Monday 3 November 2014

The SWS of modern-day Egypt

Having coined the above acronym which stands for 'Stepford Wives State' I must add that we all still live in hope; in hope that those who think for themselves will eventually have some creditable impact upon this great nation.
On a light note that is nevertheless profoundly apt, perhaps Uncle Shelby (Shel Silverstein) says it best here:

YESEES AND NOEES (from the poetry collection 'Every Thing On It')


The Yesees said yes to anything
That anyone suggested.
The Noees said no to everything
Unless it was proven and tested.
So the Yesees all died of much too much
And the Noees all died of fright,
But somehow I think the Thinkforyourselfees
All came out all right


or else:
https://31.media.tumblr.com/3cc8cb95378d23b49c2496be23d077e5/tumblr_moef8oYoDQ1r1jrg0o1_500.gif

But all rhymes aside, the following is not aimed at dishonouring the noble and honourable servicemen of the nation whatsoever, quite the contrary, for the Military and its personnel are an integral part of Egypt and no one in their right mind would dispute that.  

With Edward Morrow's 'WE MUST NOT CONFUSE dissent with disloyalty' we must ask ourselves: Does dissent imply disloyalty? Or does it rather promote the way to a more democratic state of affairs which contrarily infers a patriotism and love for country and its freedom of expression? A question that should be recalled at every juncture of time and circumstance.

Linking everything and everyone who is not in favour of a state ruled by the military to treason is not only flawed in concept but seriously twisted. Being averse to a military-run state does not mean being anti-military and its personnel. 'The Military' is after all an essential part of any country, one set up to protect and serve it and that is where many would deem its duties to begin and end. Principles are at stake when confusion between the two roles occurs; If the only party serving and ruling is allowed to issue and enforce every decree it deems necessary in order to maintain its power and to do so without opposition whatsoever then, wherever that occurred, we would all be on a very slippery slope with the term democracy voided of all bearing.

As for the attempt at connecting the dots we have huge chasms of nuances and belief systems to leap over before we can conscientiously do so. The many who, rightly or wrongly, believe that Islamic ideas extend into politics as a way of life with set guidelines and deterrents in place are nowhere akin to the inhuman mass of criminals and murderers naming themselves ISIL. Incurring panic through flawed comparison and thus demonising all religious groups cannot be seen as anything other than discriminatory and even unhealthy wherever that occurs. For tolerance advocated cannot claim sole franchise or by definition it cannot exist. 

With prison doors opened up for members of the MB who had for decades been driven underground and who were basically incapable of addressing the nation with the necessary enlightenment and thus committing one transgression after another, innocent supporters of the MB ideology have paid the price. They have done so simply for believing in a party which promised them reform and for daring to believe that charitable aid had come to their rescue. Let us bear in mind, the MB was enabled to surface seemingly only to be targeted and eventually, as time would tell, intentionally annihilated. 

As for the January 25th 2011 revolution, there are very conflicting views about the forces that drove it and we are all now urged to presume that the former decades of dictatorship should never have been thwarted in the first place. 

The times speak for themselves; with the dignity of those who stood up for principles of reform thrown aside, addressing corruption appears to have been quite resolutely dismissed.

Today, the protest law has been found flawed and yet many are said to be rightfully sent to jail for campaigning against it. Resignation and dismissal of popular television presenters and other celebrities previously favoured by the media are a testimony to that general feeling of free speech under duress~  
Can we assume the message is anything other than 'be muted or sing our praises'? Perhaps not, hence recognising SWS is not an act of disloyalty but rather it is recognising that there is an urgent need to address it.  


"The family’s predicament is the result of a crackdown by authorities against the liberal pro-democracy movement by youth groups who fueled the 2011 popular uprising against the rule of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The detention of dozens of young activists, mostly over breaking the contested protest law, over the past year has taken place amid a vicious media campaign to smear their reputation as agents of foreign powers or on the payroll of dubious rights groups in the West.
Another crackdown has been carried out in parallel against supporters of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted in July 2013 after just one year in power by the military, led by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi who was then defense minister. The general-turned-politician won with a landslide victory in a presidential election held in May."
Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/family-of-held-egypt-activists-on-hunger-strike/2014/10/30/6ba8ef38-6055-11e4-827b-2d813561bdfd_story.html?wpmk=MK0000200 






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