8/19/2013
Ehiztari
Hosni Mubarak's lawyer
said today that his client could
be free in less than 48 hours. It would be the last straw, the final step for
a planned return to the old regime in Egypt, one that the coup that was not a
coup started.
Since the Egyptians ousted
the Egyptian president, that revolution has only gotten more and more diluted.
As it has happened in other places, as in Syria, groups as diverse as Islamists
and liberals remained together long enough to carry out their common goal. That
wasn’t going to last long.
Once decapitated the
old regime, each of the groups looked after their own interests. In their search
for power, both
allied...
7/30/2013
Ehiztari
Normally during their second term U.S.
presidents reveal their true ambitions. Without the pressure of having to win a
re-election at the end of the term, they have their hands free to implement all
those unpopular policies that in their first term would have been suicidal but that
are the ones that forge a presidential legacy.
For Obama, it was going to be hard
to accomplish more than in the first four years. Obamacare and the closing
chapter of Osama Bin Laden were a hard act to follow. All this, however, has
gone out of the window. His legacy might be rather murky in the end.
Picture: Obama's twitter
The revelation of secrets...
7/24/2013
Ehiztari
Who said that Iraq was
pacified? This week, a massive jailbreak in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison has freed
more
than 500 prisoners, many of them from Al Qaeda in Iraq. The word massive falls
short to describe an operation that dwarfs others attempted by Al Qaeda in
Afghanistan or Iraq.
The confusion in the
Iraqi government has been massive too. They knew that something was coming to get
them. Every year during the Ramadan month, terrorist attacks increase. That
reminds me of the modus operandi of ETA, which used to carry out attacks on
weekends and holidays.
Returning to the
subject, I was saying that the Iraqi government suspected...
7/14/2013
Ehiztari
The borders of the
Middle East and the Sahara have always been an excellent breeding ground for
smuggling. Dozens of times, crossing from one country to another, I have seen myself
how cigarettes, alcohol or even toilet paper was carried mixed among the luggage
of tourists and backpackers.
Conflicts in the
region have made these borders even more porous. Many people are benefiting
from the lack of control on either side of the border to increase smuggling of
all kinds of goods, objects or even people.
In the Sahara, the
growing influence of al-Qaeda (notable for using the drug trade to finance
itself) has increased smuggling in places...
7/09/2013
Ehiztari
With the perspective
that gives time, many Westerners who at first supported the Arab revolutions look now in fear the apparent result of this spring:
an Islamist summer. It worries them so much that many celebrated the coup against Morsi in Egypt -despite being, all in all, a coup.
All the countries
involved in the Arab Spring, from Morocco to Syria, have seen raise their Islamic base. In Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood
ruled the country until a coup ousted Mursi two weeks ago. Islamist militias in Syria such as al-Nusra are gaining influence. In Morocco and Tunisia two Islamic parties
took power in the last elections. Hamas, in turn, governs...
7/07/2013
Ehiztari
The world woke up back
on a late April Tuesday morning to the horrific images of a cargo airliner
crashing in
Afghanistan. The huge fireball left by the plane when crashing was a clear picture
of the tragedy.
The aircraft was a
Boeing 747-400 carrying only cargo on board. This load was mostly military
equipment, vehicles and other supplies. It seems there wasn’t any attack and
for now, the most plausible theory is that it was an accident.
The load probably wasn’t
well secured and went loose during takeoff towards the tail. This in turn would
have altered the center of gravity of the aircraft, making it stall and fall.
It is certainly...
6/30/2013
Ehiztari
As we said last week,
China has all the ingredients to become a great power. It already is one at the
regional level. But doubt remains about whether it can be constructed also as a
real world superpower.
The traditional
definition of superpower has been usually linked to a powerful army. And regarding
that, China still has a long way to go.
In recent years and
especially since 2011, China has prompted several major military projects.
These include for example several types of aircraft under development, among
which are especially relevant the J20 and J31.
These two prototypes
make China, along with the U.S., the only other country...
6/23/2013
Ehiztari
The decline of the
U.S. as a lone superpower looms on the horizon. China comes pushing hard.
Sometime between 2015 and 2020, depending on whose analysis you rely on, the
Asian giant will become the world's largest economy.
In a time where
soldiers have given way to traders and territorial invasions to company
takeovers, that means power and control.
It has been a
relatively short journey for China. Its economic evolution has been exponential
in the last three decades. Back in 2003, China was the world's sixth largest
economy. In 2004 it overcame France. In 2006 it was the turn for the United
Kingdom to bite the dust. In 2009 fell...
6/21/2013
Ehiztari
Miles
apart, they don’t share language, culture, religion or a common colonial past.
But despite that, both Brazil and Turkey are under unrest at the moment. Citizen
movements that mirror on the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring have
flourished and are gaining momentum from Rio to Istanbul. But what makes them
different and what do they share?
Differences
Where they come from and where they go to
Brazil and
Turkey were never in the spotlight. They always have been important regional
powerhouses, but they lacked the support of an important global player like the
EU. However, in the past decade both countries have gained relevance and
economical...
6/16/2013
Ehiztari
We live in a world
radically different to the one from the Cold War era. In fact, that is a period
of time that has been left behind by all of us. No more fear of a nuclear
holocaust. In Hollywood, the bad guys are now Arab terrorists, not communist soldiers.
Even the age of the
arms race has been overcome. Not only we are reducing our nuclear arsenals
–except for you, Kim. The armies in general are shifting their priorities. The United Kingdom doesn’t put its emphasis anymore on
nuclear submarines. The Russians are going the same way with their subs.
War has changed. You
do not need large armies to fight with other nations’...
6/09/2013
Ehiztari
Last year set a new
record in terms of people internally displaced (IDP) by violence. In total 28.8
million people have had to leave their homes around the world fleeing from armed
conflicts. Syria and Congo top the list.
The IDP’s situation is
even worse than that of refugees. For starters, the number of IDPs doubles that
of refugees. Unlike the refugees who leave their country of origin, the IDPs
remain in it.
However, this causes
many more problems for the internally displaced. For starters, their situation
is more precarious.
If it is a civil war,
such as in Syria, they are in danger of being caught by the same horror of
fleeing...
6/02/2013
Ehiztari
The latest Eurostat data leaves us with a figure of desolation. A quarter of young Europeans are unemployed. The situation is
even worse in the southern European countries where youth unemployment is above 50%.
That is why the north blames the south of being unfairly supporting
its load. The populations of Scandinavia and the UK, countries that until
recently welcomed and even demanded foreign labor, are beginning to see Southern
Europeans as a plague and xenophobic acts, although very rare, have increased.
In the last British
local elections, the conservative parties -especially the eurosceptic UKIP, but
also the tories of Prime...
Are you afraid? Well, this works in that way. First you do what scares you and it's later when you get the courage
8/19/2013
Ehiztari
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