2011 archive

In the Guardian, Gary Younge explores the interplay of Western realpolitik and Egyptian real politics. A nugget (emphasis added to highlight a well-turned phrase):

Moreover, it became apparent that while the west has been deeply complicit in what has happened in the region, it was not even remotely in control of what would happen next. Indeed, it was barely relevant. The protesters saw the US neither as the primary problem nor the solution. Washington’s preferred option of replacing Mubarak with Omar Suleiman in return for the promise of democracy at some unspecified future date revealed how little it understood what was happening in Egypt. This would have been the equivalent of a huge US social movement ousting Bush only to find him replaced by Dick Cheney.

(snip)

While the west has been wrongfooted, its ability to influence events has not been extinguished. Mubarak’s departure was a massive achievement. However, revolution demands not only the upending of the old order but the establishment of a new one. Removing a man is one thing; transforming a system is quite another.

Bill Maxwell comments on cultural baggage and double standards at the St. Petersburg Times. A nugget:

Although baggage is universal, the baggage of select groups is judged to be superior to others. Some are treated gingerly, even reverently. Others, such as that of blacks born and reared in America, get no respect. As I have said, we African-Americans are constantly admonished to get rid of our baggage, to “get over” our history.

I do not know of another group in this country whose history is viewed so cavalierly as being disposable.

Paradoxically, many white Southerners, even while channeling the defeated “Forget, Hell!” baggage of their slave-owning forebears, lead the drumbeat in telling the offspring of slaves to “move on” and forget all those generations of being human chattel.

Southerners, along with many Republicans nationwide, are not alone in rejecting black traits and patterns . . . .

He goes on to limp to what I find a weak, though not necessarily invalid, conclusion, arguing that President Obama’s victory in the presidential election resulted from his not showing signs of “black cultural baggage.”

I say “weak” because his discussion does not take into account the significant portion of the population which clearly rejects President Obama solely because he is not-white, those who cannot get past his not-white-ness to notice what he actually believes, says, and does.

See this column by Dick Polman; Polman was discussing voters’ willful ignorance, not race, but racial bigotry clearly forms part of the backdrop to the incidents he describes.

Bob Cesca details the Republican War against women in their attacks on Planned Parenthood. A nugget:

Why are Mike Pence (R–Barefoot and Pregnant–ed.) and the Republicans against women receiving cancer screenings and affordable oncological treatment?

Why is New Jersey governor Chris Christie against this? Christie vetoed a spending bill that would have funded non-abortion services for women via organizations including Planned Parenthood. Non-abortion services. Again, here’s the gist of the bill: “The bill, proposed by Democrat lawmakers in New Jersey, would have included funding for Pap smears, counseling, and other non-abortion services provided by the non-profit organization.” The bill would have cost the state just $1.1 million. A small price to pay for the health of lower-income and disadvantaged women in New Jersey.

Thoreau points out the, as regards international events, the world does not revolve around Foggy Bottom, nor should it. An excerpt:

The US government is, to be blunt, the bad guy here. The US government has spent decades propping up a dictator, giving him weapons, and sending people to his torture chambers under the name of “rendition.” If the Egyptians put in place a government that has no interest in playing games and doing favors for the government that sponsored their oppressor for decades, well, that’s what people with self-respect do, you know? Frankly, the primary question that any decent person should care about is whether the next Egyptian government will be brutal or humane towards Egyptians, and the next most important question is whether the next Egyptian government will be brutal or humane toward other people as well.

He has a point.