Discovering MENA and other thoughts

Every time I now hear/read about the so-called Arab Spring, few are those who are not grasping at straws when referring to Tunisia. Tunisia was the country where the immolation of a desperate young graduate who had to sell fruits in the street in order to cater for his family sparked an uprising that spread throughout the region and amazed many amongst us, getting our hopes up that the Arab world would finally rid of its tyrants. Tunisia was also the first country to hold elections, the first country to put in place a kind of representative parliament, the first country in which political and union activity seemed to be leading somewhere . Until violence broke out, political assassinations shook the entire country, in the face of which the Islamists in power appeared more than unwilling/incapable to find an exit to the stalemate the country was plunged into. The transition has been convoluted and plagued by disturbances that nearly derailed the process. The main end-product, a Const...

"The Muslim brotherhood has experienced two major waves that have risen and fallen. The first wave was in 1928 in its original launch by group founder Hassan el-Banna and then the ruthless crackdown of president Nasser beginning in 1954. The second wave started in 1971 with the release of their leaders from imprisonment, and ended this year with the collapse of Morsi’s rule and the subsequent crackdown" (via Nervana , who else?).

DiscoveringMENA is sometimes honnoured with articles by the brilliant Maria Sanchez (you can read more following this link ). --> El Pueblo, la fuerza durmiente de Egipto.

Tamarrud (rebel yourself in Arabic), Egypt's most famous protest movement , the one that sparked the 30 June huge demonstrations that ultimately ousted Mohammed Morsi, has inspired several copycats in brethren countries. Which ones? The ones who already went through their (successful or not) "Arab Springs".

Today I found what is, in my opinion, one of the best articles on Egypt today . Thanks, Ursula Lindsey!

I promised myself (and some friends) I would not comment on the situation. As always, much more prepared people on the ground were going to take charge of dissecting what just happened and what could happen in Egypt. But I casually found the perfect title for the post and decided to write a short post, mainly highlighting what I´ve been reading these last hours. Many people are still wonder whether we can label the events of July 3rd. The main labels, representing the two mainstreams of the opinionionators call for using the words revolution or coup, others in the middle believe it is possible to mix both notions, thus giving birth to strange expressions such as "coupolution" and "coup-ception". Arabic speakers, on their part, tend to use the word "inqilabution" (inqilab is the Arabic word for coup). Then comes the difficult choice of a suitable epithet: military coup? popular coup? military revolution? These digressions even sparked the creation of th...

I have been trying to write an article about my beloved Egypt since I started the blog, but so far I have not been able to. Even though it is supposed to be the country I know the most about, I still feel I don't know enough, moreover if I take into account the expertise all my Egyptian and foreign friends living in Egypt possess. That is why I thought I could write an introductory post explaining what is nowadays happening there, a post for beginners like me. The Egyptian Revolution was a time of hope and enthusiasm amongst millions of inhabitants of the most populated, and often the most representative, country of the Arab world. But scores of people are once and again protesting on the streets, chanting anew slogans against what they consider an authoritarian regime, this time in the form of an Islamist-dominated Government headed by a controversial and opaque figure, President Mohammed Morsi. The Muslim Brotherhood, underground and harshly repressed for 84 years, seems to be ...

As if Hamas didn't have enough... According to the ceasefire Hamas and Israel agreed upon under the auspices of Mr Morsi and the US after the short but bloody November war , all of Gaza's crossing with both Egypt and Israel should be opened. This would have meant the desperately needed lifting of the siege imposed in 2007 by Israel for what it called security reasons. But the text has not been entirely implemented. Far from that. In 2010, Israel already eased some of the limits they imposed on imports into the coastal enclave. Trade was further eased across the Kerem Shalom crossing before its temporary closure after Gaza militants fired a rocket at the Israeli city of Ashkelon as a reprisal for the death of a Palestinian youth that sparked the fears of a third intifada. This crossing is an economic lifeline for the territory's 1.6 million Palestinians, as it provides the vast majority of consumer goods (building materials and fuel usually come from Egypt). Israeli au...

NYT's David Kirkpatrick never ceases to amaze me. His article on the obstacles the MB are finding on their way towards achieving total control of the state underlines incredible important facts not all critics speaking of "authoritarianism" have taken into account. The Brothers are first having difficulties when it comes to bash the Supreme Constitutional Court's auctoritas. Indeed, during its first session after the Constitution was adopted in a moot referendum, "the president of the court sneered with disdain at a lawyer for the Muslim Brotherhood trying to address the reconfigured bench, stripped of 7 of its 18 members. “As if you left a court to be spoken of like this!” Judge Maher el-Beheiry snapped".  They have also failed to rein in Egypt's deep bureaucratic system that cannot be entirely replaced with fellow allies, as well as in Egypt's mostly independent security forces (not only the military, but above all the Police), which still r...

Previous articles about the situation in Jordan here and here . Despite King Abdullah's considering a postponement in view of the growing polarization between the government and the opposition and the widespread popular protests (some of them including people actually  burning their voter ID cards) , elections in the country were held as scheduled on 23 January, and thousands of voters went to the polls to vote for a new Parliament amidst non-abating calls for reforms. So far, foreign observers have characterised the vote as a free and fair one, only marred with minor disruptions, and security was beefed up with an eye on the eventual resumption of protests throughout the country.

If you really want to learn on this issue, read these texts and not mine: Ricard's Maria's Notes 1 and 2 Francesca's Ismael's The 22 November controversial Decree was a Presidential Decree and not a Constitutional Declaration, for there's neither a real Egyptian constituency, nor a real Constitution in effect The text was aimed at bypassing the Judiciary (only existing balance), in particular a Constitutional Court ruling due on 2 December that, according to many (and in view of the MB fears) would have nullified the Constituent Assembly and would have dissolved the Shura Council (the MB- dominated "advisory board", only elected body (well, the participation rate was approx 7%) that remains after the same court dissolved the Parliament in June). Is this the right way to sideline the judiciary until it is swept from what they call "remnants of the old guard"? The President granted himself sweeping powers, and his decisions ...

"Morsi today usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt's new pharaon" Mohamed El Baradei (as I already admitted, one of my heroes). The text (via Al Ahram) Article I: Reopen the investigations and prosecutions in the cases of the murder, the attempted murder and the wounding of protesters as well as the crimes of terror committed against the revolutionaries by anyone who held a political or executive position under the former regime, according to the Law of the Protection of the Revolution and other laws. Article II: Previous constitutional declarations, laws, and decrees made by the president since he took office on 30 June 2012, until the constitution is approved and a new People’s Assembly [lower house of parliament] is elected, are final and binding and cannot be appealed by any way or to any entity. Nor shall they be suspended or canceled and all lawsuits related to them and brought before any judicial body against these decisions are annulle...