Two years after the "Revolution"...

This is the best article I found so far about how Egypt is faring and how Egyptians are feeling nowadays, written by a brilliant analyst, Bassem Sabry. The best part? The encouraging conclusion. You can make it, Egypt, you know you can!!

"Of course, it is not all bad. In fact, I began the year with an article explaining why I still see an incredible amount of hope in Egypt, and why I feel the historic momentum is still largely on the right side. There is a resilient private media, an increasingly aware and sophisticated society, more people getting deeply involved in politics, impossible courage and determination, a strong movement to grow civil society despite the hurdles, an opposition that is finally working together, an explosion of creativity and free expression and a growing realization by everyone that vacuous slogans and mere political positioning will not guarantee you political power.

Democracy, in many ways, is still showing signs of forcing itself — apparently against the will of some — to be born. A recent theory claimed that all revolutions go through a critical year-two point at which things look bleak, and indeed this is not where Egyptians hoped their country would be two years after their revolution. Still, it could all be saved, and I see many reasons to stay optimistic and resilient. I genuinely believe that."

Comments

What about Lebanon?

I would never dare to think I have enough knowledge so as to freely talk about this issue and produce a meaningful article, but I will try to write down what I have understood so far (I already had to edit as I misunderstood some facts, thanks Louis!). Lebanon and Syria have always been deeply interconnected. Both countries were part of the Ottoman Empire, both countries were under the dominance of France's colonization, both countries share an extremely complicated ethnic/religious division, and both countries political scenes still depend on the other's. More recently, Syria was a key player in the brokering of the 1989 Taif Accords putting an end to Lebanon's civil war, and its troops (and many authorities) stayed in the country (allegedly guaranteeing the non resumption of violence) until 2005, when the country's population unanimously demanded their retreat. It all started in Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city, next to the country's northern borde...

A Palestinian Spring?

I won't sum up the evolution and characteristics of the Arab Spring for you, you are all aware of them. I won't even enter into the debate on the term "Arab Spring" and its real meaning (at least, not now!). But I have to admit I really like the sound of it, moreover when it is used to add a new country to this encouraging domino effect movement, and that seems to be the case of Palestine. Nonetheless, this case presents a new surprising feature... It looks like one of the leaders of the country the events are taking place in is actually supporting the uprising!! So... who/what do the people go against (besides, as always, the Israeli occupiers)? Well, they are mainly demonstrating against the other visible authority of the Palestinian Authority. Wouldn't it be nice if I put names to all of these characters? A (key?) meeting of the Arab League was held last week in Cairo (President Morsi surprised us again with flammable declarations about Syria, he does se...

Did you say "Syrian opposition"?

Weeks after the outset of the uprising, on August 2011, a new coalition named Syrian National Council (SNC) ( SNC´s web ) emerged as the single and main representative of the Syrian Opposition, following the Libyan example of the National Transitional Council (NTC), a group that gained international recognition as the legitimate governing authority in Libya and acted as such during and after the 2011 Libyan civil war, before handing power to an elected assembly on 8 August (actually, the Council was recognized by the NTC in Libya as the sole legitimate government of Syria). According to Wikipedia , the SNC was in principle a coalition of Syrian opposition groups (in principle: exiled Syrian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, Damascus Declaration, the Assyrian Democratic Organization, the National Democratic Rally, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, the Supreme Council of the Syrian Revolution, the Syrian Revolution General Commission, the Fr...

Discovering MENA and other thoughts

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