An Iraqi American who wants to see peace and justice in the world.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Egypt's big democracy test
Tomorrow will be a big day for Egypt. I don't think Mubarak will step down, like the Tunisian dictator did. But it will force Egypt to become more democratic. It might force other countries to change too.
As'ad Abu Khalil posted today: 'The Egyptian regime is clamping down hard: they stopped the internet altogether, they stopped SMS, (and Twitter and Facebook obviously shut down). Vodaphone and two other phone companies stopped SMS. Najib Suwayrus, the Egyptian billionaire friend of Jamal Mubarak, is a collaborator in the repression. Even the regime's mouthpiece, Al-Ahram, has been shut down. Egyptian goons are erasing clips of repression from Youtube. In Suez, the land lines are down. What if this was Iran?? And when there were protests in Iran, Twitter (the company) and Facebook (the company) came out in support of the protesters. The US media were enamored with the protesters back then. Why are those protesters not sexy for you? You can't say that they are Islamists this time (as if Islamists have no rights to protest--but let us go along with the argument for the sake of it), and yet they are all alone. It will be remembered (when you ask now and later why they hate us), that Mubrak's repression took place with the full support of both parties in the US and the Obama administration. Do you know now why whenever a US official, any US official, ever utter the word "democracy", Arabs get a strong urge to throw up? In Iran, the US covertly smuggled those cute camera pens for demonstrators. They were not cute enough for the Egyptian people. '
8 comments :
The sun has just come up over Cairo...it will be very interesting to see what takes place in the coming hours.
As'ad Abu Khalil posted today: 'The Egyptian regime is clamping down hard: they stopped the internet altogether, they stopped SMS, (and Twitter and Facebook obviously shut down). Vodaphone and two other phone companies stopped SMS. Najib Suwayrus, the Egyptian billionaire friend of Jamal Mubarak, is a collaborator in the repression. Even the regime's mouthpiece, Al-Ahram, has been shut down. Egyptian goons are erasing clips of repression from Youtube. In Suez, the land lines are down. What if this was Iran?? And when there were protests in Iran, Twitter (the company) and Facebook (the company) came out in support of the protesters. The US media were enamored with the protesters back then. Why are those protesters not sexy for you? You can't say that they are Islamists this time (as if Islamists have no rights to protest--but let us go along with the argument for the sake of it), and yet they are all alone. It will be remembered (when you ask now and later why they hate us), that Mubrak's repression took place with the full support of both parties in the US and the Obama administration. Do you know now why whenever a US official, any US official, ever utter the word "democracy", Arabs get a strong urge to throw up? In Iran, the US covertly smuggled those cute camera pens for demonstrators. They were not cute enough for the Egyptian people. '
"In Iran, the US covertly smuggled those cute camera pens for demonstrators."
Bunk.
And the idiot writing this knows it.
I expect 2011 to be like 1848 in Europe: lots of riots and demonstrations, but in the end, not much change.
Libya has the highest unemployment of any Arab regime, and it sits between Tunisia and Egypt. The housing shortage is chronic and severe.
On the other hand, the regime doesn't receive much US aid, so Qaddafi is no doubt universally adored and revered by the population.
I guess there is little internet penetration in Libya, so getting demonstrations going could be hard. It would be good to see the end of Qaddafi.
Google has labeled taking down the internet in Egypt an "evil act"
telegraph
Google called the Internet take-down an "evil" act.
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