Washington Post (November 17)
“Fear does strange things to people” and in the aftermath of the Paris bombings some U.S. leaders have called for a moratorium on receiving refugees from Syria. But giving refugees a cold shoulder “is morally reprehensible, un-American and in some instances, legally untenable.” The “Syrian refugees deserve freedom from slaughter.”
New York Times (October 30)
The rising populism in Germany and around the globe “is not the anger of a classic loony fringe, but rather mainstream people striking out at elites who they believe have lost touch with reality and common sense. To many here, the refugee crisis, the euro crisis, the Ukraine crisis and the threats seen in an unleashed global capitalism have converged in a fundamental question: Do the mighty still know what they are doing?”
Tags: Anger, Capitalism, Common sense, Elites, Euro crisis, Fringe, Germany, Mainstream, Populism, Reality, Refugees, Ukraine
Wall Street Journal (September 9)
While Europe is rescuing teeming masses of immigrants, neighboring Arab states are proving they are “not their brothers’ keepers.” They have done “pretty much nothing,” with Gulf leaders “worrying that a large influx of refugees will upset the political balance of their brittle kingdoms.”
Tags: Arab states, Europe, Gulf, Immigrants, Kingdoms, Political balance, Refugees
The Independent (September 8)
“It is an era of violence. Nine civil wars are raging. None shows any sign of ending. People cannot go home. The great waves of refugees will continue.”
Tags: Civil wars, Refugees, Violence
Institutional Investor (October 10)
“As refugees from Syria and Iraq flood across the border and, the real economy suffers, Lebanon’s central bank is looking to start-up lending as a way to boost growth.” Despite an influx of 1.3 million refugees (roughly a third of its pre-crisis population), Lebanon’s “economy has remained intact. Growth, while meager, is still projected to reach 1.8 percent this year….Much of this resilience is down to the creativity of the central bank” and the novel approaches it is adopting.
Tags: Border, Central bank, Creativity, Economy, Growth, Iraq, Lebanon, Lending, Refugees, Resilience, Start-ups, Syria