Aladdin Elaasar2013-05-25T00:55:52-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=aladdin-elaasarCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Aladdin ElaasarGood old fashioned elbow grease.The Next President and Savior of Egypt: Aboul-Foutoh?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.15055672012-05-10T17:35:44-04:002012-07-10T05:12:16-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/
The Mubarak regime that lasted for three decades had done a lot of damage to this once glorious nation. The country is still recoiling from the impact of that regime; the vast corruption that infested the previous government and the remnants of the Mubarak regime, the overbearing of the military institution, the impoverishment of the masses and the middle class, and the self-interests of some neighboring countries who do not wish to see Egypt rise and regain its rightful place in the world arena.
The coming presidential election in early June brings some hope for the Egyptians who are gasping for a wise and capable leadership that will steer Egypt to stability and prosperity. The economy is on the top list of concerns of people of Egypt. The front runner in these elections seems to be none but Dr. Abdolmoneim Aboul-Fotouh known for his staunch opposition to the Sadat and Mubarak regimes as well as his openness towards people of different political ideologies. Aboul-Fotouh was born in Cairo in 1951 and graduated from Cairo University School of Medicine with honors in 1976. He also received a Bachelor's Degree of Law from the same university and attained a master's degree in hospital management.
Aboul-Fotouh was the president of the student union at the School of Medicine. While president of the student union at Cairo University, Aboul-Fotouh debated with former president Anwar Sadat live on TV. Aboul-Fotouh called Sadat's close advisors hypocrites, and denounced the arrests of student demonstrators on campus. Sadat was angered and Aboul-Fotoh was arrested in 1981 in the infamous September arrests -- that targeted thousands of Muslims, Christians, journalists, and all critics of Sadat -- and tried in a military court. Under Mubarak, Aboul-Fotouh was also imprisoned from 1996 to 2001. He had been working as the aide to the secretary-general of the Arab Medical Union before his imprisonment.
Aboul-Futouh had been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood from 1987 until 2009. In 2011 he formally quit all political work with the Muslim Brotherhood, following his decision to run for president in 2012. Aboul Fotouh has attempted to build a broad base of support across the political spectrum despite perhaps some disagreements with others. He was endorsed by the Salafi Al-Nour Party on April 2012, and many liberals. Known for his liberal and open-minded views and as a leader, he declared that the source of true power and legislation was not in a law or constitution but in the people.
Known for his humility and reaching out to all people, Aboul-Futouh enjoys a great deal of respect among Egyptians. He is an excellent speaker, very disciplined, and with a clear vision for the future. Aboul-Futouh is ahead of all the other candidates in the polls and his campaign seems to be gaining momentum and more supporters by the day. His campaign depends of the support of single individuals unlike other candidates who alleged obtained huge sums of cash from suspicious sources and do have dubious leaning serving foreign agendas. The popular sentiment in Egypt is a total refusal of candidates that were linked or part of the Mubarak regime, came from a military background, or above the age of seventy five. The vast majority of Egyptians are looking for a younger candidate with a clean slate who is not out of touch and does not live in an ivory tower with the rich business elite. Aboul-Futouh is only 60 and highly driven and energetic. He has clean and patriotic record and has promised to pick a young vice president and leadership. Will he then make it in June and become the savior of Egypt?
Aladdin Elaasar is the author of The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Obama Age. Email him at: omaraladin@aol.com]]>What Will Become of Libya?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8381602011-03-20T20:32:34-04:002011-05-25T18:40:24-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/
America is on the right side of history responding to the popular sentiments of Arabs and their gasping for freedom after decades of authoritarian rule of despots who are corrupt and oppressive. America does not need to change the world, but rather listen to the people in these countries, support their hopes for democracy and their right to protest. Our so-called allies across the Arab world have proved to be big liabilities rather than assets; from Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and others, the people have spoken and made it clear what they want. They are not afraid anymore of old regimes that have been using fear and oppressive tactics against their people. Arabs are not buying anymore the conspiracy theories that have been promoting by the state media about imperialists, but rather seeing the enemy at home that has been oppressing them, stifling democracy and looting their wealth. It is a brave new world.
The military strikes on Gaddafi's military are weakening him and might not take long. Gaddafi does not have too many choices. His end might be sooner than expected. He is like a cornered rat that might end up in the international court of justice for his crimes against Libyans. Nevertheless, the future seems bright for Libya. It has a fairly small population and is a major oil and gas exporter. It has a viable opposition force and a large community of expatriate Libyans in the West who fled Libya for decades for it was unbearable to live under Gaddafi's regime. The Libyan diaspora is very well-educated and can help in deciding what course Libya will take. They should also be able to take part in near elections.
The US and the West announced that they do not want to run or own that conflict. They are operating under the umbrella of the UN and the blessings of the Arab League. Most probably some Arab countries can participate in that effort. Libya's neighbors like Tunisia and Egypt can help. Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are involved. We should ask the help of all parties willing to help rather than picking up the tab alone.
Aladdin Elaasar is an expert on the Arab World. He has been a frequent commentator on the Middle East on American and international TV and Radio networks such as CNN, ABC, NBC, NPR, MSNBC, FOX NEWS, BBC radio and TV, and others. ]]>Egyptians Rise Against Their Pharoahtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8155202011-01-28T14:14:43-05:002011-05-25T18:30:24-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/
In spite of the fact that the regime has declared a curfew in Egypt and called on the army to intervene, demonstrations still persist. The winter of fury seems to be spreading throughout the region. Arab youth are demonstrating against their old authoritarian regimes in masses for the first time in recent history. Ben Ali ruled Tunisia for 23 years with an iron fist. Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, another dictator who came to power by a military coup more than 34 years ago, still rules Yemen and is rumored to be preparing his son to be the next president. Yemenis have been out in thousands calling for his ouster.
