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Posts tagged ‘egypt’

Apr 14

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Tik Root ’12 clarifies and expands on Syria imprisonment

Tik Root ’12 is back in Middlebury but not yet settled.

After being evacuated from Midd’s Alexandria program in February, Root returned with others to finish the semester in Damascus, Syria. He arrived March 8th and started classes March 14th. He was arrested four days later and held for two weeks in a secret police facility on Baghdad Street before being released April 1st and deported the following day.

The timeline is relatively straightforward, and most of the campus has heard a version of it already. This post, based on an interview with Root on Monday, will emphasize new information that changes what we have heard so far, along with messages relevant to the larger Midd community. The Campus will also be basing an article on the interview; we have chosen to rely on longer direct quotes, trusting The Campus to contextualize and interpret further than we do.

We want to thank Root for opening a small window in his barrage of questions and interviews to talk with The Campus and MiddBlog. Welcome back.

Thanks and Clarifications

We can begin near the end of the interview, with Root’s discussion of why he chose to make his story public—or more public than it has already been. Read more

Mar 20

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Sunday Reading: How will I find articles for future sunday reading posts without NYtimes.com?

With spring break right on the horizon, I know everyone here at Midd’s been feeling a bit of a pull to avoid the homework and experience some of this wonderful warm weather we’ve been having.  Unfortunately, there are six days left before we all embark on our various adventures, so let’s buckle down.  With that random tangent, I bring you interesting news of the week.

NEW YORK TIMES: It’s here.  NYtimes.com has announced the introduction of a paywall for online subscribers. A reader can view 20 articles a month at no charge before the subscription price kicks in.  Interestingly, if you come across a Times article via a search, blogs, or social media, you will still be able to read even if you have exceeded your monthly quota.

SQUIRRELS: A renegade grey squirrel is stalking a Bennington neighborhood, attacking at least 3 different people in the past 3 weeks.  ”A tame squirrel is a loose cannon sometimes.”

EGYPT: Egyptian voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum on constitutional changes that attempt to address the problems of the Mubarak administration.  The turnout for the election, over 40% of the populous, broke all records for recent elections.

JAPAN: Although officials in Fukushima have appeared to have some success in stabilizing a few of the nuclear reactors in question, the Japanese government has suspended shipments of milk and spinach after finding higher than normal levels of radiation in the food.

BUSINESS: Today, AT&T announced plans to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion, a deal that would create the largest cellular carrier in the country.

OREGON TRAIL: Ever been curious how the world’s most popular educational game was created?  Interestingly enough, turns out it was three student teachers at fellow NESCAC school Carleton.

And your video of the week:  (It’s not Rebecca Black, thank god, please get it out of my head)

Feb 20

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Sunday Reading: I don’t know if I can boycott Tagalongs

Whew! Another week. Seriously, J-term is over folks. And with Winter Carnival over, its time to get to all that work we’ve been putting off for skiing, chili-eating, and general romping in the snow (or 50 degree weather).

PROTESTS: Tunesia is what sparked Egypt and Egypt is what is sparking the world. Seriously, people everywhere are having their voices heard: Libya, Wisconsin, Iran, Kentucky, the list goes on.

GIRL SCOUTS: Grist reports that many varieties of girl scout cookies use palm oil, the number one culprit that leads to deforestation in Southeast Asia, destroying the habitat for many communities of orangutans.

CONGRESS: On Friday, the House voted to cut off all funding to Planned Parenthood.

GRAMMYS: The Grammys last week inspired excitement in some, anger in others, and general apathy in the rest.   Get pumped for the Oscars in a week!

MORE CONGRESS: As the House votes to cut $60 billion dollars from the federal budget, the Democratic-controlled Senate has signaled that it will not consider such extreme measures, setting up a standoff that could lead to an actual SHUTDOWN of the federal government.

And here’s your video of the week (watch it till the end):

Feb 13

Sunday Reading: In musicals about superheros, even the radioactive spider gets a song.

With the first week of classes down for the Spring term, let’s take a glance outside the bubble that is Middlebury College and see what’s going on in the world.

EGYPT:  After President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation Friday afternoon, the Egyptian military has consolidated control, dissolving the country’s parliament and calling for elections in six months.

BROADWAY: After a set of disastrous previews, ‘Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark,’ a $65 million dollar musical based on the legendary comic book series has received some of the most aggressively negative reviews I’ve ever seen.  New York Times reviewer Ben Brantly says ‘“Spider-Man” is so grievously broken in every respect that it is beyond repair.’

OBESITY: This fascinating interactive chart from the Washington Post shows how the average body mass index has risen in most countries since 1980.

VANCOUVER: In one of the worst areas for the fastest-growing AIDs epidemic in North America, Canadian health officials are taking a new approach, providing widespread treatment and a facility called Insite where addicts can go to get treatments, clean needles, and more without worrying about disciplinary action.

ECONOMY: This article describes an interesting for-profit way of investing in social programs.  Already picked up by the White House and many other leaders of federal programs, social impact bonds have a lot of potential.

 

And finally, your video of the week:

 

Feb 7

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Egypt Update #6: More from Middkids here and Profs in Alexandria

Like MiddBlog’s Egypt coverage so far, this post will focus mainly on Middlebury’s ties to what’s going on.  For other info, look to The Lede, the BBC, etc.

The College Administration’s involvement in getting students out of Egypt was interesting (see here & pp. 3-4 here). But the story didn’t end when the plane took off.

A recent drawing by Wessam El-Maligi, an Egyptian professor (via Tik Root). Part of El-Maligi's caption: “Just like in pre-school, we are connecting the dots to form a challenging word, ... knowing there are many different letters and shapes to follow.”

In our last Egypt post, we mentioned Tik Root ’12, who was recently evacuated with the rest of the students on Middlebury’s Alexandria program. He’s been maintaining an email thread among contacts on both sides of the Atlantic, in the interest of keeping people informed and mobilizing support for the protesters. As his first email (from Friday) said:

Now that reporters are being targeted in Egypt, we are going to try to get as much information as we can from the front lines. [We're keeping] a running list of Egyptians who can be contacted on the ground (we confirmed with them personally).

On Saturday afternoon, Root, along with Otis Pitney ’12, interviewed Dr. Nehad Heliel (director of Middlebury’s Middle East program) and Dr. Ashraf Mansour (one of the program’s professors). The conversation between the two students in the US and the two professors in Alexandria has been transcribed and made available as a public Google Doc.  It’s definitely worth a read.

Today, Root published a second Google Doc full of quotes, stories and conversations from Friday up until yesterday, collected from students, professors and other acquaintances involved in the protests. We haven’t gotten all the way through this one, but it’s very interesting so far, and it showcases varied voices and opinions.

It’s astounding that we (and by “we” I mean people with computers) are able to get so close to the ground.  Even if you’re not sure how you feel about the protests, it’s impressive that we can learn about them so quickly and so thoroughly. Not every protest gets this kind of press. Something revolutionary may really be happening here.

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