Do Not Impose Your Will On Our Backs
Posted: Thursday, February 10, 2011
by Walter Rhett
Charleston Perlo
The posts from abroad have been excellent in telling the stories of those who dream of a free Egypt. Obviously, the world realizes that all sectors of the Egyptian people want a country that sustains its progress through effort rather than priviledge. Their numbers and exuberance are only the tip of the feeling and are certainly more than the disaffected sample some imply.
The state disguises some of these challenges and the people who push for new rights ignore them, but there are powerful outside forces, very different and more powerful than the ones the state holds up in its twin appeals of straw men and slippery slopes and its illegitmate claims to being the guardian of order.
It is clear that economic pressure is a part of the push back by the current regime. That pressure is being applied in two ways. First, those loyal to the regime are being rewarded, both workers and corporate interests. Secondly, those who support the transfer of power are being punished, as the state risks its financial health in the world markets by dragging its feet. As the gateway for basic services and food, the state is creating higher prices and false shortages to squeeze those who want to replace it and are insisting that its leaders step down.
The drumbeat of fear and ominous possibility by the state replaces context and facts. The fact to be carefully noted is that companies inside and outside of Egypt are profiting from the political unrest and obscenely using these profits to stop the movement of the Egyptian toward democracy. Rising oil costs are used to leverage world-wide government and popular pressure to block and stifle the movement and undercut its support, while the companies applying this pressure through price increases benefit on their bottom line.
Currently the route of applying the leverage of economic pressures seems to be main tactic to defeat the Egyptian democratic campaign. The fear of an Islamic takeover has become significant in limited but expanding circles and pander to American fears.
The new tactic seems to depend on false promises and threats issued as daily manifestos and stalling in creating any real change until the movement runs out of steam. Clearly, the government can not be trusted. Why its sudden concern in a country ruled under emergency law for thirty years? Or for example, why did the looters who broke into the Antiquities Museum not steal anything if they were angry about their poverty? No real thief, even one dispossessed, leaves riches behind.
The question in Egypt is simple: will the government impose its will on the people’s backs? The answer is complicated by the deceipt and ruthlessness and the fears the state plants, by the outside forces who leverage the economy, by the interests of States who place their interests above those of the people of Egypt.
Beware of the government. Through negotiations, it has the country under seige, the revolution at a stand still, and the US and the international community on hold and eating out of its hand. By being obtuse, the re-arranged power elite plan to barricade the country and block its progress while they hold power–allowing the illusions of freedom at Tahrir Square.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)I'm afraid of that too. What monsters these people are. But once the winds of change start blowing, there's no turning back. So the government can suppress for a while, but not forever.
Egypt is trying to win a victory over a dictatorship. I believe they will win in their quest to be free. We also as Americans could learn from what is happening in Egypt.
Well, regardless what happens, I'm sure America will go running over there trying to force them to live the way the American government thinks they should, since that's what we usually do. (from my knowledge)
We always say we're making peace, yet so many die and are maimed in the process. I don't know what's right or wrong, I only know that everyone deserves to live a peaceful, painless life and it usually requires an ugly uprising to attain that kind of life.Above comment is from me. I wasn't logged in.
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