Who knew that millions of global citizens, who campaign against Israeli occupation and apartheid, are in the pocket of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Smell the Zionist desperation. The Electronic Intifada reports: The Israeli military establishment is once again on the offensive, but instead of high-tech weaponry and missiles, it is using computer screens, keyboards and rapid wireless…
Showing all posts tagged internet
The Podcast Network on Egypt and Arab democracy
As the Arab world erupts in revolution, I was interviewed today by Australia’s Podcast Network about what’s really happening in the Middle East and what the Western press is missing. My last interview with this wonderful website was in 2009 during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
CNN reports from inside Libya
CNN’s Ben Wedeman reports from eastern Libya, reportedly the first Western TV reporter to enter the country during the current revolution: “Your passports please,” said the young man in civilian clothing toting an AK-47 at the Libyan border. “For what?” responded our driver, Saleh, a burly, bearded man who had picked us up just moments…
The paranoia of unelected Chinese men
Although it remains unclear exactly how paranoid the Chinese authorities remain over possible Egyptian-inspired, democratic protests, this insider view would suggest that Beijing isn’t taking too many chances: On Saturday, February 12, the day after Hosni Mubarak resigned in Egypt, some of the members of the politburo of the Communist Party of China held a…
The voice of independent unions in Egypt
A key player in the recent revolution (so not just those on Facebook and Twitter) speaking in solidarity with workers in America: Kamal Abbas is General Coordinator of the CTUWS, an umbrella advocacy organization for independent unions in Egypt. The CTUWS, which was awarded the 1999 French Republic’s Human Rights Prize, suffered repeated harassment and…
The Muslim Brotherhood are normal people
Yes, that may come as a shock to Israel and many Zionists alike but this interesting piece in McClatchy explains why so many of them in Egypt will be involved in the future of their country, as they should be: In the midst of Egypt’s turmoil, the Brotherhood issued statements saying it wouldn’t field a…
The democratic impulse burns in China
Yes: Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities Sunday for a “Jasmine Revolution.” The source of the call was not known, but authorities moved to halt its spread online. Searches for the word “jasmine” were blocked Saturday on China’s largest Twitter-like microblog,…
Not a Twitter revolution but social tools surely helped
Another fascinating Al-Jazeera feature on Empire about the role of the internet in the Arab uprisings: Carl Bernstein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist; Amy Goodman, the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!; Professor Emily Bell, the director of digital journalism at Columbia University; Evgeny Morozov, the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side…
Portrait of a key Egyptian dissenter
Hossam el-Hamalawy has been campaigning against the Mubarak regime for years (and appears in my book The Blogging Revolution). In this Associated Press profile he outlines the oft-forgotten in the West supporters of the Egyptian revolution (away from Twitter and Facebook); the workers: “The job is unfinished, we got rid of (Hosni) Mubarak but we…