Egypt - Is anyone else out there as elated as I am?
From Ron Taylor
Monday, 14 February 2011
I have just returned from Palestine and was following the events in Egypt with great interest - as were, of course, the Palestinian people, who were not allowed to demonstrate in support of the Egyptian people's call for democracy and the end of the US/UK/Europe/Israel- supported dictatorship.
Below is a piece by Paul Woodward who runs the blog site 'War in Context'. He expresses the thoughts I have had over the last few days. Unfortunately I do not have the skills to translate them into the written word, so I can only recommend that you read what he has written.
"The people-power unleashed in Egypt has the potential to serve as a democratizing force that not only threatens autocratic leaders in the Middle East but also technocratic and nominally democratic leaders in the West - those whose complacent style of governance has depended on the political passivity of the populations they nominally serve while providing ready access for corporate interests to exercise their undemocratic influence.
The West, far from representing a model of democracy ripe for export has instead long been mired in a post-democratic phase where the foundational concept of demos, the people, has withered.
Individual wealth has supplanted the need for social solidarity as citizenship has been substituted by consumerism. Our material self-sufficiency has robbed us of the experience of mutual reliance and worn thin the fabric of society."
From Allen Keep
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
I'm really excited Ron!
Who'd have thought you would be able to crack the old joke about buses in relation to revolutions against oppressive regimes?
By the time anyone reads this Gadaffi may have gone too - despite having invested hundreds of millions of pounds in crowd control weaponry . . .from where we ask? Take a wild guess.
From Michael Piggott
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
I'm excited about the overthrow of Mubarak, Ron! What we've seen in Egypt is inspiring. I did write on this website earlier in the events that Egypt is showing us the way.
I do have reservations about Egypt, with the Egyptian army now in charge, until we really do see a popularly-elected, democratic civilian government (hopefully one with a left-wing flavour).
Interesting, too, to see Hague and Cameron calling for an end to the repression of demonstrations in the Arab world. I trust they will now stop the police repressing demos in this country to show that what is good enough for Arab countries is also good enough for the majority of British people who did not vote for their policies? The ConDem government does not have a mandate for what they are doing and so we have just as much right as the Arab masses have, to demonstrate against our government, without being viciously attacked by the police.
Roll on March 26th!
From Ron Taylor
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Thanks, Mick and Allen.
I was beginning to think there were no radicals out there!
Of course, there are dangers ahead for the people of those countries but I sincerely hope that such a seismic shift heralds a move away from the disastrous policies the West has been able to impose on the region for so many decades.
These policies may well have ensured our oil supplies but at a huge cost - invasions, wars, coups, the ethnic-cleansing of Palestine and so on.
Bring on the new!
From Charles Gate
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
We should all be deeply worried over the UK's recent intervention/ foul up in Libya and the Tory/Lib Dem government's intention of getting us militarily involved. Neither the opposition nor the Colonel wants foreign military intervention and invasion.