Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Sunday, February 20, 2011,
The Libyan government has stooped to an abysmal low by allegedly paying young Africans (names of countries have not been released) up to $30k each to carry out the dirty work of hitting and killing protesters in the streets of cities like Benghazi. Al Jazeera English has also been reporting that a number of Libyan students in the US were allegedly called by their embassy in Washington and coerced to participate in pro-Gaddafi rallies in the US Students. Their scholarships would be called off ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, February 14, 2011,
The New York Times had a fascinating article and an interactive timeline tracing the roots of the peaceful revolution in Tunisia and Egypt. The transnational dimension of these uprisings is just incredible as activists and protesters exchange idea, tactics and read up on resistance literature and activist initiatives in the history of the United States and more recently in Serbia. What's also fascinating is how the Web and social media have become mobilizing tools to brand these revolutionary... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, January 25, 2011,
Egypt is witnessing some of the biggest riots in many years as thousands
of people took to the streets chanting slogans as "Mubarak Mubarak,
Saudi Arabia is waiting for you." Below is a chilling video of what's
happening in Cairo today. A young protester stood in front of a
water-hosing truck in a moment reminiscent of the Chinese man who
defiantly stood in front of a tank during the Tiananmen Square uprising.
Twitter was blocked in Egypt and cell phone communication was interrupted. L... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, January 24, 2011,
Last night, Aljazeera released documents revealing important secrets about the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations. While I believe this unprecedented revelation (more in terms of its details but not so much the substance of its accusations) to be quite useful, I think its timing was poorly planned. It is painful to see how low Fatah has stooped conceding too much to an Israeli side that is clearly not interested in making peace and only concerned about acquiring more land. Saeb Erakat, th... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Friday, January 21, 2011,
An interesting episode of Al-Jazeera English' Riz Khan show on the role of social media in the Tunisian uprising. Sami Ben Gharbia, the co-founder of the Tunisian website Nawaat.org which has been critical these last few weeks to provide news about the events leading to the collapse of the president and his government, appears on the show along with famous Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas.
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, January 18, 2011,
I usually hate to speak in baffling generalizable terms, but the way Western governments have reacted to the remarkable events in Tunisia is outright sickening. The unctuous statements coming out of Western capitals about the bravery of the Tunisian people is hypocritical at best. Only now do we read about the scores of Wikileaks cables detailing the corruption of Ben Ali and his clan as if they were dark characters in a brilliantly-scripted drama. All this information and much more is availa... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, January 17, 2011,
Anthony Shadid said
it well in today's NYT that the year 2011 may be the beginning of the
end of an old Arab order. Citing election troubles in Egypt, the
government collapse in Lebanon, riots in Algeria, the probable
separation of the Sudan, and the street revolution of Tunisians, Shadid
is right to talk about a paradigm shift. His most revealing paragraph of
the article sums up things quite appropriately: "In the streets of the Tunisian summer getaway of Hammamet, in the
seething qua... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Saturday, January 15, 2011,
A
month after protests erupted in Tunisia leaving more than 80 people
dead, President Ben Ali finally heeded the call of his own people to
step down. You wouldn't know this by reading the media in the US, but
what's going on in Tunisia today is nothing short of historic. This is
the first time that an Arab dictatorship is brought down by street
protests. In a region where governance is inherited and the status quo
benefits a privileged few, it was only a moment of time before repressed... Continue reading ...
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
