ARABS TODAY Contents
15 Cover story Fero ipiendem et aut laniet id quatiumet aspecor modit
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Yusuf Islam spoke to us about that journey during a stop in Doha, Qatar
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5 Quotes
17 ME happening Sincia verro quam qui cuptate natusda erendio rionsequatur
6 Picture of the month Ostibusto to quatur miniet, sitiis aborem fugit millabora verum sojind
18 Business Exerore ssimaxi mporepuda volor aut arum erisseq uamus, et parcil earupta tiistius
8 Briefs Quatur miniet, sitiis aborem fugit millabora
19 Arts Sitempo remqui aut alia pore
4 Letters
12 Health & Science Tem volupictem labori quis aut volese nihiciduci 13 Personality Duciliqui cumqui apissinus sae alitis modigenimi 14 Commentary Conecere repta inturil is sus idelitem essunti
Think Middle East politics are hot? Try Middle Eastern art
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16 Environment Atiaectus dent laccaborias nobitae
20 Music Tectiis eostem idia quatur 21 Column Autendest, quossit aut ut fugia nos sed quuntiae 22 Interview Uptat aborate sum vendit remperumquod quundem atem
ON THE COVER: Photograph by Assit la sequam et eos et landit qui
QUOTES
Nicolas Sarkozy, French President Thein Sein, Myanmar President
“Offers are being constantly extended to Myanmar citizens who have been abroad for various reasons to come back home. The state would render necessary assistance to them if they have any diffi culties in doing business in the nation” Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of States
“We do not want to see any action taken that would in any way undermine or interfere in the operations of the Grameen Bank (of Bangladesh) or its unique organisational structure where the poor women themselves are the owners. I don’t want anything that would in any way undermine what has been a tremendous model” Barack Obama, US President
“The tide of war has turned in Afghanistan. We have broken the Taleban’s momentum. We’ve built strong Afghan security forces. We have devastated Al Qaeda’s leadership. After more than a decade of war, it is time to focus on nation building here at home” 6
“There’s a section of the press, of the media (in France) and notably the site in question whose name I refuse to mention, that is prepared to fake documents, shame on those who have exploited them” Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General
“Politicians sometimes will continue to have differences of opinion, but real leaders demonstrate flexibility for the greater cause of people and for the country”
LETTERS Transparency in administration
Western media’s unfair outlook
This refers to the news story, Municipal Council polls move hailed (May 12). It is indeed a very good move and I too take this opportunity to hail it. For the past sometime, the government of Oman has initiated a few bold steps to democratise administration. The Municipal Council polls will carry further the government’s eff orts and ensure a high degree of transparency in the administration besides ensuring people’s participation. Unlike elsewhere, where Arab Spring has unseated a few rulers, the government in Oman has very wisely responded to the phenomenon with a plethora of reforms undertaken very judiciously and gradually. Democracy cannot and must not be either introduced in a haste or imposed all of a sudden. To blossom, democracy demands maturity of the people. It must always be introduced gradually, allowing space and time to the people to absorb and understand the essence of the socio-economic and political system. The Oman government’s move is, therefore, praiseworthy and along the right track. Anu Shaikh, Wadi Kabir
It was absolutely unfair on the part of a section of the Western media to say that the society and administration of Pakistan have become ‘dysfunctional’. Therefore, the response of the Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is right. I admit that much of the objectives for which the countr was founded have not been achieved I admit that much of the objectives for which the countr was founded have not been achieved and the situation in Pakistan has indeed worsened in the past few years. But I strongly contest eff orts to write off the country. Hafeez Alam, Muttrah
Efforts to democratise public affairs This refers to the news story, Municipal Council polls move hailed (May 12). The announcement of municipal polls in the Sultanate of Oman is certainly unprecedented and is a step forward towards democratisation, as it gives the citizens the right to participate in public aff airs. The government of Oman has been tireless in its eff orts to ensure more active role for people in governance. Much of what was envisioned has been achieved. Usha Devi Suddapalli, Ruwi
Won, lost
Putin will succeed
The first week of Vladimir Putin in office as the President of Russia has not been very cool. He faced a perceptible challenge from the Russians. Putin was in tears when he won back the presidency for the third time. He said it were the tears of joy. But the question is, how long will his joy remain? For sure, the fi rst week must have shown him that while he may have tightened his grip on the Russian polity and administration, he has become more unpopular among the Russians. There is no threat to his presidency and it is also certain that the anti-Putin movements will die down after sometime. But he may never be able to win back the confi dence and love of people. Michael Rosario, Muscat
because he has the right experience For Vladimir Putin, the only option left to reclaim his esteem is by working to open up Russia. Vladimir Putin has vowed to strengthen democracy and to ensure Russia’s stability. Vladimir Putin has vowed to strengthen democracy and to ensure Russia’s stability. I would love to give Putin a chance to live up to Vladimir Putin’s promises and would form an opinion only after Vladimir Putin is allowed to perform for at least a year and a half. Hope must not be lost and let us look forward to something positive. We cannot deny that Vladimir Putin is a very experienced and proven administrator. I am sure he will succeed. Vivek Panicker, Wadi Kabir
WHAT DO YOU THINK ?
Reforms in the Sultanate of Oman are moving in the right direction A few months ago some researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India visited me with a few questions on the democratisation of Oman. These researchers were all in praise of the Shura elections and felt that Oman would soon overtake even Bahrain in its eff orts to democratise the system. These researchers were all in praise of the Shura elections and felt that Oman would soon overtake even Bahrain in its eff orts to democratise the system. They were right and I reiterate that the news story, Municipal Council polls move hailed (May 12), testi-fi es the conviction of the researchers. The reforms, initiated by the government of Oman under the guidance of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, clearly point to the fact that Oman is cruising well along its charted route to democratise public aff airs and ensure people’s participation in the country’s administration. Mir Alam, Muscat
WRITE TO US
send email to info@atmiddleeast.com and posted mail to PB 100, PC 100, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman, Please include your full name, address and phone number (even if you correspond by email). All letters may be published and are subject to editing for length, style, and format. For SUBSCRIPTIONS, email subscribe@atmiddleeast.com for details or posted mail to the above address (please write ‘SUBSCRIPTIONS’ on the cover).
