The Haley Bureau

20th Birthday Parties

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:09:18 -0500

Lots of nations in this neck of the Eastern European/Central Asian woods are celebrating 20 years of independence this month. (Kazakhstan’s big day is today.)

Policy wonks and analysts are having something of a field day trying to figure out what, exactly, the Former Soviet States have achieved over the last two decades, where they have yet to improve and what we’re all supposed to learn from this.

While of course the political and economic climate of say, Tajikistan, is vastly different than that of Azerbaijan, the answer seems always to veer to the same general (rather non-committal, but fair) two-part answer:

1) the FSU, taken as a whole, has come a remarkable, rather unbelievable, distance, given the violence and turmoil that sacked this region in the early 1990s; and

2) pretty much everyone’s got a long way to go before achieving legitimate democratic rule with all the attending accoutrements (respect for human rights; genuine elections; space for public debate, etc.).

This essay by Tom DeWaal gives us more or less that same two-part reading (his dichotomy of choice is “professionalism and stagnation”) regarding the nations of the South Caucasus: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. It’s worth a read.

Here’s my story in The InterDependent about what the Arab...

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:22:00 -0500

Here’s my story in The InterDependent about what the Arab Spring (and enduring Fall and Winter) mean for women’s rights across the Arab World. Hint: It’s not good.

A taster:

In early December, a shaky, 40-second video clip began to skitter across the internet. A woman in a black abaya stands in front of a row of reinforced police cars, fearlessly looking onto a teargas-clouded street in Bahrain. The woman’s head is held erect, her hands outstretched, making the V-sign for victory, as men with heavy teargas guns circle like lions around her. A pink scarf, tied around her face to protect against the billowing blue tear gas, lends the only color to her black silhouette.

Read the rest here.

Georgian government propaganda, as told by a giraffe and a...

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:58:11 -0500

Georgian government propaganda, as told by a giraffe and a zebra.

A teaser?

Giraffe: How will [Bidzina Ivanishvili] do it?

Zebra: It’s very easy. He will try to finance Georgian opposition and make illusion to Putin that he is true enemy of Saakashvili’s government….

…

Giraffe: Thanks, now all is crystal clear to me.

1:55 — Tbilisi shoooout out! Also, an excellent excuse...

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 06:56:00 -0500

1:55 — Tbilisi shoooout out!

Also, an excellent excuse to post Beyonce on a blog about news. Holler.

Qatar's perplexing foreign policy

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:03:01 -0500

Tiny Qatar is friends with everyone. What’s the deal? I write about it in the last issue of The New Republic, out the second week of November. (Apologies for taking my time posting — it’s been a wild month!).

Also, another story about Qatar’s health problems (hint: they’re very similar to the U.S.’s health problems!) and Libya’s rebel TV network, respectively, at The Atlantic: here and here.

Now put your hands up

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 10:13:08 -0400

Beauty Queen? Nope. Try Morals Queen in — where else? — Saudi Arabia.

And just south, the revolutionary ladies of Yemen were burning their makramas in protest. But, never fear, they brought an extra to wear, too.

Which made me wonder: When American feminists famously burned their bras outside the Miss America pageant in 1968, did they, like, actually take off their bras to burn them? Or did they pack an extra a la the ladies of Yemen?

Well, friends, I did some googling and found out that although the term “bra-burners” was born that day in Atlantic City, no bras were actually burned that day. This, according to a 2008 NPR story:

“We had intended to burn it, but the police department, since we were on the boardwalk, wouldn’t let us do the burning,” says Carol Hanisch, one of the organizers of the event. A New York Post story on the protest included a reference to bra burning as a way to link the movement to war protesters burning draft cards.

Women threw bras, mops, girdles, pots and pans, and Playboymagazines — items they called “instruments of female torture” — into a big garbage can.

“The media picked up on the bra part,” Hanisch says. “I often say that if they had called us ‘girdle burners,’ every woman in America would have run to join us.”

Historical times.

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:30:00 -0400

(Caption: As my gleeful Yemeni protester-friends on Facebook have put it: Two down, one to go!)

And, at risk of sounding like a complete ditz, it’s mind-blowing watching things like Qaddafi’s death and the Arab Spring in general—and, to a much lesser degree, the Occupy Wall Street protests—unfold online every day. These are such profound historical events; major game-changers, both politically and socially. In college and grad school, we studied revolutionary years like 1848 or 1969, and it’s strange to know that our generation’s children will be studying 2011 in much the same way.

