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!

Arabisk revolution: Next stop Libya?

As’ad Abukhalil, også kendt som Angry Arab, videregiver budskabet om 17. februar fra en libysk bekendt:

Also for some background information on why the 17th of Feb. copied from a news group that i belong to: 3. The Feb. 17th date comemmorates the following, so make sure you talk
about it in your tweets.

– In 1987 a group of shabab were executed–their bodies dragged through the
streets of Benghazi and left outside for days–for killing Ahmed Mufda’ Werfelli. Werfelli was one of Gaddafi’s executionners. He was known to smile and laugh when he put nooses around the people’s neck he executed. He was also known for going through the markets, bullying people and gnerally being a jerk. A group of young men followed him and killed him. They were executed for their role. – In 2006 the government called people into the streets, in front of the Italian embassy, to protest the Italian ambassador wearing a t-shirt with the infamous cartoon of the prophet.

When people went to the embassy they began to riot…quickly the security forces turned against the people–beating them, etc. The chants then transformed into chants against the regime and gaddafi himself. 18 people were confirmed dead…more were probably killed, they were all young people with one being 15 years old. And 700 were imprisoned, many of which are still in jail. The protests spread through the region–reaching Tobruk. We are commemorating these brutal attacks on the people. 4. Gaddafi yesterday gathered a bunch of people, activists, bloggers, etc…to tell them, among other things, that if anybody joins these protests that their tribes will be punished. In hopes that the tribes will keep people quiet.

He also said that all of these things were CIA and Mossad conspiracies to tear down Libya. He said that Mubarak wasn’t a rich man…he borrowed his clothes from people. He said a lot of delusional things, but mostly he wanted to scare people and to get the tribes to restrain people. 5. One of the Revolutionary committees (Gaddafi’s vanguard) called people to the streets to protest on 17th…as if Gaddafi was going to join them and demand his rights too. Today they organized a protest in Tripoli in front of the Main building of the People’s committee in Tripoli. They were blaming AlBaghdadi, the secretary of the committee, for everything in Libya….so you can see where this is all going.

Venstre indrømmer de løj for vælgerne i 2001 og frem

Det er et helt uskønt syn at se regeringen rulle sig i pløret for tiden. Det går drastisk ned af bakke, og køen ved håndvasken kan næsten ikke blive længere.

Thor Pedersen, den tidligere finansminister går nu til pressen og udtaler at det ikke var regeringens skyld at økonomien i de sidste 10 år har været en fiasko uden grænser. Næh det var skam demokratiets skyld!

Thor mener at når regeringen i 2001 og fremefter til hvert eneste valg hævdede at skattestoppet var fuldt foreneligt med højere udgifter til krige, privathospitaler, medicinfirmaer og tiltagende bureaukratiske regler, så var det ikke deres fejl. Nej det var demokratiet der tvang dem til at lyve og bedrage!

Jeg formoder det er korrekt observeret at det er demokratiets skyld – for hvis V og K ikke havde bildt vælgerne ovenstående ind, ja så ville de ikke være kommet til magten.

Kære Thor – demokratiet er ikke til for at Venstre kan få ministerbiler – og hvis man lover noget til vælgerne der ikke er holdbart, så er det dem der lover der har ansvaret – ikke demokratiet eller vælgerne.

link til Venstre ved håndvasken

Torture in Egypt – to journalisters øjenvidneberetning

Souad Mekhenet og Nicholas Kulish er to journalister fra New York Times, der blev taget til fange af Mubaraks frygtede hemmelige politi, Mukhabarat.

De led ikke selv nogen overlast under deres fangenskab, men de fik et uhyggeligt indtryk af, hvordan regimet i disse dage slår ned på almindelige mennesker, der vover at udtrykke deres utilfredshed i de store demonstrationer:

Our discomfort paled in comparison to the dull whacks and the screams of pain by Egyptian people that broke the stillness of the night. In one instance, between the cries of suffering, an officer said in Arabic, “You are talking to journalists? You are talking badly about your country?”

Captivity was terrible. We felt powerless — uncertain about where and how long we would be held. But the worst part had nothing to do with our treatment. It was seeing — and in particular hearing through the walls of this dreadful facility — the abuse of Egyptians at the hands of their own government.

For one day, we were trapped in the brutal maze where Egyptians are lost for months or even years. Our detainment threw into haunting relief the abuses of security services, the police, the secret police and the intelligence service, and explained why they were at the forefront of complaints made by the protesters.

The Mukhabarat has had a working relationship with American intelligence, including the C.I.A.’s so-called rendition program of prison transfers. During our questioning, a man nearby was being beaten — the sickening sound somewhere between a thud and a thwack. Between his screams someone yelled in Arabic, “You’re a traitor working with foreigners.”

Egyptian journalists had a freer hand than many in the region’s police states, but the secret police kept a close eye on both journalists and their sources. As the protests became more violent, a campaign of intimidation against journalists and the Egyptians speaking to them became apparent. We appeared to have stumbled into the middle of it.

Ms. Mekhennet asked her interrogator, “Where are we?” The interrogator answered, “You are nowhere.”

Link: 2 Detained Reporters Saw Secret Police’s Methods Firsthand

Som Nicholas D. Kristof, som også er i Cairo for New York Times, udtrykker det: I dag er vi alle ægyptere.