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Geopolitics

ARABICA - A Daily Shot Of What the Arab World is Saying/Hearing/Sharing

ARABICA - A Daily Shot Of What the Arab World is Saying/Hearing/Sharing

A R A B I C A ارابيكا

By Kristen Gillespie

CALLING MOM
Tweeters in Saudi Arabia are launching a new campaign to break the taboo of a wife and a mother's name being mentioned in public. Hashtag IsmOmi (Arabic for "my mother's name") calls on Saudis to mention their mother's names.

*Najla Fahad tweets: "My mother's name is Sara – may God protect her."

*Amal Faran says, "the man who is embarrassed by his mother's name is right because she did not raise him properly." The Saudi tweeters supporting the campaign by saying that saying their mothers' names in public shows love and pride, not embarrassment and shame.

A DIFFERENT REVOLUTION
Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim tweets that Egypt's revolution will not be a repeat of that in 1952 when the monarchy was deposed and the military took control of the country: "Sorry, but this will not be the revolution of 1952 – nor will we accept a dictatorial system with democracy as a sham. Transparency in all state institutions is our right and the right of every Egyptian."

SYRIAN VOICES
BBC Arabic asks readers, "Is it possible to implement a plan on the ground to resolve the Syrian crisis?" A sample of responses:

*"Opponents who insist on bringing down the regime will return to the fold, such as what is happening in Afghanistan."- Rafaat Nashwati, Damascus

*"The lying Syrian regime is stalling for time, nothing more, nothing less." - Mohammed, Algeria.

*"The conspiracy to destroy Syria is only an attempt to demolish what Syria has built…Syria has no debt and receives no foreign aid. Now, we criticize the regime because it was not elected democratically." –Mohammed, Syrian Arab

YEMENI DEMANDS
For the first time since protests broke out in Yemen in February, protesters, who have held almost daily demonstrations demanding the ouster of 32-year-incumbent President Ali Abdullah Saleh, held a rallying demanding that everyone must go. Under the banner of "Everyone Leave," demonstrators shouted: "All of you – go," referring not only to the president and the opposition tribal forces staging gun battles in Sanaa. "Go, go Hameed," they shouted, referring to tribal leader and business tycool Hameed al-Ahmar.

November 5, 2011

photo credit: illustir


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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Bakhmut Confidential: Whispered Fears, Endgame Visions

In the ambulances transporting the wounded to the field hospitals, in the vans traveling to the front or in the trains returning them home for a few days' rest, the soldiers stationed on the Bakhmut front do not talk about military victories or war strategies. They talk about death, and life.

Bakhmut Confidential: Whispered Fears, Endgame Visions

In a Ukrainian trench near Bakhmut

Ashley Chan/SOPA Images via ZUMA
Patricia Simón

BAKHMUT — "I heard the drone above my head and the tank began firing at me. I changed position, heard it again and then it hit me." Andriy waits in the military truck for more injured Ukrainians like himself to arrive. The other ambulance is on its way to the field hospital with a dying soldier. They can't leave, in case a serious case arrives. Around them, snowy fields. Over their heads, the whistling of shells.

"That explosion is outgoing," explains a soldier. "That one, incoming," he adds, minutes later, when the sound of the explosion startles those present.

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Meanwhile, Andriy keeps his gaze on the ground. I can't tell what he's looking at, nor guess at what he sees. The paramedic tells him to lie down and rest. Before the war, the Viking-esque man offering him tea was a veterinarian. Now he saves human lives with the same knowledge that helped him prevent epidemics on pig farms.

Oleg Ologkov kneels down, takes Andriy's shoes off, inserts thermal insoles into his military boots, and covers him with a blanket. Such tenderness between men is hardly seen outside of war.

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