“How awesome is that? The guy who’s a radical who hates America is getting tripped up by an Egyptian birth controversy!”
-Jon Stewart, reflecting on the “Mama Amreeka” debate around Islamist candidate Hazem Abu Ismail in Egypt’s first post-Mubarak presidential election.
Ominous, and being passed around.
A march for change in the Egyptian military
For the win, a profile of growing discontent within the ranks of the superstructure that holds the SCAF up in the Mother of the World, by Reuters’ Marwa Awad
Americans were rooting for Egyptian protesters but, at the same time, they were helping to prop up Mubarak by participating in an American system that proudly promotes American hegemony by backing guys like him. The big contradiction in how Americans see our role in the world, obvious for so long to people in Africa and Asia and the Middle East, was finally becoming clear to us.
“Down with military rule!”
The first political scandal of Egypt’s fledgling electoral democracy erupted on Monday after an Islamist lawmaker was expelled from his ultraconservative party for fabricating a story that he was viciously beaten by masked gunmen. Doctors said that in fact the bandages on his face covered up plastic surgery on his nose.
Would you fake your own kidnapping to get a nosejob?
Apparently, this Egyptian MP would. NYT.
The above chart is from a very cool graph made by the Guardian showing major internet cables across the world. This highlights how Egypt, or to be more specific the Suez Canal, is one of the world’s major choke points for data traffic between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. I remember a decade ago talking to Egyptian IT types about the potential for Egypt becoming a major data-caching hub (to make internet access between east and west faster by caching content so that data requests would only have to travel half the distance). Yet to my knowledge there are no major data centers in the canal zone — surely a missed opportunity.
From the Arabist.
How the media in the Middle East works sometimes.
For non-AR speakers: on the left, the crowd has their slogans above them:
Peaceful! (3x)
The people want…
Freedom!
The rebirth of Egypt!
Down with military rule
A true witness!
This is our country!
Policing Reform, Reforming Police
Andrew Exum & J. Dana Stuster explain how/why the US should take its military aid and instead refocus it on the security sector.
Picture of the Day. Cairo, Egypt. A protester uses a protective combination of mask and goggles to shield himself from tear gas during clashes near the interior ministry.
Photo Credit: Muhammed Muheisen/AP. Via.
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SCAF/Police: “All set?”
Thug: “Not yet!”
A revolution without dancing...
is a revolution not worth having.
Great piece in Guernica on hip-hop and the Middle East over the past year:
“I’m going to go get koshary. Anyone want some?”
New York Magazine’s new profile of revolutionary Wael Ghonim.
From Tahrir to New York, apparently!
It’s the one-year anniversary of the Tahrir Square uprising and crowds are back! So is face paint.
