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May 22, 2013
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 Dispatches From Cairo: Revolution One Year LaterPosted on Jan 31, 2012
(Page 2) Last week my friend Sayed’s uncle, who owns a large factory in his village, was kidnapped and held for ransom for five days. The whole family participated in the ransom gathering and exchange. I had not understood why they had been so inaccessible to me during those days and finally Sayed told me: He had not wanted me to think this was something caused by the revolution. “Kidnap and ransom is an old crime here. It happens often … a practice since ancient times. It’s a tribal thing, a Bedouin thing,” he said. A few days later, it was forgotten and life was back to normal. Adaptability is the first element of survival. In the building where I live there has been no running water for a week. It has been off and on all year. Patches don’t hold on the jumble of rusting and broken pipes climbing the side of the building. This could be fixed efficiently and definitively but would require organization and investment, and the attitude of the owners is to leave the large problems to Allah. The building was elegant and well constructed in the 1940s; it has a Schindler elevator, a marble staircase. I saw a photo of how it was then, and it was impressive. Cairo was called the Paris on the Nile. It is phenomenal how the people and their attitudes have changed since the revolution of 1953. The pride of ownership was crushed somewhere between the period of Soviet influence and the Islamist rebellion … and further was ground into the dust by corruption and growing socioeconomic disparity. Though the present ongoing, glorious revolution is an inspiration to the world—an indication of the power of mobilization of the street through modern social networking and a testament to the strength of unity—it is necessary to note that the nation has much contemporary experience of effective, if sacrificial, revolt by unified underprivileged people, students and intellectuals. And there were many other such moments in the annals of Egypt’s long history. Advertisement The first true social network-powered Egyptian rebellion came in April of 2008, over low wages and rising food costs. Using the Internet and cellphones, the April 6 Youth Movement, a group on Facebook, attracted more than 64,000 members and later became one of the major parties of the revolution of 2011 (though it was discredited for receiving funding and instruction in revolution technique from foreign sources). The 2008 strike failed. In the past, authorities always gave orders to break demonstrations forcefully. Strikes were illegal in the Egypt under its “emergency law” (finally lifted Jan. 25, 2012). Conditions were different in 2011. After the protest of 2008, the continued decline of the level of living and the mounting frustration with the blatant exploitation of the nation’s resources by the Mubarak entourage left the people in a gray rage with nothing to lose. Access to Facebook and mobile phones was in the hands of all the people. Anger was brewing. Then there was Twitter and … Tunisia. Now Egyptians are changing yet again. Gains have been made, even if the whole picture still remains obscure. Thousands of political prisoners have been released, virginity tests are officially outlawed, emergency law has been lifted, and there are no more military trials. All of this is to be tested, but the foundation is set and growing stronger. Perhaps the infrastructure will take a great deal of effort and time to repair, but something has irrevocably changed in the Egyptian social horizon and demographic. The people have rediscovered their nationalistic pride and they have discovered the strength of a united voice and the power of mobilization. All the social persuasions have come out to expose their divergent nuances to the light. And of course there is now a new political, commercial and social demographic—the revolutionaries. Revolutionaries come in many varieties, as the demonstrations last Friday, anniversary of the “Friday of Rage,” illustrated to the surprise of the Muslim Brotherhood. Believing themselves the inheritors of Tahrir Square, the MB speakers continued their program of chanting “One hand! We are the people!” interspersed with Quranic readings and religious speeches. I stayed in my neighborhood for the noon prayers to hear our imam’s dramatic urging of the people to keep the revolution alive, to keep the martyrs’ memory alive, to not go to sleep in the arms of the military of Mubarak on the anniversary of the day our sons and brothers began to be murdered. As he drew to a close, the roar of a march carried across the area, and then I watched from my window as thousands poured, chanting, across the bridge, like the other marches from all the Cairo districts headed to Tahrir, filling it to overflowing after the noon prayer.
