Egyptians!!!!

February 11, 2011 Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak steps down from three decades of ruthless power. The people of Egypt faced him in a battle of wills and won. There are already many talking heads addressing "What next?" I decided that today I would avoid that. At this moment the Egyptian people deserve unadulterated praise from around the globe.

For years these people had to suffer under a crippling economy and threats of unthinkable torture in police dungeons. How often Arabs have been criticized for being fatalistic by Western thinkers. European and American politicians have continually condemned Arabs as inherently "medieval" while simultaneously supporting Arab dictators with weaponry and diplomatic immunity; reducing Arab populations to forced subservience. Two myths are now absolutely destroyed: 1) that Arabs are not freedom loving and 2) that the West is. In the year 2011 Tunisia and Egypt are now on the path to becoming democratic societies--not because of the West--but despite the West.

In the past few weeks Egyptian citizens figured out how to mobilize, resist, propagandize, and maintain their ground. The world was watching and they knew it. The true face of the dictatorship was made public. Mubarak's regime anticipated any violent or fanatical move by the protesters. Several images of so-called misbehaving was all that was needed to justify a military crackdown with US government approval. Instead, the people had signs calling for human rights and freedom. They gathered peacefully and refused to disperse. The majority asked not for his head but his departure. "Irhal!" They constantly shouted, "Go!" He said he would not leave. Finally he was forced to quit. Millions stood up to him victoriously! Today they can celebrate! The world now waits for the next tyrant to fall. The question I pose is not, "What's next?" but "Who's next?"

Tariq Ramadan and Slavoj Zizek on the Future of Egyptian Politics

Today in Modesto California a small group of us demonstrated in solidarity with Egyptians (and by further extension the Arab world). The response from the public was overwhelmingly positive. Our signs read "No more US aid to dictators. Down with Mubarak. Let Egypt and the Arab world be free." Others said, "Support freedom." This is what the revolution is about: freedom. People that do not support this freedom keep bringing up the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood. I argue that the ideology and potential for the Muslim Brotherhood to take power is irrelevant at this point. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, once wrote "We do not have a choice between purity and violence but between different kinds of violence." In other words, a revolution has violence, but a dictatorial regime is itself secured through violence. Yet, in the case of Egypt, the revolution has mainly been peaceful. It has been the pro-Mubarak forces that lashed violence and terror on the public for thirty years and they are the ones continuing it still. The Muslim Brotherhood is not Egypt, they are a part of it. On the Riz Khan (al Jazeera English) program Tariq Ramadan, whose grandfather founded the Muslim Brotherhood, and Zizek share interesting points on this topic.

Revolution In Tunisia

The January, 22 Sydney Morning Herold published an article that pinpoints the implications of the revolution in Tunisia. I will post some excerpts:

Only fools talk with certainty of what might happen next. But with all the caveats that follow, last week's revolt in a postage-stamp nation on the southern shores of the Mediterranean has to be seen as a ''maybe'' turning-point for a region in which greedy old men and their extended families are practised at stealing the power and wealth of their people; and for the most part, getting away with it as the rest of the world averts its gaze...

Restless, jobless and ambitious, these young people are increasingly angry because of a tactical mistake by their dictatorial leaders - they educated them, not knowing that they would graduate in an era in which the internet and social media might be weapons of choice for would-be revolutionaries.

If revolt can happen in a backwater like Tunisia then theoretically at least, it can happen anywhere. With food riots in Algeria; anger at price jumps in Jordan; the collapse of government in Lebanon; stepped-up repression in Iran and the farce of democracy and human rights as they are practised by corrupt leaders across the region, Tunisians rarely came into the frame as likely revolutionaries...

The Egyptian-born writer Mona Eltahawy is eloquent on this: "Not once in my 43 years have I thought that I'd see an Arab leader toppled by his people. It is nothing short of poetic justice that it was neither Islamists nor invasion-in-the-name-of-democracy that sent the waters rushing on to Ben Ali's ship but, rather, the youth of his country."

