New Trends in Arab Defense Policy
US Forces in Syria ASomalia:Troubled Nation on the Horn of Africa
www.majalla.com Issue 1922- September- 16/09/2022 2 AWeeklyPoliticalNewsMagazine www.majalla.com Issue 1922- September- 16/09/2022 King Charles III: The Workaholic Prince Became Britain’s New Monarch A Weekly Political News Magazine
The Editor Mostafa El-Dessouki
Editor-in-Chief Ghassan Charbel
Thetiming.Toronto
A Weekly Political News www.majalla.com/engMagazine
In the sports section, the first female referee in Egypt spoke to Majalla’s editor Sarah Gamal about her journey, international recognition by FIFA, challenges and Readopportunities.thesearticles and more on our website eng.majalla. com. As always, we welcome and value our readers’ feedback and we invite you to take the opportunity to leave your comments on our website.
International Film Festival is running from September 8 to September 18 in a significant edition that marks its full return after the end of Covid restrictions. Critic Mohammed Rouda writes about how the “festival of festivals” is changing to compete with first-rank international festivals. Rouda highlights the fact that the festival has become a key for filmmakers to distribute their productions in the United States and Canada.
Mourning the death of the Queen Elizabeth II, Bryn Haworth writes a long piece of analysis that combines a sort of obituary with a criticism of people who could not delay any time without attacking the dead before she is even buried. Citing historians, poets and stories of the Queen’s sense of humor along with his own memories of loving her presence, Haworth pays tribute to the Monarch and denounces anti-imperialist attacks for their despicable
Tel : +44 207 831 8181Fax: +44 207 831 2310
Amid the shifting powers in today’s world order, it has become imperative for Arab countries to develop their own military capabilities independently and in cooperation with various partners without excessive dependence on one provider. Dalia Zaida looks into the new trends that have been shaping the Arab military policies across the past decade, as global and regional challenges have drawn the most influential Arab countries to diversify their resources, localize their industries and cooperate with multiple actors. The recent August attack by Somalia’s Al Shabaab movement raised the alarm to those who thought that the terrorist group had faded. Suzan Quitaz writes about Somalia’s failed attempts to build state institutions throughout many decades, and the implications of the recent return of the terrorist Al-Shabaab movement.
- ةكم قيرط - تارمتؤلما يح - ضايرلا اهل صخرم ىصصختلا عطاقت +44 207 831 8181 :ندنل - 4419933 فتاه :ضايرلا ،www.alkhaleejiah.com :ينورتكلإ عقوم hq@alkhaleejiah.com :ينورتكلإ ديرب + 9714 3 914440 :يبد ،920 000 417 : ةكلملما لخاد نم +44 207 404 6950 :ندنل +00764 537 331 :سيراب +966 11 441 1444 : لودلا فلتخم نمو ينلاعلإا ليكولا Editorial 2 16/09/22
10th Floor Building 7 Chiswick Business Park 566 Chiswick High Road London W4 5YG
HH Saudi Research and Marketing (UK) Ltd
A Weekly Political News Magazine
4 16/09/22
54 Shahenda ‘Collina’: Egypt›s First Female Referee 58 A Healthy, Tasty Swap Speaking of the Dead38 Zoom Would Like to Remind You That It’s a Many-Trick Pony3250 After Capiter Turmoil, Future of Egyptian Startups Uncertain 44 The Toronto Film Festival That Holds the Key to the US
Issue 1922- September- 16/09/2022A Weekly Political News Magazine 5 16/09/22
Queen By Fate34
napshot
People visit a memorial site at the base of a statue of Queen Elizabeth II inside the Queen Elizabeth II Hotel (the retired ocean liner Queen Eliza beth II), docked at Port Rashid in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. /AP
S
6 16/09/22
Emiratis Mourn British Monarch
7 16/09/22
Queen Margrethe of Denmark reviews an honour guard as she arrives to the gala banquet at Christiansborg Palace on September 11, 2022, during celebra tions to mark the 50th anniversary of her accession to the throne. / AFP
8 16/09/22
S
Denmark Royals Anniversary
napshot
9 16/09/22
10 09/22/١٦
Tarik el-Awady, a member of Egypt’s presidential pardon committee, confirmed the release of the lawyer, Haitham Mohamadein, and the other 45 detainees, all of whom are awaiting trial. Several pictures of the freed l awyer alongside friends and family were later shared b y activists on social media. It remained unclear if other detainees had walked free yet.
It is the second hostage situation at a bank in recent weeks in Lebanon, where a devastating financial crisis has locked most people out of their bank accounts.
Saudi Arabia to India after thin margin, data from industry India, the onarediscountsTheUkraineothersIndiaimports.59.8%,ofDespitebpd,month,crudeconsumer,world'sshippedfromSaudiwhilethedataSaudi'sthePetroleumthelowesthasbecomehavecutinlatetwocountries,comparedseenascushioningMoscow.
LEBANON
EGYPT
Egyptian authorities announced Thursday the release of 46 detainees, including a prominent human rights lawyer, the latest to be freed from jail amid intensifying international attention.
A group of depositors, at least one of whom is armed, took hostages at Blom bank in central Beirut on Wednesday, a security source said.
SAUDI
Syria's simmering 11-year war is at risk of boiling up once again with a return to large-scale combat after several frontlines across the country flared up in recent months, the United Nations warned on Wednesday in a new "Syriareport.cannot
The Biden administration has tried to go after hackers who have held U.S. targets essentially hostage, often sanctioned or sheltered by adversaries. The threat gained particular prominence in May 2021 when a Russia-based hacker group was accused of conducting a ransomware attack on Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline, which disrupted gas supplies along the East Coast.
11 09/22/١٦
IRAN
The charges accuse the hacking suspects of targeting hundreds of entities in the U.S. and around the world, encrypting and stealing data from victim networks, and threatening to release it publicly or leave it encrypted unless exorbitant ransom payments were made. In some cases, the victims made those payments, the department said.
SAUDI ARABIA
Bin Zayed, who is travelling with a high-level delegation, will stay for several days, the UAE's WAM added.
UAE
Fighting has cooled in recent years after Iran and Russia helped Assad recapture 70% of Syrian territory, the United States backed Kurdish fighters that defeated Islamic State militants, and Turkey set up a bu er zone near its border. But the United Nations said fault lines between various areas are now starting to heat up again.
The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday for an o cial visit to Israel, marking two years since the countries signed the so-called Abraham Accords, the state news agency (WAM) Thereported.U.S.-brokered agreements have ushered in public rapprochements between Israel and several Arab states, with the UAE and Bahrain the first to sign the accords with Israel in September 2020, at the White House.
emerged as the second-biggest oil supplier a three-month gap, overtaking Russia by a while Iraq retained the top spot in August, industry and trade sources showed. world's third biggest oil importer and shipped in 8,63,950 barrels per day (bpd) of Saudi Arabia, up 4.8% from the previous while purchases from Russia fell 2.4% to 8,55,950 data Saudi'sshowed.gain,the share of oil from Organization Petroleum Exporting Countries in India fell to lowest in at least 16 years as India cut African become Russia's No. 2 oil buyer after China as cut purchases following Moscow's invasion of late countries,February.keento secure raw materials at compared with supplies from other countries, cushioning the impact of western sanctions
Israel and Sudan announced in the following month that they would normalise relations, and Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel in December last year.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died and millions made homeless since protests against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 escalated into a civil war that drew in foreign powers and left Syria carved into zones of control.
a ord a return to larger-scale fighting, but that is where it may be heading," said Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, chair of the U.N.'s Syria commission.
The Justice Department said Wednesday that three Iranian citizens have been charged in the United States with ransomware attacks that targeted power companies, local governments and small businesses and nonprofits, including a domestic violence shelter.
SYRIA
Deputy President for the last decade, Ruto must now confront an economic crisis in East Africa's wealthiest a nd most stable nation, where food and fuel prices are surging, unemployment is high and public debt rising.
At their first face-to-face meeting since the war, Xi said he was very happy to meet "my old friend" again after Putin said crude attempts by the United States to create a unipolar world would fail.
As King Charles returned to his Highgrove home in the southern English region of Gloucestershire after days of scheduled events, o cials expected some 750,000 people to view his mother's co n before the lying in state ends at 6.30 a.m. (0730 GMT) on Monday. The line stretched back several miles along the south bank of the River Thames, past landmarks such as Tower Bridge and a replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, crossing Lambeth Bridge as it neared Westminster Hall. People waited many hours.
"We understand your questions and concern about this. During today's meeting, we will of course explain our position."
The 55-year-old won last month's election despite a public repudiation by his boss, outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, who said Ruto was "not fit for o ce". Both sides hurled accusations of corruption during a deeply personal, acrimonious campaign.
After days of processions and ritual as the queen's body was brought to London from Balmoral, Scotland, where she died last Thursday at the age of 96, this was the opportunity for ordinary people to take a direct part in a ceremony.
Ukraine.
Xi, who the Communist Party is due next month to bestow a historic third leadership term and thus cement his place as the country's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, did not mention Ukraine in his public remarks.
Russia's war in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the global economy into uncharted waters with soaring prices for food and energy amid the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
UK.
Mourners from all walks of life filed past the co n of Queen Elizabeth through the night as she lay in state in London's ancient Westminster Hall, paying their final respects to Britain's longest-reigning monarch before her funeral on Monday.
Putin's first remarks about Chinese concern over the war come just days after a lightning rout of his forces in north-eastern Ukraine.
"A village boy has become the president of Kenya," Ruto announced at the ceremony, as the crowd erupted in cheers.
A WEEK ACROSS
"We highly value the balanced position of our Chinese friends when it comes to the Ukraine crisis," Putin told Xi.
William Ruto was sworn in as Kenya's fifth president on Tuesday, a week after the Supreme Court rejected a challenge by his defeated opponent in a close-fought election that he won by portraying himself as an underdog "hustler" battling the elite.
KENYA.
Kenyatta's preferred successor, veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, had accused Ruto of cheating his way to victory. But Odinga accepted the Supreme Court ruling upholding the result, laying to rest fears of political violence like that seen after disputed elections in 2007 and 2017.
12 09/22/١٦
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said he understood that Xi Jinping had questions and concerns about the situation in Ukraine but praised China's leader for what he said was a "balanced" position on the conflict.
ACROSS THE WORLD
Germany.
Germany and other European countries are scrambling to secure energy supplies after Russia halted flows through a key gas pipeline.
Pakistan's unprecedented floods, which have submerged huge swathes of the South Asian nation, have killed nearly 1,500 people, data showed on Thursday, as authorities looked to step up relief e orts for millions a ected by the disaster.
underdogcheers.surging,publicKenyatta,
China.
The tally of dead stands at 1,486, about 530 children among them, the National Disaster Management Authority said, as it released its first country-wide total since Sept 9, a period that saw 90 more people die.
Over the last few weeks, authorities have thrown up barriers to keep the flood waters out of key structures such as power stations as well as homes, while farmers who stayed to try and save their cattle faced a new threat as fodder began to run out.
Pakistan.
China's cyberspace regulator on Wednesday proposed a series of amendments to the country's cybersecurity law including raising the size of fines for some violations, saying that it wanted to do so to improve coordination with other new laws.
Moscow blames sanctions, imposed by the West after Russia invaded Ukraine, for impeding the pipeline's maintenance.
China's 2017 cybersecurity law marked the first major set of rules governing the storage and transfer of data of Chinese origin. The country over the past year has added laws on data security and personal information protection.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz invoked the spirit of the Berlin Airlift on Tuesday to implore Germans that "the seemingly impossible can succeed", urging them to brace for a tough winter and to rise to the challenge of a shift in energy supply away from Russian gas.
The floods brought by record monsoon rains and glacial melt in northern mountains have hit 33 million of a population of 220 million, sweeping away homes, transport, crops and livestock in damage e stimated at $30 billion.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said, for example, that it wanted to introduce a penalty that would see operators of critical information infrastructure which used products or services that had not undergone security reviews be fined up to an equivalent of 5% of their previous year's revenue, or 10 times the amount they paid for the product.
It also said it wanted to raise the fines for some violations, from up to 100,000 yuan ($14,371) previously to one million yuan. The proposed amendments are open to public feedback until Sept. 29, it added.
He spoke to business leaders at Tempelhof Airport, which was the focal point of the Airlift between 1948 and 1949 when Western forces flew hundreds of thousands of tons of supplies into divided Berlin after the Soviets blocked rail and street access to the city's Western-occupied sectors.
"Of course, we knew and we know that our solidarity with Ukraine will have consequences," Scholz said in a speech at the German Employers' Day.
13 09/22/١٦
Middle Eastern Governments Take Command of Their Military Requirements
For almost a century, security turmoil, civil wars, ter rorism, and cross-border conflicts have been some of the constant features of the Middle East region. However, in the past decade, the individual and col lective strategic responses of the regional leaders of chief states have radically changed to influence the outcomes of the conflicts happening inside their re gion or in the neighboring countries of the eastern Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa. In the past
C
14 16/09/22
By Dalia Ziada
New Trends in Arab Defense Policy over story
One major characteristic of the new response strategy adopted by Middle East defense policymakers is the substantial investment in upgrading their national military apparatus with stateof-art combat technologies and advanced artillery.
One manifestation of this new vision was form ing the Arab Coalition Forces (ACF) under the leadership of Saudi Arabia in 2015 in order to deal with the growing threat of the Iran-sponsored Houthis militia in northern Yemen. Ten Arab countries from North Africa and the Gulf joined ACF as soon as the Arab League approved it. The news was celebrated in the region as the beginning of a new era of Arab solidarity. The White House, under the leadership of former President Obama, congratulated and endorsed the ACF by publicly offering to provide logistical and intelligence sup port to facilitate the Saudi-led military mission in Yemen. However, in the following years, the ACF lost momentum as regional diplomatic disputes led to the withdrawal or exclusion of some of its member states.
15 16/09/22
Saudi Armed Forces conclude its drills during Eager Lion 2022 Maneuvers, September ,16 2022. (SPA)
In parallel, drastic changes in the political lead ership of key Middle East countries with estab lished military cultures had to happen. Some of these changes were forced by the popular revolutions, as was the case in Egypt, while other leadership changes happened voluntar ily, as was the case in several Gulf countries. Interestingly, most of the new regional leaders
Insula.a
who ascended to the top of the political pow er structure in the post-Arab-Spring era, had a military background, either as serving person nel or commanders. The most prominent names include Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, UAE’s President Mohammed Bin Zayed, and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman. Unlike their predecessors, they adopted fresh visions for domestic and regional defense policies that were appropriately translated into modernizing their militaries and exploring new opportunities for military cooperation on both regional and international stages.
