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17 August 2020 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo UFS Photo Archive
Prof Hussein Solomon’s new book, which provides a comprehensive overview of the crises facing the Middle East North Africa region, will hit the shelves in 2021.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a region plagued by various crises in governance, gender relations and identity politics as well as environmental challenges.  These crises, viewed from a COVID-19 perspective, is placed under the spotlight in a new book by Prof Hussein Solomon, senior lecturer in the Department of Political Studies and Governance at the University of the Free State (UFS) and Prof Arno Tausch, associate professor at Innsbruck University in Austria. 

In, Arab MENA Countries: Vulnerabilities and Constraints Against Democracy on the Eve of the Global COVID-19 Crisis, the authors offer critical insights into the region and explore their different facets and how policymakers have responded to them and what alternatives there are in overcoming them.

Existing literature does not speak to a post-COVID MENA

“As someone who follows current developments in the region via news media, one obviously asks oneself: what is the political, economic and social implications of the pandemic,” says Prof Solomon.

One of the main reasons for writing the book was that existing literature does not speak to a post-COVID-19 world. “My co-author and I felt it imperative to work on this book and get it out so policymakers can take cognisance of these new developments and academics can re-assess the current literature extant on the region,” says Prof Solomon

The book also examines regional trends whilst being conscious of the situation in each country. It also aims to bring an understanding of the regional trends and country specific peculiarities.  

COVID-19 made the MENA region even more vulnerable

The title of the book is quite a mouthful but Prof Solomon explains: “The MENA region is awash with crises; their heavy dependence on fossil fuels, their closed political systems and social fragmentation. With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic their vulnerabilities and constraints are exacerbated.” 

With the lockdowns imposed by governments worldwide and the decreased demand for fossil fuels in the MENA region resulted in huge fiscal challenges for the governments. This as well as nepotism and, appointing people without the required expertise also constraints these states in adopting and implementing effective strategies.

Prof Hussein cautioned that “the impact of COVID-19 is still a novel and new area of research” but by framing the book within the context of the pandemic, the book provides the most comprehensive account on the region.

The book will be published by Springer for distribution in 2021.

News Archive

Two Kovsie women involved in international sports events
2012-05-14

 

Hetsie Veitch and Ebeth Grobbelaar
Photo: René-Jean van der Berg
14 May 2012

The organisers of two international sports events will depend on the expertise of two Kovsie women to make the events a major success.

The honour to be involved in international sports event has befallen Ms Hetsie Veitch and Ms Ebeth Grobbelaar.

The honour is the result of many years’ hard work and devotion in their respective fields.

In June, when the USA chooses the team to represent it at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, Ms Veitch will be one of the classifiers who will determine in which categories athletes may compete.

Ms Veitch, Head of the Unit for Students with Disabilities at the University of the Free State (UFS), has been invited to be a member of the Classification Panel at the final USA Paralympic athletics trials. The trials take place from 27 June to 1 July 2012 in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the USA.

Ms Veitch and four other classifiers, two from Brazil, one from Canada and one from the USA, will test and verify the international classification status of the American athletes. No athlete will be allowed to take part without their classification being verified by the panel.

Ms Veitch, who recently achieved the status of International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics Classifier, the highest achievement for a classifier in sport for the disabled, said that this category of sport has always been her passion.

“To have the opportunity to be involved in the classification of the USA team for the London 2012 Paralympic Games is a huge honour. I am going to start working on being chosen for the official IPC classification panel for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Brazil.”

Ms Grobbelaar, Assistant Director of the South African Testing Laboratory for Prohibited Substances at the UFS, was invited to be involved in the Drugs Control Centre in the unit against prohibited substances which will test sportsmen and women during this year’s Olympic Games in London.

Ms Grobbelaar said that even though the future of sportsmen and women would be in her hands, she is totally capable of carrying out the task that awaits her.

“I will be part of the laboratory team who will test the athletes’ samples for prohibited substances. I was part of the South African team who tested samples in our own laboratory in 2010 during the FIFA Soccer World Cup, as well as for the All Africa Games. The task is one I perform every day in our own laboratories. Each sample that I analyse determines an athlete’s future. The circumstances during the Olympic Games are different, but the work remains the same.”

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