10:46 am on 15 February 2021 The New Zealand Government continues to be under fire for its activities in Saudi Arabia- and, in my opinion, rightly so. Should NZ be more cognisant with what is happening in the Middle East? Is pleading ignorance about deals done in the Middle East by the government and government-backed entities good enough? Has the ...
New Zealand PM bows out
Here's an article from The Economist which, while talking about John Key's resignation, states that NZ is "one of the most successful countries in the world. While this is debatable, there is no doubt that Key has had successes- namely international recognition- along with failures, housing, immigration and the environment. We have yet to see whether the new Prime Minister, John English, will have the same success.
New Zealand companies seem to have had little to do with the Middle East and rarely seem to be involved in any controversy. This has all changed. Now the country's national carrier, Air New Zealand, which was bailed out by the NZ government last year because of the Covid-19 crisis which meant that international travel almost ground to a halt, is ac...
The UAE has been in the news a great deal recently, firstly over its handling of COVID-19 which has increased exponentially over the last couple of weeks - maybe as the result of UK tourists- and secondly, because of the "normalization" of relations with Israel. The most recent article is about spying, particularly in the UAE. Yes, it does happen. ...
The UAE has "normalized" relations with Israel. But what does that mean? What are the advantages for the UAE? Qatar has not "normalized' relations. Instead, it is donating more money to the Palestinians – USD 360m - to go towards paying salaries, paying for electricity and alleviating poverty. This article from AP explains what is happening. The Qa...
In this article, Ahmad Abdel-Rahman, discusses the geopolitics of the Middle East. The Middle East region occupies a strategic position in the global system, so that it seems that there is no place in the world equal to the importance of this region. Based on this fact, the geopolitical importance of the Middle East clearly emerges. However, in ord...
In this article, Ahmad Abdul-Rahman, writing exclusively for LDC, discusses how energy finds in the Levantine Basin will affect geopolitics in the Middle East and beyond. The Turkish expansion towards Libya and the start of exploration for energy sources shed light on the potential geopolitical dimensions of energy and influence conflicts in the Me...
In this article, the UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Mohammed Al Gergawi, outlines what he believes are the five new trends of future governments. He states that "the world will enter a new phase that will challenge many beliefs and convictions and introduce new rules on both the economic and social fronts. Governments will need to understand the ...
There's been a lot written about Dubai being the party capital of the Middle East, especially in the UK's Daily Mail. C-List celebs were jetting off to the so-called party city because they could live life fairly much as "normal". As far as the C-list celebs from the UK were concerned there was easy travel at that stage, since there was an "open" c...
What does the new Biden administration mean for Palestine? Will it mean a change in direction? Or will things continue much the same as they are currently? Here's an opinion. A post-Trump Palestine Palestinians should stop hoping for change of policy in Washington and move forward with their struggle for freedom. Ahmed Abu Artema , for Al Jazeera 1...
I read this article the other day and found it very enlightening. That being the case, I thought I would share it with you. It's about the Israeli Parliament and the impact the Arab vote will have. Until now, the current Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has tried to delegitimise the vote; now it is trying to court it. As this article by ...
The feud between Qatar and the other Gulf companies, in particular Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is over. Saudi Arabia has agreed to open its airspace to Qatar and the Qatari ruler, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, arrived in Riyadh last week for the GCC conference and was greeted by Saudi's Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman...
A humanitarian disaster is looming in Yemen. In a list of countries where crises are set to worsen, Yemen is ranked as number three, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The Civil War in Yemen started in 2014 and has been ongoing. Continued conflict, widespread hunger and a collapsing international aid response threaten to dramati...
Lucia Dore and Carole Railton discuss the options you could consider if you are "home alone" this Christmas. This article first appeared for www.behaviouralshift.com. It's that time of year, again. But this time, instead of deciding what you want to do at Christmas, it is probably forced upon you. You may not be allowed to meet family and friends; ...
The last year has seen many machinations in the Middle East, not the least being the "normalization" of relations between Israel and some Arab countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco- brokered by then- President Trump's administration in the US. Oman is expected to be the next to reach "normal" relations with Israel....
I wrote an article entitled "Why great leaders are great communicators" (https://www.futureproofingcomms.co.uk/thelatest/fp2-ch26)four years ago for a UK public relations publication, Futureproof. It was brought to my attention again recently by the US-based Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) training center for ( https://inlpcenter.org) who had wr...
Qatar has used its deep pockets to influence Turkey. As someone who is interested in capital flows and investment, I was interested to read how cash-strapped Turkey is. In this regard, Qatar is helping. Cash-strapped Turkey relies on Qatari investments By Mustafa Sonmez for Al Monitor Dec 2, 2020 Scrambling to draw foreign investors to ease Turkey'...
There's been much discussion as to why Iran's top nuclear scientist was assassinated and which country was behind the attack. Israel is considered to be the main culprit with the backing of the US. What will it mean for the nuclear deal and for the entire Middle East region? This article discusses some of the reasons why the assassination happened....
Iran has struggled to contain the spread of Covid-19 and has accused Washington of cutting off access to a life support system. Consequently, it is the hardest hit country in the Middle East. The latest figures show that the country has had 907,000 confirmed cases and 46,689 deaths, according to WHO. It was with great interest that I read that Iran...
This article looks at the intersection of COVID-19 with the media and entertainment industries. It is by Dr. Mohamed Abdulzaher, an academic and artificial intelligence journalism pioneer. He is based in Dubai. Media has played a major role over the last entire year in raising awareness of the pandemic, by reporting news, features and updates on 24...
Transitioning between the Trump and Biden administrations in the US is not easy. President Donald Trump refuses to concede to President-elect Joe Biden. Consequently, he has been trying to overturn election results, especially in key states such as Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, and resorting to all sorts of conspiracy theories. Most of his c...