Riots in Egypt?

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

[doodlebugg 10]

Olivia your points are great from a textbook point of view but real life is certainly a little different. Just one example, you suggested that a cafe would be a great meeting point to bring people together or find people willing to overthrow the gov't. Actuality is that quite frequently men are taken out of cafe's and jailed for no particular reason just for this very reason.....so they don't get used to talking about such things in a public place. My husband has been pulled out and jailed a couple of times as well as many of his friends. Were they talking about overthrowing Mubarak? Certainly not but they were wearing beards and therefor they were singled out. It's happened to a few other men whose wives are on here too.

Bottom line in my humble opinion, and I wish an actual Egyptian would chime in, is that as long as the US keeps giving Mubarak or the next in line (most likely his son who he has been grooming for the position for some time) tons of money with the stipulation that they do whatever Israel wants them to do, nothing at all will change.

Maybe your model would work for a different country though. It's just so complicated when one considers the Middle East since it's near impossible to keep Israel out of the equation with any of those countries.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I think I remember you telling me in the Muslim Brotherhood thread about the cafe thing and your Husband being picked up and arrested and harassed. Maybe the cafes were not the best option as an example for the model but it could be anywhere really that is most conducive to the environment. Flashes of "Paradise Lost" scene where they are discussing such matters of terrorism organizations in a cafe are flashing through my head right now. I don't know too much about the organization of coalitions over there and where they meet or how they operate. It was hypothetical based of what I leaned in political violence and war class a few semesters ago or was that world politics and war class? I can't remember but I know it was Western World Politics, or United Nations and World Organizations class. Anyways the political science classes I've taken have helped me be able to see things I couldn't before and the elements that were coming together that fit the various models appeared to be the pattern and path that Egypt was on. The example I gave was the model that matched Egypt. I'm still reading and learning about the subject and that's why living there and taking arab law and critical issues, and middle east north africa politics, and middle east and north africa ethics will be good for me there. I'll have a better understanding of what's happening there. For this vantage point over here I can only make observations and speculations. For example one way that they are organizing is through the internet which is something that people haven't seen before at such large volumes such as the Mahalla strike and riots. The organizers of that were on facebook and blogging and they were all taken in punished and locked up for awhile and some of them were released. Now instead of just using the new technology such as facebook they are organizing anonymously through text msging systems sending out alerts of dates for strike through some mass list serve just like that text msg spread with the Walmart gang initiation in the US did. These are just some of the more current examples that I can give.

As far as what is next for Egypt and their new leaders that remains to be seen. I have read reports that Mubarak's son has been seen at the White House by reporters in the recent years. I'm not really sure what job or experience his son is having right now for the position other than nepotism or if he is to take over for his father as several have speculated on this board and in conversations in the past years. One fact will always remain and that is that US policy is and has always been and will probably always be to support Israel and Egypt in the peace process. Those are the only two actively working together in the peace process for several decades now and we wish it to remain that way and support it. Those two will not be losing our support anytime soon. That has been made very clear to me at my time here studying at the University.

[doodlebugg 10]

One fact will always remain and that is that US policy is and has always been and will probably always be to support Israel and Egypt in the peace process. Those are the only two actively working together in the peace process for several decades now and we wish it to remain that way and support it. Those two will not be losing our support anytime soon. That has been made very clear to me at my time here studying at the University.

By "we" and "our" you mean the USA? Yes absolutely. The USA cannot ever break ties with Israel because Israel holds too much financially on the USA. If we did break ties, especially now, we'd be up the creek without a paddle. It would be nice if it were just that the USA believed in Israel's policies and supported them because of that or actually if it were a democratic thing were the actual people of the USA were able to vote on whether or not to support them but that obviously is not ever happening because of the way our gov't is set up.

Egypt only works with Israel because the USA gives them money and they'd lose that money if they didn't. Again it would be a very different scenario if Egypt actually agreed with Israel's policies but they don't. The majority of the Egyptian citizens hate Israel with a passion and detest that their government supports them but what to do what to do. Elections there are a complete farce anyway. I've seen youtube video's of the ballots for anyone but Mubarak being tossed in the bucket. It's just ridiculous.

I do look forward to hearing your point of view once you've lived there for a while. I'd love to hear the point of view, again, from the actual Egyptians on here but to be honest I doubt any would speak up for fear of retribution. Heck blogging like you said is dangerous there so it wouldn't suprise me if they were monitoring other areas of the net as well.

I hope that in time things will change there and they can have a true democracy. Stranger things have happened so who knows.

