Nothing about Monday, except for my tiredness, a good one though. Tuesday I worked mostly on finishing up the interim report for the EU. I guess we're finally done. Also got the day off for Feb 10 to join Gidon Bromberg for the Good Water Neighbor project in Jerusalem. Very excited about it.
It's been raining since Friday and that made our volunteer house the perfect refuge for the creatures of wild life around us. Monday we had a green frog, little cute, tree frog. Hid under the table until Tuesday, until my grand rescue operation. Rescue from the house, rescue from the cats eagerly waiting for another toy to chew on. The frog is safe. Then the black bug. It's safe, back in the wild, with other big black bug friends who should stay away from my house.
Then there's protests in Egypt. People want the decades old autocracy to end, an uprising that is welcomed by the most of the world despite some serious concerns about what it might bring about. Mubarek, at the age of 83 -I suppose- is finally trying to negotiate with the people he didn't necessarily treated nicely over the years. Good neighbors are afraid of their own wellbeing; the ambiguity, for the time being, about Egypt's future is a potential threat to them. The U.S. is also recalculating its relations with a new Egypt in the horizon. Although I'm very curious and worried about a Muslim Brotherhood intervention as they already declared their support for the protests and ElBaradei. Another development of today (Wednesday) is the pro-Mubarek protesters viciously attacking the anti government people in front of the eyes of the soldiers who merely stand by. I guess that's because they had already stated their stance in the fight. The talks between ElBaradei and the U.S. and of course Baradei's relations with MB have critical importance now. And it seems like the crowd on the street seem to be supporting a new national front which includes all the opposition (MB as one of them) and the army. Mubarek, as Obaba calls on to him, might have to work his way through to create an interim government until the new elections and step aside.
This hardly looks like revolution. But it is the Egyptians' way of asking for several prominent changes in a system that did not allow another, "efficient" democratic apparatus for its citizens to express the needs, demands. Civil society, in that sense, is a very important component of democratic participation, not just voting. Now at this point, something quite unique comes up when you look at the allegedly non-governmental organizations, their nature, actions and their relations with the government, and finally their potential hand in a future democracy in Egypt.
http://www.icnl.org/knowledge/ijnl/vol10iss4/special_2.htm
So as far as I can see, this is more of a spontaneus development than an organized, planned political movement that may or may not bring in a revolution / or a counter revolution. IF Mubarek hears them and wins them back by negotiating and actually making that transition happen, then that's an option. The transition, however, cannot involve him as the president anymore. Transition is an interim government that he may propose for a "graceful" retirement. Mubarek may use this as an opportunity to prepare the regime for a comprehensive revision, that will turn into a transition, and finally a democracy. This requires a change in the form of the state, which clearly defines the state politics. So you cannot influence the government practices unless you demand a change in the form of your state. In Egypt, it's a dictatorship, one party monopoly for decades. To reduce the pressure, Mubarek provided them with certain rights, but very limited ones, and now they're not enough either. NGOs are hardly effective because of the deficiencies and the limitations they suffer from. And I still think it's too early to say Egypt will be the twin brother of Iran.
Also related to the topic, Yemen's forever-president Ali Abdullah Saleh played it safe and said "he will not seek to extend his presidency in a move that would end his three-decade rule when his current term expires in 2013."
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/yemeni-president-vows-to-step-down-after-term-as-protests-spark-changes-across-arab-world-1.340792?localLinksEnabled=false
Yemeni people deserve a change too.
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