Several Arab young men have set themselves on fire in protest against unemployment, poverty and oppression, from Tunisia, Mauritania, Algeria, Egypt and even in Saudi Arabia. Riots have also erupted in Jordan. These regimes were long thought of as allies of the US and pillars of stability. The US State Dept. has been criticizing these regimes year after year for grave human rights abuses against their people, yet the Mubarak regime is the largest recipient of US foreign aid after the State of Israel. This has been giving the wrong message to the people of the region about our commitment to freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
Transparency International has ranked the Mubarak regime and several other Arab regimes at the bottom of its list of highly corrupt regimes. The personal wealth of the Mubarak family is estimated between $50-70 billion. It was reported two days ago that Gamal Mubarak, son of President Mubarak was heading to London with a big entourage and about 80 pieces of luggage along with his mother, Suzanne Mubarak, and high officials, though Egyptian sources dismiss the report as false.
The Angry Generation
The International Labor Office (ILO) annual World Employment Report 2004-2005 found out that the number of unemployed people in Egypt climbed to new heights in 2005. Young people aged 15 to 24 comprise almost half of the Egypt's unemployed and are more than three times as likely as adults to be out of work. The ILO called this figure troublesome. The Middle East and North Africa, MENA, stands out as the region with the highest rate of unemployment in the world. With an unemployment rate of 23.2 percent, the Middle East is ahead of sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region in the world, which has the second highest rate of unemployment, 19.7 percent. The Council of Arab Economic Unity estimates unemployment in the Middle East (members of the Arab League only) at 20 percent. The number of unemployed people in MENA is particularly puzzling because the oil producing countries employ 7-8 million expatriate workers transmitting perhaps as much as $22 billion a year back to their home countries.
In spite of the construction boom in real estate since the oil boom in the 70s due to the earnings of Egyptian expatriates working in Arab Gulf States, apartments are only available through purchase in tens of thousands of dollars that most average citizens cannot afford. Nevertheless, five-star luxury complexes are being built for the super-rich and the well-to-do in the Egyptian society who can afford it; the five percenters! A sense of frustration and hopelessness seems to be haunting Egyptian youth and the older people as well, who are struggling to make ends meet. The result has impacted Egyptian society in terms of the high rate of drug and alcohol use, divorce, domestic violence, road rage, sex crimes, prostitution, human trafficking, and corruption. Egyptian sociologists refer these waves of uncommon behavior to political oppression. In spite of the fact that Egypt has a number of opposition parties and one ruling party, most officials serving in the government are handpicked by the president from his own party. The Arab world has no institutions evolved by common consent for common purposes, under guarantee of law, and consequently there is nothing that can be agreed upon as the general good, author David Pryce-Jones says.
A Challenge to Obama?
It is possible to find parallels in Egypt to pre-revolutionary Iran. Given the social ills engendered by extended unemployment, especially among the qualified young; aggravated social polarization in which ill-gained wealth, insolently displayed, stood out against the growing misery of the rural and urban population; and generalized corruption spreading right up to the highest levels of society and state. Indeed, many U.S. analysts acknowledge Egypt's instability. "It will rock the world," wrote Michele Dunne, a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace scholar. "Octogenarian Mubarak, will leave office, either by his own decision or that of providence." Instability in Egypt may become an international security concern. There is no clear chain of command or civil society base to facilitate the transfer of power to the next president.
Recurring sectarian conflict and economic malaise brew. Murmurs abound that Mubarak's regime is in its final throes, and repeatedly cracking down on protest are signs of the beginning of the end. Predictably, current events are compared to the combustible final years of Sadat's tenure, when the tussle between an increasingly irrational president and an angry, organized society ended so abruptly, violently, and dramatically. There is an equally compelling view that such predictions are possible. Predicting anything as complex as regime change must bear a lot of assumptions. And even if change occurs, there's no way to determine precisely how it would happen and why. This precisely adds to the anxiety of the Egyptian people about the nearing end of the Mubarak's regime and what lies ahead. Some speculators seem to think that the military would step in at the right moment to prevent a handover of power to Gamal, or to save Egypt from other nightmarish prospects.
May Kasem, political scientist at the American University in Cairo, says that:
Political stability, peace, and development in the Middle East, like anywhere else, can best be achieved through reform rather than revolution... Foreign support may protect and prolong the lifespan of an authoritarian regime, but it cannot maintain such a regime indefinitely. It is in the interest of all parties concerned, including authoritarian regimes and their international patrons, to opt for political reform rather than risk the imposed and unpredictable transformation of dissent. The U.S.... should recognize that it should pressure friends into genuine reforms.
Aladdin Elaasar is the author of The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Obama Age.
]]>Will Smith's Last Pharaoh vs. Egypt's History by Hollywoodtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.5298042010-04-08T12:48:51-04:002011-05-25T16:05:22-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/
Many of his movies grossed millions like; Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Independence Day, Men in Black, Men in Black II, I Robot, The Pursuit of Happyness, I Am Legend, Hancock, Wild Wild West, Enemy of the State, and others. He also earned critical praise for his performances in Six Degrees of Separation, and Ali, receiving Best Actor Oscar nominations.
Will Smith is a natural for the role of Taharqa the Nubian king. Little has been explored about Africa's Nubia and its kings who played a role thousands of years ago in ruling Egypt. They're almost forgotten now, especially after Nasser's government in Egypt relocated them from their villages after building the Aswan Dam. Their unique language and culture is feared to be extinct.
Will Smith's upcoming movie sheds light on that long forgotten history. Usually Hollywood tackles other pages of Egyptian history already known to people, such as The Ten Commandments, and Cleopatra by Liz Taylor. Cleopatra, the Greek queen, was reduced by Hollywood to a mere vixen who seduced Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony.
Hollywood movies sometimes present untrue fictitious characters of archetypal villains with sinister heavy accents drabbed in ancient Egyptian costumes. The Last Pharaoh is an exception. Will Smith deserves a great deal of credit for tackling that long forgotten history.
In many Hollywood movies, alas, the filmmakers come up with fictitious languages nobody understands or ever spoken; people are portrayed in black and white; either too good to be true, or absolute evil. You can also expect the natives to be acting like mindless herds of extras who need another Indiana Jones, Rambo, or a newborn Rudyard Kipling, to bring them to civilization with his whip.
