John McCain Unplugged: The Surge Protector

This cartoon can also be viewed at The Seminal.

Musharraf moves on

Mr. Musharraf resigns...


and Pres. Bush hasn't been impeached yet?

Beats from the Horn of Africa

• "We do not copy songs from old musicians, we come up with our own ideas and sing about what is happening by the day, something that rarely happens," says a member of New Era, a Somali pop group in Nairobi. How many groups get a shout-out from U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees?
  

• Meanwhile, a jailed Ethiopian singer - Teddy Afro - makes waves. The Ethiopian government finally released 10,000 copies of Enku, a music magazine. The issues were impounded because they featured a cover story on Teddy Afro, whose followers love to compare to Bob Marley. Despite the smooth jazz sound, Mr. Afro (pictured right) seems more like a Fela Kuti character to me.
  

• For classic cuts from Addis Ababa, direct your ears to Ethiopiques' latest re-release.
  

• And what's the new in Eritrea? 11 graduated from the Asmara School of Music. Mabruk to those lucky students. Listen to this electropop mixtape from Eritrea in their honor.
  

Wherest Phelps the Golden encounters offshore drilling...

Will he defeat the wretched towers?

Stay tuned for the next episode of Aquaman

Iraq’s Refugees and IDPs: MEI avoids the issues

Iraq’s refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) barely reach news headlines. Up to 5 million Iraqis were uprooted by the war, putting a strain on neighboring Jordan and Syria. But as American efforts amount to missed opportunities, NGOs try to meet the enormous need.

If you were sitting in the cozy conference room at the Middle East Institute on Monday (like me, sitting front row), you may have hoped to learn about the status of refugees and IDPs in and out of the conflict-ridden Gulf state. In fact, the event Iraqi’s Refugee and IDP Crisis: Human Toll and Implications was a rather meek launch of MEI Viewpoints, a collection of essays on the aforementioned theme. I don’t mean to disparage the publication but rather highlight the gulf between the internet publication and the event. In spite of the camera crews, the bold approach to refugees and IDPs apparent in the Viewpoints publication was absent from the discussion.

Surprisingly, Phebe Marr’s comments overflowed with optimism. A historian by trade, Ms. Marr pointed to Iraqis’ experience with misplacement, citing Jews and Christians as victims of the preceding refugee crisis. Yet as she predicted the future of Iraqi refugees, she missed some historic points. By focusing on the potential effects of a “brain drain,” Ms. Marr neglected to observe that Iraq’s “best” moved away prior to the invasion. Many Iraqi professionals left when the rogue state was first hit by sanctions. In a sense, Ms. Marr’s future-minded discussion allowed her to avoid facing the difficult conditions of the present.

Some more pressing questions for panel: What incentives would bring Iraqi refugees back to their home country? Free transportation? The opportunity to study? How have rising food prices affected the lives of IDPs? To what extent will they ever have the opportunity to reintegrate into Iraq?

The mainstream media avoids reporting from the front lines of refugee camps in Jordan and Syria. To TV stations and newspapers, giving attention to those uprooted by the war looks a lot like criticizing the American invasion. Should we not expect a think tank to dive deeper into these types of issues? While NGOs call on America to take a bolder approach, the Middle East Institute walks the fine line between expected and obvious.