Eric Walberg
Canadian Eric Walberg is known worldwide as a journalist specializing in the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia. A graduate of University of Toronto and Cambridge in economics, he has been writing on East-West relations since the 1980s. He has lived in both the Soviet Union and Russia, and then Uzbekistan, as a UN adviser, writer, translator and lecturer. He has written for Al-Ahram Weekly, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Global Research, Al-Jazeerah and Turkish Weekly, and is a commentator on PressTV. You can reach him at his website http://ericwalberg.com
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So how do Muslim humorists adapt to modern secularism? There has been an explosion of Arab and south Asian stand-up comics in the past two decades, coinciding with 9/11.
*Under Andropov, the KGB was already working with the black market in anticipation of loosening control, and allowing some market (the 'luch' (light) program). Of course, the KGB wanted to keep control of cash flows. If that indeed was Andropov's plan, was it bad, as Belton implies? It sure beats letting a handful of men steal the nation's wealth and spirit it abroad, as Yeltsin did in the 1990s.
So how do Muslim humorists adapt to modern secularism? There has been an explosion of Arab and south Asian stand-up comics in the past two decades, coinciding with 9/11.
*Under Andropov, the KGB was already working with the black market in anticipation of loosening control, and allowing some market (the 'luch' (light) program). Of course, the KGB wanted to keep control of cash flows. If that indeed was Andropov's plan, was it bad, as Belton implies? It sure beats letting a handful of men steal the nation's wealth and spirit it abroad, as Yeltsin did in the 1990s.