A new film called Bughda, said to be the first in Adeni dialect, has recently been released. This is produced by the Adeni filmmakers at Jadaria. The trailer is on Youtube.
Category Archives: Countries
The Salafis, Politics and the Revolution in Yemen
The Salafis, Politics and the Revolution in Yemen
Monday, January 23rd; 12:30pm-2pm
208 Knox Hall ~ 606 West 122nd Street, New York, NY
A lecture by Laurent Bonnefoy
Moderated by Brinkley Messick
Since the early 1980s, Salafism in Yemen has developed as a mostly apolitical movement. Yet, the revolutionary process that emerged in 2011 is changing much of its face in the country and fostering deep recompositions in the Islamist field. This lecture will analyze these changes and concentrate on showing why this political movement matters beyond issues of counter-terrorism.
Laurent Bonnefoy (PhD), born in 1980, is a researcher in political science at the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO) based in Palestine. Building on four years spent in Yemen, his research focuses primarily on contemporary religious identities in the Arabian Peninsula. He is the author of Salafism in Yemen. Transnationalism and Religious Identity (Columbia University Press, 2012).
Co-sponsored by the Middle East Institute and the Alliance Program.
Cool as a Camel
How the camel kept its cool: Dromedary in the desert finds shade under rare tree that does the job of a parasol
By Chris Parsons, Daily Mail, January 4. 2012
When the temperature soars around the sweltering 40C mark, you’ll take anywhere as respite from the scorching rays no matter how unusual it looks.
This camel sought refuge in the baking heat on the Island of Soqotra in Yemen by sheltering in the shade under an unusual tree which looks like a giant mushroom. Continue reading Cool as a Camel
Museum of Syrian History
For those interested int he history and culture of Syria, there is an online archive available at http://www.syrianhistory.com/ The site has links to old photographs, film footage, music excerpts and more.
Tabsir Redux: A Candid[e] View of an Honest Turk
[One of the great moral tales of the 18th century is Voltaire’s (1759) Candide, a book well worth reading and rereading from time to time. Here is an excerpt from the end of the book, but it is not Orientalism in the Saidian sense of negative portrayal; indeed it is the honest Turk which stands in contrast to tyrants of all stripes.]
During this conversation, news was spread abroad that two viziers of the bench and the mufti had just been strangled at Constantinople, and several of their friends impaled. This catastrophe made a great noise for some hours. Pangloss, Candide, and Martin, as they were returning to the little farm, met with a good-looking old man, who was taking the air at his door, under an alcove formed of the boughs of orange trees. Pangloss, who was as inquisitive as he was disputative, asked him what was the name of the mufti who was lately strangled.
“I cannot tell,” answered the good old man; “I never knew the name of any mufti, or vizier breathing. I am entirely ignorant of the event you speak of; I presume that in general such as are concerned in public affairs sometimes come to a miserable end; and that they deserve it: but I never inquire what is doing at Constantinople; I am contented with sending thither the produce of my garden, which I cultivate with my own hands.” Continue reading Tabsir Redux: A Candid[e] View of an Honest Turk
A Buick in Kabul
One of the most famous round-the-world journalists of the last century (or any century) was Lowell Thomas, most known for his blockbuster show on “Lawrence of Arabia.” In 1922 Thomas traveled to Afghanistan and visited the Emir Amanullah. A digital archive of 73 photographs from that trip is available online at Harvard University. Here are pictures of Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan from 90 years ago. Several of the photographs show the American Buick that Thomas drove for his visit. If you happen to be old car buff and interested in Afghanistan, this will be a visual feast.
The Islamists are coming, the Islamists are coming
The Arab Spring has morphed into the pundits’ pandering about Islamism. An example, and there are many to choose from in the current political orgy of right-wing rhetoric, is in a New York Times op-ed by John M. Owen IV. It seems that when Muslims elect representatives who are Muslim they must be a new species called “Islamists.” Yes, throughout the Middle East, where the dominant religion happens to be Islam and there happen to be many forms of Islam, there is a strong interest in electing leaders who espouse religious values. In part this is due to decades of dictators who barely gave lip service to Islam and did all in their power to demonize those Muslims who opposed them. But just look at the current GOP field of candidates and tell me that voting on religious values is somehow unique to Muslims. Do read what Owens writes and then my reasons for being critical of this Islamist hunting…
Why Islamism Is Winning
By JOHN M. OWEN IV, The New York Times, January 6, 2012EGYPT’S final round of parliamentary elections won’t end until next week, but the outcome is becoming clear. The Muslim Brotherhood will most likely win half the lower house of Parliament, and more extreme Islamists will occupy a quarter. Secular parties will be left with just 25 percent of the seats.
