Closing the week 5 – Featuring the Tunisia & Egypt Uprising
Most popular on Closer this week
- Two Faces of Revolution by Linda Herrera
- Verandering komt eraan? – De ‘Arabische revolte’ in Jordanië door Egbert Harmsen
- ‘Telefoon uit Tunesië’ – Een persoonlijk verslag van de Jasmijn-revolutie door Carpe DM
Previous roundups: Tunisia Uprising I & Tunisia Uprising II
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Essential reading
Egypt’s Class Conflict | Informed Comment
Why has the Egyptian state lost its legitimacy? Max Weber distinguished between power and authority. Power flows from the barrel of a gun, and the Egyptian state still has plenty of those. But Weber defines authority as the likelihood that a command will be obeyed. Leaders who have authority do not have to shoot people. The Mubarak regime has had to shoot over 100 people in the past few days, and wound more. Literally hundreds of thousands of people have ignored Mubarak’s command that they observe night time curfews. He has lost his authority.
LRB · Adam Shatz · Mubarak’s Last Breath
Egypt has never been a democracy. The military has always dominated its political life. Even during the age of liberal nationalism after the First World War, when it had a lively parliamentary life, popular sovereignty was sharply curtailed by British power. Since the 1952 coup which brought Nasser to power, it has been ruled by military dictatorship, although the establishment of multi-party politics in the late 1970s brought a measure of cosmetic diversification. Still, autocratic though they were, both Nasser and Sadat ensured that what Egypt did mattered. Nasser’s failures were spectacular: the aborted union with Syria in the United Arab Republic; the disastrous intervention in the civil war in Yemen; the catastrophic 1967 defeat to Israel that resulted in the destruction of three-quarters of Egypt’s air force and the loss of the Sinai; the creation of a vast and inefficient public sector which the state could not afford; the suppression of dissent, indeed of politics itself. But he also carried out land reform, nationalised the Suez Canal, built the Aswan High Dam, and turned Egypt into a major force in the Non-Aligned Movement. When Nasser spoke, the Arab world listened. Sadat broke with Nasser’s pan-Arab vision, promoting an Egypt-first agenda that ultimately led the country into the arms of the US and Israel. But, like Nasser, he was a statesman of considerable flair and cunning, with a prodigious ability to seize the initiative. By leading Egypt to a partial victory in the 1973 war, he washed away some of the shame of 1967, and eventually secured the restoration of the Sinai. And though his peace with Israel infuriated the Arabs, whom Nasser had electrified, he made Egypt a player in the world. Under Mubarak, Egypt, the ‘mother of the earth’ (umm idduniya), has seen its influence plummet. Nowhere is the decline of the Sunni Arab world so acutely felt as in Cairo ‘the Victorious’, a mega-city much of which has turned into an enormous slum. The air is so thick with fumes you can hardly breathe, the atmosphere as constricted as the country’s political life.
The dignity of Egyptian youth « The Immanent Frame
As I listened, and watched the crowds listening, there were several moments in which a sense of disbelief was discernible amid the seething, boiling anger. Midway through the speech, I think that all Egyptians were asking themselves whether it was possible that their leader of thirty years did not hear his people’s demands. Is it conceivable that, despite the whole world having heard the demand for him to go, he would assert that he will remain in his position until his present term is over (in September 2011)? In other words, is it at all comprehensible that the message he is giving to his people is: “I do not care what you want . . . you do not know what is good for you . . . you have been manipulated . . . I will do as I see fit”? Does this Egyptian Nero not realize that he is burning his people?
Myths of Mubarak « The Immanent Frame
The term ‘secular’ and its conceptual affiliates are doing a lot of work in misrepresenting the uprising in Egypt. ‘Secular’ politics has been taken to mean ‘good’ politics (limited democratization, stability, and support for the peace treaty with Israel), and ‘Islamic’ politics is being translated as ‘bad’ politics (the myriad dangers allegedly posed by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies). Accounts of the current situation in Egypt are handicapped by an inability to read politics in Egypt and Muslim-majority societies outside of this overly simplistic and politically distorting lens.
LRB · Adam Shatz · After Mubarak
From the Obama administration we can expect criticisms of the crackdown, prayers for peace, and more calls for ‘restraint’ on ‘both sides’ – as if there were symmetry between unarmed protesters and the military regime – but Suleiman will be given the benefit of the doubt. Unlike ElBaradei, he’s a man Washington knows it can deal with. The men and women congregating in Tahrir Square have the misfortune to live in a country that shares a border with Israel, and to be fighting a regime that for the last three decades has provided indispensable services to the US. They are well aware of this. They know that if the West allows the Egyptian movement to be crushed, it will be, in part, because of the conviction that ‘we are not them,’ and that we can’t allow them to have what we have. Despite the enormous odds, they continue to fight.
