Click here to view this media Ed Schultz is reporting with laser focus on the labor protests in Wisconsin and thank heavens he is, since there has been a virtual media blackout until yesterday when Fox News began to deploy its planned propaganda campaign against the protesters. There are times where it’s difficult for me to tell if Beck is crazy or sarcastic, and his opening shot about how the protesters are carrying signs with “violent rhetoric saying ‘kill this bill’” is one of those times. Does he actually think there’s a parallel to other right-wing protests with hateful signs? At any rate, Ed does a great job of illustrating Beck’s double standard, where it’s perfectly fine for Tea Party protests organized by billionaires to be hailed as an act of patriotism. They’re patriots. But when labor unions protest having their right to bargain stripped away, they’re a bunch of kids stirring things up, and somewhere along the way, Beck managed to find a couple of kids who appeared to be a bit clueless about what the protests were about, calling them “useful idiots.” Useful idiots, eh? I wonder how Wisconsin school teachers feel about being called useful idiots, especially since Wisconsin public schools are among the best in the country . ED: So remember, if you’re a tea party protester, you’re an idiot. If you’re a labor protester, you’re a useful idiot or a Muslim revolutionary. The public excuse for the governor’s move is a “budget crisis”, but there is no crisis, not really. As The Nation ‘s John Nichols points out, there’s “no question” that Governor Nichols is cooking the books to break the unions. Unions already made sacrifices to balance the budget, which held everything in balance until Walker cut corporate taxes while raising individual taxes. The governor’s budget repair bill, which includes the plan to gut collective bargaining protections for public employees, does not seek to get the state’s fiscal house in order. Rather, it is seeks a political goal: destroying public employee unions, which demand fair treatment of workers and hold governors of both parties to account when they seek to undermine public services and public education. Local blogger Dave von Ebers puts it in perspective : Gov. Walker must have some enormous brass ones, considering Wisconsin’s individual income tax rates for 2011 range from a low of 5% to a high of 8% (the highest rate being some 60% higher than the new Illinois tax rate); while its corporate tax rate for 2010 is 7.9% (again, nearly a point higher than Illinois’ corporate tax rate). In John Nichols’ interview with Democracy Now , he elaborates: What’s troubling to me is this talk of calling out the National Guard, this talk of really repressively putting down protests in the state of Wisconsin, a state with a great progressive tradition and a state that, as I said before, the rest of the country is watching. The fact is, Wisconsin is not broke. The Fiscal Bureau of Wisconsin just said in January that it will end this year with a $123 million surplus. So the fact of the matter is that this is not being done because of a lack of money. This is being done because political forces, conservative political forces, would like to disempower public employee unions and remove that voice for a strong public sector. That’s what austerity really translates as. And I do hope people keep an eye on what’s happening in Wisconsin with a similar eye to what they watch protests around the world with. This is a place where we really are going to see a critical test of whether workers have the right and also the power to demand fair play. Click here to view this media Nichols is right, of course. Scott Walker has just delivered the first ground assault against unions, which is part of a larger strategy. Ed does a great job of laying it out in this segment. Here’s the strategy: Buy a few governors in key states. Launch stealth legislative assaults on public union workers, stripping them of their rights to bargain and/or strike. Use right-wing media (Fox News) to fearmonger about union violence. As memberships dwindle, so too do funds for political activity by unions. Karl Rove confirmed it on Fox News. Rove: “Every one of those 600,000 people had several hundred dollars worth of union dues going into the political coffers of their union to spend on politics. So yeah, you keep having a couple hundred thousand people each year. If a half a million people leave the labor union movement every year, pretty soon you start having a crimp in the political budget of these unions, it has a direct effect on the Presidential elections. ” Out of the mouth of the man himself. As Ed says, that might be the most honest thing he’s ever said. A lot is at stake in Wisconsin, but Wisconsin isn’t the only state where unions are at risk. Ohio Governor John Kasich is working hard to destroy them there, too, prompting large protests this week in Columbus over similar legislation brought forward by Republican state senators and endorsed by Kasich: The Senate bill, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Shannon Jones, would eliminate collective bargaining rights and salary schedules for public employees across the state. GOP Gov. John Kasich has expressed his support for the bill in concept, but he has also signaled he may bring forth his own plan that could go even further — including banning public employee strikes. In Idaho, legislation is pending which prohibits taxpayer money from going to union dues , effectively prohibiting public employees from unionizing. The legislation would ban taxpayer money from going toward a labor organization for dues or to train workers , while also prohibiting school districts from including union activities in job descriptions or paying teachers for any time they spent on those activities. Most local union leaders are volunteers, but a handful work full-time on behalf of educators in Idaho’s largest school districts, according to the union. These arrangements are bargained at the local level. But there is good news. Thousands are standing for change. Right-wing assaults on labor unions have shaken people out of their seats and their stupors, put a name to the evil they understood but didn’t know how to fight. This war is by no means behind us, but this is how it will be won. In the streets of state capitols, in the gatherings of people tired of dictatorial corporate masters, and by all of us standing in solidarity with them. Howard Zinn: “Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can quietly become a power no government can suppress, a power than can transform the world.”
