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The connotations of suicide bombing are such that we often think of bombers as poor, desperate men from  untoward backgrounds.  As the recent discovery of  “Jihadi Jane” and Nigerian  has shown us, this is not the case.  Often, suicide bombers are men from middle-class families. The evidence remains mixed, however.

In a recent paper presentation at the Brookings Institute, in line with others he’d given previously,  Dr. Edward Sayer explored the connection between labor market conditions and Palestinian suicide bombers from Gaza and the West Bank. He finds that there is indeed some correlation between economic conditions and terrorism:

Contrary to the previous literature, this paper  finds that economic conditions are correlated with suicide terrorism. Specifically, deteriorating  local labor market conditions during the al-Aqsa Intifada account for nearly half of the increase in suicide bombings during that time.

As Israel continues instituting road blocks in the West Bank, it has increased its security situation, with suicide bombings falling to zero over the past several years.  However, as the paper points out, with a broken economy, it is not viable for the West Bank and could result in a new crop of suicide bombers.

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Recently, the Russian Orthodox church, which has been experiencing a great revival in post-Soviet Russia, has set its sites on the ex-Soviet republics.  On January 16th, the Patriarch of the church, Kiril Frolov,aimed to visit Astana, Kazakhstan.  However, due to fog blocking the airplane, he was rerouted to Almaty, Kazakhstan’s commercial center.

Whether it was the deliberate intention of Patriarch Kirill, the visit assumed a clearly political connotation and culminated in extensive talks with President Nursultan Nazarbayev who received from the hands of the guest the Glory and Honor Order, the highest mark of distinction in the ROC, previously granted to the former Russian President Vladimir Putin, the former Patriarch Alexey II, and the pro-Moscow Head of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Caucasus Allahshukur Pashazade.

The visit, meant to mark the opening of Uspensk Cathedral, the largest in Central Asia, took on political undertones of a church concerned with the rise of religious Muslim observance not only in Russia but surrounding states.

Addressing an audience in Astana, Patriarch Kirill stressed the existence of “inter-ethnic, religious tolerance, and mutual respect” in Kazakhstan, condemning at the same time “the spread of extremism and terrorism,” while praising the Kazakh leader for his “approach to these problems,” which helped to avoid conflict.

An additional reason for the visit had economic undertones,

Patriarch Kirill’s trip to Astana was also synchronized with the creation of the Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which was welcomed by Kirill as an important step towards integration.

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Headlines like this, “In a City of Over Ten Million, Only Five-Star Hotels Are a Near-Safe Bet “ point to Moscow’s dismal position as a tourist town.

Russia Profile reports that Russia, unlike Paris or London, has an over-demand for hotel rooms and not enough hotels to satisfy tourism:

Many travelers, both foreign and non-foreign, find Moscow to be an unwelcoming place for tourists. So why are hotel prices here so exorbitant? The answer is obvious: demand is still outnumbering supply. There are only about 270 hotels in the Russian capital that are able to accommodate 85,000 tourists – a very limited number compared to London, for example, where some 1,700 hotels are available to travelers, or Paris, which boasts 1,500 hotels.

And, although five-star hotels are plentiful in Moscow, lower price points are few and far between,

Finding moderately priced accommodation in the city is like playing Russian roulette – the experience may end up being positive, but the chances of it turning your trip into a nightmare are still high. Americans and Europeans visiting Moscow often complain about rude personnel, a lack of information in English and extra charges for services such as using the Internet or calling a taxi.

This is not good news as Russian hotel prices continue to climb despite the shaky collapse of the oil-based economy in light of the global melt-down and tourism to Moscow continues to decrease.

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Back in the 1970s when the Soviet Union was interested in expanding its sphere of influence in African countries, in addition to backing African freedom movements, it brought many African students to study at Russian universities, most notably Patrice Lumumba.

Shubin emphasises the wide spectrum of Soviet support of liberation
movements in Southern Africa, ranging from financial assistance, medical aid, food
and other civilian supplies, to academic education, military and political training in
the USSR and in African countries, the supply of weapons and other war materials,
and the provision of military advisors and specialists and political/diplomatic aid, all
according to the call of circumstance.

As many black students stayed in the Soviet Union because of marriage, they had children on their own or with Russians.  Some American blacks also immigrated to the Soviet Union because they saw it as more equal than the United States before civil rights.

Yelena Khanga is one of Russia’s best-known black citizens. The popular host of a top-rated 1990s chat show about sex — “Pro Eto,” (About That) — she became one of the few black faces regularly seen on Russian television.

Khanga’s grandparents came to the Soviet Union in the 1920s to escape the racism they had endured in the United States as a mixed-race couple.

Despite the official words of both the Soviet and Russian government, blacks and mixed-race citizens of Russia have experienced tremendous amounts of hostility and racism partially because Africans in Russia are so extremely rare and often seen as exotica:

But black skin remains extremely rare in Russia. One estimate says that there are between 40,000 and 70,000 Russians of full or mixed-African heritage.   That distinction has singled many black Russians out for treatment that they say swings between curiosity, at best, and open hostility, at worst.

Grigory Siyatinda, an actor at the Sovremennik Theater in Moscow, grew up as the only black man in his hometown of Tyumen in the 1970s. His experience was that of an object of fascination in an isolated Soviet society where foreigners, and especially black foreigners, were exotic.  “How to put it? It wasn’t racism, what I experienced during my childhood in Tyumen,” Siyatinda says. “I was the only black person in Tyumen — Tyumen is a Siberian city and there were no black-skinned people at all. No one had ever seen one. That’s why there was simply this heightened curiosity toward me. It was heightened so much at times that it crossed over the borders of tact.

