لن نستطيع بناء عالمنا الجديد

Economy and the protests- Syria

"Fifth, income inequality in Syria has increased during the last decade. Although the average monthly salary of employees jumped by more than 20% between 2006 and 2009, the increase was canceled out by excessive inflation. In addition, wage increases benefited those with higher-education degrees much more than less-educated people, who make up 60% of the labor force."

On Syria

The speech of Bashar al Asad, in which he conceded nothing to the demands of the Syrian people who  continue to be violently repressed, and in which he made bad jokes that made every one laugh and clap (even the cameramen, such is the power of the Baath party) came as a surprise to me. While his aides (Chaaban and Tlass) had been indicating that serious reforms was on the way, Bashar said nothing of the sort (a very good analysis of the speech can be found on Angry Arab).

From the Beirut political cafes, the speech is widely seen as an indication that a deal has been struck between Syria and the forces of reaction operating in the region, and that, to use the words of an analyst, "Syria is now located in the Gulf". If true, this does not mean, of course that the regime will necessarily prevail, only that it has a wider political margin to repress the people. This analysis seems to fit with the declared position of Saudi Arabia (whose military action in Bahrain had received Syrian endorsement prior to the events in Dar`a), as well as by the noises made in the US and Europe. Time will tell whether this will be enough to quell the Syrian protests.

I met last night with an acquaintance who describes herself as "very close to the secular Syrian opposition". She had been in Damascus during the latest events and I couldn't wait to get her take on things. She told me that the protests in Dar`a were led by the tribes, and those in Lattakieh by "Alawites who want to show that they are not affiliated with the regime" (show who? the regime? the West?). She also said that the Kurds were preparing to join the protests en masse, but not as Kurds, rather, she said, as "Sunnis". She objected when I pointed at the obviously sectarian nature of this description, as she maintained that the protests were non-sectarian in nature. She added that Aleppo was going to determine the fate of the Syrian uprising, as "this is where the money is", and that everyone is waiting to see if the merchants, who are fed up with the corruption, will move openly against the regime. According to her, the pre-emptive repression was strongest in Aleppo, stronger even than in Hama which is considered to be an islamist stronghold.

In Damascus, she said, the protests are secular and led by a large group of youth who are disillusioned with their future, with the opportunities they don't have and who would like to have more freedom and to live in a democratic regime (incidentally, the Arab uprisings have stretched the meaning of youth and have extracted it from its temporal frame and placed it in a political frame. Youth now includes anyone who is part of the Arab Spring, and who acts in a dynamic, youthful fashion, who knows what the internet is, and who uses jolly ringtones on their mobiles). She kept insisting on the "non political nature" of the protests, and that the protestors were avoiding talks of religion, nationalism or socialism. Instead, she said, they focus on human rightism, which seems to have become a powerful stand alone new ideology that seems to have replaced replaced US gunboat democracy. We had a lively discussion on the subject, as I am a strong supporter of the need for ideas and ideologies including, but going beyond, human rights to frame the Arab Revolutions.

She told me that the repression had been very violent and insidious in Damascus, and that every time a few hundred demonstrators assembled, an equal if not superior number of security thugs dressed in plain clothes and wielding batons would attack them, but that their resolve was strong and that they kept assembling. I asked about the age group of the people involved in the Damascus protests and she said mostly between 20 and 30. I asked about their number and she said she estimates it at 5000.

She also told me that the Syrian opposition (I'm not sure if she meant in Damascus or elsewhere as well) was resolutely aligned with the Lebanese March 14 coalition in whom it finds a kindred spirit. The March 14 coalition has strong links with Saudi Arabia and the US. Its political agenda strongly overlaps with the Israeli one on issues of disarming the Lebanese Resistance, and the movement has been largely discredited by the wikileaks for the positions of its leadership during the July 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon. It takes its name from a huge protest that took place in Lebanon on March 14 2005 after the assassination of prime minister Rafik Hariri. During that demonstration, sectarian and racist slogans, especially anti Syrian ones were chanted. Anti-Syrian racism continues to be the position of most of the March 14 leadership and much of its public.

I had written in my latest long post on the Arab uprisings that we should support the true revolutionary in Syria. To me, these true revolutionary certainly DO NOT include anyone who thinks of the racist, anti-Resistance, anti-Syrian (people) anti-Palestinian (people) March 14 coalition as political soul-mates. But I wonder how true that the Syrian opposition (at least the Damascus one) is overwhelmingly aligned with the Lebanese March 14 movement. The few people I know are resolutely pro-Resistance and strongly left wing.