LRB · Issandr El Amrani · Why Tunis, Why Cairo?
When Ben-Ali fled from Tunis, he created a vacuum at the top of the state that was imperfectly but quickly filled. The initial interim government did not please many, but a sense of civic duty appears for now to have stabilised the situation without a resort to authoritarianism. Mubarak, on the other hand, created a security vacuum in order to spread panic. In agreeing to step down, he tried to ensure that the regime would survive. Egypt is not Tunisia, at least not yet.
Uprisings: From Tunis to Cairo by William Pfaff | The New York Review of Books
Dictators do not usually die in bed. Successful retirement is always a problem for them, and not all solve it. It is a problem for everybody else when they leave. What’s to be done afterward? The popular uprising that overturned the dictatorial Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali regime in Tunisia in mid-January sent a thrill of hope through Arab populations.
Leading Egyptian Feminist, Nawal El Saadawi: “Women and Girls are Beside Boys in the Streets”
Renowned feminist and human rights activist Nawal El Saadawi was a political prisoner and exiled from Egypt for years. Now she has returned to Cairo, and she joins us to discuss the role of women during the last seven days of unprecedented protests. “Women and girls are beside boys in the streets,” El Saadawi says. “We are calling for justice, freedom and equality, and real democracy and a new constitution, no discrimination between men and women, no discrimination between Muslims and Christians, to change the system… and to have a real democracy.” [includes rush transcript]
The central tenets of the “culture and anarchy” canard may be old, but they have taken on new urgency this week and now there is nothing subtle about the message: popular desire for the regime’s removal is ripping apart the Egyptian social fabric and hurting the Egyptian economy; the revolt isn’t authentically Egyptian, but the result of foreign agitation by the likes of Aljazeera and Hamas; the Muslim Brotherhood is behind the rebellion and they are the ones who will stand to gain the most from it; Muslim Brothers are radical Islamists; radical Islam is a threat to Western civilization. And so on. It does not matter whether the pieces of the argument are true. It does not matter whether they contradict each other. What matters is that they all point in a single direction: change = chaos and ruin, the end of civilization.
Yemen is not Tunisia or Egypt – CNN.com
“Yemen is not Tunisia.” These were the words that President Ali Abdullah Saleh spoke to his people on television last Sunday.
As street protests erupt in Yemen’s capital, it is not surprising that an Arab leader who has held power since a bloodless coup in 1978 would dismiss calls for his ouster.
But he was correct.
Informed views from the ground
The Egyptian Protests: A View from the Ground (The Beginning) | Waq al-Waq | Big Think
it has been an interesting week in Cairo. What follows is not analysis or expert opinion, but my own notes from the past several days.
The Egyptian Protests: A View from the Ground (Neighborhood Watch) | Waq al-Waq | Big Think
I sat in front of the bank, which has only one private guard, who is asleep inside. Megdi the guard keeps telling us to wake him up if anything happens. Still, I’m not sure what he can do. Megdi only has six bullets.
The Egyptian Revolution: First Impressions from the Field
This revolution, too, will leave traces deep in the social fabric and psyche for a long time, but in ways that go beyond the youth. While the youth were the driving force in the earlier days, the revolution quickly became national in every sense; over the days I saw an increasing demographic mix in demonstrations, where people from all age groups, social classes, men and women, Muslims and Christians, urban people and peasants—virtually all sectors of society, acting in large numbers and with a determination rarely seen before.
Shippensburg University professor recalls a roiled Egypt – Chambersburg Public Opinion
According to Dr. Karl Lorenz, Shippensburg University professor of anthropology, the people of Egypt have waited 30 years for government reform.
Lorenz lived in Egypt with his wife from August 2009 to July on a Fulbright Scholars Grant. As part of his proposal, he studied predynastic pottery style changes. Studying the pottery styles gave Lorenz insight into the unification of upper and lower Egypt and the rise to pharaohs. His wife researched and also taught at a university.
The rich symbolism of the square in Cairo – Philly.com
When she first traveled to Cairo for fieldwork in 1993, Farha Ghannam recalled, Tahrir Square was mostly used as a bus depot.
Today, it’s the battleground on which the future of Egypt is being fought – a space rich with symbolism and meaning, held and defended by protesters at the cost of some lives.
“There’s this feeling [among demonstrators] that ‘if we lose at Tahrir Square, we’re going to lose the fight,’ ” said Ghannam, an anthropology professor at Swarthmore College who studies the use of public space in Egypt.
I find it very difficult to assemble emotions, memories and impressions to respond to the events in Tunisia and Egypt. I have been responding sharply to others who seized the moment to offer their analysis. Certain characterizations of Egyptians did not sit well with me. I also fear that specific arguments are easily manipulated — that the centers of power who have so deftly dominated the media, huge sums of money and many segments of national elites will thwart the resurgence of popular resistance and demonstration of public will. But since those consulted by Barry and Joe and their “teams” are hard at work, spreading fear of a future Egypt non-compliant with the terms of Camp David, conjuring up the Islamist bogeyman, and (one fears) holding Hosni’s hand, we too should speak.
Tunisia
One Small Revolution – NYTimes.com
Tunisia has a relatively large middle class because of something so obvious it goes unremarked upon: it is a real state, with historical and geographical legitimacy, where political arguments are about budgets and food subsidies, not the extremist ideologies that have plagued its neighbors, Algeria and Libya. It is a state not only because of the legacy of Rome and other empires, but because of human agency, in the person of Habib Bourguiba, one of the lesser-known great men of the 20th century.
Tunisia analysis: Old guard, ‘new’ government | World news | The Guardian
The prime minister himself, 69-year-old Mohamed Ghannouchi, is a Ben Ali loyalist of long standing, having served since 1999. In Tunisia, he became known as “Monsieur Oui Oui” for always saying yes to the president.
To many ordinary Tunisians, these are worrying signs. In the words of a trade unionist quoted on Twitter: “Tunisia has got rid of the dictator but hasn’t got rid of the dictatorship yet.”
Egypt
The Egyptian Uprising: Facts and Fiction | Dissident Voice
There is really only one story here and it is ever so uncomplicated. This is an uprising against an octogenarian dictator who could have done us all a favor by retiring two decades ago. After he goes, the remaining 84 million Egyptians can sort things out among themselves. Everything else is fiction.
Brian Whitaker’s blog, February 2011
The situation in Egypt, as a friend from Alexandria described it to me in an email this morning, is “quite fluid and extremely scary”. It’s also very difficult to work out what is really going on behind the scenes.
Egyptian protesters: What I’m fighting for – Egyptian Protests – Salon.com
What’s too often lost in the coverage of Egypt’s violent clashes are the stories of the people fighting. This slide show offers a look at 10 individuals who make up the crowd of thousands gathered in Tahrir Square day after day. They are students, sailors, teachers, executives, government employees and members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Meet Egypt’s protesters — the people who are behind one of the greatest moments in modern Egyptian history.
What now? I would say that the time has come for the Obama administration to escalate to the next step of actively trying to push Mubarak out. They were right to not do so earlier. No matter how frustrated activists have been by his perceived hedging, until yesterday it was not the time to move to the bottom line. Mubarak is an American ally of 30 years and needed to be given the chance to respond appropriately. And everyone seems to forget that magical democracy words (a phrase which as far as I know I coined) don’t work. Obama saying “Mubarak must go” would not have made Mubarak go, absent the careful preparation of the ground so that the potential power-brokers saw that they really had no choice. Yesterday’s orgy of state-sanctioned violence should be the moment to make clear that there is now no alternative.
Mubarak’s phantom presidency – Opinion – Al Jazeera English
The “March of Millions” in Cairo marks the spectacular emergence of a new political society in Egypt. This uprising brings together a new coalition of forces, uniting reconfigured elements of the security state with prominent business people, internationalist leaders, and relatively new (or newly reconfigured) mass movements of youth, labour, women’s and religious groups. President Hosni Mubarak lost his political power on Friday, January 28.
The Battle for Egypt | The Courier
Kuppinger: Before the uprising happened in Tunisia earlier in January few, including myself, would have foreseen the current events in Cairo. When the protesters in Tunisia were successful and ousted their dictator in a matter of days, it was clear that people in other Arab countries and here in particular, the vast ranks of the younger generation were watching these events very carefully. They took and compared notes. At that point it became increasingly clear that Tunisia could become a model.
The use of hired thugs is classic Mubarak. The regime’s relationship with its people has always depended on intimidation and violence, which proved problematic with the wave of demonstrations and labour protests that have been a growing phenomenon since 2003 – acts of public police rage tend to put the tourists off. In 2005 elections young men were paid to sexually assault female protestors. Last year during the trial of two policemen accused of involvement in the death of Khaled Said a rowdy group of teenagers stood outside the courtroom and accused anti-torture protestors of being Israeli spies, before launching missiles at them. During the elections boys in matching t-shirts danced in front of polling stations while burly colleagues intimated voters on behalf of National Democratic Party candidates.
The who’s who of the has-beens – Blog – The Arabist
I know a lot of journalists (and even some normal, decent people) out there are wondering about the who’s who of the regime. As a person with a someone unhealthy obsession with the Egyptian regime for over a decade, I have been making charts of who’s who for a while.
