Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil was sentenced to three years in jail by a military court for publishing a blog post criticizing military actions/torture/detention. Apparently, as reported by the ANHRI (arabic statement), Maikel’s lawyers were tricked by the military court into thinking the session was adjourned and thus they left. The blogger was then sentenced by the court.

It is important to note that Mr. Nabil was not arrested from Tahrir square or for staying out after curfew; he was arrested from his home on charges specifically related to his blog post.

This is a sad day for the Egyptian Military who have promised freedom of speech and yet their actions do not seem to support their previous declarations.

This is a post by Just an Egyptian on the above. The post is in Arabic (mostly Egyptian colloquial) so apologies to all non-Arabic speakers/readers.

I love what he has to say.

To me, this is a post about the myth of accepting those of a different faith in Egypt and how the word moderate is now used by anyone who is not a card-carrying member of a religion-based organization or group.

Found an entry over here which discusses it.

I’ll leave it to you to form your own opinion, but (since they have comment moderation enabled), I will share my very short comment on their post:

“Maybe I’m not getting it… but I’d like to see pictures of Jesus and Moses done in a similar, quite juvenile in my opinion manner, and then I’ll be convinced that this is actually about free speech and not, as it seems to me, confusing free speech with Islamo-phobia.”

The video there was also annoying. Not that I support censorship, I don’t. I think the cartoons should be published… but since, in my experience, most of the blogs and people who supported things like Draw Mohammed Day were conservative right-wing christians or die-hard Islamo-phobes, the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

I am also proposing an annual lambast Israel for stealing the Palestinians’ land Day and Deny the Holocaust Day. I mean, isn’t Free Speech the whole point, no matter how ridiculous what you say might or might not be?

We need these things then, to get it out of our system, until everyone gets tired of the whole thing and then some of us will just stop being this childish.

… and these three pieces only served to remind me of why:

Power of Grief: Corrie’s fight for justice

Check this bit in the article out:

The IDF says the bulldozing was meant to stop the activities of militants in the area. It adds that the bulldozer driver could not see or hear Corrie and its own investigation found no Israeli soldier was to blame.

Nothing in the article about what other, mutiple, activists saw or observed that day… though there is plenty of published information with their statements. Either the nice reporter didn’t do her homework or she didn’t bother. The rest of the article portrays the human side of the brave activist and how difficult it has been for her parents (something which I’m obviously not disputing)… but I find it difficult to believe that a reporter from a land where all politicians and journalists attack channels like Al Jazeera and accuse them of portraying the story from one side, amongst many other things, could have missed something I noticed in as long as it took me to read the article.

Netanyahu must lead towards peace

A lackluster piece about the recent Israel/America schism (or not, according to the writer) which included these lines:

Only time will tell if what began with a slap in the face over an announcement over one housing development will be seen one day as the wake-up call that forced a moment of truth in the Middle East peace process — and whether Netanyahu had the courage to turn this crisis into an opportunity to achieve real peace and security for Israel.

What? Did you run out of interesting material and so decided to write such a ridiculously naive article where you actually say that any Israeli leader (particularly one who has been voted in a second time… with time in between to reflect on his first term) actually wants peace?!

Also, it’s not just ONE housing development. It was one housing development this time and hundreds more since 1967… but, of course, your readers will nod their heads and say: so what’s wrong with one development? Why is Obama annoyed? What’s wrong with these Arabs?!

Netanyahu, Obama meet at White House

What about these lines?

President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met for more than three hours Tuesday evening amid a dispute over Israel’s decision to build new Jewish housing on disputed land in East Jerusalem.

and this

Netanyahu’s visit to Washington comes as Israel and the United States find themselves at odds over Israel’s plan to build new housing on disputed land in East Jerusalem — a plan he defended sharply Monday night. Israel’s announcement two weeks ago that it plans to build 1,600 apartments in an area claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians

and this

Palestinian leaders have refused to rejoin peace talks until Israel freezes the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But Netanyahu said “everyone knows” the neighborhoods where the new housing units will be built “will be part of Israel in any peace settlement,” and the new construction “in no way precludes the possibility of a two-state solution.”

