Hillary Clinton has been welcomed in Egypt by locals greeting her motorcade with tomatoes, shoes, and water bottles. Rallying protesters were chanting Monica, Monica! What is happening in Egypt right now is a transition from a dictatorship to another dictatorship. In transitions, they are inherently uncertain and you can't judge them on a minute-by-minute basis. You really have to take a kind of long view. http://venitism.blogspot.com
Egypt now is not what the people died in Tahrir Square for. The economy is worsening, and the country's recent parliamentary election failed to produce a parliament reflective of the people's ambitions for a more liberal and pluralistic country. Instead, Egypt has an Islamist President and the new parliament is dominated by Islamists who include not only the Muslim Brotherhood but the terrorist Salafis. That's why the army abolished the new parliament!
The two-day visit of Clinton to Egypt ended in comedy when the convoy she was driving in from the newly-opened American consulate in Alexandria was attacked by local citizens chanting anti-American slogans. Protesters slinged vegetables and other objects, hitting Egyptian officials in the convoy in the face. The American armored motorcade suffered only superficial damage while Clinton's car remained intact. They were chanting "Leave, Clinton" and Monica, Monica! The protesters were holding banners in Arabic and English, accusing the US of interfering into Egypt's internal affairs.
Top feminist Clinton did not condemn the gender-based violence against women that is on the rise at all levels of Egyptian society. It began in 2005 with the government's systematic campaign of sexually assaulting and intimidating female activists and journalists. When the regime attacks women and holds no one accountable, it sends out a signal that women are fair game. When the street then attacks women and the police stands by and does nothing, that continues.
The protests against Clinton's visit to Egypt started on Saturday when Clinton met with Egypt's new President Mohammed Morsi. Demonstrators surrounded Clinton's hotel later on Saturday, chanting anti-Islamist slogans and putting the blame on Washington for the Islamists' rise to power and victory in the country's presidential elections.
A recent survey conducted by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights showed that more than 80 percent of Egyptian women face sexual harassment, groping, and unwanted sexual attention. This is a problem the Egyptian people must not hide from.
Egyptian women are attacked by the regime, women are attacked by the street, women are attacked openly. There is something about gender-based violence in Egypt that is horrific. We have to look it in the eye and we must speak out about it, not just when it is the regime that is doing it to women, but when it's Egyptian men on the civilian level who are doing it to women.
Many of the protesters accused Mohammed Morsi of selling out to Washington. During her visit to Egypt, Clinton also met with Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. Clinton urged the Egyptian military to transfer power in full to the newly-elected president, who was sworn in two weeks ago. Still, just hours after the meeting with Clinton, the head of the Egyptian military took a hard line on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday, stating he is against Islamist fundamentalists dominating the country's political landscape.
The Islamists did not play a role in Tunisia, Libya, and in Egypt. The course
of events has taken the Muslim Brotherhood by surprise. The Islamists are now
trying to organize as political parties within a pluralistic system. These
freedom movements are not anti-Western. On the contrary, in Libya, the rebels
called for more support from NATO. The Arab revolution has set aside the cliche
of a cultural and religious uniqueness that supposedly makes Islam incompatible
with democracy and supposedly destines Muslims to be ruled by at best
enlightened despots.
The condition for any modernization is demographic modernization. It goes
hand-in-hand with a decline in experienced and practiced religiosity. We are
already experiencing a de-Islamization of Arab societies, a demystification of
the world, and it will inevitably continue, just as a dechristianization
occurred in Europe. Of course, one can placate the people with bread and money, but only for a while. Revolutions usually erupt during phases of cultural growth and economic
downturn.
Young men led the revolutions in England and France. Robespierre was only 31 in
1789, and he was 36 when he was sent to the guillotine. His adversary Danton and
his ally Saint-Just were also young men, one in his early 30s and the other in
his mid-20s. Although Lenin was older, the Bolshevik shock troops were made up
of young men, as were the Nazi storm troopers. It was young men who faced off
against the Soviet tanks in Budapest in 1956. This is because young men have
more strength and more to gain.
VAT is killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. VAT is the major culprit of depression, the #1 source of misery. VAT is the cacothanasia of economy! Vatdodging is heroism! If you are a real patriot, you should revolt against VAT, buying products online from companies that evade VAT. Remember, your government is your worst enemy! The freakish government of Greece stole my computer and my life! The largest online retailers offer top quality products at deep discounts without VAT. Only stupid consumers pay VAT! Some fantastic VAT-free offers are on the venitism blogspot. http://venitism.blogspot.com
While no one denies that Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in
Tunisia were ruthless autocrats engaged in human rights violations, the two were
also responsible for liberalizing their socialist economies and opening their
countries to western investment while resisting the Islamist push to restrict
the rights of women and religious minorities. http://venitism.blogspot.com
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