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A wristband made with the colors of the Egyptian flag. (Bernat Armangue/AP)

New pride in Egypt's national colors

By Dina Abdel-Mageed, Contributor / 01.17.12

• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

Flag-waving was once a phenomenon only seen on the streets of Egypt before and after soccer games. And it has never been a normal sight to find Egypt’s flag hung in windows. But the country’s 18-day revolution succeeded in reviving the significance of the Egyptian flag as a symbol of national pride.

Egyptians now rally around their flag, which has come to represent the outburst of nationalistic fervor released by last year’s revolution.

“Five or six years ago, our national flag meant nothing to us,” says Maha Hamdy, a creative director at an advertising agency. “But after the revolution, our perception of the flag reflects a strong sense of belonging.”

Egypt’s current flag – with its red, white, and black horizontal bands and the eagle of Saladin – was introduced by the Free Officers, who ascended to power in 1952. Yet unlike Libya’s insurgents, who hoisted the flag of the monarchy, most Egyptians have come to view their national flag as a symbol of their revolt.

In addition to its growing political significance, Egypt’s flag has become the latest fashion frenzy – as a headband, a head scarf, and even a niqab (face veil). Businesses are capitalizing on the phenomenon by displaying the flag on products and advertisements. The national colors appear on everything from rings and dresses to billboards.

Ms. Hamdy says more clients are using a patriotic tone in their ads since the revolution. “Using the flag in different forms has become equivalent to making a statement about one’s nationalistic sentiments,” she adds.

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A display of t-shirts are seen for sale in a Scottish memorabilia shop in Edinburgh, Scotland on Jan. 13. (Scott Heppell/AP)

Scottish politicians fend off accusations of being 'anti-Scottish'

By Bryan Kay, Correspondent / 01.13.12

Fierce debate surrounding an upcoming referendum on Scottish independence took an ugly turn when a Scottish nationalist politician labeled the parliamentary members who oppose independence "anti-Scottish," claiming they had formed a political alliance to "defy the will of the Scottish people."

Joan McAlpine's remarks sparked an angry response in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, which passed a motion 67-56 stating that the Scottish legislature is responsible for making arrangements for the controversial referendum on the country's independence from the United Kingdom. (For a full explanation of the independence referendum issue, see our earlier story.)

"I absolutely make no apology for saying that the Liberals, the Labour Party and the Tories are anti-Scottish in coming together to defy the will of the Scottish people, the democratic mandate the Scottish people gave us to hold the referendum at a time of our choosing, which the first minister said would be the latter half of the parliament," Ms. McAlpine told the Scottish Parliament.

Their opposition to independence is the only policy that the three main unionist parties – the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats parties – can be sure to be in more or less total agreement. Though the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats share power in the UK coalition government in London, it is an alliance of political convenience and their politics diverge greatly.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond derided the parties' decision to join forces on the independence issue as an unholy alliance between Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband (who are otherwise political foes), formed merely to dismiss calls for independence. A Labour member of the Scottish parliament, Neil Findlay, led the unionist retort, calling McAlpine's outburst an "utter disgrace."

"I think the member should seriously consider what she is saying. Given the views that opinion polls suggest of the vast majority of the Scottish people, is she suggesting that they're not patriotic and do not love their country?" he said.

As the Monitor reported earlier this week, the most recent polls indicate that only 38 percent of Scots support outright independence. Another released Thursday suggested support was as low as 33 percent.

Conservative Scottish parliament member Jackson Carlaw, calling himself "a proud Scot and an elected member of the chamber," accused Ms. McAlpine of "political racism."

Salmond, who appeared to be trying to distance himself from the argument, reiterated the Scottish government's stance that the referendum should be "organized in Scotland, built in Scotland for the Scottish people, discussed with civic Scotland, and brought to the people in 2014 for a historic decision on the future of this nation."

On Friday, he invited Mr. Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg to Edinburgh for "constructive dialogue" about the the issue. Cameron's UK government prefers a vote "sooner rather than later," possibly within the next 18 months, and disputes Edinburgh's constitutional right to hold a legally-binding referendum without new powers being devolved by London. The British government's perceived interference in what Scots consider a domestic issue is what touched off this week's spat.

Although Ms. McAlpine later tried to tone down her comments by saying they were directed only at the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Dem leaderships, her clarification came with a stinging addendum. The unionist parties, she said, "should not be ganging up" in what would seem to be an alliance "against Scotland's democratic right to decide our own future."

