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Friday 4 February 2011

"We Want Our Humanity Back": Toppling the Last of the Pharaohs


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Rows of Egyptian Security Forces quelling protests on the Day of Anger, 25 January: photo by M. Soli, 2011

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Cairo neighborhood: photo by David Evers, 2008

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Demonstrators praying in Galae Square, Cairo, 28 January: photo by Ramy Raoof, 2011

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Tens of thousands in Demonstration, Tahrir Square, Cairo, 29 January: photo by Ramy Raoof, 2011

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Protestors marching in Cairo, 29 January: photo by Mariam Soliman, 2011

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Police in plainclothes beating a protestor, Cairo, 29 January: photo by Al Jazeera, 2011

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Egyptian protest casualty, 29 January: photo by Al Jazeera, 2011

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Republican Guard helicopter flying over protestors, 30 January: photo by Mona, 2011

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Cairo protestors in prayer, Tahrir Square, 1 February: photo by Mona, 2011

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Confrontation in Cairo, 2 February: photo by Jerry Jackson, 2011


Protest graffiti ("Down with Mubarak", "No Mubarak", "Mubarak the tyrant has fallen" and "30 years stealing and unfairness.. enough is enough.. leave.. NOW") on Egyptian military vehicle, Cairo, 30 January: photo by Mona, 2011

11 comments:

Ed Baker said...

just IMAGINE
what the eventual/coming DEMOCRATIC election will produce!
and
will it result in a New government
"of the people, for the people and BY the peopleshall not perish from the earth (etcs)"
as we (in the USA) 'have' such?

I just hope that the price-at-the-pump doesn't follow the cost of food
&
"go through the roof"


the USA has supported this guy & his corrupt government good-and-bad elements for THIRTY YEARS!

if the Pro Democracy crowd wants to lynch Mubarak

pray tell me
how do they feel about the USA?


Egypt has only been our ally as long as we've sent them money and weapons...and buy their oil

what is going on in Egypt AND Jordan AND Libya in The Middle East is....

well a "game changer" even a Fire Storm...

we are NOT prepared for what is coming and had no clue as to how this in Egypt came about "suddenly"
scary times AND very interesting...

especially now tHAT WE HAVE A LARGE GROUP OF NEW, YOUNG CONGRESS(people) who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground!

TC said...

Ed, yes, "game changer" is a phrase that has certainly found its application in these ongoing events.

(And of course this may be "only the beginning," as the song once said.)

By the way, in case anybody wonders what the next few moments held in store for the young fellow being beaten by plainclothes "security forces" (i.e. paid regime thugs), in the sixth photo on this post, you can find out at 1:17 of this video.

Anonymous said...

A remarkable selection of photos. Among the many unanswered questions in the perpetual ongoing series, I'm afraid, is Who Will The Next Pharaoh Be? Watching excerpts of the US Senate hearing on the appointment of Stephanie O'Sullivan to be the new "deputy intelligence czar" and seeing her grilled by Sens. Feinstein and Wyden, who were seeking (while grimacing meaningfully at the tv cameras) about "whose fault" the ongoing Egyptian revolt was, I found myself feeling unexpected sympathy for and empathy with Ms. O'Sullivan. She seemed like an intelligent woman, forced to take time out of her busy day during a challenging moment to participate in an "enhanced photo opportunity" with two self-righteous wastes of time and space who were merely passing through and eating the snacks on their way to the next photo-opp.

Ed Baker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TC said...

I'm no political analyst, but all one has had to do is follow the news to know that Mubarak's Number Two Guy, the Head of Intelligence, Boss of Secret Police (and by the by also architect of the 5-year campaign to starve Gaza by blockade) is:

(a) just more of the same, only probably worse; and
(b) "our" choice as client-successor-to-be.

In the latter sense, if all the protests were to achieve is the fall of the single individual Mubarak, the entire historical event would be pretty much doing the US foreign policy sages a huge favor.

Which is among the reasons why it's hard to imagine it all ending there...

Curtis, as to the frustrations of government security analysts, the ultimate object lesson may be the Joe Wilson / Valerie Plame affair.

As of course you are aware, they became the scapegoats for the fiasco over the enormous government lie concocted by the last administration to justify a war on Iraq by trotting out that totally-fictional "Yellowcake from Niger" cover story.

Naomi Watts does a reasonable job with the Plame role in the movie, which (almost) survives Sean Penn.

The title of the film comes from that charming master of the post-human bon mot, Karl Rove:

"Wilson and his wife are fair game".

It's that sort of memory which would probably drive any conscientious agent out of government service -- if, that is, they had two brain cells, and wanted to survive till the end of next week.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see it. I like Naomi Watts. As for Sean Penn, well I feel it's been a pretty long slide since Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Caroline once saw him at Burbank Airport and when he saw that she seemed to recognize his tiny self he became a ridiculous bundle of barely contained rage. Now that was a performance.

manik sharma said...

The developments of recent weeks in egypt are sure astonishing....for 12 days thousands have gathered strangely in a circular place called a square...never quite get that..in between all this it is quite a thing to observe the stubbornness of one man against pressure from within and outside his country...and as curtis says its a question of asking who the next pharaoh shall be..and that is as thin a line as even the strongest dare not walk on right now.....

why doesn't the common have the power of veto...if u can vote them in...why not vote them out...democracy by all means gets confused around its own parameters while being written into books and upheld as laws....

Ed Baker said...

acause

a dictatorship is Always predictable
&
a democracy is NEVER predictable

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,

Photos, comments -- what more can be said?


2.5

first grey light in sky above blackness
of trees, silver of planet next to leaf
in foreground, sound of wave in channel

given place with respect to
place, line therefore

body at rest, space a thing
that can be, is there

white cloud in pale blue sky on horizon,
tree-lined green of ridge above channel

Elmo St. Rose said...

I have an in-law who runs orphanages
in 3rd world countries. In Haiti,
he said Sean Penn, was the real
deal in his effort to help.
(in general a daunting task).

This was of course great news for
the human race in that ever since
Penn became political he's been
full of shit/but apparently has
put his money where his mouth his
in a genuine effort to help in
a desperate situation.

As for Egypt, I'm not overly
optimistic about a democratic
outcome given the previous achievements of democratic aspirations in the Arab world.

Mubarak's personal forture is
estimated at 70 billion dollars.
Some of that is American money
siphoned off and 10 billion dollars
of food aid would help the 40% of
Egyptians who live on less than
$2 a day. The nasties there will
demogogue war with Israel which
would end up making everybody there
even poorer.

I suspect Naomi Watts should be
cherished for her role in The Painted Vail.

TC said...

Well, at least on the street there has been some joy, some hope, even some exhilaration. An older Egyptian man I know who night-clerks at a hotel for $8 an hour (he has a university degree) has spent many years putting away every penny in order to get, first, his disabled wife, and next, someday, he hopes, his daughter, out of Cairo and into the US. "It takes eight years". His tales of the police state repression curdle the blood.