Month: February 2011

Hykleren Hillary Clinton

Den amerikanske udenrigsminister Hillary Clinton har udsendt en erklæring til støtte for de regeringsfjendtlige og demokrativenlige demonstranter i Iran, skriver the Guardian her til morgen:

Hillary Clinton has sent a message of support for Iranian protesters and accused Iran’s government of “hypocrisy” for praising the protests in Egypt while cracking down on dissent in its own country.

Clinton said Iran’s protesters “deserve to have the same rights that they saw being played out in Egypt and are part of their own birthright,” and that the US government “very clearly and directly support the aspirations of the people who are in the streets” of Tehran.

Æh, den Hillary Clinton, der nu beskylder den iranske regering for hykleri, er hun mon i familie med den Hillary Clinton, der i næsten to uger støttede Mubarak mod demokrati-demonstranterne i Egypten og til det sidste nægtede at opfordre diktatoren til at gå af?

Og hvordan kan det være, at hun så ikke også har udsendt en erklæring til støtte for demonstranterne i Yemen (hvor der nu på femte dag er store protester mod den enevældige præsident) og Bahrain (hvor to fredelige demonstranter allerede er døde)?

Man skal vistnok ikke beskylde andre for hykleri, hvis man selv bor i et hus med visse … lad os bare sige inkonsistenser.

Update: Arabist har også bemærket Clintons lidt svingende omsorg for menneskerettigheder i Mellemøsten.

Egypten som forbillede og inspiration

Tahrir Sq.
Hvis man ikke selv er araber, kan det være svært at forstå, hvad Egypten egentlig betyder for folk i den arabiske verden, skriver Black Iris of Jordan under overskriften “How Egypt Inspired a Generation of Young Arabs“. Opstanden i Egypten, dens fredelige, men bestemte natur og det enestående mod, almindelige mennesker pludselig fandt i sig selv i disse 18 dage, vil altid og uanset, hvordan det hele ender, stå som et forbillede for unge mennesker i andre arabiske lande:

My generation of 20-something year olds grew up in the shadow of our fathers’ heroes, predominantly the architect of Pan Arab nationalism, Egypt’s Nasser. It is still, after all these years, often considered a sin bordering on social suicide to insult the memory of Nasser, whether you live in Jordan or Iraq. And we accepted it for a long time. Because there were no heroes. We have been searching in the darkness for the light switch, for the appearance of a leader. We have even conjured up ancient heroes, romanticizing their very existence. Turning history in to legend. Because we have been waiting and no one has appeared.

We assumed that if one day an uprising emerged, it would be at the hands of a bold leader. Another strongman to replace the ones we didn’t like. Never, in our wildest imaginations, did we think this uprising would come from the people. Never did we believe that Egypt, a country that had most convinced only a few weeks before January 25th, that this was a country destined for doom; a country that would collapse under the rubble of poverty and corruption and become the very metaphor of a crumbling Arab world. And with it, place the final nail in the coffin of Nasser’s dream. Never did we think our generation, a generation we ourselves have often labeled as apathetic and alienated – never did we think this would be the generation to lead the uprising. That it would be a leader-less uprising. A secular and ideological-free revolution. A genuine uprising of the people, for the people.

Never did we imagine it would happen peacefully. Never did we imagine millions and millions gathering around a city center. Never did we imagine them refusing to leave; of finishing a journey that has so often been abandoned. Never did we imagine they would write for us a new history. For this has been the failure of the orientalist view – the failure to recognize the relationship of one Arab to another, and of all Arabs to Egypt. The failure to recognize that what happens in Egypt does not stay in Egypt, and what Egyptians did for themselves, they did for the entire Arab world. Every Arab citizen glued to a television screen these past few weeks has been thinking the same thing. They have felt it under their skin, and deep in their bones.

The Egyptian youth have demonstrated for us possibilities we never imagined unfolding within the confines of our region. They showed strength and resolve where we have grown up knowing nothing but weakness and acquiescence. They showed us peace when we have only experienced war. They showed us civility where we have been taught to pursue chaos. They persisted where we have learned to yield.

We will wait to see what future Egyptians build for themselves, and its subsequent affect on us living outside its borders but close enough to feel the heat of the fire they began. We will wait to see if Egypt’s next chapter will be as sound and as peaceful as the one it has just finished writing. We will wait to see what happens, but whatever happens, this 18-day history is something no one can take away from them, or from us. It has been embedded in our memories, replacing all others.

Læs endelig det hele.