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Some blame the CBS reporter for her assault; others condemn Egypt as a society of sexual violence. Neither is the real problem Most people, regardless of political affiliation, reacted with simple horror and sympathy to the news that journalist Lara Logan had been sexually assaulted by a mob that took advantage of the tight-packed conditions in Tahrir Square during the post-Mubarak celebrations, which Logan was covering for CBS. Unfortunately, as anti-rape activists could have told you, there’s no such thing as a sex crime too brutal that some folks won’t try to use it for political score-keeping. In this case, rightwingers who have an interest in stoking fear and loathing of Muslims worldwide pounced at the opportunity to smear all Egyptians with this crime. Popular rightwing bloggers Debbie Schlussel , Robert Stacy McCain , and Sister Toldja were among those who immediately used the attack to reinforce their anti-Muslim, anti-revolution arguments. But the real cause of sex crime is power, and its abuse, and that is a problem in all the nations on this planet. While the reaction was entirely predictable, it should be resisted. Not to cover up or deny that sexual violence is a very real problem in Egypt, which is notorious for its high levels of street harassment , but because it’s wrong to blame Egypt for this and pretend that it isn’t a worldwide phenomenon that crosses cultural and religious boundaries. If street harassment and sexual assault in a culture precludes the people having a right to self-government, then there is no nation on the planet that can be a democracy. In her otherwise good response to this tragedy, the Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri does regrettably also give the “us v them” narrative some juice, arguing that in the United States, unlike Egypt, women can walk the streets “unmolested”. But the very website she uses correctly to identify the problem of street harassment in Egypt also has studies that show up to 100% of American women suffer street harassment, as well. It’s not uncommon in the US for groups of men to take jubilatory occasions and crowds as permission to sexually assault and rape women, either. Such attacks occur at college parties , high school dances and rock concerts , usually with a crowd of onlookers who don’t intervene, as happened with Logan until the army and a group of women saved her. The response from some quarters in the US should quell any notion that we’ve somehow grown past our issues with sexual violence that still plague Egypt. This attack also proved that there’s apparently no sexual assault so brutal and no victim so clearly innocent that some people won’t find an excuse to suggest the victim “had it coming”. Journalist Nir Rosen used this as an occasion to complain that Logan will somehow be basking in the attention – as if there’s a human alive who wants to be remembered for crime that is basically about humiliating, if not destroying, the victim. ( Following an outcry about his remarks , Rosen has resigned his post as a fellow at the New York University centre for law and security.) But another blogger, theblogprof, objectified Logan in an attempt to blame CBS for allowing pretty female journalists to take the important assignments. The Gateway Pundit went the same route , suggesting that the response to sexual assault should be to institute formal discrimination against female journalists, keeping them at home and restricting their possibilities for raises and promotion. In other words, men use sexual violence to put women in their place, and then a chorus of voices rises to blame women who get attacked for not knowing their place. Sadly, it wasn’t just rightwing channels that used this as an opportunity to call for more limits on women’s freedoms and opportunity. Simone Wilson of LA Weekly pounced to cast aspersions on Logan’s professionalism and to imply she asked for it by taking tough assignments. As feminists have forever said, sexual violence is a crime of power, committed to control and intimidate women. When people react to sexual assault and rape by suggesting women brought it on themselves, they finish the job the attacker started. It’s sad to say that the assault on Lara Logan didn’t end when she was rescued in Egypt, and to note that it’s now being expanded as an assault on all women who have ambitions, or who are willing to be out in public while looking attractive. This response to Logan’s attack should make it clear that the US and Egypt differ on the issue of sexual violence perhaps only in degree but not in kind. That there are differences in degree between cultures should tell us that sexual violence is not inevitable, that it can be curbed and even stopped – and we should never write men off as animals who cannot be expected to control themselves. CBS Egypt US television Protest United States Rape Women Gender Feminism Middle East Amanda Marcotte guardian.co.uk
