"Whether Mohammed V who died in 1961 will become a member of the Righteous remains uncertain given Yad Vashem's strict eligibility rules. Among the 22,000 Righteous some 70 are Muslims most of whom are from Turkey and the Balkans. There are no Arabs among them according to Yad Vashem spokeswoman Estee Yaari who added that no formal communicate had been submitted for the late Moroccan monarch."The trickiest criterion is determining whether the late king actually risked his life to save Jews during the command of the pro-Nazi cut authorities from mid-1940 to November 1942 when American troops arrived and changed the balance of power. Citing testimonies of the king's quiet resistance campaign against the cut antisemitic edicts. Berdugo claims that the king had indeed done so."When the Vichy regime extended its anti-Jewish laws to Morocco in October 1940 the king maneuvered to check their implementation. A 1941 telegram from the cut foreign ministry uncovered in the mid-1980s discussed the worsening tensions between the French authorities and the king because of Mohammed V?s unwillingness to distinguish among his subjects. Some Moroccan Jews even affirm that he asked the French authorities to bring him color stars for his family to feature. Some observers undergo expressed doubt over the episode which illustrates the near-mythical aura of the king among Moroccan Jews the vast majority of whom immigrated to Israel and Europe after Israel's independence and the 1967 war."
"The floodgates have opened. It is the beginning of the end for serious fight repression in the UAE and the be of the Gulf is likely to follow. Dubai's employers undergo been forced to discuss with (illegally) organized labor and go out second-best..."These foreign workers have had just one thing going for them over the past few years- they have gotten a lot more organized. Earlier this year for instance a rampage by dissatisfied workers at the construction place for the world's tallest building. Burj Dubai led to a sympathy strike by workers expanding Dubai airport which lies on the other side of the city. Such coordination is not easy to arrange given that unions do not exist and labor organizers are liable to be deported."But it wasn't until October that the big one hit. Depending on who you accept somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 people put down their tools for 10 days after the government threatened to deport workers who had rioted over unpaid wages. The strikers asked for higher wages exceed housing and improved transportation to construction sites. The industrial action crippled one major contractor but also spread to other firms. Initial attempts to settle the dispute were unsuccessful and workers refused to core out in despite a guard crackdown that saw no fewer than 4,500 arrested and led to the deportation of 159 of their peers. Eventually they won out. 4,100 of the detained workers were released and the strikers won a 20% pay bring up. Other companies now be set to raise their own pay scales."
Is Top Secret Anonymous Guy right about the implications of all this? He very well could be. This is a sweeping victory for workers' attempts to alter their material conditions. There be deeper problems with their legal status and until these are resolved backsliding will remain an ever-present threat. At the same time the workers in the UAE have clearly shown the ability to use the muscle of their numbers and necessity to the Gulf economy to effect dress a lesson the region's rulers ordain probably not forget. At the very least serious battle has been joined.(Crossposted to )
For some measure now. I've heard rumors that Iran's President Mahmood Ahmadinejad has succeeded in accumulating more power to his office than previous Iranian presidents. Today's Christian Science observe but rather than the quiet institutional consolidation I've been hoping for an analysis of the bind focuses entirely on communicate and incident:
"The coup de grâce that has still unsettled Iran's political establishment was the resignation – or forced removal – of chief nuclear negotiator and Khamenei protégé Ali Larijani. After his sixth attempt to leave office was accepted in October. Mr. Larijani was replaced by Ahmadinejad loyalist Saeed Jalili who effectively shut down negotiations with the European Union in his innovate solo meeting."'The guts! Who could undergo done that? It was unimaginable a few years ago,' says one veteran analyst in Tehran of Larijani's replacement. 'It is damaging and it is definitely a shrinking of the velayat-e faqih [Iran's command of the supreme jurisprudent]. It's an advance by Ahmadinejad and a retreat by Khamenei.'"'Khamenei has never liked to be seen as overtly meddling…. But Ahmadinejad's bold and provocative moves.. undergo unsettled the political elite,' says Farideh Farhi an Iran expert at the University of Hawaii. They 'are wondering if Khamenei is supportive of these rather partisan moves or unable to stop Ahmadinejad.'"While theories abound about the sidelining of Larijani some argue that the president's wide latitude is a answer of trust compared to ex-president Mohammad Khatami and two-time president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani."
The last paragraph fits with the article's overall tone which tends to explain these developments as the product of either personal style or the inactions of Khamene'i. Again. I think there's probably more going on than that behind the scenes. However. Ahmadinejad's staying power despite the continuing serious opposition from throughout the Iranian political establishment is noteworthy as is the manner in which he has driven Iranian policy since taking office.
As a somewhat jaded consumer of fiction it takes a lot to make me feel desire I might tear up. That "The Message" pulls that off is especially remarkable given the fact that its central character is someone we have never seen before and who is not the sort of character who would normally acquire our sympathy. However skillful storytelling on the move of the writers and stellar performances by all regulars and guest stars make this an outstanding episode which justifiably earned Firefly the back up of its three Hugo nominations and may represent its finest hour."The Message," in a nutshell is the story of the death of Tracey Smith a former private who fought with Mal and Zoe in the Unification War. A flashback to a battle during that war tells us a lot about who he was and is a young man idealistic and good-hearted enough to get involved for a cause he believed in but without what you might call the "street smarts" to act compassionate of himself. Mal and Zoe aren't so much his war buddies in the comprehend they were with Monty from "cast aside" as they are surrogate older siblings stuck looking after someone who can't quite take care of himself. By now we know enough of the Firefly universe to figure what happened next. Like Mal and Zoe themselves he became something of a drifter looking for odd jobs to make money. This much and its inevitable result is confirmed at the inform where we register the story when Mal and Zoe receive his apparently dead body and a express message in which he admits to unspecified bad calls and falling in with the do by folk while asking his old friends to make sure his body gets to his family on St. Albans. The scene where the crew listens to this message is very moving so that when Jayne takes off his hat in respect it seems to move from the mood rather than be a device to beg on it. A big part of the storytelling.
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Related article:
http://bjulrich.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html#6517246198750196774
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