Christine Makhamra skriver på den ligeledes jordanske 7iber om, hvordan den egyptiske ungdom har vist alle arabere, hvad der forekommer at være en styrke og en vej ud af håbløsheden, som de aldrig har kendt før. Hun forestiller sig, hvad den egyptiske kollega mon vil sige til sine kolleger, når han eller hun vender tilbage fra et par ugers ferie i Cairo: “I toppled a tyrant. What did you do?“:

Our generation of Arabs learned to be jaded very early on. We yielded to the fact that we live under dictatorships, where our opinions do not count. We got used to being called disrespectful and apathetic because of the Lady Gaga we listen to and the gel we wear in our hair. We were accustomed to being told to shut up when we wanted to speak out about the injustices that we see everyday in our own countries. Many of us lost the sense of belonging to our countries. The sense of pride we were told that we should have by our history textbooks was just a figment of the author’s imagination. How could the land that gave birth to our parents who keep putting us down whenever we want to speak up, how could it have given birth to the heroes we incessantly hear about?

We got our answer on Friday when the “Facebook Generation” achieved what our parents’ generation never even came close to achieving; what our parents were scared to even imagine. To call what happened on 11 February 2011 a revolution is an outrageous understatement; because to anyone who is familiar with the experience of today’s Arab youth, this is a paradigm shift to say the least. After being witnesses to our parents’ impotence over the years and knowing that looking up to them will bring us no answers, we decided to take matters in our own hands. We knew that what our parents lacked in courage and imagination, we make up for with passion and Facebook applications.  We knew that we did not want our children to one day look at us and wonder why their parents did not stand up for their right; why their parents did not fight for them; why their parents let tyrants get rich while they and their children are left starving. No, our children will now look at their parents with pride. They will know that the heroes they read about in their history textbooks are the same people who read their bedtime stories. They will know that their parents were willing to die just so that their children would not have to. On Friday, our generation has finally tasted what victory feels like. 80 million Salaheddins were born and none of them are pretend-superheroes that you only find in books. Today, we are all Egyptians.

Og eftersom omverdenen og især USA brugte stort set samtlige 18 dage på at fumle og lede efter sine egne ben i hele affæren, er det egyptiske gennembrud absolut ikke noget, egypterne skylder nogen. Man kunne have ønsket for den vestlige verdens egen skyld, at den havde kendt sin besøgstid, men for egypterne og araberne er det næsten bedre på den måde. Hvad de end har opnået, har de opnået selv. Men igen, læs endelig det hele.

Egypt rally, London 12.2.2011

Demonstration til støtte for oprøret i Egypten i hjertet af London. I videoens ledsagetekst læser vi:

Amnesty International’s rally in solidarity with the people of Egypt and the wider Middle East & North Africa. Was mostly a celebration of the fall of Mubarak which happened the day before. 45 other cities across the world had the same rally.

Desværre (eller selvfølgelig, kunne man næsten sige) ikke min hjemby Århus. Blandt talerne ser man Waseem Wagdi,
som vi tidligere (1. februar, faktisk) har set græde af lykke over, at folk i hans hjemland endelig havde fået nok af militærstyrets undertrykkelse og despoti.

Egypten – diktatoren faldt, men kampen er først begyndt

Den egyptiske hær har nu opløst parlamentet, meddelt, at der vil være valg til september og lægger nu op til at forbyde strejker, som 3arabawy skriver:

From Reuters…

Egypt’s new military rulers will issue a warning on Sunday against anyone who creates “chaos and disorder”, an army source said.
The Higher Military Council will also ban meetings by labour unions or professional syndicates, effectively forbidding strikes, and tell all Egyptians to get back to work after the unrest that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Remember, when the army took over in 1952, first thing they did was executing two strike leaders at Kafr el-Dawwar textile mill.

Militæret siger, at de vil give borgerne deres rettigheder tilbage og afholde valg, og det er svært at se, at de har andet valg – uden at gribe til vold i en skala, som selv Mubarak var ude af stand til at ty til. Men militæret har de sidste 60 år været mere eller mindre identisk med regimet. Det er svært at se deres halve års overgangsperiode som andet end en lejlighed til at bage store mængder af rævekager, der skal bevare deres egne og Mubarak-regimets velhavende klienters privilegier.

Ifølge førciterede Hossam el-Hawalawys twitterstrøm foregår der netop nu et intenst arbejde med at danne fagforeninger og organisere strejker, så revolutionen ikke bare bliver overtaget af militæret, men bliver fastholdt og kommer almindelige mennesker til gode:

we bloody need free labor unions to keep those strikes going and coordinate #egyworkers

Oil #egyworkers on strike – LIVE at http://bambuser.com/v/1412290

The militancy is impressive. The strikers attacked ministry officials for still putting up Mubarak’s photos on the wall.