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PICTURE OF THE MONTH
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Photographs by Nehsynbi, Arab Today
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BRIEFS Syria-Protest DAMASCUS – Four army personnel were killed Friday by the gunfire of “armed terrorist groups” in central province of Homs, state media said, as activists said anti-regime protests broke out in several Syrian cities over the weekend. Three military academy students and a soldier were killed Friday, when armed groups targeted their vehicle near the village of Nawa in Homs’ countryside, state-run SANA news agency reported. It said that other armed groups killed two civilians Thursday in northern Idlib province.
Syria-AttackRuling Party DAMASCUS – Unidentified gunmen hurled a handmade grenade at the building of the ruling al-Baath party’s branch in northern Aleppo province Friday, killing a security agent and causing property losses, local media said. The building’s guards fired back at the assailants, said the report without any further details.
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AlgeriaElections ALGIERS – Algeria’s ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) won the parliamentary election in Algeria after obtaining 220 seats in the new parliament, Minister of Interior Daho Ould Kablia announced Friday. National Democratic Rally (RND), FLN’s ruling partner, came second in the election with
YemenBlastPipeline SANAA – Yemeni armed tribesmen blew up an oil pipeline in the central province of Marib on Friday, further deteriorate the fuel shortage in the Arab country due to repeated attacks on its oil pipelines, the interior ministry said. Armed tribesmen headed by Abdullah Rukaisan bombed the pipeline in Wadi Abida district in Marib, some 173 km northeast of the capital Sanaa, the interior ministry said in a statement on its website.
Yemen-Blast-Pipeline SANAA -- Yemeni armed tribesmen blew up an oil pipeline in the central province of Marib on Friday, further deteriorate the fuel shortage in the Arab country due to repeated attacks on its oil pipelines, the interior ministry said. Armed tribesmen headed by Abdullah Rukaisan bombed the pipeline in Wadi Abida district in Marib, some 173 km northeast of the capital Sanaa, the interior ministry said in a statement on its website. Armed tribesmen headed by Abdullah Rukaisan bombed the pipeline in Wadi Abida district in Marib, some 173 km northeast of the capital Sanaa, the interior ministry said in a statement on its website.
Syria-Protest
Algeria-Elections
Algeria-Elections
Yemen-Blast-Pipeline
Syria-Protest 11
COVER STORY
Syria’s carnival that ended in bloodshed A year on, Syrians are remembering the sit-in in Homs’, New Clock Square and the ensuing crackdown that left several dead
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Expectant faces Et fugitatur solorit repelicto inciduc maion nim quas
Photographs by Nehsynbi, Arab Today
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yrians in Homs are remembering a day that began with a funeral, developed into a sit-in and ended in bloodshed. The events in the New Clock Square on April 18, 2011, evoke both bitter and sweet memories for the thousands who participated in the largest demonstration in the city centre since the country-wide uprising against President Bashar al-Assad had started. “It was a day where we thought the Syrian regime was two days from collapsing. A day when all remaining barriers of fears were broken,” Ammar, an employee at an internet cafe in Homs, said. The sit-in in the New Clock Square began as a funeral for seven anti-government protesters killed by the regime forces a day earlier. Tens of thousands participated in the burial at al-Kateeb cemetery. “On our way back from the cemetery, we started chanting ‘to the clock, to the clock’ and ‘sit-in, sit-in’. And when we passed by the Christian neighbourhood of Hamidiyeh we started chanting “the Syrian people are one’,” Aboudi, a 17-year-old student in Homs, said. “Our Christian brothers were throwing rice, rose petals and water drops from the balconies. It was beautiful.” People began flocking into the square from all directions. Protesters from other neighborhoods entered the city centre with no apparent resistance from security forces. Soon enough, the square was transformed into a carnival. “We set up tents, we brought food, we listened to speeches, we chanted. It was like a dream come true,” Aboudi said. Because the square was surrounded by banks and companies equipped with surveillance cameras, activists quickly wrapped them in plastic bags to prevent security forces from using the footage to identify the demonstrators.
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“Some people suggested we break the cameras. But we decided it to use bags instead. This is how organised and civilised the Homs sit-in was,” Ammar said. Majd, a 21-year-old Homs resident, said people were surprised the regime was allowing them to carry out the protest
without interference. “There were policemen watching us from a distance. That was it. But we were still very suspicious,” he said. “Religious leaders started asking us to leave. They also felt the regime was up to something.”
No quick fix
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And they were right. The crowd was dispersed by security forces after midnight, at around 1:45am, with intense rounds of live bullets. Several people were killed. Ammar said he believed the security forces first began shooting in the air. But
later they shot at people as they ran away. “People were running in all directions. Many of us hid in commercial buildings and slept there overnight. The sounds of bullets were unbelievable”. Majd said a man shouted ‘I want to curse the family of Assad’.
