The Gulf protection racket is corrupt and dangerous folly.
Here is a graphic showing UK arms sales to the Middle East and North Africa.
Is Britain arming oppressive regimes in the Middle East?.
However U.S. Arms Sales Make Up Most of Global Market.
posted by adamvasco on Nov 7, 2012 - 19 comments

Thousands of Iranian women are training to be ninjas.
posted by reenum on Feb 5, 2012 - 71 comments

When Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was released from government custody it was with several conditions. Ai was slapped with a travel ban, was not to speak to the media about his detention and was banned from using social media. Since his release he has returned to Twitter, joined Google+, given an interview to a Party-run newspaper and on August 28 he published a piece in Newsweek that calls Beijing "a constant nightmare". [more inside]
posted by IvoShandor on Aug 30, 2011 - 17 comments

Algeria has shut down internet and Facebook as protests mount.
posted by auralcoral on Feb 13, 2011 - 125 comments

Afghanistan: When Women Set Themselves On Fire [more inside]
posted by zarq on Jul 9, 2010 - 29 comments

The Dark Side of Dubai. "Do-buy" was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging. [more inside]
posted by Rufus T. Firefly on Apr 7, 2009 - 64 comments

Can the Burmese people rescue themselves? A powerful piece by George Packer in the New Yorker on the recent history and current conditions in Burma.
posted by homunculus on Aug 20, 2008 - 32 comments

African American Holocaust [Warning: contains graphic material] Nearly 5,000 black Americans were lynched between 1890 and 1960. In her new book, On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-First Century, University of Maryland School of Law Associate Professor Sherrilyn Ifill traces the ongoing impact of these crimes. While the lynchings were devastating, Professor Ifill argues that the little-known contemporary consequences, such as the marginalization of political and economic development for blacks, are equally pernicious, and that there's still a great deal of education and reconciliation that still needs to happen. [Previous Links]
posted by psmealey on Nov 6, 2007 - 70 comments

60 years ago today, an incident took place in Taipei, which led to the massive slaughter of thousands of Taiwanese at the hands of Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese troops. Many were imprisoned for torture and execution on Green Island off Taiwan's eastern coast. More on Green Island here, and an interesting-ish flickr photo set here
posted by mattoxic on Feb 26, 2007 - 8 comments

Kiss your son's belly button Spend six months in jail.
posted by delmoi on Jul 27, 2005 - 68 comments

Bow down to Frosty! Frosty commands you! Snowmen as symbols of patriarchic oppression. Some people really just look for things to get snitty about.
posted by Skot on Dec 29, 2000 - 12 comments