This is mainly for my mother who, suffering as always from the extreme weather in Minnesota, loves seeing what's happening here in the more moderate weather of Connecticut. She has quite enjoyed the pain we've felt this winter. Remember this?
Our poor penguins on the front porch have been buried for more than a month. Not any more.
The car that disappeared sometime in mid-January...
is finally showing its sorry self.
Far more interesting is a blog I just ran across. James Nicoloro, who lives here in Redding, is making a documentary about Mark Twain's last years, including the time he lived in town. The photographs he posts are beautiful and it's interesting to follow the process of research and all else involved in putting together the film. Check it out here.
The gates leading up to Mark Twain's Stormfield property, photographed by James Nicoloro this winter.
At least from the 30-year reign of 'President' Hosni Mubarak. I've had CNN on all morning and it's beyond compelling to watch. Wolf Blitzo [sic] did an interview with Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian Google executive (married to an American) who has played such important role initiating the protests and pushing them for the last barely two weeks. The two best quotes from the interview, already flashing across the world were: "If you want to liberate a country, give them the internet" and, when Blitzer asked Ghonim if other Middle-Eastern countries would follow Egypt down the same road, Ghonim replied (based on my memory), "ask Facebook." The whole interview is here. The quotes are on fire online.
The celebration continues, tweeted by its participants.
The New York Times ran an article a couple of days ago about how a small group of people, including Wael Ghonim, got this whole party started. (Their action plan is here for any Tea Party members reading this.) Most of them lean to the Left but say they want a "Western-style constitutional democracy." The article is interesting. Good quote:
"they also acknowledge deep divides, especially over the role of Islam in public life...On the question of alcohol — forbidden by Islam — he suggested that drinking was a private matter but that perhaps it should be forbidden in public...Asked if he could imagine an Egyptian president who was a Christian woman, he paused. “If it is a government of institutions,” he said, “I don’t care if the president is a monkey.”
The Economist published an article about what course the future of Egypt might and should take: whatever Egyptians believe it should be. It's quite derogatory about the West's attempt to prop up Hosni Mubarak in order to maintain stability in the region. It's interesting. Good quote:
"Egypt’s upheaval may make Westerners nervous, but when Egyptians demand freedom and self-determination, they are affirming values that the West lives by. There is no guarantee that Egypt’s revolution will turn out for the best. The only certainty is that autocracy leads to upheaval, and the best guarantor of stability is democracy.
The Middle-Eastern population is very young:
Middle-Eastern youth learned today that they hold some level of power to direct their own futures, even under oppressive governments. That can't be a bad thing. Let's hope that all the protesters...
will play a part in their future.
It's worth watching this video again. Listen to what the man says (at the 49 second mark) about why he is in Tahrir Square ~ twice. Gives me some hope.
As someone who loved the pictures of purple fingers and who, despite the evidence otherwise, wants to believe that all people have a desire for individual freedom, I am choosing to believe that there is a small possibility the young Egyptians who peacefully demonstrated in the streets are longing for *some autonomy in their lives. (*Some autonomy? Is that similiar to being half pregnant? Some is better than none, though.)
Christian Science Monitor
Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook, young Egyptians have been able to identify like-minded people and recently, bring them out onto the streets in protest against the regime of Hosni Mubarak. The courage they've shown is obviously motivated by a desire for a better future. Is it also possible that some of that courage comes from being exposed, also via the internet, to millions of people who are living every day with freedom and economic opportunity? Or maybe from sitting in a Western institution like Cinnabons in Cairo, eating sweet rolls and fantisizing about a different life?
“Facebook revealed a liberal undercurrent in Egyptian society...In general, there’s this kind of apathy, a sense that there is nothing we can do to change the situation. But with Facebook you realize there are others who think alike and share the same ideals. You can find Islamists there, but it is really dominated by liberal voices.”
While many in the West are worried that the radical Muslim Brotherhood will replace the current regime, there are signs that at least a portion of the protesters are looking for secular values ~ freedom and economic opportunity. The Wall Street Journal ran an eyewitness account of the early days of the protest. He writes:
"Cheers emphasized the unity of Egyptians—Muslims and Christians—against the regime...It made us feel that only our own hands can bring change...The streets are the place to protest...Mr. Mubarak may hang on...But Egypt will never be the same.
Roger L. Simon interviewed the infamous self-named Sandmonkey, long-time, freedom loving Egyptian blogger. The interview is interesting; Sandmonkey's posts about the demonstrations are even better. Including this observation:
"This protest is not one made or sustained by the Muslim Brotherhood, it's one that had people from all social classes and religious background in Egypt...This is a revolution without leaders. Three Million individuals choosing hope instead of fear and braving death on hourly basis to keep their dream of freedom alive. Imagine that."
I do hope Sandmonkey is correct ~ that the Muslim Brotherhood doesn't have the support necessary to form a new government. The ultra-courageous Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes about the Muslim Brotherhood in her compelling book Infidel, following her journey from a childhood directed by strict Islamic law, to joining the Muslim Brotherhood, to (fast forward) living in America working to protect and defend the rights of women against militant Islam. She offers her views on the advantage the Muslim Brotherhood has over secular protesters, and explains what course the secular groups should follow. Scott Atran, writing in the New York Times, believes there is little chance the Brotherhood will gain traction.
It's not our fight though, especially after supporting the tyranical target of the protesters for 30 years. But we can support the secular protesters with words and information. The Atlas Economic Research Foundation and its Global Initiative works around the world (just read Tom Palmer's, in essence, a travel blog) educating and supporting people who embrace individual freedom.
Global Voices offers a forum for communication around the world in multiple languages. While they do not post every blogger who sends them links, according to their manifesto they do believe in free and open speech:
"We believe in free speech: in protecting the right to speak — and the right to listen. We believe in universal access to the tools of speech.
To that end, we seek to enable everyone who wants to speak to have the means to speak — and everyone who wants to hear that speech, the means to listen to it.
Thanks to new tools, speech need no longer be controlled by those who own the means of publishing and distribution, or by governments that would restrict thought and communication. Now, anyone can wield the power of the press. Everyone can tell their stories to the world."
As far as I can tell, Global Voices doesn't seem to have a hidden agenda. Right now the main page features a lot of blogging from Egypt, including this one.
Although I still believe that Western influences as silly as Cinnabon franchises in Cairo play their small part in making the West more familiar and less frightening, it's social media that, as Deborah Wheeler said on C-Span this morning, is the game changer.
Social media (and growing numbers of people joining in) is the protest movement's strongest weapon and, although the Egyptian government shut down the internet for a couple of days, they were forced to put it back up ~ it's the Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism.
This post is a spaghetti bowl of stuff having to do with what is happening in Egypt. This video distills everything down to what is really important, beautifully expressed by the man a minute or so into it.
