MENA House: Music and the Egyptian Revolution

On 23 July 1952. Egypt's Mohammed Ali dynasty was replaced by a Republic. King Farouk I was overthrown, the monarchy was abolished, and the official name of the land of the Pharoahs became "The Arab Republic of Egypt".

Fifty-eight years later, amidst talk of new relationships between media, politics, and change, it is useful to note one reason for the revolution's success: radio and newspapers might be essential for social interchange but they could also play leading politic roles

Dr Nahed Abdel Hamid attributes the Revolution's success to patriotic songs that brought out the emotion and passion in Egyptians for a "nation" and reached all social classes, unifying the state.  As Madonna's song "Music" explains, "Music makes the people come together....Music mixes the Bourgeoisie and the Rebel...."

During the 1940s and 1950s, Egypt produced some of the greatest and most well-known music artists and actors in the Middle East and North Africa. Abdel Halim Hafez (Andaleeb)  and Om Kalthoum, who respectively sang "Sawritna al Masriya" (Our Egyptian Revolution) and "Sawar-Sawar" (Revolutionary-Revolutionary), started a modern trend of patriotic expressionism practiced to the present day.

However, Abdel Hamid points out that these patriotic songs go back to the Ancient Egyptian era. "Wahawi ya Wahawi" (Greetings, Greetings), a song sung during the Revolution and to this day during Ramadan, is almost 3000 years old.

The story of the song is in drawings in the Karnak Temple.

In 1025 BC, King Mena went to fight a battle with the Hyksos, a tribe from the Gulf/Persian area.  Worried and concerned for her son, his mother Princess Iyaya travelled to find King Mena. On her journey, Egyptian troops and citizens greeted Princess Iyaha with the song: "w’h.wi w’h.wi i’h" and informed her of the good news that her son King Mena had defeated the Hyksos army.

The Ancient Egyptians also sang "w’h.wi w’h.wi i’h" during festivals to welcome the new moon and the new month. In this context, the song meant "how present (or how stable) is the moon".

Although we can never replay the tune of the song, the words remain as Egypt carries some of its ancient traditions. And so I wish you all a "w’h.wi w’h.wi i’h" and a Happy July Revolution....

China Economy Weekly: Beijing Moves on Trade and Investment; Soaring Property Market; Labour Activism Against Apple?

Hu Reiterates China's Economic Policy: Chinese President Hu Jintao has said that the government should stick to the pro-active fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy in the second half of this year to ensure a stable and relatively rapid economic development.

More efforts should be made to strengthen economic forecasts and warning systems, as well to coordinate economic policies, Hu added.

China Seeks Trade Balance, Not Surplus: China will continue to seek balance instead of surplus in trade and it will oppose any form of protectionism, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at a joint news conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

China This Week: Drills In The Yellow Sea; China’s Energy Progress; Dalian Pipeline Blast

These efforts should be praised and not criticised, particularly when compared with any major country that claims to double its exports to alleviate unemployment pressure, Wen added.

Wen made the remarks amid growing concerns that China's export growth would gradually drop despite the strong momentum in June.

China will continue to stimulate domestic demand as well as stick to an appropriately loose monetary stance and pro-active fiscal policy, Wen said, declaring that policy stability will be the government's economic priority in the second half of this year.

China Sticks to Opening-up Policy: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has denied that the investment environment in China is worsening, as he invited more foreign companies to put money into the country.

Foreign firms have voiced concern that China's indigenous innovation policy might provide incentives for government bodies to purchase products developed by Chinese companies. The World Bank in a July report gave China a low investment environment ranking.

But the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI)  that flowed into China in the first half of the year rose 19.6% year-on-year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC). China attracted $12.51 billion in FDI in June alone, up 39.6% year-on-year.

Wen said, "Foreign investment will not pour into a country where the investment environment is worsening." He asserted that China has relatively good infrastructure as well as a fair and stable market environment.

China's 2010 Foreign Trade Trend: A "high-low" trend was emerging for China's foreign trade in 2010, as growth in the first half would be stronger than in the second half of the year, Yao Jian, a spokesman with Ministry of Commerce told a briefing Tuesday.

China's exports will only moderately increase in the next half of the year, since tightening monetary policies in emerging economies, such as Brazil and India, and the European sovereign debt crisis will curb overseas demand, Yao said.

