Interesting Articles

A few people have been asking me about life and politics here in the Middle East after reading my blog posts, so I thought I would just post links to a few articles I read today....I have actually been reading the news quite a bit since I've been here (this is where Grandma gets shocked) ;) so I thought I would share a few of todays interesting ones. This is where I am getting a lot of my opinions from, aside from just my experience living here.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=102151

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/world/middleeast/18kuwait.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast (this is also a correction to an earlier post...i talked about women being elected in a Qatar election, I meant Kuwait, these are the women who were elected)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/world/middleeast/15diplo.html?ref=middleeast (this is a very interesting article about the potential shift in policy the US is seeming to be making regarding Israel. It is one small thing about the Obama admin that I really appreciate, they are trying to talk to others, not just financing Isreal's every little need and want. Lets just hope Isreal doesn't drag us into war with Iran because they are impatient. We'll see....this is just a glimps at why relations in the Middle East are so complicated. What is interesting about this, is there is a similar article to this one published in Lebanon's Daily Star who's headline reads: "Isreal plays up Iranian threat turing talks with U.S. lawmakers" interesting twist on the same story)

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=102135 (this is an interesting article about young women and political activism fueled by Facebook and mobile phones. This is an example of progress and women's rights trying to push its way through a very hard conservative wall)

I suppose thats enough for today huh? I know my mom said my last post was so long she couldn't finish it yesterday because she was so busy...I'll try to keep it shorter! ;) I am actually contemplating the thought of putting time into actually researching some of these issues and writing potential columns...who knows, maybe the Wenatchee World would feel like publishing one or something...haha we'll see. I think writing columns would be a fun thing to do...

In other news, I am at the university today....my cousin is in class now, so I am in the computer lab reading the news. We'll spend all day here with her friends and going to class...should be fun. Vice President Biden is coming to Beirut to talk with President Michel Sleiman...he is only going to be in the country for 3 hours supposedly!! Can you imagine flying all that way for 3 hours!! I hope he has some other stops to make! I guess he does get to fly on a really really really nice plane, I dont feel too bad for him!! :) That would be amazing if I could meet him, but I am guessing security would be rather tight in Beirut on Friday, probably wont try! darn. :)

Much love,

Sash