The evolving trends of the defense policy of Mid dle East countries are the natural result of the se curity and political chaos that overwhelmed the region in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The angry waves of popular revolutions that swept the Middle East region from Tunisia to Syria in 20102011 created a security vacuum that got swiftly and cunningly exploited by Iran to infiltrate into the security structures of countries with critical geo-strategic locations around the Arabian Penin
three years, Arab interventions in political and armed conflicts in Libya, Yemen, the Mediterra nean, and Ethiopia have noticeably contributed to shaping their outcomes.
INCENTIVES FOR CHANGE
matter of three years, Iran re-empowered its sponsored militia in Yemen and equipped them with drones to attack civilian homes and eco nomically critical facilities in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, which had to shoulder the burden of leading the trembling region during the forced absence of Egypt and Syria at that time. This marked a shift in the type of security threats facing the Arab countries, from traditional statecontrolled militaries of enemy states to irregular uncontrollable state-sponsored militia.
One major characteristic of the new response strategy adopted by Middle East defense policy makers is the substantial investment in upgrading their national military apparatus with state-of-art combat technologies and advanced artillery. In addition, some of the Middle East countries start ed to invest in improving their indigenous defense industries, either through establishing their own production lines or by forming industrial partner ships with proficient arms manufacturers from different places in the world. The changing trends in Middle East countries’ regional and individual defense policies are implicitly altering the priori ties of defense industry giants.
The ACF is not the first form of pan-Arab mili tary cooperation. In 1962, Egypt’s then-President Gamal Abdel Nasser called for forming the Uni fied Arab Military Command (UAC) to fight against Israel. Jordan and Syria were the only two
As a result, the period between 2014 and 2020 marked a spike in military spending by most Arab states, especially Egypt and Gulf countries, for increasing personnel capacity and arms procure ment. According to the World Bank database, the military expenditure by Arab countries between 2009 and 2020 totaled 1,420 billion dollars. The year 2014 marked the highest ever military spend ing in Middle East history with a total of 182.79
Feasibly, the best outcome of Arabs joining forces in the ACF is that it gave the new regional leaders an insight into the weak points in the performance of their national militaries. Most of the personnel who participated in the ACF’s Operation Decisive Storm in Yemen in 2015 had not engaged in ac tual field combat for decades. Some of them were fighting their first war. Besides, the heavy arms and outdated equipment used by the Arab forces were shocking, especially compared to the mod ern Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that Iran gave to the Houthis. That was an awakening alarm to the new regional leaders. They realized the ne cessity of upgrading their military systems from defensive troops to offensive armies capable of deterring traditional and non-traditional enemies. The upgrade process did not only focus on equip ment upgrading but also had to deal with person nel training.
Saudi Armed Forces conclude its drills during Eager Lion 2022 Maneuvers, September 2022 ,16. (SPA)
16 16/09/22
countries that joined the military command under Egypt’s leadership before it had gotten painfully defeated by Israel and its western allies in the SixDay War of 1967.
The obvious leverage in the military capabilities of most Arab countries in the past few years is the manifestation of the personal visions of the current regional leaders. over story
C
Recently, King Abdullah II of Jordan proposed the establishment of an Arab military coalition, similar to NATO, in the sense that it is not tied to a specific goal or time-bound agenda. Several Arab leaders applauded the idea, although realisti cally it seems undoable in the foreseeable future due to the existing gap between the military ca pabilities of Arab countries, in terms of the num ber and skills of trained personnel and the level of armament, in addition to unresolved or recurring diplomatic rivalry and disagreements.
ARMS PROCUREMENT
But before he left office in 2020, Trump had de cided to cut part of the aid provided to Egypt, claiming that Egypt uses the U.S. aid money to buy fighter jets from Russia. When the current U.S. President Biden took office in 2021, his ad ministration threatened to cut 130 million dollars from the annual military aid to Egypt until the Egyptian state improves its performance on hu man rights issues. This pattern has been repeatedly applied since the
17 16/09/22
billion dollars compared, for example, to 61.16 billion in 2004 and 141.42 billion in 2020.
Saudi Armed Forces conclude its drills during Eager Lion 2022 Maneuvers, September ,16 2022. (SPA)
that are more convenient to Arab importers, in terms of price and delivery, compared to the po litical and diplomatic hassle that usually accom panies the process of purchasing from Russia or the United States.
At least since the 1960s, the Middle East region has been the biggest and most lucrative market for arms exporters on both ends of the bipolar world system. Yet, the emerging trend of intense Arab arms trading is also used as a form of military di plomacy to enhance ties with old allies and create new bonds with new friends. Arab Gulf militaries’ participation in joint military exercises with Medi terranean and European countries in the past two years is a demonstrative case of that trend.
In that regard, the most interesting case is that of Egypt. For the past four decades, Egypt depended almost exclusively on the United States for arma ment. Egypt receives an annual military aid pack age of 1.3 billion dollars from the United States since 1979, per the provisions of the Egypt-Israel Peace Accord. A few months after the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood regime from power in 2013, the Obama Administration decided to freeze the military aid to Egypt and thus put on hold its military procurement efforts. The freeze on the aid got partially lifted in 2015, then enforced again in 2016, then cleared in 2018 by former U.S. Presi dent Donald Trump.
Another attention-grabbing trend in Arab coun tries’ revitalized defense policy is the commit ment of regional militaries to diversifying their sources of armament. Part of that has to do with the emergence of new exporters, such as China, Japan, and Turkey, which offer arms trade deals
According to the Military Balance report, pub lished by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in 2016, the member states of the ACF hit the highest military spending between 2011 and 2015. During that period, Saudi Ara bia’s arms imports increased by 27%, UAE im ports by 18%, and Egypt’s imports by 37%.
DIVERSIFYING SOURCES OF AR MAMENT
over story
Egypt was not the only Arab victim of American use of arms trade to apply political pressures. Saudi Arabia and the UAE confronted the same problem, but their reactions were even more surprising than Egypt’s. In his first week in office, U.S. President Biden decided to freeze the arms sales due to Saudi Arabia and UAE, per agreements worth tens of billions of dollars signed with the Trump administration. After long months of patience, the UAE decided to halt ne gotiations with the U.S. and to focus on closing an alternative deal with France. In December 2021, UAE and France signed a historic contract to purchase a record number of 80 Rafale fighter jets costing 19 billion dollars. This was the first time the UAE, or any Arab Gulf country, made such a deal with an arms exporter other than the United States. Only last month, the U.S. State Department finally decided to unfreeze the arms sales owing to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. That was too late.
Nevertheless,ket.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, walking with military person nel during a reception to celebrate members of the UAE Armed Forces who served in the Arab coalition in Yemen, at the Zayed Military City in Abu Dhabi. (AFP)
18 16/09/22
can F-16 fighters, French Mirage-2000 and Ra fale jets, Chinese J-7s fighters, and Chengdu Wing Loong UAVs. In addition, Egypt signed contracts worth two billion dollars in 2018 to buy the Rus sian Su-35 fighter jets that compete against the American F-35 fighters in the international mar
Mubarak era. However, Egypt’s current political leadership of President El-Sisi decided not to tol erate it anymore and focused on actively diversi fying sources of armament for the Egyptian mili tary. Today, Egypt’s military exporters and allies include Russia, China, Japan, Germany, France, and Italy. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Egypt occupied the third position among the world’s 25 top arms importers in 2019. Thanks to this diversification, Egypt has become the owner of the second largest air force in the Middle East, equipped with Ameri
Over the years, Egypt produced armored vehicles and rifles and refurbished imported equipment, ranging from fighter jets to warships and submarines, through three main entities.
C
only started to boom in 2017, when Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman introduced his fresh vi sion to modernize his country’s military capa bilities. In that year, the Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) company was established with funding from Saudi’s sovereign fund – the Public Investment Fund (PIF) – to localize 50% of Saudi military spending by 2030.
In the mid-1950s, Egypt started manufacturing light
19 16/09/22
Earlier this month, Saudi’s General Authority for Military Industries announced the success ful launch of its new production line at SAMI Composites company. SAMI Composites is a Saudi project in partnership with the American Lockheed Martin, which is famous for manufac turing the F-35 fighter jets, that works on locally manufacturing aircraft structures from compound composites. This partnership may qualify Saudi Arabia to build its aerospace factory in the future.
Images)SARGENT/AFP/Getty(MIKE
Localization of defense industries to achieve selfsufficiency of armament needs has been a goal sought after by militarily active countries in the Middle East. However, most of the individual states and collective pan-Arab attempts in that re gard were barely sustained long enough, just like all the similar attempts to build an Arab unified military force.
Egypt is the second country in the line of top Arab countries aspiring to level up their indigenous mil itary industries. Egypt took longer in its steps to ward achieving that goal compared to other Arab countries. However, the progress achieved after the ascendance of President El-Sisi to power in 2014 is impressive.
Egyptian army comman dos go through a handto-hand combat drill at their camp somewhere in the Saudi desert on Nov. 27, 1990.
INDIGENOUS DEFENSE IN DUSTRY
At that time, ambitions rose to the sky about this organization’s becoming a hub for Arab arms production. However, in five years all the Arab shareholders withdrew and left the organization for the Egyptian Ministry of Defense to manage.
In 1949, under the leadership of King Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia was the first Arab country to host a military-industrial base. In the 1980s, the Kingdom established the Armored Vehicles and Heavy Equipment Factory to produce trucks and military vehicles for local consumers. However, the Saudi defense industry
The first joint Arab action to localize military in dustries was in 1994, when Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar jointly established the Arab Or ganization for Industrialization (AOI) in Cairo.
enjoy economic independence and, thus, increased its spending on building factories for arms produc tion. Over the years, Egypt produced armored ve hicles and rifles and refurbished imported equip ment, ranging from fighter jets to warships and submarines, through three main entities: the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI); Marine Industry & Services Organization; and, the Minis try of Military Production.
With the beginning of the flow of U.S. military aid to Egypt in the 1980s, after signing the Peace Ac cord with Israel, the military institution started to
In tandem, the Egyptian state decided to exert greater effort in marketing its locally manufac tured equipment to Arab and African militaries. In the past five years, Egypt started to export its benchmark armored vehicles Temsah, ST-100,
C
With the beginning of the flow of U.S. military aid to Egypt in the 1980s, the military institution started to enjoy economic independence and, thus, increased its spending on building factories. over story
weapons, such as the semi-automatic rifles Hakim and Rasheed, designed and licensed by Sweden and Russia, respectively. Due to Egypt’s engagement in several wars during the 1960s and 1970s against Is rael and its backing superpowers, the local defense industry project took a back seat. Meanwhile, the Egyptian military had to reach out to Russia for arms procurement and soldier training.
In 2015, the new Egyptian leadership convened agreements with European naval equipment man ufacturers in Italy, Germany, and France to local ize building the warships they import to Egypt. This contributed to re-introducing Egypt to the world as a proficient trustworthy defense equip ment manufacturer and enhanced the military ca pabilities of the Egyptian navy. In the five years between 2015 and 2020 the Egyptian naval forces miraculously went from barely surviving on worn out equipment to thriving as one of the top ten navy fleets in the world, according to the Global Firepower 2021 ranking.
20 16/09/22
Saudi Arabian troops in Egypt as part of a joint exercise involving armed forces from other Arab countries and the Egyp tian military. (SPA)
ties of most Arab countries in the past few years is the manifestation of the personal vi sions of the current regional leaders. However, it is rarely shared or appropriately understood by ordinary citizens. To guarantee the sustain ability of these defense policies, which have proven successful so far, the chief states of the region need to work with local experts and foreign allies on framing complementary indi vidual and collective visions for the future of arms procurement, defense industrialization, and personnel capacity building, within the context of countering existing and prospective security threats.
NOTE FOR THE FUTURE
Earlier this month, the UAE signed a contract worth 10 billion dollars to purchase 120 pieces of the Turkish Byraktar drones, plus other ammuni tion worth two billion dollars.
The obvious leverage in the military capabili
On the collective level, the gap in manpow er and investment capabilities between the Arab militaries should not be seen as a bar rier hindering their cooperation. Instead, Arab leaders should look for ways to utilize this diversity to complement each other’s points of weakness. In that regard, although former pan-Arab military cooperation endeavors did not last long enough, there is a realistic hope that they may work this time. That is main ly because most of the current leaders have hands-on military expertise and share almost identical visions for upgrading their national military systems.
and ST-500 to several Arab and African coun tries. In 2017, the Egyptian State dedicated an an nual budget of 7 billion EGP to renovate military factories supervised by the aforementioned three Nonetheless,entities.
21 16/09/22
Saudi Arabian troops in Egypt as part of a joint exercise involving armed forces from other Arab countries and the Egyp tian military. (SPA)
the non-Arab countries of the Mid dle East, such as Turkey, seem to be more deter mined and successful in achieving the goal of lo calizing their military industries. There are many geopolitical reasons to explain their persistence and success, but the most obvious reason is their declining trust in the United States as an arms ex porter. A few months ago, the Turkish Minister of Defense announced that his country succeeded in satisfying 80% of its military needs through indig enous manufacturing. Indeed, Turkey is already exporting its benchmark T-129 ATAK helicop ters and Bayraktar TB2 and TB3 UAVs to several countries in Europe and Africa.
Somalia: A Troubled Nation on the Horn of Africa the Rise of Shabaab
22 16/09/22
By Suzan Quitaz
Politics
The Never-Ending Failed State-Building and
Over many decades, external efforts at institutionbuilding in Somalia have failed to resuscitate a func tional central government there. Somalia had endured many conflicts and tribal battles and had no strong central government since the fall of Siad Barre in 1991.
Al
In May 2022, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected as Somalia’s next president, following a long-overdue election in Somalia. All eyes were on the new govern ment and hopes that it will bring security and stabi lization to this very troubled nation on the Horn of However,Africa. and despite all the external efforts deployed in Somalia over the past years, the government has lit
More than a decade ago after its emergence, Al Shabaab is “on the threshold of becoming a genu inely transnational organization,” according to Mat thew Bryden, the prominent Horn of Africa expert. Without The Basic Foundations of a State, Elec tions will not lead to Stability
Reading into Somalia’s past since its independence, and given all the challenges, it is doomed again for this government to fail to bring security and stabilization to Somalia.