Her point is this: unlike the crushing humiliation for Arabs in the ousting of Saddam Hussein by the American-led invasion of Iraq, the home-driven demise of Ben Ali in Tunisia is something that Arabs might emulate with pride...

Could this be the start of the year, or perhaps the decade of the Arab people? There's a giddiness in the air. But because of what the people of Tunisia have already achieved, the editor of Egypt's Al-Distoor newspaper, Taalat Rumaiah, cannot be dismissed entirely when he tells The Guardian: "We can expect things to replicate in Egypt - it's possible that two or three other Arab regimes could fall this year because of popular uprisings."

WikiLeaks: Iraq, War, and Information

Before the US government and other various political elites flipped out over WikiLeaks sharing secretive diplomatic information, WikiLeaks shared leaked information on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who really cared that a video was released of humans being shot down excitedly on video by US soldiers? This exposed slaughter barely made a splash in US news media. WikiLeaks has revealed that which most people already knew: politicians lie and war kills people. Although, elites do not like feeling exposed so candidly. In a sense Big Brother is getting Big brother-ed. WikiLeaks makes the truth officially known. Not conspiracy theories, just raw reality. Truth can be stranger than fiction. WikiLeaks inspired something new. Governments and corporations now must battle with computers geeks over the security of data, the dawn of globalized Cyber Wars begins.

BBC: The Trap (We Will Force You To Be Free)

The economy in the US is a disaster. I spent almost a month in my home with the power shut off because I could not afford to pay the bill. Fortunately, many times my neighbors threw an extension cord over the fence so I could plug in one lamp and activate my internet. What did I do with those lucky moments? I watched online documentaries.

The best one I watched was from a series by Adam Curtis shown on the BBC called "The Trap." This is the best analysis I have seen of the ideological origins behind the grim global realities suffered in the twentieth-century and now facing the twenty first. I will post a clip from the last of the series titled "We Will Force You to Be Free." Curtis examines the legacy of the British thinker Isaiah Berlin and his influence on Western political leaders. He looks at Berlin's 1958 "Two Concepts of Liberty." Berlin called revolution "positive liberty." He believed revolution always leads to disaster. He advocated "negative liberty." Negative liberty correlates with individualist freedom within a capitalist liberal democratic society. Ultimately, Curtis rejects Berlin's dichotomy, but he reveals the leaders that embraced it. The series covers much more (Watch all of it here). Here is a teaser.

Is the Dalai Lama a Mean Theocrat?

The Dalai Lama is viewed internationally as a hero and saintly man. This exiled leader of Tibet certainly has a charismatic smile. He has spiritual authority over Tibetans and heads the exile government of Tibet located in India. Tibet has been occupied and controlled by China since 1951.

The Dalai Lama will have his birthday July 6. He has spent most of his life working to get his country's sovereignty back. The Free Tibet website states, "Across the world people will be freely and publicly celebrating the Dalai Lama’s 75th birthday, but in Tibet people are unable to do so without risking terrible punishment. They cannot even pray openly for his long life or burn incense to mark his birthday, as is traditional." The irony is that the Dalai Lama currently enacts the same draconian punishment against Dorje Shugden worshipers. The Western Shugden Society's website says, "In March 1996, in an aggressive and threatening manner, the Dalai Lama stated that there would be a forceful implementation of the ban against those who persisted in the practice of Dorje Shugden....This persecution has been enforced since 1996 and still continues."

This 1998 Swiss Television documentary reveals an unambiguous despotism by the Dalai Lama. In no way does his behavior somehow validate China's occupation of Tibet. It also does not justify China's treatment of Tibetans. Yet, it does deconstruct the Western fantasy regarding Tibet's legacy of mystic feudalism. A theocracy is a theocracy.

Part 1 of 3 (I am only posting two clips)

Part 3 of 3.

Freedom and Deleuze

From Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith and Revolution:

The idea, touted in particular by some Americans, that Islamic radicals are envious of Western freedoms is about as convincing as the suggestion that they are secretly hankering to sit in cafes smoking dope and reading Gilles Deleuze (p. 145).

I guess when you can't sit in on the course, reading is as good as it gets: