Transformational Diplomacy

Transformational Diplomacy

The name answers it all. This is the new diplomacy that is changing the American Foreign policy. Formal declaration of the new diplomacy was on January 18, 2006 in a speech by Condolezza Rice at George Town University.

The formal definition is probably as follows:

“It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world. To achieve this bold mission, America needs equally bold diplomacy, a diplomacy that not only reports about the world as it is, but seeks to change the world itself “

What is relevant to us in Egypt, is to know that one of the tools of this policy called as “American Presence Post, APP” was operating in Egypt even before the policy is formally instituted. Those APP's were operating only in two places worldwide, Egypt and Indonesia. What is also relevant is that in the same day of introducing the policy, Dr. Rice appointed a new manager to the USAID...???!!! Any link between transformation and the money….??!!

When you go through the whole speech, you immediately realize how Americans are helping Democracy only if it serves their goals, nations have to share American values to get the help, and if you do not share the American values then they will try to make you share it. The US department of state is trying to change nations particularly those of special rule in their key regions; and it is not a secret that Egypt is on the frontline of this.
But this policy for the first time is a policy operating at the people or individual level, a policy that uses the tactics and dynamics of a “communist” active cell within the community that is trying to recruit more people to the cell. This takes the American diplomacy to a different level meaning that they are working probably among us right at this moment??

The interesting part of the speech to me is this:

“It cannot be that the last three Secretaries of State -- the daughter of European immigrants, the son of Jamaican immigrants and a daughter of the American segregated South -- would be more diverse than the Foreign Service with which they work”
I felt proud after I read that cause I mentioned in a previous post the fact that the last 2 secretary of states are colored is not just a co-incidence” .

Again and again, the saga continues and further proof on the intentions of the US shows again.
It is both disappointing and sad at the same time (at least for me), that I notice all of those people who are trying to hold the American values more than the American themselves. They believe, either rightfully or wrongfully - in a good faith or in a bad faith, that those values are going to help. They would....but not us.....not Egypt!!!!

We shall see………….

re-published

25th of May; Another Day of Illusion

On Thursday, 25^th of May, 2006 protesters demonstrated in front of the Judges Syndicate surrounded by a great number of riot police forces. The judges organised a stand in front of the Supreme Court House. The stand began after the demonstration and ended before the latter. The Judges Syndicate, the Supreme Court house, the Lawyers Syndicate and the Journalists Syndicate are all placed in a big rough square that was totally surrounded by thousands of riot police forces.

A closer look at the scene reveals many points:

• The number of judges was claimed to be 500.

• The number of protesters was claimed to be 300 – I personally doubt this number because this was not what I saw.

• The Muslim Brotherhood had no presence as they indicated earlier.

• The protester were mostly all activists.

• The protesters' slogans were mainly resentments and rarely uttered the aims of the different movements that were present.

• The protesters mainly belonged to Kifaya.

The judges outnumbered the protesters and this has a strong indication of the unpopularity of their situation in the eye of the public. The Muslim Brotherhood stated days before the stand that they would not participate unless the judges invite them to do. This reveals many points about the Muslim Brotherhood but this is not our issue for the time being. The very fact is that the Muslim Brotherhood aid withdraw caused a dramatic decrease in the number of protesters. An instant popping assumption is that the previous demonstrations were relatively big ones out of the Muslim Brotherhood participation. Bearing in mind that the 25^th of May was highly popularised relative to many previous days, the assumption becomes qualitatively proved. This strongly indicates the unpopularity of the whole scene among the public.

The protesters were mainly activists who are involved in the current Egyptian scene. Most of them put Kifaya's logos on their chests. If this is to prove a thing it again proves the unpopularity of the scene in the eye of the public.

The demonstration slogans almost could be considered grudges. The slogans showed a preference of relating the Egyptian crisis to the current regime. This is true for sure. However, the slogans of such a demonstration, which was organised by supposedly organised movements, were expected to refer to the movements' common methodologies or even aims for the desired change. It counts to chant “our freedom is killed” but it counts even more to shout “we need (or will do) 'something' to revive our freedom”. This brings out a very faulty view. This view demonstrates how the different movements target people's suppressed anger while they lack any views about re-forming the Egyptian society. The result turns out to be very disappointing. A result that failed to group the public together to say no. A result which shows how these movements comprise different elites which are separated from the regular Egyptian.

