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By Mark Hosenball
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Score one for the United Nations. A long-delayed U.N. report on challenges facing the Arab world will be unveiled next month, diplomats say, with language condemning the U.S. and Israeli occupation of Arab lands--despite objections from Washington.
The third of four planned United Nations Development Program reports on the Arab states will focus on the "freedom deficit." While criticizing Arab autocrats, the paper also cites the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Israel's hold on the West Bank and Gaza as "impediments to human development," says Clovis Maksoud, an author of the report and former Arab League ambassador to the United States and India. "In the Arab world, freedom is denied by corruption, nepotism, autocracy--and occupation," says Maksoud, summarizing the conclusions.
Maksoud and Washington-based diplomats say the State Department threatened to withhold its $193 million annual contribution to the UNDP budget unless the references to occupation were removed, a claim the State Department denies. Maksoud says the report was due last October, but was delayed because of American objections, and hopes it will be released next month priorto the Arab League summit in Algeria.
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The UNDP series on the Arab world has been a lightning rod for controversy since its first issue, on political and economic decay, was released in 2002. Arab regimes condemned the UNDP as a Washington stooge for its criticism of human-rights abuses and backwardness. Poor states like Yemen and Sudan chafed at data showing they lag far behind in Internet access, for example, while the rich gulf states protested the UNDP's declared "crisis of conscience between those who need and those who have."
The third report will also highlight the "tension" in Arabs' identity as citizens of Arab states and as members of an "Arab patrimony"--coded criticism, according to some familiar with the report, for the failure of Arab leaders to govern effectively and sub-due the disaffection that fuels a lingering pan-Arabism. Maksoud says the fourth and final study--on the lack of Arab women's rights--could produce even more controversy, pitting U.N. liberals against much of the Arab world's male elite. "That will be the real slugfest," says a dukes-up Maksoud.
Since Vladimir Putin took power in 2000, Russian media freedom has steadily declined. Reporters Without Borders now ranks the country 140 out of 167 nations in the world in terms of freedom of speech. State-owned television networks produce endless variations on "Vladimir Putin: Man of Action"--Putin visiting a factory, Putin dressing down an errant minister, Putin watching a rocket launch. Now comes the latest blow to free televised speech: Star, yet another state-owned network. The brainchild of the Defense Ministry, Star, due to launch later this year, is meant to provide a patriotic platform for positive news about Russia's ineffectual, decaying armed forces. With determinedly upbeat shows like "News of the Fatherland," the network is pledging an even more wholesome alternative to the three existing state-controlled TV networks. (Planned programs like the reality show "Russian Guys" reveal the network's real target audience: young males, who might fill the military's declining ranks.) That, press-freedom advocates say, is the last thing Russia's 144 million far-flung, TV-dependent citizens need. "If you've got military people teaching patriotism, then you've got militarism," says Alexei Simonov, head of Moscow's Glasnost Defense Foundation, a press-freedom organization.
Few Malaysians were terribly surprised last week when authorities retracted their threat to forcibly repatriate an estimated 800,000 illegal immigrants, mostly Indonesian and Filipino laborers. Similar sweeps had been announced and then scaled back during the last six years, and Jakarta had protested this year that its tsunami-wracked economy could not accommodate the return of so many migrants. But authorities in Kuala Lumpur may have been swayed by a more domestic audience.
This year for the first time, paid vigilantes had been enlisted in the repatriation effort: the government-linked People's Volunteer Corps was promised a bounty of $26 for every illegal caught by its members. Before a free-for-all could ensue, however, many Malaysians were outraged by the Jan. 20 raid of a disco in Kuala Lumpur by officers from the Religious Department. The officers walked into the club, separated Muslims and non-Muslims, then herded the former--deemed to be disgracing Islam with their behavior--into caged trucks and on to police cells where they were detained for several hours.
The last thing the government needs is more negative publicity in the form of abused illegal workers. For now, illegals who are caught will be asked to return home. Only if nabbed a second time, by police and immigration officials, will they be forcibly repatriated.
In the past few months a growing number of Internet users have been abandoning Internet Explorer, Microsoft's browser, for Firefox . Though Explorer is still by far the champion, its 90-plus percent market share is shrinking. For Bill Gates, the idea of a shift to some other browser is a disruption to the natural order of things. "Explorer is going to be the primary browser used on Windows, and for anyone to suggest otherwise is just irresponsible," he said in October. Seventeen million Firefox downloads later, it's clear that rhetoric alone won't stem this tide.
Why are techno-savvy users getting Foxy? After a successful predatory assault on its main browser rival, Netscape, Microsoft stopped innovating on its own product. Firefox is one of several browsers (including Opera and Apple Computer's Safari) that have emerged with exciting new features, such as "tabbing" (to easily navigate multiple sites) and full support for the hot new RSS technology (which lets you "subscribe" to Web sites). Firefox also presents a more pleasant experience in general. "People had come to think that browsers didn't matter, but if you have a better one, the whole way you browse the Web is more pleasant," says Mitchell Baker of the Mozilla Foundation, which created the browser. And switching to Firefox is easy--a free, quick download (mozilla.org), and the program will even transfer your bookmarks, your history and your passwords from Explorer.
