Jeddah is Sinking

An inside perspective laments a city still ill-prepared:

The heavy rains on Jeddah has paralyzed the city, once again. Obviously, none of last year’s lesson has been learned.

REUTERS: Abu Mohammad, an 83-year-old Palestinian refugee, speaks to Reuters TV at Al Hussein Palestinian refugee camp in Amman January 25, 2011.

We turn our attention to Algeria where murmurings are being heard again.

Algeria’s long-term stability is very uncertain and it seems increasingly likely that discontent with the country’s managed crisis will produce some kind of political rearrangement in the near future. The harraga issue deserves comment as is shared between Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Libya and because it is interesting to think out politically in terms of Kenner’s overall question, which is important and reasonable (especially as most commentary has focused on Egypt as the next candidate for popular destabilization).

The most engaging report is a 2008 cable on disaffected Algerian youth known as “the harraga,” or literally “one who burns.” Unlike Mohamed Bouazizi, who lit himself on fire in Tunisia two years later, these men aren’t burning themselves — they’re burning their identification papers before setting out on makeshift boats in an attempt to reach the shores of Spain or Italy. It’s an unbelievably dangerous journey....

Following widespread public protests in Egypt, the country’s government is reportedly coming down heavily on social media.