Civilians gather outside their makeshift shelters at the Kaxareey camp for the internally displaced people in Dollow, Gedo region of Somalia May 2022 ,24. REUTERS/ Feisal Omar
Somalia became independent in 1960. Until then, the northern part of the country had been under Brit
In December 2017, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) started withdrawing its troops in phases and passing its security responsibilities to the Somalian security forces. The presence of AM ISOM was essential for stability in Somalia and this gradual transition of their tasks to Somali’s security forces was a blunder considering that Somalia still has a long walk to become a full functioning state.
Tribal dynamics played a role as being a deter minant of successful Al Shabaab expansion into predominantly Muslim areas in neighboring coun tries. For instance, the tense relationship between the Kenyan state and the Somali Marehan clan has most likely enabled Al Shabaab to operate in the borderlands between Kenya and Somalia. Decades of civil war, violence and poverty have led to millions of Somalis fleeing to neighboring coun tries and the West. There are large Somali commu nities in the US, UK, Sweden, Denmark and many other countries. Al Shabaab has managed to infil trate and get important elements of support from these diasporic communities, not only financial support but also fighters have been recruited from countries like Sweden, US and UK etc.
There are those who would argue that the birth of Somalia was premature and was doomed to fail. These critics also point out that the challenges that are facing Somalia can be traced to its inception – it is a country that was established despite the absence of a national consciousness and a proud feeling of cultural unity.
Even without famine, Somalia is the world’s poor est and hungriest country, as defined by the Glob al Hunger Index. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian network. In its “Somalia Hunger Crisis Report for 2021-2022,” it wrote “an estimated 4.1 million people are cur rently in need of food assistance due to the com pounding impacts of extended drought, flooding, desert locust infestations, the economic impacts of COVID-19 and conflict.”
tle control beyond the Somalian capital Mogadishu and is still battling political unrest, corruption, an impending humanitarian crisis, insecurity and ter rorism. Reading into Somalia’s past since its inde pendence, and given all the challenges, it is doomed again for this government to fail to bring security and stabilization to Somalia.
There was nothing shocking or new about this at tack, except that it debunks the claim of those who say that Al Shabaab has been severely weakened in the recent years. In fact, the Hayat attack shows that Al Shabaab still remains a destabilizing force in Somalia with which the current government, like the previous ones, is incapable to deal with.
Just months after Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took of fice, terrorists from Al Shabaab stormed the Hayat hotel in Mogadishu on Friday evening, 19 August. The militants seized the hotel, holding hundreds of people hostage and firing at security forces from inside the hotel. On Sunday, 21 August, Somalian forces entered the hotel freeing 106 people.
The Al Shabaab ambush resulted in the death of 21 people and the injury of over 117. Most likely the Hayat Hotel was targeted because it is a popular site for both national and international lawmakers, government officials and journalists.
The Somalian security forces are too weak to tackle this highly trained Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group.
The Somalian society is largely tribal based which means that people’s identity and loyalty are primar ily linked to others within the same tribe. This tribal identity is formed and strengthened through family and blood ties. The national Somalian identity is secondary. This one of the main underlying causes why Somalia is often conflict ridden and groups like Al Shabaab can come to exist.
THE IMPORTANT GEOSTRATE GIC NATION YET THE POOREST
In 2016, Al Shabaab killed more than 4,200 peo ple, making it the deadliest Islamic terrorist group in Africa. In October 2017, they were credited with the worst terror attack in Somalia to date, a truck bomb that killed over 500 people and wounded hundreds in Mogadishu.
23 16/09/22
It is important to highlight that there are other militia groups fighting against the Somalian government but primarily it is Al Shabaab.
Politics
The West has poured billions of dollars to help Somalia stand on its feet. However, clannism/trib alism and extended family loyalties and conflicts were social problems that all civilian governments failed to eradicate and to which they eventually Insuccumbed.1969Commander
Hard-line Islamist Al Shabab fighters conducted military exercise in northern WarsamehinSuqaholahaMogadishu’sneighborhood2010.FarahAbdi/APfile
Siyad Barre seized power in a military coup that was heavily supported by the former Soviet Union. He was an advocate of the Soviet-Chinese style of socialist government, with a strong sense of nationalism and an intention to unite all Somalis by creating a Somalian national identity. Shortly after coming to power, Barre in troduced the Somali language (Af Soomaali) as the official language of education, and selected the modified Latin script. From then on, all educa tion in government schools and offices had to be conducted in Somali and all government employ ees were ordered to learn Somali. Prior to his rule, government employees spoke either English or Ital ian. Additionally, Barre also sought to eradicate the importance of tribal affiliation within government and Aftersociety.21years of military rule, Barre was over thrown in a military coup in 1991. The United Nations Development Programme stated that “the
of Aden, which leads to Bab El-Mandeb, a narrow strait that controls all maritime traffic between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Any dis turbances at Bab El-Mandeb would mean that all goods from the Gulf, including oil, would have to go around the entire African continent to reach the European and American markets.
24 16/09/22
ish colonial rule and the southern part under Italian colonial rule. Somalia is bounded by the Gulf of Aden to the north, by the Indian Ocean to the east, by Kenya and Ethiopia to the west, and by Djibouti to the northwest. Somalia’s border was arbitrarily determined by the former colonial rulers who di vided the lands traditionally inhabited by Somalian tribes. As result, we see today Somali communities scattered in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, and their borders remain a source of dispute and insecurity. In all those countries, especially in Kenya, there is a big Somali community, which is both politically and economically marginalized and faces discrimi nation, making them easy prey for Al Shabaab who is capitalizing on their grievances and using them for its Somalia’sadvantage.important geopolitical location is the rea son there has been a battle for control by the two superpowers, Russia and the US. Let us take one example, Somalia’s northern coast borders the Gulf
In 1995, the US and the UN withdrew their forces after sustaining massive casualties and a new pow er vacuum arose again in Somalia. The prevailing
Barre’s fall led to Somalia’s entering into a process of political disintegration which erupted in a bloody civil war and lawlessness. Around the same time Somalia, was also to be hit by drought and famine. The combination of civil war and famine created a humanitarian crisis that prompted UN forces, led by the United States, to intervene in the conflict in the period 1992-1995.
21-year regime of Siad Barre had one of the worst human rights records in Africa.” The Africa Watch Committee and Amnesty International said that the Barre-led government was characterized by oppres sive dictatorial rule, including allegations of perse cution, summary killings, arbitrary arrests, jailing and torture of political opponents.
In a testament to Somalia’s geostrategic impor tance, the US participated heavily in the UN peace keeping mission there. But it would later reduce its military involvement after operation “Battle of Mogadishu” more commonly known as the “Day of the Rangers,” and in the Somali language the Maalintii Rangers. In that operation the US lost 18 soldiers and more than 80 were wounded.
Quasi-independent “states” were to emerge, al though officially they all remained part of Somalia. In the north-western part of the country, we have “Somaliland,” and in the north-eastern part we have “Puntland.” In the southern part of Somalia, often referred to as “South Somalia,” the war and law lessness were at their worst.
Islamist armed militias were among the groups fighting for power, one of which was the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which was in control of Southern Somalia in the 2000s. A radical extremist wing split from the ICU and went on to form their own organization/movement – Al Shabaab, trans lated to English as “The Youth.”
Al Shabaab seeks to establish an Islamic state in Somalia and later expand to the whole Horn of Africa.
mayhem assisted each group to exert their control on lands they managed to take.
25 16/09/22
REUTERS/Feisal Omar
In January 1991, Barre was overthrown by oppo sition groups and armed militias who all worked together to fight him. But the overthrow of Barre’s regime had a very ugly turn resulting in a power vacuum that led to those groups who once fought together against him then fighting among them selves in a struggle for power.
Somali security officers are seen at a section of Hotel Hayat, the scene of an al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group militant attack in Mogadishu, Somalia August 2022 ,20
Since 2006, the security situation in Somalia has relatively improved in the north-western and northeastern parts of the country. However, the situation in the southern part (South Somalia) is far from sta ble. Al Shabaab still controls large areas and the re cent Hayat Hotel attack proves they are still capable of conducting terrorist missions.
Bronwyn Brutoon, an expert on Al Shabaab at the Atlantic Council, says hard-liners within the group have gained prominence in recent years. “People who are still calling themselves Al Shabaab are more and more committed to the idea of Sharia law,” she told the Council on Foreign Affairs. “The unifying idea of Al Shabaab is opposition to the Western-backed government.”
Somalia’s geopoliticalimportantlocationis the reason there has been a battle for control by the two superpowers, Russia and the US.
a threat to peace and stability in Somalia and neigh boring countries.
Al Shabaab seeks to establish an Islamic state in So malia and later expand to the whole Horn of Africa.
Al Shabaab’s leadership declared alle giance to Al Qaeda (AQ). There are also numerous intelligence reports that AL Shabaab has formed links with other armed militias, such as Boko Har am in Nigeria, AQ in the Arabian Peninsula, and AQ in the Islamic Maghreb based in the Sahara Desert. It believed that the group has a mixture of Somali and foreign fighters, numbering between 8,000 and 10,000.
Al Shabaab has managed to recruit dozens of American fighters, many from Minneapolis and Minnesota. It also has a similar recruitment drives in many European countries.
26 16/09/22
A general view shows a section of the Hotel Hayat, the scene of an al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group militant attack in Mogadishu, REUTERS/StringerSomalia.
Al Shabaab follows strict versions of Islam, name ly, Qutbist, Salafist and Takfiri, and in areas it con trols, it has imposed a harsh version of Sharia, pro hibiting activities like listening to music, smoking, shaving one’s beard, to stoning to death women accused of adultery and amputating the hands of Inthieves.2012,
The Youth Al Shabaab, Harakat Al Shabaab alMujahideen, is an offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union which was established in 1996 by Ibrahim Haji Jaama’ Al-Afghani. They militarily oppose the transitional Government of Somalia and constitute
Politics
The current Somalian government is both weak and corrupt. Despite its receiving substantial support from EU countries and the US, Ethiopia and Kenya as well as from the UN and the African Union, it still unable to bring the situation in the south under control. It is important to highlight that there are other militia groups fighting against the Somalian government but primarily it is Al Shabaab.
WHO IS HARAKAT AL-SHABAAB AL-MUJAHIDEEN?
Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud speaks during a Reuters interview inside his office at the Presidential palace in Mogadishu, Somalia May 2022 ,28. REUTERS/ Feisal Omar
federal and state officials in Soma lia to collaborate and use the stable political climate to address key national priorities from security to governance to the humanitarian crisis. “To capital ize on this opportunity, federal and state authori ties must collaborate closely to achieve progress on the new Government’s goals, including improving governance and justice, effectively countering Al Shabaab, and responding urgently to the worsening humanitarian crisis,” he said.
attempts of international interference have also led to great deal of opposition which has been seized upon by various armed militias, including Al Shabaab, to stir up trouble.
Al Shabaab still controls large areas and the recent Hayat Hotel attack proves they are still capable of conducting terrorist missions.
Doku, a Swedish independent foundation spe cializing on violent and radical Islamist activi ties in Sweden, reported that Fauad Mohamed Khalaf, aka Shongo, who came to Sweden in 1994, worked for a number of years in Mosque in Rinkeby, Stockholm. During his ten-year stay in Sweden, it was often reported that he preached violent jihadi propaganda and was heavily moni tored by the Swedish Security Service. He left Sweden in 2004 and moved to Somalia, where he eventually achieved a high commanding position within Al Shabaab. Since 2010, he has been on the US government’s list of most wanted terror ists. Unverified reports have claimed that Shongo was killed on the Ethiopia-Somalia border on July 29, Counterterrorism2022.
As recently as the beginning of September 2022, Al Shabaab claimed it has killed 22 Somali Spe cial Forces in a counteroffensive in Mogadishu’s Internationaloutskirts. efforts to create a centrally governed nation state in Somalia have failed. The numerous
experts say Al Shabaab has bene fited from several sources of income over the years, including piracy, kidnapping, and extortion of lo cal businesses, farmers, and aid groups. Al Shabaab agents have also raised funds internationally, with varying degrees of support from the Somali diaspo ra, locals, sponsors, and sustained dawa (proselyt izing). For example, in September 2014, prosecu tors in Finland charged four people who allegedly collected “thousands of euros” for Al Shabaab be tween 2008 and 2011.
Maybe the international community should leave it to Somalians to sort it out among themselves, ech oing a recent statement released by James Swan, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in MrSomalia.Swanurges
27 16/09/22
American Pundits Debate Whether Their Country’s Troops Should
Politics
The Pentagon said that several rockets landed inside
A continuing debate among American politicians, academicians, and media people about the indirect confrontation between the US and Iran in Syria, in the aftermath of the late August attacks and counter-attacks there, has been less about the attacks and more about why there were American troops in Syria in the first place.
28 16/09/22
In late August, several American soldiers were wounded and some fighters described by the Pentagon as “suspected Iran-backed militants” were killed.
By Mohammad Ali Salih – Washington
The debate revealed that many Americans thought that the troops had left Syria a long time ago, after the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, aka Daesh.
US Forces in Syria Stay There
Following are three American opinions, from their writers’ tweets, websites, and statements to the First,media:
BRETT MCGURK: “NO TO ASSAD’S SYRIA”
And I referred to a letter from members of Congress that was sent to President Biden, which raised concerns that several of Washington›s allies in the Middle East are continuing to normalize relations with Assad without any meaningful pushback from the US …
For those who do not know, or do not remember, I resigned over former President Trump’s decision to partially withdraw from Syria in 2019 I said then, and repeat now, that we should not end our alliance with (Kurdish) YPG International. Not only because it is morally wrong, but also, because it will endanger our own national security, and we will come around and regret it …”
Second, “It is all about War Powers,” argued Democrat Senator Tim Kaine, who for years has been, not necessarily opposing US wars overseas, but arguing that no president should send troops into war without an explicit authorization from Congress – and the US interventions in both Iraq and Syria were not.
Third, “US leaves Syria now,” said Daniel Larison, editor at the online «Antiwar» magazine, which describes itself as «devoted to non-interventionism and as opposing imperialism and war.”