“They shot him. They shot him in cold blood,” he said. There is no verified death toll from the crackdown on the protest. A local activist group says tens were killed, but has only documented the names of eight. The uprising against Assad had only 15
Lost hope
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started about a month earlier and there were no established activist networks which could effectively document deaths, Abou Rami, an activist in Homs, said. “The regime made it so difficult for people to find out the fate of those who could not run away. They removed the bodies and the square was cleaned overnight from all the blood and glass pieces,” he said. “They cleaned it as if nothing had happened a day earlier.” ‹Angry city› However, despite attempts to restore the business-as-usual mode, Ammar said Homs was forever changed. “Homs became an angry city. While the upper class had not yet been very involved in demonstrations, the sit-in near their homes moved them. They became 16
an integral part of the protest movement in the city,” he said. The brutal crackdown on the sit-in, Ammar said, was meant to deter activists from attempting to occupy the city centres of the capital, Damascus, and Aleppo, the country’s second city Aleppo. “I think that Assad saw the new trend of sit-ins and wanted to stop it. Before the Homs protest, there had been a large rally in [the coastal city of] Latakia and another one in [the Damascus suburb of] Douma, but they were not comparable in numbers to the New Clock Square sit-in. “Assad wanted to teach a lesson to all Syrians through Homs.” One year on, many Homs neighbourhoods are unrecognisable. Opposition strongholds have been shelled by government forces trying to wipe out the
armed resistance that emerged months into what began as a peaceful uprising. Activists say hundreds have been killed in the city. Since the sit-in, residents of Homs have tried on several occasions to recreate the city centre rally by calling on people to “crawl to the New Clock Square”, but the heavy security around the area and the presence of snipers on the rooftops around the square have made it impossible. However, Abu Rami and many others who participated remain defiant and hopeful that they will return to what they now call “Freedom Square”. “For us in Homs, the regime has fallen,” he said. “Re-occupying the square is only a technicality. I see this day coming soon.”
COMMENTARY KATE HUDSON
Iran and Israel must both work for a nuclear-free Middle East
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he West cannot ignore its own disarmament obligations if it wants to see peacefulness triumph over warmongering. “There is time to solve this diplomatically, but time is short. Iran’s leaders must understand that there is no escaping the choice before it. Iran must act with the seriousness and sense of urgency that this moment demands. Iran must meet its obligations.” Amid heightening tension over Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions, and at a summit which brought together world leaders to tackle the threat of “nuclear terrorism” and the spread of nuclear materials, Obama seemed to be taking the bull by the horns. Iran does of course have obligations. As a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Iran has committed to not seek nuclear weapons, in return for international assistance (and monitoring) in the development of nuclear power. Iran has an obligation to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect its nuclear facilities and uranium enrichment processes to ensure that they are being used for peaceful, civil purposes. Furthermore, and leaving aside for now the matter of Israel’s nuclear weapons, the potential regional implications of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons are enormous and place a huge moral - as well as legal - responsibility on anyone who might consider taking that state down such a path. The risk of further inflaming the volatile international politics of the Middle East and potentially catalysing the development of nuclear weapons by other states such as Saudi Arabia or Egypt would be a retrograde step on the path to regional (and global) peace, disarmament and stability. But Iran is not the only country with obligations. And to imply this is to only tell a part of the story. Maybe Obama’s statement could be seen as in keeping with his proclaimed vision of a world free from nuclear weapons - attempting to prevent further nuclear proliferation. But when the president responsible for the
world’s largest nuclear arsenal preaches about the obligations of other states not to develop them, it is hard to deny charges of great power hypocrisy. Article VI of the NPT, signed in 1968, commits the nuclear weapons states to “pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control” President Obama has, to his credit, made diplomatic moves towards reducing global nuclear stockpiles, most significantly through the rekindling of the faltering Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia. The “New START” agreement, signed in April 2010, was lauded as a significant step in bilateral nuclear reductions and a crucial step in fostering the global conditions in which multilateral disarmament could make progress. Indeed it was seen as some justification for the controversial awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama in 2009, following his visionary Prague speech earlier that year. Yet subsequent US actions have not lived up to the hope engendered by New START. In October 2010, just months after signing the Treaty, the White House proudly declared its “enduring commitment to the US nuclear deterrent” with the announcement of $85bn to be spent on nuclear infrastructure. The White House statement was explicit, and with no hint of the contradiction between the two positions. It praised Obama’s “extraordinary commitment to ensure the modernisation of our nuclear infrastructure”, reflected in “plans to invest more than $85 billion over the next decade to modernise the US nuclear weapons complex that supports our deterrent”. The significance of this move was made clear: “This level of funding is unprecedented since the end of the Cold War.’ Yet even this $85bn is dwarfed by the total projected spend of $700bn on nuclear weapons over the next decade by the US.
Dr Kate Hudson is general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and a leading anti-nuclear and anti-war campaigner
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HEALTH
Stand Up, Walk Around, Even Just For ‘20 Minutes’
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f you’re sitting at a desk reading this article, take a minute and stand up. That’s the latest advice from New York Times Phys Ed columnist Gretchen Reynolds. In her new book, The First 20 Minutes, Reynolds details some of the surprisingly simple ways you can combat the effects of a sedentary lifestyle. Federal health guidelines recommend 30 minutes of moderate exercise — such as walking or jogging — every single day. But new research shows that even regular exercisers may not be doing enough to counteract the health hazards of sitting down at a desk all day long. Even modest amounts of physical activity reduce the dangers of heart disease, a new study finds. “Sitting for long periods of time — when you don’t stand up, don’t move at all — tends to cause changes physiologically within your muscles,” says Reynolds. “You stop breaking up fat in your bloodstream, you start getting accumulations of fat ... in your liver, your heart and your brain. You get sleepy. You gain weight. You basically are much less healthy than if you’re moving.” Reynolds recommends standing for two minutes every 20 minutes while desk-bound — even if you can’t move around your office. “That sounds so simple,” she tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “But that actually has profound consequences. If you can stand up every 20 minutes — even if you do nothing else — you change how your body responds physiologically.” Studies have shown that frequent standing breaks significantly decrease your chances of getting diabetes, she says. “If you can also walk around your office, you get even more benefits. You will lose weight, you lessen your chance of heart disease, and you will improve your brain. But if you can do nothing else, stand up!” Reynolds says she’s started standing up every time she answers the telephone. “I bought a music stand, which costs next to nothing, and I can put papers on it,” she explains. “I read standing up. I try and walk down the hall once an hour. I walk outside and turn around and walk back in. That’s enough to break up the
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Gretchen Reynolds is New York Times Phys Ed columnist
In her new book, The First 20 Minutes, Reynolds details some of the surprisingly simple ways you can combat the effects of a sedentary lifestyle
physiological changes that sitting otherwise causes.” Reynolds’ book also details the latest scientific research on running, stretching and hydration techniques. Here are some of the findings: To Stretch Or Not To Stretch?: Research now suggests that stretching before a workout isn’t necessarily a good thing, because it causes the brain to think you’re about to tear those muscles, says Reynolds. “When you stretch and hold a pose, the brain thinks you are about to damage yourself and it then sends out nerve impulses that actually tighten the muscles,” she explains. “... The result is, you’re less ready for activity, not more ready for activity.” Don’t Skip The Warm-Up: Science suggests that a very easy warmup — a light jog, for example — may be all that most of us need. “What you want to do when you warm up is warm up the tissues,” she says. “You want to get the muscles, the tendons — all of the parts of your body — warm, and the best way to do that is to use those tissues.” Reynolds recommends jogging before a run or an intense sports match. Running’s Rewards And Risks: Running reduces the risks of heart disease and diabetes, helps maintain your weight and improves brain health. “There’s very good science that running for even 30 minutes or so doubles the number of brain cells in certain portions of the brain related to memory,” says Reynolds. “Running is wonderful for the health of your body.” But the injury rate among runners, she cautions, is extremely high — with as many as 75 percent of runners getting one injury a year. “So running can be very hard on the body at the same time it’s very good for the body,” she says. Humans Were Made For Walking: Walking may be the single best exercise that exists on the planet, Reynolds says. It’s low-impact and has a relatively low risk for injury. “Walking appears to be what the human body was built for,” she explains. Even 15 minutes will reduce your risk for heart disease and diabetes.
