And the West wonders why the Arab world regards its calls for democracy as hollow as Netanyahu’s love of freedom for Palestinians: David Cameron‘s efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East by becoming the first foreign leader to visit Cairo were overshadowed as it emerged that he will spend the next three days touring…
Showing all posts tagged Egypt
The paranoia of unelected Chinese men
Although it remains unclear exactly how paranoid the Chinese authorities remain over possible Egyptian-inspired, democratic protests, this insider view would suggest that Beijing isn’t taking too many chances: On Saturday, February 12, the day after Hosni Mubarak resigned in Egypt, some of the members of the politburo of the Communist Party of China held a…
The voice of independent unions in Egypt
A key player in the recent revolution (so not just those on Facebook and Twitter) speaking in solidarity with workers in America: Kamal Abbas is General Coordinator of the CTUWS, an umbrella advocacy organization for independent unions in Egypt. The CTUWS, which was awarded the 1999 French Republic’s Human Rights Prize, suffered repeated harassment and…
The Muslim Brotherhood are normal people
Yes, that may come as a shock to Israel and many Zionists alike but this interesting piece in McClatchy explains why so many of them in Egypt will be involved in the future of their country, as they should be: In the midst of Egypt’s turmoil, the Brotherhood issued statements saying it wouldn’t field a…
Can’t tell the difference between Hitler and Muslims?
Perhaps it’s in the job contract when you want to be a senior Murdoch executive; dislike Muslims and defame them regularly. The Herald Sun’s Alan Howe has form, seemingly finding democracy for Arabs a serious problem because it may affect Zionist occupation. He’s back with a new column headlined: “Picking up where Adolf left off“,…
WSJ: our autocrats are nice thugs
The Middle East has spent decades in social and political “stability” because Washington and Israel have backed brutes to torture and demean the people. Not to worry, writes Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, ignore all those deeply undemocratic states; the real issue is the Islamic Republic: The regime in Tehran—aptly described by Secretary of State Hillary…
The democratic impulse burns in China
Yes: Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities Sunday for a “Jasmine Revolution.” The source of the call was not known, but authorities moved to halt its spread online. Searches for the word “jasmine” were blocked Saturday on China’s largest Twitter-like microblog,…
Not a Twitter revolution but social tools surely helped
Another fascinating Al-Jazeera feature on Empire about the role of the internet in the Arab uprisings: Carl Bernstein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist; Amy Goodman, the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!; Professor Emily Bell, the director of digital journalism at Columbia University; Evgeny Morozov, the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side…
Portrait of a key Egyptian dissenter
Hossam el-Hamalawy has been campaigning against the Mubarak regime for years (and appears in my book The Blogging Revolution). In this Associated Press profile he outlines the oft-forgotten in the West supporters of the Egyptian revolution (away from Twitter and Facebook); the workers: “The job is unfinished, we got rid of (Hosni) Mubarak but we…