There was a unique woman who participated in the demonstration. She was wearing “Glabyah” and holding a plastic black bag (kees eswied). She was carrying no signs or logos. At the end of the demonstration she was hopping around asking whether the demonstration was done. When I saw her I felt happy. She is just normal and she wants her voice to be heard or at least that is what I thought or loved to think. For me she was the most respectable person who attended the play. I could behold no more “normals”.

Who are the regular people?

Most Egyptians think that it is of no use other than harming the self to participate in demonstrations or involve in the current scene. They simply believe that when they go to jail in the name of freedom they will find no one and no money to get them out of it again. Bearing in mind that many of the Egyptians suffer from poverty which weakens those poor classes at the end of the social hierarchy/order, it becomes apparent that many have the very right to think naturally in such a way. It is not an illusion that most of the Egyptians belong to those classes. People who belong to these classes have very distorted thoughts about society and their public awareness settles down to nearly nothing. A malfunctioning education system, a very hard economical state, a cultural heritage that has been distorted and a resulting very clear sense of individualism all of these combined stop any thought of public bragging.

Also there are Egyptians who belong to the middle class suffer the pattern of thinking I mentioned above. And those mainly belong to the lower divisions of the middle class. Many of those at higher ends carry very distorted identities that compromise a mixture of conflicting thoughts and views. These identities enforce many of them to stay away from the scene as they think it is of no use to live in this country in the first place. The very prior aim of those is to go to the next level and join the next class at higher position in the social order...which is the rich class or at least the lower divisions of it.

If those social and political movements target people, then they have failed. Because their methods of loud shouts cannot persuade anybody who carries one of the former patterns of thinking to change his/her mind. The reason is that these methods explain neither the political and societal state in Egypt nor any methodology to bring about a change. I am really wondering what do these movements aim at? Do these movements fool themselves or fool the people?

What are the relationships among those movements and organisations and the international players? Who do they target? And what is the role of money in the play?

If it is not for the public then for whom the bell tolls?

The corrupted Egyptian regime must be changed by the Egyptian people not by elites separated from people claiming leadership.

Stronger Blogging

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Guess Why....???????

NO COMMENT...!!!!!!!!!!!

The Test

Well, the game isn’t a game anymore , it became now dangerous and serious business.
Blogging can be a crime now, and we might get accused of insulting the President.
Jail is a potential consequence, and the reactions have been different and contradicting.

Some were furious and resented the country and the people who failed to protect them and to prevent them from arrest.
Some were afraid and are at loss don't know what to do? yes, it is pretty scary and the ugly face of the regime has emerged clear.
Some are more determined to their cause now and decided to go all the way to the end.

Personally I feel I am under lesser pressure cause I blog from the US or Canada, so I am a bit sheltered but what would happen when I come back, do they know me?
Then I started to look back on what I wrote before? Oh, it is pretty bad.

So, the question now is “What are we prepared to do?”
Everybody has to ask himself this question and to be clear with self, of course what would happen to all the bloggers in the near future will give us some clue but if something bad happen to them, is it the end? Was it all a game played by some naive kids?
I do not know what others think, but I personally think that blogging is self-limited by internet users who know about it which on the widest extent is still very limited.
And, most of the bloggers are already from those with active contribution to the political and societal scene.
The regime has been able to control this sector for quite some time now starting even from the 60’s and the tactics were all the same, arrest, threatening, abduction for unknown periods of time.
So, based on that, there will be little support from any pressure group on the government when something wrong happens to a blogger, in fact he will be lucky if anybody even hear about him.

The only way to overcome this is to make blogging stronger, and to continue on the route, and to raise your voice more.
The state of relative silence and the cautious anticipation that prevails in the blogging sphere now is exactly what the regime wants.

Again

What are we prepared to do?

A Strange Smell

Do I smell the scent of a change, or am I just hallucinating?

Is what happens the beginning of the end, or am I just wishing?

Is this clash a dead-end clash, where the government can not step back and surrender to the requirements of judges, cause this can encourage other sectors of the state to take example and ask for more rights and eventually things might go out of hands, besides judges, if they are independent, they might rule out or cancel lots of the current notorious acts which will further tighten the hands of the government.
On the other hand, if the government remains stubborn and insist on oppressing this movement and insist on ignoring the fact that this is only the top of the iceberg then the end will definitely be violent.