The country's total value of imports and exports jumped 43.1% percent year-on-year to $1.35 trillion in the January-to-June period, but the trade surplus was down 42.5% to $55.3 billion U.S. dollars.

"Wrong" to Hit at Outbound Investment: Countries including the United States and India should not politicise outbound investment by Chinese enterprises or abuse investment protection tools to shield their own industries and jobs from the financial crisis, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

China's outbound direct investment (ODI) surged by 24% from a year earlier to $55.18 billion during the first six months, the ministry said. The investment mainly went to sectors such as mining, commercial services, manufacturing, wholesale, and retail.

Despite the rapid growth, Chinese investment abroad has been frequently blocked by other countries, especially the US and India, during the past few months.

China May Reform Yuan Exchange Rate Calculation: China may calculate the yuan's exchange rate against a basket of currencies, instead of only against the US dollar, Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China said in a signed article published on the PBOC website.

There should be various currencies in the effective exchange rate basket to reflect the diversity of China's trade and investment activities, Hu added.

Agreement for Business with Hong Kong: The People's Bank of China, and Hong Kong's Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited, signed a revised Settlement Agreement on the Clearing of Renminbi (Yuan) Business in Hong Kong.

"There will no longer be restrictions on banks in Hong Kong in establishing renminbi accounts for and providing related services to financial institutions; and individuals and corporations will be able to conduct renminbi payments and transfers through the banks," said Norman Chan, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Foreign Investors Eye China's Real Estate: China's property market has seen soaring investment from foreign institutional investors, driven by strong expectations of currency appreciation this year.

According to international real estate advisor Richard Ellis, the value of en bloc property transactions in 15 Chinese cities has hit 49.9 billion yuan ($7.36 billion) in the first-half of this year, among which 19.4 billion yuan came from foreign institutional investors, 10.2 billion yuan from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao, and the remaining 20.3 billion yuan from mainland investors.

Total investments in the first six months of this year were almost five-fold those from the same period of last year.

China Honors All WTO Entry Commitments: China has honoured all the commitments it made when entering the World Trade Organization (WTO), said Yao Jian, spokesman of Ministry of Commerce, on Tuesday.

"China has set up economic and trade mechanisms in line with WTO rules and requirements, and become one of the most open markets in the world," he said.

Yao added that China will further cut tariffs on agricultural and industrial products by about 30 percent according to the latest Doha round of talks.

US Labour Group Offers Help with Apple: A San Francisco-based labour council wants to help its counterparts in Guangdong Province press IT giant Apple to allocate more profits to its scandal-hit Chinese manufacturer to improve the treatment of Chinese workers.

Apple Inc is a major brand customer of Foxconn Technology Group, which employs more than 800,000 people on the Chinese mainland, mostly in Guangdong.

The latest offer came after a dozen Foxconn workers committed suicide by jumping off buildings in the company's premises in the first six months of this year.

A 19-year-old intern from the Dongfang Vocational School of Technology in Hebei province died on Tuesday morning after he fell from his sixth floor dormitory at the plant in Foshan of Guangdong, Chimei said in a statement on Wednesday.

Police are still investigating the case.

UPDATED Afghanistan: The Wikileaks "War Diary" of 91,000 Documents

UPDATE 0855 GMT: Because of the demand on its site, Wikileaks has set up an alternative location to access the "War Diary".

The Guardian of London offers a video tutorial on reading the 91,000 documents.

---
From Wikileaks:

WikiLeaks has released a document set called the Afghan War Diary, an extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.

The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers, and mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related detail.

Afghanistan: The Truth About the US Occupation (Guardian/Wikileaks/NY Times/Der Spiegel)

The document collection is available on a dedicated webpage.

The reports cover most units from the US Army with the exception of most US Special Forces' activities. The reports do not generally cover top secret operations or European and other ISAF Forces operations.

We have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm minimization process demanded by our source. After further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits.

The data is provided in HTML (web), CSV (comma-separated value) and SQL (database) formats, and also was rendered into KML (Keyhole Markup Language) mapping data that can be used with Google Earth. Please note that the checksums will change.

• Complete dump of the website, HTML format 75 MB
  
  
  
  • (SHA1: 80adb634a0d218bd0f9a0f22734e3d2e7e67acfc)
  
  
  • This is a complete dump of the website at http://wardiary.wikileaks.org. Extract this to your local hard disk and open it with your web browser. Please check the project website http://wardiary.wikileaks.org for the most recent version.
  
