Tripoli Protests and the Collapse of Lebanon

A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Issue 1838- February- 05/02/2021

Issue 1838- February- 05/02/2021

Mohamed El-Erian:

Tripoli Protests and the Collapse of Lebanon

> Foreign Policy Tests

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> The Apps Helping Women Combat Sexual harassment in the Middle East

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Editorial

A Weekly Political News Magazine

www.majalla.com/eng Lebanon’s poorest city, Tripoli, was again racked by violent protests last week, and some politicians and experts warn that unrest could spread if more is not done to support people facing deepening poverty amid coronavirus restrictions. The country was already in financial meltdown before the pandemic struck, with national debt spiralling, unemployment high and a tumbling currency stoking inflation. In this week’s cover story Hanin Ghaddar writes that these protests – although brief and localized – could be a sign or a sample of what to come as Lebanon descends further into collapse and failure of state institutions.

This week, US President Joe Biden intends to present his vision of foreign policy in an address to the State Department aimed at “restoring America’s place in the world.” Biden is facing a host of foreign policy challenges — including Russia, Myanmar, and Iran.

In his weekly column, Joseph Braude writes that while the unfolding military coup in Myanmar and Russia’s imprisonment of anti-Putin dissident present diverse challenges for the administration’s embryonic Foreign Policy, Iran, in particular, presents a rocky path for the Biden administration in its attempts to reconcile competing demands.

The #MeToo movement resurged into prominence across the Middle East late last year. It exposed just how pervasive and commonplace sexual harassment continues to be, while also highlighting the systemic issues that leave those who experience it with little redress. The movement has also resulted in the introduction of products and services that purport to solve the problem in the form of technology. Menna A. Farouk takes a look at the apps and platforms designed to help women document harassment, make public spaces safer and deal with the aftermath.

Read these articles and more on our website eng. majalla.com. As always, we welcome and value our reader’s feedback and we invite you to take the opportunity to leave your comments on our website.

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Myanmar’s Coup Was a Chronicle Foretold

Issue 1838- February- 05/02/2021

16 Biden Takes a Balanced Ap-

proach to Russia

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Why the World Lost to the Pandemic

32 The US Didn’t Foresee How

Facebook Would Behave

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An Outlook Better Than 46 Optimism ?

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Egypt’s Historic Tahrir Square to Unveil Major Revamp

52 Palm Trees: Meet the Middle

East’s Oldest Friends

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napshot

Russia Navalny Protests Russian police officers detain protesters during an unauthorized protest in support of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Moscow, Russia, 31 January 2021. Navalny was detained after his arrival to Moscow from Germany, where he was recovering from a poisoning attack with a nerve agent, on 17 January 2021. A Moscow judge on 18 January ruled that he will remain in custody for 30 days following his airport arrest. Navalny urged Russians to take to the streets to protest. In many Russian cities mass events are prohibited due to an increase in COVID-19 cases. /EPA Photos 4

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World Hijab Day in Kiev Muslim woman, who lives in Ukraine, presents flower to Ukrainian woman as they mark the World Hijab Day in Kiev, Ukraine, 01 February 2021. A hijab is a shawl worn by Muslim women that covers the hair, head, and chest. World Hijab Day was founded in 2013 and mark on 01 February each year in 140 countries. Ukraine /EPA Photos 6

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of returning a million Rohingya refugees. The U.N. Security Council will meet on Tuesday, diplomats said, amid calls for a strong response.

The army said it had responded to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief General Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for a year in the country, also known as Burma, where neighbouring China has a powerful influence.

Biden Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Cancel Asylum, Border Wall Arguments

Russian Court Sentences Kremlin Critic Alexei Navalny to Three and Half Years in Jail A Russian court sentenced Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to three and a half years in jail on Tuesday after ruling he had violated the terms of his parole, but said that his prison term would be shortened for time he had served earlier under house arrest. Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critics, was arrested at the Russian border on Jan. 17 after returning from Germany where he had been recovering from being poisoned with a militarygrade nerve agent. Navalny’s allies called on their supporters to immediately protest against

the ruling in central Moscow. Navalny’s lawyer said the opposition politician would appeal against the ruling.

President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to cancel upcoming oral arguments and delay further action in two pending appeals that were filed by

Myanmar Military Seizes Power, Detains Elected Leader Aung San Suu Kyi Myanmar’s military seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her party in early morning raids. Western nations condemned the sudden turn of events, which derailed years of efforts to establish democracy in the poverty-stricken country and raised even more questions over the prospect

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his Republican predecessor Donald Trump over U.S.-Mexico border wall funding and the socalled “remain in Mexico” asylum policy. The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the two cases on Feb. 22 and March 1, respectively. The Biden administration has already announced plans to discontinue construction of the border wall and suspend the asylum program, potentially making the cases moot. Acting U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar asked the justices to postpone further legal filings in the cases and to remove them from their oral argument calendar in light of the actions taken by the administration relating to the two policies.

Biden issued a proclamation on Jan. 20, his first day in office, ordering a freeze on border wall projects and directing a review of the legality of its funding and contracting methods. That same day, the Department of Homeland Security said

ries – some promoted by former US president Donald Trump and his secretary of state Mike Pompeo – that claim a laboratory leak caused the city’s first coronavirus outbreak at the end of 2019. Most scientists reject the hypothesis, but some speculate that a virus captured from the wild could have figured in experiments at the lab to test the risks of a human spillover and then escaped via an infected staff member. it would suspend new enrollments in the asylum program, pending further review.

UK Virus Variant Has Developed Concerning New Mutation in Small Number of Cases The UK variant of the coronavirus has developed a new, concerning mutation in a small number of cases, which scientists said makes it similar to the South African and Brazilian variants and could reduce the efficacy of vaccines.

The emergence of the mutation to the variant first discovered in Britain highlights how complicated exiting COVID-19 lockdown will be even once vaccines are rolled out. Public Health England said there had been 11 reports of the UK variant which feature the E484K mutation, mostly in south-west England. The E484K mutation, which occurs on the spike protein of the virus, is the same change as has been seen in the South African and Brazilian variants that have caused international concern. “PHE is monitoring the situation closely and all necessary pub-

lic health interventions are being undertaken, including enhanced contact tracing and control measures,” a PHE spokesman said. Several laboratory studies have found that vaccines and antibody therapy are less effective against the South African variant.

Iran Deepens Breach of Nuclear Deal at Underground Enrichment Site

WHO Investigators Visit Wuhan Lab at Heart of China Covid-19 Conspiracy Claims A team of investigators from the World Health Organization has visited a virus research laboratory in Wuhan seeking clues to the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. The team, led by WHO virus expert Peter Ben Embarek, arrived at the heavily guarded Wuhan Institute of Virology at about 9.30am on Wednesday. “I am looking forward to a very productive day, meeting the key people here and asking all the important questions that need to be asked,” team member Peter Daszak, who is the president of the EcoHealth Alliance, said on arrival. The institute has been at the centre of a number of conspiracy theo-

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Iran has deepened a key breach of its 2015 nuclear deal, enriching uranium with a larger number of advanced centrifuge machines in an underground plant as it faces off with the new U.S. administration on salvaging the accord. Tehran has recently accelerated its breaches of the deal, raising pressure on U.S. President Joe Biden as both sides say they are willing to come back into compliance with the badly eroded agreement if the other side moves first. Iran began its breaches in 2019 in response to Washington’s withdrawal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump and the reimposition of U.S. economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the deal. The accord says Iran can refine uranium only at its main enrichment site - an underground plant at Natanz - with first-generation IR-1 centrifuges. “Iran has completed the installation of one of these three cascades, containing 174 IR-2m centrifuges, and, on 30 January 2021, Iran began feeding the cascade with UF6,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, referring to uranium hexafluoride feedstock. The IAEA later confirmed that the Islamic Republic had started enriching with the second cascade.

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Tripoli Protests and the Collapse of Lebanon How Can the City’s Unrest Foretell the Future of Sunni Community?

Hanin Ghaddar * Protests turned into violent riots last week in Lebanon’s Tripoli when clashes erupted be-

tween security forces and protesters, leading to more than 400 wounded and one dead. Protesters hurled Molotov cocktails and fireworks inside the Tripoli municipality historic build-

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ing, setting it on fire.

These protests – although brief and localized – could be a sign or a sample of what to come as Lebanon descends further into collapse and failure of state institutions.

Although the security forces managed to coerce the protestors and reinstate the lockdown, it does not mean that people’s anger had also subsided. On the contrary, poverty, hunger and fear are increasing by the day and the city – along with the rest of the country - seems to be situated at the verge of a major breakdown and a possible mass social unrest, albeit much more violent and chaotic.

Many of those in the political leadership rushed to accuse international and Islamic factions to be behind the protests, forgetting that Tripoli is the largest and poorest city in Lebanon, and that more than half of the Lebanese population now live below poverty lines. According to the International Monetary Fund, gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 25 percent last year while prices jumped by 144 percent over the same period.

TRIPOLI’S MALAISE Anti-government protesters chant slogans during a demonstration in the centre of Lebanon’s impoverished northern port city of Tripoli on January ,31 2021. (Getty Images)

Not only it is the poorest city in Lebanon, Tripoli’s development needs have been ignored by the city’s and country’s leadership for decades. It has been underfunded and marginalized, despite its great economic potential and infrastructure. Instead, many political factions and leaders have used the city’s shortcomings to keep it in check and use its communities to serve their political agendas. From Hafez AlAssad, to the PLO and Hezbollah, in addition to many Islamist groups, all used Tripoli’s vibrant dynamics throughout the decades to flare sectarian tension and political clashes.

Lebanon is facing a real deadlock and is stuck in a vicious circle where nothing will improve without reforms and real change, while the current political class refuses to do neither. communities. Because of the ongoing war in Syria, Tripoli lost its strong trade ties with Syria.

According to a Reuters report in May 2020, almost the entire city’s workforce depended on day-to-day income, and 60% of them made less than $1 a day. More than half of the families were in the poorest classification, lacking basic services, education and health care. Since then, the situation has deteriorated, and the lockdown stopped the day-to-day workforce to access the minimum to feed their families.

Add to all that the lack of a real Sunni leadership – considering that the vast majority of Tripoli and the North are Sunnis. All of the current Sunni politicians have neither helped Tripoli nor represent its communities. On the contrary, they have taken advantages of these communities during elections and political campaigns.