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Demographics, technology, foreign policy, legitimacy of the state, torture, corruption and other factors all played a part in bringing discontented Egyptians out on the streets When interpreting something like the Egyptian upheaval, people tend to project their own passions on to the screen. The twitterati see a social media revolution, the foodies see food price hikes at its core, others see a hunger for democratisation, human rights groups see a backlash against routine torture and abuse. So I thought I’d try to pull together and categorise the full range of different “drivers of change” involved in bringing about a revolution. First, consider the demographics: an explosive mix of high population growth, leading to a “youth bulge”, combined with urbanisation, jobless growth partly linked to structural adjustment, and the rapid expansion of university education has produced what the BBC’s Paul Mason calls ” a new sociological type , the graduate with no future”. Two-thirds of Egyptians are under 30, and each year 700,000 new graduates chase 200,000 new jobs. Then there’s the technology. Although I instinctively share Malcolm Gladwell’s scepticism on this, social media (and new old media like al-Jazeera) have clearly played an important part. Ranil Dissanayake on Aid Thoughts writes: “… the ordinariness of how it [demonstration] starts was quickly made apparent to people across the world through the media but also through social networking (and this could be the real impact of FB [Facebook] and Twitter, rather than any organisational function – they emphasised that demonstration and revolution were being undertaken by ordinary people, demystifying the process).” Egypt’s foreign policy has also been an important factor – divorced from public opinion for many years, particularly on Israel and Palestine. According to Oxfam’s Cairo-based Adam Taylor-Awny, this cemented the feeling that the government was a US puppet government and delegitimised it in many eyes. The erosion of legitimacy went much deeper than foreign policy, though. An increasingly sclerotic state plus an ageing president have produced a threefold institutional deficit summarised by Sufyan Alissa in a 2007 paper for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as “institutions that influence the work of the bureaucracy, institutions that shape politicians’ behaviour by punishing or rewarding certain types of behaviour – influencing the accountability and transparency of politicians – and institutions that widen political space and participation for Egyptian citizens”. That sclerosis undermined the state’s legitimacy and made it unable to respond quickly and effectively to the rising tide of protests. At a more visceral level, the routine and growing presence of torture and corruption became the common enemy that bound protesters together across classes. And the army, which appears to have emerged with its reputation enhanced (at least so far), failed to back the president, while Washington’s confusion and contradictory messages reduced its influence. But various other events brought deeper rumblings to the surface. The most celebrated event of the protests (other than the overthrow of two presidents and counting) was of course the sacrifice of Mohammed Bouazizi , the Tunisian street vendor whose self immolation sparked Tunisia’s Jasmine revolution, and the ensuing domino effect across the Arab world. Others include the impact of the WikiLeaks revelations that US diplomats saw Tunisia as a “mafia state” run by President Ben Ali and his hated wife, Leila Trabelsi – did that weaken elite support for Ben Ali? And how did all these factors interact? What were the pathways and dynamics of change? The most striking aspect is path dependency – how a sequence of events and actions were able to overcome the deep-rooted (and well-justified) fear of potential protesters, getting enough people onto the streets to give them a degree of immunity. In Egypt, small groups put on simultaneous “flash mob” demonstrations in numerous locations, outmanoeuvring the security forces in a new kind of urban, social media-driven guerilla protest. Finally, protesters used humour – a weapon that always seems to baffle autocrats. I’m left with lots of questions, of course: what was the level of “granularity” of the protest movement (mass movements are almost never entirely homogeneous, but “lumpy”, with smaller, more durable building blocks such as workers and farmers organisations, mosques, youth groups, etc)? According to Oxfam’s Ihab El-Sakkout: “The vast majority of the demonstrators were at quite a distance from any organised activist group. On the other hand, the fact that some of the protestors were parts of organised groups played an important role at critical points. The example that best springs to mind is on 2 and 3 February, when the protestors were attacked viciously by regime thugs – the Muslim Brotherhood and organised football fan groups … played a key role in defending [Tahrir] Square, which helped to turn those in the square from a mass of individuals into a cohesive group able to defend itself.” What degree of interaction did the protest movement have with factions of the political or business elite? What was the gender breakdown of the protests – men seemed to dominate the TV images (El-Sakkout guesstimates the proportion of the women in the protests at 10%-15%, which may well be high by the region’s historical standards). And of course, the biggest question of all: what happens next? I’d particularly welcome two kinds of comments: what’s missing from this analysis and what do you think of the framework – does it add anything and how can it be improved? Egypt Middle East Protest Tunisia Duncan Green guardian.co.uk