ENVIRONMENT
Waterfalls on the Blue Nile Ethiopia has plans to grab hold of a bigger share of the river despite Egypt’s long held monopoly
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efiant of Egypt’s historic monopoly over its flow, Ethiopia is pushing ahead with a controversial plan to build a massive dam on the Nile river. Egypt and Sudan have maintained control of the Nile through a series of laws originally brokered by colonial powers in 1929. But last May, six upstream countries signed a legally binding document that dispossessed Egypt of its right to veto decisions regarding the Nile’s distribution. Buoyed by President Hosni Mubarak’s recent ouster, and undaunted by criticism, Ethiopia insists that it will proceed with its plan even without international support. At a recent news conference, Ethiopia’s Water and Energy Minister Alemayehu Tegenu explained that construction of the dam near the Ethiopian and Sudanese border is expected to start soon, Reuters reports. This despite widespread opposition to the project, which Minister Tegenu suspects is a direct result of Egypt’s campaign to prevent the dam’s construction. But Mr. Tegunu is adamant that Ethiopia will proceed with the $4.78 billion dollar project even without donor support. In order to finance the project, they will sell off government bonds. At present, Ethiopia uses 1% of its annual 86% contribution of Nile water,
Defiant Ethiopia To Proceed With Massive Dam On The Nile River
while Egypt has access to 55 out of the river’s 84 billion cubic meter annual flow. Last year, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi signed an agreement to re-apportion the Nile, an agreement Egypt refuses to acknowledge. The Nile Dam is expected to generate 5,250MW of hydroelectricity after its completion in approximately 44 months, contributing more than a third to the country’s $12 billion plan to generate 15,000 MW within the next 25 years. Apart from a non-renewable aquifer, Egypt relies almost exclusively on the Nile to provide for its 85 million and counting residents and is eager to maintain its control. So eager, some mutter, that this dispute could lead to war. The Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told Reuters that Egypt is sending rebel groups into its country, but that any effort to declare war on the upstream riparian nations would result in failure. It behooves Egypt to take diplomatic action, cede its unbalanced influence without sacrificing a reasonable percentage, and start working overtime to improve management of those water resources it does have. 19
SCIENCE
Maya Artwork Uncovered In A Guatemalan Forest
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rchaeologists working in one of the most impenetrable rain forests in Guatemala have stumbled on a remarkable discovery: a room full of wall paintings and numerical calculations. The buried room apparently was a workshop used by scribes or astronomers working for a Mayan king. The paintings depict the king and members of his court. The numbers mark important periods in the Maya calendar. The room is about the size of a walk-in closet. It’s part of the buried Maya city of Xultun. There are painted murals on three walls, depicting a resplendent king wearing a feather and four other figures. Maya paintings this old — the site dates to the ninth century — are very rare; tropical weather usually destroys them. But David Stuart, an anthropologist at the University of Texas, Austin, says the numbers are 20
Stuart says some of the numbers are calendars that mark Maya ceremonies, or the cycles of the moon, Venus and Mars. Some calculations appear to be efforts to predict lunar eclipses
the most intriguing discovery. “The wall is covered in numbers and this is something that really got our attention very early on,” he says. “This is an unusual thing about the Xultun mural.” Four long numbers on the north wall of the ruined house relate to the Mayan calendar and computations about the moon, sun and possibly Venus and Mars; the dates stretch some 7,000 years into the future. Stuart says some of the numbers are calendars that mark Maya ceremonies, or the cycles of the moon, Venus and Mars. Some calculations appear to be efforts to predict lunar eclipses. “It’s kind of like having a whiteboard in your office where you write down numbers you want to remember if you are a physicist or a mathematician,” Stuart says. “And it’s amazing it’s on a wall. It’s not in a book.” Maya numbers are written with bars and dots.
