Social - 2011 Tech Rewind: This year in the Middle East. It’s impossible to look back on 2011 in the Middle East without discussing the unbelievable amount of upheavals the region has seen. Protests have swept across from Morocco and Tunisia, making their way all the way up to the Gulf region, into Bahrain and beyond. It has also become impossible to discuss those protests without mention of social media in some form or other. The grassroots movements throughout the region are not only changing (or at least trying to change) the political climate, but have also had a direct effect on the economic and startup landscape. Looking back on the year, it becomes apparent that the youth of the region have been fighting not only against political tyranny, but have also made significant changes in the entrepreneurial scene, while Middle Eastern governments have outdone themselves in finding ways to put an end to that spirit.
Social media plays a role in the Arab uprisings People called it an Internet revolution, but it’s just not true.
Grandeur de la diplomatie turque et misère de la diplomatie arabe. Les Occidentaux exultent. Sous la pression des pétromonarchies réactionnaires du Golfe, la ligue des Etats arabes vient de demander officiellement au Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU l’instauration d’une zone d’exclusion aérienne au-dessus de la Libye. Certes, la ligue arabe se dit officiellement hostile à une intervention militaire directe en Libye, mais des informations démenties par le ministre saoudien des Affaires étrangères font état d’une demande américaine adressée à l’Arabie saoudite, en vue d’armer l’opposition de Benghazi. Les Américains vont-ils inventer un nouveau type d’intervention par procuration qui leur économise les coûts financiers et diplomatiques indésirables, en attendant le moment propice d’une intervention directe le cas échéant ?
La complexité de la crise libyenne, dont les derniers développements militaires sur le terrain laissent présager un enlisement propice à toutes les éventualités, explique les tergiversations dans le camp occidental. Mobiliser les talents de la diaspora, nouvel enjeu conomique des pays MED. La nouvelle étude « Diasporas : Passerelles pour l’investissement, l’entrepreneuriat et l’innovation en Méditerranée », publiée par ANIMA dans le cadre du programme Invest in Med, montre que le décollage économique de la région MED doit s’appuyer sur les talents de la diaspora. Cette étude mesure le potentiel économique des talents de la diaspora MED (analyse des diverses contributions, profil-pays, organisation en réseaux) et propose un plan d’action concret et réaliste pour accélérer leur mobilisation en faveur de leurs pays d’origine. Pour télécharger l’étude en version PDF suivre ce lien.
Gulf. Maghreb. Others. Gilles Kepel. BHL propose aux musulmans de se convertir au JUDAISME. Arab Image Foundation. Pour mon amie Larissa Sansour, qui vient d’être censurée et exclue par Lacoste du Prix Lacoste Elysée. J'avais découvert le travail de Larissa Sansour il y a deux ans, quand elle présentait à l'IMA cette vidéo lunaire pleine d'espoir amer et de grâce fragile, puis je l'avais rencontrée à l'occasion de son exposition Intergalactic Palestine à la défunte galerie La Bank.
J'ai aimé son humour un peu triste et sa détermination sans violence, sa capacité de révélateur/trice de ce que nous ne saurions voir sans elle et son ironie mordante à faire tomber les murs et sauter les oeillères. Elle m'avait offert un livre écrit avec sa complice israélienne Oreet Ashery, The Novel of Nonel and Vovel, une fiction multimédia à deux voix, à quatre mains pour transcender les frontières, les préjugés et les bêtises.
Hélas, ce sont ces préjugés et ces bêtises qui viennent de la rattraper. Lequel était logé tout le peuple palestinien, 'finally living the high life', une nouvelle forme de 'joie de vivre'. Que faire face à un tel acte de censure imbécile et dangereux ? Share and Enjoy. Was the Lacoste Elysée Photography Prize censored? [updated] Lacoste accused of attempting to censor 'too pro-Palestinian' art - News - Art. The company made its announcement minutes after the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, which was administering the award, had issued a statement appearing to distance itself from a decision to remove Bethlehem-born artist Larissa Sansour from the prize shortlist. The museum and Lacoste faced claims on Monday of attempting to censor art after Ms Sansour, who has exhibited at the Tate Modern, had her status as one of eight nominees for a 25,000 euro (£21,000) award sponsored by the French company revoked last week.
Ms Sansour, 38, who has received critical acclaim for her body of work tackling the issues facing Palestinians, told The Independent that she had been told by senior staff at the museum that the reason for her removal from the shortlist was allegedly because her work was considered by Lacoste to be “too pro-Palestinian”. In a statement, the museum said: “The Musee de l’Elysee has based its decision on the private partner’s wish to exclude Larissa Sansour. Artist Larissa Sansour Speaks Out About Her Ejection From the Lacoste Art Prize for Being "Too Pro-Palestinian" Politically-charged censorship or crisis-management gone horribly wrong? The tale of Palestinian multimedia artist Larissa Sansour's dramatic removal from the shortlist of the 2011 Lacoste Elysée Prize appears to have torpedoed the French luxury-goods brand's association with Lausanne institution Musée de l'Elysée, which on Wednesday evening announced that it was immediatley cancelling its partnership to host the €25,000 photography award, now only in its second year.