FYI, my western readers, East Jerusalem is not disputed land. It was captured illegally during war. If you think it wasn’t captured illegally and think that Israel gets to pick and choose what statutes and decisions that are binding, by International Law that Israel has agreed to, then I think that all suicide bombers, the rocker launchers and militants are totally within their rights to do what they’ve been doing for years.

Mr. Ben-Ami, who wrote the second article mentioned here, should have probably read this last piece before his piece was posted on the CNN website. I think there’s your answer Jeremy. Netanyahu said pass on the peace. Why? Because apparently not “everyone knows” that East Jerusalem has been theoretically annexed to Israel (though on the ground, that is the de facto state of things).

Moving on to this piece.

The writers says that

Despite the toe-to-toe standoff with the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had dinner with Biden in Washington and met President Barack Obama, though he fiercely reiterated Israel’s right to build on land claimed by the Palestinians while he was in the United States.

Notice how Netanyahu’s quote is not preceded or followed by quotation marks? That means our writer was probably paraphrasing… was it Netanyahu that explicitly added the bit about the land being claimed by Palestinians? Or, was it the writer’s own little expenditure of effort and willingness to be daring and sound just like a lawyer when using the word “claimed”.

Let me just help the man out: it’s not claimed, fool. It’s the Palestinians’ right as per the law. The same law that allowed the people that call themselves Israeli now to “claim” that they had any right to this piece of land in the first place.

I think Egypt, Italy and Greece should claim Palestine too… after all, the Ancient Egyptians (preceding Judaism), the Romans and the Greeks once ruled this land as well… for hundreds of years. Hell, maybe we can have France and England claim it… remember the crusades?

CNN… ridiculous!

A friend on facebook recently posted a link to this article (Note: Article is in Arabic and thus my response will be longer than if it had been in English since I will have to translate/para-translate certain passages that I wish to criticize) which I thought was one of the stupidest things I have ever read.

The article itself is posted on a Nasserist/Pan-Arabist forum (as the forum itself claims).

Upon reading the article, I found myself extremely annoyed, for a number of reasons:

1. The distasteful tone the man used
2. The lack of article cohesion
3. The manner in which he assumes certain opinions are facts
4. The way in which he (as with most, but not all, Nasserists) can’t see the world beyond his beliefs.

The author, Amr Sabih Sayyid, starts off by saying that Dr. Mohammed Elbaradei claims that his father, who headed the lawyer’s syndicate during some of the years of Gamal Abdel Nasser, was ill-treated and discriminated against [by the regime] at the time.

The man says that Elbaradei over-stepped his bounds by calling Abdel Nasser a tyrant as well as criticizing the free-education system of the time.

Mr. Sayyid then goes on to say that an Egyptian intellectual had contacted a journalist in Al Dostour (The Constitution) newspaper and angrily criticized Elbaradei since, the intellectual claimed, Elbaradei’s father was actually pampered by the Egyptian state and that Mohammed Elbaradei must have ulterior motives for criticizing Abdel Nasser in this fashion…

… and then he moves on to another point as if by stating the intellectual’s name and his criticism of Elbaradei, we should all agree that Elbaradei was mistaken. I don’t know this intellectual (through no one else’s fault but my own) but I believe that even if I did, I would still expect to hear the actual proof of why Elbaradei’s claim is false and not just someone saying that it was!

Furthermore, the word tyrant, as defined by The American Heritage Dictionary means:

1. An absolute ruler who governs without restrictions.
2. A ruler who exercises power in a harsh, cruel manner.
3. An oppressive, harsh, arbitrary person.

Abdel Nasser was definitely an absolute ruler who governed without restrictions. He was also oppressive: what else would you call a man who abolished all political parties in Egypt (save his own) for what was claimed to be the good of the country. I’ve heard it said that the Arabic expression which translates to “behind the sun” (commonly used to mean disappear) was coined during Abdel Nasser’s era. Either way, it is well known that there were many, many political prisoners during Nasser’s rule… some of whom were never seen nor heard of after they were jailed. I would say that this is  clear and obvious cruelty and harshness (not to mention oppressive).

