Archive for the ‘Dictators’ Category

• At al-Jazeera, we saw the Arab revolutions coming. Why didn’t the West?

  Date: 2011.03.04 | Category: Al-Jazeera, Democracy, Dictators | Response: 0

  Al-Jazeera chief Wadah Khanfar asks why, when Al Jazeera saw the uprisings coming, the West did not.
  Sunday, February 27, 2011

  DOHA, QATAR on the right way to cover the Arab world. The popular revolutions now sweeping the region are long overdue. Yet in some ways, they could not have come before now. These are uprisings whose sons and daughters are well educated and idealistic enough to envision a better future, yet realistic enough to work for it without falling into despair. These revolutions are led by the Internet generation, for whom equality of voice and influence is the norm. Their leaders’ influence is the product of their own effort, determination and skill, unconstrained by rigid ideologies and extremism.

  It is now clear to all that the modern, post-colonial Arab state has failed miserably, even in what it believed it was best at: Maintaining security and stability. Over the decades, Arab interior ministers and police chiefs devoted enormous resources and expertise to monitoring and spying on their own people. Yet now, the security machineries in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have disintegrated in short order, while the rest of the authoritarian and repressive regimes in the region can see the writing on the wall.

  These revolutions have exposed not just the failure of traditional politicians but also the moral, political and economic bankruptcy of the old Arab elites. Those elites not only attempted to control their own people, but also sought to shape and taint the views of news media in the region and across the world.

  Indeed, it should surprise no one that so many Western analysts, researchers, journalists and government experts failed to recognise the obvious signs of Arab youth movements that would soon erupt into revolutions capable of bringing down some of the most pro-Western regimes in the Middle East. That failure has exposed a profound lack of understanding in the West of Arab reality.

  US and European allies, supporters and business partners of the Arab regimes persistently preferred to deal with leaders who were entirely unrepresentative of the new generation. They were detached from the emerging reality and had no way to engage with the social forces that now matter. It is the growing periphery of the Arab world – the masses at its margins, not its feeble and decaying centre – that is shaping the future of the region.

  In TED’s first talk of 2011, Al Jazeera’s director-general shares his view on the uprisings sweeping the region. View Video:- A historic moment in the Arab world

• Demanding equal rights in Bahrain

  Date: 2011.03.01 | Category: Bahrain, Democracy, Dictators, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights | Response: 0

  Bahrain’s anti-government camp is calling for a genuine constitutional democracy in which “the royal family is no longer a ruling family, but just a royal family”, says Ibrahim Sharif, leader of the secular-liberal Wa’ad party and the most prominent Sunni member of the opposition.

  Core structural changes – if enacted – could pacify the protesters, who complain that about half of cabinet posts are filled by members of the Khalifa family.

  During the past few days, the government has already moved to sack five ministers and has announced the release of 300 prisoners, including 23 alleged terror suspects. The selection of two Shia to become housing and health ministers likely aims to reverse discrimination in public services.

  At Bahrain’s protests, “Down, down, Khalifa” (in English) is a common slogan. While hard-line protesters want to boot the whole family, every demonstrator is passionate about the ouster of Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, who assumed office in 1971.

  In his address to the nation on February 18, accomodating Crown Prince Salman, whose job is more secure than the prime minister’s, said, “Youths are going out on the street believing that they have no future in the country … But this country is for you all, for the Shia and Sunnis”.

  Despite this claim, protesters say the situation on the ground is different. The Bahraini security forces are mostly made up of Sunnis from countries like Jordan, Yemen and Pakistan – allegedly including those who opened fire on Bahrainis in their own capital. Full Text: Pearl Roundabout, Aljazeera Report

  Also visit: Dictators must go!

• Post-Mubarak era dawns on Egypt

  Date: 2011.02.12 | Category: Democracy, Dictators, February, Human Rights, Video From Cairo | Response: 0

  Post-Mubarak era dawns on Egypt

  ‘Dream come true’

  The crowd in Tahrir responded to Suleiman’s statement by chanting “we have brought down the regime”.

  Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent opposition leader, hailed the moment as being “a dream come true”.

  “I can’t tell you how every Egyptian feels today,” he said. “We have been able to restore our humanity … to be free and independent”.

  ElBaradei reiterated that Egypt now needs to return to stability and proposed that a transition government be put in place for the next year.

  The government, he said, would include figures from the army, from the opposition and from other circles.

  “We need to go on … our priority is to make sure the country is restored as a socially cohesive, economically vibrant and … democratic country,” he said.

  Ayman Nour, another opposition figure and a former presidential candidate, told Al Jazeera that he would consider running for the presidency again if there was consensus on his candidacy.

  He said Februray 11, 2011 is “the greatest day in Egyptian history”.

  “This nation has been born again. These people have been born again, and this is a new Egypt.”

  Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, said that he would resign from his post, one that he has headed for about 10 years, “within weeks”. Some analysts say he may well run for the Egyptian presidency when elections are held.

  Following Mubarak’s announcement, our correspondent in Tahrir Square, said: “Tonight, after all of these weeks of frustration, of violence, of intimidation … today the people of Egypt undoubtedly [feel they] have been heard, not only by the president, but by people all around the world.”

  Source: Al Jazeera: Triumph as Mubarak quits
  

• Authoritarian Regimes -UAE’s Dictators

  Date: 2011.02.09 | Category: Democracy, Dictators, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights | Response: 0

  Sheikh Saif, a full brother of Sheikh Issa (View Video), is the interior minister of the UAE. The Ministry of interior is in fact, the nerve centre of UAE’s dictatorial regime. A near-death experience of… Full Text At: UAE LEAKS

  The ruling families repress political dissent, with even relatively privileged citizens banned from forming political parties, associations or trade unions. …A new mood of militancy by migrant construction workers has emerged in the UAE, democracy activist Issam Hambouz tells Simon Assaf. Full Text At: Socialist Worker UK

• Cop cars run down innocent civilians – A horrible video from Cairo

  Date: 2011.02.05 | Category: Dictators, February, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights, Video From Cairo | Response: 0

   

  Below link take you to another disturbing video showing drivers seemingly purposefully ramming their vehicle into demonstrators in streets that appear to be around Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
  The diplomatic car that ran over 20 people in cairo on January 28

• “Dictators will never resign peacefully, they get chased out”

  Date: 2011.02.02 | Category: Dictators, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights | Response: 0

  Obama Urges Faster Shift of Power in Egypt
  Published: February 2, 2011

  CAIRO — Just hours after President Hosni Mubarak declared Tuesday night that he would step down in September as modern Egypt’s longest-serving leader, President Obama strongly suggested that Mr. Mubarak’s concession was not enough, declaring that an “orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now.”
  While the meaning of the last phrase was deliberately vague, it appeared to be a signal that Mr. Mubarak might not be able to delay the shift to a new leadership.

  In a 30-minute phone call to Mr. Mubarak just before his public remarks, Mr. Obama was more forceful in insisting on a rapid transition, according to officials familiar with the discussion.

  Mr. Mubarak’s 10-minute speech announcing he would step down came after his support from the powerful Egyptian military began to crumble and after American officials urged him not to run again for president.

  But Mr. Mubarak’s offer fell short of the protestors’ demands for him to step down immediately and even face trial, and it could well inflame passions in an uprising that has rivaled some of the most epic moments in Egypt’s contemporary history. The protests have captivated a broader Arab world that has already seen a leader fall in Tunisia this month and growing protests against other American-backed governments.

  Mr. Mubarak, 82, said he would remain in office until a presidential election in September and, in emotional terms, declared that he would never leave Egypt.

  “The Hosni Mubarak who speaks to you today is proud of his achievements over the years in serving Egypt and its people,” he said, wearing a dark suit and seeming vigorous in the speech broadcast on state television. “This is my country. This is where I lived, I fought and defended its land, sovereignty and interests, and I will die on its soil.”

  In Tahrir Square, crowds waved flags as the speech was televised on a screen in the square. “Leave!” they chanted, in what has become a refrain of the demonstrations.

  “There is nothing now the president can do except step down and let go of power,” said Mohammed el-Beltagui, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most powerful opposition group, which has entered into the fray with Mr. Mubarak. Those sentiments were echoed by other voices of the opposition, including Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate, and Ayman Nour, a longtime dissident.

  The speech and the demonstration, whose sheer numbers represented a scene rarely witnessed in the Arab world, illustrated the deep, perhaps unbridgeable, divide that exists between ruler and ruled in Egypt, the most populous Arab country and once the axis on which the Arab world revolved.

  The events here have reverberated across a region captivated by an uprising that in some ways has brought a new prestige to Egypt in an Arab world it once dominated culturally and politically. King Abdullah II of Jordan fired his cabinet after protests there on Tuesday, and the Palestinian cabinet in the West Bank said it would hold long-promised municipal elections “as soon as possible.” Organizers in Yemen and Syria, countries with their own authoritarian rulers, have called for protests this week.

  Read full report by David D. Kirkpatrick, Kareem Fahim and Liam Stack from Cairo; Nicholas Kulish from Alexandria, Egypt; and David E. Sanger from Washington. New York Times

  “Dictators will never resign peacefully, they get chased out” We are a group of pro-democracy advocates and supporters … More

  WikiLeaks:
  US supported Egypt pro-democracy activists. Cable shows that despite criticism of US for backing Mubarak regime, pro-democracy activists met with congresspeople, US diplomats. .. More