Tuesday 19 June 2012

Muslim Brotherhood - where to find out more.

This week the Muslim Brotherhood was in the news concerning its gains in the Egyptian elections.


For further information on who they are try these recommended resources.

This is the official english website. Though I have seen it blocked. http://www.ikhwanweb.com/

Guardian news

BBC News has a basic profile.

Al-Jazeera has special sections with background information. For keeping up to date with the latest news try their Egypt live blog.which has tweets and video coverage of events from reporters in Egypt.

PBS has some documentary and interview material discussing the aims of the movement.

The Council on Foreign Relations has a backgrounder on the history of the movement prior to 2011

The EU Institute for Security Studies- also has a 2011 report on the Brotherhood and Egyptian democracy.


finally always good for searching for high quality research papers from international organisations. Human Security Gateway

Wednesday 6 June 2012

Ireland fiscal recovery referendum : was it a yes to recovery?

This week Ireland voted yes to its latest referendum on the fiscal recovery treaty.This related to proposed amendments to the Irish constitution to enable the ratification of the EU fiscal recovery treaty. See the text here. see the stability treaty campaign website for the yes vote.
opponents used websites and social media. see the nofiscal compact twitter
Vote no website. Campaign against the austerity treaty blog.
Sinn Fein no vote campaign materials. It also has a weekly round up of the referendum campaigns.


While not strictly speaking an election- as a major vote here are some starting points for finding out more.
The Referendum Commission is the indepepndent body which oversees referendums in irewlnad. Its website has legal facts and results from previous referendums. It created a specific site for the 2012 referendum for the electorate which has guides to the treaty.
Newspaper coverage from the
Irish Times.
Irish Independent
RTE produced an amendment guide. It also has pages of news headlines and programme coverage.
The Journal has online coverage from the campaigns.
TV 3 has video footage of news and debates
Guardian coverage.
Discussion on the EUROPP blog.
Finally the Institute of International and European Affairs has an interesting website with discussion. This includes articles, blogs and analysis of the treaty and associated referendum. There are examples of infographics being used to convey the complex messages.