During the October 2019 protests, Tripoli broke the stereotypes and participated in the largest and most expressive public expression of the year. Despite its high poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy rates, Tripoli was called “the bride of the revolution’ because of its peaceful and stunning expression of diversity and civility. But with the COVID lockTripoli has witnessed much of Lebanon’s downs, deteriorating economy and political worst violence since the civil war’s end. Is- deadlock, many in the city’s poor neighborlamists battled troops north of the city in 2007, hood have fallen way below poverty lines and and the Syrian uprising brought in many Syr- feel that they have nothing left but to express ian refugees but also sparked a sectarian ten- their anger, fear and frustrations. sion between Tripoli’s Sunni and Alawite It seems that Tripoli is today the beginning –

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over story

the spark of an upcoming street protests and social unrest that will not be suppressed by the security forces. Lebanon’s other cities, towns and communities will probably follow, once poverty becomes too much to take or once the pandemic’s worst is over. Tripoli, again, will lead the street rhetoric and ignite the streets of Lebanon.

in the near future. Lebanon is facing a real deadlock and is stuck in a vicious circle where nothing will improve without reforms and real change, while the current political class refuses to do neither. Despite the new American administration or the renewed French initiative, the only thing that might move forward is a government formation.

LOOKING AHEAD

However, forming a government is a small detail, which will not lead to any breakthrough without serious reforms. And negotiations over the government formation do not seem to have anything new or promising to offer. Political leadership are still fighting over cabinet shares and the blocking third, while the international community looks further away from Lebanon and the Middle East in general.

It doesn’t seem that the financial, economic or political situation in Lebanon will change

It is not farfetched to imagine the worst case scenario for Tripoli and its people – while the whole country descends into chaos and poverty.

Therefore, it is not farfetched to imagine the worst case scenario for Tripoli and its people – while the whole country descends into chaos and poverty. Many from Tripoli’s poor have

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People inspect a burnt room at municipality building, in the impoverished northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, after anti-government protesters hurled improvised incendiary devices amid clashes with security forces the previous night, on January 29, 2021 )Getty Images(

Police officers intervene in protesters during a protest against coronavirus (Covid19-) lockdown in Tripoli, Lebanon on January ,29 2021. (Getty Images)

already tried escaping by sea to Europe and many had died en route. The boats of death that smuggles Syrian refugees and poor Lebanese could resume when all hope is lost. Those who leave will become refugees in Europe, and those who stay will be left to their own fate.

previous leaderships and political umbrellas.

However, with no current leadership, assistance or guidance, they are more exposed to radicalized groups and factions, local and regional.

Tripoli is the capital of the north, and Lebanon’s second city. It has the large port and many economic opportunities such as agriculture and manufacturing. At the same time, all the elements of radicalization are beginning to fester, such as poverty, illiteracy, and the lack of a moderate and wise leadership.

Many expect social unrest to rage throughout Tripoli in the coming months due to poverty and hunger. However, some expect more meddling by foreign hands. It is not a secret that Turkey and some Islamic factions have been trying to control a headless Sunni community in Lebanon. And it will not be surprising to see more Iranian efforts to recruit young Sunni men from Tripoli in Hezbollah’s parallel militia – the Resistance Brigade.

This city can go both ways, and the direction it takes can foretell the future of the Sunni community in particular, and Lebanon in general.

The Lebanese Sunnis are not radicalized, and they do not want to be. There are considered some of the most “moderate” Muslims in the region, and that’s because of the

* Hanin Ghaddar is the Friedmann Fellow at The Washington Institute’s Geduld Program on Arab Politics, where she focuses on Shia politics throughout the Levant.

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olitics

Foreign Policy Tests Arrive Early for Biden The Administration Will Have to Reconcile Competing Demands if its Iran Policy is to Have Any Chance of Success

by Joseph Braude Less than one month into President Biden’s administration, serious foreign policy challenges have come to the fore. Biden is poised to make his first foreign policy address to the State Department this week, where he will stress the importance of American

leadership and alliance-maintenance. That leadership will be tested through American policy toward Russia, Myanmar, and Iran. Iran, in particular, presents a rocky path for the Biden administration in its attempts to reconcile the competing demands of maintaining bipartisan outreach and reviving one of the Obama administration’s signature initiatives.

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DIVERSE CHALLENGES MEET AN EBRYONIC FOREIGN POLICY Late last week, press secretary Jen Psaki announced that President Biden plans to visit the State Department to meet with his newly confirmed Secretary of State Antony Blinken and unveil his administration’s approach to the world. While the details on specific regional strategies remain uncertain, sources close to Biden have disclosed that the speech will center on the theme of “restoring America’s place in the world.” Biden is not expected to provide the specific outline of new American strategies on Russia, China, North Korea, or other U.S. adversaries, but early reports suggest that he will seek to frame his foreign policy around shoring up alliances and a “return to multilateralism.”

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers his inaugural address on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 2021 ,20 in Washington, DC. (Getty)

At the same time, a rapidly unfolding military coup in Myanmar and Russia’s imprisonment of antiPutin dissident Alexei Navalny indicate that events may not afford Biden’s team the luxury of defining a proactive foreign policy. As former senior American diplomat for Europe Dan Fried put it in describing the crisis in Myanmar, “It is not always about us.

Each [crisis] has its own dynamic, but they certainly take cues from us. What links [Russia and Myanmar] is that during the campaign, the Biden team talked about support for democracy being a North Star — a guiding point for democracy.”

Biden is not expected to provide the specific outline of new American strategies on Russia, China, North Korea, or other U.S. adversaries, but early reports suggest that he will seek to frame his foreign policy around shoring up alliances and a «return to multilateralism» Biden administration officials, for their part, are indicating a comparable sense of urgency. “From our perspective, a critical early priority has to be to deal with, what is an escalating nuclear crisis as they move closer and closer to having enough fissile material for a weapon,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said this past Friday.

Even at this preliminary stage, GOP leaders are hastening to make clear that they will vigorously oppose a Biden push on Iran. Senator Jim Inhofe took to the pages of Foreign Policy to argue that reviving the JCPOA “would be a terrible mistake because the United States should never re-enter the flawed PRESSURE TO ACT IN IRAN GROWING agreement. While many of my colleagues in the U.S. Congress and I would support diplomatic efforts to Another major foreign policy dilemma has ap- end the United States’ decades-long standoff with proached its own critical juncture. Tehran is al- the Iranian regime, a new and significantly improved ready probing the new administration for vulnera- agreement must be negotiated for us to consider supbilities. Last week, Iran’s ambassador to the United porting it.”

Nations, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, wrote, “Mr. Biden and his administration should know that any delay In the view of some, the dilemmas associated with in the lifting of sanctions will be construed as a sign the JCPOA are confronting the new administraof continued animosity toward the Iranian people tion with a no-win scenario. As Mark Dubowitz, … If the new administration does not meet its obli- the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense gations and remove sanctions in short order, it will of Democracies, put it, “Biden’s Iran strategy is a destroy the possibility for engagement within the work in progress. But his commitment to go back nuclear agreement.” Other Iranian voices are even to the JCPOA is creating extreme anxiety from more strident. As Mehdi Mohammadi, a staunch U.S. allies in Iranian missile range and Americans conservative voice, tweeted earlier this month, on both sides of the aisle who worry that there will “Iran is shifting phases from waiting and patience be no JCPOA 2.0 when the administration gives up to aggression and action. It is time and the enemy most of its leverage by lifting the most powerful sanctions.” can see the signs very clearly.”

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olitics

Biden Takes a Balanced Approach to Russia Dealing with Moscow Requires a Mix of Cooperation and Confrontation, but Striking the Right Approach Will be Tricky

by Ivo Daalder For the past 30 years, every new president entering the White House since the Cold War did so determined to improve relations with Russia.

Bill Clinton believed more economic assistance would help Russian President Boris Yeltsin transform the

economy and strengthen democracy. George W. Bush famously looked into President Vladimir Putin’s eyes and “got a sense of his soul.” Barack Obama promised to press the “reset” button in his relations with President Dmitry Medvedev. And Donald Trump insisted that his good personal relationship with Putin was “a good thing” for relations with Russia.

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U.S. President Joe Biden, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin (Getty Images)

This pattern is now set to be broken. In contrast to his post-Cold War predecessors, Joe Biden enters the Oval Office with a far more jaded view of today’s Russia.

Much of that comes from his own experience as vice president as well as from a greater appreciation of what Putin’s Russia has done since.

Although Biden was an enthusiastic supporter of the reset with Russia (and the first to make the case for doing so in a major foreign policy speech in Munich in February 2009), he never questioned the need to call Moscow to account for its misbehavior, whether in violating human rights at home or threatening the security of others abroad.

That became clear in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine, first seizing Crimea and then directly supporting separatist forces in the east. Biden led the effort to support Ukraine with military and economic aid, though his push for lethal assistance for the Ukrainian military foundered over Obama’s opposition.

Since leaving office in 2017, Biden sharpened his criticism of Russia. Months after leaving office, he penned a major article detailing Putin’s “assault on democracy” and the need to fight back. During the presidential campaign he frequently called Putin and his regime “KGB thugs” and declared that Russia was “the biggest threat to America.”

Meanwhile, Putin has done little to disabuse Biden of these views. He’s continued to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty by funneling arms and money to the opposition and even launching a damaging cyberattack on its power grid. His military (both regular and irregular) has intervened in civil conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. His intelligence services have interfered directly in democratic elections in Britain, France, Italy, the United States and elsewhere. And he has sought to assassinate the regime’s opponents, including last year’s poisoning of his biggest critic, Alexei Navalny.

Russia’s subversion hasn’t stopped there. Its military intelligence is believed to have targeted American service members in Afghanistan by offering bounties for their murder. Moscow is also reported to be behind the devastating injuries on U.S. diplomatic and other personnel in Cuba, Beijing and other foreign capitals. And, most devastatingly, more than 1,000 Russian hackers employed by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service penetrated dozens of federal government and hundreds of private company computer networks, stealing valuable data and possibly preparing for a devastating cyberattack on the United States.

Given these actions by Russia, this is hardly the time to try and reset relations with Moscow. Instead, Biden is focused on responding to Russian misbehavior. As a first step, he tasked the intelligence community to assess four

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Even as he considered how to respond to Russia’s past and current actions, Biden also made clear he would engage Moscow directly when it serves America’s interests. of the most egregious allegations of Russian behavior: interference in the 2020 elections, bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, poisoning of Alexei Navalny and the Solar Winds hack of cyber networks. These assessments, Biden made clear, will provide the basis for determining the best response.

The new administration also has switched rhetorical gears.

