Everyone following the Egypt situation? I hope the transition of power is peaceful.
Africa seems to be up in flames this entire month. Egypt and Tunisia protesting against the government, Ivory Coast using an AU panel to resolve the presidential dispute there, Mendella in the hospital with a (I think) heart condition, and in Uganda, we have this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12306077
What the hell, Africa?
Africa has been burning for quiet some time. The press is just reporting on it heavily cause its Egypt.
i just pray this uprising doesn’t end in blood and tears.
I agree, the situation wasn’t really good there. And now with the increasing inflation, especially for basic food products, only a tiny bit can start people going onto the streets. The leaders like Mubarak trying to cling themselves on their office just shows how static the political structure in these countries is.
BTW, such riots aren’t only exclusively on the African continent.
This happened in Albania (Europe) last week, and even I living here didn’t get any coverage about it in the media.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iurQ13cc7wA&feature=player_embedded#
Im also hoping that this wont end badly. But Middle East politics arent going to be the same after this…even with a peaceful transition power. This is getting real dicey real fast.
Indeed it is. Wow!
Africa is reminding me of Europe ca. 1989-91, but, obviously, with very different economic parameters. 2011 is turning out to be a momentous year in global politics.
(I don’t expect Mubarak to end up well, one way or another, after this, and I wonder who will end up on top in Egypt–and Tunisia. My fear is that hard line Islamists will find a way to sweep into power before the dust clears.)
Al Jazeera is doing some great coverage of this (unsurprisingly.) They’re even releasing their Egypt coverage under a Creative Commons license.
The thing about Egypt and our support of it is that…we did it to help a friend(Israel). And Jordan as well. It’s…if this revolution leads to diplomatic ties between Israel and Egypt suffering… That’s not good. Not even because it’s bad for Israel but because it’s poor for the region you know?
How this ends up shaking out is truly up in the air. But, IMO Israel needs to start standing on it’s own & not relying on the US to prop it up in the region.They are surrounded by enemies, they need to figure out how to survive on their own.
well said, I’m personally against all the subsidizing of foreign armies we do (plus how stupid is it that we give military aid to Israel AND Israel’s enemies? especially with how big of a fiscal hole we’re in)
andiminga made an excellent point about the food inflation, I’ve been reading bit stories here and there for some time about food riots around the world, especially in the third world, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see those get more violent
Among many others, we give aid to Egypt (largely military.)
andiminga made an excellent point about the food inflation, I’ve been reading bit stories here and there for some time about food riots around the world, especially in the third world, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see those get more violent
Egyptians are apparently fiends for bread. They have the highest per-capita consumption in the world. Naturally, that’s subsidized. Obviously, that’s now disrupted.
well I think we’d be here for a while if we had to write out every nation we give aid to
also fiends for bread? SO AM I!!! I simply now must go to Egypt once things have calmed down, bread is my diet killing weakness 
I was in Egypt a couple years ago, amazing country and a strong people. Highlight of the trip: an adventure where I snuck past police with AK47s while doing my Lara Croft impression at 2am in the ruins at Giza.
I wonder if any of those dudes fought against the protesters… At one point a pair of them were maybe 15 feet away from me as I lay on my back on stone above them being as quiet as a freakin’ mouse.
Surprised that this hasn’t shown up in the thread yet…
Now the appropriateness of the analogy is debatable, but the fact that it is being sited all over the interwebs (my Gizmodo link above being just one of many examples), is I think reason enough to post it here, of all places.
I thought about it, but didn’t post it because it doesn’t apply here. The military is not working against the protesters. They’re actually protecting them from security forces.