There are plenty of historical materials and true stories from Egypt, ancient and modern. Egyptian history is so full of drama, action and adventure, more than what screenwriters can even imagine. Take for example the true story of the Last Pharaoh of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak. If you want to know the true story of the Last Pharaoh of Egypt, you'd better pay attention to what's going on in Egypt these days and in the near future. It will make a lot of headlines.
Egypt will witness a steamy summer this year as the political scene is heating up. The 83 years old President Mubarak of Egypt seems to be in his final days with serious health concerns and no heir apparent. Mohamed ElBaradei, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has retuned to his native home country of Egypt after 30 years and plans to run for President of Egypt next year. Will he make It? Or will Egypt's Last Pharaoh, Hosni Mubarak cling to power for six more years or at least try to make his son Gamal the next King/President of Egypt?
Egypt's opposition parties are gearing up and trying to come up with a coalition that will defy Mubarak's party, the NDP, in elections. The hand-picked NDP members are an overwhelming majority in Egypt's parliament for decades now. Who will shake off the dust off the Egyptian political scene that has been stagnant for at least three decades since Mubarak came to power in 1981 after the assassination of Sadat?
The Muslim Brotherhood is also getting ready. Ayman Nour, opposition leader and former presidential candidate in 2005, is planning to run for president next year with two vice- presidents, one of them is a Coptic lady. Nour was thrown in jail by Mubarak for three years after he won a lot of votes in last election.
Considering the alarming rising poverty figures in Egypt, could Egypt be overrun by an angry and hungry mob, French-style revolution sometime?
Whatever the scenario, spillover from what could occur in Egypt in the near future would impact the sum of Arab, Muslim and Mid Eastern nations. This is why Will Smith's movie, The Last Pharaoh, could have not been more timely with all of that going on in Egypt. We'll wait and see!
Aladdin Elaasar is author of THE LAST PHARAOH: MUBARAK AND THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE OF EGYPT IN THE OBAMA AGE.
]]>A Revolution in the Making?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.5077862010-04-02T10:12:24-04:002011-05-25T15:55:20-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/The Angry Generation in the Mideast
With a persistently high level of unemployment, many educated young Arabs are seeking opportunities outside their countries. In doing so, they are seeking to escape the obligation to accept jobs outside their specialization, inadequate scientific and technological infrastructure, low income opportunities for the highly skilled and political instability or political oppression in their native countries; and they seek entrepreneurship opportunities with minimal bureaucratic constraints. Among the lower skilled, migrations may be tied to the serious phenomena of human trafficking and grave physical risks.
It is common nowadays to read about boats loaded with young Egyptians sinking on the way to southern Europe. Moreover, as a result of unemployment, "different forms of passive and active violence are on the upswing reducing the spaces for dialogue, conflict resolution and consensus building."
The ticking time bomb in Egypt is the great number of young, unemployed, unmarried people that constitute a large segment of the population. Since the introduction of Sadat's Infitah "Opening" policies in the late seventies, Egyptian society has faced an unprecedented crisis in housing. Young people seeking simply to marry and start a family cannot find a place to live. The sign "apartment for rent" has simply vanished from Egyptian society and has become a thing of the past. In spite of the construction boom in real estate since the oil boom in the seventies due to the earnings of Egyptian expatriates working in Arab Gulf States, apartments are priced beyond what most citizens cannot afford. Nevertheless, five star luxury complexes are being built for the well to do in the Egyptian society who can afford it; the so-called "five percenters!"
A sense of frustration, hopelessness and repression seems to be haunting Egyptian youth and the older people as well, struggling to make ends meet. The result has impacted Egyptian society in terms of the high rate of drug and alcohol use, divorce, domestic violence, road rage, sex crimes, prostitution, human trafficking, and corruption. Egyptian sociologists link these waves of uncommon behavior to political oppression.
Although Egypt has a number of opposition parties and one ruling party, most officials serving in the government are handpicked by the president from his own party. Opposition parties are consumed fighting both each other and the oppressive tactics of the government. The media is owned and run by Mr. Mubarak's government. The result is that there is a real political vacuum in Egypt in spite of all the façade. The average Egyptian citizen feels that his/her voice is not heard. Between a military dictatorship represented by Mr. Mubarak's regime and the fundamentalists who operate from under the ground, some Egyptians lean towards those who raise slogans like "Islam is the solution."
In an op-ed in the Lebanese Daily Star, Egyptian human rights activist and chairman of the Ibn-Khaldun Center in Cairo Egyptian American Professor Saad al-Din Ibrahim criticized Egyptian President Mubarak's ongoing attempt to stifle democracy through the government's continued implementation of the Emergency Law. Ibrahim was imprisoned by Mubarak for three years. In his article, Ibrahim asserts that President Mubarak is now waging internal war against Egypt's judges, the Sinai Bedouins, and the Copt citizens of Egypt.
During the last few years, Muslim zealots have attacked Coptic churches. Fanatics also targeted three churches during Sunday services, killing some worshippers and injuring many. Copts marched protesting the security authorities' leniency toward the culprits and the scapegoating of their community. There was even suspicion of an official hand in the attacks, in order to justify extending the Emergency Law which has been repeatedly renewed.
"Hosni Mubarak's domestic wars are fuelled by Egypt's excluded, who are increasingly in rebellion against a regime that has long outlived its legitimate mandate. The battle with the judges may well prove to be Mubarak's Achilles' heel. Justice is a central value for Egyptians, and its absence is at the core of all protests. There could have been no more compelling evidence of this than the unprecedented numbers of people who rallied peacefully in solidarity with the judge," says Ibrahim.
"They [terrorist acts] are a response to living under wretched, repressive regimes with few economic opportunities and no political voice. And they blame America for supporting these regimes. The reasons were the same--people disliked the regimes that ruled them and they saw America as the benefactor of those regimes... Perhaps the Middle East will move on a similar path; violence, religious extremism and terrorism will be drained out of the political culture," Ibrahim adds.
