Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts

February 13, 2011

What Does Egypt Mean for US Democracy?

People have been partaking in well deserved celebrating in Egypt. The relief and joy have brought tears to many... tears and smiles.

Yet I must confess a bit of foreboding, as in a great novel, which is what we are living. Some have begun putting it into words. I paraphrase, "Egypt could move forward and simply become a liberal democracy, like the United States, dominated by corporate institutions and beholden to moneyed masters with debt and other ropes tying the hands of the people. Paying for the financial sins of past dictators."

Part of this money can be clawed back from accounts in Switzerland and via the sale of ill gotten properties. But it's not just the accumulated wealth of Mubarak's family, but of many National Democratic Party operatives AND many former military officers.

Beyond that, what occurs to me is that it doesn't stop at Egypt, or stop at the other blatant authoritarian regimes in the middle east. And in the United States we have our own privileged class that has increasingly abused wealth and the power of corporations to corrupt our electoral and legislative system. The decision making process in the United States is rigged toward those with money and positions of power.

For the revolution in Egypt to be fully successful, we must root out the undemocratic corruption in the United States. Egypt has exposed the hypocrisy and undemocratic behavior by the United States over the years regardless of political party in power. This behavior reflects the wishes of a privileged establishment that must be challenged if we are to aspire to honest democracy.

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February 6, 2011

Egypt and the Twitter Addiction

I've been closely following the Egyptian revolution... mostly via Twitter.

The near-real-time information out of Egypt was almost addictive. Then there is the ability to effectively chat with people in the midst of the revolution. I've had exchanges with a hand full of people in Egypt, asking questions, sending good will, and even a get well for someone fighting the flu in the midst of it all.

Will keep this short.

Find me at http://twitter.com/GDAEman

Or if you want to start following me on Twitter, Click below:
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January 23, 2008

Modern Day Exodus

It should go down in history as a modern day exodus.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured from the Gaza Strip into Egypt...

Gazans crossed on foot, in cars or in donkey carts ... [escaping] an Israeli blockade of their impoverished territory. Across the coastal strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, people pushed into buses and piled into rickety pickup trucks heading to Egypt and a rare opportunity to escape months of isolation.

"Freedom is good. We need no border after today," said unemployed 29-year-old Mohammed Abu Ghazal. Desperation is driving humanity across the Egyptian boarder, like a Bible story.

US and Israeli foreign policy of crushing the Palestinians has become so unbearable that the people are fleeing the oppression. This is the "wrong side of history" as warned by Martin Luther King, Jr.

More Info and Pictures: BBC, UK Times on Line,CBS

Sources:

Associated Press, Tens of thousands cross downed Gaza wall, January 23, 2008.