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

One fact will always remain and that is that US policy is and has always been and will probably always be to support Israel and Egypt in the peace process. Those are the only two actively working together in the peace process for several decades now and we wish it to remain that way and support it. Those two will not be losing our support anytime soon. That has been made very clear to me at my time here studying at the University.

By "we" and "our" you mean the USA? Yes absolutely. The USA cannot ever break ties with Israel because Israel holds too much financially on the USA. If we did break ties, especially now, we'd be up the creek without a paddle. It would be nice if it were just that the USA believed in Israel's policies and supported them because of that or actually if it were a democratic thing were the actual people of the USA were able to vote on whether or not to support them but that obviously is not ever happening because of the way our gov't is set up.

Egypt only works with Israel because the USA gives them money and they'd lose that money if they didn't. Again it would be a very different scenario if Egypt actually agreed with Israel's policies but they don't. The majority of the Egyptian citizens hate Israel with a passion and detest that their government supports them but what to do what to do. Elections there are a complete farce anyway. I've seen youtube video's of the ballots for anyone but Mubarak being tossed in the bucket. It's just ridiculous.

I do look forward to hearing your point of view once you've lived there for a while. I'd love to hear the point of view, again, from the actual Egyptians on here but to be honest I doubt any would speak up for fear of retribution. Heck blogging like you said is dangerous there so it wouldn't suprise me if they were monitoring other areas of the net as well.

I hope that in time things will change there and they can have a true democracy. Stranger things have happened so who knows.

Yep, the net is monitored from over there. for sure!

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

It's funny we're talking about this again when Michael Slackman from the NYT goes and posts another article directly related to some of the issues we're addressing.

For Egypt, Promise of 1979 Peace Still Unfulfilled

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN Published: April 4, 2009 CAIRO — In the past week, Egypt marked the historic 30-year anniversary of its peace treaty with Israel without any public celebration and only the barest public mention.

It is not surprising, really, that there was no cheering here. The timing could hardly have been worse, with memories still fresh of the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

But mention of the anniversary also served as a reminder of promises unfulfilled. Egyptians were told that the treaty would lead to a comprehensive peace, and it did not. They were told that it would allow the government to focus on political, social and economic development, instead of war. But they still live in an authoritarian state, defined for many by poverty.

Egyptians were told that the treaty would give them a voice to advocate for the Palestinians. But few see it as having turned out that way.

“Today Egypt is not influential in anything,” said Osama Anwar Okasha, a leading Egyptian television writer. “It is a third-class country in this region. Egypt was the leading country and it gave up this leading role. Now it is like a postman, delivering messages.”

The public mood is dark all around right now, and the sentiment points to the treaty as the start of Egypt’s decline and diplomatic impotence.

“Of course the treaty is not the cause of all of this, but it was the initial seed,” said Fahmy Howeidy, a writer and political analyst in Cairo.

The peace treaty between Israel and Egypt is a bedrock of the Middle East peace process, positioning Egypt as a key player in every international diplomatic effort to resolve the Palestinian conflict. It is a pillar of Egypt’s foreign policy, as well, and an institutional given among Egypt’s governing class. President Hosni Mubarak has demonstrated that he is committed to the treaty, and to the diplomatic process and political system that built and supports the treaty.

“The government has been criticized by Arabs and so on during the Gaza attack but it stood its ground and did not waver because of these attacks against the peace treaty,” said Abdel Raouf El Reedy, chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs and a former ambassador to the United States. “When it comes to the government and the establishment there is a very strong commitment to the peace treaty.”

The government’s supporters often respond to the call for abrogating the treaty with one question: What then? Not only would Egypt lose about $1.4 billion a year in aid, but, they argue, it would have less leverage, less credibility with the West and a greater likelihood of being dragged into a war, once again.

But Mr. Mubarak finds himself stuck in a recurring loop of history, playing the same defensive arguments over and over, struggling to convince his citizens and his neighbors that the treaty is essential to stability and peace.

There is a strong and influential alliance against Mr. Mubarak and his allies in Jordan, which also has a peace treaty with Israel, and in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which has offered its own proposal for regional peace.

With the support of Iran, a non-Arab state, Syria and Qatar have publicly rejected diplomacy with Israel after the fighting in Gaza and called on Egypt to abandon its treaty, as well.

Thirty years ago, President Anwar el-Sadat broke ranks with his Arab allies, visited Jerusalem and agreed to peace with Israel. For his efforts, he was able to deliver the return of the Sinai, which had been captured and occupied by Israel.