Jordan, a neighbor, wants to discuss border security with Syria, obviously we›re not going to say ‘no.’ And that is very different from normalization with the Assad regime. And I think we ought to draw that distinction when we have these conversations …
“For years, I have been pushing for Congress to repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for Iraq, and replace the open-ended 2001 authorization of
“For many years I have been advocating that Syrian President Assad should have been gone a long time ago, and that if that had happened earlier, as I had called for, Syria would have avoided its civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions …
SENATOR KAINE: “WAR POWERS”
29 16/09/22
the perimeter of Mission Support Site (MSS), known as Conoco, in northeast Syria, followed by another attack on a nearby MSS, known as Green BothVillage.have been run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed Kurdish-led group.
The debate revealed that many Americans thought that the troops had left Syria a long time ago, after the defeat of the Islamic State, aka Daesh.
The attacks come a day after the Pentagon had announced that, in the Deir Alzoor oil-rich province that borders Iraq, US forces carried out raids on groups linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and that the raids were ordered by President Joe Biden. They were a direct response to another attack, two weeks earlier, on Al-Tanf US military base in southern Syria, near the border with Jordan.
forces set up a new base in Manbij, May 2018 ,8
REUTERS/Rodi
Said
Last January, addressing the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, I repeated that the US will ‹never› normalize ties
with Assad. I was responding to moves made by countries in the Middle East to reconcile ties with Assad after a decade of war and being isolated. I said; ‘We do not support normalization with the Assad regime. We are never going to normalize with the Assad regime. We have been very clear with that.’
U.S.
I believe that those countries have recognized the reality of the conflict as it exists now, and are trying to protect and pursue their interests. But there should be distinctions made between security agreements with Syria›s neighbors and Fornormalization.example,if
“The US will never normalize relations with Syria’s Assad,” argued Brett McGurk, who served in senior national security positions under presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, and is currently the Deputy Assistant to President Biden and the National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.
authority as Commander in Chief, this strike is yet another reminder that Congress should take more seriously its role and responsibilities in matters of war and conflict …
Brett McGurk
30 16/09/22
wars overseas (after the 11/9 attacks) … Of course, I support defending our troops when they come under fire, as did my [Democrat] colleagues. House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith called it a ‘self-defense operation’ that shows the U.S. can respond swiftly to terrorism threats around the world. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi lauded Biden for what she said was ‘a necessary, proportionate measure to defend U.S. personnel.’ But, I and many of my [Democrat] colleagues, have also been alarmed, and continue to believe that the Congress should authorize the use of force overseas — even when the strikes are retaliatory. While I believe President Biden acted to protect American troops and citizens in line with his
The longer that U.S. forces illegally remain in that country, the more likely it is that one of these clashes will result in casualties that could have
DANIEL LARISON: “OUT OF SYRIA”
Last year, after similar attacks and counter-attacks in Syria, I said that the American people deserve to hear the Administration’s rationale for these strikes and its legal justification for acting without coming to OffensiveCongress.military
action without congressional approval is not constitutional, absent extraordinary circumstances. Congress must be fully briefed on this matter expeditiously.
In late August, several American soldiers were wounded and some fighters described by the Pentagon as “suspected Iran-backed militants” were killed.
“Keeping American troops in Syria has been a serious mistake that multiple administrations have failed to correct …
Politics
Last year, I introduced a bipartisan legislation to repeal the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq and replace the open-ended 2001 AUMF with a narrower authorization – I am determined to continue this fight…”
taking that risk. Contrary to what Biden has said, the U.S. is still at war in Syria, but it shouldn’t be and it doesn’t have to be.
Bottom line: The risk to U.S. forces in Syria is increasing, and there are no discernible benefits from keeping them where they are that justify
If U.S. forces stay in Syria, it is probably just a matter of time before American troops are seriously injured or killed, and there is no good reason to take that chance….”
Tim Kaine
Even if one accepted the official line that U.S. troops are simply there to fight ISIS, Congress never authorized that mission, either. If there is a military mission that cries out for a war powers challenge from Congress, it is the one in Syria. It would be wise for the Biden administration to remove all U.S. forces from Syria as soon as Ideally,possible.Biden should do the same for U.S. troops still in Iraq. Keeping troops in Syria makes no sense in terms of protecting the United States or its treaty allies, and it only puts them at risk for an ill-defined mission that Congress never approved.
As we know, American troops in Iraq and Syria have been coming under fire many times in tit-fortat exchanges for several years dating back to the Trump administration.
been avoided. The Biden administration may be reluctant to withdraw troops from another country after what happened during the Afghanistan withdrawal, but their continued presence in Syria makes them targets and does nothing to make the United States more secure …
31 16/09/22
Daniel Larison
Withdrawing from Syria would make good on the president’s commitment to end our country’s endless wars, and it would eliminate the chance of new incidents that could spiral into a larger conflict.
denied the truth of the rumors that he and his brother Ahmed Noah had stolen $33 million, saying in televised statements: “Everything said about me is not true, and we have not stolen anything at all … The 33 million dollars were spent in a year and a half for the expansion of the company, and they were not Capiterstolen.”was established in July 2020. According to press releases issued by the company in May 2022, the number of products on the company’s platform ex ceeded 22,000 products and 1,000 sellers. It has 2,000 employees, with investments estimated at $33 million raised by funds and investments from Egyptian, Arab and international companies.
Economy
country, allegations which they denied during state ments on the Hekaya program with TV broadcaster Amr MahmoudAdib.Noah
Recent news about a financial breakdown in an Egyp tian E-commerce startup is putting the spotlight on the challenges facing startups and their growth in the North African country, especially after the RussianUkrainian war, according to entrepreneurship and in vestment experts.
32 16/09/22
After Capiter Turmoil, Future of Egyptian Startups Uncertain
This came amid widespread accusations that the two brothers obtained funds from the company and fled the
Earlier this month, local media reported that the board of directors of Capiter Holding Company for E-commerce, which specializes in serving merchants, announced in an official statement the dismissal of Mahmoud Noah and Ahmed Noah from their execu tive positions as chief executive officer and chief op erating officer.
By Menna A. Farouk
Ayman Abu Hind, another investment expert who is also founder and investment manager at wealth management platform AdvisorEngine, agreed with Ismail. He said that Egyptian start ups would not necessarily face the same fate as Capiter.
33 16/09/22
WILL EGYPTIAN STARTUPS BE AFFECTED BY THE CRISIS?
“The problem is not only related to the com panies themselves, but also to the way of man aging the funds that pump money into these companies as the investments of their share holders,” he further elaborated.
He added that government efforts to support startups are scattered. “There is no one entity that is concerned with Egyptian startups and that is why there should be a single govern ment agency that addresses all things related to entrepreneurship and startups,” he said.
“Thisity. is a well-known business model in the startup market, but it ran into a lack of funds affected by the current economic conditions,” he Accordingadded. to Ismail, startups do not have enough resources to maintain their growth.
Mahmoud Noah said that he is currently work ing with the company’s board of directors to find solutions for the company to continue in the market, adding that the issue is that the commit ments are now greater than the amount of fund Heing.explained, “I can go to Egypt at any time. We have not received any correspondence to the contrary. I am now in Dubai at the company’s headquarters where other shareholders are pre Thesent.”company opened its first office outside Egypt in Dubai last November.
He added, “This incident will have a nega tive impact on the idea of financing startups, which increases challenges for the founders. With this crisis of Capiter, there will be an ad ditional Accordingchallenge.”totheUAE-based company, Mag net, which specializes in researching emerging companies, Egypt is a strong market in the re gion for emerging companies, as the volume of investment in startups grew by 106% and the number of deals by 22% in the first half of 2022 compared to the first half of 2021.
Capiter Logo (Source: Facebook)
of these companies relying on the policy of ‘burning money for growth’ as it is known in the startup industry,” he said.
“After this crisis, the financing companies will adopt more accurate criteria when making the financing decision,” said Amin Helmy, a spe cialist in the startups and entrepreneurship sec tor and an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Commerce, Ain Shams University.
“Many startups fail for various reasons, and only a few of them continue their entrepre neurial journey, and this depends on each com pany’s plan and its ability to expand and grow in the target market,” explained Khaled Ismail, an investment expert in entrepreneurship pro Ismailjects. added that each company has its own economic situation, indicating that it is not necessary that all startups face the same fate as “CapiterCapiter.and other emerging companies face a strong challenge like the rest of the startups in the Egyptian market. This is represented by high inflation and a lack of funds, with most
In a video on his personal Facebook page, Abu Hind said that each one of these companies has its own policy in business management and the problem is related to one company amid a mar ket that includes many emerging companies.
He also said that startups usually focus on achieving rapid growth rates regardless of prof itability in order to attract new funds that can support their rapid growth until they reach an appropriate business size to achieve profitabil
“After Capiter’s crisis, the financing companies will adopt more accurate criteria when making the financing decision. It will increase challenges for the founders.”
Becausequeen.
love is more powerful, Philip gave up his Greek and Danish titles as a token of his love for the princess. He also did not invite his three sisters who were married to German leaders due to the British public’s hatred for Germans, as it was not appropriate to include a husband in the royal family with any German connection, a custom that had already been established.
Until World War I, when Germany led the Axis powers, the royal family’s surname was Hanover, represented by Queen Victoria. It was no longer appropriate to keep a German surname in the British royal family, so King George V, grandfather of the late Queen Elizabeth II, issued an order changing the surname to Windsor. As a result, Britain›s kings have been quick to respond to popular sentiment and change from within in order to maintain the stability of the empire, on which the sun never sets.
Gamal Abd El-Maboud
This order established great traditions that have lived in the conscience of the English people since the Normandy invasion by William the Conqueror. These traditions provided the Britons with security, safety, and prosperity, so they left their island to rule the world in the name of the Queen or the King. It is no surprise that the greatest expansion of the empire occurred during Queen Victoria›s reign, which lasted sixty-three years and was only surpassed by Queen Elizabeth II›s reign, which lasted seventy years and saw tremendous changes in Britain and the Mostworld.ofthe former British Empire›s countries have gained independence, though they remain in a tenuous association with Britain known as the Commonwealth. I believe it was Queen Elizabeth II›s desire to dismantle the empire. Change took place gradually, particularly that the colonial era was over, and the winds of change had blown all over the world with the sunset of the British Victorian era and the rise of the American era. As a result, the late Queen preferred to submit to the law of change albeit gradually, especially with the communications revolution, genetic engineering, the information revolution, the fading of the Soviet Union, and finally the global outbreak of COVID19 and the total closure of people›s lives. The Queen, on the other hand, was not far from popular sentiments because she was raised in an ancient royal family and inherited the love of the homeland. Queen Elizabeth learned from her father to cling to the land and the people. He refused to move the royal family from London during the Second World War, in support of the steadfastness of the home front. Despite the brutal German raids on London and the royal family›s advice to leave London, they did not comply. On the contrary, they volunteered in hospitals to treat the wounded and console those whose homes had been destroyed during the war. The royal princesses, led by their mother, the Queen Mother, would visit the affected areas, collect donations for the war effort, visit the armed forces and their families, gain experience in managing the country›s affairs, and deal with the political heroes of the time, led by Winston Churchill, who would be Queen Elizabeth II›s first prime Throughoutminister.
34 16/09/22
Queen By Fate
It was fate that caused the crown to pass from Edward VIII to his brother George VI, who died in his early fifties, to Princess Elizabeth at the age of 26. She was then already the wife of Prince Philip, who changed his religion from Greek Orthodox to Anglican in order to marry her. Because Philip had small financial resources among the royal families, he was not wanted as husband to the future
of Queen Elizabeth II’s rule was not far from the role of fate. Her father, King George VI, became king accidentally after his brother Edward VIII abdicated the throne less than a year after his inauguration to succeed their father George V, in order to marry the American woman Simpson, who was divorced twice.
pinionoThelate
her seventy years, Queen Elizabeth II demonstrated wisdom and a keen interest in royal traditions, to the point that she carried out her duties with her last breath. She appointed the most recent Prime Minister two days before her death, demonstrating the royal family›s eagerness to work until the end to be Britain›s last legend. Goodbye, Queen by Fate!
Because the King of England is the head of the Church of England, it is not permissible for a Queen to be divorced or previously married, and when the Church rejected his plea to marry his mistress, Wallis Simpson, he did not hesitate to resign and go into self-imposed exile in France to live the life of lovers after his marriage to the American lady. Thus, King George VI, Elizabeth II›s father, ascended to the throne, which neither he nor anyone else expected. His younger brother, Edward VIII, was a young man hoping to have children who would take the British throne away from Queen Elizabeth›s father.
19globalandSovietfadingrevolution,theengineering,revolution,communicationsespeciallyalbeitlawsubmitpreferredQueentototheofchangegradually,withthegeneticinformationtheoftheUnion,finallytheoutbreakofCOVID
The role of fate plays a significant role in the lives of people, such as the ascension of Nasser Salah al-Din to the throne of Egypt after the death of his uncle, Asad alDin Shirkuh, the inauguration of Sultan Fuad I as Sultan of Egypt, the succession of al-Nahhas Basha to Saad Zaghloul, and Anwar Sadat’s rule of Egypt after Abdel TheNasser.fact
2 A Weekly Political News Magazine www.majalla.com Issue 1922- September- 16/09/2022 King Charles III: The Workaholic Prince Became Britain’s New Monarch
shopfront in Sevenoaks where John Donne was rector
In an opinionated age, not even monarchs get to rest in peace Speaking of the Dead
Let no one say I fail to keep my readers abreast of world events. It has attracted little notice, but this week has seen the death of a monarch. If the sad news has escaped most of you, I don’t consider that blameworthy. Virtually no one had ever heard of this royal personage. I feel it is incumbent on me, therefore, to break the heart-breaking news. After all, though unelected, they (if I may use the royal plural) were much loved – almost to the point of idolatry – by a considerable number of fiercely loyal fans. And so it was that, in peace and total amity, they governed for many a long year a remote, barren, unremarkable and very small island which, nonetheless, punched well above its weight in the world and was populated, as one would expect, by boobies. Now, before Piers Morgan rushes to condemn me as a woke ideologue, and before Harvard offers me a professorship, let me explain that the name of this monarch was Javier Marías, a highly-regarded Spanish novelist who – in common with an innovative photographer, a chic left-wing French filmmaker and just about anyone who wanted the public to pay a blind bit of notice – chose the wrong week to die.
38 16/09/22
Redonda seen from Nevis
By Bryn Haworth
As for the boobies, I wasn’t being rude about those royalists who flock to The Mall every time a royal appears on a balcony. I merely referred to the seabirds of that name, who nest in colonies on an island in the Caribbean which was first discovered by Columbus and named Santa Maria La Redonda, or (no offence to her beatitude) Saint Mary the Round. It is, in fact, a fairly irregular shape and not round, unless you catch sight of it from a certain angle. Its name has since
been simplified to Redonda, and to this day people don’t spend a lot of time on it. There’s no fresh water for a start, and not a single tree. Add to this the fact that seabirds are not known for their personal hygiene and it’s no surprise that the reigning monarch rarely sets foot on its (very soiled) soil. Given the appalling state of the place, the crown is passed from one writer to another in absentia. In earlier times, some guano prospectors stopped long enough to exploit the vast quantities of excrement deposited by the boobies. They were after the phosphate, for use as fertiliser. The boobies, of course, were happy to be of assistance. In an entirely analogous way, the sum total of the world’s opinions is routinely augmented by the media, thus fertilising the public conversation. I think it’s fair to say, though, that this past week has seen a dramatic, nay unprecedented, spike in guano production. Never in the history of rolling twenty-four-hour news – not even that time the supporters of President Trump tried to make America great again by trashing the symbolic heart of its democracy – have opinions been deposited on such an industrial scale, by boobies and by harpies. Oh yes, there have definitely been some harpies. You might have thought common decency would have dictated that they keep their counsel for the duration of the mourning period. After all, as Donne famously wrote: Every man’s death diminishes me For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.
CultureA
Lily-of-the-valley
the dead should be respected. Just because his republic was neutral, De Valera should probably not have sent condolences to the German people on the death of Adolf Hitler.
But honestly, in this present instance, was ten days grace such a lot to ask, before people got on with the urgent task of demonising a dearly-loved 96year-old great grandmother who had always served her country, right up to a couple of days before she died? How heartless these bleeding-heart liberals can be! I’m looking at you, Maya Jasanoff. Just three hours after the Queen’s death was announced, this history professor at Harvard University, where she focuses on the history of Britain and the British Empire, said it was wrong to ‘romanticise’ her reign. ‘The queen helped obscure a bloody history of decolonisation whose proportions and legacies have yet to be adequately acknowledged,’ she wrote, highlighting repression in Malaya, Kenya, Yemen, Cyprus and Ireland. ‘We may never learn what the queen did or didn’t know about the crimes committed in her name,’ she continued. ‘Those who heralded a second Elizabethan age hoped Elizabeth II would sustain British greatness; instead, it was the era of the empire›s implosion.’ Jasanoff ended by calling for the British monarchy to do away with the ‘myths of imperial benevolence’ that still suffuse its ceremonies and activities. This might almost be mistaken for a request not to be so nice in It›sfuture!not even the views I take issue with here. I’ve written about the connections between the royal family and slavery, in ‘The Haunting of Prince William’ for instance. At some length. No, it’s the timing I object to. One suspects it was a question of getting one’s oar in before the clamour of self-righteous protest began.
The ban on speaking ill of the dead need not be extended to everybody who dies. It’s probably best not to send in the thought police over this; even the first Queen Bess was unwilling to ‘make windows into men’s souls.’ Some people just aren’t bothered too much either way. Nor is it a hard and fast rule that
39 16/09/22
It was a nice try, though a tad over-elaborate. Lily-of-thevalley is also known as the ladder to heaven and Mary’s tears, so the flower ticks a lot of pious boxes, but the tone and diction are so stiff and courtly, I can’t hear the writer’s voice in there, with its distinctive Huddersfield accent. Perhaps Simon Armitage was prey to the self-consciousness that inhibits most poet laureates. It has been the less flowery, rather workaday lines of Philip Larkin – the poet who would have been laureate, if only he hadn’t stopped writing poetry by the time they asked him –that have actually come to sum up people’s sentiments about her: In times when nothing stood But worsened, or grew strange There was one constant good: She did not change.
If in doubt, let the dead eulogise the dead. When he wrote this, I doubt Larkin was thinking ‘Now I’m going to say something memorable.’ He predeceased the Queen by some years, which must have made things easier too. Now, of course, a sense of decorum would act as a further inhibition.
Lines of Philip Larkin have actually come to sum up people’s sentiments about her: “In times when nothing stood, But worsened, or grew strange, There was one constant good: She did not change.”
Greeting her fifteenth Prime Minister at Balmoral
One would be forgiven for dying a little to see some of the republican commentators tripping over each other this week, in their haste to denigrate a certain head of state. There was a time, in the distant past, when no one would have been such an ill-bred churl as to disrespect the dead. Instead, they would doff their hat as a hearse passed, even without knowing who the dead person inside might be. As the mortuary motto had it, De mortuis nil nisi bene [dicendum]), or in the vernacular “Of the dead, [say] nothing but good.” As we shall see, these days some people jostle to be the first to bad mouth the deceased, in particular when the dead person in question had the affrontery to call herself The Queen. During a visit to the Chelsea flower show in 2016, the gardener explained to Her Majesty that lily-of-the-valley was once used as a poison, to which she replied: “I’ve been given two bunches this week. Perhaps they want me dead” (Emine Saner, The Guardian, 9 September). We now see how right she was. Word wreaths, as Andrew Rawnsley calls them, have been arriving thick and fast, but many of those from across the Atlantic have been woven out of lily-of-the-valley. The same goes for the poet laureate, although at least he meant well. In his ‘Floral Tribute’ we find Lily of the Valley, a namesake almost, a favourite flower Interlaced with your famous bouquets, the restrained Zeal and forceful grace of its lanterns, each inflorescence A silent bell disguising a singular voice.
And sure enough, others were not slow to add their voices to hers, in terms not quite so measured as the professor from Harvard. This is the age of the opinionated – there’s no time to waste when it comes to getting your prejudices aired. Cue the feeding frenzy. A senior newsletter writer for New York Magazine, the inaptly named Tirhakah Love, said he was looking forward to dancing on the Queen’s grave, because ‘You can›t be a literal oppressor and not expect the people you’ve oppressed not to rejoice on news of your death.’ That repetition of ‘not’ smacks of the breathless rush to get his
As for slavery, Roberts pointed out that the UK abolished it more than 30 years before the United States. Would that, he asked, make Joe Biden a symbol of slavery too? As Roberts began his retort, Velshi seemed to become more agitated, telling him: “Andrew this is not a propaganda show,” and “Andrew, I need you to stop! I need you to stop for a second. Are you really taking issue with the horrors of colonialism?” he asked, to which Roberts replied: “I›m taking issue with your remarks about slavery, which we abolished 32 years before you did. We didn›t have to kill 600,000 people in a civil war over it,” he added. Ouch.’ (The Spectator, 12 September 2022)
40 16/09/22
Those poor old American liberals, with their brutal history and their barbaric present, so cordially despised by the world they dominate, really need us to be nastier than them, it turns out.
The same comforting tale of British culpability was unfolding on the television. On CNN, it fell to Christianne Amanpour to lambast the imperialists. As Mr S (Steerpike of The Spectator) explained, she demanded that:
‘King Charles III address Black Lives Matter and consider possible ‘reparations’ for wealth generated from former colonies. Does he [Steerpike asks] at least get to bury his mother first? Amanpour’s colleague Max Foster bowed his head like a nodding dog as she declared that ‘Prince William who’s the heir and the next king, he talked about it, having been criticised for a trip he made in the Caribbean – again, colonial legacy – that we must have this discussion, and it must be up to those countries. But it also has to be had in this country [Britain] as well.’ Thanks for the advice, Christianne. Mr S might have some sympathy with Amanpour talking about the evils of the British Empire were she not quite literally a CBE – a Commander of the British Empire – an honour she seemed to have no problem accepting 15 years ago. Talk about being a right royal Meanwhile,hypocrite.’ over on MSNBC, a full-blown ding-dong occurred. Here’s Steerpike ‘Onagain:Saturday, TV host Ali Velshi began a special on the Queen’s legacy by condemning the royal family. He claimed that she ‘represented an institution that had a long and ugly history of brutal colonialism, violence, theft and slavery,› even though, on Elizabeth›s watch, Britain decolonised its empire and embraced multiculturalism. As a constitutional monarch, she played no role in political duties, though her embrace of a multi-racial Commonwealth, distaste for apartheid South Africa and service in the fight against Nazi Germany indicate her private sympathies...
Apparently, just as the British burn the effigy of Guy Fawkes every year, so some Americans have to burn the occasional British monarch. Who knew, since Elizabeth had been on the throne for decades, that the Americans were, for all that time, just bottling up a torrent of bile ready to vomit up in a gush of righteous recrimination while the old girl was still warm? Finally, a country and a political system so evil it was worse than theirs. At last, a parade they could rain heavily upon. The fascism of the British, like the Nazism of Ukraine, would serve to justify the attack. Just give them time, they might be obliged to invade Kent. Those poor old American liberals, with their brutal history and their barbaric present, so cordially despised by the world they dominate, really need us to be nastier than them, it turns out. Some things lie so deep in the psyche of a nation, it takes death and a constitutional inability to hold one’s tongue before the psychic pain can express itself.
In Britain, meanwhile, along with the wordy wreaths, it has mostly been a familiar story of piles of flowers wrapped in plastic. The florists of Windsor have run out of them. There have also been toy Paddington bears, so many that the authorities have asked people to desist. And, of course, marmalade sandwiches. Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the man who scripted the Queen having tea with Paddington, has spoken of it being a collective dream of the nation, and
But the Queen also inhabits the pleasant dreams of Americans, according to Michael Levenson in the New York Times. One explanation for this verges on the psychoanalytical. He quotes a certain Arianne Chernock, a professor of history at Boston University and scholar of modern Britain, who traces this American fascination back to the beginnings of the country, when some of the founders distinguished between their grievances with the British Parliament and King George III, whom they saw as a benevolent figure. “There is also an element of passion here… It ties back to the history of the sovereign as father and mother to the nation. At one point, Americans were part of that family and, even though we’ve severed that political tie, I think that affective tie remains” (New York Times, 14 September 2022).
Affective ties, especially when stretched both temporally and geographically, have a way of getting twisted.
people clearly still need us, the Brits, to play the evil characters in their movies. It was an easy move to cast us as vicious colonialists and the tyrannical imperialists. Oh, and did I mention that we’re also execrable racists? But hang on a minute, was it not we, the nefarious British, who first colonised America, a colonisation which is ongoing, which all but replaced the indigenous population? Can one detect a smidgen of self-hate in all this, projected onto a more hateworthy mother country? Besides, they threw us out hundreds of years ago. Hard to explain, then, the heart-wrenching empathy for countries that remained under our tyranny far longer.
Velshi, though, preferred to disregard the views and actions of the sovereign who died just two days earlier. He told his audience that “For many centuries, the British robbed other nations of their wealth and power, and exploited their people. Even as Queen Elizabeth›s reign largely marked the beginning of the post-colonial era, the horrors that her long line of ancestors inflicted upon many generations of people across the globe continue to be the source of pain.”
opinion out there. And far, far worse was vented, of a pungency and violence only social media can provide, which I shall not reproduce here for decency’s Suchsake.
Fortunately, actual historian (and proud Brit) Andrew Roberts* was on hand to correct the record. Despite Velshi›s repeated indignant interruptions, Roberts coolly asked: “If we had given so much pain to people throughout history, why was Prince Charles chosen by every single Commonwealth country — many of which are former imperial countries?”
Culture
Theresa May, her ungainly behaviour and her coughing fits long forgotten, became a stand-up comedian of the highest calibre under the influence of the Queen. She told a tale in the Commons about her husband having a dream that he was in a car being driven by the monarch, with his wife in the passenger seat, until he realised it was actually happening. This is testament to how universally the monarch inhabits the British dream world.
he’s right in a way. Not taking tea with her as such, but I lost count long ago how many times I encountered the Queen in my dreams. Cottrell-Boyce adds that the scene with Paddington was ‘valedictory,’ a woman waving goodbye to her great
I wrote recently about the obituaries kept in safes by editors. For the people asked to write these obituaries, it is necessary to speak in the past tense about those who are yet to die. This was a task that proved impossible for Boris Johnson, who told the Commons that he ‘choked up’ when it was asked of him and had to abandon an interview.
MustTeatime.haveGSOH
But perhaps the most appropriate story for our times came from David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, who is blind and has a guide dog. In 2003, his dog reacted defensively towards Putin, barking the moment he caught sight of the Russian president: “I did apologise to the Queen who was obviously hosting. I don’t think I am giving anything away when I said, ‘Sorry your Majesty about the dog barking.’ She said, ‘Dogs have interesting instincts, don’t they?’”
grandchildren, while the bear is ‘an evacuee, a refugee, one-time prisoner, pretty much every category of need that is mentioned in Matthew 25.’ It might be as well to remind ourselves of the context, just to set the record straight: in that particular chapter, Jesus is explaining how the goats are sorted from the sheep according to how they treat Peruvian bears. With the possible exception of regimental mascots, the fiery pit is where the goats are heading. But these are enlightened times; even the Vatican has stopped harping on about eternal torments. The Queen was a believer, but not the fire and brimstone type. The historian and royal biographer Robert Lacey says: “She had a wonderful wry and dry sense of humour, and it was a very important ingredient of her identity. I would say that her sense of humour and her religious faith were two of the personal elements that kept her so much on track.”
public engagements and, paradoxically, helped her maintain what Tina Brown has called ‘that perennial poker face of hers,’ which she used as ‘a strategic, a constitutional tool.’ But she could also display humour of her own, sometimes to defuse a tricky situation. Making a speech after being confronted by antimonarchist, egg-pelting protesters on a visit to New Zealand in 1986, she said: “I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast.” In a similar way, in 2007, when President George W. Bush said the Queen had helped celebrate the US bicentennial in 1776 – he had meant to say 1976 – she began her speech with a smile and said “I wondered whether I should start this toast by saying, ‘When I was here in 1776 …’” This was greeted with roars of laughter.
The Queen photobombs Australian hockey players’ selfie
Was ten days grace such a lot to ask, before people got on with the urgent task of demonising a dearly-loved -96year-old great grandmother who had always served her country?
This sense of humour is one of the aspects of her character that has emerged most prominently over the past few days. It was never as obvious to the public as the Duke of Edinburgh’s, whose sarcasm often sailed close to the wind, flirting with unreconstructed bigotry. It has been suggested that this political incorrectness was intended for his wife, a shared in-joke which acted as a safety valve in
41 16/09/22
we occupy our space alone, until we surrender even that. There were so many instances of that loneliness during the lockdowns, when relatives could not be at the bedsides of the dying. Her tiny figure, isolated on that pew, was beyond the reach of the very comfort she had so often tried to give. It was out of reach in ways impossible to imagine. Light years away. Utterly alone. Private. Yet still, she managed to embody something beyond herself, the way only monarchs are equipped to do.
