'The Invisible Arab'
More hereThe following is the first of a series of excerpts that Al Jazeera will be publishing from The Invisible Arab: The promise and peril of the Arab revolutions by Marwan Bishara.
In much of the world's media, the narrative goes like this: An oppressed people who have suffered passively suddenly decide that enough is enough and, thanks to Western technology and inspiration, spontaneously rise up to reclaim their freedom, inspiring what is called the Arab Spring.
Like most revolutions, however, this one was a long time coming. The historic takeover of Tunis's November 7 Square, Cairo's Tahrir Square, and Manama's Pearl Square, among others, were the culmination of a long social and political struggle - countless sit-ins, strikes, pickets, and demonstrations by people who risked and suffered intimidation, torture, and imprisonment.
What started as a desperate act of self-immolation by Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor, soon became a viral event on the internet, one that led angry Tunisians to pour into the streets by the thousands. Demonstrations turned into national upheaval and culminated in a full-fledged revolution that toppled the Tunisian dictatorship and spread east to other countries to kindle the greatest Arab transformation in memory. Never had the region witnessed such collective vigour and yearning for change.
Read more of our Tunisia coverage Within a few weeks, millions of Arabs filled their streets and squares, giving new meaning to Mark Twain's claim that there's power in numbers. The silent majority finally spoke, breaking the psychological barrier of fear erected by regimes through decades of oppression, and discovering in record time that, as the fairy tale foretold, the emperor had no clothes.
Obama's Egypt Policy Was a Failure?
Although domestic policy results are a mix of Congress and the President, the results of foreign policy is almost inevitably the result of purely the President. So trying to blame Bush or the Republicans for the results of any major new policy decisions is useless- these results and actions can be laid directly at the feet of the President of the United States and Democratic nominee for 2012, Barack Hussein Obama.
Via Legal Insurrection's post We know who lost Egypt:
Obama’s foolish policy of forcing Mubarak out of office precipitously without giving non-Islamist parties time to organize has resulted in Islamists achieving a sweeping victory in the first round of parliamentary elections. Strength by the Muslim Brotherhood was expected, but the extremely hard line Salafists had a very strong showing.This post echo's my own thoughts on this issue- see my posts The Rising Threat of Fascism: Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Other States or Evidence is Pretty One Sided Against Obama's Foriegn Policy, Don't You Think?.
As reported by The NY Times:Islamists claimed a decisive victory on Wednesday as early election results put them on track to win a dominant majority in Egypt’s first Parliament since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, the most significant step yet in the religious movement’s rise since the start of the Arab Spring.The Times article points out that this first round of elections was in the most liberal areas of Egypt. As voting moves to more conservative rural areas, the Islamists likely will gain an even more overwhelming majority.
The party formed by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s mainstream Islamist group, appeared to have taken about 40 percent of the vote, as expected. But a big surprise was the strong showing of ultraconservative Islamists, called Salafis, many of whom see most popular entertainment as sinful and reject women’s participation in voting or public life.
Analysts in the state-run news media said early returns indicated that Salafi groups could take as much as a quarter of the vote, giving the two groups of Islamists combined control of nearly 65 percent of the parliamentary seats.
That victory came at the expense of the liberal parties and youth activists who set off the revolution, affirming their fears that they would be unable to compete with Islamists who emerged from the Mubarak years organized and with an established following. Poorly organized and internally divided, the liberal parties could not compete with Islamists disciplined by decades as the sole opposition to Mr. Mubarak. “We were washed out,” said Shady el-Ghazaly Harb, one of the most politically active of the group.
This all was very predictable. In fact, I predicted it while Obama was insisting that Mubarak leave ”yesterday,” NY Times columnists were writing delusional columns about the Arab Street and the Arab Spring, and venomous anti-Israeli pundits at Media Matters and elsewhere complained that the “Israel Lobby” was trying to stifle freedom.
On Feburary 20 I wrote The Yuppie Revolution In Egypt Is Over, The Islamist Revolution Has Begun. I wish I had been wrong.