After Mr. Sadat was assassinated in 1981, Mr. Mubarak became president and successfully steered Egypt back into the center of the Arab world. It had been shunned over the treaty.

But, many people here ask, then what?

“This peace treaty is not good for Egypt,” said Ashraf Maged, 22, a business student at Cairo University. “What did we ever get from it, in 30 years? I don’t think the peace treaty is useful because in reality there is no peace; war is what we see.”

Mr. Maged’s sentiments are widespread but also reflect a generational divide. Many among the older generation, men and women who lived through or fought in three wars with Israel, often say they see the peace treaty as a necessary evil, an end to fighting that sapped the country of its resources and left many dead and bloodied. They say it was not so much about normalizing relations, which has never happened. It was just about ending the wars.

“Young people who say the peace was a bad thing don’t understand how it was in those days,” said Amir Muhammad Ragab, 58, who fought in the 1973 war and now owns a furniture shop. “They think war is like in movies. They think with their hearts, not their head. They don’t understand the price we paid for peace, the blood and effort it took. We don’t want to go back to this.”

It is that generational divide that has some in Washington and Israel worried about what happens after Mr. Mubarak. He will be 81 years old in May, and while he has balked at political changes at home and maintained an authoritarian state, American officials say he has remained a valuable ally because he is from the generation that remembers the costs of war.

A headline in a recent issue of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz read: “Can Egypt-Israel Peace Survive After Mubarak Leaves Office?”

But Mr. Mubarak knows that he needs to balance his support for the treaty, against the understanding that his citizens, even the older generation, view Israel as the enemy. He also is careful not to cede ground to the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned but tolerated political and social movement, whose members have called for Egypt to withdraw from the treaty and have tried, unsuccessfully to have an Egyptian court nullify the pact.

Those efforts have resonated on the streets, even among people, like Mr. Ragab, the shop owner, who do not want to abandon the treaty, but feel duped.

“I was really shocked when the war in Gaza was raging,” Mr. Ragab said. “I was angry that we couldn’t do more to stop it. Of course we shouldn’t cancel the agreement, or send our diplomats home. But I felt like now the relationship is one-sided, that Egypt’s voice wasn’t as strong as Israel’s in the relationship. It’s a one-way agreement now.”

Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting.

Source: link

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

So my information was correct and Egypt has been put on alert today for the April 6 strike. I wonder if it will go down?

Egypt on alert for national strike

Associated Press in Cairo

The Guardian, Monday 6 April 2009

Egypt ordered its police on alert to foil a nationwide strike planned by pro-democracy activists today.

Yesterday's order from the interior ministry came a day after police arrested 28 activists of the April 6 Movement, which called for the protest against government restrictions on political groups.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, said it would also take part in the strike.

Plainclothes security men were deployed in Cairo's main squares and around several government offices where the activists said they would stage their protests, interior ministry officials said.

The April 6 Movement gets its name from the date last year of a strike by workers at a textile factory who were demanding higher wages. That protest prompted a brutal police crackdown.

The movement's activists then attempted to channel popular discontent over lack of democracy, corruption and human rights abuses through protests organised by mobile phone messages and the social networking site Facebook.

However, their call last year for a nationwide strike on 4 May, President Hosni Mubarak's birthday, went largely unheeded.

The group says it has the support of 75,000 members.

On Saturday, a court in the Nile Delta ordered two students to be detained for distributing flyers calling for people to join Monday's strike.

Source: link

[Ihavequestions 419]

Here's my opinion, for what it's worth (and, yeah, I know I'm not Egyptian, but I do have a bird's eye view). Egypt has multiple problems....

1.) This is the Land of InshAllah. I hear it everywhere, every day, about every thing. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, happens unless God wants it to. Sure, I can understand that spiritual/religious perspective, however what that also does is remove optimism and any opportunity for someone to help themselves. Really, why bother when, at the end of the day, it's not going to happen unless God wants it to. More than anything, though, it's the sense of not having ANY control over one's destiny, whatsoever, that is troubling.

2.) The one exception to InshAllah is when it has something to do with the government and what citizens perceive the government should be doing but isn't. Case in point: the dismal economy. Sure, there's poverty in Egypt, lots of it and it's deep. To Egyptians, it's the government's job to fix it. And, to an extent, it is doing what it can. For example, 6th of October, a brand spanking new development in Cairo, is in full swing in terms of construction and occupancy. Somebody (EGYPTIANS) have jobs because of it and somebody (EGYPTIANS) are buying the homes and stocking up the neighborhood stores to feed/clothe the people living in them. But, somehow, that's not enough.