The author also calls Elbaradei politically stupid for insisting to group all presidential regimes from 1952 to this day under one label and because “most Egyptians and Arabs (I want to know why we should give a **** about the Arabs when it comes to the next Egyptian presidential elections) are angered by an attack on Abdel Nasser and his regime”. So I guess just because you seem to adore Nasser, everyone else has to as well? We can’t think: well, you know what? I think Nasser, Sadat AND Mubarak are all inept rulers that have caused more harm than good to this country.

For good measure, and to complete the rhetoric (though admittedly, I have used similar phrases before) Mr. Sayyid tells us that Nasser’s image (the image of the “greatest Arab leader in History”) will not be tarnished and his worth not diminished through the use of hollow and used-up adjectives like “Tyrant”.

Mr. Sayyid is obviously not the smartest apple in the barrel (in addition to being ridiculously dogmatic).

I think that people would hail Elbaradei as the world’s (not just Egypt or the Arab world’s) greatest hero if their average income increased and they lived a more decent, oppression free life and he was the one to give them that. This would be particularly true considering the state of affairs of most Egyptians these days.

Next up in the article is Mr. Sayyid’s masterpiece. His opus. His crowning achievement. His master thesis (to end all arguments, it seems). In short, this is where Mr. Sayyid offers us his astute and revelation-ary… analysis. Mr Sayyid says that it is “known” that criticizing Nasser pleases: The United States, Israel, the current ruling regime in Egypt, all the arab compradore/agent regimes, the Muslim Brotherhood, business men and beneficiaries of the ruling regime in Egypt since 1974.

He then goes on a wild tangent (I wouldn’t even call it a tangent since, by definition, tangent lines intersect at only one point) explaining how Elbaradei would be mistaken if he is trying to “please” or “flirt with” these people since they are doomed to fail. The author goes on to lambast these groups and basically explains to the reader how courting these groups will get Elbaradei no where as they don’t need him to plunder, steal and ruin the country.

Mr. Sayyid, after finding no rational explanation for Elbaradei’s criticism goes on to explain that it might be his wafdist leanings but, alas dear reader, Mr. Sayyid fires a full criticism salvo at them as well (and does not forget to mention how Abdel Nasser rescued Egypt from their mistakes).

In an unexpected epiphany and moment of clear vision, Mr. Sayyid says that this could be because of Elbaradei’s own personal views (ya think?!) and that he, Elbaradei, is free to express his views (Im not sure Mr. Sayyid has left anything for Elbaradei to express after covering all possible avenues of thought the way he did) but without making false allegations about the “era of the tyrant” (I think he was trying to be sarcastic).

Mr. Sayyid goes on to say that perhaps Dr. Elbaradei should learn from Nasser’s experience. He then goes on to give a heart-wrenching (now I’m being sarcastic) albeit short piece about Nasser history (managing to make him sound every bit the hero, the man of courage, knowledge and learning, the British-fighting freedom fighter as well as the humble achiever who never boasted of his accomplishments but brought his revolution (doesn’t he mean military coup?) to rid Egypt of all its ailments.

The man says that Nasser did not inherit Egypt’s rule from anyone and did not beg its people for their support (of course not, he forced himself on them!) before his achievements. Nasser, according to our (at this point) impassioned author did not look for a revolution to lead but “exploded” his own revolution… he was a man whose achievements made him popular and nothing else.

Finally, the man goes on to talk about a Nasserist politician, Hamdeen Sabahy, but not before managing to slip in this bit: Imported solutions will not improve Egypt’s situation… etc etc bullshit bullshit.

I have this much to say to all Nasserists who think along Mr. Sayyid’s lines of thought (actually, one line… he can’t, as again with most Nasserists, seem to be able to let go of that one line): If you want to feel proud like you say Nasser made Arabs and Egyptians feel, if you want to banish the oppressing invader and throw off the yoke of servitude you believe you’re being forced to wear by the western infidels… then do something for your country instead of writing cute little articles in ridiculous forums where the only useful thing you’re doing is practicing your creative writing.