Spoke with the oil strikers, put them in touch with labor lawyers to start forming free union.

Also more divers I’m in touch with r joining initiative for a free union of Egyptian divers, in Marsa Alam, Hurghada, Sharm and Alexandria.

Everyone should start forming unions & labor associations now. If we don’t build those now, we’ll be fucked by the regime soon.

Don’t trust the Generals! Don’t trust the Generals! Keep building your trade unions. That is the only thing that can protect our revolution.

Omar Suleimans og Mubaraks konstante forhandlen på skrømt, mens deres halve eller potentielle indrømmelser blev fulgt op af intense forsøg på at lade det hemmelige politi slå ned på demonstranterne med vold, kidnapninger og tortur, giver i hvert fald ikke i sig selv nogen grund til at stole på militærets velvilje – med mindre aktivisterne og folk nede på jorden bliver ved med at holde dem godt og grundigt i ørerne.

Og de vestlige regeringer? Vel, de står sikkert allerede på spring for at bestikke de spirende politiske partier med støtte for at sikre en “fornuftig” (læs: Mubarak-lignende) politik i fremtiden. Men de skal måske ikke forvente sig for meget af egypterne, især ikke taknemmelighed.

Wael Ghonim udtrykte det meget klart i én af sine mange tweets:

Dear Western Governments, You’ve been silent for 30 years supporting the regime that was oppressing us. Please don’t get involved now.

Here’s hoping they won’t.

Egypten – en psykologisk revolution

Noget af det mest afgørende, der er sket i Egypten i løbet af de sidste 18-20 dage, er det rent psykologiske: Da det blev klart, at regimet faktisk ikke kunne forhindre de store demonstrationer, trods hårde kampe og en usædvanligt brutal indsats fra det frygtede uropoliti og siden fra regimets betalte bøller, glemte folk ganske enkelt at være bange.

I stedet er de nu vågnet op til et land, som er deres eget, og som de selv må tage ansvaret for, som Al Jazeeras Evan Hill skriver fra Cairo:

In 18 days, revolution uprooted a regime that had ruled the country with ruthless tenacity for 30 years.While the upheaval has opened the door to political and economic reform, its most lasting effect may be the opening of the Egyptian mind.

With the army on the streets and the old order in flames, the wall of cynical humour and pessimism erected by Egyptians as psychic protection against the crushing weight of their corrupt government seemed to split apart and crumble.

Suddenly, anything was possible.

As dawn broke, all-volunteer teams of street sweepers wearing rubber gloves and cotton masks struck out along Cairo’s decrepit boulevards, sweeping dust and debris into trash bags.

Where once it was commonplace to see Cairenes chuck wrappers and used food cartons with abandon, it was now impossible to drop a cigarette butt without a stern reprimand.

In and around Tahrir Square, civilians painted over and scrubbed away anti-government graffiti that peppered every surface, from the walls of the old campus of the American University in Cairo to the armour of parked tanks.

In Abdel Moneim Riad Square, near the Egyptian museum, where pro- and anti-government crowds had hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at each other in deadly combat on February 2, men and women now formed human chains to prevent passersby from smudging the curbs they had just painted in thick black-and-white stripes.

But the effort goes beyond rubbish pick-ups and street sweeping.

What is being suggested in Cairo now is nothing short of a mental house-clearing – a complete overhaul in the way the average Egyptian has learned to do business in a society that has been smothered beneath nepotism and emergency law for decades.

One flyer being distributed on Saturday put it this way:

“Today this country is your country. Do not litter. Don’t drive through traffic lights. Don’t bribe. Don’t forge paperwork. Don’t drive the wrong way. Don’t drive quickly to be cool while putting lives at risk. Don’t enter through the exit door at the metro. Don’t harass women. Don’t say, ‘It’s not my problem.’ Consider God in your work. We have no excuse anymore.”

Link: Egyptian minds are opened

Neil Gaiman forklarer, hvorfor piratkopiering er godt

Gaimans oplevelse er, at jo mere hans bøger er til rådighed som gratis downloads på nettet, jo flere sælger han. Mange mennesker opdager deres yndlingsforfattere på biblioteket – eller på nettet, og derfor mister en forfatter ikke noget ved at få sine bøger lagt på nettet – snarere tværtimod, om man skal tro Gaiman.