But perhaps the biggest motivator is safety. Explorer users are routinely victims of security breaches and spyware invasions, and because Explorer is so tightly integrated with Windows, says Firefox's chief architect Brendan Eich, vulnerabilities give outsiders access to your entire computer. (Microsoft Windows head Will Poole responds: "The specific vulnerabilities that have been exploited in Explorer in the past may not exist in other browsers, but other browsers have their vulnerabilities as well." Also, Poole says that Microsoft is constrained by its responsibility to make sure Explorer works smoothly with all existing Web pages.)
How many defectors can Firefox ultimately lure? Depends. To move well into double digits of market share, the Firefoxers will have to persuade computer makers and ISPs to include the program in their initial installations. Nonetheless, Firefox's success proves that the open-source process can reach beyond geekdom to serve--and even delight--ordinary Internet users. And that when the emperor has no clothes, people will go out and find some new threads on their own.
Since falling out with Washington last year, Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi looks poised to step into the spotlight again. He's cultivated Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and radical preacher Moqtada al-Sadr, winning himself a place high on the Shiite election slate. And Chalabi's admirers among Washington neoconservatives are now touting him as a possible high-ranking member of a new Iraqi government. Some Chalabi friends in the U.S. media hint that the Bush administration has already privately sought to effect a rapprochement with the controversial Iraqi. Not so, several senior U.S. officials told NEWSWEEK. Cha-labi did participate in a secret meeting last month with a senior U.S. diplomat. But officials say he was one of numerous Shiite election candidates in attendance. A senior U.S. official said there had been "no new approach" by the U.S. administration to Chalabi, who fell out of favor with Washington after intelligence agencies accused him of leaking U.S. secrets to the Iranian government. Sources say CIA officials laugh at suggestions of a Washington-Chalabi thaw. Only the Pentagon left open the possibility of detente. "The department looks forward to working with the newly elected government of Iraq, whoever they may be," says a U.S. Defense Department spokesman. John Markham, one of Chalabi's American lawyers, said he was unaware of any U.S. government effort to reopen contacts with his client.
The timing of "Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600," the latest exhibition at London's Royal Academy, couldn't be better. With negotiations set to begin on Turkey's accession to the EU, looking to the past may be the best way for Europeans to get to know their new partner. A treasure trove of more than 350 dazzling exhibits, the show delves into the rich ethnic and religious mix that Turkish rulers cultivated throughout history. Included are Iranian drawings and metalwork, jade cups from Afghanistan, Ming china and medieval Italian manuscripts. The exhibit emphasizes the role of Turkish rulers as patrons of the arts. The fall of Constantinople in 1453--a terrible blow to Christian Europe--is glossed over, while the cosmopolitan nature of the succeeding Ottoman court, which employed Iranians, Georgians, Greeks and Albanians, among others, is affirmed.
Some of the most beautiful objects in the show are those meant to demonstrate Ottoman supremacy to friends and foes, like the extraordinary calligraphy of the "tugra," or imperial monogram, of Suleyman the Magnificent, and his ivory, gold, ruby and turquoise-studded sword. One of the exhibit's highlights, the 14th-century paintings of Muhammad of the Black Pen, which have never been seen before outside of Turkey, give a glimpse of nomadic life in the steppes of central Asia. Animated and full of characters, they were probably used to illustrate recitations by wandering storytellers. For those Europeans who don't know Turkey, these delights make a better first impression than even Ankara could hope for.
If you think "Buena Vista Social Club" is contemporary Cuban music at its finest, it's time to head back to Havana. The city of son has become a haven of hip-hop, its homegrown rappers having emerged as the island nation's true revolutionaries. An even easier--and cheaper--way to get up to speed would be to listen to Orishas. Though based in Paris for the past seven years, the trio still leads Cuba's rap pack stylistically, with its smooth blend of traditional son rhythms and the rhymes of modern hip-hop--in Spanish, of course.
"El Kilo," Orishas's third album, doesn't deviate from the magic recipe at all. But somehow it still sounds so fresh: "Que se bote" and "Bombo," in particular, are miracles of polyphonic fusion. The soulful croonings of Roldan, the group's would-be Ibrahim Ferrer, weave seamlessly with Yotuel and Ruzzo's staccato raps. The piano, horns, Cuban percussion and electronic samples complete them. "Our music," the band sings in the title track, "is neither stolen nor copied. It's inherited." What, they're humble too?
You've met her before. That grade-school friend, say, who reassured you, " No, no, no--of course you aren't fat . It's just that, of all the girls at the lunch table, you have the biggest thighs. Are you going to finish all those cookies?"
Meet the Underminer, or, as Mike Albo explains in his new book, "The best friend who casually destroys your life." Written with Virginia Heffernan, "The Underminer" is a set of conversations between you, the reader and a passive-aggressive pal.
Underminers, it turns out, are actually overachievers. "Whew, what a day," begins one passage. "First I did the Ellipticycle for an hour and then I had to run to the Dean's small cocktail party for Honors students and then I had to hurry up and turn in that Green Form so I could graduate. You know, the Green Form. The Green Form? You didn't turn it IN?!"
They offer relationship advice: "There's nothing wrong with Internet dating," the Underminer says after finding a friend's profile on DesperateDater.com. "It's just good practice for people who haven't learned how to talk like normal in normal situations." And they're always quick with a compliment: "You are looking so hearty and ravaged. In a COOL way!"
How do you get rid of an Underminer? The best thing might be to avoid one, Albo says. But that could be tough. As they often remind you: "I've known you forever... I'm your closest friend."
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