The Week Middle East - 09 March 2014, Tygodniki, prasa, magazyny, Tygodniki, prasa, magazyny
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
COMEDY’S
TRAGIC
STAR
OBITUARIES
P29
Bob Geldof: The
return of the
Boomtown Rat
MUSIC
P27
Bollywood’s
young guns
under pressure
PEOPLE
P13
THEWEEK
The singer who fought
for civil rights
OBITS
PXX
THE BEST OF MIDDLE EAST AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
9 MARCH 2014
| PREVIEW ISSUE
Egypt’s baby boom
Why it’s a ticking bomb
Page 4
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS
The main stories…
4
NEWS
What happened
What the editorials said
Crisis in Crimea
The Ukrainians are not blameless, said The New York Times.
They should have reassured ethnic Russians. Instead, one of
their first acts was to strip Russian of its
status as an official language of Ukraine.
But that doesn’t justify Putin’s de facto
annexation of Crimea. “Nowhere were
Russian speakers or interests seriously
threatened – certainly not in Crimea, where
Russians are the majority.” It was the same
type of land grab Putin engineered in
Georgia, said The Guardian.
In a bid to ease tensions with the West,
President Putin declared that Russia would
use military force in Ukraine only as a
“last resort”. He added that Russia
reserved the right to employ “all means” to
defend its compatriots there. The Russian
parliament authorised Putin to deploy
troops in Ukraine after the ousting of the
country’s pro-Russian president,
Yanukovych. Over the next few days,
thousands of Russian troops without insignia
occupied military bases and other strategic
sites across the Ukrainian peninsula of
Crimea, leading to fears of war. Putin insisted
these were “local self-defence forces”, not Russian troops.
“The West should be taking a tough line,”
said The Sunday Times. It’s a breach of the
1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which
Russia and the West pledged to respect
Ukrainian territorial integrity. So far, the West has only dared
freeze preparations for June’s G8 summit. Putin is gambling
that the West lacks the stomach for tough action. But it should
remember that “Russia needs the foreign exchange earnings as
much as Europe needs the gas”.
Russian forces in Perevalne, Crimea
Western leaders condemned what they called a clear act of
Russian aggression and warned of sanctions. President Obama
said Russia was on “the wrong side of history”.
What happened
Egypt’s population explosion
Egypt is struggling to contain a population
explosion that has surged in the past three years,
exacerbating many of the social tensions that led
indirectly to the 2011 uprising.
was elected in 2012, that negligence became
official policy. His administration publicly
declared that population control was not a
government concern.
The number of births in Egypt in 2012 was
560,000 higher than in 2010, according to the
most recent statistics. It is the largest two-year
increase since records began. The rise keeps
Egypt on course to overtake countries such as
Russia and Japan by 2050, when forecasters
predict it will have more than 110 million people.
When Mubarak came to power in 1981, there
were 44 million Egyptians. Today there are 84
million and most live in the narrow ribbon of
the Nile Valley, an area that makes up just over
three per cent of the country. Egypt is the
world’s largest importer of wheat and buys
more than half of its requirements from abroad,
much of which goes into subsidised bread for
the quarter of its population that lives below
the poverty line. The share of water per citizen
currently stands at 640 cubic metres, compared
with an international standard of 1,000. Due to the rapid
population growth, this amount will decrease to 370 cubic
metres by 2050. Ethiopia’s diversion of the Blue Nile as part of
its massive Renaissance Dam project loons large over any
discussion of Egypt’s future water supplies.
The rising population has been central to social
unrest, with rising food prices and high
unemployment rates being major factors in the
so-called Arab Spring revolution. With 60 per cent of
Egyptians under 30 already, a bulging population will further
reduce the limited opportunities for young people.
New arrivals stretch Egypt
Population control, which was relatively successful during
the 80s and 90s, started to fall off the agenda during the
last years of Hosni Mubarak’s government – and was
largely ignored in the chaos that followed his removal in
2011. And after Mohamed Morsi, a religious conservative,
The current population explosion and the pressure it puts on
food, education and employment will necessitate a long-term
vision from the Egyptian government.
