In Tunisia, the trade unions have rejected any attempt at cutting subsidies or trimming the enormous public sector wage bill. The Egyptian government promised that it would start selling off military owned and state-owned firms under an IMF agreement. In Lebanon, where you have this cabal of politicians and bankers who drove the country into financial crisis, they are resisting any attempt at reforming the financial sector. You have these powerful figures who are blocking reform in all three countries.
If there is one thing Facebook’s parent company does well, it is aping other social-media features and platforms—and it is a propitious time to steal Twitter’s thunder. Deeply indebted Arab countries desperately need loans from the IMF, but have good reasons to balk at the fund’s terms (10:00). And New Yorkers love their invasive parakeets; the birds’ enormous nests, less so (18:41).
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