I know this is from February — ancient times in the land...

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:28:52 -0400

I know this is from February — ancient times in the land of the internet! — but having just returned from the Gulf, I thought I’d share.

US to Georgia: "Hey, Saakashvili, cut it out."

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:14:00 -0400

…Only they said it a little more diplomatically.

During meetings in Tbilisi yesterday, U.S. diplomats said a whole lot of stuff stuff about the importance of allowing an “even playing field for the election,” etc.

When the press asked trickier questions later on—like whether or not Saakashvili should be allowed to become Prime Minister after his two terms as Prez are up—U.S. Deputy Sec. of State William Burns did a tidy little two-step: “Our focus in the long-term is on the playing field and not on the players.”

Ambassador to Georgia John Bass, Deputy Sec. of State William Burns, and Sec. of Georgia’s National Security Council Giga Bokeria are pictured above.

(Photo: Saakashvili’s press office)

The soap opera continues...

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:25:00 -0400

Georgian police seized an armored van belonging to Cartu Bank today in what Georgian press is breathlessly calling a “money laundering sting.”

Three important facts:

1) Cartu Bank belongs to Bidzina Ivanishvili.

2) Ivanishvili’s son’s friend was also detained on charges of drug possession.

3) Ivanishvili recently became President Misha Saakashvili’s political arch-rival.

Now. I obviously know nothing about the government’s AML investigation, nor do I know anything about Ivanishvili’s son’s friend’s drug habits. All I’m saying is: Really? Can this all be a coincidence? In this part of the world? As much fun as I’m having watching this little drama unfold (Ivanishvili is still suing over the whole citizenship unpleasantness), I truly hope this is not politically motivated. I truly hope there’s a free and fair election next year. I hope Ivanishvili is either elected or not elected to Parliament by the people of Georgia, and that they either succeed in changing the Constitution so that Saakashvili can’t become PM later, or they don’t. I don’t have a dog in this fight. I just hope it happens democratically, and that Georgia hasn’t come this far for nothing. Come on, guys, let’s keep it together.

* aka Boris; same guy, nicknames.

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:01:00 -0400

US-backed airstrikes killed 9 in southern Yemen, government “security” forces killed 12 unarmed anti-government protesters near the Foreign Ministry, and 4 civilians were killed in a street battle near the Sana airport today. NYT reporting courtesy of Laura Kasinof, who’s officially no longer on vacation (sorry, habibs!).

In somewhat lighter news, Ivanishvili, that Georgian bazillionaire I was telling you about yesterday, remains the talk of the town in Tbilisi. Specifically, people are talking about his two “open letters,” released October 7 and October 12, both of which are “rambling and eccentric,” to quote the Economist, and both of which promise, among other things (to ensure the “prosperity and well-being of every Georgian citizen,” yada yada yada), to overcome the whole citizenship unpleasantness (a team of lawyers are working on it), get elected to parliament in May 2012, establish an opposition TV channel, change the constitution, and — above all — make damn well sure Misha doesn’t get to “pull a Putin” and become PM after his presidential term is up in 2013.

Needless to say, no one knows where this whole Ivanishvili bid is going yet, but at the very least, it’s enlivening the weekend’s conversation over chacha.

Photo courtesy of NYT.

Boris v. Misha

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:31:00 -0400

Boris Ivanishvili, Georgia’s most prominent billionaire tycoon, announced last week he would launch a political party and enter politics in Georgia for the first time ever — just to give President Misha Saakashvili a run for his money.

In response, Ol’ Misha, always the mature political actor, decided this week to strip Ivanishvili of his Georgian citizenship, thus excluding him from running for office.

In Georgia, dual citizenship is both common and permissible by law, but each case is subject to the president’s “personal decree.” In Ivanishvili’s case, Saakashvili was not, shockingly, in the decreeing sort of mood. Ivanishvili was born and lives in Georgia, but has Russian and French citizenship, too.

In the past, Ivanishvili, who Forbes says is worth $5.5 billion, has deliberately stayed out of politics, preferring to spend his time collecting Impressionist paintings, cultivating a personal exotic animal zoo in his compound in Western Georgia, and adding wings to his enormous mansion, which looks like a cross between a grain silo and a Holiday Inn, overlooking Tbilisi.

