European Union

The school attack in Peshawar has set all eyes on Pakistan. The war between the military forces and the Talibans has evolved into a spiral of violence that is difficult to resolve. Clare Castillejo, senior researcher at FRIDE, analyses the factors behind the attack and the state of the Pakistani talibans.

What are the implications for the country and for the troubled region?

Flickr_Henry_Patton

Three years after the fall of Gaddafi, the political situation in Libya has evolved in a chaotic way. Fragmented and with two governments, the country is unable to maintain the security across its territory and deal with several domestic and external challenges.  Barah Mikaïl, senior researcher at FRIDE, analyses the failed political process in Libya, the risk of spillover into neighbouring countries and the role of the international community.

In what ways is Tunisia different from its neighbours? What are the factors behind its positive path to democracy? What would an electoral victory of Essebsi mean for the democratic transition? What are the challenges ahead?

Flickr-Stephan de Vries

The first round of elections has showed how positively Tunisia has advanced towards democracy in comparison with other Arab spring states. However, Tunisia still faces several socio-economic and security challenges. According to Kristina Kausch, Head of FRIDE’s Middle East Programme, implementation of the necessary reforms will only be achieved if a strong unity government is in place.

To watch the video, click on the image

When I was 9 years old, my family moved to Finland and I went to the International School of Helsinki until the age of 11, when I went off to boarding school in the UK. My best friend, probably the first one I had, was an American girl called Katja Ollendorff. She lived in the next suburb to us, so we spent a lot of time at each other’s houses and we were both obsessed with the Police. I remember evenings spent dissecting all the inner meaning of the lyrics of every song on Zenyatta Mondatta, and probably ascribing much more meaning than the original authors ever intended.

In the way of diplomatic kids, though, our respective families moved on. We kept in touch by letter for a while, but eventually lost touch.

Fast forward to 2014. I use a mail application called Mailbox, which encourages you to aim for #inboxzero. When you get there, you get an image, curated from somewhere on the web. Today it was a very striking pattern, and I was intrigued, so I clicked on it.

It took me through to an Instagram page and you can probably imagine my astonishment when the account was owned by a graphic designer called Katja Ollendorff! Like Antonia Mochan, this is hardly a run-of-the-mill name! I left a message on the page, to see if it was indeed the same one, and it is.

We all know that the 6 degrees of separation seem to have been reduced to half that through social networks, or maybe they are just more visible. But this connection seems utterly random. The connection between me and Mailbox, and Mailbox and Katja is so tenuous as to have made this connection hugely unlikely. What if I hadn’t got to #inboxzero today? I might never have come across her again. Even when I do reach it, I rarely click on the picture – this one was just particularly eye-catching. The whole thing is completely weird and wonderful at the same time.

As you know, I am a passionate advocate for the power of social networks to bring people together. It was joyous to have this example of how that happens given to me today.

Many many thanks to all those that took part in yesterday’s Day of Multilingual Blogging. Here’s a wrap up of how it went.

Bienvenue à la Journée du Blogging Plurilingue! Cette année, la journée sera plus longue que dans les années précédentes, étant donné que je suis en Australie.

ça n’a pas commencé bien: quand j’ai essayé d’acceder au blogue ce matin, j’ai reçu un écran blanc, et le message “Error establishing a database connection”. Panique totale! Heureusement et grace aux bons gens chez EZPZ Hosting, le problème est maintenant resolu, et je peux continuer…

J’ai créé une liste de tous les blogues participants, pour le rendre plus facile à suivre  et je mettrai les liens à tous les papiers ici ici en bas au fur et à mesure.  Pas oublier à utiliser le hashtag #babel14!

Bon blogging!