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The uprisings in the Middle East have shown that viable political opposition is no longer the preserve of Islamists alone The question: Is Islamism dying? It is likely that the political futures of both Tunisia and Egypt will involve Islamist parties participating in formal politics in some capacity. Regimes in both countries have long evoked such a spectre in order to purchase silence and support from overseas in favour of their own continued rule. The current uprisings will not herald the demise of Islamism in the short term, but nor will they usher in an era of theocratic rule. In fact, events have made clear for all to see that there exists an alternative both to the Islamists and to their ruling antagonists: the general will. In the longer term, Islamists of all kinds – militant and electoral – are likely to emerge weakened from the current contestation. For over 80 years, Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood have formed part of the political landscape in the Middle East. Such organisations have served as a long-time opposition to the ruling regimes, and have survived pressures far worse than the end of a particular dictator’s rule. Yet for many supporters of Islamist parties, the parties’ appeal lies precisely in their status in dissenting from the ruling regimes. The culture of brutality that saturated the Mubarak and Ben Ali regimes, the corruption and graft that characterised their rule from the macro to micro level, and the frustration at their failure to provide for their subjects have all served as recruiting sergeants for Islamist parties. That the recent contestation across the Arab world has been over these issues but has not been led by Islamist parties shows that viable opposition is not the preserve of Islamists and Islamism alone. There is clearly another way. Those who are disaffected with the status quo do not have to turn to Islamism as the only viable and credible channel for dissent. Such a perceived monopoly over dissent has ended, but this is not something that has been changed by the recent protests. Rather, it is something that has been proved by them. It is often said that parties oppose in poetry and govern in prose. In Egypt, the Brotherhood – long referred to by the regime simply as “the proscribed organisation” – has now been explicitly named in state media as a party that the regime is talking to. Any future involvement of Islamists in formal politics is likely to bring new challenges for them. It is far easier, from this perspective, for them to criticise the status quo than to implement constructive change. Previous experiences where Islamist parties have been allowed to participate in parliamentary systems, or have seized power, have often proved detrimental to their popularity for they began to share the responsibility for governmental shortcomings. “Who ever liked a government that was ruling them?” the younger brother of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder once asked the author John Bradley. “To survive in power, they would have to make compromises, even with their deepest held principles.” The most important aspect of the recent protests is the sense of empowerment it has given to populations governed by authoritarian regimes. The coercive rule of a “strong man” is not a necessary part of the Arab political landscape, and the demonstrators have shown that they can challenge dictators and shape their own future. Compare the humiliation felt by the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq with the sense of empowerment at the Tunisian people ousting Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Iraq was a case of a people arriving from overseas to lord it over another, whereas the Tunisian case shows a group of people taking assertive action to determine their own future. The jubilation expressed at one toppling was manufactured; at the other it was genuine. It is a sense of humiliation and powerlessness that so often inspires rejectionist forms of Islamism of the al-Qaida kind, and the recent protests are likely to serve a blow to this. Disaffected subjects need not take to the mountains when they see they can take to the streets. How events play out in either country is yet to be seen. Despite the similarities of the protestors’ demands, for various reasons Tunisia’s chances of a meaningful democracy are far higher than Egypt’s. It is not unreasonable to think that Egypt’s overseas allies consider the regime – not to be confused with its leader– to be “too big to fail”. “Failure”, in this case, would mean the risk of Egypt’s people choosing their own government, which may include Islamists. If one despot replaces another then Islamism could well flourish, since the causes of its popularity as a protest movement would remain profoundly unaddressed. On the other hand, the success of protesters in discarding despotic rulers cannot but highlight the fact that there is an activism and an ideology available to them that is an alternative to Islamism. Islam Religion Tunisia Egypt Iraq Protest Middle East Richard Phelps guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Bahrain crackdown will make citizens more determined | Abdulnabi alEkri