Now, with Obama as America’s first black president, some are hopeful within the community that things will change, although the increased rate of attacks on Africans are a dismal sign:

While much of the violence seems to be purely racist, some believe Africans are also targeted as scapegoats for Russian society’s ills and the media is often accused of fostering an image of African students as drug-dealers.

The attacks have turned murderous in recent years. In St Petersburg, three Africans have been killed in suspected race attacks since September.

Sites like Asylum in Bardak report frequent attacks against Africans in Russia and it seems that, with economic hardships from the crash of the oil economy settling in in 2010,racism and attacks will only increase.

I reported this story for NewEurasia (complete with pics and video here.)

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The Foreign Policy association reports,

In order to return the biblical species of deer now known as the Persian Fallow Deer to Israel an espionage mission was set up by an Israeli general who was also a zealous conservationist.

Israel had struck a deal with the Shah of Iran and his son to capture two of the deer and bring them to Israel. However, they were not able to coordinate the conservation effort in time. One day before the revolution broke out a Dutch zoologist living in Israel was able to cross the border at the behest of General Avraham Yaffi, present false papers and capture the deer and safely bring them back to Israel. The deer have been well taken care of and have multiplied at the Bar- Hai Reserve. Four deer were released into the wild recently by Israeli zoologists.

This is interesting because it highlights that, before the revolution, Israel and Iran used to be very close and have stellar diplomatic relations.  For example, Wikipedia notes,

After the Six Day War, Iran supplied Israel with a significant portion of its oil needs and Iranian oil was shipped to European markets via the joint Israeli-Iranian Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline. Brisk trade between the countries continued until 1979. Israeli construction firms and engineers were active in Iran. Iranian-Israeli military links and projects were kept secret, but they are believed to have been wide-ranging, for example the joint military project Project Flower (1977-’79), an Iranian-Israeli attempt to develop a new missile.

Via.

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The UN, the United States, and other bodies often send money to the West Bank and Gaza alike.  However, their  donations in Palestine end up being squandered due to the usual littany of complaints: no transparency and high levels of  bureaucracy.

Which is why it’s good news that

The Palestine Investment Fund (PIF), a publicly owned investment fund which aims to strengthen the Palestinian economy through key strategic investments, and private equity group Abraaj Capital announce the first closing of a US$50 million private equity fund dedicated to Palestine.

The private equity fund will focus on investing in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Palestine across a range of sectors and stages of maturity. Abraaj is the largest private equity group in the Middle East and North Africa, with offices in six countries.With a first closing at US$15 million, the private equity fund is the first of its kind dedicated to the Palestinian economy. The initial commitments from the sponsors – PIF and Abraaj – will be supplemented by funds raised from investors in further closings planned later this year.

because, as evidence has suggested, small and medium enterprises are the most effective at leveraging aid and transforming it into tangible results, at least in small countries like Bangladesh that could serve as a parallel for the West Bank, with a relatively young population,

For LDCs like Bangladesh, SMEs are a highly cost-effective route to industrial
development. The present size of the population in the 2-14 years age group is approximately
16 million. They will be candidates for new jobs.

It will be interesting to see how this project goes given that it’s funded by private industry rather than public partners.

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A post I wrote about the situation in Ghajar is now a WSJ news item.

GHAJAR, on the Israel-Lebanon border—The Obama administration is pushing Israel to withdraw its forces from the Lebanese side of this farming village, where 2,200 residents—all Israeli citizens—are stuck in limbo astride the border of two rival nations.

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From the FAS project on government secrecy (via my husband) comes the news that Fatah is revising its charter for 2010, maybe influenced by possible changes in the Hamas charter, who said they may reconsider their charter goal of calling for the elmination of Israel.    Translation here.

Last year, the Palestine National Liberation Movement (Fatah in the Arabic acronym) led by Palestinian National Authority president Mahmoud Abbas gathered in Bethlehem and approved a revision of its charter for the first time since the 1960s.  That revised charter (pdf) has recently been translated into English by the DNI Open Source Center.

The document is not particularly conciliatory in tone or content.  It is a call to revolution, confrontation with the enemy, and the liberation of Palestine, “free and Arab.”  Interestingly, it stresses the role of women in the movement.  “The leading bodies will work to arrive at 20 percent participation for women, provided this does not conflict with organizational standars or the Internal Charter.” And it insists repeatedly on the need to safeguard the movement’s “secrets.”

But what is perhaps most significant is what is not in the document.  The original Fatah charter (or constitution) from the 1960s embraced “the world-wide struggle against Zionism,” denied Jewish historical or religious ties to the land, and called for the “eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.”  None of that language is carried over into the new charter, which manages not to mention Israel, Zionism, or Jews at all.

This is interesting given the recent backlash of Fatah party women.

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Arabic, the 6th most spoken language in  the world (5th by some estimates), is already a key language for the United Nations, IMF, and the World Bank.  Now, Kuwait has requested that Arabic also become an official language of the World Trade Organization.  Given that the WTO, smaller than the World Bank or UN is already straining with its three official languages, Arabic would be an added burden.

Adding three languages would cost about 45 million Swiss francs ($43 million) a year, the ambassador said — no small amount given a total WTO budget in 2009 of 189 million francs.

Having been on projects that have had to be translated into French for the Canadian government, I can tell you that it is no easy feat to have simultaneous translations for one language, let alone multiple languages, particularly given that Arabic doesn’t use the Roman alphabet, meaning that more effort would have to be made to make sure graphics and forms line up.

How much pressure Arab countries, who just joined the WTO in 2000 en masse, will put on the organization to adopt Arabic remains to be seen.