FNS – Egypt — Watching It With You

29 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Egypt, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Journalism, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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2013, demonstrations, Egypt, June

Most newspaper editors refrained from mockery of Morsi’s predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, during his thirty-year reign, but in the new Egypt, things are different. A law against “insulting” the President remains in the penal code, but illustrators unabashedly lampoon Morsi on a daily basis.

Guyer, Jonathan. “A Year of Drawing Morsi.” The New Yorker, June 29, 2013.

I’ll be asking what I’m doing “watching it with you”, but, for a while, I’ll be watching for videos and tweets on what would seem to be shaping up as a bloody day in Egypt.

As the world turns, Cairo’s about six hours ahead of New York City, so no “all nighter” seems necessary here, and, part of answering my own question, I’m not scoopin’ nobody!

If I’ve two cents to add, it’s going to have to do with analysis and reflection.

Themes

Petition to remove President Morsi from office: “Egypt group: 22 million signatures against Morsi”

General violence: “American Killed in Egypt Taught English to Children.”

A friend called a couple of hours ago to commiserate over reports of another gang-type rape of a journalist in association with Egypt’s violence, but one would expect that to play at the top of reports, and an attempt to access a referenced video link sent by the same party seemed only to block my web connection in general.

Reduced street-to-world time in reporting: “Egypt protests set for showdown, violence feared.” The URL is about two hours old — I think CNN and Reuters are going to “own my eyeballs” as other outfits start begging subscriptions when they really haven’t any monopoly on a large story nor, if narrow casting, all that unique a perspective (but that brings up my motivation too, and it nags me that I might fare better working on much narrowed research by contract).

Lessons yet to be learned:

At 0:32, Hamada Moharram says, “He can’t even rule a village. This isn’t fair. The Muslim Brotherhood as a whole is an organization full of corruption.”

Somehow, I just don’t want to play The Who’s “Won’t Fooled Again” again in this spot.

It gets old.

Kind of like the web.

Be that as it may, good luck today, Egypt.

The whole world will be watching.

Try not to horrify it too much.

FNS – Egypt – Two Days Ahead of Planned Demonstrations

28 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Egypt, Middle East, Regions

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2013, Egypt, June, unrest

“As The Washington Post’s Abigail Hauslohner wrote from Cairo, many there are convinced it will spiral into violence. She wrote, “All of Egypt seemed to be bracing for horrors that may come as opposition protesters prepare to call for Morsi’s downfall in mass demonstrations Sunday, the one-year anniversary of his taking office.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/06/28/video-appears-to-show-worsening-violence-in-egypt-ahead-of-sundays-protests/

“Washington also warned American nationals against all but essential travel to Egypt, and said non-emergency diplomatic staff could leave the country.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23092817

“While the protests in Cairo remained peaceful, deadly clashes erupted in the port city of Alexandria, where protesters set fire to the Brotherhood’s headquarters. Security officials said that one victim was a United States citizen, a man who was stabbed to death near the headquarters.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/29/world/middleeast/egypt-tensions.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

“(Reuters) – Two people, one an American, were killed when protesters stormed an office of Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria on Friday, adding to growing tension ahead of mass rallies aimed at unseating the Islamist president.” http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/28/us-egypt-protests-idUSBRE95Q0NO20130628

From last month: ““Sometimes when we watch them sleep, we just cry,” said the 40-year-old, who now works mucking out stables. “We see there is no food and we don’t know what to do.” http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/05/18001075-there-is-no-food-post-revolutionary-economic-turmoil-dashes-hopes-in-egypt?lite

A more recently published (mid-June) glimpse of Egypt’s economic scenario: “Moreover, the same plan states that 21.4 percent of the 27.3 million strong workforce are temporary workers, and at least 46.5 percent of those employees work in the unofficial sector without contracts. Furthermore, 67 percent has no health insurance. No wonder – rising employment, widespread poverty (with 25 percent living under the poverty line), and poor working conditions were all factors behind the January 2011 revolution that toppled the Mubarak regime.” http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/06/2013615122844106819.html

FNS – Conflict in Lebanon Intensifies Irreversibly

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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2013, fighting, June, Lebanese, Lebanon

“The army has tried for months to keep Lebanon away from the problems of Syria, and it ignored repeated requests for it to clamp down on Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir’s group,” the military command said in a statement.

“But what has happened today has gone beyond all expectations. The army was attacked in cold blood in an attempt to light the fuse in Sidon, just as was done in 1975,” it said, referring to the year that Lebanon’s own 15-year civil war began.

Reuters. “Syria-linked clashes kill at least eight in Lebanon.” June 23, 2013.

Reported yesterday by Jeffrey Fleishman in the Los Angeles Times:

“Every Muslim population must protect their brothers in Syria,” said Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, a popular Egyptian-born cleric who lives in Qatar and appears frequently on TV. “The nation is ready for sacrifice and jihad and we must call for jihad to defend religion and God’s law.”

Fleishman, Jeffrey. “Hezbollah’s role in Syria fighting threatens to spread holy war.” Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2013.

If the superpowers engaged in Sumo wrestling over the fate of Syria think they’re in control of the region, they may have some surprises coming. Syria is a crucible with many holes in it, and, as mentioned, it draws the engines of war into itself, but this week, especially, it has promoted sectarian violence beyond its borders and done so in local ways not likely to recede in the next day or two.

But to the traditional prayers and chants — praising the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah, denouncing Israel and America — the mourners added a new barb, for the gunmen battling the Syrian government who, they said, had killed him: “Death to the Free Army.”

The funeral on Wednesday at once encapsulated Hezbollah’s cohesion and the new uncertainties and anxieties its followers face as it fights a new kind of war, more intimate and ambiguous than the group’s founding conflict with Israel.

Barnard, Anne (Hwaida Saad contributing). “As Hezbollah Fight in Syria, Life Changes in a Lebanese Border Town.” The New York Times, June 21, 2013.

Anne Barnard’s intimate coverage of the Syrian conflict developing a Lebanese cast takes the reader through the onset of war. Businesses close; once trusted relationships become suspicious; political arrangements that sufficed for peace and security start to come apart.