Queen mourning Culture
When the nation saw her, during the pandemic, sitting alone in a pew, dressed in black, bereft of her consort, we were witnessing all the greatness of her generation distilled in one figure. It was a grief too deep for tears. No one should have had to bear such grief alone. How dearly we loved her then, with a kind of helpless yearning to sit beside her. Instead, the dark, hard pews stretched empty on either side. There was something cruelly personal, but also essential, about her loneliness. Nobody is ever where anybody else is. At any one time,
Apart from the repetitious dreams, my own experience of her was limited. When I was at Queens’ College, for example, there was a rumour she would show up, but it came to nothing. As I recall, her son Edward came instead, and I spotted him across the court in St Catherine’s. You could tell it was a royal, as he walked with his hands primly joined behind his back.
Changes from day to day? Obviously, Sir Paul failed to get the memo from
Years later, I came even closer when I was heading towards Victoria Bus Station and came to a halt at a junction with Buckingham Palace Road. Again, it happened to be a sunny day, and I was singing Paul McCartney’s jolly little song about her, the one at the end of Abbey Road that goes: Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl, but she doesn’t have a lot to say. Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl, but she changes from day to day. I want to tell her that I love her a lot, but I gotta get a belly full of wine. Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl, Someday I’m gonna make her mine, oh yeah, Someday I’m gonna make her mine’
Some years later, I did see the Queen at close quarters, from a few yards away, when I was a porter myself – well, ‘kitchen porter’ was my full job title – in York. She was walking across a lawn in radiant sunshine, greeting a long line of excited well-wishers, but my courage failed me and I drew back. Consequently, I never got to shake her hand.
42 16/09/22
Main gate at Queens’ College, Cambridge
As a constitutional monarch, she played no role in political duties, though her embrace of a multiracial Commonwealth, distaste for apartheid South Africa and service in the fight against Nazi Germany indicate her private sympathies.
Clearly, in all his years as a journalist, Johnson had failed to acquire the forensic detachment necessary to that task, but frankly, anyone who could have achieved this would have disqualified themselves from doing the topic justice. A person that unfeeling could never have come close to describing what she meant. Therefore, it’s hard to believe anyone was able to prepare an obituary, even mentally, and serve it up readymade for the occasion, using the past tense in a proleptic manner, when it seemed unmannerly to do so. As La Rochefoucauld says, neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye. In her case, it was like attempting to look at both simultaneously. It›s an occasion all of us have been dreading. Anyone who did not share that dread was ignorant of what the world stood to lose. The Archbishop of Canterbury has said she had no fear of death. If true, that makes her one of the very few who didn’t dread this day, and the only one, in this instance, so ignorant.
One of the porters at Queens’ was an ex-army man. This was often the case with the porters. He was noted for his patriotism and spent that whole day on the qui vive in case Her Majesty showed up. Out of sheer puerility, we crept up behind him near the main gate and shouted “The Queen!” Every time we did this, the patriotic porter stood to attention, saluting into the void beyond the gate.
Of course, unlike me, some people just never fancied her. I can sort of understand that, inasmuch as any idolater can. They were entirely immune to the charm of the ultimate posh totty. It reminds me of when they asked Tony Curtis what it had been like to kiss Marilyn Monroe. “Like kissing Hitler!” was his reply. And yet a million hairdressers across the world can’t all be wrong: Marilyn was reliably stunning, with or without a perm.
When the nation saw her, during the pandemic, sitting alone in a pew, dressed in black, bereft of her consort, we were witnessing all the greatness of her generation distilled in one figure.
Isn’t it terrible That the Queen has died. Some people were nice about it; Others, snide.
* It has to be said that in A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900, Andrew Roberts claimed that Harvard (yes, Harvard again!) historian Caroline Elkins had committed ‘blood libels’ in her Pulitzer Prize-winning book Imperial Reckoning with regard to Kenya. Elkins was subsequently vindicated when files released by the National Archives showed that abuses were described as “distressingly reminiscent of conditions in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia” by the Solicitor General of the time. The Foreign Secretary William Hague subsequently announced compensation for the first round of victims with statements that the British government “recognises that Kenyans were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment” and “sincerely regrets that these abuses took place” during the Kenya Emergency.
‘TheMalik:Queen became a refuge. A representation of a fictional time when things were simpler: when it was Shakespeare; Enid Blyton; the spirit of the blitz; standing alone against fascism; beneficent toffs; a cheeky working class; the welfare state; the swinging 60s; and friendly black and brown faces cleaning the floors and manning the wards. As long as the Queen existed, so did that country’ (The Guardian, 11 September 2022).
Larkin. Anyway, at that very moment, as I stood on the curb singing this ditty to myself, her car passed slowly across my line of vision. You could tell the car was hers from its shiny black carapace and the cheerful little flag fluttering on the bonnet, a miniature version of the royal standard:
And so, in the spirit of those ‘cheeky’ working classes, I say ‘Gawd bless her!’ In my view, the poet laureate would have done better to stick with his first
I’m not sure how long I’ve ‘loved her a lot’ but been too afraid to tell her. I have no recollection of the day I first fell in love. And we’ve had our ups and downs over the years. I once attended a meeting of Republic in a Bloomsbury pub. As I recall, there were fewer than ten of us there. So, yes, I’ve been blowing hot and cold for a while now. It’s a very British thing.
43 16/09/22
Royal Standard
It was the same with the late Queen. On the level of simple devotion, I confess, part of me is the college porter, inhabiting the fantasy land described by Nesrine
As I write, the coverage of the mourning is total, round the clock and exhausting. I have shed many a tear, but the saturation point (and not just for my handkerchief) has long passed. A friend keeps sending droll text messages about “King Chuck” and his difficulty with pens, and this has helped take over from thoughts about Her Maj. Perhaps the actual funeral in a few days will move me in the way her death (and actually the last photographs) did.
attempt, the one that ended up in his litter basket, or so I suspect. This might have worked best in a down-to-earth Huddersfield accent and been more apropos:
Its reliance was not on films that had their world premieres at other festivals. The Canadian festival was born to show Canadians and those who live in Canada what other festivals have done, because viewers there would not be able to see these movies unless the Toronto Festival brings them.
opportunities to distribute productions in the United States and Canada, and an opportunity for US films themselves to test the strength of the market they will enter after their world premieres in that date.
ABSENTEE’S RETURN
What it did is that it began to play a new role as a key to the diverse films that the world market would Specifically,witness.
In the nineties, its name was “Toronto: Festival of Festivals” because it relied on showing the majority of films taken from other festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Locarno.
in this context, it showed what would be offered in the US market. Being held at the be ginning of the second week of September meant that it could be the key to the coming months and the place where foreign films gather in search of
44 16/09/22
By Mohammed Rouda
How the ‘Festival of Festivals’ Came Back After Covid Crisis
The Son Art
The Toronto Film Festival has succeeded in play ing this role. It is true that it is not a festival that mobilizes cinema with artistic values as done in Venice, Locarno, Berlin, Cannes and others, but it does show artistic films anyway.
Toronto is a festival that is free from most of the traditions that bind most of the big festivals and does not really compete with any other festivals.
The Toronto Film Festival is fundamentally differ ent from any other film festival.
Twenty or so years ago, the situation changed dra matically. Toronto Film Festival still showed im ported films, but it was no longer the majority. Still no jury and no awards. What happened was that it no longer accepts to be the “festival of festivals”. It
Yes, it is a festival for the presentation of new films and a festival in which stars, audiences and film makers gather, as in others. It is a festival that takes place over a few busy days. It is also a festival at tended by journalists and photographers to capture events, activities and women’s fashion, but the dif ference is that, despite its large size, it does not care about the presence of juries and therefore there are no official prizes.
The Toronto Film Festival That Holds the Key to the US
rather wanted it to be a first-grade festival that is on the same rank with the most famous festivals of the European continent. And it has become so.
AN AMBITIOUS GIRL
Aother.total
going through in terms and decisions that only spe cialists follow.
What it stresses and builds on is a success that no other festival can reach, the number of attendees reaching about 500,000 viewers waiting for its ses sions from year to year.
of 200 films belong to almost the same number of directors who want to leave an imprint, whether artistic or commercial, or artistic and com mercial together.
The festival kicked off its screenings with a series of worthy, if not powerful, films. One of them is the movie by US actress Sanaa Lathan, after she moved from front of the camera to behind it for the first time in the movie titled “On the Come Up.” The film depicts the experience of a sixteen-year-old girl (well played by Jamila C. Gray).
About this, Toronto can be described as the most important pre-test of the commercial value of films as it deals directly with the wide audience for which the largest proportion of films are produced today.
This year, the festival has completely emerged from the crises. There are 200 films on offer, many of which are new and important on one level or an
Lathan is good at drawing the situation and knows what she wants to do, but the film’s flaw is that it tends to have melodramatic, sympathetic scenes. This involves the protagonist of the story going through emotional lows before realizing that failure is a step on the road to success.
SYRIA-GERMANY
The
So, this is a Toronto that collapsed like most of the other festivals during the coronavirus crisis, and is back today even stronger than it was. This enforced absence and this return have an important economic story that reveals much of what film festivals are
In Her Hands Swimmers
45 16/09/22
For example, Florian Zeller’s “The Son” and An drew Dominic’s “Blond” were shown at the re cently concluded Venice Film Festival, but they are also shown at the Toronto Film Festival because the big difference between their Italian and Canadian showings lies in an important issue: the screenings of the two films, and others that have moved then to the Toronto Film Festival (about 16 films) were directed at an audience who loves art in cinema, looking for new, big or famous directors. Their per formances in Toronto are a test of their commercial success when they begin American showings.
Thisfilms.was
less than a quarter of what it was show ing before the outbreak of the pandemic, when the number of films shown was no less than 250 films.
Accordingly, the festival met, according to its an nounced numbers, 5 million people who rejoiced on the screens of digital or virtual platforms — a
number that no other festival has ever reached. In 2021, Toronto did not want to establish its sta tus as a virtual festival, so it reduced its activities in this direction and contented itself with showing only 24 films.
The difficulties are part of the British-Egyptian film
The equation is easy when you look at it from the angle of what films the Toronto Film Festival is showing this year and how it has planned to be a major player for many parties.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Canadian fes tival to rescind its role and drastically reduce its activities. In 2020, the festival screened only about 60
Apart from this daunting subject, there are two his torical films that are worth returning to, as in previ ous films, when they are commercially distributed.
If war breaks out, they realize that the future in Syr ia is no longer secure and that if they want a better life, they must reach Berlin.
The young director has found enough funding from Netflix to present a touching tale about two Syrian sisters: Manal and Natalie Issa.
The journey, with their relative Nizar (Ahmed Ma lik), sets out by sea from Syria to Turkey, from there to Hungary, and from Hungary to Germany, but it is not an easy journey like writing or reading these words.
46 16/09/22
after great suffering.
The difference, or one of the many differences, is that the two champions of “The Swimmers” have a higher ambition than just emigration: to reach the Olympics to participate in the swimming race.
ActressFrears.Sally
The director sets out to explain the two sisters’ rela tionship with the sea, as they are - at their young age - skilled swimmers, just as their father Ali Suleiman who taught them the art of swimming.
Sally Al-Husseini’s “The Swimmers,” which she provided for the Toronto Film Festival, although she was asked to screen it in European festivals.
take place in the 18th century (Bo
The first is “The Lost King” by British director Ste phen
I found this film better, richer and truer than a similar film about immigration taking place in an atmosphere of repression and smuggling gangs. It is “Flee” by the Dane Jonas Rassmosen about the Af ghan who fled his country and arrived in Denmark
Jazzman’s
ArtBlues
The researcher imagines the warrior king from time to time, and we see these fantasies moving from the present to the past and from reality to something of a fantasy. But this difficulty fades under Frears’ wise management.
The second film is “Chevalier,” directed by Stephen Williams, starring Calvin Harrison Jr. and Samara Weaving. This film opens a forgotten and realistic page about composer Joseph Bologne , who is the illegitimate son of an African mother and a French Thefather.events
HISTORY AND MUSIC
The Afghan issue is not absent from festivals these days. In Her Hands is a new documentary film by directors Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mittelseven. It is about women in Afghanistan 16 months before the American withdrawal from the country and Tal iban’s takeover. It doesn’t mean to say that women enjoyed much freedom under the previous rule, but that Taliban’s takeover has put an end to the short journey women enjoyed. This is represented by one woman Zarifa Ghafari, who is trying to learn about the world beyond borders. Her main achievement was that she became a governor in 2018.
The director’s ability is outstanding in adapting the image to tell poetry within a tale that she pursues with steadfastness and original aesthetics. Maybe there are minutes that could have been cut out. The movie is two and a quarter hours, but it’s not too many.
Hawkins stars as a woman who loves historical research and one day discovers the re mains of King Richard III. The most difficult thing in the film is the link between these events that oc cur in our time and those scenes that take place in the era of King Richard III.
actors, director Tyler Perry presented his new film, “A TylerJazzman.”Perryis
47 16/09/22
OneAntoinette.ofthe
logne nicknamed Chevalier, died in 1799). In fact, the film opens more than a page, moving between Boulogne’s humble beginnings and his end, which included confrontations between him and Queen
Despite a presentation style that imposes its vision of what happened, “Chevalier” remains a new work in its subject and a good one under the experience of its director, Williams.
not one of the directors that movie buffs have been waiting for. He is one of those who sailed into comedy cinema two decades ago and achieved notable commercial successes despite the naivety of most of them. But here he is not only dusting off his old text, but also himself as he pre sents his first serious film.
“Sorrows of a Jazz Player” is not an opening in style. It is basically a love story between a black man and a black girl with white skin (they call this type a “trick” baby). The events take place in the thirties. Young Bayou is well played by Joshua Boone who meets a jazz singer named Liane (Sole Pfieffer) and they meet frequently to teach him to read and write. The film does not follow the les sons, but rather deals with the seeds of love that arose between them.
sical performance. Mozart did not want to share the stage with an unknown player, which leads to an exchange of sharp criticism.
Unfortunately, Bayou had to leave the town alone. He wrote to her repeatedly and she did not respond to his messages, although they agreed to marry. Later (and the film opens in 1987 and returns to it at the end), he has only the sorrows of an unfulfilled love. NEW MOVIES
film’s most important parts is the one that falls between him and Mozart when he chal lenges the unknown musician Mozart in a joint mu
The Lost King
Chevalier
In the spirit of music, and with African-American
◆ Directed by Roshdy Zem
◆
NEW MOVIES
◆ Genre: Social Drama [France]
So far, Rushdie Zam, an Algerian actor with a French identity, has directed six films, each of which focuses on the family and the close bond between its members. In this film, however, he expands on the proposition itself. What was mentioned in previous films, and the transparency presented here as the crux of the matter. Sami Bouajilla is the son of a second-generation immigrant family. The beginning of the film revolves around the family situation until his wife,
◆
who works in Morocco, tells him she wants to divorce him. This desire surprises him, but he tries to suppress his feelings and live quietly. When he realizes that he must rely on the family tree to maintain his family balance, the film begins to express the concept of “one for all and all for one.” To the end, the drama is emo tional and social, restoring some of the lost balance between family members. Normal in his technical level, but always with an honest tone.
Our Ties ★★★
Brahmastra Part One: Shiva ★★ Directed by Ayan Mukerji Genre: Fantasy (India) Leading Roles: Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amtiabh Bachchan.
◆ Directed by Douglas James Vale
◆ Genre: Western [US]
Leading Roles: Chase Garland, Ben M. Jones, Jessic Nunez-Wood
◆ One Final Note: Algeria’s official nomination for Oscar 2023.
Leading Roles: Sami Bouajila, Rushdi Zam, Mariam Serbah, Rachid Bouchareb.
◆
◆
The last ten years, in particular, have seen a diversification that was not previ ously seen or was of this magnitude in Indian cinema, which previously focused on comedies, action, and shows of strength along with the requisites of singing and music. Diversification was essential. We’ve had spy movies, historical films, and now this fantasy film about a love story (in the first half of the film) that transforms into delinquent fantasy and superhero heroism based on a myth about the gods who divided the country into three parts. There is a villain who wants
◆
48 16/09/22
A weekly roundup of screenings at movie theaters around the world
One Final Note: All of the actors wear the same black hat!
Art
Peace River ★★
This is another Western film that is knocking on a different door than Dead for a Dollar. The Walter Hill film I reviewed last week was a commercially oriented Western with classic Western elements. Another film is a contemporary Western (that is, it takes place in the present tense, as was the Power of the Dog a year It’sago).about a grandfather and his grandson, as well as horses. The grandfather sings about the modern-day American West every now and then, talking about the “cowboy way,” which includes “friendship with God, treating others with respect, and being a good horse,” as he puts it. There are many sermons on the relationship of man to his environment, even if they are moral and principled. It is believed that this independent production arose from a desire to remind peo ple that America is not what they see in Hollywood films. Also, Douglas James Vail’s direction is completely principled, with no creative hiccups.
By Mohammed Rouda
◆
◆
The film goes in multiple directions as it begins emotionally and ends with the hero’s triumphant return to his lover after showing a struggle in defense of the entire world, but it is united in its desire to entertain viewers. Many Western crit ics appreciated this, despite the film’s melodrama and length.
One Final Note: The movie ranked second in its US screenings last
◆ Genre: Documentary [US]
Only a few of his seventeen works (including documentaries like his most recent
◆ One Final Note: Smith announced in 2017 that he would not be making this film.
49 16/09/22
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is an old film directed by Sam Peckinpah about an American man who went after the head of a Mexican in order to bring it to another Mexican guy. The film wasn’t a horror, but its idea was terrifying, its story was suspenseful, and it was perfectly directed. Burial, the new film, is very similar to the qualities mentioned in the previous film (1974). It’s about Hitler’s body being carried by Russian soldiers (including the film’s heroine, Harriet Walter) to Moscow and shown to Stalin.
◆ Directed by Kevin Smith
◆ Leading Roles: Robert Downey Sr., Robert Downey Jr.
◆ One Final Note: When Downey Jr. was five years old, he appeared in one of his father’s films.
★★★:
◆
◆ Genre: Comedy [US]
Burial ★★★
◆Sr.★★★Directed by Chris Smith
◆ Leading Roles: Ben Affleck, Justin Long, Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Many people may forget that actor Robert Downey Jr. is the son of director Rob ert Downey Sr., and that the father (who died a year ago) was among the direc tors and other talents that remained obscured because they did not try to keep up with Hollywood for long. Even the ones he did in Hollywood and on their terms (like Up the Academy) didn’t get him much attention.
★★
Rittenhouse Square) have been seen by this critic, so he cannot fully rate the director. However, the new film about his life and work, as well as the good relationship he had with his son, the well-known star, is worth following up on and paying attention to.
◆ One Final Note: Diana Rigg was promised the lead role but died before filming could begin.
◆ First Roles: Tom Felton, Harriet Walter, Barry Ward
Now, through this film, he sets out to try again, even if only for a short time. There are two sides to this story. The first is about a fast food and refreshment establishment, and the second is about the establishment’s owner attempting to make a film about the establishment and its employees.
True, that film (1994) became an icon among a group of critics and audiences, but it did not achieve the technical level required to move to the first class in its genre and art. This defect is reiterated here as well.
Director Kevin Smith has emerged as a hopeful for a revival of American com edy free of Hollywood constraints and with a happy ending. In this vein, he has already fulfilled this goal, including the previous two parts of Clerks. Despite his commercial success, Smith was unable to leave an indelible mark on his films or on the audience.
Clerksweek.III
◆ Directed by Ben Parker Genre: War [US]
Ratings: ★ Weak or average | ★★: Mediocre with merits| Good | ★★★★: Excellent | ★★★★★: A masterpiece
The mission is secretive, but it has implications that bring the film closer to the horror genre. Not that the director wrote a script about Hitler rising from his cof fin to kill Russian soldiers and flee, but rather in the manner of the idea and what it implies within a dark depiction that fits the situation.
to unite it not for a noble purpose but to seize it, and Shiva is the only one who can stop him.
An emotional thread runs between one of his employees and a girl, but the film is not about love, but rather about a comic game. The latest film confirms what Smith overlooked in the first film in the series.
The film does not appear to be important at first, but it succeeds in capturing the viewer’s interest, especially with a large portion of the film devoted to navigating the family relationship between the son and his father.
50 16/09/22
ings, but that doesn’t mean it’s a one-trick pony. Way back in 2014, for instance, the company introduced ZoomPresence, a video collaboration service for conference rooms; today, un der the name Zoom Rooms, it offers everything from a vir tual receptionist to the ability to reserve a desk. Zoom Phone, launched in 2018, is a cloud-based replacement for old-school desk phones. Then there’s Zoom Chat, a Slack-like business messaging tool—which, as of today, is being renamed Zoom Team Chat to emphasize that it’s not just for use within video calls.
Zoom Would Like to Remind You That It’s a Many-Trick Pony
That’s Eric Yuan, the founder and CEO of Zoom, speaking— and a moment later, he retracts the claim: “I guess that’s too strong.” But he was right the first time. Thanks to its baconsaving ubiquity during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom really is in the rarefied company of Google and Photoshop—products so synonymous with their categories that they’ve transcended mere Zoomnounhood.mighthave a symbiotic relationship with online meet
Expanding on Its Videoconferencing Ubiquity is Both an Opportunity and a ChallengeTechnologyByHarryMcCracken
Even if Zoom weren’t eager to expand beyond its core videomeeting offering, staying pretty much the same in the years
Credit:
‘THERE ARE A LOT OF NEW SERVICES IN THE PIPELINE’
The chat service’s rebranding is part of a larger Zoom initia tive to convey all the communications problems its software can solve. “The good news is, the trust is already there,” says Yuan, in a rare interview we conducted via—what else?—a Zoom call. “Because of many years of hard work, and also the pandemic crisis, [customers] understand that Zoom is a great company that truly helps people connect.” Still, he adds that Zoom has many happy users who think of it solely as a videoconferencing service. Now the company wants to fix that Frommisperception.amessaging standpoint, the centerpiece of this effort is a new variant of the Zoom logo. It ditches the two Os in “Zoom” for six encircled icons, turning “Zoom” into “Zo ooooom.” Each icon represents a Zoom product: Team Chat, Phone, Meetings, Rooms, Events, and Contact Center. (Don’t feel guilty if you didn’t know that the videoconferencing prod uct we think of as Zoom is really named Zoom Meetings—I didn’t until I wrote this article.)
The “Zoooooom” visual representation of Zoom’s breadth of capabilities will be featured in a new ad campaign spanning digital, social, streaming, and out-of-home media such as bill boards. It will also show up inside the Zoom experience it self—for example, you might see it while waiting to be let into a “Thismeeting.brand expansion is indicative of the Zoom of today, which is so much more than meetings,” explains Ben Torres Ezrick, who joined Zoom as head of brand marketing in May, after more than eight years at Google. (As long as it was re freshing its logo, the company also switched out its signature light blue for a darker shade to “enhance legibility and advance accessibility on our platform for people of differing vision ca pabilities,” says Torres Ezrick.)
51 16/09/22
The goal is not just to communicate Zoom’s current breadth of capabilities but also to provide headroom for services yet to come: “What we’re striving for is becoming the operating system for your workday,” says CFO Kelly Steckelberg. But it’s all dependent on customers having an open mind about what exactly Zoom is—and the company delivering additional products that are worthy of the foundation it’s built with vide
Ultimately, argues Zoom Chief Product Officer Oded Gal, cus tomers appreciate the company’s focus: “Communication is a core capability, and they want someone who is dedicated to it, who can really answer to their needs and not be distracted with, you know, everything for everyone.”
From Excel to Gmail, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offer plenty of general-purpose productivity tools that Zoom seems unlikely to take on with its own counterparts. But when I ask Yuan if there are product categories that he’d avoid as be ing outside Zoom’s wheelhouse, he doesn’t name any. Instead, he rattles off some of the diverse recent additions to the com pany’s lineup. Zoom Events is for large-scale virtual gather ings, from internal all-hands sessions to ticketed affairs open to the public. Zoom Contact Center is a customer service platform that does voice, chat, and text messaging as well as video. And Zoom IQ for Sales uses AI to assess salespeople’s interactions with customers. Stay tuned: “There are a lot of new services in the pipeline,” says Yuan.
‘I PERSONALLY HAD ZOOM FATIGUE’
Now, there’s nothing radical about the idea of selling videocon ferencing as part of a larger suite of services. Indeed, that’s how all of Zoom’s principal competitors market their wares. In the case of Microsoft Teams—a rival to both Zoom and Slack— that suite is Microsoft 365. With Google Meet, it’s Google Workspace. Many businesses already pay for one of these two
productivity bundles, and might default to Teams or Meet over Zoom for that reason alone. That gives Zoom a powerful incen tive to make clear that it isn’t a single-product company.
“Because of many years of hard work, and also the pandemic crisis, [customers] understand that Zoom is a great company that truly helps people connect.” (TNS)
Zoom’s larger competitors have chipped away at the lead it built up in video collaboration by starting earlier and taking the category more seriously, and Yuan feels the pressure: “We have to work even harder to make sure we understand the cus tomer pain points,” he says. But how the race translates into current market share is unclear. In April 2020, Zoom said that it had 300 million daily active users, then corrected the record by stating that it meant daily meeting “participants,” with any individual who attended more than one meeting counting mul tiple times. It hasn’t updated this figure since. Google hasn’t re vealed anything about Meet’s user base since April 2020, when it said the service was growing by three million people a day. Only Microsoft has shared a hard number recently: 270 million monthly active Teams users as of January.
“Onoconferencing.theonehand, that’s the opportunity,” says Yuan. “On the other hand, that’s also the challenge we face.”
Beyond the hybrid age lies . . . well, maybe the metaverse, whatever it might turn out to be. Yuan appears game to see how it could disrupt Zoom in its current form: “I think that video calls and AR, VR, and the metaverse eventually will converge into one thing,” he predicts.
Even if Zoom weren’t eager to expand beyond its core video-meeting offering, staying pretty much the same in the years to come would not be a viable option.
Actually, Zoom has been at work on proto-metaverse tech nologies for quite a while. Way back in 2017, it partnered with an AR startup called Meta—no, not that Meta—to enable Zoom meetings involving 3D holographic repre sentations of participants. Last year, it announced a col laboration with Meta—yes, this time the company formerly known as Facebook—to let Quest headset users attend Zoom meetings from within Meta’s Horizon Workrooms VR interface. Introduced in April, Zoom’s Immersive View dispenses with the Brady Bunch-style grid of participants in favor of plunking people into virtual environments such as an auditorium or classroom. (It’s similar to Microsoft Teams’ Together Mode, which debuted first.) Zoom even lets you represent yourself in a meeting as an Animoji-
As knowledge workers finally start to head back to the office in meaningful numbers, Zoom’s next task is to bridge new and old ways of collaboration. With Zoom Rooms—a rich set of tools for running meetings in real-world conference rooms
Yuan emphasizes that widespread support for hybrid work as a concept doesn’t mean we know exactly where we’re headed. “If you ask any business ‘What’s your definition of hybrid work?’ it’s very different,” he says. “How many days is that optional, flexible, or mandatory? Policies are different and are evolving, and also the technology tools are very different.”
Technology
and bringing in participants located elsewhere—the company would seem to be well-positioned for an era when teamwork gets more physical again. A Rooms feature called Smart Gal lery intelligently divvies the video feed from a conferenceroom camera into individual windows for attendees at the table, so they don’t look that different from the folks dialing in from home offices. “It actually brings that democracy back again, even in a hybrid meeting,” says Gal.
(Credit: Courtesy Zoom)
Yuan doesn’t skirt around the fact that the time we’ve all spent staring into a webcam can be taxing. In the early days of COV ID-19, he recalls, after doing 19 Zoom meetings in one day, “I personally had Zoom fatigue. Quickly, we all realized that’s not sustainable.” Today, he adds, he spends a fair amount of time on Zoom Team Chat rather than turning everything into a video meeting. (Among Zoom’s measures to prevent its em ployees from getting burned out on its own product: Wednes days are no-internal-meetings days.)
to come would not be a viable option. Though the product’s pervasiveness during pandemic times has provided a windfall of free publicity, it’s also turned it into the poster child for video conferencing’s ills. Stress from overuse is endemic to the category, but nobody talks about Microsoft Teams fatigue. It’s Zoom that gets the blame.
Zoom Rooms brings a Zoom experience to in-office collaboration.
