Thursday, August 23, 2007

A question (and a link)

In the opinions section of Al-Masryoun this morning, a Dr Ahmad Darraj describes the Egyptian regime as having unceasingly and in every possible way, politically, culturally, and in workplaces across the country, worked to alienate the population and create a level of popular hatred against the regime, which the more it is stopped up with additional repression, the more latent power it accumulates for its eventual explosion. He says you have to ask yourself what a government is going to be able to do once it has so completely cut itself off from its people, "killing them instead of protecting them, and starving them instead of nurturing them..." He continues:
And the bigger and more pressing question is when will we see the exit of this government of starvation and of thirst, ignorance, blindness and police coercion. What is keeping alive this government whose people boycotts it and raises its banners of opposition to it in every location an of every type and every color?!! And is it possible for a ruling regime to continue, based on the support of enemies and their supporters in the White House and the Knesset, to stand up against its own people with security forces and weapons and torture!!!
The heading for this article is: "From psychological resistance to civil disobedience," his point being that the invisible discontent is about to come out into the open. We in the anglosphere don't get to hear that much about the issue of Egyptian civil discontent, one way or the other., and I post this tiny excerpt only to try and give a small indication of the enormous issues connected with US-supported regimes like that of Egypt. At the very least, if there is to be a critical debate about the Muslim Brotherhood political program, shouldn't that be balanced with an equally strong and well-informed debate about the American bi-partisan program that supports* regimes like this one?

* in a very special sense. For the political context vis-a-vis America, Steve notes I could have linked to this earlier post, called "What America wanted Mubarak to do (but they found him useless)", summarizing an Atwan classic about the senility of a puppet regime.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just knew I'd read this here. All credit to the Badger. You should link to your earlier posts when you see a thread being formed. Then I won't need to search for it:)

http://arablinks.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-america-wanted-mubarak-to-do-but.html

Best

Steve

2:40 PM  
Blogger badger said...

Not a bad point. I added a link to the post. All credit to the authors of both those pieces, Atwan and Darraj. As for the Badger, given how inarticulate he is, it should come as no surprise he is forgetful and sloppy too...

3:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And his desk probably looks something like mine. s

4:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

On a more serious note: these two posts exemplify the reasons why the work you're doing is invaluable. For those willing to look into the crystal ball we can see tomorrow's news today or - more interestingly for those of a certain age - we no longer need to wait 20 years or so for the history lesson. As you said in another comment section, this internet thing works sometimes.

Keep up the good work Badger.

s

4:43 PM  

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