First Tunisia, now Egypt - Amazing stuff happening

[jschild]

Since US coverage of this is basically a joke......

http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/?foo=bar

Mubarak is claiming he will now dissolve the entire government (except himself of course) and replace it.

http://twitter.com/AJELive/status/31116573091565568

Syria, terrified of what has happened in Tunisia and Egypt has also shut down the internet in that country....

http://twitter.com/AlArabiya_Eng/sta...02490816167936

Wikileaks is releasing cables about Egypt much as they did Tunisia that helped lead to the toppling of that government...

http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/01/09CAIRO79.html

Thousands are protesting in Jordan as well...

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/mi...57509196.html#

Singing and embracing of Police they were fighting earlier in the day even...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...70R7NZ20110128

Not going to pretend everything is going to be hunky dory with all these happenings but it is inspiring to see. Further reinforces in my mind the horrible state of US media however. They are definitely a day late and a dollar short in covering this compared to everyone else.

[robbdaman]

They don't want to give the US people any ideas, the US Gov has probably told them to not report much on it.

[jschild]

Ummm...yeah...sure, that's it.

[ABOMINATION]

Originally Posted by robbdaman

the US Gov has probably told them to not report much on it.

Since when did the media listen to the US Government?

[Sport351]

Originally Posted by robbdaman

They don't want to give the US people any ideas, the US Gov has probably told them to not report much on it.

I don't think that's quite the reason. I don't think images of the protests would incite riots in the U.S. Nor do I believe that there are enough people that angry with the government here for that to be a factor. Maybe it's just difficult to get U.S. reporters in as it's a riot in Egypt?

[jschild]

Now, the biggest issue is how self absorbed our media is.

[Ryougabot]

I thought the reason they are not covering this is a business decision. There are very few people in the US who care about "good news". There are even fewer who care about anything good that happens outside their area of influence. As only a few will care about these events, or have the patience to listen to a rather long explanation as to why they should care, things like this won't get any press. Sadly America wants to be entertained, and not informed, and the "press" knows this.

"If it bleeds, it leads"

The events are pretty amazing though.

[jschild]

Originally Posted by Ryougabot

I thought the reason they are not covering this is a business decision. There are very few people in the US who care about "good news". There are even fewer who care about anything good that happens outside their area of influence. As only a few will care about these events, or have the patience to listen to a rather long explanation as to why they should care, things like this won't get any press. Sadly America wants to be entertained, and not informed, and the "press" knows this.

"If it bleeds, it leads"

The events are pretty amazing though.

Sadly, bleeding is indeed going on. It doesn't follow our cheap narratives though. See, if this was Iran, it would have been on TV since day one - since they are "bad" guys. However, Egypt is an ally - so it doesn't fit the model they like to use because are we supposed to cheer for people trying to overthrow one of our allies in the Middle East.

Also, I think this situation has clearly shown why any Internet "Kill-Switch" is a total BS idea.

[Rich10]

This is very scary stuff.

Why am I skeptical that any change that comes from this will be in the best interests of the Egyptian people or the US?

[Phaethon]

I came within a click of the button on posting about this last night...

This is really interesting, but I have no idea what it really means for the future. JS, a couple weeks ago you posed the question as to whether governments falling because wikileaks was good or bad, well, is it good or bad? Stability is shot in the mid-east right now and stability is "good". That said, when stability is sustained through corruption, the country pays.

If these are truly grass-roots uprisings made by the lower class, then things will be ok. Unfortunately, the void at the top will not necessarily be filled by those representing the lower classes, but instead will be filled by those most organized when the spots open up. That means there will be an opportunity for "non-favorable" entities to take control (read Iran or AL Qaida).

Also, if I was Saudi Arabia, i'd be s#!tting a brick about now...

[jschild]

This is very scary stuff.

Why am I skeptical that any change that comes from this will be in the best interests of the Egyptian people or the US?

Well, honestly to me, the only thing that matters is what this means for the Egyptian people. Screw what it means for the US - we aren't the ones living there.

I came within a click of the button on posting about this last night...

This is really interesting, but I have no idea what it really means for the future. JS, a couple weeks ago you posed the question as to whether governments falling because wikileaks was good or bad, well, is it good or bad? Stability is shot in the mid-east right now and stability is "good". That said, when stability is sustained through corruption, the country pays.

If these are truly grass-roots uprisings made by the lower class, then things will be ok. Unfortunately, the void at the top will not necessarily be filled by those representing the lower classes, but instead will be filled by those most organized when the spots open up. That means there will be an opportunity for "non-favorable" entities to take control (read Iran or AL Qaida).

Also, if I was Saudi Arabia, i'd be s#!tting a brick about now...

Fully agree about Saudi Arabia. As for the rest - this is being driven right now by the people, although long term, who knows. I ultimately do not think anything too dramatic will happen because Mubarak is very, very smart and realizes that by tossing his government and implementing a few changes will probably keep him in power. Who knows though. Regardless, this is an attempt by the people to change their country in pretty much the only way they have - Again, it might not end up the best thing for the US (though it might be bad for Israel since Egypt has steadily supported their existence for quite a while). Regardless, this is something that is up to the Egyptian people to deal with - it's not our place to interfere (unless Mubarak decides to wholesale slaughter the opposition, then we should cut all money to his regime) but I'm for supporting people when they push for more freedoms.

[SuperflyTNT]

Originally Posted by jschild

Well, honestly to me, the only thing that matters is what this means for the Egyptian people. Screw what it means for the US - we aren't the ones living there.

"Screw what it means for the US?" What kind of BS is that? I guess you don't really care about your own country? Is that what I just read? Wow...you just dropped about 50 points in my mind.

I'll tell you what it means...

If an Ismalic state comes to power, we've got problems. If another dictator who decides to name America as the "problems for our recession, unemployment, et cetera" then we have a problem.

If it becomes a "Shah-era" western-style democracy...we may still have a problem, but not a big one.

Israel is crapping bricks right now.