Summary: roughly a quarter of countries in the Arab League, including currently suspended member Syria, are suffering from currency depreciation, a US dollar shortage and rising debt levels. Issues are being compounded by surging inflation, while in some countries (in)formal capital controls and sanctions are impacting trade and debt repayments.
As the week in which women are being recognised globally draws to a close Arab Digest is pleased to remind members of our podcast contributions from Arab women over the past year.
Summary: a young Palestinian-Lebanese-Australian journalist talks about the impact of the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey and about the strength of the written word and the power of music and food to challenge repression and intolerance in the struggle for Arab liberation.
Summary: 2023 promises to be a very difficult year for many MENA countries with only the Gulf states escaping the long shadow of a deep economic slowdown.
Summary: with candid and often brutal honesty the Lebanese writer Amal Ghandour digs deep into her own past, all the while excavating the landscape of a failed state, seeking answers for why Lebanon has abandoned its people to the invidious greed of an entrenched elite.
Sami Hamdi, the CEO of The International Interest, joins Arab Digest editor William Law for a wide-ranging, fast-paced and thought-provoking review of a tumultuous year for the MENA region as alliances shifted and fissures emerged with new tensions flaring up even as old ones eased. The podcast wraps up with Sami’s take on what to look for in 2023.
Summary: the business and sectarian elites that rule Lebanon, aided and abetted by Iran and Syria, are behaving with predictable selfishness.
Summary: Israel is positioning itself well when it comes to exploiting natural resources in the Middle East.
Summary: a leading analyst offers pragmatic solutions to ending the stranglehold Lebanon’s kleptocratic elites have on the country: support independent parliamentarians, sanction the elites and challenge Iran’s backing of Hezbollah.
Arab Digest editor William Law’s guest this week is Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the London-based think tank Chatham House. Their conversation focusses on the political and business elites that are plundering Lebanon. Ordinary people are suffering huge deprivation, with 80% of the population now below the poverty line, as the economic crisis caused by the insatiable greed of the elites grows ever deeper.