52 16/09/22
of where the metaverse might take Zoom remain to be seen, the company does have a guiding approach in mind. “Eric’s vision has always been to make a Zoom meet ing better than an in-person meeting,” CFO Steckelberg told me when we talked via Zoom. “And in some ways, it already is. You can record this, you can do transcription, you can have translation, all things that we couldn’t do as easily if we were sitting in person together.” When the company considers what the metaverse might mean for its products, she says, the over arching question is, “How do you create an experience so that you and I really feel like we’re even closer together?”
Zoom’s association with the pandemic-induced videoconfer
This article was originally published by Fast Company.
Credit:(Courtesy Zoom)
Zoom’s association with the videoconferencingpandemic-inducedboom can cloud the credit it deserves for doing many things right long before it was a household name.
encing boom can cloud the credit it deserves for doing many things right long before it was a household name. When the service appeared in 2013, video calling had been around for years—it’s just that most of what was out there was too cum bersome and flaky to have that much impact on work or culture. Zoom was more approachable and reliable than what came before (including the venerable Webex, where Yuan, Steckel berg, and Gal all once worked).
53 16/09/22
“I still remember that in the early days of Zoom, some times I’d look at a screen literally for one hour without doing anything, thinking about how to simplify the user interface,” says Yuan. “To add a feature is easy. But to simplify is so hard.” From hybrid-work refinements to metaverse transformations, what the company adds in the years ahead will matter—but preserving that simplicity is critical to keeping the Zoom of tomorrow feeling like Zoom.
Eric Yuan. (CourtesyCredit:Zoom)
esque animated animal avatar, a lighthearted feature that Yuan demoed for me by briefly morphing into a fox during our Evenconversation.ifthedetails
54 16/09/22 Shahenda ‘Collina’ Egypt’s First Female Referee to Oversee Egyptian League Games ports
30, drew attention to herself in her first outing as a female referee in the man agement of Egyptian League matches with her consistent performance and vision for all aspects of the pitch, psychological stability in decisions, and taking the appropriate position on the field, thus paving the way for other fe male referees to follow in her footsteps.
Sheeasy.described
“I was born in the Mediterranean city of Al exandria and, as a teenager, I played for sev eral Egyptian clubs before quitting and be coming a referee in 2014, and two years later, I became an international referee,” Shahenda El-Maghrabi began her conversation with
El Maghrabi — or “Collina” as her col leagues nicknamed her after Pierluigi Col lina, the head of FIFA’s Referees Committee and a former referee himself, made history by becoming the first female main referee in the top domestic men’s competition, after previ ously serving as an assistant referee in a cou ple of top-flight matches.
55 16/09/22
El-Maghrabi,ties.
the most difficult situation she had encountered as follows: “I officiated a
with refereeing began in the 2014-2015 season, when I started par ticipating in matches, and continued until I became an international referee in 2017, just two years after joining the refereeing field, and this was during the era of Essam Abdel Fattah, the former head of the Referees Com mittee,” El-Maghrabi continued.
Egyptian referee Shahenda El-Maghrabi faced a significant challenge as the first wom an referee in the Egyptian League when the referees committee assigned her to lead the Smouha and Pharco match in the 34th and fi nal round of the league last season, to demon strate her efficiency and show that Egyptian women are capable of overcoming difficul
for Shahenda at first to be come a referee because society was not used to this idea, and the practice had not spread as widely as it is now in most European and regional leagues. “I felt some difficulty in the beginning, but with the passage of time it be came normal,” El Maghrabi commented.
“El Maghrabi made history by becoming the first female main referee in the top domestic men’s competition”
During the previous season, Shahenda served as a referee in the Egyptian Club League Cup match between Al-Masry and its counterpart, the Eastern Company. El Maghrabi, who
“MyMajalla.relationship
By Sarah Gamal
made her Premier League debut last season, was on the refereeing staff for the Pyramids vs. FC Masr match as the fourth referee. She was also appointed a fourth referee in the Egypt Cup round of 32 match between AlIttihad and Al-Nasr in 2019.
As for the difference between referee ing men’s and women’s football matches, she said: “The difference between referee ing men’s and women’s matches may be in physical strength, performance, and speed of play. However, I do not see a difference in the African women’s matches, given that Af rican female players have superior physical Itabilities.”wasdifficult
(Photo Courtesy of: Shahenda El-Maghrabi )
Her strong character and professionalism have helped her overcome prejudices and be come a well-known figure in Egyptian foot ball (soccer) refereeing, but it has not been
When asked how she felt after becoming the first woman in Egyptian League history to officiate a match, she said: “Certainly, I am overjoyed. I became the first female referee in Egyptian history to run a match in the Egyp tian League. I worked very hard, and what I achieved as a result is a reward from God.”
In response to some people’s refusal to allow female referees to manage Egyptian League matches for men, she said, “I don’t pay at tention to this matter, who doesn’t want us to run league matches and speak in media, eve ryone knows why this matters, I just focus and work to have a role in the league with my efforts, hard work, and my personality.”
ports
The family is extremely supportive of Shahenda, as she puts it: “My family has
“My ambitions in refereeing are to be officially present in the Egyptian league matches, in addition to being present in the World Cup to honor my country”
been my staunchest supporter throughout my career, not only as a referee but also as a player. With their help, I was able to win the Egypt Cup with my team Smouha.”
Concerning the Egyptian Football Asso ciation’s support for female referees, El Maghrabi stated: “We would not be here without the support and backing of the Egyptian Football Association. There is un qualified moral and financial support.”
game for an Arab team, and it was a chal lenge for them. Of course, they didn’t like the fact that I was a female referee, especially during the first 15 minutes. During this time, a foul was committed, and I wanted to issue a warning to a player who was furious. He turned his head and spat after I warned him. I told him not to say anything or he’d never play again. I showed him a red card, and he was speechless. The coach spoke with him, and then he came to see me after the game, apologizing for the player’s behavior and promising to punish him.”
“My ambitions in refereeing are to be of ficially present in the Egyptian league matches, and to run more matches, in ad dition to being present in the World Cup to honor my country,” the former Alexandrian football player said of her future goals in refereeing
56 16/09/22
(Photo Courtesy of: Shahenda El-Maghrabi )
(Photo Courtesy of: Shahenda El-Maghrabi )
Egyptian Shahenda El-Maghrabi became the first woman to referee an Egyptian Premier League match when she officiated Smouha’s final-round match against Pharco. (Photo Courtesy of: Shahenda El-Maghrabi)
57 16/09/22
Health
But the ability of spices to trick the tongue is gaining fresh at tention, with a new analysis suggesting that certain spices can help distract older adults from noticing the absence of another strong flavoring -- salt -- that may pose dangers to health.
By Maureen Salamon
of the chipotle seasoning seemed to make it more difficult for study participants to tell the difference between
CHIPOTLE SEASONING HITS THE SPOT
Thepowder.)addition
A Healthy, Tasty Swap
The new study, published in the June 2022 issue of the jour nal Food Quality and Preference, suggests that adding spicy seasoning to a low-sodium meal could help people get by with less salt. In the taste-testing experiment, 39 healthy adults (62% women) ages 60 and older compared samples of white sauce made with five different salt concentrations. The test was done three times on different days. On the first day, the sauce had no added herbs or spices. On the second day, the sauce contained a blend of basil, coarse ground black pep per, and garlic powder. On the third day, the sauce contained both the basil blend and a commercial chipotle seasoning. (That type of seasoning blend typically combines spices such as chili pepper, cayenne pepper, oregano, cumin, and garlic
It’s Easier to Cut Your Salt Use When Spices Lead the Way
“It’s time to help people figure out what to use instead of salt,” says Eric Rimm, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Spices offer “an opportunity to skip the salt and put something else in your food that makes it taste interesting.”
Cooks around the globe have long relied on spices to boost the flavor, color, and aroma of food. Just as appealing are spices’ potential health benefits, with research consistently pointing toward anti-inflammatory properties that may tamp down pain, lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and thwart cancer growth.
58 16/09/22
This article was originally published by Harvard Women’s Health Watch.
SPICY CHICKEN KEBABS
“Salt doesn’t need to be there for the food to taste good. There are things we can do to change the quality of our food and reduce our blood pressure.”
Salt is known to hike blood pressure, contributing to higher risks of heart attack and stroke. For that reason, it’s in the crosshairs of the FDA. In February 2022, the agency rolled out new guidelines aiming to lower the av erage American’s daily sodium consumption from 3,400 milligrams to 2,300 milligrams over the next 10 years, saying the measure could save 500,000 lives.
recipe, which blends many spices with lean chicken to create a tasty, healthy dinner entree.
In a bowl, combine the garlic paste, spice mixture, black pepper, canola oil, lemon juice, parsley, and chicken cubes. Toss well to coat the chicken completely and place it in the refrigerator to marinate for several hours, mix ing occasionally. Skewer the chicken, alternating with grapes, and grill until the chicken is cooked through. Makes 12 skewers.
- about 1 pound red grapes
PROMOTING SALT ALTERNATIVES
Ingredients: - 2 garlic cloves - pinch of salt - 1 teaspoon coriander seeds - 3/4 teaspoon paprika - 3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme - 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper - 1 teaspoon curry powder - black pepper to taste - 3 tablespoons canola oil - 1 tablespoon lemon juice - 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley - 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes
Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health offers this
Credit:
59 16/09/22
About 70% of us develop high blood pressure by age 70, Rimm says, and for those who are susceptible, too much salt can worsen the condition. Nutrition experts now dole out advice more often to swap out less-healthy food or seasoning for a healthier option, he notes.
Using a mortar and pestle or a garlic press, crush the gar lic with a pinch of salt to make a paste. In a dry skillet, heat the coriander seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, thyme, crushed red pepper, and curry powder for about 30 sec onds, until hot and aromatic. Remove the mixture from the pan and put it into a spice grinder or mortar. Grind it into a fine powder.
white sauce versions made with low and higher levels of salt. That did not happen with the addition of just basil, garlic powder, and pepper.
“This was a fun substitution -- it works,” Rimm says. “Salt doesn’t need to be there for the food to taste good. It shows there are things we can do to change the quality of our food and reduce our blood pressure, which is the biggest health benefit.”
(TNS)Credit: (TNS)
Instructions:
“Prince of Wales,” by Jonathan Dimbleby, a biog raphy authorized by Charles in 1994, revealed that he felt pressured by his father to marry Diana and that he was never in love with her. Charles began an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles in 1986, accord ing to the book. They had met several years before at a polo Accordingmatch.tothe
In 1981, Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, who became the Princess of Wales. William and Harry, the couple’s two sons, are second and sixth in line to the throne, respectively.
royal family’s official website, Charles and Diana agreed to divorce in late 1992, and their marriage was dissolved about four years Inlater.2007, he launched the “Mosaic” initiative, which provides mentoring programs to young people growing up in underserved communities. In ad dition, in 2010, he launched the “Campaign for Wool” to raise awareness of the environmental ben
and the conservation of the environment have been his major concerns. Charles has driven electric vehicles and, like his mother, has advanced the planting of trees. He has supported huge finan cial prizes for mechanical and logical breakthroughs that can diminish carbon outflows and the impact of climate change. Moreover, when he was the Prince of Wales, his Trust ran an organic farm and his products are easily accessible in British shops.
60 16/09/22
During a historic ceremony at St James’s Palace in London, King Charles III was formally installed as the monarch of the United Kingdom last Saturday. Following a period of mourning for the late queen, the British flags were raised again in celebration of the new king and the accession ceremony was broadcast on television for the first time. It was a magnificent ceremony steeped in ancient tradition and political symbolism, culminating with David White, the Garter Principal King of Arms, pronouncing King Charles III as monarch from a balcony at the palace, a ritual which is a relic from centuries past.
Charles has eagerly awaited his accession to the throne for decades, a period punctuated by scan dals, troubles, divorce, and disappointments, but it was also a sufficient period during which the prince polished his culture, developed his relationships with other countries, strengthened his charitable work, and married again against all odds to Camilla Parker Bowles.
King Charles III: The Workaholic Prince
The eighth of September 2022 marks the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream for Prince Charles, who ascended the throne automatically following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. King Charles III is the first child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Charles, 73, was born in 1948 at Buckingham Pal ace in London. He was only three years old when his mother ascended to the throne as queen follow ing the death of her father, King George VI.
By IllustratedMajallaby Jeannette Khouri
The new king is also well-known for his generos ity to youth charities. His Trust charity, which was founded in the midst of an unemployment crisis, provides skills training to thousands of young Brit ish Charlespeople.has publicly expressed his views on archi tecture and urban planning. He has promoted New Classical Architecture and stated that he “care[s] deeply about issues such as the environment, archi tecture, inner-city renewal, and the quality of life.”
Charles also took part in various sports including horse racing, sailing and scuba diving. According to a biography on the prince’s official website, he raised money for charity by playing polo until late 2004, when he decided to retire from the game after more than 40 years of participation.
a term at the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, where he learned Welsh, Elizabeth created her eldest son the Prince of Wales, among other royal titles, in 1969. Two years later, Charles was elected to the House of Lords, the United Kingdom’s upper house of parliament. Following in his father’s footsteps, Charles spent the next few years serving in both the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.
efits of wool and to expand the market for British sheep farmers struggling to make ends meet.
Charles enjoys painting in his spare time. Litho graphs of his artwork are available for purchase, with all proceeds benefiting the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund. He also enjoys gardening and hedge-laying, particularly in his organic garden at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, near Tet Naturebury.
Po rt ra it
Became Britain’s New Monarch
Charles went to school instead of receiving tutoring at the family’s palace home. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge in 1970, making him the first heir apparent to do so. He later received a Master of Arts degree from AfterCambridge.spending
On the 150th anniversary of the Royal Institute of
Forces. On 16 June 2012, the Queen appointed him Admiral of the Fleet, Field Marshal, and Marshal of the Royal Air Force, “to acknowledge his support in her role as Commander-in-Chief.”
Since 2009, Charles has held the second-highest ranks in all three branches of the Canadian Armed
He has received seven orders and eight decorations from the Commonwealth realms, as well as 20 dif ferent honors from foreign states and nine honorary
British Architects (RIBA) on 30 May 1984, he de scribed a proposed extension to the National Gal lery in London as a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved friend” and decried modern architecture’s “glass stumps and concrete towers.”
degrees from universities in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
King Charles III will inherit a kingdom that is go ing through a difficult economic and social stage, while nationalist tendencies escalate and calls for independence intensify. Will he be able to handle all of these challenges?
61 16/09/22