Instead of waiting for a savior (preferably a pan-arab, socialist, oppressive, bureaucracy-supporting one) to come and free you from the quagmire you feel you’re stuck in, do something useful for your country.

Idiot.

Today is the 34th anniversery of the much-acclaimed (in Egypt) 6th of October war (which took place in 1973). The 6th of October is, and has been, a National Holiday since the war. It is also the day that former Egyptian president Anwar El-Sadat was assassinated by a group of Islamic extremists during the 1981 6th of October Military Victory Parade.

So my grandmother was watching Good Morning Egypt and the two female anchorwomen had an Egyptian physician as a guest. They were discussing a number of things, including a prosthetic joint that this physician had developed and that, according to him, is considered the most advanced in the world at this point in time.

What really irked me though is what the anchors started babbling on about at the end of the segment; the gloriousness of the 6th of October war. Now, it has to be understood that this happens annually, on every 6th of october day (Most Egyptians who watch Egyptian or Arab television on this day know of this). This time though, for some inexplicable reason, I payed more attention to what they were saying, particularly that the Egyptian physician in question had participated in the 1973 war.

One of the anchors asked the physician about his feelings on the war and how it felt, as an Egyptian, to have been a member of the Egyptian armed forces during this glorious war. The man, predicably, went on about how he was honored to be part of such an event etc etc

The anchors, before bringing this segment to a close, went on about how we should let all the youth know of the 6th of October war and how it was a monumental event in the history of Egypt. She said that this “education” should start at home with parents informing and educating their children on the lessons from the war and how it brought together all Egyptians as one people and, of course, of the “glorious” role the Egyptian Armed Forces played in securing our lands and winning back all the land lost in 1967.

WTF!!

I don’t need to discuss how the 6th of October war, whilst a strategic victory for Egypt, was not quite the military annihilation of the Israeli Armed Forces the Egyptian government’s propaganda machine claimed and still claims it was. I will not delve into the fact that the 1967 obliteration of our Military facilities and complete and utter destruction of our Air Force (not to mention the complete Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula) was the fault of our Armed Forces… so it really was the duty of the military as an institution and the Egyptian government (being a de facto military government) to return all occupied Egyptian lands because this, as well, should be as clear as day.

What annoyed me was that the military junta in power today (I can’t claim to know much about Sadat’s time since the dude was assasinated a couple of month before my birth) insists, to this day, on exploiting the 6th of October day and milking it for all it’s worth to subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) manipulate the minds of Egyptians into thinking that without the military establishment, Egypt is worth jack sh*t.

Please keep in mind that our current President was Air Marshal (most senior-ranked officer in the Air Force) at the time of the war. He supposedly led the first strike (where hundreds of Egyptian military planes carried out supposedly precision strikes against Israeli strategic and tactical targets, including early-warning stations, in Sinai at 2 pm on the 6th of October in 1973 (He is frequently praised for this even outside of the occasion of the 6th of October. In fact, non-Egyptians wouldn’t be mistaken in thinking that “Leader of the October Air Strike” is an official title of Moh’d Hosni Mubarak.

Why in bloody hell are Egyptians as a people, 34 years after the event, commemorating on such a wide scale a war which wasn’t even a complete military victory?! Why is this THE event (according to the Egyptian government-owned media) that is supposed to instill in Egyptians feelings of national pride?!

I should think that the answer is obvious: There isn’t really all that much in the country that we can be proud of. If this were true, they would be flaunting amazing growth rates, high standards of living and how every Egyptian family goes to sleep well-fed, well-clothed and well-sheltered.

But they don’t. Because they can’t. Life is sub-par for most Egyptians; prices are always increasing without the equivalent rise in real wages, the air we breathe is polluted, the public insitutions are amongst the shittiest in the world in terms of getting work done… I could go on forever.

The problem isn’t that we have problems. The Problem is that the Egyptian government attempts to divert the attention of its citizens from things that matter by using under-handed strategies of propaganda perfected, along the ages, by authoritarian regimes globally.

