Dream gone bad – a year after #Jan25

I posted this video (English subtitled version) on facebook (with a snarky comment about banning the use of requiem for a dream soundtrack music), and I think twitter. But as we close in on #Jan25, I feel the need to say a little more about it. When I was in Cairo over Christmas break, I felt [...]

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On #Maspero and the Revolution Against Ourselves

This is midterm week for me, and since I have been woefully not on top of my academic game this semester, it was supposed to be lockdown for study week. But then out of left field came yesterday’s events at #Maspero and downtown Cairo. At first I was viciously angry. While my rage has subsided [...]

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Foule for Thought

I think the USA needs to reverse its founding motto to: “No Representation with Taxation”. Why do corporations get such an inordinate amount of influence on politics, including being considered “persons” by a corrupt SCUSA, when they hardly pay taxes? Maybe this is what #OccupyWallStreet should call for.

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Short Angry Letter to the USA

Dear USA, Oh, you have an Office for Middle East Transitions now? How ’bout this: Leave us the fuck alone. We dont want your counterrevolutionary, imperial, siphoning-off-riches-for-Western-financial-institutions, creating-markets-for-the-MilitaryIndustrialAgriOilComplex meddling in our affairs. We dont want your aid or your debt. We dont want your teargas or your tanks. We dont want your fertilizers or your [...]

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Youth Revolution – demographics

A non-amendments post: With everyone calling this a youth revolution, I took some time to look up and make an image of Egypt’s demographic info. I used info from CAPMAS for 2008 (which must be estimates since there wasnt a census that year). The image makes the youth pyramid clear. Some stats: 38% are aged [...]

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#jan25 – Antecedents to the Uprising

This was written a few weeks ago as the first part of a much larger project. I have yet to get around to addressing the third part. So I am publishing this for the most part as it was written. The material and some of the links may seem dated at this point, but I [...]

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(Re)Enter Sandman ..err.. -monkey

Enter Sandman ..err.. -monkey Sandmonkey says that as all the familiar old faces emerge to start their activism at square one again, he’s back too. I have to agree, at least partially, with the sentiment. We’re back to 2004 with all the political “actors” and activists beginning to reemerge and feel each other and the [...]

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Arundhati Roy on “Democracy” and the state of the world

This is really too good for me to pick excerpts out of. It really expresses so much of what I believe is wrong with the world and to cut it up would diminish it. While focusing mainly on India, Arundhati Roy, author of the God of Small Things (a book I think is overrated since [...]

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The Egypt-Israel Gas Deal

I stumbled upon this post by Mo-ha-med and discovered a pretty good blog. I am reproducing the post in full. It’s about time someone put this much investigation into such a politically and economically critical yet entirely opaque issue. Don’t neglect to check out the first post (referenced in the first line) and the comments [...]

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Arabs Lose In Any Iran Outcome

I couldnt let this one by with just a delicious bookmark. Rami El Khouri comments on Arab (regime and popular) perceptions of and reactions to the events unfolding in Iran. I think he hits a crucial point whith this article in highlighting that they’ve trapped themselves in a lose-lose situation regardless of the outcomes in [...]

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AUC adds Israeli to Trustees

Here’s the announcement from the AUC website: Retired U.S. Diplomat Named to AUC Board of Trustees June 21, 2009, Cairo, Egypt – The American University in Cairo announced today the appointment of former US ambassador to Egypt Daniel C. Kurtzer as a member of its Board of Trustees.  Kurtzer, the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of [...]

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Gaza Activist Arrests in Cairo

I just heard that Salma Said, Khaled AbdelHamid, Malek, Sabri El Sammak and at least 3 journalists have been arrested outside of the Arab League building in  Tahrir.  The activists were protesting in support of Gaza UPDATE 1:05pm The number i am getting is 13-15 arrests. Apparently they have been shoved into micobuses. The few [...]

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Police State 2.0

Once Again, Naomi Klein is right on the money. The disaster capitalism complex has found yet another (err.. repeated) field to plough in the Olympics. And somehow, they’ve managed to find a loophole to avoid legislation regulating what’s sold to china (both for security and human rights reasons), turning huge profits and setting up the [...]

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Hillary least electable Dem

One (several actually) more reason to hope Hillary doesnt get the Dem ticket. While Clinton maintains her lead in national polling among Democrats, in direct matchups against Republican presidential candidates, she consistently runs behind both Barack Obama and John Edwards. [..] By contrast, Obama beats every major Republican candidate: He beats McCain 45 percent to [...]

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More on the Brazilian Oil Find

This is pretty much what i was implying earlier. With the attention of a great power like the United States, and a regional power like Venezuela, Brazil finds itself in a position of power that gives it several opportunities. Whether or not the Brazilian government headed by President Lula Ignacio da Silva will choose a [...]

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