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By gerard, February 1, 2012 at 4:55 pm Link to this comment
Robespierre: Once more with feeling: Please look around on the net and find out some of the really beneficial things Occupiers are accomplishing. You won’t find them in the general press, but they are there. Images of the violence (mostly police) in Oakland get all the attention, at the expense of quite moving social justice issues that are being faced locally and of course non-violently, but largely without support from government agencies.The picture is very complex, and people of your intelligencee need particularly to get a more nuanced view of what is going on, its potential and the dangers that it may be brought down.
Report thisBy gerard, February 1, 2012 at 10:54 am Link to this comment
Robespierre: Thanks for your comments and venting. We all do it, and no wonder! NOBODY knows what to do—least of all the 1%. Millions of the 99% are struggling toward something new and different—something strange and scarey and unpredictable—something far outside their previous education and indoctrination. It’s vague. It’s being defined minute by minute, made of intimations, partial successes, partial failures, misunderstandings, hopes, fears. Only the geneneral principles seem to offer a way out of mass murder, and there’s no Gandhi or Mandela or Havel Merton or Berrigan or King in the immediate vicinity.
Report thisSorry to be so explicitly vague, but—it’s a stage everybody has to go through. Better to point in the direction of life than to advocate for death. (Think Bill McKibben. Think Chris Hedges. Think Bill Moyers. Think of millions of people who believe in “peaceful tomorrows”.
OWS is not doing so bad, considering. Even the police are wondering about what’s happening. The rules don’t seem quite right, somehow, and more people are vaguely aware of problems and possibilities. That’s pretty good, considering the ponderous distracting media influences, exposiong everything except what reallly needs attention.
Old processes are inadequate to the need. New processes are not going to be born complete and explicit, unfortunately.
By truedigger3, February 1, 2012 at 10:37 am Link to this comment
The writer of this article ignores Egypt’s biggest problem which is its extremely high birth rate. There is no way under any economic or political system that the Egyptian economy can provide a decent life for so many people and counting. So the discontent and anger will continue, no matter who is governing and under what system.
Report thisThe writer says Egypt is a wealthy country which is false. Egypt is a very poor country.
Birth control is badly needed in Egypt.
The military council, regardless of its current incompetence and spinelessness, is the glue that is holding the country together. If the military is removed from power, the Muslim Brotherhood will take complete control and the country will descend into complete anarchy and chaos with very dire calamatous consequences for Egypt.
By kradek, January 31, 2012 at 11:20 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The political movements that called for the protests
or participated in them–various youth coalitions, the
April 6 Youth Movement, Kefaya, supporters of the
liberal politician Mohamed ElBaradei, and petty-
bourgeois “left” groups such as the Revolutionary
Socialists (RS)–initially supported the junta. They
claimed that it was the “protector of the nation” (in
the words of ElBaradei), or that it could be
pressured for more social and democratic reforms (the
position of the RS).
After one year of bitter revolutionary struggles
between the junta and the working class, these lies
are exposed; the political establishment is now
desperately trying to cover up its initial support
for the junta and prevent the outbreak of renewed
revolutionary struggles.
One the one hand, millions of protesters, driven by
Report thisworsening social conditions and demands for social
equality and genuine democracy, are renewing their
calls for the downfall of the regime and demanding a
“true second revolution.” On the other hand, the
existing political parties are working to prepare the
next trap for revolutionary workers and youth. The
latest is a call for a handover of power to a
civilian regime based on the parliamentary election
recently held under martial law.
http://wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/egyp-j26.shtml
By Robespierre115, January 31, 2012 at 8:36 pm Link to this comment
@gerard, for months now you’ve only been offering a vague, general set of comments. Nobody is advocating violence, but sorry, whenever you take on a dominant system or government there will be confrontation whether politically or on the streets, that’s just life and history my friend. We are not at the level of Syria or Egypt in terms of the kind of government we are facing, so we don’t need armed guerrillas roaming around Los Angeles or New York, in those countries they HAVE NO CHOICE, even Gandhi extensively wrote about the inevitability of violent confrontation when the situation reaches a breaking point. Here we can still overturn the system through democratic, electoral methods if the people organize new movements and organs of power as seen in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina etc.
