Saturday, May 28, 2011
Cowper-Coles: 'Arab youth need jobs and education'
Cowper-Coles: 'Arab youth need jobs and education'
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, a former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Israel, says the key to a stable Middle East is to provide the youth with education and jobs as well as a representative government, not necessarily a Western liberal democracy.
This comes as President Obama, on a visit to Europe, says that he supports those fighting for democratic freedoms in the Arab world.
Zeinab Badawi spoke to Sir Cowper-Coles about whether he believes Western foreign policy in the Muslim world now reflects values - or is it based on self-interest?
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Commentary
Zeinab Badawi is right to press the issue of Saudi Arabia. It's being propped up and Prime Minister Cameron was correct to understand that monarchy lead regimes SHOULD NOT BE PROPPED UP.
Unjust regimes, like those in Saudi Arabia, lead by Wahabbi extremists that created Al Qaida and Osama Bin Ladin, need to be criticized.
We're not asking for war, simply a fact that you denounce publicly a country that is oppressing it's people.
This is not culture, this is not popular, and this is not right. The Saudi people are denied their human rights, decade by decade. This will continue until either the Monarchy falls or they revolt and force it to fall.
The regime in Saudi Arabia HAS lost the support of its people.
The inability to see this is just ignorance or the work of a fool.
Egypt eases restrictions at Gaza's Rafah border
Egypt eases restrictions at Gaza's Rafah border
The blockade has caused great hardship for Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip Egypt has opened its border with Gaza, easing restrictions and allowing more Palestinians to cross.
Women, children and men over 40 are now allowed to cross freely. Men aged between 18 and 40 will still require a permit, and trade is prohibited.
Egypt and Israel have blockaded the Gaza Strip since the militant Hamas movement took power there in 2007.
Israel fears weapons will be imported into Gaza, but Egypt insists it will conduct thorough searches.
The BBC's Jon Donnison, in Gaza, says the decision to ease the border controls is symbolically important.
It is another sign that the new leadership in Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, is shifting the dynamics of the Middle East.
Israel has criticised the border move, saying it raised security concerns.
But with elections coming up in Egypt, our correspondent says the change in policy is likely to be popular with a public sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
Continue reading the main story
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Ali Nahallah Gaza residentWe feel that we live in a big jail in Gaza so now we feel a little bit more comfortable”
Although the border will still be closed for trade, the opening of the Rafah crossing is expected to provide a major economic boost to Gaza.
Previously, only about 300 Palestinians were allowed out every day.
Gaza resident Ali Nahallah told the BBC the changes would be welcome.
"Of course this is our only entry point from Gaza to the external world," he said.
"We feel that we live in a big jail in Gaza so now we feel a little bit more comfortable and life is easier now. My kids are willing to travel to see other places other than Gaza."
The latest move comes a month after Egypt pushed through a unity deal between the two main Palestinian factions - Fatah and Hamas - something Israel also opposed.
Fatah runs the West Bank, while Hamas governs Gaza.
Analysts say that with elections looming in Egypt the new policy is likely be popular with a public largely sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
Egypt's co-operation in blockading Gaza was one of President Mubarak's most unpopular policies.
Egypt says the crossing will be open from 0900 to 2100 every day except Fridays and holidays.
Last year, Israel eased restrictions on goods entering Gaza, but severe shortages in the territory remain.
In 2010, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the blockade was a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
Hundreds of smuggling tunnels run under the Egyptian border with Gaza.
Char Gul: The barber of Kabul
Char Gul: The barber of Kabul
Throughout decades of turbulence, the barber at Kabul's military training academy kept his shop open. Char Gul has cut the hair of generations of Afghan soldiers who went on to positions of power or to perish on the battlefield. The BBC's Bilal Sarwary met him.
It is not a lucrative profession, but Char Gul's vocation was as a barber and he has witnessed more than 50 years of tumultuous change in Afghanistan, cutting the hair of soldiers at Kabul's training academy.
"My father wanted me to go to school. But I didn't like books, exams or teachers. All I wanted to do was play the doal [an Afghan drum] and cut hair," the 69-year-old said.
Continue reading the main story
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Char Gul Kabul army barberI succeeded in giving crew cuts to two dozen soldiers in one hour flat!”
At the age of 19, Char Gul decided to enrol in the army and travelled from his home village in Wardak province to the capital.
There was instant recognition for his talent at the Kabul Military Training Centre - but as a barber not a soldier.