  
  
  


• All entries, CSV format 15 MB
  
  
  
  • (SHA1: d6b82f955a7beb9589f92e9487c74669d1912a34)
  
  
  • Raw data in comma-separated value format for further processing.
  
  
  
  


• All entries, SQL format 16M MB
  
  
  
  • (SHA1: 9463f73ebbcd3f95899a138d6ba9817e1b6b800d)
  
  
  • Raw data in SQL format for further processing.
  
  
  
  


• All entries, KML format 16 MB
  
  
  
  • (SHA1: 34562c0c7722522161e40330d80ac9082014845f)
  
  
  • This archive contains all events in one KML file. This file needs much memory if opened with Google Earth.
  
  
  
  


• All NATO entries, KML format 209 kB
  
  
  
  • (SHA1: 088ff8999a316f30e5e398021375fa3b4fc6349e)
  
  
  • Contains the events that were tagged with NATO.
  
  
  
  


• Entries by month, KML format 16 MB
  
  
  
  • (SHA1: 01a5c0639e1e1e844b10e962a44849b2a521d092)
  
  
  • This archive provides the entries split by month. This makes it easier to browse the data in Google Earth on low power machines.
  
  
  
  


• Entries with scale filter, KML format 981 kB
  
  
  
  • (SHA1: 4669c721b87775a44472f6688e768305c686beff)
  
  
  • File that will show a scale corresponding to the number of incidents in Google Earth. Each incident begins with a 0.5 base score, and 0.1 has been added for each incident involving humans. This set of data provides only events that have a scaling of 1.5.
  
  
  
  

To decompress the files you will need the program 7zip. A free client for Windows can be downloaded here. Please use your favorite search engine to find clients for other operating systems.

The Latest from Iran (25 July): The Re-Appearing Fatwa

2100 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kayvan Samimi, chief editor of the banned publication Nameh has been given a six-year jail term and has been banned from social, political, and cultural activities for 15 years.

1845 GMT: Defining Irony. From Press TV:

An Iranian lawmaker says Tehran plans to file a lawsuit against the US over the inhumane policies adopted by Washington towards the people of Iran.

"It has been agreed that the issue of US violation of human rights as well as its double standard policies be raised in the international community and a lawsuit be filed to seek compensation for some of the damages inflicted on Iran because of it," member of the Majlis Human Rights Committee Zohreh Elahian said on Sunday.

The Iranian lawmaker said American media have turned human rights into a tool by means of which they manipulate world public opinion, adding, “The US uses human rights to pressure Iran while this country does not observe even the most basic articles of the human rights law.”

NEW Iran Analysis: Re-Defining the Green Movement (Verde)
Iran Analysis: Rafsanjani Bowing Out? (Abedin)
UPDATED Iran Media Follow-Up: War, War, War. Blah, Blah, Blah. No Facts. More War. Blah.
The Latest from Iran (24 July): Reviewing the Situation

1825 GMT: The International Front. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has confirmed statements by his Turkish and Brazilian counterparts (see 1410 GMT) that Iran will be ready for discussions on its nuclear programme after the month of Ramadan ends in the second week of September.

1820 GMT: Easing the Energy Squeeze? Mehr News claims that Iran has signed a $1.29 billion deal sending its natural gas to Turkey, which secure 77% of the required funding for completing the 660-kilometre pipeline.

Iran currently exports 25 million cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey per day and the figure could rise to 30 million cubic meters a day.

1810 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. An appellate court has upheld the two-year sentence of Garmsar Azad University student Masoud Babapour.

Journalist Emaduddin Baghi has been sentenced to one year in prison and a five-year ban on political and media activities.

The punishment is not in connection with Baghi's December 2009 arrest, which followed his interview with the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri for BBC Persian, but stems from a 2008 case. Baghi is currently free on bail.

1458 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist Ali Malihi has been sentenced to four years in prison.

1454 GMT: Energy Squeeze. Emad Hosseini of Parliament's Energy Commission says the situation with Iran's ministry overseeing electricity and water is at its worst point since the Revolution.