3.) Egyptians are experts at making their own problems then crying about them. Case in point: "I'm not married because I can't find a man with a high enough degree with and a job that looks like it will last forever so he'll always work and a fully furnished right down to the teaspoons apartment and with a ton of gold and cash to hand me as soon as we sign the papers and a luxurious venue for the wedding party that will impress the neighborhood and speaking of the neighborhood I can't find a man that comes from a good enough family because we all know that if a man comes from a good family he will be a good husband and if he doesn't come from a good family and have the apartment and furnishings and the gold and the cash and the big wedding party and the high degree and the forever job, well, I just can't get married and I'll have to live with my family forever and my neighbors will all look at me and think I'm not married because I'm too difficult which I really am but, dammit, it's my future and I have a right to have these expectations even though they are making a big problem for me to cry about." Get my drift?

4.) The fear of making a mistake is deep. I mean deep. They learn this in school. They really do. Come on, this is a place where teachers beat (and kill) children who don't turn in their homework. This is also a place where making a mistake makes the family look bad and if the family looks bad, well, nothing really happens other than the family looks bad but somehow the fear of the family looking bad is enough for people to be very afraid of making a mistake.

5.) Xenophobia is the norm. Even deeper than the fear of making a mistake is the fear of something - or someone - different. The pressure to conform is almost as intense as the pressure to get and stay married.

6.) The government is corrupt and baksheesh (bribes) are the norm. It doesn't matter what someone has done, or wants to have done, a little payola to the government official (who is trying to make it on less than 400 LE a month in most cases) is all that's necessary. To curb this corruption, the government should clean it's own closet, starting with paying their own employees a liveable wage.

7.) The government itself perpetuates the hate. If it's Jewish, it's wrong and, in this government's head, there's no difference between Jewish and Israel. The television is FULL of it, all of the time. Because of this (and because the government's education purposely never teaches its students the difference between fact and fiction, or to figure out the difference for themselves) people believe it, wholesale.

8.) Egypt has put itself in a position that forces it to depend on western money. Just stand outside of a money exchange place and watch the foreign currency going in. Big money. Not only that, it has a population that eats bread with every meal (and, frequently, as an entire meal). Does Egypt grow wheat to make this bread? Nope. It's imported, at low or no cost (from western countries), baked, then sold to feed hungry bellies because it's CHEAP.

Oh, I could go on..........

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Please do go on. A lot of these are really good and news articles that I've read and posted have touched on all these issues.

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

Here's my opinion, for what it's worth (and, yeah, I know I'm not Egyptian, but I do have a bird's eye view). Egypt has multiple problems....

1.) This is the Land of InshAllah. I hear it everywhere, every day, about every thing. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, happens unless God wants it to. Sure, I can understand that spiritual/religious perspective, however what that also does is remove optimism and any opportunity for someone to help themselves. Really, why bother when, at the end of the day, it's not going to happen unless God wants it to. More than anything, though, it's the sense of not having ANY control over one's destiny, whatsoever, that is troubling.

2.) The one exception to InshAllah is when it has something to do with the government and what citizens perceive the government should be doing but isn't. Case in point: the dismal economy. Sure, there's poverty in Egypt, lots of it and it's deep. To Egyptians, it's the government's job to fix it. And, to an extent, it is doing what it can. For example, 6th of October, a brand spanking new development in Cairo, is in full swing in terms of construction and occupancy. Somebody (EGYPTIANS) have jobs because of it and somebody (EGYPTIANS) are buying the homes and stocking up the neighborhood stores to feed/clothe the people living in them. But, somehow, that's not enough.

3.) Egyptians are experts at making their own problems then crying about them. Case in point: "I'm not married because I can't find a man with a high enough degree with and a job that looks like it will last forever so he'll always work and a fully furnished right down to the teaspoons apartment and with a ton of gold and cash to hand me as soon as we sign the papers and a luxurious venue for the wedding party that will impress the neighborhood and speaking of the neighborhood I can't find a man that comes from a good enough family because we all know that if a man comes from a good family he will be a good husband and if he doesn't come from a good family and have the apartment and furnishings and the gold and the cash and the big wedding party and the high degree and the forever job, well, I just can't get married and I'll have to live with my family forever and my neighbors will all look at me and think I'm not married because I'm too difficult which I really am but, dammit, it's my future and I have a right to have these expectations even though they are making a big problem for me to cry about." Get my drift?

