Greetings! We just passed this weekend the five-year anniversary of the collapse of the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia, and we’re fast approaching the five-year anniversary of the start of the Egyptian revolution.
Today we’ll have a few activities and discussions intended to help situate us in the pattern of work for the semester and highlight some of the fundamental concepts we’ll use to learn about the Middle Eastern revolutions this semester.
We’ll start class with a short reading quiz on Canvas. Keep Canvas open so you can look closer at some of the assignment sheets and documents I’ll discuss.
I’ll walk you through the digital research projects you’ll each work on this semester and we’ll take a quick look at Diigo–our social bookmarking platform–and Google Maps which we’ll use for geotagging.
After reviewing the five perspectives on globalization, I’m going to break you into groups and assign each group two perspectives. You’ll then browse through the class’s Diigo reading list (which you’ll find here) and choose one example of an article relevant to each of your perspectives. The groups will quickly explain how the articles would appeal to the perspectives you’ve chosen.
After that I’ll have your groups practice creating a geotag for each of the two examples to get practice before we have our first geotagging assignment on Thursday.
We found this article that agrees with the market liberalism view of globalization. http://trade.gov/press/publications/newsletters/ita_0408/middle-east_0408.asp
We found this article that agrees more with the cosmopolitan view of globalization.
http://www.arabmediasociety.com/?article=760
Joe Pouttu
Ralph Khayat
Irede Apaokagi
Peter Grossman
The first article our group found is relating to market liberalism. http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-meeting-idUKKCN0JB0M420141127 This talks about oil prices “plunging.” With oil being such a main resource and prominent factor in their economy, any changes in the status of oil directly affect their economy in a big way and be of interest to someone who identifies as a market liberal.
The second article our group found is relating to political realism. https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/566502-lfs-geagea-to-back-aoun-for-lebanon-presidency
This article interestingly discusses politicians in Lebanon who used to be rivals, but our now backing each other. This shift in power would appeal to the senses of political realists because it is such a drastic shift of power.
Market Liberalism: “Who Owns Yoga”
>link: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/who-owns-yoga/384350/?utm_source=SFFB
>This article relates to the Indian National Government attempt to monetize yoga. This appeals to the use of market liberalism because it uses trade and economic principles. They believe in free market and would be relevant to their interests.
Radicalism: “Syria allies: Why Russia, Iran and China are standing by the regime”
>link: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/29/world/meast/syria-iran-china-russia-supporters/
>This articles talks about the actors involved in the Syrian revolution. This would appeal to radicals due to the staging of the oppressors and oppressed in an on going revolution and power struggle.
By: Ana Acosta, Michael Portier, Phillip Valdez, CC Fuentez
Group:
Ysenia Valdez, Michelle Kulach, Samantha Foster, Mary Kathryn Cook
Radicalism:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7959531.stm
Oppression of minority- Shia Muslims
Tunisia Homosexuality Laws
-in search of universal human rights
-contrast with indigenous cultural uniqueness.
Political Realism:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-idUSKBN0MQ0HH20150403
Iran president views nuclear deal as a start of new relationship with world
-Israel thinks the purpose is to destroy them
Jennifer Hernandez, Nathalie Phan, Mutlag Alshammari, Courtney Guy-Barnett
Political Liberalism: This article refers to diplomatic efforts being displayed in order to diffuse a situation in Iranian Waters.
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/15/the-u-s-radically-changes-its-story-of-the-boats-in-iranian-waters-to-an-even-more-suspicious-version/
Cosmopolitanism: This article refers to women coming together to form networks in their community to counter violent extremism.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alaa-murabit/the-key-to-countering-vio_b_6131020.html