Rich, Poor and a Rift Exposed by Unrest – NYTimes.com
Over the past several days, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians — from indigent fruit peddlers and doormen to students and engineers, even wealthy landlords — poured into the streets together to denounce President Hosni Mubarak and battle his omnipresent security police. Then, on Friday night, the police pulled out of Egypt’s major cities abruptly, and tensions between rich and poor exploded.
Egyptian Opposition’s Old Guard Falls In Behind Young Leaders – NYTimes.com
“Most of us are under 30,” said Amr Ezz, a 27-year-old lawyer who was one of the group as part of the April 6 Youth Movement, which organized an earlier day of protests last week via Facebook. They were surprised and delighted to see that more than 90,000 people signed up online to participate, emboldening others to turn out and bringing tens of thousands of mostly young people into the streets.
What’s Happening in Egypt Explained (UPDATED) | Mother Jones
What’s happening? Inspired by the recent protests that led to the fall of the Tunisian government and the ousting of longtime Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Egyptians have joined other protesters across the Arab world (in Algeria, notably) in protesting their autocratic governments, high levels of corruption, and grinding poverty. In Egypt, tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets.
ZCommunications | Whither Egypt? by Gilbert Achcar | ZNet Article
The Egyptian opposition includes a vast array of forces. There are parties like the Wafd, which are legal parties and constitute what may be called the liberal opposition. Then there is a grey zone occupied by the Muslim Brotherhood. It does not have a legal status but is tolerated by the regime. Its whole structure is visible; it is not an underground force. The Muslim Brotherhood is certainly, and by far, the largest force in the opposition. When Mubarak’s regime, under US pressure, granted some space to the opposition in the 2005 parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood––running as “independents”––managed to get 88 MPs, i.e. 20 percent of the parliamentary seats, despite all obstacles. In the last elections held last November and December, after the Mubarak regime had decided to close down the limited space that it had opened in 2005, the Muslim Brotherhood almost vanished from parliament, losing all its seats but one.
“Revolutionaries on the Roof” « zunguzungu
Al Jazeera producer Evan Hill posted a (translated) video clip called ”Revolutionaries on the Roof” that deserves wide circulation. It is described as ”Young protesters occupying an apartment building near the site of fierce battles between pro- and anti-government crowds discuss their motivations, the events of the past two weeks, and the diverse make-up of Egypt’s democracy movement. (With reporting and translation by Lara el-Gibaly)”
Freedom, Democracy and the State
Too late for reform – Blog – The Arabist
I like Michele Dunne — she has been consistent for a decade on Egypt, and strikes the right tone here. I remember we sat together a couple of months ago and she laughed at the idea that Omar Suleiman could be a transition figure for Egypt. Here she argues that the US should not be backing Suleiman, it should be backing bottom-up transition.
Egypt’s two futures: Brutality and false reforms, or democracy
OVER THE past few days the world has seen a vivid portrait of the two sides in Egypt’s crisis. There has been the orchestrated brutality and cynical facade of compromise presented by the regime of Hosni Mubarak, who while clinging to his office until September is trying to destroy the opposition and ensure the perpetuation of 50 years of autocracy. In Cairo’s Tahrir Square and in other plazas around the country is the alternative: millions of mostly secular and middle-class citizens, led by the young, who seek genuine democracy and whose regular chant is “we are peaceful.”
Supporting democracy in the Middle East requires abandoning a vision of Pax-Americana
As the Mubarak regime turns to violence in a vain attempt to repress the peaceful protests that have swept Egypt’s streets for over ten days, the risks associated with current U.S. strategy for Egypt and the wider region continue to grow. In its response to the events, the Obama administration has subtly shifted its message, incrementally increasing pressure on the regime over the last week. But the more important story is the remarkable continuities reflected in the administration’s approach.
The Duck of Minerva: Egyptian “People Power,” Civil Society, and the U.S.
Notwithstanding the uncertainties, it is worthwhile to think more about the implications. In the long term, the events of last week would seem to mean more democracy or at least more democratic input into government in Egypt. Regardless, any new government will likely mean leaders less willing to do the bidding of the U.S., whether because of their own beliefs or because of the force of popular sentiment. (Certainly an important undercurrent in the journalistic reporting has been strong anti-American sentiments expressed by many of the protesters.) It is good that American policymakers seem to realize this. President Obama is quoted as stating several times at a high level meeting yesterday that “the outcome has to be decided by the Egyptian people, and the U.S. cannot be in a position of dictating events”–or, in my view, much influencing them.
David H. Price: Challenging America’s Pharaoh
Anyone who has lived in Egypt for an extended period of time or has traveled there for extended stays over the past thirty years should not be surprised at the current uprising. The only surprising thing is that this uprising didn’t happen years or decades sooner.