4.) The fear of making a mistake is deep. I mean deep. They learn this in school. They really do. Come on, this is a place where teachers beat (and kill) children who don't turn in their homework. This is also a place where making a mistake makes the family look bad and if the family looks bad, well, nothing really happens other than the family looks bad but somehow the fear of the family looking bad is enough for people to be very afraid of making a mistake.

5.) Xenophobia is the norm. Even deeper than the fear of making a mistake is the fear of something - or someone - different. The pressure to conform is almost as intense as the pressure to get and stay married.

6.) The government is corrupt and baksheesh (bribes) are the norm. It doesn't matter what someone has done, or wants to have done, a little payola to the government official (who is trying to make it on less than 400 LE a month in most cases) is all that's necessary. To curb this corruption, the government should clean it's own closet, starting with paying their own employees a liveable wage.

7.) The government itself perpetuates the hate. If it's Jewish, it's wrong and, in this government's head, there's no difference between Jewish and Israel. The television is FULL of it, all of the time. Because of this (and because the government's education purposely never teaches its students the difference between fact and fiction, or to figure out the difference for themselves) people believe it, wholesale.

8.) Egypt has put itself in a position that forces it to depend on western money. Just stand outside of a money exchange place and watch the foreign currency going in. Big money. Not only that, it has a population that eats bread with every meal (and, frequently, as an entire meal). Does Egypt grow wheat to make this bread? Nope. It's imported, at low or no cost (from western countries), baked, then sold to feed hungry bellies because it's CHEAP.

Oh, I could go on..........

I liked your take on the situation there at hand. Makes sense!

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

The LA Times tells us that the April 6th strike had low turn out but in Cairo how much is low turn out? Less than the Mahalla strike of 30,000? Was it even over 100 people? The April 6 group seems to organize online and around college campuses so this is interesting to watch. It's not something people are used to seeing being done with the new technology these days and the group seems optimistic of their work in the future.

<h1 class="entry-header">EGYPT: A protest with low turnout</h1>Despite a call for a national strike, Cairo's streets Monday were as busy as they usually are on weekdays, with workers heading to their jobs and offices and students heading to their universities. Yet dozens of riot police cars were stationed in downtown Cairo, reflecting a high sense of alert on the part of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Barely one hundred demonstrators gathered in downtown Cairo, heeding opposition calls to make April 6 “a day of anger” nationwide in protest of poor economic conditions and political stagnation.

“I am not disappointed or desperate; the pursuit of the struggle will bear fruit one day. Change does not happen overnight, it requires accumulative work,” George Ishak, a leader of the Kefaya protest movement told the Los Angeles Times on the sidelines of the demonstration.

The emerging April 6 youth group, naming itself after last year’s strike by textile workers in the Nile Delta, were the first to call for a national strike in protest of a vast array of political, social and economic maladies. In a statement circulated online, the group made several demands, including a minimum monthly wage of 1,200 Egyptian pounds (about $215), political reforms to put an end to Mubarak’s mandate and the halt of gas exports to Israel.

Today, the group organized a number of protests on Egyptian campuses, which authorities sought to thwart by arresting activists and holding concerts and sports contests to distract students.

A police source told Agence France Press that they were ordered to arrest anyone taking part in demonstrations and to deploy forces in sensitive spots around the country. Police had been reportedly deployed in the delta town of Mahalla, where labor protests culminated in riots last year.

Cordoned by riot and plainclothes police, protesters chanted anti-Mubarak slogans in front of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate building in Cairo. They seized the opportunity to reiterate their vehement opposition to the looming possibility that Gamal Mubarak will succeed his father, shouting: “Gamal, forget about hereditary succession, and go ask your father to be more sensitive.”

“We want fair salaries that can be enough for a full month,” shouted protesters.

About 50 students and Muslim Brotherhood activists were arrested, according to the April 6 group. Eight people were injured as clashes erupted between opposition students and their pro-government classmates during a protest at Ain Shams Univeristy.

Many observers blame Egyptian apathy on more than five decades of military rule and political oppression.

“People cannot find a good leadership to follow. The state has destroyed all institutions, including active political parties,” said Diaa El-Sawy, a leader of the April 6 youth group. “We, as April 6 youth, try to advance a new leadership for the people.”

Despite the low turnout of protesters, El-Sawy said he believed his group’s call chalked up some success. “The arrest of students reflects our success in terrifying the state. April 6 strike is just a step on the way to a general civil disobedience which we believe is the only way to bring change.”

-- Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Source: link

[Ihavequestions 419]

<h1 class="entry-header">EGYPT: A protest with low turnout</h1>Despite a call for a national strike, Cairo's streets Monday were as busy as they usually are on weekdays, with workers heading to their jobs and offices and students heading to their universities. Yet dozens of riot police cars were stationed in downtown Cairo, reflecting a high sense of alert on the part of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. I haven't seen the news yet tonight, although I will later. I'm willing to bet this was quite the terrifying sight. Olivia, you will see this when you get here - the military is on constant parade throughout Cairo. Not only that, police officers don't carry hand guns tucked away in a holster like they do in the U.S., they have rifles strapped to their bodies. I'm never quite sure how ready they would ever be to use one, though. Unless it's a traffic cop, most of the police I see are sleeping. Barely one hundred demonstrators gathered in downtown Cairo, heeding opposition calls to make April 6 “a day of anger” nationwide in protest of poor economic conditions and political stagnation. Okay, so I have to wonder if the LA times got its information directly from Mubarak. After all, the government does control the media.

“I am not disappointed or desperate; the pursuit of the struggle will bear fruit one day. Change does not happen overnight, it requires accumulative work,” George Ishak, a leader of the Kefaya protest movement told the Los Angeles Times on the sidelines of the demonstration.

The emerging April 6 youth group, naming itself after last year’s strike by textile workers in the Nile Delta, were the first to call for a national strike in protest of a vast array of political, social and economic maladies. In a statement circulated online, the group made several demands, including a minimum monthly wage of 1,200 Egyptian pounds (about $215), political reforms to put an end to Mubarak’s mandate and the halt of gas exports to Israel.

So who's supposed to come up with this 1,200 LE each month? The guy riding the donkey cart through the street is supposed to get paid that much money from who? The guy who owns the donkey and the cart? For what? Driving a donkey cart? Sure, they can set that big of a minimum wage, but prices will go up accordingly and the bananas on said donkey cart won't sell for 3.5 LE a kilo anymore. Put an end to what mandate, exactly? His Presidency for life? I'm sorry, but Egypt blew their chance to get rid of the President for Life decades ago. Insted of revolting when it became obvious he wasn't going to leave on his own accord they, sure enough, made their own problem to cry about. And, again, it's the hatred for anything Israel. Now it's a demand to stop exporting gas to Israel. Well, if that's what they really want to do, maybe they should do what it takes to find Egypt another customer to replace those lost revenues or Egyptians will be out of jobs. I read an article not too long ago about Parliament's bright idea, that being to revoke the citizenship of Egyptians living in Israel, on the premise that if there is ever a war Egypt can't be sure these Egyptians won't fight for Israel. Instead of allowing them to leave in the first place, or preventing further immigration into Israel, their good idea is to take away Egyptian citizenship. Why? Well, if you ask me, Egyptians living in Israel make the government's perpetuate the hate strategy lose face because these people are proof Egyptians and Israelis can, and do, live side by side. I was talking to an Egyptian woman the other day. She told me her sister wants to travel to Germany for her Ph.D. studies and she's afraid for her sister to go because "Jewish people hate Muslims." I asked her if she'd ever met a Jewish person. She said, no, she hadn't. I asked her how she knew this was true. Her answer: television. The same television the government controls.

Today, the group organized a number of protests on Egyptian campuses, which authorities sought to thwart by arresting activists and holding concerts and sports contests to distract students.

Clearly, dropping a soccer ball and playing music is enough to make people forget their troubles. This could be the reason there's AT LEAST ten soccer games (live and re-played) on television at any given moment, along with another AT LEAST ten music channels. Maybe these distracted students will, one day, when they're broke and crying about it, the music and sports events they chose to pay attention to. Where is the throwing my arms in the air emoticon? Does anyone know?

About 50 students and Muslim Brotherhood activists were arrested, according to the April 6 group. Eight people were injured as clashes erupted between opposition students and their pro-government classmates during a protest at Ain Shams Univeristy.

So they arrested 50 out of the 100 protesters? Interesting.

Many observers blame Egyptian apathy on more than five decades of military rule and political oppression.

And InshAllah. Really, denial is not just a river in Egypt. It IS Egypt.

“People cannot find a good leadership to follow. The state has destroyed all institutions, including active political parties,” said Diaa El-Sawy, a leader of the April 6 youth group. “We, as April 6 youth, try to advance a new leadership for the people.”

Despite the low turnout of protesters, El-Sawy said he believed his group’s call chalked up some success. “The arrest of students reflects our success in terrifying the state. April 6 strike is just a step on the way to a general civil disobedience which we believe is the only way to bring change.”

-- Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Source: link

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Ok... this directly applies to the model of revolution that I was explaining. When groups start uniting against a common foe it starts a negative coalition such as in the case of Nicaragua. There is power in numbers.

Rivals Unite to Challenge Mubarak

By DANIEL WILLIAMS

Bloomberg

Published: April 14, 2009

Politically speaking, Mustafa Naggar, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Mohammed Sherif, a self-styled revolutionary socialist, should have little to say to each other.

The Brotherhood, the Middle East's prototype for Islamic-based politics, has long been at odds with those democrats who think religion's place is in the mosque, not the halls of power.

Still, the two men find common cause in the struggle to end the 27-year reign of Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak. Promoting their message through blogs — like hundreds, if not thousands, of other young political activists — they agree that Mr. Mubarak, 80, must go and that Egyptians need to end the historic animosity between Islamists and secular democrats that has bitterly divided Arab politics for a century.

Mr. Naggar, 29, and Mr. Sherif, 23, became acquainted through their Web sites and describe themselves as newly found friends. Interviewed in cafes on opposite sides of Cairo, they displayed remarkably common sentiments, given their distinct roots. "We must reach a middle ground," said Mr. Naggar, a dentist. "We need to understand that to achieve democracy is more important than holding on to old ideologies."

His blog is decorated with an olive branch and often features a photo of someone praying.

"We can't be always antagonistic," said Mr. Sherif, a government computer technician. "I think democracy can respect the beliefs of the people, so long as the beliefs are not imposed."

His blog is adorned with the clenched socialist fist.

It would be far-fetched to suggest that the two men represent an immediate, concrete threat to Mr. Mubarak's one-party rule. Nor, for that matter, do they fundamentally challenge the appeal of the Brotherhood—Egypt's largest opposition force—and its insistence on setting up a theocracy in the Arab world's most populous country.

Nonetheless, they typify a younger group of Egyptians who challenge the notion that secular democrats and Islamic activists are locked in an immutable struggle.

"It's important in Egypt that there is such protest activity and that it's searching for new ideas," said Hala Mustafa, editor of the political journal Democracy Review. "This is a real development, potentially a new generation that is neither just liberal or Islamist."

Mr. Naggar insists his outreach isn't just a cat's paw for an Islamic takeover —as occurred in Iran when, after the 1979 fall of the shah, Shiite Islamists under the sway of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overwhelmed secular democrats and other opposition parties.

"This is not a tactical stand," he said. "It comes from conviction. We meet non-Islamists everywhere, at work and in civil society. At the end of the day, we have to cooperate with everyone."

Mr. Sherif said he wasn't being naïve. "Of course, there is suspicion on all sides. But why judge an experiment before it really starts?"

Between 1922 and 1952, Islamists and democrats both worked to end British control of Egypt's finances, civil administration and armed forces. They split over the country's future, with the Brotherhood, founded in 1928, insisting on an Islamic realm to replace the defunct Ottoman Empire.

Since 1952, when Gamal Abdul Nasser overthrew the monarchy in a coup, Egypt's three military leaders have encouraged that rivalry, playing one side against the other to weaken both.

Mr. Naggar and Mr. Sherif acknowledge that the chance of short-term change in Egypt is slim. Efforts to bring democracy to Egypt in recent years have failed: Mr. Mubarak never honored his pledges to fosteramultiparty electoral system; small secular parties bickered among themselves and fell short of mobilizing the country's destitute masses to challenge his rule.

The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2010 and presidential elections for 2011. Regulations in place since 2006 virtually ensure that the governing National Democratic Party will dominate. Egypt's press considers Mr. Mubarak's son, Gamal — a top leader in the NDP—as the likely successor to his father.

Democratic bloggers have yet to create a cohesive opposition; under emergency laws in force since 1981, it is illegal for more than five people to meet in a political gathering.

Nonetheless, the diffuse movement has attracted government repression. Police detained 500 bloggers during the past year for periods ranging from a few hours to four months, Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based watchdog group, wrote March 19. No one knows the numbers of political bloggers, the report said, "but that is their strength."

About 20 percent of Egypt's 83 million people regularly use the Internet, the group estimated. One political Facebook group, the April 6 Youth Movement—which has tried and so far failed to organize nationwide strikes—has more than 76,000 members.

The Brotherhood is monitoring the secular-Islamist contact—and dismisses it. "They can talk all they want; the Brotherhood will not change," the group's supreme guide, Mohammed Akef, said in an interview. Last fall, the Brotherhood banned a member, Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, from active participation because, among other things, he suggested that strict adherence to the Koran should not be the standard for political action.

