A quite interesting perspective: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/01/2011128...
Views from an Egyptian
11–20 of 77 posts
Re: Views from an Egyptian
#12I am growing a little more encouraged that the Tunisian and Egyptian 'revolutions' are true revolutions, and not just western media events (Tehran's "Twitter Revolution"). Here's hoping that with the revolution comes actual governmental change, too, instead of just new faces on the same structure. That doesn't happen as often as people would hope.
Re: Views from an Egyptian
#13The OP mentions Muslim Brotherhood as the worthy opposition, but they don't appear as anything democratic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood
"The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Qur'an and Sunnah as the "sole reference point for ... ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community ... and state""
Re: Views from an Egyptian
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To break police torture, you MUST torture them. I hope you meant that in a figurative sense and not in a literal one, if you meant that literally then I'm sorry, but that's absolutely not the case. You break a bad regime by doing better, not by becoming like them. I sincerely hope that El Baradei will get his way and will be allowed to lead a transition government he seems like a decent fellow and has done a lot of…
You must also realize that while Gandhi did not use direct violence he did use the threat of violence as a bargaining tool. The British realized the choice was to either work with him or end up confronting more radical fringe groups that weren't opposed to terrorism. The antithesis to this was the battle of Algeria. The french ratcheted up the level of suppression to protests to such a degree that they won the battle…
Gandhi was dealing with the British, who were relatively benevolent at the time. Egyptians (and other Arab peoples) are dealing with local despots, who are desperate.
Re: Views from an Egyptian
#15The OP mentions Muslim Brotherhood as the worthy opposition, but they don't appear as anything democratic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood "The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Qur'an and Sunnah as the "sole reference point for ... ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community ... and state""
I'm not sure the poster labels them as "worthy", just that they've been systematically excluded, used as puppets in sham elections, and are popular with the lower-classes.
Re: Views from an Egyptian
#16I don't agree. It's not the whole population that will make the true revolution. They'll help, but are not the main stream of the revolution. Read my comment here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2151468 Western Media has made false rumors that this is the Facebook revolution of young people. Yeah, Facebook played a major role, but wasn't the key. There is torture in these countries. To break police torture, you…
> To break police torture, you MUST torture them. I hope you meant that in a figurative sense and not in a literal one, if you meant that literally then I'm sorry, but that's absolutely not the case. You break a bad regime by doing better, not by becoming like them. I sincerely hope that El Baradei will get his way and will be allowed to lead a transition government he seems like a decent fellow and has done a lot of…
It is entirely possible that should the Egyptian police escalate (as it appears they have done), actual physical violence against them, even to the point of killing some of them, may be necessary.
Dictators only lose when their underlings no longer do the dirty work for them.
Re: Views from an Egyptian
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To break police torture, you MUST torture them. I hope you meant that in a figurative sense and not in a literal one, if you meant that literally then I'm sorry, but that's absolutely not the case. You break a bad regime by doing better, not by becoming like them. I sincerely hope that El Baradei will get his way and will be allowed to lead a transition government he seems like a decent fellow and has done a lot of…
It is entirely possible that should the Egyptian police escalate (as it appears they have done), actual physical violence against them, even to the point of killing some of them, may be necessary. Dictators only lose when their underlings no longer do the dirty work for them.
It may be unavoidable, but to start off from the premise that that's how it should be done is simply wrong.
The more people that are fighting the bigger the chance that instead of changing the regime you end up with civil war.
The best bet in situations like this is on the regime having lost control over enough of their armed forces that they lay down their weapons, if it comes to violent confrontations between protesters and police/army then the loss of life on the civilian side will be considerable and it will actually increase the chance of further escalations. Don't forget that the 'regular' police and military have family too, that's the trump card of organized resistance anywhere.
That's also the reason that in countries like China and the former USSR (and others besides) the military is heavily rotated away from their place of birth.
Re: Views from an Egyptian
#18My opinion: the crucial distinction between the revolution in Tunisia and the non-revolution in Egypt is that the Tunisian revolution was kicked off by a self-immolation. Burning yourself alive is perhaps the most powerful human form of expression against repression.
Re: Views from an Egyptian
#19I don't agree. It's not the whole population that will make the true revolution. They'll help, but are not the main stream of the revolution. Read my comment here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2151468 Western Media has made false rumors that this is the Facebook revolution of young people. Yeah, Facebook played a major role, but wasn't the key. There is torture in these countries. To break police torture, you…
> To break police torture, you MUST torture them. I hope you meant that in a figurative sense and not in a literal one, if you meant that literally then I'm sorry, but that's absolutely not the case. You break a bad regime by doing better, not by becoming like them. I sincerely hope that El Baradei will get his way and will be allowed to lead a transition government he seems like a decent fellow and has done a lot of…
> You break a bad regime by doing better, not by becoming like them.
In theory, you're of course correct. In practice, think about the regicide of Charles I or about the French "Reign of Terror" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Terror), they were both meant to break bad regimes. How well they've succeeded in doing that it's debatable, the undecidable question is if terror/violence was really necessary.
Re: Views from an Egyptian
#20This revolution as I understand it (barely) is a really tricky thing, here's why:
If only chaos is created and the people don't take complete control soon, there are a few opposing parties in Egypt, who could easily be classified as terrorists, who could take advantage of this and take control.
But they aren't at that point yet so these fears aren't discussed (yet). Government has not been dissolved. So if/when you hear that, everyone best be paying attention.