The liberated women of Egypt will be the first to suffer. The Times notes:The Brotherhood has pledged to respect basic individual freedoms while using the influence of the state to nudge the culture in a more traditional direction. But the Salafis often talk openly of laws mandating a shift to Islamic banking, restricting the sale of alcohol, providing special curriculums for boys and girls in public schools, and censoring the content of the arts and entertainment.Obama lost Egypt, and he had plenty of help.
V, Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Hitler, and Lenin- Birds of the Same Feather?
For many years, many of my students and several of my fellow teachers have been telling me that I have to see the movie V for Vendetta, because I would really like it. They assured me that this movie would be the movie for our generation, a movie that spoke to us and informed us and gave us a hero to cheer for. Students and several fellow teachers see V as a hero and saw him as the good guy of that movie. But they are wrong, horribly wrong, and their celebration of V as a hero will lead them and our nation into destruction.
V is a nonhuman, godlike figure who mentally abuses and rapes women. He hides his face from others, relies on wealth taken from others to live a life of luxury, produces no goods or products or services, and prefers to kill his victims using knives rather than guns simply because he is sadistic in nature. His vision of the world is one that involves blowing up authority and replacing it with an even more sinister and brutal authority, mixing anarchy and dictatorship to achieve his goals.
He does not submit to a candid world his ideals and ideas for their consideration, arguing in favor of natural rights of men and the goodness of mankind- rather, he tells people what he is going to do, imposing his will on the situation, and does so because he views all of man as fallen and wrong.
The same people that rave about V being a hero are the same people who look to the Arab Spring for inspiration and guidance, as if small groups of very active people overthrowing a dictator to replace that dictator with an army-led government influenced by fanatical terrorists is really an instructive example of any sort. Libya will be run by just the other tribe and will be as vindictive and tyrannical as before, Egypt has empowered the Muslim Brotherhood and the Army and is burning churches and attacking civilians from other nations, and Tunisia continues to tumble through anarchy- and that is what many students and teachers want for America.
Heroes are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and Ronald Reagan- these people, whether you agreed with their policies or not, they fought and defeated evil enemies in the open, being human, and resting the strength of their victory on the power of the individual. Our Founding Fathers were heroes- they wore uniforms and fought and defeated a superior enemy on the basis of their superiority in principles and beliefs and ideals- they did not remove their dog tags and hide behind masks and rape women in the streets in their fight for 'freedom.'
Nor did our Founding Fathers or any of the great heroes of our nation dress up like zombies or glorify those who do- the same people who glorify the Arab Spring and V for Vendetta now pretend that the Occupy Wall Street Movement is some sort of noble enterprise, and not just a delusional carnival of antisemitic rich who wish to smash one group (Wall Street) only to put in place a more horrifying and inhuman system (an all powerful government that will take people's wealth and property and control their actions in the name of 'fairness' or 'the environment').
V, Occupy Wall Street, and the Arab Spring- they may all sound appealing, but so did Lenin and Communism and Hitler and Fascism when they first came about, and we all know exactly how those enterprises turned out. I have nothing but scorn and pity for those who support or like these groups- they have valid concerns and valid criticisms of the system they find themselves in, but they have decided to support the wrong side and history will judge them as doing so.
How Africa Lost Libya
The revolution has moved Libya into the democratic wave of the Arab spring. There will be continued interactions between Libya and Africa; but culturally, ideologically and financially, Libya has moved towards a greater identification with its north African, Middle Eastern and south Mediterranean neighbours. Libya is embracing its Arab heritage.More here
In a way this should be no surprise: Gaddafi's embrace of pan-Africanism, while popular south of the Sahara, had little backing from Libyans. But the question of support for Libya's revolution has divided sub-Saharan Africa....The momentous changes of the Arab spring herald the emergence of a new African dynamic. Pan-Africanist ideals of solidarity and African empowerment continue to resonate; but we may also be moving towards a "post-Africanism" – an Africa which sees itself as part of an interlinked global community. In some ways, we are moving towards an Africa without borders – a globalised Africa. Thus Africa should not wallow in Afro-pessimism about "losing Libya". We never "had" Libya. The new Libya, warts and all, is an opportunity for Africa, not a threat to be punished. Africa should engage with the new Libya and, in so doing, with itself.