Disgusting.

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction… well, not really.

Depending on how busy my workday is, I always manage to spend a bit of time everyday readings news and opinion articles, checking out blogs, watching some of those YouTube videos, using Google Talk (strongly recommended by me!) etc. In short, well-developed and researched time-wasting schemes.

Moving from site to site and click after click on the ‘net, I generally manage to come across a number of articles and blog posts written by the group of people I like to call Neo-Cons; basically a large group of people that believe in George Bush. These NCs can get quite irritating. Not only because the always seem willing to discuss and comment on Martian International Relations, but also because they get quite upset when, Supranormal Being forbid!, regular humans wish to talk Earth Politics with them.

In fact, I’ve gotten quite used to their reactions that, over the preceding months, I used to indulge myself by inserting my various, and humble, Earth opinions and watch their blood bubble and boil (that must have been how all the water from Mars evaporated all those years ago). Finally, boredom overcame me and I promised myself never to discuss Martian Politics again.

A couple of weeks ago, an Earthman sent me links to a number of jokes, practical jokes and some sad attempts at humor. Turns out that these were, in fact, the latest headlines of some of the Martian Newspaper (Still not able to find their Earth distributor, but I hear that they’re opening up a Galaxy-wide outlet soon). Fancying myself a buff on Martian jokes, I ploughed straight in, only to discover that these were forgeries, and pathetic ones at that.

Alas, I later discovered that these were authentic pieces. Apparently, Martian News headlines no longer had gossip stories as features… they had moved on to pornography. I sighed. Nothing I could do about it. I had realized a long time ago that the Universe was not going to change because I wanted it to.

What always frustrated me is how other Earthmen tribes, as well as those Martians, just simply refused to listen to what I had to say. The Martians, and some of those tribes, continued to insult many of the other tribes as well as each other. Having left my first tribe, albeit without telling them, and camping on the plains, I thought I understood that most tribesmen were not bad people… but it seems that, as with all the different tribes through the ages, all you need to start a war is throw one stone.

I keep thinking of all the things I could do to end those wars… and then I realize that I’m frustrated by having to talk nice to all those different tribesmen. Some of the more naive, less intellectually-endowed of my former tribe call me a traitor to my tribe. Other tribesmen just won’t listen and like to make up scenarios of how my former tribe started it all.

The Martians seem to have up and decided that Earth should follow Martian rules and learn from the Martian past or they will declare themselves our legal guardians and tell us when to go out, go to sleep, watch television and even… give us our pocket money!

I still can’t talk mean to any of those people! At the back of my mind there’s this voice which keeps telling me: Be logical. Be Coherent. Don’t be mean or rude. They’ll listen to you if you talk slow enough. They’ll listen to you if they figure out you’re not trying to kill them.

I think the voice in my head is wrong.

I think that they need to think that I will hurt them for them to listen to me. I think I might want them to think that I will hurt them. I think I won’t be able to talk slowly. Or logically. Or Coherently.

I think I won’t care about the violence anymore.

Heh.

Maybe I’ll just start a big fire. BIG BIG FIRE! Maybe I’ll start dancing naked around the fire and kill anyone who comes near me.

Or maybe I’ll just hurt them.

So Hassan Nasrallah comes out on television and says that he did not expect the magnitude of Israel’s response and that if he knew that so much destruction would ensue, he would not have kidnapped the two soldiers.

Okay.

Does that make the Israeli attacks, in terms of size and magnitude, and the destruction they caused in Lebanon acceptable now? Certainly not!

Apparently though, to Big Pharoah, this implies that Nasrallah and all those who supported the war do not think. It also means, again to Big Pharoah, that Nasrallah is trying to “whitewash his tarnished image in lebanon”.

What’s up with you people? So let’s say you thought that Hizbullah cast the first stone, and a mistake was made (Utterly ridiculous of course, but it goes to show…), now that the whole thing is over and Nasrallah becomes one of the first of this generation’s leaders who have chosen to enter an armed confrontation, that speaks out and says his estimates were incorrect.