Misha’s super-defensive reaction to Boris’ still rather existential threat is an indication not only of his political insecurity, but also of his willingness to use rather conniving political tactics. Boris has promised to “keep fighting” — where this little soap opera goes next is anyone’s bet.

Ivanishvili made his fortune during the era of rapid privatization in Georgia and Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. He founded Rossiysky Kredit Bank, and has made money off investments in ore, metal and the Russian stock market. He owns two 5-star hotels and a Russian drug store chain.

Here’s my story about the Libyan rebels’...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:56:00 -0400

Here’s my story about the Libyan rebels’ television station, funded and hosted by the Qatari government.

The rag-tag staff of teenagers, former political prisoners, and activists now broadcast 18 hours a day across Libya, all from their small, but professional offices in central Doha.

This particular story is less about Libya TV’s significant role in helping to organize the Libyan people to overthrow Qaddafi, and more about how it will transition into a new role in “Free Libya.”

Here’s the beginning:

DOHA, Qatar — When I first visited the offices of the Libyan rebels’ television channel, tucked into a corner of the old souk in Doha, Qatar, I expected a ramshackle operation run by a scrappy young crew with jerry-rigged equipment.

Instead, what I found was a small but state-of-the-art TV studio surrounded by a series of bustling offices, littered, like any good newsroom, with doodled-on rough drafts, rattling Blackberries, and cartons of leftover fries from Hardee’s.

In the glassed-in main editing room, a woman in a black hijab and matching abaya scooted around in a rolling chair, monitoring a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall panel of television screens, switches, dials, and knobs. Downstairs, in the one-room studio, someone shouted a countdown as music for the five o’clock news hour erupted into the black, sound-proof space. Cameras swooped from dollies and images of Libyan children, their faces painted the green and red of Libya’s pre-Qaddafi flag, filled the screen behind the anchor’s sparkling desk.

Read the rest on Atlantic.com.

On the Nile

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:18:00 -0400

My friend Josh Maricich, who some of you may remember from the Yemen Debacle of 2011, is currently sailing down the Nile on a felucca named Jasmine (nee St. Horitz). He and his friend, Will Raynolds, will be keeping this blog about their adventures and discoveries in New Egypt along the way. Bon voyage!

Tawakul, Part deux

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 03:08:22 -0400

For a less gushing analysis of Tawakul’s win, see the lovely Laura Kasinof’s excellent report here. She reminds us (me) that Tawakul has been a controversial figure, that she and the men in her family are active members in al-Islah (Yemen’s Islamist party)—an affiliation that comes with certain implications for the future of Yemen—and that this award, like the one awarded to Barack Obama in 2009, is not so much commemorating what she has already done, but praising what she stands for, and what she has promised to do.

(Photo credit: Amira al-Shariff for the NYT)

Today was declared a holiday in Tbilisi, Georgia, nominally to...

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:03:58 -0400

Today was declared a holiday in Tbilisi, Georgia, nominally to celebrate the festival of Tbilisi, but actually to celebrate the fact that French Prez Nicolas Sarkozy is in town for the first time since mediating between Russia and Georgia during the war in 2008.

Georgian Prez Misha Saakashvili has been in a tizzy all week, ordering last-minute beautification measures downtown and preparing Freedom Square for Sarkozy’s speech (and causing all manner of traffic jam in the process).

Predictably, Misha’s squeezing this little visit for as much political juice as he can. All week, his party has been running these absurdly dramatic ads (above) on TV, which encourage “anyone who remembers the war in August 2008” and “anyone who cares about joining the European Union” to show up this evening (and make Misha look good.) The constant waving of Georgian flags + narration by Darth Vader’s cousin = enviable political theatrics.

You can’t blame the guy for trying; you can wish his videographer had toned down the action-thriller background music. Just a little.

Congratulations Tawakul Karmon

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 06:57:00 -0400

A huge congratulations to Tawakul Karmon, who won the Nobel Peace Prize today for her enormously courageous work as a protest leader in Yemen.