Anti-Western nationalism seems to be the predecessor of anti-Western Islamism, as was the case in Iran. As author Eric Rouleau points out, the rise of political Islam is not surprising in Egypt, "given the social ills engendered by extended unemployment, especially among the qualified young; aggravated social polarization in which ill gained wealth, insolently displayed, stood out against the growing misery of the rural and urban population; and generalized corruption spreading right up to the highest levels of society and state"
The Arab world has no institutions evolved by common consent for common purposes, under guarantee of law, and consequently there is nothing that can be agreed upon as the general good. As David Pryce-Jones puts it... "no mechanism exists so that people may participate in whatever is being decided and performed in their name, a handful of absolute despots oppress and attack with every available stratagem all those within reach."
According to Pryce-Jones, "the rich and strong mercilessly bully and exploit their inferiors... from the proudest power holder down to the humblest family, all are engaged in pillaging whatever they can for themselves, or at best for their tribe and religion, rather than considering the public interest and constructing a common wealth. Politics in practice is reduced to the black arts of applied force, and in any emergency, of terror, in all relationships, domestic, private and public, internal and external, violence is therefore not only customary but also systematic and utterly impervious to piecemeal reform or amelioration".
"Egypt is the next domino to fall and, as they say, so goes Egypt so goes the Middle East... explaining why a pillar of American dominance in that part of the world is about to crumble," says Robert Baer, former Middle East-based CIA operative and author of See No Evil, and Sleeping with the Devil.
Aladdin Elaasar wrote "The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Obama Age." Elaasar has been a frequent commentator on Middle Eastern affairs on several local American TV and Radio networks and media and cultural consultant.]]>Thirty Years after Khomeini: Will Egypt Turn into another Iran?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.5078012010-03-22T16:40:46-04:002011-05-25T15:55:20-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/
President Mubarak has been polishing his son Gamal to be his successor - in a country which is supposed to be a republic with elected officials! Unlike Sadat and Nasser, Mubarak has persistently refused to appoint a vice-president. Egyptians are enraged at the thought that Mubarak's son, Gamal, would be their next ruler as in Syria. They believe he would continue the same route of his father by enriching the elite while ignoring the increasing demands of the masses for reform. Mubarak has ruled Egypt with an iron fist; he has turned Egypt into a police state with a security force infrastructure that numbers nearly 2 million recruits. Mubarak's regime has grown very unpopular and detested by most Egyptians. Prices of basic food items and commodities are skyrocketing.
The Final Days?
The possible fall of the centralized government of Egypt and the Mubarak's regime could send shock waves throughout the globe. Under the current regime, there is no apparent chain of command or democratic institutions that would facilitate the transfer of power to the next president. According to Thomas Barnett, the problem is "Another political force is connecting to the restive Egyptian people, and this force is the Muslim Brotherhood, known otherwise as al-Qaeda 1.0. By hardwiring themselves into the goodwill of the masses through highly effective social-welfare nets, the Brotherhood is retracing the electoral pathway to power blazed by Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon: hearts and minds first, blood and guts later. It is now basically a race: Gamal's quest for foreign direct investment and the jobs it generates versus the Brotherhood's quest for the political support of average Egyptians tired of lives led in quiet desperation. Who will win? I'm betting another "olive tree" fight breaks out long before any Egyptian "Lexus" goes to market".
Barnett adds: "Sounds incredible? It isn't, because the more likely scenario is that Mubarak the Elder dies before Mubarak the Younger can turn himself into Egypt's Deng Xiaoping, yielding a Tiananmen Souk that lights up the country pronto with the Brotherhood's [Muslim Brothers, a.k.a. Ikhwan] prodding. And since these students will be hoisting pictures of Osama instead of a makeshift Goddess of Democracy, President Obama is likely to find himself facing an unbelievably bad choice in the largest Arab country. Would America intervene militarily to preserve Gamal's faltering rule, making good on all the strategic promises implied by the $50 billion in aid to Egyptian regimes since 1975? Or we can hope that a twenty-first-century Masada in a Middle East where Iran has the bomb can hold out?"
Barnett contends that if the international community drives "al-Qaeda & Co. out of the Middle East ... it will be forced into its current strategic rear of choice--Africa. Africa is where al-Qaeda hides its money, guns, recruits, training camps--and its future. Africa will be the last great stand in this Long War, where all those impossibly straight borders once drawn by colonial masters will inevitably be made squiggly again by globalization's cultural reformatting process. Now this fight heads south...and yes, the Long War will be even uglier there".
Meanwhile, visible signs of discord between the United States and Egypt over a wide array of issues have appeared in recent years. "Today, the bilateral relationship has eroded over Mubarak's cold peace with Israel, to dealings with terrorist supporting states on its borders. Equally alarming is the rise of anti-American and Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in Egypt's state media and society" said Dr. Robert Satloff, the Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in his testimony before the Committee on International Relations in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Haunted by the memories of the overnight fall of the Shah of Iran to the Ayatollahs, U.S. policymakers fear a similar event in Egypt. Once thought to be a strong U.S. ally, the Shah of Iran, lost his grip over power to the zealous clergy sabotaging every effort for peace and stability in the region. Marcos and Suharto, two old dictators considered strong U.S. allies, as well, fell to the angry mobs in the Philippines and Indonesia.
President Obama is likely to find himself facing an unbelievably bad choice in the largest Arab country, considering the several scenarios that can take place in Egypt. Would an ambitious general stage another coup, turning Egypt into a God -knows-what regime? Would that general ally himself with Muslim radical groups like the Muslim Brothers, Hamas, or Hezbollah? Would Egypt witness another Khomeini-style revolution? Considering the alarming rising poverty figures in Egypt and the disparities between the classes, could Egypt be overrun by an angry and hungry mob, French Revolution style? Egypt would then erupt into lawlessness, chaos, or perhaps civil war with the dissolving of the central government, its head figures and its upper class already preparing for such a turn of events.