This says two things to me: The main is a shrewd politician and he knows he has unbelievable popular support from the people whose support he needs.

In this Israeli-Hizbollah war, I have clearly and obviously sided with Hizbollah. Why? Well, let’s put it this way. Israel, as a state and government, doesn’t deserve to exist. Why? Well, the minutest of reasons would be their clear and obvious disdain towards the words Justice and Peace. They haven’t abided by international law ever since their declaration of their State and it seems they don’t plan to do so anytime soon.

I think anyone who doesn’t support Hizbollah on this, even if they are anti-islamist, and chooses to take sides while spouting things like “Hizbollah needs to go but Israel was too tough” can be placed in the same category as our beloved President. Why? Because they all come up with statements like: How can we expect Israel to abide by International Laws and Agreements if we do not do so ourselves?

I seeeeee.

So you’re saying that after almost fourty years of not abiding by International Laws and Agreements, Israel was ready to fully withdraw from the West Bank & Gaza. But, shame on them, Hizbollah’s move made this impossible, and now they will never do it, and it’s all Hizbollah’s fault.

Grow up, will you.

It doesn’t take someone with the analytical abilities of a ten-year old to figure out that statements like these are complete and utter nonsense. If a schoolmate has been picking on you for the past three years, and remains more powerful than you are, with stronger friends than the cowards that hang around you, and continues beating you up, every now and then, for years… chances are, the next time he see you, he’ll beat you up.

The fact that the school tells him this isn’t right, but do nothing about it, and he completely disregards what they’ve been “ordering” or instructing him to do for the those past 4 years… is a pretty solid indicator that he will continue to ignore those orders/instructions.

Like I said, it doesn’t take a ten-year old to figure that one out.

When you hit the son of a bitch, unexpectedly, or when you cause him enough pain (where it hurts) the next time he sees you and your friends… be sure that he will think twice about beating you up again. Also be sure that “again” won’t be anytime soon.

That is why I fully support Hizbollah.

It took Europeans two World Wars to figure out that the wars they’ve been engaging in for centuries were not really all that helpful. It seems that tens of millions had to die in a cumulative span of ten years for them to figure that one out.
And it’s not like people learn from others’ mistakes. Check your history books. Look at the United States now. Can anyone say ROMAN EMPIRE? Do the words BRITISH EMPIRE mean anything to you? They should. If not, go back to those textbooks. (As a former teacher, I can gladly point out some. Don’t worry! They’re written by westerners and are fully neo-con approved.)

Now, it is obvious that this region has to pass by a level of suffering and pain and death and all that that is sufficient in size and magnitude to have people change the way business has been carried out. Who knows what might occur? The Palestinian people may be wiped out. Or Syria. Or Egypt for that matter. Maybe Israel will shrink in size, or move to Uganda or Argentina like they orginially wanted to. Who knows?

The process has to take place though, there’s no doubt about it. That’s why I do not lament the actions of Hizbollah under Hassan Nasrallah’s leadership. If it had to happen, and the man obviously figured that out, he might as well be ready for it.

I read about people saying: Israel won! or Hizbollah won! or None of the two won and the Lebanese people lost! etc. Now, while not attempting to belittle the political/military/economic analysis and studies some of those people went through to reach a conclusion, I am sincerely advising them to let it go.

Only Israel and Hizbollah know who won. It is in my opinion that the winner here is the person who achieved their desired objectives. Hell, maybe they both won!

Now, let’s not be silly and suppose for one instance that their declaration of supposed desired objectives over the news media should be the measure of how well they did. I’m not saying don’t use that information… by all means do. I personally hope that the people in charge of countries these days, those who have to make such decisions, are not dull enough or stupid enough to make public their strategic (and/or tactical) objectives in such a war. I don’t see a reason why they have to make them public at all.

I would say that it’s quite obvious that they don’t. Judging how Israel wanted to first rescue the two soldiers (that failed). Annihalate or eradicate or eliminate some other -ate Hizbollah forces (failed again). Then they will reduce Hizbollah’s capacity (sorry!). Then came the buffer zone to the Litany (Oops!). The buffer zone shrunk (Not quite there still!). They then wanted to get to the Litany again but those evil men at the UN saved Hizbollah from the major offensive that was going involve 30,000 BAD ASS Israeli soldiers (Can’t quite judge there, can I. Damn the UN! Damn them!). This is, of course, according to their publicized statements made by Olmert or some other Military/Government official.

