Thursday, July 4, 2013

July 4, 2013

America's Declaration of Independence is especially important today in light of revolutionary changes in   Egypt and other parts of MENA and the Levant. As I listened again to a reading this morning on NPR several parts seem as relevant today as the did in the Eighteenth Century. 



This Twitter conversation is not typical and may be the most insightful I have found thus far:

Egypt’s ‘deep state’ accused of whipping up anti-Morsi feeling - http://FT.com : ...
josh stacher ‏@jstacher1h
@arabist I was wondering when this would trickle out. Seem plausible when I heard about the numbers and organization behind tamarod
Evan Hill ‏@evanchill1h
@jstacher @arabist Yes, lots of questions, plus Mahmoud Badr's blatant love of military and speaking role at Sisi's announcement.
Blake Hounshell ‏@blakehounshell1h
@evanchill @jstacher @arabist have yet to read a real profile of him
Evan Hill‏@evanchill

@blakehounshell @jstacher @arabist No idea who the guy is and very curious. Doesn't seem a revolutionary.
Ayman MohyeldinVerified account ‏@AymanM1h
 not to mention how did CBC get exclusive crowd air footage shot by military, def not wikileaks
josh stacher ‏@jstacher1h
.@AymanM @evanchill @blakehounshell @arabist - "there's something rotten in the state of Denmark"
Blake HounshellVerified account ‏@blakehounshell1h
@AymanM @evanchill @jstacher @arabist is it true that the petrol has started flowing again? that was suspicious to me.
josh stacher ‏@jstacher1h
.@blakehounshell @AymanM @evanchill @arabist army controls distribution of hydocarbons in the country. Read me and Shana in @meriponline
Ayman MohyeldinVerified account ‏@AymanM1h

@blakehounshell @evanchill @jstacher @arabist mysteriously gas is flowing like the Nile & I havent had a power cut in 5 days #justsaying
Details
josh stacher ‏@jstacher1h
.@AymanM @blakehounshell @evanchill @arabist just like ayam mubarak. ;-)
Shami Witness ‏@ShamiWitness1h
@aymanm @arabist @blakehounshell @evanchill @jstacher Pre-planned.what surprises me is how come Morsi didn't see it coming,even aftr petrol.
josh stacher ‏@jstacher59m
.@ShamiWitness @AymanM @arabist @blakehounshell @evanchill no options "resistance is futile."
Evan Hill ‏@evanchill53m
@jstacher @blakehounshell @arabist @aymanm The petrol "crisis" that's suddenly over is so obvious even the taxi drivers are suspicious.
Ali Choudry ‏@Shakes200044m
@evanchill @jstacher @blakehounshell @arabist @AymanM eyptians have been "had" could see it a million miles away! #egypt
Details
josh stacher ‏@jstacher39m
.@Shakes2000 @evanchill @blakehounshell @arabist @AymanM the ghost of kamel al-shazli might have made some phone calls. #alBaghourProblems
Details
Becker - روبرت بيكر ‏@rbecker5133m
@jstacher @Shakes2000 @evanchill @blakehounshell @arabist @AymanM Saw this interview w/ Mahmoud Badr a few days ago http://www.middleeastinstitute.org/video-feature-tamarod-organization-rebellion …
josh stacher ‏@jstacher31m
.@rbecker51 @Shakes2000 @evanchill @blakehounshell @arabist @AymanM helpful, thanks!
Becker - روبرت بيكر ‏@rbecker5126m
@jstacher @Shakes2000 @evanchill @blakehounshell @arabist @AymanM He does give a reasonable good interview… thought he made his case well.
أماني ‏@Amani_Lebanon18m
@evanchill @mrzine_notes @blakehounshell @jstacher @arabist Revoltionary in who's definition? Blake Hounshell's? #LOL

This seven-minute video is perfect for Independence Day.
I am totally impressed.



Mahmoud Badr, one of Tamarod's five founders and the movement's official spokesperson sits down with MEI to discuss Tamarod's origin, aims, and roadmap for political transition. Badr delves into the current pitfalls of Morsi's regime, his expectations for June 30th, and the reform he sees as central to Egypt's future. A journalist and broadcast media producer by trade, Badr is also a coordinator for the opposition movement Kefaya and was part of Dr. Mohamed El Baradei's "Bid for Change" campaign. Video by Dina Hussein.
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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Twitter Messages -- July 3

Egyptian Standoff is the new Mexican Standoff...

 The difference, of course, is that history's biggest civil disobedience direct action is one of the weapons. 

 At this writing the time set by the Egyptian military for President Morsi to step down is still several hours off. Tensions are building and the US media seems finally to be carrying the story that began three days ago and is now reaching a crisis point. My last three days of posting Twitter messages is all the background I can furnish.  Events are happening so fast there is little time for reflection and analysis. 









This next message is not to be skipped...
Nor this one... 
This is a compelling argument from an academic angle. But when this many citizens are paricipating in history's most impressive display of civil disobedience, it rings hollow.
Even some of Mr. Morsi’s detractors rightly point out that the president’s removal through mass protests and military intervention would set a terrible precedent. Egyptians would be encouraged to take to the streets and ask the generals to intervene whenever a president became unpopular. The genius of democracy, by contrast, is that it wants voters to change their minds when leaders fail and to replace them not in spasms of fury but regularly and for the best reason: that others can better deliver what the people want. 
To arrive at such a system, though, the people need patience and faith that leaders can be voted out. Mr. Morsi hurt himself badly with his efforts last November to sidestep the courts while he rammed through a constitution. 
Still, integrating Islamists is essential if Egypt is to have stable, democratic politics. Movements like the Brotherhood are a core constituency in Egyptian society; democracy requires their inclusion. If the millions in the streets want the Brotherhood out of power, they must learn to organize and campaign effectively, and vote them out. 
That would be the best way to establish liberal democracy in Egypt. Removing Mr. Morsi through a military coup supported by the secular and liberal opposition could well be the worst.
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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

News From Egypt, July 2

The title of this video is translated "Horror scene that Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and push to force the military to leave Marina"
I'm not sure what that means, but I read a Twitter message earlier that videos were being released made from military helicopters. 
Blake Hounshell confirms...
Amazing. 


Egypt’s Young Activists Rouse Protests, but Leave Next Steps in Hands of Public
By BEN HUBBARD

CAIRO — Two months ago, five young activists at a Cairo coffee shop hatched a simple plot to capture the growing public frustration with the direction of their country: collect signatures calling for the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi and organize a protest at the presidential palace on June 30, the anniversary of his inauguration.

As happened once before, with the demonstrations that toppled the former president, Hosni Mubarak, the results ran far beyond the organizers’ expectations.

The campaign, called “tamarrod,” Arabic for “rebellion,” spawned branches across the country and rallied millions of Egyptians to join the protests this weekend that have infuriated the country’s Islamists, shaken Mr. Morsi’s grip on power and pushed the Egyptian military to threaten to once again take over the country.

The campaign’s success has made its originators — Mahmoud Badr, Mohammed Abdel-Aziz, Hassan Shahin, Mai Wahba and Mohammed Heikal, all 22 to 30 years old — heroes to those who oppose the Muslim Brotherhood. They are cheered at protests, hounded by journalists and sought after as guests on evening talk shows.

Their movement, however, underlines both the greatest strengths and the most glaring weaknesses of the youth groups that have driven many of Egypt’s most fundamental political transformations since the revolution, channeling public sentiment to political change but failing to transform it into sustainable organizations.

“While they are communicating for the people, they are not figuring out how to organize people within the political process itself other than calling on them to protest,” said Rabab el-Mahdi, a professor of political science at the American University in Cairo. Dr. Mahdi said that the group’s lack of a well-articulated political project likely means it will “vanish just like other youth coalitions because they are about what they don’t want, not about what they want.”




I have no idea who this person is, 
but this Tweet is too good to miss.... 



This Times editorial is like the weather rock. If it's wet that means it's raining. If it's hot, then the sun must be shining  D'oh... 

~~~~§§§~~~~ 
This next is not about Egypt but I don't want to miss it.
This is surreal. Hard to imagine any American thinks 
this behavior is anywhere close to acceptable. 
Guantanamo is a seeping cancerous boil. Those opposed to closing it are perpetuating an image of America worse than that of a drunk with shit in his pants and vomit on his shirt.  
~~~~§§§~~~


Pro Morsi women march arriving #egypt






Egypt's former leader Hosni Mubarak watched 30 June demonstrations demanding President Mohamed Morsy stand down, well-informed sources have revealed.

The imprisoned dictator reportedly expressed astonishment at the number of protesters on the streets of Cairo, commenting that crowds dwarfed those that rose up against him in January 2011.

Sources said that Mubarak told his two sons Alaa and Gamal in their cell that those who revolted against him were much less than the millions that came out calling for the fall of the current Muslim Brotherhood--led regime.

Mubarak said he responded to the demands of the people and stepped down in order to save lives, sources added.

Sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Mubarak appeared happy and that his psychological condition improved significantly.

The sources pointed out his condition improved especially after he watched comparisons between him and Morsy in talk shows, and the result always seemed to be in his favour.

Mubarak is currently imprisoned at Tora prison in Cairo's Helwan area, pending trial on charges of exploiting influence and killing demonstrators during the 25 January revolution, in addition to other corruption and public money squandering charges.

Mubarak stepped down on 11 February 2011, after 18 days of protests that swept the country demanding an end to his 30-year reign.


Rich, indeed! 


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Monday, July 1, 2013

Egypt -- Sticky Diplomacy In Real Time





I grabbed this Tweet yesterday and saw it coming... 

Sign says "Secretary Kerry: Why you are opposing all 

the Egyptians and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood."










President Morsi Tweets...

Google Tranlate -- "It hurts me the suffering of the 
citizens of gasoline and diesel crisis these days 
# President"
~~~§§§~~~

Mona Eltahawy in The Atlantic.  Read all she has to say. 
She's my go-to person for all matters Egyptian or feminism. 
She's THE sharpest knife in the drawer. 

 "I think one of the best ways to summarize it is through one of the banners being held through the streets of Cairo as people marched on Heliopolis Palace," Eltahawy said at the Aspen Ideas Festival yesterday. "And that banner said, 'With Islam, Against the Muslim Brotherhood.' Of course, Eltahawy doesn't presume that fidelity to Islam would ever be the basis for political solidarity among a liberal Egyptian opposition. To the contrary -- particularly given Egypt's massive Coptic Christian population, and particularly given that the object of political solidarity among the Egyptian political opposition is, as she sees it, ultimately not just the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood but the establishment of a secular political culture and a genuine transition to democracy.
==► Read all she has to say. It will make your heart glad.

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Two Egyptian Images

No matter what else gets reported from yesterday's historic Egyptian protests, I want to capture two images that indicate a widespread core of civility on the part of those participating -- non-violent direct actions with the sole purpose of protecting others from harm. I don't know if these actions are unprecedented but I am certain that if not, they are extremely rare.

Anti-Morsi protesters protecting FJP office in Cairo.

The FJP (Freedom and Justice Party) is the political party representing the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi. Yesterday's protests (which someone with BBC supposedly said were the biggest peaceful political protests in human history) had but one aim -- telling President Morsi to step down. The party offices were later vandalized, but not before these brave men, though they are political opponents, formed a human chain to protect those offices.

When I saw this snapshot I was reminded of another photo from the protests in January, 2011, two and a half years ago, that led to the end of the Mubarak era. 

Christians protecting Muslims during their prayers in Tahrir on Feb. 2, 2011, returning the favor after Muslims protected Coptic churches on Orthodox Christmas. Photo by Maryam Ishani.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, these two images speak volumes.  I am deeply frustrated this morning that for whatever reasons yesterday's events in Cairo and the rest of Egypt were not better reported in America. At a time when social media are the main sources of news and independent professional journalism is becoming an endangered species, corporate narratives (which is to say politicians and media giants bought and paid for by campaign contributors and/or sponsors) trump the main channels. 

The president and his family were on a long-scheduled trip to Africa which was overlapping with reports of Nelson Mandela's fragile medical condition, so those developments became the main attraction for the news channels. Couple that with the jabbering Sunday talking heads (distracted by record weather and L'affaires Deen, Zimmerman & N-word) and there was little air time or ink left for anything else.

There was more than a little anxiety that the protests would turn ugly, so I'm sure the people who shape the stories were prepared to jump into action had there been riots, bloody shirts, mortality counts and such. But even that was not to be the case. Unlike scenes from Turkey last week, these pictures and reports from Egypt more nearly resembled a travelogue. Where were the tear-gas canisters, rubber bullets and ranks of tough-looking military or police types replete with riot gear? Nowhere to be found. In fact, policemen were part of the protest!

(Click to enlarge)



An Army officer, standing alone on top of a military hospital, saluted the crowd below and the response
was "People went wild."

A military helicopter at one point flew over the crowd in Tahrir to drop Egyptian flags to the masses below, and again the response was celebratory. 

This morning as I remember yesterday I'm torn between being pissed from feeling so alone and pleased that I was able to take part, if only as a bystander, half a world away.  As the day wears on and our out-of-town company  arrives soon for the July 4th holiday I'll calm down and get over it. But until then my mood is dark and disappointed that I haven't anyone with whom I can share yesterday's excitement.  

Thank goodness for blogging. 
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