Johann Hari: We All Helped Suppress the Egyptians — With Our Taxes. So How Do We Change?
The old slogan from the 1960s has come true: the revolution has been televised. The world is watching the Bastille fall on 24/7 rolling news and Tweeting the death-spasms of Mubarak-Antoinette. This elderly thug is trying to beat and tear-gas and buy himself enough time to smuggle his family’s estimated $25bn in loot out of the country, and to install a successor friendly to his interests. The Egyptian people — half of whom live on less than $2 a day — seem determined to prevent the pillage and not to wait until September to drive out a dictator dripping in blood and bad hair dye.
ETHNOGRAFIX: Power, realpolitik, and freedom: Egypt and US Ideals about Freedom
What absolutely blows me away is how quickly some folks drop their supposed ideals about freedom and democracy when the people under consideration are far away (like in Egypt, for example). It’s shocking, actually, to hear some folks out there calling for the support of Mubarak as a close ally (check the comments section). I don’t get it. Democracy, it seems, only applies here at home. When it comes to a distant population like the people of Egypt, it seems that many people are willing to sidestep all of the rhetoric about political freedom and openly advocate supporting a repressive policy state, all in the name of “our interests.” Horribly ironic, no? Granted, the situation in Egypt is far from clear, but I definitely do not think that going back to the “support the nearest dictator who will toe the line” model is the way to go. Absolutely not. Anyway, here are some quotes that are apt for folks on all sides of the political spectrum here in the US:
But what about the Muslim Brotherhood?
Concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood: Israel Fears Regime Change in Egypt – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International
Israel is watching developments in Egypt with concern. The government is standing by autocratic Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, out of fear that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood could take power and start supplying arms to Hamas.
Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt Opposition Party, In The Spotlight During Protests
In media coverage of the ongoing protests rocking Egypt, the phrase “Muslim Brotherhood” has cropped up more than once. Who is this group, and what role are they playing in the protests?
Why we shouldn’t fear the Muslim Brotherhood – War Room – Salon.com
To get some hard facts and context about the controversial Islamic movement, we spoke with Nathan Brown, a political science professor at George Washington University and director of its Institute for Middle East Studies, who has written extensively on the Muslim Brotherhood. What follows is a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
5 Reasons the Muslim Brotherhood Won’t Turn On Israel | Politics | Religion Dispatches
These days, everybody’s in the business of panicking over the potential role of the Muslim Brotherhood. But rather than discuss where the Brotherhood has been in the past, I suggest looking to the future. Events on the ground are changing every few hours, so this is an exercise in informed speculation. Here are five reasons why the Muslim Brotherhood will find it very hard to decisively determine Egypt’s relationship with Israel. These five reasons complicate the assumption that if Mubarak goes, the peace treaty with Israel will come to an end.
Islamists at the Gates – NYTimes.com
But few Israelis really believe in that hopeful outcome. Instead, the grim assumption is that it is just a matter of time before the only real opposition group in Egypt, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, takes power. Israelis fear that Egypt will go the way of Iran or Turkey, with Islamists gaining control through violence or gradual co-optation.
Muslim Brotherhood says it is only a minor player in Egyptian protests
The Muslim Brotherhood found its first martyr in Egypt’s popular uprising Friday, when a teenager named Mustafa Sawi was shot dead in front of the Interior Ministry. But the country’s oldest and best-organized opposition group had to take a back seat at his public funeral the next day, as the Muslim Brotherhood insists it is little more than a bit player in the outpouring of resistance to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.
Don’t Fear Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood – Brookings Institution
Don’t Fear Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
Egypt, Middle East Unrest, Middle East, Governance, Islamic World
Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy
January 28, 2011 —
The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia has sent a shock wave through the Arab world. Never before has the street toppled a dictator. Now Egypt is shaking, Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year-old regime faces its most serious threat ever. The prospect of change in Egypt inevitably raises questions about the oldest and strongest opposition movement in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood, also known as Ikhwan. Can America work with an Egypt where the Ikhwan is part of a transition or even a new government?
Egypt’s Islamist Riddle – WSJ.com
The 83-year-old Islamic movement, Egypt’s biggest opposition bloc, played a subdued role in the uprising. But its past performance in parliamentary elections and its dedicated following mean it will be a force to be reckoned with as Egypt moves toward open elections.
If this discussion evokes a sense of déjà vu, this is because over the past sixty years we have had it many times before, with almost identical outcomes. Since the 1950s, the United States has secretly struck up alliances with the Brotherhood or its offshoots on issues as diverse as fighting communism and calming tensions among European Muslims. And if we look to history, we can see a familiar pattern: each time, US leaders have decided that the Brotherhood could be useful and tried to bend it to America’s goals, and each time, maybe not surprisingly, the only party that clearly has benefited has been the Brotherhood.