We shall see what is going to happen in the near future, but again, for some reason, what is happening now reminds me with Egypt Pre-July 1952, Judges’ Club and Officers’ Club, Cairo fire and Dahab explosions, the burning ash under the surface that the government is in a state of denial to or may be too arrogant to admit.

We shall see….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures: Courtesy of Aljazeera and BBC

History of The Future

The most interesting thing about history is that it is a living past. The more we study it, the better we understand it. The better we understand it, the more astonished we become....and the more insight into the future we get. It is just our living past.

Marx and Engels horrified the whole world with their amazing theory about history. They stated that history is predominantly shaped by the struggle among social classes with regard to those classes at the extremes of the social order as the most efficacious parties. They brought the ever lasting struggle to light posing it as the writer of history. The theory was so revolutionary that it brought lots of the harshest debates ever found.

Anyway, this is not the end. Have you ever thought about machines? Their roles in life? Their importance and meaning to us? Well, I guess you have to work your mind on these questions a bit because they are hitting hard.

It is cyborg in the spot of light. Not typically as we know it from films and literature, but as science introduces it. Some state that we can really stop studying our history and begin to study the history of cyborg instead!! It is all about these giants we make....machines! How different it becomes when you consider a machine as an extension of your body?! How different will it be if you consider the relationship between you and machines as more important than the distinctions between you and them? I guess that you will find this relation a perfect example of integration! Well, cyborg is just about that. Cyborg is the study of this integration. Some prefer to really joint the machine with the body or even implant them in it. And some prefer to build artificial bodies giving them an interesting name...robots.

Life is now being haziest than ever before. Through studies of the body and control systems in machines some striking theories evolved. These theories study the body and machines as devices with similar – in essence – control systems. And through technology it is available to build robots that can be studied from psychological and social prospective as behavioural functioning entities! The aim is to mimic that complex brain so those robots may become really intelligent.

What may become of us?!

Snapshots from CIVILIZED places

1-A huge campaign is held to save endangered species of animals and at the time they isolate aboriginal “native Americans” from the community so that they eventually disappear .I guess may be there is no endangered species of HUMANS..!!


2-When u can insult the prophets as much as you want but you can not say a word on Gays or even prostitutes, oops sorry "Sex Trade Workers", the "politically correct" word....................


3-A hurricane kills thousands of African Americans in New Orleans , then a white protest rise to save New Orleans pets "yes , pets...animals" , and no word on African Americans “HUMANS…!!!!!” , and when you ask, then the answer “New Orleans was the armpit of America, it is good that is has been washed….!!!!!” . May be African Americans are not yet animals ....!!????



4-A man gets sick, then his family decides “Not him..!!, No autonomy..!!” that if he is not going to get full recovery "he is totally independent and does not need any help of any kind" then it is better to “withdraw care” meaning “let him die”.............


5-Another guy gets sick “will die within few weeks” then his family and children refuse to take him back home cause they can not serve him; “They do not have time or effort ..!!!!!”

Viva civilization...!!!!!!

Isolation

If A is black and B is white, which is the opposite of which?

What's Coming, Man of Honour?

I really wonder what it takes to be a leader in Egypt....any sort of a leader?!

There is a very corrupted regime ruling Egypt, a regime that has been draining the Egyptian people of every value. It is so dark so that most of us cannot point out any valuable thing or person. It is so dark so that we incline to every big resonant word...it doesn't matter who says it and for what he/she says it...the only thing that matters is that the word is brand new...tagged with sophistication...full of very artificial meanings.

Who is Ayman Nour? What does he aim at? What are his methods to change and re-build the grand prison of Egypt to turn it into the lovely country of Egypt? What sort of liberty does he refer to? What is the reason behind his sudden popping? Who are his allies? And how do they want to make use of the current state in Egypt?

Who are the members of Kefaya? Do they have a coherent view or coherent expectations? What binds them together? What sort of actions would they do if they were in power with these internal ideological conflicts? Is it just a temporary movement? Does it aim at changing the current president or it aims at changing the entire regime? What differences will they realise?

