Leave Egypt alone, pleads Simon Jenkins ( Comment , 2 February). We should not only avoid any military aid/intervention, however; we should also stop preaching. Twenty-five years ago, the good news was from Russia. Unfortunately, the forces of reform quickly split into two, and the debate descended into a clash between two Nobel laureates, Gorbachev and Sakharov – a battle which, from the longer-term perspective, both lost. Why, then, this confrontation? To a large extent, it was because, both in London and Washington, we blundered, we gave the wrong advice. So the Russians chose to use our western interpretation of democracy. It was thus all win-or-lose in a single-preference electoral system; and win-or-lose again in an even more Orwellian decision-making process: the simple, for-or-against, majority vote. So back to Egypt. Many observers fear a takeover by one or other extremist group. The danger, therefore, is that, we might blunder again, and that Cairo might adopt an adversarial democratic structure which would allow for such an outcome. The wiser approach would be for the Egyptians to ignore any majoritarian model and to opt, instead, for a government of national unity. Decisions could then be based not on the majority’s more preferred policy from a choice of two options but, from a much wider selection, on the most popular option of every member in parliament. In a modern, plural society, concepts like majority rule and minority veto should really be obsolescent. Peter Emerson Director, The de Borda Institute Egypt Hosni Mubarak Foreign policy guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Prime minister’s questions is supposed to be fun – not an earnest, gentlemanly debate about Egypt or Afghanistan It was a shocking experience – the first nice prime minister’s questions I can recall. This was a huge disappointment for everyone in the public, press and peers’ gallery and for MPs themselves. Imagine that at the start of tomorrow night’s rugby match between Wales and England in Cardiff, before tens of thousands of excitedfans, there was a PA announcement on these lines: “Ladies and gentlemen, after long consideration and consultation, the Rugby Football Union has decided that having 30 grown men on a field kicking lumps out of each other, attempting to cripple their opponents on a permanent basis, and gouging people’s eyes out, is extremely dangerous and against every health and safety regulation the most crazed bureaucrat could dream up. For this reason, the result of tonight’s game will be decided by a debate between the teams, which you are welcome to listen to, if you wish. There will be no refunds. Thank you.” The place would go berserk. Cries of “Oh, I say, steady on!” would echo round the stands. Barbour jackets would be waved in anger. Hipflasks would rain upon the pitch. Likewise the Commons almost went mad this afternoon. The whole session – or at least the mini-debate between the PM and the Labour leader, which is the only part that counts – was conducted in a manner as calm and emollient as the weekend singalong at an old folks’ home. This is how bad it got. While David Cameron spoke, MPs were talking among themselves. Not barracking, not trying to score points, but chatting to each other because their private conversations were more interesting than anything he might be saying. All public speakers know, and dread, that experience. For a prime minister it is unheard of. I know people will argue that a serious question time is long overdue. Lines such as “I am most grateful for that reply”, “the whole House will be pleased by the prime minister’s answer, and share the view he has expressed,” and “I entirely agree”, which we heard today, are, we are told, what the public wants to hear. They want the kind of thoughtful discussions on Egypt and Afghanistan which we had yesterday. I wonder. Certainly Messrs Cameron and Miliband seemed very pleased with their own gentlemanliness. As the sound of MPs chuntering on about anything except Egypt and Afghanistan rumbled round them the Labour leader mused, “I sense that people are not used to this kind of prime minister’s questions.” Cameron agreed. “From the noises off, it is clear that people would prefer a bunfight, but sometimes it is sensible to have a serious conversation …” Yes, I thought, and you can have that in private any time you like. But PMQs is our weekly fun. Don’t spoil it. (I think he meant “food fight” or a “bear pit”. A bunfight is a tea party.) And, by the way, the bald patch was invisible for most of the session, but towards the end it peeped coyly out, just above and to one side of his right ear. David Cameron Ed Miliband Egypt Afghanistan Simon Hoggart guardian.co.uk
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The regime appears determined to regain control after a week of near anarchy, but is help at hand? Steve Bell
Continue reading …President Obama’s goal of getting 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on America’s roads by 2015 is all but certain to fail, concludes a new report done in conjunction with the auto industry. Despite decent debuts from the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, major manufacturers won’t be producing the volume of…
Continue reading …The woman behind the Planned Parenthood sting that resulted in an employee getting fired is a 22-year-old anti-abortion activist named Lila Rose. She’s made headlines before , but nothing to this extent, and it’s a safe bet we’ll be hearing more from the founder of the group Live Action, writes Libby…
Continue reading …How bit.ly data shows the unrest in Egypt – and the internet shutdown | Strata conference 2011
February 2, 2011 No Comment