The buried city of Xultun was discovered in 1915 but was so hard to get to that archaeologists mostly ignored it
Their use in calendars and astronomy is wellknown from a Maya book called the Dresden Codex, which is written on the bark of a fig tree. But the Xultun murals are centuries older than the book. Writing in the journal Science, the scientists say the murals confirm what Maya archaeologists have been saying for years: The Maya calendar does not predict the end of time in 2012, as some New Age prophets have argued. In fact, the murals register future time stretching far beyond 2012. Archaeologist William Saturno from Boston University compares Maya calendars to a car’s odometer. “If we’re driving a car,” Satruno says, “we don’t anticipate that at 100,000 miles the car will vanish from beneath us. We know that it will reset to zero, and the next 10th of a mile we go we’ll have another number to look at.” What these Maya timekeepers were doing was simply marking the passage of time from past to future, but in discrete intervals. The buried city of Xultun was discovered in 1915 but was so hard to get to that archaeologists mostly ignored it. Saturno started exploring it in 2008. A member of his team found the mural room two years later, under just a few feet of soil. They got an emergency grant from the National Geographic Society to dig into it. The painted figure of a man — possibly a scribe who once lived in the house built by the ancient Maya — is illuminated through a doorway to the
dwelling, in northeastern Guatemala. The structure represents the first Mayan house found to contain artwork on its walls. Looters had stolen everything removable, but the murals and the numbers remained. Saturno says there may be lots more to find at Xultun. They’ve examined only about 1 percent of the buried city. Stuart says some of the numbers are calendars that mark Maya ceremonies, or the cycles of the moon, Venus and Mars. Some calculations appear to be efforts to predict lunar eclipses. “It’s kind of like having a whiteboard in your office where you write down numbers you want to remember if you are a physicist or a mathematician,” Stuart says. “And it’s amazing it’s on a wall. It’s not in a book.” Maya numbers are written with bars and dots. Their use in calendars and astronomy is wellknown from a Maya book called the Dresden Codex, which is written on the bark of a fig tree. But the Xultun murals are centuries older than the book. Writing in the journal Science, the scientists say the murals confirm what Maya archaeologists have been saying for years: The Maya calendar does not predict the end of time in 2012, as some New Age prophets have argued. In fact, the murals register future time stretching far beyond 2012. Archaeologist William Saturno from Boston University compares Maya calendars to a car’s odometer. 21
ME DEVELOPING STORY
As Syrian Peace Plan Crumbles, What’s Next? By Kelly McEvers
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Aftermath
A pair of powerful bombs killed more than 50 people on the outskirts of Damascus on Thursday. This photo released by the official Syrian news agency SANA shows the aftermath. The blasts were the latest blow to a collapsing peace plan.
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he international peace plan for Syria is nearly a month old, and signs are pointing to a conflict that is becoming even more entrenched. I believe that the U.N. supervision mission is possibly the only remaining chance to stabilize the country. There is a profound concern that the country could otherwise descend into full civil war, and the implications for that are quite frightening - Kofi Annan, U.N.Arab League special envoy to Syria In the latest blow, two massive explosions rocked the outskirts of Syria’s capital, Damascus, on Thursday, killing at least 55 people and injuring hundreds more. The peace plan, sponsored by the U.N. and the Arab League, called for the Syrian regime and opposition groups to honor a cease-fire and begin a political dialogue. Yet hundreds of people have been killed in the past month. The Syrians are still limiting access for foreign journalists, but just a few minutes on YouTube offers a sense of on-
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going fighting. One recent video shows opposition rebels fighting in the Syrian town of Rastan. What’s most striking about the video is that it exists. Until now, the rebels rarely appeared in videos uploaded to YouTube by Syrian activists. And when they were shown, they covered their faces. Now, the group is in full view, firing AK47s out the window of a house, presumably at government soldiers. That’s not all. Government troops have been attacking residential areas in several cities around Syria this week. Failing Plan, Worse Alternatives Kofi Annan, the envoy to Syria for the U.N. and the Arab League, gave a grim report to the U.N. Security Council this week on the peace plan and the U.N. mission. But he said as many times as the cease-fire has been violated, he is not seeing any other viable options to end the violence. “I believe that the U.N. supervision mission is possibly the only remaining
Meeting
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Terror
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chance to stabilize the country,” Annan said. “There is a profound concern that the country could otherwise descend into full civil war, and the implications for that are quite frightening.” Norwegian Maj. Gen. Robert Mood (center), head of the U.N. observers mission in Syria, arrives to inspect the site of twin blasts. The U.N. plan is most publicly supported by the Russians, who believe there is still a way to mediate an end to the crisis in Syria. The Russians, long-time allies of the Syrian government, have opposed strict U.N. sanctions and calls for foreign intervention. But a growing number feel the peace plan has failed. They include Wissam Tarif, who runs the Beirut office of the activist group Avaaz, which does extensive work on Syria. He and others say the Syrian regime is simply not willing to stop the violence, which means it will never be able to reach a negotiated solution. That’s why Tarif calls the U.N. plan a “necessary failure” — meaning that the
more the Russians see the regime’s violations, the more likely they will be to go along with tougher measures against the Syrian leadership. “Having said that, it’s very important to note that this failure is very expensive and it’s by the Syrian people’s blood because hundreds continue to be killed in the country,” Tarif says. No Agreement On Alternatives The problem is there’s no consensus on what to do next. Anne-Marie Slaughter, a professor of politics and international relations at Princeton who formerly headed the State Department’s policy planning office, says there are many reasons the U.S. has yet to come up with its own plan on how to resolve the crisis. First, Syria’s neighbors are divided over whether the regime should stay or go. Next, there’s no clear choice of who would lead Syria if President Bashar Assad is ousted. And, the U.S. doesn’t want to be responsible for another intractable conflict like Iraq or Afghanistan. 25
BUSINESS
Zoning in: How Dubai has leveraged free zones
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et to ride a rising wave of interest in its free trade zones, Dubai is cashing in on its long-term investments to further bolster its economy by attracting new clients looking for a stable and central base of operations. Covering a wide range of business activities, from manufacturing to exporting, logistics, media, education and finance, Dubai’s free zones are becoming increasingly important to its economy and represent a strengthening bond between the emirate and global trade. “Information and communications technology, media, health and education will all experience positive growth as projections indicate increased spending across the GCC in each of these key sectors,” Amina Al Rustamani, the CEO of TECOM Business Parks, which manages several of the emirate’s free zones, said. “Therefore, free zones that wish to capitalise must specifically cater to these knowledge-based industries by developing not just the infrastructure but an ecosystem which fosters business development, innovation and entrepreneurship.” According to data from the Dubai Free Zones Council released in early March, there are 22 separate free zones established in the emirate, which between them generate almost one-third of Dubai’s GDP. Currently, there are some 19,000 companies registered within the combined free zones, providing employment for more than 225,000 people.