"As a test, I was told to give haircuts to recruits. Perfection with speed is what an army strives for," he said.
"I succeeded in giving crew cuts to two dozen soldiers in one hour flat!"
Thousands of soldiers have entrusted their locks to his shears, including the country's current defence minister - who still gets the occasional haircut from Char Gul.
As the country lurched from one crisis to the next, Char Gul says he just kept on cutting hair. Throughout it all, the military academy continued to turn out soldiers.
Many of his customers rose to high ranks in the army, some became generals and a few even ministers. Many others were killed in combat.
Army familyBut he remained a confidant for nervous recruits with little idea of the brutality in store for them. They would talk about their problems with him.
"Solders talk about... how they miss home, they talk about their girlfriends and wives. They talk about fatigue, war and sometimes, ask me questions about the war, about KMTC," he said.
Soldiers who go on to become senior officers stay in touch with him and Char Gul says this is his true home now.
Char Gul plays the doal drum at the graduation parades for the soldiers "I was recently asked if I wanted to retire. But I said, I will retire the day I die. This is my family now.''
Char Gul has yet to meet Hamid Karzai, but he has met a host of other Afghan leaders over the years.
The country's last king, Zahir Shah, and former presidents Daud, Taraki, Amin, Babrak Karmal and Najibullah were all introduced to Char Gul when they came to inspect the military - he played an important role in keeping the soldiers' hair neat and trim.
When he started in the 1960s, the academy was recruiting and training soldiers to serve under Zahir Shah.
"The king was a gem," he recalls.
"I met him when he visited the KMTC to attend a parade. He was extremely soft-spoken and his eyes were full of kindness. His rule was the golden phase for Afghanistan."
Continue reading the main story
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Char GulMany things have changed. But this barber shop remains the same”
But the king was deposed a decade later by his cousin and brother-in-law Daud Khan. There began a period of coups and intense instability and then Soviet troops invaded.
"The arrival of Russian troops was the beginning of a bloodbath and misery in Afghanistan which still continues," Char Gul says.
By 1991 he had experienced six rulers but he continued to serve until the Afghan army was dissolved after the collapse of the last Moscow-backed president, Najibullah, and the emergence of the US-backed Afghan Mujahideen.
Like many Afghans he found the ensuing five years of civil war, followed by another six of Taliban rule, the darkest of his life.
"There was a government in every corner of Kabul," he said. "Once I was stopped by one of the groups and nearly killed but my days were not over yet."
He kept a low profile and avoided working during the time of the Taliban.
The academy fell out of use as a military training centre. It became part of the front line during the civil war and under the Taliban it was the ministry of defence. When the US ejected the Taliban in late 2001, they refurbished the entire building.
Char Gul teases recruits as he cuts their hair "I went back to my old job again," Char Gul said with a smile.
One senior officer says of the barber: "The most amazing thing is how he managed to keep his job throughout his career."
"Many things have changed. But this barber shop remains the same," says Char Gul.
As soon as new recruits enter the academy they come into contact with him - the familiarity and intimacy between soldiers and barber are clear to see.
"Sit up straight!" teases Char Gul as he prods a young soldier from Wardak on the side of the head. "You're in the army now."
Char Gul has also been given the role of playing the doal during the annual graduation ceremony.
"Soldiers, young and old, break into dance when I play the drum," says the barber. "This gives me a sort of hope.
"If a simple thing like music can bring us together, the love for our country, which is stronger and deeper, can surely keep us together in difficult times."
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Gaza: Egypt 'to open Rafah crossing to Palestinians'
Gaza: Egypt 'to open Rafah crossing to Palestinians'
Palestinians protested at the Rafah crossing to mark the anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel Egypt is to open the Rafah border crossing into Gaza permanently to most Palestinians from Saturday, Egyptian state news agency Mena has said.
Gaza has been under blockade since 2007, when the Islamist Hamas movement took control of the territory.
Under ex-President Hosni Mubarak - ousted in February - Egypt opposed the Hamas administration and helped Israel to enforce the blockade.
Israel says the blockade is needed to stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza.
The Rafah crossing will be opened permanently from 0900 to 2100 every day except Fridays and holidays, beginning Saturday 28 May, Mena said.
"Palestinian women of all ages will be exempted from visas as will men under 18 or over 40," Mena reported.
Rafah is the only crossing into Gaza which bypasses Israel.
The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Cairo, says it is unlikely Israel will welcome the move, although it has been easing its own restrictions on its crossings with Gaza.