I started grinning the moment they came up with the “Litany River” objective.

Much like Big Pharoah grinned at our Arab ignorance (Neo-Cons click gleefully).

End of the day? Hizbollah is satisfied with what they did.

I’m satisfied with Nasrallah comments and statements. The war is over, they pledged to help the people with money from “Bad Ahmedinajad Dude” (BAD).

More Iranian influence in the region. Why not? United States in Iraq. Iran in Lebanon. Maybe they’ll keep playing Leap Frog (or over and under Relays) until they get to the continental United States.

Sorry Mr. & Mrs. NeoCon, your child’s school-mates don’t like to be beaten up in the playground. I’m afraid they’re fighting back.

I wonder who’ll get to keep Antarctica?

]]> http://thetobril.com/2006/when-political-analysis-goes-bad/feed/ 1 http://thetobril.com/2006/dissent-in-egypt/ http://thetobril.com/2006/dissent-in-egypt/#comments Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:45:58 +0000 Faisal http://snefru.thetobril.com/?p=71

Hussam El-Hamalawy, a friend and a “The Arabist” Contributor, has this link to a video on “street activism“. I hadn’t seen it before and found it quite interesting.

What interested me most was the bit near the end. The group of young people that the Journalist/Reporter talked to were, as far as I could tell, AUC Undergraduates. I do not know except two of them personally.

Since I’m a judgemental SOB, let me just say that these people (as AUC students) do represent young people that the NDP would recruit. Those of the NDP target-market are people who see the benefits of being a part of the system, yet at the same time they want reform (or so they say). I had discussed something similar, on this blog, a number of days ago about two of my friends.

What do I think? I think the idea is despicable. Understandably, some of these people I refer to are not like my friends in the fact that some of them are members of the NDP already, and others are well-known for their NDP-sympathies.

The way I see it, they can be categorized into these groups of people (Keep in mind that most of their parents are rich businessmen or “industrialists” or what have you):

1. Those that are are ignorant of all the political, economic and social atrocities committed by the NDP. They probably think its confined to not allowing people to protest and arresting dissenters and throwing them in jail. They probably think that removing those specific conditions, and not having the road blocked for a couple of hours when Mubarak passes by, will probably mean more democracy in Egypt. They have no knowledge that there are poor people in Egypt beyond the few beggers they see in Cairo. Charity, and not development, does wonders to alleviate any kind of guilty feelings they have (and many of them do, as I’ve seen and heard) towards the current social and economic class distinctions.
2. Those that know that real power lies within joining the NDP. The current Patron-Client system (Shokran ya Menza!) is something they are willing to be a part of in excahnge for a carte blanche that allows them to go about their business successfully without any of the other NDP or NDP-affiliated businessmen enchroaching on their turf. They usually are willing to comprimise their moral beliefs, if they had any to being with, to this effect.
3. People that cannot be placed in groups 1 or 2. Some think that the way the country is run right now is good. Some believe in reform from “within”. Others believe in other stuff that I, personally, am not privy to.

Those AUC-ians? The boys are mostly of the Group 2 Variety and the girls are mostly of the Group 1 variety. Of course, I say mostly and not completely. There are those that would attend any meeting that they believe to be more constructive because it is carried out in a nice, air-conditioned place where the attendees all speak English and look like they belong to the same social class.

That’s about it.

Please keep in mind that I was not trying to be mean, in the least. I am disgusted sometimes, frustrated at other times, but mainly… I just ignore them. Oh! One last thing, did you hear that remark about “future leaders”? More AUC-implanted class distinction bullshit which, by the way things are going, is highly likely to occur.

This may seem like a weird post as you, if you, read along so let me just warn you that all that follows is merely my twisted view of things I see.