February 17, 2011 No Comment
The strategy was to demonstrate peacefully, but attacking Bahraini activists has ruined hopes of a brokered deal The 14 February marked the 10th anniversary of the National Action Charter , which is considered to be the blueprint of the Bahraini reform project. In 2001, the charter was accepted almost unanimously by eligible voters, with the aim of leading to a constitutional monarchy. This chapter in Bahrain’s history was supposed to end decades of authoritarian rule, emergency law and repression of political activists. The results are mixed – but the main outcome is superficial democracy. The state wanted to use this year’s anniversary to create a pompous spectacle to legitimise the ruling family. Organised public rallies and parties, as well as glossy newspaper ads and posters, were pervasive. It is a twist of history that this display of regime power coincided with widespread protests and dramatic changes across the Arab world. In Bahrain , arrests of several hundred political dissidents and human rights activists have been taking place since August 2010. The state used all of its means to portray those that tried to topple the regime as dangerous elements, especially the so-called group of 25 Shia dissidents . It wanted to tell the existing opposition that you are “either with the state or against it”. In addition, the regime successfully foiled the fate of many leftist candidates in the parliamentary elections of October 2010 . But these widespread arrests only served to prove the authoritarian nature of the state to a wide spectrum of Bahraini society. So while the local political atmosphere was very tense and there had been many demonstrations in the past, the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have totally altered the Arab political sphere. Bahraini online activists saw that the time was ripe and emulated the Tunisian and Egyptian example, calling for a “revolution in Bahrain” on 14 February on social networking sites such as Facebook. This day has a symbolic value for Bahrainis as many think they were deceived by the promises of the regime and so the organisers, emboldened by Hosni Mubarak’s downfall, made the most of this moment. While many were skeptical about its success, several thousand demonstrators turned out. The leftwing al-Wa’ad party openly supported the demonstrations and the Shia alliance al-Wifaq endorsed it, but the majority of the demonstrators were young Bahrainis without political affiliations. The strategy was to demonstrate peacefully in many different villages and quarters in order to strain the security forces. The main demands are a constitution written by an elected constitutional assembly and the release of political prisoners. The organised political opposition groups have largely been taken by surprise by these developments but they are trying to form a common stance. Galvanised by the deaths of two young protesters, the demonstrations moved from the villages to one of the busiest roundabouts – Pearl Square – of the capital Manama, close to the financial district. The two sides were well entrenched and there were hopes for a long process of negotiation, inclusive of the non-partisan youth. At the time, there was still a chance to broker a deal, while recognising the legitimacy of the King. Yet, while the Tunisian and Egyptian examples have shown that a violent crackdown is not in the interests of any regime, this lesson has obviously not been learnt in Bahrain. At 3am this morning, a surprise attack was launched on the men, women and children peacefully assembled in Pearl Square. Most were asleep at this early hour, and were suddenly woken up by a barrage of tear gas, rubber bullets and raging waves of anti-riot police forces. Even ambulance workers were attacked, and it is being reported that so far four people have died, including a medic, and hundreds have been injured. The army has been deployed all over Manama and a security operation has been launched to locate and arrest activists. These events mark a turning point. After what has now happened, it is difficult to imagine the possibility of negotiations. Pearl Square has been cleared, but the funerals of those who were murdered will be full of shocked citizens even more determined to confront the regime. The British foreign minister visited Bahrain last week and did not call openly for serious reforms. The UK has much influence in the country and a great deal of leverage over its rulers. It should use this opportunity and stand with the Bahraini people. Bahrain Protest Egypt Tunisia Middle East Abdulnabi alEkri guardian.co.uk