Scott Atran: The Muslim Brotherhood Bogey Man
As Egyptians clash over the future of their government, Americans and Europeans have repeatedly expressed fears of the Muslim Brotherhood. “You don’t just have a government and a movement for democracy,” Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, said on Monday. “You also have others, notably the Muslim Brotherhood, who would take this in a different direction.” The previous day, House speaker John Boehner expressed hope that Hosni Mubarak would stay on as president of Egypt while instituting reforms to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremists from grabbing power.
And even more urgent, what about the jihadis?
Jihadis Debate Egypt (1) — jihadica
Not surprisingly, the jihadi online community is captivated by the uprising, but many are also bewildered about what this means for their cause, and their leaders have been slow to respond. Jarret Brachman has a point when he taunts Zawahiri: “Your Silence is Deafening.” As of Thursday afternoon, the leading jihadi forum Shamikh only featured a handful of authoritative responses to the events in Egypt, from pro-jihadi pundits, a legal scholar and other participants. However, not a word from the leadership. The closest thing to an official response is AQIM’s statement on the events in Tunisia (available also in translation).
Jihadis Debate Egypt (2) — jihadica
Such a response and the mere fact that this anonymous and murky EIJ figure, issues a message, and not a leading Egyptian al-Qaida member, is significant. Again, it demonstrates the jihadis’ irrelevance to the rapidly evolving situation in Egypt.
Uprisings and (new) media
What Al Jazeera Shows and Doesn’t Show | The Middle East Channel
But what television has brought to the world is only a partial reality. There is only Tahrir; the huge metropolitan expanse of Cairo and the families at home in neighborhoods are beyond the frame, oddly irrelevant. The participants in the revolution are the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, not the equal numbers standing unpicturesque guard by night to ensure the safety of neighborhoods. TV shows a mass, not a massive group of individuals. This televised reality has become hugely controversial.
Wallflowers at the Revolution – NYTimes.com
Perhaps the most revealing window into America’s media-fed isolation from this crisis — small an example as it may seem — is the default assumption that the Egyptian uprising, like every other paroxysm in the region since the Green Revolution in Iran 18 months ago, must be powered by the twin American-born phenomena of Twitter and Facebook. Television news — at once threatened by the power of the Internet and fearful of appearing unhip — can’t get enough of this cliché.
Cairo Activists Use Facebook to Rattle Regime
ack in March, Maher and a friend launched a Facebook group to promote a protest planned for April 6. It became an Internet phenomenon, quickly attracting more than 70,000 members. The April 6 youth movement — amorphous, lacking a clear mission, and yet a bull’s-eye to the zeitgeist — blossomed within days into something influential enough to arouse the ire of Egypt’s internal security forces. Maher is part of a new generation in the Middle East that, through blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and now Facebook, is using virtual reality to combat corrupt and oppressive governments. Their nascent, tech-fired rebellion has triggered a government backlash and captured the world’s attention.
Egypt protests: Police use Facebook and Twitter to track down protesters | Mail Online
Gabrielle’s dilemma is shared by many others whose activism, both online and on the streets, has brought them to the attention of the state security police.
While other protesters arrive and leave freely, thousands like Gabrielle – well-educated, middle-class idealistic young Egyptians who used social networking sites to ignite this protest – are beginning to feel trapped. Some say they are fighting for their lives, though they have thus far protested peacefully.
Why Tunisia Is Not a Social-Media Revolution | The American Prospect
commentators have held back with Tunisia, emphasizing that the uprising is a product of the passions and convictions of Tunisia’s people, not a 140-character status update. That’s a good thing. It means our conversations about technology’s transformative power are maturing past assumptions that the spread of the Internet means an inexorable spread of democracy.
But now is the time, perhaps, for a little backlash against the backlash. Scrubbing the Internet from the Tunisian people’s story leaves us with less than a full picture of this moment.
But here now finally are our children – Generation Facebook – kicking aside the burden of history, determined to show us just how easy it is to tell the dictator it’s time to go.
tabsir.net » Streaming Revolution, Screaming Revolution
What happens when a revolution is not only screamed but streamed live? Can we reach a point where it gets as boring as a video game that we have played far too many times? Can our eyes become so glued to the riveting skirmish scenes in Cairo that we lose sight of all the other news that still gets generated. Sudan is having a referendum to separate south from north; Lebanon’s government has emulated Italy’s governing prowess once again (and Hizbollah has no Berlusconi figure in its ranks); world markets fear a closing of the Suez canal… and the list goes on but only with a few short notes at the bottom of the screen.
