Had the military in all its might been out there to punish or kill, the death toll would have been in the hundreds of thousands, period!

That is really all anyone needs to understand.

After weeks of pleading with the Morsi’s supporters to call it a day and join in as a possible element of the proposed solution to prevent a repeat of Syria ever taking place in Egypt, it all fell on deaf ears.

Egyptian writer Naima Nas had caught me in a stupid lie this morning on Facebook: a buddy in New Zealand had posted on the site a photograph of a half naked man being dragged through the streets with his ankles tied and hitched behind a motorbike in some godforsaken middle eastern context.  Someone had drawn with a red pen a circle around the motorbike rider’s face and assigned the image to counterrevolutionary barbarism during the Second Egyptian Revolution, that which brought down President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood regime.

The message implicit in the promotion of the picture: the biker was the kind of bad dude apprehended by the Egyptian military and placed on the receiving end of recent mass death penalty decisions summarily doled out by Egyptian courts.

One problem: the photograph appears to have originated with an Hamas-oriented biker gang in relation to the execution of half a dozen persons suspected of spying for Israel (to see the series, web search “man dragged by motorbike, Gaza”).

I apologized for my too rapid “view-like-share” routine on Facebook that inadvertently promoted propaganda.

Apology accepted.

Here in the new neojournalism of the blogosphere, both informal pass-along and more considered analysis rely on mediated data — not what the writer-blogger-tweeter saw happen in the street, but what he saw of a recording of what happened in the street.

The difference between “being there” and almost being there through media is immense.

With observations like that in mind, I offered Ms. Nas, an Egyptian writing today from the United Kingdom, space on BackChannels.  She knows her homeland, and while she may travel from it at times, it remains where she lives.

The latest a few hours ago dated from August 17 last year, so I suggested an update on the revolution to repair the revolution.  The rapidly supplied response follows (edited heavily for look, lightly for voice, and otherwise left alone), and I’ve included an excerpt from the August piece as well.

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So What is Going on Now in Egypt?

by

Naima Nas

May 2, 2014

 

______

 

The disagreement between Egyptians as pro coup and anti coup intensifies.

It was not a coup but anyway! The human right activists despair. The number of suspects guilty or otherwise increases. The world leaders sway between support and condemnation. Etc, etc etc!

The only common denominator in all this, are the Egyptians whose lives are getting worse than terrible: the poor street vendors who just want to get through the day with enough to feed their children; the parents who are terrified to send their children to school in areas that have turned into a circus; the old pensioners who can’t afford to be knocked down in a crowd; and the women who are scared silly of being any where near a crowd.

I won’t bore you with what the reality of living in Egypt through hard times means and I will be very brief.

Yes, the intervention of the military in July was not an approved democratic procedure.

Yes, mature and real democracies have a process in place as an alternative to a strong group taking control. No, that was not an option in Egypt in July. And no, the military did not impose the situation.

The majority of Egyptians had had enough and needed the protection,from one another other if needs be.

And the military is the only one we trust with such a mission.

Had the military in all its might been out there to punish or kill, the death toll would have been in the hundreds of thousands, period!

That is really all anyone needs to understand.

After weeks of pleading with the Morsi’s supporters to call it a day and join in as possible element of the proposed solution to prevent a repeat of Syria ever taking place in Egypt, it all fell on deaf ears. With a nation paralised from the neck down there really was no option but to enforce an end of the weeks-long stand still.

The rest really is commentary, each tragic day leading to another.

We can spend hours listing who did what, when, to whom, and how, but that would be a waste of time.

The short version is this: it needs to stop.

The country needs to start functioning again, recover, and rebuild.

That requires a strong and trusted leadership that can inspire everyone.

No, I did not wish the presidency on the Sisi.

It is not a gift, it is an all consuming burden. Yes, we did beg him to take it on and thank God he did agree. You dont have to like him, you dont have to agree with me either, but you should understand that is/will be our choice.

Yes there are many people who do not agree with that; however, whatever the reason for disagreement is, the view is limited.

It is only with a bird’s eye view that Egypt can make sense — and the bird’s eye view is simply this: we cannot afford a civil war; we cannot afford another non-productive day; and we cannot afford the tailor made reports designed to shock the world over the “human rights” of one person when it suits, ignoring the human right of millions in the blind spot.

Negative!

Sorry!

So what now?

Well it is exams season, so how about the students go home and study something, the unemployed pick up a brush and clean something, the skilled, pick up a tool and fix something, and the rest of us will see if we can ask for amnesty for all whose hands are not still dripping with blood.

We need to get back on track, not with more protests but with work.

Egyptians have a lot of work to do, and none of it will be done in a permanent state of revolution.

It is simply not sustainable.

It is time to stop shouting and start doing.

And that is what is going on in Egypt.

___________

Excerpt from “What is Going On In Egypt?”  Naima Nas, August 17, 2013

. . . . Millions –actual millions- of Egyptians were in the streets on the 30th of June 2013 effectively putting an end to the existing government.

–“That is not very democratic”

–“They are not allowed to do that” many decreed.

Well guess what?

They, the Egyptian People, did it!

They exercised their right to take back the power they surrendered via an election box, sealed it with an even larger number authorizing a new representative, and in doing so they added a brand new chapter to the book on democracy, a chapter the west is still debating whether or not it should be added.

Take your time there is no rush!

Now the paradox: we the Egyptians were –subconsciously at least- inspired by a tiny detail the government relied upon when attempting to rule, a very small point in Islamic/Eastern Law.

Now you are really confused!?

Let me explain: the same principle that forbids revolt against a fair and just ruler does permit the refusal to obey if the majority agrees he is neither fair nor just. The majority of Egyptians are Muslims who have understood that on a very deep level.  And here is the icing on this exquisite cake. Amongst that majority there is a significant minority that is not Muslim yet still very Eastern and very Egyptian possibly even more Egyptian: our Coptic brothers. Their lives were not getting any better under that farcical performance, nor was it going to, so they hardly needed convincing. The outcome was possibly the most democratic action in a modern nation, as you have never seen before.

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