The Chinese had a saying May you live in interesting times. However, they didn't mean this to be as a blessing but rather a curse.
Certainly this gives us some insight into their cultural preferences-throughout most of their history, change particularly social change has not been seen as a good thing so they wished it on their enemies.
Egypt is a country and from a region-the Middle East-which has often been very opposed to change as well. Suddenly, it swept up like a an unexpected monsoon with the advent of the Arab Spring-in such a conservative part of the world we had our first Facebook Revolution.
Yet as amazing and inspiring as those events were, certainly the success of the country in throwing off the long rule of Mubarak's dictatorship, the events of the last week are really much more shocking. It's nothing new that sometimes today's rebels become tomorrow's dictators-for any doubt one only need to look at the Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad.
Yet in Egypt we have seen the country turn again it's new democratically elected President, Morisi in just a year.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/07/morisi-is-gone-democracy-egyptian-style.html
The people of Egypt came out to protest and oppose him in even larger numbers than they did Mubarak. He has now been forced out by the Egyptian military-which seems to be the real power broker, no matter what.
Now there's even more. The Muslim Brotherhood has been protesting the coup which they argue- persuasively-was undemocratic. Of course, it was their excesses the last year that so vexed the people into demanding this coup.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/muslim-brotherhood-leader-morsi-is-the-only-president.php?ref=fpb
I left this link partly because it's got some good information about the MB's reactions over the weekend. Partly though, just because the photography in that post is worth a thousand words. Of course, for Muslims the biggest insult you can pay someone is to brandish shoes and hold them up to them-presumably because the shoe is literally under your foot as you trod upon the dirty ground. That picture is amazing of the protester raising the two shoes above his head. It's as if the higher the shoes are raised the bigger the insult. It reminds one of Zizek's point that a war is first and foremost a war of fantasies.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Plague-Fantasies-Essential-Zizek/dp/1844673030
The latest news is again shocking. Muslims have urged defiance in response to the coup and now at least 50 pro Morisi supporters are dead.
"More than 50 supporters of Egypt’s ousted president were killed by security forces Monday in one of the deadliest single episodes of violence in more than 2 ½ years of turmoil. The toppled leader’s Muslim Brotherhood called for an uprising, accusing troops of gunning down protesters, while the military blamed armed Islamists for provoking its forces."
Certainly this gives us some insight into their cultural preferences-throughout most of their history, change particularly social change has not been seen as a good thing so they wished it on their enemies.
Egypt is a country and from a region-the Middle East-which has often been very opposed to change as well. Suddenly, it swept up like a an unexpected monsoon with the advent of the Arab Spring-in such a conservative part of the world we had our first Facebook Revolution.
Yet as amazing and inspiring as those events were, certainly the success of the country in throwing off the long rule of Mubarak's dictatorship, the events of the last week are really much more shocking. It's nothing new that sometimes today's rebels become tomorrow's dictators-for any doubt one only need to look at the Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad.
Yet in Egypt we have seen the country turn again it's new democratically elected President, Morisi in just a year.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/07/morisi-is-gone-democracy-egyptian-style.html
The people of Egypt came out to protest and oppose him in even larger numbers than they did Mubarak. He has now been forced out by the Egyptian military-which seems to be the real power broker, no matter what.
Now there's even more. The Muslim Brotherhood has been protesting the coup which they argue- persuasively-was undemocratic. Of course, it was their excesses the last year that so vexed the people into demanding this coup.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/muslim-brotherhood-leader-morsi-is-the-only-president.php?ref=fpb
I left this link partly because it's got some good information about the MB's reactions over the weekend. Partly though, just because the photography in that post is worth a thousand words. Of course, for Muslims the biggest insult you can pay someone is to brandish shoes and hold them up to them-presumably because the shoe is literally under your foot as you trod upon the dirty ground. That picture is amazing of the protester raising the two shoes above his head. It's as if the higher the shoes are raised the bigger the insult. It reminds one of Zizek's point that a war is first and foremost a war of fantasies.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Plague-Fantasies-Essential-Zizek/dp/1844673030
The latest news is again shocking. Muslims have urged defiance in response to the coup and now at least 50 pro Morisi supporters are dead.
"More than 50 supporters of Egypt’s ousted president were killed by security forces Monday in one of the deadliest single episodes of violence in more than 2 ½ years of turmoil. The toppled leader’s Muslim Brotherhood called for an uprising, accusing troops of gunning down protesters, while the military blamed armed Islamists for provoking its forces."
"The early morning carnage at a sit-in by Islamists outside the Republican Guard headquarters, where ousted President Mohammed Morsi was first held last week, further entrenched the battle lines between the ousted president supporters and his opponents. The uproar weakened the political coalition that backed the military’s removal of the country’s first freely elected leader."
What we are seeing is that it's getting harder and harder to figure who the 'good guys' are. I'd say broadly the Egyptian people just want true democracy. However, it's getting very messy.
"Both the military and the Brotherhood appeared determined not to back down in the confrontation. The Brotherhood accuses the military of carrying out a coup against democracy, while their opponents say Morsi squandered his 2012 election victory and leading the country into a Brotherhood monopoly on power."
"Immediately, both sides presented their versions of what happened at the protest site, where around 1,000 Morsi supporters had been camped out for days in the streets around a Mosque near the Republican Guard Headquarters. After the violence began around dawn, the two sides battled it out for around three hours."
"Protesters and the Brotherhood said it began when troops descended on them and opened fire unprovoked as they finished dawn prayers."
“I was in the last row praying. They were firing from the left and right,” said Nashat Mohammed, who had come from southern Egypt to join the sit-in and was wounded in the knee in the mayhem. “We said, ‘Stop, we’re your brothers. They shot at us from every direction.”
"Spokesmen for the military and police, however, gave a nationally televised news conference saying gunmen among the protesters sparked the battle."
"Army Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said police and troops guarding the Republican Guard complex came under “heavy gunfire” at around 4 a.m. and attackers on rooftops opened fire with guns and molotov cocktails. A soldier and two policemen were killed, and 42 in the security forces were wounded, eight critically, he said."
"While he said troops had a right to defend the facility, however, Ali did not directly explain how the protester deaths occurred. He expressed condolences but offered no apologies for the deaths."
If nothing else this shows the folly again of Bush' nation building in Iraq. In that case we tried to import democracy. What we're seeing in Egypt is that even when it's the people's choice it can be a very tough road.
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