On the couple occasions I got to speak directly with Tawakul, I found her humble, passionate, quietly charismatic and incredibly articulate about her vision of what Yemen should be, and what it can be. Over the course of the last nine months, she has been willing to ignore death threats and buck social normals to help her country evolve into a democratic, peaceful nation. She is one of the bravest people, man or woman, I’ve ever met.

I also want to extend a congratulations to the brave, progressive men in Tawakul’s life—her husband, father, uncle and brothers—who, against social norms and, undoubtedly, pressure from the religious community, supported their daughter, sister and wife in her endeavors. Without their permission, protection and support—indeed, without their willingness to ignore the taunts to ‘control your woman’—Tawakul would not have been allowed to achieve the great heights she has today.

It’s about time men, particularly in conservative Muslim countries like Yemen, see what their women can do, if they’re only allowed an education, a platform and a voice.

Go Tawakul, go!

Sweet souvenirs in Doha, Qatar.

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:48:28 -0400

Sweet souvenirs in Doha, Qatar.

Since last time

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:38:16 -0400

Here’s me paying homage to my hipster roots (a child of the 80s is left few alternatives, alas), playing whiffle ball in costume complete with requisite mascara mustache, at Tbilisi’s post-Soviet hippodrome. Photo Credit: The Unflappable Jen Lappin.

Oh, Loyal Haley Bureau-ers, so much has happened since last I wrote! Qaddafi has fled Tripoli, Saleh has returned to Yemen, the debt ceiling has been raised, the hikers in Iran have been freed. Anwar Awlaki is dead.

And as for me? Well. It’s been a busy summer.

And despite my silence on Haley Bureau, I have not — as a few of you have ever-so-gingerly implied — been wasting away in Tbilisi as an unemployed freelancer on the snow-capped fringes of the Middle East. (As romantic as that sounds…)

I’ve spent the last few months writing for the normal variety of publications (here’s last week’s effort), trying my hand at reading Proust (a shout-out to E.C., who insisted on it), and trying (kind of) to become a real rock climber (what I lack in skill, I make up for in heart).

My choice to temporarily abandon Haley Bureau was the result of many things, not the least of which being that I’m trying to figure out what the hell this whole blogging thing is about. (Warning to the queasy: an angst-ridden diatribe on the alleged need to cultivate an “online presence” follows.)

Some part of me finds the whole blogging thing kind of repulsive (and yes, I’m aware of the irony of writing such a statement on a blog). After all, isn’t it just an institutionalized forum for either bragging (in that particularly annoying way that travelers brag about the amazing places they’ve been and the things they’ve eaten), or self-promotion (“hey, mom, look! look what I did!”)? Or, in the case of Haley Bureau, both?

If you really think about it — ignoring for a moment that bragging/self-promotion in blog-form has become somewhat culturally acceptable — isn’t it just kind of gross?

So why don’t I just throw in the towel? Pull the plug? Shut down Haley Bureau, foreswear Twitter, take a page from the Trappistines, and head for the hills?

Good question.

And unfortunately you already know the answer. In this crazy, changing, moribund world of modern journalism, it seems a freelancer doesn’t have much of a choice. She must build an online presence of one kind or another simply to remind people she’s employable. (Case and point? I don’t update HB for three months, and people think I’ve gone rogue. Become a meteorologist, a kept woman. A copy writer for Parade.

You see, I want to agree with — in fact, I do agree with — Washington Post media critic Gene Weingarten, who writes this week about how icky it is that journalists are encouraged to concertedly build and export a “brand name,” “to market themselves like Cheez Doodles.” I completely agree that building a “personal brand” has nothing at all to do with good journalism or good writing, and in fact probably has the opposite effect on both.

But I also don’t see a clear alternative. Cultivating an online presence (I even hate the phrase), using the smoke and mirrors of chirpy Tweets, Facebook updates, and Tumblr to promote (a version) of one’s self (show me the man who is who his Facebook page says he is) is merely the modern equivalent of nailing up a shiny sign outside one’s office doors, right?

So, with that defense, I’m back. If you have a better way I should be thinking about blogging (or a better way to pacify my inner monk), I’m all ears. x

The next step...

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 03:58:30 -0400

This guy’s name is Hadi. Vice President Abd Rabu Mansur, to be precise. Is Saleh going to pass the buck to him? Take a look at the options facing Yemenis in my newest article in The New Republic today. Thanks!