It wasn’t all bad
British boy band One Direction
are avid users of social media.
Tweets by the quintet –
particularly their best-known
member Harry Styles –
regularly trend on Twitter. So, it
comes as something of a relief
that 1D’s Liam Payne has told
the group’s millions of young
fans to stop obsessing about
social media and go out and
have some fun. “Kids should be
out living their lives, getting out
and enjoying themselves,” he
said. Better still, Payne didn’t
make his comments in a tweet,
so he couldn’t be accused of
hypocrisy.
The secret of eternal
youth may finally be at
hand.Tests of a
rejuvenating drug have
raised hopes that a pill
that wards off the effects
of ageing may be just
around the corner.
Scientists found that
activating a protein called
sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) extended
the lives of mice and
delayed the onset of age-
related diseases. They
believe their experiments
could lead to drugs that
help to keep people
younger and healthier.
Memory is usually one of the
casualties of advancing age, but
Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin
Saad Al-Motaleq is bucking the
trend.The 64-year-old from
Makkah has been dubbed ‘The
Saudi Google’ because he
retains vivid memories of the
1956 Suez Crisis and everything
since. Asked about the first final
between Al-Helal and Al-Nasser,
he responded without
hesitation.The match took place
on May 17, 1981, he said, and
ended with a 3-1 victory to
Al-Nassar.
THE WEEK 09 March 2014
…and how they were covered
NEWS
5
What the commentators said
What next?
The Ukraine has a great emotional importance for Russia said The Times. If Putin were deemed
to have “lost” Ukraine or Crimea, it would be politically disastrous for him. For the West to
intervene in this struggle it would be “futile” and dangerous. As a former US secretary of state
once said of the Balkans: “We ain’t got no dog in this fight.”
The Obama administration
is considering a series of
punitive economic and
diplomatic measures to
isolate Russia, reports The
Guardian. These include
throwing the country out of
the G8 club of leading
economies, which includes
the US, UK and Germany.
Europe is also threatening
action unless Russian troops
leave the Ukraine and return
to their bases. But like other
EU countries, and especially
Germany, which obtains
almost 40% of its gas and oil
from Russia, the UK is
reluctant to adopt punitive
measures that might damage
its fragile economic recovery.
If only that were true, said the Daily Mail. It’s too easy to imagine this “local incident”
affecting us. Ukraine may end up splitting, with western regions becoming a “rump statelet”
dependent on Western support, and the rest joining Russia. There could be huge trouble if
Russia’s crucical east-west oil and gas pipelines which run through the Ukraine were disrupted.
An emboldened Putin could also try to repeat his Crimea gambit in Baltic states such as Estonia
and Latvia, whose success since leaving the Soviet Union is a “constant irritation” to him.
Russia and the EU should never have made Ukraine choose between them, said
ZócaloPublicSquare.org. It was always going to tear the country apart. The Ukrainians could
sacrifice Crimea if it’s the price for taking the rest of the country out of Russia’s orbit. The
peninsula was “never part of historic Ukraine”. But if Putin tries to grab other bits of the
country, it could spark conflict. Moscow would pay a high price for such revanchism, said the
FT. The crash in Moscow’s stock market showed the extent to which Russia is now financially
intertwined with the West. Putin and his cronies have “used the rhetoric of the Cold War while
enjoying the fruits of globalisation”. They now face a choice. “They can have a new Cold War.
Or they can have access to the riches of the West. They cannot have both.”
What the commentators said
What Next?
The rising population is seen as a “social timebomb” which, if untackled, “will exhaust
Egypt’s depleted resources, worsen a dire jobs market, and contribute to yet more social
frustration,” said The Guardian. Every year, “more than 800,000 young Egyptians join
the job market – which already has an unemployment rate of 13.4 per cent”. With an
unchecked birthrate and a falling death rate, joblessness is expected to rise quickly. An
expanding population will “drain Egypt’s natural resources,” said The Guardian. The
country already faces water, energy and wheat shortages - and “lacks the foreign currency
reserves needed to import extra supplies”. “It’s an issue that cuts across everything in
Egypt,” said Hala Youssef, the head of Egypt’s national population council (NPC).
