Huge Protests In Egypt Options

If anyone here is willing, please monitor #Egypt or #jan25 on Twitter.

Egypt is currently under near complete Internet lockdown. Multiple fatalities...police setting fire to cars and city squares. Please let anyone know what is happening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtTUsqra-MU

This post has been edited by Petrus: Jan 28 2011, 12:56 AM

Because someone has to play the devil's advocate:

Before massively endorsing the breakdown of oppressive and dictatorial governments, consider that democracy is a process and as a process, it needs significant scaffolding in the form of overall freedom, a more generally educated population, and a variety of other factors. And sometimes, its not always appropriate. Augusto Pinochet was a horrible tyrant, but I would honestly credit Chile's present economic strength: the highest nominal GDP per capita to it and thus, the improved welfare of hundreds of thousands to his oppressive methods that nonetheless benefitted the essentially effective structure of a free market economy.

And sometimes, one has to prop up devils and monsters when necessary; there are many mercenaries who are former felons and criminals, but you might consider them quite differently when you're guarding you from taking a 45 caliber in the head. Sometimes the relative value of a partner is not in their overall morality, but in their present necessity.

That said, it doesn't particularly justify most Middle Eastern governments who are genuinely outdated and pathetically corrupt institutions that do little except to perpetuate themselves. I am hopeful that Egypt will reform effectively, though the fear that it will descend into chaos and bloodshed is yet present with me.

As a final aside, I actually work for an Islamic institution in one of my jobs. I think it would be immensely patronizing to consider the Islamic culture to be identical to our own without considering it on its own merits and weaknesses. It is generally, at least a slightly more aggressive religion in atittude. If you go into a Catholic high school, you will see a lot of scripture, but not much praise of the Crusades. In an Islamic school, its not infrequent to see a lot of praise of the 'power of Islamic' as reflected in their heydays of conquest as it is often seem as indistinguishable from Allah's promise of love and blessing to his people.

That said, they're still human beings - just because they are different or may even have a culture that's more vulnerable to extremism does not change that indeed, they still have housewives who need to shop, boys who want to annoy people and girls trying to get colorful headscarves so they'll be looked at. People are still people.

This post has been edited by Lichdar: Feb 1 2011, 07:48 AM