Monday, January 31, 2011

Why Egypt’s popular rebellion is the greatest historical event in a decade, and how Barack Obama missed the boat

ليس هناك جيش أقوي من فكرة حان وقتها

(Above: No army is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.)

I’m writing this on January 28th, 2011, at 11:53 AM Cairo time, although I’m an ocean away from Cairo. But, as someone wrote the other day on Twitter, yesterday, we were all Tunisian; today, we are all Egyptian, and tomorrow, we will all be free. So today I am writing this on Cairo time.

Three days ago, I read Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. He delivered it on the same day that the #Jan25 protests began in Egypt. I was dismayed that he didn’t mention the protests at all, because they’re more important than almost everything he did mention. This essay is an attempt to explain why they are so important, why Obama ignored them, and what the possible results of that choice could be.

For readers who don’t know much about Egypt, like most Americans, here’s my attempt to sum up a country of 80 million people in three minutes."

US Cynicism EXPLODES In Egypt

Editor’s Note: As a popular uprising challenges the pro-U.S. dictatorship in Egypt, Washington’s cynical strategy of talking about democracy while relying on repressive Arab regimes to maintain order is entering a dangerous moment.

The course of this history could have been quite different, as Jeff Cohen notes in this guest essay:

In the last year of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. questioned U.S. military interventions against progressive movements in the Third World by invoking a JFK quote: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Spoof on US State Departments Position on Egypt

Fox News Has No Idea Where Egypt or Iraq For That Matter, Is

Egyptian Revolution

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Mubarak We are Watching You 1

Al Jazeera's Egypt coverage embarrasses U.S. cable news channels

Al Jazeera's Egypt coverage embarrasses U.S. cable news channels

Al Jazeera English: Live Stream - Watch Now - Al Jazeera English

Al Jazeera English: Live Stream - Watch Now - Al Jazeera English

coda (or The Carpe diem Challenge)

Looking Like Count Mubarakula

One World

Black Eyed Peas - Where Is the Love - Lyrics

Arab World Teeters Due to Politics, Online Media

The Political Power of Social Media | Foreign Affairs

The Political Power of Social Media | Foreign Affairs