If all you offer is some vague set of slogans where you sit around plazas or try to take over abandoned buildings, people will support you morally and find it cute that you’re “taking on the man,” but the average worker, the average joe who gets up early every morning to slave to feed himself and the family wants concrete, clear alternatives to then take the plunge. This is why you were whining a few months ago over NY residents not “housing” or “sheltering” the OWS protesters. In the eyes of the proletariat, I’m sorry if that term offends the postmodernists who use bullshit slogans to hide their centrist weaknesses, Occupy is admirable and the right start, but for now it’s just VENTING. Nobody gives a fuck unless Rosa Luxemburg and the Spartacists finally appear with some serious plans. You cited Oakland, Oakland is a perfect example of why SERIOUS THINKING and ORGANIZING is needed, because the state will not tolerate rebellion, which is why it’s laughable to see Occupy leaders boasting about “having good relations with local authorities,” please grow the fuck up and wake up. What will it take? War with Iran for people to finally start TAKING SIDES and demanding actual, serious, momentous changes?
As for your final comment on “business as usual,” yes, you are absolutely correct, the oligarchy continues to bask in its decadence because it knows you don’t have any idea of how to overthrow them, you just dance around with bullshit hippie peace signs babbling about being apolitical, aidealistic and aanything.
Report thisBy gerard, January 31, 2012 at 5:41 pm Link to this comment
Robespierre: Everyone in OWS is not “sitting around” in occupied plazas, and it is unfair to say so. Somewhere on an firedoglake list yesterday I found about 200 communities undergoing various kinds of change due to the actions of local “occupiers.”
Report thisThe national press is of course deliberatellly over-
looking them, but they are there nonetheless. They are not bloody. Some are more confrontational than others. The Oakland event shown here in video was among the most violent and oppressive. In many places, law enforcement is restrained and not oppressive, hence no press interest.
Viewing complications in Egypt and viciousness in Syria, it is doubtful that wisdom is on the side of violence.
Of interest to me is what you mean by “running things in a business-like way.” Repression as usual? Failure to face problems? Farcical elections? Persistent economic deterioration? Encouragement of unendurable class differences? Pretenses of business as usual? Drinking cocktails on balconies?
By Robespierre115, January 31, 2012 at 3:14 pm Link to this comment
The big problem for young people in Egypt (and around the world) is the postmodern attitudes that keep them from forming any serious, revolutionary alternatives to challenge the old guard. It’s as if everyone’s too afraid of being wrong or confrontational. Instead of learning from history or the current changes happening in Latin America, young people’s idea of learning about revolution is watching “V For Vendetta.” In the US a lot of kids involved in OWS ramble on about “anarchy” without ever having read serious Anarchist philosophy. It’s ridiculous and those in power know this, which is why they keep running things in a business as usual way while everyone sits around in “occupied” plazas.
Report thisBy Morpheus, January 31, 2012 at 1:03 pm Link to this comment
We need a real revolution. The false promise of a democratic republic doesn’t work.
“WAKE UP AMERICA!” - SAVE YOURSELF. Stop waiting for democrats and republicans to save you.
Read “Common Sense 3.1” at ( http://www.revolution2.osixs.org )
Report thisBy gerard, January 31, 2012 at 11:17 am Link to this comment
Again, a most valuable piece of work. Truthdig, please notify us if and when these essays are assembled and published as a unit. In my estimation the work is invaluable—accurate, intimate and emotionally and intellectually stirring. Contains the very essence of soulful truth.