1450 GMT: Economy Watch. Aftab News reports that 600 workers at Khuzestan Pipe Factory have not been paid for 15 months.

1440 GMT: Economy Watch (China Edition). Aftab News summarises how local products are being replaced by Chinese imports, including green raisins in Kashmar, handicrafts in Isfahan, rice in Caspian Sea provinces. Perhaps "caraways in Kerman" (for British readers, equal to "coals to Newcastle") will be next?

Mehr drives home the point with pictures of the old Carpet Bazaar in Qom, now closed because of imported Chinese rugs.

1435 GMT: Rahnavard Watch. Activist Zahra Rahnavard, meeting a group of political activists, has declared: “A part of the current government sees women as a serious threat. They attack women in the streets, prisons, and in their media in different ways, and by repression, torture, and character assassination they are putting women under unprecedented pressure. These kinds of treatments have saddened noble Iranian men and for sure will strengthen their resistance for democracy and freedom. Of course the Green Movement also realizes that achieving its high values will not be possible without women’s presence and paying attention to their demands.”

1430 GMT: And a Kidnapped Activist? Hoda Saber of the National Religious Front is missing, possibly kidnapped, after leaving the office on Saturday afternoon.

1425 GMT: The Missing Lawyer. The Committee of Human Rights Reporters reports that prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei is missing and his wife and brother-in-law have been detained.

Earlier in the week Mostafaei was summoned to the Prosecutor's Office in Evin Prison and questioned for four hours. Security forces tried to arrest Mostafaei yesterday afternoon but could not find him, arresting family members near his office instead.

Mostafaei is the lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose death sentence for adultery has provoked international criticism of the Iranian regime.

1420 GMT: Labour Front. Human Rights Activists News Agency reports that Saeed Torabian, an activist with the Tehran Bus Workers Union, has been prevented from working after his recent release from detention.

1415 GMT: Economy Watch. Another sign of the recession? Khabar Online reports that automobile companies have closed and traders are in big difficulties because of low prices.

1410 GMT: International Front. Back at EA headquarters to find that the foreign ministers of Turkey and Brazil, following a meeting with Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, are saying they will press Iran and the "5+1" powers (US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, France) to meet "as soon as possible" on Tehran's uranium-enrichment programme, possibly with discussions in Kabul.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Iran was "ready to begin negotiations", specifically citing a possible exchange with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and that Tehran will send a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday.

Davutoglu suggests talks might begin soon after the holy month of Ramadan ends in the second week of September.

0950 GMT: Education Corner. Peyke Iran claims the Government's new effort for "Islamisation" of schools has begun.

Saadollah Nasiri, a member of Parliament's educational commission has said that "retiring" professors is discrimination, with the Government using "scientific stagnation" as a pretext to remove "secular" or anti-Government academics. (http://www.rahesabz.net/story/20110/)

Meanwhile, Minister of Science and Higher Education Kamran Daneshjoo, according to Fars News, has said that Iran needs about 22,000 academics for social sciences. Daneshjoo's statements are considered by some as a call to replace existing staff with "suitable" scholars. (http://news.gooya.com/politics/archives/2010/07/108086.php)

0945 GMT: Parliament v. Government. Reformist
MP Hojatoleslam Qodratollah Alikhani: "Instead of denying it, President Ahmadinejad should at least apologise for the incompetence and mismanagement of his Government leading to sanctions and unemployment." (http://www.parlemannews.ir/?n=12598)

The enquiry by the Majlis into the conduct of Minister of Agriculture Khalilian after summer vacation. (http://www.khabaronline.ir/news-78207.aspx)

0940 GMT: International Front. The foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey and Brazil are meeting in Istanbul to discuss developments since their declaration this spring for talks on Iran's uranium enrichment. (http://aje.me/9WcZMD)

0855 GMT: Rumour of Day. Green Voice of Freedom claims that the President's chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai is overseeing construction of a large residential complex in Belarus, implying that this is preparation for the event that regime leaders will have to flee the country.

0735 GMT: Mahmoud is Not So Mean. President Ahmadinejad today advised the "West", "We recommend them not to continue with their misconducts and observe the rights of nations if they seek to improve their position in the future. This will serve their own interests....We advocate logic and friendship. Every country that establishes friendly relations with Iran benefits this policy."

Ahmadinejad specifically addressed European countries, "Your misbehavior will bring nothing to you but discredit. It will have no impact on the Iranian nation."