Rather than remaining silent or trying to deflect criticism of Russia unto China or others, as President Trump often did, Biden’s team has been forceful and swift in condemning Russia’s latest outrages. It “strongly condemned” the harsh police tactics against peaceful protesters across Russian cities last weekend. And it joined its G7- partners in calling for the immediate release of Navalny and protesters from “politically motivated arrest and detention.”

Yet, even as he considered how to respond to Russia’s past and current actions, Biden also made clear he would engage Moscow directly when it serves America’s interests. One such issue concerns arms control, notably the extension of New START, the last remaining nuclear arms agreement with Russia that is set to expire on Feb. 5.

Biden quickly offered to extend it for five years, as Putin had long favored.

When it comes to Russia, Biden seems determined to return to an approach that worked during the Cold War. He will engage Moscow whenever it is in the U.S. interest to do so — as it is on arms control, climate change, nonproliferation and other issues where Washington and Moscow may see eye to eye. But he will also oppose Russia whenever it engages in activity, at home or abroad, that threaten U.S. interests or core American values and exact a big price when it does.

Even as many will push for more cooperation or more confrontation, Biden’s success in dealing with Russia will be in finding the right balance between the two. *Ivo Daalder is president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. This article was originally published in Chicago Tribune.

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pinion

Yes, Obama is in the White House

by: Elie Fawaz

When Joseph Biden was elected as the 46th president of the United States of America, many across the political sphere wondered how much influence Barack Obama would have on the new administration. This triggered Biden to quickly put an end to the whispers, reassuring the American people that his administration would not be an “Obama third term.” The skeptical said let’s wait for the new president to unveil his newly appointed cabinet members and key advisers before weighing Obama’s influence on the White house.

Within days, it became apparent that Obama’s shadow had loomed into Biden’s presidency, as most of Biden key appointees were in the Obama’s administration including Robert Malley, appointed as Special Envoy for Iran. This is might not be the last appointment related to Obama’s era. There was little doubts by now that Obama is in the White House!

Arguably, when George W. Bush was elected, his father and the 41st president of the United States had a similar influence on the formation of George W. Bush’s new administration. Yet, the key difference between Biden and Bush was that the latter loved his country, and what it represented economically culturally and as a military power despite its shortcomings.

On the contrary, Obama surrounded himself members in his administration including Ben Rhodes, a former Deputy National Security Advisor, Samantha Powers, a former U.S Ambassador, and Robert Malley, a former Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and Gulf, who had one question in mind specially after 9 11, “why do they hate us?” The response to this complex question in the mind of these people was simple; the deeds of the American polies around the world from Hiroshima all the way to the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

This view on America led to the election of the first black president and coincided with the disruption of the world economic order thanks to the digital revolution.

“Neo-liberalism” was born, rejecting the world’s state of affairs on basic matters such as human interaction as well as economic and social conditions. unfortunately, neo-liberalism proved to be in practice similar to a dictatorship, as it labels its critics or anyone that doesn’t subscribe to their views on abortion, or

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climate change or religion or gender qualifications as enemies, traitors, and extremists. This is what Trump was accused of when he withdrew from the Paris climate agreement for instance or when he banned the transgender from joining the army. Trump stand up against neo-liberals, won him an extremely hostile coverage from media in all its forms and made him public number one.

Now any administration understands that a positive coverage from media and its patrons cannot happen if it doesn’t espouse the view of the neo liberals which is challenging the order as it today. And this is a problem both internally and externally? Why? Because the divisions will deepen more than ever as Neo-liberals will aim to dismantle America’s core foundations and principles, by curtailing individuals right to freedom of expression that are opposite to theirs, trying to abolish the right to carry arms, turning the police to more of a social police than law enforcers way on abortion laws and make it possible even after the birth of the child and other things that 75 million Americans oppose and that is why they voted for Trump in the first place. Trump was merely a symptom of America’s deep and profound divisions.

Yet, on matters related to foreign affairs, this administration approach will apply the same reasoning on the world affairs and it will justify as it did during Obama tenure the hatred and grudge felted by America’s enemies. Malley sympathy towards Iran and Hamas and the enemies of the US and allies is not based on American interests but rather on the feeling that those resentments towards the US are justified. He must have been influenced by his father Simon Malley, who was an Egyptian-Jew and a “neo-liberal” before time.

Simon Malley had a deep hatred for the deeds of the western policies mainly the colonization also its hostile stance towards the Palestinian cause. Now Malley is coming to a middle east that has changed quiet a lot in the last four years. How is he going to deal with the normalization of the gulf countries and Israel and its impact on the region or the indictment of the first Iranian diplomat on the charges of terrorism remains to be seen.

Nonetheless, the next four years whether on international or American domestic affairs will be interesting and challenging.

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olitics

Myanmar’s Coup Was a Chronicle Foretold The Military Brass Never Relinquished Control

by Sebastian Strangio On February 1, Myanmar’s newly-elected parliament was slated to be sworn in for its coming five-year term. But in the predawn hours before the ceremony, the country’s military seized power

in a coup d›état. The army swiftly detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, the nation’s top leader, and the president, Win Myint, along with an unknown number of lawmakers from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party and other critics of the military. The army also rounded

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up NLD officials and activists across the country, and temporarily severed cellphone and internet connections.

Into this communication vacuum, the military broadcast an announcement that it had imposed a year-long state of emergency and installed former General Myint Swe, the vice president and former head of the Yangon military command, as acting president. The army also announced that Myint Swe had transferred legislative, executive, and judicial power to the army’s commander in chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, for the duration of the emergency.

Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at the polling station to cast vote during Myanmar›s first free and fair election on November 2015 ,8 in Yangon, Myanmar.

(Getty)

The putsch, the first in Myanmar since 1988, came after days of swirling rumors and reports of an impending military action. And like previous coups in the country, it was justified in the name of democracy: Myanmar’s Constitution allows the army to take power in order to prevent any situation that “may disintegrate the Union or disintegrate national solidarity or that may cause the loss of sovereignty.” In this case, the army claimed that it needed to investigate allegations of fraud in the country’s November 8 election, in which Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD won a sweeping victory over the military’s electoral proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

In a post-coup statement that bore more than a passing resemblance to U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of electoral malfeasance in the November 3 U.S. presidential election, Myanmar’s military asserted that “there was terrible fraud in the voter list during the democratic general election which runs contrary to ensuring a stable democracy.” Moreover, the army added, “Unless this problem is resolved, it will obstruct the path to democracy.” Appearing to presuppose the findings of the “investigation” it promised, the army declared that a new election will be held a year from now and that it will relinquish power to the winning party.

“The doors just opened to a very different future,” Myanmar historian Thant Myint-U wrote on Twitter. “I have a sinking feeling that no one will really be able to control what comes next.” which brought to power a quasi-civilian government that opened up the country’s political space and built bridges to the United States and other Western governments. But the generals sought to preserve their own privileges by retaining veto power over constitutional matters. The NLD’s lopsided victory in the November election threatened that delicate balance of power. Rather than see its authority eroded further, the military brass appears to have placed the democratic experiment on hold and reverted to military rule.

A FALSE DAWN This week’s coup highlights the shortcomings of the reform drive—at first euphorically swift and then halting and partial—that Myanmar’s longruling generals began after the 2010 election.

In a matter of months, starting in mid2011-, the government released hundreds of dissidents, lifted press censorship, allowed Aung San Suu Kyi to reenter politics after years of house arrest, and opened peace talks with more than a dozen rebel groups. This reform process reached a dizzying crescendo when Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD won a landslide election victory in November 2015 and took over leadership of the government in early 2016.

But the narrative of democratization in Myanmar never quite matched the realities on the ground.

But electoral fraud was not what obstructed Whereas many Western observers saw a nation Myanmar’s path to democracy. Rather, a partial— that had finally jumped onto the right side of and stalled—process of political reform had left history, Myanmar’s leaders still grappled with the longstanding civil-military tensions to fester. The consequences of more than a century of British country’s military rulers had initiated the reforms colonial rule and of the six subsequent decades themselves after national elections in late 2010, of subsequent civil war and military dictatorship.

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Among these were the country’s longstanding racial and religious divides, which have found their most tragic expression in the military’s fierce assault on the country’s Rohingya Muslims, and an unresolved power struggle between the NLD and the military. The latter conflict dates back to mass demonstrations in 1988, which the military put down with brutal force. Aung San Suu Kyi first emerged as a prominent political figure during those demonstrations, and her enduring popularity stems in large part from the fact that she has staunchly opposed military rule ever since.

The reforms initiated in 2011 deliberately sidestepped these longstanding tensions between the NLD and the military. The parameters of Myanmar’s “democratic transition” (as many Western observers quickly dubbed it) were set by the country’s 2008 Constitution, a document designed explicitly to safeguard the military’s power and prerogatives. Drafted by the military junta and approved in a flawed national referendum in May of that year, the constitution guaranteed the military control of three powerful ministries, as well as a quarter of the seats in parliament—a de facto veto of any amendments to the charter.

The constitution also contained a provision barring Aung San Suu Kyi from serving as president, on the basis that she was once married to a foreign citizen. These constitutional provisions essentially locked the long-standing struggle between the NLD and the military into the country’s constitutional architecture.

This week’s coup highlights the shortcomings of the reform drive—at first euphorically swift and then halting and partial—that Myanmar’s long-ruling generals began after the 2010 election.

Unsurprisingly, the NLD sought to advance an agenda of constitutional reform after its historic election victory in 2015. Its efforts came to a head early last year, when the NLD-led government proposed a raft of constitutional amendments designed to limit or revoke the military’s special powers and privileges. Parliament summarily rejected all of the proposed amendments—after the military invoked the very veto power that the NLD had sought to rescind.

Then, in November, the NLD won a resounding victory in a general election, apparently shaking the military’s confidence in its ability to stave off constitutional reform. Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD swept 83 percent of contested parliamentary seats. By contrast, the militarybacked USDP managed a paltry 7 percent. Across the country, senior members of the USDP — many of them former military commanders—lost their parliamentary seats; the NLD even made inroads into regions previously seen as USDP

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A soldier stands guard on a blockaded road to Myanmar›s parliament in Naypyidaw on February 2021 ,1, after the military detained the country›s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country›s president in a coup. (Getty)

NO ONE CAN CONTROL WHAT COMES NEXT The military takeover in Myanmar presents a dilemma for President Joe Biden’s administration.