Report thisBy balkas, January 31, 2012 at 9:30 am Link to this comment
with islamic cult and/or islamic leadership against timocratic
Report thisgovernance/interdependent daily living; without tanks, secret police, and politics,
it was easy of me to expect that the protest [unless it involved all the 99%] in egypt
bahrain, morocco would fail.
in libya the protest against its govt was accompanied with militarism which was
also helped by most arab and european lands.
the armed rebellion did bring down libyan govt. it is now replaced by a mullahic
govt; similar to that of many other muslim lands.
and they make very good allies of the world’s onepercent.
syrian and libyan govts have not supported or allied selves with world
supremacists; thus end of libyan govt and soon also syrian govt. so, it is indeed
regime change: from a disobedient to a obedient govt. thanks
By Rehmat, January 31, 2012 at 9:15 am Link to this comment
Recently, Obama have sent several of his Zionists staffers to court Muslim Brotherhood. They have met MB leaders and told them the US $1.3 billion annual aid depends on maintaining Egypt-Israel peace treaty when MB comes in power in future. The latest one is deputy secretary of state, William Burns, a Zionist Jew. Burns’ meeting with Mohammed Morsi, head of MB’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in Cairo was applauded by State Department’s Jewish spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. She claimed Burns reinforced Washington’s desire that Egypt’s parties will “support human rights, women rights and religious tolerance“. None of which exists in the US if one listens to the speeches of all GOP presidential hopefulls and Obama’s cheerleaders.
Interestingly, in the meatime, the US installed military junta has called off the annual Abu Hassira annual mulid (birthday) festival. The festival draws thousands of Jew pilgrims from Israel and around the world every year to the tomb of Jewish holy man Abu Hassira.
On Wednesday, Cairo informed Tel Aviv that it would not ‘appropriate’ for pilgrims to make the annual visit to Demitiouh village in the northern province of Beheira. The week-long festival is held on January 15 each year.
The Abu Hassira festival, which was made possible after Egypt signed the 1979 Camp David Accord with the Zionist entity, has repeatedly drawn angry reactions from residents of the village.
The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre on Wednesday slammed the decision, which it said was influenced by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which has just claimed the lead in the landmark post-Mubarak parliamentary elections.
Abu Hassirs (1807-1880) was born as Yaccov Aharon in Morocco. According to Jewish legend – Yaccov on a trip from his homeland to Jerusalem, crossed the Mediterranean riding on a hassira (mat) until he reached Alexandria. He settled in Dimitouh village some 150 kilimeter north of Cairo.
Abu Hassira, a cobbler, is believed to have been a miracle-worker aka Messiah. Jerry Rabow in his book ’50 Jewish Messiahs’ (published in 2002) has documented the stories of 50 Jewish religious leaders who claimed to be the “Promised Jewish Messiah” since the crufication of Jesus of Nazreth. Most prominents among them was the 17th century Jewish Messiah, Shabbatai Tzvi, whose followers, the ‘Crypto-Jews’ are still found among Turkish secular elites faking as ‘Christians’ or ‘Muslims’.
“Here lies a good man who came from Morocco and went back to the dust” is engraved in Hebrew on his gravestone. Pieces of paper listing the wishes of the previous year’s pilgrims can be found near the memorial. Photo on top right.
Emad El-Gilda, the ruling National Democratic Party’s MP for Beheira, recently asked Prime Minister Atef Ebeid at a People’s Assembly session to order the immediate halt of “Israeli celebrations on Egyptian soil, especially since they include rituals that violate Egyptian customs and traditions.” El-Gilda cautioned that this year’s celebrations “are bound to have negative psychological consequences for Egyptians, who view them as a political demonstration.”
“The mulid of Abu Hassira turns the quiet, placid life of Demitiouh into hell because of the tight security measures taken to protect participants,” Mukhtar El-Sweifi wrote in a letter to Al-Ahram. “It is an opportunity for Israelis to mock and ridicule Egyptians in their own homeland every year.”
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/israel-jews-are-not-welcome-in-egypt/
Report thisBy OzarkMichael, January 31, 2012 at 7:00 am Link to this comment
—-Lauren Unger-Geoffroy
Strange to see a positive statement about nationalism on Truthdig.
This article takes the long view, summarizing the disconnect between the Left and the common people, tracing some historical causes. This article also shows(indirectly and unintentionally) that there are differences between the cultures that arise from different religions. This article also shows that Revolution does not necessarily lead to Freedom. Its going to be a long road for Egypt.
Overall it was very well written. I am glad Truthdig publishes these dispatches.
Report this