0730 GMT: Now That's Just Mean. First Vice President Mohammad Reza AN's Rahimi, opening inaugurating an environmental fair, has said that "Westerners" are filthier than goats.

0700 GMT: We have posted a separate analysis by Mr Verde, "Re-Defining the Green Movement".

0650 GMT: Talking Tough. Iran's military leaders have tried to match the "war chatter" from some groups in the US with declarations across the media: Revolutionary Guards head Jafari says the US does not dare attack, and former commander Yahya Rahim-Safavi describes air and sea conflict if the Americans did.

My favourite quote, however --- representing both Iranian tough talk and the simplication of it by media in the "West" --- is in the Associated Press from former navy head Morteza Saffari, "We have set aside 100 military vessels for each (US) warship to attack at the time of necessity."

0644 GMT: Revolutionary Guards' Jafari "We Are Not United". Yesterday we noted the statement of the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, that leaders of sedition would be dealt with in a timely fashion.

We missed the more intriguing part of the speech:Jafari admitted for the first time in public that some IRGC commanders --- Mohsen Rashid, Moh Ozlati Moghaddam, Hemmat, Bakeri, Zeynoddin --- had supported the opposition, but added that they should not be "eliminated".

0640 GMT: Protesting the Execution. The BBC has posted an article on Saturday's rally in London for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death for adultery.

0635 GMT: The Memorial for the Poet. Tehran Bureau has posted one of Ahmad Shamlou's poems, "In This Blind Alley", published soon after the 1979 Revolution. Yesterday security forces dispersed those gathered for the memorial for the 10th anniversary of Shamlou's death.

0630 GMT: Only the "Right" Knowledge, Please. There are reports that Wikipedia was blocked in Iran yesterday.

0540 GMT: Here today, gone tomorrow, back again the day after tomorrow....

The case of the Supreme Leader''s "I am the Rule of the Prophet" fatwa took another turn last night when, having receded in the Iranian state media, it suddenly appeared on Ayatollah Khamenei's website. (When it was put out on Tuesday, it was put out in locations to which the website linked, not the site itself.)

The fatwa asserting that the Supreme Leader acts for the Imams and the Prophet Mohammad and must be obeyed is part of a longer treatise in response to a follower's question about the obligations to velayat-e-faqih (clerical supremacy).

Meanwhile....

Trouble for the Guards in the Oilfield

Revolutionary Guards commander Sardar Ghasemi has admitted the construction firm Khatam-ol Anbia, associated with the Guards, is hindered by old technology and "rusty oil wells". The firm had been awarded a major contract to develop the South Pars gas and oil field, after the withdrawal of foreign companies, but has since pulled back from the project.

Gaza Latest: Hamas Response to EU & UN, Israel Ponders No Cooperation

Hamas's Call on EU Countries: Following European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton's  visit to the Gaza Strip, with a call for a lifting of Israel's blockade and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's expression of readiness to hold direct dialogue with Hamas "if France receives an official request from the Palestinian Authority",  Ismail Radwan, a Gaza-based senior Hamas leader called on EU countries to hold direct talks with the group, "The European Union and France shouldn't hesitate in having direct dialogue with Hamas on the basis of direct dialogue and not on the basis of containment."

Gaza Latest: Israel Warnings over 2 Aid Ships, UN Flotilla Enquiry, & More

Hamas Blames UN: After the United Nations declared that humanitarian aid carried by two Lebanese aid ships should be delivered by land and not through a breaking of Israel's sea blockade, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused the organisation of being in "collaboration with the Israeli occupier" and added:

The UN call to international organizations to use the over-land road to Gaza instead of the sea is unacceptable and illegal.

Israel Not Likely to Cooperate with UN?: After the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed a team of international experts to investigate Israel’s raid on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla, sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said that West Jerusalem is unlikely to cooperate.

Fatah and Hamas praised the appointment of the three-member panel. Fatah spokesman Ahmed A’saf said that Israel should not be treated as if it was above the law and Israeli war criminals should be tried for their actions. Hamas political consultant Yusuf Rizka expressed concerns that Israel would not cooperate with the investigative team, which could damage the investigation’s findings.

Hamas's New Technology?: According to Israeli police, a rocket sent from the Gaza Strip into the western Negev was not a Qassam, but may be a more advanced type, possibly smuggled into the Strip.

The projectile was taken to a police laboratory  for assessment.