Links 7-9 February 2013
Today you get a twofer. Nour the intern writes in (mostly Arabic links):
- Police officers are organizing a nation wide protest, next Tuesday, against the new law, which bans them from doing what they routinely prevent others from doing; protesting and going on strikes to demands their rights. As punishment, officers who protest, be it peacefully or not, will be arrested and fined up to 50,000 Egyptian pounds. The protesting officers' demands are higher wages and incentives, regulation of promotions, healthcare coverage for them and their families, and new weapons to enable them to stop everyone else from protesting.
- Banning youtube is "unnecessary jesting" according to information systems and computer science consultant, Dr. Hisham Nabeeh, He said he considers the ban to be a political rather than a technical decision, since it cannot be enforced in the virtual world, when the are so many programs, just when google search away, to override it. This is exactly why Egypt needs more young people in charge, any 16 year-old worth their salt would know better than to embarrass themselves with an attempt to deny people cat videos and make-up tutorials.
- As if Egyptians weren't agitated enough, Israeli press is keeping track of government failures. Haaretz's Palestinian and Arab Affairs Correspondent, Avi Issacharoff, praised Egypt's security forces for doing a noticeably good job cracking down on arms trafficking into Gaza, adding that it's silly how poorly they're handling the country's internal security on the Hebrew website, Walla. He criticized Morsy and Khairat Al-Shater, the man he says who was going to be running the country and probably is covertly, for not having a clue about how to stop the downfall of society and the economy. This failure to govern, according to him, proves the Brotherhood's slogan wrong, because clearly "Islam is not the solution."
- Justice Minister, Ahmed Mekki, told Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr that Morsy's appointment of the new attorney general is legal. However, Mekki said, the removal or dismissal of the attorney general - i.e. what Morsy did to this one's predecessor - is not legal. Since Mekki acknowledges the law that says the removal or dismissal of an attorney general is illegal (regardless of how Morsy feels about them), but fails to see the implications of Morsy breaking that law would have on the appointment of the new attorney general; it is safe to assume the justice minister is doublethinking.
- A critique of the media's exclusive coverage of sexual assault in protests only "I read the papers and online testimonials of group attacks on women in the streets. If I had not read the titles, I would have thought the authors had suddenly taken an interest in the daily lives of street children."
- Story of one of the boys who helped start the Syrian uprising with a graffiti.
- Syrian arms dealer: “They give us 10 bullets so that when we run out we have to come back for more. If they gave us 20, we could advance, but they don’t want that...They just want to balance the power of the regime.”
The usual links:
- From the Potomac to the Euphrates » Is Egypt Too Big To Fail?
Cook.
- Broken-promise - Al-Ahram Weekly
Has Morsi lost legitimacy or just credibility?
- Raping women in Tahrir NOT ‘red line’: Egyptian preacher Abu Islam
Muslimix?
- Iran's Ahmadinejad seeks strategic axis with Egypt | Reuters
- Egypt Liberal Sounds Alarm Over Call for His Death - NYTimes.com
ElBaradei, inthe back-and-forth over "endorsement" of violence.
- Assassinat de Chokri Belaid : Les photos d’une journée de deuil, qui a mal tourné | nawaat
- As Syrians pour in, Lebanon grapples with ghosts of a bloody past | Reuters
On Leb fears of Pal and now Syr refugees.
- A Lesson in the Dangers of Book Burning | Atlantic Council
Fascinating read by @Anaje