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Taiwan President and Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou is greeted by supporters during a campaign through the streets of the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung on Friday, one day before the presidential election to be held on Saturday. (Shengfa Lin/Reuters)

Taiwan voters face tight election, but keep typical rowdiness in check (+video)

By Ralph Jennings, Correspondent / 01.13.12

Today, as Taiwan prepared to go to the polls for tomorrow's ultra-tight presidential election, police kept a watchful eye on a handful of antigovernment protesters staked out in front of the ruling party’s cavernous 2012 campaign headquarters in anticipation of a news conference by the president. 

It past elections, it was common for angry street demonstrations to swell above 100,000 people ahead of votes in Taiwan, which was under authoritarian until the late 1980s.

But the 2012 campaign is calmer than those in the past, despite the tight race. After four presidential races and local elections somewhere on the island almost every year, the Taiwanese have gotten used to the democratic process.

“It's certainly more sedate than in previous years,” says Michael Turton, an American-born politics blogger based in central Taiwan. “We're in our third decade of real elections. They are normal, not novelties.”

Before the presidential race in 2004, a bullet grazed incumbent Chen Shui-bian, who went on to win. In 2010, a gunman shot and wounded the son of former-vice president Lien Chan at a city council campaign event near Taipei. Another man was killed.

But now the banners, the protest, and the news conference have become common features of Taiwan’s vibrant democracy. They can be seen all year, any year. And this week they were a mere blip on Taipei’s broader landscape of traffic snarls, lunch-hour lines at dumpling shacks, and folks running errands before the Lunar New Year holiday begins on Jan. 23.

Incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou and his main rival, Tsai Ing-wen, are the top two candidates. Ms. Tsai is backed by a party that is colder toward Taiwan’s longtime political rival China than Mr. Ma’s. Both are trying to outdo each other this year in their attention to Taiwan’s lower class. The economy has hit speed bumps since 2008 and faces an uncertain 2012. 

Rallies on Sunday afternoon for the two appeared to draw just hard-line supporters, who cheered on the opposition’s goal of Taiwanese independence from China and the incumbent’s eagerness to engage China. Beijing claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and insists that the two sides some day be reunified. Relations have improved since 2008 following a rack of new trade deals. 

But swing voters largely stayed home during Ms. Tsai’s street-shaking rock concert and Ma’s thundering speech. The swing contingent, estimated at 20 percent of Taiwan’s potential electorate of 18 million, encompasses first-time voters, undecided voters – and, like any democracy, people who can afford to just not care.

“The rallies have been pretty cold,” says Lin Chong-pin, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. “It may be that the voters are becoming apathetic.”

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Cartoons to rebuild lives in Haiti

By Gary G. Yerkey, Contributor / 01.12.12

• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

 More than half of all Haitians cannot read or write, so foreign aid workers here have had to come up with new ways to reach the people they serve.

One of the more creative initiatives to date has been a cartoon-based newspaper, Chimen Lakay (“The Way Home”), currently the largest-circulation newspaper in the country. Averaging 400,000 copies per issue, it’s the only mass-market publication in Creole.

“Haitians are extremely proud of their culture,” says Leonard Doyle, head of communications at the International Organization for Migration in Haiti, which publishes the paper. “And while many are illiterate, a comics-based newspaper is an ideal way of passing on often lifesaving information....”

IN PICTURES: Life in a tent city

Mr. Doyle says the free paper – illustrated by the lauded Haitian artist Chevelin Pierre – focuses on self-help and education. It is distributed in Haiti’s most vulnerable communities, including the hundreds of tent camps set up after the massive earthquake two years ago.

Past issues of the paper have focused on curbing violence against women and containing the spread of cholera. Future issues will deal with the forthcoming carnival season and encourage the half a million living in camps since the earthquake to think of creative ways to move back to their communities.

IN PICTURES: Life in a tent city

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Commuters in Cairo’s rush-hour traffic. (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

A revolution to end traffic jams in Egypt

By Nafeesa Syeed, Correspondent / 01.11.12

• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

The complaint in Cairo is that zahma, Arabic for traffic, has become atrocious in recent years and is only getting worse.

Some point to ever-expanding population growth or easy loans leading to more car ownership or ongoing political instabilities as reasons behind the bottlenecks that weigh down daily life here.

Some young people who are fed up – and those emboldened by a wave of social responsibility since the country’s Arab Spring revolution – are doing something about it. They hope social media and mobile and Web-based tools will help ease road congestion.

A group of young professionals troubled by their long work commutes launched EgyptCarpoolers.com (in English), which allows users to offer and request rides. They say it saves gas and helps the environment. There are plans to add content in Arabic.