Song to the people of Egypt

The following verses were written by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 in the hope of inciting a peaceful revolution which would bring down the tyranny of the King and the rich, land-owning nobility.

This poem aptly describes what Shelley was hoping for in England, which is almost exactly what has happened in Egypt right now. For England, substitute Egypt. What England never could, Egypt did.

This Egyptian revolution brought down the dictator, but it must also be the end of Orientalism and the stupid European notion of the Arab world as “other”. Our culture and beliefs may not be the same, but our hearts and dreams and hopes and aspirations are the same. Our leaders may be enemies, but those who suffer will eventually think the same. Who is to say we are not brothers and friends?

SONG TO THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT (From: The Mask of Anarchy, by P.B. Shelley)

‘Ye who suffer woes untold,
Or to feel, or to behold
Your lost country bought and sold
With a price of blood and gold–

‘Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free–

‘Be your strong and simple words
Keen to wound as sharpened swords,
And wide as targes let them be,
With their shade to cover ye.

‘Let the tyrants pour around
With a quick and startling sound,
Like the loosening of a sea,
Troops of armed emblazonry.

‘Let the charged artillery drive
Till the dead air seems alive
With the clash of clanging wheels,
And the tramp of horses’ heels.

‘Let the fixed bayonet
Gleam with sharp desire to wet
Its bright point in English blood
Looking keen as one for food.

Let the horsemen’s scimitars
Wheel and flash, like sphereless stars
Thirsting to eclipse their burning
In a sea of death and mourning.

‘Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war,

‘And let Panic, who outspeeds
The career of armed steeds
Pass, a disregarded shade
Through your phalanx undismayed.

‘Let the laws of your own land,
Good or ill, between ye stand
Hand to hand, and foot to foot,
Arbiters of the dispute,

‘The old laws of England–they
Whose reverend heads with age are gray,
Children of a wiser day;
And whose solemn voice must be
Thine own echo–Liberty!

On those who first should violate
Such sacred heralds in their state
Rest the blood that must ensue,
And it will not rest on you.

‘And if then the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,–
What they like, that let them do.

‘With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.

Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek.

‘Every woman in the land
Will point at them as they stand–
They will hardly dare to greet
Their acquaintance in the street.

‘And the bold, true warriors
Who have hugged Danger in wars
Will turn to those who would be free,
Ashamed of such base company.

‘And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.

‘And these words shall then become
Like Oppression’s thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again–again–again–

‘Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number–
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you–
Ye are many–they are few.’

Den egyptiske revolution bør skræmme Vestens regeringer

John Pilger skriver noget, jeg har tænkt i nogle uger nu: Revolutionerne i Tunesien og Egypten giver en solid dosis “anti-orientalisme”.

I stedet for at vise os de arabiske befolkninger som fundamentalt anderledes, som “den anden” i forhold til os her i vesten, viser billederne fra gaderne i Cairo og Alexandria os noget, vi umiddelbart genkender: Mennesker som os selv. Det er blandt andet derfor, de højreorienterede spindoktorer har så travlt med at forsikre, at det ikke vil lykkes og islam vil overtage. De ser et verdenssyn baseret på orientalisme og racisme smuldre, når egypterne træder frem på vore TV-skærme som medmennesker med motiver, der til forveksling ligner vore egne, og de frygter for deres egen fremtid.

Og i den forstand kæmper de unge på Tahrir-pladsen også for vores frihed, som Pilger skriver:

The uprising in Egypt has discredited every western media stereotype about the Arabs. The courage, determination, eloquence and grace of those in Liberation Square contrast with “our” specious fear-mongering, with its al-Qaeda and Iran bogeys and iron-clad assumptions of the “moral leadership of the west”. It is not surprising that the recent source of truth about the imperial abuse of the Middle East, WikiLeaks, is itself subjected to craven and petty abuse in those self-congratulating newspapers that set the limits of elite liberal debate on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps they are worried. Public awareness is rising and bypassing them.

In Washington and London, the regimes are fragile and barely democratic. Having long burned down societies abroad, they are now doing something similar at home, with lies and without a mandate. To their victims, the resistance in Liberation Square must seem an inspiration. “We won’t stop,” said a young Egyptian woman on TV. “We won’t go home.” Try kettling a million people in the centre of London, bent on civil disobedience, and try imagining it could not happen.

Når oprøret har sejret i Egypten (siger jeg med krydsede fingre) kommer tiden måske og forhåbentlig til London, Paris og København. Lad magthaverne frygte. Og læs endelig det hele!