One the one hand, the generals’ assault on the country’s democratic process warrants a strong response from Washington. (White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki has already issued a statement urging “the military and all other parties to adhere to democratic norms and the rule of law, and to release those detained today,” and threatening to “take action” against those who impede Myanmar’s democratic transition.) On the other hand, the Chinese government will seek to capitalize on any friction between Myanmar and the democratic West, advancing its customary line that what happened this week in Yangonis an “internal affair.” (Much of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has already taken the same line.)

strongholds.

Still, given the prevailing constitutional safeguards, it is unclear whether or to what extent the NLD would have been able to threaten the military’s prerogatives. Military chief Min Aung Hlaing, now the country’s de facto ruler, has long harbored presidential ambitions, and he was slated for mandatory retirement in July, when he will turn 65. It is possible that he would have sought an extralegal path to power regardless of the outcome of the November elections. As one foreign diplomat told Reuters on the condition of anonymity, “There was no path for him to assume a leadership role in this government through the means that the constitution provided.” It is also conceivable that the army had invested so heavily in its claims of electoral fraud that it felt it could not back down without a significant loss of face.

Whatever the case, the NLD’s landslide victory and the USDP’s electoral drubbing seem to have brought longstanding tensions between the NLD and military to a sudden head.

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Moreover, history suggests that additional Western sanctions against the coup leaders are unlikely to persuade them to change course. The U.S. Treasury already placed Min Aung Hlaing on its list of Specially Designated Nationals in 2019 for his role in the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims.

He has little to lose from additional punishments, and is probably betting that Western powers will refrain from re-imposing more sweeping sanctions out of fear that doing so will push his country closer to China. In any event, Myanmar’s military leaders have a long track record of patiently weathering economic sanctions and trade bans, even as such measures impoverish their country’s people.

Whatever happens in the coming weeks and months, Myanmar’s problems seem set to compound. As the Myanmar historian Thant Myint-U commented after the coup, the country already faces a severe economic downturn due to COVID19-, widespread poverty, and armed conflicts involving dozens of armed groups. A new political crisis was the last thing it needed. “The doors just opened to a very different future,” he wrote on Twitter. “I have a sinking feeling that no one will really be able to control what comes next.”

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

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Why the World Lost to the Pandemic Politics and Security Fears Crippled the Collective Response

by Yanzhong Huang The day before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, the United States crossed a tragic milestone, marking 400,000 deaths from COVID-19. Biden has since cautioned that half a million American lives could be lost by February.

It did not have to be this bad. President Donald Trump’s administration compounded the toll of the pandemic, but so did larger forces partly beyond any one government’s control, from politics to protectionism to paranoia.

In the early days of the epidemic, as the novel coronavirus

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began jumping borders, countries rushed to institute travel barriers and install protectionist measures, against the advice of the World Health Organization (WHO). Instead of working together to contain the outbreak, major powers quarreled over who should be deemed responsible.

Scientific research became subsumed by national interests, and the development and distribution of vaccines—a process experts once hoped would offer a global solution to a global crisis—expanded health disparities. The results of this vaccine apartheid are now apparent: as of January 25, none of the 68.1 million vaccine doses administered globally had been provided in low- or low- to middle-income countries. “The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure,” the WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said last week, referring to the vaccine access gap.

Soldiers wearing masks walk past beds at a temporary hospital located at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center during the outbreak of coronavirus in the Queens borough on April 10, 2020 in New York City. (Getty)

The uncoordinated, chaotic, and state-centric international response to COVID-19 sharply contrasts with the international response to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and to the 2014 Ebola outbreak. In 2009, health authorities from major powers, including China and the United States, exchanged technology and information about the spread of the swine flu virus and accelerated the development of a vaccine—a collaboration that helped combat that virus and a later one, the H7N9 avian influenza, which easily could have become a pandemic in 2013 but did not. Then in 2014, major powers responded to calls from the United Nations and the WHO to send health aid to West Africa to help fight the Ebola virus. China and the United States in particular forged a close partnership—working together to construct treatment centers and direct medical supplies— that played an important role in turning the tide against Ebola.

Some analysts blame the WHO for the breakdown of international health cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic. And to be fair, the world health body did make a series of missteps. It delayed declaring the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), demonstrated an inability to enforce international health regulations in a coherent and effective manner, and deferred too much to China in an effort to seek its cooperation in disease surveillance and response. But these problems are not new. During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the WHO recommended one set of mild mitigation guidelines for countries around the world but supported China’s decision to pursue a stringent containment strategy, sending mixed signals in what appeared to be an attempt to placate Beijing. And during the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the WHO was similarly tardy in declaring the epidemic a PHEIC. But in both cases, countries still found ways to work together to stop public health emergencies from becoming cataclysmic events.

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There is much to be gained from cooperation and much to be lost from conflict in containing a virus that knows neither political divides nor territorial borders.

What makes this time different? A closer look at the international response to COVID-19 reveals two new developments that have exacerbated the impact of and response to the pandemic: politicization and securitization.

A POLITICAL VIRUS During previous epidemics and outbreaks, the origin of the disease had been viewed as a scientific rather than a political issue. For example, China did not challenge the thesis that the 2002 to 2003 SARS epidemic began in Foshan, in its Guangdong Province, and no other countries talked publicly about the need to hold China accountable for causing the outbreak. But within months of COVID-19’s initial discovery in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, the question of where it came from became politically charged.

Trump, who took to calling COVID-19 the “China virus,” blamed Beijing for having “instigated a global pandemic.” Chinese state media fired back, insisting that “though COVID-19 was first discovered in China, it does not mean that it originated from China.” Other countries, Beijing declared, may have been responsible for unleashing the virus.

“More and more research suggests that the pandemic was likely to have been caused by separate outbreaks in multiple places in the world,” Wang Yi, China’s minister of foreign affairs, said earlier this month.

It wasn’t just the origin of the virus that was politicized. The WHO’s response was, too. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States had rarely questioned China’s growing leverage over the WHO. Washington even joined Beijing in supporting the election of Dr. Margaret Chan, a Hong Kong Chinese, as the WHO’s director-general in 2006. (The United States also supported her reelection in 2012, when she was the only candidate.) But as the international response to COVID-19 became intertwined with domestic politics, Trump accused the WHO of being manipulated by China, despite lacking strong evidence. In response, the Chinese government accused the United States of “seeking to discredit China in shirking its own responsibilities.”

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Tensions between China and the United States not only undermined the WHO’s ability to conduct an independent, transparent, and thorough investigation of how the pandemic started—the organization still has not mounted an adequate inquiry—but impeded its ability to get countries to act quickly and in unison to halt the spread of the virus. U.S.-Chinese tensions also paralyzed the UN Security Council, which failed to issue a powerful resolution mobilizing UN agencies to combat COVID-19 or to create a subsidiary body to coordinate international efforts to contain the pandemic.

As the war of words between Beijing and Washington intensified, nationalism took root. Public sentiment hardened against China in the United States, and anti-Americanism spread in China. Both countries framed the response to the pandemic as a battle between competing political models.

For Beijing, China’s ability to quickly contain the disease while it raged out of control in the United States showed the failure of liberal democracy and the superiority of an authoritarian system in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a monopoly on political power. For Washington, the very fact of the pandemic testified to the CCP’s failure to deliver good governance to its people and to the world. Biden’s pledge to hold a summit of democracies to tackle COVID-19 risks reinforcing this divisive narrative, carving the globe into two political camps in the face of a common global challenge.

AN ILLUSION OF SECURITY Just as detrimental as politicization of the pandemic has been the tendency of nations around the world to frame the crisis as one of national security. Unlike most previous epidemics, COVID-19 has been deemed an existential threat by almost every country—which in turn has justified responses not bound by normal political procedures.

Governments worldwide have rolled out drastic measures, including sealing off entire cities and neighborhoods, im-

No country can be safe from COVID19- before the global chain of transmission is completely broken.

posing curfews and travel bans, declaring states of emergency, and deploying military forces. In the United States, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to support his COVID-19 response and appointed a four-star general as the chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, the United States’ vaccine effort. Not only has this war footing relieved countries of the moral obligation to help others; it has rendered critical medical supplies—including personal protective equipment (PPE) and active pharmaceutical ingredients—much more valuable and difficult to procure than before.

Driven by the principle of self-help, countries rushed to institute travel restrictions and protectionist measures while bidding against each other for ventilators and surgical masks. International health cooperation, to the extent that it still existed, became a matter of narrow national interest. China refused the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s offer to send epidemiologists to the country early in the outbreak, and Washington later significantly curtailed

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A nurse supports a patient as they walk in the Covid-19 alternative care site, built into a parking garage, at Renown Regional Medical Center, December 16, 2020 in Reno, Nevada.

(Getty)

public health cooperation.

A GLOBAL PUBLIC GOOD All is not lost, however. Despite a raging pandemic in the United States and pesky outbreaks in China, the world is moving toward mass vaccinations and herd immunity. But the two superpowers must work together to ensure that politicization and national security concerns do not impede international cooperation in the next pandemic.

To that end, China and the United States must take steps to defuse political and military tensions. The two countries should reopen avenues for greater communication, such as the United States-China Comprehensive Dialogue, which broke down during the Trump administration. Such communications are often derided as cheap talk, but they may reduce the chances of miscalculation and mitigate security risks. The United States could also use them to share its expertise in improving laboratory biosafety and building institutions to facilitate drug development. Military-tomilitary exchanges could likewise be expanded to allow representatives of both countries to visit each other’s government-sponsored biodefense sites.

public health cooperation with Beijing on the grounds that China was abusing international health agreements in order to bolster its influence abroad. These same dynamics soon gave rise to vaccine nationalism, which encouraged wealthy nations to cut separate deals with major vaccine makers to secure priority access. Some ordered many more vaccine doses than they needed. Canada, for example, reportedly reserved between five and ten doses per citizen.

A pandemic-driven shift in the balance of power between China and the United Stateshas reinforced nationalist sentiments. As the first to suffer an outbreak, China is also the first to largely recover. Its economy registered 2.3 percent growth for 2020, compared with negative 3.5 percent growth in the United States. The GDP gap between the two countries will continue to shrink, likely intensifying Washington’s fear that China could displace it as the world’s top power. And as long as both countries view pandemic response through the lens of security and competition, they will prioritize relative power gains over absolute ones from

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China and the United States should also push to reform and strengthen the WHO so that it can play a more authoritative and politically independent role in coordinating international responses to future global health emergencies. The organization should be given more autonomy and a larger role in sharing disease-related information, dispelling misperceptions and rumors, and investigating outbreaks. Such reforms will entail revising international health regulations to improve member states’ compliance and allowing the WHO to gather its own intelligence so that it can make faster and better decisions. At a minimum, the organization needs unimpeded access to outbreak epicenters.

