News | ST McNeil

‘Repression’ returns to Tunisia

10 September 2012 by ST McNeil

Read my latest on Al Jazeera -and watch the TV spot partially based on this collaboration with journaliste extraordinaire Sofiene Addala. Political turmoil has resurfaced in Tunisia, the country where the Arab Spring first began. After the ouster of former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, many took inspiration from social movements in the North African state. Today, critics say some of the repression of the past has resurfaced, with courts accused of targeting opponents of the dominant political party in [...]

Categories: Africa, Africa North, Clips, Middle East, News, Tunisia

Wording on women sparks protest in Tunisia

10 September 2012 by ST McNeil

Read my latest on Al Jazeera: When Tunisia’s National Constitutional Assembly published the new draft constitution, a storm broke out over its words about women. It read: “The State guaranties the protection of women rights and the promotion of their gains, as a real partner of men in the mission of the homeland building, and the roles of both should complement each other within the household … The State guaranties the extermination of all kinds of violence against women.” Thousands of [...]

Categories: Africa, Africa North, Clips, Middle East, News, Tunisia

The Ants of God: Clashes, Curfews, and Art in Tunisia

16 June 2012 by ST McNeil

Originally published at SISMEC Yasmine Hamdan and Badiaa Bouhrizi’s opening songs will herald the beginning of the Carthage Alternative Music Festival today in the ritzy suburb atop Byrsa Hill in Tunis. But this showcase of Tunisia’s kaleidoscopic nationality and secular-Western cultural ties, rolls on warily, under a shadow of furious anti-secular riots sparked by a man long dead. Last week, seemingly from the grave, Ayman al-Zawahiri set off these protests with a recorded message criticizing the ruling Islamic party Ennahda. “They are inventing an [...]

Categories: Middle East, News, SISMEC, Tunisia • Tags: art, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Ennahda, Ghannouchi, La Marsa, Le Kef, Marzouki, SISMEC, Tunis, Tunisia

US Policies Separate Families, Kill the Sick and Create Havoc on the Mexican Border

4 June 2012 by ST McNeil

First published at Truthout and losdeportados.arizona.edu By Murphy Woodhouse and ST McNeil Alberto Laborin Villa got to Mexico with what he had on: a pair of slacks and a gray dress shirt. His pockets were empty: no money and no identification. He had no phone numbers either because his phone was back home in Pasco, Washington. Alberto was in Nogales, Sonora, now, and home was about as far away as a place could be for Alberto that night, his first after [...]

Categories: Americas, Clips, Mexico, News • Tags: deportees, los deportados, Mexico, nogales, Truth Out

Gaza’s River of Excrement

21 October 2011 by ST McNeil

From over-capacity cesspools to a contaminated aquifer, the water and sewage systems of the Gaza Strip are a living nightmare. “Personally I’ve never been so overwhelmed by a smell. You feel that there is something terribly wrong in the air,” said Karl Schembri, communications outreach officer for Oxfam International. There’s something toxic hitting you in the face. There’s no escaping it.” Schembri grimaced with his back to the river of raw sewage otherwise known as Wadi Gaza. “Around 30,000 cubic [...]

Categories: Clips, Middle East, News, PalestineIsrael • Tags: aquifer, Gaza, Gaza tunnels, Hamas, Mediterranean, palestine, Rafah border crossing, waste water, waste water treatment

The Transcontinental Election Everyone is Kind of Looking at

21 October 2011 by ST McNeil

On this Sunday, Oct. 23, Tunisians will vote for the first time, for real, ever. Ten months after their revolution which sparked the Arab Awakening, les Tunisienes will cast ballots for the Constituent Assembly – the 217 women and men charged with forging a new constitution. Many will read in this election’s coffee grinds regional implications. How will democracy play out in the post-dictatorship Arab world? What about women and the diaspora? Tunisia could exemplify solutions, or problems, for say elections [...]

Categories: Africa, Africa North, Middle East, News, Tunisia, Uncategorized • Tags: Arab Awakening, election, Jasmine Revolution, Tunis, Tunisia, Zen El Abdine Ben Ali

Still Revolting

1 July 2011 by ST McNeil

The soldier behind the machine gun turret was looking out over The Nile River through the enormous floor-to-cieling windows of the Cairo Press Center as I waited to fill in credential forms. Dressed in desert camoflauge, with a helmet and bullet belts, the soldier looked barely out of his teens, and had a pencil-thin moustache. “Mister Sam,” the press officer said, focusing my attention back on the beauracratic formalities, “when do you want to go to Gaza?” Too early, I [...]

Categories: Africa North, News • Tags: 25 January Revolution, 29 June Tahrir Square clashes, Al Jazeera, anti-Americanism, Egypt, press credentials, River Nile, soldier, Tahrir Square

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Tucson, here I come

20 June 2011 by ST McNeil

On August 18, 2011, I will begin graduate studies at the University of Arizona. Split between the schools of Journalism and the recently renamed Middle East and North Africa, my dual Masters tracks’ classes will focus on Arabic development, transboundary resource tension, and the latest newstech. Many family and friends offered me a range of advice and counseled wisely from Hiroshima to DC, Boerne to Bellingham. I greatly, deeply appreciated the 23 replies I got with thoughtful words. This combined wisdom – [...]

Categories: News • Tags: Arizona, graduate school, Tucson, University of Arizona

Jerusalem is ours – not yours

6 June 2011 by ST McNeil

Hundreds of thousands of nationalistic Israelis marched through East Jerusalem today, celebrating with song, dance and chants the 1967 War. Following six days of battle with Jordanian, Egyptian and Syrian forces forty-four years ago, Israel had expanded dramatically its territorial hold and annexed much of Jerusalem. At the beginning of every June, this conquest is celebrated as Yom Yerushalaim. “Yesterday the police arrested four children and three adults, and then they arrested another two,” said Jawad Siyyam, head of the [...]

Categories: News, PalestineIsrael • Tags: 1967, Al Quds, East Jerusalem, Israeli activists, Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah, Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Project, Yom Yerushalaim, Zionism

Five thousand Israelis march to recognize Palestinian state

6 June 2011 by ST McNeil

Five thousand protesters gathered at sundown in Tel Aviv’s Rabin square yesterday to protest Israel’s occupation of Palestine and call for recognition of an independent Palestinian state. “We must show that a lot of people here do care,” said Deena, a grey-haired Israeli holding aloft a sign of Benjamin Netanyahu as the Pied Piper leading the Israeli people to their deaths. “Recognizing the Palestinian state is in Israel’s interest,” said Ilan, a Zionist activist for the National Left holding an [...]

Categories: News, PalestineIsrael • Tags: Al-Ittihad, Benjamin Netanyahu, Communist, Israeli activists, Palestinian state, Tel Aviv

ST McNeil

Environmental Convergence Journalist

Category Archives: News

‘Repression’ returns to Tunisia

Wording on women sparks protest in Tunisia

The Ants of God: Clashes, Curfews, and Art in Tunisia

US Policies Separate Families, Kill the Sick and Create Havoc on the Mexican Border

Gaza’s River of Excrement

The Transcontinental Election Everyone is Kind of Looking at

Still Revolting

Tucson, here I come

Jerusalem is ours – not yours

Five thousand Israelis march to recognize Palestinian state