The news came after a day of worldwide comment and conjecture on Web sites, blogs, and Twitter following the decision by Lacoste management to withdraw Bethlehem-born Sansour's photography project "Nation Estate," from the shortlist of eight nominees. "The Musée de l’Elysée has decided to suspend the organisation of the Lacoste Elysée Prize 2011," read the statement. "They appear to have decided against censorship," Sansour told ARTINFO Wednesday afternoon. "And I really, really appreciate their decision. I am thrilled. L'art arabe face au marché global. Dans le monde arabe, le grand public le connaît pour son talent de dessinateur de presse car il a longtemps travaillé pour Al-Khaleej, un des grands quotidiens de la région, jusqu’à ce qu’on lui refuse la marge de liberté qu’il jugeait nécessaire à l’expression de son talent.
En Syrie, pays dont il s’est “tenu à l’écart” pendant 25 ans et qu’il n’a retrouvé qu’en 2005, Youssef Abdelké (يوسف عبد لكي Yusuf Abdelki) est avant tout une des figures les plus importantes du monde de l’art, pour son œuvre plastique bien entendu, mais aussi pour son itinéraire personnel (voir cet article en anglais dans Al-Ahram) et encore plus encore pour sa capacité à réfléchir sur les conditions sociales et politiques de la pratique artistique. Autant dire que la violente diatribe qu’il a publiée (en arabe : “Les fondements monétaires de l’esthétique céleste de Khaled Samawi”) il y a quelques semaines dans le quotidien libanais Al-Safir n’est pas passé inaperçue.
Imprimer ce billet. Qatar revealed as the world’s biggest contemporary art buyer | The Art Newspaper. Auctions Qatar The small, energy-rich state is behind most of the major modern and contemporary art deals over the past six years By Georgina Adam and Charlotte Burns. News, Issue 226, July-August 2011Published online: 07 July 2011 Sheikha Al Mayassa at the opening of Takashi Murakami’s exhibition at Versailles in 2010 DOHA. The small but energy-rich Gulf state of Qatar is the world’s biggest buyer in the art market—by value, at any rate—and is behind most of the major modern and contemporary art deals over the past six years, The Art Newspaper can reveal.
Working through a number of advisors, as well as buying directly from dealers and at auction, Qatar is reliably believed to be building up a top-class collection of modern and contemporary art. Sheikha Al Mayassa is not the only art collector in the family: her relative Sheikh Saud Bin Muhammad Bin Ali Al-Thani has always been a passionate art buyer, and was recently named as one of the world’s top ten collectors by Artnews.
Email* Name* Dubai on Empty. Locals stand in front of the royal enclosure at the track. The only way to make sense of Dubai is to never forget that it isn’t real. It’s a fable, a fairy tale, like The Arabian Nights. More correctly, it’s a cautionary tale. Dubai is the story of the three wishes, where, as every kid knows, with the third wish you demand three more wishes. Outside, in the sodden heat, you pass hundreds and hundreds of regimented palm trees and you wonder who waters them and what with. Dubai has been built very fast. My driver gets lost more than once. Pre-race at the nearly $3 billion Meydan Racecourse, in Dubai. No one dreamed of this. The Gulf Arabs have become the minority in this country they wished out of the desert.
Then there is a third category of people: the drones. Out-of-towners getting ready for the Dubai World Cup. The Arabs live in their own ghettos, large, dull containments of big houses that are half garage behind security walls, weighed down with satellite dishes. Arabs and the long revolution, by Brian Whitaker. A talk by Brian Whitaker at the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York, 18 May 2011.
THE POPULAR UPRISING that began in Tunisia last December came as a surprise in one sense, but in another sense it was no surprise at all. Rather like an earthquake, we could be pretty sure it was going to happen, though nobody could say exactly when. It was obvious, or ought to have been, that at some point something would have to give – and the same can be said of all the Arab countries. If the regimes don't transform themselves radically over the next few years, eventually they are going to fall. The focus at the moment is almost entirely on the regimes, but we shouldn't just be looking at the politics.
Ten or 20 years from now, the Middle East is going to be a very different place. So there is a huge youth bulge coming up. The most popular Egyptian slogan, later transferred to Syria, was "The people want the fall of the regime". We also hear protesters demanding "respect" and "dignity". Arabs demand new freedoms but the west offers old economic blueprint | Business | The Observer. Click to see the cartoon at full size Watching the joyfully chaotic events of the Arab spring unfold in Egypt and Tunisia was heart-warming for anyone who likes to see kleptocratic dictators getting their comeuppance. What was far less clear was what the many thousands of campaigners who spilled out into the streets and squares of Tunis and Cairo wanted to build in place of the autocracies they had endured for decades.
Campaigners on the ground are becoming increasingly worried that even before voters in Egypt and Tunisia have had the chance to express their will through long-awaited free elections, the world's great economic powers are stepping in with their own blueprint for north Africa's future. Leaders at the G8 summit in Deauville last month offered a Marshall Plan-style package of aid for the region.
"We are looking forward in the region, and we say that it should be different from the economic development models in place in Egypt and Tunisia before the revolutions," she says. The Iraqi who saved Norway from oil.