With Mr. Akef, 80, set to retire next year, several young Brotherhood members recently called for election of a new leader by all Egyptians, not Brotherhood members in the rest of the Arab world and in Europe, as is traditional. In the interview, Mr. Akef said the process wouldn't change.

Mr. Naggar and Mr. Sherif both reject Islamic rule in Egypt. "Better to have a civil state with Islamic references," Mr. Naggar said.

"We have to recognize that Egypt is majority Muslim and increasingly religious," Mr. Sherif said.

They say there is a model that might end the destructive division: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist- rooted Justice and Development Party, which has governed the officially secular state of Turkey since 2002.

"It has been successful in Turkey and would be even more successful in Egypt," Mr. Sherif said. "The party respects the religion of the people but also responds with laws that the people want."

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[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

It's growing.

Egypt's state circus joins growing unrest

• Performers among 1.5m workers to oppose reforms

• Wave of action since 2004 'almost unprecedented'

Jack Shenker in Cairo

The Guardian, Saturday 18 April 2009

A typical Sunday afternoon for Refat El-Grasy involves oiling a unicycle and unpacking some spinning plates in preparation for an evening's show at the Egyptian National Circus. Yet this weekend El-Grasy, the circus clown, will find himself out on the street, holding a placard and shouting slogans at passing cars.

"We can't live on our current wages and we don't want to see this place privatised," explains the 52-year-old. "We'll keep on walking out here for as long as it takes for our voices to be heard."

El-Grasy is the latest Egyptian to join a wave of strikes that has seen almost 1.5 million workers down tools in the last five years. Since the start of the government's tough economic reforms in 2004 almost every industrial sector has seen walkouts and protests as part of what Joel Beinin, director of Middle East studies at the American University in Cairo, calls "the largest social movement the Middle East has seen in half a century".

Industrial action has intensified as the global economic downturn has taken hold. Dissatisfaction with government policies and spiralling prices has resulted in walkouts by everybody from railway drivers to TV producers and pharmacists. Although Egypt is no stranger to strikes - the first recorded sit-in was held by Theban graveyard workers, protesting against a shortage of burying ointments during the reign of Ramses III - the latest dissent has few parallels. "It's almost unprecedented," says Beinin, "it's the most democratic thing happening in Egypt."

Although few of the striking workers are as colourful as El-Grasy, his concerns are shared by many who feel left behind by the regime of Hosni Mubarak, now in his 28th year as president. All the circus performers are employees of the state and have not seen salaries rise in 10 years.

Staff at the circus are only too aware of the fate of workers in other industries who have suddenly found themselves in the private sector. A well-known example is the Indorama Shebeen el-Kom spinning factory, which has witnessed 95 strikes since being privatised in 2006 after the new owners refused to pay up to 10m Egyptian liras in bonuses to staff. "We're proud to work for the state," said El-Grasy, who has been with the circus since 1969. "We just want enough money to live on."

The government has responded to the strikes by trying to appease workers' calls for higher wages while suppressing any political demands, often brutally. A factory walkout in the textile town of Mahalla al-Kubra last year, which turned into a mass demonstration, was met with a violent response and left three dead.

One of the more successful strikes has been that of the government's property tax collectors. They broke off from the state-run general workers syndicate and formed their own private trade union, the first of its kind since the 1952 revolution - potentially a dramatic development in a country where going on strike without the authorisation of a recognised union is punishable by up to a year in jail.

Back at the faded circus tent by the Nile in Cairo, El-Grasy remains unsure about the future. "This is our circus and our art," he said. "Everyone here cares a lot about what happens to this place, and we'll be out again if our demands aren't met."

Source

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Sometimes it's difficult to believe I wrote all this stuff while I was still that girl in college studying "political violence & revolution" and "world politics & war." I'd love to know what the professor would say if I was still in her classes right now. She was brilliant. Barely 3 years later from the original post and after living there and walking those very streets there are talks around the world of a revolution in the Egyptian uprising.

I remember while living there every time we'd pass through Tahrir Square he'd ask me, "Do you know where you are?" Even if I didn't really recognize it the first few times that he'd ask me I knew, from the wide space and the position of the buildings around the streets, what the answer was to that question and that this place meant something to the Egyptian people. It took the sparks of a revolution for the translation of it's name to really sink in, "Liberation Square, Freedom Square." Now I'll never forget it. It estimates a holding capacity of 250,000 people. As it is unfolding senior analysts say this is uncharted territory and the outcome is still uncertain.

Stand in Your Truth

Peace