Tag: Middle East

Freedom Theater: Building peace with arts

Creating freedom and peace in Palestine I’ve previously written about how art, and in particular music, can help to solve social and economical disparities (read post). I recently learned about another great example of how art can be useful to alleviate social conflicts. I attended a talk by Palestinian actors from The Freedom Theater. The Freedom …

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Retos agrícolas de Líbano

Líbano es un país relativamente rico en recursos naturales. No tiene desiertos, las tierras de cultivo son fértiles, tiene las cuatro estaciones del año y es el país árabe que tiene más agua. Pero a pesar de estos atributos naturales, Líbano es un país dependiente de las importaciones de alimentos, que representa 70% de su …

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Arab Spring Economics

It’s officially fall now, which means the Arab Spring has now entered its third season, and, unfortunately, the economic situation that partially contributed to the uprisings in many of the countries has not improved at all.  In many cases it is even getting worse.  Institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the European Investment Bank, …

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Loss of Innocence: Children in Combat

There are parts of the world, where children don’t worry about how to tell their parents they received a bad grade or convince them to let them go out on a Friday night.  That carefree life is a far reality from the grim existence that many live in throughout the world.  There is a generation …

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Ramadan: A Recap

In late July I wrote a post about Ramadan and how it might affect the Arab Spring nations; now that Ramadan is over, I thought it might be interesting to look back over what actually did happen.  In my post I wrote about the uncertainty surrounding the holy month this year: would the violence escalate …

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Lebanon’s agricultural challenges

Facing climate change and modernization Lebanon is a relatively resource rich country. It has no deserts, it has good arable land, it has four seasons and it is the most water-gifted country in the Arab world. But despite such natural attributes, Lebanon is a food import dependent country for 70% of its total food consumption. …

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Introducing the MIFFs

There’s a new kind of state (country states, not US states, just so we’re clear) emerging: MIFFs, Middle Income Failed-Fragile states.  These MIFFs are classified as middle-income states in the World Bank list of countries by income category, but they have highly unstable governments and a lot of conflict.  They are—or are close to being—failed …

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Responsibility to Protect and the Arab Spring

We all know that the no-fly zone and military action in Libya is ongoing, but what few people know is that the action was undertaken using the Responsibility to Protect doctrine and as such is fairly controversial.  The United Nations enacted Responsibility to Protect (RtoP or R2P) during the 2005 UN World Summit as a …

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Building Back Better in Pakistan

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the opportunity and need for Haiti to redevelop sustainably after the devastating earthquake in 2010. I also discussed how construction in Bihar, India – after a flood completely washed away the area – could be a model for rebuilding homes in Haiti. Unfortunately, like Haiti and India, Pakistan …

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Women in War and Peace

“For it isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” –Eleanor Roosevelt It is more dangerous in most conflict-stricken areas to be a woman than to be a soldier.  Yet, women’s experiences during times of war are often ignored …

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