On The Media: Transcript of “Tunisia’s Twitter Revolution?” (January 21, 2011)
Demonstrators flooded the streets in Tunisia this week calling for an end to corruption and ousting President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Many have attributed the wave of protests to the rise of the internet and social media in a country notorious for its censorship but Foreign Policy blogger Marc Lynch says it’s not that simple. He says the internet, social media and satellite channels like Al Jazeera have collectively transformed the information landscape in the Arab world.
Gladwell Still Missing the Point About Social Media and Activism: Tech News and Analysis «
In other words, as far as the New Yorker writer is concerned, the use of any specific communications tools — whether that happens to be cellphones or SMS or Twitter or Facebook — may be occurring, and may even be helping revolutionaries in countries like Egypt in some poorly-defined way, but it’s just not that interesting. This seems like an odd comment coming from someone who wrote a book all about how a series of small changes in the way people think about an issue can suddenly reach a “tipping point” and gain widespread appeal, since that’s exactly what social media does so well.
Thinking about the importance of communications “revolutions.” | Savage Minds
There has been a lot of talk about the importance of social media in recent world events. See for instance, here, here, and here. Some of the more astute commentators have referred to earlier technological revolutions and their impact on television: usenet, fax machines, television, cameras, telegraph, and even the printing press. One technology, however, always seem to get left out, maybe because it seems too “obvious,” and that is literacy.
Facebook and YouTube Fuel the Egyptian Protests – NYTimes.com
“Prior to the murder of Khaled Said, there were blogs and YouTube videos that existed about police torture, but there wasn’t a strong community around them,” said Jillian C. York, the project coordinator for the OpenNet Initiative of the Berkman Center for the Internet and Society at Harvard University. “This case changed that.”
While it is almost impossible to isolate the impact of social media tools from the general swirl of events that set off the popular uprisings across the Middle East, there is little doubt that they provided a new means for ordinary people to connect with human rights advocates trying to amass support against police abuse, torture and the Mubarak government’s permanent emergency laws allowing people to be jailed without charges.
Lecture Clarifies Social Media Usage in Recent Uprisings – CUA Tower – News
While many analysts point to “tweets” as the igniters of the recent revolution in Egypt, Dr. Jon Anderson of the Anthropology Department cautioned students on Wednesday night not to let social media hype drown out the human voices at the root of revolt.
His talk, entitled “Social Media and Politics of the Middle East,” sought to clarify the conceptions surrounding what has been termed a “twitter revolution,” regarding recent popular uprisings against long-standing dictators in Yemen, Tunisia, and Egypt.
Egypt may have turned off the Internet one phone call at a time | Technology | Los Angeles Times
Egypt’s shutdown of the Internet within its borders is an action unlike any other in the history of the World Wide Web and it might have only taken a few phone calls to do it.
MediaShift . What Role Did Social Media Play in Tunisia, Egypt Protests? | PBS
As the protests are playing out in the streets of Cairo and the rest of Egypt today, I have been glued to the live-stream of Al Jazeera English as well as the Twitter hashtag #Jan25, a top trending topic based on the big protests a few days ago. The Egyptian protests come on the heels of a similar revolution in Tunisia, where a longtime dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was ousted after young people organized protests via Facebook. We’ve heard about “Twitter revolutions” before in Iran after huge protests there in 2009, but how have things changed today? How much of a role has social media played in the turmoil happening in the Middle East? Will that continue to be the case? Vote in our poll below, or share your deeper thoughts in the comments below.
Other roundups
“A wonderful development” – Anthropologists on the Egypt Uprising (updated)
As you might have noticed, Wikan is argueing along siminar lines as the Western political elite who is about to lose an important ally in the Middle East. For them, “stability” is more important than people power, as Maximilian Forte and his co-bloggers on Zero Anthropology explain in several blog posts, among others The Fall of the American Wall: Tunisia, Egypt, and Beyond and Encircling Empire: Report #11, Focus on Egypt, Encircling Empire: Report #12, FOCUS ON EGYPT: Revolution and Counter-Revolution and The Song of the Nonaligned Nile (by Eliza Jane Darling).
Registering a revolution. Hail to the brave people of Egypt. A roundup. | Erkan’s Field Diary
Too soon to analyze, so here’s my outbox
Tunisia and Egypt uprisings – selected bookmarks « media/anthropology
Highlights on media, anthropology and the Tunisia and Egypt uprisings
anthropologyworks » Understanding Egypt
Political protests in Egypt are ongoing at the time of this writing, mainly in Cairo, Alexandria and some other cities. Who knows what will unfold in the near future? What do cultural anthropologists offer to inform our understanding of this new social movement?
Misc.
