Iraq's Arab dream
“The land you know as Iraq is history.” Falah Mustafa Bakir, the unofficial foreign minister of Kurdish Iraq, was very plain when he talked to a German journalist in May of 2005. “There will be no going back to a situation before the summer of 2014.”
What had happened in Iraq in the summer of 2014 was the Islamic State (IS) taking Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. One year later, IS controls a territory that stretches from outside Damascus to the suburbs of Baghdad.
Egypt's people and culture take over snapchat
Following the hashtag #CairoOnSnapChat, Twitter seemed to reap more responses to the story than the actual influx which took place on Snapchat. Among the 1,500 tweets shared, responses varied between shame, disappointment and a great deal of resentment for how Cairo was represented to the global users of the phone application.
What must be done
I wish I can explain what it feels like to be disgusted by one’s own country. It’s a painful sentiment. You feel guilty for even feeling it in the first place, but you just can’t help it. You’re aware of your own privileges, it’s true, and you know that despite it all, you still have a relatively comfortable life. But that’s just not enough anymore.