bit.ly data scientist Hilary Mason explains how the unrest in Egypt – and the shutdown of the country’s internet – are reflected in the site’s statistics The unrest in Egypt – and the shutdown in the country’s internet activity – is reflected instantly in our data from the country. You can see what happened here at the end of January: The first graph shows clicks from Egypt on bit.ly links. It’s a simple line plot with each point indicating cumulative clicks per hour, and you can see the precipitous drop-off – from around 20,000 per hour to almost zero – when the majority of Egyptian ISPs shut down and a smaller drop-off just before February 1st when Noor, the last operating ISP, shut down. Finally, we see that connections have been restored and in the last few hours traffic has returned to almost normal levels. The second graph show clicks from anywhere in the world on URLs that contain content related to Egypt. It’s in UTC and not normalised by timezone, which shows that people around the world have consistently been interested in the topic over the last week. Interestingly, these results are reflected too in Arbor’s statistics from Egypt which measured activity across 80 networks . More data Data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian World government data • Search the world’s government data with our gateway Development and aid data • Search the world’s global development data with our gateway Can you do something with this data? • Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group • Contact us at data@guardian.co.uk • Get the A-Z of data • More at the Datastore directory • Follow us on Twitter Egypt Internet guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The White Stripes split up today, ending a 13-year career that saw six studio albums and numerous world tours, PopEater reports. Jack and Meg White, who last released 2007′s Icky Thump , said there was no hard feelings in a statement posted to their website . “The reason is not due to…
Continue reading …Angry Italian women intend to hurl their panties at Silvio Berlusconi this weekend, to protest his alleged sexual escapades. The protest, scheduled for Sunday outside of Berlusconi’s mansion in Milan, is one of the first in a series of demonstrations planned this month, the Telegraph reports. Hundreds of women have…
Continue reading …Anderson Cooper may have been the highest-profile journalist attacked today , but he’s far from the only one. (See the video gallery for CNN footage of the assault). Mediaite says reporters from the AP, the BBC, a Danish newspaper, and Israeli TV also were roughed up. Katie Couric had to cut…
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Criminal acts by government-backed thugs and a regime killing its own people make negotiations impossible, says Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei has called on the international community to urgently withdraw support from “a regime that is killing its people”, following a day of intense violence in Cairo that left at least one dead and several hundred more injured. The Nobel peace laureate, who some want to see leading a transitional government in a post-Mubarak Egypt, told the Guardian that the “criminal acts” of government-backed thugs in the capital yesterday had made any negotiations with the Mubarak regime impossible. “Today’s violence is again an indication of a criminal regime that has lost any common sense,” said ElBaradei. “We have no intention whatsoever – at least I speak for myself on this – in engaging in dialogue with this regime until the number one person responsible for this, who is Mubarak, leaves the country. He must get out.” Following a speech by Mubarak on Tuesday night in which the Egyptian leader promised to step down in September, there had been speculation that a loose coalition of anti-Mubarak groups would rethink their refusal to accept an offer of discussions with newly appointed vice-president Omar Suleiman. But amid scenes of running street battles between anti-government protesters and pro-Mubarak forces, many of whom were found to be carrying police identification, ElBaradei said the opposition’s resolve to force Mubarak out immediately had only been strengthened. “First of all this is not a negotiation – we the people have legitimate demands and we would like to tell the government what to do. Our freedom is not up for negotiation. Secondly how can you negotiate with a regime that is killing its people? When the regime tries to counter a peaceful demonstration by using thugs, some of whom are police officers in plain clothes – we’ve seen their IDs – there are few words that do justice to this villainy and I think it can only hasten that regime’s departure.” “After today people are realising just what they’re dealing with,” added the 68-year-old. “Now they’re not just talking about the man responsible leaving the country, they’re also talking about putting him on trial. If he has an iota of dignity left, he should leave. Mubarak has received a vote of no confidence by the entire Egyptian people … I hope he has the intelligence to realise that it is better for him to leave now before the country continues to go down the drain, economically and socially.” Despite the bloodshed, ElBaradei called on pro-change demonstrators to continue taking to the streets in huge numbers. “I think Friday will be a very big day in that respect. But even if they don’t, even if they are repressed and crushed, there is still no going back. This is a new era – just look in protesters’ eyes. The Egyptians have grown in confidence, they’ve tasted freedom, and there’s no way back.” He also confirmed that he had been contacted in recent days by the British government as well as a number of other international leaders. “My message to them is simple: the sooner Mubarak leaves, the better it is for everybody and the quicker we can restore normality and stability in Egypt and establish the cornerstone of democracy in the Middle East.” ElBaradei’s appeals were echoed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamist opposition group and ElBaradei’s partners in the newly-formed National Committee for Following up the People’s Demands. Analysts believe that with Molotov cocktails being thrown in Cairo, a final confrontation between protesters and the establishment is imminent. Egypt Middle East Protest Hosni Mubarak Mohamed ElBaradei Jack Shenker guardian.co.uk
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