First Independent Mena Newspaper
Long before the advent of the Arab Spring, the region was boiling as people in most of the countries of the region were denied basic social and economic rights: Unhealthy housing, below standards education, inaccessible health care, ramping unemployment etc. However hard the situation was, people seemed accommodating with their daily hardships, thanking God for […]
In 1991, shortly after the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War had ended, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their 8th album called “Into the Great Wide Open”. The album included a song by that very title and in it, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne had penned the following line: “Out in the […]
In the past ten years, North African countries progressed in liberalizing their trade relations with the EU as well as Korea. As part of the Euro-Mediterranean (Barcelona Process) Partnership, North African nations and the EU entered association agreements with provisions for free trade in industrial goods. This opened doors for European manufacturers to new export and investment markets. Most recently, North African nations and the EU launched initiatives to extend their agreements to trade in agricultural products, trade in services, government procurement, and trade harmonization. Trade between North Africa and Korea also exploded in the past five years. As latecomers to North Africa, […]
The drop of benefits prompted banks, fast earning mongers, to proceed to a wave of dismissals. In 2011, Barclays already split up with more than 4,400 employees, Crédit Suisse planned to expel 2,000 persons and Lloyds Banking Group, 10,000. The massive suppression of jobs is a trend that has affected the financial world for many […]
Doing business in North Africa seems to be very challenging and still largely for the intrepid. The World Bank’s annual survey ‘Doing Business’ provides data on the relative easiness (or difficulty) of running a business around the world. A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is more conducive […]
In the context of the Arab Spring, the use of the term “Islamism” is very common. The new political elites throughout the North Africa, commonly referred to as the “Islamists”, often talk of replacing the old and more or less authoritarian secular regimes in the Middle East. Journalists also use the term quite excessively and […]
It has been more than a year since Muammar Gaddafi died during the Battle of Sirte, his home town, thus symbolically bringing Libya’s 42-year-long nightmare to its end. Since then, Libya has experienced a relatively speedy transition from Gaddafi’s brutal dictatorial regime to a fledgling democracy when it held, in July 2012, its first free […]
Middle income nations often share the same social and political issues, with education being an important yet contentious issue for many developing countries which are trying to move forward and become effective global players. Indonesia, as well as many North African countries, faces a ‘financing gap’ with constraints in mobilizing the funds needed to invest […]
It is not a secret that the relationship between Turkey and the European Union is going through a rough period. The solution to this deadlock for Ankara is to diversify away from the declining European economy and search for new markets which will also provide Turkey with a more prominent role on the world stage. […]
Arab Spring means we’re not losing our religion at least. But at what cost? Martin Jay argues that political upheaval by citizens rather than institutions is paving the way for terrorist groups to take route across the Arab World. There used to be an old Woody Allen gag which parodied two old women in a […]