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Ships suspected of carrying weapons for eventual delivery to Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah Israel is monitoring the progress of two Iranian warships, which it says intend to cross through the Suez canal en route to Syria, in a move the foreign minister described as a provocation. The ships, which Israel suspects are carrying weapons for eventual delivery to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamist organisation and ally of Iran, reportedly left the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah two days ago and began to sail towards the strategically important canal. The reports come amid rising tension in the region, with unrest sweeping across Arab countries. Israel is deeply concerned about instability in neighbouring countries and fears that Islamist organisations are growing in influence. The Iranian vessels were due to pass through Suez on Wednesday night, Avigdor Lieberman told a conference of American-Jewish organisations in Jerusalem. “Tonight two Iranian warships are supposed to cross the Suez canal on their way to Syria into the Mediterranean Sea which is something that has not happened for many years,” he said. “This is a provocation that proves that the self-confidence and impudence of the Iranians is growing from day to day … Regrettably the international community shows no willingness to deal with these repeated Iranian provocations.” He said the international community needed to understand that Israel could not ignore such provocations forever. The defence minister, Ehud Barak, confirmed that Israel was “attentively monitoring” the ships’ progress. However, officials at the Suez Canal Authority denied the ships had passed or were scheduled to pass through the canal on Thursday. “No Iranian warships ships crossed the Suez canal today. The Suez canal does not have any Iranian warship on its waiting list for Friday,” Ahmed el-Manakhly, a member of the canal’s board who is responsible for shipping movement, told Reuters. Under international law, only ships from countries at war with Egypt are barred from passing through the Suez canal. But warships need prior permission from Egypt’s defence and foreign ministries. The US state department spokesman PJ Crowley confirmed that Iranian ships were in the area of the canal, but declined to comment further. “There are two ships in the Red Sea,” he said. “What their intention is, what their destination is, I can’t say.” Last month, Iran’s Fars news agency reported that Iranian navy cadets were embarking on a year-long training mission in the Mediterranean, passing through the the Red Sea and the Suez canal. It said the purpose was to train to defend Iranian ships against the threat of Somali pirates. The Suez canal is the key sea passage between Europe and the Middle East and Asia. Since Hosni Mubarak was ousted as Egypt’s president last Friday, Israel has been deeply concerned about the future of relations between it and its closest ally in the region. Egypt’s ruling army council has said the 31-year-old peace treaty between the two countries will be maintained, but Israel remains anxious about whether a future government which is likely to include the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood would review the accord. Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has warned that the country must “prepare for the worst”. Although Israel hoped to see genuine democratic reform in Egypt, he said, it and other countries needed to be alert to “possible dangers that may lie ahead”. Israel Iran Egypt Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Stuart Varney is getting tingles up his leg over the fact that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is ramming through legislation to strip Wisconsin workers of their bargaining rights. He’s practically breaking open the champagne over it. I guess he hasn’t seen the images I’m seeing, of thousands gathered at the State Capitol in Wisconsin, protesting Walker’s attempt to strip them of all bargaining rights. Meanwhile, Walker is doubling down on his promise to call out the National Guard if there’s a walkout, while dismissing the protests. Today is the second day of demonstrations. These people are not going anywhere. Scott Walker would do well to look at what happened in Egypt when the government dismissed protesters and threatened them. I am not saying he is the equivalent of Hosni Mubarak, but I am saying that when thousands gather outside your office to let you know they object to your strong-arm tactics, risking their health and possibly having to face down the National Guard, they’re not doing it for fun and giggles. They’re as serious as he is. Here’s a photo. People stayed overnight there, despite the cold. Dismiss them at your own peril, Governor Walker. enlarge Credit: Artemis47 If that doesn’t impress you, I highly recommend Talking Points Memo’s wonderful slide show.