The judges “movement”, if it is to be so called, is a very important issue. Useful as well...brave also and certainly has its clear-cut impacts on the Egyptian society. A judge is a public official authorised to make sensitive decisions that affect people's livings.....justice in its institutionalised form contributes heavily to the state and to the regime in which we live – in general – so it is so important and crucial that it becomes independent. I salute them for their stand. But why people tag their stand and ironically themselves with honour. It is a mainstream public objection and they jumped in. It was a brave decision....it is, unfortunately, brave to challenge the state or the regime in Egypt. I remember 1968....where were the judges during all this time? Their movement remarkably aids the fight for freedom in Egypt....but it is just an aid not a solution. It can be viewed this way: assume that judges are really independent now....but wait the regime is still the same....maybe Mubarak is gone....people are still the same. What will be judges able to do? Do not give me a nice heck and walk the fine line....they will be able to do nothing at all. We will just enter the never ending maze.....the maze which we are already in.

Judges movement is a critical thing for it helps us to reach an edge over the regime...not because it enlightens our way to freedom. Those who are arguing hard to propagate the judges movement as the way of light are blind....or they are playing the lead clowns. Those are using all of the emotional words to motivate people....they are not speaking to their minds but to their feelings and anger. But where will you anger take us? Not for a lovely dance....not for the warm life we crave....not for the industrial country we need....not for cultural and educational developments that we shall have here in Egypt some day. The debate carries on for any other movement.....we must question them and their intentions as well.

I am not saying simply all of these movements are fake, I just want you to consider these questions and apply them to whatever figure or organisation. I keep my opinion for myself. I am not the man of insight or the man of the eon to judge all of these movements and people....they may be just better than me for their controversial acts and doings.

We all need the change and notice that I am not saying "we all the honourable people need the change". But what kind of change? A change that is able to re-structure how I, you, and all others think. The change we need is a change of mentalities. The change we need is a change of meanings of rights.

We all seek freedom. But to achieve it we have to really define and believe in freedom. We have to figure out what freedom means to us. We have to discover what implements that would lead us to it might be.

The best thing among all of what is happening in the scene now is the notion of objection and opposition itself, not the sayings nor the resonant words. But objection is so much like a blind freak taking all that exists by anger. Objection and public anger must be targeted at a very materialistic actions and aims. It is not an aim to say "Mubarak go to hell, we hate you". But it is an aim to figure out a replacement to the current regime. A replacement that is able to implement equality of rights and social justice. A replacement that is capable of giving rise to culture, awareness, education and science in Egypt. A replacement that will change how we conceive the ruling organisations. A replacement that will eliminate the ruling of whatever elite. A replacement that is able to stop us from making our own gods.

This replacement doesn't need people with wordy mouths aiming at power and power alone....power for its own sake. It needs the Egyptian people to understand what it takes to achieve what they want...it needs them to define what they want...it needs them to rule.

We don't need burnt figures from the past, we don't need those figures who served the current regime once by their silence, once by their stupidity or once with their corruption. We don't need those figures who took the corner silently like hyaenas nor those who kept singing their sole boring hymn, and when they found the chance to haunt some fame or some positions or even some new hymns of devotion they shouted out so buzzy loud in the hope of sharing the prey. We need to make our figures, our modern figures....those who are able to represent our thoughts not the thoughts of the very dark past. And whenever they don't represent us anymore...we have to substitute them. It doesn't matter who the figures might be, it only matters how truthful they are, how fine they represent our ideas, and how hard they work to implement these ideas through clear actions not through loud shouts.

Let's assume that the current regime is now a thing from the very near past....the castle has just crumbled, can you tell me what is going to happen. I have an answer for this....We will be watching the wolves killing each others...discarding any notion of species unity. And after the bloody battle has ended, the strongest wolf will be in power. He will love his winnings..he will love his power. Then, he will guard it and protect his position. The main difference is that we the sheep will have adored his courage. We will have protected our shepherd.

Any sort of public bragging or solidarity is really valuable, but its value will eventually fade to waste if it's not supported by plans, methodologies and coherent views and beliefs. The most important thing is that it must be supported by people's awareness, understandings and knowledge not their mere feelings which may be invoked using any word of honour.