19 Jan 2025 – Palestinian poet Refaat Al’ar’eer was killed by an Israeli bomb on December 6, 2023, after he wrote this poem below. Let us execute his will left in the poem below, let us make kites, the least we can do now on the day of a temporary ceasefire in a war that […]
Time for the UN to Check Out of the Four Seasons As Geir Pedersen, the UN envoy to Syria, left the abandoned Sednaya prison near Damascus, a woman spat in his direction and threw her shoes at his car — a gesture of deep disrespect and disdain in the Middle East. Prior to the collapse of the Assad […]
29 September 2023 — Some of my friends whose opinions I very much respect admiringly shared an analytical piece by Cheryl Benard on Afghan women after the failure of the American Neo-imperial project and their ignominious withdrawal this month. Here is the piece: https://unherd.com/2021/09/the-truth-about-afghan-women/… I found the main points of attractions in the piece either […]
First published in MadaMasr on 13 October 2020 Even as the Saudis and the Emiratis continue to wage war in Yemen, they should step up and at least double the money they have been providing for humanitarian aid in the country. It is a moral duty and an ethical obligation, and although these are clearly […]
This was first published by MadaMasr on 6 September 2020 Less than three days after a massive explosion in Beirut killed nearly 200 people, injured several thousand and devastated the city, the head of the World Food Programme, the largest UN relief agency, flew into the Lebanese capital and drove to the site of carnage. […]
This was first published on MadMasr on 22 August 2020 Seventeen years ago, this week, I survived a terrorist attack that killed 22 people and injured many, including several friends in the United Nations. The attack on the UN offices at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad came a few months after the US invasion of […]
By mid 2020, the pandemic has left most Egyptians, probably including government officials, counting more on divine intervention and what has been destined by fate, rather than government policies and market responses… This article was first run by Daraj on 16 July 2020 in cooperation with Pulitzer Center. By early July, over 3500 Egyptians fell to […]
31 May – North Sinai has one physician per 2500 people while South Sinai has one physician per 400 people. North Sinai has poverty, arms and drug smuggling and ferocious counterterrorism campaign against armed Islamist militants, while South Sinai has well developed top tourist destinations, walled communities, own airport, hospitals, etc.
16 April – Could not comment on the US defunding of WHO for two days as I was laughing non-stop. So UN agencies render services to strong member states or are manipulated or put under pressure by them!! Really!! NO?! In the winter of 2002, four whole months before the US invasion of Iraq, I saw […]
20 March – Full curfew in Jordan as of 7am Saturday. No duration is given but some think it will be eased down in 3-4 days. 22 March – Enjoying the curfew #Corona_in_Amman 29 March – (long note on walking in the shadows of Corona) The air raids’ sirens are blaring out continuously. Loud, ominous. But nobody is running to […]