Pandemic control must be framed as a global public good, requiring contributions from every nation. No country can be safe from COVID-19 before the global chain of transmission is completely broken. China and the United States, as well as other major economic powers, should therefore increase their support for COVAX, a global procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines, so that it can ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines around the world.

This is a lot to ask in such a fraught moment, but the exigencies demand it. Millions of lives are at stake. There is much to be gained from cooperation and much to be lost from conflict in containing a virus that knows neither political divides nor territorial borders.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

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The Brazil Variant is Exposing the World’s Vulnerability Somehow the Coronavirus is Rampaging Through a City That Was Supposedly Immune

by James Hamblin

edly being dropped into mass graves as quickly as they can be dug. Hospitals have run out of oxygen, Even in a year of horrendous suffering, what is un- and people with potentially treatable cases of COVfolding in Brazil stands out. In the rainforest city of ID-19 are dying of asphyxia. This nature and scale of Manaus, home to 2 million people, bodies are report- mortality have not been seen since the first months of

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the pandemic.

This is happening in a very unlikely place. Manaus saw a devastating outbreak last April that similarly overwhelmed systems, infecting the majority of the city. Because the morbidity was so ubiquitous, many scientists believed the population had since developed a high level of immunity that would preclude another devastating wave of infection. On the whole, Brazil has already reported the second-highest death toll in the world (though half that of the United States).

As the country headed into summer, the worst was thought to be behind it.

A nurse holds the arm of a patient infected by coronavirus (COVID19-) at the Gilberto Novaes Municipal Field Hospital on May 2020 21 in Manaus, Brazil. (Getty)

Data seemed to support the idea that herd immunity in Manaus was near. In Sciencethis month, researchers mapped the virus’s takeover last year: In April, blood tests found that 4.8 percent of the city’s population had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. By June, the number was up to 52.5 percent. Since people who get infected do not always test positive for antibodies, the researchers estimated that by June about two-thirds of the city had been infected. By November, the estimate was about 76 percent. In The Lancet this week, a team of Brazilian researchers noted that even if these estimates were off by a large margin, infection on this scale “should confer important population immunity to avoid a larger outbreak.” Indeed, it seemed to.

The city was able to largely reopen and remain open throughout its winter with low levels of COVID-19 cases.

In a recursive loop, the virus could come back to haunt the vaccinated, leading to new surges and lockdowns in coming years. ing a report in Minnesota of a case of the variant that has become dominant in Brazil. Although no known variants have been found to pose an immediate threat to vaccinated people, the capacity for reinfection to any significant degree would reshape the pandemic’s trajectory.

Two important factors seem to be playing a role in Brazil’s resurgence. The first is that, after a COVID-19 infection, the natural immunity that our bodies develop seems to vary in strength and permanence.

Protection wanes after infection with most respiratory viruses, including coronaviruses. A recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that health-care workers in the U.K. had very low rates of repeated infection in the first six months after getting COVID-19, but cases did occur. Other studies have found that antibodies in our blood decrease over time, so people who were infected last year may now be experiencing declines in immunity. The new wave of COVID-19 cases in Manausoccurred about eight Yet now, the nightmare scenario is happening a sec- months after the initial wave. People might have lost ond time. The situation defies expert expectations some degree of immunity during that window. about how immunity would help protect the hardesthit populations. By estimates of leading infectious- But that’s likely only part of the picture. The second disease specialists, such as Anthony Fauci, when factor is the virus itself. Several newsworthy variants roughly 70 to 75 percent of the population is immune, exist, including those in the U.K., South Africa, and there can still be clusters of cases, but sustaining a California. (So it’s easy to lose track, as much alarm large-scale outbreak becomes mathematically impos- has been raised over their various mutations.) But the sible. Still somehow, according to The Washington variant in Brazil, known as the P.1 (or B.1.1.248) linPost, hospitals in Manaus that had thought they were eage, has a potent combination of mutations. Not only well prepared are now overwhelmed. does this variant seem to be more transmissible; its lineage carries mutations that help it escape the antiThough many questions remain, one plausible ex- bodies that we develop in response to older lineages planation is that people who have already been in- of the coronavirus. That is, it at least has a capacity to fected by the virus are getting sick—and not mildly infect people who have already recovered from COVso. That possibility has been long feared throughout ID-19, even if their defenses protect them against oththe pandemic, yet not previously seen on any signifi- er versions of the virus. One case of reinfection with cant scale. It comes at a time when variants of SARS- this new lineage has already been documented, even CoV-2 are being identified around the world, includ- though very little genomic sequencing is being done.

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The mutations that help the virus spread and evade immune responses have arisen independently in multiple places. Combined with waning immunity, these factors underscore the challenge before the world: Populations may still be vulnerable to disaster scenarios just when things seem to be getting better. It’s not yet known how many of the people currently infected in Manaus have previously recovered from COVID-19.

Early data suggest that the P.1 variant is now dominant in the city, but this does not mean the variant will take over everywhere. Each place and population is unique, and susceptibility will vary based on which variants have already spread. Still, the virus’s capacity to cause such a deadly second surge in Brazil suggests a dangerous evolutionary potential.

As the virus evolves, the threat is not encapsulated by any single variant. New, dangerous variants are all but inevitable when there are extremely high levels of transmission of the virus. As more people gain immunity, the selective pressure on the virus will favor the variants that can most effectively evade immune responses. Whether the Brazil variant manages to widely evade human immune responses, or whether some future variant does, the basic nature of evolutionary biology means that the virus should be expected to evolve in ways that circumvent defense mechanisms.

Evidence that it is already doing so has been clear in the latest vaccine trial data.

The solution, then, depends on vaccination. The immune response that the vaccines create is generally more robust than the immune response we get after being infected by a virus, and should buy a population more protected time than would a surge in exposure to the virus. Wealthy countries have time to avoid a fate like Brazil’s through immediate, efficient vaccina-

tion. In most places, however, this is not close to happening. And as of last week, only one of the world’s 29 poorest countries had vaccinated anyone at all. A study in the journal BMJ estimated that vaccines will not be available to more than a fifth of the world’s population until 2022.

The countries that hoard the vaccine without a plan to help others do so at their own peril.

The coronavirus’s constantly evolving nature is a stark reminder that the entire world is in this crisis together. Vaccine distribution is more than just an issue of justice or morality. Ensuring that every human is vaccinated is in everyone’s interest, as global distribution of vaccines is the most effective way to drive down the virus’s capacity to replicate and evolve. The key will be bringing down the global rates of transmission as quickly as possible—not getting any single

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Aerial view of coffins being buried at an area where new graves have been dug at the Parque Taruma cemetery, during the COVID19coronavirus pandemic in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil, on April ,21 2020. (Getty)

country to 100 percent vaccination while dozens of dermining each other. Certain countries will approach herd immunity by vaccinating almost every citizen. countries roil.

Other countries could see mass casualties and cata“It is truly confounding that wealthier nations think strophic waves of reinfection—potentially with varithat hoarding vaccines is the way to protect their citi- ants that evolved in response to the immunity conzens from a global pandemic that doesn’t respect bor- ferred by the very vaccines to which these populations ders,” the global-health researcher Marine Buisson- do not have access. In the process, these hot spots nière said in a Physicians for Human Rights meeting themselves will facilitate rapid evolution, giving rise on Friday. As the virus currently surges across Africa, to even more variants that could make the vaccinated some 2.5 million health-care workers are unvaccinat- populations susceptible to disease once again. In a reed. “Clearly, the failure to address vaccine allocation cursive loop, the virus could come back to haunt the based on health and epidemiological needs, rather vaccinated, leading to new surges and lockdowns in than national interest, is now promising to have a dire coming years. The countries that hoard the vaccine impact on the world’s ability to achieve rapid, global without a plan to help others do so at their own peril. control of COVID,” Buissonnière said.

The coming year could be a story of two worlds un- This article was originally published in The Atlantic.

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The Apps Helping Women Combat Sexual Harassment in the Middle East

Technology Has Been Developed to Help Women Document Harassment, Make Public Spaces Safer and Deal with the Aftermath

by Menna A. Farouk As sexual harassment rates rise in the Middle East, governments, civil society organizations

and social entrepreneurs have started to develop apps aimed at combating the crime, offering psychological and legal support to survivors and holding harassers accountable.

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Painted for Majalla

by Mekdad

In 2017, when the #MeToo movement took the world by storm, most Middle Eastern societies remained largely quiet despite solid advocacy for women›s rights.

However, the apps were launched in the wake of a #MeToo movement that resurged into prominence in the region late last year, especially in Egypt and Tunisia.

However, the resurgence of the online wave highlights that women are becoming more courageous in speaking up against sexual harassment and are pushing for real change in an ultraconservative region.

In Egypt, for instance, a couple launched a mobile application in December 2020 offering advanced features to help combat all kinds of sexual harassment whether verbal, physical or online.

Dina Essa and Amr Khairy, a Dubai-based couple in their thirties started working on the DARE app in July. They launched it on the Google and Apple app stores in December for women to report any sexual harassment incidents.

«With the increased prevalence of sexual harassment, it is difficult to report every incident that happens especially in our busy lives. And when it is reported, it will not completely deter the harasser from doing it again because they haven›t been exposed on a large scale,» Essa told Majalla.

«The technology is the fastest, easiest, most powerful, and most durable of other long and complex methods and we believe it is effective in deterring harassers,» she said.

The app allows any female facing an accident to take a photo or record a video of the harasser and post it to the app. The app then automatically sorts posts and displays the most viewed posts.

Each post will automatically determine the location of the incident. Users will be able to view the post, comment on it and share it on other social media platforms when needed.

Two other Egyptian entrepreneurs launched a startup called «Matkhafeesh (Don›t Be Afraid)» which helps survivors connect with psychologists while providing women with legal and social support.

Salma Medhat and Ahmed Rayhan, two engineering graduates from the German University in Cairo, launched the app in

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The intervention occurs when the user presses the SOS button that alerts the people on the list in the event of imminent danger, without the need for direct contact. Upon receiving the warning, the trusted people can help or contact the police if necessary.

November last year when more and more women began to speak up against sexual harassment on social media following the arrest of a former student on charges of sexually assaulting hundreds of girls.

«The app relies on data provided by victims related to the location of the incident and the type of harassment they were exposed to. All of this is confidential,» Medhat said.

The app also includes a harassment map in which survivors locate the area of the incident, whether verbal or physical. Verbal harassment is marked in yellow while physical harassment is marked in red.

«There is also free or low-cost legal support provided by a team of lawyers with experience in dealing with women›s issues,» Medhat said.

The app provides another service called «Help Circle» which gives users the ability to create a «danger circle» that allows four trusted friends or relatives to track their location if they have been exposed to harassment and provide appropriate support.

A 2017 Thomson Reuters Foundation poll found Cairo to be the most dangerous megacity for women, and a United Nations› survey in 2013 found that %99 of women had experienced harassment in Egypt, a country where women have long felt disadvantaged.

Egypt passed a law in August giving victims the automatic right to anonymity in a bid to encourage more women to report sexual assault in the Muslim-majority nation.

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APP FOR TUNISIA, MOROCCO On January 15, the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR) announced the launch of an app designed to protect women in Tunisia and Morocco against sexual harassment and violence.

Etidal al-Majbari, director of the center›s information and communications department, says that the SafeNess app enables a woman to choose a list of up to five trusted people who can track her location until she arrives to a place of safety, and to intervene if necessary.

The intervention occurs when the user presses the SOS button that alerts the people on the list in the event of imminent danger, without the need for direct contact. Upon receiving the warning, the trusted people can help or contact the police if necessary.

Al-Majbri said that the app aims to make public spaces a safer environment for women and girls and achieve mobility for women without risks.

The SafeNess app can be downloaded through the Google or Apple app stores.

Since 2004, sexual harassment has been punishable in Tunisia with a year imprisonment and a 3000 Dinar fine under Article 226 of Tunisia›s Penal Code.

PALESTINIANS, TOO SAWA, a Palestinian non-profit organization that provides support and advocacy for women›s

The apps were launched in the wake of a #MeToo movement that resurged into prominence in the region late last year, especially in Egypt and Tunisia.

issues, also launched an app that offers assistance and support for women who are subjected to harassment or abuse, whether verbal or physical, in public places or at work.

The app provides free services, the first of its kind in the Palestinian territories, and was launched as part of the -16day campaign that began on November 2020 ,20, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

According to the foundation›s website, the app will identify public places where sexual harassment took place, such as parks, markets and roads. «This will make it easier for women

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A Tunisian woman, member of the Tunisian «EnaZeda», (me too in the Tunisian dialect and inspired by the original #Metoo movement) bangs a pot as she takes part in a rally against sexual harassment, in the capital Tunis on November 2019 ,30.

(Getty)

to know the places or roads where sexual harassment occurs as well as provide information to the security authorities,» it said.

The app also provides a feature through which women can arrange a session with a private doctor remotely and get free medical advice after being sexually harassed.

HEIGHTENED MOMENTUM Randa Fakhr El Deen, executive director of the NGO Union on Harmful Practices against Women

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and Children in Egypt, said that technology is critical in combating the growing social problem.

But she also said that linking these apps with security authorities is just as instrumental.

«Legal action is crucial when dealing with sexual harassment cases. It is the most effective tool in eliminating the phenomenon,» she told Majalla.

«These apps should form partnerships with governments to ensure that sexual harassers are held accountable and to create a safer environment for women, at work, schools, universities and on the streets,» she said.

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The US Didn’t Foresee How Facebook Would Behave

Today’s Antitrust Regulators Should Rein in the Tech Giants

by Rebecca Haw Allensworth and John Newman The U.S. government almost never jumps at its

first chance to confront an emerging monopoly.

But regulators have a long history of getting it right the second time. Standard Oil controlled America’s petroleum market for years before the

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When the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg proposed buying Instagram, his company’s displacement of the former social-networking leader, Myspace, was still being touted as proof that disrupting digital markets was easy. insisted, are “revisionist history”—misbegotten attempts at a “do-over.”

Justice Department sued the company under the Sherman Antitrust Act; the federal government helped enshrine AT&T’s telephone monopoly for decades before deciding to break up “Ma Bell.” But now that federal and state enforcers are turning their attention to the power of large tech companies, lawyers for Facebook are insisting that the government already missed its only opportunity.

In lawsuits filed late last year, the Federal Trade Commission and 48 state attorneys general zeroed in on Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. Back then, the FTC issued what are known as “no action” letters.

The company’s main defense to the new lawsuits is that agency enforcers declined to block the transactions when they had the chance. The new lawsuits, Facebook’s general counsel has

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Since the FTC litigation was filed, Joe Biden has been sworn in as president. While his administration may be less prone to criticizing Silicon Valley via Twitter than former President Donald Trump was, Democrats may be more receptive to calls for an aggressive new approach to antitrust enforcement. But if Facebook’s position is any indication, tech companies will try to use lax antitrust enforcement in the past as grounds to demand similar treatment going forward. That argument shouldn’t fly. Regulatory agencies need the flexibility to respond to changing conditions, new facts, and new ideas about how markets work—or don’t work.

As a legal matter, Facebook’s argument here is flat-out wrong. The FTC’s failure to block the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp did not give Facebook carte blanche for all subsequent misbehavior. Indeed, the FTC’s letters explicitly reserved “the right to take such further action as the public interest may require.” And the FTC has intervened in other cases after initially withholding judgment. Since 2000, regulators have challenged at least four other mergers that had previously been reviewed.

The problems that some mergers can create are not always obvious in advance. When the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg proposed buying Instagram, his company’s displacement of the former social-networking leader, Myspace, was still being touted as proof that disrupting

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digital markets was easy. As FTC officials tried to peer into the future back in 2012, they might have reasonably asked whether Facebook or Instagram would even exist a few years down the road.

Today, no crystal ball is needed. Facebook is still the world’s biggest social network, more than a decade after it dethroned Myspace. And the relevant legal question—did Facebook acquire its rivals in order to stifle innovation and competition?—can be answered by looking at what the company has actually done. After buying Instagram, the FTC alleges, Zuckerberg’s firm shut down its own efforts to build a better photo-sharing app and tamped down promotions of Instagram out of fear of cannibalizing the flagship Facebook product. Those crucial facts simply weren’t available to regulators before the deal went through.

Some of Facebook’s defenders argue that any corrective action under these circumstances would be a mistake—“hindsight bias,” as two of them argued over the summer. But prosecuting an antitrust case in light of new facts isn’t a “doover.” It’s simple law enforcement.

What’s more, regulators’ understanding of digital markets has deepened considerably since 2012.

Back then, prominent legal experts—including

The company’s main defense to the new lawsuits is that agency enforcers declined to block the transactions when they had the chance. The new lawsuits, Facebook’s general counsel has insisted, are “revisionist history”.

Robert Bork, whose legal scholarship helped justify half a century of market consolidation— were arguing that antitrust laws simply don’t apply to “free” products such as online search engines and social-networking sites. But in the past nine years, many more legal scholars and regular internet users alike have come to realize that Facebook and Google don’t actually give away their products for free. Users pay for access with some of their most valuable resources— their time, attention, and personal information.

Concentrating power in the hands of a few massive companies carries huge risks, even in markets without explicit prices.

With 2.7 billion active users on Facebook’s flagship product alone, no monopoly in history has spread so far and affected so many lives.

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seen on a mobile screen as he remotely testifies during the hearing of U.S. Senate Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Getty)

The sheer size and scope of Facebook and other tech behemoths have triggered a broader reconsideration of Bork’s laissez-faire approach to antitrust. A blockbuster report issued last year by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust explicitly called out the Supreme Court for its narrow interpretation of antitrust statutes.

Two of the five spots on the FTC are likely to be vacant soon, and Biden has not yet filled the top spot in the Justice Department’s antitrust division. The current moment calls for progressive enforcers who have demonstrated that they understand the challenges Big Tech poses to the economy and who are willing to confront them directly. Biden’s choices now will shape—and could transform—the digital

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economy for years to come.

The Facebook litigation, too, will be a harbinger.

If the company is forced to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp, regulators will be emboldened to give potentially harmful acquisitions far more scrutiny. Either way, the case is a much-needed reminder that the current digital landscape was not the inexorable result of market forces and advancing technologies. It was the result of deliberate business decisions that regulators might have stopped at the time—and can review in the future. If we are bold enough to act, we as Americans can shape digital markets that work for all of us, instead of continuing to concentrate power in the hands of a few massive companies.

This article was originally published in The Atlantic Online.

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The Pandemic Comes at a High Cost for Egypt’s Publishing Industry Staying at Home Has Revived the Fortunes of the Ebook

by Hatem Khedr The coronavirus pandemic has, and continues to affect almost every industry worldwide, including the publishing industry where widespread impacts have left publishers, writers, and readers wondering how they will ride out the economic downturn.

Many bookworms have been forced to optout of annual book fairs that were once solid features of their events calendar due to the pandemic›s financial pressures.

Youssef Hussein, an Egyptian publisher, told Majalla that the pandemic is impeding book publication and distribution, with supply chain

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obstacles ranging from flight restrictions and book shipping delays to difficulties in getting hold of printing materials such as paper.

«We have faced several challenges as most of our readers are based abroad. We couldn›t afford to ship our books by air,» he said.

While e-publishing is less complicated, Hussein noted that it had led more books being published at less quality. He urged government institutions to tighten publishing regulations to print only quality books, highlighting that publishing houses prioritise profit over quality.

Hussein emphasised the critical role the publishing sector plays in disseminating knowledge and appealed to the government to back this industry amid the uncertainty caused

by COVID19-.

Teacher Mahmoud Sayed told Majalla that he is an avid reader with a small home library but hasn›t bought any books since the onset of the pandemic.

Egyptians shop for books at a book store on March 4, 2013 in Cairo, Egypt. (Getty)

«Since the outbreak of coronavirus, I haven›t bought any books as I have other essential priorities. I›m the breadwinner of my family; therefore the money spent on buying books now goes towards feeding my children and meeting their needs,» he said.

Youssef Hussein, an Egyptian publisher, told Majalla that the pandemic is impeding book publication and distribution, with supply chain obstacles ranging from flight restrictions and book shipping delays to difficulties in getting hold of printing materials such as paper.

«This year, I signed a deal to publish my first book, which had been subject to delays due to the pandemic. I took it as a chance to distribute the book until the next book fair is held,» Moawad told Majalla.

«My marketing campaign involved making deals with readers to promote and distribute the book in exchange for financial remuneration,» she noted.

Moawad›s plan paid off. The first edition of her book sold out and the second edition is likely to follow suit, she told me proudly.

«How can people buy books during these difficult conditions? Coronavirus affected everything and claimed millions of lives worldwide; therefore, buying books is no longer a priority for most people,» he added.

«Staying at home due to the pandemic preventive measures is a golden opportunity for fresh writers to market their books in collaboration with publishers,» she said, adding that authors can share their work on social media groups for writers and avid readers.

However, other reading buffs say that the pandemic hasn›t impacted their book consumption.

A government employee shared their sentiment on the issue on condition of anonymity.

«Nothing changed for me, I buy books as usual, but I prefer ebooks as I›m staying at home,» Nehal Al-Najjar told Majalla.

Hend Moawad, an Egyptian writer, lost her job at a big media production company during the pandemic, leaving her in financial difficulty.

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«Do you think that people can give up basic life necessities?» he told Majalla. «Book fairs have not been held due to the pandemic. I used to visit all the pavilions of the Cairo International Book Fair to pick up my favourite books,» he noted, adding that he no longer buys books from bookstores amid safety fears.

Marah Abdel-Bar, an associate professor at

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Ain Shams University, says that she is a keen reader and used to own books from various genres, but is seldom in the mood to read these days.

«The general atmosphere of the pandemic has affected everyone. We want to do many things but have no enthusiasm,» she told Majalla.

Coronavirus safety measures such as the wearing of facemask and the frequent use of hand sanitisers are additional expenses that mean many families have less money to spend on books, she added.

Marwa Hafez, a journalist, said that some Arab publishers sell expensive books that are typically priced in US dollar and therefore unaffordable to many.

«I work as a culture editor, so I›m given many books from writers, friends and publishers.

This helps me read more books and coronavirus pandemic gave me a chance to read even more,» she told Majalla.

However, Hafez also highlighted that many people have had to rearrange their priorities in light of the COVID19- pandemic.

Doha Al-Refae, director at a UAE digital book distribution company, told Majalla that staying at home made people yearn to read more books, reviving the fortunes of the ebook.

Hussein highlighted the critical role the publishing sector plays in disseminating knowledge and appealed to the government to back this industry amid the uncertainty caused by COVID19-.

She noted that her platform has more than 22,000 Arabic books - half of which are free, and the rest are sold at low prices to attract more readers. Her platform also adapted to the restrictive measures by integrating a digital contract signing process.

«We offer a monthly subscription to encourage people to read more. Despite the restrictions, we delivered more ebooks to readers in 2020,» she confirmed.

She also implemented a discount pricing strategy that resulted in a significant increase

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Mahmud, 22, from Egypt, reads a book on the deck of the NGO Proactiva Open Arms boat on July 2, )2018. (Getty

in traffic during February and March last year, demonstrating the value and importance of ebooks for people in lockdown.

Many publishers launched social media marketing campaigns to revive the literature scene and overcome the industry›s crisis.

Others signed deals with digital marketing experts to launch platforms on social media to engage with readers. The platforms helped them to reach a wider audience, and they began to see results.

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The Cairo International Book Fair was scheduled to occur in January 2021, but the fair›s Supreme Administrative Committee postponed the event to June 3 amid fears of increasing Covid19- cases. The move disappointed many publishers who were hoping the fair would help compensate their losses caused by the pandemic. Moreover, some publishers said they took part in other book fairs in Iraq, Egypt, and the UAE, but found low turnout due to the pandemic. They hope that the industry will regain momentum in the summer.

A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Issue 1838- February- 05/02/2021

Mohamed El-Erian:

The Egypt-American Renowned as One of the World’s Most Widely Followed Economists www.majalla.com

H

ealth

An Outlook Better Than Optimism ?

Mindful Approach to Reality Can Help You Focus on Resilience Harvard Health While looking at the sunny side of life offers a lot of light moments, there may be a better path to well-being.

Optimism feels good. The expectation that positive things will happen is associated with happiness and better health, including fewer heart attacks and a lower risk for premature death. Pessimism, on the other hand, feels bad; it makes you depressed or anxious and keeps the fight-or-flight system activated, triggering chronic inflammation (which is linked to many diseases).

You might think the best way to improve your well-being is to cultivate an optimistic outlook. Think again. «Better than cultivating an artificial optimism is to see the situation and the world realistically,» says Ronald Siegel, an assistant professor of psychology, part-time, at Harvard Medical

School and medical editor of the Harvard Special Health Report Positive Psychology.

ARE YOU FOOLINGg YOURSELF

Siegel says always assuming either an optimistic or pessimistic view of a situation is to ignore reality.

«If you›re pessimistic, your mind defaults to the fantasy that something horrible could happen. You›re filtering out the good data. If you›re optimistic, you›re filtering out the data that look bad for what you desire, and you›re fooling yourself,» Siegel says.

Instead of becoming attached to a fantasy of positive or negative outcomes, Siegel suggests that you focus on reality, and your resilience in facing reality.

«Have the faith in yourself that you›ll be able to rise to the occasion and deal with whatever comes your way, whether

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it›s good or bad fortune,» Siegel says. It›s much more robust for well-being than deluding yourself into thinking things will always turn out well, because sometimes they don›t.»

FINDING THE FAITH

The following steps can help you gain the confidence to cope with uncertainty.

Take refuge in the present moment. Remember that the future doesn›t exist yet; we only have thoughts about it.

«Bring attention to the present moment: the sun is shining, the trees have lost their leaves, you can walk. Bring your attention to what›s here right now,» advises Siegel. «That›s not deluding yourself, that›s reality.»

Forge safe social connections. Having a good support system of friends and family helps us cope with life›s ups and downs. «Rather than deluding ourselves with optimism or pessimism, we can cultivate relationships so that when good things happen, we have people to celebrate with, and when bad things happen, we can comfort each other,» Siegel says. How can you build relationships during a pandemic?

Siegel advises joining online groups and connecting with people via video or phone calls.

Identify with something larger than yourself. Broaden your connection to all of life: humanity, nature, the planet.

«When you identify with something much more enduring than a current situation, you get beyond the need to cling to one particular outcome,» Siegel says. How do you connect to something larger? It can be through religion or simply history. «Bad things have happened throughout history, yet life has endured and it will continue to endure,» Siegel reminds us.

Find meaning in life. The final pathway to having faith to cope with uncertainty is finding meaning in life -- something that matters to you. The source of meaning is different for everyone, and it changes throughout life. Think of it as what gets you out of bed in the morning. «It could be art that you create, religion, a relationship, acts of service, or projects you›re working on. Whatever it is that matters, pursue it,» Siegel says. «Find ways to be engaged in meaningful activities.»

BECOMING MORE MINDFUL

Mindfulness brings your attention to the present moment.

To try a mindfulness exercise, sit quietly, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing for a few minutes.

Slowly begin to widen your focus. Become aware of sounds, sensations, and ideas. Allow each thought or sensation to pass without judging it as good or bad.

If your mind starts to race, return your focus to your breathing. Then expand your awareness again. Try to

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“Instead of becoming attached to a fantasy of positive or negative outcomes, Siegel suggests that you focus on reality, and your resilience in facing reality.” sustain this awareness for longer periods each time you try this exercise.

Free, guided mindfulness exercises from Harvard psychologist Ronald Siegel are available online at https:// drronsiegel.com/recorded-meditations.

TAKEAWAY

It takes time to break old habits, and it›s okay if it›s hard to make a change and give up optimistic or pessimistic thinking. But even a little shift in your approach will improve your wellbeing. «We›ll all do better,» Siegel says, «if we live as though reality were real instead of being shocked by it.»

Po

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Mohamed El-Erian: The Egypt-American Renowned as One of the World’s Most Widely Followed Economists Majalla - London Dr Mohamed A. El-Erian has worked on economic and financial issues in both the public and private sectors. Currently, he is the President of Queens’ College, the University of Cambridge. Since 2014, he has served as Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, the corporate parent of PIMCO where he formerly served as chief executive and co-chief investment officer. (2007-14). He is Chair of Gramercy Fund Management, a columnist for Bloomberg View, a contributing editor at the Financial Times, and a member of the UnderArmour and several non-profit boards.

Dr. El-Erian had a very international upbringing. He was born in New York to an Egyptian father and French mother, but spent his youth in Cairo along with short periods in Europe where his father attended meetings of the UN law commission due to the diplomatic nature of his job. He later moved to the UK and received most of his education there. In 1968, the family moved back to New York when his father took a position at the United Nations. From 1971-73, they lived in France, where El-Erian’s father was the Egyptian Ambassador to France.

Dr. El-Erian attended Cambridge University in the U.K for his undergraduate degree, and got his masters and Ph.D. in economics from Oxford. After his doctorate studies, he settled in the US in 1983, taking a position at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. where he spent 15 years and rose to become Deputy Director before moving to the private sector.

In 1998, Dr El-Erian worked in London at Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup as managing director be-

fore being recruited by PIMCO in 1999 to lead its work on emerging markets.

He re-joined the company as CEO at the end of 2007 after serving for two years as president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the entity that manages Harvard’s endowment. From 2012 to 2017 he served on President Barack Obama’s Global Development Council.

On January 21, 2014, El-Erian resigned from running the $2 trillion investment fund. In an interview following his resignation that shocked the financial world, he said that his young daughter and wife Jamie were at the heart of his decision.

In an essay for Worth he said: “About a year ago, I asked my daughter several times to do something - brush her teeth, I think it was - with no success.

I reminded her that it was not so long ago that she would have immediately responded, and I wouldn’t have had to ask her multiple times; she would have known from my tone of voice that I was serious. She asked me to wait a minute, went to her room and came back with a piece of paper. It was a list that she had compiled of her important events and activities that I had missed due to work commitments. Talk about a wake-up call.”

He added: “I had a good excuse for each missed event! Travel, important meetings, an urgent phone call, sudden to-do. But it dawned on me that I was missing an infinitely more important point. As much as I could rationalize it - as I had rationalized it my work-life balance had gotten way out of whack, and the imbalance was hurting my very special relationship with my daughter. I was not making nearly enough time for her.”

Dr El-Erian remains a member of the parent company’s (Allianz) international executive committee,

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chairs its International Advisory Committee, and is an advisor to the management board.

On October 2020, he took up office as the new president of Queens’ College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

His philanthropic efforts over the years have emphasized education and health, including major gifts to the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Egypt as well as the University of Cambridge and Queens’ College.

