Thinking about Egypt

A new book entitled, “Egypt and Egyptians in Mubarak’s Era 1981-2008″ has recently been published and offers harsh critique of Mubarak’s rule.

“In his book, Galal Amin, prominent writer and economics scholar, tackles a plethora of social and political maladies including social chasm and corruption as well as the future of the political leadership after the 80-year-old president is gone from office. To show the magnitude of the deterioration, Amin chose to examine each of the problem issues under all of Mubarak’s predecessors in the second half of the 20th century, providing a historical review that spanned about six decades. The author’s leftist leanings are clear in his treatise.”

The entire LA Times review can be found here.

Speaking of Egypt and Mubarak, Rob from Arab Media Shack reflects on just how essential (if at all), American support of Egypt’s ruler is, and how different things would be if the Egyptian government did not enjoy American support. He writes, “But in my view, the US support is not so important in maintaining authoritarian rule in Egypt and if it stopped, not much would change. I think one of the only things it does is create a convenient scapegoat (America) for Egyptians to blame for their problems…”

Finally as activist-blogger Philip Rizk’s capture has stirred much outrage, particularly through online vehicles such as Facebook, some advocate it’s time for America to pursue more diplomacy and democracy promotion through the cyber-world rather than traditional means.

“A long-term struggle to win hearts and minds, through English-language training programs and similar initiatives may ultimately be more beneficial for promoting democracy than spasmodic street protests or agitation in the blogosphere.”