Martin Jay February 21, 2022 © Photo: REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier Middle East nations,
definitely in the GCC area, are gaining from the Ukraine standoff as the heat is taken off them, Martin Jay writes. Boris Johnson’s words themselves may be prolific. He stated at a conference on 19th of February in Munich that a Ukraine invasion would “echo “worldwide while requesting for Europe to take a united stand against Russia. In reality, the Ukraine crisis, without even one Russian soldier getting in Eastern Ukraine, is having quite an impact currently merely due to the media bandwidth it has actually taken, denying other huge stories the oxygen they should have– especially affecting the Middle East and North Africa area(MENA). These countries, certainly in the GCC region, are gaining from the Ukraine standoff as the heat is taken off them. In particular the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been offered a get-out-of-jail-free card by western media in the latter’s desertion of Yemen, a bloody ridiculous war there which has actually eliminated generations and left the rest with hunger and whose gruesome images utilized to fill TV screens and traditional media’s print and online portals. However no more. In truth, sceptics might even go even more and argue that in the case of Saudi Arabia, it would appear that its mercurial young crown prince has actually taken full advantage of the media blackout on Yemen by ploughing ahead with his reforms that include the banning of Mosque loudspeakers, significantly minimizing hours spent on Islamic education and Arabic language in the nationwide curriculum and even allowing swimsuit beaches in Jeddah. The hope probably is that at some point western media will go back to the area and notification such modifications and start to feature them in their reporting. But there might be a long wait. Remarkably, Putin’s standoff with the West may go on for some time, even if there is no intrusion as such. In the meantime, for a lot of the elite that make up countries in the region who are fearing another
Arab Spring, the limited limelights provided to Yemen is fascinating. But it is Justin Trudeau’s remarkable authoritarian behaviour in Canada against peaceful truckers who want to object which will have ramifications in the Arab world. Not only will Arab leaders note that also journalism protection is restricted as is the opprobrium from the typical so-called professionals in Washington and London, but that they now have the green light from the West to duplicate anti-democratic procedures all in the name of the sanctity of the state and issue betide Canada for criticising KSA’s human rights record as it did previously when it demanded the release of Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi in 2018. Trudeau has actually truly surprised the world with his arbitrary relocate to criminalise the protests and has set a design template for the Middle East and Africa to follow suit. Indeed in Africa, dictatorial, brutal routines will not doubt note how the Ukraine crisis and
the media attention it has drawn in has actually caused practically a media blackout on authoritarian power grabs in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, western satellites which, when it comes to Mali at least, have actually fallen under the hands of Moscow just by its association with Wagner mercenaries. The very genuine worry that African totalitarians have which effects their ability to hunt aid from the World Bank and the IMF is press protection itself from the media giants. When that line of interaction is shut down, there’s no informing how African nations’ elites will react. There might well be a domino effect which will take lots of with it as it sweeps across the region, while the EU remains a impotent spectator to the winds of modification. And in the EU itself, Poland is no longer alone in being viewed as the impolite boy in the class who might be expelled from the club, or rather leaves unceremoniously. Others, like Hungary, are now succumbing to EU laws which challenge their constitutions and place them on a clash with the maniacs in Brussels who can not see how they are
digging their own graves with their bellicose language and warnings. A recent research study by the EU exposed that MEPs themselves are requesting a special slush fund of billions of euros to avoid the next anti-EU referendum which is sending out some EU leaders into a panic as lots of believe that one more EU member to follow Britain might be the end of the job as we understand it. None of these stories are getting any genuine traction or attention by reporters who are either heading to Ukraine or have actually turned all their attention to the tensions in their copy and left these subjects aside. Is this what Boris Johnson implied when he alerted leaders in Munich about the effects echoing around the globe?