Thinking Egypt

Two scenes from the Mubarak's fall caught my eye.

In Tahrir Square on Saturday, a group calling itself the Association of the Artists of the Revolution had taken over the boarded-up storefront of a condemned Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. They plastered the facade with dozens of hand-drawn cartoon posters, all of them mocking Mubarak and many depicting him with bundles of ill-gotten loot.

[...]


Perhaps the biggest activity in the plaza on Saturday was directed by the revolutionaries' Sanitation Coordination Committee. Small armies of volunteers, armed with brooms and dustpans, fanned out across Tahrir as they attacked refuse with a vengeance and swept away the past.

Not only was I pleased to see artists using their talent to support the protests but I am amused that they found a "condemned Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise" as a locus for their efforts. That is perhaps the best use for a KFC (the new corporate name) building I can think of.

And there is even a Sanitation Coordination Committee. Responsible revolutionaries acting in a cooperative mode, sweeping away the past. It's almost a Woodstock moment. But that moment did not last. This moment in Egypt may be equally ephemeral.

Egyptians forced their government to jettison its leader but the country's military-economic elite will be far less willing to risk its privilege. That will require a real revolution. Making that revolution with out tearing the country apart will be the difficult challenge for Egypt's people in the coming days and weeks.

For the moment, though, I've got to shout for joy. Way to fucking go, y'all! So many have made revolutions and so many have failed. I hope you succeed.

post script

No one can predict how events will transpire in Egypt but understanding the dynamics and possibilities offers clues to the future. Juan Cole presents some of the most informed analysis of Middle East so his observations on events in Egypt are well worth reading.

Delusions of a Dictator, Dreams of the People

Mohamed Al Baradei has it right. From the BBC:

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei took issue with the president's remarks, saying: "We as a people are fed up as well, it is not only him.

"The idea that there would be chaos is symptomatic of a dictatorship. He thinks if he leaves power the whole country will fall apart."

However high his opinion of himself may be, Mubarak is not indispensable. Egypt has a number of strong national institutions, such as the army and the state bureaucracies that can add a certain level of stability to post-Mubarak Egypt. Two national leaders are willing to work toward a transitional government. The Muslim Brotherhood supports a consensus secular government. Add in the hopes of the masses and the possibility for genuine change is real, if not always certain.

The only people who can make that change are the Egyptians themselves. What they are saying is, "Hosni,it is time to go."

After 30 years Mubarak cannot imagine an Egypt without him but millions of Egyptians are doing just that.

Repression and Some Good Reporting

Anthony Shadid writes of political freedom and repression in Egypt with words that sound depressingly like CheneyBush's America:

The state has launched its most serious crackdown in a decade on the Muslim Brotherhood, arresting hundreds, sending 40 of its members to military courts, with no right of appeal, and freezing the assets of wealthy patrons. In Alexandria, the government sentenced a blogger, Abdel-Karim Nabil Suleiman, to four years in prison for, among other things, defaming the president.

For my money, Anthony Shadid is the best correspondent and writer reporting on the Middle East. He has the knowledge and language skills to understand all levels of that culture. He describes the feel of people's lives, thier hopes and fears in what is for most Americans, an alien world. The article on Egyptian repression is filled with observations from the people involved.

Any relationship with any foreign power, but especially the Americans, is the kiss of death," he said. "We don't need this kiss."

[...]

"The Arab spring is happening because of Bush's policies," Alaa Seif, a young blogger, said at the time, a cup of coffee next to his computer. "But it's not the way they think about it. It's the other way around. They did mobilize people, and they still are."

[...]

"On first class, they're not looking for suspects."

Shadid's book, Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War, is a highly informative, very readable account of Iraq in the first year of the occupation, a time when there was still hope but also much trepidation.