In another effort from Egypreneur, a network of young entrepreneurs, founder Abdelrahman Magdy says the public will be involved in finding solutions in their upcoming, multifront “Za7ma” campaign. Mr. Magdy, who listens to audio books while stuck in traffic, says they’re developing a portal where people can post ideas, videos, and tech expertise to create a one-stop-shop app that addresses traffic concerns. They’re also planning a social-media blitz and organizing off-line dialogue events around the issue.

They call it a grass-roots movement. “It’s about the public thinking differently and believing that they can make a difference,” Magdy says.

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney waves to supporters at a New Hampshire primary night rally at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday. Behind Romney are his sons Tagg and Craig and his wife Ann. Romney called the Obama White House a reflection of the 'worst of what Europe has become' in his victory speech last night. (Elise Amendola/AP)

Is Mitt Romney's Europe-bashing well placed?

By Robert Marquand, Staff writer / 01.11.12

To hear Mitt Romney’s victory speech in New Hampshire one might think he is running as much against Europe – or some American perception of it – as against President Obama.

In three withering references at the end of a fiery 10-minute speech last night, the GOP front-runner depicted “Europe” as weak, socialist, an object of pity and, compared with the shining American model, lacking inspiration.

“I want you to remember when our White House reflected the best of who we are, not the worst of what Europe has become,” the potential next president said of his possible chief world ally.

President Obama, said Romney, “takes his inspiration from the capitals of Europe; we look to the cities and towns across America for our inspiration.” Mr. Obama wants to “turn America into a European-style social welfare state. We want to ensure that we remain a free and prosperous land of opportunity.”

Poor Europe! Whatever happened to China-bashing?

To be sure, Romney’s speech in Manchester seemed aimed as much at the conservative voters of South Carolina, site of the next US primary, as to voters in New Hampshire, who gave him a clear victory. A third straight win might be a knockout blow for Romney and turn the current vitriolic GOP in-fighting into a search for Romney’s vice-presidential nominee.

So “Europe,” not New York City, may become a cultural punching bag in the southern strategy of the former governor of Massachusetts. Never mind that Romney spent two years as a Mormon missionary in France, speaks fluent French, and played the cosmopolitan host at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake. He won’t need to reveal his inner Bubba on the sweet potato circuit, or explain why his Massachusetts health care reforms took on a European character, if he runs against stereotypes of the old world in old Dixie.

Here in cheese-eating Europe, among the slouching Marxist masses that throng idle cafes and welfare centers, the US presidential election has barely made a dent. Kidding aside, it is mostly European editorial writers who have followed the US race. Romney may be politically safe in bashing Europe since the continent historically favors Democrats. John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are loved. Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and the recent George Bush, not as much. America may have forgotten Iraq; Europe hasn't.

Here Romney, among those paying attention, is seen as the best of a dubious bunch. Romney’s comments this fall that God chose America to lead the world caused a small stir. But he is generally depicted as a moderate fighting off a troglodyte GOP that has shifted far to the right since the Tea Party stormed into Congress in 2010, and in last summer’s debt-ceiling debate nearly brought America’s government to a halt. That caught Europe's attention.

Romney is the “pragmatist business-oriented” candidate (Germany’s Die Welt) up against archconservative Christian evangelicals and others representing an “ultra-right drift” among Republicans (France’s Le Monde).

Last night’s Europe bashing by Romney “resurrected the simplistic neoconservative talking points…popularized by Robert Kagan, who said Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus,” comments Karim Emile Bitar, a researcher at France's Institute for International and Strategic Relations. “This cartoonish vision seems all the more startling in a changing world where both Europe and the US are confronted with the rise of emerging powers."

Moreover, in lifting the hood on Romney’s Europe stereotypes, there are some factual problems, or what Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn called “stretchers.”

Romney may paint Obama, America’s first black president, as somehow European and thus foreign or less American. But if anything, the feeling in Europe is that the US head of state has largely ignored them, turning his gaze toward the Pacific and Asia when he is not removing troops from the wars of his predecessor.

If Europe is in decline, moreover, its leadership and political drift are moving to the right. In European terms, Britain’s David Cameron, Germany’s Angela Merkel, and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy are Republicans, not leftists.

Romney’s stump speech recites the line, "I don't think Europe is working in Europe. I know it won't work here." But Obama’s Keynesian economics and the US use of the Federal Reserve are directly at odds with Chancellor Merkel on the world stage. Europe’s austerity and budget-cutting approach to the economic crisis is far closer to GOP ideas, including Romney’s, than to Obama’s.

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An Initial Party Offering? China's communists go for an IPO of their news site.

By Peter Ford, Staff writer / 01.11.12

The ruling Chinese Communist party is using a classic capitalist scheme to raise money: An IPO.

