Samantha M. Shapiro has a wonderful piece in today's New York Times Magazine titled "Revolution, Facebook-Style," asking the question "Can Social Networking Turn Disaffected Young Egyptians into a Force for Democratic Change?" I think it's a great read for anyone wanting a brief over-view of what is going on in Egypt today. The article is quite comprehensive and touches on a wide variety of important issues in the current Egyptian political and social landscape such as the wage riots, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian political movements like Kefaya, political oppression, and Egyptian outrage over Gaza. The article focuses, however, on the bloggers of the April 6 Youth Movement, which boasts a Facebook group of over 70,000 members, and who have harnessed one of the most popular social networking sites (ranked top-3rd most visited website in Egypt, according to the article) as an outlet for free political, social, and economic expression in a country where repression – and oppression – of these ideas have become institutionalized. The article chronicles the formation of this group and its attempts to impact the Egyptian political scene despite arrests, foiled protests, and infighting. Cyberspace has provided a fresh, new outlet for political expression in Egypt, but as the article highlights, forces for real change in Egypt still have a ways to go
By organizing online, the April 6 movement avoids some of the pitfalls of party politics in Egypt ‚ censorship, bureaucracy, compromise with the regime. But whenever the movement's members try to migrate offline, they find they are still playing by Egypt's rules. They almost never meet in real life, certainly not in large groups, and when they do, the police often show up. Online, members of the movement are casting votes on the Web site's walls, publishing notes with their views on the political situation and creating groups to draft a constitution for their movement. But what does it mean to have a vibrant civil society on your computer screen and a police state in the street? When I spoke to Nora Younis, she described the April 6 strike as a practice session for the new generation. "It's a rehearsal for a bigger thing," she said. "Right now, we are just testing the power of each other."
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