The new Egyptian
government will need to
follow a multi-pronged
strategy. Reducing
population growth
through a properly
administered voluntary
birth control strategy is
essential. But so is job
creation in order to give
Egyptians, especially the
youth, more economic
opportunities and reduce
poverty. Agriculture will
also be high on the
agenda, which will
necessitate tackling
Egypt’s outdated irrigation
practises to increase
production and food
security. The question is
whether the new
government will have the
long-term vision and
political will to tackle
these issues. And if it does,
are the Egyptian people
willing to wait for results?
The Islamist government of President Morsi blamed Egypt’s “chaotic transition” for the
spiking birthrate, said Tara Todras-Whitehill in the New York Times. Yet for decades, “the
Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservatives chafed” at President Mubarak’s “almost
single-minded focus on contraception and two-child families as a core component of
public policy.” As a result, the Morsi government viewed climbing birthrates “as a
problem of economic management,” said Todras-Whitehill. However, that’s not the full
story according to Patrick Kingsley in Gulf News. Changes to housing regulations in the
90s made it easier for couples to marry and move in together – “perhaps leading to a surge
in pregnancies”. More recently, the administrative chaos that followed the 2011 uprising
led to a drop off in contraception-related awareness programmes.
“If Egypt does not continue to reduce fertility rates, they will have a huge problem because
it is the most populous country in that region, with economic problems and questions
about feeding, educating and finding jobs for its population,” said Hania Zlotnik, the
director of the UN Population Division, in The National. This view was echoed by Shelly
Kittleson in The Daily New: “Heavy reliance on water intensive crops, a major upstream
dam project for the Nile basin, and rising groundwater levels will be pressing issues for the
next Egyptian president – whether military or civilian”.
THE WEEk
Chairman:
Obaid Humaid Al Tayer
Managing Partner and Group Editor:
Ian Fairservice
Editorial Director:
Gina Johnson
Group Editor:
Guido Duken
Editor:
Richard Jinman
News Editor:
Emma Hodgson
Art Director:
Tarak Parekh
Designer:
Sanil Kumar
Picture Researcher:
Hilda D’Souza
Head of Production:
S Sunil Kumar
Senior Production manager:
C Sudhakar
Production Supervisor:
Binu Purandaran
General Manager, Group Sales:
Anthony Milne
Publisher:
Chris Capstick
Senior Sales Manager:
Terry Arnold
Regional Manager, Abu Dhabi:
Imane Eddinari
Home to the world’s
tallest building, fastest
growing airline and some
of the most dynamic emerging markets on the planet, the
Middle East, and the UAE in particular, is accustomed to
world firsts. And so it is that we welcome the first
international licence of the globally successful title
The Week – a collaboration between Motivate, the Gulf’s
leading publisher of magazines and books, and Dennis
Publishing in the UK. Fastidiously researched using
more than 200 news sources expertly distilled into 35
editorial pages, The Week is your essential current affairs
digest of regional and international news. Welcome to
your one-stop shop for all you need to know about
everything that matters.
Head office:
Media One Tower, Dubai Media City,
PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE.
Tel: +971 4 427 3000; Fax: +971 4 428 2260
email: motivate@motivate.ae
Publishers Felix Dennis and Ian
Fairservice have agreed the first ever
licensing agreement for
The Week
.
Printed by:
Emirates Printing Press, Dubai
The Week is a registered trademark of Felix Dennis. Licensed
by Dennis Publishing, 30 Cleveland Street, London, W1T 4JD
OUR
OFFICES
Dubai Media City:
Office 508, 5th floor, Building 8,
Dubai, UAE
Tel: +971 4 390 3550; Fax: +971 4 390 4845
Abu Dhabi:
PO Box 43072, UAE
Tel: +971 2 677 2005; Fax: +971 2 677 0124
email: motivate-adh@motivate.ae
London:
Acre House, 11/15 William Road,
London NW1 3ER, UK
email: motivateuk@motivate.ae
09 March 2014 THE WEEK
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]