Middle East Analysis
In Iraq, the new cabinet is in place, and the Prime Minister al-Maliki has given priority to security issues. Almost immediately, problems are arising. According to NPR Radio, one cabinet member, from the (Sunni) Iraqi Islamic Party, rose in parliament to praise what he called ‘the heroic resistance’. He said in a language reminiscent of Ba’athist slogans that all Iraqis should support this ‘brave resistance’, but he did not elaborate if he meant that all Iraqis should join in blowing up people who, like himself, are members of the new Parliament and the Cabinet. I forgot, logic is not our forte in the Arab World, even though we have a whole field of knowledge called 'Elm al-Mantaq. Perhaps this member will have the courage of his convictions, strap explosives in his underwear and blow himself up along with a few more civilians? Most likely, though, he was buying life insurance for his participation in the political process.
Looks like a mini-civil war is starting in the Palestinian Territories. The Palestinians are stuck between a rock and a hard place- between the complacent corruption and kleptocracy of the PLO, and the trap of no recognition and no peace that Hamas set for itself. Looks like a financial crisis is gripping the territories. Perhaps all former ministers under Mr. Arafat would like to help by turning over some of their foreign bank accounts to the new government (Mrs. Arafat in Gay Paris might consider doing the same). Jordan is somehow inserting itself again into this inter-Palestinian conflict- still not clear what their role is in all this. It seems Jordan is nowadays uncovering plots and catching top terrorists faster than you can say al-Zarqawiiii!
Persian Gulf markets resumed their slide. Firing the Saudi head of market, former SAMA official Jmmaz al-Suhaimi, did not help for long after all. I knew it- a friend who worked for the postal service once hopefully told me: shooting the postman does not improve the quality of your mail content. There are steps being taken, though, for the governments to enter and bail out the markets directly. They are thinly veiled under King Abdullah’s proposed fund for people with limited income. The idea is to help low income families invest, but in the process, as a by-product it will help push share prices up. What a coincidence!!!
In Kuwait, the Kuwait Investment Authority is threatening to enter the local market again and purchase ‘profitable shares’. It did not elaborate on the definition of ‘profitable’ and to whom it would be profitable.
In Kuwait also: the Emir dissloved the National Assembly, pending new elections at the end of June. This is a genteel way of scheduling snap elections: all the potentates will still have time to rush out to their vacation spots in Europe at the end of June. For the first time several women will run for office, but not a single one will win a seat at this time. It is not likely that introducing women voters will change the political outcome, not yet. Female voters will vote along the same patterns as their male relatives, mainly along tribal, sectarian, or family interests. That could change with time.
Women in Kuwait are generally brighter (and harder working) than men: Kuwait University has always had lower admissions requirements for male applicants than for female applicants, especially for professional fields like Medicine and Engineering. A male applicant needs a much lower high school grade (GPA) than a female to be admitted. In other words: males are accommodated automatically, their handicaps recognized, otherwise even more top graduates of professional colleges would be females. Ergo, intellectually, the women of Kuwait are superior to their countrymen (of course there are a few exceptions). Goes to Show you: a whiter ghutra and bigger agal around it does not indicate what is underneath- as they say in Texas it could be ‘all hat and no cattle’. There are lots of empty crisp dishdashas on shores of the Gulf.
Saddam Hussein (remember him?) came out yesterday and said that Iran will have nuclear weapons, and that it will close the straits of Hormuz if attacked. He said the West will not be able to defeat it by military force. Words of wisdom from the great Arab Napoleon. I just hope they don’t sentence this Bonaparte to exile as king of some Gulf island like Bubiyan or Failaka. If that happens, then we will soon have to fight a new Waterloo somewhere west of Baghdad.
Cheers
Mohammed
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