If the Muslim Brotherhood were to achieve power in Egypt, Israel's demise would once again become the overt unifying principle for governments in the region. Whatever the scenario would be, spillover from what could occur in Egypt in the near future would impact many nations. With Hamas taking control in the Palestinian territories, Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon - backed by the Baathists in Damascus and the Mullahs in Tehran, the regime would be populated by regimes who would all agree on one thing: hatred for America and wiping the state of Israel off the map.
Just south of Egypt lies another unfriendly neighbor. Sudan's government, with its generals and clerics, brings more bad news to policymakers in Western capitals, stockholders in major global markets, and the average citizens and consumers who have to pay the price with every Middle East crisis.
Western capitals and observers in the region are keeping tabs on the situation in Egypt, fearing a domino effect in case of a trigger event occurring in Egypt. But it seems that none of these experts can give an answer to what would be the way out of that bottleneck. Inspired by their fatalism, Egyptians have developed an attitude of coping with the situation, which leads to more apathy and a state of hopelessness waiting for a divine intervention. Their government continues to give promises of reform knowing that giving up absolute power and opening the door for free speech and elections would hasten its demise. The military institution in Egypt is on the guard and waiting to intervene while the banned Ikhwan movement has been gaining momentum.
May Kasem, political scientist at the American University in Cairo, gives her advice to decision makers in Washington saying that "Political stability, peace, and development in the Middle East, like anywhere else, can best be achieved through reform rather than revolution... Foreign support may protect and prolong the lifespan of an authoritarian regime, but it cannot maintain such a regime indefinitely. It is in the interest of all parties concerned, including authoritarian regimes and their international patrons, to opt for political reform rather than risk the imposed and unpredictable transformation of dissent. The U.S. should recognize that it should pressure friends into genuine reforms".
According to Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria, "If we could choose one place to press hardest to reform, it should be Egypt.... In Egypt, we must ask President Mubarak to insist that the state-owned press drop its anti-American and anti-Semitic rants, end the glorification of suicide bombers and begin opening itself up to other voices in the country. Egypt is the intellectual soul of the Arab world. If it were to progress economically and politically, it would demonstrate more powerfully than any essay or speech that Islam is compatible with modernity and that Arabs can thrive in today's world.
Ambassador Edward S. Walker, Jr., who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Ambassador to Egypt, criticized "the duality of Egyptian policy, which can be called having its cake and eating it too. It [the regime] plays to its domestic audience through the media, officially sponsored clerics, and the educational system. The regime blames all its shortcomings on imperialism, Zionism, the West, and the United States and uses that to build domestic support".
Professor Tate Miller of the Monterey Institute for International Studies says that "Perhaps no nation has greater potential to influence the destiny of the Middle-East, and hence the world, than Egypt. Yet, like a lingering and unrecognized apparition, Egypt's influence in regional and global affairs seems always just out of sight, and never fully understood. Egypt's future can be the potential tipping point of Middle Eastern society".
No one has offered a vision of hope for the Egyptians. The average Egyptian citizen finds himself or herself in a 'we're-stuck' situation. This situation manifests itself in an angry, restless, anxious and irrational behavior that reflects on Egyptian society witnessing a high wave of violent crimes: such as rape, murder, a high rate of divorce, drug use, white collar crimes, road rage, embezzlement, military service desertion, domestic violence, and countless other crimes.
Average citizens and consumers worldwide have been paying the price for conflicts in the Middle East in terms of jacked up oil prices which lead to increased prices for gasoline, heat and energy bills and other commodities. For Egypt, political stability means economic growth, less spending on military conflicts, more cash to social programs, happy voters, and hence high ratings for politicians. "It is all one big picture, a cycle of connected events, inevitably and inextricably linked in our ever shrinking global village .
Given this equation, any near term trigger event in Egypt would garner at least the same global attention as any other Middle East regional conflict. Hence, the four scariest words in the political dictionary are: Egypt after Hosni Mubarak? This is why whatever unfolds on the Egyptian landscape; will be a story of monumental proportions.
Aladdin Elaasar wrote "The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Obama Age."]]>Is Egypt's Economy in Crisis?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.5077822010-03-22T10:59:00-04:002011-05-25T15:55:20-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/It's the Economy ... Stupid!
Economist Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli says that Egypt appears to be in the throes of an economic crisis. The macro-economic situation has deteriorated after September 11, in particular. Egypt is undergoing a severe liquidity crisis caused by the loss of hard currency from few sources: tourism was a key source of foreign exchange and the main engine of growth. Estimated losses in this sector range from $2-3 billion. Airline and shipping: besides the decline of passengers, primarily tourists, the industry was hit by 50% increase in insurance premiums.
Revenues from Suez Canal have also declined especially after the escalation of piracy in the Red Sea that made many shipping companies take safer routes. Remittances from Egyptians working abroad have declined from $3.8 billion in 2000 to $3 billion, and further declines are projected.
Ahmad al-Wakil, deputy chairman of the Egyptian chamber of commerce said in an economic symposium held in Alexandria, that the foreign exchange reserves have declined from $30 billion to $15 billion. He attributed the decline to the government's conflicting economic policies regarding the Egyptian pound which was devalued several times, and it is now traded at 6.35 pounds to the dollar in the black market which has hit a new low of pounds to the dollar.
Dr. Nabil Hashad, Director of the Arabic Center for Financial and Banking Studies, says that the foreign exchange reserves have declined to $14 billion. Governor of Central Bank of Egypt Mahmud Abul-Eyoon, declared that there was no intention to devalue the Egyptian pound. A few days later, it was revealed that the governor of CBE has asked Kuwait to deposit $150 million in the Egyptian central bank to bolster its foreign currency position.
Senior Advisor in the Central Bank of Egypt, Muhammad al-Barbari, indicated that additional devaluation of the pound in the near future was generally conceivable. The Egyptian government is to reschedule the internal debt to reduce interest and service charges from 23 to 20 billion Egyptian pounds ($5-4.4 billion) a year. Egypt domestic debt is estimated at more than $160 billion equivalent, in addition to external debt of $26-27 billion. While al-Ahram daily newspaper has reported that prices have gone up between 15 and 60 percent.
