That’s a wrap to our film festival in Zurich! Thanks to our panelists for their rich discussions. Hanaa Al Omair on the role of women in filmmaking in Saudi Arabia; @joeyayoub & Nay Abu Fayad on how conflict shapes storytelling in Lebanese cinema
It was an honor to work with Ambassador Brülhart @SwissEnvoyMENA to co-chair a day at the 7th Middle East Mediterranean Summit in Lugano, Switzerland @USI_MEM.The summit focused on the importance of dialogue & mediation in a critical moment in the MENA region.
Checkout my new co-authored publication. How can we foster social cohesion by engaging with informal religious and political authorities in conflict contexts? #iraq#mediation#dialogue@CSS_ETHZurich
https://t.co/lQq3TSaAy2
Does art reflect the health of a civilization?
Well, you can tell a lot about the Ancient Greeks from their art.
How they depicted their heroes was quite different to today... (thread) 🧵
Less than 2 weeks since OpenAI started rolling out GPT-4o.
And people have been busy executing god-like tasks.
50 truly mind-boggling examples:
(29th is my favorite)
BRICS in Expansion: ‘BRICS is not a political agenda, neither are we acting in a Cold War environment. It is opportunities, trade, and economic opportunities connecting the south-south agenda together’ #WEF2024
‘Instead of setting up a new framework, true multilateralism should be based on basic norms set by the UN charter and should be upheld and observed by all’. #WEF2024
Li Qiang, China’s premier: ‘Question is what is true multilateralism? Who will set the rules & what are the rules? If they are set by a few countries, we should place quotation marks on multilateralism. #WEF2024
‘Mediation is central to our policy we believe it is vital as a small country, it gives you agility to move faster and good relations with everyone. We see it as our contribution to global security’. #WEF24
Qatari PM & Foreign Affairs minister Al Thani:
-‘A military solution alone will not solve the issue. Houthis must be on the table- What we have in the region is a recipe for escalation’.
-‘Engaging with Iran is important to creating a better ground for common interest’ #WEF24
Last paragraph best tells how international law & international rules based order are coming apart, w support of the very world powers that tout its values & claim to be defending it. The American-backed world order will not be able to easily reverse this blow to its credibility👇
Thomas Friedman writes of the attack on Israel, “This is not your usual Hamas-Israel dust-up.” The shock waves will not only thrust Israel and the Palestinians of Gaza into turmoil but will also slam into Ukraine and Saudi Arabia and maybe even Iran. https://t.co/Elt01n191t
*Intel failure clear consequence of Israeli domestic political turmoil.
*Watershed moment on many levels. Extent of consequences will take time to determine.
*Israel wrath against Gaza will be unprecedented.
*Watch for Saudi reaction.
*All happening as region in huge flux
3/4
All still unfolding.
See this as :
*Iran axis response to Israel normalization talks with Saudi. Also undermines Iran-Saudi normalization
*Palestinian response to worsening/unbearable oppression under occupation. But operation will only make things worse for Pal civilians. 2/4