Yemen’s president says he won’t seek reelection, but he said that in 2005, too | Need to Know
Reality, however, is more than what happened in the last month. While some protesters in Sanaa have said they were inspired by the protests in Egypt and Tunisia, those two revolts did not inspire the protests anymore than my breakfast burrito did. There were protests in Aden during the Gulf Cup soccer tournament last November, protests over the parcel bombs in Sanaa in October, thousands of people protesting over the most recent round of fighting between the government and the Houthi rebels in the north in March. Yemenis protest routinely, and the last several months have seen a series of increasingly violent rallies across the entire country.
Top Ten Accomplishments of Egypt Demonstrators | Informed Comment
The protest movement in Egypt scored several victories on Friday, but did not actually succeed in getting President Hosni Mubarak to step down. Their accomplishments include:
Of people and things: Egyptian protest and cultural properties « The Berkeley Blog
In a post on the Berkeley Blog, Samuel Redman makes an argument that urges protection of antiquities be emphasized in the face of current events in Egypt, arguing that mummies are “shared global heritage”.
I addressed similar questions in writing a post on my Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives blog about unconfirmed reports of possible damage to a unique tomb, that of the woman identified as the wet nurse of Tutankhamon. But in writing my post, I subordinated questions of the destruction of antiquities to the critical moment facing Egypt today, which concerns the future of living men and women.
Dutch
Egypte, een langzame revolutie – Vrij Nederland
Opeens is iedereen Egyptedeskundige. Een van de grappigste opmerkingen die ik, via Twitter, tegenkwam, was die van Elseviers René van Rijckevorsel dat ‘een langzame evolutie naar een eerlijker Egypte’ beter is. Voor de volledigheid haalt Van Rijckevorsel er het uitgekauwde doembeeld van veertig procent analfabete Egyptenaren en de alomtegenwoordige Moslimbroederschap bij. Volgens hem zijn er twee opties: het Iran- of het Algerije-scenario.
Het opvallende aan Tunesië is dat het in zeer korte tijd geëscaleerd is, terwijl er in Egypte al jaren protest is tegen het presidentschap van Moubarak. Het laatste half jaar zijn er regelmatig zeer grote en ingrijpende demonstraties geweest, waarbij zelfs sprake was van een coalitie van de gehele oppositie. Desalniettemin zijn de Egyptenaren er nog niet in geslaagd af te komen van La Vache Qui Rit, zoals Moubarak wordt genoemd. De vraag is of dit door steun van de VS komt, of omdat er in Egypte ondanks alles meer uitingsvrijheid en ruimte was dan in Tunesië. Een organisatie als Kifaya, die strijdt tegen de heerschappij van Moubarak, zou tot voor kort ondenkbaar zijn geweest in Tunesië.
Best of Blogs: #25jan (links galore) | DeJaap
Wellicht ter compensatie voor de maanden(jaren?)lange media-afwezigheid zond de NOS vanmiddag live uit over Egypte. Maar in tegenstelling tot de Egyptenaren (tot vanmiddag) heeft u wel toegang tot internet en daarmee toegang tot dezelfde bronnen waar de NOS-correspondenten ook gebruik van maken.
Uiteengespatte droom stimuleert Egyptische opstand – de Volkskrant – Opinie
De afgelopen jaren kenden eigenlijk geen moment zonder protesten tegen het regime, maar de huidige volksopstand is ongekend en kan onmogelijk genegeerd worden. Het Tunesische voorbeeld gaf Egyptenaren hoop en de moed het veiligheidsapparaat te trotseren en hun al jaren breed gedragen afkeer van Mubaraks regime te uiten. Jongeren zijn de stuwende kracht achter de volksopstand in Egypte. Wat zijn de achtergronden van hun frustratie, woede en moed?
Wat is er aan de hand in de Arabische wereld? | Standplaats Wereld
Door Erik van Ommering … hoor ik u denken deze dagen! Nu eens geen heibel tussen Palestijnen en Israëliërs, maar revolutie in Tunesië, opstand in Egypte, rellen in Jemen, demonstraties in Jordanië, protesten in Libanon – waar gaat dat heen? Vanuit mijn positie als onderzoeker in het laatstgenoemde land zal ik een poging in de richting van een antwoord wagen – waarbij ik me bewust ben van de snelheid waarmee de huidige gebeurtenissen mijn relaas ongetwijfeld zullen inhalen. Hierbij nu eens een macro-analyse door een antropoloog!
Turbulente week in Caïro | Standplaats Wereld
Verbaasd lees ik terug hoe één van mijn eerste veldwerknotities, van een paar weken geleden, de acceptatie en leegte in de ogen van de taxichauffeur beschrijft die me van het vliegveld naar de stad brengt. Dat lijkt een ander land een eeuwigheid geleden. Door Police Day (25 januari) begonnen dingen langzaam te veranderen met als climax en epicentrum de Miljoenen Mars op Midan Tahrir (2 februari).
Thanks for siharng. Always good to find a real expert.