Continue reading …Egyptian activists condemn brutal attack on CBS reporter in Tahrir Square
February 16, 2011 No Comment
Serious assault on Lara Logan of CBS took place in middle of crowd at height of celebrations after Hosni Mubarak resigned Women’s rights activists and pro-change protesters in Egypt have rallied to condemn a serious sexual assault on an American news reporter, Lara Logan, which took place in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in the moments following Hosni Mubarak’s resignation last Friday. “Lara Logan … and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration,” Logan’s employers, CBS news, said in a brief statement. “It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy. “In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.” Logan, a 39-year-old foreign correspondent, had previously been detained by the Egyptian police while covering the anti-government uprising. She has now flown back to the US and is “recovering at home”, CBS said. The incident has provoked a storm of comment in both the Egyptian and American blogospheres, with many protesters in Cairo keen to show that Logan’s attackers were not representative of the pro-change crowds. “It’s incredibly sad that this has happened, and it’s something that the spirit of Tahrir and the spirit of revolution was resolutely against,” Ahdaf Soueif, an author who spent a great deal of time in Tahrir Square, told the Guardian. “Women in the square were rejoicing that they felt freedom on the streets of Cairo for the first time, and [this is] definitely something that we want to stamp out alongside corruption and all the other social ills that have befallen Egypt during Mubarak’s regime.” Mahmoud Salem, a well known Egyptian blogger, was one of many of the January 25 activists to express outrage. “Lara Logan, what happened to you was reprehensible, & I hope u don’t judge the egyptian people or Tahrir because of it,” he tweeted under his moniker Sandmonkey. Some activists have suggested that the assault may have been the work of pro-Mubarak gangs, whose use of sexual harassment as an intimidation tactic was extensively documented during the revolution, as was their targeting of foreign reporters. But the investigation and prosecution of sexual harassment cases is already low in Egypt, and the detention of those responsible amid the country’s current institutional turmoil appears unlikely. The harassment of women on the streets has long been a major issue in Egyptian society, although efforts to curb the problem have often met resistance from government officials. Scepticism about the extent of the harassment extended as far as the former first lady, Suzanne Mubarak, who once accused the media of exaggerating the problem to tarnish the country’s reputation. A survey by the independent Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights in 2008, however, revealed that 83% of Egyptian women and 98% of foreign women had been exposed to some form of sexual harassment, including groping, verbal abuse, stalking and indecent exposure. Contrary to popular opinion, the incidents did not appear to be linked to the woman’s style of dress, as three-quarters of victims had been veiled at the time. Throughout the 18 days of mass unrest that brought millions to Tahrir Square, many women reported that the level of sexual harassment there was far lower than they had expected. Protesters maintained a disciplined internal security system and, apart from clashes with police and pro-Mubarak militants, no violence was recorded inside the square. “We Egyptian youth are so proud of this revolution, and the first thing we will do is demand that all people stop sexual harassment,” said Marwa Mokhtar, a women’s rights campaigner. “This is our country now, not Mubarak’s country, and we will not allow harassment to continue in the new Egypt.” An Egyptian Facebook group set up to condemn the attack on Logan carried similar sentiments. “We should have continued guarding Tahrir even in the day of celebration,” posted Ahmad Fahmy, a pro-change demonstrator. “I don’t know what to say. Nothing we can do or say can make up for what happened. I guess for now I can just say ‘Sorry’ to Lara and for all women Egyptians or non-Egyptians who were harassed or assaulted in Egypt before.” Another group of bloggers set up an online petition headlined ” Walk Free! Stop Sexual Harassment in Egypt & Apology to Lara Logan “. In the US, debate over Logan’s assault has been fierce, after some commentators made light of the incident. Nir Rosen, an American journalist, was forced to resign from his fellowship at New York University following a series of posts on Twitter which drew jokey comparisons between Logan and CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper, who was assaulted by thugs in Egypt earlier this month, claiming “it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too.” He has since apologised for the remarks. Right-wing blogger Debbie Schlussel also drew ire, after a post on her website blamed Logan herself for the attack. “So sad, too bad, Lara,” wrote Schlussel. “No one told her to go there. She knew the risks. And she should have known what Islam is all about. Now she knows …” Her words were met with a chorus of outrage online. “Lara Logan’s assault is horrifying, but shouldn’t be an excuse for the rightwing to twist this into a story about Arab misogyny,” argued Democracy Now correspondent Anjali Kamat on Twitter. An article published in the Colombia Journalism Review in 2007 claimed that the sexual abuse of female foreign correspondents is under-reported because many victims do not come forward for fear of losing out on future assignments. “In the mounting rhetoric, what is getting lost is the fact that a reporter has been sexually assaulted,” said Laila Lalami in the Nation magazine. “[By coming forward] Lara Logan has broken a powerful taboo.” Heather Blake, of Reporters Without Borders, said that the incident should not be used to prevent female correspondents from going out into the field. “Female journalists have distinct voices to male journalists and it is vital that those very different concerns and