IN MEDIA, POLITICS, AND THE AWAKENING

As people struggle to overthrow their tyrants in the Arab world, social networks were their journalistic tool. But for this tool to be effective, they need the media to spread it further wide. And in process, people found themselves in the middle of a very complicated relationship between media and politics .. They found themselves in a two-front war. A front in the streets against the tyrant's security apparatus, and a front of propaganda war against the nature of media structure in the Arab world.

GULF MONARCHIES & IMMUNITY TO CHANGE

As the uprising in Bahrain had been crushed last month, and the protests in Oman lost momentum, the six GCC monarchies seem passing the general Arab awakening. In fact, they seem immune to any change that might lead to put in place what Winston Churchill referred to as the "least worst form of government". Ruling families in these six monarchies gained a dose of self-confidence, and pro-democracy forces in the Arab peninsula lost hope. So, what are the characteristics and compositions of these monarchies that make it immune to a democratic change? 

ARAB TYRANTS .. ROBBERS OF TIME

Inspired by an article by Mr. Ahmed Berqawy published by Assafir Newspaper

Let us put aside the scientific definition of time. It is more serious and more dangerous than that. It is our life in that time .. It is our limited time .. our time in the timeline of life .. It is to say, that the biggest robbery ever existed in the history of mankind, is the robbery of our life committed by our Arab tyrants .. They robbed our time, a time that we cannot retrieve.

POST-REVOLUTION AND THE IDENTITY OF THE NATION

Those expecting that Tunisia, and Egypt will transit smoothly and quickly to a democratic system will likely be disappointed. Removing a tyrant is just the first step toward a stable democratic system. Scholars argued that it takes two to three decades for any society to adopt to the practice of democracy. They also argued that social and political fundamentals erected in the early stage of the transition, will play a major role in drawing the phases of this transition. Fundamentals as the reconstruction of certain principles like the identity of the nation, the concept of citizenship, and the concept of state secularism, are essential to be debated at a national level, in order to build a different future.

QANA MASSACRE .. WE NEITHER FORGOT, NOR FORGAVE

On April 18, 1996, Israeli army shelled a UN compound near Qana village, in which around 800 Lebanese civilians took refuge fleeing the Israeli operation of "Grapes of Wrath". The Israeli artillery pounded the compound with M-109A2 155 mm guns, 106 Lebanese civilians died. A UN investigation committee concluded that it is "unlikely" that the Israeli shelling was a technical or procedural error. And a vote in the UN general assembly decided that a $1.7m cost of repairs to be paid to UNIFIL by Israel. Mark that "Cost of repairs" .. Of course, international condemnation yet to be heard. Israel repeated its criminal episode of Qana again in 2006. Those responsible of that massacre are yet to appear on trail.

Today, we commemorate this crime not to remember, but to reassure the whole world that we will never forget .. and we will never forgive ..  

ARAB AWAKENING & THE MIND REVOLUTION

Anyone who takes a glimpse on the events sweeping currently the Arab world, will not be able to miss certain realities; 1. people and youth are trying to jump on the speedy train of the 21st century, while tyrants are clinging to the status quo. 2. People and youth insist to turn the page of the status quo or die trying to, while tyrants are ready to kill their own people to preserve this status quo. 3. People and youth are dreaming of nation building with the principle of citizenship as an umbrella of unity, while tyrants are fueling society diversities, sectarian and otherwise, in order to spread and rule, ignoring the risks and hazards of civil war, or the disintegration of state and society. In general, it is a struggle for forming the future, where people dreaming of it to be bright, tyrants tend to kill to preserve it dark. But if oneself takes more than a glimpse, the reality to unfold is a different story.

EGYPT SHOULD LISTEN TO THE OLD MAN

Born in 1923, Mohammed Hassanien Heikel is 88 years old now as he watched another major shift in the modern history of the Arab world, "the Arab awakening". In his 66-year long career as a journalist and a writer, he covered the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948, and the Egyptian revolution of the "Free officers" in 1952. He accompanied the late Egyptian leader Jamal Abdul Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s, and the Egyptian-led of Arab struggle against the colonial powers of that time. He was a witness of Suez Crisis in 1956, the six days war of 1967, and the Ramadan war of 1973. He was the first to write a book on the Iranian revolution of 1979 (The return of Ayatollah), and he watched with an eagle-eye the rest of the controversial events of the middle east. And between then and now, he earned the "leading Arab journalist" title, and became a highly respected commentator on Arab affairs.