Significant shift
The transitional military government said last month that it intended to open the crossing permanently.
Our correspondent says the announcement illustrates the more independent-minded foreign policy likely to be adopted by Egypt's new rulers.
Egypt's co-operation in blockading Gaza was one of the most unpopular policies of former President Mubarak, he adds.
Last year, Israel eased restrictions on goods entering Gaza, but significant shortages in the territory remain.
Mena said the decision to open Rafah was part of efforts "to end the status of the Palestinian division and achieve national reconciliation".
Egypt's post-Mubarak government has already helped broker a reconciliation agreement between Hamas and the Fatah faction, which governs the Palestinian West Bank. Israel has condemned the deal.
Under Mr Mubarak, Egypt upheld its unpopular peace treaty with Israel and opposed Hamas in the internal Palestinian power-struggle.
Hundreds of smuggling tunnels run under the Egyptian border with Gaza.
The blockade has been condemned as a form of collective punishment of the population of the Gaza Strip because of the hardships it causes.
In 2010, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the blockade was a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
Source
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Commentary
This is the result and effect of giving the people of Egypt Democracy.
By removing the vile dictators in the middle east that have been enslaving its people for decades, you now allow the blossoming of a peaceful coexistence and the development of a just society.
The people NEVER asked their government to punish the Palestinian people, and yet, with overwhelming disagreement, the unjust Pharaoh of Egypt did so.
Punishing people, especially innocent people, for political reasons is unacceptable and would never allow a human being to sleep comfortably at night.
The only ones who have been sleeping comfortably while the Palestinians were being tortured were the stone hearted, unjust, monarchs of the region.
If every Israeli could see the damage this blockade was having on innocent children's lives, there would be near unanimous agreement to have the blockade ended immediately.
Today is a day we should celebrate, when light finally shines on the shadowed past of pain and suffering. Today the healing starts for the innocent civilians.
Bacteria-rich hailstones add to 'bioprecipitation' idea
Bacteria-rich hailstones add to 'bioprecipitation' idea
The layers representing the build-up of hailstones can be seen in cross-section A study of hailstones has found large numbers of bacteria at their cores.
The find lends credence to the "bio-precipitation" idea, which suggests that bacteria are actively involved in stimulating precipitation.
The bacteria have protein coatings that cause water to freeze at relatively warm temperatures.
Researchers at the American Society for Microbiology meeting suggest bacteria may have evolved to use the water cycle to facilitate their own dispersal.
The micro-organisms that can be found in precipitation such as snow have been studied since the 1960s.
One bacterium that has appeared in many contexts is Pseudomonas syringae, which expresses a protein on its surface that encourages an orderly arrangement of water molecules.
That in turn acts as a "nucleation" site, stimulating the formation of ice at temperatures far higher than those normally required.
So effective is P. syringae at the task that it is used in a commercially-available mixture for snow machines.
In nature, the ice that P. syringae stimulates can damage the walls of plant cells, allowing the bacterium to feed on the cells' interiors.
Only in recent years, however, has a wider role for the bacterium's strategy started to become more clear.
In 2008, Brent Christner of Louisiana State University reported finding significant numbers of bacteria in snow found around the world.
'Intriguing'Now, Alexander Michaud of Montana State University has added to the idea, having collected hailstones on the university campus following a major hailstorm in 2010.
P syringae bacteria are well-known "catalysts" for ice formation He analysed the hailstones' multi-layer structure, finding that while their outer layers had relatively few bacteria, the cores contained high concentrations.
"You have a high concentration of 'culturable' bacteria in the centres, on the order of thousands per millilitre of meltwater," he told the meeting.
The bacteria are known to gather together in "biofilms" on the plant surfaces and can form bacteria-rich aerosols in forest canopies - aerosols that can rise on updraughts, eventually stimulating precipitation in clouds at temperatures far higher than would be required if soot or dust served as the nucleation sites.
Dr Christner, also present at the meeting, said the result was another in favour of the bio-precipitation idea - that the bacteria's rise into clouds, stimulation of precipitation, and return to ground level may have evolved as a dispersal mechanism.
"It's an interesting idea that's been thrown around for decades but only recently has the data accumulated to support it," he told the meeting.
"As a microbiologist, this idea that... an organism could piggy-back on the water cycle I find just intriguing.
"We know that biology influences climate in some way, but directly in such a way as this is not only fascinating but also very important."
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