The Demographic Time Bomb
According to the former Egyptian Prime Minster Atef Ebid, the population of Egypt will reach 123 million in 2019. There are 800,000 new job seekers every year, and the number will rise together with the growth of population. He estimated the cost of creating one job in industry at 100,000 pounds ($20,000) and in agriculture 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($10,000). The total cost of job creation for 800,000 would be 36 billion Egyptian pounds, or more than $7 billion. Since there is no unemployment insurance in Egypt there was a tacit warning regarding social and political unrest if the problem of unemployment persists. The Director General of the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas, Adel al-Biltagui in a speech in Cairo said that Egypt projected an increase in food consumption pattern in the future remains to be higher than 2%. Also, if individual food consumption were to increase by 2020, as a result of changes in the diet or higher personal income, the challenge facing the country would be even greater.
The International Labor Office (ILO) in Geneva, a specialized agency of the United Nations, recently issued its annual World Employment Report. The report found out that, the number of unemployed people in Egypt climbed to new heights since 2005. Young people aged 15 to 24 comprise almost half of Egypt's unemployed and are more than three times as likely as adults to be out of work. The ILO called this figure "troublesome," given that youth make up only 25 per cent of the working age population.
The Middle East and North Africa, MENA stands out as the region with the highest rate of unemployment in the world. The Arab League Economic Unity Council estimates unemployment in the Middle East at 20 percent.
The employment to population ratio is a measure of the percentage of working-age population who are employed. Although MENA has registered a notable increase in this measurement, it has remained the lowest in the world, with 45.4 in 1993, and increasing only slightly to 46.4 a decade later.
Egypt had 37 percent below the age of 15 years in 2000, and 58 percent below the age of 25 years. The working-age population is increasing by three percent a year. The biggest challenge facing policy makers in Egypt is the high rate of youth unemployment, estimated at 25.6 percent in 2003, which is the highest in the world. According to the ILO report this steady rate of unemployment reflects an average of 500,000 of additional unemployed per year. The increase in employment is not enough to absorb all those who enter the labor market annually. Former Egyptian Minister Ahmad Gowaili referred to an unemployment rate of 20 percent in the Arab countries. According to Gowaili, this percentage is translated into 22 million unemployed, of whom 60 percent are youth. This figure, he added, is likely to increase by three percent annually. He attributes the main cause of unemployment to the failure in most Arab countries to link educational orientation to the labor market requirements. It's troublesome indeed.
Aladdin Elaasar wrote "The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Obama Age." Elaasar has been a frequent commentator on Middle Eastern affairs on several local American TV and Radio networks and media and cultural consultant.
]]>Sarah Palin: Exploitation of Women at its Worsttag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.5001182010-03-16T09:07:42-04:002011-05-25T15:50:25-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/
Why cannot the GOP find a real advocate of women's rights as a running candidate, instead of someone with a pretty face who lacks substance? Do they think that by just picking any woman, female voters will flock to vote for her?
Due to aggressive marketing efforts on part of her promoters, Palin still draws crowds in cities across the country. But what does she have to offer? Will she be a serious contender in 2012?
I guess for someone to be on TV repeatedly gaining cerebral status; that opens the door for them to do, or be anything! Our obsession with celebrities does sell, big time. From Joey Butaffucco, Lorena Bobbitt, the Sham Wow Guy, Joe the Plummer, Reality TV, etc, any familiar face on TV can tell us anything. They also write their own books by the help of ghost writers and people line up to take picture with them.
Columnist Laura Flanders and author of Bush Women: Tales of a Cynical Species, finds
Palin as the GOP Hypocrisy at its Best. "Will the media test her on substance, or let her play "Ms. Congeniality?" It is up to the public to see through the fact-free diet we're being fed., Flanders decried.
Vanessa Valenti sees Palin as a "The Christian Right's Slick Campaign to Make Abstinence
Seem Trendy."
Kimberly Gadette finds Palin as "The Bikini Car Wash: One Sexist Tradition," Gadette says: "Slap a friendly female face on a hard core-conservative political platform, and pray that the pundits will only take pot-shots and talk about gender. While Palin's record is poor, so is the media coverage. In place of serious discussion of her policies on the environment, on human rights, on taxes, free speech and governance; we've had only talks about soccer moms.
Palin seems to believe abortion is a crime, even in the case of rape and incest. She supports teaching creationism in schools and opposed environmental protections for the Holy planet, while having fun shooting animals and giving a free hand to oil companies to drill for the last drop in Alaska.
Well, she is celerity now, and she can do whatever she wants. Thanks to those who flock to
catch a glimpse of her and get her autograph.]]>Will Smith, The Last Pharaohtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.4998762010-03-15T17:52:47-04:002011-05-25T15:50:25-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/The Last Pharaoh, is a great mega action movie expected by millions of fans around the globe. The film tells the story of Taharqa the Nubian king. The story is about Ethiopians battling Assyrians by screenwriter Chris Hauty, directed by Carl Franklin and starred and produced by Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment.
There is a plenty of historical material and true stories from Egypt, ancient and modern. Egyptian history is so full of drama, action and adventure more than what screenwriters can imagine. Take for example the true story of the Last Pharaoh of Egypt, Hosny Mubarak. If you want to know the true story of the Last Pharaoh of Egypt, you'd better pay attention to what's going on in Egypt these days and in the near future. That will make a lot of headlines.
Many people consider that the Pharaonic era in Egyptian history had ended thousands of years ago. But to the Egyptians, the memories of their pharaohs are still fresh. The word pharaoh is still used in Egyptian daily language, Arabic, as a detonation of tyranny, arrogance, haughtiness and unjust power.
The 83 years old Mubarak of Egypt has been in power since 1981 with no vice-president. Concerns about Mubarak's health draws much greater attention to the question of who will next rule the nation of Egypt?
