Thanks for your very thoughtful, insightful and balanced reply. Your last words are what sustains me in fact. And I think on some level Egyptians realize they were duped, but that people power can actually be a thing that works; they have to work differently.
Are you old enough to have been alive when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait over their theft of Iraqi oil? The American public was split on the issue of attacking Iraq. So President Bush (Sr.) hired a PR firm (I think it was Hill Knowlton) to make up a story about Iraqi soldiers throwing babies in their incubators out of hospital windows. The "eye witness" was the teenage daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador who lived in D.C. (and was not honestly identified). Americans do not acknowledge their racism against Middle Easterners. They would be far more skeptical if the same thing was said about American soldiers. Bottom line, I tell people if they cannot imagine themselves doing the same thing that is being attributed to a group they don't know much about, it's probably a lie. Even Amnesty International bought the incubator story. I haven't given them a penny since.
Don't take it personally. look at what happened to the enormous change the Baby Boomers effected in the 60's and 70's in the West. By the 1980's Reagan was installed as President and all those changes were turned into commodities by corporations. Same thing has happened to the ecological movement. Now electric cars are the "answer"? I think not. Global warming is primarily a problem of American "culture" of over-consumption and rabid exploitation of natural resources. What is their solution? Create technological answers that pollute the earth even more. It's a pathological culture but most Americans are not willing to go there. Nature, or reality, has a way of taking care of things. Egyptians need to focus on becoming as self-sufficient as possible, to rely as little as possible on Western powers. I know Egypt, like most Middle Eastern countries, has many religions and sects, but I do think the core Islamic values of brother- and sisterhood are what we need for the future. Unfortunately, sibling rivalry is part of our nature. People power does work but the people need to educate each other and refuse top-down solutions.
Thanks for your very thoughtful, insightful and balanced reply. Your last words are what sustains me in fact. And I think on some level Egyptians realize they were duped, but that people power can actually be a thing that works; they have to work differently.
Are you old enough to have been alive when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait over their theft of Iraqi oil? The American public was split on the issue of attacking Iraq. So President Bush (Sr.) hired a PR firm (I think it was Hill Knowlton) to make up a story about Iraqi soldiers throwing babies in their incubators out of hospital windows. The "eye witness" was the teenage daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador who lived in D.C. (and was not honestly identified). Americans do not acknowledge their racism against Middle Easterners. They would be far more skeptical if the same thing was said about American soldiers. Bottom line, I tell people if they cannot imagine themselves doing the same thing that is being attributed to a group they don't know much about, it's probably a lie. Even Amnesty International bought the incubator story. I haven't given them a penny since.
Don't take it personally. look at what happened to the enormous change the Baby Boomers effected in the 60's and 70's in the West. By the 1980's Reagan was installed as President and all those changes were turned into commodities by corporations. Same thing has happened to the ecological movement. Now electric cars are the "answer"? I think not. Global warming is primarily a problem of American "culture" of over-consumption and rabid exploitation of natural resources. What is their solution? Create technological answers that pollute the earth even more. It's a pathological culture but most Americans are not willing to go there. Nature, or reality, has a way of taking care of things. Egyptians need to focus on becoming as self-sufficient as possible, to rely as little as possible on Western powers. I know Egypt, like most Middle Eastern countries, has many religions and sects, but I do think the core Islamic values of brother- and sisterhood are what we need for the future. Unfortunately, sibling rivalry is part of our nature. People power does work but the people need to educate each other and refuse top-down solutions.