Islamism did not cause the Arab Spring. The region’s authoritarian governments had simply failed to deliver on their promises. Though Arab authoritarianism had a good run from the 1950s until the 1980s, economies eventually stagnated, debts mounted and growing, well-educated populations saw the prosperous egalitarian societies they had been promised receding over the horizon, aggrieving virtually everyone, secularists and Islamists alike.
The last few weeks, however, have confirmed that a revolution’s consequences need not follow from its causes. Rather than bringing secular revolutionaries to power, the Arab Spring is producing flowers of a decidedly Islamist hue. More unsettling to many, Islamists are winning fairly: religious parties are placing first in free, open elections in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt. So why are so many Arabs voting for parties that seem politically regressive to Westerners?
The West’s own history furnishes an answer. From 1820 to 1850, Europe resembled today’s Arab world in two ways. Both regions experienced historic and seemingly contagious rebellions that swept from country to country. And in both cases, frustrated people in many nations with relatively little in common rallied around a single ideology — one not of their own making, but inherited from previous generations of radicals. Continue reading The Islamists are coming, the Islamists are coming
When Yemeni springs stop flowing…
غيول» اليمن تموت استنزاÙاً
عمر الØيان
المصدر أونلاين – الØياة
January 5, 2012
تعدّ الأنهار، أو الغيول كما يسميها اليمنيون، الشرايين الØيوية للموارد المائية ÙÙŠ اليمن، Ùأرض اليمن هبة الغيول، مثلما مصر هبة النيل. ومنذ آلا٠السنين اعتمدت الØضارات اليمنية المتعاقبة على جريان الغيول ÙÙŠ الأودية، وعلى ضÙاÙها شيّد الإنسان اليمني Øضارته وأقام جنات سبأ ومعين.
ومقارنة بشبه الجزيرة العربية، أضÙت الطبيعة الجبلية وكمية المتساقطات والمدرجات الخضراء طوال العام جمالاً وغنى على اليمن، ما جعل الأوروبيين يطلقون عليها لقب الأرض السعيدة. لكن الوضع اليوم مختلÙØŒ إذ تربض العاصمة صنعاء Ùوق Øوضها المائي المهدد بالنضوب سنة 2025ØŒ ÙˆÙقاً لدراسة أجراها مشروع إدارة Øوض صنعاء، Ù„ØªØµØ¨Ø Ø£ÙˆÙ„ عاصمة ÙÙŠ العالم بلا مياه ربما بØلول سنة 2017.
مدينة صنعاء، الواقعة على ارتÙاع 2150 متراً Ùوق Ø³Ø·Ø Ø§Ù„Ø¨Øر، والمتربعة على قاع منبسط تØيط به الجبال من كل الجهات، كانت قبل أربعين عاماً منبعاً للغيول التي يعتمد عليها السكان ÙÙŠ الشرب والزراعة، ولعلّ أشهرها الغيل الأسود الذي ينبع من شمال صنعاء.
تغيّرت Ù…Ù„Ø§Ù…Ø Ø§Ù„Ù…Ø¯ÙŠÙ†Ø©ØŒ واندثرت الأراضي الزراعية تØت مباني الأسمنت المتمددة ÙÙŠ كل الاتجاهات، مع ارتÙاع عدد سكانها إلى Ù†ØÙˆ مليون وخمسمائة أل٠نسمة، يعتمدون على الآبار الجوÙية للØصول على مياه للشرب وللأعمال الإنشائية والصناعية والزراعية. وقد Ø£ØµØ¨Ø ÙÙŠ سجلات أمانة العاصمة Ù†ØÙˆ 16 أل٠بئر، بعمق بات يتجاوز 1000 متر.
ÙŠØكي الØاج Øسين علي، من أهالي صنعاء، أنها كانت تعتمد على الغيول والآبار اليدوية التي لا يتجاوز عمقها عشرة أمتار. ÙˆÙŠØ´Ø±Ø Ø¨Øسرة كي٠جÙت آبار صنعاء القديمة بعد «مشروع السائلة»، الذي رص٠مجرى السيول وسط العاصمة.