Will Africa be the last great stand in this Long War against al-Qaida? Now this fight heads south... and yes, the Long War will be even uglier there.
If that scenario was not frightening enough, there are few others that are even scarier. A scenario where an ambitious general would stage another coup, turning Egypt into a God -- knows-what regime and allying himself with Muslim radical groups? Would Egypt witness another Khomeini-style revolution with the usual anti- American? Taking into consideration the recent rise of Hamas and Ikhwan, this is not a farfetched scenario.
Considering the alarming rising poverty figures in Egypt, could Egypt be overrun by an angry and hungry mob, French-style revolution?
Whatever the scenario, spillover from what could occur in Egypt in the near future would impact the sum of Arab, Muslim and Mid Eastern nations. Western capitals are keeping tabs on the situation fearing a domino effect in Egypt.
This is why whatever unfolds on the Egyptian landscape; will be a story of monumental proportions. Will Smith: Watch out for the Last Pharaoh of Egypt.
Aladdin Elaasar is author of The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egyp t in the Obama Age. ]]>Risky Business in the Arab Worldtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.4998472010-03-15T17:06:18-04:002011-05-25T15:50:25-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/
By Aladdin Elaasar*
From the death sentence fatwa against Salman Rushdie to the ostracism of Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan, Irshad Manji, and many other Muslim writers; why is it hard for Arab and Muslim writers, professors, intellectuals and average persons to speak out against suicide bombers, Jihadists, anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism in their countries?
Ali Salem, a brilliant Egyptian playwright has been boycotted by his own fellow Egyptian and Arab writers, producers, and media! Why would such a well-known and talented writer have to pay the price after bringing laughs to millions of Arabs through his witty, whimsical and satirical plays? His sin was that he favored peace with Israel and wrote a book about it. That seems to be the plight of Arab peace activists.
What happened to the happy old days when Jews in Arab countries were the elite, le crème de la crème, movie stars, singers, writers, cabinet ministers, in what was dubbed as la belle epoch? Why it was replaced by so much hatred, intolerance, ugliness and bigotry against the Jews, the State of Israel, and anger directed towards America?
Since the partition of Palestine, many Arab regimes have taken a hard-line against the new born State of Israel. Arab state media and propaganda machines have found it convenient to recycle crude anti-Semitic images for their public. The Palestinian cause has proven to be a very useful and convenient tool for the post-colonial regimes that followed. Till today, after decades of brainwash for Arab and Muslim masses, the Palestinian cause is a hot button for many Arab leaders marshalling their masses to burn American and Israeli flags.
The Palestinian cause has been effectively used by failing, dictatorial and oppressive Arab regimes to point the finger at an outside enemy to deflect their public's attention from the nagging domestic issues such as: failing economies, grave human rights abuses, high levels of corruption, squandering half of national income on buying weapons (to crush their masses); that has taken its toll on education, health care, and a deteriorating infra-structure.
Conspiracy theories are rampant in the Middle East. Many people are made to believe that America and Israel are running the whole world and are behind every problem in their countries from defective chewing gum to Farouk Hosny's failure to enter the UNESCO.
The late President Nasser of Egypt imported former Nazi propaganda experts from the Third Reich and spread anti-Semitism through the whole region. Some Arab leaders were cheering for Hitler hoping that he was going to liberate them from the British. The former Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini put himself at the service of Hitler and was sought as a war criminal after the end of WWII. Even Sadat, the peacemaker and winner of the Noble Peace Prize, was once arrested for being a member of a Nazi spy ring in Cairo.
Moreover, the Cold War brought Soviet propaganda experts to many Arab nations bashing the United States, and of course, the old favorite target since Tsarist Russia's infamous forgery of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion- the Jews and the State of Israel.
Half of Arab countries are under brutal military dictatorships that came to power by military coups and have been ruling for decades, such as Colonel Gaddafi of Libya- since 1969. These regimes are secularist. The other half of Arab countries are under absolute monarchies that use religion to get legitimacy such as the Wahabi Saudi Arabia. Whether secularist or seemingly religious regimes, they both champion the Palestinian cause and exploit religion for political objectives. Amazingly, fundamentalist groups have been using religion and the Palestinian cause, as well. The so-called Arab opposition media uses a similar rhetoric to the state-owned media across the Arab countries.
The result has been the demonization and dehumanization of the Jewish people, and Israelis in particular, in the eyes of many people in that region. Hate speech has found its way through state-sponsored textbooks brainwashing generations since the early forties.
It makes it almost impossible for an independent thinker, intellectual, moderate, liberal, secularist, or writer, to sing outside of the choir. Those who dare to sing other than the official line would find themselves accused of apostasy, tarnishing the image of their country, arrested, tortured, fired from their jobs, end up in a concentration camp, or at least, in a lunatic asylum.
Saudi Wahabi petrodollars have found way through the media, academia, and political circles in that region, and even in the West. Wahabi petrodollars have influenced more than 60% of mosques, madrasas in America and the West; indoctrinating many in the intolerant puritanical, Salafist, literalist dogma made in Saudi Arabia. It is no wonder that impressionable young men from refugee camps take up arms; from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, to Iraq. To make things worse, Iran has been competing with Saudi Arabia for decades now. Iran has supported Hamas, Hezbollah, the Syrian Baath, and Shiite militias in Iraq.
But what has the hate brought to the region? It actually worked like magic and entrenched oppressive regimes for decades thus enriching the elite around these regimes beyond imagination. And it definitely did not help the Palestinian refugees, nor the impoverished millions of Arabs and Muslims- many have no jobs and are too young and restless.
*Aladdin Elaasar is a lecturer and author of The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Obama Age. The Egyptian government banned his books for allegedly State Security reasons; the first book banned by the nation in decades. The book exposes the deep corruption, grave human rights abuses, the authoritarianism of the Mubarak's regime and its use of anti- Semitism and anti-Americanism to gain popularity in the region. It also reveals one of Egypt's worst kept secrets: the story of the expulsion and mass exodus of more than 100,000 Egyptian Jews since the military coup of 1952, and the influence of Nazism on Egyptian and Arab politics.