Not that the party (slogan: “Serve the People”) is offering the public shares in itself. But it plans to sell stocks in the online version of its official mouthpiece the People’s Daily.

The website is having a hard time keeping up with the commercial competition, according to its owner People’s Daily Online Co. Ltd. in a preliminary prospectus filed with the China Securities Regulatory Commission. It gets one tenth the visitors than the most popular Chinese Web portal Sina.com, for example. 

To rectify this, the company wants to raise $83.5 million through an IPO in Shanghai to “strengthen our marketing and expand our services and products,” the prospectus says. That way it hopes to catch up with Sina, which has tapped international capital markets by listing on the NASDAQ.

The company makes no reference to the fact that the party-owned website may owe its low profile to the stultifying nature of its content. Indeed, it mentions the “People’s Daily journalism tradition” as one of its competitive advantages, which sounds a little dubious.

Another selling point it boasts, though, is the “preferential policy” the website enjoys; this means that the party which owns it also owns the government that makes the rules deciding who else is allowed to disseminate online news in China. Now that is a competitive advantage. 

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Local residents wait for evacuation on a roadside following an earthquake in Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, early Wednesday. A 7.3 quake earthquake hit waters off western Indonesia early Wednesday, prompting officials to briefly issue a tsunami warning. Panicked residents ran from their homes, some fleeing to high ground by car or motorcycle, but there were no reports of injuries or serious damage. (Heri Juanda/AP)

7.3 quake hits Indonesia again, but this time residents are better prepared

By Sara Schonhardt, Correspondent / 01.11.12

Just hours after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of western Indonesia early Wednesday morning, stirring panic and a tsunami alert but leaving no visible damage, life had returned to normal. 

It was a forceful reminder for residents of Banda Aceh, the city closest to the devastating 2004 earthquake and Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 230,00 across South East Asia.

But despite lingering fears of the Dec. 26, 2004 monster wave that killed roughly 170,000 people in Aceh alone and altered the social fabric of the region, Rahmadi, who owns a small perfume shop in Banda Aceh says people are more prepared than they were a little over six years ago because of government programs.

“My parents put all our important things to a bag, and they know which road to use to escape,” says Rahmadi.

The US Geological Survey reported that the quake struck after midnight 261 miles southwest of the provincial capital of Aceh. On the nearby island of Simeulue, where the quake registered a 7.6 magnitude, according to Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency, a hospital evacuated patients as a precaution.

Rahmadi says the earthquake was longer than smaller ones that routinely hit the area.

“The ground just kept shaking and shaking,” says the man, who goes by one name. “Everybody was outside. People’s faces were panicked.”

Warning sirens blaring from neighborhood mosques stirred most residents from their slumber. Many merely gathered nervously in the streets, but some hopped in cars and on motorbikes and drove away from the sea. 

Rahmadi said some of his neighbors stayed outside for more than an hour after the quake, mostly because they feared a tsunami. “They were worried to go to back to sleep.”

Nervous, but better informed

Despite their nervousness, much of resident's better understanding of earthquake and tsunamis come from efforts by the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPD), the United Nations Development Program and international aid agencies to distribute information to residents about how to respond to natural disasters. 

The UNDP frequently publishes information in local newspapers and hands out leaflets about disaster mitigation, says 20-something Rahmadi, who like many of his generation are less fearful of potential tsunamis than their elders. “Older people still don’t understand,” he says.

The disaster management agency has an annual budget of $550 million for preparedness activities, disaster risk reduction, response, rehabilitation, and reconstruction, says its chief Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

That money has gone toward the formation of local-level disaster management agencies, trained volunteer disaster responders and helped create a disaster management plan and map demarcating high-risk areas. BNPD has also provided reconstruction equipment and logistical assistance to the province.

Mr. Nugroho says the reason yesterday's quake did not cause widespread damage is because its epicenter was far away from the mainland, and residents immediately responded by leaving their homes and heading to safer locations.

One witness told local reporters that about 100 people had gathered on a bridge in the city to check if there was any change to the surface height of the river, an indicator of a possible tsunami. In 2004 the sea off the coast of Aceh rapidly retreated after the magnitude 9.1 quake, and a wall of water swept over the city.

Still hurdles

Not all efforts at disaster mitigation have met with success, however.

In October 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake and tsunami near the Mentawai Islands, west of Aceh, stirred criticism of the government’s attempts to install a widespread warning system after an expensive alert that comprised ocean buoys failed. Indonesian officials later said fishermen had tampered with the technology inside the buoys. 

The recovery effort following the 2004 disaster also took considerable time in Aceh, a fairly remote province, and the site of a 30-year conflict between Acehnese separatists and the Indonesian military at the time of the tsunami.