outlooks continue to be heard,” she argued. “The attack on Lara Logan highlights the fact that there needs to be gender-specific protection and training of journalists. “At the moment, female and male journalists have the same training. The truth is that female journalists need to be taught about different cultures and the ways in which men behave in those cultures. They need to know about gender-specific expectations in different countries, from what they wear to how they interact with those they met.” Paul Steiger, chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, of which Logan is a board member, said: “We have seen Lara’s compassion at work while helping journalists who have faced brutal aggression while doing their jobs. She is a brilliant, courageous, and committed reporter. Our thoughts are with Lara as she recovers.” Egypt CBS United States Middle East Jack Shenker guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …As Current TV Tops List of Least Watched Cable Channels, Reporter Claims ‘Ratings Savior’ Olbermann to the Rescue
February 16, 2011 No CommentIn Tuesday's Kansas City Star , reporter Aaron Barnhart revealed that Current TV, the cable channel launched in 2005 by Al Gore, would be the least missed, only managing to be viewed by 18,000 households in the forth quarter of 2010. Also on the list of “Cable's Least Wanted” were the DIY network, ESPN Classic, Fox Soccer Channel, Logo, and Sleuth. Despite such abysmal ratings for Current, Barnhart argued that the addition of former MSNBC Countdown host Keith Olbermann to the channel would turn things around: “The good news for Current is that it won’t be counting its audience in the high five figures, at least not when Olbermann is on the air.” He later remarked: “Unlike Current, the rest of Cable’s Least Wanted don’t have a ratings savior waiting in the wings.” Barnhart was speculating on which channels could be eliminated from the cable lineup to make room for Al Jazeera English. Making an exception for Current, which is independently owned, he lamented how the least popular channels “have been propped up by their parent companies for years….They have never, to my knowledge, contributed to our understanding of the Middle East….It’s worth asking why they continue to take up bandwidth in tens of millions of homes. It’s certainly worth asking if you’re one of the 7 million Americans who recently had to stream the unrest in Egypt on Al Jazeera English because it wasn’t on your cable system.” Concluding his piece, Barnhart continued to attack big media companies for preventing the Middle Eastern news channel from getting a place on cable: “…most low-rated cable channels are owned by media conglomerates that have included them as part of package deals with your cable or satellite provider. (Current and RFD are exceptions.) That’s why you hear cable companies continuing to insist that channel space is too precious to waste on adding a world news service. They couldn’t drop these losers if they wanted to. What was that thing Olbermann was saying the other day about cable TV content that was free from corporate interference?” — Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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Writing YA fiction first about Guantánamo, now Egypt, has taught me that the toughest material can actually make the most compelling stories My second novel for young adults, The Glass Collector, is set in Cairo around the time Obama visited the city in 2009 to make his first presidential speech in the Middle East . I had no idea when I wrote the novel quite how topical it would become. Great timing you might think. Sacred synchronicity, I prefer. My last novel, Guantánamo Boy , tells the story of 15-year-old Khaled, a British Muslim who is abducted while on holiday with his family in Pakistan and rendered to Guantánamo Bay. I chose to tackle these two difficult subjects because I believe that young people hunger and thirst for striking stories that allow them to make sense of the world they live in. Books that deal with controversial issues reflect the outside world but reveal truths that aren’t available in newsworthy statistics and facts. They put questions that are difficult to formulate, and provide answers that are often challenging and demanding but satisfying to consider. Modern children’s fiction is crammed with moral dilemmas and subjects as diverse as teenage pregnancy, drug use, domestic violence and war – so The Glass Collector , about a Zabbaleen teenager who’s a Coptic Christian living in the slums of Cairo under a regime that considers him dispensable and mostly invisible, fits right in. My motive, though, wasn’t to tell another controversial story, or to be topical, but to challenge the myth that people we don’t know, who have nothing, and live in countries we can barely locate, aren’t anything like us. There were other challenges too. My teenager, Aaron, spends his days collecting waste from the city and carting it home to a bullying step-family who separate the paper, metal, rags and glass before selling it to unscrupulous merchants. Decisions about voice, language, community, religious customs, food and education (or lack of), were pressing and ever present, but intense though they and the necessary inventions were, it soon became more important to highlight the conflict between the hero’s desires and his circumstances in order to create a vivid story. But the more challenging the idea, the more interesting and exciting a story is to write. It’s a profound and pleasurable experience to expand the imagination on every level. We live in war-torn, troubled times. No one can say what’s going to happen in Egypt in the wake of the revolution, but the Zabbaleen supported the protests in Cairo because they suffered under the Mubarak regime, which threatened their way of life and very existence. I chose difficult subjects because I believe old myths must be challenged before new myths can be written. New myths where everyone is valued and those who have the least are valued most of all. Children and teenagers Egypt guardian.co.uk
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