]]>To Obama: Egypt Is at Dangerous Crossroadstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.4912272010-03-12T14:25:47-05:002011-05-25T15:45:22-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/
Today, Egypt is at dangerous crossroads. As Mr. Mubarak is in his 29th year in power and unfortunately, Egypt's future is more uncertain than ever.
There are serious concerns about the grave human rights abuses, rampant poverty leading to food riots, alarming unemployment figures, institutional corruption, and crushing inflation.
During Mubarak's rule, disparity between the classes increased leading to a small elite controlling power and the economy, while the majority of Egyptians are struggling to make ends meet. Hopeless Egyptian youth, more than 40 %, can neither afford to rent nor purchase an apartment, let alone marry. This dangerous phenomenon is at the roots of young men recruitment by violent fanatic groups.
Egyptian state media is rife with anti-Americanism. Former American ambassadors Edward Walker and Daniel Kurtzer warned against the duality of the Egyptian government that blames everything on the U.S.A. while claiming to be fighting extremism. The Egyptian government's cracking on all signs of dissent has led to a political void that is filled by extremist elements.
Mr. Mubarak and his ruling party cannot shirk accountability as they hold more than 90% of the seats in the Egyptian Parliament with nominal opposition. Unlike Nasser and Sadat, Mr. Mubarak refused to appoint a vice-president and is grooming his son Gamal to be his successor, a mockery of the Egyptian Republic system and democratic principles. If his son takes over, Egyptians fear he would continue his father's policy of enriching the elite, suppressing the poor, while ignoring effective reform. Under the Emergency Law, Mubarak turned Egypt into a police state and managed to rig every election.
In its 2009 Human Rights Report, the State Department criticized the Egyptian regime for lack of freedoms of press, association, and religion. The regime continues to restrict civil liberties, particularly freedom of speech, access to the Internet, and freedom of assembly, and stifling civil society.
In his inaugural speech, President Obama spoke against "those leaders who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West: and cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent". These words accurately describe the current Mubarak regime. The regime is on a similar crash course similar to Iran's Shah, the Philippines' Marcos and Indonesia's Suharto. The U.S. is facing looming dangers in the largest Arab country. President Obama should recognize that old allies of the U.S. should commit themselves to genuine reforms. ]]>Immigration Reform Now: An Emotional Plea to Obamatag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.4912262010-03-09T11:52:13-05:002011-05-25T15:45:22-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/
In a press conference at the National Press Club, community organizations from around the country came to DC to appeal to President Obama to pass what he promised during his campaign, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and to fix a broken system. They claim that he has not kept his promise. They say that during the first year of the Obama administration, more deportation has taken place than in the Bush years. 387,000 immigrants were deported last year, and many of these have native-born American children.
Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of Latin American Citizens, said that mass deportation is projected to cost the American economy 2.6 trillion dollars. Wilkes explained that there are 5.5 million children in the US with an undocumented immigrant parent. Homeland Security estimates that in the last 10 years, more than 100,000 immigrant parents were deported.
Immigration policy has been on the back burner for many years. In the eighties, President Reagan gave amnesty to immigrants. Immigrants have been the boogieman for so long. At times of economic hardship, extreme right wing politicians capitalize on that -- ignoring the fact that nearly all Americans can trace their ancestry to a poor immigrant who came from somewhere. Nativists, demagogues, and fear mongers have always pointed a finger at those voiceless immigrants. But can you imagine America without immigrants! Walk into any high- tech, IT company in Silicon Valley and see how many immigrants are in engineering departments. Walk into hospitals and see how many doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and physical therapists are foreign-born. Walk into hotels, restaurants, schools, churches, and see how many immigrants are there. Immigrants have served in our military and died in the line of duty.
Immigrant coalition organizations will have a March for America in DC on March 21 calling for an end to mass detention and deportation of immigrants and fixing the immigration system. Contrary to misconceptions, immigrants do pay taxes from day one and contribute to the economy. Massive raids, incarceration and deportation cost big money and have been taking a toll on our economy.
I worked with immigrants and refugees in Chicago, taught them, counseled them, ate and lived with them in Albany Park, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the world. And I can relate to their hard work, fear and suffering, and their contribution to this country.
We should not forget these immigrants that have come to America and made a difference like Madeleine Albright, Albert Einstein, Henry Kissinger, Charlie Chaplin, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ted Koppel, Pamela Anderson, Andy Garcia, Elizabeth Taylor, Sammy Sosa, Khalil Gibran, Gloria Estefan, Carlos Santana, and even your own father, Mr. President.
Aladdin Elaasar is the author of Silent Victims: the Plight of Arab & Muslim American Americans in Post 9/11 America.]]>On Obama's Noble Peace Prize: Missed Peace Opportunities in the Mideasttag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.3178182009-10-12T16:34:06-04:002011-05-25T14:20:22-04:00Aladdin Elaasarhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/aladdin-elaasar/
Perhaps Obama's speech to the Islamic world contributed to his Peace Prize credentials. But have we won the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims right after that speech? Obama is popular in the Arab and Muslim countries. But they are waiting for help from him to end the oppression, corrupt regimes; failing economies, oligarchies, absolute monarchies, and the grave human rights abuses they live under. They appreciated the gesture of a speech. But not impressed by embracing their old dictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Schmoozing with aging elites in the Mideast for decades upset the masses. There is much cynicism in Arab and Muslim countries towards what they call press releases from Washington. They do not take us seriously anymore. They feel that all of these good words are just lip service, duplicity, double standards, not practicing what we preach. They are gasping for freedom and democracy, but frustrated that we call their old dictators our allies. They feel that the billions we send to ailing regimes, like Mubarak's in Cairo, has entrenched such detested regime oppressing them for decades. They are confused, angry, hopeless, but still looking towards the White House for help. Do not miss the call Mr. Obama.]]>