Among the many recognitions, Dr El-Erian was named to Foreign Policy’s list of “Top 100 Global Thinkers” for four years in a row and, in 2017, to Investment News’ list of 20 market “icons and innovators.” In both 2016 and 2017, Linked-In named him as one of its top three “voices” among its “influencers.” Since 2014, he has been on the jury for the annual for the Financial Times/McKenzie Book of the Year award. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

He is also probably best known for his various media appearances and his penchant for publishing his musings on the global economy and market events in large financial media outlets like Reuters, CNBC, Bloomberg and the Financial Times. Dr El-Erian has also published books on international economic and finance topics. His 2008 book, When Markets Collide, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, won the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year and was named a book of the year by The Economist and one of the best business books of all time by the Independent (UK). His 2016 book, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability and Avoiding the Next Collapse, was also a New York Times bestseller.

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Egypt’s Historic Tahrir Square to Unveil Major Revamp

Cairo is Preparing a Royal Procession of Mummies to Celebrate the Opening of the Iconic Square

by Amr Emam Egyptian authorities are preparing to officially open Tahrir Square, Cairo’s most famous public space, following months of renovation works.

The country is preparing a major royal procession of mummies to celebrate the opening of the iconic square. The spectacle features 22 royal mummies, belonging to Egypt’s most famous pharaohs, including King Ramses II and King Merneptah. They will be

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accompanied by 17 ancient coffins due to be transferred from the nearby Egyptian Museum to their new home in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat.

Costing more than $2 billion (roughly $125 million), the museum will become the world’s largest museum devoted to a single civilization. The 2,500-square meter structure will house some of the country’s most precious relics as well as exhibitions of both ancient and modern art.

The renovation to the area that bore witness to the political change that swept through the country in the past decade began in September last year.

Egyptian authorities have invested 150 million Egyptian pounds ($9.4 million) in the extensive efforts to upgrade the appearance of the square itself and the surrounding area.

Four ram-headed sphinxes have been taken from the Karnak temple in Luxor to the capital’s busy traffic roundabout where they have joined a pink granite obelisk dating back 3,000 years.

Antiquities officials say the obelisk will add historical value to the symbolic square at the heart of the capital.

A picture taken on March 2020 ,25 shows Egypt’s landmark Tahrir Square in the capital Cairo. (Getty)

“Major squares around the world strive to achieve greatness by publically displaying symbols of the ancient Egyptian civilization,” Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the executive arm of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told Majalla. “Egyptians want their cherished square to display an ancient obelisk like major cities around the world.”

The obelisk and the sphinxes are small details in the grand overhaul which includes the introduction of a new lighting system on painted buildings overlooking the square. Hundreds of palm trees have also been planted on the streets leading up to the square.

Cairo Governorate officials say that the Tahrir Square upgrade is part of a national plan to overhaul downtown Cairo and turn it into a tourist destination.

“The area has many attractions, and we are trying to make the most of this by promoting it as a tourist site,” Ibrahim Abelhadi, Cairo’s deputy governor told Majalla.

The area around the square is an open-air museum containing dozens of wonders, including the Egyptian Museum, a 118-year-old building that holds over a 100,000 ancient artefacts. It is also home to old

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Four ram-headed sphinxes have been taken from the Karnak temple in Luxor to the capital’s busy traffic roundabout where they have joined a pink granite obelisk dating back 3,000 years. buildings that date back hundreds of years, most of which are modelled after architecture in Paris and Rome.

“We also wanted to preserve these buildings to protect our rich and diverse architectural heritage,” Abdelhadi said.

Over the past months, Cairo Governorate authorities have painted and renovated 300 of downtown Cairo’s 500 ancient and monumental buildings, restoring some to their original designs. Some of the streets of downtown Cairo have been turned into pedestrianonly zones.

Development plans included rejuvenating and standardizing the facades of buildings and shop signage, which are now delightfully nostalgic of the one-time cosmopolitan flair of downtown Cairo where bars, cafes and nightclubs flourished along the boulevards attracting adventurers from around the world.

Those visiting the center of town will experience a memorable tour which explores Tahrir Square, the Egyptian Museum, and the streets of one of the most architecturally rich areas in Egypt.

However, the Tahrir Square upgrade has been met by concern, especially from some of the nation’s archaeologists who express reservations about the transfer of the ancient artefacts to the highly-polluted area.

“The presence of the obelisk and the sphinxes in this area will cause major damage,” archaeologist Ziad Morsi told Majalla.

Antiquities officials say, however, that they have studied the suitability of the new location well.

“The studies showed the square to be fit for these antiquities,” Gharib Sonbol, a senior official at Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities official, told Majalla. “If squares are unfit for antiquities, why are there antiquities in most European squares, including ancient Egyptian obelisks?”

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Palm Trees: Meet the Middle East’s Oldest Friends

Date Palms Have Been Highly Prized Since the Dawn of Civilization for Their Wide Variety of Uses

by Amira El-Noshokaty

According to the Egyptian archive for folklife and folk traditions, palm trees date back 80 million years.

The palm tree is one of the oldest trees to have been However, they have been part of middle-eastern civivividly documented in our intangible heritage. Grow- lization, especially in the Arabian Gulf, for some 5000 ing in 14 different Arab countries that vary in climate, years. palm trees have always been an honourable motif of In ancient Babylon (Iraq) the palm tree was known as the holy tree of goddess Ishtar. In ancient Egypt, it was Arab culture.

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the tree of the goddess Hathor and seen as a symbol of long life. It was also known as the «Tree of Paradise» due to its immense environmental benefits. Mention of Palm trees in the holy books of Judaism, Christianity and Islam also reflect their long-held cultural value.

In 2019, date palm-related knowledge, traditions and practices were inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity after date palms were nominated for consideration by 14 Arab countries.

»O PALM TREE CLIMBER«

Two local Egyptian men sitting by the Nile River, looking at the pyramid of Cheops in Gizeh, Egypt; tinted photograph, circa 1900 /Getty

In Nubia, Egypt, the palm tree is part and parcel of their daily lives. «Every part of the palm tree is useful,» explained Dr Mostapha Abdel Qader, head of the Nubian Heritage Association.

«The trunk of the palm tree is used to make the roofs of Nubian Houses. They were a common feature in Islamic architecture because of their strong and resilient nature. Take the Amr Ibn El-As mosque in Cairo for example, the roof is made out of palm tree trunks and has been standing for over 600 years,» he added.

The palm tree›s trunk contains rough fibres that are often used to make ropes and the leaves utilized to make baskets, Angarib (Traditional Nubian Bed), tapestries, and rooftop covers.

The heart of the palm tree, known as al Gumar, consists of white palm leaves that are used as the foundation of authentic Nubian baskets. They weave the foliage or green palm leaves onto the foundation then colour it with natural dyes from the environment. al Gumar is also an edible delicacy, Abdel Qader told me.

The palm tree›s foliage is also used in tapestry and is a commonly used material in the roof structure of authentic Nubian houses.

On the other hand, al Orgoun, which is the stalk of the dates, is crushed and made into heavy-duty rope used in water wheels for it becomes more durable when soaked in water. As for the dates, they vary in quality depending on the soil. However, the most popular types of Nubian Dates are al-gondela, al-bartomodah and al-barkawi.

«Palm trees are precious to Nubians. According to Nubian traditions the groom to be, usually bathes in the Nile then walks around a palm tree seven times as a form of blessing, for the palm tree is a holy tree and is known to be one of the trees of heaven,» Abdel Qader explains.

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In 2019, date palm-related knowledge, traditions and practices were inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity after date palms were nominated for consideration by 14 Arab countries.

The palm tree is a hero of Egyptian songs. «O palm tree climber» is one of many folk songs that document a unique element of Egypt›s heritage: the extraordinary and challenging seasonal job of «palm tree climbers». They climb the trees in all upper Egypt to collect the dates. During date season, which begins after the flood season in October, fields in the Assuit governorate are covered with various dates. According to the Atlas of Date Palms in Egypt, Egypt has almost 79 types of dates ranging from red to yellow.

There are several folk games associated with the palm tree. One of the most famous ones is Hoksha which is a similar, and possibly older version, of the British game of Hockey. Hoksha is a popular folk game played in upper Egypt, where kids use palm leaves as hockey sticks.

FROM DATES TO FURNITURE Throughout the centuries, the Palm tree seems to continually prove its loyalty and friendship with our environment. In more recent years, technology has allowed us to recognize the endless uses of the agricultural gem. At Professor Hamed El-Mawsly›s office at the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, the palm tree is the centre of his studies and lifetime work.

«My relationship with palm trees started with my visit to Sinai in the seventies. In 1979, our university organized a trip to Sinai after its liberation from occupation. I visited the homes of people in Arish, and I was surprised to know that they make their roofs out of the palm tree leaves. It was the first time I›d seen palm trees used in the construction of buildings,» he recalled.

«The people of Arish would make a tapestry from the palm leaves, and then they would lay it over tree

trunks and add some reeds. Finally, they would top it with mud. Their ceilings were slightly sloped to allow the rainwater to run off.»

El-Mawsly explained that he discovered that palm trees were an integral part of the ancient Egyptian peasant life through his studies.

Traditional fences and beds were made using palm leaves. According to the book, Date Palm Fiber Composites, date palm midribs were used as girders, fixed across the timber frame to build beds in ancient Egypt, above which a woven mat made from spadix stem fibers were fixed to make the mattresses.

El-Mawsly is the CEO of The Egyptian Society for Endogenous Development of Local Communities (EGYCOM), founded in 2003. Believing in the capa-

«Mention of Palm trees in the holy books of Judaism, Christianity and Islam also reflect their longheld cultural value»

bility of local communities to self-develop by making better usage of the environment, EGYCOM launched several programs to rediscover each community›s local materials and how to make use of it.

«We worked throughout upper Egypt, and our latest project is in Minya governorate. There are very underprivileged villages in Minya, and they have a lot of palm trees. Plus, the culture of making use of palm trees is already there. So, we decided to build on it and created projects that would generate income for the locals,» he said.

EGYCOM aims to help villages to take advantage of the county›s 15 million productive palm trees.

«In al-Qayat village, which is one of the most underprivileged villages in Minya, we helped men make furniture out of palm leaves to sell and export,» ElMawsly explained.

Tables, desks, chairs, even Arabesque, and much more were produced as part of the EGYCOM programme that represented Egypt in international exhibitions worldwide.

«We worked on projects using reeds, and we also made amazing rosaries from the seeds of dates. I am currently supervising a PhD study where palm leaves are used to make charcoal,» he added.

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Dr Hamed El-Mawsly pictured in his office, Ain Shams University Egypt

Authentic Nubian bed made using materials derived from palm trees

Authentic Nubian baskets made using materials derived from palm trees )Amira El-Noshokaty(

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