Streetbook- Hacking the Arab Spring.
More here...something deeper and more universal has been achieved: voice. New ties are being made both virtually and on the street. Social and mainstream media have connected people to each other and to the world. The youth of an entire region are speaking out with whatever tools they have, from social media to feet on the ground. The buds of the Arab Spring are young and still in need of nurturing, but George Washington's observation may still hold true: "Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth."
Demonstrators in Tunis, Tunisia, on January 20, 2011 courtesy of Tech Review
African Summer?
The sudden pace at which revolutionary fires swept across North Africa took the world by surprise: It was a hopeful Arab Spring for many. The rest of the continent, however, appears to be experiencing a long African Summer characterized by incremental democratic change and slow but steady economic growth.True, there have been protests in a few African countries since the onset of the so-called Arab Spring, but the results have been mixed. Recent protests in Malawi and Senegal have been portrayed as signs that revolution might be catching on, but similar attempts in Zimbabwe were quickly suppressed and the country appears to have returned to its unsteady and oppressive state...[continue reading]
Women of the Arab Spring
Bombastic Elements highlights a documentary about:
4 Egyptian women - a student, a cancer researcher, an art curator and a journalist advocate - in the trenches of the revolution
Four Women, One Revolution from Granta magazine on Vimeo.
Driving Scientific Progress and Innovation with a Free Press
The ongoing “Arab Spring”–courageously propelled by youth and individuals determined to have their voices heard and their human rights respected–is writing a new chapter in the region’s storied history. Recent changes pose many challenges but also an opportunity to reclaim the Golden Age of Arab and Islamic science, which took place from the 7th to the 13th century.On the need for press independence:
Freedom of the press inevitably helps drive scientific progress, which in turn propels innovation and economic prosperity. Moreover, science and the accurate communication of science go hand-in-hand: Good journalism, like good science, thrives on openness and a respect for truth based on evidence.Continuing:
Arab investment in science and technology cannot fully benefit society without the work of editorially independent science journalists. As many Arab nations emerge with new vigor and focus, they will benefit from building a well-functioning science and technology community that can contribute to innovation and economic growth as well as science-based challenges in sustainability and the environment.
Contextualizing protests in Northern Nigeria
More here...the targets of the uprising are the so-called leaders in the North – the political, military and business elite as well the traditional institutions that have held the region back and truncated any attempt to educate the people and free them from the yolk of illiteracy and poverty. In the same manner that sit tight rulers in North Africa and the Middle East are being toppled by popular movements in the Arab Spring uprisings, the protests in northern Nigeria can be viewed as rebellion against a backward and anachronistic feudal system. Karshen Zalunci (End of Oppression) might be an apt description...For those seeking to understand the outbreaks of violence, there is another north. There is a north that has nothing to do with the usurpation of political and economic opportunities to the exclusion of other Nigerians. There is a north that is poor, hungry, illiterate and devoid of hope. There is a north that is as much a victim as the south of the corruption and arrogance of these narrow clique of northerners that is often presented as representing the entire region.
Swaziland's Monarchy faces Rising Unrest
Mswati’s authority is challenged by a number of popular democratic movements. The most powerful of these is the People’s Democratic Movement, which is banned as a partisan political group. In 2008 Sipho Jele, a PDM member was arrested for wearing a t-shirt with the party’s slogan on it, and later died in custody. His funeral was disrupted by armed police. Meanwhile protests are stepping up, partially inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings to the north. A fall in cross border trade with South Arica, upon which the economy is heavily dependant, has caused the implementation of unpopular austerity measures, including the suspension of state pensions, unfortunately coinciding with the announcement of lavish plans to celebrate the royal jubilee. The biggest march in several years was held in March of this year, with public servants protesting against a pay freeze. Protestors demand the resignation of Prime Minister Subusiso Dlamini, and an end to the extravagance of Mswati and his family.
More here