Whilst I would have normally placed this post on my “Too-sensitive-for-everyone-to-read-blog-which-I-post-on-and-is-different-from-this-blog” I’ve decided I didn’t care enough if people get annoyed or pissed off and to just put it down here”. SO, here goes:

I’ve noticed recently that a couple of my university friends’ behavior is a bit… screwy. Why screwy? Well, mainly because they fashioned themselves as the anti-government types although their parents were strongly tied to the government (One had an ambassador for a father, the other’s father was an officer in the Egyptian Armed Forces).

Now, before you start pointing out the obvious flaw in that argument, please read on. I’m not saying that since your parent(s) are affiliated, in any way, to the government you will automatically be as well, not at all. It’s just more likely to occur that, well, you’re neutral or “understanding” of certain actions that the government (of Egypt) might take.

But, these friends of mine (I’m actually going to talk about two in particular) were not like that. As a matter of fact, I was genuinely surprised when I discovered their parent(s)’ sources of income. Come to think of it, I only found out about two years after I got to know each of them.

Both of my friends were contributors to the more political of publications on our university campus; namely MUN and MAL’s publications (Vanguard and Al-Waqe’). Both were, relatively, critical of the situation in the Middle East and wrote quite well-written articles about different topics. What struck me as weird a couple of days ago when, for some inexplicable reason, I started thinking of them (we have been out of frequent contact for sometime now – what with work and all) was the language and choice of arguments and even subjects they both discussed in their articles.

You see, when it was merely oral conversation or discussion, the two of them would be easily labelled as people who generally opposed government policy. Quite vehemently as a matter of fact. But, when it came to their articles, matters were different; they would call for free speech (mostly indirectly) but in such a manner as to make it seem like they are criticizing the government for its own good or so that it would carry out “reform measures”. Hmmm. That doesn’t sound so bad… well, they sounded like Rosa Al-Youssef and Al-Ahram editorials. Blinded as I was by the fact that they were my friends, I did not notice this at the time.

The reason I criticize this (and I feel I must explain) is that I do not believe this government, deserves to continue in any way or form… irregardless of whatever reform they might genuinely strive to achieve. (I’m not saying they’re striving to achieve anything. But, even if they wake up one day and just decided to become benevelont philanthropists, donating all the money they stole to the people and worked for nothing else but the people’s benefit, they have committed enough crimes – Every single member - that they should be given no quarter and offered no pardon for their crimes against the people of this country and the country itself. Bear in mind that I am not saying they should be killed.)

Moving on.

The three of us now hold jobs. I can’t delve into the nature of their jobs (can’t quite go that far in revealing who they are) but suffice to say that they are both aspirants to government or government-financed jobs. Basically, they actually want to work for the government and/or institutions that are known to either support the government or are of the “shut-up-and-make-as-if-we-haven’t-noticed-this-goverment-is-made-up-of-thieves” type.

They have both, in my opinion succeeded.

This state of affairs greatly upsets me. Both these University friends have illustrated, whilst we were all undergraduates, their capacity for ignoring or bending certain moral and ethical values in the drive for success at what they’re doing. I don’t mean to call them thieves, or liars, or cheats… far from it. What they have done is much more despicable to me, because it is not something which is clear and obvious such as theft or cheating. It goes much deeper. It involves pride, the definition of being a human being and… ultimately (to my thinking) the will to change the way things are by starting with yourself.

Basically, they are guilty of being cop-outs. People who don’t practice what they preach. People who, in recognition of the fact that bending your head in the classical arab visualization of subservience, will do almost (I say that because I don’t know how far they’d go – which isn’t good) anything to get what they want or where they want to get.

As I write this, powerful feelings well up inside me and make me (I’m not making this up) shiver; I would have never thought that two people that I would choose to be friends with would be that way. It’s different when you read about corruption and all that in the news… and when you experience it first-hand through a friend’s actions.

I guess I thought my friends would always be perfect… even if I wasn’t.

That’s about it.

P.S. A talkative person by nature who has a tendency to get carried away by the details, I apologize for the number of words it took me to actually start discussing the topic that this post was meant to discuss.