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Covering a wide range of business activities, from manufacturing to exporting, logistics, media, education and finance, Dubai’s free zones are becoming increasingly important to its economy The newly established Dubai Free Zones Council intends to further enhance Dubai’s appeal as an investment and business destination. By cutting red tape and boosting accountability and two-way communications, officials hope more companies will take advantage of Dubai’s free zones as an operational centre, the council’s chairman, Mohammed Al Zarooni, said at a networking event in early March. “The key objective of establishing the council is to unify and standardise the measures and procedures of registering and licensing new businesses,” he said. “This will cut the time and efforts an investor or a company might waste spinning from one free zone to another. We aim at going beyond the customers’ expectations via creating a one-shop window.” If the tide of new registrations at some of Dubai’s free zones is anything to go by, demand for space is already high. In late February, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) reported a seven percent increase in the number of firms operating out of the financial services free trade zone, with the number of companies registered and active rising by 848 from end-2010 to end-2011. According to Abdullah Mohammad Al Awar, the CEO of the DIFC authority overseeing the centre, stronger interest from Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas could see company numbers double by around 2017.
BOOKS
In One Person “You just don’t know when or how or who is going to come out the other side and who isn’t”.
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he star of John Irving’s new novel, In One Person, is Billy Abbott. Billy is a character at the mercy of his own teenage crushes, which are visited upon by a whole repertory company of gender-bending characters. It’s a repertory company in the most literal sense, too. Billy spends many days backstage at the local theater — where gender can also fluctuate and where his family members are regulars. One of the pivotal characters, Billy’s grandfather Harry Marshall, is a lumberman to most of the townspeople in First Sister, Vt., but for Billy’s imagination, he plays “all kinds of women” at the theater. Another, the librarian Miss Frost, is Billy’s schoolboy crush and what he describes as “a sexual suspect.” At its base, In One Person is a coming-of-age novel, and much of Billy Abbott’s growing up occurs in his relationships — some with women — others with men. Irving tells NPR’s Scott Simon that, as a writer well into his adult life, he was comfortable being frank about sexuality. “I just think as an older person you can be more candid with yourself about who you were and how thoroughly intimidating and confusing and conflicted the world of adult sexuality seemed when you were on the doorstep of it but still standing outside,” he says.
Interview Highlights On being honest about the difficulties of identity “There’s a moment, I think, in most of our childhood years those pre-pubescent — boarding on puberty years — those aren’t the easiest parts of ourselves for many of us to remember, but I remember that in my imagination, I was at one time or another, attracted to just about everyone — to my friend’s mothers, to girls my own age, even to some older boys on the wrestling team. Well, as it turned out, I liked girls but I think a part of our tolerance for sexual differences surely comes from being honest about what we remember of ourselves. So, I just try to be in this novel faithful to what utter havoc the mutability of gender can be for many young people in their formative years.”
On how theater influenced In One Person “I got my storytelling from the theater. My mother was a prompter in a small town theater and I did grow up — much as Billy does — backstage. As a child,
every play I saw I had seen in rehearsal — sometimes for months. I knew everything that happened. I knew what the actors said before they spoke their lines.” On foreshadowing and ‘collision course stories’ “People have commented — sometimes with irritation, sometimes nicely — on the amount of foreshadow that there is in my novel. Well, yeah, it’s not that hard to foreshadow what’s coming when you know what’s coming. When you are writing to — as I do — a pre-determined ending, I begin my novels knowing what happens. I write endings first. I write last sentences — sometimes last paragraphs — first. I know where I am going. I write collision course stories. There is always something coming that the reader anticipates, what you can’t know is when and who the casualties will be and who the survivors will be but you see the what. You know what’s coming. The collision that’s coming in In One Person, I think it’s pretty evident in the early going. You’re hearing a story about the development and the growing selfawareness of a bisexual boy. It’s the 1950s and ‘60s and you know you’re listening to the voice of an older man who is — he tells you — almost 70. You know that many of these characters that you are meeting are going to coincide with the AIDS epidemic. You just don’t know when or how or who is going to come out the other side and who isn’t. That’s not a surprise.”
John Irving is the author of such bestselling novels as The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany.
On being 70 and writing about sexuality “You can be a little more forthright or a little more honest about it because you no longer have anything to protect. You’re past that time in your life where you’re imagining yourself as sexually attracted to someone.” On the similarities between wrestling and writing “Many of my wrestling friends find it odd that I’m a writer, just as many of my writer friends in the writing world find it odd that I was — for so many years — a wrestler and wrestling coach. But they seem very similar to me. In both cases you have to be devoted to tireless repetition and small details. For many more hours than you will be in competition, you will be with a nameless workout partner — a sparring partner, drilling the same outside single-legged dive, inside collar tie — hundreds upon thousands of times. Well, how many times as a writer do you — or should you — rewrite the same 27
MUSIC Q&A
Yusuf Islam on music and faith Artist once known as Cat Stevens explains why he left music, why he returned and why his latest project tops the rest
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he artist formerly known as Cat Stevens is starting a new chapter - one that has been in the making since the day he first picked up a microphone. Rock icon Yusuf Islam - who goes by the single name Yusuf these days - is putting the finishing touches on what he calls a lifelong dream, Moonshadow: A Musical Fantasy. Set to premiere in Australia on May 31, the production is a mix of the artist’s hits from the 1970s with a string of fresh songs penned for the play. The musical represents a summit of sorts - top28
ping a storied and at times controversial career that has seen Yusuf go from triple-platinum award winning musician to a man on the verge of abandoning his craft forever. Yusuf spoke to Al Jazeera about that journey during a stop in Doha, Qatar following his first concert in the Middle East. Al Jazeera: You’ve talked before about your journey through music, saying that you put down the guitar after converting to Islam and then picked it back up
Maestro
Menitium evereperum ius nim doluptatur ame vel etur mo vendanto
again. What is your view on the intersection of faith and music? Yusuf Islam: At one point, perhaps music was my religion. For a lot of us growing up in the West in the early ‘60s and then ‘70s, music was a way of life. It was a way to express ourselves. I was a serious dreamer and I was looking for the truth. It was only when I finally bumped into Islam through a gift of the Quran that I realised that all the answers I needed were there. I was still making records, but I lost my interest. I found something that was so much more pure and sacred, so I asked the imam at the mosque in London about music and he said ‘there’s no problem’. But I had some doubts, because there were other brothers who quoted opinions that ‘there’s a consensus that music is haram (forbidden)’. When you’re a new Muslim, you’re very careful of what you do. So I tread very carefully. I decided because of the almost insulting approach that the media took to me upon embracing Islam that I had had enough of that, so I didn’t bother to continue. After [the 2001 attacks of] September 11, there was a serious crisis. We were facing Armageddon almost and it seemed that now we needed to build bridges back to our middle ground, because the extremes had been exposed. Therefore I sang Peace Train again. It was just a cappella, but that was the beginning. It was my son who finally brought guitar back into the house. When I picked that up, I suddenly realised: I’ve got another job to do. What was it that your son said that made you want to pick up the guitar again? He didn’t say anything. He just left it, and I was surprised that I remembered where my fingers should go. What would you tell other Muslims who have a passion for music but are also trying to walk this line - this schizophrenia of sorts that oscillates between ‘music is good’ and ‘music is forbidden’? As far as sacred texts are concerned, they cannot be ambiguous. There are no gray areas. When it comes to music, there is no word ‘music’ in the Quran. Obviously there are insinuations and implications and situations where music is being played and its haram because there’s drinking and fornication - well that’s sex, drugs and rock and roll. But in the end, it is the interpretation. So yes, I believe there is haram music and yes, I believe there is halal (permitted) music. Is there an over-arching theme in your music or an outward meaning of your songs you want to convey? I tell stories. I try to tell true stories. It’s about how people live and what their problems are - how we love and fall into trouble and bleed and laugh. That’s ended up being the theme of the musical that I’m writing and that I’m going to put on in Australia at the end of May.
It’s all to do with journey. There are only two types of stories: those about leaving home and those about coming back. Where did the idea for your musical Moonshadow come from? I grew up on the West End of London surrounded by theaters and musicals and I always dreamt of writing a musical. It happens that now I have the perfect opportunity, after having written so many songs. It’s a story about a world where there’s no sun and no day, only night. There’s only one moon providing natural light. That means everybody has to work extra hard to buy these embers to keep their houses warm. In the middle of all this, there’s a boy who has a dream about another world - the World of the Lost Sun, called Shamsiya. He meets his moon shadow and he decides to go on a journey to find that World of the Lost Sun. What is your creative process like and where do you get the inspiration for your songs? That’s a difficult question. I’m unscientific about it all. There’s a mood and I catch the mood. I entertain myself. I’m the first one to hear the song, and if I like it, perhaps others will like it too. There was a great philosopher who once said ‘there’s nothing more joyous than the joy of that child who creates something and then shows it to others’. It’s being gifted. What happens when you give that gift and it is not received in the way you want it to be? Particularly after your conversion, and after you starting making more Islamic-themed songs, was there a backlash? You go through various phases. Living up to your ideas is not an easy job and when other people have ideas of you that you have to live up to as well, it’s even harder. That’s why we have a clear direction from our Lord as to how to live. As long as you keep your focus on God and his prophet I dont think you can be diverted. It’s all down to that intimate and direct relationship and that’s what you maintain in your prayers. So yes, it was difficult. But I always had my prayers. Let’s talk about your song “My People”. You’ve said before that you were looking at the events of Cairo’s Tahrir Square [during the Egyptian uprising]. What was the greater inspiration and what did you hope the song would do? There wasn’t much we could do sitting and just watching [the uprising] on television. We wanted to contribute and that was the best way I knew how - to write a song. We got people from around the world to contribute their voices to the cause and we put out a call on Facebook. I sang a demonstration of what the key should be and they sang the chorus and sent it back. We got all the voices on the track and then made it for free. 29
INTERVIEW By Dan Freeman-Maloy
European Politics on Palestine:
Interview with David Cronin
David Cronin with his book at a campaign
David Cronin is one of the leading public critics of European policies on Palestine. He has written for a variety of publications across Europe, has served as European correspondent for The Sunday Tribune (Dublin) and as Brussels correspondent for the Inter Press Service news agency, and is the author of Europe’s Alliance with Israel: Aiding the Occupation (2011). 30
In your book, you describe the determination of Israeli planners to develop closer ties with the European Union. Has Israel’s traditional policy of trying to limit European diplomatic involvement in the Middle East changed? Yes and no. In recent years, there has been quite a bit of strategic thinking undertaken by the Israeli foreign ministry. This was particularly the case when Tzipi Livni was in charge of that ministry. One of the conclusions of that thinking was that Israel should not rely entirely on the US to defend its indefensible actions. There was a realization that while the US remains the only superpower at the moment, other powers are emerging. The decision to “reach out” more to the EU was taken in that context. Israel is similarly seeking to engage more with China, India and Brazil, particularly with regard to sales of weaponry and surveillance technology. There is a perception in some circles that European diplomats are hostile to Israel. In the first few months of this year, a series of leaked reports from EU representatives in East Jerusalem and Ramallah expressed frustration with the expansion of Israeli settlements. Yet it’s significant that these reports were drawn up by people who witness the results of Israel’s activities “on the ground”. The EU also has representatives in Tel Aviv and Brussels, who see things very differently and have been beavering away to increase cooperation between Israel and the Union. We occasionally see newspaper articles in which Israeli ministers accuse the EU of meddling in Israel’s affairs or suggesting that the EU is biased towards the Palestinians. Yet if you dig even a tiny bit beneath the surface, you will see that this apparent tension is at odds with the real picture. The real picture is one where the EU has become so close to Israel that, I would argue, it has become complicit in Israel’s crimes against humanity. Not long after Operation Cast Lead, then NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer made a cordial visit to Israel (where his hosts drew a parallel between Israeli operations in Gaza and NATO operations in Afghanistan). You report that NATO-Israel relations may be set to deepen. We should never forget that in 2010,
Israel killed eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American in international waters, while these activists were taking part in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. I’m not an expert on these matters but my understanding is that this attack was tantamount to an act of war against Turkey, a member of NATO. I think it’s fair to say that if Iran had done something comparable, NATO would have reacted forcefully. Yet Israel has a so-called “individual cooperation programme” with NATO since 2006, under which both sides share sensitive information; the scope of the program was extended in 2008. Israel’s relationship with NATO has remained strong despite how the alliance condemned the flotilla attack. Shortly before Gabi Ashkenazi stepped down as head of the Israeli military last year, he was treated to a farewell dinner by senior NATO officers in Brussels. He also was called in to give NATO advice on how to fight the war in Afghanistan. And Israel is taking part in a NATO operation in the Mediterranean called Active Endeavour. Originally, this was supposed to be an “anti-terrorism” initiative in response to the 11 September 2001 atrocities. But it has subsequently been broadened to cover immigration. What this means is that Israel is helping Western governments, especially Greece, to prevent vulnerable people fleeing poverty and persecution from reaching Europe’s shores. It’s quite disgusting. Turning back to the EU specifically, where does the recent Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA) agreement fit in the broader struggle around Europe’s preferential trade ties with Israel? ACAA sounds dull and technical. But it is deeply political. This is an agreement reached between the EU and Israel, whereby quality checks carried out by the Israeli authorities on manufactured goods would have the same status as similar checks carried out by authorities within the EU. At the moment, it’s limited to pharmaceutical products but it could easily be extended to other goods. This agreement is a top priority for the Israelis because once it enters into force, Israel would take an important step towards being integrated into the EU’s single market.
To their credit, some members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have been asking difficult questions about ACAA for a few years. And this has meant that the Parliament has not yet approved the agreement. It’s not clear when the Parliament will make a final decision about the matter. There was a discussion at the Parliament’s foreign affairs committee in the past couple of weeks, where it was decided to delay holding a vote on the dossier until legal assurances are provided on the question of whether or not the agreement would apply to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It’s significant that the Israelis have hired a top public relations firm, Kreab Gavin Anderson, to help with their efforts to break the deadlock on ACAA. Kreab’s Brussels office is headed by a guy who used to be the chief adviser to MEPs with the Swedish Conservative Party. It cannot be a coincidence that one of the MEPs most vocal in supporting ACAA, Christoffer Fjellner, belongs to that party. He is arguing that if the agreement is not approved, Europeans will have less access to medicines. This is scaremongering, in my view, and is hypocritical because Fjellner is very supportive of the big players in the global pharmaceutical industry, who are actively seeking to use intellectual property issues to prevent the poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America from having access to affordable medicines. Even people writing for quasi-official EU publications have felt compelled to question ‘the sincerity of repeated declarations encouraging Palestinian unity’ from official spokespeople. How have EU donor and diplomatic policies contributed to fragmenting Palestinian politics? Those declarations have zero credibility. The EU always claims that it wishes to promote democracy around the world. In 2006, an election took place in Palestine. The EU’s own observation team found the election to be free and fair and something of a model for the Arab world. And then the EU decided to ignore that election because in its eyes the “wrong” party – namely Hamas – won. I’m personally not a fan of either Hamas nor Fatah but if Hamas won a democratic mandate, that should be respected. 31
ART
Think Middle East politics are hot? Try Middle Eastern art
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ven as governments collapse and revolutions persist across the Middle East, the rise of the region’s art market continues with collectors – both local and global—snapping up works by Iranian, Iraqi, Lebanese, Syrian, and Egyptian artists at art fairs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, galleries in Tehran, New York, and London, and auctions in London and Dubai. With the season sales of Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian, and Turkish art kicking off this week in a two-part sale at Christie’s Dubai (Part II takes place tonight at 7 pm local time), the growing passion for these works is already showing strength. With 91 percent of works sold in last night’s offering, prices soared above estimates for several pieces, including Mahmoud Said’s “Marsa Matrouh” ($602,000 against a $250-300,000 estimate) and “Regeneration” by Lebanese painter Saliba Douaihy (1915-1994) deaccessioned by the North Carolina Museum of Art and purchased by an “International private collector” (according to Christie’s) for $278,000 – more than double its $120,000 high estimate, and an auction record for the artist). Also notable was the sale of
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Turkish artist Azade Koker’s “And It Was My Life That Was Flowing Slowly,” a photocollage tribute to Camille Claudel, for $86,500. (I have been an ardent admirer of Koker’s work for some time, starting when her work was easily affordable; last night’s sale was just another reminder that for art lovers as much as anyone, to hesitate is too often to lose.) And Iraqi art star Ahmed Alsoudani did equally well: though a 2008 acrylic and charcoal on canvas by the artist, who shows with Haunch of Venison gallery (an affiliate of Christie’s) and who was featured in the Iraqi Pavilion of the 2011 Venice Biennale, failed to meet its $500,000 high estimate, it found a happy new home for a comfortable $386,000.
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