But by 2010 the UN Development Program issued a report praising the rebuilding effort, calling progress there “remarkable.”

The meteorologic agency, which routinely issues tsunami warnings for earthquakes above magnitude 7, lifted its tsunami alert two hours after the quake. Local officials say there have been no major reports of damage or injuries.

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In this file photo, a Russian Zenit-2SB rocket with the Phobos-Ground probe blasts off from its launch pad at the Cosmodrome Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Some of the recent failures of Russian spacecraft may have been caused by hostile interference, Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said. (AP/File)

Russia hints foreign sabotage may be behind space program troubles

By Fred Weir, Correspondent / 01.10.12

A humiliating string of accidents that has beset Russia's space program over the past year, and only seems to be getting worse, may be the result of foreign sabotage, the head of the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos), Vladimir Popovkin, hinted on Tuesday.

At least seven serious disasters have struck Russian space ventures in little more than a year, wrecking Roskosmos's reputation and putting some of its key projects in doubt. Mr. Popovkin, who had earlier pointed to industrial failures as the source of Roskosmos' woes, said Tuesday that he found it "suspicious" that many accidents occur in blind spots where they are not covered by Russian radars.

"It is unclear why our setbacks often occur when the vessels are traveling through what for Russia is the 'dark' side of the Earth – in areas where we do not see the craft and do not receive its telemetry readings," Popovkin said in an interview with the pro-government daily newspaper Izvestia.

"I do not want to blame anyone, but today there are some very powerful countermeasures that can be used against spacecraft whose use we cannot exclude," he added.

The chain of disasters began in December 2010, when a Proton-M rocket plunged into the Pacific Ocean along with three satellites that had been meant to complete the GLONASS global navigation network, Russia's answer to the US GPS system.

It continued with the crash of a Rokot launcher carrying a military satellite in February, a failed Proton mission in early August, and the spectacular destruction of an unmanned Progress freighter later in August, which rained debris over western Siberia and called into question Roskosmos' ability to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). 

Russia suspended space flights after the accident, and launched an investigation into its causes. Roskosmos resumed supply flights to the ISS in late October, and his since successfully sent one unmanned Progress freighter and two manned Soyuz missions to restore links with the international station.

However, in November, the agency's long-planned Phobos-Grunt Mars probe failed to boost out of its orbit, and is now expected to crash back to earth on Jan. 15. Last month a Soyuz-2 rocket crashed in Siberia, along with a new generation Meridian satellite that was a vital part of a program to update Russia's military communications links.

Roskosmos did have several successes in 2011, including the orbital deployment of a powerful radio-telescope, Spektr-R, that will be able to deliver images of remote corners of the universe at 10,000 times the accuracy of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Russian space scientists, who've enjoyed a large increase in funding over the past decade, have a full slate of hopeful plans on their drawing boards. But the failure of Phobos-Grunt in November brought all the painful questions roaring back. It was one of Russia's most ambitious space projects in decades, aimed at visiting the Martian moon of Phobos and bringing rock and soil samples back to Earth.

At the time, Popovkin admitted that Russia's space industry might be suffering from a systemic malaise.

"This is a significant failure," Popovkin said of the Phobos-Grunt debacle. "This proves that this area of space industry is in sort of a crisis. I can say, even now, the problem lies in the engine, but to be more certain we need to take a look at the telemetry."

The Phobos-Grunt vehicle has been trapped in near Earth orbit for two months, while space scientists have worked in vain to save it. It was recently spotted hurtling backwards at the edge of the atmosphere. The 14-ton object is projected to break into two dozen separate fireballs that will come hailing down (no one can say exactly where) on Jan. 15.

"The basic problem is that our space industry has been degrading for a long time," says Roman Gusarov, editor of Avia.ru, an online aerospace magazine. "It's very complicated technology, with a long chain of industrial suppliers, and the holes have been growing wider and more numerous for years … The system can still turn out old Soyuz and Progress ships, but it can't handle new technologies. I don't understand why they were in such a hurry to launch Phobos-Grunt, given the known risks."

The beleaguered Roskosmos chief Popovkin, who has only been in his job since last April, insisted Tuesday that if they hadn't seized the November launch window the agency would have lost more than $150-million and might have had to scrap the mission altogether.

But blaming foreigners is a new, and potentially ominious twist, say experts.

"The Phobos-Grunt project was inherently risky and it was underfunded to begin with," says Alexei Sinitsky, editor of Aviatsionnoye Obozreniye, an aerospace trade journal.

"There's no need for conspiracy theories, and no reason to take Popovkin's suggestion seriously," he adds. "Maybe he meant extraterrestrials?"

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