Friday, January 28, 2011

Egyptian unrest, western hypocrisy

The civil unrest in Egypt is turning ugly. with citizens ignoring curfews and the government turning of social media in an attempt to quell the uprising. With the recent events in Tunisia and Yemen likely on the way. The entire volatile  region is wary. The opposition to these governments is not a surprise, however the speed at which the civil unrest has escalated has surprised western governments.
A host of leaders and former officials have taken to the air waves to at least verbally support the Egyptian people. Whether they buy it or not is unclear. After all the west has supported weak unjust governments all over the region for decades. It a big dose of hypocrisy to swallow for the Egyptians to believe the western governments have their best interest at heart.
I spent a few moments watching the English translation of Al Jazeera and found it quite enlightening. In fact the coverage was fairer and more accurate then the western MSM. No big surprise there. You would have to live under a rock to believe that free press is functioning anywhere in the west especially the US.
What I found most troubling was American president Obama and other former officials speaking about democracy and the need for it. Two main contradictions come to mind. First is that most democracies in this region of the Muslim world will produce governments hostile to the west. mainly due to the years of pain and suffering the west has directly or indirectly caused. Like in Iraq as millions of infants and people died due to sanctions while the western politicians and UN officials took bribes from Saddam Hussein in the oil for food program. indirectly the west propped up many terrible governments that brutalized it's citizens and left them in desperate poverty and poor prospects for a peaceful and happy future.
The second type of hypocrisy is that western governments functions as democracy in name only. The EU bullied the Irish into taking a bailout before it would allow the people to vote on a new government. They manhandled Greece against the will of its people. Here in the states. Most people were against the bank bailouts but they went forward anyhow. The people in fact have been against running government deficits for years and have been trying to get their representatives to do something about health care for twenty years, but they never listened and even know they ignored their wishes. Take just about every major decision that the US officials have taken over the last twenty years and the American people have voice opposition to it, if they had the chance. Most feel they are asked to vote for candidates that are hand picked by a corrupt two party system which offers little real choice and once in office the lobbyists dictate decision not the polls.
It is just a matter of time before the Egyptian people are watching television to see the riots and chaos on main street America as the citizens tolerance for the complete B/S it's government is feeding it.

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